Oh, lord. Is it weird that 2007 seems like it was eons ago? Anyway, back in ye olden days of 2007, Atlus released Etrian Odyssey, a dungeon-crawler RPG that harkened back to a simpler time when Phantasy Stars ruled the Sega release list and gamers broke out their pencils to sketch out dungeons they traversed. We didn’t know we had it hard back in these days with RPGs, but we did.
Fast-forward about 16 years and Atlus and SEGA have brought back this RPG series to multiple platforms. While they are remastered and still contain an essence of the DS within them, the core element of gameplay is still very present in their execution. And believe me, folks, if you have never grided out a dungeon on paper, then this game will put you through the ropes of being that gamer.
The collection maintains everything from controls and forcing the player to put together a map, while showing off its early questing capabilities that had not quite become a household ‘thing’ in the exploration and RPG fold. Who doesn’t enjoy side quests and constant missions thrown at them? People who don’t like these types of games. Having stop-and-go-gridding mixed with small missions that are big in payoffs is how the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection functions from beginning to end. That isn’t to say there aren’t creative and beautiful creatures to fight against that will be breathtaking to see in a turn-based environment, but you’ll be more worried about where you are than what they are during your adventure.
Okay, let’s get those pencils ready and get started!
Grid-y Gameplay
This game is brutal and unforgiving. Before FromSoftware was asking you to do your best while driving you nuts, there was Atlus with its RPGs. Much like FromSoftware, Atlus made some phenomenal RPGs back in the day, including this collection, but seeing the company’s logo on a game meant you were in for a difficult ride. Some gamers enjoy that direction, some don’t, but at least Atlus was always consistent with their difficult intentions.
Anyway, build-up aside, Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection is a remastered collection that follows that old-school suite of Atlus RPGs. It’s a tough RPG series that forces you to make decisions on the fly in hopes that you’re going to do well. So, how does the game put you through those classical Atlus ropes? Well, it forces you to make choices early on before any battle begins.
At the start of each game from the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, you are asked to put together a team that will explore the dangerous dungeons that you’ll be tasked with in nearly every quest. You have the option to put together up to 30 characters at a time, which will involve picking the best character that represents you and naming them. Each party may have up to six people, though one space is usually left for someone along the way. Deciding to bring certain types of characters means that you’ll have certain types of outcomes during your dungeon-crawling experience. This is a typical MMORPG type of decision-making, where you must plan out the best strategy for whatever the given mission might be. You can switch out people as you play the game, so that’s why you’re able to create such a large group of characters.
Generally, you must pick five abled bodies that make up a whole. At the start, you can also reorder your team and have people in the front or back during the fighting. People in the back get hit less, and it’s also a nice place for medics. Every game in this collection runs this way. At the very least, this gives you a preview of how much control you have in the game and how that translates to the gameplay. While this part isn’t as customizable as other games in this day and age, knowing that you have other players in your back pocket and that you can build out to switch back and forth is pretty cool, especially for a series that started in 2007.
Once you have your team formed, then you’re ready for your first mission, which is essentially a glorified tutorial of what is to come. No matter which game you start with in this collection, you’re going to be forced to learn how to create a map from the start. The game tasks you with drawing a complete (and I mean COMPLETE) map of the first floor’s eventual beginning mission. Using an onscreen tool that pops in and out of the screen at your desire (and you’ll want to keep it out the entire time), the game is forcing your hand to sketch in walls, rooms, treasure chests, door openings, secret passages, and everything in between. This might be the hardest moment in each game, as you cannot complete the tutorial unless the guard that checks your homework is satisfied with the work that you’ve done. It is maddening, especially if you have never played these games before.
For me, I thought this was a bit much from the get-go. I think the game expects full perfection from the gamer during this tutorial and provides little useful information about how precise the gamer must be with the map. In addition, the tools provided to create such a map have little to no explanation beyond the fact that the icons could represent a certain thing, or they could be entirely different. Regardless, the poor instruction at the beginning makes for a complicated time when it comes to trying to progress through the tutorial. And you’re held hostage with every game in the collection, as they require you to map out a stage before other missions open. That is unfair on so many levels.
The amount of exactness that you have to execute to put this map together properly is insane. You must build walls, place open treasure chests in empty spaces on your map and color them in, put open doors between spaces that you traverse, find secrets areas and put in directional arrows to show you can go back and forth between places, and a bevy of other specifics that I would have never thought of before playing this game. It was tough but it certainly taught me about how in control I was going to be during the game. Sketching out dungeons and putting down markers to help me remember where I should be going was cool, though complicated. Ultimately, the payoff was worth the squeeze of this initial starting point.
