Is this your favorite EO game? If not, which one is?

[Outsethero]

I'm not entirely sure if this is the correct place to make this post, but there doesn't seem to be a discussion board for the series on its own so I titled it that way so it at least seemed appropriate. If it belongs somewhere, please do let me know! I also could not find a search function so I'm not sure if this sort of topic has been made before, so I apologize if it has.

In any case, which Etrian Odyssey game is your favorite? Was it the first one you ever played or did another one manage to steal your heart? What exactly is it about it that makes it stand out to you? Do you even have a favorite? I'm really interested to know what people think!

[You may be wondering why I included Untold as a separate title. Well, that's 'cause it is. It has a full-blown Story Mode added and the Classic Mode has been re-touched, even if just a tad. Also, different floors and such.]

[Myssdii]

I started with the first one, didn't pass the second floor of the 6th stratum x)

The 2 is my overall favorite for actually setting the polished labyrinth exploration gameplay we have in the following games, and for class gameplay. It's the episode I enjoyed the most playing. The game can be pretty much brutal at some points, so I don't recommend it to a newcomer to the series.

For music and character design I'll put EO3 in second place, but I really didn't enjoyed the subclassing and the lack of balance between classes (if you can easily soloing a final boss with one broken combination, it's not balanced). The alternate endings were a good idea, it's a shame they didn't keep it in EO4.

EO4 is tied with EO1 for my least favorite, but for different reasons : EO1 is too broken difficult, while EO4 is really too easy. EO4 is certainly the most balanced in the series, but for that reason it is too forgiving in case of mistake. Only the 6th stratum can be a challenge if your team building is not optimal.
Both are good games, it's just that I think they're less good than EO2 ad EO3.

I'll say that EOU is between these two groups : it's a good remake of EO1, very polished with good music and character design. The difficulty curve is somewhat ok, but I don't like the fact that it is hard to make a good party in classic mode without copying the story mode party setup and abusing not-really-well-designed Grimoires. It seems that EO2 is going to correct those two points, I'll just wait to get my hands on it.
A good alternative to EO4 and EO3 as first EO game to try, if you need actual finished characters in your JRPG.

[Kimiko]

I've played all EO games to date, in order. I finished the main story in all of them, never finished a post-game (furthest I got was in EO4, where I reached the end but didn't kill the final boss).

EO1 was good, the classic standard that we compare the later games to. It did have its flaws though. The interface wasn't as streamlined as later games'. The story was good, but there was that forced choice halfway.

EO2 was technically better, and prettier, and the story was about equally good, but that fifth stratum didn't look so great.

EO3 changed up many things that were interesting experiments on their own, but didn't quite mesh together smoothly. The other games have a prominent Yggdrasil, this one mostly just has it in the background. The strata were shorter, which shortened the game. The map exploration was interesting, but technically flawed and it didn't fit into the rest of the game very well. The story was pretty deep, but it required multiple replays to get all of it. I didn't like the dual-classing either. If I make up a personality for a character, it works better to have them one class, not two at once. It just dilutes their uniqueness. All in all, yeah, good that they experimented, but it didn't fit together so great.

EO4 I think was the best EO game so far. It did have short, small dungeons, which isn't really classic EO, but I admit it worked. The story was good, there was a proper Yggdrasil involved in the story, the map exploration fit naturally into the rest of the game. Basically it refined all the mechanics and aspects of earlier games. The only things I didn't like was that they didn't bring back proper single-classing from the first two games and instead stuck with the dual-classing from EO3, and that the music went orchestral-only. I just don't get why Koshiro would throw away the musical style that's made him famous.

EO1U did bring the improved interface to an earlier game, but it also messed up the mechanics with the grimoire system as if the class system hadn't been eroded enough over the series. It didn't really fix the one flaw in the EO1 story, just postponed it in an awkward way. And it started the whole Untold thing, which basically removed one of the strongest points of the series (make up your own team and their backstories) and replaced it with a tacked on flimsy plot and forced party. So, no, EO1U ranks dead last for me. The improved interface doesn't counter the many added flaws to even rank higher than the original EO1.

[Wolkenritter]

Honestly most of what I was going to post is going to parrot most of what Kimiko already said. Though I would rank Untold slightly higher than 1, if only because it did polish a lot. Being forced to use a Protector, Medic and Troubadour to get any reasonable success for most of post-game is not fun. Dark Hunters, Ronins and Hexers were generally inferior to the other classes and there was little reason to use them in general. Untold at the very least fixed that up, though its still a very weak game in the series.

At any rate:
4 > 3 > 2 > Untold > 1

[Wolkenritter]

[Maxine MagicFox]

^_^ I bought EO day one that it came out and since I run the site I think my fandom is pretty clear on this.

