Atlus likes to tease its fans. The company's yearly survey is proof of that, where the dev asks participants what Atlus games they'd like to see and on which platforms. This year's survey takes things further by asking survey takers which franchises they'd be most excited to see on Nintendo Switch, including Persona.

The franchises in question run the gamut of what amounts to the entire mainstream Atlus catalog, with nearly all the Shin Megami Tensei titles, all five Persona games, spinoffs like Persona Q — more of which would certainly be welcome — Catherine, Dragon's Crown, and Etrian Odyssey.

How sincere Atlus is about possibly bringing any of these to the Switch, who knows, especially since Etrian Odyssey relies so heavily on a second screen.

Yet it does seem like the company might be paying more attention to the Switch now. Every year, the survey asks fans what platforms they're most interested in and what they want from Atlus' franchises moving forward. This year is the first time the company asked specifically about Switch ports of its earlier titles.

It's not hard to see why fans are excited about the possibilities. Last year's addition of Persona 5's Joker to Smash Ultimate convinced many that Persona 5 would be ported to the Switch, as did the logo for P5S and the possibility of getting Persona 5 Royal on the Switch.

The former turned out to be Persona 5 Scramble, and Atlus was ambiguous and noncommittal about whether P5 Royal would come to other platforms.

So perhaps this survey is a sign of things to come after all. Either way, Atlus received far more responses than it anticipated and closed the survey three days early.

Whatever Atlus does or doesn't port to the Switch, stay tuned to GameSkinny for more Persona 5 and Switch port news as it develops. While we wait for Persona 5 Royal to land at the end of March, be sure to check out our iimpressions of Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers too.

Editor's note: This is Part 3 of our Entrian Odyssey Nexus Class compendium. To see Part 1 and Part 2, click here and here. 

Classes and party composition form the backbone of any Etrian Odyssey experience, and Etrian Odyssey Nexus is no exception. It offers 19 classes to use for your party of five, drawing on all previous games for these classes and adding the Hero as a new one.

Even if you already know how the classes work in their original games, Nexus gives things a bit of a twist by making new combinations possible.

In this part of our Etrian Odyssey Nexus class coverage, we'll focus on the game's support classes. These classes feature some of the best buffing and debuffing skills in the game.

Let's jump in. 

Sovereign Class

The Sovereign is one of the most valuable support units in Nexus, capable of indirectly dealing elemental damage as well. If you want a sturdy buffing unit, this is the one to pick.

Best Build for Sovereign Class

Sovereigns exist to buff attack and defense stats of a selected line. However, they can also imbue a line's weapons with a given element.

That's all fairly basic, but when you unlock Reinforce, buffs become even more useful. That's because each buff restores a set amount of HP for the selected line.

Unlike most support units, Sovereigns work well in the front and the back. The class has naturally high attack and defense, plus it can equip swords and heavy armor. 

Chances are, though, you'll want your Sovereign in the back row if you aren't using a Medic or War Mage. Royal Veil restores the party's HP at the end of each turn if your Sovereign is at full health.

There's also Royal Dignity, which restores HP to a buffed unit if that unit is attacked during that turn.

Between Royal Dignity, Royal Veil, Reinforce, and then Protect Order at Veteran level, you may find the Sovereign works better than other dedicated healers just because the class adds necessary boosts while healing.

Considerations for Sovereign Class

But don't ignore the Arms skills.

Until you reach Level 20, those skills might seem somewhat superfluous outside giving an extra boost in boss battles. However, the Veteran skill Element Bomb takes the element of one weapon and turns it into an attack against all enemies. Even at low levels for Arms and Element Bomb, the attacks aren't insubstantial, and it turns the Sovereign into a highly useful asset.

Of course, the class has access to other skills, but these are the primary ones to focus on for a while. Because they boost and heal at the same time, a Sovereign would work particularly well with a Protector or any potentially squishy frontliners.

Ninja Class

Ninjas are another tricky class to work with. Their attack is fairly high, but they have terrible defense. On the other hand, almost every offensive skill has the chance of inflicting a specific bind or ailment.

Best Build for Ninja Class

Based on its limitations, the Ninja has two potential builds.

