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Update 1: A Stormy Adventure Begins
As if tacitly admitting it, the Senatus ruling over Armoroad have invited explorers to their city. The invitation drew throngs of eager explorers who gathered to traverse the undersea maze. But none of the throngs who came to challenge that maze were strong enough to master it. The impenetrable ruins came to be known as the Yggdrasil Labyrinth, and its legend spread further... You yourself are an explorer who has heard its legend and now sail to Armoroad to investigate. Your only objective: to challenge the Labyrinth and win fame and fortune. Your hour is at hand!
Only one place we can go to at the moment.
A little side note: The DS Etrian Odyssey games have two versions of the soundtrack. The PC-88 version, and the version that you would actually hear while playing this on a Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS doesn't really have good audio quality, so the soundtracks got compressed to accommodate for that. For the record, I recommend listening to the PC-88 version since the audio compression really lowers the quality of some of the tracks in this game.
I'm here to supervise all the explorers who find themselves in our fair burg. Here's a little something I give every new guild for signing up.
Now, let's get to it. First, write your guild name on the space provided on the certificate. Think hard, because that name may be known someday across the seven seas. It all depends on you.
Whatever you type in here is what all the NPCs will refer to you as, so this is essentially your name. You can vote on a guild name later.
If no one wants to come up with one, then this is the name I'll be going with, since this is what I went with in my playthroughs.
Well then, step two is registering explorers in your guild. You’ll need to hire a few folks, but it’s up to you whether or not you want to become a member too.
Choose your favored classes from the list and form a party of up to five explorers.
At this point you can create your party by selecting the Register option.
Type in your character's name.
And choose what class you want them to be. There are ten classes available to us right now, with two being locked at the moment. You can see the starting stats of each class at the top. They all start out with the same pieces of equipment.
From here, you can choose your character's appearance from four portraits.
But new to this game are palette swaps! Each class has two color schemes to choose from, so you technically have 8 choices on what you want a party member to look like. Now EO3 went with a completely new set of classes, unlike EO1 and 2 which shared classes. As such, these classes function a bit differently than the ones used in the last two games. Let's go over their roles, shall we?
Prince
Those of royal blood from kingdoms large and small. Their orders raise morale to turn the tide.
Supporting combatants on either line.
The Prince is a support class that's all about buffing the party. They can buff their allies' physical attacks and defenses as well as being able to provide some passive healing to the party. They're very durable and can operate on the front lines if they need to. They have balanced stats all around. A fun little fact is that the class name will change to Princess if you choose a female portrait. It doesn't make a difference which row they're placed on, since their buff skills don't benefit from row placement, and they have high enough defenses to survive on the front lines.
Gladiator
Courageous and strong, they eschew armor to display their trained bodies and fight with swords and hammers.
Vigorous attackers of the front line.
The Gladiator is an offensive class that can operate on the front lines. They can use two different weapons: swords and clubs. Their sword skills involve attacking multiple enemies, while their club skills focus on attacking a single target, but also have the potential to debilitate the enemy. They're very durable in terms of HP and defense, and their strength stat is very high, so they're a pretty safe choice for an offensive class.
Hoplite
Their golden armor gives them unequalled defense, while their spears provide a strong offense.
Defense specialists on either line.
The Hoplite is a support class that's focused on the art of defense and protecting others. They provide a lot of defensive support, such as being able to reduce the amount of damage the party takes from physical and elemental attacks, and can protect other party members by taking damage in their place. Being the resident tank class of this game, they're the most durable class, especially since they have a passive that drastically reduces the amount of physical damage they take. They can operate on either the front or back lines, though the front lines are usually the best place for them. Their offensive capabilities are heavily lacking, but the utility they provide with their defensive capabilities more than makes up for that.
Buccaneer
These descendants of pirates learned to fight in gangs, supporting each other rather than dueling.
Cooperative attackers of the front line.
The Buccaneer is also an offensive class, but they can function on both rows depending on what weapon they equip. They can use both rapiers and guns, and like the Gladiator, they have separate skills for each weapon. Rapiers deal single target damage and can debilitate the enemy, while guns can attack multiple enemies and be used from the back row. They also have the ability to “chase” attacks, which means that if an enemy is struck by an attack of a certain element from another class, the Buccaneer can hit the targeted enemy again as long as the enemy keeps getting struck by the attack of the chosen element. They're less durable than the Gladiator, and don't deal as much damage, but they're one of the fastest classes in the game. And they have some more utility than Gladiators in that they can lower the enemy's defense drastically, and charge up their Limit meters faster than any other class.
Ninja
They hide in shadows and use the art of ninpo, the advanced practice of which can create duplicates.
Special attackers who work on either line.
