By Atlus had a couple big announcements this week during their NicoNico livestream, where we got to see a new collaboration title between Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon, along with the announcement of Etrian Odyssey V. Here’s some more information on the two.
Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon has the slogan “a character creation RPG that you can play a thousand times,” and the goal is to combine the addictive gameplay from both series.
The first thing you might notice is how the interface and character customization system looks straight out of Etrian Odyssey, where you’ll get to recruit various characters and make your own party consisting of your favorite job classes.
As far as the roguelike action goes, it has the distinct Mystery Dungeon look and feel to it; however, it also has some Etrian Odyssey traits when it comes to strategies. For example; your group travels in formation, so you can place party members in different positions. Tanks will often be placed on the frontline while healers and mages would probably be better off in the back.
During the demonstration, Atlus showed how monsters can easily blast characters across to the opposite side of the map, which can shake up your formations, and will be some of the challenges players will face in the upcoming game.
As far as key developers go, Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon is produced by Shigeo Komori, with Yukari Yokoro as the director on Atlus’ side. Spike Chunsoft’s Seiichiro Nagahata will serve as the project director and Kaoru Hasegawa as the character designer.
Etrian Odyssey composer Yuzo Koshiro is in charge of the sound, with Yuji Himukai on class designs, Shin Nagasawa on monster designs, and finally, Nizo Yamamoto as the art supervisor.
While details are still vague on Etrian Odyssey V, the official website lists that Shigeo Komori will be the director, character designs by Yuji Himukai, Yuzo Koshiro as the composer, and monster designs by Shin Nagasawa.
Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon will release in Japan on March 5, 2015 for Nintendo 3DS and Etrian Odyssey V is currently in development for an unannounced platform.
