IshiharaS

Yeah, great point and definition of what "broken" means. With that in mind I'd like to point out that certain GBA FE game allows player to enter debugging mode without any external tools, and literally take full control of enemy units. One can see example of that in any% speedrun. So can we really say Awakening is the most broken? Or do we need additional criteria, like not taking into account any glitches or mechanics intended for developers, and focusing solely on things possible in the intended way of playing?

One could argue that every turn-based SRPG with unique characters serving as units, 2D maps, overarching plot, variety of equipment, promotions and such, is based on FE. Simply because FE made it a mainstream thing back in the day)))) You seem irritated at my comment "especially if you haven't played many SRPGs beforehand". It's not me assuming you haven't played SRPGs. It's me pointing out a reason as to why people might struggle with Awakening. That's all. Who knows why you struggled. It's not an unreasonable thing to happen anyway.

I'm sure you did. Especially if you weren't playing too many SRPGs beforehand. Two years, five years, no difference. If you're stuck, you're stuck. Remember Tactics Ogre I mentioned? The game you can set up to breeze through literally from the start? And the method is right there in front of you, called Training Mode. I got stuck playing it in junior high, finally beat it in university. More importantly, as I keep writing again and again, I'm arguing against people putting Genealogy and Awakening on same level of "broken game", if not putting Genealogy as even more broken. Why? Because methods to "break" it, to set it up to be not a challenge at all isn't as clear in Genealogy as it is in Awakening. That's all. I'm not saying Genealogy is somehow extremely difficult and Awakening is a child's play. I'm comparing which one is easier to "break" on a blind run. Awakening has random enemy spawning maps. That's the difference. One doesn't have to know anything to see those maps on the over world and click on them. Will everyone be able to do that? Not necessarily. But the option is still there in plain sight. Just like I could've broken TO and yet got stuck, people will get stuck in Awakening as well. As you have proven. Yeah, strange, isn't it? I can totally picture people saying to me "wait a second, if Awakening is Waifu Emblem, what about Genealogy? Don't you literally do the same things? Pair up characters, breed the offspring, "ship" all over the place, how are they different?" I don't know. Perhaps it's the story. Perhaps it's the overall feel. Perhaps it's overabundance of supports in Awakening making it look like date simulator on a picnic. Perhaps it's the mixing up of current and later generations which make kids look like they're literally bread just as weapons of war. I can't exactly pinpoint what it is that makes me dislike Awakening and scorn at it. Oh, and being more in line with "proper" FE doesn't help. By "proper" I mean having tiny maps, overflowing items, gigantic cast that does nothing for the most part because you can't even deploy everyone, etc. That's just my own cursed preference. The same goes for most FE games. I'm not a fan of most of FE even though I did try playing most of them. The one translated as Three Houses was a pleasant surprise. Finally a game I really liked. Others though? Never even touched them. Seriously. So, dunno. Awakening saved the series (I couldn't believe it when I learned that was the case). But new fans were different. The tastes and trends changed. It's inevitable. And it's not like new fans will go out there and purchase Genealogy, which is a sfc/snes game. Too many consoles stand between sfc/snes and current ones. Even if they did, chances are they won't like it because it's too different. While I complain about tiny maps in other FE games, people complain about huge maps of Genealogy, for example. First three games got a remake though. But at the same time I was never a hardcore fan of them. So, yeah... I don't know how to feel about series being saved by becoming something very different. Is it a good thing? Objectively, yes. Do I care for the new games enough to celebrate it? No. So there you have it.

Nice. Let me deal with your reply in parts. The grinding. Any game with experience points does offer some kind of grinding options, not just FE. What I focused on was the easiness for recognizing potential grind spots on the very first playthrough. Games like Awakening, Holy Evil Shining Stones, or Tear Ring Saga, they all have common feature. You do not need to know beforehand the places and situations you can exploit, nor do you need to make adjustments on the fly when you recognise the potential for grind mid battle. All you have to do is open the overworld and you'll see game showing you unlimited exp points. That's what I meant. It's far easier to access compared to blind playthrough of Genealogy. Or take original Tactics Ogre (snes/ps1 port) for example. It literally has Training menu after completeng first two maps which are carried by NPCs you don't even get to order around. Spend a dozen hours, get mc to around level 18~20, and literally solo every single map. No one takes that to claim that original Tactics Ogre is broken. But no one can deny that the grind is one of the easiest in it. You can literally put in auto pilot, go do your thing, come back in evening, and boom. OP units. If you had to know a certain spot and technique to do that though, it would be more difficult to perform. That's what I'm getting at. And as far as I remember, didn't Lunatic and Lunatic+ require you to beat the game first in Awakening? So that ain't happening on the blind run. Everyone's favourite point to bring up. The horsies. Also the point I truly do not understand in full. I can think of exactly two maps each having one section where you're forced to leave infantry behind if you want to receive bonuses. That's it. Total of 20 turns max. In the whole game. For bonuses one doesn't even need. Start of chapter 2 and start of chapter 10. So I fail to see any reasons to favour mounted units over infantry in all other cases. Size of the maps is brought up, but it's not like you have to traverse it from side to side and back without stopping. The objective is usually right there. Or there are multiple fronts opened simultaneously. So why abandon the infantry in a blind run? I don't know. In fact, one of my favourite tactics was to form a wall of infantry to stop the initial charge and breach the enemy line with hit-and-away cavalry to later encircle and annihilate the enemy forces. Works just fine. That said, if we're talking about ranked runs things do change. It is true that in order to minimise the turn count you'll be forced to leave 60~70% of combat to cavalry. How many people do