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Update 1: The Road Ahead



For some reason, there's no music playing on the tile screen. Anyways, let's get this show on the road.



I'm not sure why, but this game has an 8-bit version of its soundtrack. It's not particularly great, but I'll include a link to those versions of the track anyway.



Seeds sown into a field of stars, left to grow, that they might be harvested.

Call it farming if you like, or gathering, or grazing. Or, call it... a massacre.

This is the way of those known only as the Dragons.





People risking everything for what they believe.



Some fight for ideals, some for honor and wealth, some burn for justice.



They had no idea of what fate had in store for them.



But you needn't fear. It's time to fling open the door to the unknown!











And now we can create a character. First we have to choose their class, which there are 7 of. Oh, and there aren't any unlockable classes. This is all we have to work with here.



And then their portrait, which there are 4 to choose from. The first and second are male, and the third and fourth are female. The exception to this is the Princess class, in which all the portraits are considered female by the game. Yes, this actually matters. The game checks for the party's genders at certain points. If you want to see everything with minimal hassle, just make sure to include both boys and girls in your party.







The first row of portraits is how they look normally, while the second row are their super-deformed looks. Which is what you're gonna be seeing most of the time while you play the game. Anyways, let's talk about these classes' roles.

The Fighter is focused around, well, fighting. Their weapons of choice are swords and axes which-yeah this is what I mean by heavily influenced by Etrian Odyssey. If you played the first two games, they're very similar to Landsknechts.

Durable front-line fighters that are capable of hitting hard and inflicting status effects and debuffs. (Okay that last part wasn't in part of the Landsknecht's skillset.)

They are capable of eating meat.







Rogues are capable of setting up traps and inflicting various status effects. They can fight on the front lines with daggers or from either row with bows.

For those of you that have played EO, they're a combination of the Dark Hunter and the Survivalist.

They can increase the encounter rate and have a chance of finding some money after winning a battle.







Samurai can fight with katanas or barehanded. If they choose to fight with a katana, they must set up a stance first in every battle before they can use their more powerful skills.

They're essentially the equivalent of the Ronin from EO.

They are capable of decreasing the encounter rate.







Knights are a support class, focused around defending the party and reducing the amount of damage they take either by using their shield to protect them, or by provoking enemies into going after them instead.

They're straight up equivalents of the Protector from EO. They even have most of their skills from the first game.

Knights can decrease the amount of damage the party takes from damage tiles.







Mages specialize in dealing elemental damage. They can attack one enemy, or all enemies in battle with Fire, Ice, or Lightning damage. They can even deal non-elemental damage, which ignores any resistances an enemy might have against their attacks. They're probably the most powerful class in the game.

Yeah, they're pretty much Alchemists.

They are capable of teleporting the party out of dungeons, and to the last portal they've used.







Healers are pretty self-explanatory. They can heal the party, dispel any ailments they might get hit with, and revive dead party members. Not only that, they also specialize in poisoning their enemies, which is their main form of offense. While they do wield clubs, they aren't really too good at dealing damage through that method.

They're equivalents of the Medic from EO.

They can prevent surprise attacks, lower the encounter rate, and increase how many times the party can harvest materials from certain places in one day.







Princesses are a unique class. They can sing holy songs to buff the party and increase their capabilities. Or they can sing evil songs to inflict status effects on their enemies. They can also instill fear in their enemies with their whips, and command them to do their bidding.

They're a combination of the Troubadour and the Hexer from Etrian Odyssey.

Princesses are capable of increasing the amount of exp the party gets from battles.

If you're wondering why some of these portraits have pointed ears or fox ears, that's because those people are members of the Rushe race (Localized as Lucier in the 4th game.) The males have pointed ears, while the females have the fox ears. They're seen as something of an inferior race in some places in this setting. Though unlike with portrait genders, the game doesn't care if a given party member is a Rushe or not.



For now, I'll just create my own character and show off this next bit.



It's the first place a new Hunter in Kazan ought to come visit. It's a place for Hunters to meet, to form guilds, and to sign up new members. Do you belong to a guild already? Or are you starting your own? Oh, setting one up? Hmm, I wonder what you want to call it?



So, I'll let you all come up with a guild name and you can throw in votes for the one you like best. You only have 8 characters to work with here.



Though if you can't come up with anything, this is the name I'll be sticking with. Before we get to voting and character creation, I'm gonna cover a bit of the gameplay first.







There's just one name there now, but you can add members at any time. I recommend finding 3 friends before you go!

In 7th Dragon, you can have parties of 4. Let's get some more members in.



The Quest Office is the main place where Hunters can find work. Anyhow, best of luck. I'll be seeing you.



You have to talk to her a few times before you can start putting in more party members.

If you have questions, Menas should be able to answer them.





Registering lets us put in some more party members for our guild. You can only have 16 party members registered at once.







And here's the party I'll be going with.



Party Select is where you go to put your guild members into your party.



And from there you can decide if a party member is in the front row or in the back. Party members in the front row are more likely to be targeted but can deal full damage with physical attacks in this row, while party members in the back take half damage from physical attacks, but have their damage output on physical attacks halved if they're not using a bow.