Ninjas are supports who can dish out status ailments and binds. They're mostly a utility based class, as they can bait enemies into attacking another party member, and instantly kill enemies. They can summon decoys for enemies to waste their attacks on, or a clone which acts like them in every way. Ninjas are the fastest class in the game and are fairly evasive, but are very fragile. While they mainly use melee weapons, one of their passives enable them to deal full damage from the back row, so there's little reason for them to be placed in the front.
Monk
With the power of qi, they can both heal and inflict wounds. Their bare hands are stronger than weapons.
Healing specialists of either line.
Monks are basically healers, and they're really good at that job. They can cure status effects, undo binds, and revive the dead on top of healing. They also have the capabilities to be a front line fighter with their fist skills, although investing in those means that they won't be good as at healing, and there are better offensive classes to go with for that purpose. They do have a fairly decent strength stat, in fact it's a bit higher than the Buccaneer’s, but their technique stat is far higher and let's them be much more effective at healing than attacking. If your Monk is a healer, they're best placed on the back lines.
Zodiac
Scientific magicians who manipulate the etheric energy of the stars. Highly valued in battle.
Elemental attackers of the back line.
Zodiacs are back row attackers that specialize in elemental attacks. This class is all about dishing out the damage, both single and all target, though they do have some powerful utility skills. They can completely nullify elemental attacks, and make it so that a row doesn't have to spend any TP to use their skills on the turn it is used. They specialize in exploiting weaknesses, as one of their passives grants them bonus damage if they do just that. As powerful as they are offensively, they have little in the way of HP and defense, so they're best used from the back row.
Wildling
Their rapport with beasts gives them command over many animals. Some can even control lions.
Beastly summoners of the back line.
Wildlings specialize in inflicting status effects and binds, and are by far the best class for that job. They can summon beasts which will attack the selected targets on the initial cast, and then randomly attack the enemy and try to inflict their respective ailment while they're at it. The Wildlings themselves can also lower all enemies' offense and defense in addition to summoning animals. They have high technique and luck stats, which also helps in inflicting ailments. The class itself is lacking in durability, so they're best used on the back lines. The animals they can summon can survive and deal more damage on the front lines, although their infliction rates are the same if they're on the front or back rows, which is something to keep in mind.
Arbalist
Experts in giant bows and cannons as big as they are, the fire-power they provide is a worth asset.
Long-range attackers of the back line.
Arbalists are ranged physical attackers that are all about the damage and shooting things until they're dead. This class is the definition of a glass cannon, as they have the highest strength stat out of all the classes, but their defenses are very lacking. This class has very little in the way of utility, since most of their damage skills solely deal damage, unlike some of the other offensive classes where some of their damage skills tend to have an additional effect. While they are fragile, they hit very hard. Even harder than the Gladiator. Normally a fragile class like this should be placed on the back row, however, one of their best skills benefits from them being placed in the front.
Farmer
These farmers seek to apply their wisdom to navigating the Labyrinth despite their clumsiness in battle.
Exploration specialists of the back line.
Farmers are more focused on exploring the Labyrinth rather than actually fighting monsters. They lack combat utility, both in offense and support, but they have a wide arsenal of field skills that make actually exploring the Labyrinth easier, such as being able to gather from any item point, eliminating random encounters for a while, making camp grounds heal your party for a lot more than they normally do, and nullifying damage taken from damage tiles. They can also warp the party back to town as long as they have enough TP, which can be handy if you happen to forget to buy an important item for your trips into the Labyrinth. Aside from luck, their stats are terrible all around, so they're best suited for the back row.
So, with all that in mind, go ahead and feel free to create some guild members for this LP. The specific rules and format will be at the bottom of this update, but first. Let me demonstrate a bit of the gameplay.
This was the party that I used for my first playthrough, so I'll do a bit of a combat demonstration with them.
Once all your characters are created, make a party with them. You can have up to five characters in a party. You can go with less, and there are some advantages to doing that, but for the most part I don't recommend doing that.
Within the menu, you can level up your classes' skills with some skill points. While most skills require 10 points to max out, some only need 5 or 1 point to reach their maximum potential.
When you get into a battle within the Labyrinth, you'll see that transition.
Video: Battle
Watch the video to get an idea of how combat works and flows in EO3.
Fanged Fish
Level: 1
HP: 40
STR: 5
TEC: 7
VIT: 3
AGI: 11
LUC: 5
Attack Type: Slash
Exp: 38
Item Drops:
-Drop 1: Red Scale - 50% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Scale Jerkin (Clothes.) 10 needed for Fortune Book (Tome.)
--Hard scale that covers the Fanged Fish's body.
-Drop 2: Sharp Tooth - 10% Drop Rate. 1 needed for Kopis (Sword.)
