joeygreedy

I guess, to some extent, do you want everyone having a 1k+2k skill, or do you want to give everyone cheap 500-1000 SP skills, except have 2-3 carry units with 4k+ SP pumped into making them monstrous? After a few runs, feels like either way works TBH

Lunar Brace+ is absolutely overkill, yeah, that's mostly a meme. Weapon Mt I value more in the long term, here's why. +1 Str = 500SP +2 Str = 1000SP +3 Str = 3000SP ( Massive jump, not entirely sure why, but it's the same with +3 Magic ) +4 Str = 4000 SP +5 Str = 5000 SP +6 Str = 6000 SP Vs +2 Mt = 1000 +4 Mt = 2000 +6 Mt = 3000 +8 Mt = 4000 +10 Mt = 5000 ( Linear +2 for 1000 SP ) Of the characters who give Weapon Mt, Roy, Ike and Sigurd, You have Sigurd to get to +6 Lance Attack before Chapter 10, and if you feed books can give it to Chloe by chapter 8 if you save the 2 paralogues for more well rolls. Roy can give +3 Str for 3000SP, or +6 Sword Attack for the same cost ( Bonus : Works with Levin Sword ) Ike can be unlocked Chapter 13, and his paralogue can be done immediately to get to +10 Axe Power. Roy can be gotten back by chapter 19, but can only give +3 Str from chapter 8-10. Overall, I'd say anybody who tends to be in a weaponlocked class, or favors one weapon will really benefit from the Mt. Also, Str +2 or +3 cost about as much as Weapon Power at the same tiers, so not exactly more Bond Fragments. 10 Avoid tends to be quite a minor tradeoff for that much sheer offensive power. But yes, Lunar Brace+ is very overkill, very expensive in both SP and Bond Fragments, but still hilarious watching a Martial Monk punch a general to death. You're unlikely to get to Strength 6 anyway, it's expensive but compared to Strength? I'll take weapon power any day unless I want to take Str +2 as a budget option.

I'll chime in for Awakening Awakening I think, honestly, Chrom. Lucina is the driving factor behind the plot, appearing in 2 to save Lissa, 4 to fight in the arena, chapter 6 to prevent Chrom getting injured and Emmeryn getting stabbed, appears in chapter 9's ending to drop a line, is born in chapter 12, and joins after chapter 13 and saving Chrom from a Risen. Then I'll be honest we get the Walhart arc where both she and Robin are kinda irrelevant. Then back to chapter 22 and Lucina's judgement, in an attempt to prevent Chrom's future death, but in Chapter 23, Robin doesn't stab Chrom, chapter 24, 25, 26 is all 3 of them fighting their way to awaken the Fire Emblem and kill Grima. Chrom is proactive through most of the game, with Robin acting as his tactician. Roughly speaking, I honestly think their plot importance can be split 3 ways Chapter 1-11 is Lucina and Chrom's, working their way to stop Emmeryn's death ( and failing ), with Chrom being the POV character and Lucina interfering often to guide the future. Chapter 12-20 is Walhart, Chrom and Robin get the front row seat to the invasion force, while Lucina is kinda there. Chapter 21-26 is where Robin and Lucina take front row, while Chrom is pushed back a bit since it's now inverted, Lucina preventing the Dark Future and Robin outwitting Validar and ( I assume ) killing Grima at the cost of their own life ( for a few minutes ). All 3 could be the rep TBH, but I'll be real, Chrom and Lucina are gameplay-wise identical, while Robin is a standout for using Sword+Tomes, with the Levin Sword being his 'signature' weapon. Storywise, I'll say Chrom, but it could be any of the 3 and I'll be happy. Personality-wise I prefer Lucina but that's subjective.

