Etrian Nights (and Days, and Nights Again)

I missed the boat on a lot of early role playing games. I am aware of the existence of The Bard's Tale, Ultima and Wizardry, and that when they are namedropped, it means that we're in the realm of the "old school". Thinking back, while I did play a fair bit Final Fantasy III (read: VI) on my Super Nintendo, the only classic RPG I ever really managed to get all the way through was Chrono Trigger. Oh, I guess it should be noted that I also finished a handful of Pokémon games, as well.

When Atlus touted Etrian Odyssey as being a challenging throwback to the hardcore role playing experience, I was curious. A mapmaking interface? A deep labyrinth filled with secret passages, treasure and monsters? Highly customizable character skill development? The promise of a truly traditional dungeon crawler intrigued me not as a veteran of the genre, but as a relative newcomer. Given that my gaming habits usually tend to lack an attention span, this game really had no business taking residence in my DS any longer than, say, Big Brain Academy.

And yet, it's the handheld game I've played the most obsessively since I spent long, marathon sessions warring online with Tetris DS. Now, those sleepless nights consist of me telling Etrian Odyssey that it's time for me to go to bed, and it responding by grabbing me by my collar and slamming me right back into the labyrinth before I even know what's going on.

It might be the game's simplicity that draws me back every time. There is very little in terms of a plot; in a nutshell, the Yggdrasil Labyrinth sits just outside the town of Etria, drawing explorers from all around who endeavour to discover its secrets. You create a party of adventurers from a number of different classes, and set out into the labyrinth, just to see just how deep it goes. That's all there is to it. The focus is on exploration and discovery, which is supported by the game's "gimmick", for lack of a better term: the mapmaking feature.

When you enter the labyrinth for the first time, the DS' lower screen displays a blank grid that represents your map. As you traverse the many floors of Yggdrasil, you use the stylus to outline the rooms and hallways you are exploring. The mapping system includes symbols that you drag and drop into the grid that represent staircases, doorways, treasure boxes, and other events. The system is designed to harken back to the "old school" games I mentioned earlier, where players would often sit down with a pencil and grid paper and hand draw maps of the dungeons they were exploring. Combining this concept with the new school tech of the DS' touch screen was a fantastic move on Atlus' part.

The reason why I hesitate to call the mapmaking feature a "gimmick" is because the game doesn't just become an exercise in map completion. The dungeon crawling itself does not reinvent the genre, and the combat is nothing new: random encounters, first person perspective, turn based, menu driven. What propelled me to keep descending to the next floor, however, was the unique combination of deep customization and simplicity found in the levelling system. As your character gains a level, you gain one skill point to use towards acquiring and increasing the power of new attack moves, magic spells, healing powers, etc. There are a plethora of different skills, with each skill set differing from class to class. You can focus on one skill, or spread everything out evenly: deciding the path you want to take with each of your party members' skills is part of the fun of levelling up, and having just one skill point each level per character makes it a manageable task.

As the game only has one hub town, new items and weapons are uncovered through the items acquired from monsters, as well as from "item points" which allow characters, possessing the appropriate skill, to mine or forage for items. When these items are sold at the local shop, they eventually unlock new weapons and other useful items. This allows for a very natural progression of equipment upgrade, parallelling your level of descent into Yggdrasil.

The acquisition of items, along with types of monsters, are tracked in the city's main hall. The monsters are standard dungeon crawling fare - bugs, bats, and other animals - that obviously increase in difficulty as you progress. The wrench that Etrian Odyssey throws at you comes in the form of FOEs. FOE apparently stands for Foedus Obrepit Errabundus, which means "the vile, wandering one sneaks up". This is more than fitting nomenclature, as FOEs lurk around the labyrinth, and will often start to chase you if you get close. They are much stronger than the standard dungeon monster, and will trounce you if you stumble into a fight with one unprepared. They will appear on your map when they get close (or if you cast the appropriate spell), and this is fortunate as you will spend a lot of your time trying to avoid them. This creates quite a bit of suspense, especially when encountering a boss FOE for the first time. Sporadically, the game will use text boxes to narrate some interesting non-combat events that break up the level-grinding. The use of intense descriptive language, along with frantic musical cues often create a tense atmosphere that is quite impressive given the bare bones nature of the presentation.

As of this morning, I have attempted to beat what appears to be the game's final boss FOE a handful of times, with my party being routinely slaughtered each time. This has not left me frustrated so much as challenged. I feel like my party may need to gain a few more levels before they are able to withstand the boss' torrent of attacks, but I look forward to meeting the task head on.

