Super Dungeon Tactics Reviews

I've loved the board game Super Dungeon Explore for many years now, with some rules modifications. This game doesn't really capture that same feel but it's still a pretty good "tactics" game. The artwork, graphics, storyline, and characters are nicely done and very charming. The difficulty ramps up fairly quickly but you can adjust the difficulty level for each mission. If your a fan of games like Final Fantasy Tactics, you should give this one a shot.

With board game to digital translations, you never quite know what to expect - whether it will be a literal translation or something more creative. The devs have done a great job here though, taking the best parts of Super Dungeon Explore (the style and fun of the chibi miniatures) and making agreat digital game out of it. The gameplay is classic turn based tactics, with fun visuals and some really neat twists. It's structured nicely, and the whole thing is a blast. Am quite impressed at what they did with such a small team! In other hands, this could have been boring or incompetent. Instead, it's one of the best turn-based games on Steam I think.

the game it's self isn't bad outside feeling like a mobile port but the controls are awful. i will sometimes swap to the keyboard or controller controls because doing a task is to hard to do with the control setup i'm currently using. 5/10

Recommended for fans of tactics and RPG-lite games, as well as those who enjoy a casual D&D experience. +Fun tactical battles +Visuals/art style and sound +Good camera/perspective control +Good balance and difficulty options +Good variety of characters/classes +Variety of weapons/armor/items/dice -Few keyboard shortcuts, no rebinding, limited options -No character creation or customization but name -No voiced dialogue -Mobile-style UI, drag-to-move instead of click -Story favors text/"tell" over "show" -Some items are unequipped every mission

So this is being review by someone who has never played the board game and at around 1.5 hours of gameplay time. The time I feel many people choose to keep or refund their games. Here are my personal impressions: TL:DR This is a nice little turn based rpg. You are builing up a guild, thus having a bunch of hero's to choose from. Each with their unique play style. These are you basic archetypes: barbarian, mage, rouge, ranger, etc. The graphics are not amazing, but the art sytle agrees with how it is implemented and its humor imo. As other have said, the music is repetitive. I have not found it annoying yet, but I have not played it for more than 1.5 hours at time of review. My rant: Gameplay: I really am enjoying the gameplay. The best thing i can relate the combat to is XCOM EU/XCOM2, only with reguards to actual combat. There is no meta strategy that I have come across yet. However, this is like xcom-light, since there is no percentage hit calculation. You will always hit your enemy. Many people will perfer this to xcom's rng demons ( i like them, but also enjoying this as well). From what I can tell, each hero gets an action and a movement, in any order. An action can be an attack, or an environment interaction. Consuming an item is a free action. Die are used, but only to give buffs/debuffs to your heros at the begining of each turn. This helps keep the combat a bit different every turn imo. Other reviews have said that the game does a good job of making your heros feel strong, by throwing waves of enemies at you and watching your guild mates crush them, which i fully agree with. This is not to say the game is a cake walk. Under harder difficulties, one wrong move will spell disaster for your heroes. Another positive point is that there is no lvling for your heros. Yes, I said that this is a GOOD thing, imo. You see them get stronger purely based on items/equipment. This means the heros you may not use often will not get left behind as you will aquire loot for them even if they are not in your party. This allows you to change party comp between missions at will without worrying about not lvling your favorites. So, it is obvious I like this game, but I will point out some flaws that I believe people should know before purchasing: * Everything is done purely using the mouse. No key mapping at all. They have said they looking in to fixing this in a patch, but it shouldnt have been an issue. You are builing a pc game.... you should be able to use a keyboard. Unless it was initially intented to be a mobile game.... i digress. * I can tell that the story will not be something that will pull you through the game. It is kinda interesting and a bit funny ish... The combat is enough for me to enjoy it for the price, but I know others may need a well written plot, which I do not see this as being anything other than building up a guild to accomplish harder and harder missions. * Every hero is predesigned. You cannot change appearance, sex, hair, etc. The only thing you can change is their name. Not an issue for me, but I know some people hate this. * My largerst complaint in this game, which I have seen this problem occur more frequently over time, is that new items and gear do not look any different! I hate this with a passion. So i finished the first non-into/tutorial mission. During the fight I saw that an enemy dropped an orange weapon! :) I went to my guild hall to look and it was a bad ass looking bow for my ranger. Much more intimidating than her current twig-bow. I equipped it and...... still looks like a twig bow. Same with armor. Come on devs! You have only 2 appearnce changing item slots! ( there is also accessory as well as some diamond type item, which seems to boost archetype stats, like my dwarf has the 8-bit guardian which increased defense die stuff) Let us see those bad ass items on our heros. Since we dont have lvling in the game, items are the only way to see growth, and I want to SEE it, not just look at stat increases. I know it is based off a board game, and you dont change the mini for every item, but use the video game medium to do things you couldnt do on the tabletop. Rant over... So, I will definitly be finishing the game over the next few months. I think it is worth the price and a really fun little tbsrpg. Small problems aside, if you really enjoy tbsrpg combat and the thoughts of building up a guild, then this is a good game for you. I will update review with info on more features as they present themselves.

