JimmyBeans

Less about maddening mode, but promoting the use of non mounted units without taking the fun away. I like that canto is a thing again, but I wish enemies had a lot more effective weaponry to make you have to be careful where you place your op mounts but then again, dismounting is an option so I'm at a loss.

On that topic I think that it's not that axes are so bad in most games, it's that a lot of games give you bad axe users. People like Barst, Titania, Minerva, and Othin are examples that Axes themselves aren't horrendous, just that a lot of the ones you get early in other games are pretty trash. The GBA fighters I think color most peoples perception.

On the topic of show don't tell I hate when FE games are slammed so hard about this. spending lots of resources to bring to life very minor story elements is such a waste of time and imo just bogs down games. FE4 has some really good gameplay-story integration, the Yied "event" comes to mind in ch5 because it uses FE's formula to make every persons play through unique to an extent with people dodging and such , even though the end result is still the same. This was an important enough event for them to go out of their way to "show" us. Yet I have heard the same game get criticized for just telling us about the tension between the lords of Augustria and Grandvale on the map overview rather than showing us that. To me that is such an inconsequential nitpick. FE certainly isn't perfect in this regard, stuff like the tragedy of Duscur could of used some more showing because it would of been impactful on almost the entire BL cast. But before you criticize a game for giving a little exposition over a map, please think to yourself if it really is important or not.

Honestly what would be really cool is if they kept Hardin as the same cav class but instead gave him unique animations to match the style of Aurelis, a unique sprite as well, and give the same treatment to his paladin promo to maybe look more like his Cipher art which is really awesome.

I know people might disagree but I find horseman to fit Hardin better than cav/palladin. Maybe it's just his look and where he is from that makes me think that.

Anyone who knows anything about Ace Combat games knows it has a political, and grey moraled story through the majority of the game, only to end with the player having to single handily take down a crazy super weapon or nuclear facility flying through really tight spaces and underground caverns. They like to end on the power fantasy where the player sits back at the end and thinks "that was epic". I feel the same design was used to design most of the FE's, and often they feel really out of place or shoehorned because they wanted to replicate the success of the original game, yet it seems they often forget what made Medeus good in the first place. Atleast I can agree that some of FE's attempts have come closer, but the most successful ones imo are the ones that try something something different. The themes of a lot of FE games really don't have the time or proper pacing for power fantasies at the end.

I'm glad you enjoyed it! most people right SD off as bland story and boring gameplay, but I think it excels in both of those categories. It's also a really fun game to iron man, the gaiden requirements make a lot more sense if you look at that way.

Ya this makes a lot of sense given Elice would be more concerned over Marth's safety being away from the war rather than the most tactical position which is Aurelis. On the other hand this makes me wonder if Marth's existence in Talys is what caused the pirates of Galder to attack in the first place, what stopped them from doing it before given that Talys has no military? Maybe they were just taking advantage of the war since no one could help Talys at the time? Or maybe they were tipped off by Gharnef who certaintly knew what potential threat Cornelius bloodline could be, which is why he takes Falchion and Elice. I like to think Gharnef found out where Marth was and tipped off some pirates to get rich off Talys hoping Marth would die as well expecting him to be weak. Also in chapter 2 Ogma says I've always found it weird that randomly 2 Grust Cavaliers are with the pirates trying to kill Marth, and that they are there because they know he is there. Maybe this was also a result of Gharnef, or maybe with Lorenz's connection to Talys he, out of duty, notified soldiers of Marth's existence. I know this is a little off topic but this thread got me thinking.... Also PS @Acacia Sgt I just needed to fanboy a little bit because I finally found someone on SF who appreciates one of the best games ever made. <<It's Time>>

Jeralt was more developed for sure, but his death was definitely not nearly as impactful as Greils. Also considering that it was done by Kronya, who I still don't really get the point of, made it a little worse for me as well. Both of them died leaving a little mystery which can be discovered later, but Greils death fit in to the events more smoothly as well. The revenge on Kronya also was really fast and Byleth didn't even get to do it, wheras after multiple encounters with the Black Knight Ike, at the end of RD, has a new vision of the Black Knight and has moved on from his fathers death and now only sought retribution rather than revenge, yet at the same time respected the deeds the Black Knight has done while in his true identity. Greils death was the source of a lot growth, and while Jeralt was leagues above the depth of many father figures in the series it just wasn't at the level of Greil.

Ya if your not planning on cheesing it that endgame takes so much preemptive preparation and planning ahead of time to beat and you STILL lose most of your units. On a side note your title made me think that it would be really cool if there was a way for people to send in save files to a really skilled player and have him try to salvage runs in multiple different FE games, that would be something really refreshing for FE content creators to do.

