Throwback RPG adventures in the vein of Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey are few and far between these days, and let’s be honest there’s a reason for that. Their outmoded mechanics seem archaic in light of modern gaming’s tendency to side with flashy graphics and a ‘bigger is better’ mentality.
So why is it that, in 2009 (originally released 2007), a dungeon-crawling epic such as Etrian Odyssey, shamelessly wearing the past on its sleeve, can still find a place in modern game collections?
An Old Fashioned RPG Experience
Granted, those collections will still be entirely in the minority. For those few willing to overlook the game’s wizened exterior, there is a delightful little game in here. It won’t start any revolutions – indeed, it’s very release is almost the exact opposite of a revolution – but it will entertain those happy to persevere. For those not familiar with the dungeon-crawling sub-genre of role playing games, put simply it most often involves a grind-like journey through a sprawling, often randomly generated environment.
The Yggdrasil Labyrinth that forms the vast majority of Etrian Odyssey’s game world is not randomly generated, but random monster encounters are prominent. Some people will instantly have been turned off by that revelation, and this is just one example of the type of game play that makes Etrian Odyssey a game destined to reside with those of niche tastes.
It is a game about stats, character progression and learning the battle system, which is addictive but hardly complex. At the beginning of the game you create and name a team of adventurers from scratch and are thrust into the labyrinth with barely a helping hand to guide players.
There is another element of Etrian Odyssey’s game play that harkens back to a less forgiving age of gaming, when death meant death and there was no such thing as a quick save, and that is the mapping system. The game is not so extreme in its machinations as to limit player saves (although you can only save at certain points or by returning to town) but the mapping system is simultaneously the most archaic and forward thinking aspect of the game.
Utilising the DS’ stylus and touch screen, the player must physically draw maps to help them in the future, detailing the walls, doors and treasure troves hidden throughout the vast labyrinth. This feature of the game play forces a satisfying (and frightening) sense of the unknown on the player: even though the labyrinth is fundamentally linear, the branching paths and the possibility of random encounters/events create a palpable atmosphere. This is enhanced by the fact that the game does a good job of making you feel almost entirely alone in the wilderness, with atmospheric, if repetitive, music and art design.
The objective here is to traverse the labyrinth, getting deeper and deeper, further away from the town above the player, where no one has walked before. For the first third or so, the game is almost entirely bereft of story or even narrative drive; players are simply doing it for satisfaction and achievement. As the game progresses, fragments of story do leak in and the objective becomes more interesting, but those searching for an epic story of, let’s say, Final Fantasy dimensions, will be sorely disappointed.
"By Their Own Follies They Perished, the Fools”
The game is also punishing in its machinations, often throwing you in at the deep end with little help available. The first couple of floors may take new players by surprise, as pathetic looking groups of moles and butterflies emerge from the undergrowth and bewilderingly flatten your party with ease. The sense of difficulty does lessen fairly quickly as players get used to the way the game works, and what might be around the next corner, but the presence of FOES in particular (moving blobs of threatening colour on your map signify far tougher monsters) means they never feel entirely safe.
Unfortunately, the sensibilities of modern gamers will likely lead to huge amounts of backtracking; get used to the idea of seeing the same generic corridors and staircases over and over as you grind to make your party strong enough to make progress. The boss fights are few and far between, but players will feel a genuine sense of achievement when the hard hitting big boys go down; they just need to make sure they're fully equipped.
In the end, Etrian Odyssey’s retro leanings are, rather predictably, both its greatest strength and its greatest weakness. It will provide a stiffer challenge than most new releases, and the adventure is long and repetitive. Despite its inevitable faults, however, there is a lot to love in this title, though in the main it’ll be RPG fans looking for an old school kick that will get the most out of it.
