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

There is a plot. The story starts with adventurers all flocking to this place because of an interest in discovering the secret behind Yggdrasil, this huge tree you see in the horizon. There are characters, objectives, and story events. It's just not the main focus in the game. As you progress through the game you will encounter more characters and story elements which explain the world around you and so on.





Good ! It's just enough for me ! I might get it day one when it released to Europe.
 

Volcynika

Member
Added some reviews and QR codes to the OP (got in a little later than I thought I would last night), not sure of some of the quest requirements I added though. Again, feel free to quote this post or PM me with details that you would like me to add. Probably a few QR codes here and there I haven't added, but I should be able to get around to them today.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
So, whats a good sub-class for an Imperial? I actually have three choices, Nightseeker, Bushi or Runemaster. But I can't seem to decide between the three.
I think nightseeker is right out when you realize that the double skill thing isn't 100% damage. I think it might be based on your dual wield level so even maxed the 2nd hit is only doing 50% damage 41% of the time.

Bushi and Runemaster are more debateable. I personally think Bushi is the way to go but runemaster is capable of higher damage if the thing you are fighting has a large elemental weakness to begin with. You'll also have access to higher TP, and the protection of the runes if you don't already have a runemaster. But Unless you are willing to rest to change your skills around for each boss maxing the elemental skills takes 28 points as apposed to accel's 8 points.

The reason I like the bushi subclass is because I just ignore the elemental drives and go for all accel all the time. 900% untyped damage works on all things and the bushi's blood surge + charge makes for a small setup into huge multipliers. Blood surge also lasts the entire battle so you don't need to keep reapplying it.

Auto surge also helps with TP management in normal dungeon crawling because if it triggers at the start of battle my imperial takes the fight off to take a a deep breath and regain his TP. Between deep breath and impulse edge my imperial has basically infinite TP.
 

vall03

Member
I think nightseeker is right out when you realize that the double skill thing isn't 100% damage. I think it might be based on your dual wield level so even maxed the 2nd hit is only doing 50% damage 41% of the time.

Bushi and Runemaster are more debateable. I personally think Bushi is the way to go but runemaster is capable of higher damage if the thing you are fighting has a large elemental weakness to begin with. You'll also have access to higher TP, and the protection of the runes if you don't already have a runemaster. But Unless you are willing to rest to change your skills around for each boss maxing the elemental skills takes 28 points as apposed to accel's 8 points.

The reason I like the bushi subclass is because I just ignore the elemental drives and go for all accel all the time. 900% untyped damage works on all things and the bushi's blood surge + charge makes for a small setup into huge multipliers. Blood surge also lasts the entire battle so you don't need to keep reapplying it.

Auto surge also helps with TP management in normal dungeon crawling because if it triggers at the start of battle my imperial takes the fight off to take a a deep breath and regain his TP. Between deep breath and impulse edge my imperial has basically infinite TP.

Thanks for the tips! Though the reason I thought of Nightseeker sub was to increase cooldown and use Ignition sooner. But then, you have point there. Dual-wielding would leave the Imperial with low def. I then thought of Runemaster since I realized it can help boost the Imperial Drives. But right now, Im planning to put back a Runemaster into my party so Elemental damage will be covered. Guess I'll also stick to my original plan of Imperial/Bushi.
 

scy

Member
I think nightseeker is right out when you realize that the double skill thing isn't 100% damage. I think it might be based on your dual wield level so even maxed the 2nd hit is only doing 50% damage 41% of the time.

Imperial/Nightseeker is basically there because someone wants Nightseeker/Imperial but wants to use the Imperial portraits. The short of it is that /Runemaster gets you safer Damage, /Bushi gets you more damage with a risk to it.
 
Imperial/Nightseeker is basically there because someone wants Nightseeker/Imperial but wants to use the Imperial portraits. The short of it is that /Runemaster gets you safer Damage, /Bushi gets you more damage with a risk to it.

Imperial designs are so good, so it's understandable!
 

tuffy

Member
As promised, maxing out my Arcanist's Healing March really did the trick and let me bench my Medic. So, my party setup becomes LFN/RA. The Fortress' Auto-Taunt/Cover and Lankskamp's Sword Breaker helps take some of the damage off my squishy dual-weilding Nightseeker. That means I've got two good sources of elemental damage between regular rune attacks and Link Mastery which seems to be sufficient for now.

