Etrian Odyssey HD Is A Good Game 

The plot twist of Etrian Odyssey 1 is that there is a plot.

As a seasoned veteran of the Etrian Odyssey series I'm just happy that more people are trying these games out. To see streamers and youtubers display the Origins Collection brings me joy because it means that this series can work with a single screen (stylus and second screen is still my preferred method to play these games).

I’m just glad we can have a modern way to play Etrian odyssey III without shelling out hundreds of dollars.

5:40 there are buffs, debuffs, and binds as well. Buffs and debuffs are crazy in EO, same with binds, since they basically act as silencers to skills that use your head, arms, and legs.

I was surprised when you said the music was only OK. I feel like the OST hits as hard as any other Megaten game, which they are often above average imo. I still believe the Untold orchestral versions are way better than the original ones, but that's just personal preference. Can't wait for my physical copy to arrive, it's been 22 days since it shipped!!

I love the *Etrian Odyssey* series. I got all the DS releases, all the 3DS re-releases(Which actually adds a story mode with actual characters for your party, as opposed to the generic guild you start with) as well as the new games made for the 3DS, but I actually have yet to get the HD remasters for the Switch(my memory card is full and I've gone full digital). One thing I absolutely love about these games are the soundtracks, especially the old-school synth tracks. I mean, the orchestral tracks are pretty good too, but there's a certain old-school charm to the synth based tracks that appeals to the old fogey I'm becoming.

I picked up Etrian Odyssey 5 on a whim, and just from that one game alone, I knew that I genuinely loved Etrian Odyssey. Hell, I picked up Nexus as well and I still have yet to finish it thanks to the sheer volume of content that game holds!

The thing to keep in mind is that the Boost feature in EO1 is basically an "I need more power NOW!" type thing. What it does is give your next skill a +5 temporary level bonus. So your Alchemist has 1 level in Fire? Boost makes it so they do damage as if it was level 6. Same with healing, or other attacks. It's an emergency button, that on most playthroughs you won't need unless you get in over your head with trying to tackle a FOE too early or get through a floor where you're underlevelled.

I really am loving my time with the collection. Really liked hearing your thoughts!

I recently picked up the collection. Honestly, the biggest thing I love about this series is just how much it plays like an old classic you'd find on a Windows 95 PC. It's seriously taking "modern classic" to it's limits, as its design simplicity does as you say put the gameplay at the forefront. A DND adventure you can play in your hand. It's quite appealing and I am glad I picked these games up.

This is probably the closest today's audience will ever get to what we enjoyed in the 1980's, playing a dungeon crawler on the Commodore 64 with a pad of graph paper next to us, to draw maps and write notes, since there was no such thing as an in-game map. It may seem like tedious busywork (and it is!), but it also does help you learn the map layout so you just remember it for years to come. This is also one of the reasons people who played World of Warcraft back when it launched often dislike the newer iterations, because you spent so much time in each zone, finding all the side quests and ultimately having to grind mobs to level, that you knew them by heart. When all that is automated and streamlined away, you're just a tourist looking at the pretty graphics flowing by and not remembering anything the next day.

So far, I've 100%ed EO3HD and EO1HD, working on EO2HD. I've put about 3000 hours into this series of the past 16 years - possibly my favourite video game series in the world. So great to see them back after 4 years.

