Etrian Odyssey 3 Review - An Uncompromising Aesthetic

[@Karragh]

Etrian 3 had the prince/princess and that's all it took for it to be my favourite.

[@sprigganxiii9339]

Love the entire Etrian Odyssey seires! So nice to see the game getting some coverage so others can hopfully discover it.

[@luxiyama]

There have been quite a few videos on it over the years, most notably AboveUp’s recent reviews, check those out for a more in-depth, even definitive overview.

[@thirteenthirtyseven4730]

Wish there had been a 3DS untold version to complete the lineup (and bringing the game to EUR…)

[@luxiyama]

That was my biggest disappointment too :( At least we got some of EO3 and some remastered songs in Nexus.

[@aahpandasrun]

This was my favorite in the Etrian Odyssey series. The music, the creativity of the stratum, subclasses, and the surprises.

[@amimm7776]

I'm close to finishing stratum 4, this is my first etrian odyssey game and one of my new favorite games, can't wait to play more of this series.

[@Fuudo_123]

I enjoyed 3 the most even after going back to it after I played 2U, X, and V, also monk and yggdroid ahoy, I wish they were brought back in X

[@JoaquinNSanchez]

i prefer wizardry clones (class of heroes, elminage, etc) over etrian odyssey games, but you are right in that this one gave the series its own identity. for me its the best in the franchise, and it was sad that it didn't get a remake.

[@luxiyama]

Yeah, sad we didn’t get a remake, but EOX at least had arranges of the EO3 soundtrack

[@XionSteel]

3 is kind of the evolution of the series after experiencing both the good and bad without making it completely linear. The first game was as bare bones as can be, didn't have much in the way of map building, balancing was terrible since going full defensive pretty much won you the game and was required for some side content. Otherwise all you had to do was go from point A to B with a few branches for variation. The second game fixed a lot of issues the first game had but overcompensated in return. Made the extra classes less clunky, the maps were smaller and was more streamlined to climb, included better visuals and map making tools, classes had synergy so it was a lot easier to just sweep fights. In return, they nerfed a lot of defensive options so you were just kind of left with a kill or be killed option where you had to go mostly offensive and kill everything on the first or 2nd turn. Because the maps where smaller though, exp gain was a lot slower and took more grinding, but they took exp gain away from FoEs so they were only a source of money and nothing else. Finally the third game takes the best of both and includes a branching stories as well as sailing 'mini game' where it wasn't required to do to play the game, but was fun and a way to get things. Included more classes for synergy, was no longer catered to full offensive or full defensive though you could do either and still have fun playing. FoEs gave exp again so they werent a thing you had to avoid. more QoL mapping and flavor text so it was fun to do everything.

[@luxiyama]

You put it really well, I should have asked you for some writing input >.> I never got the feeling 2 had nerfed defense, but then again, most battles don’t last long enough for it to be noticeable. And funny enough, Defend + healing is the fastest way to get your Force gauge up (which is what’s really broken in that game and what 3 fixed and what I should probably have mentioned as well…)

[@njnjhjh8918]

Of course it's the best, it's the only one I played!

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

Reason why I dont get an urge to play Wizardry is because of colors.

[@luxiyama]

Well that's a first xD It's a typical 80s palette, I don't think it was possible to display any more colors at the time...

[@soratheorangejuicemascot5809]

@@luxiyama Wizardry 7 and other looks better than Wizardry 8.

[@luxiyama]

@@soratheorangejuicemascot5809 Oohhh, ok, that's understandable then, 7 and older have an old timey style instead of the 3D look.