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Blueash
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So I started a hard mode ironman of bindingblade I've never played binding blade or any or the other gba games for the that matter and I feel like somehow I'm doing something wrong. It's only chapter 5 and a managed to get my two cavs killed dieck wade and clarine. It seems like all my units hit like wet noodles and get two or three shot not to mention unless they are using magic or swords against axe users the miss a ton. So are there any tips? Cause I feel like it shouldn't be this hard.

Edited by Blueash
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Okay, first thing I wanna ask is, how many FE games have you played, and which ones? Because Binding Blade is one of the harder FE games (though to be frank, its brand of difficulty is the kind that trends more towards frustration than legitimate challenge), and one of the worst for ironman runs. Speaking of, have you ever done an ironman run before?

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2 hours ago, Blueash said:

I'll admit I've only played birthright and have done an ironman of it but I have heard that it was the easiest of the three fates games so I guess I don't have the best experience.

Well then. Knowing this... Yeah, I'd recommend playing something else, like Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones, first.

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So, math.  It's great for the GBA games, because the numbers are relatively small.  If someone's gonna bait way too many enemies, and will take fatal damage, then rethink your strategy.  Here's the relevant equations.  The doubling threshold in this game is if one side's speed is at least 4 more than the other side.

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14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Well then. Knowing this... Yeah, I'd recommend playing something else, like Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones, first.

On that note, I think Sacred Stones might be the better of the 2. If OP just wants to play the game normally then either game is perfectly fine, but if he really wants to do a blind ironman then he might run into a really nasty surprise at BBD, even in ENM.

I don't remember if the Swordslayer fighters are also there in ENM and I know that Ursula only moves in HHM, but if you don't have some previous experience with the map there's still a good chance that Zephiel just kills your run like 90% of the way in and you're forced to restart.

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14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Well then. Knowing this... Yeah, I'd recommend playing something else, like Blazing Blade or Sacred Stones, first.

Path of Radiance is also easy and Awakening is very similar to Fates. PoR is expensive and needs some decent hardware to emulate though, but getting Awakening should be no trouble seeing as you can just get it off the eshop.

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If you're not already, use Marcus. He's there to help you in the early-game in order to take hits and dish out major damage to enemy units (using an Iron Sword on him is a very good way to set up enemies for your weaker units to kill them. Later on when he stops doubling enemies you can use the Silver Lance to do the same thing). Marcus's growth rates are bad, so he won't be improving much when he levels up, but don't be afraid to use him. Dieck does something similar when he joins, but that aspect of him falls off earlier in exchange for being a more long-term unit (I know this doesn't apply to you without restarting the iron man, but I wanted to mention it). Other than Dieck and Marcus you don't get a good enemy killer until Rutger--so until then, yes, you're going to have to bait enemies and gang up on them until your units get more trained. Of who you have alive at the moment, I'd put that training on Rutger, Shanna, and Lugh.

I don't know if you care about gameplay spoilers or not, so I don't want to say anything about chapters you haven't played yet unless you state you're okay with it.

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Every single day of my life, but I get over it.

On 9/7/2021 at 3:33 PM, Blueash said:

So I started a hard mode ironman of bindingblade I've never played binding blade or any or the other gba games for the that matter and I feel like somehow I'm doing something wrong. It's only chapter 5 and a managed to get my two cavs killed dieck wade and clarine. It seems like all my units hit like wet noodles and get two or three shot not to mention unless they are using magic or swords against axe users the miss a ton. So are there any tips? Cause I feel like it shouldn't be this hard.

I wouldn't listen to Mir- FE6 is a good game, you should definitely play it, and if that's the game you want to play, go on right ahead. You don't need to beat a whole other game as a "tutorial" for Binding Blade. The game is pretty hard, especially early on, but in typical Fire Emblem fashion it will get easier once you overcome the initial hump (which ends at around chapter 7). Definitely use Marcus, and do so quite liberally.

