Which Etrian Odyssey is the best to start with?

4 had a decent one why would it be last? better than 5's story for sure

It's basically 1 all over again but with more details. Also I didn't like the characters that much, 1's was much more mysterious.

Hall of Darkness was kino though.

Not quite, it's got some similarities but the key points are much different (the empire isn't even close to being like the forest folk, the town leader is a genuinely good guy with balls of steel instead of Visil's dickery, and we establish friendly relations with the native civilizations instead of slaughtering them like animals, and the Yggdrasil Core is in the name of the game because it's not just some extra boss (unless we're including EO1U instead of the original only, in which case yes I agree with you).

Yeah I guess, I just don't like the new characters that much. Also the big ass tree playing a similar role as in EO1 is disappointing. A I also said, I'm also very confused as to where it takes place in the timeline.

4 appears to take place at a similar time to 1U and 2U. The Yggdrasil Project is likely the same as the one mentioned in 1U (if we bring that in).
4 of the trees known have been part of that (Simon's hometown tree, which was nuked, the Etrian Tree (Visil's research team), the Lagaardian Tree (The Overlord's research team) and the Empire's Tree (Unknown research team, the ones in the Hall of Darkness). I'm more confused as to where V fits in.
2U side material shows that 3 could possibly take place at the same time, but the tree is obviously unrelated to the Yggdrasil Project because it's an alien.

>taking Untold into account

Fuck that. 4 is on Mars
V is pretty clear. It take place millions of years before 1, the civilization probably collapsed before humans could look at mars.

Even if we ignore that, the games all have some sort of connection BECAUSE of 4. Simply due to the inclusion of food from Armoroad and other regions, 4 shows that they take place in roughly the same timeframe and the same planet.
I don't recall that happening in V, as far as what I could see V was part of an expansion project to try and live in other worlds.

If you include V you technically include the Untolds because V was made after and obviously doesn't exclude them, even if you play classic on the Untolds (especially in 2U, where it ensures the existence of the events in U1 by the Yggdrasil Core and the elements around that).
V is a goofy outlier regardless in plot, and it's not helped by the goddawful localization that confused a lot of the playerbase overseas.

The only game Shigeo Komori didn't write as far as I know is 4, which is why it probably seemed different to you.
Fun fact though Komori wrote the Untolds, which is why they aren't considered non-canon or anything.

Did you clear the final dungeon of V? If yes, remember that the alien go to earth to plant an Yggdrasil there.
IV hometown is called Tharsis that must count for something. I remember some user saying the airship map were also based on Mars geography but he might have been wrong. My beef with 4 is that the tech level is just weird compared to 1 and 2.

V was technically a reboot. It doesn't invalid them but it doesn't deconfirm them either.
U1 idea of multiples tree is just bad, same stuff for U2, I'll rather deal with different stuff each time than the same thing over and over again. The tree in 2 being big because of the overlord fuckery is explanation enough.

1. always start from the first game in the series
2. never play remakes

When she says they need her help?
That doesn't necessarily mean they were the ones to start it or that it takes place in the deep past.
I've usually seen EOIV to be speculated on being African actually. Lagaard was confirmed somewhere near Europe by Untold, which mentioned it being near a nation called Caledonia (Scotland). Etria's obviously Japan.

Regardless of if you think it's "bad" it's part of the canon now. I don't see why it's bad per se though, each individual story for the games doesn't negatively impact the others and they're mostly standalone except for a few nods, which is why we're having this discussion in the first place (it's not usually explicitly known). I rather prefer it this way simply because it's something that would only strike someone who plays all the games. Classic also never mentions the Ricky chronicles so it doesn't detract from that either.
The only one that was ever genuinely different was 3's tree, because that wasn't really a tree at all, it was an alien spacefaring evil-god-predator. The others were all just huge trees, until 4 which apparently was because a different guy wrote it.

>That doesn't necessarily mean they were the ones to start it or that it takes place in the deep past.

