This week sees the release of Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, a compendium of the cult dungeon-crawler series which gained so many fans on the Nintendo DS.
The franchise began life in 2007, and would see two more sequels on the DS before moving to the 3DS. Yuzo Koshiro – the legend behind the soundtracks to Streets of Rage, Revenge of Shinobi and ActRaiser – composed the music and has given us a wee piece of trivia to celebrate the Origins Collection release:
When asked how he created the sound in his late teens, Koshiro replied:
I brought a tape recorder to the amusement arcade, placed it near the speaker on the cabinet, and recorded FZ music. Later, I transcribed it by ear while listening to the tape and programmed the song using MML with my PC88SR.
You can hear the battle theme, along with others from the series, in the video below:
"Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection feels like an odd release to recommend, but we’d be doing you a disservice to suggest you pass on it," said our friends over at Nintendo Life in a 7/10 review. "Etrian Origins Collection may not be the 'definitive’ re-release that many hoped it would be, but these games are well-respected in the DRPG space for good reason and it's great to see them on Switch."