EDIT ON OCT 30: Changed help links to AdeptGamer.

https://market.android.com/details?id=net.kairosoft.android.bouken_en

Don’t forget to check out AdeptGamer for helpful tips and also a fantastic guide!

The title above says it all!

I’ll try and record one of a boss battle too~! :3

Here we go! XD

EDIT ON OCT 30: Removed links to Kairospot and changed guide like to AdeptGamer.

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Took several weeks since the game never really held my attention.

I have a feeling a good number of people will be disappointed since there’s such high anticipation and expectation for this. Of course, given that Kairosoft creates building (more like comboing) and management simulation games, it’d be silly to expect that they would create an actual roleplaying game that resembles the old school 8-bit RPG classics. In fact, there is no roleplaying at all!

Adventure Dungeon Story is a people — and to some extent, building — management game. Basically, you are merely a spectator and village manager. You will spend an inordinate amount of time upping their stats and showering them with new weapons, armour, and accessories so they can survive their battles with the constant spawning of monsters around the village. However, you will NOT be spending ANY time directing where your adventurers go or interact in battles in any way. And not having any control over their actions is what distances the game from the whole roleplaying aspect.

Anyway, here is some cut-and-paste from an amended info/guide post I did over at Kairospot:

• Honestly, I wasn’t highly impressed with the game. It was fun, yes, but kind of disappointing at the same time since you’re limited to the role of people management. It would have been nice if the player could have more participation in battles such as DIRECTING WHERE PEOPLE GO IN THE FIELD.
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  It was annoying seeing one weakling character wait around a spawn spot only to get knocked out and lay there for minutes on end until someone decides to wander over and take the person back to town. (I generally reserved any healing items for the Magic Pot. XD)
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  I would have also have liked to have seen simple preset strategy/priority options like “Help out ally”, “Heal ally”, “Target weakest enemy”, “Target strongest enemy”, etc.
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• The game also rewards you for spending time raising the quality of stores. It doesn’t seem to happen early in the game but later on (not sure when it starts), if you up store quality to around 50, you will receive a pop-up window like this:
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  This reads something like “The adventurers have heard a rumour about the Fortune Teller!!” You will then receive 20 popularity points. But as far as I can tell, this notice doesn’t mean your characters will start becoming regular patrons of the shop. 
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  Edit: It doesn’t seem to work on the shops that give only one plus increase to stats. For example: Bun Shop, Ice Cream Shop, etc.

• I regret getting a 5-star rank for my town so quickly. It kind of slowed the development of my characters since tougher monsters appeared and they kept killing my adventurers.  In this sense, I suggest pacing yourself and try and raise the town popularity as fast as you can so that you can get more people/professions and master more jobs quickly as well as getting more medals. This way, you can switch over to jobs that have higher attack and defense so you can create some “tanks” (characters specifically meant to take heavy damage). >:3  The high attack power would mean that they will also be the ones that will take out enemies fast~!
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  Of course, more capital is required when you have more people and high maintenance jobs. If necessary, use the “block exit with shop” method to generate some capital.
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• Magic class users can be both useful and annoying. Although their spells can deal heavy damage with one hit, they have a tendency to miss and may not even cast spells all that often.  (I’m unsure if raising the Skill/Proficiency stat will increase accuracy.) It’s really annoying when you’re wanting them to use the heal spell with people dying all over around them but they just mind their own business and try to melee monsters …. which usually ends up with them getting beat up by enemies anyway. 9__9 Maybe there’s a hidden cool-down mechanic?
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  Incidentally, I always equip low level and magic class characters with bows so they can keep their distance. It tends to keep them alive just a bit longer as long as there are not multiple enemies targetting them. XD
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• The game felt more fun once I managed to shift people into the Kairobot, Sally Prin, and Mercenary (傭兵) classes. Took forever to get the initial Mercenary to max out his job but once he did, it was total bliss since anyone taking on the role becomes a freakin’ tank! So between my two Kairobots, two Sally Prins, and 3 Mercenaries, they were slaughtering all monsters AND bosses within seconds and anyone that took part in their battles also benefitted! XD

Incidentally, forum user DaveNg88 wrote up a comprehensive & awesome guide for the game. Be sure to check it out and if you’re a member at the forums, remember to thank him for the hard work! It’s really well done! *__* http://adeptgamer.com/forum/pages/dungeon-village-guide/

Edit on Oct 28th: Guide link has been updated to point to AdeptGamer. Also salvaged a post I made at Kairospot and removed the direct link to it.

