What I Hope for the Next (?) Etrian Odyssey

[Yggdrago]

Plus, it's not even nearly as bad as .

[Skorch]

[Reynard-Miri]

[lulzace]

Whichever map that is in 3 with the nine-tails looking foe's was my most hated. Oh hey yeah no map for you.

[Wolkenritter]

[WillowWolf]

[halifix]

I found EOIV maps to all be fairly tame. I found the 3rd and 4th dungeons more annoying, because of how many moves it took to get an advantage over the 3rd boss, and of how getting caught in a battle could screw up situations in the 4th dungeon. And the 6th stratum was the typical annoying stuff. The 2nd dungeon was a peaceful one, until a certain monster showed up.

I did like all of the mechanics that were used in EOIV. The movement puzzles were a lot more fun than the random things in EOIII, which were just annoying sometimes.

[Skorch]

Movement puzzles? Where? I remember there being a couple puzzles in land 4, but not much else.

[noodles]

my all-time favorite bestiary in a video game was Final Fantasy XII.

“Lo, the mighty cockatrice, proud-feathered sphere, known as much for its ill humor as its dire rotundity. The great naturalist Merlose once remarked: '...live they in the sands and other arid climes, whereabouts they moveth in a rolling fashion most peculiar. Subsist they principally on small creatures and vermin, for the incapacitation of which they disgorge a sticky saliva, thence devouring captured morsels only when appetite moves them.' Swollen sacs containing airs are found under the surface of the skin, and when inflated, these lifting the creature upon drafts unseen, whence to espy suitable prey.”

[igniz13]

They should make it like Skyrim... *runs*

Seriously though, if EOU proves popular, I can see them trying to do a more story driven and traditional adventure for EO5. One with an open world to explore, multiple dungeons but also directives and characters.

I hope they try to make a more traditional EO though, one that's mainly "get to the bottom of this dungeon, beat the bosses, gg's here's a ng+".

For the classes, I hope they bring in lots of alternatives. Not just one class for elemental damage, classes for ailments and binds, classes for protection and buffs, multiple different healers, etc.

I think EO2 still has my favourite class roster, though I've yet to play EO4 and EOU, though from what I can see, there's still some degree of limitation in choices. E.g. If you need a healer, you need a medic.

[Garlyle]

Man, how did you guys find Misty Ravine confusing? Once you realised it wrapped in a fixed zone it was super easy - it wasn't even like it teleported or broke its own rules either, so there was pretty much zero trial and error or "surprise actually this corridor kept going". About the only thing slightly odd to work with was that the FOEs refused to wrap and you had to use that to your advantage, which was actually smart and creative. But then again I like having to actually pay attention to where I am and where I'm going and didn't find that kind of thing even sort of disorienting beyond the first floor, which was simple enough to figure out how it worked, so...

(Also I really want to be just done with complete bullcrap like stratum 6's , even in bonus stratums. I'm surprised it's the Misty Ravine you guys are complaining about compared to that complete pile of time wasting)


Anyway, I'd like it if they expanded more on the dungeon structure. It's kind of rote and standardized in each game, though IV provided a little variety (Namely by the way stratum 5 , but also the side dungeons and stuff). Heck, they could drop the overworld and keep small side dungeons with special FOEs/Bosses that instead branch out of the normal areas. It's nice to have it but I'm not particularly attached.

I think it'd be neat to be able to use the monsters, FOEs, and floor gimmicks you've encountered to create a dungeon map of your own and then share it to other players via QR. I'm sure there would be plenty of nonsense to come out of it but I could also see it being really neat. Heck, if they want, let us add bosses to them from previous games or something as a bonus.

Classwise, I'd like them to keep going the way EO4 did. EO4 had a couple classes that could do basically each thing and each class also did more than one thing, generally speaking. I do not want to see them bring back some of the stuff they did for EOU though (10-point caps on all skills, Masteries); I really enjoyed actually having a lot of skills even early in EO4. It made gameplay a hell of a lot more interesting throughout. Alternatively, make them hyper focused again but have skill balancing and such make sure that I can make up for it to some degree with subclassing - I don't want bullcrap like "Oh I'm sorry you didn't have a Protector enjoy not beating the postgame".

I don't want Grimoires to come back, at least not in their current incarnation. Grinding out highly randomized skill access I don't forsee as fun in a game where I really enjoy the strategy in character building. This doesn't mean it couldn't come back, but I'd rather eliminate a lot of the RNG. Hell, give us a Blue Mage style class that has a near-empty skill tree at first but instead can learn skills from monsters in combat and then level them up at their own discretion - that would be a cool class.

Finally, I'd like them to bring back mechanics involving the sixth party member slot because Wildling was my favourite class in the series but I've realised that it's almost certainly not going to happen because of design issues that it raises.

[Reynard-Miri]

[Curry-Kohai]

What if side dungeons were randomized like a true and honest rogue-like? Wouldn't that be awesome?

[Etrian Veteran]

I haven't ever been annoyed with a labyrinth gimmick in EO. Of course, I never got far enough in II to get to one, but in the others games I found them compelling, because it was a change from the already enjoyable normal.

[WillowWolf]