I did. Including filling out all the monster and item entries. An easier task to accomplish than in the first game, thanks to the dragons' final drop not being random.
I had a ton of fun with EO2, but never finished. And now this damn thread convinced me to run out and buy it because my local store still had the art book. Ugh.
I was going to register it with Nintendo, but apparently I can't figure out how to do that.
Any tips before I crank it up tonight or tomorrow?
I had some trouble accessing it at first because I was having trouble triggering the quest to enter it cos I forgot to speak to someone. My other memories of it include a floor filled with warp tiles (similar to that area in Strange Journey's Eridanus, thankfully without the status effect tiles) and a floor where you're forced into a fight every time (none of them too tough if your party's decent besides muckdile) you open a door. And there's lots of small rooms on that floor...
Better because it is easier to navigate. Worse because the FOEs and regular encounters are even harder.
Of course by the time you get to the end of it you'll have a source of infinite boost (depending on your money supply and patience) and the ability to turn the hardest challenges of the game into a mere formality.
No matter how badly you abuse stuff in the first game you can't exactly make the final boss trivial.
Well, couldn't play all that much with uni and such, but I did advance a bit. Money's a bit less tight after I got those farmers up to par. I have a route to farm a couple points with only enough steps for one random encounter, which the group can manage, and with a total yield of around 800en or so per run. I've finally been able to actually buy equipment for my main team, and fought my first FOE.
The loot of which apparently makes a badass and expensive lance. Back to the farming runs! :P
Also, question for those boaters among us: when, or how, do I get better provisions than the Dried Peas? I can't seem to find much stuff to actually advance, within 8 squares...
Third day in Armoroad, and I still have absolutely no idea how to go about this adventuring business. To be perfectly honest I still have no idea what I’m doing here. According to Alexis I stumbled up to the statue of the Goddess and shouted out a declaration to conquer the Yggdrasil Labyrinth (was there any specification it being the Armoroad one? I think we have at least five of those in Imperial Territory alone) and to bring back trophies from seven fearsome beasts, at least three of which are widely considered to not exist at all.
At least Alexis is handling most of the administrative trivia of things. I had no idea she knew so much about all this miscellaneous stuff; I really don’t know where I’d be without her.
Don’t tell her I said that, though.
*~*
Alexis
Entry Made: 12th of the month of the Silver Lion, on the Seven Hundredth and Fourteenth year of the Holy Empire.
It appears Armoroad and the surrounding locales keep an entirely separate calendar from ours. Hardly surprising, but all the same, rather inconvenient. I should have expected adjustments coming into this town after all, especially it looks like we’ll be spending a significant amount of time here.
In any case, I’ve made contact with the head of the Explorer’s Guild in Armoroad, and we’ve managed to hammer out some of the details concerning the creation of a new guild. With any luck there should be several new recruits worth signing up soon. I’m not foolish enough to think we’ll stand any chance of challenging the Labyrinth without a fully armed and equipped party of good warriors.
I just hope his Majesty keeps his head about him. This is easily the most daunting task he’s ever faced (and if I’m going to be candid, it’s probably going to be the most daunting task he’ll ever face, period), but he doesn’t seem aware of that fact yet. I can only pray the Goddess’ favour goes with us.
*~*
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HenroidMexican kicked from Immigration ThreadCentrism is Racism :3Registered Userregular
edited October 2010
Stratum 3 is my roadblock in this game.
Edit - Which bothers me because the 3rd stratum is as far as I made it in EO2.
I haven't had much trouble in Stratum 3 yet, although I could imagine problems coming up. My Ninja hasn't quite replaced all the awesome abilities my Prince had, yet.
My prince and hoplite are so high level because I used them to get the rewards for every sea quest up to tortuga and unlock all the items in the first stratum. I'm a bit OCD.
Me too, hi-5!
Also they are always on the Farmer squad runs. Not a lot of experience, but it adds up across a lot of runs. Starting the second stratum (soooo pretty), my Hoplite and Princess are lvl 18, Zodiac and Arbalist are 16 and Wilding is 15ish.
Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
edited October 2010
My primary non-gather Farmer is a frequent member in my groups. Espcially with level grinding. I tend to swap him with one of my primary team and do 2 runs just to get the exp boost. Mind you, my Farmer team does ninja runs (heh) to the harvest points to refuel my teams money post Boat trip/recent delve.
