First time playing (lol emulation)

[TheEnd]

Alright. After checking out one of the latest Dolphin builds using my brother's PC (my old Athlon XP doesn't have SSE2, so Dolphin won't run on it), I discovered that I can seemingly play FE9. So far, I'm abou about to start chapter 9.

Either way, this thread has two purposes.

First is to comment on the current state of PoR emulation. Sure, there's always the chance that I reach, say, chapter 20 and face an unavoidable hangup or something, but things have been surprisingly smooth so far; it only randomly froze once (chapter 6, end of enemy turn 1 or 2) and the speed is fair. There are plenty of sound/music glitches (bgms suddently stopping to play, etc) and some obvious graphical imperfections (misplaced bows, solid afterimages, etc), but nothing too major. Savestates seemingly aren't working properly, though, so I get to bear with RNG rape. Maybe. Since Dolphin literally has daily updates, I might just keep on commenting about how things are turning out as I play.

Second, and more importantly, is to ask about general guidelines. Usually I marathon games and savestate abuse, but, this time around, I can do neither (since I can't play while brother is home), so I can afford posting a thread a reaping results from it.

So, I ask of you.

1. How does the skill management system work? Can I just switch the skills around the characters as long as I respect each one's capacity? Are there restrictions/unwanted consequences? Or did I just interpret it wrong?

2. Notoriously good/bad skills?

3. Any notable characters beyond all hope?

4. Any broken powerhouses?

5. Good ways of using bonus experience?

6. Any general tips/strategies/must do's?

Sorry for the noob thread, and thanks for your attention. Go wild.

[Lord Glenn]

1. No. You can only add new skills to characters or remove old ones off of them. If you want someone to take Soren's Adept skill, you can't. You'll have to give that character the Adept Scroll that you'll inevitably pick up along the way. I can only think of a few restrictions (Mounted units not being able to Shove), but it's nothing major to worry about.

2. The Occult Scrolls that you'll find give a promoted class their Mastery Skill. For the most part, they're mediocre or extremely useful. I've never found Shade, Provoke, Gamble, and Corrode very useful, at least in the times that I've played FE9. Nihil, Adept, Vantage, Wrath, and Resolve are definitely good.

3. It all depends on your playing style. There will inevitably be a few characters that are well below the pack when you get them, but will show promise if you give them a chance. You'll just have to get to this one as you go through the game.

4. Ike, most, if not all, of the Paladins.

5. Use as you see fit, I guess. I generally spend it on the two healers, just to at least keep them up with the pack. I'll dump some on characters that could use some catching up as well or just to get a level up right before the start of the chapter if they're close enough.

6. Get Ike to 20/12+ by the end of Chapter 27. (Preferably higher if he hasn't maxed Str, Spd, Skl, and Def)

[Shadow Mir]

1. No. You can only add new skills to characters or remove old ones off of them. If you want someone to take Soren's Adept skill, you can't. You'll have to give that character the Adept Scroll that you'll inevitably pick up along the way. I can only think of a few restrictions (Mounted units not being able to Shove), but it's nothing major to worry about.

2. The Occult Scrolls that you'll find give a promoted class their Mastery Skill. For the most part, they're mediocre or extremely useful. I've never found Shade, Provoke, Gamble, and Corrode very useful, at least in the times that I've played FE9. Nihil, Adept, Vantage, Wrath, and Resolve are definitely good.

3. It all depends on your playing style. There will inevitably be a few characters that are well below the pack when you get them, but will show promise if you give them a chance. You'll just have to get to this one as you go through the game.

4. Ike, most, if not all, of the Paladins.

5. Use as you see fit, I guess. I generally spend it on the two healers, just to at least keep them up with the pack. I'll dump some on characters that could use some catching up as well or just to get a level up right before the start of the chapter if they're close enough.

6. Get Ike to 20/12+ by the end of Chapter 27. (Preferably higher if he hasn't maxed Str, Spd, Skl, and Def)

Disagree on Nihil being good. If anything, Nihil is nearly worthless because there's almost no enemies with skills that you'll be canceling out.

