Loosely based on a 1981 video game with the same name (I'm a big fan of old video games), this anime doesn't pretend to be anything more than what it is: a dungeon-crawling story about a party that decides to brave ancient ruins for treasure, fighting monsters, and also somehow saving the world in the process.
Is it a genre-defining, groundbreaking anime that will make you re-think your whole life? No. Does it have to be? Also no. You could rightfully accuse this anime of being "forgettable" or "mediocre", but all the things it does, it does well, and it does in a style.
It has some added sense of realism (e.g. delayed reactions to pain), it depicts magic quite well, is rather faithful to the source material, and I personally quite like the art style and sound design, even if it includes sound effects stolen from other anime (e.g. Gundam) and Star Wars. I particularly appreciate their choice in colour palette.
It's an anime for those who want to see a fantasy party defeat an evil villain within 50 minutes rather than 240 minutes. It's an anime for RPG lovers and appreciators of old games, chiefly fans of the original Wizardry series.
Now, obviously, this anime is not without its fair share of flaws either: if you expect a ton of character development, this anime is not for you. There is not much to the story (group of adventurers go underground to defeat bad guy and save the world, the end), but as I said, the anime manages to tell this story in a style. As lamentable is the lack of character development and worldbuilding, one has to understand that this is a 50-minute OVA. And honestly... It's still a recommended watch from me.
