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[Seraphis Cain]

Lay a trail of explosives and blow up a whole swarm of bugs at once. Because your bombs won't just hit the front row of enemies they're probably one of the best weapons in those tight tunnels.

Also mission 4 is useful for getting a first step into higher difficulties. Especially the Air Raider benefits there as vehicles cannot be web-pulled and the Gigantus gives some decent damage output. With an Epsilon it gets even easier.

A few things:

Play online with other players and it won't matter so much if you're underpowered (as long as they're not underpowered).

Play split-screen by yourself and use the other controller to control a more competitive class type. Just let your Air Raider or other unused character pick up weapons when things calm down.

Also, Mission 11 remains a great place to grind for items offline.

Thanks for the advice, but as I said, I finally found a mission where I can easily grind with Air Raider for decent drops. And actually, DLC mission 2 on Easy is even better once you have the Epsilon. The Hectors go down in two shots and are funneled straight to you through a choke point (at least at the beginning) so it's super easy to take them down. I'm fine now that I have the ZE-GUN (which seriously should have been something you get right from the start) and Epsilon. Also have the Satellite Cannon, which is pretty good.

I just don't want to be forced to play online to get a class up to the point where it's at the very least usable, since much like other B-tier Japanese games, the online is sure to die out almost completely within a few months of launch (Anarchy Reigns, I'm looking at you). And doing the split-screen method just seems...I dunno, cheap or something. I wanna feel like I've earned the weapons I get. Just a personal thing, really.

But yeah, it's no problem now. I've got enough decent stuff with both Air Raider and Fencer now that soloing with them doesn't feel impossible anymore.

 

[KDR_11k]

Meh, I main Air Raider and still haven't played multiplayer or downloaded the DLC, Limpets are great all-rounders, they can do AOE, sniping and DPS decently. The Grape works as a combat vehicle for the first few missions where you don't need the firepower of a Gigantus and ammo is more necessary.

 

[Dazzyman]

I've just bought the DLC mission packs. We're do you access them as there not showing up for 1p? Thanks in advance x

 

[eastx]

I've just bought the DLC mission packs. We're do you access them as there not showing up for 1p? Thanks in advance x

You pick them from the main menu, the same place where you choose between single-player, versus, and online.

 

[Dazzyman]

Thanks. Must have been a bug as didn't show up first time until did a reset. Did the first dlc on easy with a fencer, damn tough with low level and just scraped by (damn red ants). Got some gorgeous drops on 2nd go to compliment with Air for dual attack.

I played it online last night with a full room of friends. Fantastic game, very relaxing and we got plenty of drops. I'm glad I took a punt on this and went on friends saying to me it's a must buy rather than te usual let's get it wrong western reviews. I think it's great, L4D vibe with more depth and Borderlands loot. It ain't that clunky either, frame rate is solid especially with the amount of destruction.

If you never played em before, don't think.....Buy and squash those bugs. Do you want to live forever?

 

[KDR_11k]

Are the DLCs worth it? The Season Pass has a 2 star rating on PSN...

 

[culafia]

Just beat the game today. Great final missions, but I stand by this game being a big step down from 2017 mission-wise. I can only deal with so many nearly identical dropship or underground cave entrance missions, and

Spoiler

dragons

got overused to the point of killing what was so exciting about them. Also, the fact that there are only

Spoiler

2

2025-exclusive boss monsters and

Spoiler

both of them

are extremely back-loaded made all of the lengthy horde missions feel that much more repetitious. Also, fuck every ocean side warehouse port mission. I really despised that location. Additionally, fuck giving air raiders EXCLUSIVE vehicle spawns. The fact that I can't be a ranger and hop in a mission-placed tank or Vegalta really sucks.

The base gameplay is excellent, and better than 2017 by a landslide with the 4 classes; the missions, while getting repetitious and too bloated, had some real classics. I think that game could have went a lot further if the game cut out the 20 shittiest missions and added 5 more boss fights that were evenly spread throughout the game. I also think a "Tough" difficulty to sit between Normal and Hard would have kept my first run through from constantly treading the line between piss-easy and impossible.

Overall, the tightness of 2017 and my stance that 2025 feels spread-thin makes me prefer the former.

 

[Big_Al]

So I bought the season pass today and its supposed to give all 3 packs for free but I'm still seeing a price for the first DLC pack with only the second being free (and third unreleased)

Anyone else get this ? Is the season pass bugged ?

