Dungeon Treaders Art
Image: Studio Kobako

Call them what you will–blobbers or DRPGs–our genre intro is proof that we're fans of putting together a fully custom party of weirdoes and sending them into a huge grid-based labyrinth in search of glory. Even more compelling when you can make your entire party a swarm of common housecats, even if it's not optimal strategy. Yesterday, the demo for Dungeon Treaders rolled out onto Steam, a retro dungeon crawler from Japanese indie outfit Studio Kobako. With it, you can follow in our ill-advised pawprints, all while jamming to what might be one of the wildest battle themes this side of Persona. Not convinced? Check the trailer below. It even has lyrics so you can sing along!

Curiously, Dungeon Treaders started out as a (sadly Japanese-only) web novel named Dungeon Settlers, written by the game's writer and character designer Goroku Takahashi. Several characters from it turn up as both NPCs and your initial crew of available party members, but why would you ever want them when you can just generate an entire party of cats?

See, on top of the usual elves and dwarves (albeit with different names here), the most interesting option at character creation is to make your characters cats. Not bipedal furries, or giant monster cats, but just... cats. Cute, fluffy lil' fellas with some amazing character portraits. Cats have low stats except for agility and luck, which are maxed, and as their description reads, "Cats do not bother fighting mere monsters. They simply bend the battlefield to suit their own convenience", which sounds like a cat if I ever saw one.

From the little I've played so far, this one feels real good to play, too. This is pure Wizardry, right down to your party members taking guesses at what kind of trap each treasure chest might be defended by (and the cats just meowing and burbling), with simple but fast-paced turn-based combat. The graphics are low-fi and dithered, clearly PS1-styled, albeit in widescreen and at higher refresh rates. Interestingly, the game's files are intentionally exposed, so if you want to add your own custom character portraits or even replace the music and battle sounds, you're free to.

Personally, I think it looks and sounds just fine already, though, I admit I rolled my eyes a little at the dobonhonkeros on many of the female character portraits. The music is bouncy and upbeat, and more than a little Persona, and the menus are snappy and responsive in a way that tells me this game doesn't want to waste your time. Go grab the demo for Dungeon Treaders here, and maybe wishlist it for when it launches sometime next year.