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Fire Emblem: Awakening - Character Spotlights

So does anyone else, for the sake of canon, plan on not recruiting any of the DLC/SpotPass characters during their first playthrough? It would just seem odd to me to be playing alongside characters that by all rights shouldn't exist in this world...

There IS an in-story explanation/excuse for the DLC/Spotpass characters, even if they are never involved in the main story. I guess some of them would be out of place though...

Too bad these two will never be in the same game though. :I

Nowadays I wouldn't be so sure... As long as they keep something similar to the 120 spotpass characters from this game, that could always happen down the line...
 
Hmm I have one question. As a Male MC will there be any other males I can romance or is it just super friendship S rank?
 
Does anyone know if hard is unlocked from the start?

Seems with dual attacks, repeatable maps and the likes, hard might be a good choice.
 
I know basically about the
Other World Gate, or whatever it's called. Do you know how much it actually ties into the story of the game? I kind of assumed it would have just been kind of thrown in there as a quick and dirty explanation for why you can get the DLC characters. I'm curious if there's actually some depth to that explanation.

Spoilers for the DLC/Spotpass...

The Otherworld gate isn't really relevant to the main plotline, but it is mentioned briefly and is connected to the backstory of a couple of characters. It isn't just tied to the Spotpass/DLC content.

Anyway, regarding the Spotpass characters, yes, they just "come out of it", and there are some simple interactions possible with the player's party with very simple dialogue (buying items from them, hiring them, beating them in combat to make them join without paying) but, in the DLC chapters, the characters don't just "come out of it", the player's party goes into the gate and fights in parallel worlds and times. There's also more specific explanations for the DLC characters joining the player.
 
Hmm I have one question. As a Male MC will there be any other males I can romance or is it just super friendship S rank?
S rank is only achieved with opposite genders. Otherwise, A is the highest.

Well, aside from supports, there's a fortuneteller feature which, unlike supports, does result in same gender pairings at times. However, it's pretty random and has no effect on the gameplay.

http://tinycartridge.com/post/40717758894/chroms-crushin-on-me-but-im-totally

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@OP: Donnel's was just posted.

...And I completely forgot that Lon'qu's was as well, since it happened right after the demo was put up a few days ago, haha.
 
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Lon’qu from Fire Emblem Awakening is a swordsman raised in Regna Ferox. He’s usually cool and curt with most people.

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Donnel is our Fire Emblem Awakening spotlight today. A villager from a remote corner of Ylisse, Donnel came to the fight with just his farming experience but he is eager to learn and shows a great deal of promise.
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Ooh, a villager? So he gets to promote twice? With ten or twenty levels more than everyone else?

The Villager class in Awakening has no class that it promotes to, but I do believe it can go up to Level 30. Changing Donnel's class from Villager requires a Second Seal.
 
Aw, had kind of hoped it was the kind of Villager that could grow to gamebreakingly good stats if you baby it.

By the way, what's a Second Seal and how rare are they?
 
Aw, had kind of hoped it was the kind of Villager that could grow to gamebreakingly good stats if you baby it.

By the way, what's a Second Seal and how rare are they?

A Second Seal could change the class of a unit that's at level 10 or above to a promoted class, and it could also change the class of a promoted unit at any level to an earlier one. There are infinite amounts later in the game.
 
A Second Seal changes the class of a unit that's at level 10 or above. There are infinite amounts later in the game.
Hmm. That sounds... exploitable in the long run. Level to promoted 20, reclass, get more levels and stat ups, reclass, repeat. Becomes slightly less awesome than Ike.

Is there something to block that, such as you keeping your levels?
 
By the way, what's a Second Seal and how rare are they?

The Second Seal is an item that functions just the same as a Master Seal is used for promoting a unit to a more advanced class once they reach a high enough Level. However, unlike the Master Seal, Second Seals also provide the ability for a unit to change to a different class that is not necessarily mandated by what their class is.

