Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard
 

In case you weren't following the original Etrian Odyssey thread, this game plays much like the first, only it's much more polished and balanced. I played through the first two strata of the it in Japanese, but now that I know that it's coming stateside I'll hold off until then to finish it up.

I never thought it'd be published outside of Japan, so this news was certainly a nice tidbit to wake up to.

Edit: oh hay finally put that box art from later in the thread up

Also the street date has been broken. As of June 13th you can find the game on shelves, in what few quantities Atlus has produced.

F O E! F O E! F O E! F O E! \D:/

There's no doubt in my mind that this'll be awesome--totally looking forward to it. I do still have to finish the first game, so now I have a good impetus to do so. I hope the sequel is as unforgiving and cruel as the first, cause that's the way it should be.

Definitely excited for this game. Loved the first (still have to finish it) but, as surasshu said, that's probably a motivating factor!

http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eto5.jpg
http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii4.jpg http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii8.jpg
http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii3.jpg http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii9.jpg
http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii2.jpg http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii1.jpg
http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii10.jpg http://www.rpgland.com/content/media/2008/03/eoii7.jpg

Can't wait for this game. Apparently it's quite popular in Japan, but it is indeed quite niche here.

Looks like there's more icons you can put on your map too. Maybe I won't have to use as many memos to tag everything.

But yeah, this is going to be awesome. Quite the surprise. I wonder if the skill descriptions say a bit more this time around or if they're still as vague as ever. I still have no idea what H. Touch does for the Medic in the first one.

GFF introduced me to the first one so I'll be picking this up too =D
Still haven't quite beaten the game yet though ._.

Also: too bad the little brown shop girl is gone, but hurray for Gunner class!

A "small weak forest denizen", eh? I bet it'll kick my ass. :(

Those screenshots look promising, I love that guy's art. The game interface turned a lot greener since the first game... But that's cool, I like green.

Definitely going to be getting this one. EO1 is easily my favorite DS RPG to date. And this looks similar but with lots of polish issues fixed (which was the biggest problem with EO1).

I guess I should get back to working on those maps then...

So many FOEs.

I was interested in the first game but never bought it for some bizarre reason, and it's probably a good thing I didn't since the sequel is supposed to be more polished. One question though. I've been reading some stuff on the official website and there's info about the Beast. Is the Beast an actual character class, or something else? I want to get a wolf 'cause I love wolves.

I've never played any Wizardry game so how do you guys think I'll like this? I already know about the punishing difficulty this series has.

Can someone recommend a good beginner party for me?

Well you can go with something along these lines:
Protector(Defense)
Medic(Healer)
Landsknecht(Warrior type class)

And then usually you'll have the other 2 classes with support if you want:
Alchemist(Mage)
Hexer(Status)
Dark Hunter(Binding abilities-Preventing enemies to use certain moves)
Gunner(Ranged support)
Pet(Battle Support)
Ronin(Melee support or main melee)
Troubadour(Bard like class, high on party support abilities)
War Magus(War cleric?)
Survivalist(Battle and Map support)

It depends on your play style.

But regardless, my staples are usually a Protector on the front and a Medic in the back. Everything else is free to switch in and out.

As for beasts, they are a class, but I'm not sure that they're controllable. It's a really unique class that I can't wait to see how they play out.

Well the thing about the Beast class is

So you guys are saying there isn't a set group of classes that totally sucks when you take them to a dungeon? There's no consequences for mix and matching classes?

Really? Awww :(
I read up on Beasts and they do have some unique abilities. Would be fun to try them. I checked the wallpapers and didn't see one for them so I thought they were allies ie: they don't take up space in your party, but help out on the sidelines.

Hmmm that's a lot of classes I can fiddle around with. I'm able to keep characters in reserve to use whenever I want, right? How many can I have in total?

BTW, what is 'map support?' That really doesn't make much sense.

I've heard War Magus is pretty useless, and I can see why. Specialization is almost always better than "Jack-of-all-trades" types.

I'm a little skeptical of the whole map thing, but I'll probably pick this up on Wednesday. Seems fun and appropriately brutal in difficulty.

Heh, one reason why I hated 1st person dungeon crawlers back in the day was because you were forced to make a map on separate paper and I was too damn lazy to bother writing crap. Therefore, the ability to map as you go right on the DS screen appeals greatly to me :3

Can't pick it up til end of next week though as I can't get to the mall during the weekdays. Gonna get the Spore Creature Editor too while I'm at it :D

Map support is like :

Knowing where FOEs are
Being able to freeze them for a short time
Being able to lower encounter rate
etc and so on. :)

As far as characters on reserve, from the first one you had quite a few slots to use, but I dunno about the 2nd one.

I'm hoping for more storyline sequences. The first two floors in #1 made me go "OMFG IT'S LIKE WIZARDRY"

Then *NOTHING*. Storylines broke down to maybe once or twice in a strata. Period. Game felt too lifeless and I dropped it :( Still fun but, well, I need SOME sort of ongoing story.

It's more of a overall goal storyline.
In the first one when you took missions from the guild, it went from "We need to know what the hell is down in the labyrinth" to "OMFG There are bad things down there, and it has been killing other people like you! Go kill it!", etc. Though it did stretch in the stratas.

Still, it felt horribly empty ;( I enjoyed seeing storyline sequences or random character-encounters at random points on floors.

I actually memorized layouts rather than making paper maps. Shining in the Darkness may have taken me 4 years to beat, but I could probably still find my way through it today.

Anyway, I have EO2 paid in full and am looking forward to the release. They usually don't do it with DS games, but does anyone know if there are any goodies for preorders on this one?

Not that one knows of for this game. :(

Only other thing I could think of with anything for the DS recently was with Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword, where you got the sword stylus.

Ugh. Ninja GIMMICK :V

Honestly, I'm a huge fan of the "less is more" storytelling. At the absolute very least, it contributes to an artsy-fartsy feel. At best, it contributes to immersion by letting you interpret events.

I didn't know the game was 30 bucks, either. Everyone usually charges 35 or 40, so that slightly smaller pricetag is very encouraging.

What? Do you have photographic memory or something? I'd never be able to do that :D

Ah, so that's what map support is like. That actually sounds interesting, although it also sounds like Survivalists are crappy fighters despite their class title :D

I don't actually mind less storytelling in dungeon crawlers. To me they sound more like an exploration type game than one with a set goal like, say, save the world.

Glad to see the game's nice and cheap. It's $26.99 at Amazon CA, so I assume it's the same price in stores.

They deal a decent amount of damage and are quick, and their buffs can make a difference. I don't know about which skills they have in the 2nd one, but in the first one, they had abilities which could increase the speed of the party, decrease the accuracy of all enemies, instantly make a party member act first in sacrifice of the survivalist turn, multi-arrow shots, etc.

Wasn't the first game the same price? If I recall correctly, I picked it up for $29.99 as well.

I suppose after you walk around long enough, you probably would remember where to go, but I can't say for sure since I draw my maps every time. That and the bottom screen fills in squares that you've visited already, so if nothing else, you can backtrack your way. (Well, for earlier levels, until the lillypads, shifting sands, and one-way paths come in.)

I saw the first game discounted for $20 something at EB once, but I didn't have the funds to pick it up. Then I went home, checked online and saw a sequel was coming in just a few weeks. It's a good thing I didn't get it then.

