Avoid playing this game?

[calculuswhiz]

I've heard pretty bad things about this game. The videos of people playing don't look too promising either.

Given the following...

1. I already know the story pretty well, and then some via Monshou no Nazo.

2. Looking at the character list, I think there are way too many.

3. Replacement characters? Are they really necessary? Shouldn't we suck it up and reset, like every other game?

4. Do you really have to kill off your people to fulfill requirements?

5. Artistically, have they fallen behind? They seem to be pushing for "realism," in say, face sprites and CG's, but I just feel that it's... less real?

6. I feel they should have made a third installment for Akaneia instead of a remake.

...will I like the game?

[Ansem]

Reclass and forge

[AstraLunaSol]

I've heard pretty bad things about this game. The videos of people playing don't look too promising either.

Given the following...

1. I already know the story pretty well, and then some via Monshou no Nazo.

2. Looking at the character list, I think there are way too many.

3. Replacement characters? Are they really necessary? Shouldn't we suck it up and reset, like every other game?

4. Do you really have to kill off your people to fulfill requirements?

5. Artistically, have they fallen behind? They seem to be pushing for "realism," in say, face sprites and CG's, but I just feel that it's... less real?

6. I feel they should have made a third installment for Akaneia instead of a remake.

...will I like the game?

The thing to ask is where did you hear those bad things from?

1. Great

2. You are never forced to use ALL of them. .-.

3. Cannon Fodder. only 8D You can suck it up and reset, like when you reach the end of the game with Marth and a handful of replacements.

4. Only if you want other characters/Complete the ENTIRE game.

5. I liked the face sprites. =|

6. And I feel like they should've made a FE4 Remake, not happening any time soon.

Wi-Fi is nice, I know I kept playing the game just for Wi-Fi.

[Ansem]

Couple of new chapters and characters too

[Rodykitty]

FEDS is great, especially because of the hard modes.

5. Artistically, have they fallen behind? They seem to be pushing for "realism," in say, face sprites and CG's, but I just feel that it's... less real?

Battle animations are similar to SNES style and fast paced, which is good. The maptiles are absolutely beautiful as well.

[Parrhesia]

2. Looking at the character list, I think there are way too many.

3. Replacement characters? Are they really necessary? Shouldn't we suck it up and reset, like every other game?

4. Do you really have to kill off your people to fulfill requirements?

These are the main reasons I need to get this game. Why reset when Fale Sucknaim catches an arrow with his face?

[Junkhead]

5. Artistically, have they fallen behind? They seem to be pushing for "realism," in say, face sprites and CG's, but I just feel that it's... less real?

6. I feel they should have made a third installment for Akaneia instead of a remake.

Reclass and forge

Couple of new chapters and characters too

All of this makes it seem as if FESD is more eye candy gameplay than having a solid story, backround and characters, that shouldn't really be missing. But if they had bothered to put so much effort into gameplay, they shouldn've done the same with the story and/or characters.

[Momo]

I thought the game was alright the first time I played it. Then I picked it up again, a couple months later and tried H5. That alone made the game great for me. Then there's stuff like reclassing and the mugshots that just make it more enjoyable to play, then the other games.

Battle animations are much more subdued than the GBA ones, but I still like them. I like to think the Heroes try to imitate the GBA crits, before going "Damn it I can't throw my shield that high"

All of this makes it seem as if FESD is more eye candy gameplay than having a solid story, backround and characters, that shouldn't really be missing. But if they had bothered to put so much effort into gameplay, they shouldn've done the same with the story and/or characters.

Fire Emblem has never had any of those things.

[Mekkah]

Really a great game game-play wise. Very variable difficulty setting, and the best controls/interface of them all. The story is boring even if you didn't know it already and Marth might as well be leading an army of Stormtroopers through the continent.

[Luftwaffe]

All of this makes it seem as if FESD is more eye candy gameplay than having a solid story, backround and characters, that shouldn't really be missing. But if they had bothered to put so much effort into gameplay, they shouldn've done the same with the story and/or characters.

Gameplay is the only thing that matters in a Fire Emblem game.

[Junkhead]

Fire Emblem has never had any of those things.

So? Just look at the SNES FEs, their gameplay is good and has a good plot.

Gameplay is the only thing that matters in a Fire Emblem game.

That was pretty unmoving, and I actually doubt if you're being serious or not.

[Ike-Mike]

Please refer to the last two paragraphs why you shouldn't avoid playing it.

[Momo]

So? Just look at the SNES FEs, their gameplay is good and has a good plot.

