- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Developer: Atlus
- Publisher: Sega
- Release Date: June 1st 2023
- Platforms: Nintendo Switch and Steam. For Switch there is a physical version with english avaliable in Asia
- Genre: Brutal Dungeon RPG
About the collection
Etrian Odyssey Origin Collections include the first 3 EO games released originally for Nintendo DS with HD graphics and new QoL features. Your mission as a guild master is to take your party and uncover the secrets of the great tree labyrinths in Etria, High Laagard and Armoroad.
The franchise was concieved by Kazuya Niino as a revival of the wizardry style games, incluiding their unforgiving difficulty (at least in 1). This means HP healing/ TP items are scarce; the only way to get money are quests, scavenging materials from collection points or selling monster parts (which you also need to make new equipment); having limited inventory, and carefully distributing skill points for your characters
Besides the difficulty, exploration is really the game. Unlike other DRPG you are in charge of mapping the floors. You’ll need to draw corridors, mark doors, traps, shortcuts, takes notes and mark everything you need to survive. With that said if charting is not your thing the Origins Collection include an auto mapping mode
FOE One important element of the games are the FOE: Field On Enemy (JP) / Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens (US) / Foedus Obrepit Errabundus (EU). These are vicious creatures that are visible on the map and have superior stats than everything on the floor you are exploring. And make no mistake, they want your blood and will follow you and even join the battle if you are fighting monsters near them. And in case you are wondering, more than one can join the battle and this includes boss battles
They became a meme in japanese forums and even had a song by IOSYS:
Party Members
As a guild master your task is to choose your party members to conquer the labyrinth. Etrian 1 features your classic standard classes (with Atlus funky localized names) with warriors, tanks, medics, elemental users, etc. Etrian 2 added more variety with 3 new classes (Gunner, War medic and beast) that covers multiple jobs. For example the gunner has both elemental and binding attacks.
In EO3 they decided to go more creative with some of the choices like the Sovereign who is a tank and a bard, or the monk who is a healer and close combat user. And this time you have subclasses too, so you can create some really broken combinations if you want too.
What is new in the HD Collection?
- Updated visuals: This mostly means cleaner graphics since the 3 games used sprites for monsters and characters portraits. Draw distance seems to be the same as the DS
- Mapping options: Since you don’t have a second screen like the DS you can activate the mapping canvas with a button (with left and right handed mode) to draw manually your map. There's also auto mode (floors) and full auto mode (floor, walls and shortcuts).
- New character portraits: There’s a fifth portrait added to each class (with alternate colors in EO3) to make your party more varied. There are also DLC portraits featuring characters from other Atlus franchises
- New Difficulty modes: Picnic, Basic and Expert. Expert difficulty is the original DS difficulty
- New game + for EO1 and EO2
- Bugs fixes and some balance updates. Also you can now sidestep in EO1
- Updated music using the PC88 version and one new track for EO3
- Local and Online connection for EO3 sea exploration features.
FAQs
1. Are these based on the Untold versions?
No. These are based on their original DS version, so the rearranged OST, story mode and other features like grimoires aren’t avaliable here.
2. Should I play them in order?
It’s not required, but I recommend it, since going from 1 to 3 you can see how the games evolved and improved and once you taste goodness of multiclass in 3, it’s harder to go back. Also finishing 1 gives you the opportunity to carry two special items and some dialog changes into EO2
3. I’ve never played any EO games, you haver any tips?
- Always carry a warp wire.
- Learn to manage your TP: You’ll need it to survive and using it in every battle will just make the exploration harder once you are out of it
- Abuse healing spots when you find them. These are always good spots to grind or scavange materials.
- Go Home: The game expects you to return to the base constantly, no need to try to rush through a floor. You have a limited inventory and selling monster parts will get you money and new equipment or items
- Search for shortcuts: Most floors will have shortcuts that will let you traverse them quicker next time. Shortcut tiles have always a distinctive feature from normal tiles like a flower or a crack in the wall, so it’s not that difficult to find them. Do keep in mind some of them can only be used in one way.
- Use your items: You are going to need everything you can use if want to survive, no need to save everything for later and hoarding them will just take space from your inventory.
- Try to avoid spreading skill points too much: It’s very hard or impossible to max a skill tree in any class in any of the games, and the “red mage” approach will be detrimental at the endgame in 1 and 2. It’s better to focus your characters on specific paths an be strong in one or two things, than mediocre at 4 of them. For example Landksnetch has a sword and axe skills, while you certainly can spread points between both this means you’ll have to sacrifice levels on all of their abilities making them less effective (because you also need to level up stats). In picnic and casual this probably won’t be an issue as the damage modifiers will make it that even low level skills does more damage.
- Mind the gap: When you run from combat you will take a step back in the map, and if there is no space to step back you can’t escape. This also means that if you are trapped in a corridor by an F.O.E your only option is to fight back or use a warp wire / return (I told you to always carry a warp wire).
- Don’t be discouraged! : The first game was really hard and I know a lot of people bounced because of the difficulty, but take every defeat as an opportunity to learn and you will make it through. Rushing through the unknow is a recipe for defeat and EO expects you to be cautious and make use of all your tools, to advance through the labyrinth.
Last edited:
. Never undersestimate random encounters in EO
