Etrian Odyssey

What are your thoughts on these games and where do I start?

One of the best "new" IPs on a Nintendo handheld in a long time.

Where the fuck is the announcement for V's English release?

4 is a good place to start because it's on the easy side and it's a bit more streamlined. Each class only has access to 4-6 skills until level 15 when you unlock the next tier of abilities to pick from. Personally I'm not a fan of that at all, but it's a little better than rushing to a specific skill only to find out you don't have the mana to cast it or life to survive using it even once.
However it still does the dumb thing these games do where you can upgrade a skill but there's no telling what it does. Like the generic sword slash might gain 2% damage each level until 7, where it gains 20% damage, and then after than you only get 1% more damage until level 10.

If I like based Atlus' other series like Persona and Megami Tensei will I like these?

We're waiting for atlus to finish up P5 and whatever other high profile games they have going on right now.

To answer your question OP, IV is the best to start with to ease yourself into the series, followed by Untold 2. If you start there though you're going to have trouble going back to the less polished games in the series, so I'd suggest you start with the first one if you want to experience the whole series. It's good shit.

I agree with this.

If you want a more difficult game, then by all means start with 1, but it's really fucking hard.

You might be interested in Persona Q. It's a decent entrypoint for fans of persona 3 & 4 who want to get into EO.

These games are really grindy, but it's a dungeon crawler like the earlier SMT games. You could always play PersonaQ. It's pretty good except you might find out that your favorite guys are kind of shitty.

Alright cool, so what's the combat like? I've heard these games are actually pretty tactical as far as turn based goes.

You can run around with a fantasy team of loli's what more could you want?

Wish it had final fantasy tactics gameplay though

Never played an EO game but who are those based bros in the back and is that their loli squad?

Compared to most other JRPGs it definitely is. If you lose a boss fight, the answer to beating it is always change gear and strategy, and if you're really in the fucking hole, maybe respec someone. There's never really a point where grinding is needed or even very effective. You have 5 characters that have skill trees based on your classes, and in a few of them you can have sublclasses later on. 4 is probably the best starting point because it looks nice and is way less brutal in the beginning.

ETRIAN SWITCH WITH VERTICAL HOLDING PLEASE

PLEASE

It's a turn based system with your basic elemental/physical attack type weakness gimmick. In persona q attacking an enemy's weakness gives you move priority in the next round (those who attacked a weakness will move before all enemies and team mates.) The same goes for your enemies however so you need to construct your team with that in mind.

That's just 5 of the character classes you can make. Nightseeker, Medic, Landschnekt, Fortress, and Sniper. Sorry bud.

Well, it's pretty standard fare really, just that enemy encounters tend to be more dangerous than in your standard RPG and that ailments and buffs/debuffs matter. It's fun figuring out what kind of synergy you can get going with your chose party composition, and then building towards that with your skill points.

Dancers are all you need

The big gimmick of Etrian Odyssey is the bind system. You can bind an enemies head, arms, or legs which severly reduces their INT, STR, or AGI and also prevents them from using attacks related to the sealed body parts.

Ok that's how it works in Persona 3 and 4 too but it's very exploitable on enemies and barely phases teammates.
Can I have a loli sniper?

The only reason I remember the name of this game is because of the Lolitank.
The only reason i'll play it is because of the Lolitank.

Sleepy runemaster >>>> loli runemaster
Scruffy medic >>>>>> Mediko
Shiitake >>>>>> all
Shit >>>>> Teach

Holy shit is Sup Forums having an actual discussion about a game?

They're fun dungeon crawling RPGs with a neat battle system, qt grills and great music. Generally recommended to start with 4 as it's the easiest in the series.

That's not how it works in EO, hitting an elemental/phys damage type weakness just results in more damage (unless the enemy also has some unique reaction to being hit with certain attacks, although I can't think of such an instance off the top of my head)

le millenom girl

It quickly became my favourite RPG series by far. I hope they somehow find a way to make it playable on the Switch, thought I fear it may stay with the 3DS, what with the lack of a second screen and all.

>Can I have a loli sniper?
Does this answer your question?

I'd just consider binds an extension of status effects. Your party can also be inflicted with some crippling binds, too.

Are loli snipers good?

Same, Atlus is seriously killing the JRPG scene right now.

slav > all

Yeah, functions as an average damage dealer but that's fine because it has both the ability to bind enemies, which is pretty good, and "Squall Volley" hits a billion times in a turn, which is excellent in a "Link" team. You can't really go wrong with any class on EO4.

