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Fire Emblem

Squire Grooktook said:
Fixed that for you.

Although I agree about how some of the supporing character supports could have been better/deeper, not sure I'm getting how "all the characters are the same". The problem, if any, is that the characters are too strongly defined by traits that distinguish them on superficial levels.

Sumia and Cordelia are easily distinguishable. One is confident, experienced, and dutiful. The other is insecure, kind, and clumsy. Similarly I don't think there's any argument that Vaike, Miriel, or Panne are even remotely similar. The problem is that the supports aren't as well developed as previous games, not that characters aren't diverse or dissimilar enough.

Of course, I probably am being too negative, but I didn't really like the main trio. Lissa seemed annoying to me many times. She goes on demanding to not be called "delicate" and then refuses to eat meat Frederick hunted because it's "gross". She's constantly saying she's useful when her actions contradict that, and the end she is kind of bothersome.

Chrom I just found very generic. Not that that's bad, he's just not very interesting on his own. He's the basic protagonist from any game. That's really all I can say there.
They could have done so much with his character when
Emmeryn dies
, and I thought they were going to. You see the cutscene of her
attempting to commit suicide
and then you get into that next level with that beautiful music. But, in the end, he just becomes very angsty and depressed. I know there is lots of discussion about it later but it just didn't feel very emotional.

Frederick... I have to admit I really like. Frankly I'm surprised "pick a god and pray" isn't at meme status in the FE community. He's actually the one character I noticed you learn a lot about throughout his support conversations. It still isn't any attempt at backstory but from what I've seen his personality is pretty well developed.

TheMightyBox said:
They weren't saying that every character was the same, just that some characters are similar to others which makes them kinda redundant. A question of why is Inigo necessary when we have Virion? Or Cherche for Cordelia? That kinda thing.

I always kinda justified the lack of any true development in the supports since if a character underwent a radical change early in the game because the player put them with this other specific character, it wouldn't make sense for them to then have supports with other characters and be back to square one in their personality.
But then again Awakening is the only FE game I've played that had supports so I really don't know.

This was exactly what I was trying to say. I never meant to imply all of the characters are the same, just that they very lazily seem to re-use character traits when they're out of ideas, instead of actually coming up with interesting ideas. That's really lazy.

And that is also another problem I had with this game. The conversations feel so useless, they could just be un-canon fanfiction. But, that doesn't mean we can't get insight the character's personality or backstory. It's that type of fake customization that plagues these kinds of games. You feel like your input doesn't matter, and, despite your choices, the story will go on how the story wants to on.
 
By main trio I meant more Avatar, Chrom, Lucina.

Chrom is a standard hero, yes, but so was Eliwood who was an excellent protagonist. I found him likable for his (initially) easy going personality and found his big brother tendency to Emmeryon and Avatar to be endearing.

I think they wanted to stear all elements of the game in a lighter and softer direction (which I can dig), including the supports. But they went a bit too far with it for the supports, essentially making the great majority of them into comedy routines/slice of life clips. IMO they should have placed those in the barracks or something and had more dramatic supports like in previous games.
 
Squire Grooktook said:
By main trio I meant more Avatar, Chrom, Lucina.

Chrom is a standard hero, yes, but so was Eliwood who was an excellent protagonist. I found him likable for his (initially) easy going personality and found his big brother tendency to Emmeryon and Avatar to be endearing.

I think they wanted to stear all elements of the game in a lighter and softer direction (which I can dig), including the supports. But they went a bit too far with it for the supports, essentially making the great majority of them into comedy routines/slice of life clips. IMO they should have placed those in the barracks or something and had more dramatic supports like in previous games.

The avatar was an okay character. He's atleast got some form of backstory to him, and thankfully it is pretty deep.

Lucina I'm slightly unsure about.
Lucina results in the more emotional moments of the game. The scene where
She attempts to kill the protagonist to save Chrom from being killed by you
was very touching, especially since I was her mother in my first playthrough. You can tell she's very torn up there. also, can I add that too? Why do I need to marry Chrom to have two children? Come on, give the ladies some options The problem lies with the fact that I never found her very interesting on her own. She has occasional good moments (I.E her moments in support conversations with her mother, with her ending card in the credits). But, her personality is pretty bland. She's basically a gender swap of Chrom with bad fashion sense.

