The Making of Dungeon Core & Juvenal

Created by the young videogame making genius, Kisuke Shotaro, in 1990, Dungeon Core was a revolutionary blend of elements from across the JRPG genre of the early nineties. It included progressive class tiers, skill trees, an immersive magic system and an open world concept filled with a variety of dungeons. Its earliest builds were designed to be played over LAN with multiple Player Characters enjoying the same world side by side. Few game companies of the nineties were willing to admit that the first Dungeon Core game was the blueprint for the open world MMORPG genre that would take the 2000s by storm. There are three mainline games in the entire series and two official spin-offs. But even fan works and unofficial games are fully capable of accessing the world of Juvenal.

Dungeon Core: Harem Quest - 1990

The first game completed by Kisuke Shotaro in 1990, premiered at the Tokyo Games Show the same year. It swiftly gained a cult following in Tokyo, even as it was decried and banned by censors across the nation.

Dungeon Core: Harem Quest presents the player character with a very simple situation: Called forth by the goddess of love Thea, the player must embark on a quest across the world of Juvenal to defeat the Dark Lord. A handful of early dungeon crawls introduce the character to the basic game mechanics, the concept of dungeon cores, and familiarized them with their early party members. It isn’t until about ten hours in, that the game’s real main quest is dropped. The first confrontation with the Dark Lord reveals them to be a demon queen, and the battle is a scripted loss. However the Dark Lord gives the player one chance. Prove to them that the races of Juvenal can live in harmony, and they will cease their campaign of destruction. The player must then embark upon this very quest, bringing together champions from each of the game’s races to join their party. In the end they face the Dark Lord and defeat them, take over their castle, and bring peace to the land of Juvenal.

The game could not be sold in stores, due to the variety of explicit sexual scenes that occur throughout it, and the adult videogaming market was nearly non-existent at the time. However, when the creator tragically died in his hospital bed, cult fervor around the game became even stronger. Pirated copies were disseminated online, and a fan-made American localization was even created so the game could be played in the states. Dungeon Core joined such titles as Grand Theft Auto and Leisure Suit Larry as a game that would go down in infamy. Thus it was to everyone’s surprise when an American game studio bought the rights to the game from the Kisuke family in 2000. Three years later, they created the game’s first sequel.

Dungeon Core: Sexy Quest - 2003

Published in 2003 for MAC and PC, Dungeon Core: Sexy Quest was a grand return to the world of Juvenal for a new era. While the original was a top-down 8-bit JRPG, Sexy Quest attempted to bring the game into the style of the 128-bit isometric Western RPG. This reimagining of Juvenal was bigger and more detailed. It brought back the same levels found in Harem Quest, but sent the player to new lands and continents such as the Emerald Isles, the Cleavage Sea and the Kojiki Empire. Like its predecessor it was designed for multiplayer interactivity, but included couch-side co-op modes that did not require a LAN connection. Players could enjoy the game on the same keyboard side-by-side if they so wished.

Dungeon Core: Sexy Quest presented the player character with a new summons to Juvenal. This time called by a beautiful high elven priestess named Nimue, the player found that the southlands were in great peril. The main game pit the player against two major antagonists, the faun lord Silvarius and the dark elven queen Hecatria. Players were offered the opportunity to engage each enemy and their accompanying forces as separate ‘campaigns’ within the game’s setting. Facing Silvarius took the players deep into the Bramblewood of Kelandor. Fighting Hecatria took the players into the twisting caves of the Umbraneath.

The game sold well upon initial release, but quickly fell prey to bad press, boycotts and censorship. The game included extremely explicit sexual content, with a host of romanceable characters, all of whom had entire libraries of sexy CGs to unlock. The studio promised to weather the storm and continue development on the game. Over the next three years they released three expansion packs, The Emerald Isles, The Kojiki Empire and The Demon King. Word from the studio indicated that two additional expansions were fully developed and ready for publication. However, their backing dried up in the face of nosediving stock shares, and in 2006 the studio’s parent company at last shuttered their doors.

Dungeon Core Online - 2010

In 2009 the IP was sold again and a new group of developers got their hands on the title. In what was always meant to be a quick cash grab, the new studio was tightly reigned in by their shareholders. Dungeon Core Online was only given permission to create a very limited scope adventure for Dungeon Core. The parent company wanted an online treadmill grind comparable to World of Warcraft and other contemporary online games that milked cash from its players.

