Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard

"Atlus brings us another RPG masterpiece. Casual Gamers Beware!"

Etrian Odyssey II Review

Atlus brings us another RPG masterpiece. Casual Gamers Beware!

Well, Atlus has done it again. They gave me a wonderful reason to neglect my consoles and bust out the handheld. Etrian Odyssey. Its back. Not only is it back, its bigger and its better. Ah hell, its freakin awesome! You will feel the same way about it too. That is if you prefer your RPGS Challenging. Listen, I like my RPGs to be tough. I like to strategize, and work around the situation. The tougher the better. That is one of the reasons me and the original Etrian Odyssey got along so well. Etrian Odyssey II is no exception.

You don't need to be a hardcore freak to enjoy Etrian Odyssey II. You don't even need to like your games tough. I feel that they slightly tweaked the games difficulty compared to the first one. Yep, they made it easier, but not too easy. You will definitely get a challenge that is worth the money. All im saying is you shouldn't expect to just breeze through the game with little to no effort.

When you load up the game you get the basic opening title screens. The main title screen has a 3d model of the Gunner class which I think they could have done without. Anyway, the menus in the game are easy to navigate. The town menu is straight forward and is where you will spend most of your time when you aren't exploring. They finally added the option to scroll between characters while in the menu by hitting L or R. Something that was terribly missing from the first game. This makes doing everything from equipping, distributing skill points, and other tasks so much easier. While at the shop they added the option to change equipment while there. In my opinion this is not good. They took away the option to open the menu at the shop (something I loved), and put this in. Opening the menu would have done just fine.

The Graphics are one of a Kind. How the game mixes 3d and 2d together is awesome. The 3d First Person Navigation is very cool. The 2d artwork of the characters and monsters are really creative looking as well. The map making screen is neat too. The graphics are really close to perfect. It will exceed whatever your expectations for a Handheld were.

This game is everything a great RPG should be. Some may think the game has absolutely no story at all. The truth is thou, you imagine your own story, you make your own party with the characters you want. You will accept task and quest to fulfill. The game is basically, in a nutshell, you versus the Labyrinth. Its you, the player and your party, versus the Labyrinth, a tremendous twisted dungeon where deadly fiends and the dreaded FOEs lurk. As you progress into the labyrinth you get to mark your progress on a map. You get to put in the walls, the floor and anything else you seem fits. Trust me, the better you make your maps, the easier it will be navigating through it again after you die, and believe me, you will die. The best part of this game is exploring the Labyrinth. What secrets does it hold? What new monsters will you encounter? What does the next Stratum look like? All of this is the reason you will keep on playing.

Besides those reasons, the main reason you will keep on playing is for the battles. The battle system is a standard turn based system. You select your party's commands and then the battle unfolds until all characters and enemies took action. Then the next turn begins. A lot of games have a turn based battle system, so why does this one stand out? It stands out because it has substance. You will need to strategize your every move. Deciding the wrong move could mean death. The enemies are 2-d but the artwork is wonderful. The battle animations are very stylish, the developers went ahead and added a ton of new animations to the battles. All of this makes the battles addictive and worth playing.

While you navigate the Labyrinth you will have your Map you are making on the bottom screen, but on the top screen you will see the Labyrinth first hand. The top screen is in first person view. The 3d graphics are impressive for a handheld. Each time you reach a new stratum and see how the vibrant new color of that stratum stands out, in 3D none the less, you will be dazzled by it..

You can make 30 characters in the guild. You get to choose from 12 different classes. You get 5 characters in a party at a time. When your character gets to level 30 you can rest or retire. Resting resets your skills points but drops you 5 levels. Retiring lets you make a new enhanced character with more skill points and better stats, that character will be at have the level of the retiring character. So you can see how much play time you can milk from this game. The whole time it will still feel fresh and innovative.

Overall, the game has good last ability. It does not have a game progress timer so I couldn't tell you how many hours I have been playing my game, but I can tell you it has to be over 100, and im not even done with the initial play through yet. Yeah its that good. So if you aren't a complete wimp and are ready for one of the first RPGs in a long time, pick up this game.

And if this kind of stuff matters to you….

Here is a Summary:

Presentation - 9
Very Good. Everything from the Box Art, to the in game menus, to the Labyrinth itself is creative enough, more creative then a lot of RPGs out there these days.

Graphics - 10
Very Good. The Battle animations are great. The 2d artwork is really cool looking. The 3d navigation are probably some of the best graphics ive seen on the DS.

Sound - 10
The sound is amazing, a fantastic soundtrack for an RPG. I suggest get the soundtrack if possible. Whether you are playing the sound through headphones or your DS's built in speakers the music and sound will be top notch. Of course the headphones will sound slightly better, but that doesn't mean the sound wont be great without them.

Game Play - 9
The game play is next to flawless. You will be amazed at how innovative it is and how immersed you will get in it. You'll have a blast just making your characters. Then after leveling up a bit and accumulating Skill points you'll have a blast just customizing their skills. Like previously stated, The customization is Outstanding, and it definitely makes this game stand out above the rest.

Lasting appeal - 9
You will get hours upon hours of game play. You get to make tons of characters, retire or rest them, make new characters, and it still feels fresh each time.

Overall Score - 9.4

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/08

Game Release: Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard (US, 06/13/08)