4.5/5 ★ – Lancey's review of Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth.

First off- BUY THE PHYSICAL COPY IF YOU CAN. Atlus treats their customers right, you get a full-color art book, and full-color manual, and the soundtrack, in all its fantastical jazzy goodness. Digital buyers are missing out. On the negative side, however, they have introduced both cosmetic and XP-grinding DLC in this game, nothing too in your face or must-have for a single-player game (most of the skins are meh anyway). Still, it loses at least a point for that. In any case, it's still your classic Etrian Odyssey adventure, but now with robust character customization- you can choose between your normal multiple character art models but change hair color, eye color, and it has 60 different voices to outfit your characters with. When it comes to the gameplay itself, they even scaled it back a little, no more weird trips in a balloon. Your goal is to get to the top of the tree. I enjoy the classes more than previous installments, there are less "must-have" classes (though Dragoon does still seem pretty necessary) and now there are races and race-specific skills to see you through. The voice acting is surprisingly good, and really does add an element that was not there before. The challenge is still more than there and it still has Atlus' special charm. If you want an RPG for grown-ups and fans of classic RPGs, any game in the EO series is a must-have, and EOV is a contender for best in the series so far.