More grinding, more dungeon crawling, more old-school. Have at ye!Genre: Rpg
Publisher: Atlus
Release Date: February 19, 2008 (US)
Modes: Single-playerIntroduction:Since I've been playing on the Nintendo DS, I found out that Atlus is often the right choice for players in search for something new on the role-playing's side...well, sometimes it pushes itself a little too far, ending in a too-strange-to-be-played title, but Etrian Odyssey (EO) is not the case.The EO franchise has been warmly welcomed by the player's community and is currently one of the most challenging game on the market. Like the first installment, the player immediately finds himself immersed in a fantastic and colorful world, ready for action.This time, your heroes' adventures will be written in the history books of High Lagaard, a city built at the feet of a giant tree-like structured labyrinth called the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. It is said that a floating castle lies above the Labyrinth: your aim is to see if the legends are true and find the Holy Grail, an ancient artifact that the Grand Duchy of High Lagaard is searching for getting rid of the disease affecting the poor duke.And that's pretty much everything you'll know, before reaching the top of the Labyrinth.Gameplay:The interface is bright and simple, the artworks are anime-like and somewhat loli. At the beginning of a New Game, you'll notice that the system asks you if you want to input a Password: this can be achieved only by clearing EO1 and, if you cleared it at 100%, gives you a reward (either in EO1 and a nerfed one in EO2); it also adds a little bit more of depth in the game as you are recognized by some Npcs as the Guild that helped the Town of Etria in discovering the mysteries of the other dungeon; however, this Easter Egg ends here.After the brief introduction, you'll find yourself registering your Guild and your new recruits: you can choose among 11 different classes (plus an extra one which will be added later in the game), giving them the name you want and choosing one from four different portraits per class.
After you have looked through everyone's Skill Tree and chosen how to setup your party, you are ready to enter the Labyrinth.The dungeon is the only part of the game that uses 3D Graphics and it runs pretty smoothly, even though sometimes the game lags because of all the elements on the screen.
Mapping timeYou'll have to keep track of where you are going by drawing a map on the Touch Screen: this will help you for future references if you spot shortcuts, treasures, locked doors, events, etc. You are provided with a variety of icons that will help you finding your way through the dungeon.For each step you make a radar in the bottom-right corner of the upper screen will tell you how close the enemies are, when it turns completely red you will most certainly run into a random encounter in the next few steps.
Die, scoundrels!The battle runs in a classic turn-based system, in which you first choose your actions and then everybody on the field acts based on the characters/monsters' speed. Running like mad into the dungeon will for sure end in a miserable death and a game over, so you'll have to be cautious and go back to town from time to time to rest.
New shop interfaceThe system is basically the same as EO1, except a few fixes on classes' skills and shop's interface. There's now the possibility of storing goods at the Inn, at the cheap price of 100En (Etrian Odyssey's currency).Talking about skillz, a great introduction is the Force Skill: this is an *even more* unique class skill that unlocks when the Force Meter of a character is at 100; the character will then unleash a powerful attack/support magic that helps a lot in battle.The programmers also reviewed the Rest / Retire options: for resetting the skills (very likely if you're a noob or you were expecting something else from a skill) you now don't have to lose 10 levels, but only 5 and the Retire options is now something you want to do at a certain point of the game: not only will it provide you with an enhanced recruit (bonus stats and more skill points), but, if you retire at level cap the next recruit will have the level cap raised by 1.The main cons of this game are still the same as the first installment: it's insanely difficult for most of the people, the cruelty of the AI never stops to surprise me, and the sound is not very elaborate...a little bit more catchy than the first Etrian Odyssey, but still nothing more than a plain midi. Also the sound of attacks and magics could be better. Another annoying problem are the skills descriptions from which you can *assume* how useful it can be, but there is no way you can be sure about it until you try on the field. Yes, Google is still your friend, however it sucks having to rely on FAQs or walkthrough to figure out a game.Fortunately, this kind of game lets you take all the time you want, so you don't have to - for example - complete all the Quest as soon as they pop out and you can reskill as many time as you want...yeah there's a lot of grinding.As always FOEs (some sort of Mini-Bosses) are ready to wipe your party in a turn or two and Bosses are even harder (not to talk about optional Bosses...they are teh EVIL)Conclusions:Despite its difficulty, I find this game very enjoyable and I look at it as a single-player MMORPG: there are so many combinations of parties and skills that you can play with it for years and you can even try to beat the game with a reduced party or even in solo!Pros:
+ Great graphic
+ Challenging and rewarding
+ Some old-school dungeon crawling never spoil the funCons:
+ This game doesn't pull punches
+ Lot of grinding
+ Not very brilliant soundPresentation: 8/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Sound: 7/10
Gameplay: 8/10
Replay Value: 8.5/10
Final Score: 40/50Trailer: Click Me
Thanks to: Wikipedia, IGN.com------------------------Done. Hope it's fine.
Seems like I cannot embed the Youtube video directly into the post, don't know why.