One note: if you're playing on PC, you can use both Mouse AND Controller. This is *by far* the least painful way to do it. For me, I use the controller to move and for all battles, then set it down on my knee and grab the mouse to handle anything involving the map, then pick the controller back up off my leg and continue on. The game will even update the on-screen button prompts to reflect the last input used, and will switch seamlessly when you swap between mouse and controller. You can ALSO use the Keyboard to type in names of characters or when adding the place-able annotations to your map, instead of trying to fumble with an on-screen keyboard, putting in letters very slowly one at a time - just set the controller down and type it all in quick. Boost is indeed SUPER under-baked in EO1. It takes for-freaking-ever to build up, and then all it does is double the damage of your next basic attack, or add 5 levels to a Skill (so, like, 20% more damage or something equally underwhelming). You really can play the whole game without it. It gets better in all the later entries, where they find much more impactful ways of expanding on this idea: EO2 turns it into a class-specific, one-time-use Limit Break that can be super overpowered; EO3 uses a system where you "assign" Limit Skills to multiple characters and can use one any time any of those characters fills up their meter (and these Limit Skills can be used more than once per trip, unlike EO2). You're right about one thing for sure: EO1 is about Dungeon Crawling for the sake of Dungeon Crawling. It's only going to appeal to those who love the gameplay loop of Go Down -> Map a bit more of the current floor until the random encounters drain all your MP -> Go back to town, sell the monster bits to unlock new equipment, rest at the Inn -> Go down and try to get a little further this time. It's a pretty common joke in the EO community is that the big Plot Twist in Etrian Odyssey 1 is that it has a plot at all. And even then, you don't get to that point until the TWENTY FIRST FLOOR OF THE DUNGEON. It's a long, hard road - but an amazing one to the right kind of gamer. Like me.

"Its Dungeon Crawling for the sake of Dungeon Crawling.." Indeed.. for me.. the main hook is the party building and exploration.. and ofc the boss, especially the post game bosses where things gets crazy... Its really fun....

I'm loving all the attention I'm seeing EO get. I was worried that it would be lacking and clunky to do mapping without the touch screen, but mouse & keyboard feels very natural and cozy. The focus on pure exploration and growing your party through facing the meat grinder is a refreshing break from my recent binging of the Legend of Heroes games.

When someone is saying that BG3 is a real D&D experience in a wrapper of a video game I just tell them to try Etrian Odyssey first

Was thinking about starting Etrian Odyssey after I first played Strange Journey. Thanks for reminding me. Might start it soon.

I'm glad you're giving the games a go again. The series needs much more love and attention. Especially on RU-vid.

I really hope that smt4 gets ported

Bought the EO 1-3 HD remakes and while I’we only finished EO1 it has been a enjoyable experience so far

I’ve been a fan since EO 4 and have bought physical copies of every game since. Even got a physical Japanese copy of the HD collection since its not available physically elsewhere. I’m such an Etrian Odyssey nerd that I got the Switch version and I draw the maps with a touch screen pen to emulate the original feel on DS.

Heres hoping this means we can see Persona Q and PQ2 come to switch.

I'm also another of those that picked up EO5 on a whim, played through it and loved it. Went back and bought EO2 Untold, and loved that one even more. I did buy Untold 1 which I started but never finished, and I also got Nexus which I still haven't played at all lol

These games are amazing, even if I do recommend 3 if someone is only going to play one of them.

Reminds me of classic Phantasy Star 1, where mapping is done on your own. Tedious, old school designs, but fun when you’re in the mood for it. You can spend entire days doing it, which piles of maps on a physical notebook drawn by yourself lol

In response to your criticism about a lack of a paint bucket feature, if you use auto mapping limited it completely removed the need for that. And automatically painting the floor tiles you walk on has been a feature since the original EO1. I don’t like using full auto mapping, but painting the floors is pretty understandable imo.

I played Untold 1 and 2 after a friend recommend it a lot to me. At first I didn't liked, but once it clicked, I loved it. I am to play the 3° I haven't played yet, but I will wait for a sale, it is kinda expensive just for a new coat of paint.

Lets goooo!!

I've played Etrian Odyssey 4 to completion, and it was awesome - I've wanted to try the older games ever since... I'm currently scratching the surface of the second stratum...

It's good to see Atlus care for EO, a shame it's not untold because there is not untold 3 for the pack. Probably remake the whole exploration system, for no touch screen map creator if they make another entry (the touch screen was a great part of the classic experience).

So happy these games are getting some attention again! EO4 is my favorite from the series, I highly recommend it. Fingers crossed for EO6!

