Dungeons of Hinterberg

Are you ready for your Alpine slaycation? Slaycation? Did you read that right? Yes indeed. You are Luisa, someone who is tired with their normal life and in need of a vacation. So you decide to go to Hinterberg, a town where magic exists. Hotspots of magic have popped up in the world recently, and strange dungeons have appeared with them. Of course what people decide to do is turn it into a commodity. Hinterberg is now a popular tourist town where everyday people can experience some magic and go into the dungeons. Is that what you’ll do? Or will you prefer to relax and take in the sights instead?

Find it on Steam.

Alright, I mention you have the choice of not doing dungeons, but really, you’re here to fight magical monsters and do dungeons. I’m not sure if the story progresses based on days passed or dungeons done, but once you get a better understanding of what is going on, there is definitely a sense of urgency in getting done with the dungeons, and that is also how you beat the game.

The game overall feels really structured. Each day is broken up into time chunks. Morning, in which you choose where to go. Noon in which you explore the field, searching for dungeons and treasures. Evening is when you can choose to hang out with the various townspeople. Lastly, Night where you either stay up late or go to sleep early. That means you only have one chance per day to hang out with people, or do some other evening activity. If you do dungeons at even a semi-reasonable rate, you’ll be way ahead on dungeons compared to making friends. I actively stalled later in the game just to interact with people more, though by that time, it also felt like I had a time limit telling me to get a move on.

Still, each person you can make friends with has a fun story to tell. They’ll also reward you with useful items, abilities, or stats as you become better friends. I ended the game before I could make friends with everyone, though.

So with all the talk of dungeons, how are they? Pretty great overall. Combat in the game is satisfying. You get to use magic or special moves. And there is a good variety of enemies with different attack patterns to challenge you. Each region of the game has two different spells that you can only use in that area, and the spells have some pretty fun and varied effects. So enemy encounters will be slightly different in each area. These spells are also used in solving puzzles within the dungeons.

Dungeons in the game are not as complex as something like the Legend of Zelda series. They are overall linear and not as long, but there are a lot of them. Dungeons are a nice mix of combat encounters and puzzles with most of them leaning more towards puzzles. There isn’t a huge focus on platforming. You auto jump when running off ledges. There are some wall-climbing as well, though it’s merely another way of getting around.

There are twenty-five dungeons and each of them has a different feel or theme. Dungeons within the same area tend to follow the same conventions, but they all stand out in different ways. There are some mind-bending and space-bending dungeons that are fun and perhaps dizzying to navigate around. Other dungeons force you into a fixed camera perspective for a change of pace. Getting through each one feels fresh and exciting.

The graphics of the game are interesting. They look sort of comic-book-like or cel-shaded with halftone shadows. I’m ambivalent about the look, but it does stand out among other games.

So while you are in Hinterberg on vacation, it is action-packed, full of exploration and fighting monsters. I’m not sure if there is a time limit to the game, but the game does count days. If there is a limit, I didn’t hit it on my playthrough, though I also didn’t make friends with everyone. The people I did get to know all had interesting stories to tell. And the various dungeons were fun to get through.

Getting away to a magical mountain village slaycation is a good way to get a new perspective on life. Find it on Steam.