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!
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!