Fire Emblem Gaffes

[PostZordem]

So, I've recently played and finished Fire Emblem Awakening for the first time and I have to say: Amazing game. Loved the story, setting and characters. Chrom is one of my favorite lords in the entire series, and Robin is easily my favorite avatar character of the lot. I'd rank Awakening as my 2nd favorite Fire Emblem game right behind Three Houses at #1. But (I'm going off topic, so...) anyways, let's get to the topic of this particular discussion. 

After Chapter 11 is finished and the boss is defeated, Chrom automatically S-Supports whichever female character had the highest support level with him (in my game he married Sumia in case you were wondering) because Lucina needs to exist and shiz since she revealed to Chrom that she's his daughter from the future and we can't break that canon. Now, because of this automatic S-support, I figured that everyone else in my group that had S-supports between each other would do it automatically as well so long as I reached their A-rank first. I did that for several units and waited for the S-supports to roll in, but they didn't. I kid you not, I played through the entire game-from Chapter 12 to the Endgame-before I realized that I was doing something wrong. Apparently it never occurred to me that I should've just kept the two characters I wanted to romance together as adjutants until the "S" support between them popped up. Due to this, I missed out on basically all of the "Gen 2" units (save for Lucina and Cynthia). And here I was thinking that Lucina was full of crap when she said something along the lines of "There are others who came with me, but we all got separated", but in actuality I made a gargantuan gaming gaffe. So yeah, that's one of my more notable Fire Emblem gaffes that I figured I'd share with the people of Serenes Forest, but I've got one more that I'd like to share (which is another Awakening-related gaffe). 

During Chapter 11 where you also happen to unlock Olivia as a playable unit, I sent her a little too far out on the battlefield when I was giving one of my other units an additional turn, so an enemy unit came and absolutely demolished her and ignored my other units (because of course they did) since those units had a not-dying today guarantee. I didn't check the enemy's range of attack, which resulted in a rookie mistake that cost me a unit (don't worry, though. I reset the chapter and eventually beat Chapter 11 with everybody alive because I simply cannot allow a single unit under my control to permadie).

Honorable Mention goes to Chrom unknowingly killing his other (potential) child, Cynthia, in her own paralogue. Though I blame that more on her having the "I'm a Green Unit" mentality over Chrom being in the right place at the wrong time. 

Now as I always do when I make topics for the forums, I ask you all if you've ever made a Fire Emblem gaffe that you probably aren't particularly proud of. It doesn't have to be from Awakening specifically (I just happened to gaffe harder in that game than the others). Whether it be a unit getting killed that could've been easily avoided, a concept or gameplay aspect that you didn't fully utilize, etc. it's all fair game. 

[lenticular]

I actually did something similar in Birthright. I went into the game completely sight-unseen/no spoilers. I was also playing ironman style (it wasn't technically an ironman, since I did reset for a Corin death early on rather than restart, but I wasn't resetting for other unit deaths). And I generally just didn't bother with supports. I wasn't enjoying the support conversations, I found the game easy enough that I didn't feel the need for any of the mechanical benefits, and I don't really enjoy the gameplay style of keeping two units glued together. So why would I bother?

And then, of course, partway through the game, new recruitment just completely dried up. And I gradually started losing units to silly mistakes, and it grew harder and harder to replace them. (And of course, I also lost Kaze. and of course, I didn't get Izuna or Yukimura.) But then, eventually, I did stumble into an S support by accident. Not because I'd been trying for it, but just because it had built up naturally from the way I was playing. It was Ryoma and someone else, though I can't remember who. And then suddenly, there's a paralogue and the game tells me that child characters exist. So, I try to do the paralogue, and naturally, because it's nearly the end of the game by this point, Shiro gets completely slaughtered. So, as far as I could see, yes there were children, but it was too late for them to actually be useful at all, so there was no reason for me to go out of my way to try to pick them up.

I did complete the run, but it ended up being a little bit touch-and-go. I remember that for endgame, I was deploying unpromoted Setsuna at something like level 5. She did come in useful tanking a hit for a pair-up partner at one point.

Honestly, though. I don't really consider this a gaffe on my part. I think that all of the decisions that I made were reasonable based on the information that I had. Mostly it was just a case of bad luck, with a small side order of the game not adequately explaining or telegraphing one of its important mechanics. But mostly bad luck. It took a confluence of a lot of different unlikely factors to create such an almighty cock-up.

