Do You Prefer Animations On or Off?

[Sand55]

I don't know about everyone else, but I've always wanted a bit more practicality to the battle animations in FE. I don't mind the over-the-top animations of the GBA games for a while. But pretty soon, I find myself playing with animations turned off in most FE games because they just. TAKE. SO. LONG. Not to mention that each animation is highly unique--which is great at first, but they're not very repeatable. After a while, I find myself wondering why they can't dispense with the fancy twirls and just hit the enemy. I thought Genealogy of the Holy War struck a great balance. I found the animations in that game to be a lot simpler. For instance, in the GBA games, the animation for a cavalier attacking and the animation for a paladin attacking are so over-the-top detailed and different from one another that at first it's amazing to watch, but after a while you get sick of watching the exact same animation, especially the longer ones. In Genealogy, when any horse-mounted unit decides to stab someone with a lance, then they just, y'know, go over there and stab them with a lance. Quick, simple, to-the-point. Characters dodge and then counter-attack immediately after the enemy is finished attacking, rather than waiting for their opponent to return to their previous neutral position, attack animations are fast, and characters have multiple attack animations depending on how whether they're performing a second attack immediately after the first, and also depending on how close or far they are from the enemy. This is definitely how I prefer the animations in FE. I also like Awakening's when I'm holding down the A button to fast-forward them. That way I can enjoy the fancy animations, but at a fast enough speed that I don't feel like I'm just waiting around for the next attack to begin.

Anyway, I'm wondering what other people think about that. Do you play with animations on or off, and why? For all the reasons mentioned above, I'm usually an "animations off" person, unless it's FE4 or FE13 (sometimes I still turn animations off in 13).

[MozillaFiberfox]

I only ever leave animations on in the GBA games because I think those are the best in the series so far, otherwise I turn them off to save time (and even in the GBA games I turn them off sometimes). 

[DarthR0xas]

I prefer them on, when the enemies aren't plentiful. It's why despite FE4's animations being my favorite, I mostly play with them off because there are so many of them. Those great animations takes so long due to the sheer quantity of mooks. Meanwhile, in Thracia 776, the same-ish animations are used but they seem better since they aren't worn dry by the stupid amount of enemies. The original FE1 and 2's animation have a nice 8-bit charm I love, but Jesus are they tedious. Same goes for the Tellius series. Great animations, could be sped up by 2 and they'd still be a little slow. They work best for bigger climatic moments, as then every attack seems to have weight and meaning put behind and into it. GBA strikes the best balance of this imo. A tad slower that Jugdral, but still speedy, with weight behind them. Also flair, GBA has the flashiest animations without the need for skills or that fun stuff. For the DS games, leave them off since I don't like the in battle animations. For 3Ds I leave them off because I love the little map sprites too much. The little sound effect when they attack is nice too, feels nice. It also helps that they have the skip button in these games. 

[indigoasis]

I've always loved seeing the animations in Fire Emblem games. Not only that, but I like to see how each battle plays out. With animations on, it feels so much more satisfying when I get a critical hit. I can see the flash or the unique animation, and it gets me pumped up. For me personally, I keep the animations on, although I've never really had the heart to turn them off, either.

[Ottservia]

I love animations cause it just feels more satisfying to watch. There is no greater feeling in this world than thinking you're unit is gonna die to an enemy onslaught only for them to dodge  at that one crucial then follow up with a critical animation/quote. That being said however,  I will turn off animations if I spend too much on a map. cause at that point I've reset about 10 times and I just wanna get it over with.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Otts486

[Sand55]

52 minutes ago, indigoceans said:

I've always loved seeing the animations in Fire Emblem games. Not only that, but I like to see how each battle plays out. With animations on, it feels so much more satisfying when I get a critical hit. I can see the flash or the unique animation, and it gets me pumped up. For me personally, I keep the animations on, although I've never really had the heart to turn them off, either.

 

25 minutes ago, Otts486 said:

I love animations cause it just feels more satisfying to watch. There is no greater feeling in this world than thinking you're unit is gonna die to an enemy onslaught only for them to dodge  at that one crucial then follow up with a critical animation/quote. That being said however,  I will turn off animations if I spend too much on a map. cause at that point I've reset about 10 times and I just wanna get it over with.

