Etrian Odyssey

How many people have defeated Ur-Devil on Expert, I wonder.

I beat it six times, if I'm not mistaken, but I had to crib off of a strategy I found online because screw doing that thing fairly.

Finally more info on EO 5: [1]. Coming in August (for Japan), and introduces the idea of selectable races for the playable classes. I've heard that it has all new classes a la EO 3, including a list of names like Necromancer and Fencer, but I can't see a source for that.

edited 1st Mar '16 3:26:16 AM by Clarste

Here maybe?

Well, that's definitely a source, but I don't like the way it's just summarizing another source that we can't see. I suppose that's inevitable though when it's a physical magazine.

It does seem surprisingly plausible that they'd name the Houndmaster class Hound.

Edit: For what it's worth, I've heard that the Warrior class is the only one with its name in Japanese, which sort of implies that it's some kind of Japanese-style warrior a la the Ronin or Bushi from previous games.

edited 1st Mar '16 5:04:58 AM by Clarste

Etrian Odyssey V details at last.

Unfortunately it doesn't have the page for Warrior and Hound, but I've heard (and the top of the description supports) that the Warriors use four swords, somehow.

Goddamn Atlus I was beginning to think this was vaporware.

Having voiced characters (and being able to choose their voices) is pretty great although knowing Atlus USA it's likely that we're just getting Liam O'Brien and pals again. At least Atlus's dubs tend to be decent unlike... certain other examples.

edited 1st Mar '16 11:45:16 AM by MoreThanBored

Found the Celian classes: [1]◊

The "Hound" is a hunter that uses falconry and hunting dogs. Also, this may not be obvious, but the Dragoon seems to be using a shield with a rifle (and bayonet). So... finally a dragoon that lives up to its historical namesake?

edited 1st Mar '16 12:39:33 PM by Clarste

A Dragoon not using spears? That's practically blasphemous!

Hyped! And encouraged to finish EOU 2 finally. Thanks for the finds.

Color customization was something I was hoping for, but there doesn't appear to be any way of changing the color of the clothes. I don't even see a prompt for alt colors, which seems strange. But still, hair, eye and skin color is good. And you can see that, in addition to being able to change the right and left eyes separately, it looks like you can choose two colors for the hair and eyes (one for the light shade and one for the dark).

Changing the subject to classes... these are the coolest! Except for the Herbalist, which is more like "cutest class," and probably my favorite, judging by vague first impressions. The Medic was okay at first purely because it's non-standard, but I thought it was boring after the first or second game, so I'm unexpectedly excited about not-Medics.

The Fencer sounds like rapier Landsknecht (the best kind). The Masurao (which was translated as Warrior but is apparently more like Hero) being (apparently) a starting class makes me wonder if there are still unlockable classes in the game, since samurai are usually unlockable. The Warlock is holding what looks like some kind of sword, so maybe, unlike the previous TEC classes, Warlocks are balanced so that they don't just murder everything with magic and then become absolutely useless when they run out.

And finally, speaking of TEC, there is none. It's been replaced by INT and WIS, and the status screen now displays magic attack and magic defense stats. So, rebalanced sub-classing, I guess.

The races remind me of Final Fantasy species. Like, I'm getting a major Tarutaru vibe from gnomes.

I'm glad that the made the "animal people" race more humanized, people tend to be a lot more comfortable with people with animal ears and tails than Petting-Zoo People.

Also looking at these designs, I'm glad to see that Himukai is still great at making the games mildly uncomfortable to play in public. And I'm excited to hear another godlike OST from Yuzo Koshiro too.

edited 1st Mar '16 5:15:16 PM by MoreThanBored

I dunno; I thought the Bushi had their charm. I could see how that could be uncanny in a world full of humans, though.

Both the arcanists and the bushi in EO 4 were somewhat exaggerated and even shocking (look how thin the arcanists are!), presumably to better suit the idea that these were mysterious others who you were discovering and befriending in your journey. They were made intentionally inhuman seeming.

Here, where you can apparently choose to add them to your party from the beginning, they're just different races of known humans, who are all familiar with each other and working together already. While I'm sure they have their own cultures and whatnot, I'd be surprised if we didn't see a representative distribution of them among the town NP Cs, like the innkeeper is a gnome and the blacksmith is a catgirl or whatever.

I think those Arcanists really could've used that cafe in Untold 2.

Also the glasses Medic from EO4 was too cute for me to use a spooky skeltal over her, even if A/M is marginally better than M/A

edited 1st Mar '16 7:20:36 PM by MoreThanBored

Hot off the presses: you can name your dog. When you create a Hound you get the option to name their dog and falcon.

edited 2nd Mar '16 12:35:15 PM by Clarste

At this rate, I'm going to spend a week or more just designing my units and trying to come up with fitting names.

edited 2nd Mar '16 12:23:04 PM by Hobgoblin

For what it's worth, the idea of selecting races seems to be a mistranslation or misinterpretation. The way the classes and races are described implies that each class is intrinsically tied to a race, like Arcanists and Bushi from EO 4. Like, only a Cerian is strong enough to wield four swords as a Masurao (warrior/hero/brave whatever), and only a Branny has the connection to nature required to be a Shaman.

Screenshots. I really like the new environments. Also, turnip icon.

EO IV is on sale for $10. I've only played Untold 1, and while I liked it, it was fairly tough to get into even on story mode. Worth getting?

What exactly made it tough to get into for you? It really depends on that.

IV is the most accessible game in the series. If you enjoyed Untold there's no reason not to pick up IV, especially at that price.

I just sort of suck and can't figure out how to make optimal teams by myself. Eh, I'll manage. Getting it, though who knows when I'll get the chance to play it.

EO 4 is the game where it's easiest to make a party that works.