Five RPGs that Break the Rules: Etrian Odyssey 3

Posted by on January 9, 2012 in Game Diaries

Etrian Odyssey 3 is really the cop-out on my list. It is the most classic RPG design. When the series was first announced, the lead designer said in an interview that he wanted to bring back classic design, and that he looked at the Wizardry series for inspiration. However, while the game’s design came from the past, it featured several major renovations to the formula that make it stand out.

After the jump, a retro role playing game revival

I chose Etrian Odyssey 3 for several reasons. The first is availability. Like Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, Atlus published a limited number of copies of the first Etrian Odyssey. When it took off, the game quickly became hard to find. By the time the Etrian Odyssey series reached the third game, Atlus printed a lot of copies. It’s the easiest Etrian Odyssey to find. You shouldn’t have to search too long to find it.

The second reason is that the game features the biggest shakeup in terms of class variety, both in terms of the series and the wider genre itself. Anyone who has played a role playing game knows about the “holy trinity” of party composition. You need someone to protect the group, someone to heal/support, and someone to use magic/cause major damage. A group that doesn’t have those three is doomed to fail. The trinity is one of the oldest standards of the genre. It’s the foundation for the majority of western RPG design and balance.

What that also means is that group variety is downplayed in a lot of role playing games. If your party can only have 4 members and three of them have already been decided by the trinity, that doesn’t leave too much room to get creative.

Etrian Odyssey 3 mixes up the standard in several ways. First, your group can have 5 people at any one time. Second, the designers created a variety of classes, with vital skills from the concept of the trinity spread throughout. There isn’t one must-have class in the game.

For instance, healing spells are available to multiple classes. The one that has the most healing spells also does decent damage. Elemental attacks like fire or lightning are split between classes. There is one class that can give another person in your team elemental type damage for several rounds of combat, which can negate the need for a mage class in your party.

One of the hallmarks of old-school design is spending a long time creating your prefect party from the available classes and attribute values. While Etrian Odyssey 3 doesn’t allow players to affect attributes, it does give the player a lot to think about with party composition. Do you decide to take a group that focuses on damage, or provides status boosts, or even one that makes do with a summoned 6th member for your team? Further complicating matters is the option to give each member of your team a second class’s skills after a certain story point, allowing even more customization.

While Etrian Odyssey 3 avoids some staples of older design, it does embrace one: grinding. Expect to spend a lot of time grinding for money, or experience points to be able to stand a chance against troublesome bosses. While the grind does keep the game from being enjoyable in short bursts, it makes the game a perfect time killer on a long trip or rainy day. Etrian Odyssey 3 takes the popular elements of older role playing games and combines them with today’s view of accessibility, which makes it a perfect love letter to old school dungeon crawling.

Up next: the game that makes grown men cry
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Josh Bycer, who posts as jab2565 on the Quarter to Three forums, is a living, breathing game encyclopedia who’s has been playing games since the age of three. As he tries to get his foot into the industry’s door, you can find his writings at his blog, Mind’s Eye, and at Gamasutra.

  • Porousnapkin

    Really enjoying this series so far. I don’t remember you up front saying this was going to focus on Japanese RPGs, so I’m curious if your more Japanese bent so far is because you’re finding it easier to find genre expanding games there or if its because you enjoy JRPGs more?

    I think it probably is harder to find experimental RPGs in bigger productions in the west, but there’s certainly some weird indie ones

  • roguefrog

    In this day and age I only had the endurance to grind myself through one Etrian Odyssey.  The original.  I almost lost it in Lost Shinjuku but somehow made it to the “end.”  The extra optional stratum is pure 20+ hour padding bullshit if you don’t use a playthrough guide.  I used a playthrough guide to keep my sanity.

  • Josh Bycer

    The worse part about the optional stuff in EO 1, was that it forced you into taking the defender (I think that’s the class) that has the anti element spells. As the dragon bosses would basically kill your entire group in one hit unless you use them to cancel it out.

  • Anonymous

    That’s a great point, Porous.  I don’t think Josh will mind me spoiling that all five of his choices are Japanese.  But I’d love to see a series like this focusing on Western RPGs.  What games would be viable candidates?  Borderlands?  Alpha Protocol?  Red Dead Redemption?

    Uh, I almost listed Dead Rising…

  • Josh Bycer

    It’s funny, I didn’t realize when I first started writing this that it was mainly about Japanese RPGs. As a bit of foreshadowing for the last diary, I’m not a fan of the traditional Japanese RPG design which comes from one certain studio.

    As you said, Japanese RPGS appear to have more variety in the design compared to western rpgs. For me, I prefer interesting gameplay over epic storytelling and grand plots. Each game in this 5 part diary, goes somewhere different with its game design and tries to do something unique.

    I’ve tried to get into games like Oblivion, Fallout 3 and Bioware’s titles, but their gameplay just doesn’t do anything for me. If the minute to minute gameplay doesn’t hook me, then all the major decisions and character development are for moot.

  • Porousnapkin

    I think both The Witcher and The Witcher 2 qualify for having some exceptionally strange systems that to me don’t feel like traditional RPG fair. For instance the alchemy/potion system requires you to buff before an encounter meaning you have to know what you’re facing before you’re going into it, which usually means it only helps you on reload. Alpha Protocol is great example, it’s all around strange as a game because of how it moves from being a difficult stealth/action game to an easy almost MMO-whack-a-mole feeling by the late game. I’d also point out the recent Serious Sam: The Random Encounter game, which is arguably not an RPG but definitely messes with RPG mechanics.