I like the first one the most. I loved the simplicity of it including the unpolished mechanics. It felt like what it was created to be: a nostalgic throwback to gameplay of old. I remember an interview where the creator said that he made the game to be the last rpg since he felt that they were fading out.

I love that the secrets are not advertised (yes, you have to actually SEARCH for the shortcuts). I loved that the story is so sparse. I loved the wonky mechanics for the fact that some could break the game and that others could make the game more difficult.

I also LOVED the classes. And even the simple music and the hand drawn art.

The second was good, too, but I felt it was too polished and lost the simple feel. Every game after that has been getting farther and farther away. I love them all (except 3) ^_^ do not get me wrong on that, but... I dunno. IV's system of leaving the dungeons with the overworld... I didn't like that. I HATE that the shortcuts are advertised. And dear god I hate that the enemies are animated and in 3d and that the FOEs are now visible. I think that is the saddest change to the whole of the series.

The games were supposed to be a throw back to pen and paper days. Days where I played games like The Legend of Kyrandia or even Lands of Lore... hell even Kings Quest.

[Jarelo]

[Maxine MagicFox]

Especially when some of the FOEs were perfectly defeatable and some weren't.

Is this an easy Ragelope or is it a Kuyutha?

Me on second stratum: "Oh, this must be one of those scorpion enemies - my Alchemists have this." Starts the fight and it's a Moa: "THAT'S NOT A SCORPION! RUN!! RUN!!!!"

[Maxine MagicFox]

Just because there was a design choice made with a hardware limitation in mind, why does it have to be discredited as a feature? Especially when it is an aspect that I loved and added to the intensity and the element of mystery to the game - and was an element that the designers fully utilized.

[Myssdii]

I like the new 3D models, but I miss the orange-ball-thingy sometimes. It was so cute :3

I would love it if they made a game option where you can revert the 3D FOEs to their original ball-thingy model

[heprea]

TL;DR v

The first Etrian odyssey, no doubt about that! Something that started out as a gamble and ended up being my next favorite nintendo DS game series.

Wall of text v (in general I agree with most of the stuff Maxine MagicFox says about EO but im trying to be less of an lurker so here is a wall of text coming!)

A little bit background: I was bored and was surfing on an online auction site(no, not ebay, a Finnish one) when I encountered this nintendo ds game with nice animu game box cover art, it immedietly got my attention and I ended up checking what the game was. The seller had a simple description for the game, among the lines "A great turn based fantasy adventure game". This increased my intrest even more and once I saw the price(~10 euro) I was sold out and decided to bid on the game, I was the only one to do so and the game was mine, allll mine. For some time now I had been buying cheaper DS games, I needed a new game, pokemon games alone could not keep boredom away from me, so far every single game had failed me(cosmo cops / secret of mana and some other games that i cant remember nor find anymore). :\

So I just bought a game for 10 euro and even though I had all the time I needed for checking it our some more through internet I decided not to do so, dunoo really why, maybe I was just feeling lazy. Few days later the game arrives, i unpack it and stick it in(if you know what i mean~) and start it to check it out. After setting up my first team(my first and still my most favorite) head out to the first floor aaaaand get wiped out by the first few fights. For some people this is a boner killer but oh boy did I get excited from this. <3 Naturally I got even more in to the game as I progressed, I found the exploring very dangerous yet still very rewarding and the classes I had chosen for my "dream" team really did fit my kind of playstyle. It was pretty much love at first sight.

Later once I encountered my first FOE and surprise, surprise my team got wiped my excitement and interest just keeps piling and growing. I spent a fuckton of time trying to figure out how to kill a Stalker FOE and the satisfaction I got once I had succeeded on was pretty much the final nail for me to sell my soul for this game series. The post game stuff is also something that i love. <3

My dream team can be found on the first page of this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=104

My second take on the game with totally different playstyle and team:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2163

The second thread is when I finally decided to start a new game with a new playstyle and team.

*small edit*

I think the 3rd game is the one I like the least, mainly because I dont like how the duo speccin or whatever it was called worked. I preffered the version used in EO 4 more.

[Kimiko]

What a cool story ^_^

[heprea]

[Dangerus]

I wish I can pick both Etrian Odyssey III and Etrian Odyssey IV. I finished the game through and so I can make the decision to say it is worth recommending people. I have not finished Etrian Odyssey II for obvious reasons. However, with that said...

I feel like I am the only one that liked EOIII the most after casting this vote. Don't get me wrong, I love EOIV, but at the same time, EOIII was what kept me here in the first place with some NPCs you love and hate and probably what made EOIV even better.

[Tortuga774]

Could repeat what Maxine said already.
Besides this, my main reason for loving the original EO is just nostalgia.

Sad story: I've dropped the game, in the first run, after sticking on Wyvern, because of not reading... I tried hard to kill him. Even grinded till level ~30.