>Hie thee to the ocean city...to the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. A journey to the blue depths...to conquer the shadows of night. Though you know now what this means, you go towards Armoroad.
The crap does "hie" mean?
>What awaits is time's end; death's demise. A tempestuous dream...To push away the unfathomable dark and bring light to Armoroad...
>A stormy adventure begins...
In a few minutes.
[Some random green field-like place.]
Axel: Wake up, Sleepin' Beauty.
A rock hits Gabe in the face, waking him up
Gabe: Ow! What was that for?
Axel: For being too engrossed in your work to notice things going on around you. Like your other inventions.
Gabe: Bro, you know me better than anyone. I live for invention.
Report: [looks around] Uh, guys...where are we?
Group looks around
Gabe: I dunno. Wherever it is, we ain't in Kansas anym-
Ere: Finish that line and I'll weld your mouth shut.
The scary thing is, she probably would.
Report: There's smoke over that way. Maybe it's people.
Gabe: Or scary pyrokinetic girlfriends.
Mm, scary pyrokinetic girlfriends...
Ere: [frustrated] Let's just go.
[Armoroad City Outskirts]
Ere: A city...?
Gabe: I wouldn't really call it a "city". It's a bit too small to count from the looks of it, and the level of technological advancement is-
Report: Shhh, listen. I hear textposition.
>The ocean city Armoroad, far to the south, is said to have a ruin leading below the waves. As if tacitly admitting it, the Senatus ruling over Armoroad have invited explorers to their city. The invitation drew throngs of eager explorers who gathered to traverse the undersea maze. But none of the throngs who came to challenge that maze were strong enough to master it. The impenetrable ruins came to be known as the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, and its legend spread further...
Gabe: Oh, well that make sense, I guess.
Report: Gabe, be quiet! I can't hear what it was saying.
>...
Report: Darn, I missed it.
Basically some stuff about how you're an explorer here to strike it rich and stuff. No biggie.
So we enter the town.
In the Etrian Odyssey series, there's only ever one town in the game, which is where you do all non-dungeon-crawling-related stuff. The facilities in Armoroad are:
- Aman's Inn
- Napier's Firm
- Butterfly Bistro
- Explorer's Guild
- Inver Port
- Via Senatus
- Forest Entrance
When you first start the game, though, most of these options are greyed out; I'll explain each of them when we come to them.
For now, we choose the one option that's available.
[Explorer's Guild - Join up today!]
Some weird guy dressed in multiple layers of beige toga and blue turban greets the party with an odd grin
Guildmaster: Hello, newcomers. You're standing in the one and only explorers guild in the ocean city of Armoroad.
Report: Who are you?
Guildmaster: I'm the guildmaster. I'm here to supervise all the explorers who find themselves in our fair burg.
Gabe: "Fair burg"?
Ere: Well, it is somewhat nice here. I guess.
A female Monk storms into the Explorer's Guild
Female Monk: Hey, guildmaster. I wanna start a guild.
Guildmaster: Ooh, sorry. These folks beat ya to it. Just gave out the last one.
Female Monk: What? [To Report] Hey, let me be in your guild! Please?
Ere: *Gasp* It's Ranma!
Gabe: No, it's a girl! It's Ranko!
Female Monk: Who?
Report: Don't mind them. We haven't quite started a guild yet. It'd be fine with me if you join, though.
Ere: I don't mind, either.
Female Monk: Then it's settled. Guildmaster, I'm joining their guild.
Guildmaster: Fine with me. Here's a little something I give every new guild for signing up.
>Obtained Guild Certificate
>Obtained Cross Script
>Obtained Resolve Script
>Obtained Offense Script
Guildmaster: Now, let's get to it. First, write your guild name on the space provided on the certificate. Think hard, because that name may be known someday across the seven seas. It all depends on you.
Okay, so we start our guild by naming it. Let's see what the cast says:
Report: Okay, so everyone's gonna know it. No pressure.
Gabe: It has to be something cool. Like "Awesome".
Ere: That's too unoriginal. We need something more unique, like "Badass".
Gabe: Awesome!
Ere: Badass!
Female Monk: Awesome-Badass.
Report: There's only room for eight letters.
Gabe: Then shorten it. "AwsmBdss".
Ere: Nobody would know what it means, though.
Report: What about "TeamEpic"?
Axel: ...r...o...p...
Ere: Better, but...
Gabe: "X'yglphg"!
Ere: Now you're just being stupid.
Axel: What about "TvTropes"?
Everyone else: Wha-?
Axel: It's eight letters, so it fits, and it's original, pronounceable, spellable, and not idiotic.
"TvTropes" it is.
Guildmaster: "TvTropes", huh...? An odd name, but I like it. Well then, step two is registering explorers in your guild.
In every game, the guildmaster say something about hiring other people or signing yourself up, but for our purposes, it's cosmetic.
The Explorer's Guild's main purpose is to register explorers and organize a party. From top to bottom, your options are:
- Register
- Organize
- Formation
- Talk
- Leave
"Leave" is self-explanatory, and "Talk" has you talk to the guildmaster. I'll go through the options but first we need some members, so, to "Register".
>Enter the adventurer's name using the keyboard below.
Like with your guild, you start making a member with choosing a name. Oddly enough, members get nine letters for their names, while the guild only gets eight. Anyway, or comic cast (and the Female Monk) will be forming our party, so we'll put in their names.
>Select the adventurer's class.
The second half of a new member is their class. I'll explain those too, but for now...
Report
- Male Prince
- HP 44/44
- TP 18/18
- STR 7
- TEC 6
- VIT 7
- AGI 6
- LUC 6
- ATK: 23
- DEF: 14
- Weapon: Dagger
- Armor: Summer Tweed
Ere
- Female Arbalist
- HP 37/37
- TP 18/18
- STR 11
- TEC 3
- VIT 3
- AGI 4
- LUC 8
- ATK: 25
- DEF: 10
- Weapon: Dagger
- Armor: Summer Tweed
Gabe
- Male Buccaneer
- HP 43/43
- TP 22/22
- STR 7
- TEC 5
- VIT 6
- AGI 8
- LUC 9
- ATK: 23
- DEF: 13
- Weapon: Dagger
- Armor: Summer Tweed
Axel
- Male Gladiator
- HP 47/47
- TP 19/19
- STR 10
- TEC 3
- VIT 7
- AGI 4
- LUC 3
- ATK: 25
- DEF: 14
- Weapon: Dagger
- Armor: Summer Tweed
Ere: Now it's your turn, Ranko
Female Monk: My name isn't "Ranko"! It's...
Ranko
- Female Monk
- HP 34/34
- TP 32/32
- STR 8
- TEC 10
- VIT 6
- AGI 7
- LUC 6
- ATK: 24
- DEF: 13
- Weapon: Dagger
- Armor: Summer Tweed
Ranko: ...hate you.
That's the end of the first chapter. Next time, I'll have a supplemental on classes, and after that'll be Chapter 2!
