Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl

Overview

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl (Shin Sekaiju no Meikyuu: Millennium no Shoujo) is a 3DS remake of the original Etrian Odyssey. The remake takes several experimental steps for the franchise, as it is the first to include a pre-set party of named characters rather than a player-customized party line-up. Additionally, the remake has a greater emphasis on story than past entries. It is also the first Etrian Odyssey game to feature voice acting.

In addition to the new features, the game also features a classic mode in which the player is able to play using a custom party, similar to the original game. Players can switch between the original FM music and the new orchestrated arrangements at any time. Players can also choose between three difficulty levels, the default middle of which is analogous to the original game.

Gameplay

As in previous titles, exploration and combat is done in a first-person perspective. Players can now acquire a guild house where they are given access to two new features: Guildkeepers and Grimoire Stones. Overworld exploration and subclasses which are present in EOIII and EOIV is absent as the game retains its original roots but the classes' skill trees have been slightly changed.

The Guildkeeper

Your Guild House comes with a Guildkeeper, essentially a property manager and aide. Occasionally the Guildkeeper may: have requests that function as additional optional quests; present helpful items, such as health potions; and offer new "cocktails" that act as semi-permanent buffs for your party (such as an increase in HP for all; these buffs seem to last until you request a different cocktail).

Grimoire Stones

Grimoire Stones are equipment that allow their bearers to use skills from monsters or other classes that normally would not be available to them, reminiscent of the "skill borrowing" aspects of job systems found in Final Fantasy V, Bravely Default, and Final Fantasy Tactics. Grimoire Stones are obtained during battle and on occasion, though there are certain consumable items that greatly increase the chance of obtaining a Grimoire Stone in a battle. However, you can synthesize new ones out of existing ones in a process vaguely reminiscent of demon fusion in Shin Megami Tensei games.

Three stones are needed: The first provides the quantity of Skill Slots as well as the pool of selectable skills; the second provides more selectable skills; and the third bestows an equipment bonus on the new resulting stone. The player is then made to choose which skills the new stone is to inherit (it must be a subset of the available skills from stones One and Two; the number of skills chosen cannot exceed the number of skill slots available from stone One). Once this is done and the player initiates synthesis, three stones become a single new one. In this way, you're able to--for example--equip a melee character with healing spells.

Battle Formation

A staple of the Etrian Odyssey series, battle formation--or rows--plays an important role in combat for both player and enemy sides. As the player, you may choose between formations that include three combatants in the front row and two combatants in the back row, or vice versa.

It goes further than simply reducing the damage dealt to physically weaker characters or enemies. Several combat abilities exist that buff, debuff, attack, or pierce through specific rows. There are attacks that are completely incapable of piercing through the front row, meaning that you need to clear out the front row to attack the rear, while strategizing with other techniques that can pierce. There are other attacks that affect an entire row.

Some examples:

- a Landsknecht's "Legion" attack slashes at an entire front row.

- gun weapons can attack both front and rear rows

Map Making

Another stable of the Etrian Odyssey series, this game allows you to carefully chart your progress with a multitude of tile colors and icons to mark different areas, doors, stairs, points of interest, et cetera. While you can also draw lines to represent walls and color in floor tiles to represent areas you've walked over, the game provides a mode that automatically takes care of these two tasks for you as you traverse. Even when enabled, however, the player must still manually place everything else (doors, stairs, etc.).

Notable available icons include:

- Resource-gathering points where the party can Take, Mine, and Chop raw materials to sell to Shilleka, the keeper of the item shop

- Stairwells, both up and down

- Doors

- One-way or two-way arrows to indicate hidden passages between walls or currents that force your progress in a direction

- Numbered icons to help you create a specific route

- Areas where you can recover

- Red X's and O's to mark areas of danger or important goals, respectively

- Generic "comment boxes" (adds a red corner to a tile) that allow you to tap in your own comment to communicate significance

Classes

The Millenium Girl features 11 classes overall in which 9 are readily available in classic mode while the last 2 are initially story-exclusive classes.