It's heavily implied. She terraforms Mars with the Yggdrasil then move on to Earth after saying she has to go to the next planet to fertilize or whatever.

>I've usually seen EOIV to be speculated on being African actually
I guess it would make sense since it would be extremely far from the rest of the serie.

>Fun fact though Komori wrote the Untolds, which is why they aren't considered non-canon or anything.
Meh, as long as the multiple Ygg aren't referenced in the mainline games, I'm not going to take that into account, 1 make it seems like there is only a singe tree. U1 is way more shonen.

Why would that place it in the deep past and not the distant future?
1 simply has a much more barebones plot. I think the same writer was just trying to finish what he wanted to do back then but couldn't because they didn't know if the game would actually take off as a full fledged series. U1 is fine as long as you ignore le millenom girl. No real problem with it, it's a damn good remake and it completely outmodes the horribly broken original. Including the slightly more fleshed out world in the story.
And 4 already referenced the multiple trees in the mainline games.

2 is just a huge tree, 1, 4 and 5 are bio-engineered beings but all work differently.
I'll say its bad because it's rather lazy and let you know what you will deal with in each new game. Part of what make EO fun is to discover the secret of the labyrinth. If it's the same everytime, it's no fun, that's why I don't like EO4 story as much, although I did like Hall of Darkness because this was fairly new.
It also turn Yggdrasil into some kind of evil god whereas in the first one it was just a tree setting up defenses.

>it's part of the canon now.
Not until it's referenced outside of Untold, otherwise the party of each game would be canons too.

Fun side world map system that unlocks a fuckton of side bosses, varied classes, cross classing, great atmosphere. It's probably the best, but 4 and 5 are also very good. 1 and 2 are very dated and have a lot of UI problems (skill level up descriptions not being accurate) and a lot of skills have empty levels that are pointless, some even having an empty max level.

3 is really the point where the series perfects the formula, so if you play 3-4-5-X in order you're getting the best experience.

The story mode isn't but the added lore in the remakes is cross referencing the stuff added in 4 already, which is mainline. Already met the criteria mate. 4 basically is the crumbly glue that holds this whole shtick together.
Is this why people hate 4 so much?

>Why would that place it in the deep past and not the distant future?

Because that's clearly what people are going to assume when they see the life-seeding alien going to earth?

>I think the same writer was just trying to finish what he wanted to do back then
I'll assume he rather rewrote the serie as if it was a more normal JRPG, the tone is completely different.
>Including the slightly more fleshed out world in the story.
I disagree: the kino twist, the hippy genocide and the bad guy motivation are all better in 1.

THE ONE WITH THE HIGH SEAS OF ADVENTURE!

EO4 is Australia, not Africa. Tons of marsupial enemies that appear in no other games.

Don't listen to the faggots in this thread

Start with the first one
it sets the tone and premise for the rest of the series
after that, you can go play whichever entry you want

>Already met the criteria mate.
That's still a reference inside Untold though.

>Is this why people hate 4 so much?
Nah, the beginning of the game is just too slow (but not as much as DT2, jesus what terrible first dungeons). 3D models also look like shit compared to sprite but maybe that's just me.

Yggdrasil is never an "evil god," ever. It goes from instinctive beast to benevolent protector to just a plant. Never, not even in the untolds is it actually evil, even if it projects an "evil aura" of hostility. In fact, the closest it reaches to being evil is Visil's fuckery.
Even if you hate the Untolds
>1U: Bioengineered being that naturally causes catastrophic destruction because of it's own biological processes (i.e. no way to stop the overflow and subsequent nuke from it even if the beast wanted to). Countermeasure only exists in the story mode.
>2U: Identical, but this time instead of being allowed to grow naturally it's imprisoned (the countermeasure). Ironically enough this isn't the big bad motherfucker of it though, and could just be left to go have a tantrum in the gay baby jail of gigganiggagap
>3: Space Alien, zero relation to the others
>4: basically the same as 1/2, countermeasure is the Insatiable Pupa
>5: no relation

Since V takes place in a way different setting there's nothing it can really do in relation, but otherwise yeah the 3DS ones all connect. 4's referencing the past games (including 3) so when it connects to the Untolds it connects to the old games. It's like a rickety bridge.

