Dungeon Dreams (Female Protagonist)

*This is the first time i do a review on a game, plus i am not an expert in terms reviewing for a game so keep this in mind* Have to admit this the Roguelite game i've ever played and don't particular have that much interest in them. So i discovered this game through a game developer; WinterWolves whose games i enjoy and saw that one of his character was being featured as a cameo collab with DDreams Games in their upcoming Dungeon Dreams 2. So i checked it as well as it's previous installment DD1 and other spin off games made by them and it got me very interested so i decided to back DD2 on Kickstarter and bought DD1 (Female Protagonist version) to fully see what it was like. I got to say i was hooked on it, more so then i expected and now after completing my first play through (over 110 hours) and dipped a bit of the "NG+" i wanted to give a somewhat detailed review on this game since i wanted help it and give my thoughts of it so far! Story: Story and lore is one of my favorite things to experience and learn from in a video game as it gives it the potential to expand into a massive universe full of events, history and other things. It also motivates us into wanting to see how the story of the game will unfold by the end. I'll admit when i first started the game i was a bit overwhelmed with all these details about the world and being thrown into the fold of a new adventure (MC) with a bunch a characters who may or may not be important to the main story. But after sometime i started get the understanding of how the world worked and it's history. The story told in this game from our beginning as a newbie to facing the threat at the bottom of the Dungeon as well as the MANY stories to see in between was great. Choices/Branching Paths: What surprised me the most was that there was SO MANY choices that you can make in the game that are either minimal or very impactful to the overall story and everything that goes on in Ecallia, even character both minor and major (including companions) could die depending my chocies. For example during my first run through the Water Monster invasion event, i went in heavily unprepared and ended with the worst case scenario and got two notable NPCs in the town. So after doing a restart of my run, i went in MUCH more prepared and both saved the NPCs and beaten the boss at the end of the event. These choices that affect the world and how others think of you are one of my favorite things in RPGs Characters: Obviously you can't make a good story without a good cast of characters. I really liked a bunch of the characters both NPCs and companions like Danthienne, Jane and the duo Musa and Vantanyar. Though there were characters i didn't like too with the exception of Grant since he's "that one a****** rival in the game" lol. But overall i do enjoy the cast of characters i've interacted with in the game Gameplay/Dungeon: I've barely if not never played roguelite games before so this was soemwhat a first time for me, though i had have my fair share of turn based games like Pokemon (which i relate to in a bit). As i went through the game it became quiet exciting for my MC and team to level and get stronger to eventually reach the bottom of the Dungeon, beat our rival and earn the respect of those around us. I can't really explain it but the this is the same feeling i get when i first started playing Pokemon game; my first being Pokemon Black/White, of having my team getting stronger to face the toughest challenges for us to face. The difficulty was pretty decent too after looking back on it once i beaten the main story with the enemies on the floors mostly acting as cannon fodder for EXP and JP, while the very bottom floors and bosses are where you have to put your "A" game on with gear and team comps. Of course it does get annoying going through ALL the floors just to reach a certain floor for grinding EXP and JP until you get the ability to Teleport (which i'll get to in a bit). Romance: I like when a game has romance in it as i'm a sucker for it! I've never played "dating sim" game before but the romance routes were pretty decent, from forming bonds with through dates, events during the story and a character's own quest to help build that affection. Though one thing i would've liked to see to make the romance routes of each character more unique and special (might happen in DD2) is maybe more "romance quests" like Danthienne's and random events that occur during throughout the story that's unique to whatever character your pursuing. Art Style; While some of the art styles in the game are decent (do like the pixel sprite style through the gameplay portions) the amount of inconsistent art styles in the game kind of distract me or make little sense. Given how a character's dialogue portrait, full body portrait and illustrations each have their own styles, With Illustrations (mostly appear during major companion moments like Danthienne painting) look soft and cartoonish, the full body portraits are near realistic detailed anime style (with the exception of characters like Jane, Rudy Kumokiri and others) and a character's dialogue or status portrait are regular anime like style (which is my favorite of the styles) it becomes pretty distracting and annoying. One big example of the inconsistency is Fiona, while in her full body portrait she's has dark purple hair and green eyes with a light skin tone, her in game sprite and dialogue portrait shows her having a light (near pink) hair color, pink eyes and a dark skin tone with freckles so it becomes annoying to figure out what Fiona is suppose to look like. Whew that was a lot to write down but i'm glad. Overall i really enjoyed playing this game and i'm super excited for it's sequel to come out later this year. This was a really treat for me that i happened and i'm sure i haven't found all the stories and events that occur throughout the game so i'll give the NG+ a try new things while waiting on DD2. Great work on making this game DDreams, that hard you put into this was well worth it, good luck on making DD2 better the first!