Should I bother getting all the children? ( possibly minor spoilers)

[NekoKnight]

What children gaidens do you think should be done earlier rather than later? After chapter 18, I've found that there is a huge difficulty spike in the chapters (all enemies promoted and they all have silver weapons). On the Hoshido route, I'd say the hardest ones are Shinonome and Mitama (holy shit this one was a ballbuster). Sophie's paralogue is also a pain if you want to keep all those moronic villagers alive.

I wonder if Intelligent Systems will notice the lukewarm reception to the child mechanic. this time around. I mean, as a whole people loved them in Awakening, but here they just feel forced, and it shows.

Personally I hope they abandon the children mechanic. If it's just a matter of class/skill variety, there are other methods of giving the player options (such as the marriage and buddy seals introduced in this game). I'd much rather have characters who contribute to the story and the world rather than detract from it with absurd time manipulation.

[Luninareph]

Well, I for one am really excited about the kids! I enjoyed them in GotHW, I enjoyed them in Awakening, and I'm really looking forward to sinking my teeth into them in Fates now too :)

[mewyeon]

I never did, even in Awakening. Grinding is a boring time suck.

I'll recruit Kanna and whatever other child Kamui gets. Other than that...maybe one or two other children if they happen. That's it, though.

[Thane Tali]

The only kids I want are Ophelia [Related to Lucina], Seigbert [WHAT IS WITH THE LACK OF CAVS IN THIS GAME], Sophie [see earlier], Matoi [Luna's kid, in all likelihood], Soleil [i like my female Mercs, and Lazward is cool] and I'm not even that hot on Kanna or Azura's kid, to be perfectly frank.

The other kids if I can support grind enough I will access purely for paralogue access and XP. That might be more of a Hoshido/Invisible Kingdom thing. In Nohr I'm likely to actually grab Sophie, Soleil and Ophelia ASAP while Seigbert will be an "eh, maybe". I'm not fond of any of the other kids, but Deere in particular can go drown in a hole.

I'm an axeblooded cavspammer to the core.

[Mighty Kamina]

I only ended up getting any of the children because I wanted the EXP and money their chapters gave. I ignored them immediately afterwards because they have no reason to be there.

[nocturnal YL]

My regret is actually that given the limited number of units usable, it's hard to find space to squeeze them in the Nohr campaign if you already have parents that you like.

Unlike in Genealogy or Awakening, people don't seem to talk about the children often. Too bad. I absolutely love Kanna.

[The Magus]

Only kids I'm gonna go out of my way to get are Soleil and Eponine. And I'm only going for Eponine because I'm a huge huge HUGE Les Mis fan, so I may not go for her if they change her name in localization ;>_>

[Ghostlander]

I'll get em all for this Hoshido run just for the sake of doing ALL the available content. Nohr I definitely will only grab the ones I want.

3rd route will be another all-out run.

[NekoKnight]

I'll get em all for this Hoshido run just for the sake of doing ALL the available content. Nohr I definitely will only grab the ones I want.

3rd route will be another all-out run.

You can get support points in Nohr by doing My Castle battles, so if you'd like to get all the children for the sake of experiencing all the content, you probably can.

[Thane Tali]

You can get support points in Nohr by doing My Castle battles, so if you'd like to get all the children for the sake of experiencing all the content, you probably can.

Good to know. I definitely want to see all the chapters even if I don't care about using the child unit. Though I think I'll probably do a Shalla/FeMU pairing regardless.

[The DanMan]

I wonder if Intelligent Systems will notice the lukewarm reception to the child mechanic. this time around. I mean, as a whole people loved them in Awakening, but here they just feel forced, and it shows.

It's far too early to judge the reception to the children this time around. It could still be received well by the larger western audience.

I'm not too sure. I've seen people on other sites express similiar opinions on them (that they just feel forced in, as their explanation for existence is contrived and they add nothing to the plot).

Probably my biggest problem with the 2nd gen is that recruitment pacing is absolutely shot half-way through. In other FE games, you got a more-or-less steady stream of units throughout the game. Though you'd generally solidify your team by the half-way point, if you felt so inclined (or were getting RNG screwed) you could pick up other units and use them.

Edited July 13, 2015 by The DanMan

[XeKr]

imo the children actually help the recruitment pace if playing casually, as you'll start getting S ranks sometime around/after all the 1st gen has joined. They then serve that exact role of a late-ish joining, RNG proof unit (who are probably far more competent than some in other games). If your argument is that the 1st gen recruitment had to be set in this way to accommodate the children mechanic in a somewhat balanced way (and this can be a good or bad thing), then I agree.

(I also wouldn't say past FE games were consistently that good about giving you usable units throughout the game but that's another story)

Outside gameplay though, FE14 children do just seem like fluff (like a few other things in this game).

Edited July 13, 2015 by XeKr

[TheWerdna]

If you don't want to grind, pairing every parent is very very unlikely (I'd say impossible, but maybe there's some people out there better at support/deploy management than me who can do it so who knows) anyway. It's best to stick with a party you know you want to train. That way you can also avoid the exp being spread out too thin and consequently having issues later on.

To be fair, in the Nohr route you can just fight other players teams to grind supports without getting EXP. Not sure if you get EXP from that on the other two routes though.

[Thor Odinson]

To be fair, in the Nohr route you can just fight other players teams to grind supports without getting EXP. Not sure if you get EXP from that on the other two routes though.

I still count that as grinding.

Im very strict on myself when it comes to that.

[XeKr]

Paralogues give so much exp that I think you could use everyone and get all the children and it wouldn't be too absurd, but it would certainly still require efficient deployment and tactics.