Overview – developed by Nippon Ichi Software and published by NIS America, Cladun X3 is the latest entry in the dungeon crawling pixel action RPG where everything is customizable. As a villain, you have been pulled into a death game, where you have to do battle across dungeons and against other villains. This title is available on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation and Steam, with a link to each version of the game at the bottom of this review,.
Disclaimer: before I get into the review, I would like to thank NIS America for providing the copy of Cladun X3 that was used for this piece, via the keymailer service. The provision of this software has not influenced the contents of this review, all thoughts and opinions contained within are my own.
Now with the introductions out of the way, let’s get into the review, starting with the story. This title is highly customizable and fluid, so I will only be talking about the core mechanics of the game.
Story – villains from across the worlds have been brought to Arcanus Cella, an alternate world where a death game is being held, with the objective of attaining world peace. You are one of these villains. In order to survive the death game, there will be dungeons that need to be conquered, teeming with deadly monsters and deadly traps. But you aren’t alone, as you can recruit allies to aid you in your quest, so do you have what it takes to become the ultimate villain.
Gameplay – Cladun X3 is a dungeon crawling action RPG, where the player takes the role of a villain that has been pulled into Arcanus Cella. Here a grand death game will occur, which is needed to attain world peace. At the start of the game, the player will be prompted to create their character. During character creation, the player will be able to change various details like their character class, name and other assorted details before picking their style.
There are a variety of character classes that players can select from, ranging from novice for beginners to advanced for those who want a challenge. These include the warrior and wizard, which are designed to be easy to pick up and play. Then there are the more challenging roles for players to take on, like the Saint, ranger and Ninja. Each of the different character classes have their own strengths and weaknesses, offering a lot of depth to them.
After creating the character, the player will appear in Arcanus Cella, greeted by the one in charge of the deadly contest. Then the action starts with the player progressing through the tutorial dungeon. During this segment, the player will learn how the action plays out, with movement, combat and the way that traps work. Once this dungeon is cleared, the player will be able to explore the village of Arcanus Cella, which is pretty limited to start.
In the village, there is the door to the dungeons, which will transport the player to the dungeons. The dungeons are filled with enemies, which will attack the player on sight. These monsters include mouse wariors, mushrooms and boars to start, which can be defeated relatively easily. But as players make their way to through the dungeons, they will encounter stronger foes, like monster spiders, elves and armored warriors.
To battle the enemies, the player will need to use their weaponry and skills, with melee and ranged options for players to use. By attacking most of the enemies from the front and sides, they will take a moderate amount of damage. But for armored foes, the player must strike them from behind to damage them, which will also deal increased damage to all enemies. This is due to the back being a uniform weak spot for all enemies.
All of the character classes have their own weapon preferences, which will affect what they can use and the attacks they can use. There will also be a variety of special attacks available to them, which are unlocked by collecting items in the dungeons. The special attacks use SP points, which are limited in use so there is a risk reward element to their usage. This is due to the significant damage that enemies will take if the attacks will land.
There will also be traps and elemental effects that will affect the player and the enemies. The traps will activate when the player crosses a boundary, or activates a tile in the dungeon. If a harmful trap is activated, it will damage any entity that it makes contact with, making them very useful. Then there are elemental effects, like fire and ice which will apply the effect to the player, harming them for a set time, but they can also be used to attack enemies.
The player will take damage based on their defense level, with the defense stat changing in a few ways. When walking through the dungeon, the player will have the full power of the armor and stats. However, if the player is running, their defensive power will be cut in half, significantly increasing damage that can be taken. If the player is equipped with a shield, or uses special skills, the defense level will increase and greatly reduce damage.
By defeating enemies, they will drop gold which will scatter across the dungeon, but it will disappear quickly if the player isn’t fast enough. Enemies will also give experience, SP recovery orbs and can even drop treasure for players to collect. These treasures include weaponry, armor, shields and special magical items, with chests that also contain these treasures. There are red chests that appear once, alongside regular chests that appear each time.
There will be doors in the dungeons, which will either be opened by hitting switches, or by defeating enemies which will open them up. Players can also find hidden paths in the darkness, as well as teleporters, which will move the player to set points on the map. These teleporters are one way, which the player will need to find the return point. All of these elements add a lot of exploration to the dungeon crawling.
In each of the dungeons, there will be an exit that the player will need to reach to clear the floor. When the player gets this point, they will gain the experience, gold and treasures that have been accumulated during the dungeon. At set amounts of experience, the player will level up, increasing their general stats as levels are gained. As the player climbs up levels, they will obtain new skills, abilities and spells depending on their class.
