fucking laughing my brains right out of my fucking skull of calling the Etrian Odyssey franchise balanced when the first three games are a mire of unexplained mechanics and formulas and flat out wrong descriptions that can lead to an objectively Wrong party composition or bricked characters due to skill choices.
now Etrian Odyssey IV, that is a game with actually No Bad Builds and it's a vastly more enjoyable experience because of it.
as an aside i absolutely believe all these games are still worth playing (with a guide or spreadsheets that expound and clarify things) the majority of dungeon crawlers are in fact never 'well balanced' and for the most part it will live or die based on the dungeon design itself.
