[DS] Etrian Odyssey III: The Drowned City - Spending an hour picking your first character

Been playing for the better part of the last week, just as addictive as when I played the second one, which I admittedly never finished. Started exploring the 7th floor and am able to handle the FOEs there with a little luck. I like that FOEs give experience (and good chunks of it at that) as if I recall correctly you didn't get any in 2, just their drops.

Characters are around level 25 now, using Prince, Hoplite, Gladiator, Arbalist and Zodiac. I like some of the tweaks to the standard archetypes. Hoplites would generally be your front row tanks but to get the most from some of their skills they need to be in the back row, and vice versa for the Arbalist. I also really like the Prince class, able to to be a competent fighter, but best in the back row boosting morale (HPs), boosting stats, weakening enemies, in more of a generals role. Plus he frees up from needing a dedicated healer class which is nice.

Still need to experiment with some of the other classes and do more with the sailing. Right now I've passed on the sailing bits because I want to dedicate all my money to new gear.

Also I don't know what it is about this series, but damn if I don't love drawing me some maps.

How ya doing, buddy?

Made it to the third stratum now and am stressing over what sub-classes I want. Haven't even really developed my main classes the way I want, let alone ready to worry about a secondary class. On the upside, having a Prince in the party can make those hazard tiles much less of a worry considering any damage from them can be recovered in another step.

Is it just me or does the Arbalist get a lot better gear faster than the other classes? Those crossbows put everything else to shame.

There's nowhere I can't reach.