Believe it or not, I mastered this game. As a master of "Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City," I fucking hate it. Don't play this piece of shit game it's so fucking overrated and trash. All characters in this game were created by preschoolers with degrees in garbage truck driving. Because this game is fucking trash. Mid.
Casting off the shroud of early CRPG aesthetics and, to a lesser extent, systems design, The Drowned City reveals the end to which the series has been working, its impoverished masterpiece: an ATLUS dungeon crawler. If it were only that it could perhaps be forgiven as a mediocrity, but what damns it is the way it still cleaves to that original Wizardraic form, in spite of having abandoned its fundamental goals.
The Drowned City seems to view the resource conversation which characterized the series' former entries as a flaw to be optimized out, and offers the player, from the start of the game, both inexpensive ways of recovering from death and TP depletion as well a frequency of shortcuts that makes getting back to any given spot from town almost effortless. This isn't a flaw in and of itself, of course: even Final Fantasy XIII, the best JRPG of all time, takes a similarly resource-agnostic approach. But while that game and its sequels had a variety of encounters which could approached systematically, each like a puzzle, The Drowned City's non-boss encounters are nowhere near diverse or complex enough to be compelling when they have no long-term bearing on one's progress.
Where The Drowned City's genericization is most apparent, however, is in that aspect which is the most superficially original: its characters and narrative framing. Where Heroes of Lagaard's townspeople were generic town-NPC archetypes whose nuances became apparent over the course of the game, The Drowned City's simply reiterate their one quality, the quirk that is expected to sustain them through the next fifty hours. By the end of the former game, the shopgirl was like a friend's daughter who I sometimes watch on weekends; the latter game's characters never really grew on me. This is particularly damaging to the plot, which is both considerably more present in this entry and driven by characters who are ultimately pretty dull.
What decisively renders this the weakest of the DS Etrian games, though, is the design of its strata, of which only the fifth stands out aesthetically. The third stratum, in particular, is the most visually and aurally generic in series thus far, and has the gall to be the longest in the game. More than their individual failings, however, what hurts this labyrinth is its lack of aesthetic unity: it feels as if it's comprised of six unrelated dungeons and dispenses with former entries' sense of progression.
The Drowned City retains a great deal of what's good about the series: its character and monster design, the Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack, and puzzle design which admittedly blossoms in this game. Its class portraits felt somewhat overdesigned and specific for blank-slate characters, but are nevertheless good on their own terms. Olympia was the standout cast member but she deserved to go a little more sicko I think.
The Drowned City seems to view the resource conversation which characterized the series' former entries as a flaw to be optimized out, and offers the player, from the start of the game, both inexpensive ways of recovering from death and TP depletion as well a frequency of shortcuts that makes getting back to any given spot from town almost effortless. This isn't a flaw in and of itself, of course: even Final Fantasy XIII, the best JRPG of all time, takes a similarly resource-agnostic approach. But while that game and its sequels had a variety of encounters which could approached systematically, each like a puzzle, The Drowned City's non-boss encounters are nowhere near diverse or complex enough to be compelling when they have no long-term bearing on one's progress.
Where The Drowned City's genericization is most apparent, however, is in that aspect which is the most superficially original: its characters and narrative framing. Where Heroes of Lagaard's townspeople were generic town-NPC archetypes whose nuances became apparent over the course of the game, The Drowned City's simply reiterate their one quality, the quirk that is expected to sustain them through the next fifty hours. By the end of the former game, the shopgirl was like a friend's daughter who I sometimes watch on weekends; the latter game's characters never really grew on me. This is particularly damaging to the plot, which is both considerably more present in this entry and driven by characters who are ultimately pretty dull.
What decisively renders this the weakest of the DS Etrian games, though, is the design of its strata, of which only the fifth stands out aesthetically. The third stratum, in particular, is the most visually and aurally generic in series thus far, and has the gall to be the longest in the game. More than their individual failings, however, what hurts this labyrinth is its lack of aesthetic unity: it feels as if it's comprised of six unrelated dungeons and dispenses with former entries' sense of progression.
The Drowned City retains a great deal of what's good about the series: its character and monster design, the Yuzo Koshiro soundtrack, and puzzle design which admittedly blossoms in this game. Its class portraits felt somewhat overdesigned and specific for blank-slate characters, but are nevertheless good on their own terms. Olympia was the standout cast member but she deserved to go a little more sicko I think.
not entirely sure why people cream themselves over this series so much but the merchant girl is my spirit animal
Beating this without resting in the inn was pretty hard at the beggining. After killing the first sea boss is more manageable.
The new classes and multi-class after certain event give lots of options to build your characters.
The new classes and multi-class after certain event give lots of options to build your characters.
EO's style finally matured with Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, the peak of their art. With this entry, Atlus improved on all fronts (artistically, systems mechanics, gameplay, level variety, map design, etc.) expanding on the intuitions learned from the previous 2 games. Wider build variety (thanks to the addition of subclasses and an almost complete class overhaul) is complemented by an even stronger emphasis on tense, but not terribly frustrating (as in the second game) or tedious (as in the first), but still very challenging dungeon crawling. With this release, Etrian Odyssey can claim to be a worthy successor to dungeon crawlers for the modern age.
far and away the best in the series and i'll always maintain that. the subclassing option opened up so many doors for party combinations and ways to make otherwise mediocre classes viable. the OST is outrageously good, and the stratums are a lot more varied than they were in the previous two games. overall just a magnificent end to the series, such a shame that they never made another game after this and that this was the last entry with no sequels. really sad to see but i respect the play.
Peak. Etrian Odyssey is my favorite video game series of all time, for better or worse. I can't always put my finger onto why, it just is. It's incredibly fun. It has pretty art. It has amazing music. It's difficult. Those are the most basic reasons, but there's so much more to it. The dungeons in each entry look beautiful, even if some are more frustrating to play than others. The story is there, albeit subtle, and it just helps to immerse yourself even further. The insane levels of customisation the series offers, the charm of drawing the maps yourself, the dangers that lurk within each dungeon. It has all been made perfectly, in each entry to the series (EXCEPT EO2U,) and from all of them, Etrian Odyssey 3 is my favorite. Peak.
This review contains spoilers
Just wonderful, I thought I was bored in creating maps but no, it just increased my manias of perfectionism lol
Moreover, for the plot I expected something about Norse mythology but instead I found myself Lovecraft and I really wanted to play a game that is mainly based on that.
Moreover, for the plot I expected something about Norse mythology but instead I found myself Lovecraft and I really wanted to play a game that is mainly based on that.
The first game in the series that got me to complete the post-game content, and for good reason. EOIII is still the best entry, even when considering the later titles, and it's also my favorite RPG of all time.
With my favorite class building system and my favorite soundtrack ever, I couldn't let go of EOIII until I turned it upside down.
While I prefer the first game's story for how it handled the surprise twist near the end, EOIII's multiple branching paths and endings make it just as entertaining.
... Why does it have to be so expensive tho
With my favorite class building system and my favorite soundtrack ever, I couldn't let go of EOIII until I turned it upside down.
While I prefer the first game's story for how it handled the surprise twist near the end, EOIII's multiple branching paths and endings make it just as entertaining.
... Why does it have to be so expensive tho
now i understand why shigeru based the legend of zelda on his childhood
The DS entry I spent the most time with by a long shot. Some classes are pretty rough, and the boat stuff isn't too exciting (4 would handle a similar idea WAY better), but I love this one a ton. I think the Princess/Prince might be my favorite RPG class ever.