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Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan |OT|: Fight & Heal Brings 3D To Europe!

Boogiepop

Member
Curses! Turns out the game means it when it says not to go into the 2nd boss' area unprepared. Figured I'd be safe to take a look inside, but nope, forced me right on into the boss fight. I actually did okay by keeping the boss asleep for awhile, but then my healer got killed and my team steadily fell apart. Oh well, didn't lose much but the shortcut closest to the boss room. Guess I'll grind up a little by filling in my map the rest of the way, and then give it another shot.
 

vall03

Member
I just stumbled into the Japanese wiki and holy crap, this thing is very detailed! I've been able to read quite fine thanks to Google Translate, albeit a shitty translation. I want to read the party build page, but its difficult to rely on Google Translate alone.
 

spiritfox

Member
Damnit this stupid lizard. Only had one
Ice Stake
left, so... yeah. Can I come back after
destroying the big scale? Will he be stuck there or will it reset?
 
I just stumbled into the Japanese wiki and holy crap, this thing is very detailed! I've been able to read quite fine thanks to Google Translate, albeit a shitty translation. I want to read the party build page, but its difficult to rely on Google Translate alone.

Do you have a link as i need help with my class builds?
 
Damnit this stupid lizard. Only had one
Ice Stake
left, so... yeah. Can I come back after
destroying the big scale? Will he be stuck there or will it reset?

Yeah you can save after doing that. You can also circle around and attack from behind for a preemptive attack.

Also
buy fire resist charms for everyone and use Fire Mist items, he won't do nearly as much damage. Bind his head if you can. Use your guest member's ice skill.
 

tuffy

Member
Adding an Arcanist screws up everything. I'd been using LF/SRM which is boring but seemingly effective through the end of the second land. But an Arcanist's skill set is too good to pass up. Why try to bind one enemy per turn when an Arcanist can try to bind them all for several turns? So, the Sniper's set to go. However, an Arcanist also lets me poison everyone for several turns (for a huge amount of damage when maxed). And if I manage to get poison to land, that calls for a Nightseeker to take advantage of it. So it would seem like the less offensive Fortress is set to go. But as I suspected, a dual-weilding Nightseeker is very squishy, which means Fortress stays and the Lendsnark is out.

That means my party is now FN/ARM going into the third land, and I'm still not sure if I'm finished messing around with it.
 

BearChair

Member
Adding an Arcanist screws up everything. I'd been using LF/SRM which is boring but seemingly effective through the end of the second land. But an Arcanist's skill set is too good to pass up. Why try to bind one enemy per turn when an Arcanist can try to bind them all for several turns? So, the Sniper's set to go. However, an Arcanist also lets me poison everyone for several turns (for a huge amount of damage when maxed). And if I manage to get poison to land, that calls for a Nightseeker to take advantage of it. So it would seem like the less offensive Fortress is set to go. But as I suspected, a dual-weilding Nightseeker is very squishy, which means Fortress stays and the Lendsnark is out.

That means my party is now FN/ARM going into the third land, and I'm still not sure if I'm finished messing around with it.

I completely agree that the Arcanist is nearly game breaking. I had a similar party when I beat the second land, except replace a Nightseeker with the sniper. Instead of poison, I maxed the Arcanists arm bind skill. It nearly works every time, even against FOEs, which gives you at least one free turn to go all out with attacks. I can't imagine dropping by Landsknecht though. Otherwise, I'd really only have one character who can do elemental damage.
 

tuffy

Member
I'm still itching for a way to bench the Medic, but short fights often end before the Arcanist's zone healing kicks in and I'm not sure if healing stroll would be enough to take up the slack. So I wind up burning a lot of potions even on light exploration which makes it hard to get anywhere. Maybe once subclassing opens up I can foist all those healing duties onto my TP-heavy Runemaster but it feels like I'm stuck at the moment.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
I couldn't stay away and so poked my head into the 6th dungeon. You can very easily farm a mountain of formaldehyde there so go ahead and use the ones you find and don't horde them. I now have like 6 from 1 trip into the first floor of the dungeon.
 

scy

Member
I'm still itching for a way to bench the Medic, but short fights often end before the Arcanist's zone healing kicks in and I'm not sure if healing stroll would be enough to take up the slack. So I wind up burning a lot of potions even on light exploration which makes it hard to get anywhere. Maybe once subclassing opens up I can foist all those healing duties onto my TP-heavy Runemaster but it feels like I'm stuck at the moment.

