Etrian Odyssey III

So thanks to a mishap with a friend's game (wasn't the first time, unfortunately), I came into possession of Etrian Odyssey III. While his game was probably worth more than $10 (just the cartridge), he was "kind" enough to "make" me buy Etrian Odyssey III, and giving me $10. So instead of paying him around $20 for the other game, I "had" to buy EO3, basically so I would play with him, and I might enjoy it as well.

Turns out that I love the game. It's been quite a long time since I've become this engrossed with an RPG. I really enjoy being able to customize each character, even if there really aren't that many abilities. RPGs in the Final Fantasy series, along with others I've played, offer many more abilities to many more varieties of classes, but none of them feel like they have as much of an impact on the gameplay. What I mean is that in most RPGs I play, I really don't care about protective abilities, like reflecting magic, powering up agility, defense, power, etc, and basically all non-attacking abilities. Those abilities are neat, but honestly aren't needed much, or are only needed in like one or two battles in the game. They feel tacked on, because the developers know that they need to put those abilities in the game. The original Final Fantasy games made sure those moves were useful, and needed to be a smart player. I feel like since then, they've just been adding those abilities in just for the sake of being a Final Fantasy game (or other RPG game, following the trend).

The map making in the game is nothing of what I expected. What I had originally imagined was something along the lines of a game where you physically make the map, deciding where certain map "pieces" go. It sounds bizarre unless you've played Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories... which means I'm one of the few people in this country who understands what I'm talking about. Kingdom Hearts deserves its own post, not now. The level is already laid out, except the game doesn't give you a map. I like having to draw where all the walls are and where certain events and enemies appear. Sure Atlus could have given the gamer the map, and the gameplay wouldn't change a ton, but it wouldn't feel as involved. I dunno, I don't know how to explain the feeling.

But back to the abilities, and the fighting alongside them. The fighting to me isn't that revolutionary, it comes across as many other dungeon crawlers do. It feels different though, and I think it's because of what I mentioned before, the abilities. Right now I'm fighting with a Hoplite (Kyle), Monk (Lucca), Buccaneer (Marle), Arbalist (Nate) and Wildling (Rahil). Yes, the names come from friends and game characters. It will remain that way with new characters as well. Now that I'm nearing the end of the first stratum, my team is starting to come together. I'm beginning to learn how to use moves in conjunction with each other, and how characters can help each other out. It reminds me of games like Chrono Trigger, how characters can use moves together. However in this game, they do not have team up abilities (discounting Limits), but have moves that change with how other characters fight. I love it, and I feel like it makes sense, that finally a developer figured out how a battle should work, and how characters should team up and change tactics according to how others fight in battle.

As far as leveling up goes, I've begun to look down the line to what abilities I want my characters to have, and it's looking bright. Most characters are leveling up nicely, and my Wildling is finally becoming a force to be reckoned with. I never summoned creatures with him because in the first two floors, I never came across battles that would last long enough to summon the creature and do enough damage to be worth the TP. But now that I'm on the third and fourth floors, I'm coming across some more difficult enemies in packs, leading to longer battles. I love my insect. It only does about 1-2 damage per hit, but the physical attack is not what the summons are for. Three quarters of the time the hit will also land poison on the enemy, and on average the poison does 86 damage to that enemy at the end of each turn. That's quite a bit of damage per turn, not even including the Wildling itself doing 60 damage a turn, and the insect taking damage instead of my other characters. And this is an insect that's level 3/10. I can't wait to gain other summon abilities, specifically the lion, which is what I'm aiming for. Once the lion wakes up, it stuns and paralyzes the enemy. That sounds fantastic for bosses. I should also mention that one of my five characters will be breaking the game in about 15 levels or so. If my thinking is correct, I'll have one character who will have abilities that will basically break the game, potentially making tough battles a breeze. And then I'll be able to add a subclass to this character, which makes my head spin with the possibilities to how powerful this character could be. Unfortunately I can't post what I plan to do, because I don't know if it will work, and don't want to sound like a fool getting my hopes up. Oh who am I fooling, I'm definitely getting my hopes up and excited to where this game is headed.