Departing Salute - The Best of DS #7: Etrian Odyssey III

In2519 days, Nintendo launches its 3DS handheld system in Japan, to be followed a month later by the European and American versions. While the arrival of 3DS doesn't mean its predecessor is completely dead, we're definitely moving into the DS's latter days. That makes now the perfect occasion to catch on up all the DS games you've missed. In the days leading up to 3DS's Japanese debut, I'll be looking back at the best the DS had to offer -- my favorite games for one of my favorite system ever, and some others that I may not be totally enamored with but can respect for their general importance. This isn't a definitive list or anything. It's an op-ed column! Please feel free to voice your dissent in the comments.

Previous entries:1.Bangai-O Spirits| 2.Brain Age| 3.Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow| 4.Contra 4| 5.Dragon Quest V| 6.Dragon Quest IX

Departing Salute Entry 7:Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City
Developed by:Atlus
Published by:Atlus
Genre:RPG
Date:Sept. 21, 2010

I realize this list is a little heavy on RPGs so far, but there's a good reason for that: The DS has been a spectacular system for fans of traditional role-playing games. And I do mean traditional, even more traditional than Dragon Quest. Now, the only way to get more traditional thanDragon Quest Vis to delve way back into gaming's primordial soup days, to when RPGs were dungeon-crawling affairs rendered in wireframes on personal computers that rendered graphics so slowly you could watch the lines draw themselves down your monitor... and that's precisely what Atlus did with the Etrian Odyssey games.

The originalEtrian Odysseycame out of absolutely nowhere back in 2007 and instantly polarized gamers. You either got it and loved it, or you were baffled at how such a backward creation could possibly have made it to market in this modern era and hated it with the fury of a thousand angry suns. I got it right away: it was a first-person RPG hearkening back to the days ofWizardry, but far more playable by contemporary standards. Those were the days before I played RPGs, or even owned a gaming device of any kind. But playing the game awakened a faded memory of watching other people work their way slowly through deadly dungeons in search of treasure and victory.

Plus, there's an important tactile component to the Etrian Odyssey experience in that you draw a map of the dungeon as you explore on built-in graph paper. This works as a convenient litmus test for the age of a player. If they find mapping the world a chore and a nuisance, they clearly aren't old enough to remember the old days before auto-mapping. But for anyone who used to game with a ream of graph paper by their side, Etrian Odyssey's use of the DS touch screen elicits a smile and a fond sense of nostalgia -- not to mention a powerful sense of satisfaction as they slowly take command of the unknown depths of the labyrinth, bringing order and conquest to an intimidating void.

So, Etrian Odyssey isn't for everyone. But it's definitely for me. Not only is it the series I've spent the most time with on DS (easily more than 250 hours between the three games... and I've yet to seriously delve into the third), it also demonstrates the diversity of the DS library and audience. Etrian Odyssey is ultimately designed for an older set of gamers (though young 'uns are free to join in), a very specific group of people with very specific tastes who, five years ago, probably weren't paying much attention to portables. A lot of adult gamers are shifting their attention to handhelds these days, though, and with Etrian Odyssey Atlus recognized and capitalized on that shift.

All things considered, the most recent chapter of the series -- Etrian Odyssey III -- is arguably the best of the trilogy. Again, I've only seen about a fifth of the total game, but the balance, pacing, variety, and options are much richer than in the first two chapters. Yuzo Koshiro's retro-tinged musical themes are better, too. Despite being patterned after the ancient and relatively primitive Wizardry games, the series incorporates a lot of modern niceties, and part three is the most modern and nicest of the bunch. Dungeon-diving is broken up by sailing; the class system incorporates a multi-classing option; and the story even has multiple outcomes (or so I hear). You're still the guild leader of a bunch of blank slates, but the things you can do with your team of ciphers is exciting and challenging and interesting.

You know. If you're into that sort of thing.

Source