Este era el último juego de la saga que me quedaba por jugar, y he decidido ponerle las 5 estrellas no solo por lo que me ha gustado el juego (que es mucho) sino como reseña general de Etrian Odyssey como saga y lo que significa para mí.

Empecé a jugar Etrian con la primera entrega casi por casualidad (me descargué un lote de juegos para jugar en mi R4 y este me llamó la atención por la caratula). Siempre he preferido los juegos con un fuerte énfasis en la historia, y por eso me sorprendí a mí mismo enganchado a Etrian: un juego cuyo 95% es explorar y dibujar un laberinto, matando monstruos y diseñando una party que pueda estar a la altura. No entendía por qué, pero había algo en ese laberinto que me llamaba y lo único que podía hacer es comprar un hilo de Ariadne, guardar la partida y emprender el viaje.

Durante el año siguiente estuve enclaustrado en casa: había hecho el tonto en clase (estaba cursando primero de carrera, más conservatorio, y no me lo estaba tomando en serio) y, como resultado, tenía 18 asignaturas que aprobar en total. Mi rutina consistía en ir a clase, volver a casa, estudiar; y así, en bucle. No tenía tiempo para videojuegos, o por lo menos, aquellos que me distrajeran lo suficiente como para eludir mis (horribles) responsabilidades.

Salvo para Etrian Odyssey. El propio juego incentivaba jugar a rachas cortas: explorar una planta o parte de ella, intentar un combate contra un FOE o cumplir un par de quests ya saciaba mi hambre videojueguil; en especial porque lo normal era morir un par de veces, y eso me empujaba a dejarlo un rato hasta que se me pasara el cabreo. El progreso era lento, pero poco a poco el mapa iba completándose, los FOEs caían y mi viaje por Yggrasil proseguía. Al final del año, me había pasado los tres primeros Etrian Odyssey... y aprobado las 18 asignaturas.

Han pasado diez años desde entonces, y sólo me quedaba por jugar Etrian Odyssey V (si contamos los numerados; aún tengo que jugar Nexus, y los Mystery Dungeon no son para mí). Tenía algo de miedo por desempolvar mi 3DS y regresar a la saga: ¿qué habría pasado si lo único que sentía por esta saga era que me proporcionaba una válvula de escape? ¿Estaba distorsionada por la nostalgia mi impresión por estos juegos?

Qué tontería pensar así. No llevaba ni cinco minutos diseñando a mi party y ya estaba dentrísimo por todo: el arte, el sistema de combate, la música (te quiero, Yuzo Koshiro, tanto como a pocas cosas en el mundo) y todos los nuevos añadidos, la multitud de pequeños eventos dentro del laberinto que le insuflan vida y aún así dejan espacio a tu imaginación. Todos los cambios de quality of life, pensados con esmero en un juego en el que un pequeño error significa la muerte e incluso perder varias horas de tu vida. No se acerca en dificultad al primer juego ni de lejos, pero es difícil ver la diferencia entre lo que es objetivamente fácil y aquello que lo es porque ya tengo un bagaje con la saga. Este no es el primer mapa que dibujo, nena.

Este juego es la guinda perfecta para una saga que siempre ha sido mi zona de confort: ascender, a veces descender, este laberinto intricado de trampas y monstruos; apuntar todo, cada pequeña cosa, fijarme si hay atajos en las paredes que pueda abrir luego para volver a Etria, a Lagaard, a Iorys. Vender mi botín, pertrecharme, mejorar, de vuelta al laberinto. Porque tiene algo, no me preguntes el qué, que me llama. Y yo debo responder, porque eso es lo que hace cualquier aventurero que se precie.

Eso sí: no olvidéis el hilo de Ariadne. La aventura es importante; volver a casa, más.

It's been a while since I've been meaning to leave a review. If you want bang for your buck, get Etrian Odyssey Nexus. However, if you want quality, you stick to this game.

Unlike the rest of the games, this one features a race selection feature and a set of class skills. The classes branch into specialties instead of you adopting another class as a sub class. What this functionally means is that the game is better designed and better-balanced thanks to the fact that the specialties are actually good for what they do, and each one has special tricks up their sleeve that you should have some sort of tool instead of relying on your main class' skills for attacks and the subclass for passive buffs.

This also marks the series' first time in having an emphasis on events on the map; like an abundance of them. Your characters will be cutely doing things before dying to a fuzzy caterpillar of caerbannog.

The map exploration is simple, and the class choices meaningful, and ergo this game deserves my full rating of 5 stars.

Man, this was a journey and a half.