Reading the support conversations, though, yeah. I always felt like I was watching a cheesy comedy slice-of-life anime. Why couldn't the characters talk about likes? Their dislikes? Their fears? How they're feeling? Why do we get sitcom-esque garbage, when they had these opportunities to do something great?
 
I think the main trio is the main problem with Awakening's story
they're all bad in their own special ways and make them shite protagonists
 
By the way, marriage was in Fire Emblem since Genealogy of the Holy War back on the SNES. It's just that the series hasn't touched it again until now because there's no way they could've topped what happened in that game.
 
I mostly just want a game where the kids are largely mediocre and the parents need to save their asses with their years of experience
 
The whole concept of marriage was silly to me >_>

I want deeper gameplay! More things to work off of in a fight! Not grinding to make everyone OP. I want a tense fight and good characters. I'd love an FE game that shows you the characters through actual gameplay instead of just thru supports.
Personnally, I think they could have had Radiant Dawn's base supports at the barracks and have those be more comedic and a few supports be comedic, but for the most part, the supports actually worth my time.
 
Meow-Professor said:
Reading the support conversations, though, yeah. I always felt like I was watching a cheesy comedy slice-of-life anime. Why couldn't the characters talk about likes? Their dislikes? Their fears? How they're feeling? Why do we get sitcom-esque garbage, when they had these opportunities to do something great?

Yeah, I agree it's the weakest part. Especially because they could have had their cake and ate it to. A few comedic supports and a few deep ones, would have been fine.

As I said, I actually like the more light-hearted, comedy focused vibe of the game overall. And alongside that, I do like the trio of main characters (The Lords are always what make or break an fe story imo). I feel there's a sweetness and innocence to the game that makes both the story, the main characters and their relationships compelling. Not to the same extent as say, Trails in The Sky, but I find it endearing none the less, and I'd be lying if I said the story didn't compel me equally if not more than the gameplay (which is pretty much the case for every Fire Emblem with me).

North888 said:
I want deeper gameplay! More things to work off of in a fight!

IMO, Fire Emblem doesn't need to be that much deeper than it is. At least, I'd rather it kept things lean and mean instead of going for some Nippon Icchi nonsense.

To me, part of the appeal of the actual turn based combat system, is that it's not so much about builds or long term plans as it is every round being a simple but challenging puzzle/mix up where you have to make the right choice carefully to preserve your units for that round. There's only a basic amount of planning into the future, but if there was more I could see the game getting really convoluted and slow.

On that note, Awakening does move things forward in a logical way, with the introduction of pairing. It's not executed perfectly, but these sort of mechanics rarely turn out perfectly on the first attempt anyway. But hey, that's what sequels are for. Another reason to get hype for IF.

North888 said:
Not grinding to make everyone OP
Like I said, play on hard and don't grind than. I think Mushihimesama Futari is a damn good bullet hell shooter, but I don't have a particular fondness for memorization, so I don't bother with ultra mode because I know it's basically memorization: the game (the other modes can be cleared by a skilled enough player without much or any trial and error, but on ultra it pretty much becomes completely mandatory).

Awakening's hard mode doesn't force you into grinding at all (or at least far, far, far less than the comparable system of Sacred Stones did), and I don't know why you'd pick something like Lunatic if you're not already in love with the game and don't like grinding.
 
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Squire Grooktook said:
IMO, Fire Emblem doesn't need to be that much deeper than it is. At least, I'd rather it kept things lean and mean instead of going for some Nippon Icchi nonsense.

To me, part of the appeal of the actual turn based combat system, is that it's not so much about builds or long term plans as it is every round being a simple but challenging puzzle/mix up where you have to make the right choice carefully to preserve your units for that round. There's only a basic amount of planning into the future, but if there was more I could see the game getting really convoluted and slow.

On that note, Awakening does move things forward in a logical way, with the introduction of pairing. It's not executed perfectly, but these sort of mechanics rarely turn out perfectly on the first attempt anyway. But hey, that's what sequels are for. Another reason to get hype for IF.
I'm not saying it has to get as deep as games like Disgaea (which I am also a massive fan over). I'm saying I'd like it to be a bit more deeper than Awakening. As it stands, Awakening feels bare bones with very little deviation in the way matches play out. There aren't any stages that really deviate the whole "Kill all enemies/Kill the Boss" routine unlike in past games which had defense moments and other gameplay additions to keep things from getting stale.