A single turn of the Arcanist's Zone Healing is fine. With their TP Restoring Passive later, you can basically cast most of their Zones for free (or close enough) to allow you to just use one for the sake of using one. Their Dismiss Heal is a fairly big Active Heal (with just the points for using it as a pre-req mine does ~220). And their Healing Stroll is more than enough for between fight healing; with just two points, it's not that bad for keeping your health up between encounters.
 

Ala Alba

Member
Hmm, how effective do you think a tanky Landswordguy would be? At the moment, my fortress only needs to tank until blind/binds are up, and then she's pretty much useless. If I used the Land as the initial tank instead, he could Power break/defend(maybe taunt/rampart with eventual subclass) until set up is done, then vanguard and start linking.

I'm only just starting the 2nd big Maze, so is there some fights coming up where I will definitely be missing a Fortress?

If not, should I replace her with a dancer or a runecaster?

(Party atm is NLF/MS)
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
A single turn of the Arcanist's Zone Healing is fine. With their TP Restoring Passive later, you can basically cast most of their Zones for free (or close enough) to allow you to just use one for the sake of using one. Their Dismiss Heal is a fairly big Active Heal (with just the points for using it as a pre-req mine does ~220). And their Healing Stroll is more than enough for between fight healing; with just two points, it's not that bad for keeping your health up between encounters.
And with a sniper's camouflage you can extend your healing stroll time as needed.
 

scy

Member
Hmm, how effective do you think a tanky Landswordguy would be? At the moment, my fortress only needs to tank until blind/binds are up, and then she's pretty much useless. If I used the Land as the initial tank instead, he could Power break/defend(maybe taunt/rampart with eventual subclass) until set up is done, then vanguard and start linking.

I'm only just starting the 2nd big Maze, so is there some fights coming up where I will definitely be missing a Fortress?

If not, should I replace her with a dancer or a runecaster?

(Party atm is NLF/MS)

If you rely on Power Break, you're spread a bit thin in terms of turn count. Vanguard + Improved Link is "only" three turns of time so you really wouldn't be able to reapply Power Break. I'd consider the Fortress more a case of peace of mind to go all-out. Besides, you can always start getting some damage for them. They're fairly competent at dealing damage and have an infinite supply of TP, essentially.

That said, I'm not entirely sure if a Link Landsknecht is ideal for your group anyway. You don't have a Dancer for generating the attack count you'd want and a Runemaster helps a lot for hitting for more damage (Elemental Runes to lower enemy resistances), though you can always subclass to cover that one.

And with a sniper's camouflage you can extend your healing stroll time as needed.

I just look at it like this: How much healing do I need between encounters so I can setup a Circle first turn? Average steps/encounter is somewhere around 14 or so so and ~+30 Health was enough for ... well, basically all of the game so far.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
I just look at it like this: How much healing do I need between encounters so I can setup a Circle first turn? Average steps/encounter is somewhere around 14 or so so and ~+30 Health was enough for ... well, basically all of the game so far.
I don't need it often but sometimes I do get wrecked and need to heal ~200 per person or else the next encounter is just going to kill me before the end of the first round and don't want to carry medicas. And I wind up getting the lower encounter rate skill in every EO game anyway because sometimes I just want to explore and not fight anything.
 

tuffy

Member
A single turn of the Arcanist's Zone Healing is fine. With their TP Restoring Passive later, you can basically cast most of their Zones for free (or close enough) to allow you to just use one for the sake of using one. Their Dismiss Heal is a fairly big Active Heal (with just the points for using it as a pre-req mine does ~220). And their Healing Stroll is more than enough for between fight healing; with just two points, it's not that bad for keeping your health up between encounters.
I've already thrown a bunch of points into Dismiss Heal, so I may be halfway there. Between Healing Stroll and a few points into Patch Up from a (future) Medic subclass, I think I'll be set to open that slot for something more useful. But my team hasn't hit level 30 yet and I think I'll need to prioritize Arcanist binds first now that I'm done with Poison Zone.

