Favorite Hidden Dungeons

[Dracos]

Okay...  we all know any good RPG includes one of these somewhere.  They can be anywhere from as short as a single screen to vast adventures that take an entire day to travel through....

The hidden dungeons of the game.

I'll start by harping on one of my all time favorites: The Morilia Gallery in Tales of Phantasia.  This dungeon is indeed a required one, but only a few levels of it, which is neat, gives one a taste of it.  Perhaps it was simply the battle system of the game itself that made traveling through it so fun, but overall I rather enjoyed that hidden dungeon.

Fearless Leader

[Anonymous]

The best 'hidden' dungeon for me had to be the Forbidden Ruins in Arc the Lad Collection. Like the dungeon Drac mentioned, this one was required to be visited...if only for a few floors.

Afterwards you could go and visit it whenever you wanted, to tackle on the insane task of descending fifty floors into the earth as you fought demons that made almost all the others in the game look like pansies.

For what? Standard fare of money, experience, and rare treasures...

But the twist was at the end, when you had to take on the master of the dungeon. By this point I was thinking that it must truly be a horrifying beast of a master if it's at the very bottom of this ruin.

To my utter shock, the 'demon' suddenly throws off its all encompassing dark robes to reveal...

A pink haired little girl!?

One that's apparently taken some speech lessons from Shampoo (of Ranma 1/2 fame), no less!

Here I am, staring at my screen in shock and amusement...

Then the battle music starts...

Summoning two allies (a wolf and a skeleton I believe), this little girl SKIPS towards my group of experienced fighters...

Somehow managing to cross an entire screen (Arc the Lad had range handicaps for all the characters, you could only walk a certain distance in each character's turn)...

Hauls her foot adorably back...

And kicks my best fighter to death...in ONE move!

Suddenly the girl went from being Chibi-Usa levels of cuteness to a war machine of DOOM in my eyes.

Ignoring the two stooges she summoned, I immediately ganged up on her and began to attack her with all my forces as my mage quickly revived the fallen.

Wouldn't you? Afterall, this little girl was faster than my fastest character, had more life, had more strength...

I termed her...the Pink Devil...

The most embarrassing thing? My parents were watching this at the time...

And laughing their asses off...

Anyhow, I eventually finished this little girl off, only to have her introduce herself as Choko...

And reveal that she was only 'playing' with me at the time...

Which truly disturbs me. o.O

[Anastasia]

*Eyes grow soft and large*

AWWW!! Isn't Choko-Chan so CUTE? ^_^ Did you play AtL2 and do the Choko subquests in it, by the way?

Anyway...

My favorite is the Ancient Cave from Lufia 2. While most secret dungeons are only a small diversion from the main game, this one is LONGER, harder and more in depth than the rest of the game. You can finish the main game in forty hours, yet it takes well past one hundred to finish the Ancient Cave by yourself.

[Dracos]

The ancient cave is superbly fun.  100 floors with an uber boss at the end that you must defeat in four rounds or less.  Starting the cave automatically knocked down to level one it is, rightfully, it's very own game by itself.

Fearless Leader

[Anastasia]

Yep.  Gift mode was the AC in it's own game, really.  

Excuse me while I go fire up my SNES.

EDIT: This is gonna take awhile, the system isn't liking my save states.

Fuck.

[Dracos]

Ouchie.

*huggles his maxed lufia 2 saves that took forever to build*

Fearless Leader

[Anonymous]

But of course I went through all the Choko sidequests, for she is Choko!!

Really though, she has to be one of the coolest characters in that game. (in my humble opinion)

Not only is she adorable, but she is much MUCH more than meets the eye.

*coughs* Akura, anyone?

[Anastasia]

YES!

All hail and praise...

Akura-Chan!