The Fire Emblem Thread

[Nelka]

1. The Break mechanic

There's also a staff that break foes. Staves are actually freaking good tools in this entry. Loved 'em.

 

[gamerguy]

I've been playing Engage since release. My FE experience before this game was pretty limited. I messed around with the GBA and gamecube versions back in the day, but I was a bit small minded. I think I wanted a FF tactics game and was still at that age when you can't accept things for what they are instead of just enjoy them.

Anyway, I'm really enjoying this game so far. The characters are a lot more stylized than I remember. The main character has some pretty dorky cape on, but for the most part everyone looks badass, and the character change art is fucking cool.

As far as the tactics are concerned, I'm not an expert. I am slowly pushing through on madness, and am impressed by the mechanics I have to 'exploit'. There is nothing unfair here. Every bad thing that happens, I should see coming. Every piece of data that I could possibly need to make every decision is at my fingertips. I can ZL for general danger, then hold A on an enemy or two to isolate exactly what mobs will be attacking who. I know how much damage I will take, and exactly what risks I am taking.

The maps so far are very well thought out... funneling units through doorways or around obstacles. Sometimes there is just enough room to maneuver through the first wave of enemies and start pushing forward to clear some of that purple! I honestly feel this game plays like a tower defense game. Instead of playing offensively (though that occurs, especially at the end of a level), I am setting up units at important points of the map. Instead of fearing the Enemy Turn, it's my favorite part... watching enemy after enemy walk to my strongest unit and get stomped.

I died on level 11 (right after level 10) last time I played, so I'm saved at that part till I can finish the MP remaster this morning. Excited to get back to it, though I feel like I need to develop a few units, as this last couple maps are oof. =)

 

[Tigranes]

Engage is definitely fun, though given the additional number of toys you get - much more flexible staff use and engages - we'll see how it lands on the difficulty scale once we get used to it.

Being able to skip every single cutscene of any kind before it loads is a godsend.

 

[gamerguy]

Engage is definitely fun, though given the additional number of toys you get - much more flexible staff use and engages - we'll see how it lands on the difficulty scale once we get used to it.

Being able to skip every single cutscene of any kind before it loads is a godsend.

Tell me about it.. you can skip them during 'loading...' too, so fucking rad... all the support conversations and all other story bullshit can be skipped



Chapter 11 on maddening is just that!... my tank units have been sufficient so far, but I have really gimped my mobility while developing my army, and chapter 11 punishes you for it!!... a clever obstruct or some freezes are really useful, but i didn't have one of those restore staffs in my convoy, and eventually those fast mounted and flying units overwhelm me in the middle of the map.

I finished, but I lost like half my army. My knee jerk reaction is to just play it again, but part of me is torn. They keep handing me new units with a bunch of SP. I think you are supposed to use these early chapter support units as cannon fodder. You can try to level them up, but it's a pain anyway. I just wish it wasn't characters i'd wasted master/secondary seals on.

Part of me wants to restart the game, and focus less on units with 20 def or res (been using one or the other situationally) and stick with classes that have defenses/stats in the teens and good mobility... stock up on staves for my convoy, and be ready to throw low SP early game units away to finish a difficult map. The best part is, I know those early chapters will go fast... there's no skirmishes on maddening, and the story can be skipped so fast. I think I'm gonna continue on and inevitably start over.

What a fun game.

 

[Puukko]

Started Camilla's chapter, and damn, the divine paralogues seem to be where the devs decided to go all in. Lots more weapon variety, backups, stage hazards, more and higher level enemies. I wish the main game was more like this.

So, so many fliers.

 

[Puukko]

 

[gamerguy]

This game is kicking my ass. I made it past ch. 11, but I still lost three characters (oof), but I only used a secondary seal on one of em.

Gonna just roll with it to see more of the game. It honestly feels like using new units is more productive than trying to develop existing ones... at least on madness with permadeath.

I feel even more xp starved than regular madness due to permadeath rushing my boss kills. I'm leaving units alive on every map, and the SP requirements are high.

Luckily, IS seems to have thought of this, like everything else. Hail cannon fodder unit... and weapons with xp bonus!


I finally found a way to make Vander useful as a warrior then I keeled him. All well.

 

[Puukko]

Some units fall off hard and get replaced by strictly superior ones. The main missions are on the easier side now on Maddening. DLC missions and paralogues are where the challenge is at. Ike's paralogue is up next, blitzkrieg is the name of the game. If the main missions were on the same level of difficulty, it'd be perfect.

