This was the second dungeon crawler that I checked out from Atlus, the first being Dungeon Traveler 2. Like DT2, I had never played the first Etrain Odyssey so I was lost on the stories continuation. Not that you really get to play enough of any demo to get the story. The bases of this game where similar to DT2, in which you’re playing in first person and crawling through dungeon style of levels and having RPG encounters. The difference is that at times creatures will appear on the map that you’re probably too weak to take on and so you must avoid them.

With the 3DS’ second screen you have a constant map running and you can outline the walls to help you actually see the map for the way it is. Otherwise it doesn’t just unlock the next section when you walk into it.

The 3D was okay. It was actually my first time checking out the 3DS and while I could care less about 3D, it was actually pretty impressive. I couldn’t turn it up all the way because that instantly hurt my eyes, but otherwise it was pretty damn good if that’s your thing.

The characters and story were interesting and definitely got me interested in playing more. There’s support characters that can show up and help you in a certain areas and the options of defeating enemies was varied enough to not get boring. You basically can’t just attack your way through, you need to spice it up or when you do accidently run into a bigger enemy you’ll be screwed.

The artwork was definitely impressive and frankly I’m kind of glad to see so many Japanese games that use their style of artwork making it to North America. It’s a nice change up from just being on the cover art and then looking at a 3D sprite that doesn’t come close to the 2D artwork.

The game is due out soon and if you have a 3DS I would definitely get it. Again I don’t see myself sitting down and playing it for five hours at a time, but short bursts here and there is definitely something I’d do.

OFFICIAL GAME SITE: atlus.com/eo2u