The Etrian Odyssey series and I had a bit of an unexpected romance - kjorteo spoke highly of them for years, and even through his enthusiasm, I remained convinced that the old-style dungeon mapping style of game just wasn't for me. But when it came to needing a long and involving game to keep me occupied during a journey to California, I took a risk on the then newly released Etrian Odyssey 3, and found myself absolutely falling in love with it for a few reasons:

1. It quickly revealed itself to be a really lovingly designed interpretation of a genre that I had previously hated, adjusting away the elements that I didn't like and providing a huge sense of intrigue at exploration, achievement at striving for a continuous stream of ever-advancing goals and a minimalism of storytelling that paradoxically made you grow hugely attached to your collection of characters as you built a story and experience that were unique and personally special to you,


2. It had loads of tits in it.

So when ravenworks told me that a demo of the fourth game had been released, I couldn't wait to explore a new generation of the series. After touring the new variation on the series' staple town template (which must by law contain precisely one inn, shop, bar, guild, port and town hall) I eagerly created a brand new adventuring party from a selection of characters who weren't quite as underdressed as the ones in Etrian Odyssey 3 (but they kept the tradition of being more difficult to tell apart in gender than most caterpillars) and I set off for the Labyrinth.


And there wasn't one.

The layout of the game has been completely changed, and most shockingly, the series' iconic "strata" have been abolished - instead, it's surprisingly like an idea for a game that I had shortly after starting Etrian Odyssey 3, where you would have to venture across an overworld and find separate dungeons within that rather than having one single linear path to the bottom of the game. This time, stepping out of the city sends you off in a hot air balloon (mine is called the Murderbeak, for reasons that seemed perfectly good at half past midnight) and you can gently drift around the landscape finding "caves" which are like miniature one-floor mazes, or the larger levels which hold the keys to progress in the game. This overworld effectively ties the ocean voyages from the first game in with the dungeon exploration, and it also holds some extra game elements like being able to winch up fish, buffalo and carrots from the surface below and use them as food that gives you boosts to your statistics for your current journey.

After about an hour and a half, then, I found the first true level, and the dungeon exploration itself is very familiar - disconcertingly you start off with no map, but this element is quickly re-introduced along with a couple of changes to the familiar environment. FOEs are now shown in their full terrifying polygonal glory rather than being represented as abstract menacing suns, and while you still can't see most gameplay elements until you're right on top of them and a "Talk" or "Examine" prompt appears in the top right of your screen, it feels like there's a bit more variety in the scenery that you encounter. Surprisingly, despite the hardware upgrade, the frame rate of exploration is noticeably lower than it was in the previous games, and I had to turn the 3D effect off to save my eyes fairly quickly.

Other things have been adjusted just to make them a little nicer, even the parts that you didn't realize could be improved - the addition of a thumb stick makes scrolling the map much less awkward, and you can now almost-freelook around with it as well. The new skill customization screen will make your eyes pop out at first until you realize that it's the same as the old one but laid out better - the technology trees look formidable, but there are only seven classes available from the outset this time around. The limit on the number of resource gatherings you can perform is now attached to gather points rather than your party, which makes the existence of multiple ones per floor make much more sense. And it's just... a little friendlier to you without being patronizing, in things like now actually warning you if you're about to sell an item that would complete a quest if used elsewhere.


Like all good demos, it lasts precisely long enough to be irritating when it stops - your characters are limited in growth to level 10 and it's full of polite little notices saying things like "This place is off limits in the demo - thank you for your understanding" as if it's a closed fish and chip shop. But after fighting my way down to the end of the first floor of the first level... I'm more eager than ever to keep going.