Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl (3DS) Review

Firstly, a heads up; Unfortunately, JRPGs have never been my thing. I tend to find them a bit long in the tooth, rely on grinding a bit too much, and the story is therefore dragged out, that I tend to forget previous key plot moments. So when I was given Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl, I was scared. Atlus games are on the extreme end of JRPGs, am I gonna be able to do this? So I did some reading while I was waiting for it to download. You have to draw your own maps? That could work. Hell, sometimes you just have to jump in the deep end to understand a genre, and this seems involved enough to be pretty good.

So, like most RPGs, you’re potentially smacked in the face with an amazing range of options and menus that can put you off if you’re not familiar with the genres mechanics. Thankfully, Etrian Odyssey Untold will help you out, and will feed you information as you go. The game basically has the town as a hub area, with no real over world to explore. You’re given quests, which will lead you out to dungeons as needed, but you’re not walking there each time. This leads to a more direct style of gameplay, there’s not a wasted moment.

This also means that the game never feels awfully grindy. You’re never killing monsters while trying to make your way from one end of a continent to the other. The exploration of dungeons will keep you busy in between random encounters by having you draw your map as you go along. I found myself filling in the map with every step that I took, so I never missed a beat, but you might find yourself playing differently, perhaps filling in the map from memory, or not even bothering at all. The map drawing options include all sorts of symbols and arrows, so you can keep track of where switches are, doors that are only one way, or anything else you might encounter.

Having never played the original on the Nintendo DS, I can’t really say how much the new voice acting adds to the remake. But from someone who prefers original Japanese voices to English dubs, I have to say the voice acting is pretty good. You build up a party very quickly in the game, and while relying on tropes to fill out their characters, each member has a very clear and distinct personality, so you can focus more on playing the game, rather than trying to figure out who does what.

The combat is very straight forward, however, so nothing to write home about. Turn based and class/role driven, there’s nothing new to expect here. It’s a little disappointing, but the more you explore the dungeons and draw maps, the less you miss it.

All up, if you’re a JRPG fan who hasn’t given Etrian Odyssey a shot before, this is a good entry point. For lack of a better term, the ‘dumbed down’ JRPG elements suit the handheld really well, but the combat could be a bit more involved. If you’re like me, and haven’t really enjoyed JRPGs, or even haven’t played one before, this is still a good place to start, with the focus on map drawing and exploration weaning you into new world.

Rating: 3/5