Etrian Odyssey III: the drowned city

[briareos_kerensky]

We're back going down with Etrian Odyssey's third chapter, as opposed to climbing a stairway to heaven of Heroes of Lagaard.

Set in the coastal city of Armoroad, EO3 opens up like any other EO: assign a name to the guild, register some characters and receive the task of mapping part of the first floor by the city's ruling body.

There are ten starting classes in EO3 with a completely different look and names from the previous classes. Unfortunately most of these new classes behave like their "classic" counterparts: Hoplites as Protectors, Zodiacs as Alchemists, Monks as Medics and Gladiators as Landsnknechts (Landsnknechtes ?).
Despite similarities all these classes have received new secondary skills to set them apart from their ancestors...well, mostly. Gladiators are still the primary damage dealers and Hoplites sound even more tanks than Protectors.

Prince and Princesses are support units able to buff attack and defense, bestow elemental properties to allies and more importantly heal them at every turn, at the end of each battle or by simply walking around with three different passive skills.
Farmers are a completely new class that focuses on gathering and support skills and essentially embodies the support traits of the old Survivalist, properly enhanced.
Arbalists on the other hand are the Survivalists' heir for the offensive skills.

I still have to try out Wildlings and Ninjas.

All characters now have two skill sets: one class specific and one common, that groups extra HPs, extra TPs, gathering skills (all available to all classes) and surprisingly enough a skill to get more EXP; all characters are able to heal other characters outside battles with a dedicated skill, making the party less dependent on curative items and healing classes.

All new characters get three skill points upon creation and one skill point per level.
Completing quests not only gives you the promised reward but also extra EXP when reporting back; still have to face an F.O.E. but I guess they're back to give precious EXP.

Limit skills have been reworked: the party starts off with three limit skills that must be set to a determined number of characters to be used. For example Cross Slash requires two character to equip the limit skill, which can be used when both limit bars are full.

Current party is composed by a Gladiator, a Zodiac, a Hoplite, a Princess and a Monk; two healing classes are a bit too much, though they both have positive points: the Princess heals passively and buffs allies, but only the Monk is able to learn resurrection or mass healing during battles.
I'll probably switch one of them out for a Buccaneer for a provoke/retaliate combo, but then again I still have to see how two starting classes are.

More impressions as I venture further inside the new Yggdrasil Labyrinth.

[briareos_kerensky]

Completely misunderstood Buccaneers: they don't retaliate enemy attacks (it's something that Monks can do) but they follow up specific types of allied attacks, depending on the skill and weapon equipped. They can act from either lines and can equipped with a sword or a gun. With a gun they have access to skills similar to EO2 Gunner's while swords skills are somewhat similar to Ronin's elemental katana skills.
The downside is that skills are divided by element and damage type, so a Buccaneer might see his/her usefulness severely diminished if party composition changes.

Right now the tactic is for the Hoplite to draw enemies' attention and absorb damage, the Princess passively heals the party every turn while other dish damage, with the Buccaneer shadowing party attacks plus her own.

[briareos_kerensky]

Capitalism, Ho!

After spending level points in combat-related skills, I decided to invest one point in chop to begin gathering. Gathered items are worth more than monster drops but are limited one per day and to "recharge" gathering skills you have to go out the Labyrinth and enter it again.
Storing items at the inn is 100en per item and items sold by the shop are quite expensive for parties exploring the first strati.
It's easy to understand why everyone has a either a huge broad smile or a smirk on their face, they know you can't survive without them.

Average party level is 7 and now things are beginning to pay off. Provoke has a good chance to draw enemy attacks on the character with the highest defense (Hoplite), allowing the Princess to cure 18HPs per turn while enhancing the front line with attack or defense buffs. Not enough the Princess is starting to heal the party when the battle is won, so HPs aren't a big problem. Death is, but the store still doesn't carry revival items and the Buccaneer proved to be a good damage dealer, though follow-up skills require some patience to build up. Next time I will try out the Wildling, but I'm not sure if I'll ever use Arbalists...well, I still need to carefully read all abilities and so who fits better in the current party.

