emazur

I just finished it for the first time on hard/casual. I liked it a lot - gameplay, music (Sacrifice and the Saint & What Lies at the End are a couple of my favs), voice acting, character design, decent story. Rating: 9/10 Here are the things I didn't like: Chapter 1 & 2 are way too easy on hard difficulty So many maps rely very, very heavily on main enemies being holed inside a compound and the only way in is a pain in the ass (this is especially true if you do not have a unit with the rescue spell to help punch a hole in their defenses. I did not have such a unit since I classified Faye as a Pegasus knight) Some maps also rely too heavily on casting Invoke and hoping you get lucky that the enemies will attack the illusions instead of you. The first swamp battle on Celica chapter 4 was one example - once crossing onto land I had Genny cast invoke at a suitable time (some allies for sure would have died otherwise). I got unlucky in that one of the enemy archers decided to target her instead of an illusion which would have killed her, but also got lucky that he missed. The good thing is that grinding is not needed to beat hard. The bad thing is that grinding is replaced by very time consuming random encounters which you need to put up with in order to hunt down badly needed valuable resources, especially in the dungeons (which I wasn't too crazy about in the first place and also badly need a better map display, which you'd think they could do with a 2-screen system) The last stretch of the final battle on chapter 5 - the only time in the game I finished a battle that resulted in defeated allies (I think 5). One specific pain in the ass was that magic unit with the silver shield. Celica, who was rated 172 with an attack rating of 30, could take him out but the battle forecast showed she would also die in the encounter (even if equipped with something like the Hex shield). Saber, rated 134 with an attack of 17 + 5 (Brave Sword) could only forecast a whopping 2 points of damage and Kamui's rating was nearly identical. The only reason I was able to beat him was because Gray (Dread Fighter) was eligible for villager promotion prior to entering the door to the Temple of Duma at the beginning of Chapter 5. I decided to promote him (since I hadn't done this before) and then fairly quickly grinded him up to level 7 Myrmidon and he became re-eligible for Dread Fighter promotion during the Duma Dungeon battles. This brought his rating up to 181 (the highest in my game) with an attack stat of 31 + 5 (Brave Sword). So I won only because I made a lucky choice (I hate relying on lucky choices) and because I did some grinding (also hate but since it was just one character it wasn't so bad). And that lucky choice was built upon the lucky choice of putting him on the path to dread fighter at the beginning of the game. So maybe my previous point about not needing grinding isn't so accurate One final gripe (not unique to Echoes) - it's not 1985 anymore so how about more than 3 save slots on a console game? I would have tried another strategy for beating Duma that hopefully would end without losses but I didn't want to overwrite my other 2 saves. So I decided to overwrite my current save and not bother with a rematch I suppose I could gripe about Thabes Labyrinth too (gave up after losing on 5th floor boss) but I'll let it slide since it's optional

I just made this for myself and figured I'd post here in case anyone else was interested. Nearly 80 minutes, 6 tracks are from the original soundtrack, 18 tracks are arranged covers mostly found on youtube, and 1 track (Justice RIP) is an original + arranged mashup. Some of these are pretty obscure obscure with less than 1000 views on youtube - if you don't want to download and preview only the tracks sourced from Youtube then click here for a playlist Wav files zipped: https://ufile.io/p7of5gxu .NRG CD image file (burn with NERO😞 https://ufile.io/6tbfwtzk A basic album cover is attached here as a PDF though I've included a couple pictures to preview: Album artwork sourced from below and here: https://www.deviantart.com/cinnamon-quails/art/Lilith-614544802 Fire_Emblem_Awakening_and_Fates.front.pdf

For reference Radiant Dawn normal is sharply more difficult than Blue Lions hard mode (which from memory is mainly hard in some of the Paralogues and the final map) but about equal to Three Houses DLC campaign on hard. I'm somewhat similar to you in regards to seeking the right difficulty in Fire Emblem. The GBA trilogy (I played way back in the day) I don't recall having any issues on normal, same with Path of Radiance (played first time last year). Three Houses normal (also played last year) was too easy for me and my next game after was Awakening (hard) which was significantly harder than Radiant Dawn normal. I was only able to beat it b/c I played on casual mode and I made a couple lucky choices on characters which paid off. B/c of that I played Birthright on normal but that along with Three Houses normal was the easiest of all. Revelations hard was less challenging than Radiant Dawn normal I'll also suggest the Shining Force games from the 1990s which don't have permadeath

