ok so first of all i thought you were judging the dungeon and not the quest and rewards, but whatever.imo:
Decrepit Sewers is the worst. By a lot. Super linear, literally just combat-parkour-combat-boss. But making a player collect 42 tokens? The hell is this bullshit? Actually, guess what? I don't even know if it's 42 tokens, or if that's the order of the dungeon, because of how fucking few times I run it because of how bad it is. Who had the brilliant idea of making this the first dungeon a player encounters? On my first playthrough, there were no dungeon quests, so I wasn't even remotely motivated to do any dungeon up until the Forgery, because my dungeon experience was ruined by this dungeon. Also, bad quest and mediocre rewards. -3/10
Infested Pit is second-worse, but far better than Sewers. Still overly grind-y combat rooms, but at least the rooms have nice spawnrates. Unique twist of putting a helpful information NPC in a dungeon, I like that. Slime block parkour is fun, nice boss with the tunnel blocking mechanics, it's an OK dungeon but nothing special. If we're talking about the quest, I liked it a lot. Good cinematics, and I enjoyed how it was literally just a running and jumping simulator. They also executed the supposed theme of the dungeon nicely. 2/10
See AlsoReview | Metaphor: ReFantazio ‘A Game Of Thrones’ (PS5)10 Best JRPGs Set In Tokyo, RankedTrials of Ascendancy GuideUnderworld Crypt is next. In theory, it's a really nice dungeon, where there is very little of the parts of dungeons that players hate (parkour and token rooms), but the sheer amount of buggy-ness makes it so fucking annoying to run. Did you know that a mage can TP glitch all 3 of the survival stages? Did you know that a shaman can cheat all 3? Yeah, not a buggy dungeon at all. The boat stage is good in theory, but the boat moves so fucking slowly that it becomes even worse than the survival stages played legitimately. The boss theme is actually really cool, where you are supposed to strategize about counterbalancing timers and benefits of each troop, but in actuality, spamming the dudes to the left of the General works, and really doesn't have any strategy. Did I mention that half the time Charon gets stuck in the side walls and you can't kill him, so half the time you are forced to lose? The quest was OK, but honestly messed with Beyond the Grave, which was a much better quest. Without the cool theories at play in this dungeon, since they were executed so poorly, this dungeon would be below Infested Pit. 3/10
Lost Sanctuary... Oh boy. Very obnoxious starting quest, but I don't judge a dungeon based on its requirements, unlike some people. Cool theory, our boy mass-extinction Garoth, and they executed it pretty OK. Very nice aesthetic for a dungeon, though I feel like the jungle theme would fit more with Undergrowth Ruins, but I still liked it. Parkour at the start is kind of buggy, but not a bad parkour, and not excessively long. Good way to introduce the exploding door mechanic in the starting room, and good way to make token rooms less grindy and more survival based. Not a terribly long parkour later, and the whole dungeon was mostly just running up until the boss. Boss mechanics here are, well... quirky. Making the player kill the minions to "weaken" the boss works in theory, but trying to bait Garoth into the hole is a fucking nightmare unless you jump in too. I don't like how you can't kill the boss, but so far, this dungeon is the best. 4.5/10
Undergrowth Ruins is overall an OK dungeon. I genuinely enjoyed the starting quest, but since I'm not counting that in my rating, it doesn't matter. The first room is a good way to introduce the buggy, ping-based parkour, so it's a good intro room. Escort part is bland, but a new dungeon mechanic that we haven't seen, so that's nice. Now for everyone's least favorite part of the dungeon! The parkour! Oh boy! I hope you live in the United States or Europe, because if you don't you can't do this parkour! That's right, if you have bad ping, you're fucked! That is what I like to call not a good idea! This is a cool mechanic in theory, and was fun in AJF, but it is honestly so painful in this dungeon because of ping lag. Good theory though! Then we have the token room, with the double token tier action that we also see in Ice Barrows, pretty nifty idea, I like it. Then we have the fucking nightmare of a parkour in the next room, where we all just spam our movement spell until we get to the checkpoint. I like having a checkpoint, though. Grindy token room, but all dungeons need one of those... wait! They don't! Still, has a nice elevator in the middle so I can't hate it too much. The boss fight is OK, but no one likes multistage boss fights unless they are interesting, and surprise surprise, this one isn't! This is just a tedious DPS test. Overall, dungeon is buggy and very ping based, but it's OK. 5/10
Ice Barrows is a nifty little dungeon, in a nifty little out-of-the-way town. Nifty little starting quest, and a nifty little aesthetic for the dungeon. The first token stage is just obnoxious, especially for new players who don't know that only some mobs drop tokens, but at least the grind stage doesn't take too long. Next we have delightful ice parkour, yay! It isn't too bad, and a nifty little parkour room between combat stages. Then we have the 32-token grind fest, but at least spawnrates are high. Next stage is also a learning phase for new players, but once you figure it out it isn't too bad. Tunnel survival stage is a pain, but at least it goes by pretty quickly and you can easily do it with a horse. The two-tier token stage appears again, and is still just as grindy, but a nice niche. Theorick boss fight is pretty uneventful, but hey, at least elemental weaknesses and we knew who we were fighting before the actual boss fight. 5.5/10
From here on out are dungeons that I actually enjoyed doing and thought were well-made!