I crave an Untold remake of EO3

My only experience was being 13 and checking out Persona Q. That game was way too hard for me having not played any Atlus games before. And me being so much older and now a huge Atlus fan, I am a little curious to check these out. Well at least I might check out the third one. As I hear that one has the best QOL features with the most developed story and systems

Played and finished all of the mainline ones except for EO3 and loved all of them. I ordered the physical HD collection so I can finally play the third one, but it has not arrived yet.

Been meaning to play this since it first came out. Picked it up last week and I'm loving it so far!

boost is more than an attack up it works with skills and can be used to improve buffs and debuffs.

Thanks for the video! You’re great!

was playing while watching another macca vid and then this got posted 🙌

Never played them but I'd love to pick up this collection

The only thing I wish is that they put the jump floor after finishing a map from Untold

I've been an EO fan for nearly 15 years and i'm a strong proponent of the touch-screen map-drawing as an essential part of the experience, to the point where I honestly wouldn't have minded if the franchise died with the 3DS. It would've ended with 8 great games and some decent spinoffs. Not a bad way to go. It is nice to see Atlus experiment with the mechanic on modern platforms, and I actually don't find the mouse+keyboard controls all that bad. But at the end of the day, my soul yearns for the stylus.

"Shining the Holy Ark HD" when?

I played this on Switch, I thought they were pretty fun for what they are. They’re not entirely for me, but they’re definitely fun and if they catch your interest then go for it

7:48 What? Did you played the game with the automap on OFF?

I love EO, one off my favorite games!!

He should try the Labyrinth of Refrain and Galleria games.

Humm been a fan a few years, already 100% 5 mainline games, bought the Collection both on Switch and Steam and playing EO3 on both back to back, these games are an addiction to me like no other, calm map drawing, and then satanic difficulty if i don't stay on my toes the whole time, love the EO Series like no other >W

its nice to be able to play it again

I just want to ask a bit of something because I'm planning to make lets plays on these games sometime. I use OBS to record my videos (I haven't done streams yet), so did they fix the thing where enemy deaths and stuff make some aspects of the game transparent? I'm getting the games on Steam.

Use the automap feature?

Concerning the boost and other features, the game doesn't help you, and that's perfectly fine for me. It's like the labyrinth: it doesn't favor you, nor does it hate you. It simply is, and it's your role as it's traveller to find out how it ticks to survive. This release could have used a digital scan of the OG manuals though. That could both have helped AND be a good read.

I love these games ! Finished I and IV. I bought the asian physical version on switch 😊

Hopefully we get IV and the Untold series of remkes eventually.

I´m quite happy with the deal I got on those three games for 80E on Steam. I played them a lot on my DS but I have no access to them anymore (sold my physical DS game collection) so yeah good deal.

I remember playing 3 like 5 years ago on emulator then when the Hd remakes dropped it was a day 1 buy for me and it gave me a chance to do all the things I didn’t have the brainpower when I was younger to do like make teams that DIDNT have a dedicated healer or fight every FOR like an idiot :D

7:17 in the ds version i could swear you needed to place a arrow icon that looks close to this but connected, but its been a couple years since i played the orginals through EO Nexus so i could be wrong on this.

Yes exactly the map portion was so awkward, i just with the auto mapping eventuallly but i still have the map out cause the minimap doesnt show enough map

Reminds me of the Persona Q series. It's cool that there is a switch version. I might buy it X3

I love ur intros

Lmao, I also dropped Untold early on as I didnt jive with it either. Tho playing Strange Jouney and PQ2 are easing me into this kinda dungeon crawling so I think I'll give untold another go now

Boost is NICE but you need to wait to use he in the FOE/boss battles

6:13 I think it depends on dificulty you are playing. But I have already 15 hours and use maybe twice to just see what it does =) and when I played this game on DS and remake on 3DS I don't remember using it also =)

For as long as I've known of the series, I've never actually tried any of the "Etrian Odyssey" games. Which is odd since I do like DRPGs well enough and I'm also a fan of the colorful artstyle. I guess it's the fact they're usually on systems I just don't play on so I always end up overlooking them. Speaking of, I swear I heard somewhere that Yuji Himukai, artist of the series, was influenced by Harada Takehito, primarily known for "Disgaea" and some other NIS games, but I have no idea if that's even remotely true. They're similar enough that both of their respective designs for the Ronin class look damn near identical. If nothing else, they've definitely done fanart of each other's works so they are at least aware of each other.

