Review by: Brandon "Magic Circle" Cackowski-Schnell

Cladun - This is an RPG! is the perfect example of a modern game making overtures to classic gaming styles. It's obvious in both the name, a combination of "classic" and "dungeon" and the 8-bit aesthetic that the game hearkens back to the classic dungeon crawlers of yesteryear but at the same time the incredible flexibility of the magic circle mechanic along with the modern sense of humor makes the game feel fresh and inviting to those that are either new to the genre or looking for something that doesn't play as if it were 15 years old. The result is a game that not only represents one of the best downloadable games of the year but one of the best games on the PSP period.

The game takes place on the mystical world of Arcanus Cella a strange place that seems to be home to nothing but dungeons, a talking cat and a cranky female wizard named Despina. Before long the world becomes home to a cast of oddly lovable characters from the adventurous Pudding and her browbeaten sidekick to the clumsy merchant and the wizard that looks exactly like Bob "Happy Little Bush" Ross, complete with massive white guy afro. The cast of characters all have their own mysterious motivations for being there, motivations that are unearthed a few lines at a time in conversations that take place after clearing out so many dungeon floors.

These conversations may be flippant and silly at times but also show off some real emotional depth and manage to portray a degree of characterization missing in many games relying on far more "dramatic" stories and lengthy cut scenes. It's minimalist story telling at its finest. If the pre-made characters don't provide enough variety you can create your own characters with the game's character editor, choosing to either modify the color and design of premade sprites or creating your own characters completely from scratch. Even the dungeon's final boss can be customized to your liking showing off a depth of customizeability not usually seen in a bargain priced downloadable title.

The real depth comes from the magic circle, which is the game's truly excellent party system. In Cladun you adventure with your party however not in the traditional sense. Every character class has up to ten magic circle configurations, unlocked as you level your characters up, that you slot your party members into. Depending on their position in the circle, or the circle itself, the sub characters get boosts to experience gained or mana or take hits to hit points. The sub characters then act as two things: mana reserves and human shields. Mana is used to fuel the use of various relics and attribute boosts to allow you to have greater attack and defense stats or have lower cost of firing off special powers. Human shields are, well, human shields. Place a high hit point warrior in front of you and you may have a nice tank soaking up damage but very little mana to help boost your attack. Conversely, put a mana rich wizard in that slot and you may have more buffs than you can handle but your wizard won't last long and once he's gone, the boosts he fuels goes with him. The magic circle is one of the most entertaining RPG mechanics I've seen in a long time and while it requires a lot of trial and error, once you find the right circle that allows you to clear a dungeon level it is extremely satisfying.

The satisfaction of a well constructed circle is not without its price though and as mentioned before, you may have to spend a little time and effort finding the right circle before clicking on the one that's right for the current dungeon. Luckily all you lose is time, and not much of it as most dungeon levels can be cleared in a manner of minutes. If you fail, you get to keep half of the experience you earned while trying, although none of the money or found items. The lack of a physical manual to reference while trying makes things all the more difficult although the game does have a good encyclopedia within it to help clear things up. Still, as well done as the encyclopedia is, having to exit out of the magic circle screen to figure out how to use it makes for a somewhat disjointed experience. On the other hand it does encourage on the job training which is more fun and eventually far more successful in teaching you what you need to do.