Ironman runs intimidate me, but FE6 has a fairly large cast so you should be able to fill those gaps pretty quickly.

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1 hour ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Every single day of my life, but I get over it.

I wouldn't listen to Mir- FE6 is a good game, you should definitely play it, and if that's the game you want to play, go on right ahead. You don't need to beat a whole other game as a "tutorial" for Binding Blade. The game is pretty hard, especially early on, but in typical Fire Emblem fashion it will get easier once you overcome the initial hump (which ends at around chapter 7). Definitely use Marcus, and do so quite liberally.

Ironman runs intimidate me, but FE6 has a fairly large cast so you should be able to fill those gaps pretty quickly.

The thing is, there is a pretty large difference between playing casually, playing an ironman and playing a blind ironman. And I don't know about you, but FE6 ironman while blind sounds like a painful experience. Even in normal mode, the enemies aren't that weak (specially compared to FE7 and FE8), and if you're going in blind you'll probably get rekt by ambush spawns multiple times. OP could also end up going to Sacae if he's not actively trying to avoid it, which is pretty horrendous to do blind even in a non-ironman setting. I can imagine a few other things that could go wrong too.

Basically my suggestion to OP would be to give up on doing a blind ironman of FE6 unless he enjoys suffering. I think FE8 would be a much more friendly game for a blind ironman. Even FE7 would be better (although I still think BBD could easily kill the run). Doing a regular (non-ironman) run of FE6 first sounds more reasonable.

That said, I do agree that playing a different game as a "tutorial" doesn't really help if the intention is to blind ironman FE6. The problem stems from not knowing about a bunch of things that could cause Roy to suffer a bs death (like ambush spawns or Bolting and Ballistas in a fog of war map), and the only way to solve that would be to either play FE6 normally before that or at least look up guides or maps to know where things are beforehand.

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What's the fun in a life where everything goes according to plan?

Just don't turtle too much and you'll avoid the ambush spawns, for the most part. I can't remember any Bolting mages in FE6's fog of war maps*, but the ballista should be visible on the map regardless of whether there's fog or not. Those tips should hopefully be "spoiler-free" while still helping out.

*- Edit: I do remember one instance, although I'm not sure if there were any more than that.

Edited by AnonymousSpeed
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3 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Every single day of my life, but I get over it.

I wouldn't listen to Mir- FE6 is a good game, you should definitely play it, and if that's the game you want to play, go on right ahead. You don't need to beat a whole other game as a "tutorial" for Binding Blade. The game is pretty hard, especially early on, but in typical Fire Emblem fashion it will get easier once you overcome the initial hump (which ends at around chapter 7). Definitely use Marcus, and do so quite liberally.

Ironman runs intimidate me, but FE6 has a fairly large cast so you should be able to fill those gaps pretty quickly.

The thing is, there's a world of difference between a normal run and an ironman (and the OP's run is the latter - on hard, no less). If this is their first time playing it, and I'm sure it is, then they're likely not gonna know about some of the factors this game has that make it bad for ironman runs. Like ambush spawns, for example. Also, in terms of mechanics, Fates and the GBA games are night and day. As a result, I'd wager they're also getting tripped up by mechanics that weren't present in Fates.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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47 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

I can't remember any Bolting mages in FE6's fog of war map

Sacae says hi xd I know you can avoid it, but someone playing blind wouldn't know how to do it. If OP is somehow still alive by 20A, I guarantee you that here's where the run dies. 

Although honestly, even without the complete bs that is Sacae, I'm fairly certain that most people would consider FE6 HM to be challenging enough already. FE6 HM ironman is even harder, and FE6 HM blind ironman sounds downright masochistic if you ask me.

Edited by GonzoMD1993
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On 9/7/2021 at 7:05 PM, Blueash said:

I'll admit I've only played birthright and have done an ironman of it but I have heard that it was the easiest of the three fates games so I guess I don't have the best experience.

