BrightBow

Fire Emblem is more antiquity for the most part. But admittedly the difference is hard to tell these days. But personally I don't consider that theme overused at all. And Awakening being Victorian era themed was also pretty nice and kept things fresh. I am still hoping for that Fire Emblem Mars setting, though.

I find myself agreeing with most points in the review. Well, I have no issue with the art, except for... well, any single female character. And the villains. And objectives aren't that big of an issue, seeing how it alway comes down to the same thing anyway. And of course, his observation about pair-up is obviously flawed. And his statement that the characters are "fairly well developed and have fun personalities" just makes my rolling on the floor with laughter. ...Okay, let's just skip to the points that I actually agree with. I especially liked him noting that the spoken lines don't match what's said in the dialogue Sometimes it's just a little moan to get some emotion across, which is good. But then other times, they shout entire lines that have nothing to do with anything, while you are trying to read. It makes it so painful to read the text. The game became so much better when I turned them off. Of course, this also disabled the voices during combat. But that is also for the better. Maybe they would have worked in the other games but with the current music direction, they simply don't. The goofy lines of the characters make them come across as if they treat the whole "kill or be killed" thing with the same seriousness as a Star Craft match. They destroy the atmosphere that the music is so hard trying to build. And it does take ages to build supports. I didn't get a single paralegal besides Morgan's. In the second to last map I finally got Frederick and Sumia to S-Rank. The two of them were effectively glued together for the whole game. And yeah, the kids are useless. Why bother raising this amateurs into decent units when you could use the same time to turn your regular units into demi gods? The whole mechanic is such a waste. And the point can the maps have no variety is spot on. This is what absolutely buries this game. The options menu can't fix that one. The maps are just a wide open field. Well except for a few random tiles that offer absolutely insignificant defense boasts. The enemies are so randomly scattered, that they seem to be placed by the same scripts that places street pass teams, who have to be random by their very nature. And doing the same thing over and over again, just with higher states on both sides, doesn't keep the game fresh for very long. In fact, for that reason I would say that just by playing the demo, you have seen anything that the game has to offer.

From what I remember, Barbossa has always decent critical. Wouldn't it be a bit to risky to resort to live and death? Sure, there is the save staff but wouldn't the hammer and the needlespear work just as well?

Why not? If the map is anything like infinite Regalia, it's pretty much post-game anyway. From there, it's just about grinding and srewing around. And I don't see how it would be IS job to limit that. Because there is nothing more annoying then having to restart the whole game after hundreds of hours because of some minor mistake when planning pairings.

For now, I guess that I just want to see Marth. Seeing how not only he and the Falchion got completely redesigned but he is also at the risk of being replaced by another lord with the exact same body build, I would like to see clarification about his fate as fast as possible.

I would say that FE5 is the only game in need of a remake. It's awesome and all but it suffers heavily from the fact, that you don't get to choose where your units start on the battlefield. It's not even like in Monshu, where the characters re-arrange, depending on who is selected. They all stay in the same position on the list. The only way to manipulate starting positions, is to use or not to use certain units. And later chapters have your characters start all over the place. You will effectively need to use warp just to get everyone into place. Either way, you will never feel like your set-up is particular optimal. All other games work fine or are already remade.

Battle for Wesnoth It's Open Source and freeware and stuff. So there is not much reason not to play it. I am actually kinda surprised how little you hear about it on a Fire Emblem forum off all things. I would say that it's immensely well designed. Character Levels are never a substitute for actual strategy. You might want to consider looking into Tear Ring Saga, seeing how it's virtually indistinguishable from the Fire Emblem series. Especially compared to Thracia 776. Heck, I would say that Kaga was practically begging to be sued by his former employee with this one. Anyway, It's definitely more my idea on how the series should have developed from Thracia. Unfortunately, at this point the available translation patch requires a lot of masochism past chapter 10. I personally would also claim that most infinity engine games (Baldur's Gate series, Icewind Dale) are pretty much SRPGs. Heck, the engine itself seems to be almost more designed for RTS games anyway. The parties can be pretty huge and mindlessly rushing into enemies goes about as well as it should. Baldur's Gate as actually characters as potential PCs while Icewind Dale has you create a whole party from scratch.

Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh!... I don't think my laptop is suited for this and I kinda expect countless compatibility problems with non-english versions and stuff but... man, I just got to get this to work, I can't believe that I hadn't even heard of this project. I also wonder how NW could possibly handle 5 AI allies at once without them tripping over their own feet all the time.

I do not think that there is a better playstyle. But Elitism is still elitism. Even if the Elite really is superior.

If I might come back to this a bit. The term "casual" is dismissive. It means that someone isn't really trying or doing things halfheartedly. By separating playstyles solely between LTC and "casual", you are putting that one style above anything else. It doesn't get much more elitist then that.

So LTCs play not for enjoyment?

How is it not elitism to refer to any playstyle other then LTC as "casual"?

