MISSING: Have You Seen This Series?
Last Known Sighting: 2019
As the final game in the seriesfor now please Atlus where's NEXT STAGE, Nexus holds nothing back in your options for customization: Classes number a staggering 19, hair/skin/voice chara-creation return and with more to choose from than in V, EVERY portrait from the history of the main series can be used (until the eshop dies unfortunately), and all the gimmicks (sans Grimorie and Force/Union, the latter being shelved in favor of Untold 2's Boost/Break) are back in a single game. Combat is just as tight and rewarding as per the series standards, with some notable exceptions both enemy and player wise. OST, both new and the III remasters, sound fantastic even coming from the 3DS' poor speakers courtesy of the maestro Yuzo Koshiro. Even the story, which has always been the last thing a classic Etrian game pays attention to, has some crazy moments to really cement the game's vision of sending off both the 3DS and Etrian Odyssey with a blast.
By all standards, the game has basically everything going for it. Except for its new content. As a mashup game that celebrates the series, there's nothing wrong with a majority of the dungeons being reused from prior games, especially when new layouts are sprinkled in, but when you do get dungeons that are new to Nexus, you'll start to wish they hadn't added them. The shrine dungeons are clearly the result of the studio rushing to get the game out before the 3DS was officially pronounced dead by Nintendo, with all 6 of them sharing the exact same assets, even down to the dungeon theme, although the team did bother to recolor and change the themes of the last 2, which also happen to be the final dungeons. It's a shame, too, because the first shrine by itself is probably one of the better opening floors in the series, and throughout the later shrines there a few neat FOE puzzles mixed into an ultimately disappointing set of dungeons. I recall seeing Director Komori state, in some interview that I can't find for the life of me, that Nexus would have "so much mapping, you'll start to get sick of it," and when I think back on how much time I spent in the detestable shrine halls, I can say with certainty that he was right.
I could probably write an entire scholarly journal on this game in all of its facets due to how much Etrian Odyssey means to me, but I'd rather spend that time telling you that this game is a great sendoff for the series despite its flaws, but I could never respect it as a standalone entry due to its innate reliance on old content to fill the game. Even the score I've given is constantly shifting up and down the more I think about this game.
TL;DR, if you have the time to sink and have enjoyed a game or two in the Etrian series before, it is your job- nay, your moral etriambro obligation!- to conquer and 100% this game from start to finish, no chest left unspoiled and no FOE unchallenged. Otherwise, if you wish to start with a game in the series, ignore this one and play V, or III, maybe IV, possibly the Untolds on Classic Mode; just anything but this.
Last Known Sighting: 2019
As the final game in the series
By all standards, the game has basically everything going for it. Except for its new content. As a mashup game that celebrates the series, there's nothing wrong with a majority of the dungeons being reused from prior games, especially when new layouts are sprinkled in, but when you do get dungeons that are new to Nexus, you'll start to wish they hadn't added them. The shrine dungeons are clearly the result of the studio rushing to get the game out before the 3DS was officially pronounced dead by Nintendo, with all 6 of them sharing the exact same assets, even down to the dungeon theme, although the team did bother to recolor and change the themes of the last 2, which also happen to be the final dungeons. It's a shame, too, because the first shrine by itself is probably one of the better opening floors in the series, and throughout the later shrines there a few neat FOE puzzles mixed into an ultimately disappointing set of dungeons. I recall seeing Director Komori state, in some interview that I can't find for the life of me, that Nexus would have "so much mapping, you'll start to get sick of it," and when I think back on how much time I spent in the detestable shrine halls, I can say with certainty that he was right.
I could probably write an entire scholarly journal on this game in all of its facets due to how much Etrian Odyssey means to me, but I'd rather spend that time telling you that this game is a great sendoff for the series despite its flaws, but I could never respect it as a standalone entry due to its innate reliance on old content to fill the game. Even the score I've given is constantly shifting up and down the more I think about this game.
TL;DR, if you have the time to sink and have enjoyed a game or two in the Etrian series before, it is your job- nay, your moral etriambro obligation!- to conquer and 100% this game from start to finish, no chest left unspoiled and no FOE unchallenged. Otherwise, if you wish to start with a game in the series, ignore this one and play V, or III, maybe IV, possibly the Untolds on Classic Mode; just anything but this.