Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan [3DS]

[briareos_kerensky]

Right in between Fire Emblem Awakening and Gunhound EX, Atlus drops the Etrian Odyssey IV demo; I usually shy away from demos, but since it's Etrian Odyssey nothing can stop me from playing it to death. Maybe the 30 launches limit and the cap of 10 levels will, but to counter that, there seems to be a lot of content.

Everything starts off like any other EO: you reach Piazza di Spagna in Rome...no, wait, the city's name is Tharsis and you are asked to register your guild and some characters before venturing in the labyrinth to meet your doom.
The demo shows three empty slots in the class selection menu, and the remaining classes are a mix between the EO 1/2 and EO 3: Landsketch (or however it's spelled), Fortress, Night Hunter, Sniper, Medic, Dancer, Rune Master. I went for a pretty standard Lands/Fortress/Medic/Rune Master/Sniper party to test waters.

First impressions is that the game is not as hard as the other three games, at least in the beginning. Yes, you are asked to find your way through FOEs but it's something series veteran are used to from the first game. After the first foray into the labyrinth you are thrown on an airship to find the second dungeon and this is the point I've reached right now.

There have been a lot of subtle changes, and the most striking is the music, incredibly easy going and catchy, especially during battles.
The interface has been reworked a bit and it's easier to navigate menus; the skill trees have been completely revamped and are much easier to read. Unlike the previous EO games, where you could "rush" to a skill, all classes have three "mastery levels", which are unlocked by level progression. Only time will tell if this was really necessary, as rushing to a certain technique could prove more dangerous than anything due to high TP expenditure. There still are subclassed (though they are locked out) and many skills, especially for classes like the Fortress, will be immediately familiar with series veterans.
Probably the biggest change is that any class can gather resources without spending any skill point, though gathering is still limited in use and all classes can improve gathering chances for one resource type if points are spent in the right skill. Does this mean no more parties built around gathering characters? Sounds great, though such parties were the biggest source of money and materials for rare items, I wonder how well will work in the end.

The airship is reminiscent of EO3's ship, though exploring is no longer limited by the ship's equipment. The airship feels like a very important element in EO4, as the city of Tharsis is actually away from the Yggdrasil (all other games had the starting city right on Yggdrasil's roots) and the airship is used to find entrance to new dungeons, and eventually to Yggdrasil.

Battles now take in account rows, I was very surprised to se my Rune Master's ice lance hit two enemies, one in the front and one in the back row, so this should add a new dimensions to battles. Class skills seem to intertwine very well and I'll probably soon move to a party centered around a Fortress/Night Hunter combo, with probably a support Sniper.
Instead of static sprites, enemies are animated 3D models, which are well done in their simplicity. When exploring the dungeon, FOEs are represented by their battle model and not with the usual giant hairy ball of orange death, which adds to an otherwise plain labyrinth representation.

So far so good, can't wait to have the full game available.

[ryodi]

Great write up. Atlus have also been kind enough that progress you make in the demo can be carried across into the full retail game when it is released.

http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2013/01/etrian_odyssey_iv_legends_of_the_titan_demo_on_the_way

Now, here's the interesting part: all the progress you make in the demo can be transferred to the full game upon purchasing it, meaning you won't have to traipse through the early stages all over again.

[briareos_kerensky]

It was the same as in the Japanese demo, and if it wasn't like that I wouldn't have tried it. Hate doing things twice, especially when it removes the sense of dread and wonder that the first steps in EO games usually give.

[briareos_kerensky]

It's always nice to see old and proven tactics to work: Fortress using taunt to distract an enemy while the Lands weakens its physical attacks, the medic heals the Fortress and the others deal damage.
Very basic class management but helps a lot in the first part of the game.

