How to get into FE6

[quasimopho13]

Hey all,

I have trouble getting into fe6 because, to me, it feels like a less developed, blander fe7. Older games like fe4 and 5 were fun because they felt like they had mechanics that really set them apart (repairable/ weapons, holy blood, 2 generations that don't involve keeping your old characters for the most part, capturing, etc.)

Is there anything that you feel really stands out in fe6 that makes it exciting to play?

The weird thing is that I'm really hype to play it, but have struggled to enjoy it in the past. I want to pick up a copy, but am on the fence.

The things that do excite me about it are that it's an fe7 sequel (storywise), the large scale conflict, Perceival's hard mode stats and Roy. I also like that it might be harder than the other gba games

I know that the map objectives are mostly seize, but are the maps well-designed/fun to play? That's what made fe4 maps fun to me despite the same objective for each one. There seemed to always be a lot going on.

[Shin]

FE6 is essentially a rough harder version of FE7. It's probably not as polished all around, and some maps are real chores but it's reasonable enough in its own right. You generally need to think about placement early on, and even towards the endgame you won't necessarily be blitzing enemies. My only warning is make sure you give Roy a robe, it'll make lugging him around less painful! Also, reinforcements can move the turn they spawn!

[Jedi]

The maps tend to generally be longer and take more effort to clear (on HM especially).

The game gives you enough to beat it, but its never going to hold your hand either, unless its one of the chapters you get one of the super cool awesome units.tm, but I generally agree with Shin, I personally enjoy it because it feels like I have to work harder for my wins, FE7 is still fun to blaze through.

[Dr. Tarrasque]

It's basically an FE7 where your attacks will miss and the lord has a promotion you'll complain about.

[Katie]

One thing I like about FE6 is how even though pretty much every map has the same objective (seize, which only the final chapter and the trial maps don't have for an objective, iirc), the maps never really start to feel "samey" because the developers made them sufficiently different from one another.

[Magical Glace]

FE6 is my favorite entry, so...

For starters, compared to FE7, there's quite a few strange things with the mechanics and balance. This includes the lack of objectives except seize (for some reason, considering FE5 did have non-seize objectives iirc?) and an extremely bizarre limit on the total support points you can get in a map (you may get 120 between everyone, and there's a lot of slow ones to boot). Weapons have some very strange balancing (Axes in this game are downright infamous), Roy promotes absurdly late (if he promoted after, say, 14(x), he'd be more or less on par with FE9 Ike in terms of usefulness, maybe a bit weaker), and the final boss is the series most pathetic (besides maybe Veld).

However, despite all this, the games maps are (mostly) well done, and it never holds your hand. While FE7 can be blitzed very easily, this game, especially on hard, honestly can't be due to enemies having actual stats without a lot of arena abuse.

In short, the game is less polished than FE7, but is still worth playing for the well done difficulty and maps.

...It also has Wolt.

[quasimopho13]

Thanks all.

I'm actually not concerned with difficulty. On the contrary, that aspect excites me, and I'm hoping that the cart I get comes with a clear file so that I can jump right into hard mode. I'm familiar with immediate action reinforcements from Thracia (ch 23 especially)

I'm more focused on fun factor and what makes fe6 stand out. For example, fe5 was fe to the extreme (infinite range staves, crit happy crit coefficients) and fe4 had 2 separate generations and a holy blood mechanic.

Are there any features that make fe6 stand out or any combination of factors that make fe6 really enjoyable? It seems like the difficulty and placement might make things interesting.

Matthewtheman, I think that's exactly what I needed to hear. Map diversity. Your nickname suites you!

Edited July 29, 2016 by quasimopho13

[Gradivus.]

It's basically an FE7 where your attacks will miss and the lord has a promotion you'll complain about.

"FE6 is basically FE7 except *insert negative attributes*" is a bad meme that should just vanish permanently.