Try thinking local instead of the internet. Pick up one of those apartment finder guides typically found in the entrance of grocery stores or other businesses which are tailored to apartments in the local area where the guides are distributed. They usually clearly label the apartment policies, possibly showing an icon like a dog or bone to indicate pet friendly. The local newspaper (and/or its website) or weekly city newspaper my also be good places that advertise apartments. Also consider the possibility of staying in a long term hotel (at least temporarily) instead of an apartment. Extended Stay America is one example (I've used it for regular length stays several times) and they are pet friendly: https://www.extendedstayamerica.com/company/faqs Worth noting is it's a bad time to be a renter as rates all across America are skyrocketing https://www.ibj.com/articles/rents-skyrocketing-across-united-states-with-no-end-in-sight

For me the most memorable ones are the hardest ones because I died repeatedly trying to figure out what to do. In the cases below these are both final bosses #1 Lunar Silver Star Story (PS1) - Ghaleon. He has powerful wave attacks that can damage every member of the team - balance offense, defense, and healing is key. My last surviving unit (Mia - a magic user) was out all out of magic and her physical attacks are weak. But I was all out of options and 1 more hit would have killed me so I went in for a physical attack. It finished him. Much, much harder game than the Sega CD version #2 Gear of War 1 (PC) - Raam. I remember it being very difficult to determine when he'd be vulnerable to attack and how I could hit him during that time without taking on major damage. One thing that helped was staying under cover but only sticking up your arm to shoot (I had played the entire game without noticing you could do that) Honorable mention since it's a more recent play (2020 in my case) - Resident Evil 4 (Assignment Ada side mission) - Krauser. Like Gears of War it is difficult to catch this boss with his guard down and you take a lot of damage if you slip up. I think I wound up equipping the rifle and zooming it at him which would cause him to rapidly zigzag towards you. For a brief moment after he appears before Ada you can shoot him (I think in the shin or foot) with the rifle (which isn't easy)

Thanks - I didn't know unit placement was determined by buildings (I just went back and checked #33 and #34 of the in-game tutorial - it is mentioned in there but easy to miss. Really the building placement should be merged with the battle prep screen for invasions. And I had no idea buildings are rotatable and didn't see that mentioned in the tutorial)

According to the below I should get 10 and I looked at Youtube to confirm that but see my pictures below - can only choose 6 https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/My_Castle/Invasion_3_(Birthright) And before that it was limited to 7 units (which I thought was normal and I think I had the same number for Invasion 1 & 2) - I lost the battle the first time with a random & haphazard layout and after spending 90 minutes figuring out a hopefully better layout I noticed the number dropped to 6 which clued me in that something was definitely wrong. So I tried demolishing 1/3 to 1/2 of the buildings and got rid of the 3 puppets to see what would happen and actually that drops the available units down to only 4 (I didn't take pictures of that). So what's going on here?

I too had to make this decision recently and doing a bit of research found the overwhelming consensus was to do Birthright first and I'm now on Ch 20. A little advice: 1) I played Fire Emblem Awakening on hard but found the last 1/3 of the game would have been way too difficult if I hadn't made a few fortunate decisions early in the game (see thread in the Awakening forum). So I decided to play Birthright on Normal but it's too easy. So you might consider playing Birthright on hard and dropping the difficulty partway through if it's too much (you can't increase difficulty partway through, only decrease) 2) Castle Invasion (3 optional battles that slowly become available) - especially on the 1st battle you really don't know what you're in for and some things are not well explained. There's 1 special ally who appears only in these battles and as far as I can tell the only thing she does is take a beating (and can't take much) even though it shows she can supposedly heal others and seems to have offensive magic capabilities but no actual weapon to use. Don't do the battle as soon as it becomes available (build up the castle / level up that ally first) if playing on classic mode

GPU is mostly important for 3D (I doubt 2D only gamers even give a second thought to the GPU). If you look at laptops on Slickdeals in the $400 to $500 range probably any of them will do the trick. If you're willing to spend more on 3D the one with the 3050 TI (3D card) in my first post really is an exception deal - the next cheapest laptop I could find with the same GPU is $850 (which is also a relatively cheap price) but this is easy to buy anywhere: https://www.bestbuy.com/site/asus-tuf-gaming-17-3-laptop-intel-core-i5-8gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx3050-ti-512gb-ssd-eclipse-grey/6464212.p?skuId=6464212 But if you have that kinda money it's only a little bit more ($1000) to buy a laptop with (at first glance) easily better specs: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1639833-REG/msi_crosshair_17_a11udk_091_17_3_crosshair_17_gaming.html

