It's official, it's being released in the US! Etrian Odyssey 4 is, obviously, the fourth installment of Atlus' old school RPG series, Etrian Odyssey. 1-3 were all DS-exclusive -- they kind of have to be given how they work -- and 4 is presumably going to be 3DS-exclusive. What is EO? Why should I care? EO is what you wanted Wizardry to be when you were growing up. You roll a party of five adventurers, any class combination, you want, and explore a dungeon. You find a party makeup that works, make your own map, and venture into your own messy death. EO is not a roguelike. Dying is not part of the game. Well, it is -- you are going to die, a LOT, because it's very hard. But you are intended to try to avoid death and death will cost you any progress made since your last save. What's going to kill me? Everything. Everything is going to kill you. The monsters are no joke, even the regular ones. But besides regular monsters, there are also special ones, called FOEs. They are visible on the map, unlike regular monsters. Some of them sit still. Some of them patrol a path. Most of them will chase you if they see you. They will all fuck your shit up badly if they catch you. Usually you aren't meant to kill them when you first see them. There are also events in particular places throughout the dungeon. Some are good, some are bad. Often you won't know which is which until you choose whether to investigate. You mentioned maps. I did. You may recall being expected to get out the graph paper when you played Wizardry, and draw your own maps. EO is like that, except you don't need graph paper. Thanks to the DS' touchscreen, you can draw your map directly on there. (It's quantized to a grid.) Besides walls and ground, you can annotate the map to indicate chests, FOEs, traps, etc. I think this feature is very cool, and pretty distinctive. What do we know about EO4 specifically? Very little. It was just announced for early 2013. We know there's a sky ship or something and monsters are animated now. None of this really matters because who gives a shit about the story or any of that. Hopefully we'll hear more about the class system soon. Each game has been slightly different.
Yes, I love the Etrian Odyssey series. I'm right now on my fourth play-through of EO 3 as I keep coming up with different party compositions to play as.
I like the idea of the games although I've never actually beat one (I own 1-3, though, somewhere). But unfortunately they've left me behind on platforms.
I'm interested in the series, but the pricing is a real issue. Can anyone identify a way to obtain the titles, in good condition, (case, manual, etc.; doesn't need to be brand new, but I really don't want to buy DS games card-only) for less than forty bucks a piece?
Sorry, but I'm not sure. Maybe eBay if you can dodge counterfeits. Atlus games always have small print runs and get hard to find.
I'm aware of that, believe me. I make a point of not buying DS games on eBay, considering what the market there looks like. If I wanted to pirate the game, I wouldn't pay for the privilege! Odds are, I'll wind up buying it off of some online shop run out of the ass end of nowhere and waiting a couple months for arrival.
Atlus has started putting up English trailers focusing on each of the different classes. But they still don't have a full website up. FATLUS!
I didn't want a 3DS because I can't use the 3D gimmick, but there's enough games coming for it that I want already that it feels like a prudent investment. I get my EO fix, Fire Emblem, Shin Megami Tensei 4, and Animal Crossing. Anything that comes out after that is just a bonus.
Geez, there's 4 of them now? I just beat the first one a couple months ago! I kept ragequitting for months when I'd get fucked up after travelling and mapping like 6 floors because I ran out of MP and got ambushed. Fuck the lack of save points, really. I'm in the same boat as Angie. 3D is no draw for me and I don't WANT a 3DS, but so many games I'd like to play are on it.
This describes the 3ds, the PSP, and the Vita, unfortunately. But the thing is I know I won't actually play it unless it either works on my tv, my pc, or my phone.
Managed to snag the first one for a good price about a few years ago and have been failing at it ever since. Very excited for this. Also, a 3DS is worth it even if you don't use the 3D? The games never suffer for it.
Hopefully Nintendo will release a cheaper version of the 3DS that plays the games but doesn't have the 3d feature. Anyway, if I were going to play one of these games, which one should I start with?
If you can find it, I would start with the 2nd one as it is a more balanced take on the first. The first one was definitely a good game, but it's probably harder to find. The third one that I'm playing through now in preparation for #4 is a good game, but I think the most complex of the three. The class design is the most varied and it has a mini game where you sail the ocean looking for spots to fight bosses.
You can start with any of them. All that changes is the classes and abilities, the story is barely there and you don't need to know shit about the earlier games to play the later ones. Mechanically speaking, 2 will provide you the softest landing. 1 will kick your ass much harder in the 1st stratum and 6th stratum.
