Ertrick36

CQ isn't much better as far as those kinds of deaths are concerned. To be honest, I didn't get sad too often while playing any of these paths. Birthright: Conquest: And the biggest reason why death doesn't make me all that sad in Fates... Revelation: I myself am fairly critical about Fates (not as much as Thane, but still quite a bit), but in practice (as in when I actually play it), I choose to enjoy it for what it is. As many flaws as it has, I still find it to be fun, and I like a lot of the characters in the game. In truth, the likeable characters are some of FE's greatest assets. The ability to have them grow and strategically use them to crush powerful foes is what makes these games so fun.

That's a lot of this game, tbh. Clever concepts and symbolism without the substance to give either any actual weight. If we got to see more of who Anankos was - getting some actual character development out of him outside of DLC stuff - then it'd lead to me appreciating the symbolism behind his name and design so much more. But instead, Anankos is in the same pool as Iago; cool name and interesting design, but doesn't really have the character to match it. All Anankos is outside of DLC is an angry talking stone-head that hates humans and controls minds. I find more symbolic value from minor characters than I do in Anankos. He did have a sort of moniker, though; he was the "Fell Dragon". Though while that sounds pretty cool, it carries no intelligent symbolism or creativity. It literally just means a dragon that was felled long ago... which honestly happens to most dragons in these stories. Even the first story of FE had this dragon tragedy tale. In fact, Fates seems to be the only entry in FE with dragons who weren't felled a century or millennium ago.

Since you didn't say that it had to be for optimization purposes, I'll just talk about the ones that I feel have the best chemistry and/or support dialogue. I've said before that I like Corrin x Oboro, but I also like Takumi x Oboro. I'm glad that Takumi isn't a chauvinist and wants Oboro to have her own life instead of her life revolving entirely around him. Ryoma x Kagero is fairly sweet, though I haven't tried many others involving those two. The dynamic with Kagero and Saizo is interesting, though I don't particularly ship them. Saizo x Mozu is really darling. Though honestly, any BR pairing with Mozu seems to be nice. But I like this one in particular because you get a much softer side of Saizo than normal, and you learn a bit about the cultures they both were raised in. Kaden is actually pretty decent with anyone, it seems. Honestly, I feel that the kind and wondrous parts of Kaden are done so much better than Corrin, which means he's actually fairly compatible with even the most sour of people. That's about all I can think of at the moment...

Unless you use Einherjar units... or, you know, use hacks or save editing. I'd say they should just make an alternate file (if they can) on Phoenix mode and get Great Lord Scarlet in the Unit Logbook that way. Sure, it'll undo any levels she gained during the one chapter she joins (and the following chapter, if you use her there), but to be fair, creating an Einherjar of her from the primary PMU save file would undo the experience anyway, and she'd probably have only gained one or two levels unless the player decided to make her the MVP of the maps and did boss grinding. Who even does that on Revelation, even if it is a no-skirmish PMU? This all being said, I think it's a good rule for PMU's in general to limit DLC classes to one unit per class, if DLC is even allowed. Especially since some of them come with rather broken skills (that are mitigated only by the fact that some of them are level 35 skills). Probably should also have rules about Einherjar/unit logbook stuff. Though I guess it's sort of an unwritten rule to just not use them (unless we come upon the unique case of Scarlet in Revelation, or certain other special cases), so it doesn't really matter.

Let's have our cherished friend Rinkah become a Strategist for ya (Partner Seal with Jakob).

I was thinking of giving you a Strategist, but I think you're well-stocked on healers by now (you got, like, five units who can use staves). So instead, Oboro's gonna become the Wicked Witch of the East (Witch's Mark). She'll become an okay, yet fashion-sensible magician with OP skills. Also, no cheating to get Warp; you must obtain it through leveling only. You can wait until level 20 to reclass if you want, but no further than that (no promotion, either), and you must do it before Chapter 27.

