Labyrinth of Zangetsu Review (PC)

It was a pack of mad dogs that mauled my party. I knew that this dungeon had plenty of powerful enemies but I managed to win some battles with little impact on my party's health. I unlocked dropped chests to get a few new items, including some armor that characters could equip at camp. I also counted on a good supply of medicine and kept some healing spells in reserve.

And then I stumbled into this group of goblins and their attack dogs. At first, it seemed doable and I managed to use some powerful fire spells and classic attacks to quickly eliminate three enemies. Things started going wrong when I had a battle round during which none of my attacks hit and one of the dogs managed to score a big hit on one of my frontline characters.

So the back row focused on healing spells and the delivery of medicine, while my three most powerful fighters tried to eliminate the dogs. But they kept bringing in backup and, before I knew it, I lost one character to their attacks. I swapped in someone from the backline but the number of misses was still too high and decided to cut my losses and run. I don’t have the money for a resurrection, so I will have to draft in someone new, which will have an impact on my party’s power.

Labyrinth of Zangetsu is developed by ACQUIRE Corp and KaeruPanda Inc, with publishing handled by Pqube. I played on the PC using Steam. The game is also available on the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4. The title uses classic dungeon crawler mechanics in a fantasy world depicted in many shades of gray.

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Players are taken to an alternate, fantasy reality based on Japanese history. It’s the Ido period and the Ink of Ruin is affecting the land, with only one city able to magically hold it off. Here refugees mingle with adventurers recruited by the Shogunate to find the source of the corruption and a way to eliminate it.

This involves a lot of dungeon crawling but there’s not much more to the lore. The writing is utilitarian, giving players information on characters, their abilities, and the various items they find. I like the setting and the effort to offer small bits of lore here and there. A little more detail about the various yokai would have been appreciated.

Labyrinth of Zangetsu is both familiar and old-school when it comes to its dungeon-crawling mechanics. The player party is made up of six members and they move as one, moving from tile to tile to discover the level. Smoke signals enemies, which do not move, and there are other secrets to uncover at certain points.

Most of the time, an encounter means fighting. Three characters are in the front row, taking the brunt of enemy attacks and directly delivering strikes. The rest stay in the back, better positioned to execute parries, shoot arrows, attack with longer weapons, launch spells, and deploy items. Don’t forget that everyone also has special abilities with a solid impact when used at the right time.

For each turn, gamers will determine how their characters will act and then watch them deliver critical hits (relatively rare) or whiff their strikes. There’s always an option to run, if players want to set up camp and tweak their approach or if a return to the town seems like a good idea. Their XP gets converted to extra levels, a shop will offer better equipment, and a temple will cleanse ink infestation and can even revive dead valuable party members.

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Labyrinth of Zangetsu’s battle are tense. The Repeat option makes it easy to move through turns quickly if the opponents pose little danger. But most of the time. It’s important to evaluate what each party member can do and pay attention to the battle log. Run to safety as soon as things start to go south, this is not a forgiving game.

Well-paced exploration and good combat are the game’s biggest assets, crafted to attract players who appreciate classic dungeon crawling. By sticking so close to tradition, the title is hard to recommend to newcomers. The tutorial dungeon is decent but the difficulty after the first location ramps up significantly.

The core mechanics are also repetitive. Combat is engaging enough that this can be forgiven. But the loot loop of checking loot chests, finding traps, and disarming them offers no excitement. The game should have automated it while doing away with the need to identify most items. There’s also a need for more information on how characters level up.

Labyrinth of Zangetsu has a very distinctive look. The dungeons are presented in stark tones of gray, with just a few splashes of color, to symbolize the corruption of the ink and the threat that the various monster groups pose. Plenty of detail is shown on enemies, all inspired by Japanese myths. Color returns when the player is back in the city and dealing with the characters. It’s a nice idea but the lack of color in the dungeons can be a little depressing.

The sound design is less successful. Battle effects are classic and don’t add too much to the experience while the soundtrack is decent but needs more tracks. The transition between the world and the battle music is also pretty abrupt.

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The Good

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