Why would you assume that and not that the planet is the same one but dead many years into the future?
Also that contradicts the origins that 1 and 4 established for the trees, that or it's just so far removed that it doesn't matter at all and might as well just be a total standalone (were it not for Nexus, which I'm not sure of the standing of).

I thought EOfags didn't care about the story

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Idk, I thought 2U's Yggdrasil Core had a really neat design and it was neat to see that the second game had a Primevil of its own instead of the spooky Ur-Child hiding at the top in the original. I'll gladly take that over just making each story slightly different. V's final boss was super anticlimactic in comparison to the Overlord or Etreant, at least the Star Devourer was kind of neat I guess.

But 4 has a lot of baboons, Africa make more sense.

>Yggdrasil is never an "evil god," ever.
It becomes a huge dick brainwashing people and killing left and right to ensure its continued existence until it inevitably attempt to murder everyone, whereas in 1 it was just a plant slowly growing and creating a though ecosystem to protect itself in which the forest folk where just another actor and not a nuisance to exterminate.

The tree in 4 is fairly different too, even if you take Untold into account.

>Why would you assume that
Because ancient ayy creating human is a famous sci-fi trope and it was clearly referenced in the ending?

>Also that contradicts the origins that 1 and 4 established for the trees,
Not all it actually give them a much better common background than untold since it imply that giants ass tree are apparently the way to go when it comes to create planet-wide ecological change
Haven't played Nexus yet.

I do which is why I'm mad at the remake retcon.

The tone of all EO games is different than the first one, even the remakes. They were written in a different time with no expectation of a continuation.
1's story was weak. The only strong factor anyway was Lost Shinjuku, which even by that time was the absolute most basic, overused twist in media like that (the "wow this is really in the fuuuture" twist had been done dozens upon dozens of times before). Visil was obviously evil to anyone with a brain even without the stupid intro scene of U1 spoiling it, and in the original I never felt anything for the Forest Folk at all.

>it's referencing a famous sci-fi trope
What? How does that make it future specifically? If anything aliens finding the ruins of humanity is a trope as well.
Nexus has stuff from everywhere. Play it, even with the repetitive shrines it's still good.

>which even by that time was the absolute most basic, overused twist in media
Nah. Most twists are like that anyway, it doesn't make them bad. What make it work in 1 is the fact that the game barely has a story up until this point.

>Visil was obviously evil to anyone with a brain even without the stupid intro scene of U1 spoiling it,
His motivation is better than just being rootfucked but oh not that much I guess because we need a virus.

>in the original I never felt anything for the Forest Folk at all.
They aren't better in Untold since they lose all their mystery.

>What? How does that make it future specifically? If anything aliens finding the ruins of humanity is a trope as well.
I don't know what to tell you, it's just incredibly obvious. V was tooted as a reboot but they clearly tried to surprise the veteran with the ending implying that it's a prequel.

>Nexus has stuff from everywhere. Play it, even with the repetitive shrines it's still good.
I intend too, although I got a bunch of other games to finish before that.

ye what lad
The big problem is the Etreant, not the core, and that's in both games. Even when the core BECOMES the problem in Ricky Adventures, I thought we weren't including story mode? Visil being the last guardian of the Yggdrasil tree was the reason that adventurers were forced back or killed.
Regardless, the Yggdrasil Core version of Primevil was acting almost entirely on instinct. No real consciously evil things other than to ensure its own survival were done, the big problem was that instead of just leaving it as the Yggdrasil's heart like 1 had it as, they had to bring in "oh no it's gonna explode because of all the pollution it absorbed and kill everyone."

