Etrian Odyssey <3
 

WHY ISN'T THERE A THREAD FOR THIS GAME YET.

Any folks who played the JP Wizardry games will fucking adore this title. It's smooth, slick, has a nice presentation, and fucking HARD gameplay. The dungeon will stomp on your ass until you ask for seconds. I can't believe how good it is~

A shame that it might end up as a sleeper hit because folks are circle-jerking over the FF titles coming out soonish.

The frame rate is incredibly smooth. No choppy moving or anything of the sort. Now, the folks who played Wizardry: Tales of the Forsaken Land (PS2), you will feel like you're in an anime sequel to it all ;D The weapon shop details on gear (attack or defense+# as well as squares showing initials to class names that can and can't use them) is almost a spot-on-match. Visiting sites in town is just like Wizardry, but there are more places and it seems quite lively.

You start off being sent in to the labyrinth on a mission to map the first floor. This is an initiation to new guilds before they can take proper jobs. This is referred to as a mission, and you can take them from this special hall. There is also a pub that gives out quests & missions, but the bar wench won't let you take any until you do the initial mapping run.

The monsters are quite harsh. They land criticals and pre-emptive strikes fairly often, but not frustratingly so. I recommend grinding it out a bit at first so your healer can cast beyond four heal spells =p

Also, there are levels on top of skill points. Initially made characters get three points, and each level beyond that gives one more skill point. Ragnarok Online is quite a nice way to describe the feel in this part of the game, as you have three gathering abilities, upgrades to them, as well as each class bearing a wonderful amount of potential "builds". You could make a shield-and-sword tank or even hone him in to a healing paladin. Your warrior can be a cautious, precise attacker or an all-out berserker. The nuking class (alchemist) can range across Ice, Fire, Lightning, and Poison for their spells (I chose fire ^^). Healers can adopt the usual hands-on-healing spells or passive skills that regenerate HP following battles.

In addition to this, most mobs don't drop money (from what I've seen), but they drop items or "l00t" that you can sell to the weapon/armorshop NPC. After you sell enough of a certain item, the saleswoman gets an idea for making a new piece of equipment. This is a nice way of forcing folks in to grinding out certain items.

Sorry for the impromptu review, but I forget the special Latin/Germanic names that lotsa folks have :3 Anyhow!

I bought this game, and let me tell you -- I don't regret it. Lots of DS games I've purchased so far are quite nice, but I always had an ache kinda like "maybe I rushed into purchasing this game..."

Not in this case. It's the real deal for Wizardry fans. If anything can galvanize the genre, this baby is it. Its presentation, gameplay, and difficulty will keep me coming back for more -- I guarantee it.

The reviews I read on this were rather horribly put forth, harsh, biting, and it leads me to think that the punks doing the write-ups never played a game of this type. Some folks might not take to it due to the lack of a story that most folks adore, but that simply means that it is from before their time.

11/10. Oops. Typo. I meant 12/10 ;D

Now come on. Other folks are sure to have this game in mind :(

To be honest, it looks interesting but I've kind of been avoiding news on it. I'll barely have enough money this month for Odin Sphere, so a second temptation wouldn't be a good thing.

I'm not quite sure what you meant by this line. Is there a good enough story to inspire a reason to do all of this grinding? I'll go through a game with horrendous gameplay mechanics if the story is freakin' amazing, but a subpar story usually shoots games to the bottom of my list.

There really isn't a story because your whole party is made up of custom characters. You are basically playing the role of the leader of a guild (or you could "imagine" yourself as one of the characters) and a group of folks that you make on your own. You pick the name, class, and portrait (identifying as male or female) and go on from there.

There are quests, missions, and plots that go on in the dungeon but you're basically some dude out for fame and money, and the best way to do it is to get into the labyrinth and loot some treasure.

There isn't character development or romances or the like, but you run into recurring characters throughout the dungeon, find sequences that have you make a choice (ie: pick up item and fight a surprise enemy or leave it alone), etc.

Well, I wanted to buy this today, and had it pre-ordered, but apparently it didn't come in today's Gamestop shipment.

So... I have no idea when I'll get my hands on it. Looks great, though.

