VN - Others - Completed - Desire Dungeon [Yokubo no Tou]

I randomly thought of this game and figured I'd do a review of my own.
I don't remember the place or circumstances how I came to know about this game, likely it was mentioned in some discussion as old classic-type thing and I didn't have big expectations going in, then I found it unexpectedly engaging, addictive even once you understand the basics of what you're supposed to be doing.
The gameplay is that of a fairly basic rpg - you get exp, raise your level, get better gear, learn new skills -all of this you can find in virtually any game, anywhere. It's how it's done is where this game shines in my opinion. You are never overwhelmed by kajillion stats, information windows, skills that are there just for the sake of the quantity, there is not a lot of enemies, but each feels meaningful and worked out, the rpg system and the grind is justified based of the actual strength of enemies and feel meaningful\rewarding and not to have your stats go into millions to make large damage number appear otherwise bland encounters feel epic (also this game's relative shortness made it far less noticeable for me - I skipped some great titles with excellent plot etc because of gettin bored of leveling 500 skills, equipment, job changes etc even if it's really well made)
My favorite part about this game is it's lighthearted, kind of light atmosphere and the whole thing, even the monsters feel well-intentioned and "vanilla", I guess (I know the title says "dungeon", but it's not that type of dungeon, lol - not as most other games of this kind I've seen anyway)
The game is relatively short too - so if you're not put off by anything that was mentioned - maybe give it a try

With a lot of patience, i've managed to complete Desire Dungeon but man... The RNG system of this game breaks it for me. And there's not only that...

-A lot of reading.
-Can't full screen (have to resort to screen zooming bs).
-Tutorial in the bar could've been more dynamic (just a bunch of text).
-Upgrades are RNG dependant meaning it can take a very long time.
-Trial and error type of game (more than usual).
-Grind and gameplay way too taxing and not enjoyable imo.
-RNG can really be annoying especially with enemy's ero attacks.

The only good thing about this game is when you reach level 30 and enter in "god mode". Other than that, i just felt like i wasted my time. 2 stars because at least the game is working and doesn't look completely terrible.

So, I will probably be the only one who rates this low. Not because the game is poorly put together. But because my expectations weren't met. So I will give a very long honest explanation of the game. As I fel it's the only way to do you an the game justice.

So, what is this game? I'm going to break down gameplay first.

First you have the town. This involves a menu overlayed with the locations background picture(for whatever building you're in).
for the town map. a button for each service building.
The tavern gives you hints(they update each floor you beat), the shop sells weapons, armor, accessories, and items(restoratives and town tele), the temple gives xp & resets monstergirls relationships + powerboost(explained later), the inn allows you to save and rest, and the dungeon button allows you to enter the dungeon.

Now. I've seen other reviews comparing this to fp dungeon crawlers. This game Is NOT a dungeon crawler. This Is not a land's of lore, a wizardry, an elder scrolls, a might and magic, a goldbox game, an ishar, etc.
It's a visual novel with bare bones japanese hack'n'slash gameplay no different from default rpgm.

The dungeons consist of a forward and backwards menu arrow. Clicking it doesn't change the background image, just increases the room counter(which is always nth/100 rooms, with a boss at the end of each floor, and access to next floor. 3 in total).
Each time you click one of the arrows, there's a chance of a monster encounter. (Around 1 encounter every 15 rooms), or in very rare instances, a trap/replenisher, or some graffiti exposition(in the form of a text box describing it to you.
From what I've just told you. You may now realise how little assets are actually in the game. There Is no level design or map. Because there's no world.
All combat, you fight decent quality static images. Each h scene has one base image, with slightly changes(expressions, ejaculation), and some simple picture effects to simulate actions, aswell as your typical j VN scene description/dialogue.

So. The game has fairly minimalist gameplay, so it must have alot in other areas right? Wrong. This game is 100% wholly linear, except choosing a girl at the end/choosing none. With little to no story.
So it's a VN with rudimentary japanese style hack'n'slash combat + rng chests, no choices, and very little story.
Most of the game is spent grinding on monsters for xp, RNG trapped chests which give a single item or money, each based on their difficulty level (1-5).
There's no classes. You are just you.
One thing I did like, is you get new abilities by seducing and sleeping with the girls(ll explain combat a bit below). But by design you just end up with all the abilities, because of how linear the entire thing is. (Literally. Can only "move" forward, or backward. Can't interact with anyone or do anything).

So how combat? combat is your typical j turn based affair. You fight 1 enemy at once. Half the time you can't use items in battle, cause the pause menus invisible. And there are 2 bars. Hp represents health. And many represents "willpower". If either hit 0, you loose and get a defeat scene. The monster gets a permanent boot, and remembers you. If your opponents health hits 0, they "run away", and you get xp, gold, and a chest encounter happens. If you drain their mp to 0 with ero attacks, Then they sexually submit to you, ad grant you an ability(1 per monster girl. So pointless to do multiple times).
You can attack, run, use abilities, defend(why even?), and use ero attack. (This is 95% of gametim. There's 3 girls a floor + a boss. You can see how repetitive this is).

