How do the difficulties compare to other games?

[Tables]

Okay, in particular, how do Lunatic, Manic and Hard on Classic compare with other FE games/difficulties? I'm thinking I'll start on something more challenging than RD NM, but easier than RD HM, so which should I go for?

[Biabarr]

Lunatic Classic = IMPOSSIBLE!!! really. This is a lot harder than SD maniac mode or RD HM

Lunatic Casual: The game will be very very hard, but you can bring people back

Maniac Classic: Pretty challenging. Probably similar difficult to the dawn brigade chapters in RD HM

Hard Classic: What I am playing. Let's just leave it as, that this is already pretty challenging. This is about HM of RD for your endgame party.

Normal Classic = Probably harder than RD normal, but not by much

Normal Casual: Fairly easy

[AstraLunaSol]

Lunatic: Harder than H5, and that's saying something.

Maniac: H5 Anyone?

Hard: Dunno about Hard, but it seems to be RD HM material

Normal: Harder than your average FE game (Probably Par with GBA Hard modes)

[Tables]

Really? Normal Classic is that hard, not the joke difficulty of FE11? Anyway, that sounds slightly annoyingly to me that Hard is a bit easier than I'd want for my first playthrough, and Manic is a bit harder. Hmm, guess I'll bite the bullet and go for Manic, pending second opinions.

Ninja'd by Michalis. I'll just wait to see if anyone else has played Hard and can give an opinion. H5 level does not sound fun for a first runthrough to me.

Edited July 20, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Ryan7556]

I'll warn you that maniac is pretty difficult, especially on chapter 20 where you have enemy paladins capped in strength and nearly capped in speed, not to mention that a lot of them have spears too.

Edited July 20, 2010 by Axefighter Barst

[AstraLunaSol]

Really? Normal Classic is that hard, not the joke difficulty of FE11? Anyway, that sounds slightly annoyingly to me that Hard is a bit easier than I'd want for my first playthrough, and Manic is a bit harder. Hmm, guess I'll bite the bullet and go for Manic, pending second opinions.

Ninja'd by Michalis. I'll just wait to see if anyone else has played Hard and can give an opinion. H5 level does not sound fun for a first runthrough to me.

FE3 Book 2 was generally harder than FE3 Book 1 anyway, so it would have a difficulty bump.

You should probably go through with Hard, but Hard and up has the enemies coming out as reinforcements on THEIR turn, so they can attack immediately.

[Tables]

Hm, think I will stick with Hard then, unless I decide to go for Manic Casual, which looks like it might be harder (I don't know). I first played FE11 on H1, so I'm used to enemy spawns being on their phase (I consider it fake difficulty unless you can predict where they'll come from, but whatever ¬_¬).

[AstraLunaSol]

Casual really doesn't effect stats or make enemies easier, it's just a painless way (the painful way being to reset and do everything over again) to pass chapters without you getting screwed by their deaths.

Which shouldn't be happening in the first place.

[Tables]

Well, exactly. It means that if something goes wrong or whatever, I can keep going, or if I feel it's necessary, play strategies involving sacrificing someone, since I know it's only a minor loss. It certainly seems like it'd make things easier to me.

Edit: Also, I'm calling it now that Lunatic mode gets replaced with Easy mode, because it's more suitable to Western gamers .

Edited July 20, 2010 by I Eat Tables

[Smiley Jim]

Also, I'm calling it now that Lunatic mode gets replaced with Easy mode, because it's more suitable to Western gamers .

I beg to differ. While in most American releases of Fire Emblem, they toned down the difficulty anywhere from a little(FE10) to a lot(FE9). They didn't take out FEDS H5 because IS thought it wouldn't be too hard for us(H5 still is hard, the enemies have silvers/forges by chapter 10, and braves by chapter 20, but the braves didn't go any higher than 30 atk, so a tough gen(in my case, Draug) could tink them.), but we found ways to conquer it. I'm thinking it will be the same here.

Edited July 21, 2010 by DA125

[AstraLunaSol]

Edit: Also, I'm calling it now that Lunatic mode gets replaced with Easy mode, because it's more suitable to Western gamers .

This is going to happen.

