In your opinion

[RNG Princess]

Of course Sacred Stones is way too easy :/ thankfully it was the first game I played so I actually found it very challenging in my first runthrough ;). I kept hearing things like its too easy and I'd be like o_0 how is it too easy? After I played other games and used smarter tactics (like not raising everyone at the same time, it was fun back then though) I understood why.

Anyways this thread is here to ask you which chapters do you think looked fun or could have used more enemies if it had higher difficulty?

I think Chapter 19 has the layout for more enemies and I love protect mission based chapters :3.

[Parrhesia]

Yeah, Chapter 19 with better allies, and a lot more enemies and turns, just a desperate battle of attrition to prevent them from getting to Mansel...mmmm...

I always felt that Binks needed more protection...assuming I remember the map right. It's been a while.

[Integrity]

Binks?

Yes. I still hold C19 as one of the best chapters in FE history, played right. The first time, man, I didn't know where Riev was so I had to fight that battle of attrition with essentially Ross and Franz. It was GLORIOUS.

[Light Lord]

I agree.

The first time I played the game I was like: "Cool, there will be plenty of surprises in this map." An assassin and a rogue helped a bit with the view, yet it was an interesting map to play. Then in the next player phase I had to heal almost everyone on the field and try to continue looking for Riev and his other goons to finish earlier the mission.

But if I have to choose another one I would choose Grado's Siege (I don't remember the name). A pretty hard mission if you want to recruit Rennac, get each treasure, avoid being cursed by the Druids by Vigarde. The first time i made it I had to restart like three times the entire mission.

By the way, isn't Binks a boss in Eirika's route first chapter?

Edited September 15, 2010 by Light Lord

[Integrity]

According to Boss Data, Binks is the boss of C9 Eirika. What's wrong with him?

[Light Lord]

Nothing. I just saw Furetchen's post and I think I misunderstood it.

[Anouleth]

All chapters: Remove Seth

All chapters: buff enemy stats, increase enemy density, more reinforcements

All defend chapters can now be completed early by routing, not by killing the boss

All Kill Boss chapters are now Rout

[Light Lord]

I always thought, why not tag the Remnants and the Monsters in a few chapters?

The chapters where this is possible would be the first time you fight Lyon and the same for Riev.

Adding a few monsters would make them a bit longer.

[RNG Princess]

All chapters: Remove Seth

All chapters: buff enemy stats, increase enemy density, more reinforcements

All defend chapters can now be completed early by routing, not by killing the boss

All Kill Boss chapters are now Rout

ohh you love Route chapters :D

I like defend chapters <3 Routing takes too long sometimes but I don't mind them.

[Junkhead]

We shared the same experience in our first run of our first FE, QE. 8D

But I didn't really find it hard...(lol, easymode)

I didn't fall for the Jeigan trap, knowing Seth gained low Exp, and that other characters actually had a chance to be better.

Although I did make the mistake of promoting Franz at lvl 10.

The earlygame chapters were the funnest, IMO.

Edited September 15, 2010 by Totally not Hika's alt

[RNG Princess]

We shared the same experience in our first run of our first FE, QE. 8D

But I didn't really find it hard...(lol, easymode)

I didn't fall for the Jeigan trap, knowing Seth gained low Exp, and that other characters actually had a chance to be better.

Although I did make the mistake of promoting Franz at lvl 10.

The earlygame chapters were the funnest, IMO.

I always avoided Seth :D thats why it made it hard.

[Silvercrow]

I avoided Seth on my first couple playthroughs through this game as well, beyond helping a bit in early chapters. I didn't really know he was that useful of a character because I had no idea of his growths, I was used to Marcus and wasn't an efficient player in any case.

Either way, I still felt that this game was miles easier than even FE7, which had been the only one I played beforehand, and even that is only about mid-range difficulty in the grand scheme of things.

Some ways to make it harder... lower the growth rates of most characters by a bit, especially the prepromotes. Toughen up the enemies. Change "kill the boss" to rout (ESPECIALLY the Aias chapter in Eirika's route). Remove Slayer to make Creature Campaign a little harder, or nerf it down to 2x or 1.5x might. Make the trainee units more viable to use without Tower abuse and make everyone else a little weaker. Make Revenants much stronger, because they're pretty much weaker than like GENERIC BRIGANDS in chapter 2. Actually, make all monsters with the possible exceptions of Gargoyles and Gorgons stronger. Especially Revenants and Mauthe Doogs, Tarvos and Mogalls could just get a slight buff (perhaps in durability). Make bosses actually be strong instead of trivial.

