Well, with a party good to go, let's play...
We could open options, but I don't care, so let's get a new game going.
The Radha, governors of Etria, issued a proclamation throughout the continent... Any able-bodied adventurer was invited to investigate the forest and explore its depths. But no matter how many came to investigate the dungeon, none gained the renown they sough. As more adventurers tried and failed to conquer it, it came to be known by a new name...
The Yggdrasil Labyrinth.
You are the latest adventurer to journey to Etria in response to the Radha's proclamation. You have but one goal: explore the forest to win fame and fortune. Etria is at hand...
The town of Etria! This place will serve as out hub for the game as we (foolishly) go play in the labyrinth. We've got several options at our disposal (The Rooster Inn, Ceft Apothecary, Shilleka's Good, Golden Deer Pub, Explorer's Guild, Radha Hall and finally Forest Entrance) but only the Explorer's Guild is actually open to us for the moment. Let's head inside.
"Haven't seen you before...I take it you came to check out the Yggdrasil Labyrinth? Then welcome friend. Not many guilds lately are admitting new adventurers. Those shortsighted losers are about trifles to do any real investigation. If you've got the guts, you should make a guild entirely for newcomers. There are loads of guys just sitting on their thumbs, who'd join any guild that'd take them."
He presents us a bit of a choice here...
Of course, being the smartass that I am, I picked no to see if anything special happened. I was simply greeted with..."Ha! Your mouth says no, but your eyes....They say "Yes!""
And then we are presented with the option again. While it's possible that constantly pressing no would yield something, I didn't really care enough to find out. =P"Great, then let's get started. Write what you want your guild in this ledger. Someday the world will know this name, so think carefully before choosing it."
Now, we have many good names we could choose. But Evan, along with trying to sabotage my team, also got his first pick of the name.
It's supposed to be 'SwindleSquad' but that wouldn't fit.
"SwndleSq, huh? Not a bad name. Now that you've got a guild, you'll need adventurers to fill it. Of course, you can go into the Labyrinth yourself. If you've got the stones, then register your own name as a member. More adventurers means more options open to you and less of a chance of dying down there. Think about it for a while, and make you register a variety of classes into your guild."
With that, we've got our own guild now. We can do a few things in this area as the screenshot a little earlier would indicate.Register allows us to make new characters.Organize allows us to retired, rest or dismiss our characters.Retiring,
if I'm not mistaken, basically deletes a character and replaces them with another character at (I believe) half of the level the preceded them with extra stats and skill points based on the level you retired at. That's how it was in Etrian Odyssey IV, anyway.Rest
allows you to reset skill points invested in a character at the cost of a whopping 10 levels. Damn. In Etrian Odyssey IV, it was only 2. I guess they really did make it a bit easier in the later games. ._.Dismiss
should be obvious enough, but it deletes a character and their equipment.Formation allows us to arrange our party as we please.Talk If I have to explain this, please leave. =PSo, with what everyone threw at me, here's out party and what I put our skill points into. (You get three and are free to spend them on skills for a character)Longhost - Survivalist
Bow Lv 2 (Increases damage when using a bow and allows us to use bow skills)
True Shot lv 1 (A strong hit on one enemy)
Fflam -
Songs Lv 1 (Allows us to use songs)
Shelter Lv 2 (Incresases defence. Since ALL our characters here are kinda frail, I figured this would be paramount.)
Dolan -
Healer Lv 1 (Increases healing efficiency and allows the character to learn healing magic)
Cure Lv 2
Kevin -
Healer Lv 1
Cure Lv 1
Chop Lv 1 (Allows us to get resources from a cutting point. I'll explain that later when it comes up.)
Gizmo -
Fire Up Lv 1 (Allows us to do more damage with fire attacks. Required to learn fire magic)
Fire Lv 2 (A single hit fire attack on one enemy)
The set-up I went with would be FrontLongshot - FflamBackDolan - Kevin - GizmoLonghost and Fflam seem like they'd work better in the front, so we'll see how that goes. Anyway, I decided to talk to the guildmaster. He had this to say."You sign up a good crew? If you didn't give it some thought, you'll regret it later."
Ha ha ha...I sure will. I sure will....Before we leave, he gives us a bit more."That's everything. You're ready to get started. I hope you can shake things up in this town and clear out some of the deadwood. I'm looking forward to the day the SwndleSq guild becomes known the world over."
With that, we take our leave, where all the other options opened to us. So let's take a look!
The Rooster Inn! Seems like a nice enough guy.
"Welcome to the Rooster Inn! We cater to adventurers who explore the forest. Please make yourself at home."
We'll be stopping by here a lot. Let's see what our options are.Sleep will heal us and take us to the morning of the next day.Nap will spend half a day and heal us.Save is something I will not explain. =PLet's talk to the guy. Maybe he's got some advice for us."Don't push yourself too hard. You can come here anytime to rest your weary bodies. Sleep the night through or nap until the evening. Either way, we can accomodate you."
Cool. He's got our back. I saved real quick and took my leave. Next, we'll hit Ceft Apothecary.
