Mandokarla

Audhulma.

Why not include Caladbolg, Lughnasadh, and Tarvos from the start? It doesn't make sense to force arbitrary wait times

I've found that playing hella aggro is better than playing defensive on Ninja Rape Cave. With some planning you can get a Calamity gate mage, a forged throwing axe for Camilla, and maybe a decent archer. With those, you can bumrush the MNs and kill them fairly safely. Playing defensively is asking for a slow, protracted death.

I'd rather have the Fates exp curve than have the Awakening experience of feeling punished for using more than like, 5 units besides Chrom.

If we don't get facial hair options for the inevitable avatar creation in Three Houses, we riot

We haven't really seen any playable beards in Fire Emblem for awhile now. Basilio is (I think) the last playable character that had any form of facial hair. Why don't we have facial hair options in Avatar creation yet, and why have we been seeing so few bearded playable characters like Nolan, Gotoh, Mycen, Nomah, or Duessel (in his salt-and-pepper majesty) in newer FE games? Seriously, facial hair can add a lot to a design, and we desperately need variety in the character designs moving forward in the franchise. I want more Nolans and Duessels, and fewer babyfaced manchildren in my army. Even a newer incarnation of Bastian would be welcome. It's such a small thing, but it can add a gravitas or authority to a character if done well, and it can look just damn cool. Obligatory:

Eventually we will see a Fates thread in which Mir and someone else don't start fighting. I hold out hope for that day. Mir, I do have to say that you tend to set the negative tone a lot of the time -- you come off rather abrasive in a great deal of your posts/responses to others. Idk if that's intentional or if you're aware of it, but that might be part of why a lot of people tend to not like you on this platform. I'm not even going to talk about your argument structures or your beliefs about the games -- that's not the problem. We had someone on this site that tried to argue that Lyn was a good unit, so no belief is really out of place here.

Conquest Lunatic was fantastically well balanced and felt very hard, but fair, up until chapter 26 or so. I highly recommend it.

I will say that Nyx has some really good supports. Leo also has some really great supports, he's my favorite royal and maybe favorite character. Fair point about the difference between Felicia!Ophelia and Elise!Ophelia, I think the speed of access for Felicia!Ophelia is worth some slightly lower stats. Best ophelia has corrin as a mom though, but that goes for anyone. I'm curious, because I don't know if you've ever outright listed it before (at least that I've seen), what are your qualifications for a "great" unit Mir? Everyone on this forum knows what you hate. At length. But what is "good" to you?

You get an Armorslayer in the chapter before. Laslow, Silas, Corrin (if s/he has swords still), Selena, all of them can reasonably deal with those knights with a defensive pairup (I usually use Silas).

For once I'm actually going to agree with Mir. For the previously mentioned purpose of nuking armor knights, Odin can already do that just fine, you get a fairly early armorslayer from the chest in ch.12, you just don't need Nyx to do that. Mages in Conquest are designed to be either 1.) A player phase hydrogen bomb (Ophelia) or 2.) An early-mid game reliable nostank (Odin). To accomplish EITHER of those goals reliably, against most other enemies, you need to have consistency. Ophelia is a god tier unit because Ophelia with almost anyone magical as her mother (even fucking Felicia, but Elise is her best mom by far) can be set up to absolutely annihilate the lategame. Mine soloed Hinoka's map on Lunatic, it was amazing. Odin is a great unit because he can really hold down important choke points and bait some enemies that are harder to bait otherwise (Takumi and Reina in Ch.13 for example). Nyx can MISS WITH A FIRE TOME IN THE MIDGAME. Between shit skill and shit luck, she is so unreliable. If she hits, she does a lot of damage, I'll give you that, but Nyx just isn't great. ------------ Now, in regards to the actual OP, my CQ first wife was Felicia, and is still my favorite -- it feels genuine, and it reminds me of my actual girlfriend. In Revelations, I married Kagero -- weak support, makes a good Kana, and she's fucking gorgeous, so sue me. My first BR wife was Orochi...which might be the worst gen 1 Corrin support? It's literally "Hey, tell me about my mom" "Okay" "Thanks for telling me about my mom, we should fuck now".

I will never defend the plot of any branch of Fates. It's all atrocious, but if you have to rank the quality of story then BR>CQ>Rev. I fucking hate Revelations. It should not exist. But Conquest's balance being bad, how do you figure? I've found it to be, from a pure gameplay standpoint, one of the best designed games in the franchise. Even CQ!Lunatic felt more than fair until roughly chapter 26 or 27 (Staff Savant is BS). On Hard, it's fantastic. What makes it poorly balanced in your opinion? Without mentioning the royals. They break all three routes so mentioning them is a waste of time.

As much as I truly adore Sacred Stones, this kind of efficiency/comparison thread is useless, purely because Sacred Stones is so, fucking, easy. If you play on Hard, and never do any grinding or boss abuse, then the game is average in difficulty on Ephraim's route. I like Joshua's character more, and I think Colm is a better unit both statwise and utilitywise (he can do just fine in combat as a Rogue, ffs). Assassin as a class is only really good for Marisa because she has strength issues. Joshua relies on crit for almost all of the lategame, as most monsters are either sword/lance skeletons, 80 HP cyclops, or gargoyles/deathgoyles -- with lances. He has frailty issues as well. Swordmaster doubles down on his strengths a lot better than assassin does -- silencer is even less reliable than regular 3x damage crits. Swordlock in almost any FE game is bad (potential exception being Radiant Dawn because of the many, many wind/storm swords in the game, but WTA/WTD still causes problems), so from a pure efficiency standpoint, if you have to choose one of the two, Rouge!Colm is the best option. If you're like me, and like Joshua's character (and don't really ever use GBA supports, sue me), then he's just better as a Swordmaster. He also looks fucking dope.

