Aw man you guys are really wanting making me want to dig deep into EOIII. It’s the one game in the series I haven’t gone beyond the first stratum in. And I even own a legit copy! What am I even doing over here.
@“whatsarobot”#p158079 I've been playing it on PC (and I have a DS copy too). If you have the means to play on a big screen then give it a go. The controls have been reworked brilliantly and the graphics look great too.
I've reached the final boss of one of the EOIII routes - I was aiming for the "true" route but I ended up siding with Armoroad. I'm going to have to rest a couple of my party members and rejig some skills as I have a Sovereign that specialises in buffing defence and the boss has an attack that scales in damage depending on how many buffs are in play. I also need to invest more into an elemental wall skill and resting seems to be the best way to do that rather than grind another five levels.
I wasn't a fan of the final couple of floors though. The last but one introduces a teleportation torii gate mechanic, but if you walk through the teleporter gate in the opposite direction then you can walk straight through. The final floor mixes this and a no-map gimmick from the previous floors to create a real headache of a floor. I'm not ashamed to admit that I consulted a walkthrough for it.
I've kinda dropped off the sea exploring now too. There's a lot of cool, optional bosses but I kinda want to get through the main game. It's easy to spend 10 minutes on a boss, die, and get nothing for it so I've mainly spent my time in the labyrinth.
Not sure if I'll end up trying to do the sixth stratum and the superbosses. I largely picked up EO3 as my main game to squeeze in before Rise of the Ronin is released, which is in four days, and I doubt I'll be able to squeeze the postgame out in that time.
Great game but not my favourite in the series. Perhaps just behind EO4 then EO2 overall. I do think it's a bit better than 1, 5, and what I've played of Nexus. I prefer it to both Persona Q games but I also don't think it's as good as SMT: Strange Journey) which I love). None of these are bad though!
I’ve finished (given up) the EO3 postgame. I managed to beat the three dragons and reach the end of the sixth stratum and got slaughtered by the final final boss, and also the big dragon at the end of the sea-faring quests. I don’t have the patience to grind out the resources and EXP needed but I had a great time along the way nonetheless.
1 Like
I’m diving back into EOIII after getting a little bored with my second playthrough of Labyrinth of Refrain-- LoR is a good game, don’t get me wrong, and its monster art in particular is really exceptional, but a lot of the mechanics for the coven>character relationship make it feel awfully boring for me in a second attempt. I can say that after an hour with EOIII I’m remembering why I’ve always loved EO as a series-- it’s because the characters end up feeling fleshed out depite having no writing devoted to them. In LoR, all of the characters end up feeling like resources. I’m not sure if everyone feels this way.
Anyway, EOIII: I’m doing it the right way this time and hanging in there to figure out what classes work best together for my playstyle, and it’s been fantastic. Also occurring to me that a ton of these classes made it through to Nexus compared to the other four games, which says something about the way the creative team felt about this game’s selection. Also thinking about how the 3DS versions of the first two games were essential for easing me into playing the series, and it makes me a little bit sad that their unique content didn’t get folded back into the HD versions.
EDIT: Also, how can I NOT go with this particular Sovereign?
3 Likes
I’m going through and restoring the likes on ‘my’ threads like this one and I saw this old froggy post, and it got me thinking about how Etrian Odyssey pokes me in the part of my brain that some SRPG games like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance also poke, and for similar reasons. But in EO I end up spending way more time fussing over and messing around with my team, trying to get the right combo to decimate random encounters.
I think that’s my biggest advice to folks starting out on this series: don’t assume your first squad will be the ideal one that you’ll finish the game with. You’re very unlikely to get that right on the first try, unless you’ve played a bunch of these games and know what tends to work right from game to game. Be willing to try lots of stuff, to fail, and to try again. The language of skill descriptions isn’t always clear, and it may not work out the best. At the same time, don’t get into that pit of never sticking with a team and getting bogged down by tweaking everything. I’ve had at least two runs that ended early because of this (one in EOIII, the other in EOX, which reeeeeaaaaalllly gives you too many tools to play with). Also, if you’re not interested in some amount of tinkering, this may not be the series for you, and that’s ok.
3 Likes
Seeing this thread revive made me want to continue my Switch EO1 game. Wish it had some of the cross communication features like the later 3DS games did (though the QR code stuff was broken in Nexus and EOV).
Actually wait do people wanna trade QR codes for Nexus?? I still haven’t beaten that either. I forgot what QR codes even do in that game though besides let others see your squad. Can you recruit other player’s members or something?