The first build is mostly offensive, using the Ninja's strength to inflict larger amounts of damage and potentially ailments as well; in this capacity, Hawk Strike at the Veteran level is an absolute must.

But, to compensate for its low defense, you'd want to invest a good bit into skills like Mirage (static decoy), Concealment (higher evasion), and later, Ninpo: Flight (chance to nullify physical damage). This gives the Ninja a decent chance at surviving without you having to worry overmuch about keeping it alive.

The other build is backline status inflictor. This wouldn’t be the most useful role, just because the Ninja doesn’t have access to a huge array of status attacks. However, it’s still feasible, especially with the chance for petrify, poison, and sleep — even more so once you get access to Status Attack Up at the Veteran level and Ninpo: Mirror, which spreads ailments from one enemy to all of them.

Considerations for Ninja Class

Ninjas would work particularly well with Nightseekers or War Magi, since both rely heavily on status afflictions.

However, if you have a balanced front line with at least one other offensive unit, or a Protector, then the Ninja can still be a good attacking unit, even if you have to baby it sometimes.

War Magus Class

The War Magus is a bit of an odd class. Despite its name, the War Magus is more of a War Medic than an offensive magic user. Its offensive skills are formidable, but it’s not a class you can effectively use on its own.

Best Build for War Magus Class

The War Magus can use staves and swords. But its War Edge Mastery skill pretty much tells you to specialize in one or the other.

Swords grant access to all the War Mage’s offensive abilities, while Staves basically just boost healing efficacy; War Edge Mastery increases attack if swords are equipped and increases TP if staves are used. Also, you can still use healing skills if you equip a sword.

The attack skills your War Magus gets are pretty potent, targeting entire lines in some cases. They also have the chance to inflict debuffs or binds, but there’s a catch: they only inflict these if the target is suffering from an ailment.

That’s okay, you say; the War Magus can inflict ailments with Random Disease. Except it rarely works, even at higher levels of mastery.

Considerations for War Magus Class

An offensive-focused War Magus that uses binds and debuffs needs a Harbinger or Nightseeker to ensure foes do get some kind of ailment before attacking.

If you aren’t fussed over the potential for inflicting these, though, then you still have a powerful frontline fighter and healer.

Why? Because the War Magus’s healing skills surpass even the Medic’s. War Heal Line and War Revive are two of the best healing skills, as they heal a line or have a chance to revive at the beginning of the turn and at the end, for 3 turns.

Later, you get War Heal All, which does the same for the entire party. If nothing else, these skills make the War Magus the best potential healer.

Farmer Class

The Farmer is, at first glance, a somewhat pointless class. And at second glance, it still is – for combat, at least.

Best Build for Farmer Class

The Farmer is a support unit in and out of battle, nothing else. Its main strengths lie in gathering materials, avoiding battles, and offering a few supporting actions for your battle party.

Farmers can inflict status ailments randomly with Strange Seeds, and they can also restore some HP with a few of their Veteran skills.

The main reason you’d want to take a Farmer into battle, though, is to increase the number of items monsters drop.

If you did use the Farmer just for the heck of it, it’s actually a decent mid-tier unit, with even offense and defense. It won’t be your go-to unit, but it shouldn’t die every turn either.

Arcanist Class

The Arcanist is another hyper-focused unit. It primarily inflicts binds and ailments, but it can serve multiple roles with this focus.

Best Build for Arcanist Class

The Arcanist’s circles are probably the most useful binding attacks of all the classes. Not because they have a greater chance of actually working, but because they activate every turn for at least three turns.

What doesn’t work the first time might save your neck two turns later, and because even bosses are weak to binds, the Arcanist deserves your attention.

The class' Veteran level grants access to debuff circles as well, which can be even more useful. Moreover, each of the circle skills’ chances of working double after spending four skill points.

But there’s another reason people love the Arcanist: dismissing the circles.

Early on, you get the ability to dismiss a circle to heal the party. Later, dismissing has a chance of reviving the party. The drawback here is the amount healed is fairly small.

But if you don’t plan on using a dedicated healer, the Arcanist can serve as a good party support unit, too.

Considerations for Arcanist Class

(Much) later in the skill tree, the Arcanist also gets dismiss attack skills, one at the Veteran level that’s a plain ranged attack and an earth-based attack at the Master level. However, you won’t be seeing these benefits for a long time, so if you create an Arcanist, know that it is only a support unit for a while.

