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What's so appealing about Fire Emblem Heroes?


PostZordem
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As the title of this topic already says, I have to wonder what people enjoy about the mobile application: Fire Emblem Heroes. 

There are only a good handful of mobile apps that I really enjoy, such as the Super Mario Run, Mario Kart Tour, Dragon Ball Z Dokkan Battle, Dragon Ball Legends, and any Papa's (insert restaurant-themed name here) game. I've got Fire Emblem Heroes on my phone (it's free, so who wouldn't get it, really?) and I think it's just... meh. I can't say that I understand the game's popularity and what people like about it so much. It's got the biggest roster of Fire Emblem characters from across just about every game, yes, and I acknowledge that mobile games have limitations compared to console/PC games. Even so, the game doesn't really hold my interest since I'm not a big fan of "gacha" games in general (excluding a few particular titles). I don't like to spend money within apps because I hardly see much of a long-term gain from it and the grind F2P players have to do in order to save money can sometimes feel like a waste of time due to the "pull rates" some of the higher-class units have.

To be fair, I'm not much of a mobile gamer in the first place, and I prefer to spend most of my gaming hours on console games, so I mostly relegate my mobile apps to casual play. That being said, I did spend a bit of time on Fire Emblem Heroes, and earned myself a small group of decent units. Though I haven't invested more time into the game because I couldn't really get into the game's story, and the gameplay's about as simple as any other mobile app adaptation of a game series. 

Now this doesn't mean that I hate Fire Emblem Heroes for what it is, I'm more neutral about the game than anything. Nothing that's great enough to be God-Shattering, but nothing that's outright terrible either. So, I have to ask the Fire Emblem Heroes fans of this forum (because what better place to ask this question than here?), what about the game appealed to you that got you hooked into playing the game for far longer than I did?

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As someone who's played since launch, as well as a moderately avid fan of the series, it's a very nice way to get an easy, daily dose of FE that isn't as time-consuming as playing a mainline entry (although I think Heroes is actually considered to be part of the main series, funnily enough).

Personally, I absolutely love unit building. It's not something you typically have a lot of freedom with in mainline entries (with exceptions, obviously) since most characters tend to get shoehorned into certain roles. While that's still true to an extent since characters are locked to weapon and movement classes, and certain skills are locked to 5 Star units (as well as seasonal units), I adore watching my units come together. It can be a very, very long process, but it's satisfying seeing a unit you've built finally reach their full potential. It's a sense of achievement I don't really get from other mobile games (or some console games, for that matter).

There's also some utterly fantastic art made for Heroes. Seeing new characters and art (and skills!) being revealed in trailers is something I can always look forward to, especially when I don't really have a whole lot else to look forward to in real life right now.

The game has definitely gotten a lot more complicated since launch (powercreep's a bitch), but it's helped me learn a lot more about characters and the series as a whole, as well as give me something consistent in my life for now when other things can't.

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59 minutes ago, CyberZord said:

s the title of this topic already says, I have to wonder what people enjoy about the mobile application: Fire Emblem Heroes. 

Even so, the game doesn't really hold my interest since I'm not a big fan of "gacha" games in general (excluding a few particular titles).

To be fair, I'm not much of a mobile gamer in the first place, and I prefer to spend most of my gaming hours on console games, so I mostly relegate my mobile apps to casual play.

Good.

Reject gacha completely and you will be one step closer to achieving Nirvana and escaping the cycle of reincarnation.

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I reckon the persistent nature of acquiring "stuff" lends it somewhat of an addictive appeal similar to how MMOs hook people. Contrast this to the typical single player game where you play through for perhaps several dozen hours but once it's done, it's done - no matter how much time and effort you put into optimising your team, once the end credits roll, you'll never see them again.

The other thing I think is that personally I find the tactical side of the game to be far more interesting than that of mainline Fire Emblem games. It's weird to think of that in the context of smaller maps and smaller squads, but the precise movements coupled with a wide array of skills that manipulate exact positioning. Furthermore I rather prefer the deterministic nature of combat as opposed to reliance on RNG - this is particularly evident in the main series' weird insistence on massive one-hit crits, I find the special cooldown system of FEH far more interesting to play around with.

Of course the irony is that the complete absence of RNG in combat mechanics is entirely transferred to the gacha system. I of course wish the acquisition of units was more deterministic (though sparks are a step in the right direction), but I realise that without the system, the game would have shut down already.

 

P.S. I say all this as someone who is mostly done with FEH. But it's had a good run, and I've gotten more value out of it than any other FE game. Maybe a bit odd to say given who this forum caters to, but I'm not actually a big FE fan at all.

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It's probably because building your favorite units are so fun. It also doesn't really require too much of a time investment once you've really gotten into the game. Also, the gameplay's just generally pretty fun. It's pretty quick, but you can still get your usual strategy gaming out of it. It's definitely more merciful in the grinds and gacha than other gachas, that I can say for certain. You do NOT want to see the rates and free resources of other gacha games. While going full P2W is certainly a possibility for some players, it gives enough in game resources to get whoever you want, really, so it's just a matter of making things a bit more convenient. It essentially boils down to "Building units you like fun, using new units fun, and seeing new units join the battle fun."

Edited by FlyingKitsune
repetition
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38 minutes ago, FlyingKitsune said:

It also doesn't really require too much of a time investment once you've really gotten into the game.

Well... I'm not so sure of that.😅

Technically if you want to maximize your resources, you gotta do the dailies, and the weeklies, and if stamina is an issue in the game in question, you gotta do multiple play sessions in a single day. That mobile games have to invent auto-battle features that some players utilize to take care of this stuff, says the dailies stuff might not be fundamentally such a good idea. And even auto battling takes a series of taps requiring conscious effort before and after.