[PostZordem]

For my first Birthright run, I didn't really know about the child mechanic all that well back when I first played the game, so only M! Corrin and Felicia had an S-Support and a Child in the form of F! Kana. No one else had an S-Support or child, but it never really gave me much of a problem because from what I remember, my army was decently strong and I used plenty of Pair-Ups when needed or ideal. So I don't really consider it much of a gaffe as it didn't really hinder my progress, though it did make the latter chapters more difficult without the child characters. As for my second run, I made sure to give almost every character an S-Support, which resulted in a whole bunch of time babies, paralogues and supports in the process. 

Birthright Spoilers Below:

Spoiler

Unfortunately, I forgot that Kaze died in Chapter 15 (If you don't get him an A-Support with Corrin). That's twice that I've lost that poor guy due to a lack of pair ups between Corrin and Kaze. I even gave him an S-Support (with Rinkah) in my second run, dammit. R.I.P. Child character that never came to be because of my minor Fire Emblem gaffe.

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by CyberZord

[MadBoar]

Over the years, I've had so many gaffes. Here are my worst.

1. My most recent gaffe was on chapter 13 of Thracia. I placed Pahn (thief fighter) on a tile on the right side of the map, to block the bow knight reinforcements. This is an escape chapter, and I completely forgot about him! I realized my mistake when I was couldn't find Pahn on the deployment menu for chapter 14. Fortunately I always keep 2 of the three available save files on the same chapter, so I could have gone back to chapter 13, but I didn't because I did not want to put in the extra time.

2. On chapter 11 of path of radiance, I was so excited to have a newly promoted Oscar, that I arrogantly sent him to face the Black Knight without checking his stats. I was very young when I made this mistake. 

3. On path of radiance maniac mode, end game, I sent my resolve Titania to the left side of the map. I forgot to give her hand axes. She couldn't kill the 2 range enemies. With this game's very slow map animations ,  it drained so much time, and I would have loved to have that field position on the map to better protect the rest of my army. Without that space, they were put in a position too close to Ashnard and a hoard of his underlings, and they got completely decimated. I cleverly got Rhys, Elincia, and reyson in the top left corner, while many others were sacrificed, to be able to safely heal Ike and Giffica from a distance.  Titania stayed at the bottom left corner to distract many enemies. Those three, Titania, Giffica, and Ike were the only survivors.  I was barely victorious. On the winning turn, Ike couldn't reach Ashnard for the winning kill due to the hoard. So I moved Rhys, then Reysoned him to move again. Rhys used Rescue on Ike which ironically put Ike more tiles away from Ashanrd, but that area didn't have the hoard blocking his path. This was on my challenge run in which I attained the maximum amount of bonus experience on each chapter, without using it, as a way to keep score. This was all caused by the simple mistake of forgetting to give my resolve-Titania hand axes.

 

 

 

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

My first Genealogy playthrough was like a slow-moving disaster:

- I didn't know that Lachesis could talk to Eldigan. So I had to fight him off, losing Erinys in the process.

- I didn't know about the Arena until Chapter 4, causing me to totally miss Chulainn.

- I tried to pair Dew with Lex. I thought Dew was a girl. What? He's cute and has a ponytail!

- I never picked up the Book of Forseti. So even though Coirpre was Lewyn's son, his strongest available weapon was Tornado.

- I didn't get Seliph to promote until Chapter 10. And then I dismounted him, graying him out for the rest of the chapter (this one's a glitch, in my defense).

[Shadow Mir]

On 7/9/2022 at 12:20 PM, lenticular said:

I actually did something similar in Birthright. I went into the game completely sight-unseen/no spoilers. I was also playing ironman style (it wasn't technically an ironman, since I did reset for a Corin death early on rather than restart, but I wasn't resetting for other unit deaths). And I generally just didn't bother with supports. I wasn't enjoying the support conversations, I found the game easy enough that I didn't feel the need for any of the mechanical benefits, and I don't really enjoy the gameplay style of keeping two units glued together. So why would I bother?

And then, of course, partway through the game, new recruitment just completely dried up. And I gradually started losing units to silly mistakes, and it grew harder and harder to replace them. (And of course, I also lost Kaze. and of course, I didn't get Izuna or Yukimura.) But then, eventually, I did stumble into an S support by accident. Not because I'd been trying for it, but just because it had built up naturally from the way I was playing. It was Ryoma and someone else, though I can't remember who. And then suddenly, there's a paralogue and the game tells me that child characters exist. So, I try to do the paralogue, and naturally, because it's nearly the end of the game by this point, Shiro gets completely slaughtered. So, as far as I could see, yes there were children, but it was too late for them to actually be useful at all, so there was no reason for me to go out of my way to try to pick them up.

I did complete the run, but it ended up being a little bit touch-and-go. I remember that for endgame, I was deploying unpromoted Setsuna at something like level 5. She did come in useful tanking a hit for a pair-up partner at one point.

