Etrian Odyssey General Discussion

[Kazin]

Amazing what a stylus will do for these games (I forgot my phone came with a capacitive stylus and it works very well with the Switch/Switch 2). Given the QoL improvements especially to EO1, I think these are my favorite way to play these now!

Did this Origins Collection do well for Atlus? Is there any chance of a IV/V/Nexus collection in the future that we know of?

 

[Pombar]

I’ve heard no rumblings but wouldn’t necessarily expect to either

 

[Kazin]

Got to the third stratum last night in Etrian Odyssey 1, and have been having an absolute blast (it's been a long time since I've played the first game). Absolutely demolished the second boss, and I'm playing on Expert mode btw (or, as I understand it, standard DS difficulty lol):

As you can see, the Dark Hunter's binds are so, so, so useful. This guy barely hit anyone - which I find satisfying for many reasons, not the least of which is the whole party gets XP lol

I'd forgotten how lovely the music is in the third stratum. Although I'm having enough fun that I'm training up a second party, primarily for gathering/sidequests, but also because I've quite literally never used a Ronin or Hexer before, and I just unlocked Ronin so it's time to raise one up and see how it goes. My current/main party is P/L/D/A/M, which I know isn't the most exciting build, but I dunno. I'm comfortable with it. Although my second party has the remaining classes in it, as well as an Alchemist with a different elemental build than in my main party, just in case.

 

[Kazin]

Just finished Etrian Odyssey HD. Had a blast with it - really the only annoying stratum was the fourth, and that's mainly because even in the HD version, there's some mapping tools missing that I'd like. Mainly numbered tiles so I could indicate warp panels/long stretches the game moves you in when you go through a secret door or whatever you want to call them.

In any case, have some pictures!

The final stratum is gorgeous, and these are probably the best areas. The trunk of Yggdrasil winding it's way through these office buildings, creating a bridge for you to cross. I think it looks really good in HD, as well.

When you reach the 25th floor, you've arrived at the ground floor of Tokyo, and the skybox/background reflects that, which I think is a lovely touch. Here we seem to have some sort of courtyard or something. I wonder if this is supposed to be a specific area in Tokyo - I've never been, so don't recognize it. Even if not, it's a cool touch.

Screenshotted this just because I appreciate them stating plainly what they're going for. Hopefully some chud got all the way to the final room and got pissed off at this line.

Taken during the ending. I just think it's purdy.

Let's see how far I get into the sixth stratum! I bet not very far lol

 

[Pombar]

Wow, those backgrounds really do look great. I don’t strongly remember what they looked like on DS but I assume not quite like that haha

 

[Kazin]

Gave up on the sixth stratum when I realized there were random encounters I just couldn't damage, presumably because I have no Ice or Volt users. Don't feel like grinding new characters up... Though it'll always be there if I feel like going back.

So instead I started Etrian Odyssey II today! Beautiful game...

...but what is with the seemingly low accuracy? I'm missing with basic attacks so much, and though Skills don't miss as much, it sure stings to burn TP in a battle to zero effect. That said... Hexer is as broken as I've heard lol. If I want to limp out of the dungeon badly hurt, the Hexer can put pretty much everything to sleep, at good odds, for only 10 TP. Currently running a P/R/D/WM/H, no idea if this will be viable until endgame, but I was able to take down the first boss despite having no Ice skills.

I don't think I ever beat EO2, or if I did, I don't remember it all that much. I can't even remember if the Duchy is evil lol

 

[Kazin]

I kinda wish I'd known the first two bosses of EO2 were weak to ice, as I'd have prioritized those skills for my Ronin instead of Volt lol. Still, I got past the second boss, and yep, I'm pretty sure I've never been here before:

I know these are ancient games and the above are basically just uprezzed jpgs, but I'm really vibing with the art and music in these HD versions.

Oh and I took this photo a few days back, of my Protector who is, inexplicably, the Demi-fiend, in case you were unaware the DLC gives you new character art you can use of various Atlus characters, although for some reason they are game exclusive (i.e. you can't use the Demi-fiend in EO1 or 3, sadly, though those games have their own unique guys).

I really like that they draw the bonus characters in the Etrian Odyssey art style, that's a really nice touch.

 

[Falselogic]

I've had EO2 sitting on my computer desktop for like a year now. I should get back to it...

 

[Kazin]

Do it @Falselogic! And post about it if you do! I always like seeing people's party builds and whatnot, and imo these games screenshot quite well (which is why I keep posting them lol)

 

[Pombar]

Upon buying the collection I played like the first five hours of all three games at once haha

Guess I shouldn’t buy multiple games at once.

