Samz707
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Posts posted by Samz707
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1 hour ago, Jotari said:
Bouncing off this point, I feel multiple routes kind of takes away from character deaths in a big way. Like the death of Ferdinand or Hubert in Three Houses doesn't feel like an event at all, because there's no loss in the narrative. They're just alive and well when you play another route. Though as I'm writing this I'm trying to make a comparison and realize Fire Emblem has never truly tried to hit home with a death other than its various parental figures (which, as Jearlt and Mikoto show, are slated to happen in route splits anyway). Only ones I can think of is Sigurd, Rajaion and Athos, and for the latter two they're kind of almost glossed over and slightly random. That being said, if there was a route split in the original Genealogy of the Holy War where Sigurd just lived, I think it would severely undercut the event (as a bonus thing in the remake for non-canon fun I wouldn't mind though, my values set be weird that way).
Counter to my point, they did manage to sell Elise and Xander's death pretty well in Birthright despite the route split. So it's not really an all or nothing. A good narrative death is still a good narrative death, I suppose (then again Elise's death is also kind of pure melodrama). But for all the Elises and Xanders dying, you also have Benny and Charlottes dying in completely unceremonious, forgettable and meaningless manners (though for Benny and Charlotte specifically that actually kind of works as in universe they are less important than any other playable characters).
I've kind of devil's advocated myself out of my own argument, but in spite of that I think I do have some sort of point. Death is meant to be a big consequence. It's sad because a character is gone and they're not coming back. All that they are is lost. But when you can just hop over to an alternate timeline and continue the story, they're kind of not.
Even then it depends. (Jeralt's hit me hard somewhat even when I was spoiled, I rolled my eyes at Mikoto's because I barely know this flat cardboard cutout of a person and Awakening's plot had me glad when Emmeryn died.)
Jagged Alliance 2, another kinda SRPG-y game, like Echoes would do, has Units reacting to other units dying, since certain mercenaries are family members/lovers/enemies of each other. (So for instance, Ivan the strong Russian who's basically the game's Jagen kinda, will be upset if his Nephew Igor dies and due to the game having a morale system, will actually suffer penalties due to it.)
Even in FE7, Matthew's death hit me hard later when the game has Leilia's death scene but acknowledges Matthew is dead.
For at least 3H, I can see it kinda working since the game has Byleth follow a different side essentially (even if it's essnentially 3 sides against one side), so yeah, sometimes a character is just alive by default, but other times you'll have to kill them yourself, (even if you do admittingly get the option to spare them) so it at least there, they go from "Named Mini-boss" like past FE mini-bosses/bosses to be someone you know as a character. (even if 3H's design means you'll likely only care about them from a previous playthrough since if you've invested in a character to get their supports, you've probably recruited them already.)
At least to me, FE simply needs death reactions and honestly maybe ditching the Training wheels Rewind that makes it so easy to avoid having anyone die. (Though that would require some good not-too hard design to work well, which 3H fails at several times.)
Though even without Death Reactions, 3H's voice acting and honestly good character writing helps, FE simply needs to make sure to have compelling characters, I kept the 3H cast alive because I loved them, I kept the Awakening cast alive entirely because I wouldn't get replacements if they died, even in FE7 with Matthew and other characters like Fiora I felt bad for getting them killed.
Stuff like the Monastery with it's unique dialogue helps the characters feel more like people than I care about.
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On 8/11/2022 at 4:25 PM, kratoscar2008 said:
Hell yeah.
As usual the fanbase seems to hate things that the average non hardcore players like so its funny to see people say they didnt succeed when their overall reception seems to say otherwise which is why I think we are going to be seeing multiple paths for main games (Leak notwithstanding) and leave the single routes to Remakes.
The only thing I think they need to do is stop trying to keep the 20+ chapter tradition. They kinda did with CF but that was because they ran out of time. They should not be afraid of doing 10 chapters route if thats enough to tell the story.
With avatars being a series mainstay I hope we get something akin Tactics Ogre or Der Langrisser in regards to multiple paths. As in rather than having them split after a short common path, you get path divergences betwees routes. Like Der Langrisser has the main light path but then you choose Imperial route and then you can choose to stick to imperial or go Chaos and if you go Chaos you stick to Chaos or decide to go against both light and chaos powers.
And hope they do "everyone becomes friends" path again. I am very sure that the people against it is a very huge minority compared to those who want it. Comparing the reactions of Hopes allegedly having a gold path on here or reddit to Youtube or non FE centric gaming sites tells me I am mostly correct. Heck I even saw that when Cindered Shadows was leaking and many were hopeful for a Gold path due to the Lords all being playable.
IS is ambitious and I hope they dont revert back to single routes again like the fanbase wants. Which I am hopeful because the fanbase also complains about unit customization but IS has only doubled down on this.
