Square Enix Unveils Dungeon Encounters, Directed By Hiroyuki Ito

Looks like a mobile game 80's style. Hope they won't ask full price for it. 10$ is fair

I like the abstractism, but I am not enticed enough, I think. The card game demo did tickle my fancy though and I do applaud Square Enix for trying other things.

Honestly this seems really cool, I'm all about RPGs that are about more than just the boss battles.

What a bizarre choices of style. I do hope the minimalistic style leads to massive amounts of content and characters though.

looks interesting, but like the first comment said, doesn't look like a $60 game

If that metal/classical mashup is the soundtrack, then I’m in!

There are mobile games that look better than this. Monochromatic grids with static images for battles? I feel like I'm being pranked.

@Expa0 Well, it definitely seems like it could have a wide roster, but mayhaps the dungeon layouts are a bit TOO bare bone for me.

I don't know. It always seems like developers these days have some good ideas but then implement them weirdly. I like the idea, but the numbers on the fields there make it feel like I am playing Sudoku instead of a dungeon crawler...

and that's NOT what I'm about. Not now, NOT EVER.

I guess.

That Beethoven guitar melody at 1.00 is so good. Looking forward to the OST.

I have to say this looks HIGHLY interesting to me. In the absence of an Etrian Odyssey for the system (please, we've been patient), it looks like it might scratch a similar itch. It's like a game that would result if you were to take the punishing dungeon maps and complex turn-based encounters of the Bard's Tale trilogy from the 80s and deconstructed them into a kind of Sudoku-like metagame based on the maps you'd have to craft out of graph paper. As someone pushing 40 I instinctively get the weird OG influences here but I wouldn't expect anyone much younger to, necessarily, so I wonder if this will be a super niche and misunderstood game. They certainly seem to be doing some interesting, novel, and twisted things with both the dungeon crawling system and the battle system. It might be Square Enix's most hardcore RPG in years... ever?

This looks really interesting! Much more so than the card game.

Too muuch minimalism

After so many years of Square-Enix using esoteric titles for their games, this somewhat recent trend of comically simple names is giving me a bit of whiplash.

Looks like it's up for preorder on the Nintendo eShop. USD $29.99, but there's a preorder discount of 20% off which brings it to $23.99. That sounds pretty reasonable as I suspect this game will be massive.

Looks pretty awesome - indeed, giving some Etrian Odyssey vibes sans manual cartography but with a recognizably similar emphasis on cartography nonetheless. And they even have Uematsu on the OST!

The visuals are promising as well - not everyone's cup of tea (since nothing can ever be), but the fanmouths in the comments still can't get the memo that personally disliking an artstyle is different from arrogantly implying it worse than others. Grizzland outright looks like an Atari 2600 game - and justly proud of it. It's 2021 and some folks are still under the barbaric impression of "one way evolutions" in visual arts, to the extent where you may wonder if they would prefer their WC labels and road signs as photorealistic as possible.😏

It looks like fantasy RPG characters exploring a crossword puzzle... pass.

https://www.ign.com/articles/dungeon-encounters-hands-on-preview-tokyo-game-show-2021

Hands on preview

@naxuu
Thanks for the heads-up, instant pre-order for me. I have it in pretty good faith that this is something I'm gonna enjoy.

The big focus on dungeon crawling, (seemingly) massive cast of characters, actual non-battle skills that help with the dungeon crawling, random events leading to more reactionary crawling as opposed to something that can be meticulously planned. I don't care if its illustrated with pen & paper, it's this kind of stuff which modern RPGs lack (and the character & monster art still looks really nice).

This looks far more interesting to me than the million-and-one "actual" JRPGs that are being released these days. I will watch closely

Looks interesting. I'm fully in favour of all these experimental games Square Enix has announced recently, especially because they're more likely to come to Switch than the typical epic RPG fare.

I'm getting a bit of Slay the Spire vibes from this, especially after reading IGN's article. I have hundreds of hours into that game, so that's a good sign.

Does anybody know if the numbers are SET events/battles, or randomized?

If they're trying to cater to the tapbletop RPG crowd, there are better ways to do it. Crimshon Shroud on 3DS for example was done excellently while still looking rather simplistic.

Okey, this is a clinical case now. Square has zero imagination nowadays, and it shows in the titles of its latest games. Project Triangle Strategy??? Dungeon Encounters???

Imagine if the makers of Sonic the Hedgehog had titled their game "Speed Platforming". Or if the makers of Contra had named their game "Running and Shooting". Do you think they would have sold as well as they did?

We know Square is incapable of designing a good game, because nowadays its good games are designed by outside people such as Yuji Horii. But Square should at least be expected to market the games well. The most important and most elementary part of marketing is the title of the game, and it even fails at that.

This begs the question: is there anything Square CAN do?

At first blush I’d say it’s a bit too stripped down, but after playing the very charming and oddly addictive Voice of Cards, I’m not going to dismiss it.

@RudyC3 I loved that game. Voice of Cards is gave me a very similar vibe. Did you try the demo?

Id pick it up as a cheap mobile game.
But whether Id want to play it on anything else is another story.

Saying that Ive spent so much time on Dicey Dungeons on the Switch where I keep on saying the same thing (Id play it as a mobile game but not on anything else)

Interesting but doesn't look like a $30 game

I'm realizing that I put my money toward not just great gameplay and art design, but also... visual presentation. Not with pure graphics, but rather the world a game creates with its art direction. Etrian Odyssey for instance scratches that exact itch I have for a beautiful visual presentation of a cozy world replete with addicting dungeon-crawling.

This however, strips everything down to pure stats and numbers, quite literally... As others have said, Voice of Cards is already minimalistic enough for my tastes, while still crafting an intriguing world visually.

I know there's ample room to criticize this from every angle - priced too high for such a minimalist game, way too minimalist for a SE game, SE fantasy games inevitably end up comically bloated and self-indulgent, etc. - but damned if something about it doesn't scratch the exact itch that says "this is what I need in my gaming life right now" for me. Might preorder this.

@Ooyah Yeah. They should have called the game "BATTLE DO". Would've been an instant classic.

Also, was that Totoro in the character roster???

Minimalistic, but cool!

Hope this and Voice of Cards get physical releases eventually, but I doubt it.

I never complain about prices around here, but that’s definitely not a 30 dollar game.

I love the look of the game. It feels like such a prototype so love the risk on this art style. It's almost like the battle system was made on PowerPoint slides.

It's like SquareEnix put all this effort into story and graphics and got sick of people complaining so they were like "you know what? Here's some raw code. We'll give you a grid to visualize and that's about it. You want a game? Battle Do."

This would make a great 3DS game. Like if Level-5 had a Guild03 collection, this would definitely be on it. Also, the metal/classical soundtrack is just joy. Thank you, Nobuo Uematsu.

@pinta_vodki That is Sir Cat, and he demands respect, Lol! I, however, can't get enough of how smug that Treant is at 0.55 in the video.

the game´s gameplay might be good, but cmon Square, the graphics is bland, uninspiring, boring ...even indie titles do not go for such minimalism

@BlackenedHalo I did enjoy the demo for Voice of Cards, but this?
I agree, this is way too sparse. There's nothing to look at!

Okay, who is in charge of naming games at SE and why do they still have a job?