Review || ClaDun: This is an RPG! (PSP)

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ClaDun: This is an RPG! (PSP)

Joseph Gieske

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The title is supposed to say it all. "ClaDun" is a play on CLAssic DUNgeon. "This is an RPG!" couldn't be any more straightforward of a subtitle. And these descriptions certainly aren't deceitful. ClaDun: This is an RPG! does combine 8-bit dungeon crawling with an RPG feel. But keep in mind that this game comes from NIS America, a company that loves to present the wacky and absurd. It didn't take me long to realize that ClaDun was more a complicated affair than a simple title could ever advertise.

And by "not long," I mean just a few minutes. The time that it takes to meet the first two characters: Pudding and Souma. Pudding is a daring girl seeking any kind of treasure. Souma, as her self-proclaimed protector, just wants to go home where she'll be safe. In spite of his wishes, the pair immediately dives into the mysterious realm of Arcanus Cella. Upon awakening at the end of the long fall, Pudding is ready to rush into the wilderness armed only with a stick for protection. Souma is more worried about her... ovaries. Every time there's an opportunity for a joke, ClaDun takes it.

Still, my seasoned RPG senses expected a long, grueling trek home for this odd couple. Wrong. In the very next screen, I met a powerful sorceress -- purportedly the creator of the entirety of Arcanus Cella -- and she was more than happy to give directions to the exit. About twenty paces in front of her house, a little to the right, there's a handy portal back to the everyday world. I tested it out. The credits rolled. Game over.

ClaDun: This is an RPG! is not something that you play to be a hero and win the girl. For the longest time, the game throws out only periodic bits of plot that hint there may be secrets behind this mysterious world. Instead, it constantly nurtures a simple-minded, adventurous spirit. Be the challenge a winding maze or a brutal boss fight, the goal is to defeat the current level and to unlock the next. You may find chests of money, a cool sword or shield, or just the opportunity to grow stronger. Or you may find none of those things. But you'll always want to keep going.

Part of that irresistible impetus is the compact design of the regular dungeons, which you'll see from a 2D, overhead view. At the beginning of each such dungeon, the game throws out a target time for completion. It'll be something ridiculous, like thirty-two seconds, but if you run straight from the starting point to the exit you can probably make it. As you're just starting out, though, you should clear any environment in a matter of minutes, not seconds. Such small time investments make this a perfectly addictive PSP game.

The dungeons are small, but that doesn't mean that they're easy. They're full of obstacles, like water that slows you down or raging flames that set you ablaze. Your characters will continue to burn and lose fractions of life as they walk away -- damage is actually measured out to the hundredth decimal place. Environments are full of traps, like arrows that shoot out from walls or quakes that shake the entire room. You won't see the triggers until you're about to step on them. In the cleverest of cases, you can sometimes use the traps to launch indirect assaults against too powerful opponents. The dungeons are definitely full of enemies, like ogres that use giant axes as yo-yos and cute little dragons that can't wait to melt your face. Combat occurs in real time and your character's speed is just right; only with pinpoint timing will you be able to dodge attacks by half-a-step.

If the regular dungeons coddle the player in any way, it's by providing convenient exits that send you outside to the relaxing overworld where you can save your progress and plan your next move. That luxury isn't provided by the daunting Ran-geon, however. This extreme test consists of ninety-nine floors and is packed with more enemies, more traps, and larger, randomly-generated layouts. You pass between floors by traveling through different types of gates. Good ones may restore you life; bad ones may decide to increase the strength of your enemies by thirty levels. Moreover, there's no saving in the middle of the ran-geon, no jumping back in where you left off. You can only escape with all your spoils intact if you make it to the bottom or find an exit, but exits aren't even located on every floor. When you pass one up, you never know how far you'll have to go before you find the next one.

In the beginning, it looks like you'll have to spend a lot of time grinding in these dungeons. People keep joining your playable party -- eventually nine adventurers gather to explore Arcanus Cella with you -- but you can only control one party member within that dungeon at a time. That leads to ClaDun's other obsessive invention: the Magic Circle. In the simplest terms, the Magic Circle allows you to assign an inactive character to protect one side of the main character. So when your active fighter ventures into the dungeon, monster attacks take HP from the support crew. Everybody in the circle earns experience, and you have a lot more margin for error.

The beauty of the system is that it invites constant tinkering. One reason for that is the manner in which stat changes effect the participants in this symbiotic relationship. The character who leads a charge will see the most growth in stats like HP, which are almost useless in that position but very advantageous if the character is then moved into a support position. Secondaries will see growth in areas like magic points, which are only useful as the main character. You'll want to rotate a lot.

The extensive number of possible formations is a second reason that Magic Circles are so involved. Right now, my characters have around a dozen Circles each, all unique to those individuals. That's over a hundred configurations and counting, even before you consider the matter of which character to place in a particular spot within the Circle. Each cell can come with a bonus, like accelerated stat gains or item slots to increase attack and defense, but cells also come with a penalty, such as a certain percentage of HP being lopped off. In the worst case, cells might be linked so that the death of one warrior leads to the immediate death of others. Not that death is a big deal -- even if the leader dies you just go back to the safety of the overworld -- but each Magic Circle can greatly affect your strategy.

And that's with only nine characters. At an early point in the game, you'll gain the ability to add onto the cast with your own creations. You choose a gender, body type, give your creation a name, and choose a shadowy form for their ultimate final boss. You can even go in and do a pixel-by-pixel reconstruction of their head. I've done my duty and put in my best effort to make a Prinny.

You can have that kind of fun with ClaDun: This is an RPG! You can make cute 8-bit characters, toggle on the midi soundtrack and bask in the retro feel. But you can also go hardcore into the Magic Circle system and try your best to race through challenging dungeons in record times. A simple title can't communicate all of that. ClaDun isn't any ordinary RPG.

ClaDun: This is an RPG! is set to release on September 21, 2010 for the PSP. It will be available exclusively for download through PSN.

Rating: B

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