What this means is that you could use a Second Seal on Chrom, when he's at least a Level 10 Lord, to change his class to Cavalier or Archer as if he were promoting to them from Lord, rather than Great Lord. From there, you could use a Master Seal at the appropriate time to change Chrom's class to what would normally be reached from Cavalier (Paladin, Great Knight) or Archer (Bow Knight, Sniper). Chrom has access to all of these classes, and the classes that any unit is able to have using a Second Seal is determined by their character, meaning that Chrom can't be a Thief or Priest no matter what.

Now, using the same example, if Chrom is of any promoted class under Level 10, he can use a Second Seal to go back to the corresponding unpromoted classes as if he were promoting to them (demoting, really). This is done so that Chrom can become different classes and in turn be able to learn the Skills associated with those classes that he wouldn't normally get under his initial class. For example, Level 6 Sniper Chrom uses a Second Seal to become a Level 1 Cavalier. From there, Chrom can learn the Outdoor Fighter Skill and the Skills he could learn from being a Paladin or Great Knight.

Same example again, if Chrom is of any promoted class over Level 10, he can use a Second Seal to go back to any corresponding class. Level 18 Great Knight Chrom can instantly become a Level 1 Great Lord with a Second Seal.

...Got it?

And the campaign gives you a couple, I think. Either way, they're infinitely available to the player as long as they can be afforded. You're supposed to be able to grind for whatever you want.
 
I think I got it. You can even reclass to a base class when you're promoted? That can be pretty powerful if you get the promotion gains every time.

You can reclass Chrom? I didn't expect that, I kind of figured the main Lord would be locked into the Lord classes. But I suppose it would put him at a disadvantage. I take it there are restrictions to who can become what? At least no male Pegasus Knights.

Wait, if I pick a female Avatar, could she become a Pegasus Knight? That's probably one of my favorite classes. Would at least give an incentive to replay the game with a female Avatar to try out those classes.

Also, if you can grind for stuff, does that mean that if you hit a wall with a difficult chapter, you can go beat up some bandits or something to get a few levels and then return to the story stronger than before?

I'm getting the feeling that Awakening is going to be exactly as difficult as you want it to be. From grinding up to be more powerful than you need to Lunatic+ turning the tables on you with that. On Lunatic+ enemies grind you!
 
I think I got it. You can even reclass to a base class when you're promoted? That can be pretty powerful if you get the promotion gains every time.

You can reclass Chrom? I didn't expect that, I kind of figured the main Lord would be locked into the Lord classes. But I suppose it would put him at a disadvantage. I take it there are restrictions to who can become what? At least no male Pegasus Knights.

Wait, if I pick a female Avatar, could she become a Pegasus Knight? That's probably one of my favorite classes. Would at least give an incentive to replay the game with a female Avatar to try out those classes.
IIRC the Avatar can be classed/changed into any class except the gender specific ones and The Lord classes, oh and the animals like the Mandrakes etc.
 
Do promotion gains transfer over to other classes? I figured the point of it was just to obtain skills from other classes.

And yeah, the MU should be able to switch over to any class, assuming they're the right gender.
 
I think I got it. You can even reclass to a base class when you're promoted? That can be pretty powerful if you get the promotion gains every time.

You can reclass Chrom? I didn't expect that, I kind of figured the main Lord would be locked into the Lord classes. But I suppose it would put him at a disadvantage. I take it there are restrictions to who can become what? At least no male Pegasus Knights.

Yes, each standard character has a specific "set" of classes aside from their own. Chrom, like mentioned above, can turn into a Cavalier or Archer (and their promotions), but that's it.

The avatar is special and can change to any "standard" class that isn't gender restricted. So, a female avatar can become a Pegasus Knight, but a male avatar can't. An avatar can't become a lord either, because it counts as a special class.


Do promotion gains transfer over to other classes? I figured the point of it was just to obtain skills from other classes.

No, they don't. As in, if you promote to Paladin (2nd tier cavalier), but then become a mercenary (1st tier), your stats actually will drop. You do keep the stats you get from leveling up though - if you gain ten levels as a cavalier, 15 as a paladin and then class change to mercenary, you'll effective be a level 26 unit in terms of level ups, even if your visible level will be "1" again. The game also keeps track of the internal number of levels, even if the visible level returns to 1 and reduces the experience that you gain accordingly.

