Fun until the post game, then enemies and traps begin to degrade all of your equipment and it's prohibitively expensive to repair it. The Fort defense boss fights are the best new feature.
A really cool concept, basically a cross of Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon series, the music is really good and the dialogue and talking to NPC's and exploration is really fun, though it does have a really steep learning curve that I think won't be really good for beginners, start with a mainline Etrian Odyssey game and a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon game first. I just think the controls aren't really comfortable to play and the AI is really annoying.
i don't know if it says more about me or the game that i remember playing this game to completion and literally nothing else about the game
no doubt somebody's cup of tea, but to me it's a big jumbly mess
pretty fun mystery dungeon but i lost one of my best weapons and stopped playing for a couple months
I've enjoyed the mystery dungeon style games I've played, but this one is probably one of my least favorites. Unfortunately, I don't think the Etrian style really meshes up all that well with the mystery dungeon style, and I constantly felt like I didn't have enough units or I didn't have the skills and abilities I needed. I was stuck in an endless loop of grinding and bad luck, and eventually I put the game down because I grew frustrated with it.
This is the game that made me realise Pokémon Mystery Dungeon is an outlier for this kind of game...
I initially overlooked this game seeing it as an Etrian Odyssey game with worse gameplay. However, after learning how to like mystery dungeon games, I came back to this title and really enjoyed playing it. Etrian Odyssey games have a fundemental amount of chill baked into them, and the mystery dungeon formula complements this well.
Then, a good ways into one of the game's dungeons, my party died. I did the only natural thing to do and restarted the game to load my previous save. I then learned how cruel/punishing the game is with its autosaves. Upon loading my game, I found that the game had removed all my items, money, and equipment that I had worked so hard to obtain. It was at this point that I realized the game's chill was a mere facade.
This was actually a terrifyingly, threateningly cruel game that I should be afraid of playing. The difficulty crept as optimized movement and party awareness became a requirement. Previous dungeons were farmed and re-farmed to replenish my supply of consumables that can only be obtained in dungeons which I desperately needed to survive wave upon wave of monster houses, large explosion traps, teleport traps, cursed items, and ailment after ailment.
...Then I learned how to break the game and it became chill again.
Then, a good ways into one of the game's dungeons, my party died. I did the only natural thing to do and restarted the game to load my previous save. I then learned how cruel/punishing the game is with its autosaves. Upon loading my game, I found that the game had removed all my items, money, and equipment that I had worked so hard to obtain. It was at this point that I realized the game's chill was a mere facade.
This was actually a terrifyingly, threateningly cruel game that I should be afraid of playing. The difficulty crept as optimized movement and party awareness became a requirement. Previous dungeons were farmed and re-farmed to replenish my supply of consumables that can only be obtained in dungeons which I desperately needed to survive wave upon wave of monster houses, large explosion traps, teleport traps, cursed items, and ailment after ailment.
...Then I learned how to break the game and it became chill again.
I’ve finally completed the game. It took me 150+ hours to defeat every boss, including all the optional dungeons. What a journey! I’m fairly new to mystery dungeon games but I am a huge fan of EOIV. This being my second EO game, I think it holds up well against EOIV but IV is still my favourite. The EO DNA is written all over it. The perfect balance, focus on gameplay, all classes being useful, ailments play a big role, items are life saving, beautiful music, fair challenge as long as you’re careful and you know what you’re doing, lots of post game content and a unique graphical style. The mystery dungeon elements work well with EO and gives it its own style. In terms of flaws, there are a few but they’re minor or easy to solve for the most part. The game can feel very repetitive since there are 20 big dungeons with largely the same structure. The forts are neat but a bit under-utilised once you know how DOE work. I either killed DOE early or they hardly make it to my forts. The AI can be pretty dumb but that can be solved by either disabling the skills you don’t want them to use or you can stop them from wondering off if you use a certain blast skill. Getting pop up messages to use skills or items can be very annoying but luckily you can turn off messages through the options menu. I’ve hardly mended my weapons but forging is super useful! Ultimately a game like EMD is an acquired taste. I can imagine not everyone will like what it has to offer. But the ones that do, they’re going to have a blast. The only reason I’m not giving it a higher score is because IV deserves a higher one and we need to make that distinction ;)
This review contains spoilers
Frick Arbor Beetle
All my homies hate Arbor Beetle
All my homies hate Arbor Beetle
+ Character designs are cute and cool looking
+ All classes are useful / have roles
+ Good introduction to rougelike game
+ Can build forts to expedite dungeons
+ Skill / create system makes them feel like your own character(s)
~ Allies can't always be controlled at once
~ Dungeons can get rather tedious
~ Randomize dungeons
~ Protector seems to be the best class / classes aren't balanced
~ Weapons / Armor have arbitrary level up/ forge system
- Bug causes the sovereign class to avoid their own buffs
- DOE enemies seem more like filler than an actual challenge
- Constant messaging for using items
- "Powered up" enemies are worse than bosses
- Bosses are relatively easy compared to walking through the dungeon
+ All classes are useful / have roles
+ Good introduction to rougelike game
+ Can build forts to expedite dungeons
+ Skill / create system makes them feel like your own character(s)
~ Allies can't always be controlled at once
~ Dungeons can get rather tedious
~ Randomize dungeons
~ Protector seems to be the best class / classes aren't balanced
~ Weapons / Armor have arbitrary level up/ forge system
- Bug causes the sovereign class to avoid their own buffs
- DOE enemies seem more like filler than an actual challenge
- Constant messaging for using items
- "Powered up" enemies are worse than bosses
- Bosses are relatively easy compared to walking through the dungeon