Sand-Swept Tomb had one of the best dungeon quests in the game, thanks to @Ascended Kitten , except for when the wagon doesn't leave Rymek. Oh well, we don't judge based on that here. The change to stop CSST parties actually made it a more enjoyable dungeon solo, because now you get a different version of the dungeon every time! Survival stages, parkour stages, running stages, token stages, this dungeon has everything! I especially liked all of the parkour stages, because they weren't ping based! Cool boss fight with a twist, genuinely well-made dungeon. 7.5/10
Eldritch Outlook. Could be better, considering the significance of it, as the gateway to Dern, but still a pretty nice dungeon. Surprised the CT didn't play around with any of their fancy toys, but I guess they saw how much everyone loved Undergrowth Ruins and other dungeons with weird, unhelpful special effects. Great questline leading up to it, cool dungeon looks and theme. Nifty little bridge and door-opening sequence at the start, then a grindfest of a token room, with a cool mirror, at least, but solo you have to run back and forth like 4 times, so it's only OK. Cool bridge, very nice looking wormhole, and cool run stage if you fall off, but again, you can use a horse to cheat it. Climbing towers and going through portals at the top! Yay! Nifty miniboss sequence, you have to fight 5 so that's cool, different elemental weaknesses so you have to choose your path carefully, but only if you already know where everything is! Wow, smart! The parkour that had to be nerfed because people are too dumb to use Optifine Zoom straight down, but I actually liked this parkour, and it gets easier after you do it once. Now for everyone's favorite boss, because you can either get carpal tunnel for 15 minutes of spellspam solo, or have half of a group get murdered doing it as a group! My favorite lose-lose situation. At least there were some cool things like the laser and the mid-fight minigames, but it really is just a 3.5 million health DPS test. 8/10
Galleon's Graveyard, my second favorite dungeon. I've only ran this dungeon once, because it isn't good for EXP, had an obnoxious starting quest, had no worthwhile rewards for me, and is so out of the way. But the content is great! Cool aesthetic, helpful information NPC (again), boss that fits the theme very well, unique mechanics! First, we get the grindfest out of the way, but it's only 16 tokens and isn't too bad. Parkour uses... interesting mechanics again, and though they are somewhat buggy, still a nice parkour. Great introduction the boss fight mechanics, showing you what you have to do, but with an easier opponent. Pirate ship fight is... actually, my favorite fight in the entire game, because you don't have to just spam spells to win. You have to actually use your brain cells in a fighting situation. We need more fights like this or Quartron. Token speedrun stage is nice, nifty new mechanic shown, but not overly long or boring. Boss fight uses a nice fighting mechanic. Overall, this dungeon is really well put together, aside from a few small bugs, and uses revolutionary fighting techniques which are much more enjoyable. 9.25/10
Fallen Factory is easily the best dungeon in the game. Even though it is probably the longest, I disliked none of the stages (except maybe the first one, because, yay, grindfest). The tokens weren't just gold or diamond cubes, and actually made sense to use, the boss was witty and provided comic relief, overall making the dungeon more enjoyable, the new techniques and mechanics actually functioned (wow, a first, I know), and the whole dungeon flowed really nicely. The first stage can be cheated by most classes, but actually doing it isn't too bad, because high spawnrates and Antikythera commentary. Vent crawling with more commentary, pretty nice. Amazing survival stage, instead of just spamming mobs that are higher leveled than the player, CT actually gave us a fun, challenging running phase, which is actually more difficult than the entirety of Decrepit Sewers, even without the minimal amounts of mobs. We are then treated to more Antikythera commentary, giving us a good laugh, and then you continue to a kill room, where you kill the 4 important mobs, which, again, drop tokens that make sense. Now we get a tone shift from the supercomputer, where we are actually treated as an entity, instead of a being barely worthy of attention. Now for the most fun parkour sequence in the game, you have to turn on the moving mechanisms and then climb to the top, using gears, elevators, and launchpads. Really fun stage overall. And, you get to press a button! Yay! Simple walkway with more witty commentary, nice view too. Combat stage, but at least tokens make sense. We can press another button now! Sadly, the dungeon actually played you and your emotions like a fiddle, and you can either choose to /kill or kill a defenseless puppy. If the murderer in you chooses to continue, you get fight 2 minibosses and a boss, but you have to get tokens to fight any of them. Upon entering the arena for cores A and B, we get more Antikythera commentary, but this time directed at a Cerid, before the supercomputer realizes that you, in fact, are not Cerid. The actual boss fight is pretty easy, except for the boss's massive speed. Well-made, fun, and functioning dungeon, we probably won't ever get another this good, so enjoy it. 9.75/10
