Lagdou

Noticed a weird bug yesterday, just after finishing Hard mode. I was reading Cashew's support to understand who his father is. Read all his A-support and the B-support with the bald Berserker. Coming back to the Support conversation screen, I noticed that the top-left image (Storch) was replaced by the image of a citizen character without name. When clicking on it, the screen turned black and stopped answering. That's all. It worked when relaunched.

Sorry for the double post, but I noticed a bug after posting my previous message. In Chapter 3-X, when a Thief open the Door while being situated on the Chest (i.e. because he was warped inside the treasures room), the game considers that he opens the Chest instead of the Door. The Chest had been open before. So I found myself with 6 Purge in the Supply. Just in case I would have lacked money or weapons.

Hello Pandan, Currently finishing an Hard run after completing the game in Normal. I really hope that you make the sequel ! The storyline is simply too good and the clues you left in the game (Lera being green colour like her father, Marlen being the Paladin of the Lord, Esfir and Helga having enemy side outfits, Esfir never interacting with Titus...) are great content. I mostly liked the fact that you are forced to play with non-ordinary Heroes. Each FE cast of an official game is clearly following the stereotype of their class. Here, Vagelis is a "main" character but is a clear exaggeration of the strong male Archer. Larisa has to be thought about differently because she can be doubled, but resist Mage better. Timmonen is exactly the Soldier you wanted to play in FE8, but you had no access to this class and it was not in the base game. Titus is relatively weak by himself, but strong when surrounded by others and during enemy phase. I also liked that, during second play through, you notice a lot of details since the moment Titus join. Details that are extremely revealing on the future storyline, but that you miss during first play trough. It is only at last chapter, and seeing the heroism of the "vilain" Emperor and the humanity of his Paladin, that I plainly realized the responsibility of the player for directing soldiers at war just to... replace someone by someone else. I had difficulties to play this chapter. I have some limitations: First, when you play with the rule "If Death, starts again" like I do, you have overleveled character that finishes the game relatively easily. The challenge is to hold correctly what the game is throwing at you for 3/4 turns in the last chapters. I understand the point of the design was to simplify an Ironman run, but most of the time you simply bench these new characters because they are weaker than the current members of your party. Second, the chapters are a bit redundant. There is a lack of "surprising" chapters like beating all the bosses again in FE7, or holding the Rausten castle at nighttime in FE8. Most likely the technical limitations of the GBA, but I did not remember a mountainous map, for example. Navigating a narrow space while being attacked by Wyverns. Third, you rapidly understand that the different designs are not efficient in Hard. Bosco and the bouddhist monk are too slow, for example. They are interesting and different designs of high durability characters, but the way FE and your game are designed is to advance fast on the map by doubling ennemies. If the goal is to make truly different characters, maybe it is more about the character abilities creating radically different gameplays. Fourth, the game is a bit biased toward high Defense character. The key is to hold the frontline. It is most efficient to use Infantry because there is no anti-cavalry or anti-flying weapons, occasionally anti-armour. Most of the game has been to rely on Storch and Larisa, then Kir and Surya, to carry the team. I would not have minded the enemy countering these strategies. Fifth, I think that the last part is too short and not epic enough. Overall, excellent experience, highly recommend, 9.5/10.

Thanks for your replies.

