Play Sekaiju No Meikyuu (J) Online

Game Overview

Sekaiju No Meikyuu (known as Etrian Odyssey in the West) is one of those DS RPGs that makes you feel like an old-school cartographer—because you literally draw your own maps as you explore. The first time I played, I spent way too long trying to make my grid lines neat before realizing monsters don’t care about your artistic skills.

It’s brutal in that classic dungeon-crawler way: you’ll get ambushed by FOEs (those big roaming enemies), wipe out halfway through a floor, and question all your party composition choices. But there’s something weirdly satisfying about slowly filling in each floor’s map with notes like “trap here” or “avoid the giant scorpion.”

If you like RPGs where preparation matters more than button mashing, this one’s got your back. Just don’t forget to stock up on healing items before diving too deep.