I did end up putting more into 3 but reached a point where I wasn’t sure how to progress; I felt vastly underlevelled for both the dungeon boss I’d reached and the ship stuff I could get to, so just stalled.

 

[Kazin]

I can't wait to replay III... It is by far my favorite in the series (though I haven't played more than like an hour of Nexus). I'm curious how they handled the multiplayer stuff in III HD - I never was able to do much of that, though iirc a lot of it can be done solo with NPCs or something.

 

[gorha]

EOIII had multiplayer? I remember NPCs joining for some sidequests, but you could do them with another player instead? I had no idea.

 

[Kazin]

@gorha Yeah, the sailing missions had NPCs, but you could also make a party with another player instead. I can't remember if it was in-person wireless only or over wifi, but I was never able to do it (making me think it's in person only, because I did play EOIII at the same time as a friend when it first came out, though he was not local). IIRC, there's some later fights that are basically impossible with the NPCs, and as a result I never beat those.

 

[Classic]

Wasn't that a streetpass thing?

 

[Kazin]

@Classic Not... really, I don't think? This was before the 3DS and, iirc, you actively connected and played together at the same time and each controlled your own guys

 

[JBear]

I 100%ed that game and never knew you could do those fights multi-player, so they're definitely possible.

 

[Kazin]

Ooh, good to hear it's doable, then! I do want to 100% EO3, since it's by far my favorite..

I found the 4th Stratum of Etrian Odyssey 2 a bit of a slog. It wasn't hard, really, but for whatever reason you miss a lot with basic attacks on a lot of enemies. Since EO2 has such expensive TP costs, I would try to use regular attacks as much as I could, so I could explore further. And the penultimate floor of that stratum is kind of a mess...

I beat the boss on my first try. I don't think I'm overleveled - I haven't done any grinding - but I did get turned around a bit in the 4th stratum, so maybe I leveled a few times in there. In any case, I've maxed out my Dark Hunter's bind abilities, and while I wasn't able to use Climax, the boss went down without doing too much to me besides confusing a few characters, for which I had items to get rid of that status. I was far more worried about being surprise attacked by the Petaloids that can so easily put your whole party to sleep lol

In any case, I reached the 5th Stratum:

I have definitely never beaten EO2 before. I don't remember anything like this.

 

[Kazin]

Etrian Odyssey II HD down.

The Overlord - or Bahamut, as it looks like to me - here serves as the final boss. He's kinda crap, to be honest - it seems pretty luck based, as he can clear any two statuses at any time, which also heals him for 800 or so health. If he does that a lot, you'll run out of TP and lose. If he doesn't do that a lot, he goes down pretty easily. In the battle I won, he used it once, and didn't even manage to kill anyone. I got a Climax off, and my Hexer did some decent damage in the middle of the fight with Revenge. All my characters were level 63 at the end, two levels lower than EO1 HD, and I beat the game in 25 hours, about six less than EO1 HD.

It's not explicitly stated (at least that I saw - there are some partial messages scrawled about the 5th Stratum, maybe I missed some), but it does seem like the final boss here was trying to upload humanity to computers. Techbro final boss in 2008? Atlus was woke all those years ago lol

Honestly, I think it will end here. I don't like some of the design decisions in EO2 - good skills cost WAY too much TP to use (regardless of class, it seems!), and as a result there's a lot more going back to town, resting, and going back into the labyrinth, usually the same areas over and over. The first game had a better balance to this, and leveling up skills usually lowered their TP cost as well, or they are least don't cost like 1/5 of your total TP. I brought a bunch of TP restoring items to the final boss just in case - in the winning battle I didn't really need all but one, but I'm not wild about that in any case. Also regular attacks just whiff constantly, which was annoying. It never really resulted in a party wipe, but it would prolong battles, or make me want to use skills, which tended to be more accurate but then of course, I'd have to go back to town sooner or use an item.

My Hexer, Ronin, and Dark Hunter were the MVPs of this run, in that order. The Ronin mainly because he was my elemental attacker, and he did a ton of damage, either to single targets or multiple. The Hexer, pretty early on, could put nearly any random mob to sleep - it honestly felt pretty broken. I'm glad I looked at the various skill calculators online before starting the game, because while I was pretty set on my party, I probably would have screwed around with Poison or Curse or something, when Sleep is by far the way to go. I did mess about with Fear, though, because the Suicide ability both cancels out the enemy turn and causes them to damage themselves, so when I was able to pull that off, it was great. Wasn't able to terrify the final boss, but in the end I didn't need to.

