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Fire Emblem 12 (DS) Fan Translation |OT| Like Shadow Dragon, but good

Chrom

Junior Member
Do we know if Awakening uses the map save system from FE11 and 12? I kind of like it as a middle ground between "quick-save only" and "save any time." You get most of the tension of potentially losing progress (if you want to keep everyone alive, which I've been trying to do less of lately), and you get a nice risk/reward element to when you use your saves. I vaguely recall an interview where a producer said the FE11/12 approach was not popular, but in any case I'd be curious to know what Awakening does.

I don't believe so, but it's still sort of there anyway. I've been told that Awakening uses two different systems, depending on whether you're playing on Classic or Casual. If you play on Classic, it's exactly like the GBA games where you can have temporary suspend points. Playing on Casual instead gives you Battle Saves just like in Radiant Dawn, which are permanent saves. Unless I'm mistaken, you never have access to both methods on a single file.
 
You guys were right when you said it got easier on hard mode. In fact, I'm starting to feel overpowered again. Most maps since finishing the prologues have been relatively easy.

Then I got to 6x... My god, these recruitable people are fuckin idiots. There are friggin archers in their line of sight, but nooooo, they have to go for the strongest fuckin unit on my team!
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
You guys were right when you said it got easier on hard mode. In fact, I'm starting to feel overpowered again. Most maps since finishing the prologues have been relatively easy.

Then I got to 6x... My god, these recruitable people are fuckin idiots. There are friggin archers in their line of sight, but nooooo, they have to go for the strongest fuckin unit on my team!

I repeated that chapters so many times in rage, hahahaha.

The worst thing is, both of them are not really worth all the trouble :\

Just make sure you can do it in two rounds, shouldn't be that difficult to arrange.
 
I repeated that chapters so many times in rage, hahahaha.

The worst thing is, both of them are not really worth all the trouble :\

Just make sure you can do it in two rounds, shouldn't be that difficult to arrange.

Yeah, I've since gotten them. Took some ridiculous positioning, but I did it. Now on chapter 8.
 

Boogiepop

Member
No chance there's a script for the translation or something similar, is there? I'd like to pick up the game before Awakening comes out and have a pretty good understanding of Japanese anyway, but it'd be nice to have a translation guide I could use on the side if I needed it. Also, it's going to be rough having to go back to the original DS to play this thing. Damn DSi "enhanced" region lock!
 

Chrom

Junior Member
No chance there's a script for the translation or something similar, is there? I'd like to pick up the game before Awakening comes out and have a pretty good understanding of Japanese anyway, but it'd be nice to have a translation guide I could use on the side if I needed it. Also, it's going to be rough having to go back to the original DS to play this thing. Damn DSi "enhanced" region lock!

I would think that the translation team may provide a script if there's enough interest, but I'm not sure about anything.

I mean, I'm sure they'd like to do that, but if they haven't done so by now, I'm thinking it's not a high priority.
 

Boogiepop

Member
Yeah, just placed an order so I guess I'm in. Though I'll be struggling through on my own in Japanese, heh. Hopefully I'm up for it, but it should at least give me an excuse to practice reading over the winter. Hopefully it was worth paying about $60 for a DS game, heh.
 

Chrom

Junior Member

1354032661875.jpg


A lot of people didn't like this.
 

Boney

Banned
So uhm lunatic mode..

it's impossibleeeeeee

and no I don't wanna use an ugly knight cause it makes my unit have an awful armor portrait, hopefully I can use a female my unit but.. doesn't seem like it's possible
 

Chrom

Junior Member
So uhm lunatic mode..

it's impossibleeeeeee

and no I don't wanna use an ugly knight cause it makes my unit have an awful armor portrait, hopefully I can use a female my unit but.. doesn't seem like it's possible

Yeah, female My Units aren't able to be Knights, it's just not an option when you create one and the class isn't selectable when reclassing. However, females can reclass to General if that means anything.
 

Socreges

Banned
So, as many of you suggested, I decided to start the game on Hard. And I'm surprised at just how difficult it is. Prologue IV was a bitch. Took me three tries and I felt like there was truly only one way to complete it without losing a character.

I didn't realize/remember that there was no rescue option. Shove and moving after attacking (cavaliers etc) is also missed, but not having the option to rescue is brutal.

That said, I'm really enjoying it already. Also looks pretty good on my XL.

