Hawkwing
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Posts posted by Hawkwing
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What I Like:
- The Gameplay: The series started and set in stone many of the conventions found in Turn-Based Strategy RPGs, and it was also among the first games to put an effort into the story. I also enjoy how each Fire Emblem manages to be unique in it's gameplay, making each game distinct but without having to relearn the basic's every time. Although it ranges between games, I also like how the difficulty is hard, but not unbearably so.
- The Characters: The selling point of the series, and something has been done consistently well. Each game loves to put a twist on a previous archetype, and we've seem a wide variety of personalities over the years. They aren't all winners, but the good outweighs the bad here. The support mechanic is also a brilliant way of both expanding on a character while providing gameplay bonuses.
What I Don't Like:
- Permadeath: I don't mind it as a concept (heck, permadeath is one of my favorite aspects of other strategy games), but the execution of it in Fire Emblem leaves much to be desired. You have a very limited number of troops to work with, and not all games seem to be designed with this mechanic in mind. It doesn't help that some characters you need to keep alive in order to recruit other units or to unlock side-quests.
- Fog of War/Ambush Spawns: I dislike the former in Fire Emblem simply because it ignores other examples of doing this gimmick right (such as Battle for Wesnoth, where you can move a unit one space at a time, but you can't undo any moves. Why don't they do this in Fire Emblem?), and I hate the latter because it's just plain poor design and adds nothing but frustration to the gameplay.
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50 minutes ago, Mad-manakete said:
Gerome gets screwed over hard in that a lot of the other children have some way of accessing galeforce, and the ones who don't suffer harshly if you work it on everyone possible.
I've never actually gotten Galeforce ONCE in all of my playthroughs of Awakening. I'm not that good at using pegasus knights in general (except in Gaiden/Echoes, because their bow weakness isn't as strong in that game, and neither are they delicate), and I never saw the point of using the dark fliers over the falcon knights. That, and getting to level 15 on any advanced unit takes much longer than I'd like.
Ironically, both Laurent and Yarne, who's parents can't get galeforce, end of being my top performing child units nearly every time (well, okay, I just make Laurent a magic nuke, which isn't that hard considering his mother is one of the best magic users in the game, and Yarnes usefulness ranges between playthroughs, with some of said usefullness comes from the existence of reclassing and the fact that I enjoy using Panne as a unit. Still, I ain't complaining when he becomes a one-man army), while Gerome, for some reason, always ends up with mediocre-to-poor stats on every playthrough for me. I can understand him turning out poor once or twice, but since it's happened to me every time, I start to raise questions on his viability as a unit
as well as why the child mechanics have to be so damn complicated at times. -
21 minutes ago, Armagon said:
On the subject of FE2/15, i'd like to nominate Valbar for worst Knight, along with Arden from FE4. The former is really slow and actual Lances are better used in the hands of more capable units and it doesn't help that the terrain is not kind to Valbar. Arden.....well, being an infantry unit is already a curse in FE4 but it's worse when your move is lower than average. Yeah, you could get the Movement Ring but that requires dragging Arden's slow ass across the map to a very specific spot that the game doesn't tell you.
What really sucks about Valbar is that he really is the tankiest unit in the game, and many of the terrain problems could be circumvented if Genny just had warp. That being said, his saving grace is that the villager fork exists, and even as a mercenary he'll still have the growths of a knight, and so he'll have such high strength and defense that he won't really need to care about doubling.
As for the topic itself, I would say Gerome, but that's from personal experience and getting unlucky with the child mechanic. It's just the fact that he's been consistently poor among all my playthroughs (when other characters have ranged from bad to gamebreaking) that I raise an eyebrow on his usefulness.
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I would say that Valentia felt like a continent to me. A very small one, mind you, but there are several small continents in the real world so I don't see the size as too strange. It taking around a month to travel from one end of the map to the other with a mostly on-foot with an army isn't much of a stretch either. Besides, the land has a varied terrain as well, and I'd expect that more towns and cities would pop up over time as the population grows. Personally, I would compare the size of Valentia to Morrowind from the Elder Scrolls; not huge, but large enough to have quite a few towns, cities, forts, etc. to satisfy any adventurer.
2 hours ago, omegaxis1 said:To be honest, my main concern is... where did these dragons come from? Not the Dagons, I mean the actual necrodragons? Where did they come from? Were they native to Valentia? Are they belonging in any tribe? Why are they all dead?
