Etrian Odyssey

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Taking a break from FE1, for the FE8 draft instead

There's something oddly hilarious about 5 farmers romping about the dungeon desperately hoping they aren't pounced upon by a Great Lynx. I eagerly await the point I level them up enough to get the no encounter ability. I'd feel so much safer going after the resources on later floors then.

^ I actually did that in Etrian Odyssey 2.

Only difference is, instead of 5 farmers it was a team of level 1 survivalists who all got one level of "Stalker"(which reduced encounter chances) and one level of that passive that increases escape % and each of them levelled up their gathering abilities.

The results? A team of level 1-2 naked survivalists running through the third stratum trying to escape every monster (since anything one-shots them), and then gather as fast as possible, and then run back to town. It doesn't help that later on it's possible to get ambushed by powerful monsters each time I attempt to gather.

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

^I admit, that is FAR more hilarious than a bunch of farmers bumbling about. Guess they really lived up to the "survivalist" part of their name.

^^ Ah, yes, the foraging parties. Good times. Inter-guild dynamics are always fun to imagine; gotta wonder what was going through the foraging teams' minds whenever they got sent out on collection duty.

For the sake of denoobafying myself, how exactly is one supposed to build up their characters? You don't just spread out to every category you can right? (No, i hardly ever play WRP Gs, why do you ask?)

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

No you don't. It's generally smart to find the moves you want to use, and stick to them. A character who's capable of doing everything a little bit is less effective than one who's strong with a few things. A good place to start is with your classes that can use multiple weapon types (in EO 1 a good example is the Dark Hunter Class). Take a look at the moves that they use and decide on which weapon path you'd like your character to go by, and then stick to it. Don't put any points into skills for the other path, unless it's for things like the landsknecht's double attack, that needs points in both swords and axes (and even then I'm kinda regretting that tactic because I tend to use skills all the time, so it like I wasted 10 skill points for it).

Now from what I know, EO 3 has sub classes, and I dont know how that will change the dynamic, but following those steps should get you with a better party.

Oh, and don't be afraid to Rest a character if you feel you tooled them wrong or they needto upgrade. I remember my medic was more specialized on cure 1 and salve 1 spells, with a point or two in cure 2 and none for cure 3, but eventually when my hp levels made light moves less helpful and tp pools made stronger ones more feasible, I rested my medic and had him focus more on cure 3 and Salve 1 and 2 spells. I also gave him stronger immunize skills, because in EO 1 at least, Immunize is AMAZING.

Taking a break from FE1, for the FE8 draft instead

YES! I'm glad to know that there are other people out there as sad as I am, to the point of imagining everything happening when I play the game as well as character backstories for each member. (in my defence, I only do this with Etrian Odyssey games though)

My team of One-Hit Wonder s charges in to mapped floors, avoiding everything, and gather as much crap and desperately try to escape with atleast one person still alive. I treat them like expendable mooks essentially.

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That said, the troubadour in EO 2 dissappointed me. She's so much weaker than the one in EO 1, no more relaxing and other good songs. Just the typical buffs, and some new dances that improve elemental damage and resistance. That's why I demoted her to protecting the gatherers.

And my landskect was a wreck to begin with, so he was also demoted to bodyguard for my survivalists.

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^ Ah, but cure1 and salve1 is still useful even in the end of the game though. In battle they heal way too little to matter. But off-battle, those skills truly shines. Those low level healing abilities let me efficiently heal each party member to full life without overhealing...letting me last inside the dungeons much longer.

And since cure3 heals full each time, I only got one level of it, and almost never use it since cure2/salve2 healed almost full even in the end.

edited 26th Sep '10 12:48:47 AM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

I think that got a nod in at least one of the ads for EO III, too... though I wasn't too impressed with the ones related in the ad I saw for it. ^^;

But there was always the one member who I pictured being all "FOR THE GUILD WOOOO!" to balance out the "We are all going to die. Over twigs." "And logs." "It's LOOOG, it's LOOOOG, it's big, it's heavy, it's--" "Cram it or I'll cram it for you." And they weren't even my main party...

And yeah, the poor Troubadours sort of took a hit, but there was a lot of that going around, and it got balanced out (if that's the word for it) by the new potential exploits they added... Hexer's Revenge was always fun.

You must be referring to the Troubadour's ability to increase max health to "buff" the Hexer's revenge...it seriously doesn't make it that much stronger though. So I only got her to provide a speed and defence boost for my members to help them escape before the enemies can make their move. I like to imagine my gathering party as scared desperate wrecks when going out.

...? They talked about....troubadours getting weaker? Or some people imagining everything happening due to how static the battle and animations are?

As for my characterization...most of the time I imagine they all act efficient and methodical, like Hunters in a certain manga. Whenever I need to use Revenge, I pretend my Dark Hunter taking out his whip and lowering her health to single digits. And my beast is a fiercely protective giant white tiger cat...and my gunner is a glasses wearing Dojikko, all her skills like Ricochet are unintended results of her tripping and firing, and each time she fires her gun, the recoil knocks her over and waver her arms around...

edited 26th Sep '10 1:44:56 AM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

Mostly I imagine my party members to be hysterically yelling "RUN AWAAAYYY!" and swearing in the first two strata, with my Survivalist being the Only Sane Man and my Alchemist being The Stoic. And then I imagine them to go Guide Dang It! on the travelator level of the Fourth Stratum in Game 1. And being a teensy bit disappointed because it's getting easier.

