So I'm Replaying Fates

[Hrothgar777]

(I didn't really want to make an entire thread on this, but it didn't seem there was anywhere else for this to go.)

 

So I've picked up my old 3DS for the first time in probably a couple of years and I started a new file on Fates. Five chapters in, here's my initial impression:

 

-Holy cow does this game move fast. For the time it took me to get to Chapter 5, I'd likely still be on Chapter 1 in Three Houses. I'm assuming it slows down some after I hit castle mode and whatnot, but still.

-Coincidentally, I'm re-borrowing this 3DS and the game from my little bros who I guess own it now. With that in mind, I'm only a few chapters in but this game gives me...anime sibling vibes, if you catch my drift. It really is a weird game and I'm not sure if it's the most appropriate thing for them to be playing. Honestly, what was Nintendo thinking with this?

-Quality wise, I've somewhat overestimated the quality gap between this and Three Houses. In part it's because I remembered so little about this game, seeing as how I only played through it once as a VERY casual gamer with low retention of the material in question. So when looking back in hindsight, my mind must've filled in the blanks and assumed that there was less to this game than there actually was.

-Before I deleted my old save file, I checked my party on the last chapter. And dang, I must've done zero level grinding there. Everyone was so weak. I don't know how I beat this the first time. Granted, it was Birthright, but still.

-Between this and all of the other Fire Emblem titles that I've been learning more about recently, I am realizing just how many of the concepts in my own FE game idea have been used before.

-There were some neat classes and weapon types in this that completely got the ax in Three Houses. Not sure why; maid Lindhardt throwing daggers would've been totally lit.

 

Anyways, I don't know how far I'll get into this. Maybe I won't pick it up again after today. Maybe I will. Who knows. It feels like my life's never been busier than it is now, but anyhow it was cool having the chance to do this again years later, however brief or long this might've lasted.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Hrothgar777

[Jotari]

Delete your old save files? Isn't there like nine save files? You don't seem like you would have filled all of them up given how little you remember.

[Punished Dayni]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Delete your old save files? Isn't there like nine save files? You don't seem like you would have filled all of them up given how little you remember.

You get 3 per route you own, so if they only has BR that could be the case. It also could have been just something they wanted to do.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Punished Dayni

[Hrothgar777]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Delete your old save files? Isn't there like nine save files? You don't seem like you would have filled all of them up given how little you remember.

I saw three files on there. I had one and my little bros took up the other two.

So, yeah. Assuming I couldn't have just scrolled down to find more, I had to delete one.

Edited October 3, 2022 by Hrothgar777

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

19 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:

I saw three files on there. I had one and my little bros took up the other two.

I wanna say you have 6 savefiles on a cartridge +3 with DLC (Rev methinks).

They aren´t scrolling down but going to the right or left of the savefile menu.

Maybe. I haven´t played in wee bit.

13 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

Holy cow does this game move fast. For the time it took me to get to Chapter 5, I'd likely still be on Chapter 1 in Three Houses. I'm assuming it slows down some after I hit castle mode and whatnot, but still.

Smaller maps, more meaningful movement and units with actual stats

Zoomin chibis rather than waddlin 3d models

Then again you can´t compare Fates chapter 1,2 etc with TH 1.

13 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

-There were some neat classes and weapon types in this that completely got the ax in Three Houses. Not sure why; maid Lindhardt throwing daggers would've been totally lit.

Because fuck Hubert. That´s why.

[indigoasis]

I've been through the first 5-6 chapters of Fates so many times, I managed to get it down to where I could run through them in about an hour or so if I took my time. The game really wants to get you to the route split, which is why there's even an option when making a new game to skip straight to that point, and the new game uses data from pre-existing save files and just copies it over to the new game... which I don't really like, which is why I've started from the beginning so many times.

I think Fates also plays a lot smoother than TH, which is thanks to it running on the same engine as Awakening. It also gets your foot in the door to the main meat and potatoes of the game far sooner than TH does (you don't even unlock the entire monastery until halfway through the game; I'm slightly exaggerating, but also kinda not).

It's always fun revisiting a game you've played in the past, even if only for a few hours. Hope you enjoy it!

[Jotari]

15 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

I saw three files on there. I had one and my little bros took up the other two.

So, yeah. Assuming I couldn't have just scrolled down to find more, I had to delete one.

Ah yes, it's your brothers. That w as an established piece of information but I never connected the dots.

[Shadow Mir]

On 10/2/2022 at 7:59 PM, Hrothgar777 said:

-Coincidentally, I'm re-borrowing this 3DS and the game from my little bros who I guess own it now. With that in mind, I'm only a few chapters in but this game gives me...anime sibling vibes, if you catch my drift. It really is a weird game and I'm not sure if it's the most appropriate thing for them to be playing. Honestly, what was Nintendo thinking with this?

Yeah, some of the lines in this game make me want to avoid letting my nephew see me playing this game... Like pretty much anything Niles says, for example.

On 10/2/2022 at 7:59 PM, Hrothgar777 said:

-There were some neat classes and weapon types in this that completely got the ax in Three Houses. Not sure why; maid Lindhardt throwing daggers would've been totally lit.

I'd agree, but on the flipside, some of the classes in Fates stand out as being so ill-conceived that I'm glad they didn't come back. Like Oni Chieftain. Or Malig Knight. Or Basara.

[Hrothgar777]

A few more thoughts:

 

I got up to Chapter 8 last night. And it's only after you get to castle mode that the game's appeal starts to shine through.

