Part 21: Go With The Flow

Part 20: Go With The Flow



It's time to tackle the 4th stratum with 5 fickle fools, one of whom is Ryu, who needs to show off this dumb feature that you shouldn't use. I put a fair few SP into Poison strats that are now useless, so after level 30, you can rest or retire. We'll talk about retiring later, ugh.

Resting and retiring is one of EO1's serious missteps, and something that was immediately fixed in EO2. (To a degree.)

To reiterate, if you screwed up a character's skill build, you couldn't fix it until level 30! Not only that, if you decide to try to fix it at that point anyway, you would have to eat a whopping 10 level penalty! Yeah, resting was meant to be a last resort thing instead of something you're actually supposed to make use of.



The game really wants to make sure you're okay with doing this.



But now we've got some SP to spend on elemental attacks. All we have to do is just grind Ryu back up the 10 levels he lost. Anyone for frogs?

i'd rather be leveling FSH



Honestly, I don't think I'd bother with this LP if I didn't have exp cheats. Let's get going!

This is one of the biggest downsides of Poison Alchemist. While you have a great earlygame if you partake in FOE cheesing, you really bring down your Alchemist's mid and late-game. And unlike in other Etrian Odyssey games, that's not an issue that you can easily fix due to how harsh the resting penalty is in this game.

The Withered Forest



Might as well pick door number one. Hey, what's that on the flo-



Wooooooaaaaahhhhhhh!



Well, uh, at least we know where the next door leads too...

I don't like sand.

A floor full of conveyor belts and doors that you don't know where they'll lead until you open them. It's a cool mechanic, this mazey floor is a lot of fun to puzzle out. There's just one teeny tiny problem...



There's a lot of different sand pathways all going in different directions so... HOW THE HELL DO I MAP THIS??? There's no symbols that really match up and I sure as hell can't draw arrows on the floor, so I guess I'll just pretend they're not there like the pain floors. It breaks my heart.

Oddly enough, I don't remember having that much trouble with this floor when I played EO1. I guess I just have a knack for remembering pointless minutiae such as "what's the way to B17F."

This isn't really a hard floor to go through at all. It's just really annoying to keep track of your paths because of the limited mapping tools.



There's also going to be a lot of both screens, since the winding maze looks very similar throughout and you can't tell which way the converyors are going in still images like this.




Well that's cool, I guess. But now we're at a dead end with the sand trapping us.

Well don't blame me, I was just mentally flipping a coin to choose a direction.

Cool, we'll be trapped in this maze forev- oh?



While it screws us over, it never traps us. This strange beast of a forest.



Welcome to the Corridor of Shame. You end up here if you screw up the maze and get spat out, or if you're exploring the entire floor, you weird completionist person.

By the way, most of the EOU version of this floor is very similar to its EO1 version, right down to the Corridor of Shame.

Destruction Begets Decay



Ooh, fluffy!

Did, uh, the rats from before used to spit... fire?


Flamerat

Level: 39
HP: 333
STR: 128
VIT: 88
AGI: 44
LUC: 44
TEC: 44

EXP: 1052

Skills
Blaze: Uses the Head. A Fire attack dealing 110% damage to a single target. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 50% speed modifier.
Blazer: Uses the Head. A Fire attack dealing 70% damage to the entire party. Has an 85% accuracy modifier and a 10% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100%
0% 150% 100%

Disable Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100%
100% 100% 100%

Drops
Normal: Heated Fur. 30% chance. Sells for 62en.
5 required for Katzbalger (Sword, ATK+106)
5 required for Sting Whip (Whip, ATK+103)

Rare: Fire Tail. 15% chance. Sells for 65en.
3 required for Flame Boot (Footwear, DEF+6, AGI+9)

Conditional: None

Since there's no encounters on the conveyors, there's not many battles on this floor, so it takes a bit to realise the battle music changed! What was only used for a couple of quest battles now is the regular encounter theme. Always appreciate a change. Anyway, Flamerats aren't much to talk about, they only change their Fire attack when they get really low on health, but they'll die before they can attack anyway, so it's annoying Fire damage, but it's not too dangerous.

