Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City

[A Black Falcon]

Well, sort of. The first game is pretty mostly storyless for over three quarters of the way through, it's been said that the plot twist sort of is that there is one, which is true... but yeah, it does take a turn near the end. I mentioned that in my first post, though.

... I want to say things, but all of them are spoilers, so I don't know if I should...

Gameplay-wise, though, yes, EO3 is very much like the first game. There are changes as I say, such as how all of the classes are new, the ocean exploration mode, gameplay and balance changes, new icons for mapmaking, etc., but the core of the game is quite recognizable from EO1, yes. It's just as great, addictive, and fun as that game was. :)

I played a lot of the first game, got to floor 30. The final boss is at floor 25, but then there's a bonus stratum below that. I didn't finish the bonus stratum because you had to go back and beat three incredibly difficult bosses before you'd be allowed to fight the bonus final boss, and those three bosses were too hard. I'd probably need a high-level Protector to get past them, and I don't have one over level 35 or so, my main party didn't have a Protector in it. I didn't even have high level Refresh, also quite important.

So yeah, you can get to the end, and then learn that to beat the bonus boss you need to do a gigantic mountain of many hours of grind before you can get through the door. I couldn't quite get myself to do it, so I ended up stopping there pretty much. But still, it was a really good game, one of my favorites on the DS for sure. And as for EO3 I'm definitely already loving it. :)