The Dungeon Beneath

The Dungeon Beneath
N/A
Metacritic
88
Steam
80.263
xDR
Our rating is calculated based on the reviews and popularity of the game.
Price
$14.99
Release date
23 October 2020
Developers
Publishers
Steam reviews score
Total
88 (626 votes)
Recent
100 (18 votes)

The Dungeon Beneath is a tactical rogue-like autobattler. Gather your party and descend into the dungeon, battling your way through room after room of nefarious enemies. Collect powerful artifacts and equipment to create an endless variety of strategies.

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The Dungeon Beneath system requirements

Minimum:

  • Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
  • OS: Windows 7 (SP1+) and Windows 10
  • Processor: 2.0 Ghz
  • Memory: 2 GB RAM
  • Graphics: 1Gb Video Memory, capable of OpenGL 3.0+ support (2.1 with ARB extensions acceptable)
  • Storage: 500 MB available space
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Reap
Reap

Very much my opinion, but this is like a variant of Slay the Spire.

Where Spire was a card deck builder, this is building a rpg party and combo galore with your items and characters.

Its clever, but I cant see myself playing much more since I burnt myself out with the Spire already.
If I had to pick between them, Spire would win but that comes with my preference in card games. I guess this is a case of too much goodness

Blerp
Blerp

All the pieces are here for a decent game, but the end result isn't particularly fun or compelling. Some of it is repetition and loop length, but ultimately the whole isn't quite the sum of its parts

ShadeDragon
ShadeDragon

The first 10 or so hours were pretty fun. But around ng+++ with nothing else to unlock the game kind became a real drag. The pools for characters are extremely large and you have to find powerful synergies early that if you don't you'll easily lose over and over again. There are all kinds of different mechanics for the various units and most of them end up being pretty useless which turns each game into find the strong units and disregard everything else.

doosh
doosh

you know the game is very well balanced, when you win against the final boss with literally 1 HP

richard.petit2
richard.petit2

A very nice little tactical game, with a well designed difficulty curve, and a good diversity of viable builds. Daily challenges offer some combinations and twists that are not available otherwise, which extends its longevity even more.

I achieved 100% completion after 70 hours, and really enjoyed the journey. The highest difficulty runs require a good plan, some luck, and flawless tactics: you will fail a few times, but winning feels rewarding.

Little advice (for newgame++ and harder): hire a tanner in the first camp, and be greedy! Drag easy combats for as long as you can, while letting the tanner last hit to grind a maximum of gold. It requires some precise maneuvering, but it will make you rich (it works particularly well with Xandos 2nd form that scales with gold).

TzarNicco
TzarNicco

Great roguelite. Worth the low price.

Solaric
Solaric

Great Game, wish there were more gods, more leaders, more everything!

jungle pants
jungle pants

Really addictive!! more updates plz

Sasha
Sasha

The very first run was successful completing the game - the hints instead of a tutorial feel extremely smooth, was hoping for more progression possibilities and longer gameplay, still a very solid game. Not feeling like playing NG+, but this game has it.

Raigh
Raigh

Damn you review that said we lack control over what is happening. You made me hesitate for just about two years. I have perfect control over combat, thank you very much. You see your attack, your health and attack order. If no one is on the lane, you attack the champ. You can check every ability by hovering over the champions. So you could plan out every round in every detail if you wanted. It's more of a SRPG than an autobatttler. I feel like I am playing tower defense fire emblem and I LOVE it.

SourBeer
SourBeer

Easy to pick up. Lots combos to try out. Looking forward to what is next.

slenderman1kentxd
slenderman1kentxd

I NEED MORE SQUARES PLEASE DEV PLEASE

deoterra
deoterra

Similar to deck building games, there is an attempt to make it a strategy game but falls short mostly due to the high level of luck needed to pull wanted heroes to recruit. Runs can easily fall short without the correct team composition. Additionally, the number of compositions that are actually useful seem extremely limited. So, if you're attempting to build a certain team, don't hold your breathe. May take several runs to just achieve that. Once you beat the game once, you've basically seen all it has to offer. The New Game+ just makes game harder without adding any other new content.

azunikakar
azunikakar

Fun little game. Easy to learn, difficult to master.

neke506
neke506

A very fun, lightweight, well polished, highly replayable dungeon crawl. More than worth it at full price.

KevinNewb
KevinNewb

A fun little roguelite autobattler that has a solid gameplay loop that never feels unfair. There are deeper games out there, and ones that explain their systems more thoroughly, but The Dungeon Beneath is a more-than-adequate way to entertain yourself for a few quick runs at any time. The music owns, too.

