That Feeling of Desperation -- The Survival Horror RPG

The labyrinth is dark, and in the center of my current room sits a large pulsating fireball. In actuality, the fireball is a T-rex creature, armed to the teeth with massive Fangs that are seemingly ready to rip chunks from my party members' faces. Yet, the F.O.E. calls, beckons to me: take up this near-impossible challenge, succeed above all odds, and you and your guild will ultimately feel like a bunch of badasses -- but deep down I know that facing this pulsating doom in the center of the room certainly means quick, painful destruction. I'd have to turn my game off. I don't want to stop playing.

I can't stop playing.

Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard can be likened to Resident Evil in the fact that both games are oh-my-god scary. Like, crap-your-pants scary. Like, please-oh-please-F.O.E-don't-follow-me-into-that-corner-or-I-don't-know-what-I'll-do scary. Sometimes, I even cry a little. But that's okay. It's fine to have a good cry every now and then when your party members are obliterated by mutant elk.

Like Resident Evil, Etrian Odyssey II leaves you stranded in an unfamiliar place with nothing but a few spells, weapons, and medicine. You have a map. It's blank. You have to fill it out as you go along; otherwise, you just might take a wrong corner into something you don't want to take a wrong corner into. T-rexes and mutant elk, for example.

But you're literally surviving -- the game is about making it as far as you can into a labyrinth that supposedly leads to the sky or something. It's your job as explorers to find out what lies beyond and perhaps even knock a few heads along the way. Or even get your head knocked in a few times. Or many times. Or too many to count!

Especially by mutant elk.


Edit: More recently, I was killed by a pumpkin, too. GODDAMN!