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Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Geez what is this, Etrian Odyssey appreciation year?

Anyways, if any of your are familiar with Etrian Odyssey 2, know that this remake is a massive improvement. The class balance got much better in this game. For one, Beasts used to suck big time back in EO2. Here, they're a great class to have. Also good gravy they overbuffed the Troubadour. The most overpowered class in the game in my opinion. And it's far less buggy than the original game. (I will never get over the fact that you could erase bosses in that game.) Though EO2U still has its fair share of bugs, and there's some design decisions I'm not a fan of at all.

Oh right, a character.

Name: Jackie
Class: Gunner
Portrait: 2

A sharp eyed gun-slinging girl who's good at making her shots. Tactical and one to think things through, not a lot escapes her eyes, and is very resourceful. Unfortunately those are all she has going for her. After hearing tales of another Labyrinth being conquered, she wanted to join in on the fun. Unfortunately, she bothered to do absolutely no research on them and is completely unprepared for its dangers. She tends to talk big and pretends to know what she's talking about, even if other people can see through all the hot air she spouts. She secretly hopes her guild mates will do a good job protecting her.

Guild name: Bullseye

Oh and as for a party: Ronin, Dark Hunter, War Magus, Gunner, Hexer. I mean that worked out well in the original game, right? :laugh:

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Nov 14, 2015

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Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Yay, mine got picked! :neckbeard:

You've got the method to make grinding easier, right? Cause keeping 14 (or more if you're making a farming team) characters up to date without it seems like it would be a pain.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

I was kind of worried about that. 100x100 is the size Fetus is using for his EO3 LP, but I think the fact that I zoom in closer with the icons makes them look too big.

I'll adjust them in the morning, I just finished closing everything and am about to sleep.

I think he meant the screenshots. They're 800x480 which is pretty big.

Might be a little excessive on the party chat, but it is the first update. A personal guideline I follow is that 10 straight lines of party chat (or a few people speaking a lot of dialogue) without something from the game is running a little too long. Less than that keeps things moving and doesn't cause things to veer into straight fanfic territory.

Anyways you probably should just keep at it. It took me a while to find a flow I was comfortable with in my EO2 LP.

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Nov 16, 2015

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

: Ah, it's the new adventurer. How is your mission from the Palace going? Let's talk when you've finished the job. I'll be waiting here!

And lastly, before we go check the Inn, here's what Cass says if you Talk to him before finishing the first Grand Duchy mission:




You seem to be missing a screenshot here.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Yeah, the numbers on Picnic mode are that ridiculous.

As someone who loves running ailments, the monster codex telling you what ailments enemies are and aren't weak to was a great addition.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

theshim posted:

Huh. Until the portrait now, I never noticed that one hair sticking out on Abigail. :3:

It's more noticeable in the original game, but yeah until then I thought that erased that part of her portrait in the remake.

Issen is pretty absurd. I think it has like a 100% proc rate on the Instant Kill as long as the Ronin's LUC isn't too low, and enemies aren't resistant to it. Also a nice change that EOU made that carried over to EO2U was that investing in Masteries automatically unlocked skills if you invest enough in them. Helps to make them feel like less of a point sink.

Also, multiple save slots! About time we got those.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

theshim posted:

Issen is a great trash mob/add clearer, unreliable against FOEs, and useless against bosses. Which, honestly, describes most of the offensive Force Breaks...which, unfortunately, runs a bit counter to the whole idea of "one big boom you can only pull out once" - those are the kinds of things usually saved for bosses etc. Just using the Force Boosts tends to be waaaaay more effective against bosses.

It's a great finisher against FOEs, since the success rate jumps up to 1000% once they drop below 20% of their HP. And I'm pretty sure resistances don't run lower than 10% unless the enemy in question is outright immune to it. Essentially, it's like Climax in the original game. Only far less broken.

I like the new Force system. It's far better handled than Force in the original game. (Oh hello there endless stuns, eternal bind lockdown, and the party taking absolutely no damage for the entire battle.)

