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Finished this game lunatic. Difficuly comparison?


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After some recomendations in this forum I bought my first japanese Fire Emblem. I played it in lunatic because it was the hardest available option. In my opinion this was insanly hard even without the reverse option. Some of the games that I have beaten on their hardest difficulties are fates and 3 houses and I think this lunatic is even harder than that. Specially because dragons, for me the hardest levels were 11,12 and 22. Not even sure if I will call that levels fair.

I want to hear about other people opinions about this difficulty. Do you think its fair? How hard do you think this is compared with other games in the saga?

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FE12 is definitely not a game that you jump into on the highest difficulty, even if you're a pro. Lunatic is fair, but only of you had experience with the game itself at least once, knowing exactly how to effectively use the handed resources and reclass system. It's not designed around decisions made blindly. You have to know how most things will go, and how to prepare for them. There are a few parts that I might call unfair, like certain lunatic only reinforcements that can easily kill you by suprise, or the absurd stats of Medeus, practically demanding that that you have a capped out Marth. Other than that, it's pretty fair. Brutal, but not stupid. Since you went straight to lunatic, you also missed out on extra reclassing options that really help on this difficulty. Again, you aren't expected to jump straight to lunatic. FE12 is arguably the hardest game in the series. Personally, Maniac is my preferred difficulty choice, as it remains challenging while not being quite as demanding as lunatic. To me, New Myatery is a game that gets more fun the more you replay, as you can always learn new strats to use or ways to either save up or use items differently to further strategize. Out of all my playthroughs, I probably died the most on Hard, as it was my first run. If you didn't have too much fun, I'd recommend coming back to it after a while and trying maniac mode. I think a lunatic playthrough gives the wrong impression of new mystery's strategy elements when not critically analyzed through the lens of an experienced player. The enemies might seem overpowered and very aggressive, but everything is designed that way for a good reason, down to the very slight position changes for some enemies, including recruitable ones like Rickard. FE12 lunatic is very meticulously crafted, and makes you utilize your knowledge of its mechanics and resources just to survive. 

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I agree that the reclass system is needed to pass this. And I'm curious if you remember how did you beat level 11 and 12, I want to see what I couldn't see. Because for me at some point I was surrounded by dragons and I had to kill them all at same turn otherwise  they will kill valuable units. To pass that levels I had to reset until I had good luck with some crits and sacrifice Darros. 

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49 minutes ago, Anju said:

I agree that the reclass system is needed to pass this. And I'm curious if you remember how did you beat level 11 and 12, I want to see what I couldn't see. Because for me at some point I was surrounded by dragons and I had to kill them all at same turn otherwise  they will kill valuable units. To pass that levels I had to reset until I had good luck with some crits and sacrifice Darros. 

Chapter 12 is really tricky, but chapter 11 honestly never felt very challenging to me, but I don't remember how I approached it blind, so that probably plays a big factor in that. The reason I find chapter 11 to be easy is because there's not too much incentive to play fast compared to other chapters and the large map doesn't really have many enemies to fight. Maybe all the wyverns swarm you after a while, but the main start for me is to to pull them away one by one with Wyvern Rider Kris and Wyvern Rider Sirius/Palla (preferably Palla since she's pretty speedy). Any other wyverns can be easily sweeped with silver bows (or forged steel bows) and Merric's Excalibur tome. Personally, I used Hunter Luke with a forged steel bow to OHKO them ((12 might*3)+at least 17 strength one shots them at lunatic, only 14 STR if you forged to 13 might). Of course, just weakening them helps a lot, as you can feed the dragon kills to weaker units to prepare them for the Altea arch, which I always find to be the most challenging. Point is, the wyverns are strong, but they're easy to kill due to their weakness to effective weapons. If anything, them having 1-2 range on lunatic actually helps you kill them on enemy phase with bow units. They have 20 speed, but if you have a promoted unit with high speed, such as Caeda who easily reaches 20 speed, she can reclass into an sniper and have a pretty good chance to double and instantly slay them. Snipers automatically have at least a C rank, letting you use a steel bow. 

As for chapter 12, this chapter is definitely hard. I don't blame you if you found this level to be really unfair. On Lunatic, there are quite a couple of changes made to make you play nearly flawlessly. Dragons spawn behind you on turn 2, forcing you to run up immediately as wyverns from the west try to swarm you. A unit that can ohko wyverns will be immensely helpful. Hopefully, the exp from the previous chapter (along with the stat boosters from the desert) give you the boost you need to ensure that. Having high speed is crucial to killing the dragons, so reclassing to classes like Swordmaster can be pretty helpful. The secret shop from chapter 11 will be your best friend, as it has dragon slaying weapons that will allow you to ohko the fire dragons without needing a strength blessed unit. If I recall, fire dragons have 17-18 speed, so I always try to have a few of my faster units promote in order to reclass to a swordmaster or hero with the wvyernslayer to wipe the fire dragons. They hit hard, so expect to use up the physic staff moderately. This is actually my favorite chapter in the entire game, as it makes me use everything I own and be very careful with how I position each unit in order to not get swarmed. Of course, that's mainly because I know all the reinforcement spots, so I can just place one unit barely in range of an enemy to get some them gone in advance, something that can't be done without experiencing it at least once. The enemy placement is VERY precise, and attacking from range is essential. The center with Darros, from how I play, either requires me to use a rescue staff on Marth after talking, or to try baiting out some of the enemies with certain units like Feena or Linde, as enemy AI prioritizes damage input over all else, sometimes messing up their ability to team up to kill your unit (very helpful in lunatic, but not necessarily mandatory to know). The most unfair part is probably the amount of dragons that show up when you cross 2 fortresses to the west as you approach the throne, placing enemies almost everywhere. This setup can be taken down with careful planning and positioning, but it certainly feels unfair to have that appear when you don't expect it. Luckily, there's a save point right that players hopefully used right before then so they only go back a turn or two. I know there's a lot more I can talk about with how I play each turn, but I'm having trouble memorizing exactly what I do, but feel free to ask for any specifics on how I survive certain encounters on these or any lunatic chapter. I should remember if I know the specific moment you're talking about.

TL;DR: Forging effective weapons are your best friend for dragons. Use that money wisely. Use the secret shop in chapter 11 to get dragon slaying weapons. Prioritize in speed levels and classes to ensure that you double fire dragons with at least a few units. 

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Oh, and I forgot to add: Class stat caps matter a lot in NM, but you'd need to be familiar with the enemies to understand how and why.  NM's Lunatic isn't something you can pick up, complete, and say that you fully understand in a single run.

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