It's every bit as good as it looks. That sucks though =(

I miss the days of being able to name all your party members. I always name them after real life friends or internet friends. It just makes it all more fun for some reason. The only part that throws me off about this game is how you have to draw out your own map. I'd hate to pause every other second just to draw out a left and right turn.

You get used to it. I enjoy it =3 You can use special markers to denote sites, ie: treasure, event, dead-end, memo, etc.

I still dunno how the heck to use the Memo thing >_O You'd think it'd be click-and-drag like all the other icons but it doesn't wooorrrrrk.

The mapping concept is really nice though. You see your cursor and every step you move through it explored or placed with a lighter shade box. You outline the boxes however you want (for truth or to fuck around~) and you can also manually place an explored position if you so wish.

Same here. The game piqued my interest after I visited the official website, but I'm trying to save some money. If someone gave it to me, I'd play it and probably enjoy it, but if I'm going to buy anything now, it'd be Odin Sphere.

Still, it really does sound like it'll be enjoyable, though.

It is click and drag. However it is only able to be put on things that have a marking on them :)

Examples would be stairs, item points, event spots, so forth. You can leave a 22 character memo :3

Also this game is oh so hard, it will certainly keep me occupied for a while.

Hafta have something there? O crack :(

Well yeah... otherwise what are you leaving a memo about? The pretty looking floor? :eye:

The giant crab thing in the first dungeon sucked so hard.

Not as hard as accidentally taking a rest in the clearance though! Oh those darn monsters.

Miscellaneous things =o Like "wtf is this. o wull MEMO"

I bought this today also. I am an old school RPG lover, and this is perfect for me. It is insanely hard! I am still in the first dungeon and I am constantly leveling up. I remain poor because of deaths and the cost to revive people. But as long as I level up, I can obtain wealth after.

I did some absent-minded browsing of the internet while pacing forward and backward, and before I knew it, I filled up my inventory and made around 700 en. EXP wasn't too great compared to my rough encounters on the 2nd floor, but I'm able to just hold down the "attack" button and not look at it the DS except for crab fights =p

Do you actually get any EN or is it through selling items?

Selling items from what I've seen. But there are bound to be humanoids (ie: Goblins?) that drop coins later on, I'd think! Came across one spot that gave me a bag of 100 en, but that was just a search-spot.

How far are you Gech? And what levels? I'm in level 9 for everyone, close to 10.

Wow. You're further than I am! Everyone is around 8 for me, but the melee folk are geared up really nice.

I was looking over the official website and I absolutely adored the director diaries. I really agreed with alot he said. I'm the kinda guy that likes to impose a story on characters that don't have a story.

I'll probably pick it up this weekend should funds withstand.

The only thing this is missing are special characters that join you. In Wizardry, there were custom characters (all you started off with were custom, really) and bit by bit you got special storyline characters. They'd often offer input to storyline, but some were uber-ized versions of that class =o

I wish this had them, but it's perfectly wonderful as it ;D

I'm wandering B3F forever, trying to grind enough to kill those stalkers that roam.

I managed to get rid of one... gotta get rid of the other 3 =p

Since it's a slasher I guess I should go in w/ slash resistant accesories... but I miss my +18 hp.

Front Guard & Rear Guard > *

I'm waiting for IGN to ship the game to me. Didn't read about it at all, so I hope it's a good game :3

You killed a Stalker, Lacerta?! O___o

I'm trying to get my protector to get the En Garde skill so he can auto-block. Following that, I'm guessing that Parry, F. Guard, & B. Guard should follow?

Yes, I beat all four of them at least 4 times now. This includes the dual Stalker battle.

Landsknecht / Protector / Survivalist
Medic / Alchemist

FL: Defends (except Protector, they use Front Guard)
RL: Medic uses Cure on whoever needs it, Alchemist uses Fire (the only real weakness it has)

Everyone has Hide Rings so it's damage is not "omgwtfrape" but it still hurts.
It dies by the time my Alchemist's TP runs out >_>

Apparently it's weak to blunt type, but I don't have any attacking mace users (or a strong mace anyway) so I just stuck w/ defense.

My party's skills I guess you could say are totally messed up, however they are getting me through the first 4 floors with ease.

I hope I unlock Rest though, I would like to re-do some skill points.

