Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Genre: First-Person Dungeon Crawler / Turn-Based JRPG

Players: 1, StreetPass Support

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Review:

Etrian Odyssey IV, released on Nintendo 3DS in 2013, is the first entry in this First-Person Dungeon Crawler and Turn-Based RPG series to see release on the Nintendo 3DS, making use of the Nintendo 3DS’s stereoscopic 3D capabilities to lend its first-person dungeon crawling added depth. However, this entry in the series expands the scope of the franchise in other ways too, namely in having an overworld map that players explore using an airship.

I should note that as I write this in 2023, Etrian Odyssey IV is the only game in the series to have this feature – neither earlier games nor later games have this (though Etrian Odyssey III had a limited ocean area to explore, and Etrian Odyssey Nexus does revisit the idea of multiple smaller dungeons rather than the one long one that is typical for the series).

In terms of mechanics, this doesn’t drastically change the way the game is played. This is still a fairly straightforward RPG with crafting mechanics and a strong focus on charting out the dungeons you explore, with the airship’s overworld being yet another map to chart out. However, being able to use the Nintendo 3DS touchscreen to map out territory on this kind of scale really does a wonderful job tapping into what the Etrian Odyssey series does so well, combining its RPG gameplay with the feeling that you’re an adventuring cartographer, mapping out the unknown.

To this end, Etrian Odyssey IV provides players with a good number of tools to chart the areas they explore in a way that makes sense to them, giving them the ability to add custom notes to indicate unique features of the area, and even providing them with the ability to lay down arrows on the map for your character to automatically follow at the press of a button, cutting down significantly on the feeling of tedium caused by the need to venture into the same areas repeatedly to look for resources, grind up your characters, and explore every corner of each new area to make the most accurate map.

This ability to streamline and make the gameplay less tedious also extends to battles, which players can opt to have their characters fight automatically if they choose, primarily in battles with more common enemies where the stakes are lower. In addition, while Etrian Odyssey IV retains the series’ notoriously high difficulty level, there is now an optional Casual Mode to cut down on this difficulty significantly, and that players can toggle back and forth between at will.

When it comes to presentation, Etrian Odyssey IV isn’t technically impressive, but the artistic design here is lovely, with some really nice anime-style 2D artwork for the game’s characters, as well as some nicely-detailed if somewhat low-poly environments that really help to sell the lush natural beauty of its wild locales, though these environments do suffer from pretty noticeable pop-in. This is backed by an absolutely gorgeous soundtrack that fits the game’s sense of wonder beautifully, with placid songs like On An Adventure Gliding Through the Skies, Cerulean Woodlands, and Misty Ravine, along with adventurous music like Windy Plains, and some great fast-paced battle music like Battlefield – Storm.

The only complaints I have about this game are very minor. I don’t think the story here is particularly inspiring, and I wish there were more options for customizing your party – you can choose the classes to fill your party with, and each of those has a skill tree, but once a character picks a class they’re stuck within the confines of that class until pretty late in the game when sub-classes become available, and there’s no traditional job system to shake things up. However, these are very minor complaints regarding a game that is, I feel, one of the best RPGs on the Nintendo 3DS.

Etrian Odyssey IV takes an already superb RPG series with its great hook of charting out the dungeons as you explore them, and it builds on and expands on that series in small ways that nevertheless play to the series’ greatest strengths and shore up its biggest weaknesses. The result is a game that is an absolute must-have for RPG fans who own a Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – Etrian Odyssey IV combines Turn-Based RPG gameplay with First-Person Dungeon Crawling, with the Etrian series’ big hook being that players are using the touchscreen to map out the game’s dungeons as they explore. It’s a hook that’s made even better this time around due to the expanded scope provided by an overworld map, along with some great quality-of-life additions. The result is an absolute must-have RPG for any fan of the genre who owns a Nintendo 3DS.

Grade: A

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