Huh. I forgot they had a party-target version of their attack. EOU ditched that.

It's the trash mob of this floor. Nothing much to say about it. If you have Antifire at a high level for some reason (You really shouldn't have skill points in it at this point), they're an even bigger joke.



Oof! Well I'm glad they don't coordinate.

That's because I literally got in its way to stop it killing you. Do you ever pay attention?

What's that? I was too busy slicing this rat in half.



I know my spells take some time, but aren't your masters a bit quicker than this?

Uh, well, they're not too great in the heat, true, but these rats are faster than we expected...

Hmm, since battles don't last very long, it would be nice if Sapping goes before the enemy.



The sentiment is appreciated, now it's back to murder!

Obviously since we don't have Karin, we need a lot of healing items. The best we have are Medicas and boy are they a drain on finances. Don't explore without a Medic.



Walking in this long desert heat... my skin is burning. But covering up... is what my parents warned me to never do... how could they turn the sun against us...?

Ryu, create some ice, stat, I think Simone doesn't handle the heat well.



Flamerats can hit kinda hard (well, Aryll, kinda hard), but Drain is useful since it's one less Medica. And if we run out of those, we're going back to town.




Hmm, ahah, we'll go this way!

Please don't make us ride on every different stream.



What a weird looking tre- oh god, it smells horrible! ...and it's glaring at me. Of course.

A Sudden Gust of Wind Before Your Eyes

Unlike the normal battle theme, the FOE battle theme stays the same throughout the entire game (and this is true for the rest of the series as well.)



Well I've done plenty of forest fires in my time. Most of them were accidental.

In my village we burned the trees before they burned us. Looks like we'll be doing the same.


Sickwood

Level: 40
HP: 2000
STR: 195
VIT: 89
AGI: 66
LUC: 66
TEC: 44

EXP: 1800

Skills
Venom: Uses the Head. Attempts to inflict Poison on the entire party. Has a 45% infliction chance, does 99 Poison damage and has a 100% speed modifier.
Branch: Uses the Head. Attempts to Fully Bind a single target. Has a 70% infliction chance and a 10% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100%
125% 100% 100%

Disable Vulnerabilities
25% 50% 10%
25% 25% 25%

Drops
Normal: Dry Peach. 60% chance. Sells for 99en.
1 required for Soma (Medicine, restores the entire party by 126HP, affected by Healer)
3 required for Nectar II (Medicine, revives the target by 300HP, affected by Healer)
1 required for Chef's demand

Rare: Throb Vine. 50% chance. Sells for 510en.
4 required for Shidgedou (Bow, ATK+123, STR+8)

Conditional: None

Weird we're fighting a new FOE so soon, but that's because Sickwoods are just pathetic. Their Poison will burn you a bit, but definitely not enough to kill you. The main thing holding this enemy back is it doesn't do anything else until it's poisoned the entire party, which doesn't tend to happen and Theriaca Bs are party wide, locking this poor sap into using the same skill over and over. We'll be killing them all because they're that pathetic.

Sickwoods on B16F are replaced by Medusa Trees in EOU, who swap out their poison for petrification. A touch more dangerous, yeah?

Sickwoods mark the point where you can easily go toe to toe with the FOEs in this game without having to save them for later. They're just that pathetic. For one thing, the Sickwoods don't even have a level advantage on you (Flamerats, the trash mob of this Stratum, are only level 39 for a comparison point.) Not only that, they're basically designed as a support enemy, so they're really not that threatening on their own. Which might work for an enemy that was a random encounter, but for an FOE, the only way they can be threatening in that case is if they joined in on a battle. Which is really unlikely to happen on floor 16 due to how it's designed. These enemies pretty much got demoted to random encounters in the next game, and got significantly more threatening as a result.



Aw man, that's not very cash money of- oh it's dead.

I hate trees.

