Yeah, I remember now, I was supposed to write my feedback on this game.
For context, I am too young to have played any of the game's inspirations, so it is my first time playing something like this.
I played this game on three occasions, once with the initial browser build, once with the gba version on an emulator and once on the updated browser build.
The initial browser build was unstable as it was easy to lose the focus of the game. It is how I ended my first playthrough early.
The gba version was functional but was quite slow after having played the quite faster browser build. Also for some reason, something like one input on four wasn't registered at all (maybe an emulator bug?) which made the game feel even slower. Despite having save states, it is not on this version that I finished the game.
The updated browser build worked well. This time I used the ultimate artefact of any Etrian Odyssey game: paper and pencils. With a map,I was easily able to beat the game.
The game has two main gameplays exploration and combat:
Exploration:
Exploration was at first uninviting, as everything seemed the same and I was easily lost. However, after using the legendary map, exploring isn’t actually that hard. Without the anxiety of being lost, it actually gives the opportunity to contemplate the scenery a little more, and notice that rooms are actually less similar than they first appear. There are also secrets hidden (I found a second party member and two medic packs).
Combat:
There may be a pretty complex battle system out there, but if it is the case, it is very obscure. From my observation, attack does sometimes a few damage, defend may reduce incoming damage, special is similar to attack, run gives roughly 50% chance of escaping. The best way to deal with battles is, well, to run away, as winning doesn't seem to give any advantage. The second best way is to mash the attack button. The current system is quite similar to what you could find in the very early game of a dragon quest, which means it isn’t very engaging. It really needs a boss or something to raise the stakes.
There are a lot of things that could be added to this game, like sounds to begin with, but given the game is supposed to work on very limited platforms, I don’t know how relevant my suggestions would be.