[Lord Glenn]

I suppose you do make a good point on that. Of the enemies that do have skills after you get the Nihil Scroll, only 2 or 3 of them would be worth having Nihil on for. Nihil in its concept is a good skill, but, yeah, it's definitely worthless given the practicality of using it.

[Ϲharlie]

Bonus experience can be abused. If you have the patience, you can just keep reseting until the character gets a good levelup. Also, the Knight Ward increases speed growth by 30% when equipped (that might not work on the first time, though).

I can't think of any particularly bad characters, though Bastian and Lucia are the worst in my opinion. Good characters include Ike, Mist, Soren, any Paladin, and many others.

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

I never knew a FE9 Rom even existed...wow...O_O

[VincentASM]

I've seen promising emulation of FE9, but it's the first time I've seen someone in the immediate English fandom try it : o

I would try myself, but my PC with SSE2 can't run for more than 10 minutes without dying. Oh yeah, I could just play FE9 on my GC, but I'm more interesting in doing some hacking, and on later chapters (since the non-SSE builds don't seem to have been worked on much, I can't save).

I never knew a FE9 Rom even existed...wow...O_O

Some people call them ISOs. There are ROMs/ISOs for almost all the common consoles and most of the obscure ones as well. So, there are ISOs of FE10, TRS, Berwick Saga, etc.

Edited December 1, 2008 by VincentASM

[TheEnd]

I guess this means I'll do just like FE5 and end up never using most manuals... I should take care so that doesn't happen.

Bonus experience can be abused. If you have the patience, you can just keep reseting until the character gets a good levelup.

Yeah, I noticed that use. It helps counterbalancing the (thankfully rare so far) "+1 luck!" levelups and fix some much-needed speed, strength and/or defense.

I can't think of any particularly bad characters, though Bastian and Lucia are the worst in my opinion. Good characters include Ike, Mist, Soren, any Paladin, and many others.

How are swordmasters in this game, btw?

I never knew a FE9 Rom even existed...wow...O_O

It isn't technically a rom, but a iso. Everything that has been released has been dumped into the internet... the question is whether they run or not. (For instance, the folks behind the Dolphin emulator are trying to make it run Wii games as well; FE10 is seemingly among the "playable" games, but... you can't save, so hurr.)

I would try myself, but my PC with SSE2 can't run for more than 10 minutes without dying. Oh yeah, I could just play FE9 on my GC, but I'm more interesting in doing some hacking, and on later chapters (since the non-SSE builds don't seem to have been worked on much, I can't save).

Overheating?

Edited December 1, 2008 by TheEnd

[VincentASM]

I would try myself, but my PC with SSE2 can't run for more than 10 minutes without dying. Oh yeah, I could just play FE9 on my GC, but I'm more interesting in doing some hacking, and on later chapters (since the non-SSE builds don't seem to have been worked on much, I can't save).

Yeah, that's most likely the issue. I think it might have been caused by me stressing out my PC by playing half of Berwick Saga.

I rarely use that PC anyway, but maybe I should stop being lazy and get it fixed so I can play new fangled pirated PC games as well, or something.

[TheEnd]

To be honest, my PC had overheating issues until recently. It turned out that the main culprit was the video card: its cooler had stopped working, so it overheated. When it went past a certain temperature, the PC shut down and I had to wait a little while before turning it back on.

However, with better ventilation, I was able to get over that issue; especifically, I moved my CPU around, left one of its side open and put a small fan just outside of it.

It's true that eventually I decided to buy a new video card, since I wouldn't like to see my old card dying for good while the world in plummeting into an economic crisis, but still.

[Admiral "Bull" Halsey]

But regardless aren't those things illegal. Cause to me, they're no better than ROM's...most importantly is it even allow for request as well? Not that I want it or anything just asking.

[TheEnd]

They're just as illegal. Maybe more.

Yarr harr, etc.

Edited December 1, 2008 by TheEnd

[Ike-Mike]

How are swordmasters in this game, btw?

Some of the more annoying foes in the game as they got a +10 crit bonus in the NA version.

