21st May Magazine Leaks/Previews

[VincentASM]

Can anyone ruin their eyes to figure out what kind of staff is Sakura wielding? The icon looks like Ward or something.

EDIT: Oh, Sakura has the crown symbol too!

You'd need X ray vision to infiltrate Famitsu's HQ for that XD

Maybe something-祓串?

Nice catch. Maybe it determines who must not die?

[Thane]

You'd need X ray vision to infiltrate Famitsu's HQ for that XD

Maybe something-祓串?

Nice catch. Maybe it determines who must not die?

[NekoKnight]

True, but Axes could be heavier and a little more unwieldy than swords? (well doesn't make much sense since there are two-handed sword weapons that would be heavier than, let's say a francisca). It could be that swords can block axes better since a sword's blade could fit in the notch under the axe blade and deflect an attack easier??

I totally see how Swords < Lances because of the reach factor, but Axes < Swords is a little bit of a stretch. But, Axes < Swords makes more sense than Magic > Bows haha.

The way I saw it was, the sword is more maneuverable than the axe so it parries the axe and strikes the enemy. Axes beat lances because the axe is heavy enough to cut through the lance shaft, making them useless. Spears typically use wood handles and axes are used to cut wood.

[Jagged Jagen]

The way I saw it was, the sword is more maneuverable than the axe so it parries the axe and strikes the enemy. Axes beat lances because the axe is heavy enough to cut through the lance shaft, making them useless. Spears typically use wood handles and axes are used to cut wood.

To add to this, Magic would burn through the bow, would it not? I mean, even if it isn't wooden, that string is probably damn fragile.

[Book Bro]

I'm digging this weapon info! Sounds interesting.

Maid/butler wat. I wonder if it'll be worth using them for attacking/debuffing instead of just healing. Also lancer is a class? Hurrah! :D

[VincentASM]

I'm digging this weapon info! Sounds interesting.

Maid/butler wat. I wonder if it'll be worth using them for attacking/debuffing instead of just healing. Also lancer is a class? Hurrah! :D

Yeah, it's gonna be interesting sending my healer to knife an enemy. Maybe if there are throwing knives, in case they get counter-attacked.

Makes me wonder if Priestess (Sakura) can attack too? Or maybe they have better healing capabilities.

[nocturnal YL]

I'm not sure if I'm going to like this. It's nice to see bows and knives are now part of the weapon triangle, but I still miss having subcategories for magic.

Also,

Bronze Sword: Cannot critical, but boosts Critical Evade by 10

Iron Sword: Nothing special
Steel Sword: Avoid -5, double attack threshold -3
Silver Sword: Critical Evade -5; after using, Strength and Skill -2 until next turn
Brave Sword: Allows 2 consecutive attacks, Defence and Resistance -4​​​

I wonder what will the stats look like this time. 20/30 like the older games, or have them go all the way up to 60 and beyond like Awakening? In the latter case, the penalties make no sense at all. And can player units dodge everything like... every Fire Emblem ever, barring some of the harder modes? Who cares about defence when you don't get hit at all?

(I'm being a little hypocritical here; I got stuck in Chapter 25 in FE9 Maniac from over-reliance on Boyd, who can't dodge swordsmen and has bad defence.)

​

I can kind of see the designation here, though. Bronze couldn't critical in Tellius too, Steel is heavy in the past games, thus harder to double attack (unless they meant it the other way by "attack threshold -3", in which case... sigh), Silver is unwieldy, and Brave... is just too OP otherwise. Actually, it's still too OP even with the penalty. They should have done something more dramatic, like reducing strength by half.

I anything, I do hope to see some kind of balance here. But then again, balance in Fire Emblem has always been an impossible thing to ask for...

Edited May 19, 2015 by nocturnal YL

[Jedi]

New weapon triangle I can dig it. Because really outside of like. The Jugdral games, FE6 and the DS games it hasn't really mattered much at all. I hope this new one can actually give some past early game incentive to actually pay attention to it.

Weapons all having attributive gimmicks? I actually like that too.

[Anacybele]

Ooh, revised weapon triangle, a bunch of new classes and stuff, this might be the most innovative FE yet! :o

[Aethin]

Can anyone make out the middle kanji in Oboro's class name?