I only played one Etrian Odyssey game, 5. And while i enjoyed what i played the hotel increasing in price with every use was a pain in the ass.

In all honesty? I feel like the HD collection is only worth it for EO 3,Since its the only one who didn't get a 3ds remake. The 3ds remakes for 1 and 2 fixed a lot of stuff,Like the aforementioned shortcut visual cues,Or the 3D monster sprites,Or even F.O.Es being visible on the field instead of just a fuzzy ball. The Untold games just feel a lot better to play...Though i will admit that Untold 1 specifically suffers a LOT from being balanced around the busted Story Mode party. It just feels like they took 1 step forward and 3 steps back with the HD collection,The only thing i see as better is that they added 1 new portrait for every class? But then you see stuff like how the map is handled and how the battles are noticeably slower,And it just makes you wonder...Why couldn't we have gotten an Untold 3? The game was MADE for duo screen play,And having EO 1 through 5 on the 3DS would've been amazing...Instead we are left with a gaping hole on a game that is considered by many to be the best one in the series. It just feels like we got robbed,And they made that solely so this collection would sell...

Ive been wanting to get into Etryan Odyssey since i played Persona Q. I just never got around to biying it lol Definitely gonna pick this up on steam

Oh boy boost, you better know that thing does get a lot of uses in the endgame.

The cost is just way too high for it, no matter how much I love EO - Having bought every single game on launch, so far.

I played 5 n 6 I think when they was releasing games for the 3ds they where good so im giving 1 2 3 a try

Hope we can see the character fighting in EO6 😂

I hate that you cant just have a small but zoomed out minimap and also that they didnt do the 3ds games but the ds ones

If i'm understanding it right these HD remasters are of the original games and not of retellings that happened down the like so in essence this is basically another persona 3 reload situation cept its not a full of remake.

I fuckin love EO

I tried one of those on the 3ds, might have been 4 but i didn't saw the appeal, didn't liked the Art and enemies looked to uninspired also i don't remember a single detail about the story. Wish they would have ported strange journey instead

Is Portrait censored from original? It seems that Kishida banned bikini from anime and Japanese console games. For Ryza 3 had no bikini while Sophie 2 had one, despite Ryza of Ryza 3 is 2 years older than Sophie from sophie 2....

I'll get EO3 only. I have Untold 1 & 2 on my 2DSXL and they're basically superior than the HD ports in erry possible way. It's annoying that they didn't just port the damb Untold Series and made an EO3 Untold EO3 is the only game that didn't get a remake for the 3DS, making the HD the best version of it. EO3 is also where the games actually start getting rly good from the original first 2 I have the entire EO franchise on my 2DSXL (except EO3, of course) and I'd definitely buy EO4, EO5, EO Nexus, and EO Mystery Dungeon on PC. I'll get the first 2 games if they port the Untold remakes The prices of the HD ports are also really steep. I'll not touch them until at least a 50% discount

I first played the series forever ago whenever my brother randomly picked up a used copy of EO3 for cheap from gamestop, and it just didn't capture my attention. I want to enjoy games like this, but I find I usually need a good plot to propel me forward. PQ didn't hold my attention either, but maybe PQ2 on a modern console would.

Yo i played the demo of the millenium girl

So I played this series starting with EO1 on the DS, and played 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 but didn't bother with the remakes of 1 and 2 (the last thing those games need is an anime plot) or Nexus. Personally, I think the FM music is way better sounding than the generic, tinny orchestra in 4 and 5, and it's bullshit that they forced this new music style on us and then put the classic FM music behind paid DLC. However, EO1's soundtrack will be a little repetitive if you don't make it to the 4th stratum when the battle music changes. If you went without using boost, lmao smoothbrain bad gamer. Also seems really dumb to complain about needing to map floor tiles but refusing to use the automap feature. Even the "full" feature only does floor tiles + walls, so you still have to place doors, shortcut markers, gather points etc. The plot of the first 2 games is basically "go explore the labyrinth" until you get to the last couple strata. Then they start to reveal some of the mysteries of the labyrinth, but in EO1 and 2 it really is all put off until the end. EO3's got more of a plot from early on, driven by a couple characters you meet early in the labyrinth, and it's pretty good for what it is. It helps that EO3 has choices you make during the story that actually matter, multiple endings, and was the first in the series with NG+. In this collection, they did backport NG+ to 1 and 2, and the NG+ features let you customize what you bring over.