 

I think the challenge you've chosen is a bit too ambitious won't lie. Hard mode is locked until after the first playthrough for a reason, and then deciding to play under a self-imposed restriction to boot? Hard mode ironmans are definitely possible, and I've seen them done before successfully but it sounds like you're not prepared for it. There is, by the way, nothing to be ashamed of if you're not prepared. I consider myself not bad at FE but I've abandoned many runthroughs on account of me not being prepared to complete it. Hard mode was meant for people who had already beaten the game, and if you're not giving yourself a good environment to learn and prepare you'll have a hard time with the challenge. If you're set on fe6, and I'd be pleased if you are, I'd recommend a normal mode playthrough to learn the game. Hard mode doesn't add that many enemies, just a few more reinforcements from time to time.

 

On 9/7/2021 at 3:05 PM, Shadow Mir said:

Because Binding Blade is one of the harder FE games (though to be frank, its brand of difficulty is the kind that trends more towards frustration than legitimate challenge)

Binding blade is harder than other FEs because it particularly tests risk management. Attacks miss frequently and crits from each side are pretty commonplace, so more so than any other FE game you need to think about your plays and then have a plan B for if your attacks miss. In Fates, most of the challenge was in digging through the math until you found the play that worked, but once you found the play that worked it was pretty much a guarantee that it would work. In fe6, on the other hand, it's not that hard to find a play that could work, but then you have to consider all the fail cases and your backup plan should an attack miss or should you be unable to kill an enemy.

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On 9/9/2021 at 8:54 PM, OriginalRaisins said:

Binding blade is harder than other FEs because it particularly tests risk management. Attacks miss frequently and crits from each side are pretty commonplace, so more so than any other FE game you need to think about your plays and then have a plan B for if your attacks miss. In Fates, most of the challenge was in digging through the math until you found the play that worked, but once you found the play that worked it was pretty much a guarantee that it would work. In fe6, on the other hand, it's not that hard to find a play that could work, but then you have to consider all the fail cases and your backup plan should an attack miss or should you be unable to kill an enemy.

Risk management doesn't have anything to do with most of my issues with Binding Blade. In fact, when I posted in a thread asking how Binding Blade was frustrating, my laundry list of issues with the game was as follows:

On 12/2/2020 at 6:40 PM, Shadow Mir said:

-Roy sucks harder than Little Mac's recovery, and his mega-late promotion doesn't help

-Giant maps, at least by GBA standards

-Every map is seize, which in combination with the prior two points, makes the game feel more like a giant escort mission

-Related to the above, dealing with bosses on thrones tends to exacerbate the luck factor

-Some maps have some gimmicks that make Revelation map gimmicks look tolerable

-Low quality cast (ergo, at least half the cast sucks, worst of all Gwendolyn and Sophia)

-Poor weapon balance (you know something is wrong when despite WTA, the hammer pales in comparison to the armorslayer when it comes to ending knights)

-Accuracy issues limit the usable weapon pool

-Lots of status staves and long-range magic... in a game where most every physical unit has poor resistance

-Ambush spawns. Just... ambush spawns.

And all this is ignoring hard mode.

Most of these don't look like the kind of stuff you can play the risk management card for.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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13 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

-Roy sucks harder than Little Mac's recovery, and his mega-late promotion doesn't help

-Giant maps, at least by GBA standards

-Every map is seize, which in combination with the prior two points, makes the game feel more like a giant escort mission

-Related to the above, dealing with bosses on thrones tends to exacerbate the luck factor

-Some maps have some gimmicks that make Revelation map gimmicks look tolerable

-Low quality cast (ergo, at least half the cast sucks, worst of all Gwendolyn and Sophia)

-Poor weapon balance (you know something is wrong when despite WTA, the hammer pales in comparison to the armorslayer when it comes to ending knights)

-Accuracy issues limit the usable weapon pool

-Lots of status staves and long-range magic... in a game where most every physical unit has poor resistance

-Ambush spawns. Just... ambush spawns.