Ah, Survivalists aren't what I thought then. So they're decent fighters with some mad support/map skills. They'd be nice to have in a party I'm sure!

Etrian Odyssey II is out, folks. I guess Atlus bumped up the shipping date, because my Gamestop had it in-store. Popping it in right now, so I'll give impressions soon.

EDIT: The Options menu has a selection for Auto-Mapping. I guess I don't have to draw my own maps on the screen!

Wait what?! :gonk:

Damn i'll have to check it out tomorrow.

What? Really? It came out today? I hope it's in stores tomorrow though. Sometimes it takes several days before stores here even get games in. Unfortunately, it's already past closing time so I can't call in.

Still putting together a team. The hardest part is the name creation, to be perfectly honest.

EDIT: All done.

Me - Paladin Protector, sorry.
Isara - Ronin
Lenneth - Landsknecht
Nero - Medic
Lezard - Alchemist

As backup, I have:

Heimdall - Survivalist
Saga - Troubadour

Additional Post of Acceptable Quality:
Wow, this game is fucking brutal! First guys I fought, a snail type dude and some weird little... thing, each take a whack at my Protector (who has the Town Crown and a the best defensive equipment from the shop), and boom, he's down to half health. I like it!

And yes, I was cheap and added another person's code to get the Town Crown. I can't stand the prospect of missing out on an item, and none of the names from the first game will stay (unless you choose to keep the Guild name the same).

As far as the Auto-Mapping goes, what it does is automatically fill in the tiles you've moved on. Walls, landmarks and all that must be done on your own, and I happen to like it quite a bit. Feels much more natural than I thought it would.

When I called in yesterday, they said they had it in stock, so i'm picking it up today.

Lucky. The closest EB to me said they only have one copy, and that's a pre-order, and the second closest EB to me won't get it in until next week. Another EB further away sold out. That sucks. There's also a HMV and Best Buy close by, but I doubt they'd have it in as they don't specialize in games. Guess I'll wait 'til next weekend then :(

Order it online. :)
You can put in like next day shipping and so on.

Hell no. Next day shipping costs way too much and I don't have oodles of money to throw around. Hopefully maybe something unexpected to come up next week and I'd be able to get it. I can't believe it's sold out though. It's a niche title.

I just picked up my copy today, got the only one that wasn't a pre-order (and it was an after-the-fact shipment from Atlus, too). Now to get my old game's code and get my item.

I'm debating on just using someone else's code, because I'm still on the 2nd stratum. :(

I never got the first game. What is this code everyone is talking about and do you get a cool item with it? If so, can I have a code?

Additional Spam:
Lucky you :(

You have an opportunity to get one of two starting items based on your progress in the first game. If you beat the main quest (Up to 25F) you get the Town Medal, which gives +10 HP/TP and +1 to all stats. If you cleared the entire labyrinth (all 30 floors) you get the Crown, which gives +10 HP/TP and +3 to all stats.

I only got to 29F on my EO1 file, so I got the medal.

To get the Crown in EO1, you actually have to complete the Monstrous Codex and Item Compendium (which includes clearing all 30 floors). Not sure if this is the case for getting it in EO2, but I imagine it is.

Yea I just encountered them. :tpg: It's ok as long as they don't focus on the same person, otherwise BAM you're dead.

You could still just use my code...........................

Yes, your Etrian Odyssey file's password must have acknowledged that you obtained the Town Crown, otherwise you will end up getting the Town Medal when you attempt to import the data at the start of the game.

People have posted their codes up on GameFAQs, too. The only drawback to using another person's code is occasionally hearing mention of that person's original Guild name from the first Etrian Odyssey. The Town Crown is worth it, though.

I decided to fiddle with my party, so I dropped my Landsknecht for a Gunner (making my party's formation 2-3). I found that having three in the front row disperses too much damage for my Medic to take care of quickly, and Provoke is a bit more effective when only one other person is competing for damage in the front row.

I decided to try buying this on a whim, but it's nowhere to be found in-town. I looked online at my usual NDS Rom sites, but Etrian Odyssey 2 isn't up anywhere... Does someone have a site with it on-hand?

The official release date of Etrian Odyssey II is June 17 I believe, so I guess some retailers are breaking it. I can't find it around here either.

Huh. Guess my local joints sold out, because they said that they sold out their two copies (blol two wtf). Hoping for an online leak~ =0 Says the 13th on Gamefaqs, but a Friday sounds odd to me.

Atlus pushed the game up, it's not a broken street date. Along with GameFAQs saying the release date was June 13, Etrian Odyssey II is still shipping on Gamestop.com. If it really was a broken street date, Atlus would have stopped it at this point.

Weird. The only retailer I know of that is selling it early so far is GS/EB.

The release date's been bumped up?

Atlus's site still says June 17. Regardless, since it's already the 16th, I doubt it matters much.

Well the thing is, Atlus may be doing this for a few of their games, because also, the GS/EB system says Operation Darkness is coming out on the 19th or sometime this week.

The deal was that Gamestop would get the game on June 11th and sell it before anyone else (Although most stores did not receive it until June 13th, some still have not gotten it yet).

The rest of the world had to wait until June 17th.

Game's online now =0 Hit up Mininova or just google '"Etrian Odyssey II" torrent'.

Edit: The one I got doesn't work =x Hope this isn't my R4DS hitting a wall... Boots up "can't read card" menu. Etrian Odyssey formatted window :V Hmm.

Edit Edit: Updated the ol' Kernel and it works =D Huzzah!

Taco gets my party killed so many times.

Me -> War Magus (female portrait that looks like she's going "ohohohohohohohohoho~")
Taco (Cinnamon) -> Protector (blonde female portrait)
Taiga -> Ronin (First male protrait)

Saka -> Gunner (Jack Frost portrait)
Karistar -> Hexer (the creepy o_o female portrait)

y u kill me taco ;_;



Bugfixes are delicious. There are classes actually worth playing now!

Lacerta, Taco almost has the same party as you do.

Just that instead of Ronin it's a Landsknecht.

However, I also have a similar set up as to your party, but I want to replace one with the Pet class.

Yes, we designed it in that way.

Our characters are named the same, and even use the same portraits, with one exception. Maybe two.

He still gets me killed all the time. Do your job taco >:(

EDIT: Just because I thought this was funny:

My Protector has been doing his job and then some. Mastered HP Regen + Town Crown and Guts Ring has been incredibly useful, and he only needs healing against some of the stronger enemies (and FOEs of course). Problem is that it looks like he needs a shield in order to use his Force Skill.

I also was able to squeak by and beat that first floor FOE (Gashnor or something) at level 7. Provoked the crap out of it and kept spamming Cure with my Medic. Lost my Gunner, but FOEs don't give experience anyway. Next up are those annoying floor two FOEs that patrol all the rooms.

I'm doing this for my party:

RONIN
PROTECTOR
SURVIVALIST
-------------
MEDIC
ALCHEMIST

Not too far at present, but I enjoyed the feel when I started a new game for EO1. This is no different :3: I'd love to branch out and handle other classes, but I run in to impasses when I toy with the thought.

