Kaluena Dungeon (Free RPG) Impressions and Strategy Notes

This article is a recommendation, review, and strategy guide for the free game "Karuena Dungeon."
After playing it, I found the combat system to be unique and innovative, and very enjoyable.
I think this is highly recommended for people who enjoy strategic thinking similar to that found in chess problems.

Game Overview

Kaluena Dungeon is an RPG where a party of four aims to reach the 150th floor underground.

Even though it has 150 floors, the dungeon's layout isn't such that you'll get lost.
Each floor has only one room, and the room contains only an exit back to the surface and one set of enemies.
Defeating enemies will reveal a staircase leading down.
(In the photo below, in addition to enemies, there is an NPC who will heal you for a fee.)

It's a hack-and-slash style dungeon RPG where you collect treasure chests and dropped items, return to town, and strengthen your equipment and skills to progress further.

The most distinctive feature is its combat system.
You can get a sense of the battle screen by looking at the photos below.

So, what can the player do in this game?"Determine the order in which the characters act."That's all.

キャラクターには、あらかじめ6つの技をセットしておきます。
In battle, one of those six will be randomly selected and displayed.
In other words, it has elements similar to deck building in card games.

Deciding the order in which characters act also requires some strategic thinking.
The "Flame Slash" shown in the image will deal more damage if used at the beginning of a turn, although it will consume more MP.
Depending on the situation, you have to consider whether or not to use it at the beginning of your turn.

Also, effects such as "doubles the effect of the next character's move" and "if this move delivers the finishing blow, you can act again" are available.Many techniques have effects that change significantly depending on the order in which actions are performed.
Combining effects and finding effective combos is one of the enjoyable aspects of the game.

thoughts

The battle system was innovative yet easy to pick up, and I enjoyed figuring out the most efficient order of actions to have my characters act.
Combat doesn't feel like a chore; it feels more like solving a math problem.
The boss battles had an even stronger puzzle-like element, offering the enjoyment of strategizing by reading the enemy's attack patterns and choosing your actions accordingly, much like solving a chess puzzle.

While there isn't much need to "grind" for resources, you can strengthen your character by upgrading your armor if you find a boss too difficult, so you won't get completely stuck due to the difficulty.

Furthermore, I think it's a commendable move to drastically simplify the dungeon elements so that players can fully immerse themselves in the game's biggest selling point: combat.
Games with unnecessarily large dungeons and lots of backtracking can become tedious.

The game took about eight hours to complete, which I think was just the right length.
The storyline is rather understated, so any more content might have made it boring.

One thing that bothered me was that I couldn't rearrange the items, which was disappointing.
My playstyle involved using a lot of items during combat, so having frequently used items at the bottom of the list made it a hassle to scroll down.
Also, this might be a problem with my PC's environment, but it was a bit slow.
The game would sometimes freeze slightly when using special moves or when the background music changed.

In any case, overall I thoroughly enjoyed it.
In the world of free games, where system-related ideas often seem exhausted, I was surprised to find something fresh and interesting in terms of its system.
I feel like it should become more widespread.

Strategy Notes

It had an interesting combat system, but it also offered a good challenge.
You can't clear the game by just randomly selecting commands; it's important to carefully plan your strategy.
Below, I'll write about some things that I found helpful when I was trying to complete the game.

Make use of the items

Making good use of items is very important.
Healing potions are inexpensive, so buy 10 before you go in.
The most useful attack item was the "bomb," followed by the "throwing knife."
The bomb deals 2 damage to all enemies, so it's useful in a variety of situations.

There's almost no need to shuffle your moves.

The X key consumes 5 MP to shuffle your skills,I felt it's better not to use it too often because its usefulness is limited and it wastes MP.
I probably don't need to write this here, but if you're going to shuffle the cards anyway, you might as well set them up in a way that doesn't require shuffling.

Let's also progress through the side quests.

When people come up to you in town and ask you for help, try to help them as much as possible.
You can acquire power-up items and learn new techniques.
Even in bar games, you can win prizes if you get a good score.
It's not essential, but it will make things a little easier.

Particularly noteworthy points

・B57Fのアヌビス＋ホネ弓士は、初めて全滅した強敵です。
I hadn't properly equipped myself before, but once I did, things became much easier.
Upgrading your equipment will increase your maximum HP and defense, so if you're finding it difficult, make sure to improve your armor and accessories.

The B59F Sphinx was quite a formidable opponent.
If you can maintain the opponent's rage level at L1 or L2, the fight will be relatively easy.
Using poison or multi-hit spells like Thunder should make it easier to adjust the situation.

・The treasure chest on B85F represents a binary number.
If you consider ★ to be 1 and □ to be 0, the answer will become obvious.
(Example: ★□★＝101＝5, ★★★＝111＝7)

- It is important not to attack the eggs of the Red Dragon on B109F.
Therefore,You can fight much more easily if you use a set that specializes in single-target attacks.
Additionally, having plenty of healing techniques prepared will make you even more secure.

・For B110F, I'm unsure whether to take the blue route or the red route.Let's go through both paths to collect the items.
The blue route is troublesome because there are many enemies that use poison attacks.
The red route features enemies with high base stats, which often leads to prolonged battles.

The final boss on B149F is troublesome because of its confusion attack.
Prepare for potential disruption,If you equip plenty of moves that deal damage, it's not that scary.

About what happens after clearing the game

After clearing the game, you can challenge the first floor again, but with your characters' strength remaining the same, while the enemies are slightly stronger.
I haven't completed the second playthrough yet, so I don't know what awaits me there.

Personally, the side events I'm curious about that I haven't completed yet are:"Come back when you've mastered all the skills, old man," "The fourth person can't be found in the kids' game of hide-and-seek," "Feed me every kind of fish, bro."That's about it.
I was curious what I would get, but I've already completed it, so I'll leave it at that.