Yumeko’s Castle (Pacifica)
| Yumeko’s Castle | |
|---|---|
| Genre(s) | Dungeon crawler RPG |
| Developer(s) | Seikokashi Software |
| Platform(s) |
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| First release | Yumeko’s Castle November 4, 2011 |
| Latest release | Yumeko’s Castle VI: The Garden of Ice April 18, 2022 |
Yumeko’s Castle (Pelinese: 夢子の城, Yumeko no Shiro) is a series of Pelinese dungeon crawler role-playing video games developed by Seikokashi Software for the PC, Setako Fold2, and Fold3 platforms. Its first game was released as a launch title of the Fold2 handheld console in 2011 to positive reviews, and it has since added five more main series titles and a single spin-off. The series is credited with popularizing the dungeon crawler RPG genre in the Pelinese handheld market after modest commercial successes by spiritual predecessors like Super Dungeon Quest on the original Fold.
Development work on the original Yumeko’s Castle game commenced in 2009 after Seikokashi Software was granted early access to the software development kit for the then-in-development Fold2 console. The dungeon crawler format, then popular in Pelinai only on PC, was selected early in development due to the modest but promising successes of similar games developed for the original Fold by both Seikokashi and other developers; game director Akira Ribaki stated in an interview with Hoshikara in 2019 that the development team hoped to better harmonize the genre and portable console platform than predecessors did by making Yumeko’s Castle more friendly to the usage patterns of handheld systems, particularly by streamlining gameplay and allowing for faster start/stop cycles than preceding titles for PC and the Fold. Another major design goal was to maintain the feasibility of completing a single dungeon run in the game within a timeframe of three to eight minutes.
The Yumeko’s Castle games are moderately successful in Pelinai. Total sales of all titles in the series number at approximately 2.6 million copies, with all sales being in the Pelinese domestic market; like the vast majority of video games and other media produced in Pelinai, it is not exported to other regions.
Common elements
Gameplay
The Yumeko’s Castle series is based on a combination of a dungeon traversal mode and a turn-based RPG combat mode: the primary story goal of each game is to reach the end of the dungeon, which is accomplished by exploring dungeon floors, gaining items and character levels from chests and combat encounters, and reaching deeper floors by defeating minibosses and floor bosses. Side content such as quests, optional bosses, and special floors is also typically included. Titles since the third game also include an additional post-game sequence, which features a selection of new floors and one or more challenge bosses that also offer new story endings upon completion.
Players traverse dungeons in Yumeko’s Castle with a party of adventurers, which are created by the player and allow for the customization of name, appearance, and character class during character creation. Characters start with a base class that affords them a set of equipment proficiencies as well as a list of active and passive abilities that are activated and enhanced by allocating skill points to them; level ups are attained by winning combat encounters or completing quests, and give both an additional skill point and increases to abilities governing various character stats. Stats are also increased by giving characters equipment, which is obtained from dungeon chests or by purchasing it from the town shop.
The dungeons in Yumeko’s Castle games are traversed as a grid from a first-person perspective: players move to one tile at a time, rotate the camera to look around, and interact with various dungeon features. Loot chests, one-time events, locked doors, special floor tiles, stairs to upper or lower floors, and other objects are interspersed throughout the dungeon and may be interacted with by the player. Each grouping of five floors in a dungeon has a distinct visual theme and music, while the selection of monsters that may be encountered varies by individual floor or floor section; the beginning of each floor group also contains a fast travel point that allows saving and quick movement to or from town and different levels of the dungeon. Each movement of one tile in the dungeon by the player adds a random value to the random encounter ticker, which begins a random encounter with one or more monsters when it reaches its cap.
Combat encounters between player characters and monsters are resolved using turn-based RPG combat traditional to most Pelinese RPG titles. Monsters and adventurers are both afforded two rows of three slots each, consisting of a front row and a back row: characters in front rows take full damage from attacks and are able to utilize melee attacks, while characters in back rows take less damage but are restricted to casting and ranged attacks only. Both parties select the moves to be performed by their controlled characters before a turn begins, after which each character will perform its assigned action in an order determined by a combination of their base speed modifier and the speed modifier of their chosen action.
Setting
The specific town and dungeon that each Yumeko’s Castle game takes place in varies by entry. Some games such as the fourth and fifth entries mention previous settings in passing, but otherwise present self-contained stories.
Games
Main series
| Name | Date of first release | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Pelinai | SPE (Bailtem/Bareland) | SPW (Cordilia/Crabry) | |
| Yumeko’s Castle | November 4, 2011 | N/A | N/A |
| Yumeko’s Castle is the first game in the series, with a 2011 release in Pelinai and worldwide releases in the SPE and SPW regions in 2014. It was developed as a launch title for the Setako Fold2 handheld console and a complement to Seikokashi’s home console-based Hyper-Radiance series. Notes:
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| Yumeko’s Castle II: Hedges and Hobgoblins | April 18, 2013 | N/A | N/A |
| Yumeko’s Castle II released slightly less than two years after the first title, and affirmed the broad gameplay and mechanical pattern of the series. The core game is largely an incremental iteration on the original Yumeko’s Castle in terms of graphics, basic gameplay loops, and other elements, but implements several major changes to character classes and skill progression while also adding a prestige class system. Notes:
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| Yumeko’s Castle III: Halls in the Deep | June 11, 2015 | N/A | N/A |
| Yumeko’s Castle III retained the standard gameplay pattern of the previous two entries, but replaced all character classes from the previous two games with refreshed versions and extended the size of dungeon floors. It was also the first series entry to use basic 3D models for monsters during combat and to include a full post-game section. Notes:
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| Yumeko’s Castle IV: The Tree of Heaven | June 6, 2017 | N/A | N/A |
| Yumeko’s Castle IV was the first game to orient the floor scaling upwards instead of downwards; additional changes to the floor layouts included a map size expansion of five tiles in each direction and the usage of new map layout concepts like multiple entrances and exits for certain floors. Much of the series bestiary was also overhauled to ensure more balanced performance of different damage types and status effects against monsters. Notes:
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