fun game, can be frustrating but i enjoy the mapping aspect. a game i wanted to play as a kid but was too much for my feeble brain and im glad i was able to play it now, was worth the time. didnt do post game because i feel i have made peace with the game and have heard that its difficult in general and i am not using a super meta group (dark hunter, alchemist, landsknect, protector, survivalist) definitely going to play 2 and 3 hd.

logged dates are only when i got achievements, i suck at logging when i plated

Etrian Odyssey es mi saga favorita, y desde hace años que ansiaba ver una reconstrucción más fiel de lo que serían los originales de Nintendo DS, pues aunque tengamos los remakes bajo el título de Untold, aquellos modifican lo suficiente la experiencia como para poder abordarse como entregas distintas.

Dicho lo anterior, evidentemente el primer EO es el que más palidece antes las mejorías evidentes de sus sucesores. La peor selección de clases de la franquicia, pero sobre todo, el set de builds y opciones (para afrontar tanto el combate como las expediciones) más lineal y poco versátil de la misma.

Esto último no es necesariamente algo malo si lo que se busca es una experiencia pura de DRPG, a lo que este juego cumplía perfectamente en su momento, e incluso hoy en día sabe defenderse con bastante elegancia. Simple y llanamente, hay que ser consciente de en qué te estás metiendo.

Para mí, lo que debilita esta entrega en comparación a sus sucesoras (que me interesa revisitar próximamente) al final del día no es solo lo ya mencionado, sino el ser el juego más volátil y con dispersión de expresividad de entre estos: la banda sonora, si bien cuenta con piezas excelsas cortesía de Yuzo Koshiro, palidece en comparación a las que llegarían luego, el contexto del universo es el mínimo para que se entienda bien el entorno y el por qué de todas las odiseas que emprendas (y las pequeñas historias que individualmente uno construye en base al RNG y los eventos en el laberinto), y finalmente que aunque el diseño de mazmorras es efectivo y tiene varios momentos de absoluta genialidad, peca de ofrecer la selección de Stratum menos basta que hemos llegado a ver. Mismos que paso a comentar rápidamente.

I - Emerald Groove (1-5)
Si algo bueno hay que decir de este juego es que su introducción es formidable. Las notas con las que se te dan la bienvenida crean un aura mística, un prado alucinante que rápidamente exhibe todos los elementos que hacen a esta franquicia tan especial. Es, además, uno de los mejores tutoriales de la saga, candidato a mejor Stratum inicial, y una evolución comedida de ejercicios, tareas y dificultades que saben diversificar de forma magnífica todos los desafíos que, en pisos posteriores, comenzarán a complejizarse cada vez más.

Dicha simpleza también aporta al contexto visual, musical y narrativo, una familiaridad tanto con tu poblado como con tus primeros pasos por el laberinto. En ausencia de builds elaboradas, combates exigentes y equipamiento óptimo, toca ganarse la vida a pequeños recadeos, a exploraciones puntuales que deben hacerse con cabeza para no morir en el intento, y que premian la inteligencia del jugador.

II - Primitive Jungle (6-10)
Por contraparte, siento bastante seguridad para sentenciar a la jungla como el peor segundo Stratum de la saga. Entre la reiteratición general de motivos y escenarios, la peor musicalización del juego (y quizá el tema de Stratum más blando en toda Etrian Odyssey), así como una diversificación pobre de tareas respecto al anterior, hacen que esta se vuelva en la parte más blanda de todo el juego para mí.

Si a eso le sumamos que, con diferencia, las side-quests más bobas e infames del juego están todas contenidas aquí, sirviendo enteramente como pérdidas de tiempo y recordatorios baratos de que "igual más adelante puedes explorar más de lo que ves a simple vista", lo vuelven en un entorno tedioso y, de lejos, la peor parte de la odisea.

