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:
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.