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.
Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan arrived in Europe a decade ago, taking the Nintendo 3DS RPG scene by storm.
Etrian Odyssey is was born into the world once Atlus had the opportunity to experiment with what the Nintendo DS could do. First-person dungeon crawlers where players completely customize parties aren’t terribly uncommon, and they all tend to have a map that fills in as you explore environments. Etrian Odyssey always kicked things up by making mapping feel as important as adventuring. With the end of the 3DS lifespan and journey into new frontiers, Etrian Odyssey Nexus acts as a celebration of everything the series did in its first eleven years.
The Nintendo 3DS has entered its sunset years. Nintendo had nothing to announce for it at E3 2019. There don’t appear to any new games on the horizon in any region. It seems time to bid a fond farewell. However, for a system at the end of its lifespan, it is quite a fortunate one. Those gathering around to bid it goodbye will find a number of games that, well, are intended to be played for not only days, but perhaps even weeks or months. It seems like a rather positive send-off for a handheld that greatly deserves it.