III - Azure Rainforest (11-15)
Como esa primera vez que llegué a este lugar, bajo las cubiertas de mi cama, a las 3 de la mañana en mi 3DS, el bosque de la lluvia es una absoluta maravilla de principio a fin. Si bien repite algunas de las torpezas del Stratum anterior (tareas secundarias planas y una sensación de vacío dada por cómo decide destinar algunas de sus áreas más interesantes hasta ya bastante más avanzada la partida, haciéndolo el Stratum más breve de todos para recorrer en tu primera pasada), el cambio tan brusco de ambiente, la serenidad mística que permea el recorrer un lugar cristalino que respira a lapislázuli y donde las amenazas parecen mucho más coherentemente armadas, con esa mentalidad de hormiga reina que colma los primeros compases del recorrido y que eventualmente revela sus verdaderas cartas, indagando en la parte más conceptualmente llamativa del juego.

El llamado a la aventura es soberbio y no tendría reparos en considerarla casi que el mejor Stratum del juego, aunque su excesiva simpleza termina quitándole las notas para poder sentenciarla como mi favorito.

IV - Sandy Barrens (16-20)
El desierto marca inmediatamente su oposición con el mundo anterior. Ominoso, incómodo, difícil de navegar y con varios de los pisos más insufribles. Pero esto es algo bueno, ya que es el momento en el que juego te mira directamente a la cara y te exige poner en práctica todo lo que has venido trabajando.

Las expediciones se vuelven engorrosas, se suda con cada mala decisión que puede llevarte a un fail state absoluto en caso de no medir bien tus pasos y composiciones. La propia dejadez en la que te ves inmerso con la banda sonora, acoplándose perfectamente a esos lapsos peligrosos que la hacen tan angustiosa de atravesar, y finalmente esa fantástica emboscada en el piso 20 que te obliga a llegar preparado o a jugar de forma extremadamente metódica, pero perdiendo muchísimo tiempo y recursos en el trayecto.

Esos páramos extensos, pisos gigantescos y repletos de descubrimientos si quieres llenar un mapa perfecto, en fin. Ciertamente este tramo del juego es una absoluta genialidad.

V - Lost Shinjuku (21-25)
Para mí, llegar a Lost Shinjuku por primera vez fue uno de los momentos más mágicos que he vivido jugando videojuegos, y la demostración absoluta de que estaba frente a algo muy especial.

Con el mejor tema del juego fusionando tanto la magnificencia del recinto como aproximándonos al momento culmen de la aventura, todo en la perdida Shinjuku remite a civilización ya agotada, debiendo movernos por los escombros de lo que alguna vez fue, posiblemente, el lugar más majestuoso de toda la franquicia. Hoy ya no parece quedar nada más que las disputas políticas que varios grupos buscan ejercer sobre la misma, debiendo ponernos en contra de quienes hasta entonces se habían encargado de darnos direcciones. Finalmente el laberinto pierde su última capa distante y lo acabamos por volver nuestro.

Aún así, y con todo el pesar de mi corazón, debo decir que Shinjuku es quizá el quinto Stratum menos bueno de la saga. Esto, lejos de ser una sentencia realmente negativa, para mí habla de lo altísimo que suele ser el nivel en estas zonas. Y lo que le pesa es, precisamente, varios de los elementos que atraviesan el juego como tal: la falta de contexto impide darle todo el peso que a uno le gustaría. Si le sumamos su navegación relativamente simplista, que aunque agradezco nos invite a atravesar hasta cuatro pisos en simultáneo para ir desentrañando todo lo que tiene para ofrecernos, lo que queda es un Stratum relativamente sencillo interconectado por elevadores y con una navegación cuya único elemento realmente distintivo es la irregularidad numérica. Pero de que está bien, lo está.

VI - Claret Hollow (26-30)
Hablar del sexto Stratum siempre es complicado, pues su condición de opcional y sobre todo de post-game hace que sus pretensiones sean distintas. En lo que a mí respecta, uno bueno debería contar, como mínimo, (1) con un tema extraño, que saque a colación la capacidad que tiene Koshiro de componer música incómoda y que genere desasosiego, (2) una navegación exagerada, repleta de altercados contra la comodidad del jugador que hagan de completarlo una verdadera tortura que ponga al límite tus habilidades manejando el sistema, (3) un contexto interesante que profundice en los misterios olvidados por la campaña, o quizá ese trasfondo final que le de sentido al laberinto como un todo, ya sea explicando su origen o dándonos a entender qué es lo que ata, desde las sombras, el entramado general de la aventura.

