Dreams can come true: the complete Dungeon Travelers series is coming to PC
I’m on holiday, but this news is too good not to share excitedly, so I’m here hammering this out on my keyboard while sitting in my pants drinking coffee and eating crumpets. Dungeon Travelers is coming to PC!
Yes, that’s right; after an abortive accidental non-announcement a while back, publisher Shiravune has confirmed that Aquaplus’ entire Dungeon Travelers franchise is coming to the PC audience, beginning with Dungeon Travelers 2 and 2-2 and following up with the first game, which is not narratively connected to the others.
For the unfamiliar, Dungeon Travelers began as a spin-off to Aquaplus’ eroge To Heart 2. Specifically, it began its life as a minigame named Final Dragon Chronicle: Guilty Requiem in a To Heart 2 fandisc named Manaka de Ikuno!!. It case players in the role of To Heart 2’s protagonist Takaaki Kouno and featured To Heart 2’s heroines as boss enemies that subsequently joined your party after defeating them.
The PSP version of Dungeon Travelers was a ported, expanded version of Final Dragon Chronicle: Guilty Requiem, and was not previously released in the west. Dungeon Travelers 2: The Royal Library and the Monster Seal, meanwhile, featured an all-original narrative and cast, so it was brought to the west as an accessible entry point to the series. And, like many Vita games from the period, it attracted attention for having mildly lewd, ecchi elements, mostly in the form of its monster girl enemy designs.
On its original announcement, Dungeon Travelers 2 suffered somewhat from quasi-Puritanical reactions from certain online publications — with one memorably noting that publisher “Atlus can do better than this creepy, porn-lite dungeon crawler”. Rather amusingly, this served to make far more people aware of the game than if they had just let it slide, and it ended up being a rather fortunate turn of events: Dungeon Travelers 2 is, without a doubt, not only one of the best dungeon crawlers ever made, but also one of the best games on Vita, full stop.
Since then, though, Dungeon Travelers 2 has remained confined to the Vita, with physical versions gradually creeping up in price and no-one quite knowing if and when Sony are going to pull the plug on the Vita digital storefront. Not only that, but despite the solid reception Dungeon Travelers 2 had from its western players, its follow-up Dungeon Travelers 2-2: The Fallen Maidens and the Book of Beginnings never made it to English-speaking territories, even in Asia-English form.
The PC ports of both games will be based on the Vita originals, but with a few enhancements. Most notably, they have been upscaled to full HD resolution, allowing the beautiful artwork to really shine, and it will be possible to set up your own controller bindings or play with mouse and keyboard if you prefer.
Shiravune notes that the PC version of Dungeon Travelers 2 specifically will be based on the previously localised North American and European Vita release, which presumably means it may feature some of the slightly edited artwork from the original English language release. These were very minor edits — most notably a ghost-like enemy no longer looking like she was fellating spirits, and a loli enemy in a swimsuit having it a little more zipped up at the front than in the original — so are not anything particularly worth getting riled up about.
That said, Shiravune also notes that these games will not be coming to Steam due to the previously reported issues with the platform’s content review process. Instead, the games will be released on Johren for $19.99 each, and perhaps some other platforms that are yet to be announced. Dungeon Travelers 2 and 2-2 will come out this summer, with the port of the PSP original following at an as-yet unannounced date.
Shiravune’s focus is primarily on the PC market, so it remains to be seen if these PC versions will be followed up by console ports. The Dungeon Travelers series would be right at home on Switch, so fingers crossed that will eventually happen in some form or another. In the meantime, though, be sure to support these releases when they finally arrive — the Dungeon Travelers games really are some of the finest dungeon crawlers ever created, with some glorious artwork and excellent characterisation being a delightful bonus.
Preorder Dungeon Travelers 2 and Dungeon Travelers 2-2 at Johren now if you’re so inclined.
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