Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight is coming out in the next few months, and there are still some questions about the game. So here's what you'll need to know about the game before you jump head first into that labyrinth of overpowered monsters.

Story Mode

In this mode, players follow a cast of five characters as they travel through both the Yggdrasil Labyrinth and the Story Mode-exclusive Ginnugagap Ruins. As they travel between the two places, they uncover more and more dark secrets of their world and of the Fafnir Knight.

The party features the five main characters: Princess Arianna, the protagonist, Flavio the Survivalist, Bertrand the Protector, and Chloe the War Magus. Players aren't able to make other guild members unless they're playing in Classic Mode, so none of these Story-exclusive characters are replaceable. However, like in the first Untold game, players are able to change these characters' classes once they're Level 30. (This excludes the protagnist, the Fafnir Knight.)

As players get further into the game, they'll experience cut scenes that not only move the story along, but also show off the game's voice acting and animation. This mode gives players a more in-depth, detailed story than that of the original game.

Classic Mode

For players that don't care for the newer story, there's Classic Mode. This mode is simply an updated version of the original. The graphics and system mechanics of the original game is updated with all the improvements of EO IV: Legend of the Titan and of EO Untold: The Millenium Girl. In this mode, players can choose from 15 classes to create their own unique parties. There's also a DLC for original art of these classes for players to use when making their Classic Mode party.

EO II classes like the Beast, War Magus, and Gunner are included in the lineup, but the Princess from EO III: The Drowned City and the Highlander from EOU are also included. The Highlander, however, is only available through a DLC event. For the first two weeks after the game is released, it's free to download; after that, players need to pay for it.

Exploration

The exploring style, mechanics, and system of EO IV and EOU were used to update the game's labyrinth. Compared to the original systems of the first Etrian Odyssey and EO II, this is a signifcant improvement. It makes exploration much more convenient.

Players can now tell how strong or difficult an FOE is by the colored ring around its map icon:

• red means it's too strong to even attempt
• yellow means the battle will be difficult, but it's possible to take on
• blue means the player is strong enough to take it on

Floor Jump was also brought back. A new feature from the first Untold, Floor Jump allows the player to instantly teleport to whichever floor they wish. Once the player has seen most of a floor or has drawn the majority of it, they unlock the feature. The staircase icon on their map turns yellow to show that Floor Jump has been activated.

Mapping

Mapping system of the orignal game has been completely updated:

• Floor Jump is now included
• Players can use the B-button to run in the labyrinth.
• There are now 8 different floor colors, compared to the usual 3. It'll be easier to note floor conditions and patterns now.
• Icons for treasure chests and shortcuts change once they've been used or opened.

There's also been a change to the auto-pilot system. The original icons have changed to lines. On the map screen, there's now:

• A button to activate/deactivate the auto-pilot movement.
• An arrow for solid lines, which draw the route of the auto-pilot. Routes can be drawn in different colors.
• An arrow for dotted lines, which erases the route. If the player holds the arrow down, it'll erase all the drawn routes. 
• And a two-directional arrow, which changes the direction of or type of a drawn route.

City Development

One of the new features of the game is the Duchy Run Restaurant, a restaurant with a specialty in "labyrinth cuisine". The restaurant is like the guild house of EOU, but with more features and improvements.

Players will have to explore the dungeons and collect ingredients for the restaurant and its recipes. There are two types of these ingredients:

• "labyrinth ingredients", which come from Chop, Take, and Mine points
• and "monster ingredients", which come from monsters.

(These ingredients are held in a different part of the players' inventory, so it doesn't get in the way of exploring.) 

Once all the ingredients for a recipe are collected, players can cook the meal, and if done correctly, it appears on the menu. They can also eat it and gain effects that make dungeon exploring easier. The effects of this food last forever, or until the player chooses to eat a different food.

But since the place is also a restaurant, players have to advertise and promote it. In the five regions of the Duchy of Lagaard, players have to accomodate the people and their tastes. If done well, they gain extra money or items. From the profit the restaurant earns, players can reinvest the money into the town. Developing the town increases the number of people and customers; it also helps in grimoire trading later on.

Save Data

This game introduces something new to the EO series: multiple save slots. In total, there will be 8 save slots for players to use. The game itself will only have 1, but an SD card will hold the other 7. Players also have the option of copying one of their files onto a different slot.

Players can now play both the Story Mode and the Classic Mode at the same time in this game. However, to completely fill out the Guild Card and get all the medals, they have to play both modes on the same save slot.

That's some of what to expect when Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 comes out. The game will be released in North America this summer and Europe next year, but the game is already out for preorder.

Atlus USA has released some new information on the upcoming addition to the Etrian Odyssey series on it's official page.

Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight is the newest game in both the dungeon-crawling Etrian Odyssey series and in the Untold remake series. As with the first Untold game, Atlus has added an extra mode for players to use if they so choose. The newly added Story Mode will take the original game's story, and expand on it much more than the original did.

In this mode, there is a preset party of five characters. The main member of this party, the titular Fafnir Knight, was given a his own introduction video on Atlus USA's site:

The princess' so called "right-hand man" is the inheritor of a rare power that transforms his body into a stone-like substance and gives him a big power boost in battle. In exploring the Yggdrasil Labyrinth and the Story Mode-exclusive Ginnugagap Ruins, the player - and characters - slowly learn more about this power as well as the true secrets of the labyrinth.

Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 is a remake of the second game in the Etrian Odyssey series, EO II: Heroes of Lagaard, which was originally released in 2008. The original was updated with new dungeon layouts, graphics, and system updates as done in EO IV: Legends of the Titan and the first Untold game. The inclusion of the Story Mode is another improvement to the series.

The game's North America release is set for this summer, priced at $49.99. Players that preorder the game will receive extra, exclusive bonuses.

With Etrian Mystery Dungeon's American release in a few days, it seems like a good time to reveal the game's full length trailer.

Atlus' new effort of expanding and experimenting with Etrian Odyssey, the dungeon-crawling JRPG series, Etrian Mystery Dungeon is due for its North American release. A collaboration with Spike Chunsoft, Etrian Mystery Dungeon combines the classes and battling of Atlus' series and the randomized dungeons of Spike Chunsoft's Mystery Dungeon series.

Shigeo Komori and Yukari Yokoro from Atlus serve as the producer and director of the game, with Seiichiro Nagahata and Kaoru Hasegawa from Spike Chunsoft serve as the project director and character designer. People who worked on previous Etrian Odyssey titles also return to the work on the new game, including composer Yuzo Koshiro, class designer Yuji Himukai, monster designer Shin Nagasawa, and art supervisor Nizo Yamamoto.

There are a number of changes to the series in this collaborative spin-off. Unlike in the original Etrian Odyssey series, players can only choose a maximum of 4 out of the 10 classes for their exploring party, explore the dungeons in a third-person perspective, not first-person, and can't map the floors because of the obvious randomization.

The game will be released with bonuses for players who decided to preorder it. In addition the game, players will get a 28-page book of art and notes from the game and a CD with rough recordings of the soundtrack. Already released in Japan in March, the game became the number two seller for the month, selling 91% of its stock within the first week of its release. Hopefully the game will preform the same in America as it did in Japan. The game will be released on April 7th for North America with its price set at $39.99.

Lovers of 2007's Etrian Odyssey rejoice: Atlus has announced the release for Etrian Mystery Dungeon, a cross-over of Etrian Odyssey and Mystery Dungeon.

Etrian Mystery Dungeon, set to be released April 7, 2015, is a dungeon crawler in which players control the iconic classes of Etrian Odyssey facing off against enemies in randomly generated maps representative of Mystery Dungeon.

In an effort to build up anticipation for the game's release, Atlus has already begun sharing videos of character classes found in the game, starting with the melee-heavy Landsknecht.  

Players will be challenged in this new edition to the Atlus family, as the positioning of your characters will carry just as much importance as their skills.

Speaking of skills, players can fully customize their parties, and unlock new skills through the use of skill tress.  

In addition to the game, those who pre-order Etrian Mystery Dungeon will receive a copy of the game's soundtrack. 

Personally, I'm waiting to see when the English site gets as much love as the Japanese site; at the moment English gamers are left leaving a lot to the imagination.

I was on my 3DS, browsing the eShop, when I ran across Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl. I'd never heard of this game, so I downloaded the demo.

The thing that bugged me off the bat was you couldn't explore the town; you're just given a menu and that's it. So I breezed through the opening to start the mission.

The Missions

The missions are to explore areas and draw the maps--yes, draw them. The game gives you a brief tutorial that I skipped over, and then you are sent on your way. The best way to progress through a mission is to draw the map as you walk around, so that you don't have to go back to an area.

Here is an example of a map.

The movement reminds me vaguely of Ancients 2; if you've never played it, don't worry, you didn't miss much. However, the way the movement is integrated into the game makes it a bit easier to map out. As you move around, a color meter will change colors, letting you know of the impending danger. Blue is default, then it goes green, yellow, and red. Red is your eminent battle warning; you can maybe move 3 blocks before a battle.

As you complete missions, you go back to town and turn them in. It's pretty basic questing: complete a map and uncover the information hidden in the area.

The Story

Tthe story is what really caught my attention. In story mode, you play as a Highlander called to Etria for a task. First, the Radha, the people who called upon you, test your capabilities by sending you on a basic explorer's mission. You get no details of the real mission until you complete this basic mission.

The basic mission just tasks you to map out Emerald Grove outside the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Simple enough; just map out the area and once the game gives you a message saying it's mapped out, go back to town. There, the Radha will task you with the real mission to investigate an ancient ruin that could be causing problems.

During this mission, you will encounter several individuals who become your comrades. Due to spoilers I won't go into the details, but it's pretty interesting. If you want to know more about the story, go to the Nintendo eShop and pick up the demo.

Here are the individuals you meet in the story.

The Battles

The battle is turn-based and position-based. Some monsters do attacks that will hit a whole line of characters, but not the other line. You can do basic attacks, skills that use TP, and even defend. The whole battle system is really simple to understand and master.

Honestly I recommend this game, at least the demo. I really feel this game is worth a play through for anyone who likes RPG style games.

Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl, released by Atlus on October 1st. The art is simply amazing as you can see in the picture above.