Squire Grooktook said:
Like I said, play on hard and don't grind than. I think Mushihimesama Futari is a damn good bullet hell shooter, but I don't have a particular fondness for memorization, so I don't bother with ultra mode because I know it's basically memorization: the game.

Awakening's hard mode doesn't force you into grinding at all (or at least far, far, far less than the comparable system of Sacred Stones did), and I don't know why you'd pick something like Ultra if you're not already in love with the game and don't like grinding.
I could do that, and probably should. Any side stages non-withstanding of course.
 
North888 said:
As it stands, Awakening feels bare bones with very little deviation in the way matches play out. There aren't any stages that really deviate the whole "Kill all enemies/Kill the Boss" routine unlike in past games which had defense moments and other gameplay additions to keep things from getting stale.

This is not something uncommon to the franchise though, in fact its one of the biggest complaints I've heard about the series as a whole from more "hardcore" strategy enthusiasts. Blazing Sword is perfect imo (both gameplay and storywise) but 90% of the missions pretty much are "kill everything".

It could be better, but I personally find it hard to complain because, in every FE, your evolving units and army ensure that each stage is different enough from the last.
 
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Squire Grooktook said:
This is not something uncommon to the franchise though, in fact its one of the biggest complaints I've heard about the series as a whole from more "hardcore" strategy enthusiasts. Blazing Sword is perfect imo (both gameplay and storywise) but 90% of the missions pretty much are "kill everything".

It could be better, but I personally find it hard to complain because, in every FE, your evolving units and bases ensure that each stage is different enough from the last.
I can see that. However, I would like a game that is more...what's the world? fluid? More fluid than Awakening. Going by stage length, all of Awakening's stages are short. Until you get into some of the ridiculous DLC stages, most of te main game is comprised of very short, pretty small stages. There were some very long stages in past games that really tested your skill and knowledge as well as stages taht introduced new concepts. It's probably why FE for GBA is one of my more personal favorites. There are, on occasion, but more than once, stages that are noticably longer and harder than other stages, as well as stages that switch up what you're doing. I love FE, but if the formula doesn't change or deviate slightly from the same thing every stage, there are times I just lose interest.

Again though, I can't say for some of the Jap exclusive as I haven't played em.
 
It's true that there are some pretty massive maps in the gba games. Those were great.

On the other hand, I just did a quick comparison of some of the grids in fe7 vs awakening, and the general difference isn't that big (if there is any at all). Awakening frequently has maps around 22x22 squares, and the largest maps in 7 (which are not terribly common) are like 35x35 or something like that. The average-ish maps in 7 generally fall somewhere in the twenties, as well.

Also most of the missions in Awakening can last from 15-20+ minutes or so, which is long enough, and if my memory serves me the gba fe's weren't much longer for the average mission..
 
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North888 said:
As it stands, Awakening feels bare bones with very little deviation in the way matches play out. There aren't any stages that really deviate the whole "Kill all enemies/Kill the Boss" routine unlike in past games which had defense moments and other gameplay additions to keep things from getting stale.

This is sadly really true. You end up using the same exact strategy over and over again to beat level after level.

A friend of mine, who I recommended Awakening to, beat the whole game by grinding with Robin, pairing him up with Chrom, and then only selecting them in the character select. That really shouldn't have been possible.

Now, if there had been missions where you had to defend a certain character for a period of time in the late game (I know there's the Emmeryn chapter but you aren't too far in the ditch yet if you haven't been training other characters, and he beat that by putting Robin near the entrance and moving back and forth between the open door and Lucina) then that wouldn't be possible. A single paired up unit wouldn't be enough to defend a NPC if enemies are coming at it at all sides. There is a grand total of one level later in the game with this objective. Even then, it was a paralogue, so it isn't required to beat the story.

While the battle system is good, the lack of variation in this game kills and buries it. When we only have two types of missions, either kill everything or run away and kill the commander, it gets boring real fast.

North888 said:
Going by stage length, all of Awakening's stages are short. Until you get into some of the ridiculous DLC stages, most of te main game is comprised of very short, pretty small stages. There were some very long stages in past games that really tested your skill and knowledge as well as stages taht introduced new concepts. It's probably why FE for GBA is one of my more personal favorites. There are, on occasion, but more than once, stages that are noticably longer and harder than other stages, as well as stages that switch up what you're doing. I love FE, but if the formula doesn't change or deviate slightly from the same thing every stage, there are times I just lose interest.

