The Nightmare of Druaga: Fushigino Dungeon is a Roguelike Dungeon Crawling Role-Playing Game developed by Chunsoft and Arika and released for the PlayStation 2 in 2004, based on the The Tower of Druaga series from Namco. It is the chronological fourth entry in the "Bablyonian Castle Saga", following The Quest of Ki, the original The Tower of Druaga, and its sequel, The Return of Ishtar, as well as one of many games in Spike Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon series.
Many years ago, the kingdom of Babilim waged a bitter war against the powerful wizard Druaga, only barely managing to seal him within an immense, 60-floor tower. When Druaga came to rise once again and turned the tower's inhabitants against their masters, a young warrior named Gilgamesh (AKA Gil), the Prince of Babilim, ascended the tower, rescued the maiden Ki, and defeated Druaga once and for all, putting an end to his evil machinations.
It has been three years since that fateful day, and in the aftermath of Druaga's defeat Babilim has begun to rebuild. To mark an era of newfound peace unto the world, Gil and Ki have decided to marry. However, on the night before their wedding, an evil sorceress named Skulld invades the kingdom and kidnaps Ki, her intentions mysteriously unknown. Gil gives pursuit, only to discover new labyrinths barring the path ahead of him, ones that randomly shift and turn with each new visit. Determined to save his bride-to-be and stop the resurrection of evil, Gil takes up arms once again and plunges into the unknown.
This game provides examples of:
- Action Initiative: Enemies can have either a blue or red glow beneath their feet. Blue glow means that Gil gets to act first if he performs an action near them, while red glow means that the enemy goes first. Certain types of terrain or certain actions such as changing elevation will cause the affected character to gain or lose action speed.
- Advertised Extra: Quox appears in the opening movie and is the background for the game's logo just like in the original The Tower of Druaga, but he does not appear in the game even in the Tower of Druaga itself, since Floor 58 (where Quox would appear in the original game) is instead dedicated to a shrine where Gil restores the Blue Crystal Rod.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Inscribing will protect your gear from being lost in the event of a Game Over. You start with 1 inscription and can unlock up to 4 (out of 8 equipment slots, but Accessories cannot be inscribed) over the course of the main story. The system comes with a few benefits as well; for one, if you die while your inscribed gear is dropped on the floor, it will stay there after you revive and can be picked up on a subsequent excursion. If you sacrifice inscribed gear for combining, the inscription will transfer over to the base gear as well, saving you the cost of inscribing the new equipment.
- Asteroids Monster: The first boss of the game is the Primordial Slime. After being attacked a certain number of times, it will split up into 8 individual Green Slimes as well as a Slime Nucleus. Gil must defeat the Slime Nucleus to win but must also deal with the smaller Green Slimes before they overwhelm him. The giant slime will also reform a few turns after all Green Slimes are defeated.
- Boring, but Practical:
- Swords are straightforward one-handed weapons with average damage, low weight, and the ability to hold a Shield in the off-hand for extra Defense. It's very easy to just go through the game with only Swords due to how well-rounded they are compared to the more specialized weapon types.
- Master's Skill. A fairly common ability on most Sword-type weapons, it expends just 22 AP to perform a powerful slash that ignores Geo Effects. It's fairly cheap for the damage it outputs and lets you get out of bad encounters relatively unscathed by simply killing them before they can harm you. Bosses are also rather vulnerable to getting bursted down quickly if you use Master's Skill multiple times in a row.
- Booby Trap: It wouldn't be a Mystery Dungeon game without them. Curiously, traps behave much differently in this game from other Mystery Dungeon games, being always visible at all times and only ever dealing damage and applying no other effects. The only difference between trap types is the amount of damage Gil takes when he steps on one.