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
RIP Dominate/Rose Prison. Went from being one of the best Force skills in EO2 to being utter trash in EO2U. (then again, a lot of the Force Breaks in this game aren't worth it compared to the Force Boosts.) The bind chance definitely isn't guaranteed, and the poison damage is awful. I think it ticks for around 100 until you get to the 90s. Viper's Poison hits way harder than that! So I don't even know what the point of the poison is. And it's pretty much nothing compared to what Trance gives them.

Meanwhile, Riot Gun/Supreme Bolt basically gets off scott free. I'm pretty sure the success rate on that skill is 1000%, because I have never seen it fail unless the enemy in question is immune to stuns.

Proof of Nobility is pretty much a percentage based Heal/TP restore. 40% for HP, 33% for TP. I guess it could be useful in long fights. In short fights, it's pretty much one of the worst Force Breaks in the game.

Hoo boy, Fafnir. Dude is completely broken. Best damage dealer in the game, no contest. Story mode balances him out by sticking him in a jack of all trades party (Survivalist, Sovereign, Protector, War Magus) so he's probably not gonna demolish everything from the get go. If you could get him into Classic Mode, RIP everything, especially if you pair him up with a Troubadour. Oh yeah, Transform is also gained through the plot. He can't use his Force Boost until later in the game. In his base form, he's decent, I guess.


You really should listen to this if you haven't.

alcharagia posted:

What, this one?



I completely forgot about the Ravelope. I can't believe a series of damage tests I was doing ended up creating this thing.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
I wouldn't say base Fafnir is terrible. He's... serviceable at least. Kind of has to be because until he gets enough SP to invest into his Force Skill tree, you're gonna have to deal with the downtime where Transform isn't available a lot. Doing a run without Transform is just plain crazy, though. He's your main form of DPS in Story. Flavio won't be contributing much damage-wise until much later, and Chloe can't carry the team forever. Later on, her support abilities are far more valuable than her offensive ones.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Tyty posted:

Ricky is very good at damage yes, and Arthur does a fine job with evil eye suicide word (I made him into a hexer, due to the bug in the ailment formula where tec matters more than luc)


Actually, I looked into it, and the thing I'm using to convert EO4's textures already has support for that compression format. I'm grabbing textures from EO2U right now.

They finally (unfortunately) changed the enemy data format from EO3's though

EDIT: Hm. It appears they changed the texture files too. They may just be encrypted.

Yeah, not surprised at that. EO2U is a much bigger overhaul than the other EOs in terms of mechanics, so I'm not surprised at the change in data formats. A lot has changed between EO2U and EOU (Or PQ if you want to go that way.)

I decided to test things out, and it seems like accumulative resistance hasn't changed between games. Maybe. 4 applications on a enemy neutral to an ailment = immunity, so it might still be a -30% resistance there. Or -25%. Who knows. Couldn't tell you the exact odds on the skills though, since the ailment formula definitely changed in this game.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Kemix posted:

Speaking of EOU1, what's the story party like there?

Gameplay wise? Eh, jack of all trades. Very basic, and kind of boring to play around. (Highlander, Gunner, Protector, Alchemist, and Medic) Story wise, there's only 1 interesting character (Raquna.)

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Tyty posted:

FOEbucks

Nice, simple, rolls right off the tongue.

This is perfect. I'm going with FOEbucks.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
EDIT: Gah, wrong EO thread!

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Jackie, Phoebe, Nadia.

Gotta say, not really a fan of Grimoires in this game either. It's less of a hassle to deal with than EOU's system, but I think that just gave the devs an excuse to be lazy with a few design decisions down the line.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

Oh, yeah, shortcuts are dynamic too. They're not like they were dyanmic in PQ (where there's one generic shortcut icon you plop down that tells you where a shortcut is and if it's opened or not), but they light up once they're activated.

The way context sensitive icons are programmed is that there are context sensitive tiles and context sensitive icons. The context sensitive tiles will trigger once you do something there, like opening up a chest or an FOE pitfall. So if you placed the actual chest icon on an opened shortcut, the icon would be an opened chest. Kind of a weird, but efficient way of coding things.