I never really had an issue with stage length in Awakening. They lasted just long enough to hold my interest. For the most part.
Yeah, some are just small and boring.
I recently got FE for GBA on virtual console and, while I still have to admit I prefer Awakening, the stages were much, much more varied.
 
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^^^wait till you get a super unit in fe gba. You'll end up winning every mission with basically 2-3 guys doing everything, just like Awakening (unless you make huge concious efforts to avoid that playstyle). I know that's how my end game ended up.

Awakening ain't the best game, but it's not a real step backwards either as most of the flaws in it exist in previous games and only marginally better/worse. It's more of a step to the side, and hopefully IF will be a real step forward from that angle.

If you're talking about FE 7/Blazing Swords though and not Sacred Stones, be prepared for it to surpass Awakening (and every other localized fe imo) because holy shit is that game good.
 
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So... Who's got those amiibo ready for Codename STEAM?

I just gotta get a New 3DS and I'll be good to go.
 
i honestly I just want to have Marth's so i can hear his bad english acting
I want that more than anything
 
Squire Grooktook said:
Awakening ain't the best game, but it's not a real step backwards either as most of the flaws in it exist in previous games and only marginally better/worse.

The writing problems are something that this game has on its own (Not saying it's the only FE with bad writing, but it's the only one that has this kind of bad writing), and I'm pretty sure that there was no way to absolutely get maxed stats withot save-scumming in any of the other games.
 
MMan7172 said:
The writing problems are something that this game has on its own (Not saying it's the only FE with bad writing, but it's the only one that has this kind of bad writing), and I'm pretty sure that there was no way to absolutely get maxed stats withot save-scumming in any of the other games.

I was talking about the gameplay there, but yeah. I do agree it has some of the weakest supports in the series, and there are other issues beyond that. But for overall story/main story character development etc. I actually do like a lot if taken as a deliberately quirkier/less serious take on the series. Even on that basis, it still wouldn't be as good as the absolute best installments in the series story wise, but overall I find it to be among the more enjoyable installments if not the best.

Max stats doesn't really matter too much imo because you could still have stuff that was broken enough to get the job done. Hell, Reclassing may have been broken as shit but it beat the Tower of Valni by a mile. And don't even get me started on that battle ruining save state mechanic in Radiant Dawn. Sacred Stones is one of my least favorite installments in the series, but I still liked it enough to play through it twice. Radiant Dawn I quit halfway through.

PS: Code Name Steam looks amazing
 
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There's a demo on the Eshop available and it lets you get a pretty good feel for the game.

My only complaint is the frequency of the (very few different) voiced lines.

SPOTTED ONE, MUSTA HEARD ME CLANKIN AROUND, SO MUCH FOR STEALTH.
 
DDB said:
There's a demo on the Eshop available and it lets you get a pretty good feel for the game.

My only complaint is the frequency of the (very few different) voiced lines.

SPOTTED ONE, MUSTA HEARD ME CLANKIN AROUND, SO MUCH FOR STEALTH.

Sweet, thanks for telling me (rarely check my 3ds updates lol). I'll download it when I get home from school tomorrow.
 
LockjawsSaga said:
Does anyone know of any good FE rom hacks?
Holy shit LockjawsSaga you hacker
i thought you play legit in all the games that you buy.
I'm ashamed for supporting you.
Not really. Just search up "Fire Emblem ROMHacks" on Google.
 
LockjawsSaga said:
Does anyone know of any good FE rom hacks?
Have you tried Vizzed.com? They've got a ton of free roms and translations of games, including basically all the FE games up to te GBA titles. It's all in-browser based and free, so I use it a lot. I haven't been on it in awhile, myself, though.
 
I'm not looking for roms or to play FE games online, I'm looking for rom hacks, edits of the games that change the story, visuals, and even mechanics in some cases. An example of one would be Fire Emblem: Dream of Five. I wanted to know if anyone had any good ones to recommend.
 
GwQnLrt.png

FE Real World addition is best.

Too bad it doesn't actually exist.
 
So... I have one question to ask you all...

HOSHIDO? OR NOHR...
 
