#eo1 spoilers

[moe-broey]

SHARENA DID YOU ALSO PLAY ETRIAN ODYSSEY?????????????

Ah

[snowlilly]

Now I know Etrian Odyssey isn't exactly famous for its awesome writing, but the most glaring flaw is Visil believing Etria's economy will collapse once people find out what's in the depths of the labyrinth. Does he even know how much money people spend to go to Places where there is Nothing and You Will Die

[shiny-zura]

soyjonen

[repo-net]

EO5-Styled intros for the stratums from EO1 and EO2!

I finished playing EO5 a while back, and one of the things I really liked about the game were the short narrated sequences that played when you reached a stratum for the first time. The voice actress kills the role, and just the music slowly kicking in as she introduces just what you're about to get yourself into - aaahh, it's so good.

To help practice a bit of my description writing when it comes to locations and short tidbits of lore, I decided to try my hand at doing my own renditions of these sequences for the EO1 and 2 stratums! Hopefully they look alright, eheh.

Spoilers under the cut!

EO1

Every adventurer has a dream: whether it be for glory, for riches, for knowledge, or for purpose. Without fail, all of them flock to this mighty tree.

Regardless of the purity in their heart, the first step into these vast greenlands is filled with ambition.

That very same ambition is what has led to the end of so many. And yet for you, it may just be the start…

The legendary story born from hope blossomed here.

The first stratum, Emerald Grove

Descending down the stairs, a new layer of the labyrinth welcomes you.

Darker than the last, the tropical wilderness buzzes your ear with the sounds of trickling water, and cries of a new set of beasts.

Those who basked in their success of survival of the basics; learned far too late…

… That here, nature reigns supreme.

The second stratum, Primitive Jungle

Conquering the lord of the jungle, a mesmerizing sight shines against your eyes.

A moist scent wafting in the air, with a cobalt hue that makes one forget you’re still within a forest.

A queen of the insects lies in wait here, and below even her grasp is a mystery only a handful have seen, yet one question continues to prod.

Has that secret been forgotten by age, or has it grown into something more?

The third stratum, Azure Rainforest

Layer after layer of blooming life, comes to a harsh, arid halt upon this new arrival.

These wastelands filled with long stretches of beige and grains scraping against skin, is the very home of an ancient race.

They speak of a century-old pact, fully ready to defend their turf. To hide what’s below, and to see what’s below.

Wills even in the face of death are about to be tested here.

The fourth stratum, Sandy Barrens

Only the cursed king on his throne in the abyss remembers that golden age.

A world overwhelmed by verdure and promises of revival. A time and tragedy that only one man can tell the true story of.

Structures and mechanisms that you have never seen the likes of, with memories so distant, but so near all the same.

The mysteries that have been kept under for a millenia, it is your destiny to unravel them and see for your own - the secrets of Yggdrasil.

The fifth stratum, Lost Shinjuku

Below even the origin of creation is a place past the naked eye. 

A system of organs solely out of the blood dripping from stratas above, drenching the pulsing and veiny walls with a sickening red.

Screams and wails of agony from a creature tortured by its purpose, engulfing itself in this cavern to take its revenge on trespassers that were never meant to reach here.

For descending to the roots of this labyrinth, its very core will stop at nothing to engrave you into it.

The sixth stratum, Claret Hollows

EO2

The second saga of a legend already born, or the first for the arisal of new ones.

Whoever the author may be, this story begins all the same, with an invitation from a new land to ascend to heights yet to be reached.

These grassy woods that surround the bottom of the mighty tree…

Mark the intro for an adventure unlike any before.

The first stratum, Ancient Forest

Pushing through the daunting beginning trials, an opening paves way into a new flavor of woods.

These orange lands filled with prickly tails and segwaying paths; they provoke the explorers with a dilemma.

Will you grit your teeth through thorns for instant gratification, or will you dance with the roars of beasts seemingly undentable?

Be decisive, lest you go a route that leads to a pitiful end.

The second stratum, Auburn Thicket

Biting through fragile flesh, as soon as getting past the heat of the thicket.

Grazing against the adventurers, a stinging test from the polar opposite on the journey up north.

This icy surface, disrupting the pursuit towards the top, has spelled the end of many tales thought to be on the road of destiny.

Pass by these freezing storms, and at the peak awaits a tragedy long foretold; yet this is only one of his many, many failings.

The third stratum, Frozen Grounds

Lagaard knew not what was past those snowy acres, until they arrived; and now - they continue to soar.

Like the monsters and curious souls that reside here, these pink, rosy blossoms mark the start of heights never been reached.

Through echoes heard upward, each footstep through this cherry territory serenades the adventurers.

Keep on climbing, recite a long lost grail, and you’ll be one step closer to the heavens. But tread carefully - the war ahead may overwhelm even those chosen by fate.

The fourth stratum, Petal Bridge

The world was once overtaken by Earth itself. Those fortunate enough, built a stronghold to survive.

Centuries passed. And eventually, not even the stronghold could hold its strength. 

The one constant… was him. 

Renewing it to his liking, a phenomenal palace not even fairy tales could mold. A castle glistening with gold, proudly idling above the skies where no one could reach him. No matter how long it takes. No matter how many will be lost.

Despite all the years, he’s always kept one promise burned into his mind.

“Humanity must survive.”

The fifth stratum, Heavenly Keep

Eternity - a word no mortal could understand the true weight of. 

An eternity of mistakes. An eternity of lives lost from obsession. 

An eternity of abominations created by his hand. Yet not one was worse than his first.

Over his created heaven, was a forest so eden, so seemingly tranquil; yet nothing was more dangerous. It’s a sanctuary with just a singular purpose.

A forsaken prison, to house his darkest criminal.

The sixth stratum, Forbidden Wood

[aquatark]

Can I ask your opinion on Endless Ocean Luminous?

Thanks for the ask anon! :D

I've been trying to get my thoughts on this game together into something that makes sense for a while now, but no better time than the present!

tldr: I seem to like it more than most people! I think this game is alright though it's still very flawed, and I'm still enjoying myself with it, but it seems very clearly rushed and it shows. I'm still very happy that the series has a third entry at all, and am looking forward to the future of the series after this game!

...okay, now I'm gonna aimlessly ramble for wayyy too long lmao (spoilers under the cut if you haven't played)

So, to get a few of my biggest gripes out of the way:

Having completed it... the plot is god awful (esp the ending, iykyk). I think I would have preferred having none at all, but Daniel is cool

The English voice of Sera isn't ideal, though this is an issue other languages (like Japanese, French) don't seem to have

The setting, character development, and lore is much more shallow, uninteresting, and poorly-explored through gameplay than any other diving game Arika has made, which is saying a lot bc EO1's plot was invented pretty close to release, and is known for also not being great

The game doesn't run as smoothly as I'd like. maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I remember a time when devs didn't feel like they could release their game if it crashes as often online as this game does

Some of this game's creature textures are far less polished than they ought to be for a Switch game. Surprisingly, most of the ones ported from Arika's defunct mobile fishing game are fine! It's stuff like the megamouth shark and bigfin reef squid that really stand out to me as sub-par

I'm not as bothered about this as some ppl seem to be, but I would have liked a little more customization freedom, ala EO2's suit cuts

Many creature descriptions are copied verbatim from EO2, which I really dislike. wasted a perfect opportunity to highlight different aspects of creatures, not rehash the same tired and basic facts

Though I love the concept of dynamic time of day underwater, it's executed very poorly imo. Could have done with some more fine-tuning (something that could be said abt... a lot of this game lol)

All of this however only detracts a little from my enjoyment of the game overall.

