Dark Deity is out

[eclipse]

8 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

It really shouldn't be that hard. It's a spd/dex class, which are the best stats, and it has a great phase support ability for those looking to LTC. Alden is (unsurprisingly) the character with the highest spd/dex spread, making him the best at dodge tanking with the role.

Issue is securing kills.  Being fast is great, but not when you're tickling enemies.  My Alden's a Conjurer, and he's happily destroying everything that's in his path.

[Fabulously Olivier]

3 minutes ago, eclipse said:

Issue is securing kills.  Being fast is great, but not when you're tickling enemies.  My Alden's a Conjurer, and he's happily destroying everything that's in his path.

He'll still have a 70% mag growth in Magician, 65% in Illusionist. Hardly tickling. The main drawback is the lower luck, but you should be using a Finesse weapon for crit rate and low weight if you're dodge tanking anyway.

[eclipse]

6 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

He'll still have a 70% mag growth in Magician, 65% in Illusionist. Hardly tickling. The main drawback is the lower luck, but you should be using a Finesse weapon for crit rate and low weight if you're dodge tanking anyway.

Kind of depends on the RNG at that point IMO.  Though I think there's an Aspect that sort-of deals with that (assuming I remember to bring it along).

I went Conjurer because Alden can tank things in a pinch.  Gotta love that passive that heals him when he deals damage!

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

16 hours ago, eclipse said:

That's odd, I didn't have too many issues with that one.  Then again, battlemages solve a lot of problems.

I'm sure someone can make Magician useful, but I have yet to find such a unit.

Most of my units were below lvl 30 and a lot of the enemies seemed to be of the promoted variety. Maybe that´s why.

To be fair, as a Magician/Illusionist Sloane didn´t have the highest Mag, but I don´t remember having to heal her at all due to all the crit-dodging. Which seems to be the best strategy anyway.

 

Anyway beat the game on Hero difficulty. I feel the game is all around solid, though it looks to be more easily broken than Awakening and possibly harder at that, too.

 

What I´m still not sure about is the smithing, I mostly focused on Finesse/Balance, Power and Focus seem kinda meh. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

5 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Most of my units were below lvl 30 and a lot of the enemies seemed to be of the promoted variety. Maybe that´s why.

To be fair, as a Magician/Illusionist Sloane didn´t have the highest Mag, but I don´t remember having to heal her at all due to all the crit-dodging. Which seems to be the best strategy anyway.

 

Anyway beat the game on Hero difficulty. I feel the game is all around solid, though it looks to be more easily broken than Awakening and possibly harder at that, too.

 

What I´m still not sure about is the smithing, I mostly focused on Finesse/Balance, Power and Focus seem kinda meh. 

Power weapons are a trap. The damage difference between it and Focus at max upgrades is a mere 4.

 

Finesse/balance are my preference, and Focus is apparently really good on the highest difficulty where enemies get more dodgy. 

[eclipse]

7 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

Power weapons are a trap. The damage difference between it and Focus at max upgrades is a mere 4.

I feel like Power weapons are good for some low-cost one-shots on early chapters.  Probably not wise to invest too much in them, but watching Caius delete enemy health bars never ceases to amuse me.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I have a question:

I'd like to play it and also comment it, however not really in LP style.

Would it be ok to share a litte feedback regarding plot and especially gameplay here after each played chapter?

I have heared controversial criticism about this game, however since I own this game, it'd be nonsense not even starting this game and I'd play this game totally unbiased.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

Hey how's the map design in this one? In particular how are the green units? Because I'm trying to wrap up this other game, Banner of the Maid, and it's gameplay mechanics can be great, yet the map objectives have been outrageous. Even with the ability to load an autosave two turns prior, a lot of the mistakes I make in these maps are ultimately traced back to the very first turn where I'm splitting up my army and one side was just too weak or lacked the mobility to get done what needs to be done. So going back does not leave me a way past the failure state. 

 

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

4 hours ago, Zan Partizanne said:

I'd like to play it and also comment it, however not really in LP style.

Would it be ok to share a litte feedback regarding plot and especially gameplay here after each played chapter?

I have heared controversial criticism about this game, however since I own this game, it'd be nonsense not even starting this game and I'd play this game totally unbiased.

I´m cool with it, but I`m neither TC nor a mod so...

What criticism if I may ask?

 

On another note has someone been able to get Adepts to work? They all just seem to be bad, only exception being Iris who still was very hit or miss as a Surge  -> Thunderlord. 

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

1 hour ago, Imuabicus said:

What criticism if I may ask?

technical issues like glitches and bugs

[eclipse]

28 minutes ago, Zan Partizanne said:

technical issues like glitches and bugs

I've run into one, and it's happened more than once.  I know which unit triggers it, but I'm not sure how it triggers.

