Etrian Odyssey Director’s Diary (2016)

I really love the Etrian Odyssey games, and I think it's interesting to read the director's thought process in terms of design. Never before had I played a 3D Dungeon Crawler (Wizardry type) game. It was a strange experience at first, and an especially frustrating one. This game is extremely unforgiving, trying to push that last bit of your party's health to explore as much as possible. And then you make a fatal mistake, get too greedy, or maybe a bit unlucky, and lose all your progress since you last entered the dungeon. Later iterations of the game seem to be less difficult, though still challenging. Since playing Etrian Odyssey, I've started playing other games like the old Wizardry games and Legend of Grimrock.

Reading this is very inspiring. I'm also into game development and want to create an (online) RPG for "tired veteran MMO players". I belong to the generation of highschoolers that spent their free time playing MMORPGs like Final Fantasy XI, World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars, when they just came out. I had so much free time back then, and the energy to stay up until 3AM on a school night just to get that special item. Fast forward 15 years, I still love the feeling of "progress" in games, but I just don't have to time to spend. The extra time that I do have I try to spend on other things that are important to me. I'd love a game which would give me the feeling of progress (especially the feeling of Final Fantasy XI), but doesn't require me to go back to my highschool past.

Everything was thought out, from the core mechanics of the game to how the player should feel and use their imagination. I honestly think Kazuya Niinou did a great job. Reading this diary really inspired me to continue my game development journey. I can spend time doing what I love, work to achieve my goal, and also improve my programming skill / knowledge.

When I talked to our marketing team, I told them I wanted to emphasize that Etrian is "the renewal of the 3D dungeon RPG." What I mean by that is that I hope the genre will thrive again, not just attract the same Wizardry fans.

I think you achieved your goal, thanks you!

Etrian Odyssey has some of the most satisfying "progress" feelings in RPGs I've ever experienced - getting to a new floor, building your parties skills, finally beating a tough boss.

Very interesting diaries, you can tell the director was very ambitious and the final product shows the amount of work put into the game

This is a good read for all software developers - it really transcends the particular game.

This man has put a tremendous amount of effort into user empathy, thinking deeply about how the user will interact with his game.

Imagine if we could put this amount of care into all the software we write. What a nice world it would be.

(It's also nice to read about the developer's hopes for Etrian Odyssey and similar games in the future. This game was released on 2007, and has since spawned a series of sequels and remakes. So.... we know that his efforts met with success!)

Etrian Odyssey is one of the only turned-based RPGs I ever really got into. The map-making and exploration really helped change things up and the battles were actually challenging - every floor advanced felt like a triumph. I'm really hoping they manage the transition to the Switch properly.

The first three entries easily are the best RPGs ever conceived, that do not rely on the story to be good. They rely on the gameplay. Fighting random enemies is fun, instead of a bother.