So I finally got EOII...

[Apolloncrash]

I've technically had it since Christmas, but I've been busy as hell and only just got to play it. I'm currently up to 3F, and so far my impressions on the game are a mixed bag.

So far the things I like better about the game, when compared to the first:

[spoiler]
• The early game is much harder than I remember EO being (granted, I haven't played EO early game for ages so I could just be remembering incorrectly)

• The interface is much, much better (BEING ABLE TO SCROLL BETWEEN CHARACTERS WITH L/R, being able to see the effects equipment will have on your character in the store, being able to scroll through text in the text input screen etc)

• The mapping options are far more comprehensive.

• The classes look a lot more balanced (no immunize, yay), so the game should be a lot harder.

• The Protector actually works like it was supposed to in the first game.

• Item storage, whilst I haven’t used it yet, is something I always wanted in the first game, and will surely use a lot later on.

• Auto-battle is nice, although it is incredibly stupid at picking targets and often Auto-battling results in a heavily damaged party that takes 2+ turns to win a battle I could have won (still with only regular attacks) in 1 turn and with little to no damage received.

• FOEs are actually challenging when first encountered now (for example, my first [hide]Ragelope [/hide]encounter was like “Oh crap, I ran into it ^_^'... Oh well, guess I may as well go down fighting... Wait, what? That’s it?” and my first [hide]Furyhorn [/hide]encounter was like “Doesn’t look so tough, lol stupid deer… OMG! WTF! Run Away! Run Away! … … … oh, I’m dead”).
[/spoiler]
On the flipside, things which I think are worse:

[spoiler]
• The music (keeping in mind I’m only up to 3F) is not as good as in the first game.

• I think they overdid it with the green. I liked it in the first EO where there was heaps of green (obviously), but they complimented it with that nice blue. In EO II almost everything is green on green on green on green, and I think it looks a little weird for a game interface.

• Speaking of colour, I don’t like how regular attack animations are orange now, I preferred it when they were white. (Although, this is just me being picky)

• On the old status screen you could view your character’s skills as a nice list which filled the screen, which was handy to quickly check exactly what they had, now it’s just like the custom screen, except with less info on the skills and without the ability to spend points.

• I miss Boost, this new Force stuff is just like Limit Breaks or EX Skills or whatever other name you want to give it, found in almost every other turn based JRPG.

• FOEs give no experience now, even though the fights are more difficult than before. So far their drops aren’t anything special either. In the first game, FOEs were a little harder than normal encounters, but gave a little better rewards, now they are shitloads harder and they give you nothing/hardly anything.

• For some reason, I’m always broke. Half the time I have to go into the Labyrinth without a Warp Wire (and don’t think that hasn’t had repercussions). This never happened in EOI, where I always had more than enough money and I never used any money making tricks until the 5th Stratum (hell I pretty much ignored all Item Points until then as well, and even then I only used that 1 mine spot and didn’t really gather much at all, until post-post-game when I was going for a 100% file). I've actually had to go and spend a couple of (ingame) days fighting on the first 2 floors, just to maintain some kind of resonable funds.

• They nerfed my Survivalist (seriously, screw you Atlus[hide] I'm kidding, you know I still love you, but this had me none to happy[/hide]) and made the [s]Bard[/s] Troubadour completely useless.

• Lastly, wtf is the deal with the TP costs for some of these skills (lol at Salve 3, though not like I really care about it , considering I would never use it anyway)? How are we supposed to keep up with that, especially without a [s]Bard[/s] Troubadour to top us up with Relaxing?
[/spoiler]
So overall, so far (although I haven't really played much and my opinion will probably change drastically later on) I much prefer the first game, although I still love this game and even with such a small amount of time invested in it, it is still my second favourite DS game.

Partywise I am running:

Landsknecht(Axes)/Protector
Survivalist/Medic/Gunner

I plan to put the Medic in the front eventually, even though I've heard that Combat Medics suck now. I had initially planned to get a War Magus, but after looking at their skill list, I saw that they don't really mesh with my playstyle. I've also heard that Hexers are the new go-to class, but debuffers... blegh, no thanks.

Basically though: 1. Will this party get me through the game okay? and 2. What changes will I require for the Post-Game bosses?

[Wolkenritter]

[scy]

[alexpk86]

Survivalist will never get better at dps so you either switch it for another damage dealer or you spec him/her as full support (Stalker maxed now reduces random battles to 0% and lasts 250 steps, Patrol is useful due to lots of damage tiles in the labyrinth and 1st turn as always comes in handy)

Medics have now too many good healing skills for caring about Caduceus, you'd want to get TP Regen and go for maxed Salve III (50TP maxed vs 48TP of a maxed Salve II, Salve I just sucks), get Phoenix and CPR. Except for Phoenix which maxed costs like 16TP, the other top tier skills are a lot more expensive so early on you should stick with a lv1 Cure I and "detonate" with Phoenix when in danger << (at least that's what I did in my 2nd run)

Basically with Warmagus and Gunner they killed Medic (Combat and Healers), Survivalists, Alchemists and Troubadours.

[Apolloncrash]

[scy]

[Wolkenritter]

[scy]

[alexpk86]

Oh and about the Hexer being on the brink of death: Protector's Provoke actually works, so at some point it will draw 100% of the attacks and you won't have to worry about an enemy hitting anyone else (except for AoE or multi-slot targetting attacks)

...and you should check out Beasts when you unlock them

[Apolloncrash]

[alexpk86]

[Apolloncrash]

That is a dillema I am often faced with. I hate breaking games with overpowered crap because I am a sucker for difficulty, but I often end up doing it anyway because I am a perfectionist and always want optimal setups/builds.

I was just thinking, If I do swap my Protector for a Dark Hunter, when it comes time to farm the post-game bosses for drops (and if the first game was any indication, it will take a lot of attempts) won't I break the bank having to buy a truck load of Axcela IIIs (or whatever you use to raise Force) if I rely on using Dominate/Riot Gun every time I fight them, instead of using a Protector? Or will money be a non-issue by that point?

Also, Scy, that Zip file of encounter maps, A.I., Skill Data etc for EO1 that is in the Downloadable Contributions section that you contributed was awesome, and I was wondering if you have anything like that for EOII and, if so, where I can get it. Having all those numbers at my fingertips really helped me decide on my builds for the first game.

[alexpk86]

Money won't be a problem, as Scy already pointed out each Stratum's boss has a conditional loot which is worth 30k En and most of the (if not all, I am not sure) conditional loot has 100% chance of dropping once the condition has been met, this applies also to post-game bosses (so no more scale grinding if that's what you are thinking)

You'll find there are other ways of raising Force too
(not as fast as using Axcelas but at least you won't have to defend for 50turns <<)

[Apolloncrash]

Cool. So I guess I'll go with:

Ronin/Dark Hunter/War Magus
Hexer/Gunner

I'll try it for at least a few Stratums and if I get too sick of the Dark Hunter I'll just swap my Protector back in.

[Wolkenritter]