The settings of each of the games.
EO1 is exactly where it is; Lost Shinjuku leaves little doubt as to exactly where you are. Which makes it kind of odd that so many of the new characters added by Millennium Girl seem to be from North America, but the explicit confirmation is still there, and doubled down on when Nexus has Persephone describe Etria as a city "to the far east."Starting in EO2, things got a little less obvious. However, given the way the new, treated-as-locals classes are dressed (or are literally shaggy bears), the colder climate in general, and being located up in the mountains as a refuge for older, larger cities as per Lagaard's legend, it's often been suspected that Lagaard is located in northern or eastern Europe, in the Ural Mountains, the Alps or maybe even the Scandinavian Mountains. Fafnir Knight reinforces this a decent bit, with Bertrand's blatantly French last name and Arianna being from the relatively nearby kingdom of "Caledonia" - that being an old name for Scotland, which all leans on the Alps theory. Nexus has Persephone describe High Lagaard as a "northern Duchy".
EO3 is also not super obvious... by itself. The island itself and the dress of a lot of the inhabitants suggests it's in the Mediterranean, which would also make some sense given the nearby archipelago. Fafnir Knight also drops the hint that it's located in the general "south", which also could suggest the Mediterranean, though some have taken it as a suggestion it's located further south and possibly in the overall global south, perhaps in the South China Sea, the Philippines or Indonesia. The map, at least, is definitely the South China Sea, with Hong Kong in the northwest. It is described as being in "the southern seas" in Nexus.
EO4 is perhaps the most "non-obvious" of the main games. At first. Despite the "European genericness" of Tharsis and the Nordic bent of the Empire's royal family, between the obviously Chinese-inspired second land (particularly the names), the blatantly Japanese names of the third, and the heavily terraced hills in and visible beyond the fourth land, it seems very likely that the Tharsis Yggdrasil is located somewhere on continental Asia, probably either in China itself or on the Indochinese Peninsula. Nexus continues making it non-obvious by stating that Tharsis is a "remote city", though airships being confirmed as ancient Lemurian technology does possibly indicate relative closeness between the Tharsis region and Lemuria.
Nexus, taking all the above hints regarding the other regions from Persephone into consideration, is likely between Armoroad and Tharsis but kept separate by the violent seas. Lemuria is likely the Philippines, with Armoroad a more general South China Sea and Indonesia and Tharsis the Indochinese Peninsula. Lemuria itself is a rough ring of islands and one of the more prolific enemy types is the Ananas, killer pineapples, while the Philippines are one of the leading producers of pineapples.
- The Phillipines, or what's left of them, are the northern half of the EO 3 world map, with broken Sulawesi and Borneo being the south. Note that the city in the northwest corner is Hong Kong, and the bits of land on the southeast edge are the western points of New Guinea. The rest follows from there.
The Midgard Library, featured in the Untold games, likewise has no definite position, but Fafnir Knight has characters there describe High Lagaard as being to the north and Armoroad to the south, which based on the above Armoroad theories would put it in either central Europe or the Middle East.
Ontario? It is always definitely Ontario.
Millennium Girl takes place near Ogdensburg, New York.
Based on how the characters are set up (Raquna from Ontario, "from the north", and Arthur and Simon from Gotham — a common nickname for New York City), it would only be logical that Etria is somewhere in the northeastern United States. Why Ogdensburg? That is where Sir-tech Software, the company that created the Wizardry video game series, was headquartered, and was a major inspiration for EO (and was popular amongst many Japanese RPG players). Furthermore, Ogdensburg is also sometimes known as "Frederic Remington Country" (the manual for Wizardry noted this). The other main character? Frederica Irving. (With those in mind, the fifth stratum Lost Shinjuku is an Artifact Name.) Guns are a recent invention.
Very recent. In fact, the technology to make guns, gunpowder, and bullets were taken from the ruins of Shinjuku within the Labyrinth of the first game. Found, studied, and sold. Within a few years they have become popular weapons in some circles, becoming common enough to be sold in shops by the time the second game comes around.- And if was done in Etria between the two games, this could explain why Heroes of Lagaard claims your password-carried Guild saved the town. They suggested it, and it saved Etria's economy! Though it could be an Ambiguous Situation, since no one states the final fate of Etria in the second game.
