Lynsanity

Has the state of character and unit guides improved much since launch? Looking early on, I mostly found SEO scamming gaming sites and wikis that were primarily ad space. Really made me appreciate what Serenes Forest provides for Fire Emblem.

If you think about it Boucheron only joins on map 3, can't equip a ring until map 4, and starts with 300SP. (Vander and many later characters start with 500.) So 800 at ch8 isn't doing too bad. It took me about that long to get Alear to 1,000 without grinding, and they're available from ch1. Boucheron also has a foot-locked class and I find it hard to get him in as many encounters. Spamming for exp seems valid and you'll probably get there in the 3 maps before the soft deadline. Also I wouldn't worry about overleveling him since he'll be competing with some very strong recruits in the midgame. Oh yeah that's the other big implication with these seals, is you should pretty much never use a second seal before a master seal. That's just locking in 10 more lvls of unpromoted growths. Meanwhile you can switch between promoted classes from lvl 1. So I foresee lots of my units spending one instant in their promoted class before I switch them to the one I want, lol.

Also looking for this info. Currently at ch9 and facing the age-old question of how to use my master and second seals. If this were correct, I take it there would be no point demoting Vander to his base class either. Edit: OK, can confirm after diving into a few reddit threads. It's optimal to master seal as soon as possible. You are limited to buying 1 per chapter. From the sounds of it, it's actually difficult to train your early game units otherwise because later recruits are so powerful. Also Vandad starts at internal lvl 15 with those poor stats so there may be no saving him. This mechanic is such a departure from recent Fire Emblems it might deserve its own thread. Early promoting goes against every bone in my body, lol

Ok I found it, you have to go into a unit's Items menu, or Item Selection before a combat, and press X to switch the info from "In use" to "Performance". Why they hide it there is beyond me. This UI is going to take some getting used to. We've fallen so far from the 3DS touchscreen.

Am I blind or is there no way to see a weapon's weight in battle? I'm looking in unit details and it shows me the weight penalty on their stats, but no weight stat on the weapons in inventory. That seems.... limiting

Very interested in the pair of Etie and Boucheron since seeing their growths and personal skills. It's like they're meant to be reclassed into each other's classes lol. Axe fighter Etie and archer Boucheron, I may just try it. Etie's skill only seems useful on enemy phase, and there aren't that many opportunities to be an enemy phase archer. Boucheron's skill requires him to fight with other Backup classes. Unless he's stuck with a hand axe or always has someone to flank for him, it would be easier to proc with a good ranged class. But yes I'm aware they cover for the weaknesses of their base classes too. You like an axe attacker with high hit.

I mean, is there a support replaced entirely with "..."? Or a Soleil character with the flimsiest justifications for becoming suddenly into men in her S supports? (Not very salvageable source material there) My impression of this localization has resoundingly been "at least it's not another Fates." Fates gives me war flashbacks.

NoA twitter: "Fire Emblem engage might be a video game." FireEmblemJP: "Here is a rundown of every single Fire Emblem Engage player card customization option"

hissssssssss Stop making me go into the options to make your game playable please IS.

I'm most interested in inheritable skills since you get to keep those between reclassing and other emblem equips. They're tough to pick because you only get 2 on each unit. Here's the ones I'm most interested in grinding emblem supports just to get: Going by https://serenesforest.net/engage/pre-release/skills/ and not caring about DLC I'm going to be passing around Sigurd, Celica, Marth and Roy like crazy

"We didn't realize people were interested in learning more about this" seems to also be NoA's attitude towards the entire game.

I'm just now learning Chain Guard is a command, not a passive activation? This seems strange to me as I figured it was an enemy phase counterpart to Chain Attack. Instead you also have to commit to it on player phase if I'm getting this right. Maybe it was too good as a passive, or would actually get your qi adepts in trouble when there's multiple range attackers? I'm excited for all the utility footlocked classes are finally getting. It just seems like a lot of action economy placed on qi adepts in particular. They want to be healing, breaking bow/tome/dagger enemies, and setting up chain guard, but can only do 1 per turn.

Yes. Though I was already annoyed with it as far back as X and Y when it was set to "On" by default. I think difficulty easing things like this should always be opt-ins, not opt-outs.

Frankly I'm just glad Fire Emblem hasn't implemented an EXP share mechanic to keep all your units the same level. I'm scarred by my other favourite series, Pokemon, making Exp All mandatory and recently removing the "Set" battle style. The FE equivalent would be, idk, always prompting you to Turnwheel after every character loss, and auto-leveling even your benched characters. Of course series veterans will still be able to self-impose their own challenges. The only thing to discuss is how new players will ever find the same appeal of the series, if babying features are presented as the default playstyle. I always liken it to if a Mario platformer gave you invincibility and flight at the start of every level, unless you go into the settings and turn it off. That shouldn't be the default! But as long as game developers have these ideas of "people have less time to play video games now" or "we have to compete with mobile games", default settings will just keep getting easier and easier.