Well that doesn't help its case. Petrify is only level 5, so that was a 4% chance of happening, since it falls under the Death resistance. Guess I need to put some levels into it!



B16F C1 Mine Point

Hard Shard. 50% chance. Sells for 70en.
3 required for Ebon Aspis (Shield, DEF+10)
5 required for Breaker (Axe, ATK+151)
3 required for Under construction

Steel Chip. 25% chance. Sells for 86en.
1 required for Steelsword (Sword, ATK+125)
1 required for Blade Whip (Whip, ATK+115)
3 required for Brigandine (Light Armor, DEF+32)
3 required for Ebon Aspis (Shield, DEF+10)
5 required for Godendag (Staff, ATK+99, HP+19)
5 required for Shida (Katana, ATK+149)
5 required for Wyvernmail (Heavy Armor, DEF+26, All Resist Up 5%)
7 required for Flame Boot (Footwear, DEF+6, AGI+9)
5 required for Under construction

Cullinan. 20% chance. Sells for 350en.
1 required for Royal Ring (Accessory, DEF+1, Bind Resist Up 15%)
50 required for Adamas (Accessory, DEF+6, Physical Resist Up 15%, must be restocked)
1 required for The diamond charm

Oh hey it's a new gathering poi- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT FIFTY REQUIREMENT DOING THERE? It's a bit bullshit, but the Adamas is, understandably, the best Accessory in the game and something you should put on everyone. You know, if you find 250 Cullinan. This is the best place to grind it, so get to it! Okay, it's not actually necessary, but it is real nice. Everything we can find here is real nice, so we'll be picking it up pretty soon. Though we still have a floor to complete.

Adamases only require 1 Cullinan in EOU and give the same bonus. Yes, they are comically good and arguably one of the best accessories, why do you ask?

50 materials. For a restockable item! What the fuck, EO1!?



And the way out, but I'm never going to traverse that corridor again. Okay, I will one time, later, but you get what I mean. Other tree time!



It is hard to dodge this nonsense.

I feel like Simone purposefully gets hit when it comes to this kind of thing...



You know, we should camp more, we haven't done that in a while.

I will find the biggest creature I can to roast!



Hmm, I miss that bitter taste in my mouth, but at least this stench is fulfilling.

I feel like I don't know Simone enough.



Riveting, so we're not really going back to town for any reason, it's just faster than going through the corridor.



Alright, I think I've cracked it, some of the townsfolk have new dialogue when you reach a new stratum and then again when you start exploring it. Sure.



All y'can do is follow your beliefs, I s'pose. T'only true t'ing is what y'see witcha own eyes.

What rumours...? Are conspiracies going around that the labyrinth is just an illusion?

How can maps be real if our eyes aren't real?

no seriously what the fuck is shilleka going on about

I'm going to assume that they expected you to get to a certain point on the floor before talking to the townsfolk. Her dialogue makes a bit more sense after a certain plot point hits.



Remember, though. You kids might be strong, but you're still human. Don't get cocky. I'd hate to see my favourite explorers pay for a silly mistake with their lives...

Hey, you forgot your best friend!

Ah crap, I didn't think we'd get away with leaving it behind. Duck!

I am not meant to be thrown!



I'm surprised the innkeeper hasn't had anything new to say for two stratums now, but I also really don't care.

The Withered Forest




Hope you can keep track of where I am in relation to where we've been, cause it only gets more confusing the deeper into the labyrinth we go!



Ooh, did you see that treasure chest?

Who do I look like, Karin?

Maybe in a certain light

I throw much harder than Gerson, best friend.




Going this way and that, spinning around, it's almost fun.

I have sand in my... everywhere. It's not fun.




Oh hey, another tree. Let's cut it down.

Your sword is not an axe there, Lavin.



There's a reason this FOE has such pitiful exp.



This is the furthest corner of the floor and, indeed, the entirety of the Corridor of Shame. There's a fair bit left to explore, but because of the shifting sands, going through any of the three right doors will always lead you here. This is truly where you get spat out if you go a wrong direction, so we'll go through any of the left doors, since they also lead to the same place, but it's to the pathways that lead to the rest of the floor.



