Topazd

I really don't see such a significant conflict between the series' thematic elements that would have made them incompatible. It goes without saying that the gameplay aspects can be and have been combined prior. I'll probably be fine with the game's existence in the long run, once the initial shock passes away. Still, no announcements regarding any changes in the concept in 2 years despite such a massive one really comes off as pure dishonesty. Many people seemingly have a degree of apathy wrt the thematic elements, but do try to understand that those very elements are a major defining factor of SMT. After over 2 years of anticipation, for the original premise to be replaced with something as disgusting as this leaves a bad taste in my mouth. EDIT To clarify, I have no particular issue with the Persona games themselves, but the mechanics intrinsic to the Persona formula should, IMO, be contained within the respective series. e.g. I like Devil Survivor 2 as far as pure gameplay is concerned, but the fact that they had to jump the shark by including sloppily executed pseudo-social links makes me unable to hold it to the same degree as the first one.

But really, the initial name for the game was misleading at best. FE/SMT are my two favourite franchises and, whilst I haven't been into the two series for that long of a period (maybe ~2 years), I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the direction they took disconcerting, to speak in mild terms.

Whew, now I'm glad I didn't purchase a Wii U to play this, haha.

NES. Since RPGs and strategy games are the two genres I primarily play, it's the earliest platform to find quality titles for them (wrt consoles, at least). The age of the system isn't really a significant factor in my books, seeing as I had more trouble getting into the N64 - the lacklustre library of appealing games is an effective repellent.

'Party member is full' from Suikoden I is the one most persistently stuck in my memory. Typos tend not to be as prominent as grammatical errors, though, so I can't really say I remember any.

I'm still traumatized from Gordin's dubbed voice.

On top of the aforementioned benefits, the RNG being such an integral component in the FE formula allows for strats to be evaluated and 'ranked' by their reliability. The absence of such variables would only result in rather static playthroughs, in my eyes.

I'd go as far as to say that those who don't like it belong in the minority. Unless the situation has abruptly changed in recent times.

That IGN guide is the worst thing ever. They kept blabbing about how training anyone but Fred was impossible, proceeded to rely on Hammers missing him (w/ Silver lance equipped IIRC) and didn't even attempt to allocate exp to others. My favorite line was 'After chapter 4 you can grind with DLC and then Lunatic becomes a lot more fun and strategy-based.' Here. The 'guide' is for Prologue-C2. True comedy gold. I'd honestly advise restarting the run. A +Def MU can cheese the early chapters with so little effort that trying to pick him up now (w/o grinding) seems like a lost cause in my eyes.

FE3 does have elements that genuinely would facilitate calling it my favorite (a narrative untainted by FE12's bad decisions, the weight system, universal caps of 20, dismounting, the aesthetics, Book 2's OST, etc.), but the primary reason why it's listed as such is because I can't for the life of me decide whether I like FE11 or FE12 the most. As FE3 includes its own versions of both the initial games, it serves as a compromise/placeholder well enough. As for FE11/12, the new highest difficulty settings, reclassing, contributions to the initial games' stories and so on and so forth make them my preferred FE games. My major complaints are that FE11 could have added more to the narrative, and that FE12 added much that should never have been added. All in all, I really have a preference leaning towards the Akaneia games.

And we even got a glimpse of the good old yoanur at the end. Congrats!

Played all, yet to beat 1/2/5 and a couple of the BSFE chapters.

If you want a series specifically, I'd second the Devil Survivor recommendation. If standalones are viable, The Banner Saga is a good way to go.

Pretty exact, even if I don't really have any form of a strong opinion on much of the chars.

'Remade as lazily as possible' doesn't really hold much ground when it's very apparent you haven't played much of either game; when you claim that FE11 improved nothing about the original other than the graphics - like you did in a topic prior to this - it goes to show how little context you actually have to compare the game in. There are legitimate complaints to be made about Shadow Dragon, for sure, but this 'it changed nothing from FE1' is a flagrant accusation without a basis in reality.

Yeah, should refrain from posting when I'm tired. I had a few other select words to be said about the whole post, but I can't properly convert my thoughts to coherent text as of now. Anyhow, if you're genuinely going to claim that the game is easily broken and then proceed to say this about H5 - it isn't really a valid point against the game (it obviously isn't going to be very hard to 'break' on easier difficulties). Besides, that is the specific method by which nearly all of the more difficult FE modes are designed; declaring that it's metagame is honestly all but asinine.

'Poor difficulty implementation' doesn't necessarily become a valid claim even if it garners widespread support in the community. As an example: the myriad of misconceptions regarding FE13's L+ mode. At this point in time they can indisputably be disregarded as false accusations, yet 'L+ is fake difficulty' continues to be a very prominent mindset among players.

I don't think there'd be much room for any discussions such as this thread if one could indisputably rank the FE games from best to worst 'objectively', haha.

I dislike 'underrated' as a term, but I'd say Shadow Dragon has been the victim of unwarranted animosity to the greatest extent.

Danomill is truly the most beguiling of all Tellius males. EDIT On a serious note, I'm kind of on the fence between Pelleas/Stefan. Also, whilst I wouldn't exactly call him hot, Dheginsea does have a rather unique stately manner of appeal going for him.

I guess there's the difference between NTSC/PAL framerates, but I'm not sure if that constitutes a problem in this case. Though in my personal experience, PAL FE10 was a lot more performance-friendly than NTSC FE9 on Dolphin. I haven't tested NTSC FE10, but you could give it a shot and see if it works out for you.

Yeah, the Ostians had small convos with Debias/Legance though certainly nothing intriguing nor climactic. I would've argued for Zephiel to fit in that category if FE7 wasn't the larger contributor in that regard.

Like aforementioned, ironman mode has been implemented in games like XCOM. The game simply overrides your autosave after every action you take. The player cannot manually copy save files or manually save to begin with.

My other favorites (Arvis, Travant) have already been outlined above better than I personally could have done, but I still have to give the spot to Hardin. His story might not be terribly unique, but the sheer contrast between his characterization and that of the series' antagonists' prior to him was remarkable. To be fair, his pre-Emperor characterization was almost nonexistent until BSFE/FE11, but there he's shown to be a humble man above all else - which we learn in FE3 to be in appearance only. We see a man mentally weakened as a result of unrequited love and by extension, alcoholism, who thus could no longer suppress his feelings behind his guise of modesty when presented the Darksphere. Sure, Gharnef had his part in the mixture, but Hardin's resentment and envy towards Marth were both completely authentic, if rather pronounced by the sphere. His death quote is easily my favourite in the series, on top of all that. As opposed to Gharnef, I honestly feel Boah was the greater offender when the events leading to FE3's plot are concerned, haha.

Forget combat proficiency, Greil's truly celestial skills lie in his hearing capabilities. I mean, recognizing Zelgius' voice through that filter kind of speaks for itself.