I liked paired endings, but didn't like incessant shippingness that builds up to said paired endings. For Awakening and Fates, it leads to babies. I can excuse Awakening's time travel plot, but Fates has the single most absurd in-universe justification for a mechanic in all of Fire Emblem. The dreaded babyrealms, it doesn't help I end up detesting half the child units in that game. Awakening oftentimes had really weird A to S support jumps, I wouldn't mind it because S supports are optional, but man do the freaking "Everyone supports everybody" system for this lead to some WEIRD ones. Fates has a cast that, occasionally I enjoy, but more that I actually hate. Azama deserves no shipping even if I find him hilarious, but then S support says he can knock up somebody, they take a honeymoon in the babyrealms, including people who he has been a jackass to for 3 supports so far, and then abandon said child in the babyrealms for the next 16 or so years, as does every single other person in the game, apparently. I can think of many, many people who really just... wouldn't do this, since you'd be in the middle of a GODDAMN WAR in all 3 routes. Just pop out of Valla to make babies, riiiight. This is character assassination of every single potential father, and lets not even mention the weird Elise/Sakura being older than their potential kids. though i wonder what super forrest i can make if i could have s supported elise and leo In Three Houses, it felt like every single A support had to end in some amount of "Sail raising", as if preparing a ship and deciding who gets on which boat, this is kinda awkward NGL. I like the cast, but please. Inversely, I really like the platonic paired endings. It just gives a sense of finality to the characters and their supports, letting them just be platonic life partners, or mentor/mentee. Hell, even ones like Lysithea+Edelgard are quite nice for what it's worth, being a single page at the end of the game, but it's nice to give closure. Engage, thankfully, doesn't suffer from the "Everything ends at shipping" syndrome. But it does feel... lacking. I know some have psuedo-paired endings such as Retainers+Lords, Seadall+Yunaka, Saphir+Lindon, Anna+Jean, Flame Lance+Magic Knife with the ending artwork, but it's lacking. It feels like nobody interacts with any other member of the cast post-ending, which is a bit sad. Of all these games, I can't really say a single one did it completely right, Engage doesn't have any, Awakening is the closest and at least the S supports are "in the future", Fates has babyrealms and my least favorite characters so I can't bring myself to care, Three Houses has the part where it creeps into the regular supports, and Engage outright doesn't have any.

I found the combination of a Brave Weapon, maybe an engraving to patch hitrates, Lunar Brace ( Preferably+ ), and Weapon Power ( +10 damage lol ) leads to anything you point said unit at just die. No questions about stats, just die. The weapon power skills are actually pretty great once you get the SP, seeing as it gives a whopping +10 attack. Too bad Arts and Bows and Tomes don't have those. Then you get doubled on enemy phase and die. /s Actually being able to mess around with builds with skills like Weapon Power 5, Sword Agility 5, weird Hold-Out/Nosferatu/Rewarping mage shenanigans, all Lunar Brace party, is just great fun, even if the best option probably is just slapping Canter and Speedtaker onto everyone lol. That thing is ludicrously underpriced. I have no clue why the speed skills are so cheap. I don't think there is a single unit that is so bad they are legit unsalvageable with dumping SP, it might not be worth it but it's fun trying to drag Vandar's old bones to fight the final boss despite falling off harder than Gunter.

Small question, since the DLC is coming in about 1 week, will you be playlogging it or just giving a "What did I think of it" short review? I do not expect a compelling plot from mirrorverse but I expect hilarity. Oh, and if you have played the DLC, what did you think of the maps? Ignoring the obviously broken OP Emblems they just give you, because of course they do.

