Denpa Men they came by wave is a really interesting spin on the RPG genre. There really isn’t a lot of new things that happen within the game though. Stats, status aliments, grinding, gear, items, dungeon crawling: these are all the things that describe what you will be doing and looking at throughout the game. And yet I can’t exactly say that it’s really for true RPG fans out there, or rather it’s not just for them. While I understand that no game would truly like to exclude itself from anyone, but it happens and I think RPGs have that happen the most to people. What I really think sets Denpa Men apart is the fact they keep it simple.
While you are able to have a rather large group of 4-8 denpa men, even smaller if you like, they all have one job to really do. Each Denpa Men is only allowed one ability from a small selection of them, and they are only obtained when you have already caught them. So if a Denpa Man has no ability, he never gets one, but that doesn’t mean that Denpa Man is worthless. See the Denpa Men with no abilities, no antenna, they are the muscle of your group. Denpa Men with no antenna tend to have better overall stats than the ones with the ability, so they can dish out and take more damage than the ones that have antennas. However in order to make in through some of the harder dungeons you have to have some amount of other power. You can’t just attack everything with brute force, and certainly need some proper gear for some of the harder stuff. This is where the simple strategy comes in, how do you prepare to go into each dungeon? The game offers you several different ways to prep for dungeon crawling, and most of it is simple enough to understand. You can grind from a previous dungeon or the current dungeon, constantly leaving and coming back. Or you can buy gear from a shop that can help you become better suited for the environment each dungeon has. The further and further in the game, the more you have to be aware of prepping for a dungeon, and having the right set of skills. The game also has a color system that comes into play every now and again too. In a lot of ways the system is a lot like pokemon; where things are super effective or ineffective against certain elements. While the colors are something to be concerned about, it certainly doesn’t stop you from using what you want to use for strategy purposes. The game gives you enough gear and items that help you learn how to keep certain members on the team. I know I kept my main Denpa, that was an ice type, throughout the whole game with little to no worry. Really the colors really only play in when you start to not notice them, but if you pay enough attention to the colors they will give you a big edge when you’re crawling through the dungeons.
But that’s really all there is to Denpa Men and kinda is its main problem too; it’s just mindless grinding for the most part. While I personally enjoy all the small prepping for each dungeon, and seeing all the new terrain to explore it’s a bit too simple for its own good. Even its story is a simple get the princess back from an evil king, and yes the villain is called evil king. And while it’s cool that it uses radio waves to generate various Denpa men; in the long run it’s just rather gimmicky and unnecessary. It also has an odd difficulty spike near the end of the whole game, that really doesn’t help you prep for it. Sure it’s effective enough that it will get your act together and plan better, but it’s still rather unexpected welcome of difficulty. Really though this is just a dungeon crawler through and through. While its simple enough for anyone to get into; it probably won’t be batting eyes anytime soon.
Final Thoughts:
The “Denpa” Men: They came by Waves is interesting little twist on the old dungeon crawling scene. It employs a lot of simple tactics, together with grinding, and prep to make for a fun dungeon crawler that anyone can enjoy. It’s only real problem lies on how simple it is, and tends to end up being nothing more than a grind fest, but a fun one at that. For around 10 dollars its surprisingly length, and if you’re interested in dungeon crawling you can’t really go wrong with this game.