FMW Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 I've been falling deeper and deeper into a love for niche, weird JRPGs. So I decided to stop fighting it and buy the new Etrian Odyssey, even though the shopkeeper is an 8 year old girl wearing a sports bra with cutouts over the nipples that are covered in turn by overalls straps. Okay I didn't know about that exactly, but I knew that the character design fell outside of my comfort zone. But character sketches are only one, relatively minor aspect of a game. Other things about Etrian Odyssey appealed to me immensely (first person dungeon crawling, grid cartography, and random battles that are difficult enough to be engaging). So I took the plunge, and all those things were as good as advertised. I have slight issues with the controls, but since everything is turn based it's nothing I can't work around. But I've discovered things to love in this game beyond the obvious bullet points. Specifically: Minimalist Narrative I fully expect the story to be terrible in this game. Anime storytelling is not to my liking. But so far this game hasn't troubled me with any such thing... the story so far is "You are a group of explorers. There is a new frontier near the city of Tharsis to explore, and dozens of your ilk have congregated in the area. Recruit a party and go do your thing." This isn't a JRPG story, it's a Dungeons and Dragons story! This is great! The strong art direction of environments and enemies as well as the narrow escapes caused by the difficulty make their own story. Skill Progression This is a game with a lot of grinding. Grinding happens. What makes this game remarkable is that it gives me proper incentive to grind. I want to grind! This is because of the skill tree - each character class has a skill tree with about three times as many opportunities to invest skill points than there are skill points to invest. The game is hard enough that every small advantage I can gain is precious, so making these choices is really key. I feel like if I choose unwisely, I could really mess up a character and I absolutely will be punished. So far I only really regret one skill point placement, but it really says something that they're so precious a resource that I know exactly the one skill point I misused. Music I had no idea that these games have good music, but they totally do. Let me share the track that plays during the biggest bosses. Yes, it's the norm that boss battle music be particularly exciting, but this one is a little different. Bosses in this game are scary. They're big, they're hard to reach, and you have no way of knowing if you're ready to tackle them yet or not beyond just jumping in. Since I'm not playing on Casual mode, all my character growth since I last saved stands to be lost if I don't make it. This boss music really well captures the notion of fighting something so dire: So I really like this game, but that said: Fuck you why is there no left handed mode! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 So minimalist story? That's already a huge negative for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted March 8, 2013 Author Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 Super minimalist in the beginning at least. I've started getting to some more traditional "plot" stuff recently. I'm kinda bummed about that. I mean, maybe it'll be really good... but my experience tells me that the more gross the design of the anime girls, the worse the storytelling is going to be. Since this ranks a neat 8.5 on the gross anime girls scale I'm not optimistic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waldorf and Statler Posted March 8, 2013 Report Share Posted March 8, 2013 The sluttier dressed anime girls ALWAYS have big bro love issues Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted July 30, 2013 Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I'm actually torn between getting this or Fire Emblem for my next 3DS game. Etrian Odyssey always seem to be up my alley but I never had a DS or 3DS to play them until now. And yes, they have great music. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted July 30, 2013 Author Report Share Posted July 30, 2013 I really like this game, but I prefer Fire Emblem. The 3DS Fire Emblem really is one of the best games Nintendo has made. Easily the best Fire Emblem, maybe the best game from Intelligent Systems period. Also, there's a new Etrian Odyssey coming out in just a month or two so if you sit tight I'll betcha you can find a deal on EO IV after the new one drops. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 17, 2013 Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 Man. This game is no joke. I figured level 10 would be fine for the first maze boss... nope. Wiped the floor with me. Having no way to revive... cheaply, is a pain. It doesn't help that the boss can one shot most of my people. GRIND. I'LL CRUSH YOU. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted December 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 What party setup did you decide to go with? Also: "The sluttier dressed anime girls ALWAYS have big bro love issues" Yes WaS, that explains quite a bit about Nanako-chan. Just wait until you see her in Persona 4 Dancing All Night Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted December 17, 2013 Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 I went with one of everything which I can see as being a liability (Can do a lot of things but not very well). Fortress and dancer up front with a sniper, medic and runemaster at the back. Dancer can do a dance that heals the front line and the fortress can use a healing attack (3 times) but the medic has healing duty. The dancer and the sniper actually has the hard hitting weapons and they tend to attack first. I really want to get a better weapon for the fortress. At this point I can at least defeat the first FOE so I was expecting something like that fight. Doesn't mean jack if I can get KO with one hit by the boss and I can't really afford to revive anybody. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted December 17, 2013 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2013 You might be able to find other stuff to do while you level up by taking quests from the bar or just poking around the map a bit. Only once in that game did I get hung up and actually need to grind - before the first boss was not that moment. My team comp is actually quite different - there are more than 5 starting classes to choose from you know. I've got Fortress and Swordsman in front, Medic Runemaster and Nightstalker in the rear. About 65% of my party damage output comes from the mage alone. I haven't messed with the classes you unlock later in the game though - once you get that far in it's kinda hard to change the party up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) How many people have played this? I have a friend who is a total nerd for this series and she swears up and down that EO4 is better than Persona Q, which I am currently playing, but I just don't see it in the demo. No sell all button, inferior mapping tools, auto map doesn't fill in the walls you walk by, no story whatsoever, completed maps yield no rewards, FOEs have the infuriating ability to move during normal battles and can trap you in corners, no mention of being able to skip past completed floors...Am I missing something here? Because I even liked the Millennium Girl demo more than this one. Edited February 9, 2015 by Mister Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 auto map doesn't fill in the walls you walk by ... Then what does it do? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) Paints floors I guess? I never noticed it doing anything else. In Persona Q and Millennium Girl it paints floors you walk on and draws walls that are directly beside you, although you still have to draw the walls you don't touch as well as fill in all the doors and landmarks yourself, which I don't really mind. Having to stop to draw all the walls after every room is so tedious, though. Edited February 9, 2015 by Mister Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 Oh, okay, I didn't realize you could draw on features yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted February 9, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 I can respond to Mr. Jack's inquiries: Persona Q is watered down Etrian Odyssey. So it may be more palatable to an outsider (like you) but if judged by a person who enjoys playing Etrian Odyssey games it doesn't hold up as a dungeon crawling experience. You're sad that you don't get a shiny for fully exploring a floor? Your shiny is the reliable knowledge of the entire floor's layout and knowing there aren't any more treasures out there. Persona Q watered the mapping down. The mechanic of filling up a percentage meter and then getting a bauble for doing so made it less an experience of mapping out unfamiliar territory and more coloring in the blanks in a coloring book. Do it right, do it the way the game wants you to (why do I need to walk over every damn square to fill in the map percent? I can map tiles without standing on them thank you very much), and get the preordained reward. In EO IV your reward is that you completely filled in the map for that floor and that feels satisfying. It sounds cheesy, but I think this is actually true: If you don't want to explore, then don't play Etrian Odyssey. Etrian Odyssey creates a space where the player has zero clue what's out there and wanting to answer that question is the motivation to play. If your motivation to explore in Persona Q is predicated on getting the treasure chest reward then you're playing the wrong video games. As for a few of your specific complaints: 1. Persona Q has better menu layouts, there's no contesting that. I imagine that's an upgrade that will show up in Etrian Odyssey V, but since we haven't seen any new EO games since PQ it currently holds the uncontested "best interface" crown. 2. Having no story is better. Persona Q is filled with one dimensional reductions of Persona characters being stupid together ("Meat"! "Workouts"! "I get in petty fights with Akihiko"!). Etrian Odyssey demands that one's imagination fill in blanks. Read this, it went up just yesterday: http://www.siliconera.com/2015/02/08/etrian-odyssey-untold-your-brain-will-fill-in-the-rest/ 3. F.O.E.'s still move during battle turns in PQ, it's just that PQ treats the player like a baby and doesn't put free roaming FOEs in areas where there are two or more that even COULD aggro on at the same time until like 40 hours into the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted February 9, 2015 Report Share Posted February 9, 2015 (edited) In EO IV your reward is that you completely filled in the map for that floor and that feels satisfying. See, to me that just reads like an excuse for not bothering to think up anything better. These aren't grand, sprawling vistas we're exploring here. They're narrow corridors. I'm betting the entire series is narrow corridors. The dungeons themselves are not interesting, so I have little reason to bother mapping it out 100% if the game won't even acknowledge I did it. It doesn't even have to be an item like in PQ. Millennium Girl just enables the warping once you finish mapping a floor, which is good enough, but if the game doesn't care that I finished a map, why should I? I will concede two of your points though. Firstly, the characters in PQ are definitely caricatures of their normal selves. Still, there's a mystery at the story's core that makes me curious. It might turn out to be dogshit, but at least for now I want to see where it's going. I also agree that having to physically walk on every tile, even the trap ones, to get 100% is total horseshit. If I draw it right, that should be good enough. Oh, I forgot one other thing that bothered me. No run button? In an RPG? Come on. Edited February 10, 2015 by Mister Jack Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted February 15, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 There totally is a run button. You just hold B while walking, no? I think that was in Persona Q also. It's not usually a good idea to USE it mind you (at least in EO, usually running means quick death) but it's there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted February 15, 2015 Report Share Posted February 15, 2015 Well if it's there, it wasn't in the demo for some reason. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FMW Posted December 31, 2017 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2017 Bringing this thread back from the dead to let y'all know that Etrian Odyssey V is dope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.