Mage Knight also has slightly better physical bulk, with a bit of defense and HP over Sage. For someone like Citrinne who is about as fast as an armor knight ( Her speed growth is 5% higher than Louis, Sage to take advantage of her sheer magic growth and base would be useful. Conversely, someone like Pandreo or Clanne has decent enough speed growth, and with the +3 speed and 1 Spd and Bld base over Sage, lets them double more effectively. It does have 2 lower base Mag though, so it might be slightly short of one-round magic thresholds. ( Snort your spirit dust, party priest and young steward, the Divine Dragon commands you ) Mage Knight also has better growths, IMO. having 5% lower Mag, Dex, Res and 10% lower Lck, in exchange for 5% HP, Str, Spd and 10% Def. Sage's staffs let you only run 1-2 Qi Adepts to take advantage of Chain guarding, while the Sage occasionally can pull out a Rewarp or Heal staff for utility. Mage Knight is also the only Tome/Weapon class, IIRC, so somebody like Clanne who has decent strength growths can deal a bit of extra chip with a Silver Sword or something, when your magic can't kill the enemy sage. Hell, Mage Knights were my some of my better mage-killers in Maddening, with a light enough sword to just hit sages over the head and the +3 speed letting them double. This also lets them use a Levin Sword with Sword-base Engage Attacks, meaning armors can't shrug off your Overrides, Lodestar Rushes and Twin Strikes even if it's being done with a low str unit. But unit-type wise, Mystical tends to have better type bonuses, ignoring terrain, Thrysus, Flame Dragon Vein, Magical override/Lodestar rush, Celica's general bonuses, etc. Both? Yeah, both are good, and you can't have too many magic attackers. Also, Mage Knight is sheer drip, the horse looks great with the wizard hat and the color scheme is amazing for both Clanne and Pandreo. Not to mention it makes me less uncomfortable than putting the 2 magic trainees Jean and Anna into the class with the weird belly window, unless I'm using the outfit mod. Mage Knight wins. You can't compete with drip. EDIT : Oh RIGHT, Nova. It's a bit of a shame Mage Knight with it's higher Bld and Spd can't use it. But you are more than likely to be running Ivy as a player-phase magical nuke, so just toss it onto her. Else, Citrinne can blast foes away with it, since Quad-ing with it isn't particularly likely with it's 14 Wt weighing you down, maybe Pandreo with his Bld growth and base might Quad. Other than that, S rank times literally do not matter when every other tome is A and below.

Personally, I think it just feels like that because of the enemy quality and density, you can't rush forward because Enemy Phasing is near suicide in this game without a specific build. Even Micaiah-mass warpskipping requires planning and calculations to make the kill work, or else your entire team will die to the boss and the enemies around them in the following Enemy Phase, and multiple bosses with 2-3 health bars each mean even a LTC strategy takes 30 minutes of planning. So a lot of time is spent on player phase planning every move, at least, that's how I felt when playing the game.

Also, for me, my personal thought is locking every Emblem to their initial user, meaning you are permanently locked to Marth-Alear, Vandar-Sigurd, Ivy-Lyn, Rosado-Eirika, Seadall-Corrin ( Biggest troll move there IS ), Celine-Celica, Diamant-Roy, Timerra-Ike, etc. Oops, all Royals ( And Yunaka, Vandar and Seadall ) It won't make the game as horrible to play as Ambush Spawns, but it will sure as hell make the game hellishly bland and go against the whole design philosophy of the Emblems to begin with.

If you were assigned to make the gameplay horrible in a way it might be something IS did in another darker timeline, that would have completely ruined the gameplay of this game, what would it be? Whether minor mechanical changes, or one large mechanical change, how would you just completely butcher the general gameplay of Fire Emblem Engage, or it's replayability, mechanics, or even the systems like weapon triangle, Emblems, forging or balance.

I think Alear got strength screwed my first playthrough on hard, aforementioned 11 strength. On my later maddening runs, Alear still struggled to actually deal much damage, Marth helped but that's Marth being good. But the speed growth and middling defenses made him a decent enough dodgetank with engravings, and still able to provide some damage. Too bad Lucina and Lyn are just better off on actual combat units ( or Qi adept/Knife user ) from chapter 12, 13 and 14, leaving Alear as a mediocre unit since Emblems are what make Alear actually good. There aren't enough Emblems to go around from 12-16, and Alear is best wielding the support emblems, so I'm not really that tempted to invest into them via XP. It's just the middling growths and weapon choices. It feels harder to salvage bad Strength in the Dragon class since enemy Def tends to get so much higher, but forging up the Liberation does help early game. Or go Wyvern rider to patch up strength and give your lord flight I guess, that works too. But Dragon typing is just so good once you actually get the Emblems to use it. Still, Alear is no Roy, more closer to Lyn with some extra bonuses ( Dragon ) stapled on. That and Engage making it pretty easy to fix up any unit with engravings, skill inheritance ( Especially post-well update ) and Emblems. Except Bunet and Vandar, guys have literally negative bases in some stats I think, compared to their growths. And even then, you can still make them... Usable.