The fact that something like the story can be shipped in the final product with a dev team that shares many many people with the original EO games (seriously, compare the staff lists on the wiki, I genuinely teared up seeing so many familiar faces again)... suggests to me that this game was subjected to crazy time constraints, though I don't have any concrete proof. Nintendo has been known recently to be anti-crunch with some of its biggest IPs, so maybe an Arika problem? Regardless, this game shouldn't have released in the condition it's in, and definitely should not be the price it is.

I really don't like being too negative though, so I won't be! After all, and this may be controversial coming from an EO blog... but the various flaws of Arika's previous diving games made this not be the biggest surprise to me. I mean, I 100%ed EO1, including collecting every salvage and getting all gear/hairstyles! Do you have any idea how hellish that is? I eat slop for breakfast!!

I've still been playing a lot of this game with my dear friend MDB (us pictured below), and there are a lot of things I like about it!

I will, for example, drool all over this game's sound design till the day my son "dies" in a tragic submarine accident. Ayako Saso (main talent behind Everblue 1/2, EO1/2, and Luminous' original compositions and sound in general) knocked it out of the park as usual, with the menu sfx feeling really Everblue reminiscent in a way I adore, and the music easily being some of the best in the series. I know many fans are disappointed by there being no vocal tracks, but honestly? While I like the fact EO1 and 2 had them, they simply wouldn't have fit in this game. So I'm chill about it.

I think the random generation and focus on multiplayer are fun and fresh for the series! I have EO1 and 2 when I want polished singleplayer gameplay, and this game when I feel like something else. EO1 and 2's multiplayer objectively sucked, so it's a really interesting angle to take. The gameplay loop is entertaining enough for me - I like salvaging, scanning creatures, collecting tags, and hunting orbs, both in solo and shared dives. The framework is solid, but could use a little more meat.

The fact they were finally able to realize the "Ancient Sea" concept that had been thrown around during development since EO1 is lovely. Despite having been a dinosaur kid, I'm not really knowledgeable on any of the species depicted in-game, so their designs don't bother me... I'm just a sucker for human ruins overrun by prehistoric life!

Though there are some categories of sea creature that I'm a little sad not to see anymore, like seadragons, sea slugs, and many marine mammals... I don't mind this game's different roster. I like the creature variety, because imo, it would have been a little boring and predictable to have the roster just be every creature that was previously in EO, plus some new ones. This system avoids the kind of problem Pokémon games are currently having, where they have so many critters that they can't possibly put them all in one game, but fans are upset not to have the entire dex ported, y'know? It's like playing EO for the first time again!

I've seen several people theorize that the series was "intentionally sabotaged with a bad new game, so that they have an excuse not to make any more EO games", and... I mean... all I'll say about that is that there's no use killing something that's already dead lol. There'd been no games for over a decade, and very little demand for one - why would a game company looking to make money put so much effort and money into marketing, development, pre-order bonuses, and My Nintendo rewards in order to create hype for a game that's bad on purpose... when they could have kept the series dead for free? Nintendo clearly believe the concept of diving games has legs (or fins ig), with a staff team who love the ocean and dive irl, and are trying new things to see if it sticks better than the previous four games they've made, which collectively sold worse than Luminous did.

It may not all be great, or even good, but experimentation and trying unconventional things is what made EO such a special series in the first place baybee! We just remember the parts of it we liked, and forget the really dumb stuff. The EO team has never been perfect, and I can see their smudgy fingerprints all over this game... I mean, these are the same devs who didn't notice a crash so bad it had their game recalled, and repeatedly yoinked copyrighted material without permission to use in their games... but that's a long post for another day lol.

Soooo yeah! Those are some of my thoughts! Feel free to express your own thoughts on the game here - I'd be curious what other people think, and I'd be more than happy to answer more asks on specific elements of the game, or just getting me talkin' about this game, or any other game in the series for that matter! Any EO questions at all, ask away~!

Thanks for reading, hehe! >( ')

[agathathevelvetlady]

MAJOR END OF DUNGEON 4 SPOILERS FOR METAPHOR BELOW

If atlus does not announce EOVI soon I swear to god. THE STORES ARE NAMED AFTER EO1 VENDORS HOW CAN YOU GET MORE BLATANT THAN THIS!!!! IT'S BEEN 6 YEARS SINCE WE'VE HAD EVEN AN INKLING OF NEWS ABOUT THE POSSIBILITY OF AN EO6 IT'S NOT EVEN 100% CONFIRMED YET

[lepospondyl]

🔥 curious abt your eo takes

I think my biggest hot take about eo is that atlus should do more with the fact that the setting is sci-fi in disguise rather than pure fantasy. it might be the worldbuilding nerd in me saying this but I want to know what a post-apocalypse post-yggdrasil society is like! everyone is so guarded abt eo1's plot twist that absolutely nobody talks about this integral part of the setting in order to prevent spoilers and the backlash to eou letting the cat out of the bag was completely unjustified. I WISH that they had let eo being an "earth in the future" setting stay an open secret so that they could do more with it in the games. even if the plot of "the adventurers realize they're actually in a science fiction story" won't be possible anymore afterwards it opens up so many potential other plotlines. maybe eo6's plot could be figuring out how the "magic" in the setting actually works, or the antagonist could be someone who wants to go back to the high-tech days of old despite the fact that it would be ruinous to the carefully restored ecosystem. i was also sorely disappointed by the fact that eo5 started to do this with the fifth stratum but then stopped short of actually exploring the implications that their entire world had been artificially created.

also i'm not sure if this is my place to say anything since i'm not ainu and don't know all that much about ainu culture, but since eo is a "real world" setting having the forest folk being a direct ainu allegory kind of rubs me the wrong way, especially since they're described as nonhuman. while the devs probably couldn't talk about the actual ainu genocide since eo1 released in 2007 (which was before the ainu people were even federally recognized in japan as indigenous) and the forest folk are portrayed in a sympathetic light it's still kind of weird that despite this being a setting where ainu people exist (since the whole big reveal of eo1 is that it's NOT a made-up fantasy world) they're still allegorized as green plant people (which also falls into the whole "indigenous people are magic and have an Innate Understanding of the land" stereotype). since eou story mode was already willing to rewrite that section of the plot and ricky did know about the pre-yggdrasil era, i feel like they should at least explore the implications of an engineered non-human species having a culture very similar to a pre-yggdrasil ethnic group. is visil ainu and the forest folk having a culture similar to the ainu is a way for him to preserve his culture through his creations? is the reason why no forest folk have facial hair or tattoos (which are a sign of adulthood in ainu culture) because visil sees them as his children who will never grow up and thus he's free to discard them when convenient? anything would be better than the genocide justification plotline tbh

[barbaracleboy]

Etrian Odyssey Series: Compilation of Archetypal Town Characters

I really love the NPCs that show up in each Etrian Odyssey game, in the town you keep coming back to between dungeon visits. Unironically, I'm always excited to see the new shopkeeper, innkeeper, barkeeper, etc. of any given EO game. Because of that, just for fun, I decided to gather official art for all characters of the archetypes: guildmasters (whom you speak to when growing and organizing your guilds), innkeepers (whom you speak to when resting at an inn or storing/taking back items), shopkeepers (whom you speak to when buying goods and armor/weapons), barkeepers (whom you speak to to get and report sidequests), and...mission givers? (officials whom you speak to to get or report important story missions).

