One of the main reasons I got myself a DS is the rich selection of unique role-playing games like Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey series. Its map-making feature and challenging gameplay are something I am really looking forward to. With only two months to go before its Japanese release (I will wait for the yet-to-be-announced US version though), let’s see what’s new in the third game of the series, Sekaiju no Meikyuu III: Seikai no Raihousha (my rough translation: Etrian Odyssey III: Visitors From Star Ocean). This article is based on all the Weekly Famitsu reports so far, including comments from the developers.

If you’re like me, new to the Etrian Odyssey series, the game lets you form a party of five members, march deep into dungeons which you create (using a Paint-like interface with icons for various tools) as you move forward. Leveling up, something we’ll spend plenty of our time in the game, will have different effects depending on your job class, which make it important to set-up your party accordingly. It also worth mentioning that the previous games have been hard and this don’t seem to be any different.

Story

The story takes place at a port city called Amorode, home to the most advanced civilization hundreds of years ago but thanks to a devastating earthquake, the heart of the city, along with its advanced technology, submerged deep into the sea. The sunken city became a giant dungeon itself and people have been trying to enter it to either look for the lost technology or the rich treasures.

Once inside the dungeon, there will be gimmicks and scenarios waiting for the players as usual. You also meet other NPCs here, helping them solving their problems may give you useful information or items. However, it’s not traps and enemies everywhere, there are safe spots (represented by a camp icon in the mapping tools) for players to rest as well.

Voyage

Besides the dungeon, players can travel around Amorode and its surrounding this time to uncover new islands, living things or treasures. The map-making tools have been expanded to include items like island, sea, skull and currents for this new feature. Director Shigeo Komori (writer for the first game, director for Sekaiju no Meikyuu II) says that sea is the unique element of the new game for fans of the series, after using forest and sky for previous two games. “Anything that can happen on sea will be the fun part of Sekaiju no Meikyuu III. Fishing, fighting the pirates and helping NPC eliminating monsters will give players plenty of ways to play the game.” he adds.

The three main type of goals for Voyage are “sea-mapping”, fishing and searching for trading cities or shrines. Players can equip their ships with various items and set the number of days they want to sail, which will affect the number of items they will received from the voyage. Voyage is also where you can set-up the 5-player co-op mode called Daikokai Quest (direct translation: Great Navigation Quest) Mode in which you and your friends can take down powerful monsters in the sea together. You can also challenge these multiplayer quests alone.

Komori also shares some details on the origins of the series, which he says is a re-interpretation of the Table RPG genre and inspired by Wizardry. If you are the type of player who are looking for these forgotten elements, then Sekaiju no Meikyuu III is for you according to him.

Characters

As mentioned above, character’s growth will be different depending on his/her job class. Series illustrator Yuji Himukai have revamp his own character design for Sekaiju no Meikyuu III. This is part of the efforts to make the characters more standalone but won’t look too out of place even when put together with characters from previous games. Himukai suggests players blank their mind and pick their members based on their gut feelings. He also mentions that the number of NPCs have been increased and they have more colorful characteristics.

Click on the thumbnails to view the illustration and brief information on their abilities.

Monsters

Shin Nagasawa, who also designed the monster in Final Fantasy IX, says he pay more attention to the kind of impression that players will get from the tiny monsters on screen. “I will be really happy if players feels that these monsters really belong to the world they are in. The movements of F.O.E (Field On Enemy, special and more powerful monsters for each level in the game), also matches their environments.” “This will be the most monsters featured in a game for the series and each level of monsters have been given their own characteristics.” he says.

Sure-chigai Tsuushin

A feature made popular by Dragon Quest IX: Hoshizora no Mamoribito, Sure-chigai Tsuushin allows you to get special items by turning on your DS when not playing. In Sekaiju no Meikyuu III, besides special items, you can also exchange Guild Card with others to show off your achievement in the game.

Music

Yuzo Koshiro, the composer of the game (and also of the Ys series and Arc Raisers), has remade the BGM of the game to make them nice to hear even from the speaker of the DS. There will be a few new BGM created for the latest game and he think those musics behind the boss fights will be memorable. Sekaiju no Meikyuu III will be more like the first game where there are little piano sounds with most of the music created directly using DS’s sound source, which is harder to do but he think the efforts will be worthwhile since it’s easier to make memorable tunes this way.

Sekaiju no Meikyuu III: Seikai no Raihousha will be released in Japan this April 1st, Atlus are yet to announced the English version. Importers can check out Play-Asia for pre-order, which costs $59.90.

Posted in News on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 4:24 pm | Tags atlus etrian odyssey famitsu interview rpg sekaiju no meikyuu
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