The demo for EO 4 is out now, I'm going to download it tomorrow when I get chance. Still working my way through EO 3, my current party: Monk, Shogun, Zodiac, Arbalist and wildling are at the last boss for the main quest. So hopefully I can get the game done in time for EO 4 at the end of the month.
My decision to just tinker around with the demo led to 2 hours vanishing. I ended up going with a Landsknecht, Fortress, Nightseeker, Medic, and Runemaster. I have a pretty good idea of where to go with playstyle and skills for them except the Nightseeker. It says they can be frontline or backline, but most of the special attacks they get are buffed by an enemy being afflicted. Yet from what I can see, the only skills the Nightseeker gets which apply an afflicted condition are their throw attacks. So I guess you need to go into the throws skill line even if you want them to be frontline character? And on a related note, does it really matter if you go 2 frontline characters or 3? I think I've always done 3 before, but I have never gotten super far in an EO game.
It seems like a really generous demo. You get the tiny starter dungeon and at least part of a real one plus a chunk of the overworld. Characters are capped at level 10 but I don't think there's anything stopping you from creating the maximum 30 characters and getting them all to level 10 while maxing out their equipment and stockpiling gold for the full game. The demo is limited to 30 plays but you can play forever if you keep putting the system to sleep from within the game. Silly Nintendo. I went with three landsknechts on the front line and a medic and fortress on the back. With the fortress' auto taunt passive to draw fire and the medic's auto heal passive topping everyone off after every battle, I can get some good grinding on.
I reached the end of the demo. You get the entire first floor of the woodland labyrinth but it stops you before you go down the stairs. I own both EO1 and EO3 and never really got into either of them, but this one is hitting all the right buttons and I will definitely be grabbing it at launch. I replaced one of my front line landsknechts with the fortress and replaced the fortress with a sniper. The sniper can increase item drop rates from enemies so that's much more efficient grinding.
Ok, I'm going to start playing EO2. I found this; any other tips I should have going in, or things that are wrong with those ones?
Well, they left off "Remember to turn off your DS when not playing to conserve battery power!" In seriousness, the stuff about foes is worth paying attention to as it's a big change from the previous game.
Just got done with a 3 hour session of the demo, I'm definitely liking it. There are a lot of subtle changes that I like compared to the previous games. The overworld exploration is a lot better this time around, you can fly around looking for food that can provide buffs in the dungeon, or sold when you get back to town. And there is no cost to use it this time, so your less likely to end up without money to heal. The classes and their trees have all been redesigned. Now, the classes have three groups of skills with the later two locked behind level requirements. From reading the descriptions of the skills there are a lot more strategies to play around with this time. The medic also appears to have been given a major buff, as they are the only class at the start that can target other team members to heal. I do wish that the demo had more classes available, but you do get a good taste of what the game is about with the starting group. And before anyone asks if the game is easier compared to previous ones, I already died on the very first floor of the first dungeon to the FOE there.
By first dungeon, did you mean the one where you need to get the ore? Because all 3 of the FOE's there had a set pattern to avoid them...
My experience with EO4 so far. No one tells me what to do. Well shit. Well, this keeps the spirit of-- Shit. This is not what I wanted at all. In happier news, Beyonce the Combat Samba-specced Dancer is tearing shit up.
I had to test the waters to see how tough it was, and I beat it with my level 8 team earlier. Now I want to try and take out the other two FOEs in the demo.
Friendly reminder, Atlus print runs are stupid small. If you want this game, preorder it or buy it soon after launch.
EO3 is still in my drawer and I have yet to beat it, BUT I WILL. Eventually.... So yeah, definitely gonna get EO4 if/when I get a 3DS.
There is, but I trust Nintendo about as far as I can throw them when it comes to online anything. eShop purchases are tied to your specific hardware and people have reported mixed results getting help from Nintendo with downloaded software if they have to replace their consoles for any reason. I won't buy anything from the eShop unless it's the only way it's available. Plus there isnt all that much internal storage on the 3DS. It's a damned shame, because EO is exactly the kind of game I'd like to have with me at all times. Also, the retail packages come with some pack-in crap -- CD and art book I think? The eShop version, predictably, gives you none of that and is no cheaper despite giving you less and being cheaper to distribute. Nintendo online distribution is garbage. It has all the downsides of digital distribution, even the ones that are predictable and avoidable, and none of the upsides.
EO has scared me for years. I've tried 1-3 on DS, but never got past the first Stratum without losing all my money and then trying to figure out how to get more. :( And FOEs scare the shit out of me.
