Monsters' Den: Chronicles (RPG)

Monsters' Den: Chronicles, the latest game in garin's Monsters' Den series was released some time ago. The Monsters' Den games are turn-based RPGs where a party of four characters explores a dungeon. Unlike the previous games, in Chronicles, there are ten characters to choose from to bring into a quest. The quest involves delving into a specific type of dungeon, completing various objectives. Once the quest is completed (or failed), a new quest may be started with different characters. Character growth and the loot collected are persistent, even after the quest is over.

Update 22 January 2013:
This may be very late, but I just noticed I neglected to mention that the game is also available on Kongregate.

The heroes.

All quests start with the selection of the party members. As mentioned, each character's growth is kept after every quest. In addition, each character's appearance is affected by their equipment, which is why a few of the character's in the screenshot above look odd.

Depending on each character's class, he has active skills that may be used in combat and fighting stances, of which one may be selected to give bonuses (sometimes at a penalty). Although there are two heroes for each character class, each character is slightly different. Though heroes of the same class may share certain skills and two of the fighting stances, each hero has a unique fighting stance of his own. Plus, he may have skills that are unavailable to his counterpart.

Quest selection.

Once the party is assembled, the quest is then selected from the available campaigns. The difficulty and penalty for party-wipeout may also be selected. New campaigns are unlocked after the previous one is completed.

Update 23 April 2012:
The level of the monsters during a quest is scaled according to the levels of the party members. Campaign selection affects the types of monsters in the dungeon, not the difficulty. So choosing an earlier campaign does not necessarily make the quest easier.
---

Dungeon exploring.

The quest involves exploring a dungeon, which is the staple of RPGs. Although the theme of the dungeon is fixed, the actual layout is randomly generated with each new quest.

The party explores the dungeon floor in order to complete objectives before moving on to the next floor and more objectives. Completing all floors will lead to quest completion. Enemies are marked on the map so the party can prepare by drinking potions before the battle.

New to Chronicles are secret doors and locked doors. The latter require that a lever in the level be pulled to unlock them. It should be noted that the doors are kind of small on the game screen. Squinting is recommended.

Battle.

Battle takes place in an ordered manner - the party gathers on one side, the opposition on the other. After selecting the party formation, the battle starts. There are a lot of details to take note of - poison, buffs and debuffs, power (mana) management, sneak attacks, target selection, accuracy, etc. Veteran players of the Monsters' Den series would be familiar with many of them. Newcomers should select the Casual difficulty setting in order to learn all the intricacies of combat. New to Chronicles are terrain effects that may help or hinder the character or enemy standing on it.

It should be noted that large battles are really challenging, even at Normal difficulty level. Fortunately, Chronicles is more forgiving when a battle is lost, compared to the previous games in the series.

Know thy enemy...

Helpfully, each hero and enemy may be examined during battle to determine their characteristics. That would be handy in determining the appropriate action to take.

Loot!

And of course there is the loot, another staple of RPGs. Chronicles provides a very large bag for loot, with more bags available to be bought. Each bag may be customized to accept certain loot when using the auto-loot function after battle or finding a treasure chest. This helps to sort out the inventory.

There is also an Emporium to buy and sell items. There is the option to sell the entire contents of a bag to speed up the process of clearing inventory space - more reason to buy additional bags for sorting purposes.

Strangely, the Emporium can be accessed anytime in the dungeon. Strangely again, the Emporium cannot be accessed while not in a quest. Such are battlefield-shopkeepers.

Chronicles does have a lot of features too many to describe in this article. There many new features for veteran players to discover. A help section is provided in the options to help explain some of the features. For the rest, it is up to the players to discover.

Battles may be long and consecutive large battles get tiring such that a break away from the computer may be necessary. It is possible that hours of play over a couple of days is necessary to complete the first quest. It is recommended that players complete the first quest to fully experience the features of the game.

In summary, Monsters' Den: Chronicles is a delight for fans of traditional turn-based RPG. The game is long, especially with long difficult battles. But it does feel good to get good loot after a particularly difficult boss battle.

For more details of the loot and features of the game, Monsters' Den: Chronicles has a wiki.

Monsters' Den: Chronicles, Tricks I Learned