BrightBow

Personally I consider linearity mostly a strength. That way it's easy to predict what the player is capable of and design the game accordingly. Not that I consider this even close to universally true. I love open games like Morrowind for example. Something that feels like an actual world in which the player has to prevail, even if it means that said world can't challenge you at times. But especially now that I was able to play both ways back-to-back in Tear Ring Saga, I can definitely say that I prefer Fire Emblem to be linear.

As far as I am concerned, grinding is just a cheap way to artificial pad out the game. Not to mention, I think that they really don't go well with Fire Emblem's mechanics in particular because a few stat points make a world of difference. You can get very quickly get to the point where enemies can't scratch or hit you. I could properly understand the presence of the mechanic if there was some sort of versus mode or proper co-op mode. So that there would be some point to further optimize your team after the end of the game. But since there isn't, I think that all post game challenges should simply be designed to be beatable by an endgame party. I don't see a difference between fighting capped enemies in a game where stats go up 50 and fighting capped enemies when stats go only up to 30. The former just makes it a necessity to grind before strategy even becomes a factor against the raw power of numbers. Admittedly, I am most likely heavily biased against it because of playing so much Castlevania and Dragon Quest IX. They really abuse this kind of stuff. But either way, I see a huge appeal of Fire Emblem is it's linearity. Which demands efficient and clever use of limited resources. If I can just farm anything anywhere and have an unlimited pool of money, then those items loose value. So there is neither that much of an appeal to risk your neck for rare items or a sense of accomplishment if you do manage to pull it off.

Not at all. I got the impression that they are all just one note characters. Cardboard cutouts with no depth whatsoever. Kinda like a cast made entirely of Ilyanas. So I find them to be painfully artificial and completely unrelatable. .

Another question: What is the point of the 3000 gold donations to the church? I would have figured you can recruit Lyria that way but according to the site you simply have to send Attrom. This guy just has to be a requirement to recruit two clerics. I am so glad I choose Lee at the beginning. So I am at the top of the Tower of Morse now and I meet this Mime. The patch freezes the game when I select anything in the dialogue though. But what I am wondering now, how many people can she revive? Can she revive several people at once or do I need to climb back up every time? And if I use it on Roger or Mel, do I get both back? Okay, the orb lost a charge after reviving Attrom. That explains that. Time to get Lyra now.

Tharja probably. Considering that she is pretty much a female version of Valter... except of course Valter was acknowledged as a monster, has to at least pretend to be an ally (even then, he still comes across as an arrogant prick, so nobody likes him) and never got to actually rape his target. He is still disturbing as hell, but at least he leaves in a world that condemns his actions. You don't have to deal with him all by yourself. But the world that Tharja lives in, doesn't give two shits about a monster like her. Everyone will just ignore everything she does, despite her making no effort to hide that she is a sick bastard who hurts people out of mere boredom. No matter how many people are around you, you will always be alone with her. The disturbance even reaches meta levels, given that she is the favorite character of all the IS representatives. Mind you, seeing the supposed heroes butcher and verbally teabagging soldiers as if they were merely Counterstrike opponents instead of sentient beings, really makes me want to throw up. Especially considering that Fire Emblem used to go to great lengths in humanizing enemies.

Well, the best would be "Open Fire" from Thracia 776. Surviving 10 rounds is easy but there is so much stuff to get, like the Dragon Lance or the Rezire tome. But with the series deadliest ballista, tons of leadership supported troops and camouflaged Thracian reinforcements, this is easier said then done. The worst is whatever the name of the TearRing Saga map with the floating eyeballs in the cave is. Worst! Map! Ever! Flying enemies that multiply endlessly camping in every corner of the map, waiting for you to cross a floor that takes ages to maneuver. And of course, the whole map counts as an indoor map, so no fliers to quickly cross the lava. And the eyeballs magic damage and have high speed. It's balanced out by a low hit rate. Dying to those low percentages is very frustrating but can't really be avoided because of the terrain that doesn't affect the eyeballs at all. Oh, and there aren't just enemies in the corners, but chests too. And getting them is actually a victory condition. And several chests are actually in the center of the lava sea that reduces anyone to 1 move. Slow and tedious progression paired with cheap deaths. I shiver at the mere thought of having to face that map again.

Well, if nothing else, how is Avatar less of a Mary Sue then the young Starfleet Lieutenant who is the origin of the name? If nothing else, he is at least worse then Mark and My Unit. Because while people worshiped them for no reason, in the end they were just bystanders. They were limited to the hero's secret helper and didn't have the whole plot tailored around them.

Sully? The girl who is so manly, she had her armor altered to make it look like she is wearing stockings and lady gloves? Sure... As for Cecille, I never got the impression that she is bursting with testosterone either. http://www.serenesforest.net/media/fe3illust/Cecil.jpg Oh well, +1 for the rebel leader with the cool design, who unfortunately has not a single support that actually resolves around herself.

