In the Grand Duchy of High Lagaard, it is said that the Duke is descended from inhabitants of a castle in the sky. When an unforeseen crisis befalls the nation, it is decreed that the first explorer to retrieve the Grail of Kings from that mythical floating palace will be rewarded with wealth and fame beyond imagining. Enter the central city of Lagaard and begin your journey to the clouds!
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Half the game I was missing basic attacks, the other half I was screaming at myself on the why I didn't make a protector. I still say it was a mere skill issue on my part.
The fuck is a Lagaard? Remove an A and learn how to spell you fucking incels. Mid.
Peak as always. Also my second favorite game in the series!!!
Kinda funny how the low tier classes from the 1st game are op now.
Etrian Odyssey II is a very solid blobber. Exploration is fun; uncovering shortcuts and delving deeper into this mysterious dungeon is engaging. There’s a lot of customization although I went with a highly recommended party and the game is hard so maybe if I winged character creation I would have had a (more) frustrating time. The challenge is good, too.
A lot of fun, but there are some weird flaws to it. Sidequests often give you scraps for rewards, and a handful of them are wretched to complete. There’s a lot of annoyance to certain mechanics like having to carry a Warp Wire with you. And, ultimately, this is a turn-based RPG and the depth is on the build side, not the battle tactics themselves. The battles are standard Fight/Magic/Item fare.
The aesthetics are good. I like the anime style especially the cool character portraits you get to choose from. All the player characters in this game look badass! And the music and sound is strong. The soundtrack sounds like the musician wanted to combine the Genesis and SNES soundfonts. Story… didn’t really care for it, although I like the townspeople.
Solid, but I wish it was more. These games have potential to be excellent blobbers but this one didn’t hit that mark.
A lot of fun, but there are some weird flaws to it. Sidequests often give you scraps for rewards, and a handful of them are wretched to complete. There’s a lot of annoyance to certain mechanics like having to carry a Warp Wire with you. And, ultimately, this is a turn-based RPG and the depth is on the build side, not the battle tactics themselves. The battles are standard Fight/Magic/Item fare.
The aesthetics are good. I like the anime style especially the cool character portraits you get to choose from. All the player characters in this game look badass! And the music and sound is strong. The soundtrack sounds like the musician wanted to combine the Genesis and SNES soundfonts. Story… didn’t really care for it, although I like the townspeople.
Solid, but I wish it was more. These games have potential to be excellent blobbers but this one didn’t hit that mark.
This game is in such direct conversation with EO1 that they really are best played as a pair. There are a ton of changes in EO2 from EO1, many of which are about breaking everything that was strong in EO1 and making you take a different, often more challenging, approach here. I don't love every change they make (as fun as it is to use an alternate class in a role, a war magus just feels less secure to have around than a medic did), but the changes that are good are Really important to my enjoyment.
Every town NPC has dialogue every time you reach a new floor, which may be the most important change to the feel of the game from EO1. Every town character gets so much more personality, and the game plays with them (introducing character quirks and quest chains) and the time-of-day system (something that was barely relevant in EO1), all the time. Derek the hospital's doctor works all day and doesn’t want to be overheard, so isn't free to meet with you about a sidequest he's posted until 11PM. And in a later stratum there are tiles that save you a lot of time but can only be crossed at night. You will even speak to miscellaneous NPCs in the labyrinth far more now, a minor but still noticeable change.
The strata theming in EO1 was pretty good, and in the moment feels totally appropriate and strong but I like the theming and design of EO2’s strata (basic as the idea is) a lot more. While the series never quite recaptures the feeling of leading up to and then progressing through EO1’s 5th stratum, the 1st through 4th here are really good, and I like most of the 5th in a gameplay sense (though what a letdown compared to 1’s both visually and thematically, oof.)
And lastly the music is absolutely fantastic here, one of the best soundtracks of the series (though they are nearly all excellent).
Overall a great game, the quibbles I have with it don’t compare with the things I love about it, and I am really happy I revisited Lagaard.
Every town NPC has dialogue every time you reach a new floor, which may be the most important change to the feel of the game from EO1. Every town character gets so much more personality, and the game plays with them (introducing character quirks and quest chains) and the time-of-day system (something that was barely relevant in EO1), all the time. Derek the hospital's doctor works all day and doesn’t want to be overheard, so isn't free to meet with you about a sidequest he's posted until 11PM. And in a later stratum there are tiles that save you a lot of time but can only be crossed at night. You will even speak to miscellaneous NPCs in the labyrinth far more now, a minor but still noticeable change.
The strata theming in EO1 was pretty good, and in the moment feels totally appropriate and strong but I like the theming and design of EO2’s strata (basic as the idea is) a lot more. While the series never quite recaptures the feeling of leading up to and then progressing through EO1’s 5th stratum, the 1st through 4th here are really good, and I like most of the 5th in a gameplay sense (though what a letdown compared to 1’s both visually and thematically, oof.)
And lastly the music is absolutely fantastic here, one of the best soundtracks of the series (though they are nearly all excellent).
Overall a great game, the quibbles I have with it don’t compare with the things I love about it, and I am really happy I revisited Lagaard.