@“antillese”#p123454 Whoops, I should‘ve said that I’m playing the remasters on PC. I would surely imagine that Switch is hitting 1080p 60fps though.
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I love the combination EO has of addicting hardcore gameplay loop, plus being easy on the eyes and ears. I can always play it before bed while listening to my pod talkies.
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@“gsk”#p119649 hey, this got funded at the last minute
...and the English update is already live, check it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1754460/QUESTER/?l=english
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@“gsk”#p123493 Thanks for flagging that. I‘ve had it in my wishlist since you first mentioned it and I’m looking forward to giving it a spin.
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I beat the fifth stratum boss yesterday at level 55 on Basic and it was a good, challenging and fair fight. However my party strategy of using binds was pretty useless for it - I managed to get a single bind on it that lasted two turns, and I ended up using a lot of regular attacks to chip it‘s health, outside of using my Hexer’s Revenge attack. I‘m not sure whether I’d want to bother with the sixth stratum if binds are that ineffective against later bosses.
Great game though. I'm somewhat tempted to fly straight into EO3 - maybe!
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Brief Etrian Update: I have looked at zero guides, and don't have a good feel for what party composition should be. The UI for party assignment tricked me a little while initially recruiting: it looked like I could have a party of 6, not 5! (I thought I could fill all the slots in both rows)
I took my hastily recruited posse of whatever riffraff were out on the street in front of the guild hall, entered the forest, saw a boot that I _knew_ was dodgy but picked it up anyway. 3 cute, tiny mole dudes jumped out -- seemingly this was their boot and I had caused Great Offence to them. They let me know this by [color="red"]**absolutely wrecking**[/color] my novice adventurers.
Back to the main menu, back to the guild hall, collect a slightly different set of fools from the streets, and _don't go anywhere near that boot ever again_.
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@“rejj”#p123687 What was your party set up? A Medic in the back row is a must, or at least a War Mage that you intend to use as a healer, and I'd argue that a Protector is close to a must-have too.
My only other piece of advice, and something that I learned the hard way on my first EO experience - for your attackers, pick one or two special attacks to focus on levelling and stick to it rather than spread yourself thin by investing a few points in all of them. When I used a Landsknecht I invested points in improving sword attacks, my strength, and then *only* Tornado as the special attack. It would deal loads of damage to single enemies with regular attacks and Tornado would be useful for when there were lots of stronger enemies. Same principle goes for elemental attackers (sticking to one element is usually a good strategy) or if you have a Hexer, sticking to investing in one status effect at a time is good, e.g. Poison, as each skill point increases its potency and chance of landing.
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Stuck on the last boss of Etrian odyssey II. Not going as smoothly as part 1 did. I respec’d a bit. Now I’m grinding.
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I beat EOII today on the E Line train to Santa Monica from downtown
I chose to respec each character on my team just to min max for beating the last boss lol.
The postgame dungeon is much more relaxing than the one from EOI, though I have no idea how to progress. I may even want to respec again at some point since my team is specialized for the boss still, haha.
I have started EOIII. This is the one I played the most back in 2011z The classes are all different from the first two, so it’s forcing me to rethink my setup. In EOII I used all the same characters as EOI. unlike I did in the first game, I didn’t train up any side characters. I didn’t end up using the ones I trained in EOI and I just wanted to finish the game while playing EOII.
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For III I Tried my darndest to just repeat my previous two teams with analogs with vaguely similar names to signify their legacy. Also I like this new feature of letting you select any appearance for any class. I’ve used it thrice now. Once in EOII to make my alchemist look like the battle mage, and twice again in III to make my sovereign look like a wildling beast tamer, and my buccaneer look like whatever the berserker fighter characters are called.
It’s pretty much the same as my first two parties which were landsnecht-guardian-bars-healer-alchemist
(Forgive me for not using the proper terms, I just don’t care)
So for III I went with buccaneer-hoplite-sovereign-monk-zodiac
But Monk class has always kind of irked me. As a matter of fact, for a series with such a focus on healing, the class selection in part iii really irks me, having subverted the healer trope entirely.
