[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I don't think the core demographic has changed at all, if I could pick up FE7 at fucking 11 years of age and clear the game on HHM by the time I was 12, you don't need shit like that in the game.

I know FE was about to die as Awakening was released, I'm surprised it lasted as long as it did, but I don't think making the game easy as hell is what helped it survive. It's the other shit, the fact that there's now a metric fuck ton of replay value in the games. Now you have DLC stories, you have pairups that let children happen, you have a map you can travel to grind if you want, you have paralogues out the ass, you have spotpass character battles, multiplayer, the games themselves are also longer in the main story.

I think what was killing FE wasn't the difficulty. Now, I'm sure it played a part, but I think the fact that ALL there was to do in FE (save maybe FE6 and FE8 for their post game battles, but those pale in comparison to post-game play in the newer titles) was clear the main story and reset into oblivion. Now you can pull 50+ hours out of a SINGLE playthrough easily. Replay value means a lot to gamers, especially the handheld market. Because in the handheld market, you don't have console peasants (that's the PCMR inside me talking, forgive me) grinding it out for 12+ hours a session on first person shooters. It's not about multiplayer, it exists, but it has never been the core value of the handheld market. Hell, I'd venture to say the Pokemon series is what carved out the staple of handheld markets.

With handheld games, you have a demographic who is going to sink a lot of hours into their games, not play a game once, put it down and buy another. The 3DS library isn't big enough for you to do that for more than maybe a year or two. So once you'd beaten the older games 2-3 times, that was it. So a lot of people weren't attracted to it, but somehow Advance Wars stayed alive for a long time without bending over backwards for new gamers.

I understand adding shit to help the noobs, but Phoenix mode didn't exist in Awakening, the magical title that saved Fire Emblem. That ALONE is evidence it doesn't need to exist, so it's you who is wrong.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

Most of my first conquest playthrough was using phoenix mode to get through the maps since this was when I just finished my 3rd normal awakening run and was pretty overwhelmed by the maps' challenging difficulty of conquest after being in the newbie area for so long. Then once I went on to hard mode in Conquest that was my first true taste of FE in general. It inspired me to return to awakening and play hard + lunatic mode as I waited for revelations to be released. It was when I had to go through Fedrick emblem that brought about my love for fire emblem. Now a days I like Lunatic Conquest's difficulty more than the rest of the game, and classic mode makes it soft resetting: the game if you can't take a loss like I couldn't.

And I felt mildly insulted the first time playing it since the game persistently flipped me off for choosing Nohr like it has an iron bias towards Hoshido or something. PvP just adds onto the beating the game gives you for picking Nohr. I never regretted picking the path I chose thanks to Conquest having returning characters from awakening.

I can understand the use of Casual mode to introduce a player to the series, but I don't really think Phoenix makes you better. It may give you a feel for the new mechanics in the Fates games, but as for the strategy element, you don't even need one knowing your entire army consists of immortal steamrollers who resurrect immediately after death.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I can live with casual mode. I can even live with having a path catered to the noobs. It's Phoenix mode that genuinely pisses me off, because it has no place in a strategy RPG. Hell, even casual mode makes it near impossible to lose, you literally have to lose all your units. Phoenix mode makes it LITERALLY impossible to lose unless you entire team gets steam rolled in the course of one single turn, even if you suck complete ass that's unlikely.

If you need the game to treat you like a baby and help you walk, fine. I disagree with it, I even hate it. I don't think things like that belong in strategy games. It's not about catering to everyone, because these games are made with a certain demographic in mind, and the strategy genre is by NO MEANS meant for casual gamers who want a cake walk of a game. That'd be like adding a first person shooter mode to World of Warcraft. It's not about catering to everybody, it's about catering to your loyal fanbase, the demographic meant for the game.

So all this "Let's all have fun!" shit is just, I don't know. It makes my soul die a little bit, I believe in trial by fire. It's enabling a mentality that has ruined this world on a grand scheme, not just one in video games. I grew up in wartorn Serbia, so maybe I see it differently than most people on this forum. I know I'm right about one thing, a game isn't meant to cater to everyone, they all have a demographic, a niche, and shit like Phoenix mode and even Casual mode shits on the core demographic that kept the series alive as long as it did alive.

I rest my case, I'm not going to argue about it anymore because I won't be swayed. To be 100% honest my ideal world is sort of the same as Ashnard's, minus the destroying it with Yune part.

TL;DR, I don't fight for my friends. I fight for strength and intelligence. The weak fall behind.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I'd need a flow chart to describe everything wrong with that logic.

If you're the kind of gamer who likes to play on modes where losing is literally impossible, then the entire strategy genre isn't for you. It's pollution, end of story. Challenge is fun, because anything otherwise makes you a person who wants everything handed to them. I'm not going to pat you on the head and tell you good job when you didn't earn it.