Need melee DPS -- Either Ronin or Landskrecht or whatever it is.
Need a tank -- Protector
Need a healer -- Medic
Need a nuker -- Alchemist

The Survivalist is the only character I'd remove without thinking about it too much, but their later abilities are pretty sweet. Any critiques or suggestions?

Also, I am REALLY unsure on how to build up my Ronin. I'm throwing his points in to the instant-death skill at present. It has bailed my ass out of the fire a number of times already, so I'm certain that it wasn't a waste.

Make sure your Ronin's elemental Skills don't overlap with the Alchemist's. For example, I have my Alchemist specializing in Fire, while my Ronin learns Seigan moves, which are Lightning.

And am I the only one who prefers the 2-3 formation over the 3-2?

Well, I should kick my Survivalist to the back row, actually. She doesn't have any reason to be up front. Then again, I might drop her altogether. But Apollon (or whatever it's called) was pretty sweet in #1~

Well, if you're more concerned about damage than manipulating the dungeon (FOE movements, item collection, etc), then drop the Survivalist and go with a Gunner. I find the Medishot and decent back row damage to be pretty damn useful.

I just put my War Magus in the front for a 3-2 because the War Magus' stats are for a Frontline fighter, that happens to have the ability to heal.

Although really you shouldn't bother putting anyone with that kind of job in the front lines unless you have a provoker........

I never played Etrian Odyssey, so I'm having a wonderfully confusing time with EO2. Luckily I've got people to harass online, so it shouldn't be too painful a process to get familiarized with the game.

So far my party consists of:

Protector
Landschsashfdsausage
Ronin
---------------
Medic
Alchemist

As far as I know that seems to be a pretty basic party, but I can tell the skills I've allocated for them are pretty messed up already. But hey, I'm only just barely scratching the surface of 2F and that's what resting guildmembers are for, right...

I'll probably end up trying to rework my main party. Taco and Lace seem to have fun abusing me in their parties (though apparently I'm SSJ or something in Taco's party) so I need to come up with classes for them in my group.

Some people probably look at the whole "11 classes, 30 character slots" thing and think "boy, that sure sounds like a lot of fun experimenting!" Me, I just get confused. :(

Overwhelmed with too much freedom? :p


So for those that have started quite a bit into the game: Any of you found any methods to build up your party with funds and decent equipment?

I feel like digging out my old party that 98% completed the JP version for me (insert jp names because I'm lazy to use the american ones):

Taco (Paladin)
Juan (Swordsman)
--------------------------------
Saka (Gunner)
Saka (Bard) [Yes, there are two Sakas]
Blah (Medic)

I might just keep their same builds too..............

Although if you intend to get anywhere in the game you will eventually need to make one of every class (including Beast) since certain areas require that class to unlock an area.

Most of it is post-game stuff though, leading to nice items, or part of a quest.

Kagosin --
I'm using a money trick that is identical to EO1's.

Make a group of four survivalists and one medic, train them all in harvesting (give the medic some healing/cure training so they can keep the group alive), and run them to one of the two harvest points on the first floor. I get around 500-600 per trip at present. Later on, I'm going to tuck two or three of them in to my part, scoot them down to later floors, and have them mine or what-have-you. Or maybe I'll make more mules for that =V

Anyhow! It's simple, but it works quite well.

Remember to Talk to the trader shopkeep after your first quest so you can buy Warp Wires!

Gechmir: Only thing though is that apparently in EO2 sometimes you can get attacked when harvesting.

Kagosin --
I know =0 Just RUUUUN~ I've seen the bastard three times; pops a member for 90 damage before I can escape.

There are SHITLOADS of FOEs. Way more than I recall. Going to try what I did in #1; grind to a nice level and kill them so I don't have to worry about them for a good while. Ragelopes are one of the ones on the second floor... They're weak against thunder, right? Shit. I need to teach someone that...

They're Ragelope 2.0. If you thought the damage from the ones in the first game was rough, this new version has an added bonus of status effects!

Here's my current team

Taco (Protector)
Mark (Landsknecht)
Lace (War Magus)
---
Saka (Gunner)
Kari (Hexer)

The party's tearing through shit at level 12-13, though I'm hitting a wall on the boss. It's not that it does too much damage, it's all of its little minions that get in the way. All I need to do is find out how to make FOE luring/sleeping bells and I'll be able to blow through the boss with no problem.

Edit: Boss down with the party at levels 13-14. It wasn't too hard after I managed to take out all of the supporting FOEs before the fight even started. Didn't even have to use force moves.

They also got rid of their weakness to Volt or whatever it was. Seems Fire is the new one now.

Ragelope 2.5 is worse lol =[

blolwtf >=[ Hmm. I'd love nothing more than to wipe them out and patrol at my leisure. I took it down to 40% before wiping last time. I'll grind a level or two and try again. Need to get some damage-dealing skills on my Gunner and Ronin... The Protector is more or less worthless. She was the LAST FUCKING THING that it attacked. Is provoke worth it? I remember it sucking in #1. I've got level 1 of Back Guard and all the rest in to Shields. My characters are lev 5 (or was it 6?) at present.

Like I said, Provoke most likely works more often if there's less competition in the front row. However, as far as the FOEs go, I'm not sure if it does work. Not that it matters much though, I've been clearing out those Ragelopes pretty easily. If I clear it fast enough, I can usually take out two of them before I have to go back down to use the inn.

My Protector seems to work really well, though. I've been putting Skill Points into HP Regen and Riskwall (HP Up and Vitality Up on the side), and he's more or less self-sustaining in regular battles. He can barely do any damage, but that's mostly because new swords have been scarce thus far.

Hm. With my protector, I've been trying to max out En Garde. Is that an unwise move?

Also, I tried gunner, but once I could handle the poisoning butterflies on Floor 2, I put in a lankshcnerakhart-- A WARRIOR >=V I forgot how many kinds of ass these guys kick. I also mined a good while on floor two using two mining mules with three of my regulars to keep them alive. Made some awesome gear. Power rings are <3

My Ronin is lev 9 and breaks 100 damage on almost anything. Rape~

I happen to like passive skills in any game, so I don't have any problems with En Garde. Seems like it'd only improve upon what HP Regen and Riskwall do (as would Aegis). I haven't learned it yet though, since I don't have a shield equipped.

As for me, I was the other way around and dumped my Landsknecht (which I usually call a Knight or Soldier, since a Landsknecht is really just an unmounted warrior) for a Gunner. I have a Ronin for damage dealing and my Protector for soaking damage and saving TP for my Medic, so I preferred a class to move into the back row.

Fuckin' hell. I grinded for about an hour and dumped my Force Skills on a couple FOEs. Wiped them out before they could strike (my Alchemist did ~980 damage ='D). I went to town, rested, saved, and duked it out with a few of them in regular combat.

First floor's FOE? Hits hard, but just approach him from the rear for a pre-emptive. Wiped him by round two.

Ragelope 2.0 REALLY pisses me off though. It one-shotted my Ronin with a critical then went on to confuse EVERYONE in the party. Despite that clusterfuck, I got it to 1/3 life before I wiped. I HATE Confusion :mad: Having that Gunner would've been handy, but I dunno what level covers Confusion.

Anyhow. One more level for my alchemist and she'll have her uber Flame spell. I'll pop FOEs with that and put them in their place.

