Nintendo fans in Australia will finally have some reasons to celebrate: both the Wii and the DS have reached impressive milestones in sales numbers, and fans will finally have a number of new titles to chew on in the upcoming months. The numbers and the list of upcoming games for Australia in the full article!

  

If there ever was a game so sadistic, so merciless in its execution, so single-mindedly methodical in making a player's life difficult enough that the individual either breaks down and cries, or simply chucks his portable game system into a wall - Etrian Odyssey would be its older, tougher brother. The one that has the tattoos and eats broken glass sandwiches for lunch.

If you've played any of this generation's roleplaying games (or even last generation) and found them challenging, perhaps difficult - mayhap you could even say they were hard - then say hi to the game that you will look back on say, "At least it's not as hard as THAT GAME."

This is the review for Atlus' Etrian Odyssey, or more commonly referred to as You Can't Win, or OMG A DEER JUST KILLED MY ENTIRE PARTY BLARGHSLARGHSDF.

The entire review after the jump!

We have here some screens of Atlus' offering for the Nintendo DS, Etrian Odyssey. The game has been released in Japan for two months now and US gamers (specifically RPG fans) are bound to get and play with it on Q2 2007. Just to refresh your memory, the game's story revolves around the town of Etria - a peaceful place until a gap that leads to a labyrinth was discovered at the recesses of the Etria forest.

Curiosity killed the cat as Etria folks dreamed of exploring the labyrinth and discovering its treasures - and this is where you enter the picture. You will be playing as one of the hopeful who have just walked through the town's gates. You could check out the game's features here in our previous article, for now, take a look at these screens.

More Etrian Odyssey screens after the jump!

With just a month to go before Etrian Odyssey hits retail stores' shelves in Japan, there's certainly no stopping this DS offering of Atlus from making its presence more felt.

We have here for you today in import teaser video for the game. And as it is imported from the land of the rising sun (that would be Japan, for those who don't know their Geography), it is in Japanese. But don't you worry, 'cos we guarantee that foreign language skills ain't required to enjoy and appreciate this vid.

Anyhow, the game is set to be released in Japan on the 18th of January, while there's still an undetermined date as of yet for its U. S. release. The time set, though, is for the first quarter of 2007.

 

Atlus has released illustrations of the beautiful artwork in Etrian Odyssey. The game was created by the talented director of Trauma Centre and story designer of the Shin Megami Tensei games so expect great things! The game will be released in the first quarter of 2007 and has not been rated by the ESRB. They're going for a T or E10+ rating.

Clicking the thumbnails will give you an enlarged version, but if you want the biggest possible size, click "Full Size Image" after the picture comes up in our image viewer. There's more after the jump!

Earlier today, we reported that Atlus is bringing the RPG Seikaijuu No Meikyuu to the US under the name of Etrian Odyssey. Gameplay details were thoroughly dealt with in that article, so we'll keep this one sparse to make space for the truckloads of screenshots.

Suffice to say, Etrian Odyssey looks like another solid RPG offering for DS owners and from what we've seen so far, when Atlus picks up a title for US release, they have a good reason to do so. But check it out yourselves with the following screens that show off many locations and the battle system of the game.

Screenshots await after the jump!

Good news to RPG fans! Atlus U.S.A. has just announced that they will be releasing the RPG title Etrian Odyssey for Nintendo DS by early 2007. Etrian Odyssey is actually the English name for the Japanese RPG Sekaiju no Meikyuu, which is due to be released in Japan this October.

Featuring an all-star team that features director Kazuya Niinou, story designer Shigeo Komori, and sound designer Yuzo Koshiro, Etrian Odyssey is a story that revolves around the once-peaceful town of Etria. One day, a gap that leads to a labyrinth was discovered at the edge of the forest of Etria and soon, young and old dreamed of exploring the labyrinth and discovering its treasures. You will play as one of the hopeful who have just walked through the town's gates.

A good old dungeon-crawling game, this title is expected to receive either an E10+ or T rating from the ESRB.

Other features of this game which have been listed include:

• Make your own maps with the Touch Screen! Plot your progress through the labyrinth, drawing walls and placing icons to note special events, treasure chests, doors, pits, stairs, and landmarks.
• Nine character classes. Create a woodland survivalist, shield-bearing templar, whip-wielding dark hunter, or any of a half-dozen other types. Populate an adventurer’s guild with up to 20 characters.
• Turn-based strategic combat. Acquire and collect more than 20 battle skills for your adventuring party of five characters.
• Beautiful 3D graphics. Say goodbye to the dank, gray corridors of past dungeon RPGs as you step into warm, inviting, forest environments rendered in an original 3D engine.

The title sounds very promising, but we'll have to wait before we can say anything conclusive about the game itself. In the meantime, we've included some scans from Famitsu as well as a couple of screenshots for you to check out while you try to decide if this game is for you.