RPGSite:
Delving into Etrian Mystery Dungeon was somewhat of an odd experience for me. What we have here is a title with gameplay structured in the Mystery Dungeon mold, but styled in the Etrian Odyssey aesthetic. While I had some second-hand familiarity with both of these franchises, I’ve never played either prior to booting up this crossover.
The premise to the game is quite straightforward. You arrive in the town of Aslarga, a hub for adventurers looking to find fame and fortune in the various Mystery Dungeons nearby. You meet a handful of townsfolk that provide various services, such as character recruitment and item storage. You form a guild, take on some quests, and then you are quickly sent off to see what waits in the mysterious labyrinths.
Back in 2007, Atlus decided to use the Nintendo DS to do something ambitious. It brought back the days of first-person RPGs with original party members you had to customize and dungeons you needed to map. Thanks to the handheld's design, the bottom screen allowed people to practice cartography as they played. Since then, 10 games have been released, each bringing something new to adventurers.
With Pokémon Super Mystery Dungeon out on the Nintendo 3DS last year and Shiren the Wanderer: The Tower of Fortune and the Dice of Fate gracing Vitas two weeks ago, you may have developed a taste for tough-as-nails dungeon-crawlers. Roguelikes are on the rise. But then, when it comes to these Spike Chunsoft joints, they always have been.
Charlotte Buckingham writes:
"Etrian Odyssey is the latest series to receive the Mystery Dungeon treatment via Spike Chunsoft. How well did the two mesh together?"
