History VideoGame / EtrianOdyssey

* '''''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}}, 2007)
* '''''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIHeroesOfLagaard''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu II: Shoou no Seijai"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil II: Holy Grail of Kings''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}}, 2008)

* '''''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu III: Seikai no Raihousha"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil III: Visitors of the Starry Sea''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo DS}}, 2010)
* '''''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyIVLegendsOfTheTitan''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu IV: Denshou no Kyojin"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil IV: Legend of the Giant God''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2012)
* '''''Etrian Odyssey S: Eternal Conquerors''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu S: Yuukyu no Hasha"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil: Eternal Conquerors''" in Japan[[/note]] ([[UsefulNotes/AndroidGames Android]] & [[UsefulNotes/IOSGames iOS]], 2012 - [[DefunctOnlineVideoGames 2013]] JPN)
* '''''Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Shin Sekaiju no Meikyuu: Mireniamu no Shoujo"'', lit. "''New Labyrinth of Yggdrasil: Millennium Girl''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2013)
* '''''Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Shin Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2: Fafuniiru no Kishi"'', lit. "''New Labyrinth of Yggdrasil 2: Fafnir Knight''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2015)
* '''''Etrian Mystery Dungeon''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju to Fushigi no Dungeon"'', lit. "''Yggdrasil's Mysterious Dungeon''" in Japan[[/note]], a {{crossover}} with the ''VideoGame/MysteryDungeon'' series (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2015)
* '''''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyVBeyondTheMyth''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu V: Nagaki Shinwa no Hate"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil V: The End of the Long Myth''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2017)
* '''''Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2''''' [[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju to Fushigi no Dungeon 2"'', lit. "''Yggdrasil's Mysterious Dungeon 2''"[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2017 JPN)
* '''''VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyNexus'''''[[note]]Known as ''"Sekaiju no Meikyuu X"'', lit. "''Labyrinth of Yggdrasil Cross''" in Japan[[/note]] (UsefulNotes/{{Nintendo 3DS}}, 2019)
* '''''Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection''''' (UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, 2023), a collection of HD remasters of the first three games (also released individually).

* {{Retraux}}: The whole series came about because a certain game designer really wanted there to be ''VideoGame/DungeonMaster'' for the DS. Every aspect is lovingly oldschool, even down to the music, which was actually entirely composed on a UsefulNotes/PC88. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhXG1mho9-s Example from the third game.]] The soundtracks for ''Legends of the Titan'' onward avert this, using live instrumentation, but the Untold games feature the ability to switch the soundtrack with an FM version (available in ''Beyond the Myth'' as DLC), playing this trope straight once again.

* TruerToTheText: The ''Origins Collection'' remasters of the first three games are based on the DS originals rather than the 3DS remakes, and as such lack Story Mode and classes from later games, and much more of the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness was kept, such as enemies having still sprites instead of animated models, [=FOEs=] being represented as glowing balls rather than using the monsters' models while exploring, ''[=EO1=]'' Medic's Immunize protecting against all damage types rather than just elemental, and renaming characters costing a fee. However, these remakes do retain some quality-of-life changes like being able to review the Monstrous Codex mid-battle, multiple DifficultyLevels, and the skill point allotment interface being presented as a visual TechTree.

* NewWorkRecycledGraphics: The mobile game reuses a lot of assets from the first DS game, such as all the classes introduced there, lots of enemies, and even the first stratum is very reminiscent of Emerald Grove. It does however have a bunch of new non-playable characters and enemies, and the soundtrack and the other labyrinth's stratums are completely original.
* NonMaliciousMonster: For all their [[DemonicSpiders ruthlessness]], the majority of this series' monsters cannot be called downright ''evil'', even the F.O.Es. They are more like wild and territorial animals, for they never go out of their way to get out of the labyrinth and invade the nearby town. Very few actively seek to harm explorers out of sheer malice, such as the Blizzard King, and the Abyssal God with the Deep Ones.

* NonMaliciousMonster: For all their [[DemonicSpiders ruthlessness]], the majority of this series' monsters cannot be called downright ''evil'', even the F.O.Es. They are more like wild and territorial animals, for they never go out of their way to get out of the labyrinth and invade the nearby town. Very few actively seek to harm explorers out of downright malice, such as the Blizzard King, and the Abyssal God with the Deep Ones.

'''For the first game in the series, go [[VideoGame/EtrianOdysseyI here]].'''

