nocturnal YL

It baffles me how they have unique animations for the original classes, but these extras don't have those. You'd have thought the DLC classes would look better seeing that they're DLC. I'd still have gotten those, though. It really helps with the uneven promotions issue in the original game, especially since almost everyone I use in my final team don't have 3rd tier classes. (I already have Alm and Celica to fill the physical unit role, so I didn't have Dread Fighters.)

I just tried going through the labyrinth yesterday. I panicked in B9 and retreated (I could press on, but I've got a few great level ups on the way and I wanted to save them). Those Entombed aren't fun to fight. They can double anyone in my team except my fastest member (Kilff at 39 SPD), and I only have three members (Alm, Faye and Kilff) that can withstand them... provided they don't crit any of the fights. And the Turnwheel can't save you if Alm is the one that's killed. I have yet to see the Tuenwheel crashing the game, and I kind of doubt they're going to fix it. This game gave me the feeling that they wanted to push it as early as possible because they wanted to work on the Switch version ASAP. My Alm with 30 (+13) DEF says otherwise. Those Entombed love to crit. Huh? My experience says otherwise. If you retreat (using the menu) and return, the enemies you previously defeated will be there again. That said, to a grinded team, the B5 mid-boss is nothing.

Enough have been said about Celica, but there is one thing about Alm that I don't like: he himself puts too much weight on the bloodline thing. "I am here to take down Rigel's corrupt king! Wait, that guy…" "You are my father!? I killed my own father!? NOOOOOO!!!!" So it's suddenly not a right thing to do just because that guy is your father. (Also that Rudolf isn't really evil, but Alm's change has more to do with the "father" thing.)

I was under the impression that she simply meant older relative to her own age, since the topic on hand was Celica and Alm. In the JP version, she simply mentioned she preferred someone older without specifying any age range. I think it's less about the idea that she likes older guys, and more that this really soft-spoken, child-like (in appearance) person suddenly mentioning relationships at all that took me off guard.

I lost that image the moment she told Celica that she actually preferred older men (Act 3 base conversation). Was this "localised" away?

I like whoever I ended up using the most. So it's Faye to me. As a saint with an A support with Alm, she has got herself an infinite-use Nosferatu that hits 80% of the time that can be used to clear the battlefield in most of Act 4. I also like Mae for being a high damage output mage. Give her the magic ring and she can take care of herself well (Archanist? You can't do anything if I'm not in your range in the first place). Too bad she doesn't have a particularly high RES. And mage Kliff for being such a high-DEF mage. And Tobin for having surprisingly good accuracy for an Echoes archer. You may have noticed that I don't have the melee guys here, because my playstyle favours those with good range. …Oh, in story terms, you mean? My top fav is actually… still Faye. Maybe it's the "pretty girl with a dark side" thing. Actually, in her relationship with Alm, I'm more willing to blame Alm for ignoring someone who so obviously has a thing for him. Not that he's required to respond to her feeling, but… well, I just feel sorry for her. It's not really Alm's fault. That said, a child of destiny marrying another child of destiny feels a bit too much of a cliché. And Clair, I guess. I didn't like her at first, but her sweeter sides show a lot in the supports and the later story dialog. the DLC helps too. Least favourite is probably Berkut. The main story pretty much explains why.

Sonya actually pointed out that she's not old enough to have a child that old when Genny told Sonya she reminds her of her mother. Headcannons, huh… Well, two rather sad ones: whether you fought Dean or Sonya, the other didn't really die (I wish), and

I just tried to promote Faye to Titania Lv 1, and she lost the Anew (Again) spell. I was wondering if she will ever learn it again (perhaps by raising her to level 14 again)? Can anyone confirm other cases of losing spells upon promotion?

Too bad, then. I'll have to wait another day.

What I mean is that you can't enter the sound test, close the 3DS unit, and have the music continue playing if you have headphones (or external speakers) connected. This is a feature in many DS and 3DS games and utilities, including IS's own FE12, FE14 and Nintendo 3DS Sound.

Nintendo advertises that being able to download games at 00:00 as a reason to prefer download versions of the games. I guess this doesn't apply to DLC?

I'd say… FC: With Mila's Divine Protection (Celica 1) 3DS: What Lies at the End (Alm 2) My favourite battle theme is the one you hear in Act 5.

Pretty much this. Story, music and graphical style are great, but there are a few gripes here and there. Problems inherited from Gaiden aside, I also find even the added parts (such as weapons) not well-balanced. Also, why the horribly compressed 2D movies and the non-support of playing music while the 3DS is closed? It's weird that you can play music in the sound test of New Mystery and Fates, but not Awakening and Echoes. Just… why? I have yet to see a proper Fire Emblem game that managed to satisfy me on all fronts. If I have to pick one, it'd be The Sacred Stones — not my absolute favorite, but it also doesn't have obvious flaws in parts that I deem important (balance between classes is a big one). But that's a rather biased view, by the fact that it's the first FE I played seriously. EDIT - That's my assessment on whether Shadows of Valentia is the best Fire Emblem. My answer on the poll question itself is different. "Do you feel like the game has more life than any of its predecessors?" The answer to this is a resounding yes. It gives a much better sense of immersion than any of the previous games, including Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (which has voice acting in story cutscenes but not the NPC dialogs).

Hard/Classic. Had to go start grinding as soon as mid-Act 3 on Celica's side,and for Alm I had to grind before Act 1 ended with the aim to have the villagers promote. Since then, Alm's side didn't need much grinding thanks to the sheer defence of Alm and Faye. (I'm aware that some post-game enemies ignore DEF, so blindly throwing Saint Faye to the enemy's side won't work.)