And you know what? After you build a map like this, pass the tutorial, and get your first mission – the map-building part was more for your sanity than the game’s progression. You can be as messy as you want with maps during gameplay beyond this starting point with the only real consequence being you could get lost and not find your way immediately out of a dungeon.
Don’t get me wrong, after going through such initial torture, knowing how to create a map during my adventures became second nature. It was cool, and it was fun, but the beginning tutorial was highly unnecessary and incredibly restrictive. If you’re not going to hold players to a standard that is required for each mission, what are you doing to them from the get-go?
That is the biggest irritation I had with this collection. This was a consistent hoop that players had to jump through before truly starting the game. It felt a bit inflexible.
Anyway, once the game got going, the experience shifted into so much more.
So Much More
Once the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection shifted away from the tutorial, the games opened quite a bit. Again, regardless of which game you start within the collection, the structure is essentially the same. What you’re getting different is quest and puzzle execution, and characters that require your help.
Your team is a band of mercenaries that are hired to go do a ‘thing’ within each game in the collection. Sometimes the things connect, sometimes they’re stand-alone. For example, in the third game, I had to go fetch some ingredients for a barkeep so that she could make meals for her customers. This mission wasn’t a pressing one, but it was stand-alone to her needs. The XP payoff was nice, and it was a good rest stop from bigger missions.
Then other missions connected. For example, there was a mission in the third game where the head honcho of the town wanted me to find a monster in a dungeon and take them out. Along the way, I found a member of another team that had gotten separated and asked him to join our crew to find and fight said monster. By picking up that team member, the game gave me a choice of whether to take them on or not, and by fighting/defeating the monster, I inadvertently completed two missions. The first mission related to the original request, while the second was reuniting the team member with his clan, a mission I acquired after the fact. Also, by agreeing to take on the team member originally, and having him take part in the monster’s defeat, it opened the next mission that was restricted to champions of that monster fight – which meant my team and his. A little branching narrative never hurt anybody, right? If done right, as is the case here, branching narratives can be as much fun, as they are rewarding.
The creation of these crisscross and connective missions made for a fun time in the game. Not knowing if your decision is going to connect and positively impact another mission is a guessing game, one I can get down to enjoy. Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the gameplay structure with missions, as some of the bigger ones could mean more to your XP, while at the same time, the smaller ones could be just as enjoyable and rewarding.
Speaking of XP…
Total Domination
You get a sh*t ton of it in the game as you explore. The XP can quickly build your team up to take on the world without a hitch. The XP gain in this game seems like a secondary thought as you can overpower your team in about 3-4 hours and truly start dominating everything in your path. I did this when I played Etrian Odyssey I and Etrian Odyssey III. I spent so much time figuring out the tutorial that I inadvertently built up my team and started to take down other baddies in other missions quite easily. It’s a traditional turn-based RPG at its core, so moving back and forth so much trying to figure out a map meant that I was collecting more and more XP with every fight. I was so mad at the game; I didn’t know I was powering up my team so well.
Getting back to overpowering, what this ultimately means for the team is that you’ll build them up so far that nothing really can stand in their way. That means more missions and quick, impactful rewards. For example, in the third game, there is a mission where you are tasked with taking out a skittish giant catfish…crab…thingy…yeah. Powering your team up means that the fight won’t be as brutal as it could be. And that fight is brutal. I could see it going south without proper preparation.
Anyway, after figuring out how the beast moves and the secret passages you must discover to take the beast out, because you must surprise attack it instead of trying to just run into it, the steps for this boss are extensive. Only built-up XP teams (level 11-12) could have pulled this off without much damage. The third game opens up after this mission is completed. The game allows you to grind out your team, even though 3-4 hours of gameplay isn’t a grind. You can keep going through dungeons, keep going to and from places, and just build up the XP to take down the baddies like the giant catfish/crab/thingy. The grind isn’t a big concern in the gameplay structure, as the game allows you to build up your team quickly and beefy. It certainly makes fighting in the game so much more fun.
Building and leveling up are fine, but early 2000s RPG experiences also require you to build out your arsenal of weaponry and all the defense items that you can. To do this, you must have the money. To get money, you must go out in the field and kill things. Gaining money can also be done through mission completion. To recap how to gain money:
- Kill things.
- Complete missions by killing things.