In terms of what is important for my enjoyment: Character Design: Uninteresting and even detrimental, at first sight. Once you get used to characters being designed to accommodate all kind of audiences, you accept their design and sometimes appreciate the references to the History of Fire Emblem. Zhelkov is a relief because I finally played with a sinister thief instead of a nice thief. Jaffar was sinister but had no developed personality. Lapis is interesting because the gimmick of the pink-haired technical girl finds an interesting niche. Giving it a rural background allowing her to see the utility of basic objects is very pertinent. Anna is an interesting interpretation of the comical resort of interpreting everything in terms of economic utility, and only remembering human values to manipulate people into buying something. Mauvier is interesting for three aspects. First, in terms of his function as the "reverse paladin" of Veyle. Second, as a sincere religious believer of the negative church, who don't change his beliefs even after switching side. Third, because he contrasts with most of the playable characters for his maturity. There are some sympathetic references in the rest of the cast: Boucheron seems to be a reference to Age of Empires 2 and Frank's Villagers shouting "Bucheron !", Kagetsu is an interesting social reinterpretation of the Japanese-samurai-from royal origins-travelling the world to improve his skills-always looking for a challenge, Celine and Celica has a vibe that somebody of another generation than me could probably explain, Citrinne's name and appearance are well-executed for an Electric Mage, Fogado and Timerra are obviously referencing to Oberyn Martell, Veyle is built on Lyon... But that's a bit superficial. And there are a lot of characters that I simply cannot like: The "manga characters" Clamme, Framme and Yunaka, who run with their arms behind them in "V", are comprehensive fan service for the basic audience of their game, especially in an hommage game, but this is not my cup of tea. The "intimidating" Etie and Panette, with this Joker tattoo, is simply something that I cannot take seriously because very poorly executed, and led me to immediately bench them by lack of emotional connection with the characters. The main characters Albert, Diamand and Ivy having a transparent personality without any aspect standing out to make them memorable... But once you accepted that the goal of this game is to present a cast providing satisfactions to most people, it's fine. World building: It is surprisingly fine, once you understand that it is about doing something minimalist. A circle to symbolise the four seasons. The good people living in the sky and the bad people below the Earth. Possible inter-dimensional tricks to summons the historic places of The Emblem. Clear references to original real-world place (Mont Saint Michel, Notre-Dame, Alhambra (?)) for the capital cities. Running the inside circle to finish the game, after running the outside circle. When it has no pretensions and this is correctly executed, you can hardly criticise it. What you can criticise is some cultural mismatch: Firene is modelled on France, but the culture and History of France is "realistic dark". The capital of Solm seems to be based on the Alhambra, meaning a Arabic-European culture. Story: I like realistic and complex stories with hard moral lessons, so I rapidly dropped any expectation about enjoying the story of this game. But once you have understood that this game is about paying tribute to the saga by running the simple "Good Heroes vs Evil Dragon"... I realised it was not a bad choice. You are the good guys and they are the bad guys. All the characters are positive and all the Emblems give valuable lessons to the player. Because the boss characters don't die, you either convince them to join you and save them, or you either creates recurring ennemies that you appreciate to fight again and again. And the quality of situations, dialogues and cutscenes in the last chapters comes as a completely unexpected surprise. It's also good to occasionally have a soft Fire Emblem. Emblems Mechanics: They replace the durability of weapons, since the point of the durability of weapons is to provided the player with occasional power spikes. On the positive side, you can use your more powerful weapon all the time and experience a real progression in the kind of weapons you are using, while in GBA game you still use Iron weapons against Silver weapons opponents. You also have access to unique abilities modifying the basic rules of the game, allowing different and interesting strategic options, which imitate the philosophy of cardgames with expensive cards breaking the game by modifying its rules. They also unlock a RPG competence tree allowing a lot of personalisation for each character. On the negative side, you lose the original meaning of Fire Emblem in which all units have realistic abilities, since they become units with "superpowers". I also noticed that in situation that would force you to temporise and organise a defence before counter-attacking, or restart the chapter for using the wrong units in the wrong place, you can simply get out of this situation by using the Emblems ability. Especially because each map makes sure that you can reload them halfway. I am mitigated on this one, because I liked too much the challenge of solving GBA games with Iron Weapons and Heal staff, and assuming your errors. Maps: I do not include this criteria, because it is especially important for games with limited technical abilities like the GBA games. In the modern games, I have the impression that maps have to be more tolerant of players. There are interesting ideas like Griss attacking randomly from the shadows... and... Ike destroying the castle... and... Fleeing while being attacked by your own rings... And... Hum... Defending the castle with a balista... Except that this "trick of the map" works in your favor rather than working against you. The Crystal stuff in the last chapter already