Undernauts: Labyrinth of Yomi Review Summary

Despite its engaging story, beautiful visuals, and strategic free respec system, frustrating instant deaths and finicky controls are hard to overlook, especially given the steep price.

Free respec and class change: Players praise the game for allowing unlimited free class changes and stat/skill reallocation at any time, even inside dungeons, providing flexible build options without penalty. This system is highlighted as a major convenience and a key factor in build experimentation.

Overall positive reception: Multiple reviews describe the game as fabulous, wonderful, great, and well worth playing, indicating strong overall satisfaction. These high praise comments reflect broad enjoyment and endorsement of the game.

Atmosphere and ambiance praised: Reviews consistently highlight the game's incredible ambiance, oppressive and unsettling mood, and strong atmospheric presence. The dark, heavy atmosphere is noted as a standout feature that enhances immersion.

Switch Boost adds strategic depth: The Switch Boost mechanic is repeatedly praised for enabling free skill usage with a recharge turn, providing damage reduction, HP recovery, and preemptive attack options. It adds tactical depth to turn-based combat and makes consecutive battles more comfortable.

Enjoyable map and dungeon exploration: Maps are well-designed and make exploration fun, with dungeons being enjoyable to navigate. The exploration aspect is a key positive, supported by good map layouts and interactive elements.

Instant death mechanics frustrate: Instant death attacks are a major frustration, killing characters regardless of health with no revival items, forcing returns to base. This mechanic is seen as unfair and luck-dependent, especially in endgame.

Price is too high: Many reviewers feel the game is overpriced for its quality, with the $60 price tag often cited as steep and not worth it outside of sales. This sentiment appears frequently, suggesting a value mismatch.

PC controls are poorly implemented: Players consistently criticize the keyboard and mouse controls, citing them as atrocious, terrible, and horrible with poor implementation and no mouse support. This makes the game frustrating to play on PC without a controller.

Controller support is problematic: There are issues with controller support, including lack of support for PS4/PS5 controllers via DirectInput, recognition bugs that persist after key mapping changes, and input delays. These issues require Steam restarts or manual layout loading to resolve.

Grinding is excessive: Progression requires heavy grinding, with players citing long hours of farming for equipment, currency, and levels. This makes the game feel tedious and repetitive, with some noting it takes hours to fully equip one character.

Classic Wizardry-like dungeon crawler: The game is consistently described as a Wizardry-style dungeon RPG, with many reviews noting its classic first-person, grid-based exploration and turn-based combat. It is also frequently compared to Etrian Odyssey and Experience Inc. titles.

Free respec and class change: A standout feature is the ability to freely redistribute skill points, reset stats, and change classes at any time (including in dungeons) without penalty. This is highlighted across multiple clusters as a major flexibility and quality-of-life advantage.

Dungeon exploration and building: Exploration is core, featuring tile-based mapping, secret doors, and a unique Flower mechanic to create doors, ladders, bridges, and fast-travel points. This combines classic maze-like navigation with new creative construction elements.

Full party creation and customization: Players can create a party of up to six fully customizable characters from a selection of classes, choosing portraits and backgrounds. This deep character creation is a core part of the experience for many reviewers.

Quality-of-life enhancements in genre: The game modernizes the dungeon crawler genre with features like auto-travel, auto-pathfinding for explored areas, autosave, and optional combat automation. These QoL improvements are noted as making the game more accessible than traditional titles.

Controller input problems widespread: Multiple issues with controllers were reported: interference with keyboard input, buggy recognition after key mapping changes, and input lag. These issues often require manual reloading of layouts and restarts to fix.

Mouse and keyboard support poor: The ported version has inadequate keyboard and mouse controls, with unfriendly key configuration and poor keyboard navigation. The interface lacks mouse support, making the game difficult to control without a gamepad.

Display resolution limitations: The game is capped at 1080p with no option for full HD windowed or borderless mode. Some character portraits also appear below 1080p resolution, degrading visual quality.

DirectInput controllers unsupported: PlayStation-style DirectInput controllers are not supported, limiting controller options for players. This is a specific compatibility issue that excludes a common controller type.

Performance acceptable on mid-range: On mid-range hardware, the game runs at high frame rates (75 fps) at 2K with max settingsable performance. This is a positive note regarding optimization.

Recommended for dungeon crawler fans: Multiple reviewers recommend this game to fans of dungeon crawlers, describing it as a standard 3D dungeon RPG with modern visuals. It is seen as a safe choice for genre enthusiasts.

Good entry for beginners: The game is frequently recommended for newcomers to the genre, offering a comfortable entry point and a good starting point for those willing to invest time. It is considered accessible for first-time DRPG players.

Buy on sale: Many reviewers advise waiting for a sale before purchasing, citing the high price relative to the game's content. Some say it's a steal at sale price but not worth full price.

Not worth full price: A portion of reviewers feel the game is overpriced, especially for casual players, and some cannot recommend it at AAA price. Others say it's not worth it even on sale, indicating mixed value perceptions.

Strongly recommended for genre fans: Some reviewers wholeheartedly recommend the game to genre fans, calling it highly recommended overall. It is considered a solid choice for those who already enjoy dungeon RPGs.

Community fair range: $25.00 - $30.00.

Game completion: 40.0h.

Story completion: 40.0h.

The game is enjoyable for the first 30 minutes or so, but quickly becomes repetitive and tedious, with a marked drop in fun driven by repetitive combat, reused assets, and uneven pacing.

Friction: repetitive combat and visuals; uneven pacing; limited quality-of-life features; static environments and encounters.

Old-School Dungeon Head: Methodical exploration, party building, and grinding to overcome difficulty spikes. Motivation: Nostalgia for classic first-person dungeon crawlers and seeking a challenging, no-handholding experience. Stance: sale.

Genre Newcomer Friendly: Exploratory, story-driven, using the game's convenience features to avoid excessive grinding. Motivation: Easy entry into the dungeon crawler genre without overwhelming complexity or grind. Stance: sale.

Value-Conscious Bargain Hunter: Patiently waits for sales, compares to other genre entries, may accept flaws if the price is right. Motivation: Getting a fair price for the content offered; unwilling to pay premium for a low-budget indie title. Stance: deep sale.

Steam Deck: The game suffers from critical controller input delays and recognition bugs, especially with PS5 controllers, making it frustrating on Steam Deck. UI text mismatches and a text input glitch add friction, though recent patches have improved launcher behavior. One user reported fine controls, but the overall feedback indicates a broken out-of-box experience.

High price concerns: Multiple reviewers note the game's high price, often $60, which they feel is not justified for a niche dungeon crawler. Some suggest waiting for a sale or buying at a discount.

Comparisons to Experience titles: The game is often compared to other Experience Inc. dungeon crawlers like Stranger of Sword City and Demon Gaze. Some find older titles more interesting, while others appreciate the accessibility.

Connections to previous games: The story is linked to previous Experience titles like Stranger of Sword City and Round Table, with lore and reused assets. New players may need prior knowledge to fully appreciate it.

Port from console: The game is a port from PS4 and feels designed for controller use, with some controller-related bugs at startup. Issues are minor and quickly fixed.

Compared to SMT games: Many reviewers compare the game to Shin Megami Tensei, especially Strange Journey, noting similarities in vibe and combat. Some prefer this game's gimmick, others find it not as good.