Some thoughts about specific chapters? Scorched Sand had the ability to be really cool. Yea, desert map or whatever, bitch all you want but the setup was cool and it was a climactic point in the story. Add more enemies and make them stronger, have mages marauding the desert areas and make Caellach and Valter actually powerful instead of the wussbags that they were. Actually, just expanding the map out to be huge would've been cool, I felt that the map was too small and that made it too easy.

The chapter with Lyon (first one) is another good one. Make the map larger and add a big zerg of enemies. Add lots of mages with Siege Tomes and Status Staves. Reconfigure it so it's not warpskippable in 2 turns.

Chapter 19... make it more like Battle Before Dawn in FE7 and less like Sands of Time. Have the boss be located in a far off position (or, even better, have his position change randomly each time, similar to the Gates in FE6 20x Sacae), and don't have the chapter end upon his death. Have all your units start far from Mansel, but buff up his guards considerably so that they can hold their own for some time. Add Siege Tomes and Status Staffs in the darkness (but not in range of Mansel).

Edited September 15, 2010 by Silvercrow

[Narga_Rocks]

All chapters: Remove Seth

LB is gonna kill you.

Anyway, just nerf him a bit. Not sure how much, though. Double A weapon ranks was probably a bad idea. I guess having 1 A wasn't so bad, but one of them should've been a D or a C.

Then just lower his growths and take the minimum of his and Titania's number for each stat. (hp stays 30, str becomes 12, spd stays 12, lck becomes 11, res becomes 7. that type of thing)

lower everything by 15 for his growths except hp and luck. Leave luck at 25% or make it 20%. Drop hp to either 60% or 65%. And now he's been nerfed without making the first few chapters too insane. Most of IS's games require you to use the jeigan-type character the first few chapters if you don't want a major headache. Removing him completely would not be very I.S.-like.

[dondon151]

I think a big part in nerfing Seth would be in changing how bosskill EXP bonuses worked. IIRC the bonuses were calculated differently in FE7 and Marcus wouldn't get 50+ EXP for killing, for example, Bauker in chapter 16.

[IntegerZero]

Ephraim's Route

Chapter 9: Fort Rigwald

The idea is solid, it just needs better enemies in general. Make Gheb fail less. Give him a swordreaver. Also, totally need to introduce some promoted (Generals!) enemies on here. Make it so enemies are one step ahead of you. Oh, make Amelia less fail, and maybe worth using.

Chapter 13: Fluorspar's Oath

Another chapter is Selena's chapter. Selena herself should totally rock more ACC, just so she is a threat with bolting. Also hand her a staff of some sort so she still continues to pester you further. Silence comes to mind. Also, give a great unit variety. Put Generals (With something called DEF) at choke points. Put a variety of sleep staffers and siege bombers around. Also, add some Rangers or Snipers with good bows to discourage fliers. That would make for one hell of a chapter. I always felt it was silly how it was a perfect setup for something like this, but never actually succeed at it. Also, add paladins.

The phantom ship is still cool, especially if enemies get buffed in general.

Chapter 14: Father and Son

Needs more promoted enemies. Lack of them make this chapter LOL easy besides the damn druids. Add a speckle of promoted enemies and I guess make Rennec AI act somewhat different if you could. Also, totally give Vigarde a unique class (King from FE6 come to mind) with a unique weapon. Make him an epic end to Ephraim's route.

Eirika's Route

Chapter 9: Distant Blade

Make Binks awesome. Also, maybe buff enemy stats slightly. I dunno. It is a bit of a challenge if you're trying to get all the houses.

Chapter 11: Creeping Darkness

Make enemies challenging. Maybe add some shadowshot Mogalls so they are picking at you near the beginning. And make Mauth Dogs myrmidon fast. And the boss needs to fail a lot less. You know what, make monsters fail less. That'll do.

Chapter 13: Hamill Canyon

Make Aias a tanky son of a gun. Give him high Def, so you cannot so easily early finish the chapter. Also make Pablos arrive sooner. And Cormag too. It would have some difficulty if you have Pablos and Aias swarming on turn 2 or 3. Not to mention the Cormag recruitment.

Chapter 14: Queen of White Dunes

Make Carlyle fast. Really fast. Give him a Lancereaver and a Shamshir along with his Wind Sword for good measure too. Make the chapter stock full of Myrmidons and Mercenarys (And Promoted counterparts) since Jehanna are know for them. Sprinkle in some solid range units and maybe a few knights and you're set.