Healing might be less of a priority once I start equipping gear opened up by maze 3 monsters, but I've only just started the area so everything's a bit more dangerous than it'll be later on.
 

Anteo

Member
5 monks might be doable (EO3 of course). 3 monks in the front dealing damage and the 2 behind healing when applicable.

I was thinking about this today. The only problem would be physical resistance but is still doable.

Also.. 4th land spoilers
Logreeeeeeeeeeeee I had you! I had my setup and I was about to own you! Why did you run! *rages*
 

Diseased Yak

Gold Member
So I'm new to this series, and picked this up. I'm gonna read back through this thread for hints, but I have two questions from my play session last night:

1) I went with this party - Fortress / Land / Dancer on front row, Sniper / Medic in the back. Is a Medic and Dancer in the same party redundant?

2) I assume the game telling me how to avoid aggro'ing the giant fucking baboon with the afro was it's way of telling me that I shouldn't fight him, right? Cause I went ahead and did and he murdered my party post haste.
 

spiritfox

Member
Yeah you can save after doing that. You can also circle around and attack from behind for a preemptive attack.

Also
buy fire resist charms for everyone and use Fire Mist items, he won't do nearly as much damage. Bind his head if you can. Use your guest member's ice skill.

Alright killed him, although he nearly wiped my party. Poison Tail too stronk.

What's this? story in my EO? What.
Although it's not really that unexpected, given his shiftiness thoughout the game.
And YES, 4th area music is the best.

So I'm new to this series, and picked this up. I'm gonna read back through this thread for hints, but I have two questions from my play session last night:

1) I went with this party - Fortress / Land / Dancer on front row, Sniper / Medic in the back. Is a Medic and Dancer in the same party redundant?

2) I assume the game telling me how to avoid aggro'ing the giant fucking baboon with the afro was it's way of telling me that I shouldn't fight him, right? Cause I went ahead and did and he murdered my party post haste.

With a Medic, your Dancer is more free to set up chases, although that will not really become powerful until after lvl 20. The main problem will be damage output, since Medic doesn't have a lot of damage potential, especially in the rear.

Are you talking about the first one? Just wait until he turns around and walks back. Then you just follow him.
 

Anteo

Member
So I'm new to this series, and picked this up. I'm gonna read back through this thread for hints, but I have two questions from my play session last night:

1) I went with this party - Fortress / Land / Dancer on front row, Sniper / Medic in the back. Is a Medic and Dancer in the same party redundant?

2) I assume the game telling me how to avoid aggro'ing the giant fucking baboon with the afro was it's way of telling me that I shouldn't fight him, right? Cause I went ahead and did and he murdered my party post haste.

About 1) To add what spiritfox said: Try to get some elemental skills on your Land, at least one level. The game throws you some physical resistant enemies early.

About 2) Yeah anything that you can see on the map is generally too powerfull to be fought the first time you see it. So try to avoid those fights.

Alright killed him, although he nearly wiped my party. Poison Tail too stronk.

What's this? story in my EO? What.
Although it's not really that unexpected, given his shiftiness thoughout the game.
And YES, 4th area music is the best.

I was thinking "Man this EO is even weaker in story than EO3!" but not anymore :lol
I like EO3 story a lot
 

Ala Alba

Member
If you rely on Power Break, you're spread a bit thin in terms of turn count. Vanguard + Improved Link is "only" three turns of time so you really wouldn't be able to reapply Power Break. I'd consider the Fortress more a case of peace of mind to go all-out. Besides, you can always start getting some damage for them. They're fairly competent at dealing damage and have an infinite supply of TP, essentially.

Well, I guess I'm just early enough in the game that the tough enemies pretty much die before the status and/or binds wear off. My fortress pretty much ends up using just taunt and then some strike skills or regular attacks. The TP regen is nice, though.

That said, I'm not entirely sure if a Link Landsknecht is ideal for your group anyway. You don't have a Dancer for generating the attack count you'd want and a Runemaster helps a lot for hitting for more damage (Elemental Runes to lower enemy resistances), though you can always subclass to cover that one.