I could spend a while listing what FE6 does better, but for some examples, it doesn't have poorly designed defense chapters, the Jagen fits his supposed role much better, it's difficulty is much more existent, etc. Maps that rely on poorly done gimmicks are also less predominant.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Gradivus.

[quasimopho13]

Aren't all objectives "seize the throne"? So by "defense", do you mean hold the line until there's an opening to break for the throne?

[Katie]

I find FE6 has some really neat characters and some really good support conversations, I'd even say it's better than FE7 in this regard, and it has my favorite villain in the series, Narcian, who gets some of the funniest scenes in the game. I also like how the tomes are actually light, so your mages generally aren't weighed down too much. The music is also pretty good, and it actually shares a good bit of music with FE7, though I find a lot of the really good Elibe music is only in one of the two games.

[Gradivus.]

Aren't all objectives "seize the throne"? So by "defense", do you mean hold the line until there's an opening to break for the throne?

I mainly meant that while FE6 doesn't have defense chapters, at least its quality isn't dragged down by them, unlike in FE7, which has a lot of bad defense chapters. Edited July 29, 2016 by Gradivus.

[Magical Glace]

Aren't all objectives "seize the throne"? So by "defense", do you mean hold the line until there's an opening to break for the throne?

In FE6, all chapters aside from the final and Trial maps have "Seize" as the objective. FE7 removed this and included defend, rout, boss, and arrive in addition to seize.

Defense Chapters are basically "prevent enemy from reaching this spot" or "keep this NPC alive" Think Hector Chapter 15 or FE10 II-E.

[ping]

FE6 has a rather different balancing between characters than newer entries. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work since some units like the armors or Sophia are simply not worth it at any point at the game, but I quite like that it has a few characters that are good (or even great) for a limited time.

Marcus is probably the best example, but I would also say that Lot, Jerrot/Zealot, Astore, Bartre, Echidna and maybe Klain fit in this category. They allow you to fill up the spaces in your roster in the early- and midgame with units that can fight pretty well without prior training.

The game is definitely not without faults - for example, HM makes the character balance worse since all the units that get boosts were at least good anyway - but I agree with Gradivus. that it is by no means inferiour. I personally really like the map design and find that FE6 has very few boring chapters (these being a few gaidens and unfortunately the fight before the final boss).

@Supports: I would count them as a weak point of this game, honestly. Not the conversations themselves, but they can be a real pain to unlock. FE6 has way more supports that grow at minimum speed (which means 200 turns till A), making me ignore these supports completely.

[Magical Glace]

FE6's Supports are nice but they're waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too sloooooooooooooooooooooow aside from... Roy/Lilina really. That, and there's the extremely stupid point gain limit.

The conversations are fine for the most part, some are bad though.

[Jave]

FE6 is the worst when it comes to actual Support Conversations. It's like they started really good but then before the writers even reached half of them they got bored and just started phoning them in.

There's one convo that's just one line of dialogue. And one of the characters involved doesn't even show up.

[Augestein]

Honestly, I find that the game picks up after you get the Durandal. From there the chapters start to get pretty good and involved.

[Katie]

Yeah, actually unlocking the supports is a pain. At least my OTP has the fastest support growth in the game. And sure there are some bad ones, but I find most of them at least decent, and it's not like FE7 doesn't have its fair share of bad supports as well. (Such as Marcus/Lowen, which basically Marcus scolding/tutoring Lowen and Lowen being a big yes man to Marcus)

Character balance is definitely one of the weaker points of FE6. I rarely play FE6 without at least buffing the weaker characters I plan on using via Nightmare before starting.

[Magical Glace]

FE6 is the worst when it comes to actual Support Conversations. It's like they started really good but then before the writers even reached half of them they got bored and just started phoning them in.

There's one convo that's just one line of dialogue. And one of the characters involved doesn't even show up.

I'm now immensely curious as to what support this is.

