Was this game... easy?

[ClassyWolf]

I acctually foud this game pretty easy, my first run was on hard, and I didn't find it particularly challenging.

My second run was on lunatic, the begining fellt a bit difficult, mainly because your outmatched and outnumberd, but after chapter 4, it started to get easy again.

The only time late game I felt it was difficult, was when you had to kill Grima (mainly because you have to 2 turn him, otherwise you will be rushed and killed), but with rescue staves, tonics and Olivia, it still took a few tries to get it perfectly (because both Chrom and Lucina had to hit twice and acctually hit) but I did it... and afterwards I found it dissapointing that that was the only time I really had to think how to make it through the chapter.

This run I had restrictions: No veteran, no sorcorers, no grinding, no renown (and I don't have dlc).

I didn't find lunatic that difficult, really many maps just felt like endurance round, mostly because the random enemy placement and them rushing you.

I think that normal and hard were probably made for newcomers, but I'm dissapointed that lunatic wasn't that challenging, I tried at lunatic+, put lost patience after chapter 2.

Is this an uncommon opinion and did you come out with a different expirience with the difficulty?

[RJWalker]

Newcomers to the series seem to find this game difficult. Veterans find it too easy. Make of that what you will.

[Mighty Kamina]

I found the difficulty to be typical Fire Emblem fair. Hardest in the early game, and then it's a fair challenge with a difficulty spike in the endgame. I personally really enjoyed the difficulty level of Lunatic mode. (Hard was too easy and Lunatic+ is the worst thing to ever be in a Fire Emblem game)

Edited December 30, 2013 by Kamina

[arvilino]

I acctually foud this game pretty easy, my first run was on hard, and I didn't find it particularly challenging.

My second run was on lunatic, the begining fellt a bit difficult, mainly because your outmatched and outnumberd, but after chapter 4, it started to get easy again.

The only time late game I felt it was difficult, was when you had to kill Grima (mainly because you have to 2 turn him, otherwise you will be rushed and killed), but with rescue staves, tonics and Olivia, it still took a few tries to get it perfectly (because both Chrom and Lucina had to hit twice and acctually hit) but I did it... and afterwards I found it dissapointing that that was the only time I really had to think how to make it through the chapter.

This run I had restrictions: No veteran, no sorcorers, no grinding, no renown (and I don't have dlc).

I didn't find lunatic that difficult, really many maps just felt like endurance round, mostly because the random enemy placement and them rushing you.

I think that normal and hard were probably made for newcomers, but I'm dissapointed that lunatic wasn't that challenging, I tried at lunatic+, put lost patience after chapter 2.

Is this an uncommon opinion and did you come out with a different expirience with the difficulty?

Going back to the previous games how do you feel about their highest difficulty in comparison to Lunatic mode with those restrictions though? I thought Lunatic with those same restrictions pretty challenging(With chapters 16,17 and 18 having a spike in difficulty), but when I go back to some entries before FE11 their hardest modes wouldn't give FE13 Lunatic a run for money especially when there's no/little rushing.

Edited December 30, 2013 by arvilino

[ClassyWolf]

I found the difficulty to be typical fire emblem fair. Hardest in the early game, and then it's a fair challenge with a difficulty spike in the endgame.

I still find several fire emblems more challeging, maybe it's due to better map design, enemy placement and enemies doing something else than just rushing you.

this is more apparent in some chapters like chapter 19, where there is really no middle ground on how to take on the enemies bacause: your a bit worse than them, your dead (surprise), your on par, you can take a few, but they wolfpack you and kill you, you are better than them (higher level), if standing on a fort. you can probably take on every enemy on the map (as long as they don't crit you).

Yes, the difficulty spikes are simmilar to other fire emblems, but I find them overal more difficult.

Going back to the previous games how do you feel about their highest difficulty in comparison to Lunatic mode with those restrictions though? I thought Lunatic with those same restrictions pretty challenging(With chapters 16,17 and 18 having a spike in difficulty), but when I go back to some entries before FE11 their hardest modes wouldn't give FE13 Lunatic a run for money especially when there's no/little rushing.

I acctually went back to fe11 and played it after this one, and then I played fe12, and found them more challenging, and I needed to plan ahead a more, allthough my only restrictions were no reclassing and no grinding in fe11.

And as I said, the fact that the enemies on most maps rush you, makes it feel less srategical more of an endurace run.

About your lunatic run, did you lowman? I at least did to keep my units on a somewhat good level.

[Light-Heart]

Newcomers to the series seem to find this game difficult. Veterans find it too easy. Make of that what you will.

^ This

To be honest this game was more of a welcoming entry for newcomers into the series because FE was on death row and needed to do something quick; so they made a game to gain newer fans and more fans into the series.

