Etrian Odyssey II HD

4 Very unbalanced During the first half of the game in each stratum you quickly out level the normal enemies, but still need to grind levels for two hours to beat the story bosses Most of the FoEs are far stronger than the bosses, & give no exp, so the majority of the time they only exist to be avoided The most egregious offense is the in-game description for Beast Roar level 5; which simply states "Infliction rate ↑"… the infliction rate goes from 4% to 75%

Like many others say, this is probably the weakest of the mainline titles, and you probably shouldn't play it unless you've played EO1 first. This is not because of plot or anything however, instead it's because the balance and design of the game is very reactive to the first. There are many changes in this game that were, in retrospect, overcorrections to decisions made in the first title. Without getting into specifics, this generally means that the game is very suited for hyper-offense parties, rather than defensive or balanced ones. Far more than perhaps any other game in the franchise. It all depends on your preference whether or not this is for the better. Compared to the first, EO2 only features two new classes: - Beast, a bulky frontliner that can flex between tanking and damage dealing roles. In practice, a class that is too fragile to protect the party and whose damage falls behind the actual damage dealers as the game goes on. - War Magus, a "jack of all trades" supporting class. In practice, a tactically superior Medic, whose lack of raw healing power is offset by their significantly higher speed (which allows them to more reliably react to incoming damage). Additionally, the two unlockable classes from the first game, Hexer and Ronin, are now available from the start. Considering most people will have not used either of them due to how late they unlocked in EO1, they might as well be considered new classes. And BOY were they buffed (to the point where many consider EO2 to be defined by how fun - and busted - they both are). If nothing else, this game is best experienced as a companion piece to EO1 so you can contrast and compare the two. It's not a bad entry, just a slightly off-kilter one.

Definitely the weakest of the original 3 but despite that i still love all these games. Different from the first given the balance adjustments to make most defensive options weaker, and weaker classes from the original game rediculously overpowered, while also nerfing the best offensive classes from the first game into the ground. This does open you up to the Newer Gunner and War Magus class and the weaker classes from the first game being stronger in comparison. On the exploration side, it was an interesting choice to take exp away from FOE fights... which basically gives you no reason to fight them outside of getting their mats for gear (which i actually forgot to go back and beat some after i was strong enough to do so). Despite that, what you get from selling them is either already weaker then what is available, or will be very soon so you are really just doing it for 100%. Money and exp also seems tight until you realize that you can just back farm the bosses on respawn for 1-3 levels of exp each, and a conditional that sells for 30k every time. Soon as i remembered that, i went from feeling poor to having more then i could need. For trash mobs, there isnt much in the ways of AOEs in this game either so you are either blowing skills or spamming Hexer's Torpor to sleep kill every fight. Almost every non-boss in the game is affected by it at a high chance at max level, and you just use it 1-2 times a fight, ALLLL the way from stratum 1, through till the end of the post game. Very much a kill them before they Kill you setup otherwise, which might make you think about not running a Hexer for a challenge, but as i learned with a protector in the first game, ***'s just way too annoying without it lol. Boss fights with a full offensive team on the other hand are a weird balance of not dying to the first attack and then ending the fight by turn 5, you can bring a Protector to help with these, but except for the very last boss in the post story, i never really needed to. Even fighting through super bosses and just having the right mist items to block damage. This game also does put more emphasis with having at least 1 of every class to get to at least level 15 for various missions and dungeon restricted pathways for loot , sometime making you walk there solo with a single class to access. Thankfully you can do them on picnic mode if you're worried about the treck it, unlike the pains i had to go through on the DS version. Also doesnt help that the dungeon are a lot more annoyingly laid out in this game, having much less shortcuts on non-boss or geometric pole floors, great if you have the pole in that stratum enabled, annoying as hell to get back to those floors if not... and a lot of missions has to backtrack through these constantly. All in all still had fun. Exploration and mapping are still my favorite thing to do. 10/10 would recommend, even if not this or the more mundane first game, then definitely 3.