But the Arcanist is unbelievable; when Poison Zone lands, it hits for 300HP per round, the Nightseeker gets a massive damage boost and the whole party gets a big chunk of healing per round even if the zone doesn't land, or I can cancel the zone anytime for an even bigger chunk of healing. And Poison Zone lands an awful lot of the time against the random stuff wandering the third maze.

Can't wait until I finally get around to unlocking subclasses for the 5 skill point bonus if nothing else.
 

Anteo

Member
As promised, maxing out my Arcanist's Healing March really did the trick and let me bench my Medic. So, my party setup becomes LFN/RA. The Fortress' Auto-Taunt/Cover and Lankskamp's Sword Breaker helps take some of the damage off my squishy dual-weilding Nightseeker. That means I've got two good sources of elemental damage between regular rune attacks and Link Mastery which seems to be sufficient for now.

But the Arcanist is unbelievable; when Poison Zone lands, it hits for 300HP per round, the Nightseeker gets a massive damage boost and the whole party gets a big chunk of healing per round even if the zone doesn't land, or I can cancel the zone anytime for an even bigger chunk of healing. And Poison Zone lands an awful lot of the time against the random stuff wandering the third maze.

Can't wait until I finally get around to unlocking subclasses for the 5 skill point bonus if nothing else.

My NS landed venom for the first time yesterday, it hit for 700 hp. Venom is so effective in this game..
 

Totakeke

Member
Everyone aboard the Arcanist+Nightseeker train, choo choo.

Thanks for the tips! Though the reason I thought of Nightseeker sub was to increase cooldown and use Ignition sooner. But then, you have point there. Dual-wielding would leave the Imperial with low def. I then thought of Runemaster since I realized it can help boost the Imperial Drives. But right now, Im planning to put back a Runemaster into my party so Elemental damage will be covered. Guess I'll also stick to my original plan of Imperial/Bushi.

Just so you know, you don't have to dual wield to use the double skill Nightseeker skill.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
Everyone aboard the Arcanist+Nightseeker train, choo choo.
How are people with arcanists/nightseekers spreading their skill points? I thought about it but ended up going arcanist/runemaster just to have someone with 1 point in the runes for defense. But I find I don't have enough skill points just to get everything I want in the arcanist tree let alone spend any on a subclass.

oh, you probably mean having 1 of each in the party. well nevermind.
 

tuffy

Member
Everyone aboard the Arcanist+Nightseeker train, choo choo.
The main downside is that the Nightseeker is sometimes waiting around for status effects to take hold, especially against FOEs/bosses. But Dual Weilding means it can contribute more elemental Link Mastery hits so those turns aren't wasted while the Zone does its work.
 
Really? my read from watching it was that he thought it was awful and grindy (take a drink every time Patrick says grind... if you want to die) but was trying his best to not be really negative about it.

I don't think he thinks it's awful. It came across as him having preconceptions about the game and just repeating them ad-nauseum to Vinny because he hadn't played enough of the game to have a better feel for it.
 

Bururian

Member
I love being able to level up a new character in my party by simply just applying Ally Guard to the low level person for the duration of a FOE battle.
 

rpmurphy

Member
I don't think he thinks it's awful. It came across as him having preconceptions about the game and just repeating them ad-nauseum to Vinny because he hadn't played enough of the game to have a better feel for it.
Yeah, I don't think he gets the game flow yet. There isn't so much the need to grind in the game unless you are anal about getting every drop and buying every item along the way or trying to get to level X before you move on. Just making treks into the dungeon and exploring them, fighting the monsters along the way, challenging FOEs when you are able to, fulfilling quests and missions -- these are basically enough to go by that money, exp, and loot will be sufficient. Grinding in this game is especially subject to diminishing returns.
 

Totakeke

Member
Crazy idea time. Someone try out a Samurai/Fortress Tank with Revenge Smite + Rage + Charge + Cover + Endure + Taunt or maybe another Nightseeker throwing up Decoy on him.
 

scy

Member
Yeah, I don't think he gets the game flow yet. There isn't so much the need to grind in the game unless you are anal about getting every drop and buying every item along the way or trying to get to level X before you move on. Just making treks into the dungeon and exploring them, fighting the monsters along the way, challenging FOEs when you are able to, fulfilling quests and missions -- these are basically enough to go by that money, exp, and loot will be sufficient. Grinding in this game is especially subject to diminishing returns.

