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Optimal Megatron
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Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
So, got these the other day, in what is a hilarious case of counter-intuitiveness.
I was going to get the special edition with the games all on one cart (and the third campaign that's not coming out until March, WTF, Nintendo).
Buying them digitally would've cost literally the same price as physically, except Amazon Prime members get a 20% discount on physical video games...so I now have gone full Pokemon with two carts of almost the same game. Though arguably Birthright and Conquest are SO different it's ridiculous. They basically share base mechanics and casts, but the campaigns play entirely differently.
Also, I've bit the bullet and just decided to go full casual because I realized that permadeath isn't for me. The people that CAN'T permanently die never do, and I can't bear not to reload saves when a lucky crit aces someone from my team *anyway*, so this saves me pointless reloads.
The weird thing is this makes the game more gripping. One mission, I lost Sakura as my only healer on the map while still halfway through, and the mission suddenly became *much* tougher as my troops were whittled down via superior numbers and attrition. I still won, but the tight spot there is something I'd have never gotten into if I was playing with permadeath, because I wouldn't have let Sakura die. I'd just reload the map over. In a weird way, pushing on through casualties because I'm not afraid of them losing me out on story has made the game more enjoyable. It's weird because you'd think that'd be backwards, but it's really not.
The writing thus far is absolutely top notch. I was worried based off the premise on whether they'd be able to make the decision actually gripping, but between the Nohr sibs being generally great folks and the Hoshido sibs (aside from Takumi, who can suck a dick) and Queen Mikoto also being pretty good, I genuinely was torn at the decision point. I really look forward to the middle route where I can get them to work together, because !@#$ doesn't siding with one side against the other feel *wrong*.
The unbreakable weapons are a change, but one that I really don't mind. I had Silas using a Javelin for a ranged attack and forgot to swap him back. I'm all "crap, he's going to waste that on some cannon fodder" but then I remember that, no, he can't "waste" it. That was not bad.
Thus far, all the characters have been fun in their given roles, and made me want to learn more about them. Exceptions are Takumi (who can suck a dick) and Hayato/Not!Ricken who I only tolerate in my party because I'm trying to get him hooked up with Mozu so I can replace him with his daughter and get Tharj-errrrrr Rhajat. Otherwise, everyone's great, with particular praise to Jakob, who is the most sarcastic, trollface butler ever and his supports are universally great.
Also, points to making Azura capable of holding her own. Most dancers take a lot of babying, but Azura's sing command means she levels up *fast* and soon she's able to fight in the front with everyone else.
Ninjas are probably one of the most brutal new classes, with shuriken being ridiculously flexible. I'm not sure what hard counters them aside from Armor Knights due to high defense.
Nitpicks: The new mechanic tutorials only pop up as a plate in the bottom screen and do nothing to draw your attention to them if you're too busy playing. Also, the boon/curse at the beginning does nothing to tell you which stat they affect, unlike Awakening.
Still, this is probably *better* than Awakening in a lot of ways, and I'm looking forward to trying out the Conquest path after I finish with Birthright. And then on to Fire Emblem Fates: All Stars where we get the craziness of putting these two amazing casts in one army. :lol
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2/25/2016, 1:40 am
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Greatshot
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
I'm about halfway thru Birthright, if standard FE length (appx 26 chapters) applies.
I'm old school, so it's Classic for me. To me, that IS Fire Emblem. I play it vastly different than I do FF Tactics, Shining Force, etc because of that fear of death. To use your analogy if I lost a healer in one of those games i'd just press on and item heal. I'm also perfectly willing to suicide bomb in games like that, knowing that if I can sacrifice a unit to kill a tough opponent and get them back later, that's worth losing them for a fight.
FE makes me NOT do that, I can't just throw whomever at the boss to do damage, which makes it a LOT more interesting to me. Sure, I can sprint in and kill that dangerous foe, but if the boss hits me, I lose X. Ok, gotta rethink.