I find her to be grossly overrated as a character, and fairly appropriately bashed for being an awful unit. That said, she's not a bad character, she just isn't a standout. She does stand out as a terrible unit among terrible units though. Even useless fucking Eirika is better, and that's purely because she gets a horse. She absolutely does not deserve as many Heroes alts as she has, it's really bizarre. She's a grand example of nostalgia bait. I will say, 8/10 in terms of visible design. She's cute, and not ridiculous, and her clothing seems to make a degree of actual sense. For comparison, see any female Fates cavalier...

It doesn't make any kind of difference. At least, not on Hard.

Preface: This was a short, spur-of-the-moment bit of writing I did a few years back. It's not long, it's nothing phenomenal, but I am actually somewhat fond of it for its sparseness. Inspired by the true ending of FE6, and I had this perception of Idunn as a broken, lost soul, with a confused and one track mind, after being made what she is. The grammar and flow are deliberately broken up to capture the confusion, it's not just sloppy writing. I figured i'd share it, not sure for what reason exactly. It is the only FE based free writing I've done.

A Star Wars or Mass Effect game that played like a FE game would be dope for me. I'd love having and excuse to compare Jedi, Sith, etc classes, skills, growths etc. It also puts FE mechanics into a scifi setting without it being reminiscent of XCOM. Alternatively, a game like KOTOR 1/2 or Deus Ex (very different games) set in one of the FE worlds could be really cool for immersion and whatnot.

I used Ranulf a lot, and he performed pretty decently -- but that's because I like him as a character a lot. I used Ulki a lot and wasn't dissapointed, dodgetanky AF

It's honestly a nonfactor in part 1. You absolutely don't need it. Pick a favorite

I'm an unashamed Virion fanboy, as a character and unit (though mostly character). His supports almost invariably add value to both involved characters, and he's just so interesting. With that in mind, I think the Virion/Cherche support is fantastic -- it shows that Virion isn't just some flippant philanderer, and that he truly cares and struggles with some heavy shit. The chemistry between them is extremely believable, and the S support does not feel like a 5 second marriage. Aside from that big one, I'm a big fan of the Virion/Panne support. It's simple, but heartfelt and natural.

I gave it to Volug, and I never really regretted it. That said, in all honesty it would likely be well served on maybe Leonardo because he would get more exp from chip damage. Remember it can be passed around as necessary too.

You can still manually select enemies, it's not exactly all that big of a deal. I just beat the game for the first time, and my first run was on max difficulty -- didn't really notice the weapon triangle removal much, and I definitely didn't find the removal of general range check to matter...at all. I agree with you on Awakening Lunatic/Lunatic+, those modes are active bullshit, and they aren't rewarding.

I'll be honest, I really, really enjoyed Radiant Dawn Hard/Maniac mode. It felt fun, fairly well balanced, and aside from a few units that suck on all difficulties everyone did feel useable. Conquest Lunatic felt super well balanced and fair up until Ch.26.

But he was just a hobo with a fancy knife until after RD! His Boss Quote with Numida was badass.

I've just completed my first ever playthrough of Radiant Dawn. I started on Hard / Maniac, and I have to say that I think this is easily my new favorite in the franchise. I love the writing (for the most part -- also keep in mind I merge the writing of PoR and RD) aside from the kinda plot convenient Blood Pact. Which honestly isn't as bad as this forum has claimed it is. It's lazy, yes, but I was not dragged out of immersion by it. It's a fantasy game, and it is exactly the kind of thing the Senators would do. Anyway, moving on, I love the music of the game -- even when it get's a little repetitive, I enjoyed it. The art design is much better than PoR in my opinion as well. Gameplay wise, I love this game through and through. I let a lot of good units get either behind or die (read: the entire Dawn Brigade aside from Edward because I didn't know they got unique, powerful personal weapons), and yet I never felt like a chapter was unwinnable. That's not to say I didn't find it challenging, the entire run gave me a consistent level of challenge that I enjoyed. I think, to be honest, the hardest chapter of the game for me was actually Ellincia's Gambit, and beating that felt great. I love how the 4 part system was done, I loved the 5 stage endgame -- being encouraged to feed Kurthnaga felt great, and he turned into a demon pretty fast. Ena was useless in combat, but Blood Tide is nice so hey. Getting the satisfaction of killing each main villain was fantastic, especially with unique boss dialogues. Sephiran/Lehran's dialogue, reveal, and memories were a tragedy unto themselves, and I really felt for him. I think he's one of the franchise's better villains. Ashera's fight was a unique, if not super interactive, final boss fight, but the TRUE final boss and challenge of the run was Dheginsea. The Biggest Blackest dragon was one of the rare occasions where a Fire Emblem boss actually intimidates me. It was a good chapter and a good fight. As for flavor, I love the little things. The hidden items, the way Stefan is recruited (hey hobo with a knife, fight with us). I actually want more characters to be recruited like Stefan in future games, because it's funny, and it let's the devs place a stronger pre-promote than usual because s/he is hidden. I love the Steal mechanic, I always have, and I feel like it was useful throughout a decent chunk of the game. Forging with Coins was odd, but fun. The SS weapons were cool (I didn't have anyone using Alondite, nobody had SS swords aside from Ike), and I liked the way you were encouraged to use them as much as you wanted with Yune's blessing. I just had a fantastic experience with the game. And now that I've beaten it once, I'll be able to go back and actually use Lehran and Pelleas ingame, because they deserve that second chance.