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[SliceSabre]

I feel like my team of Fencer, Masurao, Botanist, Dragoon and Rover didn't run into any real issues.

Admittedly Botanist didn't have a lot to do besides heal but once she got her Poison skill she was a lot more helpful in battle.

My biggest struggle was deciding where to put points between race skills and battle skills.

 

[omlet]

At least the race skills cap with 1 point so in the long run there should be plenty of room for them, but maybe not right at the start of the game...

 

[autoduelist]

The 3D layers character portraits over backgrounds, and the backgrounds/dungeon locales have depth.
It's nifty when it works, but if you're not bothered about it you won't miss much by not having it on. I generally have to turn it off because it gives me splitting headaches.

Sounds interesting, though something tells me I'd never use it. The only reason I might go with a 3ds XL over a 2DS XL is that the used ones seem to actually be cheaper since they've been out longer, I guess?

You need a stylus. You get used to holding it.
More seriously, drawing the map is a big part of Etrian, so if you can involve yourself with it you'll want to use the stylus.
V has a walls-and-floors automap option but I can't recall if any others did. It's not something I'd ever have wanted to use.

Hopefully you're right. I wish there was a another way, but... I'm curious enough to give it a try.

The 3DSXL is the "larger" version of the original 3DS. It can't play Xenoblade.
The New 3DSXL is the larger version of the upgraded New 3DS. It has more RAM and a little analogue stick thing on the right hand side. It can play Xenoblade, and certain games run better on the Newer hardware.
The New 2DSXL has the extra RAM and the little extra analogue stick thing but it doesn't have 3D screens.

Even though I have interest in Xenoblade [even though I've never seen it, I just remember people loving it] I don't know that I can justify the added cost for one game. And I doubt the games I play will run noticeably better.

I'm not sure about battery life differences.

Darn. That would actually be a deciding factor for me. When I briefly owned a 3DS, I sold it because of battery life issues. I'm used to just picking up my vita in suspend mode, and intantly going back to playing whenever I felt like it. Whenever I picked up my 3ds to play, it was dead and I'd have to charge it.

Disclaimer: It's possible (or even likely) that Etrian Odyssey V will unseat one of these, but it's not out yet and I only just started playing the demo so I can't really guarantee that yet.

So, my 4 recommendations:
1. Etrian Odyssey IV


2. Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux

3. Etrian Odyssey Untold 2: The Fafnir Knight

4. 7th Dragon Code VFD

I'm probably going to stick with older games I can get a bit cheaper.... since I haven't played anything, there are enough 'must haves' that have dropped a bit in price that I don't need to jump on Strange Journey, for example. Even though that's probably my new biggest want... a SMT dungeon crawler sounds perfect.

(And a bonus DS game because I'm a cheat) The Dark Spire
(I'm assuming you don't have a regular DS here, ignore me if I'm wrong)
Enter The Dark Spire. Search for the Mage who rules it. It's oldschool and somewhat punishing, with descriptions that ooze character. I don't think I ever finished it, but I loved what I played and really should go back to it.
Atmospheric graphics or barebones wireframe, the choice is yours.

That games looks -awesome-. I forgot 3ds can play DS... I guess I'll need to find a copy of that somewhere.

Denpa Men
Elminage Original
Etrian Odyssey V
Etrian Odyssey Untold: The Millennium Girl
Persona Q
Picdun 2: Witch's Curse
SMT: Soul Hackers
SMTIV
SMTIV Apocalypse
Unchained Blades

I own the PSP ones already... [thankfully, saves me money, lol]. I've never heard of Denpa or Picdun... will save those for after I get through everything else, if that ever happens.

I think I need to add SMTIV and Soul Hackers to my list. Actually, I'm finding making a list of 4 harder than it should be... it's easy for my wishlist to grow out of proportion. Which is terrible, since I already have a back breaking backlog on ps1/2/3/4/psp/vita/steam. The last thing I really need is yet another backlog source, but I feel like I'm really missing out on Etrian and SMT.

Does Persona Q have social links? I like the dungeon crawling of SMT, but have never liked Persona.

And, you know, if you're picking up a 3DS anyway:
Devil Survivor (both of them).

Would you recommend one of these over my current list?