Also, because the Arcanist relies entirely on these circles for any kind of effectiveness, you know TP is going to be an issue. But Proficiency regenerates some TP every time a circle is dismissed.

It might not be enough TP to make a big difference until you spend a few Skill Points, but it’s better than nothing.

And like the Zodiac, the Arcanist is fragile. Make sure it gets some defense buffs or you’ve debuffed the enemy party’s attack to ensure the Arcanist’s survival.

Harbinger Class

The Harbinger might be last on the class registry list, but it shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s an incredibly versatile unit capable of withstanding attacks, dealing melee damage, debuffing, and inflicting status ailments.

Best Build for Harbinger Class

For all of this to be effective, though, you need to start investing in Miasma Armor, Endless Shroud, and at least one debuff skill.

• Miasma Armor activates for a few turns and increases speed
  • But it’s also required for the Harbinger’s melee attacks to inflict status ailments
• Endless Shroud has a chance of activating Miasma Armor or extending its duration whenever you use a debuff skill

That alone makes the Harbinger’s debuffs better than the Arcanist’s, not to mention the fact the Harbinger gets them much earlier than the Arcanist does.

Paralyzing Reap and Toxic Reap can inflict two of the best status ailments in the game, taking enemies out of action and sapping huge amounts of health respectively. Darkness Reap does the obvious and blinds enemies. These attacks affect an entire line, making them even more useful.

You also get skills like Atonement that dispel armor to heal the party or later, revive dead members.

Here, the Arcanist has an advantage, because dispelling circles to restore or revive doesn’t reduce its stats in any way. While these healing skills are useful in a pinch, they ultimately limit the Harbinger because you have to re-activate Miasma Armor to get the unit back to its full capability.

Considerations for Harbinger Class

The Harbinger is a class requiring some forethought before spending Skill Points. For example, you don’t want to dump a lot into debuffs and then have underpowered melee attacks. The better option would be leveling the debuffs a little, then focusing on Endless Shroud and your melee skills.

Casting debuffs every few turns means you’ll still be reactivating your Miasma Armor automatically if you have a lot invested in Endless Shroud, so increasing the debuff turn limit to just 4 ultimately benefits you anyway.

Plus, it means you can strengthen your attack skills and improve their chances of inflicting ailments too.

As mentioned, all of this means the Harbinger pairs wonderfully with Nightseekers and War Magi. If you don’t want the Harbinger to be up front, you’ll still get the benefits of status ailments from the back row and can then switch to the healing focus as well, if you so desire.

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Nexus offers a staggering amount of party customization, even more so when you finally unlock subclassing halfway-ish through the game. As long as you maintain some balance and give a bit of thought to how you develop your skills, though, you can make almost any party work.

Be sure to check out Part 1 of our guide for our balanced class tips, and Part 2 for our offensive class tips. 

Etrian Odyssey games are designed to be old-school, which means they aren't often newcomer friendly. Even the Untold games, meant to be primers for newbies, have a steep learning skill.

Yet Etrian Odyssey Nexus is primed to appeal to old fans and newcomers alike, with its combination of all the best bits from previous games and some unique elements thrown in.That's why we put this comprehensive guide together, covering all the basics you need to know to dive into the labyrinths without fear.

Etrian Odyssey Nexus Exploration

Nexus does a good job explaining the basics of exploration early on, though there’s a lot of information to deal with at once, and it doesn’t tell you everything.

There are two details of greatest importance: mapping and exploring.

Mapping the Labyrinths

Mapping might seem obvious, since it’s the franchise’s main feature. However, especially later on, paying attention to your surroundings and documenting them appropriately is crucial to your survival.

Auto-mapping is an option even some veteran EO players don’t realize exists. It’s on the third option screen, and you can adjust to “full” if you want to let the game map out walls for you. It’s a good way to save some time and avoid a bit of tedium, though it only records walls directly next to you.

Still, it gets easier to figure out general room sizes and shapes as you go on, so if you don’t want to walk next to every wall, you can usually fill in most room outlines by turning around and gauging size and distance.