Well, FE10 required you to earn 50 forge points before you could forge anything.Which probably wasn't all that cheap. It's just that the system was completely removed during localization. Given that you can now forge a Light tome that is superior to Ellight in any way while still being cheaper, it's quite clear that nobody took into account on how this affects game balance. It's unfair to hold this sledgehammer adjustment against knives.

Well, it's not a stable that the Paladin has to be this old. Jagen and Markus are the only ones and the latter is a direct copy of the former. On the other hand, we got the mustache god Oifaye, Eyvel, Seth, Titania, Sothe and Freddy. They are all significantly younger. Probably.

Would you mind telling what you mean? Because I have to say, your post is not self-explanatory at all.

They don't of course, but... I kinda can't come up that easily with many things that doesn't put you at risk to hit a death end because your Thief is dead. Well, assuming you were responding to me... I am all for more useful non-combat utility. I hope I didn't sound otherwise.

Then... the problem is that Assassin is a Myrmidon promotion to begin with...? Seriously, I am pretty much the last person who likes this kind of nonsensical class changes. Besides, if some random sell sword somehow managed to turn into a master of stealth... then yes. Yes, it does actually make sense. He would leave his sword at home in order to move fast and silently. If he does use them anyway, he should probably temporal loose class benefits of being an Assassin. The problem is not that knives make Thieves useless because they are weak already. That's the wrong way to look at it. The problem is that Thieves as a class is useless because they have almost no utility. As specialists, they need to do things that others can't. Not just for picking looks, stealing stuff and fixing bridges. For combat related skills, there are possibilities as well. Like in "Battle For Wesnoth", Thieves deal triple damage when attacking an enemy already engaged in combat in the same turn. They have crazy avoid when faced on difficult terrain and can throw poisoned daggers (poison is actually useful here). And some more stuff that can't really apply to Fire Emblem. So they have plenty of things that most other classes can't replicate, giving them the edge over these opponents when used cleverly... but still don't come close to match the raw strength them when fighting head-on. Thieves can easily be more then simply being weaker Myrmidons. We don't need two versions of the same class just because Thieves are a D&D stable.

Well, if nothing else Thieves and Assasins with heavy weapons is kinda silly. They are too noisy and to large to be hidden. I think the more interesting questions is: Why have Thieves? Just for the sake of saving some money on keys?

Thank you for the warning, Othin. Still, I will go through the game a second time anyway. And the worst that can happen, is that I miss out on Roger, Mel, Sasha and maybe Katt.

Well, MM certainly wasn't impressive in numbers. Only 4 dungeons. Most models recyled from OoT... But I say the praise is the result that it really aged well with it's audience. At least to me, when I play it now, Cremia really gets to me. The responsibility of the farm and the responsibility for her Romani are visibly a heavy burden to her but she does her best. Then the foundation of the farm gets stolen and her sister gets abducted and irreconcilable changed. She has no idea what to do from now. And she has reason to feel guilty for both of these. I never really thought about that much. I was just thinking she should be more concerned about her sister then about the cows. Or with Pamela. She was not only surrounded by mummies but also had her own death in the closet, who one day might be unavailable to stop himself from eating her or whatever and there would be nothing she could run to. And once that crisis is over, it's clear that she is the adult of the pair. She has all the responsibility of it... just without the power that usually comes with it. Her father is free to ignore her concerns, getting his life in danger and that of his daughter along with it. She can see all that but as a child, he can just ignore her. So she is entirely helpless as he walks towards their doom. All I could think of was, that she was kinda mean for throwing you out of the house. Plus, helpless children with oblivious parents is a recurring theme in the game. A very real thing. I think that it's something that gets over the head as long as you still have unlimited faith that your parents are always right and know what they are doing and you take the safety of your environment for granted. Once those illusions are crushed and you experience this helplessness, then it will start sending shivers down your spine.

Wait a minute, that's what the whole disguise was about? So the explanation is that a Woman from a Victorian styled setting is that she dresses coincidently exactly like an Man from a ancient Roma styled setting? Down to wearing the exact same Tiara? I would have expected that IS publicity stunt would have at least some sort of story relevance. That it couldn't just be replaced by any other disguise. Oh well, doesn't necessary mean that she is a bad character. But if that build-up has no payoff, I hope that she offers something special that elevates her above the rest.

Well, she could give it to her when she meets her later on. Or maybe Sasha can already use a Dragon Flute as a princess. I'm definitely going to check that on my next run. Nothing personal Roger but you will definitely have to die for this one.