 

[klaus]

Just beat the game today. Great final missions, but I stand by this game being a big step down from 2017 mission-wise. I can only deal with so many nearly identical dropship or underground cave entrance missions, and

Spoiler

dragons

got overused to the point of killing what was so exciting about them. Also, the fact that there are only

Spoiler

2

2025-exclusive boss monsters and

Spoiler

both of them

are extremely back-loaded made all of the lengthy horde missions feel that much more repetitious. Also, fuck every ocean side warehouse port mission. I really despised that location. Additionally, fuck giving air raiders EXCLUSIVE vehicle spawns. The fact that I can't be a ranger and hop in a mission-placed tank or Vegalta really sucks.

The base gameplay is excellent, and better than 2017 by a landslide with the 4 classes; the missions, while getting repetitious and too bloated, had some real classics. I think that game could have went a lot further if the game cut out the 20 shittiest missions and added 5 more boss fights that were evenly spread throughout the game. I also think a "Tough" difficulty to sit between Normal and Hard would have kept my first run through from constantly treading the line between piss-easy and impossible.

Overall, the tightness of 2017 and my stance that 2025 feels spread-thin makes me prefer the former.

Well written critique, I agree with most points. Haven't encountered many of the boss fights yet (right now in the mid 50s levels), but I am pretty sure the most negative points you make don't apply to me: there might be some missions that are not essential to the game, but as a person that has played 2017 for at least 200 hours, I don't care if there are some less exciting missions, since I can easily skip them and concentrate on the masterpieces when replaying the levels for x times

 

[Seraphis Cain]

So watching the credits roll now, and holy shit I had no idea the OST was done by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda. The composers of the No More Heroes and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles OSTs (among others).

 

[Dazzyman]

Just beat the game today. Great final missions, but I stand by this game being a big step down from 2017 mission-wise. I can only deal with so many nearly identical dropship or underground cave entrance missions, and

Spoiler

dragons

got overused to the point of killing what was so exciting about them. Also, the fact that there are only

Spoiler

2

2025-exclusive boss monsters and

Spoiler

both of them

are extremely back-loaded made all of the lengthy horde missions feel that much more repetitious. Also, fuck every ocean side warehouse port mission. I really despised that location. Additionally, fuck giving air raiders EXCLUSIVE vehicle spawns. The fact that I can't be a ranger and hop in a mission-placed tank or Vegalta really sucks.

The base gameplay is excellent, and better than 2017 by a landslide with the 4 classes; the missions, while getting repetitious and too bloated, had some real classics. I think that game could have went a lot further if the game cut out the 20 shittiest missions and added 5 more boss fights that were evenly spread throughout the game. I also think a "Tough" difficulty to sit between Normal and Hard would have kept my first run through from constantly treading the line between piss-easy and impossible.

Overall, the tightness of 2017 and my stance that 2025 feels spread-thin makes me prefer the former.

Have you done any online as the game comes into its own with a group of friends. Just like Borderlands series.

 

[KDR_11k]

Finally finished, for the last few missions I was mostly using a SkyTrap Wire 12W (spider line shooter, great for anti-air) and Epsilon ME2, these are ~lv40 items so they're kinda OP for Normal mode but being OP is half the fun . Setting up a good shooting angle for the Epsilon on some of the higher-flying enemies (especially the final boss) is a challenge though. It's really powerful as a heavy sniper weapon, how do other classes fare with lv40 sniper weapons? The Epsilon ME2 has 3300 damage, 25 ammo, practically infinite range and shoots about 1/sec. Between the Epsilon and the Naegling the Air Raider seems to be one of the stronger long range options.

 

[AndyMoogle]

So watching the credits roll now, and holy shit I had no idea the OST was done by Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda. The composers of the No More Heroes and Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles OSTs (among others).

I had to check if they've worked on any other EDF, and it turns out that they've done the soundtracks for all EDF games. I guess it makes sense that God Hand, most of Grasshopper's earlier titles and EDF share the same composers.

 

[KDR_11k]

Speaking of credits, how many developers are there? Looks like 20-30 at most. And people keep whining that it doesn't look as good as AAA games that have 500-600 developers... This is why gaming went downhill in the PS2-PS3 transition, all the smaller teams that provided the variety on the fringes died out.

