Dungeons of Hinterberg

Play it on: Xbox Series X/S, Windows (Steam Deck: OK)
Buy it from: Humble Bundle
Current goal: finish the Glacial Galaxy

I didn’t like Dungeons of Hinterberg at first. Very pretty but too much talking, and the gameplay felt a bit too simple and familiar, like The Legend of Zelda on a budget and training wheels. But the early dungeons have been just bite-sized enough that I kept toiling through them, adding one badge after another to my travel book, feeling satisfied and accomplished with each new completion. Then the rest of the game started to click for me as well. I started to grow attached to the town and its quirky but lifelike residents, chatting with them about the mundane and magical in equal measure, building up relationship meters both in the game and in my imagination.

It turns out a burned-out information worker going on a weird vacation to explore dungeons that remind me of Dark Cloud on the PS2 is actually a much more relatable and engaging experience than I originally gave Hinterberg credit for. And like its carefully partitioned levels, I’ve also come around on its Persona-style calendar system. It fits my own daily grind perfectly, letting me briefly escape into its magical realistic fantasy for 15 to 30 minutes here and there as work, house chores, and screaming kids allow. I’m not sure if I’ll end up liking it as much as its biggest champions, or if it will make my GOTY long-list, but it deserves a second or even third look from anyone who might have initially overlooked it or bounced off early on. — Ethan Gach