MiaMain

I have Corrin ahead of Byleth, since Dragon Vein can be used every turn. I don’t know that the conversation here has given enough credit to frequency of use. Yeah Goddess dance is good, but you only get it once or twice a map. Ike’s defense buffs are permanently active.

Really hoping for NG+. Some of the mechanics were different enough that I made some mistake (should have actually read the tutorials) such as reclassing to try and get other skills. I'm not quite done the first playthough, but all the side content like donations, bond rings, etc. is kind of tedious and I would hate to lose some of that progress by starting a new game. I found easier to replay when there was less of this side stuff as building units was less tedious.

Not finished just yet, but far enough that I have a good feel on who's who (Ch. 18). Kind of reminds me of RD, because like the dawn brigade, most of the early units are mediocre or outright bad. Best: Yunaka (Thief) - Using her sparingly to not break the game. Dragon Vein is ridiculous on her. Anna (Warrior) - Magic weapons let her delete enemies Celine - Glass cannon, but can tank a few hits and has good speed. Healing means she's always gaining exp. She's my MVP most maps. Ivy - Similar to Celine, but with more movement. Disappointing: Chloe - usually love pegassuses, but she's a limp noodle and a stiff breeze will kill her. She can't even pick off mages Fogado - Not sure what I did wrong, but he's almost as useless as chloe. Stuggles to even take out fliers.

On hard and haven't really struggled, but I just finished Chapter 14 and felt there was a pretty big jump in levels. Fighting 4 bosses (with 6 life bars) at once was kind of tricky as most of my characters are swinging pool noodles. Haven't done any side content yet, so might have to do that next.

The big thing that has bothered me with supports in recent games is how they all come up at once. Like supports in older games were staggered more so you weren't slogging through 20 minutes of boring dialogue. This also helped make them more memorable because you weren't going through a half dozen support convos back to back.

Seems like IS wants to lean heavily on old characters since they have had good success with Heroes, and have tried this before with awakening. I don't really get it myself, as while these characters are technically in these games, they are kind of empty characters without their own story and world. Like Ike is in Engage, but without Tellius and his allies, he doesn't really have real character. This is fine for heroes, which is just a mobile game where the story doesn't really matter, but in mainline titles, it detracts from the world. I think the series would be strengthened by taking a step back and focussing on the story they are trying to tell (3H was good in this regard). I did really like the skills that came with the emblems and the associated gameplay improvements. Kind of wish they were locked to certain characters as it makes everyone seem more unique and brings more utility to certain characters. I kept benching people this game because stronger characters just kept coming, and there was no punishment in terms of growths or limited levels. While not my favourite story, I really enjoyed Cindered Shadows, in large part because battalions were individual-specific and you had to carefully strategize over who to use based on their overall utility.

I would think they have to bring in some sort of new game plus mode. Forging the rings is basically a waste of time if you can't carry over to new games.

Does Ike’s opening in Radiant Dawn count?

An option to skip most of part 1 on subsequent playthroughs. Was a real grind when they were all basically the same.

Same problems since awakening. Characters can be buffed so much that even on hardest difficulty the game becomes easy after the first few chapters. I thought cindered shadows was a much better challenge because of how limited builds were.

Ah, thanks. Not sure about Anna, I filtered, and looked through at least a dozen times.

Just getting back into this game again, and have had some trouble with stuff disappearing. I claimed Ninian from compile, but she never showed up in my barracks. Then today I just got the free summon to get Anna and she also disappeared into the void. Anybody know what is going on?

I just thought the way they transitioned from the conversation at the monastery straight into the map was jarring.

Was it just me, or did this paralogue seem incomplete? Like they never actually mentioned what they caught the suitor doing. Felt really disjointed to me.

"Gray Area" Her personality screams Mary Sue, but she has a few actions that contradict that.

It's often a fine line, but I think the big thing is when the feats come at the expense of the character. Like I wouldn't call Ike a Mary Sue because he had a decent character behind him (moreso in POR). Byleth follows basically the same arc as Ike, but really doesn't have any character being a silent protagonist. It's also when it starts to get to the point where it is annoying and over the top, which is different for everyone. I think Rey is the gold standard (especially in 8 and 9) as she had incredibly vague goals, no real relationships with any of the characters (knew Finn for like a day), and just kept inventing new powers with no training whatsoever. I think Micaiah is sort of a gray area, because her whole character is basically about how perfect she is. She does suck in-game though, so it kind of evens out. She would have been better suited as an antagonist for Sanaki/Ike from the beginning. She also makes poor/evil decisions, so she isn't a true Mary Sue.

I think you just have to play a lot. A lot of it is how you set up your skills, weapons, etc. beforehand. You also have to have a handful of strategies up your sleeve that you can pull out in a tricky situation. I think FE Heroes would actually be a pretty good learning tool because it is all about repositioning units and learning about the canon skills. Word of caution that Heroes has an ungodly amount of content, and can get old quickly.

I liked it for the most part. It worked better near the start of the game when you have to manage uses carefully. Before long, you have tonnes of spells, and it mostly doesn't matter which one you use as there aren't many enemy units with good resistance. Some of the spell lists did seem weird in terms of support spells. Like how does Manuela not have physic? I did like how different characters had different spells though. I just think it needed to be broken out better like you get one offensive, one support, one longer range, and one healing. Some spells get absolutely busted with infinite uses too. Constance with 4 boltings (usually more with conservation crest) comes to mind. Not many chapters took much longer than 4 turns anyway. There just needed to be more scarcity of uses. I'll also add that healing gave way too much experience. Like my physic users were always 5+ levels ahead of the rest of the team. I'd modify this system for the next game, rather than revert back to the older systems.