Now, some of this art was a bit tough to find, mainly for Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 and the Mobile game, since neither was released outside of Japan and the latter is more or less lost. For EMD 2 I went to some Japanese articles on 4gamer talking about it (https://www.4gamer.net/games/375/G037512/20170720039/ and https://www.4gamer.net/games/375/G037512/20170622014/) and for the Mobile game I went to this Japanese Article that that talked about playing it a little (http://dihyhi.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-47.html), which to my knowledge is one of the only documentations of that game, so credit to those sources for the art. I also machine translated those sites for info on the Characters' names and whatnot, so take it with a grain of salt. I know machine translations are rarely very helpful but it's all I had right now, sorry.

It should also be noted that there will be light spoilers for some of the games here, mainly Etrian Odyssey 3. Nothing too egregious, at worst it's for something you find when you beat the second Stratum, but I still feel I should mention it.

One last thing, I will be listing most games as EO plus their respective number (so the first game will be EO1), the Mystery Dungeon games will be listed as EMD and EMD2, for the first and second respectively, the Mobile game will written EOM, and even though in America it's called Etrian Odyssey Nexus I will write that game as "EOX", simply because that's more distinctive as an acronym. I've seen others on here do that so it's probably not so weird but I still felt I should clarify.

But enough talk! It is time to meet the guildmasters, some of the most important NPCs in any Etrian Odyssey game! Mostly rather well-armored looking (except for in EO3, EMD2, and Mobile), these tend to be pretty cool characters, and while we don't always get to see them fight much it's welcome when the chance does arrive.

My favorite of these is probably Marion, with Asuka and Egar as runner ups.

[The rest will be under the Keep reading, otherwise this post would just be way too long by default]

And now, for the group that, to be real, is a big part of why I wanted to make this post: the Innkeepers! Friendly, helpful folks that run the inns where your characters can rest, healing up and saving progress. As some likely remember, I already listed most of these characters in that meme I made some time back, featuring characters I like that have constantly closed eyes (https://barbaracleboy.tumblr.com/post/722662911985778688/forgive-me-if-ive-posted-this-here-already-but-i). I intentionally tried to list every Innkeeper from the Etrian Odyssey series (minus some whose eye aren't closed all the time, whom I will get into later), and I largely succeeded!...except it turns out that there's a unique innkeeper in the Etrian Odyssey Mobile game. Granted, I can't really get on myself for that, it's a Japan-only mobile game that barely anyone seems to have played or heard of and is also not available anymore. Still, that was a slight bummer for me. But look! They're all here now!

My favorites of these is probably Hanna, with Jenetta and Dalla as runner ups.

And now, I can truly have them lined up together.

Look! They're friends!

Next up are various shopkeepers! Fun fact! Napier is not only the Shopkeeper to have run the shop in two separate games (not counting remakes), but one of, if not the only one of these NPCs to have hosted a facility in two separate games.

My favorite of these is probably Shilleka, with Edie and Wynne as runner ups.

This group consists of characters in similar, if not identical roles to the prior group: if I'm correct, in Etrian Odyssey One medicines and equipment were sold at different shops, and at medicine shops you could also revive characters and cure petrification (EO2 brought medicine at the main shop but kept the revival at the hospital). Hoffman, Stiles, and Muse(?) here ran their respective games medicine shops/hospitals, Angie supported Dr. Stiles, Don Chano supported his daughter, Elizabeth (from the prior group), and Lizley and the Merchant of Darkness(?) acted as merchants you coukd run into within the dungeon itself. Also, apparently Hoffman, Stiles, and Angie are (based on) characters from Trauma Center, which is neat.

My favorite of these is probably Don Chano, with Lizley and the Merchant of Darkness as runner ups.

Another big favorite of mine, the Barkeeps! It's always fun chatting with these friendly types, hearing them cheer you on before many quests and compliment you for having completed one. They're so pleasant!...Though. yeah, Kvasir can be quite suspect with some of the things he says.

My favorite here is probably Kirtida, with Niralda and...either Missy or Mukkoran as runner ups...I love them too much, ha.

I don't know what to call this group really but they give the story missions and are about all in some position of power. Some are more involved in the story than others, but overall you will be seeing them often...Also, for some reason I couldn't find anyone that fills this role for Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2? Maybe I just did a bad job at looking but I don't know, I just couldn't find anybody. It's odd.

My favorite here has GOT to be the Outland Count (massively fond of his face, his moustache, and his dog), with Flowdia and Persephone as runner ups.

Last group here, being a variety of characters that act as alternatives or support for some of the other ones. This also has spoilers for Etrian Odyssey 3 (the thing being spoiled is discovered after you beat the second Stratum but still).

Visil is a character you'll occasionally see during tbe story of EO1, Quona is Hannah's daughter who will sometimes greet you at the inn instead of or in addition to her mother, Gradriel is someone you'll see a bit throughout EO2's story, Gutrune is the Princess of Armoroad whom you'll see and/or hear about throuought EO3's story, Seyfreid is the Abyssal King whom you'll speak with and get Subclasses from in the Deep City of EO3, Napier's Sister (who, unfortunately, seems to have no confirmed name) runs the shop of the Deep City in EO3, Angie (who I would presume isn't the same one from EO2 but is based on the same Trauma Team character? I think?) runs the inn of EO3's Deep City, and finally, Yobo is Traoré's brother in Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2, and I...think he assists Mukkoran in giving out quests?...Him being a recolor is pretty lame, tbh.

My favorite here is probably Visil, with Napier's Sister and Seyfreid as runner ups.

HOO! THERE WE GO! Hope you guys liked this little trip down memory lane I guess, ha. I love many of these characters, and if and when EO6 happens I can't wait to see who it introduces that'll enter my heart just like many of these have!

[friend-of-a-cat]

I love Etrian Odyssey. It's one of my all-time favourite game series, and I've devoted a hell of a lot of time to it, both playing the games and creating my own little stories surrounding it on the side. But the overarching lore has always been confusing to me, especially since I, embarassingly, haven't finished a single game (I, sadly, struggle to finish games in general, nowadays). I like bringing characters from one installment to another, deciding that they continued to adventure after the events of their game had finished, but, in doing so, I accidently warped the timeline - or what little information we have about the timeline, at least. EO5 is apparently a prequel to the rest of the games in the series, set eons before EO1, but, considering I have characters from my EO5 guild in my Nexus one, this doesn't really make any logical sense. I want my little guys from EO5 to still be alive and kicking in Nexus! So I decided to rewrite the lore and reform the timeline to suit the way I play the games, because why not? Most of it is the same, and I've probably left out some crucial details, however I have tweaked some things and given certain plot points more weight, as I felt it made more sense that way. Also, I kind of just want a place for myself that has an entire breakdown of the lore, so this is partially that, too.

