History YMMV / EtrianOdysseyIIITheDrownedCity

* GoddamnedBoss: Narmer is the boss of the first stratum, and he's a pain to tackle. Whether it's his tendency to run away before you can even face him (even running away mid fight), hiding underground in hopes that your party cannot snuff him out, and his high damage AoE attacks, newer players will express frustration when trying to put him down. What keeps him from being ThatOneBoss is that, while he's annoying, he's not exactly hard. He can be ambushed, giving your party the first turn, and his mid-battle flee gives a prepared party the chance to heal before tackling his second phase. While a thorn between the ribs, Narmer's more of a nuisance than a threat.

** While the CoOpMultiplayer battles are an interesting concept, [[MisbegottenMultiplayerMode each player can add only one member of their guild to the party]]. The only way to have a full party is to either have five players together or use one of the variants that add [=NPCs=] to fill in the empty slots. Even then, the DS version's connectivity is restricted to local DS Wi-Fi; the HD remaster permits players from around the world to fight together, but there's no cross-platform or cross-region connectivity.

* ReplacementScrappy: When early info about ''The Drowned City'' was released, and fans learned the original classes wouldn't return, Gladiators were blasted as being generic and vastly inferior 'replacements' for the Dark Hunter class, despite players not knowing anything about it beyond the physical appearance of ''one'' representative. Even funnier when you finally found out that Gladiator is supposed to replace the ''Landsknecht'' instead. [[labelnote:note]]The Princess gets the Landsknecht's ability to equip heavy armor, while the Gladiator is a straight combatant; while their armor choices emulate Dark Hunters, they generally lack the ability to dole out status effects unless they invest in Stun Attack. But in turn, when compared to Landsknechts, both classes can specialize in two weapons: Sword and Axe/Hammer, and their sword skills rely on hitting as many enemies as possible, while their other weapon skill rely on hitting one enemy as hard as possible.[[/labelnote]] [[VindicatedByHistory Thankfully, this reaction died down over time and even reversed]], with the reuse of classes in ''Heroes of Lagaard'' [[CondemnedByHistory being considered a negative for that game]] and the lack of that in ''The Drowned City'' being a point of praise.

** While the CoOpMultiplayer battles are an interesting concept, [[MisbegottenMultiplayerMode each player can add only one member of their guild to the party]]. The only way to have a full party is to either have five players together or use one of the variants that add [=NPCs=] to fill in the empty slots.

* PlayerPunch: The storyline involving the Murotsumi Guild ends in tragedy, due to the selfishness and arrogance of its two members. And due to the game's emphasis on difficult choices, the player has to ''choose'' whether it's Agata or Hypatia that dies (if the players opts to abstain from interacting with them at all, neither character is seen anymore afterwards; considering their battered relationship, this either hints that they survive but part ways from each other, or implies that ''both'' die).

** If you've got a weapon that you want to strengthen via forging, you'll most likely defer to the ATK forge that you got near the beginning of the game. This forge offers a small boost to physical damage but it affects your skill damage too, while nearly every other forge applies its effects to just normal attacks, which become obsolete in the late game. The only time you don't want that forge... is when you're using a stat-boosting forge, like TEC for casters.

* ThatOneLevel: That One Stratum more like! The Fifth Stratum: Porcelain Forest has two gimmicks: sticky tiles that slow your movement like in the First Stratum, and the second and by far the ''most'' annoying is '''no radar'''. Certain sections of the map will not fill out regardless of your automap settings and you have no cursor, forcing you to keep careful track of wherever the hell you are without knowing which direction you're facing. Unless you keep track of where you're going, you will get turned out if not lost entirely.

* ComplacentGamingSyndrome: Most players default to siding with Armoroad at the mid-game route split, despite the Deep City path having somewhat easier exclusive bosses. The reason is the massive disparity in their unlockable classes: Armoroad's Shoguns have solid attacking and support skills despite their GlassCannon nature, can be used as a subclass for players not willing to grind/retire somebody, and possess the game-cheesing Warrior Might, whereas the Deep City's Yggdroids are ludicrously gimmicky and at their best don't do anything that other classes can't do better, on top of not being usable as a subclass.

* ReplacementScrappy: When early info about ''The Drowned City'' was released, and fans learned the original classes wouldn't return, Gladiators were blasted as being generic and vastly inferior 'replacements' for the Dark Hunter class, despite players not knowing anything about it beyond the physical appearance of ''one'' representative. Even funnier when you finally found out that Gladiator is supposed to replace the ''Landsknecht'' instead. [[labelnote:note]]The Princess gets the Landsknecht's ability to equip heavy armor, while the Gladiator is a straight combatant; while their armor choices emulate Dark Hunters, they generally lack the ability to dole out status effects unless they invest in Stun Attack. But in turn, when compared to Landsknechts, both classes can specialize in two weapons: Sword and Axe/Hammer, and their sword skills rely on hitting as many enemies as possible, while their other weapon skill rely on hitting one enemy as hard as possible.[[/labelnote]] Thankfully, this reaction died down over time and even reversed, with the reuse of classes in ''Heroes of Lagaard'' being considered a negative for that game and the lack of that in ''The Drowned City'' being a point of praise.

* GrowingTheBeard: The first ''Etrian Odyssey'' is a well-liked game but struggles with a lot of clunkiness and difficulty/balance issues, while ''Heroes of Lagaard'' is a MissionPackSequel that's equally fun but comes across as even less polished in some ways. '"The Drowned City'' smooths out much of the experience to the level that the rest of the series would follow, on top of a new roster of interesting classes, a greater amount of content due to the addition of sea exploration, and more focus on story elements and worldbuilding. It's typically seen as the point where the series started standing out on its own merits rather than just for being a dungeon crawler throwback.

* ReplacementScrappy: When early info about ''The Drowned City'' was released, and fans learned the original classes wouldn't return, Gladiators were blasted as being generic and vastly inferior 'replacements' for the Dark Hunter class, despite players not knowing anything about it beyond the physical appearance of ''one'' representative. Even funnier when you finally found out that Gladiator is supposed to replace the ''Landsknecht'' instead. [[labelnote:note]]The Princess gets the Landsknecht's ability to equip heavy armor, while the Gladiator is a straight combatant; while their armor choices emulate Dark Hunters, they generally lack the ability to dole out status effects unless they invest in Stun Attack. But in turn, when compared to Landsknechts, both classes can specialize in two weapons: Sword and Axe/Hammer, and their sword skills rely on hitting as many enemies as possible, while their other weapon skill rely on hitting one enemy as hard as possible.[[/labelnote]] Thankfully, this reaction died down over time.

* HarsherInHindsight: When Erik asks you what to write to his penpal, one choice is to talk about flowers. [[spoiler:A later quest reveals that her homeland is succumbing to a disease that causes flowers to ''grow out of the afflicted''.]]

* HarsherInHindsight: When Erik asks you what to write to his penpal, one choice is to talk about flowers. [[spoiler:Her homeland is being destroyed by them.]]

* ScrappyMechanic: While the CoOpMultiplayer battles are an interesting concept, [[MisbegottenMultiplayerMode each player can add only one member of their guild to the party]]. The only way to have a full party is to either have five players together or use one of the variants that add [=NPCs=] to fill in the empty slots.

* ScrappyMechanic: While the CoOpMultiplayer battles are an interesting concept, each player can add only one member of their guild to the party. The only way to have a full party is to either have five players together or use one of the variants that add [=NPCs=] to fill in the empty slots.