Thracia 776

[Duchess of Freege]

I've never played Thracia 776 (I'm ashamed to admit it), and I was just wondering what the general consensus is. Is it harder/easier than Seisen, and if so by how much? I understand there are several new gameplay mechanics that sort of bridge the gap between Seisen and the GBA FEs, but I'm still in the dark as to most of it. I like FE games to be difficult, but not overkill, and I'm afraid that if Thracia 776 is too complicated it might deter me from trying it.

So, what I'm asking is, just how difficult is Thracia?

[Silvercrow]

It's harder than FE4, but really if you have some idea of what to expect (by looking at a guide or something), it's pretty manageable if you don't mind resetting because of inevitably getting RNG screwed at some point or another. You can also do Elite Mode on your first playthrough if you're too worried about it being difficult, which doubles the EXP all your units receive.

As long as you don't mind spamming Staves to bypass the difficult parts of chapters, it's pretty reasonable.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

Chapter maps here

Just click the links under "Guia Fire Emblem Thracia 776". Anyway...

1. There will be maps with a red arrow. This is the escape point and everyone must use it before Leaf does or those that are left behind will be unobtainable until Chapter 21x.

2. You start with 0 Funds, most of your resources will come from capturing enemies and taking their stuff. Units can capture opposing units so long as their BLD stat is greater, when a capture is attempted, stats will be halved. Sell items you've acquired that have no practical value to you (SKL ring may an example).

3. You can stack scrolls on your units to increase their growths. It is best to do this that will level up with their next action and doing so will give you monstrous characters. Later in the game, you'll want to spread these to units to units that do not travel with support buddies to exterminate the possibility of Non-Wrath criticals (these work the same way they did in FE4 but don't require a Skill and 1 point in SKL = 1 Crit and critical evade is LCK/2).

4. To manage Fatigue, refrain from deploying all your best units frequently so you can save them for when they're really needed (Chapter 14 for example). Rotate your "best units" selection and fill the remaining deploy spots with those you wish to train and prepromotes.

5. Consider early promotions, the stat caps and enemy stats are low in this game.

Throughout the game you will get some manuals to teach skills to your characters. My suggestion on distributing these is as follows:

Elite: Whoever you want to promote fast and has trouble killing.

Wrath: A character with great durability but has trouble killing. Marty is an example (do note he definitely needs scroll stacking to salvage his speed). DO NOT give this to someone with Ambush, the combo does not work.

Ambush: Olwen, Asvel, people with Continue.

Charge: Someone with high HP and low PCC. Eyrios is an example.

Sun Sword: Someone with Wrath. Just watch this and you'll see why: http://www.youtube.c...h?v=t14agHWPta0

Awareness: I dunno, just give it to a capable unit you want to use in order to fight bosses that come with skills like Elf or Rinehart

Continue: Someone with Ambush.

If you get stuck on a chapter, just ask here and you'll get some help without a doubt.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Sirius

[Icon of Sin]

Thracia 776 isn't as hard as it seems once you know the mechanics. For instance, you get Eyvel early on and she can't be killed at all until a certain point in the game, while Dagda remains a very powerful unit despite horrid growths. Knowing how supports (Many of them are one sided, Leaf gives a LOT of supports, etc.), PCC (Pursuit critical coefficient, which multiplies the base critical on a doubling hit) and skills work are also a good help. Don't forget that staves are excellent in this game as well.

Some of the skills changed a lot from FE4 :

• Continue works only via AS% rather than AS + 20%
  
• Wrath will always activate on a counter, never on player phase and does not work with Ambush anymore.
  
• Charge will always activate as long as your HP and AS are higher than the target's at the start of the fight. You only get one more round of combat however. This skill can be fairly annoying against ballistae and long range mages as well since you will usually face twice as much hits.
  
• Prayer is Luck * 3%, very powerful on Fin with his Brave Lance.
  
• Ambush always works. Pretty much like FE9 in this case.
  

Considering Fatigue, you may want to keep a few filler units just in case.

Many weapons have fun effects and it's good to experiment with them. The Elite Sword in particular is a very useful tool in the hands of Thieves or Troubadours to double experience gain. Weapons that inflict statuses will always inflict it on contact, but statuses can't be removed unless you use an item to cure it or complete a chapter. You can't poison enemies either.

Considering scrolls, thanks to the availability of the Sety and Odo scrolls, you'll find that Speed and Skill are the easiest stats to fix, while Strength will be one of the hardest as the best scroll for it comes late. Most enemies tend to be pretty slow since you face a good amount of Armors and Mages, who always lose AS from their tomes. Weapon triangle is also a meaningless +5/-5 hit.

As for one of my personal favorite mechanics of the game, capturing, keep in mind that when you use it, you will attack enemies as if you had them rescued already, which means that Strength, Magic, Skill, Speed and Defense are halved. This can be tricky, especially if you wish to double enemies, but Hero weapons usually help a lot considering you get the Lance and the Axe at the very first chapter and the Sword a bit later. The Master series of weapons also have the Hero effect, but are heavier, inaccurate and come much later. You usually have to steal or capture them to even get your hands on one. Some other personal weapons, like the Graphcalibur and the Daim Thunder to some extent, are very powerful as well.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Dio

[Swordsalmon]

Thracia 776 developed a lot of the mechanics common in the GBA series, so understanding the basics are very easy. The key differences are that Build (Con) is an actual stat that has its own growths. In addition, magic tomes always reduce AS by their weight, and the Magic stat works like Resistance in the GBA titles.