FE4 is the most overrated FE. Its story is decent (best of the series probably, but that doesn't say very much) but the gameplay has a bunch of horribly broken features. Broken weapons being able to be fixed, the arena, the trading system, Pursuit, and Lex. FE5? Haven't played it but the gameplay don't sound fun, with its phantom difficulty. FE3 sold the most in Japan, and I have no idea why.

[Narga_Rocks]

Broken weapons being able to be fixed, the arena, the trading system, Pursuit, and Lex.

What's wrong with most of that? The arena was the best of the series. You don't die, it doesn't waste turns, there is a limit in each chapter preventing overleveling. Now, maybe the enemies should be more geared towards the unit fighting, like in most of the other games' arenas, but oh well.

Trading system? The items they created made it impossible to have a trading system like the other games without making the game even easier than it already is. Imagine trading around the elite ring + speed ring + power ring + shield ring + pursuit ring (or whatever they are called) for free to everyone fighting in the arena or whatever.

Pursuit? Oh well. A few units aren't as good as they could be. But hey, it makes you think more about your gen1 pairings and it's not the end of the world. Plus, it makes some enemies much less annoying. Face it, some of them are faster than your guys.

Lex? Yeah, the hero axe is awesome and he'll have the best def of the first gen, but he struggles against swords in the arena and there is plenty that he won't KO without the pursuit ring.

And the "broken weapons" are part of what makes it fun. It's not like most people playing will beat the game with only shanan + holsety user anyway. I like those weapons. I'll never play the hacks the nerfed those things down to 20 mt because I find that annoying. I liked the 30 mt weapons with +10 or +20 boosts to various stats. I want to bring those back in some other games. I'd have loved Micaiah to get something actually good for the final 5 chapters. Give her +10 speed with a weapon that has a lot of mt. Then I wouldn't need to raise Calill anymore.

[Momo]

Being able to fix broken weapons completely destroys any difficulty the game could have. Typically in other games, you would use stuff like Brave weapons sparingly, only when you needed to kill something tough. Here, you can use it all you want with no downside. They also cost like 7k to fix, which is ridiculously low for such a weapon.

While the items are broken, you could fix that by not even having the rings exist. Instead, make them like stat boosters in other games. Then you could trade freely without worrying about that kind of thing.

The arena lets you use your own weapons, and has pretty much no risk since you don't die. Since the enemies use good weapons, I can see the first one, but not having them die? When they're gone permanently if they lose anywhere else? That just makes it easy.

Pursuit automatically makes anyone with it twice as good as those without (Lex not included after chapter 1). Every other game lets everyone double, but here some people can't do that at all without help from another weapon. Makes it really unbalanced.

Lex is a badass and I think the game designers loved him. First, he has a horse, which is always nice. In the prologue and chapter 1, he's pretty normal, though he is one of your very few guys with 2 range. Then he gets the Hero Axe (something he and only he can use, until Lachsis promotes) and becomes Sigurd's second in command. Enemies walk into him and die on the enemy phase, even moreso once they hit him a couple times (lol Ambush). He's not gonna be dying, either, just look at his defense and HP growths. Did I mention he gets twice as much experience as everyone else?

The Holy weapons were complete overkill. Even if the bonuses and might were halved, they'd still be broken. In the second gen, anyone with a holy weapon is automatically better than everyone without (Mmmmmmmaybe not Faval).

[Narga_Rocks]

Being able to fix broken weapons completely destroys any difficulty the game could have. Typically in other games, you would use stuff like Brave weapons sparingly, only when you needed to kill something tough. Here, you can use it all you want with no downside. They also cost like 7k to fix, which is ridiculously low for such a weapon.

Difference between you and me. I think the game is better for it. Julia would suck without her repairable Rezire. Hero swords are fun. Repairable wind swords are cool. etc.

While the items are broken, you could fix that by not even having the rings exist. Instead, make them like stat boosters in other games. Then you could trade freely without worrying about that kind of thing.

"fix that by not even having the rings exist"? I love the rings. Again, difference between you and me. I think the game is better for them. Making them one-use stat boosters would suck. Especially considering these let you go over the caps. The one-off boosters never do. For one thing, it makes beating Yurius without having to resort to Yuria/Julia much easier if Celice is pulling 5 damage a swing rather than 2 damage a swing. But then I suppose you might just say "then change how the fight with Yurius works", to which I'd again reply that the game would be worse with the change.

The arena lets you use your own weapons, and has pretty much no risk since you don't die. Since the enemies use good weapons, I can see the first one, but not having them die? When they're gone permanently if they lose anywhere else? That just makes it easy.

