Despite being developed in Japan, Dungeon Magic plays a bit more like a Western RPG than a Japanese RPG. The game does not feature simple controls like Final Fantasy or Dragon Warrior do, and you are responsible for managing many aspects of your character, some of which are not even made visible to you.
Viewing the world[edit]
Lending to the difficulty of this game is the fact that your view of the world is very limited. You view the world through the window in the center of the top portion of the screen. Through this window, you can see the entirety of four grid spaces in front of you, and two grid spaces partially. You can only see the grid space directly in front of you, the one behind that, and the spaces on either side of that one. You can partially see the grid spaces to the left and right of the one in front of you. This means if there is a wall, monster, or treasure three spaces away from you, it will not come into view until you reduce the distance between you to two spaces. This can trick you into thinking that there is nothing preventing you from going forward until you get close enough to a wall to see it.
Features of the world[edit]
In general, the world of Dungeon Master can be divided into three categories; towns, overworlds, and dungeon/caves.
Towns[edit]
All towns share the same general features. The only difference is how they are all arranged around town. No magic can be used in towns, including mapping magic. In towns, none of the doors are marked so you must explore each one to figure out what's on the other side. You will find:
- Townsfolk: The inhabitants of towns fall into the same categories; a woman, a man, a child, and a senior. Some towns may have soldiers as well. Regardless of which town you visit, these inhabitants will give you clues based on your current progress in the game, as opposed to the location of the town.
- Magicians: Only the first town of Granville contains masters of all five types of magic. Other towns contain only one Magician, and the town revels in being a town known for that type of magic. In the beginning of the game, you can only choose to apprentice in one school of magic. As you collect the five elemental blades, you will be invited to join other schools of magic, but if you don't possess one of the swords, no other Magician will accept you in their school after the first.
- Equipment shop: In this shop, you can purchase 3 different weapons, and a wide variety of armor. All shops sell the exact same items regardless of location. You can purchase any item that you can afford (don't forget to equip what you purchased), and you can sell unwanted gear for 50% of it's purchase value. There is no indication of the offensive or defensive power of any gear throughout the game. The only information that can hint at its effectiveness is its price; better equipment is always more expensive than weaker equipment.
- Item shop: Like the equipment shops, all item shops are identical from one town to the next. The shops have two shelves. The top shelf is a selection of vials and potions that can be used to attack enemies, heal wounds or cure status ailments, or even resurrect you if you perish. The bottom shelf is a variety of foods and water which you can carry with you on your journey, and eat to restore lost health. Different items will add a certain number of units of food or water, so it's important to identify which items offer the best ratio of price to units.
- Inn: Probably one of the most useful locations to identify in every town, for 2 gold you can rest in an inn to restore all lost health, cure status ailments, and save your game. Whenever you stay at an Inn, every monster that you defeat, inside or outside, returns to life. However, don't use Inns haphazardly, as they come with a hidden cost. For every 16 visits that you pay to an Inn, every monster in the world gets a +1 stat boost. This will continue through your 256th visit to an Inn, where the boost maxes out at +16.
Overworld[edit]
You must travel throughout the overworld in order to get from one location to another. The main world is arranged ina 4x4 grid of sections, each of which is 16x16 spaces big. Monsters in one grid cannot follow you and travel to another grid. However, you cannot see enemies in a neighboring grid until you step foot in it.
Despite locations containing a 16x16 space map when you set foot in them, these destinations will only ever occupy a single (1x1) space on an overworld map. Furthermore, these destinations can be approached and entered from all four cardinal directions, and the direction you enter from will have an impact on where you begin on the zoomed in map of the destination.
While the majority of the overworld is filled with empty space, that space is shared with forests and bodies of water. Forests cannot be passed through under any circumstances, but the right magic spell can make it possible to traverse through water. While most enemies in the overworld try to home in on your position, they are bound by the same rules, and cannot pass through any area that you can't. In addition to the larger primary overworld, there is also a smaller Sky world to explore.
Dungeons/Caves[edit]
There are several dungeons and caves throughout the world of Dungeon Magic. They are each composed of three interconnected 16x16 maps. In dungeons, these are usually three floors that may have one or more connected flights of stairs between them. In caves, the maps are stitched together and accessible through certain tunnels that travel between them. Like the overworld, enemies are fixed to the 16x16 grid they occupy, and cannot travel back and forth to other grids.
The other major difference between dungeons and caves, is that the Fairy magic which enables warping to different floors only works in dungeons, and not caves. Other than that, they are fairly similar. You'll need to visit these locations in order to collect powerful equipment, and key items which advance your character along on their quest.