Ricky reintroduced firearms to Etria after she woke up.
As the first "true" Gunner in Story Mode, she would end up striking up interest in her modern-style semi-auto pistol with various explorers. A quick dive into ancient records unearthed the schematics for archaic firearms as well, which, after the shopkeepers and blacksmiths failed to replicate her handgun, were the best they could do to reproduce her style of weapon. Later games introduce more refined weapons as firearms knowledge was rediscovered. Dark Hunters learn their techniques by studying salvaged "technique magazines".
They generally aren't aware of their "original purpose", though clearly more than a few might suspect that their techniques weren't always used against monsters... But that sort of thing got lost in translation, After the End.- Seems to be confirmed by an official comic.
Etrian Odyssey III has an all-new roster of heroes because plot-wise, the player's Guild from Heroes of Lagaard can't return. And they won't, because...
While your Guild could easily make the jump from Etrian Odyssey to Heroes of Lagaard, certain endgame events make such a reappearance unfeasible — mainly, their 'involvement' in the immortality project. While your heroes are meant to be blank slates and everything about them hinging solely on your imagination, that sort of ending demands some sort of follow-up if they return... which is exactly why they won't.Regardless of whatever path they decided to take with it, it'd be impossible to please everyone — what might work as "perfectly in character" for some players' Guilds to do would invariably prove "horribly OOC!" for others. End result: one majorly Broken Base, something a niche series like Etrian Odyssey can't afford.
So while some mention might be made — possibly even allowing your Guild in III to be inspired by them, a distant branch, descendants or cousins or what have you — they won't enter into the main plot so as to avoid another Chrono Cross-ish incident.
Playing the Third Game Will Have Actual Physical Side Effects
When I saw the first info, screenshots, and trailers, I couldn't help but feel something bad might happen when playing. This is aside from the headbanging difficulty. Having an unexpected third installment to a much beloved series with the ability to be on a boat would be really exciting. In EO III, all the inhabitants of Deep City are Yggdroids
The Abyssal King mentions that the Deep Ones feed on human emotion, which is why he cut off contact with Armoroad. Since Seyfried himself is an Yggdroid, we know its possible to transfer your consciousness into an Yggdroid body. Likely all the people who came along with him had their consciousnesses transferred into an Yggroid body as well.- There should be at least some exceptions: After all, it would be weird if Eddie's sister, who mans her sister's shop branch in Deep City, ends up being an Yggdroid as well.
Agata or Hypatia was revived once the body was brought back to town.
Why didn't they just ask someone from your party to do it? Agata's too much of an Idiot Hero and Hypatia was too griefstricken to think of it. In the upcoming Fourth Game, the Labyrinth itself will be the Large God.
The games in the series seemed to have a pattern going, in which an element from the previous game turns up in the next. In the first game, Visil was revealed to be the man behind the Yggdrasil Project conducted nearly a thousand years ago. In the second game, the Overlord was experimenting with humans with the Holy Grail to try to grant immortality to other humans, which Visil in the first game had in Type II form, and uploaded himself into a machine to continue his experiments. The third game has Abyssal King Seyfried, who uploaded his consciousness into a mechanical body around the time of the Calamity, similar to the Overlord. Since the Sixth Stratum boss of The Drowned City was Abyssal God, the Man Behind the Monster Lord and was the actual Sixth Stratum, it would make sense to bring that on a much larger scale in the fourth game, considering the Japanese subtitle, translated, is Legend of the Large God.- Correct, the games final boss, the Heavenbringer, is the humanoid form of Yggdrasil. And it seems the whole thing will come full circle with the Remake of the the first since there is quite a bit of stuff on the Yggdrasil Project in the last few parts of the fourth game.
At least one of the Special Classes will require the skyship to unlock.
While exploring with the skyship will still be optional, like sailing was in III, there will still be much more to do with it... including discovering the Hidden Elf Village of one of the Special Classes, enabling you to convince some of them to support your cause.- Confirmed, but only because all three classes that aren't unlocked from the outset require you to continue the story, which you need the skyship to do.
The Vessels are distantly related to the Forest Folk.