So, I present (with, obviously, a spoiler warning):

Etrian Odyssey: My Version of Events!

~~~

Eons ago, a race of alien beings known as the Arken explored the universe, hopping from planet to planet to rebuild ecosystems after various factors left them destroyed, one such factor being an insidious, power-hungry entity known as the Abyssal God, who, after settling on a planet, would spawn an invasive species, taking it over. In order to help restore each desolate planet, the Arken planted special trees known as Yggdrasil Trees, which allowed life to thrive in the surrounding areas. On their mission to revitalise the universe, the Arken found a planet void of life, ruled over another cruel being known as the Eternal Tyrant. This planet, unbeknownst to them, was Mars, and the Arken, true to their actions up until this point, wanted to save it. They planted another Yggdrasil Tree, temporarily imprisoning the Eternal Tyrant in a giant biodome in the planet's stratosphere to allow the sapling to grow and purify the world.

People on Earth, thousands of years later, deployed ships to Mars after discovering it was actually inhabitable due to the giant tree residing on its surface. Earth was in bad shape, and had been ravaged by the effects of climate change and nuclear war - many felt the need to escape in order to be able to continue living life. These people would go on to live on Mars for generations, mutating into different but still human-adjacent races due to the tree, which had interesting effects on them. Those left behind on Earth still attempted survival, although onerously. The ruler and wealthy citizens of the nation of Lagaard decided to construct a floating city, which they retreated to in order to escape the hardships and danger of life down below. The commonfolk stayed in the capital city, trying to make do with what they had.

During this time, the Abyssal God landed on Earth, fleeing from the pursuit another Yggdrasil Tree. This tree, unlike the rest created by the Arken, was sentient, and was made specifically to find and destroy the Abyssal God, as the race wanted to end its reign of chaos and destruction. The Abyssal God managed to find refuge under one of Earth's oceans, spawning a race later known as the Deep Ones in order to start a war with the remaining humans and wipe out the planet, though it was quickly stopped by the Yggdrasil Tree, which trapped it beneath its roots. The tree was able to contact the ruler of the nearby city of Armoroad for assistance, and he agreed to sink parts of the area in order to help fight off the rest of the Deep Ones who were not sealed. These sunken parts of Armoroad were later known as the Deep City. With the help of the tree, the ruler gained access to great technology, allowing the city to prosper further, and created an army of intelligent robots to fend off the evil creatures, later uploading his and his followers' consciences to them in order to achieve immortality and continue neutralising the looming threat.

A while later, researchers and scientists investigated this strange tree and were surprised to find that it helped restore the nearby environment, purifying the air and allowing life to thrive. Full of hope, they decided to take samples to artificially reproduce similar trees across the rest of the dying planet. This was dubbed the Yggdrasil Project, and they were able to cultivate seven more trees, which helped cleanse many areas of the world. All of them, however, affected the environment and people around them in strange ways over the centuries, just as the tree on Mars did: mutating humans, flora and fauna; spawning other creatures; and growing out of control. In order to continue maintaining the trees, those working on the project created artificial races able to withstand their unpredictable nature. They also implemented kill switches that would destroy each tree if they spiralled out of hand. The Yggdrasil Tree near the city of Tharsis began corrupting itself during this time, mutating into a being known as Heavenbringer, which spread a disease called the Titan's Curse, causing plants to grow within any affected creature, slowly killing them. As such, the kill switch in this tree, know later as the Insatiable Pupa, became corrupted, too. After several containment failures, which left many dead, it was finally sealed, and those in Tharsis managed to stop the tree in its wake, teaming up with the servitor races to bring a new era of peace. A scientist and pioneer of the Lagaardian branch of the Yggdrasil Project, who was now attempting to obtain immortality, discovered the remains of an ancient floating city, once home to his ancestors, and was able to rebuild it, escaping to the skies above the tree in order to continue his experiments. Most of them failed, creating monstrosities, and so he turned to experimenting on himself, which resulted in his genes mutating and him turning into a monstrosity, too.

Hundreds of years passed, and researchers and scientists in the nation of Lemuria were intrigued by the fully-grown trees, and took further samples from each one, grafting a bigger tree in their nation's centre. This tree produced greater results than all the others - taking on aspects from its predecessors and spreading to each surrounding island - and became a safe haven for many in the surrounding wasteland, as well as those travelling across the seas. As such, the area became overpopulated, and the Lemurian king decided to stop accepting refugees. This sparked a war with the Seafarers, who took his words as a declaration of war, invading and attacking the nation. In retaliation, the Lemurians developed a weapon to repel the invading forces, which backfired and caused immense destruction, killing everyone not of Lemurian blood. This weapon was sealed away under the tree by a Lemurian princess, who died in the process, and the rest of the royal family fled the scene for reasons unknown.

Sometime during all of this, the Arken checked in on Mars and found that it was thriving and populated, its people living in a realm called Arcania, which was split into four main nations: Melas, Sidonia, the Bloodwood Forest, and the Chryse Prairie. They also realised that the Eternal Tyrant's seal was waning, and so, in order to stop it from ravaging the planet a second time, they blended in with the masses and began spreading false legends to the planet's people (obfuscating the threat so as to not send everyone into a panic), which were then passed down through generations, spurring on the Arcanians to explore the labyrinth that had grown within the tree and, ultimately, destroy the entity for good. Gathering in and journeying from the city of Iorys, adventurers delved into the labyrinth, discovering that it housed danger and destruction despite maintaining life on the planet. Those on Earth, too, made a similar discovery, realising that the Yggdrasil Trees invited their own share of disaster due to their alien and unpredictable nature. They obviously wanted to explore these tree labyrinths, too, so they did, setting up adventuring guilds and sending teams of explorers and researchers in to find out more. The people of both planets also happened upon a certain kind of magical energy, which came to be because of the trees. Those on Mars discovered this earlier than those on Earth, however. This magical energy was enhanced and condensed by scientists in order to be used by others, mostly in the form of magical tools and weapons. Certain individuals also developed innate pools of magical energy due to a genetic mutation from the trees, which was passed on to future generations, and were able to train themselves to harness it.

Hundreds of years later, the events of EO1, 2, 3 and 4 happen, all sequentially and within a similar timeframe. Explorers from across the world filtered into the cities of Etria, High Lagaard, Armoroad and Tharsis, and were able to uncover the history of the planet; its people; the trees; the labyrinths; and the Yggdrasil Project during their expeditions, documentation of which had been mostly lost to time at this point.

Years later, the events of EO5 happened. Those on Mars, who, at this point in time, had forgotten all about Earth, learned of its existence thanks to a certain adventuring guild, who managed to climb their way to the top of the Yggdrasil Tree's labyrinth and enter the biodome, meeting an Arken along the way who informed them of the Eternal Tyrant, as well as their race's plan to help revitalise dead or dying planets across the universe. The guild was able to defeat the evil entity, and were also told of another, curious planet, which had somehow created its own Yggdrasil Trees, yet still needed help in its restoration. This planet was Earth. Despite Arcania's development of advanced technology, of which was far greater than Earth's, they had not attempted space travel, their focus fixed on their own planet. The people of Earth, too, had no way of traversing space, as all knowledge of this was lost to time, and so were unaware that there were beings living on Mars, or that Mars was terraformed at all. The Arken sent fleets of ships to Mars in order to transport those who wished to travel to Earth, which were wiped out by a god-like being known as the Star Devourer. This entity also wiped out several other Arken fleets, as well as much of their home planet, and was headed towards Mars. The newly-famed guild managed to defeat it, and was met with immense gratitude from the Arkens, who resumed their plan and sent more ships over as a means of reaching Earth.

Many Arcanians travelled there, indeed finding life on the planet. They also discovered that they were able to breathe fine due to the Yggdrasil Trees on Earth stemming from those the Arken created, including the one on Mars. The people of Earth were shocked when they spotted fleets of ships headed towards them, but many held out hope that they were on their way to help. Over the proceeding years, the Arcanians assimilated into Earth's society, despite being alien. Of course, many people on Earth were frightened of them, but due to the fact they appeared human - or, at least, in some cases, human enough - and displayed similarities to many of the mutated humans already on Earth, they were mostly fine to coexist with them. Those from Mars offered many unique perspectives on things, and became fast-famed inventors, scientists, architects, teachers and artisans. Many joined explorers' guilds, as they had prior experience in adventuring, cartography and combat.

Then, one day, word is spread of a descendant of the Lemurian royal family, who is attempting to bolster the support of the masses to finally explore the Lemurian Yggdrasil Tree, believing it holds a treasure that brings eternal prosperity. This tree and, subsequently, it's labyrinth, had gone unexplored for a quite a long time, and many researchers, scientists and adventurers were keen to uncover its secrets. Thus, many people banded together with the descendant to create the floating city of Maginia, which was built fairly quickly and was only made possible due to the Arcanians' vast knowledge of advanced technology. The descendant was crowned its princess, and lead the expedition with many explorers - new and old - in tow.