I hope we won't have to be here often. But I doubt it.
"Welcome to Etria. You stand in the town's apothecary, where we heal the wounded and fallen. We also offer medicines to take with you. An ounce of precention is worth a pound of cure! If you're wounded in the forest, then com back here and we'll do everything we can for you."
For those of you who have played Trauma Centre - Under the Knife (1 or 2) or Second Opinion, you may notice this man looks a damn lot like Dr Hoffman.
Each of the Etrian Odyssey games have a little nod to the Trauma Centre games, as the director of the Trauma Centre games, Kazuya Niinou was also the director of Etrian Odyssey. The more you know. So let's go through our options here. Revive allows us to revive fallen characters or anyone with petrification status. So no, the inn will NOT revive the fallen. They're two different things.Buy Medicine allows us to purchase our healing items. Let's see what he has to say."A medic is vital when forming exploring parties. If you're going down into the Labyrinth, I'd prescribe taking one along."
Apparently some of the people choosing my party thought so too. >_> Anyway, not much of interest here. Let's keep going with our tour.
Shilleka's Goods. We'll be here frequently enough to gather weapons and armour.
"Allo! Need items? Weapons? Equipment? I'm y'girl! Are you t'guild I hear 'bout wit' only new folk? Explorers like you are my best customers! I look forward t'doing business witcha!"
Right. I'm not bothering to explain this. You buy stuff and sell stuff. It's really that simple. =P But let's see what she has to say."We short on supplies lately, so I han't been able t'make anyt'ing good...Whatvever y'find in the forest, bring it here. I'll buy anyt'ing y'bring me!"
This, however, I WILL explain. Basically, enemies don't drop money. They drop material which we sell here, which in turn will allow her to make items for us to buy. So if we want specific items, we have to gather the materials ourselves, though we do get a few items to start out with in the shop.We'll do our shopping once we're done touring the town.
Golden Deer Pub. We'll be here a decent amount as well.
"Welcome. Don't think I've seen your face in here before. You new in town? If you're going down in the Labyrinth, you should visit Radha first. Every adventurer's got to go through Radha Hall before they're officially recognized. Sorry hon, but my hands are tied. I can't give you any work until then. Once you're legit, come and see me again, all right? I'll be looking forward to it."
Fair enough, I guess. This is the place we'll be taking up simpler quests to help build up a bit. They yield decent rewards and experience, so it's proably worth the time.Accept Quests allows us to see what's available and take up what we want.Report Quests allows us to either cancel or clear a quest, as well as claim our rewards.So what does she have to say to us?"Hmmm... Better finish that mission from the Radha before talking to me, kiddos. I know mapping the forest is hard, but everyone has to start somewhere. Good luck out there."
Thanks. I just wanted to be nice. >_>Anyway, we should head off for our last destination.
Radha Hall. I imagine we'll be seeing this guy often enough.
"This is Radha Hall, home to Etria's governing body. I assume, newcommers, that you are en route to investigate the forest? However, we don't recognize just anyone who manages to throw together a guild. If you wish to become licensed adventurers, first complete the mission we give you."
Fantastic. It'll allow us to get our feet wet in this whole adventuring thing. What's he got to say?"Here at Radha Hall, we both govern Etria and promote investigation of the Labyrinth. When adventurers discover new beats and objects, we are equipped to note their findings. It would be a great help, explorers of SwndleSq, if you would contribute as well."
With a name like Swindle Squad, I hope you REALLY don't think we're going to help you. ): Whatver though. If we want fame, fortune and everything the goes with it, we'll need to accept your mission.(By the way, this place is pretty much the bar in terms of functionality. These are the bigger, more prominent quests of the game that we'll need to complete. Report discoveries...I actually don't know. It looks like something to report your monster codex and item compendium, but I'm not sure exactly what that does. I'll find out later, I'm sure.)
Our first quest! 
"Your mission is to create a map of the 1st floor of the Labyrinth as an initiaion.Those who cannot accomplish this elementary task are better off staying out of the forest. Explore the 1st floor and map everything you see there. This method will be useful later. Here is a small map to start off; fill in the rest of the details as best you can."
And with that, he gives us a map. You know how I've yet to show the bottom screen so far? That's because there was nothing there...
Until now. "Now, go to the forest and get the details from the soldier on the 1st floor."
So yay! We've got ourselves a map that we're free to scribble on and a chance to challenge the labyrinth. So once that was said and done, I went out and did a little shopping. I bought a Wooden Bow (+7 Atk) for Longhost and a Seramasax (+8 Atk) [I probably horribly got that wrong - the text for me is a little messed up] to Fflam. Every one got Leaf Boots. (+1 Def, +1 Agi). They already had some armor on them, so that was nice. They also all had weapons, but I wanted to give a bit better weaponry. Anyway, with that, I'm going to end the update. This got a lot of the introductary crap out of the way. Next time, we'll actually be exploring the first floor of the Yggdrasil Labyrinth. I'll update the OP with information about our party later. 