And all this is ignoring hard mode.

All of these are things you can solve with strategy and planning tbh. And they're the reasons I like the game.

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15 hours ago, OriginalRaisins said:

All of these are things you can solve with strategy and planning tbh. And they're the reasons I like the game.

Saying "you can plan around them" is not an excuse for such egregiously bad design choices, as I see it. Who actually likes having to deal with Bolting sages on a map where they're out of reach of most means of attack? Let alone TWO of them in the same area (with them being positioned such that you cannot kill them unless you either use Warp or have your own Bolting) when two hits from Bolting often equals one dead unit because low resistance is the norm? Oh, and those are not the only long-range threats the chapter I'm talking about has... and this is in a chapter that must be completed within a turn limit to get the good ending (by the way, this is far from the only badly designed Binding Blade map). Or how about the fact that Roy is more likely to suck than not (and is doomed to be underpowered by the time he promotes), and thus the game plays more like an escort mission (something that the big maps only make worse)?

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11 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Saying "you can plan around them" is not an excuse for such egregiously bad design choices,

FE is a strategy game. Planning around the problems you must solve is not some chore you do to unlock the rest of the game, it is the game.

11 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Who actually likes having to deal with Bolting sages on a map where they're out of reach of most means of attack? Let alone TWO of them in the same area (with them being positioned such that you cannot kill them unless you either use Warp or have your own Bolting) when two hits from Bolting often equals one dead unit because low resistance is the norm?

Chapter 20 Sacae? I love that map! Also you identified several solutions to the long-range sages in your post. Even if you don't have the tools you described or you don't want to spend warp staff, you can just not deploy units with low RES or who will get 2shot by the boltings. If two hits from bolting "always" oneshot a unit then I could understand but the way you explained the situation makes it seem like at least some units don't die, so deploy those ones instead.

11 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

and this is in a chapter that must be completed within a turn limit to get the good ending

25 turns, to be exact. And Roy starts 40 tiles away from the throne by ground. You could sit still for 15 turns straight and Roy would still be able to make it in time by walking. Here's a question: would you criticize the map for having a turncount if I removed the bolting sages and asked you to instead complete the map in 20 turns? Because if that map sounds reasonable, then why not sit in spawn and exhaust the bolting and then move forward. There are solutions to the frustrations you are encountering and the fun of the game is coming up with those solutions.

11 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Or how about the fact that Roy is more likely to suck than not (and is doomed to be underpowered by the time he promotes), and thus the game plays more like an escort mission (something that the big maps only make worse)?

You have so many tools to make him serviceably good and even if you don't use them (or you did use them and it didn't work) the strongest units in the game all have rescue and canto and good bulk, so it's not unreasonable to get him from point A to point B quickly. I understand not liking the fact that the Lord isn't very strong but to call BB a poorly designed game on account of it is like calling Chess a poorly designed game because the king can only move one square at a time. I actually really like the fact that every map is seize and I think it's one of the game's strengths.

If you don't like the game, that's fine, I'm not here to tell you your tastes are incorrect or that your experience was not genuine. It sounds like you played the real Binding Blade and didn't like it. But don't confuse "not to my tastes" with "bad game design". The game is pretty clear from the start that the maps are going to be seize and loads of people love that stuff and eat it up.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Heyo! Binding Blade is challenging, especially playing it blind. There are some ambush spawns that are pretty unfair and playing a blind Ironman could make those parts pretty brutal and frustrating. It’s impossible for me to attempt such a playthrough so I’m not sure what that would be like exactly, but I do think that Binding Blade is one of the best FE games for Ironmans if you’re familiar with the game. I’d probably recommend playing on normal mode first if you haven’t played it before.
 