Exploring the map with the airship is both fun and useful. There are no enemy encounters (unless you smash into the FOEs) and it' possible to collect food that will be automatically sold when reaching Tharsis or cook it for a temporary boost in abilities when exploring dungeons.
It appears that the developers really like the idea of having the player pursued by FOEs to advance into the game, and this is particularly fun...the tension of getting things done, hoping that no enemy will pop up, and if it does, defeat it before the FOE reaches the party or try to escape..,my only regret right now is that enemies don't fight as hard as in the first two games, and the beginning is probably easier than EO3, which was the easiest entry point for the series. Despite this EO3 is the best balanced game of the series and never lacked challenge, though if you were used to EO1 and 2, the game never got really scary until the endgame...and I think that EO3 is the best game in the series, hopefully EO4 will be able to top it.

The first character that died? Triela, the Fortress, against a grasshopper. Got a game over against an Angry Baboon, whom, besides FOEs, is the first enemy requiring some strategy to get through.

[briareos_kerensky]

Two of the three FOE types present in the demo down. Both encounters deplete most of my characters' resources, so it's one per rest at the inn (as resting replenishes HPs and TPs), but, yeah, I can take down two out of three without too much difficulty.
Switched out the Sniper for a Nightseeker, a mix between the Dark Hunter, the Pirate and the Shogun from previous games: the class focuses on inflicting status ailments and deal extra damage to incapacitated enemies, plus they can equip two weapons to attack twice and for a chance to trigger skills twice in a row. The Sniper is more of a straight damage dealer, though it has some special attacks that inflict binds; most of the accessible skills however focus on attacking single or groups of enemies, something that the Lands/Fortress/Rune Master in my party can already do.
The missing FOE type I have to subdue is present on the airship map only, a silver kangaroo that so far has been able to one-shot every party member with a 100+ damage points attack...I wonder if the Fortress will be able to withstand its attacks now, and if I'll be able to blind it with the Nightseeker's skills.

The demo ends when reaching the staircase to the second floor of the first laybirinth (the very first dungeon is classified as a "cave" and composed by just one floor) and all quests proposed can be fulfilled within the demo itself. Probably all weapons shown in the shop can be purchased as well, though I still need to figure out how which enemies drop some items and how to make them drop.
Can't wait for the full game, almost three full weeks, without accounting for shipping times! Maybe I should have left the demo alone...

[briareos_kerensky]

Finally the complete game is in my hands and exploring the lands around Tharsis can resume without the limitations imposed by the demo.
Wait, what is that "save extra data" in the Cargo Wharf? Data won't be used for EOIV? Is this transfer data for a yet unannounced EOV? It better be, Atlus, it better be.

Anyway, it's nice to see the airship map populated with a new FOE the moment you start your "complete" journey...right now I'm wandering the labyrinth with a party composed by two Nightseekers, two Runemasters and one Medic, whom I'm training as a combat medic, with half of her skill points going to attack specials. Because there's nothing better than a bespectacled girl armed with a giant mallet hitting allies to cure them. Or so I envision my new Medic, Litchi.
The reasoning behind this party is that Runemasters right now deal the highest damage of all classes (Proficiency, Elemental Rune, Elemental Lance, currently going for ice), medic heals the few times this is needed and helps against FOEs and the Nightseekers act as a decoy/nerf/attack couple: as with all enemies use only physical attacks (or better, enemies encountered so far only use physical attacks), one Nightseeker uses Shadow Cloack (nullifies a physical attack for three turns, only once per turn), the second uses Decoy (forces enemies to attack the designated party member) on the shadowcloacked Nightseeker and in the next turn she shadowcloacks itself, so as far as single physical attacks are concerned, they will almost always hit a sorta-invicible party member. Works wonders against FOEs, wil surely have to revise party composition later on (due to area physical and magical attacks) but it's a very easy way to get past the first FOEs, including the silver kangaroos. Plus if a nerf/bind/status ailment is successful, Nighseekers deal extra damage.

