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.
- 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.
- Seems to be confirmed by an official comic.
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- I agree about 4, but the world map of 3 is obviously the South China Sea between Hong Kong, Borneo, and New Guinea.
- 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.
- 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.
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.
- Jossed. The title for EOV's boss theme is "Empty Ringing, the Earth Splits", which pretty much breaks the trend.
- 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?
- Indirectly Jossed; there won't be a 3 Untold.
- Averted, because English voices have been confirmed. Maybe the Japanese voices will be available as free DLC, similar to Persona 5.
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.
- Indirectly Jossed; there won't be a 3 Untold.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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?
- 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.
- 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.
- 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...