New Playthrough: Fun things to do?

[NobodyInWonderland]

So, I'd like to start a new playthrough of Fire Emblem Awakening. Bet you've never heard that one before.

But seriously, I'm kinda stuck on how to make it interesting compared to my previous games. I've gotten all the kids and paralogue characters, I've made a team of entirely maxed out limit-broken Galeforce users (plus Chrom), I've made a Streetpass team that I'm pretty happy with (compared to the local Fire Emblem players I Streetpass, anyway), I've bought a number of the DLCs and played through them... so on and so forth. I'd just like to do something... I dunno, different. Thing is, I'm NOT looking for something challenging. I'm the laziest gamer out there, so if I can play on Normal and grind my characters to max levels and then laugh as they obliterate everything, I do that. I'd just like to watch them obliterate everything in new and interesting ways. Call me a noob if you want; I play more because I enjoy taking out my repressed anger issues on a field full of Risen than because I want to boast about beating Apotheosis. Which I haven't, because again, I'm lazy and slightly terrified.

Some ideas I've had are as follows (and keep in mind that I plan to use a FeMU, because Galeforce. Cliche skill, sure, but it's so much fun to wipe out half a map in a single turn, and poor non-Galeforcers tend to have a hard time keeping up):

1) An all-female playthrough. I'd make a team of entirely women (not counting Chrom). It's okay to use males while grinding - gotta get the kids, after all - but for the main game, it's gonna be just women and Chrom doing the fighting. (This is my favorite idea, except for the fact that I'd kinda really miss Owain, Inigo and of course Morgan. And Morgan doesn't deserve to be sidelined.)

2) Some sort of playthrough where everyone's ending class is of a certain type: either fliers, or staff users, or magic users, maybe. Alternatively: Everybody's a dread fighter or bride (but that's kinda meh, I like my fliers and/or nosferatanks who make up for their not flying with mire tomes).

3) A playthrough where everyone on the main team is the best at something different. For example, one who can get the farthest in a single turn (Galeforce, Deliverer, Pass and Acrobat and/or Move +1 on a flier of some sort with the right pair up will never be caught by anything, ever), one has the highest magic, one with the highest strength, one with the best defense, one with all the breaker skills, one with the most damage-causing procs, one with all the self-healing skills... I don't mind if it's kind of a stupid way to make a team; at least it's unusual, and with capped stats and/or Limit Breaker they'll all slaughter everything on normal anyway. Chrom can even fit in nicely as Best Avatar Fanboy, since I usually end up marrying him to FeMu anyway. Lucina and Morgan then become unstoppable harbingers of death and destruction that leave my poor Avatar in the dust, but I don't care because it's Morgan and Lucina, and they are awesome.

And not really a playthrough idea but... Bonus Streetpass idea: Use all the players' avatars I've recruited through Streetpass from my local college to make a Streetpass team. I pretty much always choose to fight them for the fun of it, so I've got a lot of avatars cluttering up my unit list. I'd throw on Limit Breaker and a selection of skills like Lethality, Counter (on the guys), Lucky 7, etc., and imagine the hilarity that ensues when people streetpass me to find themselves looking at their own avatars, maxed out and somewhat scarier than normal.

Anyway, does anyone else have any ideas on a fun gimmick to try? Thoughts on any of my ideas? Favorite ways to break the game horribly and shamelessly? Expressions of annoyance at seeing yet another starting-a-new-playthrough thread?

Edited November 6, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

[ZoesMad]

A way I made awakening fresh was doing a no Pair Up/Second Seal run. Made it feel like a traditional FE game and was pretty challenging too.

[TheSilentChloey]

Sounds like a lot of fun I look forwards to seeing what you untimately chose. Personally I'd have a team of Morgan and Chrom and then all girls. No need to sideline one of the best guys out there (Plus I love Morgan and Lucina! so it would be a win-win)

I changed my playthrough by altering my F!MU's ending class. That or seeing how many enemies she could take on and end on a map by herself

Edited November 6, 2015 by TheSilentChloey

[Czar_Yoshi]

Expressions of annoyance at seeing yet another starting-a-new-playthrough thread?