existed in the last map of the Valni tower in Sacred Stones. The avalanche map is not punitive at all, since the map is designed to limit the consequences of being caught by an avalanche. There is really a lack of memorable maps. The problem of this game is really the maps, much like Three Houses. When doing the paralogues, you really notice the difference with maps that were intended to have a particular identity. Leif paralogues explicitly requires to use Warp, Sigurd paralogue can become a map in which you try to hold a mage assault with characters that are not particularly built for that. Even Roy paralogue can be perceived as being significantly different due to the presence of mountains on the majority of the map, because you perceive the difference in playstyle when your movements are limited, especially when being caught inside a reinforcement. I also have a huge problem with the Desert maps, who have lost all their identity by becoming "Valni tower" maps in which you have to move in the correct tempo rather than facing a movement penalty. I also severely dislike how they try to hide the low/high tide map as a desert map. It looks like a Mario Kart kind of trick for the visual effect. I think that the direction that Fire Emblem has taken for its map is concerning, since it is all about being tolerant of the player, while the mechanics of the game are already very tolerant of the player... Bond Rings: I find this mechanic really interesting, but more appropriate is it was a secondary ring for each character. It provides unique variations to characters. It's interesting but under-developed. Dagger Mechanics: I really welcome the addition of a weapon that is neutral to the Weapon triangle (Fists have less the flavour of a weapon). I understand the Thief class being slightly overpowered because this is how you are testing the limits of the mechanic to balance it later. "No Error" Cristal: I could understand having 5 utilisations of the Crystal if each map was supposed to last 20 turns and provide many situations in which the player could missjudge something, but in the context of FE:Engage, it is really about helping the inexperienced played to not struggle too much. For the veteran player, exploiting this mechanic is about attempting bold moves resulting in RNG gambles... Engraving: The problem of this mechanic is that you have no internal guide to understand which particular weapons and build benefits from which Engraving. It is a bit problematic because many of them require a good theoretical understanding of what you are doing. Boost Objects: I am honestly released to see that you cannot feed 10 Speedwings to a single character, like in GBA games, and that some constraints have been inputed. Forging: I am not a fan because it's too easy to create an efficient character with this mechanic. Overall, I judge Engage to be the kind of experience that accomplish correctly its intended goal to be a soft game for new players. It is an almost flawless positive experience with surprisingly good aspects, but it does not have the density required for greatness. 7/10

Ok, so what you are saying is that some skills are objectively superior to others and it is therefore more efficient to invest in these skills rather than trying to find the build for each character .I decided to drop this constraint after realising the game was meant to promote characters rapidly. I only managed to make a more complex game experience for myself when refusing to follow this new philosophy... This is the reflection I made to myself. If I was playing with GBA full reset or in a mode without reset, I would suddenly find her very interesting to avoid RNG death to critical. Ah, thanks for this complete explanation on why Yunaka is better. Mostly, because I did not realise that Mage were ignoring the terrain effects. Indeed, I started realizing in my playhtrough that she made an interesting alternative, not really in terms of damages since her lower output is compensate by critical, but because Resistance covers the weakness of the strategy. Ok, in a flexible promotion system, it is also about which classes are objectively better in the context of the game. Ah, thanks for the Vantage tip. I did not read about it. I am not surprised to read that average players overrate Diamand. He is good at best, but mostly because I feel like physical units are not stellar in this game. There is nothing particularly remarkable about him. I note the best class for magical units is suggested to be Mage Knight. I am bit surprise about that since they have no access to staff (on contrary to GBA). I started realizing that Pandreo is not that different than others magical units. They all have unremarkable defense and the only point about them is to double the enemy to inflict large quantities of damages. So Veyle makes a good Byleth user. I thought she had an inherent built in Sage that was not needing the Olwen ring... Ok. By the way, I feel like it's an hidden reference to Vision Quest, since Titus is a bit unremarkable when he does not use his signature weapon (I remember struggling to make him gain enough XP without using the tome, so I had to use the tome in the last chapters before his promotion, which suddenly transformed him into a power house Ok, I am glad to be confirmed that this map can only be solved "properly" with Warp. Thanks for the complete review of Alear, and for the review of all characters, they make a lot of important details to take into account.

