I haven't posted in awhile but decided to maybe post a bit again. I'll see how long it lasts this time... I digress, my latest game I played is Etrian Odyssey 4 or EO4 (I'll do a review of Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate too). For me, this was my first real exposure to this series. I attempted to play the first one, but I gave up 10-15 mins in when I died too many times. It was said this game was "easier" so I gave it a shot.
Gameplay
Probably the core of this game. It uses a more old school dungeon crawling style that required you to map out all your maps. It was interesting because I am not really that old to have played that old style gaming. Mapping your own maps gets a bit tedious at times, but overall, it does add to the immersion... even if my maps were absolutely terrible. I did not find the game too grindy, it probably took 35 or so hours start to finish with another 10 hours post game. I think it is a very niche if you would even enjoy this style of just leveling and progressing for no other reason other than wanting to beat the game and strengthen your character. It isn't a genre for everyone but growing up with Diablo 2 does give me that tolerance for this style. Not sure I would enjoy it as much if it was as difficult as the other games with constant dying though. One thing about this game that I love is the character customization. With main classes and subclasses, you really get to customize what you want with your characters. This is probably the biggest and one of my favourite things in any game. I love planing out how to build my character longer than actually playing the character.
~9/10
Story
The game does have a slight backstory as to why you are progressing, but I would not say it is the core of of this game. I never felt the drive to beat the boss because I wanted to find out what happens next. I guess that just shows how weak the story was, but at least I wasn't put off byit. Some games just have such atrocious stories that I don't want to play anymore because it is that bad.
~6/10
Graphics
I still have no idea how you can rate this section well for a platforms like handhelds. They have a clear hardware limitation, but I don't think they really made use of the full specs the 3ds has to offer. On the plus side, the EO series art work is always so amazing. I want to play every EO game to just see all the characters and classes.
~7/10
Replayability
The game does have the built in high replayability. It isn't so much my cup of tea to really grind without a dungeon for just max level when I already beat everything, but the option is obviously open. Once all the content is cleared, I do consider a game done. At least it is better than the singular new age games that have 1 single story route and there is nothing else afterwards.
~ 7/10
Personal Satisfaction
My best gauge for if I liked the game is how much sleep I lose over it. This game was not as bad as Monster Hunter, but I definitely stayed up later then I should to clear just 1 more floor. It was quite enjoyable while it lasted, but it did feel much shorter than expected. I was under the impression these games were much longer, I guess it feels like I got less mileage out of it. At least it was quite enjoyable.
~8/10
Overall
The bottom line would be that I recommend this game. Being probably the easiest of the series, it is probably the best way to get started with this series. I would definitely play other games in this series if more are released. If you do enjoy a bit of exploring dungeons and a decent character customization, you will probably like this.
Final Score [7.5/10]
~Pearz
