How hard id normal mode?

[Spectraman]

Hey guys, so I am planning on doing a Radiant Dawn play through, but I don't want to start off with hard mode. I won't be playing on Easy mode either because I heard it is way too easy. So can anyone tell me how hard normal mode is, or can anyone compare it to another FE game difficulty?

[Magical Glace]

FE10 Normal is called Hard Mode in the Japanese version, just a heads up.  Dunno why the localizers changed Normal/Hard/Maniac to Easy/Normal/Hard, but eh.

As for how hard it is... It'd say it's probably most comparable to FE7 Eliwood Hard, for me.  

[ping]

Radiant Dawn has a rather unusual difficulty curve, mostly because you swap back and forth between several teams of playable characters. The earlygame has a good number of crummy characters which makes it the most difficult part by far. That's admittedly nothing too unusual in FE, but the difference to later parts (in which you play as the strongest team) is a lot more severe than in other games.

 

@easy mode being too easy: You might be thinking of Path of Radiance maybe? Because PoR's easy mode really is extremely easy, while RD's "easy" mode's a misnamed normal mode, as Glac said.

[Heptade]

It is pretty tough, quite a bit harder than FE8's hard mode overall, BUT it allows you to save at any point during any given chapter, which lessens the overall difficulty.

So... it's kinda hard to evaluate... it depends on how much you're willing to abuse the system.

[Augestein]

Normal globally is Hard in Japan. There is no easy mode in Radiant Dawn technically. That said, Normal Mode isn't that bad so long as you don't actively try to use everyone in the game Easy (normal) mode is about as hard as PoR Normal mode to be honest. People level up crazy fast there, and it's more than enough to offset the lousy and rocky starts that some people have. 

[Spectraman]

So guys just for comparison, since I am starting to play all hard mode difficulties for all fire emblem games, I just want you guys to tell if Radiant Dawn(US) Normal mode is going to be hard for me if I don't have enough experience. So I will list all the fe modes I have played(until now which won't be a lot) and tell me if Normal mode for RD will be good for me.

Birthright Lunatic

Revelation Lunatic

Conquest Hard

PoR Hard

Awakening Hard

SS Hard

FE7 Normal

FE6 Normal

FE12 Hard

[Interdimensional Observer]

Skip RD Hard Mode. Mostly because they for some reason thought that getting rid of the ability to see enemy attack ranges constituted difficulty- it doesn't, it's just tedium. The Weapon Triangle removal was also weird. Only the experience and BEXP reductions have any real impact- I don't think they even bother increasing enemy stats by any noticeable amount.

Looking at what you've played, RD International Normal Mode is harder than FE6 and 7 Normal Modes, as well as FE8, 9, 12 and 13 Hards. Did you play Fates on Classic or Casual? With or without grinding? If you didn't grind and played on Classic you'll probably find the Fates you played through harder than RD.

The hardest part of RD is the beginning with Micaiah's crew, once you complete Chapter 5, things become easier, though still slightly difficult. Make sure Micaiah is leveled up and has ~11-13 Speed by Chapter 9, she'll have a harder time surviving the chapter if you don't. Elincia's part has one annoying chapter where you only get three playable characters, but otherwise the rest of the game is pretty easy.

[Junkhead]

It might strike the newcomer as a tad intidimating at first, if only for Part 1. If you can manager yourself well through that and not use a ton of characters (because Exp spreads a little thinner than what you'd be used to), it's pretty smooth from there. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

FE10 was my first FE game, and I even struggled through easy mode's earlygame.
I almost ragequitted in 1-3 because Laura was oneshotted and caused me tons of Game Overs.

However I guess you're an experienced FE game, so you should manage NM.
Since FE10 has a quick save option you can try out your turns.

Also the difficulty curve is weird because the three lords (to be more correct main characters) who lead their own group are totally different level- and statwise.

[Spectraman]

18 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Skip RD Hard Mode. Mostly because they for some reason thought that getting rid of the ability to see enemy attack ranges constituted difficulty- it doesn't, it's just tedium. The Weapon Triangle removal was also weird. Only the experience and BEXP reductions have any real impact- I don't think they even bother increasing enemy stats by any noticeable amount.

Looking at what you've played, RD International Normal Mode is harder than FE6 and 7 Normal Modes, as well as FE8, 9, 12 and 13 Hards. Did you play Fates on Classic or Casual? With or without grinding? If you didn't grind and played on Classic you'll probably find the Fates you played through harder than RD.

The hardest part of RD is the beginning with Micaiah's crew, once you complete Chapter 5, things become easier, though still slightly difficult. Make sure Micaiah is leveled up and has ~11-13 Speed by Chapter 9, she'll have a harder time surviving the chapter if you don't. Elincia's part has one annoying chapter where you only get three playable characters, but otherwise the rest of the game is pretty easy.

Wow really?! Harder than FE6 Normal and FE13 Hard? I have to say the early game for those two did give me a lot of trouble. Also I did grind for birthright and revelation, but not for conquest. So what about conquest hard? Is it harder than FE10 normal?

Edited April 11, 2017 by Spectraman

[Interdimensional Observer]

 

6 minutes ago, Spectraman said:

Wow really?! Harder than FE6 Normal and FE13 Hard? I have to say the early game for those two did give me a lot of trouble. Also I did grind for birthright and revelation, but not for conquest. So what about conquest hard? Is it harder than FE10 normal?

