At Tokyo Game Show 2021, Square Enix announced a new game coming very soon, called Dungeon Encounters.
This is an all-new IP developed by a team that includes various veterans behind the Final Fantasy series including director Hiroyuki Ito (director on FF VI, IX, XII) producer Hiroaki Kato (producer on FF XII The Zodiac Age) and character designer Ryoma Ito.
Dungeon Encounters is a pure dungeon crawler (“dungeon exploration RPG” as Square Enix dubs it), where you explore a labyrinth that’s just interconnected boxes, with very few art assets in use, compared to Square Enix’s more lavish games. Even the battle just has tiny portraits of your party versus the enemies.
But what Dungeon Encounters lack extravagant assets comes a focus in gameplay design. The 100 levels will make you prepare and think, or see yourself plunge into doom, or fall down a trap door.
Dungeon Encounters’ battles will boast a new iteration of the Active Time Battle (ATB) system from several Final Fantasy games, which director Ito first created for Final Fantasy. So expect a hybrid turn-based system that won’t let you waste time during battles.
For a game that’s just announced, Dungeon Encounters will be released fairly soon. It will be out on October 14 for the PS4, PC (Steam) and Nintendo Switch.