Etrian Odyssey II is a very solid blobber. Exploration is fun; uncovering shortcuts and delving deeper into this mysterious dungeon is engaging. There’s a lot of customization although I went with a highly recommended party and the game is hard so maybe if I winged character creation I would have had a (more) frustrating time. The challenge is good, too.

A lot of fun, but there are some weird flaws to it. Sidequests often give you scraps for rewards, and a handful of them are wretched to complete. There’s a lot of annoyance to certain mechanics like having to carry a Warp Wire with you. And, ultimately, this is a turn-based RPG and the depth is on the build side, not the battle tactics themselves. The battles are standard Fight/Magic/Item fare.

The aesthetics are good. I like the anime style especially the cool character portraits you get to choose from. All the player characters in this game look badass! And the music and sound is strong. The soundtrack sounds like the musician wanted to combine the Genesis and SNES soundfonts. Story… didn’t really care for it, although I like the townspeople.

Solid, but I wish it was more. These games have potential to be excellent blobbers but this one didn’t hit that mark.