1 Like
If anyone here hasn’t played the first two Etrian Odysseys, I highly recommend it. The simplicity and lack of distracting gimmicks make them very brisk experiences that I think I may prefer to later games. I don’t feel any features from Untold are at all necessary. Booting up EO untold, it’s really annoying how much longer it takes to get into the swing of things and how much more tutorial dialogue there is. I even find myself accidentally skipping story dialogue because there’s just so much of it. In these games the story dialogue should feel like a delicately dosed reward imo.
Though I will still likely play them all eventually.
1 Like
I’m extremely mixed on this! If you ask me what I prefer, it’s the original, but I do appreciate how they may have acted as a bridge for folks to get into the greater series (Millennium Girl was my start with the series) so I don’t want to entirely write them off. People also, like it or not, have different preferences when it comes to tutorials since we don’t have the luxury of (entirely skippable) paper manuals to explain stuff anymore. Speaking of tutorials, I think the untold games are also a bit of an extended tutorial for party compositions since they give you an extremely serviceable if basic party that you can play with. Because honestly, coming like I did from more standard jrpg structures I’m not sure exactly how I would know where to start. And the internet is broadly no help whatsoever unless you want to spend as long reading people argue about party and skill choices as you do playing the game.
1 Like
Speaking of EOUs, EOU2 is my favorite game in the series just because the side-element of the restaurant is soooo good. It makes so much sense that you can use monster parts to cook with, and the Spotpass integration allowing other people’s parties to stop by as customers is such a natural fit for the concept.
I also liked the story characters and their interactions. I never really clicked with the first EOU’s cast, but I loved EOU2’s group of idiots. I also prefer their character designs over the first EOU cast too.
Also, I continued my Nexus game over the weekend, and I realized my party composition isn’t great at all lol
I’ll post a picture of it later.
3 Likes
This is so real and something I hate whenever I look up any advice on how to build characters in games that give you control over that kind of thing.
3 Likes
I haven’t touched EOIV since my trip. But I know I’m not stuck-- I actually stopped playing after progressing and having some cool story parts ahead of me, uh oh
1 Like
This is 100% what it’s always been all about. In every RPG I play. I like Etrian Odyssey because they are completely aware of this:
11 Likes
Love this.
2 Likes
Wow! What is this from specially?
As a kid I remember playing DQIX exactly like this, I had a whole separate plot going in my head. Basically a fanfiction string of little vignettes about all my characters and what they were doing. I got really into grinding because it felt like a natural part of the game; the team has to go do practice now! Some of my characters were friends or dating and some didn’t like each other very much and that affected who I picked for the party lineup. I remember doing this somewhat for Bravely Default as well but I think those were the only games I did it for. I should try it again, though I think it may feel like effort rather than occuring naturally.
6 Likes
That’s really cool, and not unlike how I played my one EO game so far.
For Etrian Odyssey III, I named all my characters after characters from late medieval romances I really liked. So Britomart (Hoplite) and Artegall (Sovereign) were dating one another; Uriens (Monk) as a former king devoted to the quest after his ex-wife Morgana betrayed him; Armiger (Arbalist) as the arms-bearer of the group, and Ragnell (Farmer) as an old lady by day who becomes beautiful at night and (eventually) besotted with Armiger.
Also, Armiger happens to be Aigis.
7 Likes
Sorry I don’t remember.
But I play all RPGs like this! It’s always been about the imagination for me.
Sometimes the more detailed the graphics get, the more it actually ruins my imagination.
3 Likes
It’s a message written by the first game’s director! I think it came from the official website or the limited edition version of the game, if there was one? I forget, it’s been a while. Either way, a beautiful message.
3 Likes
Well I finally did it. I bought the HD collection on Switch.
Part of me is like, why the heck did I wait this long. (The answer is, the price was too dang high, until that 60% sale came along, and I’ve already played all three of these games multiple times in the past.)
I was worried that I’d miss drawing the maps myself on the touch screen. Well, I have news to report: I DO NOT MISS IT. This isn’t a better way to Etrian your Odyssey, it’s just a different way. A remixed take on an old classic.
But let me tell you, there’s still nothing as purely satisfying as taking one quick dive into that dungeon. The risk-to-reward, the little tiny discoveries that all carry real intrigue and gratification. The feeling that I did all this myself. Beautiful.
The music sounds great, and the graphics look crisp and smooth.
My only complaint is the static enemy portraits. But even that doesn’t bother me too much when the battle speed is cranked up to max-fast, and I’m auto-battling my way through scrub encounters.
4 Likes