Acutally, I'm going to turn that entire team in to Farmer Ninjas (save one who's going to be Farmer/Monk for medical work.)
Damn red F.O.E.s on the 7th floor are scaring the bejesus out of me. Nothing like a big red orb stuck one pace behind you thanks to a random battle to get your blood going during lunch.
Subclassing is going to be the end of me. There's just too many builds I want to try. Now I want to try a Prince/Hoplite to see if the Prince's TP gaining skills work with Provoke, which would essentially give me ifinite TP.
This is my first entrance to Etrian Odyssey at all. I hope I am not disappointed.
Starting with the third game? Just don't get frustrated if you die, it happens to the best of us. The first two floors in EO3 are particularly brutal, so just bear through it. Listen to the people in bar for advice after reaching each new floor.
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Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
1 is getting harder and harder to find these days. I'd start there because it teaches the basic skills like dealing with FOEs and dungoen maping pretty well. 2 then will be a treat because it improves over it in many ways. (From balance to characters, FOE fights, dungeon options). 3 kinda tips the series on it's ear while still being an EO game. There is just SO much new to learn. FOE's are tricker, the ocean is a dangerous but fun place, and the dungeon shorter but HARDER.
Start at the beginning. I'd say go for 1. it's a really good game. If you can't find it, play 2 before diving into 3. If you can't stand 2 then 3's gonna drive you nuts.
Starting with the third game? Just don't get frustrated if you die, it happens to the best of us. The first two floors in EO3 are particularly brutal, so just bear through it. Listen to the people in bar for advice after reaching each new floor.
Yo know how they say in Dwarf Fortess "Loosing is fun?" Well in EO, "Grinding is fun." No seriously, it's brutal. Your first Lynx fight I'll bet you 20 Quatloos one or more characters will die.
Whatever you start with, play in order. All are excellent games, each one improves over the last.
This advice gets churned out for every game series, and it assumes that someone would enjoy the first game in a series so much that they would want to play the sequels immediately after finishing the first.
That's a pretty dumb assumption. They may have enjoyed the game, but grown bored of it over many hours and not wish to repeat it. They may not have liked the game at all - maybe even due to issues that are fixed in the sequels. Either way, they only play one game in the series and it's the worst one because they got awful advice from the Internet.
Play the best, most recent game first. If you like it so much that, after beating it, you want to play a similar game, you like it so much that you'll be able to overlook any issues with the earlier titles.
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Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
Play the best, most recent game first. If you like it so much that, after beating it, you want to play a similar game, you like it so much that you'll be able to overlook any issues with the earlier titles.
I'd still play 1 or 2 before 3. EO is a harsh series, it has a really steep learning curve. You CAN pick up EO3 and go at it, it's a really awesome game. But 1&2 teach you a lot of the skills that make 3 more manageable. But if you can deal with the frustration of the early strata pre-sub classing of your character. Go for it.
Just remember. You're playing this game BECAUSE it's hard. It really is the Demon Souls of the DS.
Play the best, most recent game first. If you like it so much that, after beating it, you want to play a similar game, you like it so much that you'll be able to overlook any issues with the earlier titles.
But that's also an assumption. Just using EO3 as an example, someone could enjoy it and when seeking out EO1 learn that there's no strafe option for movement, and that could be a deal breaker. (Speaking from personal experience, I hate it when dungeon crawlers don't have strafe.)
C2B didn't ask for the best game in the series. He said he wanted to get into the series and asked for which game to start with. If, in your scenario, he played EO1, enjoyed it (or maybe not enjoyed it at al), and then realized he didn't want more of it, then no harm no foul. Other way around, he plays EO3, enjoys it and wants more, then he goes backwards in terms of features, balance, and just about everything else. When someone says they want to get into a series, we usually work with the idea that they have a vague idea of playing more than one game in the series.
(Note that this applies to series whose core gameplay is largely building on top of the predecessor. For a series like Valkyria Chronicles, where each game plays significantly differently, I'd explain how they're different and let them decide based on playing preferences. But the core gameplay of Etrian Odyssey is similar across games for that not to be an issue.)
1 is getting harder and harder to find these days. I'd start there because it teaches the basic skills like dealing with FOEs and dungoen maping pretty well.
Haha, what. Are you seriously suggesting that if you don't play the first game first, you'll be lacking the basic skills necessary to play following titles? And worse, that these skills are difficult and require an entire goddamned game to learn.