According to the series' original scenario designer, Shigeo Komori, the series was inspired by retro dungeon crawler games, specifically ''VideoGame/DungeonMaster''. He lamented that no one made games like that anymore, and designed ''Etrian Odyssey'' in the hopes that it would catch enough interest to revive the genre. While the series wasn't an overnight success, the first game managed enough sales to warrant a sequel and by the time ''Etrian Odyssey IV'' rolled around, its first week sales in Japan pulled over 100,000 units. The series has become a sort of cult hit internationally, and is definitely one of Atlus' staple franchises at this point - to the point that [[VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth two Etrian-mechanics]][[VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth -inspired Persona games]], featuring the casts of the modern ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, were released in 2014 and 2018 (staggered worldwide, to boot). The series also has two themed {{crossover}} games within Creator/SpikeChunsoft's {{Roguelike}} ''VideoGame/MysteryDungeon'' [[note]]Fushigi no Dungeon[[/note]] franchise released in 2015 and 2017.

The series has a '''[[Characters/EtrianOdyssey character page]]''' that could use some work.

For similar games to compare and contrast, see the UrExample, ''VideoGame/{{Wizardry}}'', and/or the main-series ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'' games, including the spinoff ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney''. Also compare ''VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth'' and ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'', which are essentially ''Etrian'' games with a ''Persona'' spin on the visuals, settings and a few mechanics.

Also iconic are the infamous "F.O.E.s" ([[GratuitousLatin Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens]] or, in the Japanese version, [[FunWithAcronyms Field-On Enemy]]) -- [[DemonicSpiders ridiculously overpowered]] PreExistingEncounters that roam the dungeons. If the player collides with an F.O.E., combat begins with a monster that is usually [[BeefGate immensely more powerful than everything else on the level, and meant to be avoided until the player is much stronger]]. When there's a message to the effect of "you suddenly sense the presence of a powerful monster that will eat your face, maybe you should run," ''Etrian Odyssey'' '''means''' it. It's worth noting that each round of combat counts as a step for F.O.E. movement, so taking too long will allow them to sneak up on you and join in the fight. All of this is on top of the [[NintendoHard already significant difficulty]] of the rest of the game.

** In ''Legends of the Titan'' and ''Beyond The Myth'', two of the most useful [[LimitBreak Burst/Union]] skills are Analyze and Full Retreat. Analyze is available in the second Maze of ''EOIV'' and is available to all party members in ''EOV'', and is a simple EnemyScan technique, very useful for new enemies and especially bosses and [=FOEs=]. Full Retreat is initially available to all in both games and [[EscapeBattleTechnique gets you out of battle, back to the last stairs, entrance, or geomagnetic pole]], and can save the party in a pinch if they become severely crippled (though note that 3 party members who are alive and not with an incapacitation-inducing ailment need to participate) or end up in an FOE battle by mistake.

** ''Beyond The Myth'' starts with a climb by the Labyrinth of Yggdrasil [[spoiler:then takes a sharp jump into the upper atmosphere and then again into ''deep space'', where you fight something with Unicron- or Galactus-level world-consuming power]].

** The Necromancer class in ''Beyond The Myth''. All four portraits wear as little clothing as possible while still being able to claim being clothed.

** ''Beyond The Myth'' uses the blonde Fencer.

** ''Beyond The Myth'' takes it up to eleven with the Blade Dancer Masurao, who can use ''all four'' of their equipment slots for katanas, foregoing armor entirely. While they'll often die to random encounters several levels lower than them, a proper Blade Dancer setup can end boss battles in just a few turns.

** Gunners in ''Heroes of Lagaard'', ''The Fafnir Knight'' and ''Etrian Mystery Dungeon.''
** Dragoons in ''Beyond The Myth'', finally allowing a tanking class to attack effectively while tanking from the back row.

* TheMagnificent: When a character takes a PrestigeClass in ''Beyond The Myth'' they gain an epithet that can be chosen by the player. The same naming system can be used when a character takes on a subclass in ''Nexus''.

** ''Beyond The Myth'':

* PrestigeClass: In ''Beyond The Myth'', classes can pick a Legendary Name which lets them specialize in a particular area. For example, a Fencer can become a Phantom Duelist, which boosts their agility and allows them to function as an evasion tank, or a Chain Duelist, which gives them harder-hitting attacks and lets them better synergize with their party.

* AscendedGlitch: While the ''Origins Collection'' does include quality-of-life improvements from the 3DS titles and fixes some detrimentally coded skills and features, it retains some of the "bugs" that are beneficial to the player -- for instance, the lack of a failure check for the Survivalist's 1st Turn skill in the first game, or the RNG manipulation in the third game.

