Travel down the nested worlds

When not flying around in space with a railgun recently, I've also been playing the original Etrian Odyssey after receiving the least convincing pirate copy of it ever for Christmas. Fortunately it works and saves correctly (with the added bonus that I could get an adaptor and back up my save file, should I ever need to), and so I've mapped and fought my way down to the second stratum.

Going backwards through a series is an odd experience sometimes, as the refinements that the games made over time appear to be discarded, exposing rougher edges. The most obvious ones here are the insane (or possibly just vindictive) omission of arrows from the available map icons, the slower pace of the battle system, and that the process of going around the town isn't very streamlined, with separate categories for sleeping until morning and night and having to get medicine and healing in a different place from all other items. Otherwise, it's been more of the same gradual mission and reward system that I loved when I first started the third game.

Unlike the last time when I basically chose my party by closing my eyes, spinning around, jabbing a finger forward and seeing whose colossal bosom it impacted first, I had something approaching an idea of what I was likely to need this time, and tried to adhere to the tradition I had accidentally started of reversing the roles of most other role-playing games, having the women as the stronger fighting characters and the men as the weaker support ones. I'm even more progressive than a fourteen-minute Dream Theater solo.

Etrian Odyssey parties gradually change over time as you find gaps you have to fill, but the first Monk character that I made in the third game had the good fortune to stay around through all those changes, becoming a vital cornerstone of the group - as everyone needs a healer. So this time, I went straight for the Medic class, the character that was at the centre of kjorteo's story of betrayal, knowing that this was his chance to play the most vital role in the party and I would never have any reason to replace him. Then I decided that I actually liked the other portrait better and therefore ditched him immediately. That character really does have the most incredible bad luck.

Tamara, then, took over as de facto leader of the party by being the longest-serving member by a clear couple of minutes. Her description says she's a Landsknecht, a role which involves standing in the front row, cutting things up with a sword, and knowing what a Landsknecht is.

One of the things that make Etrian Odyssey games such a unique experience to each player is that there aren't enough skill points to go around even within one class - one player's fighter can be very different from another's. Landsknechte have a choice between swords and axes, one of which seems to be suitable for very powerful hits on one character and one for attacks that are more spread across enemies. I've gone for the latter for now, and it makes clearing out larger parties of enemies a very quick process indeed.

Amy is a Dark Hunter, a class which I'm pretty sure Atlus wanted to name Dominatrix - they fight with a whip, with available techniques including "Shackles", "Cuffs", "Ecstasy" and "Climax". In the third game, I felt myself very lacking in the ability to bind enemies - these games' equivalent of Silence, where binds prevent moves that require use of the arms, legs or head separately - and so she seemed like a good character to take along to experiment. She's primarily been used as a straight attacker so far, but I've no doubt the ability to prevent stronger enemies from performing more devastating moves will be a refreshing change from continually trying to patch up their effects.

One of the classes that I originally tried in Etrian Odyssey 3 was a Zodiac, a character who primarily used magic instead of physical attacks. Unfortunately he was replaced very quickly due to my realizing that I had too many back-row characters, and because his total available magic points at that stage of the game left him uselessly whacking people with his stick after only about two rounds' worth of setting things on fire. This time, though, Zothen is being given a proper chance to take his place in the party - and he's already proved incredibly useful, having by far the most powerful attack in the early game particularly when he uses the right spell against an otherwise impenetrable enemy's elemental weakness.

Siegfried returns to my party from Etrian Odyssey 3, except this time with a shorter hairstyle and an unfeasibly large mouth. Some years off becoming a prince yet but with much the same shiny armour, in this game he's a Protector, a class with the ability to draw attacks away from the rest of the party and to absorb it themselves. Or he would if I ever bothered to use any of that - much like Amy, he's also proving very capable as an attacker while I hack my way through the game to the bits where non-attack techniques will eventually come in useful.

And finally, Apollo Justice. This spiky-haired junior is the medic of the group, and so doesn't do any damage to speak of at all, but I rely on him to keep people's health up during long explorations. The ability to revive knocked-out party members, however, seems to be quite far off in this game - rather than spending massive amounts of skill points or using up the worryingly rare Nectar items, it's more usual for me to warp back to the town and throw them on to a slab for more serious injuries to be looked at by Dr Hoffman.

 

And they've all been very capable so far. Having learned not to overstretch myself by the sheer speed of my first demise in the third game, everyone was able to stay mostly alive throughout the first tentative steps into the dungeon (apart from Amy, who's a bit soft). I even managed to survive my first encounter with the much-dreaded Ragelopes, the first ever FOE in the game on the second floor - though they're not exactly easy, and the first boss Fenrir and his seven hundred minion-wolves reminded me exactly what the series was known for.

Now I'm gradually exploring the top floor of the second stratum, with the blessing of a small safe point quite nearby - which is a comfort especially now that I actually have to remember to buy Warp Wires in order to be able to return to the town quickly. After having forgotten twice in a row, I've taken to stocking up two or three just in case.