Shadows of Valentia Has Damn Good Map Design

[FoxyGrandpa]

I decided to start a new save file on hard mode after beating most of normal mode and after beating act one, I do notice some obvious improvements to the enemy placement of the game, such as the archers with anti-flier guarding the door in the Zofia castle map. I think the AI of the game has been improved on hard mode as well, since when I had Clair try to lure the calvary to her from the side, most of the enemies (including Slayde) charged forward instead. 

[Jotari]

I was of this opinion for OG Gaiden

Of course I seem to be the rare breed that would actually bother to reorder units in that game. It's not that hard. If you want Est to be where Saber is then simply swap their two names on the order list. It's not like Thracia where they purposely intend to make it impossible to control your deployment.

 

I am disappointed they kept the duplicated maps in though. Pretty understandable for a quickly made NES game but just seems lazy for a remake where 90% of the map design has already been done for you.

Edited June 4, 2017 by Jotari

[Interdimensional Observer]

Fascinating this little debate over the map design- plain dirt or esoterically hidden brilliance. 

I'll say that it came off to me as a fan's first draft for map designs, crude and very simplistic. The Alm Sluice fight for instance was just a monoclass map, which I felt was a little cheap because few units can handle Arcanists. Monoclass/near-monoclass maps are kinda bad, yet even Conquest had them (Kitsune).

Also, did anyone notice that Stairs don't give the +20% Avoid bonus other interior spaces do?

[Jotari]

21 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Fascinating this little debate over the map design- plain dirt or esoterically hidden brilliance. 

I'll say that it came off to me as a fan's first draft for map designs, crude and very simplistic. The Alm Sluice fight for instance was just a monoclass map, which I felt was a little cheap because few units can handle Arcanists. Monoclass/near-monoclass maps are kinda bad, yet even Conquest had them (Kitsune).

Also, did anyone notice that Stairs don't give the +20% Avoid bonus other interior spaces do?

Well to be fair I wouldn't want to be jumping around on a set of steps in fear of breaking my neck. Still probably an oversight though.

[TheTrueKnight]

Quote

Shadows of Valentia Has Damn Good Map Design

Why Do You Write Like That? It's Really Ugly.

I thought it was irony, lol. I haven't played every Fire Emblem games but this one has the less good maps of FE I know. (I played and finished Shadow Dragon, FE7/9, GameCube's one and every 3DS games)

Maps really aren't interresting here because they're too small (or sometimes too big but not almost never), you always end up sticking your units together because you have to go on a 1-case large path...

[ChibiToastExplosion]

28 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Fascinating this little debate over the map design- plain dirt or esoterically hidden brilliance. 

I'm going to chime in and say I'm in the esoterically hidden brilliance camp. At the very least, the maps are not as terrible as people make them out to be.

I think everyone wants to play the maps like every other FE game, and despite the general feeling that this game isn't like other FE games everyone tries to twist it to be as close to their own personal jesus Tellius/Elibe/Jugdral babies anyway. Approach the maps with a different mindset and I think people might just find them fun.

Awakening has open maps too, and on Awakening's engine it's not as fun. On Echoes' engine, however, the same exact field would play completely differently due to magic/terrain among other mechanics.

I say all this playing on hard, without really using the pegasus sisters at all. It's not that bad; and if a map makes you feel uncomfortable, isn't that a good thing? Should it really be as "brilliant" as sticking an op unit at a chokepoint and calling it a day?