SaviourI
SaviourI

A game that on initial viewing seems very simple, but after a couple of playthroughs it gets really complex, and it will start to destroy you. There's a huge variety of strategies to employ as you unlock heroes with each run, and the game will continue to test you as the difficulties climb with each time you beat it. I've personally beat new game +++++, working on legendary.

Toucam
Toucam

fun little tactical game, not a crazy amound of depth but enough for a few hours of entertainment for sure

Therrion
Therrion

The game basically has no story at all, but the game play is fun. There are incredibly few online resources for it, and those that exist are hard to find, and the game is cryptic about the functions of some things, and yet the game play is fun.

tukkek
tukkek

An elegant, creative and replayable minimalistic turn-based strategy game that is not perfect but pretty good. Not worth getting at full price, as it borders on being as simple as a mobile free-to-play game but worth getting on sale at 60% off (as of the Winter 2021 Sale).

It is weird saying this, as I never game on mobile but feels like this would be the perfect game to play on-the-go and I was surprised to see that's not an option on the official website. If it were, I might refund on Steam and get it for my Android instead.

My only issues are very minor and don't prevent me from enjoying the game but do speak of room for improvement:

    • Units with 0 power have no reason to attack. If they can trigger counters, this could be an actual problem.
    • Text is tiny to the point of being unreadable - which can be solved by forcing a lower emulated resolution in the game options. The game desperately needs a UI Scale setting.
    • Turn order would be a nightmare for players feeling the need to min-max the game (which is a fair assumption considering it's not easy to actually win a run) and the UI could be easily 10x better (permanent icon on unit's top-right). I would be happier if at the start of the turn all units added a die roll to their speed so that min-maxing wasn't encouraged as much.
    • The effectively-two-by-three grid can feel quite constraining, especially with you being guaranteed to always have 4 units on it, possible summons too and those units often being restricted to a single column. I know this would be a huge change to the game but it feels like having an extra "back row" would allow for much more "room to breathe", strategy-wise.
    • Equipment being fixed to the unit that equips them also diminishes strategic depth on what's a pretty challenging game - not only because you can't exchange them later on (what's up with that, are the shields and gloves literally perma-glued or what?) but also because it's a commitment to keeping that unit around forever since selling the items with the unit is a big setback.

All in all, I should really say that the 60% discount is "pushing it" when it comes to value rather than a clear-cut "worth it", just because the game might be too simple to warrant its replay value on a PC where you could be playing Desktop Dungeons, Monster Train or a full roguelike or strategy game instead. I wouldn't think twice about having this on my phone at that price-point but I'm really torn on whether I'll be playing this over and over on Steam even when I really like the game for what it is.

Mod support with community-created items and units would also be a perfect fit here and an incentive for me to not to ultimately refund this title.

All in all though, at 60% off I will easily recommend anyone interested in the concept give this a chance! Slow-paced, very elegant and creative novel take on the auto-battler formula, as much a "chessy" puzzle game as an RPG which I can 100% say is worth checking out to see if it does it for you but that in the end might be too simple to really sink dozens of hours into on PC.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/226620/Desktop_Dungeons/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1102190/Monster_Train/

Vincent L
Vincent L

The Dungeon Beneath is a turn based roguelike where you go through a a linear dungeon, fighting monsters and getting upgrades. Runs take between 15 minutes to over an hour depending on how much thinking and retrying you are willing to do, and each run unlocks a few more characters and/or new difficulties.

The production values of the game are fine. I found the visuals ok, pretty good pixel art but I actually really enjoyed the music. The rest of the sound effects are meh though. Nothing to write home about, though seriously why is none of the soundtrack on youtube or on sale somewhere?

Storywise... there is no story. There is a mysterious cloaked figure that lets you into the dungeon and boy do they sure do have something to do with the dungeon. And thats about it.

Gameplay is pretty good. The description lists autobattler which isn't really true. Most of your decisions are made during setup before combat, like which heroes to choose and what equipment they wear, but during combat you still at least decide where your heroes are positioned each round with a penalty for moving them. So while some combats do resolve like an autobattler, where you just click 'go' every turn, there are plenty where you make decisions. And at no point can you AFK anything.