* BlackoutBasement:
** A few areas on the second and third floors of the Hall of Darkness in ''Legends of the Titan'' feature pitch black rooms with teleporter traps on the floor. [[spoiler:In actuality, the safe places to walk coincide with the patches of poison on the floor in the adjacent rooms.]]
** The 27th floor of ''The Millennium Girl'' has very poor visibility, only allowing you to see a maximum of one square ahead (as opposed to three or four, usually). It's also dotted with pitfalls that plunge you into the floor below, and that's lined with damage tiles to give you a hard time on the way back up. The floor has several torches that can deal with the poor visibility, but lighting them also attracts the attention of nearby [=FOEs=].
* BlatantLies:
** If you use the password system in ''Heroes of Lagaard'', it's stated multiple times that [[spoiler:your guild saved Etria. This is completely false, as your guild ''killed'' their Yggdrasil by killing the only thing keeping it alive, and potentially turned it into a ghost town. Though this was fixed with ''The Millennium Girl'', as Etria's Yggdrasil (as well as Gungnir) would have wiped a large portion of civilization off the map if your party hadn't intervened.]]
** ''The Millennium Girl'':
*** The bear F.O.E.s in the fifth stratum are weaker than the mantis on the same floor, according to the minimap. The bears also have a random, heavy-hitting attack that can wipe out your party in a single turn, even with buffs and debuffs added, which is far more than a mantis can do.
*** Some skills have deceiving descriptions. For example, Stone Gleam says it targets a line, while it really only targets a single person/enemy. Forest Barrier reduces defense and Forest Breach reduces attack, despite the names making more sense the other way around. When the party healing skill Salve is at level 9, the "next level" descriptor in the Custom screen says it will target all '''enemies''' at level 10. Allied Bonds says it recovers HP when party members in the same line sacrifice their HP, but it actually recovers '''T'''P. The Landsknecht skill "Recover" says it can remove binds off of an ally when, in fact, it only affects ''the user''. The text in cutscenes also occasionally has typos.
*** There are a few Grimoire effects guilty of this as well. One such notable example says that new Grimoire Stones will be at double the level of the original... but it actually increases the level of abilities on equipped Grimoire Stones by 2.

* BonusFeatureFailure: ''Beyond the Myth'' has DLC that offers new portrait options. Unfortunately, these DLC portraits, like the ones that are part of the base game, can only be used on new characters and "apprentice" characters that replace retired characters. This can come off as a screw-you to those who downloaded the demo and worked hard to get their characters to the demo's level cap of 10. This was corrected in ''Nexus'', in which you can change your characters' portraits at any time.
* BookEnds:
** ''Beyond the Myth'''s first boss and final postgame boss both open their fights by selfdestructing with the rest of the fight revolving around not permitting them to fully reform due to the threat of having to survive the attack again.
** In a roundabout way, with ''Nexus'' being the last game in Nintendo handhelds (DS and [=3DS=]): The very first true boss you fight in ''Etrian Odyssey'' is named Fenrir, while the very last boss you fight in ''Nexus'' is named Jormungandr. Both entities are named after two of Loki's children in Myth/NorseMythology.

According to the series' original scenario designer, Shigeo Komori, the series was inspired by retro dungeon crawler games, specifically ''VideoGame/DungeonMaster''. He lamented that no one made games like that anymore, and designed ''Etrian Odyssey'' in the hopes that it would catch enough interest to revive the genre. While the series wasn't an overnight success, the first game managed enough sales to warrant a sequel and by the time ''Etrian Odyssey IV'' rolled around, its first week sales in Japan pulled over 100,000 units. The series has become a sort of cult hit internationally, and is definitely one of Atlus' staple franchises at this point - to the point that [[VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth two Etrian-mechanics]][[VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth -inspired Persona games]], featuring the casts of the modern ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, were released in 2014 and 2018 (staggered worldwide, to boot). The series also has two themed {{crossover}} games within Creator/SpikeChunsoft's {{Roguelike}} ''VideoGame/MysteriousDungeon'' [[note]]Fushigi no Dungeon[[/note]] franchise released in 2015 and 2017.