What you can’t fill in automatically is shortcuts. Shortcuts are exactly what they sound like: passages through walls that let you cut out a good chunk of walking. If you aren’t paying attention, they can be easy to miss, but each labyrinth uses essentially the same thing: some kind of flower or other unusual oddment on the wall as a signal to check that space.

Mapping where they are and what direction you can approach them from gives you an idea of where to go later in the labyrinth to get to where you can use the shortcut permanently. And it lets you easily go from floor to floor without dealing with monster hordes and long walks.

Exploring Every Nook

Exploration ties in with the other thing you want to record: mini-events. Etrian Odyssey is all about exploring, and the labyrinths make it worth your time and the extra random encounters.

Some corridors lead to short text-based events that go in your logbook and grant extra experience for the party. These recorded events are one-time occurrences and often affect the party in some form, for example, restoring HP or TP or inflicting status conditions. The potential for benefits and, most importantly, the extra experience make even negative outcomes worthwhile.

Other events are recurring—a pool of refreshing water, for instance, or a fruit-bearing tree—and these are excellent ways to restore a tired party without having to leave the labyrinth. They regenerate once per day/night cycle.

And in other cases, you’ll find evidence of something not useful at the present, but important for a later sidequest. Because some quest descriptions are incredibly vague (i.e., find my lucky coin I lost somewhere on B2), you really want to make sure you use the notes feature to mark places like that.

So, the TL;DR here is “explore every dead end.” Even if you end up seeing something like this.

Useful Skills

You also want to make sure you mark gathering spots. On the top screen, they show up as little sparkly squares. Many of them are in odd, easy to forget places, but they grant you valuable items once per day/night cycle. It’s important to mark which kind of gathering spot it is as well—Take, Chop, or Mine—since having a party member with the right skill can increase your yield from specific types of spot.

In fact, many EO players create gathering parties for the express purpose of exploiting these spots and raking in the cash and materials. Spending one Skill Point on Mine, Chop, or Take means you get double or triple the amount of materials. More importantly, the Farmer class – absolutely useless for combat in most cases – increases your yield, causes more monster drops, and shortens the time it takes for gather spots to regenerate. 

If you’re looking to stockpile a lot of goods and money or just need to collect a certain number of things for a quest, a gathering squad with a Farmer is the way to go.

If want to just explore and don’t need as much combat for a while, invest in a skill like the Zodiac’s Horoscope, which reduces the random encounter rate for a set number of steps.

Alternatively, the Shogun’s Taunt Assassin skill increases both the random encounter rate and the experience you get from each fight, making it perfect for level grinding. After reaching level 20 and Veteran status, the Hero class gets access to a skill that draws in additional enemies in the area and ups the chance of encountering a shiny monster; shiny monsters are rare normally and give big experience boosts.

From the third labyrinth, Primitive Jungle, on, you’ll also encounter hazards and traps in the labyrinths. These inflict damage or status effects, and some can disable the map or transport your party. The Survivalist has a skill that nullifies traps and hazards for a set number of steps, but if you don’t plan on using one in your party, you get access to the Guard Sole item in Primitive Jungle, which works the same way. Just make sure you take several with you.

Etrian Odyssey Nexus Combat Tips

Battle advice is where Nexus goes silent, making it more of a trial and error experiment unless you’re already familiar with the systems. Like all EO games, Nexus throws you into party creation almost from the start, with no guidance whatsoever.

If you aren’t familiar with any of the classes, it can be overwhelming determining which ones might make a balanced team. After you get used to things, you can make almost any team work, but there are a few general tips to keep in mind.

Unlike most RPGs, you want a dedicated buffer, debuffer, and/or status inflictor. Nexus offers no shortage of choices for any of these, with Harbinger, Nightseeker, and Arcanist being three of the most useful. Binds are helpful in many ways and prevent an enemy from using certain skills.

• Head binds: prevents magic-type skills or head-bash skills
• Leg binds: prevents leg related skills
• Arm binds: prevents arm related skills

Doctor Sibil in the Tavern offers some advice for how to use binds, but careful observation of enemy patterns and specific skill names will clue you in on which enemies should be targeted with which binds. Analysis scopes help as well, filling in your reference book information slots and showing whether enemies are even vulnerable to certain ailments (and most are to at least one, including bosses).

