With Etrian 2 leaving a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth, I decided to move on to Etrian 3, hoping that it would be better than the last, and it was.

Etrian 3 added a lot of new stuff, such as seafaring, subclasses for even more customization, and new classes that replace the old ones.

Gameplay is still the usual, with some new tweaks, such as campsites on each floor as a healing spot (provided you bring a tent), Limit attacks that your team can use when their limit bars are full (Boost, Force, and now Limit, they really don't know what they want to do with that thing) and Stratums being four floors instead of 5.

I honestly had a blast with this game, subclasses were fun to use and the soundtrack is as good as ever. Material gathering still sucks, but it's not as obnoxious as it was in 2.

This one is my new favorite entry of the Etrian series, so I would give it five stars, right?

However...

The third Stratum in this game is by far the WORST dungeon I have ever experienced. It was so bad, I almost shelved this game, in fact, when I finally beat it, I didn't touch the game for a month because it was so awful. It's infested with damage tiles, the puzzles make the floors feel longer then they already are, and it has enemies that can kill you even if you're prepared.

Even though the third Stratum is complete dogshit, that's really the only bad thing this game has. Honestly, I'd say this game is a better entry point for the EO series than 1 is. I'd recommend this game and would ask you to just please push through the third Stratum.

This was my second attempt at getting into the series, after Etrian Odyssey 5, which I dropped very early on.

I've had a decently good time with EO3 for a while, but the game started to slowly erode my enjoyment of it somewhere at the middle of the second stratum. Little and not so little annoyances piled up, and by the time I've finished the third stratum I realised I'm no longer having fun with the game. I still might finish it at some point, so I'm leaving it as shelved, but the chances are slim.

I will outline my biggest points of contention:

- the inventory is way too tiny.
You only get 60 slots for everything, be it consumables, equipment or drops. It fills to the brim in about 20 minutes and the constant trips to the hub break up the flow of the game and since you can't set up a two-way portal or anything like that, the time you spend just running back to where you were in your exploration efforts adds up quickly.

- the game can't decide whether it wants to be the kind of game that's obscure about its mechanics like Noita, the kind of game where the player isn't supposed to sweat too much over the details like Stardew Valley, or a grindy optimization-focused kind of game like what Etrian Odyssey was advertised to be by some of my friends.
For the obscure mechanics game it explains its mechanics too much. For the game where you're not supposed to optimize too much it has too many hard counter encounters you need specific teams for. For the grindy optimization kind of game it doesn't explain the mechanics enough, the player doesn't get to make informed team building decisions without either having a guide open or wasting enormous amount of time savescumming to figure out how scalings work (which by the way is incredibly inconsistent between different skills, my favourite example is that monk's healing skills actually get worse as you level them because the healing power scaling isn't worth the TP costs scaling).
The game tries to be all three of those types of games at the same time, and it hurts the experience a lot. When I'm trying to play it like the obscure mechanics game, it has no real moments of discovery because everything gets explained to some degree. When I'm trying to play it like a chill game, I stumble upon an encounter that my team is woefully unprepared for. When I'm trying to play it like an optimization game, I get frustrated at the lack of hard numbers to base theorycrafting on.

- the game can't decide whether it wants to be a gameplay-focused game, or a story-focused game.
It starts like a gameplay-focused game - you make a guild, you recruit a team, you clear the map drawing tutorial, you're free to go. It continues like that until the middle of the second stratum, with all the cute attempts at story staying out of your way. But after that, the game starts interrupting players exploration with mandatory trips back to hub to listen to another portion of inane lore dumping and nonsensical attempts to outline a conflict between two factions who literally want the same thing and that the player has no reason to care about whatsoever. It culminates when the game presents the player a choice that doesn't really mean anything except that you're only getting one out of two unlockable classes. I don't understand this at all. I wish the game either committed to being gameplay-focused and ditched the disruptive story elements, or committed to being story-focused and built up a story from the start with actual characters to care about and a narrative that's more than "go down and kill superevil ultragods".

