Etrian Odyssey takes to the seas -- with inscrutable map icons!
Etrian Odyssey 3
This post tackles the game’s second set of map icons – the Etrian Odyssey 3 ocean icons. These are the icons that you use while exploring the ocean in your ship. Hard as it is to believe, these are even more confusing than the dungeon symbols! Seriously, I feel like I just failed some kind of IQ test. Here’s my best shot.
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Etrian Odyssey 3 -- Look at these heroes, ready and eager to map!
One of the standout features of the Etrian Odyssey series is its map-making system. In the olden days, RPG gamers used pencils and graph paper to painstakingly map their way through grid-based dungeon crawler RPGs. The Etrian Odyssey games give the player the freedom to experience this style of gameplay in the modern world by mapping dungeons on the DS’s lower screen using the stylus.
Problem is, as far as I can tell, unlike the first two games, Etrian Odyssey 3
In the spirit of helping intrepid adventurers everywhere (as well as bloggers like me), I have decided to post a guide to the Etrian Odyssey 3 map icons. But I am going to need your help figuring some of these out!
Update: The Final Dungeon’s Key to Etrian Odyssey 3’s Ocean Map Icons is now up as well!
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Wizardry -- Hope you brought your imagination!
With Etrian Odyssey 3
What is a Grid-Based Dungeon Crawler RPG?
Before Ultima Underworld introduced the ability to move freely through a 3D space, first-person role playing games were strictly grid-based. Each time you pressed the arrow key left or right, you would turn a full 90 degrees in that direction. Each time you pressed the up arrow key, you advanced one square forward on an invisible grid. While this made mapping easy (graph paper was ideal) it also imposed artificial restraints on the dungeon designs. (These evil mages must have hired only the best dungeon contractors to get all of those 90 degree angles and perfectly level floors just right!)
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