Etrian MG [already got this cheap]
Etrian Fafnir or IV [whichever is cheaper, from what I can tell you can play in any order?]
Soul Hacker
SMT IV

Mystery Dungeon games.
I recall that you like roguelikes, and I think I remember you picking up Shiren, so yeah, more Mystery Dungeons.
The Etrian one isn't great, but there are Pokemon ones that are pretty good.

[/QUOTE]

Great, more to research, lol.

 

[omlet]

Does Persona Q have social links? I like the dungeon crawling of SMT, but have never liked Persona.

Nah, PQ is an Etrian game with Persona skin, not a Persona game with Etrian skin.

It has a lot more dialog and some character events and a story and such than normal EO games but it doesn't have social links or time limits like mainline Persona games. It does have Persona fusion much like normal Persona games.

 

[autoduelist]

Nah, PQ is an Etrian game with Persona skin, not a Persona game with Etrian skin.

It has a lot more dialog and some character events and a story and such than normal EO games but it doesn't have social links or time limits like mainline Persona games. It does have Persona fusion much like normal Persona games.

Sounds good. Love SMT fusion, hate social links.

 

[jonjonaug]

Cleared the demo with a Masurao/Harbinger/Dragoon/Warlock/Botanist party (so, a pretty freaking simple one). The lack of binding ability made the Owl FOE hard to beat, but once I got everyone to level 10 it went down after a couple of attempts. The Toxipede is basically "One party member is going to die every three turns, hope you have a revive skill", but wasn't too hard with the Botanist keeping up the heals.

 

[Benzychenz]

So are the DS games worth looking at?

Never played the series at all and deciding the best way to tackle it.

They've announced that there's one more 3DS game on the way so that's unlikely to be anything other than Untold 3 right? That'd put the whole series on 3DS. Just depends if it gets localised in 2018/19.

Would it be better to start at 1 Untold or 4? Like did Untold build on the game mechanics of 4 so it's better to play in release order, or just play in order 1-5 with the remakes first (assuming 3 Untold releases).

 

[spiritfox]

So are the DS games worth looking at?

Never played the series at all and deciding the best way to tackle it.

They've announced that there's one more 3DS game on the way so that's unlikely to be anything other than Untold 3 right? That'd put the whole series on 3DS. Just depends if it gets localised in 2018/19.

Would it be better to start at 1 Untold or 4? Like did Untold build on the game mechanics of 4 so it's better to play in release order, or just play in order 1-5 with the remakes first (assuming 3 Untold releases).

Release order is the best. There is no direct story connection, and the quality of life upgrades between games makes it hard to go back to an earlier game after.

Though if you want the best experience start with EO1. You can skip 2 for 2U.

 

[Nachos]

Like did Untold build on the game mechanics of 4 so it's better to play in release order, or just play in order 1-5 with the remakes first (assuming 3 Untold releases).

Each game builds on the previous one as far as providing quality of life improvements (better mapping tools, more movement speed options), but other than that, it's hard to directly compare them, because each pretty much has its own quirks and twists on the formula. Even the remakes aren't exactly straight upgrades, with both introducing new problems, despite fixing old ones.

Personally, I'd just go with IV and move through the 3DS games, throwing III somewhere in the middle. Going back to III is a bit of a downgrade QoL-wise, but if the series clicks for you, you'll adjust fast. It's not nearly as rough around the edges as I is. Though it's not like I's a bad game – it has merit beyond playing it as a historical curiosity and does things none of the other games have, including its remake. It's just that it's really obtuse to the point that it could easily scare off someone not initiated into the series.

For an example, all the Etrian games let you reset your skill points at the cost of some levels. For all the 3DS games, it's 2, which isn't that big of a deal. Depending on what you're changing, you can still end up with a much more powerful character, despite the lower stats. In I, though, the cost is 10 levels, which is one thing, but you can't even reset until you reach level 30, which is way worse. So if you mess up before you reach that point, you basically have to start a new character from scratch.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

Do you think Atlus will do a franchise eShop sale around EOV's release? I wasn't around for EO II Untold, so I don't know if Atlus likes to do that for each new mainline launch. Right now I'm trying to get as much out of my discounted eShop credit as possible, and $10 for EOIV sounds great. Playing demos of more recent games seems like a problem since I need to get used to slower battles.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

Both teams level 10, all quests completed. All that's left is maybe killing enough Owl Bears to get three of the coats. Not too troublesome. I almost finished one off without any deaths, but in the last turn it 1HKOed my Warlock.

