Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & the Monster Seal Game Sample - PS Vita
18"Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & the Monster Seal" is one of many dungeon-crawling RPGS for the PS Vita (released in 2014 and 2015 Internationally), and an upgrade to the PSP version released roughly a year and a half prior (it has better visuals and some quality of life changes such as better menu management, quest structure, etc.). Developed by Aqua Plus (best known for "To Heart", "Comic Party" and "Utawarerumono") and published by Atlus and NIS America, the game was mildly censored when it was released outside Japan (minor edits to a few images) and was caught in the storm of the anti-censorship movement, which hurt its sales somewhat. This is a shame because, subject matter aside, Dungeon Travelers 2 is almost masterfully executed and one of the quintessential DRPGs of the last few years alongside Etrian Odyssey. A sequel, "Dungeon Travelers 2-2", was released in 2017.
Monsters have been appearing throughout the Kingdom of Romulea, and have become a threat to humanity after centuries of peace. In order to subdue the monsters, an alchemist named Siegdrad devised a magic seal able to constrain them, but only skilled people with the power of a "Libra" can do so. Fried Einhard, an adventurer dispatched by the Royal Library, is a new Libra with exceptional skill who learns more than he bargained for when he and his fledgling friends, "Melvy de Florencia" and "Alisia Heart", inadvertently discover that the Demon God is trying to awaken, sending them on a journey to prevent this. The story, like most DRPGs, just serves as a backdrop for the gameplay of exploring dungeons and finding loot and isn't too deep, but the variety of characters and characterization on display is exceptional. Every character gets some decent screen time due to main events playing out differently and TONS of different interactions based on party composition, character mood, and even items in your inventory. It is not an exaggeration to say that one could spend hundreds of hours with this game and still not discover them all without following a guide to the letter.
It stands amongst other Wizardry-inspired games with preset characters, a monster collecting aspect, copious amounts of fan-service, almost an entirely female cast, and tons of suggestive material that would make even some open-minded people cringe. While this is the most polarizing aspect of the game, it shouldn't undermine all the work that went into it -- Atlus' localization of the game's script is top-notch and is capable of elevating even some of the tiredest stereotypes into something interesting, and while fans of character customization might not appreciate the "locked-in" character types, the game takes base classes and allows you to branch them out into a variety of unique classes not typically found in the genre (over 30 different sub-classes) with way more skills and team chemistry than most other DRPGs... it's actually overwhelming starting out, but deeply rewarding with nearly limitless possibilities. Even more, characters have a special skill unique to them to distinguish between characters of the same class and team abilities based on class, turn order and parameters. Their usefulness is situational, but nonetheless meaningful. The last great thing? DLC can add characters from the previous Dungeon Travelers (To Heart characters), increasing your range even more.
The dungeons have your typical caveats: Traps, Warps, Locks, Switches, Restrictions, Enchants, etc., and, while difficult, don't reach the borderline maddening dungeons present in some of the Etrian Odyssey and Wizardry games, and there's plenty of optional content. Even the tiniest details from combat shortcuts, configurable options, item storage and the like is handled with care. The only thing I don't like is that when your inventory is full in battle, you can't choose which items to discard if you get more. Of course, you couldn't talk about this game without mentioning "Monster Sealing". As you repeatedly defeat enemies, your Libra can convert them into Sealbooks to grant party members additional buffs, and bosses give grand Sealbooks that have party/map wide effects. Collecting them all and filling the bestiary can easily take hundreds of hours due to the game's large enemy selection (with pallet swaps of course).
The graphics are nicely rendered and the art is appealing -- effects are also serviceable. The soundtrack is great and there are also multiple battle themes. Sadly, the game doesn't really have "multiple endings" in the way one would suspect and no clear-cut romance options, but for a game that already offers so much, it just can't be helped. There IS a true ending and post main story content, and the DLC is meaningful but doesn't impact any plot. This is a video of various aspects. Enjoy.
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