Kiwi Farms
So, I've been reading through a lot of old forum text-based Lets Plays recently, and I've been on a massive Etrian Odyssey kick lately. So, taking inspiration from those old Neoseeker and Something Awful lets plays, as well as our own culture of playing Pokemon fan games, I'm gonna start up a playthrough of Etrian Odyssey Untold with you guys. Etrian Odyssey is a classic grid-based dungeon crawler where you assemble a guild of adventurers, mapping out your progress on the DS bottom screen, and discovering the mysteries that lie at the bottom (or top) of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. These games are regarded as incredibly difficult, but its that difficulty that makes adventuring dangerous, that makes your decisions matter, and that makes victory taste all the sweeter; a very far cry from most popular JRPGs today like Pokemon and Persona. Its a game thats' going to kick in my teeth a fuck load, and I hope to share that adventure with all of you.
With that, lets get the basics out of the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jievx5zfQps
The title screen for our adventure. As I stated in the blurb at the beginning, our adventure is set in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, and the title screen is a beautiful woodland, with "Spinning the Tale" backing up the visual. If you let this screen hang though, it gives you an anime-ass opening that actually spoils some shit pretty heavily; wouldn't advise watching it. Etrian Odyssey Untold iss a remake of the first Etrian Odyssey for the original Nintendo DS, but with an added, incredibly unnecessary story mode.
We're gonna leave Story mode in the trash and go with the real OG mode, Classic. Unfortunately, there are gonna be a couple negative repercussions that are going to come from not having completed Story Mode, but we'll get to them.
Expert is the only way to play, with all the games in the series being deliberately balanced around it. Standard mode is about on par with Persona's higher difficulties with death still being a real threat, but generally you deal a lot more damage, take significantly less, and you get a retry when you die. Picnic is games journalist mode. The older games in the series (EO1-EO3) had no difficulty settings, like god intended. I can understand why they'd add in these difficulties, but you aren't playing Etrian Odyssey unless you play on Expert. However, for the sake of grinding, I will be utilizing Picnic mode for off screen grinding, everything else will be Expert.
The Radha, governors of Etria, issued a proclamation throughout the continent...
Any able-bodied adventurer was invited to investigate the forest and explore its depths.
But no matter how many came to investigate the dungeon, none gained the renown they sought.
As more adventurers tried and failed to conquer it, it came to be known by a new name...
The Yggdrasil Labyrinth.
You are the latest adventurers to journey to Etria in response to the Radha's proclamation.
You have but one goal: explore the forest to win fame and fortune. Etria is at hand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3w5kZEa_uU
Nothing else to do but head on into the Explorers Guild and get ourselves established.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW08j8LWRRg
"Since you're new here, I'd like to set you up with a veteran group... but not many guilds are recruiting. *sign* Shortsighted treasure hunters care too much about petty trifles to do any real investigation. In any case, if you got the guys, you could make a guild entirely made up of newcomers. There are loads of people just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, eager to join any guild that would take 'em."
"So, you're going to make a guild?"
Yes.
"Great, lets get started. Write down what you would like your guild to be named here in this ledger." This name may someday be known throughout the world, so think carefully before committing to it."
Lets skip this part for the time being.
"[BLANK], huh. Not a bad name. Now that you've got a guild, try getting some adventurers to fill your ranks. If you're bold enough to explore the Labyrinth yourself, you can register your own name as a member. Having more adventurers gives you more options, and less of a chance of dying down there. Give it some thought, and make sure you can recruit a variety of classes into your guild. Let's see... I guess five members is a good number. That's not too many, and not too few."
This is the explorer's guild menu. We can add up to 25 members to our little crew, adjust parties and positions, reset skill points, and eventually reset our character and add bonus stats depending on their level; those latter two options will come when they come though. For now, lets rifle through our class selection.
The stock standard swordsman, good for smacking shit around with swords for accuracy and axes for inaccurate unga bunga. They have solid STR (Strength), good VIT (HP and Defense), and a few supportish skills in their kits, but horrendous TEC (Magic and Magic Defense)
The tank class of the game, and probably the most important one to have in your party at all times. Later on in the Let's Play I'm going to be asking for party compositions to take on bosses with, but Protectors are never, ever going to leave my squad because they're THAT vital. Their skills cut physical damage by large percentages to a row, and completely negate dangerous elemental damage later on.
