How do the party member synergies and overall feel of this title compare to etrian odyssey?
Totally different. In all honesty there is not much synergy since its a more traditional design that pulls from Wizardry more than EO which does its own thing.
With that being said, dont expect the same sort of experience as EO outside of how it is a first person dungeon crawler.
Though the class change system allows for some interesting builds if you are willing to put the time into it.
*Incoming wall of text, but info on class changing plus general info on starting stats / age + bonus points. This was a post had done a while back in the thread.
--------
My party is approaching Level 13, which is the recommended point to start changing classes. Planning on doing this...
Samurai -> Knight -> Fighter
Fighter -> Knight -> Fighter / Samurai (not sure)
Knight (No change)
Ranger -> Dancer -> Ranger
Priest (No change I guess, not sure)
Wizard -> Priest -> Wizard
The mid classes will go to level 13 before switching, then the third class will stay till the end. Don't think I can go any longer that three switches without boring myself to death from the grinding.
General idea is beefing up my front row folks for Knight defense passives, giving my ranger some motivation benefits, and some minor healing and MP regen for my Wizard.
Thoughts? High level Fighter seems to have better skills, so might end up with two fighters for the end. High level Samurai skills seems kinda meh, anyone use 'em? Also, any recommendation for Knight or Priest? I think they're fine for their purpose so far, don't see the reason for them learning other stuff.
Actually the Carnage back skill the one where you keep attacking and dodging till you or your target is dead can deal the most insane amount of damage for a melee character if you have the class kitted / specced out correctly. It generally is how the samurai is in most of the games with the carnage builds.
Knight you will want to go into the cleric tree though you need to get up pretty high for that holy spirit or whatever the skill is called. As it helps protect against bad status effects and works with the knights higher lv skills also. Also other things on top of that is adding stuff like the dancers multiple item use ability can be helpful at times when you want to keep your damage dealers focused, casters nuking / supporting and need to heal or recover mp / do something else besides trying to attack with the knight. Knight with Ninja can help too for that utsusemi skill. The one where you create doubles to help protect the party.
Cleric is basically mix it with the Wizard and from there you can do other stuff like combine the ninja skills of raising dodge and the knights skill of raising def to keep it from dying.
Honestly there are a fair amount of combinations the problem is they will take an EXCESSIVE amount of time to perfect due to levels being constantly cut in half. So you will have to plan them out pretty well ahead of time.
Btw you will want to change the knight a few times also for the HP bonus. As a character that has changed class at least once will still out class another non changed character HP wise, even if its by slightly.
Though this game for the first play through you do not need to really class change, but it does help out a lot if you do.
For the ranger combining samurai with it along with the ninja helps. Samurai for row attack as you can use that slash with the bow and from the ninja the crit hit skill forgot what it was called helps too.
With the Wizard also it would help to mix in the dodge and def up passives just in case. Since there will be times when certain enemies can do physical attacks that can reach the back row.
Fighter most def would benefit from that hunters secret as it helps you keep the concentrate status on allowing you to not waste turns prepping. Also with the melee classes you will want to toss the dancer in there for weapon trick which cancels out the range limitations on weapons. So you can keep hacking away from the backrow if an asshole swaps your formation. Or in the event when doing hiding you can hit the leader who at times will be hiding way in the back. The dancers multiple attack on a single target is useful too for those times when you do not like how the fighters is "random" targets. As the attacks get spread out more if there is multiple targets.
Samurai -> Dancer -> Ninja -> Fighter (if you want but you dont really need it)
Fighter -> Ranger -> Dancer -> Samurai or Ninja
Knight -> Cleric -> Ninja or Dancer, then the other
Ranger -> Ninja -> Dancer -> Samurai or Fighter
Cleric -> Wizard -> Knight -> Ninja -> Dancer
Wizard -> Cleric -> Ninja -> Dancer -> Knight
These are the excessive examples, but if you look through the skills of the class am sure you will figure out why.
Dont burn yourself out though as it will take a good amount of time if you want to try these lol.
General breakdowns of levels to get the useful skills for classes.
*In general the bare minimum will be 13 for the skill token (skill slot)
Fighter - 28 (if you want genocide)
Knight - 21 (for the defensive passive)
Samurai - 19 (for carnage back or whatever its called)
Wizard - 27 (for master cast x 3) - 14 (for high cast x 2)
Cleric - 26 (for holy spirit, this you most def want the knight to have or other classes you dont want to die) - 25 (if you just want both mana regen passives)
Ranger - 28 (for hunters secret, a basic must if you want to make the fighter / dancer be more efficient at dealing damage with its skills) - 13 (for the skill token + pin down - dodge / hit debuff attack can be used with other weapons)
Ninja - 15 (for utsusemi or whatever they call the localized name, the hiding stuff you can skip as it wastes turns, unless you are trying to go for a pure crit character)
Dancer - 23 (for star step for melee characters as its 5 attacks on a single target) - 18 (for trick use II, use a single item 3 times. Uses 3 of selected items.)
Since there is no real English wiki, lots of the more specific data comes from here the main JP wiki. For those that cant read Japanese go use google translate or whatever else you normally have available.
http://www.spoiler.jp/srv/tsurugi/index.php?クラス
Other stuff is from lots of experimentation and whatnots. Since at first had no idea what I was doing with the class change system, so basically all of us JP players were making all sorts of abominations till we figured things out to be more efficient.
Tossing in the base stats + max value data + what stats do info again as it ties into the whole planning for class changing.
1st Playthrough Max Stats = Starting racial stats value + 20
2nd Playthrough Max Stats = Starting racial stats value + 30
*Value doesnt change after that for the 3rd, 4th and 5th playthrough if you even bother to do them.
In regards to age general breakdown
10~19 Years:Max LP 3、Lowest Bonus Pts 3
20~39 Years:Max LP 2、Lowest Bonus Pts 5
40~59 Years:Max LP 2、Lowest Bonus Pts 7
60~99 Years:Max LP 1、Lowest Bonus Pts 10
STR - Attack damage (this is for all weapon types including bows)
INT - Mage spell damage / effectiveness + max MP
PIE - Cleric spell effectiveness + max MP
VIT - Defense and HP gain
AGI - Effects turn in combat, accuracy and dodge / Helps with Open Lock (trap disarm) rating also.
LUC - Effects various things, one important one is helps with protecting against bad status / chance of getting 1 hit killed. Also effects damage from non-elemental items such as explosive powder? and helps with Open Lock (trap disarm) rating.
certain stats is more dependant on what you are going for in a class
Fighter - Str, Vit, Agi
Knight - Vit, Luc, Agi if you want dont need Str as much since you wont be attacking too often with it later on.
Samurai - Str, Agi, Vit, Luc
Wizard - Int, Agi, Luc, Pie if you plan to give it cleric skills
Cleric Pie, Agi, Vit, Int if you plan to give it wizard skills
Are some examples.
-------
Once again in closing none of the above in the block of information is necessary to beat the game in the first play through.
For those who actually give a shit about class changing, pay attention to what I wrote above and read it. Otherwise you will be screwing up your own characters by switching willy-nilly wasting the 5 times you can class change. As once you use those those thats it for the playthrough. Screwed up my characters a bunch of times early with the JP 360 ver on so the rest of you dont have to lol