Jump to content

How's the Difficulty of 3H?


Recommended Posts

Disclaimer: I've only finished Blue Lions and currently playing again as Black Eagles. My difficulty complaints are just that, complaints. I loved the game all the way through and I think it is one of the best FE games ever made, and one that brings much needed changes to the entire sRPG genre.

Replaying the school session confirms a suspicion I had while playing BL the first time; The main chapters before the time skip are not difficult even on hard. They can certainly be challenging as the game starts throwing monsters and promoted units at you at the same time but it rarely changes how you play.

Post time skip the difficulty seemingly increases, with more enemies, more monsters, and enemies using gambits more frequently, but your units are so strong (especially Dimitri in BL) that it kind of doesn't matter. As the main chapters progress, the game does get a bit harder when maps have fast enemy units with ridiculous AS that double everyone except your fastest unit. However,  you have so many tools available to deal with these threats that they are always easily manageable. Moreover, monsters become non-threatening after a certain point, even though the game tries hard to spam you with them, as half of your units can solo them (squishy units are obviously still vulnerable). Some of the paralogues are actually more difficult than the majority of main story chapters. They also have more varied and interesting objectives.

I believe the reason it feels easy even on hard comes down to a few things ( in no particular order )  :

i) You get too many levels by just going through the motions. If you just follow the way the game suggests for you to play, your units end up over leveled. Honestly, you just get way too much exp. The saint statues make this even worse.

ii) Paralogue rewards are broken.

iii) Some of the units you get are busted (e.g. Petra/Felix/Sylvain) and since you have them from the very start, you can train them to be incredibly strong. For this reason, I expect GD to be the hardest route if you just stick to the GD students. Also, Catherine and Shamir are too powerful for how easy it is to recruit them.

iv) The game is obviously not balanced around micromanaging the students at the school phase. You can get really high weapon ranks quite early for little effort and no combat. 

v) All main story maps are rout/defeat commander. This makes the majority of chapters amenable to rushing by using warp and/or stride.

vi) You have way too many charges of Divine Pulse, even without the saint statues. You can be super reckless and the game does not adequately punish you for it. This is similar to a problem Echoes had with the turnwheel.

vii) As always, high movement trivializes certain aspects of the game. The movement gambits are too strong (it should have been +2 move or something).

viii) Fliers are too strong, as always. Several chapters that have impassable terrain would be significantly harder if fliers weren't able to cross the map with ease.

ix) The online features break the gameplay loop imo. You get so much exp for standing in the yellow tiles and there are always a few per map (which is about ~1 level).

 

Edited by Velth
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I hardly did extra battles outside of paralogues and rare beasts, and the difficulty felt fair. Late game units can get pretty stacked on speed; 44 speed assassins could double pretty much everyone on my team and warriors could 1/2HKO all but my beefiest members which were edelgard and wyvern!petra. Only thing is the game gives you so much to work with that if you use your battalions correctly you can easily cc a pack and pick them off easily. Mages also dont have to worry about conserving their resources and when they get more spells they can just go crazy with their strongest spells which makes dealing with troublesome generics easy. Lysithea was basically an on demand "delete this unit" button to be specific. It felt better than awakening hard at least post timeskip, which is fair since lunatic hasn't been released yet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We'll need to see what lunatic has to offer. I'd guess they'll use online connection data to tool lunatic around what seems to be the best strats. Maybe giving commanders a mdg reduction if you don't go clear out a section of the map. Maybe multiple health pools for commanders so warp skipping is less viable (I did warp killing a lot). I think they really want the data, which is why the rewards for having it online are so big.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

im on BL chapter 18 or 19 after the time skip the game got harder also i dont like to warp and kill commander i usualy rout unless the bad guys are endless yeah hard stuff some times

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Kujja said:

im on BL chapter 18 or 19 after the time skip the game got harder also i dont like to warp and kill commander i usualy rout unless the bad guys are endless yeah hard stuff some times

I gave up on that with the chapter that had those golem things with aegis and pavis. I noped over the wall and blipped the commander in 2 or 3 turns.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm quite bad at the game, and normal/classic is about the perfect difficulty for me. Not so hard that I have to carefully plot out every move to the point of tedium or resort to cheap tactics, but not so easy that I can switch my brain off and render my victories unsatisfying. There have been several times where I screwed up or got critted by the death knight (again) and had to break out the divine pulse to save a unit!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/30/2019 at 10:36 AM, Burklight said:
 

I actually don't think you can reroll bad levels with pulse. I played around with the rng for that a little and I think each character has it's own pool of rngs specifically for levels that isn't used for other things like combat. For example, a character got a on turn 2 will get the same level if they get it on turn 5 or turn 10, regardless of what actions are taken in between them. I haven't messed around with retreating or anything, but I'm fairly sure divine pulse won't do anything.

