Best Hard Mode

[Jedi]

This.

Also I don't think that many people claim Thracia is hard anymore. The initial problem was that a lot of the mechanics are REALLY noob-unfriendly. For example: Escape mechanics, warp tiles, Sleep staff Sirram chapter, FoW, etc.

I suppose your right, maybe I'm just being harsh because I loved the mechanics and find them quite simple. There is some dickery in Thracia. But overall I wouldn't call it exactly difficult. Yet I've seen some cite it still as the most difficult fe.

[TFJ]

Good to see this topic created :).

But as I said, I really don't see how Hector Hard Mode is simply not the correct answer. It's the hard mode with the most care and work put into it:

- Extra content in the form of exclusive chapters, characters and plot development. Even if some the content itself was of dubious quality (Karla being useless?), IS went the extra mile.

- While the enemies are a bit stronger, the focus was on making the level design more challenging. This includes changing enemy composition, starting positions for your own units, etc. People love to hate on HHM's Cog of Destiny, but that was one of the highlights of the game. It totally subverts the player's expectations and fills a nice niche in level design (magic only enemy army).

Now talking about other games hard modes:

FE6: Somewhat ok. I don't like how some enemies get ridiculous stats buffs (wyvern riders), and the hit chance on some bosses is completely borked. It also serves to make the loopsided character balance worse.

FE8: Too little is changed. Feels like playing normal mode and it's not hard except for a couple of chapters.

FE9 (American version): Reasonable. More could be changed, but I guess IS was afraid of backlash due to Maniac Mode in the JP version. The highlight of this is Ashnard actually moving and having a berserk mode.

FE10: Bad. The difficulty curve is borked and some units get completely screwed without chance of being salvaged. The biggest problem though, is artificial difficulty. Reducing bonus exp and removing the ability to see enemy ranges are terrible (and lazy) ways of making the game more difficulty. Removing the weapon triangle is weird, since it has been a core mechanic of the series and doesn't make the game harder, just different.

FE11 and FE12: Bad, really bad. While the easier harder modes are ok, the top ones are bonkers. Simply increasing enemy stats and giving them hacked weapons is NOT the way to do it. PERIOD. In the end, both just become a number's game, with the player having to resort to a very limited unit pool, some key forged weapons (Wing spear anyone?) and abusing the re-class system (and stat boosters in FE12 I guess). Some initial chapters are also heavily influenced by luck.

FE13: The worst and most broken difficulty balance in the series yet. It doesn't help that the game is a mess regarding the gameplay and the level design is the worst yet, but the Lunatic and Lunatic+ modes are just... It takes everything that was wrong with FE11 and FE12 system and makes it worse. Besides units getting even more ridiculous stats boosts, now they are given broken skills at random, making the initial maps unwinnable if certain combinations are in place. And everything is based around the terrible pair-up system. What follows is that there are some implications on how you need to play the game:

- Use a very small pool of units to optimize XP gain and just keep up with the enemy stats (or grind a lot using DLC).

- Abuse the pair-up system, reducing by half the actual number of units you are using.

- Abuse re-class system to obtain game-breaking skills combinations (cue more grinding and units becoming more bland).

- You are punished for using multiple units (a problem in the series, but FE13 takes that to another level).

I mean, when one of the most effective "strategies" in the game is to pair 2 overpowered units, equip forged Nosferatus and repeatedly press start to skip turns... (this is how I beat Priam's map btw) Seriously, is this what we want FE to become? I'm only the one that thinks this goes against the entire original idea of the series? That being the concept of commanding a varied, expansive force of unique characters in order to tackle different combat scenarios.

Some people may think I'm overly harsh, but that's because I have a clear vision of what the series should be (and SPRGs in general). And this is illustratred mainly by 2 games: Thracia 776 and Berwick Saga, where difficulty comes from level design (and some dickery). Both games don't have a difficulty setting by the way, heh.

[dondon151]

FE11 and FE12: Bad, really bad. While the easier harder modes are ok, the top ones are bonkers. Simply increasing enemy stats and giving them hacked weapons is NOT the way to do it. PERIOD. In the end, both just become a number's game, with the player having to resort to a very limited unit pool, some key forged weapons (Wing spear anyone?) and abusing the re-class system (and stat boosters in FE12 I guess). Some initial chapters are also heavily influenced by luck.

lol you really have no idea what you're talking about

[JSND Alter Dragon Boner]

It is kind of easier to do FE12 with a low turn count style because of how the game likes to send reinforcements at you.

I think FE12 is much better with High Turn count at the earliest - mid points if only because that FE gives tons of exp during early game

Things like Astram squad basically screams free exp, its funny

Also FE12 Lunatic is like the least luck dependent mode in the series thanks to(ironically) dodge being almost non existant and ridiculous growth on everyone which you can easilly rig to reach the benchmarks. The only "FUCK IF ONLY I WAS LUCKY" moments in FE12 that I ever had was something ridiculous like "DOOD I NEED TO SURVIVE THAT MASTER SWORD ONCE" and those kind of scenario comes with a save point for free.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Anti-Fun

[RJWalker]

- Extra content in the form of exclusive chapters, characters and plot development. Even if some the content itself was of dubious quality (Karla being useless?), IS went the extra mile.

I don't agree with this at all. There is no good reason why most of the content is locked to Hector Mode. Nothing about the locked content related to Hector's part in the story. Why is Karla locked to Hector Mode? Fake replayability. Why is 19xx only accessible in HM? Fake replayability. Hell, Hector isn't even in favour of the diversion. It related more to Ninian and makes no sense that it isn't available in EM. Why is Talons Alight only available in HM? Fake replayability. Why is 32x locked to HM? Fake replayability. I'll give Farina and her chapter a pass but the rest of the content is arbitrarily locked to different modes for no good reason other than forcing the player to play the game again and again to create the illlusion of replayability and longevity. And besides, you're talking about Hector Hard Mode. Nothing related to plot and character development is locked specifically to HHM.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Ranger Jack Walker