Again, great job with the translation. I would have never guessed this was done by fans.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
If you are playing on hard, get ready to bitch like crazy due to "enemy reinforcements immediately act after appearing" rule. Most of my "FUCKING HELL!" moments are due to this--no matter how careful you are preparing your team, someone BOUND to die because of this (especially when a particular type of enemy started doing it: they are fast, they hit hard, they traverse so far away, and they have bucketloads of HP).

Well, at least on hard that particular type of enemy has an attack range of 1. On Maniac and Lunatic they got 2, which is just insanely trolling, hahahahah.

And speaking of lunatic mode, I honestly think the only viable class for anyone wishing to play it as a female MU is Pegasus Knight, and even then it still requires a good degree of luck if you care about making anyone surviving. And whether you play as male or female, don't pick Mage; it's impossible. I don't even think it is possible to survive the 1st tutorial battle against Jeigen if you are a Mage playing in Lunatic/Lunatic Reverse.
 

Socreges

Banned
So it's essentially trial and error then? If that's the case, I don't know if I've got the patience for this game.

I guess I'd try out Normal, but I'd miss the challenge a fair bit.
 

Boney

Banned
It's almost 53o am on a bus home, but seeing this bumped makes me wanna say fuck you chapter 3 and fuck your wyverns!
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
So it's essentially trial and error then? If that's the case, I don't know if I've got the patience for this game.

There are some occasions when the game warned you about incoming reinforcements, but there are also some occasions when the reinforcements are coming without a warning and the ones that do come are comprised of the most annoying type of enemies imaginable, hahah.

Yea, I won't lie, often times it becomes trial and error. Often times it is also seemingly unfair. Also, no matter how well you plan/prepare, there are also times when that 5/10 percent of critical hits will screw you badly, there's no way getting around that.

Hard is still manageable and challenging though. I do believe it is the "intended" difficulty--Normal at the later levels become very easy that you are just pretty much playing through the motions. Just don't play on Maniac or Lunatic or, God forbid, Lunatic Reverse, if you don't like getting frustrated.

It's almost 53o am on a bus home, but seeing this bumped makes me wanna say fuck you chapter 3 and fuck your wyverns!

They ain't so bad... not until they become reinforcements that is, hahahah.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
It'd pretty terrible when its lunatic!!

Oh right, forget what I said then, hahaha.

An advice: do not try to achieve "everything" in Lunatic mode; meaning some treasures are better left unopened or carried away by the thieves and, hell, some characters sometimes are just better left dead.

Believe me, all the sacrifices are needed just to reach the end ;___________;

Don't get me started on Lunatic Reverse. That mode is reserved only to masochist.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
There are three difficulties more difficult than hard? Are there any difficulties below hard? That seems like a lot of different settings ^^.
 

Socreges

Banned
I'm fine with being frustrated... but I hate the idea of trial and error in a strategy game.

And the chance of getting killed on a critical hit has never bothered me. That's not really the same as trial and error since you go into the encounter knowing there's that chance, however small. But there's no way to prepare for random reinforcements... apart from keeping your units really close together at all times.

I've got no interest in Maniac/Lunatic. I think this series tends to strike a good balance on challenge/obsessive meticulousness/fun and Lunatic especially goes overboard.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
There are three difficulties more difficult than hard? Are there any difficulties below hard? That seems like a lot of different settings ^^.

So it's like:

Normal: pretty easy all around. Much more freedom to pick anyone you like to bring to chapters. Enemies are rather weak, and their AI is much less aggressive.

Hard: challenging, and the 1st difficulty where "enemy reinforcements immediately act" is implemented. Enemies got upgraded stats and equipment, their AI is more aggressive. You need to be more careful on who to bring, but nonetheless it is still pretty much okay, for the most part, to bring anyone you like.

Maniac: This is where things started to get crazy. Enemies number are increased, their stats and equipment are upgraded, and enemies in some maps are generally much more easier to provoke, allowing them to quickly overwhelm you. You are pretty much required to stick with good/great characters and stick with them throughout the game to fully optimize the support system. Some enemies got their attack range upgraded too, making them much harder to deal with.

Lunatic: Crazy, just crazy all around. Extremely frustrating. Some classes are not recommended for your main unit and one in particular--Mage--is pretty much impossible. Need to correctly answer the game's first questions (past present future) to get the proper bonus lest you will be much more frustrated in the future due to less than best growths for your MU. Expect to see enemies getting forged strongest weapons and max stats before long. Many characters who don't belong in the "best" category is going to be overwhelmed, and this unfortunately includes Marth.