If I recall right in Echos the level up was effectively 'set' for that engagement. But if you rewound, finished the battle without leveling that unit and then leveled that unit up in the next battle you would get a different level up. I can't remember if changing the order of lvl ups mattered or not. I just remember the number of times I 'benched' some poor 'cursed' unit mid battle because I really didn't want to soak that bad level up. @timon's experience with reloading seems to point that my Echo method of holding it off until the next engagement would probably work.

Sadly I am still waiting for my 3H copy to arrive. So I can't actually check myself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Flere210 said:

Killing the DK on the first encounter wasn't too bad but at least it was a challenge. For a boss you are not supposed to beat he was a pushover 

Beating him is the only way to get dark seals, so you're definitely supposed to be able to beat him if you come prepared (aka high str Lance user with knightkneeler and some good gambits).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Centh said:

Beating him is the only way to get dark seals, so you're definitely supposed to be able to beat him if you come prepared (aka high str Lance user with knightkneeler and some good gambits).

Iirc you fight him again later(FE allowed another giy to use him), wich i suppose will be considerably easier if he has the same stats. The thing is that i did nothing to prepare for the fight because i was going blind and still pull it off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Centh said:

Beating him is the only way to get dark seals, so you're definitely supposed to be able to beat him if you come prepared (aka high str Lance user with knightkneeler and some good gambits).

You can also just steal it if you have the spd and Felix has no problem reaching that level even on the first encounter. A lot easier than trying to beat him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hello Mates,
I want to ask you for help.

I'm in a bit of a struggle right now, first some facts:

Playmode: Classic/Normal
Chapter: 9
Playtime: ~20h
Unitlevel: ~20ish some Advanced Classes
Online: off
House: Blue Lions

The Game seem way to easy for me, I'm not that good so i chose Normal but i like it to be at least a bit challanging. Should i start over with Hard Mode or is the Game becomming much harder later on? Right now i can do what i want and no one seems to be a challange for my Team.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My blind playthrough is Golden Deer on Hard/Classic, offline. Since I played some challenging Fire Emblem games before, I'd thought this'll be the way to go.

I don't know which of the 3 path is more difficult, but this one feels more like a Normal Mode run for me for a Fire Emblem game. The only things that gave me nasty surprises are the monsters and flying enemies, but you just need to be cautious.

Also the game gives you so many things that your team is just too overpowered.

  • Divine Pulse is so good, it's broken.
  • Crest weapons are ridiculously strong.
  • You can get tons of money too, I'm currently sitting on 100k gold.
  • Gambits are also strong, but apparently only in your hand.
  • Time limit on maps are very generous.
  • Some units you get are really powerful, for example Catherine and Lysithea. (for me my Petra, Raphael, Marianne and Leonie is also perfect). Shamir is another good example, but mine got screwed in her growth, so it seems like Ignatz is getting another shot.

I don't think I could get myself to play Normal after this.

Edited by Garlyle
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Confirmed. You shouldn't be able to one-shot bosses with almost any of your units in hard mode.

Spoiler

Cronya : You're so cute, trying so hard.

Bernadetta *crit*: You were saying?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Taho said:

Confirmed. You shouldn't be able to one-shot bosses with almost any of your units in hard mode.

  Reveal hidden contents

Cronya : You're so cute, trying so hard.

Bernadetta *crit*: You were saying?

 

All my post time skip chapters were Dimitri using combat skill/atrocity on bosses for 3x their hp on turn 2-3.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The tuning of map levels outside the story maps and the auxiliary maps is all over the shop. In chapter six, I can see that the recommended level for the monthly story map will be level 11. The two auxiliary maps offered are as usual one above and one below that, so 10 and 12. That's fine and feels right.