Again, warping out and going back in is just faster.




GAH... from the antler sticking through my chest... I assume... we're being ambushed...

Perhaps we're taking death too casually.


Goldeer

Level: 35
HP: 419
STR: 167
VIT: 88
AGI: 36
LUC: 40
TEC: 31

EXP: 1052

Skills
Charge: Doesn't use a body part. Charges to use Rush next turn. Increases ATK by 100% and has an 80% speed modifier.
Rush: Uses the Legs. A Stab attack that deals 120% damage to a single target. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 10% speed modifier.
Corrode: Uses the Head. Reduces the party's DEF by 50%. Has an 80% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100%
50% 50% 100%

Disable Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100%
100% 100% 100%

Drops
Normal: Shiny Horn. 25% chance. Sells for 71en.
1 required for Katzbalger (Sword, ATK+106)
5 required for Kogarasu (Katana, ATK+119)

Rare: Musk. 10% chance. Sells for 75en.
5 required for Evil Charm (Accessory, DEF+1, TP+25)
2 required for Chef's request II

Conditional: None

Oh goody, the 2HKOs are back. I assume Goldeers have skills, but all they seem to do is just maul you and then die. We've got some big numbers flying around after all. You also wouldn't think they have drops, but they do, you just need 7 10% drops to get everything. Honestly, I don't think I'd bother with this LP if I didn't have item drop cheats.

so EOU deliberately took a 10% chance drop, said "that is too low," and made it...25% instead. great. thanks komori, who i know personally made that decision

Physical hard hitters with some rare drops. Not much else to say, other than they're bizarrely weaker than Flamerats level wise for some reason.



I seem to be on a roll today.

You can get excited about something other than blood and guts.




I'm a bit of a sucker for winding mazes that just barely skate by areas you've already been to. While the developers started out rough, they still know how to design a labyrinth. Maybe too well.



Oh hey, something to stop you dying.

It will barely help.



Guess how that battle ended. Fear is a bit of investment, but hey, Cheese doesn't need much else, since curses have terrible scaling past level 5.



Ah, that equal, undeniable smell means there's two equal distance in opposite directions. I hate thee, nose.



What do I even say about them anymore? Oh yeah, don't bother going for Dry Peaches, since we'll get them later and you need other items for Somas and Nectar IIs, a shame, since I could really use those right now.



Oh hey, it's coming towards us.

Less steps for us, charge!



Honestly, you're even starting to make this boring.




Enough messing around, let's complete this floor already!



5 Heated Fur and 1 Shiny Horn are required for Katzbalger (Sword, ATK+106), sells for 3300en.



Might as well get some overdue upgrades, so we can cleave stuff in half before it does the same to us.



Already I'm getting a little bored going this one path, but it's fine, it's not like I'll be doing this many, many more times, r-right?




Frankly the amount of trust we put into the map drawer is ridiculous, even my masters are getting turned around.

Hold up, I sense someone up ahead.




How the hell are you here by yourself?

Is she able to solo stuff? Does that mean Cheese could?

Not on your life.

We need a vote for that to happen!



I've waited here alone for you. I pass the time by listening to the sand...

The flame-haired girl fixes you with her powerful, unnerving stare.

I'm worried for Ren. She's bound too much to her past... it will crush her someday. Someone must expose the truth of the Labyrinth before that happens.

The girl's hand emerges silently from her cloak, holding a small golden bell.

This is the cursed bell of my kind. May it aid in your journey from here on.

The timid girl hands you the bell without another word, then goes silently on her way. You tuck the bell into your pocket, then watch the girl until she disappears.



Oh like we need another cursed thing in this guild.

Agreed.

What did she mean about the truth of the labyrinth? And about Ren?

I figured there was more to this place, but it's too early to tell.