This game wasn't made to be FE : Expert because that would drive too many newcomers away from the game and playing or trying any other FE games.

Edited December 30, 2013 by mikan-tsumiki

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

EDIT: Double Posting sucks

Edited December 30, 2013 by JSND

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

Going back to the previous games how do you feel about their highest difficulty in comparison to Lunatic mode with those restrictions though? I thought Lunatic with those same restrictions pretty challenging(With chapters 16,17 and 18 having a spike in difficulty), but when I go back to some entries before FE11 their hardest modes wouldn't give FE13 Lunatic a run for money especially when there's no/little rushing.

I know its not replying me, but having done Lunatic mode with those restriction as well, I want to share my opinion.

I have difficulty in some stages in older FE, namely FE7 later stages, while infamous for having joke enemies(or at least some good players would say so), i find them quite hard. There are some games that is "devoid" of difficulty late game, and sadly Awakening is one of them

The problem with this game is its difficulty scaling. Past Chapter whatever it is where you protected Emmeryn, its not particularly hard more than it being somewhat luck based(TDA, i'm fucking staring at you).

The fact that you can snipe for instant win for a lot of the game + super easy capability to Snowball is a factor that make this game's overall design really weird, and NOT doing the former did not really give a particularly difficult challenge unlike that one chapter in Thracia 776 where you fight against a character from Final Fantasy Tactics on a Bridge.

[Jedi]

Its middle of the road difficulty wise.

Its not nearly as hard as Fe12's lunatic on lunatic and its not nearly as easy as Sacred Stones is on Hard Mode

[Crimson Red]

Was it? You tell me. :P Everyone has different skills and expectations and ideas of what easy/hard mean. The game can "easily" become easy or hard depending on how you approach it and what you allow yourself to do. The game is extremely easy, for instance, if you use DLC or grinding. The game can even be easy if you don't do that depending on how you play, how lucky you are, how much you know about the game and the units you use and the units you'll be facing, etc.

But if you're just asking for everyone's individual opinions, I thought the difficulty was just right. Having different modes is the whole idea behind catering to different skill and experience levels, and I thought Normal was just right; any easier and it would've made the gameplay a bit obsolete, and any harder and it would've turned away newcomers or people who aren't geniuses at Fire Emblem like some of us here (myself not included, I'm pretty bad at Fire Emblem compared to the average person here).

Edited December 30, 2013 by Blazer

[ClassyWolf]

But if you're just asking for everyone's individual opinions, I thought the difficulty was just right. Having different modes is the whole idea behind catering to different skill and experience levels, and I thought Normal was just right; any easier and it would've made the gameplay a bit obsolete, and any harder and it would've turned away newcomers or people who aren't geniuses at Fire Emblem like some of us here (myself not included, I'm pretty bad at Fire Emblem compared to the average person here).

I thought that normal and hard were well done difficulties for newcomers and yes multiple difficulties does make it easier to cater to a broader audience, but I felt like lunatic wasn't much of a challenge, since the enemy uses the exact same strategy of rushing you, and the fact that on the harder difficulties its pretty much buffed up enemies with skills and forged weapons, it didn't make me think more about strategy (other than leaving the weak units in a corner and hoping the enemy won't attack them), and just flet like an endurance round.

This is just my experince though, and I wonder if this is an uncommon or unpopular opinion. Again, while I do think that normal and hard were well done difficulties, I think they could have dealt with both lunatic and lunatic+ better.

[arvilino]

I still find several fire emblems more challeging, maybe it's due to better map design, enemy placement and enemies doing something else than just rushing you.

this is more apparent in some chapters like chapter 19, where there is really no middle ground on how to take on the enemies bacause: your a bit worse than them, your dead (surprise), your on par, you can take a few, but they wolfpack you and kill you, you are better than them (higher level), if standing on a fort. you can probably take on every enemy on the map (as long as they don't crit you).

Yes, the difficulty spikes are simmilar to other fire emblems, but I find them overal more difficult.

I acctually went back to fe11 and played it after this one, and then I played fe12, and found them more challenging, and I needed to plan ahead a more, allthough my only restrictions were no reclassing and no grinding in fe11.

And as I said, the fact that the enemies on most maps rush you, makes it feel less srategical more of an endurace run.

About your lunatic run, did you lowman? I at least did to keep my units on a somewhat good level.