Dealing with FOEs takes minutes to learn, and that's being conservative. Drawing a map takes seconds to learn. Nothing in Etrian Odyssey takes forty plus hours to learn, unless you're going to be a smart alec and suggest memorising all the damage formulas.
Etrian Odyssey III doesn't pick up where the first game left off - it assumes the player is new to the series, with tutorials and everything.
Play the best, most recent game first. If you like it so much that, after beating it, you want to play a similar game, you like it so much that you'll be able to overlook any issues with the earlier titles.
I'd still play 1 or 2 before 3. EO is a harsh series, it has a really steep learning curve. You CAN pick up EO3 and go at it, it's a really awesome game. But 1&2 teach you a lot of the skills that make 3 more manageable. But if you can deal with the frustration of the early strata pre-sub classing of your character. Go for it.
It's not like you can't learn those skills by playing EO3. The games are brutal dungeon crawlers - you're not learning calculus here. Hell, the biggest learning curve in these games is probably making an effective class/party build, and its not like the earlier games were straightforward about that, or that the lessons learned there are completely applicable in 3 given the different classes.
Like I said in the previous thread, I've found EO3 to be a lot more accessible than the first two games, having never even gotten past the first boss in either, and am well on my way through it. I'm actually looking forward to going back and playing the earlier games now using what I learned in EO3.
Whatever. Just had to get that little last jab in there didn't ya? Your experience does not dictate my own. Advice is opinion and I'll leave it to the asker to make their own choices based on the advice.
In my experience, playing EO 1 & 2 made 3 both a: easier and b: more enjoyable. That's my take on it.
I don't really do much grinding in EO games. Floor fully explored and all the quests done -> next floor. I haven't had to grind for any of the bosses yet either, although that's probably because of past EO knowledge and knowing what I'm doing.
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Mostlyjoe13Evil, Evil, Jump for joy!Registered Userregular
I don't really do much grinding in EO games. Floor fully explored and all the quests done -> next floor. I haven't had to grind for any of the bosses yet either, although that's probably because of past EO knowledge and knowing what I'm doing.
I like gridning mostly because of the level gain and skill point expending. I get excited about my builds and what they do. Playing the earlier EO's makes my grinding more efficient and less problematic. I 'get' the logic behind the games attach math/healing math and it makes things more interesting and fun when dealing with bosses and FOEs.
I guess the best way to sum up my point is: Expereince makes these games more enjoyable. You worry less about getting swamped by the gameplay and just enjoy the flow of the game itself. And for some this translates in either direction you play the series in. In mine, it was worth it to play the earlier games.
I haven't played any of the past EO's, but from my current experience in 3 (Fifth Stratum), the game has been a cakewalk. I haven't wiped to any regular battles, and the most I had to attempt a boss was three for Kirin since the fight was terrible for my party composition.
Obviously, I can't speak for the first two EO's, but I've yet to grind, or really had to think out my skills very hard.
Well in this case I'm comparing it to every other RPG out on the DS. (Save maybe the Atlus games.) I'll never attribute any of them to being very hard. Long, entertaining, fun, yes. But this series has been more challenging from the beginning. It's kinda like say DQ9 which only really gets hard when you hit the endgame, or Disgaea which is a breeze unless your dealing with deep item world or serious post game grinding. EO has this nice even hardness right from the beginning all the way to the end. Skill, planning, logistics. It's a excellent blend and quite rewarding if you get your team/gear right. Bosses need some tactics, leaning enemy weakness make fights managable, etc.
Posts
And I do plan on at least seeing EO2's Sixth Stratum before starting 3.
I was going to register it with Nintendo, but apparently I can't figure out how to do that.
Any tips before I crank it up tonight or tomorrow?
Better because it is easier to navigate. Worse because the FOEs and regular encounters are even harder.
Of course by the time you get to the end of it you'll have a source of infinite boost (depending on your money supply and patience) and the ability to turn the hardest challenges of the game into a mere formality.
No matter how badly you abuse stuff in the first game you can't exactly make the final boss trivial.
(That's a good thing.)
Edit: Updated with a list of ship destinations in the game. Credit goes to Aladar of Something Awful.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
The loot of which apparently makes a badass and expensive lance. Back to the farming runs! :P
Also, question for those boaters among us: when, or how, do I get better provisions than the Dried Peas? I can't seem to find much stuff to actually advance, within 8 squares...
