Diablo 3 is a deep and brilliantly spit-shined game. A work in progress for over ten years, it was developed by a massive team who exhausted a massive budget to satisfy a massive fan-base. It is pontifical and grandiose, to say the least.
And that’s why it’s ironic that Miya Omaru, an unknown indie out of Japan, came along and captured everything that’s good about Diablo 3 — from the looting, to clicking, to the, um, looting.
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Still in beta, his Flash game Inishie Dungeon may be all the Diablo I ever need. The downside? I can’t read a word of it. It’s all in Japanese. But once you get started, that doesn’t matter, because a battle axe that does ten damage is a battle axe that does ten damage.
It controls almost exactly like Diablo, with your left hand on the W, A, S, D keys, and your right on your mouse. Plus, this has the added advantage of having a Dragon Quest or Zelda or Gauntlet vibe. Take your pick.
A few pro tips for starting out:
- If the game don’t run, try a different browser. Safari didn’t work for me.
- Take the stairs going down in the castle on the top-right side of town.
- Pick up items by standing over them and clicking on the words
- If you see a bunch of skeletons standing in a throne room, look out!