General Gaming What Makes a Good RPG Dungeon: A Look at 11 Great Video Game Dungeons (Medium article)

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

What makes a good RPG dungeon?
 

Quote

First of all, what is a dungeon?

 

I don’t want to dwell much on this, so I’ll just use D&D’s definition from the 3rd Edition Dungeon Master Guide:

 

 

 I like that, and it works well for both tabletop RPGs and computer & console RPGs (which I’ll hereby just call “CRPGs”). But what’s a good dungeon?

 

[Bacon]

For me, a good dungeon has an obvious route to the ending, but plenty of side areas. I never want to stumble upon the final encounter. But another issue is that I like a good well done labyrinth to get lost in. If it is good you don't mind getting lost, but if it is bad it is there worst thing ever. And it is kinda hard to put those two features together. As in a clear path, but also a labyrinth. 

[crispy4000]

I personally like a good puzzle idea to go with the maze.  Something that doesn’t feel designed merely to pad in more battles, but with some larger discovery or inspiration in mind.  Call it a ‘dungeon plot.’
 

One of the most memorable RPG dungeons I’ve played took out the battles altogether and made the maze itself the point:

 

 

I love perspective altering.  Give me some crazy shit to figure out visually.  I’m a sucker for it every time.  Pre-rendered backgrounds led to an explosion of creativity in that.

 

 

Paper Mario TTYD deserves special props (as do the N64 and SNES Mario RPGs).  The dungeons strike a perfect balance between battles, exploration, secrets, puzzles and even some light Metroidvania elements.  Most impressively, almost all of them are visually distinctive.  Not just in terms of tile sets being varied, but the actual layout of each maze and the differing tasks you do in them.

 

I do enjoy the feeling of getting lost in simple mazes that don’t do lavish things like this.  But games like Hollow Knight also do that better than pretty much all generic RPG dungeons.  Because it’s less about reaching a destination while picking up some loot along the way. 

[Bacon]

Could you count the entirety of RE1/REmake as a dungeon? Traps, deadly enemies, and puzzles. 

[Xbob42]

Uhh, visually appealing is like top on the chart for me since for some reason developers like to make them dingy and boring and shitty looking, which can make even a good concept less fun.

 

Obviously it's going to depend on the dungeon, these are just things I feel in general.

 

Then some fun puzzles. I don't want to be wracking my brain for hours, rather I enjoy things that are enjoyable to do as well as affect gameplay in a meaningful way. Despite their short length and lack of multi-room function like previous Zelda games, spinning the Divine Beasts' sections was still fun for a while. It was interesting in multiple ways, and I'd like the concept expanded into something a bit more in-depth and in more intricate dungeons.

 

I don't like it when dungeons are filled with trash enemies that just waste my time. They should be lightly sprinkled with powerful monsters leading up to a boss, not a million little annoyances.

 

I absolutely do not like mazes, or sewers, and sewers are always mazes so double fuck sewers. Your sewer maze isn't clever or fun, it's the epitome of what I don't want to play. Even in Resident Evil where it's more understandable than in like a JRPG I still don't like the sewers because they're fucking boring and ugly.

 

If you do have to do a maze, I agree with crispy that it shouldn't have any combat and should have some fun gimmicks. Perspective's always a fun one as long as you don't make it overly complex to where I'm lost for hours.

 

If you put a treasure chest in a dungeon, for the love of god put something good in it. Mediocre treasure chests (or whatever method of treasure delivery your game has) is already bad, but in a DUNGEON? That's just salt in the wound.

[Bacon]

I really like Bloodborne's dungeon design visually. The Chalice dungeons. The content isn't the best tho. 

[crispy4000]

I think the worst dungeon I ever played was this giant blue corridor switchback dungeon in Quest 64.

 

What sucked most about that game was the lack of orientation after battles.  If you forgot which direction you were going with your compass after a battle, or didn’t pay attention to which direction the character jumped after you won, it was super easy to accidentally retread in that game.  Any battle you ran from could also lose you physical ground or easily disorient you.