Hello, I am a long-time player who would like criticism of his opinions on characters and emblem choices after 1.5 Hard playthroughs to test the mechanics of the game, before doing a Maddening play through. I play according to the following self-imposed rules and would also appreciate to know whether I should adapt some of them in Maddening: - During first play through, no use of Internet to build a character efficiently. Only using the Wiki and general articles to know which characters to use. - No exploitations of mechanism that are specific to the game during my first playthrough if they are found on Internet. Test and find out. - First play through in Maddening until being soft-locked by ignorance and decreasing to Hard. - Playing "in the spirit of the game" by solving maps efficiently and resolving secondary objectives. - No promotion in base class before Level 20. - No use of "trick staffs". Only Heal, Cure and Remedy. - No use of items giving statistics bonuses. I note with a "None" what I did not attributed and "?" what I do not remember. First Playthrough I soft locked myself by Chapter 9 and decreased to Hard. After struggling in Chapter 10 and finding Chapter 11 tight, then seeing many potential party members joining in 3 chapters, I decided to exploit the "No Death" Skirmishes to level up a bit, test the mechanics of the game and see the potential of different characters. I did not keep track of the XP curve and ended up overleveled without realising it, because I did not know that the XP gain is faster in Hard than Maddening. The game was easier from this point. Alear F - (Marth) (Avoid - Dual Support) - (Divine Dragon) - (Liberation +5 - Holy/Dawn Engrave) I initially did not understand she was supposed to be a dodge tank and found her mediocre for a main hero. In my second playthrough, I make her inherit Avoid from Marth before Chapter 10 and plan to inherit Dual Support from Lucina. It seems to me that forging and engraving Liberation is an optimal strategy, and I used Holy engrave to further increase Avoid, but wonder whether Dawn would be a better choice. Zelkov - (Corrin) (HP+ 15 - None) - (Thief) - (Silver Dagger - None) He seemed broken potential when facing him. I accidentally read a guy on Reddit explaining how Corrin abilities was making him break the game. I tested and concluded that the Dragon Vein ability alone creates chokepoints that simplify the game. Then I realized that: (i) Pair Up cancels his main weakness (ii) +HP mitigates unfavourable RNG, and would help countering foes with attacks that don't miss if they existed (iii) Arena training with Leif allows to inherit Knife Precision to make the Avoid further absurd if needed. I concluded that this character breaks the game, but would like further opinions on the optimal build and the Engrave. Kagetsu - (Roy) (None) - (Swordsmaster) - (Wo Dao +5 - None) He was praised by everyone. I used it without investments and without an Emblem for most of the game, and he was performing normal. I forged the Wo Dao to turn him into the usual Swordmaster, and gave him Roy by the end of the game to cover the usual weaknesses of epeists: low HP, low STR, low Res. I realized that In Extremis solves the epeists issue of dying fast to unfavourable RNG or a counter unit. I did not search an optimal build because he was easily delivering, but I would appreciate some directions. Ivy - (Lyn) (+5 Speed - None) - (Lyndwurm) - (Inferno - None) The build is straightforward and probably intended by the developers to work as such. I further boosted her basic Speed stat. I noticed that Alacrity was less important, thus that a build with Speed +5 and Speedtaker would allow her to use another emblem, but she obtains technical points too slowly for that. She is a powerhouse and I did not make further efforts to optimise her, and would appreciate some directions. Chloe - (Eirika) (Dodge + 30 - Lance Power 3) - (Griffin Knight - Spear & Staff) - (Silver Lance / Javelin - None) I decided to ignore Albert and gave her Sigurd. It never felt particularly pertinent, since being a flier mitigates the inherent Canto utility of the emblem, but the statistics bonuses seemed right for a flier. Losing the ring meant I had no directions to gave her. I tried Griffin Knight with Staff, but her magic is underwhelming. I reclassed her into Wyvern Knight, but without emblems she was not notable. I reclassed them again in Griffin Knight with Swords, and by the end of the game I found that Eirika was making her contributing. She always felt like she was a utility unit, never more or less. Because Erika gives a Magic bonus, I concluded that the path to test was: Griffin Knight with Staff, train her with Sigurd in the Arena to inherit Lance Power. I would like to have opinions on that. I also did not test any weapons with her, neither engraving anything. Panette - (Leif) (Defense + 5 - Resolve +) - (Berserker) - (Lethal Axe - Corrin) I realized that some Engrave allows particular builds, and tried to exploit that with Panette and Lethal Axe. To make the build viable, I heavily invested into Arena training with Ike to make a physical tank holding the front line, but did not use Ike on her because she lacked flexibility (being locked on Lethal Axe). She inherited Leif by lack of alternatives, and because the idea of reinforcing the role of physical tank in situations of needs seemed at least a benefit. She delivered. She largely simplified player phase and boss fights. She was rarely in danger of dying. There is nothing complex but it works well enough to solo the final boss. That's all. I would like to know whether this build is pertinent in Maddening Diamant - (Ike) (Defense + 5 - ?) - (Successeur) (Silver Axe / Tomahawk / Silver Sword / Iron Axe / Iron Sword - None) I struggled understanding his potential with Roy, who is not particularly good for him. Then I thought the Ike emblem weak because real players would not fall into the area of effect. I was using him as a regular unit because his status of main character was supposed to make him good. Once I developed more fluency with the game, and read on Internet to use Ike on him, he was severely under-levelled and never really catched up, but he was delivering on his role of physical tank with a versatile arsenal of weapons. Nothing more or less. I would like to know what I missed and what I am supposed to do from the very beggining to the final optimisation of the character, since many people put him in A-Tiers or even S-Tiers. Anna - (Byleth) (Luck + 12 - ?) - (Warrior then Sage) - (Inferno / Thunder - None) I missed understanding that she had to be promoted to