Weekly Famitsu magazine #1799 released on May 25th included a launch feature for Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, with a cover illustration and an interview with the game’s development staff. The interviewees included character designer Yuji Himukai, sound composer Yuzo Koshiro, and an unnamed third member.
A summary of this interview has been published by Frontline Gaming Japan.
Yuji Himukai
- To provide more options for players and avoid thoughts on whether the graphics were new or old, fifth character class illustrations were added. They were also designed to feel fresh to existing fans.
- Some of tjhe new designs have design cues taken from Etrian Odyssey IV and Etrian Odyssey V, letting players roleplay while thinking of those more recent releases.
- The design for the box art came from Himukai looking at the representative classes of the first three games’ Japanese box art—the Alchemist, War Magus, and Sovereign—and then expanding that to incorporate other classes that a balance party would be composed of.
Yuzo Koshiro
- Koshiro thinks fondly of his 16 years working on the series, saying that it allowed him to return to his roots in creating game music.
- Atlus requested that the battle music for the sixth stratum in Etrian Odyssey III be changed, which Koshiro says is also something fans wanted, and that he desired himself. Koshiro made it an aggressive track, but one that fit with the other ones in the series, to highlight that segment’s challenges.
Other Development Staff
- The Etrian Odyssey series was originally made uniquely for the Nintendo DS specifications. With a change in hardware, the team had to look into making a brand new game. During that process, they decided to port the first three games, as they were not available on current generation platforms.
- Implementing the mapping system was what gave the team the most trouble, since the Nintendo Switch handles touch controls completely differently than the Nintendo DS. There were many delays involved in order to reach a level of fidelity they wanted.
- Implementation of mapping for the PC version was much easier, as nothing needed to be particularly done to adapt the Nintendo DS mapping to a mouse.
- Compared to all other titles from the Nintendo DS, Etrian Odyssey was the hardest for them to port to the current generation. Atlus feels that they’ve been able to figure out their mapping problem, and carry over the series’ three tenets: hand-drawn maps, free character customization, and tense adventures.
- The team plans to pay attention to feedback for Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection and use it for the upcoming Etrian Odyssey title.
Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection was released for the Nintendo Switch and Steam on June 1, 2023.