It really isn't. You are legitimately the first person I've ever heard say it's millions of years in the past. I've usually heard it speculated more that it's unconnected at all and they were trying to go back to what the series was before 4 happened (i.e. standalones with tiny cameos.

I thought it was Australia?

They were the fucking same in Untold if you play classic, they had no mystery because the game's a damn remake. Le millenom girl spoiled that the game is techy and not really medieval in the back of the fucking box, so I agree it was poorly done there, but classic's story was fine, if not better because the game was less janky and there were more individual labyrinth events.

I tried starting with 3 but it's too hard, I can't beat the first stratum boss. Should I try 4 instead or just man up?

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well then I'll remember this for whenever someone claims EOfags are only there for the gameplay and making their own adventurers with their imagination
I will forever have proof that EO is like every other JRPG and has storyfags anyway

So the remake ones are worse than the games they're based on?
Should I skip them? I don't plan to play them more than once, these seem like long games.

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The big problem is the Etreant, not the core,

And Etreant is just Visil in 1 vs

>It really isn't. You are legitimately the first person I've ever heard say it's millions of years in the past.
I remember having a discussion about that on the vg general and people seemed to accept this theory. Hell, I don't remember if this is true or not but according to the wiki the theme of EO1 is played when it reveals earth.

>The big problem is the Etreant
Which is either controlled by Primevil or Visil. Its motivation is completely different.

>Regardless, the Yggdrasil Core version of Primevil was acting almost entirely on instinct.
It's still a JRPG evil god, just more a Lavos/Jenova ripoff than a Chaos one. It clearly know that what's inside the ruins can buttfuck him, its smart enough to partial manipulate someone mind and its a ticking time bomb.

In the original it's much more pacifist.

Maaaaaan, hard agree on the PQ mapping.
idk why Atlus didn't update EOV or Nexus to have that style of maps. Probably just as tradition, but the QoL stuff, especially from PQ2, is just so game changing.

Yeah, but I'm getting off my own headcanon so I'm a semi-storyfag.

I did it with a farmer in my party it isn't that hard. What's your party?

I got the impression the tree was controlling him, not the other way around. His quote strongly suggests this because it is what keeps him alive (the last of his era or something like that).
Primevil in Untold has no real personality either. It's an animal, apart from the speech of the Etreant. The entire reason they're even trying to kill it isn't even because it's evil or has done evil, but because it's a bomb and will explode. I refuse to budge on this, the thing is just a monster in both games. The thing I will give though is that they do a lot more to force you into fighting it, instead of just having it be waiting there at the end. Oh here's a virus, kill it for me. Oh salad's helping, isn't that nice. I think the story should have been more like 2U's story, which ended at the overlord. The things after that still had scenes, but it was a side plot. They weren't seeking out the Ur-Child, it was still a spooky motherfucker waiting at the end to kill you instead of being pushed at you.

>Also: I prefer the mapping on PQ/2 than the EO series.
No way, PQ's method of tracking map progress meant that you literally had to walk over everything, so god help you if you painted any tiles and then forgot to actually step on them.

The remakes are garbage. Just play them in release order and skip both Untolds and Nexus, they just fuck it up.
1->2->3->4->5->then if you really want to, U1->U2->Nexus

5's localization removed all the Mars stuff and says you were on Earth all along which is flat out retarded given the ending cutscene. And where are you getting this "it was a reboot" from? If anything it was a prequel given that it plays the EO1 theme at the end.

yes it does, the twist is the most generic jrpg twist of all time
being sudden and jarring doesn't make it good
still the best 5th stratum though

he probably is referring to the lights that light up unpainted walls on the map and other stuff like that

Name 5 other JRPGs that had you exploring the ruins of Tokyo in the future. I'll give you a helping hand - SMTIV, which was released after EO1.

That's not the twist though, and you're only exploring 2 skyscrapers. The twist is medieval fantasy is revealed to be actually the future of the already ruined present.