And yeah. That's the entire game. Ero writing is standard quality for a professional studio j game. Arts a little simple, but high quality. Combat, while rudimentary is decently balanced, with each encounter not being too spongy. Everything that is there is of professional quality, and meshes together well.

The problem is, there isn't much here.
It's a very simple, unambitious game by a likely small studio. And there's nothing wrong with that. But be aware of that before actually playing.

Did I enjoy my experience. Well, yeah I did. But it was a huge let-down for someone looking for an adult dungeon crawler with a male protagonist. Which there are basically none of(certainly haven't found any really good ones like the western style open world sandbox rpg ones, such as later wizardry, m&m, elder scrolls, etc. If anyone knows any, let me know!!).

I ve played a couple much better offerings. 1 of which is rated poorly(and deservedly so ). But I won't advertise them here.

Hope I didn't miss anything. Writing on phone sucks.

I remember playing this years ago and this is one of the first hentai games I've played. I loved this game... The dungeons, combat and difficulty was absolutely fun and h-scenes were pretty good. I will download and play it again. And if you are reading this and you like first person dungeon crawlers definitely give this a go!

Skip to the bottom for my impression of the game

Story: Basically you are an adventurer who was told by an old man of a place where all your dreams will come true. After setting out, you finally reach your destination which has a small town and a dungeon filled with monster girls. There you can fight normally as well as erotically battle with monster girls, until you reach the end of the dungeon. There is little dialogue with the npcs, as well as from the main character. A few lines are added or changed depending on if you ran away from them before, won before, won sexually, or if you lost to them enough times. Overall the script was translated well enough into english.

Game play: RPG fighting and dungeon delving being all that you do.

You can equip items taken from chest drops that randomly trigger whenever you move in the dungeon via directional, go forward or back arrows. These chests have several effects such as making you have no dropped loot, having all dropped loot when opening the chest be tossed out, dropping money, dropping money and losing health, teleporting you out of the dungeon, and even turning into a fightable mimic. Monsters may also spawn, increasing the types or kinds of monstergirls that spawn based on how far along the floor or level you are.

To open the chest you have to click the left or right mouse button indicated by the L or R above the chest. Opening chests is dependent by your lockpicking skills called thief skills which is raised by learning enemy skills and or equipping an item.

Winning a fight is done by using normal attacking moves and dropping their or your hp bar to 0 OR by reducing their or your mp bar by 0. Your mp is depleted whenever you use a spell or when they hit you with a sexual move. Damage is based on your level and what item you have equipped, they also affect your damage taken. You can learn magic skills from successfully having sex with a monster girl once. The monster girls also recognize if you keep running away, sometimes calling you out and even blocking your way if you do it all in a row. The Escape option instead of normally just ending a battle, ends the battle and forcefully moves you back several steps to the exit of the dungeon

The game outside of the dungeon has a tavern, inn, church, and merchant shop. The game only lets you save and level up in the inn. You CANNOT load saves so you will have to close the game and relaunch the game in order to load progress. The game's inventory system always has one copy of every item you get, therefore you cannot sell items at the shop, only buy them, but all of the items in the store and higher tier items are dropped by dungeon chests. Extra copies of equipment are sold immediately after leaving the dungeon. Not much interaction or dialogue changes so there isn't much of a reason to talk to the npcs other than the church and break and bonds.

Bonds seems to be the affection system. Increased by losing to a monster girl enough times. It makes fleeing combat from them harder as well as ensuring that you get an ending with them if they like you enough.

Lewd Content: There are two cgs per monster girl, one for when you win using erotic moves, and one where you lose via normal or erotic combat. The scenes themselves are described adequately with some descriptions of the events unfolding in the scenes, and the player's thoughts and feelings. but aren't incredible and often short. The art style is more or less the same throughout the monsters except for maybe the slime girl where there seems to be a notable drop imo.

Waifuing: There seems to be little interaction with the mc and a monster girl in the game outside of winning or losing in combat . From what I've read you get an ending with your chosen monster girl if you lose to them one or two times, and leave the city. A harem ending is also apparently possible.

BGM: Very fitting choices of music

Overall: A grindy decent old school erogame, with it's focus on the gameplay and it's mechanics, along with the bare minimum 1 win and 1 defeat sex scenes, and an ending for each monster girl.

I played this one like two times and I am very fond of it.

On the sex: Every enemy girl has 2 sex scenes (quite long and there are a lot of girls): one after beating and other after losing. The story is not the best but is charming and you will find yourself fond of the girls. Also there are a lot of endings depending on which girl you picked.

I loved the music on this one and it helps build the atmosphere of the game. Compared to Monster Girl Quest, the music on the sex scenes is a lot nicer to hear. Yeah the gameplay is pretty bland, but ey, its an eroge