If you would redesign something about FE...

[Fennel]

Is there something you think deserves a second look about the way Fire Emblem games play?

Not necessarily something that is bad... but like needs something else added or maybe tweaked.

I love FE... but there's these two things... that ARE NOT BAD DESIGN... its just, they feel funny, and I don't really know a solution or if it even needs a solution.

Ok, am sure you've all experienced these at some point:  There's a bottle neck... you plant your guy/gal... on the other side there's this MASS of cavalry.... like a MASSIVE MASS... horses on top of horses on top of horses, like one huge horse triple decker festival.  Enemies turn... one horse comes attack, moves away... then another, moves away... another... another... another...  EVERY SINGLE HORSE attacks the tiny bottleneck.  I mean, I get it!  Horses Canto... and I take advantage of that when I can, but when I think about it, IT DOESNT MAKE SENSE!  I understand that it is a turn based game and all... but really?   All these horses take turns attacking a narrow bottleneck, there's no way they can perform the attacks simultaneously so...  what?  In all that time the horses go back and forth the team behind the bottleneck is doing what?... they are waiting for player turn... cause... ugh!.... 

Edit:  I mean, I can accept that somewhat in an open world map... cause of dimensions... so like there a square represents a very wide open space where that situation can happen... but then why can't we have more than a couple (or just one) per square?...  and what about in a closed environment indoor map?...

AND THEN... imagine that your bottleneck guard is a superhero and is actually killing these horses...  there has to be piles upon PILES of horses getting stacked up.  HOW ARE THEY EVEN GETTING THROUGH TO ATTACK?!  There should be like a wall of dead horses at some point...

I dunno... it's just a game...  I really have to suspend realism in those times.  (...cause I don't suspend realism when people throw lightning bolts...*cough* #DoYouBelieveInMagic?...). They don't happen often, but when they do am like: "Yeah, right.... ok, whatever..."

But then am not sure of alternatives...

AND THEN... what if one doesn't want to attack them back?  I wish there was a way to selectively suppress counterattacking, other than un-equip weapons.  Like maybe something you press before the attack animations engage or something.  But I guess, that could adversely affect some abilities... maybe let it be like a skill that allows suppression?

So that's my thing... what you think?  Is there something like that for you?

Edited July 21, 2019 by Rioma

[X-Naut]

SoV has me thinking that we don't need the weapon triangle... at all. You could cut the axe category and reduce melee weapons to blades and polearms, with the former encompassing swords and the shorter axes while the latter contains spears, lances, poleaxes and whatever other weapons on a stick you can name.

[eclipse]

FE features kids who can beat trained soldiers, I wouldn't look too far into realism.

Though a sense of time would be nice.  FE4 has some semblance of it, in the form of text (though it was for the actual story, not each map).  But how long does each phase take?  A day?  An hour?  A minute a la SRW?

[Flere210]

I think the power increasing system is just off. The whole foundation of "you may increase a stat or may not" means that the enemies have to be designed as very weak in order to adress a massively screwed player. No one would like to restart the game because no unit has enought def to not get one rounded by the boss. 

Most games with random level ups don't have a bynary 0 or 1, but a system that guarantee a minimum gain, so you get 1 point, but you may get 2 or 3. Sure, you would cap certain stats quickly, but imo is a plus, because balancing enemies around caps is easier, for example, i can make a boss that can be doubled only by swordmasters, or that can only be tanked by wyvern lords and generals, without the risk of an overlevelled paladin doing the job of the other classes. 

[NinjaMonkey]

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

 a system that guarantee a minimum gain, so you get 1 point, but you may get 2 or 3.

In Radiant Dawn, you're guaranteed at least one stat increase per level.

[Fennel]

2 hours ago, Flere210 said:

No one would like to restart the game because no unit has enought def to not get one rounded by the boss.

This made me laugh.  Does the game really let one get into a dead end state like that?

I imagine the heroes going through a long arduous journey, overcoming the odds and FINALLY get to the boss... look at its stats and go:

”Ok guys its over, just give up... WE’RE DONE!  RESET!”