Is it bad that even though I hardly got anywhere in the first game, I still want the sequel? I mean, it could be a couple of years before I get around to this one... but I want to have that option. I'm doing that with more and more games lately, and the pile is getting huge. Even worse, some older games that I never got to are getting added as well as new ones.

Still... Etrian Odyssey 2 is equal to awesome. Just automatically, without me needing to play it.

En Garde is best left @ Lv 1
20% activation chance.

Maxing it out only increases it to 29%

Provoke has 100% "gonna fuk u up" chance when maxed out. The key to remember is that enemy targets are determined the instant you select the last action for your party so it will only activate on Turn 2.

20 => 29%? Jesus fuck. I'm scrapping this protector NOW >=[

Atlus works in mysterious ways.

Take a look at their HP Up and TP Up tables:

roflpotamus, Atlus :(

Wow, I'd be pissed if my Protector really ever used TP (and I still chose to go with HP Up).

As far as En Garde goes, an almost 1 in 3 chance is... decent. Although 1 in 5 is still pretty acceptable, too.

Where are you getting these stats, Lace? I wouldn't mind seeing the odds for an Aegis activation.

From my work in the Japanese version (Someone was also doing some work on it based on reading data inside but knowing how gamefaqs is I think the topics might have been deleted or put somewhere in the past life of the past).

Aegis is the exact same figures as En Garde, surprisingly o_o
It also only works once per battle, which is... weird. Might have been changed in the US version, but the flag for it in JP was just once per battle.

Argh, you guys are lucky to be playing it. I went to a different EB on Tuesday and guess what? They were sold out. I wasn't expecting for the game to be sold out. I figured it was such a niche title that nobody wanted it...guess I was wrong. Hopefully the other stores will get it before the weekend. There was nothing today *le sigh*

On the bright side, I did get the Spore CC. Apparently only Wal-Mart of all places had it.

From what I can tell, the game is "niche" enough that stores just aren't ordering many copies so it probably wouldn't take much for it to be sold out.

Not that I would really know, seeing as I didn't go to a store for this.

I happened to walk into the store and pick one up (I was really only there to preorder it and was pleasantly surprised), but I could see they didn't have very many copies. I got lucky.

We still recommend HP Up 10 for no real reason. Having more HP never hurts, even if it's less than 50% more...

Just because of the changes to the battle system now, it's rare (unless it's a boss FOE using some hacked skill) to suffer the instant-kill damages from before (actually, instant kills are pretty much gone, with few exceptions).

Also if you do decide to grab a Protector, you want your Anti-blah skills to be Lv 10. They have penalty checks now. Lv 7 (Immunity) has -30% per success, so the second person only has a 70% chance to get guarded by the element, and the third person is just fucked. If they managed to guard then the fourth and fifth are doomed =D

Lv 10 has 0% penalty, so the whole gang has 100% to block element.

Esh...It's a good thing finding out that immunize was taken away before the 2nd game came out, which allowed one to get used to using the "Anti-" skills. The penalty check thing though is gonna make it kinda bad for the time being, until you get it up to lvl 10.

Also, though this is a niche title, more and more people are starting to hear about it.

Pretty much all of the Protector skills have them, as well.

Some are worse than others, but more convenient for trying to protect two critical members.

Instead of getting all the Anti stuff to lev 10, wouldn't it be best to get Tec and Shields to 10 and learn Anti-all? The Tec to 10 seems like a wasted movement, but it's seems more convenient. Or is the chance of stopping the spells quite low?

My plan is to call around the local gamestops. If they don't have it, Amazon.com, if they do have it, well a quick stop over then.

Is there any sort of bonus or save-game thing with the first game? Not that I expect it, but it would be kind of neat to have some extra stuff for a completed save game from the first one.

When I talked to the Gamestop employee I was buying mine from he said it wasn't so much of a small order, it was just a small print to begin with.

Extremely limited prints aren't foreign to Atlus by any stretch, this game is just exceptionally so.

Yeah, we were talking about it earlier. The name of your Guild carries over (at which point you can decide to change it), dialogue and some quests are changed slightly, and you can get one of two items depending on how far you got in the first game (Town Medal for simply completing the game, Town Crown for basically doing everything).

I found a bunch of Terence's statistic threads at GameFAQs, mulling over a lot of them now. A lot of bugs in the JP version-- to the point where like half of the Survivalist's skills were worthless.

Anti-All has a -28% penalty per success. It'll protect one or two people at the most on average.

EDIT: Noticed a typo that I am too lazy to go correct. Immunity from Elements is @ Lv 8 w/ -20%

Not as bad but still kind of rough for person 4 and 5.

YIPPEE!! I went to EB today (the one that said they were getting it yesterday) and they had it in! YAYYY!!! They only had two copies left apparently. Lucky me!! Apparently the employees there know about Atlus' limited runs, and one of them said the game's good, haha. I didn't play it yet as I didn't have a code handy.

I'm thinking of going Landsknecht, Survivialist, Medic, Protector. Yeah, I'm going traditional here, but when I get more experience (with the game), I'll start trying out other classes.

Gonna be switching back and forth between this game and Brave Story :3

You've only listed four people. You can have one more person in your party, so put some thought into it (I'd consider Alchemist or Hexer).

Oops! In that case, I went Hexer. Mesmers in Guild Wars are awesome and Hexers are basically Mesmers.

I named my team after characters that I created. Guild name is Schatten (shadow in German if I recall).

Hm. Do double-strike and counter for the warrior (landschnekt or wutevah) have low proc rates at level 10, or are they worth maxing out?

They're okay, their %s aren't super high, but they aren't super low considering what they do.

If anything, I'd probably take Counter...

Am I retarded if I died in the first dungeon? :(

Mo0 --
No way, man. The game is hard from the get-go; don't take it personally :( The game WILL kick you in the nuts repeatedly.

So Atlus addresses a certain bug some people might have.

I guess it's a start. There are other bugs in the game that they have not addressed, but I'll wait and see if they comment on them.

One of the more important bugs though they have mentioned was impossible to fix, although really you should be finishing the things that cause the bug BEFORE you start it, or you will experience hell.

I am referring to the quests that involve "have x class be level y". The game's coding is so fucked up for these quests that not even Atlus JP knew how to fix the horror that it was.

Basically, the code SHOULD only check the status of the party when you pop into town. What it currently does (and has done since JP) is check it every step. Eventually this can lead to major lag and cause some glitches in the game that might harm the data.

I got that impression as I played a little more. I'm definitely going ot have to play that game in small doses to prevent fits of rage.

To be entirely honest, while I will whine incessantly about it, the fact of the matter is companies don't make enough games anymore that are hard for the sake of being hard. It's refreshing.

Once your party gets underway, it gets easier =0 I might've missed it earlier in the thread (blol lazy), but could you post your group? Just to see if you've got the right bases covered~

I recommend grinding off of mobs for a bit until you think you have all the materials you need for the first floor's craftable gear (made by selling drops to the store), then make a team of junk characters (make sure one is a healer), give them harvest/take/gather (whatever that skill is called) and constantly make trips to one of the two gather spots on the first floor. This is a tried-and-true money trick. However, there is an FOE that will spawn if you are unlucky at gather. I've only seen it four times and it's easy to escape from.

