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[Mauricio_Magus]

EO3 memories: I remember wanting a Monk for healing no matter what and then I created a Princess for dat passive healing, I never went back

I'm sure a lot of you will feel the same with the dancer, haha

 

[slayn]

Yeah, the N front / F back setup requires some swapping around. I'd probably do that build with a back N until a Status Effect lands and then swap for the damage. That or just dealing with it and swapping as needed to heal up the TP.

My party is LFN,DS (Runemaster is probably more powerful than sniper especially early on but I find them boring) and I found it very useful to be constantly rotating the fortress and dancer. For normal battles, the dancer has a bow to shoot from the back and LFN can all make their basic melee attacks without penalty. Then in rough battles where you want to shove the fortress in back, there is space for him there and the dancer becomes free to buff either row in a LN,FDS setup or LND,FS setup.

I also found that, since the dancer has higher hp than the sniper, having them be the high priority back row target worked pretty well against normal enemies because they had the health and dodge rate to survive the attacks not being thrown at the fortress.

 

[spiritfox]

I really hope snipers don't suck. I like their design and would hate to switch them out.

 

[wheapon]

For anyone that's tried the demo and gotten the retail release, how do the tracks sound and how does the art look? I was wondering if it was a large jump over the demo or if it still feels overly compressed.

 

[scy]

Are you both saying nightseeker would be better than a sniper overall?

Nightseeker is a front-row class so to really utilize it would require some row swapping if you plan to do L/F/D for your front-line. Sniper fits easier and their Binds are tremendously useful (if they ever land).

Also, are the item gathering skills worth taking right away?

Unlike previous entries, gathering at nodes is completely free now~ I don't think the skills are all that useful (it's a 10% Chance, I believe?) but it's up to you. I'd personally just ignore them, really.

EO3 memories: I remember wanting a Monk for healing no matter what and then I created a Princess for dat passive healing, I never went back

I'm sure a lot of you will feel the same with the dancer, haha

I just always wanted to avoid a Medic (Monk for EO3) so EO2 I did a War Magus party and EO3 I did a Princess party.

Of course, they both ended up being better than a Medic/Monk anyway ;_;

My party is LFN,DS (Runemaster is probably more powerful than sniper especially early on but I find them boring) and I found it very useful to be constantly rotating the fortress and dancer. For normal battles, the dancer has a bow to shoot from the back and LFN can all make their basic melee attacks without penalty. Then in rough battles where you want to shove the fortress in back, there is space for him there and the dancer becomes free to buff either row in a LN,FDS setup or LND,FS setup.

I also found that, since the dancer has higher hp than the sniper, having them be the high priority back row target worked pretty well against normal enemies because they had the health and dodge rate to survive the attacks not being thrown at the fortress.

Yeah, if you plan to utilize Row Swapping a lot, you can make for better setups. L/F/D | S/R is just a really straightforward party that doesn't need to mess with it. Plus, Dancer in the front-row works better for a Chaser/Chasing setup, though that's irrelevant later with party-wide Dances I suppose.

 

[Althane]

Are you both saying nightseeker would be better than a sniper overall?

Also, are the item gathering skills worth taking right away?

I am finding my Nightseeker better than my Sniper, mostly for the Blind.

Item gathering skills give you 10% chance to find an extra item per gather, from each person who has it. (So 2 people with the same skill = 20%, etc)

It's only a single skill point, but those can be important at lower level. I'd say it's a 'up to you' sort of thing. Slight possibility for increase in dungeon haul vs. one lower rank in an offensive/passive skill.

 

[spiritfox]

EO3 memories: I remember wanting a Monk for healing no matter what and then I created a Princess for dat passive healing, I never went back

I'm sure a lot of you will feel the same with the dancer, haha

Funny, I was the opposite. Then again, my main game party had pretty low damage output (was just messing around with second sword swash without chasers... It was a bad idea) so the i needed some sustained healing.