Now, if you don't care about resource maximization and are okay not logging in every day, I suppose it ain't so bad. But I couldn't get into out of that mindset of "missing out" by not playing every day. And being stuck in it, the two mobile gatchas I've tried became total chores, it wasn't fun. A 60 hour JRPG might seem like the typical example of a drawn-out game, but really, a gatcha that forces at least 15 minutes of your time every day for months and years is the real enslaver that doesn't respect your time.

-Or maybe it does.😃 There are multiple kinds of gaming mindsets, for some, 20 minutes of gatcha mobile a day is perfectly fine. Although you probably don't have time for more than maybe three mainstay gatchas if you do I would speculate. For me personally, I'm very mercurial with my video game playing, I'm too inconsistent and too free for gatcha (and probably subscription MMOs and live service stuff). A standard non-mobile video game might take a while, but when take a few days or months off from playing it, I know I haven't missed out on anything. And when the main portion of the game is over and maybe the postgame if it has one, I'm done with the game, for good. I have finality and I can feel free to move on to something else.

All forms of behavior concerning how one uses their own precious time alive on video games are perfectly valid.🙂 There is no single "superior" play mindset. Different strokes for different folks.

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A mix of the above with a little personal stuff mixed in: 

I get my FE fix without needing to boot up an entire game and be invested in that (or more likely, feel guilty about dropping it)

Acquiring "stuff" is fun.

 

More personally, I love head-canons, and Heroes allows me to create all the head-canons I can dream of. Have a head-canon where Alfonse, Sharena (and Peony), Lucina, and Tana are all siblings? You can make a team from that! 

Have a head-canon where Soleil and Shigure from Fates are the siblings of Saul from Binding Blade? You can make a team to fulfill the fantasy!

Have a head-canon where Lyn and Claude are related? Make it a team!

Have a head-canon where Robin has a harem or multiple wives throughout his life? Make a team out of that harem! 

All of those impossible ships are now MUCH more possible. 

 

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There are several reasons why I like Heroes:

1. I like strategy games in general, and Heroes' gameplay and mechanics is fun.

2. The game is dynamic due to frequent updates. From time to time, there will be new mechanics introduced that is very game changing and fun. The most radical change to gameplay in my opinion is the introduction of Save skills.

3. I enjoy interacting with the community here, and observing the wider community in general.

4. I like collecting things.

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2 hours ago, CyberZord said:

What's so appealing about Fire Emblem Heroes?

It's a Fire Emblem distilled down to its core strategy gameplay.

Deterministic combat and AI means you cannot lose to back luck and cannot be bailed out by good luck and also means you can accurately plan for upcoming turns. Small movement ranges make positioning significantly more important. You own your wins, and you own your losses.

The game being non-linear lets it make a lot of the "fluff" optional. You can always skip the story and come back to it later and are never stuck in a situation where you want to run a map but are stuck behind other content.

The game is very well designed to fit into its mobile medium. Only a few game modes keep you tied up for more than a few minutes at a time, which lets you pick up the game without needing to commit to playing it for a significant duration of time and lets you put down the game on a moment's notice. Great for lunch break and for when my code is compiling.

Meanwhile, the game has enough complexity for serious theorycrafting.

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  1. It's an actual game (many mobile games basically run on auto), and it's fun if you like its blend of strategy.
  2. It's a relatively low time investment.
  3. It's easy to be F2P. I've been F2P for over 3 years and have actually enjoyed the game much more since.
  4. It has a lot of my favorite characters.
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You can't really value the game unless you delve deeper into it. If you're simply a casual mobile gamer, then you'll hardly get any real value compared to playing a main title. The game is a lot about investing your time into building your units, and that's really fun, given the amount of creative customizations you can go for. And that said, the difficulty and challenges start rising as the skill system gets more and more complex, so there's more strategies and the harder modes become a lot more challenging.

The fun is in the customization I mention, but also the insane variety of characters and different versions of them, as well as weapons and other things. And even as a simple mobile game starting off, it does fine as a "Mobile Emblem", until you start digging into the deeper aspects of the game.

The style itself is also really charming, and not just the art. I really liked the chibis from Day 1, and they're what breathes life into the game as it's own thing.

 

And for the record, the game is very F2P-friendly, as someone who's played since launch barely spending any money. Every single one of the units I +10'd (including 4 5* exclusives), I didn't have to pay anything for it. I just spent a decent amount of time saving orbs, and I got about 80-90% of what I wanted in the game.

Edited by ♠Soul♠
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15 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Well... I'm not so sure of that.😅

Hm, it's probably just me thinking about the lack of time investment because the other Gachas are incredibly grindy and take a while. 15 minutes ain't much to me, at least.

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I honestly enjoy the gameplay. It's a fun game, and one of the few mobile games I played where I can begin a map now and finish 3-4 hours later (except Duels).

I played Mario Kart Tour, Pokémon Masters and Dragalia Lost before, and those games they are like "if you begins this match now, you need to finish it now". So with FEH I have more control of what I can and cannot do with my time.

Visually the game is also nice. I like the artwork and chibi sprites.

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1. The gameplay is fun.

2. The game is generous enough that you don't need to do SUPER well in the competitive modes to get enough materials for your characters.

3. The art is nice and the voice acting is really good. A lot of characters got an official voice actor for the first time thanks to this game.

4. It's got tons of Fire Emblem characters all together with a lot of interactions and fun stuff to do with them. I think I don't need to explain why the shippers in particular would love it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just the fact that i'm a huge fan of the series as a whole, and the crossover aspect of this is really nice

I'm purely a casual player who mostly is in it for the collection aspects. Only specifically spending money on it for the pass every once in a while when I have immediate use for its perks. But thats about it.

Its definitely a game that you'll get more appreciation from after playing alot of the games in the series.

Edited by Faellin
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