The adventure took place entirely within the “Lightlands” area of Juvenal, as established during the events of Dungeon Core: Sexy Quest. Player characters were then given quests to deal with struggles between the factions of elves, humans, dwarves and halflings. To keep the game going, an ever evolving soap opera of political motivations and ancient grudges gave the players a semblance of a story to follow.

In a move that greatly alienated the game’s original fan-base, DCO did not even allow the player to make their own characters. Instead the player inhabited a handful of pre-generated characters that already existed in the worlds. From human princes and elven clergy to dwarven lords and halfling politicians, the game was essentially ‘rigged’ from the start. When the game sold poorly, it was ‘expanded’ into an even cash-grabbier mobile game. Fans quickly dubbed this the ‘dark age’ of Dungeon Core. Love for the series was kept alive almost solely through fan fiction, limited edition merchandise and die hard collectors. Support for DCO died in 2015 when the game proved to be an utter financial failure. And for the next seven years, most of the fanbase believed that hope for Dungeon Core had died as well.

Dungeon Core: Waifu Quest - 2022

The game hit itch.io in September of 2022 during the COVID pandemic. While the world was stuck indoors, an ambiguously named publisher known only as Developer Games, quietly released a pay-what-you-want early-access build set in the Dungeon Core universe. Fans who picked it up were stunned to find that this Dungeon Core was a faithful recreation of the worlds set forth in Dungeon Core: Harem Quest and Dungeon Core: Sexy Quest. Brought up-to-date with cell-shaded isometric gameplay and a modern recreation of the game’s original systems, it was instantly a hit and money poured in. It became a bestseller on itch.io almost overnight.

Dungeon Core: Waifu Quest allowed the player to once again enter the shoes of the Hero, the stereotypical silent protagonist archetype of previous Dungeon Quest games. The story saw the fan favorite waifu Nimue return as The Summoner, who tasked the hero with ensuring the future of the Lightlands by wiping out the monster hordes rampaging across their borders. The Hero was first sent to gather a small cadre of Waifus, beautiful women from across the Lightalnds. Then he had to marshal an army, by permanently resolving the mess of political intrigues that had been developed during Dungeon Core Online. With the Lightlands united behind their banner, the Hero then began their campaign against the monster hordes. The game’s original build culminates in a battle against the demon lord Asmodai in the depths of Infernus, where one of the world’s greatest evils is put down for good.

However, only one year later, Developer Games once again quietly released an entirely new DLC for the game. They issued a release claiming that this new DLC would rewrite the events of the original Waifu Quest, and would express the studio’s true vision for how the world of Juvenal would progress. They advised those who did not enjoy ageplay, cuckolding and raceplay to not play the new DLC. Naturally, the ensuing furor only brought the game free marketing and increased its popularity.

Dungeon Core: Shota Quest - 2023

Supposedly the true version of events that took place during the game Dungeon Core: Waifu Quest. Dungeon Core: Shota Quest introduces a party of three main characters, three young boys from the monster races of Dungeon Core. The game’s story proceeds to tell a ‘progressivist’ story in the science-fantasy setting. These three protagonists were designed to make the player reconsider the countless monsters they had slaughtered in previous DC games. It was designed to cast the events of the entire Dungeon Core franchise in a new light, and from a new perspective.

These three boys engage in a fight to save their families from the Hero who had destroyed their homes and taken their loved ones prisoner. The ending of Shota Quest proved incredibly controversial and highly political, and made the game a discussion point across the adult gaming industry.

In the wake of Shota Quest’s success, Developer Games announced their upcoming slate of games to take place in the world of Juvenal. A suite of DLC were announced, including Shota Side Stories, A Shadow over Innsdeep, Heart of Stone, Quest for Kojiki and Devil May Cry. All of these would expand the stories of the various young boy protagonists who join the main party in Shota Quest.

Even further reaching into the future, Developer Games tentatively informed fans that there were plans for full sequels. Shota Quest 2: Might & Magic, its planned DLC Loli Quest 1 and Loli Quest 2: Love & War and the trilogy capstone Shota Quest 3: Gods & Kings were all being tossed around as ideas at the studio. Due to popular request from fans, the studio even considered a retelling of the events of Dungeon Core: Sexy Quest, repackaged as a prequel called Shota Quest: Sword & Sorcery. No promises were made that these games would ever be developed. Developer Games promised to focus on the content that was currently in front of them. But they hoped to bring fans a bright future with plenty of playtime in the world of Juvenal and the beloved series Dungeon Core.