This EO features caves and dungeons. Caves are single floor maps, which seem to act as a quick gathering spot more than anything else; dungeons are porper multi-floor labyrinths, right now I'm on the second floor of the first dungeon (taking it slow, also because I had to train from scratch 3 characters out of five, and one Nightseeker wasn't maxed out for demo standards) and only the first boss encounter will (probably) tell by own many floors each dungeon is composed by.
The complete game does not add any starting class, so there still are 3 unknown classes awaiting to be discovered. Right now my least favourite class is the Sniper, though this might change when subclasses will be available. Lands (warrior) and Fortress are very straightforward in EO terms, though the Fortress doesn't seem so focused on defence as before, maybe it will be possible to center a party around one or two offensive characters belonging to this class.
EOIV doesn't have challenges (in EOIII there were fights against optional bosses where one or more character slots were used by AI-controlled partners) so getting a new character up to speed might require some time (especially because there was a trick in EOIII to get a lot of experience quick and easy through one of those said challenges), but then again, the quests in different playthroughs might help in the process.

[briareos_kerensky]

First boss down, and this opens up the second land/airship map.
Disappointed that the first dungeon is only three floors deep, it seems that EOIV continues the tradition started by EOIII to shave off a floor from the usual five...caves do not really make up for a missing dungeon floor, but in EOIV there probably are new airship maps and at least three caves plus a three-floor dungeon for each, so things might even out.

One thing I really like about EOIV is the music. So far I've heard three different tunes for FOEs and bosses, and all of them have been fantastic. The ability to look around the dungeons is welcome, though dungeons themselves are not particularly beatiful to look at: not much has been done to improve how dungeons look; enemy animations, on the other side, are great: they reflect the monster's health status, if it has been nerfed in any way and special attacks have different animations; it goes a long way in making battles less of a menu hunting, as EOIII and IV have a very similar battle system against bosses and FOEs, requiring some classes to build up with one or more skills to deal the best damage possible.
For example, the Lands class can use Vanguard to lower her defense, increase attack and act first; subsequent skills build on Vanguard and acting first further increase damage done. Runemasters can use Elemental Runes to increase party resistance and lower the enemy's, plus Runic Gleam to increase damage.

I'm now with a Lands/Fortress/Nightseeker/Medic/Runemaster party, and it works well. The Fortress tanks (Taunt and Nightseeker's Decoy Sign), the Lands decreases enemies' attack power (Power and Mind Break skills), the Medic is most there to heal the Fortress and remove nerfs, the Nightseeker is somewhat of a jolly as she can try to nerf a target or act twice a turn (Biding Slice), the Runemaster builds up its own power. With Taunt/Decoy sign the Fortress then switches to offensive with Smite skills and the Runemaster rounds out the damage.

The second land introduces a new race (and possibly a new class...yeah!), and I have to hunt for materials to allow my airship to fly higher and reach the second dungeon.

[briareos_kerensky]

I have to wine about things more often, the first cave in the second land took as much time as the first floor of the first dungeon to complete. In that cave there's

->Open Spoiler<-

a hall where you can only take ten steps before being forced back to the starting point, and the dungeon must be navigated while avoiding FOEs, that while not particularly strong, they like to do area attacks that inflict poison

. This cave is vital to progress,

->Open Spoiler<-

as mining in it (with a FOE around, and more than happy to go for stationary targets) will provide the materials needed to fly higher and reach the second labyrinth, as well as new areas in the first land

.

The second labyrinth is filled with

->Open Spoiler<-

many small enemies that like to inflict status ailments and things that blow themselves up for massive damage, prioritising targets is paramount, and even with multiple skills, it's hard to avoid being massacrated by a floating flower

. The first floor of the second labyrinth also introduces

->Open Spoiler<-

teleporters, though the mapping tools now seem good enough to keep track of where teleports are and where you'll end

.

[Asura]

Any word of a Euro release for this yet?

[briareos_kerensky]

Unlikely, I've been told (on this forum) that only the first came out in Euroland.

[MisterBubbles]

EO4 is coming out in europe,http://gematsu.com/2013/02/etrian-od...pe-this-spring

[briareos_kerensky]

NISA is releasing the game Australia as well. More impressions later, the game is becoming f***ing good, much better than expected, and my hopes were pretty high for this one.

