i have absolutely fallen in love with etrian odyssey over the past year. nexus quickly became one of my favorite RPGs period, and V isn't far behind - i'm pretty sure i've gushed to almost everyone i know online about this series by this point. the soundtrack, combat system, dungeon crawling mechanics... all of the things that made nexus and V great are still in EO4, and they're all still spectacular. however, there are a few issues here and there that don't quite bring it up to the same standards as the games that came after it.
there's probably gonna be a lot of negativity here for a 4 star review, so let's just go over the positives first. the class system is still top notch, and super fun to mess around with. by EO standards it's fairly simple - this was meant to be a Sort-Of Reboot that would Bring In New Players so you've got shit like your standard sword user, mage, medic, fortress, and status class. still, they're not braindead, as each class has something fun that'll remove it a little from what's to be expected from standard RPG classes. runemasters can inflict elemental weaknesses while increasing the party's resistances to that same element, dancers can apply a shit ton of different buffs but also act as a support attacker than can hit multiple times per turn and inflict stuns... couple that with the subclass system and you've got even more opportunities to offset each class' weaknesses or play into their strengths. at first i was a bit disappointed in the class roster (that's what i get for starting with nexus i guess), but after hitting 6+ links per turn with a landsknecht/dancer setup and doing a billion damage i was sold. i'm a bit pissed that the really fun classes (arcanist my beloved) have to be unlocked later down the line, but it doesn't kill the game too much. combat itself feels good too - for some reason everyone calls this the easiest EO game which doesn't make sense to me?? i had about as much trouble with it as any other one i've played. maybe i just haven't played the really hard ones yet idk.
dungeon crawling has been overhauled too - instead of just going between floors, now you also explore a big ass overworld and solve puzzles, battle FOEs, gather food that gives buffs, or take on smaller sub-labyrinths. again, this took a lot of getting used to (and it's a tad bit slow), but i'm thankful that they tried something different. the overworld definitely adds to that sense of progression - battling FOEs you previously had to avoid, accessing areas that were previously shut off to you, or finding secrets added a lot to the game's identity. dungeon crawling itself isn't too different from what you'd expect from EO - and at this point, i'm fairly used to making my own map so it isn't even worth mentioning. while some of the smaller labyrinths are hit or miss, there's quite a few that had a fun gimmick or were good for grinding, so i think it's a decent replacement for main labyrinths being shorter overall.
as always, this game kills it in the aesthetics department - not just with each labyrinth and character design, but they fucking knocked it out of the park with the music yet again. the last two labyrinths are absolute bangers (echoing library hitting me with the 7/4 time signature almost put me in a coma), and both the first and second battle themes are absolutely killer. story's not bad, either - people dog on this series for having simple, straightforward stories (which has always been done on purpose), but this one definitely had more meat than the later entries. it's certainly compelling and spread out pretty evenly (way better than V's exposition dump at the end), plus whirlwind is hot so it's impossible for me to be mad at this game.
now for the not so good - this game's biggest weakness overall is that it lacks various QOL stuff that V and nexus have. those games adopted a lot of the changes from the untold remakes, and it's definitely noticeable how much slower and clunkier this game feels compared to its predecessors. you can't run in the labyrinth or warp between floors, so exploration and backtracking are already a lot slower. you can't see how many turns are left on enemy buffs and debuffs, nor can you view an enemy's status weaknesses/resistances. also, for some reason the escape chances in this game are extremely low - you'll be close to the max level and have to make 2-3 attempts to run away from the level 2 bidoof in the first labyrinth while it keeps hitting you for 2 damage. sure, it could be worse and anyone who played the original trilogy are welcome to call me a pussy over this, but it definitely doesn't feel as polished as the later titles. not that i entirely blame the game for it, as it's obviously a bit older.
the dungeons themselves don't feel as polished either - most of them revolve around a simple gimmick that never really gets improved upon, and with a few exceptions most of them only have 1 FOE type per labyrinth. later titles had you solve extremely complicated puzzles involving several FOEs with different interaction rules, while this game never moves past "move this guy out of the way so you can get past him". again, this isn't outright bad, it just shows IV's age. except for the golden lair, though - that shit was absolute ass from start to finish. it's definitely a complicated dungeon - you have to keep track of whether the cave is frozen or not, how different FOEs move because of it, which entry you need to go in from, how many ice stakes you need to solve puzzles (which is COMPLETE fucking horseshit), and whether or not you'll be able to kill all the scales in the boiling lizard's room before running out and having to do it all again.
i know i praised the dungeon crawling elements, but it definitely does hurt a bit how they're just 3 floors each instead of the usual 5. sure, they're built around this and that just means your boss runbacks aren't as long as they could be, but i didn't get as much out of them. i think there was only one labyrinth i really enjoyed - the first two were still setting up the game, golden lair should die in hell, and the last one sets itself up really well but then says "oh you're actually gonna go visit all those other labyrinths again lmao". so shout out to the echoing library for being the goat.
