"My Castle" Explanation Video Translation

[Belmont]

If the core game really IS balanced around the My Castle activities then yeah it's bad. It's like they are putting the main gameplay on the sidelines instead of the forefront.

[Neoleo21]

As far as we know, My Castle is supposed to just be a fun distraction. The story seems solid enough on its own, too.(They've had three years to work on the story, so maybe they felt the need to add extra, optional features for extra appeal) Perhaps there is a way to get boosts other than My Castle.(Maybe My Castle is intended to be used as a crutch for extra resources if you have trouble with the difficulty. At least, I would hope such a lucrative feature would have some at the very least intended basis in balance.)

I disagree, everything I'm getting from My castle that it is an extremely significant part of the game that you will have to manage. Perhaps not every aspect of it is needed (I doubt you need to get the lottery or use the face rub minigame) but the core mechanic will need to be used to progress the game. There's some management aspect and choice to be made in choosing to upgrade and buying new facilities, which has its own set of intricacies, but outside the stats and weapons, they're generally there for the interactions of the characters rather than the combat (which is probably very tactical in nature due to number of changes like stances, personal skills and more horizontal weapon progression). Purists are probably just in it for the combat system and that's completely fair if they don't like these additions because they are mandatory and see them as taking away from the combat.

[Technoweirdo]

You cannot look at "tone" or "attitude" and infer all sorts of things I did not say. I was specific in what I argued and what I did not argue.

No. I welcome disagreement -- it's why I spend time writing criticisms in the first place! Many of your posts (and others, it's not personal) simply misunderstood my claims, and it's impossible to have a productive conversation when your interlocutors aren't reading your arguments carefully enough to understand them.

@Red: Yes, I am complaining that getting the full experience out of the game, including relevant strategical advantages, demands I slog through Harvest Moon mining, cooking, bathing, and rubbing. This is not something I enjoy. I could simply ignore those features, but that would be limiting myself to avoid bad optional content. And optional bad content is still bad content.

You are still stuck up on a semantics debate that never happened. The problem with My Castle is not that it's required. The problem is that it's a surprisingly major addition that confers sizable bonuses. This is not the Hubba Tester. This is a fairly large slice of the If pie, and it tastes rotten. When evaluating the quality of the pie, I'm not going to ignore a rotten slice -- especially when it's infected other parts.

You also misunderstood the "must-play" comment. Please re-read that quote in its entirety; I explain it's must-play if you want X, Y, and Z.

I could stomach My Castle if it was a small inclusion, conferred no major strategic benefits, and wasn't full of creepy fanservice. It's failed on all three counts.

You seem really hung over the stat boosting thing, so I have to ask: How'd you feel about stat boosts from the barracks in Awakening? To anyone who beat Awakening on Lunatic/Lunatic+, I ask: Were the stat boosts, experience gains, and support gains instrumental to your strategy? I ask because I haven't beat Awakening on Lunatic myself, but knowing the random nature of the barracks' bonus effects and how tiny they were, I'm having incredible difficulty thinking they made or broke a playthrough.

Onto IF, from what we've seen so far, the stat boosts from the cafeteria are just as tiny. They're just more controllable. Also amusing, at least to me, but I digress. Additional boosts by talking with people you have a high support with also tiny and what's boosted isn't as controllable. Would the game be balanced around this? I don't know, but I'm thinking not likely. It'll help for sure, but I don't think you should rely on it.

As for the infamous face-rubbing feature, yes, it boosts supports, but it's not like they were particularly hard to boost in Awakening. It's also limited to Kamui x _____ supports. Extra nice for you, I suppose, but units will be around others more often than you most of the time. You aren't an omni-present dragon god (yet).

-

You and everyone else have every right to be concerned about balance, but as of right now, the only truly mandatory thing I see is building an armory and a vendor. Far as I know, the resource required can only be gained through story progression. If that's all you really need, it's the equivalent of shopping between battles; nothing to be really up in arms about.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Technoweirdo

[Thedeathby2]

First things first, Soc I thank you for the translations.