On the other hand, status affects like the usual paralysis, poison, and sleep are highly useful as well. Poison skills can sap huge amounts of health from enemies (and you), while paralysis works much the same as in Pokemon, randomly preventing enemies from acting.

Sleep’s usefulness depends on your strategy; using a fast class like Ninja to inflict sleep doesn’t pay off when your other characters act later and target the same enemy, waking it up if attacks connect.

Buffs and debuffs don’t need too much explanation. But they’re importance can’t really be overstated. Boosting your party’s or a line’s defense and reducing your enemies’ attack (especially if you can do both at the same time) or reducing their defense and raising your attack are basic, but crucial strategies for making tough battles winnable—and shorter.

Shorter battles are good, too. Your TP (Technical Points) pool doesn’t last forever, and TP restoring items are very rare at first. Random battles should be dealt with via a mix of normal attacks and, when necessary, special ones. TP restoring items like Amritas are best saved for boss fights, which can drag on depending on how you approach them.

That makes dealing with certain classes like the Zodiac rather difficult at first, because they’re usefulness depends entirely on TP-based attacks. As you’d expect, though, TP increases as you level up, and some classes, including the Zodiac, let you spend Skill Points to boost TP further (though these abilities often have to wait until level 20 when you reach Veteran status).

One other thing to keep in mind is the Memory Conch. It's a recurring item in the series that acts like the Experience Share in Pokemon, and you receive it shortly after the game begins. It grants party members back at the guild a small percentage of your battle experience (without taking it away from your party).

Obviously, it won't keep your inactive party members at the same level as your active ones, but it should bump their levels up a fair bit during each labyrinth.

There's a catch, though. It's an accessory item, so it takes up a valuable armor slot for one of your active party members. Make sure it goes on a tank-y character that doesn't need too much extra armor.

How to Use Skill Points in Etrian Odyssey Nexus

Spending your Skill Points is one of Nexus’s most important activities. You start with a handful and obtain one point every time a character levels up, but choosing which skills to spend them on involves a bit of strategy.

It’s best to pick one or two aspects you want to focus your character on, rather than trying to balance Skill Points across every available skill.

For example, you might want to emphasize passive healing and increased buffs for your Sovereign, instead of focusing on its elemental capabilities, or ignore the Hero’s Afterimage gimmick entirely and pour all your efforts into individual buffs and elemental cut attacks.

It’s completely up to you how you plan and what you do, but spending some time before creating a character to figure out how you want to build it long-term saves trouble later on in the labyrinths and makes leveling up more efficient.

If you find you screwed up somewhere along the line with your skill points or just want to reorganize them, all is not lost. Head back to your guild in Maginia and choose Rest in the Organize menu. It’ll cost your character a few levels, but you can redistribute your available skill points as you see fit.

And don't think you have to max out skills to realize their benefits, either. Most  skills that go up to 10 double in power at rank four or five, so if you want a significant boost without dumping too many points in a given skill, that's one route to go. Others you can ignore entirely if they don't fit with your chosen build or if you only need them to unlock new skills.

General Newcomer's Tips

This section covers some general tips and advice to help you make the most out of your experience.

In Maginia

Most of the options available to you in Maginia are fairly self-explanatory. But the beginning of any EO can be overwhelming for newcomers, so it’s worth noting a few important things.

Kvasir’s Tavern

Kvasir’s Tavern becomes available shortly after you register your guild and do some basic adventuring. You don’t get your first quests for a little while after that, though. Instead, you can talk to some of the tavern patrons, each of whom usually has some interesting information to share.

Robin the Flee-Footed warns you of certain monster attacks to be aware of and potentially how to prevent them with binds, while Doctor Sibil offers important advice, including tips about obtaining rare items off monsters by defeating them in a certain way. Take that advice when you can; the En you get from those items is worth the while, plus they tend to unlock new goods at Napier’s Firm.

The most important reason for visiting the Tavern, though, is the quests. You usually get new quests at least twice in a labyrinth cycle. The first time after you’ve done some exploring and advanced the story to where Headquarters posts a new mission, and the second comes after you’ve advanced the story further, which usually involves revealing the main trial for that labyrinth (which itself is usually a boss monster).