Also I just voted for random people that haven't been in the party yet. :v:

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Quona's talk dialogue only changes once per Stratum or whenever you trigger event dialogue from Regina.

The Poison damage food is actually completely absurd if you're using a Hexer with Venom Curse, because a level 20 version of that hits pretty hard, especially with the double Poison damage food, and that's pretty much the first skill you want to max out for them. TP cost isn't even a concern with Hexers, so there's no need to hold off on leveling up the skill. Venom Curse stops being a one hit kill for random encounters midway through the game, but it's still fairly useful until late/post-game. (Ah, some things never change. :allears:)

As with accessories and food that have arrows up next to them (If they're providing resistances. I don't think what I'm about to say applies with any other effects food give, like extra Grimoire chances) the amount of resistance they provide are as follows:

1 arrow means it increases resistance by 10%.
2 arrows means it increases resistance by 25%.
3 arrows means it increases resistance by 50%.
4 arrows means it gives complete immunity.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
I'm pretty sure that Supreme Bolt's Stun can't actually fail unless the target is outright immune to Stun. And unlike EO2, there are actually enemies and bosses that are immune to it in EO2U.

Jackie, Sophie, and Milly. I got the all conditionals on my first fights in EO2, you can too. :unsmigghh: (Or Chimaera's at least for this one.)

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Weapon masteries actually have their damage bonus applied to skills in this game. It's only in EO3 where they only applied to basic attacks. So they're not useless, it's just something to invest in when you have all your skills. And if you want to optimize your party, but there aren't any other Grimoires you want, you might as well slap that onto them.

There were two useful charge skills in EOU. Charge (which was an enemy skill) boosted damage by 210% at level 10, and there was Action Boost. Which was essentially a 300%+ damage boost (even higher if you Boosted the skill Action Boost was taking effect on) which got nerfed heavily in EO2U.

Gonna have to disagree on the Chasers being bad. They're actually a viable option, and it's far easier to build a party around them (without dropping their effectiveness) than in any of the other EO games, where your options for that were far more limited. A Gunner with Action Boost active has 2 chances to activate a chaser (and that's not even taking Double Action procs into account) and Palm Alchemists can also roll for 2 chances thanks to Additional Palm. And if Double Action procs when they use Palms, that's 4 chances to activate a chaser. In fact, I'd say Chasers are close to being dangerously overbuffed in this game. If Atlus buffs them even more if they pop up in EOV or EO3U, I would say they would pretty much become overpowered. (Again.)

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Supremezero posted:

Where do LPers even pull these numbers from, anyway. I hope it's not ridiculous amounts of testing.

For the DS games, the info was datamined. People had to test for the 3DS games, and they still don't have all the info. It was easier to test for stuff in EO4, because people found out that it shared the same formulas as EO3. (The only EO games where that actually happened. Most EO games just change everything up from game to game.) Unfortunately for stuff like ailment infliction rates, that's much harder to test for since those are probability skills, and don't exactly have visual results telling you exactly what happened. It also doesn't help that the only stats that the game actually tells you about are STR and VIT. So it's kind of hard to test things when you're missing vital info.

Mind you people have gotten into EO2U and started hacking it. They just haven't looked at the internal guts.

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 23:56 on Nov 29, 2015

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

I mean, Stardust is just as easily killed in the back as she is in the front; couldn't hurt. :v: I'll do some test runs and see how much Palms compare to Compression at this level.

My initial plan was to put Tyler and Sophie in the front; Sophie's entire job is to poison Chimaera and maybe use Black Mist if I can miraculously get a bind to stick as well. After that, she doesn't do much.

Unless you're willing to farm up Grimoires, I don't think Palms would do that much for you unless you're expecting the fight to take 20+ turns. (Okay granted unless you cheese the bosses, that's pretty much how long most of them take.) The main thing Palms have over Compression is TP efficiency. Palms have the best TP to damage ratio out of all the Alchemist's skills, so they're great in long fights. But they need their palm skill and Additional Palm to really deal damage, which they won't have enough skill points for until the 2nd Stratum. But Compression builds deals the most damage in the shortest amount of time, so if you're looking to kill things quickly, that's the way to go.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Milly, Colette, Enatre.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

W.T. Fits posted:

I don't get it. :confused:

ROT13.

