Etrian Odyssey I: Still crappy after all these years

 

Way back in early 2018, I performed a solo run of the original EO. The whole endeavour was as exhilarating as it was torturous; it eventually turned plain tedious, and I finally threw in the towel at the end of the 4^th Stratum. In my final post, I wrote that sentence: "EO is like that new pal you meet and click instantly with, thinking you're gonna be mates forever — only to realize after a few weeks that they're a bit of a prick after all." That description was pitch-perfect back then; but does it apply to the ‘Origins’ version of EO? It pains me to say that, but it still kinda applies. 

 

 

Things started auspiciously enough, thanks to the combination of Picnic difficulty and a five-member crew. I could progress at breakneck speed, beyond my wildest expectations: while my initial aborted run clocked at 70-or-so hours, that new run lasted a puny 14 hours. Now we’re talking, game! Despite these good points, I didn’t finish my run, calling it quits right before the 25^th and final floor. I couldn’t figure out how to access said final floor, and I didn’t care enough about the game to keep trying to figure it out. 

 

 

Another thing I wrote in my parting post with the original EO was "stupidly hard for the sheer sake of being stupidly hard". And well, my experience with the Origins version only confirms that statement. Once EO’s sadistic difficulty is removed, you fully realise how utterly uninspired the labyrinth layouts are; these floors are not designed to give you an exploration kick, but rather to accommodate stealth sessions where you play hide-and-seek with FOES. 

 

Actually, the whole game’s balance is structured around its tough-as-nails difficulty level; remove that difficulty, and nearly everything falls apart. Classes and team balancing become meaningless because FOES bit the dust in a couple of turns, and everything else in one turn. The precarious money balance issue virtually disappears, as you always have enough to get the best gear available. Last but not least, the whole thrill of overcoming seemingly impossible challenges evaporates entirely as everything submits to your will. Still, I don’t think it was a mistake to introduce more forgiving difficulty modes: the original experience is still very much alive for the masochists amongst us, and people who want an easier ride can now partake in the fun as well. 

 

 

I feel I’ve given the original EO its fair chance to shine. It turns out that this game and I aren’t meant together: even on Picnic mode, it remains a bit of a frustrating experience that’s definitely not on par other favourite FPDCs of mine. That’s not to say that subsequent entries won’t please me, though; as a matter of fact, I dove into EO II hot on the heels of dropping EO I. Stay tuned for the upcoming run report, dear fellow gamers!