It turned the DS's lower screen into a virtual tablet of graph paper, dedicating a separate map screen to each of the in-game labyrinth's 30 floors. By combining that DS launch sales pitch of permanent map screens with the console's stylus-and-touch-screen tech, Etrian breathed new life into the long-abandoned art of mapping out game worlds. Others, however, found the need to create their own dungeon maps to be Etrian Odyssey's primary draw (pun only somewhat intended). The horror! A fan-made map of Etrian Odyssey's 2F. Oh, and worst of all, Etrian Odyssey forced you to make your own maps. Guild member characterization existed entirely in the player's mind, with skill customization representing the full extent of in-game development for your entire roster. Rather, players rolled up a guild of generic warriors from a set of alternate portraits attached to about 10 character classes. What story existed in the game appeared parsimoniously, in dribs and drabs, and it featured no actual main characters to speak of. Now here was a game that combined an archaic play format largely remembered by crusty old PC RPG veterans, presented on a handheld system designed with kids and casual gamers in mind, wrapped in anime-flavored artwork that frequently drifted in Lolita complex territory. Even publisher Atlus had given up on it, ditching the first-person format of Shin Megami Tensei II and Persona 2 by making their respective follow-ups, SMT: Nocturne and Persona 3, into third-person free-camera affairs. Steeped in the trappings of the classic first-person PC dungeon crawler, the game embraced a subgenre that had fallen into disrepute and deprecation years before the beloved Wizardry VIII had given the dungeon crawler its final dying swan song back in 2001. Left: Etrian Odyssey right: Etrian Odyssey Untold 2, a remake of the sequelĪt first glance, Etrian Odyssey seemed as laughable a prospect as the DS itself. Having a perpetual castle map on-screen in Castlevania games removed the need to fuss around with pause overlays, and some of the DS-based Final Fantasy games even offered in-game rewards to players who went to the trouble of filling out their auto-competing dungeon maps 100%.īut only one series truly embraced the full suite of the DS's screen design by combining permanent map displays with the lower screen's touch function: Atlus's Etrian Odyssey. ![]() Once developers settled down and started to think things through a little more, though, the DS soon became a great way to play exploration-intensive games. Consider the top-down secondary view in Super Mario 64 DS, which also doubled awkwardly as an analog control surface - pretty awful, all things considered. ![]() Granted, the first few efforts we saw to make use of the concept didn't exactly fill the world with awe. Now players would be able to check a map of their surroundings as they play rather than dropping into a menu screen! For some reason, this prospect became a point of derision for many critics, as if the concept of simplifying game interfaces and minimizing time wasted on navigating menus and subscreens wasn't a driving concern in game design through the ’00s. When Nintendo announced the DS handheld, one of the first use cases it offered for a game system with two screens rather than one involved maps. Mission control for retronauts former EIC of 1UP.com and taking dapper (and frogs) back from the Nazis.
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