 

[Totakeke]

Early game I guess I'm going to go F/A | R/M/S

Could go either way depending on how good The Slow Knife/Biding Slice is. The skill sim data is actually wrong as that's for level 10. S basically for multi-hit against typical mobs. Swap in another R for S against FOEs maybe.

 

[Hispanicguy]

F/L/D
R/S

Been using that since the demo. Currently at 37 hours of gameplay (and in the 2nd Sanctum) and I haven't had much problem...until I saw some of the FOE's in the 2nd region, lol.

Everyone is between level 22-24. May rest some people and switch some skills but for the most part, I'm happy with what I have.

Dancer is, of course, the healer of the group with Regen Waltz. I've started putting points into Healing Step (which heals everyone for 1 turn as long as you have a Waltz up) so whenever I have Regen Waltz up (or any other Waltz) and people in the back need healing, I'll use Healing Step. I'm not too concerned with people in the back though (especially with Fortress' Strike Guard).

I also went with Fortress' Healing Wall (anyone in the same line as the Fortress who Defends recovers a bit of HP). So between him and the Dancer (and some Medicas), I'm satisfied with healing.

For my Landsknecht, he's the attack guy. I have Power Boost and Vanguard(lower defense, increase attack and act first) at max. Then I have Initiative (if I attack first before all enemies, my damage and accuracy increases) as well. Combine those things with the Dancer's Attack Tango and he does some damage. There's also a burst skill that lets you do a double attack + your regular attack so he ends up attacking 3 times in one turn.

Sniper seems a bit better now (but still not amazing). I still try to bind arms when I have the chance (when it actually WORKS, lol) but he can now lower the enemy's physical defense for 3 turns (which works great with the above Landsknecht). Other than that, I'm working on increasing his critical attack. I still see myself exchanging him for another class or just wait till I can subclass and see how things go.

The runemaster....I'll probably rest him so I can have all 3 elemental attacks (currently just have lightning). He has 198 TP (TP Boost is at max). Working on increasing his elemental attack power then may put points into "Free Energy" (which gives me a chance of not using any TP)...but with 198 TP, I'm not too concerned.

Until something really gives me a beating, I'll be sticking with this team/skills.

I played EO1 but never beat it....and I've never played EO2 or 3..so there's still things I need to learn but the gameplay is so damn good! Taking my time with things. Farming here and there. Completing any side quests before taking on the main quest. This is definitely my GOTY.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Funny, I was the opposite. Then again, my main game party had pretty low damage output (was just messing around with second sword swash without chasers... It was a bad idea) so the i needed some sustained healing.

I did a Princess when I could subclass... I think I broke the game with some of the combos like Ninja/Zodiac

 

[Althane]

I did a Princess when I could subclass... I think I broke the game with some of the combos like Ninja/Zodiac

Man, now I wanna go back to EO3, but I really don't have the time, especially with EO4 coming next week. =\

I think I had a Prince/Ninja that was actually fairly decent.

 

[slayn]

Early game I guess I'm going to go F/A | R/M/S

Could go either way depending on how good The Slow Knife/Biding Slice is. The skill sim data is actually wrong as that's for level 10. S basically for multi-hit against typical mobs. Swap in another R for S against FOEs maybe.

Biding slice is:

Lv 	                One     Two 	Three 	Four 	Five 	Six 	Seven 	Eight 	Nine 	Ten
dam magnification 	130% 	137% 	144% 	150% 	165% 	169% 	173% 	177 	180% 	190%

 

[oneida]

So...

• I have never played an Etrian Odyssey game before
• I dl'd the demo
• It's really good
• The first run goodies are after my heart because I LOVE the soundtrack (battle theme sounds very p4a)...
• BUT monhun comes out in like 2 weeks and I got like a bazillion expenses and... ugh...

 

[spiritfox]

I did a Princess when I could subclass... I think I broke the game with some of the combos like Ninja/Zodiac

Oh Nin/Zo.... My favorite TP battery. Kept her in my party even in the post-game just because she's so fun to mess around with. Combined with Bushin, the fight can basically just last forever.

