Dungeon Antiqua

[b]Note for Steam Deck users:[/b] If your audio has pops, try running the game in Proton Experimental. That solved the issue for me. (Game settings -> Properties -> Compatibility, then check "Force the use of a compatibility tool," and choose "Proton Experimental.") -- The short and charming lovechild of FF1 and Wizardry. I started my playthrough on hard and found it to be an enjoyable challenge (you lose your money when you die but not your items or gear). It's the kind of game where your party's strength grows with each new item found/spell learned in a way that's so satisfying you can't help but push to the next floor. The postgame is a huge difficulty spike, almost to the point of feeling like a puzzle, forcing you to problem solve a nasty floor/encounter that seems unfair at first glance. I enjoyed that challenge. It seems to be targeting people who want to push the system to its limits. But if that's not your thing then YMMV. I still think a full playthrough (without postgame) would be satisfying enough to warrant purchase. Also, I played the sequel after this and really enjoyed that too (much more of an FF5 clone). If you see these games on sale in a bundle I'd def re…

I enjoyed it, though very light on content (Took me roughly 5 hours to finish it).

If you like dungeon crawlers, classic final fantasy, and D&D's old THAC0 system, this is the game for you. It can be a bit grindy at times, especially near the end, and the item rng can be somewhat annoying, but the satisfaction of overcoming the bosses makes it all worth it. A good mix of difficulty and reward. The music feels genuinely like unreleased NES Final Fantasy tracks, while still having its own flair. I actually caught myself humming the main motif earlier. Guess that's just gonna be stuck in my head now. Also, I really appreciate the simplistic story. At first I was afraid it might go into the meta, anti-player, or 'twist villain' tropes modern indie rpgs have been overusing, but I was quite pleased to just have a charming, almost joyous experience. The only thing I don't quite like is the small selection of equipment, especially in terms of headware. It feels unfinished in that regard, Moving right on to DA2 now, since that one has received far higher praise than its predecessor. We'll see how that holds up.

Fun games that wears the Wizardy/Final Fantasy inspiration in it's sleeves, only gone through the normal mode but it does challenge you to play the game on hard and speed run it, or try to find all the items.

A nice and straightforward dungeon crawler. Huge fan of the character sprites, especially samurai and mage have very cute looking sprites. Played it exclusively on the steam deck and it was a very smooth experience. Great game for a few hours of dungeon exploring!

This review is a little misleading. I actually did not like this game. I found the jobs to be severely unbalanced, the dungeons not fun to explore, combat not very fun, the soundtrack lacking (although the battle music is good). The reason I still give it a thumbs up is because the second game is very good and I would not want to dissuade anyone from trying 2.