uh, is this a pen and paper thingy for ds? why u no piiiiics?
I'll rustle some up for ya! Keep an eye out near the bottom of the OP, for a spoiler tag, I'll put em there.
I remember hearing about Etrian Odyssey. I was like "Holy shit you can make your own maps??"
and what I thought it was is that it created a way of allowing the player to design their own level before playing through it in a balanced way that not only allowed levels of strategy, but also prevented the user from cheating and just placing a bunch of chests and an entrance and exit close together.
then I found out it was just that the map doesn't auto-create itself and you have to do it manually and I was like "LAME :C"
Yeah, a friend of mine thought the same thing, but nope, just cartography. I think Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey automaps for you to a greater degree (puts down walls for you when you run into them I think, as opposed to just floors, marks save spots, marks healy areas, but on the downside you can't fill stuff in manually), but it's also entirely different in setting, if that's a big deal. Might take a look at it!
Ugh.
Anime.
In all seriousness, this seems like a ridiculously niche game. I mean, cartography/roguelike/jrpg? What?
Basically what frumple said, yep. I'd like to say, Jrpgs have gotten a pretty bad wrap recently (for entirely justified reasons, when was the last time you had a hard time with a final fantasy game, for instance, really, some of the earlier ones were so simple you may as well have just removed the battles and walked through the storyline), but the difficulty is the main draw.
It's not roguelike in the sense that you have to restart everything when you die, just reload, which can sometimes take a good chunk of time off it. It's also "tile based", although you fight in RPG style battles, and semi random encounters (you have a little light in the bottom corner of the screen that slowly changes from blue to red, so you do have a general idea of when you're going to get attacked.), it's kind've a hodgepodge I admit, but it works!
Game is kinda anime, I can't deny that one.
And if I'm being entirely honest, the Cartography is honestly really fun. It seems wierd, but sometimes I'll just roll around in lower levels looking for hidden passages in the walls and such just to fill out the map. Admittantly not for everyone, but don't knock it til you've tried it.
It's definitely niche. But that doesn't really mean it's bad either. Just be ready for difficulty.
So what's everyone favorite game in the series?
EO3, definitely. It did a lot for classes having more then one "skill set", and subclassing adds a ton of depth.
If you're thinking of picking up any of the games, just get the most recent etrian odyssey you can grab, the plot isn't "there" enough to have to worry about understanding subsequent games (and EO3 takes place in a different area then EO1 and 2 anyway), and each game has added a lot of good stuff. EO2 isn't terrible? I personally didn't like it as much as EO3 but it's definitely not bad. Prolly cheaper too, if that's a concern. If you have a 3DS you might consider waiting for EO4, it's looking to continue the trend of "better then the rest of the series", unless you hate 3D models and love sprite art. Which is a good reason to be fair, despite lacking in animations, EO has wonderful sprite art.
I traded in three games just to get Etrian Oddysey for the Nintendo DS. I'm still trying to figure out my builds and thus have restarted the game I think six times now. I think I'm starting to get the hang of it though. My party is pretty much LP/SMA and I'm on floor two so far, grinding away for some experience and loot.
My last time through with some messed up builds I almost defeated the first boss but in the end I failed miserably. That's why I'm trying to build a certain way now in order to be able to grind before said boss when I couldn't before.
Damn Clawflies were resistant to Fire and weak to Ice and I didn't realize it was because they were red. My Alchemist didn't even have Ice 1 by that time so I couldn't grind to a point where I could overpower Fenrir. Luckily now I can work on that.
I'm unfortunately not very well versed in etrian odyssey 1, but I think survivalists are pretty awesome, bow skills particularly, stuff like apollo, etc, and that the alchemist poison damage skill (the one that causes damage and a status effect, not the passive, it actually doesn't do anything besides unlock new skills) will destroy the first stratum and then quickly drop off in usefulness.
My Survivalist right about now is built to lower preemptive strikes against the party while raising the party's chances of ambushing opponents. The Alchemist is being built along the lines of Fire and Ice right now and will probably branch out into Volt sometime soon. I just wish the Protector would stop dying all the time as she's almost two levels behind the rest of the team and I'm trying to get Defender to 5.
Pretty much all good, survivalists in EO1 are super great at damage dealing, so you might consider branching into that, but pre-emptive strikes are a great advantage to have so that's good. Alchemist, I'm not sure but you might want to focus on a single element for now and move on to others as you go along, that might just be EO3. In any case it should be workable, and yeah protectors are kinda bad starting out but get amazing as you progress, and start unlocking better shields and heavy armor.
Author
Topic: Even on Bay12, F.O.E.! (Etrian odyssey megathread) (Read 30266 times)