Spoiler

Under certain conditions after Vesta is attacked, she becomes immobile on the next turn.  If anyone is next to her when this glitch happens, they also become immobile.  On the turn after that, Vesta can move.  However, if someone was next to her, attempting to move them causes Vesta to move instead, and the other character remains immobile.

It's not a class glitch, because Vesta and Lincoln share a class, and the latter has never been hit with it.  I'm not sure if it's locked to her as a character, or if it's some weird interaction between her class and her character.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

What criticism if I may ask?

From what I've seen people say, the maps are flat planes of nothing, no terrain at all. Gaiden-tier, but worse.

Also, the game was rushed. Apparently it used to say "coming soon" on Steam, but all of a sudden E3 arrived and it released, no hints at all it was supposed to release at this time. Why? They cynic says it wasn't going to release so quickly, but did so anyhow to exploit cravings for more SRPG goodness, and thus make a quick buck selling an unfinished product.

Also, the voice actors might have been underpaid.

 

-Not that I'm saying any of the above is true, only that I've heard it secondhand.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Fabulously Olivier]

11 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

From what I've seen people say, the maps are flat planes of nothing, no terrain at all. Gaiden-tier, but worse.

No. Just no. DD is way better than that piece of crap. At worst, you can say that DD is sorely lacking in defensive tiles.

Edited June 22, 2021 by Fabulously Olivier

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

played chapter 1

Spoiler

I like the character portraits, but not so much their sprites, especially not their battle animations. The crit animation of Irving is really bland. Garrick's reminds on the sniper's one from Radiant Dawn which was not innovative but cool at least.

Gameplaywise I had first good impression. The weapon system looks cool and I like the fact that healers can get combat experience instantly. 

The map itself was not really interesting. The enemies were all stationary. Maybe it's because I played on lowest difficulty. 

Chapter 2 is a defend chapter, so it should become more interesting.

 

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

10 hours ago, Zan Partizanne said:

technical issues like glitches and bugs

Haven´t run into any of those myself.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

From what I've seen people say, the maps are flat planes of nothing, no terrain at all. Gaiden-tier, but worse.

12 hours ago, Glennstavos said:

Hey how's the map design in this one? In particular how are the green units?

Hm yeah, not really anything in the ways of tiles. I can think of 2 instances where there are tiles that iinhibit movement but at least in one map overcoming that is part of the objective. Though even with the absence of special tiles the maps are several times better than SoV maps. And not by a small margin either imo. Also some objectives are quite unique. Also no green units. There´s one chapter where a unit spawns far away from you, but you can control her.

[Dark Holy Elf]

Just finished this a couple days ago. Solid game, not going to be one of my favourite FEs but it certainly scratched the new Fire Emblem itch anyway.

I definitely ran into some bugs/glitches similar to some described here (though not tied to specific units), which is unfortunate. They are still working on bugfixes, so it's worth keeping an eye on as they game should hopefully continue to be more playable with time. For me they didn't destroy the experience but it certainly could be a bit frustrating. The good news is there's now an auto-save so even if the worst case happens and a glitch gums up your turn, you can close the game and reload to be at the turn's start.

As for the maps, I understand where the criticism of a flat-plane map comes from, because there is one, about 2/3 through the game, which is a bafflingly empty square (what's extra weird is that the locale of the battle is shown in a drawn cutscene right before the battle, and there clearly should be things on the map). It is just that one map, though - otherwise you should expect the FE norm, just without terrain like forests/pillars (which isn't a big deal to me). As mentioned, map objectives are something the game does well, though - you'll be seeing defend, escape, arrive, and others in addition to the usual rout and defeat boss.

On 6/22/2021 at 10:04 AM, Imuabicus said:

On another note has someone been able to get Adepts to work? They all just seem to be bad, only exception being Iris who still was very hit or miss as a Surge  -> Thunderlord. 

I found Aurima (high damage and avoid) very effective in the spear line, a bit reminiscent of an FE4 swordmaster without the move problems in that he'd usually proc something to secure a kill, while being dodgy. The surge line with its mobility and range-3 encloser-type ability is also very neat, though they seem to have problems taking hits... a problem I solved with Thae'lanel who can't take more than 30% damage per normal swing.

The class line I had the most trouble getting use out of was rogues - at best I got decent dodgetanks with shaky damage, and often not even that. The class line I found most effective was mages who have incredible enemy phase thanks to 1-2 range and shockingly good bulk (HP, draining, avoid in some cases), and even have great utility (Reposition, but it can be buffed with certain class lines!) on top of that.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

15 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

The class line I had the most trouble getting use out of was rogues - at best I got decent dodgetanks with shaky damage, and often not even that.

