Etrian Odyssey 3 rewards versatile thinking and strategy, but will punish you for not thinking things through as well.
Game play in EO3 is very similar to EO 1 and 2, on the top screen you can see the labyrinth head on and on the bottom screen you see the map of the labyrinth which you flesh out your self with the stylus. As you explore monsters will occasionally attack you, the combat is turn based. Basically you explore as far as you can with out having your party wiped out. Once you reach your limit return to the city and rest, sell treasure, buy new equipment and items then save. You repeat this until you reach the end of the Labyrinth. There is also mini quests to complete for the bar lady as well as major story advancing quests to complete for the monarchy.
Two major new addition to the game is the ocean exploration. You get to discover the islands around Armoroad and take on even more mini quests for treasure and special weapons. During this kind of exploration you also get to map out everything with the stylus. The second new addition is sub classes, at a point in the game you can choose an additional class to be added to your characters and customize your characters even more.
The graphics are ok but lack detail and animation. Its easy to see what your looking at but there's a lot of generic backgrounds and this can bring a sense of tedium to the game when your retracing your steps a lot. In a nutshell there ok but that's about it.
The story is very bear-bones, you have a goal and little story to go with it. The game focuses mainly on exploration and combat. There is however two paths to take in this game, the pro Armoroad path and the versus Armoroad path. I have also heard there is a third path as well but it is not as obvious as the first two to follow.
As far as value is concerned there is huge bang for your buck here. For around $35 you get around 100 hours of game play and that's just the first play through. There is also a game + feature so multiple play throughs are possible, this game has lots of side quests and could take up to 200 hours + to collect and get everything.
Pros:
Multiple party combinations
Mapping is fun and easy
FOE's give you a strong sense of the Willies and avoiding them is exciting
(FOE's are very powerful monsters that are in low level areas)
Gives you a strong sense of accomplishment when you finally clear a area called a Stratum
Rewards versatile thinking and strategy
Lots of game play for a low price
Cons:
The game can be very punishing if you make any mistakes in class choice, it takes a long time to level up in this game.
Some grinding is necessary, but not as bad as the first two games.
Exploration can be tedious, more so when you run into a area or monster that you can't get pass.
GAME-PLAY: 8/10
GRAPHICS: 7/10
STORY: 7/10
VALUE: 10/10
OVERALL: 8/10