The difficulty curve is my only real complaint, or maybe I should call it the pacing. I "beat" the game on my first real play through (ignoring the tutorial that gives you a joke hero) which unlocked New Game+ which just felt really weird to me. The base difficulty felt waaaaaay too easy. NewGame+ then introduces a bunch of new things and ramps up the difficulty to an appropriate level. There is then NewGame++ and NewGame+++ and so on. The game is at its best in + to +++ range as many runs seem winnable with good decision making and planning. Beyond that good decision making only gets you so far and you need good RNG to actually beat anything.

The reason I mention this, is because that sense of exploration, that excitement of getting a bit further every run like in a lot of rogue likes is totally absent in this game. I made it all the way through my first time and saw how the game goes from start to finish. And it didn't really change from that. It seems like the creators wanted you to know within an hour how everything works so you can then think about the mechanics alone, which is fine, but the mechanics are not that interesting. I feel the combat is fine, with plenty of variety and strategies, but I would have preferred it if there was more to it either in style, substance, story, exploration... just something.

One other complaint I have is that some explanations are missing. Some things that are CRITICAL to know it doesn't really explain at all, like how attack ordered is determines for characters with the same speed, or how triggers that happen at the same time choose to resolve. You can figure it out but you may loose a critical fight because you didn't know how things would go.

All in all I enjoyed the dungeon beneath, it is competent and fun, and while it isn't a masterpiece or anything, anyone that enjoys turn based tactic RPGs will enjoy this.

Darknuke
Darknuke

Very fun game. Each battle is unique and interesting. Character loadouts are varied and multiple strategies seem to exist. It has been a bit much trying to work out all the different characters, which can appear on what floor, and creating strategies for them, but it's not too unbearable. I wish all of them could just appear on every floor so I wouldn't have to keep track of multiple sets.

Anyway, recommend this if you enjoy tactical turn-based games with a lot of new game+ depth like STS and Monster Train. It's great fun and I intend to keep playing at least until I beat the secret boss.

Killtek
Killtek

I wish I discovered this game earlier! This is the best game I played in its genre! Great job devs!

Lord Knightmarez
Lord Knightmarez

A wonderful pixel indie game which takes skill to win.

Oxdeadbeef404
Oxdeadbeef404

Bounced off the first time but after a few updates this has become a really compelling "just one more run" game.

Klav
Klav

The Bad: Heavy RNG which will make and break even the best teams.

The Good: High replayability.

Doobh
Doobh

What if someone distilled Ogre Battle into its combat system, but let you change formation between rounds. Don’t know what Ogre Battle is? It’s like the OG RPG auto-battler.

Great pixel art and some real sick beats accompany your delve into the heart of the dungeon to beat back some jerk-ass demon or another. Much recommend.

Jay
Jay

It's addictive, but the compulsion to play lasts much longer than the fun. Very little feels good. Often enemies win by having weird new rules you didn't expect, or leveling someone is really anemic, or a character's abilities don't scale to the final boss, not that you had any idea of what the final boss could do -- a sort of difficulty via gotcha. This would be more excusable if there weren't other slay-the-spire-likes you could play instead -- or indeed slay the spire itself -- but there are. I'd skip it.

andouLog
andouLog

Probably one of my favourite games, because it really hit my spot. There's party management, there's RPG and turn based combats. But there's not micromanagement at all. Runs are not too long and you can drop them to continue later. Game is difficult, but not too much. You have to think about what you are doing, but not too much. You have to forward think about the party synergies since the beginning. And you have plenty of options. So far so good! In like 16 hours I've beaten the game with pretty much every heroes, beating all the three gods.
Oh, and the soundtrack is a blast! Really, guys, one of the coolest I've run into! Also the pixel graphics are vey good!
Well, buy it and enjoy!

Zudegia
Zudegia

Cleared the game on the hardest difficulty. Only took me 16 hours, but it was an absolute delight. There's still tactics to try, achievements to unlock and all kinds of fun but I'd recommend this to strategy game fans any day. I hear there's more content coming too!

TrueNorth
TrueNorth

Amazing!!!!
You will love this game.

talkslow4me
talkslow4me

Blows all those other auto chess battlers out of the water.
The Dungeon Beneath > Despots Game

chemo_boy
chemo_boy

If on sale go ahead and buy it, by far this is not the worst game.
Ultimately, I can't endorse the game because the mechanics make the game frustrating making the game feel at odds with itself.
For example the game progressing by unlocking new characters to find in shops but the more characters in the shop pool make it more difficult to find the character you need for you build. The other mechanic is that to lvl up someone they have to survive the combat. This is supposed to force you into hard decision but I just mainly forget to save em and then can’t lvl them additionally the tanks are meant to take a beating why punish us for having tanks do their job.
So, ya game is playable but I find it not worth too much of my time due to frustrating mechanic and rolling down all your shops hoping to find the build.

