Board 8 > I have the patience for exactly one Etrian Odyssey game

(+) Yeah! (+)

which is best?
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the latest one I think? or maybe it was the one before that. @MariaTaylor is pretty knowledgeable
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Persona Q2
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4 or 5.
1 and 2 are a bit hard to get into now and the remakes still don't make it as good as 3 to 5. 3 is amazing but the mechanics in 4 and 5 are generally easier for new people to get into. Especially true of 5 as they focused more on dungeon and had a bunch of the newer improvements. 3 and 4 can be monsters of content whereas 5 is just good focused content and still quite meaty.
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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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1. before the ACHSHUALLY brigade shows up yes I know EO2 had the ability to create a Beast to put into your party. we all know this is different from having elves and hobbits running around you dipshits.

2. wang is a very bad human being for recommending 4 to any person. especially not as their first game.

3. you can go back and play 3 later if you end up liking the series. it's still a good game but it's not kind to new players at all, plus there are three games in the series (1, 2, and 5) that are just flat out better anyway.

4. since koala is the one who tagged me initially I actually thought I was responding to him in this topic lol whoops
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Ha, I think trying to get people to play 1 is the backwards option just because of how it's missing the general refinements in the later entries, including the awkward difficulty and the way mapping got better over time. Multiple classes and a wider variety of them makes it more enjoyable to see what you like too.

4 is just a case where there's a ton of stuff I'll agree that it strays far from what Etrian Odyssey was, they pushed the envelope on sailing the sea to sailing the skies and it just changed the game. But I liked that duality to it.

Though hey, 5 seems like it fits under both our approaches.
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refinements don't automatically make something better. most would agree that classic sonic is better than modern sonic.

if dungeon crawling is your thing then there are very few games that can offer anything that competes with the greatness of EO1 and EO2. on that short list of titles are EO5 and EO3, as well as some games from a few other select series.

if he's not even interested in playing a dungeon crawler than I'd say probably just go do something else.
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I tried playing EO1 and really couldn't stand it, and I seem to have above-average patience for that sort of thing. Almost unanimous opinion from most fans I've talked with (there's dissent in this topic even so take it for what you will) is to start with 4 or 5.
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Definitely go with either 4 or 5.

Don't think you can go wrong with either really.

Original 1 is hard to deal with if you aren't meticulous with the map and don't quickly grasp what's useful in a team. This is easier in the remake, though that difficulty is part of the charm of the first game. Second balances it a bit better though Hexer also breaks it.

Biggest thing early EO taught me was to never underestimate status ailments. Carried over from SMT but goddamn they save your ass.
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yeah one thing I love about this series is that party composition is super important and status effects are actually useful. making a party that just spams strong auto attacks usually leads to you hitting a wall eventually.

this is something even 4 got right to some extent.
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EO2 is trash

the mechanics are terribly broken - EO1 at least mostly makes sense, EO2 doesn't and it's burst city in the worst way. Do not recomend. Definitely EO4 or 5 to start IMO.
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I'd say it would probably be best to just wait for the new one.
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A friend of mine who loves EO told me to stay away from 4 because you cant customize your characters in the way you want or something?

How does Persona Q compare to EO?
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where is the labryinth of touhou recommendation

ChaosTonyV4 posted...

A friend of mine who loves EO told me to stay away from 4 because you cant customize your characters in the way you want or something?

How does Persona Q compare to EO?

it doesn't
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persona Q tried to appease persona and etrian odyssey fans but ended up with a final product that didn't satisfy either. it's "fine" but it's really not a good etrian odyssey game. I think persona fans might like it more just for the fun of seeing characters interacting, but then again I've seen some persona fans saying they didn't like how all the characters were really gimmicky and simplified into their most basic personality traits.

4 has dumpster tier customization so it sounds like your friend knows what he's talking about.
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