“Heroes?! In MY Labyrinth?!”

Have you ever gotten lost in a dungeon? Frustrated, confused, swamped by enemies with not a single health potion left in your inventory? Well, have you ever wanted to be the jerkface that designs those soul-killing labyrinths you loathe so much? If so, then you clearly need to play “Yuusha no Kuse ni Namaiki da,” or “Brazen In Spite of Heroes.”

In this puzzle-RPG hybrid from Japanese developer Acquire, you play the role of a quite-possibly-evil dungeon master trying to build the ultimate hero-killing maze. Laid out in Dug Dug-styled strata, you carve out all the tunnels yourself, culling slimes from moss-covered rock. These most-basic-of-basic RPG baddies will then proceed to ooze around and fertilize other tiles or feed on them and multiply. When rocks start to turn white from this process, you can break them to release nasty bugs or even more effective lizardmen. Figuring out how to structure your dungeon and cultivate more powerful creatures is the key to success. It’s a delicate ecosystem so think of it as a kind of “monster ant farm.”

Soon enough, the surface’s mightiest champions will descend into your lair in an attempt to abduct you and drag you topside for some buff rewards from the locals. Yeah, now you know how all those bosses you’ve killed over the years feel. Anyway, once they enter, you’re asked to place yourself somewhere in the dungeon, and though the grace period has ended, you can continue to create new tunnels and unleash new monsters as the adventurers hack their way through your minions. Each hero type has different attributes and weaknesses, as well as the ability to level up, increasing their strength and restoring their health. Striking a good balance between having monsters powerful enough to pose a challenge and not littering your dungeon with experience point fodder takes some getting used to.

Though it may sound somewhat complex, it actually plays out quickly. This is an arcade game through and through, which means it’s hard to tell exactly how deep it gets from the three-level demo. But, hey, it’s got great aesthetic appeal (original Dragon Quest era sprites and pipey music) and hallowed review house Famitsu gave it an impressive score (36/40). Try it for yourself in Japanese (it has a low language barrier) and hope that someone plans to publish the full game in the West at some point. Below you can find the promotional trailer and instructions on how to obtain the demo yourself.

As getting demos, especially foreign ones, on to your PSP can be a trial of patience, you can try following these instructions:

1. Download this file to your PC. That’s the EBOOT file you’ll need to run the game.
2. Stick your PSP-formatted Memory Stick Duo into your computer if you have an appropriate reader OR use a mini-USB->USB cable to connect your PSP (with Duo inserted) to your computer.
3. Either way, the Memory Stick should show up on your list of drives. Open it and go to the /PSP/GAME directory.
4. Create a new folder with the title “NPJG90009″
5. Place the EBOOT file in that folder.
6. On your PSP, go to “Game” on your XMB and scroll down to “Memory Stick.” You should now see an icon for the game.
7. Click it and play!

By the way, you’ll need Firmware 3.72 to run it!

Tags: Acquire, Brazen-In-Spite-of-Heroes, Demos, famitsu, PSP, puzzle, RPG, Yuusha-No-Kuse-Ni-Namaiki-Da

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