Plain and simple, it ruins the spirit of the series and the genre. I'm by no means the only person who thinks this way. Casuals do gaming no favors. Go buy GTA and enter the god mode cheat if that's your idea of fun, the genre is strategy RPG. Not "I'll get sad if I lose mommy" RPG.

Casual and Phoenix mode isn't real Fire Emblem. It's not a real battle, maybe it's because I've served in active combat in the USMC and I know that too well, but when you get struck down, you're either gone forever or in no shape to return.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

Doesn't a game stand for fun? Isn't that why companies build games to encompass a variety of levels/modes/routes so that whatever a player wants to do is fine because the game is designed to play that way? Honestly, I'm one of those people who only plays on Phoenix and also grinds because the number one reason I play video games is as a destressor in my life and I'm the type of person that constantly losing, resetting, or having character die isn't my idea of a fun time. So I spend tons of time grinding and tweaking my characters to make them exactly how I want and can then work through chapters without any worries. But since FE is supposed to be a strategy game and I still go through my game playthroughs using strategy with the enjoyment of knowing if I screw up I'm not going to waste the previous hours of play how exactly does that ruin what the game stands for? Anyone can play their preferred way and I don't see how that negatively affects the game's representation at all.

So I'm ecstatic to be able to play Conquest in the way that's comfortable for me. Though I prefer Awakening a bit more for story and MU purposes, I really appreciate that the game designers had a broader picture and community approach to allowing all levels of gamers to enjoy every route, since Conquest is my favorite too.

I don't think steamrolling the game with zero challenge is fun or what FE as a series was ever meant to be. Go play FE1-FE5, the games that laid the groundwork for the entire series, and see if they let you play the way you do. You can play however you want, but as someone who has been with this series for 13 years, I consider everything you just said to be FE blasphemy. There's a reason arena/boss abuse, RNG abuse, OP character abuse, etc. is frowned upon and hated by a lot of players. It's not the people who do it that bothers me, it's the fact IS included it. That's not what FE was meant to be when that ragged ass game came out in 1990, it's clear that was never its vision.

The genre is strategy RPG, there's no strategy involved in grinding your way up to steamroll through the game. Challenge is fun, I believe in a world with no participation trophies, if you flunk, you try again. That's just who I am.

[chapter 25 hoshido, what on earth is this?]

IIRC, I had married Azura, so Kana!F and Shigure used dragonstones to tank the left side. Ryoma paired with his wife (IDK who) and Hinoka with a Guard Naginata worked the right. MU, Takumi, and others cleared out the middle on the first turn and then split off to help whatever side needed it. I turtle-pushed out the two sides and up to the chest. MU got caught by the Entrap, but it didn't end well for the enemies..

It was Birthright Hard, but in the game's defense, I was ridiculously overleveled as I had been grinding EXP DLC for skills and for fun. About 1/2 of my team was Lv 35+ promoted, and MU and Azura were paired up with every good offensive activation skill I had access to + Aegis&Pavise + Hoshidan Unity + Nohrian Trust. GG, Nohrian scum.

This, minus the getting entrapped and having over leveled characters, was essentially how I did it as well. Except I used Ryoma paired up with his wife Rinkah for wicked Defense and Strength boosts along with Takumi to basically steamroll the left flank of enemies. I also used my Kaze (who turned out exceptionally well, I also used virtually every energy drop I had on him to increase his strength up into the 30's, I also had his defense up into the mid 20's with Dracoshields. Combine this with exceptionally growths due to the right luck and Kaze was probably my best character on that run) to pick off a lot of the enemies Takumi or Ryoma either couldn't one turn (this was VERY few, usually due to a miss) or enemies they couldn't target that turn.

[chapter 25 hoshido, what on earth is this?]

The 50% was just a random number I pulled out of my ass, that wasn't the point. I'm aware that FE1-FE5 used one RNG number draw, FE6-FE12 used two and FE13 and FE14 are back to one. Either way, the RNG is much more functional than it was in 6-12, there's no way to deny that. The 6-12 RNG will condition you to false percentages. I cannot take "There appears to be something wrong, but nobody can prove it." as functional evidence for it not being accurate. You can easily prove the RNG in 6-12 is not random. Don't get me wrong, I'm sure the RNG system still isn't perfect or 100% accurate, but it's leagues better than the bullshit I faced in 6-12 because once you play those games for years you can literally guess the next numbers, and on top of that you can lose numbers by RNG move tile abuse.

Well i actually am doing this on hard, i did conquest hard on chapter 10 and that was pretty tough too.

i think the reason why birthright is giving me issues here is that i'm not grinding and I definitely prefer the unit types on conquest in comparison, i have never been a believer on "dodge is better then defense"

I didn't grind in Birthright either, I don't grind ever, not unless it's expected grinding (for example, the Villager class, or catching up piss poor units that you literally have to grind to make functional) so I'm not sure what your issue is without actually watching you play your own way since we're all different. If I remember correctly the entrap wielders will eventually leave their position at the top of the map and draw in closer, so if you turtle it out until that point you can knock off a majority of the reinforcements and then even if one does warp you, the danger is minimal.