Hm? I zoned out for a second. What's that about senpai?

to reiterate: you don't get Hexer, a pure support class, until the 4th Stratum. at least EO4 locks off just damage dealers who are deliberately tuned for endgame behind clearing the 3rd and 4th Strata



You pause, looking around you, but nothing in particular catches your eye. When you return to the path, you see an adventurer's belongings scattered at your feet. Among them is a slightly stained, rainbow-colored bandana.



Oh. Rest easy now friend.



I wouldn't be surprised if there were a bunch of Fenrirs just running around up here.

Well perhaps Fenrir was a little baby, since these ones are much larger.


Sabremaw

Level: 40
HP: 333
STR: 130
VIT: 89
AGI: 44
LUC: 44
TEC: 44

EXP: 1100

Skills
Coldfang: Uses the Head. A Cut attack that deals 115% damage to a single target. Has a 90% accuracy modifier and a 10% speed modifier.

Damage Vulnerabilities
100% 100% 100%
150% 0% 100%

Disable Vulnerabilities
25% 100% 10%
50% 50% 50%

Drops
Normal: White Skin. 38% chance. Sells for 66en.
3 required for Tiger Coat (Light Armour, DEF+27)
3 required for Tiger Cap (Headgear, DEF+7)
3 required for Tiger Hand (Gloves, DEF+6)
7 required for Jazeraint (Light Armour, DEF+36, HP+18, TP+10)
7 required for Tiger Boot (Footwear, DEF+6, AGI+9)

Rare: White Fang. 14% chance. Sells for 67en.
1 required for Sting Whip (Whip, ATK+103)
5 required for Epee (Sword, ATK+139, STR+8, AGI+5)

Conditional: None

Seems, uh, weirdly familiar. Was Fenrir born in this desert? I would think they'd use the other sabrecat design from B10F, since that matches well with desert camoflague. But anyway, let's talk about this boring enemy. Oh wait, I just revealed what I thought of it. It hits hard, but dammit so does everything else. Coldfang remains not all that cold.

A really nerfed version of Fenrir. Okay then.



Ooh, you're hard. Since Ryu is gonna have a lot of spare SP without wasting it on Poison, we'll be seeing every elemental attack, though I'll be focusing on Flame, Freeze and Thor. It's nice they all have different animations.



Oh goddammit, guess where we're going.

Back to town...

A man-made hollow is in the tree before you, waiting to receive something. You remember the stone tablet dropped by the mysterious shadow not long ago. Perhaps it would fit here... you resolve to fetch it from the Radha Hall's storage.



Hey, it's been a little while since we got plotblocked. Still, we've explored all of the 16th floor! Ah, of course, there's more, but if you want to actually understand what I've been doing all floor and how it all connects, then here's a nice little image of all the sand conveyors:





5 Shiny Horns are required for Kogarasu (Katana, ATK+119), sells for 3880en



Welcome back... the Labyrinth can be harsh, can't it? I feel awful for the both of them... But challenging the forest alone... you're taking your life in your hands that way. Let that be a lesson to you, kiddos. Don't get overconfident.

Hrm, hrm, if I put more oomph into it, then that crab's in trouble!

You'll be able to solo it no problem!

Brb, gonna murder those two.



I don't know where you got it, but with that cursed bell, you can register hexers now. Go ahead, try it.

I'll pass.



Ah finally, we've unlocked the final class of the game... here in part TWENTY of a pretty expansive LP that goes over the character limit a few more times than it should. Sure, Hexers can be useful, but it's mostly in the early game, their pretty poor stats are gonna catch up to them and now that everyone else is throwing out ridiculous damage to end battles quickly, support is becoming a dwindling option. Still, you've seen Cheese shine before, and they'll shine again.

And say hello the biggest reason why Hexers are considered the worst class in the game. The Hexers by themselves are an alright class that gets less and less useful as the game goes on. (Note, this sentence is written under the assumption that you had access to them from the start.) But lock them more than 3/5ths through the game (There's post-game, but not many EO players actually tackle that), long after their expiration date, and you've got what's nothing more than a class that doesn't contribute much on its own, yet the game demands that you grind one up to make use of it. Great game design. Unlockable classes are a blight, and I'm glad that they stopped with that nonsense after EO4.