ranked runs on blind playthrough? Not that many if any. It will require a complete guide to follow, which means player will know exactly what's up. As I mentioned, knowing what's to come and not knowing are two big differences affecting the overall difficulty. Ardan and Hannibal do have a disadvantage. But so what? Two units. Out of 40. Each has a specific place they can shine at. All one needs is to have lvl 5 Ardan to march straight north in chapter 3 with a brave sword or pursuit ring or both, to have enemy hordes suicide against him later on in the chapter while you're doing something else. Hannibal can singlehandedly deal with besiegement in chapter 9. That's quite enough in my opinion. Taking up tasks that would require other units to be used and thus interfering with overall plans. So to summarize, I fail to see any need to fix anything about the cavalry in blind runs. Or even in ranked runs. Speaking of which we get to the hottest topic. Sigurd. This is the point of utmost confusion for me. People claiming Genealogy is broken because Sigurd exists and is supposedly enough to dominate the game. I don't hear the same people saying "Man, Shadow Dragon is broken, You have Jaegan from chapter 1 man, why would you even deploy anyone when you can dominate the first half of the game just with Jaegan". It's the same thing to me. "Man, Genealogy is broken. Remember Jaegan from FE1? They renamed him Sigurd and you can dominate the first half of the game with him. You don't have any access to him in the main portion, but it's still enough to call the whole game broken." It just doesn't make any sense to me. Not only Sigurd is physically unable to fight on multiple fronts, which are very much a thing in Genealogy, he can't really solo absolutely everything with that nice silver sword he got. He still needs other units, even to perform game breaking glitch. And the more you rely on him, the more struggles await in main portion. The same people who say Sigurd carries the first half tend to have other units busy making love, gathering items, getting stat boosts and farming exp. Sigurd is only there to push the siege button once everyone else is ready. All that in order to have an easy main portion. It ain't SIgurd who makes second half easy (if one wants to, not required at all, even not taken into account by Kaga when balancing the second half. As he said, main portion is designed with commoners run in mind, with no second generation babies apart from auto pairings), it's everyone else. So let's talk about his replacement. Secil. If one is kind of player to be keen on efficiency and speed, to utilise cavalry over infantry, then the one will realise that Secil doesn't have any time for combat. He's needed in too many places asap to bother with actual fighting. So it doesn't matter if he can take out regiments alone, he won't even be there. Busy running around with Leif "The Resquer" and "Leg Ring Dancer". It falls to others to get in positions and actually take out main bodies of enemies. Secil can't even face Allion and his men, or Ishthor on his own. Ishthor only needs to double him from 10 tiles away to show you the Game Over screen. Which is very much a thing that can happen. So Secil doesn't really dominate anything even on ranked runs where you also need exp for everyone. Not just cavalry. On casual blind runs Secil is just another unit you can rely on to take out a certain enemy in a turn to help others. Like Jaegan. Even that isn't limited to him. Oyfey, Shannan, Ares, Lief (if he promotes around turn 5 in chapter 8), etc. And those units have other roles to fullfill in ranked runs. Like Shanna being the de facto thief with the thief sword in commoner run cuz Daisy sucks. Lief being "The Resquer" and Ares being the final trump card when you're stuck against Ishtal or something. So the neo-Sigurd ain't much of a deal. Even if he does promote on the very first turn of chapter 7. If he doesn't, you have your infantry lord forcing everyone to keep pace with him. So to summarize, if I don't plan to waste exp on Jaegan why would I waste it on Sigurd? A very strange argument to me that Sigurd breaks the game. Throw in the grinding portion, and you could say any unit breaks any game, but somehow it's Genealogy getting the flak. Yeah, plenty of games have hidden content. I don't see the point. Hidden content in Genealogy makes life a lot easier. Almost at level of gaining extra units. Like, who would consider Lex a strong unit without that brave axe? Or Leif an S class fighter from the get go without the pursuit ring? Difference is huge. Blind runs won't have those items. I have no idea who the characters you mentioned are, never touched Fates. So you lose a unit. Happens. You can lose a unit to one mistake in Genealogy too if you didn't pay enough attention. Especially in main portion where revival isn't even close to being guaranteed depending on how you play. I saw a guy lose both Fee and Altena on his blind run. With no revival option. Fee died in chapter 6, meaning he never had a flier to do the flier stuff. Like going on solo support missions. That changed the difficulty alright. Sure, you can reset, but so can you reset Fates. Go back to a save a couple chapters back if you're that invested in Robin, or whatever the character you lost might be. Don't have a separate save file? Can't help you. Same with Genealogy. Overall my argument boils down to "enjoy the game the way it was intended to". Just because one can perform credits warp in half an hour for FF6 doesn't mean that's the way people enjoy the game. People do it for records on any% speedruns, but play the actual game in a totally different manner. And no one says FF6 is broken. Though you can do insane stuff apart from credit warps. As for comparison between Genealogy and Awakening, it's the comparative easiness to dominate the game without any prior knowledge, just by looking at the map. That's the difference.

Ah, a fellow victim of the Genealogy Syndrome)) If I haven't tried Berwick, I would've voted and written the same. Thracia the best, Genealogy the favourite. Try Berwick. It will pleasantly surprise you if you get through first 2~3 maps without quitting. Quitting not because those maps are somehow insanely difficult, but because it plays in a very distinct and different style. I'm enjoying my second attempt. First attempt was years ago, and I quit after maybe 5 turns)) Now I'm 30 hours in and liking it more and more. Still only about a 30% completion. It takes time)) What I've seen of the translation patch is high quality. Immense work was done. But it really changed too much of the dialogue in my opinion. Half translation, half fan fiction. It's still good, just not in line with original writing in many places. Mostly presents characters in a very different manner. Which you won't notice if you only play the patch.

