The bulk of Etrian Odyssey’s storyline is in the player’s mind. You create cipher characters from 9 classes, and imagine their personalities and interactions for yourself as you explore the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. Still, there is an overarching plot, as well as plenty of personality in the several dozen side quests, so there was plenty for a localization editor to do.

For the main story, the goal was to emphasize the player’s involvement by writing the text in a second person, present tense format that gives a sense of immediacy and agency. The narrator’s voice is a little lofty and flower, to go with the storybook feel, and NPC dialogue is presented as part of the narration. This was something we kept from the Japanese version, because it made everything feel more cohesive to have the narrator’s voice be part of everything you do.

Outside of the Labyrinth, things are handled a little differently. The characters in Etria’s various shops and facilities have their own voices, and their dialogue is more conventionally presented, without quotation marks and outside narration. You see this most during the pub quests, particularly in Valerie, the kind, motherly, but slightly patronizing barista who manages the quests.

(Speaking of Valerie, one thing that has changed in the English version is that more of the characters have names. Characters who in the Japanese version were identified only as “the bartender,” “the government official,” or “the doctor” were given names so players would feel more as if Etria was a functioning place, populated with real people.)

The best thing about working on Etrian Odyssey was a chance to tackle another scenario by Shigeo Komori, one of the most interesting story writers in the business. Etrian Odyssey’s plotline, although easily summarized and leaving plenty of room for interpretation, is free of many of the worst cliches of Japanese RPG stories. There aren’t any 1000-year-old evil empires, or angst pretty-boy villains, or plucky young heroes fighting for true peace. Instead, there are buried themes of ecological danger, a subtle critique of take-no-prisoners capitalism, and even (believe it or not) veiled political allegory.

Working on stories as good as his is all an editor can ask for; the quality source material demands that we step up our game to do it justice, and I hope you enjoy the final product.