That and the "best" way to be grinding is outside the realm of just "fighting a lot." Sitting there just fighting regular enemies over and over is the least efficient way to go about it, honestly.

My NS landed venom for the first time yesterday, it hit for 700 hp. Venom is so effective in this game..

Something that people do need to be aware of for these things: Nightseeker Poison, by virtue of being a later skill (tree-wise), is superior to Arcanist Poison for damage. On top of that, Nightseeker's skills have a higher base chance of landing than Arcanist ones (though Arcanist has the flat increase that is applied after Resistances).

The same applies to Sniper Binds, for the record.

I kind of miss my Nightseeker starting a fight with Auto-Spread right into an all-target Poison (or Sleep or whatever). Random encounters were so much fun :x
 
What do you guys think of the viability of this:

Fortress/Dancer tossing up Chase Samba, Bushi/Nightseeker getting two normal attacks in to raise their TP and HP while raging, and Landsknecht/Runemaster in the typical chaser setup with his elements buffed. I don't know about the back row besides Arcanist/Medic.

How well will that work? Pretty bad, or has a shot at end game stuff?
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
That and the "best" way to be grinding is outside the realm of just "fighting a lot." Sitting there just fighting regular enemies over and over is the least efficient way to go about it, honestly.



Something that people do need to be aware of for these things: Nightseeker Poison, by virtue of being a later skill (tree-wise), is superior to Arcanist Poison for damage. On top of that, Nightseeker's skills have a higher base chance of landing than Arcanist ones (though Arcanist has the flat increase that is applied after Resistances).

The same applies to Sniper Binds, for the record.

I kind of miss my Nightseeker starting a fight with Auto-Spread right into an all-target Poison (or Sleep or whatever). Random encounters were so much fun :x
Are you just speaking from experience or have the success %'s been posted somewhere? I've been wondering what the exact percents were since the beginning.
 

Anteo

Member
Something that people do need to be aware of for these things: Nightseeker Poison, by virtue of being a later skill (tree-wise), is superior to Arcanist Poison for damage. On top of that, Nightseeker's skills have a higher base chance of landing than Arcanist ones (though Arcanist has the flat increase that is applied after Resistances).

The same applies to Sniper Binds, for the record.

I kind of miss my Nightseeker starting a fight with Auto-Spread right into an all-target Poison (or Sleep or whatever). Random encounters were so much fun :x

I was thinking about getting auto-spread. I'll try that next.
Making posion a late game skill was a great idea, now we get high damage from it and is not unbalanced for the early game. A posion skill that scales through the game would've better imo.
 

scy

Member
What do you guys think of the viability of this:

Fortress/Dancer tossing up Chase Samba, Bushi/Nightseeker getting two normal attacks in to raise their TP and HP while raging, and Landsknecht/Runemaster in the typical chaser setup with his elements buffed. I don't know about the back row besides Arcanist/Medic.

How well will that work? Pretty bad, or has a shot at end game stuff?

Off-hand, Chase Samba doesn't trigger Links. The same for Trick Samba. I'd have to double-check though, I dropped Trick Samba from my buff rotation on the Dancer so it's been awhile.

Are you just speaking from experience or have the success %'s been posted somewhere? I've been wondering what the exact percents were since the beginning.

Just my assessment from running the Nightseeker + Arcanist all game (and now Arcanist + Sniper and testing binds). Similar LUC levels (actually, less on the Sniper and no Affliction bonus) has her just being more consistent on landing them. The same for the Nightseeker.

I was thinking about getting auto-spread. I'll try that next.
Making posion a late game skill was a great idea, now we get high damage from it and is not unbalanced for the early game. A posion skill that scales through the game would've better imo.

Nightseeker is a really fun class, honestly. I had both Auto skills and he'd spend most fights with auto-invuln and AoE status effect chance (that lasts more than one turn due to it being Auto'd). Status Mastery along with the Nightseeker passive has him pushing really extreme damage. Shadow Bite has an extremely high multiplier (nearing 1300% on an afflicted target, I believe, though counting the Class Passive is cheating I guess) and the multi-hit skill that I just forgot the name of is a nice "neutral" skill to have when you can't get a status going.

It's really just nice seeing that Status Effects are usable, really.
 

