Ark's Wonder Dungeon

I didn't expect to feel a full range of emotions playing this cutesy-looking game. There is a fair amount of character depth, world-building, and emotional moments despite its initial appearance. I really enjoyed the "voices" of each character, always got a smile out of me hearing them talk. Would buy this game for the character interactions, stories and setting alone, amazing job done there. Absolutely adored all the characters, but my personal favorite would have to be Jeneral Jorge. YEAHHH I LOVE WAR-CRIMES WOOO THAT'S MY JOAT The gameplay loop is a fairly simple RPG Maker loop (genuinely was surprised when I heard it was RPG Maker). One aspect of this game that stood out, however, was that characters have unique leader buffs as well as unique moves, adding a fair amount of depth and variety. Where the game shines, in my opinion, is the items. Each item/equipable is bound to the character for the duration of the run, making item choice a very important decision. Where this game really hooked me was when it introduced "synergies." Pairing certain items will cause them to fuse, buffing your entire party. While I did enjoy the game enough to play it a hundred hours, there are fairly significant gripes I have with the game. For one, the codex (Magnipedia) doesn't fully explain all the items and statuses. Most of them are explained, sure, but certain items grant statuses or spells that are simply meant to be memorized, which is annoying. The "view" feature (really cool) helped with this issue, but being unable to drop/swap items definitely made picking up an item on a good run a risky gamble. Another issue that plagued me was the game randomly softlocking. Thankfully, past the first floor, you're able to restart at the start of a floor if you quit and re-enter. [spoiler]I used this to fight a certain superboss. All iota of shame left long after 5+ hours.[/spoiler] Information, in true JRPG fashion, is hard to come by. At least, I assume that's the case for older games, haven't played many JRPGs. Of course, the Discord was very helpful after getting stuck (plot-wise) for a while. It was frustrating not being able to progress on my own, but that was an issue on my end. Some might even say a skill is- Overall, I would play to finish the story (which is already long enough) and maybe check out the superbosses if you aren't too burned out. Oh? Did I not mention them earlier? Ha-ha... yeah..... I only achievement hunted because I have brainworms or something, I don't know. (As of the current patch V1.5.2, it has taken me 157.4 hours to 100% the game.) Personally would have liked to have known that (spoilers, mirror) [spoiler]when you're fiddling with the mirror, you HAVE to keep selecting the first option after you beat the dark bosses. The story (and icon, but I totally missed that) does change as you keep clicking on it. I thought it would remain like that per playthrough, but no, you gotta keep pressing it[/spoiler].

a very strange game that's kinda wonderful

Good rougelite JRPG with an intriguing art style and story to boot. The difficulty is fair and the game can start off fairly simple, but with a little luck and thought, the fights can keep you interested throughout your runs on top of the ever expanding arsenal of items, events, enemies, and characters that become available as you go through the game. Be sure to listen to the shopkeeper's kid, they can steer you on the right path if you're progression seems stuck.

Actually really good so far

AWD is a game about getting as much out of each turn as humanly possible. The sheer amount of choices you can make, the hard limits on how much stuff you can have, and how the smallest decisions can fundamentally change a run make this one of the most fascinating roguelikes I've ever played. Constantly, you unlock achievements, and each one adds something new to the Wonder Dungeon: items, paths, characters, goals. It's an endless feedback loop of discovery and progress as you delve deeper and deeper with each new run. Remember: Just because you beat the boss at the end, that doesn't mean you're done.

Awesome game.

I'm only a small amount of the game in (but I have already passed the dollar:hour ratio!) but I am staggered by the sheer amount of content and ambition on display. The hand-drawn graphics, interesting status-element take on JRPG combat, and intriguing setting are all big draws to keep playing. This is clearly a labor of love.

Actual hidden gem and a very interesting story, If I'm not careful I'm pretty sure I'll sink more than 100 hours into this.

Cool little game that reminds me a lot of the flash era. The art style is simple but very expressive, and I like the way the backstory of the characters is gradually unfolded.

ark very funny