 

[jonjonaug]

Do you think Atlus will do a franchise eShop sale around EOV's release? I wasn't around for EO II Untold, so I don't know if Atlus likes to do that for each new mainline launch. Right now I'm trying to get as much out of my discounted eShop credit as possible, and $10 for EOIV sounds great. Playing demos of more recent games seems like a problem since I need to get used to slower battles.

You can change the animation speed in the options menu.

 

[Dragoon En Regalia]

You can change the animation speed in the options menu.

EOIV's fastest option is still slower than what I got used to during EO Untold. There's no way around that, even when holding A during battle phase.

Anyway, I really want a hint at when the next sale could be. EOV seems like the biggest excuse for Atlus to discount earlier games.

 

[omlet]

Both teams level 10, all quests completed. All that's left is maybe killing enough Owl Bears to get three of the coats. Not too troublesome. I almost finished one off without any deaths, but in the last turn it 1HKOed my Warlock.

I remade my team like three times and then just started completely fresh and finally last night went to bed and made a team of Fencer/Masurao | Warlock/Dragoon/Shaman and so far seems pretty good. Giving the Shaman a bow means I can easily get up to 3 chases in one turn even at the start (Masurao uses piercing def down attack for only 5 TP). Bunker is amazing, and since throwing it out every battle is cheap and really helps reduce overall damage taken, my Shaman can mostly keep up with some healing with 1 point in Gospel.

However, this leaves me with a secondary team that I'm not sure how it's gonna work. I generally never run no-tank parties unless I'm trying some kind of specific late-game setup. At least a Pugilist/Harbinger | Necro/Rover/Botanist will have a lot of lockdown, redirection, and healing options...

I haven't really seen talk about class changing. Has anyone theorycrafted out some good options for that? The default setups are generally suited to the racial stat strengths from what I can tell but that doesn't mean there aren't some other good options.

 

[spiritfox]

I think there's Brouni Dragoon for more TP for guards, Therian Pugilist for more damage, Earthlian Botanist for better ailment proc. Other than that most of the classes fit their races, but you can always experiment with combinations.

 

[SliceSabre]

I feel like Rover(Hawk), Botanist and Dragoon are my for sure units. I'm too scared to ever play without a tank so Dragoon is in. Botanist is a healer so gets auto-included and Rover is too cool of a class to me.

Curious how Shaman healing compares to Botanist.

 

[omlet]

Curious how Shaman healing compares to Botanist.

Early game, it's pretty weak. Shaman is in the spirit of bard/troubadour/princess, but closest to princess since it has the early access to heal-on-buff and remove-buff-to-heal skills.

Bind-spec pugilist has such a rad-looking skill tree, I really want to try it out.

 

[Dandy Crocodile]

I think there's Brouni Dragoon for more TP for guards, Therian Pugilist for more damage, Earthlian Botanist for better ailment proc. Other than that most of the classes fit their races, but you can always experiment with combinations.

I have a Brouni Dragoon, a Celestrian Botanist for ailments while maintaining good TP, and a Therian Fencer.

Bind-spec pugilist has such a rad-looking skill tree, I really want to try it out.

I'll be going Bind route with my pug.
Even without the titles yet, she's very bind-oriented and works in tandem with my Rover. The FOEs I fight always have at least one bind on, sometimes even poison, and it makes it super easy.

 

[omlet]

I have a Brouni Dragoon, a Celestrian Botanist for ailments while maintaining good TP, and a Therian Fencer.

What a hard worker!

Well, what else are you gonna do between now and release, with such a low level cap, right?

On that note, demo save data can transfer to release version, even for non-eshop game, right?

 

[Zweizer]

Trying to conceptualize ways to optimize my Fencer. I think so far 4 katanas Masurao with an Element Prayer seem to be the most effective from what I've seen. I wish I could read Japanese in order to look around for what crazy synergies have already been found out.

On that note, demo save data can transfer to release version, even for non-eshop game, right?

Yeah it transferred fine for all the other 3DS games so far, so it should work this time as well.

