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Etrian Odyssey II WAS $12 at Amazon right the hell now (in U.S., 12/2 only)
Lunker
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EDIT: Now out of stock. 
I told you to buy it earlier!
Buy this
I swear that I'm not a shill for Amazon. What I am a shill for, though, is fucking awesome RPGs for dirt cheap. Amazon's Deal of the Day for Dec. 2 is Etrian Odyssey II for a measly $12—the regular retail price now is only $20, which is still cheap, but if you've been holding off for one reason or another, or you're looking for filler to get free shipping, this is perfect.
EO2 is probably my favorite original RPG from this year (yes, even accounting for TWEWY). Turn-based dungeon crawling, 12 different character classes to form a party of 5 custom-made heroes, pretty relentless difficulty (especially at the beginning), mapmaking using the touchscreen that's actually fairly compelling—it's got it all. Just ... buy it. It's the cost of going to the movies, and you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of this than seeing Four Christmases.
I told you to buy it earlier!Buy this
I swear that I'm not a shill for Amazon. What I am a shill for, though, is fucking awesome RPGs for dirt cheap. Amazon's Deal of the Day for Dec. 2 is Etrian Odyssey II for a measly $12—the regular retail price now is only $20, which is still cheap, but if you've been holding off for one reason or another, or you're looking for filler to get free shipping, this is perfect.
EO2 is probably my favorite original RPG from this year (yes, even accounting for TWEWY). Turn-based dungeon crawling, 12 different character classes to form a party of 5 custom-made heroes, pretty relentless difficulty (especially at the beginning), mapmaking using the touchscreen that's actually fairly compelling—it's got it all. Just ... buy it. It's the cost of going to the movies, and you'll get a lot more enjoyment out of this than seeing Four Christmases.
Etrian Odyssey II requires players to slowly make their way up the trunk of a massive magical tree in order to reach a floating castle at the top while completing smaller quests along the way. The tree is represented by a series of vertically-stacked levels which are explored one at a time with frequent return trips to town in order to rest and resupply.
In classic fashion, players navigate through the forest locales a single "step" at a time, moving and turning in fixed increments. Time passes only when an action is taken, causing movement, encounters, and combat to all be entirely turn-based. While randomly generated enemies cannot be spotted in advance, certain more powerful "FOEs" usually can be seen on the map and avoided if necessary. The game uses a first-person view to present the labyrinth using a combination of relatively simple 3D computer graphics for environments and single-frame 2D sprites for enemies.
Similar to early computer role-playing games that did not support automatic mapping, players of Etrian Odyssey II must maintain their own maps. This is done by using the stylus to manually fashion maps on the DS touchscreen, with whatever level of detail is desired. Periodic warp points allow players to escape the labyrinth in order to save the game, so being able to successfully return to these (with the assistance of an accurate map) can be quite important. When compared to the mapping system in the original Etrian Odyssey, there are now additional symbols which can be used and a setting which toggles whether the map automatically follows the player or not.
Featuring no pre-made characters, the title instead requires players to create their own from twelve different character types, each with at least one special skill or aptitude. While only five characters can be in the party at once, up to thirty can be created and kept in waiting back at the "guild hall". Characters can be switched in and out when in town, so if a given specialty is needed for a specific obstacle, the party can be tailored appropriately. The player further
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Not in the least—the story in both games is pretty minimalist and kind of off to the side. The plot to the first game is essentially "Bad dudes dive into a dungeon to see what's at the bottom," and the plot in the second game is essentially "Bad dudes climb up a tree with dungeons to see what's at the top." There's typical Atlus fluff and character designs but the meat is in the gameplay, which is very straight-up Bard's Tale/Wizardry.
I haven't come close to finishing either game—both games have 25 floors in their dungeons (not counting bonus stuff) and I got to maybe floor 18 in the first EO and floor 13 in EO2 so far. It's still really enjoyable; I think the main games are finishable in maybe 30 hours, but the postgame madness is really for the hardcore.
You definitely do not need to play EO I before EO II; but if you think you want to play them both, you should play EO I first. The second game makes some significant improvements to the interface, and it might be hard to go back from that.
EO2's isn't quite up to par of the first's, but the atmosphere and presentation is just as good if not better at times.
Also, lots more random events in the dungeons. This is probably a bad thing, since nine times out of ten, bad things happen if you don't avoid them.
Regardless, that's a criminal deal.
EO1 has 30 floors actually.
I came to my senses and stopped playing WoW and am finishing up EO1 this week (just killed Drake, Wyrm, and Dragon and I'm about to head to the big boss) and then starting on EO2 with the Town Medal. The box has been staring at me for months. Unfortunately I've been an idiot and decided that WoW is a good thing to spend my time on. Ugh. Never again.
Buy this. Now. SO worth it for some old school flavor.
Well it's not $12 anymore or else I might have.