Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City (USA) DS ROM

Review by LordZemus:

The 3rd and final installment before jumping to the 3DS, and the best of the three. Again, you play as a group of explorers who go explore the Yggdrasil Labyrinth in the city of Armoroad, but this time new game mechanics have been introduced that improve the gameplay greatly, surpassing its predecessors.

The game

1- Still the same : explore, discover, slay monsters… the formula doesn’t change, but that doesn’t keep it from being fun and entertaining nontheless.And F.O.E. are still here, and this time they give XP.

2- Travel across the seas ; you will be given a ship to travel the sea, where you can discover new lands, treasures and repeatable quests where you face formidable optional bosses( exploit them to rack money and XP ) .

3- Limit skills instead of focus ; the previous games allowed you to focus and attack with more strength, this has been exchanged for limit skills that link characters together and unleash unique skills such as Mumyoken, a random multiple slash attack or Hellfire, a heavy magic fire attack, among others.
4- Entire new cast of classes to choose from and 2 unlockable ones ( some classes mirror the functions of previous classes, but with their own pros and cons, for example the medic is now the monk class, who can heal and go on offence, unlike the previous medics ) If you reach a determined point in the game you will be able to sub-class, that is, to add the skills and weapon proficiency of one class to another : bored of your hoplite spear skills you never use? Sub-class him/her as a Gladiator to hit harder and be able to use maces.

5- The quests at the bar still cannot be repeated, but now they give tons of XP for completing them (ideal for training new members)

Of the three, this is the best Etrian Odyssey before jumping to 3DS ; while not changing the basic concept or lowering the difficulty, they enhanced the gameplay a lot with these additional features that spice up things quite a lot. But be warned as this entry is the only one in the entire series to feature 3 different endings (2 easy to get and a 3rd tricky one that requires you to select very specific answers when talking to NPCs, here is a hint to not spoil you the story : all these answers are before being able to subclass, so play and finish the game as normal and then on your 2nd or 3rd play trough look for the answers, it has new game plus unlike the others).