And they know what happened to them. Future Class Speculation
Guesses for what sort of classes could appear in EO V and beyond go here!- Exterminators: Consummate hunters with several skills suited for luring out, manipulating, and fighting F.O.E.s. May be a Special Class that is only unlockable by progressing far enough in their game's plot, or even as part of a branching path (where the Exterminators are Well Intentioned Extremists out to tame the wilds of Yggdrasil).
- Or maybe they could be unlocked after defeating a certain number of F.O.Es?
- Jesters: Combination Buffers and De-rezzers who raise their party's morale and taunt enemies. Could also send their allies into berserker rages.
- Minstrels: Spellcasters who harness the elements through Magic Music. Distinct from Troubadours in that they focus more on using songs to alter the enviroment itself, by calling in things like cold breezes, choking heat and booming thunderstorms.
- Researchers: People who study Yggdrasil in order to unlock more of its secrets. Serve as either Medics/Alchemists who also double as their game's best item harvesters, for obvious reasons.
- Alternatively, they're mad scientists who explore Yggdrasil in order to further their studies. Their knowledge of chemicals makes them surprisingly good healers and buffers. In a pinch, they can inject themselves with Psycho Serum, which greatly increases their stats, but at the cost of health per turn, until either the researcher dies or the battle ends.
- Riders: A class who travels on a horse or other creature, they can fight on its back or choose to dismount and let their companion temporarily take the sixth slot (though allowing them to get knocked out renders them unusable for the rest of the battle).
- Alternately Cowboys/girls. They'd wield guns/rifles and would be able to do binds via lassos.
- Scribes: Badass Bookworms who can invoke the elements with the written word, carrying books or scrolls at all times.
- Tricksters: A high agility class with limited access to healing abilities. They can use any weapon that isn't specific to one class.
- Psychics: Mages that use telekinesis to execute physical attacks. They'd also be able to bypass row-based penalties due to their attacks (even their standard attacks) being ranged. Can also dual-wield. They also have skills that involve creating barriers and directly taking hold of enemies through telekinesis
- Vampires: a new race-based class that heals the HP and TP of themselves and their allies by stealing energy from enemies or transferring energy between party members.
- Boosthammerarms: Warriors that use rocket-powered hammers, called "Boost Hammers" (like the ones from the God Eater series), as their weapon of choice. Similar to Drivebladesmen, but their attacks are faster, but weaker, plus they deal blunt damage instead of cut damage. Can use moves like a single fast and powerful attack, multi-hit strikes, tornado attacks (that have splash effects) aided by the rocket, use of the rocket flames to execute a ranged fire attack or set up a heat field that acts as a means of counterattacking, or rocket-enhanced strafes that help dodge enemies more often. They could also have slots on the striking end of the head that can hold an explosive rocket that explodes when the hammer strikes an enemy.
- Dragons: They would fight using both claws and bites (powered up by Strength and physical attack), as well as breath attacks (damage determined by Intelligence and magical attack). They'd also have skills that involve flying (from immunity to damage and mud tiles to dodging attacks to lifting enemies in the air and then dropping them).
- Hypnotists: They'd fight using mind control spells on enemies (like the Hexer but much moreso than that), such as making enemies attack themselves or their allies or making them take hits in place of your party. Those spells would should probably only work a percentage of the time (maybe there'd also be a skill that gives Hypnotists a chance to use a mind control spell a second time in a row for free), since that would be too cheap if they succeed all the time on bosses with no chance for them to resist. They'd also inflict ailments that mess with the enemies brain, such as fear, confusion, and sleep, and maybe also stun and blind, too.
Simon and/or Raquna are Arthur's adoptive parents, at least in spirit.
The writer of this apologizes for speculating before getting anywhere, story-wise.- Compare Arthur's, Raquna's and Simon's in-battle dialogue, and you might notice that they have some lines in common (for example, both Simon and Arthur might say "Have some healing.", and Raquna and Arthur may say "That was a bree~ze!" and "What a breeze!" respectively). Meanwhile, the out-of-battle dialogue often involves Raquna and/or Simon basically talking with Arthur in a manner reminiscent of conversations between fed-up parents and their bratty children. The reason I say Simon or Raquna is the lack of Ship Tease between them.
- Somewhat. Arthur seems to look up to Simon considerably due to being saved by him as a child, something that's even demonstrated when he calls out Simon's name during his death quote.
The third and fourth game are set on entire different planets.
