Best Difficulty

[Alef Zero]

I'm planning to play these games for the first time. Given that these would be my first FE games without casual mode and without some form of time reverse mechanic, I'd like some opinions on what difficulty would be best. I've read that they're easy, but so I've heard about Echoes hard mode, which was a disaster for me.

Note that any death means game over for me, and I'd like to minimize the amount of restarts I'll have to make. Especially to 1% crits, these tend to make me shut the game down.

[ping]

PoR on Hard is a contender for the "easiest hardest difficulty" in the series. Enemies are relatively bulky, but tend to be pretty weak offensively. Biggest problem, in my opinion, are long-range tome users, which are more numerous than on normal difficulty. You also require a strong Ike for spoiler-y reasons, while you get somebody to bail out a shitty Ike on normal. However, with the bonus XP mechanic (which allows for resettable level-ups between fights), you can get a good Ike pretty consistently.

Definitely don't play Radiant Dawn on Hard on your first playthrough, though. Apart from being pretty difficult simply by enemies being strong (and your own units leveling up more slowly), it also removes your ability to view enemy ranges. Very easy to lose somebody to an enemy with more movement than you thought.

--

For a first playthrough, there's no shame in going PoR!Normal and RD!Easy. If anything, I'd go PoR!Hard and if chapter 4 kicks your butt, restart the entire thing on Normal. If you have no problems with that map, you're probably good with the rest of the game, too. RD!Normal I think is actually pretty tough, especially the first part of the game where you play with a relatively weak cast of characters, so I think I'd rather suggest playing on Easy to begin with.

[Jotari]

Path of Radiance has a reputation for being easy while Radiant Dawn has a reputation for being hard. That being said, more modern maniac modes probably are harder than Radiant Dawn hard mode. And Normal Radiant Dawn mode provides battle saves so you can save every turn with impunity. It could make a particularly good transition for you if you're used to time rewind and casual mode. I would probably recommend Normal Mode for both.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Given that this is your

3 hours ago, Alef Zero said:

first FE games without casual mode and without some form of time reverse mechanic

my personal suggestion would be: PoR Normal, followed by RD Easy.

PoR Easy is mind-numbingly easy, while Normal feels like an actual game, albeit one that's rarely a substantial challenge. Hard is among the easiest "Hard Modes" in the series, but it's still a step up, especially if you don't know how to best manage certain mechanics.

As for RD, even on Normal, there's a bunch of chapters that present a serious challenge. And Hard is one of the toughest in the series, also removing quality-of-life features, like enemy ranges and Battle Save. Easy gives you the most chance to raise up whichever units you feel like, without being a complete cakewalk.

[Integrity]

3 hours ago, gnip said:

For a first playthrough, there's no shame in going PoR!Normal and RD!Easy. If anything, I'd go PoR!Hard and if chapter 4 kicks your butt, restart the entire thing on Normal. If you have no problems with that map, you're probably good with the rest of the game, too. RD!Normal I think is actually pretty tough, especially the first part of the game where you play with a relatively weak cast of characters, so I think I'd rather suggest playing on Easy to begin with.

this guy is completely correct. 4's the first real roadblock (of sorts) in por, and you'll know by then if hard will work for you. for rd, just take it on easy. normal's a real challenge and the game stands up to many replays, so don't feel bad about tackling it with a low difficulty early on

e: for rd, think of it this way: if you don't enjoy the game, you'll appreciate getting through it quicker. if you do enjoy the game, you'll enjoy replaying it with some sincere engagement and maybe some units you didn't get to use earlier

Edited October 16, 2023 by Integrity

[Jotari]

I think people are overestimate Radiant Dawn's normal mode. Yes, it's a challenge, but it's a challenge that can be risen to. It was the first game in the series I played and I did it normal without a guide. Yeah, it was tough but it's doable. Battle Saves are really a huge boon. The ability to save after any player phase action is almost more broken than rewinds, provided you don't accidentally save yourself into a corner. But if someone has played several games already with rewinds and casual mode then they should fully be able to play normal mode Radiant Dawn with battle saves. I was definitely not a savant when playing it the first time, in fact, I outright sucked. Someone with even a bit of experience should be able to perform much better than I did.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Jotari

[SnowFire]

If you had trouble with Echoes Hard Mode, then no shame in playing Path of Radiance on Normal.  The differences between Normal & Hard in FE9 aren't that big anyway. Just be careful with your healers (Rhys / Mist).

Radiant Dawn, on the other hand, I'd encourage you to play Normal (which is really JP Hard), unless you found FE9 Normal really gave you trouble.  You can Battle Save at the start of every single turn, which is pretty close to a soft Casual mode as you can just reload a single turn's worth of actions if something goes pear-shaped.  Note that if accepting casualties is psychically painful (fair, and good!), then the barracks is a safe place for lowbies to hide - RD is very much a game where you don't need or want to try to build every lowbie character.  Totally fine to bench the likes of Edward (a squishy low-level Myrmidon) rather than try to build him.

[Shadow Mir]

Path of Radiance is fairly easy. Radiant Dawn, on the other hand... not so much. Especially part 1, which is absolutely fucking BRUTAL. But if you struggled with SoV, there's no shame in playing PoR on Normal imho.

Edited October 16, 2023 by Shadow Mir

[vercio]

My suggestion is to play them both on Normal Mode. Just like I did back in the days. Given that you'll be able to master the way Path of Radiance works, you'll be fine once you reach Radiant Dawn. Some Radiant Dawn maps will be more stressful than others like the infamous:

• Book I, Chapter 4
• Book I, Chapter 9
• Book II, Chapter 5
• Book III, Chapter 6
• Book III, Chapter 13
• Book IVF, Chapter 3

which can be tedious on your first run if you decide to do or not to do certain things. They are not unfeasable by any means but can cause you some hurdle if you just want to rush through them. At the end of the day, you'll have enormous fun playing it, especially since the two gameplay systems are so well-connected. The only real big difference is that while mechanics tend to stay similar, there are two things that are going to really change: laguz' stat bonuses and skills. 

Laguz. In Path of Radiance, all the characters from the laguz race will have their full stats while transformed or untransformed. The only difference will be that laguz will not be able to attack or to retaliate enemies. On the other hand, in Radiant Dawn laguz will keep this condition, but their stats will double when transformed. That also means that for every level up these characters will have, you will actually have twice the effect than with beorc characters. To simplify even further, if you level up 1 point in speed, you will actually have 2 more speed points while transformed.

 Skills: In Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn you will receive skill scrolls in a number of ways. In PoR skills are permanent, while in Radiant Dawn they can be assigned and removed to your units.

[Original Alear]

Quote

Skills: In Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn you will receive skill scrolls in a number of ways. In PoR skills are permanent, while in Radiant Dawn they can be assigned and removed to your units.

Keep in mind that many units have "personal skills" which cost them no skill points to have attached. But if you remove those skills and assign them to someone else, the skill will cost skill points (variable based on skill). Not only that, but even returning them to the same unit will still mean the skill will now cost skill points. IMO many skills aren't that important in RD for the most part, though, especially the assignable ones. Just the nihil scrolls so you can attack endgame bosses safely.

 

Edited November 22, 2023 by Original Alear