Eh, just because the average player likes it doesn't nessarily mean it's a good thing. (The Tomb Raider Reboots literally being an entirely different genre, but it's a genre that casuals would be more interested in for instance, I'm sure Warriors gameplay probably appeals more to the average casual but I doubt it'd improve the franchise if we ditched the strategy games entirely.)
I wouldn't mind a shorter campaign with multiple paths, but even then I'd prefer that more to be somewhat like Echoes, two groups going through the same war but at different locations, so both are still canon.
Golden Routes are hard to do, harder still to do well, (Even Awakening has elements of this with the dumb crap that happens in the Spotpass stuff like Emmeryn being alive.) it's better to commit to a darker story than undercut it with a forced "and everyone was happy" ending. (it really only works in games with lots of choices, where the Golden Route is instead of paying for a DLC route that's better, it's actually about making all the right choices and playing well the entire game to earn it.)
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53 minutes ago, Jotari said:
So you know it's a thing. Everyone knows it's a thing. Lance infantry in Fire Emblem are exceedingly rare. Well, let me amend that, playable lance infantry are rare. Practically every game has generic lance infantry enemies known as soldiers, but only three games in the series, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn and Fates, give a promotion line to lance infantry. Three Houses has a lord that is lance infantry, and Gaiden/Shadows of Valentia and Sacred Stones have units that promote out of lance infantry and...that's it. That's it for one of the three most basic weapons and the most basic movement type in the series. Units don't even promote into lance infantry classes like Hero, with the exception of Fates and the Great Lord exclusive in Awakening.
So...why? Why is Fire Emblem like this? If you talk about infantry for the majority of human history, you're talking about a bunch of dudes holding pole arms. So it's not like lance infantry are particularly rare in realistic combat. And the series seems to realize that by making soldiers the enemy mook class...yet why is it something they so rarely give to the player compared to axes and swords. It can't be that they're just not cool, as people seem to genuinely like and want lance infantry.
The answer to this seems to be because lances are the dedicated weapon of mounted and armoured classes...which yeah, fair enough, that's true for Fire Emblem, but it feels like we see a hell of a lot more sword and even axe versions of those armoured and mounted classes than we do lance infantry.
And this is something that goes back to even the early days of Fire Emblem. In the very first game there are no named lance infantry. Then, after it we got Gaiden where they existed, only they promoted into Generals. Okay, that kind of makes sense, but they didn't continue the trend. They just vanished from the series until Ameila and Ephraim and then Tellius. Is it just because they forgot to make any playable characters soldiers in Shadow Dragon and then it kind of stuck after Gaiden put it in a weird limbo of promoting into a tier 1 class? That's my best guess. Do you have idea why this very basic class combination is so rare, even in promoted form?
It's probably at least partly how Swords and Axes seem to generally be seen as more "cool" and probably mostly that. (Even though IRL Swords were more like sidearms than main weapons.)
Still at least FE has Lances, they tend to get neglected in fantay settings, usually probably because you can just slap an axe model on a sword animation while Lances tend to need more unique animations. (Such as Elder Scrolls ditching Lance entirely after Morrowind.)
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They need to add Pantless Marth back, they're cowards and this is the real reason all FE1 Remakes suck.
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Fire Emblem Three Houses:
SpoilerAfter trying and failing to play more Fates (Got to the Swamp chapter where Arthur joins, beat it and quit due to how much the game was annoying me with the gameplay and it's story/characters.), I've been resuming my second run of this game.
Managed to defeat the DK for the first time at Remire so I have a Dark Seal, not sure where I'll use it but it's the first time I beat him, so I'm proud anyway, thanks to Lysithea being recruited into the BL House.
Amusingly got the DLC Quest for Byleth in the Arena, went in and Byleth did 0 damage to the first foe, I guess Priest Byleth has bit me in the ass, I maxed out the class so I'll go Merc Byleth for a while and hope to get my strength up.
Honestly I just have more respect for 3H now seeing how it handles stuff Fates attempted but much better. (Parent Death scene and a castle location between battles.)
I also managed to recruit Ignatz and hoping to get Linhardt on my team later and am hoping to maybe put Linhardt in one of the Dark Seal Classes.
Operation Flashpoint Dragon Rising
SpoilerA good early attempt at a console tactical shooter, even if ironically you'll still only want to play it on PC since it's the only platform with the mission editor.
Honestly wish more games took ideas from it, the AI and order system is still impressive, it's the only shooter I've played where the AI can take vehicles on it's own initiative when it has to travel long distances and weapon jamming is rare outside of games with durability systems as well as a system where you'll eventually bleed out after being shot if you don't bandage yourself, they're nice realistic touches you don't see outside of extremely mil-sim games such as modded ARMA.
It's honestly a decent compettitor to ARMA and replaying it, is still fun.
