Etrian Odyssey III HD Review Summary

Rich Content & Best in Series: Players consistently praise the game for its extensive and diverse content, offering hundreds of hours of engaging gameplay. Many consider it the best entry in the series, especially among the HD remasters, citing its improvements and overall quality.

Excellent Dungeon Crawling: The core dungeon crawling experience is highly lauded, with players enjoying the intricate labyrinth designs, environmental puzzles, and the satisfying sense of accomplishment from exploration and overcoming challenges. It's considered a genre-defining masterpiece.

Successful HD Remaster: The HD remaster is well-received, bringing significant quality-of-life improvements, updated graphics, and new difficulty options. Players appreciate the enhanced visuals and the accessibility features that make the game more enjoyable than the original.

Deep & Strategic Combat: The combat system is highlighted for its depth, strategic possibilities, and satisfying balance. Players enjoy the intricate skill combinations, character synergy, and the rewarding feeling of building a strong party that can tackle challenging encounters.

Beautiful Art Style: Players appreciate the beautiful and distinct art style, including character portraits, enemy designs, and environmental visuals. The HD remaster further enhances these details, contributing to an immersive atmosphere.

Unbalanced difficulty and grind: The game presents a steep learning curve and high difficulty, especially in the early stages and on Expert mode, requiring significant grinding. While a 'Picnic' difficulty exists, it's criticized for making the game too easy and unengaging, suggesting a lack of balanced difficulty options for different player preferences.

Clunky mapping and UI: The mapping system, originally designed for the Nintendo DS stylus and dual screens, feels clunky and tedious on PC and Steam Deck. Players find the UI difficult to navigate, mapping controls awkward, and the lack of auto-mapping for common elements like doors and chests frustrating. This significantly impacts exploration and game rhythm.

High price for old game: Many players feel the game is significantly overpriced, especially for a remaster of an old DS title. The $40 price point is seen as excessive, particularly when considering the entire collection, and does not align with the perceived quality or content provided.

Lacks modern QoL features: Players note that the game lacks quality-of-life improvements and intuitive design present in later Etrian Odyssey titles, particularly the 'Untold' remakes. This makes the experience feel outdated and less user-friendly compared to more modern entries in the series.

Lack of in-game information: The game suffers from a significant lack of in-game information regarding skills, attributes, damage calculations, and enemy weaknesses. Players often need to consult external wikis and guides to understand core mechanics, leading to frustrating trial-and-error and poor build decisions.

Manual Map Drawing Core: The game is a first-person, turn-based dungeon crawler with a core mechanic of manual map drawing. Players explore maze-like dungeons, charting their progress on a split screen or dedicated map interface, which was originally designed for the DS touch screen but is now adapted for PC with mouse or controller input. The game offers options for auto-drawing basic terrain for convenience.

Flexible Difficulty Settings: The game offers three difficulty settings: Picnic (very easy with XP bonus), Basic (medium), and Expert (original DS difficulty). Difficulty can be changed mid-game, with Expert providing a challenging, authentic experience that often leads to party wipes and requires trial and error. Picnic mode is particularly useful for grinding or casual exploration.

Deep Party & Class Customization: Players create a party of up to five characters from a roster of 12 classes, each with unique skill trees. A key feature is the subclass system, introduced mid-game, which allows characters to augment their primary class with skills from a second class, enabling deep customization, synergy, and diverse party compositions. All classes are considered viable, offering varied and fun setups.

Branching Story & Multiple Endings: The game features a branching storyline with multiple routes (Sea City, Deep City, True End) and three distinct endings, requiring multiple playthroughs to achieve all achievements and the true ending. The narrative emphasizes player vulnerability and the consequences of choices, with death being a common occurrence.

Etrian Odyssey III Innovations: Etrian Odyssey III is highlighted as a significant installment in the series, introducing key mechanics like subclassing and weapon crafting that influenced later games. It features a more involved plot with multiple endings and a nautical setting, distinguishing its combat and overall scope from previous entries.

Good overall performance: Despite some specific issues, the game generally performs well on various hardware, including high refresh rate monitors and the Steam Deck. This indicates good overall optimization for a range of systems.

Denuvo impacts performance: Players report that the Denuvo anti-tamper software negatively impacts game performance. This is a common complaint associated with Denuvo, suggesting it might be causing optimization issues.

Etrian Odyssey III Recommended: Etrian Odyssey III is frequently highlighted as the best entry point for newcomers to the series and is often considered the strongest title in the collection. While some suggest playing the first for story context, the consensus leans towards EO3 for its overall quality and accessibility.

Niche Audience Appeal: The game is specifically recommended for fans of dungeon crawlers, D&D, and those who enjoy challenging RPGs with puzzle elements and map-drawing mechanics. It's noted as a niche experience, not suitable for everyone, especially those expecting modern gameplay or disliking repetition.

Buy On Sale: Many reviewers strongly advise purchasing the game, especially the entire collection, when it is on sale. They believe it offers excellent value at a discounted price, making it an even more appealing acquisition.

Use Guides For Planning: It is highly recommended for players to consult guides for various aspects of the game, including build planning, navigating difficult areas like the Great Labyrinth of the Sea, and understanding game systems. This can reduce stress and improve the overall experience.

PC Version Recommended: The PC version is highly recommended for its comfortable play experience, though the Switch version is preferred for portability. Playing with a controller on Steam is also suggested for optimal control.

Demand for new Etrian Odyssey games: Many players, both new and veterans, express a strong desire for future Etrian Odyssey titles, including new entries and remasters/ports of existing games (especially IV, V, and X) to modern platforms like Steam. There's a clear demand for the series to continue and expand its accessibility.

Appealing art style with hidden depth: The game features a distinct and appealing art style, with beautiful character portraits and illustrations. While initially appearing cute, this aesthetic cleverly masks the game's underlying hardcore difficulty and challenging dungeon crawling.

Masterpiece in niche DRPG genre: The game is recognized as a masterpiece within the niche DRPG genre, offering rich world-building and challenging dungeon design. It successfully interprets and continues the traditions of grid-based dungeon crawlers, despite the genre's limited mainstream appeal.

Encourages player-driven storytelling: The game encourages players to create their own narratives and imagine their party members' reactions to the challenging world. This fosters a strong sense of personal connection and emergent storytelling within the gameplay.

Unique and immersive ocean setting: The game's setting, involving exploration of an ocean floor labyrinth with deep-sea horrors and varied environments, is highly immersive and unique. The ability to explore both underwater and surface areas adds to the world's depth.