In addition to real places, there are also others that might not actually have existed, but live on in mythology, like the Cretan labyrinth. According to Greek myth, the great architect Daedalus and his son Icarus constructed an elaborate maze of passageways under the orders of Crete's King Minos to hold the minotaur, the half-man, half-bull creature born of his wife. As you may have suspected, we made it the boss within this location.

The majority of the dungeons in Atlantica are derived from actual locations and myths like these, but some have come from the imaginations of our developers. As players try to move forward on their trek to Atlantis, it will be like they are taking on thousands of years of human civilization to get there. We think this adds to the thrill of playing because you can explore some of the legends, myths and folklore that are very important to the people from various world societies.

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As well as delving into the cultures of these locales, players can gain even more benefits by going through these dungeons. In many of them, there are opportunities to find higher tiers of items that are not available anywhere outside. For example, the powerful Black Knight gear, found only in Bran Castle, is better than the standard level equipment that characters can collect throughout the game. There are also optional side quests that can be undertaken to obtain even further rewards.

As they go up in levels, players will find many shadow dungeons, which are different versions of existing ones, but geared for group play, with even more challenging monsters and bosses. While these are considerably harder than their standard equivalents, tackling them offers the chance to receive far better drops and loot. Quite often, the reasons for going into these tougher versions involve quests to obtain new mercenaries such as the Beast Master or Witch.

The way this element of Atlantica has been designed also help to further distinguish this game from other MMOGs that use the micro-transaction model. They're quite often criticized for the excessive amount of grinding that players have to undertake to level up and obtain items, which generally leads to repetitive gameplay. But our dungeons include very specific quests. This, when combined with the turn-based combat system, means completing them isn't a matter of hack and slash. Strategy definitely comes into play; it's very beneficial, even necessary to select different rosters of mercenaries according to the kinds choose of monsters you'll face. Having assembled the right mix provides the best chance to win a given battle.

We hope players will get caught up in Atlantica's dungeons. Here are glimpses of a few to help whet your appetites for the journey and the adventure that await you.

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Resource: IGN