Atlus has begun experimenting by mixing together various games lately. Last year's Persona Q was a combination of Persona characters and Etrian Odyssey style game play. This year sees the Etrian Odyssey characters dropped into game play from the Mystery Dungeon series of games. Atlus has once again been taken a chance with their games and for the most part it pays off.
As with previous Etrian games, you are in charge of creating your party. During the tutorial you'll only have access to a single character, but afterwards you'll form a guild. When creating your guild there are 10 classes to choose from. Each class has various strengths and weakness. Some like the Landskencht and Protector can take a beating and are excellent for the front lines. While weaker classes like the Dancer and Hexer are best used at a distance to buff party members and debilitate enemies. Mixing and matching various classes will definitely give you an edge in battle.
The story of Etrian Mystery Dungeon centers around unraveling the mystery of the nearby dungeons and their connection to the fearsome beasts known as D.O.E.s. Story segments will crop up as you beat each main dungeon. These will usually have you going to various locations in town to listen to a few characters speak. Sadly your party is mute and has no real input on the events around them. The story lacks any real weight as it can completely ignored for hours at a time as you tackle side-quests or grind for money and better gear. There are also time where the game forces you to complete side-quest before progressing with the main plot, which hurts the pacing even more.
Etrian Mystery Dungeon is all about exploring the randomly generated dungeons that surround the city of Aslarga. Here you'll take a party of 4 from your guild and explore down to the deepest dungeon level. Along the way you'll encounter enemies and the occasional adventurer (who you can be asked to join your guild). not only are there enemies to contend with inside the dungeons, but also traps. These can be mildly irritating as they put your party to sleep or damage them, but some can be especially problematic as they can teleport a single party member to the other side of the map.
When exploring the dungeons with your party you'll only control a single character at a time. The other 3 are A.I. controlled and for the most part are capable of making the right decisions. Should you want a party member to use a specific ability you can easily switch to them and do it yourself. The A.I. party members can be further controlled by turning off abilities in a menu, therefore limiting their options during a fight.
Unlike previous games in the core Etrian Odyssey series, Etrian Mystery Dungeon is not a hard game. Up until the last few hours of the game, the dungeons are a cake walk for any prepared party. The enemies found inside most dungeons are easily dispatched making exploration more about keeping your party members fed than worrying about their HP and TP. The exception being the bosses found at the bottom of the main dungeons. The bosses are giant monsters who hit hard and can hit multiple party members with a single attack. Thankfully, during these encounters you control each party member, making it more like a tactical RPG during the fight.
As you progress through the game you'll have the opportunity to improve the town. By donating money to various locations, like the smithy, you'll unlock addition items for purchase or additional inventory slots for your party.
The D.O.E.s add an interesting twist to the regular dungeon exploring formula. The D.O.Es are boss-like creatures that inhabit various dungeons. As you move up or down a floor in a dungeon, all D.O.Es in that dungeon move up a floor. Should a D.O.E. ever reach the top of a dungeon they escape and attack the town. If that happens, one of the facilities in the town will be destroyed and become unusable for a period of time (or you can pay a ridiculous fee to fix it yourself). Your party will also be teleported out of the dungeon, leaving behind all items, money and equipment. Having a D.O.E attack the town can be a huge set back.
To combat the D.O.E.s, fortresses can be built inside the dungeons on any floor the party has been on. Fortresses come in a variety of styles. Some will allow you to teleport directly to them from town, others offer addition benefits to your party when they're on the same floor. Fortresses can be staffed by unused guild members who will fight the D.O.E. should one appear. And should your party been on a floor with a fortress when a D.O.E. attacks you'll get to fight it alongside any guild members who are staffed there. Should a fortress be empty the D.O.E will destroy it and return to a lower level of the dungeon, buying you more time to put up another fortress or challenge it yourself.
Sadly the graphics in Etrian Mystery Dungeon are not all that impressive. The characters and environments are too far from the camera to show much detail. Also, thanks to the random nature of the dungeons, it's impossible to create any sort of set pieces to show off. Even with Bosses having a set "Boss room" the focus is on the boss and not the surroundings.
Thankfully the art direction is well executed when it comes to the 10 character classes. A great deal of work went into making each one recognizable at a glance and even each weapon and shield has a unique model. The only issue arises when there are multiple characters of the same class present, only by a subtle colour variation can they be identified.
The music is great, with various songs from the Etrian Odyssey series and some new ones the music rarely ever grows old. Sadly there is no voice work to be found in the game, This is possibly due to the extremely quick localization on Atlus' part. With only a month between the Japanese and North American releases, it appears some corners were cut.
Final thoughts:
Etrian Mystery Dungeon once again proves Atlus knows what they're doing when it comes to combining their various games. Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon combine to produce excellent an game that can be enjoyed by newcomers and veterans alike. Though there is the small misstep of missing voices and lackluster graphics, everything else shines. I can't wait to see what Atlus comes up with next.
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