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Glad to see you're enjoying it! Also glad to hear it's fairly challenging and that it shakes up the labyrinths' formula. I don't have much time to play these days, and I progress very slowly because I force myself to translate all the main dialog, but I'm still really into it. I like my NS/I/SHO/WM/NIN party but I feel very fragile still. My buffing potential is indeed very low, although I got all the debuffs and ailments I could want. Arcanist does sound very appealing for its FORCE. Doesn't it reset the ailment adherence rate? I might change my NIN for an ARC cause he's been pretty underwhelming so far (Kagerou sucks now too. No provoke). And EOIII music is my jam! Also, I thought the new EOX battle theme would be a letdown, but I'm warming up to it! (1:05 is the best part!)

So I left the first labyrinth after only 1 floor and now I'm in Etrian Odyssey 4. Litterally. The first floor of this here new dungeon is the exact same as the first from EO4, and I'm fighting baboons and grasshoppers and stuff. Even the bear foes are at the same place as they used to be. I knew strata would come back but I didn't know it'd be exactly the same maps. The battle music too is from EO4. I suppose it'll diverge as I go deeper down the floors, but I was still surprised. Before I entered, some adventurers from Tharsis (the EO4 city) were saying "I know this place". My guess is that the island of Lemuria, for some lore reasons that make no real sense, will aggregate all other instances of the World Trees. They mentionned 7 World Trees in the prologue, and there's been 7 other mainline entries in the series, so I'd wager there'll be references to all the past titles. By the way, EOX is technically the 10th entry if we include the mystery dungeon spinoffs so the X has a deeper meaning to that effect. On the JP Website (I think that's where I saw that), there's also reference to 10 years, 10 titles... It truly is supposed to be the end of the 3DS and DS era, huh? Also, I gave her the chuunibyou voice type... And I love it!

I'm excited for this! PQ1 was a decent EO clone and more EO is usually a good thing. I wonder if Naoto will still be op...

I haven't gone too far yet but I'm enjoying it a whole lot! Playing on Heroic, I found the beginning floor to be more challenging than past entries'. The intro was really slow. The setup is that the flying city of Maginia, led by the princess Persephone Maginias (she's the one handing out Missions), set out to explore the yet unexplored island of Lemuria with a bunch of explorers. There is a World Tree there, and the promise of some sort of relinquished treasure is fueling hopes. You happen to be on board but aren't officially sanctionned just yet. Upon landing, there is no labyrinth to explore, as the land is unknown. It is implied that acknowledged guilds are searching the island for points of interest. Gunther Mueller (that name...) is the guild master and helps the creation of your original party. But he says you can't be admitted to the princess headquarter until you have proven your worth. He thus encourages you to go to the bar and take on Quests. From the Japanese, I couldn't really understand if he meant to acknowledge you as full-fledged adventurers upon the completion of a few Quests but, as one would expect, everything works out in the end. The barkeep is a japanese caricature of a middle-aged queer, so you you know... Anyway, his name is something like Klaus or Kvas (can't remember). Now, and this is where the game starts to open up, the two quests he gives you finally let you leave the city! But there is no labyrinth to explore! Instead, from the cool-looking world map, you choose to go to points of interest where text-based events occur. One of them ended up in my first fight, the other resolved itself through dialog choices. Those events completed, upon turning them in at the bar, you learn of the lost Brigitte-chan, who disappeared north of town. You thus set out to investigate her whereabouts at an inconpicuous point of interest... There, you save Brigitte-chan from flesh-eating koalas or something and, after agreeing to look for her friend ライカ who is like a younger sister to her, you investigate the surrounding. What you find is what you were looking for: a title screen on which is written "First Labyrinth BF1". The setting is that of ruins overgrown by jungle-like vegetation (reminiscient of EO1 Stratum 2 to me). I found the area noticeably darker than past entries' first stratum. The recurring theme of the area is smell. Everything stinks in there! Some enemies are skunks, and many EOV-type events are centered around bad odors! Upon finding ライカ for Brigitte-chan, you realize that ライカ is a dog and its romanized name of Laika now makes a lot more sense. You then decide to go back to town with Brigitte-chan and report that you found ruins to the princess. Long story short, you are praised by Persephone who offers you to prove your worth by mapping the new Labyrinth you just discovered. You thus set out for the ruins map in hand to complete what has been the first Mission of everey EO thus far: map some stuff. But this time there's a twist! You can't complete this Mission without killing what ends up being the game's first boss: a really intimidating plant monster that actually managed to wipe my party (and I was really glad to be so challenged!). I killed it on my second try and then stopped playing. As you can see I haven't progressed much, but as I'm trying to learn new Kanjis along the way, it can sometime be arduous to keep a brisk pace. Enough story rambling, unto gameplay stuff: My initial party is Nightseeker, Imperial, Shogun, War Magus and Ninja. I'm heavy on ailments but I might be lacking in the defense boosting department, nothing that can't be remedied by subclassing later on I hope. I'm enjoying the setup thus far but it is somewhat fragile. I hadn't realized the armor limitation of the shogun prior to adding it to my party but I'll try working around it as I enjoy dual-wielding classes. Speaking of subclass, it's been a while since I played EO4 but I'm excited to try out combos once the system is unlocked! My dodge tanking ninja dream might yet be possible! The Force system of EOU2 is back and, although there's no Fafnir, it's still a lot of fun. The reason I didn't win my first encounter with the plant monster was because I didn't properly force break. I thus have reasons to believe its usage will be determinant during FOE/Boss fights, which is exciting! If you haven't noticed yet, I really like the game up to now! It's holding my attention a lot more than EOV (which I also played in Japanese, though I was a real beginner back then; I am now intermediate I'd say so my understanding might be a factor). I can't wait to dive back in! Have a good day!

Etrian Odyssey X just came out in Japan! Any fans of the series around here? I downloaded it and will properly dig into it after work! Many of the series' classes are coming back and I'm excited to try out those I previously overlooked. The new Hero class sounds interesting but its afterimage ability doesn't pair well with ninja clones (also backline afterimages sounds lame). I originally planned on going with a bulky melee frontline with an Imperial, Shogun and Hero, but it might change if I choose a ninja in the back. Also, even though swords are dope, I will probably need pierce and bash damage so... I might have to rethink my whole setup! Anyway, I might post some impressions later!

I hadn't realized that skill affected Concoct. It was already the main reason I kept Alf around and this makes it even better!

I was fighting Tressa's last boss and everything was going dandy and then it was Primrose turn and I 4xBoosted her weird random dance thing for the hell of it and then the ground exploded under my feet. She was my main mage so her elm atk was through the roof. I finally saw what the Game Over screen looks like.

Congratulations to all winners and may the losers still smile! I had fun! See you on the other side!

Inflates himself just like a balloon!

He's apparently a master tactician!

Even though flag burning ought to be illegal, I'll burn my 400 flags for Julia.

Well I can agree with that at least!

I don't believe I was too harsh except maybe with that last statement. Don't want to insult anyone here. Sorry if I did. Well then, good luck on the last run!

Personally, I just don't understand what's appealing about her.

Rip Leo . Hope you join the new initiative against Tharja led by the murderer of your beloved. (How bittersweet)