!!SPRAWLING CATACOMBS BELOW!!!

Dungeon crawlers are an antiquated type of game now. They were a staple in the 80s, like point and click adventure games; Both which thrived on the technical limitations at the time Still, i haven't found a genre I've loved more. I love running through hallways busting monster face. I love maxing out a single stat because I'm kinda doopid and do not like stat building. I have no dungeons, but I must crawl.

What is a dungeon crawler?
I wouldn't be suprised if you've never really thought about this. To me, there are three things that make up a dungeon crawler: stats, dungeons, and crawling.

Stats: There atleast needs to be some values in this game, like stamina or health. You may not be able to build them, like in Baroque or Shadow Tower, but they're there!

Dungeons: The very ESSENCE of the game has to be traversing a dungeon. they can be handcrafted or procedurely generated. Monsters and enemies aren't required, but what the hell else would you do for gameplay? puzzles? Some say that movement has to be grid based, but i think that's hella antiquated; went out with the commodore, you know? Things like King's Field aren't grid based, and they're 200% a dungeon crawler.

Crawling: Progress can only be made by going through a dungeon. There's some points, like towns or cutscenes, that are detours, but you cannot finish a dungeon crawler without crawling a dungeon. Also, it specifically has to be in first person; Thats what makes it a crawler. If it wasn't, then it's just an RPG.

The charted paths...
DC games I've written about.

LUNACID
DAGGERFALL


The infinite maw...

Things I haven't written about, but still wanna shout out.

BAROQUE
ETRIAN ODYSSEY
KING'S FIELD