GameLight - Etrian Odyssey IV

Official Site: http://www.atlus.com/etrian4/home.html
Source: Youtube Channel IGN

I'm surprised the Etrian Odyssey series is still being brought over considering how niche the target audience is.  Etrian Odyssey IV Legends of the Titan makes its debut as the first in the series to launch on the Nintendo 3DS and is back for more classic Dungeon Crawling RPG.  The Etrian Odyssey series is a throwback to classic cRPGs like Wizardry where the player forms their own party of adventures with various classes to choose from, drawing their own maps, and traversing dungeons in first-person view rather than a top-down view.  I had played a bit of the first Etrian Odyssey and my experience from it surprises me that there's a market for the series in the West.  In the first game, customization and skill building was very cluttered having all the skills of a class clumped into one huge list.  Lots of preparation in equipment and skill building is needed before setting out and lots of grinding is required just to survive the initiation quest like in a lot of classic cRPG dungeon crawlers.  With such archaic systems of the past, I didn't think the series would continue to be made and brought over to the West.  I never got far with the first game and so I missed out on the 2nd and 3rd installment.  It's a game that's definitely not easy to get into and requires a lot of patience, but what got me interested in the game and kept me interested was the bright and colorful, animé-esque art style with its retro style, FM-synth produced music by none other than Yuzo Koshiro.  I've been a fan of Yuzo Koshiro ever since The Revenge of Shinobi on the Sega Genesis and ActRaiser on the Super Nintendo, and so I wasn't too surprised to see that the catchy and whimsical soundtrack was composed by him.  When I heard a fourth one was about to release on the Nintendo 3DS, I was curious if any changes would be made.  Luckily, a demo came out in the eShop market and allowed me to download it onto my 3DS.  Here's what I got from it:

-Main structure of gameplay and combat is essentially the same
-Art style is the same, but environments and backgrounds are gorgeous
-There's a skill "tree" now, so it's really organized rather than one huge list
-Enemies are no longer static 2D sprites, but animated 3D models
-A "Casual" difficulty level that makes the game easier
-Initiation quest is a lot more straight-forward and comprehensive
-An over world like map (not sure if it's new to the series or not)
-Music is an orchestral ensemble instead of the usual FM-Synth tunes
-Dungeon maps are even easier to use with the circle pad

In short, my experience with the demo thus far has been really enjoyable!  The Demo allows a maximum of 30 plays, 10 character slots (there's 30 in the full game), a level cap of 10, and everything else seems unrestricted.  I have to admit that preparing my party, talking to all the NPCs, gathering my equipment and allocating my skill points to the party took a very very long time, but it's part of the charm to the game that makes it feel so personal (as it always has in cRPGs).  Although it follows the same structure as the first game, this iteration seems a lot more tolerable for a wider audience than before.  I feel rather compelled to get the game now.  If you're even a bit curious about the game, I highly recommend downloading the demo to see if it's for you.  Etrian Odyssey releases February 26, 2013 exclusively for the Nintendo 3DS.