- Brutal Bonus Level: When returning to a dungeon floor that you have previously cleared, you will be given the option to "break down the door" when approaching the floor exit. Gil will slash through the door instead of using a Key and will be transferred to a Bonus Dungeon. While in the Bonus Dungeon, levels are randomly generated, enemies scale to Gil's level, and Gil cannot gain EXP from slaying them, but rare item drops can be found much easier, including Gems and rare equipment. If Gil reaches the fourth level of a Bonus Dungeon, an Optional Boss will appear, which is much more powerful than normal but has the potential to drop big rewards. In addition, Gil cannot use a Feather to escape while in a Bonus Dungeon but can choose to return to the normal dungeon by using a Key at the level exit.
- Call-Back: All of the original equipment from The Tower of Druaga can be found in hidden chests throughout the game. The Hyper equipment and Jet Boots, the best equipment in the game, can be found in the Tower of Druaga itself.
- Cast From HP: You can break thin walls by attacking them, just like in The Tower of Druaga. However, doing so costs 5% HP each time, and if you don't have enough HP to break a wall your weapon will bounce off pointlessly.
- Continuing is Painful: When you die, you lose your entire inventory and half of your money. However, you can "inscribe" pieces of gear for a modest fee so that they are not lost upon death, and the game will automatically provide you with Gil's original golden armor set upon returning to life.
- Continuity Nod: Various nods to the original The Tower of Druaga are scattered throughout the game. For example, the jingle that plays when pressing Start on the title screen is an enhanced version of the level start jingle from the original arcade game, and the original arcade sprites are used as the game's loading screens.
- Difficulty by Region: In the Japanese version of the game, Ishtar's Guidance is shown at the start of every main story dungeon floor, which gives a vague hint about how to reveal the Silver or Gold Chest on that floor. The localized version inexplicably removed this feature, making every unlockable chest a Guide Dang It!.
- Discard and Draw: Immediately after using an ability, that ability goes on a pseudo-"cooldown" where the AP cost to perform that ability again is drastically increased for a short period of time and decreases gradually as turns pass. However, if you have enough AP to cast that ability twice in a row, it will gain a substantial power boost in return.
- Door to Before: Some longer dungeons will have Portals in them, which are magic glyphs that allow Gil to return to town without using a Feather. Some Portals allow two-way travel, allowing Gil to go back to town to recoup then resume progress from the Portal's floor.
- Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: There are six elements in the game, and certain pieces of equipment will increase Gil's elemental attack or defense, though he cannot have boosts to two opposed elements at once. Some enemies are also aligned with a specific element. The element types are:
- Fire vs Ice
- Thunder vs Water
- Light vs Dark
- The End of the World as We Know It: It is revealed during a flashback that the Dark Crystal Rod caused the death of humanity. Ki managed to avert tragedy by making a wish at Ishtar's fountain, gaining the power to transcend time and becoming Skulld in the process.
- Equipment Upgrade: Equipment can be enhanced at the blacksmith by sacrificing other equipment within the same category. The base gear will inherit some bonuses based on the sacrificed item and will gain +1 next to its name for each enhancement. Once an item reaches +15, it is eligible for Ability Transfer, where you can move up to 5 abilities from one piece of gear to another within the same gear category. Improving your gear is practically mandatory by the end of the game and if you want to challenge any of the optional content, as all of the game's optional content is level scaled, meaning Gil's level is virtually meaningless and you will need good gear to stay alive.
- Escape Rope: The Feather item allows Gil to immediately return to town from the current dungeon. Unlike other Mystery Dungeon games, Feathers cannot be bought or found, but Gil is always given one Feather for free upon entering a dungeon. Feathers cannot be used in a Bonus Level, however.
- Fusion Dance: When Gil has Druaga on the ropes, the fallen Succubus uses the last of her power to combine with Druaga to become Ultimate Druaga, a monstrous fusion of Druaga's body and Succubus's head.
- Geo Effects: Certain types of terrain modify your action speed when moving through it; snow, for example, is slower to walk through, making it easier for slower enemies to hit you. You can also move across and attack tiles up to 1 block higher or lower. Changing elevation induces an action speed penalty, and characters attacking from a higher elevation deals more damage to lower elevation opponents, while attacking from a lower elevation deals less damage to enemies at a higher elevation.