I agree that EOIII is a masterpiece and pinnacle of the original trilogy, but I think it’s much better appreciated as such when you play the first two first. Jumping straight into III, you don’t know how good you have it, and things are becoming more complex. I’m not even necessarily a fan of the outside exploration mechanics like the boat in this one. It’s too much of a distraction
BTW, I finished the first two games in a clean 40ish hours, and that’s with tons of idle time! Love the relative brevity!
Anyways after reaching about level 7, I’ve swapped out the monk and the zodiac for Farmer and Arbalist jobs. The way class specialties are spread out is irksome, but at least it gives me freedom to just pick the classes I think are cool this time around, instead of always going with the same min-max strategy.
Last summer, I binged the entire sonic series. Now that EO is part of the SEGA household, this summer is defined by my EO binge.
… I’ve even adjusted my controls to resemble SEGA format…
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The progression in EOIII is so vastly different from the first two. I suppose that‘s a good thing, but whether it’s your first (like it was mine in 2011) or you come to it later, the game is much more brutally difficult as you puzzle around figuring out a team that works. With that, it feels like EOIII is purposefully necessitating switching out of characters. Almost every class is also now flexible as to which row they go on, so it feels like they're necessitating switching Rows mid battle more often. Abilities are spread so thinly across every class, obviously the goal was to make it so no matter what, any team combo can be successful, but personally I prefer clearly defined rolls and min-maxing, especially in a game this brutally difficult.
EOIII is definitely next-level gorgeousness, features, and depth of gameplay... But in that complexity, something is lost. I like the simplicity of the first two, and the sloppier character designs.
My team *feels* like it's falling into place though. Right now it's:
Monk - dressed as a Gladiator. It will never stop bothering me that the healer class in this game is also a physical fighter. I guess you could make your healer in EOI/II a physical fighter too though.
Hoplite - literally always just a provoke-tank
Sovereign - focusing on HP and TP recovery at first. My Monk is there just to insta-heal the sovereign to max and recover status, the soveregn is doing the heavy lifting with passive healing.
Farmer - I love my farmer. I've already maxed out the EXP boost skill.
Arbalist - trying this out instead of Zodiac/Arcanist.
Maybe eventually my Sovereign / Farmer combo could replace the Monk altogether and I could add in a more DPS-focused class.
I'm still just in the first stratum. I recall my 2011 playthrough of EOIII feeling like every single hurdle was hell.
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How is the Etrian Mystery Dungeon game? I just now discovered it exists and I love mystery dungeon games. Too bad it's like 150$ now.
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@“Andy B”#p125285 I played it in 2013 or whatever when it was new. It was one of the first games I ever preordered.
It was awesome and I played for over 25 hours.
Unfortunately, back then my life was a mess, and I wasn't finishing games as much. I intend to replay it!!
And its a shame that Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 never came out in english.
One of the cool things about it that I remember is that it brings back the stratums from the mainline games in the series, and instead of FM OST, it's acoustic covers, which was amazing to hear. For example, the first stratum in mystery dungeon is the second stratum of EOII, the scarlet forest, which was a peak beautiful choice for EOII, and which becomes a kind of motif for mystery dungeon (look at the maple leaves on the cover). Then the second stratum is the first from EOIII. No more spoilers after that! In that way it’s kind of like a “best of” the series.
Some of the acoustic tracks are _extremely_ Joe Hiesashi sounding
I would be **so happy** if they released EOMD 1/2 on switch. Finally, a _good_ mystery dungeon game on switch.
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@“Andy B”#p125285 Too bad it’s like 150$ now.
damn, I sold my copy for like forty bucks lol.
Just download it dude! 3DS is for hacking
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Holy cannoli y’all
I finally got through stratum 2 in EOIII. Was not expecting what would happen next.
