Dys: Eternal Space Jail RPG

Hello!
Today, for what will probably be my last review of this year, I am going to play a dungeon delving adventure... but in space!
"Dys: Eternal Space Jail RPG" is in fact a 2016 3d rogue-lite dungeon crawler made with RPG Maker VX Ace (oh yes!), set in a futuristic prison that you and your party are trying to escape. This game was developed and release by L.O.V.E. games or lovegamesstudio, that was also responsible of the pretty cool weird game Mouth Sweet. You do not remember that game? Check it here, I reviewed it two years ago.

Dys can be probably mean one thing: DYStopian, and that's the adjective that goes well with this game (well it also was perfect for Mouth Sweet too!): we play as a group of four convicts inside Dys, the Eternal Space Jail. The mission is simple, since sooner or later every criminal sent here disappears, they are looking for a way out. Time for prison break! At least this is what happens in tne Normal Mode, because there's also an Endless Mode where you can play and see how many floors you can beat.


The Carbon Demon is one of the seven available characters (the Quantum Esper Girl has four versions, so you can see ten possible choices), has a huge zipper and wields a cool sword!

Ok, now speaking about the gameplay of Dys, I can tell you that unlike Mouth Sweet that had some first person sections, it is played entirely in first person, despite controlling a team of four characters. The neat thing is that we get to choose the party composition selecting the classes of our four heroes: Riot Queen, FurZerkers, Wedding Ninja, Brain Wizard, Esper Girl (that looks like the bunnygirls present both on the main menu screen, and the protagonist of Mout Sweet) and so on, for a total of seven different possibilities. But do not worry, despite the bizarre naming it's still a dungeon delving adventure with classic classes, a Brain Wizard is still a wizard, for example, anyway it's cool that you aren't forced to choose different classes for each hero, but you may even have four heroes of the same class (and speaking about classes I found them balanced even if the teleport move of the Quantum Esper Girl seems a bit too much compared to the other abilities).

And trust me, classes are important because you cannot win just mashing the attack button, battles will be challenging but part of the fun is overcoming the difficult encounters, isn't it? Well, some battles seemed even impossible or maybe it was a matter of luck, because if the opponents decide to unleash all theis powerful moves in a turn it's nearly impossible to survive!


What a distinguished gentleman! And what a great advice!

To avoid this save often, of course but also take advantage of Resting Areas and Shops (when you encounter them!) that appears on some rooms and safe floors, anyway if everything fails you aren't forced to restart: thanks to the Reincarnation system you can resume playing from level 1, BUT with all the skills intact and also a permanent stat boost. Permanent! It's worth noting that while the game includes boss battles, I had much more troubles with the normal encounters (probably because I expected a lot from bosses... and I was disappointed!).

Now, the graphics: I left this aspect for last because it's one of the element that really captivated me. The characters are only seen in all details when you are going to select the party members (it's a first person game, so this is not a surprise) but the art is great and I also liked the design of the various opponents and creatures (monsters inspired from anime, internet and so on) our band of criminals has to defeat.

And then there is the environment, that's really immersive and stylish, even if it's just a dungeon (even if a sci-fi one). And despite the location is a single one (the interdimensional intergalactic prison!) there are still different kind of environments, some floors look like coming out from an Aliens movie, others have a more clean and solemn appearance. And despite the cute appearance of enemies and characters (that only serves as the player's avatar) the world is really dark and bleak (remember? DYStopian!), the place is claustrophobic, Npcs' dialogues are often pessimistic. So there is a powerful atmosphere, and the music is also pretty good.


These Gestaporkos reminds to me of Duke Nukem 3D! Very appropriate opponents in a space jail!

Final Verdict
A first person 3d dungeon adventure made with RPG Maker VX Ace? Oh yes, and I could not have believed that! It's true that the engine is unfortunately not optimized for this kind of game and MAY crash, but I tried it anyway. I've always been fond of dungeon delving adventures in first person, from the time of the Eye of the Beholder trilogy, the Ishar trilogy, Lands of Lore and the Ravenloft series (but I'd also include Menzoberranzan). Yes, these were all fantasy games, and this is instead sci-fi, but setting aside they have many similarities except for the RPG Maker VX Ace combat, of course. One is surely the powerful atmosphere and immersion that these games offer, and the setting that's only partially explored but still it offers an intriguing background for a simple game of dungeon exploration and battles. Yes, compared to the game I previously mentioned a part that may be lacking is the story, anyway it's clearly not the focus of this game that does really well what's intended to do: dungeons, battles, rest, buy and repeat. That's it, but with different enemies, different classes that you can use, even including a mutation item that can change our class... clearly this is not a classic RPG Maker VX Ace jrpg (like a tons of other games you can find here) but a totally different game.
And a very good one! Recommended!