Etrian Odyssey 5: Beyond the Myth - 3DS Review

I had the chance to sit down to the demo before launch which contained the first three floors and a level cap of the final release. Easily importing that data, my characters and my progress into the full version, it was time to go further. Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth is one of the best in the main line and hopefully it isn't the last as we still don't know the fate of the handheld's successor.

In a lot of ways this latest entry into the dungeon crawler is the most accessible yet. The ONLY complaint that I have about this map drawing quest of exploration is the lack of being able to teleport to the entrances of cleared floors. EO5 has brought back the need of the Ariadne Thread if you need to make a hasty escape from the labyrinth's dangerous floors.

Short of that the rest is incredible. Atlus have added a lot of small touches that just made everything better. Item management has always been a tough one as once you really get going you'll have to make hard choices. Do you start ditching new materials and monster parts or do you head back to town to sell them for cash and unlock new items. Now available is a seperate food tab that doesn't count or clog up your material spaces and character race abilities that allow for expansions of your carrying capacity.

On the subject of the food, it has made dungeon crawling just a little bit easier as it allows for both HP and TP regeneration outside of combat. If that extra stock wasn't enough you also now have access to cooking fire and recipes in order to enhance the restorative properties. While you can't use these in battle, having them as an option can make quite the difference.

Map drawing is as robust as ever allowing players the options to do it all from scratch or to have the system do a good portion of the work. Drawing walls, coloring in the floor and adding details and notes for recurring events take seconds allowing you to either quickly recall what is available between larger breaks or help others as you recreate and post them online. If you've made a mistake on a brush stroke or a symbol placement there are erasers to erase lines and paint on the floor as well as a garbage bin to remove the symbols.

Exploration surprised me as it wasn't simple a rehash of everything previously done. There are several new elements such as:

• switches that turn roadblocks into doors;
• double triggers that change where barricades appear. These will often get in your way but sometimes come in great use blocking a FOE (Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens aka VERY BIG and on the screen enemy) from moving closer to you or in your path; and
• finally some adjustments to those FOE as some will follow their paths across land and water with splashing effects while they move through water.

So there are the elements that have made the series what it is but at the same time this newest entry hasn't sat on what it has already done but continued to push the style forward with some new surprises.

One thing about this series that continuously astonishes me is the sheer amount of time that you can spend dungeon crawling and not even realize it. Exploring floors from top to bottom and right to left ot make sure you haven't missed anything, putting in all of the details so that you remember where something was for later such as gathering points for specific items like apples or wheat and this is before grinding for experience.

Enemies obviously get tougher after every floor, bosses are always a true test of your might however they can sometimes be more manageable than a floor's FOE. A prime example of this is that after I cleared the first Stratum I still couldn't handle the giant shrimp until much later. There's a reason they show up on the screen. They really are enemies that shouldn't be taken lightly and because of this it's your choice to do so. The rewards are always worth it though.

There's not much more to say than what I've already said back in November. All of the little changes and new touches add up to make this newest entry into the series better than the previous ones. The only bonus now, compared to then, is that a new title has been announced that we simply have to wait for. Is it a new core entry or a spin-off? We know it's not an Untold so it'll be interesting to see where the series goes next as after this one, there really isn't much left that they can improve upon without making something brand new.

Game Information

Platform:
Nintendo 3DS
Developer(s):
Atlus
Publisher(s):
Atlus
Genre(s):
Dungeon Crawler
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
None

Source:
Purchased

Article by Pierre-Yves

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Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth - 3DS Preview

The sign of a great series is one that can both innovate over the years while simultaneously keeping its charm and what made it great in the first place. Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey is one of these such series that have found a well loved home on the DS and the 3DS with their mix of Dungeon Crawling crawling and explorative based cartography as you lead a guild of adventurers through various labyrinths and frightening foes.

This series has really come far over the years with 1-2-3 on the DS and 4-Untold1-Untold2 and Persona Q on the 3DS. Each entry has only added more elements to make it more accessible while never compromising on the challenge that the labyrinths could provide. Etrian Odyssey 5 is no exception to this as from the beginning it has moved away from a fully human class based system and introduced other races to the mix with certain classes being exclusive to the present races.

This new direction for those involved in the adventure is a nice change of pace because with each race comes different elements that can be brought to the adventure. Instead of having only their class based skills

• Earthlain (Humans);
• Celestians (Elves);
• Therians (Beast like people not Lycanthropes); and
• Brouni (Gnome ish?)

all have what their classes allow as well as what their individual races grant. For example instead of having classes that can gather, mine or chop wood, now the races have their own specialties with fishing added to the mix. This means that having multiple Earthlain would be good if you really need to fish but having one from each race would better cover the bases for the exploration as not only will your gathering needs be covered but so will your fighting capabilities.

While some of the classes resemble what have been around from the beginning there have been some new additions and having them fall into different races is an interesting approach. While part of me would have liked to be able to pick and choose race and class from the beginning as sometimes you want a more robust healer or mage, part of the challenge to the series has always been figuring out a proper balance to the party and EO5 is no exception. This really gets you thinking upon your class composition until the first floor is cleared and the option to change classes to even that of another race becomes possible for the low cost of five character levels. From that point on the world is your oyster.

For the first time in the series players get to not only chose from one of four character portraits for their adventurers but also the hair, eye and skin colors. Both the hair and the eyes have multiple choices as well as combinations as you get to pick both the actual colour and the highlights. Yes it is cosmetic but it brings a more personalized approach than simply the four standard choices of two male and two female options. Nothing can be done about the clothing however but what is provided is already another customization step forward along with over twenty different voice options in which any can be set for a character during creation.

Once your party is created it’s time to leave town and get to exploring which may even be more smooth now than it was before. Graphically EO5 feels smoother and easier to look at than even Untold 2 or Persona Q which had already boosted the graphical levels. The colours are bright and the environments are nice to look at as you explore them while trying to find your way over to the next level. While you’re exploring though some changes have been done to the bottom screen’s map and they are definitely for the better.

Filling out the map on the bottom screen has always been a fun aspect to this series as it allows for you to customize it as you see fit. Gone is the need to tab through your icons at the bottom screen in order to add details to your map. Instead you have a tab that can be dragged out as far as you want it and re-arranged as need be. Drawing the map is also customizable depending upon your personal preferences with auto-filling allowing you to draw your own walls or having them filled in by the system leaving the gathering points and any other notes the only things left to be added in. This also classic fans to play as they always have or newcomers to have an easier time as they learn the ropes to the often unforgiving dungeon exploration.

Currently the Demo provides thirty uses from the 3DS main menu as well as a level cap of 10, “reduced audio quality” (sounds pretty good to me…), and the ability to make it to the third floor. Other than that there are no other real limitations and all of your data can be brought over to the full version once it launches.

With longtime series can sometimes come the worry that the next entry may not meet our expectations but with this one particular series that never seems to be the case. Instead what often comes to mind is what are they going to surprise us with this time as the Etrian Odyssey series continues to expand in order to bring about even better experiences on each release. I for one am looking quite forward to being able to further explore the labyrinth once it fully launches late next month!

Game Information

Platform:
Nintendo 3DS
Developer(s):
Atlus
Publisher(s):
Atlus USA
Genre(s):
Dungeon Crawler
RPG
Mode(s):
Single Player
Other Platform(s):
N/A

Source:
Nintendo eShop 

Article by Pierre-Yves

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