Super Dungeon Explore

From Board Game Geek:

Super Dungeon Explore (SDE) is a dungeon crawler inspired by old Japanese console RPGs. The 52 included miniatures are done in a cute / chibi / super-deformed style, which means the head is roughly the same size as the rest of the body.

One to five players take the role of classic fantasy heroes like the human paladin, a dwarf fighter, or an elf ranger. One player is the "Dark Consul" who controls the monsters of the dungeon. Every hero/monster has a character card that details the stats for movement, attack, armor, willpower, dexterity, action points and hearts (= life points). Additional information may include special abilities / actions / attacks and potions.

The game is played on modular dungeon boards. During a round of play, the game passes back and forth between single heroes and the monsters, but the exact order may change from round to round. The characters use the stats from their character card, special dice (with hearts, potions and stars) are only used for combat and checks. If the heroes wound the opponent, they may draw loot cards to improve their stats. There is also the possibility to open treasure chests to find even more powerful things. The monsters have no possibility to "level up" apart from a single late game upgrade but the Dark Consul has an unlimited number of them.

To win the game, the Dark Consul must defeat all heroes in his dungeon. The heroes must spawn the dungeon boss by killing monsters or destroying all spawning points (= entry points for new monsters). The heroes must then kill the dungeon boss to be victorious.