Etrian Odyssey

So I took a closer look at the EO V teaser and saw that under Yggdrasil's there's, a walled city. I'm guessing that's the starting city, and the distant one with the tower is the fifth Labyrinth. I bet the second moon is the sixth.

My restaurant FAQ is up.

I just beat EO2U. It was a good Etrian Odyssey. I liked the fact that they went with a less standard party for Story mode: honestly I kind of hate the Medic + Alchemist + Protector bread and butter set up. Or rather, I just hate Medics in general and Alchemists were kind of bland in that game (they seem like they might be slightly more interesting in this one though, with those new Palm skills). The War Magus is much more my style, and I found it amusing how throughout the game they kept acting like Chloe was my healer when she was actually a front line bruiser doing more damage than the Fafnir Knight with Ailment Slash while also having some utility. Go swordmage!

I liked the plot better too. Honestly, I gave up on EOU in the middle of the final dungeon after getting bored of killing bone dragons.

edited 27th Aug '15 6:05:27 PM by Clarste

Why does it seem like everyone who plays EO hates Medics?

cuz they're boring!

i prefer princesses for healing :U

Because Medic is arguably the most boring class, being useful for little more than straightforward healing abilities. Plus, in EO 1, the game is nigh unwinnable without them, which is what made me sick of them, at least.

Huh. And all this time, I thought Simon was the most boring EOU character on accident.

Well, personally, I don't want a class who can't do anything but heal, and most of the time their healing is total overkill anyway. Well, I seem to recall that Simon could also poison things, but he wasn't especially good at it.

I just did a Google search for EO 3 to find the official site, and in the results, I saw that IGN reviewed it and gave it a 6/10.

I guess it had too much water.

Going by the numbers the Medic's poison skill is superior to the Dark Hunter's. Don't use Hexers so I can't comment on theirs.

Anyway, I just finished Millennium Girl in story mode. It was... inoffensive. Characters were mostly bland save Raquna and I'll rant about the story in a separate paragraph. The mechanical changes are really good. Highlander and Gunner are both interesting classes and synergized fairly well with the base classes. Grimoire stones are an interesting mechanic, but the King Grimoires were awful and the random drops were frustrating. I shouldn't have to abuse a bug to make the system work. Once you get the stones they're an interesting mechanic that I'm glad is improved in EOU 2.

Story mode from start to finish should have focused on the exploration of Yggdrasil, not doing so to reach the next Gladsheim area. Gladsheim should have been optional, but doing it should open up alternatives in the main story. Making peace with the forest folk, curing their madness if they keep that, averting the genocide, culminating in an EO 3 style finale choice where you decide between using Gungnir or the Virus or asking the forest folk for help. The game's big on the Highlander's creed, why not let you decide what true justice for all means to you?

Wasn't too hot on the Gotham bit, leave other trees for other games (and make Gladsheim have ALL the Gungnirs. Problem solved).

Anyway, moving onto stratum six with a break for Mystery Dungeon.

Haha.

The Highlander's character is so painfully nonexistent. And for a girl who is displaced in time, Frederica picks up on everything fast. No language barrier or trouble adapting to modern life aside from temporary amnesia.

I kinda figured that MIKE did that for her. He implies he's going to brainwash her in Area IV, it can't be that much harder to implant new knowledge rather than replace it. They still skip over it way to fast for my liking. I will say her decision at the end to keep exploring the world with the Highlander is a nice touch, if a bit late.

Taking off the Watsonian hat for the Doylist one, the Highlander's obviously a SMT style silent protagonist with occasional interjections. That's why most of his voice clips are grunts or power yells.

you know, i recall finding the highlanders concept interesting

but nowadays i cant actually remember anything about him besides his design.