While I finished and revisited the previous games a couple of times, this is my first time beating EO5. I don't know what it was about my previous attempts, something always kept me from continuing; marathon burnout maybe. This time around though, I couldn't put it down, god damn is it good.
... For the most part. I'll start with the one thing I didn't like: The story.

It's not poorly written or poorly translated(depends on how you feel about the location change), it's just... almost non existent. It starts out as every other EO does: big tree is around, people want the big tree explored, round up your scrimblos and get to dungeon crawling. And then... Nothing. Until the third stratum, nothing really happens. Then you get a new objective around said stratum: Help out the other two adventurers you met while exploring. That gets resolved by the end of the dungeon, and until LITERALLY THE FINAL BOSS DOOR, nothing happens except for a couple of "I have something to tell you... Reach the apex of Yggdrasil and I'll reveal the truth" interactions with a mysterious NPC.

It's very minimal, much like the first game in the series(a decision that makes a lot of sense considering certain plot nuggets that I won't spoil). But this time around, it just left me wanting more, and honestly felt undercooked.

EO5 cranked a ton of series elements to 11: The combat system got a big revamp regarding stats, different races with their own stat growths and race skills are now a thing, subclassing is gone but in its place there's a specialization system that feels just as robust and opens up even more possibilities, the UI got a BIG overhaul that looks really good, character customization is greatly expanded with custom colors and voices, and it also has the best dungeon design in the series so far.

With all of those big improvements in mind, it's disappointing that the story didn't follow suit. Sure, EO was never really about the overarching narrative, instead relying on simple storylines with effective twists near the end, but on the other hand, this is the 5th mainline game in the series. It'd be ok if it kept the same level of narrative detail as EO4, but stepping back just feels odd.

That's about my only gripe with the game though. Everything else? Absolutely stellar. An absolute must play if you enjoyed your time with any of the other games.

Considering Nexus is a crossover/anniversary game, I probably won't get too upset if the story ends up being a bit basic. I've been waiting for a long while to play it; time for one last rodeo on the 3DS.

... Until I play the Untold remakes and the Persona Q games that is >_>

Like every game in the Etrian Odyssey series, it's a challenging and Hardcode game! it's a game for a niche audience but it's been growing in recent years, I started playing on December 28, 2021 only on April 6, 2023 I completed the entire game at 100% and conquered iggdrasil! it's not easy! you due to some mistake or haste, can end up with hours of gameplay, even experience points that will be lost, since Game Over is returning to the initial screen and the only thing that will be possible to save is your map! , Etrian Odyssey 5 focuses on a simple narrative but with an intriguing story but without long dialogues the myth on the Iggdrasil and the place where you live everything will be told during the advancement of the stratum, the bosses are unique some will give you pain head to head the super boss are very challenging and the real ending awaits a surprise! A tip is always to use guides on the internet for some bosses, especially if you want to do 100% since you get good items and rewards by cataloging what you collect in iggdrasil.

Something I have to highlight is the beautiful illustrations by Yuji Himukai for the characters, the maps of that world show everything is very well done and neat! and of course I can't forget the divine soundtrack composed by Yuzo Koshirowhich was very beautiful there was no song that I can say that I didn't like all of them are pleasant to hear I'm happy to be able to beat this game I give full marks with much praise!

My personal comfort game. Etrian Odyssey is just one of those that despite the attention required to do anything, is best enjoyed being played with half your attention while you’re in a Discord call blaring MGMT and Mild High Club through Spotify. Each class in Etrian Odyssey V is interesting with a level of uniqueness that isn’t found in most tabletop role playing games (I can confirm this because my go to character in DND campaigns is based off a character I used in a playthrough of this game). Add the amazing dungeon crawling, difficult but rewarding combat, in depth character customization, and the exceptional gimmick of using your consoles touch screen to mark the dungeons map out as if it was an actual map, and you have a recipe for my go to game when I just want to spend 200 hours over the course of 3 years relaxing to JRPG perfection.

Rating: S
Genre(s): Dungeon crawler, JRPG, puzzle

for the past year or two I've been increasingly more cynical of turn-based games from a gameplay perspective (ignore the Pokemon pfp). but it's nice now and then to play one that makes you try. it's nice now and then to play one where each of your party members and each of their moves and abilities really feel like they need to pull their weight. it's nice now and then to play one where there is actual level design and puzzles.

also at this point I've realized random encounters are 100x better if you have a meter telling you when you're about to encounter another ..encounter. it makes the pacing of exploration feel infinitely better.

