I have been playing the demo fro a few days now, playing with all the classes and trying different strategies and builds. I just went after and killed both bears and that went way to good for a level 10 party so I decided to heal up at the in catch some food and with a red bull I went after the kangaroos on the world map and I won. I think I have spent way to much time with this demo if I am taking on FOEs that can one hit all my characters but my fortress. I am now going after all of them just to clear them out and have there components to the shop, and test out more party configurations.

Whoa, you beat them!? I got so close (put him in the wounded animation) but ran out of MP on my medic(for heals, duh)/stealthdude(for blind)/knightlady(for power down)/mage( for damage) and I don't recall there being any items in the demo to recover MP mid battle so I had to just give up. Also my front line works with taunt and since the kangaroo punches the whole front row that didn't work at all. Blind was the only thing keeping me alive but it was just wasn't working enough.

What setup did you have when you beat them?

(in case you can't tell I forgot the names of the classes, it's been over a week since I've played. I'll recognize them if I see the names though)

@superwristbands: First off in Lush Woodlands B1 cell C,5 there is a event square where you can place threads, with some luck you can get the TP restoring items (the name of them escapes me.). That should help with your TP issues. Second you should focus your builds for fighting FOEs, it sounds like you are running with a Medic, Nightseeker, Landsknecht, Runemaster, and a Fortress, I don't know if you have played EO before but at the Explorer's Guild you can rest your characters. Resting in this game sets a character back 2 levels and rests there skill points.

I went in with a Fortress/Landsknecht/Dancer front line and Medic/Sniper backline strongest equips I could find. some got though luck and trading with the other airships roaming around the over world and through the few QR codes I could find in the link bellow.

http://imgur.com/a/PKwHb#0

My character builds are as follows.

For your characters I would suggest the following.

Like I said above I am a bit of a crazy person, now I can't prove the build I gave for your characters above I have not run it myself I used the skill sim (link bellow) to figure out the amount of skill points needed I know the skills are good and this should work as long as blind kicks in early enough to not drain out the TP of the Nightseeker. I hope that helps you get some amazing equips out of the kangaroos drops.

http://crazyuncleivans.com/eo4skillsim/EO4Skillsim.html

@thed9984: This is the first EO game I've played and thank you thank you for that skill reset tip. I was wondering if there was a way to go about that but forgot to look into it.

As for the build, that is surprisingly close to my setup with minor differences with medic (put some points into line heal) and I chose to ignore blade fury on my nightseeker (I guess I'll go change that) and that I went with fire rune instead of volt.

On a side note, I had a sniper but I swapped it for a nightseeker as I wasn't seeing any good damage coming out of it and I have no idea what bind legs and arms does. Does it explain it in game? I must have missed it if it did. I assume bind arms will not allow them to attack, but what does bind legs do?

Tried that demo, had never heard of the series before it. Shame that its one of those kiddy porn cartoon games, the gameplay seemed interesting and challenging, and the graphics of the forests and airship overworlds were really beautiful and unique.

@superwristbands: Binding arms legs and the head keeps skills associated with that limb from being used. Now in the case of line heal that will be useful to you in the full game but not so much in the demo, line and party heal are good mid to late game skills most of the time in the EO series, you do get the occasional FOE who will do party or line damage, and it dose fell like there will be more of that with how the character skills are made described. The Sniper is useful being one of the only ranged attackers you have in the beginning, now the dancer can equip bows but the lack of bow skills and a focus on the front with there dances, most notable Regen and attack you might as well use swords as they act faster then bows and are more plenty full. You want the lighting rune in these fights because it is more powerful per level then the fire or ice ones.

You said this is your first EO title so I am going to drop a few more knowledge bombs on you right now. When you see pink flowers on the wall (At least in the caves and maze of this area we can explore in the demo.) that makes a shortcut you can take, always walk up to it and check either you will be prompted to pass though or told you cant from this side, once you say yes to that prompt once that shortcut is opened. Most skills are tied to specific weapons, for example the Landsknecht's Sonic Raid skill is either Rapier or sword this means you can only use the skill with one of those equipped. Always take note of what you need to use a skill if it has a requirement to use. Each weapon has a modifier to your speed to set action priority, I believe in this game it goes Knife>Rapier>Sword>Bow>Mace>Staff, I have no clue where the gunblade fits in but that won't matter tell late game with the unlock of the Imperial class. Your skills also have an effect on your turn priority most of the time it is negative there are a few that are instant though. (Like sonic raid) Now you do need to start thinking about subclasses for your characters when you move to the full game I suspect it will happen after the first boss at the bottom of the Lush Woodlands. Sup classes add the skill trees of another class to your character, this feature was added in the third game but now instead of having full levels to use you can only go up to half on the skills, you can't have the proficiency tree or the gathering skill from that class though. EO3 also added forging your weapons to the series eventually you will be able to add stat bonus to your weapons or status ailments to them, it is worth noting at least in 3 adding a ailment to a weapon was useless the odds were far lower then that of a skill, so you only added stat buffs. This is an ATLUS title so it will be hard and status ailments are both your friend and worst enemy, they will wreck whoever you are fighting and they can wreck your crew. When you open up a second weapon slot for the Nightseeker the second slot in your equip screen is for that. (the one immediately after the weapon slot fro everyone else.)

