Jeremy Gallen's Game Reviews

Underwaterworld Revisited

The Etrian Odyssey series would attract attention from the gaming community due to its throwback to old-school first-person dungeon crawlers like Wizardry, lasting until the Nintendo 3DS became a defunct system. However, in 2023, the company released remasters of the first three games in the franchise for the Nintendo Switch and Steam, a fortunate thing for those who missed out on them and wished not to pay the exorbitant prices that Atlus games tended to receive after physical versions of their games fell out of print. Etrian Odyssey III HD, like the original tertiary entry of the franchise before it, would shake things up a little in the gameplay department, the remaster making it more accessible to mainstream audiences.

The third entry occurs primarily in the ocean city of Armoroad, which once prospered greatly with a highly developed civilization that fell underwater with a great earthquake, with various adventurers, including the guild the player creates, seeking to unravel its mysteries. While the members of the customizable party lack a story behind them, the other aspects of the narrative are surprisingly well-developed, with plenty of substories, many in the sea exploration sidequest and a few within the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, alongside a significant plot decision that affects the endgame and warrants another playthrough. However, a few moments abound that leave the player clueless on how to further the central storyline unless they pay pedantic attention to the dialogue. Regardless, the plot is a benefit to the game overall.

The translation is also executed well, with a deficit of spelling and grammar errors, legible dialogue, and good naming conventions, aside from occasional awkward lines.

Etrian Odyssey III shares many mechanical similarities with its predecessors, with the player first needing to create a Guild of at least five characters of different classes to traverse the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Encounters are still random yet anticipatable, with an indicator shifting from blue to red to denote their closeness. In battle, the player inputs commands for each character, which include attacking with their equipped weapon, defending to reduce damage, executing a TP-consuming skill, using a consumable item from the party inventory, executing a limit skill that requires the users to have their respective gauges to be at their maximums, or attempting to escape, the player having up to five chances to do so in case one or more fails.

Afterward, the characters and the enemy exchange commands depending upon agility, with some classes having skills that can affect turn order and thus negate the typical turn-based battle issue of healing coming to allies with low health too late. How the game handles death depends upon the difficulty setting, with the Picnic mode taking players back to town with nothing lost and higher settings resulting in a Game Over but a chance to preserve dungeon map progress. Victory nets all characters still alive experience for occasionally increased levels and parts from the defeated enemies, which the player can sell for money and unlock new items and equipment for sale in town.

Leveling nets characters a point they can invest into their skill tree to unlock new active and passive abilities. Upon reaching the Third Stratum, the player can select a subclass for their characters, which nets them bonus skill points and the opportunity to obtain the abilities of another class. Some class combinations can be incredibly ideal; for instance, I had an Arbalist with elemental attack abilities subclassed as a Zodiac, whose passive magical skill bonuses made for a killer mix. As in prior Etrians, powerful enemies called FOEs wander the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, with the recommendation to avoid them initially ringing true on difficulties above Picnic.

Etrian Odyssey III introduced a major sidequest that consists of sailing the seas around Armoroad, with the player needing to outfit a ship with food supplies that dictate how far they can travel alongside nautical equipment such as a sail that can allow players to traverse several tiles with one movement and a ram that can allow their vessel to bypass obstacles such as coral reefs. When the player reaches new landmarks, sidequests unlock where the player can send characters currently in their active party to battle powerful enemies alongside AI-controlled allies. Their experience rewards can provide an edge in the battles of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth.

Players can also obtain experience from story missions and the tavern quests, and while some of the latter and the sea exploration may necessitate the use of the internet, completing all is scarcely necessary to finish the main quest. Ultimately, I had a blast with the mechanics, with the adjustable difficulty accommodating players of different skill levels and putting the game above and beyond the original Nintendo DS version. A few class abilities can nullify the typical shortcomings of traditional turn-based battle systems, and the endless potential for subclassing combinations is another plus, making the high-definition port a pinnacle of classical-style RPG mechanics.

As with its precursors, Etrian Odyssey III HD features an intricate mapping system, with players able to set it so that tiles and walls in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth are automapped. While it’s up to players to place icons indicating elements like shortcuts and doors, the developers adapted the control surprisingly well for the remaster. A suspend save is also available to accommodate players with tight schedules outside gaming, and the base menu system is easy to handle. The only real issues are the inability to see how equipment increases or decreases character stats when pawning it and the weak in-game direction at many points on how to advance the central storyline.

As with other series entries, Yuzo Koshiro composed the soundtrack, which is just as riveting as in the Nintendo DS version. Plenty of catchy tracks of different styles abound, starting from the main Stratum themes and concluding with the ending credits music. There are a few silent portions, but the remaster is an absolute aural joy.

The remastered visuals are mostly a joy to behold as well, with excellent character and monster designs, great colors, pretty environments, and mostly smooth three-dimensional effects within the Yggdrasil Labyrinth and on the seas around Armoroad. Granted, some of the environmental textures are blurry and pixilated, and many enemy designs consist of reskins and are completely inanimate in combat. Even so, the game is far from an eyesore.

Finally, playtime can be on par with the third entry’s predecessors, somewhere from twelve to twenty-four hours, with lasting appeal existing in the form of Steam Achievements, postgame content, messing with different party setups, and so forth.

In conclusion, Etrian Odyssey III HD is the final feather in the cap of the Origins Collection, on par with its preceding remasters, given its intricate gameplay mechanics and mapping, tight control, well-developed storylines, and solid sight and sound. However, there are a few blemishes in the interaction, story, and visual departments, given the potential to become lost if not paying close attention to the dialogue, the lack of backstory for the player’s characters, and how the visuals retain much of the lazy design choices of the original game such as inanimate enemies in combat. Regardless, I had a blast and would recommend the game to those who enjoyed its precursors.

This review is based on a playthrough of a digital copy downloaded to the player's Steam Deck to the standard ending with 11/29 achievements obtained.