Well, I just beat the game...

[Adam Smasher]

...and I feel exhausted.

Don't get me wrong, Radiant Dawn is my favorite FE, and it might even be my favorite game ever, but this took a lot of work.

I logged nearly 70 hours to beat this. Plus I had animations on (because they're cool) so it probably took twice as long. Also, that doesn't count the 30 hours I logged on my Path of Radiance transfer run. Part 2 Endgame was the longest for me--I logged about 3 and a half hours on that. I remember getting home just before lunchtime and starting that chapter, and by the time I had it finished, it was dinnertime.

I bought this game in summer of 2008, and this is only my second completion. My first playthrough was on easy mode, just so I could feel my way around and figure out who's good/bad. After the dawn brigade chapters, it was REALLY easy to bulldoze my way through the game. This time was on normal mode, and there were times where it was quite taxing. The dragon chapter was really a pain in the ass.

Like I said, this is a great game, but somehow it just drains me. Anyone else get that feeling?

Incidentally, here's my top 5:

5. Brom

4. Boyd

3. Nephenee

2. Mia

1. Edward!?

Probably because Brom and Neph are the units I spend the most time training in part 2 and Eddie had beastfoe so he gobbled a lot of Laguz.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

That's an interesting top 5.

[Integrity]

I took 50 with anims on. It was some damn good fun.

My #1 was Nephenee, which was awesome because she was a port from PoR where she was also #1. My others were...uh, Boyd, Ike, Shinon, and...uh...I don't remember. Haar, maybe. Or Mia possibly.

Congratulations, though!

[Raven]

Where's Ike? Surprising not to see him in a top 5.

[-Cynthia-]

My #1 was Nephenee, which was awesome because she was a port from PoR where she was also #1. My others were...uh, Boyd, Ike, Shinon, and...uh...I don't remember. Haar, maybe. Or Mia possibly.

Congratulations, though!

I had the same thing happen with Jill (#1 in PoR, then transfer Jill #1 in RD). Then Jill was also #1 by next RD playthrough.

Edited May 22, 2010 by -Cynthia-

[Adam Smasher]

For Path of Radiance, my top 5 usually include Ike, Boyd, Gatrie and Jill, and Boyd is usually #1.

More about my top 5:

Boyd and Mia were the only two who went into the tower! Not surprising that Neph made the top 5 since she's an awesome unit. And where Neph goes, Brom follows, so he'll sponge kills too. But Edward? The more I think about it, how did he get 106 kills?

Then again, he was a total powerhouse in 3-13 with Beastfoe.

Mia had only 103 kills, but she must have gotten around 20 of them in the Tower. Same with Harr and Jill, tied for 6th place with 85 kills each. And Ed beat them all.

My Ike got kind of strength screwed. I don't think it ever broke 30, which is why he didn't make the top 5. Next playthrough will be better. Boyd and Oscar (who capped all stats but magic) turned out awesome though, and that made the difference.

Oh and one more element of failure: I took Gatrie into the tower, but when Yune was blessing weapons, I forgot to have him equip a silver lance, and so he was walking around with a blessed steel sword. D'oh!

[Specta]

Hoorah! Congrats on beating the game again! =D

I played without animations off and pulled 30-ish hours. Didn't really feel tuckered out after it. Jumped right into my next game, actually.

I can totally respect Edward being your #1 unit. I love that guy~ I don't remember my top five besides Shinon. Shinon was #1. Because Shinon kicks ass.

Edited May 22, 2010 by Spectakitty

[Integrity]

Oh and one more element of failure: I took Gatrie into the tower, but when Yune was blessing weapons, I forgot to have him equip a silver lance, and so he was walking around with a blessed steel sword. D'oh!

Kitty just did that with Sothe. She forgot to get Baselard, forgot to remove Superknife from Volke, and ended up having to bless Sothe's Iron Knife or some shit. Was hilarious.

EDIT: Speaking of, she just reminded me of the point of this topic:

No, I didn't feel tuckered out after those 50 hours, I dove right back in. However, I only made it back to 1-6 before I hung up the game for like three weeks, and then did some testing for Vincent on the treasure drop rates, and then finally got back into it a few days after that.

Edited May 22, 2010 by Integrity

[Specta]

Kitty just did that with Sothe. She forgot to get Baselard, forgot to remove Superknife from Volke, and ended up having to bless Sothe's Iron Knife or some shit. Was hilarious.

ASFIHGERT#&$()NVAAAAAGHHH

I had to bless an IRON. KNIFE.

WHY DID YOU REMIND ME OF THIS?!

Edited May 22, 2010 by Spectakitty

[El Rey León]

That's an interesting top 5.

The top five of my first NM PT had Edward at no. 1 too. It was

5. Shinon

4. Haar

3. Nephenee

2. Nolan

1. Edward

Shinon, Haar, and Neph are self-explanatory, Nolan had Beastfoe and was the main laguz killer in the Daein Army as well as 4-5. How Edward got there I don't. I gave him Paragon, I remember. He, Shinon, and Neph are the ones in that top 5 that went into the tower. I guess I'm so used to favoriting the guy on EM, that I naturally did so on NM.

And yes my first time on NM was exhausting. The Dawn Brigade chapters were tough, but everything after that was easy until the tower. The Dragons and Ashera took FOREVER.

[Mekkah]

Edward getting top5 isn't very unreasonable since it takes so many part 1 battles and kills to get him going in the first place.

[Loki Laufeyson]

Cool stuff Smasher! You know, before you stone me, i havent finished a NM run yet. Im gonna have to do it and i think next time i play it, i will. I have a habit of wanting to see all the special ending scenes and stuff and thats really fun to do on Easy mode.