Because of Fatigue, it is a good idea to use many characters. Staff-users are vital in Thracia, and most characters can be used due to Scrolls. Also, stat caps are all 20.

It's a tough game, but definitely more fun than Seisen. Or any Fire Emblem game, for that matter. ^_^

[Icon of Sin]

The key differences are that Build (Con) is an actual stat that has its own growths.

Adding to that : the same is true for Movement, though the growths for that vary between 1-5% (+5% with the Dain scroll). Build usually goes from 5 to 25%, though a few have much higher, like Marty. Once Build is capped, the unit can no longer be rescued or captured, even by mounted units.

Also while the game has leadership stars like in FE4, they work differently. They instead give 3% accuracy/avoid for all the units deployed of the same group. Then there's also movement stars. Each of them give 5% chance to move again after ending a turn. It makes some characters like Parn and Sara much better.

Edited April 7, 2011 by Dio

[Maji]

Well, this is from personal experience, but I actually found FE5 EASIER than FE4 mainly due to the facts that:

A.) You don't have 1,000,000 things you need to do at once like FE4 does.

B.) Know when to pick your fights and when to run away, and you'll be fine.

C.) A lot (not all) of your godly units join right away. Make sure to use Asvel for insta-rape!

D.) Staff abuse is ridiculous in this one (enemies included I should say) so level up Safy and there's pretty much an insta-win in some of the bitchy chapters.

E.) Personal weapon galore! Not as broken as FE4 in a way, but they are still there (personal favourite being Dime Thunder on a Skl/Spd buffed Olwen(moar like OlWIN, amirye?)

F.) Sety takes care of near Endgame chapters

G.) If you feel cheap and want to wreck the game, savestate it, enemy phase, load save state, go to status screen and the enemy RNG will reset.

Granted, there are some bitchy aspects to FE5 (such as status effects, CYAS and how healers are pretty much screwed if they're in the way come enemy phase but I'm sure you know about those), but so long as you take advantage of all the goodies the game throws at you, you'll be totally fine!

[Rewjeo]

No one has mentioned the fact that hit only goes from 1-99, not 0-100 yet. So there's ALWAYS a chance to miss (yes, INCLUDING THINGS LIKE HEAL) and there's ALWAYS a chance to hit.

[Swordsalmon]

Staffs can sometimes double-heal, to offset the chance of them missing. ^_^

[Gaggle of Geese]

This is pretty interesting. Out of curiosity, how does promotion work in this game? I've always wondered that. Are there promotion items? Do you do it from preparation?

Oh, and another thing. When I first started playing the game, with the translation patch, there was a problem with the first map screen. It begins with "rn coast of Thracia." and then repeats things a bit, then the text gets back to normal. Is this a known problem, or is something wrong? The game runs fine otherwise.

[Swordsalmon]

This is pretty interesting. Out of curiosity, how does promotion work in this game? I've always wondered that. Are there promotion items? Do you do it from preparation?

Oh, and another thing. When I first started playing the game, with the translation patch, there was a problem with the first map screen. It begins with "rn coast of Thracia." and then repeats things a bit, then the text gets back to normal. Is this a known problem, or is something wrong? The game runs fine otherwise.

You need a Knight Proof to promote a unit. They can be used on any promotable class, and you can buy some late in the game. Promotion happens entirely on the field; you can't use items on the preparation screen.

That is a problem with the translation patch (I think). It's happened to me on all my playthroughs with the path.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Swordsalmon

[Sir Ilpalazzo]

Well, this is from personal experience, but I actually found FE5 EASIER than FE4 mainly due to the facts that:

A.) You don't have 1,000,000 things you need to do at once like FE4 does.

B.) Know when to pick your fights and when to run away, and you'll be fine.

C.) A lot (not all) of your godly units join right away. Make sure to use Asvel for insta-rape!

D.) Staff abuse is ridiculous in this one (enemies included I should say) so level up Safy and there's pretty much an insta-win in some of the bitchy chapters.

E.) Personal weapon galore! Not as broken as FE4 in a way, but they are still there (personal favourite being Dime Thunder on a Skl/Spd buffed Olwen(moar like OlWIN, amirye?)

F.) Sety takes care of near Endgame chapters

G.) If you feel cheap and want to wreck the game, savestate it, enemy phase, load save state, go to status screen and the enemy RNG will reset.

Granted, there are some bitchy aspects to FE5 (such as status effects, CYAS and how healers are pretty much screwed if they're in the way come enemy phase but I'm sure you know about those), but so long as you take advantage of all the goodies the game throws at you, you'll be totally fine!

I don't want to be a dick, but I think this is crazy. FE4, while really good, was an easy game (definitely one of the easier Fire Emblems). Even the prison chapter near the beginning of Thracia 776 is harder than just about everything in FE4.