To me, you have to put that condition in there for the other games because you could more easily overlevel. However in this game you can't. 7 battles and you are done. No more opponents. Besides, in the other games you are risking restarting a map on the original hand-helds. In this game you can save every turn anyway until you move someone, and the arena doesn't count as moving someone. Frankly I think it's better anyway if the arena doesn't KO them. An arena is potentially more profitable if it doesn't kill off its gladiators. If you can give a show that looks the same either way but you don't have to constantly retrain all your gladiators? I'd think they'd have constant staffers available and that it would allow you to recover from more severe injuries since medical attention is closer. Perhaps dropping to -10 should perma-death a unit in the arena. I could live with that concept. But it shouldn't be as easy to die in an arena as it is out there on the field with enemies that actually want to kill you.

Pursuit automatically makes anyone with it twice as good as those without (Lex not included after chapter 1). Every other game lets everyone double, but here some people can't do that at all without help from another weapon. Makes it really unbalanced.

Tons of things make it unbalanced. Making fe10 Mia your only reliable doubler for a few chapters and letting us move Adept around making her your best killing unit is unbalanced. Making Lex able to tank almost anything without fear of death is unbalanced. There are going to be differences like Ike over Meg in every game you play. I don't see a huge issue with some units not having pursuit. It's just another way to be unbalanced. At least it isn't wing spear forge level gamebreaking.

Lex is a badass and I think the game designers loved him. First, he has a horse, which is always nice. In the prologue and chapter 1, he's pretty normal, though he is one of your very few guys with 2 range. Then he gets the Hero Axe (something he and only he can use, until Lachsis promotes) and becomes Sigurd's second in command. Enemies walk into him and die on the enemy phase, even moreso once they hit him a couple times (lol Ambush). He's not gonna be dying, either, just look at his defense and HP growths. Did I mention he gets twice as much experience as everyone else?

Might as well gimp sigurd if you want to complain about Lex. Like I said, there are going to be units way better than others. Think Miledy in fe6. You can't tell me she isn't like a billion times better than her brother.

The Holy weapons were complete overkill. Even if the bonuses and might were halved, they'd still be broken. In the second gen, anyone with a holy weapon is automatically better than everyone without (Mmmmmmmaybe not Faval).

15 mt and +5 spd/skl with +10 res would be broken on Celice? It would be a piece of junk. I suppose the res is still cool, but mages come in swarms at that point and there is no way he'd survive. And I can get the same mt out of a hero lance (I think it's 15) and it attacks twice. Or give him a silver claymore. 20 mt. And good luck damaging Julius without needing Narga. Where's the fun in having only one way to kill a boss? Also, if you are particularly risk-adverse, Lakche with Lex as her father is better than shanan at times. shanan can face hit rates above 20 for a while even with Balmunk. From some things, anyway. Lakche with a shield ring can knock damage down to <5 in mid-gen2. Like, chapters 8 and 9. And hero sword Lakche would KO anything anyway and do it cheaper than Balmunk so what's the diff? Magic enemies, pretty much. And she can use a wind sword without worrying about losing the near-immortality provided by Balmunk.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Don't warpskip H5 and you'll have a pretty fun time with the game.

[El Rey León]

Don't avoid it. It's pure gameplay, but the story is pretty much unchanged from the original so of course it won't offer much. Reclassing is fun, forging is as good as it was in 9/10, and Wi-Fi (though I don't use it. Too many players using hacked characters). At the very least, it's a good timekiller. Multiple hard modes are fun too.

That being said, the aesthetics are little bland (brown and green everywhere). And the artwork looks very different from previous FEs.

Edited May 17, 2010 by El Rey León

[Parrhesia]

Also, imprinting on characters is great XD

[Rewjeo]

All of this makes it seem as if FESD is more eye candy gameplay than having a solid story, backround and characters, that shouldn't really be missing. But if they had bothered to put so much effort into gameplay, they shouldn've done the same with the story and/or characters.

In other words remake the game-but-only-with-the-basic-frame?

[Momo]

Difference between you and me. I think the game is better for it. Julia would suck without her repairable Rezire. Hero swords are fun. Repairable wind swords are cool. etc.

If she had Resire and another tome, it wouldn't make much difference. She's not constantly attacking, and doesn't always need the thing. Also, from what I remember, she leaves in like chapter 8, doesn't she?