I am, kind of. I still don't like Gaiden's utter lack of balance (I'm generally a fan of being able to pick whoever I want in the battles) and the annoying maps; I just forgive those mistakes and accept it as part of the intentional game design. If I have it my way, I'd actually keep Gaiden's map and story, but change the battle-related parts (maps, class system, and potentially weapons — no more 1-5 range nonsense) to match the modern games. But I also respect the decision to keep those as-is. I always promote at level 20, because I find my units to be far higher than the next class's base even at the time they gain the required levels for promotion. Not waiting until then seems to be a big waste in terms of preparing for the post-game, which I have no idea what the required power is. I'm actually seriously thinking about waiting until overclass level 20 before venturing in.

(The version I bought was the Japanese Valentia Complete version. I bought it on release date, but started playing 10 days after.) I've finished Act 5. I've been rather slow at it for various reasons (I started the game 10 days after release), but here I am. One big thing I wanted to say is that this game reminds me a lot of when I first really got into this series with The Sacred Stones. I don't know exactly why, but both games felt emotional to me: The Sacred Stones because it was effectively the first story-oriented game I played seriously, and Shadows of Valentia because its music, voice acting and RPG-like aspects make it very easy to get immersed. It helps that The Sacred Stones was partly modelled after Gaiden, but I think that's not the main reason. I was pretty thrilled to see a Fire Emblem game that crosses the SRPG border a bit. It feels a bit like an adventure game and a visual novel. I'd even say I want to see this in a future game. The remixed music is excellent. The Alm 2, Celica 2 and final battle BGM are all pleasant surprises. The ending themes are all great; although this is something you can say to the earlier FE titles as well. And this game is probably the best video game remake I've seen. It's a good mix of old and new, and generally doesn't give an impression that the original is better in some aspects (at least to me; this can be very subjective). It also mixes in the new additions very smoothly, unlike Shadow Dragon and New Mystery, which scream "these new chapters and characters are not part of the original". I can obviously see that the development team improved a lot over time. Though they're all on the same system, Awakening, Fates and Echoes have increasingly improved 3D, with model clippings being less visible this time (they still do exist, though). They've probably pushed the (old) 3DS to the limit with this one. The character models still aren't good enough for closeup shots though, which kind of kills the mood when you get to cutscenes that use those models. IS has never been that good with 3D or physics (see every and all pre-3DS 3D Fire Emblem or Paper Mario), and it still shows - although it also shows that they've improved a lot. And I do have a few gripes. One is the utter lack of balance for both the original (class system) and new parts (forged weapons, skills, and the nerfed Triangle Attack); particularly jarring seeing that this came out right after Fates. A lot of Gaiden's problems carried over, although I'd say those are forgivable, seeing that being faithful to the original is a goal here. And the videos are of a worse technical quality than Awakening and Fates, being 2D videos with obvious compression artefacts. The biggest "problem" I have with this game is that it's rather short. You don't even get to see half of its weapons and skills, or get anyone in to the third tier, by the time you finish the game. The post-game requires a far better team, but that part feels rather artificial. I can't really comment since I haven't started it. Overall, I do really appreciate this remake. As a game, it's not really the best I've seen; but as a story-telling medium, it really shows the effort the development staff put into it. The full voice-acting, the extra writing that actually feels like a Fire Emblem story, and the sheer fact that they're willing to put so much into the remake of what's probably not the favourite FE of many people. Here's hoping they can learn a lesson or two in both the creative and technical sides and make good use of this experience in the Switch version.

My experience is that if they're the same enemy type in the same dungeon, they'll spawn the same. This doesn't apply to enemies that correspond to other enemy symbols than the one you touched (the ones that show up like reinforcements), whose position roughly correspond to their relative position to the enemy symbol you touched. I know this sounds confusing, so here's an example: Suppose you see two Gargoyles in front of you, and you touch the left one. The reinforcement will appear at the top-right. This is just what I've deduced from my experience though, so take it with a grain of salt.

Resets do work, even if you're already in the battle preparation screen of a non-dungeon battle.

I managed to use the Turnwheel to avoid enemy criticals or player hits, so I'd say the game did generate new random numbers. Growths are fixed the moment you enter a battle. I avoided bad level ups by not levelling up the affected units for that battle, and wait until the next battle. Because of this, I often end up with a lot of units with 99 experience points.

(Laughs at the orange thing) I actually do prefer having the arrangement in the game. Having a battle preparation screen in the dungeons where battles are frequent can get in the flow If you don't like how your team is arranged, just rearrange them for the next battle. The order isn't that hard to remember, either. It's always the same formation with the same order, and the enemies' starting position isn't hard to remember, either. You can also choose not to strike first so that you can move the units however you want and wait for enemy phase. Agreeing on the retreat mechanic though. It bugged me in Radiant Dawn too.

I like it, not for undoing deaths but for undoing level ups. Level ups in this game are so awful, and I really appreciate having a way to throw away 0- or 1-stat level ups.

Now that I've finally reached the final boss and I'm fighting him right now, I've got a question: Update - never mind. I still don't have the answer to my question, but

The world map works like Gaiden. You select Alm or Celica first, then move. Choosing the destination and press A like you'd do in Sacred Stones won't work; it'll simply bring up the menu.

I don't know if anyone brought this up before, but there is a damage upper limit in place. Your damage output for any single attack is maxed at 120. I wonder why is such restriction in place, seeing that you don't have many enemies with more HP than that.

I think they meant things like the prologues, level limit of 30 for those who can't promote, the weapon triangle, and items like the Brave Axe and Hauteclere. FE1 treated certain unit types pretty badly, and FE11 balanced things a bit. It also had new characters that no one would get (the recruitment requirement for those ended up making me skip that game).