[Ϲharlie]

+15 crit, actually. :P

The four player swordmasters in this game are a mixed bag. Stefan and Zihark are both good, with Mia being decent. Lucia is pretty bad, though. Out of the four, I'd say Zihark is the best, but some will say that Stefan is the best. You may even see a couple proclaim Mia as the best, but they're relatively uncommon.

Edited December 1, 2008 by Gustave

[Ike-Mike]

I think Stefan's low luck makes him fall behind Zihark but since you will be able to bring lots and lots of units into many chapters I guess you can give one spot to Stefan as well.

[YokaiKnight]

1. When a character has a skill, they can't give it to anyone else. So if you remove the skill, it's gone for good. That goes for scrolls as well as skills characters have.

2. In my opinion, there are few worthless skills (Tempest, Serenity, Parity, Corrosion), a good chunk of mediocre/highly situational ones, and a good chunk of good skills (Vantage, Adept, Wrath, Resolve, Smite for laguz, Celerity, Paragon, Reinforce). As for mastery skills, most of them are interesting but not worth the space they take up. The better ones include Aether, Sol, Luna, and I personally like Cancel.

3. Nobody in this game is really "bad." Characters at the bottom of this game can often still be used consistently.

4. Paladins, Ike (after promotion), Elthunder sages~

5. Other than BEXP abuse? Use it to level up characters who are close to the next level, so that you can get some level ups but still conserve it if necessary. Use it to give a boost to characters who come at low levels if you want to use them, e.g. Rolf.

6. Steal everything. EVERYTHING.

EDIT: The guys are the best Swordmasters. Mia is okay, Lucia's not too strong and rather fragile.

Edited December 1, 2008 by YokaiKnight

[TheEnd]

Alright, just finished the prison chapter. I have a technical comment and a question.

First, savestates actually work. Loading savestates often crashes the emulator, but I haven't had issues with saving so far. (And I did that quite a lot in chapter 10 - I never thought three soldiers would annoy me so much...)

Second: Kieran. Is gamble worth it, or would nuking it make him a better unit? (Note: I don't plan on savestate abusing, as I don't want to try my luck - yet, at least.)

[Lord Glenn]

Gamble is worthless for the most part. It's only real use is on a unit that ends up having absurdly high Hit/Accuracy, and the doubling of critical rates isn't really worth only having around 50 Hit in battle. You don't have to use the Gamble command on Kieran, though. He can still attack regularly. If you want to dump some skills on him early, then I'd say to go and nuke it right now. But, otherwise, keeping it on him won't hurt until you absolutely need to get rid of it.

[YokaiKnight]

Like LG said, it's worthless but it won't hurt to keep it. Don't even worry about it until you've got some good scrolls later on.

[Lord Raven]

For the record: don't bother with Mia on a first playthrough. She's better than Lucia but... she's really hard to build up at that point in time :S

[Lord Glenn]

I wouldn't say "really hard." I'd say that it takes some investment to do so, since you don't know what foes are coming and you don't have the Bands either. But, you can still use her and do well. I did and I didn't have many problems going through the meat of the game. And I'm hardly the best FE player in existence.

Edited December 2, 2008 by Lord Glenn

[Ike-Mike]

Besides the critical rate on non-crit weapons is still fairly low even with gamble.

[TheEnd]

Then I'll be leaving him as he is, for the time being. And give him a Puji. Forging is fun.

For the record: don't bother with Mia on a first playthrough. She's better than Lucia but... she's really hard to build up at that point in time :S

Too late, I've gotten her to level 12 or 13 already. Delicious glass cannon. I also gave her a lamely-named custom iron sword that is almost breaking

Also, as I've stated a couple times in the past, I have a swordmaster fetish.

So, I'll be giving her a chance, at least. But since so many people are saying Lucia sucks, then I guess I'll kind of auto-bench her when she joins.

Edited December 2, 2008 by TheEnd

[Lord Raven]

Lucia's more noticeably bad. If you brought up Mia enough, she's fine but Lucia's bases are somewhat awful (although her growths aren't too bad IIRC)

[Ϲharlie]

Lucia's growth is amazing. It's unfortunate that it means nothing.