I remember positioning my units on the very edge of the entrap staff ranges in sort of a zig-zag formation. It only took a few turns of Takumi and Ryoma to completely wreck the reinforcements and the Wyvern units that were already there coming down from the left (with the aid of some other units of course, support roles) and I just hard turtled it on the right until the Strategists came running down into range. If they're not immediately in range when they run out and there's still a bit too many enemies up there for you to be comfortable risking a warp, simply retreat back out of range. Try your best to anticipate the range AFTER they move by comparing their movement range to your positions along with the entrap staff range.

Maybe I just look at too many details, I'm a notoriously slow FE player. Lunatic mode and some of the older titles has conditioned me to play like a grandpa because I actively avoid any real chance of risk.

[chapter 25 hoshido, what on earth is this?]

I honestly don't remember a single map in Birthright that gave me even slight trouble. I do remember this one, what I did was just turtle it out until the Strategists come galloping down toward you. At that point, you'll have killed off a bulk of the on-map enemies and you can rush them before entrap becomes an issue. Patience is one way, but the other way is to just make sure the unit who gets entrapped can hold themselves very well against a bunch of Berserkers and magic attacks. Ryoma really does break the game in Birthright, so using him is a given.

I played through Birthright all six times (so far) on Lunatic, so I don't know what difficulty you're going at it on, but that was my method. If you think this map sucks, try Conquest Hard/Lunatic Chapter 10. That fucking SUCKED.

Late game Birthright is honestly kind of BS because of how everything ends up playing out. The majority of Hoshido characters rely on dodging to avoid getting killed, and with Fates' famously finicky RNG this can be a problem.

By finicky do you mean accurate? This is one of the first FE games to have an RNG where 50% is actually 50%. There's no true hit bullshit or easily predicting/manipulating the RNG like you could do in older games. The RNG in Fates is actually RANDOM. Even a 10% hit chance still hits 1 in 10 times, and it's not always 1 in 10, just like how flipping a coin can yield heads ten times in a row. It's unlikely, but possible. Using confirmation bias to choose to remember only the times when enemies hit you on low odds will warp your perspective. You can get 50 crits in a row on a 2% chance. It's EXTREMELY unlikely, but you can. In older FE titles low %'s were screwed because of true hit, which conditions you to false percentages because you'd rarely see 40% hit chance enemies ACTUALLY hit, but you'd see 75%+ hit chances land nearly every time.

I encourage you to download an RNG viewer for the GBA titles during emulation just so you can physically witness how bullshit the RNG in those games actually was. It was NEVER random. Two numbers kind of breaks the system, not to mention how the game draws it's NEXT values isn't exactly random either.

I grew overtime (as in over 100+ play throughs of each game, been with FE for 13 years) to hate the older titles at times. Namely the GBA series. They were great games until you played them SO much you literally had guessing the RNG down to a science, which is entirely possible when the RNG isn't actually random and you can accurately guess the next set of numbers by adding in the numbers you just got in combat. Not to mention RNG abuse is stupendously easy in those games.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

The fact you have to pay for it is kinda bad, but actually it doesn't really change anything.

​It's similar to Arena Abusing in FE5 in a way (though less extreme). Because Conquest's gameplay isn't really based on numbers.

And while it can helps you midgame, in the end game it will be pretty irrelevant.

The main thing it helps with is making Mozu useable (and that's still not that easy.)

Mozu is a great asset, but that doesn't make her really game breaking.

And Benny still pain to gain few levels, because of how damn slow it is.

And it won't be there for the early game, which is still the hardest part of the game.

Did you already watched FE videos of newcommers (Fates or others.) (And I know it's bad for the heart).

Hell, do you remember your first FE playthrough?

My point is that it will only be used by people who needs them.

I know that myself, I'm a pretty mediocre player, even if I started with FE7.

And even in Normal/Casual with the helps of the Boo Camp DLC, this was still challenging, and a rewarding gameplay experience.

​Obviously, I'll never use Phoenix. But if someone can be convinced to try Conquest (and enjoying it), with Phoenix used as a bait to try it, then I'd consider it a great addition.

I'm inclined to disagree with the sentiment that it won't make a big difference. The entire aspect of what makes Conquest HARD is the extremely limited amount of gold, exp and weapon rank proficiency. Play through Conquest on Lunatic/Classic and other than the Paralogues (which I feel are fair game) don't grind a single bit. You will get wrecked, your soul will be crushed, you will reset again and again. Mostly because you get RNG screwed, but that's irrelevant.

I've gotten FE down to a science, I'm extremely good at it. I don't say this to brag, anyone who had been playing Fire Emblem for nearly 13 years like I have AND has completed the ENTIRE series + spinoffs would be retarded good at the game. You run the same chapters over and over again in the older games on the hardest difficulty settings, it literally forces you to get good. It could take the most mediocre joke of an FE player and turn them into a pro.