A ronin might be a good choice as one of your melee classes. After a bit of gathering on the second floor from mob drops (and some usage of the mining spot. Make some trash characters for that, too), you can make a kickass katana that'll help him tear shit apart~ =0

Also, after you finish the initial mapping of the first floor (first "quest"), talk to the shopkeep in town so you can buy warp wires. Those things are important =x

It's actually a regular encounter that will bother you later on in the 1st stratum like what.

x_o

I'm on floor 3 and it's doing that shit from #1. "OH HERE'S AN IMPOSSIBLY HARD FOE =D TIME TO RUUUUN"

FOEs are fine and all, but it seems like there are a real FUCKLOAD of them in this :mad:

GameFAQs did not believe me (mostly because 99% of the people there are idiots and weren't around when I was doing random reports from the Japanese version) but I'll say it here because ur a gech.

FOEs are harder than anything the game can throw at you. Bosses have lost their rank as the number one threat (they are significantly weak compared to EO1, but then again EO1 also had an entirely different combat system and some fail coding, and was designed to force you to use the near invincible combo).

That said though, there are items and skills that are built around FOE manipulation, either dragging it to you or stopping it from moving for a few steps. You will have to use them to get around the maps now.

Or you can just fight wave after wave of rainbow fuzzballs that give no EXP and drop shit items.

;_; I JUST WANNA DUNGEON CRAWL. NOT CRAWL AND TAKE IT UP THE ARSE~

wats r0ng w/ being a gech :mad:

Crawling and taking it up the arse is the only way to dungeon crawl........

also idk :E

ps if you try you can sort of attempt to bulldoze your way through them. It will probably take a while. Kill sum fuzzies, gb2town, nap (or sleep if you ended up taking til 6PM), stock up, go kill moar fuzzies, gb2town, sleep, repeat.

Eventually all the fuzzies will be gone and you can hit 3F >=0~~~~

At least the "checkpoint" system makes it less tedious. Also shortcuts make it less horrible!

True that. The thing is, sometimes a game can make the player feel like it's on a masochist level, which I can assume companies tend to be afraid of, because you'll only going to nab a certain audience for it.

In this game though, you just have to invest some time into planning out which skills you're going to have, what type of classes, etc.
Can't necessarily go in gun-ho, and expect to kill everything in site........yet. :)

Then maybe watch your back when going in those dungeons. :p

Honestly, after your very first run, the difficulty is manageable. After that, pacing yourself is very easy and non-FOEs will rarely have you take it up the butt.

Still on Floor 3, trying to see if I can't beat the Ragelopes in the Mission room without them all joining in the fight. I think I'm supposed to use that bell to just lure them out, but eff that.

I actually just got the game yesterday, so no, you didn't miss my party.

I'm saying this from memory, but if I recall correct I have a Protector, Ronin, Hexer, Medic, and Alchemist.

Do I REALLY need to make junk characters to go mine? ;_;

You don't have to, but it's advised if you want to keep your other characters to be able to put those points into skills so they can be more effective. :)

I really wanted to play EO, but I couldn't get my hands on it (it was pretty well sold out everywhere by the time I decided to give it a go, and I didn't want to pay $50 for it on eBay).

So what's the concensus on EOII? Is it a good idea to go ahead and pick this one up and go if I never played the first, or should I keep trying to track down the original first?

I mapped the entire Floor 1 and I am too scared to explore Floor 2. I ran past the 1st FOE just to run straight into a second one :(

My party is at level 7 right now.

Can anyone tell me where I can find a Benty Twig whatever? I need it for a quest.

You can't find bent twigs until the Chopping item points on floor 3 at the earliest. Don't worry about it for now.

And yeah, at level 7, don't fight Gashtor.

You don't necessarily have to play the first one to play the second one, some of the skills from EOI have been removed and most of them have been tweaked in the sequel.
I'd probably forget about the first one and just play the second one because the problems in EOI have been addressed in EOII and the new classes are great. The interface has seen some great improvements from EOI, allowing you to compare and equip gear from the item shop, autobattle, and more mapping tools.

Definitely pick up the first one if you have the chance though.

I never played the first one and am enjoying the second one. It's too bad I can't get a class I want right away though.

Oh, and I have a really stupid question....how can I avoid FOEs? I wanna map the second floor but everytime I get close to the rooms they are in, they always manage to zero in on me and I never get past them :( How do you guys do it?

Update: Ah I just walked randomly around in the room before and wait until they're far away from me before entering. Now there's a horde of FOEs on my tail as I map and amazingly I haven't been caught by them yet. I even found the stairs to the third floor but I'd probably get raped there with my levels. My party is almost level 9. My heavy hitters so far are my Landsknecht and Survivalist.

Okay one more question. Does the time affect my party? Like say, if I go into the labyrinth and stay in there for a full 24 hours, will my party get into any sort of penalty, or does it just affect when I can go grab more freebies are various spots?

Why does the price go up everytime I want to sleep? :(

You don't need to step on every tile, so just scan the area with your eyes and fill in the spaces that way. The only other thing (besides running away, of course) would be to stay out of their sight and be sneaky.

Aside from that, there's the Gunner's Warning Shot, which will freeze FOEs in their place for a certain amount of steps, and the Lure Bell, an item which can bring them within three tiles of the place where you used it.

As you sure you're getting chased, though? The very first FOE to chase you (besides Gashtor in that Quest, since you're supposed to fight it) is the Stalker, which doesn't show up until Floor 3. Furyhorns, the guys you find in Floor 2, patrol an area in a circle and don't actively chase you.

I didn't know Line of Sight was part of their AI. I guess 'chased' isn't the best word to use. It just seems that they're always close by the door and ready to pounce on me as soon as I enter. After I get past the rooms though, yeah, they're not actively chasing me. Sometimes they even disappear as they get towards me.

What's a good level to get to so I can make it to floor 5?

Update: I wonder why there's two bears in Beast class. Why can't there be a reptile?

You do if you want to have it count as being "mapped"

It's a requirement for a few quests/missions. Kind of crappy, but yeah. The game doesn't register filling it in with the stylus as you actually mapping it out.

Or something like an "Import your Spore Creature" feature.

I hope to receive the game in a couple of days - Since I live in Europe, I had to import it.

I can't believe I couldn't finish the first game in time :( .. come to think of it.. I rarely finish games.

Ah, shit.

It should only be for specific floors (...right?), so I'll just continue along until they ask me to really map it.

I went to a dead end and there was a little squirrel there and it stole my warp wire!!! That was the only one I had! I had to go all the way back to town and than risking heading further into the dungeon. Grr stupid nasty events!! Makes me afraid to press 'A' to check things. I guess that's EO for you, unforgiving!

I should be prepared now for the third floor. I can plow my way through the 1st and 2nd floors with my eyes closed.

Yeah, it's specific to a floor. There aren't any "MAP THIS ENTIRE STRATUM NOW" type of things.

In case anyone was having second doubts about the all powerful landsausage, those Chaser skills (Blazer, Freezer, Shocker) are capable of chasing multiple times. So max them out. Do it. Now.

Chasing is where they go into a "stance" for the turn, and any attack of the element they are chasing causes them to follow up immediately with an elemental attack of the same element and type (type being single target or area). The perfect chasing setup will net you 8 elemental attacks in one turn. Somewhat good if you can exploit a weakness.

