Released exclusively in Japan for the Sega Saturn in 1998, Dungeon Master Nexus is a 3D dungeon-crawler based on the classic 16-bit RPG, Dungeon Master. And although FTL Games – the American developer of the original Dungeon Master – have been credited with creating this game, they actually had no involvement in the production of it. Dungeon Master Nexus was developed entirely in Japan, by Victor Interactive Software, and a fan translation into English was released in Sept 2023.

Dungeon Master Nexus takes elements of the original Dungeon Master and mixes them with a few new ideas, and – it has to be said – it also simplifies the gameplay significantly. Whereas Dungeon Master features fast, precise, tile-based movement, Dungeon Master Nexus goes for a Shadowcaster or King’s Field-style of movement, which I think was a mistake in some respects. The main reason for that being: moving around is so achingly slow…

It takes a while to get used to the controls in this game. Everything is controlled via the joypad, and while this isn’t ideal, the developers have at least included a few features that help speed things up a bit. Like – for example – double-tapping left or right on the d-pad turns you 90 degrees quickly, and double-tapping up on the d-pad toggles between walking and running (although ‘running’ is still very slow).

Picking up items that you find while exploring means having to activate a hand cursor; moving down to the object you want to pick up, then clicking on it. You can then press ‘B’ once to put it into a ‘quick select’ slot, and pressing ‘B’ again will store it in your inventory. Another very useful feature of Dungeon Master Nexus, that helps massively with inventory management, is the fact that you have ‘pooled’ inventories for different categories of items. Food, for example, goes into one pool that all four members can access, rather than having to put them into individual character’s inventories. The same goes for weapons, armour, keys and potions. These can all be accessed via a ring-style menu that makes equipping and using items easier.

Magic spells are also built using a ring-style menu. During play, pressing the ‘Y’ button brings up a circle of runes, and with these you can construct Priest or Wizard spells that are identical to those in the original Dungeon Master. So if you have experience of Dungeon Master‘s rune-based spell system, then you’ll no doubt ease into spell-casting in Dungeon Master Nexus. If you don’t, then you’ve probably got some reading to do before you master it…

Eating and drinking is still important in this game, and the process has also been simplified. You can either feed every character to the maximum, or choose what they eat individually. Drinking from a water fountain simply requires that you press ‘A’ with the hand cursor over a fountain, or you can use water skins if there are no fountains around.

Combat in Dungeon Master Nexus has been simplified too. To attack a monster within range, your characters must be equipped with a suitable weapon, and you simply press ‘A’ to attack. Like in the original Dungeon Master, your four party members are set into two rows, and your back row characters cannot attack with short-range melee weapons – they must either use ranged Ninja weapons (throwing stars, slings, or bows and arrows), or ranged magic. Every attack you make; every weapon you throw, and every spell you cast, contributes to a character’s experience level as either a Fighter, a Ninja, a Priest, or a Wizard.

New features that only appear in this version of Dungeon Master include: a map overlay that can be activated by magic users, and which uses magic energy over time (and will disappear if the host completely runs out of magic energy); the ability to set someone ‘on watch’ while the party sleeps (very useful, and a good idea, implemented well), and saving to either cartridge RAM or system RAM.

Gameplay in Dungeon Master Nexus is somewhat similar to the original Dungeon Master, in that you’re basically exploring a maze full of traps, tricks, puzzles, keys, doors, pits, and monsters (including places where there are monster generators, ensuring that enemies re-spawn in those areas), although there are fewer monsters to deal with in this, mainly because the slow pace of the game would make too many monsters impossible to deal with. There are even areas, and puzzles, in Nexus that will be familiar to seasoned Dungeon Master players, although the maze itself is different. The developers have obviously played Dungeon Master a lot, and have tried to transpose it to the Saturn as best they can, but the transition from tile-based movement to ‘free’ movement hasn’t entirely been successful.

My initial thought was that Dungeon Master Nexus was not very good at all, but after I spent a good chunk of time playing it, and got used to the gamepad controls, I did begin to change my mind about it. It’s a challenging and absorbing game overall, but will probably only appeal to those who can put up with how slow and clunky it is.

More: Dungeon Master Nexus on Wikipedia