Dinar87

Thanks for the tips!

Any suggestions before I play? Best characters to use? Best skills?

I mean I can technically force myself to not grind in games like awakening but it doesn't feel as fun as when I'm forced to do it... ..you know what? Let's just forget this whole mess. I don't feel like fighting again.

The difference is that I wouldn't be able to change the conditions once I began without making an entirely new save file. With a self imposed challenge in the form of what we currently have, I can technically break the rules at any time and that cheapens the challenge for me.

Because some of us like completing specially made challenges for us rather than making our own. It's just more fun. If I genuinely cared about wanting others to play a certain way I'd be advocating for the removal of the grinding DLC entirely and anything else that lets you grind. However, I'm being more considerate than that and letting people play how they want but at the same time wanting to play how I want (having an official mode instead of self-imposed challenges). Yes it's technically optional and you can already do what I'm asking for in the form of self imposed challenges. But then again playing video games is technically optional as well yet we're allowed to criticize them. Again, self-imposed challenges aren't as fun for me as hand crafted ones made by real game developers. It's not "required" at all but it'd be nice to have as a little extra. I've already said it's not a massive issue and that it's only a nitpick of mine.

Going back to the topic of grinding, wouldn't it be cool if there was some sort of "hardcore" mode beyond lunatic that turned off all opportunities to grind at all? Unless I'm mistaken, they were going for that in conquest but good old nintendo made them also include access to the pay-to-win DLC that lets you grind (provided you give nintendo the $$$ of course). Maybe it's not as easy as it was in awakening but I wish the original vision of conquest (not being able to grind at all) could've been done as it would've added a nice sense of pressure and challenge that's lost when you give players so many opportunities to grind their problems away. But what about those who want to access the DLC in the conquest path? Just have a separate mode that you can turn on/off at the start of every new save file (only then to not cheapen the challenge so if you get stuck there's no easy way out).That's why I'd love a separate mode that stops you from taking the easier way out and using DLC. Sure, I could technically force myself to play without grinding but I've always found challenges in life to be more fun when there's an official structure in place that I have to conquer rather than a personal one that I've set up for myself. This isn't a massive issue though but it'd be nice to see happen eventually.

I've heard maniac mode on 9 and 10 were pretty hard.

On the topic of giving corrin shit, this is a minor nitpick, but why does the female version have thighs showing when the male version (apart from head and feet) is completely covered? Then again, only someone like me would even notice something like that and be bothered by it so I doubt it could be considered an objective flaw. Anyways, I don't know how believable not crying at all over Greil's death is as I haven't really had much experience with relatives dying on me (luckily!). But I do know that some people get pretty teary over the death of a relative so there's that.

I think I'm the same as you. I don't see the point either of promoting earlier as, while sure if you know what you're doing, you definitely don't need to wait for level 20 in order to breeze through the game , I like being as op as possible and waiting helps achieve this.

I think you may be onto something about the fantasy elements. While how believable something is is somewhat subjective, because it's only somewhat subjective, it can still be controlled and influenced somewhat. The tellius games IIRC,while still having a lot of fantasy elements, struck a nice balance for me between realism and fantasy...where as titles like awakening seem more involved in the fantasy side of things rather than being more realistic. It's about balance and I think I preferred the balance of PoR to awakening.

I've been thinking about things again and I'm wondering why exactly I love the tellius games so much to the point of obsession. I can't put my finger on what I liked about those games anymore. In the past it was "character development and world building" but character development is about making characters be believable and that's somewhat subjective. As for world building, again I can't exactly pinpoint how it was better in those games. I just FEEL they were better and this can't be nostalgia because I played awakening before those games for Pete's sake! As for awakening's story, I can no longer say it's a bad story (or a good one) as I can't say why I didn't like it apart from small things like the comedic moments and characters focused on comedy and memes (like owain) which, while a part of the game, aren't a huge part of it. I don't know anymore. I just enjoyed those games over awakening for some unknown reason and I'd like to know what those reasons could be.

Despite how bad dodge tanking is in fates I want to have a good try at making hana a dodge tank...any suggestions? I know of useful skills like awakening but that's about it really.

That's interesting to me that some one would prefer awakening's story to fates' stories...any particular reasons why that is? Was it corrin's apparently idiotic moments in conquest or something else entirely? I haven't played fates so I'm not aware of everything that happens in it.

Finally some one who agrees with me!!! I mean, I haven't even played fates yet but awakening, oh man, has a VERY weak story imho. It's characters also often try and fail to be funny when they should've focused more on character development and being interesting. Mustafa was ok but should've been expanded upon heavily if the writers even wanted to match the brilliance of Shiharam. I feel that,even in the main story, awakening was too light hearted for its own good. Things like sumia slapping chrom or lissa swallowing a bug are just pointless because there's no need to balance out any "edginess" (anything taking itself seriously) because that "edginess" is what made the previous games great. If IS doesn't take the story seriously then why should we? Sure the majority of events aren't trying to be comedic but the fact that there was three mini stories all tied into one by the gem mcguffins killed any chance of it being good in the first place as none of the chapters were given enough build up to be anything special in my opinion. I don't think awakening is a bad game but I can't stand the stories and characters in it. It's fine if anyone else likes them though or thinks that they're good.

