[R. Kasahara]

Beat Disgaea 4 last month; it was good but grindy.

More recently, I got to the end of the main story in Etrian Mystery Dungeon today. This was a weird game for me, especially considering that I like both franchises that are being mashed together here. However, it's a fairly average Mystery Dungeon, and a sub-par Etrian Odyssey.

On the Mystery Dungeon side: the basics were good, though managing four party members at once could get a little tricky at times. Also, I wasn't sold on the whole Fort system, which locks certain aspects of the dungeons in place, until their main purpose becomes clear later on:

Spoiler

in this game, FOEs, called DOEs, can move between floors, and Forts are there to make sure they don't escape and wreak havok on the town.

Speaking of which, because of certain gimmicks used when encountering FOEs/DOEs, these battles were often a bit harder than the actual bosses, in a more noticeable way than in mainline Etrian. After defeating the final boss, I was like, "that's it?"

On the Etrian side: I usually do pretty much all of the sidequests in the mainline games, but didn't bother here, since gathering points, like everything else, are randomized, making sidequests that involve them that much harder. More importantly, there was way more story in this game than there normally is in a mainline Etrian, and a lot more flavor text and other bits (like customer chatter at the restaurant) that don't contribute much (if anything) to the core plot. Throw in a brief and unnecessarily convoluted bit of drama at the end, and it's far from the tightly-plotted sort of tale I've come to expect from these games. I feel there was a lot more that could be said about certain townspeople than my own party, which feels weird for an Etrian game.

So overall, it was decent, but nowhere near as good as any of the core Etrians, or the better Mystery Dungeons (or Mystery Dungeon clones).
 
The next RPG I'm planning on playing is the 3DS version of Dragon Quest VII. Hoping to start it later this month. Oh, but I should also finally play Shin Megami Tensei IV. Decisions, decisions...

One final note: being a Barkley 2 backer, I downloaded the Janky Demo, but don't know if and/or when I'll dive into it. In case you haven't kept up with that game's development, it's pretty much stalled indefinitely.

[Krymner]

Sad to hear about Barkley 2's stall, but at the pace the game was going, I'm not really all that surprised. How long's it been in development? About 7 years?

 

DQ VII and SMT IV are both good, I thought. I never beat DQ VII back in the day on PS1 (only rented it a couple times and never owned it), but I appreciated all the upgraded visuals and gameplay elements the 3DS version offered. SMT IV can be a bit grindy at times, but I would definitely recommend a guide since there were plenty of times when I was completely lost. I need to get around to SMT IV: Apocalypse one day.

 

I'm about halfway thru the fourth dungeon in Persona Q. The small team of players I'm leveling up is around the early 50's. Playing it only during my lunch break at work is taking awhile.

 

 

Meanwhile, I've been in love with Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The last FE game I played was back on the Gamecube, so its been awhile since I skipped the  Wii/DS/3DS games. I plan on doing at least three (maybe 4) playthrus of the game, just to see what happens in the other houses. So far, its my RPG of the year.  Great story, a lot of depth in the gameplay, and its so well-built how everything ties together.