I'd like to backtrack and undo some gathering/mining/chopping points. I sprinkled a few around on a couple characters '~'

Hmm. I'll try that. What's the purpose of F./B. Block though? The protector pretty much acts as a meat-shield?

I was going slow, but I just tore through the fourth floor like it was nothing. The Hexer that heals you near the stairway is pretty sweet ;D Also, I love the wolf FOEs. I can drop 'em in two rounds, easy. XP++. I just have my medic spam "Salve" every round. She's slow and I can't predict who it'll hit. Plus, it's only a little more expensive than cure. I suggest you put points into it if you haven't already~ =o

I need to explore the NW room on floor 3 (the one with two FOEs). I'll give that tactic a shot ;3 Thanks!

Yeah I know about Salve, but right now I'm just fucking with my skills.

The guards protect damage to that row for ONE hit. Lv 5 is a 35% reduction of the damage, no point in raising it further (it caps at 40% @ Lv 10)

At Parry Lv 5 it is already a 100% chance to negate. The chance rises even more but I'm not sure why o_O

My Medic tends to go first in battle (if not, then second following the Survivalist) so whoever is injured will get cured at least.

En Garde is pretty cool, it means you can go on the offensive since the auto-block will reduce damage by 50%. It maxes out at a 25% chance to autoblock.

I have maps of the first 4 floors pretty much finished with all the points on them. B4F is much easier than B3F though, so killing the wolves for xp is nice.

Pointless observation: Do not fill in map spots on things you haven't explored. If something happens to walk on that tile you will not see it on the map (but you may see it on the screen).

RE to observation: Yeah I know =o I almost never use the "hollow out tile" tool or whatever it is. I only do it for the background on squares where I put chest icons and the like. Because I'm thorough.

I just wiped my entire guild after decimating B1F~B4F with a crappy built team.

Going to made a more superior team now =o

Guhhhh >__< I just blew my landsknecht's skill point in to something worthless, when I was debating whether to up 2-hit or Allslash... I wish there was an "ARE YOU SURE?" popup

Lol owned ;_;

So I have some builds in mind but I'm not sure how well they would function in the game. I know all the classes's final HP / TP / etc etc values, so I was just basing it off of some item use ;_;

On paper though they should work really well.

How's Allslash? You tried it or know much about it? =U

It's better than Tornado =T

You either go Allslash or Stunner for Landskjnfkjsnfkejnfkejecht.

The elemental slashes only work directly following a elemental spell of the same element of the slash so avoid those like the plague =o~!

Is there any way to re-do skill point distribution? I've a feeling that I will regret pumping skill points into that skill that heals you a pathetic amount after every battle... >_>

You guys thinking

Landsknecht / Protector
Survivalist / Medic / Alchemist

is the most balanced team to start with? I tried with a Troubador for a while, but it wasn't very good in normal battles - didn't hit hard enough and got damaged very easily (had to be front row to use sword effectively). I think I'm going to replace the survivalist with a Ronin later on.

I never heard of this game until I saw this thread. One reason why I never liked those oldie 1st person dungeon crawlie-type RPGs was because I hated the idea of having to make your own map on pencil and paper, and of course I always ended up getting lost. D'oh!

Reading comments on this game does perk my interest though, especially with the awesome idea of making my own map DIGITALLY. One thing I don't like is how the monsters are designed by that same person who did FFIX. I never really liked the monster designs in that game, but that's barely a legitimate complaint.

Future Shop's website doesn't even list this game! Oh no!

Update:

Neither does Best Buy! WTF!
We were unable to find exact matches for your search: for Etrian Odyssey in Entire Site.
Crappy website!

Get to Lv 30+ and then you can rest (drop 10 levels and lose 10 skill points from the 10 levels that were gone, but resets entire build, so you'd have 22 skill points to use and then can work your way back up). You can also retire but I don't recommend that >=|~

Yeah that party is pretty much the most balanced one, and is what I use. You will get an item on the 11th floor to unlock the Ronin class (Hexer is on the 16th floor), and their skills are pretty much focused on going into x stance, then attacking with y move.

Ronin
Foreign masters of all forms of combat. Considering honorable death a virtue, their defence is lacking. Proud soldiers who demand the front

Skills
HP Up - Increase maximum HP
TP Up - Increase maximum TP
ATK Up - Increase physical damage.
Katanas - Increase katana damage. Needed to learn Katana skills.