Also, @Vincent, how in the world did you read the Dark Mage's name in that image??

Edited May 19, 2015 by Aethin

[Tsubanoka]

Can anyone make out the middle kanji in Oboro's class name?

It's actually a katakana meaning "bo" :)

[Aethin]

It's actually a katakana meaning "bo" :)

Class name, not actual name. I can tell that it's 槍something士...

[Jagged Jagen]

I'm surprised people find this overly complicated. It's simply the overlapping of the two triangles, with bows and knives in the fray, with minor buffs and debuffs. I like it! :)

[Tsubanoka]

Class name, not actual name. I can tell that it's 槍something士...

Oh sorry :/ Thought it was his name !

[egobarrier]

Class name, not actual name. I can tell that it's 槍something士...

術 if I had to guess.

[falcoknights]

s/o to the people like me who have brains that go kaput the second they see a chunk of words (or, people who like diagrams): i made a diagram:

as you can see, it's not the inventory icons fe14 has, because i couldn't find clean versions of most of them, so i just used awakening's and added a question mark over one for a hidden weapon icon (lol). i'll probably make another one w/ updated icons when i get my hands on all of them.

hope this helps some of you!

Edited May 19, 2015 by falcoknights

[Jedi]

I'm surprised people find this overly complicated. It's simply the overlapping of the two triangles, with bows and knives in the fray, with minor buffs and debuffs. I like it! :)

And it isn't completely pointless like the older games magic triangle. That gives it points in my book too.

[mimgrim]

I like the new weapon triangle. Magic being put into the actual weapon triangle rather then having a separate, mostly useless, triangle is sooo much better. Also glad to see Bows be a part of it now along with the "other" weapons like knives.

I think I like think I'm beginning to like where this direction with weapons is going now. Still a bit worried, but so far it looks like it has some promise to it. Still want more details on the whole weapon system though.

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Only if you're wielding a Steel Sword. It's essentially weapon weight without actually being weapon weight. It looks like they're trying to balance the stronger weapons around things that aren't just weapon level (that's how I interpret it at least).

Like in Awakening, once you got to up to the higher weapon levels there was no incentive to use weaker weapons outside of higher durability/lower cost. Since durability is no longer a factor they're trying to make a new kind of risk/reward for using stronger weapons. So that steel sword, for instance, is a stronger weapon so you'll do more damage per hit, but you have to balance that around its drawbacks. Does that make sense?

Actually, there was quite a bit of incentive to use weaker weapons, although not so much the standard bronze/iron/steel/etc line. Historically, 1~2-range weapons have dominated Fire Emblem as the best weapons. This, even when Awakening dropped the Javelin to 2 mt (weaker than a Bronze Lance) and Hand Axe to 3 mt (weaker than a Bronze Axe). The simply versaility of the weapons in enemy phase counterattacks is what generally has people (myself included) loading up on inventories full of them. This is why I expressed concern about them becoming too powerful with infinite durability (which was a big factor in holding them back). Javelin and Hand Axe penalties are going to have to be pretty steep (and people will probably still use them anyway, since versatility is worth that much; I mean, just look at how bad the Wind Edges were in Radiant Dawn and they still got tons of use). Tomes were more of a mixed bag, because while mages could become tanky, especially in say, Radiant Dawn, where they can get a kickstart from BEXP (even though their caps meant they'd eventually become very lackluster), it took alot more work and resources. Then along comes Robin with overpowered Veteran and a durable tome-using class...

Also, this is more minor than the above, but there' incentive, at least on the Lunatic difficulties, to use weaker weapons in the early game in order to get an accuracy boost. Lead units will occasionally want this, but it's moreso the support units, who don't get a free +10 Hit, who will want to consider it. I often have Chrom use a Bronze Sword (when normally I have him with his Rapier for up until the end of C4) or Sully, her Bronze Lance (where I normally want her using the Iron Lance as soon as she hits D lances), if I can get away with the lower damage, in order to ensure a better chance of securing the kill. I've even had Fred swap over to an Iron Lance to secure a kill before. There's also times where weapon minmaxing triangle advantage is important. I've had Fred tote a Bronze Sword on multiple occasions because it would give him either a better chance of weakening/finishing off a Barb/Fighter or for periods where he has to weather Wyverns and Barbs by tanking them without killing them. The Bronze Sword can give him 15 extra Avoid at crucial moments in the strategy to ensure he doesn't get thrashed.