And I guess not being brokenly game-soloing helps too, lol I was surprised my first playthrough in midgame when I looked at the stats on my Alear and found his strength barely comparable to Clanne, but at least you have speed aplenty. After Robin/Byleth/Corrin could be setup to solo their respective games, Alear ended up having middling growths, bad weapons and a middling class, with barely double digit strength. It just didn't really hit me because Marth carried that strength and speed score, but then Chapter 11 happened and suddenly, no more Emblem. Unironically would bench the Alear on Maddening if I could from chapter 12 onwards, until chapter 14 is finished and I can staple Byleth to the Dragon type.

Oh yeah, just wanted to ask, what did you think of the Avatar Worship in the game relative to Awakening/Fates/3H/Shadow Dragon(?) Awakening, Robin was mostly just the tactician, but I don't remember any explicit "Oh you are so smart" beyond the firebomb ships thing. Also, Robin is so broken it's kinda hilarious they aren't proclaiming themselves god and soloing the continent. Corrin, the little sibling everyone seems to love for no explicit reason, and the many plot contrivances to keep them... Pure of heart. Like the "no killing" policy ( Minus the random kitsune genocide, for some reason ), the way they constantly make stupid decisions like walking into a trap to trigger it ( 'I will break your weapon with my face' energy there ) and people inexplicable dying so they never get their hands dirty, jumping off a cliff on their word alone, Valla ( Corrin even goes last, lmfao )... Byleth wasn't so much worship as respected. Except how everyone has supports because Avatar, and Rhea obviously knowing something, and Sothis being inside their heart. And how they become god-emperor in most endings. But hey, at least Professor is a more natural sounding title than "Divine One" and "Divine Dragon". ( At least Byleth never talks enough for me to get sick of their personality and decisions, or... the lack of one. ) Alear has the most blatant use of the word "Worship" but it seems to be mostly played for laughs, which I do like. Even if the joke occasionally gets dull like with Framme and Clanne. I don't find it as "Story warping", oddly enough, despite it being the driving force of the plot.

Hurricane Axe is very situational, but usable on an EP tank for flier baiting. Bows are always useful. Anti-Dragon is usually pointless since Wyverns are easier to just shoot in the face, but the paralogues have a few Dragon enemies like the Phantom Wyrms. Anti-Cav is great, Ridersbanes aren't too expensive to forge up and there are multiple enemy types that use Cav, Paladins and Wolf Knights are notable ones lategame and you really want to hit them both HARD (IDK Poleaxe not sure how well it forges ). Armor effectiveness falls off since their Def gets so high that Rapier and Armorslayers don't do much, just wipe them with magic. Corrupted Weakness is hilariously good (Only Sieglinde and the 3rd Fire Emblem weapon ) unless it's Seraphim with poor base Mt, but no regular weapon has it. EDIT : Poleaxe has 1 more Wt and 10 less hit, but same Mt as ridersbane, that's it. 13 Mt fully forged, tripled to 39 Mt against Cav. Wolf Knights at Pact Ring paralogue have 20+ Def to my knowledge. Minimum of 20 damage on hit is quite solid, for those speedy assholes. ( Halberdier can force a double with Pincer attack, if both hit it ends up being a one-round ) Excalibur reaches 15 Mt fully forged, which means 45 against fliers. Probably not able to one-round any fliers with this unless you're doubling. Radiant Bow hits Res, 19 mt base, but has 24 Mt fully forged. That's 72 mt against fliers, do I need to say more. ( The Levin Sword and Radiant bow have oddly high Mt ) Armorslayer and Hammer has 9 mt, forged to 14 mt, 42 Mt against armor. Generals hit 50s by the endgame... Wyrmslayer has 8 mt, forged to 13, 39 against only Wyvern riders. Pass, I'll just shoot them with a Silver Bow +1 for 15 mt, tripled to 45. And that's just the +1 version. Forging a Wyrmslayer to +5 is more expensive than just grabbing a generic bow and making it +1 for 1 silver and a handful of iron and steel. If you want to kill those Phantom Wyrms, use an engage attack or something. Engravings can add 1-3 Mt, which is tripled to 3-9 mt with effectiveness calculations using the weapon's base Mt.

Honestly, while I do really like chapter 19 despite the miasma, 15 and 16 are a bit of a stinker. 15 for being a slow walkfest, 16 for being 15 but even worse because you can get half your army stuck in water unable to move. It's worse than miasma lol. I always go out of my way to train SOMEONE into Griffin Knight for that specific stage.