 

[culafia]

Trying to figure out how to armor farm most effectively on my ranger. I haven't started DLC 2 yet (I've only done one mission into the first pack), and that tunnel entrance Mission 15 trick can only get me around 200 every 3 hours.

What have you guys been doing? The infamous DLC 2 Mission 16?

 

[KDR_11k]

Reviewers like to call EDF "so bad it's good" and "deliberately bad", we know that's not what we're playing it for but I get the feeling that it isn't what Sandlot is intending either. Unlike Insect Armageddon the story does not appear to be meant as a joke. The impression I get from the game is that all the jank and stuff comes from a combination of high ambition combined with low manpower, Sandlot only has a small dev team so they have to prioritize and they favor adding more stuff to polishing the existing stuff. The opposite prioritization would be Duke Nukem Forever which, according to 3D Realms, simply took so long because they had too little manpower for their goal of delivering a state-of-the-art game. Am I misinterpreting anything here?

I guess EDF gets extra jank from being so free-form, more polished modern games are tightly controlled with very narrow playing fields and tweaked pacing and stuff. EDF simply puts you on a huge map and lets you fight. That makes it look bad in videos because there's of course no pacing, you often have long periods of walking between enemy groups.

As far as playing the game, I wish I had some sort of flak vehicle in my armory. Naeglings are really more of an artillery vehicle and don't deal with enemies up close very well, the Proteus kinda gets away with it but that's because a Proteus gets away with anything. I don't think any of my vehicles can aim up well.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

Best improvement in 2025 over Insect Armageddon: Never having to hear the term "Oscar Mike".

 

[Gozer the Gozerian]

Oh man I was playing this with a friend, Geist 3 is such a fun Air Raider weapon, on those missions with a giant wall of hectors you'd just be locking on to 3 at a time, let off a volley of a dozen or so, rinse and repeat down the line, and then 30 seconds later the projectiles finally hit and everything blows up in a giant pink explosion.

Then the giant swarm of flying ships comes in and the projectiles are worthlessly slow but constantly tracking their target so eventually we just had a giant maelstrom of literally hundreds and hundreds of circling glowing pink orbs occasionally colliding with the swarm of flyers.

 

[natsuyasumi]

Yeah, the "so bad it's good" stuff is ignorant. EDF games foster a certain type of hilariously excessive, anarchic action better than just about any other games. This is not by accident. It took a lot of talent to make that happen, and have it be so addictive and fun.

I also disagree with most of the frequent graphics criticism, especially in 2025. The graphics are quite good now IMO, outside of still-missing details like enemy bodies and debris popping out of existence rather than fading. Even in EDF2 I was very impressed with the game's modeling of everyday Japanese cities and burbs on both a small and large scale.

(The underground/cave level visuals are in fact bad, though.)

 

[hikarutilmitt]

My fascination with watching an ant body go flying after a particularly powerful explosion will probably never end. In fact, it was made even better in this by the limbs coming off, occasionally.

But man, screw Retiarius.

 

[Seraphis Cain]

So what's everyone's gameplay timers looking like? I'm at 65 hours.

 

[klaus]

So what's everyone's gameplay timers looking like? I'm at 65 hours.

Got 30 hours now, and still much left to do with my fencer (Inferno will be brutal I fear). This game will definitely keep me busy for the next months.

 

[eastx]

Some useful links found by others that I've been spreading around:

Japanese weapons list, translated:
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&ie=UTF-8&tl=en&u=http://weapon.edf.jpn.com/

English weapons list:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BzMFU1jQ797wRzItUFZsLTlBSzQ/edit?usp=sharing

Levels the weapons appear in:

http://translate.google.com/transla...ww50.atwiki.jp/edf_4/pages/124.html&sandbox=1

"Get weapons level" shows what missions drop the various levels of weapons.

DPS charts:

• Ranger: http://www50.atwiki.jp/edf_4/pages/19.html
• Wing Diver: http://www50.atwiki.jp/edf_4/pages/20.html
• Air Raider: http://www50.atwiki.jp/edf_4/pages/21.html
• Fencer: http://www50.atwiki.jp/edf_4/pages/22.html

PTFP is Pure Total Firepower (DPS without reload factored in). TTFP is Tactical Total Firepower (DPS with reload factored in).

