Mmm, now this is good eating. In that, I sold my original DS copy, CIB, for like $300 bucks half a decade ago. Bought my now-wife a Switch with that money for our six month anniversary, way back when. Thanks, Atlus, for making your games rare - probably sealed my romantic fate. Anyways, I legit missed this one, and never fiddled with emulating it - so it sat, rent free, in my mind, being like "Hey, wasn't I your favorite of the series?" and it was. And it is.
To that point, EO3 throws out all the previous classes, and thank God - now we can get weird with it. Princesses! A robot! A strong lady! A pirate! Each having their own unique mechanics MAKES this game.
I remember the nautical part of this being so cool, but I found it bland this go round, over a decade later, but I think EO4 does it better.
And that's the story of this series - always evolving, and adding little improvements, QOL stuff - like, you can now run from an FOE even if your back is to the wall. Or, you can buy Warp Wires pretty much instantly. Or, while the maps are funky and fun, you can always count on a hidden wall to shortcut back to the stairs (since there's no geo node to save your progress).
Some may say that makes the game easier. Me? I say that I have a button on my Hori Split Pad Compact, that will press a button forever. So I left my guys running in a circle, slamming A, while I was at work or watching TV. My party, running in a circle, that princess healing em constantly, as they grind it out. I retired so many dudes, and raked in the skill points, so that on the final boss (of main campaign), I never had a character lose more than 200HP.
I still wiped lots over the 70 hours (inflated for sure by my idle grinding), but God, it felt good to obliterate EO3. I'll be leaving this one installed until they announce the next batch of HD remasters - if they do.
And onto Undernauts, I guess!
To that point, EO3 throws out all the previous classes, and thank God - now we can get weird with it. Princesses! A robot! A strong lady! A pirate! Each having their own unique mechanics MAKES this game.
I remember the nautical part of this being so cool, but I found it bland this go round, over a decade later, but I think EO4 does it better.
And that's the story of this series - always evolving, and adding little improvements, QOL stuff - like, you can now run from an FOE even if your back is to the wall. Or, you can buy Warp Wires pretty much instantly. Or, while the maps are funky and fun, you can always count on a hidden wall to shortcut back to the stairs (since there's no geo node to save your progress).
Some may say that makes the game easier. Me? I say that I have a button on my Hori Split Pad Compact, that will press a button forever. So I left my guys running in a circle, slamming A, while I was at work or watching TV. My party, running in a circle, that princess healing em constantly, as they grind it out. I retired so many dudes, and raked in the skill points, so that on the final boss (of main campaign), I never had a character lose more than 200HP.
I still wiped lots over the 70 hours (inflated for sure by my idle grinding), but God, it felt good to obliterate EO3. I'll be leaving this one installed until they announce the next batch of HD remasters - if they do.
And onto Undernauts, I guess!