Topazd

Oddly enough, in FE1/FE3B1 Camus was not a moving boss while Michalis was. In Shadow Dragon they swapped over their roles for some reason. As for the best army, I'm probably going with Thracia.

Every single FE game features the suspend option (barring FE4 since a save is allowed at the beginning of every turn), albeit the GBA games were the only ones to do it automatically.

lol

FE1/2 both had the option to suspend the game. Though using savestates as a substitute for that method is perfectly fine, in my opinion.

Difficulty is always very subjective. What some individual might enjoy, others might not and vice versa. Trial and error is, to a degree, present in most strategy games and RPGs in general. It might not be for everyone, but the absence of it would impact any given game massively (and for better of for worse is dictated by the preferences of the person playing). Still, I find myself cringing massively when people encounter even the slightest bit of difficulty which they do not find "fun" or "entertaining" and deem it as outright bad gameplay design. It isn't always the game design, consider that the fault can be the player's.

And of course, the "Easy" mode was called "Normal" in the original Japanese version IIRC, so I wouldn't worry about it if FE10NM feels a little bit harder than the other games might have prepared you for. Go for the Easy mode if you feel it might be more enjoyable for you.

Rather surprised about the results of the poll. I was under the impression that using save states was almost vilified in the community in general. Everyone is free to play as they wish to, of course, but using states kind of cripples the essence of FE for me. The absence of them makes me consciously avoid giving the enemy potential chances of lucky crits (and confronting bosses with 10+% crit rates and not expecting to get screwed over by the RNG is dumb). It's a different matter altogether if it's an implemented gameplay mechanic like in FE4 (or used for the purpose of optimizing for LTC runs), but otherwise I just feel like I'm cheating myself by using states. The lack of in-chapter saves can also make things genuinely more intense. Perhaps it's just my own philosophy though, I tend to want to play games the way they were originally intended to be played.

Thank you for the rips, much obliged!

I used to use save states to quite a massive degree, but nowadays I just use them in case of the emulator crashing. I just don't feel that the run is legit if I use save states that aren't a part of the actual game.

I might try getting into Joker 2 Professional, since I didn't really like Joker 1 all that much for just that specific reason. Yeah, the resolution is even worse if you try to replay DS games with a 3DSXL. Emulators are basically mandatory at that point unless you have veeery low standards for graphical quality.

The very first one I played was the original SkiFree. That was all that was available for me at the time, so I was stuck skiing down the endless slope for a large portion of my early childhood. Some terrible memories right there.

This. Also, DQ games in general tend to do grinding really well IMO. Level ups always have a significant impact and the exp requirements scale upward nicely. The same applies to purchasing gear; by the endgame, the best equipment available is ridiculously expensive. If you take the time to get it you basically win the game, although it is by no means necessary. Prioritizing the usage of your resources is one of the strong "strategic" (I use the term "strategy" when referring to video games very loosely) aspect of the series, IMO at least.

I'd classify DQ6 as the other example, although (like I said) the magnitude of the problems wasn't as large in 6 as it was in 7.

Agreed. DQVI has some of the same problems as well, although not at the same magnitude. Strange though, how the rest of the series almost never forces the player to resort to a guide and then there're these two games that involve that to such massive amounts.

I personally really liked the atmosphere and the themes of DQ7 and did wholeheartedly enjoy the game with Sugiyama being as great as ever, although the game is extremely long. Estimated 140 hours makes it feel way too stretched. Besides that, the engine actually does feel really dated and stiff. The 3DS version has most likely dealt with most of the initial problems the PSX version may have had (i.e. I'd imagine the remake fixing the majority of the issues Ein already mentioned), so I think this is one game that desperately needs to be localized.

I've yet to complete II-IV, VII and (obviously) X. I will eventually get back to playing DQ games, as soon as I can work my way a little bit through my enormous backlog. Dragon Quest V is my favorite, for reasons Nightmare already mentioned. Though the advanced age of Sugiyama can be a little worrying, he hasn't at least shown any manner of decline in quality, since he's been putting up some quality stuff still in the recent years.

Never thought I'd see a starting post this comprehensible. Seth is IMO one of the better Oifeys as he is in vanilla FE8, no need to implement Sedgar-like growths to him.

My own stance is that magic, in any given setting, should always have it's own definitive rules which to operate within. These rules can (IMO) be bent in only special cases, for example Ashera using seemingly impossible forms of magic does make sense when taken into consideration that she is a goddess. I'd say that using magic as an excuse to every inconsistency is not very competent writing. So while I'm no expert, I guess that the jist of it is that magic as an inclusion to a narrative is not a problem as long as handled properly.

On my initial FE11 run I reclassed Lena to Myrmidon for some reason. And of course I basically soloed FE7 with Marcus until I had to restart the whole game.

Of course Forseti and Naga also had the ability to possess the respective wielders of their tomes, since they named the weapons after themselves and in a sense, "transferred their will" through them (at least that what I remember the designer's notes article saying). I don't mind Julius being possessed by Loptyr per say, but I dislike Loptyr himself just for being an earth dragon which, IMO, is almost a guarantee for being one of the least interesting characters in the entire series. Of course the earth dragons weren't always the "bad guys", but it's still really disappointing how Medeus was (yet again) indirectly responsible for the events at Jugdral. For anyone interested, some food for thought regarding magic in narrative can be found here. The video is interesting as a whole, although the really relevant parts begin right after the 5 minute mark.

Adding a generic version of him/her would kind of ruin the point of the MU, though they might do something akin to that for the sake of fanservice. A setting involving both SMT and FE characters isn't the most believable basis for a plot to begin with, so involving the MU in it probably wouldn't make it any sillier. At this point it's definitely too early to conclude something like that for certain, though. I think the vast roster of protagonists that have already been showcased in the trailer will be enough to suffice, so it doesn't really concern me that much whether or not the MU will appear in the game.

Well yes, there are similarities, but the modern common opinion about virginity wasn't always the same. There was a time when virginity was considered to be more valuable than gold. I'm not implying that it is realistic, however. Just saying that at the very least, their 'virginity' could be very fitting to their societal standards.

I think this discussion has been brought up way too many times already. The setting of the game is not relatable to our modern society - therefore, don't assume that their standards regarding sexuality will be in any way relatable. Besides, implementing a marriage mechanic in a more "realistic" way would not be an easy task, and in the case of Fire Emblem, probably not worth it at all from the developers' perspective.

While the story might not be what Awakening excelled the most at, it still did many a thing correctly. And while I did not particularly care for some of the directions the game took, the fact remains that comparatively it sold very well and perhaps even saved the series from it's potential end. I did have many problems with the story overall, but it's not like I didn't have any with some of the past games'. It's passable enough, and we can't really do anything to change it. I hope they don't take the same direction again as they did with this game, but I will still say that it was a damn good game and that there is no denying the good it did for the potential future of the series.

Spot on with Inigo-Virion. I can't really see the connection between Gerome and Kellam, but perhaps that's just me. And to be fair, I can't really think off the top of my head of anyone else fitting the role as Gerome's linked father particularly well.