Trip 2. Hug Armoroad as you go left. Near the mountain there will be a 'Check' prompt. Obtain Armoroad Cedar.
Trip 3. Return to small island. Trade Cedar for Sheep Cheese.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Entry One.
*~*
Third day in Armoroad, and I still have absolutely no idea how to go about this adventuring business. To be perfectly honest I still have no idea what I’m doing here. According to Alexis I stumbled up to the statue of the Goddess and shouted out a declaration to conquer the Yggdrasil Labyrinth (was there any specification it being the Armoroad one? I think we have at least five of those in Imperial Territory alone) and to bring back trophies from seven fearsome beasts, at least three of which are widely considered to not exist at all.
At least Alexis is handling most of the administrative trivia of things. I had no idea she knew so much about all this miscellaneous stuff; I really don’t know where I’d be without her.
Don’t tell her I said that, though.
*~*
Alexis
Entry Made: 12th of the month of the Silver Lion, on the Seven Hundredth and Fourteenth year of the Holy Empire.
It appears Armoroad and the surrounding locales keep an entirely separate calendar from ours. Hardly surprising, but all the same, rather inconvenient. I should have expected adjustments coming into this town after all, especially it looks like we’ll be spending a significant amount of time here.
In any case, I’ve made contact with the head of the Explorer’s Guild in Armoroad, and we’ve managed to hammer out some of the details concerning the creation of a new guild. With any luck there should be several new recruits worth signing up soon. I’m not foolish enough to think we’ll stand any chance of challenging the Labyrinth without a fully armed and equipped party of good warriors.
I just hope his Majesty keeps his head about him. This is easily the most daunting task he’s ever faced (and if I’m going to be candid, it’s probably going to be the most daunting task he’ll ever face, period), but he doesn’t seem aware of that fact yet. I can only pray the Goddess’ favour goes with us.
*~*
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Edit - Which bothers me because the 3rd stratum is as far as I made it in EO2.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Me too, hi-5!
Also they are always on the Farmer squad runs. Not a lot of experience, but it adds up across a lot of runs. Starting the second stratum (soooo pretty), my Hoplite and Princess are lvl 18, Zodiac and Arbalist are 16 and Wilding is 15ish.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Acutally, I'm going to turn that entire team in to Farmer Ninjas (save one who's going to be Farmer/Monk for medical work.)
To be fair, Third Stratum has been my least favorite so far aesthetically.
Just power through it! Fourth is much easier on the eyes, and Fifth is absolutely gorgeous.
Should I start with the first or skip it?
The first game was good, but the second improved on it in a lot of ways. I'd probably skip to that one.
Whatever you start with, play in order. All are excellent games, each one improves over the last.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
Starting with the third game? Just don't get frustrated if you die, it happens to the best of us. The first two floors in EO3 are particularly brutal, so just bear through it. Listen to the people in bar for advice after reaching each new floor.
1 is getting harder and harder to find these days. I'd start there because it teaches the basic skills like dealing with FOEs and dungoen maping pretty well. 2 then will be a treat because it improves over it in many ways. (From balance to characters, FOE fights, dungeon options). 3 kinda tips the series on it's ear while still being an EO game. There is just SO much new to learn. FOE's are tricker, the ocean is a dangerous but fun place, and the dungeon shorter but HARDER.
Start at the beginning. I'd say go for 1. it's a really good game. If you can't find it, play 2 before diving into 3. If you can't stand 2 then 3's gonna drive you nuts.
Yo know how they say in Dwarf Fortess "Loosing is fun?" Well in EO, "Grinding is fun." No seriously, it's brutal. Your first Lynx fight I'll bet you 20 Quatloos one or more characters will die.
That's a pretty dumb assumption. They may have enjoyed the game, but grown bored of it over many hours and not wish to repeat it. They may not have liked the game at all - maybe even due to issues that are fixed in the sequels. Either way, they only play one game in the series and it's the worst one because they got awful advice from the Internet.
Play the best, most recent game first. If you like it so much that, after beating it, you want to play a similar game, you like it so much that you'll be able to overlook any issues with the earlier titles.