- the map drawing aspect is pure tedium and adds nothing of value to gameplay.
The game has the auto-mapping option, but it's not good enough. I still had to manually place the chests I've opened, doors and gimmick mechanics like streams or moving platforms. This is the kind of annoyance that really adds up over tens of hours of playthrough.
Somewhat related to this, shortcuts are really annoying to find. The exploration of the dungeon turns into constantly hugging walls with your face pressed against them because the only tells there might be a shortcut are visual - the interact prompt, and a slightly different pattern on the wall.

Almost everything positive I can say about this game (barring the incredible soundtrack) has a "but" that still comes back to those four points.
I like the combat, but it doesn't give enough information - for example, every time I cast an enchantment with a sovereign on my arbalist so that he attacks the enemy weak to ice with the appropriate element, I have to pray sov acts first and arb acts second, because the game just doesn't tell you the turn order at all.
I like the conditional drops system, but the game only tells you how to get them for some of the monsters that have them, and doesn't mark down the method anywhere, so you have to remember it individually for what has to be like a hundred monsters or, more realistically, play with a guide.
I like the exploration, but having to draw the map only distracts from it, and having to sniff every wall just in case there's a shortcut is annoying.

Can I recommend this game to someone? Yeah, definitely. For a lot of people the annoyances I've described won't be a big deal at all. I can see someone enjoying the constant trips back to the hub and seeing them as a way to facilitate smalled play sessions, or something like that. I know a lot of people who don't mind playing with a guide. Some people will probably not mind the story interruptions at all, and see map drawing as a cute dungeon crawling tradition. If you're the cross section of all those people, you'll probably have a great time with the game.

Mmm, now this is good eating. In that, I sold my original DS copy, CIB, for like $300 bucks half a decade ago. Bought my now-wife a Switch with that money for our six month anniversary, way back when. Thanks, Atlus, for making your games rare - probably sealed my romantic fate. Anyways, I legit missed this one, and never fiddled with emulating it - so it sat, rent free, in my mind, being like "Hey, wasn't I your favorite of the series?" and it was. And it is.

To that point, EO3 throws out all the previous classes, and thank God - now we can get weird with it. Princesses! A robot! A strong lady! A pirate! Each having their own unique mechanics MAKES this game.

I remember the nautical part of this being so cool, but I found it bland this go round, over a decade later, but I think EO4 does it better.

And that's the story of this series - always evolving, and adding little improvements, QOL stuff - like, you can now run from an FOE even if your back is to the wall. Or, you can buy Warp Wires pretty much instantly. Or, while the maps are funky and fun, you can always count on a hidden wall to shortcut back to the stairs (since there's no geo node to save your progress).

Some may say that makes the game easier. Me? I say that I have a button on my Hori Split Pad Compact, that will press a button forever. So I left my guys running in a circle, slamming A, while I was at work or watching TV. My party, running in a circle, that princess healing em constantly, as they grind it out. I retired so many dudes, and raked in the skill points, so that on the final boss (of main campaign), I never had a character lose more than 200HP.

I still wiped lots over the 70 hours (inflated for sure by my idle grinding), but God, it felt good to obliterate EO3. I'll be leaving this one installed until they announce the next batch of HD remasters - if they do.

And onto Undernauts, I guess!

"Oh Atlus made this? Is this any different from their usual RPGs?"
Dies and get sent back to the title screen loosing all progress
"Nope. All present and accounted for."

