Playing and research

[Espinosa]

Something I've been meaning to ask the Fire Emblem players of this forum...

When it comes to the time you spent playing Fire Emblem, what else do you do besides play the game? Namely, how much research and scrutiny goes into how you play?

I'll ask some more questions to make my idea clear:

- how many times do you usually restart a chapter you've done without any casualties or serious errors (like letting an enemy thief getting away with treasure or something unlikely to happen after you know a map well enough)? Do you rehearse before you proceed to the next chapter? Do you often look for discussions and playlogs by other online to see what strategies others use to clear the maps? In that case, what is the ultimate goal? Self-improvement, competition, higher rank, etc.?

- do you often find yourself looking at enemy stats in chapters still to come, so that you can plan ahead how to distribute the resources necessary to complete those future chapters more efficiently? Or is it mainly trial and error?

Do you make many notes for yourself that you can come back to later and check/compare to your earlier attempts or progress?

[VincentASM]

On my first playthrough, I'll play the game blind without doing any research beforehand.

On subsequent playthroughs, I often check out growth rates, useful tips, any hidden bonuses or useful items. Growth rates so I know which characters perform better, so I have an easier and enjoyable time, the rest so I can "experience" more of the game.

I don't think I'll ever try and get a good rank on FE, that kind of stuff isn't really important to me. Nor will I check out enemy stats, even if I'm playing on Hard mode or FE12's Lunatic mode (actually I did check the final boss's stats, just so I could know how powerful Marth needs to be to have a fighting chance).

[Anouleth]

I remember doing it for FE12 H3... but that's practically necessary.

[Zanarkin]

On my first playthrough, I'll play the game blind without doing any research beforehand.

On subsequent playthroughs, I often check out growth rates, useful tips, any hidden bonuses or useful items. Growth rates so I know which characters perform better.

Pretty much this. Sometimes i'll check what other people do and stuff for low turns.

[Celice]

I always play blind, except for maybe clarifying what some special items do (first-time playthroughs were always in Japanese). Desert chapters, I always check out the maps though :p Anything hidden like that I like to check out if possible, but otherwise, I go in vanilla.

[Rehab]

Usually when I borrow the strategy of somebody else bit for bit, like sending this unit here and having them defend this point, etc., it tends to be a happy accident. Generally I do trust myself to be able to find a way to finish a chapter without strategy help, but on a future playthrough I may try out that other idea if it sounds sufficiently effective and/or fun. I might sometimes restart chapters to get a tricky thief, and I was just linked to

and I can't remember how I was going to finish this sentence

Usually, looking up how characters can be expected to turn out is standard procedure, but I don't tend to dig very deep into the numbers. Things like finding out the attack speed I need to double every enemy tend to be more happy accidents when I find them.

I don't tend to play much for the sake of self-improvement, to be honest. I like that whatever constitutes my style of play can usually get me through the game, and I'm less likely to try to fix holes in my game plan with single-player adventures.

[IGdood]

Before I head into a FE game I research these following things:

Average Stats

How to recruit the max amount of characters

Locations of hidden items

Locations of drops

General effect of stats

Otherwise if I go in blind I'll have a face like that chap's in my avatar.

[Thor Odinson]

I calculate things for certain bosses on soloruns or serious favourtism runs to make sure they're possible, and I go and look for locations of items I want and don't wanna miss. Else I just go and kill things like it's nobody's business.

Except FE5. I knew the game throws you random shit so I asked around and looked up more things than usual, else I'd probably not have known how to get like, half the characters on my first run and I'm kinda perfectionist about recruitment with the exception of Xavier (way too much effort) and Karla (fuck using Bartre).

[MacLovin]

On my first playthrough, I'll play the game blind without doing any research beforehand.

On subsequent playthroughs, I often check out growth rates, useful tips, any hidden bonuses or useful items. Growth rates so I know which characters perform better, so I have an easier and enjoyable time, the rest so I can "experience" more of the game.

I don't think I'll ever try and get a good rank on FE, that kind of stuff isn't really important to me. Nor will I check out enemy stats, even if I'm playing on Hard mode or FE12's Lunatic mode (actually I did check the final boss's stats, just so I could know how powerful Marth needs to be to have a fighting chance).

[The Awesomest]

I research:

-How to recruit

-Any unexpected surprises, like a swarm of wild thieves appears or a scary boss will appear at this location

-Item locations in the desert

-Map traps like pitfalls and boulders and such

-Maybe growth rates on my first playthrough, but usually on my second.

All this to make life a little less stressful.

[MarioKirby]

In general, I'll look up how to recruit people and any hidden items on subsequent playthroughs from the first, but that's about it.

In FE11's case, I also look at growth rates for reclass.

[Ike-Mike]

• As long as I get every character and item except in Radiant Dawn, yes, no, to have most of the game 'complete' by the first time.
  
• No, mostly trial and error. However, I used to spend most of my playtime on the stat screens just for shits and giggles.
  
• No.
  