First of all, it's a little different than Awakening's DLC because certain enemies actually will attack you and the enemies aren't all level 40+. However, the non-violent enemies (the yellow fellas) aren't difficult to kill; you can chip damage (preferably with knives and shurikens), then let your low level units deal the final blow. Most of the time, it'll give anything between 50 and 100 experience when you kill 'em. But be careful, because the yellow enemies do hit back harder, and frequently hold high level skills that make them dangerous to confront unprepared, just like in Awakening. Secondly, whether you want to do challenges or DLC to grind, it's always best to use stronger units to protect your weak units against swarms of enemies, at least if the weak units can't handle the enemies on their own. Perhaps the strong could unequip their weapons - even bait the enemies that way - so that the weak units can take them one at a time and still manage to squeeze as much experience out of a map as possible. Also, if you're trying to distribute the experience across a bunch of units, it will, in fact, take some time. Thirdly, the amount of experience you get from a challenge depends on where the challenge is, much like in Awakening. I'd say each challenge is probably worth half the amount of experience you'd get on the same chapter where the map appeared, unless you get two groups in one map (in that case, it's worth roughly the same amount of XP). Again, if you're dolling out experience to a lot of units on one map, then it's gonna take a while. Well, most late-level skills, to start. Especially guaranteed healing skills, such as Lifetaker and Renewal; those practically render healing staves and salves useless. Aptitude is probably a bit much for 2nd Gen units. Air Superiority is also a bit much for bow users, who probably already have a high hit rate. Any units with high skill and speed, such as - and especially - Ryoma, are disgustingly OP with Astra, a bunch of other skill-based skills, and Vantage. DLC skills are also too damn good; Point Blank puts Takumi in-league with Ryoma and Xander. And Draconic Hex makes high HP/defense/resistance bosses very easy.

That's the exact opposite of what I meant. What I meant by "heavily encourages grinding" is that it gives you tons of units and the ability to grind, and many of 'em have new support lines with those from the "other side". It's obvious that Revelation is supposed to be fanservice and wants you to take advantage of the support possibilities. Sure, you can go without grinding, but RV is hardly a challenge (to me, anyway), so it's just pure tedium that I'm powering through. If it was more difficult than CQ (in a fair way), it'd be the definitive best path IMO, at least as far as gameplay is concerned. Again, I'll reiterate that I don't think RV is difficult. In fact, I think that if you can beat CQ on Hard without grinding, you can easily beat RV on any difficulty with little or no grinding. Heck, if you beat CQ on Normal, you can probably beat RV on any difficulty. This is why my suggestions were geared towards making it more challenging. The only other way to have fun in a rerun of RV is grinding supports, and I provided my suggestions just in case the OP wanted to do that instead. To the OP An idea came to me. You could also try to beat RV without class skills. Remove any class skills your units get. If they're generics, this is especially more interesting, since they don't have personal skills either. Or maybe ban certain OP skills or classes. Of course, when you get to Valla, you'll have to be careful if you're doing Ironman with generics, 'cuz you won't get to capture anyone else unless you hit up some skirmishes or Paralogues. Just another little nugget to tuck away, perhaps in combination with the other suggestions people have made. Though I'm not sure how much more difficult it'll get if you do this.

Most people would do "PMU's" (Pick My Units), where they ask users on the site to decide which units to take along and their classes. There are variations on this; some have strict grinding rules, and others have pre-set characters with only the classes and pairings being up for debate. Or you can just straight up do a challenge run with your favorite characters, where you don't grind at all and only use your favorites. However, Revelation is not an easy game to enjoy. It's tedious as hell and heavily encourages grinding. If need be, watch a show or something on YouTube while you play. Or play it while you're hanging out with friends (if it's appropriate for you to do so, that is).

I don't particularly like Peri, but it neither surprises nor horrifies me that some do really like her. I mean, the story ruined Xander's character for me, but for some people he's still a great character. On the flip side, I rather like Rhajat and Soleil in spite of their controversies, yet lots of people don't. It's their opinions; it doesn't affect me, nor are they wrong for feeling the way they do. They're only wrong when they try to tell me I'm wrong for having my own opinions. If anything, vast differences in opinions would just make me curious; maybe learning more about the opposing opinions could give me a deeper understanding of the characters that would lead to me respecting them more. Someone said that the supports between Peri and Laslow were really good, and seeing them myself did genuinely change my opinion of her. Someone said Rhajat's non-Corrin supports are good, and I found in her a character who's genuinely more likeable than Tharja (in my opinion, obviously). Well, I saw a few lists where the villains were above 60. Though in those cases, it might just be because those people genuinely don't care about the villains. Plenty of people only posted their top and bottom tens. I don't think I've ever seen 'em breech 30, though.