Or it's simply to go along with Nosferatu being a Dark Magic spell in this game. Besides, Micaiah's final class was Shaman, which has the habit of switching magic type along with the Nosferatu tome. But personally I think that the art director merely wanted an excuse to have her drawn wearing nothing but body paint rather then with a stylish hat. Man, that would have been sooooo sweet. Mage hats make everything better. ...Aaaaanyway, given that Soren and Zelgius also have dark affinity, I would say that it's simply a Branded thing. Affinity is kind of overrated anyway. Even Calill has Dark affinity and it doesn't match her personality at all. Edit: Come to think of it, I haven't voted myself yet. Best is Ike. Admittedly, like your average Lord he is rather bland. Presumably so a player can easily identify with him. But I think he is better then the competition for the way he is used. Like, this is the first time in the series that they don't just drop a massive info dump on you at the beginning. Instead, you learn those things when they become relevant, along with Ike. It feels much more natural and makes it easy to identify with him. But more importantly, it makes perfect sense that someone as bland and uneducated as Ike would become a hero. It's not just convenience for that audience. Because it's a world that more then anything is marked by prejudice and categorization. As someone who doesn't know anything about the world, he has no prejudice. Therefore he can see the world for what it is. So he can go against the flow and actually work towards archiving change. On the downside, there are a few hickups to him that mess with PoR's otherwise excellent writing. Ike being made to lead the group like a week after he was allowed to enter the field feels rather odd. Especially after screwing up the hostage situation. And then he becomes the leader of the whole group for real after Greil dies, leaving the way more experienced Titania in the dust. Not to mention that he is so uneducated that it's seems impossible to believe. He lived 17 years and didn't even know that there were 2 species on the world? And I think that he and the Black Knight had a rather dull rivalry because they had nothing in common. Still, I say the good outweighs the bad by far. As for worst, I just keep it short and say Roy for being a bad Marth clone.

I figured a threat like that might be a good idea before half the threads on this board end up being made by me. I kinda have a bit more trouble then usual and the information on this site is a bit lacking. Anyway, I'm still kinda low on money, so I figured I should try stealing. Now I noticed that you can steal weapons even if you don't hit the enemy. So I was wondering if the attacks even matter. Do you have a chance to steal for every attack you launch or if you only have one chance to steal regardless of your number of attacks? Also, does anyone have any ideas on how to use the Thieves to get them to a high enough level to get those fancy skills they have. With their non-existent Strength, I would say that killing mummies for like 2 hours is the only way. And can you steal with ranged attacks?

I don't get how anyone could possibly feel "betrayed" and "upset" by male Pegasus Knights. I mean, what could gender restrictions possibly add to the game? If nothing else, they definitely should have given gender restrictions the boot once they introduced player avatars. It hardly breaks the game when males and females are otherwise identical statistically, so their is no excuse to limit character creation like that. I mean, for whose creative vision was it that important that female avatars barely stood a chance to get through FE12 lunatic?

Well, what I can say for now is that if Mel is recruited but you don't recruit Roger, Mel will leave at the end of that chapter looking for him. She will also leave to bury him, should he die later. And they both have to be in the same army. So whatever the details, they probably can't be separated. So I would guess that Mel probably won't even show up if Roger is killed. But I find it hard to believe that they would deprive Sasha of her promotion, given how vital it is for her.

I'm afraid I can't follow you. I would assume that I expressed my issues with Spotpass properly in the very second line in my post. They are in no way related to game progress.

For one thing, I have a problem with content that needs Spotpass to be unlocked. That's just making you jump through hops in order to unlock stuff you've already pay for. Not to mention that it makes the game dependent on Internet and Nintendo's servers. With that out of the way, I find it rather disheartening how halfhearted this feature is. How can you have characters with expressive designs like the Black Knight in the game and then just give them a generic model that doesn't match them at all. Or include characters and then fail to express their abilities properly. I consider it quite a problem if a character like Ethlin, who was the original wielder of Leaf's Lightsword, a member of the Baldo bloodline, an A-Rank in swords and promoted into Paladin is turned into someone who can't use swords and fights exclusively with magic. Ethlin didn't even have a magic growth. I mean, if they can't have unique models and custom classes, then why not at least put some thoughts into which characters can actually be well expressed properly with the engine. They didn't had to use those particular characters. In the end, all that's left is some recycled art that makes it look like some cheap mod. Doesn't make me feel nostalgic at all. Just pissed, because I think those characters deserve better. And the amount of Spotpass characters is no excuse. Quality over Quantity. When you get tummy aches from rotten food, you can't cure it by eating more of it.

There wasn't a lack of branded In FE10, so I am not seeing how breaking the story in order to bring her back would have added anything. She wasn't very interesting anyway. She fights for Ashnard because he doesn't care about heritage and she hates Laguz presumably for the same reason as the other branded do. Sure, they could have turned her more interesting, but I see no reason for her of all people to get such special treatment that doesn't equally apply to Aran.