I only used Cia and Brooke I think and they both went crazy on the crits/dodges. I think Cia went rogue-duelist-trickster and Brooke went rogue-stalker-trickster.

Only mage I didn´t use was Sara. She just didin´t do a whole lot.

I think getting +1 HP is guarenteed - and only after that you roll your growths. So Monroe with his potential 105% HP growth could land some +3s if I understood correctly.

[eclipse]

16 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

The class line I had the most trouble getting use out of was rogues - at best I got decent dodgetanks with shaky damage, and often not even that.

Wren down the Duelist line will dodge everything and shank them in return.  The downside is that some of his lines sound like they were written by an edgy teenager.

For Adepts, I went with the elf guy - thanks to his personal skill, he was pretty good at taking hits, and since I went Surge -> hammer thing, he evaporated everything that stood against him.  Plus three-range Chain was a lifesaver on certain maps.

[Fabulously Olivier]

So, after all this time, who do you think are the best characters?

 

Personally, Monroe is my MVP. He's really tanky, has great damage, lots of hp to synergize with Vosh's Sanguination, and excellent synergy with the Conjurer/Pyromancer class line.

 

Faust is also a top tier character.

 

Wren has the potential to be top tier on random recruitment runs. He would be better than Cia if not for her early growth potential. Speaking of which, Cia is a high tier to top tier candidate.

 

I also have great opinions of Bianca and Than'ael.

[Dark Holy Elf]

9 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

I think getting +1 HP is guarenteed - and only after that you roll your growths. So Monroe with his potential 105% HP growth could land some +3s if I understood correctly.

Yeah, that's right, your HP growth is actually 100% higher than what's listed.

 

1 hour ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

So, after all this time, who do you think are the best characters?

I would want multiple playthroughs and/or to run numbers but I'm most impressed with Alden and Sloane overall. Mages are IMO the strongest class line as I mentioned (due to 1-2 range, great durability, and Phase), and Alden has great growths in magic and speed, allowing him great offence. Sloane's a little slower to get rolling because her speed isn't as good (though still decent, she was doubling most things by the end) but has crazy dex which means her accuracy/evade are very high. Especially after reaching Illusionist (that class is busted) she was seeing 1% hit rates from most enemies. They're not the only great mages to be clear - Monroe has monstrous HP, and Liberty joins right before tier 3 so she's hugely flexible. Sara's probably the weakest, early on she's the bulky mage but she's outclassed at that role later.

Any fighter can be good with Dragoon -> Dragon Knight plus the aspect which swaps crit and power, but only one unit can do that, and it doesn't hugely matter who, so I'm not hugely inclined to hype any individual unit for this (and otherwise the fighter line is pretty unimpressive IMO).

[Fabulously Olivier]

1 minute ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

Yeah, that's right, your HP growth is actually 100% higher than what's listed.

 

I would want multiple playthroughs and/or to run numbers but I'm most impressed with Alden and Sloane overall. Mages are IMO the strongest class line as I mentioned (due to 1-2 range, great durability, and Phase), and Alden has great growths in magic and speed, allowing him great offence. Sloane's a little slower to get rolling because her speed isn't as good (though still decent, she was doubling most things by the end) but has crazy dex which means her accuracy/evade are very high. Especially after reaching Illusionist (that class is busted) she was seeing 1% hit rates from most enemies. They're not the only great mages to be clear - Monroe has monstrous HP, and Liberty joins right before tier 3 so she's hugely flexible. Sara's probably the weakest, early on she's the bulky mage but she's outclassed at that role later.

Any fighter can be good with Dragoon -> Dragon Knight plus the aspect which swaps crit and power, but only one unit can do that, and it doesn't hugely matter who, so I'm not hugely inclined to hype any individual unit for this (and otherwise the fighter line is pretty unimpressive IMO).

It's actually better to go Knight/Defender -> Dragoon and Gale -> Astral Seeker rather than follow the class lines linearly.

[Dark Holy Elf]

13 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

It's actually better to go Knight/Defender -> Dragoon and Gale -> Astral Seeker rather than follow the class lines linearly.

Do you mean Knight/Defender -> Dragon Knight?

The point of going Dragoon is to get their passive which raises crit with move, which you can then swap with power to deal 80+ damage per swing.

But yeah certainly there are times when following class lines linearly is a less good idea. Conjurer is great for its HP drain, for instance, but I don't see much point in going from that into Pyromancer when Illusionist and Wizard are much stronger classes, unless you're going for weapon type diversity.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

6 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

So, after all this time, who do you think are the best characters?

Anything that goes Rogue-> Duelist-> Trickster shoud be good. Massive avoid, massive crit, 1-2 range, yeah, they have everything they need for soloing.