What makes this the easiest FE game?

[Snarf]

Topic

[Ring Wraith]

The fact that some people forget Sacred Stones.

[I.M. Gei]

It isn't. See: FE8

[Snarf]

Except that Phantom Ship is harder than anything PoR has to offer

[Ring Wraith]

What difficulty are you playing this one on?

[Snarf]

HM obviously

[chococoke]

It's definitely 2nd, behind FE8.

[dondon151]

Quite honestly, I'd say this game is leagues easier than FE8.

[whase]

FE8 is only that easy by overusing the tower. FE9's insane experience gains on easy and normal mode would make this game the easiest, but yeah, hard mode has regular exp gains.

I say it all depends on the player's style of playing these games

(unless you play FE8 on VBA, savestate makes everything way easy.)

[Lord Raven]

I actually had more trouble in this game on NM than I did in Hector mode in FE7. FE6 normal mode is also pretty easy compared to FE9 (FE9 not being that hard), and obviously FE10 EM is a lot easier than FE9 EM. I thought FE9, HHM and Radiant Dawn NM/HM aside, was relatively hard for the US released FEs.

[samthedigital]

I think this is the only game where they removed the hardest difficulty level and gave us an even more simple easy mode when translating the game or whatever. That's what makes the game less challenging than it could be, and it's a shame.

[Integrity]

Since nobody really actually answered the question (it isn't "is this the easiest fe" guys...), I'll have a crack at it.

If you choose to righteously abuse it, BEXP. Yes, yes, "tower trivializes fe8" except for the major difference being BEXP both takes almost no time to use, is ricockulously easy to reset with for good levels, AND can be used on your promoted units for delicious results where the good ol' Tower would actually take a little while.

Frankly, having seen what BEXP does to HM, I doubt even Maniac Mode would be harder than FE8 Ephraim. Don't quote me on that, given that I haven't played MM beyond seeing (Balcerzak?) do it, but.

EDIT: It seems BEXP is halved and then some in MM, so you might want to take this above paragraph a little lighter than the rest.

Even factoring BEXP out of the mix entirely, I think we're still left with a fairly easy game. Titania does almost as much to this game as Seth does to FE8, and her support (units, not her support list) is rather better in comparison to the units. The only hard parts of FE9, I found, were killing the Black Knight - which you can choose to bypass with five button presses and a hearty chuckle - and maybe Berzerk Ashnard. And that latter was only because I'd never fought him before and didn't know what to expect.

FE9's not really my strong point though so /shrug

Edited July 3, 2011 by Integrity

[Rodykitty]

What makes this the easiest FE game?

Nintendo of America.

At least for FE8 it seems like it'd be better suited for doing self-imposed challenges.

[Ring Wraith]

Subtracting Seth and Tower abuse, FE8 is probably harder, but those things make a huge difference.

[Integrity]

Subtract Seth, sub Titania.

Subtract Tower, sub BEXP.

:?

[I.M. Gei]

Berserk Ashnard can be pretty easily trivialized with Wrath+Resolve Ike. Just heal Ike before Berserk Ashnard attacks, and when Ashnard hits both Resolve and Wrath should activate, letting Ike double (and very likely critical and kill).

[Mekkah]

Aside from Titania and BEXP:

- Insanely broken Paladins, with their weapons, movement, utility, and pretty much exclusive Knight Ward

- Enemies are really weak. I remember back when vykan went to gather enemy stats we were like "wow, these are FE9 enemies? terrible." They remain unpromoted practically forever, the promoted enemies are only barely better (sometimes even worse, I'm nto kidding), they generally fail to even 6HKO your good units if they even manage to hit, etc.

- Everything is spelled out for you, things like recruiting convos etc. This is fairly minor since for FE8 you're only a walkthrough or SF browse away of knowing, but still.

- Skills. They're not in FE8, and in FE9 enemies with skills are insanely rare while a lot of your characters have some.

[Rewjeo]

- Everything is spelled out for you, things like recruiting convos etc. This is fairly minor since for FE8 you're only a walkthrough or SF browse away of knowing, but still.

Except Stefan.

[samthedigital]

It seems BEXP is halved and then some in MM, so you might want to take this above paragraph a little lighter than the rest.

Not only is BEXP halved, but in MM characters gain 5 less exp per battle. This is sort of compensated for by having a higher enemy density, but there are more enemies, they are of higher levels, and they start promoting earlier (by about 8 chapters). I wouldn't claim that maniac mode is one of the hardest Fire Emblem challenges, especially since I haven't played it, but that at least should make it more difficult than Sacred Stones.

[Vykan12]

The real reason is because you touch yourself at night.

[Junkhead]

Titania.

No need to thank me.

[Florete]

*sees snarfboywonder's avy* FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-

Whoa, do we have a Snarf hater in the house? I WILL NOT STAND FOR IT

The real reason is because you touch yourself at night.

Please leave posts like these in Far from the Forest.

As for the topic, Titania, BEXP, Marcia/Jill, Paladins, shittons of money + forging.

[Quintessence]

I think both Titania and BEXP abuse. There's no playthrough I don't have Titania, mainly because of her good growths as a pre-promoted unit and the great support she gives the Mercs at the beginning of the game. Also, characters have both decent growths and stand for long on the battlefield (if well used, I mean knowing all character's virtues and weaknesses) against the enemies that are relatively weak, taking to the point that non-promoted enemies have better stats than the promoted ones, as an example Ch. 17, I guess.

[Paperblade]

BEXP and supports.

[Athe]

Maybe I'm just a baed FE player, but I've been having a lot of trouble on Chapter 25 Maniac Mode getting through without any deaths and within 7 turns. I'd been training mostly paladins for the entire game, and suddenly not being able to use three of my best units and one of my healers was a pretty nasty surprise (desert chapter is still a cakewalk on MM). The Iron Ballista and four Blizzard Sages prevent me from being able to send in fliers, and even with a Full Guard, using a flier to tank the enemies (all promoted, by the way) has too high a failure rate to be viable, or so it seems to me. Then when I finally get near the top on the eastern side, three rocks come rolling down, taking off 30 HP from one of my ground units and leaving it easy prey for the Wyvern Lords (there are eight Wyvern Lord reinforcements and three Cats, not three and two respectively like I've read is the case in US Hard Mode). And this is with ridiculously overgrowthed units in Random Mode - I have no idea how I will handle this in Fixed Mode. Of course, IS did make the maps and set turn limits, so I guess I'm probably just bad at the game.

On the other hand, I watched some videos of US Hard Mode, and it's a complete joke - enemies are underleveled and few in number, and you get double BEXP compared to MM, so you can use pretty much anyone you like and still win. Given that it was Normal Mode on the JP version, I don't think this is too surprising. I don't know how anyone can put up with US Hard Mode.

Edited July 5, 2011 by Athe