Black Version all the way, baby. It's gonna be HYPE. This also basically confirms that we'll be getting a Fire Emblem game where the villain is evil for more reasons that literally none, which is perhaps a series first.
 
MMan7172 said:
Black Version all the way, baby. It's gonna be HYPE

Probably leaning that way too, though I'll probably have to play the first 6 chapters or so before deciding for sure, need to see how they spin the concept.

I just hope the new writer doesn't steer the series into trying to hard for "dark and edgy", since the series has always had great balance of tone imo.

Having an experienced manga writer sounds good for story telling, but I hope it's someone who puts thought and effort into capturing the series charm. Otherwise you end up with something like Castlevania: Lords of Shadow.

MMan7172 said:
It's gonna be HYPE. This also basically confirms that we'll be getting a Fire Emblem game where the villain is evil for more reasons that literally none, which is perhaps a series first.

I dunno about that, unless you count "psycho" as no reason. Nergal and Lyon* technically had reasons. Unless you count Nergal's
magic induced dementia
as just making him another psycho.
*
Lyon also makes a lot less sense on Ephraim's route imo

Hell even Mateus had a pretty believable motivation IIRC, not wanting humans to overtake dragons. Although I don't remember if that was well explored in the first game or its remake.
 
It was a joke, I know that a lot of FE villains have decent motivation, though some of them are kinda Saturday-morning-ish.

"Let's flood that village!"
"Why?"
"I dunno, fuck it!"
 
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Probably going to go Hoshido first time.
 
North888 said:
Probably going to go Hoshido first time.

Ditto, and I shit you not, it's for the character designs.
 
BeatNinja said:
Ditto, and I shit you not, it's for the character designs.
Same! XD
 
One thing I'm liking so far about what we know of the plot, at least, is that it seems to be focused on the idea of "family" on both paths, which along with bonds in general I find to be a pretty important central theme to the series.

With Hoshido your siding with your blood family who shares your ideals (since it seems like your a good guy on either side).

With Nohr your siding with your parental family even though they don't share your ideals (which you attempt to change).

Sounds like a good set up.
 
I'm going with Nohr, partly because of the difficulty increase, partly because of the character designs, but mostly just because I am in love with the idea of playing the red army in a FE game for once. Like, imagine that you are playing a defense mission in Black, and you have your guy's and maybe 15 ally units, but your opposing army is the character's from White minus the MC, and they are all stupidly over-powered, and you have to keep the base safe for 10 rounds to wait for reinforcements, but in White it's a capture mission with a ten round time limit. That sounds awesome, it's like the good part of Radiant Dawn but an entire game.
 
honestly I can think of two reasons why a lot of people want to side with Nohr
 
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Ruin said:
honestly I can think of two reasons why a lot of people want to side with Nohr
*courtesy Webm post*

Also regardless of which one I play first, I plan on playing both in the long run, don't care if I have to buy it twice. Hopefully both sides will offer something interesting, so the second playthrough isn't a let down.

Honestly hope the "traditional" path turns out to be the coolest though. Always like the simple but strong games.
 
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Count me in for #TeamBlack. I like grayer conflicts even if the villain ends up just being another moustache twirler.
 
I'm probably going to side with Hoshido because of the aforementioned character designs.
I definitely like this idea though, it'll make the second time through the game much more interesting.

I wasn't feeling this game until I saw the recent story trailer. Yes... Let's just say I've boarded the hype train.

The one thing that slightly put a bad taste in my mouth is how the developers seem to be grasping for money now that the series is mainstream.
Yes, I know companies must make money, and that I'm probably being juvenile in saying this, but I don't see why this could have just been a choice in the game.

I don't see why this needs to be in two separate versions, especially if you make the digital download include a choice.
People, who, like me, like to buy physical copies mostly for box art, I find it kind of annoying that I'm going to need to pay for the DLC to have be able to make a choice.
Yeah, this is probably becoming nitpicky so I'll be quiet now.
 
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Nono, I sort've agree that they're taking advantage of Awakening's success by pulling a Pokemon and releasing two versions. But if the game's great, then I won't mind at all.
 
No I agree, I think most people do honestly,
if the stuff saying that the digital download gives you choice in-game I'm totally getting that, I'd like to try both sides honestly and maybe even change my MU for the different paths. That kind of thing can add some real interest to the series and they're detracting a bit from that aspect by splitting it into two versions.
 
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