Brave Dungeon

Brave Dungeon is a RPG, and a spin-off of The Legend of Dark Witch series that is developed and published by Inside System. It released on the 3DS in Japan on November 20th, 2016, and in March the following year for Europe and North America. It released on the Switch the same year as Brave Dungeon + Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT. It also released on Steam on August 20th, 2021. A sequel was released in early access on February 28th, 2022 titled Brave Dungeon - The Meaning of Justice -. This page will mostly focus on the + Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT version, but the 3DS version will be factored in as well.

Brave Dungeon
Al, our main protagonist, is searching for the rumored Magic Items in Newport. Al then heads to Godshill, and gets defeated by the enemies within seconds. (It should be noted you can also just leave the dungeon and nothing will happen.) Someone finds Al and brings her to Lugli's inn, where Lugli encourages her to eplore other dungeons first. After a long trip, Al heads to Godshill and finds the magic item guarded by Bajel. The two fight, and Al wins, but Bajel sends the item to Nightmare. Al leaves and explains what happened to Luguli. In the optional dungeon Nightmare, you find out Zizou holds the Magic Item. After a long battle, Al wins, and Zizou gives her the item.

Dark Witch's Story: Combat
You are a nameless boy, and with another nameless girl, you go battle others with cards around the world.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) It's a very unique take on the Dark Witch formula, but shoved into an RPG! Everything from the Dark Witch games has been factored in, such as...
 * 2) The Slots System was transformed into a Stats system, where you can permenantly upgrade slots for Tres. Unlike most RPGs, when you level up, Brave Dungeon only gives you HP upgrades. So you have to manually upgrade stats to progress, which means you can play with any playstyle you want. If you want to be a war machine, you can invest in Attack. Like to play it safe? Go Defense stat. Like hitting first to potentially end a battle early? Run over to Speed. Want to throw the RNG system out the window? Consider upgrading Mind. You have a lot of customization.
 * 3) The Slot System was also converted over via the Class System. You still get every skill in the end, but this allows even more customization with your stats and skills. Note that these changes are permanent, so choose which one you need the most.
 * 4) While the art style is a little inconsistent, the game looks good. The dungeon intros are also beautifuly drawn with colored pencils.
 * 5) Like Dark Witch 2, you can unlock some minigames. Playing these games will net you Syega, which you can use in the Syega Shop.
 * 6) *Like every Dark Witch game, they include Poker. What's a Dark Witch game without Poker?
 * 7) *Syegacha returns from Dark Witch 2. Using Syega, you can unlock pixel art from the game at random.
 * 8) *Avoid Runner is an Endless Runner where you collect Syega to go faster. You can also get hearts. Avoid the spikey guys, and get Syega!
 * 9) Catchy Soundtrack. Every song is pretty fitting for each dungeon as well, such as a somber tune for the garden, or aggressive music for the thunderstorm.
 * 10) Items restock after you return to the town, so you don't have to worry about items all that much once you buy them.
 * 11) Expert Mode is actually pretty hard. so you need to bring your A+ game. While you can beat it Al-only, it's very difficult. However, you get more Tres and EXP, so it's not unfair. If you're confident enough, after you beat the game, you can try Lunatic Mode, which is twice as hard.
 * 12) If you take enough damage, you can use a revenge attack, where you can essentially nuke your enemies with a supermove, or you can heal your party in one turn. This can turn the tides quickly.
 * 13) Solid accessories. While most are somewhat useless, some are really overpowered, like the one that allows you to attack 3 times in one turn.
 * 14) Like most of the mainline Dark Witch games, there's a ton of replay value. You can go for the many achievements that unlcok concept art, you can play with different characters.
 * 1) Like most of the mainline Dark Witch games, there's a ton of replay value. You can go for the many achievements that unlcok concept art, you can play with different characters.

+ Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT

 * 1) The FOV was zoomed out so you can see more.
 * 2) The physical version is pretty cool. It includes the main game, a sleeve for the game box, an early demo of Brave Dungeon: The Meaning of Justice, and the soundtrack for the demo for $60.
 * 3) Klinsy and Nevile were added, and they are pretty good characters.
 * 4) The PC port has "Combat Mode", which is an even harder version of the main game where you play as the enemies instead. You also can have different dungeons if you want to. Best of luck!



Bad Qualities

 * 1) The dungeons are quite linear and not that fun to explore. While there are branching paths, many of them just lead to the same place or some materials.
 * 2) The repetitive battle mechanics can make the journey drag at some points.
 * 3) The game has an odd art style. It feels as if it can't decide if it wants to be Dark Witch 2 or it's own 2 seperate things. This is really apparent with the boss portraits.
 * 4) *On that note, the game can look unfinished at times. While the solid colored tiles looked okay on 3DS, on the Switch Version, it feels empty and bland. This really shows with the boss portraits.
 * 5) Terrible Ending: Bajel sends the treasure off to Nightmare, and then the game instantly ends. So all your work to just finish Godshill was for nothing.
 * 6) Let's just say that Nightmare doesn't lie. It's a nonstop gauntlet with no save points, and if you die, you go back to the start. All for just unlocking Zizou!
 * 7) *Even Al comments on this when you reach Zizou. Al states "I'm exhausted... Just how much further can this dungeon go?"
 * 8) Zizou is also a terrible boss fight. She hits hard, but you're barely in danger because Stoj can heal you. And in one move, she can restore 20000 HP.
 * 9) There's no way to fast travel. While you can buy an item that lets you skip one floor, that's only one floor, so this adds to the repetitiveness.
 * 10) Lackluster story. It gets introduced, but they do nothing with it.

+ Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT

 * 1) While + Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT is a good upgrade, the bonus game, + COMBAT, is pretty mediocre. It's basically Rock, Paper, Scissors, but with Pokemon-esque writing.
 * 2) The PC port is poorly optimized. While it's still playable, it does bring down the experience.

Reception
Brave Dungeon received mixed to positive reviews upon release, with scores ranging from 7-8/10's. The Switch port received mixed feedback, with lower, but still mostly positive scores. Most of the criticism of the Switch port was aimed at Dark Witch's Story: COMBAT portion of the game for being too shallow. All versions hold a 4/5 on GameFAQS.

Trivia

 * This was the first game in the Dark Witch franchise to use the Dark Witch 3 soundtrack. It plays in the Dark Witch's Story portion of the game.
 * While the Boy and Girl are nameless in the English version, their names are Hiroto and Aoi in the Japanese version. It is unknown why this was changed.
 * This game had a demo for the PC before the Steam port came out.
 * If you survive long enough in Avoid Runner, the background turns black, and you get a Game Over.