Our resident kinky damage dealers and disablers. These guys tie up the enemy and inflict debuffs (with fun names like Shackles/Cuffs/Gag,) and capitalize on them by dishing our some really serious damage (Ecstacy/Viper/Climax). They don't have especially high chances of getting those debuffs off (heh) but they have a fair enough shot at it, especially with a Hexer to help out.
Medics are a class that excel in healing, status restoration, and not much else. They are absolute dogshit at attacking, but they do have some interesting use far later on in the game where you can pull death-defying shenanigans with a Protector. He has his uses and he's far from unviable, but there's better out there.
The black mage of our Etrian entourage. They're very, very fragile, but pump out devastating single target and AoE elemental damage with their cool-ass alchemy gloves. These guys are seriously fantastic outside of the frailty.
Lute-toting singers that specialize in buffing allies, specifically their offense and defense. They're pretty simple and don't go much beyond that, but they're still rather useful.
In the original games, this class and Hexer were actually locked until you cleared the 4th Stratum. These guys belong in the front row where they'll be taking lots of damage, but the tradeoff is that they're the premier physical damage class. Only thing I can really call a negative is that one of their skill trees are superior in every way to their other two trees, so they don't have much variety.
The last class we'll be considering, and the companion class to Ronin in that originally it was locked until after the 4th stratum. These guys are all about disables and debuffs, and landing those debuffs and disables are gonna make our lives much easier. Not landing them hurts, but its generally worth it having these guys around.
There are two classes that require playing through the story mode to unlock, that being Highlander and Gunner. These two classes are pretty overpowered, with the Highlander dealing serious damage and buffing everyone else at the cost of a little HP, and Gunner having elemental skills, binds, and one of the most hilariously powerful buffs in the entire series in Double Action. Partially because they're both incredibly strong, and partially because I can't be arsed enough to complete story mode, we won't be using them.
As is Etrian Odyssey let's play tradition, I'm gonna leave you guys to claim a class and character portrait for me to name after you or whatever you'd like me to name them, as well as asking for potential guild names that I'll choose the best from. I'll need a member of each of the classes above and they'll all see some kind of use, so reserve yours quick! I'm also going to be doing the thing EO playthroughs like doing and giving characterization and dialogue to the characters, so if you want me to portray your character a certain way, make sure to include that too. The core of Etrian Odyssey is forging your own narratives with the scant story and the environments inside the labyrinth, and I'm incredibly excited to bring this journey to all of you. This is gonna be a fun project.
With that, lets get the basics out of the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jievx5zfQps
The title screen for our adventure. As I stated in the blurb at the beginning, our adventure is set in the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, and the title screen is a beautiful woodland, with "Spinning the Tale" backing up the visual. If you let this screen hang though, it gives you an anime-ass opening that actually spoils some shit pretty heavily; wouldn't advise watching it. Etrian Odyssey Untold iss a remake of the first Etrian Odyssey for the original Nintendo DS, but with an added, incredibly unnecessary story mode.
We're gonna leave Story mode in the trash and go with the real OG mode, Classic. Unfortunately, there are gonna be a couple negative repercussions that are going to come from not having completed Story Mode, but we'll get to them.
Expert is the only way to play, with all the games in the series being deliberately balanced around it. Standard mode is about on par with Persona's higher difficulties with death still being a real threat, but generally you deal a lot more damage, take significantly less, and you get a retry when you die. Picnic is games journalist mode. The older games in the series (EO1-EO3) had no difficulty settings, like god intended. I can understand why they'd add in these difficulties, but you aren't playing Etrian Odyssey unless you play on Expert. However, for the sake of grinding, I will be utilizing Picnic mode for off screen grinding, everything else will be Expert.
The Radha, governors of Etria, issued a proclamation throughout the continent...
Any able-bodied adventurer was invited to investigate the forest and explore its depths.
But no matter how many came to investigate the dungeon, none gained the renown they sought.
As more adventurers tried and failed to conquer it, it came to be known by a new name...
The Yggdrasil Labyrinth.
You are the latest adventurers to journey to Etria in response to the Radha's proclamation.
You have but one goal: explore the forest to win fame and fortune. Etria is at hand...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3w5kZEa_uU
Nothing else to do but head on into the Explorers Guild and get ourselves established.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW08j8LWRRg
"Since you're new here, I'd like to set you up with a veteran group... but not many guilds are recruiting. *sign* Shortsighted treasure hunters care too much about petty trifles to do any real investigation. In any case, if you got the guys, you could make a guild entirely made up of newcomers. There are loads of people just sitting around twiddling their thumbs, eager to join any guild that would take 'em."
