PixlBit

So after a little research on the psp I found this hard to get rom game for my psp emulator and although its on psn for the psp and vita its also available on steam but difficult to find as a rom or iso file, the game truly impressed me it has that grainy retro feel and is damn fun to play both are actually. 

 

After Xseed Games released the Ys series on Steam, I was hoping that some of the other publishers with heavy focus on releasing Japanese titles in English would join in on the fun. Nippon Ichi Software (the guys that brought you the brilliant Disgaea series) has just released its first title on Valve’s digital platform. Called ClaDun X2, this game is a port of the PSP game with the same name that came out last year.

 

ClaDun X2 has a barebones story that takes a back seat to the gameplay and is kept to a minimum through short cutscenes that appear after completing dungeons. The game has a very simple premise to understand. The hero, which is created by the player, begins stuck in a dungeon and must escape. On exiting, the hero finds out that they have warped to a new world called Arcanus Cella. While this tiny island seems nice, there’s a problem with it – no one who has arrived has ever been able to get back to where they came from, and so this becomes the hero’s task in the game.

 

The name ClaDun is actually an abbreviation from the Japanese name of the same game, Classic Dungeon. The developers have made sure that the video game is appropriately titled, as ClaDun X2’s graphic style is reminiscent of 16-bit top-down releases like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. To add to the retro visuals, the game has an option to change the soundtrack into an 8-bit midi effect, allowing the player to be fully captivated in reliving the days of old-school gaming.

 

This is what ClaDun X2 is – an old-school dungeon crawler with an emphasis on dungeon crawling. Players explore, kill monsters, gain experience points, find loot, escape and then do it all again. The structures of the dungeons are compact, filled with barely visible traps (good and bad) that fade in as you get closer to them, lock switches, and a wide variety of enemies. These dungeons are small enough that they can be completed within a couple of minutes (some par times are like 20 seconds), and this implementation makes ClaDun X2 great for people who want to play for a short amount of time. No doubt this was to fit with the portability of the PSP, which, remember, this game was originally released for.

Storyline/Walkthrough

ClaDun X2 features a number of dungeons attached to a single "home base" town named Arcanus Cella. Within the town, the player can talk to a limited number of NPCs, shop and prepare for dungeon missions.

The game's story is advanced through cutscenes as the player completes Dungeons. Most dungeons are arranged into 4 floors with a common theme. The player enters a selected dungeon floor by using the "Moving Door" at the north side of Arcanus Cella. Once the player completes the floor by reaching the exit gate, or falls in battle, the player is returned to Arcanus Cella with HP, SP and shield durability restored. If the player falls or surrenders in a dungeon, they lose all of the equipment found in that dungeon, as well as a portion of the experience and money obtained in the dungeon.

Price on psn