It's also weirdly a game where the "difficulty" settings only turn off the HUD/Reduce checkpoints to make it more realistic, the actual gameplay mechanics are unaltered outside of checkpoints being toned down. (Normal has more and dead squad mates are revived, Experienced has less and only alive Squadmembers are healed and Hardcore removes them entirely so missions have to be done in one go.)
Also the game that has given me PTSD from Helicopters due to how easy it is for a enemy helicopter to reduce you to gibs.
Only real issue is the lack of variety and how little the game gives you vehicles, hence why having the Editor on PC to make your own small battles ARMA-style is important or download other people's missions.
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Operation Flashpoint- A good realistic RTS akin to a "Modern Day" Men of War would be something great to see. (So a RTS with more of a focus on micromanging soldiers/vehicles than base-building/resource gathering like an almost isometric tactical shooter, down to vehicles being able to have individual components damaged and their own inventories.)
Commandos - I honestly think a TPS Tactical shooter-ish style spin-off could work, (similar to the zoomed in third person view in Desperados 2/Helldorado if you've played those.) with a focus on third person stealth and switching between the individual commandos similar to the isometric games with with the "Personal" touch of third person.
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"If the world choses to become my enemy, I will fight like I always have!" -Shadow Sonic 06
“I believe I’m going to have to disagree with you. You see, the man they’re attacking happens to be a friend of mine.” - Hector FE7
“It's all strength and power with you. If you're that desperate for a show of force, I'll be happy to oblige.” -Kliff Echoes
"Come on! We fighting or what?!" -Akhmet Marauder Man of Prey
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On 9/18/2020 at 10:23 PM, Perkilator said:
It's no secret that gambling is pretty controversial with video games (especially in the age of loot boxes). Opinions on the matter are usually negative once real life money gets involved. What's your opinion on this?
In my honest opinion, should be reduced to in-game currency, and ONLY in-game currency (and even then, it'd be best to avoid displaying it as a real-life slot machine).
Eh, I don't mind it resembling IRL Gambling, I loved the Gambling Mini-games in the Mario DS Games but have no desires to actually gamble IRL knowing how easily you can lose it all.
That said, Gambling with real money should never be a thing, it's absurd to me that the ESRB gets more mad about fictional gambling with fake money but when it's real money but it's not even a slot machine, that somehow makes it ok when honestly the second one is far worse.
As a Kid, even I saw how as the term I would know later goes, "The House always wins" with Mario, dressing it up sounds more insidious honestly, like disguising it as a more "Wholesome" thing.
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7 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:
I guess agree to disagree. I do not feel that Tellius is incomplete in any regard and I find the notion laughable. The worst I will acknowledge is that there was clearly an understandable jank in transitioning to 3D models for the first time.
On another note, why is there still a debate on the title of remakes? The Echoes is very clearly the one keyword that denotes a remake. It's before the colon, denoting series name, and Echoes essentially means "again". It's the "Shadows of" that was the subtitle, and thus subject to change in any remake.
It was at least incomplete somewhat for the Japanese I hear, since the second one had some pretty large balance changes/new unique weapons exclusive to English versions.
I voted for Elibe, if only because it's the first FE game I had a true connection with and seeing a proper FE6/7 linked (Story-wise, not being the same game) together remake of both would be amazing.
I'd probably play a Tellius/Magvel remake and I'm honestly not sure if I'd get a Geneology one. (Since alot of the stuff I really hated in the 3DS games started there technically.)
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Only really when well written.
The only game to kinda do it right so far in my experience was Three Houses and even then it's too early. (Fates technically takes longer, but it ultimately fails to actually do anything with that longer time and the writing ultimately means it might as well have been after one chapter like 3H)
They should do a single path again I'd say.
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Only if it's done similar to FE7 or Three Houses treated it's setting, if they go full weeb again then I really wouldn't.
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While I've not played it recently, after trying and failing to get into Fates, it's still pretty much the only good 3DS FE game IMO.
It's the only one I actually want to play at all.
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Silent Storm Sentinels
An expansion pack to SIlent Storm, a pretty good WW2 Turn-based strategy alt-history game.
Basically X-com inspired but with a limited pool of unique units, you still have action points and a grid inventory.
Main big selling point is the very high destructibility, got a locked door? you can pick it open...or blow it open, or blow the wall next to it down, you can uniquely even extend this to floors, blow up a ceiling and your units can actually climb up/down through that ceiling to go up/down floors.
It has proper bullet penetration, so it's possible to outright shoot through wooden walls to kill enemies/break them down.
You will need to a get a digital version if this interests you, since I think phyiscal copies have starforce which will brick modern PCs
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Bard because it's a fun dancer alternative.
They could even give different instruments with different effects for instnace.
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The only time Hubert does his S-rank romamtic blush outside of Byleth is with Ferdinand so I think it's safe to say its romantic.
