Game Review: Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library & The Monster Seal (PS Vita)

Dungeon Travelers 2 The Royal Library and the Monster Seal PS Vita

Before I proceed with my review, and in the interest of full disclosure, I want to clarify that I had issues playing this game due to a corrupt memory card. This prompted me to play most of the game on a friend’s system. The incidents are unrelated, but it does mean that my review is a few months late.

Now, on to the game!

Dungeon Travelers 2 is a first-person dungeon crawler game, much like the Etrian Odyssey series (or Persona Q, if prefer). Unlike Etrian Odyssey, however, DT2 is full of fan service. So let’s get that out of the way: I like fan service. I don’t mind cartoon girls doing daft things. It’s a fantasy. It’s a video game. It’s fine.

Moving on!

The story is… convoluted, to say the least. Basically, you’re in charge of ridding the kingdom of Romulea (no relation to that Star Trek race of similar name, as far as I know) of monsters. For this, you use spells and recruit girls along the way.

For the most part, DT2 is your standard JRPG fare, but with a lot of skin being shown.

It is worth pointing out, though, that if you’re indifferent to the girls, underneath the lusty exterior lies a heart of gameplay gold.

The battle system is fantastic, the girls’ classes are diverse, and the art is absolutely stunning.

Another highlight of this game, for me, is the fact that it does not have an English dub imposed. I don’t mind dual languages, but 99% of the time (1% being Persona 4: Golden), I prefer the original Japanese audio over English dubs. And let me tell you, the voice acting in this game is absolutely brilliant.

The music could be better, and the environments look a bit drab, but the fight scenes look great, and the game is very… very… very long.

There really isn’t that much more to say about DT2. If you like first-person dungeon crawlers, this is a solid choice. If you like JRPGs with fan-service, this is a no-brainer. And if you’re on the sensitive side about cartoon girls and how they are depicted in video games, this is definitely not the game for you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll order myself another 32GB memory card and start my adventure anew. I do think I may have missed a thing or two.