Classes Discussion from the SNM Visual Guide Book [SPOILERS]

[enigmaopoeia]

So I just got myself in the mail the "Sekaiju No MeiQ Collection of Visual Materials" [ISBN 9784757743052]; does anyone else own this book? So basically I was furiously reading through it until I saw some rough sketches near the end of the book marked "Special Illustrations". The pages that really caught my eye were pages 109 - 111 in which they had shown that they were doing more with the classes in the Etrian Odyssey series! I can't read everything they've written in here, but just enough of the Japanese to get a gist of it and going by the visuals. Maybe we can talk about it and your thoughts as well!

So far, while reading, it seems that they had planned four classes, but they were taken out. They are the Lancer, the Bushido 2 [Ronin 2], the Dark Lord, and the Monger classes. The Lancer class has on very heavy armor and wield a giant weapon, they look very similar to the Dragoon Job in Final Fantasy Tactics. The females wield a lance while the males wield a pole arm. Bushido 2 looks more like Yoshimitsu from Tekken 5 except they have on a demon mask and they wield dual katanas. And the Dark Lord class is basically the more eviller side to the Paladin/Protector class it seems. If I read it correctly, the Protector class will become a Dark Lord after reaching Level 70. o.o;; They look very much like the Protector class, except they have more spikes to them and they have cowboy spurs. [LOLWUT?] And the Monger class looks similar to Shikamaru from Naruto, he fights with GIANT gauntlets on both of his fists. [He would have to drag them on the ground in order to walk, that is how heavy they look! *A* ] The guy looks like he can dish out a lot of damage with those on!!

And they also shown it where you can also start out as a Novice class which is your generic every day-looking person who you can change their race and class, very much like the TRPGs like D&D. They don't have much written out for it, but you can choose your race to be from Human, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit, and Gnome. Then you decide what position you want them to be at, their party formation more or less. If you choose the front lines, you get to choose between the Fighter or Soldier classes. But if you make them in the middle lines, you get to choose from the Archer or Thief classes. And if you choose the back lines, you get to choose from the Cleric or Magician classes. Wow, they really try to go old school with this one! o.O;;

So let's discuss what you guys think so far with this. Do you like it that they didn't try to go too TRPG with Etrian Odyssey? Or how about the other classes, what do you think of them?

Personally, I would love to see the Monger class in action -- reminds me of a Monk except with GIANT METAL FISTS OF DEATH!! ^^;;

[Teclo]

Maybe it's just because I'm so familiar with the existing character types, but those ones all sound much more interesting and cool than the ones in EO and EO2. I always like Dark Knight type classes in RPGs so I would have definitely gone for one of them. The race things sounds cool too; one of my favourite things in FFT games or games based on DnD is to make a party based around what class they are - so maybe an all Elven party who are meant to be arrogant and not associate with other races, or in FFTA you could make an all-Moogle party. Or you could do a mixed one, like the party in Lord of the Rings, where they have to work together and combine their strengths and eliminate their weaknesses.

Maybe they just thought that it would be too complicated if they did races and too many classes. I mean, it's already complicated enough considering that it doesn't really give you any help and you just have to figure out what classes are good, what skills and good and what classes/skills work well together. If race was brought into that I think several peoples' heads would explode (mine included).

Would it be possible for you to scan or at least just digitally photograph these pages for us?

[Kimiko]

I think those are too similar to what we already have. The monk/brawler is quite close to the Beast, the Dark Protector isn't different enough from the regular Protector, there already is a Ronin, so we don't need another one, and the Lancer is too similar to the Landsknecht (which historically wielded big lances).

The fantasy races don't fit very well with Etrian Odyssey's history so far. Maybe as Forest Folk spin-offs, but that's stretching it.

Getting to choose skin color as well as gender is good of course. Not many games give you that option.

Forcing a class based on position? No thanks.

[Teclo]

Well most classes are already only for certain positions anyway. True, you could put your Ronin on the back row but there's not much point, is there? I admit, though, that there's no need to force the player to do that - I'm just making the point that there are already limitations in place that the play can ignore but would have no reason to do so.

[Kimiko]

Yes, the Ronin is an example of a class that's only practical in the front line. Others though aren't so clear-cut. Medic and War Magus for example. Or Survivalist or Troubadour. You could argue for both lines for each of them.

[Teclo]

[bathedinsin]

[Zaraf]

[enigmaopoeia]

Here's some scans from it, they are behind spoiler tags:

Novice and their Setup Tree:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Lancer (Female) and Lancer (Male):
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Bushido 2 / Ronin 2:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Dark Lord:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Monger:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Zaraf]

Ahh, thanks for the scans! Too bad they are just sketches though.

[Kimiko]

Cool art but I can see why they chose to go with the current classes instead of these.

[ZetaBladeX13]

Damn, those sketches make me wanna play Ragnarok online

I personally love the idea of the Novice class (hence why I mentioned RO), as well as the Dark Lord/Dark Paladin and Lancer classes. Maybe they'll implement some of these if/when Atlus decides to make EOIII.

[Riseatrance]

[ZetaBladeX13]

[Teclo]

I particularly like the Lancers. Can someone re-link to the Dark Lord please, for some reason there's nothing behind the spoiler tag for me.