Sight - Increase attack damage at night or when blinded. (requires ATK Up LV3)
Crit Up - Increase chances of critical attacks. (requires ATK Up LV5)
Ibuki - Heal HP by taking deep breath. (requires HP Up LV3)
Kesagiri - Katana skill of stepping forward whike slicing. (requires Katanas LV1)

Overhead - Temporary overhead stance tha increases attack and defense. (requires Katanas LV3)
Zamba - Strong katana slice from the Overhead stance. (requires Katanas LV5, Overhead LV1)
Midareba - Repeated katana slashes from the Overhead stance. (requires Katanas LV7, Overhead LV3)
Orochi - Execute an fire katana strike from the Overhead stance. (requires Katanas LV10, Overhead LV5)

Seigan - Temporary Seigan stance that increases attack and defense. (requires Katanas LV3)
Mikiri - Deflect an enemy attack with a katana from the Seigan stance. (requires Katanas LV5, Seigan LV1)
Koteuchi - Immobilize an enemy's arms with a katana from the Seigan stance. (requires Katanas LV7, Seigan LV3)
Raizuki - Execute a volt katana strike from the Seigan stance. (requires Katanas LV10, Seigan LV5)

Iai - Temporary Iai katana stance that increases speed. (requires Katanas above LV3)
Kubiuchi - Chance of an instant katana kill from the Iai stance. (requires Katanas LV5, Iai LV1)
Gatotsu - Extremely powerful, fighting-quick katana stab. (requires Katanas LV7, Iai LV3)
Hyosetsu - Execute an ice katana strike from the Iai stance. (requires Katanas LV10, Iai LV5)

Mine - same as other jobs

Question time.......

I'm playing this game and my chars are around level 16. In the 3rd floor the mini-bosses that walk around are too hard. I picked one of each class (of the first 5). Any suggestions on what to do?

Also, why so many locked doors in the dungeon? Was anyone able to open those?

Has it really been confirmed that you get all your skill points back when you rest (drop 10 levels)? Or do you only get to re-assign those 10 points (when you start leveling again)?

Also, can you rest as many times as you want?

If so, essentially you could just level up each class to 70, then rest a character any time you wanted to try out a different skill set, right? This would mean you would never really need to wipe your characters, unless you wanted to retire them for bonus points.

When you rest, you lose the 10 points from the 10 levels. If you wanted those points you'd have to level back and earn them one by one. The rest of your skill points are reset and you add them as you wish. You can do it as much as you want but remember you drop 10 levels each time, and it has a minimum requirement of Lv 30.

They require keys that are found when you reach lower Stratums.

The amount of grinding one must do in this game is ridiculous. I fought the first FOE at level 6 and it kicked my ass. I assume I won't be able to touch him until I'm like level 10. Does the grinding get worse as the game progresses?

For the first FOE, get your alchemist to use Volt. Volt is a nice route to go for damaging FOEs (I use Fire on Wolves though). Some folks recommend poison, but it doesn't have a 100% (or nearly) success rate on anything beyond normal critters.

The initial grind is a little lengthy, but once you get through floor 3, it gets easier. Floor 4 basically consists of dodging the FOEs there for a while (they chase you but fall behind, giving you a window to pass them). Floor 4 & 5 are loaded with FOEs, but they don't have much health (but do lots of damage) and they give loads of XP.

I peruse Gamefaqs on occasion and find myself laughing at people who think this game is too hard. Obviously they never played Wizardry 8 (or NES games for that matter)

Yes, and No.

As you go deeper and deeper you will need to grind more and more. Monsters on B13F are capable of doing over 1000 in a single hit. The game does place many "Infinite Restoration" points along the way for you to return to recover your wounds though.

Of course the cap is 999 for HP. It all comes down to having proper strategy and builds.

Well more than likely more than half of the people who post there were born without even knowing what a NES was. Also Wizardry probably looked like it required too much thinking for them back then.

Holy crap, there's a thread for this game. I unknowingly bought this game 2 days after release because the I found the box art attractive. :)

But, I'd have to say, this is an awesome game and a great return to the nostalgia associated with old-school RPGs. I'm loving it so far, and I'm not even that far into the game. Grinding seems to be a must since I just got my ass kicked by the second FOE I ran into.

