basically takes Quake and makes it a N64 collectathon. Great weapons, massive sprawling levels with lots of verticality, a large emphasis on exploration (get used to seeing the automap on screen!), actually really solid first person platforming, and the kind of premise that could only be born from old comic books where you play a time hopping Native American who kills cyborg dinosaurs with everything from bows to futuristic laser guns. Hugely recommend playing with a controller and with the crosshair off, being tuned for the N64 with generous hitboxes and relatively slow enemies makes it a bit too easy with the pinpoint precision of a mouse. The remaster shows its age a bit compared to more fully featured Nightdive releases but it's a great time. One of the first games I remember playing back on the N64 and it's a blast to go back to it

I'm in love with the way EO leverages the DS to digitize manual mapping. absolutely wonderful, beautiful stuff that captures the spirit of the genre a billion million zillion times better than any automap ever could. in a perfect world this would've heralded imitative ports of every drpg under the sun, and all of them would've been strong contenders for the best versions by default. unfortunately we live in the eternal piss and shit dimension so I'm doomed to pout about the missed opportunity for the rest of my life

as for the rest: game's like one of those paintings where either you see the old crone or the smokin hot babe; the lamp or the smoking hot babe; the white and gold dress or the smokin hot babe. you know?

from what I gather if you're coming at it from a more modern EO perspective this thing feels like it was coded straight into zhoukoudian limestone by the peking man. folks act like it's the dustiest, crustiest, most satanic verses ass antipathetic crawler ever made. they're out here throwing blankets over their ds at night like a furby to stop it from talking backwards and shit

but if you come at it from a generalist drpg ("blobbers" if ya nasty) perspective it's almost the complete opposite: excessively modern, breezy, and accommodating; its push toward transparency, telegraphs, and convenience undermining the core tension loop pre-bradley wizardry clones fundamentally rely on

I fall into the second category and found most of this to be pretty dry. by the time I hit the 5th Stratum I was approaching vegetative status, zoning out and mashing A with one hand while reading scandalous celebrity gossip on my phone in the other. hovering out of body, well above the dungeon rather than being subsumed by it; existing outside of stress, anxiety, and uneasy decision making. EO just doesn't got the stomach to wrench your guts around, put you on the perpetual backstep, or fill the role of derelict steward the way the most successful clones do

which is fine! I like most of the experimentation here in isolation; there's a dialogue happening that's a lot more interesting than reheating 1980-1988 endlessly. the deterministic angle opens up a lot of unique design avenues; character building could easily swerve toward embracing shortform tactics over longform attrition; and moments like B20F show that FOEs can be more than softball fodder goin woop woop woop in a 3x3 grid. there's a lot to be excited about, it just needs to be contextualized in ways that flatter rather than compromise

more than anything EO needs to stop being uncomfortable in borrowed skin and start being comfortable in its own. no reason to be another mediocre wizardry when it could be a great etrian odyssey 🌈 ⭐❤️

About 20 hours into the game as of writing this review, and I can kinda tell where this one will fall for me in the pantheon of rougelike deckbuilders.

It's great, but the runs can feel WAY to dictated by rng (especially in the early stages of a run) because of the games design around poker mechanics. There are tools in the game to let you stack the odds in your favor, but I have had countless runs so far where I just died in the first few rounds due to bad rng when I didn't even get the chance to access any of those tools.

What elevates this game above others I have disliked for the same reasons is the variety and ease of getting into each run. There are so many different variations of jokers (cards that provide unique abilities), enhancements and powerups that each run can feel unique even when you are playing the same few poker hands. And when you do lose, it's so quick and easy to jump back in. I've found myself in the "just one more run" mindset basically every time I sit down when I have time to spare.

And once you are past the early stages of a run, choices start to matter more and you can mitigate rng with careful planning. Every round comes with a dozen or so different choices, all of which can impact your run in various ways. The strategy is quite deep in these moments, something I love in a deckbuilder.

This game is great, with it's body horror and all truly a charming game. Game itself is pretty weird actually, since Square makes EVERYTHING a Jrpg this not uncommon though. These guys are the same guys that made a RACING JRPG named Racing Laggon, lmfao. But hey, this games battle system is quite fun actually, it's not like those old rpg games that you press attack button and wait for the enemy to attack you. You have full control over your character in battles and you need to dodge projectiles like you're playing a rogue-like. This was WAY better than i expected. Music is awesome, but in sometimes it can get repetitive because all of the musics font feel like the same. Enemies and their design look great, cutscenes also look great. My problem was that you sometimes need a map, which can be hard to find your path. My biggest problem was 'THAT' shitty chase scene. Story itself is okay, characters are good and Aya is cute as hell. Moreover the bosses, enemy placement, or item placement and level designs are pretty good too. One other thing is that this game isn't that scary, maybe i got too old for horror games but i still shit myself when i play Silent Hill 3 idk. Ending doesn't make sense that's why they needed to retcon it on the second game. Overrall an amazing game, definitely holds up even to this day. I strongly recommend it.