Etrian Odyssey II: An RPG for the old-timers

I just picked up this game for the Nintendo DS not too long ago... What a pleasant surprise.

If you miss the old school RPGs of yesterday, and are put off by modern RPGs that focus more on cutscenes and love stories, then keep reading...

Etrian Odyssey II is a game that focuses on exploration, and telling the story through gameplay. You navigate the huge sprawling dungeon through a first person view on the top screen, while the bottom screen displays your map. The map ends up being one of the more interesting features of the game: you literally map out the dungeon with your stylus, creating walls, floor tiles, doors, points of interest, and notes as you go. The fighting is all turn based, and there are 12 classes to choose from, with the max party size being 5. You choose the name and 1 of 4 portraits for every class.

This game is not forgiving. I'm not gonna lie, my first party all died before I was able to save. I pretty much dove right into the dungeon with my party, and as I was taking my time exploring, the random encounters whittled my party down to nothing. The game doesn't hold your hand, and there are many difficult monsters in the dungeon that can and will wipe your party with 1 attack.

If you like oldschool RPGs like Dragon Warrior, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, you will like Etrian Odyssey II.

Visit the website at atlus.com/etrian2. This review cribbed from warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=45125