Si bien Claret Hollows cumple con todos estos elementos, lo hace en su expresión más mínima, y eso es lo que lo debilita como sexto Stratum para mí. La música es buena y nos remite a esa emoción de tierra abandonada y en la que en cualquier esquina algo saltará a mordernos el cuello, como si de un bosque de terror fantástico se tratase. Sus pisos son engorrosos y los más duros del juego, sí, pero al mismo tiempo tiran por un solo gimmick a la vez que tampoco es que lo dificulte en exceso, lo que sumado a que sus enemigos suelen moverse en el binario de debilidades físicas y elementales y ya está, hacen más engorrosa y ortopédica la expedición que algo verdaderamente demandante o tenso. Por último, si bien el contexto de las raíces de este laberinto son curiosas y sintonizan bien con toda la estética del juego, es un respiro de ideas muy poco interesante a mi modo de ver, que debilitan un poco la imagen general como un todo.



Visto lo anterior, me parece que Etrian Odyssey sigue siendo una propuesta rigurosa, muy pura en casi todos sus apartados, y que dependiendo del nivel de profundidad y sofisticación que busques puede llegar a ser incluso tu favorito, como el más olvidable de los cinco principales. En mi caso aplica lo segundo, que sin desmerecer a la propuesta como un todo, me reconforta en cuanto al modo en que el equipo de Atlus supo volver más substanciosas casi que todas sus áreas en su secuela.

Aunque el primer Etrian Odyssey cuenta con una selección de Stratum bastante sólidos, con un mid-game realmente bueno y una introducción fenomenal, pero flaqueando tanto en su segunda como sexta expedición, todas esas virtudes lo son en su expresión más elemental. Había mucho sobre lo que construir, y no podría alegrarme más de que aquel fuese el caso.

Etrian Odyssey HD a lackluster dungeon crawler with no story or characters. It is extremely barebones and doesn't especially excel in any regard.

The music is beautiful and the graphics are a huge upgrade from the original (from what I've seen). Unfortunately, however, this is definitely not worth playing unless you absolutely love LOVE LOVE dungeon crawlers.

If you're new to the series like I was...Don't go into this blind as I did. The game goes something like this:

When you first start the game, you are immediately prompted to start your own guild and create from scratch up to thirty characters. There is no main character or protagonist. When I say "create from scratch," I mean that each class has five cookie-cutter appearances to choose from and you decide on a name for each character you create. No context, no backstory. You can only have 5 characters in your party and there are only 8 classes, so 30 is completely unnecessary even if you wanted to put them on rotation. As grindy and boring as this game is, you'll just want to choose your favorite five and slog through til the end.

After creating your party, the entire rest of the game is dungeon crawling aka walking through a forest with no story, almost no dialogue, no character development, and zero depth. When you kill monsters, they sometimes drop loot. Go back to town and sell the loot. Repeat hundreds or thousands of times until you finally get through this tedious slog. The end.

It certainly was not what I expected and yes, it's immensely overpriced.

Basic dungeon crawling rpg with little to no depth. I would recommend not going in blind like me because i was in the first forest area for like 12 hours then i got to the stupid boss and just closed the game and quit. there is no story which i do appreciate because if the story is gonna suck anyways, dont even bother. the map draeing mechanic is fun initially but i cant imagine it doing much for the game after the 5 hour mark where it just gets tedious. my guess was that the mechanic was designed to get the player more increasingly immersed but i didnt care for it at all

I am a huge fan of Atlus titles. "Shin Megami Tensei" and "Persona" are easily my favorite JRPG series, and some of my favorite series in general. At this point, I consider myself to be a bit of an Atlus shill, to the point I'll play just about any game so long as it has the Atlus logo on it.

But with all that in mind, I have to admit, I'm not a fan of their first person dungeon crawlers. I've only played two, "Persona Q" and "Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux", both of which I ended up giving up on partway through the final dungeon. I found the way that these games create difficulty primarily through complex, and at times convoluted, dungeon design to be overly frustrating; and in both games, the final dungeons were just so unbearable to me that I just gave up. I don't mind complex dungeon designs that require a bit of thinking, but when everyone recommends you just look up a map guide to figure out where to even go, I just can't feel anything but annoyance.

