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Genealogy of the Holy War and it's Arena


Luis Liberato
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In almost every Fire Emblem it has been accompanied by an arena. As we all know the arena has a high-risk high reward type deal but this is not the case for Genealogy, rather you get a huge reward for very little risk.  In the other FE games, your units will die if they reach 0 HP in the arena but in Genealogy your units are left at 1 HP. This allows you to heal that unit back to full HP and send them back into the arena for another chance to clear the arena and come out bags full of gold. There's really no reason not to send your units into the arena seeing as how you get nothing but gold and exp from it and it doesn't even handicap you when going into battle since you can heal all your units back to full before anyone even comes close to an enemy. This wouldn't be that bad were it not for the ridiculous amount of gold you get from the arena. In my first playthrough of  Genealogy, I was easily able to cap everyone's gold and trade the paragon band amongst my army. By the time I was finished with the arena, all my units were wayy stronger than most enemies. 

What I would like to know is if IS were to remake Genealogy how would you change the arena to balance the game OR would you argue that the arena is balanced and shouldn't be changed. Some ideas I had in order to balance the arena was to have the enemies scale in level depending on the average level of your army. Another was to simply increase the arenas difficulty either by giving higher stats to the opponent as well as getting less gold from the arena. 

Thanks and would love to hear your thoughts.

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I mean, it actually managed to make the arena a semi-important mechanic in the game.

It's not the most balanced thing ever since it basically is just free EXP, but compared to the other arena we've got, that I doubt anybody seriously uses because the risk is much larger than the reward, I'd say it's slightly better. I'd prefer they keep it for a remake, sans potentially making it so you only get one attempt per turn. Once a unit loses in the arena, they have to wait.

Edited by Slumber
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I'd like to keep it the way it is.  It's the only way to keep some units up to speed, especially the infantry that joins underleveled.

Unlike other games, where Arena is technically unlimited, especially with save states, in FE4, you're limited to only 7 matches per chapter.

 

EDIT: I also like it leaving you at 1HP rather than killing you from a plot integration standpoint.  Having our supposedly civilized society having blood sports, much less our own units willfully murdering gladiators for money and XP never really sat well with me.  If they're just sparring, that seems to fit better with the idea that we're the "good guys".

Edited by Rezzy
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Genealogy's arena is the best arena Fire Emblem has ever had. Its limit of 7 rounds keeps it from being overly abused (unlike some versions of the arena), and the lack of death and consistent enemies makes it usable and lets you make informed decisions (unlike some versions of the arena). The Genealogy arena is clearly meant to be used, and while some units may not need the money it gives, some need it desperately, and the restrictive money system makes it hard for those that don't need that kinda cash to abuse it (outside of one fix your post has made clear is needed). There might be a better balance of enemy level and arena xp gain, but its not too far off if you are spreading xp (and not massively abusing the paragon band). The risk of being sent to 1 hp while a minor penalty on one or two units can become dangerous if too many units fall victim to it, and the time spend delaying to heal can also be seen as a penalty in the maps that place an incentive towards moving out early. That being said it is clear that there is an issue, and it is called the paragon band. It allows your army to get far more experience from the arena than the game is designed for at the cost of gold that the arena provides. If the paragon band were more limited it would not appear as broken as you have made it out to be. Another minor fix would be to give Wrath the same restriction Prayer does in the arena (in that if you enter with 1 hp it doesn't trigger) as otherwise Wrath user can cheese their way through the arena without worry.

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I really wouldn't change anything, since 1) there is a limit to the rounds a unit can do, 2) it is the only way outside of visiting villages for units to get gold and due to the size of the maps your mounts are going to be able to get there a LOT faster meaning you could have units like Ayra with virtually no gold at all 3) while yes you CAN heal up a unit and send them back in often there is something happening at the start of a map and you are going to want ALL of your units at full health and some units just will not be able to beat a certain enemy so sending them in repeatedly only benefits the healer. Honestly I think the arena is necessary for buying items off others (Paragon costs 40,000 gold for example, repairing the Tyrfang costs 50,000) without the arena I don't think units would have the gold to afford things like this. So me personally I would not change the FE4 arena. Moreover knowing who you're going up against and being able to choose what weapon a unit uses is very appreciated unlike the GBA arenas which forced you to use a paticular weapon instead of being allowed to choose a weapon.

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Yeah you can do 7 rounds per character, but IMO it's not unbalanced because they designed the game pretty well around you being able to use it. Like it gives you a reasonable amount of money and XP, not an ungodly amount.

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On 2/28/2019 at 9:16 AM, Rezzy said:

I'd like to keep it the way it is.  It's the only way to keep some units up to speed, especially the infantry that joins underleveled.

Unlike other games, where Arena is technically unlimited, especially with save states, in FE4, you're limited to only 7 matches per chapter.

 

EDIT: I also like it leaving you at 1HP rather than killing you from a plot integration standpoint.  Having our supposedly civilized society having blood sports, much less our own units willfully murdering gladiators for money and XP never really sat well with me.  If they're just sparring, that seems to fit better with the idea that we're the "good guys".

You can't kill the gladiator, because most of the time you'll have to fight the same gladiator with all 24 units.

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