Apparently the director of the game has left Atlus, he was also behind Trauma Center. Hopefully there will be a sequel to Etrian Odyssey though (especially since the password option in the game is specifically for the sequel - if any ever comes).


Just beat the main game with my gang of Lv 70s, doing postgame now, much harder.

The 6th and final strata has never made me more annoyed than the previous 5 in the main game combined.

Holy crap. You just beat it?

I just beat Fenrir. Been playing slooowww~

Yes, it wasn't long just very hard.

One of the hardest DS games anyway. Everything from 13F down just loves to do over 1000 damage (since cap is 999HP you die), so it became more of a "gotta have that defense buff" type of thing for me.

This game is kicking my sorry ass. Thought I was ready for B2F after clearing B1F at level 5. Guess I was wrong, two hazes kicked my ass like nothing else.

You got to B2F at level 5? Damn, I think I was at level 8 at the least to step foot into B2F. And even then, there's still a good chance of dying.

Was there? ;_; I cleared the whole floor without a problem and could beat any enemy coming my way. Sure my TP would run out and I had to run back to town in order to make sure my Medic could heal but, but next to that I was okay.

I dunno, maybe my skills are not optimally distributed. I'm trying to play this game without resorting to a guide. So I'm at level 9 - 13 going to B3F. I'm also quite sure that whatever's there will kick my ass back to B2F where I'll have to level up for another 3 levels.

As long as you avoid the Stalkers (Red FOEs) you'll be fine. Those things are awful.

Last night I retired my old crew and started over, so I could get proper builds. Just now I went to B2F and defeated the first FOE with a lvl. 5 team. However, 4 people died, causing one character to nearly level up to lvl. 7 =p Ah well, one FOE down and B2F is a lot faster to grind on.

Stalkers aren't the only red ones. Red just means THEY'RE AFTER YOU.

Yeah, any of the FOEs can be aggressive. On the 2nd floor, there is a bull-like one that'll chase you. On floor 3 somewhere, there's one of those horned FOE critters (from floor 2) that is actually aggressive as opposed to passive.

Wolves on floor 4 have a pack mentality, and whenever you're fighting one FOE, the others will close in on you aggressively until the fight is over. Really cool concept =3

Since I've 100%'d the game.

Tip for anyone who reaches B16F.

Try to Mine 50 Cullinans (rarest drop) from A-4. They make an accessory that costs a fuckton (130000 ental to be exact), but helps a bunch in the long run because it reduces all physical forms of damage.

The +6 defense from an accessory is neat too.

I just got the game guys, wooo. Well I doubt I'll finish it nearly as early as some of you do, since I'm going to be busy with spurts of free-time for a while ahead. However, any tips for the first floor or just in general? Haven't run into any FOEs yet >_>

FOEs hit on floor 2. The first one is weak vs thunder =U I've specialized my alchemist in Fire and somewhat in Thunder. Gave him the first ice spell and the first poison spell, and he's dandy.

There are crab monsters that become more common, and they require magic to kill. Blue ones, that is. I haven't dabbled enough, but on Floor 4 you run in to red ones, and I've noticed that poison is probably the best way to handle them. But I haven't tried ALL the elements :U

I've just barely got to the second stratum and it's kicking my ass. It's like you're back at Lvl. 1 again. My party is one Protector, two Landsknecht, a Medic and an Alchemist who specializes in Poisons. I try and substitute the Alchemist with a Troubador, but things move much slower (but on the plus, some nice buffs).

Lacerta, did you beat the JPN version or the US?

US version.

Both versions are shitty in terms of actually helping the player though.

wtf @ skill descriptions saying they do this, but in actual testing they do something else.

>=0!

I've tried 4 times but I just can't get myself motivated into playing this game whatsoever.

For example, drawing your own maps. Why the hell is this a requirement. I don't see how this is fun at all. And absolutely no battle animations and hard as hell enemies as well. Your own characters lack personality since you can't even see them. It's just "Slash. Damage. Attack. Slash. Win." Lame as hell. Oh and the "You slowly approach him, while scratching your neck. Then you ask, ..." roleplaying is just weird.