Oh no I didn't low man, I used a full team every chapter except 22. I just made sure that through the main game that they reached a specific level(e.g. Cordelia to level 5 Falco Knight for Rally Speed, MU to a 10/15/5 Warrior for Rally Spectrum + Rally Strength), Lissa to level 5 sage for Rally Magic and MU+Lissa for Morgan with RallySpectrum+Magi) and then didn't really use them as combat units from that point(unless boosted by Rally skills), or were used mostly for their movement(Cherche) or certain skills(like Curse and Crimson Curse from Henry, Dance from Olivia) or Staves(Lissa, Anna, Libra). I had a group of units that were main combat ones in the later chapters though(Chrom[paired with Frederick], Panne[paired with Lon'Qu], Say'ri, then eventually Basillio and Flavia) which did most of the combat when boosted by Rallies for the later chapters.

Though I'd still disagree the rushes are what make the games more strategically intensive, even the more difficult FE11 and FE12 chapters are based around enemies doing just that especially when reinforcements are involved. The earlier titles I feel never put enough pressure on the player by themselves unless there's an objective that you had to go at full speed towards.

I'd have to ask which FE11 and FE12 chapters stood out as the most strategically intensive for you and why?

Edited December 30, 2013 by arvilino

[ClassyWolf]

Oh no I didn't low man, I used a full team every chapter except 22. I just made sure that through the main game that they reached a specific level(e.g. Cordelia to level 5 Falco Knight for Rally Speed, MU to a 10/15/5 Warrior for Rally Spectrum + Rally Strength), Lissa to level 5 sage for Rally Magic and MU+Lissa for Morgan with RallySpectrum+Magi) and then didn't really use them as combat units from that point(unless boosted by Rally skills), or were used mostly for their movement(Cherche) or certain skills(like Curse and Crimson Curse from Henry, Dance from Olivia) or Staves(Lissa, Anna, Libra). I had a group of units that were main combat ones in the later chapters though(Chrom[paired with Frederick], Panne[paired with Lon'Qu], Say'ri, then eventually Basillio and Flavia) which did most of the combat when boosted by Rallies for the later chapters.

I should probably go back to awakeing and try a lunatic run and add "no lowmanning" to restrictions... my hat off to you, your probably a better player than I am, and no this is not sarcasm, fullmaning makes it more difficult.

I'd have to ask which FE11 and FE12 chapters stood out as the most strategically intensive for you and why?

I should really go back and play these two again before replying since it was a while ago I did my runs, but the ones I remember sticking out are:

SD: chapter 13, 16, 20 & endgame

NMotE: chapter 8, 9, 11 & 21

Edit: how did you level Lissa without grinding? just curious as future tip, because I tried and failed, so I must have apparently done something wrong.

Edited December 30, 2013 by that one person

[Czar_Yoshi]

Newcomers to the series seem to find this game difficult. Veterans find it too easy. Make of that what you will.

I found it difficult until I learned how to tell how much damage I'd take from attacking someone, and then it was easy. Mostly.

If you want a challenge, try fighting the Lunatic Risen without grinding on spotpass teams or using DLC. There's a lot of RNG involved, but it's quite fun.

Finally, I really liked Lunatic+, though it would be great if the early maps were bigger, you got better starting equipment, or enemies came with only one skill for chapters Pro-2.

[arvilino]

I should probably go back to awakeing and try a lunatic run and add "no lowmanning" to restrictions... my hat off to you, your probably a better player than I am, and no this is not sarcasm, fullmaning makes it more difficult.

I should really go back and play these two again before replying since it was a while ago I did my runs, but the ones I remember sticking out are:

SD: chapter 13, 16, 20 & endgame

NMotE: chapter 8, 9, 11 & 21

Edit: how did you level Lissa without grinding? just curious as future tip, because I tried and failed, so I must have apparently done something wrong.

Lissa leveled just through staff use, though I only mostly used her to support with MU and to get Morgan. I'll just say a good number of my team ended up being unable to survive a round of combat from around chapter 17 onwards but were still able to heal, provide support, use a Rescue Stave, etc. But I ended up with so many Rally Skills that it meant Chrom+Frederick, Flavia(Hellswathe)+Basillio, Panne+Lon'Qu were still to handle most the enemies in later chapters themselves after Rallies from my other characters so the last couple chapters were similar to a low man run

[BlueLeafeon]

Coming to this forum always makes me feel like a complete and total noob. People are complaining about hard and lunatic being too easy and I'm like "I had trouble on the chapter with Gangrel on normal mode..." (And I've been playing the series since FE8 lol)

[Jedi]

I found it difficult until I learned how to tell how much damage I'd take from attacking someone, and then it was easy. Mostly.

If you want a challenge, try fighting the Lunatic Risen without grinding on spotpass teams or using DLC. There's a lot of RNG involved, but it's quite fun.

Finally, I really liked Lunatic+, though it would be great if the early maps were bigger, you got better starting equipment, or enemies came with only one skill for chapters Pro-2.