Also, Takumi becomes a LOT more tolerable after a certain point in the story, but he's also emblematic (see what i did there) of why I don't like the change to unbreakable weapons.
Sure, I'll just use this unstopable, massively powerful, high critical hitting bow, on a guy that has a ranged weapon, to !@#$ NUKE ALL THE THINGS.
There's a fight about chapter 12 or so where the boss is a terrifying promoted.. i forget what they're called in this one because heaven forbid Nintendo of America pick one naming convention and stick with it, but the magic using counterpart of a Wyvern Lord (where they can use magic and axes, not axes and lances). It... moves. it bolted halfway across the fight to hit Takumi. Who survived. He epic, nuke from space on the next turn, followed by Azura re-moving him and nuking the boss again (I heart Azura so very much. She's the first useful dancer class since my Homeboy Reyson!), made that fight a WHOLE lot easier than I expected it to be given I normally would have been reluctant to use my superweapon before I even started promoting people, but by that same coin,in previous FE games, with death a thing, you damn bet I burn the weapon before I get someone killed. In a casual game? Yeah, Takumi can die. I'd save the bow. :lol
Ninjas: Oh boy, Ninjas. I love them. They're a really clever new addition, but my lord are they scary as !@#$. High level ninjas can cut HP in half, drop stats, even !@#$ force you to swap places with them. I'm not glutton enough for punishment to play Lunatic, but the idea of that on a higher difficulty just makes me weep.
To counter them, Axes and Bows give you weapon advantage (though it kinda sucks that axes are a counter because axe users generally have low skill/accuracy, and, well, freaking ninja). I find archering them to be useful, and lancers do okay too because it's neutral and lancers generally have the defense to deal with the debuff. Fortunately shuriken in general are not terribly physically powerful.
I do wish the mechanics were a bit better explained though. As you said, figuring out what just HAPPENED requires actually looking at the stat panel.
But the fact I've basically gotten THREE new Fire Emblems, I'm completely okay with any other changes or anything. The fact they're all but wholy different games is a huge gauntlet throw down to all this DLC, minor quest, non-actual decision choices most games (Looking at YOU, Bethesda) try to play off.
And it's blowing away sales records for the series, assuring that one, the series will continue, and two, that there is still a place for old school traditional Japanese (tactical) RPGs (looking at YOU, Square Enix)
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2/25/2016, 8:11 pm
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Optimal Megatron
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
I suppose for me, it's the fact that something in my head keeps me from kamikaze'ing units even if it doesn't count.
Like, in Izana's palace, you go up against... I forget what he is, but the jester dude who imitates Izana. He was a wake up call boss, as Kaze was the only one who could actually double damage him, and even then, not for more than half his health. And he gave as good as he got. I ended up doing the "everyone crowds around the boss in a box of layered ranged/melee death to kill him in one turn before he can fight back" tactic. Theoretically, I could have just ended the turn, taken the hit and lost...one unit, temporarily.
But instead I did it the hard way and he didn't kill anyone.
Another function Casual got me to try out was the My Castle fights. It's interesting playing against other folks on my friends list, but I'd never touch it outside of casual. Ky's version of Silas cut a bloody rut through my roster, taking down at least five people before I finally whittled him down, and literally the end of the map had me with Kaze as my only surviving unit because of that (Still lost, because I had to kill Lillith too and she had a full bar of health at that point).
Which, if I'd done that in Classic mode, would have pretty much decimated my roster for the main game. Putting aside the fact that making permadeath from your side stuff carry over into the main game is a stupid design decision (Oh, hey, I can just challenge my friend. I'm sure nothing bad will happe-*gets curb stomped by an overleveled Avatar*), it's actually a fun thing to try, but one I have to be in Casual mode to do. It's not like the various grinding maps in Birthright where I seem to be at least five levels above them at all times for some reason (and have started duoing them to build up support ranks).
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2/25/2016, 8:46 pm
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Greatshot
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
Huh, my castle death is perm? That's REALLY an odd design choice for Ninty. Generally, such as in Awakening, that wasn't the case, those fights exist "outside" the game world.
