Would you be down for a difficulty level of this type?

[Escape the Fate]

One of my favorite games back then was Crysis, and I was particularly fond of the way their difficulty levels were handled. Unlike Call of Duty at the time which would just increase enemy damage outputs to frustratingly high levels, Crysis went the opposite way by deactivating player-advantage features among other things. No grenade indicator or crosshairs, glowing enemies, etc.

Do you think this could be applicable in FE, I.e. no/less enemy stat data available like health bars (instead just a healthy/wounded fighting stance), might/attack speed, targeting intentions, etc. Or would it be too difficult to pull off effectively and/or without alienating fans?

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn already did that, and really it was just annoying. One of the many changes hard mode made was to remove the ability to see how far enemies can move or highlight enemy ranges. It didn't really do anything that demanded skill, just required more tedious busywork when planning.

[Escape the Fate]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Radiant Dawn already did that, and really it was just annoying. One of the many changes hard mode made was to remove the ability to see how far enemies can move or highlight enemy ranges. It didn't really do anything that demanded skill, just required more tedious busywork when planning.

Shoot I forgot about that. So much for memory.

[Eryon]

There is no better way for a game like Fire Emblem to handle Hard Modes than upping stats and giving dangerous skills.

The stat inflation has grown so much that your units are guaranteed more than not to overpower the enemy by midgame at the least. Depending on puzzle gimmicks like those sinking tiles in Blazing Blade depends on sucker-punching the player. Ranks tell the player how to play.

The method of difficulty done in the DS Remakes works since enemies remain a reliable danger so you can't just steamroll (at least not without careful planning) but they aren't tedious to kill since their defense doesn't get notably high.

[Fates-Blade]

Battling without player advantage features in modern FE games is unheard of, but sounds interesting to me, for the most part if it wasn't balanced properly, it would just make it more annoying.

Edited September 3, 2019 by Fates-Blade

[Azure the Scale Tipper]

36 minutes ago, Eryon said:

The method of difficulty done in the DS Remakes works since enemies remain a reliable danger so you can't just steamroll (at least not without careful planning) but they aren't tedious to kill since their defense doesn't get notably high.

Can you explain in detail, please?

[Eryon]

The DS games include extra difficulty options known as Lunatic. They do change enemy positions, but largely their difficulty comes from how the enemies' strengths do remain sizeable past earlygame.

In action:

 

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I don't object to how Radiant Dawn turned off enemy ranges. Though it often forced me to pull up terrain data. The bigger change was removing the weapon triangle since so many units depended on that extra avoid, especially early game. I think taking away information could work. I'd be willing to try it, at least. Making the player apply everything they know about classes. Imagine getting knocked out by a grappler because you forgot they run through forests at no penalty. And with the turnwheel it'd be hard to be mad at something like that.

[eclipse]

Fire Emblem is a numbers game - use that instead of trying to dick the player over.

[X-Naut]

Taking away basic information in a strategy game isn't going to make the game harder, only more tedious. If you want to take away impactful player advantages, disable bonus content (DLC, NG+, etc.)

[PPPPPPP270]

The idea of removing things like enemy ranges was something Radiant should've never done for its hard mode. 

As for more interesting ways to change the game without enemy stat buffs was change the economy.  FE12 and FE7 is the only game that really does this in its harder modes. FE12 removes certain items like the silver card, warp staff, dragonstones, and a few other items.

FE7 item changes mainly come from what's possible to steal which isn't as extreme but made up for it with radically different enemy placement. There's more enemy pegasus riders, nomads, and mages in HHM compared to Eliwood mode. 

I have little hope for lunatic Three Houses to be good. There's a lot of things they have to change such as the economy and enemies to make it good. It will probably be the first few levels are the hardest but the part 2 stuff will mostly feel the same. 

[Alastor15243]

4 hours ago, PPPPPPP270 said:

I have little hope for lunatic Three Houses to be good. There's a lot of things they have to change such as the economy and enemies to make it good. It will probably be the first few levels are the hardest but the part 2 stuff will mostly feel the same. 

They also said things like "all archers have poison strike", which suggests to me they aren't thinking nearly as creatively with enemy skills as Conquest did. They're just generically buffing enemies without thinking about creating new obstacles.