Totakeke

Member
Samurai/Nightseeker or Samurai/Dancer is interesting to focus on normal attacks and regen, but that depends on how Rage triggers and how Healing Way and the Samurai class skill triggers. If both are for every strike, then it kinda cancels itself out.
 
Off-hand, Chase Samba doesn't trigger Links. The same for Trick Samba. I'd have to double-check though, I dropped Trick Samba from my buff rotation on the Dancer so it's been awhile.

Yeah it does, I've been doing it for ages with my F/L/D:S/M party.
 

spiritfox

Member
The additonal trick attacks don't, just the initial hit by the dancer.

I finally realised why my shields only block the initial hit. It's because I was fighting arm binders, and the hit binded my fortress.
 

slayn

needs to show more effort.
Just my assessment from running the Nightseeker + Arcanist all game (and now Arcanist + Sniper and testing binds). Similar LUC levels (actually, less on the Sniper and no Affliction bonus) has her just being more consistent on landing them. The same for the Nightseeker.
hmm, my gut feel is that my arcanist was better at applying binds than my sniper when I killed the dragons but I don't know my relative tec/luck values and the dragon's resistance could be making the arcanists post resistance increase bring it in their favor.
 

scy

Member
Yeah, as things get more resistance, Arcanist becomes the better one. On a neutral, or relatively neutral, target the Nightseeker/Sniper skills have the better base chance.

It's not a thorough testing by any means, though. And it's probably only 10% or so of a base difference most likely.
 
Subclassing sounds complicated. Do I have to do it or can I have my characters remain pure?\

Also for my class setup I'm thinking:

Bushi, Fort, Dancer: front line

Runemaster + Sniper/Nightseeker: back line

thoughts?
 

scy

Member
Subclassing sounds complicated. Do I have to do it or can I have my characters remain pure?

You don't "have" to use it but ... there's really no reason not to. It's pretty simple. Select a class as your subclass and you get access to their skill-tree (sans their Class Passive, the Proficiency line) with half of the points possible (e.g., a skill that goes to 8 can only take 4 points if it's subbed) as well as a free +5 Skill Points to use however you want.

The difficulty of subclassing is just figuring out what skills are really, really good and benefit a your main class really well. For instance, an Elemental Landsknecht benefits greatly from subclassing Runemaster for the passive skills that give +Elemental Damage and +Damage when hitting a weakness.

Also for my class setup I'm thinking:

Bushi, Fort, Dancer: front line

Runemaster + Sniper/Nightseeker: back line

thoughts?

Just to note, you don't start the game with access to Bushi so it'll be awhile before you have one.

Besides that, you'll most likely want a Sniper, not a Nightseeker, for the backrow. Nightseeker is a melee class. The only thing they can do from the back would be their throws and that's not really that good of a use for them, honestly.
 

Sleepy

Member
Game shipped!

All my characters are at level ten from the demo, finished all quests, and completely mapped the cave and the first floor (I think), and I have around 6,000 bucks. Anything else I need to look for or do before I get the game?
 
Just to note, you don't start the game with access to Bushi so it'll be awhile before you have one.

Besides that, you'll most likely want a Sniper, not a Nightseeker, for the backrow. Nightseeker is a melee class. The only thing they can do from the back would be their throws and that's not really that good of a use for them, honestly.

Ah. I assumed back row characters could still do melee attacks from the back, just at reduced damage. In that case, Sniper for sure. I'll probably go Landsnecht until I get Bushi.
 

zroid

Banned
Stupid question:

Does the game case itself come in its own plastic wrapper, or is the only wrapping around the exterior cardboard box?

(I want to know for, errr, idiosyncratic reasons)
 

Anteo

Member
Ah. I assumed back row characters could still do melee attacks from the back, just at reduced damage. In that case, Sniper for sure. I'll probably go Landsnecht until I get Bushi.

They can, and I'm going to try right now but I believe knives are considered ranged. brb, testing now.

Edit: Nope, the throws are considered ranged, the knife still does half damage. Wonder why the game says that they are suitable for either line.
 

scy

Member
Ah. I assumed back row characters could still do melee attacks from the back, just at reduced damage. In that case, Sniper for sure. I'll probably go Landsnecht until I get Bushi.

Well, they can attack from back there for a penalty. Just that the penalty really hurts!

They can, and I'm going to try right now but I believe knives are considered ranged. brb, testing now.