 

I almost rage quit after I spent hours in it just to find myself back at the beginning.

[XxEvil AshxX]

Favorite dungeon: Forest Temple in OoT.

 

Least favorite: Oh boy, where to start? Final Fantasy X had some pretty awful ones. Especially the sphere puzzles in the temples.

 

I honestly haven't played a game with proper dungeons in a while. It seems to be a dying art, with MMO's being the only games that seem to have dedicated dungeons, as opposed to random Skyrim-esque holes in the ground that dont contain anything useful.

[Bloodporne]

My personal favorites off the top of my head would be, predictably, Zelda dungeons. I know everyone hates it but I recently replayed Skyward Sword and while it has a horrendously hand-holdy beginning and other annoying shit, the dungeons were super fun and refreshing to play especially in 2020 compared to a lot of modern game design. I love the whole lead-up of getting to, and into, the dungeons and then all the tricks, gimmicks, puzzles within them leading up to a cool boss that challenges all the new shit you've learned.

 

That's what I think of when I hear 'dungeon'. 

 

Visually and all, the Chalice Dungeons in Bloodborne were a fucking great idea, I just don't really know what they were thinking basically having like five templates of layouts in the fixed 'story' ones. That aside, I fell into this groove after the initial boring ones where I got super addicted to just dungeon crawling with Bloodborne's combat and there are some fantastic exclusive bosses and enemies in there. 

[crispy4000]

2 hours ago, Bloodporne said:

My personal favorites off the top of my head would be, predictably, Zelda dungeons. I know everyone hates it but I recently replayed Skyward Sword and while it has a horrendously hand-holdy beginning and other annoying shit, the dungeons were super fun and refreshing to play especially in 2020 compared to a lot of modern game design. I love the whole lead-up of getting to, and into, the dungeons and then all the tricks, gimmicks, puzzles within them leading up to a cool boss that challenges all the new shit you've learned.

 

Skyward Sword is my #2 favorite 3D Zelda for these reasons.  The first dungeon is bad and the second is merely okay, but all the others are stellar.  It makes up for the occasional lackluster bits elsewhere in the game IMO.  Ironic that it did the dungeons so well when all the hoopla around that game concerned the controls.

Most of bosses (and mini-bosses) are also series-best.  Every other 3D Zelda game gets it wrong by comparison.  It's miles ahead.

[Bloodporne]

29 minutes ago, crispy4000 said:

 

Skyward Sword is my #2 favorite 3D Zelda for these reasons.  The first dungeon is bad and the second is merely okay, but all the others are stellar.  It makes up for the occasional lackluster bits elsewhere in the game IMO.  Ironic that it did the dungeons so well when all the hoopla around that game concerned the controls.

Most of bosses (and mini-bosses) are also series-best.  Every other 3D Zelda game gets it wrong by comparison.  It's miles ahead.

I'll be honest, I enjoyed all of it and I love the atmosphere in that first dungeon. The controls can be cumbersome but they worked fine for me and while I would've preferred a regular gamepad control scheme, at least it brought some challenge to the combat. 

 

Overall I just think it's a great game despite the dreadful, seemingly endless opening and handholding on your first few little town 'missions'.

[crispy4000]

Just now, Bloodporne said:

Overall I just think it's a great game despite the dreadful, seemingly endless opening and handholding on your first few little town 'missions'.

 

I actually thought it was an improvement over TP's, lol.  Everything before the shadow realm was like watching paint dry.

 

 

[AbsolutSurgen]

I really like that most modern RPGs have moved away from "Dungeons".   While I really enjoyed the Ultima and Bard's Tale series in their day -- IMHO the concept of a traditional Dungeon was driven by trying to replicate D&D 2nd edition, and technical limitations (only being able to hold a limited size level in memory).