It wouldn't be too surprising if some others' Top 3's were the same as mine, possibly with different orders. Those three did hit the top/near the top of pretty much every major character poll for Fates that's ever been issued. One thing's for certain; everyone's got a strong opinion on at least one of them, whether it's love or hate. Is there anyone out there who does? Yeah, it's unsurprising that with most people's results, at least one of them are towards the bottom. Iago's the closest thing this game has to an interesting villain, and it's only because he seems like he'd be the kind of guy who'd try to kill King Garon and seize the Nohrian throne for himself which probably has something to do with the fact that both his original name and his localization name are those of notable Shakespearean characters. I noticed this thing has some... odd choices. For example, there's Mikoto, but no Arete or Sumeragi, in spite of the fact that Mikoto had only slightly more screen time than either of them (possibly less than Arete, now that I think about it). And you have Garon and his generals, but no Anankos or Zola. You even have Lilith, who hardly even has a role in the story except for to die tragically in two paths and provide you with the ever-so-convenient Hyperbolic Time Realms. I personally think it would've been best to stick to playable characters, since NPC's are kind of on their own plane of characterization.

Let's see here... what does the magical sorting hat say? I'll bold the ones where their places are noteworthy. [spoiler=Spoilers 'cuz these lists really are an eyesore]1 Oboro 2 Takumi 3 Leo 4 Mozu 5 Forrest 6 Beruka 7 Niles 8 Arthur 9 Kaze 10 Hinata 11 Sakura 12 Mitama 13 Flora 14 Benny 15 Saizo 16 Dwyer 17 Velouria 18 Ophelia 19 Hayato 19 Kaden 21 Scarlet 22 Jakob 23 Felicia 24 Hinoka 25 Ryoma 26 Keaton 26 Gunter 26 Yukimura 26 Fuuga 30 Charlotte 31 Nyx 31 Anna 33 Silas 34 Shigure 34 Kiragi 36 Shiro 37 Midori 38 Soleil 38 Nina 40 Rhajat 41 Sophie 41 Selkie 41 Hisame 41 Siegbert 41 Ignatius 41 Percy 47 Shura 47 Azama 47 Setsuna 47 Subaki 51 Hana 52 Azura 52 Lilith 54 Izana 55 Odin 56 Xander 56 Camilla 56 Laslow 56 Selena 60 Elise 61 Mikoto 62 Caeldori 63 Kana 64 Asugi 65 Kagerou 65 Orochi 65 Rinkah 65 Reina 69 Peri 69 Effie 71 Iago 72 Hans 73 Garon For the top 30, there may be some discrepancies, but I genuinely like all of these characters and they all deserve those places. For the middle, you either have filler characters who I don't find noteworthy/use, such as Percy or Setsuna, or good characters who are held back by severe controversies, such as the deadly trio (Nina, Rhajat, and Soliel). Others are decent characters who didn't really get a chance to shine, such as Shura. The bottom (52-73) mostly contains device characters; those who exist solely to fulfill a certain purpose (like the villains, Azura, or Mikoto). Otherwise, the bad far outweighs the good for them (like Xander and Camilla, in my opinion). Azura barely makes it in this because in spite of the terrible plot device marring her character development, she still manages to have some really good supports that make her a decent character in her own right. Underlined are characters who I don't think deserve the positions they were given. I believe most of them deserve higher, particularly all of 65-69 (especially Reina). Peri and Effie, I have said negative things about, but I don't think they quite deserve to be among the likes of Garon or Caeldori. Shiro's placement was an actual mistake; I voted for someone else when I meant to vote for Shiro. Elise should be much higher than this, because I like her quite a bit.

Only reason I'll say Effie is 'cuz the alternate class Charlotte gives is Troubadour, which has mostly support skills that aren't particularly useful for an offensive class like Wolfssegner, while Effie provides the Armor Knight class. But this is more of in case you want her to even obtain skills from alternate classes, and even then, you can't go wrong with her base alternate class, which is Fighter. As far as growths are concerned most differences are relatively benign. Effie won't drop Velouria's Resistance growth any (while Charlotte drops it by about 13%), but will give her a lower HP growth (8% less than base growths), but as long as you can get at least 35 HP mid-game or 40-something HP late-game, it's not too much of an issue (unless she's hit with a Hexing Rod, though that sucks for anyone). A 42% base growth rate for HP isn't bad; the only problematic HP that I've experienced is from Azura (25%), and that's only because she also has terrible defense. In either case, she'll fill the role of Wolfssegner well enough.

