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When you have to explain FE to someone who knows nothing about it...


Dragoncat
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I take my 3ds to work and play Awakening on down time. A few people were interested and asked what I was playing, but they've never heard of FE before. So I told them it was like chess on steroids and explained why. "The blue guys are mine, the red ones are bad guys, this green guy is on my side but I'm not controlling him. Bows are good against fliers. Swords beat axes, axes beat lances, lances beat swords."

I got "sounds too complicated for me" as a response. I am aware it has more to it than Angry Birds or Candy Crush...but that's what makes it so awesome.

Have you ever had to explain FE to someone who knew nothing about it? If so, how did you?

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If someone things that sounds too complicated, uhh... wow. That's... impressive.

I mostly explain FE to people who don't know about it by showing them the game and lending them a copy if necessary. Seems to work well. I've gotten a few people into the games that way.

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Usually I just have whoever's interested just watch whatever FE I play for a bit to see how it works and I only explain when questions are asked. Then they see me rage/laugh at the RNG cause I'm probably playing Thracia and they kinda shy away from me at that point

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There's usually a mention of chess in there somewhere. If it's somebody who plays video games, something like "a JRPG played on a chess board." If they don't, "like chess where all the pieces are actual people/characters, who die forever if you lose them," to start with. (haven't ever progressed to a point where I've had to explain to somebody that the actual game mechanics are nothing like chess'.)

Edited by Rehab
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I explained it to some people on Bulbagarden who were complaining that Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS has too many FE characters, but that's about it. And these people knew next to nothing about the series, of course. :P

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I explained it to some people on Bulbagarden who were complaining that Smash Bros. Wii U/3DS has too many FE characters, but that's about it. And these people knew next to nothing about the series, of course. :P

I had a similar experience on Zelda Dungeon. I was talking about Awakening with a bunch of people who'd played the game and we were discussing pairings and how there shouldve been a special convo with Chrom if male avatar marries Lucina and how hilarious that would be. Enter someone who never played FE: "so, if I do play it, I should expect a lot of crazy relationships and love triangles, right?" I explained to her that the marriage and kids only existed in Awakening and FE4 that wasn't released in the west, and FE4 has incest. Then people started making incest jokes, and she started talking about how in her Smash Bros fanfic, she killed off Ike because she didn't want to deal with him, not knowing anything about FE, and she felt bad about it. The fanfic is...I told you about it on DA. The Ganondorf takes over and turns it into the hunger games thing.

Ike was killed by DONKEY KONG, of all characters. But Donkey Kong was also mortally wounded and died shortly after. Still...ohnoes!

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I had a similar experience on Zelda Dungeon. I was talking about Awakening with a bunch of people who'd played the game and we were discussing pairings and how there shouldve been a special convo with Chrom if male avatar marries Lucina and how hilarious that would be. Enter someone who never played FE: "so, if I do play it, I should expect a lot of crazy relationships and love triangles, right?" I explained to her that the marriage and kids only existed in Awakening and FE4 that wasn't released in the west, and FE4 has incest. Then people started making incest jokes, and she started talking about how in her Smash Bros fanfic, she killed off Ike because she didn't want to deal with him, not knowing anything about FE, and she felt bad about it. The fanfic is...I told you about it on DA. The Ganondorf takes over and turns it into the hunger games thing.

Ike was killed by DONKEY KONG, of all characters. But Donkey Kong was also mortally wounded and died shortly after. Still...ohnoes!

Dang, that all sounds dramatic. lol

I understand not wanting to have to deal much with characters you're not too familiar with, though, as I avoided doing much with the ones I had little knowledge of in my Smash Bros. oneshot. Although I didn't kill any of them. :P

I will admit that I've had Ike go through more than one near-death experience, however. Heh, heh.

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i think it's an insult to chess for it to be compared to FE. FE is easy; chess is not.

Not on hard and lunatic modes it's not. Or maybe I just suck...

Seriously guys. Chrom's reaction if his tactician proposes to his daughter. Just picture it. :lol:

Edited by Dragoncat
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"It's like Final Fantasy Tactics but different."

That's what I said the only time I ever had to explain Fire Emblem to someone, and only because I didn't want to go into detail.

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I find the idea of Morgan calling Chrom Grandpa funnier. lol

Oh god....Awkward.

They really missed a big opportunity by not having a said convo.

Chrom: You WHAT? Get the hell out of my barracks, you fricken pedo!

Yeah.

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Okay fine, I'll be sure to tell the next person, "it's chess, except way less deterministic in a bunch of ways, the board changes drastically for each game you play, and you can usually stack the odds in your favor both during the game and before it begins, so nothing like chess at all really. Also there's magic and dragons and furs." What do you want from me dondon. Gaw

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I haven't explained its mechanics to people here (Colombia), but basically a game where you control an army in order to defeat enemies that want to conquer the world/have power; your army has a pool of units that by killing enemies get experience and grow up through level ups and gain stats according to RNs, and so on. They get interested in how the RNG works and how it can determined the outcome of combat and level ups; but people here don't play Nintendo so much (except classic games), or even games aimed to a niche portion of gamers.

However, one of my few friends that got to FE without me introducing her to it, bought both Awakening and Radiant Dawn thanks to my input; but the rest are just "Ok".

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i think it's an insult to chess for it to be compared to FE. FE is easy; chess is not.

I feel like chess is a lot easier to learn on the most basic level compared to FE. Chess pieces don't have stats, supports, equipment, etc. you only need to know how each piece moves.

Of course, in terms of mastery... FE is quite easy to break once you know what you're doing, and chess is freaking chess.

Edited by Completely InShane
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I feel like chess is a lot easier to learn on the most basic level compared to FE. Chess pieces don't have stats, supports, equipment, etc. you only need to know how each piece moves.

Of course, in terms of mastery... FE is quite easy to break once you know what you're doing, and chess is freaking chess.

Yeah. Hence why I said "chess on steroids" lol.

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Well, it sounds a whole lot better than this one explanation of Touhou I gave to someone once:

"Shooting millions of bullets at cute prepubescent girls as they respond in kind and try to murder you."

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would say some strategy RPG that's kinda like chess that uses weapons with unforgettable characters.Unless you're talking about Kellam.Doubt they'd understand though.The kids in my school prefer to talk about C.O.D. then smarter stuff.

Edited by Shinehollow
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