It’s always been my belief the PSP’s strongest titles are sleeper hits no one’s ever heard of. These types of games far outnumber well-known franchises like Metal Gear and Grand Theft Auto. Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground (DMHG) is no exception. From the moment its UMD began to hum inside my PSP, I was treated to a refined action RPG of a caliber I haven’t seen in ages. What’s more is DMHG’s creators, XSEED, put a new spin on the hack and slash genre by making this game part Pokémon, part sim-dungeon. Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground tasks gamers with building the ultimate dungeon to lure monsters away from surrounding villages and into one area for players to defeat them, winning fame, fortune and lots of cool gear in the process.
Dungeon Maker: Hunting Ground is a great looking game, but it’s not apparent at first. Players begin their dungeon-making quest in a 2D village marked with different points to represent the town’s various locations, like the Palace, Build Shop, Market, etc. A player’s current position is represented by a chibified (that means small and cute) version of the game’s main character that sways back and forth. Switching between points on the village map is simple; move the cursor with the directional pad and hit “X”. Characters living in the village will guide the player through the game’s early stages, which are pretty intuitive, and lead them to DMHG’s really impressive part – the dungeon.
Like I said before, DMHG’s goal is to attract bigger monsters to your dungeon, which reward players with more gold and more powerful items. At the top of this monster food chain is the dreaded Wondering Demon that has plagued the land for ages. A player’s ultimate goal is to build a dungeon so enticing even this mythic monster can’t resist the call of its winding passages. Now is when gamers put on their hard hats and select “Dungeon” from the 2D village to transport them from a simple image map to a beautifully rendered dungeon. Well, at least what will soon become a beautifully rendered dungeon because the only thing visible at the game’s start is a room with four doors. From here, DMHG tells gamers the basics of dungeon building. Approaching an open “connector” lets players add different types of rooms or corridors to what’s already there. You can create winding paths, dead ends, go in big circles, whatever. The amount of customization in DMHG is endless. There is only one restriction to building, being that the dungeon’s size can not exceed the area visible on the mini construction map on the screen’s top right. However, even though gamers choose their own design, the corridors and rooms of a dungeon must be carefully chosen and laid out in order to attract the right monsters. For example, goblins and kobolds will come if you build storage rooms and large Japanese-style parlors are necessary to attract spirits like the ninja ghost.
More twists and turns and custom corridors and rooms result in higher floor rankings in DMHG. Up to ten floors can be built. The tenth is specifically meant for the Wandering Demon. By maximizing each floor’s value, gamers will attract increasingly powerful monsters as each level descends. Of course a player’s character will also have to get stronger. Weapons in DMHG are basic and limited, however, each is unique and carries it’s own style of play. Spears, for example, will keep your enemy at a distance while an axe is useful when fending off multiple enemies. Along with their melee weaponry, players can also equip a bow, which is activated by using the “X” button.
It’s important to note here that DHMG’s control scheme is superb. In combat, critical commands like attack, special attack and guard are easily accessible. Magic and items are activated by selecting them from a menu using the square button, and they look marvelous. Spells come in three categories: attack, support and summon. It will take a while to purchase some spells, like Salamander (the basic summon), which costs about 20,000 Gilbert. It’s easy to make this much money in one round of dungeon-slaying, but remember money must also be spent to expand the dungeon to attract more powerful and financially rewarding monsters.
Posted: 2007-08-25 11:11:48 PST