Endgame

Chapter 15: Scorched sand

Make Callech and Valter not suck. Seriously. Also, give Valter severalf promoted flying units, to stick with his theme. Callech should just get a boost to his area in general. Sprinkle some mages that roam round (Like others suggested), and done. MOAR Beserkers PLZ.

After that till chapter 19, just buff enemy stats, play around with weapons, and maybe sprinkle more in and they'd be fine.

Chapter 19: Last Hope

Make the enemies not suck ass. And make Riev move. I agree with everyone else on this chapter. Make Mansel's knights not suck.

That's it for now.

[Narga_Rocks]

I think a big part in nerfing Seth would be in changing how bosskill EXP bonuses worked. IIRC the bonuses were calculated differently in FE7 and Marcus wouldn't get 50+ EXP for killing, for example, Bauker in chapter 16.

Yeah, there's that, too, I guess. That is one thing that helps Titania and Seth level so much. Do they need to nerf growths and bases and weapon ranks and boss exp formulas, or would it be sufficient to just do some of that?

[dondon151]

I think the bosskill problem needs to be addressed anyway. I mean, you'd have Seth and Titania leveling up faster than your general unpromoted units.

[BK-201]

Binks?

Yes. I still hold C19 as one of the best chapters in FE history, played right. The first time, man, I didn't know where Riev was so I had to fight that battle of attrition with essentially Ross and Franz. It was GLORIOUS.

You should have looked at your screen as it goes to his location though it's still in FoW.

[RNG Princess]

I like the ideas here so I'm stealing them and putting them in my hack >:)

Also for Seth there wouldn't be much of a point giving him boss kills if he has 10-15% growths, it would be a complete waste. So I made those 10/15% growths for him :D. He gets to keep his bases so its not like he's a waste he's just more jeigan-ish now as they all should be.

Ephraim's Route

Chapter 9: Fort Rigwald

The idea is solid, it just needs better enemies in general. Make Gheb fail less. Give him a swordreaver. Also, totally need to introduce some promoted (Generals!) enemies on here. Make it so enemies are one step ahead of you. Oh, make Amelia less fail, and maybe worth using.

Chapter 13: Fluorspar's Oath

Another chapter is Selena's chapter. Selena herself should totally rock more ACC, just so she is a threat with bolting. Also hand her a staff of some sort so she still continues to pester you further. Silence comes to mind. Also, give a great unit variety. Put Generals (With something called DEF) at choke points. Put a variety of sleep staffers and siege bombers around. Also, add some Rangers or Snipers with good bows to discourage fliers. That would make for one hell of a chapter. I always felt it was silly how it was a perfect setup for something like this, but never actually succeed at it. Also, add paladins.

The phantom ship is still cool, especially if enemies get buffed in general.

Chapter 14: Father and Son

Needs more promoted enemies. Lack of them make this chapter LOL easy besides the damn druids. Add a speckle of promoted enemies and I guess make Rennec AI act somewhat different if you could. Also, totally give Vigarde a unique class (King from FE6 come to mind) with a unique weapon. Make him an epic end to Ephraim's route.

Eirika's Route

Chapter 9: Distant Blade

Make Binks awesome. Also, maybe buff enemy stats slightly. I dunno. It is a bit of a challenge if you're trying to get all the houses.

Chapter 11: Creeping Darkness

Make enemies challenging. Maybe add some shadowshot Mogalls so they are picking at you near the beginning. And make Mauth Dogs myrmidon fast. And the boss needs to fail a lot less. You know what, make monsters fail less. That'll do.

Chapter 13: Hamill Canyon

Make Aias a tanky son of a gun. Give him high Def, so you cannot so easily early finish the chapter. Also make Pablos arrive sooner. And Cormag too. It would have some difficulty if you have Pablos and Aias swarming on turn 2 or 3. Not to mention the Cormag recruitment.

Chapter 14: Queen of White Dunes

Make Carlyle fast. Really fast. Give him a Lancereaver and a Shamshir along with his Wind Sword for good measure too. Make the chapter stock full of Myrmidons and Mercenarys (And Promoted counterparts) since Jehanna are know for them. Sprinkle in some solid range units and maybe a few knights and you're set.

Endgame

Chapter 15: Scorched sand

Make Callech and Valter not suck. Seriously. Also, give Valter severalf promoted flying units, to stick with his theme. Callech should just get a boost to his area in general. Sprinkle some mages that roam round (Like others suggested), and done. MOAR Beserkers PLZ.

After that till chapter 19, just buff enemy stats, play around with weapons, and maybe sprinkle more in and they'd be fine.

