Yet Another Main Character Has Amnesia But You’ll Still Want to Check It Out –
Built as a remake and reimagining of the original game that came out about six years ago, Millennium Girl is basically like getting two RPGs in one. Classic Mode is a 3D remake of the original DS game and it is up to the player to build a customized party of different classes. Although there is a story aspect of Classic Mode, the focus is on grinding for XP and drawing your own maps throughout labyrinth dungeon environments. On the other hand, Story Mode almost takes a 180 degree turn by having a fixed party of specific characters with a heavier emphasis on the narrative. This Story Mode is much better suited to new comers as the anime cutscenes and colorful graphics are easier to deal with than challenging labyrinth monster grinding.
The anime cutscenes are rather colorful
One of the biggest gimmicks of the Etrian series is the ability to draw your own maps using the touch screen while all the action takes place on the top half the 3DS system. This map system is black or white though; RPG fans will most likely find this old school style of gameplay endearing and rewarding while newbies might find cartography tedious. Either way, map making can be an intimidating task since some areas are overly massive. The Grimoire Stone feature, which binds enemy skills to a given character, provides variation and character customization that any RPG fan will appreciate; any player can easily spend hours customizing. In a way, it is borrows properties from the Materia system in Final Fantasy VII.
Expect to spend some time in the menus
As detailed as Millennium Girl is there are some drawbacks that really hold back the entire experience from being the top tier game that it strives to be. The limited inventory system, specially the amount of revival items, can make dungeon spelunking more tedious than it needs to be – having to travel back and forth through floors of dungeons just to sell some junk to clear up space or to revive a low HP’ed healer is always chore especially since most battles provide a higher degree of challenge. And since this game can easily take up 50 hours of your life, it sucks that there is only a single save slot especially since there is a new game + mode.
Stay away from crab peoples
Millennium Girl is probably the best game for newcomers to jump into the series and is yet another enjoyable RPG on the 3DS hardware. Fans are bound to appreciate the new features and modes built into this lengthy game and the inclusion of stereoscopic 3D, anime cutscenes, and bonus content for pre-orderers give the typical Atlus dedicated treatment and highly coveted presentation values. But if you are still on the fence on whether or not this is a game for you, download the free demo from the eShop. If you like it, game data transfers over the full game which is available at retail for full download from Nintendo’s online marketplace.
Better Than: using paper and pen to draw maps
Also Check Out: any other Altus 3DS game
Wait For It: a new Ogre Battle
By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com