Bonus Dungeon: Difference between revisions

*** There are a ton of these in the original game as well, such as the water tower in Worus Castle (which gave you the Shiva summon), the basement of Castle Bal (for the Odin summon) and several others. Technically, everything after the Pyramid is optional, as you can go straight to the [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] as soon as you reclaim the [[Global Airship]] in the third world.

** Deep Dungeon in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]''.

** The Deep Sea Research Facility in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]''.

** The Omega Ruins in ''[[Final Fantasy X]]''.

** ''[[Final Fantasy IV]] Advance'' added two new dungeons, one on Mt. Ordeals, containing new equipment due to the fact this version added the ability to switch party members, and the Lunar Ruins, which contains character specific trials.

*** The DS version lost this ability due to [[Suddenly Voiced]] cutscenes, and removed both dungeons. It compensated for this by adding a pair of utterly horrifying [[Bonus Boss|Bonus Bosses]], Geryon and Proto-Babil, and [[Nintendo Hard|cranking the difficulty of the game]] [[Up to Eleven]].

* The game ''[[Vagrant Story]]'' has a bonus dungeon called the Iron Maiden. While areas in the game has a map to show which path leads to where, the Iron Maiden map doesn't. There's minimal to no light in the Iron Maiden, and the enemies are much more menacing than usual, and that's [[Nintendo Hard|saying something]]. The boss waiting at the end is the reason why this dungeon is called "Iron Maiden".

* The Abyss in ''[[Wild Arms 1]]'', ''[[Wild Arms 3|3]]'', and ''Alter Code F''. It was smaller in the first game, but all later incarnations had it at 100 levels deep. It exists in 5 as well, along with three other [[Bonus Dungeons]], but it's much smaller.

* The Netherworld, Auldburg, Trials of Elore, Jewel Beast's Lair, Purgatory, and Shadow Palace from ''[[Romancing SaGa]]''. You only need to visit one of the first 3 that are mentioned in order to progress the story, You can open up all three before starting the endquests, but {{spoiler|after completing Auldburg or The Netherworld, you cannot access the Trials of Elore.}}

** ''[[Romancing SaGa 2]]'' had several: The Ice/Snow/Sand Ruins as well as a hidden town which allowed an deeper explanation of the game's backstory.

** A similar Pit of 100 Trials is also found in ''[[Super Paper Mario]]''.

*** Two of them, in fact, one of which must be completed twice to get everything from it.

* The Hellgate from ''[[Tactics Ogre]]'' was 100 levels deep, and interestingly actually tied into the plot, as the bottom level was where one of the [[Bonus Boss|villains]] in the game had retreated to. Beating him didn't change the main plot of the game, though. In order to get the ultimate "bragging" item in the game, one had to go through the Hellgate twice, as well as get 4 specific weapons from special encounters with recolored monsters.

* Beauty Castle and the Alternate Hell from ''[[Disgaea Hour of Darkness]]'', as well as a world within every item which is generated randomly. Fittingly, the Alternate Hell was the [[Bonus Dungeon]] for the previous game, ''[[La Pucelle Tactics]]''. There is a similar version in ''[[Phantom Brave]]'', which is yet another in the [[Nippon Ichi]] line of [[Turn-Based Strategy]] games.

* ''[[Fire Emblem]]'': ''The Sacred Stones'' has two of these: the Tower of Valni, and, more fitting, as it is only available toward the end of the main game, the Lagdou Ruins.