Ah, I haven't considered you already knew Thracia. The more reasons to try Genealogy))) See Lief's parents in action, get to know Finn in his younger days, get to know Travant even better, Altena, Corple, Brigitte, etc. Learn how the hell did things come to the starting point of Thracia 776, finally get to know what happens after. Lachesis, her brother, Beowulf, all the characters you most likely heard about. See what Thracia looks like and why the things are the way they are. Man, you got a lot to look forward to)) Ishtal awaits too.

Ok, I read this thread and am a bit agitated. Awakening and Genealogy are nothing alike, especially not in difficulty. Genealogy is my undisputed favourite out of 11(?) FE games I played. Awakening is my least favourite. I don't even call it Awakening usually, but Waifu Emblem. The kind of Emblem I hate))) Are they both easy? Depends. Awakening was very easy after a point. Unlimited exp, money and promotion items? Damn. What's the point of having 100500 characters then??? Everyone will cap, everyone will be the same, as you can freely move across classes. I can't recall a single name of a single unit. Granted, I never finished it. Got bored somewhere, maybe endgame, not sure. I remember nothing about the story. All I remember is breeding units to recruit into existing army and looking for random battles to cap some levels/stats. that's it. Is Genealogy a difficult game then? No, I wouldn't say it's particularly difficult, but wouldn't say it's too easy. I'm talking about blind runs only. It makes no sense to talk about game difficulty if one has done multiple runs. 99.9% of the games will be very easy once you know it inside out. SInce I only ever beat 2 FE games, I gotta use Three Houses as example. My blind run was on Hard, and it felt quite easy. Second run was NG+ Maddening and it felt very easy after a certain point. NG Maddening felt like the right difficulty, but even then I could grind skills almost as much as I want, so past a certain point my units got real powerful in comparison to enemies. At the same time, if my blind run was on Maddening, I would've struggled a lot due to not fully understanding original mechanics, and small techniques. Genealogy is same. It's easy once you know what's up. Like knowing the locations of certain items that have 0 clues ingame. Like knowing what's awaiting and planning for it. Kaga said the best difficulty for Genealogy is a commoner run. That throws out all the things people complain as being game breaking in the latter half. And of course that's not going to happen on a blind run. Unless the player comes somewhat prepared already, spoiled on certain things. Equivalent to playing with a guide by your side. Any SRPG is easy with a guide. Just do what it says. Sure, you can really break the balance in Genealogy, but you got to know how to do it first. Braindead "Sigurd charges and wins" will have you hitting a brick wall later on. People who do that avoid hitting the wall because they know what's coming and can invest in solving the issue beforehand, while braindead Sigurd charges. Besides, what's fun about that? You got plenty of unique characters, all with potential to be aces (if you work for it), limited finances, unique mechanics, why fall back to "Sigurd goes brrr"? Might as well leave a save right before the end credits and skip to it. What's the point of playing a game with grand plot, rich characters, unique implementation of lore and challenging options if you just want to press a button and win? Which you can only do if you already know the game. Unlike Awakening the Waifu Instinct. Enemy spawns assure you getting all the exp you might ever need just by looking at the map. You don't need to know about it beforehand. It's right there. Honestly, try a blind run. See your rank at the end. Look up some guides only after it and see how many cool tactics and events you missed. And then tell me "yeah man, Genealogy was so easy, I don't remember anything from it". If you do that, then I'll retrieve to my cave I crawled out of and start wetting my pillow in frustration as I won't have any arguments for you))) In you case you read this far and forgot, "Awakening Waifu Emblem was so easy I don't even remember anything, and got bored knowing I can beat it any time" is what I'm saying here. Genealogy though, I got legit stuck on final map on my very first playthrough, back in 1996. I still remember it. Half my army useless, a quarter dead. Only 2~3 units able to go against enemies and not lose, and I didn't even get to see final boss that time. Restarted from beginning. Arden was level 2 or 3, btw)) Now I call Arden "The Beast of Bridges and Keeps" and can do a lot of things in Genealogy. Still replaying it and really using my head and knowledge for ranked runs. Unlike Waifening. Lost all hope for the franchise back then. In no small part due to difficulty as well as "you must love waifus" approach in the face. Just not my cup of tea)))

Now then. Under the guise of "best Kaga game ever" (though I wouldn't say it's the best, Berwick is more refined and tiring for different reasons), I shall commence my advocating speech. First and foremost, it's the story. As a book lover I always play games as though I'm reading a book, so the plot plays a big role for me. I wouldn't say it's a very unique or refined story, but it does something you don't see in generic heroic sagas. It makes you care for the world and the characters even before the heroic portion starts. Kaga said in some interview that he was initially going for a 3 act story, but they had to completely cut out the third act, so things got kinda squished together. Genealogy is also a historic war drama, like Berwick, more than a heroic saga. Especially the first part. Every character got some flaws. Everyone is trying to accomplish something and ends up making things even worse in a way. Truly, pathway to hell is paved with good intentions. Like Berwick, you don't start out with an orphaned heir to a kingdom who leads band of rebels recruiting 100500 units along the way. The grand scheming goes on somewhere else while you're trying to do what you can in circumstances no one really wanted. So by the time the heroic portion starts you're already invested in the continent of Jugdral. Villains are unique and rich too. My top 3 favourite characters are all antagonists)) They bring color and depth to the story where it's not about good vs evil, though ultimately it is. Kinda. I take it more like us vs them. (As I'm writing I'm suddenly realising huge parallels to certain route in certain FE game. Yeah, that's probably why that route is the only canon route for me. Interesting. Curse of Genealogy indeed) SO that's what I appreciate about the plot of Genealogy. You get to see historic war drama, and not Conan the Barbarian battling Dark Evil Overlord while a harlem of 100500 waifus tag along. Urgh... Waifu Emblem is the