Story and characters both are going to be let down by typically awful English voice direction I think. I watched some localized cutscenes and support convos in the preview videos, and cringed through every one. Not only Saturday morning cartoon vibes, but also some wrong intonations in context. That's likely a step down from Three Houses which allowed most of its characters to sound pretty natural.

This is by far the most off-the-wall trailer this game has gotten so far. Swimming with shoes on? The petting zoo? That dog thing? The dragon rail shooter?? Imaginary conversations in bed??? It's like they're pushing how non-seriously a FE game can take itself. I'm all here for it, but I expect this will rub some fans the wrong way. Also I'm reminded of Revolutionary Girl Utena for some reason. I think they're really leaning into some more shoujo influences.

I'm pleased to see the summoned heroes work more like equips / combat arts, rather than like the amiibo units in Fates. Those felt cheap and these feel like they'll complement the new characters better. The MU's hair still looks really stupid, but the male MU's isn't quite as bad, probably because it's shorter. Maybe that's why he was featured in the trailer, lol. It would be nice if they gave hair length options but I'm not holding my breath, since they're in pre-rendered cutscenes.

Omg, this is a favourite subject of mine. I haven't given up hope in another Pokemon strategy crossover, as was originally pitched. Especially when we'll soon be 3 generations removed from Pokemon Conquest, so there should be design and market space for a PokemonxFE. Though one thing to consider is that FE might not even be the best IS property for Pokemon. How about a Pokemon Advance Wars? There were canonically wars fought using pokemon in the lore. Units of 5 pokemon traversing a map, getting deployed from gyms, and excelling on different terrain would fit like a glove. You can imagine past versions of the various regions, Kanto, Alola etc at war with each other and using different regional pokemon in their armies. Of course the Wars series might be having its last gasp given the star-crossed remake. Back on topic, having human trainers for an FE-like certainly fits with the Conquest formula and the fan art is always fun. Maybe the trainers even "equip" different pokemon like they would with weapons. But I actually think the translation would work better if the pokemon were the characters themselves — inhabiting their own world and speaking to each other like in the PMD series. One reason for this is just thinking about early game fliers like Caeda, you'd want them to have the utility of flight while also having a long promotion arc. Are you going to depict them getting flown around by their Pidgey or whatever? Like that Gary Oak Spearow comic? If they are the Pidgey, that's more natural. Ditto with cavaliers riding little Ponyta and such. The other reason is that FE characters basically already are pokemon. They gain EXP, evolve, and some even have branching evolutions. You collect them, and if you're playing with permadeath on then that's a Nuzlocke run. 🙂 You can imagine a fully evolved pokemon at the start would be your Jagen, your main lord a Riolu, Caeda a Starly, and so on. So to answer OP's question, I guess I've always pictured this in a proxy for Archanea, or else an original world. That way it doesn't step on the toes of FE games hoping for remakes. Imagine Tellius doesn't get remade or remastered, but instead gets put in a Pokemon crossover, lmao. However the Three Houses or Awakening settings could be fun, and they'd definitely bring in a lot of fans.