So maybe I'm just different since I've been invested in this series so long, I've gotten it down to a science. Conquest changed that up, Conquest was the first FE I've played in a long, long time that genuinely felt like I was experiencing something NEW, and it was also challenging because it limited you to the bare minimum. This reminds me of FE2, which is a game I hate but you don't really get shit to help you in FE2 and the growth rates in that game are fucking tear jerkingly low. Phoenix mode shouldn't exist period in my opinion, I get casual but playing on Normal/Phoenix AND using grinding is literally just ruining everything the game stands for. It's not a strategy RPG at that point, you can just rush through the game like a button masher without a single worry or trouble. It's IMPOSSIBLE to lose a map in Phoenix mode, considering EVEN IF THE AVATAR DIES, the game goes on (Casual is like this as well) and then they come back THE NEXT TURN. So you're literally immortal. I think this pisses on what FE is supposed to stand for as a series.

So yeah, the addition of paid for (this is honestly the worst part) DLC maps that let you grind for gold, EXP and weapon shit is just a bit crushing for someone like me. I've seen this series get stepped on HARD ever since FE8 (and that wasn't that long after I even started) in terms of difficulty and Conquest was such a breath of fresh air, the first since Radiant Dawn and FE11/FE12 and their higher difficulty modes.

Don't get me wrong, Conquest is still the best game in the series in my opinion, but I think things like that should be reserved for Birthright, and if it was for MC battles, it should be reserved for post-game playing.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

It's kind of like Phoenix mode, of course I don't have to use it, but it sort of taints the game in spirit.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

Regardless of what it's intended for, though I do admit that's a much better use of it and it makes sense, some people will use it to grind their characters into oblivion. I'm just happy it scales with story progression, meaning past a certain point it will be literally useless unless you want to kill 100 units per level until you progress further in the game.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I just played Boo Camp (DLC) for the first time in Conquest and it saddened the fuck out of me.

WHY in the ACTUAL FUCK would they include a DLC made solely for EXPERIENCE/SUPPORT/WEAPON RANK GRINDING in a game that's supposed to keep grinding to a BARE MINIMUM?

This is fucked, I'm genuinely angry. I suppose the saving grace is, it's a DLC and you don't have to buy it or play it, which I definitely will not be doing. Though by this same logic, none of Birthright's Challenge grinding is something you have to do either.

Fucking A, IS makes some questionable fucking decisions sometimes. They literally added a grind service that COSTS MONEY. So basically, this is a paid for hand out for those casuals who still want to experience Conquest. I hate that, I really do, I think if you want to experience Conquest and you suck at FE, you could play through Birthright on a harder difficulty until you get the game down. Not just give IS money to make the game easier. Fucking christ.

"Hey there! Do you suck complete ass at Fire Emblem yet still want to experience Conquest? No worries! For $2.50 you can buy this DLC map that lets you grind until you're an overpowered stub and go on to ruin the entire concept of this path! Woohoo!"

My brain hurts. They should've just added save stats and an arena that gives Gold/EXP/Weapon Experience to My Castle if they wanted to ruin the concept of the game for the low cost of $2.50.

[Defending the Story of Fates.]

I feel the Paralogues (and DLC) in Fates was its weakest point in terms of story. Every single Paralogue in Fates felt extremely empty in terms of story and none of it really tied to the main plot. Awakening had this issue as well but at least the Paralogues in Awakening were a little more fleshed out, the Fates Paralogues literally feel like objectives with no real descriptive elements past the parents briefly talking to the child. Awakening did this in some but most of the Paralogues actually fleshed out the antagonist in the situation (The Boss) a little more.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

The Awakening DLC is definitely NOT free, I think one or two things is but overall there's over $60 worth of shit in there. I bought it all like the sucker I am, I can't resist new Fire Emblem content. Same with Fates, which I feel had good DLC but that's one of the weak points of Fates, the DLC wasn't as good as it was in Awakening. Neither were the Paralogues, they felt really lacking in description and story. I wish nearly every single Paralogue in Fates and Awakening didn't focus on children or recruiting past characters from the story. I like those aspects, but having some Paralogues that ACTUALLY had firm ties to the main plot like the gaiden chapters in past games would've been really nice. In Awakening and Fates almost all the Paralogues focus on recruiting your children or recruiting some character you previously encountered or saw in a past game.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I honestly wish the difficulty would've carried over to Revelations, as I understand they need a noob friendly game in the series, but Revelations is just as bad as Birthright if not worse in terms of nerfing the difficulty.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

^ This, this so hard. People were so fucking spoiled by the Tellius series in terms of story they walk into every single new Fire Emblem game expecting a story just as good if not better. Don't get me wrong, this would be great, but as Abvora said, FE has NEVER been a series that was known for its strong story (hell the entire JRPG genre is like this, and most other strategy games are like this too. Strategy games and JRPG games focus entirely on gameplay, story is just a bonus. Even if there was no story these games would still be just as fun) and the like.