i get that this review is definitely influenced by me going through this series in reverse order - of course it's not gonna have all the QOL stuff the last two entries had! even outside of that, however, it's not the smash hit that the series' last two games were. it's still fire though! it's still a wonderful entry, and pretty much whenever i wasn't getting fucked six different ways by the golden lair i was having some good fun with it. overall, this is a modern EO experience through and through, and while it may not have all the bells and whistles of the later entries it has everything else you'd expect.
there's probably gonna be a lot of negativity here for a 4 star review, so let's just go over the positives first. the class system is still top notch, and super fun to mess around with. by EO standards it's fairly simple - this was meant to be a Sort-Of Reboot that would Bring In New Players so you've got shit like your standard sword user, mage, medic, fortress, and status class. still, they're not braindead, as each class has something fun that'll remove it a little from what's to be expected from standard RPG classes. runemasters can inflict elemental weaknesses while increasing the party's resistances to that same element, dancers can apply a shit ton of different buffs but also act as a support attacker than can hit multiple times per turn and inflict stuns... couple that with the subclass system and you've got even more opportunities to offset each class' weaknesses or play into their strengths. at first i was a bit disappointed in the class roster (that's what i get for starting with nexus i guess), but after hitting 6+ links per turn with a landsknecht/dancer setup and doing a billion damage i was sold. i'm a bit pissed that the really fun classes (arcanist my beloved) have to be unlocked later down the line, but it doesn't kill the game too much. combat itself feels good too - for some reason everyone calls this the easiest EO game which doesn't make sense to me?? i had about as much trouble with it as any other one i've played. maybe i just haven't played the really hard ones yet idk.
dungeon crawling has been overhauled too - instead of just going between floors, now you also explore a big ass overworld and solve puzzles, battle FOEs, gather food that gives buffs, or take on smaller sub-labyrinths. again, this took a lot of getting used to (and it's a tad bit slow), but i'm thankful that they tried something different. the overworld definitely adds to that sense of progression - battling FOEs you previously had to avoid, accessing areas that were previously shut off to you, or finding secrets added a lot to the game's identity. dungeon crawling itself isn't too different from what you'd expect from EO - and at this point, i'm fairly used to making my own map so it isn't even worth mentioning. while some of the smaller labyrinths are hit or miss, there's quite a few that had a fun gimmick or were good for grinding, so i think it's a decent replacement for main labyrinths being shorter overall.
as always, this game kills it in the aesthetics department - not just with each labyrinth and character design, but they fucking knocked it out of the park with the music yet again. the last two labyrinths are absolute bangers (echoing library hitting me with the 7/4 time signature almost put me in a coma), and both the first and second battle themes are absolutely killer. story's not bad, either - people dog on this series for having simple, straightforward stories (which has always been done on purpose), but this one definitely had more meat than the later entries. it's certainly compelling and spread out pretty evenly (way better than V's exposition dump at the end), plus whirlwind is hot so it's impossible for me to be mad at this game.
now for the not so good - this game's biggest weakness overall is that it lacks various QOL stuff that V and nexus have. those games adopted a lot of the changes from the untold remakes, and it's definitely noticeable how much slower and clunkier this game feels compared to its predecessors. you can't run in the labyrinth or warp between floors, so exploration and backtracking are already a lot slower. you can't see how many turns are left on enemy buffs and debuffs, nor can you view an enemy's status weaknesses/resistances. also, for some reason the escape chances in this game are extremely low - you'll be close to the max level and have to make 2-3 attempts to run away from the level 2 bidoof in the first labyrinth while it keeps hitting you for 2 damage. sure, it could be worse and anyone who played the original trilogy are welcome to call me a pussy over this, but it definitely doesn't feel as polished as the later titles. not that i entirely blame the game for it, as it's obviously a bit older.
the dungeons themselves don't feel as polished either - most of them revolve around a simple gimmick that never really gets improved upon, and with a few exceptions most of them only have 1 FOE type per labyrinth. later titles had you solve extremely complicated puzzles involving several FOEs with different interaction rules, while this game never moves past "move this guy out of the way so you can get past him". again, this isn't outright bad, it just shows IV's age. except for the golden lair, though - that shit was absolute ass from start to finish. it's definitely a complicated dungeon - you have to keep track of whether the cave is frozen or not, how different FOEs move because of it, which entry you need to go in from, how many ice stakes you need to solve puzzles (which is COMPLETE fucking horseshit), and whether or not you'll be able to kill all the scales in the boiling lizard's room before running out and having to do it all again.