Edit: Nope, the throws are considered ranged, the knife still does half damage. Wonder why the game says that they are suitable for either line.

I just remembered Dark Hunters in EO1/EO2 were considered both lane specialists despite having absolutely no back-row friendly abilities ;__;

Worth noting that the Throws are ranged so you can hit the enemy back-row so there's that.
 
Am I going to be able to re-spec my skill points later in the game? I'm trying to pick skills I think could be useful, but its had to tell so early in the game. I'm probably spreading them out too much also. Should I not really worry about it and just go with what I think would be good? Throw all my points into one or two skills early on or spread them around to experiment with different skills?
 

Anteo

Member
Am I going to be able to re-spec my skill points later in the game? I'm trying to pick skills I think could be useful, but its had to tell so early in the game. I'm probably spreading them out too much also. Should I not really worry about it and just go with what I think would be good? Throw all my points into one or two skills early on or spread them around to experiment with different skills?

You can respec at any point in the game at the cost of 2 levels, go to the Explorers Guild and choose Organize > Rest.
Read the skills and think a early party setup that covers the basics: Heals, Elemental Damage and whatever else you want. You'll be fine.

Edit: Also, as soon as you hit 20 you get acces to the next tier spells, and you don't need to spend all your points before getting a new spell from the next tier so you can save some points if you want. I didn't save any though, just used rest as soon as I hit 30 (half way the 2nd tier) and 42 (for the third tier)
 
Am I going to be able to re-spec my skill points later in the game? I'm trying to pick skills I think could be useful, but its had to tell so early in the game. I'm probably spreading them out too much also. Should I not really worry about it and just go with what I think would be good? Throw all my points into one or two skills early on or spread them around to experiment with different skills?

You can re-spec your characters at the cost of 2 levels, which is nearly free. You have to rest to do so, which is an option available with the guy that let's you create characters.
 

KarmaCow

Member
Am I going to be able to re-spec my skill points later in the game? I'm trying to pick skills I think could be useful, but its had to tell so early in the game. I'm probably spreading them out too much also. Should I not really worry about it and just go with what I think would be good? Throw all my points into one or two skills early on or spread them around to experiment with different skills?

Just go with whatever, you can reset your skills at the cost of 2 levels at anytime. Go to Organize > Rest in the Guild in Town.

What I did was once everyone got to level 22, I rested everyone to so that I could applies my points to tier to skills.

You can also try waiting until you get to subclassing unlocked (which is fairly early on in the 3rd Land) before resetting so you can try out putting more points into whatever subclass.

Would you guys say this is a big enough step up from 3 to buy a 3ds for? Or should I just get 3 on my ds?

I don't think any one game is worth buying a console for but 4 seems 'better' in most ways. There are a few things I don't like but it's hardly game changing stuff.

Though if it's a matter of spending $30 vs $210, just go with 3.
 

Anteo

Member
Would you guys say this is a big enough step up from 3 to buy a 3ds for? Or should I just get 3 on my ds?

I wouldn't buy a 3ds just for 4, but that's just me wanting more than one game to pick a console. Then again there are so many games for the 3DS that you may as well pick it up and get EO and some other games later, like FE or KI:U
 

KarmaCow

Member
Sea faring was waaaay cooler than that balloon thingy

at least based on the demo

They do some cool stuff with FOE manipulation in 4 with the airship/food later on. 3's sea fairing was basically a highly prescribed path with a thin veneer of freedom.

I'm not a fan how of the how levels are basically airship lands with pockets of dungeons vs a set of 4/5 floors but I'd prefer the airship stuff over discovering new dungeons via 3's ship stuff.
 

tuffy

Member
Sea faring was waaaay cooler than that balloon thingy

at least based on the demo

Sea faring is basically a navigation puzzle that leads to a boss fight, which is okay.

Overworld exploration with the balloon lets you find mini explorable mazes, complete FOEs and quests that make use of them. It's probably what they'd intended for EOIII if the DS had more memory to fit them.
 

Anteo

Member
I played 3 for easily 100+ hours and never liked Sea faring, while I like how they implemented Flying in 4

While I get how the flying mechanic is better, I don't enjoy it as much as sea faring, the puzzle aspect was the best part about it. I guess it's because is different now and is not optional, the sea was a place I could go explore when I was tired of the laberynth and it was always fun. Fishing was never cost effective to me though =(
 
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