Super Dungeon Tactics is a great little gem! I normally despise games with dice, but SDT is an example of dice done right! Every turn, the dice are rolled, and you choose which characters to assign them to. Thus, each turn offers compelling decisions right from the start: like do I give the blue die to Snapjaw and send him into the middle of a hoard to retaliate every hit he takes with some amazing damage, or do I give that blue gem to my cleric and gather my party around her so that she can heal everyone at turn’s end? Early on, I didn’t realize when it’s your turn (based upon the initiative bar), you can move any of your characters that hasn’t already gone that turn, rather than the highlighted default character. Probably missed it in the tutorial, but this made a big difference to my gameplay from midgame on. So many turns are packed with small decisions, which manages to strike just the right balance between interesting choices and analysis paralysis. That being said, a few things could be better. Once you complete a mission, you go back to the Guild Hall and assign your loot from the previous mission. The problem I had was, once you’ve accumulated a number of items, you spend your time sorting through the stuff you don’t want to determine what you do. And each character class has a slightly different version of what items they see, and how those items work for them. Sounds good on paper, but there needs to be a better way to assign useful items (and perhaps sell the items you don’t want) to remove some of the clutter. I would also have liked some indication of how many chapters there were before game’s end. Are there a dozen chapters, or 300? Hard to tell while you’re playing. The loot progression was fairly good, until about the last quarter of the game, where I felt I’d exhausted everything I wanted. And what’s up with seeing multiple health potions (like four groups of 9), but only being able to assign one of them? Something’s not right there. Finally, the story and music are okay, but not my cup of tea. But the core mechanics are a blast! I wish, after you finished the campaign, there was a random encounter/map generator that allowed you to keep progressing outside the storyline. I wasn’t quite ready to leave my favorite characters when the game ended. Overall, a well-executed turn-based battle system, forcing players to balance many great decisions at every turn. Huzzah!

[u]Pro[/u] SDH is very fun game with deep strategy behind it. Gameplay are great. Graphic in-game battle is alright. You can customize your own team and try difference strategy. Stage/Level in game can be easily replay anytime for better loot, So it's has high replay value. [u]Con[/u] the story is a bit too lame for me, not a huge down point but with Good story and narrative voice or character voice this game will be more interesting. Keyboard shortcut is Insufficient. most of the time I wish I could customise keyboard shortcut or add new one here and there. so right now you stuck with lots of mouse click. [u]Conclusion[/u] I gave this game 8.5/10. very fun game for a cheap price. It's indie game that come to right direction with balance game machanice and has a lot of potention to grow. I like to support Dev so they can continue improve gameplay. May be in the next version, It will has more diversity monsters, tactics, maps, etc...

Ok, So this game is pretty good but it does have a few drawbacks. The Good -Gameplay is your standard grid based combat and has a good amount of depth to it -Dialogue is full of pop culture references and pretty funny -Difficulty is good. The game on normal is well balanced and fun -Art style and character designs are nice -Seeing more of the Super Dungeon Explore World is cool The Bad -Graphics are basic and the interface could have used some polishing -A few bugs such as names not appearing and pressing the ready button at the wrong time -No options within the game. (I had to kill the volume in my audio mixer) -Maybe a bit pricey(I haven't played enough to see the full scope of the game yet) Overall it has a few faults but it offers and engaging strategy rpg experience where you can upgrade your heroes equipment to make them stronger and recruit a load of different heroes to take on quests with a cutesy art style. It is a good adaptation of the board game and I am really enjoying the game so far.

FFT is my favorite game of all time. I've wasted weeks of my life playing Disgaea, Phantom Brave, and the FFT sequels (especially the Gameboy one). So, is this game as good as those? No. Do I like it? Yes. That being said, indulge me a moment to offer some constructive criticism to the developers. 1. Story/writing. A big part of what made FFT and Disgaea so good was this. FFT was a great story told well. Disgaea really went the extra mile to create compelling characters and was legit funny. SDT is pretty flat in this department. I especially don't like the mage. The Shadowrun games would be a great example of making a weakness a strength and what to shoot for in the future. 2. Sound. No voice-over. The music does not coincide with what's happening. In the opening our little town is getting raided and the music just plods along. Some sound effects to puncuate the dialogue would help. 3. Gameplay. I like the gameplay. I thought I would not like the dice, but I like it a lot. The game could use a little polish (a little depth really), but pretty good. So, I'm going to keep playing this game and enjoy it and maybe SDT2 will be even better

To those not aware, this is an adaption of Ninja Division's very fun Super Dungeon Explore board/miniatures game. I wanted to get this review in quickly since there doesn't seem to be a whole lot said about the quality of the game in the current (all-positive) reviews: First of all, there are notably low-quality aspects of the game right off the bat. Rough edges, if you will. There are interface oddities that make em think this was really meant to be a mobile game. There are some exceptionally ugly icons. The soundtrack, while cute in short bursts, becomes monotonous in minutes. Etcetera. Second of all, if you're here because of the brand, please know that this is not a true recreation of Super Dungeon Explore. It has its own systems, it simplifies combat dramatically, and it's very quest-oriented in a way that the board game never could be. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as the game plays very smoothly and quickly, but please don't go into this expecting a faithful recreation of a game you already love. Finally, though, the game plays very well. Specifically it walks the fine line of making your character feel "overpowered" as they mow down anemies with weapons and magic, while also making the game challenging by throwing hordes of enemies at you. I'm enjoying it quite a lot. PROs: ++Fast tactical combat +RPG mechanics +Source material +Quick "rounds" CONs: -Poor visual quality -Mobile-style controls -The music -JRPG tropes, everywhere If it appears interesting in the trailers, I would encourage anyone to try it. That said, feels beta-quality in a lot of regards, so a $20 price tag may feel like a lot for the end result.