Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi is a traditional JRPG Dungeon Crawler that does service to the tried and tested old genre for the two by sticking with the familiar formula and adds its own spice with its dungeon building mechanic to make things interesting.
Story
You’re an Undernaut that is hired by Cassandra Co. to delve into mines such as Yomi to mine for a valuable resource called Argen. As competition is tight and so are the profits, your company hires inexperienced workers who are desperate for money cheaply which proves costly as you and your team are tasked to gather as much Argen, fight off the monsters within Yomi and figure a way out of the cursed mine before it consumes everyone.
Gameplay
ULoY employs the standard elements for JRPG and Dungeon Crawlers. You have your main character that is joined by a party to make up a team. During encounters each character/enemy will take turns attacking based on their speed rating. You have the option to do an attack or defend, use a skill, retreat or use the ‘Switch Boost” which can help turn the turn in providing benefits such as halving the enemies attack or even double up the reward you get when it is active when the battle ends.
Movements within the dungeon are tile based in a sense that pressing the Up arrow key or “W” once will move you a tile forward, Left (or A) and Right arrow keys (or D) will turn your character to face the respective direction.
What is surprising is the total lack of mouse controls within the game. Meaning you can only play with the keyboard or a controller (or both) if you have one, thankfully the controller works well.
Everything Else
The artstyle of ULoY is a double edged sword. On one hand the characters are unique, well drawn and have a huge variety, the other is that the environments are bland and look dated.
The characters within the game is a highlight for the game as you will meet a number of colourful (such the Supervisor) and mysterious characters (such as Luci) who you’d want to get to know and find out more about.
Thoughts
Having familiar foundations of a JRPG and Dungeon Crawler, what is presented is daunting for those who aren’t familiar with the genre. From the spreadsheet-like stat screen, information, options, maps and UI. But the neat mechanics such as being able to destroy walls and make your own path through the dungeon together with the QOL “Auto-travel” and “Fast battle” helps in making ULoY feel not as grindy as titles of the same genre.
If you’re a fan of the genre you will definitely enjoy ULoY, and if you aren’t, just continue to dig in a little longer and you will find a gem/Argen that is valuable here that is worth your time.
Buy Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi on Steam
Hailing from a small Island. Huge football fan. Drinks too much tea.
Survival, Roguelikes, Turn-based or Indie games in general are my go to genres but I like to dabble in all kinds of genres. I tend to have a soft spot for Shmups and Hidden Object Games once in a while.
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