Technique for farming items while idle.
Requires 2 controllers, rubber bands, and is done on Mission 15.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePLtt-y7mSM

Instructions from video:

1. Kill EDF commander. This will stop all the grunts from progressing. Do not kill or recruit the grunts. They will kill the ants from the first nest and will stay there.

2. Ignore the ants and go directly for the nest. After destroying it, immediately go for the second nest, killing the ants that spawn. Position Wing Diver on a rooftop aiming toward the emergence point.

2. Aim slightly upwards to send the ants flying the moment they spawn, which reduces the other character's movement in the pit (the large bodies will move him/her around). Make sure she aims at open sky as there are medium height buildings that can rebound ants and block them from blasting off at the speed of light. Alternatively, destroy the buildings.

3. Check back once in a while to see if your other character has moved out of the pit and optionally pick up the drops.

4. Go to the Winchester, have a nice cold pint, and wait for all of this to blow over.

Notes: This was recorded on normal difficulty. With a better Rapier, I can see this working on higher difficulties. During this session, my Ranger moved around the edge of the pit but never left the pit. Your luck may vary.

This is what it looked like after half an hour: http://i.imgur.com/2Im8yPG.jpg

 

[SleepMachine]

So I bought the season pass today and its supposed to give all 3 packs for free but I'm still seeing a price for the first DLC pack with only the second being free (and third unreleased)

Anyone else get this ? Is the season pass bugged ?

I'm having the same issue. Maybe this is why the Season Pack only has a two star rating?

 

[eastx]

Here's my EDF 2025 review. Another positive review, and it's extra thorough too!

 

[klaus]

Here's my EDF 2025 review. Another positive review, and it's extra thorough too!

Well written review, and quite thorough indeed - learned a few new things about the game by reading it, thumbs up!

Edit: I'm somehow unhappy to be practically forced to use split screen in order to advance faster (the point about getting the level medal for both players in the review makes split screen even more enticing) - but wasting half of the screen estate sucks, so I'll probably stick to the slow mode when not farming. Great game anyways

 

[Exr]

Anybody running into system freezes with this game? 3 so far over about 40 hours, might be the system but I'm curious. Having issues with those damn spiders that shoot the life draining web, sometimes I swear they get me through buildings...

Otherwise I'm still loving it. A bit frustrating playing online at times with people attempting hard mode with level 0-10 gear but fun nonetheless. Do you guys usually play together? Would love to try some of the later missions on hard (50-onwards)

 

[mullet2000]

I've been playing this game on and off for two weeks and hmmm...I'm a -little- disappointed to be honest.

First off, I think they could have tightened up the game a bit better. The game has 85 missions vs 2017's 60ish, but a lot of the missions feel like carbon copies of each other in the exact same area, or are very short (kill 5 spider webs, okay you're done) and thus pointless. As well a couple feel pulled right out of 2017. I think removing the levels that are TOO similar to 2017, choping down on the unnecessary ones that offer no challenge or are repetitive and getting that level count from 85 to about 60 would have been a good idea.

I've had issues where air units don't aggro and are too far in the air for me to hit, making me restart the mission. Obviously a glitch, still annoying.

I love the idea of multiple classes but that also means unless you want to do some insane grinding you're going to always stick to one class. I mean, sure, grinding is inherent to EDF but my previous issue of the missions feeling padded out makes this issue more obvious in this game to me. Not only do the missions not feel unique and feel like repeats...you have to do them all multiple times over per difficulty just the play as other classes. Maybe I'm not getting the point across here but this felt very annoying in this game where as I didn't have an issue in the shorter EDF2017.

Anyway, yeah. We'll see if I stick with it but I feel pretty burnt out on it already, whereas I didn't feel that way about 2017 or 2017 portable. The game is certainly better than Insect Armageddon but 2017 Portable is still king for me. It's a good game but not as good as I'd hoped, I think.

 

[KDR_11k]

What do people think about the support structures of the Air Raider? Especially the plasma charger, how much does that help a Wing Diver? I'm wondering how much I should prioritize them.

Anybody running into system freezes with this game? 3 so far over about 40 hours, might be the system but I'm curious. Having issues with those damn spiders that shoot the life draining web, sometimes I swear they get me through buildings...

I think it's just that the web shots arc but the pull doesn't so if they shoot over a building they will then try to pull you through that building. I wish it was a faster and shorter pull, killing the Retarius takes a long time especially with four players.

