Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City is a dungeon-crawling RPG developed by Atlus and released for Nintendo DS in September 2010. In it players take control of an adventurer's guild in the island city of Armoroad. Players create the members of their guild from scratch, choosing a party of five from twelve different character classes. After creating a team, players have two major options. One is to explore the labyrinth that extends beneath Armoroad, rumored to be the remains of an ancient city sent under by a terrible earthquake. The other is to obtain a boat and begin exploring the ocean surrounding Armoroad and beyond. Both of these have the player creating and maintaining their own personal map of the area, one of the trademarks of the series.

Players explore the labyrinth in a first-person view, and are periodically attacked by groups of monsters. Battles are turn based and players control their characters using a series of menus. Depending on the classes of their characters and the player's allocations of level-up points, the party can be customized carefully to deal with various obstacles and tweaked to reach specific goals.

The Drowned City has many educational strengths. Player creativity is probably the biggest. The player's guild can be tailored in a huge number of ways; character classes are all markedly different, and complex skill trees force the player to customize each character individually. The game's mapping system is also hugely important. Players will quickly find themselves jotting notes, marking shortcuts, rest areas and resources on the grid of each huge floor, which is always present on the DS' bottom screen.

Classroom Facts

Maps are a huge element of The Drowned City. As players explore each huge floor of the dungeon, the DS bottom screen acts as grid paper for players to mark down their discoveries. As the party moves through the dungeon the route they've taken is filled in, but players are in charge of drawing in walls, marking treasure chests, characters, harvesting points, shortcuts and other oddities. Players can place a variety of icons on the map as well as tags on any square, in which they can jot notes about whatever they want. Exploring and sidequests all reward the player for mapping each area carefully.

Math is also an important part of the game. The game's difficulty means that stats, levels, experience points, skill points and money all need to be watched with a careful eye all the time.

Creativity & Imagination

By the Player:

The player's guild is defined by the party members that the player creates at the beginning of the game, and the range of options is pretty overwhelming. Players build a party of five from twelve different character classes, each with its own unique skill trees and abilities. The build of this party changes as characters level up and players allocate earned skill points, defining each character further. The paths players choose for their characters will decide the party's limitations when exploring, though the guild can hold a total of 30 characters which can be swapped out to match specific obstacles. Weapons and armor can be customized on each character, and individual items can also be forged to add specific strengths.

The game's map system gives players total control, and the complex, maze-like floors of the dungeon demand meticulous detail from players that want to find every secret. Exploring at sea allows players to explore in a different way, gradually sailing further and further from Armoroad as they discover islands, new items and other surprises on each expedition. Mapping is an integral part of oceanic adventures, too.

The Drowned City doesn't hold the player's hand at all and, while it can be daunting, players that keep detailed maps and enjoy experimenting with their characters may find themselves engrossed.

By the Developer:

The Drowned City is still a hardcore dungeon-crawling RPG, but it makes significant changes over the previous entries in the series. The biggest change is the total revamping of character classes, though this won't be noticed by players new to the series. The new sailing system is a welcome addition, giving players a new area to explore when diving repeatedly into the dungeon becomes too daunting. The game's art style and soundtrack are both extremely well done, giving the game its own confident style.

It's the game's focus on exploration that sets it apart from its peers. Combat and character customization are huge elements, and indeed are probably at least as deep here as in an average RPG, but it is the careful mapping out of floors of the dungeon and the numerous secrets that each one holds that will keep players engrossed.

Business Skills

Players collect items after defeating enemies, and these can be sold back in town for small amounts of money. Money is hard to come by and extremely useful. New weapons and armor are the most obvious necessity, but money also needs to be spent in order to head out to sea, with each expedition costing a certain amount based on the equipment brought along. Seafaring can also be lucrative, though, if players choose to focus on fishing.

Players can gather at mining and chopping points in the dungeon, although in order to do so players will need to have characters with skill points in the corresponding abilities. Players can also choose to assign characters to the farmer class, which can give various benefits when it comes to gathering resources in the dungeon.
Players can decide which way to focus on making money and how much to focus their guild towards it over the course of the game, giving it an interesting balance.

People Skills

Etrian Odyssey III is mostly a single-player experience. It doesn't focus on an overarching plot; the main story is that the player's guild is exploring the dungeon and sea that surround Armoroad. Small stories and quests constantly pop up, and eventually players start to uncover the story behind the dungeon, but the characters the player interacts with most are the members of the guild. These characters never talk with one another, but they develop personalities as they step out to stop the party from walking into traps or volunteer to dive for treasure on a voyage.

Players can tackle certain missions as a team of up to five players. This requires very careful coordination, as most of these missions involve defeating a powerful boss enemy. Only local multiplayer is available.

Problem Solving

Exploration and survival are the player's biggest goals, and they often go hand in hand. When players reach a new floor of the dungeon they enter blind, their new map starting as a tiny square on the bottom screen. As players begin mapping out the floor their party will need to deal with mysterious traps and plenty of new monsters. As players get their bearings on each floor, they learn how to deal with the various enemies and uncover short cuts, areas to rest, valuable resource points and more.

The enemies are easily the biggest threat; the game tends to be very difficult, and the exact build of the player's party determines what kind of threats it can deal with easily. Players need to manage their resources and the hit points of their party carefully in order to make it out of the dungeon alive, particularly as floors start to carry dangerous boss monsters that wander the map and guard certain areas.

Sailing places the same emphasis on exploration, but removes combat, allowing players to simply sail around, discovering new islands and hopefully making some money in the process.

Simulation

The Drowned City is not a simulation game.

Popularity

The Drowned City has been fairly well received. The general consensus seems to be that the game is deep, challenging and rewarding, but that its complexity may limit its appeal among more casual players.

Controls & Options

The Drowned City contains standard audio and control options.

Tips

Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City received an E10+ from the ESRB with descriptors for Alcohol and Tobacco Reference, Language, Mild Fantasy Violence and Suggestive Themes.