If not, just drop 2 hits for a Hexer who has Dampen. It removes resistances. They can even add 2 hits themselves if they manage to imbue their weapon with an element (or it already has one), or they use one of the battle items like the Jars.

Lace, what's the "proc rate" for the first levels of Double-Attack and Counter for landskunks? =0 I'm toying with the thought of getting *at least* to level one with those two skills.

Also, is it me or do axe skills blow compared to sword counterparts? =[

Man, I can't get enough of this game. Played a lot today and couldn't put it down. I mapped all of floor 3 now, and I successfully defeated Gashtor and er, the one on floor 2. Added a Gunner and Ronin to my guild too. My party's at level 13 now. Is that good enough to do the next primary mission? My tanks hit for a lot, over 45+ DMG, and my Ronin hits over 80.

Closer and closer to getting Beast.

Update: I forgot to add that when I defeated the two FOEs, they disappeared from the game. Do they ever come back?

:shrug:

Lv 1 Double Attack is 5%

Not sure on Counter, but maxed out it should be maybe 1/4 chance...

Yes, after a certain number of days.

Level 13 is good enough to do the Mission to rescue the guard on floor 3, if that's what you're wondering. Just don't try fighting the Ragelope that stands in the way unless you head into it with a lot of Force Skills ready to go.

5%? Eeep...

Additional Spam:
Funny glitch; I screwed up on the lure bell (didn't know how to use it. Thought they'd *chase* me out, not go to the spot I used it at). I fought one of the ragealopes and warped out to rest. I came back to find that *all* the ones blocking off that knight were gone :shrug: No idea, no questions asked~

Also, wtf on a Quest for level 4. Survive there for THREE DAYS? My longer grind sessions take close to 20hrs. I've never broken 24. Three days? How does your mana hold up? :( Ward all the time to keep monsters at bay?

The "easiest" way I guess is either stock up on those anti-battle items or get a maxed out Stalker on Survivalist.

0% encounters for 250 steps, which is maybe 8 hours?

I just hit F5 and got that quest, went down to F4 to check out how tough it'd be, and noticed that a lot of battles I could just spam basic physical attacks and win without taking any (or if any, very little) damage. Just shove a lot of points into STR Up for your main attackers and they'll kill the enemies in one or two shots easy.

Or you could take the easy way out mentioned earlier.

Oh, if you do want to fight it out this way, getting maxed Ambush and putting some points into the blindside negating skill probably helps. Haven't tried it myself though (going to try that quest without and see how it goes). TP Up for the Medic should be good as well.

After a weekend of playing I'm at the 15F bosses and about 10 levels lower than I should be (a.k.a. hitting a wall). So many of the battles and floors of the third stratum are just a headache. Only the 15F fights seem worth it in terms of experience and items.

That and going back to fight bosses makes for some very easy, very nice experience, too.

I made it to floor five today ^_^

Unfortunately, I also found out that


Survivalists sure are strong.

Just started playing this today. So far, it's a lot of fun. Reminds me a lot of the old PC RPGs I used to play as a kid, back when games required effort to beat.

I got through the first floor without too many problems (aside from getting slaughtered by the boss there) but the second floor is proving to be irritating, with all of those super-strong enemies prowling the rooms. And of course, there's never enough gold around, which leaves me to have to choose between equipment and warp coils. ;)

I'm getting the impression I should be grinding for experience and gold. I'm only at level 4...

The boss on the first floor stays in one spot so you can simply walk around it. The FOEs on the second floor run in a set pattern so once you figure it out, you can avoid them. I used to have trouble with them before and now I can get past them without batting an eye. Also take note that they won't chase you if you're not in their line of sight, so pay attention to the direction they're facing on the map. This applies to those aggressive FOEs on floor 3 and above.

I learned a lot from the vets in this thread. I'm also an EO newbie :3
I normally hate 1st person dungeon crawlers, but I love this game.

Well, I gained a few levels and stupidly decided to explore the rest of level 2 instead of doing back to town and saving. I dodged around one of the FOEs, got into a random battle, the FOE joins the battle and slaughters me. I don't think I've ever been quite this close to tossing the DS into the wall...

The grind in this game is kind of annoying. At some points you can't really progress anywhere until you start taking out FOEs, and of course FOEs are ridiculous compared to the other normal monsters on the floor. So you either have to grind grind grind (I don't know how many times I've walked up and down long corridors) or go for broke and just target a FOE. Bleh.

Currently still on 3F, main party is level 10 at various exp levels. Party consists of Protector and Ronin in front, Hexer, Medic and Gunner in back. Hexer seems to be the most "useless" so far in terms of basic damage, but when Poison hits it hits hard.

I have a separate party of Survivalist farmers that I made for farming take points, but since they're low level they don't actually have many survivalist-ish skills to help them (except maxed Escape). Finally ran into a Rafflesia after maybe 80 total takes... that battle ended quickly.

I'll probably start beating on the FOEs on 2F soon, though I'm still not sure how to progress past that closed door.

You can't get past the closed door yet.

You don't need to grind that much to advance in the game. I can't beat down on the 3rd floor FOEs, yet I am currently at the 5th floor. There's absolutely no reason to even fight any FOE. Just avoid them all and beat up the regular enemies.

I've only found one unavoidable(?) FOE fight and it was on 14F. You can get past all of the FOEs on 5F without having to fight them.

As far as boss tips go for 5F

OMG your idea worked, Taco. Thank you very much! Wasn't expecting to win so soon.



Now that I got Beast, I hear a lot about how Loyalty sucks 'cause it dies too often for it to be useful. If I just wanted to make one a tank, is Loyalty needed? Also, with autocure at max, how much HP does it get back?

Update: I'm digging the writing style when you explore the dungeon. It sounds professionalk. Speaking of the 5th floor...

Another update: Man, this thread sure became dead in a hurry :(

So hey guys, I picked this up yesterday. Should I just go ahead with a new game, or try and beat the first one properly before this?

Eh, only finish the first if you really want to use your own code to input for the Town Crown (Atlus even has an official code for those who couldn't get their own to work). This game is better than the first in most aspects, and I don't see much of a point in burning yourself out on Etrian Odyssey by hurriedly completing the first game.

By the looks of it, yes.

If you were interested in the story of EO1, someone has summed it up on GameFAQs.

It is not linked to EO2 in any manner though, so it does not matter.

Oddly enough, that summary of EO1 is pretty much what you get hit with in the last stretch of the game.

Boy. How do some folks soar through this game? I do grinds and still go at my best speed, but I'm just now done with the first Strata =P Maybe I should play it more than just an hour or so a day.

Swapped out my Hexer for a Troubadour in order to do grinds on Raflesias more efficiently, so now my party's sitting at levels 18-20 for the main group and 14 on the Troubadour. I only just reached 5F, but it seems like I kind of go slowly in this game. I rarely ever make an effort to progress until I'm sure I'm prepared, and then just gun it for the stairs. Low-risk, low-speed style I guess.

May have to swap the Troubadour for Hexer again when I get to the boss, as I would need extra damage. I ran into a FOE just to test the waters and after my Ronin missed (?!?!) with her force skill, all was lost.

Maybe I'll take on 5F today.

You're right at about my pace for leveling, Saka. Beating the Chimera put me at about 22 for most party members, though I felt that I sort of rushed the process in doing so.