I'll highlight a few. I do like most of the characters from the Tellius games, especially the enemies. Best 1. Mia - I have a love for dodgetanks, and she is the best (maybe in all of FE). Vantage was awesome in POR, especially when paired with wrath. In RD, she is basically untouchable after a couple chapters in part 3. Yeah, most characters are awesome in that game, but she just takes so little effort to be good. I also liked how she kind of just pops out of nowhere in POR. 2. Ike - He just has a really good character arc, and I've just always liked him. 3. Shinnon - Love how much of an asshole he is. He isn't great in POR, but he is godly in RD. Snipers are basically the avo of Trueblades with the def of Generals. Shinon takes basically no effort to be soloing maps. 4. Jill - Her hate of laguz makes here a really important character in building the world. Watching here change her perspective in support convos is one of my favourite parts of the first game. 5. Lethe - Similar to Jill. I like her design, and she is actually decent in POR because she transforms early. I'm not big into playing laguz, and truth be told I've only used her once, but she always stuck out to me. 6. Ranulf - Love his personality and brotherhood with Ike. Ranulf's personality shines in RD, even if he isn't very good as a playable character. 7. Black Knight - The fear he gave in As Blood Runs Red, and the way he looms over the entire game is awesome. Don't really like the retcon in RD. 8. Caineghis - Just a cool red lion. 9. Tibarn - A good contrast for Naesala personality-wise. 10. Nephenee - She's basically mia-lite. POR Nephenee wrecks with vantage-adept, and RD Nephenee is the only good Crimea character (Haar not counted) worth using. 11. Haar - Cheat code in RD, basically irrelevant in POR. 12. Stefan - Just looks cool. 13. Reyson - Best dancer in FE. His character arc is probably the most interesting one in the game. 14. Titania - The axe animations were awesome as she slaughtered everything in her path. 15. Elincia - Always wished we got to use here and here infinite brave sword earlier, but she is a very well developed character. Most Controversial Astrid - One of my favourite POR characters. You have her shoot towards enemies for several chapters, then all of a sudden she is one of the best units in the game. One of the easiest villager archetypes to get up to speed because she can canto out of trouble. Too bad she is awful in RD, and ends up chasing Makalov. Worst Micaiah and all her shitty friends - Mary Sue character who never appealed to me. She is awful for 90% of her own game, then she becomes good for a few chapters before entering the tower and becoming basically irrelevant again. Dawn brigade sucks. Maybe if they had a real support system I would like them better, but all I can think of is their first part 3 appearane where they get mauled by laguz. It's basically impossible to raise part 1 characters higher than 2-3 levels above the first promotion, which is woefully insufficient in part 3. Sothe - Why is he forced on so many maps when he is so awful after part 1.

I only really used them if I had made a major booboo. Pretty OP imo. They were handled much better in Cindered Shadows, where battalions were unit specific, and played a huge role on some of the maps (Ashe in second last and lords against final boss).

I found dancing pretty much useless this game as dancers have a hard time keeping up.

I think the most memorable cast was POR, since everyone seemed to have a part to play in the story. It's also a more entertaining when you recruit characters, as it makes them more memorable. Radiant Dawn just mooched off the FE9 cast and nostalgia, but that's ok. Awakening had some of my favourite characters (Tharja, Henry, Owain, Lucina, etc.), but also had a lot of meh. Those would be my top three, then probably 3H comes in next, although I don't really think there is a character in this game who would be in my top 10 FE characters. Maybe not even in my top 20. I'm a little foggy on the GBA games after not having played them for a decade, and I'm sort of skipping Fates because I was never able to finish it without getting bored/burned out. When I saw the teasers, I thought everyone looked pretty lame and sameish, but turns out there was some substance there, and I was pleasantly surprised. My favourite was probably Constance because she just nukes with bolting, and her personality is pretty entertaining. Ashen wolves might be my favourite house, despite their story being kind of ridiculous. Petra would be my other favourite, as I thought her accent was quite endearing. The one thing I thought kind of hurt the game is that all the support convos seemed to come up at the same time. At times I was slogging through like 20 supports to the point where I had to put the game down. There were also a few characters I hated like Ashe and Ignatz. The other thing is that I felt like the Golden Deer were kinda just squeezed in last minute. None of the Church teachers have any ties to the Alliance, and that made it harder to enjoy their characters, particularly in part 1, as they weren't really involved with the story. That and the route is literally a carbon copy of the church route. And sort of along that vein, the story in general didn't really feel finished. I'm on my last playthrough (Edelgard), but I'm still really unclear about those who slither in the dark vs Rhea and how Nemesis/ten elite all fit together. Every route so far has ended pretty abruptly, leaving a lot of questions unanswered. Giving all the characters right at the beginning also sort of takes them out of the story and makes them feel less important.

I'd say constance. Hard not to like someone who is nuking units from a distance. Hapi had the best character, just wish her monster skill actually translated somehow.

Micaiha. Horrible unit unless you feed her kills for all of her first two tiers (before timed promotions kick in). Then she is mediocre for a couple chapters in part 4 before heading to endgame where she is once again trash. I hate her, and I hate all her friends in the dawn brigade because they are all trash. Her personality is also dumb as she is basically a Mary Sue, but she also has no morals of her own when it comes down to it and she decides to involve herself in a war that doesn't concern her.

IDK, fates is the one game I just couldn't finish because every time I put it down I didn't want to pick it up again. I just didn't find the story good, the my castle gameplay was boring as shit, and the gameplay bugged me, since it basically relied on you abusing stat buffs/debuffs. I want to go back and play it, but less than I want to play 100 other games.