Are these games story focused or is like Dragon Quest where I just go stop the big bad cause evil?

I thought 4's portraits were kind of disappointing. You got the guy or the girl and their alt with anothe haircolor, style if you're really lucky. I really liked how 3 tended to give you older and younger versions of each character. And 2 where you could pick between the cutest gunner lolis and then the most Russian guy you'd ever meet.

It kind of is just another type of status ailment, but I think it's what sets EO apart the most. Started Dungeon Travelers 2 recently and it's far and away the best dungeon crawl out there (until EO5), but I still really miss binding dudes since it's an immediate and deliberate strategic move compared to tossing out a status effect hoping that you have the right one at the right time.

Is EO5 a day one purchase for you lads?

I hope XSEED steps it up for some healthy competition. Specifically with Shadow Hearts if possible.

is the new EO game out yet?

also is there any crawlers similar to EO on steam
i already played LoG 1 and 2

Very little story focus, almost like a monster hunter game if you've ever played those. You go on the maze, map it till your resources deplete, reach the next floor, beat a strong boss every few floors, repeat.

XSEED just needs to localize The Alliance Alive, aka Legend of Legacy 2 but with fiver characters in battle instead of 3

You guys are forgetting SquareEnix, they're killing it with great titles like Final Fantasy XV : ^ - )

If by "it" you mean "themselves", then I agree.

Grandma sniper is better

Snipers can get an attack of opportunity whenever an enemy is inflicted with a bind.

You can get another class that can cast bind circles and shit so that your sniper can get attacks of opportunity. However, it's not as powerful as Chasing/Elemental burst attacks.

Yes, it was

That would really be something. If they could take the god tier combat from "From the New World" and keep the goofy/fun characters but have a less retarded plot it would be my favorite game of all time.

kek

I enjoyed Final Fantasy Explorers as an unrefined attempt at a MH clone, too bad it will never get a sequel to improve the changes. Bravely Default fucking sucks, btw.

How's 7th Dragon VFD?

>Dat jewelcase
Jelly

The first half of Bravely Default is one of the best games I've ever played. Unfortunately, the second half of Bravely Default is one of the worst games I've ever played.

Hey l have a homebrew 3DS: In what order do l play these games?

Holy shit, have you played it?

A poor man's EO, but that's not really a bad thing. The "find x amount of dragons and kill them" mechanic of the game means you have a LOT of boss fights, which is where EO-like combat systems really shine.

I just want to say it's nice seeing fellow anons helping people get into this amazing series. Also refreshing to have a JRPG thread without any FFXV-kun.

Only good 7th Dragon was the first one.

If you care about "graphics," do EO: Untold 1 and 2, easy modo revamps of the first two games. Then IV, then III, and then if you want some slobberknockin', play I and II.

Avoid Mystery Dungeon unless you're into that sort of thing.

piss easy senpai

He should avoid EMD even if he likes MD.
It's really shallow.

A shit game that has nothing to do with EO

thanks famapaichi

I think I'd like the game a lot more if it let me customize my party's outfits/colors ect, and had the ability to make custom classes

But the fucking flowers tho

EO is great, and more people deserve to know that.

Now, the Legend of Legacy might not be everyone's cup of tea, but damn is it fun. Too ambiguous at points, but the combat system and the "high-risk, higher-reward" awakening system is super satisfying.

Isn't the first 7th dragon made by the EO's director?

And it plays the same too.

It sucks that I can't have 4 blonde lolis tho.

Luckily it was my first Shadow Hearts, so I didn't go into it expecting a grand plot. I just learned to accept the quirkiness as a part of the experience and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Frank is probably my second favourite video game character ever, though, right behind Sergeant Cortez from TimeSplitters.

I remember playing the EO IV demo and finding it quite enjoyable, but decided to download Bravely instead, like a couple hours ago. Care to point out what's wrong with it? I'm yet to start Bravely and might opt for EO instead.

I can vouch for that. The town theme was great though

Is Atlus the undeniable king of JRPGs at the moment?

Yeah, and only the first one. 7th Dragon is hardly a dungeon crawler though, it's more like DQ than anything. The rest of the series plays completely different and is such a different style it might as well be a new series.

It was, it was actually pushed pretty heavily in the marketing for VFD in the west, which is humorous because I don't think he worked on that one.

I'm kind of confused by the limitations that were put on customization and race and such in EOV, but I understand the director wanted to move away from people being able to make super combos that break the boss fights a bit.

Essentially, he wants the game to be harder to trek through.