I imagine my main party treats my Survivalist party really poorly. Stuff like 'Hi, my name's Mint and I'd like to join your guil-' You're Patsy now. 'What? No it isn't, my name's-' IT'S PATSY. Then they steal all their items.

@Signed - I seem to remember at least one ad for III that asked something along the lines of "What's Your Story?" In other words, what was your guild like, and what were their adventures in the world of EO?

Unfortunately, none of the stories in the ad I saw really made an impression on me; all I remember is feeling underwhelmed... and a little disappointed. I was expecting fun and compelling characterization and hearing about quirks and inter-party dynamics and so on, but... well, nothing stuck.

In III, my leader is a Badass Princess whose biggest Berserk Button is anyone implying she can't be incredibly cute and a total badass at the same time. A Sickeningly Sweet Boisterous Bruiser, basically. All smiles and giggles whether she's trying to charm the locals or beating monsters' heads into paste.

Her partner and co-founder is her purple-haired cousin, a Badass Bookworm in training who's already mastered the art of deadpan snarking. She came along to try and keep her relatively reined in so she doesn't pull a Leeroy Jenkins on every FOE they see. (Aaannnnd to get away from her well-meaning but overbearing older brother who's been trying to get her into an Arranged Marriage with one of his 'trustworthy' buddies, but her cousin/leader doesn't know anything about that.)

Then there's the Badass Princess' main Love Interest, an Attention Whore Heir To The Ninja Arts who doesn't get the whole 'stealth' aspect. And is also a red eyed, White-Haired Pretty Boy who looks like a girl, but has no idea anyone might get confused by his appearance and fancies himself a ladies' man, so he's a shameless flirt.

I could go on, but you probably get the idea... My guilds tend to be weird.

edited 26th Sep '10 10:46:33 PM by FoominBlue

I finally decided to read the Leeroy Jenkins page and learned what the hell it was...couldn't they have given a better more descriptive name ...like Berserker Who Gets Party Killed...or something...not some obscure name I thought was from Star Trek or some sci-fi show.

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Oh yeah, are there those short comics for EO 3 like there was for the previous games? You know....those 4koma-ish shorts that introduced the classes of the game and such...

Like this for the first game: http://www.atlus.com/etrian/comic.htm

The Dark Hunter one is definately the best.

edited 27th Sep '10 12:49:32 AM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

There're too longer comics in the back of the artbook.

...anyone have the scans?

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

...I always thought Leeroy Jenkins was well known amongst online gamers at least. I dont play World Of Warcraft, and I know of it...

Taking a break from FE1, for the FE8 draft instead

Oh my goodness the first boss is rough. Using spoiler tags just in case anyone wants to find out the tricks this boss has for themselves. First time through I didn't realize what I was supposed to do when the boss submerged and ate an attack that killed almost the entire party. Second time through I ALMOST won except the boss emerged with said attack the round after it submerged and killed everyone. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with someone missing the submerged boss or if the RNG just hated me guts. Third time I gained a few levels and some new equipment (hurray for the intrepid band of farmers running for their lives trying to get to the next gathering point!), but the boss kept spamming a blinding move that hit the entire front line (and Leg Bind refused to connect, which would've stopped said attack), preventing me from being able to deal any significant damage.

I'm thinking of sending the farmers in again to see if gratuitous quantities of materials can generate any new equipment and maybe grind another level or two (hello there, gold FOEs!) before taking another shot at it. Current group consists of a Hoplite, Club Gladiator (wielding the NICE club made from the FOE on B 3 F), Prince in the front row and a Monk and Ninja in the back row. All are around level 12. I have one character of each class sitting around in town, but they'd need to rest (and then re-leveled the old fashioned way) to be combat worthy because they all have their points dumped into Combat Study.

Edit: Also considering taking a crack at the FOEs on B 4 F. Haven't tried fighting them yet.

edited 27th Sep '10 4:19:00 PM by IthilionTheBrave

Finally got EO 1 over the mail, around the $20's

Holy shit, these games are actually that rare?

edited 27th Sep '10 3:45:32 PM by Schitzo

ALL CREATURE WILL DIE AND ALL THE THINGS WILL BE BROKEN. THAT'S THE LAW OF SAMURAI.

Well, it's by Atlus, and they rarely print more than a couple dozen copies total  ^*

, so, yeah, they are kinda hard to come by if you don't snatch them up within the first couple weeks or so after release.

Or if you're like me and live in an area with several Game Stops and not many Atlus fans.

I can predict that a large portion of Atlus fanbase probably play their game via ROMs or other methods.

I played the second Etrian Odyssey game, loved it, so I tried to get the first game...and lemme tell ya, that thing's harder to find than a honest politician that also happens to be wealthy.

edited 27th Sep '10 6:19:14 PM by Signed

"Every opinion that isn't mine is subjected to Your Mileage May Vary."

The third EO game has some copy-protection on it, as have most of Atlus' releases recently, I think. Strange Journey locked you out of random encounters and didn't let you save. Not the best anti-romloader method I've seen (that honour goes to Lord of Elemental, which had every enemy oneshot you if they got a hit off, and raised their hit rate to 100% but otherwise let you play the game), but pretty decent.

EOIII, at least on my loader, lets you play more or less normally (sans Limit skills) until you hit the second floor, at which point freezing begins whenever you try and do something major (board your ship, use certain skills, change floors, etc.). Fine by me, really. Gave me a preview of the new game and the new classes, which compelled me to buy the game. Everybody wins!

^That's actually pretty creative anti-piracy. It essentially turns it into a (short) demo. At least until people figure out a way to work around it, that is.