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Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan |OT|: Fight & Heal Brings 3D To Europe!
- Thread starter Volcynika
- Start date
Dreamwriter
Member
I know the game isn't actually out yet, but do you folks think the improvements to this game over the last one (like the airship) make this one worth getting over 3? I loved the demo of this game, but looking at videos of EO 3, that retro-style music and art seems SO much better than this game's weird 2D 3D models and generic orchestra+butt-rock.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
The airship is really fun and I'm liking it more than the boat. I absolutely LOVE the music/art/character models.
I can't think of a single thing that wasn't improved
hell, even the map creator is better
While I have only played the demo, the impression from EO4 that I get is that the game is taking a very back to basics approach.
I played EO3 for about 90 hours and never made it through all of the Stratum that opens after beating the game or beat the the last boss of the raft puzzles (they are more puzzles than exploration, IMO). It is an incredibly complicated game and for some of the optional content, you need a very specific party or you won't beat it.
That being said, I throughly enjoyed the experience and bought my 3DS partially for EO4.
If you want to jump into a very complicated, deep game there is no reason not to get EO3.
However, you are going to miss out of all of the social elements that may make EO4 a lot of fun, especially if you follow this thread. Remember, in EO4 you will be able to share characters with other players (as long as they are within five levels) and there will be the QR code items that will come out.
Hope that helps.
Oh snap. That sounds pretty sick and not as convoluted as I expected when I first heard the term sub classes.
If I like this, I should just go ahead and play the other three right? Or at least buy them just in case they get rare again...lol.
whiterabbit
Member
That's the third stratum, so it's about halfway through the game. I put EO3 aside a few times while playing through it. I might start on casual too, although I am worried I might not be able to go back to normal!
I'm sure it's already been posted a million times, but you can use this handy tool to plan out your builds and play around with subclasses beforehand. It's very much like building characters in better RPGs and MMOs. Basically all you have to know is that your main class gets its single point class bonuses, and subclass skills are only up to half as effective. Utilizing passives that boost the effectiveness of your main class is something most people who aren't attempting novelty builds tend to do.
If you like this game, I'd recommend the others only depending on how much you enjoy EO4. EO3 was a huge jump over EO1 and EO2 (both of which, imo, had some weird and/or exploitable balance issues), but it wasn't perfect, either. I think EO4 would suffice unless you are super in love with the series and want to support it.
I didn't like how I felt forced into using certain things in EO1 (like, an anti-elemental Protector felt required), and EO2's Hexer crap and other stuff kind of irked me. EO3 had that Front Mortar thing (among others) that people abused, but it opened up a whole new realm of possibilities with subclassing. There were just a few growing pains that EO4 has since fixed (thank goodness no more farmer parties). EO4 seems like the best one yet, easily, so it might be hard to go backwards beyond EO3.
Actually, I realized that might be a great way to get a feel for other classes without building them up and decide if you want one of your own or to build up the one you have. Or at least sample alternative builds.
Of the ridiculous end-game party designs, Front Mortar isn't really that big of a deal. It's not really all that amazing :x
SatelliteOfLove
Member
The thing I like about this is the motif of "many guilds far and wide entering an ancient labyrinth, each searching for the end" the series is known for backs this up. So neat.
SpeedySwaf
Member
Gamefly is sending this out to me now! Can't wait!
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Hopefully it isn't gamebreaking with a wave of the hand like 3's was...
Pffffft...oh, you're serious.
TheChewyWaffles
Member
My copy from Amazon is on its way. Hurray.
whiterabbit
Member
Amazon bro! Mine too.
ramoisdead
Member
My copy of EO4 is in the "Shipping Soon" phase. In the meantime, I'm playing through EO2. I'm currently at the first level of the 3rd Stratum.
I'm thinking of picking up the reprints of both EO1 and 3.
I'm thinking of picking up the reprints of both EO1 and 3.
NinajHeartless
Member
No word from Amazon yet >__<
Hopefully my order gets here on time...
Hopefully my order gets here on time...
Oh, definitely--Warrior Might/Swashbuckling is totally up there haha. The reason I brought Front Mortar up was mainly to point out how EO3's subclassing felt like it could stand to be a little more refined. It created potential for builds that hinged around only a handful of powerful skills. Front Mortar could be bolstered like crazy by subclassing Gladiator for Charge and Berserker's Vow. It's by no means the only example in EO3; it just came to mind because it's a gimmicky but otherwise effective way to utilize subclassing for Arbalists that sort of goes against what you'd think of with a squishy, long-ranged character.
I still find it far more preferable to have options like that instead of skills that are overpowered without any drawbacks or setup involved. For example, I think Medics' Immunize from EO1 was a little too strong (while a Troubador's turn-by-turn TP restoration could be abused to explore as much as you wanted), and some people cheesed their way through EO2 with Hexers' Revenge. EO3 is kind of balanced in the way that it's unbalanced, but some approaches are noticeably more effective than others. From the little I know so far, I believe EO4 "remedies" this by having more well-rounded, self-sufficient class design (to the point where subclassing may actually feel a little less exciting to those who really enjoyed playing around with EO3's).
I'm going to be picking up my copy tomorrow... even though I don't own a 3DS.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFpMEtBTxHU
I've been a big fan of the series since EO1 so not even having the system will stop me from buying this game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFpMEtBTxHU
I've been a big fan of the series since EO1 so not even having the system will stop me from buying this game.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
I'm not getting this game till next week, at least I'll have time to finish FE
I'm so jealous of whoever has it already
I'm so jealous of whoever has it already
SatelliteOfLove
Member
Just one county over for me. 2-day shipping wins again!
