This one goes out to all my smug poindexters with fake Jordans 😤
Etrian Odyssey IV turns its gameplay from a marathon to a sprint, which in turn manages to completely change how you interact with the world there within. The first three EO games had a strong element of survival to them, when your guild begins they must first learn enough on how to survive before moving through the labyrinth and ultimately conquering the challenges placed before them. Much of it is about the conservation of resources, stretching your TP out across as many floors as you can while you explore and grow stronger.
EO IV is much more interested in you being an important adventurer than as a survivor turned hero. Labyrinths are short and much of your time is spent in small 1 floor caves with unique enemies and rewards to run through. The amount of TP you have doesn’t matter all that much, conservation is nice but unless you’re planning on challenging the boss then there’s no reason not to use your strongest attacks in every fight with how frequent shortcuts become.
To be clear, this is fun! Much of the time you spend developing your characters skills outside of combat allows you to really pull out consistently intricate strategies against even the most plain of monsters. The synergies between characters feel like they come out much more often than if those moves were only saved for the boss fights. The boss fights too were incredible (in the first half), really blending the understanding of navigation for each labyrinth along with very unique and difficult challenges. Still I do not prefer it to much of the rest of the series.
You see I'd love to write a soliloquy of the Twinkies' adventures but their job felt more destined than earned. It took less than a month for the guild to become the most prominent adventurers in the entire city of Tharsis. There was no pressure put on the guild, they just took their time and explored the uncharted lands piece by piece.
It was rigorous, but not challenging. Every victory was an inevitability, right down to defeating the Titan itself. There’s certainly satisfaction in these accomplishments, the Twinkies was certainly gassed up as the GOAT quick, but we more so completed tasks handed to us than really pushed to accomplish more than was expected.
The Twinkies came, they saw, they conquered. It was an enjoyable romp, though Kanada’s decisions feel built for a different series than Etrian Odyssey.
Etrian Odyssey IV turns its gameplay from a marathon to a sprint, which in turn manages to completely change how you interact with the world there within. The first three EO games had a strong element of survival to them, when your guild begins they must first learn enough on how to survive before moving through the labyrinth and ultimately conquering the challenges placed before them. Much of it is about the conservation of resources, stretching your TP out across as many floors as you can while you explore and grow stronger.
EO IV is much more interested in you being an important adventurer than as a survivor turned hero. Labyrinths are short and much of your time is spent in small 1 floor caves with unique enemies and rewards to run through. The amount of TP you have doesn’t matter all that much, conservation is nice but unless you’re planning on challenging the boss then there’s no reason not to use your strongest attacks in every fight with how frequent shortcuts become.
To be clear, this is fun! Much of the time you spend developing your characters skills outside of combat allows you to really pull out consistently intricate strategies against even the most plain of monsters. The synergies between characters feel like they come out much more often than if those moves were only saved for the boss fights. The boss fights too were incredible (in the first half), really blending the understanding of navigation for each labyrinth along with very unique and difficult challenges. Still I do not prefer it to much of the rest of the series.
You see I'd love to write a soliloquy of the Twinkies' adventures but their job felt more destined than earned. It took less than a month for the guild to become the most prominent adventurers in the entire city of Tharsis. There was no pressure put on the guild, they just took their time and explored the uncharted lands piece by piece.
It was rigorous, but not challenging. Every victory was an inevitability, right down to defeating the Titan itself. There’s certainly satisfaction in these accomplishments, the Twinkies was certainly gassed up as the GOAT quick, but we more so completed tasks handed to us than really pushed to accomplish more than was expected.
The Twinkies came, they saw, they conquered. It was an enjoyable romp, though Kanada’s decisions feel built for a different series than Etrian Odyssey.