Dungeons of Hinterberg

Last month I wrote three reviews. There was a promise to write more about indie games you may or may not have heard of, but I wrote three reviews within the first two weeks and stopped there. It wasn’t because something bad happened in my personal life or because of burnout. The reason why there were two to three weeks without any coverage was because for the first time in my life I vacationed outside of the United States for once. To experience life outside my home and see what makes it different from the cycles I repeat each day. It was a very fun trip and while certain things didn’t go the way I expected I had a very fun time. Got to see a lot of pretty places, food was excellent, and met a few family friends. The point I’m trying to make is that vacationing is awesome and helps our minds escape the monotony generated by daily life and schedules. It may even change our minds on a couple of matters. Before the evitable return home where we have to do what we usually do again and again. There’s not a lot of games I can think of about vacations. These are not the same games about journeys or traveling to places you haven’t been to just to experience a grand adventure. No, I mean games where you truly go on a vacation.

Settle down, enjoy the world around you, crack a couple beers, and have a private party with all those close to you. Probably because making a game about a vacation is boring on paper. Closest thing I can think of is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Where the tropical island theme is used to create an experience where people move in to experience the resort you created. However, we are walking a fine line as a majority of that game is spent running around and creating things. You are never truly relaxing as you build necessities for yourself and your villagers. How do I know of all this? Well it’s because I have a sibling that managed to put more than three hundred hours into the game before and overtime they grew annoyed because it was more stressful than actual fun. There has never been a game about vacationing or relaxing on vacation, because all games have to give you a goal to work towards. Every game needs context to what you are doing or pushes you to do something, because if not then you aren’t going to have fun. You’re going to be sitting there, doing nothing, and watch time fly by as fast as a ball that has not been kicked. There has never been a game about vacationing and there probably never will be. The only thing a game dev and their writing theme can do is create a game about journeys in foreign places.

Which is exactly the case we have with Dungeons of Hinterberg. An action RPG developed by indie studio Microbird Games about vacationing to a small Austrian town overflowing with magic. The developers are based in Austria themselves and not only did they want to pay respects to the countryside they grew up in, but create a game that mashed multiple elements together across multiple games. You have huge inspiration from The Legend of Zelda series, cozy game aspects, and unexpectedly dosage of the Persona series. Laying before us is the first attempt at making Persona x The Legend of Zelda. A great idea when said aloud, but when I heard about this last year I was a bit afraid the game would be too ambitious. The Legend of Zelda for many is well considered one of the grandest franchises in all of gaming, and Persona is well beloved by many JRPG enthusiasts. The last time I played a game that advertised itself as “X combined with Y” it didn’t end up being all that great. That game was Resident Evil: Village which tried to combine the fourth and seventh game. However, this is Resident Evil we’re talking about and it’s by a Triple A company. This is an indie studio, and if it’s anything I’ve learned it’s that indie studios can always be accounted for. Thankfully that is the case here as Curve Games made something truly special. Not perfect, but the execution was done very well in my opinion.

Dungeons of Hinterberg is probably one of the biggest surprises of last year. It’s a combination of ideas that shouldn’t have melded well together, but they did and the amount of love put into the end product really shows. A confidently made action RPG that paces itself out well, knows when to introduce new mechanics, switch things up so said mechanics don’t become old, and tell an interesting enough story to pull you forward. What impresses me is that it’s one of few indie action RPGs that isn’t 2D. A majority I’ve played and enjoyed are either metroidvanias or take place from a top down perspective, but the developers went all out on this one. This is a fantastic game and for the last few days I couldn’t stop playing it until I rolled credits. It’s a fun game and while I wouldn’t say one particular aspect of the game was stellar it all adds up to create one of the more interesting indie RPGs we’ve seen in recent memory. Today we will be discussing why Dungeons of Hinterberg is better than I expected and why it utterly deserves your attention.

Story

We follow Luisa, a law student who decides to vacation in the town of Hinterberg. She packs her bags, manages to get a ride by one of the town’s former celebrities, and books for a room at one of the small inns the town has to offer. She also signed up to be part of one of the town’s special programs. What makes Hinterberg different to a majority of villages in Austria are its dungeons. Many years ago gateways appeared all around the landscape of Hinterberg. Portals that led to worlds outside our own. They weren’t universe size worlds, but small pocket dimensions you can hop in and out of within a short period of time. These gateways appeared everywhere. High in the mountaintops, in the forests, hidden within the swamps, and along valley trails. With these gateways also came magic and monsters. The monsters would find their way into the real world, but humanity did a good job riding the land of monsters and keeping society safe. Magic was the real kicker though. Humans learned to harness the magic and create spells. Allowing them to do things such as summon tornadoes, channel lightning, have slime erect from the ground, shoot lasers from their hands, etc. However, magic was limited to the confines of Hinterberg so they couldn’t spread it and help the world advance at a faster rate.

