First Hands-On Impressions Thread

[Taho]

7 hours in, I'm completely in love with the format and the gameplay. It's so addictive.

The only negative aspect is the graphics, which I don't consider as very relevent to a FE game, and some design choices (F/Byleth's outfit is so outrageously sexist)

 

Funny thing is, I'm a teacher in real life and the teaching in three houses is just awesome.

 

[Renvalt]

5 hours ago, Vitezen said:

There are a few things that have struck me so far.

1. How quickly you're asked to join a house. I think the game does a good job of setting the tone with each leader, but it would've been a little better if you could see more. I think this could make people annoyed if they don't know what house they want, which makes it even worse if you feel like you picked the wrong one when you didn't have enough info.
2. Dimitri made a much better impression on me in the game compared to the trailer. He seems more like a nice, polite guy than a crusader. I actually liked Edelgard even less once I met her in the game because of the way she talks about her housemates. I still chose Claude, but gave it a little thought based on what I saw of the other lords.
3. The game does a good job of explaining combat in the first mission and teaching you to explore the monastery, but throws you right into managing unit growth without much chance to plan. Maybe that's what it feels like to be a new teacher?

With regards to point #1, the game gives you a full set of units covering all your basic army needs irregardless of house choice. Their roles just aren't as apparent until you actually peek at the roster (which you can do if you say yes when the House Leaders ask if you wanna know more about the members of the house). In fact, you almost ALWAYS get a tank/healer/archer/mage/cav duo in addition to your lord (sometimes one of those roles will be filled by your House Leader, whereas other times you can tell who has what role simply by their behavior and/or physique).

In regards to point #3... I dunno about Hard Mode, but I've seemed to have plenty of leeway early on (I've just beaten the Lance of Ruin chapter and Beginner tier classes are still actually very viable). And even then, the game seems to push certain units into certain roles (as I said, you can tell who has what role in your little group by simply looking at them and seeing how they behave).

Edited July 27, 2019 by Renvalt

[Sire]

Gonna update my initial thoughts with this post.

I've been playing some more, having just cleared Chapter 5. The Monastery Exploration isn't much of a completionist's nightmare as I thought it was as exploring it once a month is enough. Going to explore again doesn't give anything new besides any special events going on that week. The norm seems to be exploring the first time each month and the rest of the month is filled with whatever the player likes to do.
As an aside, I find myself either exploring or battling instead of doing Seminars. I think I only did a Seminar like once, as a high Professor Level allows me to do more things in exploration. I just spend two points in the Dining Hall to refresh motivation and the rest can be spent on other things.

As for difficulty (Hard, Classic), I guess I just ran into the standard early game hurdle where my characters weren't more powerful than the usual mobs yet. Some have been reporting difficult with the Chapter 5 battle, but I had no trouble with it.

As for my roster, Caspar and Linhardt are still behind, but despite this they are still actually performing decently. Linhardt mainly serves as support, but I have technically benched Caspar as I am using him as "pair up fodder" As for Ferdinand, he performs okay, but I think many don't care for him because seems to focus on his Charisma and Gambits instead of usual combat.

Recruitment is super slow. I've heard raising supports with desired transfer students is the way to go, so I'm going to try that more with Lysithea and Hilda. Lysithea is rather interested, and it helps I ended up becoming a Priest so I can continue using Faith magic in addition to my swords. Maybe I'll be able to recruit them soon, who knows...

* * * * *

Overall, still loving the game and retaining that hype I had. It is definitely a slow burn though, as least what I have experienced thus far. Hopefully everything pays off in the end...

[SSbardock84]

Whoops, I think I played through too fast. Completed Black Eagles route in 18 hours and 42 minutes. Read the average is 45 hours. It’s probably because I didn’t do as much in Explore.

[ShadowAUS]

8 minutes ago, SSbardock84 said:

Whoops, I think I played through too fast. Completed Black Eagles route in 18 hours and 42 minutes. Read the average is 45 hours. It’s probably because I didn’t do as much in Explore.

