4/5 ★ – Akod's review of Dungeons of Hinterberg.

Pros: + Fantastic level design. Short and sweet dungeons with fun puzzles. + Visually pretty with a cute cellshaded art style. + Nice story with some sense of humor and amazing characters that you can befriend. Cons: - Combat that while fun can feel a bit repetitive. - Some graphical glitches that while they don't show often, they can take you out of the experience. - Jank controller feeling reminiscent of PS1, PS2 era. Dungeons Of Hinterberg is a very rare kind of game. It's not like the genre of "go and slay monsters by day, make friends in the evening" is a niche genre, ever since the Persona series became popular, a lot of games have tried to emulate the social aspect that have made that RPG series stand out. But what I'm referring to about Dungeons Of Hinterberg is more on the lines that is a rarer kind of game instead: It's a vacation game. Much like a vacation, you go to a place for a determined amount of time, you became acquainted with the people around you and at the end of your time, you need to go back to where you came from, maybe as a different person than when you arrived. You play as Luisa, a lawyer from Vienna that feels her life has been stale due to the routine of everyday work so she escapes to Hinterberg after hearing that magic, dungeons and monsters are a tourist attraction here. And they are! You begin going on hikes with an instructor that teaches you how to slay monsters and use the magic of the local zone. After some initial shenanigans happen, you find yourself in a conspiracy that involves the whole town of Hinterberg and their titular dungeons. So you start a new routine, of slaying and exploring dungeons by day, and making friends, exploring the town and improving your equipment in the evening. Every event passes time and you get to meet some interesting folk around town, who's social interactions gives you either new abilities or help your stats or open new options for your equipment. Every character is unique and they all have a certain charm to them. I didn't met anyone I actively disliked. They are all there whether because they live in Hinterberg or because they are a tourist like Luisa. And I think that's one of the things that makes this game unique, it's not just the social aspect. The game makes you interact with a place as a tourist, with the good things that come from that and the commentary that can only come from someone who had to deal with awful tourist stinking up your town. As someone who had to deal with my own share of being on both sides, I enjoy that from the narrative of the story. It's not something you see every day and I'm glad Dungeons Of Hinterberg decided to go with that angle. Combat is nothing to write about. Its very Zelda-ish, with abilities and using a big sword to slay your way across every dungeon in the game. It does reminds me of the jank of PS1-PS2 era action adventure games, like MegaMan Legends and a bit of the first Kingdom Hearts. You dodge and move around a determined combat area and you use either magic or your abilities to slay a group of enemies. Your milage may vary in the repetitiveness of the combat but I find it enjoyable as it is. The game constantly warns you of certain zones where enemies are tougher than your current level so unless you actively search for danger, you can always find something around your current level. But what's never repetitive are the dungeons. As a long time fan of The Legend Of Zelda, part of me missed the dungeons of the series. Dungeons Of Hinterberg feels like a mix between the dungeons you see in Twilight Princess, with the puzzles from BOTW where they usually are focused on a particular gimmick. I never find any of them annoying and I would dare to say they are the best part of the game. Each dungeon has some interesting views and some fun mechanics to play around. They usually don't take more than 30-40 minutes to complete, although there are some that can take over an hour to see through. They are small but sweet and if you find yourself in need of a break there are small save points where you can save your progress and then come back later if you feel the need to turn back or leave the game for a while (although with the Xbox ability to resume play where you left off, I never found myself in need of them other than to save my game). So, the bottom line is this: Dungeons Of Hinterberg is a fantastic game. Other than one very particular bug that got resolved after I reset the game, and one missable object in the very first dungeon (make sure to open every chest in your first dungeon!) I never felt frustrated with my experience. I had a lot of fun running around in a small town and exploring it's dungeons on the mountainside. While it is not the most polished game in terms of combat, I do believe the whole package is worth playing. Definitely one of my favorite games of the year and one I can easily recommend to everyone who wants to experience a small vacation with a bit of magic.