In the third game, Yggdrasil is said to have come form outer space, whereas in the fourth game we have Tharsis. Looking at U and how it points to an Earth much worse in its state than what we have right now, it's entirely possible that humans of old settled on other planets, therefore 4 is set on an inhabited Mars, while the Yggdrasil in 3 is one of the seven from Earth (as there has been no way to take care of the other 5 cores. Implying Earth has been devastated by the time of 3.)- I agree about 4, but the world map of 3 is obviously the South China Sea between Hong Kong, Borneo, and New Guinea.
The Hero in Untold 2 is one of the Overlord's experiments.
His regular form looks very similar to Canaan, and his transformed portrait has a further resemblance, having horns and claws. It could be that the Hero was one of the less feral failures in the Overlord's research for immortality, and the game will involve either the Hero trying to understand how he attained this transformation (if an Amnesiac Hero or didn't know about it) , or confronting the Overlord for doing this to him.- Close. He's the experiment of a woman who used to work alongside him. He helps further the Fafnir's transformation after his boss fight by giving him the Grail of Kings.
Untold 3 will have more than 5 storyline party members.
However this is because they will split along ideological lines when the paths diverge.One set:- The Lancer and The Big Guy are too intent on killing Olympia in revenge - personal or for lost comrades - to consider defecting to the Deep City,
- The Smart Guy is too intent on spreading information to agree to Seyfreid's vow of secrecy.
- The Heart is loyal to Gertrune.
The other set:
- The Lancer and The Smart Guy agree with Seyfried's assessment of the threat.
- The Big Guy or The Heart turn out to be a Deep City Spy.
The Shogun and Yggdroid won't be "unlocked" in story mode of Untold 3...
Rather, after choosing your path and finishing the third stratum, the main character will get either of the unlocked class' skills added to his/her own main skillset (in the Deep City route's case, after being rebuilt after some sort of near-death experience) The events behind The Drowned City are actually more important than the series' usual calamity-struck-civilization-is-recovering kind of story.
So we know that Etrian Odyssey verse is set on a world pretty much similar, if not the exact same one, as ours, and there's a certain ancient calamity that befell the world in all four games. Most sources indicate that the calamity is the world's ecological collapse.
Exceeeeept... one of the endings in The Drowned City sheds light on the following event: An alien entity now known as the Abyssal God was fleeing from another entity called Yggdrasil, and both crash-landed from space in what now is Armoroad. The visual of this backstory depicts both crash-landings as akin to asteroid impacts. Take into consideration that in our world, a single asteroid crash was enough to wipe out the dinosaurs, and thus this double-impact might have been the actual calamity in the series' backstory.
Sure, ecological disasters such as global warming may have been enough to cause such an apocalypse, but asteroid impacts can exacerbate such problems to an enormous degree that the Yggdrasil units, which are made to heal the world, had to be made so aggressive to counter the calamity as quickly and efficiently as possible. Besides, taking note that the one hunting the Abyssal God was called Yggdrasil, and the Deep Ones made by the Abyssal God might have caused quite a problem to the world that people might have looked up at their enemy, Yggdrasil, as a savior or at least ally, there is a possibility that the scientists of old named their world-saving projects as Yggdrasil in honor of this anti-Abyssal God entity. And thus, whatever happened in Armoroad might have been the main trigger of the calamity that befell the entire Etrian Odyssey verse.
Just for Fun : Etrian Odyssey V's stratum boss battle theme will contain the word Vein or Flesh in it
This silly WMG is mostly based on the trend of the four games' stratum boss battle theme titles: Dyed In Blood, Scarlet Rain, Hoist the Sword with Pride in the Heart, and The Burning Crimson Sword Dances. Notice the trend of including something red in the titles? Also, the odd-numbered games uses some red body parts, while the even-numbered ones merely use synonyms for red. So, EOV's battle theme probably will use some body parts that is red. Vein and Flesh are the best bet, but of course, there may be other less-obvious body parts being used :P- Jossed. The title for EOV's boss theme is "Empty Ringing, the Earth Splits", which pretty much breaks the trend.
Speculation on what class the second most important member to the party will be of in Untold 3.