Sure, Tellius let us as players know that FE CAN have a good story line, but I feel that Tellius is 90% nostalgia at this point. People overblow the story past what it was because it was the first FE to have a real story that didn't lack a whole lot, so people choose to remember it as this game with some shining plot. Tellius had a good story, but it's definitely no The Last of Us or Bioshock in terms of how good the story was.

Walking into any FE expecting the story to blow you away is like walking into Hard mode on Sacred Stones and expecting a challenge. You're gonna have a bad time. Just appreciate them for what they are, try not to focus on it too much. The story may not be amazing, but it's not broken and it works. That's all that counts in a series that's built entirely around gameplay and sideline character development in supports.

[Defending the Story of Fates.]

In Conquest, the blood sibling who [spoiler=SPOILER]dies would be Ryoma, and after you defeat him in battle he does what any good Samuria would do and commits seppuku. This is supposed to spare MU the despair of killing his own brother, but in my opinion driving him to disembowel himself right in front of you after defeat isn't much better than just killing him yourself. Especially since seppuku would be a brutal, horrible way to go out.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

What happened in that first sentence? Lol.

The reason I can't get behind the veins is because how how stupid and gimmicky most of them are. A lot of dragon vein abilities show up in one or two chapters then vanish completely, and the rest of them kind of fuck with the difficulty. Now, when there's royals vs. royals on the battlefield and BOTH sides have access to them, they're not as bad, but when you're the only one with access, it just breaks the difficulty at times. For example, on Paralogue 6 when that Adventurer bitch was running away, I killed her on turn 2 (and this map is really long, winding and full of enemies) because a DV allowed me to burn the forest down and shortcut straight into her with a paired up Kaze and MU.

[Defending the Story of Fates.]

Been with the series since the PAL version of FE7 dropped for GBA, and I've cleared every single Fire Emblem title. I liked the story of Fates, let me explain why in terms of a list.


1. I didn't go into it with the intention of comparing it to the story of older games.

2. I never expected it to blow me away.

3. I don't need world building to appreciate the plot, it does help, but I don't need it.

4. I've played this entire series cover to cover, since the beginning it has been up to its teeth in tropes, archetypes and things of the like. I'm conditioned to it.

5. The supports may not have been the best in the series but since it's much easier to access supports in the newer FE games, (unlocking supports in the GBA titles was fucking ridiculous, the amount of turn ending and support grinding you had to do was worse than abusing Dancer classes up to level 20) so you get to see far more of them.

6. Say what you will about the story, but the fact that it's centered around making a huge choice in the start was a cool aspect to me.

7. I feel it was better than Awakening which had the Valm branch off which was literally just filler. Sure, you find out in the ending that you were sent to Valm for a reason which I'll avoid spoiling, but even then it really just feels out of place in the story itself which is why it's just a plot filler arc.

8. Despite all of its sins, it stayed true to the game being about family and country most of all, and it never strayed from this.

9. This is a Fire Emblem world where people have feet, Awakening had a world full of stumpy peg legged weirdos.

10. The tribes and such which are autonomous from the countries around them was a cool aspect.

11. The ambience of each country is very fitting in terms of the overall feeling to the plot of each path. Nohr is very dark and it has this true feeling of an empire to it, where Hoshido actually feels like a peaceful faction of feudal Japan.

12. The royal families were actually fairly developed as characters in my opinion.

13. There wasn't really any filler in the game, the plot never steered off its path much and that's nice when Awakening had 1/3 of the game that just completely flew out of the left field.

14. I honestly feel the explanation of time passing faster in the other (and safer for children) dimensions was a better explanation of how your children ended up in your army than that falling out of the future shit Awakening pulled.

15. It has multiple paths instead of one and only one of them is considered canon.

16. Even though I know it has problems and is far from perfect, I still acknowledge the little things that make up for this.

17. I don't let the Tellius games fill me with expectations for every other game I play FE or not. (People actually do this)

18. The classes and weapons you got access to in each path felt right for the region you were playing in. The country you're fighting for affects more than just the main plot and the chapters you play and I thought that was nice, there's an actual difference inside of the gameplay when you change paths.

19. The My Unit character feels much more fleshed out than MU did in Awakening. This isn't to say MU isn't without its problems in Fates, but MU felt like an actual fucking character in Fates, where-as the mysterious stranger found with no memories aspect in Awakening didn't really work until late game when you found out who you were. Awakening feels like the entire story could exist without MU, Fates isn't like this. Plus if you compare the Fates MU to the FE12 MU then you'll really get a taste considering FE12 MU is literally totally forgotten by the in-game history.