Yeah pretty much. When I say "better characters and story" I'm of course talking about my opinion rather than stating objective facts. I don't have a problem with anyone who likes fates more than the tellius series or who think that they're better than my favorite games. The reason I keep making posts like this is because I DO like them unironically and I also like asking you guys questions about them and how you all feel about them. Basically I want to assess how many people actually want something like what I want. As for how this relates to fates? Well I'm comparing it to something else aren't I? So you're telling me fates does have character development on the scale of Jill or Elincia? I'd very much like to see that as I've been worrying that fates doesn't have much character development based on what I've seen. Also, as far as I know awakening, correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't have as much character development as those games. I'd love to be proven wrong but with awakening, I've spent over 300 hours playing it and I can safely say that I saw nothing as moving or interesting for me as my favorite games. I'm sorry if this annoys anyone but this is just how I feel. I found that the good supports like Maribelle x Gaius were more about back story than character development. I also found a lot of supports were focused more on trying to be funny than interesting which saddened me.

Going back on the topic of not feeling 100% satisfied with fates and awakening, while fates was a massive step up in terms of making the dlc characters feel like actual characters (with voice acting, specially made portraits, etc...) it's a shame they didn't go all out and let you support with them, or give them personal skills, etc... Hopefully for the next game, I'll finally be able to support these dlc characters (if they return hopefully) and will be as fleshed out as any other non-dlc character. Would more fleshing out of the dlc characters be something that interests you? Because for me, not going to lie, the fact that you can play as Ike (and have it actually feel like Ike unlike awakening's version) makes me 100 times more excited about playing fates. I'm wondering if I'm the only one who likes them that much and wants to see more of them.

I think the only people who'd say you're "nitpicking" by pointing out flaws in IS's modern storytelling aren't the type you can reason with anyway if they're going to be that rude to your legitimate complaints.

Well the reason I make threads about the tellius games so much isn't because I want to shove it down your guys' throats until you accept it...it's because I only make topics about what I like and questions that interest me. It just so happens that that sub series of fire emblem is the one that interests me the most...hence why I keep making topics about it. I probably should've said that it kept fantasy elements to a minimum relatively speaking...sure it had laguz, magic and gods but it also had a sense of realism with the way it handled its world, wars and characters. Sure it wasn't 100% realistic (far from it) but I think it was a lot better and more believable than the likes of awakening in this area. Not to say awakening is a bad game though. That's almost exactly what I mean. I essentially just want a PoR 2.0 and RD, with it's splitting of the armies and stuff, wasn't exactly perfect for me. Still amazing imo though. And as for what "tellius-styled" means? It means proper character development (cough Jill cough Elincia COUGH) and an actually interesting story that deals with mature themes rather than "oh noez an evil dragon! Let's go kill it!". Note that I'm mainly speaking about awakening as I haven't played fates yet. Alternatively I could've said fe8 as that was pretty good as well but with less fantasy elements for next time. I have not tried the Jugdral games but their story-telling quality would also suffice based on what I've seen and heard. I think in the end IS has to make a choice. Either give players as many options as possible and have a weaker story OR limit the players on what they can do but have the story, world building and characters be better for it. I'm worried they'll chose the former. From what I've seen in gaming in general, it's very difficult to craft a good story when you also give the players an insane amount of options.

Done. It's been added!

And when I say "Tellius styled" I don't just mean proper character development or keeping fantasy elements to a minimum. I also mean things like the base conversations returning (which fleshed out some characters a bit more and helped world building somewhat). Given that I've explained that, what style of story do you want in the next fire emblem? How do you want the story to be handled next time? Should there be children or marriage at all or would those elements conflict with the immersion if they get another bad explanation? Let me know....if you want...maybe. However, bare in mind that although I've said stuff like the tellius series has some character development, as I haven't play fates yet, I could be dead wrong and fates too has such development. If it does I'd like to know about it!

Well I would love another game like the jugdral games...even though I haven't even played them yet. What I've seen looks very cool and I'd love to see another game like them.

About personal skills...why not have the kids' personal skills be a combination of the parents' personal skills? It'd make mixing and matching different parents actually mean something now (since skill inheritance as it currently is is pointless since you can buy skills now...with the exception of personal skills....see where I'm going with this).

I'd prefer to fight more Begnions where there's a mix of intelligent and noble villains but there's also despicable ones as well like the senators. Having just generic monsters because you need an enemy to give exp for the filthy casuals inexperienced players ruins the immersion for me. The only reason for there being generic monsters is a not in-game explanation of "well newbz will struggle n shit if we don't do this".

I guess the problem with things like the blood pacts is they feel somewhat unsatisfying to some people as it feels too unrealistic for them to take seriously. It's kind of like me with fan service where I can tolerate it but it brings the game's plot down for me somewhat as it's too unrealistic to take seriously as there's not enough in game explanation as to why they're dressed like that. Whenever I have to use external logic to understand why a game's story has certain elements in them, it brings the whole experience down for me. I can imagine that with the blood pact, it's just a way to make the two armies fight each other for novelties sake, and since that requires external logic to justify why it's even in the game, it takes users out of the experience...maybe?

Thanks for your inputs guys! Another thing I'd like to talk about is the realism factor. In other words, how much should fire emblem be about fighting generic monsters and dragons as opposed to intelligent, fleshed out human enemies? Of course, it's possible to have non-generic monsters but with the way IS has been handling fantasy elements as of late, they feel more like excuses to bolster the game play as opposed to actually being interesting. Does Anankos ever become interesting or is he just another grima (sorry but I thought he was somewhat generic)? Do the monsters you fight ever become intelligent overall or are they just boring "minions" of the big bad? For example, are the enemies you fight (apart from hoshido/nohr) ever an actual faction with fleshed out, intelligent characters...or are they just exp soda cans you can kill to get stronger...and their only purpose is to make you stronger and not interest you in any way in terms of character or tactics.