I guess if one REALLY had to, start sacrificing people... but then if the boss has Vantage??!  Lol

I dunno... I’ve run into MANY situations where enemies just happen to have the EXACT stats to kill a unit... like they do the exact amount of damage... if its not one unit its the summation of a two or three that overlap attack range.  VERY SUSPICIOUS... sometimes I wonder if it’s coincidence or like the game wants to kill me... if I forget how to add... which sometimes I do...

[Flere210]

15 minutes ago, Rioma said:

This made me laugh.  Does the game really let one get into a dead end state like that?

I imagine the heroes going through a long arduous journey, overcoming the odds and FINALLY get to the boss... look at its stats and go:

”Ok guys its over, just give up... WE’RE DONE!  RESET!”

I guess if one REALLY had to, start sacrificing people... but then if the boss has Vantage??!  Lol

I dunno... I’ve run into MANY situations where enemies just happen to have the EXACT stats to kill a unit... like they do the exact amount of damage... if its not one unit its the summation of a two or three that overlap attack range.  VERY SUSPICIOUS... sometimes I wonder if it’s coincidence or like the game wants to kill me... if I forget how to add... which sometimes I do...

The only genre that really do that are roguelike and some more experienced players do indeed reset when they don't have the right items, but those games are supposed to not last very long so you rarely lose much(and you lose runs all the time anyway).

I am saying that an rpg with stats so randomized you may not be strong enought to beat a boss 30 hours in would be terrible.

 

46 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

In Radiant Dawn, you're guaranteed at least one stat increase per level.

I have to express myself better. I was reffering to single stats. Even the fastest swordmaster would get something like 80% chance to increase speed on a level up. Wich means there is a non 0 chance for it to get RNG screwed out of it'own niche. I am perfectly fine with str, def and so on being random, but a myrm should at least get guaranteed speed and skill just to function as intended. If i would make an fe game, i would guve units gba like growth in most stats, but something like 100-150% growth in the key stat of their classes, such as speed and skill for myrmidons or strenght and hp for fighters. Imo it's much better than th inflated 3ds growths.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

The OP's point is definitely something I've thought of. It stretches the imagination to think of one of your units ORKOing ten guys in an enemy phase while everybody else stands around and watches. Maybe our units need to have a 3 engagement limit where they'll stop being targeted by enemies if they're kicking too much ass. But also incorporate elements from other strategy games like flanking or making a unit progressively less able to take on the second and third opponent because it's implied he's facing a coordinated attack from multiple sides. It'll also make enemies seem less dumb running into a guy that murders them if their odds of getting in a hit increases.

Randomized level ups are another thing I've been mulling over in my head. Fixed stat gains, like in that separate option of PoR, seem so much more appropriate for a strategy game. But really the difference made by random level ups is so miniscule in practice and add an unpredictable element to the games. Just please give us a way in-game to see our stat growths. People would love that.

• Why can't we repair or maintain our weapons? FE4 had this system, but only to help justify it's other design decisions with how you obtain and "trade" items. 
• Why is the Lord a convoy? Where do those items come from, does he just snap his fingers? Give us an actual convoy to protect like in FE6/FE7, but have actual consequences for them getting destroyed, like the enemy stealing gold. And then add a system like FE4's castles where in order to seize a convoy you gotta go through it's body guard. Armor knights, meet your new source of relevance.
• Have a subdue command where your stats drop in order to knock out or disarm an opponent without killing them. Lords never seem to address the horrible loss of life on the battlefield, except for Corrin who waves his magic wand and says "good thing they're all still alive" after the battle is over. Effectively subduing an opponent can play into bonus objectives, serve as a recruitment condition, grant that unit an experience boost, or add to the Lord's reputation as some sort of karma mechanic affecting the story - or giving them leadership stars! FE9 and 10 had chapters where you're told not to kill units and the player is like "...okay how do I NOT kill somebody...?"

Edited July 21, 2019 by Glennstavos

[NinjaMonkey]

7 minutes ago, Glennstavos said:

FE9 and 10 had chapters where you're told not to kill units and the player is like "...okay how do I NOT kill somebody...?"

Unless that player is me, who just kills them anyway.