I have come to notice that there's a little pattern of sorts when it comes to the deuteragonist of the story modes thus far and that would be they are of a class introduced originally in the next game. Don't understand what I mean? Frederica is a Gunner, they were a class option introduced in II. Arianna is a Princess, the Sovereigns began their reign in III. Whenever Untold 3 comes out I expect this same pattern will follow with one of the more significant members of the team that takes a lot of the hero's focus will be one of IV's classes. Which one seems most likely the case to be this team member?- Considering the blonde Gunner and Princess were considered the mascots of the games they're in, it's very likely the team will have either a Landsknecht, a Fortress, or both.
- Considering the makeup of the prior Untold guilds, it's likely EO 3 U's will follow the mold of having a tank, an elemental attacker, and a healer as party members—in EO 3 U, this could translate to the Hoplite, Zodiac, and Monk classes. With those categories out of the way, perhaps the deuteragonist heroine will be a Dancer, to fill a buff role?
Etrian Odyssey 3 Untold will allow players to choose the Story Mode protagonist's gender.
Because why not?- Indirectly Jossed; there won't be a 3 Untold.
Alchemists in Etrian Mystery Dungeon 2 will focus on the Palm skills from Heroes of Lagaard, to avoid overlapping with Runemasters.
This way, while both classes can focus on elemental attacks, one will be close-range while the other will be ranged/area of effect.Beyond the Myth will have No Dub for You.
Most likely, the Japanese voices will simply be used, similar to 7th Dragon III.- Averted, because English voices have been confirmed. Maybe the Japanese voices will be available as free DLC, similar to Persona 5.
Lazy Backup is justified because party members don't actually die unless the entire party is wiped out in the field.
If only part of the party is dead, the members who are still alive are capable of keeping their critically-wounded allies just stable enough to accompany them further, but not enough that they can still fight. If the entire party is wiped, no one's around for life support and they die for real, and those back at the guild hall give up and leave because the deaths of their friends has stripped them of all motiviation to press on. The Forest Folk from Etria's Labyrinth are the same species as Arken
The Forest Folk have long forgotten the true nature of Yggdrasil's Core and treat it as a 'god' because their passed-down instructions have become muddled in the deeps of time, and have also lost much of their technology because knowledge was not passed to them by the actual experts/scientists amongst them back in the past. Ricky does not remember them because her memories of them have been lost to time spent in cold sleep.Like Arken's fleet, they arrived at Earth, possibly in pursuit of the Abyssal God seen in Armoroad's depths, and helped humanity's brightest scientists conceive the Yggdrasil Project. Unfortunately, many of them were killed by Deep Ones and forced to leave the Armoroad region, and the survivors have lost much of the true secrets of the Yggdrasils.
Future games might see Arken and the EOV crew turn up on our Earth to help fix the corrupted/malfunctioning Yggdrasils and defeat the Abyssal God's minions.
Etrian Odyssey 5 actually is on Mars, despite the English translations.
It's entirely possible that the humans of Earth had colonized Mars while the Earth was undergoing restoration, and the Arken (having gotten a distress signal from Earth) arrived so late that Earth had been already restored. Since they'd only been given a description of the planet in question, they landed on Mars, which looked the closest to the description they'd been given - and as to what few human survivors of the final boss, they were so shaken and traumatized that they all convinced themselves that going to Mars had all just been a dream.Necromancers dress in a Stripperiffic fashion because their style of magic demands it
Celestrian necromancy involves communing with the spirits of the dead and baring their soul to them; this is reflected in their baring of their bodies in a fashion similar to how some old faiths and magic(k) practicioners have to go "Skyclad" to immerse their bodies in the forces of nature. The race of the Arcanists, the Vessels, are organic equivalents to the Yggdroids
The Yggdrasil Project team in Tharsis created them as protectors of the Yggdrasil Core against corruption by the Abyssal God (or anything like it)). The Sentinels were created to serve as protectors of humanity and as a backup plan in case their Yggdrasil went rampant like the ones in Etria, High Lagaard, and Gotham. If Untold 3 is created, the protagonist of Story Mode will either be a Deep One or a Yggdroid in secret
Unlike Olympia and Seyfred, the party's Yggdroid in disguise would not be consumed by the same directive-driven madness, and unlike the Progenitor, the Deep One party member will not turn on the party and will in fact help to destroy their own Abyssal God.- Indirectly Jossed; there won't be a 3 Untold.