Lunatic Reverse: Actually almost the same with Lunatic, except enemies are guaranteed to strike first even though you initiate combat, if you are within range of their attacks. Strict class requirement, strict best character only, and you pretty much need to class and re-class some characters just to survive, as well as purchasing stat increasing items on shops (which will be unlocked if you have a Lunatic cleared file). ONLY REAL MASOCHIST SHOULD APPLY.
 

Yoshi

Headmaster of Console Warrior Jugendstrafanstalt
So it's like:

Normal: pretty easy all around. Much more freedom to pick anyone you like to bring to chapters. Enemies are rather weak, and their AI is much less aggressive.

Hard: challenging, and the 1st difficulty where "enemy reinforcements immediately act" is implemented. Enemies got upgraded stats and equipment, their AI is more aggressive. You need to be more careful on who to bring, but nonetheless it is still pretty much okay, for the most part, to bring anyone you like.

Maniac: This is where things started to get crazy. Enemies number are increased, their stats and equipment are upgraded, and enemies in some maps are generally much more easier to provoke, allowing them to quickly overwhelm you. You are pretty much required to stick with good/great characters and stick with them throughout the game to fully optimize the support system. Some enemies got their attack range upgraded too, making them much harder to deal with.

Lunatic: Crazy, just crazy all around. Extremely frustrating. Some classes are not recommended for your main unit and one in particular--Mage--is pretty much impossible. Need to correctly answer the game's first questions (past present future) to get the proper bonus lest you will be much more frustrated in the future due to less than best growths for your MU. Expect to see enemies getting forged strongest weapons and max stats before long. Many characters who don't belong in the "best" category is going to be overwhelmed, and this unfortunately includes Marth.

Lunatic Reverse: Actually almost the same with Lunatic, except enemies are guaranteed to strike first even though you initiate combat, if you are within range of their attacks. Strict class requirement, strict best character only, and you pretty much need to class and re-class some characters just to survive, as well as purchasing stat increasing items on shops (which will be unlocked if you have a Lunatic cleared file). ONLY REAL MASOCHIST SHOULD APPLY.

This sounds absolutely crazy.Too bad the game doesn't get released here :(.
 
So it's like:
*run down of difficulties
What difficulty did bait and switch stop working (luring strong enemies using a strong unit of your own)? As in some enemies won't move as soon as someone is range but will wait until they can get a kill or you're nearer to the rest of the units (who together will get a kill). I heard (unit that behaves this way)
Flying Dragons were particularly troublesome as their breath has 1-2 range on higher difficulties, do good damage and they have crazy high movement.
 

scy

Member
Lunatic Reverse: Actually almost the same with Lunatic, except enemies are guaranteed to strike first even though you initiate combat, if you are within range of their attacks. Strict class requirement, strict best character only, and you pretty much need to class and re-class some characters just to survive, as well as purchasing stat increasing items on shops (which will be unlocked if you have a Lunatic cleared file). ONLY REAL MASOCHIST SHOULD APPLY.

So I'm actually smiling at this.

What the fuck is wrong with me.
 

Zhengi

Member
I just started Dragon Shadow this week and I'm hooked on it. I will give this one a try once I finish the first one.
 
Just a reminder the scripts used in the translations in the patches for the SFC FE games can also be found over at Serenes Forest for FE3 (note: Chinese > English*), FE4 (patch is open source) and FE5 (Shaya made a few changes**).

Personally I don't like using the patches as I found the font choice poor and didn't like some renames. Well I guess I'm more familiar with playing the Japanese versions too (its not too bad, weapons are icon based, what menu position does what in what context all comes with practice).

*- Which of course might rise a issues of Chinese whispers. Given FE12 rewrites and expands on it we don't need to worry.
**- To give it a bit more character. As most fan translators do sometime or other. IIRC making one character more like Sanger Zonvolt was one of them.
 

Laughing Banana

Weeping Pickle
What difficulty did bait and switch stop working (luring strong enemies using a strong unit of your own)? As in some enemies won't move as soon as someone is range but will wait until they can get a kill or you're nearer to the rest of the units (who together will get a kill). I heard (unit that behaves this way)
Flying Dragons were particularly troublesome as their breath has 1-2 range on higher difficulties, do good damage and they have crazy high movement.

In hard in some maps enemies act this way. Not only that, but once a unit from your troop cross certain invisible line or attack a particular enemy, MANY enemies, even if they are standing far at the edge of the map, will also start moving towards your army. This is sometimes paired up with reinforcements too, and often this kind of scenario will result in enemies overwhelming you from many directions. This is particularly devastating and more likely will kill your frailer unit members like thiefs or mages, ESPECIALLY when
Wyverns or Dragons
are joining the fray. Oh, and occasionally--not often though--bosses will leave their spot too, just for the heck of it, hahaha.