The physical cartridge that I own is 6 years old, but the game still runs super fast and super well. You can do everything at a lightning pace if you want, including level-grinding. If you're a gamer who doesn't have a lot of patience with what you're playing, and you just want things to come quickly, here it is. Fire Emblem Fates.

 

-Some of the battle maps are breathtakingly beautiful too.

 

-I wish you could have support conversations with goldfish-chan. On a related note, the supports themselves are coming in pretty fast. Again, at this same point (time sunk-wise) in Three Houses you'd be lucky to have a single support with anyone. And again I can see the appeal of this. Though, the supports are often a bit short for my taste.

 

-I picked Birthright, as I didn't have the heart to make Corrin turn on his lost family with an evil grin after everything that happened. But on that note, how exactly DOES Corrin choose Nohr? Like, by this point it's established beyond any doubt that Garon is evil and not worth obeying. You just lost your biological mother because of him. What could Corrin possibly stand to gain from going down this route?

 

-How do you start a castle battle?

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

4 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

What could Corrin possibly stand to gain from going down this route?

Good Gameply.

4 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

-How do you start a castle battle?

Invasions come from the main map menu.

Castle Batlles are otherwise PVP started from visiting and challenging via the crystal ball by the throne. I´m pretty sure they are either not available anymore, or pretty dead anyway.

[Shadow Mir]

7 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

I got up to Chapter 8 last night. And it's only after you get to castle mode that the game's appeal starts to shine through.

IMHO, the biggest sin Fates commits is the castle. And its arbitrary reliance on online to get the most of some of its features.

[Hrothgar777]

I recruited Mozu and I have a feeling that she's going to be like crazy powerful if I develop her. Am I right? If so, what's the ideal method for going about this?

[eclipse]

Mozu is the girl who, RNG willing, will end up pretty good.  Get her into Archer because Quick Draw is kinda silly (their level 10 skill).  She has several different build options, so pay attention to her level-ups and plan accordingly.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Hrothgar777 said:

I recruited Mozu and I have a feeling that she's going to be like crazy powerful if I develop her. Am I right? If so, what's the ideal method for going about this?

She can, but generally, I wouldn't recommend it. In Birthright and Revelation in particular, she has to compete with Takumi, who is great out the box.

[Hrothgar777]

Does anyone by chance know the title of that medieval-sounding OST in D# Minor? Might be more than one OST but I think it's like the same general medley for all of them.

 

It plays during some maps and even support conversations.

Edited October 20, 2022 by Hrothgar777

[Mordred]

You're playing Birthright, correct?  I can't think of any particularly medival osts in Birthright in D# and a large amount of the songs in Fates generally use a lot of different chords progressions.  Maybe Roads Taken from before the route split?  Actually I'm not even sure if that's in the game before the route split and I think it has D7 not D#.

Also the answer why Corrin picks Nohr its cause the story says something like he/she will change Nohr from the inside or whatever.

Edited October 27, 2022 by Mordred

[EdeaCreamer]

On 10/5/2022 at 10:07 PM, Hrothgar777 said:

I recruited Mozu and I have a feeling that she's going to be like crazy powerful if I develop her. Am I right? If so, what's the ideal method for going about this?

It's difficult to develop her through the intended 'Villager -> Villager Promotion -> Branch Out' method unless you're playing at a low enough difficulty where she's able to cause damage to the Faceless in her recruitment chapter.  In most cases you'll either want to use a Heart Seal to get her into Archer as soon as possible, or use her as a 'platform' for a DLC class like Dread Fighter or Great Lord.

If you like her and want to use her (optimal or not), then she will serve nicely as a Bow unit, especially on Conquest.  However, her primary value if you're not too keen on her is as a mother to an offensively-inclined 2nd Gen unit, especially one that doesn't have a particularly noteworthy father (as both he and Mozu can promptly be benched once you get the kid).  Villager is crappy -for Mozu-; it's not crappy for her kids, as they never have to deal with the unpromoted base class and can just go into its promotions to harvest Spendthrift and Line of Death, two of the nastiest offensive skills in the game (and on Conquest are otherwise practically unavailable to everyone other than very select units). Mozu also always has the perfect skill to pass down to said kid (Aptitude), so she doesn't even have to take any kill XP to do this.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, EdeaCreamer said:

they never have to deal with the unpromoted base class and can just go into its promotions to harvest Spendthrift and Line of Death, two of the nastiest offensive skills in the game

Honestly, aside from being level 15 skills, meaning you get them really late, both of those are more useful for the enemy than the player. I mean, Spendthrift's effect is nothing to scoff at, but the part where it requires a gold bar in the inventory and to initiate with it makes it inconvenient to use on anyone not named Corrin (and in general, given how slow and luck-based getting gold bars is). Life and Death pigeonholes the user into being a glass cannon, which doesn't feel worth it when good offense is already dime a dozen.

Edited November 16, 2022 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

19 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Honestly, aside from being level 15 skills, meaning you get them really late, both of those are more useful for the enemy than the player. I mean, Spendthrift's effect is nothing to scoff at, but the part where it requires a gold bar in the inventory and to initiate with it makes it inconvenient to use on anyone not named Corrin (and in general, given how slow and luck-based getting gold bars is). Life and Death pigeonholes the user into being a glass cannon, which doesn't feel worth it when good offense is already dime a dozen.

That depends how good you are at managing resources. If a unit only ends up attack once per map, but that one attack was super crucial and necessary, then that's a useful strategy to undertake. Sparing one inventory slot for a gold bar is not beyond the means of a competent planner.