Dungeon crawling is a fundamental aspect in Role-Playing Games. The RPG genre simply wouldn't be where it is today without it, and even though the genre has generally pushed more and more into the "sweeping cinematic narrative" type of RPG, echoes of dungeon crawling still exist in current games; dungeons are a major part of the RPG genre and that will never change. Still, the RPG genre has accumulated so many other facets and has evolved so significantly that true dungeon crawlers are hard to come by. Atlus sought out to change that with Etrian Odyssey. Though other such games have cropped up in the last few years, not one is as elegant or ambitious as Etrian Odyssey, which pays homage to the "old school" of RPG gaming while carving out its own identity as a truly epic RPG for the Nintendo DS.

In stark contrast to most of today's RPGs - in fact, Etrian Odyssey is probably most easily definable by its contrast to today's RPG design norms - this game will not hold a player's hand. It must be stated up front that Etrian Odyssey is a brutally difficult RPG for the unprepared. It is tough. It is frustrating. And it does not provide any sort of safety net for players. The frequent save crystals that populate the corridors of the modern RPG simply don't exist here: players can save at exactly seven locations in the entire game, and "the entire game" includes an impressive amount of real estate. The game unfolds over a very large labyrinth, divided into six five-floor stratums, each of which contains deadly flora, aggressive fauna, tricks, traps, bosses, and FOEs. Here, "FOE" - an outmoded term in the RPG genre for "enemy" - is presented as an acronym for "Foedus Obrepit Errabundus" which apparently is Latin for a sneaking, wandering entity. While most encounters in the game are random, FOEs appear on the map and in the visible game-space as large orange and red clouds that represent enemies of a difficulty beyond the average encounter. In fact, some levels require (and suggest) that players run from FOEs until they have accumulated enough power and experience that they can take them on. Yes, backtracking is an essential element to Etrian Odyssey. Though the floors are linear in nature, unlocking every secret requires much exploration, and in a very non-linear fashion as the game progresses.

To aid players in this, Etrian Odyssey takes advantage of the Nintendo DS hardware in a unique manner. All game-related graphics - exploration, menus, and so on - appear on the top screen. Similar to other old-school titles after which this game is patterned - Wizardry, Eye of the Beholder, The Bard's Tale, Mars Saga, Might & Magic, Dungeon Master, the "Gold Box" Dungeons and Dragons games, and so on - Etrian Odyssey is a 3D world with flat (but attractive) wall textures and enemy sprites. The entire labyrinth is cut out of familiar cubic squares, each of which represents one "step," and sharp ninety-degree turns. In the old days, a ream of graph paper and a Sharpie would help players map all the twists and turns, all the events and encounters and secret passages that inevitably populated each dungeon. In fact, many old games, such as Might & Magic II, even included custom graph paper. Cartography, though external to the game, was more or less expected of the player. Getting through Secret of the Silver Blades, or any of those early RPGs, without mapping it out is nearly impossible. Successfully mapping a dungeon was part of the fun.

Atlus was well aware of this. The entire bottom screen of the Nintendo DS - the touch screen - is relegated to a full-fledged cartography tool. Players can draw walls and add various icons to represent doors, pits, events, and the like, to map and mark significant areas of the labyrinth as they plunge into its depths. At first, players might be thrown off or even dismayed by the fact that they are required to use the D-Pad and buttons for all in-game actions, but after a few floors, cartography becomes so important that it feels natural to have the action on the top screen and the map on the bottom at all times. Here is where the game starts to show it's very few, very minor flaws - for instance, and I'm sure this is due to memory limitations, players are limited to a little over one-hundred icons and about twenty memos per floor. While that sounds like a lot, some of the more convoluted floors, without spoiling anything, would have benefited from a larger (or no) limitation. This isn't really a huge problem, but players are still forced to simply remember things or to come up with alternate or creative mapping solutions for some floors, as they will brush up against the limitations about halfway through the game. And with the labyrinth constantly trying harder and harder to trick (and kill) players as they plunge further into its depths, mapping out correct routes from one floor to the next becomes increasingly important.

Of course, players cannot explore the labyrinth without a party. Again, like the RPGs of yesteryear, Etrian Odyssey offers more of a generic, clinical approach to party and character design. Players begin the game by creating a guild which can hold a maximum of sixteen characters, which can be created out of nine classes (two of which become available over the course of the game). These classes represent the classics: fighters, paladins, archers, bards, clerics, and wizards are all here (with different names - a paladin is a "Protector" here, a cleric is a "Medic", and a wizard is an "Alchemist"). Each class has a number of different skills available, most of which have prerequisites, and players can choose which classes to take with them as they go ranging into the dungeon and can build them in any manner they choose. With the ability to endlessly and freely recruit new characters up to the roster maximum of sixteen, players can create varied party types, which is where most of the strategy in the game lies. For instance, players can have a party with just Alchemists, one specializing in Fire and Ice magic, another in Volt and Poison, and another spreading his skill points among all four skills, or each specializing in just one. With the number of skills present, and the fact that many classes work well with each other and in conjunction with skills from other classes, players can (and must) develop different strategies over the course of the game, especially for boss battles.

These boss battles are where the true difficulty in the game lies: the labyrinth does seek to kill the players at almost every step, but the boss battles in the game, which are usually very difficult, unescapable, and require some proper preparation, represent the puzzle-oriented approach to battles that Atlus usually uses (if anyone reading this has attempted or beaten the hidden boss in Digital Devil Saga vol. 1, then the relevance of that comment should be plain). This becomes truer and truer as players go deeper into the dungeon; bosses have different resistances and attack patterns, and some classes with certain skill-sets are better equipped to negate or defend against some of these patterns. This is especially true when facing one of the myriad optional bosses in the post-game. Yes, there is a post-game. The final boss in the main story occurs somewhat abruptly, but at that point a much tougher section of the game opens up, with harder and more obscure quests, tougher bosses, and a merciless section of the labyrinth - Etrian Odyssey's version of New Game+.

One could go on and on about Etrian Odyssey. Some bugs exist: some of the quest flags seem to be a little off, for instance, and might require some finagling to complete a quest even if all the requirements are met, and the cartography limitation on icons and memos is somewhat upsetting, but overall, this is an extremely enjoyable and satisfying experience for RPG enthusiasts. While today's average RPG compels players to race forth to reach the scintillating conclusion, turning pages of the game's plot and character-building, Etrian Odyssey offers a very laid-back, simple, purposefully-cliché, vanilla story. Players are compelled forth only by appealing to their desire for mastery over the dungeon, which is exactly what old-school 1980s RPGs were about. This is, however, a niche title, which the review score reflects. This game will not be just everyone's cup of tea, and I would not recommend it to the weak-willed. This game, if no other, may inspire someone to hurl their Nintendo DS across the room. The frequent save crystals and the general hand-holding found in today's RPG just don't have a place in Etrian Odyssey; death will happen to even the best players as they try to unravel the mysteries of the dungeon. Those, however, who got into computer RPGs during the golden era or those who are getting more and more disgruntled by the almost non-difficulty of today's RPGs should look no further: Etrian Odyssey is everything you could hope for, and more.

Jun 27, 2007 | 0 comments
Roger Helgeson