Highlanders are a medium armor frontline class that spend HP alongside most of their abilities. Bloody Offense is one of the best buffs in the entire franchise (50% attack boost in exchange for a small amount of HP every turn it's active) and their signature skill is the Delayed Charge/Cross Charge combo, the first is an attack which activates up to four turns after you use it getting stronger the longer it loads and the second is a priority move that triggers Delayed Charge and gets stronger when it does.

They also have a pair of healing passives (one for kills and one for when they spend HP on a skill) and a counter that activates whenever they lose HP for any reason.

They're neat if more fragile than most frontliners usually are. You can get them as a generic class in Untold 2 as DLC.

edited 30th Aug '15 2:10:50 PM by Watashiwa

Even before they met MIKE, though.

edited 30th Aug '15 2:38:27 PM by Hobgoblin

I thought that MIKE was Gladsheim. While his access terminals were damaged there was one in Area I plus Ricky's capsule was working fine. While the party couldn't interface with the governing intelligence, the various systems worked fine if they were activated. I'm reaching here of course, nothing in the game implies that anything of the sort happened.

I've started playing 3 and I'm really starting to appreciate the quality-of-life changes they made in the following titles. Not being able to see enemy weaknesses is a real bummer.

Also fuck Great Lynxes.

Explore at night.

(I love three. you'll adjust fast)

I actually picked up IV again to try and finish the Hall of Darkness since Claret Hollows crushed my soul like even Grimoire Stone grinding never could. I'll come back to it, I just need a break. And a drink.

Anyway, IV. Spent some instant leveling items to get an Imperial and a Nightseeker at a decent level and it's weird how different they are. My original party was Linkshark/Fortress Sniper/Runemaster/Arcanist, so just having three frontliners feels weird.

edited 1st Sep '15 10:30:11 PM by Watashiwa

I picked up IV again too, and it's actually kind of impressive how clunky it feels after EO 2 U. I'd always figured they were just updating the games up to 3DS level and would stop after 3, but I think 4 could use a remake too, maybe. Why can't I see what Ailments they're immune to?!

I'm trying to go with a completely different party than I used the first time, but it's kind of hard to imagine doing this without an Arcanist. My Nightblade seems totally incapable of causing Ailments on their own, so there's a kind of reliance there. My Medic is spending most the time smacking things with a mace on the frontlines for a surprising amount of damage (I guess maces just have really high attack power). All is as it should be.

In my run of IV I just ran a Sniper for binds and didn't really use ailments much. Then I got Squall Volley and since I was using a Linkshark and Runemaster battle pretty much turned into movies.

I also know that Arcanists are supposed to be superior to Medics but the glasses Medic is just too cute for me not to use.

Well, I used a Sniper and an Arcanist the first time, so taking out both feels... yeah.

Oh yeah, I know how that goes. But I'm really curious how the game plays with the other five classes I never touched.

Okay I lied I don't care about Bushis. Best subclass worst class.

Edit: Not exactly feeling the Nightseeker. I think I'll put the Runemaster back in and go for the elemental rune+imperial combo.

edited 1st Sep '15 11:25:50 PM by Watashiwa

Nightseekers are sorta late bloomers. Later on they just poison everything to death with Venom Throw + Spread Throw.

They're also a pretty hilarious sub to Snipers thanks to the possibility of double Squall Volleys.

Huh... I always loved Nightseekers. Right from the get-go, I was throwing ailments around like they were going out of style. I also quickly leveled to get Auto Cloak - for those times when a Fortress' Taunt wasn't sufficient, it frequently bought me the extra time I needed to avoid damage and allow my party to clear through a fight without taking much damage.

Also, while Venom Throw definitely does heavy lifting against F.O.E.s and bosses, I generally got more use out of Nerve Throw - battles are frequently quick but can become real tests of attrition if you are taking damage as much as you're giving it.

Maxed out Venom Throw and Auto-Spread. Yeah that seems to have made a difference.

Now it's time to grind up to level 70 and start killing dragons. Planning on focusing on sheep (and later Sky Emperors) with four QR characters and one real party member at a time, because I've heard that's super effective.