𝐅𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐥

pretty much yeah. i started from the NES era out of curiosity, so i'll just keep moving forward going by release order if i'm able to do so. thing is: i have NES, SNES and GBA titles emulated on phone, but i have no idea how to approach PoR/RD. i'll have to either search for pc emulators/ROMS again( wich is honestly a pain ), or check the Nintendo e-shop to see if those 2 are available for purchase/download on the Switch, because otherwise i would have no means to play them. New Mystery could be emulated on phone as well, but it needs to be tested first. everything else, i luckily have in original form for consoles( basicly from Shadow Dragon onward ).

then it might be the potentiometer that's acting up. you should try opening the small boxes at the base of the joystick( i presume it should be the same for every controller with joysticks ), remove the holders from the inside and clean each one of those boxes either by blowing air into them, or eventually by using isopropyl alcohol in small doses to clean them up. usually blowing air works just fine, as long as you place everything back as it was before opening the controller. then again, if you're not really comfortable with messing around internal circuits and whatnot, then you might as well just send it in. the game isn't perfect by any means, but it's not that terrible either. it's just that after being in development hell for years, risking to be cancelled, then renamed after changing directors along with changing the game's vision...all of that back at the time didn't exactly leave a good impression for many fans, but in the end the game turned out to be alright. probably one of the deepest FF titles in the franchise so far when it comes to characters story and world's lore, with an overwhelming amount of features to offer. the "Royal Edition" has also quite a good portion of new content added and DLCs included, with its main feature being the nod to the previous "Versus XIII" combat system, or at least what it should have been.

that's probably because that list is quite old. i think i made that even before 3H got announced, hence why it hasn't been updated beside my current progress. guess i'll fix that in due time. noted that as well. anyway, my intention was( and partially still is ) to complete each main title in the franchise, but considering the ever-expanding library of games that i own, i doubt that's gonna happen anytime soon. it feels like i'm already at 1/3 of the road, but getting to the end of it will probably take more time than i expected.

guess i'll just copy-paste from my status profile: 「 My completion status 」 ☑ Dark Dragon and Sword of Light ☑ Gaiden ☑ Mystery of the Emblem └ ☑ Book 1: War of Darkness └ ☑ Book 2: War of Heroes ☑ Genealogy of the Holy War ☑ Thracia 776 ☑ Blazing Sword └ ☑ Lyndis route └ ☑ Eliwood route └ ☑ Hector route ☑ Binding Blade ☐ The Sacred Stones └ ☐ Eirika route » playing └ ☐ Ephraim route ☐ Path of Radiance ☐ Radiant Dawn ☐ Shadow Dragon « completed, to be replayed ☐ Heroes of Light and Shadow ☐ Awakening « completed, to be replayed ☐ Fates « completed, to be replayed └ ☐ Conquest └ ☐ Birthright └ ☐ Revelation ☐ Echoes: Shadows of Valentia « completed, to be replayed ☐ Three Houses ☐ Heroes « eh, not really interested... ☐ Warriors « don't really care either 😐 in terms of story/gameplay, until now i liked Genealogy and Awakening the most.

yes: try to fix your joy-con. it might be easier than you think, and you won't have to spend money to get a new one. you don't even need to be a "tech guy", really. i had a similar drifting issue with a PS4 controller( left stick input acting by itself almost all the time, to the point it almost looked like it had its own will ), but i've managed to fix that by myself just by searching on the internet for solutions. youtube videos helped a lot. since i had to choose between buying a new controller or trying to fix mine even if it meant eventually breaking it, i decided to go for the latter because the controller was already acting on its own, so i had nothing to loose anyway. to be honest, it's truly a silly thing to solve because most of the times it's either dust or some dirt getting inside the base of the joystick. once you open it up and clean it a bit, it goes back to working as intended. while i was at it, once i realized how easy it was to open it and deal with the stuff inside the controller, i even decided to customize my PS4 controller further with some leds buttons. looks pretty nice now, especially in the evening: anyway, back in topic: - in terms of portables, i'm currently playing FE Sacred Stones on my phone. i'm almost at the end of Eirika's route, and once i'm done with both Eirika/Ephraim routes, i'll probably leave the FE franchise in standby for a while, and move to its twin, long-dead franchise: Advance Wars. that franchise started back in the NES era too, but since searching and getting that kind of ROMS with dedicated english patches has become quite tedious these days, i'll just leave behind the NES/SNES Wars titles, and play with those from the GBA/DS era. after that will be done too, i guess i'll resume FE from where i left, starting with PoR/RD. - in terms of home consoles, i just finished Final Fantasy XV along with all the DLCs. the game's story and gameplay are both fine overall, although some mechanics and features could've been managed a bit better( the combat can be quite clunky at times ). yesterday i started with its free multiplayer expansion called "Comrades", will try that out for now and see how it goes. there's also "A King's Tale" left to try out, but that will wait for now, otherwise my head will implode by the overload of FF XV related stuff. then, my roadplan until 2022 will probably be something like this: Scarlet Nexus coming up next, then Tales of Arise, and finally Elden Ring next year.

