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Playing on casual (maybe)


jdb1984
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I'm thinking of wiping my second file and trying the game on casual (it was an "alternative universe" of sorts, where the avatar is female). But it does take out the one thing that makes Fire Emblem unique among strategy games and JRPG's, and there seems to be a negativity among most Fire Emblem players when it comes to casual (and understandably so).

But while I played all the US releases of Fire Emblem except 7, I never have been able to finish one. And whenever I try a permadeath one, there's usually that one death that has me quit and go to the usual "restart if someone dies". I did work out a compromise on my first file, where it depends on who meets a permanent end (my main file has Virion, Vaike, Cordelia, and accidentally Libra gone). And repeating a level over and over is something I get fed up with after only a few redos.

I'm not sure If I should. I may like it better, but even if I finish it, it won't feel like I finished a Fire Emblem game.

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if you put on Casual Mode, the game becomes a bit more like Shining Force, which it sounds like you'd be more interested in playing/enjoying. Give it a try...it reduces a lot of stress.

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i don't see what's wrong with casual mode at all.

i'm a longstanding player of (nearly) all the earlier fe games and casual mode fe13 is strictly superior to normal mode fe13 imo

go to the usual "restart if someone dies".

see, that's the problem with the fe permadeath system. it might be rare among SRPGs, but that's because the system doesn't really work. it's only a good system if you ironman through the game, otherwise it's just an inconvenience and an annoyance. you shouldn't beat yourself up at all for turning it off.

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i don't see what's wrong with casual mode at all.

i'm a longstanding player of (nearly) all the earlier fe games and casual mode fe13 is strictly superior to normal mode fe13 imo

see, that's the problem with the fe permadeath system. it might be rare among SRPGs, but that's because the system doesn't really work. it's only a good system if you ironman through the game, otherwise it's just an inconvenience and an annoyance. you shouldn't beat yourself up at all for turning it off.

I don't really care if someone plays on casual mode, but I'd have to contest that notion that permadeath is ONLY a good system if your ironman the game. Permadeath on the whole makes me play more conservatively and thoughtfully, and adds a definite layer of tension that simply isn't present if I was to play on casual mode. It's true, it adds inconvenience when someone dies since I will religiously restart, but the system itself has merits. I believe the developers themselves discussed this in an interview that was done on FE12 where the system was first implemented.

Maeda: I think it's the fact that when your comrades fall in battle, they never rise again.

Higuchi: Yes. It's because your dead comrades never return that you grow strongly attached to them. For example, when one of your units dies, you get to hear their last words and you think, 'Oh this is what he's thinking...' Through the games you can feel this kind of drama. It makes you play the games under a lot of tension, thinking, 'I can't let them be defeated here' or, 'if he dies, I'm starting from the beginning'. And when you finally manage to complete the game together with your valued comrades, you really feel gratified. I think this is the real thrill distinctive to Fire Emblem.

Narihiro: To put it simply, I think that the core of Fire Emblem is offering the player 'a pleasant feeling of tension'. I've begun to think that Fire Emblem is just like the two of you described earlier among other things, about growing attached to your characters and knowing that, should they perish, they will never return. It's about getting the players to taste a supreme kind of tension.

Of course, having said and agreed with this, when it comes to high level difficulties, this can be distorted heavily, and everyone has their own cutoff point.

Edited by Irysa
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There is nothing wrong with using Casual mode; it's there for a reason.

You can put your own spin on it, if you want: reset if someone dies, but make use of the in-map battle saves to experiment with stuff and/or cut down on the lost time if you make a big mistake.

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You can put your own spin on it, if you want: reset if someone dies, but make use of the in-map battle saves to experiment with stuff and/or cut down on the lost time if you make a big mistake.

Classual Mode/FE4 Mode

...Or just flat out saving things like namely L+ Map arrangements.

...Or saving that Anna kill because you did some challenge run and it may have been awesome.

