The classic Atlus dungeon crawler RPG for Nintendo DS, Etrian Odyssey, is coming to PC via Steam. In an effort to increase the audience of this franchise, the company announced that PC gamers would also get access to enhanced versions of the three first games of the series on their favorite platforms later this year. It won't just be Nintendo Switch players, as originally announced during Nintendo Direct this week.
Originally launched between 2007 and 2010 for the Nintendo DS, the three games that will be part of Atlus’ Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection are dungeon-crawling JRPGs. In the franchise, the player controls a party of adventurers that face turn-based battles while walking in grid-based dungeons or outdoor locations. While Atlus is more well-known for famous franchises such as Megami Tensei and its Persona series in the West, this dungeon crawling RPG has still managed to sell over 1.5 million copies so far.
Now, in the new trailer, players can see some of the remade scenes from Etrian Odyssey, Etrian Odyssey 2: Heroes of Lagaard, and Etrian Odyssey 3: The Drowned City, which will be compiled and released on Steam on July 1st. This new version will include HD graphics for all three games and allow players to experience these RPGs on a big screen for the first time ever.
The release of Etrian Odyssey is part of a trend that has been increasing in intensity lately: Japanese companies releasing their games on Steam. There are many examples of that in the last few years, especially when considering JRPGs. Atlus’ own Persona 5 Royal, Square Enix’s Tactics Ogre: Reborn, and the Yakuza series from Sega were all fairly big hits on the PC game platforms and showed Japanese studios that there’s money to be made with PC ports.
PC fans will certainly be pleased to get their first chance of playing this saga on the big screen with enhanced graphics. In fact, Etrian Odyssey’s real roots can actually be traced back to computer RPGs. The series’ gameplay is loosely inspired by the granddaddy of PC gaming’s dungeon crawlers: Wizardry, a very difficult RPG. Originally launched in 1980, the series has been a huge hit in the early PC gaming world, but it went largely forgotten in the West as the genre faded in the 2000s. However, it’s still massive in Japan, which explains the popularity of the dungeon-crawling genre there and why the Etrian Odyssey Trilogy Collection is here now.
Etrian Odyssey Trilogy Collection will be released on June 1st for the Nintendo Switch and PC.