Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight Review

Game Name: Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight
Platform(s): Nintendo 3DS
Publisher(s): Atlus USA
Developer(s): Atlus
Release Date: August 4th, 2015
Price: $49.99

Atlas seems to have done it again with their remake of Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Laagard called Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight. Taking a break from my usual “pew pew” games, I decided to dust off my 3DS XL to review this surprisingly attention grabbing game. Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight introduced some interesting game mechanics but let’s get an in depth view of what this game is really about. 

So what’s the story about?

The Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight story line is pretty generic when it comes to RPGs. You play as a character simply known as ‘Hero’ who is an orphan raised in the Midgard Library with his childhood friend Flavio. Hero and Flavio has been given the task by the Prime Minister of Caldonia to protect his daughter Arianna, Princess of Caldonia, (who can be quite oblivious) on her journey to perform the centennial ritual in ancient ruins. While character development is a big thing for this genre, don’t expect to be blown away by this story. At the very bone, it’s just two orphans given the strange task of protecting a princess where one of which has a very weird transformation.

 Gameplay is king and plentiful

Staying true the RPG style, EO2U keeps the most common traits you look for in this genre including turn-based combat, weapon and armor equipment, and team skill trees. Kill monsters, get money and experience. No big shocker here. What makes this game interesting is what you can do aside from clearing monsters. You can choose from Classic Mode where your guild set is just about limitless or Story Mode that has a set hero and companions. 

Navigation through the Labyrinth was a new experience for me. Out of all the things you can do in this EO2U, this is my favorite system. Instead of giving you a map of the area you are going into, you’re given a blank parchment paper and told to do it yourself! Of course I was going into a brand new area so this makes total sense story-wise. You can make notes to remind yourself where healing and mining areas are, but some areas are blocked off so you will find yourself back tracking quite a bit which of course was is a big turn-off.

Combat for this game can be stress inducing. You can trap monsters called FOEs but that can only get you so far. Because most monsters on each floor are over-powered, random attacks and backtracking is very noticeable. There will be a lot of hours spent grinding for levels and money to heal and arm your guild. It is best to avoid these guys until you are more than sure you are ready to beat them. I found myself constantly getting trapped between a wall and an FOE where the only way out was to enter a battle and pray that someone in my guild is fast enough to flee the fight.

A new aspect that has appeared in this game are Grimoires Stones. These give your individual characters extra stat boosts or abilities, some of which would not be available to them without the Grimorie Stones. This furthers the customization of your characters so you have even more things to think about. While I do think in theory this is an ok idea, this system doesn’t add much to the game aside from more needless items to customize your team with and would do just fine without them. Along with that is town development. You can create dishes at the Cafe which gives stat increases and health bonuses and sell them to the citizens to gain money which you honestly can never htave enough of in my opinion. If one of these two aspects had to be dropped, I would absolutely choose for the Grimoire Stones to be removed.

*Review copy provided by publisher