According to the series' original scenario designer, Shigeo Komori, the series was inspired by retro dungeon crawler games, specifically ''VideoGame/DungeonMaster''. He lamented that no one made games like that anymore, and designed ''Etrian Odyssey'' in the hopes that it would catch enough interest to revive the genre. While the series wasn't an overnight success, the first game managed enough sales to warrant a sequel and by the time ''Etrian Odyssey IV'' rolled around, its first week sales in Japan pulled over 100,000 units. The series has become a sort of cult hit internationally, and is definitely one of Atlus' staple franchises at this point - to the point that [[VideoGame/PersonaQShadowOfTheLabyrinth two Etrian-mechanics]][[VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth -inspired Persona games]], featuring the casts of the modern ''Franchise/{{Persona}}'' games, were released in 2014 and 2018 (staggered worldwide, to boot). The series also has two themed {{crossover}} games within Creator/SpikeChunsoft's {{Roguelike}} ''Mysterious Dungeon'' [[note]]Fushigi no Dungeon[[/note]] franchise released in 2015 and 2017.

* TheseusShipParadox: Even if you completely replace all of your starting guild members with new ones (be it through the Retire mechanic (especially in ''Etrian Odyseey II'' for the raised level caps) or recruiting completely fresh characters, your guild is still treated as the same one.

** The first two games have an extremely strict [[CharacterNameLimits character limit]] of just eight symbols for not just party members, but enemies, items, and skills as well. This lead to a lot of names being shortened (Corotrangul and Iwaoropenelep becoming Cotrangl and Iwaopeln, Artelinde's name having the "e" lopped off the end), localized differently (Flame Demon to Hellion, Hecatoncheires to Briareus), or otherwise worked around (Wilhelm is only referred to as Der Freischutz in the Japanese text, but received a shorter real name in the localization). Name limits were lengthened starting with '"The Drowned City'' and these were adjusted as a result; shortened names were restored to their original lengths for future games, and the ''Untold'' remakes (though not the HD remasters) would re-localize fully changed names with a few exceptions such as [[spoiler:Etreant]].

** The mapping function has been constantly developed the series progresses. The first game's mapping system was very limited, giving you all of 10 icons and the basic map-drawing tools; there wasn't even a shortcut icon. The second game dramatically improves on this with additional tile colors and 21 icons, and every subsequent game keeps expanding on it. The HD remakes of the first three games averts this with a modern mapping system.

** Appears in ''Heroes of Lagaard'' as a quest, which requires you to spend three consecutive days on the fourth floor. Unfortunately, there's no safe zone like in ''Etrian Odyssey''.

** Completing a mission or a quest will reward the current party with some EXP.

* BarrierWarrior: Protectors and Fortresses, while mainly acting as StoneWall, have skills that can completely block certain elemental attacks or improve defense for the entire party. In ''The Drowned City'', several classes have the ability to put up barriers (which, if barriers are necessary to begin with, will likely be all they do for the entire battle).

* BerserkButton: Several enemies behave like this. Most notably, the Iron Crabs found in the deepest floor of the labyrinth in ''The Millennium Girl'' will not do anything until one of its allies is killed, upon which it will constantly unleash a powerful attack that can level even the strongest parties.

** The Charging Rhino responds to a head bind by using the unstoppable Do or Die, which heals itself for almost half its max HP and buffs its physical attack.
** A full-strength Lava Beast will, after taking Ice damage, use Waterproof Fire, which heals for about ''75% of its max HP'' on top of making its elemental attacks stronger.

** In games with subclassing, one of the best subclasses to have is the Protector, or whatever is the equivalent "tank" class in the game you're currently playing. This allows your character to equip a shield, dramatically improving their defense more than most armor can and often giving them access to shield-based passives that can further bolster their survivability.
** Sometimes a subclass is taken not for their active skills, but for their passives. This is especially true if the main class's skills are so skill point intensive that there aren't a lot of excess skill points to invest elsewhere. Passives can strengthen what's already available for minimal requirement and investment.

** The reward for a quest can sometimes give away the true nature of a particular quest. If, for example, you're looking at what appears to be a simple "investigate this phenomenon" quest, but the reward is a lot of ental (usually around 30,000), you're quite likely looking at a {{Superboss}} quest.

* InterfaceSpoiler: Other players' Guild Cards in the 3DS games make it painfully obvious what a particular stratum looks like and what it's named (due to the AchievementSystem) even if you haven't reached it yourself yet.

** Opening all the treasure chests in ''The Drowned City''. One of them is behind a door that can only be opened in the true ending, and all chests reset (except for the ones that have coupons in them) upon choosing new game plus.

** Tthe HD remaster of ''The Drowned City'' changed the Princs/Princess' name to Sovereign (to match the 3DS entries' localization), which defeats the whole purpose of the first example listed, because there is already another class whose name starts with an "S"; the Shoguns.