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I don't really enjoy casual unless it's on Lunatic. I like the tension that classic gives, and it forces me to play more conservatively.

But there's absolutely no reason NOT to play casual, if you enjoy it that way; the option's there for a reason. I'd say give it a shot and see if you enjoy it. That's the point of video games, right?

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I don't really care if someone plays on casual mode, but I'd have to contest that notion that permadeath is ONLY a good system if your ironman the game. Permadeath on the whole makes me play more conservatively and thoughtfully, and adds a definite layer of tension that simply isn't present if I was to play on casual mode. It's true, it adds inconvenience when someone dies since I will religiously restart, but the system itself has merits. I believe the developers themselves discussed this in an interview that was done on FE12 where the system was first implemented.

Maeda: I think it's the fact that when your comrades fall in battle, they never rise again.

Higuchi: Yes. It's because your dead comrades never return that you grow strongly attached to them. For example, when one of your units dies, you get to hear their last words and you think, 'Oh this is what he's thinking...' Through the games you can feel this kind of drama. It makes you play the games under a lot of tension, thinking, 'I can't let them be defeated here' or, 'if he dies, I'm starting from the beginning'. And when you finally manage to complete the game together with your valued comrades, you really feel gratified. I think this is the real thrill distinctive to Fire Emblem.

Narihiro: To put it simply, I think that the core of Fire Emblem is offering the player 'a pleasant feeling of tension'. I've begun to think that Fire Emblem is just like the two of you described earlier among other things, about growing attached to your characters and knowing that, should they perish, they will never return. It's about getting the players to taste a supreme kind of tension.

I agree that permadeath changes your playstyle, but the actual death of your characters doesn't really have as much impact as say, an Ironman run, because it just forces you to reset.

Edited by Refa
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Casual mode is really useful for training for a new difficulty as well. Especially for lunatic, seeing as the early chapters are pretty much down to the RNG...

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I used my Normal Casual file for grinding up units that will be saved into the Avatar Logbook so they can be rehired later if needed in a higher difficulty (Lunatic or Lunatic+). Normal Casual is great for grinding since Reeking Boxes are viable and you can rack up lots of stat boosters if you constantly grind using Reeking boxes. Casual mode's also good if you want to get the DLC Katarina card from the Apotheosis map without having to worry too much about losing units (especially if you want Katarina quickly to help out in higher difficulties).

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i don't see what's wrong with casual mode at all.

No joke. Nancy Mode is fuckin' bomb. Without it, i wouldnt have touched Lunatic mode. Lunatic is actually quite ridiculous for me, but thanks to the casual/Nancy Mode, i was able to still have fun with it. Like, A LOT of fun with it. Cuz i was able to get through earlygame even with smushed units.

Fuck da police, i love Nancy Mode.

However, i wouldnt play Normal mode with it. Thats just way too easy. Hard/Casual is not actually hard and its a nice pace cuz less stress. I may do a Hard/Classic run one of these days, but you will never see me do a Lunatic run on Classic. Fuck dat noise.

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Another point...I personally find that up until you hit L+, there really isn't a difference in difficulty between Classic and Casual.

It might be my mere playstyle, but really there isn't a notable difference in tactics or anything.

There's more Tedium on Classic vs. Casual (lack of saves, doing the same exact moves twice in a row thanks to resets, etc.), but tedium isn't difficulty.

L+ is a different beast entirely though.

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Starting Lunatic/Casual on my last empty file. A male named Robin, Asset is resistance, flaw is luck. What I turn him into will depend on how the RNG arranges his stats.

Edited by jdb1984
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Personally I think permadeath is bullshit because hey, we all restart when someone dies...

Not sure when the term "ironman" was coined, but I heard it associated with the classic X-COM games, which came out in 1994 and had permadeath, but also had battle saves (actually not really battle saves, it's just that you could save anywhere). But in X-COM there's no "I care about the characters" bullshit, because you can always buy replacements. Losing a strong soldier has more to do with losing an asset than an emotional loss. However, since you can rename the soldiers to whatever you like, you "can" create bonds with them, and then it works quite similar to Fire Emblem.