I didn't play any of the Wizardry games though, so I will assume this is a "love or hate" type of game. It's not the difficulty which annoys me, it's the way it's presented.

Yeah, this game is certainly aimed towards those who have played these types of games before, and perhaps ample amounts of classic Dragon Quest. I assumed that I wouldn't get into this game due to the presentation, since I never played Wizardry. I did, however, play plenty of Phantasy Star so that probably helped.

I agree that more character personality woud be nice. Atlus's localization put small amounts of personality in it by giving the NPCs names and idiosyncrasies in speech, but that's all that the game gives you. The director of the game encourages you to fill in the gaps in character back story and personality with the power of your Imagination™, but I think that's an excuse for lazy writing. Still, it can be fun sometimes.

I've never played Wizardry or Dragon Quest or the like, but I still enjoy this game, if not for the anime-inspired art style. The mapdrawing feels like a throwback to the days when you really had to do it in games, though I will admit, I've never had to do it before.

I suppose another reason I like it is because of its depth. I mean, sure, it's not the depth of games like Final Fantasy Tactics or anything, but it can be quite deep and set aside a lot of rooms for many possible combinations for your party. Challenge is also another reason I like it. While many can view this as just massive leveling up of your party, I think there's more to it than that.

So really, in the end, it's a love-or-hate game.

The map drawing is only required for the first floor, other than that it's entirely optional. It's not supposed to be "fun", it's supposed to help you out if you take the time to use it (similiar to some of the stuff in Odin Sphere that everyone is bitching about being worthless and a waste of time, except their benefits are more easily seen). This game was created to be somewhat of a new Wizardry. In those types of games you had no map, and huge dungeons. The only way to remember where you were going was to pull out some of that good ol' fashioned graph paper and draw your own map, and at least hope your drawing was correct.

It is though pretty much aimed at those types of fans... although people with creativity can enjoy it too I guess.

"I put on my robe and wizard hat"

The difficulty is pretty wild though. Even with maxed stats, best equipment, and maximum HP. Monsters are still going to go like 4000~30000 damage in the end.

Then again with careful skill planning that becomes... 0~100 damage.

The one thing I really dislike is the 8 character limit in names though. Most of the monsters ended up having to get assigned new names just to fit the limitation, yet their original name is still seen in item descriptions.

My friends and I agree.

Just got into this game recently. I've advanced past the first stratum (by cheating -- you can actually run past Fenrir and into the second stratum, save at the geomagnetic warp, take out the remaining skolls, then reload as many times as necessary until you successfully beat him), currently grinding my protector for the Defender skill.

Holy crap. I just bought this game yesterday.

This game is hard as bollocks.

I need to grind like hell in this game. T_T I swear, I'm gonna cry.

Grinding isn't that bad. My entire party is already level 32 and I'm only at B08, probably overlevelled =p Healing springs are great for extended stays in the dungeon. I'm doing the 5-day quest where you have to spend the entire duration down in B08, and my inventory is already full at day 2 :(

Hint: get Defender (protector skill) and Immunize (medic skill) maxed and FOEs at the second stratum will barely do any damage.

Wait, Level 32 at B08 is overlevelled? Damn, I'm at B06 at Level 23 - 27...

Anyways, does anybody else find money to be VERY scarce in this game? I mean, yeah, if you're leveling up massively, you probably won't notice it, but these pieces of equipment are pretty damn expensive. Not to mention Inn stays are also fairly pricey and party revival begins to add up too.

Defender and Immunize will make it so you take very little damage from everything this game has to offer =D

Unless it does an "instant death" attack, which tends to carry an element on it, so you need one of the elemental guarding skills from the Paladin then (Troubadour will just make it do less, but instant death is still instant death).

Inn isn't that expensive if you know how to manipulate it, but then it involves making 4 Lv 1 "Slaves" and then switching out person you're going to be healing (since it ignores the last person's level, only the first four count into price).

Money isn't that hard to come by, if you make a team exclusively for harvesting materials (mine/chop/take). Take note of harvesting points that are located near warp points.

Also, you'll come across healing springs and a certain two-person party who will heal your party for free.