And it was mentioned way earlier in this thread, there were no wyverns in Valentia at all. But suddenly in Awakening, we find out that there's a place called Wyvern Valley. When exactly did wyverns migrate there exactly?
I always though that the necrodragons where undead wyverns. As for wyvern valley, I assumed that is is there in Valentia, but due to being located in the middle of some mountains, it would make sense why the general populace wouldn't know or care about the existence of wyverns, and those who would would leave said wyverns alone. I assume that Gaiden/Echoes didn't have wyvern riders (outside of gameplay/development reasons) was because:
A. Few in Valentia knew the art of taming and riding wyverns, and even fewer knew how to train them for military situations, so the militaries of both Rigel and Zofia though that weaponizing them would be impractical.
and/or
B. Considering that very powerful cantors can summon necrodragons, It would have been considered counterproductive to risk having such a powerful beast be summoned every time a wyvern rider was felled, especially since by comparison bonewalkers and zombies are workable, if annoying, threats to deal with.
Sometime after the events of SoV, Wryvern riding became more common, and I suppose the practice of summoning the dead was forgotten or banned
(because Alm and Celica hated how much of a slog they made certain maps and never wanted to go through that experience again)meaning that the risk of a dead wyvern being summoned again as a necroodragon was nonexistent. -
22 minutes ago, The_antithesis said:
When Emmeryn falls off a cliff, none of the mages think to use a wind spell to break her fall. Come to think of it, maybe that was her plan to escape, and no-one got the hint.
When various Fates characters sacrifice themselves in Fates, no-one thinks to use a healing staff (or silence staff, in Flora's case).
In the prologue for Echoes, the children celebrate with Mycen after he wins the battle... even if some of them died.
Lyn and Chrom, despite being told that the person they are being ordered by is a professional tactician, still give an in-depth tutorial on the most basic of tactics. Lyn takes the backseat driving to a whole new level by outright wrenching control from you throughout her campaign!
There have been no examples in the series where wind magic has been used for purposes other than combat. Your mages are most likely wielding tomes built for military purposes, meaning they would have done more harm than good if they tried to help Emmeryn. Also, she never gave a hint that she intended to be saved.
Is a healing staff of any use to dead characters? (I haven't played fates, thought, so I don't know the exact context of these sacrifices).
The children characters don't die, they simply get knocked down and leave the battlefield.
Lyn only talks to you in a few chapters, not all. The rest of the tutorial information either comes from other units piping up or just the game itself telling you how mechanics work. Also, I always saw the conversations in Awakening making reasonable sense in-universe (such as Lissa commenting that she can't fight, but has the ability to heal. Frederick and Chrom stating that they shouldn't let Robin do everything when mentioning the auto-move function
that no one ever used. Chrom mentions they should keep their distance when certain foes to describe the enemy range button, etc.) but to each their own. -
Fire Emblem games have always been serious. It's Nintendo's darkest franchise, period. Heck, even the lighter entries still have some very dark moments.
As for whether or not the next game will be on the lighthearted or more serious end... I think they'll go a similar route as they did will the Tellius series, in the sense that the games were neutral on the idealism vs. cynicism scale and aimed to be grounded and realistic rather than set in an idealistic/crappy world.
I'm hoping that the next game will have a human conflict, where each side has their own reasons for entering the conflict, and the moral grayness will be handled similarly to Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction (where some sides have a higher moral ground than others, but none are perfect). I also expect that most of the darker moments will be balanced out by humorous character interactions elsewhere, without one overshadowing the other.
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Always have Nuibaba's attack range active, as she doesn't move (thankfully) but it's very important too know where she can attack.
The only way to approach her mansion safely without traveling up the mountain is to go around the sides. Bring any dread fighters you have for this task, as well as Mathilda, Clair (they'll have enough resistance to at least survive the magic attacks) and any other high resistance units. When they get near the entrance, bait out any enemy unit you can so you can deal with each them on their own without being attacked the next turn by their allies. Make sure you're careful with who baits out magic users, as they pack a punch no matter who they're up against.
The rest of your units should stay in the front of the mansion, out of Nuibaba's range. Their purpose is to bait any of the summoned units or other attackers that could chip down the party going around the mountain. You can also deal with a bow knight with one of your snipers/bow knights, as he can be tempted to attack you out of Nuibaba's range (at least on hard mode, I can't remember if one appears on normal).
