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REVIEW
ETRIAN ODYSSEY 2 UNTOLD:
THE Fafnir KNIGHT
Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The
Fafnir Knight takes the acclaimed
dungeon crawler Nintendo DS title
Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of
Lagaard, and brings it up to date
on the Nintendo 3DS. There’s not
just dungeons to crawl through;
there’s recipes to make, new
graphics to observe, a new story
to experience, and team mates
to love. For Etrian Odyssey fans,
there’s nothing to worry about.
Newcomers, however, have to
hike up their adventuring pants
and tackle unfamiliar territory.
Gameplay comes first and foremost
in the Etrian Odyssey series,
and Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold
is no exception. Gameplay
is split between dungeon crawling
through various floors and
mapping them out; you have
to be part time adventurer, part
time cartographer and draw the
map yourself.
Navigating dungeons is easy
enough, with pressing forward or
back on the d-pad to move, and
to turn with left and right. Each
floor holds little secrets to discover,
like pools of water or fruits
to restore health and technique
points, used for special moves.
One-time events can crop up
too, which can spur on humorous
dialogue from your party. A
coloured circle in the top right
corner goes from blue to green to
yellow to red to indicate when a
random battle is coming up. Battling
takes place like a traditional
turn-based RPG, combined with
line. During battle, your party
and the enemy can be split between
the front and back lines.
Some weapons can only hit enemies
in the front, there’s elemental
attacks to consider, abilities
tick over turns; if you’ve played a
turn-based RPG before, this’ll be
nothing new.
The map on the left was considered
incorrect by the in-game
tutorial, but the map on the right
was considered to be correct.
Early on, you have to learn how
the game wants you to draw your
maps without much prompting,
not how you want to draw them
yourself. Various tools must be
used in the way the game permits,
sometimes withholding
content until you comply with the
specific way it wants. For something
like drawing a map, this is
a bit perplexing. Certain floors,
when completed, can be fasttravelled
to by tapping the stair
icon, but it’s not all that clear how
this unlocks. The game almost
presumes you played Etrian Odyssey
in the past, caring only to
explain the newer features, but
not going into much depth with
the recurring mechanics, such
as the map drawing.
Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold features
story mode, as opposed
to the original game. The story
mode features yourself as
a Fafnir Knight and survivalist
and friend Flavio as you escort
Arianna, the princess of Caledonia,
through Ginnungagap to
perform a ritual. Along the way
war magus Chloe and protector
Bertrand are bumped into, and
this merry band of five traverse
through Ginnungagap and the
Labyrinth. There’s nothing too
complex here, and the game can
be played in classic mode to circumnavigate
this, but one of the
strongest elements of Etrian Odyssey
2 Untold comes through
the story; the writing. Besides
the Fafnir Knight who’s nothing
more than a silent protagonist,
every line of dialogue adds a little
bit more to each character’s
personality.
Voiced character dialoue is a bit
of a mixed bag. During conversation,
characters will say something.
They may say a sentence
or three, but this happens rarely.