Mage early, but I immediately understood her potential with Byleth. I reclassed her to Sage and she was a very solid character. In my second playthrough, I reclassed her rapidly to Mage with Celica, but I have no idea on which directions she should take from this point in terms of inherited abilities and engraves. Pandreo - (? - ?) - (Sage) (Inferno/Thunder - None) I saw him praised on Internet, and wanted to try the experience of a pre-promote that delivers. I never found him noticeable, except for his personal skills that increases his ability to be a problem solver. He is extremely vulnerable to hits and delivers the offensive power that you expect from a mage. I felt him like a mix between the Monk line and the Mage line. I made him a Sage to give him all the needed tools to contribute to the party, and did not expect to use him in my second playthrough. I would like to know if I should run him in maddening, and how. Hortensia - (Micaiah) (Staff Mastery 2 - Resistance + 3) - (Sleipnir Rider) (Heal - Inferno) Straightforward. I assume she remains in Maddening because she has offensive power. I am not convinced by Resistance + 3, I would like to give her the Magic + X of Celica. Veyle - (Celica) - (? - ?) - (Mage Knight) I used her to have a Celica user that was a magical glass canon, since Anna was using Byleth. I reclassed her to Mage Knight to unlock access to staff, sacrificing her versatile potential. She was underleveled than the rest of my party and I never saw her true potential, neither understood how to unlock it. Is she worthy to play in Maddening ? Is there a build with Byleth to have the +7 statistics bonus on everyone ? Merrin - (Lucina) - (Draconic Hex - ?) - (Wolf Knight) - (Thunder Daggers / Iron Daggers) Extremely hard to judge because Hard difficulty gives margin to the player. I never used the Special Attack of Lucina, neither her fusion weapons. The additional damages are great but most of the time they don't make a difference, since I build my party around characters hitting hard. Additionally, she is extremely vulnerable and does not dodge well. The only positive points is that she regularly delivers critical and that training her with Corrin in the arena allows to inherit Draconix Hex. I bench her for my second playthrough, but would like to know whether she is recommended in Maddening, since support is probably much more important. Other characters: Alcryst - (Lyn) - (None) - (Sniper) - (Silver Bow - Long Bow) The build with Lyn was obvious and was my first test, because Three Houses made clear that Flying units are the most dangerous enemies, and GBA mechanics make clear that a good archers with Strength, Resistance and all the tools is the best support of the game. Paired with a dancer it largely simplifies problematic situations. I therefore immediately understood that Alcryst was meant to be used with heavy bows and both his Dexterity and Speed had to be taken care of. He was exactly doing this role, even better with the emblem abilities, and ended up the highest level member of my party. Then I benched him because I had understood what to expect from him, and I realized that Luna was a random, thus unreliable ability. And I have intellectual habits of not using random abilities in strategy games, because in my experience it's a bad choice. I tried using him again in late chapters, but without Lyn he seems to not shine. Albert - (Sigurd) - (Dodge + 30 - Lance Power 3) - (Avenir) - (Killer Lance - Beginnigns) I decided to invest in him than Chloe in my second playtrough because I understood that his difficult start was probably an adjustment of the developer to avoid him breaking the early game. Thus I decided to play him "as intended" and like the possibility to break the game with him existed. I gave him Sigurd and he was benefitting from the emblem more than Chloe. I engraved his weapon with beginnings and gave him the Killer Lance of Amber, and he really contributed. He still has Speed issues by the midgame, but it seems common to the Knight line, and his physical tank abilities are good enough to not have a problem, as long as he is not attacked by 3 ennemies. Good when played as intended, but is it enough for Maddening ? Yunaka - Zelkov convinced me to build a second dodge tank in Thief with her. Zelkov was not using the additional Avoid of Leif, so it means that she does something similar to him, with 25 Avoid less by abilities, probably less Speed, but higher Def and Res. Thus I plan to pair up with Leif, and perhaps reclass her to Wolf Knight with Sword and Lancebreaker. I would like to know if this is pertinent, in my second play through she delivers as a support but I do not see the potential for carrying the team at the moment. Timerra - I benched her immediately after reading on Internet that her unique class also has a random ability. Fogado - I tested the Radiant Bow with Anna Warrior, and it was so efficient that I crafted it to +5. I read on Internet that he was the best Radiant Bow user, but is it enough to justify a Maddening use ? How to build him, in that case ? Lapis - I tried using her, but she does not deliver without emblems. Not enough STR, not enough durability on the first line, not enough movement to support by lack of dodge, no access to a range support in her base class. I gave her Roy in my second play though, since Kagetsu was absent, and she was doing much better. I was forced to bench her when Kagetsu joins, but it seems clear to me that this unit has potential, I just don't understand how to invest in her. And would it be worthy in Maddening ? Citrine - I used her in second playthrough because Jean and Anna are in training at this time. She is nothing noticeable and has Speed issues. I benched her, lacking to see any potential. Does she have any particular utility outside of the early game ? Jean - Currently used in my second play through. He is "Staff locked" and therefore grinds XP slowly, but I clearly see the potential. I just wonder what is the finality with him, and with which emblem. Thank you for any comment.