Chapter 19: Last Hope

Make the enemies not suck ass. And make Riev move. I agree with everyone else on this chapter. Make Mansel's knights not suck.

That's it for now.

I know I made Selena's have mage hordes of enemies and the mages are really buffed up.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Queen_Elincia

[Randoman]

I wouldn't want to change any of the chapters around since, well, it's what makes Sacred Stones what it is. Well, I guess what would be a fun optional feature is if you've defeated the game and you're doing another runthrough, you could get characters like Glen or Selena on your team in the chapters you encounter them in, where they're supposed to die but instead you can recruit them.

As for chapters I found fun, there's Ch. 9 Eirika, Ch. 10 Eirika, and Chapter 17 (except for how easily the civilians die).

[Thor Odinson]

It's a lack of difficulty when played normally provides a great chance to do lots of fun themed runs, however, like soloruns (the Seth one's actually pretty easy save C16, C18, and C20) and alternate story runs.

My current run, Eirika and the Jehannans is actually somewhat of a challenge, where Seth is only used as a base-level meatshield up to C9, and Eirika and Joshua ended up having to kill everything with their lack of two range and (in Eirika's case due to a bad case of RNG screwage) durability issues, which was pretty fun but frustrating when RNG doesn't go your way. At least until Gerik dah man joins.

...no more three-turning C17. I sad.

Just make FE8 harder with that. I think it's fine the way it is. Nobody said you had to play a game with a standard full team. In fact, it's more fun if you don't.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Luminescent Blade

[Anouleth]

It's a lack of difficulty when played normally provides a great chance to do lots of fun themed runs, however, like soloruns (the Seth one's actually pretty easy save C16, C18, and C20) and alternate story runs.

My current run, Eirika and the Jehannans is actually somewhat of a challenge, where Seth is only used as a base-level meatshield up to C9, and Eirika and Joshua ended up having to kill everything with their lack of two range and (in Eirika's case due to a bad case of RNG screwage) durability issues, which was pretty fun but frustrating when RNG doesn't go your way. At least until Gerik dah man joins.

...no more three-turning C17. I sad.

Just make FE8 harder with that. I think it's fine the way it is. Nobody said you had to play a game with a standard full team. In fact, it's more fun if you don't.

I disagree. I don't like 'soloes' or challenge runs where you only use a handful of units. I see why they appeal to people, because they like pouring all their resources into one unit and having him kill everything, but I find it utterly tedious and boring. Mainly because there's almost no strategy involved when you only have one or two invincible ORKOing tanks.

[Thor Odinson]

I admit, Sethsolo was basically Seth charges, things die. Seth crits DK, game over. Seth is crowned god and marries Eirika and all is well. However, themed runs and alternate story runs are a different story. They require the use of a team of units based on either some sort of commonality, or some type of storyline.

While it's not a full team, themed runs usually consist at least 5-6 memebers, 4 at minimum, and still require strategy to get through.

And a lot harder than soloruns if you ask me.

[Anouleth]

I admit, Sethsolo was basically Seth charges, things die. Seth crits DK, game over. Seth is crowned god and marries Eirika and all is well. However, themed runs and alternate story runs are a different story. They require the use of a team of units based on either some sort of commonality, or some type of storyline.

While it's not a full team, themed runs usually consist at least 5-6 memebers, 4 at minimum, and still require strategy to get through.

And a lot harder than soloruns if you ask me.

I would be happy to do something like a Western Isles or a Ilia run in FE6. Mainly because I really love the Western Isles people and the Ilians. And they have a nice spread of abilities. Same for Etruria or Ostia. In fact, any country other than Sacae.

And there are some kinds of runs that sound entertaining. Like, I've always wanted to try an enemy phase only run. Or a saviour run where everyone has to carry another unit. It's just that solo runs, or themed runs where you don't have a lot of units to begin with, don't sound entertaining to me.

[Thor Odinson]

Well, each to their own, I guess.

Though Sethsolo was sorta like a savior run half the time because base Eirika has no durability :P

Well, that's why people pick what theme they want to use and plan it out. Jehanna was a bit stupid of me, since I don't get the rest of them until C10 (and C12 since I counted Saleh and Ewan in for their connection with Gerik's Mercs), but I do love that country.

But something like a female only run where you get Eirika, Vanessa, Lute, Neimi, and Natasha rather early on is plenty doable if you want an acceptable amount of earlygame units, for example.

Well, those are still following some type of theme. Just not a character deployment theme. I still catergorize those under themed runs since they're not orthodox gameplay.

Edited September 16, 2010 by Luminescent Blade