If you have anymore questions about the series or want ideas for builds just let me know here i guess.

@boocreepyfootdoctor:

I strongly urge you to overlook the art style of the characters if you find it unappealing, the series has had strong writing for its narrative, some of the headrest post game bosses you will ever find, and deep levels of strategy for party builds and how you approach each battle. (I will admit the first game is much less so in the ability to very classes, the typical party in that one was Protecter/Landskenecht front Medic(could be moved up front in the late to post game)/Survivalist/Troubadour(mostly as a TP fix)) This one is turning out to be a personal favorite of mine, 3 is a strong second though and if you can find any of these titles I suggest them to anyone who likes old school RPG games (Which I admit is a very niche market).

@thed9984: So as the self-described crazy person that you are, which game would you recommend playing? Is there a decent story told in the games? Honestly these games have seemed intimidating, but I have been interested in trying whenever I learn Atlus is putting one out from their mailing list.

@negativecero: Well this one is the newest and is on par with the first as far as the initial jumping off point for party building, with stronger balance making almost no classes outright useless. The first is great but overall the weakest as I said above the balance is the weakest it along with 2 have cookie cutter parties something that this one seams to avoid and the third did. The story was strongest in 3 as far as the ones that are out to date but it is the most daunting for your building your party. All in all I would still suggest 3 as a good starting point if you don't want to wait but this one looks just as promising to new players.

In the end I would say take one of three options, if you like to see the growth of a series grab one and work forward to this one and never need to buy more games for yourself this year. If you want a more complex party building system I would suggest seeing if you can find the skill sim for 3 along with the game, 3 holds the most options overall for your party throwing 10 classes at you out of the gate and after 2 playthoughs you will have 12 open to you. If you would rather be eased into this series get the demo for 4 and start playing around with the 7 classes that are open and trying out builds that sound interesting to you, this dose seem the least daunting out of the gate of the series over all.

I know I kind of rambled on here but depending on where you fell comfortable with hard as hell old school RPGs make your choice, and I hope to see more fans of this series pop up especially with ATLUS saying that they will be doing another run on this series through amazon.

I'm looking forward to play this today. My copy is waiting at gamestop for when I get off work today. It'll be my first EO.

I loved the shit out of EOIII. It prompted me to pick up EOII on a whim, but I still haven't played it. EOIV was an immediate pre-order. I was going light on playing the demo because I was worried about conserving demo uses. Since my copy should show up tomorrow, all bets are off. Only around level 5 or 6 for my party. I'm currently rolling Landsknect/Fortress/Dancer front and Sniper/Medic back. I am still pretty freaked out by FOEs. I like that mechanic where you're drawing them out and getting them to smash barriers. Is that new to EOIV?

@muttersometaxicab:

Yes it is, with this one being the most modern of the series the FOEs are now depectied with there model on the map as opposed to the much more terrifying orange furry ball. I have my full copy now and I am at B3 of the Lush Woodlands where it seams I am about to have my first boss battle of the game. I am currently running the same party as you after much experimenting in the demo and I find it works well, but I do fell that just about any party can work so long as it has different classes, just know what you are building and the use of that class and balance your party to work together.

On another note what BS is that to lock the demo to 30 uses, it's a limited demo, you only get one of three caves and 10 levels. What good dose it do to lock the demo after it is booted 30 times, can anyone make sense of that?

I've played every EO game since the first one and my reaction to the sequels is always "I wish this was more like Etrian Odyssey 1."

I'll probably wind up playing this eventually but my enthusiasm for the series just isn't there right now.

@morbid_coffee:

I see where you are coming from, and I love the first but that is not inviting to new players, I must have started that game 20 times over trying to figure it out. With the way the skills are structured the cookie cutter team and build are just about the only viable way to play that game with out double to triple the grinding. Etrian 3 and now 4 allow just about any party build to work with a better balanced skill set across classes they are a far better starting point. Anyone who like EO3 or 4 should go back to the first and second games they are great but weaker in there plots and there are far less map tools to communicate what is in a room to you after the fact. I could load up my finished save of 1 and have no clue what my map says while my finished save of 3 is crystal clear. I love this series to death but 1 is the weakest of the series in my mind.

Yeah, I really hope they do away with the 30 Use Limit. I think it's just because Nintendo hasn't really done the demo thing, so they're not quite sure how that works. Still, you'd think they would look at what other cats are doing and do it like that.