Castle Adventure (2018)

Preliminary: I was nervous that the description seemed to celebrate that death could be around any corner; I never was a fan of early CRPGs and dungeon crawlers obsession with frequent, RNG-based deaths and having to start from scratch. I was pleased to see an effective save/load function though, with few strings attached.

Look: 6/10 Being ASCII, it's well, incredibly basic. Asterick for a spider, spade symbol for a beast, etc. In some ways that's cute/nostalgic, much like how Rogue felt sorta cute/nostalgic--but also like Rogue, this limitation on graphics resulted in some confusion. For instance, apparently the smiley face is an enemy, a giant no less (I thought it might be a good guy... considering the smile).

I wish there were some details about this in the Instructions.. it's a bit fun to discover, but even a vague description or hints would be nice in the intro. In the end, this is simply ASCII, and Kevin did the best he could with that limitation. I like when early games have to be clever and play around with their limitations, especially graphically, but the ASCII wasn't used particularly cleverly to create more elaborate images, and I can't really call it functional.

Sound: 6/10 No.

Play: 7/10 Another 1984 mix of graphical action-adventure with some text adventure input, but instead of being a point and click amalgamation, this is a keyboard-input mix. It has that classic early dungeon crawler feel, looking like the similarly-ASCII original Rogue (thankfully with better controls, a non-random layout, and more straightforward gameplay). Tight, responsive controls; plus, the controls fortunately were not convoluted as sometimes happens with early microcomputer action-adventures. Effective, simple Save/Load function that was a lifesaver, making the game fun rather than just tedious. In some ways, I think the text adventure element of typing in commands helped avoid the typical convoluted controls of early microcomputer action-adventures; normally you have so many potential keys to use for Get, Drop, Use, etc. (and usually the inventory management was atrocious due to it), but in this case, you simply run into items, you run into enemies, etc. (as outlined in the Instructions at the start of the game, be sure to read em).

Pro-tip: consult this helpful, concise supplement to the Manual/Instructions, though of course consult the in-game Instructions by pressing I on the title screen too.

Feel: 6/10 Well, the description proved true: even with the best equipment you can have at points, and eventually consulting a guide, death is around every corner. It proves tedious, which sure the first dungeon crawlers like dnd, pedit5, and rogue were tedious and full of death as well--but this isn't a first, and lacks that fresh factor. As it is, it's a long journey that would be worth it if it were the only brutal dungeon crawler you had access to. Because we have access to many more nowadays, it's only worth a playthrough if you want to play every dungeon crawler game.

Attachment: 7/10 If only it had a bit more exciting sound or look, so it would make the tedious and RNG-based deaths worth pushing through. Solving the puzzles themselves seemed to be quite fun, feeling like a text adventure in an action-adventure game. What potential! This has an attaching nature to it, because I want to give it another go--but it's not worth it. Only for the most hardcore dungeon crawlers!

Completion: Collected the Gem and Necklace Playtime: ~40 mins