20. Certain aspects [spoiler=SPOILER]such as Kaze dying in Birthright if he doesn't have an A support with MU

make the story itself feel deeper as it could alter the way things happen based on choices. It's a shame this wasn't used more in Fates.


Now for the bad.

1. MU is the most morally centered idiot on the planet in Conquest, MU will whine and cry, go on these rants and then turn around and go against everything they said in the following chapter.

2. The pacing for supports into marriage is just fucked. You go from making a cake to pushing out babies in the drop of a hat.

3. Though I don't feel it's needed, there definitely is a lack of world building in Fates.

4. If you don't play Revelations there will inevitably be a lot of holes that don't get filled, and even if you do there's still some holes left in the plot.

5. All of the paralogues and xenologues felt really empty in terms of description and story content, Awakening wasn't as bad about this.

6. It's not Tellius.

7. The fact that [spoiler=SPOILER]MU can spare uber good Kaze and Rinkah the epic benchwarmer in the start of the story but yet then goes on to massacre people including his own adoptive/blood family (path dependent) despite his moral bitch moaning.

8. While I liked the bulk of the supports, some characters support conversations are flat out boring and it felt like the writers just ran out of ideas.

9. The whole alternate dimension thing was never really explained as much as I would've liked it to have been, in fact a lot of shit in this game is never really explained well.

10. Things are a bit too black and white, Nohr is just blood thirsty and evil while Hoshido is full of people who would loan you their last $20 to go buy crack.

11. Both games (especially Revelations) throw a lot of characters at you that never really get any proper development in the main plot or even their supports.

12. The continent in which Fates takes place doesn't even have a fucking name.

13. The inclusion of more anime tropes than usual is a bit annoying for my personal taste.

14. The shit characters say (or really the absolute lack of it) when you invite them into your fuck pad in the castle. They just repeat the same vague lines every single time.

15. I feel the whole bonds thing for A+ supports and marriage with MU could've included a lot more than just blowing on your husband/wife after their bath and prodding them vigorously until they wake up when they're sleeping.

16. Not sure why, but Awakening and now Fates have the main protagonist as a full fledged fucking dragon in terms of heritage. This is just strange. Not to mention the dragons in Fates look fucking stupid.

17. Azura's enigmatic role in the game lacks explanation entirely, even in the end I don't feel enough detail was given to her in terms of her true purpose and backstory.

18. A lot of this game typically ends up just giving you bread crumbs that lead to nothing. You're given the bare minimum of detail most of the time.

19. Sometimes shit was just predicable in the plot, sometimes laughably so.

20. The amount of deus ex machina shit in this game (this is something that exists ONLY to further the plot to the next point and it usually makes little to no sense or is just downright stupid) gets old. Like magical exploding crystals that nobody knew what were yet a certain character knew to shuriken one in a time of crisis.



There's a lot of good and a lot of bad in Fates. I just take it as it is, I like the story, but I was not blown away by it and I realize it could've been done much better. I think the biggest sin Fates pulled was the same thing wrong with Sacred Stones (only Sacred stones made this mistake in both gameplay AND story, where-as Fates only did it in story) which would be the creators getting so ambitious they threw too much shit down on the table and didn't make full use of it. Fates has a plot line FILLED with so much potential that was just wasted. I feel that with some work the Fates story line could be the best in the series. There were a lot of strengths in Fates that could've done so much for the story if they were fleshed out more, but as a result of them not being this way, a lot of the shit in the story just feels empty and sometimes even gimmicky.

Luckily, Conquest saved the series for me in terms of gameplay. I cannot get enough of Conquest's gameplay.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

Conquest made me wonder why Birthright and Revelation were even necessary; if the map design is so superior, and the vast majority of players enjoy it that much more, wouldn't it be better to just stick to that formula and let new players play on lower difficulties, and maybe add a few extra hints, perks, or whatever to help the people who are really struggling, rather than to make more basic maps?

To make myself clear, I really don't want to exclude new players. I think casual mode and things like that are great since they allow for newcomers to get accostumed to the game and not be punished for their mistakes - or hell, maybe veterans want to play that way, which is totes fine. What I'm saying is that I think Conquest's map design should be the norm in the future, and that there are better ways of having easier options available than to make entire games that are less difficult.

I don't oppose the three path split at all, because firstly, it's an addition to the story because you get to see how the game will play out through each and every choice. You either side with one family or neither, and that was cool, but the main thing is it essentially made Fates as a whole a LOT longer which I cannot complain about because I can play FE all day and not get bored.

Birthright is a great tutorial if you're planning on going Lunatic mode in Conquest later on, since Fates added SO much new shit to the game, Conquest would absolutely fist you on the higher difficulties starting out if you were blind to all of the many new added elements. Since the bulk of new classes (which is a LOT of classes) are Hoshidian, Birthright lets you personally use and enjoy most of the new classes AND it lets you know how the majority of enemies in Conquest are going to behave since you have used those same classes. Plus Birthright is just a more, ambient game overall. Conquest isn't noob friendly (in terms of this is both your first Fire Emblem AND Strategy RPG game) and I could see it from a business standpoint killing off a large portion of the crowd Awakening brought in (which saved the series) because they lost their face roll easy grind happy play style. Revelation exists because, well, it's canon and it brings together almost all of the characters from Conquest and Birthright.

