Is Mistwalker's next DS game a random dungeon crawler?

14 Comments by Scott Jon Siegel Nov 12th 2007 5:00AM
Filed under: Nintendo DS, Action, RPGs

Are the Blue Dragon developers working on a "roguelike" action RPG for the Nintendo DS? And more importantly, what the hell is a roguelike?

Siliconera has deciphered the Japanese press release for Mistwalker's DS title Away, which has been renamed Away: Shuffle Dungeon. Using ~~the Socratic method~~ common sense, Siliconera has deduced that since the Blue Dragon random dungeon generator DLC for Xbox 360 has been titled "Shuffle Dungeon Maker," Away must be using the same term to describe its primary gameplay mechanic: randomly-generated dungeons that the player has to traverse.

Roguelike is a special term reserved for dungeon-crawling action games that utilize randomly-generated level design. The term comes from the game Rogue, and the genre includes titles like Nethack and Tales of Middle Earth. Away could potentially be the first game in this genre to appear on the DS (although homebrew efforts have previously been made). Roguelike or not, Away: Shuffle Dungeon is is due out in Japan on February 28 (which just happens to be someone's birthday...).

Tags: aq-interactive, away, away-shuffle-dungeon, ds, mistwalker, roguelike, rpg

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Psaakyrn: Nov 12th 2007; 5:53AM

First? think again...

On consoles, the Mystery dungeon series is the main source of roguelike games. Recent titles include Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team/Red Rescue Team

Onomah: Nov 12th 2007; 8:42AM

Ahh, but those games are

1)not very good
2)feature pokemon instead of giant stone ogres weilding +2 fire rods.
3)not very good

Roguelike games have a certain charm to them, I hope this game isn't too graphically advanced. The masses may wail and blubber but I and others who like a reeeaally retro style game would prefere that immensly.

snarfoogle: Nov 12th 2007; 6:44AM

I could kill a lot of time on a Portable ADOM...

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME): Nov 12th 2007; 7:42AM

1) Rubang sees screenshot from Hack and gets excited.
2) Rubang reads "What the hell's a roguelike?" and gets filled with a homicidal rage.
3) Rubang reads snarfoogle's comment about ADoM (the best roguelike ever) and calms down.

You might have just saved someone's life. ADoM is sooooooooooooo good.

If you've never played a roguelike, educate yourself with ADoM. It's free.

http://adom.de/

Rubang B (BRUSH WITH FAME): Nov 12th 2007; 8:05AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Domains_of_Mystery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roguelike
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_roguelikes

Kazi: Nov 12th 2007; 6:48AM

Rouge doesn't imply randomly generated dungeons, it's a certain type of gameplay where the stages are separated into squares (usually not visible), you can move in all 8 directions (sometimes only the basic 4 though) but every move you make your enemies make, every attack counts as a move, every step counts as a move, every item you use counts as a move.

Izuna and Pokemon Mystery Dungeon are two rouge like games.

Kazi: Nov 12th 2007; 6:50AM

Sorry, got that backwards, Random dungeons doesn't imply a rogue (I even spelt that wrong) like game, but a roguelike does imply randomly generated dungeons.

Kazi: Nov 12th 2007; 6:52AM

Man, I'm all types of wrong today. Just ignore me.

James: Nov 12th 2007; 8:27AM

I have a small problem with this -- I used to love it when games had procedural content, but now when I can't "beat" a game (and consign it to the "play again if there's a nuclear holocaust and I finally get large amounts of free time again" pile) in 10 or 20 hours, or perhaps a bit more for something *really* great, I get frustrated. I've probably got a dozen DS games I really want to play (I just started Zelda this weekend, even though I got it on launch day -- Tingle took a long time to finish) and I have to kind of motor through them or I start to get antsy for the next one in line. This could be a really awesome game, but the pacing in roguelike-knockoffs tends to be a bit slow for my current needs.

Bucket: Nov 12th 2007; 10:16AM

I feel you. The draw of roguelikes aren't that they have a beginning, middle and end (like the more cinematic RPGs lately) but that they offered you a complex and deep combat/exploration system which you could exploit to your heart's content.

Making a linear experience out of a roguelike would go against everything it stands for. But to each his own.

Sam: Nov 12th 2007; 10:24AM

Izuna: Legend of the Unemployed Ninja is a roguelike for DS, and its a pretty good one. You even lose all your stuff when you die & keep your experience level.

unfriendly_cat: Nov 12th 2007; 2:33PM

Izuna is indeed quite good, and cute to boot. Still haven't managed to beat the 100-level bonus dungeon (where you always start with no equipment and no experience).

Wolfrider: Nov 12th 2007; 10:35AM

We're also forgetting Fushigi no Dungeon: Furai no Shiren DS of the Shiren series (a version of which is coming to the Wii).

Alienhead: Nov 12th 2007; 11:01AM

Izuna..on DS..is a roguelike. First? No.

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