Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth Launch Edition - Nintendo 3DS

Listen to my words, if you have any interest in this series, you are doing yourself a disservice not picking up this title. I'd even go as a far to call it quintessential. Now if you haven't dipped your toes into the vast Etrian ocean, don't be afraid to start here either. The game is very much an RPG of old, where you are solely in control of your path and progression of the story. You start by making a team of adventurers from a wide arrange of races and classes, you name them, grow attach to them and send them out to the labyrinth. But beware! Exploring is not for the faint of heart. Within the labyrinth you are in charge of charting your own course through the winding expanses, each and every turn and mystery are solely up to you to document. Live or die by your map!

Here's a game destined to appeal to the lizard brain of Type-A personalities, to people who love to line up details and see everything slowly take shape. It offers enormous customization; fresh challenges both inside and out of combat; a setting rich with things to do besides simply fight; and best of all, that addictive mapping feature. With each line you draw on the in-game map, you bring a tiny bit more order to chaos and transform the unknown into the familiar. Etrian Odyssey 5 isn't simply the best game in its own franchise, it's easily the richest and most satisfying dungeon crawler to appear in the past decade.

As a big fan of the EO series, there are a lot of things that annoy me with this one. It's the dungeon crawling game you know and love but some of the enemy setups will cause you to game over pretty much purely based on RNG. EO is known to be brutal at times but it seems a little unfair in some circumstances.

I fell in love with Etrian Oddysey 3 for the DS (played as a ROM file, tho) so I had to get this (physical) installment of the series. It's a marvelous little dungeon crawling RPG, sort of like Eye Of The Beholder, in which you walk around in a first person point of view. You explore beautifully drawn worlds and level up battling fierce monsters. The launch edition (which I got) includes a CD with a few songs and little art booklet. They're nice, but you won't miss out on much if you just go with the regular version. Etrian Oddysey V is super fun and the 3D effect is mesmerizing. :D

In all honesty, I was a bit surprised at how much fun this came turned out...and I've only been on the first level so far XD The fact that you get to customize your characters, the map itself and even walk into scenarios that your party get to 'interact'-sometimes turns out funny, sometimes giving you extra loot, or fighting extra monsters....seriously. As someone who plays alot of Pokemon, and recently just completely Ever Oasis, this is another fun game to add on the play list!

A great and customize-able upgrade to an original. However, the lacking story makes it difficult to be hooked outside usual dungeon crawler troupes.

There's a lot of customization in this one, and the combat system is surprisingly complex. Be warned though, it's quite difficult.

If you're looking for a well polished, highly customizable dungeon crawler, then you've found it. Etrian Odyssey has always been a refined love letter to the tabletop & 8-bit dungeon crawler yet ATLUS has managed to refine the classes further, improve already spectacular dungeon design, and most importantly: make combat feel even more strategic rather than formulaic. For newcomers who might be wary of a game whose sole purpose is gameplay over story; this is the definitive first step you should take into this little appreciated world. You will not get better this out there. For newcomers who love the genre, but haven't played Etrian Odyssey, I recommend Etrian Odyssey IV because I think it will be too hard to go back after the refinements of V. And for series regulars: this is the final game, as far as we are aware. And it is, in my opinion, the best game in the series. I'm sad that this is the end but couldn't be happier that ATLUS really cared enough to give us their best.