While last week was packed full of Nintendo news, Famitsu took a step back this week with only a handful of Nintendo games featured. However, they're some big ones; an in-depth preview and a review for Etrian Odyssey V and a review for Dragon Ball Fusion on the 3DS make this week's edition worth browsing through.
Previews
Famitsu lagged behind with Pokemon Sun and Moon news again this week. This time around, the magazine covered three new Pokemon we already know all about: Rockruff, Komala and Salandit. Other than some cute art for each Pokemon, nothing of note was revealed about the trio.
Etrian Odyssey V on the Nintendo 3DS is the real meat and potatoes of Nintendo previews (and reviews!) this week. Some of this information was revealed some time ago, but it's still interesting nonetheless. First and foremost, Union Skills allow party members to team up to activate powerful attacks after filling a special gauge. Groups of four party members are seen preforming a Union ability in one picture, while in others floating online three members are enough.
Famitsu touched on the four playable races as well: human Earthrun, elf-like Lunaria, rabbit and fox-eared Therian, and dwarfish Bronie. Etrian Odyssey V restricts each race to certain classes. Earthrun options include the Fencer, Dragoon, Cestus, and Reaper classes. Etrian Odyssey V restricts Lunaria to Warlocks and Necromancers, and the tiny Bronie race plays as Herbalists and Shamans. Therian have a Hound class that utilises animal companions and a sword-fighting Masurao option.
Famitsu goes into further details with each classes' abilities. For example, the Fencer class uses a Jump Slash ability. However, the amount of translation required was overwhelming, so we moved onto this week's reviews instead. Hopefully Etrian Odyssey V gets a Western release soon, and with it more in-depth detail about its systems.
Reviews
We won't keep you in suspense any longer. The Famitsu reviewers enjoyed Etrian Odyssey V quite a bit, earning a respectable 8/9/9/9 for a total of 35/40. One reviewer, Yoshida-san, felt the new races added a fresh feeling for the series' typical gameplay loop of exploring dungeons and levelling up, adding quite a bit more variety as players build their party. He did lament that this newest title doesn't feature any over world sea or air exploration, limiting the game to a narrower scope. Despite this, he found the dungeon exploration evolved enough that he soon forgot he couldn't fly around a larger area.
Dragon Ball Fusion was also received well with 8/8/8/9 for a total of 33/40. The reviewers particularly enjoyed how many non-canon fusions players were able to perform. Fusions, for those that aren't up-to-date on Dragon Ball lore, are when two characters fuse into one to create a character far more powerful. With five characters, there was enough variation to keep the reviewers entertained with "command battle" matches. They also lauded how much the strategy behind fighting and the speed felt like watching the anime. One consistent gripe was that battles often felt a bit too long. There is no worldwide release date announced yet.
And that's it for another week. Let us know which Etrian Odyssey race and class sounds most appealing to you in the comments.
A special thanks to both Thomas A. Schinas and Laura Lee for some amazing translation work!
Comments 18
Very quiet week.
The airship was such a welcome surprise in the EO IV demo that I got on board the franchise and have remained, but after having played the Untold titles; which I loved, I was ready for a return to a broader world.
The demo will have a more difficult job to do this time as it is no longer a day-1 purchase for me; I just can't imagine the dungeons being "evolved" enough to scratch that itch. Bah humbug.
That being said, the demos are always generous, and EO is always visually and sonically gorgeous. It was the joy of discovering EO IV that sold me on the power of demos.
More recently the excellent demo to Bravely Second caused me to go back and purchase the original whose demo had not impressed.
...EO V could very well still win me over if it follows suit.
I will definitely be getting this game. EO is the kind of game I love. I still have to buy Untold 2 so I can play it..
Yeah, thanks for spoiling another Pokemon for me.
At least say something about it in the title of the article so I know to avoid it.
@Mainsaile
"He did lament that this newest title doesn't feature any sea or air voyage any more, limiting the game to a narrower scope---"
My heart shattered into three-hundred sixty-seven and seven-nineteenth pieces when I read this. Though, that said, I'd be willing to sacrifice a half-baked overworld for more focused and more expansive labyrinths.
I can't wait for EOV!
However, I have to say that the lack of air/sea travel is pretty disappointing. But not as disappointing as the races. Like, I think having races in a game like this is absolutely brilliant and I think it will be a lot of fun, but when all the races are just "humans but _________" it begs the question why even have a 'race' system to begin with, aside from making some classes exclusive to some races. I mean, EOIV had actual animal characters, but when an animal character race is introduced in EOV, we get neko/bunny girls? Why?! In my opinion, one of the few games that I've played that truly has cool and (mostly) unique races are the Ivalice Final Fantasy games like Tactics Advance. But whatever, I know the game will be good. It just feels like the race system is a step in the right direction but not used the greatest way, but my feelings may change after playing it.
@Gorlokk Well didn't you want to play as a bunny girl/dog boy or short humans?
Maybe I'm in the minority, but I'm actually pleased there is no overworld this time. I eventually got to grips with the travel in III and IV, but I did hope V would return the focus to the labyrinths.
To be honest, every Etrian Odyssey game is great to play until the credits, but I don't think you can form a full opinion of them until you've had an extensive attempt at the post-game and know how useful the skills are, how luck-based and endurance-based the boss battles are and generally whether you have to do things a certain way (as opposed to there being many options).
Personally, I think I-IV are all great to some extent, and have slightly more negative feelings towards the Untold series. Looking forward to V anyway!
@Gorlokk yeah, I can understand if it's a fanservice kind of thing, but the races need to be more varied for it to be a truly unique thing. It just shows the bias the company has.
Played I-IV, and this still doesn't seem different enough. I was hoping the developers would have the same thought that I did after playing IV- that a true marriage of overworld and labyrinth could have great potential (like the old Bards Tale games), but not so much.
Sad about no air/sea/land voyaging in V. Would feel better if they made Untold III.
The airship was a neat trick, but I'm glad it's not becoming a staple.
@Expa0 it's Famitsu, that's kinda what they do, they cover all games.
Besides, I'm surprised you haven't seen that guy already, it's all over the Internet.
I liked the overworld in EOIV, but it wasn't really integral to the game experience (honestly it was mostly just avoiding big monsters in between labyrinths and hoping you had a certain item if you happened to run into a trader). What I really would like to see in the franchise going forward are overworlds that function more like the mazes, with more puzzle elements and encounters.
@MetalKingShield but aren't Untold basicaly rebalanced remakes for 3ds?
@Dave24 - Yes, they're remakes (and very good for the most part), but the balancing is very different. Certain moves have been made less powerful, which were pretty essential in the originals, and post-game bosses have more HP. It generally feels like your luck has to last longer, which makes them more frustrating than the originals at certain points.
Cannot wait for EO5!
The Etrian titles are the secret superstars of the DS/3DS era.
As long as EOV isn't overburdened with story and voice acting to the point where it's the secret Untold 3 and isn't a literal picnic in difficulty (although I'd accept the setting being there), I don't care about the teensy step backward in not having overworld travel.
Just give me lots of grinding, map-making, and weird things to click that always backfire and I'm happy!
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