Etrian Odyssey

Upwards and Onwards

HIGH Using Deep Forest Lore the first time

LOW Getting stuck (twice) after falling for false in-game information.

WTF Four great games and this series is still largely unknown?

The last week or so has been off-the-charts crazy here at GameCritics.com West—tons of stuff going on and all of it equally important, capped off with the left front tire of my car literally falling off as I was in the middle of a busy intersection in Seattle. I don't like to go so long between updates, but there you go.

I can't say that I was a very big fan of Ninja Theory's first work, Heavenly Sword, but from what little was shown in the demo, Enslaved seems to have its head in the right place. I like the overall concept in general, and it's pretty clear that the developers are going for a big-budget slam-bang action sort of thing.

Don't Knock the Farmer

High Wiping the floor with enemies who wiped the floor with you earlier.

Low Adding a new class mid-game can mean a lot of painful leveling-up.

WTF Would it really kill the game to have the experience accrue just a bit faster?

Game Description: Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City is a turn-based role-playing game (RPG) for DS and DSi that places the player in command of a band of adventurers on an ongoing quest to return their city to its once great status. The third release in the Etrian Odyssey franchise, the game features five character party combat, 5-player local wireless multiplayer support, a large number of character classes, the ability to explore and battle from sea vessels, customizable maps and three possible game endings.

We try our best to keep things positive, but Tim screws it up in the home stretch. The topic is "New RPG's We (Mostly) Love" and that means Dragon Quest IX, Etrian Odyssey III, Puzzle Quest 2, and DeathSpank. Guess which one we don't love! Plus we premiere a new segment: "Quote of the Week." With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "Spahnk" Spaeth.

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Topics discussed:

• 1 vs. 100
• Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies
• Etrian Odyssey III
• Puzzle Quest 2
• DeathSpank

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

Still playing Etrian Odyssey 3. Still loving it. Believe it or not, despite all the time I've been playing I have yet to defeat the first boss, but I hope to put him down tonight and move on to the next series of floors.

So DeathSpank is out. I saw it at the Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) last year and I couldn't see what all the excitement was about, but I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. Time went by, and I never saw anything that really caught my attention. Didn't see much on it at all, really. Then, all of a sudden, it's available for download and everyone in my Twitter feed is talking about it.

I'll be perfectly frank with you—I did not expect to like this game.

Grinding for experience, going broke buying equipment that only increases a character's strength by two points, drawing a map by hand through floor after floor of twisting labyrinth, and being crushed by random encounters in the first round of battle are not things that I generally look for in my RPGs. In fact, I would generally say that these are all characteristics of outdated game design best left in the 16-bit era and forgotten.

Game Description: Journey to a floating castle in this dungeon RPG Sequel. In the Grand Duchy of High Lagaard, it is said that the Duke is descended from inhabitants of a castle in the sky. When an unforeseen crisis befalls the nation, it is decreed that the first explorer to retrieve the Grail of Kings from that mythical floating palace will be rewarded with wealth and fame beyond imagining. Enter the central city of Lagaard and begin your journey to the clouds! Etrian Odyssey II boasts an all-star development team, led by director Shigeo Komori. Composer Yuzo Koshiro returns as well, in addition to character designer Yuji Himukai and monster designer Shin Nagasawa, who both worked on the original Etrian Odyssey.