Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight -- Score 8/10, Recommended.

Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight (from now EO2) is the remake of the second chapter in the Etrian Odyssey saga originally published on Nintendo DS.


The game is a dungeon crawler with a massive twist: the players are tasked with the peculiar (and quite fun) request of drawing the dungeon's map themselves!
The game was quite popular when it debuted in 2008 but was criticised for being slightly repetitive and lacking a true story mode: you literally just ventured forth in
a dungeon and went back to a town to resupply.

This came to a fix with this game, which introduces infact a brand new story, voice acting and new game mechanics to the mix.

Plot:



Our hero (named by the player) and his best and childhood friend Flavio are trainees from the Midgard Library.
They're sent to the city of High Lagaard to escort princess Arianna to the Ginnungagap Labyrinth in her quest to perform a ritual.
Legend says every 100 years the new princess of Caledonia needs to renew such ritual, in order to preserve
the balance of the world itself and protect it from disasters.
Our heroes set forth, Unaware of the events to be unfolded in their future.

First Impression:

EO2 starts off with the right foot. We are introduced to the game by an extremely high quality anime movie, presenting the protagonists and antagonists.
This makes you feel like you'd love to have a whole anime based on EO2. Hence the letdown when we discover the ingame events are described by still
images and only a hint of voice acting.



A hint? Let me clarify: for some reason voice acting is reserved only to a few lines of text every now and then. Full dialogues (usually the most important ones)
are voice acted only for the very first few lines, relying only on general grunts and catchphrases for the rest of it.
This a shame, as the voice acting is infact quite brilliant.

Graphics:



Dungeons and fights are the only polygonal assets of the game. Dungeons are depicted with rich and vibrant colors, textures are
quite average, doing their job in showing off the Labyrinth's vegetation. It's nothing to go crazy about, but it does its job.
Enemies models are quite detailed although slightly pixelated. Animations are fluid and detailed but the variety lacks.
Enemies have literally 3 animations cycles: attack, standby and damaged.



2d artworks are used for characters and backgrounds outside the labyrinth and the end result its simply exquisite.
Characters have different artworks depending on the mood represented and the quality is pretty high, with lots of personality and
characterization displayed on screen.
It's a joy for the eye, I repeat myself: I would love an anime or at least manga adaptation of this game.

Sound:

Musics are orchestrated and are quite RPG standards, with a few exceptions here and there. The intro is infact fully sung and a wonderful track per se.
Ingame musics are what you'd expect from an early 2000 rpg and this is for the good. Really helps immerse in the story and evocates long lost memories.
Quite a nice touch from the developers to let us choose between the original DS tracks and the new orchestrated ones.
Voice acting is simply stellar, with some reserves for the actors choice: some characters can be quite irritating.
Sounds effects are generic and bland: they serve their purpose and nothing else.

Gameplay:

The game can be played in classic or story mode.

Classic mode is just what you expect from Etrian Odyssey. Pic 5 characters, choose their class from a pool of 13 and portrait, go straight onward exploring the labyrinth.
There's 2 labyrinths to be explored. The original one from the first game (remodeled with new locations) and a new dungeon: Ginnungagap.

Story mode is slightly different. We will be commanding a pre-formed party (which classes we can freely modify) and follow their adventures in the game.

Gameplay is divided in 2 main sessions: town development and labyrinth exploration.

Exploring the dungeons is a blast. Difficulty can be set on Picnic, Standard or Expert.
We have the map on the bottom screen while the main action happens on the top one.
The cartography tools are easy to use and the menus are small and intuitive. You use your stylus to quite literally draw the map,
placing icons and comments wherever you see it fit. You can even color the floor tiles!
A floor jump option unlocks every time we complete a floor map with sufficient detail, incentive for the player to be precise in the act.



Different events will occur during exploration, with mild freedom to inspect the backgrounds eventually leading to
resource gathering and secret passages discovery.
The dungeons are populated by monsters of different natures. Encounters are random but with a twist.
We have a little orb on the bottom right corner of the screen. It will change color the more steps we take in the labyrinth.
When the color is red, an attack is imminent.
We also have specific monsters visible on screen: these are usually very powerful enemies which will require lots of efforts to be beaten.

The fighting system is deep and difficult to master but very rewarding.
Fights are taken in turns: on the first turn we decide what our party members should do, on the second the action will take place.
Each character has different skills depending on their class and a force bar.

When such bar is full the character can unleash a very powerful technique for 3 turns. We can decide at any point to interrupt the force
surge by using Force break, which will use a second force skill of insane power. Force break can be used only once per dungeon exploration.

Enemies put up a great fight, especially on expert mode. Defeating a powerful boss is absolutely satisfying and not a single fight
felt unfair on the player side.
Each character can also equip a broad variety of Grimoire stones.
A grimoire stone is an item which contains the essence of a skill. They can be passive, active skills or enemy skills.

Passive skills are on all time and are supporting the party in the background.
Active skills are skills available only to the player.
Enemy skills are skills stolen from enemies.

Grimoire stones are key to personalize our characters, thanks to them they will have access to skills not normally available to
their class or even skills available to enemies only.



The city of High Lagaard serves us as a main hub from where to access different locations: we have the inn, the shop, the cafeteria,
the pub, the explorers guild, the duke's palace and the labyrinth's entrance.

We will mainly restock at the shop (whose items are unlocked by selling the shop materials gathered in the labyrinths) and heal at
the inn.
At the pub we can start sidequests and hear rumors (more like tutorials) from the customers.



The explorer's guild is the place where we can sort out our guild's information and party member's classes.
Early in the game we will be indeed asked to form a guild with our current party members and then name it. (streetpass will send
this information to other people playing the game).

The duke's palace is where we accept the main quests developing the story. Nothing to report here.

The main town core is the cafeteria. Managed by Regina, this is our base of operations, where we will be able to provide the ingredients to concoct new recipes for food and drinks (which will have permanent effects on our party in the labyrinths) and develop our town by advertising different locations of it.
At the cafe we can equip and develop our grimoire stones and organise our inventory, having access to a quite small storage area.



Conclusions:

I had an amazing time with EO2. The story mode is what the previous DS iteration lacked and makes this version 10 times better.
The story is long and articulated and the labyrinth exploration fun and rewarding. Drawing your own map is absolutely fantastic and keeps
you busy and entertained. A nice distraction from the main gameplay, that never feels repetitive.
Difficulty is balanced throughout the game, unless you choose Expert mode like I did: this is a very tough challenge and I advice picking it
only if you're a seasoned Etrian player!

All in all a great experience for true hardcore players: not your classic RPG by any mean and probably not indicated to whoever fancies a casual experience.

Final Score: 8/10    -- Recommended --

Nice review xD the 3DS is going to rival the Vita soon for RPGs

Good work mate.