[Philranger]

Actually, there was quite a bit of incentive to use weaker weapons, although not so much the standard bronze/iron/steel/etc line. Historically, 1~2-range weapons have dominated Fire Emblem as the best weapons. This, even when Awakening dropped the Javelin to 2 mt (weaker than a Bronze Lance) and Hand Axe to 3 mt (weaker than a Bronze Axe). The simply versaility of the weapons in enemy phase counterattacks is what generally has people (myself included) loading up on inventories full of them. This is why I expressed concern about them becoming too powerful with infinite durability (which was a big factor in holding them back). Javelin and Hand Axe penalties are going to have to be pretty steep (and people will probably still use them anyway, since versatility is worth that much; I mean, just look at how bad the Wind Edges were in Radiant Dawn and they still got tons of use). Tomes were more of a mixed bag, because while mages could become tanky, especially in say, Radiant Dawn, where they can get a kickstart from BEXP (even though their caps meant they'd eventually become very lackluster), it took alot more work and resources. Then along comes Robin with overpowered Veteran and a durable tome-using class...

Having 1-2 range changes the equation obviously. I was referring more to the fact that there was very little incentive to use an iron/bronze sword over a steel/silver/brave one.

[Lynsanity]

I actually wonder if they'll phase out hand axes and javelins for this game, now that axes and lances have ranged weapons corresponding to them on the weapons triangle (bows and concealed weapons, which will probably include shurikens and throwing knives).

[Kuroi Tsubasa Tenshi]

Having 1-2 range changes the equation obviously. I was referring more to the fact that there was very little incentive to use an iron/bronze sword over a steel/silver/brave one.

I addressed that in the second half of my post. Sure, "just use the strongest thing" is invoked in the later parts of the game (keeping in mind that there's very little incentive to use 1-range weapons on lead units and that hit is generally more valuable on support units), but in the early game (when 1~2 range is scarce and stats are very low), it can still be an important choice if one cares about not having a key attack whiff on an 80 displayed hit or getting Dual Strikes to reliably land in the early-mid game. Because whiffing one of those attacks on the upper difficulties usually means someone dies (and early map and character design usually means that safe back-up options are in very limited supply).

[Philranger]

I addressed that in the second half of my post. Sure, "just use the strongest thing" is invoked in the later parts of the game (keeping in mind that there's very little incentive to use 1-range weapons on lead units and that hit is generally more valuable on support units), but in the early game (when 1~2 range is scarce and stats are very low), it can still be an important choice if one cares about not having a key attack whiff on an 80 displayed hit or getting Dual Strikes to reliably land in the early-mid game. Because whiffing one of those attacks on the upper difficulties usually means someone dies (and early map and character design usually means that safe back-up options are in very limited supply).

I think you are vastly overstating how useful they are, but to each their own.

[mimgrim]

Having 1-2 range changes the equation obviously. I was referring more to the fact that there was very little incentive to use an iron/bronze sword over a steel/silver/brave one.

Depends on certain factors.

Money (presuming no grinding for money it generally makes sense to keep most of your spending on the weaker weapons, Iron/Steel, because of their high durability, basically more bang for buck). Even the games that throw money left and right to you you still want to be careful spending it all on the more expensive weapons until you get further into the game. There's a reason why Chrom's Falcon is so useful through out Awakening despite it only having the power of an Iron swrod, that was because of infinite use.

There is also weight, when applicable, but this is mostly true only for the games where Con exist and early game for where Str = the dependence on weight.

Availability. aside from Awakening, Brave weapons have never been able to be bought in mass IIRC (at least for the American released ones, can't comment on the Japanese only ones) meaning once you use that weapon up its gone.

There are good reasons why someone might use a iron weapon as opposed to something stronger. Personally for me it changes from game to game.

Edited May 19, 2015 by mimgrim

[goodperson707]

*^you also don't have stronger weapons at that point so i don't see the point

Edited May 19, 2015 by goodperson707