IMO Classic mode in Awakening would be perfect if it had battle saves instead of bookmarks. There's nothing worse than losing 30 minutes of gameplay because of a wrong call or a bad RNG roll.

Edited by Waifu Cordelia
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Personally I think permadeath is bullshit because hey, we all restart when someone dies...

Speak for yourself. Before I figured out how to consistently clear Lunatic+ Ch. 2, I sacrificed Stahl all the time. You have one fewer deployment slot available in Ch. 3 than you have potential units, so you don't even miss his presence.

I also killed Tormod consistently during chapter 4-4 of Radiant Dawn. And murdered people in Shadow Dragon in order to unlock other characters.

IMO Classic mode in Awakening would be perfect if it had battle saves instead of bookmarks. There's nothing worse than losing 30 minutes of gameplay because of a wrong call or a bad RNG roll.

So play Casual with resets when someone dies. That's literally what that mode is for, so just use it. Classic is more suited for the people who don't make mistakes, or can recover from bad RNG rolls.

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IMO Classic mode in Awakening would be perfect if it had battle saves instead of bookmarks. There's nothing worse than losing 30 minutes of gameplay because of a wrong call or a bad RNG roll.

Turn off battle animations on your next try and skip enemy phases, and watch yourself recover those 30 minutes in 5.

Slightly off-topic, but I actually consider some of the older FEs to be harder (or at least more tedious, if you want to nitpick) than even Lunatic+ simply because you can't do this and late-map inconveniences really do cost a lot of time.

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Speak for yourself. Before I figured out how to consistently clear Lunatic+ Ch. 2, I sacrificed Stahl all the time. You have one fewer deployment slot available in Ch. 3 than you have potential units, so you don't even miss his presence.

You evil man! :(

Though one of the cavaliers is probably redundant.

So play Casual with resets when someone dies. That's literally what that mode is for, so just use it. Classic is more suited for the people who don't make mistakes, or can recover from bad RNG rolls.

I admit it, I feel "less good" playing on Casual. The fans of the series judge me, and I care. :(

Turn off battle animations on your next try and skip enemy phases, and watch yourself recover those 30 minutes in 5.

But, but, muh shiny battle animations!

But yeah, good idea. However, I have bad memory for games like this. I usually never repeat moves. But that's probably because I don't test things as much as you do.

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You evil man! :(

Though one of the cavaliers is probably redundant.

But, but, muh shiny battle animations!

But yeah, good idea. However, I have bad memory for games like this. I usually never repeat moves. But that's probably because I don't test things as much as you do.

Blame the devs for making a mode that encourages the player to make sacrifices, not the player for making them. Lunatic+ isn't for postgame anyway except for extreme showoffs (like me) so the loss of a replaceable father who you likely wouldn't use anyway isn't that big of a deal.

I actually only repeat precise maneuvers for the early chapters of Lunatic(+) and blow-by-blow no-RNG Apo strats. There's too much RNG in how enemies move to completely repeat yourself, I just use Fast Mode until the battle lines are in a similar position. If I have battle animations on at all. They're a lot less flashy than the GBA games and I do tend to get tired of them, especially after putting hundreds of hours into the game. Think about it, you could watch the same units club the same enemies with the same weapons over and over and over, or you could cut your average run time of Apo by 75% (and crits sound much more satisfying with map animations, for some reason). I'm also overly fond of breaking enemy weapons in Lunatic(+), which is incredibly tedious with animations on.

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Blame the devs for making a mode that encourages the player to make sacrifices, not the player for making them. Lunatic+ isn't for postgame anyway except for extreme showoffs (like me) so the loss of a replaceable father who you likely wouldn't use anyway isn't that big of a deal.

Oh, that was just a tongue in cheek post. Because I like Stahl. :P

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