Edited July 21, 2019 by NinjaMonkey

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

• Have a subdue command where your stats drop in order to knock out or disarm an opponent without killing them. Lords never seem to address the horrible loss of life on the battlefield, except for Corrin who waves his magic wand and says "good thing they're all still alive" after the battle is over. Effectively subduing an opponent can play into bonus objectives, serve as a recruitment condition, grant that unit an experience boost, or add to the Lord's reputation as some sort of karma mechanic affecting the story - or giving them leadership stars! FE9 and 10 had chapters where you're told not to kill units and the player is like "...okay how do I NOT kill somebody...?"

Thracia 776 would like to have a word with you. What word? Capture:

• If Unit's Con > opponent's Con, the initiating unit can attack at Range 1, and the initiating unit is not carrying another unit already, can perform a Capture by selecting the option on the player phase.
• If Capturing unit is mounted, can perform a capture regardless of Con.
• Under no circumstances can a unit that is mounted be Captured. Mounted units who have dismounted are Captureable however. Enemies will never dismount on their own though, and must be forced into dismounting via inflicting Sleep on them.
• Regardless of a mount or otherwise, enemy units with 20 Con cannot be captured, ever.
• To successfully Capture, a unit must reduce the enemy's HP to 0 in a round of combat. However, all non-HP/Lck/Con/Critical Coefficient stats of the Capturing unit are halved during that. Weapon Mt, Hit, and Crit are not halved; Support bonuses and terrain effects are not halved either.
• If an opponent lacks an equippable weapon or has been forced to disarm via Sleep or Silence, will be automatically Captured, with no round of combat involved.
• For player units, Capturing an armed enemy gives EXP equal to killing them, no EXP is given if they were unarmed.
• After a successful Capture, the Capturing unit will hold onto the Captured opponent. The Captured opponent will have 1 HP remaining, unless they were unarmed, in which case, they shall have as much HP as they had prior to being Captured.
• While holding onto a Captured unit, all non-HP/Lck/Con growable stats are halved. Move is also halved if the Captured unit's Con > half of the Capturing unit's Con.
• For enemies, if they Capture an ally, they automatically steal as much of that unit's inventory as they can hold. Personal weapons are not capable of being taken however. The enemy will then try to flee the map with the Captured ally, who is lost to the player until Chapter 21x if they are not at or after that point. At and beyond Chapter 21x, all Captured allies who are taken off the map are effectively dead.
• For the player, regardless of success or failure, Capture will end that unit's turn, barring re-movement on mounted units with leftover Move to use.
• Allies, the Capturer or otherwise, can then Trade with the Captured enemy and freely take away all items in their inventory. Allies can also Transfer the Captured enemy to each other.
• If a Captured unit was holding onto another unit, they will be dropped onto the nearest traversable space.
• The Release command will cause the enemy to be set free, thus allowing the player unit to have unhalved stats again, and Rescue an ally or Capture another enemy. Release will end the player unit's Turn. Regardless of what their inventory was like when Released, the enemy will then automatically flee the map, having been defeated, never to be seen again. Captured bosses have special Release quotes, but Releasing them affects absolutely nothing in narrative or gameplay.

 

Due to a total lack thereof of:

• Chests holding Gold Bags, Gems, or Bullion
• Thieves holding the same
• Nice villagers willing to give the same,
• Eyvel being a tough no-allowance mother
• And being Finn worried about Leif hurting himself running a lemonade stand...

...Thracia 776 gives the player no direct Gold, nor items whose only purpose is to be sold for funds. All money must be obtained via selling normal items and or using the Arena after selling enough for the funds to gamble in it. Without any form of standard income, Leif's army cannot normally buy the weapons it needs.

Instead, Leif's North Thracia Liberation Army must Capture and Steal (which requires Thief's Spd > opponents Spd, and Thief Con > Wt of item) to acquire the overwhelming majority of its weaponry and strategic arsenal of Staffs Of Massive Utility (SOMUs).

 

In addition, Capturing is required to obtain the following characters and access the following chapters:

• Lithis
• Salem
• Trude (alternatively can be Talked to with Pan)
• Misha
• Chapter 8x- Which is necessary to re-recruit Dagdar and Tania.
• Chapter 12x- Which is necessary to recruit Pan, Tina, Trude, and class change Lara to Dancer.