- Guide Dang It!: Just like the original Druaga, every level has a Silver Chest and a Gold Chest that can be revealed by fulfilling a secret requirement. Also just like Druaga, the secret requirements change with each floor and the game refuses to inform you what the requirements are, meaning that in many cases you will wind up discovering chests out of sheer dumb luck. The items inside them are not required to progress but are of definitively better quality than most of the stuff you can get elsewhere at that point.
- HP to 1: If Gil is hit even once by a Will o' Wisp, his HP will drop immediately to 1 regardless of how high it is. Fortunately, Will o' Wisps disappear upon successfully attacking Gil.
- Iconic Starter Equipment: The Golden Armor (and related items) from the original The Tower of Druaga. Much like in the original title, it is Gil's default equipment and is vastly outclassed by the Bronze gear you can grab from the very first dungeon.
- Invincible Minor Minion: Unfortunately, Will o' Wisps are also impossible to kill otherwise.
- Item Crafting: The Alchemists will allow you to combine Roots found in the dungeon with various other consumable items to randomly produce new items. Aziel, the senior Alchemist, generally always produces items of higher quality than the base components. His apprentice, Sajia, can also combine items, but with much more variance than Aziel; results range from getting a same or worse item than the base material, getting a much better item than the base material, or a fumble.
- Last Chance Hit Point: If Gil has at least 2 HP and takes a lethal blow, his HP will be reduced to 1 and the life gauge will begin to flash rapidly. If he takes one more hit while at 1 HP, he will die.
- Life Drain: Some enemies, such as the undead and Ropers, can steal some HP whenever they inflict damage to Gil.
- Magic Potion: There are several varieties of potions, some helpful and some not so helpful. There are Healing Potions and Ability Potions of varying potency, and Balance Arcanums. There are also potions with negative effects that have the same icons as the beneficial potions, such as Poison Potions and Energy-Drain Potions.
- Mana Meter: Gil has a finite amount of Ability Points (AP) that he can spend to use the Abilities of his weapons and shields.
- Mythology Gag: The premise behind the Beyond Heaven and Earth dungeon (Gil traveling to Heaven to return the Blue Crystal Rod to the god Anu) is taken directly from the adventure game The Blue Crystal Rod.
- No Fair Cheating: The game must be saved manually in the pause menu before turning off the console. Failing to do so (whether accidentally or otherwise) will cause Ishtar herself to appear and berate Gil for messing with the flow of time before imposing a series of questions upon the player. Answering any of them incorrectly will cause Ishtar to smite Gil on the spot. To add insult to injury, Ishtar's ranting gets longer every time you do this.
- Nostalgia Level: The fourth main story dungeon is the Tower of Druaga. While the floors themselves have been redesigned to match the Mystery Dungeon gameplay, the graphics for the Tower are designed to resemble its original arcade appearance as much as possible. The soundtrack is even an enhanced version of the arcade game's soundtrack, with orchestral arrangements of the level start, main level, and dragon encounter themes. Furthermore, some floors are inspired by the original Tower of Druaga maps, and you can obtain the Hyper equipment, the best equipment from the original game, from chests in these floors.
- Randomly Generated Levels: Surprisingly, unlike most Mystery Dungeon games, dungeon floors related to the main story are completely fixed and do not randomly generate. Only sidequest dungeons, Bonus Dungeons, and the post-game Between Heaven and Earth dungeon have randomly generated floors, and even then most do not resemble typical Mystery Dungeon layouts.
- Regenerating Health: Much like the average Mystery Dungeon game, Gil recovers HP outside of combat as long as Protection is above 0. Unlike other Mystery Dungeon games, however, passive HP recovery is borderline useless in this game, as Gil must wait 4 to 5 turns to recover a single HP. It is much easier to use Potions to restore HP rather than relying on regenerating HP to stay alive.
- The Reveal: Ishtar reveals that Skulld is none other than Ki from a different timeline. Also, the Blue Crystal Rod that Gil retrieved from the Tower of Druaga three years ago was actually the Dark Crystal Rod in disguise.
