Hard feels too hard, but Normal feels too easy? (minor gameplay spoilers)

[FionaKaenbyou]

So I grabbed Engage on launch day, hoping to get a good time out of it because I'd heard the combat was really tight. I started on Hard mode, had a generally rough time for the opening three chapters, then swapped back down to Normal on chapter 4 because I couldn't figure out how to properly protect Louis and Chloé. Then after a few chapters of Normal I realised I wasn't having a great time there either.

I'll say right now I'm not some FE savant. I've beaten games like FE7 and Three Houses on Normal but I understand that's a very low bar to clear. Even then I felt like Normal mode didn't offer me a meaningful challenge from what I played of it, and the maps felt boring more than anything else. (In particular, the low movement of most of the army meant I didn't get the usual power fantasy feel of the game being easier.)

But playing on Hard mode added new enemies and gave the previous ones 3 or 4 points in all their meaningful stats. Which was enough to turn the mage near Louis from dealing 10 damage on turn 1 to 28 because they crossed the doubling threshold. That felt like it was taking the challenge too far in the OTHER direction.

I've been wondering if I'm approaching the game from the wrong direction. I'm a minmaxer by nature, so I like to get an army of super buff units. But in Engage that feels like it doesn't fly, between the early units being kind of weak (Etie...) and Emblems being so much more powerful than everything else. It feels more like how I've seen the SNES era games described - less of a unit growing simulator, and more of a game where every map is a puzzle you have to solve with the elements you're given.

It also didn't help that I avoided the weapon forgery stuff out of the constant concern of 'what if I need these resources for something important later?' There are so many resources to juggle - gold, SP, bond fragments, ingots, ingredients - that I really struggle to make an informed decision on what's worth investing in.

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do if I give the game another shot? Should I stick to Normal or commit to Hard? Would it be better to wait a while for people to figure out more optimal strategies so I'm not constantly paralysed by indecision?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

39 minutes ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

It also didn't help that I avoided the weapon forgery stuff out of the constant concern of 'what if I need these resources for something important later?' There are so many resources to juggle - gold, SP, bond fragments, ingots, ingredients - that I really struggle to make an informed decision on what's worth investing in.

Yeah, the huge variety in resource types is... kind of annoying. Still, I haven't been "screwed" by forging yet. If you're worried, though, I would go for cheap stuff. You can add Might to Iron and Slim weapons for dirt-cheap.

41 minutes ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

But playing on Hard mode added new enemies and gave the previous ones 3 or 4 points in all their meaningful stats. Which was enough to turn the mage near Louis from dealing 10 damage on turn 1 to 28 because they crossed the doubling threshold. That felt like it was taking the challenge too far in the OTHER direction.

Ooh, that is rough. Yeah, I do think the first few chapters are more "puzzle-y", because there are fewer options available to you. But the longer you play, the more options open up to you, and the more ways you have to beat chapters.

43 minutes ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do if I give the game another shot? Should I stick to Normal or commit to Hard? Would it be better to wait a while for people to figure out more optimal strategies so I'm not constantly paralysed by indecision?

I wouldn't wait for others. Ultimately, you're the only one who can determine if you're playing the game the right way. I have enjoyed Hard, finding it a decent but not overwhelming challenge thus far, but maybe it's not for you. Conversely, if Normal is feeling too easy, you can spice it up by fielding some of your weaker units instead, or limiting their inventories. Up to you! I hope you can find a way to enjoy this game.

[Armchair General]

1 hour ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

then swapped back down to Normal on chapter 4 because I couldn't figure out how to properly protect Louis and Chloé. Then after a few chapters of Normal I realised I wasn't having a great time there either

Yeah, you're supposed to kill the mage with Chloe and use Louis to distract (and eventually kill) the archer as the rest of your army fights their way towards them.

 

1 hour ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

It also didn't help that I avoided the weapon forgery stuff out of the constant concern of 'what if I need these resources for something important later?' There are so many resources to juggle - gold, SP, bond fragments, ingots, ingredients - that I really struggle to make an informed decision on what's worth investing in.

With the exception of gold and certain materials, nearly everything that you earn is easily renewable.

 

1 hour ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

Would it be better to wait a while for people to figure out more optimal strategies so I'm not constantly paralysed by indecision?