As for Nuibaba herself, for better or worse, she has to be killed in one hit, and that is reliant on skills and/or critical hits. The saving grace is that she's pretty weak, so any critical will send her to the grave. Remember that there are other enemies present in the mansion, so be VERY careful if Nuibaba isn't killed the in the first attack and/or if she hits your unit at all, as the other enemy units will be all to happy to finish the job.
Warp and especially rescue are extremely useful here, as it's possible to warp someone next to Nuibaba, attack her, and then rescue said unit. This strategy has a lot of risks to it, though.
You can also spam dread fighters with Silque, although that requires grinding/overuse.
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...one of those harem anime high school's that seem to have a larger female-to-male ratio. However, he's informed by a security guard that he needs to enrolled in the school in order to enter. When Nils hears of this, he...
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Getting right to the point, I know that Sacred Stones is the easiest, or at least among the easiest, Fire Emblem game(s) to date. I also know that it's tutorial is locked on the easiest difficulty, so I have two questions I want to ask:
- Is there any information in the tutorial of Sacred Stones that can't be figured out by playing the other entries? I.E. Is there anything unique to this game that isn't in the other Fire Emblem games that I should know about ahead of time?
- For reference, I've beaten Awakening on Normal!Classic and Hard!Casual, as well as Shadows of Valentia on Hard!Classic, and I've also started, but haven't finished, the other two GBA Fire Emblem games. Is the Hard difficulty of Sacred Stones a fine place to start, especially playing blind, or would it be a better idea to do a play--through of the game on Normal difficulty first?
Thank you ahead of time for your answers.
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...Majin Buu, who, upon meeting Sheogorath, decided it was be okay to spread unwarranted chaos upon the outrealms. However, the Gatekeeper of the Outrealms...
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4 hours ago, Jingle Jangle said:
I'm not too sure about that point. I'm pretty sure the Falchion works like the Royal sword where the user has to be royalty or be worthy of wielding it. Otherwise it becomes an extremely heavy sword. Imagine trying to smuggle that.
The wielder probably would have to be royalty in order to wield it, I agree with you on that. However, Desaix was able to smuggle it out of Zofia castle during his escape back to his own castle, so it's not impossible for it to be stolen. It'd be impractical to use since the weight would make it unwieldy, and unlike other heavy weapons, said weight would not do extra damage, but it's still possible for it to be taken after a fight is over as spoils of war, or it could be stolen by a thief (or a group of thieves)
with enough conwho can handle carrying that kind of weight.As for how canon Thabes Labyrinth is, I do think that Alm and Celica went to Archanea and they did seal Grima, but it was years after the events of Gaiden/SoV, when the land was calm, and they brought a slightly different army. What's seen in-game is simply for the sake of gameplay, and maybe in-universe "embellishment" (think about how in the Hobbit movies, some of the more over-the-top moments could be explained as Bilbo trying to make the story more exciting than what probably actually happened).
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Personally, I think that Alm thought it was one of those "too powerful for one man to wield" kind of weapons (it is the strongest sword in the game, and similarly Chrom's Falchion was sealed long before the events of Awakening for the/a same/similar reason) and hid it away somewhere, only being used by "those worthy of wielding it" and "only in our greatest need" (The quotation marks are not sarcasm, by the way. They're just identifying tropes related to this kind of situation. I just wanted to make that clear).
That, and it would be foolish to be parading around with a god-slaying sword in a normal battle, becasuse even if the wielder is a one-man army, it's still very possible for them to be killed and/or for the weapon to be stolen during the battle. Or for an assassin to slay said wielder and steal the sword outside of combat.
I have a headcannon that Alm's last descendant was able to wield the Falchion when Grima attacked Valm (what I believe to be his first target, if the events of Thabes labyrinth are canon), and after years of him desroying the kingdom while Valms army foaught back, the Decendant and Grima entered a fierce one-on-one fight,. By the end, the descendant died (ending Alm's 1000-year dynasty), the kingdom of Valm was destroyed by Grima's invasion, and Falchion was shattered in the final attack, but Grima was weakened to the point that the Exalt's army could defeat him and Archanea's Falchion was enough to seal Grima for another 1000 years.
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24 minutes ago, Lord_Brand said:
When Sully says "Where should I stab ya?" while wielding an axe.
Oh, out of character? (Because Sully totally would stab an enemy with an axe if she knew how.) Hmm...
Well, some of axes look like halberds, which can function similarly to lances in real life...
She could also just stab them with the handle, which despite being a blunt weapon, has the ability to pierce someone (depending on the factors at play, of course).
