Etrian Odyssey for NDS

[UCBooties]

Do you have a Nintendo DS? Do you long for the days of old school, first person dungeon crawlers? Atlus, purveyor of all things good and bad from the niche side of Japanese gaming, has brought over an RPG called Etrian Odyssey for the Nintendo DS. It's a first person, labyrinth exploration game, where you have to chart your own progress on the touch screen.

It is an old school RPG every step of the way, tons of grinding, difficult encounters, nigh impossible bosses, turn based, you name it. Also, if you want knew items to appear in the shop you have to collect the materials out in the wild and sell them back.

There is no plot to speak of, but a great deal of character customization over nine different classes. I picked it up last week and have been having a lot of fun with it. I was wondering if anyone else had tried it out. If not, I would recommend it with a few caveats.

-No plot: You make your own characters and aside from general quests and some specific events it's all up to your imagination.

-Insane difficulty: Be prepared to grind a lot, save frequently, and get your ass handed to you by free roaming bosses.

-Lackluster Presentation: All the stills you see in the town or during dialog are nicely done in anime style, but the 3D dungeon itself is pretty bland. Backdrops only change every 5 levels so be ready for a lot of repetition.

Not pick up and play: You can only save in the town and at certain points in the dungeon which will not be available early in the game. Though warp items are affordable, going into the dungeon represents a solid commitment of time so this is no good for gamers on the go.

The good stuff:

-Reminds me a lot of old RPGs like Wizardry and others of that ilk, a nice classic feel to it.

-Creating the map is easy, essential, and gives a feeling of accomplishment. finally clearing a floor and getting confident enough to head to the next one feels like a real goal thanks to the challenge of the game, there is a level of peril missing from many modern RPGs.

Just thought I'd let you all know about it since I've really been enjoying it (and Atlus games have been hit or miss recently), anyone else tried it?

[Stark]

How does the self-mapping work? No map at all would be utterly stupid (like in EOTB etc) but the idea of manual electronic mapping sounds interesting. Does they game add anything (ie walls) leaving the player to add other stuff, or is it entirely 'you scribble what you want and that's your map'?

[General Zod]

An RPG with no plot whatsoever and a hideously unbalanced combat system? Sounds kind of lame and pointless.

[Stark]

Unless, like me, you think plots are the worst part of most action-oriented RPGs. Most games of this sort have plots that boil down to fedex quests and meaningless off-screen events.

If it's EOTB or Wizardry or Bards Tale but awesome, it sounds good to me.

[General Zod]

Unless, like me, you think plots are the worst part of most action-oriented RPGs. Most games of this sort have plots that boil down to fedex quests and meaningless off-screen events.

If it's EOTB or Wizardry or Bards Tale but awesome, it sounds good to me.

I like plots when they simply enhance the setting instead of trying to be something deep and meaningful. Square, for example, somehow forgot about this somewhere between Final Fantasy 6 and Final Fantasy 8.

[Stark]

Heh. Yeah, if the story works/is interesting it's great, but usually it's utter dross and you end up ignoring it anyway - *especially* in action RPGs like this.. In any case, there IS a story, it's just short - you're a dude who starts a guild to explore the mysterious forest and get famous. The end.

Not that I've played this game, of course, so it could well be rubbish. But I grew up playing turn-based dungeon crawlers of this type, and I have a weakness for them. The staggering difficulty and 'iron man' playstyle appeals as well: I hate the save/load sploits that riddle (and allow you to ruin) many RPGs.

EDIT - I do not 'have' a save/load exploit.

[UCBooties]

The bottom screen shows a grid map and every time you take a step it fills in a square to show your position, you can then draw in walls with the stylus, extend a square to remind yourself to return to an intersection, mark item spawn points, the paths of roaming enemies, treasure, events, you name it. You can also leave yourself memos about what item points spawn, where to go for quests etc.

[Ravencrow]

I only just got it and played it for an hour or so. It plays like an old Might and Magic game. It seems mostly to be about the exploration and making the map. There isn't anything to see - monsters pop out and they are quite static in representation. There are some events within the dungeon levels, but you might not actually "see" it so much as the game tells you that there's something there.

Purely a dungeon crawler. 9 classes to make parties of up to five members. Friends of mine seem to make parties specific for certain purposes - eg. hunts or gathering of items. Character customization is in terms of skills picked and stats raised, and items equipped. Exploring the labyrinth, and picking up loot to sell gradually increases the items in stock at the shop.

[Stark]

How dynamic is the dungeon? Is every playthrough going to use the same maps, the same monster positions, same item spawns, etc?

[Ravencrow]

There are random monsters, and there are specific type monsters, more dangerous than the random ones, ever present and apparently part of the ecosystem of the labyrinth. They have their own AI behavior, and can be tracked as they move around in the level.

Edit: I don't think the dungeons are random.

[Stark]

Wait, random monsters? Do you mean the dungeon is empty and you get 'random encountered' like say Wizardry, or that there are roaming monsters you might run into like Eye of the Beholder?

[Ravencrow]

It's both. Random monsters as well as powerful set roaming monsters.

[Stark]

Oh, that's much less attractive. If you're wandering around empty tunnels until a random encounter shows up, that's a bit too 80s Gold Box for me.

[Ravencrow]

Oh, that's much less attractive. If you're wandering around empty tunnels until a random encounter shows up, that's a bit too 80s Gold Box for me.

heh. That is exactly it -- this game is designed to recapture the feel of those 80's era rpg games.

Not everyone's cup of tea at all.

[Stark]

No shit, dumbass - I just compared it to everything from Bard's Tale (which isn't just a PS2 game ) to Eye of the Beholder. They don't ALL have random encounters, some have actual monsters that move around the map instead of appearing out of thin air (like that really old Dungeon 'something' game I forget where my dudes always died of thirst). I *hate* 'guys appear out of nowhere', and I might even have played a game in the 80s once or twice.

[Ravencrow]

Dungeon Hack? Rogue or something?

I'm not very familiar with Gold Box games. I wasn't that into games then. I just remember that on the occasions I tried, I died very quickly.

Normally I don't like random encounter type games either, but I just like the "going into dungeons and killing things" bit. With the map thing there's a rather geek feel to this game. I wonder how long the novelty of that map drawing utility will last.

[Stark]

The Gold Box games were... an acquired taste. The only one I really liked was the one with the death knight who kept letting you beat him only to get up and say 'lol loser' and leave - right up until the end where you have the Immortal Knight Slaying Foozle. Dumbass.

And it was Dungeon *Master*! I remember now. It was like a more complex precursor to EotB, and it was hell hard and I didn't really understand what was going on. You can get Dungeon Master Java these days for free, I believe.

As a bonus, looking up this game on playasia means I noticed Ouendan 2 is out.

[Cao Cao]

Atlus and Nippon Ichi seem hell bent on recapturing the old days of RPG gaming, be it American or Japanese. Especially on handhelds. Other Japanese companies seem to be following the handheld trend with games like Valhalla Knights.

I think it's a good thing! I've had it up to here with modern J-RPGs and their all story no gameplay angles. C-RPGs aren't doing much better with stuff like Oblivion. Bring back the good old days, says this old fogey.