three houses Three houses and the lack of limitations

[Fabulously Olivier]

I kind of wish that all weapons worked like spells. Repaired for free at the end of battle, but with fewer uses each per battle. Of course that would require an economic rebalance, but it would also really lower the preparation tedium that I loathe.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Etheus

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

5 hours ago, Elephantus said:

I'm not sure what you're describing is really a "limitation" though.
To me, a limitation is to deliberately not use a feature. For instance, when I play Breath of the Wild, I don't heal during battle because I don't like the fact that you can pause the game and heal at any time without penalty. In other words, I'm not using a feature. Using varied classes is a different thing, because when I do that (and I do, got one Wyvern and one Pegasus on my team in my current run), it's not a deliberate decision to limit myself. Instead, it's the result of getting joy out of each character having a different role and playstyle.

In other words, I do understand the OP's problem, and I feel similarly. My favourite parts of any Fire Emblem are often the early game, because that's when I have to rely on limited resources. However, I know that not everyone likes this sort of thing, and having choices in a game is a positive in my eyes. Let those who want to break the game with an army of Wyverns break the game with an army of Wyverns. I personally find that incredibly boring and will never play that way, but to each their own. If that was the ONLY way to play though? That's when we're reaching problem territory.

OP was thinking of limitations in the sense of restrictions placed on you by the game itself.

[Ottservia]

7 hours ago, Elephantus said:

In other words, I do understand the OP's problem, and I feel similarly. My favourite parts of any Fire Emblem are often the early game, because that's when I have to rely on limited resources. However, I know that not everyone likes this sort of thing, and having choices in a game is a positive in my eyes. Let those who want to break the game with an army of Wyverns break the game with an army of Wyverns. I personally find that incredibly boring and will never play that way, but to each their own. If that was the ONLY way to play though? That's when we're reaching problem territory.

I agree with this. What I love about limitations especially in games is they can be used to breed creativity. Like to use BoTW as an example. One of the best parts of that game is eventide isle. Throughout the majority of the game you've exploring, collecting all manner of things from food, to weapons, to new pieces of Armour, etc. Eventually it gets to the point where a lot of aspects of the game become trivial because of all the resources you've amassed along your journey. Then you reach this island and suddenly everything you've worked so hard to gain is taken away just like that and now you're essentially forced to take on the many challenges of this island with nothing but your wit, skill, and whatever you scrounge up on the island. 

I love this part because it takes away all your resources and restricts the player in a way that forces them to think outside the box. Like for example, there is a hinox on the island that has a "key" on his neck that you need to access the shrine. Now normally you'd have plenty of weapons and armor strong enough to take him down no problem but because all of those things have been taken away you have to get creative. Like say say sneaking on top of his hand and have him lift you on top of him so you can just swipe the key and just run to avoid combat all together. Or maybe You can scrounge up some weapons and food to give yourself a boost to take him down the old fashioned way. Or do something entirely crazy like using stasis and magnesis to fling rocks at him. The choice is entirely up to you but you would not have even thought of these options had you not been stripped entirely of all your resources. And I really like that. 

The game forces forces you to think outside the box and really think about all the mechanics of the game in way you would never consider simply by limiting your resources. It's the one reason I like conquest so much from a gameplay perspective. Your resources are extremely limited like exp and what not so you have to consider everything you have at your disposal and use them in creative ways in order to complete each map. It's that precise design philosophy that makes me love games like monster hunter and dark souls. If one method can't work try a different one. Don't think about what you can't do but rather what you can do and use those things to overcome the challenge at hand. 

3H simply doesn't have that if you ask me because resources are just so plentiful so it's like why bother thinking about it when there's really no consequence to using up resources.

Edited September 18, 2019 by Ottservia

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

I do wish that gold was scarcer, especially lategame. A scary change for Infernal difficulty could be halving the gold you receive, so that everything comes at a higher opportunity cost. I will say, though, one thing that helped me feel more "limited" was turning off Spirits of the Fallen. Free weapons got my convoy out of hand.

[SubwayBossEmmett]

I’m completely agree and I think that the game is in fact just too flexible on a singular playthrough. Like I though the Divine Pulse was great at the start of the game, I remember how tense it was fighting the first beast because it was a perfect LIMITED tool forcing you to try and think of how to handle the thing on the fly, but by the time you’ve done the Sothis paralogue holy shit the game becomes so much easier, not to mention statue bonuses later on if you just want to unlock better renown rewards in tutoring  

I’m also going to juxtapose 3H’s reclassing with Fates reclassing too (particularly CQ because BR and Rev grinding undermines this a bit). Fates reclassing essentially could let anyone become anything if you plan you Corrin around S supporting them. So if you want to turn say Effie into a Wyvern Lord mid way through the game, she can just marry Corndog. This is directly balanced by 1) Needing a limited and specific seal that costs your fixed income [without online Abuse] 2) This is the only person Corrin can S support and give their class to bar Kana. The Fates support structure has countless supports not for narrative reasons but because they serve a mean to an end for gameplay purposes via Partner seals/friendship seals/offspring. Like if a Support happens to be actually good along the way that’s just a bonus say, Laslow and Xander where Laslow gets access to the Cav line for becoming more of a frontline fighter and Xander gets access to the hero line for potentially more enemy phase combat via Strong Riposte and Sol at the cost of his mount. Not to mention you have to “work” for the Support rank overall which means you aren’t building other support ranks and leads to my next point... 

I feel like the main thing Fates had was tradeoffs, E rank hell was a potential trade off because arm scrolls were rare. You could only get ONE A+ rank and ONE S Support for additional reclassing, in addition to your heart seal class. In 3H like... just become a Wyvern bro it’s literally the best class for everyone (like Fates too...) but there’s like no downside when on the fly dismounting/remounting exists. At least like CQ Takumi was a threatening archer at times even if being a Wyvern was great in like 99/100 situations