~~~

Now my little guys can coexist without the need for time travel! All of my EO guilds and such will be in this modified universe (which means everyone in my EO5 guild are still around in EON). I also feel like this version of events makes more sense to me, especially with EO5 happening before EON, because not only can you pick from every available portrait in the series in that game, but there are classes from EO5, too, that I feel like wouldn't be in there unless it happened not too long beforehand. Honestly, the main issue with this timeline of events is that people would probably be freaking out that a bunch of people came down from Mars and are now just... living with them? And most of them accept this? Unrealistic. Also, I had no idea the EON tree was actually grafted from the rest of the trees, hence why its labyrinth bears similaries with their's - I completely made this plot point up, and then upon further research, realised that that is actually what happened. So there you go.

I better go finish the games, now.

[ragnar0c]

I never know how to feel about EO post games. One floor will be the most immaculate floor I ever played. A perfect test of your navigation skills, a final test. Beautiful demonstration of a puzzle.

Then the floors surrounding it will be like “You wanna have to alternate between two floors because there are random ass luck based puzzle you have to figure out?”

Floor spoilers below

EO3 LOOKING AT YOU. I HATE FLOOR 22+23. Random holes you can’t see with petrifying foes on the floor you fall on. You cannn avoid them, but one misstep and… 💀 at least there are staircases around???

EO3 Floor 21 is so good. A long floor, but you know where you’re going next. All you have to do is plot how you’ll get there. It takes careful observation of your map and… one small bit— but where the short cuts are. They guide you a lot in eo3. I thought about saying the same about floor 24. The shortcuts guide you thru the invisible sections, they are target points for where you wanna go. But also I could see it being annoying for others… but still one of my faves. So instead I’ll generally praise floor 21’s ability to keep me more aware among other long floors in the series.

Floor 27+28 in EO2. I NEVER would have found the specific passageways to proceed on floor 28 (EO2) without looking it up. Floor 26 in this game was cute ,albeit luck based, but really hoping the last two change it up.

Floor 26, 27* + 28* in EO1… FLOOR 26… ESPECIALLY. If I get teleported back to that top right corner again I’ll…. I’lll……..

*(I’ll give it some cred bc the holes aren’t random on floor 27, but the b28f foes are… annoying, resistant to everything but one thing, can out run you, always blindside and kill a party member. + only one staircase up. WELL WAIT ACTUALLY THAT LAST BIT WITH THE 7 STAIRCASES… GOD. )

EO1 Floor 29 comes with the perfect puzzle, the last bit is luck, but as soon as you have the puzzle down getting back there is easy. Getting zapped around for so long thinking it’s random only to realize the map’s a mirror, if you go in a certain teleporter on one side it’ll take you the same place as one on the on the other side of the map would.

EO4 had a knack for puzzles the whole game, so its last floor mixed something from most of the strata, the miasma, the hot and cold, the damage tile puzzle, then the formula. It’s a nice reward for playing the game. (<- eo4 beloved)

SO IT’S LIKE. I hate a lot of the floors but then they’ll add like my favorite floor ever . Whenever I describe post game I’ll go “It’s actually not bad except! *Names every floor but one*”

[garuda4321]

Alright. So Endless Ocean Luminous has been out for… a day. Or so. Location dependent (midnight releases). Now, I’ve played some of it and I have some thoughts I’ll share here. And I’ll also include some other opinions the Endless Ocean fan base has as they are worth considering.

Yes this means spoilers ahead. And no spoiling for me as I haven’t gotten too too far in the story

So. First and foremost, the game does have a menu! However upon the first opening that is not what happens. It just dumps you into the story mission 1-1 to acquaint you with swimming (left joystick), camera movement (right joystick), and scanning (left bumper). Now, previous installments (EO1/2) we had someone guiding us. Those people being Katherine Sunday (1) and Oceanne Louvier (2, Rouvier if you weren’t NA). In Luminous we have Sera. Sera is an AI and the name is an acronym (off the top of my head I think it’s “Sea Exploration Research Assistant”). Not as witty, not as much personality. We scan a humphead wrasse and “light” jumps off it. We’ll get back to that later (4 missions later).

Before I forget, we are a new and very prospective member of the Aegis Research Team/Group/whatever they are.

1-2 is where we meet Yggdrasil- I mean the World Coral. Vibrant ecosystem of coral and fish in a small canyon cave. Looks like a tree. Apparently it’s dying from necrosis and your organization is trying to help Ygdr- the World Coral not die. We’re asked if we’re ready to help (our choices are “Yeah!” and “Uh… Sure”). We leave the cave and the screen shakes. A lot. This massive (golden) blue coelacanth passes by and we are told to leave because it’s mad for some reason which means it’s too dangerous.

1-3 a quick side note, brief Blue World notice. There was a character named GG (Gaston Grey). GG was a treasure hunter, only in it for the treasure that the Okeanides (mysterious people that were really connected to the sea) left behind. Bit of a scaredy cat (see Cortica River segment). What does this have to do with Luminous though? A lot actually. We meet Daniel, a senior diver with the foundation. He’s a treasure hunter and only in it for the treasure the Oannes (mysterious people that were really connected to the sea) left behind. He challenges you to salvage more/better stuff than him. You smoke him and then you find a “cutting board”. Sorry, a “chess board”. That has squares 11 across 9 deep. Sorry, it’s a “Mystery Board”. Each square represents one mystery of the sea we operate in. Sera says this is preposterous and unlikely. Aegis decides to investigate it more.

1-4 We’re back with Daniel! He’s still a little hurt at our success considering what we found. An actual Oannes artifact (mystery board). Apparently the squares glow when we solve a mystery! Sera says this is preposterous (note that the mystery tablet is glowing as she says this). Nothing else memorable happens.