 

[ttocs]

Do you guys know if it's out on the Nintendo Shop yet? I'm trying to decide if I should go retail or just download it when I get off work.

 

[Althane]

So...

• I have never played an Etrian Odyssey game before
• I dl'd the demo
• It's really good
• The first run goodies are after my heart because I LOVE the soundtrack (battle theme sounds very p4a)...
• BUT monhun comes out in like 2 weeks and I got like a bazillion expenses and... ugh...

I'd look at it this way: EO games have a tendency to disappear/become hard to find. However, I think that's gotten a little better with each generation (although let me tell you, I was THRILLED to find my copy of EO1, even though I've only made it to the 4th floor...).

Monster Hunter probably will not become rare.

But your bazillion expenses are probably better to take care of than the others. =P

 

[scy]

I am finding my Nightseeker better than my Sniper, mostly for the Blind.

I'm basically sitting here torn on Nightseeker or Sniper for my fifth slot still. I made sure to level both to 10 so I could swap them for the full game but ... still unsure. ;_;

L/F/D | S/R vs L/F/N | D/R vs L/D/N | F/R

I guess I have the rest of work to decide.

Hm...

 

[spiritfox]

So...

• I have never played an Etrian Odyssey game before
• I dl'd the demo
• It's really good
• The first run goodies are after my heart because I LOVE the soundtrack (battle theme sounds very p4a)...
• BUT monhun comes out in like 2 weeks and I got like a bazillion expenses and... ugh...

Bah expenses can wait.

Nah just kidding. But the physical bonuses are not really that amazing and the game will be on the eShop so you can just pick it up at a later date.

 

[oneida]

I'd look at it this way: EO games have a tendency to disappear/become hard to find. However, I think that's gotten a little better with each generation (although let me tell you, I was THRILLED to find my copy of EO1, even though I've only made it to the 4th floor...).

Monster Hunter probably will not become rare.

But your bazillion expenses are probably better to take care of than the others. =P

Responsible oneida knows he has LOTS of video games to play and doesn't actually need EO4.

The rest of oneida played the demo to completion, got really attached to his party, and wants this game maybepossiblymorethanmonsterhunter.

I'm just worried that I'll buy this today saying "pff, I can wait on monhun" then in 2 weeks say "MONHUN CANNOT WAIT"

OH AND I wanted to ask what is with the map charting? All the other micromanagement stuff seemed super intuitive and I like that EO4 gives me control over so much crap... but the map charting really seems like a chore. Can someone explain this to me?

 

[ttocs]

Has anyone downloaded it from the nintendo store yet? Not sure when they typically update with new games.

 

[Althane]

Responsible oneida knows he has LOTS of video games to play and doesn't actually need EO4.

The rest of oneida played the demo to completion, got really attached to his party, and wants this game maybepossiblymorethanmonsterhunter.

I'm just worried that I'll buy this today saying "pff, I can wait on monhun" then in 2 weeks say "MONHUN CANNOT WAIT"

OH AND I wanted to ask what is with the map charting? All the other micromanagement stuff seemed super intuitive and I like that EO4 gives me control over so much crap... but the map charting really seems like a chore. Can someone explain this to me?

The map charting is there mostly for the later levels. The first few floors (really, in 3 it was more like the first 3 stratum) were not complex enough to require intensive map making...

Then you get to the latter stratums where the floors turn into puzzles, just like all dungeon crawlers.... and you NEED that map making.

Heck, I've set up auto-walks just to make it harder to screw up and walk into a FOE. May seem like a chore now, but it's a huge help later.

 

[Vyse The Legend]

I feel like I should pick this up today, even though I won't have any time to play it for months.

The print runs are usually pretty tiny for these games.

 

[slayn]

OH AND I wanted to ask what is with the map charting? All the other micromanagement stuff seemed super intuitive and I like that EO4 gives me control over so much crap... but the map charting really seems like a chore. Can someone explain this to me?