The sad part about all this is that it's not IS's fault that the series has turned this way. The video game industry now is dominated by fps in the West and in Japan by dating sims and traditional rpgs. In order to save the series and their jobs, IS had to appeal to as many people as possible with awakening and are now doing the same to If. Of course that doesn't mean that this is the right thing to do for the series, and to avoid as much criticism as possible I believe IS should have made a new IP.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Thedeathby2

[goodperson707]

I disagree, everything I'm getting from My castle that it is an extremely significant part of the game that you will have to manage. Perhaps not every aspect of it is needed (I doubt you need to get the lottery or use the face rub minigame) but the core mechanic will need to be used to progress the game. There's some management aspect and choice to be made in choosing to upgrade and buying new facilities, which has its own set of intricacies, but outside the stats and weapons, they're generally there for the interactions of the characters rather than the combat (which is probably very tactical in nature due to number of changes like stances, personal skills and more horizontal weapon progression). Purists are probably just in it for the combat system and that's completely fair if they don't like these additions because they are mandatory and see them as taking away from the combat.

^ they are not mandatory the buying weapons might be sorta mandatory but armouries are in nearly every-game, and in this one you only really ever need to go in their when you get more characters,or get enough money to upgrade weapons or stock up on healing items. If anything it possibly takes less time than you spend in other armours or the base in FE10 Everything else is about as mandatory as the barracks or using the arena in the gba games. Edited June 1, 2015 by goodperson707

[May]

Some people here are looking at this feature as if it's Duel Love. :|

[Geek]

First things first, Soc I thank you for the translations.

The sad part about all this is that it's not IS's fault that the series has turned this way. The video game industry now is dominated by fps in the West and in Japan by dating sims and traditional rpgs. In order to save the series and their jobs, IS had to appeal to as many people as possible with awakening and are now doing the same to If. Of course that doesn't mean that this is the right thing to do for the series, and to avoid as much criticism as possible I believe IS should have made a new IP.

Actually, the main money genre in Japan right now is smartphone games. It's why you see time wasting mechanics creeping into so many recent RPGs like Bravely Default's Norende and the time-gated bonuses in FE12 and Awakening. It's also why you're seeing more pay to skip additions in traditional games since people have gotten impatient and want gratification now. A base building game is a perfect addition to make your game appeal to causal players, especially if it's time gated which it probably will be.

[Jedi]

I disagree. There are certain points where the game's difficulty spikes upwards so drastically that if the game isn't balanced around grinding, it's not balanced at all. Chapter 5 Lunatic is a good example of this. Even if you do Donnel's paralogue to get the Rescue staff and have proper pairings and use chokepoints properly you'll still be overpowered if you're unlucky or didn't abuse Frederick in earlier chapters.

It's certainly beatable without grinding on any difficulty though.

[feplus]

You seem really hung over the stat boosting thing, so I have to ask: How'd you feel about stat boosts from the barracks in Awakening? To anyone who beat Awakening on Lunatic/Lunatic+, I ask: Were the stat boosts, experience gains, and support gains instrumental to your strategy? I ask because I haven't beat Awakening on Lunatic myself, but knowing the random nature of the barracks' bonus effects and how tiny they were, I'm having incredible difficulty they made or broke a playthrough.

To quote myself:

Feel free to correct me, but I recall Awakening barracks working identically to Awakening shiny tiles: you get something completely random. Sometimes it's a token amount of experience, sometimes it's a small support bump, sometimes it's a random weapon or item.

This system is completely different. You can now reliably increase support points, and with multiple units at a time. You must now go mining if you want to forge weapons. You can now get significant, wide-scale stat bumps by having units talk and eat (and maybe face-rubbing, this is still unclear).