After the initial task to trace the map of B1F, it is possible to set sail in the sea around Armoroad. To set sail you have to buy provisions that will limit how many tiles you can move; moving around the sea is the same as moving inside the Labyrinth and there still are tiles that force your movement (but increasing your range), tiles that bog down the ship and various events. Traveling north during the night I've got a "bad omen moon" that cut my remaining provisions by half, as well as fishes to collect for extra money. If setting sail at the right moment you can get a lot of money by fishing, but sometimes you set sail to return empty handed.
Current task at sea is to reach the old Lighthouse to free it from a giant bird preventing people to repair it. Approaching the Lighthouse from the wrong direction and the giant bird destroys your ship, an other side of the island has currents forcing your ship astray and probably more long-lasting provisions are needed; an other sea quest is to give an farmer some bark, but I still need to find it around the Labyrinth.

Conquering B1F meant that I could go on to B2F, where the first encounter decimated my party, one hit from a big green bird and one dead character.
Also, F.O.E. the game is so kind to warn you about the glowing orange ball of hate moving around the Labyrinth by hint to synch party movement with the F.O.E's own, but after a short while there's an other GBoH blocking your path and the big green bird seems to be in all encounters.
This means more experience for the party but also TP shortages, that made me switch to TP up or skills that help characters recover their own TPs (Zodiacs can with every enemy they defeat and even cast a spell to nullify TP expenditure for other characters).

So EO3 is shaping up to be an other great EO chapter. After hitting level 10 I'll try my hand at the F.O.E., being sure that it will kill the whole party in one hit.

Random changes from EO2 I noticed are: limit bar do not reset upon death or leaving the Labyrinth and charges faster, but limit skills are less powerful than before: no more Dark Hunter-style complete body binding to gag bosses with fairly good probabilities, but attacks somewhat more powerful than standard attacks that do not make characters skip their turn.
The clock ticks during battles too and even the first floor has a lot of hidden passages to speed up exploration and going back and forth in the first strati.

There's an autowalk function: set icons on the map, enter a tile with said icon and the party will move along the path, still encountering monsters but freeing the player from pressing directions or strafing. Autowalk can be set off in the options menu and once started it can be turned off and of course it's possible to completely ignore it.

Technically there isn't much to say. Labyrinth graphics are a bit better than EO3 but still basic (and looking somewhat pixelated on a DSi XL). Combat is still represented by two rows of boxes for your party while monster are figured as static sprites with minimal effects for hits, magics, buffs and so on: simple but functional as any EO, it's part of its charm.
The first monsters are flying, ball-like red Piranhas (seaside forest...), frogs (at least the game says they are) and felines; B2F introduces platypuses, big green birds and frog recolors. Yay. Still haven't seen any sea monster.
No more butterflies killing you with a flutter of wings, which is nice.

Dungeon BGMs aren't far from the previous games while city BGMs are catchy and nice to ear, though they are the usual short-lived loops. No voices to speak off, but I don't complain.

[briareos_kerensky]

Tried to outfit the party with a Wildling and a Farmer and now I'm considering to ditch the Zodiac to have them both. I ditched elemental magic in Lagaard too, but because there were Hexers right from the start.

They both are support characters, Wildlings help in battles and Farmers outside.
The former summons beasts into battle as sixth party member with automatic attacks. Basic summons inflict bindings and can be recalled to get back all TPs spent on summoning them. The trick is to do this before the end of the battle or before the beast dies or the TPs are gone just like a normal spell. Binds are working well on B1F and B2F enemies even with one or two skill points allocated and more advanced summons can inflict status changes too.