Next, though... My favorite game in the series. A game so good I wrote like 10,000 words of fanfiction about my party {no chance am I sharing it lol). I haven't decided how I want to approach it yet - I usually run a Sovereign and a Ninja, the former passively healing and the latter cloning itself and being a dodge tank, but I've done that a few times already. Then again, I do kinda want to 100% it, so maybe I should go with efficiency for efficiency's sake... Decisions, decisions...

 

[Kazin]

I'm just gonna keep posting because I'm having fun doing it lol. Sorry if bumping this thread bugs anyone

It's so weird to see this screen so uprezzed. I can't describe how excited I am to play this again, now that I'm definitely in the mood for some Etrian Odyssey lol

I will admit - I used the savestate feature to prevent the Great Lynx from one shotting someone, which did happen a few times. I haven't been abusing the save state system very much - mainly while grinding in EO2 at the end, to get some cash for Amritas, so I didn't lose however much time grinding due to a surprise attack or whatever. Here, though, I've played the heck out of EO3, and for whatever reason it really bothers me when my party has differing exp levels lol. While I'll deal with it later on as I beat bosses or whatever like I did in the first game, at least for this first floor I was willing to give myself a bit of a break.

...I mean, what else was I gonna call it?

I had forgotten the fish spawn randomly. As much as they are pretty lucrative at this point in the game - enemy drops are fairly rare and not worth very much at all yet - I have to be careful and not waste a bunch of en just boating around doing nothing. I did get the Peas, though, so can go a bit further, which I'll probably do after some more labyrinth exploration.

At the moment, I have a Gladiator/Buccaneer/Ninja/Zodiac/Sovereign, which is pretty much my normal party. Other than the Ninja, I'll be experimenting with some different builds, though - for the Buccaneer, I plan on chasing physical damage, which I don't usually do, and for the Zodiac, I'm going to be spreading the elemental attack points out a bit. I have no idea what I'm going to do with subclasses as yet. I did make a party of farmers, each with 2 points in the passive exp gain skill and 1 point in the gathering skill that let's you gather each type of node once. Does anyone remember if the passive exp gain skill is unlocked like this right at the beginning of the game? I thought you had to unlock it a ways in, but maybe I'm thinking of a future entry. Either way, I should probably make the other classes and let them level up passively, derp.

 

[Peklo]

Combat Study is an universal skill for all classes from the beginning of the game. The usual practice if you plan on using more than five characters is to put the initial three points into it for other guild members and periodically check in on them to level up the skill to maximize their passive gains.

 

[Kazin]

Gotcha. Not sure why I thought it was unlocked later... In any case, I did create characters of each type, and a duplicate Buccaneer, in case I want to use guns (on top of the five Farmers I already made earlier).

I'm so glad the sidequests give exp now. I skipped so many of them in the first two games because the (listed) rewards were rarely worth the trouble. Had they also given me experience or - especially in 1 - money, I'd probably have done more of them. The incentives III gives you to do them, and mess about with the sea exploration, is lovely. Speaking of, I made it to the lighthouse - I probably won't be able to beat the bird until I gain a few more levels.

Speaking of, I can confirm the sea quests are playable multiplayer, and online as well:

There's also some kind of item trading board that I don't remember at all, which seems to allow you to put an item up for trade. It is, understandably, a ghost town these days, two years after these games came out. I'm probably the only weirdo mainlining the Switch versions since the Switch 2 came out, anyway lol

 

[Peklo]

I do the quests in these games regardless of the rewards because it's where so much of the textual narrative lives, so III's EXP incentives didn't tilt the pendulum that much for me... but from that angle, Missy being the character you interact with is a highlight in the annals of quest-giver townspeople the series has featured, so it's really all bases covered.

 

[q 3]

EO5 had the Memory Conch accessory that was its mechanism for giving exp to benched characters, you don't acquire it right away so perhaps that's what you're thinking of?

 

[Kazin]

Ah, that's probably it! EO5 is the most recent game in the series I've played last, so that must be why I thought it took a while to get. It has been a while since I played even that, so I probably confused it with 3...

 

[Kazin]

I've always really enjoyed the vibes of this stratum, and have had a good time running around, fighting starfish and coral and stuff. So far, I've completed all the sidequests, mainly because my Farmers are putting in overtime making money so I can afford new weapons and armor lol. I've been largely ignoring sailing for a while - not because I don't like it or am not interested, but because I wanted to get to the Deep City and unlock subclassing. Speaking of which...

