Etrian Odyssey (DS)

Welcome boys and girls to another Sunday at Game Ranters. Today we'll be looking at this DS dungeon crawler from Atlus.

Story: The town of Etria has a mysterious and huge forest next to it that adventurers are invited to explore. You take the role of a new person in town who also wishes to explore this labyrinth. Your first step is make a guild where you can recruit as many people as you want, though your party can hold only five. After that you must receive an adventurer's certificate by performing missions for the main office in town. Once you have become a true guild, you do quests and missions and make your guild a great one. 2/5

Audio: There was nothing particularly inspiring about the music. It was there, it was decent, it was forgettable. 3/5

Graphics: The graphics are a bit lackluster at times, but they don't look bad. Every character has a drawn portrait that you picked when you created them, as do the NPCs. And these are all very attractive, in a cute sort of way. The dungeon is viewed in a first person, and while nothing is spectacular, you can see werhe you're going. 3/5

Gameplay: The game is a dungeon crawler, so you will view everything in the dungeon at first person. The game focus's on the idea that you will explore the map, which then fills in on the bottom screen of the ds. You can also add notations onto this map to indicate where events/treasures/gathering spots/certain monsters are located. Once you enter the dungeon, the only way out is through the entrance, which can be hazardous. Money is generally short, so after you stock up for the first time, be prepared not to have any for a while. You need money to rest at the inn and revive your fallen comrades. Monsters do not drop money, but rather they drop items which can be sold to the gear shop. These items in turn can be used by her to create new gear for you to buy. The monsters attack at random, and there is a time clock running in the corner that indicates day or night, or a new day when you can use your gathering skills again. The game runs on a fair steep difficulty. For the first few levels you should stick near the stairs because the monsters are less than friendly even for beginners. As your character's level up you get skill points which you can distribute to customize your character as you like. It's an interesting gaming style, but certainly not forgiving to those who are new to genre. 3/5

Replay: Replay would be based off if you wanted to go through it again with different characters, but as your guild can hold as many as you want, there's no reason. 2/5

Overall: The Game has some unique and interesting qualities, and I'm sure there are a handful of gamers out there that would truly appreciate them. I'm not one of them. I'd say if you're somewhat masochistic and want a good throwback to the old days of first person dungeon crawlers, this is for you. Otherwise, you might be better off finding something else. 3/5