Honestly, though. I don't really consider this a gaffe on my part. I think that all of the decisions that I made were reasonable based on the information that I had. Mostly it was just a case of bad luck, with a small side order of the game not adequately explaining or telegraphing one of its important mechanics. But mostly bad luck. It took a confluence of a lot of different unlikely factors to create such an almighty cock-up.

Oof. I remember this story. Reminds me, I have been watching SpeedyHawk's Birthright ironman on Lunatic, and he tried to do Kana's paralogue after the promotion point. To say it didn't go well was an understatement. Three of his units got oneshotted - Saizo by Ridiculously Durable Sniper, Scarlet by an Onmyoji, and Mitama by a Spear Master. Of course, chat had a field day with this. And this was directly after the Camilla chapter had taken out 5 of his units, most notably Ryoma, but he also lost Takumi, Shura (who didn't even last 1 turn!), Caeldori, and Hana. Which begs the question, did that chapter give you a ruff time on said run?

[lenticular]

21 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Oof. I remember this story. Reminds me, I have been watching SpeedyHawk's Birthright ironman on Lunatic, and he tried to do Kana's paralogue after the promotion point. To say it didn't go well was an understatement. Three of his units got oneshotted - Saizo by Ridiculously Durable Sniper, Scarlet by an Onmyoji, and Mitama by a Spear Master. Of course, chat had a field day with this. And this was directly after the Camilla chapter had taken out 5 of his units, most notably Ryoma, but he also lost Takumi, Shura (who didn't even last 1 turn!), Caeldori, and Hana. Which begs the question, did that chapter give you a ruff time on said run?

I don't remember the chapter by chapter events of that playthrough, so I can't say for certain, but I don't think it gave me any problems. The only chapter I recall having trouble with was the endgame, and that only because of losses I'd taken due to attrition. I was only playing on Hard, though, and ultimately, Birthright Hard just doesn't seem particularly challenging to a series veteran, even doing a sight-unseen ironman.

[Shadow Mir]

21 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I don't remember the chapter by chapter events of that playthrough, so I can't say for certain, but I don't think it gave me any problems. The only chapter I recall having trouble with was the endgame, and that only because of losses I'd taken due to attrition. I was only playing on Hard, though, and ultimately, Birthright Hard just doesn't seem particularly challenging to a series veteran, even doing a sight-unseen ironman.

Huh. I'd say chapters 23 and 24 would likely cause issues on such a run because there are SO MANY ENEMIES (and in the case of the former, Camilla constantly channeling Mario and shooting fireballs for damage). Even assuming you don't lose Ryoma before then, you're probably gonna be sweating any time he faces anything that isn't an axe or a bow. Heck, those chapters are why I'd say if you're ironmanning Birthright and you lose Ryoma, your chances of finishing drop by like 90%.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Lost Gilbert in chapter 13 and thus magic axe Annette was benched. But for story reasons he is still there and that makes me kinda really salty.

 

I lost Xane once in a run and only noticed in the final chapter when I needed him for a teleport.

[Eltosian Kadath]

I think I just recently made one fairly recently in my Vestaria Saga Ironman LP, where I lost my first unit, by forgetting to move my flyers one turn...

[PostZordem]

I made a gaffe in Path of Radiance rather recently, so I figured I'd add it in this thread because it is very gaffe-worthy (and I love to share my shame with the Forest).

In Chapter 13 of PoR where you're defending the ship from Norris and his group (plus some Raven laguz to make the defense a bit tougher), I was doing very well for most of the chapter (Outside of Astrid getting herself killed before I could recruit her, but eh... Ike's team is good enough as it is, so I didn't reset), taking out the enemies with strong units like Titania, Oscar-who I had promoted to a Paladin-, Warrior Boyd, and Lethe + Mordecai. The rest of the team I had in battle stayed back and guarded the ship from being seized. I even took out Norris with relative ease, so everything had seemed to be going very well... Until I took Mist off of the super important green-you have to guard this tile with your very life-square and one of those Raven pricks moved straight onto the aforementioned green tile and caused me to lose the chapter. 

It was not fun re-doing the entire chapter while making sure to not move one of my units off the green square on the next attempt. But Astrid got killed on the very first Ally Phase turn so... Nothing new, and I still didn't reset (It's her fault for being such a squishy green unit and going to the enemy instead of Ike) because I have faith in my team and don't need anymore pesky recruits forcing me to bench somebody else.

[Shadow Mir]

^In case you haven't figured it out already: Shove and Smite are really helpful in this chapter to get Astrid on your team on turn one (and Gatrie, by extension).

Edited August 4, 2022 by Shadow Mir