Dungeon Crawling Delight

About a year ago Atlus released a dungeon crawler for the Nintendo DS by the name of Etrian Odyssey. One of the big gameplay mechanics that takes advantage of the touch-interface of the DS was the user's ability to create a map of the dungeon and add annotations that they find necessary. This game is a control freak's (me!) dream. You create your own party from any of the 9 available classes, 2 of which are locked until further progression into the labyrinth. The composition of your party and skill progression (as you level up) are totally up to you, you also get to name each of your members! Yes, I absolutely love this level of personalization.

To start lets go over the basics, first the story. To be quite frank, there isn't really one. This is not an RPG that has an agenda to shove a story at you, it has much more of an emphasis on exploration. In fact that is the story tidbit it gives you, a rift in the land near the town of Etria has opened up and you are an explorer seeking adventure in it's depths. This is one factor which may already repel some people, there is no driving story plot aside from spelunking around in a maze. The character development is just about nonexistent for your party seeing as how you created them, it's similar to how there really wasn't any character development for your player character in Diablo.

Right off the bat you have access to 7 different classes: Landsknecht (think "berzerker"), Medic (resident healer), Protector (tank), Survivalist (ranged fighter, some support skills), Dark Hunter (ailment and damage output), Alchemist (nuker), and finally a Troubadour (party support skills). You can have up to 5 people in your active party at a time and up to 16 people total in your guild. Later on you unlock the Hexer and Ronin, the Hexer being an upgraded Dark Hunter but more magic based and Ronin, they are another damage dealer. On top of the open ended format for your party, each character has a variety of skills you can invest in in a style that again reminds me of Diablo. One thing you have to come to terms with quite quickly is that you will exp grind, you will exp grind A LOT. Due to the extensive amount of time required to progress in the game, each floor cleared has a great amount of achievement associated. Also due to the extensive amount of exp grinding you end up doing I found myself really appreciating the mastering of various skills and also the unique directions you can take your characters based on your play style.

For the most part the only place to save is the town on the top floor, and occasional waypoints in the dungeon. This leads to some unfortunate deaths and time lost, but hey it IS a dungeon crawler and is exactly what you signed up for. This compounded by the fact there are FOEs, much stronger enemies that are visible on the map and sometimes chase you, that are rampant throughout the dungeons adds a real danger factor to your exploration.

To touch on a few other points, the shop system works so that as you kill things and acquire items (you have an inventory item limit) you sell them back to the general store and based on what you sell back it makes more advanced items available. There are quests that you can receive from the town to obtain rewards as you venture through the labyrinth. There is also an item foraging mechanic which works at specific resource points (mine, take, chop) which are learned through the skill system. Again I want to stress the level of control you have with the map of the dungeon you create. It has a separate icon for Events, Treasure, Item points, Monsters, Doors, Pits, Warp, Stairs (up or down) as well as Memo where you can enter a note to yourself. As I said before, this game takes a very long time with a lot of exp grinding so these tools are very helpful for planning ahead knowing it will be slow progress.

To sum it up this is definitely a niche game catering towards a very specific gamer. If you like a challenge, a long trudge through grinding with a lot of customization have at it. One of the greater appeals to me for this game is that it's rather old-school in presentation and is reminiscent of something like D&D. "Well no, I am investigating this abandoned castle because I can! There are demons here that I can kill that's fun...and I am sure there is awesome treasure in the basement....PLUS I am so close to leveling up! because I can." As I said Etrian Odyssey is what it is, and I love it for it. So in a little less than a month Etrian Odyssey 2 is coming out, they are introducing even more classes (Gunner, War Magus, Beast) among other minor changes. The interview over at RPGamer sums it up rather nicely and is definitely worth checking out if I have sparked your interest in the game. I know I am definitely looking forward to the sequel.
Interview at RPGamer

Oh Yeah...did I mention I really dig the art?

P.S. You better be diggin Loveless, that album is so wonderful