The game's provided me a solid 50 hours or more of gameplay, perhaps more than a habitual dungeon traveller would need to reach the end of their own "odyssey". Despite the release of other top-tier titles such as Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, I've constantly come back to Etrian Odyssey for an RPG experience that I guess I missed out on in my youth. As the story is minimal, even after extended breaks from the game I could slip right back into Etria without feeling like I've missed a beat. With that said, it will not summon the same addiction as it did for me in everyone, as simpler, more mainstream games like Tetris DS can. This is a game meant for the hardcore, and is unapologetically so. If you liked what you've read here: deep customization and cartography elements in a difficult but rewardingly long dungeon crawling adventure, then by all means go check it out.

On a personal note, I'm equal parts anxious and afraid to crack the seal on Etrian Odyssey II. If it's as much an improvement as the reviews seem to suggest, then I'm in for some more sleepless nights (and rough mornings).

MarquisMark's "Week of Geek"

With work finished for the summer, I effectively have a three week vacation to spend doing as I very well please. I promised myself that I would dive into this blog headfirst, and so begins what I have dubbed my "Week of Geek". I plan to play an obscene amount of games that have been piling up and collecting dust, compile a few reviews, do a classic game review or two, and just generally comment on a few things that I've been dying to get off my chest and/or brain.

I'm going to start by promoting the hell out of EA Canada's NHL franchise, because despite winning Sports Game of the Year awards out the wazoo over the last few years it seems to disappear beneath the current of other games, especially the behemoth that is Madden.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll be posting an equally celebratory review of Etrian Odyssey, a niche RPG that, similarly to NHL 09 and its elder cousins, seems to be getting overlooked.

By the time the week's out, there should be a wealth of posts on various different topics and games. I'll see if I can get Clair in the act, but unfortunately for her, she's still working full-time for another few weeks.

On with the show!

Score One For The North?

Just in time for its latest incarnation, I feel I have no choice but to sing the praises of what I think might be the greatest sports video game franchise of all time. Created by Electronic Arts, this series has seen many iterations since it was brought to consoles in the early 90s, home and handheld versions alike, endeavouring to bring the action of a nation's favourite sport to life, electronically.

No, it's not Madden.

EA Canada has turned the NHL franchise into a rather impressive hockey simulation in the last three or four years, on the current generation consoles (minus the Wii / handhelds). The latest entry in the series, NHL 10, is scheduled for release on September 15th in North America, and if the blog entries and video updates on their site are any indication, it is another labour of love for David Littman and his team at EA Vancouver.

The revolution for the NHL series began in late 2006, with the advent of the "Skill Stick" in NHL 07. Players used to hitting the face buttons to pass, shoot and deke had to unlearn what they had learned, as stick movement was mapped to the second analog stick. Now, pushing up on the stick fires off a wristshot; pulling back winds up for a slapshot, and pushing left or right stickhandles the puck in the respective direction.

Despite a bit of a learning curve, especially for those used to the earlier games' button setup, the Skill Stick was an intuitive way to control the game, and with a solid base on which to build, each successive game in the franchise has tweaked and added to the basic gameplay.

My experience with NHL 07 and 08 was a positive, if limited one. Learning how to take advantage of the Skill Stick took some frustrating time, being a veteran of the older SNES versions of the game. A friend and I would start a season as a mutually agreed upon team, and we'd happily spend two or three hour sessions thrashing, or being thrashed by the CPU. What made the experience worth repeating, aside from the new controls, was the level of realism found in-game. Gary Thorne and Bill Clement calling the action, the "ding" as a puck wired at the net ricochets off the crossbar, the home crowd chanting their beloved goalie's nickname after a flurry of scintillating saves while the opposing squad tries to set back up on the powerplay...

Great sound, realistic AI, solid gameplay; these things weren't new to the franchise, but combined with the controls and the next-gen graphics - at the risk of sounding trite - they made the game feel as close to real hockey as you could get.

It's not uncommon to hear the complaint that EA releases the same sports games year after year, with only minor tweaks and roster updates. Then, given the previous instalments of the game, what makes NHL 09 stand out as one of my picks for the best game of last year?

