1UP's Final Q&A Session
(Original taken from 1UP.com posted at 05/15/2007 09:42 AM PDT.)

Your questions, answered

(Extra ItL Info: After Niinou-san completed his blog, 1UP.com hosted a Q&A session where they posted up a blog entry and invited fans to ask their questions. The questions below were the ones that were chosen to be answered by Niinou-san.)

The time has come--Etrian Odyssey ships to retailers today! (But don't go dashing out the door yet, because it won't be in stores until tomorrow.) To celebrate, we've got answered to all the questions posted so far. Here we go!

Roughly, how long would it take to complete the game?

Completing the story will take about 40-50 hours, but seeing everything in the game could take almost twice that time.

Are there any secrets, unlockables or easter eggs? (Everyone loves secrets!)

Well, of course there are some secrets, but if I revealed them in a blog entry before you played the game, then they wouldn't be secret anymore...!

Will it be released in Europe? (I live in the UK...)

Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you, since Atlus USA (as the name implies) only deals with publishing in the US. A question like this might be better directed to one of the usual European publishers of Atlus games, like 505 Gamestreet. However, the DS is a region-free system, so there shouldn't be anything preventing you from importing an American copy if you want to play it!

If it sells well, will there be a sequel?

The chances of a sequel happening seem to be pretty good. In fact, the designers already planned ahead for one: there's a password feature in the game that, once you finish it, will generate a key that you can use to import your data into any eventual follow-up.

About the levelling system: are there ways for players to customize their characters beyond picking them at the beginning (ie: distributing attribute or skill points at each level up)?

Glad you asked, since character customization is a key part of Etrian Odyssey. Every class has 20 skills, each of which can be upgraded by putting up to 10 skill points into it. However, you only earn 1 skill point per level, and the level cap in the game is 70--meaning it's impossible to power up every skill. A vital part of Etrian's strategy is to decide not just which classes you'll have in your party, but how you choose to build those classes. Will you favor damage-dealing skills or status-ailment skills with your Dark Hunter? Will you focus all your Alchemist's energy into Fire skills, or distribute it equally among the three elemental attacks?

Creating new characters is free, and you can have up to 15 in your guild, so you don't have to be shy about experimenting. Find the party and skill set that works for you!

Will it have an added replay value? (Like a new game+, or secret classes?)

There's no new game+, but you can continue to play the game after the game's "ending." After you beat the final boss, more quests and even new floors of the dungeon will open up, so there's still quite a bit to do with your party.

What is the translation of the japanese text in the last image of the gallery?

"How's everyone doing getting killed in the dungeon? I recommend this game to any oddballs that are pretty masochistic, or have an overactive imagination."

Were there any common features/characteristics of turn-based RPGs that the team specfically decided to omit in Etrian Odyssey? Why were they removed?

In most turn-based RPGs, so long as your party is alive, you have as many turns as you want to win a battle. However, if you look at screenshots of Etrian Odyssey, you can see a turn counter. In some battles, you'll have to keep an eye on this, since completing a quest or obtaining an item depends on defeating the enemy in a certain number of turns.

That in itself isn't so innovative, but each turn also corresponds to 1 space of movement on the map. When there are mobile FOEs in an area, you'll have to finish the battle before the FOE arrives to join the fight, making your situation that much worse. Battles in Etrian Odyssey aren't meant to be just survived--the turn counter is there to add tension and encourage you to finish them as quickly as possible.

How would you describe the role of music in the game? Was it added mostly as an afterthought, or was it being composed as the dungeons and gameplay were being designed? Is the sound in the game ultimately disposable, or is it an integral part of the experience?

The music composition was an ongoing process, involving several drafts and versions, some of the earliest of which were made available on a preorder bonus CD in Japan.

Given that the general purpose of the game is to try to reinvigorate a foundering genre of game, the sound is thematically integrated in that it, too, is a style of music that fell out of fashion. Yuzo Koshiro's PC-88-based compositions are largely bypassed these days in favor of more symphonic music--but the game is striking a blow for the simplicity and "smallness" of games past, and in that respect Koshiro's music couldn't be more appropriate.

Is there anything the team wanted to do in Etrian Odyssey that they simply did not have the time or resources to accomplish? Can we expect these things in a sequel?

The game was originally scheduled for release in its home country of Japan several months earlier, but the project was shaping up so well that the developers were given extra time to complete their vision. So virtually everything Niinou and his team wanted to put in the game is in there, but I'm sure the remaining staffers at R&D1 have their own ideas that'll come out someday in a sequel.