Farmers can gather all three kinds of items (take/chop/mine) with one skill (as opposed for one gather point to the dedicated skill), enhance party EXP gains, item drop rates and automatically revive fallen allies at camps; plus they have a off-battle revive skill, which is nice way to save on Elixirs.

Camps are a new addition of EO3, they are dedicated spots were the party can use an item (the tent) to regain HP and TP. Camping does not replenish all points like resting at the inn but the Farmer has a skill to increase camping effectiveness.

I'll try out a Zodiac-free party when I get back from the current Labyrinth trip.

[abigsmurf]

Fairly interested in it. Like that there's now a whole lot more viable part setups than the first one.

[briareos_kerensky]

Another party swap and I'm now with an Arbalist replacing the Zodiac.
With both the Wildling and Farmer the damage output per turn was a bit low, so I decided to test out an Arbalist and I was surprised. Unlike Survivalists or Gunners, Arbalists focus on range combat, ditching most support skills. Damage output is great and there's a skill that further enhance it the more HPs the enemy has. There's the revisited version of the Apollon that strikes in just one turn, a full set of elemental attacks as well as multiple enemy, multiple hit attacks.

And so I'm quite happy with a party of:
* Aina, Gladiator: all female warriors since Disgaea are named Aina. Main damage dealer.
* Triela, Hoplite: because she looks exactly the same as the homonymous character from Gunslinger Girl. Main job is to provoke monsters to hit her, keeping the back line (and the Princess) safe.
* Erika, Arbalist: secondary damage dealer.
* Devilotte, Princess: main healer of the group and combat-oriented support.
* Arisu, Farmer: a.k.a. the Little Red Riding Hood; gathering and off-battle support skills like reviving ("Slap Awake") and improving camp effectiveness. Also increases EXP gained.

Without a Monk I don't have in-battle skills to heal, revive and remove status ailments, so right now everything revolves around keeping the Princess in top shape for turn-to-turn healing. TP and item -free healing is nice, but I fear that relying on items during lengthy battles (F.O.E.s, bosses) might be a problem. Removing the Princess for a Monk will also require some changes to my current Farmer, but trading buffs for a mediocre damage dealer (I doubt there will be enough skill points to invest in fist mastery) is something I'll have to consider.

Up till now I failed mentioning forging, a new mechanic. Certain weapons come with slots that can be used to increase their usefulness by adding status effects, stats enhancers and other effects.
Forging is performed at the shop and effects can only be bestowed with the correct hammer (Flash Hammer for Blindess, Volt Hammer for Thunder Effect and so on), items rewarded by clearing quests.

[briareos_kerensky]

And the first F.O.E. goes down! Not as powerful as the first F.O.E. in EO2, but its attacks dealt poison too and had a lot of HPs. The party performed well, the Hoplite withstood a good amount of damage and had to heal her with an item only once, otherwise the Princess was able to at least mitigate the poison. Hoplites can Shrug Off status ailments and Gladiator have their own equivalent, which partially solves the problem of bringing around "normalizing" items.

Sea exploration goes well and turned out to be the best way to get some money; I though that pirate ships acted as monster, instead they just crash your ship forcing the party back to town and pay for the repairs, like vortexes.
Traded some cedar for goat cheese that expanded my exploration capability to 16 turns, which allowed me to explore the other side of the Lighthouse I'm supposed to liberate. But "the other side" is full of current tiles forcing boat movement so I need to chart the area well before going for the Lighthouse.

[briareos_kerensky]

Lighthouse reached.
This opened up sea quests, co-op fights where two players mix their parties to take on a common foe. Sea quests can be done solo and in this case the AI will control a predefined number of NPCs with the remaining slots filled by your characters.
The best thing about sea quest is that they replenish health and TP when done, which means EXP and free resting in one go.

Labyrinth exploration continues, now reached B4F by dodging most of the F.O.E.s.
Met an high number of NPCs for EO standards in these first four floors, most are story-related (like getting the Senate approval to go on with the exploration) and with a couple encounters used to explain new features like camps.

