Playing video games is the best way to go on an adventure
One of the secrets of a great travel experience is finding magic where you least expect it. You might go for a quick walk and stumble across a jaw dropping view, or stop at a restaurant for a quick bite and have one of the best meals of your life. These moments are rare, but they can make an ordinary vacation feel like an adventure and leave you feeling like something incredible could happen at any time.
This is also one of the secrets of an amazing video game. Lots of games have solid fundamentals, but the titles that stand out are the ones that take you by surprise. When I started Zelda: Tears to the Kingdom, I never expected to spend my time building crazy inventions. I thought Limbus Company would be a fun little mobile RPG, but its story wound up taking me on an incredible journey. Most of my favorite games catch me off guard and wind up being much more than I ever thought they would be.
Those feelings of wonder and discovery are what hooked me on Etrian Odyssey. I was introduced to this throwback dungeon crawling RPG series when the first game was released on the Nintendo DS all the way back in 2007. Now that there are HD remasters of the first three games, I’ve been revisiting the series, and it’s still finding ways to surprise me the second time around. I grew up playing ancient dungeon crawlers, so there are lots of things about Etrian Odyssey that feel familiar, but even though the game sticks to its old school roots, it’s never afraid to do the unexpected.
Like many dungeon crawlers, Etrian Odyssey asks you to explore a dangerous labyrinth filled with monsters, treasure, and most improtantly, adventure. But while many games would task you with saving the world or some other grand quest, the Etrian Odyssey games focus on a task that’s much more mundane: map building. When you step into uncharted territory, you’ll have to fill out your grid-based map by hand. Drawing walls and placing icons might sound tedious, but it’s incredibly satisfying, and it adds an extra layer of immersion that makes the games a lot more fun.
Making a map can be pretty distracting, and sometimes, I completely lose track of what’s happening around me. There have been times when I was so focused on my map that I was genuinely startled by an enemy encounter, or when I stumbled straight into a deadly trap. There have even been a few occasions where I was caught unprepared by a miniboss and got to hear this banger of a track before it wiped out my entire party. I’m not much of an explorer, but playing Etrian Odyssey is like getting a taste of what I’d go through if I actually tried to survey a dungeon.
Etrian Odyssey doesn’t have permadeath, but it can be punishingly hard, even when I’m paying attention. For my own safety, I try to keep trips to the labyrinth on the shorter side, but it’s not always easy to resist the urge to explore. After a while, my brain starts to play a little game of tug of war. Should I keep moving forward and potentially lose progress, or should I play it safe and make a beeline for the exit?
What I love about Etrian Odyssey is that pushing forward almost feels worthwhile, even when it’s risky. Before you start exploring, Etrian Odyssey has you recruit adventurers and assemble a team, and encounters with powerful enemies are the best way to put those team-building skills to the test. The turn-based combat system seems simple at first, but it has incredible depth, and it shines during tougher battles. It feels incredible when everything comes together and I manage to scrape my way through a fight by the skin of my teeth.
But the most unexpected part of Etrian Odyssey — and my biggest motivation for exploring — is the story. None of the Etrian Odyssey games are plot driven, but the series is filled with fascinating lore. When I step into a clearing or enter a passageway, I might discover the remnants of a terrifying battle or the remains of adventurers that came before me. Every so often, I’ll stumble across a tiny piece of a larger narrative, and it’s up to me and imagination to fill in the details.
Etrian Odyssey isn’t for everyone, but if you’re up for a challenge, this series will send you on an amazing journey. Whether you’re traveling through deep forests or visiting a city beneath the sea, Etrian Odyssey has endless secrets to uncover. If you’re stuck at home and are searching for a way to scratch your travel itch, these RPGs will give you hundreds of hours of adventure.
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