Well, yeah, which is why I would be replacing the fortress with a Dancer or Rune. :)

I think I'll try it and let you know how it goes.
 

scy

Member
Well, I guess I'm just early enough in the game that the tough enemies pretty much die before the status and/or binds wear off. My fortress pretty much ends up using just taunt and then some strike skills or regular attacks. The TP regen is nice, though.

Well, 3rd Land didn't have much I can think of that was really all that bad except maybe the boss but that can be planned for / Bound. 4th, however, had a lot of FoEs with high damage output, though I suppose not everyone fights every FoE like I do (ffs, why are they on a 1-day respawn ;_;).

Well, yeah, which is why I would be replacing the fortress with a Dancer or Rune. :)

I think I'll try it and let you know how it goes.

Touche. Which, on that note, I'd say Dancer. Regen Waltz works better, arguably, with a non-Fortress anyhow since more people should take damage. You can also get Auto Cloak for your Nightseeker (+ Dancer/Nightseeker and get it there too) to get a decent chance to start fights with single-hit immunity.

It's doable to go without a Fortress (I'm probably replacing mine soon ... once I figure out what I want*), just be wary on FoE fights. Fortress loses some value in this game, it feels like, since Runemasters cover the Elemental Resistances and Taunt not being that great when you're dealing splash damage / line targets.

*Probably Sniper / Bushi. Because why not.
 
I picked this up today, looking forward to starting it sometime tonight. I've never played an EO game before but I enjoyed the demo so I figured I'd give it a shot.
 
Is it possible to fuck up your party so bad that the game becomes borderline unwinnable?

No, because you can always rest your units to completely redo your character build at the cost of two levels.

EDIT: Also, you don't need to worry about making money either, because food is always available as a source of income.
 

scy

Member
Is it possible to fuck up your party so bad that the game becomes borderline unwinnable?

Not really. And, even if you could, Resting is only -2 Levels to redo all your skill points (+ change your sub class).

Honestly, you'd have to try pretty hard to have a reasonably balanced group* that is that bad.

*By that I mean trying to cover your bases (e.g., have a way for dealing with incoming damage, have a way for recovering, and have a way to deal damage). If you did some gimmick setup, it might hit a wall somewhere somehow.

In the Main Game: No but you'd have to grind to make up for it.
In the Post Game (Based on the last 3 games); Yes, but you are expected to redo your party.

Barring the Final Final Boss for EO3, you could itemize to deal with every post-game encounter:

All three Dragons: Did three damage types with one being on a predictable turn clock. You can equip to fully Immune one Physical type, equip to half the other + a Mist for immunity, and then use Limits every 1/5/10/etc. turn to stop their Elemental Damage.
Kraken: 120% Leg Bind Resistance, shuts down his entire skillset.
Anemone: Deals only Crush Damage.
Alraune: ...actually, I guess she was the closest to unpredictable. She was made of paper though.
 

BearChair

Member
Is it possible to fuck up your party so bad that the game becomes borderline unwinnable?

Unless you had a party all of one class, no, it is not really possible. Even if you did, you might be able to do it with enough grinding.

The game's original concept was that you would have a party of five classes to give the game a challenge. If you were allowed to have the sixth class, you would have everything you need, and it would be too easy.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
In the Main Game: No but you'd have to grind to make up for it.
In the Post Game (Based on the last 3 games); Yes, but you are expected to redo your party.
I haven't killed any of
the elemental dragons
, but based on my 1 completely unprepared attempt my feeling is that any reasonably synergistic party could take them. And an entire party of Imperials would probably win on like round 2.
 

Anteo

Member
Barring the Final Final Boss for EO3, you could itemize to deal with every post-game encounter:

All three Dragons: Did three damage types with one being on a predictable turn clock. You can equip to fully Immune one Physical type, equip to half the other + a Mist for immunity, and then use Limits every 1/5/10/etc. turn to stop their Elemental Damage.
Kraken: 120% Leg Bind Resistance, shuts down his entire skillset.
Anemone: Deals only Crush Damage.
Alraune: ...actually, I guess she was the closest to unpredictable. She was made of paper though.