Well, the nice thing about Sakura is how she - for some odd reason - has high strength and defense growths for a healer. As a result, Siegbert's strength and defense don't really take a very noticeable hit (like 5% or less), and he obtains a rather high magic growth for a cavalier (around 27%, which is close to Dwyer's base 30% and beats out Camilla's 25% and Flora's 20% magic growths). If you're wanting a good all around unit who can rally really well, then definitely let him be a Grandmaster. Any other classes that might take advantage of both his physical and magical abilities don't quite balance out his stats as well as Grandmaster does. Plus, as Lissa in Awakening pointed out, Swords, Sorcery, and Tactics are a hell of a combo.

If you haven't played Revelation (up to Chapter 21's opening scene), don't look at this spoiler unless you don't care about the story which I don't blame you for, since it really is kinda shit; it's more of a clarification about what exactly the arc is. On that note, I'd like to add another thing. I hate that him being trusting in Anthony is compared to him being trusting in his siblings. No, those two are not the same goddamn thing. One is a total stranger who gives you plenty reason to be suspicious of him, and the other is people you're related to who you've spent a lot more time with and who you're probably exceptionally fond of. Sure, you still don't really deserve praise for trusting in your family, but Corrin knows what everyone of the Hoshidan and Nohrian siblings are like, so he has good reason to trust them assuming we forget about certain character flaws in some of them. But Anthony's just a stranger whose actions almost lead to the death of one of those very siblings Corrin worked so hard (and in fact, someone's life was sacrificed for) to bring to his side. Why the hell do you care so much about this dick, Corrin? It would've most certainly been better to try to interrogate him to find out what he knows or if he actually did set up a trap, or if Anthony's just really stupid and didn't think that just maybe it isn't the best idea to go over all these worn down bridges. It isn't like you're pressed for time, since Valla and the Astral Realms seem to be Hyperbolic Time Realms.

It literally just serves as a wank fest for Gary Stu's ego. How about for this arc - and all of the Valla stuff in Revelation - we have it not be so focused on Corrin? The hell does Corrin have anything to do with this boy? Why do we need to keep establishing how much of a "good person" Corrin is through constant doggy-praise dialogue when we've played through all of the other two paths and most of Revelation, which, up to this point, has been about Corrin uniting the two warring Kingdoms? Anthony absolutely could've been used for world building. Or he could've been a well developed character in his own right. But no... We gotta stroke the player's ego because the path is literally just fanservice with absolutely no real thought put into any of it other than some of the support dialogue. And because CQ, the path that people most looked forward to, made Corrin into an absolute idiot, so they had to make up for it, I guess...

Yeah, I liked that you still have a chance to save 'em. IMO, original VC is too easy, but the battle saving (which I hardly utilized except for in DLC maps) and medic systems aren't responsible for that; it's the poor balancing between your troops and the enemy troops. A chum can run directly at a tank, flank it, and shoot its backside with a submachine gun once or twice and destroy it. The balance is totally broken in your favor. Though I got a mod for the PC version of the game that balances it, and I've definitely had to use battle saves with it. Perhaps, but at the same time, a lot of people despise Revelation because, more often than not, they'll be forced to redo 50+ turns because some asshole who just spawned in last second with an axe landed a 1% crit on an underleveled mage or healer who couldn't run away in time, or be put in a similar situation because of some minuscule BS. If they're gonna keep you from saving during a map on Classic, they shouldn't make the maps such a chore in the first place. The other paths and most other FE's are okay because most of their maps don't take any more than 30 turns to complete unless you're hardcore grinding (that and they're more fun and don't give you an army of Ests), but Revelation can go suck a fat one in this regard. Also, IS already killed the point of death in FE when they made it so that more than half the members of your army (the non-Corrin royals and all fathers) don't actually die when defeated in Fates and when they revived practically everyone who supposedly died in Awakening. For the former, sure, you still can't use 'em, but you'll still get their kids and they'll still be available for comments when need be as if they never even got hurt outside of plot wounds.

Yeah, I sometimes forget about it, but it is a really nice thing. Valkyria Chronicles - which, for the uninitiated, also has perma-death - lets you save in battles, which is almost necessary for some maps if you don't want to lose your goddamn mind. It really should let you do it in Classic, especially for the long ass levels in Revelation (or the really difficult levels in Conquest), just in case you mess up and lose a unit. I don't like doing the same crap over again if it took an hour or so before. Goddamn Chapter 16 and 17 in Revelation... Instead, we have to make our own Meta-Classic. Which I guess isn't too bad, but I'd rather it be an option or something.

