Dungeon Travelers 2 Review (PS Vita)

January 22nd, 2016 at 11:17 am -

Dungeon Travelers 2 for PSVita is a Japanese dungeon crawler that combines the best elements from the genre, while keeping the game basic enough for causal gamers to enjoy. Everything that makes a dungeon crawler unique is present, including hours of dungeon exploring, monster killing, and treasure hunting.

The North American release of Dungeon Travelers 2 was censored before its release. The Japanese version of the game is more erotic, as it contains female characters in very explicit situations. There’s even one boss encounter where the female ‘monster’ performs fellatio on a ‘ghost’ that resembles male genitalia. The image still appears in the NA release, but censored. There is evidence of censorship throughout the entire game.

With censorship aside, Dungeon Travelers 2 is a relatively simple RPG with a user-friendly menu system and linear gameplay.  The story is rather basic and involves the protagonist,  Fried Einhard, as he aids a group of knights through various dungeons to find the source behind a recent string of earthquakes. Some comedy and hijinks ensue, as Fried discovers that his protectors (i.e. the knights)  are actually fellow classmates from a Military School that he (Fried) had graduated from previously.

From there, the game evolves into a traditional dungeon crawler similar to the RPG classic Wizardry. The dungeon environments are seen from the first-person. The player uses the directional pad to explore hallways, rooms, and collect treasure. Due to the size of the game, the player can access the ‘Camp’ menu at any time during the adventure to ‘Save’ their progress, ‘Load’ a previous save, and upgrade their party’s ‘Skills’, to name just a few. The menu can be accessed by pressing the Square button.

The Royal Library can be visited any time throughout the course of the game. From there, the player can attend the Secret Classroom (i.e. a series of game-related tutorials), the Libra-Shop, and the Guild function, among others. The Libra-Shop is where the player can buy and sell items; identify unknown equipment found inside treasure chests; and get advice on what items are useful for the adventure that lies ahead. The Guild function contains a variety of useful features that can benefit the player’s party.

There are too many features in the Guild function menu to mention in a single review. But there are three functions —  Storage, Class Change, and Level Reset — that stand out the most. The Storage feature – as the name implies – is where you can store unwanted items from your party’s inventory. The only thing you can’t place in storage is the gold earned during the adventure. The Class Change function works in tandem with the Level Reset feature.

When the player resets a party member’s level, all the previously assigned Skill Points are removed from the character’s Skill Tree. From there, the Skill Points can be added to a different branch of the Skill Tree. The Class Change function becomes available at level 15. There are five base classes (i.e. Fighter, Scout, Magic User, Spieler and Maid) and Twenty Seven sub-classes (i.e. Archer, Paladin, Priestess, etc.).

Like the game Wizardry, combat is turn-based and the enemies appear on-screen as static images. The player’s party appears in separate windows at the bottom of the screen, while the attack menu is conveniently placed to the left of the combat display. A vertical ‘turn’ bar denoting the turns of each character is located on the right-side of the screen.

While animation is sparse during combat, the bright colors and impressive particle effects that do appear in conjunction with the fighting  (i.e. casting Skill attacks, etc.,) look great. Even defeated creatures will vanish into brilliant balls of light. It’s nothing spectacular, but it works relatively well all things considered.

Dungeon Travelers 2 is an entertaining dungeon crawler that caters to gamers of all skill levels. And while the gameplay is simple and more for casual gamers, the dungeon exploration portion of the game is challenging enough to keep veterans of the genre satisfied for hours.

Mike Pittaro
Platform: PS Vita (Also Available on PSN)
Developer: AquaPlus
Publisher: Atlus USA
ESRB: M (Mature)
Price: $39.99

Dungeon Travelers 2 Official Website:
http://www.atlus.com/dungeontravelers2/