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The Fire Emblem Thread

Endemic

Arcane
Joined
Jul 16, 2012
Messages
4,321
1 guy playing is proof that "hardcore" Fire Emblems players don't savescum and reset? You have convinced me and I take back everything I have ever said.

Don't you think you're being a tad ignorant? You even tagged my reply as "TLDR". Kind of proves the point that posting 20 more of those would be a waste of my time. I doubt I will convince you of anything, given your initial statement. I merely shared that particular run as an example for people who are new to the series.

We've already done the "average FE players are too casual" discussion in other threads (like the 3H one) so you're not treading any new ground here.
 

TheImplodingVoice

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
Joined
Oct 29, 2018
Messages
1,955
Location
Embelyon
1 guy playing is proof that "hardcore" Fire Emblems players don't savescum and reset? You have convinced me and I take back everything I have ever said.

Don't you think you're being a tad ignorant? You even tagged my reply as "TLDR". Kind of proves the point that posting 20 more of those would be a waste of my time. I doubt I will convince you of anything, given your initial statement. I merely shared that particular run as an example for people who are new to the series.

We've already done the "average FE players are too casual" discussion in other threads (like the 3H one) so you're not treading any new ground here.
Not going to argue "average FE players are too casual". Three Houses has proved that. Though I must admit that I maybe started off too aggressive with my reply. So pardon me on that.
 

TigerKnee

Arcane
Joined
Feb 24, 2012
Messages
1,920
A lot of the later games are balanced under the idea that players are going to reset at the first death anyway unless they really don't care about the character at all. Early FE had a lot of redundant characters because it was designed around permadeath but in something like Fates Conquest losing even one character is like a double blow because you're down a character in a game with an already low cast and you're out a potential kid.
 

Bohrain

Liturgist
Patron
Joined
Aug 10, 2016
Messages
1,442
Location
norf
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
Yeah I think the pre-GBA games are the only ones where the units are designed to be expendable to an extend.
 

Momock

Augur
Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
644
Are under the impression that Fire Emblem "hardcore players" do ironman runs and just keep going? The so called "hardcore" Fire Emblem players save scum and reset a fuck ton more than anyone. Someone dies? Reload old save. Miss a chest / item etc? reload save. So yapping on about ironman mode doesn't mean shit
Doing "ironman" isn't the point of having characters who can die. It's to avoid bullshit strategies like knowingly sacrificing units, or messing up and still win.
 
Joined
Oct 9, 2015
Messages
2,095
Location
DFW, Texas
I don't think this has been mentioned yet:

https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fire-emblem-shadow-dragon-and-the-blade-of-light-switch/
illus.jpg

Play the Famicom classic that started the Fire Emblem™ legacy—localized for the first time

Meet Marth and recruit some of the most beloved Fire Emblem characters in their 8-bit glory as you play through all 25 chapters of this classic Famicom tactical role-playing game, localized and released for the first time in North America—for a limited time.


deco-strip.svg

Follow Marth on an epic journey
From defending the kingdom of Talys to facing off against the titular Shadow Dragon, this scrappy hero must be poised to take on any challenge. Luckily, he has a capable group of allies at his side: Tiki, Minerva, the Whitewing Sisters, and more!

See Marth’s humble beginnings from a refugee in Talys to the hero of Archanea!


Watch the trailer
announcement-trailer


Classic gameplay with a modern touch
switch_fesw_scrn_06_pr_battle_terraineffect.jpg

Choose from over 50 playable characters and discover the roots of the strategic gameplay that defines the Fire Emblem series.

switch_fesw_scrn_09_navarrejoins.jpg

Pick the units and classes suited to the mission at hand and approach characters on the battlefield to forge relationships and even add to your army.

switch_fesw_scrn_15_creatingbookmarks.jpg

Make a mistake or lose a favorite unit? New features like save states and rewind let you tailor the challenge to your playstyle!
 

Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
I'm some 45 hours/20 chapters into Awakening. I've been happy with the difficulty level - the balancing act of knowing how many weaker units you can bring to yoink EXP vs how many proper units you need serves as a way to tweak this further and it is all the more satisfying when you not only clear the mission cleanly but get meaningful EXP gains too.

I suspect this game may be on top of the list in terms of how broken your units can get. Good pair ups allow you to greatly mitigate weaknesses. It is pretty crazy that you can drop a sorcerer in the middle of half a dozen enemy units and he'll kill all of them on their turn.

MC/Chrom aside, if I had to mention a few all stars, Lon'qu the myrmidon/swordmaster dominated the early to mid game thanks to his constant dodging and crits. Kellam became a wall of a general once promoted and being paired with Sully allows him to get around quite easily. Donnel took a lot of babying to get anywhere, but now that he's a hero he's got some disgusting stats. Perhaps surprisingly, my most broken unit at the moment is Henry who, when paired with Tharja, has been the most valuable unit in several of the later maps. A supposedly mid tier spell like Nosferatu just allows him to tank everything and stay healthy, or use Ruin to one shot bosses while smiling like a dummy. Tharja has superior damage output, but that is rarely needed and the fact she doesn't have access to dark magic as a DARK knight is pretty silly. I actually married her off to Libra the trap for the funny synergy of it, but also because I was running out of useble male partners and the two female healers fell from my favor as babying and leveling them was such a chore compared to everyone else.