[briareos_kerensky]

The journey to Yggdrasil continues, and I welcomed guests in my party. Guest were present in EOIII as well, but here are controlled by the player. The first guest was for one brief battle, but then the second guest joined f

->Open Spoiler<-

or the third and what looks like last floor (sigh!) of the second labyrinth. She is also a new class, Arcanist...and colour me impressed! The character that joined is 2 levels higher than my party, split between levels 25 and 26, and she is incredibly powerful. Arcanists are centered around magic circles, spells that last 3 turns and have debilitating effects (poison, sleep, binds, etc.); with the correct skills, it's possible to have automatic party heal while one circle is active, or dismiss a circle to attack targets or further heal the party; Arcanists also regain few TPs when a circle ends or it' dismissed, and have access to direct enemy nerfs.
Can't recruit Arcanists for my party yet, but I will surely do so when possible...and the problem will be who will be replaced. Piling up debilitating effects on enemies will make Nightseekers more powerful, but Arcanists and Nightseekers are not the sturdiest classes around and eat TPs like there's no tomorrow. Arcanists and Fortresses can make Medics redudant, but they won't be able to remove party nerfs or revive fallen allies without items; also, this will require a an almost specific build for both classes. Runemasters are able to generate more damage when striking an enemy's elemental weakness, their TPs last longer than the Arcanists' and they always allocate damage, while the Arcanists' magic circles depend on the target's resistance. Right now I don't see an Arcanist replacing the Fortress and Landsketch.

Choices, choices...and I don't have access to this class yet!

Anyway, the overworld in EOIV is much more vibrant than before, and after being able to access the second, familiar faces started poking around...

->Open Spoiler<-

dragons! Huge, flying dragons sometime roam the overworld maps unhearting sparkly spots (never reached one in time, so don't know what will happen) and causing a lot of terror in parties now even close 1/3 of the maximum levels (99 max, though in previous EO games dragons are usually beatable around lv 60-70, depending on party composition...and yes, they tend to be endgame battles).

Roaming around the overworld, collecting food, trying to escape FOEs to reach new areas...it's like being in the labyrinth, but with spaces not as confined.

One thing that EOIV doesn't do right (but no EO really did), is to give mapping tools fo teleporters. Now there are 10 numbered tiles available,

->Open Spoiler<-

but there are already more teleport points than numbered tiles in one floor

...it's nice to have something to indicate them, but it's still one step away from the ideal solution (tiles with user-defined numbers and possibly colours, maybe with a rollover effect).
As labyrinth floors tend to be more complex than before, missing the fourth and fifth floors right now doesn't feel too wrong: caves, despite being small, are increasingly complex in their layout and always have something new to them (like FOEs moving diagonally and jumping over water tiles) and fit very well in the whole "exploration" feeling I always loved about the series. I also helps to keep graphical repetition down, which is nice.

[briareos_kerensky]

Events have piled up...second labyrinth done, third land unlocked, able to

->Open Spoiler<-

recruit Arcanist

, the guest

->Open Spoiler<-

Arcanist from L2B3F joined the guild

, discovered the third labyrinth, currently struck.

So, in order:
the boss of the second labyrinth was great. I mean, it spanned two screens. When not attacking, it would be fully visible, but whe attacking the camera would point skyward to show the towering boss raining destruction on the party.

->Open Spoiler<-

Constant stream of enemy reinforcements, and what I thought would be the "bad guys" (akin to the merkfolk in EOIII) seem now gone

.

With the second boss gone, the

->Open Spoiler<-

icy land of the Sacred Mountains opened up in all its chilly splendor. The land is fully of ridges, tornados and heavy snowfalls that block the way or won't let the airship increase altitude. The only way to go through this terrain is to full ravines below the tornados and the increase altitude to resume exploration

.