A more detailed look at our characters.

So these are their status screens. Let's go over their stats.

Skipping ahead a bit more...





Here's the world map. Yes, this game actually has one of those. I don't think many RPGs make use of one nowadays. Anyways, there are quite a few places we can go to right now, but for now let's just take a look around.



As we explore the world map, the map will get filled in with yellow.



And this is what it looks like when we get into a battle.

Video: Combat

If you want to see what combat looks like in motion, give this video a watch.



This is what I would consider my favorite track in the entire game. Give it a listen!



Battles are done from a first person view, though you do get to see some cute idle animations for your classes in the menu. As for what these options do...



Attack has your character do a normal attack on one enemy. No extra damage modifiers get applied when using this command.



Guard reduces the amount of physical damage the character takes for the turn by 50%.



Skill, lets you use your skills. Though Ellen doesn't know any active skills so she can't make use of it.



Item lets you use your items.



Front/Back swaps the character from the front row to the back row and vice versa.



EX consumes one portion of the character's Exhaust Gauge to give them priority (ensuring that they go first in the current turn) and increases their damage output by 50%. There is one other thing it affects, but that won't be seen for a while. You can only activate EX 3 times per character in one day. To replenish it, you have to rest at an inn.



Escape, let's you escape from battle.

Let's take a look at our enemies.


Rabi
Level: 2
LIFE: 20
ATK: 21
DEF: 5
INT: 5
SPD: 7
Attack Type: Slash
Attributes: Small
Exp: 21
Gold: 2
Item Drops:
-Normal: Rodent Teeth - 40% Drop Rate. 5 needed to unlock the Dagger. (Dagger, +14 ATK, +2 SPD.)
--Teeth of a Rabi.
-Rare: Light Meat - Kill with Slash damage. 5% Drop Rate.
--A small animal's meat. For carnivores. Increases SPD for the day.
Damage Multipliers:
Slash: 100% Blunt: 100% Thrust: 100%
Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Lightning: 100%
Ailment Susceptibility:
Death: 100% Masked Pain: 100% Skill Seal: 100%
Fear: 100% Curse: 100% Bleed: 100%
Poison: 100% Sleep: 100% Confuse: 100%
Paralysis: 100% Blind: 100% Stun: 100%

Skills:

Sand Kick: 30% chance of inflicting Blind on one target. Has a speed modifier of 80%.

For the record, there is absolutely no in game bestiary for any monsters whatsoever. I'm pulling out all this data myself. As for what this all means...

All the stats work the same way for the enemies as they do for us, though enemies don't have a POW stat. Not that they can equip weapons, so whatever. Enemies don't have MANA, so they can cast their skills all they want.

Attack type is the damage type their normal attacks are, which is only important to know if you're going for a specific Samurai build that counters specific types of physical attacks.

Attributes are flags that give the enemies additional properties in battle. There's quite a few an enemy can have, though I'll go over these in a mechanics update.

Damage Multipliers are how much damage enemies take from various damage types. The higher the number, the better.

Ailment Susceptibility is the likely hood of an enemy getting hit with certain ailments your party has access to. Again, the higher the number, the better. Also, every single random encounter in the game has 100% susceptibility to every single ailment, so I'm only gonna list those out for the bigger enemies (such as bosses) from now on.

Anyways, Rabi are one of the weakest enemies in the game. They don't really do much aside from trying to blind you when they're not at full health.







By the way, you can't make use of certain skills if you don't have the right weapon type. Andy doesn't have a bow, so he can't use Seeker, even though using it now would be completely pointless.





Okay, let's get this started.







Despite the fact that the battles are in first person, you do get to see your characters taking action, which adds quite a bit of charm and personality to the game in my opinion. Also it helps that the animations are really brisk and don't last for a whole minute. (Looking at you, 7th Dragon III Code: VFD.)







And down go the rabbits.





And after the battle is over, EXP and Gold are given out, but enemies don't drop gold unless you have a Rogue with the Rogue's Eye passive in your team. Now EXP gain actually scales depending on how high your party members' levels are, which is where the enemy's level stat comes in. If your party members are under the enemy's level, you'll get more EXP so you can catch up where the devs want you to be. If you're way over the enemy's level, you'll get far less EXP from them. The total EXP gained is divided among the remaining party members. The less party members alive or aren't petrified, the more EXP the survivors gain.

You can only get one item drop from an enemy at a time, with the game checking for the rare drop first before it checks to see if you get the common drop. Though with some enemies, there is a specific way you have to kill them in order to get their rare drop.

With all that out of the way, let's get onto character creation. Come up with a name, though you only have 6 characters to work with there, and choose their class and appearance, and a little bio for them. Don't forget to come up with a guild name (maximum of 8 characters.) I'll pick and choose the ones I like best. Though I'll be taking some contributions from another site as well, so if you're wondering where the submissions and votes I accepted came from, there's your answer.

And vote for 3 classes you would like to see in the party.