I will admit this post is somewhat true, but it has pretty good sets like Roy/Wolt and Rutger/Clarine so...

Edit: Shin/Dorothy C Never cared for either so never read it.

Their A support is kinda cute, though... Not enough to save the whole chain, sadly.

Edited July 29, 2016 by Glaceon Mage

[quasimopho13]

Thanks for the advice all! I you gave me the push I needed. I bought it, but accidentally gave an address where I no longer live. Gotta fix that ^^

Edited July 29, 2016 by quasimopho13

[Lord Raven]

Growths are also lower overall in FE6 compared to FE7, while enemies are quite a bit tougher. However, both games are 0%able, so you don't need growths to really beat them (although you do need an intimate knowledge of the game if you don't have growths, but the point is that it's not unbeatable if you get RNG screwed).

FE6 also has a lot of maps with a bunch of side-objectives, and other maps that are genuinely well designed and precise (well from an LTC point of view). Though, for every Chapter 13, 16, or 22, we have shit like some of the Sacae maps and like chapter 21x.

EDIT:

@Supports: I would count them as a weak point of this game, honestly. Not the conversations themselves, but they can be a real pain to unlock. FE6 has way more supports that grow at minimum speed (which means 200 turns till A), making me ignore these supports completely.

Don't forget that there's a cap to how many support points you can get per chapter, not just between two units. Edited July 29, 2016 by Lord Raven

[Jave]

I'm now immensely curious as to what support this is.

I will admit this post is somewhat true, but it has pretty good sets like Roy/Wolt and Rutger/Clarine so...

Edit: Shin/Dorothy C Never cared for either so never read it.

Their A support is kinda cute, though... Not enough to save the whole chain, sadly.

Huh, Shin/Dorothy wasn't the one I was thinking of.

Take a look at Treck/Juno.

[Magical Glace]

Huh, Shin/Dorothy wasn't the one I was thinking of.

Take a look at Treck/Juno.

...wow, what a short support. How does that even give bonuses?

The B/A was kinda cute at least, if random.

[ping]

"The Characters don't actually meet in their supports" is actually done in the Dorcas/Vaida support in FE7. And in their A-Support they do talk but don't recognize each other.

I agree that FE6's supports aren't exacty stellar. I mean, none are offensively bad, some are funny/touching/cute/... but some feel like a single conversation that is just drawn out over three encounters.

All of Treck's supports are amazing, though. I love that stoner mercenary! ;)

€: Oh yes, Karel is one of my absolute favorites in the series, especially after looking at his past in FE7.

Edited July 29, 2016 by ping

[Jedi]

I like quite a few of FE6's supports, Igrene & Ashtol in particular, along with Karels set, among others, Geese & Douglas have some worldbuilding in theres of all the people to have a bit of it.

But going on what Lord Raven was saying earlier, FE6 is just fun to plan out, for the tougher challenges or for challenge runs, because theres quite a number of options and objectives to do depending on the chapter.

[Weeping Dalek (MK)]

Hey all,

I have trouble getting into fe6 because, to me, it feels like a less developed, blander fe7. Older games like fe4 and 5 were fun because they felt like they had mechanics that really set them apart (repairable/ weapons, holy blood, 2 generations that don't involve keeping your old characters for the most part, capturing, etc.)

Is there anything that you feel really stands out in fe6 that makes it exciting to play?

The weird thing is that I'm really hype to play it, but have struggled to enjoy it in the past. I want to pick up a copy, but am on the fence.

The things that do excite me about it are that it's an fe7 sequel (storywise), the large scale conflict, Perceival's hard mode stats and Roy. I also like that it might be harder than the other gba games

I know that the map objectives are mostly seize, but are the maps well-designed/fun to play? That's what made fe4 maps fun to me despite the same objective for each one. There seemed to always be a lot going on.

Go in expecting to restart, a lot. This will make FE6 less frustrating if you go into each chapter expecting to restart and make it all the more surprising when you don't have to