The Orphanmaker
The Orphanmaker

if it continues to get updates to keep things fresh it is worth it

Heretic
Heretic

The music slaps, the art is charming, the presentation is clean, and the gameplay is addictive. Great little auto battler to burn a few hours on here and there.

lafkabij
lafkabij

Dungeon Beneath borrows (or at least evokes) several beloved games. Slay the Spire, Into the Breach, even Super Auto Pets. The finished product seems well-balanced and thought out, though some of the design choices intentionally limit player options and mechanical depth. The result for me has been a strange ambivalence: On the one hand, it's a lovely, well-made game with enough going on that it, mid-run, triggers that "just one more turn" response as well as any recent game I've played. On the other, while building runs is always fun, the ceiling is still low, and after about ten hours in, I don't have much drive to start new runs (I'll say that when I do, it still has me compulsively playing to the end of the run, and I haven't toyed with NG+, which introduces some new encounters and increases the difficulty). 10 good hours for $15, and more if you're driven for the challenge of NG+, and probably a good hour or two when I come back to once in a while going forward. Not everything I could have hoped for, but not a purchase I regret, by any means, and maybe what I found frustrating will make it just the right kind of game for someone else.

I won't recap all the mechanics here (hopefully you can find them well-explained elsewhere), but instead describe what I found limiting about them. It'll sound more critical than I intend it to, because really what it all comes down to is that I wanted MORE of this game: more options, more possibilities, more control. Again, it's subjective, but hopefully a description of these design choices will help inform decision.

For example, moving characters in battle is actively discouraged through "exhaustion" mechanic (characters, with some exceptions, cannot attack after moving). By itself, not much, but your party size is already pretty limited (4 characters, in most cases, plus your backline hero), so one not attacking is a very big deal. Add to that, the play area is very cramped (6 spaces, divided between 3 front line and 3 back line spots), most characters can only attack from a front line or back line spot already, any summons will take an additional spot themselves, and there are often environmental objects that take up a spot or two in your play area as well. So most of the time, to move a character will mean swapping with another character, so that's now two characters not attacking. And if you needed to move a front line character to a back line or vice versa (either because you wanted to avoid swapping with another character or because it was the only safe space available), that character will also not be able to attack next turn (either because you left them somewhere they can't attack or because you moved them back and exhausted them again).

So while the combat interface evokes a lot of Into the Breach comparisons because of what it looks like (seeing everything that's going to happen and in the exact order and then making choices about how to respond optimally), really the best case scenario is just setting up your characters in the best formation in turn 1 and then letting it ride as an auto-battle.

To be sure, you're going to have to move characters in tougher fights like the end boss battles, and the tension of having to make that choice and give up a lot of opportunity cost is enjoyable in its own way, but for anyone who wanted that dopamine hit from figuring out the perfect line to an Into the Breach turn or chess puzzle, this isn't quite that.

Most of the difference in a good or bad run will be what choices you make as you build your party and buy items. And this is where SAP feels like a good comparison, but again, it just doesn't feel like the same mechanical depth and scaling possibilities are there in Dungeon Beneath. Characters max out at 3 levels, and the difference between one and the next is usually a few points of hp (same as buying a minor item), and occasionally something more fun like a point of attack or upgrading the ability.

The most fun part is getting characters with abilities that combine and augment each other (healers plus units that trigger off of heal effects, and the like). I think this is where the game best shines and where you have the best time, and it's also the best way to play effectively. I just wished we had a bigger party to play with to really get some more complex combinations going or different themes at once. Most end-game fights are pretty long, attrition-based grinds, and the test is just whether your build can keep its head above water long enough to kill the boss. A thoughtfully built party will survive. Again, it's good, but I wanted to do more than the game seems to want from the player. Units are pre-leveled on lower levels, which I appreciate as it should make it easier to pivot to a different play style later, but you can only see three characters for hire at the campfire at a time, have to pay to switch them out, and can't freeze (a la Super Auto Pets) one you're considering buying when you do refresh to see if you can get an interesting playmate for them. So most of my successful teams are built around a synergy I find early and then just stay that way (it's also the most financially efficient way to build a team, leaving more money for items).