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I liked FE7, loved Echoes and have a love/hate relationship with Three Houses. (Since I love the basic gameplay but some of the map gimmicks are abhorent.)
Only played a small bit of FE1 but I Liked it so far.
Hated Awakening and Fates was so bad that I didn't even get to the route-choice before calling it quits. (and regretting my choice of a digital copy I couldn't re-sell.)
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Depends alot.
I think FE7 is mostly fine, Echoes is mostly good until the last act trips and falls while Awakening's writing is so painful I could probably complain about every story beat for an absurdly long length. (And Fate's story was so bad that combined with the gameplay I didn't even get past pre-route, quitting just before you meet Azura.)
Three Houses I'd say is mostly good but like Echoes has really dumb moments. (And unfortunately the game's beginning, an important part of any game, is one of the more awful bits.)
Echoes does suffer from a lack of supports that should have existed though, but I did love every support (even the weak ones managed to still feel like two friends talking) in the game. (I just wish we got more, like Faye and Celica for instance.)
Still, Echoes and Three Houses managed to have me outright smiling at their epilogues with the fates of my cast, which isn't something most games can get. (And Awakening's solo Kellam ending managed to somehow make me think even less of a cast of characters I already despised by this point so much that I honestly wish Grima could win.)
FE6 is definitely really basic outside of supports and ironically proped up by FE7 simply showing us pre-war Elibe. (And fleshing out essentially dead background characters or ones with really minor roles like Hector as well as having a ton of MIA Characters that end up emphasing just how destructive this war has become when over half our playable FE7 Roster are dead or missing.)
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Yeah it looks pretty bad.
Also the "The Skill Tree will improve it" argument isn't one, I hate forced-in skill trees, which is what the vast majority of them feel like in my experience, so I really doubt that'll make the game good if your argument is the "Combat isn't bad! Sonic just starts weak!"
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Hector's cousin Orun.
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Finished my first Three Houses Route which was CF.
I got the DLC so I'm hyped to play that eventually then go through the other routes.
The game's flawed but it does feel like a game the devs put their heart and soul into and I honestly had a big grin watching the credits.
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The reason Mark wasn't in FE6 was because he fled the continent.
He eventually became the Tactical Advisor from AW1.
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Marth becomes a god of war sometime after his games, the reason Yuri Lowenthal is in so many games is because it's actually Marth reincarnated to take place in another war.
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If it's unrealistic within it's own confines (or goes way too far in liberties if set in the real world with real stuff.) then I think it's fair:
For instance, both Awakening/3H have super-strength:
In Awakening, Chrom and Lucina do not canonically have super-strength, yet they're capable of jumping/falling the distance of a tall building with no ill-effects in CG Cutscenes, it's just trying to be cool out of nowhere and looks dumb and unrealistic.
In 3H, Crests grant super-human abilities and the story to an extent deals with how they'd be out of battle, (I think I recall hearing it's even stated how Dimitri breaks Lances faster due to this.) they're not out of place in cutscenes just to look cool (Though 3H does have it's own problems with that such as Byleth nearly dying to a generic mage having a spell that doesn't even exist.), these characters actually have empowered strength due to them.
Or on a smaller detail, Chrom sticking his Sword in the ground all the time, it only makes sense in a turn-based context (In that why Chrom isn't simply rushed and gutted while defenseless) and it just sorta looks stupid regardless.
Same with battle animations, most FE battle animations are relatively grounded, but your suspension of disbelief isn't tested with where most absurd combat animations come from, as crits are rare and special. (Like how relatively grounded war movies might have a moment of two of over the top action, it's over the top but infrequent enough that it doesn't quite break your disbelief.)
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3 hours ago, joevar said:
1 tile per spell? on open field? on maps where enemy wait for you?
You can use enemy range to bait them into running into your mine as well as for enemies who aporoach you anyway. (Or blocking tiles you need to defend.)
Should "Pick your Path" be a series mainstay?
in General Fire Emblem
Posted · Edited by Samz707
I can't agree, sometimes fiction wants to have a sad ending, or at least not perfect, and bad thrown-in "Oh no Emmeryn was alive!" stuff only ever undercuts it usually.
Also no, as someone who started with a reclassing game (Awakening), having fixed classes allows for a more focused experience, as the devs can fully predict what units the players have and work around it, 3H can't really predict what units you have so even if you avoid all meta, it's clearly not as well-designed for what units you have as FE7 or Echoes. (Still better than the disaster of Awakening admittingly.)
And from what I hear about Hopes,
you have to earn Jeralt/Rodrigue surviving that game via doing side quests and such, it's something you earn, by default, both of them die unless you do certain things as opposed to just dropping money on a golden route.
Personally, I don't mind beloved characters getting screwed if it feels like it's natural, it's why I like how FE7 is in retrospect almost a kind of tragedy considering how FE6 happens afterwards.