Actually, this is the first one we've had in a while.

One thing you could try (it doesn't work as well with a female Robin, but is still fun) is using only Robin and Chrom's families. Or you could focus on reclassing everyone you use into Axe-wielding classes and using only Hammers (buy them from Spotpass to get more), which would have to be a fairly loose restriction as you don't get many Axe users right off the bat, but is pretty funny. Or you could play normally, but keep a playlog and post it here- if you're a decent writer, people tend to like them a lot regardless of what you're actually doing (unfortunately they're also more work). One other possibly entertaining thing you could do is play normally with most of your team, but pretend your Avatar is a curmudgeon and throw team spirit to the sidelines whenever it's their turn (steal people's stuff, hog kills and/or run away, stalk units without actually helping them, etc).

[EvilElectro]

One Thing I've tried on Hard Classic is no second seals, which made this game pretty hard, and the other thing I did with this run is also no Anna shops.

It's actually like being back in an old game.

[Radiant head]

If you're a fan of the other FE games you can do a Spotpass only run

[NobodyInWonderland]

Or you could play normally, but keep a playlog and post it here- if you're a decent writer, people tend to like them a lot regardless of what you're actually doing (unfortunately they're also more work).

Haha, think people would actually go for a playthrough where I beat the game as lazily as possible if I make it entertaining enough? I think I can write decently, but most of the time I see Lunatic runs and stuff, not "how can I break the game so bad a five year old would laugh at me for making it too easy". Because that's my favorite way to play, but I'm worried that people would cringe at just how stupidly lazy I really am. Also, I really love the idea of making my Avatar a jerk, and I think I could pull off the Avatar-and-Chrom's-families thing if I included the parents of the kids' spouses. I mean, between Chrom, MU, Lucina +3 (spouse and spouse's parents), Morgan +3, Lissa +1 (spouse), Owain +3... That's 16 people right there.

@Lord Gaius and @EvilElectro, I could definitely find more difficult challenges if I wanted, but as I said, I'm not looking for challenging. But thanks!

@TheSilentChloey, I regularly solo Rogues & Redeemers 3 with my limit-broken avatar and Chrom, if that counts. And an all-female playthrough with second-gen exceptions is under consideration!

@Radiant head, I haven't played much else besides Awakening since I barely play that many video games (I only got into Awakening after a friend sold me the game and a 3DS for $30). On the other hand I'd totally consider a Spotpass/DLC character playthrough, just because I think they're underrated and deserve more attention.

Edited November 6, 2015 by NobodyInWonderland

[Elieson]

I did a Hard mode run where I didn't promote anybody and did not use any prepromoted units, nor did I use Taguel/Manaketes (since they have lv.cap of 30). Try that on Normal, without promoting or something

Edited November 6, 2015 by Elieson

[NobodyInWonderland]

@Elieson, as I said, I'm not looking for a challenge. Besides, on my first run I didn't figure out how seals worked until the end of the game, and so already did a no-seal run with very few pre-promoted units and no grinding. I also know that I love my reclassing and maxing out stats much more than trying to challenge myself; weird as that is.

[mozumes]

Well, you could test out being the male avatar and if you try that all-female team (excluding M!MU and Chrom) then Morgan would be a great extra. It's also really easy for her to get all of the breaker skills quick if you marry Cherche.

[Czar_Yoshi]

Haha, think people would actually go for a playthrough where I beat the game as lazily as possible if I make it entertaining enough?

Absolutely. The SF community has some of the most elite players around, meaning you can and will be 1-upped on anything you try to bill as a challenge. As a result, people sort of stopped caring about difficulty stunts, so as long as you don't say "challenge run" you can play however you want and nobody will bat an eyebrow.

[NobodyInWonderland]

Playlog it is then. Coming soon to your local forum. Hopefully people don't hate it on sight.

And I've decided that, instead of playing the entire game one way, I'll instead just complete chapters with different themes (like all women, or all Spotpass characters, or with ladles, logs and tree branches if I get enough) once I get access to the shops with Second and Master Seals. Before that, I might go for the occasional theme, but it would be more difficult with limited reclassing to do half the game with weird themes.