If the player can clear the dungeon before a target time, they will gain fame which will unlock special mechanics in Arcanus Cella. However, if the player fails to reach the goal alive, they will be returned to the village and lose all of their collected gear. They will also receive half of the experience and gold that was collected. The player can also retry the dungeon and try again, or willingly retire which acts the same as the player dying during battle.
Outside of the dungeons, the player has access to a variety of features within the village of Arcanus Cella. While the player is between dungeon delves, they can interact with the residents and the facilities they offer. These are unlocked when the player progresses through the story, or when special requirements are met by the player. The most common resident are the Piyo, bird like creatures that live within Arcanus Cella.
The Piyo mostly just live their lives here, but they also offer special services, like access to special dungeons for players to explore. They also provide special merchant services, as well as options for players to create custom content. One of the most interesting features that the Piyo offer is the network mode, where players can explore worlds, including special game worlds. There are official worlds based on NIS games, as well as other franchises.
The player can also access the equipment shop, which is run by Stabitha, a zombie girl who is obsessed with legendary weapons. In the shop, the player will be able to buy and sell gear, as well as be able to imbue their items with titles, which increase the power of player equipment. By improving and upgrading gear, the player will be able to push the items to their limits, giving the equipment system more depth during play.
Alongside the equipment, there is the Magic Circle system, which imbues the player character with magical power. By creating additional characters, the player will be able to use them in the Magic Circle, which opens the roads of these maps to strengthen the main character. On these maps, artifacts and treasures can be placed in slots if they have enough Mana. The items that are put into the Magic circle will have various effects on the main character.
The characters that are put into the Magic circle will gain experience, allowing them to level up and gain increased stats and more Mana. They will also serve as the vassals of the main character, serving as meat shields during the dungeon delves. The sub characters will take all of the damage in place of the player, but once they die in the dungeon the player loses the protection. As the player will level up, they unlock new and more powerful Magic Circles.
This is a highly customisable experience, with the ability to edit characters, gear and the world itself. In the network mode, players can collect characters from the different worlds they can explore. This includes the official crossover characters, which can have their appearance and gear cloned, for use when creating and modifying characters. The player will also be able to collect and create their own music, with the option for retro styled and orchestrated options.
Now with the gameplay covered, it is time to discuss the other elements of this release, starting with the controls.
Controls – Cladun X3 has a pretty easy to pick up control scheme, with solid tutorials that will help the player get used to inputs quickly. The dungeon exploration and combat is responsive, with no issues in terms of lag when it comes to fighting enemies. When navigating the menus and systems, there are handy on screen tooltips, making them easy to understand. All of the inputs work well with different controller options, making it very accessible.
Difficulty – this is a pretty well balanced game in terms of difficulty, with the dungeons gradually increasing in terms of challenge. The enemies will increase in level, dealing more damage to the player and becoming more difficult to take down. There will be some spikes in difficulty, with very powerful enemies in some of the dungeons that can kill the player is seconds. If players have some difficulty with dungeons, they can replay previous ones to get stronger.
Presentation – this game uses a gorgeous pixel art style, with all of the elements having a classic retro style to them. The world of Arcanus Cella is beautifully detailed, with high quality sprite work used throughout. The effects for the experience have a lot of flash to them, heightening the excitement of the on screen action. The sound is very good too, with excellent music that is available in classic chiptune and modern orchestrated styles, which can be toggled freely.
Final Thoughts – Sadly I did not have the opportunity to play the previous Cladun games, but have seen them so I was happy to be able to pick this title up. During my time, I had a lot of fun with this game, as the narrative and gameplay was a lot of fun. There is a good amount of depth to the dungeon combat, with reactive and responsive battle inputs. It is an excellent dungeon crawler that feels like it is straight out of the 90’s.
I very much enjoyed the custom sprite edit and character modification systems, which offered a lot of depth to player freedom. The guest characters like Hebe from Ufouria, Ninja Jajamaru-kun and Touhou characters are an excellent addition, alongside the various NIS characters. The only issue I have is the lack of translation for the official character content. However, this is a real love letter to action RPGS, which I can recommend to everyone.
In the end, I give Cladun X3 a final score of 4.75/5. This is a fantastic action RPG, with an easy to use combat and exploration system, deep customisation systems and a lot of fun crossover content, which has some interesting collaborations on there. If you want to check this title out for yourself, a link to each version of the game will be below.
Link to Nintendo Switch version (HERE)
Link to PlayStation version (HERE)
Link to Steam version (HERE)
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