Dungeon Antiqua 2 review: An oddball tribute to the sicko's favorite Final Fantasy

One of my favorite games in 2024 was Dungeon Antiqua, a small (like, super tiny) DRPG made in the “Pyxl” engine by Shiromofu Factory that revolves around a central gimmick. What if Wizardry, the classic DRPG, was mixed in with Famicom-era Final Fantasy in a way that used the latter to add more casual appeal to the former? It was a fascinating effort, and it hit at a time when I was fully diving into the DRPG rabbit hole myself. I didn’t need the push to try the genre, but the concept was novel enough I picked the game up anyway. Fast forward to January 2026 and we have a sequel, which takes the original concept in a similar, but strikingly different direction.

DRPG x JRPG

Much like the first game, there isn’t much of a story here. Many years after the previous events, the aging fairy is guiding a new group of adventurers to take out a big ol’ bad guy hiding behind a series of dungeons. The twist this time is that the previous Famicom style has been upgraded to Super Famicom, and specifically zeroes in on Final Fantasy 5. That’s the one the sickos like, as its oddball sense of humor sets it aside from the reason most folks like the series (melodrama), and the job system is a magnificent exercise in game-breaking, turbogrinding appeal. Dungeon Antiqua 2 eases the gas a bit on the Wizardry stuff, and pumps the surplus energy into the job system. It’s good stuff.

In Final Fantasy 5, multi-classing was a case of deliberate but simple choice-making, as you had one slot you could carry an ability over with. In Dungeon Antiqua 2, you get a whopping three slots, meaning your cross-class efforts could easily be a Frankensteinian mishmash of several jobs forming a bizarre, but seriously powerful party build. This makes grinding even more fun! If, you know, grinding for the sake of tinkering is your thing. It’s my thing for sure, folks. But unlike FF 5, this game doesn’t just hand you the keys to the job kingdom. You have to work for them.

This is where the dungeon-crawling comes in. The first game’s Wizardry piece was as traditional as it gets. Your vision in the dungeons was somewhat obscured, and the maps actually had an intelligent endless scrolling mechanic that made navigation appropriately confusing. The sequel is a bit kinder, making your range of sight a bit stronger, and dropping the scroll thing in favor of, just, normal maze-like dungeon structure. What it does obscure is things like doors and enemies, which you won’t be able to see until you’re close, making you vulnerable to flanking. The cool part there, though, is you have a sort of strafing option, letting you hold a button to root your feet and face forward, letting you kind of juke around jittery enemy sprites. It’s wacky to see in motion considering this is all happening in early SNES visual style, but it’s neat to see an attempt at something different.

A powerful chemical imbalance

You’ll have to take on these dungeons, not only to progress the story, but to unlock important pieces of party-building, such as high level spells. You also have to conquer special challenge dungeons to unlock jobs, some of which restrict what you’re allowed to do (such as only being able to use magic to unlock Bishop). These dungeons are tough, and it makes sense as they gate the core appeal of what this game is all about. Every little piece of a game of this size matters, and each new wrinkle you run into feels well-considered as part of a cohesive experience. Considering how much homage is baked into Dungeon Antiqua as a series, its own identity shines through in the smart decisions made by its developer in translating ideas from one space to another, and the ways in which its enforcement measures fit into the overall design.

As well-designed as Dungeon Antiqua 2 is, it does kind of run out of steam surprisingly early. Part of this feels like a side effect of backing up from Wizardry-style friction. There are fewer restrictions (no alignment for example), the dungeons are easier to navigate, and until late game, combat is much easier as well, as long as you keep your level up. You don’t even start back at level one when you change jobs, so the risk aspect of multi-classing is gone. And with such a heavy emphasis on the job system, it feels like 10 jobs total is a bit too low of a number to really take advantage of this game’s differences from FF 5. And speaking of variety, loot and equipment feels severely undercooked, with long stretches of game passing by between meaningful-feeling upgrades beyond leveling up. All this stuff together feels like, perhaps, the edges from the first game were sanded off a little too aggressively.

Dungeon Antiqua’s mixture of Wizardry mechanics with Final Fantasy visuals and combat is a novel concept, and one that clearly has enough appeal to develop a new series in the indie RPG space. Dungeon Antiqua 2 was something I’ve been looking forward to for months, especially because adding a Final Fantasy 5-style emphasis on a job system sounds like a perfect way to add a new twist for a sequel. As fun as the experience is overall, though, there’s a bit too much overcorrection on the Wizardry side, one that I’m not sure was asked for by anyone who enjoyed the first game. Without the friction the game feels a little more generic, losing a piece of its strong identity. It’s still a great time, however, especially for fans of games like Bravely Default or Etrian Odyssey. Here’s to part 3 getting another chance to nail that sweet spot part 2 is clearly aiming for.

Dungeon Antiqua 2 is available now for PC. The writer purchased the game themself for this review.

Lucas White

Contributing Editor

Lucas plays a lot of videogames. Sometimes he enjoys one. His favorites include Dragon Quest, SaGa, and Mystery Dungeon. He's far too rattled with ADHD to care about world-building lore but will get lost for days in essays about themes and characters. Holds a journalism degree, which makes conversations about Oxford Commas awkward to say the least. Not a trophy hunter but platinumed Sifu out of sheer spite and got 100 percent in Rondo of Blood because it rules. You can find him on Twitter @HokutoNoLucas being curmudgeonly about Square Enix discourse and occasionally saying positive things about Konami.