EO5's overall polish, including being much less grindy and slow paced than the previous EOs I've tried, makes me feel comfortable in saying this is one of my absolute favourite Atlus games alongside SMT Strange Journey and SMT Nocturne

if you're interested in EO but aren't interested in playing all of them and just want to try the "best ones", I feel like a lot of fans including me would point to this one

this game is something else. if you even have a slight desire to play etrian odyssey, PLEASE do. i cannot believe i didn't get into this series a decade sooner.

while i didn't feel such an immediate connection with V as i did with nexus, i think the fact that there's less bloat and more room for interesting ideas makes this a better entry overall. and while you don't have the overwhelmingness of 17 different classes to start from, each class has clear roles and every one has a chance to shine or do some insanely cool shit in some form or another. teambuilding in general and how these roles progress as you move through the game while unlocking new skills and upgrade paths is satisfying beyond words. and doing shit like tanking hits like nothing or doing over 2000 damage with units that used to languish and feel useless is HYPE as fuck. it took me a while to feel like i was doing everything right (and my team didnt have quite as much synergy as my nexus team), but overall teambuilding is among the best in any RPG i've experienced.

now that i'm a few games into this franchise, i have a really deep appreciation for the dumb-ass map drawing gimmick. it might be because you're playing on the DS, but keeping track of more and more elaborate layouts for each floor and always having that record of your progress is really nice. this is complimented by really solid map design, and plenty of interesting gimmicks that keep things from getting stale. keeping track of FOE movements, fully mapping out areas you had to sprint through on a previous path, finding your own personal way of keeping track of stuff... it's a gimmick that takes a ton of adjusting to, but there's nothing else like it - even the HD collection doesn't really stack up to doing stuff with a stylus.

now, every time i bring up the "oh you have to use your imagination when coming up with your characters' backstories and the overarching story of your guild" bullshit, i feel fucking insane - just because it works so damn well. just like with nexus, i JUMPED on the opportunity to craft out character backstories, and i loved having their relationships and dynamics shift as you progress through the game. i'm literally in the middle of writing some AO3 shit about the Kore Guild's backstory, and even though nobody outside my immediate friend group will ever read it i'm still having a blast doing stuff with these characters. i sound like such a dork with how much i gush about this stuff, and i'm sure plenty of people see the lack of a concrete story as really lazy, but this shit really vibes with me.

the game's not perfect, unfortunately. there are some pretty weird difficulty spikes with some of the bosses, not every FOE gimmick is a winner, and the 4th stratum's teleporter maze is REALLY annoying. i also didn't really care much for Race Skills (actually what they're called btw), as they weren't anywhere near as satisfying as the regular upgrade tree. despite all that, though, this is one of the most solid and enjoyable RPGs i've played in recent memory. i'm gonna be thinking about this one for a long, long time.

In spite of its thirty-floor labyrinth and lack of overworld dross, Beyond the Myth's level design feels much closer to Legends of the Titan's than any of its older antecedents. Floors and strata are as long as those in the DS Etrians, but feel more like a simple sequence of puzzle rooms with adjoining treasure rooms than anything complex or interconnected: even the final floor of the main game felt like a straightforward gauntlet. The encounter rate's far too low to really strain the party's resources, and yet several mechanics exist to mitigate this strain: the game offers more out-of-battle recovery items than the party can carry, and the ability to warp to specific floors means that outings need never be more than a floor long.

The game, in other words, refocuses on the dungeon exploration it'd been moving away from over the previous two entries, while treating that exploration even more perfunctorily than them. Despite my preference for the structure and priorities of the earlier Etrian games, it's clear that the game could've benefited by doubling-down rather than backtracking. There's an enormous variety of viable parties and the boss design's complex and memorable, but without an appropriate restructuring of the series formula, this amounts to a forty-hour game with about four hours of substance.

The introduction of voice acting was also painful and misconceived: the characters had little enough going for them already. The core actors in this game have never been within a mile of a union and actively made me dread returning to town. Loved the class portraits and the free recoloring, though!

As of the time of writing, I have just finished the game's story, and postgame still awaits.

Warning: Though there are no story spoilers in this review, it does explain one mechanic not accessible at the very beginning. If you care for that, do not continue reading.

Personally, I largely enjoy the way Atlus straddled the line between a more dedicated story and the more dungeon delve-focused experience of past titles, with a "frame" for your actions being provided by what's guaranteed to happen in the game and your party getting a little bit of character added to them by various small events.