So magic is contained and not many towns aside from Hinterberg manage to get portals appear out of nowhere. The anomaly was still major to the town though, and the people who helped run the place decided to take advantage of this occurrence. Hinterberg became a tourist location. Not only did many regions become sightseeing plains, but those who are strong enough to fight its many monsters and brave the many dungeons could sign up for a program. Complete the 25 dungeons scattered around Hinterberg, be deemed a hero, and go home. Hopefully having been changed by your personal experiences. Luisa prays this will happen to her. That she’ll reconsider her life as a lawyer now that it has gotten tedious and lonely. Escorting her to the town is Klaus, a former town celebrity known for a show where he talked about the wildlife and protecting it, now in order to be the town’s tourist guide. He leads her to the first dungeon so she can come to grips with how they work, and even though she’s a capable fighter who completes the dungeon easily something strange happens. The ground begins to shake both in the real world and within the dungeon, and Luisa almost manages to get trapped during this occurrence. Awareness arises after this incident and what possibly caused it, but in the meanwhile Luisa wants to enjoy her stay. Finish the dungeons, meet some new people, and come changed. Unfortunately for her she will get wrapped up in mystery that’ll show what lies beneath.

Gameplay

Being a combination of multiple games, Dungeons of Hinterberg is split into numerous sections and components. You start each morning choosing where to go, and by noon you reach the area you’ve chosen. There are four areas to explore in total, and they each have dungeons of varying difficulty. From there you can explore freely, but do know some areas won’t be reachable until you acquire the magical powers tied to an area or progress far enough into the story. Traverse far enough and you unlock fast travel points, and once you find a dungeon gateway you can choose to enter. From there you go through the dungeon solving puzzles and fighting enemies along the way. Combat in Dungeons of Hinterberg is fairly simple. It’s much like the 3D Zelda games, but with RPG elements incorporated. You have a light attack and heavy attack combo. One is quick and allows for easy control, and the other has the chance of knocking enemies over with less control. Secondary attacks are your magical spells, which consume MP. Your MP bar is refilled by attacking enemies or popping goo bubbles. The goo bubbles can also refill health, because like any first time player to a game you will take damage. Health can also be restored using any potions you brought in beforehand, and these are obtained through loot pickups or purchase.

You want to alternate your attacks, because enemies may have a magic barrier that needs to be melted away before you can get any direct hits. Outside of combat you’ll solve puzzles, and they can be quite varied depending on the dungeon’s ideas and mechanics. Despite each of the four regions having two powers each they’ll be tested in interesting ways. Requiring you to observe your surroundings, wondering how to make it from one point to another, or where to bring an object over. Most dungeons can be completed in one go, but if you’re having a difficult time you can always teleport out using a waystone. Save points throughout the dungeon that allow you to travel back to the entrance. Once you exit the dungeon the day progresses. Afternoon arrives and you get to choose how you rest. Spend hard earned Hinterbucks to purchase consumables you may need in the future, or stronger armor and weapons. New equipment can also be obtained in dungeons if you take the time to explore. There are numerous characters to interact with and the relationships work much like the ones in Persona. Spend enough time with a character and you move up a rank. Unlocking perks and abilities nothing else in the game will grant. Some of these are quite useful like being able to apply modifiers to your sword, or cleaning goo covered gear that has very useful stats. A few NPCs may have requests before you can further/forge bonds and some have stats requirements you'll have to meet.

Aside from that there’s not much else to say about Dungeons of Hinterberg. Your goal is made clear from the start and you have the freedom to choose what to do in what order, and how you pace out the journey. It’s not exactly like Persona or Metaphor ReFantazio where there is a strict deadline to get things done. Take as much time as you need. Spend time with those who interest you the most. Forge or purchase better gear, and remember not every dungeon needs to be done within a single day. In fact, you will not complete this game in twenty five in game days as there will be story events you need to do to progress further. Enjoy your vacation as much as you fair madam.

Thoughts

Dungeons of Hinterberg is an outstanding game that manages to mesh a bunch of ideas together well without any component falling apart. It doesn’t do one area amazingly well, but I am still impressed the game came out as well as it did considering the two core games it was blending. The Legend of Zelda is a highly regarded series as well as Persona, and when you have either serving as an inspiration then much like soulslikes to From Software you’re inviting a variety of comparisons by fans of the series. Again, Dungeons of Hinterberg doesn’t do one particular area perfectly and I would say it’s a somewhat flawed game. Yet, I really enjoyed my time with it despite some of its problems because the passion put on display here shines brighter than a sheet of metal on a bright summer day. The dungeons are quite linear in design. There’s not gonna be many moments where you solve a puzzle in one room, obtain a key, and backtrack to open a door in the previous room like in The Legend of Zelda. It’s a very linear game, but just because it’s linear does not mean it’s bad. The dungeons are varied in mechanics and ideas, and they change up just enough that it doesn’t feel repetitive by the endgame. One dungeon may have you lining up lasers to open doors forward, and it takes place in a snowy world with floating platforms like the ones in Super Mario Galaxy. There’s this one dungeon that’s isometric, has you solving puzzles in a swamp, floating on a raft and defending yourself each ride.

