Dandy Dungeon's tongue-in-cheek adventures now available on PC
Adventures in delusional crunch culture!
Sometimes a hero is a man dreaming of creating his own games while dancing around a tiny apartment in his briefs. Dandy Dungeon: The Legend Of Brave Yamada gives us all the distinct pleasure of helping that man achieve his dreams. The cheeky little RPG send-up from Onion Games released on Steam this week, giving those who missed it on Switch the chance to see what all the fuss is about. They even sweetened the deal by permanently lowering the price across all platforms.
Dandy Dungeon follows the efforts of mid-30s game developer Yamada as he toils on a dream project outside of his day job at a "major developer". His game is a generic mish-mash of 90s Japanese RPGs run through with inspiration from Yamada's real life – his tyrannical boss and new neighbor comprise roles as the Big Baddie and damsel in distress, respectively. As the developers themselves say in the trailer, "The absurdity of society looms large."
The actual game framing all this tasks you with navigating the hero through an entire dungeon floor in a single move, planning smartly to collect as much treasure and experience as possible on your way to each dungeon's boss. The Switch game is itself a beefed-up and fleshed-out mobile game, and the careful planning and execution play style seems to reflect those sensibilities. I haven't the chance to play it, myself, but glowing reviews for previous versions leave my interest piqued.
Take up Brave Yamada's sword on Steam for its new permanent price of £14.49/€15.99/$18.99. And keep an eye out for news on Dandy Dungeon 2, which is coming soon as free DLC. Onion say it's even larger than the base game.