Edited April 8, 2011 by Sir Ilpalazzo

[Maji]

I don't want to be a dick, but I think this is crazy. FE4, while really good, was an easy game (definitely one of the easier Fire Emblems). Even the prison chapter near the beginning of Thracia 776 is harder than just about everything in FE4.

No, no, it's fine, I'm sure anyone saying FE5 is harder than FE4 would get the suspicion of being crazy. However, first off I really enjoyed FE4 as well, I found it harder simply due to: the physiological (or at least for me) impact the massive maps did for me as well as some of the bosses are just plain impossible to kill under the right circumstances (ie: Ishtar with Ambush and Continue along with Thor Hammer assuming you went with Levin!Sety, good luck with her when her HP falls below half). Secondly, FE5 was easy to abuse your Mages with such low stat caps: give them wind magic, make them hide in a mountain or forest tile and presto: near impossible to hit and easy EXP providing you want to pay the price of fatigue next chapter! Also, Elite Mode if you really feel like it.

All and all, albeit a personal experience that apparently radically varies from the general consensus, I found FE5 easier just because how cheap magic is to abuse, some chapters are just running, and because stat caps are so abysmally low.

However, I'd rather not start an argument of a forum, so I guess I can just agree that PEMN and I can just leave the OP to decide on her own.

EDIT: Concerning the prison chapters: they were hard? Am I missing something? O.o Given the fact that you pretty much have a good chunk of EXP to throw about on the first bout with free Vulneries to steal from the soldiers to take on the second half, I never found it that hard. Even the second half, Fire Sword, anyone?

Edited April 8, 2011 by Axefighter Maji

[Duchess of Freege]

All right, I've made up my mind to give Thracia a go! Thanks for all the info, everyone!

[dondon151]

EDIT: Concerning the prison chapters: they were hard? Am I missing something? O.o Given the fact that you pretty much have a good chunk of EXP to throw about on the first bout with free Vulneries to steal from the soldiers to take on the second half, I never found it that hard. Even the second half, Fire Sword, anyone?

Chapter 4 is a breeze. Chapters 4x and 5, on the other hand, are the two most difficult chapters to low turn in the game. It's absolutely ridiculous. You have almost no leeway for a miss and the units available are generally inaccurate, not to mention fairly weak offensively outside of Leaf, Felgus, and Asvel. There are a couple of situations where a unit has to survive like 5 attacks on one enemy phase while being 3HKO'd about about 50 hit. Furthermore, you can't compensate for movement inefficiencies because there are no mounted units. The only thing that can help you there is memorizing which units can rescue which other units without getting their movement cut in half. In fact, just the sheer length of chapters 4x and 5 means that it's very likely for something to go wrong.

Of course, no one actually tries to clear this game efficiently for whatever reason. You won't be able to use the Fire Sword because Felgus won't have the weapon rank until chapter 5 is almost over. You don't have enough weapons to distribute among your units and have to continually trade a Steel Sword or something between 4 units in order to do as much damage as possible. You have to eat through half of Asvel's Grafcalibur in chapter 5 because he can't double with Fire. You have to keep trading your single Lockpick to and away from Lara and Lifis because they'll get captured every other turn. And so on.

[Gaggle of Geese]

You need a Knight Proof to promote a unit. They can be used on any promotable class, and you can buy some late in the game. Promotion happens entirely on the field; you can't use items on the preparation screen.

That is a problem with the translation patch (I think). It's happened to me on all my playthroughs with the path.

"The path?" This is the game's first scene, it isn't optional. Just start a new game.

I'm guessing it's a normal problem, since the rest of the game works fine.

[Celice]

If memory serves, towards the end of the game there's also a messed up name or two on some units which will crash the game if you hover over them. You can kill them though if you go through fast enough to not get caught on the garbled name data.

[Smiley Jim]

If memory serves, towards the end of the game there's also a messed up name or two on some units which will crash the game if you hover over them. You can kill them though if you go through fast enough to not get caught on the garbled name data.

If I remember correctly, that only applies to the heroes in C24(there may be some others in C24x and Endgame, but I'm not sure). And the game only crashes if you are using a translator, so if you are playing the game in Japanese, the game won't crash.

[Swordsalmon]

"The path?" This is the game's first scene, it isn't optional. Just start a new game.

I'm guessing it's a normal problem, since the rest of the game works fine.

It was a typo; I meant 'patch'. Though I do think that this also happens later in the game, just repeating a line or two on the overworld.

[Kriemhild]

If I remember correctly, that only applies to the heroes in C24(there may be some others in C24x and Endgame, but I'm not sure). And the game only crashes if you are using a translator, so if you are playing the game in Japanese, the game won't crash.

Yes, they appear at Ch 24x and Endgame, but you're not likely to see them at Endgame unless you're really slow.

Even in the translator, the game only crashes when it tries to view the small comic bubble that appears when the cursor is on a unit. You can pass through them fast enough or even check their data without crashing the game.

[Moose16]

Its a good game.

Edited May 30, 2017 by Swooce