General Information
Dungeons Of Hinterberg, the new dungeon-crawling adventure from Microbird Games, is absolutely brilliant. It combines the best of traditional Zelda dungeons and puzzle solving with a charming relationship sim, all propped up by some wonderfully sharp writing and a gripping central story. It's a story that asks us to reckon with one important question: at what stage does a place lose its identity if it obsesses too much with pleasing passing visitors over the people that live and work there every day?
Set in the rural alpine village of Hinterberg, the game puts us in the shoes of Luisa, a "burnt-out law trainee" with a seemingly endless supply of holiday days. She's come to Hinterberg in search of adventure, since it just so happens that a bunch of magical portals to dungeons filled with monsters sprang up around the village overnight.
Exactly how these dungeons work, where they came from, and how they have ultimately been commodified for tourists are all explored over the course of the game's 12-15 hour story. I won't spoil anything here, but as set dressing for a dungeon crawler, we've really never seen anything quite like Dungeons Of Hinterberg. The contrast between exploring the picture-perfect town and delving into dank mines, humid swamps, and crumbling castles is sublime, helped by the game's gorgeous sketcherly aesthetic that renders the world as one giant hand-drawn postcard.
There are a total of 25 dungeons to find in Hinterberg, and the game largely invites you to do this at your own pace. You'll start each day by choosing an area to explore in the morning. This is where you'll potter around one of a handful of semi-open biomes in search of dungeons or other secrets.
Each biome is home to its own special ability that you can only use in that area. For instance, in the snowy mountains you get a magical hoverboard that allows you to shred down slopes and grind along rails, turning a lot of the dungeons in this area into tributes to Sonic Adventure 2. In the woodland biome you gain access to a small tornado that can be whipped up to carry you or other items across dangerous obstacles.
Having these unique skills locked behind individual areas might sound restrictive on paper, but each of the 25 dungeons are so well designed that you're rarely being asked to step into one and use your abilities in the exact same way twice. The level of creativity that's been put into every one of Dungeon's Of Hinterberg's levels is a joy to see, and when I tell you there are a few levels that put me in mind of classic Zelda, I mean that as the highest possible praise. As with the best of Link's outings, Dungeons Of Hinterberg is full of moments that reward you for thinking outside the box. There's no feeling quite like a lengthy puzzle finally clicking into place.
Once you find a dungeon and choose to tackle it, that'll take up the next chunk of your in-game day. You'll always get a warning just before you head in to let you know if you have the appropriate gear and stats for a dungeon, but you can ignore these warnings if you want an extra challenge.
The dungeons are constantly surprising. In one you might find yourself snowboarding through a series of goals to open the next area, in another you might be forced to fight your way to the top of a castle, or riding a minecart through a labyrinth of caves. Others are more focused on pure puzzle solving, while some blend lateral thinking with enemy encounters. There are even a few boss battles further down the road, though I'd argue combat is maybe one of the weaker parts of the overall experience.
It's not that combat is bad, to be clear. It's perfectly serviceable hack-and-slash fun that rewards exploration with new abilities that operate on a cooldown, and upgrades that can buff things like health, magic, and time in between being able to perform more powerful attacks. But Dungeons Of Hinterberg can occasionally overdo it with fights, especially towards the end, where an influx of damage sponge enemies kind of takes away from what really works about the game.
It's also here that only having one set of skills per area becomes a negative. Where Zelda games - and many other titles in the same vein - would encourage you to experiment with your entire arsenal in combat, lobbing bombs, arrows, and boomerangs in between sword swings, you're far more restricted here. There's also no getting around the fact some of the area-specific skills simply don't translate as well to combat, meaning some biomes actively make fighting enemies less fun.
Another very small nitpick from me: there's lots of gear that you can find and equip for stat boosts, but outside of the swords you don't actually see these changes reflected in Luisa's appearance. It's hardly a dealbreaker, I know, but in a game about delving into dungeons for treasure and better gear, it'd be nice to see the gear and not just be told I have a +2 to my attack.
Once you've beaten a dungeon you'll be taken back to town, where you get to spend the evening working on your relationships with the residents of Hinterberg. Some are fellow adventurers, others have lived in the town all their lives.
Every character has their own opinion on the sudden influx of tourists, and every character will reward you for reaching certain milestones. A local blacksmith, for instance, will unlock the ability to add extra buffs to your weapon if you help her save her business by getting enough signatures. Others will increase your HP or magic abilities, while some can even help unlock new dungeons.
Getting to know every character is a blast, thanks in large part to some really wonderful writing that ensures each member of the cast feels properly fleshed out. My only issue is, at least during my playthrough, it wasn't possible to properly get to know everyone. Once you complete a certain number of dungeons, the game really starts funnelling you down a very specific path, forcing you to spend some evenings with set characters to progress the story.
It's an approach that feels very at odds with the game's original promise of a laid-back holiday, and I was pretty gutted when I realised beating the game meant I couldn't return to Hinterberg and finish up any relationship paths I'd left untrodden. Still, Dungeons Of Hinterberg is so full of charm and invention that I've no doubt I'll dive back in before long for a second playthrough, giving me the chance to befriend characters I missed the first time.
As a Zelda fan of nearly 30 years, it's not easy to find a game that comes close to scratching that itch in a truly authentic way, but Dungeons Of Hinterberg is the real deal. This is a real gem of a game that has managed to find a genuinely fresh new way to approach a well-worn genre. Like any holiday worth taking, there are some hiccups along the way, but you'll find yourself thinking about going back to Hinterberg almost as soon as you leave.