Yeah that's what I was refering to, the very last boss. In eo3 I had a farmer on my party the entire game, so I know what is to play with 4 characters the whole game :lol.
 

scy

Member
To prove a point awhile back, I did an all Farmer EO3 run. It was ... actually, not that bad. It was pretty much a "Look what subclassing can do!" run, though.

Which, on that note, delaying subclassing by about half a dungeon and limiting it like they did really helped a lot. Makes it a bit more balanced, really.
 

Korosenai

Member
Went to go buy this on Amazon and noticed this:

Item Under Review

While this item is available from other marketplace sellers on this page, it is not currently offered by Amazon.com because customers have told us there may be something wrong with our inventory of the item, the way we are shipping it, or the way it's described here. (Thanks for the tip!)

We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible.

What's up with that?
 

Anteo

Member
Alright, final question.

How difficult is this game, compared to say... Devil Survivor? Or Strange Journey.

Yeah I want someone to answer this please, I want to play DS at some point.

To prove a point awhile back, I did an all Farmer EO3 run. It was ... actually, not that bad. It was pretty much a "Look what subclassing can do!" run, though.

Which, on that note, delaying subclassing by about half a dungeon and limiting it like they did really helped a lot. Makes it a bit more balanced, really.

Well my Farmer was just the +exp, no damage titles, free thread for half of the game >.<
 

Totakeke

Member
Alright, final question.

How difficult is this game, compared to say... Devil Survivor? Or Strange Journey.

Devil Survivor was pretty easy for me. Strange Journey was more difficult on a frustration note. EO4 is easier compared to the previous ones and while there is a learning curve on understanding the classes and skills, the difficulty curve is pretty smooth in this iteration.
 

Totakeke

Member
Does not compute.

It's been a while since I last played it, but I don't remember having much trouble with the game at all and the last few bosses weren't difficult either. I only completed the game once though. The difficulty definitely felt watered down from other SMT games.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
I think that, ignoring certain specific broken setups in past games, this is by far the easiest and newcomer friendly that etrian odyssey has ever been. And is probably easier than both strange journey and devil survivor.

edit: I played devil survivor overclocked, not the original, if that matters.
 

scy

Member
Alright, final question.

How difficult is this game, compared to say... Devil Survivor? Or Strange Journey.

I'm probably the worst person to answer this since I don't find any of the games difficult ;_;

But, anyway, the difficulty of the EO series gets overstated a lot. The worst of the game is the very beginning where you have very few options and you're easy to kill. EO4 has probably the easiest start (no all-target Poison! You have to wait a whole floor + Night only before the first super scary regular enemy!) of the games so far so that helps a lot.

The Skill Tree being level limited makes the whole thing a LOT less daunting as you have fewer choices (with many of them being good options anyway) and the penalty for redoing skills is lowered drastically. You're given stronger options for fewer points (e.g., Taunt is only 4 points for max effectiveness, many skills hit ~60-70% of their power halfway in) so you hit your stride earlier. Just a lot of small things have been done to smooth out the experience.

As long as you have a balanced team and have a plan for fights (aka, not just auto-battling everything with your fingers crossed) and actually respect that regular enemies can potentially kill you, you'll do fine.

Went to go buy this on Amazon and noticed this:



What's up with that?

There's no manual with the game. All copies, not just Amazon ones. Enough people complained that I guess Amazon has it down for the time being despite everything being right.

Unless I missed something, anyway.

Yeah I want someone to answer this please, I want to play DS at some point.

Devil Survivor isn't that bad of a game. Utilizing Fusion properly can let you make some pretty ridiculous demons so it's more difficult in the sense of objectives (Protect Dumb People!) rather than encounters themselves.

Well my Farmer was just the +exp, no damage titles, free thread for half of the game >.<

It's about all they're good for besides Lullaby. ;_; The first two Stratums in an All Farmer run were godawful, saved only by hooray bonus EXP! Sub-classes made it pretty easy in the long-run, though. Post-game stuff wasn't so bad either.
 

