Excave3DS eShop

I like this. I think I shall acquire it.

Portable dungeon crawling? Sounds good to me, but I'll probably wait for a review.

After playing the game for a few hours, I found it to be a simple yet fun dungeon grinder. You choose which of the two main characters you want to be, outfit them appropriately, dive into the dungeon, defeat monsters & collect items (including special keys to unlock more of the dungeon), exit, repeat.

For an on-the-go game, this is actually a nice way to do your dungeon delving in short bursts. I like the tight controls of this one — wielding a bow proved easy to aim and it was not jumpy or sensitive at all, while the melee weaponry is varied and being able to switch on the shield no matter the weapon works seamlessly.

If you are looking for a deep story or RPG elements, so far I have not seen much of that. The intro is about all I have seen for any sense of story, and there is no experience or leveling other than equipping stronger-starred weapons, armors, and boost items. There are boss creatures, and the first one you encounter is deceptively simple but could be a problem for the unprepared, but it leaves you wondering how far the experience can be held before boredom of repetition sets in.

Melee weapons also tend to break when you use them too much, which is annoying since you have to quickly swap out the weapon for another via dragging with the stylus or your finger. This is also why I feel the bow class is the best weapon in this game, as it never needed repair whenever I have used it and the arrows penetrate through creatures.

Overall, this is a good game of the quick adventure type — despite the melee annoyances and being really short on story, it is still an engaging game that is meant for short burst, on-the-go adventuring gaming with some progression as you play. It all depends on how much you enjoy grinding and item-leveling as to if this will keep your attention.

@GloryQuestor Thanks for the review!! I've been waiting for one from NL, but after reading yours, I think I'll pick this one up. How's the gear? Is there a lot of loot to pick up?

@cbkummer There's quite a lot of item drops. The challenge becomes how much you take in to the dungeon every cycle and what to prioritize, because your inventory space is pretty limited.

As for the items themselves, they do give you a lot of flexibility how you want to do combat. For weapons I really like the dual blades (hits multiple enemies in a group) and bows (as noted above, I like the penetration aspect). The swords and rapiers are pretty good for more close target precision — it's all about what weapon you would prefer. There are also various magic books to collect, so if you want to focus on magic it gives you that option. I also started finding special messages and map pieces, but so far haven't gotten far enough in to see what these lead to. You also get accessories that you can add more than one of to focus on a particular aspect — greater attack, greater speed, etc.