 

In addition, I have been told Capture and Releasing the Leonster Soldiers (not the Armors) in Chapter 18, will still allow the player to acquire the Member Card.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Zapp Branniglenn]

13 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Thracia 776 would like to have a word with you. What word? Capture:

But the real takeaway is four words: Kaga Did It First

Man, every time.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

If i would make an fe game, i would guve units gba like growth in most stats, but something like 100-150% growth in the key stat of their classes, such as speed and skill for myrmidons or strenght and hp for fighters. Imo it's much better than th inflated 3ds growths.

You do realize that there is such a thing as being too specialized... And that it's not a good thing, don't you? Many fighters have been specialized in strength and HP, but it NEVER worked out since they tend to be sorely lacking in important stats.

[Flere210]

15 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

You do realize that there is such a thing as being too specialized... And that it's not a good thing, don't you? Many fighters have been specialized in strength and HP, but it NEVER worked out since they tend to be sorely lacking in important stats.

If we retain the "at least one stat per level" fighters are going to cap strenght and hp long before 20/20 wich means they will get at least some point in other stats no matter how screwed they are. Wich already is a boost. 

I would make the game much more rock-paper-scissor, so i am perfectly fine with fighter having 20% hits againist myrms and mercs, because i don't want the player to fight myrms with fighters. What i want is to make fighters the only ones able to orko armors and to ohko pegasi without using bows. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

5 hours ago, Flere210 said:

Most games with random level ups don't have a bynary 0 or 1, but a system that guarantee a minimum gain, so you get 1 point, but you may get 2 or 3. Sure, you would cap certain stats quickly, but imo is a plus, because balancing enemies around caps is easier, for example, i can make a boss that can be doubled only by swordmasters, or that can only be tanked by wyvern lords and generals, without the risk of an overlevelled paladin doing the job of the other classes.

From what I'm aware, I haven't played it myself, but Berwick Saga has "bracketing". This places minimums and maximums on the core non Weapon Skill stats for a given level, whilst still have the 0-1 binary.

The character Kramer must have at least 31 HP by level 13, while his HP cannot at that level exceed 37 for its value. On average, he will have 34 HP by that point.

Different characters have different bracketing limits, Kramer's HP and Str have brackets of roughly +/-3, while his Spd and Def have brackets of +/-2. Sherlock on the other hand has brackets in all those stats of +/-1.

 

Or, one could use the Dynamic Growths of Shadow Dragon. Every time you fail to proc a stat, its growth is increased by one-tenth of the growth, which accumulates until the stat is gained, at which point the Dynamic Growth increase is reset to nothing.

Example, Abel as a Cavalier has a 50% Spd growth. If he fails to proc Spd, he gets 10% of 50% added to his Spd growth, which is 5%. So the next time Abel levels, he will have a 55% chance of getting Spd. If he doesn't get it, another 5% of Dynamic Growth is added to the base growth, so on the next level it'll be 60%. If he gains Spd then, the growth will reset to just plain old 50%.

[NobodiePichu]

18 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

If we retain the "at least one stat per level" fighters are going to cap strenght and hp long before 20/20 wich means they will get at least some point in other stats no matter how screwed they are. Wich already is a boost. 

I would make the game much more rock-paper-scissor, so i am perfectly fine with fighter having 20% hits againist myrms and mercs, because i don't want the player to fight myrms with fighters. What i want is to make fighters the only ones able to orko armors and to ohko pegasi without using bows. 

i feel thats kinda lame and inorganic for a system though? i mean, that was essentially early and even current feheroes gameplay and it kinda sucked/sucks. sure it its easier to plan around specific situations from a design perspective and makes it easier on the player, but removing the aspect of random chance kinda takes away from the core management gameplay loop that makes a strategy game a strategy game. if your units are always guaranteed to be about ye good and the situations they are put in are always guaranteed to go a certain way or need a certain solution then you arent playing a strategy game but rather a puzzle game, to an extent.

as such if we are going to look for ways to improve fire emblem game design one should look towards making it more organic instead of less organic. That's not to say we should get rid of pattern entirely mind, just that we shouldn't run away from random chance for the sake of predictability and thus expedience.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Flere210 said:

If we retain the "at least one stat per level" fighters are going to cap strenght and hp long before 20/20 wich means they will get at least some point in other stats no matter how screwed they are. Wich already is a boost. 