Hard kinda offers an fair challenge if you don't grind, but you'll be getting some pretty great units once you get to Chapter 6. As for optimal strategies goes, you really need to pay attention to your army composition and how you arrange them

[TheHBK]

If you're a minmaxer (and actually play that way), then hard is the way to go. You'll have to commit to a few units though, as the game won't let you feed lower level units (or at least not in a reasonable manner) due to how skirmishes work now, and while Hard isn't super duper hard, you need to have good army composition (and a few spares, as deployment slots can vary wildly, and some maps may require more of some unit types, like archers or tanks).

I need to push through a proper Normal mode, but I think if you do some unit rotation (rotating all available units), and mostly skip skirmishes, it should still pose a non-negligible challenge, even it's very lenient.

I'm personally very annoyed by the way skirmishes work in this game. The way they follow your level (or internal level or however it works) means that 1/ skirmishes can become WAY harder than the main campaign, 2/ you'll end up way overleveled for the main missions if you do them a tad too much, 3/ you can't really use them to feed less used units as you just can't spare a slot for a weak unit, let alone three.

I enjoyed on the previous games how skirmishes were a way to gain a few levels if you wanted some leeway, but wouldn't allow you to level up near indefinitely, all while allowing you to feed lower level units. But it seems now they're just a way to provide some extra challenge ... at the cost of trivializing the campaign.

Edit: I'm talking Classic "no death allowed" of course. And it seems to me that while Normal is far from being hard, it's not as braindead easy as 3H was. Even on Normal, you WILL lose units if you rollface.

Edited January 27, 2023 by TheHBK

[dragonlordsd]

12 hours ago, FionaKaenbyou said:

But playing on Hard mode added new enemies and gave the previous ones 3 or 4 points in all their meaningful stats. Which was enough to turn the mage near Louis from dealing 10 damage on turn 1 to 28 because they crossed the doubling threshold. That felt like it was taking the challenge too far in the OTHER direction.

I've been wondering if I'm approaching the game from the wrong direction. I'm a minmaxer by nature, so I like to get an army of super buff units. But in Engage that feels like it doesn't fly, between the early units being kind of weak (Etie...) and Emblems being so much more powerful than everything else. It feels more like how I've seen the SNES era games described - less of a unit growing simulator, and more of a game where every map is a puzzle you have to solve with the elements you're given.

I'd say the big mental change you have to adjust to is that you can't have your units be great at everything on hard mode. Like, Louis is never going to tank magic and you can't fix that. On Normal, enemies do so little damage that Louis can get by with his massive HP, in spite of terrible res, but on Hard, that's not going to work.

Games like Awakening and Three Houses really pushed the idea that every unit can be equally good at everything (with some exceptions), but if you're going to play on Hard mode, that's just not going to work.

In my maddening playthrough, Etie is one of my strongest units. And by strongest, I mean, she has absolutely garbage defense, has 0 speed, and basically dies if anything looks at her wrong. But she has a ton of strength, which means she can snipe dangerous enemies for huge damage with a long bow, setting up my melee units to take stuff out safely, which is extremely valuable.

[eclipse]

On 1/26/2023 at 6:37 PM, FionaKaenbyou said:

Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should do if I give the game another shot? Should I stick to Normal or commit to Hard? Would it be better to wait a while for people to figure out more optimal strategies so I'm not constantly paralysed by indecision?

Let's answer this backwards!  This is a game.  It's okay to make mistakes and not play ideally.  I'm bumbling around and haven't totally screwed myself out of anything on Hard.  If you want to try something, take a deep breath and give it a shot!  Save in a different slot if you're going to make a major decision.

On 1/26/2023 at 6:37 PM, FionaKaenbyou said:

It also didn't help that I avoided the weapon forgery stuff out of the constant concern of 'what if I need these resources for something important later?' There are so many resources to juggle - gold, SP, bond fragments, ingots, ingredients - that I really struggle to make an informed decision on what's worth investing in.

I still use forged Iron weapons and I'm pretty far into the game.  They're cheap.

On 1/26/2023 at 6:37 PM, FionaKaenbyou said:

But playing on Hard mode added new enemies and gave the previous ones 3 or 4 points in all their meaningful stats. Which was enough to turn the mage near Louis from dealing 10 damage on turn 1 to 28 because they crossed the doubling threshold. That felt like it was taking the challenge too far in the OTHER direction.

Don't be afraid to save before starting a map and back out if you're just short a stat threshold.  You can cook a meal for temporary stat boosts or use tonics for more predictable temporary stat boosts.  For cooking, stick with meals that have sparkles next to them, because you really don't want to go into a map with stat penalties (okay, maybe twice if you're going achievement hunting).