>That's not the twist though
That's literally the twist. You just restated it.

Anyways name those 4 other JRPGs, I already helped you out.

>they had no mystery because the game's a damn remake.
If you already played it yes, but the whole goal of the remake was to make it more accessible. I don't mind the new addition to the plot if they stay separated. Equal but segregated.

>They were the fucking same in Untold if you play classic
Then if Atlus is making 3 version of the same story I'm going to choose the better one. Doesn't the genocide change to become less gruesome in Classic mode too? I don't remember.

>I got the impression the tree was controlling him, not the other way around.

>I got the impression the tree was controlling him, not the other way around.
I don't know, I don't remember that. For me he seemed in control and him saying he was the last of his era is, well, just fact.

>The entire reason they're even trying to kill it isn't even because it's evil or has done evil, but because it's a bomb and will explode. I refuse to budge on this, the thing is just a monster in both games.
It's still clearly more intelligent in Untold and active in its defense. They turned it into a more JRPGesque villain, a slow but extremely powerful being that is going to rise one day and bring the apocalypse with it.
In 1 it was way more chill and I prefer it that way.
I prefer the Ur-devil addition even if it's just a cheap BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE.

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I mean it was sold as a reboot by the devs.
>the twist is the most generic jrpg twist of all time
I don't think so but then again I haven't played that many JRPG. A lot of them do use an ancient civilization though, which was clearly referenced in the small intro of EO1.

Not him but Xenogears comes to mind though the intro was sci-fi and the game was full of mech.
Xenoblade 1 I guess? Though again it does it in a very different way.

Source on them stating its a reboot. I'd believe it with regards to gameplay being streamlined but I genuinely don't remember them ever stating that and I've been following the series since II.

Ok
>Shining Force
Reveals that the "legend of the dark dragon" was in actuality a folktale version of "manmade monster annihilates modernized civilization with satellites, grenades, etc."
>Final Fantasy, although I'm not sure this counts because it's not a "twist" per se, just the natural setting, same for Chrono Trigger
>many of the MegaTen games before SMT IV had this, often as a result of the same kind of issue that Tokyo had faced in SMT IV (i.e. nukes)
In fact, I'd say this was probably what Atlus was inspired for the "twist" by. They used this a LOT.
>Skies of Arcadia
>does tales count?
Ancient civilization wiped out and a new lower tech one built on the ruins is always whined about by people as the big cliche of JRPG settings.

None of those involve the past being our current present. Way to fail bro.

U1 or 4
not that one at the very least OP

Shining Force is the exact "twist" to a T, the fuck are you talking about?

Also nice limpdick attempt with Final Fantasy just lobbed out there.

still isn't old
youtube.com/watch?v=9WYRQXrn7YM

I suppose it doesn't count given how varying FF is. Still, all the others fit, but most specifically MegaTen and Shining Force are the same thing exactly. An ancient dead modern civilization with high technological advancement that has a world built upon it. MegaTen's slightly different because the eras vary that the present takes place in, but Shining Force is the same. Ancient techy world, medieval fantasy built over the ruins. The GBA remake makes this even more explicit.

I don't think FF ever had modern civilization shit, just good old magitech.

The twist in EO wasn't about just any ancient civilization though which is what surprised me.

>many of the MegaTen games before SMT IV had this, often as a result of the same kind of issue that Tokyo had faced in SMT IV (i.e. nukes)
Which ones?

>does tales count?
Isn't it just generic ancient magitech civilization?

Hu, can't find one but I swear I saw some post on Yea Forums saying it was. Guess that's not the most reliable source.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Good night, people with shit tastes.

Anyone know the fan favorite of this series in Japan? I know that 4 is the top seller of the series as a whole so I wouldn't be surprised if it's that one. The only reason I'm interested is because if 3 is somehow the fan favorite it gives me hope for a 3 remake on switch after if the series is given new life on that console.

All of them have magitech though, including EO. Granted though, most of it is in 2.