Examples for such events include, but are certainly not limited to:
- entering a particularly pleasant-smelling room and deciding whether to stay or not, for it could be restful or a trap
- unexpectedly finding a cat and deciding whether or not to pet it and how long
- stumbling into an ambush and figuring out how to prepare for it

While admittedly, a fair amount of these choices can feel rather binary, and the overwhelming majority of them are partywide, this gives you the opportunity to characterize your guild as a whole through these events, but leave individual members' personalities to you. Leaves room for RP without being too intrusive to people uninterested in that, I like it.

In visuals, the game is certainly an upgrade to its predecessors; in terms of music, it's considerably more subjective - admittedly, I like EO5's music a little less than most of the other series entries, but it's still great music to my ears. Your mileage may vary.

In gameplay, it's more or less the usual Etrian Odyssey fare - this means delving into and manually mapping out a sprawling dungeon of many, many floors, carefully navigating around puzzles and minibosses referred to as FOEs in the process while ensuring you manage your resources well enough to return to town outside of a casket - though individual floors feel as though they were designed more with returning to specific areas in mind compared to other series entries, and I am of the opinion that the floor puzzles tend to be more heavily based on FOEs than usual.

There is one caveat to this with character creation and building, however: though EO5 offers perhaps the most in-depth customization the series has had up to its release, it splits classes among four different races, which are exclusive on character creation; and skill trees are split into the base class, the class' legendary path and the racial section. This, alongside with class design, results in two noticeable issues for me. The first of these sounds like a nitpick, but please bear with me.

Warning: Wordy, in-depth explanations ahead. Skip to second bolded line for conclusion.

The game has ten classes, four of which are available for the Earthlain race (basically humans), and two each for the other three races - Celestrians (elves), Therians (beastfolk) and Brouni (gnomes, sort of). Each class has access to two different legendary titles, which take one of the two things the class focuses on and specialize in that further.

Without delving too deep into the specifics of race choice, the races do provide different stats. Earthlain are bulky, but mediocre mages, Celestrians are excellent mages, but fragile, Therians are fast and fragile physical bruisers, Brouni are well-rounded save for awful STR and excellent WIS, rendering them best as supports.

However, this does not mean that each race is necessarily best at the classes it has access to. For example, Brouni are better Warlocks than Celestrians despite it being a Celestrian class, and the Brouni's Botanist can be better in certain aspects if wielded by a Celestrian. The Earthlain-exclusive Fencer actually synergizes better with Therians.

Overall, while it doesn't make for specifically bad choices to keep the original races, it makes optimizing a bit of a chore because you have to deliberately create a character of the wrong class, then immediately reclass them, and given that the Etrian Odyssey games have never been designed to be innately easy, dealing with this would likely be a daunting task to most newbies.

It's also counter-intuitive - frankly, I would've rather just been told that the game doesn't have a portrait for combination XYZ and been fine with it. As mentioned, this seems like a nitpick, but the game doesn't pull its punches, and chances of the player having to adapt their party and reselect classes here and there are fairly high, especially due to the second problem.

The second issue is rather more problematic in my opinion: Despite the game technically having the largest variety of classes in the series if you consider Legendary Titles separate entities (20 vs even Nexus' 19), all of them are extremely specific in their usage, causing the game to feel as though it has the smallest party-building variety in the series as well.

As mentioned earlier, every class has two Legendary Titles (Legends for short from here on). Unfortunately, nearly every class and/or Legend comes with a major caveat to throw a wrench into variety. For just a few examples:

Even before Legends come into play, Necromancers, Rovers and Dragoons all have abilities that create summons, but there are only three summon slots. Rover wants two of them, Necromancer ideally wants all of them - Dragoon can live without, but this effectively means you can only have a Rover or a Necromancer without self-sabotaging.

The Blade Dancer Legend, if played as intended, is extremely squishy and can be outright one-shot by many enemies throughout the game. It necessitates damage mitigation and/or enemies being directed elsewhere, which only three of the 20 Legends excel at.

The Impact Brawler legend will necessitate direct healing due to its skills actively consuming the Impact Brawler's on health, which is extremely difficult to provide with anything that's not a Botanist.

In-depth section ends here. TL;DR and conclusion below.

Overall, I am simply of the opinion that a lot of teambuilding in this game involves factors that feel outright mandatory, which feels overly restrictive compared to all other games in the series in my personal opinion.

To sum things up for the entire game, the rating I gave is for someone already intricately familiar with the Etrian Odyssey series, and looking for more. Despite my issues with class design in EO5, it's still what I would consider a very good game and a worthy successor. To anyone else, I would strongly recommend starting with literally any other game in the series, maybe excluding Nexus, because the restrictions on teambuilding could lead to repeated frustration.