Gogo726 posted...Do I need to play the first 3 games to understand the fourth? I've never played any of the earlier ones, but this demo has me interested.
From a story perspective, the EO games are all pretty seperate. 1 and 2 have some very loose ties, but nothing that'd make me suggest to play 1 before 2.
Gameplaywise the series has certainly had some changes with each passing game. People note how EO3 was VERY different from the others thanks to the ocean traveling system and all new classes, and I agree, but I'd argue that EO2 went through it's changes too. In the case of EO2 it was more of a polishing of the original system, and while the majority of the classes were old, they were all rebalanced, had different skillsets, and resulted in a different experience.
EOIV seems to be very similar to EO2 in that regard. Most of the classes were also in 1 and 2. But the skillsets again seem to be somewhat different, so even if a class like the Troubadour has the same role in each game (which is to support other units with buffs and skills), the WAYS that they can do this task has changed from game to game. Plus you have the balloon travel aspect, which looks to be an evolution of the sea travelling in EO3.
Long story short, I really think any game is a good place to start in the series, but I will say that if you plan on playing them all, it might be best to play them in order, so you can better appreciate the changes that were made as time goes by.
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