 

[Dr Zhivago]

All the spiders can fire webbing through buildings, same as 2017. I guess running collision checks would hurt the framerate too much

Spoiler

lol

.

 

[Moosehole]

Got an extra code for the Special Ops Mission Pack on PS3. Code is for NA. Post if you redeemed it please.

DM77-Q8NN-PR72

 

[popyea]

I've been playing split screen with my brother and having a blast. The promise of better weapon drops enticed us to play on Hardest for most missions, which makes the game equal parts frustrating and addictive. It's just really good tense fun when insects can kill you really easily, so you're constantly trying to position yourself well and also having to rescue your partner.

 

[DoubleTap]

Any tips for the last stage? I've been going through it on easy to increase my armor (reached 800) before going to Normal and above.

I'm just confused as to which targets to prioritize. By the time the last act comes on, I've been peppered by enough laser fire, I don't have enough health to finish it. Also, the health drops are rare to none in this mission.

 

[KDR_11k]

I just sit in my tank (Epsilon ME2, fires >4000 damage rounds that pierce enemies) and shoot at targets of opportunity... Was at like 500 armor at that point but the tank has 6000 (vehicle armor doesn't count for as much as infantry armor because they're so big that they take WAAAAY more hits). Prioritize opportunities to kill entire hexes (the ones that open or the ones that are always open) to get a line of fire on the brain. When you do enough damage to make the brain go into its next phase all hexes disappear anyway. In the final phase you don't have to wait for hexes to open anymore.

Killing a hex drops 3 items I believe, depends on your class whether you're mobile enough to reach those of course.

 

[Undead Bokun]

Yeah, the last stage has been giving me and my friend a bit of trouble. I am a Fencer and he is Wing Diver. My slow speed/limited mobility has really been getting to me on this stage despite not bothering me before. Especially if I get too close to a wall and the camera goes "inside" of me. We tried opening the room to random players but that hasn't helped so eventually we just went back to farm some weapons and armor. Of course all the good stuff we have been getting is over the weapon limit...heh.

 

[magnetic]

So incredibly pumped for this game!

Got EDF2017 for 6€ on the Vita, was kinda bored through most of it - but powered through to unlock Pale Wing, and suddenly the game got 999x times more fun. The increased mobility coupled with the energy bar makes for some very nice risk/reward gameplay - pacing myself with the huge energy blasts to keep some energy for dodge-flying is very exciting. On the one hand it´s pretty lame that they make you play through the whole game first - on the other hand, it made me appreciate the mechanics of Pale Wing that much more.

The thing that sold me on 2025 was the sweet new design for the Wing Diver, as well as the very cool sound effects. It also looks like they really upped the animation quality, which really suprised me.

Four classes also sounds like huge bonus for replayablility. This game is just pure comfort food to me.

I very rarely buy games full price, but 44€ isn´t all THAT much, and I just don´t wanna wait until it drops in price. I also feel that 2017 was such a bargain that I´m happy to give some cash to the developers. (It´s kinda ironic, the first full-priced game I buy in months is from a series that started as budget software.)

 

[Mentok]

After seeing some videos for this game, I decided to pick it up. My first venture into EDF, and I must say, i'm enjoying the hell out of it! I was looking for a game that had hours of gameplay/replayablilty, that was pick-up and go (more arcade, less story) and could be co-oped for when my buddies come over. DAMN this game fits the bill perfectly! Started off on Wing Diver because it just looks like a lot of fun, and I'm playing on Normal for this first run. I'm a huge fan of giant monster films, so this is hitting all the right buttons for me.

 

[Chance Hale]

Finally picked up the US version(originally imported the Japanese version) Are the mission packs any good?

 

[eastx]

Finally picked up the US version(originally imported the Japanese version) Are the mission packs any good?

Nice, I imported first too. English menus and weapon descriptions make things so much nicer! (I do read katakana and hiragana though.)

Mission Pack 1 is cheap, but inessential.

Mission Pack 2 has the best level for grinding weapons in the game (2-16). Mission Pack 3 has the best level for grinding armor in the game (3-2). Both 2 and 3 introduce new variants of enemies such as metal spiders, which makes things more interesting and challenging. If you only buy one, I would get DLC Pack 2, but they're both worthwhile for serious players.