Etrian Odyssey IV is a dungeon crawler RPG from ATLUS. And similar to most games from ATLUS, EOIV is hard. Hard like a rock covered in concrete. I like how it takes your hand and guides you through the character creation process then feeds you to the hounds when you get to the first dungeon. Well, not hounds exactly. They’re more like giant purple bears that chase you around only and kill you with one swipe only to get distracted by wood. Thankfully literal wood, not metaphoric. And when you die, you’re reloaded back to town. You’re alive, sure, but you just lost everything since your last save.
EOIV plays like an old-school dungeon crawler: movement is tile-based, encounters are random and death is everywhere. I’m not kidding. I died because I was reckless. I died because I was too careful. I died because I thought I was strong enough. The reasons are many and so have been the deaths. The game is like a portable version of Dark Souls but with upbeat music and anime characters. It feels deceptive that way, alluring me with all that pleasantness then proceeding to serve my ass on a platter.
So why play it? Like Dark Souls, things eventually get better and it feels very good when they do. The game makes you work for your victories, making your hard-earned wins feel very rewarding. For example, in order to get better gear you’ll need to supply the blacksmith with monster parts. Said parts are acquired by—you guessed it—defeating monsters. And we’re talking about the same monsters that have been giving you a hard time for the last 20 minutes. So for killing them you’re rewarded with gear with their parts which you then use to fight stronger monsters. Or you can go back to them and hand them an ass-whooping for a few minutes. Just so you can get your vengeance. Sweet, petty vengeance.
Etrian Odyssey IV is infuriating enough to make me ask if the 3DS works as a projectile, but then I have enough sense to just close it and take a breather. I usually end up opening it again anyway. It’s a good game for the punishment junkies, but I’d stay away from it if you have bad blood pressure.