This is old school RPG structure. Something you would see in the Phantasy Stars of the world. While I don’t mind these steps to gain riches, I do mind that I have to kill things, get their body parts, and pray that I don’t overload my backpack during my dungeon crawling, a very Oblivion way of being restrictive to gamers. When you do overload the backpack, the game requires you (I can’t emphasize that enough) to get rid of something to make room for the new thing you acquired. No, you can’t reject it. No, you can’t discard it if it’s complete crap. You must make room for it. My only question is…why? If I have been in more lucrative dungeons killing more lucrative baddies, why aren’t I given the choice to drop the weaker item? I need to make money selling the most valuable item when I get back to town. Why can’t I keep the more valuable item? That’s a weird gameplay design and I tried everything I could to make this not happen in the third game. I hope I didn’t miss something, but there was no discard option for new items gained. You must make room for them. Again, it’s weird.
A more positive from selling these items, crap or not, is how the town’s shop opens new weapons/armor you can purchase. As you bring back new rarities, you open new items for purchase. I find that a unique aspect of the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection and feel like more RPG games should have gone this route. It makes sense that someone in town gets a new item and can end up making something spectacular out of that new item. It certainly motivates to go exploring for new baddies to take down and new material to gather. It adds a new depth to the entire dungeon-crawling aspect of gameplay. I thought that was pretty cool. What about that dungeon-crawling aspect of gameplay? Let’s get into it.
Exploring
If you haven’t picked up on this yet, the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection covers a lot of cool ground when you’re playing each game. The first game isn’t going to be as extravagant as the other two when it comes to a variety of places to explore. It does enough to get you in the mood to explore, which is fantastic when you’re trying to connect people to a budding series. The dungeons you get to explore are a bit flat because it was 2007 and the world didn’t know what it didn’t know yet. There are a lot of nooks and crannies to find in the initial game and the dungeon-crawling moniker that it trumpets is true to its form. This gave me some heavy Phantasy Star (the first) vibes when it came to exploring via first-person and finding secrets along the way. I remember playing that for the first time in 1988 and just getting hooked on the idea that exploring dungeons and finding every little bit was a necessity. The first Etrian created the same feeling. Exploring is so vital to this game’s structure and it perpetuates that through every mission. The exploration is huge and meaningful, and I can imagine doubly so in 2007 on a DS/3DS.
Now, when you get to the third game, it introduces sea exploration, at a cost, which takes the exploration process to an entirely different level. Much like dungeons, the game allows you to chart out courses and find places you can explore. It also allows for a bevy of different gameplay options, including trade and fighting, which makes the experience even deeper. The time you spend on the open seas depends on the supplies you have on your voyage. It’s realistic in its functionality and it encourages you to build your team up through land exploration so that you can voyage the seas. Again, for a game in 2010, that’s a cool balance.
Exploration and finding new items of interest, while also discovering random encounters is something that the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection excels in. There’s a lot to love about this main aspect of the game, as it drives the entire ship (pun intended). If you’re looking for that type of experience that is less than non-linear, though not completely, then you’re looking in the right place with this collection. It wants you to explore everything you can. The games make exploring very rewarding, which creates a constant flow of motivation to keep exploring and documenting.
Remaking the Adventure
Full transparency, I never played or even heard of these games before this review. This was my first experience with any Etrian Odyssey title, and it was a good one. I thought these games might have been born in the 90s but was shocked to see they were born for the DS and 3DS systems. Seeing that you must actively map make and play an RPG, that makes complete sense. That gameplay structure would fit perfectly on a dual-screen system.
How did the remakes translate to modern gaming platforms? Well, the PC side makes sense, as you could use the mouse or a controller to make maps while you play the game. I have a 27” gaming monitor that I played this on and there was just enough real estate to fit a comfortable-sized dungeon-crawling viewpoint on it and the map-making tool. While I have never played this collection on the Switch, I can’t imagine it being fun or easy, as the PC version was toeing the line with how it shared the screen between both gameplay functions. It worked well and was translated as best as it could for PC standards. The configuration of the controls and how they functioned helped to navigate this a bit better, as the controller layout for the collection was consistent as it was comfortable. Bravo to the good folks at Atlus for making this happen.
Beyond screen sharing and comfortable eye space for the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection’s screen neediness, the animation and characters are crisp and clean for this remake. While the actual dungeon visuals are a bit early 2000s, the in-betweens are gorgeous. This also includes the gorgeous soundtrack, which has got to be better than it originally was in all three games.
Okay, I’ve run out of words, so let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
The Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection from Atlus is so much better than expected, but not without its flaws. The dungeon-crawling and exploration experiences are primo, as is the need to build a map out and put it on the player to keep track of their surroundings. While the beginning of the game may force some players to question if they’re up for the task of traversing the Etrian Odyssey worlds, as well as some of the gameplay design decisions that can be archaic and restrictive, the collection’s payoff seems much greater by the end than the amount of effort it took to get there.
