LogFAQs > #907824795

this is a really difficult question to answer because they have pros and cons that are very heavily subjective. someone who hates the first two games might love the later games. someone who likes the later ones... will probably still be able to go back and enjoy the earlier games, I would think, but maybe not.

anyway uh

I still think EO1 and 2 are probably the best constructed games in the series due to their simplicity. 2 is especially a standout for me because it improved the game balance of EO1 without screwing anything major up. both of these games have remake versions called Etrian Odyssey Untold 1 and Etrian Odyssey Untold 2. these polish things up a bit and add an optional story mode if you prefer to play the game with a story, but you can also choose to play without the story if you want to play the original way the game was intended (with a minimal story that revolves directly around the player stand-in exploring the dungeon).

Etrian Odyssey 3 is a very good game but I think it lacks the simplicity that EO1 and EO2 have. It's very, very common for first time players to stall out at a certain point in this game because of the 'outside of town' features and the overwhelming amount of choices the game dumps into your lap when subclasses are added. the ability to do these subclass mixes is cool, but the game doesn't really give you any indication of how you should do it or why certain builds work. this often leads to players making really bad party compositions and losing interest in the game as a result, or, worse, you can stumble onto broken combinations by accident (or just by looking them up, they're fairly well known) and just ruin the game for yourself by making it piss easy.

Etrian Odyssey 4 is hot garbage and I really don't like the fact that this game gets any love at all. I did replay it recently and my opinion of it improved slightly but I would NEVER, EVER recommend this game to anyone under any circumstances. they stripped out everything that made etrian odyssey great by simplifying the class skill trees. now I know I said the simplicity of EO1 and EO2 were great, but those had skill trees that forced you to make choices. this game -- does not. you simply go in a straight line and pick up the relevant skills in an order that the game director decided for you. fuck this fucking game. flying the airship around outside of town is also something that maybe sounds cool but it's actually incredibly tedious. every other game allows you to warp directly into the dungeons and that's a billion times more convenient considering how often you need to do it.

Etrian Odyssey 5 is a true return to form. it reminds me of EO1 and EO2 in many, many ways while still bringing a ton of new features to the series. I think this was done incredibly well. while it does make me sad that there are many, many different things in this game that don't "feel" true to Etrian Odyssey for me -- I kinda hate the race based system and yearn for the older games which just had humans -- everything else in this game is so good that it makes up for it and still leaves me thinking it's on the same tier as the first two games, if just below them. it has the dungeon design, class balance, and simply enjoyment that I love about this series.

tl;dr

EO1 or EO2 are the absolute best choice, and you can buy the Untold version to experience them with a fresh coat of paint. among those I think EO2 is definitely better and is almost certainly where the series peaked.

if you must play one of the newer games, EO5 is the better choice among them by far... because it's the one that actually returned to the features that made EO1 and EO2 great. it does have some points that I think are lame, but everything else about it is so well done that I wouldn't hate you for playing this game first.

EO3 I would say stay away due to accessibility issues

EO4 I would say stay away because it's garbage
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