Of course, on Maniac and Lunatic things are much, much worse. Sometimes the stream of reinforcements can seem like unending, such as on Chapter 19 and 20. This is a nightmare especially when, in higher difficulties, they are equipped with silver weapons (or worse, forged silver weapons) and coming with a speed stat so high they can double-attack many on your troops except those who are fastest, like Pegasus Knights/Falcon Knights or Myrmidons/Swordsmaster.
 

Socreges

Banned
In hard in some maps enemies act this way. Not only that, but once a unit from your troop cross certain invisible line or attack a particular enemy, MANY enemies, even if they are standing far at the edge of the map, will also start moving towards your enemy. This is sometimes paired up with reinforcements too, and often this kind of scenario will result in enemies overwhelming you from many directions. This is particularly devastating and more likely will kill your frailer unit members like thiefs or mages, ESPECIALLY when
Wyverns or Dragons
are joining the fray. Oh, and occasionally--not often though--bosses will leave their spot too, just for the heck of it, hahaha.

Of course, on Maniac and Lunatic things are much, much worse. Sometimes the stream of reinforcements can seem like unending, such as on Chapter 19 and 20. This is a nightmare especially when, in higher difficulties, they are equipped with silver weapons (or worse, forged silver weapons) and coming with a speed stat so high they can double-attack many on your troops except those who are fastest, like Pegasus Knights/Falcon Knights or Myrmidons/Swordsmaster.
That's what surprised me in Prologue IV. The boss (archer) left his post immediately. Lost a unit the first two times since I thought it would be best to use a chokepoint (it wasnt). Ended up moving forward a little bit to take out a couple enemies and then swarmed the boss the moment I could (so he couldn't attack) and continued taking out the rest. Was the most rewarded I've ever felt in such an early chapter.
 

Socreges

Banned
So this game is a remake....

But how come they cut out these gameplay options from the original:

The game's most prominent new feature is the dismount command, which allows cavalier units to get off their horses and fight on foot. The limitation to this factor is that cavaliers can only wield lances when on horseback and swords while on foot. Furthermore, cavalier and airborne units are forced to dismount in chapters that take place in interior locations.

We need a Fire Emblem that includes every single feature (dismounting, shoving, rescue, marriage, joining, etc etc).
 

Chrom

Junior Member
So this game is a remake....

But how come they cut out these gameplay options from the original:



We need a Fire Emblem that includes every single feature (dismounting, shoving, rescue, marriage, joining, etc etc).

By joining do you mean the My Unit/Avatar thing?

Believe it or not, Intelligent Systems was actually planning to add dismounting in Shadow Dragon, a remake of a game that never had it, but of course it was never implemented. Going off of that, I personally think the decision of not including dismounting and stuff like weapon Wt and Attack Speed were the results of the developers thinking they were better off not being in the games any more.

Dismounting was a neat feature but the games that had that option never implemented it ideally in my opinion. Especially so in Thracia 776, where locking weapon classes to mount status in conjunction with the weapon rank system caused the conflict with some unit classes of needing to improve weapon EXP when you had to specifically be either on foot or on your mount. One character in the game for example, Fin, will probably never be able to use decent swords unless he's dedicating his life to never using his mount and in turn shunning his access to his lances, including his Brave Lance.

It's probably for a reason similar to this as to why we'll probably never see every mechanic rolled into one game. I think it'd be great if they did try to incorporate as much as they could, though.
 
I started a Hard Mode file. I am already having to play a lot more conservatively than I did on normal mode.

I have mixed feelings about reinforcements appearing and acting on the same turn. It would be one thing if the game gave you a heads-up (I remember in FE4 some of the story scenes would drop hints about ambushes and such), but I don't like having to constantly worry about enemies that may or may not appear. There's too much trial and error in some maps. I guess the fact that reinforcements generally appear from forts rather than random corners of the map is good. Still, I think there would be more interesting ways of increasing the difficulty. I would love it if the next Fire Emblem had an Iron Man mode where the game auto-saved after every action. I know some players impose Iron Man rules on themselves, but it would be fun to have a more tailored experience. And facing maxed out enemies wielding forged weapons, without the ability to reset, sounds challenging enough to make up for any loss of reinforcement frustration.
 
So this game is a remake....

But how come they cut out these gameplay options from the original:



We need a Fire Emblem that includes every single feature (dismounting, shoving, rescue, marriage, joining, etc etc).

