This one was short and sweet.
I have never finished a Wizardry game. I have tried many Wizardry games, but they’ve always been a bit too hard, or I’ve been a bit too impatient. (Or they were clearly machine translated, so I refunded them on steam. But that’s another story for another time.)
So when I saw Dungeon Antiqua on Steam I had to give it a shot. Final Fantasy (Well, it looks and acts a bit more like FF3.) plus Wizardry? Neat. And that pretty much sums it up. The character creation is Wizardry-like. The battle system is FF3-like. If you’ve played either games, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
I cleared it in just under five hours with a party of two Fighters, a Thief, a Priest, and a Mage. I kind of goofed and didn’t even use the Class Change function, but I didn’t need it on Normal mode. I could see some arguing that it is too easy of a game, but there is a Hard Mode. I’m not interested in replaying it right now, but maybe I will later this year.
Not only is it enjoyable, but it feels really refined. Exploring the dungeon and seeing rooms you explored this trip marked with a flag is helpful. The encounter rate isn’t too high, but many rooms you explore for treasure also give an encounter, which keeps the balance feeling good. Perhaps I was a bit too defensive, as I never wiped out. But I did often feel like I was making progress while taking risks that paid off instead of just coasting through the dungeon.
I hope the dev makes some more like this. I had a blast playing it and will happily play again.