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...Giving him a 6-month membership to the Interdimensional House Of Pancakes, which he accepted gleefully. Unfortunately, animal activists...
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The collapsing/rebuilding walls in Nah's prologue. If they gave you a warning of when a wall would collapse/rebuild, then the level would be annoying, but one that still had some strategy and planning to it, but NOPE. The walls collapse/rebuild without any foreshadowing whatsoever, leading to wounded units having their escape blocked, advancing units having their progress slowed, and overall making the map a frustrating slog.
I would say Yarnes chapter as a runner up, where the game hides the full might of each army before you start the level, making it possible to under-prepare for the map, but that's less of a gimmick and more of an example of fake difficulty.
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10 hours ago, Purple Mage said:
No, I really meant Gourd Duty, as in, defend the gourd at the top of the Gourd Tower alongside the Captain of the Gourd. (It's a Kingdom of Loathing thing.)
Oh. That link would have been nice the first time... Oh well. At least I learned something new today!
...Hippo, who was challenging three other hippos to see who could eat the most food in the shortest amount of time. In the frenzy that followed, Stahl...
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I could see them creating a map-designing feature to help quicken the pace of designing the maps visually, and then providing access to it for the player. I'd imagine it would be similar to Mario/RPG Maker. Or Battle for Wesnoth, where you can download entire fan-made (well, the whole game is community driven, so I should really say non-canon/unofficial) scenarios if you want.
My only concern how the sheer amount of factors that Fire Emblem games have to consider that aren't in the examples I just listed. Mario maker is a simple platformer that has no need for an RNG, and Battle for Wesnoth, despite it's randomness, still has several static elements about it that keep the game balanced. Meanwhile, FE has to deal with things like growth rates/base stats, a limited amount of characters with permadeath in the mix, etc.
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11 hours ago, Dreamyboi said:
Two words:
ESCORT MISSIONS
Nearly every time it's trying too guide the world's dumbest NPC away from death and it's always frustrating. Always.
I can't think of a single good one.
I can only count the amount of good ones on one hand:
- Crimson Skies (the only game that was actually praised for it's well done escort missions) because all of your targets can defend themselves (badly, in a good way) against attacks, can take a beating, and you have the ability to fly onto them and take control of the anti-aircraft guns they have. They're actually quite fun.
- Prince of Persia: Sand of Time, although this is through word-of-mouth as I haven't played the game.
- Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, because the NPC moves is slow, and will attack anyone near, and you just have to defeat the boss to end the level instead of getting them to their destination.
- Personally, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, but that's because I sniped every enemy with the bow every chance I got, so I made the level easier (and less of a headache) than intended.
Otherwise, I hate these with a passion, and am glad to see these are become rare.
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4 hours ago, Purple Mage said:
As punishment, he has to do gourd duty at...
You probably meant guard duty, but out of curiosity I looked up gourd on my computers dictionary, and guess what:
gourd |ɡôrdɡo͝ord|
noun
1 a fleshy, typically large fruit with a hard skin, some varieties of which are edible.• a drinking container, water container, or ornament made from the hard hollowed and dried skin of a gourd.
2 a climbing or trailing plant that bears gourds.
[Family Cucurbitaceae (the gourd family): several genera and species, including the colored ornamental gourds (Cucurbita pepo variety ovifera). The gourd family also includes the marrows, squashes, pumpkins, melons, and cucumbers.]
PHRASES out of one's gourd
informal out of one's mind; crazy.• under the influence or alcohol or drugs: he was obviously stoned out of his gourd.
DERIVATIVES
gourdful |-ˌfo͝ol| noun (plural gourdfuls) ORIGINMiddle English: from Old French gourde, based on Latin cucurbita .
It's an actual word!
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Celica was originally supposed to be able to die in the post game, as Alm, Conrad, and Saber also have unique quotes for if she does.
They probably cut it because:
A. Celica is a lord and the deuteragonist.
B. She's an extremely useful unit.
C. It would cause lore problems, as the post-game takes place at least a month after the events of the main game, and Alm is supposed to have an 1000 year long dynasty, which he obviously can't do without his wife.
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Ditto with the Kid Icarus crew returning, as their conversations were funny, informative, and in-character. I just ask for more cameos from characters that have voice acting in their own series (seriously, where was Doc Louis when they were talking about Little Mac?!).
Can we have more depth to the Star Fox easter eggs, though? They were there from the beginning, and while I'm not asking for a whole slew of conversations for every character, It would be nice if the Star Fox (and Star Wolf) crew commented on the more obscure fighters/mechanics rather than having a few (pretty good, mind you) pre-set conversations between themselves.
