Etrian Odyssey

"Simple. Addictive and Hard"

Quick Summary

Etrain Odyssey is a first-person turn-based RPG dungeon crawler with a concept so ancient that it is actually novel in today's age. While the game play is relatively boring by contemporary standards, it is actually ironically addictive. I am so strangely spilt that I could have assigned a score of 3 or 9 at the same time. If I compare the good versus the bad on a point-by-point basis, the negative will outweigh the positive. However, at the end of the day, my final score is tilted towards the higher side probably due to the nostalgic feel of the title.

This title is more akin to older DOS games on the PC platform rather than typical RPGs we see today. I remember titles such as Eye of Beholder and Pool of Radiance fondly. Being a RPG fan for both PC and console platforms, I hope to give a balanced review for this title.

General Description

At the very start of the game, you would have sensed the old-school feel to this game. Those who are familiar with the RPG titles of the DOS days will feel at home with the game introduction (or rather the lack of). Without much fanfare, the game will usher you into a party formation mode where you have to create your guild members. The classes available for selection are very typical, from melee classes to healing classes to magic classes. If you are tired of these characters or see the need to diversify at a later stage, the game allows you to come back and create new formations. Also, there will be new character classes to be unlocked as you progress.

Once the basic preparations are completed (the starting funds are pretty generous), your party would be thrust into the dungeon. Movement is by the D-pad and the view is from first-person angle. Recall the old days where Eye of the Beholder gave you giddy spells due to the first-person exploration view? Well, Etrain Odyssey plays in the same manner where every single step you make will be charted onto a grid-like map.

Random encounters with the enemies will call up a standard RPG battle screen. Unlike the traditional console battles (for example, FF) where your party stands one side and the enemies stand the other side, you will not see your members here. Reason is that the battle style adopts a first-person view too. The enemies will appear in the upper screen, staring at you in the eyes and waiting to take action. Simple party info will appear below, waiting for you to enter your turn-based commands. Your members will adopt a two-row battle formation. Melee fighters will shed blood at the front while magic users will cast spells at the back. Pretty standard fare.

One special (or dreadful, depending on your taste) feature is the map system. As you move in the dungeon, the lower touch screen will serve as your map system. Each step you take will be shaded onto the grid-based map. However, the dungeon walls, treasure points and “un-stepped” areas will not be auto-mapped. You are expected to draw these onto the map using the stylus. Whenever this is fun really depends on personnel preference. The only way to know is to find out for yourself.

As you progress deeper into the dungeons, some shallow story-telling will take place (eg. Adventurers are required to take out Enemy X which is rampaging Level Y of the dungeon.) As you back-track to the town, extra quests will become available for your party to undertake. Also, items you picked up may be sold at the town shop. At the same time, the shop owner will be able to forge new equipment if you continuously bring back new items. This means that the purchase-able equipment list will grow as you progress.

Basically, that's the general game play. A simple cycle of town-dungeon-town-dungeon. We shall move on to examine what's good and what's bad in this title.

What's Good?

If I may sum it all in one word, it will be “addictiveness”. The problem is that I could not really explain why. One reason is perhaps nostalgia. Human beings are shaped by personal experiences and are likely to be influenced by early impressions. I will suspect if one grew up playing Wizardry as a child, one is likely to embrace Etrain fondly. Similarly, those who dislike first-person PC RPG are likely to shun this title.

The tough difficulty here is frustrating, but it could be a reason for addictiveness too. Very often, the increase in difficulty between dungeon levels is very steep. As a careless and impatient player who tries to push my party beyond its limits, I often rush into powerful new enemies and find my adventurers unable to cope with the overwhelming attacks. At times, my whole party will be eliminated and I feel my anger raising as I curse myself for not back-tracking earlier to save my game. As this inward anger reaches its peak, I will become more intent to restart the latest saved game and re-challenge the damned level all over again. Such revenge-mindedness is perhaps one reason for the addictive. (Gosh, what vengeful animal have I become?)