So far, loving it.

[briareos_kerensky]

First Stratum cleared.
A bit disappointed there were only 4 floors, but I guess the ocean compensates for less floors...but I was expecting 5 floors, so I can't help it, I'm disappointed.
However the boss fight was a great encounter: not a simple fight against a powerful monster,

->Open Spoiler<-

but a whole act that required some thinking on how to do things: the first boss is called Narmer, a giant catfish. Narmer moves around a room filled with sticky tiles (take two steps to enter one), making impossible to meet it head on; Narmer doesn't move every time the party moves from a tile making possible to catch it near corners, using the hidden path outside the room.
Once Narmer is caught the battle begins; as it hits half HPs, it will run and summon five F.O.E.s and the hunt begins anew. It is possible to retreat outside the floor to heal and gain TPs back but this will heal the boss, so it' again a matter of navigating through sticky tiles, hidden paths and F.O.E.s to bring the boss down.

It was an extremely pleasant diversion from how bosses and F.O.E.s fought in EO and EOII that really got me excited about future bosses.

[briareos_kerensky]

My idea of starting again to play BlazBlue CS have been thwarted by the twisting corridors of B7F.

Currently the lowest floor I've been is B8F, which could be the last floor in the second stratum.
Unhappy

->Open Spoiler<-

with F.O.E.s chasing you,

developers made

->Open Spoiler<-

several false staircases between B7F and B8F, a lot of dead ends and traps where other F.O.E.s pop around the unsuspecting party.

Olympia, a friendly character met on the first floor

->Open Spoiler<-

turned foe and this time around the evil mastermind has been revealed even before reaching the last stratum.

The story right now doesn't sound as far fetched as Japanese developer could and any kind of surprise on how technologically advanced the drowned city could be is lost for whoever played the first two games and read the various hints at the bar.
At least it's constant between all games and the higher count of NPCs you can interact do not spoil the Labyrinth exploration, which is still great.

Compared to the first two games there are a lot more shortcuts to navigate quickly from a floor to the other, but comparing their number between the first two strati in EOIII sees lesser shortcuts between B1F and B2F.

Sea exploration goes well, uncovered two more cities and exploring on a boat has its charm: choosing provisions and equipment allows to reach (or not) different places and do different things. Due to high costs of long-range provisions and good fishing equipment, the number of pure fishing expeditions to get cash tend to decrease as the game progress; more often than not starting a sea charting session will see the party losing money, but upon reaching a city the reward are extra sea quests which in turn bring experience, items and unique equipment, plus a free HP and TP filling for all members taking part in the fight.

Not only characters can be customized with various skills, but the party as a whole can be customized with different limit tactics.
The first three tactics are free and more can be uncovered through Labyrinth or sea exploration. Now I've uncovered one limit tactic that gives all party members almost 100% critical rate for 5 turns and one that increases strength for the same number. Add the Princess' Attack Order and the damage the party can inflict is quite substantial.
Better yet, when the Princess is using such tactics, she heals the party and recovers TPs thanks to two of her skills.

The Prince/Princess class is not as powerful as Monks for healing, nor they have dedicated "on-command" skills, but they heal constantly and heal lines while delivering buffs; not enough, they regain TPs when receiving buffs (even from themselves) and when buff effect ends...not at a tremendous rate, but they still regain TPs for free.

[briareos_kerensky]

Third Stratum.

2nd boss was a simple battle that was fairly easy at level 30. Bosses have a lot HPs, more than previous games, so attack buffs are highly recommended when facing them.
I'm quite happy with my Arbalist and her 4'000en bow and 5 point Giant Killing (half of the total skill) which enhances attacks against targets with tons of HPs. Aina, although she's not as effective as Erika (Arbalist) against bosses and F.O.E.s; she's a powerhouse against normal enemies, but I'm somewhat lacking in the pure damage department, so I'm considering to get a replacement for the Hoplite, maybe with a Buccaneer, but so far the party works and I'm happy with my choices.

