Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Wiki: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan Guides

Anonymous — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 00:26:00 GMT

Guides for Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Blog Post: Testing Your Will To Overcome

Kimberley Wallace — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:10:00 GMT

Some battles just aren’t meant to be won on the first try. Keep those words in mind when entering the unforgiving world of Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan. Danger lurks around every corner, and with triumph comes the satisfaction of knowing you’ve overcome a maddening challenge. [Excerpt]

The experience is akin to taking a time portal back to when games offered very little direction; Etrian Odyssey requires patience, a thirst for exploration, and the desire to slowly unravel a mysterious world. The critical thought that some of the quests demand will put a smile on your face…but only once you’ve taken your brain to a place it doesn’t often go. After all, how do you battle a foe whose eyes you can’t meet? But as a dungeon crawler in the vein of classics like Wizardry and Might and Magic, the series has thrived by embracing difficulty and old-school mechanics.

Etrian Odyssey IV keeps this tradition intact. As the new explorer in town, you create a guild to uncover the secrets of the fabled Yggdrasil tree. Don’t expect an intricate narrative – the focus is on exploration and leveling. Small story snippets appear in dungeons and at your base, though they’re not anything groundbreaking. You make your own story as you create a customized five-member crew, though I wish party members had distinct personalities. The sad truth is that they feel like stock pictures – merely instruments in battle – instead of companions.

The emotional vacancy of the journey aside, you have vast lands filled with labyrinths and caves to satiate your looting and leveling desires. Labyrinths are more complex than caves, often covering more ground, though both have their share of dead ends, secret passages, and vicious enemies. While in a dungeon, you need to map out areas using the stylus, a throwback to having a piece of graph paper and a pencil. The generation who grew up with this should feel at home, but others might find the mapping process a little bit of a chore. It takes some getting used to, especially since incorrectly placing a wall or doorway can leave you wandering for hours, looking every which way to find where you mismapped.

Being a cartographer also means you can’t just fly through a dungeon; you must look in every direction to ensure you’re not missing a hidden passage. Also be prepared for some backtracking – dungeons often contain a few levels, with no fast travel between sections. This is irritating, but the mapping mechanics provide an autopilot option, saving you from manually navigating the entire area again.

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To Etrian Odyssey’s credit, events pop up during dungeons where you are asked questions, like whether characters should eat a fruit or put their hands in a beehive. Plenty of risk accompanies the rewards, and the outcomes are often unpredictable. Sometimes that mushroom that you think is poisonous actually restores your hit points. These little touches break up some of the tedium of exploring and make the trek more realistic.

The random battles can be deadly, but with skill and class selection, you’re able to play just the way you like. The menu options come straight out of the 1980s, with attack, magic, defense, and items alongside “Burst.” Burst is the most unique selection, as you slowly build points over the course of dungeons. Weapons can be forged with extra traits – like adding poison or vitality – for an extra edge. Etrian Odyssey excels with this customization as well as in how the majority of its skills, including buffs and debuffs, are extremely useful.

This is important since FOE mini-bosses often block your path, and they are initially deadly to engage. Studying their patterns to avoid them is essential until you can defeat them. While FOEs add tension to exploration, they can also be downright aggravating. These behemoths can enter any battle, as long as they’re walking nearby, so even downright simple battles can often take a turn for the worst. Finally defeating one of these beasts is one of the most rewarding experiences – after all, it was only a few short levels ago that they were defeating you with a single blow.

Sound scary? Maybe too hard for your taste? This time around, Atlus added a casual mode for those who want a challenge, but abhor losing progress. This mode doesn’t penalize you upon death; in previous entries, death robbed you of your progress, experience, items, and gold (and it still does on normal). Even with its allowances, the casual mode is still challenging – spamming the attack button doesn’t guarantee victory, especially once you hit new lands.

Danger. Intrigue. Beauty. Frustration. During my playtime I felt all of these, but by far the greatest emotion was triumph. Etrian Odyssey IV finally has the polish and accessibility previous entries lacked, but it’s hardly perfect. The mandatory slow-moving grind, lack of guidance, and unforgiving nature at times turned me off. But as someone who couldn’t get into the first three, it’s clear Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan has jumped leaps and bounds from where the franchise was before.