And it doesn't surprise me that your Ronin's Issen missed. My Ronin's misses all the damn time. Pisses me off, since you'd think Force Skills would be a guaranteed hit.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. I mean, they take so long to charge they better hit all the time, right? The FOE battle was going so well, too. Protector nullified damage for one turn, Gunner used Stunshot, had Bravery going... then Ronin whiffs and FOE smacks my gunner for 140 hp, a OHKO. Managed to run away, though, so all was not lost.

I need a better method to level up my survivalists, though. They're all about level 9 right now, and since they only have points in take/chop/mine/escape (and 1 in Bow) they do really crap damage even though I forked over teh cash for the best bows. Sucks.

Really, there's no way to effectively level them besides grinding like crazy. Not fun, but them's the breaks, sadly.

What I do is keep one person from my main party in (usually my Protector, but anyone who can soak up damage or dish it out in fair amounts can be used), use a Medic with Scavenge (ie, not my main Medic, who focuses solely on healing skills), then bust out three Survivalists. At level 8 or 9, they have enough to master two of the three item-gathering skills, which is plenty to turn a profit on item runs. The party member from your normal team and your Scavenging Medic will also help keep your party alive through most fights, as well as net plenty of drops to give you that little bit of extra cash with the experience.

That's been working out for me pretty well.

Ah well I wanted to get Beast class unlocked, hence my 'rush' to the fifth floor. Now that I have it unlocked, I can play at a slower pace. I rested several of my party and now I'm just concentrating on leveling up before I start getting serious with the 2nd Stratum. The jump in difficulty there makes me want to get better skills first before I make the attempt. I mapped just a small portion of it so far.

Floor 5 spoiler.

I run my regular party Medic with four Survivalists. It's usually pretty safe for the floors I tackle (1, 2 and quick runs through 3 to a chop point), but the damage is decidedly lacking for large clumps of enemies. Right now I have Take maxed on all 4 and 2/5 for Chop/Mine. I think that's probably enough to harvest some new items for item shop unlocking purposes, so I need to start focusing on bringing their Bow up now.

Wish I could farm Raflesias with them, but one Freeze and the Survivalists are pwned.

Alright so I've just started. I really like the War Mage's passive healing every turn ability and the Gunner's full power from the back row.

Is the FOE on the first floor NOT meant to be taken on first? Because it seemed MUCH more powerful in comparison with my team (Currently lvl 5-6). I've avoided the FOEs on the second floor as a result.

Don't tackle it now 'til you level and get some nice skills. Besides, there's a quest at the bar later on that requires you to kill it, so I'd recommend waiting until then.

Alright, I figured as much, because an accidental encounter with another FOE on the second floor, while still killing me, was doing much less damage by comparison.

Everyone is level 7 now, and I'm rolling with a Gunner, Medic, War Mage, Landsknecht, and Ronin. I like to be diverse I suppose. I might consider switching out the Landsknecht with a Survivalist, but we'll see how it goes.

My party is currently Ty (Ronin), Warfang (Beast), Chase (Survivalist), Lai (Medic), Ross (Gunner). All are either level 28 or 29. I'm not even sure how they all ended up at the same level since I rested several times.

Has anyone gotten any glitches yet? I was in town and went into the Duke's Palace, but the top screen never loaded, only the bottom screen. I then turned the game off and restarted, only to not have the game recognized (it went to the DS menu screen). It worked fine after I restarted again. I was using my DS Lite (I just got it yesterday), so I I'm hoping it was just a glitch and not a problem with the Lite itself, although I doubt there could be a problem with the system.

Yes actually!

I was in the town when I brought up my menu (Item, Skills, Status, etc.,).

I pressed the Select or Star button to "Save", cancelled, and suddenly the screen was all messed up. The graphics looked corrupted, kinda like the Missing No' bug from Pokemon Red/Blue.

I wish I could have gotten a pic but I was so freaked out that I just exited the menu. I was not able to reproduce it again =\

Ouch, that sounded pretty bad. Good thing it didn't occur again. I guess I can now chalk up my missing top screen as an actual glitch then.

How are you liking the game so far, DN? I'm terribly addicted to it. I even find myself playing it in bed.

I got one of those too, but attributed it to it being on a flash card (and therefore slightly more prone to bugs) than to the actual game.

I seem to recall it happening in town, too, but I didn't save or go into the menu, I just accidentally went to a menu option I didn't want and almost immediately backed out. Maybe the graphics loader is on the slow side? :???:

Also, before I get too far (Everyone's level 7), should I keep my Hexer around, or switch to a Gunner? I've not really felt like the Hexer's had a role to play other than "Cast defense down once than attack".

Because I'm a total dork, my party is:

a lurker (Protector)
Tails (Ronin)
Skills (Hexer)
Mo0 (Medic)
Iwata (Alchemist)

Haha, I had the same dilemma. I had a Hexer originally but didn't find it all too useful while dungeon crawling. I find it easier to just have everyone attack instead of getting it poisoned/asleep, etc first. I hear their Revenge has one of the highest in terms of DMG though.

I dropped my Hexer for a Gunner and I haven't regretted my decision. Their Ricochet skill rocks hard against bosses and they can use skills that deal fire/ice/volt DMG which is great if you don't use an alchemist. They also have some very nice support skills, like Halt Shot (stops FOEs for several steps) and Medishot (cures the entire party of status problems).

Awesome, I'm gonna try that then. Glad to hear that that switch works.

Hexer is the kind of job that works best later in the game, when battles don't go by so quickly. Only Poison has any real use in the beginning (when 25 HP every turn is absolutely brutal), and other classes have Poison abilities.

Gunner is just an all-around good class. It's an important back row attacker, its' Medishot is quick and easy to learn, and it can use 2-Hit.

I have my Gunner in the front row for additional damage. Thankfully, their HP is high enough (and armor DEF okay enough) that they don't get totally rocked by enemies. Still squishy like a Ronin, though, but that's what my Medic is for.

Went and beat the first Stratum the other day, and lololol. Second Stratum is definitely a step up. Invisible (on the map) and physical-immune FOEs? That's a bummer.

I haven't even managed to get past the second floor. :gonk:

Locked doors are for fags. :mad:

Yeah seriously, anyone know what monster or location drops that item? Its on an FOE, right?

Of course it is: even in a fetch quest, F.O.E.!

You can't get past that locked door for a while. Just ignore it and continue moving up floors. You'll eventually return to that door at some point.

Bent Twigs are obtained from Chop points, not monster drops.

Wait, what? I've run out of places to go, I can't go up another floor!

...

I bet my map is fucked up somewhere then. :gonk:

Stairs to 3F ought to be in the southwest corner, or around there. Block F-1 or so?

Sometimes when I go exploring I accidently wall up a path and I don't realize it until I notice the entire map is either a) very small or b) missing the stairs. If that happens I walk throughout the entire map to search for the path I missed.

Or if you don't want to do that, GameFAQs has full maps for the first stratum so you can check there. The stairs to 3F is indeed at block F-1.

Haha, I do that too, it's weird when you come across it by accident. "Hey! There's... No wall here? I thought the... But the map said..."

Anyway, I just started playing this and it's a lot better than the first game, they really fixed almost every annoying naggle about the original game. It's still tough as nails, but that's to be expected. It's just really fun and the art/music is amazing.

