As painful as they may be to play at times, I really enjoyed the last two Etrian Odyssey games. They really scratch a certain itch that hearkens back to childhood days spent playing AD&D, rolling 20-sided die, and making custom maps of dungeon exploits using graph paper. The glut of new classes and fresh areas to explore in this third installment are among the big reasons to dive back in again, but I really found the seafaring portions to be a great addition. They change up the pace, and that’s a good thing.
The short-and-sweet version of my review is I highly recommend this dungeon crawling RPG to fans of the genre. Normal folks will want to rip their teeth out after playing through the first few dungeons, but it’s a good trip for those of us who are already well battle hardened.
Hop on over to Games Radar to read my full review here.
“There’s nothing that gets a true RPG geek all hot and bothered for some hardcore dungeon crawling action quite like having to draw our own map charts on virtual graph paper – okay, we’re kidding. But there is a certain hardcore-ness to it, as well as everything else about Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City. This third outing into nigh-endless, dark and dangerous catacombs doesn’t screw around much with the gameplay that made the first two games both brutally challenging and awesomely geeky. But it does offer some fresh goodies that get us good and wet. And not in the way you’re thinking of, pervert (seriously, why go there?).”
Nathan Meunier - Freelance Writer / Author / Indie Game Developer 