When I Was Young (Late 90s)
I used to spend a few weeks at my Aunt Chris and Uncle Oscar's house during the summer. They were both teachers so they had the summers off too. Most of my family lived in or around Mountain Grove Missouri, so I would make the rounds and see all my Aunts and Uncles while I was down there. One of the best, best, BEST things about seeing my Uncles Oscar and Steve while I was down that way was that they both were (and still are) huge D&D nerds. I would spend hoooooooooooooours playing D&D and Might and Magic and games like that with them on their computers. The time I spent with them had a huge impact on my life.
Back then, D&D and M&M games were very low-fi, move-one-step-forward then encounter-an-enemy or find-an-item or read-a sign then move-another-step-forward kind of games. Compared to games like Skyward Sword or Skyrim where you run around and attack your enemies from all angles while exploring dungeons, and everything is in real time, those games seem like they were practically from the stone-age. It could very well just be the nostalgia talking, but Picdun, this new game i just downloaded from the eshop on my 3DS, has so far been an extremely faithful, and yet surprisingly still just as fun as then, reincarnation of these classic games and a great value for the price.
The General Idea
Go Series: Picdun (downloadable for the DSi/3DS) is a first person perspective Adventure RPG Dungeon Crawler in the style of much older games like Dungeons and Dragons (PC), Might and Magic (PC), and Swords and Serpents (NES). You begin locked in a room on the top floor of a dungeon with instructions to find your way to the bottom. The action takes place on the bottom screen.
With surprisingly crisp, bright, believable graphics you walk through the 3D dungeon (3D in the sense of something like Doom or Wolfenstien 3D, not that it uses the 3DS's 3D capabilities). The top screen is your map, which fills out as you step on each new tile. Once you step on every single tile on a floor your map reveals the picture theme that your floor was designed to look like (
ala Legend of Zelda: NES) and you are free to descend to the next floor. There are around 60 or so floors.
Serious Exploration
The thing that I used to love so much about the old dungeon crawlers was the pure unadulterated exploration. Filling out that map. You really had absolutely no idea where you were going or what was going to be around the next turn. Finding a clue in one room, that opened a secret door on the other side of the floor, that held a treasure chest with a special secret item! Picdun absolutely nails this.
There are all kinds of hints and secrets and hidden treasures, some of which require you to go back several floors to carry out a series of specific tasks if you really want that super secret special hidden item. The simplicity of the graphics really do belie the serious depth of gameplay that Picdun has to offer. This is not at all a linear game.
Surprisingly Deep Combat
Now, its no Pokemon, but based on how simple (not ugly, but "simple") the graphics are in this game, another thing that really surprised me was just how detailed the combat turned out to be. You start with a simple dagger, but can find 11 more swords, 3 different shields, 3 flasks to hold potions, and several unique orbs that grant you special powers throughout the 60 floors. The enemy AI hasn't seemed to be that complex yet, but I'm only winding my way through the 8th floor. Based on the few that I have seen, they do seem to be getting trickier. Enemies pop up seemingly at random as you walk, but not nearly as often as pokemon thankyousweejesus. The battles take place in real time, with your enemy attacking and defending at will. Using your stylus you can either slash vertically (hits 1 enemy decently hard), horizontally (hits all enemies kind of weakly), or you can jab really hard at any part of one enemy. You've also got this meter called the pow meter that builds up when you don't have your shield up. The higher the meter the more damage you do. If its at 0 you pretty much do no damage. It seems that each part (head, torso, legs, arms, etc) can potentially yield drastically different damage values. On the trolls in the beginning with a fully charged pow meter, I was only getting 1 or 2 damage while vertical swiping, 0 or 1 while horizontal, 2-3 while jabbing at most of its body, and an astounding 9 while jabbing at its head. On top of offense, you've got a shield to defend yourself with. It completely blocks most weak attacks, but while you hold it up your pow meter doesn't increase, so you've got to let it down at least some of the time. Also noteworthy, I've found that if you wait till the last second and throw up your shield the moment an enemy strikes at you, you'll stun it and usually 1HKO it. I was doing like 29 damage to trolls in the 8th level like that. Lastly, you do get experience points for each enemy you defeat. As expected, when you go up a level you gain HP and ATK, as well as the ability to flee more easily if you must.
Once Upon A...
One thing that Picdun sorely lacks though is a story. Judging by the many other "Go Series" games this is to be expected. There is like nothing substantial that you could call a storyline whatsoever. I'm only on the 8th floor, but so far the only things resembling a story line have been literally 2 lines of text per floor that talk about people who had come before you. There was no intro video. There have been no cutscenes. There have been a few "boss type monsters" that have said a few words about "MYEAAAA! YOU KILLED MY BROTHER ON THE LAST FLOOR MYEAAAA!" but that's pretty much been it. If you're looking for an engrossing story, you're looking in the wrong place. I'm on the 8th floor and I still don't understand why I'm here, or why I need to keep going further down. But in my opinion, thus far the extraordinary gameplay has made up for the lack of any meaningful story. Its kept me going so far and has shown no signs of waning.
Dear Gawd Mute That Please
Another thing that gets annoying pretty quickly is the music. One song per every 10 floors. Doesn't stop. Just repeats. Kind of pipes down during battles, but it still keeps droning along. You'll find yourself turning the sound off until you get to the next set of 10 floors. Again, judging from its Go Series sister-games, this is to be expected. I get the same way while playing pokemon sometimes too. Freaking bike song while hatching eggs a;sldgkajs;dglkasj!!!!
With The Economy This Bad...
Finally, the best part for a Scrooge McDuck like me, is the price! I don't know about you these days, but I for one have to seriously consider price when it comes to purchasing new games. I can't just go out and drop 40$ whenever I please anymore. That'll be 5$ please and thank you! 5$ for hours and hours and hours of classic dungeon crawling exploration. One thing that the Go Series always has on its side is price. Most of their games are like 1.99$. This one is worth all 500 of those pennies. I've read accounts of 40+ hours of gameplay, which makes perfect sense, since I just literally finished the 8th floor with almost exactly 1.5 hours. They've been getting consistently more tricky, and considering the bounty of optional hidden loot, yeah 40 hours is totally possible from this surprisingly fun 5$ download.
TL;DR
In review, Go Games: Picdun is an extremely faithful recreation of those classic first person, action-adventure, dungeon-exploration RPGs of years bygone. Its definitely not for everyone, and it may very well be too "minimalist" for most. But if you're into the dungeon crawling exploration kind of game, or if you want to relive those nostalgic memories of late nights spent pummeling orcs and scribbling out maps on notebook paper back in the late 90s, I seriously don't think its possible to find a better deal than the downloadable
Go Games: Picdun for the DSi/3DS.