pretty much this. you can always try to work around with different formats and colors, but in the end you'll probably have to polish the final product anyway, if you want better results. otherwise, you can try to work on 1x1 scales and see how it goes with saturation. for example:

after watching the latest Fate/Grand Order movie, i got inspired again. here's another version of Saber, this time around it's the male one from Fate/Prototype: [ source material ] [GBA portraits] Arthur's outfit: King of Knights + emotes [Pixel art portrait] Arthur Pendragon not too shabby, if i say so myself. maybe i'll do some more stuff about Fate/GO later, who knows~ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Sacred Stones is probably the easiest of all three GBA titles, mainly because this game has broken hit/critical rates for player units( take Eirika for example, wich is already critting like crazy even before promotion, in a manner worse than that of a Swordmaster with a Killing Edge ), so you might be able to get to the end of the game without many issues. you should consider few things though, because after promotion they get: - more movement range; - promotion gains(stats boost); - higher stats caps. it's mostly a matter of stats, rather than levels, because both lords might end up being "average" in terms of stats, but since you have 20 levels to get some exp along with stats booster items, you can always give them those consumables to improve their performance, although you'll still be limited by the stats caps of their basic lord class. that in itself can be either a trivial matter or a serious handicap depending on difficulty settings, luck with growth rates, and your own way of playing the game. in my opinion, yes, it might be doable. it's just not worth giving up on the promotion bonuses in the long run, unless of course you want to try your luck and challenge yourself.

pretty much, with the difference that FE has always been more oriented towards anime in terms of visuals and design concepts, while FF has some titles that might have way more realistic, serious and darker tones. then there's always the icon stuff that makes an appearence in different titles, in a way or another. for example: Anna in FE, or Biggs and Wedge in FF.

the easiest way to get 2nd gen alternatives, as mentioned before, would be to let the 1st gen units die. that can be achieved in chapter 5 by sending them in the desert in order to get nuked by mages. you might want to do that before approaching the hill that leads to Reptor's army, because once you do, the mages placed around the castle will all turn neutral, and i can't remember at the moment if those in the desert will turn neutral as well. better safe than sorry, but if you use save files/states too, you should be able to find out without the risk to restart the entire chapter. Altena will become available very late in the game, so she shouldn't be taking any priority over Seliph and Leif. she will use mainly lances though, so a Silver spear and a Javelin should be more than enough as starting gear inherited from Quan. the Elite ring could go to Seliph first just to get a headstart, and then be switched to Leif once Seliph gets to promotion level(20). that way you'll be able to seize castles faster, and get a broken unit(Master knight) earlier. any other "default" gear aquired through 1st gen should be more than enough for both Seliph and Leif(especially that Silver sword from Sigurd, if you manage to get 50 kills on it), although giving a magic sword like the Thunder or the Wind one to Sigurd/Seliph will be helpful for countering ranged attacks and getting some extra exp. Leif can already start off with a Light brand from her mother, and the only things that can eventually improve his performance will be rings such as Power and/or Skill. events. lots of them. also, doing arenas everytime a new chapter starts, even if you don't manage to complete all stages. everything else depends mostly on gear and specific builds, such as Barrier sword+Barrier ring for example(+12 Resistance in total). you should also be able to get a Defender sword+Shield ring combo(+12 Defence) in 1st gen, that can eventually be assigned to Sigurd/Seliph and then sold/traded to other units.

