#Etrian odyssey iv series

Although their names may sound a bit fruity, there is nothing here you wouldn’t have seen before – for “Landsknecht”, read sword-wielding all-rounder, for “Runemaster” you get an aggressive magician type. You kick things off by choosing a party of four from the different class types available. Along the way, NPCs reveal lots of background information on the legendary tree and why you are crawling towards it, battle by battle, and it IS mildly diverting – but this is a game more concerned with dungeon crawling gameplay and the wonderful cartography elements (seriously!) to be bothered about delivering a ripping yarn. You know that you are part of a guild on a mission to reach the Yggdrasil – a magical tree that is purportedly the origin of humanity – but the characters you do this with are defined by their battle class rather than their unique personalities.

For starters, there is pretty much bugger all in terms of a complicated, sweeping plot and well developed characters. In fact, it has a lot more in common with the kinds of dungeon-exploring games that you would have played on your Commodore Amiga back in the day. Although it features turn-based battles, this is about as far from a formulaic JRPG as you can imagine. Legends of the Titan does not disappoint. The DS games have been uniformly enjoyable across the board.

#Etrian odyssey iv series

The Etrian Odyssey series is another gem, with tough-as-old-boots dungeon crawling the order of the day, put together by the director of the Trauma Centre titles and featuring a healthy dose of aural pleasure courtesy of the legendary Yuzo Koshiro – the genius behind the brilliantly innovative Streets of Rage soundtrack. Atlus have a fine track record on Nintendo’s touchscreen handhelds, including the excellent Shin Megami-related role-players, and the compulsive, stylised Trauma Centre surgery romps.