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I've grown weary of 2.5D games in the past few years, with most of my fatigue stemming from the "HD-2D" look Square Enix has embraced with the Octopath series and remakes of its old games. Seeing a pixel art guy ambling around a 3D village with the bloom cranked up just doesn't do it for me anymore.
Which is why seeing the upcoming hack 'n slash Dungeon Lurker in action felt fresh: Instead of dinky little Final Fantasy guys, this 3D world is populated with huge, lovingly-dithered comic book-style sprites with buttery-smooth animation. It's giving "arcade perfect" more than "we love the Super Nintendo," a level of craft I mostly associate with latter-day 2D fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2.
It's the little things that really wowed me, like how much the knight protagonist bounces and shifts even in his idle animation. He'll turn his head from side to side, adjust his grip on his sword, even rustle his loincloth a bit. How many frames of animation does one man need? It's madness, decadence. I love it.
The craft and quality of this art is matched by some inspired direction, pairing the comic book, arcadey cartoonishness with a real Berserk or Dark Souls sort of dark fantasy. I love the monster at the beginning of the gameplay trailer, the "Mammothian Colossus" according to its health bar in Dungeon Lurker's other trailer.
It looks so tortured and wrong, a noble beast harnessed for war with bondage gear. Best of all: I didn't even notice at first that it has a little rider in golden armor hanging off its back. I love everything I've seen of this game's art.
Even though it's a roguelike, Dungeon Lurker's Steam page promises that it will have no procedural generation, but "over 30 unique levels to conquer and explore." I was also intrigued by this tidbit: "Decipher forbidden knowledge in the game's manual—it contains more secrets than you might expect."
Manuals are a small but welcome trend: I'm seeing them in games like Tunic, Lunacid: Tears of the Moon, and Psycho Patrol R, and I'm definitely game for whatever Dungeon Lurker has cooking on that front. But the only thing to do now is wishlist and wait: Dungeon Lurker's release date is "to be announced" on Steam, while its trailer estimates a release of early 2027.