in terms of story and content, Fire Emblem is pretty much like other franchises such as Final Fantasy, where each title has its own plot, features and common concepts such as iconic names shared between titles, with the exception of few sequels/remakes that take place in the same world. it's not like you absolutely need to play every game. i've always considered these kind of games pretty much like medieval-fantasy inspired books: if you want to read them, you just do it, otherwise you don't. in terms of overall quality and difficulty, i'd suggest starting with GBA titles first and move forward up to the latest ones. NES/SNES titles are kind of...archaic, so to say, and not very forgiving(Gaiden and especially Thracia 776 can potentially lead to vast amounts of frustration, so consider playing them at your own risk). or at least, not until you manage to understand how to properly play them. once you do, they can eventually become fun and enjoyable, but then again it's all subjective, and it mainly depends on the title played. Mystery of the Emblem and Genealogy both play pretty much like GBA titles despite being from the SNES era, so i'd suggest giving them at least a try eventually, just to see how it goes.

i think it may be related to position and perception, because i've noticed some differences as well when playing games on emulators via pc or phone. in some cases, you can eventually get FPS drops on pc too depending on the settings used, screen size and overall performance, while on phones the visuals/sounds tend to have a higher fidelity when compared to the originals, or at least that's my impression with the previous generation of cellphones. that's also why i stopped playing retro games from the 90's on pc and moved everything on my Huawei, it just feels more natural to play them on phone. that's just me though~

...i'm honestly more amazed about this kind of thread being still open for discussion, considering the language and overall tone used in some previous posts.

usually it depends on wich items/skills can be passed down to children, in case someone is planning to have them as parents. they both have their pros and cons, but there's always items that can help to fix their issues. back on topic: it's always better to go for the arenas at the start of a new chapter, because even if you don't manage to complete all rounds, you can still get some exp and money out of them(unless your unit is really bad). if you also manage to swap gear around units, and play with the weapon triangle a bit, you'll eventually be able to promote some units earlier than expected. as alternative, you could send the weakest units to deal with bandits going for villages. it's not as profitable as doing arenas, but it's better than nothing.

to clarify: what you want is characters development that doesn't have to be tied to supports only, but rather be related to the game's story or as additional events happening when needed? well, that's the thing: it probably wouldn't be a FE title if it didn't had supports, wich are pretty much the main "exclusive" feature that the franchise started to offer/trend after the release of Genealogy. i think the problem is not about supports by themself though, but rather about how they've been handled so far. avatars and lords have always been taking the spotlight story-wise for obvious reasons, however secondary characters have been limited mostly to supports because of another feature: permadeath. that's probably why you don't get to see that much characters development outside of supports: because they could die in any chapter. from a developer's perspective, it kinda makes sense to keep that approach in terms of story-telling, all things considered. i understand your point of view though, don't get me wrong. i know that it may be considered dumb to just let two units stand beside each other for X amount of turns just to trigger some additional lore, but sadly that's the way it is. i agree that it would be nice to have more "natural" characters development through story progression rather than by supports, but considering all the past entries of this serie, i doubt they'll change that concept simply because supports have become an integral part of these games. probably because Priam has no impact whatsoever on the story beside being a Ike's cameo, rather than a truly new character. sort of a "bonus" spotpass unit, with the difference that it was actually included in the main game for some reasons(maybe to glorify PoR/RD?), rather than being yet another DLC version.

for me personally, supports were never about "storytelling". rather than expanding/developing the game's plot further, they were used in previous titles mostly to either create/push forward a relation between characters, or eventually let the player know some details about a unit's past. long story short: game storytelling is one thing, expanding/creating characters lore is another.