I would make the game much more rock-paper-scissor, so i am perfectly fine with fighter having 20% hits againist myrms and mercs, because i don't want the player to fight myrms with fighters. What i want is to make fighters the only ones able to orko armors and to ohko pegasi without using bows. 

It's not much of a boost when they still suck at hitting, they still take massive damage from everything, and they still suck at dodging.

Because it's not like hammers and armorslayers are a thing, right? Oh wait...

[Yexin]

if i were to remove something from the fire emblem series as a whole, that would probably be kouhei maeda

 

if i were to CHANGE something about fire emblem instead, that would be the games' titles' font: i don't really like the font they started using since awakening, i find it so boring and "life-less"

the older fe games' titles' font were completely unique for every game, and you could remember them all just by looking at the "Fire Emblem" part of the title, without subtitles

imho this homogenization was quite forced and there was no actual/functional reason to do it: one could say that this should contribute to make the fe series more solid and united, but i think the title itself already worked like that, giving every title's font it's unique design wouldn't have hurt anyone nor anything, but it would've made every fe game stand out from the others, giving customers the message "hey man, i am a fire emblem game, but i am not like the ones you knew, i have my own identity, and i show it already from my title's font"

 

if it's a mechanic/in-game feature that i should change, that would be the biorhythm mechanic from PoR and RD (if present in future games)

i would change it so that units increase their hit, avoid, crit and skill activation chances every time they land a hit, avoid hits, crit someone or activate a skill respectively, but if you fail doing so, these bonuses decrease (with due balancing and limitations)

this could also stimulate players to use boosting items from the get-go, foods (if present), or even items such as thracia's scrolls, in order to have higher chances of taking advantage of biorhythm as soon as possible

don't know if it sounded too broken (probably it did), but this is just an idea i came up with right now, of course IntSys would think much more about it than i did

Edited July 22, 2019 by Yexin

[Fennel]

15 hours ago, eclipse said:

Though a sense of time would be nice.  FE4 has some semblance of it, in the form of text (though it was for the actual story, not each map). 

Agreed.  I’m all for the epic developments in FE4 but without a sense of time Sigurd’s romantic development felt kinda awkward to me.  If a significant amount of time passes between turns, more than usual, players needed a better hint, I think.

 

12 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Maybe our units need to have a 3 engagement limit where they'll stop being targeted by enemies if they're kicking too much ass. But also incorporate elements from other strategy games like flanking or making a unit progressively less able to take on the second and third opponent because it's implied he's facing a coordinated attack from multiple sides

This is a good idea.  I think devs have have sort of hinted at something like that with the Triangle Attack...  maybe let be something like: 

Cavalry Coordinated Attack:

Pick a cavalry unit

Move it next to another cavalry and they merge, like carrying or supporting, do that with other cavalry that are nearby and movement allows, limited to 3 or maybe 5.

Move in and attack as a single unit.

After attack, move rest of space AND... this might be tricky... at the end all merged cavalry must separate back to single units.

I dunno how hard that would be to program and implement.  The fact that cavalry would have to use their movement to Join, Attack, then Spread would force cavalry to already be nearby each other in some sort of formation, and there needs to be space for them to spread out.

Another detail, when it comes to Canto, maybe Canto should discriminate the direction the cavalry follows through its movement.  If it’s the same direction or 90 degrees they attacked towards they get full rest of movement.  If they go the opposite direction, rest of movement may be somewhat reduced.

Might be getting a little too detailed with rules.  Too many rules might not be good.

Edit:  But then why not move each cavalry individually instead of this Coordinated Attack?.... hrmm...  am not sure.

