Seriously. I was skeptical of this game before I bought it. I had never played any dungeon crawler before, let alone an EO game, and having read about the extreme difficulty level and having to draw your own maps I thought it might be a little too hardcore for me. However, between just beating Fire Emblem Awakening and no other games being released until Luigi's Mansion that I wanted to play, I decided to give it a shot.

Soooooooo happy that I did! The game play is deep and challenging, but not frustrating. The characters are highly customizable. The graphics, although not on par with FE, are colourful and pleasing to look at. The map drawing is actually very satisfying. I've come to take great pride in my maps and love making them as accurate and detailed as possible.

My concerns about difficulty were unwarrented as there is a casual mode that you can toggle on or off at any time, but I actually haven't used it yet. The game is very challenging and unfogiving, but it's not hard to grind so you can eventually overpower an enemy even if you can't figure out the proper strategy to beat them. Be prepared to save the game a lot, though, and know that one-shot kills are not uncommon. Death is almost always avoidable, though, if you are smart about your movement around more powerful monsters that you're not ready for yet.

So, having said all that, am I alone in my love for EO 4? I'm not seeing it get any love on these forums whch is a shame because it's a fantastic game. I believe it's sitting at an 87 on Metacritic with an 8.9 from user reviews so it's definitely being well received by those who actually give it a chance and play it. Why are my fellow VGCers failing to recogize this little gem?

I went out looking for that this weekend, but couldn't find it anywhere.  I'll either wait till I find it in-store, or I will order a copy on-line.  Either way, I definitely plan to get it.  I have 2 & 3, and still need to get my hands on the first one.

I'm so wanting this game. I'm european, so I can't play it yet. I played Etrian Odyssey I and this is a great game, very good classical turn-based RPG. I love the first and I probably would love the fourth, if I get the game! It's announced for Spring, that probably means I have to wait until May.

It's a great game. For the newbies, it's also the most accessible of the series by far, and while grinding is even less necessary than in prior titles, it's also easier to do if you're so inclined (i.e. a wuss). There's also an Easy difficulty.

yeah I'm seriously considering this game, played the demo and it was like "absorbing" I'm even considering to get the DS ones

A nice tip for you EO newbies, make sure to have at least 2 Ariadne Threads n you at all times encase those damn squirrels come back in this game to steal them again..

I liked the gameplay mechanics but I prefer more story driven RPGs on a handheld.

I just decided to skip this one in favor of MH3U.

I completely blanked on it.  THought it was coming out next month, thank you for reminding me.  Will look around and see if I can find a copy.

I didn't find it in a store either. I only checked one EB (Canadian version of Game Stop) though, and then just went home and bought it from the e-shop. I bought FE from the e-shop, too. I'm trying to make good use of my 32mb sd card =)

Everybody sure is dragging their feet reviewing this game. Sounds like it's pretty good though. I haven't played EO before, but I like the sound of it.