if i remember well enough, depending on where you place certain units(lords mainly), Jaffar can either go to the left or right side of the map depending on the route you've taken with those units from the start of the chapter. do mind that it also partially depends on luck from Jaffar's side with criticals, because if he gets kills while you manage to "lure" him to the right side of the map, he might also be able to intercept/engage the enemies going to Zephiel's room. i know because i lost count of how many times i reseted that chapter in HHM before, until i noticed that odd behaviour from Jaffar when i tried to proceed with the whole army from the right side of the map, rather than splitting it in two at the beginning. you could eventually loose some chests to enemy thiefs, but at least you'll get through the chapter. horseback units help a lot in getting to Zephiel's room earlier, but a thief with torches helps way more in terms of scouting for enemies(especially those with bolting) and get your kills properly without getting stuck between enemies in FoW. also, if you have a small and reliable group such as Pent, Louise and Hawkeye, you can eventually send those 3 to the left side of the map to take care of Maxime and proceed to clear out the rest of the enemies on the way until you can secure the stairs that keep spawning enemy reinforcements.

yet another take on Noctis, but this time around it's pixel art rather than a GBA mug. anyway, here's the Versus XIII version:

the only hopes i have for this year's E3 are two: FF XVI and Tales of Arise. would be really nice to have some new infos and eventually new gameplay footage for both of them. i still check these trailers once in a while, just to revive the hype a bit:

it depends. having a game based on an "evil" villain going for war while dealing with stuff involving violence, death and eventually other not-so-kind concepts such as rape isn't exactly the best way to promote a game, because regardless of genre and rating it's probably going to be crucified by the media depending on story writing and overall focus of the game. having a game/story with multiple routes and different endings would already be a different thing, and would probably be accepted for what it would be without negative consequences. then, there's also the target audience to be considered, although in the end it's all subjective depending on the different point of view that each person has. i guess it all boils down to the kind of story they want to tell, and especially the messages they want to deliver.

since i'm currently playing with FF XV and i'm quite liking it, i felt like doing something about it. here's my take on the main protagonist: Noctis outfit: Prince's Fatigues and here's the source material i took as reference(mostly the 2nd one):

in terms of gameplay/stats, it's...well, let's just say that it's the classic type of unit that needs babysitting before becoming good enough to stand by himself. he's not that terrible after he gets enough levels, some stats boosters and the Binding Blade, but even then he's not really great either, especially when compared to other lords from the GBA era. in terms of story, he has a decent attitude overall, although having a kid as leader of an army seems quite unrealistic. but since we're talking about a character from a J-SRPG, i guess anything goes, so...whatever floats your boat~ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yes: not being awesome. or simply plan wisely what to equip/where to put your unit before letting the enemy phase play out. better safe than sorry, especially if you're going for iron man runs. terrain bonuses and a defensive placement of units are usually the key for survival. units with good stats are always there to help, but they shouldn't be the only thing carrying your game. normally yes, wich is a common mistake for anyone who played a FE title at least once, but there's exceptions as well. there's units such as Oswin or Hector from Blazing Blade, for example, that are there to defy the laws of nature, therefore they will most likely end up surviving anything that comes their way no matter what, while bringing death and destruction upon enemy forces at the same time.

my guess is that all those titles won't be sent to oblivion along with their "obsolete" e-shops for previous consoles, but rather that they're probably trying to migrate everything to either PS4 and/or their new PS5 systems. there will always be people playing with retro games, so i doubt they're going to shut down entirely two whole generations of console/portable titles. the only downside is that the overall access to those old titles will probably be even more limited than before due to different, obvious factors. on a side note: i can already tell you that PE 3 and MGS PO aren't really great games. i know because i have them in their original PSP form, and i completed them both multitple times. however, if you're a fan and eventually a collector too, then by all means i can understand the wish to have a complete collection, but if you're just going for a good story and overall fun gameplay, they're honestly pretty average, and that's being very generous. PE 1/2 had way more charm and an actual solid backstory, while PE 3 kind of killed the franchise for different reasons. MGS PO is an ok game, just not on the same level of Peace Walker. in terms of story, you can think about it as a spin off such as MGS Ac!d, but related to Big Boss rather than Snake. it may have some interesting mechanics and concepts that were assimilated by PW later on, but the gameplay in PO becomes repetitive quite fast and doesn't add much in terms of replay value. there's other titles from the PSP era that in my opinion are way more fun and memorable, such as "Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions" for example.