i know i praised the dungeon crawling elements, but it definitely does hurt a bit how they're just 3 floors each instead of the usual 5. sure, they're built around this and that just means your boss runbacks aren't as long as they could be, but i didn't get as much out of them. i think there was only one labyrinth i really enjoyed - the first two were still setting up the game, golden lair should die in hell, and the last one sets itself up really well but then says "oh you're actually gonna go visit all those other labyrinths again lmao". so shout out to the echoing library for being the goat.
i get that this review is definitely influenced by me going through this series in reverse order - of course it's not gonna have all the QOL stuff the last two entries had! even outside of that, however, it's not the smash hit that the series' last two games were. it's still fire though! it's still a wonderful entry, and pretty much whenever i wasn't getting fucked six different ways by the golden lair i was having some good fun with it. overall, this is a modern EO experience through and through, and while it may not have all the bells and whistles of the later entries it has everything else you'd expect.
There is a famous story, perhaps apocryphal, about when Friedrich Nietzsche went to see Richard Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde. At the end of the four hour performance, he burst out of the opera house supposedly gasping and yelling "I need air!".
Tristan und Isolde is four hours of musical tension that is only released in the very finale of the performance. There are unfinished cadences set up in the beginning of the opera that are not resolved until the very end.
Liebestod, or love-death, is the final music of Tristan und Isolde. Isolde is holding the dead body of Tristan and she herself dies, the moment the music resolves. And finally, after four hours of torture, everything is at rest. It is both orgasmic and suicidal.
Notably, Nietzsche loved Tristan und Isolde even after his relationship with Wagner turned sour. He knew, perhaps, that it was great because it was torturous. Like a love so good it kills.
The entire point of Etrian Odyssey IV is tension and release. Toying with how much the player can be pushed without breaking them, and allowing them moments of brief, ecstatic relief. Returning to town, finally coming out of a dungeon, though you've only got one party member still living. There are few games that so deeply understand and successfully deploy tension and release.
Going into the depths only to return back to town, heal up, and go back down again is among the most timeless patterns in video games. As such, it can act as the perfect stage onto which designers can cast all manner of creative terrors.
I love Etrian Odyssey IV. And yet, this is the first game I am reviewing before having finished it. I can't do it. I'm running out of the opera house gasping for air, but at the intermission rather than the conclusion.
It's the rhythm and the cycle, which is at once both the reason I love the game and the reason I cannot currently go back. I'm thirty hours in and probably not even halfway through. The game stretched me so thin that it wrapped me several times over around all ten fingers and I enjoyed every second.
Going back to town in Etrian Odyssey IV is about as pitifully restful as coming home and falling directly into bed after a ten hour shift, knowing you are just going back to another ten hour shift tomorrow and the next day and the next. That's the brilliant and terrible thing about the game's use of relief. It is so slight, so minuscule, that you are constantly kept on the razor's edge.
So I'm surrendering, for now. But I'll be back. That's the cruel thing about it. A tension so tortuously sweet that it can only be resolved by Liebestod.
Tristan und Isolde is four hours of musical tension that is only released in the very finale of the performance. There are unfinished cadences set up in the beginning of the opera that are not resolved until the very end.
Liebestod, or love-death, is the final music of Tristan und Isolde. Isolde is holding the dead body of Tristan and she herself dies, the moment the music resolves. And finally, after four hours of torture, everything is at rest. It is both orgasmic and suicidal.
Notably, Nietzsche loved Tristan und Isolde even after his relationship with Wagner turned sour. He knew, perhaps, that it was great because it was torturous. Like a love so good it kills.
The entire point of Etrian Odyssey IV is tension and release. Toying with how much the player can be pushed without breaking them, and allowing them moments of brief, ecstatic relief. Returning to town, finally coming out of a dungeon, though you've only got one party member still living. There are few games that so deeply understand and successfully deploy tension and release.
Going into the depths only to return back to town, heal up, and go back down again is among the most timeless patterns in video games. As such, it can act as the perfect stage onto which designers can cast all manner of creative terrors.
I love Etrian Odyssey IV. And yet, this is the first game I am reviewing before having finished it. I can't do it. I'm running out of the opera house gasping for air, but at the intermission rather than the conclusion.
It's the rhythm and the cycle, which is at once both the reason I love the game and the reason I cannot currently go back. I'm thirty hours in and probably not even halfway through. The game stretched me so thin that it wrapped me several times over around all ten fingers and I enjoyed every second.
Going back to town in Etrian Odyssey IV is about as pitifully restful as coming home and falling directly into bed after a ten hour shift, knowing you are just going back to another ten hour shift tomorrow and the next day and the next. That's the brilliant and terrible thing about the game's use of relief. It is so slight, so minuscule, that you are constantly kept on the razor's edge.
So I'm surrendering, for now. But I'll be back. That's the cruel thing about it. A tension so tortuously sweet that it can only be resolved by Liebestod.