I'm currently gathering the remaining child units and these missions certainly don't fuck around. I have been generally happy with the quality of the missions, but the one where you rescue Severa (Cordelia's daughter) was infuriating. She acts on her own and traverses through an indoors area toward another NPC, but she is really squishy and likes to hug walls which makes her vulnerable to being one shot by enemies on the other side, so you've got to line the walls with your units and block her movement so she stays safe. It was like trying to prevent a retarded kid from running into traffic over and over again. I must have tried the mission ten times total and only managed to pull it off after returning to it with stronger units I could play more aggressively with.

After the remaining story missions and paralogues, I still have a ton of DLC missions so I suspect the game will entertain me for another 45 hours. I know very little about those missions other than that they end with a five map gauntlet of sorts. The next game in the series for me will likely be Echoes.
 

SerratedBiz

Arcane
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
4,143
I'm currently gathering the remaining child units and these missions certainly don't fuck around. I have been generally happy with the quality of the missions, but the one where you rescue Severa (Cordelia's daughter) was infuriating. She acts on her own and traverses through an indoors area toward another NPC, but she is really squishy and likes to hug walls which makes her vulnerable to being one shot by enemies on the other side, so you've got to line the walls with your units and block her movement so she stays safe.

Not sure if this works in Awakening (it's been a while), but in Fates you can use a Rescue staff to pull ally units into your backline which really helps with babysitting.
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Why not Conquest for the fights? Neither Awakening nor Echoes offer the best fights, though nothing wrong with going through them & enjoying.
 

Lord of Riva

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Jan 16, 2018
Messages
2,805
Strap Yourselves In Pathfinder: Wrath
The next game in the series for me will likely be Echoes.

Totally different game than Awakening, but good, I liked it. Probably much better choice than going into Fates.

I find the fates games pretty well done when it comes to the gameplay. (If you ignore the mess that is Multiplayer) You just have to basically ignore the story.

Echoes however reeks of wierd battle design and the dungeons are cancer filler content.
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Why not Conquest for the fights? Neither Awakening nor Echoes offer the best fights, though nothing wrong with going through them & enjoying.
I don't know if this is spoken like a true storyfag, but the context and constant skipping of the stupidest and tripe material makes Conquest incredibly unenjoyable. Were it just as bland as Awakening I could probably enjoy the combat for what it is (although I maintain the combat isn't that great and the maps are incredibly gimmick/puzzle centric right from the get-go).

This is speaking as someone who thoroughly enjoyed Echoes even with many maps being incredibly open, flat and often not interesting.

I should probably give it another try just because I love FE in general, but the game really does not want me to. Especially the setting/design, it's dreadful.
 

Derringer

Prophet
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
1,934
You know the quality of these games have been in limbo since Kaga pissed off from the company and they started taking tips from 'localizers' on how to write the story to sell to 'westerners', I wouldn't force yourself to play any shitty game just because you enjoy the property or symbol or whatever. It shows when their remakes of decade old games have better map design.
 

InD_ImaginE

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 23, 2015
Messages
5,366
Pathfinder: Wrath
Eh 3 houses is good story wise.

Gameplay wise while I am kinda annoyed that they are removing the Weapon Triangle it still is very entertaining. But yeah Fates (all 3 games) are kinda shit due to localization. Supposedly the JP script is not all that much better either.
 

Derringer

Prophet
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
1,934
Eh 3 houses is good story wise.

Gameplay wise while I am kinda annoyed that they are removing the Weapon Triangle it still is very entertaining. But yeah Fates (all 3 games) are kinda shit due to localization. Supposedly the JP script is not all that much better either.
The writing is just complete shit, even the fan translators admitted it even though people were calling them faggots as well. Can't save garbage influenced by faggots from the get-go unless it's modded out completely. If you're stuck skipping or speedhacking that shit when these games really don't have much going for them beyond the animations I'm just not seeing anything beyond just spending your time on something you could just spend on a better version of the same shit.
 
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Puukko

Arcane
Joined
Jul 23, 2015
Messages
3,862
Location
The Khanate
Based on cursory knowledge, it seems like none of these games have a story that could be described as being more than 'okay' which is a shame. I find the stereotypical "evil empire(s) invade and also there's probably an evil dragon" stories to be very uninspired. Valkyria Chronicles 4 had some dumb plot threads, but it also depicted the good underdogs vs evil empire type of story in a morally grey fashion - human experiments, the psychological impact of war and the desire for revenge, finding respectable traits and common humanity in your enemies etc. All of that was way more gripping than what I've seen in FE so far and I am sure that type of a story would fit the series fine. I understand 3H may have some of this but I haven't felt the need to go spoil myself yet.
 
