Favourite Fire Emblem Mechanic

[Kirie]

I have a lot of mechanics that I like, but my overall favourite would probably have to be Skills. The best thing about Skills are that they make characters stand apart in combat moreso than just what class they are, and they open up a lot more options for play. I loved playing around with skills in FE10 and FE13 (didn't much in FE4).

[Topazd]

Bexp seemed like a cheap copout to including game balance in both 9 and 10

FE has never been particularly balanced. And BEXP is extremely versatile, it's not like it was their alternative for "balance".

The amount of BEXP received could get pretty ridiculous, though.

[Superfan959]

FE has never been particularly balanced. And BEXP is extremely versatile, it's not like it was their alternative for "balance".

The amount of BEXP received could get pretty ridiculous, though.

Agree with this. It wasn't BEXP itself that was broken so much as it was the endless supply of it given to the player. Even if you use it to round off units close to a level up after every chapter, you'll still have enough to practically fully train a unit or two.

[Starman]

Shoving and rescuing had been favorite mechanics of mine
Especially rescuing, since i could potentially have like a horseback unit picking up a unit with less movement and be able to move them where i want the unit too quicker without wasting a lot of turns

[DomesticHausCat]

Dismount, rescue, shove, canto, and of course skills.

[Batter the Beast]

I'm probably alone here, but fatigue, since it heavily discourages lowmanning and adds more depth to planning the game

[Refa]

I'm probably alone here, but fatigue, since it heavily discourages lowmanning and adds more depth to planning the game

It's better to discourage lowmanning by virtue of the game's design over barring the player from using units because fuck you.

Edited October 6, 2014 by Refa

[Shadow Mir]

It's better to discourage lowmanning by virtue of the game's design over barring the player from using units because fuck you.

On that note, does any FE game discourage lowmanning because of game design?

That aside, I liked shove, and skills.

[Refa]

On that note, does any FE game discourage lowmanning because of game design?

That aside, I liked shove, and skills.

I'd say FE4 because you can deploy everyone (so one would think that it discourages lowmanning), but several people said that they just play with Sigurd and a few star units and find that even easier so maybe not. FE10 kind of discourages lowmanning because it has several split teams, so by virtue of the design you're going to be using more units than you normally do. The same logic applies for FE2, in addition to FE2 having harder enemies overall so it's even better in that aspect (granted, I haven't beaten FE10, but from what I hear, it still has lowmanning problems, just to a lesser degree because route splits). There are probably other means of discouraging lowmanning outside of route splits, but I'm a bit too braindead at the moment to think of them.

[General Horace]

FE4 gen 2 at least makes more sense because there aren't really any absolute dumpsters like the many in gen 1 (other than Hannibal). Still definately favours using mounts, but it's better to use more to take out the groups of enemies, instead of having them surround Sigurd because they do no damage to him or something.

[Baldrick]

It's better to discourage lowmanning by virtue of the game's design

What game actually does that, though? FE11 H5 and FE13 Lunatic are all about the superunit. L+ does it to some extent, but you're still heavily punished by trying to use too many units.

In any case, fatigue was a failure in discouraging lowmanning. Staves and S Drinks aside, Fatigue drops to 0 after 1 chapter on the bench so you could still low-man with two different squads (or Leaf) (Same kind of deal with FE2/FE10's multiple parties). Scrolls/low caps all around made using more units more viable, but there isn't much reason to do so. If fatigue ever returns, it should be less restrictive and less able to be worked around.

Edit: FE4 is like the worse game in the series for low-manning, what with the lord and the jeigan fusing.

Edited October 6, 2014 by WeaponsOfMassBaldrick

[General Horace]

I don't know how they'd manage to do it, but a fatigue system that lowered a units stats while fighting battles (like Seth is bound to get physically exhauted when mowing down 7 enemies on a 30 second enemy phase) would be pretty cool if implemented properly. Something like losing 1 str/skl/spd/def/res every 3/5 battles or something?

[Refa]

What game actually does that, though? FE11 H5 and FE13 Lunatic are all about the superunit. L+ does it to some extent, but you're still heavily punished by trying to use too many units.

I listed some above, man! FE11 H5 would probably have less lowmanning without Warp, too, but I'll leave it to someone who's actually beaten FE11 H5 to talk about that.

I don't know how they'd manage to do it, but a fatigue system that lowered a units stats while fighting battles (like Seth is bound to get physically exhauted when mowing down 7 enemies on a 30 second enemy phase) would be pretty cool if implemented properly. Something like losing 1 str/skl/spd/def/res every 3/5 battles or something?

EDIT IMO would work better if it only counted enemy phase battles and maybe in a row rather than being cumulative (e.g. my dude killed 2 enemies in 1 enemy phase and 1 in the next and doesn't get penalized).

Edited October 6, 2014 by Refa

[General Horace]

h5 isn't really a lowman if you don't use warp, you actually do need quite a few good units (cavaliers/dracoknights) to use ridersbanes on the player phase.

[Refa]

In any case, fatigue was a failure in discouraging lowmanning. Staves and S Drinks aside, Fatigue drops to 0 after 1 chapter on the bench so you could still low-man with two different squads (or Leaf) (Same kind of deal with FE2/FE10's multiple parties). Scrolls/low caps all around made using more units more viable, but there isn't much reason to do so. If fatigue ever returns, it should be less restrictive and less able to be worked around.

Oh, I missed this because I can read. Multiple parties by definition mean that you're using more units, but it's a lot less forced than the fatigue system. I dunno about FE10, but you actually do have to use a good deal of units in FE2, at least until you hit Warp (and even then, that's only on Alm's side because Alm is the best and has 1-5 range).

[dondon151]

FE12 H3 is the best example of discouraging low-manning by design. it's still easy to low-man if you don't care about turns, though.

[Rydia]

skip enemy phase

Loved it...

And basically most of the things talesofhysteria mentioned. Especially the weapon weight has to return (the skill should influence the AS, otherwise mages would have a huge disadvantage because of their low strength or constitution) part of it.

[Hunter Nightblood]

Class Trees, Second Seals, and the Free Map System.

[AnonymousSpeed]

Trading.