Haha yeah that is pretty quick. Saying that though even doing everything I could possibly do (besides recruiting all the students from other houses as I'm leaving them for their respective playthroughs) it still only took me  a little over 30 hours for BE's route even with all the grinding and fishing I did. It really suprised me how short it ended up being. The BL route looks to be longer so far though I haven't finished the last couple of chapters on it yet.

[Taho]

2 hours ago, SSbardock84 said:

Whoops, I think I played through too fast. Completed Black Eagles route in 18 hours and 42 minutes. Read the average is 45 hours. It’s probably because I didn’t do as much in Explore.

Did you skip support convo, cut scenes and battle animation ?

[Maimishou]

2 hours ago, SSbardock84 said:

Whoops, I think I played through too fast. Completed Black Eagles route in 18 hours and 42 minutes. Read the average is 45 hours. It’s probably because I didn’t do as much in Explore.

 

2 hours ago, ShadowAUS said:

Haha yeah that is pretty quick. Saying that though even doing everything I could possibly do (besides recruiting all the students from other houses as I'm leaving them for their respective playthroughs) it still only took me  a little over 30 hours for BE's route even with all the grinding and fishing I did. It really suprised me how short it ended up being. The BL route looks to be longer so far though I haven't finished the last couple of chapters on it yet.

Wow, the game sounds pretty short compared to the 80 hours developers and reviewers said routes were.

That said, an update. I'm up to chapter six and 12 chapters in. I think I might be underleveled since most of my roster are under level 10. Been ignoring optional battles and doing everything else. Working on recruiting Lysithea and Annette to the Black Eagles though I heard getting Supports to B is an automatic recruitment so I think I'll be working on that next. Was planning on marrying Sothis but after getting C with Dorothea I might go for her instead.

[Humanoid]

Just started the game, even though I did end up buying it on Friday. Doing synchronised runs with my sister while we chat over Skype so progress will be rather slow, probably a couple hours a night. She picked Claude first so that's the way I'm going - I'm not at all invested in any of the houses so I had no opinion. Was worried a bit at the start that we had to pick one of the lords so quickly during the prologue, but fortunately that was a red herring. Despite that though, the choice still comes surprisingly early. I'm not as positive on the voice acting as many here seem to be. Plenty of good voices, but plenty of poor ones too. I wish I could mute Mercedes specifically. Flayn too probably.

Starting to succumb to eyestrain in handheld mode while talking to everyone around the monastery, so I think I might end the handheld experiment soon. The battery only lasted 2-2.5 hours anyway, which I didn't know as I've never seriously used the Switch in that mode before. Then again, I basically haven't used my Switch since January for a bit of Smash when it was new, which I found to be not really my thing. High hopes that this'll finally make the console purchase worthwhile.

No comment on the combat so far other than visibility was a bit poorer than I'd like, though that would have been exacerbated by a combination of the handheld mode and that the battle occurred at dawn. Also got caught out by the usual killed-the-boss-too-early trap and thus missing out on XP, but I assume the XP prologue is mostly irrelevant since most of it would likely go to units I'll never use again.

 

EDIT: Playing as male despite my usually going female first, after agreeing with my sister that we'd alternate as we do each route. We both gave our Byleth's silly names, her's is Len and mine is Tex after we used a random number generator to determine the first letter and then arbitrarily deciding to choose very short names. Hard/Classic but open to toggling it down depending on how we go.

Edited July 28, 2019 by Humanoid

[Ertrick36]

How are people beating this game in 12-30 hours?  I've been playing since release, logged 22 hours, and am still slugging along in the school phase.

51 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

Starting to succumb to eyestrain in handheld mode while talking to everyone around the monastery, so I think I might end the handheld experiment soon. The battery only lasted 2-2.5 hours anyway, which I didn't know as I've never seriously used the Switch in that mode before. Then again, I basically haven't used my Switch since January for a bit of Smash when it was new, which I found to be not really my thing. High hopes that this'll finally make the console purchase worthwhile.

You sound like you don't want to use handheld mode anyway, but I'll say this just for clarity, as I know there are a lot of FE fans who are using a Switch for the very first time now.