worst for me. I legit almost lost all hope after playing Awakening. Even though it was Awakening that saved the series. Does that qualify me as Kaga elitist, I wonder))) Now onto actual units. They too are big part of me loving this game. Unlike other "proper" FEs, you always get to deploy everyone you got. Because why not? Why would part of your army sit in a base and chill while you're fighting for your life against hordes of enemies? That's the part that really gets me in other FEs. Why do I have to scroll through 30, 40, 50 units and choose 5 to deploy? Why not let everyone go? And then I can decide if I prioritize some units or not. That is of course impossible on tiny maps. With total of 15 enemies, there's no reason to have 30 allies. A shame, really. In Shadow Dragon you immediately get 3 axe fighters who are basically the same except growth rates. Why would I prioritize one of them when game doesn't tell me the growth rates? So do I take all 3 on any mission? Do I even need them for anything? They join my army and never get deployed, eating and lodging at my expense till I forget even their names. Not a fan. Berwick, on the other hand, handles this dillema very well. It makes total sense from the plot perspective that not everyone can go on any mission. That it really depends on any given mission. And while you do get access to like 20 units fairly early on, half are mercenaries. You need a certain unit for a job? You hire them. Each time. Makes sense. Don't want to spend money or use them? Go on, try doing everything with your official subordinates, that's a legit option. In Genealogy armies march across the lands. 15~20 enemy units, in a formation, with mixed classes who support each other, bearing down on your defense line is very much a thing in Genealogy. Not only maps are big, you feel the scale of conflict. Trying to engage in combat at different areas requires certain number of units. There are many things to do on a map. And again, you don't have to do it in one sitting. A chapter is a story arc in itself. Take your time, use everyone, spend a couple days. Not to mention how every unit is unique and has places they shine at. And they interact with each other. Support convos were born in Genealogy even though they're not really support convos of later FE games. Memorable and unique units, each with a purpose to play, with their own place in grand scheme of things. The interactions directly affect the latter part too. Even the game balance. So much that Kaga balanced the game to be at best challenging difficulty when you Let's look at my favourite mechanics now. The trading system. Love it. No more frantic searching for certain items, no more of keeping track of who got spare weapons, who got potions, buying iron swords just in case, etc. Number of items is very limited, and since they all can be repaired, there's no need for spare weapons. There's also no need for cheap weapons to grind the proficiency skills. Because the skills change only with promotions and are set depending on lineage and class. Genealogy version of Adel and Leon don't struggle with spears, they simply can't equip highest ranked ones. They don't even need to. Different mechanic encourages you to keep using just one weapon anyway, so there's no need to pass weapons around as some start to break. That said, it does help when you can pass certain weapons around, so you gotta pay the price. Same with bracelets. Genealogy bracelets give +5 to stats. That's huge. Cap is 30 for any stat, and classes like Palladins reach only 22 strength, for example. Imagine you could casually pass such rings around? Any unit could become a walking god of destruction. Well, not really. Relics are a thing, so fully boosted Ardan with capped stats will have 0 chances against a certain bard, for example. But it makes sense in the lore. A commoner should not be able to even scratch someone with a relic that turned around tide of war. Units get their uniqueness also through everyone using different weapons. You can tell what weapon is made for whom. No need to haul a bunch of weapons around and juggle them as different units get deployed at different maps. Everyone will have their own weapon. Being able to pass anything only through pawnshop makes you pay attention to warfunds as well. Which are personal. Yes. Everyone has their own purse and repair their own weapons, buy their own equipment. Lovers can give money to each other. Thieves can give money to everyone, but the ways you earn it are limited. Which takes me to financial aspect. Having personal purses alleviates my worries that someday I might run out of money to equip my army. Strong units cannot run out. They earn their own share. At the same time, financial management is of utmost importance in ranked runs. In order to make full use of everything available, you need a lot of money for everyone. Even for those who can't really earn it, or can't earn enough. The cap is 50k per unit. Certain rings cost 40k. To fully repair a relic costs 40k (if you actually used up all charges). When you sell an item you get 50% of its cost, so mindless passing around of the only Brave Lance in the game will cripple your wallet real soon. Things like that. Each unit has their own financial struggle, but if you can solve it through strategic planning, the benefits are immense. You can also choose to not be a money grubber and go with the flow. You'll still beat the game. Except half of your units will be so much behind, you'll struggle juggling multiple frontlines with a handful of aces. Who are not immortal by any means. Speaking of procuring the finances, we get to the Arena. I love meself Genealogy Arena. It's not infinite. You don't die when you lose. And that's the main source of income and even exp for some units. Each chapter (except Prologue) has its own Arena. Total of 7 rounds per unit. You win, you get paued, you get to challenge the next round opponent. You can also judge how well any unit might do on that map by how far they can go. Final two rounds are pretty much boss class units, so if you can beat all 7 rounds, you're looking good. Can't beat even the second round? No worries, go out and fight, level up, get some gear, challenge later. You can do it at any time during the chapter. It's very useful for certain obscure things as well. That said, right after completing an All A run, I'm so sick of arena I wish it never existed))) Because 60% of such run is purely Arena with hundreds of resets and literally hours spent on it. But that's a ranked run. There's absolutely no need to go that far since you won't probably even know certain techniques on your blind run. Even GBA FEs had abusable Arenas in that sense. You couldn't really do that in Shadow Dragon and Mystery of The Emblem cuz losing a fight would mean resetting the whole chapter. Combat mechanics. I like them. It's really a mix of unit skills, weapons and stats. Simply