Once you reach the 3rd stratum (B11), there's the Treefrog right beside the geomagnetic warp which you can grind forever for exp and drops since it keeps calling in allies. Well, almost forever, since the exp cap per battle is 21375 ;_; (that's 4275 per person for a 5-member party)

I love Defender + Immunize, I haven't had to revive anybody since Fenrir. Just got TP Regen level 3 for my medic too, so now we can grind Treefrogs all day long until our inventory fills up.

That means it's time for me to get a Protector again. :|

Another tip: the most typical party configuration is:

Front row: Landsknecht + Dark Hunter + Protector
Back row: Alchemist + Medic

Replace Dark Hunter with Survivalist, if you like. I don't see Troubadour being used much. There's two additional classes but I haven't unlocked them yet.

Well, I suppose that's why I might be having a harder time. I have Immunize from my Medic, but I don't have Defender for my Protector yet. I also use only 1 of every class and juggle them around for even exp. growth.

So My front Row consists of a Protector, a Landsknecht, or a Dark Hunter and my backrow consists of a Traubadour, a Survivalist, a Medic, or an alchemist. I don't have any party members focused on Mining/Taking/Choping stuff. Those 7 characters you see there are all I've got. I suppose this'll screw me over later, but that's okay. No fun if you can breeze through the later parts of the game anyway. ;)

Is there a story behind this game? If so, is there a place where I can read it? :p So far I've finished the first mission, but this game is a bit tedious. It's not so bad if you're into that kind of mindnumbing leveling, but I can only take so much of it.

I just recognized that the SECOND PART was released in Japan yesterday!

Does anyone have further information about this new game?

PlayAsia: Sekaiju no Meikyuu 2: Shoou no Seihai

I don't know much from what I've seen and read some where there are going to be three new job classes. A Gunslinger, a doctor magus(?) and pets which so far I've only seen a bear and a tiger thing.

There was also talk that they were going to make the battles visually more pleasing than the first. All in all, I'm looking forward to it and wish Atlus would hurry up and announce it.

Sounds interesting, to say the least. I haven't picked it up in a while, but I do this with most of my DS games, where I routinely switch out the current game that I'm playing to get a bit of variety.

I think I got to the 3rd stratum and stopped. Maybe I'll pick it back up, but I'm missing some quests from the second stratum as well. Might go back and finish those up first. Can't find butterfly eyes, or whatever it is.

You can get those on the first floor, you just have to kill the butterflies in a certain way. I think you have to kill them with magic to get they eyes.

Takes place in a different land.

Password option from MeiQ 1 is used in the very beginning to transfer your guild name, a random character to appear later in a quest (supposedly), and either Etoria Crown or Etoria Medal (town crown/medal) although they have been nerfed from their MeiQ 1 counterparts.

A ton of skills have been removed or changed, and there have been numerous additions. Everyone gets the standard skillset now (HP,TP,STR, etc UP, along with Escape UP), along with their own skillsets. Biggest changes is no more defender, or immunize. Also removal of Boost Gauge in favor of a Force Gauge. Force Gauge lets you use a Force Skill which is a really powerful skill for that class.

Ex. Bard gets a full Force Gauge and uses their skill, the entire party receives the ATK, DEF, and HP songs all at once.

They added an equipment compendium -_-

More map options, so on and so forth!

A basic translation (more like copy everything from MeiQ1 and add in what wasn't there) of the new town:



Taco and I are pretty much struggling through it, so I guess you could ask us various questions?

EDIT: One thing that kind of sucks is they nerfed the harvesting skills, so you don't get a ton of uses from one point now. One point is one attempt.

Man, I'm loving the new map icons. You can finally label shortcuts effectively, as well as differentiate between the three different item gathering types without having to comment on every single one. I haven't run into any damaging tiles yet, but I know the three colors you can paint the floor tiles with will be useful there as well.

Something I've come across that hasn't been noted is that there seems to be a type of Geomagnetic Field Checkpoint system. On the 3rd floor I came across what looked like a Geomagnetic Field gate from the first game, only instead of pink this one was orange. At first it was shown as a grey icon on my map, but when I activated it it turned to orange. However, it wouldn't let me go back to town. I used an Ariadone's Thread (Warp Wire) to get back to town, and the second option now presented me with a YES/NO question. Answering "YES" took me to the orange warp point I had previously activated on the 3rd floor. There was no menu to select the warp points, either. It makes me wonder how this checkpoint system is going to work in other strati.

