Of the many genres that have seen a revival in the last few years it is fair to say that the 3D dungeon crawler has been somewhat ignored. There have been a few of course, but aside from Etrian Odyssey and Legend of Grimrock there isn’t much that has managed to make an impact with a wider audience. Labyrinth of Zangetsu is certainly trying to standout though with its unique look, which is admittedly what first drew us to it.
When in doubt it’s normally a fairly safe bet to add a Japanese
flavour to something. The developers here have bult their world to look like a precession
of Japanese ink paintings. The bleak world of black and whites is uniquely and unmistakably
set in a land of Japanese folk law with the various monsters and demons from the
country making up the monsters to bash. As you move through the world clouds of
ink spiral in front of you and serve as your warning that a battle is about to
begin should you venture forward another step.
It all looks gorgeous in its grim way and the different environments
and monsters are beautifully recreated out of the thick inky black lines and
empty whites of the intentionally limited colour palette. It is perhaps a touch
of style over content but then it kept us interested far longer because of it and
made the dungeons seem so much more interesting than the usual brown blocks of
games like Eye of the Beholder.
Away from the aesthetic, the game plays in much the same way
as other dungeon crawlers. You move around in a first person view one square at
a time disarming traps, searching for keys and encountering monsters. Combat is
turn based and each of your team of six has various options depending on their
class such as attack, using magic, items, stealing etc. You can decide if you
want characters to be at the front or back of the group but generally your
options are limited. It follows a standard template so if you’ve played one of
these games before you’ll know what you are getting.
Should one of your team die you can try and resurrect them once
you are back on safe ground but there is a chance they will turn to ash. When
this happens, you’ll need to role another character before exploring again which
can be frustrating if you’ve put a lot of time into a certain class. Another thing
that makes your journey tricky is that characters only level up when they are
back in a town or village. This means you could be out in the wilderness a long
time and no matter how many beasts you slay you’ll remain the same level until
you return home.
Overall, Labyrinth of Zangetsu is a beautifully atmospheric
and wonderful looking game that has standard gameplay underneath it. If you are
into dungeon crawlers there’s certainly something here to get into but it lacks
the more general appeal of the Etrian Series with all its bells and whistles. We
enjoyed our time with the game though and for some a refresh of the setting and
a change of the art style will be enough to make the adventure worth
undertaking.
Overall 7/10
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