My complaints about the restructured class system are no longer the case.
The tonal shift for stratum 3 reminds me of La Mulana or Lava Reef from sonic 3. Fitting since this is now a SEGA franchise, it kind of was all along.
EO is for sure in my list of all time favorite series. It doesn’t stop being brilliant, unassuming, easy on the eyes and ears, ans paced perfectly to reward difficult humps.
No wonder people online say 3 is the best. It has more scenes. But I still wouldn’t recommend starting with 3. Then you’d be spoiled. The first game was beautifully straightforward and quick.
The lesson to be learned by A-list developers is that rather than racking on harvesting and crafting mechanics, make the gameplay loop of the series you’re working on rewarding in its own right.
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I‘m retooling my entire team now to make it exactly how I want… Going to “rest” about two party members.
Anyone have favorite / suggesteed subclass combos?
I’m thinking my arbalest could subclass zodiac, and hopefully the arbalest skill that makes single-target attack skills hit multiple times works on elemental spells?
I want to make my sovereign sub wildling even though it wouldn't appear to augment eachother in any specific way..
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Tonight I booted up my old Etrian Odyssey saves on DS and 3DS to take a look, after plowing through the first two and a half games in HD on switch.
I‘m not surprised to see I wasn’t faring too well in 1 & 3. Barely made it through either of the first stratums. Booted II just to compare the opening graphics. In general, these games are just as rad on DS as on switch. I‘m glad I’m enjoying the HD versions though. It is a bit easier on the eyes. Still haven't done my NDS AV out mod though. That will probably look amazing. Again, I think the art on both the original and HD versions are great, both have their pros and cons.
I have a bit more to say about EOV. I'm quite far, towards the end of the fourth stratum. The voice acting is awesome. The FM soundtrack (relegated to DLC this time around) is somehow even better than the first three games at times. The **3D effect** is so underrated, it's awesome. I love when 2D graphics have sterescopic 3D, and this game has it in spades.
After I finish III, I will probably play IV!
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Well, I’ve lost steam on EOIII… for the fourth time lol, I even got to some sort of midway point this time… but that opaque class structure just really fucked me up.
I’m not guilty at all for dropping it because I did binge and beat the first two over this summer.
It’s a shame though because 3 is really cool… just… respeccing my classes to the way I want will require so much grinding in a not very pretty area with not very good looking enemies to get past this very annoying boss I’m stuck at in the middle of Stratum 3.
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I started playing Etrian Odyssey V! It‘s my first Real Etrian Odyssey game, but I did finish Persona Q and Persona Q2 and really enjoyed them, even doing the New Game Plus for Persona Q.
My problem is that I can’t leave the first town, not because I'm scurred of venturing forth and getting it handed to me, but because this song plays.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZHcW7u_G28
Ugh, it's too good, I can just leave it on all day and I actually do just leave it on to this theme while I do something else... I knew Yuzo Koshiro had the Jazz in him when I beat Streets of Rage 2 and that one water level in Super Adventure Island
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDaio2hf1fE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl2yeuZMofw
But! I eventually did leave the town, and now I'm like three hours in, and I just got to the second floor.. hmm
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@“treefroggy”#p129647 Running out of Steam was my worry with playing EO3. I so wanted to play it straight after EO2 after that game knocked it out of the park, and of course the ports being lovingly produced. But I knew that if I jumped into it too soon I'd ruin myself so it might end up being a chill, Christmas time game for me.
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@“X3N0Sbioz”#p129807 this is what I'm talmbout
https://youtu.be/cNSTAdg2j6k
@LeFish I haven't completely stopped, but I've given up. I started a new game, and then realized the team I'd respecced is the same as my new team, but with levels 25, 17, 31,31,27.... So I'm going at it...
I'm grinding and doing old quests, and maybe I will look at a guide for what to do on the ocean. I kind of hate the ocean as a distraction.
Since it is true that equipment is more important than levels, I may just make it through....
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