So when I saw "Etrian Odyssey HD" was one of those first person dungeon crawlers, I was a little hesitant at first. Not hesitant enough to not pre-order the collection a week after its announcement of course, but enough to be a little wary.

Thankfully, when I played the game, I ended up enjoying it!
...
For the most part.

The gameplay itself is extraordinarily simple, yet surprisingly addictive. Exploring the dungeon and drawing out the map as you explore is so much fun, and when you really get into the zone, there's nothing else like it. I loved the middle of the game the most, that's where I felt the most like an actual adventurer, charting mostly unknown lands in search of treasures and truths.

What really surprised me though was how much I enjoyed the combat despite how simple it is. I love "Shin Megami Tensei" for its worldbuilding, lore, and demon fusions. And I love "Persona" primarily for the social aspect. Essentially, I love these games for the things built around their combat, while the combat itself is mostly just a fun means to an end.

But in "Etrian Odyssey" there's nothing but the combat. The story is barebones, the characters are none-existent (the cast is even just straight up created by you), and the combat doesn't have any real unique gimmicks or hooks. And yet, despite all that, the combat is still what kept me engaged the most through my playthrough. It was so addictive, and again, when I hit that perfect flow, it was like magic. I could have played forever in that state.

Unfortunately, the game doesn't keep that perfect flow state forever, and whenever that state got interrupted, I found myself getting incredibly frustrated. When the game made me run around a dungeon over and over again to find the next way to go, or I found myself with a full pouch of items in the middle of a dungeon, or when a new enemy encounter starts three spaces after I just fought the last one, I could feel my patience growing thinner and thinner. Ans god, it was at its very worst during the final dungeon. After defeating the boss I had no desire to continue with the five post-game floors, just because I didn't want to have to have my flow state get interrupted again and again and again. It made me remember why I originally disliked some of these JRPG mechanics in the first place.

Aside from that, the game also stumbles in a few other areas. The quests are just so annoying and inconsistent. Some are so easy that I ended up completing them without even trying, while others had me nearly raging. I think the quest I hated the most was the one to just exists in one floor for five days straight; what an absolute nightmare that was. I ended up leaving a few just totally uncompleted by the end, I had no desire to finish them off out of fear they might spawn even more quests.

I also personally wasn't a fan of the lack of enemy variety, or I guess rather, the lack of enemy designs. After the third Atrium, most enemies end up just being recolors of enemies I had already fought. In the last dungeon in particular, I think there were only three fully new enemies introduced, and everything else was a recolor. I don't really mind it all that much in the long run, but it just feels kind of off. When Atlus is so well known for their enemy designs and great variety, I guess I have just come to expect more.

Overall, I would say I enjoyed "Etrian Odyssey HD" a lot, but when I wasn't enjoying it, I hated it. When I finally got to the final boss and defeated it, I honestly felt surprised. I stared at the screen wondering: "Wait...is this the end?" And when I saw the credits roll, I was just kind of baffled. But at the same time, I was satisfied. It took me nearly sixty hours, but I had beaten it, and while I felt mostly frustrated during my last few hours with the game, I was happy to have played it. And I was left looking forward to the next one.

But dear lord I would rather do anything else than play through the next five levels or finish off the rest of the quests!

i played it 100% and enjoyed it. pretty generic in a lot of ways, but i wouldn't say that's necessarily a bad thing. i liked how each stratum felt unique from one another. they're obviously visually distinct, but they're also mechanically distinct. i liked the mapping, although it's a little tedious (particularly on later floors). the post game's kinda ridiculous. the last stratum is my least favorite, and the bosses essentially require specific party members. so if you haven't been using a protector the whole game you'll have to do a lot of grinding. the main game didn't require much grinding, i felt like. i only grinded for some quests (which needed a specific class at a specific level) or for when i swapped in a new party member. i felt like the beginning of the game was the hardest, and it just got easier (up until the post-game), probably due to acquisition of more skills. probably not necessary if you wanna play later entries. i wouldn't know, i only just started 2 :p

as glad as i am to have played and 100%'d this game (minus doing all the quests because uh lmao no) i have absolutely zero desire to ever replay it. consistently tedious floor design that on one hand helps sell the danger of the labyrinth, and on the other, makes so much of the game a slog, and being the first game in the series they haven't quite refined the battle mechanics or boss design. the balance changes in the HD remaster, few as they are, are nice though.