Probably should have layered that code through multiple ciphers. :v:

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

RareAcumen posted:

Freyja, Asriel, Colette

Gotta get the less active people some votes too!

edit: This is also quite a ways in but I still don't understand the skill allocation that well. So, you get three points at the beginning and then one for each level right? I don't get how you can do things like give Freyja a Whip Mastery level and then put five points into skills branching off from that.

Skill investment got slightly more forgiving in the Untold games. When you invest in a Mastery skill (this doesn't apply to stuff like the Survivalist's Speed Up skill) any skills that the mastery unlocks will automatically have one point put into them.



So yes, you do start with 3 skill points, but Ragnar investing a point into Whip Mastery automatically put a point into the skills it unlocked at level 1. Presumably this was intended to make skill trees less intimidating to new players, and to encourage trying out skills before you invest in them more.

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 05:50 on Dec 1, 2015

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

RareAcumen posted:

Wow, holy gently caress, I wish I had a 3DS and decided to break into Etrian Odyssey with this game instead of EO3, holy poo poo.

Mind you, that saves you maybe 5 skill points at most (And even that's being generous.) Some of the skills on a mastery skill branch might be ignored depending on the class, so it's not actually that helpful in most cases. Though it does give you some extra tools to work with.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
An interesting thing about the gathering skills and Natural Instinct is that they both stack with each other. So you could put some Take/Chop/Mine Grimoires and put those on your gathering team for even more items, on top of another Natural Instinct Grimoire. Just be sure to have a lot of empty inventory space when you take out your gathering party, because that will fill up fast.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Efficiency was better in Untold because it was a passive skill there. Now it pretty much got nerfed hard. Oh well, at least Survivalists are usable now.

Dunno if I would call Survivalists the kings of damage in EO1. They were great, but I'd say they were behind Axe Landsknecht and the Ronin, who was the actual damage king there. Their real strength was being able to cover multiple roles at once such as damage dealing, and being a very fast support. Then later games nerfed generalizing your skill builds and encouraged specializing instead.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
So is Realga using the Medi Gun or the Quick-Fix? :v:

Well ATK Up actually boosted the Medic's STR stat by 300%. Though given the damage formula in EO1, that didn't necessarily mean it tripled the Medic's damage output, so a 90% damage boost would be kind of about right. Caduceus was so ridiculous back then. Nothing in EO1 resisted or were immune to stuns, so on top of dealing good damage, it flat out had an 75% chance to stun something, which was ridiculous.

Incidentally, if you had 4 Beasts with Desperation active, and one of them could Overheal the party, that would boost Vital Hit's damage to 2434%. Though such a setup would be impractical and probably can't actually happen.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Omobono posted:

Jeez, Fafnir is a tad overpowered, isn't he?

What's the story party? Faffie, Sovereign, War Magus, Survivalist and what, an Hexer?
Maybe they should have used another damage dealer instead of the WM so there would have been no need to overtune the only DPS in the party.

Fafnir doesn't gain Transform until the fight with the Mercenary Boar. The Story party basically goes to Ginnungagap after the very first mission, and the fight is basically a tutorial on using Force. Classic Mode basically goes, "this dude's here, kill it." And then never speaks of it again.

The Story mode party isn't really a low damage party. Fafnir himself is a strong damage dealer, and flat out the strongest class in the game. You also have Chloe, who wrecks a lot of things with Ailing Slash. And you have Flavio, who admittedly doesn't become that great until he has the skill points for all his vital skills. It just doesn't compare to what a Classic party is capable of. The Story party is actually really strong. It's just that the game was kind of designed to screw the Story party over in some places, but not so much a Classic party.