Fights are a lot harder. My party's level 5 and I can't even hope to beat even the first normal FOE I came across. 3F has more Red FOEs, just like in the first game.

All in all I'm very satisfied with it. I'm loving the changes that were made from the first.
Edit: Except for upping Salve's level 1 TP cost to 18. The hell is up with that? ;_;

(Probably)

On the topic of skills, let's go over what's been removed and added. Removed in Italics, Added in Bold (at least, what I call it). Name Changes also in bold?

Half-assed translation of the skills that were added, some of them don't really make sense anyway. Unless there was a reason not to; I put the English skill names.

Swordsman (I'm not calling it the damn landshark)
Hell Cry
Flee

Counter
Sonic Raid
Ray Slash
High Swing
Power Gain

Arm Heal -> Bondage Cure (I think that's what it's called...)
Power Crash -> Death Bound
Chaser skills reworked to somehow be even more stupid

Ranger

Trickery
Quicken
Cloak
Disable

Sonic Step
Slow Step
Chain Dance
Sleep Arrow
Paralyze Arrow
Poison Arrow
Scout Watch

Escape -> Escape Rate UP
Aware -> Danger Perception
Owl-Eye -> Perception

Paladin

Cure
Cure II
Defender
Stalker

Guardian Backwater?
Divine Protection
Refresh
Full Guard
Material Guard

Provocation changed to function correctly.
Flee -> All Flee?

Dark Hunter

Boost Up
Fury
Cloak

Demonic Poison Pole?*
Selfish Pole?*
Trapping II
Temptation Leg?

*Not sure if they are supposed to be pole, or like in EO1 if they were supposed to be called Climax

Trapping also changed, for some reason

Medic

Immunize (known in Japanese as Defensive Medicine)
Healing Touch
Regen

Area Full Heal
Full Recovery
Full Refresh
Medical Desperation
Scout Watch

Cure II -> Healing
Cure III -> Full Healing
Area Cure (Salve) II -> Area Healing
Refresh changed a bit
Defensive Medicine II (CPR) -> Resist Dead

Alchemist

Toxins
Poison
Venom
Scavenge
TP Regen
Sight

Analysis
Physical Mastery
Decapitation
Death Crusher
Kan Hammer?
Nuclear Temperature

Warp -> Recursion
Large Thunder Storm (Thor) -> Large Lightning

Bard

Healing
Relaxing
Stalker
Return

Evil Endurance?
Calm Pastoral Song
Attracting Serenade
Beckoning Sonata
Entire Lullaby

Bushido

Sword Mastery
Sight
Crit Up
Ibuki
Kesagiri
Mikiri

Drawn Sword Taking
Heart Strike of Death
Corpse Law
Scabbard Attack
Demonic Flame Decapitation
Moonlight
Honorable Lightning God's Build?
Light Snow Fall

Gatotsu -> Armor Omission
Stance Masteries

Curse Maker

Stagger
Relapse
Lure

Wide Knowledge (Scavenge)
Mutation
Poison
Paralyze

Evil Eye has lower requirements
Revenge has different requirements

Universal (Meaning on every class skillset)
HP UP
TP UP
STR UP
VIT UP
AGI UP
TEC UP
LUK UP
Escape Rate UP

Force Skills (from what I understand of them anyway):

Swordsman - Full Gain - Huge damaging attack (all enemies?)
Ranger - Dream Line - Evasion is greatly increased for entire party
Paladin - Complete Protection - All damage nullified for one turn
Dark Hunter - All Bondage - Bondage every area of the enemy
Medic - Super Medicine - All Statuses Removed and HP Recover for all?
Alchemist - Super Nuclear Temperature - Large damage to all enemies
Bard - The Final, Decisive, War Song - ATK UP DEF UP HP UP to entire party
Bushido - Flash - All enemies take massive damage and instantly die if possible
Curse Maker - Yellow Flag - All enemies are inflicted with a random status effect
Doctor Magus - Ancient Road of the Shrine Maiden - Party HP Recovery and all attributes UP?
Gunner - Supreme Magical Bullets - Single Target, Massive damage and 100% chance of Stun
Pets - Ultimate Wound Licking - Party recovers HP? Something about not removing status effects I think...