This turn-based RPG is quite the dungeon crawler. The main gimmick is that you have to draw the dungeon maps yourself. This can be awkward with the new control scheme as the originals had you use the DS touch screen, but there is a option to have it automatically draw floors and walls you touch. I know some might feel this hurts the vibe of the dungeon mapping, but realistically I don't see how else they could've pulled it off on controller only. There's a reason why DS and 3DS remasters aren't too common, the dual screens are extremely awkward to redesign with one screen and no touch compatability. That said there's still a lot the game won't automatically draw for you. You have many icons that you can stamp on the map such as chests, doors, tents, gathering point icons, and so forth. While many have intended purposes on how to use them, others are more versatile to allow for your own personal map making. An example being I had trouble marking the map where the dungeon floor had teleporters. After some fiddling, I eventually settled on putting down fire floor markers to indicate where the teleporters activate and a arrow that points to where it teleports too. Can even add some text notes for more specific reminders.
But why bother with dungeon mapping? Oh many reasons. A big one is that, on death, you lose all your progress but have the option to keep your mapping. This made some game overs not sting as badly since I now had a better idea where I needed to go and where the treasure was. These floors are all big and winding, and can blend in with each other with some samey corridors and turns. Normally that wouldn't make for interesting or engaging dungeon design, but getting lost is kind of the point if you neglect the map. The dungeon is also seperated by distinct sections, but you can only return to the dungeon at the beginning or end of the these stratums. And you'll be thanking yourself when you're backtracking for quests and items, and have laid out every shortcut on every floor. Mapping can take time at the moment, but it will save more in the long run. Especially when dealing with the infamous F.O.E.s
Most of the time encounters are random, albeit they provide you some kind of glowing circle on the U.I. that will gradually turn red when you're about to be thrusted into battle. A F.O.E. though is a roaming monster that are extremely dangerous. Some you could potentially fight and win when you first encounter them, but they can drain your resources and health (or lives) if you take them lightly. This is where the map becomes your savior as many of the F.O.E.s in the game have distinct patterns and behaviors. Some will chase you, some are on patrol, some will only approach you if you're already in a battle with another monster. Yes that can happen. The F.O.E.s are still on the move even in combat, and can ambush you while your dealing with the usual monsters. They're the cherry on top of this mapping system as it adds more urgency to take notes on where these monsters are and what their patterns are.
As for the RPG system themselves they're all around solid. You have a class system in which they all fill distinct roles, plus subclassing later in the game to add a wide berth of options to your party. Admittedly there are a few classes that either too good not too have, or are outshined by others. Not helped by the high difficulty which can push creativity and expression for some, while for others it'll cause them to look up "Best Parties" instead and take away a lot of fun problem solving. It can also be time consuming to raise extra party members apart from the main five you'll have through your whole journey. Only members in the active party earn experience, and new recruits start at Level 1. You can retire a party member which will allow you to recruit a higher level explorer with added stat bonuses, but you'll be loosing another party member permanently. Personally, make use of the 'picnic mode' added to this remaster. It makes the game very easy, but more importantly it substantially increases the gain of experience points. Makes things much smoother if aren't keen on long grind times, though I hadn't grinded a lot since I did a lot of side quests.
A small quibble I have with these RPGs is that I'm not the biggest fan of how these turn-based games operate when it comes to turn order. There's probably a name for this, but essentially think of the difference between RPGs when selecting your commands. Games like Persona, the Mario RPGs, and Octopath have characters initiate their action the moment a command is given. Then you got Pokémon, Dragon Quest (not XI), and Etrian Odyssey here where you select all your commands for all your party members then proceed to watch it play out. This makes it so you have to plan better for what the enemy can do, but it can also make battles feel more luck-based then I feel is necessary. Sometimes your healer turns to stone before pulling off their resurrection spell, sometimes you give a buff to a now dead party member, sometimes your damage dealer became confused and wasted their turn. It's a lot of unpredictability which can push the boundaries of enjoyable failure and frustrating failure. At least when it comes to when turn orders operate they appear consistent. I never had my support ninja randomly move slower then my DPS, which is important since that means I can consistently debuff the enemies defense the same turn my arbalist shoots a cannon at the bosses face.
Story is more involved then I was expecting. I thought this be akin to old-school dungeon crawlers with a story that exists solely for set-dressing, but it actually does more then that. I kept forgetting this game is rated T, and that made the darker moments catch me off guard. I would say I wished the story presentation was more interesting with only having single static portraits for every character, but it is a DS game so I can't fault it too much. It's not a story that'll stick with me, but it tried a lot harder then it needed and I have to give kudos to that. Just watch what you say to others when exploring the labyrinth.

While I wouldn't call myself a fan of this franchise after finishing this, it did satisfy my RPG craving I've had and then some. Solid recommendation to RPG lovers, maybe think twice if you aren't a fan of turn-based combat.

There's a farmer class. They do some honest work I tell ya.