This is a game that I find that very few people have ever heard of, let alone ever actually played. It was originally for the first Playstation system but it was first designed as a tabletop game, a parody of games like Dungeons and Dragons. It became a video game in the same genre so it’s humorous as well as fairly dark and horrific. It is a game that didn’t seem to be very popular with anyone and in a bit of a niche or cult following. I’ve never heard anyone bring it up to me, I’ve always had to mention it to them. It very well could be classified as horror but there’s something very mythical and even sci-fi to it as well. Several different elements all combined to make a funny, challenging, and intriguing game that is pretty nonsensical as well.
It’s been a long while since I’ve had a chance to play so I’m sure I’ll leave a few things out and may even remember things inaccurately but I played this game repeatedly when I first got it and over many years so I doubt it’ll be that off course. There are spoilers but the game doesn’t exactly have much of a plot, so I mean, there isn’t that much to be spoiled.
Game Plot & Goals:The game opens with a cutscene where you are shown the two main heroes, Red Lotus and the other dude (I never played as the other dude so I don’t know his name and though I have the power of the internet to look it up, I’m not going to, sorry) in some sort of medieval tavern. In between those scenes where you get establish
ing shots of the two protagonists (you can play as either one) there are scenes of some random guy going through a dungeon. The narrator explains that there is some crazy ass mythical dungeon that is dangerous as fuck and anyone is allowed to enter. If you can get through all of the levels you are awarded the vast riches at the end. Simple enough.
In the course of this introductory movie or cutscene, whatever you want to call it, you see some pretty crazy shit going on in the dungeons. There are blue trolls/dwarves with death metal shirts that chase after the guy with forks and knives while they fart and chuckle in a way similar to Beavis And Butthead. There are suicide bomber pigs with dynamite strapped to their backs. There are some steampunk type robots that shoot fire at you. Of course, there are also skeletons and creepy ass clowns/jesters. The most surprising thing you will find is the T-Rexes.
The goal of the game, well, it’s exactly what the narrator says. To get through all the levels of the dungeon and defeat everything to get to the end and the treasure room so you can collect the riches. There aren’t any other major plot points than that.
Levels and Enemies:The dungeon consists of nine levels:
- Spire
- Labyrinth
- Circus
- The Pit
- Belfry
- Sewers
- Trench
- Inversion
- Dragons
To be honest I remember there being far more levels than this. I had to look this up. Though, without reading any further information what I believe to be the case is that even with these set levels they are more like a general category. As in, you may enter the spire and there is one part, then you move on to the next area of the spire. So the spire may technically be just one level but you play it in myltiple parts. If that makes sense? I hope it does because I can’t explain it any better than that. Moving on.
I won’t cover every type of enemy because if I do that, this will take a long time. I will, however, cover some of the enemies I thought were the coolest or creepiest (and in some cases the weirdest).
I already mentioned the dwarf things in the death metal type shirts that chase you with forks and knives. The only effective and quick way to kill them is cutting off their heads. This doesn’t always work so you sometimes just need to keep hitting them til they just fall down and vanish.
There are also the minotaurs which were creepy as fuck looking, probably only because of the blocky graphics that the Playstation had but they seemed about 8 feet tall and huge compared to Red Lotus.
The things I hated the most were the clowns or jesters, whatever you wanted to call them. I think they were just clowns. Anyway, they had this really creepy and annoying fucking laugh and would jump around. They were not easy to kill and could hit you many times very quickly if they spun around with their stupid juggling pin things they held in their hands.
The most annoying things were the steam rollers that came at you, or the machines that spit fire. These were impossible to actually harm or disarm so you only could run from them.
The nagas were really cool looking but impossible to kill effectively without the venom sword. The razor spell helped greatly too if you were running low on that one. The entire level with the amazon women was pretty fucking awesome as well.
Weapons, Potions, and Spells:Since this is a medieval type fantasy game mixed with a bit of horror there were plenty of weapons and things to choose from. There were spells to make you go faster and health potions of course. There were all sorts of scrolls that you could use, fireball, razor ones, even some that shot rocks at people. You could not only get swords but one level offers you a blunderbuss and in another part of the game you can get a grenade 
launcher.
Everything was fairly easy to come by if you knew where to look. There were a lot of switches and hidden areas where you could find the scrolls that would produce the spells and quick buttons so you could switch things around easily. There were different swords that were more effective on different enemies and it wasn’t terribly hard to figure out which one did what, since the swords (when offered) were usually specifically offered before you met a new enemy. There was also a little blurb before each level to inform you of different tactics you might or might not wish to use on different enemies.
Conclusion:Overall, I remember this game as being very fun and enjoyable. It was challenging so it took a while to complete but not so challenging you had to rage quit and never comeback to play it again. You can now get it on steam and it’s usually pretty cheap (I have a version of it for my PC but I find it incredibly hard to play with just a keyboard because of all the options for weapons and how annoying it is to scroll through to get to each one, but that’s just me).
I don’t understand why this game has a 7/10 rating on Steam as of now but never had enough of a following or interest for them to make an updated version or a sequel. I suppose at the time maybe it just wasn’t popular enough and of course this didn’t generate a ton of interest so it was never picked up to be continued. When people ask me what game I’d love to see updated or continued this is among my top answer but I don’t suppose I will ever see that happen. Still, even the original game, how it is, is very entertaining and fun. I’d highly recommend it, especially since it’s only like five dollars (American) if you get it on Steam so if you absolutely hate it, you really didn’t lose much. I think if you know me and are reading this right now, you are probably exactly the type of person to enjoy it. Give it a try and if you do, let me know what you think.
Also if you already know this game and have played it, please tell me, because I have yet to meet anyone who has.
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