However, in the previous month we get offered two side-quests, both level 7, when the level range for that month is meant to be 8-10, so they're trivial. But furthermore, at that point in the game, you can only do one of them a week, so it's very likely you get only one of them done. Then you have a hanging level 7 quest to do when the normal range of levels is 10-12. Then on top of that, a "rare" random map spawned at level 15. So in one weekend, I had the option of a level 7, a level 10, a level 12, and a level 15 map. That's an absurd spread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does Normal Mode not have skills on enemies? I appreciate the amount of skills on enemies for Hard mode. Bosses are fully decked out, class skills exist where they should, random enemies are never missing their weapon prowess skills, giving them enough crit avoid that my first crit wasn't until chapter 8 ish. First enemy crit was sooner than that though, on a poor green unit.

Edited by Glennstavos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

18 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

The tuning of map levels outside the story maps and the auxiliary maps is all over the shop. In chapter six, I can see that the recommended level for the monthly story map will be level 11. The two auxiliary maps offered are as usual one above and one below that, so 10 and 12. That's fine and feels right.

However, in the previous month we get offered two side-quests, both level 7, when the level range for that month is meant to be 8-10, so they're trivial. But furthermore, at that point in the game, you can only do one of them a week, so it's very likely you get only one of them done. Then you have a hanging level 7 quest to do when the normal range of levels is 10-12. Then on top of that, a "rare" random map spawned at level 15. So in one weekend, I had the option of a level 7, a level 10, a level 12, and a level 15 map. That's an absurd spread.

While I agree, those level 7/11 maps are gold a bit later in the game, as you can use them to cheese mastery skills or skill levels.

If you need mastered class get a character strong enough that he takes 0 or almost 0 damage, and put them in the middle of the enemies without a weapon. Advance turns.
If you need skill levels do the same but give them a rusted/broken weapon and put them in the middle of a forest so you lower the chance of hitting enemies.

I used this technique to pick up my Byleth a bit, since he was all over the place for recruiting purpose (did not know of the B rank thing at the time).

Edited by timon
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Finished Golden Deers today (Hard/Classic).

 

Difficulty is fine. Pre-Skip was a snorefest, but Post-Skip had a good difficulty spike and I had to play more carefully. I wasn't efficient at all on my school days and I more or less just played the game at a brisk pace. Barely fed kills, etc., and lacked any gameplay knowledge specific to Three Houses. 

 

If you know what to do you can more or less break this game in half. But if you're just a casual FE fan the difficulty curve is nice and no one should feel overwhelmed. Personally waiting for the new difficulty mode before I start really abusing stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So far enemy gambits is what I'd say is what's giving me a lot of trouble. Then again, you can also use them along with AoE ones.

I don't know if this is related to difficulty, but the maps can be hard to interpret sometimes leading to walking to dead ends.

The only map I've really hated so far was Miklan's map which is pretty similar to that chapter in Binding Blade where you rescue Lilina. Gilbert is tanky, but there is a limit especially if he's getting gambits in the face.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16 minutes ago, redlight said:

The only map I've really hated so far was Miklan's map which is pretty similar to that chapter in Binding Blade where you rescue Lilina. Gilbert is tanky, but there is a limit especially if he's getting gambits in the face.

Poor Marianne spent that entire map spamming Draw Back on Gilbert to keep him behind the front (and rear) lines. Would have been so much easier if I had someone learn Reposition instead. Either way though, so glad these abilities made their way into mainline FE.

Then somehow Miklan triggered and rushed me while I was still fighting at the top of the map. And so the turnwheel made its debut in the campaign.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just got to part 2, but haven't had any problems so far. I'm on hard mode, so hopefully lunatic is more of a challenge. Didn't read any of the instructions, so was lost on how to manage my army for the first several chapters, but now that I have the gist of it, I think I would breeze through the game on hard. Even with poor management at the beginning the only snag I hit was the first Death knight battle. Other than that I haven't even had a unit die and need to rewind. Thought the demonic beasts would be scarier after the first encounter, but they are mostly just tedious after about the third map with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I finished with Golden Deer on Hard/Classic mode. For a long time Hard Mode didn't feel like a hard mode, but the final 1/3 of the game got challenging. The final boss was a tough nut, and only a few of my students were able to damage him - granted I rushed at the final few chapters with my calendar. There were things I overlooked, so Divine Pulse actually became useful to fix that and if I had any misclicks I didn't want - I still think that stuff is broken. I like that the game got more challenging at the end, in the first half I was thinking: this game is too easy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...