For an Ironman run, the game actually gives you a lot of room to make mistakes and get units killed and still be able to get through the game just fine. You keep getting new units throughout the game, including some that start out pretty strong, so don’t get discouraged for getting some units killed. Play carefully. Risk management is a huge aspect of this game. It’s usually not a good idea to risk a unit’s death if you can find a safer strategy. Like Eclipse said, make sure to check enemy stats and calculate if your unit can survive the enemies they’re in range of or not.

 

On 9/7/2021 at 1:05 PM, Shadow Mir said:

Because Binding Blade is one of the harder FE games (though to be frank, its brand of difficulty is the kind that trends more towards frustration than legitimate challenge), and one of the worst for ironman runs.

How so? FE6 seems like one of the best FE games for an Ironman to me. We are talking about a blind HM run. A blind playthrough of FE7-HHM Ironman would be pretty brutal as well, and in pretty unfair ways.

And to your other issues, a lot of your issues with the game aren’t actually issues at all and others are just a matter of personal preference.

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On 9/14/2021 at 2:44 PM, OriginalRaisins said:

Chapter 20 Sacae? I love that map! Also you identified several solutions to the long-range sages in your post. Even if you don't have the tools you described or you don't want to spend warp staff, you can just not deploy units with low RES or who will get 2shot by the boltings. If two hits from bolting "always" oneshot a unit then I could understand but the way you explained the situation makes it seem like at least some units don't die, so deploy those ones instead.

The problem with "just don't deploy units with low res" is that low resistance is the norm for physical units. And doing that means benching some of the best units in the game. Off the top of my head, the only good unit that has a notable amount of resistance without being a mage is... Perceval. And once again, that's not the only poorly designed map Binding Blade has, oh no. It's far from the only one, in fact.

On 10/1/2021 at 4:13 PM, Whisky said:

How so? FE6 seems like one of the best FE games for an Ironman to me. We are talking about a blind HM run. A blind playthrough of FE7-HHM Ironman would be pretty brutal as well, and in pretty unfair ways.

You said it yourself:

On 10/1/2021 at 4:13 PM, Whisky said:

ambush spawns

Combine that with the low cast quality, and frankly, I'd say it ain't uncommon when after losing a unit, it'd be a better idea to continue investing in the decent units you have left than to try to babysit a unit that probably won't justify the effort needed to get them up to speed, and thus would be a liability rather than an asset just for the sake of filling up a deployment slot (especially if the unit in question is one that struggles to contribute in their joining chapter). Blazing Blade has its fair share of issues with ironman runs, yes, but I would imagine none are as egregious as that, unless you're playing HHM. Also, imho, to say that Binding Blade one of the best games for ironman runs is very, very, VERY generous of you.

On 9/14/2021 at 2:44 PM, OriginalRaisins said:

FE is a strategy game. Planning around the problems you must solve is not some chore you do to unlock the rest of the game, it is the game.

Why does it still sound like you're trying to make excuses for Binding Blade's bad design choices...??? Especially the fact that boss killing in Binding Blade tends to be more like a lottery (the fact that it's pretty much always suggested to promote Rutger with the first Hero Crest is very telling).

On 9/14/2021 at 2:44 PM, OriginalRaisins said:

You have so many tools to make him serviceably good and even if you don't use them (or you did use them and it didn't work) the strongest units in the game all have rescue and canto and good bulk, so it's not unreasonable to get him from point A to point B quickly. I understand not liking the fact that the Lord isn't very strong but to call BB a poorly designed game on account of it is like calling Chess a poorly designed game because the king can only move one square at a time. I actually really like the fact that every map is seize and I think it's one of the game's strengths.

If you don't like the game, that's fine, I'm not here to tell you your tastes are incorrect or that your experience was not genuine. It sounds like you played the real Binding Blade and didn't like it. But don't confuse "not to my tastes" with "bad game design". The game is pretty clear from the start that the maps are going to be seize and loads of people love that stuff and eat it up.