Dismounting is not as fun as it sounds, trust me. In fact it's pretty bad.
 

Socreges

Banned
By joining I mean the feature in FE13 where you can partner up units to tag team battle. Dunno what it's called.

And I had no idea dismounting was poorly done... but I'm sure there's a way to make it work. Or maybe restrict it a bit so it doesn't cause balancing issues.

I personally just love the added dimensions that make the strategy more complex. Eg, I'm a shoving pheen. I'd base every turn around shoving, no joke.

BTW, the ability to press X in order to see where all enemy units can attack, or A to select each individual enemy's range, is a great addition. Hopefully they included it in FE13.
 
The feature from FE13 is actually two features, Dual and Double. Dual is when a unit next to you joins in the battle. Double is when two units travel and battle together.

And I love shoving too, no doubt. I wish they'd include it in every game from here on, but it's not in Awakening unfortunately. And I'm sure the range thing will be in FE13. Its current form started in FE9, and even before that there was a range-checking feature that didn't stay on when you selected something else.
 

Socreges

Banned
The feature from FE13 is actually two features, Dual and Double. Dual is when a unit next to you joins in the battle. Double is when two units travel and battle together.

And I love shoving too, no doubt. I wish they'd include it in every game from here on, but it's not in Awakening unfortunately. And I'm sure the range thing will be in FE13. Its current form started in FE9, and even before that there was a range-checking feature that didn't stay on when you selected something else.
I forgot that fact. Now I'm sad all over again. I wonder if they're going to keep it exclusive to the 3D games (assuming there will be more). Is height a factor in Awakening (ie, doing more damage from a higher position)?
 

Chrom

Junior Member
For the record, they changed the name Double to Pair Up in the American version of FE13, I believe.

FE13 definitely has the enemy range thing from the DS FE games. I want to say that FE13 doesn't incorporate the height factor like in FE10, though.

The lack of Constitution is probably the biggest if not only reason why shoving and even rescuing don't exist in FE13.
 
Beat it. Yep, that was a Fire Emblem game.

Hard mode honestly felt like normal in any other game in the series for a good chunk of it. I guess the reinforcements acting right away was a major distinction, but still.

Also, I felt like a friggin genius at one point. Saved in a crappy position in chapter 20 where no matter what I would do, someone was going to die. At least I thought there was no other way. I had 3 characters still able to move, so with a series of trades, I was able to hand Rescue over to the bishop and get the guy out of there.
 
Aahhhhh I just beat the chapter where you get the Starsphere, I'm so proud of my team. I stuck Marth, Luke and myself on the front lines to prepare for two Ice Dragons and a Devil Sword thief coming at us with over 65% chance to hit. They all dodged. On the next turn, Linde got hit by an Ice Dragon, but then critted it to death, allowing another Devil Sword guy to get her, which would kill her. He ended up hitting himself with the sword, and Linde finished him off.
 

Necrovex

Member
I'm playing through Shadow Dragon right now, and I just arrived at chapter 15. Does the plot actually ever expands or the characters go anywhere? Shadow Dragon feels so bareboned compared to the other FE. I am having a difficult time actually completing the game.
 
Hard mode honestly felt like normal in any other game in the series for a good chunk of it. I guess the reinforcements acting right away was a major distinction, but still.
The ability for reinforcements to act immediately is such a pain though. I'm paranoid every round that a group of wyverns are just gonna pop up out of nowhere and wipe out my fragile-as-glass cleric or something. Hard mode really isn't that difficult if not for that facet.
 
The ability for reinforcements to act immediately is such a pain though. I'm paranoid every round that a group of wyverns are just gonna pop up out of nowhere and wipe out my fragile-as-glass cleric or something. Hard mode really isn't that difficult if not for that facet.

Yeah, there's some trial and error thanks to that. I'd still end up resetting a bunch, so I can't say it's easy either, but I've always done that on normal mode in the series.
 

Javier

Member
I'm playing through Shadow Dragon right now, and I just arrived at chapter 15. Does the plot actually ever expands or the characters go anywhere? Shadow Dragon feels so bareboned compared to the other FE. I am having a difficult time actually completing the game.
Nope. There's no character development for anyone who isn't Marth and a couple of plot-important characters. There are a few hidden conversations by having a couple of characters talk on the field, but those are like... 6 or 7. 90% of this game's cast gets nothing past their recruitment conversation.

FE12 fixes all of that, though. Supports and Base conversations everywhere.
 
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