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The definition of "Hardcore"

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: May 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I don't think I have played a DS game longer than this one! It's been almost a year since I bought it on its release date, and I'm still playing it... The only other game that will make me stop playing it will be its sequel, Etrian Odyssey II : Heroes of Lagaard.
Just so you are warned, this game won't score high for its animation or use of the DS graphics engine. The art design had mainly two different artists, one for the characters and town, and one for the monsters you fight. All are presented in still 2D images, and while the characters drawings and backgrounds are gorgeus, the monsters' art design seems to be all over the place. The labyrinth scrolls in 3D in a first-person view, which is nice, but it is repetitive.
But the selling points of the game really are a) The character leveling which you do from scratch, and b) the map plotting, which you also do from scratch.
The story is light and very generic, and it doesn't affect the gameplay much despite a couple of twists. But that is the point: because you build the characters from scratch, they don't have any background, so you make them yours. This makes the whole game feel more personal, like you know the characters.
This is the game that I've enjoyed the most on the DS, but like most reviewers mentioned, it is not going to be everyone's cup of tea...

Only one flaw

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: April 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Overall, Etrian Odyssey is a great game worth your time. This game has very beautiful scenery which changes dramatically every five floors. Exploring through the dungeon is fun and rarely repetitive. Every so often it may be annoying to go through the same floors over and over again.
There is only one real flaw that you probably won't notice until the end of the game draws near. You are limited as to how many skill points to assign your characters, which requires you to be very careful in appointing them. Once you reach your characters last level, you can't gain more skill points. If you want to reassign your skill points, you have to lose 10 levels, which take a good deal of time to earn. I really don't see any good in limiting the maximum level and skills your characters can reach. Until you reach that point in the game, however, the game has no real flaws.

Etrian Excellency

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 08, 2008
Author: Amazon User

First I'll post my main rating for this game.

Gameplay: 9.5/10 There's some repetitivity at times, and there is intense level grinding. Level grinding is when you have to battle around for atleast 30 minutes for cash or levels for the sake of being able to advance in the game. But once you're high enough you can usually walk right through the next floor of the dungeon.

Difficulty: 10/10 No matter what floor you're on when you first start a new floor you'll fear running into a FoE and dying. Like I stated before, intense level grinding which is time consuming, but if you like battling it's quite fun.

Interface: 10/10 EXCELLENT, to the point, etc., Everythings in the right spot, easy to navigate. Only thing I wish could be changed is mapping in full labyrinth view. Due to hardware restrictions this may not have been possible though!

Graphics: 9/10. Quite possibly the best '3d' graphics I've seen on the ds. It can be blocky, usually it's incredibly pretty. One downside is the initial dungeon graphic you see is what you see the whole game. There are no changes in scenery. But it's nice enough to tolerate the whole game. Therefore -1 for repetitive.

Length: 10/10 This is one game that the second you pick it up you know you'll be playing for many many hours. I'd say it's possible to beat the game in under 45 hours, but a casual player will probably take 60 hours! This is the longest game in my DS library, and I have a bad attention span, yet I've played it for awhile.

Overall: 48.5/50, 97/100

There really isnt a thing I dislike about this game. It can easily be completed without a guide, though finding secret rooms usually helps, and guides greatly aid you in this feat.

The classes are all strong, there really isnt a 'horrible' class. Some are slightly better than the other, but in all honestly you can't really mess up to the point you make a character useless. Skill points also are handy, and it's not too hard figuring out how skills work.

Warning: If you are not a person willing to commit time into this game I don't recommend buying it. Don't expect it to be easy, or breeze through it. At first in the game be prepared to die and lose 1/2 hours of gameplay 2-3 times. Thankfully you don't lose your map! :)

The gameplay apparently only appeals to a small population of people, though I am honestly in love with this game. If you are able to accept there's not much plot (Really, I dislike games without plot usually, but this one is just so excellent it's hard for me not to like it) then Etrian Odyssey may not be for you.

You'll either love the game, or hate it. And remember! If you dislike it you can always resell it and be out a few bucks, if you're into RPGs though, I think trying this one is definitely worth it!

97/100

I really love Etrian Odyssey!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: February 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I didn't buy Etrian Odyssey right away, despite having considerable curiosity about the game when it came out. I left it on my wish-list instead, and got it for Christmas (thanks Mom!). In contrast to the easy, story-driven Luminous Arc, (another ATLUS title for the DS) Etrian Odyssey is almost story-free, and extremely difficult. So difficult, in fact, that I was killed by butterflies on the first mission of the first level, and was so shocked that I put it aside and played something else instead. I was literally knocked right off the game, and didn't come back to it until a few months later.

