80%PC

With Sub-classing, Deep sea sailing/quests, weapon forging, and a better story than the first two games I can see why most people would recommend this game over the other ones.

Sub-classing is a nice change that makes classes more viable, fun and diverse while also making strong classes even more stronger. Weapon forging further boosts your weapons with stats and effects (really nice for unlocking conditionals your party is not able to acquire due to lack of certain skills). Deep sea sailing, while completely optional, adds a fun little mini-game whenever you want to take a break from dungeon crawling that rewards your team by taking on boss battles to unlock unique gear and exp. Stratums are now four floors instead of five, (except for the final stratum which is still five floors) although the floors are much larger and complex than previous games. Quests give experience now which is nice, gives you more motivation to finish up side-quests. Multiple endings with a slightly better story than the first two games.

Post game suffers a bit with having you be quite underleveled. (Was only level 50 in the start of the final stratum despite doing all quests up until that point. Had to grind up to level 70~ for a shot at the final superboss) You still lose five levels on resting (you feel this a lot more due to the underleveled issue), skills still do not give enough info on what each rank up fully does. The removal of the checkpoint system from the second game is a bit questionable since you will have to start at the beginning of a stratum everytime you head back to town to resupply.

This game was a huge improvement to the series, and I had a lot of fun playing it. Hopefully the other titles get added to PC soon.

90%Nintendo Switch

This is game is quite old from the time I'm playing and writing this review having released 13 years ago so I'm giving it a 90 in hindsight acknowledgement. Even with the HD remake I'm playing, there are minimal changes to the overall game story or balancing besides the addition of the picnic difficulty mode and touched up visuals. The port of the touchscreen controls was a little awkward but with the help of a capacitative stylus for the switch screen, it basically felt like the authentic experience.

Admittedly, the addition of the picnic difficulty in the HD remaster goes completely against the series' philosophy and overall experience of the game and I would never recommend it for anyone trying to appreciate the game. Etrian Odyssey is about slow exploration, inching forward into the dungeon, managing your resources, and being smart about your movements by avoiding stage bosses called FOEs while mastering and returning to the terrain you already uncovered. The slow progress makes you appreciate what little text and worldbuilding is provided to you before moving forward. Picnic mode is far TOO easy, the FOEs that guide your flow in the dungeon melt like butter, the bosses melt like butter. It makes the game a painful chore by how easy it is made. I am guilty and played most of the game in picnic mode, and still it was 80 hours long so to anyone of the same mind, either commit or just move on to another game.

As for the base game, this is the first EO to have the subclassing feature and after knowing this, it is apparent how experimental it all is. There are standalone classes that gain quite little, from an additional subclass, and essentially they start feeling like an addition for fun, rather than an interesting and complex choice like in following entries. Obviously there are still some vital subclassing combinations especially for post-game but most of the skill tree goes ignored in exchange for basically one skill.

The game's overall ocean theme stands out from the rest of the franchise and without any spoilers, it sticks with the central ocean theme to the very end. I appreciate the more somber approach to the story arcs and multiple endings. The sea navigation portion of the game also stood out greatly as it is almost entirely optional with no punishment for not progressing it. It provides a break from the entire Yggdrasil plot and has you explore the world further independent of what goes on in the story and provides optional bosses and money.

Overall, as a turning point for the series, this game was very solid for a handheld game even over a decade after its initial release.

As a side note, I could be overly harsh but the HD remaster additional persona and SMT portraits dlc blemish the game, if you're a persona or SMT fan just go play those games, having aigis and demifiend descending into yggdrasil completely ruins any immersion that is central to the game. And I'm a fan myself.

90%Nintendo DS

Absolutely Awesome. A little too much grinding required for extras, but still a wonderful game.

90%Nintendo DS

Etrian Odyssey 3 is the pinnacle of the DS era Etrian Odyssey games. Each game improved on the last, and this one adds new features such as sub-classing, more player-friendly map design, and the new Sea quests.

While they changed the stratum size from 5 floors in EO1/EO2, to 4 floors here- I found the change welcome. To be honest, even 4 floors still makes it feel like there is at least one or two filler floors per stratum. I still find the length of the main game to be a bit on the long side, and somewhat overstays its welcome- by the 4th and 5th stratum, I was looking at maps online and just beelining for the stairs, barely mapping anything any more.

Classes, especially with sub-classing, have been made far more viable. EO3 doesn't have a cookie-cutter party build in the same ways that the previous two games did- and rather has numerous strategies that are far more viable. On the other hand, this game still has the steep penalty for re-distributing your skill points of 5 levels per character.

Overall, this is my favorite Etrian Odyssey game so far. I'm looking forward to what they have done with the 3DS era of EO.

70%Emulated

EO's style finally matured with Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City, the peak of their art. With this entry, Atlus improved on all fronts (artistically, systems mechanics, gameplay, level variety, map design, etc.) expanding on the intuitions learned from the previous 2 games. Wider build variety (thanks to the addition of subclasses and an almost complete class overhaul) is complemented by an even stronger emphasis on tense, but not terribly frustrating (as in the second game) or tedious (as in the first), but still very challenging dungeon crawling. With this release, Etrian Odyssey can claim to be a worthy successor to dungeon crawlers for the modern age.

80%Emulated

Decently difficult. Went for the true ending so had a bit of Ending Fatigue with having to grind for the true final boss.
Some great dungeon-crawly fun with a nice story. But I don't think I have the energy to keep playing through postgame.

60%Nintendo DS

Man, I just don't have the patience for this dungeon crawling RPG. I found SMT: Strange Journey a lot easier to swallow, though this game has nice mechanics too. If you've got the time for it, great.

60%No Platform Specified

I don’t enjoy level-grinding for no apparent reason, but on the off-chance that you’re one of those people that do, this might be the perfect game for you. There are lots of different character classes available that you can level up with subclasses and skill sets to build out throughout the game’s many dungeons. Unfortunately, this game will be a turn-off for most players as the tutorial is severely lacking and the learning curve is substantial. Etrian Odyssey is a tribute to original role-playing games, but there’s a reason that those games don’t exist anymore – the genre has evolved. While it will suit those looking for a niche experience, The Drowned City’s formula feels a bit too stale to wholeheartedly recommend for the average RPG fan.