Deep Dungeon IV: Kuro no Youjutsushi is one of those obscure Famicom RPGs that never made it outside Japan—which is a shame, because it’s got this weird, grimy charm to it. You start off in a dark fantasy world where magic feels dangerous, almost forbidden, and your party’s basically scraping by against monsters that hit way harder than you’d expect. The dungeon crawling is brutal in that old-school way where you’re mapping everything on graph paper (or just suffering through trial and error).

What stands out is how unapologetically grim it is—no bright, heroic fantasy here. The music’s eerie, the spells have these unsettling Japanese names, and half the time you’re just praying you packed enough healing items. If you’re into NES-era dungeon crawlers with a bleak vibe, this one’s worth digging up—just don’t expect any hand-holding.