Etrian Odyssey Untold 2 (EOU2) has a loop that I keep turning over in my head. I think in Etrian Odyssey IV, they perfected the core loop of: go out into an unmapped area in the dungeon and map it, fighting things and leveling up/collecting materials from monsters as you go. Usually TP, the points used to cast spells and do special attacks would run scarce roughly around the time that I was close to a shortcut to circumvent the area I just progressed through. I'd have to weigh using an Ariadne Thread to return to town or push forward to the shortcut and risk getting wiped either by some random encounter or by a roving Formido Oppugnatura Exsequens (FOE). One way or another, I'd return to town, sell everything I'd picked up, upgrade weapons when and as I could and rest in the inn to heal everyone and save the game. I'd either dive back into the same dungeon to keep going or if I got stuck, I'd hop in my airship to tool around the overworld to do some exploring and maybe find a side dungeon or otherwise pick up resources I could sell for more entals (the currency in the game).
EOU2, being a remake of the second Etrian Odyssey game, didn't have the overworld stuff (that was sort-of added in EOIII, but not to the same degree as it appears in EOIV). What they did add was cooking and town development (both of which were also sort-of implemented into Etrian Mystery Dungeon). In addition to getting monster parts to unlock new weapons, you would also get cooking ingredients from harvesting and killing monsters. You then needed to read recipes and select the right ingredients to unlock the dish for the restaurant your guild winds up managing throughout the game. You could eat those meals for various effects on your party the next time you entered the dungeon. You could also put some of your money into developing areas of the town. This would attract different audiences of adventurers who would have different tastes. You could then pay for a marketing campaign to promote a dish that those markets might enjoy, and then after a bit of time, you'll receive some extra entals for your trouble that you could then spend to upgrade your gear, upgrade the town, or market more dishes.
The core loop of "go into this dungeon and map it out" was still there and still fun -- except when I'd hit a dead end -- a puzzle I couldn't solve or a FOE I couldn't figure out how to get past or defeat. Historically, the way through these obstacles was: go and grind in a corner somewhere until you level up/get enough money to upgrade your gear. Having something else to think about when I got back to town that would also provide some extra cash without forcing me to grind was refreshing. Also, at a certain point in the game when you went to bed in the inn, you could trigger different conversations with your party members in story mode. None of the characters were like, super intriguing or anything, but they were competently written and offered a little more personality than the mute ciphers I'd constructed in EOIV.
I think about this a lot, specifically in constellation with Persona Q, which maybe over-relied on puzzles in the dungeons you needed to solve to progress, and also felt a little spare on the party interaction when you were out of the dungeon, which was the main hook, I think, for people who maybe like the Persona franchise, but aren't so into drawing maps.
At any rate, I feel like EOU2 solves a lot of the problems that the first Etrian Odyssey Untold game presented but also adds a level of polish to EOIV's core loop alongside some interesting wrinkles that set the stakes and encourage me to really care a bit more about the town I'm working with, which is something the other Etrian Odyssey games sorely lacked.
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