--Long tooth that always finds its target.
-Gold Drop: N/A
Description: This river fish is no threat singly, but a school of them is cause for concern.
Damage Resistances: Slash: 100% Strike: 125% Pierce: 100% Fire: 100% Ice: 100% Volt: 100%
Ailment Resistances: Sleep: 100% Confusion: 100% Plague: 100% Poison: 100% Blind: 50% Curse: 100% Paralysis: 150%
Bind Resistances: Head: 100% Arm: 100% Leg: 100%
Other Resistances: Death: 100% Petrification: 100% Stun: 100%
Skills:
Sharp Fang: Uses the Head. Deals 130% STR-based Slash damage to one party member. Has a hit rate of 99%. Has an action speed modifier of -5.
Whenever I come across a new enemy, I'll put up a bio like this. Now all the resistances listed are multipliers, so higher numbers are better. When an attribute's resistance is listed as 100%, it means they don't resist it at all, but they're not weak to it either. There's another important mechanic involved in Ailment and Bind resistances, but I'll cover that later. I'll do have a bit more to say about this enemy later, but it doesn't have much going for it.
Right here we can choose from a bunch of options. Most of them are self explanatory.
Each class has a different set of skills they have access to. The Princess is a buffer, and she can buff a row's physical attack power for 3 turns with this skill.
Hoplites can protect others with their skills, and what this does is reduce the physical damage the chosen row takes for the current turn.
The Arbalist is an offensive class, so most of their skills revolve around doing damage. Though some damage skills on the various classes have additional effects.
This skill has a special effect that you'll see in a moment.
Zodiacs are basically mages and have access to elemental attacks. Mine only has access to a Fire attack at the moment.
You can see which character is acting in the turn if the outline of their box is highlighted a light blue.
New to this game is the ability to fill up the 6th party member slot. A few classes have some special abilities that lets them summon a helper of some sort to fill up the empty slots in the party, including the 6th slot that's impossible to fill up in normal circumstances. In this case, the Ninja can create a decoy that attracts enemy attacks.
Attack buffs are represented by a red overlay on top of a character box.
Unfortunately, attacks have a small chance of missing, which depends on several factors that I'll go over later.
When an enemy attacks, the game lets you know which one does so by darkening the sprite a bit.
And the decoy goes down. Ah well, it did its job of protecting the rest of the team.
Unfortunately, now that the decoy's gone, my Princess takes the hit from the other Fanged Fish. At least Line Guard reduced the amount of damage she took.
Of course, that can be healed up very easily.
Returning from the 2nd game is the Switch option, although it operates differently in this game. In Etrian Odyssey 2, it swapped the rows.
In this game, you can chose to have the selected character swap positions with another party member, but this uses up the turn of the character that initiated the swap.
Another thing to keep in mind is that you can't swap with empty spaces, so you can't fill up your front or back line with 3 members. This can get a bit problematic when summoned units get involved, as they disappear on death. And if a character swapped with them previously for whatever reason, they can't return to their old spot without forcing another character out of the same row.
Ah, and the Princess is as good as new. It's like she never took any damage in the first place.
And thanks to Attack Order, Heavy Shot did enough damage to kill the Fanged Fish in one hit.
And they're all dead! 
Once all the enemies are dead, the total exp (which is displayed in the top right corner) is divided among the surviving party members. The less people alive at the end, the more exp the survivors get.
So with all that in mind, go on and create your character. If you wish to get a full body view of the character sprites, click here. This is going to be a narrative LP, so just come up with a name (Which has a 9 character limit), and choose which portrait you wish to go with (and if you want to use the Normal or Alternate color palettes), and a small bio detailing their personality or whatever. Now if a lot of people wish to create a character, I'll pick and choose from the lot. But if not enough people make one, I'll be doing first come, first serve in regards to choosing which characters get in. Oh, and only one character per person.
Now as for party composition, you can vote on that too throughout this LP! You can even vote on the party that I will start out with. Or not, if you want to have mercy. For this initial vote only, you can choose between Democracy if you want me to use the most popular classes that you all vote for, or LPer's Choice if you wish for me to choose the party. (The earlygame of any Etrian Odyssey game are notorious for being the toughest part of the game until you reach the postgame.) The rest of the votes will only operate on Democracy since the game gets easier after the first Stratum. My initial party if the LPer's Choice option is chosen might be Prince/Hoplite, Arbalist/Ninja/Zodiac. Keyword, might. I may not go with that party at all depending on the circumstances. At any rate, no matter which option you choose, vote for up to three different classes that you want to see me use if the Democracy option wins. Also, don't forget to come up with a guild name (That will default to Tidehunt if no one decides to come up with one.)