Maybe one free move a turn, or letting each character move one square before being exhausted, and a larger play area with a bigger party, or maybe more of a power difference between low and high tier units with a more kinetic marketplace encouraging switching out different characters to keep your party ahead of the power curve, would have made the game what I wanted it to be. But it's balanced and tuned for what it is,(and they did a quality job doing so, at that) so maybe instead it would have just been ruined. For what it is, it's still a fun combination of elements, with good aesthetics and addictive gameplay, and as long as you keep in mind that none of the mechanics develop as deeply as they might in popular games built around just one of them at a time, I'd encourage anyone interested in this style of game to give The Dungeon Beneath a good look.

Saievo
Saievo

The game is an okay time sink until you max out the unlockable characters and hit NG+. After that RNG and reduced stats make the game a slogfest. The inability to plan out your party (due to camp RNG) or items (also RNG) means you'll die and reset before reaching floor 3 (the abyss). All the good characters are locked behind this floor, which makes planning ahead nearly impossible. Additionally, the inability to move characters and attack (while the enemies can and do), or recruit more than 5 characters (except for Xardas with his crown) makes a certain party comp (armored fighters) a requirement. Poison teams, summon teams, beast teams, and healing teams all suffer -- and come up short on the harder difficulties -- due to the above issues. You'll end up with an Armorsmith, Knight, Immortal, and Captain over and over again.

baitmask
baitmask

Super fun auto-battler with a nice music score i could jam to now and then.
Some reviews cite the steep learning curve, but there are a few guides around to help.
Overall, I loved the strategy involved in following turn order and scoring sweet victories thanks to great timing instead of lucky, random combat factors like random hit and damage tables.
I lost many times and had to reroll on the harder difficulties, but I never once felt cheated by the game. That scored big with me.

Player88
Player88

Wonderful game, but the rng for what heroes you start with and can get is a bit too much for my taste. I really do like the game, but now that I have unlocked everything, it is far harder to enjoy as the random hero pool for your start and campfires is very much against you. Hopefully the pool grows to help counter this. If it does, will be happy to change the review.

Update: The developer really did a great job with both updating the game and their feedback to this review. Played a few rounds of the new update with the new campfires and new set of heroes, and I have to say that campfire system now is just right. Still has the rng that the game is really known for, but in a far more enjoyable way, at least for myself. The new heroes were fun and creative, so that is a plus. Honestly even if nothing had been fixed just the way I personally would have liked to see, the way Puzzle Box Games responded to my review not recommending this game was simply perfect. That ability to connect with their buyers will go a long way. Is this my dream game? No, but it is great fun in short bursts and this developer now truly has a fan for life. Great work on both relations and game design, keep up the great work.

Yijuwarp
Yijuwarp

Teamfight Tactics meets Slay the Spire

MichaelTingley
MichaelTingley

One of the funnest games I've played in 2021-2022. I love Into The Breach, XCOM, Wildermyth, these kinds of tactics-heavy games. If you're like me, buy this. You'll love it.

DinosaurPizza
DinosaurPizza

Absolutely fantastic. Plays like a cross between a deckbuilding roguelike and a very elegant tactics game. I don't consider it an auto-battler since you can move your units around each turn during combat.

shadow_ck
shadow_ck

I'm not refunding this, but this game is meh. Champions are meaningless and imbalanced like some of them are just made for a larger number.

Mcnancy
Mcnancy

A fun little auto-battler. Wish it had PVP.

Jota
Jota

Very fun game! It is quick to play and it is fun to try to create combos with the characters. Having daily challenges are nice as well.

Sometimes I think some bosses are just too strong against some team compositions, so it isn't unusual to be winning all fight without taking any damage but sudently you get smashed by a boss.
Since it is quick to restart and you start to learn the bosses of the game, you start to better choose your opponents as a way to avoid being countered.

Recommend to have fun for some time and support indie devs

Navigator
Navigator

Nice game, easy to get into. If you like Slay the Spire and DungeonTop, you'll like this game.

Fukung
Fukung

Brilliant little game. The only gripe I have that getting the allies you want from a campfire can be very hard and the game needs more items.

Unluck
Unluck

I have to agree with alot of people here. The idea behind the game is fantastic and I'm sure by design you are supposed to lose a few to win a few but watching the enemy move about freely while it costs your people their attack, coupled with massive rng on who you are able to recruit is an immediate turn off for me. It's assumed that you are supposed to stack your team with abilities that compliment each other so I ended up choosing a royal guard guy but then never once got anyone else that buffs his ability which is when he gets healed, meanwhile I was peppered with people who have doom abilities (activates when the person dies) only to find on my last campfire someone who uses their follow up move to activate all allied doom abilities. The randomness just doesn't make much sense while nearly everything else in this game is perfect!