- Schmuck Bait: When Gil reaches Floor 57 of the Tower of Druaga, Succubus appears and attempts to give Gil the Ruby Mace, a mystical artifact that Gil retrieved on his first visit that has the power to ward evil. However, Gil does not fall for it this time around since he has been told that Succubus is hiding the secret third piece of the true Blue Crystal Rod.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Gil discovers that the Blue Crystal Rod that he obtained from the Tower of Druaga was actually the Dark Crystal Rod in disguise, which eventually caused The End of the World as We Know It in another timeline. To save Ki from her fate and prevent the end of the world, Gil goes back in time to obtain the real Blue Crystal Rod and slay Druaga once more.
- Shop Fodder: Ingots do nothing but can be sold for a large sum of Gold. The town merchant will also sell Ingots for the exact same value, which can be used to turn liquid assets into an object and store it for safekeeping since the game does not offer the ability to store Gold directly.
- Socketed Equipment: All gear you obtain possesses a certain number of Slots. Gems that you pick up can be equipped to those slots to enhance their elemental properties. Equipping Gems to your weapon gives it the ability to inflict elemental damage, while equipping Gems to armor increases your elemental resistance.
- Stalked by the Bell: If Gil takes too many turns on a single floor, the game spawns a Green Will 'o Wisp, which function like the Red and Blue Will 'o Wisp except they multiply the longer they exist on the field.
- Status Effects: Both enemies and Gil (including to himself, if you drink the wrong potion) are capable of inflicting negative status effects such as Berserk, Guard Down, Panic, Poison, and Sleep.
- Time Travel: In order to save Ki, Gil uses the Stone of Void to send his soul back three years to the Tower of Druaga to defeat Druaga again, this time with the real Blue Crystal Rod.
- Together in Death: The ending shows the spirits of the deceased alternate timeline Gil and Skulld holding hands while watching over the current Gil and Ki before departing.
- Unknown Item Identification: Many items that Gil picks up in dungeons are labelled as ??? and must be appraised either by Balba the Appraiser in town for a small Gold fee or with a Balance Arcanum. Unappraised equipment cannot be equipped, but unappraised items can still be used. However, this runs the risk of accidentally using a Poison Potion when you really needed to drink a Healing Potion, for example.
- Video Game 3D Leap: This is the first 3D game in the Babylonian Castle Saga.
- Wham Episode: The events leading up to the start of the game are glossed over by the introductory cutscene, but they are revealed in full throughout the exploration of the third main story dungeon. Three years ago, during the Tower of Druaga incident, Ki was implanted with a malevolent curse seed by the evil Succubus, one of Druaga's loyal minions, and Gil was tricked into retrieving a fake Blue Crystal Rod from the Tower. As a shrine maiden, Ki was granted the protection of Ishtar, inhibiting the seed's growth, but when Ki chose to become Gil's wife she lost Ishtar's protection. The curse seed's power erupted from within Ki, transforming the fake Blue Crystal Rod into the evil Dark Crystal Rod and caused The End of the World as We Know It, killing Gil and all other humans on the planet. To revive the lost world, Ki pleaded with Ishtar and was granted the power to transcend time, becoming the sorceress Skulld with the intent to be slain by Gil, thereby stopping the curse seed and preventing the death of humanity. Gil, determined to save Ki at all costs, is granted the Stone of Void by Ishtar to return to the Tower of Druaga three years in the past and defeat Druaga with the real Blue Crystal Rod.
- Wizard Needs Food Badly: Unlike other Mystery Dungeon titles, where food itself is explicitly a resource, the game uses Ishtar's Protection as the dungeon resource instead. Gil starts each excursion with 100 Protection, which gradually depletes over time. While Protection is greater than 20 points, Gil can illuminate an 5x5x1 tile radius around him. When Protection reaches 20 or lower, that range drops to a 3x3x1, and when it reaches 0 Gil cannot see any tile beside his own. Protection can be restored by Offering any item in your inventory to Ishtar, which destroys it permanently in exchange for replenishing 20 Protection per item sacrificed.