You can charge your Switch in handheld mode.  The power connector for the dock is also able to fit in the bottom slot of the Switch itself (which is usually used to dock).  Of course, you need to have close proximity to a power outlet to do so, but it is possible.

[Moonlit Knight]

I’ve now more or less played constantly for two days straight, and I’m still pre-timeskip (I haven’t been skipping the support convos or the battle animations until just recently). But I can see how someone could power through the game. I’d say most of my time has been spent wandering around talking to everyone each chapter and doing the optional quest battles and paralogues (which are all longer and harder than the story battles but are VERY much worth it).

One thing that has particularly struck me is the dialogue choices. The “correct” choice often isn’t the obvious response and you actually have to think and know the personality of whom you’re talking to.

Also, the tone of the dialogue and the characterizations is absolutely spot on in my opinion. I REALLY feel like I’m the leader and teacher of these ragamuffin teenage dorks. I’m having a blast with this game.

[SSbardock84]

14 hours ago, Taho said:

Did you skip support convo, cut scenes and battle animation ?

Battle animations only

[Azz]

So I'm 20 hours into my BL playthrough and I'm currently on chapter 7.

I'm really loving the supports in this game. Sylvain's and Dedue's supports are a standout tbh, it sheds a different light on Sylvain I was worried we wouldn't see. Dedue in general is a great character imo and I love learning about Duscar from him. His and Ingrid's B support made me tear up a bit tbh. Dimitri is a great character tbh, he's everything great about Marth and Eliwood, two of my favourite lords. Mercedes might be my favourite of the group tbh. The only character I'm iffy with on BL is Felix, but it's probably because I only have C's with him and everyone so far. His Dedue support was a standout however because of the tension in it, I could really feel it!

Gameplay wise, it's fun. Not the best gameplay in the series but not bad. I do wish there were some features in the game (namely SoV's BEXP at the end of maps or just BEXP in general). The monastery can get a bit tedious but I think that may be partly my fault because of how I'm playing the game too fast.

Unit wise, Dimitri is great, Dedue is a wall that kills everything, Felix is good as expected, Ashe is surprisingly great, Sylvain is a good cav, Mercie is a great all round magic user, killing and healing, Annie is probably my only unit that is not pulling her weight as she got really magic screwed and being a mage with only 4 move sucks (and I gave Dedue the mach ring but I might give it to her now...), Ingrid is a great peg too. Cyril has also unexpectedly gotten really good level ups and I'll probably keep him as my permanent 10th unit to fill in that extra space. Flayn is being regulated to Byleth heal bot as a adjutant. I also have both Catherine and Shamir but I'll probably put them as adjutants too once I have more spaces unlocked (I'll probably do the same with the rest of the faculty units tbh as so far my students + Cyril are turning out really good, minus Annette but I'll show her some favourtism to catch her up).

Overall, I'm really enjoying the game and it's definitely battling to be my favourite it the series.

[Spectrum]

Doing Black Eagles on (Hard/Classic). I just got to chapter 18.

I'm loving it a lot so far. The story and characters have impressed me even though I knew some of the spoilers.

The gameplay is amazing. It feels maybe more strategic than the latest entries. The only thing I didn't enjoy that much was the monastery and its activities. It was really overwhelming for me because I was impatient and I ended up missing on some of the characters I really wanted to recruit(had no idea support affects recruitment). I focused more on battles than exploring. 

I really like all of the characters and their support conversations. This game is really good; not disappointed at all.

[frankfawn43]

The game so far is living up to my hype. The story isn't trash so far (just got Flayne) and the characters are fun. Golden Deer was a good choice.  Canto is great fun. I had Leonie shoot reinforces and then run out of range. Hilda's laziness is really funny given that she can double people, has a giant axe, and has gotten offensive stat blessed. I was really worried when almost everyone only got speed and charm for the first 5-7 levels.  (GD normal/classic)

Edited July 28, 2019 by frankfawn43

[silverserpent]

Thanks to the art book, I found out an interesting tidbit of info that makes me want to pursue Seteth on my next playthrough. For now, I've almost got Dimitri in my palm. I do like how the supports are somewhat story-locked, it makes for a nice progression of plot and character development.