Mr.LightMan
Member
Just picked up the game. Can't wait to start playing.
Dreamwriter
Member
I'm just gonna walk into my local GameStop tomorrow and buy it, no preorders for me!
Koroviev
Member
Local shop or something?
Sgt.Pepper
Banned
Thanks to the folks in the loli thread linking to the music, it sounds amazing. It got me pretty interested!
Mr.LightMan
Member
Yup, didn't expect them to have it.
I had a feeling that this thread could only stand to gain from that thread existing.
I had a feeling that this thread could only stand to gain from that thread existing.
yup, I remember the Atelier thread last year. After a couple of weeks, I played the Arland trilogy completely and loved them. Im sure there will be a few more who will be curious about the game.
So resting is only 2 levels now, which is cool, but I still want to minimize my level wasting.
My current lineup is L/F/N with M/R in the back. I had a sniper, but as everybody seems to be saying, the damage just isn't there, and the binds just don't land.
My feelings right now are that Nightseekers make fights a breeze with sand toss. I've got 5 points in it, and it fails only against the Rare Baboons (I didn't think that Rares got any bonuses to their status, but... apparently they're damn near impossible to put status effects on).
Medic healing is, well, expected. TP could be better, but that's what TP+ rings are for.
Fortress is pretty tanky, but needs to be more so. Torn between putting points in the passive for more defense, or more into taunt to make sure the rest of my team gets hit less.
Landsknecht doesn't seem to do enough damage with his skills, but his main attack works well enough. I've got Volt Link up with him for use with my Runemaster, so I use that. Damage just seems... lacking though. Only 2 points in it, dunno if I should invest more, or go for the passive.
Runemaster is godly. Blows up just about any normal encounter (Volt build), and does the most damage to FOEs except for when the Nightseeker gets Biding Strike off. Beautiful.
I've got a Dancer in reserver, but have no idea how to build her. Sniper was level 7 before I ditched him for the Runemaster.
Any suggestions on build paths?
My current lineup is L/F/N with M/R in the back. I had a sniper, but as everybody seems to be saying, the damage just isn't there, and the binds just don't land.
My feelings right now are that Nightseekers make fights a breeze with sand toss. I've got 5 points in it, and it fails only against the Rare Baboons (I didn't think that Rares got any bonuses to their status, but... apparently they're damn near impossible to put status effects on).
Medic healing is, well, expected. TP could be better, but that's what TP+ rings are for.
Fortress is pretty tanky, but needs to be more so. Torn between putting points in the passive for more defense, or more into taunt to make sure the rest of my team gets hit less.
Landsknecht doesn't seem to do enough damage with his skills, but his main attack works well enough. I've got Volt Link up with him for use with my Runemaster, so I use that. Damage just seems... lacking though. Only 2 points in it, dunno if I should invest more, or go for the passive.
Runemaster is godly. Blows up just about any normal encounter (Volt build), and does the most damage to FOEs except for when the Nightseeker gets Biding Strike off. Beautiful.
I've got a Dancer in reserver, but have no idea how to build her. Sniper was level 7 before I ditched him for the Runemaster.
Any suggestions on build paths?
the Atelier thread got you to play the series? That's freaking awesome.
how I got exposed to the series is.... yeah >_>
transience
Member
Anybody have any strong feelings on subclassing based on what they've played so far? I have a few ideas that I'm leaning into but nothing is set in stone yet.
Mauricio_Magus
Banned
you're welcome, I'm glad you're getting into Etrian Odyssey! If you got any question, you can ask here or PM me
What I find is that there's no wrong answer when it comes to the Dancer (at least as far as the demo goes). If your fortress needs some reinforcement, then I would vouch for having Regen or Defend dances up in the same row. The residual healing that comes each turn (especially when it's boosted to 4 turns) did wonders for me on conserving resources while healing. I've also had some mild success with counter skills, mostly because the dancer was always hanging around the same line as the take-all-the-hits fortress.
Chasing sounds promising, but I really don't know. I wonder if there's a way to set off the equivalent of Warrior's Might in this game, though...
well, that thread only convinced me to start playing the games. I already own the three games prior to that. What actually got me to the series before was the music when I heard some tracks back in 2011.
Given only 3+9 skill points to play with, it's hard to tell how skills will be when fully boosted. Is there anything up online that will give detailed statistics about each skill level? I remember seeing one for EO3 that was pretty helpful in deciding where to spend the points.
Specifically for where passive skills are. I have no idea how useful the +str and +def passives are for Land and Fortress, and yet they're so tempting because they're, well, always on.
It's still missing quite a bit of info, but there is this:
http://www.crazyuncleivans.com/eo4skillsim/EO4Skillsim.html
A bit more info can be found at the japanese wiki:
http://www32.atwiki.jp/sekaiju_mazeiv
edit: A lot of the passives seem to hit really bad diminishing returns at around the halfway point.
wumster3000
Member
Reading this thread has me absolutely jacked for this game. My first EO and I don't think it will be my last.
Chrono Helix
Member
Instead of Lucky Hammer, there's a new
Burst skill called Analyze, and as you might expect, it tells you all the monsters drops, and you can usually guess what you need to do for the conditional drop from the name.
You can also eat some foods that increase drop chance. I don't think it's a huge increase, but better than nothing for the beginning parts of the game.