I beg to differ. While in most American releases of Fire Emblem, they toned down the difficulty anywhere from a little(FE10) to a lot(FE9). They didn't take out FEDS H5 because IS thought it wouldn't be too hard for us(H5 still is hard, the enemies have silvers/forges by chapter 10, and braves by chapter 20, but the braves didn't go any higher than 30 atk, so a tough gen could tink them.), but we found ways to conquer it. I'm thinking it will be the same here.

Lunatic has a 60 mt Dark Dragon waiting to eat your ass.

[Tables]

I beg to differ. While in most American releases of Fire Emblem, they toned down the difficulty anywhere from a little(FE10) to a lot(FE9). They didn't take out FEDS H5 because IS thought it wouldn't be too hard for us(H5 still is hard, the enemies have silvers/forges by chapter 10, and braves by chapter 20, but the braves didn't go any higher than 30 atk, so a tough gen could tink them.), but we found ways to conquer it. I'm thinking it will be the same here.

You forget, the game had joke normal mode. From the sounds of things, Normal mode here is fairly tough (as in, it's harder than any other UK's releases easiest difficulty), and reviews saying 'The game is pretty hard on the easiest difficulty' will turn down a lot of the casual market, which, in spite of everything, is where a lot of the sales come from. Therefore, they're either going to lower the difficulty of every mode, or replace lunatic with easy.

[Starlette]

Lunatic has a 60 mt Dark Dragon waiting to eat your ass.

Not to mention 99 HP. And don't even get me started on if you don't save the priestesses.

Normal is harder than most FEs if not done on Casual. Casual's...just normal, really.

I never tried Hard yet, or Manic, or even Lunatic...but Lunatic is pretty much insane. Hope you love 30 Speed, because you'll need it and forged Quick/Brave weapons a lot.

[Smiley Jim]

Hope you love 30 Speed, because you'll need it and forged Quick/Brave weapons a lot.

Good thing Nabarl Navarre and Malice exist, amirite? They can easily get 30 spd(lol65% spd growth on Navarre/55% on Malice), plus they aren't too bad str wise(Navarre has 45% str growth, Malice 40%) And for some reason Navarre now has a 75% luck growth and a 25% def growth.

Edited July 21, 2010 by DA125

[AstraLunaSol]

Good thing Nabarl Navarre and Malice exist, amirite? They can easily get 30 spd(lol65% spd growth on Navarre/55% on Malice), plus they aren't too bad str wise(Navarre has 45% str growth, Malice 40%)

Thank God they have crap Def growth.

[Rewjeo]

The one thing I've noticed Casual does is, besides no perma-death, is that it makes Caesar/Radd much easier to recruit. You actually have to go out of your way to kill them, not out of your way to keep them alive.

[AstraLunaSol]

The one thing I've noticed Casual does is, besides no perma-death, is that it makes Caesar/Radd much easier to recruit. You actually have to go out of your way to kill them, not out of your way to keep them alive.

Actually, I've heard (From Enjolras) That Casual somehow makes the AI stupider. =\

So maybe it's the fact that the AI isn't supposed to move them?

[Rewjeo]

No, they have the thing where when you check their attack range, they can't move.

[CO_Fimbulvetr]

That only happens on Normal difficulty, by the way. Any harder mode will give them their normal movement, and they will use it.

[_____]

Edit: You're talking about Casual. Ignore me.

Edited July 21, 2010 by Ninji

[Taho]

Can't wait to try this out.

I'm thinking, being a Hard mode fan, I'll probably go straight for Classic Hard, to have a good, solid challenge.

Arenas ruin the difficulty of a game, though, as well as wifi shops where you can buy promotion items, which means that you can build a team to 20/20 as soon as you hit the first arena. The "no arena" concept of FE 9/10 was good for that (although the FE10 endgame was way too easy anyway).

[Paperblade]

Lunatic Mode is probably the most difficult thing on the entire series, other than maybe FE5 SSS rank. Depending on how hard Lunatic's ranks are.

[Jaybee]

Normal: GBA HM.

Hard: RD HM/FE11 H3?

Maniac: FE11 H5.

Lunatic: FE11 H8.

Yeah, something like that.

Now, if only NOA adds an Easy mode without removing Lunatic. Then we can have 5 difficulty levels 8D.

[fatgamecat]

Lunatic Mode is probably the most difficult thing on the entire series, other than maybe FE5 SSS rank. Depending on how hard Lunatic's ranks are.

There's FE5 SSS rank, but also SS rank and S rank. SS rank is still very very difficult. So it may be around that level.