Etrian Odyssey II: Heroes of Lagaard

[briareos_kerensky]

Yup, finishing the first EO gives you one bonus, depending on how much you've finished the game:

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just completing the 25th level boss will grant you a Town Medal, completing all 30 floors plus boss will grant you the Town Crown.

Unfortunately this can be transferred only via a rather long password and it's the only thing you will carry on, except for your guild's name, which can be changed, however.

Never played FFA2, but since I was totally unimpressed by the first FFA and generally how SquareEnix is handling their (strategic)games (well, how all JPN firms are handling "strategic" games), EOII is a must. However, you have to like its unforgiving style and prepared to go much deeper than the first game: some parties can make your life much, much, much easier, while other will require a lot of grinding and luck (for example my R/P/M/G/S party).
On the bright side,

->Open Spoiler<-

the 6th Stratum isn't as hard as in the first game, it still requires a lot of dedication to master, just like all advanced quests, but it's not as unforgiving as in EO. I mean, you won't find standard enemies that are almost impervious to any kind of attack.

All in all, Etrian Odyssey II is better then the first game. The Labyrinth features much more events, classes are more balanced and you can really build very different parties, there are a lot of more interesting and intertwined quests and the technical side is a bit better...just a bit. The game still lacks a decent way to map teleports, but the enhaced mapping function works really well; however, it's still a game that requires a lot of dedication: if it clicks with you, you'll find yourself swallowed by the Labyrinth (like myself) or, if it doesn't, you'll find yourself experiencing endless frustration.

[blastre]

Cheers for the heads up, briareos. I'll step up my search for a decent priced copy of EO2.

[briareos_kerensky]

And the thread rises from the death like...mhmm...I dunno.
However, I'm still playing the game, mostly on weekends and while the exploration is going rather slowly (thanks to some hard-hitting FOEs and their bad routine of popping out one tile away from you), I'm treading old ground to solve quests and alike.

Met some old buddies from EO (

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Golem and Wyvern

) and their sprites are exactly the same...and they still follow the same attack pattern as before...they hit a lot harder than before but nothing like a couple of force attacks and Revenge curses cannot bring down.

Put my hands on a few of unique armors and weapons and most characters are nearing level 71 after being retired once...nope, I'm not going to retire them again to grind them to level 72, that would probably make me forget about the game, one can't be that grind-obsessed.

I don't know if I'll ever see the "true" end of the game, but right now it's the only game I'm playing (Doki Doki Majo Shinpan Duo isn't much interesting), but I fear September will bring new challengers (Knights in the Nightmare! Knights in the Nightmare!)

[Champloo]

Man this game is tough. My whole party was wiped out in one of the first battles. I came across two enemies and each could wipe out a member in one hit, just like that. I couldn't even recover as I don't have any revival items. Anyway, some grinding is in order. All my party are now at level 2.

I know part of the fun is discovering which classes are best yourself, but does anyone have any general tips? Are there any classes which I really shouldn't bother with at all? And any which are a must?

Currently I have a trobadour, medic, ronin, gunner and survivalist. The survivalist and ronin are front row and the tro, medic and gunner are back row.

[abigsmurf]

You need a healer, a tank and a caster. At the moment your party is incredibly squishy, I'd personally replace either the survivalist or the gunner (unless you use the gunner for your elemental attacks). The survivalist shouldn't really be in the front row anyway.

[Champloo]

I see, so maybe I could get an alchemist (I think their the mages right?) instead of the gunner, and maybe replace the survivalist with a Defender?

[abigsmurf]

I believe both the gunner and ronin have elemental attacks so you may not need to. I would replace the survivalist with a defender or landsknect though

[briareos_kerensky]

An easy to use party is Ronin (damage), protector (damage through Smite and protection with single elemental barriers), medic (curing and resurrecting), gunner (multiple enemy damage, support both in and outside battle) and hexer (uber-damage dealer with revenge and support with poison and dampen, useful for condintional drops on enemies).
You can also swap the gunner for a dark hunter, but this will cut down damage on normal exploration, but it has a greater usefulness against certain bosses.

Speaking on which, I made up to the last stratum, level 30 and met the boss...2000+ area damage on all party members at the first attack.

[Champloo]

Cheers for all the tips. Survivalist was actually my first choice when looking through them (I always love archers and rangers for some reason) to begin with, but if their useless then their useless. I'll get rid of him, and get a hexer and protector in there as well.

I haven't had a change to have another go on it, but I should have a few hours to spare tonight.

[briareos_kerensky]

Survivalists are not useless - a party of 5 Survivalist is the best choice to go around the labyrinth and gather materials at chop/mine/take points. Unfortunately in battle they haven't high defense or HPs and their most damaging attack (Apollon) requires to stay alive until the arrow hits, three turn after the launch, and it's not that powerful.

However the combinations are numerous. A Warmagus with Warmight and Cursecut can support an Hexer and your damage dealers while still able to cure -you'll just need to bring nectars to revive fallen characters. Beasts also have a revenge-like attack and they have a huge stock of HPs, so they can even take the place of Protectors.

Up to level 23 you can take anyone you want. I arrived there with a Survivalist in my party and no mages (Hexers/Alchemists), but then realized that you need one: as the Hexer's revenge deals non-elemental magic attack there are no enemies resistant to this spell and the damage output is constant...however you are going around with a character with 1 HP, so you'll need a Medic spamming revive a lot and sometimes you'll find your party on the bring of destruction because you won't be able to use Salve or your main DPS will suffer (revenge: less HP, more damage, if you didn't knew).

[Champloo]

Some of that's a bit beyond me as I didn't actually play the first game, but it should make sense once I get a bit further in.

I still haven't had the chance to play it again, so tomorrow hopefully. I've only just managed to finish work for the day.