Oh right, Hexers were meant to another prestige class. An advanced version of a Dark Hunter if you will. Trades off dealing damage for... slightly higher infliction rates, and getting AOE skills. Yeah, not really worth putting on a team after hours of grinding.

Festival of Worship



Ah... you say the stone tablet may be necessary to proceed deeper into the Labyrinth? One moment, please. I must confer with the Chieftan on a matter this important.



Our studies have revealed a few things that you may want to hear. The girl you met is of the forest folk, a race which evolved differently from humans. They consider their forest home sacred ground, and seek to eliminate any human intruders. The forest folk seem to have been behind the deaths of many adventurers within the forest. Given that continued exploration of the Labyrinth is vital to Etria's livelihood... further clashes with the forest folk are inevitable. That is why I will give you back this tablet, and ask a favor of you in return. I'd like you to accept the mission I'm issuing, effective immdiately. The details will be provided later. I do hope that you'll accept.

That's kinda ominous, wonder what the mission is.

Quinn will know all about it.

That's the situation. I leave it to your judgement whether or not to accept.



...w-WHAT? What the hell is this mission?

This is excessively dishonourable. What is Visil planning?

I think we need to consult the guild on this. Cause my answer is gonna be a hell no!

Yeah, wiping out other humans is where I draw the line. Been there, done that.

My masters only kill those that deserve it. Guess who just jumped up a couple spaces on the list.

I think I'm gonna be sick...



Hm? Why so glum everyone?

Yeah, you look like you've seen a ghost.

Y'all better sit down for this.



Well damn, that's some pretty heavy stuff. It's also bullshit.

Damn straight! Sure, Etria wasn't exactly the craziest town, but I grew up here, this place was just fine before the Labyrinth! It's ridiculous Visil would pull something like this.

It is pretty out of left field. Sure we've taken down a fair few monsters, but nothing as drastic as this.

Well there's no way I'm doing it, this isn't what I signed up for!

Exactly, I had no idea Visil was this sick, especially with how casually he said it.

What he said had some merit to it, it's true explorers and the forest folk will continue to clash. It is our fault for exploring this far in.

I guess it's the risk of new frontiers. You never know what you'll expect.

...I think I'm gonna go home.

Ah, damn, really? I mean, I get that you don't want to explore any further. But do you really wanna give up?

I'm kinda feeling that as well. I just don't think I can do this.

Yeah...

Wow, I wasn't expecting everyone to give up so easily.

Oh? What do you mean? Are you suggesting we go and kill them?

I can't believe you, Cheese. We will do no such thing!

Oh what, now you've got a problem with murdering everything you come across since they'll be saying "please don't kill me!" in a language you understand?

Sh-Shut up! This is completely different!

They're kinda right. We've been quite happily doing all this without a care in the world. Everyone here's been risking their life to explore even further and it just seems such a shame to end it like this.

As much as I don't like it, we can't exactly leave no problem.

Of course, we're the ones that opened the way, we've been leading everyone down here.

It's true. We're the cause of all this. No matter what we do, Visil will just send more explorers down to kill them. Pangea's Box and all that.

What are our options here? We can't just follow along and kill them, right?

Well, it's true they'd fight us, but the labyrinth is a dangerous place, I sincerely doubt they've established themselves completely. We won't have to worry about them after we go past their area.

I don't really want to leave. I like it here. I, uh, even like you guys. I don't want it to end like this!

Besides. If you all left now, then this would bug you for the rest of your life, what happened to the forest folk, what was in the depths of the labyrinth, we've come this far. We can't stop now.

Frankly, with how casually Visil suggested this, it leads me to think he was always planning this. I believe he knows a lot more about this whole thing. Hell, Ren and Tlatchga survive just fine by themselves in the labyrinth, they're super strong and have definitely been deeper!