having high stats won't make a unit an ace, good weapons alone can't compensate (even if one could equip them) and skills won't carry you through if stats are too low. So a good mix of those things creates a very strong unit. Most units will have one or two available. Either skills, stats or good weapon. Using their strong sides makes up for lacking in other areas. You especially feel the blessing of skills if you mess up or do it the Kaga way. Suddenly what you thought was a meme unit starts to gain color and faintly shine in your eyes)) Any unit can become a beast. Because Genealogy promotion is a thing of it's own. Ever seen a +7 to strength on a promotion? Bet you haven't. Promoted Ardan is unkillable without any relics or even rings. A thief who kept dealing 1 damage to opponents suddenly becomes an A class frontline fighter. Pegasus Knight suddenly gains a whole new role it can play. Etc. It takes time and effort, but the rewarding feeling is worth it. No items required for promotions too. Just gotta get to level 20. I hear people complain that in Genealogy its the weapons doing the combat, not the characters. I disagree. Relics are overwhelming, but each one has only one user. Some units don't need no relics because of the skill sets. Some weapons can surpass relics in usefulness and even damage if you plan for it, but you gotta have the units who are able to really make those weapons shine in the first place. From a ranked run perspective, Slim Sword you buy in chapter 1 is the best weapon of Genealogy overall. But no one would be able to see that on the blind playthrough. Even you guys, who just now read about it, you don't know yet what I meant by that statement. And most likely won't see what I meant untill at least the endgame. So that's not a spoiler))) What else? Talked about story, units, economical aspect, combat mechanics... Skills? Maybe? Some skills are unique. Some are almost broken (I'm looking at you Miracle, not the Meteor Sword). Some are essential. Like Pursuit. You played Berwick, you know that Pursuit is a skill that can really change up a unit, right? Same with Genealogy. It's far more common, but still, not everyone has it. You can actually have an archer with 0 skills, including pursuit. Imagine that. And that archer will be the only archer for your army for at least 3 chapters. Makes you really appreciate the meme archer from Prologue. Cuz that guy has Pursuit and Charge. Even the abysmal stats growth can't take that away))) This is pretty much what I could talk about without spoiling too many things. Huge maps are good for Genealogy, they won't work in other FE games, love them. No passing items without paying for it is essential for Genealogy, love it. No potions, very much appreciate it. All units get to always be part of the fighting, terrific. All units have great potentials, can pour love onto any unit and be truly rewarded. High customization and ties to story, huge replay value. Lore directly reflected in combat mechanics, very cool. Not just a simple heroic saga, but a drama about human foolishness and how circumstances can really dictate things, right up my alley. Oh, and not too many complex mechanics. I still can't truly enjoy or continue playing Thracia 776 cuz I just can't get the feel for that Body Size, Holding, Capturing, etc. And I don't even get to have all my units always be there. Sad. And maps are too small. It feels insignificant, like ants crawling around some sand box, even though it's supposed to be quite a major endeavor. I want my epic grand scale if I'm fighting on continent of Jugdral))) I guess you can see now how "proper" FE is something I have trouble with)))

Oh? You actually never played Genealogy? That ain't good))) Regardless of being a Kaga elitist or not, Genealogy is very worth it. I remember getting my non-gamer friend hooked on it back in the day. The guy literally plays almost no games, but ended up even buying the novels for Genealogy. That's something. I don't know your extent of knowledge, so I'll try to stay obscure about some elements. Which is quite hard, since certain spoilery thing plays a major role in Genealogy. In many ways. There are things I can say though, so let me see what I can preach. So first off, the huge maps. Perhaps you heard a different title for Genealogy, namely "Horse Emblem". A common complaint. With huge maps it's only natural that mounted units will be regarded as better units. Simply because they can traverse the map faster. But here's a question from me to people who complain about that: Where are you hurrying to? Horse Emblem is only true if you're going for max rank upon beating the game. The tactics part is solely about total number of turns you spend, and yes, mounted units are the ones tasked with very important tactics. In other words, to achieve the highest tactics rank you got to be going with full speed at the objectives each and every turn. Max movement each turn. Which leaves foot soldiers behind in the dust. (There are different strats for getting the "All A" rank, so you can afford to waste quite a few turns, maybe even a 100 turns, if you really know exactly what you're doing) So the question becomes "what about the foot soldiers?" and if you're going for All A rank, you gotta deal with exp problem. Highest rank is obtained by having certain amount of total level ups for all the units. So you can't neglect the foot soldiers, they need exp too. Thus even the Horse Emblem isn't as easy as "all horses charge!" because the only reason to do so is a ranked run. Or a speedrun. But speedrun abuses glitches anyway, and I do not know anyone who didn't go for any%. At the same time those huge maps make perfect sense in Genealogy. They won't make any sense in any other FE game that I know, but in Genealogy the story demands it. Each chapter is a map. It doesn't mean you got to finish the chapter in one sitting, or traverse the whole map within an hour. You just get to see the landscape. Imagine you could see 5~6 maps at once in say... Shadow Dragon. You start at the island from which you see the port city you want to get to, mountains behind it, a river behind the mountains range and some grass plains on the other bank of the river. You still need to get off that island and once you do that situation changes and you get enemies waiting for you in the port. As you complete the port assault you hear of some bandits in the mountains so you go there, etc. All on same map. Shadow Dragon just breaks it into separate maps. You simply see all the maps in advance, doesn't change that story has distinct points you go through. And it makes all the sense in the plot scheme of Genealogy. Those huge maps are not intended to be beaten in a single sitting. They're not. Low difficulty... I look at it this way: those who say "man, it's dead easy" are saying that after they beat it a couple times. I have never heard anyone who played it blind say "was that supposed to be challenging or something? lol, easiest FE I played". On the contrary, I've seen a streamer start from the beginning his no-reset (known as ironman in English community?) blind run as he got massacred halfway through. I've seen streamers struggle on their blind runs. I wouldn't say Genealogy is particularly difficult. Once you know enough it does become very easy to beat. Even blind no-reset runs won't necessarily be near impossible as long as you play it safe and use your head. There are traps. Plenty of them. You can easily lose 3~4 units on the first chapter (not to be confused with Prologue, which is the very first map). At the same time, there's nothing to be afraid of once you know what you're doing. You'll be more irritated by the time it takes to traverse the map, but again, only if you know what you're doing. There are 5 items practically unobtainable on blind play through in the first half. Easy to get once you know what to look for and quite powerful. Two of them are almost defining certain characters. Of course you'll feel the difficulty dropping if you have access to them. There are almost OP characters. They'll be able to carry the team. In fact, they kinda do. Which also makes perfect sense in Genealogy. It's the instance where lore is incorporated into game mechanics. The opening movie tells you the story of how 12 warriors drove back whole Imperial army and eventually took down continental empire. 12. Not 12 thousand. Once you get to see those legendary weapons you will understand how that was possible. Those relics still won't make your units invincible, but it will be very close to that. Against low born, commoner soldiers. Enemy too has access to some relics. I still remember how a streamer I was watching went "What the hell!? What am I supposed to do about THAT!? Is this for real??". And we, the audience, told him that yes, it was all for real, and he better start choosing units he gonna sacrifice. After an hour of extremely cautious game play and lots of prayers he was able to get through that part without losing anyone. After that we told him two precise strategies which make easy work of the problem. One of them he could've figured out on his own, the other was impossible to implement for him due to how things went on previous maps. We were also dead serious when we told him he better choose who dies. No one expected him to pull it off without casualties, and it wasn't something like enemy reinforcement appeared at worse possible point, he was getting greedy, he couldn't see it coming, etc. It was one of the obstacles in plain sight. There are powerful units and meme level units. You can rely on the "good" ones and keep going. Then you'll hit a couple brick walls. Like I did on my very first playthrough. I still remember it after all these years, because I got stuck on final map. Literally half my army was utterly useless and I couldn't figure out how to beat the big bads waiting ahead as I kept losing even my good units on my way there. I got tired and depressed. So I started from beginning)) Not the beginning of the final chapter, but the game. Good old times of me being bad at FE)) Eventually I got to the level where every single unit is awesome in my eyes. Even the archer who joins in the prologue. He's famous for "silent" level ups. When none of the stats increase. At all. Probably the worst imaginable growth rate ever. Jeigan level growth, except he starts at level 1. He's actually pretty good. Just got to know how to make the best of him, and he can be an ace unit. Or the armoured knight you get from the beginning. The game actually lays a trap telling you how to use him. If you listen to the advice... well, you'll find out. It's not anything crucial, affecting actual tactics, but completely kills off his potential. There are places where he can be quite a hero. Fending off literally hordes of enemies. Alone. Protecting everyone. Speaking of which, remember Derrick from Berwick Saga? How he's told he's slow, tanky and strong? That's a call back to the Genealogy knight)) To sum it up, back to original point, only those who have finished at least two runs of Genealogy (or heavily relied on guidebooks and walkthroughs) will say it's easy. Little do they know that Kaga specifically addressed the difficulty and said that the game was designed to be at its best with certain way of playing. I can assure you that none of those people who call it easy played the "Kaga" way on their first playthrough, and still had challenging experiences. Just don't do one simple thing, and the difficulty of the second half (the main portion) will jump. But of course no one does that. And when they do, they prepare specifically for it using their knowledge of what's to come. Ok, so that was me trying to address your concerns. I haven't even started ranting about things I appreciate in Genealogy)) If you don't mind walls of text, tell me how much you know about Genealogy, and I'll be able to shower you with things that make Genealogy my favourite FE game without spoiling much.

I haven't played Vestaria, yet. Got it downloaded and ready to go along with both side stories. Currently playing through Berwick Saga for the first time, have played all others. Gotta say that the best is Berwick, but my favourite is Genealogy. It will probably always be Genealogy for me. It was my very first FE game ever, back in 1996. And thus I have been cursed with what I call "Genealogy Syndrome". It's so different from other FE games to the point that I can't really appreciate any other "proper" FE game. By "proper" I mean 100500 units to choose from, tiny maps, sharing the war funds, 100500 weapons to purchase, scarce colosseums, etc. The curse is real. I have played all FE games on NES, SNES and GBA. Also played Tear Ring Saga on PS1. And Awakening on 3DS. Out of all of them I have ever completed only one, Genealogy. I just can't play more than 5 maps deep of any other it seems. Though I vaguely recall getting to what seemed like endgame (maybe?) in Awakening. I just lose interest only to pick them up again in a few years. And lose interest again, till a few years pass by. On a different side note, I really like 風花雪月 (translated as Three Houses for some obscure reason). Or should I say, I like one particular storyline, the Genealogy-esque thingies, customization, and weapon repair system. I can't play any other storyline because everything just pisses me off (storywise). That makes it two FE games I have finished in 25 years of playing them. Out of what, 11? Damn)) Currently on Berwick, and man, it's brilliant. I'm sure it will be added as the third game I have completed 100% to my FE list. It's the first "proper" FE game that almost ignores the curse of Genealogy. I'm not bothered by the 100500 units, weapons, warfund sharing, lack of colosseums, etc. Very strange feeling. Am I finally awakening to Kaga magic or something?))

