Gameplay Hopes and Expectations

[Cysx]

2 hours ago, DaveCozy said:

How does everyone feel about the low movement values we've seen so far?

Going off the most recent and latest character trailers:

• every grounded infantry unit we have seen so far has 4-move; Etie, Louis, Celine, Framme, Cramme and Alear.
  • Effectively, that also means Armors and magical classes are the only ones we've seen so far who haven't had their movement reduced, thus being on par with rest of the grounded classes we've seen so far.
  • While I can see the sense of making ranged classes have 4-move (along with armors cuz it's an FE trait), the one I'm more surprised about is Alear's dragon class being also 4-move, since it's a melee combat class.
• mounted units (whether on Horse or Pegasus) so far have also only been shown with 6-move; Vander, Alfred and Cloe.

Vander is the only one with 6 move, Alfred and Chloe have 5. The former's a Paladin, so it makes sense.
I like the fact that cavalry and especially fliers are now only one move ahead. Honestly there's reason to lower fliers even more, but at some point you're no longer making a FE game I suppose.
Beyond that, I'm fine with smaller maps, but I don't like low movement. Just limits one's options. I'll deal with it, though.

Also we've seen enemy thieves with 5 move. Or at least that's what they should have by deduction.

[DefyingFates]

3 hours ago, DaveCozy said:

Personally I'm hoping this means that map sizes will be smaller than previous entries, which have gotten pretty carried away with size in my opinion.

While there's a risk that the maps will be too small to be interesting, I've got my fingers crossed for maps that are smaller but still as complex as past ones too. So the exact opposite of Echoes' maps, pretty much. It's still odd that pegasi and cavalry move the same amount though. I guess the thinking is that pegasi losing terrain bonuses (maybe) and being weak to arrows is enough to justify having the same reach as the latter? But as Cysx pointed out, promotions (and specific classes perhaps) seem to add movement so that'll be a way to slowly increase the amount of things you'll be able to do (as they said, it's not fun to have nothing to do).

3 hours ago, DaveCozy said:

The best ones like Enlightened One and Grandmaster were just passably good, and could still be outclassed by just focusing on doing one of those two things better.

True, but I think their value comes in having one key method of attacking and something for backup, e.g. switching to magic is the enemy is armored, or being able to heal. I wonder if we'll get to see anything like that here.

[Armchair General]

I'm not particularly enthused about the lowered movement. But since we'll be stuck with around 10 people pitted against around 20 enemies, I'll doubt if it'll be that big of an issue. Aside from how long it'll take to move from one group of foes to the next.

[Metal Flash]

I`m unsure of how I feel about the lower movement. While it helps avoid too big maps, I am not sure how it will affect the game in the long run. I hope that terrain can prevent fliers and cavalry from dominating. 

As for hybrid classes, I feel they work best when a character starts in one. Awakening Anna and Libra felt like they, for the most part, were designed with the stat split in mind. (But I admit that neither were perfect, since both clearly leaned in favor of magic over strength).

[Safy]

I just want better maps and variety in objectives.

And the avatar (sigh) not being an overpowered god but that's a lost cause already.

[kratoscar2008]

I expect some fun experience.

I never had an issue with 3 Houses Monastery and I have finished it 4 times (On my 5th as Femleth BLs) in a row so there is now way it will be a shore for me.

Dungeons I am not sure as I didnt play Echoes so it will be a new experience for me. I didnt mind Persona 3 and 4's dungeons so I dont expect them to be  annoying.

Really hoping farming is more consequential and not just there for show. Will probably work like Houses plant growing.

Hope there is reclassing ala Fates. And given we are seemingly getting weapon locked, I hope it has the option to change to the classes you have already changed to for free like Houses.

Really hope we can choose Byleth or Corrins gender. Love them.

I heard there is town exploring so I hope we can take characters on dates! Maybe when S supporting somehow you can take them to romantic strolls in the cities.

Maybe regional classes like Fates. Like for instance the dessert kingdom having say Camel riding class!

In general I am sure I will enjoy Engage. 

[DefyingFates]

10 hours ago, kratoscar2008 said:

I heard there is town exploring so I hope we can take characters on dates! Maybe when S supporting somehow you can take them to romantic strolls in the cities.

The exploring seems to just be exploring the area from the trailers a la the Monastery. While I doubt we'd get explicitly romantic stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if we got an equivalent of the tea parties/ expeditions from 3H/ Hopes respectively.

[kratoscar2008]

14 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

The exploring seems to just be exploring the area from the trailers a la the Monastery. While I doubt we'd get explicitly romantic stuff, I wouldn't be surprised if we got an equivalent of the tea parties/ expeditions from 3H/ Hopes respectively.

The leaks said explorable towns in plural so I think it means classic RPG elements like visiting towns. Also I remember the Wii game had a FF12 style exploration where you go from town to town via ingame travelling.

Also would be a shame to have kingdoms with very different settings/background and not have towns to visit.

Also would make sense to have the dungeons in said cities.

[DaveCozy]

Boucheron (Axe Fighter) revealed today, and he has 4mov as well.

On 11/10/2022 at 4:31 PM, Cysx said:

Vander is the only one with 6 move, Alfred and Chloe have 5. The former's a Paladin, so it makes sense.
I like the fact that cavalry and especially fliers are now only one move ahead. Honestly there's reason to lower fliers even more, but at some point you're no longer making a FE game I suppose.
Beyond that, I'm fine with smaller maps, but I don't like low movement. Just limits one's options. I'll deal with it, though.

Also we've seen enemy thieves with 5 move. Or at least that's what they should have by deduction.

I went to check back and you're right, it's 5move for the unpromoted mounted units. So it's probably safe to assume that most promotions will upgrade movement, maybe excluding classes like General/Fortress Knights and Sages/Warlocks.

On 11/10/2022 at 6:10 PM, DefyingFates said:

While there's a risk that the maps will be too small to be interesting, I've got my fingers crossed for maps that are smaller but still as complex as past ones too. So the exact opposite of Echoes' maps, pretty much. It's still odd that pegasi and cavalry move the same amount though. I guess the thinking is that pegasi losing terrain bonuses (maybe) and being weak to arrows is enough to justify having the same reach as the latter? But as Cysx pointed out, promotions (and specific classes perhaps) seem to add movement so that'll be a way to slowly increase the amount of things you'll be able to do (as they said, it's not fun to have nothing to do).

For more defensive focused objectives, I personally hope they go with smaller maps myself. As long as they don't have a side objective to kill a boss and end it quickly, defending can be made pretty fun; and it doesn't have to be a long turn count either, it can be even as little as "defend for 6 turns" to win. See FE PoR ch5 for an e.g.; they can still have a boss, just don't make defeating the commander part of the win-state. They can even throw reinforcements out every turn, if they have same-turn move reinforcements that will also give a lot more value to traditionally more defensive but slow classes (like armors) and possibly make plugging forts/stairs a priority. I can see a lot of interesting defensive gameplay coming out of having small maps; and defensive objectives is something that FE has rarely done well imho.

For offensive objectives, that's where I can see bigger maps being more beneficial since part of the challenge is not just dealing with enemy groups, but also figuring out how to get to the next group before more reinforcements arrive or before a thief runs away with a chest item (for e.g.).

And yeah I guess the devs must think that the bow weakness is enough of a weakness. Depends if they can dismount for terrain bonuses (I'm guessing no in this game). It'll depend how many enemies with bows there are to enforce that check too though, I remember Awakening had a lot of enemies that used bows and flying classes had a rougher time compared to other games.

Edited November 15, 2022 by DaveCozy