While it comes at the expense at other characters his development through out Shadow Dragon is amazing, he has become my favorite lord strictly from how he changes through the course of the game. It's a shame he had to be changed, and while the current Marth has it's own Merits, It still suck that what we got in Shadow Dragon will never be repeated. As a unit I like him being decently weak because I try to connect the story and gameplay as much as I can when I play games, so picture him as the determined leader who wants rallies everyone to take his country back and defeat Gharnef and Medeus while he let's renowned warriors such as Hardin and Minerva do the heavy lifting in terms of combat. 10/10 for his Character, and the fitting unit that he is.

Chapter 23: I was given a little bit of trouble by this chapter, but my team is very strong so once I knew when the reinforcements were coming it was pretty easy. I didn't really have any preps of note so we started the chapter and went for it, though I must say I am pretty much out of Javelins which is a shame because Gordin didn't get one. I immediately ran Marth up with a key to get the 2 chests while everyone else ran to the right. Even though Linde has been pretty behind the whole game and doesn't have the stats to combat Gharnef and a Horde of Mages by herself, she has a pure water which was the only reason she could do it, I was determined to have her kill Gharnef, because when I play the honor usually goes to Merric. So after I picked off some of the Bishops I sent In Linde and she crit and killed the first Gharnef which was a fake. After that I used the first save tile and flew Minerva up to kill some of the swarm Mages, healing her with Physics when she needed it, she did pretty good until the reinforcements warped in, which I completely forgot they did that, and it doesn't help that they all have Thorons and have innate crit chance on pretty much everyone. After going back on my save I had beck snipe all of the swarmers and felt dumb for not using roger... I completely forgot that his luck growth was so high, it's especially weird that he is my highest luck unit being my berserker, so he is the only member of my team that is immune to any crits from all the Thoron Mages, so with a pure water he killed them all via hand axe. Roger has really started to pull himself together lately. Once the reinforcements were clear we moved the rest of the team up just in time for the second wave in which it got pretty crowded. Luckily we were able to get through with no casualties and we killed the second fake with Hardin. Also Dolph is still getting good levels, and now almost has the speed of a enemy base H5 Palladin. After that we killed the boss and I wanted to give Linde every advantage she could possibly have against Gharnef so I pure watered her and put her on the boss throne, to which she just crit Gharnef in the face with starlight annihilating him, thus we got Falchion for Marth. Chapter 23 was completed in 23 turns... how fitting.

I don't mind to requirements, it helps when you know why they are there in the first place, FE is designed more around the "Perfectionist" play style now a days so this system can look like a turn off for many people, which I understand.

It is gone until the chapter ends and then it goes to the convoy. as for the Gaidens you get a some interesting side stories but the units don't bring anything to the table that aren't already covered, but there is some use you can get out of them like Athena's bases makes her really useful for chapter 9, which is pretty hard unless you put a lot of levels on Ogma, And Etzel has a Novelty for being a Sorc at base... Pretty much all of them have some base utility but not much that can't be replicated with units of the same class if you train them. I can tell you that they are Godsend in some of my H5 Iron Man runs, especially since their recruit chapters are so easy. As for who you should kill you are safe offing anyone for the most part, but I would recommend anyone who isn't Jagen/Abel/Caeda/Barst. On your way to 6x I would only suggest sparing Wendell and Hardin, because they are pretty dang good, but they aren't required. Since it sounds like you enjoy the re-classing aspect a lot you might like Wolf and Sedgar (just look at their growth rates) and Wendell's base speed allows him to function in any class which can be a lot of fun.

Chapter 22: Man what a delay! Ive actually had this chapter done for a while I just ran out of upload space on this thread for the pictures and I didn't have the motivation somehow to go to a third party site to do it (even though using imgur turned out to be the fastest thing ever). I'm a lazy idiot, but I'm OK with that. As for preps we did the unthinkable (not really), I used the stat boosters from the secret shop. Minerva only really lacked killing power, Rogers hit was atrocious, and Draug lacked damage the whole game, which was only salvage by his speed early on. Once the chapter started I had Beck snipe out the fortify curates while everyone else ran up while the first squad of fliers flew straight at us, Dolph just hard tanked them. Did I mention how tanky Dolph is? he is going to cheese so hard for the rest of the game, probably only the last level is going to be really difficult. We cut all those enemies down and I remembered how annoying the reinforcements are in this level, in fact if you wait too long a swarm tome bishop that moves will come form one of the forts, so I warped Dolph on one of the tiles and started to move up. Meanwhile I finally made a decision and had Marth get Starlight, I just couldn't let the opportunity slide since Marth has already done so much this play through, Also Hardin has enough speed to not be doubled by Medeus, so it's very doable. After Dolph spent a few turns thinning the numbers we ran up and blocked the forts to let Minerva have her 1v1 with Michalis, in which she stomped him. It's no surprise here honestly, if you train Minerva she wins pretty easily, and if you don't then she loses pretty hard. After that Marth had to catch up and we seized. Chapter 22 was completed in 20 turns.