I also love how despite there being a preferred order of dungeons based on difficulty you have the choice on which ones you do first. Heck, you can even run into a dungeon higher level than you if you feel brave enough. You’ll get your ass handed along the way, but the choice of being able to feel nice. The devs even balance it out by making sure players can’t access the endgame dungeons early on to obtain overpowered gear, or let players equip overpowered gear early. You need to progress far enough into the game to unlock new routes, or have your stats high enough so the gear you unlocked actually works and doesn’t cut its resistance numbers in half. Combat is good, but I feel like some players will feel mixed on it. Luisa attacks are somewhat clunky unlike most action games, she can’t pull off varied combos aside from two simple ones, and her dodge is a soulslike dodge dictated by a stamina bar. You’re wheeled into combat encounters in what feels unnaturally, and arenas aren’t varied environmentally. They have hazards or traps at times, but a majority of the time it’s a circle or square with enemies spawning in waves. What justifies it for me is the good enough enemy variety. Stronger enemies force you to prioritize them or the smaller troops running around. Different attack patterns and enemy combinations stir up methods to consider when fighting them, and magic barriers force you to switch up attacks. You have the bosses that test your use of your magic skills and what you learned throughout the world, and with time I did warm up to how the combat felt.

My main complaint with combat is the difficulty later on. Around the last two to three hours of the game I felt as though enemies were hitting harder than they should. I would have a colossal health bar thanks to completing dungeons and doing quests, and then get hit to have more than half of it knocked away. Certain enemies can stun you too easily, and when you realize the majority of encounters are difficult through rapid spawning of multiple enemies at once it makes combat feel overwhelming. That difficulty is determined by craziness rather than fairness. I don’t think Dungeons of Hinterberg has the hardest combat in the world, but the jump near the end is noticeable. Why are enemies I fought at the beginning of the game now annoying? Who knows. Visually the game looks splendid. It’s going for the comicbook cell shaded artstyle games like Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Hi-Fi Rush, or Rollerdrome have, and I love this style. Everything popping out toward your eyes, and the use of warm colors or cool colors allows each environment you step into to be just right. The world is nice to wander through and there are times I stopped just to gaze at it. I wonder how a small Austrian studio can create such a vast game loaded with content.

The story of Dungeons of Hinterberg takes a bit of time to get good. It’s not until the first major plot twist that I felt somewhat interested in what’s going on. Without spoilers, the game asks a lot of interesting questions on how your actions impact a community. If you are willing to make a choice that’ll help some and harm others. If you are willing to overlook those suffering in favor of feeling like a better person. To be a hero when your life is dull and fueled by nothingness. The questions asked are interesting and complex, but then the game railroads you into philosophy in favor of making your actions entirely right. Which is fine, because the writing overall is good. I don’t think the story is outstanding, but I like what’s on display. The characters are interesting, the world has a good setup and background, and the story ends on a good note. It is what it starts out as: a story of a woman who looks back at her life and considers whether she continues down the path she’s on or not. It’s good enough and that’s fine. They chose the safe route and that’s better than offering the player a choice that may or may not break the message they’re trying to communicate. Last complaint is despite the side characters being good I didn’t feel pushed to know all of them in the same way Metaphor ReFantazio does. The relationship system is good and the rewards you get from it are better than that of Persona, but some relationship stories play out in a way you exactly expect them to be. They feel just ‘there.’

This really is a game that doesn’t do any area perfectly, but it does them well enough to keep me intrigued. To me playing, because I did have a really fun time playing this game. The game sells for twenty three dollars rather than the usual twenty five, or thirty dollars which a majority of indie games have been going for in recent memory. Now that indie games have gotten bigger in scope, budget, and quality. Dungeons of Hinterberg is on the higher end of the scale for indie games, and I’m surprised they charged close to twenty dollars instead of higher. The developers made a high quality game filled with passion, love, and respect for what they took inspiration from. Dungeons of Hinterberg truly is a great game despite a few of its flaws. I give it a strong recommend and I hope whatever the devs have in store next is great too. I give Dungeons of Hinterberg a 9/10 for excellence at best

9/10, Excellence