Unfortunately, none of those address his biggest flaw - his mega-late promotion. Also, if you're recommending rescuing Roy, doesn't that just support my point about Binding Blade playing more like a massive escort mission (something that only stands out even more because it loves big maps, often of the long and winding variety)??

On 9/14/2021 at 2:44 PM, OriginalRaisins said:

25 turns, to be exact. And Roy starts 40 tiles away from the throne by ground. You could sit still for 15 turns straight and Roy would still be able to make it in time by walking. Here's a question: would you criticize the map for having a turncount if I removed the bolting sages and asked you to instead complete the map in 20 turns? Because if that map sounds reasonable, then why not sit in spawn and exhaust the bolting and then move forward. There are solutions to the frustrations you are encountering and the fun of the game is coming up with those solutions.

Doesn't make it any less terrible, especially since I still have to worry about getting jumped by other enemies in the fog while this is going down. For the record, even in other games, I generally find long-range magic and status staves annoying to deal with because they practically enforce turtling, but it is amplified to the Nth degree in this game for reasons already stated.

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1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Off the top of my head, the only good unit that has a notable amount of resistance without being a mage is... Perceval.

Shanna and Thea also boast reasonable resistance,  Fae's res is off the charts, Igrene and Klein's res are pretty decent, etc.; not to mention, the Barrier staff can boulster any unit's res by a decent amount, so a unit with a big HP pool but low res, (For example, Zeiss, Garret, Gonzales, Lot, etc.) can still deal with it. Plus, since Nosferatanking is viable in FE6, Raigh can do very well as long as he's not getting doubled.

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Combine that with the low cast quality

Re: Ambush spawns... You can literally just look them up ahead of time, the same way one can look up growths for units. It's not ideal, but if people are willing to use internet resources for things like class skills, pairings, etc. in other FEs, (especially TH,) then looking up reinforcements ahead of time isn't a major timesink either. 

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

I'd say it ain't uncommon when after losing a unit, it'd be a better idea to continue investing in the decent units you have left

That's how ironmanning works, though. I cannot think of any FE game, perhaps barring FE4*, where the game becomes easier if you lose your good units and are forced to use weaker ones, and snowballing one strong unit is viable in practically every FE. Would I be in a much stronger position if I hadn't left Melady in the range of an archer and got her killed, or if Shin dies, so I'm forced to use Sue  if I want to go to Sacae? Certainly. However, even if it takes effort to get him to work, an alive Zeiss is better than a dead Milady. Things do not always go according to plan if you're ironmanning, especially if you're a terrible player like I am, so having the backup units like Treck, Noah, Fir, and others is MASSIVE.

*Arena + FE4 being Equipment Emblem made it so that some underlevelled units could still do OK, in my experience.

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Blazing Blade has its fair share of issues with ironman runs, yes, but I would imagine none are as egregious as that, unless you're playing HHM

Speaking from experience, FE7 is way harder to ironman because of how much less the game gives you- you get a scant two healers prior to promoting an additional mage-A promotion which isn't necessarily easy to get, and if you miss the guiding ring or if your mages die, you still only have two until Pent. Furthermore, the earlygame spams a lot of fliers at you in HHM, which makes protection of weak units really hard, Erk's survival hinges on his AI not deciding to go the wrong direction or charge into enemies, and if Priscilla is dead, that means that you are also locked out of Raven and Lucius.

The most egregious flaw to FE7 ironmanning is, to me,  the lack of thieves, and the importance of having them for promotion items and funds. Matthew is really weak and can die very easily, Legault can be tough to recruit, and if you miss them...Well, that's all you've got unless Matthew happened to not have his lockpick on him, in which case Jaffar can do a bit of thief work. There's only, like, one map with chests left in the game, but better late than never, I guess...