1-5 We’re back! And someone is joining us! Oh, just Daniel (he swears he was just nearby and passing through the area). We do a bit of swimming and scan a giant sunfish. Gold Blue coelacanth shows up again and things start shaking. Daniel runs swims away like a chicken (yes he admits it himself!) and we decide to scan this gold blue coelacanth. Soon as we scan it all the “light” jumps off of it and it’s revealed to be a golden coelacanth. Apparently it’s a UML (Unidentified Marine Life) that is quickly dubbed something (Raja something…). HQ is on top of naming things at least! That light though. It’s not light per se. It’s a bacteria specific to the sea we work in that covers essentially everything and pacifies them. When we scan them with our scanner, we scare them off and they jump into our pockets. (I’m not kidding…). Also according to HQ this is helping the Ygdr- sorry, World Coral heal so we just need more light! Yay! Easy solution!

Gonna break from story for a bit to mention something. That’s the ENTIRETY of Chapter 1. Now it wasn’t “do chapter 1 now do chapter 2”. It was “do chapter 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, do a solo dive, do 1-4, solo dive, 1-5, dive, 2-1 repeat”. So now I’ll talk about solo dives. (Yes shared dives are a thing but I didn’t activate my free week yet, that’s happening later).

Solo doves. This is essentially the core of Endless Ocean. Diving, discovering locations and creatures and learning about them. Now, Luminous has an interesting way of doing this. In Endless Ocean the map was A-M, 1-8 (really C8-M1) with some sub areas (Ship’s Rest, Moia Atoll, Abyss). Endless Ocean Blue World had zones, some large, some small, some had small sub zones (Gamma Atoll had Deep Hole and the Private Reef, Cicero’s Strait had Valka Castle, Zahhab Region had Abyss and Cavern of the Gods, and such). Luminous now, will randomly generate a 16 digit Dive Site ID that is a 10x10. (0-9, A-J). You can continue diving in the same site until you choose to get a new one. Let’s say this now. 10x10 is huge. 2 hours of swimming (admittedly in circles a bit) and I discovered half a map and half the creatures on the map. So the maps are MASSIVE. And you get a lot of light from scanning everything (every single school gives light PER creature in the school, not just one, and some larger creatures give multiple light).

Next thing, zoom spots. Endless Ocean did this well. Your diving zone of choice had certain fish that lived there (fish that lived in Rock Bluff weren’t necessarily near Coral Forest). And there were tiny fish that lived in zoom spots (not static, they always moved and you had to find them). Some zooms would have one critter (looking at you Moorish Idol), others would have several (slugs, Moorish Idol, Stark’s Demoiselle and other combinations). Endless Ocean 2 had static zooms and they weren’t as hard to find if you dove with Oceanne, but again you’d find the smaller fish (slugs, moorish idol, Stark’s demoiselle, and other combinations). Luminous doesn’t HAVE zoom spots. These tiny creatures are just out there with the large creatures (example being the Whale Shark I saw swimming over the Red Spotted Blenny).

Onto Legendaries. Endless Ocean only had two that were named. Those two being Maga Tapa, a ferocious looking Great White with a ton of scars, and the Ancient Mother (a type of Albino Blue Whale with slightly different DNA meaning it’s a different species). The Ancient Mother was unlocked by finishing the story. Maga Tapa though, was more difficult. You had to find a shark tooth necklace through the salvage system (I’ll get into it more in the next section), unlock 80% of the map (or however much was required to get an email about a ghost ship), find the ghost ship to enter Ship’s Rest at NIGHT to unlock him. Now, you notice I said two that were named. The Beluga Whale and Orca also were difficult to unlock but weren’t named. Beluga required finding another salvage item and going to Moia Atoll and finding it in a room. The Orca required finding 100% of the map (or however much it took to get an email about the Jewels of Life), finding them in Moia Atoll through the salvage system, and then entire ring Ship’s Rest during the DAY.

Legendaries for Blue Workd worked differently. They were quest related usually. (The dog found a small island turns out to be a turtle, large shadow in Cicero’s Strait is a plesiosaur, healing a large penguin, finding a log is actually a formerly extinct crocodile, etc.) but some are just there (black humpback whale is a moon cycle thing, large sperm whale is in Zahhab, off the cliff side). There’s a LOT here, but one main one is Thanatos, a large ferocious Great White with scars and an attitude problem and is the embodiment of evil basically. (Yes he’s Maga Tapa but actually capable of harming the player because BW had an aggression system).

Luminous Legendaries. A lot of these legendaries from Blue World (which does include the Orca and most likely the Ancient Mother) appear to have made it into Luminous! This is fabulous if you never met them originally. I’ve met Apollo (sunfish), Phantom (Ray), and Emperor (coelacanth). You might be wondering about that UML, I’ll get there don’t worry. However, I’ve also found Thanatos. There’s no aggression system so he’s just chilling. They’re rather easy to find this time. They have “yellow light” which is used to indicate a rare/large/small/legendary creature. There’s a lot of rare creatures (example, red bicolor parrotfish). Now, this is nice though I do find it a little concerning that every square seems to have a rare creature. A minor complaint in the grand scheme really.

You’ve seen me talk salvage, so how’s the time to do that. EO’s salvage system was abysmal. You had to either search specific quadrants/squares to find the piece you were looking for (fixed salvage), or open every zoom spot on every surface (walls, floor, ceiling, etc.) for a CHANCE of finding salvage (rotating) and hope it’s not a duplicate. Blue World improved this a bit. Some salvage (coins… just a hundred coins) we’re in zoom spots and they were all fixed. Now, other salvage, had to be found with a tool (sensor) and then appraised so you knew what you had found. Tedious but better as you could guess what you had grabbed (wood, metal, stone, dense, none/all/some of those). Luminous… doesn’t have zoom spots or a sensor. So how does it work? There’s a dot in the top left that might flash yellow. If it’s yellow, treasure is near. Pick it up and it’s added to collections. Nice but duplicates do happen. Now, there are also treasure chests (that contain a variety of things) and tablets. Both contribute to the mystery board. There’s also some large stone circles on the ground that require a creature companion to do a thing but I haven’t figured them out/had the capacity to do it (Apollo requires 150 capacity but I have 70 capacity now at rank 26).

UMLS, our Unidentified Marine Lifeforms! They don’t just appear. You need to find anomalous fish/creatures to lure it out. (Seems to be 7). Your cursor (middle of the screen will pulse red if it’s near and pulse rapidly if you’re on the creature in question). Then the UML is lured out. These UMLS are quite something. They’re like a new legendary with an annoying salvage system (finding the last one can be a pain as the area gets smaller every time)

Personal opinion from my experience so far then? I’m loving it. I think it’s great and while it could do with a LITTLE polishing, it’s still great and what I was expecting from trailers and such.

The community is not all as thrilled as I am. Some say that it’s too fast with discovering creatures (half the encyclopedia in 2ish hours). That we should have a “home base”. That the Aquarium should exist. That Daniel is just discount GG and that Sera is too bland. Others see this as more of a test run to see if people will play a franchise that’s 15 years old and that if another one releases it will be considerably more polished and have more features.

Lengthy post. I am well aware of it but if you’re here, you reached the end! I still think it’s a fabulous game and am going to play it a LOT.

[apples-of-apples]

I am going to rant about the general EO series 1-5 be warned for spoilers!

I am going to rant again, because my brain needs to let this escape and this is the way it is going to have to be. This post will be about the weird feelings I have on the 4th stratums of these games.