I guess I give it a try: Chrom: Still with us, peasant? Chrom: So, you bum, I see you wear a sword? Chrom: WTF! You followed us! Why? Lissa: You just tell me where to go, Master. Chrom: Still with us, my love?

It's not any different from seize maps in any other Fire Emblem game: You seize the throne/gate and you win.

Whether she managed to pull it off or not isn't really important. What's important is that she was going to do it and that everybody was shocked about her ruthlessness while Avatar is praised to the heavens for the very same strategy. And not a single shit is given for the people who inevitable burned and drowned to death during the massacre while the "sea is on fire".

In comparison between Micaiah and Robin, I would like to point out one thing: When Micaiah wiped out an enemy army using oil and fire, it was treated as an act of unprecedented cruelty and cowardice. Everyone who didn't want her head immediately on a platter, was absolute shocked that she was capable to do such a thing. Micaiah herself was heavily guilt ridden from it. Not just because of the act herself, but also because she saw herself less affected by the death of one person then by all the other people that died because of her orders. Her acts weighted so heavily, that Micaiah couldn't belief it when Ike when begged her to stop the fighting. That he had it in him to forgive a crime of such magnitude, made her realize how wrong she was about him all the time. But when Robin wiped out an enemy army using oil and fire, it was treated as an tactical masterstroke and proof of his genius. Nobody bothered to say as much as: "Man, that's pretty cruel. But we have no choice." And the massacre was immediately forgotten after the end of the chapter. Allies and enemies alike just kept praising Robin's tactical skills from there on. And btw: Given that we know that Micaiah wiped out the 5000 troops from the Crimean army (extended script), I would guess that the people she killed that day went well into several 10.000s, Wallhart's forces were said to consist of over 1 Million troops. The invading forces alone, were already said to be twice the size of the Ylissian army. Given that Wallhart's remaining forces were weak enough to be defeated by said Ylissian army, we can probably conclude that the numbers of the Invasion troops went deep into the 100.000s. That's a lot of widows, widowers and orphaned children.

I corrected it then. Not sure how I could forget that. Sorry, for the trouble.

i mean regular hard mode, actually. I was kinda surprised that Gangrel's 25 Spd became standard so quickly.

But enemies in FE7 aren't all that powerful. Even in HHM. Sure, she is dead weight anyway but she can damage enemies and can be kept rather safe at range. I can't see Nowi catching up at all. Because the Def and Res inflation leaves little room for underleveled units to catch up. Not to mention, that there is no weight penalty in Awakening. I can't really see her catching up to all these Heroes with forged silvers with agility in the mid twenties. Though, admittedly I forgot that she can attack at range.

Beorc: Valkyrie I just love classes who can protect their friends both by healing them and going physical on the guys who want to hurt them in the first place. Otherwise, Sage for pretty much the same reason. Also, knives. I don't really care about any Laguz. Of course, Herons are always nice to have around.

To see this collection confirmed for the EU of all places. That is so sweeeeeet. I mean, the PS4 should already be released by then. I would expect that this discourages localizations. Especially given it's lack of backwards compatibility.

Best: Rolf (PoR) Worst: Nowi Well, I am a big fan of Rolf. I loved how PoR actually dealt with the issue of children on the battlefield for once. About what it means to take someone's life and what could push you that far. I mean, the series had plenty of children on the battlefield but always completely ignored the implications of that. We got characters like Fa. She doesn't even know what death is and people are afraid to tell her. He is like the only character who I can hear saying: "I am not a child" without being a massive pain because he understands the implications of having blood on his hands... and that it isn't something to be proud of. Of course, the very same reasons I like him as a character, are the same reasons that I don't like the deploying him. He might feel like he has no choice but to go out and kill people, but I do. And he is like the worst choice for a unit slot anyway. Nowi, well... Let's just say that I still can't believe that she wears the very same outfit as Strawberry from No More Heroes. She was a deliberate exaggeration in order to parody the otaku subculture. Nowi is missing that context. The prepubescent looking character is the most objectified of the cast... without any hint of the self awareness of No More Heroes. And this is from a franchise who was on of the few to use the same armor for male and females since... always. After all these years, It's just so... humiliating, that IS would assume that their fans would like this sort of thing. Mind you, I do think that she is a good character in concept... when not done by people who think that "Likes sweets" makes a sufficient characterization. Oh yeah, and how are you supposed to fix that 6 base speed with a mere 50% growth by chapter 8 without even having the option to promote?

Well, the XL doesn't scratch his own top screen, it has actual buttons below the touch screen and having a bigger screen makes games look so much nicer. And the 3D actually hugely benefits from the bigger screen. It definitely made me regret having bought the normal 3DS. I wouldn't buy one just because it's some sort of special edition.

Meh, the mechanic is just a massive pain. It's activation rate is never high enough to rely on it and never so low that it can be ruled out. Given the massive emphasis on defensive play in this installment, the latter is particularly annoying. It makes the game uncontrollable.

During chapter 11. Jill appears as an enemy unit over the course of the chapter.