A nostalgic callback to older dungeon crawlers where you had to do the same thing but with graph paper. I don't love it myself, but it does get at least a little more interesting in later floors where it gets more complicated and harder to map.

I'd love to see them go even more extreme with difficult navigation though. How interesting would it be if I had to map a game like antichamber myself.

 

[Aeana]

Responsible oneida knows he has LOTS of video games to play and doesn't actually need EO4.

The rest of oneida played the demo to completion, got really attached to his party, and wants this game maybepossiblymorethanmonsterhunter.

I'm just worried that I'll buy this today saying "pff, I can wait on monhun" then in 2 weeks say "MONHUN CANNOT WAIT"

OH AND I wanted to ask what is with the map charting? All the other micromanagement stuff seemed super intuitive and I like that EO4 gives me control over so much crap... but the map charting really seems like a chore. Can someone explain this to me?

I guess map creation is just something you either like or don't. It's in these games as a throwback to early first-person dungeon RPGs where it was common for the player to have graph paper near them, making maps, because there was no internal map. It's something a lot of people enjoy doing. The game has auto-map to at least fill out the floor tiles for you, but it doesn't do the full map drawing for you (no walls, icons). I have seen some people who were against the idea at first come to enjoy it at later strata, so perhaps you will eventually as well.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

That's exactly the reason EO is so unappealing to so many people but so amazing to me


the planning

I love to plan and wonder if I should ditch the Sniper or replace her already, then go to sites to try to get the formulas and decide depending on her stat growth, no game makes me do this shit.

and when all that planning bears fruit, I don't know what's more rewarding than that

 

[Althane]

I guess map creation is just something you either like or don't. It's in these games as a throwback to early first-person dungeon RPGs where it was common for the player to have graph paper near them, making maps, because there was no internal map. It's something a lot of people enjoy doing. The game has auto-map to at least fill out the floor tiles for you, but it doesn't do the full map drawing for you (no walls, icons). I have seen some people who were against the idea at first come to enjoy it at later strata, so perhaps you will eventually as well.

Man, you don't enjoy it at later strata. You need it, or you spend eternity getting shuffled from one floor to the next until you die because you forgot to bring your threads and then... then...

You accidentally hit no when it asks if you want to save your map data...

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

You accidentally hit no when it asks if you want to save your map data...

that feel

 

[oneida]

Thanks for the perspective.

I never played any old school dungeon crawlers so the concept is foreign to me. However, one of the reasons I've mostly strayed from the RPG genre over the past few years is that too much stuff is on auto-pilot; I get the impression that I can play most JRPGs to completion in my sleep (or at least a heavy daze). So, in the end, I'll try and keep an open mind about the map charting. Might even like it down the line.

EO1 - 3 are reprinted and cheaper than EO4. Is there any reason to pay more for EO4 than one of the previous entries aside from the pretty graphics? And is there an indisputable champ of the original trilogy?

 

[Man God]

Sniper has a good cheap defense ignoring attack, should be great later on.

 

[Mauricio_Magus]

Thanks for the perspective.

I never played any old school dungeon crawlers so the concept is foreign to me. However, one of the reasons I've mostly strayed from the RPG genre over the past few years is that too much stuff is on auto-pilot; I get the impression that I can play most JRPGs to completion in my sleep (or at least a heavy daze). So, in the end, I'll try and keep an open mind about the map charting. Might even like it down the line.

EO1 - 3 are reprinted and cheaper than EO4. Is there any reason to pay more for EO4 than one of the previous entries aside from the pretty graphics? And is there an indisputable champ of the original trilogy?

I recommend ignore the old ones and playing EO4, if you REALLY love it(which you should) you can try EO3

the problem is that the stuff the improve in every game is so good that every past game of the series ends up feeling archaic and difficult to play.

 

[Aeana]

Man, you don't enjoy it at later strata. You need it, or you spend eternity getting shuffled from one floor to the next until you die because you forgot to bring your threads and then... then...

You accidentally hit no when it asks if you want to save your map data...

I don't think needing it and enjoying it are two mutually exclusive things at all.