Medeus (New Mystery Lunatic) HP:99 Str:40 Mag:0 Skl:40 Spd:30 Lck:0 Def:40 Res:30 Weapon: Dark Breath (Mt20 Hit85 Rng1-2) Grima (Awakening Lunatic+) HP:99 Str:50 Mag:40 Skl:50 Spd:45 Lck:45 Def:50 Res:50 Weapon: Expiration (Mt20 Hit80 Rng1-5) Skills: Anathema (inflicts -10avo/ddg), Ignis (adds half of mag/atk to attacks), Rightful God (bumps Ignis activation up to 80%), Dragonskin (halves all damage), Pavise+ (Pavise w/ 100% activation) Julius/Loptous (Geneology) HP:80 Str:15 Mag:25 Skl:27 Spd:27 Lck:13 Def:25 Res:30+5 Weapon: Loptous (Mt30 Wt12 Hit80 Rng1-2, 50 uses, grants +5 res and halves target's attack power during combat); Meteor (Mt15 Wt30 Hit60 Rng3-10, 50 uses, can't counterattack) Skills: Wrath (always crits when ≤ 50% hp), Follow-Up, Nihil (negates combat skills, crits and bonus dmg), Accost (chance to prolong combat when ≥ 25hp) Duma (SoV Hard) HP:200 Atk:32 Skl:15 Spd:10 Lck:0 Def:20 Res:20 Weapon: Tentacle (Mt10 Wt5 Hit60 Rng1-2, inflicts stun); Ocular Beam (Mt10 Wt8 Hit55 Rng1-5); Oculus (Mt10, Wt10, Hit80, Rng1-5, seals target's attacks) Skills/Combat arts: Nullify ailments, Conjure (summons 3-6 Mogall), Upheaval (Mt 8-18, Rng All, takes 1 turn to charge and can't kill) Anankos (Revelation Lunatic) HP:63+63+80+80 Str:29/33/38 Mag:16/20/25 Skl:22/26/31 Spd:22/26/31 Lck:19/23/28 Def:27/31/36 Res:19/23/28 Weapon: Dragon Breath physical (Mt30 Hit100 Rng1-3, +10 avo/ddg), Dragon Breath magical (Mt20 Hit100 Rng1-5, +10 avo/ddg) Skills: Dragonskin (halves all damage, weakens crits and offensive skills by 50%), Immune Status Rhea (Silver Snow Maddening) HP: 126+126+189+199 Str:41 Mag:41 Dex:34 Spd:34 Lck:51 Def:34 Res:38 Cha:53 Weapon: Real Seiros Crest Stone (Mt25 Wt1 Hit100 Crit5 Rng1-8) Abilities: Surging Light (can Staggering Blow w/o charging), Ancient Dragonskin (halves all damage, nullifies status conditions), Counterattack (from any range) Barrier Abilities: Dragon-Scale Wall (reduces all damage by 70%), Vital Defense (prevents crits) Latent Abilities: 3-bar Miracle (51%), 2-bar Defiant Strength (Str +8 when ≤ 25% hp), last bar Vantage. Omitted Sacred Power, Charm, and Divine Dragon Horn because they involve allies. Someone else could actually game these out, but I'm pretty sure Rhea wins. Talk about power creep! Besides her, it is indeed close between Anankos and Grima. Grima has great defenses and Ignis, Anankos has those 4 health bars. Heirs of Fate VI Anankos has a better 4th stage but slightly less durable earlier stages, btw. Dark horse contender is Duma for having access to Conjure and circumventing OP's no armies rule. Opposing dragon AIs might waste a lot of turns targeting the Mogall.

Yeah, I was coming here with a 1.5 games take as well. Even with the distinctive split class system, which I loved, you still have tons of flexibility between the avatar, Mozu, Shura, Odin and Laslow's class sets, capturable enemies, DLC... I'm pretty sure it's possible to use every Hoshidan class in Nohr and vice versa. I've seen people rank Conquest near the top of their favourite Fire Emblems and Birthright near the bottom, and that's just wild to me. Like I can see why you'd prefer one over the other, but you'd have to overlook so much of their shared content, maps and mechanics to regard them as THAT different.

I'll echo that Awakening is a good starting point for most people, it's very player friendly. Three Houses if they just really want something on Switch, or enjoy more non-battle elements in their RPGs like Persona has. BB/SS if they really like good pixel art, lol. Not sure I would recommend even Birthright to a new player. Fates is interesting mostly for the way it innovated on the Awakening battle system, adding some complexity to the pair-up options and weapon triangle. And interesting in a bad way for how cynical it was in grafting fan-favourites from Awakening, like children and time travel, onto its plot. Just a disaster of a story. I won't say it has no merits because I'm currently revisiting Conquest myself. The 3DS was such a good platform for the series in hindsight, especially with the bottom screen to display all battle info. Not sure I would recommend SoV to a new player either though, even though it's my favourite. You'd have to at least stress that it's quite different from the rest of the series.

I hate musou games so I was hoping the super obvious HW2 predictions wouldn't be true. I suppose my dream FE x Pokemon crossover, à la Pokemon + Nobunaga's Ambition, will get its chance... another day...

No, in fact this guide takes you through changing the locale on already-installed cias. They're probably not corrupted or anything like that, the DLC just needs the locale.txt file in the right spot on your SD card.

I just did this myself a couple months ago. If/Fates seeing a big resurgence I guess, haha. The Revelations path is most likely on the DLC cia you have. However the DLC's region needs to be changed to be recognized by your 3DS. This is pretty simple as long as your homebrew includes Luma3DS. I used this guide here: https://github.com/TeamIf/FireEmblemIf-FanTranslation/wiki/Enabling-DLC

Insofar as leakers can be credible, markomaro is considered a credible one having predicted the Famicom Detective Club remakes and their launch date. They have this to say about upcoming Fire Emblem titles: I'm curious to know what Serenes Foresters make of this. I don't have a twitter account so I'm not up on the discussion there, haha.