Anteo

Member
It's about all they're good for besides Lullaby. ;_; The first two Stratums in an All Farmer run were godawful, saved only by hooray bonus EXP! Sub-classes made it pretty easy in the long-run, though. Post-game stuff wasn't so bad either.

I don't even remember what the subclass of my Farmer was.

Anyways as you said, respect regular encounters, I've been wiped out or almost wiped out in random battles in this game a lot. But that was just me being careless or spaming run when I should be buffing/debuffing.
 
It's been a while since I last played it, but I don't remember having much trouble with the game at all and the last few bosses weren't difficult either. I only completed the game once though. The difficulty definitely felt watered down from other SMT games.

Some of the boss battles were incredibly unfair though. Unless you went in prepared for them you'd lose. Though you're right about the last few bosses being easy, because by then you get top tier demons.

I'm probably the worst person to answer this since I don't find any of the games difficult ;_:.

DS I can understand finding easy. But Strange Journey? I still haven't beaten the game due to having to grind a ton to take down the final boss.
 

scy

Member
Anyways as you said, respect regular encounters, I've been wiped out or almost wiped out in random battles in this game a lot. But that was just me being careless or spaming run when I should be buffing/debuffing.

Auto-battle/Holding A is my greatest weakness when I'm lazily going from point A to point B.

Like, hey, there's a 4th Land enemy that Petrifies! Found out that one the hard way!

Some of the boss battles were incredibly unfair though. Unless you went in prepared for them you'd lose. Though you're right about the last few bosses being easy, because by then you get top tier demons.

The same team worked on all these games if I recall so the boss design mentality is pretty similar: Really strong with a gimmick to be exploited. Be it proper itemization (to nullify all their damage) or battle strategy (how to prevent the bulk of their damage entirely), there's always an answer besides more levels.
 
I beat it yesterday. I was playing on casual mode and I think it makes a big difference, it was much easier than the previous EO games. I'm going to replay it on normal for new game plus after I twink out a few level 1 characters. Although - maybe I should just delete my data and start all over again. I think it's got fairly good replay value.
 

Jarekx

Member
So how is link damage calculated?

Does the +elemental attack up forge enhance the damage of the links?

I'm thinking of forging it but i'm not sure how useful it would be. I'm actually not sure about a lot of my decisions. I'm always second guessing myself when upgrading equipment, especially when going from slots to slotless gear.
 

Anteo

Member
So how is link damage calculated?

Does the +elemental attack up forge enhance the damage of the links?

I'm thinking of forging it but i'm not sure how useful it would be. I'm actually not sure about a lot of my decisions. I'm always second guessing myself when upgrading equipment, especially when going from slots to slotless gear.

I only forge things when there is a boss that I can't beat, like that one boss with high evasion for those who are half way on the game.
 

scy

Member
So how is link damage calculated?

It's all based on the stats of the Landsknecht. It's a STR Based attack that deals Elemental Damage and now that I say that, I'm not sure if it's dual-type or not (e.g., Cut/Fire vs just Fire).

...I'll get back to this later when I can test some exacts on it.

Does the +elemental attack up forge enhance the damage of the links?

+ELM Forges work on it, yes. Those work on any ability that deals Elemental Damage (which I believe includes Typeless damage).

I'm thinking of forging it but i'm not sure how useful it would be. I'm actually not sure about a lot of my decisions. I'm always second guessing myself when upgrading equipment, especially when going from slots to slotless gear.

Forging is essentially free (just costs whatever the component is for the item itself, no money) so just follow some basic things for it:

Does the character use a lot of skills that deal Physical (Cut, Stab, Bash) Damage? If so, ATK Forges.
Does the character use a lot of skills that deal Elemental (Fire, Ice, Volt, and I believe Typeless) Damage? If so, ELM Forges.
Does the character just attack normally without using skills? If so, Elemental Forges (the Fire, Ice, and Volt ones, not to be confused with ELM) or Status Effect or Bind Forges.

Losing slots usually isn't a big deal. Each ATK Forge is +3% Damage, for instance, so if you go from 100 ATK to 125 ATK on the Weapon, you'd have needed to lose over _8_ ATK Forges for it to be worse.
 
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