Retrologic podkast

Ep - 143 Let's Map This Retro Dungeon!

27.03.2026
0:00
1:59:58
Do tyłu o 15 sekund
Do przodu o 15 sekund

Welcome to RetroLogic! I'm Sam Wagers here with Shannon Eno and John Cummins

 

But RetroLogic isn't just a podcast. It's a community of retro gamers!
- We've got an active, friendly, and free discord.

- Giveaways

- Contests

- AND Dive into our family of Retro podcasts! Like RetroGroove, a music history podcast, and On Topic Retro, a podcast dedicated to 1 video game per episode hosted by our very own John Cummins.

- you can find everything at our website retrologic.games



Tell me one thing that happened this week!

 

Housekeeping

 

Sam: Streaming Armored Core (Mon) and Path of Radiance Saturday!

 

On Topic Retro: Zelda Phantom Hourglass & Spirit Tracks

 

FilmLogic: Armed and Dangerous

 

Backlog Challenge Round 2 Results:

We're letting the community decide which games we play for round 2 of our backlog challenge!

Sam

Grabbed by the Ghoulies (Xbox)

Glory of Heracles (DS)

Zak and Wiki: the quest for Barbaros Treasure (Wii)

 

Shannon

Secret of Mana (SNES) 

Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (GBA) 

Harvest Moon (SNES)

 

John

Final Fantasy

Grandia II

Drill Dozer

 

Dan- Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon (DS)



The Price Is Retro - 

If this is your first time playing Price Is Retro, here's how we play. I'm going to list off 4 or 5 games and everyone has to guess how much the lot is worth in total. Whoever is closest to the actual value wins that round! Everyone has a list and everyone guesses on each other's list. At the end, the player that won the most rounds wins the episode! But watch out for the robot Deus Guess Machina! He averages all of our guesses together for his own guess
Dinosaur - Leonard - adds up original costs, retail value

Ghost - Polterguest - always guesses 300



Shan's list

Sam's list
John's List





Flightsy's Spot the Fake




Show Topic - 4

Dungeon Crawlers!

 

What is a dungeon crawler anyway?
-loosely, focus on a single dungeon - though perhaps with interconnected zones.  And exploring it while powering up a character/party and gathering loot, going deeper each time.  

 

Inherited term from a scenario type in tabletop rpgs.

The term has been used somewhat loosely of any game that has a dungeon though.

Games:
Wizardry Series- probably the main archetype

-hard to understate the impact these games had on RPGs generally, especially in Japan.

Rogue - better known for other elements

Eye of the Beholder (SNES)

Arcana 

Neverwinter Nights (AOL 1991 - not the later one so much)

Mado monogatari (technically Puyo Puyo is a spinoff of this)

The Bard's Tale Trilogy

Many (but not all?) Might and Magic games

Early Elder Scrolls games (Arena and Daggerfall)-Dungeon Crawls with basic overworld content in Arena that grew in Daggerfall, but retained the Dungeon Crawling

Princess Tomato 🙂

 

Etrian odyssey - keeping this old-school style genre alive- and developing it further

-Retro in the truest sense of the word.

The interesting aspects here (IMO):

Party Customization

Mapping/exploration - another layer of progression

Challenging/strategic turn based battles

EO made mapping a gameplay mechanic

 

More:

Shining in the darkness

Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Persona Q Labyrinth

 

https://dungeoncrawlers.org/games/  (ngl I have very little familiarity with almost all of these)

 

It's kind of like shmups, a really niche old genre that is rare these days, but has a following.

 

These days, mainstream RPGs almost always opt for the "open world" approach.

Games I have seen called dungeon crawlers but question that nomenclature:

The Legend of Zelda

Diablo

Enter the Gungeon

Hades

Mystery Dungeon

Arx Fatalis

Slay the Spire

Darkest dungeon

X-Men Legends and Ultimate Alliance



Community Couch

See discord



Thanks for listening to the RetroLogic Podcast! We are proudly part of the Nintendo Dads family of podcasts. If you like what you hear, check me out on Bluesky at @retrologicgames.bsky.social. You're also welcome to jump into our friendly and 100% non-toxic Discord Community! The link to that is in my Blusky bio.

You can also find everything on our website Retrologic.games

 

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