On the tin, BlockQuest Maker is described as a game that lets you “create your very own dungeon RPG” filled with “secret doors, falling rocks, [and] strong mobs”. This is an incredibly misleading statement. BlockQuest Maker is a puzzle game. You move around constructed environments picking up items and moving blocks to open the path to the maze’s end. Or you build environments for other players to challenge.

Developer: Wonderland Kazakiri

Publisher: Wonderland Kazakiri

5 hours played // Review Copy Provided // $14.99

Upon booting the game, you’re met with a small series of tutorial messages presented by an 8-bit character from the “builders guild”. These messages were the first clue that something was off. While the first tutorial only had a couple minor language errors, like dropping articles such as “a” or “the”, the more advanced dungeon building tutorial was riddled with strange phrases and missing words. I have a little experience teaching English as a second language, and these errors reminded me of the common mistakes native Japanese speakers make. Although I noticed this basically immediately, I didn’t think much of it as I headed into the bulk of the game.

“Set the LINK and gain victory!” Well, translators ARE expensive.

It was only after I began playing the game that the importance of these weird translation mistakes struck me. These errors aren’t limited to the game of BlockQuest Maker but seem to have impacted the advertising for this title as well. The translators for this game did not understand what western players expect when they hear “dungeon crawler” or “RPG”. BlockQuest Maker is, in its entirety, a puzzle game. It draws more inspiration from Chip’s Challenge than Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy, or even The Legend of Zelda.

Maps like this best represent what this game is about. Move the boxes, reach the switches, open the door, get down the stairs.

I wish I could say that the Japanese-to-English localization only harmed the advertising and tutorial messages, but there’s a slightly deeper problem with the title’s English release. The bulk of this game is about sharing your death mazes online and challenging the labyrinths created by other players. I tried challenging the highest rated and most popular maps created in English, and the experience was disappointing at the best of moments.

Turning on worldwide dungeon collection led to a different experience. Instead of maps that didn’t challenge me and, quite frankly, bored the hell out of me, I was presented with absurdly complicated labyrinths and cities. “Awesome”, I thought, “finally, an experience that seems engaging”. Right up until I walked up to the first written, and possibly necessary, clue available. Right. This dungeon was created by a Japanese player, so the text is entirely in Japanese. I’m not sure what I was expecting.

Seems like there was a lot going on in this dungeon. Too bad I’ll never know.

Lamenting the issues with the English release aside, it’d only be fair to detail the game itself. ‘Play’ is divided into three main categories: explore, build and challenge. ‘Build’ is what you’d expect. You use a set of simple tools to create a dungeon, populate it with traps, monsters, keys, doors and objects, and use a “link” system to create triggers to move stuff around. You can share your dungeons with other players around the world, and as players challenge your dungeon, you’re rewarded currency by the Builders Guild. This currency is then used to expand your selection of traps, monsters and objects, opening up more creation options.

The Builder’s Guild will award you with gold for playing and building dungeons.

I’m admittedly not much of a creator in this sense. I’d much rather delve into deathtraps and labyrinths created by others, so I only gave this section enough attention to fairly review it. I found the interface intuitive, and the option to use the touchscreen is definitely a plus. Gating the options available to builders seemed like a strange decision to me, but this does grant builders excitement when they earn that new monster unlock and helps them feel less overwhelmed by the options available. With the ability to share your creations with friends and strangers alike, the build option is very well designed and fleshed out.

Although you have to unlock most of them, there are plenty of options for customizing your unique puzzle-labyrinth.

The explore category represents the main method of play for adventurers. Here you’ll find a slew of different dungeons and sorting options. There are official dungeons and Builder’s Guild recommended dungeons alongside the collection of player made experiences. These lists can be sorted and viewed by popularity, death count, ranking, etc. There’s even a true random button if you’re feeling lucky. Completing dungeons rewards you with adventurer cosmetics and currency, which is the same currency provided for building dungeons. In this way, the two avenues for play are intertwined. Progress in one category can improve your experience in the other.

Explore mode offers a lot of ways to thumb through player-made dungeons.

Unfortunately, all of these well-planned systems exist inside a game that just isn’t overly engaging. Movement and actions are surprisingly clunky for a grid-based game. Combat literally consists of facing a monster one square away and mashing “A” as quickly as you can. The act of gaining experience and leveling up feels entirely inconsequential – it’s true that it improves your stats, but I literally didn’t encounter a monster that is able to best attack button mashing at level 1. The music somehow manages to feel even older than Chip’s Challenge. We’re talking repetitive, DOS game quality tunes akin to Wolfenstein 3D, albeit with an ever-so-slightly-more “chiptune” feel.

This player made “arena” dungeon devolves into walking at monsters and mashing “A”.

Personally, the part of BlockQuest Maker that I enjoyed Maker was the challenge mode. This mode is a collection of 120 pre-built stages that functions as something of a combined tutorial and single-player adventure. Progressing through these stages provided me with a nostalgia trip for block labyrinth puzzles and reminded me why I spent so many hours playing Chip’s Challenge in Windows 3.1 on the family 486. Unfortunately, this nostalgia didn’t even last until the end of the 120 stages.

Challenge 120 represents the end of the pre-built “single player” content.

BlockQuest Maker isn’t a “bad” game. Rather, its problems are rooted in the challenges a small studio faces in localizing their game for another language. It advertises itself as something it’s not. It’s not a dungeon crawler or an RPG; it’s a puzzle game. Additionally, thanks to being far more popular in Japan than in English-speaking countries, the content available online is limited right now. This fact should change as time goes on. Perhaps, as more players unlock all the tools in build, dungeons will become more challenging and engaging. Even between when I initially played this title and when I finalized this review, the most popular and highest rated maps have changed and improved. Maybe as more players get their hands on it, BlockQuest Maker will eventually become an engaging experience. For me though, five hours was all I could stomach.

Thanks for making it to the end of my review. BlockQuest Maker doesn’t scratch that adventuring itch, but Momodara and Guacamelee do. If you’re not feeling the Metroidvania style, check out Yiik: A Postmodern RPG for some classical RPG goodness. Finally, let me say thank you on behalf of Nindie Nexus. This site remains ad-free thanks to the passion of our writing staff. If you’d like to get more involved with the community, check out our Discord or follow our Twitter. If you’d like to help out, consider donating to our Patreon or our Ko-Fi. Thanks!