Also if there's any weak spots in the Story party you have issues with, well there's always making use of Grimoire stones. And that's actually a valid option in this game compared to how Untold handled those.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Yeah, Himukai can draw properly proportioned characters just fine. He's just not great at drawing super deformed characters (though he has been getting better about it), which pretty much all the character portraits in the EO games are. Zodiac 2 got hit pretty hard by it. She looked like an adult in the concept art. Then ended up getting horribly squashed.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

Nope. It's all about moving really, really fast!

url=http://tindeck.com/listen/whxkr][/url]


Messed up code. And you left a few stray brackets lying around in the update.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

As the guild's leader... I shouldn't have let this happen. If I had only listened when she suggested we fall back, and recover-- I'm...I'm sorry. I lost my composure... I suppose if I was going to change, I would take action instead of stewing in regret... Now, to the task at hand. My comrade used a certain technique to drive the beast back... a skill to control file, to be specific. I've heard of some explorers that command fire, or jars containing the essence of fire. One of either would assist greatly. For our comrade's sake...we must return, and take our vengeance on the beast!

Well having control over game save files would be a useful ability. Maybe. :v:

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

You know what's a dick move? The game immediately throws you into battle when you open the door.

And in every other game, just opening the door puts you in front of the boss but gives you a chance to leave. :argh:

It varies from game to game. Hilariously enough, in EO3, there's a boss that lets you leave the room anytime if you're taking one path. But if you're on the other path, said boss engages you immediately.

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Dec 16, 2015

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
But why would you go through the door in the first place? Why risk it? While it is inconsistent, the best case scenario is a puzzle that gets reset when you leave the Labyrinth.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

RareAcumen posted:

Because as Hobgoblin pointed out right above your post:


So why would you think that this one time was radically different from every other time you got close to a boss room? Any other time you'd be able to walk into the room, map it out a bit, look at the boss and moonwalk outta there and back to town if you wanted to.

I mean it's annoying that it's inconsistent, but I'm saying there's not really any benefit for going through early in most cases. Other than maybe getting a slight bit of mapping done. If there's a puzzle for the boss, you have to do the puzzle and boss in one go since the puzzle resets after leaving.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
EO2 is kind of an exception in that there's only one boss (two if you count the post-game) that you engage immediately upon going in. EO2U changed things up though, as EO2 did not have Ginnungagap or the environment puzzles at all. All it really had were those Bell items you could use to move FOEs around, and those got taken out in this game.

EO3 had more. There was Gatekeeper (Only on the Armoroad path. If you were on the Deep City path, you engaged it immediately.) And then there was Kirin and Shin. Granted you don't actually get to see them in the room until its time to fight.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Dr. Fetus here, I got permission from Ragnar Homsar to do a little thing. I have no idea how far I'm going to get with this since I don't really have the tools Ragnar has to capture screenshots easily. But without any further ado, let's begin.

Update 1: The Start of an Untold Tale

Video: Opening





I'm gonna be doing a special little playthrough here.



There are two kinds of playthroughs you can do. A Classic Mode playthrough, where you can create your own party. But it has less plot.

Story mode comes with an expanded story line, but it sticks you with a set party.



I'll be covering Story Mode.



And of course, I'll be doing it on the one true difficulty. :unsmigghh:



Let's begin.







Oh hey, there's Dr. Hoffman! There are usually Trauma Center cameos in most EO games. Dr. Hoffman made a cameo in EO1, but he got taken out of the remake. Good to see that they didn't all get taken out of the remakes.











Well? What will our protagonist's name be?

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Crosspeice posted:

Make it ...Matt? so it seems like no one really bothered to learn your name.

It's a shame you can't really do videos of this, since transcribing's gonna be a bitch no matter what.

I'm not doing a full LP of this, or getting much into the gameplay aspects. I'll leave that to Ragnar. I'll just mainly be showing off stuff that's different in Story rather than everything. Like if I don't cover a particular quest or something, just assume it plays out the same way it did in Classic. I'm also only showing off town dialogue and events that are different in Story to save myself effort. I'll do videos of boss fights but uh, don't expect them to be high quality. I'm not doing hybrid because that's getting to be way too herculean, so there are unfortunately gonna be some updates that are maybe pure video or something like that.