I’m just putting in a pointer to the thread at http://adeptgamer.com/forum/pages/dungeon-village-guide/ :3

Here are some of my thoughts about the game:

“I wonder how many people will be let down by the game? I mean, I love the fantasy RPG elements but you are spending a great deal of time buying and using items for shops and the Magic Pot. At least, that’s how I play.

I rarely use items on the characters and just let them level up by themselves. Strangely, they’d probably master their jobs faster if I did use items on them since they wouldn’t die so much. XD

Anyway, you have no control over the adventurers other than changing jobs, equipping (re: giving presents) and using items at them. They usually just walk into the field and hang around a spawn area, kill the monsters, and wander back to town.

They’re dumb, however, in that they’ll just hang around a empty area until something appears. It doesn’t matter if there are monsters roaming around elsewhere. 9_9

It also seems like this game has one map only like Epic Astro Story.

One good thing about the game is that there are no hidden elements. Well, er, maybe the Appeal bonuses for compatible shops are kind of not in your face. Oh, and maybe recipe unlocks for the Magic Pot as well.”

And more:

“I have no idea what to think of the game. As I said before, it’s item management but I forgot to mention that it’s also people management.

I wonder if it’s possible to raise the popularity meter faster to get more adventurers to come earlier since I’m running into the problem that some of the new ones joining the fray are taking forever to level up as the monsters are pretty tough now. (The new characters die almost instantly.)

There are no items or bonuses that give experience, I think, but they do get all-around stat boosts when you raise the endurance stat. Of course, to get the boost, you pretty much need to give gifts which are items and equipment. :E

I’m probably taking some roundabout way in playing the game. 😛 But hey, at least I got my 5-star town on a first try. The challenge now is to unlock everything else like all characters, events, facilities, items, and equipment. “

And here’s another one, regarding annoyances and proposed improvements:

Almost every game related forum here has one of these threads so DV shouldn’t be an exception~! Share your thoughts about the things that you’re not crazy about (excluding bugs) and how things could be improved.

Annoyances:

• Magic users that keep attacking the same enemy but consistently miss.
• Magic users with healing magic but don’t use it when they are near dead or when allies that are near dead.
• No real difference in range for melee or ranged weapons.
• Bizarre balance issues in terms of enemy strength/difficulty.
• No user control in directing where adventurers should go.
• Simplistic AI for your characters.
• Too many unnecessary facilities.
• The Darkness element for the Magic Cauldron.
• Getting wussy equipment as loot in dungeons or spoils late in the game.
• Getting beefy equipment as loot in dungeons or spoils early in the game.
• No cannon. XD

Proposed improvements:

• Better AI for characters. Magic users should know to re-position themselves or learn to aim properly if they keep missing an enemy! What’s the sense of constantly using the same spell over and over if it’ll NEVER hit it!? And man, heal more often if you have the spell!
• Giving players some sort of option to direct adventurers. It’s really annoying to see one person getting raped by a bunch of monsters because he just happened to head to an area that no one else was at. I should be able to force people to go and save the guy instead of watching them standing around waiting for another enemy group to spawn.
• Change the gameplay system a bit to not rely so heavily on item spammage. At least, to me, the only way to really do well in Dungeon Village is to throw items at everyone and everything. The theme is medieval fantasy with a bit of RPG flair so why not tweak the game a tad to cater to some actual roleplaying?
• 5-star rank is too low. It’s so easy to max out the rank of your town before year 8. (Even on my first JP playthrough, I think I got it in year 7 or 8.) I think Epic Astro Story’s 10-star ranking system would have worked much better for this game.
• Given the random nature of the attribute increases they receive from stores, there are far too many shops! Many of which are simply duplicates of one another. (Hmmm, I suppose the game gives you choice so you can work within your budget in terms of cost to build the facility and to maintain it?)
• Randomize equipment drops and treasures based on how many jobs have been unlocked? Basically, don’t give me a wooden shield when I’m at year 13 with multiple characters that have several jobs maxed out and the King and Princess have already moved in to the village. Likewise, finding a Kairo Medal in year 4 is kind of strange.
• Enemies should level with your characters based on the stat average of adventurers. This will make the lives for many players so much better since their adventurers won’t keep getting murdered which stunts both town and character growth.

A note to everyone looking to download the APK: You will not find a link to it anywhere on this blog or at Kairospot. We do not condone piracy. If you’re dying to try it out, wait until the Lite version is released.

Edit on Feb 15: Lite version is out on the Market. And for the love of God, if you’re going to leave a review for the game, PLEASE ensure it’s relevant and actually reviews something about the game (like how it plays, pros and cons, etc.) and doesn’t consist of requesting for an English version or dissing Kairosoft for not localizing things faster/releasing things on iOS. 9___9