After being a bit disappointed by the straightforward approach of the second boss, EOIII

->Open Spoiler<-

surprises by having the party reaching the Deep City.
What I thought was a stratum all by itself is a true city, with its own regent, an inn (this time run by a proper girl, not that maybe-it's-a-trap character in Armoroad), a shop and the ability to add subclasses to your characters.
When reaching the Deep City there are two choices to make but right now I don't know how they will affect the story except for some lines between the two.
Whatever you get, Armoroad and the Deep City start what seems a friendly relationship and the King of the Deep City offers you a mission...explore the Labyrinth to get down to B10F and talk to Chtu...erm, a Deep One, apparently evil beings threatening mankind.
Also got a Star key to open certain doors on the previous floors, but the first door revealed two red F.O.E.s, so

I got back to town, saved and quit.

Tomorrow is off to the sea again, maybe reaching the Third stratum opened up new options.

[Psyduck]

I've been put off this by the whole map drawing stuff. Is it essential? My touchscreen is a bit dodgy so it'll make the game a nightmare if so, but otherwise I'd love to try this.

[briareos_kerensky]

It is.
The touchscreen holds a completely blank canvas when you enter a new floor and the game automatically fills tiles you've walked on, but then you have to draw walls, note events, where up/down stairs are, place where particular tiles are and so on. In previous games the mapping feature was also present in the endgame as beating the "final" boss opened up a new stratum and sometimes new areas in already visited floors.

[briareos_kerensky]

Third stratum exploration started.
Sub-oceanic volcano. Graphics are quite pleasant, new battle music and environmental hazards to overcome. B9F is filled with worm-like F.O.E.s that actively hunt you down as long as they see you: turn a corner and they'll return to their starting positions. I've tried to battle one but it decimated my party, so it's still about running from them until level 38 or so, with the party average being 32. The Princess just hit level 34 and everyone except the Arbalist is at level 33 and I'm spending skill points in pumping HPs to the maximum.

Discovered a third city going around the southern seas which rewarded me with a cannon to sink red pirates. A previously saved craftsman upgraded my ship to accept one more equipment slot and Armoroad asked me to take care of the pirates lurking around.

[briareos_kerensky]

Sub classes rock.

Adding a sub does not limit the main class in any way, it only adds the ability to the possibility to chose from the majority of skills available to the chosen sub class. Once chosen sub classes cannot be changed, but having a character rest (and retiring, I suppose), reset this choice.

Choosing a sub class gives a character 5 skill points which can be spent on any available main or sub class skill, so they are worth getting for just the extra points.

Wandering in a volcano took its toll on Devilotte's healing skills, so Arisu became a Farmer Monk. I let Arisu rest (resetting her skill point with a 5 levels decrement) which allowed me to move points from Lullaby, Strange Seeds and Camp Mastery (never used Lullaby, Strange Seeds always failed and never camped) to Monk skills. While still limited, now I have full party heal and revive during battles, as well as full healing for a single character. Unfortunately a sub Monk doesn't have access to Form Qi (increases healing efficiency) and so I'm thinking of changing to a Monk Farmer, but that will be when Arisu is at level 70.

Devilotte became a Princess Gladiator (a title that recalls several R18 Japanese games...oh well) to have more increase her damage output with the sword, but that will be secondary to buffs and TP recovery skills.

Aina subbed to Arbalist...she's a Gladiator but skills using maces have a low accuracy and Arbalists have a skill to increase skill accuracy, plus a skill that makes them able to recover HP for each enemy defeated.

Triela (Phalanx) and Erika (Arbalist) still don't have a sub class and I don't know what they could benefit of...thinking of Ninja for Triela (cloning skills) and Zodiac for Erika (TP recovery for each kill), but I'm not really sure.