Yeah, I never even thought about it till I read it)) It makes sense how for example Tactics Ogre LUCT (my all time favourite) is considered to have quite high difficulty. It implements similar simultaneous turn system. Though it is still quite different from the one in Berwick Saga. Maps are larger, more units are present, variety of objectives, all that make up for a distinct feel in my opinion. And the part about keeping up the pressure makes a lot of sense to me. Though again, I haven't made that conscious distinction on my own. I did find myself exhausted after the 3rd chapter, and am mentally prepping myself for main map of the next one. Kaga sure is relentless in his pressure and thrill)))

Sure, I actually think it will be more interesting once you played at least a couple of maps. Some things just make more sense once you experienced what's being talked about, rather than simply reading it and trying to paint a picture.

I recently stumbled upon Kaga's blog, and while going through it found some interesting entries about Berwick Saga. At a glance it didn't seem as though translation already existed, so I decided to do it and share here. Surely I can't be the only one interested in reading what Kaga got to say about his last official game. Here's the link to original post: http://zeeksweb.blog120.fc2.com/blog-entry-30.html?sp Translation follows: >> Regarding the concept, there's a lot to be said, but putting it simply I strove to create an ultimate SLG, one to shatter the conventional state of consumer games)) I feel that being too focused on storyline and characters in my previous work (Yutona), I sacrificed the strategic part and the game balance, the things which should be the most important to begin with. Reflecting on that fact I have made drastic changes to the system to ensure the balance being kept until the very end, to maintain certain degree of tension throughout it, and have thoroughly balanced and designed every stage. TS (Tearing Saga) turned out to be extremely easy once the player got (raised) a couple super units, but BS (Berwick Saga) demands that the player himself possesses "qualities of a commander", demands him to possess abilities close to those of Caesar or Napoleon in order to beat it. And thus, though people wouldn't appreciate me saying such things, this one might not be suited for people who aren't that good (keen) with strategic SLGs. >> I think it's natural for hexes to be more suitable since it's a war SLG. Due to problems with resolution and control it was too hard to implement hexagonal field but it finally became possible with PS2. I'm sure you will understand why hexes are better by playing BS. As for simultaneous (mixed) turn system, I went after reality and to deal with problem of tempo. In the usual alternating turn system there's no escaping the fixation of tactics. The ones called "landmine" and "baiting", no matter how complex you make the CP thought process, player will always have the advantage. But with the simultaneous turn system, since computer also chooses a unit to move as you move one of yours, the standard tactic of "keep the distance, bait them out and gang up with overwhelming numbers" cannot be used, and player is forced to adapt to each situation. There's also no waiting time. As you're unable to look away from the screen the tension never eases up and is quite speedy, in return it's 10 times as draining compared to TS)) You can save every 5 turns so I suggest you take a short break after each save. >> The reasons I increased the difficulty compared to the previous one include the ones I already mentioned, but there's also my own kind of commitment to turn-based SLGs. In the recent years we see real-time SLGs being at height of popularity throughout the world, and the reasons behind it are that turn-based SLGs happen to be "too bothersome", "forced to perform monotonous tasks", "takes too much time" etc. On the other hand, the merits of turn-based SLGs are that the player can utilize their intelligence to ascertain the situation, analyze the options and take time to strategically proceed with the plans, and these things are impossible in real-time SLGs. So then, doesn't that mean that a turn-based SLG with meager strategic elements have no reasons to exist? (SRPGs are a different story. If they have a brilliant plot allowing to get emotionally attached to characters, then I think even ones with low difficulty are actually fine...) I deliberately chose turn-based system for BS in order to have players think things thoroughly. Unless one gives up, there's always a way out of any situation. The harder the obstacles, the greater the joy of overcoming them, wouldn't you say? >> As for the world, there's no direct connection to the previous one. That is due to difference in vectors of the games. (TS was a heroic fantasy with focus on plot, BS is a historical war account with focus on tactics) There are tons of characters and mechanics we discarded. If we feel something might be off during the test-play we just redesign the whole thing. >> I can't give any specifics, but they all have their own reasons for being mercenaries. Perhaps one day they'll quit being mercenaries and join the Sinon Knights. In any case, a leader of an army needs to be paying attention to things. Try to get them to like you. >> If there was a unit with 100% evasion rate, then they'll become the so-called "landmine (immortal)" unit, and player will be able to win without using their head. Appearance of such units break apart the game balance. I have thoroughly adjusted everything to ensure that won't happen in BS. That said, there is good enough potential to achieve the hit rate of 100%. Raise the weapon skills (no need to defeat enemies) and obtain first-class weapons. >> Yes, the 0 range attacks step into the tile enemy is on. If they have a melee weapon equipped there's a chance for retaliation, but ranged weapons have no such worries. In this case both units receive the panel bonuses of the opponent's tile. Range 1 attacks stay in the spot and perform attacks with ranged weapons. That would be crossbows and throwing spears, throwing axes, etc., and if the opponent has a melee weapon equipped, these attacks won't be countered. (As an exception units with combat speed higher than 11 may perform charging counters) In other words, even with same positioning advantage changes depending on different weapon type being used. For example, think about the situation where you got a spear and a throwing spear on a forest tile and there's an enemy armed with crossbow on a plain type tile next to you. If it was me