Yeah, transcribing is gonna be tough. I'm gonna miss having a text dump for this like I did with EO3. That made things so much more convenient.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Oh and before I forget, what kind of person do you think our protagonist is? A serious and upstanding person? Or the complete opposite of that?

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

Transcribing stuff, even with raw footage I can skip around in, is already a pain (especially because OCR software reacts badly to EO2U's translucent UI). I can't imagine what it's like with just Miiverse photos. :v:

Txn posted:

Oh god, a Miiverse screenshot LP

It's an Atlus game, of course you HAVE to choose the not serious answers

It is exactly as tedious as you would think. And then some. This was a terrible idea. And yet I chose to do it anyway. :suicide:

Well, looks like Knight it is. And he will be the complete opposite of serious. You have chosen wisely.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

siotle posted:

Head binds can also be used offensively. Since enemy TEC affects the damage they take from TEC-based attacks, it boosts alchemist damage and some skills from other classes.
Whether you want to spend the effort head binding something is another thing, but I always felt that the damage increase in previous games was pretty noticeable.

It halves the target's TEC stat, so it's a pretty big increase.

Oh and as for the ailment hierarchy, just look at the monster codex. Those list of ailment resistances are arranged that way for a reason. An ailment cannot be overwritten by the ones to the right of them, while ailments to the left of said ailment can overwrite that ailment. (ie Poison can overwrite Blind, but it cannot overwrite Paralysis.) And Confusion started being called Panic starting from EO4. Also, accumulative resistance acts the same way it did in past games. +30% resistance per infliction. I should also note that while the reset timer for accumulative resistance is ticking down, if you manage to inflict that ailment again during that time, the timer will reset back to 10 turns.

Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.
Update 2: Arrival in High Lagaard





Our protagonist's name was decided to be Knight! So that's what we're going with.







Nah, I think you heard wrong.

In truth, I'm lacking.





















Here's Flavio. He's gonna be one of our party members. And before you ask, no, you cannot rename Story Mode characters.

I'll give it my best shot!









I see... Oh, um, are you sure about sending two rookies, though? Shouldn't the knights of Caledonia be handling that?





Why me?

















I'm thinking that maybe all sorts of things could go wrong here.

I'm not confident about this...



Oh. Oops.



B-But we're still in front of the professor, so let's say, “Leave it to us!” Okay!?







I didn't think they'd form an investigation team with just the two of us on it.



No time to be a baby, Flavio.

It's not a big deal.





Heheh, it's reassuring, in a way.
Alright, I can't stand around quaking in my boots. I need to repay the Library for raising me. The Duchy of High Lagaard, huh? Okay, let's get going!



We're playing EO3, right?

That southern ocean city, right?





Oh. My mistake.

Completely different place. High Lagaard is a cold country north of here.
Better take a map so we don't get lost, I guess.





Despite anxious hopes for a perilous adventure, the journey was uneventful. On the night of the 30th day... High Lagaard at last came into view.







Our orders from the Midgard Library were, “report straight to the Guild once you arrive in High Lagaard,” right?
We should probably get going then, huh?



Only one place we can go to at the moment.









Oh? I do recall receiving word that a member of the investigation team would come. Flavio, is it...? And your name is?



I don't give names to strangers, lady.

...How about you tell me yours first?





Now then, Knight and Flavio. In searching for your client Lady Arianna, I'd like you to thoroughly explore the area. This is a mission that is tasked to all explorers of High Lagaard.



Precisely. I'd like to see if the members of the Midgard investigation team live up to the prestigious name. I've already sent a message to the Duke's Palace. I'd like you to head there and accept a mission from them.



By accepting and completing these, you will be able to progress and receive various rewards. First, try heading to the Duke's Palace from the plaza.