Most importantly, I have recruited my first Arcanist,

->Open Spoiler<-

though Wufan, the guest from the secon labyrinth joined the guild. I didn't like how her skill points were distributed, so i created a new Arcanist. After the fight with the second boss, I was given a couple of items that allow characters below level 24 to reach level 25 instantly, so there was no need to grind the new recruit up to the rest of the party, which was 30 at the time

.
As posted before, I really like Arcanists. The Poison Circle is incredibly destructive against normal enemies, and it can be dismissed for extra damage or a decent healing to the whole party. Doesn't quite reach the Medic, but Arcanists are pretty fast and act before most enemies, while Medics take their time. Circles tend to be a bit useless against FOEs, but while they can always be traded for a decent magic attack. I'm pretty sure my Arcanist will subclass to Runemaster to harness skills that increase neutral magic damage, whenever I'll be allowed to. I don't really know what the other characters will subclass to, the Medic will probably go for something that has a TP boost, the Landsketch for extra physical power, but really don't know what the Fortress and the Runemaster will do.

Anyway, the third labyrinth is

->Open Spoiler<-

accessible from two separate points, that if explored enough, will connect in the end. The world map has these two access points nearby but not in sight of each other: one will start on B1F, the other on B2F.
This maze introduces harmful tiles, that can be turned off by locating a particular object in each floor, though the object must be disabled with an item found in the dungeon, that will disappear once exiting the third land

.

And now I'm stuck. Some FOEs are shown to be below my level, but I'm not able to defeat them. I was able to defeat a couple of them before, but even at an higher level than before, I had no luck in defeating some FOEs that will let me explore part of the world map and the third labyrinth. Must persevere, the party is able to dish a good amount of damage, but it kinda fragile: the Fortress took the duty on activating Party Shield and die almost every turn against most FOEs, but this lets the rest do their job.

[briareos_kerensky]

Between yesterday and today I've been able to progress, get struck again at boss of the third labyrinth, beat it, explore the fourth land, did as Prometheus did (the Greek tragedy, not the movie...which was a tragedy unto itself, but I'm digressing, enhance my airship, and forced myself to stop playing.

Like with the second dungeon,

->Open Spoiler<-

completing the this allows to recruit a new class, the Bushi; though I liked the class when having one as a guest, I didn't rush to get a new character, but rather having my Landsketch subclass into one, and it's almost a match made in heaven. Bushi tend to have low HPs and TPs but high attack, that can be further enhaced by various techniques that sacrifice HPs and TPs, that can be restored by normal attacks. They are devastating, but during long battles their damage output drops considerabyl when they have to regain TPs, plus they need attention from healers. As Landsketch have a lot of HPs and a good amount of TPs, using Bushi techniques to sacrifice health for attack power it's not as demanding as on a standard Bushi. With the right combination of Lands/Bushi techniques and a burst skill (Charge Order) I've been able to get almost 1000 damage points per strike, and while this in not constant, it's more reliable than a Bushi.
Also Bushi are furries,

and I want my party composed by female adventurers.

The Fortress has been subbed to Medic, though I did that only to get the bonus skill points. Maybe I'll get the Medic's TP Boost and mace techniques later on, or maybe ditch the Fortress altogether, as I've never used defensive skills outside few battles; Fortress damage is good, but doesn't quite reach Lands,

->Open Spoiler<-

Bushi

and Runemasters.
When Runemasters get access to Original Rune, things start to get interesting, though TPs do down really quick...but again, with the right buffs and enemy nerfs, a single attack is worth almost 1000 points.

The third boss battle was magnificent,

->Open Spoiler<-

though hard and required some "emergency subbing" to gain some extra points for the Runemaster and Fortress, in order to strenghten defenses.
All along the third labyrinth, there are objects that must be destroyed with specific items. Those are objects that the local boss scatters around, and in its lair, the easiest (or maybe only) way to win is to destroy every one of those things. The boss actively follows you around while trying to destroy the obstacles and it's able to reach the party: the only way around is to escape, but that is not automatic, and that thing is able to deliver attacks that kill the party in one hit. Elemental Runes and Guard helped a lot while the rest of the party tried to escape, and with the last object destroyed, the boss lost half on its attack power and health; its HPs were still a considerable about (10800...the second boss had 3880 and the first 2340, as a comparison) and it was able to regain some health and attack power by scattering the objects I've wrote about few lines above...only two survived the battle, and one was the guest.