It took me a goddamn while but I finally finished the first Etrian Odyssey.. in a franchise I have the benefit of hindsight of playing pretty much all the other games (outside of the original EO2, which I'll play next). So I do know the absolute BANGER of a franchise this becomes at the end of the DS era onwards but...
This is probably the worst EO game and I recommend the remake, Untold, WAYYY more. I still thought it was a solid dungeoncrawling experience all around, though! Albeit very basic and lacking in the solid class and enemy design EO3 and onwards excel in. The fun level designs and all the core design stuff is good here.
Balance is a fucking mess but at least it's pretty funny stomping things with Landsknecht's All Slash and destroying FOEs with Immunize and Multishot. 10 levels to respec is a disgrace against humanity, but this admittedly didn't become tolerable until 4 where it went from 5 to 2.. 10 is just, wow.. if you cheat to get around this I don't blame you in the slightest.
If it wasn't for the EXP curve of the first stratum being absolutely goddamn awful, basically requiring you to farm FOEs until you can beat Fenrir, I would still recommend to this to anyone into the dungeoncrawling genre. It's still the first in a series of probably the best dungeon-crawling franchise of all time. As it is, keep that in mind and I think you could still have a decent time with this one. It's a much slower paced game in a genre of already slow paced games, this is definetly more of the speed of something like Wizardry or the likes. If you can get into that, it's a pretty great take on the genre regardless.
I would've adored this one as a kid, but as it is, just play Untold. 6.5/10 (giving it 3.5 stars cuz I'm a biased ass EO fan)
This is probably the worst EO game and I recommend the remake, Untold, WAYYY more. I still thought it was a solid dungeoncrawling experience all around, though! Albeit very basic and lacking in the solid class and enemy design EO3 and onwards excel in. The fun level designs and all the core design stuff is good here.
Balance is a fucking mess but at least it's pretty funny stomping things with Landsknecht's All Slash and destroying FOEs with Immunize and Multishot. 10 levels to respec is a disgrace against humanity, but this admittedly didn't become tolerable until 4 where it went from 5 to 2.. 10 is just, wow.. if you cheat to get around this I don't blame you in the slightest.
If it wasn't for the EXP curve of the first stratum being absolutely goddamn awful, basically requiring you to farm FOEs until you can beat Fenrir, I would still recommend to this to anyone into the dungeoncrawling genre. It's still the first in a series of probably the best dungeon-crawling franchise of all time. As it is, keep that in mind and I think you could still have a decent time with this one. It's a much slower paced game in a genre of already slow paced games, this is definetly more of the speed of something like Wizardry or the likes. If you can get into that, it's a pretty great take on the genre regardless.
I would've adored this one as a kid, but as it is, just play Untold. 6.5/10 (giving it 3.5 stars cuz I'm a biased ass EO fan)
2 Comments
Yeah I suppose it is a little faster than some Wizardry type games, and this does have some added complexity (while the skill trees do boil down to heavily focusing into one skill, there's still a bit of variety there.)
It's definetly more focused on the combat then it is on exploring and puzzle-solving, which can cause some really obtuse feeling games, I love The Dark Spire also by Atlus but I haven't finished it because damn that game has some crazy tough puzzles that require you to go throughout the entire dungeon. Still love it though, great aesthetic and you feel like a genius for finishing them.
It's definetly more focused on the combat then it is on exploring and puzzle-solving, which can cause some really obtuse feeling games, I love The Dark Spire also by Atlus but I haven't finished it because damn that game has some crazy tough puzzles that require you to go throughout the entire dungeon. Still love it though, great aesthetic and you feel like a genius for finishing them.
Yggdroid
1 year ago