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4 minutes ago, YingofDarkness said:
And I have to apologize to you as well for misinterpreting what you said. That was my bad!
I feel like it will partly because of Fire Emblem Heroes though. It has gotten a lot more people interested in Fire Emblem, and so more people are going to be hyped to look for news based on the new game. Even people who aren't going to buy the game are going to be interested in looking at the new heroes they will be able to summon and pick out their favorites. So the hype will be there unless they royally mess it up.
No problem. I accept your apology.
I actually forgot about how Fire Emblem Heroes plays a factor into it (mostly because the game got to large for my phone and I had to delete it). I don't know how much it affected the attention Echoes got when the characters were released early, but I can see it being an effective tool for getting and keeping people interested in the switch game.
On a side note, with how popular Fire Emblem Heroes is, I'm still surprised how little Nintendo has capitalized on releasing the games on the virtual console. To me, it's a win-win situation no matter which way you cut it; people who've enjoyed the games previously can buy it on a more convenient system; people who are interested in the series can now play the games easily without having to resort to emulators; people who are interested in a solid strategy game can play another one; etc.
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I'm a little disappointed/annoyed that we didn't get any information on the game in the last direct, as it would have been a convenient time to reveal it, but it was more of an "oh well" moment than anything else. Otherwise, I'm okay with waiting. As others have brought up, there are more than enough distractions in the world to keep me busy until they finally show it.
I do have some hopes and concerns about the game being revealed/expanded upon at E3, however.
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43 minutes ago, YingofDarkness said:
I doubt it is going to be the focus of E3. I have a feeling they are going to set up their E3 booth in a Smash Bros theme, and Fire Emblem will just have a trailer in the Direct and gameplay footage from Treehouse. In that sense it doesn't have to be very impressive because the majority aren't going to analyze it as much as we will here. Everyone's main focus is going to be on Smash Bros just like with this recent Direct. Jeez I saw maybe a couple of mentions of Mario Tennis and some Splatoon stuff, but the majority of the internet that saw the Direct was talking about nothing but Smash Bros.
I know that it's definitely not going to be the focus of E3, and I'm also expecting them to just have a trailer and some gameplay as well. I'm just concerned about how big of an impression it will make on the general public, as while I don't think it will steal the show, I do hope that the game is memorable enough to get people hyped for it afterwards.
What are your favorite/least favorite things in the FE series.
in General Fire Emblem
Posted
Maybe I should have specified that I was talking mainly about Awakening. Seriously, ambush spawns are the sole reason I'm never playing the hard difficulty on anything but casual (when I can play normal on classic just fine). I've lost track of the amount of times I've moved a healer or otherwise wounded unit outside of the enemies range, but close enough for the former to do their job, and for both to gain/give support bonuses, but then BAM! a reinforcement that I couldn't predict appears, expanding the danger area, and heading straight towards my healer, "killing" them. It wasn't just and every now and again thing either, nearly every single map that had reinforcements ended with Maribel or Lissa biting the dust.
I haven't gotten to far in Binding Blade (mostly because I have a crap ton of other games to finish first, and my free time at the moment is on the short side), but my first introduction to Rutger was him and his party moving on the turn they appeared, killing Ellen, Allen (who was heavily wounded at the time), Shanna, and Clairine in a single turn.
Considering that the reinforcements in the original Mystery of the Emblem were more of an annoyance than an actual problem, thought, I'll take your word for the later parts of the Binding Blade.
I see 'retreating after they "died"' as a necessary evil, just because there are many writing pitfalls that one can fall into if everyone died and it affected the story. Making everyone expendable comes with it's own pros and cons, though (almost no one has a story presence in the Binding Blade, for example, even with characters where it would make sense for them to pipe in every once in a while, because everyone except Merlinus and Roy can die. And despite not having played Fates, I've heard about the annoyance of having most of the cast retreat instead of dying on classic mode).
My problem is with the gameplay aspects of it. You have a limited number of overall units, as well as classes that are available to you. Some games handle this aspect better than others, but I hate it when I have to restart a chapter not just because I lost a character, but because I lost the gal that recruits an enemy guy, or because they're the only knight/healer at this point in the game, and I'm not getting another one for a long time, or because they're the only version of this unit in the whole game.
Thoughts of playing a pure ironman run turn sour for me whenever I realize these things.