Has it ever crossed your mind whether or not it’s wrong to try to pick up girls in a dungeon? With strong enemies amok, you may feel like showing off your strength to several cave-dwellers, and saving a girl in distress could instantly make her fall for you. Despite its long name, Infinite Combate reverses the situation in a way where the girl ends up saving the guy.
The game closely follows the story of the DanMachi anime with exclusive new narratives to boot. One of our protagonist duo, Bell, helplessly cornered in a dungeon, is saved by the brave and heroic Ais. Without expressing any form of gratitude, our frightened adventurer decides to do what he does best — run away. With their fates intertwined, a gratifying story awaits. Hardcore fans of the anime will love reliving the events of our two protagonists, while newcomers are in for a treat.
“An adventurer needs to pick up his girls.”
Besides the impactful story cutscenes, there isn’t much to do with characters during the story portion of the game. Sure, you can pay someone a visit; however, they repeat the same line correlated to the story until advancing further. There’s no real motivation to check up on them each time unless you want to view the additional dialogue. An opportunity was missed with strengthening the mechanics of this area, but it may have been for the best that the addition of dating was delayed until completing the game’s story mode.
This isn’t what it looks like.
As the story shows the perspective of two interlinked characters, déjà vu is to be expected and it may end up getting repetitive, even confusing at first. Dialogue cutscenes were done with great care, and even include indicators to distinguish who is currently talking. Not just one, but two signs are clearly shown, such as the movement of the character’s mouth and the motion of the character. Although handled well, there is always room for improvement. Different character poses during interactions would have kicked things up a notch.
Keeping true to its title, Infinite Combate is a dungeon crawler with some common visual novel elements. It does not get too in-depth with the latter, and it’s hard to give it a proud thumbs up for its dungeon-crawling aspect. The tutorial is informative, though, and goes as far as teaching self-explanatory elements common to the typical RPG. Whether that’s a good or bad thing relies on you.
As dungeons play a crucial role in this game, one would expect dungeon crawling to offer a top-tier experience. Unfortunately, it comes across as mediocre at best. The game’s dungeons are generally short and do not take much effort to clear. Consisting of solely enemies, some objects and foes may obstruct your passageway to make it more difficult to transverse dungeons, and sometimes even trap you. The lack of a map makes it a little tougher to navigate, but as the dungeons aren’t huge, the likelihood of getting lost is slim.
These monsters may seem cute, but they are deadly.
A quest must be accepted before entering a dungeon. Finishing these quests isn’t fulfilling. While they may reward you with valis (in-game currency) and items, they conclude too quickly or are too straightforward to let you feel any sense of accomplishment. The story mode itself may take between 10-18 hours to complete. Some of the quests are time-based and even though failure awaits you when the stopwatch hits zero, it doesn’t usually occasionally. After acquiring a sufficient amount of resources, skipping guild quests may even cross your mind. Story quests, on the other hand, must be completed to progress with the story.
Infinite Combate’s combat mechanics aren’t too advanced. It’s simple live-action combat with triggers to execute additional damage to foes or activate a supportive skill. While it isn’t terrible, it doesn’t feel all that great either when fighting against average monsters. One could stand their ground and swing their blade to rid the field of foes. Some enemies are trickier and may either force you to dodge once or dash up to them to land the finishing blow, but a majority of the fights remain unsatisfying. One could even easily cheese their way through the dungeon without engaging anyone in combat, clearing an entire story quest in a matter of seconds.
Using a supporting character’s skill to damage enemies.
While there isn’t a significant number of bosses in the game, boss battles are the most exhilarating part of a fight. Each boss fights differently and has earned their title with the difficulty they provide. Some fights may insist that you learn their patterns in order to overcome them, and they don’t make it a simple task. Shaving the last inch of their HP can possibly make the heart beat faster with the adrenaline exerted from the motivation of becoming victorious.
Upgrading gear makes it easier to deal with these fearsome foes, but it requires the completion of guild quests for both money and materials. Both resources are necessary for enhancing gear and adding an element to weaponry. Additionally, unlike other ARPGs, Infinite Combate’s leveling system is unique and mimics the anime. Regardless of their level, playable characters naturally grow in strength as the story progresses. Acquired points from eliminating enemies can also strengthen a character’s stats, but there is a limit to its capacity.
Bosses in the game can be scary.
In Infinite Combate, a ‘Game Over’ has an entirely different meaning and does not force you to restart from a previous save point. Nothing gathered from the failed mission will be kept, and any consumed items will not magically respawn. On the bright side, regardless of if you choose to continue through this method or restarting from a previous save point, the game will ask if you’d like to skip the cutscene. This is a great addition to the game, as cutscenes cannot normally be skipped.
Upon completion of the game’s story mode, a new mode is unlocked. It offers additional replayable dungeons to traverse through and provides a drastically higher challenge with its extensive floors and tougher enemies, some of which are color rehashes to represent superiority. A choice to play as either Bell or Ais is given as an interchangeable option. It’s the type of content one would expect from the dungeon crawling portion of the game’s story mode.
The number of extra mode dungeons may seem low, but clearing each can be time-consuming. It requires utilizing anything the game offers to increase the character’s survival rate. Besides having to grind to achieve godly stats, the game helps by giving more accessibility to all supporting characters at this point, regardless of the chosen character. Without being in tip-top shape in the deeper parts of these dungeons, it’s not hard to become surrounded in the blink of an eye and fall to their overwhelming power several seconds later.
Choices become available in Extra Mode.
The main attraction for clearing these extra dungeons is to obtain Date Points. These Date Points can be used to go on dates with a variety of characters associated with each individual protagonist, some of which are of the same sex. The visual novel aspects can be exhibited more during dates, and some of these extra interactions include fanservice scenes that anime fans dread for; one of which is wet clothing on the character you fancy.
As the dungeons are periodically generated, replaying them to farm Date Points helps it feel like less of a chore, at least to a certain degree. The more date events viewed for a specific character, the higher its costs will become. Clearing an extra mode dungeon unlocks the higher floors that you can attempt. It may not fully compensate for the unexpectedly disappointing dungeon crawling experience during the story mode of the game, but it’s still miles more enjoyable than what was offered, even with its grindy gameplay. Previous dungeons and boss battles become unlocked at this point, allowing you to re-experience your favorites once more.
While combat is smooth and there is barely any lag during gameplay, the dungeon designs are bland, lacking variety while also giving off the impression of DS quality graphics. Boss battle scenes add a nice touch to the atmosphere, but are laughable upon defeat. It’s not all bad though, as the illustrations displayed during dialogue scenes are impressive, to say the least.
Good ol’ fanservice. Expect more in this game.
The game’s music is excellent. It sets you in the right mood for its dungeon-crawling endeavors. The boss battle music also revs you up for the one on one showdown to complement the heart-pounding moments, especially during tight spots. Each of the two protagonists has their own special tunes played, and although they’re both fantastic, it can get a bit repetitive late-game.
Is It Wrong To Try To Pick Up Girls In A Dungeon? – Familia Myth Infinite Combate is driven by its anime story, but falls short with its dungeon crawling and combat system. The dungeons are bland, its story mode feels short, and combat outside of boss battles is simplistic. It’s obvious that its name and fanservice are its selling points, but it’s still hard to recommend for its $40 price tag.
The game gets a 6/10.