More than just a culmination of the other things EA Canada has done right with the series, NHL 09 contains two new, rather expansive new game modes, "Be a Pro", where you take a created player from the minor leagues of the AHL to the big time; and its online counterpart, the EASHL - where you take that same created player online in 6 vs. 6 league games. I barely scratched the surface of these two modes, because the reason for my addiction to the game was simple ranked matches. My friend and I became, and still are, slaves to the leaderboard - we've got almost 700 matches under our collective Ottawa Senators banner. I've got more time logged in the different NHL 09 modes than any other game from last year, or even this year. By far.

What makes online play in NHL 09 so obsessive is a combination of everything I just mentioned, magnified by one key factor - human competition. No longer are we playing against a computer opponent and worrying about being outmatched by algorithms. Every game is different. I know that this is what makes online play obsessive in general, but there was something about NHL 09 that made the learning curve we had to battle early on more compelling than your standard FPS: learning how to play against a wide variety of real life hockey strategies, setting up our own plays, and learning how to combat the cursed "glitch goals" - unstoppable shots that beat computer-controlled goaltenders far more than they are intended. Yes, the online component was available in earlier years, but the gameplay tweaks, while minor, numbered in the hundreds, and the "Defensive Skill Stick" balanced the field (er, ice) to allow for more back and forth play, instead of just a series of amazing offensive maneuvers. There's just so much depth, challenge, and most importantly, realism, even for single online exhibition matches.

The NHL series is Canada's Madden, but I never hear about it, aside from a cursory sardonic news post on some gaming blogs. It's likely because hockey is a Canadian game, and doesn't quite hold the same interest that football does down in the States. It's a shame though, because it's as least as good as the Madden games, and it has the critical response to prove it. Metacritic rates NHL 08 and 09 better than its football contemporaries, and has umpteen Sports Game of the Year awards. What's more, the review scores are going up every year.

Does it take the enjoyment of playing (or watching, more appropriately) a particular sport to appreciate a video game of that same sport? Given that I hate playing golf, and sleep while trying to watch golf, but for some reason love golf games? I'm guessing the answer is "not necessarily". So, I guess the best I can do is be an advocate where great reviews and awards have failed - hop on board with NHL 10. It's shaping to be a continuation of a great series which continues to improve with every season.

Audience, purpose, onward.

We've been sitting on this blog now for a few weeks, with its handful of entries. Clair and I have basically foregone any real work on it for summer related activites, along with our mutual playthrough of Majora's Mask, for the Vintage Game Club, as I mentioned previously. I suspect that once the fall hits, we'll try to update a couple times a week. We'll have a HD camcorder to post some little video reviews and things, maybe once weekly, although with law and art student schedules, that will remain to be seen.

Clair and I had a discussion about the point and audience of this blog, and more particularly, whether our friends would have any interest in what we're talking about. At some point, I'm going to start linking to this blog, whether it be in forum signatures, or on my Facebook profile, or elsewhere. But, for whose benefit, aside from my own?

For the great majority of the non-gaming population, particularly those in an older generation than mine, video games are toys, a perspective that is personified in my mother. I do have fond memories of her manipulating a controller violently while playing Super Mario Bros. on my old NES, but generally, she is rather disdainful of my hobby. She often asks how, and why I can spend so much money on what she feels are essentially children's playthings. While I know most of my peers do not share that viewpoint, I fear that most people, upon hearing that I've decided to devote a portion of my time to a blog about video games, would just consider me immature, or maybe just foolish.

How then, to justify that I want to write, at least somewhat intellectually, about games? Do I even need to justify it? It's pretty clear to me that video games are just as important a medium as television, film, or music; artistically, culturally, or otherwise. As someone who's got more than a casual interest in games, then, I guess I feel compelled to babble on about that interest, but also, to maybe dig deeper than mere "this is fun, I like the graphics" in terms of what I want to say about them. I want to take this concept seriously. I'm pretty sure Clair does, too.

I'm aware that we're a little late to the blog party, but I'm looking forward to being able to actually articulate what I think about when it comes to games. Maybe even to a (small) audience. That audience will likely not include most of the people I know, because a lot of my friends aren't really gamers, as I am. I would like to think that what we write here could potentially appeal to even the most casual of gamer, but the reality is anyone who devotes this much time to thinking about video games is far from casual.

I guess the bottom line is this: the possibility of legitimate and intelligent discourse about games in any aspect is what has got me excited about this blog, and determined to make it worth reading.

In any case, with an introduction and a statement of purpose out of the way, I can focus next week on actually outputting some of the (actually game-related!) ideas I've had for posts. Stay tuned.