"fix that by not even having the rings exist"? I love the rings. Again, difference between you and me. I think the game is better for them. Making them one-use stat boosters would suck. Especially considering these let you go over the caps. The one-off boosters never do. For one thing, it makes beating Yurius without having to resort to Yuria/Julia much easier if Celice is pulling 5 damage a swing rather than 2 damage a swing. But then I suppose you might just say "then change how the fight with Yurius works", to which I'd again reply that the game would be worse with the change.

I dunno, the bosses in second gen are humongous assholes. I can't really think of a way for rings to exist and be tradeable, without being abusable to hell. Maybe let one ring come into effect at a time?

To me, you have to put that condition in there for the other games because you could more easily overlevel. However in this game you can't. 7 battles and you are done. No more opponents. Besides, in the other games you are risking restarting a map on the original hand-helds. In this game you can save every turn anyway until you move someone, and the arena doesn't count as moving someone. Frankly I think it's better anyway if the arena doesn't KO them. An arena is potentially more profitable if it doesn't kill off its gladiators. If you can give a show that looks the same either way but you don't have to constantly retrain all your gladiators? I'd think they'd have constant staffers available and that it would allow you to recover from more severe injuries since medical attention is closer. Perhaps dropping to -10 should perma-death a unit in the arena. I could live with that concept. But it shouldn't be as easy to die in an arena as it is out there on the field with enemies that actually want to kill you.

That's just how arenas work, you're fighting to the death in other games. But eh, pretty much a difference in preference.

Tons of things make it unbalanced. Making fe10 Mia your only reliable doubler for a few chapters and letting us move Adept around making her your best killing unit is unbalanced. Making Lex able to tank almost anything without fear of death is unbalanced. There are going to be differences like Ike over Meg in every game you play. I don't see a huge issue with some units not having pursuit. It's just another way to be unbalanced. At least it isn't wing spear forge level gamebreaking.

Of course the other games are unbalanced (Seeeeeeeeth), it's just that the whole Pursuit mechanic does nothing but hurt people without it. The people WITH Pursuit see a negligible difference in doubling, as opposed to other games (don't need to be 4 faster, but weapons weigh more), while the ones without have to fight each other for a single item.

Might as well gimp sigurd if you want to complain about Lex. Like I said, there are going to be units way better than others. Think Miledy in fe6. You can't tell me she isn't like a billion times better than her brother.

Sigurd's even more broken than Lex, but I mention Lex because he has all his flaws fixed by the new game mechanics, giving him a ridiculous boost. Sigurd would still be awesome, even if he couldn't use a Hero Sword and his weapons could break for good.

15 mt and +5 spd/skl with +10 res would be broken on Celice? It would be a piece of junk. I suppose the res is still cool, but mages come in swarms at that point and there is no way he'd survive. And I can get the same mt out of a hero lance (I think it's 15) and it attacks twice. Or give him a silver claymore. 20 mt. And good luck damaging Julius without needing Narga. Where's the fun in having only one way to kill a boss? Also, if you are particularly risk-adverse, Lakche with Lex as her father is better than shanan at times. shanan can face hit rates above 20 for a while even with Balmunk. From some things, anyway. Lakche with a shield ring can knock damage down to <5 in mid-gen2. Like, chapters 8 and 9. And hero sword Lakche would KO anything anyway and do it cheaper than Balmunk so what's the diff? Magic enemies, pretty much. And she can use a wind sword without worrying about losing the near-immortality provided by Balmunk.

Admittedly I didn't really think about the other weapons in the arsenal when I said that. If they kept the might and halved the bonuses of the Holy weapons, they'd still be broken (though Shannan and Sety/Arthur couldn't just walk through armies anymore). Lakche can do as well as Shannan against scrub enemies, but what about bosses? They're sitting on thrones, so you need to hit as hard as you can. People like Shannan and Aless are your only options for boss killing for a while.

[AstraLunaSol]

If she had Resire and another tome, it wouldn't make much difference. She's not constantly attacking, and doesn't always need the thing. Also, from what I remember, she leaves in like chapter 8, doesn't she?

Chapter 10, actually.

[Junkhead]

Not necesarily what I was going with...but they made Marth more heroic and didn't exactly keep him how he was. Maybe the implementation of actual support conversations with all characters would've made it cool?

And some things are unexplained, like Frey, Darros, Wrys and just about, any of the new recurring characters.

[Momo]

Frey's the only new character you mentioned, and what's there to explain? Frey is a soldier that protects Marth, just like Cain and Abel. Wyrs is just a healer that decided to join, and Darros didn't want to be a pirate anymore.

[Junkhead]

I meant that they weren't in FE3 and they appear all of sudden. Well, I can agree about the posibility of Darros and Wrys joning in, but Frey should've made an appearance before, at least. =/