Etrian Odyssey is really hard

[A Black Falcon]

It's got to be sunlight -- the game has a day/night cycle and a clock on the screen and it's darker at night. :)

Anyway, sounds interesting. Now let me explain I have no issue with super strong enemies mixed in with the normal strength enemies you may need to run from, or use strategy to beat, I'm just saying grinding should be avoided at all costs when designing a game.

Oh, I absolutely agree. But it's not like they do nothing to help you... you can see the FOEs on the map. They do move, but only when you do (one square at a time just like you) within a set area, so they can be avoided. The only tricky part is when one is chasing you... see, every turn in battle counts as a turn for them to close in on you, so if you're running with a FOE right behind you and you hit a random battle you'd better kill them fast or hope Escape works quickly. :D

Really though, with an oldschool design like this exploring and upgrading characters is the central focus of the game. (Oh yes, there is character customization beyond just choosing a class. Each character has a bunch of skills and you get one point to distribute into a skill for each level. You can't get everything...) That's what it is. Well, that, the artwork, and your imagination. :) The people in town add a bit of plot and background, but not much... just as it should be in a game like this. :)

Really, I think that my biggest problem with those '80s RPGs isn't the challenge (I'd get stuck somewhere and give up, likely, but well in I bet -- games like Wizardry VI are just so ridiculously cruel...), or the lack of plot (plenty of great games have no story), it's the lack of ingame mapping. Graph paper gets really tedious really quickly and printing out maps from the net feels like cheating. This game isn't as cruel as many of those games were (a good thing, I think, for the most part -- it's still quite hard!) as those games AND has ingame mapping, while maintaining the "you have to make the map yourself" mechanic... and that's awesome.

Anyway, played a bit today. Beat the third Ragelope (without losing anyone!) and got to floor 3. I still can't beat those two bull/boar FOEs on floor 2, though... so hard, they kill me every time... I guess I just need more levels before I can face them. They are kind of on side paths and not the main one...

As for floor 3, well, whenever you reach a new floor it's hard at first. Heck, the floor 2 enemies aren't exactly pushovers yet... it is kind of frusterating to get to a new floor and have to turn around soon because you lose someone (and I didn't have any warp wires), but oh well. At least I avoided the guy in the first room on floor 3... though they give you good warning to do that I'd say. :)