Starting off, What the hell is going on with 4th stratums. Why are they so inconsistent in their importance to the rest of the game. How is it that these stratums are usually the final bit a rising action before the climax of the games and they are so inconsistent in how important they are treated. Why is it that EO1 can introduce a mysterious character in an earlier stratum to build mystery and then explore how a species can exist in a labyrinth and learn to live with it and that a culture around exploiting an ecosystem will make the inhabitants of it violent and make the wildlife die especially when it comes to a point where a genocide is carried out by the people existing in the culture, and make the player think about this and their actions in the game, but EO2 can only make the inhabitants of it's labyrinth be bird people who show up half way through the stratum, live in sakura trees, and barely care about the people coming into the labyrinth as long as they can say "You can trust me lol, I just want to be holy again". Like the first Game can make a commentary on the genre of rpgs as a whole through the contents of its 4th stratum, but EO2 just doesn't bother??

This isn't helped by EO3 either because it doesn't have much going on in the 4th stratum at all. The most the game bothers to do with the ancient temple setting they made was have main quests be solved on the first and last floors, so what is the point for your guild to continue down the labyrinth outside of the desire to explore when it's only said to basically be a death trap? This area doesn't offer much for thought like the first game, or any attempt to make it seem like the beings living in it have any thought above "I see a thing so I must break it!!!" like EO2. It's only ok as a 4th stratum still because it bothers to have context from previous and future missions around it, but there still isn't much on how the main enemies of this floor feel about anything really they are melted down to being "The bad guys" even in the true ending route where the deep one doesn't have anything to expand upon they are just evil! for no reason other than the sake of being evil!

EO4 gets better with this because even though the library part of the 4th stratum is mostly ignored they at least bothered for there to be context surrounding the people living around it. The Imperials while being mostly nameless and faceless at least had a presence because they had multiple interactions with people inside of the world instead of just coming out of no where. The prince and Logre a characters that feel like they exist and that they have their own beliefs with the prince's belief in what he is doing is best for his people even if he is a bit unwell, and Logre is loyal to the prince but eventually leaves him over the course of the events in the 4th stratum after getting his morals beat into him by the players.

EO5? The game where the 4th stratum is so unimportant to the over arching plot of the game that you have to find a secret passage to get to it, and they had to make the actual important labyrinth npc guide you through it so anything could happen in it? The game where the 4th stratum makes it one of the most easy, short, and boring stratums to walk through in the series? I want to love this one so much! The environment is wonderful and the boss is one of my favorite monster designs from this game, but I just can't like it. The stratum is just so... forgettable. There's not enough time spent in the stratum exploring to really appreciate it and the world building that the rest of the stratums (beside stratum 2) have just isn't present. There's not context on what anybody in the town or surrounding areas really feels about the stratum other than "Wow! I can't believe that there was another stratum! You're really cool (Insert guild name here)!" There's so much here that could've made a good stratum, but it just isn't. The stratum was just boring and forgettable at the end.

I really want to love 4th stratums, I really, really do, but I just can't. EO1, and EO4 have great 4th stratums they're amazing! It's just that when EO2, EO3, and EO5's 4th stratums, the last time before the game can try and make a bit of a deeper story before the final boss they just flub it. All EO's have great or at least good stratums before the 4th, but it just sucks when the 4th stratum screws up what could have been amazing, instead they end just being ok. The only reason EO3 can be considered better than EO2, and EO5 is that subsequent playthroughs can give more context and a better and more thoughtful story that the series started with instead of just another jrpg.

[kieuecaprie]

KieueCaprie's List of Games Finished in 2023: Entry 10

tfw Tumblr still doesn't have spoiler tags because there's a bunch of games in this entry that I want to talk about in full.

#26: Etrian Odyssey 1 HD

Finished When? 11/7/23

What's Finished? Main Story

Platform? PC

I didn't get into the Etrian Odyssey franchise until the 3DS era with Etrian Odyssey 4, which was pretty good by the way. I enjoyed creating my own party of adventurers and going out into the world to slay monsters and solve the mysteries of Yggdrasil (or whatever World Tree they explore through).

Then I moved onto Etrian Odyssey Untold, which was a remake of EO1 with a more story-focused cast of characters but with an option to play the game in Classic Mode. I also liked the it.

And then I fell off. Not because I hated the series but because other things took my attention and it fell by the wayside.

Then cue Atlus saying they're porting Etrain Odyssey 1, 2, and 3 to PC and now it caught my interest again, especially due to the fact that there's a potential for modding in there! So I picked up the bundle and started playing with EO1HD.

I will say that it was fine, I was treading old ground so nothing was really new to me and while I still like it, I feel like it has parts where it overstays its welcome, especially towards the end, and, of course, the music was just the classic music, not Untold, which kinda sucks but whatever.

It's fine for what it is and I can now say I've completed a version of classic EO1.

Now, I just wish Picnic mode wasn't super heavy-handed in its changes to enemies because taking 20% damage from them seems too much. Atlus REALLY loves making their beginner modes SUPER easy for some reason and I don't know why they do this.

#27: My Friendly Neighborhood

Finished When? 19/7/23

What's Finished? Story

Platform? PC, Steam

This game was on my radar for quite a while ever since that one Steam Next Fest (I think?) had a demo for it, on top of seeing tweets (sorry, X-cretes) of it on my feed of the developer working on bits and pieces of it.

When it finally came out, I went to go pick it up and while the price was a little higher than I initially expected, I'm glad to have paid the price of admission for it! The characters are memorable (I mean, they are when you have to listen to them prattle on about the mail for the entire playthrough), the gameplay feels like I'm playing a Resident Evil (not the super action-packed ones) except with puppets and the fact that there are cheats in a game in 2023 is something that I never thought I'd see.

On top of that, I enjoyed how it essentially deconstructs the whole mascot horror formula and makes its own where the mascots in question aren't out to kill you, at least, it seems that way, and aren't trying to eat your pancreas or whatever.

This game is great and would definitely sit on my list of favorite games this year.

#28: Pikmin 4

Finished When? 22/7/23 (First completion), 24/7/23 (True 100%)

What's Finished? Game complete, True 100%

Pikmin is one of my favorite Nintendo franchises that I wished did not get shot in the head by a game that just feels tedious. Fortunately, Nintendo finally dug up the grave and brought it back to life (Now do it for Chibi-Robo, PLEASE.) for Pikmin 4, something that took 10 years to add a dog.

I played the demo and loved it, even went out of my way to not meet the 1500 sparklium limit just so I could experience all the caves, the controls feel great, Oatchi is baby and I love himb, and the levels you have to go through are quite beautiful to see on the Switch, all of this running on Unreal Engine too.

I have quite a bit more to say about this game so I'm gonna have to say that there's a Read More below that will spoil Pikmin 4 for you if you click on it. (EDIT: lmao nevermind, clicking expand on the post in the feed also expands the read more so now I have to make a separate post)

#29: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Finished When? 1/8/23

What's Finished? Normal Mode Story

Platform? PC, Steam

When I first heard this game was only coming to PS5, I unanimously decided to just.. not. Just not. This was because I could not get my hands on a PS5 and that it was terribly expensive and getting a console for one singular game these days feels like a waste, so I decided to just not talk about this game so as to avoid the algorithm.