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Derringer

Prophet
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
1,934
The most well developed one is 5 if you want to try any of them out, the writing and maps get more generic past that.
 

Delterius

Arcane
Joined
Dec 12, 2012
Messages
15,956
Location
Entre a serra e o mar.
fire emblem is killing bandits on a green hill

and you better hope the story is just evil empire is ruled by devil dragon because every time they go beyond that it goes to shit p fast

ost and 2d animations were pretty cool tho
 

deuxhero

Arcane
Joined
Jul 30, 2007
Messages
11,326
Location
Flowery Land
Based on cursory knowledge, it seems like none of these games have a story that could be described as being more than 'okay' which is a shame. I find the stereotypical "evil empire(s) invade and also there's probably an evil dragon" stories to be very uninspired.

Play 7 (the one released for GBA as just "Fire Emblem"). 10 has a lot of depth but it's also presented rather poorly
 

Tigranes

Arcane
Joined
Jan 8, 2009
Messages
10,350
Why not Conquest for the fights? Neither Awakening nor Echoes offer the best fights, though nothing wrong with going through them & enjoying.
I don't know if this is spoken like a true storyfag, but the context and constant skipping of the stupidest and tripe material makes Conquest incredibly unenjoyable. Were it just as bland as Awakening I could probably enjoy the combat for what it is (although I maintain the combat isn't that great and the maps are incredibly gimmick/puzzle centric right from the get-go).

This is speaking as someone who thoroughly enjoyed Echoes even with many maps being incredibly open, flat and often not interesting.

I should probably give it another try just because I love FE in general, but the game really does not want me to. Especially the setting/design, it's dreadful.

Conquest absolutely has the worst writing imaginable and you are obligated to instaskip every piece of dialogue/cutscene.

That said, instaskipping is a small price to pay for some really good fights. It really depends - I never thought FE had particularly good writing or setting at any point, not even ones like Thracia - they were just tolerable foils for the combat. 3H is better than Conquest, but still, reading any of its dialogue/writing is an exercise in realising that you might as well get monkeys to write this generic tripe - not a single line which you couldn't finish yourself.

So it depends on what you're in it for. If you do enjoy the best of what writing FE has to offer, well, different tastes, and indeed I wouldn't ever touch Conquest. But the fights, it's quite good.
 

Derringer

Prophet
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
1,934
I imagine Conquest is quite playable if you skip everything regarding the dialog and cutscenes. At least the maps looked more entertaining than 9 and 10.
 

Siveon

Bot
Joined
Jul 13, 2013
Messages
4,509
Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Conquest absolutely has the worst writing imaginable and you are obligated to instaskip every piece of dialogue/cutscene.

That said, instaskipping is a small price to pay for some really good fights. It really depends - I never thought FE had particularly good writing or setting at any point, not even ones like Thracia - they were just tolerable foils for the combat. 3H is better than Conquest, but still, reading any of its dialogue/writing is an exercise in realising that you might as well get monkeys to write this generic tripe - not a single line which you couldn't finish yourself.

So it depends on what you're in it for. If you do enjoy the best of what writing FE has to offer, well, different tastes, and indeed I wouldn't ever touch Conquest. But the fights, it's quite good.
Oh, I wouldn't say the series is any beacon of writing. But I at least find the characters and settings enjoyable enough to y'know, read them. And not mash start.

I don't like the idea of spending 40 hours on a game using characters I hate lol. It is an RPG, if I just wanted decent map design there's always Advance Wars.
 

Derringer

Prophet
Joined
Jan 28, 2020
Messages
1,934
There really aren't that many good SRPGs in general, beyond Shining Force 2, Front Mission, FFT/OBT, JA2, OG X-com it's slim pickings. Fire Emblem fufills the niche of "better than shovelware but not really good" nowadays. I'm not exactly sure if it's any worse than the middling crap you can find on PS1 and PS2 like Stella Deus, Suikoden Tactics, Eternal Eyes, Kartia, forgettable Japanese-only releases without translations, other mediocre SRPGs. I'm not even sure if you could call Nippon Ichi games SRPGs and the ones with a bit more strategy aren't terribly fun for the strategy elements moreso than grinding shit. Devil Survivor 1 is fun for a newer-ish release. Valkyria Chronicles 4 looks alright since it looks like a straight upgrade to 1 but I haven't bothered trying it out.
 
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thesecret1

Arcane
Joined
Jun 30, 2019
Messages
5,676
I like to have some good, fun story to go with my games. Not necessarily anything great, just decent. Is there a single Fire Emblem game that isn't complete garbage in this regard? I've tried Awakening and it was retarded to a level I didn't think was possible. I tried Conquest next and got what's on the level of a bedtime story for little kids, with MC winning battles without causing a single casualty and literally sobbing and crying whenever anything bad happened.

Is there any FE game where I don't have to suffer someone's mental diarrhea?
 

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