"So, you're going to make a guild?"
Yes.
"Great, lets get started. Write down what you would like your guild to be named here in this ledger." This name may someday be known throughout the world, so think carefully before committing to it."
Lets skip this part for the time being.
"[BLANK], huh. Not a bad name. Now that you've got a guild, try getting some adventurers to fill your ranks. If you're bold enough to explore the Labyrinth yourself, you can register your own name as a member. Having more adventurers gives you more options, and less of a chance of dying down there. Give it some thought, and make sure you can recruit a variety of classes into your guild. Let's see... I guess five members is a good number. That's not too many, and not too few."
This is the explorer's guild menu. We can add up to 25 members to our little crew, adjust parties and positions, reset skill points, and eventually reset our character and add bonus stats depending on their level; those latter two options will come when they come though. For now, lets rifle through our class selection.
The stock standard swordsman, good for smacking shit around with swords for accuracy and axes for inaccurate unga bunga. They have solid STR (Strength), good VIT (HP and Defense), and a few supportish skills in their kits, but horrendous TEC (Magic and Magic Defense)
Survivalists are bow-wielding supporters with some damage alongside it. In the original games they had a lot more ranged damage, but that's been shifted in the remake. Survivalists contribute a decent bit to the party offensively while making navigation through the labyrinth more manageable, plus they utterly shit on Medic's healing abilities lol
The tank class of the game, and probably the most important one to have in your party at all times. Later on in the Let's Play I'm going to be asking for party compositions to take on bosses with, but Protectors are never, ever going to leave my squad because they're THAT vital. Their skills cut physical damage by large percentages to a row, and completely negate dangerous elemental damage later on.
Our resident kinky damage dealers and disablers. These guys tie up the enemy and inflict debuffs (with fun names like Shackles/Cuffs/Gag,) and capitalize on them by dishing our some really serious damage (Ecstacy/Viper/Climax). They don't have especially high chances of getting those debuffs off (heh) but they have a fair enough shot at it, especially with a Hexer to help out.
Medics are a class that excel in healing, status restoration, and not much else. They are absolute dogshit at attacking, but they do have some interesting use far later on in the game where you can pull death-defying shenanigans with a Protector. He has his uses and he's far from unviable, but there's better out there.
The black mage of our Etrian entourage. They're very, very fragile, but pump out devastating single target and AoE elemental damage with their cool-ass alchemy gloves. These guys are seriously fantastic outside of the frailty.
Lute-toting singers that specialize in buffing allies, specifically their offense and defense. They're pretty simple and don't go much beyond that, but they're still rather useful.
In the original games, this class and Hexer were actually locked until you cleared the 4th Stratum. These guys belong in the front row where they'll be taking lots of damage, but the tradeoff is that they're the premier physical damage class. Only thing I can really call a negative is that one of their skill trees are superior in every way to their other two trees, so they don't have much variety.
The last class we'll be considering, and the companion class to Ronin in that originally it was locked until after the 4th stratum. These guys are all about disables and debuffs, and landing those debuffs and disables are gonna make our lives much easier. Not landing them hurts, but its generally worth it having these guys around.
There are two classes that require playing through the story mode to unlock, that being Highlander and Gunner. These two classes are pretty overpowered, with the Highlander dealing serious damage and buffing everyone else at the cost of a little HP, and Gunner having elemental skills, binds, and one of the most hilariously powerful buffs in the entire series in Double Action. Partially because they're both incredibly strong, and partially because I can't be arsed enough to complete story mode, we won't be using them.
As is Etrian Odyssey let's play tradition, I'm gonna leave you guys to claim a class and character portrait for me to name after you or whatever you'd like me to name them, as well as asking for potential guild names that I'll choose the best from. I'll need a member of each of the classes above and they'll all see some kind of use, so reserve yours quick! I'm also going to be doing the thing EO playthroughs like doing and giving characterization and dialogue to the characters, so if you want me to portray your character a certain way, make sure to include that too. The core of Etrian Odyssey is forging your own narratives with the scant story and the environments inside the labyrinth, and I'm incredibly excited to bring this journey to all of you. This is gonna be a fun project.