Well, guess I'm never playing those. :lol
But yea, BR's fights are Random Risen Redux, it's all for supports and weapon ranks. I'm okay with that. :lol
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2/25/2016, 9:00 pm
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Optimal Megatron
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
So, did a bit more research on this and found out it's another (badly explained) mechanic.
Basically, there's two fights you can take on in your My Castle. One are fights against other people's armies, and those are free game. Any deaths aren't permanent, even in Classic.
The other are "Invasions" which are in the My Castle map, but against generic enemies that are kinda like the Risen in Awakening. Any deaths THERE are permanent, as it's an offline mode.
So, y'know, Nintendo explaining things badly again. :lol
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2/25/2016, 10:26 pm
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Greatshot
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
quote:
Optimal Megatron wrote:
So, did a bit more research on this and found out it's another (badly explained) mechanic.
Basically, there's two fights you can take on in your My Castle. One are fights against other people's armies, and those are free game. Any deaths aren't permanent, even in Classic.
The other are "Invasions" which are in the My Castle map, but against generic enemies that are kinda like the Risen in Awakening. Any deaths THERE are permanent, as it's an offline mode.
So, y'know, Nintendo explaining things badly again. :lol
Yea, THAT makes more sense. The invasions are in-game attacks on your physical in-game base. so they count as in-verse deaths. The pvp is cross platform, out of game. I would have been flummoxed if that was permadeath, since as you said, it would be potentially game-breaking. :lol
But yeah the lack of explanations for this game is BAD. Like, Nintendo, we don't want hand holding (Skyward Sword), but SOME direction would be nice. :lol
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2/25/2016, 11:38 pm
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Optimal Megatron
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
So, got Rhajat from the Paralogues today.
Good *god*, if I wanted to grind XP and support levels, that was the place. :lol
So many Faceless. So many respawning Faceless. That was great, even if there were points where all my guys were doing everything they could and still couldn't slaughter everything near me, despite the absurd unit cap they give you there.
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2/27/2016, 5:46 am
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Greatshot
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
quote:
Optimal Megatron wrote:
So, got Rhajat from the Paralogues today.
Good *god*, if I wanted to grind XP and support levels, that was the place. :lol
So many Faceless. So many respawning Faceless. That was great, even if there were points where all my guys were doing everything they could and still couldn't slaughter everything near me, despite the absurd unit cap they give you there.
I've only done one Paralogue so far, 13, Subaki's daughter Cordelia, er, Caeldori.
I took one look at that fight, went.. "wow, this is... mostly.. level 8 promoted classes. I can do this if I'm careful."
Yeah. at lv 15 average unpromoted, it was not an easy fight. After getting most of it down pat, I just could not find a way to kill the pair (!) of boss statted ones in each other's move range at the end of the fight without someone dying or hoping for the whims of RNGesus to favor me. After trying (more than) several times, I opted to move on and come back once I got my usual 20/1 promotes. I steamrolled it that time. :lol
Also, wtf Fire Emblem, y u no gib me enough master seals? :ouch
Last edited by Greatshot, 2/28/2016, 12:37 am
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2/28/2016, 12:35 am
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Optimal Megatron
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
quote:
Greatshot wrote:
Also, wtf Fire Emblem, y u no gib me enough master seals? :ouch
I figured out the trick to this today, along with the trick to getting lots of resources. Other people's My Castles. Go to "Top Rated" and "By Visit Points". You can walk around getting free resources, and either shop at one of their shops (for Master Seals) or bet on their characters in the Arena (for resources). You're limited to one visit per castle per day, but that doesn't stop you from visiting multiple players' castles in the same day....
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3/1/2016, 3:39 am
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Greatshot
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Re: Fire Emblem Fates: Or GS and OM go on about something nobody else plays
Gah, that's obnoxious. I have to suffer minor spoilers and see characters I haven't encountered to promote people?
Well, guess my children are riding the pine on this playthru. :lol
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3/1/2016, 11:00 am
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