I’m working my way through EO1 with a LTM/AA party. Just snuck past the wyren in the 2nd stratum. I’ve played these games before when they first came out, but really enjoying them more now.
The QoL stuff that has been added (speeding up animations, a sensible skill tree display, and having the bestiary available in combat) make big differences to me. The later has made a party focused on elemental attacks more enjoyable.
The mapping as been surprisingly not painful. It was definitely more enjoyable on the DS, but it isn’t terrible on switch (even docked).
I’m really hoping this is a sign that the series may one day get a new entry (or a spiritual successor).
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It’s on my wishlist, I just have so many games to play and the price tag for all 3 is a but much to splurge on. But I love the Mystery Dungeon games, and these seem similar, so I’d like to give them a try eventually!
Do you have any tips for a new player that never played the DS versions?
I’ve just started playing Etrian Odyssey 1 and been liking it a whole bunch. And have ignited a general interest in this genre of games, I normally play lots of different Traditional Roguelikes (not lite) and find many of the game mechanics the same / interesting.
Does any have recommendations for other First-person Dungeon Crawlers?
Been looking into the original Wizardry series and new game in early access: Wizardry: The Five Ordeals.
Depends on what you like about EO. EO makes party building and finding synergy a core part of it’s gameplay. For something like that, Star crawlers, Paper Sorcerer, and Wizardry 8 are good choices (7th Dragon series also falls under this, though it’s not first-person).
If the mapping is what you like, I don’t think there are any other games that integrate it into the game itself, but a lot of games expect the player to map using graph paper. For those, Wizardry 1-3 are good to start with as they are challenging but always fit on a 20 x 20 grid. Later Wizardry 5-7 are also very good but have larger maps that will end up going off the edge of the paper sometimes (though they tend to have more interesting combat too). Might and Magic III would also be a good choice if you want to do more than dungeon crawl. If you do try classic Wizardry, I’d recommend one of the console ports. Robert Woodhead (programming of Wizardry on Apple II) has actually said the Famicom version is the “best”. I’d say the GBC or SNES version are best.
For something more modern but still like Wizardry, there’s Elminage. It’s a modern take on Wizardry from a dev that actually made a lot of Wizardry spin-offs. It has more interesting classes that classic Wizardry. Experience also has some modern takes on the formula (Undernauts being the most recent) but I have trouble getting past the aesthetics of them.
Finally, if you want something more tactical and don’t mind AD&D, take a look at some of the gold box games like Pool of Radiance. Dark Heart of Uukrul probably falls in here too (but is not D&D). They have first person mazes, but grid based combat, sort of like a proto version of Tactics Ogre.
And my final off-the-wall recommendation is Legend of Legacy. It’s not first person, but it has the same explore, map, and push your limit loop as a good DRPG.