Edited July 22, 2019 by Rioma

[Garlyle]

I'm looking forward for an FE4 remake, but if they keep making the remakes like before, then it might be not that great nowadays I fear. I'd implement some of the cool features from newer games like

• Actual trading: now the trades in genealogy is completely different, and it'd feel really weird in gameplay.
• Rescue dropping: the game loves cavalry units, and foot units easily fall behind. Let them give a boost, so they have a chance.
• Arena feels like a must, but it's kind of boring to get through it with all your units and getting the same enemies. Would make the game less reliant on Arena.
• Money is not separated by units, the squad have one gold pool. Easier to keep track of your funds.
• Enemies won't have infinite usage on their items - need to balance them another way.
• Everybody has pursuit.

Also how about some other skills? Maybe sprint, so you can move more tiles on the turn, but you cannot take other actions after you move. Or a charge skill, which deals more damage the more tiles you moved before the attack. FE skills give some fun factor to the game, but there could be more of them for variety of units. I'm sure that'd make more interesting pairings too.

[eclipse]

On 7/21/2019 at 3:06 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Or, one could use the Dynamic Growths of Shadow Dragon. Every time you fail to proc a stat, its growth is increased by one-tenth of the growth, which accumulates until the stat is gained, at which point the Dynamic Growth increase is reset to nothing.

Example, Abel as a Cavalier has a 50% Spd growth. If he fails to proc Spd, he gets 10% of 50% added to his Spd growth, which is 5%. So the next time Abel levels, he will have a 55% chance of getting Spd. If he doesn't get it, another 5% of Dynamic Growth is added to the base growth, so on the next level it'll be 60%. If he gains Spd then, the growth will reset to just plain old 50%.

This would make me really happy, even if it doesn't help that much with lower growths (unless it was something like a flat 5% increase to raise a stat every time it doesn't level up).

On 7/21/2019 at 10:28 PM, Yexin said:

if it's a mechanic/in-game feature that i should change, that would be the biorhythm mechanic from PoR and RD (if present in future games)

i would change it so that units increase their hit, avoid, crit and skill activation chances every time they land a hit, avoid hits, crit someone or activate a skill respectively, but if you fail doing so, these bonuses decrease (with due balancing and limitations)

Theoretically, it sounds cool.

Practically, it's another issue of the rich getting richer, metaphorically speaking.  Characters who are already good will continue to stay good, while characters who struggle will have to overcome whatever deficit they have on top of this bonus.

[Flere210]

On 7/22/2019 at 3:06 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

From what I'm aware, I haven't played it myself, but Berwick Saga has "bracketing". This places minimums and maximums on the core non Weapon Skill stats for a given level, whilst still have the 0-1 binary.

The character Kramer must have at least 31 HP by level 13, while his HP cannot at that level exceed 37 for its value. On average, he will have 34 HP by that point.

Different characters have different bracketing limits, Kramer's HP and Str have brackets of roughly +/-3, while his Spd and Def have brackets of +/-2. Sherlock on the other hand has brackets in all those stats of +/-1.

 

Don't know about berwick, but the shining force series always did it. I often said that i want SF-like level ups and this time i decided that i annoyed people enought with this comparisson.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Flere210

[Interdimensional Observer]

46 minutes ago, eclipse said:

This would make me really happy, even if it doesn't help that much with lower growths (unless it was something like a flat 5% increase to raise a stat every time it doesn't level up).

Ensuring high growths proc is good enough for me. Since you won't be using a character for the stats they have low growths in. Who counts on Barthe gaining their 1 Res point on average when planning their strategies? 

Dynamic Growths could fix or mend things like the Revelation Lunatic Paladin!Xander of mine, who proc'ed Def only twice by level 20 despite a 50% growth. Xander is supposed to be tanky, I needed him to be tanky, he failed to be tanky, Dynamics would make that less likely to happen.

It's the middlin' yet important stats for certain units, namely those who have borderline Spd, that Dynamic Growths in practice would possibly fail to help enough.

 

 

On Biorhythm, I've become convinced IS hasn't brought back the mechanic, because they found other ways of doing similar. By that, I mean: Lucky Seven, Fast/Slow Burn, Even/Odd bioRhythm, Evenhanded/Odd Shaped, Better Odds/Even Better, and FEH's Odd/Even Waves.

