Etrian Mystery Dungeon turns the Nintendo 3DS into a machine for one very specific kind of punishment: the dungeon that rearranges itself every time you walk in. Spike Chunsoft and Atlus developed the game, a crossover between Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey series and Spike Chunsoft’s Mystery Dungeon series. Atlus published it in Japan on March 5, 2015, and Atlus USA brought it to North America on April 7. NIS America handled Europe on September 11.
Trailer, via Official ATLUS West.
Aslarga and the Amber Yggdrasil
The setting is Aslarga, a mountain village that survives on adventurers. The town sits beneath the Amber Yggdrasil, and its economy runs on the steady stream of fortune hunters drawn by the mystery dungeons scattered around it. The dungeons twist like an anthill and change shape on every entry, so no two runs play the same.
Aslarga backs its adventurers with real infrastructure. The Guildmaster gives lessons in exploration. Laborers build forts inside the dungeons that serve as front-line bases. The town provost has a reason for all this generosity, and he states it plainly: “To Prepare for the day of Reckoning…”
That line does a lot of work. It reframes the whole game. You are not exploring for loot alone. Something is coming.
Four Classes, One Leader
Etrian Mystery Dungeon borrows its character system from Etrian Odyssey and its dungeon crawling from Mystery Dungeon. You build a party of custom characters, pick their classes, and customize them through Etrian-style skill trees. Up to four members go into the dungeon at once.
Only the party leader is under direct control. Everyone else follows, attacking enemies and providing support on their own. The classes define the roles:
- Protector: high defense, pulls enemy attention away from the rest of the party
- Medic: heals and revives wounded characters
- Gunner: ranged attacks, and can “bind” enemy body parts to stop them moving or attacking
Combat is turn-based in the strictest sense. Every action costs a turn — moving one space on the map, attacking, using an item. Enemies move and attack on their turns too. Out of combat, each turn regenerates a little health and raises hunger. The dungeon charges you for every step.
D.O.E.s and the Fortress Rescue
Death is expensive. A game over sends the party back to town, and you lose all your in-game money and items. The one escape hatch is the fort. If you have built a defended fortress in the dungeon, you can lead characters out from it toward the fallen party and attempt a rescue.
Then there are the D.O.E.s. These enemies are far stronger than anything else in the dungeon, and they do not stay put. They try to escape the dungeon and attack the town outside. A roguelike where the monsters can walk out of the maze and come for your hub is a genuinely good idea, and it gives every floor a clock.
Release Schedule
| Region | Publisher | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Japan | Atlus | March 5, 2015 |
| North America | Atlus USA | April 7, 2015 |
| Europe | NIS America | September 11, 2015 |
A sequel, Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2, followed in Japan on August 31, 2017.
Where It Lands
The crossover works because the two halves need each other. Etrian Odyssey supplies the party and the skill trees; Mystery Dungeon supplies the random floors. Neither is decoration. The randomized dungeons keep the Etrian classes from becoming a solved spreadsheet, and the class system gives the random floors something to push against.
The turn economy is the part that will decide whether you stay. Every step is a decision, and hunger means you cannot simply grind a floor clean. That is the design doing its job.
The follower AI is the weak point. Handing three of your four characters to the computer is a real concession, and it sits badly next to a skill tree that invites you to care about each build. You spend time crafting a Gunner’s bind setup and then watch the game run her.
The D.O.E. system is the best thing here. It gives the town a stake in the dungeon and turns a strong enemy into a threat with a destination. Aslarga’s provost is preparing for a reckoning, and the game makes you prepare too.
Eleven years on, Etrian Mystery Dungeon reads as a clean, hard-edged experiment rather than a classic. It is not the deepest Etrian game and not the most elegant Mystery Dungeon game, but it is the only place where the two fit together this tightly. The 3DS library is full of RPGs that ask for your time; this one asks for your attention instead.
It holds a 7.8 out of 10 on the IGDB critic aggregate, drawn from 7 outlets — a score that flatters the follower AI and undersells the D.O.E. system.
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