Anonymous
Anonymous

Very nice roguelike deck builder. Lots of strategy involving unit placement, combinations of characters and items, and plenty variety from the various bosses and difficulty levels.

The Dean of Clown Academy
The Dean of Cl…

THIS IS NOT AN AUTO BATTLER not sure why it is tagged as one.

That being said, this game gives a god tier dopamine rush when you watch your build come together at the final boss.

It has quite a bit more turn planning than other roguelite games and isn't as action oriented. That makes it all the sweeter when you lose a battle then use your reset to squeak out a win by careful turn planning.

When I first tried the game I hated it because I was looking for an auto battler. When I actually gave the game a fair chance I fell in love. This game stole so much more of my time than I ever expected and I recommend it to anyone interested in a strategy oriented roguelite experience.

10/10

Jaypeg
Jaypeg

Such a relief to see a fresh take on the rogue-like genre. The right amounts of tactics & autobattle wrapped up in 1-2 hour runs. Seriously the best of these games since StS, and i've pretty much seen them all.

Game is honestly hard, has no typical meta-progression (some unlocks of good units) and an ascension style difficulty that has provided me 30+ hours, and i still haven't done the secret things or scratched the depth of cool team-comps. This is a game i will return to again and again .

BeskarHunter
BeskarHunter

Great casual battler. I'm hoping I can beat it once I unlock more units.

Redking
Redking

Fast games with enough RNG to keep it interesting. Low level of entry, but game gets hard requiring more. Love the classic NES style, and the quick battles. Would love to see more content come out, expansions and mechanics.

ʙᴀɴᴅɪᴛ
ʙᴀɴᴅɪᴛ

Great fun. Low effort. The perfect game?

Uncle Bob
Uncle Bob

A really fun rougelite where you unluck new characters as you progress. At first seems glance, it seems as though you can build your party in a variety of ways, but later on you realize that there are only a handfull of combos that work vs. end game bosses - no real room for variety as you up the difficulty (at least at my level of expertize). You either go poison, armor or doom in some form. Higher difficulty is mostly more hp on enemies with mechanics being the same. Right now I have 26 hours on record but I don't think I will go above 30.
That being said, its a great tactical autobattler with hours of fun for a low price. I would definetily recommended this game to anyone - a really fun game.

Crunched
Crunched

Fantastic game, I wish there was a sequel or something. I want MORE. It's a perfect balance of depth and simplicity for me. Been trying for a few days to find any game similar to this. Hopefully they add more difficulties or something in the future, at this time I feel like I've experienced the whole game. Cannot wait to see the devs next project. Fantastic and unique game. BUY NOW

johnpaulnettles
johnpaulnettles

Didn't realize I played 38 hours. That's how you know it's a good game.

Toast :)
Toast :)

A great concept with a fantastic execution. The basics of the game are very simple to understand, yet conceal a great depth of options. There's lots of different characters, bosses, items and artifacts that all combine to let every run feel just a little different as you get further and further in.

There's a lot of information to process and consider in every single turn, but the game does a great job of presenting this information without it feeling ham-fisted: it's shown succinctly but clearly, such that you can almost always know exactly what's going to happen next, although I will note some exceptions, where it's not entirely clear in what order it takes place.

All in all, it's a great experience and a lot of fun to play both casually and more dedicatedly.

Mongol
Mongol

The Dungeon Beneath

This could have been so much better had players have the ability to control their units but with this auto attack crap it's all based on RNG. Don't like it, can't recommend

Mike
Mike

Really well designed tactical game with cool build around combos and very high skill cap for both tactical combat and out of combat purchasing decisions.

It also has plenty of fun unlocks/meta progression.

Highly recommended if you enjoy fantasy games with quick and thoughtful gameplay.

GoatusMax
GoatusMax

If you like turn based autobattlers, you're going to like this game. There is a wide variety of interesting characters and items to combine for many random or direct playthroughs. I have nothing bad to say about this game.

pineapplesauce
pineapplesauce

This game is very very good with very complex mechanics and some stellar characters and team building. The bosses are all very different and you must use very specific strategies to beat some of the end game bosses.

dewolow
dewolow

Great team building roguelite game!

Laylance
Laylance

This is a gem!
The pixel art, the music, the sound effects, everything works in tandem to bring a great experience.
The mechanics themselves are great - roguelite and auto-chess - you have enough control but it's pretty free-flowing too.
I also love the enemy design. You can get some nice combos going with your heroes as well.

I am not sure about the longevity of them game, but right now I am having great fun, and am looking forward to future updates.

