Before playing Etrian Odyssey IV, I had never actually played a dungeon crawling RPG of this type. I knew going into it that it would be difficult but I didn't understand how true that was. Until I finally learned how to make a cohesive team, I was having a really rough time but that just built up into a decent experience. A little frustrating at times but towards the end I was having fun as my team finally clicked together and I could trudge forward to the end. It actually rekindled my interest in this type of RPG and now I have several others waiting on my backlog, simply because the game got fun eventually.
To be fair, the hardest part of the game is the beginning. Before you have a cohesive team, encounters are difficult. Even normal encounters are super deadly and FOEs are near impossible without the right setup or luck. This is the appeal of this genre, each fight is life or death. Unlike other RPGs, simple things like bats or rats will stop at nothing to see you dead. This is where teambuilding is very important.
Each character you create has a role. Be it the defensive tank in Fortress, the utility Medic, or the damage dealing Landskecht, it is very important for the player to learn what each role is for. Not only do you have to know what a role is for but you also need to create synergy between your characters. Have the ability to have a Runemaster weaken an enemy to ice damage and then using the Nightseeker's Ice Blade attack is a simple example. There is a lot of depth and freedom, although the game does punish experimentation after certain points. I found a group of characters and subclasses that worked for me eventually but it did take some learning on my part.
Also unlike most RPGs, debuffs and status ailments are very important. They can often lead to a quick victory should they land and almost always I would prioritize landing something. Even in the final battle, I was surprised when certain ailments would land and help me achieve a slight advantage. I hadn't played a game that would actually let me land an ailment on a boss, let alone the final boss. It was nice to see that the game was designed to allow for creative play like that.
One of the key features of the series is the ability to build your own map. You can map the overworld, dungeons, etc. as you travel around. There are some tools and the ability to set custom points to remember key areas was really neat. This is a feature that pretty much couldn't be done on anything other than the 3DS I feel. It was very intuitive to draw my own map and what should have felt tedious was actually pretty fun. I felt like a true adventurer, plotting my course and getting through unexplored territory.
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the soundtrack. It starts out very simple but there are some great tracks in this game. Especially towards the end of the game, the last few dungeons have some great themes. The character art, enemy design, and dungeon design are all nice as well. If I only had one complaint it would be about the moths. Every time I fought the moths in the game, I would end up poisoned. Every single time, without fail. I hate the moths.
This is definitely no cakewalk of a game. There were a few times I would just get wiped by what seemed like some very simple enemies. I prevailed and eventually finished the game. There is always postgame stuff to do but I got my enjoyment from the game. Building a team, setting off to explore, and just getting through areas were all rewarding. It starts rough but once you get better tools and abilities, the game really opens up. I ended up enjoying this way more than I thought I would.
No comments:
Post a Comment