[The DanMan]

Great job as usually, Rey. Glad Gamexplain finally 'fessed up to it. Of note is that it seems to be only one member (Derrick) who was taking your (and other's) translation.

Also, "depressed moe sound". Bless your heart.

[Cyblaster]

Actually, the main money genre in Japan right now is smartphone games. It's why you see time wasting mechanics creeping into so many recent RPGs like Bravely Default's Norende and the time-gated bonuses in FE12 and Awakening. It's also why you're seeing more pay to skip additions in traditional games since people have gotten impatient and want gratification now. A base building game is a perfect addition to make your game appeal to causal players, especially if it's time gated which it probably will be.

Unless you can only gain the dragon vein resource over time (which I don't think it is), the game shouldn't be time gated. It's possible that weapon stocks refresh over time but you'll be more limited by gold than stock since everything is so expensive.

[Mad_Scientist]

First of all, thanks Rey! I smiled at "Depressed Moe Sound."

Now, regarding the face rubbing and difficulty, look at it this way. When you inevitibly buy the game and beat it on Lunatic+ Classic mode without using the face rubbing system to improve supports, it will just add an extra level of bragging rights.

As for myself, I rather like the My Castle ideas (face rubbing qualms aside). It's a bit of a different direction for Fire Emblem, but I don't have a problem with the series experimenting a bit. One of my favorite Fire Emblem games of all time, Fire Emblem 4, made some pretty big departures from previous games, and I'm happy it did.

Also, I have no problems about the hot springs in general. As many have pointed out, hot springs are just a part of Japanese culture, there is nothing inheriently "silly" about them. There is nothing to say they can't be used in a serious story. And so it makes perfect sense for the Japanese inspired Hoshido to have them. I was thinking the Nohr having them was a bit more of an oddity, but then someone pointed out how the Nohr are Roman-inspired, and the romans were also a culture where public baths were a big part of life. So it all fits.

Yes, the "walk in on a member of the opposite gender" cliche is annoying, but well, but that's just a sympton of Fire Emblem becomming more "anime-ish" rather than a specific problem of having the hot springs. I mean, it's not like Awakening didn't have plenty of anime cliches despite not including a hot springs.

Edited June 1, 2015 by Mad_Scientist

[Geek]

It's certainly beatable without grinding on any difficulty though.

It being beatable says nothing about whether or not it's balanced. Sure you can beat it if you get lucky or break the game by abusing the Avatar and Frederick, but if you played normally you would get wrecked since your bundles of stats are significantly weaker than the opponent's bundles of stats, and no amount of strategy (which is coincidentally the amount of strategy included in Awakening) is going to get you through Lunatic and Lunatic+ without losing units. Other games in the series will obviously punish you for playing unprepared, but not to the extent that Awakening does.

Plus there was a financial incentive for IS to balance the game around grinding since they were churning out DLC that was only good for grinding, but I don't think it's anything as sinister as that. The changes to the support system incentivized doing side missions since it was a case of gotta catch em all, and IS probably balanced the difficulty to account for players doing extra maps.

[Mad_Scientist]

It being beatable says nothing about whether or not it's balanced. Sure you can beat it if you get lucky or break the game by abusing the Avatar and Frederick, but if you played normally you would get wrecked since your bundles of stats are significantly weaker than the opponent's bundles of stats, and no amount of strategy (which is coincidentally the amount of strategy included in Awakening) is going to get you through Lunatic and Lunatic+ without losing units. Other games in the series will obviously punish you for playing unprepared, but not to the extent that Awakening does.

Plus there was a financial incentive for IS to balance the game around grinding since they were churning out DLC that was only good for grinding, but I don't think it's anything as sinister as that. The changes to the support system incentivized doing side missions since it was a case of gotta catch em all, and IS probably balanced the difficulty to account for players doing extra maps.

The problem is, you're basing the balance of the game only on the highest two difficulty levels, both of which are designed to provide an extreme challenge. To say that the game as a whole is balanced on grinding is therefore inaccurate. The highest difficulty levels, the ultimate challenge of the game, are difficult to complete without grinding. That is all.