A few of the things I feared I wouldn't like are actually some of my favorite features. Nearly half the gameplay centers around drawing your own maps of the forest levels you explore. I thought that having to do this would drive me crazy. It turns out to be really fun. Also, even though the combat resembles Final Fantasy I, it's still not too bothersome. The random encounters aren't really random, and the game gives you fair warning before ambushing you. The enemy's sprites shake when you hit them, and fade when they die, which was last standard practice in games circa 1994. Also the art for the enemies is a bit bizzare; they sure are ugly though. The art is absolutely gorgeous in some other places though. I would buy an art book, if one came out. Each of the character classes is pretty different from the other, and blending their strengths and weaknesses into your team is a fun challenge. The sequel, announced for Japan later this year, will include three more classes. Character levels are few and far between, and while I've managed to get a rhythm going that allows me not to die, the game is still beastly hard, demanding a lot of effort for rather meager rewards in experience points and leveling up skills. The skill tree for each of the classes is complicated enough to make you think about how you spend each precious skill point. This makes it hard, but also a lot of fun.

And exploring uncharted levels is sure fun.

Great game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: November 30, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Most enjoyable handheld game I've ever played, but I confess I haven't played that many. I never got around to finishing this game, but there were so many hours of entertainment to just getting two-thirds of the way through that I certainly feel I got my money's worth.

There IS a lot of "grinding" involved here, so if you know that you hate that I guess you should stay away.

There is also a story here, but not one that's "in your face" with dozens of minutes of cheesy and boring cutscenes. (If I want to watch a story, that's what DVDs are for.)

The game isn't really that hard. Hard games are popular PSP games like Grand Theft Auto where you get a mission and no matter how many times you try you just can't finish it. The graphics are incredible on GTA and some other PSP games such as Daxter, but they are just too frustrating for me to play. In Etrian Odyssey, if you find an adversary you can't defeat, you just need to "grind" a little bit more to raise your levels.

Old School Goodness

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 01, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This is an old school rpgamer's dream come true. The battles are reminiscent of Dragon Warrior, and exploration is handled through a first person view like Eye of the Beholder. Players can make their party from scratch by selecting several different character classes. The classes all fill their own niche and are all useful in their own way. The story is lacking, but this game is a lot of fun even without a deep story. The game is driven through simple exploration of the dungeon. Not as pretty and fancy as many newer rpg's, but a very fun game not to be overlooked.

Entertaining challenge

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: October 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This has been a fun game and at times frustrating. It's enjoyable to "create" the maze as you go thru it. I felt more like an explorer charting as I went along.
A downside to the game is after mapping a floor continually going back to level on that floor until you can level safely on the next one. At least the quests provided help alleviate some of that problem.
Overall it was a fun game for both myself and my teenager.

My favorite DS/GBA game ever

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 27, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Etrian Odyssey takes me back to my Wizardry days circa W Vii.

A challenging dungeon crawler with an excellent underlying character system. The classes are generally well balanced; the class skills and spells are all logical; and the desire to explore more (for more XP, loot and quests) really is done well in this game.

The game starts out with you forming a guild and creating your characters. Each class has 2 male and 2 female avatars. Once you have your party of 5 (you can create as many characters as you wish), there are missions to do (the main story line), side quests to do, items to unlock and 2 classes to unlock.

Most of this takes place in a labyrinth of a descending forest dungeon. As you explore the dungeon, you will map out each level using your stylus on the touch pad. You can leave notes on maps, plot where monsters are, indicate doors and treasure boxes as well as note where nodes are for materials gathering (you can mine, chop and take for some classes skill choices).

Combat takes part in turn-based fashion, and the game is quite challenging.

I don't want to spoil anything beyond what I have already said in describing the game mechanic ... so I will leave it at that.

I would give the game 5 stars if it had more than 1 save slot. This is really unfortunate. However, since you can roll up as many characters/classes as you want ... I guess this sort of is mute. I would still like the option of starting over without losing my current game. I also wouldn't mind stats being kept (like avg. damage, kills, deaths, etc) per character, but thats a wish item for EO2.

cheers

A Roguelike on my DS? YES!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: September 06, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Etrian Odyssey hearkens back to the old days of online computer video games, a simple RPG-style dungeon crawler with enough difficulty and content to keep you interested for as long as you choose.

Only one complaint

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The other reviewers have done a much better job of reviewing this game than I can. I received it on Monday and I have to say that I only put it down to eat, sleep and work. I'm not a gamer, per se, I don't buy the newest games and gaming systems, so I'd like to enter my review in that vein.

If you're not a gamer, like me, you might find this game a little hard. My one and only complaint is that while the booklet that comes with the game does an excellent job in explaining the game screens, it doesn't do a very good job explaining the different character classes and weapons. I've often purchased a weapon just to discover none of my characters can use it! Very frustrating! Plus, I would like a in game help tool. But, that's just me.

It's very challenging and fun to play. I look forward to the next one and I'm not done with this one.

One more thing, the best part of this game has to be that you play it on the DS, so I don't have to leave it behind and I can play while on lunch.

Because I like this game so much, I will be trying Odin Sphere

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