Comparatively, while FE6 only gives you one more thief, it gives you them in chapters 3 (a couple of nice chests here), 8, (which has a metric ton of chests to loot) and IIRC, 12, which also has a decent chunk of chests. Even if you lost all the thieves the chapter after they joined, you'd only really be missing out on chaper 6, chapter 16, and 20 Ilia. Easier acess to thieves means more money, so while Matthew dying early can lead to crippling debt the whole game, leading to nearly running out of weapons and such, and staves are a non-problem- three of them before chapter 7, as well as a couple of mages before chapter 9.

Plus, while you aren't guaranteed to get the Warp Staff in FE6, you have it from Ch. 14 on wards, meaning that you have all the utility it provides for a large portion of the game. In keeping with the subject of giving the player more tools, FE6 also gives you a bunch of OP weapons strating from chapter 8x, and you get some of the more useful ones early-Durandal in 8x, Armads in 12x. You can also get the brave axe in 11, the Wo Dao in 9, Killing edge in 4 and Killer axe in 6.

Carrying on, FE7's lords are also pretty rancid-Hector will be getting ORKO'd by mages later on, and he barely promotes earlier than Roy does, getting a full three maps with enemies to shine, and his promotion isn't that helpful. I am biased against Lyn because of how bad she usually ends up for me, but she's no good either, and x2 effectiveness neuters her prowess with bows. I do consider Eliwood to be better than most people make him out to be, but he still has to overcome a weak starting point and a major portion of the game where he's swordlocked while facing lots of lance enemies.

Lastly, FE6 gives you way more midgame prepromotes and strong unpromoted units to cover you if you'velost a lot of units-Jerrot, Echidna/Bartre, Klein, Garret, Douglas, Niime, Yodel, Cecilia, Melady, Igrene, Perceval, so on and so forth.

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Especially the fact that boss killing in Binding Blade tends to be more like a lottery (the fact that it's pretty much always suggested to promote Rutger with the first Hero Crest is very telling).

You pointed out the solution to the bosses yourself-Earlypromote Rutger, who is in a glass cannon-type class. Rutger's not the only competent bosskiller once he promotes, though. Lugh, Deke and promoted Allance or Noah can also do very well with bosses after they promote as well.

 

I won't defend all of FE6's bosses-some of them kinda suck, don't get me wrong-especially prior to promotion. However, since it's a problem with various different solutions, and the game gives you so many options to deal with bosses,  and so many units to do that with, it makes it a relative non-issue for ironmanning, and a mild inconvenience compared to completely running out of weapons or money.

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4 minutes ago, Benice said:

You pointed out the solution to the bosses yourself-Earlypromote Rutger, who is in a glass cannon-type class. Rutger's not the only competent bosskiller once he promotes, though. Lugh, Deke and promoted Allance or Noah can also do very well with bosses after they promote as well.

 

I won't defend all of FE6's bosses-some of them kinda suck, don't get me wrong-especially prior to promotion. However, since it's a problem with various different solutions, and the game gives you so many options to deal with bosses,  and so many units to do that with, it makes it a relative non-issue for ironmanning, and a mild inconvenience compared to completely running out of weapons or money.

Adding to your point, there is not a single boss in FE6 that cannot be cheesed. Because they don't move off their throne/gate, you can always choose who engages them, and in what manner. There can be indirect danger in form of reinforcements, or a time limit in form of gaiden requirements, but FE6 bosses themselves are all harmless. Including the infamous Henning, whom you can just whittle down from 2 range and rescue/drop your characters out so he'll never swap to his hand axe. Your hit rates are going to be shit, but you have up to three attempts per turn and the only risk you face is losing turn.

I don't consider this a good thing, honestly - it's a problem shared by every FE game with stationary bosses - but no boss in FE6 has the problem that you'd have to face risk of death when engaging them.

(You don't need promoted Rutger either; I've not promoted him or promoted him at with the 2nd Hero Crest more than once)

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21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

And once again, that's not the only poorly designed map Binding Blade has, oh no. It's far from the only one, in fact.

In general, I’d consider Binding Blade to have better maps than a lot of other FE game.