I get what you're saying, but I dig the idea of the split. If Conquest was the only game, we might not see another FE because part of the reason Fire Emblem was dying is because MOST of the people who pick it up will completely bomb at the game unless it's on a low difficulty. Conquest would turn off at least half if not more of the current FE audience if it was all there was. Revelation is just a bonus that includes the canon story and extends the game further.

Since North Americans and even Europeans on a mass scale are used to their games basically wiping their own ass for them, you essentially have to have an element to cater to them. I think Conquest is fine the way it is, even so much as adding optional grinding and easier difficulties to it would just pollute it in my opinion. Even if you never intended to use them, the fact they were there would bother me because Conquest is so pure in terms of gameplay when it comes to staying true to the STRATEGY element of Fire Emblem which has been lost over the years.

Like I said in my last post, if you're going into Fates with the intention to play all three paths (namely high difficulty Conquest) I think you should start with Birthright. Birthright can function as an entry tutorial to the Fates mechanics and it literally throws all of the new shit (Classes, the new Triangle Weapons which are all Hoshidian, etc) in the game at you from the very beginning. It also makes you appreciate Conquest more if you come to it straight after clearing the laughably easier Birthright first.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

The only real problem I have with Conquest's story is that the morally centered rants MU would go on every single chapter, only to end up doing the very things he kept preaching he didn't want to do right after those rants. That's not so much an issue with the story itself, just MU as a character. I think the supports in Fates were rather lacking for some characters (though not all), especially the marriage supports. The pace at which all of it happens is just very odd. It's basically C. Find some vague shared interest between the two of you, B. Talk more about that interest, make plans to pursue that interest together, A. Talk about how the experience went, usually something quirky or whimsical happened and then S. The ring is busted out and babies starting flying out of mommy.

Those things were annoying, but the base plot is something I liked, and the tension between MU picking between families and then having to battle one or the other was something I did enjoy. Revelations had this at the start, as you essentially shoot the bird to both, but then of course everybody makes up. I think Revelations was strongest in terms of plot and story, Birthright was strongest in terms of showcasing all the new things Fates brought along with being the more ambient game in terms of the world and scenarios and Conquest was strongest in terms of gameplay itself which is by far the most important factor.

With Fire Emblem basically as a whole, you have to go into it not only realizing but accepting that it's NOT a game built around amazing plots and storylines. Tellius showed us that FE CAN have a good story, but it's nothing you should bank on just because it was done once. The brainchild behind FE games changes damned near every game, so there's no telling what you'll get in terms of the story. I've found that if you accept that the story is not going to blow you away or suck you in, you can appreciate it more. It's a strategy RPG that is centered around war, and you get MULTIPLE characters instead of just one. So investing becomes broader and by extension more difficult, which I feel makes it harder to construct a good plot when you have to make the player feel invested in the characters. If you walk into it with neutrality, you can usually appreciate parts of it just fine. Just don't dive into every FE thinking it's Path of Radiance or Holy War.

Though I do think Birthright is a valuable tool. I think people, regardless of how good they are at FE or how long they've been with the series, should play it first. I think people should play through all three of the Fates plot lines for starters, but Birthright can be useful in a sense. Birthright introduces you to all the new mechanics added by Fates a LOT better than Conquest does, and sure, this sort of makes Birthright a 26 chapter + endgame long tutorial for the Fates titles, but it really helps when you move onto Conquest because you're familiar with how all the NEW elements work. Because as I said, Conquest brings a lot back from the older FE games and that's why I love it, but it also has a lot of the newer shit going on.

Going into Conquest on Lunatic blind will likely result in an absolutely soul crushing experience because you have no idea what the fuck is going on and the internet will have made you think since you played the GBA series you're as ready for it as possible. Birthright lets you get a long, hard feel for the new weapon triangle and the trade off you make for weapons that each have strengths and weaknesses that will impact your experience on the battlefield along with their unlimited durability. Not to mention the bulk of the new classes introduced in Fates are Hoshido based, so playing and getting a feel for the classes that you will be battling through the whole of Conquest is useful knowledge as well. Knowing how all the skills work is valuable too, but Awakening can give you a feel for this one.

So even though Birthright is extremely easy, it's an invaluable tutorial if you plan on diving into Conquest balls deep on Lunatic on your first play through. Not to mention it's one side of the story you get to experience and it's still a great game on its own.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I forgot to mention this, but the addition of people actually having FEET was also something I enjoyed about Fates.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I'm too in love with Fates as a whole, but Conquest has absolutely stolen my heart. Conquest was a breath of fresh air I've been waiting for since FE10, but unlike FE10 which destroyed supports and had a great story that was told very poorly which made it an OKAY story at best, it actually did pretty much everything it went for right. The ONLY thing I don't like in Conquest is the dragon veins, simply because they're a bit gimmicky. There's a few times where they can be of strategic value and save the day, but most of the time they're either just tools to make the map easier or tools to do pointless shit.

