Etrian Odyssey Nexus - Nintendo 3DS

As of writing this review, I have approximately 50 hours of game play on my save file. I've tried to write this review with no spoilers, but some may consider a few sentences in here as very minor spoilers.Etrian Odyssey is a turn-based dungeon crawler JRPG; it is well-known to be challenging on the hardest difficulties, and it requires the player to think carefully about party synergy. The puzzles in the dungeons challenge and sometimes force you to think outside the box if you want to get past a section blocked by an enemy that is too strong for you to fight. You will spend a lot of time deciding where to place your hard-earned skill points upon leveling up, as you must prepare for tougher and tougher enemies that attack with synergy and coordination of their own and attempt to probe your party for weak points. This game, like all the games in the series, requires the user to draw your own maps, which gives it a charm that makes you really feel like an explorer heading into new, unexplored territory.If you are new to the series this is a great place to start. The game does not require any knowledge of what happened in previous entries in the series. That said, if you have played the other games in the series: there's no reason not to buy this! As the name implies, it brings together many of the elements of previous entries in the series, largely keeping the things that fans have loved and discarding some of the things fans have not liked as much. Personally, so far this is my favorite entry in the series. I'll now go into some detail as to why:Music - I've always felt that even if a game is lacking in some elements, it can still be quite fun to play if the music is good. The music in Etrian Odyssey games, including this one, is top-tier. It gives me goosebumps and can induce palm-sweating when I'm fighting a challenging enemy.Replay value and time - As I mentioned at the beginning, I've put 50 hours in the game already. I'm nowhere close to the end of the standard game, much less the post game. I fully expect to need some 150 hours or more to beat the post game content. Also, with 19 classes to choose from and only 5 who can go into dungeons at a time, this means 2-3 replays of the game with pretty drastically different setups is possible. I wouldn't be surprised if, after a few months, I have 300 hours or so on the game. The viable options feel limitless. The depth of the battle system and the intricate ways skills can be combined is difficult for me to even wrap my mind around.Puzzles and surprises - As I've explored the dungeons in this game, I really enjoyed exploring labyrinths introduced in earlier games but with completely new floor designs. The game has lots of new puzzles, with FOEs closely or exactly approximating behavior from previous games... except when they don't! I've been taken off-guard a few times in ways that I really loved. (Because I survived! Haha... barely.)Difficulty - This game is definitely challenging on Heroic/Expert. If you do not pay attention to enemy skills, patterns, their strengths and weaknesses, and so on... you will die. If you fight a "red" FOE and don't have a party that's particularly well-adapted to take them down... you will die. If you don't buy enough equipment from Napier... you will die. (Kinda makes me wonder if she is actually the mastermind of the game, eh?) In all seriousness, it's very easy to die if you aren't careful, and if you do die on Heroic/Expert you lose all progress since the last time you saved before heading into the labyrinth. Painful, and a really good motivator to play smart!Balance - With 19 classes and a plethora of skills, it's likely dedicated players will find exploits to make some boss fights a breeze. ("Cheesing" fights.) However, I don't think these exploits are obvious. I've felt that any reasonably-constructed party at the appropriate level will stand a chance against all bosses and FOEs that I've faced. Some will have an easier time than others, and some parties may feel the need to push up against the soft EXP cap of the labyrinth for another level or two, but nothing too bad.Some customization - Your guild's characters each have about 8 base portraits to choose from, from which you can edit the colors of their hair and eyes. You can also choose from a fair number of voice types to give them or decide you'd rather not hear from them at all. The game also has DLC (free in the first month of release, I believe) of portraits from earlier games.There's just a couple things about the game that I don't particularly like at the time of this writing:- I wish I could understand what the NPCs say as you leave their Inn/Shop/Bar/Guild Hall etc. The voice acting is in Japanese, which isn't too bad, but I wish I knew exactly what they were saying.- The barkeep in this game, so far, is my least favorite NPC in the whole series.- The QR codes in the NA release are broken. If I want someone to have my guild card I need to: take off my 3DS case, unscrew the back, take out the SD card and put it in my computer, find and save the image file as a PNG specifically, then run the image through a QR code fixing application (fan made, I think?), then finally take that image and share it. I haven't done this and don't plan to. What I'd like to do: take a picture with my phone and share it immediately. As of this writing, I'm waiting on and hoping for ATLUS to patch this.OVERALL SCORE: 9.7/10. Worth every penny. Buy it, and stay safe in the labyrinth and don't take any unnecessary risks!

I didn't know I'd get the launch edition and in turn get a pin and art book with my game. It also came in a cardboard outer box to hold everything. Well worth the 30 bucks I spent in my opinion.This game is great but it is a little different than the other Etrian games. The dungeon crawling is there but there are also new types of quests where you go to a world map to work on them. With 19 classes to choose from, it was easy for me to make a party I was comfortable with that is doing well so far in the game. It is a a little difficult on Hard mode but it's worth it to play on this mode so you don't breeze through it too fast.The only complaint I have is that the voice acting is in Japanese. I find it to be annoying when characters are all loud and bubbly in Japanese, it just gets on my nerves because it sounds like a little kid flipping out or something. Some characters are not that annoying but in some instances I can't stand the voice actors and turn the volume off when I have to deal with certain characters. Luckily, you can turn the voices off for people in your party for when you are fighting which is nice.

Recently finished playing Etrian Odyssey 3 on the Nintendo Switch and was eager for more from the series. The $100 price tag was a hard sell but I'm glad I got it. I normally don't play turn based games, but the EO series is one of the exceptions. The character designs, exploration, variety of strategies, character options, and tactical combat all contribute to a great game in my book. Bonus points for being lucky enough to recieve one-day shipping.

I been eyeing on this for a few years debating to buy it or not until recently when it went on sale.All the items were in great condition and even got the enamel pin and mini art book! The pin on the box art looks different but I love it nonetheless.The game itself was different how the other EO games were and love the challenges. I can't wait to finish this game.❤️

This game will keep you occupied for at least 75 hours, more if you don't buy the expansion content for experience, but it's a game with extremes in difficulty, either it's extremely difficult, such as the beginning maze (because you're so weak) or post game content, or a cakewalk. The game features a large number of classes, which is nice in a way because it allows you to customize your party greatly, but it's also not that great in that some classes are only tailored towards certain tasks, such as the farmer, or certain times of game, such as the zodiac. For players of previous Etrian Odyssey games, you will find that the classes, which were pulled from all the previous games, have been tweaked or even gutted, and the mechanics changed so that, say, the pugilist, is much less effective than it was in previous games. There is also no English dialog so you will miss out on all the spoken dialog unless you speak Japanese.All in all it's a good game, I just wish there were more of a linear difficulty level.

I’m nearing the end of my first play-through: Such a great game. If you are a fan at all of dungeon crawlers, jrpgs, turn-based games or even just solving puzzles, this is likely for you.It’s hard to describe an Etrian Odyssey game to someone whose never played it, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts here. The music, the grueling difficulty (if you play on Expert/Heroic mode), somehow drawing your own maps, none of it should be so much fun, yet it is.Best DRPG in the genre. A standout game in design, hours and hours of gameplay (more than any other EO game), tons of replayability, great music, just a truly solid gaming experience.