This was so I wouldn't get spoiled on anything beyond what was shown in trailers and also so I wouldn't get an ALL BOSSES & ENDING (NO DAMAGE) video on my Youtube feed by some jerk who decided to plaster the face of the final boss in the middle circle and call it a day. Surprisingly, this actually worked and I never heard about this game again.

Then Sony decided to port it to PC and I jumped on it because now I can actually play it. Of course, I decided to wait until I was done with Pikmin 4 first before I moved on and I'm glad I did.

I'm really glad that I was lucky enough to have a PC that could just power through some of the issues the game had, although it still had a few issues such as geometry not loading in and the occasional time where I would clip through the ground and die for no good reason, but I was able to play through the game from start to finish.

Was it worth not spoiling myself for however many years? Probably. It was a short game but I got my money's worth. Rivet is cute, Ratchet is great as ever, and the fact that the game completely ignores the remaster of the first game is also great, mostly because that game kind of ruins Ratchet's character development that he went through.

Also, on my birthday, I was given a Dualsense controller (Lemme say that I didn't know what I wanted for my birthday, it's hard to do so these days...) and I must say the adaptive triggers did change up the gameplay quite a bit, priming a shot with a half-press and clicking it all the way in to fire. I initially thought it'd be overhyped as all hell but no, it felt pretty good to use, add to the fact that it has touchpads much like the Dualshock 4, which means that it'd be the perfect companion to my Steam Deck as well as enabling a much easier time of gyro gaming on PC (one of my issues with gyro gaming was simply not having an easy way to toggle the gyro on and off and I was not about to give up one of the face buttons for gyro-ratcheting).

All in all, game's great, was worth the wait, and I'm surprised at how well it ran and looked on the Steam Deck running at 30 FPS @ 800p. Perhaps I judged 30 FPS too harshly.

#30: Nerf Arena Blast

Finished When? 5/8/23

What's Finished? Single-player campaign

What prompted me to play this? Why did I choose to play this? Simple. Nostalgia, among other things.

This is probably one of the times where nostalgia really screwed me over.

The feel of the game is great, I loved the 90's aesthetic of there being some sort of nerf arena and playing as an up-and-coming team, the first few levels were pretty nice to play through too, but that's where everything kind of stops.

Also, this game is... well.. it's a game filled with slow-moving projectiles and bots that are dumb as bricks one minute and ultra try-hards the next is not my idea of fun. Not to mention that the game began to feel tedious as I kept pushing through the campaign.

Sure, I'm probably asking for a lot from a licensed kids game from the 90's/00's but Unreal Tournament had a lot more to offer than just deathmatch, ballhoopmatch, and speedrun, I wish they had done more than just those modes.

Speaking of the modes, I've found Ballblast to be extremely tedious to play through. It felt like it'd drag on and on and on and on and on and on until someone FINALLY finds the six dragon balls, shoots them through a hoop, and then collects the seventh one and shoots it through a hoop to FINALLY end the game. I have to ask, who the hell decided it would be a good idea to make it UNTIMED? There's a VERY good reason why objective gamemodes with the ability to disrupt those capturing has a timer, it's so that, at the end, the game can end and the winner be found.

But these games could drag on for ages, compounded by the fact that the bots, despite being masterful gods of leading projectiles, are stupid, somehow even dumber than Unreal Tournament's bots, and will take forever to go to the hoop and shoot balls into a hole.

BUT, I will give credit where credit is due, Pointblast, which is deathmatch but points, is a neat idea where you go around slaying people like normal BUT they drop points that you have to pick up BUT it can also be stolen meaning that you could get 1st place killed and steal the 1000 point drop from someone else. I like this idea, I like how it essentially changes the pace from sitting around camping to a more frantic slugfest, which I appreciate because when I played through Unreal Tournament, most of my problems could be solved with either a Flak Cannon to the face or pulling out the sniper rifle and just headshotting everyone from a safe place.

Speedblast is... interesting. I like the idea of running through the map, shooting others to stop them from capturing checkpoints, and finishing before everyone else. Maybe it's just me, really, because while I do like the idea of it, the execution was often less than stellar and the maps that had ways to disrupt without having to kill people were very few and that kind of makes me sad. Is it a stupid gamemode? Yes but I applaud the devs of the time for trying to make something new for a change.

All in all, this game is very flawed and somewhat poorly aged but it has some decent points to it and I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy my time with it at all. I really did have at least a bit of fun with it, even though I did not appreciate the game quitting on me after I finished the final level and it blasting my ears off with the ultra-loud video that plays.

And it also has a niche cult following that helpfully has a community patch that allows it to be played on modern systems, so clearly it has something going for it that I may not have found for myself. And that's okay, you know?

|| PREVIOUS || -- || RETURN TO TOP || -- || NEXT || -- || VIEW SPOILERS FOR THIS ENTRY || --

[chromaji]

spoilers for a future event in my EO Nexus fic, and EO1 itself, but I had to make this once I realized something after beating the main story of EO1 yesterday. under rm.

[theshatteredrose]

I love your blog and all your stories ideas for etrian odyssey!!

I hope you don't mind if ask this but... What you think about the first untold? Tbh even if it was a good game I hate how they spoil the big twist of the original game, I remember losing my sht in the first game when I first arrive to the 5 stratum so I was disappointed how they manage that part of the story in the untold version

Aww, thank you so much! Glad you enjoy them~

I found a lot of inconsistencies with the story version and I’m not a big fan of it to be completely honest. It’s been a while since I played the story mode of the game, so there’s probably a few things I mis-remember.

Mild spoiler warnings just to be safe!

I do like some aspects, especially the whole Yggdrasil Project and the core reaching melt down because the world’s ecosystem is back and running. I’d like to learn more about Gotham, honestly. Especially the fact that there had to be someone to initiate the Gungnir in that region, if I’m not misremembering things.

And you’re right; the fact that Gladsheim was obviously high-tech and not at all natural to any of its surroundings spoilt the big reveal of Lost Shinjuku. The fifth stratum was just so shockingly different to the previous stratums that it made the player reel their head back in complete surprise. In Untold, that feeling is muted.

It feels that the Untold story mode was made for fans of the series who had already played the original EO1. The game suggests playing story mode first, but it really would have been best that the original was played first, to allow for the true shock of the reveal.

What I also didn’t like was how little they did with the cast other than Ricky, and even then, she was greatly inconsistent. Lindis is a blank slate and I feel really bad for Simon in particular – home town was destroyed by the very people Ricky was aligned with and it’s never addressed. He gets like two lines or something. I think something so traumatic could have been addressed just a little bit more.

Also, there’s seven Yggdrasil projects, apparently, but only two were equip with safety measures. So, like, screw the rest of the planet, I guess.

So, yeah, while the story mode revealed some interesting ideas, its execution was bit of a letdown. Still a fun game to play, though, and it’s nice seeing the 3d graphics~

[aquatark]

thank you everyone for voting! spoiler time it is~

from now on, i'll be using the tag "#uml" on posts containing umls, and "#legendary" on posts containing creatures considered legendary in eo1 and 2 (nerfed to just being "rare" in luminous lol). if you'd like to avoid seeing those kind of posts, feel free to block the tags!

hi everyone! now that it's been 3 months since luminous released, i'm curious to see how my followers feel about posting spoilers. i'd still be tagging them according to my current system, so if you'd like to avoid them it'd be totally possible!

feel free to elaborate in the tags/replies if you'd like!