 

[omlet]

Finished the demo with F/M | W/D/S party. Pretty easy to make links work even early in the game. This party's main downside is that Blind is really my only lockdown. No strong healing, either, so the Toxipedes were a struggle and generally had at least one death per kill because of the extremely potent poison, but the Owlbears were vulnerable to blind so they were easy to kill without deaths. With stacking buffs and multiple ways to proc links the damage potential seems pretty good with this team.

I'll take my P/H | N/R/B team out to the wilds next to try them out. I fed that team my quest exp so they're level 6 without stepping into the labyrinth.

I was also kinda rolling around some ideas for more-than-one-of-same-class parties... seems like rovers, necros, and dragoons would all be good candidates for that kind of thing. Except... what's the limit on summoned things (pets/bunkers/ghosts)?

 

[Zweizer]

The limit is 3, so yeah, not much to work with.

I thought Fencer team, at least 2 on the front, could be pretty good for linking.

 

[omlet]

The limit is 3, so yeah, not much to work with.

Bummer...

I thought Fencer team, at least 2 on the front, could be pretty good for linking.

I was thinking the same thing, but would you run one as tank one as linker, or both as linkers? I am guessing that if two fencers use a link attack on the same target and then, say, your warlock hits it with that element, each fencer will only chase once, and won't chain-chase off each other? I haven't tried it... actually I've never tried multi-linker teams in any EO game...

 

[Zweizer]

I was thinking the same thing, but would you run one as tank one as linker, or both as linkers? I am guessing that if two fencers use a link attack on the same target and then, say, your warlock hits it with that element, each fencer will only chase once, and won't chain-chase off each other? I haven't tried it... actually I've never tried multi-linker teams in any EO game...

Yeah one as a dodge-tank and the other as a linker, since dodging can easily trigger counters. You can't chase off each other's links, lol. Linking isn't that easy in this game though, not many compatible multi-hit skills.

 

[omlet]

At high level with Plus and Double the output should still be pretty good I would think, as long as you've got more than 1 person in the party doing something that can trigger links.

Dodge spec fencer doing pierce damage type counter attacks on dodge sounds good too, at least for bosses, since trash pack battles are less predictable and make target selection tougher for chaining.

 

[Zweizer]

There's a buff for Links Fencers that makes the chain skills target all the enemies for the next turn and gives a flat increase of 9 to the max number of chains.

 

[omlet]

Ah, yeah, wasn't clear but I was referring to the context of a leveling party using two fencers, who would spend quite a few floors without access to that skill, but would have access to counter-attack on dodge. At high levels, linker fencer definitely has tools for both FOE/boss and regular encounters.

 

[Zweizer]

Yeah at low-mid levels dual Fencer seem like they will struggle quite a bit against random encounters, and would need team support to work. I think Dragoon would make for the most reliable and least constrained same-class party, as you don't really need more than 3 bunkers, especially with their ridiculous aggro rates and damage reduction at higher levels.

 

[omlet]

I kinda wanna do it. Three gun spec in the back, two shield spec up front...

 

[Zweizer]

If my experience with a 5 Protectors run in EOU2 is any indication, they should work fine against bosses/FOEs, but regular exploration will be a slow and boring chore. Especiallly since V seems to feature very few shortcuts, instead opting for a pseudo-floor jump system that's mapping-dependant.

 

[omlet]

Yeah, they really don't do much damage. Even with a +5 gun the gap between a dragoon and what something like a masurao can do is quite large and will probably only grow as the levels get higher.

 

[Nachos]

I'm finally starting to work on the Etrian OT, and I'm trying to make an icon for the header. I'll draw over whichever one I choose to make it look hand-drawn/organic, but this is one of the ideas I came up with. Does it look better with the bottom-left part or without?

Spoiler

If the bottom of the left one doesn't read as an infinity symbol, then that's a point against it.

 

[Zweizer]

I'm finally starting to work on the Etrian OT, and I'm trying to make an icon for the header. I'll draw over whichever one I choose to make it look hand-drawn/organic, but this is one of the ideas I came up with. Does it look better with the bottom-left part or without?

Spoiler

If the bottom of the left one doesn't read as an infinity symbol, then that's a point against it.

The left one looks more like it has legs and is trying to run away than anything else, but otherwise they look nice. Good work!