Excalibear
Excalibear

Very solid tactical game for quick 30 minute runs. Encounters are unique enough that each one definitely needs different tactics on harder difficulty levels. The balance is spot on for Normal - some games can be a struggle with RNG, some you can get decently OP, but almost all are winnable if you play to your team's strengths.

My only complaint would be that items feel limited. There's such a good mixture of class/race combos for characters, and there seems to be a large number of artifacts, but when it comes to character items I almost exclusively see the same five or so items each run, and only rarely find something unique or different.

Minor complaint aside, I'm having a blast playing the game and definitely recommend it!

dwarner
dwarner

Well-supported, well-designed, regular updates.

Daily challenges help you learn the game.

dog brandonson
dog brandonson

A good roguelike deckbuilder. No convoluted nonsense, but a bit of depth to play with for a while. I reckon I will get 40 hrs out of this before I start to get tired of it.

Not balanced perfectly but its not too bad, with only a couple of units being completely useless.

Would love for the devs to continue to add more ways to save time during runs.

steevis
steevis

What a wonderful game! It is a little slow and boring - yes; it's, more than likely, not going to blow you away - sure... But I think I got this on sale for around ten bucks and, it is worth every-dollar - maybe not full price. It is certainly a time killer - if you're not trying to spend a lot of time - this isn't your game. It has a lot of replay value, as long as you don't mind it's linear repetitive nature. The amount of random items, artifacts and heroes makes the game very interesting. It is definitely a challenging game for sure. I tend to disagree with a lot of other players who found the game too difficult; I think it's just about right - really hard but possible and very rewarding. I would say though, you must make a synergy team - a lot of combinations are possible - but if you won't do much with characters that don't do well together - maybe one of my only complaints. An option to go back a step would be nice, like an edit undo button - too many times I forgot to pick up a coin or clicked too quickly.... Great game for the price - definitely recommend.

DremGabe
DremGabe

Its a game that you play when you are not feeling playing any other type of game

treelaunka
treelaunka

Fun, but balance pass is needed. I do not hold hope that will happen.

Newgame + and up is stupid hard, in an already grueling game. There's literally 1 team meta, and that's it for harder modes. It's just very unbalanced.

General Ruggad
General Ruggad

Great game. Fun items, random enemies, and combo plays. Easy to learn, hard to master. Great soundtrack.

Informal Fish
Informal Fish

Hard enough to keep you trying and lots of combinations to keep it interesting.

Elindos Phar
Elindos Phar

It's more of a mixed reaction.

You will extract a couple hours of goodness from this game.
Alas, even in a single successful run I feel that I have seen most that the game has to offer.

It is because after that, the limitations of the board, the fixed leveling, simplified combat, the determined progression and the lack of even a glimpse of story will mean that you will no longer have so much new to discover.

At best, you can activate more difficulty which will reduce the already restricted number of variants and skills that work really well.

The developer is committed, so maybe this opinion of mine will change over time and new games, new strategies tried, and I do like that they brought out a "Daily Challenge". So for now it's a "mixed" reaction, which may evolve more favorably later.

wizardbrains
wizardbrains

Very simple, fast to learn...but gets boring very quick.
The pixel art is the only good thing about this game and they aren't even from this game. The assets are reused from a mobile game that was a bad clone of Pixel Dungeon.

This is a 99cent value game, not $15. I'll remember Puzzle Box Games so I don't spend money on shovelware again.

kukukupo
kukukupo

This is the only review on steam I have written. The game was that good that I had to put a recommendation down. If you like building parties, 16 bit graphics, and a good soundtrack, this is your game. If I had to describe the game, I would say it is like a mix of Plants vs Zombies, Magic the Gathering, and Ogre Battle.

Here is the basic rundown:
There are 3 levels with 13 rooms each.
Start with a Hero and some random units, go room to room and hire new units, fight enemies, buy items, or upgrade equipment depending on the room type.
At room 13 of each level, fight the boss.
Win and advance, lose and start over.

Repeat the above loop for each of 3 gods. Each time through takes roughly an hour or so on a good run. Each run unlocks newer units you can use. When you have beaten all 3 gods, there is still additional content apart from NG+.