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

ambush spawns

Which aren’t nearly as bad as people claim. The game often gives you warnings about them. Being able to skip ambush spawns is often a reward for playing fast. There are some particularly unfair ambush spawns in the game that would be very rough in a blind playthrough. But there are also some unfair ambush spawns in other FE games that you won’t be expecting if you’re playing blind, including FE7. I’d say 3H has the worst ambush spawns out of any game I’ve played. If you aren’t playing blind and have played Binding Blade a few times and are familiar with the ambush spawns, I actually think ambush spawns add to the game rather than hurting it.

Playing any game blind and on the hardest difficulty isn’t easy.

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Combine that with the low cast quality, and frankly, I'd say it ain't uncommon when after losing a unit, it'd be a better idea to continue investing in the decent units you have left than to try to babysit a unit that probably won't justify the effort needed to get them up to speed, and thus would be a liability rather than an asset just for the sake of filling up a deployment slot (especially if the unit in question is one that struggles to contribute in their joining chapter).

What do you mean low cast quality? Quality is relative. Enemies are stronger and the game is harder. That doesn’t make the units bad. Besides, Binding Blade has plenty of really good units. Including ones that you get mid to late game. You don’t stop getting good units throughout the game so I don’t understand your complaint. That are plenty of good low investment units (or even zero investment pre-promotes) that join later in the game. There are some under-leveled units that aren’t worth using, and other games also have those too. 

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Blazing Blade has its fair share of issues with ironman runs, yes, but I would imagine none are as egregious as that, unless you're playing HHM.

Why are we talking about BB HM, but not FE7 HHM? If you want to talk about lower difficulties on FE7 then we should be talking about BB NM.

I think FE7 has a lot of issues actually, especially for a blind run or an Ironman run. In Battle Before Dawn, you can literally lose the entire game in an Ironman run just by getting unlucky even if you use a perfect strategy and play super fast. In FE6, not playing fast enough usually results in losing out on additional optional rewards rather than losing the game.

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Blazing Blade has its fair share of issues with ironman runs, yes, but I would imagine none are as egregious as that, unless you're playing HHM.

Why? It’s a good game. Playing it blind would be hard but that applies to a lot of other games too. For someone who’s familiar with the game, I definitely think Binding Blade offers one of the best ironman experiences of the games I’ve played.

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Why does it still sound like you're trying to make excuses for Binding Blade's bad design choices...??? Especially the fact that boss killing in Binding Blade tends to be more like a lottery (the fact that it's pretty much always suggested to promote Rutger with the first Hero Crest is very telling).

Bosses in some cases can be somewhat tedious, but not a lottery. And it’s always bothered me that people say you pretty much need to promote Rutger with the first Hero Crest in HM. Early promoted Dieck can handle bosses just fine. In my very first HM playthrough, I thought “do I really need to promote Rutger, is the game really that imbalanced that I won’t be able to beat it if I promote someone else?”, then I promoted Dieck, beat the game just fine and was like “well guess that claim was a lie”. Besides, some bosses in Binding Blade are tedious at worst, they’re really not as bad as you’re making them out to be.

 

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Unfortunately, none of those address his biggest flaw - his mega-late promotion. Also, if you're recommending rescuing Roy, doesn't that just support my point about Binding Blade playing more like a massive escort mission (something that only stands out even more because it loves big maps, often of the long and winding variety)??

All of the lords in the GBA games get late promotions. In SD, Marth never promotes. The lord is the only unit that can seize in every game that has seize.

The escorting complaint applies to most FE games. You have to escort Hector who is locked to 5 Move for the whole game and has a high Con so he can be hard to carry. You have to escort foot locked Ike in POR, a game with really large maps. You have to escort Marth in SD, a game that doesn’t have Rescuing (though it does have infinite range Warp).

Binding Blade has some really good maps. I don’t know why you think they’re bad for being “long and windy”.

Edited by Whisky
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