Tlatchga mentioned a secret, so she knows what it is. If we get past this, I know we'll find it out as well. We've come this far, the labyrinth must have an end!

I don't like it, but if we made this problem, we have to fix it!

...alright. If we're going to fix this problem, we have to be here, to solve it in our way. I can only do it with all you.

Of course, if any of us has a problem with doing this, then we all leave. We're a group, so let's get going. And then punch Visil's face in when it's all over.

You still with us?

Eh, I don't really care, my conscious is clear.

Wait I've been asleep this whole time, what's going on?



Oh fuck off, Quinn, christ. That was a bit long, but genocide justification was gonna be. I'm sure these characters wouldn't agree to this in the slightest, they're pretty awful people, but come on game, this is a bit excessive. But we gotta continue the LP, so sure, they're going along with it.

This section might have run a bit long (or from some of your points of view, not long enough, I suppose), but you try writing a narrative where the game suddenly asks you to commit genocide out of nowhere in the middle of the story.

fun fact: in the Japanese version of EO1, the forest folk have names borrowed from the Ainu people, so the race of people you're committing genocide against are direct parallels of actual irl indigenous people. this was removed in the US version, with two very major exceptions: Corotrangul and the 4th Stratum boss still retain their names (8 character shortenings aside), which are Ainu in origin

to this day i don't know if Atlus USA removed almost all of the Ainu stuff because it was something US players by and large wouldn't get, or if they went "uhhhhhh maybe a game where you commit genocide against direct references to indigenous people isn't a great look for our fantasy dungeon crawler"

Yeah, if you thought this section of the game wasn't enough, there's also that on top of all this. (Mostly removed in the US versions for quite frankly understandable reasons!) It's no wonder why EOU's Story Mode tried to tone this down (and yet botch it horribly because it's EOU Story Mode.) For what it's worth, the rest of the EO games (Aside from the remake, EOU), and Niinou's next RPG series, 7th Dragon, doesn't really indulge in this sort of thing at all. So this is like a really bizarre oddity in... everything, I suppose.

The Chieftan has told you most of what you need to know. Your task is to infiltrate the 16th floor where the forest folk dwell, and exterminate them. Honestly, were it up to me, I'd seek a peaceful resolution first, but... the Chieftan insists they are a threat, and that my views are too permissive. The Chieftan says that we must protect exploration of the Labyrinth, Etria's livelihood. In which case, I have no objections. The Chieftan speaks, and the Radha follows. Members of Edda, I bid you good luck!

Quinn is the worst kind of centrist.

guillotine all centrists (i'm joking)

Centrist? Dude just straight up said the town's livelyhood was worth far more than them! Fuck him! Goddamn.



Since the conveyors don't add to the encounter orb, you can get to the end of the floor pretty easily without an encounter, which helps since we'll be going through this floor a lot.



You suspect the stone tablet you fetched from Radha Hall might fit here...

Alright, let's get this damn thing over with.

Okay, it should just go right he- AH I AM BLINDED BY MY HONOUR!

Considering what just transpired, is there even any honour left at this point?

We're just gonna ignore... everything, cause getting back to the jokes is the best thing.

As soon as you insert the stone tablet into the tree, a dazzling light engulfs you!




Well at least it's two way.

My masters are not well equipped to warp.

Neither am I, nearly let go of my sword, that would've been a problem.



The best thing about being plotblocked before going to a new floor is that you go right back to town again when you reach it. Next time, it's doorway time.

by the way to anyone who thinks crosspeice was maybe going a bit overboard with the guild deliberating about committing genocide: in my EOU LP one of the major events of the update where the genocide mission is revealed is one of the party members, who has PTSD from being conscripted into war, getting traumatic flashbacks as soon as the mission is revealed and running out of Radha Hall screaming because she vowed to herself to never kill another living person again.

you can't approach this mission without acknowledging that what the game is asking you to do in-universe is extremely fucked up.

You probably could if you made the group villainous from the start, I suppose. Yeah, this part was kind of a huge part involved in character creation due to the subject matter at hand.