 

[gamerguy]

Kinda bummed there's DLC so fast. Seems like a cash grab. I'm not even good enough for the main game, so it's tough to complain I suppose.


I'm tempted to turn the difficulty down, but I'm still having fun, and hard+ is so different... I don't want to find myself in the position where I'm just using skirmishes to outlevel the content instead if learn it.

I'm relying on the time crystal a lot, but I like being punished for a mistake. Sometimes when they don't, I know there's a reason why and not just going easy on me.

 

[Puukko]

Supposedly the game was ready a long time ago already.

The DLC is quality content and unsurprisingly makes Maddening much more manageable since you'll have way more emblems at your disposal when the game takes the ones you had earned up to that point away from you. They're generally very strong though I haven't quite figured out the optimal users for some, Camilla mostly. Magic+axe focus with defensives against lances is a bit of a weird mix. 3H Trio is stupidly strong on Chloe and Tiki turns everyone into a stat god thanks to her inheritable stat growth bonus.

But these are far from freebies (well, aside from the trio), since DLC paralogues are some of the longest and hardest missions, and they all have some sort of stage hazards as well.

Are you making most of the Somniel activities? Remember you can turn in achievements for tons of shards which in turn can be exchanged for easy bond levels/engravements/bond rings. Dogs give ingots. Get food buffs, build supports, strength training, all that jazz.

 

[Vic]

I decided to start a playthrough of all Fire Emblem maps, currently on the 3rd map of the first game, wish me luck

Spoiler

 

[gamerguy]

Yeah, there's some nice stat bonuses for minigames.

I honestly just chalk it up to being a beginner at strategy/tactics rpgs. I don't mind a learning curve as long as I'm having fun.


Right now I'm leveraging the purple edge of the map. Sometimes I want to clump up guys, because my units can block their movement, but this game will punish you for it in the wrong situation.

The enemy is not in the same situation. I don't want to lose a single unit vs. the cpu losing everything. So if more than one unit can reach more than one of mine, they will focus fire just like me. Only for me it's a restart many times.

So I've been trying to stay at the purple line. If I split up along it, I can avoid getting focus fire. Now my units with medium stats are useful in a safe way, and I don't have to rely on alear/luis for all the heavy lifting.

So yeah, just lots of learning curves... triangles and vulnerabilities. There's a lot of meat here.

avoidance seems to be where it's at

 

[gamerguy]

wait... I can do skirmishes on madenning after 11

mind blown

 

[Puukko]

Yeah but they're uncommon anyway. Not something you can rely on too much.

 

[gamerguy]

skirmish was waay higher level than me too


i started over, hard with permadeath... it's feeling pretty good to me ‍

 

[gamerguy]

I kinda wish there was a difficulty between maddening and hard, but watch me turn it down again before the end.




Avoidance tanking is where it's at... Alear is so good! I also turned Clanne into a Avo beast this time... he seems bad cause of low magic, but his def is too good to ignore... i have his avo around 100 most turns with surge for tanking range, he still a has 13 def and 19 res just in case an attack squeeks by... fucking mage knight tank

edit: thanks

 

[Puukko]

The media button next to smilies.



With Three Houses I wished for something between Hard and Maddening, but at least on NG+ you could custom tweak the difficulty depending on what you carried over.

 

[gamerguy]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

Honestly, I couldn't because of unavoidable chain damage, but still... mage knights are tits... zero weaknesses so far... mitigates everything, kills everything.

If my opinion mattered as a new FE player, I would change a couple things:

1) Get rid of the somniel. I like the silly gameplay loop, but everything could happen in the post-battle camp space... some of them are really neat. It would save you from having to explain a floating island in an already who-cares story. More importantly, it would mean less loading between playing.

2) Link ALL the cutscenes and FMV into a single skippable sequence from the player's perspective. I shouldn't have to push the start button 5 or 6 times to get to the videogame.


That's about it. Smooth sailing on hard for my skill level (so far), and fun maps. Colorful characters.

 

[Vic]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

from the few FE that I played they usually have an OP unit from the start.

FE is about deciding how to distribute the available xp, so if you'd give to that OP unit all your xp you might be able to solo the game with him. (haven't actually played the latest installment)

 

[GhostCow]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

Honestly, I couldn't because of unavoidable chain damage, but still... mage knights are tits... zero weaknesses so far... mitigates everything, kills everything.

If my opinion mattered as a new FE player, I would change a couple things:

1) Get rid of the somniel. I like the silly gameplay loop, but everything could happen in the post-battle camp space... some of them are really neat. It would save you from having to explain a floating island in an already who-cares story. More importantly, it would mean less loading between playing.