The 3rd Untold game will have have changing party members depending on the route
There are a few ways it can go:- One half leaves while the other stays. Which half leaves depends on the path. It can go like this:
- The Heroine (who could serve as The Lancer) will remain loyal to Gutrune no matter what. And will call you out if you side with Seyfried to kill her princess.
- The Big Guy (default class might be a Buccaneer) holds a grudge against the Deep City because he's already fell victim to Olympia in the past, leading him to lose his previous comrades. If you join the Deep City, he will feel betrayed by the fact that you're joining his Arch-Enemy and declare that you must die along with her.
- The Smart Guy will be a pragmatic kind of guy, and he will believe that the Deep City is in the right, leading him to join them. He might be the one asking you to join the Deep City's cause. If you join Armoroad, he will conclude that you believe they are right and that there is nothing he can do about it, calmly accepting your choice.
- The Heart (might be the one who will be turned into an Yggdroid because Moe Robot Girl) once had a brush with the Deep Ones which scarred her, so she will side with the ones openly opposing them. If you join Armoroad, she might, if she was also the Token Mini-Moe who looked up to you, be heartbroken by the fact that you joined with the enemy, You Bastard!.
- Two will always remain with you no matter the path (likely, for gender balance, the heroine and one of the two guys) while one of the remaining two will leave. Here's how it could go:
- The Heroine is either your Life Partner or in love with you, so she will stick to you because she trusts your choice.
- The Big Guy (again, default class might be a Buccaneer) is some kind of mercenary who was hired either by you, the Heroine or both, so he doesn't care either way.
- You will later have to fight, maybe even to the death (like Kujura), whoever didn't join you. Here are things that could happen:
- The heroine will give you a Last-Second Chance to change sides, though by that point it's too late to do so. She will then continue to ask you to stop throughout the fight. Or she will understand your reasoning, but then say that you're on the wrong side. She will sadly tell you that she can't let you go on with the Deep City's plans. Her battle quotes will involve begging you to stop and apologizing.
- The Big Guy will be on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, yelling about how you joining Olympia is unforgivable and it will be implied that he's suffering of a Sanity Slippage with him going all Knight Templar on you. His battle quotes will be filled with hatred with lines such as "DIE", "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU", "DAMN YOU" and other rage-filled lines like that along with violent Knight Templar lines.
- The Smart Guy will feel bad about the situation but believe that it has to be this way as both him and you are fighting for what you believe is right and insist that you don't hold back and fight for your beliefs. His battle quotes will have him say things like "No hard feelings" and nothing truly malign or hateful.
- The Heart will either be filled with despair at the idea of having to fight you or, in order to cope with her sadness, willfully allowed her Yggdroid transformation to take over he mind, leaving her as an emotionless killing machine. So her battle quotes will either be her crying throughout the entire fight or talk like a machine.
Egar got the "Stabdaddy" title idea from his kids.
- As mentioned in one sidequest, he has a family. It's quite possible that they one day went camping or hiking, got attacked by a monster or two, and Egar had to defend his family from them. His kids, awed at his combat prowess, affectionately started referring to him as "Stabdaddy" and it's stuck ever since.
How party members can dual-wield bows.
- Maybe the Sniper/Nightseeker or other class combination that can dual-wield two bows (for their standard attacks) are able to do so by attaching each bow to a mechanism/attachment that enables them to be used like a crossbow?
The non-*DS games will be called Yggdrasil Labyrinth in the West as a nod to the *DS games' Japanese titles.
- As well as to maintain a connection to previous games in the series while making it clear it's going to be much different in terms of gameplay, since it seems like stylus-based touchscreens on game systems (which make the Etrian non-Mystery Dungeon games possible in the first place) are going to die with the 3DS and Wii U.
I'm sorry, but the "future plans" for the series will be mobile gacha games.
- Jossed, Team Etrian is planning out the outline for a Switch-based Etrian Odyssey for the future. Also, you're late, EO is already guest-starring in someone else's gacha game.
There's going to be an Etrian Warriors (Sekaiju no Musou) game.
The upcoming game on Switch will feature map-drawing after all.
- The 9.0.0 Switch update introduced a "Stylus" touchscreen sensitivity, thus increasing the likelihood that this new game will retain the cartography mechanic. Of course, this doesn't account for map-drawing in TV mode...