Calling these sidquests would be a bit of a misnomer. They aren’t necessary, true, but they offer the best way to boost your party’s levels outside of clearing story missions. Experience gains from these can range from 300 to 1000 points, which makes a huge difference if you’re trying to strengthen your characters.

Napier’s Firm

Napier’s Firm is the place you’ll visit the most in Maginia. It’s your usual RPG store, where you buy and sell weapons, armor, accessories, and items, but it plays an important role in Etrian Odyssey games. Longtime fans will already be aware of this, but EO revolves around a few gameplay loops, and one of the primary ones is exploring, item gathering, selling, and returning to the labyrinth.

In each maze, you’ll come across items dropped by monsters and materials gathered through collection points. Unlike most RPGs, you don’t happen upon new equipment by chance. It becomes available as you sell Napier the goods needed to make it. So while selling everything you gather gets you En, it’s also vital for keeping your party up to scratch.

The importance of this loop can’t be emphasized enough. Don’t go into a labyrinth thinking you should try and clear the floor in one go. Fight, explore, get lots of stuff, then go back to town and start again.

Unless you grind for materials a lot, though, you’ll probably find you can’t afford to kit out every party member. Part of the game’s strategy involves choosing the right equipment for the right character, whether that’s giving your Hero a new sword to deal more damage or making sure your Zodiac gets a new set of boots to increase their defense.

But, Napier’s Firm also includes a Forge option for certain weapons, and it’s a good idea to check it from time to time to see if you have any materials or old (or current) weapons you can improve. Forging increases a weapon’s stats without costing you anything other than items, and sometimes, forged weapons end up being stronger than many of the weapons you can purchase.

Most importantly, don’t go back into the labyrinth without an Ariadne’s Thread. It lets you leave a labyrinth immediately and is vital if you get stuck or are in danger of a wipeout. For cost-saving purposes (and general practicality) you don’t need more than one at a time.

The Lady of the Lake

Vivian’s Inn doesn’t need much explanation, though there are a couple of things to pay attention to.

First is item storage. Since you’ll be selling a lot, you might ignore it for a while. But as you start gathering rarer healing items and the like, you may find you run out of room for gathered materials more quickly. That’s where Storage comes in, letting you stash away items you know you need later so you can maximize your profits in the present.

You’ll notice over time, Vivian starts charging more for resting and recovering. By the time it costs over 100 En, it won’t be that big of an impact to your wallet. But after clearing the second labyrinth, Lush Woodlands, you get the option to go back to Base Camp on the world map.

Once during a day/night cycle, two characters you met before offer you a steak dinner that replenishes your health. It’s a nice way to save some money and time, if you don’t want to go to the inn.

And of course, the save option. It’s easy to miss, but it’s at the bottom of the Inn menu and doesn’t require you to pay to stay overnight.

Headquarters

Last on the list of things to do in Maginia is visiting HQ from time to time. Don’t forget to report new monsters and items obtained periodically, along with completed maps. After reaching certain milestones (5 monsters, the 25, then 50, and so on), you get some nice rewards, including rare items and the always-necessary En.

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It seems like a lot to take on all at once, but the aspects covered in this guide form the core of every Etrian Odyssey experience. Once you master the basics, you'll find everything starts falling neatly into place as you venture closer to Lemuria.

Got any tips of your own? Let us know in the comments!

Shin Megami Tensei

The last few installments of the series have all come out on Nintendo consoles, while the Persona series is still a staple of the Playstation, it is not hard to think that a possible Shin Megami Tensei 5 might see the light on the new Nintendo console.

Given the amount of fan following the series has, both east and west of the pacific, I'm positive that if Nintendo is capable of sealing such a deal the Switch will not end up the way the Wii U has.

What do you think? Do you think these series will come to the Switch? Do you think they would help? Do you think there will be other exclusives we can't even imagine at the moment? Do you think there will be none? Let us know in the comments below!

Bravely Default

The game has acquired a cult following, for many of the same reasons Etrian Odyssey has, since the first two titles were so successful an eventual remake of them onto the Switch is not certainly a bad move. If this is coupled with the development of a new and bigger installment of the series, the Switch would get itself something that would indeed promote it towards a wider public.

To be honest I'd buy a Switch just for this series if it is ported on it.

