Etrian Odyssey II: An RPG for the old-timers

[caelitus]

I just picked up this game for the Nintendo DS not too long ago... What a pleasant surprise.

If you miss the old school RPGs of yesterday, and are put off by modern RPGs that focus more on cutscenes and love stories, then keep reading...

Etrian Odyssey II is a game that focuses on exploration, and telling the story through gameplay. You navigate the huge sprawling dungeon through a first person view on the top screen, while the bottom screen displays your map. The map ends up being one of the more interesting features of the game: you literally map out the dungeon with your stylus, creating walls, floor tiles, doors, points of interest, and notes as you go. The fighting is all turn based, and there are 12 classes to choose from, with the max party size being 5. You choose the name and 1 of 4 portraits for every class.

This game is not forgiving. I'm not gonna lie, my first party all died before I was able to save. I pretty much dove right into the dungeon with my party, and as I was taking my time exploring, the random encounters whittled my party down to nothing. The game doesn't hold your hand, and there are many difficult monsters in the dungeon that can and will wipe your party with 1 attack.

Anyway, TLDR version:

If you like oldschool RPGs like Dragon Warrior, Bard's Tale, Wizardry, you will like Etrian Odyssey II.

http://www.atlus.com/etrian2/

[Elge]

Atlus Co. never ceases to amaze me. Their Shin Megami Tensei franchise easily rivals the FF titles in my book, and it's arguably even more popular than the Final Fantasy stable over in Japan. Never count out the underdogs.

Also as a sidenote:

This game is not forgiving. I'm not gonna lie, my first party all died before I was able to save.

Yep. Atlus' games are NEVER forgiving. One of the hardest RPGs I've ever played was Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne.

[Molnu]

Looks pretty decent. Might pick it up while I wait for OB.

[Gobbomancer]

A hard RPG? Man, I am going to have to give this a try. I miss the days of RPGS where you could actually die, they were tough. Without quest markers pointing you everywhere.

Now to find a DS...

[Elge]

Originally Posted by Gobbomancer

A hard RPG? Man, I am going to have to give this a try. I miss the days of RPGS where you could actually die, they were tough. Without quest markers pointing you everywhere.

Now to find a DS...

As I said, Atlus RPGs are rarely easy. Check out any of the Shin Megami Tensei RPGs for the PS2 (Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, Nocturne, or Persona 3).

[Nerissa]

Final Fantasy 3 can be devilish.



Although this is more of a function of the fact that you can't save in a dungeon and some bosses that like to say "no, I'm going to cast my super powerful all-target spell twice in a row before you get your turn" than anything else. Getting wiped out sends you back to the dungeon entrance.... frustrating game.

[Noli me Tangere]

Originally Posted by Elge

As I said, Atlus RPGs are rarely easy. Check out any of the Shin Megami Tensei RPGs for the PS2 (Digital Devil Saga 1 and 2, Nocturne, or Persona 3).

Persona 4's for the PS2 too. Atlus' games seem to take great pleasure in 'trying' to kill their players.

[Elge]

Originally Posted by Noli me Tangere

Persona 4's for the PS2 too. Atlus' games seem to take great pleasure in 'trying' to kill their players.

Yeah, it is, I just didn't include it cause it's not released yet. But you're exactly right. It's not necessarily that the games are...hard. It's just that Atlus is mean. I remember having nightmares after being Mudo-spammed near the end of Persona 3.

For those that don't know, Mudo is a spell that has a chance to insta-kill a single party member, or Mudoon, the entire party. It's a darkness-based spell and certain characters are weak to dark-based attacks. Needless to say...it was effective.

[Nerissa]

Originally Posted by Elge

For those that don't know, Mudo is a spell that has a chance to insta-kill a single party member, or Mudoon, the entire party. It's a darkness-based spell and certain characters are weak to dark-based attacks. Needless to say...it was effective.

Sounds frustrating. That sort of 'DM vs Players' mentality is a bit off-putting, since eventually the game will just resort to just trying to cheap-kill your characters.

[Elge]

Originally Posted by Nerissa

Sounds frustrating. That sort of 'DM vs Players' mentality is a bit off-putting, since eventually the game will just resort to just trying to cheap-kill your characters.

Yeah, but it still evens itself out because you have access to all of the same spells, and even enemies vary in weaknesses; so if you're up against a group of enemies that are weak to Darkness, you can Mudo-spam as well. Even in some rare cases, there are certain high-leveled enemies that are weak ONLY to these types of spells.

[Arbiter Libera]

Holy crap, I agree with your opinion about Etrian Dynasty 2.
1st I was like "WTH? I almost died in a first fight", sentiment that was soon replaced with "Wow... this is actually challenging".

[Molnu]

I picked up this game today, I already died on my first mission -_-

I'm getting the hang of it though. It's a hard game. Level 1 mobs hitting my tank for almost half his health with defense buffs and provoke (increases defense) and defense skills o_O

EDIT: HOLY CRAP first boss is ridiculous. I'm going to be grinding all way tomorrow if I want to defeat him O_O

[caelitus]

Originally Posted by Molnu

I picked up this game today, I already died on my first mission -_-

I'm getting the hang of it though. It's a hard game. Level 1 mobs hitting my tank for almost half his health with defense buffs and provoke (increases defense) and defense skills o_O

EDIT: HOLY CRAP first boss is ridiculous. I'm going to be grinding all way tomorrow if I want to defeat him O_O

Yeah I wasn't happy with my tank so I totally revamped him. I pumped up shields to 10, and started putting points in Smite, so he's more of a heavily armored MDPS now.

[Molnu]

I have shields 2... regen 2... hp 1... and provoke 1 so far.

I have a protector / war magus / gunner / medic / troubadour

[caelitus]

that looks like a pretty good config IMO

lots of support, and your gunner will lay the smack down with ricochet