We understand, but... where exactly are we supposed to meet our client?
Ah... she's been waiting for your arrival at the Labyrinth's entrance for some time. She seems to be in quite the hurry. I imagine she's waiting at the same spot as usual. I suggest you accept the mission and meet up with her at the Labyrinth.



So here's one of the main differences between Story and Classic. First of all, we start out with less money. And we're stuck with 2 party members at the moment, even though most people would make a party of 5 in Classic mode. Anyways, I'm not gonna talk too much about gameplay here. The main purpose of this Let's Play is to cover the differences between Story and Classic. You want gameplay details? Read Ragnar Homsar's LP, he's covering that pretty well.



The other thing is that we're stuck with this party. We can't make any new members, so whatever the game gives us, it's what we have to work with. Though this game allows some leeway, in that it lets you alter your class (You can't do this with Fafnir. He's stuck in his base class.) Altering your class allows you to do just that. Except the person who alters their class keeps their base stat spread instead of changing to the new class' stat spread. So it's somewhat limited in use in Story Mode. Now there are a couple of good ways to reclass some classes. Flavio can be reclassed to a Gunner or Hexer and can take on their roles fairly effectively if you wish to work with those classes. I won't be making use of reclassing in this playthrough. The Story Mode party is already fairly versatile and serviceable. Oh, and Story Mode characters do have the same stat spread as their base class.

Anyways we can also talk to Marion.




Go accept the mission at the Duke's Palace, and proceed to rendezvous at the Labyrinth.

Now each NPC has a bit of dialogue whenever you talk to them. They usually change it for each new floor you reach. Though some of the dialogue differs depending on if you play Story or Classic. I won't show off the ones that have already been shown off by Ragnar Homsar. Anyways, let's leave.







Gee, not giving us much of a choice there.











That's some beard you've got.





No, I'm pretty sure that his beard is a very important issue.

...Hm. I had imagined the people of Midgard to be more severe folk, but it seems you two have a sense of humor.
Oh! Uh, um... w-we apologize for our behavior!
No need for apologies. Why, it's a pleasant surprise to be complimented on one's beard. I'm rather unused to such flattery! But let us return to the point. Yes, the Guildmaster has already informed me that you wish to take the test. This may also make a fine opportunity for you to attain the basic skills you'd need to navigate the Labyrinth. You may now proceed with the test.





Let's take the test.







Carographic skills are de rigueur when investigating the Labyrinth. I hope for this mission to teach you those skills. Here is a map of the Labyrinth. Note down the details that you find and return to the Grand Duchy when it is done.



And like in Classic Mode, you get a map, and it shows up on the bottom screen.

What I'm interested in this time is 1F. Here, I'll mark the region in question on your map in red.

He does so.

And one last thing. I wish for you to find and retrieve from the Labyrinth a bit of proof that we've prepared.
Proof, huh?



Ahahaha. An unsubtle jab at people who prefer to look up maps on the internet rather than making one themselves.

The proof is a wooden token with the High Lagaardian emblem engraved n it. You'll find it in a treasure box.



Let's go, Flavio.
Understood! We're finally going into the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, huh...? L-Let's get fired up, Knight!

Let's talk to Dubois.



Make sure you visit Sitoth Trading, and prepare well before you proceed with the mission.

Let's leave.



Prepare your equipment there before heading into the Labyrinth itself, hm?

You just said that to us.

Anyways, we'll check out the rest of the town, and meet with our client next time.

Araxxor fucked around with this message at 09:03 on Dec 18, 2015

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Araxxor
Oct 20, 2012

My disdain for you all knows no bounds.

Ragnar Homsar posted:

In any case, work on update 11 is proceeding somewhat slowly, because I am creating portraits of every single story mode character expression for Dr. Fetus to use. I'm close to being done, but I've been at this for a total of around 4 hours now. :shepface:

If I'm going to suffer, I'm going to drag everyone else down with me. :unsmigghh: (Thanks, by the way.)

Also do not try to do screenshot LPs of 3DS games through Miiverse. It is a beyond terrible idea. And if the Nintendo Network goes down, you can't take screenshots. I have no idea why I'm doing this to myself. :suicide:

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