Xenoblade Chronicles

This game was very good, it seriously was. Its sequel on the Wii U was good too and sold quite well for a game on such an unfortunate console.

This, to be honest , is a great IP and nintendo has to do all it can to fully make use of it, a Switch remake of the first two games followed by a sequel may prove to be an interesting and possibly rewarding move, let's just hope that Nintendo, indeed does it.

Dragon Quest

At the moment the series is experiencing a resurge in popularity due to the remakes of the seventh, and soon to come eighth chapters on the 3DS. It is not far fetched to say that the ninth chapter will get a remake, too, if that gets a porting on the Switch in addition to the 3DS, it may end up promoting the console quite a bit.

However, an exclusive new main series Dragon Quest title may surely make the Switch a must buy for many western players and anime fan alike, after all,  Dragon Quest games have had the character design done by Akira Toriyama, -- creator of Dragon Ball -- since the first one,  and his designs have always greatly contributed to pull in possible buyers.

Etrian Odyssey

The series, a staple of both DS and 3DS has fared well enough to justify 5 installments, it is particularly hard and unforgiving, something that gave it a cult following among old-school gamers bored with new games that are getting considerably more user friendly and simple.

The Switch will benefit from this series because it will appease that niche, which even if not huge, as shown by the sales of previous games of this series, it is certainly nothing to scoff at.

There has been criticism over the Switch, indeed the console itself seems to be trying to be too many things at the same time, running the risk of not doing any of them properly.

This is most certainly true, it is a risk because the switch isn't particularly portable, but as always what makes or breaks a console more than its hardware is its exclusive titles lineup, otherwise the Dreamcast wouldn't have fared as poorly as it did.

The 3DS has enjoyed a lasting success in the west, much as the DS did prior to it, due to its ability to cater to a certain niche with its titles, hardcore JRPG lovers. With the huge amount of developers backing the Switch it is far from hard to imagine it will have no exclusive titles in such niche.

So without further ado, let us explore the series that if moved on the Switch as exclusives will save it.

Rejoice, American fans of Etrian Odyssey! Etrian Odyssey 2 Untold: The Fafnir Knight (3DS) has just been released in the States a mere month after the Japanese release. Not only that, but every Tuesday this month, the good people at Atlus will be periodically releasing free trial DLC.

Included in the additional content are the triumphant return of the Highlander class from the first Etrian Odyssey Untold, a giant chicken boss (because why not?), and a hot spring area with unlockable nude portraits for the female characters (because JRPG).

In order to give their fans a taste test of the twelve DLC extras available, half the total downloadable quests and bosses will be free for a week, starting with free trials for "Highlander Returns" and "Hidden Hot Springs!" available until August 10. As a tribute to the original Etrian Odyssey 2, retro character portraits will be available as a permanent “FreeLC” for all players.

More will be released each week, here's the schedule:

This is a big step for Atlus. While Etrian Mystery Dungeon had a similar release with trial DLC, this is the first of the main Etrian Odyssey series to implement DLC content.

The trial DLC period is tailored to reward the most hardcore of fans, gamers who will put in the Herculean time and effort required to get to all the downloadable bosses and quests in the seven days they are available.

To complete all the trial DLC without paying anything, one would have to get all their characters to level 99 and defeat The Original Sin, a god tier boss, by August 31st. Keep an eye out for videos of said boss at the beginning of September.

No doubt, many will make the attempt.

In seeing Atlus trying to expand on the series with remakes and crossover games, it seems like Etrian Odyssey is getting more recognition in the community than before.

Though a relatively niche game that some people just can't get into, Etrian Odyssey has been as popular as it has been niche. The first game in the series wasn't an overnight success, but it had enough sales to warrant a sequel. And soon enough, the series became a popular, so called "cult hit". So far, there are four main series games with a new one in the works, two remakes, and two crossover games.

Though it doesn't seem like the type to spawn multiple sequels and games, Etrian Odyssey certainly does have its own special appeal that keeps people coming back.

Difficulty

The biggest and most important thing about the series is the fact that it's a throwback to the dungeon crawling games of the previous decades, namely 1987's Dungeon Master. The series' scenario director, Shigeo Komori, found it sad that people didn't like games like this anymore and created Etrian Odyssey in hopes that it would revive the genre. And in being a throwback to earlier games, it does not skimp on the difficulty.