Blog Post: Keeping It Old School And Fresh

Kimberley Wallace — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 18:48:00 GMT

Etrian Odyssey is synonymous with “challenge.” The franchise has made a name for itself by testing your wits in sprawling dungeons. Hand-holding is not what Etrian Odyssey stands for. The games are throwbacks to a bygone era where dungeon crawlers like Wizardry and Might & Magic ruled. With another outing in Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan, the 3DS is finally home to a game that brings a classic, old-school feel to a modern audience. [Excerpt]

In Legends of the Titan, the stage is set for you to make a name for yourself by unraveling the mysteries of the tree Yggdrasil. Nobody has set foot where Yggdrasil’s roots lie, but now the Outland Court of Tharsis is finally sponsoring a venture into the unknown. Story has never been the series’ focus, but this time around, an effort has been made to better integrate the story so players would feel progression throughout.

Also on the improvement list is your skyship, a fresh way to see the world. Those who played Etrian Odyssey III know the sea voyage felt like a diversion, so Atlus worked to have the skyship fit seamlessly into the exploration. From the sky, the Yggdrasil tree is constantly in view, with large labyrinths and smaller caves to crawl through. Skyship exploration provides perks; not only can you to avoid FOE minibosses, but you can also chart new lands, negotiate with rival guilds, and harvest plants. Parts scattered throughout your quest can upgrade your ship with perks like avoiding bad weather or harvesting extra food. You can even add on a foodapult, launching harvested food at a FOE to lure them away from a desired destination.

FOEs are a classic, intense part of Etrian Odyssey. These minibosses are just as deadly and risky as they are rewarding. Avoiding them at first glance might be the safer venture, but part of what makes Etrian Odyssey so fun is seeing the fruition of your hard work and finally taking down these baddies. Engaging or avoiding FOEs requires careful planning, forcing you to think outside of the box. Studying patterns and habits gives you an edge. Luckily, those who were previously alienated by the high difficulty level will no longer feel left out thanks to a new casual mode. In this mode, death returns you to the inn with all your gained levels, money, and items, making dungeon crawling far less dangerous. Veterans worried that this mode might impact the normal difficulty shouldn’t fret, since it remains as brutal as ever.

Legends of Titan doesn’t stray from its classic formula of cartography, tense battles, and customizable five-member party, but it does refine plenty of mechanics. Skill trees are now split into tiers that open up even more at levels 20 and 40. In addition, Etrian Odyssey IV ditches III’s common skills while gathering skills only require one point to master, so you won’t need a dedicated farming character. Subclassing is also back, but now you can equip gear specific to the subclass.

The 3DS’ Streetpass feature has improved guild sharing – Etrian Odyssey no longer needs to be loaded to gather rival guild information. This time around QR codes also are a way to share your guild’s stats, medals, and an envoy from your party with others. Simply scan the code to the Internet for others to add your card to their collection and recruit your party member into their own guild. Local multiplayer has been ditched, as the development team felt that not a lot of American fans used the multiplayer in the series’ previous installment.

With its first outing on the 3DS, Atlus uses the advanced hardware to its benefit. Dungeons have always been in 3D, making the 3DS a natural fit. Atlus still went one step above: they enlisted Studio Ghibli artist Nizo Yamamoto, of Princess Mononoke and Castle in the Sky fame, to breathe new life into the series by designing the background animation. Yuzo Koshiro is back as composer, but this time he’s changing things up with a fully orchestrated score.

Legends of the Titan’s release is less than a month away, and with all its refinements and additions it looks like the most promising entry yet. Are you prepared for the challenge that awaits you?

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File: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Kimberley Wallace — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:24:00 GMT

Check out these new screens

File: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Kimberley Wallace — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:24:00 GMT

Check out these new screens

File: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Kimberley Wallace — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:24:00 GMT

Check out these new screens

File: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan

Kimberley Wallace — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:24:00 GMT

Check out these new screens

File: Etrian Odyssey IV: Legends of the Titan