There's a limit to the internal level number though, but it depends on the difficulty. That level cap increases in higher difficulties, so it'd take a long time to get extremely high levels in Lunatic.

Also, if you can grind for stuff, does that mean that if you hit a wall with a difficult chapter, you can go beat up some bandits or something to get a few levels and then return to the story stronger than before?

Yes. You can even recruit characters outside of the story chapters (from past games of the series).
 
Donnel is great because, no matter what he promotes to, no matter what he's fighting as, he always wears that pot on his head. Even when he's mounted on horseback or a fully-promoted sword-using badass, he always wears that pot on his head. It's amazing.
 
No, they don't. As in, if you promote to Paladin (2nd tier cavalier), but then become a mercenary (1st tier), your stats actually will drop. You do keep the stats you get from leveling up though - if you gain ten levels as a cavalier, 15 as a paladin and then class change to mercenary, you'll effective be a level 26 unit in terms of level ups, even if your visible level will be "1" again. The game also keeps track of the internal number of levels, even if the visible level returns to 1 and reduces the experience that you gain accordingly.

Thanks for this.

Are thieves able to change clases?

Yep. They can promote into Assassins or Tricksters.
 
Are thieves able to change clases?

Every character can change class here. Even the units that can transform into beats can change into more standard classes.

The one standard character who starts as a thief can also class change to fighter or myrmidon. The standard promotions of the thief class are Assassin and Trickster.
 
So with this second seal thing... you can potentially make broken characters?

Yeah. Since you can reclass characters as many times as you want with Second Seals, they'll eventually max their stats.

Do promotion gains transfer over to other classes? I figured the point of it was just to obtain skills from other classes.

Depending on unit stats and classes, reclassing to a certain class may actually decrease your stats if your stats are over the new class's maximum stats. However, the game will remember your unit's actual stats so you technically don't lose them internally. For example, a Paladin's max Spd stat is 40, and reclassing Chrom from a Paladin with capped Spd to a Lord will make his Spd stat conform to Lord's 28 Spd cap.
 
Donnel is great because, no matter what he promotes to, no matter what he's fighting as, he always wears that pot on his head. Even when he's mounted on horseback or a fully-promoted sword-using badass, he always wears that pot on his head. It's amazing.

Honestly, I was thinking that had to be an amazing character due to the pot. You've now cemented Donnel as a member of my future army.
 
Depending on unit stats and classes, reclassing to a certain class may actually decrease your stats if your stats are over the new class's maximum stats. However, the game will remember your unit's actual stats so you technically don't lose them internally. For example, a Paladin's max Spd stat is 40, and reclassing Chrom from a Paladin with capped Spd to a Lord will make his Spd stat conform to Lord's 28 Spd cap.

I initially thought that reclassing actually reset stats. If stats carry over, I could see how that would be broken eventually. Though this is all probably late-game stuff anyway, and I know that the later DLC chapters are difficult. I just hope they still prove to be a challenge even with our capped units.
 
I like the idea of not having a character that is permanently RNG screwed. Makes that whole resetting after a bad level up a non issue.
 
i have not played the game yet, but does anyone here hate donnel from the way he looks? i mean, who wears a pot over their head? The other characters dont even wear headgears, so why does he feel the need to?
 
I initially thought that reclassing actually reset stats. If stats carry over, I could see how that would be broken eventually. Though this is all probably late-game stuff anyway, and I know that the later DLC chapters are difficult. I just hope they still prove to be a challenge even with our capped units.

It can go both ways. The main story and chapters are balanced to be beaten by a team without grinding, so, if you have like 60+ levels overall things might get easy.

However, there are past game character skirmishes which have units with higher stats than the ones in the final story chapters and the time unlocked sidequests can go significantly beyond it too.

Furthermore, there's also DLC that goes way beyond it, to the point that one of the DLCs introduces a skill to raise stat caps by 10 and there's further DLC designed around playing with those higher stats (and several of the DLC doesn't just have higher stat enemies, they also have special conditions or design to the chapters).
 
Nintendo uploaded a new video on their YouTube page detailing the different character classes.
 
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