Mary Skelter: Nightmares

If you have a soft spot for first-person dungeon crawlers with single-step movement, 90-degree turns and turn-based combat (as in the Etrian Odyssey series, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey or Devil Summoner: Soul Hackers), this one will definitely be right up your alley. The labyrinth you're traversing is divided into several districts, which are also interconnected, so that there's a big and quite varied world. Characters in this game are mostly girls that are based on characters from folklore and fairytales. Apart from the protagonist, there are Alice (from Wonderland), Gretel (from Hansel and Gretel), Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Thumbelina, Rapunzel, Kaguya from Japanese culture, and Cinderella – though they are depicted as some kind of "American McGee anime versions", if you know what I mean. They are living in a stylized nightmare world called "Jail", which is alive and holds its residents imprisoned. The enemies are quite varied and imaginative and there are some really creepy bosses, too. The soundtrack is very good as well! All in all, I'd recommend this game to every first-person dungeon crawler fan out there. Give it a shot if you already like what you see on these screenshots. You're in for a treat!

TLDR; Amazing Dungeon RPG with minimal fan-service, an intriguing plot and fantastic mechanics! Mary Skelter: Nightmares is a First Person Dungeon RPG with Turn-Based Combat... and a realtime thrill! The plot is wonderfully dark! Enter the Jail: a violent construct packed to the gills with 'Merchans' - various creatures hellbent on Alice and Jack's demise. Team up with a group of survivors known as Dawn to investigate not only the labyrinth that has imprisoned them... but also to discover the truth behind the Blood Maidens. Merchans act as the game's random encounters. Walk around or hit an event and a turn-based battle will ensue. However, those who have played Etrian Odyssee will face an innovative take on the FOE: 'Nightmares'. The dungeon will go dark and on higher dificulties, you will lose access to your hope. These powerful beings cannot be initially killed - so remember your footing and backtrack through the blood-stained walls of Mary Skelter! Also, Nightmares do not move on your turn as an FOE would. They instead move in realtime - so run! The dungeons in Mary Skelter look stunning! Their designs remind me of Persona Q - however, Mary Skelter's dungeons are much more animated. There is also a bleed mechanic in combat that can literally paint the map Dangonronpa-bloody pink - that glows in the dark and be used to navigate the dungeon when a Nightmare closes in. Mary Skelter also hosts a nice variety of character customization. Each party member has access to a variety of jobs (and a new portrait corrosponding to that job!). There are a plethora of skills and adjustments that can be applied to every character - which is absolutely wonderful and truly encourages variety through your formation. I absolutely adore the Nightmare mechanic, and I am in love with how anxious and excited it makes me! Mary Skelter truly makes exploration dangerously fun!

First off: I have the PS Vita version, so this review won't cover any issues that might have occurred while porting the game over to PC, if any. Mary Skelter: Nightmares is a very expansive grid-style dungeon crawler. The art is nice, with lots of variations for each character. The dungeon crawling is fast-paced and there are a lot of interesting mechanics that depend on the special abilities of each character. There are lots of traps that require the use of character or player skills. Some of the maps are incredibly large, which reduces the requirements for grinding--as a concrete example, one of the areas consists of around five floors, each on a 60x60 grid. Just exploring these areas fully gets you most of the experience you need to advance. The class/job system is well put-together, with enough variations to keep things interesting and make fun combinations for your team. The system encourages experimentation while minimizing punishment for suboptimal choices. The combat system is fast and fun, but often requires planning, as wrong moves (especially when the girls are approaching the Blood Skelter state) can be devastating. The combat starts out quite easy, and rises in difficulty gradually. So far, I've been very satisfied. I'm a few dungeons in and the combat is reasonably difficult without being punishing. I've enjoyed the plot and character interactions so far. There's enough there to be interesting without bogging down the gameplay. The characters, being anime-styled versions of fairy tale characters, have easy-to-understand personalities, but the banter between them is reasonably well-written and gives them a little more depth (especially for a dungeon crawler). Highly recommended for fans of grid-style dungeon crawlers, especially those who enjoy the "anime atmosphere". If you've liked Etrian Odyssey and don't mind a few galge dynamics (e.g. affection levels, which are generally optional, BTW), give it a try!

Having originated on the Vita (on which I've also played the title), it had quite tough competition along side of Demon Gaze I + II, Operation Babel/Abyss and last but not least the Vita dRPG heavy weights of SoSC and DT2. dRPGs are a dying breed and thus, as a fan of the genre, picking up any title may be a worthwhile long term invest. This game in particular isn't outstanding but not entirely bad, either. I personally have not cared a lot for the story and the characters but the dRPG elements. Unlike most dRPGs this one does come with a story though, so that may be a plus for some - particularly if one happens to like it. You've got your usual tropes covered and characters aren't particular deep, let alone developing. Dialog can be tedious and suffers a bit from the P5 syndrom where everyone needs to make a statement, no matter how pointless. The fan service is also somewhere in the medium of things if at all when compared to DT2 / Moe Chronicles on the Vita. The MC is a complete white knights wuss, so that may be a plus for some. Ultimately presentation should not preceed gameplay in this genre but even then the game isn't exactly stellar but only improves a bit. That may be mostly due to the perceived easy difficulty of the game. The game can be broken quite early into it if one cares to do so. The locations and soundtrack are quite good. While genre veterans may be solely in it to support an underrepresented genre Mary Skelter is a decent title to get new blood into the genre. The games is relatively simple with nice visuals (for a dRPG ;) ) and Anime these days is also a lot more mainstream than it once used to, too. It also doesn't suffer from archaic design like Wizzadry or Elminage does, so that's also a plus.