Conquest Hard is much, much worse than RD Normal. Haven't actually played FE6, so I was kinda guessing on that one; haven't heard people complain too much of Normal though outside of the same turn reinforcements. FE13 Hard, well it depends on whether you use a full team or use a few and snowball with them. If the former on F13, you'll find RD easier outside of the first few chapters (Part 1: Chapters 1, 3, and 5 in particular); if you snowballed, it'll be harder.

Revelation and Birthright on Lunatic with grinding are still I'd say more challenging than RD Normal, as Ryoma and Xander don't smash things as much as do the godly units of RD.

Playing on anything less than Hard in RD also gives you Battle Save access, not that you have to ab/use them.

[Spectraman]

18 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

Conquest Hard is much, much worse than RD Normal. Haven't actually played FE6, so I was kinda guessing on that one; haven't heard people complain too much of Normal though outside of the same turn reinforcements. FE13 Hard, well it depends on whether you use a full team or use a few and snowball with them. If the former on F13, you'll find RD easier outside of the first few chapters (Part 1: Chapters 1, 3, and 5 in particular); if you snowballed, it'll be harder.

Revelation and Birthright on Lunatic with grinding are still I'd say more challenging than RD Normal, as Ryoma and Xander don't smash things as much as do the godly units of RD.

Playing on anything less than Hard in RD also gives you Battle Save access, not that you have to ab/use them.

Sorry if I ask this...but what is snowballing?

[Magical Glace]

32 minutes ago, Spectraman said:

Sorry if I ask this...but what is snowballing?

I think he's referring to the practice of dumping all EXP on a few units, which is very effective in FE13.  

[ping]

In a gaming context, it's basically this. I think the term is more common in strategy games like Civ: Seemingly small advantages in the early game might allow a player to secure more significant advantages earlier than his opponents, which will again allow him to get to the next breakpoint a bit earlier... For example, if you can build science-boosting buildings a bit quicker than your opponent, you'll reach the necessary tech for the next tier of science buildings earlier, increasing your tech lead. Or your civ discovers gunpowder slightly earlier than your neighbor so that you can just shoot their swordfighters down.

And in a way, this is a thing in FE as well, even though it's a single player game and the AI doesn't really play the same game as the human player. But if you play well in the early chapters, securing all of the optional treasure and bonus XP, training up the best characters and so on, you'll have an easier time getting all the rewards in the midgame, which will in turn make the endgame even easier.

In FE10, at least when playing as the Dawn Brigade, focussing your XP on a few strong characters is such a "good play" - they reach certain stat benchmarks to allow them to beat the enemies more easily, which means that they can kill more enemies more easily, so they earn more XP and become even stronger... OTOH, trying to train all the recruits, particularly the underleveled ones, means that your strongest units aren't as strong as they could be, making the later Dawn Brigade chapters more difficult than they need to be.

[Extrasolar]

My very first experience with RD Hard mode (back when I first played the game, and thought it was "normal" mode - goddamn it, localizers) was my Edward getting critically-hit to death by a random bandit in the prologue chapter.

It did not get easier from there. Like people have said, the early game on RD hard mode is hell, just because of how fragile the Dawn Brigade is, and of course not being able to see enemy movement and attack range without manually counting it doesn't help anything.

It does ease up on you with time, and if you can get past the first few chapters... Well, when you get to the Greil Mercenaries, it becomes less hellish. You do have to stay on your toes, though.

[SavageVolug]

On 4/10/2017 at 6:37 PM, Spectraman said:

So guys just for comparison, since I am starting to play all hard mode difficulties for all fire emblem games, I just want you guys to tell if Radiant Dawn(US) Normal mode is going to be hard for me if I don't have enough experience. So I will list all the fe modes I have played(until now which won't be a lot) and tell me if Normal mode for RD will be good for me.

Birthright Lunatic

Revelation Lunatic

Conquest Hard

PoR Hard

Awakening Hard

SS Hard

FE7 Normal

FE6 Normal

FE12 Hard

Spectraman, I think you should be alright. I will give you these suggestions though. 1 Battlesave once you've gotten to a certain point in the map but make sure you do so when you have all or most of your units to use. 2 Try to get everyone to their class change by the end of part 1 and only class change at level 20 this will make later parts of the game a LOT easier. 3 Make sure Micaiah stays relevant she has a map where she's the only unit you can use. 4 While Aran probably has lower stats than the rest of your party he turns into an awesome tank that guy levels up Str. and Def like it's going out of style and Edward levels up str more than most myrms while otherwise having the strengths of all previous myrms.

I think you should be fine and I consider Normal mode completely doable if someone has 1 a history of playing strategy games, 2 has played previous Fire Emblem games. You seem to have a pretty good track record and resume.

[thecrimsonflash]

Have I played a different RD? I found the dawn brigade chapters to be pretty doable in all of my runs, at least not this godtier difficulty that I'm hearing here, I mean maybe a reset here and there but rarely ragequit worthy, then again my standard FE difficulty has been hard classic since awakening.

[Icelerate]

The first few chapters are quite brutal. Which is ironic because games usually start off easy and get progressively harder. I'd say RD normal mode is harder than SS and PoR hard mode.