That difficult, pushed-out-of-the-nest quality of the series is one of its biggest appeals. It's most definitely not a hand-holding experience. Besides the little tutorials it gives right when they start the game, the players are left to fend for themselves. In doing that, the game makes the player focus during each and every fight, use whatever items they have, and hone their characters' skills and abilities. It calls for real strategy to do well and to not see that patronizing "Would you like to save your map and exploration data?" when they die in battle.

The game gives players no real sense of security; rather, it gives them a false sense of security. Just when the player thinks they're doing really well, they can go against an enemy that absolutely destroys them and puts a hold on their progress. And then they're expected to go right back in as though it wasn't that big of a deal, even though hours of exploration and experience went down the drain... and then they do. The fact that they were defeated fuels the player to try their best the next time - and each time after that until they win.

This can happen at Level 15, it can happen at Level 99! It may take days, weeks, or even months to do it. They may have to level grind and retrain characters; they may have to make new battle strategies and plans; they may even have to remake their entire party! All this time and effort is just to go back into that dungeon and serve up revenge against something that crushed them however long ago. And when the deed's done, there's such a satisfying, euphoric feeling, it's like being handed a gold medal at the Olympics!

Freedom to Do Anything

But putting the sadomasochistic side of the game away for a moment, the free reign aspect of the series is also one of its biggest appeals. Freedom to do whatever with your party, to explore as much or as little as you want, to map however you want: the game is very forgiving in that way. It lets the players do whatever they want so long as they continue going through the labyrinth, and with that, the story.

Even though there's an established story taking place, the players are allowed to go about the game their own merry way. The story's more of a background event than a main facet of the series (excluding the Untold remakes). The player can explore the labyrinth for as long as they want before some part of the plot pops up. They can explore the seas as in Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City or the skies as in EO IV: Legends of the Titan; they explore and complete quests for the smaller, side dungeons introduced in EO IV; they can even explore a whole other dungeon as in the previously mentioned Untold remake series. Wherever the player chooses to go, there isn't much of a restriction the game puts on them besides difficulty and the occasional mission.

Party Building

With a number of battle and support classes, players can pick, choose, and train 5 to create a party worthy of dungeon exploring and battling. There's no definite best party or worst party; it's all about the strategy and planning the player puts into it.

Do they want use a Dark Hunter and Hexer and take advantage of the ailment and bind-based damage they do? Do they want use a party based entirely on follow-up attacks? Or do they want a well-balanced party that can face pretty much anything? Do they want to create a party that is built to defeat any and all bosses, or one that's just plain good for exploring the labyrinth? It's all up to the player's discretion, desires, and how far they can get into the labyrinth without a "game over" or two (or five).

Individual Characters

This also goes along with party building, though a different aspect of it. The series' open-endedness, the freedom is has and gives, leaves a lot of things up to the players. One of these things is the members of their parties. Players are allowed to choose what they look like, what they're named, what their jobs are, and what they do (abilities and skill-wise). With exception to the Story Modes in the Untold series, the characters don't have any set story or background that the players have to abide by. 

They can have the backstories that player makes up, making them like actual characters with a past, present, and future. Characters with their own quirks and personalities. Where a random person could just see a Farmer and a Gladiator, the player could see a battle-shy, but exploration-wise Farmer, and a Gladiator that's so reckless that he rushes into battle even when he's bleeding like a water fountain. They don't have to be plain portraits, people that the players only care about their build, stats, weapons, etc. They can be the main characters in this story of a rookie-turned-professional exploration guild and what they do as ordered by the town government.

A player's party can include them as the leader of the group or as a supporting member. There can be Medic who's surprisingly squeamish, a Troubadour that's ridiculously bad as making music, or a Protector that takes their job title seriously both inside and outside the labyrinth. It's all up to the player's imagination and wants.

Etrian Odyssey, even though a relatively niche game, has become a staple series of Atlus. The fact the company announced three new games all within the same month last year can attest to that fact. Two of those three, Etrian Mystery Dungeon and Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight, are to be released very soon in North America. It seems that the series hasn't hit a low point and won't as long as it continues to be the dungeon crawler everyone loves.