I have! I forgot to get a picture of Ketos, sadly. It took me quite a few tries to beat him - I had no way besides items to counter his binds and status effects, but I was able to get through with everyone alive just now, which is a relief. He's always kind of a wall for me. Forging Fire onto my Gladiator's sword and freecasting Blade Rave using my Zodiac's Dark Ether was crucial, as was my Ninja duplicating himself and tossing items around when necessary, while my Sovereign managed healing (and Healing Wind came in clutch once in the winning battle, as well, so the healing that occurs every turn the Sovereign is at max HP could proc). Just an absolutely wonderful time, puzzling out how to beat that big whale. Love EO3 so much!

Now I have to figure out what the hell I'm gonna do with my subclasses... I'm thinking about resting to get some more points for subclass stuff, especially for my Ninja - having the few skill points back I put into Knives would be useful, especially since I'll be able to give him better weapons and armor. I'm thinking subclassing him Hoplite, to make him into a super dodge tank...

 

[Kirin]

So can everyone in EO-land just breathe underwater, or are the fish swimming around in really dense air in this stratum?

 

[Kazin]

It's magic breathing, provided to explorers via Yggdrasil, if I remember correctly. In other words, handwavey BS haha

 

[Kazin]

I flew through the 3rd Stratum (quickly enough that I forgot to take a photo of the entrance lmao):

And have cruised on to the final story stratum:

I chose the Shogun/Armoroad route this time around, for no real reason other than I felt like it. I'll make an Aigis portrait on New Game + for Yggdroid lol

The third stratum was rather easy - the ant sidequest boss was harder for me than the final boss of the stratum. Meanwhile, the fourth stratum had harder random encounters, not that they were too difficult or anything - I just took a lot more damage from them than earlier areas. I beat the boss of the fourth stratum relatively easy with a few resets - clear binds before he uses his big fire attack, and you're fine. Helps that I have a Gladiator/Buccaneer with Berserker Rage, Wolf Howl, Charge, and Blade Rave, and a Buccaneer/Gladiator with Berserker Rage, Wolf Howl, Charge, and Pincushion lmao. Apparently I should have put the Wolf Howl points into Eagle Eye on at least one of those guys, as now that I'm looking up the skill names for this post (I don't often use Berserker Rage, basically just for bosses), apparently they stack. My points are kind of a mess, I'll probably rest everybody in my main party soon anyway to fix some bad decisions.

Haven't done much sailing lately, either. Been having fun in the main dungeon...

 

[Kazin]

Alright, after clearing some more sidequests, including one where I killed some bird bosses causing their henchman birds to flee:

I made my way through the rest of the fifth stratum, and arrived at, for this playthrough, the final boss:

I struggled a bit, here. I had no way to counter the ridiculous partywide head binds Olympia throws out constantly besides single use items (I did not level up Refresh enough to be partywide, so that was single target as well), and when I arrived at the boss originally, I was only level 49, which was pretty low (I had Rested my whole party to respec when I unlocked subclassing, and never grinded, so was behind a bit). I had to grind a few levels (okay, I didn't have to, but leveling up a bit really made the AoE attacks from the Abyssal King far more consistent to survive), but by the time I was level 55 it wasn't bad at all. I could've Rested and probably built my party better, but I had to watch the phones at work while my boss and coworker while out and we were surprisingly slow, so I had plenty of time to grind. In any case - cleared!

I mean, probably not, eh? He couldn't remember, until he was on the cusp of death, what had happened, so clearly this wasn't the right decision (I will make a second incorrect decision in my New Game+ playthrough). In any case...

To be continued...

...pretty much now. I blew through the first three stratums in an hour in New Game + and unlocked Yggdroid. I promptly made one, slapped Shogun on as subclass (not for any particular reason... I just wanted some easy levels for Combat Study for it to level up as I continue on). I kind of hate the fourth stratum, although I guess since it's all mapped out now and I can fairly easily survive of the FOEs there, I can probably clear this run in a couple hours.

What a fantastic game.

EDIT: Took a few hours, but cleared NG+ doing the Deep City route haha. Not sure if I'll try to raise the level cap/clear the Sixth Stratum... Having played three Etrian Odysseys in a row, I kinda want to play something else, I think. That said, I'm level 60 as of that playthrough... Wouldn't be too difficult to try to clear the ocean quests, unlocking the level cap raising dragons...