Depends. Gameplay wise? Yeah Conquest is really fun and probably one of my faves.

Mainly Gameplay wise, yes. Though I do really enjoy the Fates storylines, but I don't think anyone plays Fire Emblem for its story unless it's the Tellius series. I honestly think the Tellius series is a bit overblown in terms of how good its story is, I think the thing that makes Tellius shine in terms of story is how well it incorporated its world building. The storyline of FE9 was great, while the storyline of FE10 was strange and did very well the first half, then well on its face during the latter half.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

Birthright and Revelations are just, too easy. Especially Birthright, grinding out the ass plus early access to Takumi and the relentlessly overpowered Fujin Yumi he carries along with Ryoma and his OP fucking Katana.

[Was anyone else absolutely smitten with Conquest?]

I know the newer FE titles get a lot of hate, especially Fates, but I absolutely fell in love with Conquest. I've been with the series since right after FE7 first released in Europe (I was born in Serbia and lived there most of my life) and managed to snag an English PAL copy. Immediately, I was head over heels. Smash didn't get me hyped, and I didn't come into the series late. The second it left Japan, I was on board. On top of this, I've played through and beaten every single FE game AND the spinoff/related titles like the TS games numerous times. So needless to say I'm no series noob, and the older Fire Emblem elements everyone seems to love is what I knew the second I fell in love with the series.

Now, I love Awakening (I love all FE games, except FE2 and FE5 though I still enjoy those titles) a lot, and I even like Birthright a lot as well (it was really ambient and you got access to most of the new classes immediately) and Revelations I feel had a good story, even though it wasn't quite on par with FE9 and FE10. Though I still have this, pit, in my stomach when I play those games because they're missing some of what I came to love so much all those years ago. Conquest, cured this. Now, Conquest is STILL a lot different than the older Fire Emblem titles, the new weapon triangle system is still present, weapons just go on in terms of usage forever, forging exists, the castle shit, etc. I LIKE all those things, I genuinely hope they stay because you're not just calculating how much a weapon weighs anymore. It used to be, any character with high constitution could use whatever weapon and suffer no penalty for it. In Fates, using shit like Silver weapons can cripple your next attack, and Steel weapons can prevent you from doubling outright.

A lot of people bitch and moan about this, but I rather like it. It adds more strategy to the game, as do skills. It's no longer as cut and dry as it used to be, now, provided you're playing on a harder difficulty where you haven't ubergrinded the hell out of your characters (Which Birthright and Awakening let you do RELIGIOUSLY, Conquest doesn't give hardly any grinding options which I love) you're actually going to have to make some REAL calculations when you're playing through the game. Older FE got too easy, even on the hardest of difficulties. The RNG system was extremely predicable and was even easily manipulated, weapon types had no drawbacks other than weight, some characters like Swordmasters and Berserkers could effortlessly become OHKO machines when given killer weapons and how much damage an enemy could do was all easily calculated.

I see a lot of bitch moaning over shit being luck based. People really don't like it, I guess I can see why because it's entirely out of their control. The thing for me is, luck is a REAL factor on REAL battlefields. On a real battlefield, you can't just predict and calculate your way into perfect victory after victory, if so this planet would have one country, The United Empire of Earth. Adding luck based variables like certain skills triggering, a less predictable RNG system and some other things makes the game feel more real, and it's a looming variable that makes you weigh your choices more carefully.

Conquest did what I dreamed of, it kept all the new shit I loved with the newer games and even added some of its own new and good shit, but it also took away a lot of the things that made the newer games laughably easy and brought some of the old school FE traits back. Now, I do not think Conquest is as soul crushingly difficult as a lot of people say it is, though it DOES have difficulty, but there are times on Lunatic (and even on Hard mode early on in the game) where Conquest will absolutely fist you. This is not a bad thing, if you don't get wrecked by the game every once in a while, you start getting careless. Getting wrecked makes you a better player, plain and simple. I also really enjoyed the Fates storylines, because I don't nitpick for tropes and the like when FE is a series that has been littered with troupes and archetypes since its birth.

All in all, the comeback of the older Fire Emblem elements that prevents you from going godmode on the game by grinding your team into oblivion as well as making the map goals a bit more diverse was really, REALLY nice to see, then that combined with the new elements in my opinion makes this the best game in the series.

Though the Dragon Veins are fucking stupid, there's no getting around that.

Anyway, I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, this IS just my opinion. Though I'm just making this because I wonder how many old school FE players really liked Conquest the way I did due to the wonderful combination of old and new.