I actually did look at the Wiki and found that the variable is only in the non-fixed parent... meaning that Corrin's stats have absolutely no affect on Kana. So yeah, Kana is even worse than I initially suggested. But with the right variable parent, they could wind up with better stats for a particular role than Corrin could, though there are few who could bump Kana's stats that much, and they're likely to be found among second gen units or the more "specialized" (i.e. really terrible) first gen units.

Kana's like a mediocre Corrin, except with one more innate class option. Except that doesn't really matter 'cuz Corrin can Buddy Seal with as many different people as he/she wants to (giving access to most classes if male, and all classes if female), whereas Kana gets stuck to one A+ support and one S support. The only leg up Kana has is the possibility to become a Wolfskin or Kitsune, but you get two characters for each class who fulfill those roles well enough already. That being said, given that you can already significantly affect Corrin's stats (which are already fairly evenly balanced by default), and by nature you can even more wildly affect Kana's stats, he/she can still be OP if you put a lot of thought into them. Possibly less potent than Corrin, but still pretty good.

Well then, there's your proof that I've never played Casual in Fates; I would have no clue. I remember that either an avatar or Chrom death meant game over in Awakening, and I just assumed this rule carried over. Though I actually have lost Corrin on Chapter 5, so... I'm still kind of right, regardless. I get really bored playing on Casual, so I've never bothered with it since starting Fates. I suppose at some point, I'll do Casual or Phoenix for the purposes of creating a crazy powerful squad, but that time isn't now.

Bearing in mind that you could also lose if Corrin dies... I've lost in ways that would constitute a loss in Casual mode, but I've never actually played Casual in this game, so no, I haven't. I most certainly have lost in Casual Awakening though, since it was my first FE game. Though more than half of those were because either my avatar or (more often) Chrom died. Would sometimes lose all my units grinding, but I'd try to make sure that wouldn't happen too often after a while.

Well, there aren't any difficulty spikes (not that I remember, anyway), and if you stick to using mostly the royals, you shouldn't have to grind. Though if you use a lot of the early comers as well (e.g. Team Sakura, Team Takumi, Mozu, Kaze, the first of either Felicia or Jakob), then you shouldn't have much trouble, either. As tedious as the maps can get, they practically drown you in experience. It's definitely possible (and probably easier than in Conquest) to do a no-grind run. It might be possible to grind the late comers (e.g. Team Leo, Team Hinoka, Nyx lol, who does that?) on certain maps, but you'd have to resort to tactics like boss grinding and heal/rally/pair-up-botting. That being said, I know how you feel. BR did take me a while to beat, but I got around to it. But Revelation took me months to finally complete because all I'd do in it is grind, grind, GRIND. If you thought BR was tedious, then let Revelation laugh at your face for five hours straight as you try your utmost to get a low turn count of 50 on the first map. That's somewhat of an exaggeration. I'm sure you can LTC something like 20, but not if you intend to play without skirmishes or DLC. I think, if anything, as far as non-grinders are concerned, Revelation is best for challenge runs since it's more difficult than BR without being terribly difficult and lets you change Hoshidans into Nohrian classes and vice-versa without marrying Corn bread, among other benefits. That's why you'll often see Revelation PMUs.

Yeah, you'll want to be mindful of what you'll want in this. If you want to grind and go through long, sometimes tedious maps, then Revelation is for you. You could spend tons of hours just grinding all your favorite units to perfection and forging +7 weapons from either side. There are some supports that aren't too good, but there are others that are good. Depends on which characters you like. Keep in mind, though, that the Hoshidans and Nohrians can't support everyone in the opposite army. But every character gets new supports except a few (such as all the characters who appear in both routes, obviously). Because of grinding, you can ensure that your units can match the strength of the levels your tackling. However, once you get the last batch (aside from hidden characters that appear in your castle), they show up woefully underpowered (minus a few), so it takes a bit to bring 'em up to speed. The maps themselves can be hit or miss. Some have some actually interesting and fun gimmicks, while others are just tedious and boring. As for story... yeah, don't play for story. Unless you absolutely want to know what the deal with Garon is and the real reason Nohr and Hoshido are locked in conflict, and don't want to look it up on YouTube. It's interesting at first, but once you actually get to the "truth" bits, it's absolute garbage. Not to mention pretty much everyone not named Corrin is pushed to the back of the narrative. Even the royals. If the male royals didn't have special weapons, they'd be inconsequential.