The biggest downside to the game right now is that once you unlock all of the units, the pool becomes larger and it becomes more difficult to find the units you want. The other downside (in my opinion) is that you can't get duplicate characters - if you have one character in your party he won't show up in the pool. There are a couple of ways around this that become unlocked as you progress, but they still have an element of randomness and chance. (For example, you can get a potion that will turn one of your characters into a copy of another, but you don't get to pick which one - it's a copy of a random character in your party)

Overall, I highly recommend this game if you are into party building.

valv
valv

I hqd a lot of fun. Very good little game.

kyud
kyud

good game to play on the side and its quite addicting actually

Arciks
Arciks

I would say, I cant beat +++ game. But I keep trying.

VecnaMarston
VecnaMarston

My first auto-battle game and I must say that it is great! I have roughly 25 hours now and will get more for sure!

OnlyDans
OnlyDans

New game++ is unplayable trash without resorting to cheese methods of play just to be able to play the game and progress achievements. The health neuter is heavy and RNG likes to heavily screw the player when it comes to worthwhile boons and spamming gold re-rolls like a meth addict for ideal party configurations.

matthewpshostak
matthewpshostak

all strategy, all changing, all awesome

sgtjojoe
sgtjojoe

Man... this game was a pleasant surprise. The only other 'Auto Battler' I've enjoyed was "Vivid Knight". I didn't expect to enjoy this, but for $15 it looked intriguing enough to gamble on it.

I'm glad I did. I find myself saying, "Just one more run". Or "Next time, I am going to try to get all of my heroes with poison specs". There are some REALLY sweet combos to be had and unlocking rooms and new classes is so satisfying!

It's also a game that I can throw on a cheesy B movie in the background and chill out a bit. That's not to say things can't get tense or that you don't have to pay attention. Yes, it's an auto-battler, but you still need to look at the enemy layout and consider if you want to move any of your troops. You may also want to switch up gear in between battles and make sure you choose the right path while dungeoning.

This game is one of my favorite "hidden gems". Actually... I think I'm going to play it right now!

joeshmo139
joeshmo139

Great game for the price. Plenty of variety and unlockables to keep you playing

Anonymous
Anonymous

I beat the game several times this weekend. I wish the were a little bit more content.
But still, trying out different combinations of characters is a lot of fun :)

Spacesuit Spiff
Spacesuit Spiff

Brilliant distillation of roguelike "scrambling to get a good build together" gameplay

FaintPulse
FaintPulse

Highly recommended. I've put 15 hours in, and I've unlocked lots of new things, and I'm still unlocking more. And I can't stop. Runs are relatively short, and there's a really wide variety of effective party builds...the fun is, of course, in the RNG of potential hires during any given run. The Daily Challenges are a welcome treat.

I hope we see more from this developer.

khajiiti
khajiiti

Easy to get into, simple at first but there's a surprising amount of depth as you unlock new characters. Game is easy to pick up and play for a few minutes or go heads down into for longer play sessions.

tingw
tingw

Played for 9 hours straight when I first opened it. Many more hours to come.
Super worth it.

|CnP| Rabid Squirrels
|CnP| Rabid Sq…

Got this game for $.99!! Cant believe what a steal. This game ranks right up there with FTL and Star Renegades for me! Beaten every difficulty and still trying to close the portal on Legendary! Well worth the purchase.

farm416
farm416

Awesome game - good balnce of skill and luck

Anonymous
Anonymous

Pure and simple this is a blast. Lots of repeatability too

Mabry
Mabry

Great Jams
Easy to learn start
Simple ITEMS
Jammin Jams
Chill game

VG Purist
VG Purist

Love this game for the quick go's at the dungeons. Synergy among your assembled team is priority! Make sure to read each monster ability as this can mean the difference between life and death.

The only negative I can think of is that this game probably needs even more depth than it already has. For example: Different ways for my people to level up. Perhaps even more cultivation of hero characters than just getting items.

Good enough game to buy for a fun one off run.

FutureDisco
FutureDisco

Really great balance of simplicity and depth. I can't stop coming back to play this game

Zasz
Zasz

Great game, very entertaining gameplay

LoveLess
LoveLess

If you like the old style of JRPG turn-based combat and find joy in crafting synergistic teams, a sort of party building, then this is something you can easily get hours worth of enjoyment from. Each run has a chance to be very unique and enjoyable. The game is back to back fights with the opportunity to sometimes visit merchants, hire more units at campfires, and various other little things. Fights are based on triggers (if you want to read the keywords, hover over a unit for a long period of time, not sure why it isn't just instant), positioning, and even though everything is pretty simple it adds onto itself to become complex.

Everything about the game looks very much like another game, that has a very similar feel and enjoyment to it, Labyrinth of Legendary Loot. If you like this, you might like that game as well.

Definitely buy it on sale.