 

[Althane]

Thanks for the perspective.

I never played many old school dungeon crawlers so the concept is foreign to me. However, one of the reasons I've mostly strayed from the RPG genre over the past few years is that too much stuff is on auto-pilot; I get the impression that I can play most JRPGs to completion in my sleep (or at least a heavy daze). So, in the end, I'll try and keep an open mind about the map charting. Might even like it down the line.

EO1 - 3 are reprinted and cheaper than EO4. Is there any reason to pay more for EO4 than one of the previous entries aside from the pretty graphics? And is there an indisputable champ of the original trilogy?

I feel like that's largely up to a person. Here's my feelings:

EO1: Too MUCH of a return to the old dungeon crawlers. It feels clunky, and very painful. The difficulty is high, and the grinding is high. The game is pretty breakable (Medics), but overall I feel that the others managed it better.

EO2: Vast improvements over EO1. Probably my favorite at the moment, even though I think I only just made it to the third stratum. It's intense, but much easier than EO1 in terms of forgiveness.

EO3: Started the "Overworld" stuff, with the boat minigame. I enjoyed it, there was more to do than just invade the labyrinth. Introduced subclassing, if I'm remembering correctly, but the builds got freakishly insane with how much you needed to plan. Basically, good, skills go too complex.

EO4: Obviously only played the demo so far. Overworld is fully expanded into its own map. Build tress are much more simplified (now they're broken up into mastery levels as well, which makes planning much more workable).

I felt like 3 had the most story so far, 2 was probably the pinnacle in mechanics (I'm not a deeeeep mechanical person, but I feel like I worked well with it). There are others who are much more into the EO series than I am though, so take this with a grain of salt.


Edit: I feel like this is something I should test, but I'm cautious. Are you still not allowed to retreat in EO4 if your back is against a wall?

I don't think needing it and enjoying it are two mutually exclusive things at all.

Yeah, I probably should have said 'don't just enjoy it'.

 

[Jarekx]

Well, I was going to go digital on this but the Gamestop in my area has it and the game still isn't on the e-shop..

Guess I might go physical. Halts my plans of easily switching between this and DQIX (I started a new game for some reason), but I really want this game.

Between this, Monhun, and Soul Hackers in April my wallet is going to be hurting.

 

[slayn]

Edit: I feel like this is something I should test, but I'm cautious. Are you still not allowed to retreat in EO4 if your back is against a wall?

I'm pretty sure you can retreat now and the FOE will move back a step. It might be impossible if you somehow get yourself in a situation where neither you nor the foe can move back a step.

 

[oneida]

Between this, Monhun, and Soul Hackers in April my wallet is going to be hurting.

That's the thing

Also buying plane tickets for the Sega Cup, and I just dropped $200 on my 3DS XL.

video games are too expensive

Thanks again for the responses guys. I'll go with EO4 if I end up buying an EO game and I'll probably drop in this thread and talk about my experiences.

 

[Jarekx]

video games are too expensive

Agreed!

 

[scy]

That's exactly the reason EO is so unappealing to so many people but so amazing to me


the planning

I love to plan and wonder if I should ditch the Sniper or replace her already, then go to sites to try to get the formulas and decide depending on her stat growth, no game makes me do this shit.

and when all that planning bears fruit, I don't know what's more rewarding than that

Pretty much. I'm doing the same debate ;_; I'm edging towards Nightseeker with a back-row Dancer. The chase setup won't take off for awhile and, by the time it does, it'll be quite some time in the game. Might as well go with the better random encounter default setup (L/F/N | D/R) and swap as necessary for FoEs.

Edit: Plus, Status Effect -> Bonus Damage combo from Nightseeker seems more viable than Sniper's setup anyway.

I also have no idea if keeping my Fortress is even a long-term thing, really, but that's a matter for late game planning, I suppose.