The only thing that disappointed me about this collection was that they didn't include orchestrated versions of the soundtracks as an option. Full orchestral versions of the soundtracks for 1 and 2 already exist from the Untold games, and maybe it would have felt off to include those but not give EO3 a similar upgrade but... c'mon! As much as I like the old school PC88 composition, the Untold soundtracks are something else entirely.

The biggest issue I have with the Etrian Odyssey games, is something personal, I cannot stand the fact that you cannot see your character attacking, I mean, you can see the picture and the attack, but not the act, this makes me lose interest in the battles and in the game. In comparation with Persona Q, a game based on Etrian Odyssey games, where you can see the different characters attacking, using skills, personas, etc.

Etrian Odyssey 3* HD

Overpriced as expected in my country, I'm not a fan of fps dungeon crawler but I'm willing to give it a chance for a pretty at discount

"medieval" heh

For doug!!!!!!

I have a question Etrian Odyssey fans. I tried EO and didnt really enjoy it's map completion element. I can understand its a cool mechanic, but it felt like busywork and it wasnt for me. The ability to have the Map auto-complete seems like it was made for people like me, plus the new Mapping Tools look rough with a controller, but to me it feels like it's a core mechanic being stripped away and I wouldn't feel right skipping that mechanic. Am I crazy for thinking this and should I just get over myself in order to play it, or am I justified in my thought process and I wouldn't play the series?

Most people who do not like this game generally do not like this style of game. Its understandable in a way. Also Eo1 in particular had a very good story and lore and when you say it did not have it it was not very nice. I mean sure all of it did (mostly) get thrown out postgame and (very much) in the next 2 games but still(Eo2 story in my opinion completely ruins eo1 story in so many ways and did its story very very badly. Characters were good though). The story is genuinly amazing if you take it at face value and look at the game through again. I think in theese games you can get away without any outside help but its honestly terrible. I recomend you play on expert and look at charts and online recorces to see skills to properly plan out your adventure(just what skills and stats and classes do. You probably should not even need any recomendations). Etrian odyseey 1 was difficult but because of its terrible level mechanic it was easy enough even with a terrible team. Eo2 was a terrible buggy unblanced mess which improved on the 1st game in ways i love and hate but still ultamatly think its good. Eo3 i have not completed. Heard its really good but cant give an opinion

I mean I like the new portraits... and that's it. Everything else on 1 and 2 is inferior to the remakes. No 3D enemies, no re-recorded OST, no story mode, the price is horrible, etc... I love Etrian Odyssey but I would rather see the series die tha support stuff like this. Perhaps I would have accepted these remasters if they were 20 dollars each, but 40 each and 80 for the collection is just a spit in the face to the fans of these games.

Finally, Persona Q with no Persona…

Dungeon crawlers to me are all the bad things about rpg's (the combat and repetition) without all the good stuff. (The story and the characters) I feel that because of that this is the closest to a Dungeon crawler classic that i know of.

this games are so hard, even in the easiest mode

Nah This is a switch game, the monster shouldnt stand still like it did on ds

"Promosm" 🙄

40 fucking dollars though?

Personally i dislike the first 3 games they are just too obtuse with proper builds and what your upgrades precisely do

Umm, The Nostalgia Critic is a beloved icon? Where have you been the past few years? He's been going completely down the toilet and his humor has aged so poorly. Also, have you forgotten about the whole "#ChangeTheChannel" thing and The Wall review? That completely wrecked him, and for good reason.

no it's not

Nobody cares bro