 

[omlet]

I like the one on the right more.

 

[Nachos]

The left one looks more like it has legs and is trying to run away than anything else, but otherwise they look nice. Good work!

I can't believe I didn't see that before, but now it's the only thing I see.

Oh well. I still have two other ideas to make, so it's not that bad.

 

[omlet]

We're gonna need like a list in the OT or at least like a google spreadsheet for QR codes for guild cards, aren't we...

 

[Zweizer]

I can't believe I didn't see that before, but now it's the only thing I see.

Oh well. I still have two other ideas to make, so it's not that bad.

If it's any consolation, it did remind me of Dungeon Meshi's walking mushroom, lol.

We're gonna need like a list in the OT or at least like a google spreadsheet for QR codes for guild cards, aren't we...

Good luck, have fun with that!

 

[omlet]

If it's any consolation, it did remind me of Dungeon Meshi's walking mushroom, lol.

You guys are all watching/reading Made in Abyss as a hold-over, too, right?

Good luck, have fun with that!

Normally I wouldn't care so much but the idea of bumping into guilds whose cards you have while exploring sounds really neat!

 

[Zweizer]

You guys are all watching/reading Made in Abyss as a hold-over, too, right?

Is the manga version good? I often hear about the anime but I'm not really an anime watcher, for time reasons.

 

[omlet]

Is the manga version good? I often hear about the anime but I'm not really an anime watcher, for time reasons.

It's compelling, and it's a kind of story that Etrian fans would likely enjoy, but the anime is better at delivering on the dramatic and impactful moments, and also doesn't have the degree of nudity that the manga does (non-sexual though it may be). It's far more serious than Dungeon Meshi (that's not a knock against Dungeon Meshi, just saying it's not the same kind of story). It's basically two kids delving into an EO-labyrinth full of FOEs, and the only direction they can go is down.

 

[Zweizer]

It's compelling, and it's a kind of story that Etrian fans would likely enjoy, but the anime is better at delivering on the dramatic and impactful moments, and also doesn't have the degree of nudity that the manga does (non-sexual though it may be). It's far more serious than Dungeon Meshi (that's not a knock against Dungeon Meshi, just saying it's not the same kind of story). It's basically two kids delving into an EO-labyrinth full of FOEs, and the only direction they can go is down.

Alright, that sounds good. I'll check the manga sometime. I don't mind nudity, lol.

 

[Forward]

Nah, PQ is an Etrian game with Persona skin, not a Persona game with Etrian skin.

It is a MegaTen-Persona game with Immunize and Defender skinned as Hama and Mudo.

 

[spiritfox]

Speaking of Dungeon Meshi, you guys need to read Dungeon Meshi.

 

[SliceSabre]

I'll get on that once I'm done with EO3.

 

[Zweizer]

So never.

 

[Pyros_Eien]

Don't think I've seen it mentionned, but Deepsilver clarified the EU release date stuff.

The game will release on November 3rd as physical, the old date, but it'll be available on the Nintendo Store on the 17th if you don't care about the physical box. http://www.deepsilver.com/de/watch-necromancer-rover-unleash-hell-hound-new-trailers/

I'm keeping my Amazon preorder for now and see if I want to play once it releases or if I have other stuff to play. It's also 5euros cheaper.

 

[Zweizer]

Don't think I've seen it mentionned, but Deepsilver clarified the EU release date stuff.

The game will release on November 3rd as physical, the old date, but it'll be available on the Nintendo Store on the 17th if you don't care about the physical box. http://www.deepsilver.com/de/watch-necromancer-rover-unleash-hell-hound-new-trailers/

I'm keeping my Amazon preorder for now and see if I want to play once it releases or if I have other stuff to play. It's also 5euros cheaper.

Did they state whether they would release the limited edition goods? I doubt it as none of the previous EO released in Europe had them, but one can dream...

 

[SliceSabre]

So never.

 

[Zweizer]

You know what to do if you want your senpai to notice you!

 

[Pyros_Eien]

Did they state whether they would release the limited edition goods? I doubt it as none of the previous EO released in Europe had them, but one can dream...

The reddit post seemed to imply we were getting a book with it but I'm not really seeing any info about it so not sure. No special edition though it seemed like.