[goodperson707]

It being beatable says nothing about whether or not it's balanced. Sure you can beat it if you get lucky or break the game by abusing the Avatar and Frederick, but if you played normally you would get wrecked since your bundles of stats are significantly weaker than the opponent's bundles of stats, and no amount of strategy (which is coincidentally the amount of strategy included in Awakening) is going to get you through Lunatic and Lunatic+ without losing units. Other games in the series will obviously punish you for playing unprepared, but not to the extent that Awakening does.

Plus there was a financial incentive for IS to balance the game around grinding since they were churning out DLC that was only good for grinding, but I don't think it's anything as sinister as that. The changes to the support system incentivized doing side missions since it was a case of gotta catch em all, and IS probably balanced the difficulty to account for players doing extra maps.

Lunatic is hardly a good judge of if the game expects you to grind or not. Especially as they make grinding harder on higher modes so they seem to be saying the opposite of what you are, if any thing it is a chapter design oversight issue of lunatic as i think similar problems can happen before you can grind anyway. Edited June 2, 2015 by goodperson707

[Jedi]

It being beatable says nothing about whether or not it's balanced. Sure you can beat it if you get lucky or break the game by abusing the Avatar and Frederick, but if you played normally you would get wrecked since your bundles of stats are significantly weaker than the opponent's bundles of stats, and no amount of strategy (which is coincidentally the amount of strategy included in Awakening) is going to get you through Lunatic and Lunatic+ without losing units. Other games in the series will obviously punish you for playing unprepared, but not to the extent that Awakening does.

Plus there was a financial incentive for IS to balance the game around grinding since they were churning out DLC that was only good for grinding, but I don't think it's anything as sinister as that. The changes to the support system incentivized doing side missions since it was a case of gotta catch em all, and IS probably balanced the difficulty to account for players doing extra maps.

There is no such thing as a balanced FE game in the first place. This is the wrong franchise if you'd like to have "balance". Plus lowmanning has always been one of the better tactics in nearly every FE game.

Sure it may throw off newer players, but why was the newer player trying Lunatic first in the first place?

Edited June 2, 2015 by Jedi

[Geek]

The problem is, you're basing the balance of the game only on the highest two difficulty levels, both of which are designed to provide an extreme challenge. To say that the game as a whole is balanced on grinding is therefore inaccurate. The highest difficulty levels, the ultimate challenge of the game, are difficult to complete without grinding. That is all.

Which is a pointless argument of semantics. No one judges a game's difficulty on its easy mode. If My Castle is mandatory to complete Lunatic mode, that's a problem since the game is balanced around a minigame and that renders the "IT'S OPTIONAL" argument invalid. The point about Pair Up and grinding in Awakening was illustrative of this point. People obviously disagree with me that the game was balanced with grinding in mind, but I've made my case.

In short, I really hope My Castle will be as optional as people are claiming.

[Tryhard]

but if you played normally you would get wrecked since your bundles of stats are significantly weaker than the opponent's bundles of stats, and no amount of strategy (which is coincidentally the amount of strategy included in Awakening) is going to get you through Lunatic and Lunatic+ without losing units. Other games in the series will obviously punish you for playing unprepared, but not to the extent that Awakening does.

Pretty sure people have done this.

The insistence that Fire Emblem has ever been balanced is puzzling to me.

Edited June 2, 2015 by Tryhard

[Zerosabers]

@Geek

http://serenesforest.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=52170 Stop saying Lunatic+ is balanced around grinding. It isn't and check that topic for reliable strategies to beat Lunatic+. As for normal Lunatic, that is EASILY beatable without grinding.

Back on topic, thanks for the translation! Only real problem I've had so far with this has been the face rubbing.