Yes, I can understand that. I do like to turn on animations for bosses or other big moments. It's always fun to have the physicality of seeing an enemy unit next to yours. The threat feels more real that way.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Sand55

[Ertrick36]

I'd probably say one other reason why Genealogy's was best is because they take roughly the same amount of time as when the animations are turned off.  By the end of Genealogy, map-only animations may have only saved you about a minute or two in total when compared to a run with the full animations turned on.  But yeah, I like the pace of the Genealogy animations; they're almost like an actual battle instead of a game of "I hit you, you hit me", because in actual HEMA you should be striking fast and without warning instead of flashy and big.

I leave them on unless either I've reset the chapter a lot of times or there simply are a shit ton of enemies and I've already seen pretty much every class's animations.  In the case of Genealogy, I don't turn them off ever because it hardly makes a difference.

[Hawkwing]

I used to always have them on when playing Awakening, but nowadays I tend to skip them if I already know the outcome of the fight. I still watch them in riskier encounters, or if it's an awesome moment of overkill, but otherwise, I've played the game enough times to know what most of the animations look like, so I just hold L to save time.

The animations of Echoes, on the other hand, I'll never get tired of. They're one of the reasons I was so excited about the game, and they do not disappoint. The only time I turn them off is in the lengthier dungeons, and that's because, as awesome as they are, they start to build up over time. Other than that, though, there was never a moment I skipped a fight in the game.

[Sand55]

3 minutes ago, Hawkwing said:

The animations of Echoes, on the other hand, I'll never get tired of. They're one of the reasons I was so excited about the game, and they do not disappoint. The only time I turn them off is in the lengthier dungeons, and that's because, as awesome as they are, they start to build up over time. Other than that, though, there was never a moment I skipped a fight in the game.

For me Echoes are actually my least favorite animations, actually! I liked that they were less flashy and looked more like real-time fighting--like and actual fight--but I still thought they were way too slow. I like Genealogy because the movements look more like an actual fight, but they're fast as well. That said, I can definitely see the appeal of having animations on in Valentia. I like how the map is actually fully modeled in 3d, so your characters are fighting in the same part of the map they appear at in the grid view. It's also cool to watch them have to navigate obstacles in the environment. I mean, it occasionally gets a bit awkward-looking, but  I really like that they went the extra mile and made characters avoid trees and things rather than just going straight through them (or do they just go straight through trees? Now that I'm typing this I can't remember.)

[BrightBow]

Depends on the game. For the 3DS ones, I really had to force myself watching them due to all those random pauses. Especially with Echoes I was really hoping that I would eventually get used to it because of how impressive they are when stuff is actually moving for once. But when I back to the DS games, I was shocked just how much I enjoyed watching them, even though they are so unimpressive. Because they just don't start a commercial break every time someone activates a critical or whatnot. They have a good flow to them.

Edited November 28, 2018 by BrightBow

[Hawkwing]

2 minutes ago, Sand55 said:

For me Echoes are actually my least favorite animations, actually! I liked that they were less flashy and looked more like real-time fighting--like and actual fight--but I still thought they were way too slow. I like Genealogy because the movements look more like an actual fight, but they're fast as well. That said, I can definitely see the appeal of having animations on in Valentia. I like how the map is actually fully modeled in 3d, so your characters are fighting in the same part of the map they appear at in the grid view. It's also cool to watch them have to navigate obstacles in the environment. I mean, it occasionally gets a bit awkward-looking, but  I really like that they went the extra mile and made characters avoid trees and things rather than just going straight through them (or do they just go straight through trees? Now that I'm typing this I can't remember.)

To each their own. They could have been slightly faster, but they were still quick and a far cry from how slow the other 3D animations are. And yeah, the map being fully modeled helped prevent the fights from getting stale, and the developers actually paid attention to little details such as a units footing on stairs being correct. The magic spells also have the right amount of power to them, and a slow-motion critical Sagittae will never get old.

