When it comes to videogame RPGs nowadays, they typically come in one of two flavors: 1) something new and fresh, or 2) old school. The old school style of RPGs is famous for its turn based battles, colorful sprites, and random monster encounters. With Etrian Odyssey, however, they don't settle on either one of those, and if they'd be classified as anything in the RPG genre, it would be the old, old school style of gameplay. And you know what? We completely dig it for that exact reason.

THE STORY SO FAR
When it comes to Etrian Odyssey, there isn't much of a story to be had. The story of the game is that Mother Nature took over once upon a time, growing up this thick labyrinth of a forest, where nobody knew what awaited at the end. Adventurers from all over would come to explore the labyrinth, but most were never heard from again.

You find yourself as an adventurer – in a way at least – coming to explore the labyrinth for yourself. However, you won't be alone on your journey, since you'll have a whole stable of fellow adventurers to journey down into the depths with you.

Most of the story comes only from the beginning, but you'll occasionally get missions and quests to round out the story. Usually, we'd tear apart a RPG with very little story, but what we found is there is a whole other story that drives the game forward – the story of exploration. It's hard to pinpoint what it is, but the game calls out to be explored. You want to search every square inch of the land. You want to map out the levels. You want to test yourself, explore a bit more, and see what you can find. By having the game focus on that element, the personal exploration side of things, the game is truly engaging, even more than many epically told RPG narratives in other games. Who knew the idea of exploration could be so well told through gameplay? I never knew I wanted to go out and adventure before.

GAMEPLAY
Etrian Odyssey, like most RPGs, is strictly a one player endeavor. When you first start out, you'll travel to the local guild hall, name your guild, and then get recruiting adventurers to aide you on your journey. Instead of picking from predetermined adventurers, you must individually make each and every character you want to use. Your guild can have up to something like 30-some adventurers, but individual parties can only have a maximum of five.

Being used to the process of being given players, I found it pretty hard to get started, as I didn’t know what to name my characters. I thought about naming them all after people I knew, but then after playing a little that didn't seem like a good fit, so I started over with new names, this time based on manga characters. The process of making these characters and personally naming them, gives you an immediate connection to these people, as they are your creations and darlings. When Dasha died, you better believe I felt more than when some other character I controlled in another RPG fell during combat.

After naming you'll pick their character class, which denotes what their play style will be. You've got Landsknechts (sword and axe wielding warriors); Survivalists (Legolas like archers); Protectors (knights who specialize in protection); Dark Hunters (S&M whip wielders); Medics (the healers of the bunch); Alchemists (the mage, spellcasters of the group); Troubadours (dancing and singing buffers); Ronins (highly trained fighters); and Hexers (magic-esque cursers). You can't have Ronins and Hexers at the beginning, but you can unlock them through your journey. Being a successful team of adventurers requires having a diverse team and finding a group dynamic that fits your style. For me, I enlisted a Landsknecht, a Protector, and a Dark Hunter for my front line, and a Medic and Alchemist for my back. After you pick a class, you get to pick their avatar portrait – two males and two females ones for each class.

There are several places you can go in town (the only town since you are exploring the town's nearby labyrinth), such as going to the inn to rest and save, the shop to buy new equipment and sell spoils of war, the pub where you can go to get quests, the healer to get revived or buy healing potions, and also the guild hall to get missions. When you aren't in town stocking up or resting, you're in the labyrinth fighting and making maps. Yes, you heard me, maps!

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