As I’ve said before, sometimes writing the weekly RPG Reload is more educational for me than anyone else. In researching for this week’s article on Rogue Ninja ($2.99), I decided to get in touch with the developer, Q-Cumber Factory, to get a bit more information about the game’s development. Naturally, one of the questions I asked was if a sequel to the game was coming. Imagine my surprise when Mr. Sato of Q-Cumber not only confirmed a follow-up, but told me it was coming next month! Today, Q-Cumber Factory sent over some details and screenshots of the game, titled Alchemic Dungeons, and I’d like to share them with you.
First of all, while it’s a spiritual successor to Rogue Ninja, it doesn’t feature the Ninja character used in all of Q-Cumber’s other iOS games. Instead, the game currently features a nameless swordsman, with two more playable characters on the way. Having already done a fairly straight take on Chun Soft’s Mystery Dungeon games with Rogue Ninja, this time Q-Cumber Factory decided to make a few changes to the concept. While the core of the game follows the traditional style of Japanese roguelikes, Alchemic Dungeons includes a crafting system inspired by those found in Minecraft ($6.99), Terraria ($4.99), and Monster Hunter ($14.99). This isn’t just a case of the developer going the way the wind blows, though admittedly it certainly can’t hurt. It actually came about when he tried to think of how to mitigate some of the luck factor found in regular roguelikes. The goal of the crafting system is to put more of the player’s success in their own hands, allowing them to use their judgment to put together the items they need to win.
You’ll be able to gather basic ingredients like herbs, mushrooms, and seeds to create medicines and other potions, including some nasty ones you can throw at the enemies. Collecting and combining mana stones will allow you to create powerful magic stones capable of unleashing powerful offensive and defensive magic. You can also combine these stones with sticks to create magic wands with weaker power but more uses. Naturally, you can also craft weapons and armor, and combining in some of the other things I’ve mentioned will allow you to add effects to both. In traditional Japanese roguelikes, you’ll often run into a situation where you’re getting tons of weapons but no armor, or vice-versa. In Alchemic Dungeons, you can simply make yourself armor if you can’t find any. Of course, the best ore types are rare, so you might have to choose whether you need weapons or armor more.
There are also several weapon types, each with different attack patterns and ranges. A spear can skewer enemies two squares away, but it’s not as powerful as a hefty axe. You can pick whatever suits your play style, then enchant the weapon as you see fit. All in all, it sounds like a really great spin on the time-honored Mystery Dungeon format, and I’m very excited to see just how flexible the system is. I should also mention that all of the features added later to Rogue Ninja, like the ranking boards and UI enhancements, are included here right from the get-go. The final version of the game will have five different dungeons compared to Rogue Ninja‘s three, so even if you’re just here for the roguelike gameplay, you can look forward to a much bigger experience overall.
Since there aren’t exactly a bunch of Japanese-style roguelikes on the App Store, I’m pretty excited we’re getting another one from the developer behind what I feel is the current best one. That it’s coming so soon is just gravy on the cake, frosting on the sundae, a cherry on top of the turkey, or whatever combination you feel is best. Alchemic Dungeons will launch sometime in June at a special launch sale price of $0.99 before heading to its regular price of $2.99. You can be sure we’ll have a full review of the game when it releases, but for now, enjoy the screenshots!
