Capsule Review: Dungeons of Hinterberg
An action RPG with life sim elements set in the Austrian Alps.
The game takes place in a world like the real one, except that a few years ago magic suddenly emerged. In several towns across the world, monsters and dungeons appeared, and people visiting these areas gain magical abilities that can be used to fight the monsters and progress through the dungeons. A tourist industry sprung up as people journeyed to these towns to become “slayers” and run the dungeons; some slayers were popular enough to do it for a living like athletes or influencers.
You play as Luisa, a burnt-out legal trainee taking a vacation to Hinterberg in the Austrian Alps to try her hand at slaying. Structurally, it’s a bit like a mix of Persona and Zelda: the first half of each day is spent in the field (exploration, combat encounters, and the dungeons) and the second half back in town (get to know various locals and other visitors to advance their stories and unlock mechanics and stat bonuses). There is no day limit or real-time clock, so you can take your time and do things on your own schedule.
The game is beautiful and does a great job setting a cozy atmosphere. Hinterberg seems like a wonderful place to visit and lets both the player and Luisa get away from their normal lives for a while. The story is a little bit of a mixed bag: rather than let the player soak in guilt-free escapism, it raises questions about whether the influx of tourism is actually good for towns like Hinterberg. This theme is mostly present as a way to tell the various individual character stories: for example, you get both the perspective of a local small-business owner and the owner of a larger competing business moving in to cater to the slayer tourists. But don’t expect a clear resolution, since in the context of the overall plot it ends up being a debate-and-switch that becomes irrelevant in the face of a larger and less-nuanced problem.
There are some rough spots that could have used more polish. A few mechanics make instant or near-instant death too easy to trigger, which doesn’t go well with the vibe. Luisa becomes important to both the individual character stories and the overall plot story way too easily and quickly, making the world feel less real. And for some reason the game seems to be tuned with the expectation that you’ll only do about half the individual character stuff–you’re likely to run out of things to do in the field at that point and if you want to see the rest of the character content, you’ll still be forced to go into the field every day for no reason which destroys the pacing, and the stats and other improvements you unlock will have you significantly overleveled, destroying the balance. (Note: after I finished the game, an update added New Game + which is an alternate way to resolve this mismatch.)
But those quirks aside, there’s a lot to love here. The vibes and atmosphere are fantastic, the characters are mostly charming, the world is fun to explore, combat is satisfying with a lot of choices, and the spells are fun to use both for combat and environmental puzzles. I really enjoyed my time in Hinterberg and I’ll be keeping an eye out for what this studio does next.
I Stopped Playing When: I completed a full playthrough including all achievements and optional objectives.
Four Stars: Great. Not only did I finish the game, I probably played through the whole thing again and/or completed any optional objectives. It's an easy recommendation for any genre fan.