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

Speaking of top 5, my last top 5 was:

5-Nolan

4-Edward

3-Mia

2-Ike

1-Haar

[Killer Poleax]

congrats to you! that's exactly how I felt after my first few playthroughs. some chapters are quite hard the first few times

and just like Mekkah said, Edward's part 1 kills do add up. he usually sneaks into the top 5 even if I don't use him in part 4 or endgame

[Interceptor]

Like I said, this is a great game, but somehow it just drains me. Anyone else get that feeling?

Right when Part 4 starts, and I have nothing but endless Routs, is when I want to slit both wrists. Part 2 also makes me want to play something else, especially on Geoffrey's Charge with its 30-minute long Enemy Phase.

[-Cynthia-]

I find Part 4 really draining. The first 3 maps aren't too bad, but rout in desert+ rout map with like a billion enemies is hard to do. And they're not laughable difficulty either, so restarts may have to occur.

[ReformBlade]

Right when Part 4 starts, and I have nothing but endless Routs, is when I want to slit both wrists. Part 2 also makes me want to play something else, especially on Geoffrey's Charge with its 30-minute long Enemy Phase.

You just dissed my favorite parts of the game... :(

[BEST TRYNDAMERE PLAYER]

but rout in desert+ rout map with like a billion enemies is hard to do.

Put most of your fliers and a trained Haar in the silver army and this problem is easily avoided. Also put Marcia and Tanith there seeing as you can actually triangle attack quite reliably on that chapter due to them having a HUGE mobility advantage+canto compared to most enemies on that map.

[Shimmachi]

Haar with Nullify, 3 Hand Axes, 3 Javelins, 2 Vulneraries and at least LV 7 or 8 Dragonlord can easily solo the chapter. But this means missing out on A LOT of stuff, including LOLStefan and VK, as well as Baselard.

If any crap arises, just rip off Tibarn and Fiona's Savior and slap them onto Haar and Naesala, have them rescue Sanaki and Micaiah. Sigrun and Sothe can handle by themselves.

Oh and BTW, 4-4 is Seize, IIRC, and 4-5 is kill Izuka.

[-Cynthia-]

It still takes a relatively long time to complete, even with Haar/Jill/Ulki/Janaff/Naesala.

I wish 4-4 was Seize, but no it's Rout. 4-5 is Kill Boss, don't mind it too much since you can end it quickly.

[_____]

I actually most of the non-DB Part 3 to be much more boring and draining than any other section of the game (Though 4-4 comes close).

You barely do anything in the prologue. 3-1 is FoW Rout with a time limit. 3-3 has way too much stuff going on (Hey, let's make them visit houses, steal stuff from senators, free horses, and burn houses!). Anyone who goes on the left side of 3-4 is pretty much irrelevant by the time they actually clear out the enemies there, and the left side gets clogged easily if you send too many people. 3-7 can literally be won by standing still for 3 turns and the Dawn Brigade is so underleveled by this point that it's less of an epic confrontation where you must divert their attention and more like kicking little kids off swings at the park and then throwing wood chips at them. 3-8 and 3-9 are just boring, though I can't say anything in particular as to why they are at the moment. 3-10 again, gives you no incentive to break up your group outside of experience, since it's a race against Elincia just to make sure she doesn't get in range of the numerous bow enemies up in the corner because she's suicidal just like any other NPC. 3-11 is the bridge, which is just annoying, especially with Tibarn flying ahead and eradicating half the map. 3-E is even less of a grand battle against your two armies than 3-7 was.

It's just so very tedious in my opinion.

[Killer Poleax]

I love part 3. it's my favourite part of the game cause I get to use a full team of characters I actually want to use

I also hate 4-3 cause it's a desert and only fliers and mages are good on that map. and the bishop with elsleep usually puts Haar to sleep on the first 2 turns so Micaiah has to stand by and heal him. I usually give Nullify to Naesala so he doesn't get killed by crossbows. I don't think there are any thunder sages there so Haar doesn't need it

Edited May 25, 2010 by Killer Poleax

[Nightmare]

I really love 4-5, but only because I can abuse all those summons and get quite a few units to max levels.

@Ninji: Tibarn is yellow on the bridge map, isn't he? You should be able to stop him from stealing your kills.

And I like 3-E because of the foreboding feel it has. The heartbeats, the music, and the whole situation surrounding the battle (the medallion going crazy) gives it a pretty tense feeling, even if the battle itself is pretty easy (unless you have a Dawn Brigade unit at tier 3 like I did with Aran once; he almost killed Ike when he activated Impale).

Also, my first play through took 40+ hours. I wasn't drained at all, even though I thought it was really long compared to the other FE games I've played (~20 for FE7, 8 and 9). I immediately started a new game after I finished, beat that new game sometime later, and then immediately started another new game (which I have yet to beat due to complications but I am close to).

[_____]

@Ninji: Tibarn is yellow on the bridge map, isn't he? You should be able to stop him from stealing your kills.

Yeah, but... why would you? It's shooting yourself in the foot not to use him, and yet it's just extremely boring if you do.

And I like 3-E because of the foreboding feel it has. The heartbeats, the music, and the whole situation surrounding the battle (the medallion going crazy) gives it a pretty tense feeling, even if the battle itself is pretty easy (unless you have a Dawn Brigade unit at tier 3 like I did with Aran once; he almost killed Ike when he activated Impale).

I never really felt like that, but to each his own.

[Ike-Mike]

It took me 70 hours with animations on. Yes, "I feel exhausted" describes it perfectly.

I can't remember my top 5 except that Tibarn was my number 1.