[Aethereal]

i've kind of got two ways I play; one blind and casually, just for the hell of it. Always play my first playthroughs this way, and I do this a lot when I just want a game to play leisurely. Distraction during finals week, long week with the family, while watching something.

When I'm looking to challenge myself, I research the way other people have played through things, and spend a considerable amount of time mapping out my movements. This has mostly come in the form of researching the ranked runs for FE4, and FE7, (Cog can bite me.) although I still try to do them as blind as possible. My roommates and I will get competitive with these kinds of runs, and that's my usual motivation for them. As far as time spent on these kinds of runs, yeah, I spend a ton of time. Probably too much, but I think it's fun.

Maybe I'm the only one who goes back and forth between basically no research and tons of it though. >.>

[eclipse]

I'll check on things like "is this scrub recruitable?" if said unit has a face and looks good, and I can't puzzle it out. Otherwise, I do my first run blind. After that, I'll go back and get what I missed.

The exception is Stefan, because he's hot.

[General Horace]

When doing drafts and such, I look at what's in chests, and where reinforcement trigger zones are, etc. I rarely check enemy stats though, unless I'm boarderline killing a boss or something like that.

My first playthroughs are always 100% blind (oh god Thracia killed me repeatadly)

[Gcubedude]

I always try to play through my first playthrough as blind as I can. Occasionally, I'll look up secrets that aren't very obvious, such as Stefan in FE9/10, or when I can't figure out at all who recruits that enemy unit. Otherwise, I run through blind, dealing with reinforcements and the like on my own. Of course, I also play very cautiously, and I don't mind taking a bunch of turns on my first playthrough. I also generally use whoever I feel like. Afterwards, I'll play through the Hard Mode, but I'll look up growth rates, secrets, and sometimes reinforcements, since I'll probably need it.

[dondon151]

yes, yes, yes, and yes

I have Excel spreadsheets for my FEDS playthroughs, and some simple Notepad tables for my FE6 playthroughs. I always have a plan to kill the boss (sometimes requires some stat boosters), and a bit of arithmetic is required.

[tiff]

Depends. I used to consult stuff like recruitment requirements, unit recommendations, chapter events etc. for my first playthrough, but now I try to save all that for the latter ones and have my first playthrough be totally blind.

It's all the most basic stuff though. Nothing like practicing chapters or even bothering with enemy stats. I don't even pay much heed to tier lists or the like anymore because I generally prefer to just use who I like.

[Balcerzak]

Something I've been meaning to ask the Fire Emblem players of this forum...

When it comes to the time you spent playing Fire Emblem, what else do you do besides play the game? Namely, how much research and scrutiny goes into how you play?

I'll ask some more questions to make my idea clear:

- how many times do you usually restart a chapter you've done without any casualties or serious errors (like letting an enemy thief getting away with treasure or something unlikely to happen after you know a map well enough)? Do you rehearse before you proceed to the next chapter? Do you often look for discussions and playlogs by other online to see what strategies others use to clear the maps? In that case, what is the ultimate goal? Self-improvement, competition, higher rank, etc.?

- do you often find yourself looking at enemy stats in chapters still to come, so that you can plan ahead how to distribute the resources necessary to complete those future chapters more efficiently? Or is it mainly trial and error?

Do you make many notes for yourself that you can come back to later and check/compare to your earlier attempts or progress?

0-1 times restarting a map completed without serious errors; mostly if I just felt my play was sloppy, or I didn't like the stats gained on level-ups. The bulk of the time I restart well before the map approaches completion, due to things going less than ideally, or me thinking up a new way to bait the AI, etc. That sort of halfway-through playthroughs can range anywhere from a handful to dozens of times, depending on map complexity.

I'm not sure what you mean by "rehearse". If you mean, count the squares on the map on fewod between the lord and the seize point, try to figure out a potentially viable rescue-drop plan, then decide "fuck it, let's do it live" half-way through and booting up the map, then yes I rehearse.

Depends on my familiarity with the game. For instance, I rarely if ever look up anything for FE7, due to having played it bunches, but nearly every other FE I will be tempted to go see some other logs and run some comparisons. Usually I just look up merely the turncounts as benchmark, but then try to figure out a strategy that can accomplish it on my own. If that fails, or the maps are too difficult like some of FE6 Hardmode, then I'll consult video logs or detailed strategy notes. I try to keep this fairly rare, though.

The ultimate goal? In games with rank requirments, a perfect ranking. In draft turnaments, a competitive (hopefully winningfully so) turncount. In casual play, a "perfect run" collecting all characters and most important item drops.

I generally only look at actual stats ahead of time for the occasional boss. Other than that, all of my stat checking is usually on the preparation screen, when deciding deployment and positioning.

My "notes" for myself are usually me screencapturing video, that I will go back and analyze for specific movements in the fixed RNG games. I used to take notes by hand when I was playing on actual cartridge, but that gets tedious. In any competitive or ranking attempt, I like to collect a full stat-spread after every chapter as well.