I find it impossible to like Lunatic+ due to just how bs it is. When I am resetting an fe just so I don't face certain skills combinations because the enemy got lucky on their skill rolls. Something is really wrong, I like knowing a solid strategy through my fe levels. Not being shocked when suddenly its 10x different then before and I die hilariously badly as a result. Its fake difficulty

[ClassyWolf]

I find it impossible to like Lunatic+ due to just how bs it is. When I am resetting an fe just so I don't face certain skills combinations because the enemy got lucky on their skill rolls. Something is really wrong, I like knowing a solid strategy through my fe levels. Not being shocked when suddenly its 10x different then before and I die hilariously badly as a result. Its fake difficulty

I find it lunatic+ an interesting concept, testing the players adaptability by giving enemies random skills, but it's really badly implemented, combining buffed up enemies, forged weapons and skill combinations which can make some enemies almost impossible to kill whitout getting one of your own units killed.

[Randa]

I find it lunatic+ an interesting concept, testing the players adaptability by giving enemies random skills, but it's really badly implemented, combining buffed up enemies, forged weapons and skill combinations which can make some enemies almost impossible to kill whitout getting one of your own units killed.

I think lunatic+ was a good idea, but it was poorly executed. Every combination of enemy weapons and skills should be possible to beat and some were flat out impossible(looking at you hammer man).

[Jedi]

I find it lunatic+ an interesting concept, testing the players adaptability by giving enemies random skills, but it's really badly implemented, combining buffed up enemies, forged weapons and skill combinations which can make some enemies almost impossible to kill whitout getting one of your own units killed.

I would like them to play with the concept a bit more, because strategy does involve adapting. I agree with you that its mostly how they implemented it, its currently just super frustrating

[Czar_Yoshi]

I find it impossible to like Lunatic+ due to just how bs it is. When I am resetting an fe just so I don't face certain skills combinations because the enemy got lucky on their skill rolls. Something is really wrong, I like knowing a solid strategy through my fe levels. Not being shocked when suddenly its 10x different then before and I die hilariously badly as a result. Its fake difficulty

But if you didn't have to work around random skills, then you could simply do the same thing each time and trivialize the game. I don't consider adapting to changing conditions to be fake difficulty. Maybe it's because I casually Speedrun stuff, but I don't mind spending a week resetting at the same thing (Cht.2 only took an hour or two, which is nothing) either.

Now, the difficulty curve is still broken, and as I said it would have been much nicer if there was either room to do stuff, better starting equipment, or only one skill for a while. I mean, look at Stahl, he's a chump with a Bronze Sword who gets doubled and ORKOed by everything except the Barbarians. If he had a Steel Sword and 2 more Spd, he would be useful. If the game started you prepared and left it up to you to stay prepared, that would be much nicer than starting you unprepared and leaving you to prepare yourself as you go.

[Marc71]

Varies depending on difficulty. Either way, Casual mode will make this game a lot easier, so assume that classic mode is used

-Normal: Very easy, but we need a difficulty for newcomers, so...

-Hard: Does provide some fair challenge, grinding is possible

-Lunatic: Very hard, but possible. Once early game hell is passed, the rest can be trivialized. Grinding is almost impossible without DLC since risen encounters are extremly difficult.

-Lunatic+: Not even legit thanks to enemy haxskill combinations..

Grinding in general will make the game in general...

Also, the maps are the same in each difficulty...harder maps in higher difficulty (think Advance Wars) would be nice...

Lowering the difficulty and giving the casual mode was a necessary step so that this game is much more accessible..otherwise this would have been the last Fire Emblem game.

There is Lunatic (+) for the veterans. Even then its different to older games (Shopping is done outside battles)

The only problem I have is fake difficulty. Enemy reinforcements on hard and above that can act as soon as they spawn....nuff said, sure by sitting in the right spot they wont attack so as soon as they spawn, but this wont work always. Even worse when they come from the map edge (falcoknights in C16...you cant avoid them). Or when there is no clear warning in advance (P10, they will spawn as soon as Severa is recruited, she cannot get outside of their attack range in time..other than the vague speech that can be interpreted into another reinforcements...yeah..)

You know it looks like you knew about that the enemies were spawning long ago before they even spawned..

Still we have difficulties for everyone..normal/casual for newcomers, lunatic/classic for veterans...

[Thor Odinson]

I'm sure the rest of + will be alright but C2 alone makes me want to punch it

The rest of them are pretty easy

2's still annoying in vanilla Lunatic but it ain't nearly as bad

[Loki Laufeyson]

Normal mode is too easy. Way too easy.
Hard is just right for me.

Lunatic...havent played so i cant really comment. However, i think the difficulty there might be a bit much for me. Casual mode exists so this is why i might actually try Lunatic one day.

[Vorena]

I would like to have seen Hard mode enemies with L+ skills instead.