There is a point where the content of the game just stops and it forces you to replay the previous EVERYTHING 5+ times

When I played the first one I was actually pretty scared. The game has some totally gruesome enemies and that story about the drowned corpse in the fishing village was real spooky.
But From the New World is really good. I think a non-serious story would be fine and I love how it's a big dumb adventure in fantasy America where you travel to Alcatraz to spring Al Capone from prison for his sister's birthday. It's just really terrible how little any of the characters care about the overarching plot, they barely even react to anything.
Frank is the man. I couldn't believe that he actually was a secret ninja master with a worldwide network of underlings, he was just enough of a goofball that he could've been some delusional weirdo.

Bravely gets to a point where you get stuck in a time loop. You get to experience the first four chapters over and over again while everyone acts retarded and slowly realizes what to do.
The "twist" is also really lame.

Essentially the last half of the game becomes exceedingly tedious and lazy. It's passed off as optional, but the final boss will steamroll you if you opt to ignore them. You can progress through the final four or five chapters in under ten minutes because of this. Yes, the entire second half of the game is completely optional.

Heavy plot spoilers are necessary to explain in any further detail.

>nintendo aren't doing another DS
>V will be the last EO game
Weird for a series to die because there's no system left it would work on.

Any intro movie? Loved EOU2's

The combat isn't anything special until you unlock and grind out a ton of subclass abilities. Once you do that you steamroll everything. I also think it's really terrible how the dungeons are just short hallways and level 3 freelancer is enough to negate all dungeon traps and show you were all the hidden treasure and secret rooms in the game are found.

EOU ruins the original plot twist of EO in less than 5 minutes, what the fuck.

>non-Untolds getting intro movies

No

>easy modo revamps of the first two games.
On expert difficulty they're harder than the originals

Post your teams for EOV

Yes

So the game gives you an amazing job system, and the combat system is passable but bolstered by decent grinding "options."

The first 35 hours are bliss, even if they're a bit goofy. But then you have all-but-two the jobs after that and roughly 15-20 more hours of doing the same thing you did the first 35 hours FOUR MORE TIMES if you want the perfect ending.

I bet you though Visil was a good villain in the original.

It should be mentioned that on top of everything everyone else has mentioned, anything and everything you did in the first half of the game is rendered pointless and futile. It really pissed me off.

I played past Dungeon 3 in EO4, but then I quit in disgust because the game was too easy and every fight ended up being the same shit.

I'm thinking about maybe giving it another shot, is there any way to make the game harder? Any team that doesn't just end up spamming the same OP combo all day like the Dancer did?

>is there any way to make the game harder?
Not really. 4's "normal" difficulty is just too low.
I stuck through it, but the dragons were an incredible disappointment. Postgame boss is decent.

This is true.

And they both retain classic mode but you have to beat the story mode if you want to use the story-only job classes

Shit. What about EOU, EOU2 and EO5? Not even joking when I say that the difficulty is everything to me.

That's only an issue in U1 where the story and characters are awful.

You mean the ice dungeon, right? The dungeon after that is pretty good, has a great gimmick. BUT the final dungeon of EOIV is fucking amazing and there's a few sidequests that are awesome.

Basically, though, the post-game fights and dungeon are really good. You should at least give them a shot.

I may have to give it a shot.

How's the battle system compared to From The New World?

EOU and EOU2 are harder than the originals if you play on Expert.
5's in my backlog, so I can't say.

mmmmmm yes

Is Expert unlocked from the start?

Yes.

>tfw love EO games but have never actually finished one because they feel so long
I always stop at like the third of fourth dungeon. The exception being Untold, but I couldn't even come close fo beating the final boss.

Wow, now this is something I did not expect. I mean, getting stuck on a time loop does sound pretty interesting until the part you have to redo everything time and time again, specially the grind part.

Well, I obviously don't mind a little grind as long as they feel rewarding somewhat. I just finished replaying P4G and building some top tier Personas was really fun, but they are somewhat useless afterwards so it felt like a waste of time. But this much grind would really throw me off.

What I said above, this is pretty bad then. Although not the same, you saying this kinda reminds me of how much you struggle on FF13 at the beginning to get small stat increases then suddenly the next rank/half of the games goes crazy on ratios and you get 10 times those stats with each "level".


In any case, thank you all for the replies.

Yes.

Sega is the king of strategy.

>PC 4X genre
>Football Manager
>Valkyria
>Personer and SMTs
>Etrian

Of course

Will you play multiplayer PVP EO?