 

[SolsticeZero]

Just went to Gamestop and picked up the only copy they had! I'm going to pop this thing in as soon as I get back to my desk

 

[vocab]

My biggest problem with eo1-3 is that they are so hard to tell one from the other, and they practically have the same setup. It's like the same game three times with improved mechanics. There's nothing wrong with that, but its ashame there is no incentive to go back.
I hope they at least did something new with the setup or even changed the interface with 4.

 

[ttocs]

This is my first EO and I'm wondering how the game teaches itself to you. Does it explain things from the get go or are you basically on your own to figure things out?

 

[Aeana]

My biggest problem with eo1-3 is that they are so hard to tell one from the other, and they practically have the same setup. It's like the same game three times with improved mechanics. There's nothing wrong with that, but its ashame there is no incentive to go back.

3 has totally different classes and a sub-classing system and a ship exploration system. It is SO different from the first two games.

 

[scy]

My biggest problem with eo1-3 is that they are so hard to tell one from the other, and they practically have the same setup. It's like the same game three times with improved mechanics. There's nothing wrong with that, but its ashame there is no incentive to go back.

EO1 and EO2 I can see, I suppose, but EO3 really changed a lot. Class design was pretty different, encounter design changed drastically, sub-classing was added, sea exploration, etc. etc.

This is my first EO and I'm wondering how the game teaches itself to you. Does it explain things from the get go or are you basically on your own to figure things out?

There's a few basic tutorials about mapping, exploration, and such but anything deeper than "Draw your map!" or "Spend your Skill Points" is left to the player / the internet.

Edit: Actually, the in-game bar has a few NPCs that tell you some more advanced things (enemy weaknesses, Conditional Drops, etc.) so there's some extra help in the game.

 

[vocab]

I'll check out some more of 3 when I have a chance. At a glance it seemed very similar. The boat stuff sounds cool. I'm not trying to shit all over the series, I just expected a bit more from a sequel to a game like this. I like the genre a lot.

 

[scy]

I'll check out some more of 3 when I have a chance. At a glance it seemed very similar. The boat stuff sounds cool.

Well then, to burst the bubble a bit, it's more of a puzzle aspect than real exploration. Basically, try to get to X location given Y turns.

Also worth noting is that every single mechanic in EO3 was changed from EO1/EO2. A lot were streamlined (e.g., Damage became a simple ATK - DEF * modifiers function, for instance) but it also gave us some conditional ones to make some class stat growths more relevant (e.g., Status Effect chance being halved for really low 2*LUC+TEC values and doubled for really high ones; helped those high LUC classes do something relevant with it).

 

[SatelliteOfLove]

I read IGN's review of EO3 last night - the reviewer HATED the game. He still played through it and recommended it to people who might like that sort of thing though

Nice that 4'll get actual understanding at least.

 

[entremet]

Is EO1 worth playing? I only played EO2, which I loved.

 

[Bururian]

Is EO1 worth playing? I only played EO2, which I loved.

It's fun, but it's also really hard by comparison to the other games.

 

[entremet]

It's fun, but it's also really hard by comparison to the other games.

Yeah, so should I stick with EO3/4? I loved the demo and the updated graphics, should I just skip and go EO4?

 

[Man God]

1 isn't really any harder or easier than 2. Both of them have ways to break it. Boosted immunize/defender in 1. Revenge Hexers and limit breaks that prevent the enemy from doing damage/acting that turn in 2.

1 has that awful font, hard level cap, much stricter requirements for resting and retiring, no strafing. It also has sections that can be downright painful without the right elements.

2 has a bunch of new features, nerfs the hell out of the medic, changes the limit break mechanic to one that seems less broken but is actually much cheesier in the end, has harder FOEs and largely harder regular enemies.

 

[Althane]

Yeah, so should I stick with EO3/4? I loved the demo and the updated graphics, should I just skip and go EO4?

All the stories are standalone. There was a slight bonus you could get in EO2 for completing EO1 (the guild crown, I believe?), but it was only useful for the first level or so.

I'd say go straight for EO4. If you like it, maybe EO3. EO1/2 are so far behind in the features curve, it's practically painful.