2) Link ALL the cutscenes and FMV into a single skippable sequence from the player's perspective. I shouldn't have to push the start button 5 or 6 times to get to the videogame.


That's about it. Smooth sailing on hard for my skill level (so far), and fun maps. Colorful characters.

Did you say this is your first FE? I enjoyed it, but I thought it was shit compared to three houses. Ranks second or third on my list.

 

[Vic]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

Honestly, I couldn't because of unavoidable chain damage, but still... mage knights are tits... zero weaknesses so far... mitigates everything, kills everything.

If my opinion mattered as a new FE player, I would change a couple things:

1) Get rid of the somniel. I like the silly gameplay loop, but everything could happen in the post-battle camp space... some of them are really neat. It would save you from having to explain a floating island in an already who-cares story. More importantly, it would mean less loading between playing.

2) Link ALL the cutscenes and FMV into a single skippable sequence from the player's perspective. I shouldn't have to push the start button 5 or 6 times to get to the videogame.


That's about it. Smooth sailing on hard for my skill level (so far), and fun maps. Colorful characters.

Did you say this is your first FE? I enjoyed it, but I thought it was shit compared to three houses. Ranks second or third on my list.

if this is shit compared to 3houses, and it still ranks second on your list, then I can already guess the number of FE games you have played.

 

[gamerguy]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

Honestly, I couldn't because of unavoidable chain damage, but still... mage knights are tits... zero weaknesses so far... mitigates everything, kills everything.

If my opinion mattered as a new FE player, I would change a couple things:

1) Get rid of the somniel. I like the silly gameplay loop, but everything could happen in the post-battle camp space... some of them are really neat. It would save you from having to explain a floating island in an already who-cares story. More importantly, it would mean less loading between playing.

2) Link ALL the cutscenes and FMV into a single skippable sequence from the player's perspective. I shouldn't have to push the start button 5 or 6 times to get to the videogame.


That's about it. Smooth sailing on hard for my skill level (so far), and fun maps. Colorful characters.

Did you say this is your first FE? I enjoyed it, but I thought it was shit compared to three houses. Ranks second or third on my list.

Not technically... I owned it on gba and gamecube. I played both casually, but I was in a different gaming space at the time.

So yeah, more or less the first. I can't conment on three houses. I suck at paying attention at story and have been trying to challenge myself. I bought three big story games recently. Triangle strategy, disco elysium, and persona 5 are all up next. Maybe I should try Three Houses too.

 

[GhostCow]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

Honestly, I couldn't because of unavoidable chain damage, but still... mage knights are tits... zero weaknesses so far... mitigates everything, kills everything.

If my opinion mattered as a new FE player, I would change a couple things:

1) Get rid of the somniel. I like the silly gameplay loop, but everything could happen in the post-battle camp space... some of them are really neat. It would save you from having to explain a floating island in an already who-cares story. More importantly, it would mean less loading between playing.

2) Link ALL the cutscenes and FMV into a single skippable sequence from the player's perspective. I shouldn't have to push the start button 5 or 6 times to get to the videogame.


That's about it. Smooth sailing on hard for my skill level (so far), and fun maps. Colorful characters.

Did you say this is your first FE? I enjoyed it, but I thought it was shit compared to three houses. Ranks second or third on my list.

if this is shit compared to 3houses, and it still ranks second on your list, then I can already guess the number of FE games you have played.

Already stated in the thread that I've played all of the 3d ones. I don't like 2d for this type of game.

 

[gamerguy]

Omg this game is so good. I could almost solo these maps with Clanne. 140 rating? rofl

from the few FE that I played they usually have an OP unit from the start.

FE is about deciding how to distribute the available xp, so if you'd give to that OP unit all your xp you might be able to solo the game with him. (haven't actually played the latest installment)

oddly enough this IS me learning that lesson... I have several very strong units... I'm just blown away by how good a mage knight is with the right stats

 

[Vic]

So yeah, more or less the first. I can't conment on three houses. I suck at paying attention at story and have been trying to challenge myself. I bought three big story games recently. Triangle strategy, disco elysium, and persona 5 are all up next. Maybe I should try Three Houses too.

fuck story in video games, especially fire emblem story.

even the story in pst which is heralded to have the best writing is your average amateur writing garbage compared to real books. and disco doesn't even have a story, it's mostly just info dumps by npcs and weird conversations with yourself.

my suggestion, stick to gameplay, and watch a movie or tv show if you want story.