Skill building in this game can be quite fun too. It is very similar to building up job abilities in FF5 or FF Tactics Advance. Every time your adventurer increases a character level, a skill point will be awarded. This skill point is then used to build up that adventurer's certain abilities. Available abilities of each adventurer class differ from each other. For example, I spent my Protector's skill points on building up his HP, defense and shield abilities. This allows me to custom-build a tank-like character to stay in the front row and take damages. My Survivalist, on the other hand, acts more like a handyman. While I spend some skill points building up his Bow abilities (so that he contributes to some offensive battle duties), I have spread out most of his other expertise in diversified areas such as Escape (self-explanatory) and Chopping (an item collection skill). While skill building is nothing new in RPG titles, it is reasonably well implemented here and is pretty rewarding. As gaining skill points is a slow and painful process, I often find myself debating: Where should I spend that next precious skill point on?

In general, normal party maintenance is pretty expensive. This is because reviving dead adventurers and resting at the inn cost a bomb. If you are a reckless spender, the lack of funds may be irritating at some points. However, this may be actually fun in a different way. Gone is the typical RPG feature where gold is easy to accumulate by slaying enemies. In fact, enemies here do not carry gold. Quite logical in the real world since animals do not carry wallets. They do drop items (mainly carcass such as hide) where you can sell and earn some gold. In fact, the game may be more appropriately titled as “Dungeon Hunter” (LOL). Of course, you may criticize that both (immediate gold from dead enemies versus selling of loot) are actually the same since the end result is gold. Nevertheless, it does have a more realistic feel somewhat.

What's Bad?

My major complain about this title is this: Where is the storyline? I can take crappy graphics but the storyline needs to be present. Saving the world in many games today may be cliché but at least, there's an attempt to tell a story. This is sorely missing as the developers seem to be intent on making you focus on map-drawing.

The inventory management system and statistics management system should be better designed. In fact, both look out-dated. Some things should be retained for nostalgic purpose, but not for such dated management systems. To highlight one example: as I go to the town shop, open up the equipment purchase page and point to a short sword on sale, the system is not able to tell how many existing short swords I already own. Most games will show the existing stock so that we (being absent-minded heroes) do not purchase wrongly. Another example: as I open up the statistics page for my Adventurer 1, I am unable to immediately switch to view the statistics of Adventurer 2. To do so, I need to exit the page and reselect Adventurer 2 from the previous menu. This is unlike most GBA and DS titles which will allow you to switch quickly and compare statistics by using the L/R buttons. While these minor limitations do not kill the game, they do irritate from time to time.

As already mentioned earlier, the difficulty level is very high. You will notice this as early as the second dungeon level where strong enemies called FOE (this is one of the silliest acronyms I have encountered) start to appear. Unlike random enemies which are not shown on the map, FOE can be seen and you can choose to avoid these encounters. Given the gap in statistic level between the party and FOE, I guess the developers are encouraging strategic plotting where players avoid certain paths. However, being a vengeful adventurer, I find myself going back to challenge these enemies again and again (instead of avoiding them), falling many a times and sacrificing previous sleeping hours.

Some critics mention that the high difficulty here creates the need for strategy. I do not agree totally. Although certain strategies are generally required, most of the time the difficulty can only be overcome by leveling up. This means you will spend time wandering around, fighting battles to build levels. You may say that such is a common thing in RPGs. However, this is too prevailing in the game and goes beyond the point of being extreme.

I also need to moan about the lack of a quick-save function. Some comments on online message boards frequently blast the quick-save function as “dumbing down” of games. These comments are missing the point. Quick-save is different from the normal save because once we load a quick-save, the file is gone. The purpose is for gamers who play on the move, or prefer to do short 15-min runs.

Fans of the PC title The Bard's Tale (do not be confused with the PS2 namesake) will probably enjoy plotting the grid map. For me, the map system is fun only for about three hours. After that, I simply become lazy and grumpy. Where is the fun in drawing the walls and charting the item points repeatedly? Such mundane tasks should be delegated to the CPU.

One minor sore point is the graphics. To clarify, I am no fanatic for over-the-top artwork and I am not asking for PS3 graphics. Also, I agree with many advocates that gameplay is more important than graphics. However, I will expect better artistic efforts in a 2007 title. To say that “this is old school and does not require great graphics” is lame in today's context. Game engines and memory capacities are capable of doing more and doing better.

The Recommendation

My score for this title is 6 out of 10. If you have always felt that PC-style turn-based RPGs stink, please avoid this title. It will probably be a good idea to rent this title before buying. One last warning, this game is definitely not meant for the mass public.

<Review by Ray Lightcaster>

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/07