If it was me, no - I looked up the GPU on this model which is GTX 1650. There's nothing wrong with that but it's absolutely demolished by the RTX 3050 TI of the machine I linked to (you can check yourself by searching for websites that do a gpu comparison check. You can also do a CPU comparison check. The ones I was just looking at weren't very user friendly so perhaps someone else can chime in with a recommended comparison check site). And don't forget that buying secondhand means little or no warranty - if you're spending several hundred dollars not worth it IMO (couple hundred? might consider rolling the dice). Honestly the best advice advice is from my first post - it's what I'd tell my own family to do (factoring in target budget) and what I'd do myself

I'd look on the website Slickdeals - there's one on the front page that looks really really really nice for $600 brand new that even has a nice GPU that's budget friendly: https://slickdeals.net/f/15628594-new-customers-acer-predator-helios-300-i7-11800h-rtx-3050-ti-15-6-144hz-600-w-text-coupon-valid-in-store-only?src=frontpage But in-store only may be an issue for that particular deal. If so keep looking at the site daily for the next couple weeks and you'll find something soon enough (don't just check the front page, check the forums > hot deals and also make use of the search function)

I never owned a 3DS until recently (played Awakening so far). I also own Fates [Conquest] and Echos (physical copies) but not yet opened and originally planned to wait a few months to start playing. So this closure could effect me if I don't act in time. Can the Birthright campaign be purchased at the discounted price anytime after starting Conquest or do I have to wait until Chapter 6 (I think that's when you "choose sides") to buy at discount? And Revelation can be purchased anytime? Edit: I started the game earlier than originally planned - Birthright can be purchased immediately upon starting the game

I've been into video game music since the early 90s - at the time VGM and techno were my favorite kinds of music (I'd probably say VGM still is) but I've branched out quite a bit into other styles since then. A few observations: 1) There are actually a good number of bands & musicians that make really excellent instrumental music of various styles that would fit in well with VGM fans and they have been making this music for decades. But they're not so easy to casually come across. Example bands: Angels of Venice (Celtic & fantasy), David Arkenstone (fantasy / new age / world), Ancient Future (world fusion), Mahavishnu Orchestra ("jazz fusion" is the label but sounds a lot more like instrumental rock to me than jazz - think Shining the Holy Ark arranged soundtrack). I can post some example songs if requested 2) New music discoverability is actually not so easy or intuitive. You can say "the music you hear today" mostly sucks and you might be inclined to think of perhaps the current or recent chart toppers of music popular with general audiences like pop, rock, hip-hop. But I've found if you listen to the radio stations of something more "highbrow" like classical or jazz - the stuff on the air tends to be boring and inoffensive (not that I'm looking for "offensive" music). Generally speaking the people who control music programming try to appeal to the least common denominator. Meaning a lot of bland - think of the pictures you typically see in hotel and motel rooms and that's what applies to music. Classical rock stations tend to have relatively high quality but overly narrow selections so discoverability is limited (there is almost no chance you will ever hear a Mahavishnu Orchestra track). Video game music isn't immune to this problem - how many times have you heard a live orchestra or cover band play the same old themes from Super Mario Bros, Zelda, Castlevania, Sonic, Final Fantasy, and Halo? Or try the Slacker Radio VGM channel - same problem (and rant to Slacker - if you're gonna play a Zelda medley can you do better than that same old one that sounds like it's playing on a $100 wavetable MIDI card from 1994?). Anyway bottom line - both artists and music programmers try to find a balance between mass appeal, quality, and originality - the scales are usually tipped in the direction of mass appeal, regardless of genre 3) My tip for actively discovering new music - give any track 1 minute to decide yes or no if you like it. And listen to a lot of tracks. Even if it's from a genre or artist you don't care for. Remember that artists can and do evolve and sometimes go off the rails on the same album. Do you associate the rock band Incubus with traditional Asian instruments? If not try Aqueous Transmission. Or the Eagles of Hotel California fame - they wouldn't do a 7 minute instrumental of new age / fantasy rock that could just as easily be from a video game or David Arkenstone album, right? If you thought no, try Journey of the Sorcerer. And outside of licensed music to Rock Band, The Beatles have no connection to video game music do they? Well Paul McCartney "the most successful composer and recording artist of all time, with 60 gold discs and sales of over 100 million albums and 100 million singles" did the soundtrack for Destiny (haven't heard it yet myself). Giving 1 minute to discover new music is a small price to pay and there will be pleasant surprises

I received an email from Nintendo - the pre order page is up ($59.99): https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/fire-emblem-warriors-three-hopes-switch/?cid=Direct&eid=Direct02092022&crmid=933C3C2D-9A3F-4419-B933-54D987B43630

I never played the other FE Warriors game - did they directly recycle the music from previous entries or do all new arrangements or introduce new music?