Atlus is quickly becoming the Reese’s of the JRPG world, masterfully pairing the chocolate and peanut butter of various seemingly incongruous franchises together in surprisingly complementary ways. That was the case with last year’s Persona Q (which mixed the world of Persona 3 & 4 with the mechanics of Etrian Odyssey) and it’s also the premise behind the upcoming SMT X Fire Emblem. But there’s a crossover game between those two titles that hasn’t gotten as much attention and that’s Etrian Mystery Dungeon, which releases this week for the 3DS. As you might have guessed it takes the Etrian Odyssey franchise and blends it with Chunsoft’s long running and well-loved Mystery Dungeon series.
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?"