I'd use throwing spear (if the two had same characteristics) without a single doubt. Because if there's a chance for getting retaliated, it's far more advantageous to throw the spear from the forest as it boosts your own evasion. (With the forest bonuses and application of ranged evasion it gives close to 20% advantage) >> Characteristic of this story is that main character doesn't have any "complicated blood relations". Reese's father was just another knight who was bestowed the title of Duke through his valor and achievements. He is technically the lord of Sinon, but to other lords he's of a lower status and gets talked about as a "country bumpkin who got entrusted with a small remote country" behind his back. Reese joined the royal army under orders of the king as the representative for his father with only a 100 men. Narvian people do not even know the name Sinon, other lords are making fun of him, king dislikes him, and as the result poor Reese has no time to chill. The first part consists of modest (trivial?) story revolving around Reese, but the second half will show a rapid development tied into the grand scheme of things in the world. >> Reese is not the typical protagonist (hero), and you might think of him as being plain, but I created him in my attempt to draw a young man who lived through time of turmoil. As I already mentioned, BS is not a heroic fantasy, it's a human drama taking place on the stage consisting of history and war, so those of you who came after playing TS might feel it to be a bit boring. >> Oh, and the story of the people surrounding Reese progresses simultaneously. You can watch the endings for everyone in a single playthrough, but that would be difficult as there's a lot of them. I'd say completing about a third on your first playthrough would be enough. >> The protagonist of BS is Reese, but Ward and Tianna are important characters who become player's eyes and ears. Ward on the battlefield, Tianna inside the castle are the facilitators of the story progression. Especially Tianna is an important lady with potential to be the image character for BS, and if one was to say "isn't Ward enough?" I'm sure she would feel blue. >> Equipping shields is of utmost importance in BS. The "tanking" is impossible to perform without equipping a shield. There sure is a technique of increasing the evasion by unequipping a shield, but I recommend always equipping it unless it negatively impacts activation of skills (combat speed). That said, with low proficiency in shields there will be many instances of missing, so try to increase the shield proficiency by equipping the cheap leather shields. Skill proficiency in shields will not grow unless you equip one. In addition there's the "Shield Proficiency Skill”. It is possible to achieve activation rate of 100% by raising the skill mastery of characters who possess it. They will be able to shine as excellent shield tanks. That said, shields are expensive and wear out quickly, so I recommend always having two kinds and alternating between them. >> I think the best weapons to use depend on what the player prefers, but I like cheap and durable ones. If you want to stash some cash it's most efficient to take away enemy's equipment and using it. Especially the Kingdom Issue series are quite good, so try using them till they break rather than selling them. Their sub par accuracy can be covered by unit's abilities and tactics. >> One might deem axes to be at their strongest in BS. Variations are abundant and easy to procure, and the cost efficiency is extremely high in comparison to other units. BS has 4 axe users and all of them are nice guys with distinct personalities. >> Experience points are limited in BS. They cannot be obtained through simply dealing damage, so you need to be efficient in getting them. We have conducted extensive testing so no exploitable glitches will be found (I think). Also, the units who are not assigned to missions do their own training back at base so though not a lot, they do receive some experience points. >> The furniture should be looked forward to as something to indulge in on your second playthroughs or even later. Game is balanced so that there's no need for them. Furniture was placed as something to play with for expert players. Use any means and just keep stacking that cash. There are no ways of obtaining them other than through purchasing. >> Collecting and processing materials (craftsman workshop) is a very common idea in RPGs. This time we decided to implement it to give more range to strategies in terms of maps. Think of it as a sort of jigsaw puzzle, it should really show individuality of each player through decisions on what to craft and when. >> The collector Eltzheimer is a noble who fled the royal capital, and though source of it is unknown he looks to be quite a wealthy man. Clara the maid... she doesn't talk much and I myself don't really know her. As for capturing, making sure it succeeds can be aimed for through usage of different skills and items. Of course, it does require precise calculations... >> Time an average player might take to see the ending? ... I do not know what is "average", but the volume should be roughly equal to that of TS. That said, you can ignore sortie requests so depending on how you do it you could cut it in half. I wouldn't recommend that for anyone who's not a master level player though... >>> These look like some sort of notes from an interview but I'm not sure exactly what they are. I sound a bit condescending due to the high tension right after finishing the project, and (you know how it goes). Just look at these as some sort of reference. I don't think I said anything wrong. (Translator note: this part too is translated)

Dear Aethin. First of all I would like to thank you for your hard work and commitment. As plenty of people pointed out, the quality of translation is at quite a level. That said. I'm a professional translator myself, though I mainly translate into Japanese from other languages, and I strongly disagree with a lot of translations in the English patch. Mainly when the original lines are changed to almost completely opposite meaning, giving off a very different image of a character. There are what I consider to be very creative and awesome changes, but I'm the type who wants to translate faithfully, without changing characters or story of events. So I would really love to discuss these differences, and perhaps do another translation variation, without the major liberties taken in your version. Would you be up for such a talk and perhaps a new translation with me doing the main changes?