[goodperson707]

Which is a pointless argument of semantics. No one judges a game's difficulty on its easy mode. If My Castle is mandatory to complete Lunatic mode, that's a problem since the game is balanced around a minigame and that renders the "IT'S OPTIONAL" argument invalid. The point about Pair Up and grinding in Awakening was illustrative of this point. People obviously disagree with me that the game was balanced with grinding in mind, but I've made my case.

In short, I really hope My Castle will be as optional as people are claiming.

Okay so you made your case? Okay fine i say the only way to beat lunatic plus is to have robin named fluffy-butt. I mean other people could beat lunatic without fluffy-butt but i did not so fluffybutt must be required to beat lunatic there i made my case

But really it is not based on grinding at all. And it was not illustrative in the slightest. Well on the point you trying to make anyway.

Edited June 2, 2015 by goodperson707

[Thedeathby2]

Which is a pointless argument of semantics. No one judges a game's difficulty on its easy mode. If My Castle is mandatory to complete Lunatic mode, that's a probl

em since the game is balanced around a minigame and that renders the "IT'S OPTIONAL" argument invalid. The point

about Pair Up and grinding in Awakening was illustrative of this point. People obviously disagree with me that the game was balanced with grinding in mind, but I've made my case.

In short, I really hope My Castle will be as optional as people are claiming.

I haven't played awakening lunatic and lunatic+ but for most people who have played those modes they said that it overly relies on grinding and abusing the hell out of MU and pair up. And to me, raising two OP characters to beat the highest difficulties is boring. I just want to use up all my deployment slots and use as many units as possible.

Anyways, I hope that my castle is unnecessary for beating the game on normal and hard difficulty.

[Loki Laufeyson]

kinda sums up my earlier point about Kamui's room. No one has to like it, but i cant help but not see that.

I have a feeling My Castle isnt necessary to actually finishing the game. Nohr's My Castle wont have grinding for exp features so it has to be anyway.

[Mad_Scientist]

Which is a pointless argument of semantics. No one judges a game's difficulty on its easy mode. If My Castle is mandatory to complete Lunatic mode, that's a problem since the game is balanced around a minigame and that renders the "IT'S OPTIONAL" argument invalid. The point about Pair Up and grinding in Awakening was illustrative of this point. People obviously disagree with me that the game was balanced with grinding in mind, but I've made my case.

In short, I really hope My Castle will be as optional as people are claiming.

If grinding was required to beat Awakening on every single difficulty other than easy, you'd have a point. But that's not the case. The "balance" of a game is not determined by a single difficulty mode, whether it be the hardest or the easiest. And yes, grinding makes Lunatic and Lunatic+ much easier, but it's not even required to beat them.

But it's quite possible My Castle may be needed to beat Lunatic mode, or at the very least make it substantially easier. I have zero problem with that. It seems extremely unlikely that the face rubbing aspect of it (which is very minor) will be specifically required to beat Lunatic mode though, as it sounds like it will have fairly minor effects. I'm happy about that, even if the face rubbing thing is something I'm kind of ambivalent about.

But really, here's the thing. If "My Castle" essentially replaces normal grinding, how is that really a bad thing? Personally, I find grinding to be tedious and boring. So even if My Castle turns out to ALSO be tedious and boring, it's no worse than before. But it actually seems like it has the potential to be more fun and interesting than just grinding.

[Jedi]

I haven't played awakening lunatic and lunatic+ but for most people who have played those modes they said that it overly relies on grinding and abusing the hell out of MU and pair up. And to me, raising two OP characters to beat the highest difficulties is boring. I just want to use up all my deployment slots and use as many units as possible.

Anyways, I hope that my castle is unnecessary for beating the game on normal and hard difficulty.

Most people.tm You should try the Lunatic club thread, plenty of people there have done nogrind lunatic.

[omega zero]

From what I gather, perhaps the biggest problem with Awakening is Veteran. If Veteran didn't exist, then the devs might have put more effort into balancing the various difficulties in FEA.