the game isn't even hard either, especially with how busted Protector and Medic's defensive buffs are.

they did retroactively put The Battlefield That Never Sleeps for the superboss though so that was very cool

i played etrian odyssey 1 hd on pc. i've played all the other mainline etrian odyssey games starting with 2 and i adore them.

eo1hd is a great repackaging with many of the modern convenience features of later etrian games (turbo mode, auto mapping, difficulty options, etc).

the skill trees are a bit underwhelming in this game and skill balance could use some work.

i played on "normal" or whatever which is actually easier than the original difficulty, but ultimately i was fine with that because it meant less grinding.

most of the floors were pretty fun, but the game leaned on tedium a bit more than the later games with how few fast travel nodes you get and the extreme rarity of shortcuts.

the music is still great but the monster art in the first game isn't as nice. yuzo koshiro is one of my favorite composers.

the story is shockingly good in this game. much better than later games. genuinely loved the whole 4th and 5th stratum from that angle.

sadly the 4th stratum's boss floor is a complete subversion of how FOEs and bosses work thus far in the game, but with essentially no explanation, and it's a slog.

i think toward the 4th and absolutely in the 5th stratum i was massively underleveled. the final boss could 1-shot my entire party with a single attack. so i used the auto walk + holding A to auto level 10 whole levels, which sadly trivalized the final boss.

wish there was more town dialogue and the town NPCs were more interesting like the later games.

there's certainly charm here and it's no surprise this game spawned a successful series, but i think it's definitely one of the series weakest entries. to be clear, a good game. and the 5th stratum is absurdly cool and memorable. they just added so much polish to the later games that i wouldn't recommend coming to eo1 until you've done at least eo2 and eo3 and decided you want more!

Finished floor 25 boss on expert using TT/AAA party composition. Self-imposed challenge, don't do it, pick a normal comp. Stopped here cause this team is not suitable to explore the post-game dungeon and I was ready to move on to the next Etrian.

If you play it like a normal person should you'll have a fun time dungeon crawling and exploiting enemy weaknesses. Consumables more than adequate to fill the gaps in most party comps. Mapping tools work well for the first half of the game, but become woefully inadequate on the back half.

An inferior version of the Etrian Odyssey Untold games but damn does it feel nice to have an official steam release. Also reworking the map creator to function seamlessly on non Nintendo DS system and having a auto map feature, already makes this better than having to set up an emulator. Transitioning from controller to mouse works flawlessly as well when you want to draw on the map, its almost like they had the steam deck in mind when making this "remaster". I don't think its right of Atlus to charge this much for such a old game but if you're like me, who's been dying to get back into the series after wasting many hours playing every Etrian Odyssey game on the DS back in the day. Then you wouldn't mind the price point. It's a solid HD port.

Side note. Medics in EO1 were the only time they truly embody the "I'm a healer, but..."
Aim for LV10 Immunize and LV10 ATK Up.
If you know, you know. ;)

Now please release a "remaster" version of Etrian Odyssey 4, Untold and Nexus. Better yet..
Make a new Etrian Odyssey game already!!! SMT and Persona has gotten enough love as is!

I plan on revisiting the original DS version and making a full review of it there, but tl;dr:

EO1 was already a great game; very solid start to a new IP, if a little rough around the edges. The HD version adds in so many quality of life updates and neat little tweaks, that starting the series "the right way" through the first game is no longer something to avoid. Origins makes EO1 just as accessible as any of the 3DS entries, and though it's not as content rich as the future games, I feel it's an integral part of the EO experience, especially considering the neat plot nuggets it introduces near the end of the game.

Overall, what was once a solid, yet rugged first installment on the DS is now polished and reborn thanks to the HD version. Definitely the best way to play EO1, in my opinion.