I'd still play 1 or 2 before 3. EO is a harsh series, it has a really steep learning curve. You CAN pick up EO3 and go at it, it's a really awesome game. But 1&2 teach you a lot of the skills that make 3 more manageable. But if you can deal with the frustration of the early strata pre-sub classing of your character. Go for it.
Just remember. You're playing this game BECAUSE it's hard. It really is the Demon Souls of the DS.
But that's also an assumption. Just using EO3 as an example, someone could enjoy it and when seeking out EO1 learn that there's no strafe option for movement, and that could be a deal breaker. (Speaking from personal experience, I hate it when dungeon crawlers don't have strafe.)
C2B didn't ask for the best game in the series. He said he wanted to get into the series and asked for which game to start with. If, in your scenario, he played EO1, enjoyed it (or maybe not enjoyed it at al), and then realized he didn't want more of it, then no harm no foul. Other way around, he plays EO3, enjoys it and wants more, then he goes backwards in terms of features, balance, and just about everything else. When someone says they want to get into a series, we usually work with the idea that they have a vague idea of playing more than one game in the series.
(Note that this applies to series whose core gameplay is largely building on top of the predecessor. For a series like Valkyria Chronicles, where each game plays significantly differently, I'd explain how they're different and let them decide based on playing preferences. But the core gameplay of Etrian Odyssey is similar across games for that not to be an issue.)
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111
Dealing with FOEs takes minutes to learn, and that's being conservative. Drawing a map takes seconds to learn. Nothing in Etrian Odyssey takes forty plus hours to learn, unless you're going to be a smart alec and suggest memorising all the damage formulas.
Etrian Odyssey III doesn't pick up where the first game left off - it assumes the player is new to the series, with tutorials and everything.
No, there isn't.
You are like a bad advice generating machine.
It's not like you can't learn those skills by playing EO3. The games are brutal dungeon crawlers - you're not learning calculus here. Hell, the biggest learning curve in these games is probably making an effective class/party build, and its not like the earlier games were straightforward about that, or that the lessons learned there are completely applicable in 3 given the different classes.
Like I said in the previous thread, I've found EO3 to be a lot more accessible than the first two games, having never even gotten past the first boss in either, and am well on my way through it. I'm actually looking forward to going back and playing the earlier games now using what I learned in EO3.
I kind of want to get this game... but I don't think I have enough tears left.
Whatever. Just had to get that little last jab in there didn't ya? Your experience does not dictate my own. Advice is opinion and I'll leave it to the asker to make their own choices based on the advice.
In my experience, playing EO 1 & 2 made 3 both a: easier and b: more enjoyable. That's my take on it.
I like gridning mostly because of the level gain and skill point expending. I get excited about my builds and what they do. Playing the earlier EO's makes my grinding more efficient and less problematic. I 'get' the logic behind the games attach math/healing math and it makes things more interesting and fun when dealing with bosses and FOEs.
I guess the best way to sum up my point is: Expereince makes these games more enjoyable. You worry less about getting swamped by the gameplay and just enjoy the flow of the game itself. And for some this translates in either direction you play the series in. In mine, it was worth it to play the earlier games.
I haven't played any of the past EO's, but from my current experience in 3 (Fifth Stratum), the game has been a cakewalk. I haven't wiped to any regular battles, and the most I had to attempt a boss was three for Kirin since the fight was terrible for my party composition.
Obviously, I can't speak for the first two EO's, but I've yet to grind, or really had to think out my skills very hard.
Is there a story that connects all the three games or are they completly seperate titles?
Well in this case I'm comparing it to every other RPG out on the DS. (Save maybe the Atlus games.) I'll never attribute any of them to being very hard. Long, entertaining, fun, yes. But this series has been more challenging from the beginning. It's kinda like say DQ9 which only really gets hard when you hit the endgame, or Disgaea which is a breeze unless your dealing with deep item world or serious post game grinding. EO has this nice even hardness right from the beginning all the way to the end. Skill, planning, logistics. It's a excellent blend and quite rewarding if you get your team/gear right. Bosses need some tactics, leaning enemy weakness make fights managable, etc.
Loosely. EQ 2 makes hints about EQ 1 plot, etc. Each really is a self contained story.
EO1 and EO2 are vaguely connected (5th Stratum of EO2 makes a lot more sense when you complete EO1).
However, if you're playing the games for the story you're probably going to be disappointed.
Platinum FC: 2880 3245 5111