My only real complaints are the clipping and how they unsheathe their weapons every time combat is initiated. And the developers underestimated how many times the Dread Fighters would crit, as they only have one animation for that, while cool, does get old. I would pay to have this as a second critical attack for them:

Spoiler

 

But overall, I hope Three Houses builds upon what Echoes started, and we get some stellar combat animations.

[Hanes]

2 hours ago, Sand55 said:

then they just, y'know, go over there and stab them with a lance. Quick, simple, to-the-point.

I love them actually because of the same point however I like the lance cav crit way more because they do a perfect 360 degree spin! I've tried to replicate that in real life and it's just as satisfying to do it right as it is to watch it :P

[Light Strategist]

For me it really depends. I tend to leave them on with the GBA and Tellius games but with Awakening and Fates I start with them on and turn them off when I get impatient. I think it's actually because I tend to feel a bit more insecure with my units when perma-death's an issue but since Awakening's era allows you to remove it, it's less of an issue and I can just speed through with little consequence.

Edited November 28, 2018 by Light Strategist

[XRay]

I leave them on for a while, but I eventually turn them off. For Heroes, I turn the animations back on occasionally to see a new unit in combat or how well the new accessory looks, but other than that, I turn the animations off permanently for other games.

Edited November 28, 2018 by XRay

[TheWildestCat]

I play with animations on. Even if crits are low you got to see the attacks.

[Shoblongoo]

I like it where the animations are always on, but all I have to do if I want to skip one and save time is tap the scren or hit [A].

So I can watch whichever ones I want to watch and skip the rest without constantly having to go back into the options menu and tinker with the animation settings.

The way they did it in the older games (i.e. GBA) where you had to manually change settings everytime you wanted to switch between watching an animation and not watching an animation was super annoying, and something I hope they never do again. 

Edited November 28, 2018 by Shoblongoo

[Icelerate]

In the first few chapters, I turn them on but once the enemy density starts getting big, I turn them off. 

[Darros]

I typically leave them on but hold the L button down to manually skip them in most cases.

[Etria]

First thing I do in the options is put text speed to max and switch off all batte animations. I hate that waste of time. I think I've seen none of Awakenings and Fates animations save the ones you have to watch because you don't have access to the menu yet.

[redtutel]

I always leave animations on, even though I often skip them if the game will let me, especially if I'm impatient

[starburst]

I turn them on (and play them fast-forward) in Fates because that is the only way to see the hit and critical hit percentages on Enemy Phase. If this were not the case, I would turn them off most of the time.

[FiboSai]

For me, the music that plays during the battle scenes is also a big part when deciding whether to keep animations on. I'm not too fond of the GBA battle music, so I tend to leave them off more often than not. But I absolutely love the battle themes in Awakening, Fates and Echoes, so I play with animations on most of the time. The exeption is when I have to play a map multiple times. 

[Rapaille]

I have animations on when I play the game for the first time but when I replay it they're almost always off (if the animations are bad like fe11 & 12 they were even off on my first playthrough), unless there is an animation that I really like (Wyvern lords/knights in GBA and any animation in which horses jump).

[Sand55]

17 hours ago, starburst said:

I turn them on (and play them fast-forward) in Fates because that is the only way to see the hit and critical hit percentages on Enemy Phase. If this were not the case, I would turn them off most of the time.

Yeah, that's actually a problem I ran into a lot. I ended up keeping animations on quite a bit during the latter part of Binding Blade after a ballista got a critical on one of my paladins. I was trying to get the paladin to tank all of its shots so that my other units could move in safely, but since I had animations off, I had no idea it had a chance to crit.

[𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥]

On 28/11/2018 at 2:22 AM, Sand55 said:

Anyway, I'm wondering what other people think about that. Do you play with animations on or off, and why? For all the reasons mentioned above, I'm usually an "animations off" person, unless it's FE4 or FE13 (sometimes I still turn animations off in 13).

whenever i started a new FE title, i always kept the animations on in the first playthrough to see how the units managed to fight out of curiosity.

when i got used( or rather, bored )of them, i simply turned everything off to make things faster.

it's always nice to see skills and critical animations for the first time, but after you know every character and their attacks, watching them over and over everytime becomes quite boring.