All of those skills feature inconstant boosts, they come and they go according to the turn count. That is just like Biorhythm. The difference, is that these are optional due to having to be obtained and equipped, and they never inflict penalties- the problem with RD's version of Biorhythm.

[Hawkwing]

Showing growth rates, support points, and being able to see what actually affects the formulas in the game.

Growth rates could easily be shown on another slide, or in some games on the same screen as the regular stats (example from one of Saint Rubenios Lets Play in spoiler below). There's really no reason to hide this information from the player, as it helps give them a better idea of what each character is focused on, and allows planning ahead regarding how a units growth rates and base stats compliment or contrast with each other. It would also remove the confusion of how reclassing and promoting affect growth rates.

Spoiler

Showing the actual support points between two units is a convenience upgrade that would allow the player to plan around the where and the when of activating supports, rather than having to wonder how many turns or how many fights two characters need to spend together in order to unlock the next support rank. It isn't difficult to design a UI that shows this information, so I'm baffled that IS hasn't done so already.

For the last point, it's so I don't have to go to Serenes Forest just to find out how skill affects hit rates and the chance to crit, and how speed affects a units chance to dodge, or what the weapon triangle bonuses actually are. Telling the player that "skill increases chance to hit as well as the crit rate" and "sword beats axe beats lance beats sword" is enough to understand what those stats and mechanics do, but it would still be nice to have an advanced section or guide that provides the hard data about the formulas that a game has. A more casual player may not use it much, but it would still be nice to answer any questions they may have when something seems odd.

All three of these work just fine as is, but they're easy quality of life improvements to make that prevent me from having to go to the computer anytime I have a question about the game. The fact that IS hasn't made any of this information clear to the player despite the series being a few decades old is still baffling to me.

***

Another thing I would change is to put a visual indication of when and where reinforcements will arrive. Even in games that don't have them move on the same turn they spawn, reinforcements can still be frustrating to deal with because they often arrive with little to no warning, and without a guide you can never tell where or who will spawn on each turn. Especially since effective damage is a factor in every game, so having a flyer suddenly be in the range of an archer or a knight close to an enemy with an armorslayer or hammer by no fault of your own is an unfair situation that shouldn't occur in the first place.

Something as simple as a caution sign over the fort or stairs or area that the reinforcements will appear can do wonders for adding a layer of strategy to the game. Instead of being paranoid about every fort on the map or being unpleasantly surprised by an enemy reinforcement, the player can now decide whether they should prioritize blocking forts or attacking the enemy units currently on the map. If they wanted to, there could be either class or personal skills that provide more specific information about reinforcements, such as how many turns they will be arriving and/or what class will appear and/or what weapons they will be using and so on. It might not make reinforcements a fun mechanic, but it would most certainly make it a less frustrating one.

[Shadow Mir]

One thing I want more than anything else: a nerf to critical hits. As it is, critical hits are very seldom useful for the player, but because of permanent death, they're an excellent tool for the enemy to cheese the player out of a unit. Just look at Fates or Radiant Dawn, both of which often throw boosted crit enemies at the player. Low luck units are constantly at risk unless either they're REALLY good in the appropriate defensive stat or there's a way to nullify critical hits.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Fabulously Olivier]

On 7/21/2019 at 4:38 PM, Rioma said:

This made me laugh.  Does the game really let one get into a dead end state like that?

I imagine the heroes going through a long arduous journey, overcoming the odds and FINALLY get to the boss... look at its stats and go:

”Ok guys its over, just give up... WE’RE DONE!  RESET!”

I guess if one REALLY had to, start sacrificing people... but then if the boss has Vantage??!  Lol

I dunno... I’ve run into MANY situations where enemies just happen to have the EXACT stats to kill a unit... like they do the exact amount of damage... if its not one unit its the summation of a two or three that overlap attack range.  VERY SUSPICIOUS... sometimes I wonder if it’s coincidence or like the game wants to kill me... if I forget how to add... which sometimes I do...

 

I once had a speed screwed Ike in Path of Radiance who would get doubled by the 2nd phase of Ashnard on Hard Mode. I had to restart the entire playthrough.

 

To say that I was unlucky would be an understatement.

Edited July 24, 2019 by Etheus