I do miss Shilleka though. :(

I think it depends on how you draw your maps. I don't know about you guys, but every time I come to a split, I draw all possible paths at the split. The first game had some weird stuff to draw though, like the lilly pads and the shifting sands.

Anyways, I hope to pick this game up tomorrow. Though I suppose I should beat the first one first. I'm on the 17th floor, I think. Or at least the second floor of the 4th stratum. About the time the story seems like it's about to pick up at least. How much longer is it, for people who've beaten the first game?

Also, what naggles were in the first game? I didn't have any issues with the first game. (Besides skill descriptions being vague, which, if they fixed that, I'd be really happy.)

Some of the things I can think of... In the shop, you can now compare the stuff you buy to what you're currently wearing (as well as who can equip it), and equip your bought stuff right away. In dungeons, you can now suspend-save, and you can leave a memo on any tile, not just tiles that you placed a special symbol on. There are also generally more map tiles and several color floors so it's easier to indicate everything.

There are probably other things but those really help smooth the game out a bit.

And yeah, usually I draw each path too, but I guess sometimes I don't do it.

Yeah, I make sure to scout out on the top screen, then draw open ended points at the paths I don't take the first time through. Sometimes I might overshoot the length of the room or the corridor, but it makes it very clear for me that I haven't explored that area yet.

And, in the event that I have a blank spot in my wall on the other side of the floor, I can simply close that gap without having to walk all the way back over there just to confirm that I'm not drawing a wall where there's a hallway.

I uh, I wasn't paying attention to the guy's explanation, and uh, I activated a

What does that do?

If you go back to town you can warp directly back to the pole you've activated. You can only have one activated at a time.

It

Just remember that those Poles that need to be activated only work one way, and that's from town back into the dungeon; never the other way around.

I'm usually very thorough in mapping, but I tend to get very lax when I'm trying to avoid a fight with a nearby FOE. I then realized how stupid I am since FOEs don't move any faster than you, so I stopped doing that.

On a side note, I finally found my way to the 10th floor.

One thing I noticed about FOEs on the map: If you fill in spots that you haven't actually physically walked over using guesswork, the FOE will seem to "disappear" briefly.

Oh and for you guys starting out, a little tip: Carry Warp Wires, they help a lot for quick escapes.

Yeah, you have to walk over spots for them to actually be mapped, or else you'll have a blind spot against FOEs. They walk in set patterns, though, so unless your blind spots are xboxhuge, you should be okay.

Of course, none of this means anything against INVISIBLE FOES WHAT.

After reading through this thread, this game looks pretty interesting. I looked on Amazon and it seems as though the first one was only released a couple of months ago here. Given that the chances of the sequel hitting British shores any time, well, ever really are practically nil, do you guys reckon it'd be worth me buying the first game (For abour £25) or importing a US version of the sequel (For a bit more)?

Story is pretty much non-existent in this series, Shin. Really you should just import the updated (Madden 09) version and run with it.

Dungeon Crawling goodness.

Hey, don't totally discount the storyline-- that link Lace put up a little earlier in the thread leads to an amusingly dramatic retelling of the first game's story. When it's pieced together fully, it's not half-bad.

Anyway, as I've told everyone I've talked to, skip the first and head straight into the second. If you want the Town Crown, just get the code from Atlus' site or from somebody posting theirs on GameFAQs or something. I originally skipped out on the first game, and it's absolutely worth it. Heroes of Lagaard is definitive.

I see it like this: Etrian Odyssey / II's story is like the plot in a porno: Its expected to be there, but its not that important.

Status of my party is that everyone has just arrived at level 10, woo~

I DO miss some of the music from the first one. Particularly the First Stratum and Opening Movie / Title Screen music, but
overall its improved here.

The story may not be the best thing you ever saw, but the writing in this game is first class.

Anyway, does anyone else hate the 12th floor? UGH! I didn't know what to use for the ice tiles, so I used the icon with the darkish circle. The enemies are pretty cool in that stratum. The FOE there is pretty neat and there's Sleipnir and those funny snowmen.

By the way, has anyone heard of this 111 page artbook for the 2 games? I wanna get it someday.
http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b8.../pa1305881.jpg

The fuck would some useless furry piece of shit like you know about writing? The writing is first class. Please. Next you can tell me how GTA 4 should have won an oscar for writing.

First class writing in Etrian Odyssey. Get real. Maybe if you compare it to digimon, which you probably are.

I guess I shouldn't have used that word 'first class' then, judging from your response. I meant to say that I love the little dialogue that pops up when you explore the labyrinth, like when you encounter an event. It does have a professional feel to it, the way they're worded. I don't mean to say it's on the level of Shakespeare or anything :P

Ah, all right. Well yeah, where there is script it doesn't suck. No argument there. There just really isn't very much of it.

Yeah, sorry for my choice of wording. I should be clearer in the future.

I wish there were more script as well. It has potential to be something more. I hope an EO III comes out.

Even just like FF I sort of story. You know, obviously can't be character oriented... but something more than "So, you've come to explore this dungeon..."

Ah I just encountered a new glitch today. I wonder if any of you seen it too? I was on the 12th floor mapping the place out, and I realized as I reached for a tile that um, everything but the tile on the bottom left was gone. They were replaced with tiles that had a diagonal going through them. I suspend saved and reloaded the game only to get the same glitch. I was panicking at that moment so I used a Warp Wire to get back to town to see if it'd go away, but no! The glitch was still there!! I then went back to the labyrinth (1st floor) and the glitch was gone. HOORAY! I hope it never happens again : /

At first I thought maybe one of my party was hit with a status condition that prevented you from mapping, but they were all in good condition, and when I got home I checked the manual and there isn't any -no mapping- condition.

Update: Ahh never mind. It turned out I used too many icons on that floor. So it wasn't a glitch after all :3

Where is the stairs on the 13th floor? It's driving me nuts! I got pretty much the entire floor mapped out and I still don't see the stairs!

Haven't read the thread but yay, great game. Started with EO2 because a friend of mine would only let me borrow 2 and not 1 :) Booted up 1 yesterday on my R4, but I think I'll finish 2 first, 1 after that, although it will be kind of unusual to get used to the "dis"improvements, like not being able to equip on the fly while buying stuff etc.

My party currently consists of:
Landsknecht level 21 - 3 HP up, 3 TP hup, 3 STR up, 3 VIT up, 5 Swords, 3 Cleaver, 2 Tornado, 1 Allslash
Dark Hunter level 19 - 3 HP up, 3 STR up, 3 VIT up, 3 Whips, 3 Viper, 3 Shackles, 3 Cuff
Ronin level 21 - 2 HP up, 2 TP up, 3 STR up, 2 VIT up, 6 Overhead, 2 Sayageki, 2 Zamba, 2 Orochi, 2 Dead Law
Medic level 22 - 2 TP up, 6 Healer, 1 Patch up, 3 Cure, 2 Cure 2, 2 Cure 3, 3 Salve, 2 Revive, 3 Refresh
Gunner level 20 - 2 HP up, 5 TP up, 3 STR up, 2 VIT up, 5 Guns, 1 Fireshot, 1 Iceshot, 1 Voltshot, 1 Haltshot, 1 Take

Just arrived at Stratum 2 :)