Geriba

Very general question... since it seems like you've had the game for a while now, how do you think it stacks up with the rest of the series? I'm not going to put down the hundreds of dollars necessary for an import, but assuming it does come over to the States, is it worth a day one purchase?

His official age is unknown.

Wait, is it really? *checks* ...Well I'll be damned. So does this mean some sexy FE7 music remixes are on the way? Yes please.

Don't feel bad about falling short on the experience rank. Given that funds are your main priority in ranked NM play, it's easy to lose track of high experience requirements in certain chapters, especially the last few. If you opted to use a lot of prepromotes and/or Athos down the stretch, this could have easily knocked a full star off your rating. How much did you use the arena? Seeing as you can get both gold and experience from arena battles at a relatively quick pace (especially with smart rescue/drop/dance strategies that allow for 3-5 battles per turn), in the future, try and plan so that any expendable turns you've accrued (and are likely to accrue) are spent arena abusing on Four-Fanged Offense. So I'm sure you realize now that despite what you may have heard, ranking runs in this game can be tough. Very tough. It's a totally new way to play that demands close attention to detail. If you're in a particularly masochistic mood one of these days, give S-Ranking HHM a shot.

How so? The only difference is that the main lord is superior, but then that means Hector promotes later. Fairly sure enemy stats are higher in HNM compared to ENM as well, and the HNM-exclusive chapters can be tricky.

From what I understand, all of the talk about Jaffar's age is speculation. He certainly looks like he's in the range of 18-21, but there's been no confirmation. A fitting ambiguity.

Can VA be turned off?

Because he was being held in a high-security prison guarded by Ephidel and Jaffar, soon to be Nergal, and the huge Black Fang force that was supposed to stop Eliwood & Co.? Plus, the ritual was coming up. Nergal is hubristic. As he states explicitly, he wants to see Eliwood & Co. in a state of abject fear, desperation, and failure. Common antagonistic trope. If this is a flaw, then every RPG in existence is equally flawed. Why can Cloud take bullets and receive 5 damage in FFVII, but Aeris can't take swords? Why do units in Fire Emblem survive after being impaled by spears and having their heads twain by fighters?

Elbert was opposed to the rebellion, but was kidnapped and used for the ritual. Jaffar's role was to keep Eliwood & Co. at bay until Nergal showed up. Nergal is an all-powerful shaman rivaling Athos, one of the Legendary Heroes, in power; if Jaffar can handle these guys from a plot perspective, then so can Nergal. Not seeing the problem here \ There has always been, and will always be, an essential distinction between plot and gameplay in RPGs. At this point, Jaffar is one of the Four Fangs. Not seeing the problem here.

I'd also like to know about the number of songs available. So far, what we've been provided musically has been pure gold, but I'd like to have some guarantee of quantity as well as quality. Also, does this track here sound like a mellow remix of Chrono Trigger to anyone else?

I have now officially listened to Track 10 more than any other track in the FE series.

I take it there are no rankings, correct?

Wow, custom AI for what is likely a tough defense map? This game really is going above and beyond.

I'm still a little bit confused about the available difficulty options. I know we have Normal, Hard, and Lunatic, and I'm assuming there's an Easy mode too, but then there's apparently Lunatic+? I heard that Lunatic itself was ridiculous, so I can only imagine what a potential L+ looks like.

Track 11 10... holy hot damn, Track 11 10: My link I can't imagine when this will be used in-game, but it's so amazing. I might even try to learn parts of this on piano.

Sooooo... could you answer those music questions for me, Othin? Pretty please?

That's fair, but I feel you may be giving the average 13-15 year old Melee gamer a bit too much credit. I doubt they'd think to themselves, "Hm, let me make sure that I've perused these trophy bios before asking this question about Fire Emblem."

Seriously confused here. Young kids bought Super Smash Bros. Melee en masse. People unlocked Marth and Roy. Marth and Roy are both from some weird game called "Fire Emblem." The trophy descriptions- for those who actually bothered to read and reflect upon those descriptions, i.e. less than 10% of the kids playing the game- are unclear as to whether or not the characters are related. As a result, people mistakenly believe they're from the same game. So when a GBA title called "Fire Emblem" is about to be released in the states, questions get raised about whether or not the Melee duo will be in the game. Like, is this really so hard to grasp? What the hell is going on

...Damn, looks like you wrote the book on that game for English audiences. Mad respect. Although BS =/= Fire Emblem, so you know, still gotta chart out that new territory. EDIT: Well, if you can't upload the music, then how about a few more comments? From what I heard, they ebb and flow when you enter/exit battle, and I'm wondering how well this works out in practice. Other things- the type of music that's common (orchestral, rock, mixed, etc.), the composition quality, music variety- would be awesome to know too.

No update on the music then, I take it? Shame, because no one else seems to have uploaded any tracks to YouTube yet. This is your chance, Othin. You could become a bona-fide Fire Emblem pioneer.

No. The artist who designed the characters for Kakusei began before realizing he was designing for a Fire Emblem title. You can find this info in the "Iwata Asks" interviews. Is it possible that Krom was designed after the fact? Maybe. Was Krom designed after Ike? Almost certainly not. If Krom was designed after Ike, was this to cash in on Ike's imaginary "Smash appeal?" lmfao no

It's great logic, actually, if you look at how games released for RPG-starved systems have fared in the past. Remember Golden Sun? The GBA had no new RPG IPs at that point, at once GS was released, it sold like crazy and was highly critically acclaimed despite being terribly mediocre.

I was wondering when someone was going to bring this up. I don't remember the last time I read a topic this stupid.

Biggest question: is the music great, amazing, or best ever? I was getting an FFT vibe from the trailers, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.