Etrian Odyssey Nexus

About Etrian Odyssey Nexus

Etrian Odyssey Nexus is the final dungeon crawler from Atlus on the Nintendo 3DS. It launched in August 2018 with a cast of 19 distinct character classes plus a Hero class newcomers can unlock. The story sends your team to the floating city of Maginia after Princess Persephone issues a royal decree. Your squad must chart the archipelago of Lemuria to find the massive Yggdrasil Tree hiding there. This title brings back the legendary trio behind the series art and music while offering variable difficulty settings. It serves as both a farewell for long-time fans and an entry point for those new to the franchise.

Gameplay

You build your party by selecting from nineteen classes or assigning sub-classes to boost specific skills. The core loop involves drawing maps on the touch screen as you navigate dungeons while managing resources like potions and HP. Battles are turn-based and rely heavily on positioning since enemies can target specific columns of your party. You control each member individually to execute skills or dodge attacks rather than issuing broad commands. Auto-mapping exists but remains optional, forcing players to manually record terrain features if they want the best results. Each session requires constant re-evaluation of tactics since random encounters and environmental hazards never stop appearing.

What Players Think

Critics gave this title a solid Metacritic score of 81 out of 100. PlayPile users report an average completion rate near ninety percent for those who start the main quest. The community mood leans heavily toward "challenging but fair" with many players spending over forty hours to see every map. Review snippets frequently mention the satisfaction of mastering the manual mapping system despite its steep learning curve. Players often cite the return of classic music tracks and monster designs as a major highlight for nostalgia seekers. Data shows completion rates spike significantly when users enable accessibility features like auto-mapping during their first playthrough.

PlayPile's Take

This game costs around thirty dollars and offers a deep achievement list for those willing to hunt them down. It is strictly for players who enjoy tactical depth over casual exploration. The manual mapping requirement eliminates this title from the list of easy picks for modern gamers seeking instant gratification. However, the sheer volume of content and nineteen classes makes it a worthy investment for RPG completists. If you can handle the grind of drawing every corridor by hand, this stands as one of the best entries in the series.

Storyline

"A royal decree from Princess Persephone has prompted the gathering of the realm’s greatest explorers to the floating city of Maginia. Their goal—uncovering the mysteries of the archipelago of Lemuria, home to a great Yggdrasil Tree."