Meh, by the time you get all his skills, class change him to a Mercenary and he'll already be kicking tons of ass (unless you're on Lunatic which is understandable if you don't want to baby him until that point). Donnel does not deserve to be on the bench.
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Fire Emblem Awakening |OT| Lord of the RNG
- Thread starter Mr. Fix
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Meh, by the time you get all his skills, class change him to a Mercenary and he'll already be kicking tons of ass (unless you're on Lunatic which is understandable if you don't want to baby him until that point). Donnel does not deserve to be on the bench.
You'll have to finish some more chapters.
That's the only way to unlock new locations for the Paralogue dots to connect eventually.
KO Traveling Hobo
Member
Aren't stat caps determined by class, not character?
chickdigger802
Banned
who did/are yall breed donnel with? What skills do you wanna inherit from him, that village growth boost one?
I feel like whatever kids he got will be great regardless, but which has good support talks?
I feel like whatever kids he got will be great regardless, but which has good support talks?
SpaceBridge
Member
So when do I get to make babies?
Freezie KO
Banned
Just beat the game. I played on Hard/Classic. I did not play random skirmishes nor the DLC, but I did play the first four Paralogues and 3 extra Paralogues.
Impressions:
PROS:
Pair Up/Dual Tag - This mechanic really shakes up the game and the strategies. By the end, I had everyone pairing up. It added a lot of tactics for offense, defense, and even movement/positioning. The game plays like Fire Emblem: Double Dash.
Relationship Gameplay - Intelligent Systems had the stated goal of building relationships, and all of this is very well integrated into the gameplay. From pairing, tags, support bonuses, multiple attacks, and support blocks, the theme of the game becomes the way you play it.
Streamlined Compilation - Much of what worked well in past Fire Emblem games is here and easy to use and understand. Branching character upgrades, skills, the preparations screen, the shopping, etc.
Support Conversations - Many of the support conversations are well-written and bring a humorous and new look to the characters.
CONS:
Difficulty - My biggest complaint is the difficulty. Even without grinding and only by playing 7 Paralogues, I breezed through the last few missions with few problems. Hard seemed to offer a fair challenge at the beginning, but the leveling is insane in this game. I didn't even abuse tricks like Nosferatu-tanking either.
I was maxing out 20/20 characters and then reclassing way more than I ever reached 20/20 characters in past Fire Emblem games with fewer chapters. Maybe I broke the game for myself by playing 7 Paralogues, but because you're supposed to recruit characters, they seem essential to the experience.
I don't know if it's because of the growth rates, the overpowered characters, the goal of making the series more "accessible" or the fact that characters can now level without being in battle themselves (through pairing), but this actually makes the late game easier than the early game, moreso than any past FE game I've played. For a game that hinges on strategy gameplay, it's unfortunate that the late game gets significantly easier.
Story - The narrative is simplistic, yet overly convoluted. It's classic poor video game storytelling. But even by Fire Emblem standards, it falls short. The villian(s) are not as interesting as Sacred Stones' nuanced Lyon character, and any interesting political overtones from Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn are completely gone.
Hammering You Over The Head With The Theme - While Intelligent Systems is great at integrating the theme of friendships/relationships into gameplay (form and content), the writing is awful. You're frequently left with bizarre quasi-homoerotic dialogue like:
Rather than using subtext to imply a growing friendship, the writers just choose to blatantly have characters talk about being friends way too often.
OVERALL:
A great Fire Emblem game with a new innovation of pairing based on the old support system. I wonder if the series will continue on like this or if Awakening will truly be the Double Dash of the series.
The difficulty is all over the place, but hopefully IntSys can refine this as they get used to offering all these new options like a world map, random encounters, optional sidequests, DLC, Classic vs Casual, and four levels of difficulty. Still, the refinement of past games with finite EXP is missed.
Unfortunately, video game storytelling is still shit, even for games that spend a lot of time on story. The characters have some nice interactions though, and nothing takes itself so seriously that this can detract from the experience.
I'd put the game under Path of Radiance and FE7 (nostalgia?), but above Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, and definitely Shadow Dragon.
Impressions:
PROS:
Pair Up/Dual Tag - This mechanic really shakes up the game and the strategies. By the end, I had everyone pairing up. It added a lot of tactics for offense, defense, and even movement/positioning. The game plays like Fire Emblem: Double Dash.
Relationship Gameplay - Intelligent Systems had the stated goal of building relationships, and all of this is very well integrated into the gameplay. From pairing, tags, support bonuses, multiple attacks, and support blocks, the theme of the game becomes the way you play it.
Streamlined Compilation - Much of what worked well in past Fire Emblem games is here and easy to use and understand. Branching character upgrades, skills, the preparations screen, the shopping, etc.
Support Conversations - Many of the support conversations are well-written and bring a humorous and new look to the characters.
CONS:
Difficulty - My biggest complaint is the difficulty. Even without grinding and only by playing 7 Paralogues, I breezed through the last few missions with few problems. Hard seemed to offer a fair challenge at the beginning, but the leveling is insane in this game. I didn't even abuse tricks like Nosferatu-tanking either.
I was maxing out 20/20 characters and then reclassing way more than I ever reached 20/20 characters in past Fire Emblem games with fewer chapters. Maybe I broke the game for myself by playing 7 Paralogues, but because you're supposed to recruit characters, they seem essential to the experience.
I don't know if it's because of the growth rates, the overpowered characters, the goal of making the series more "accessible" or the fact that characters can now level without being in battle themselves (through pairing), but this actually makes the late game easier than the early game, moreso than any past FE game I've played. For a game that hinges on strategy gameplay, it's unfortunate that the late game gets significantly easier.
Story - The narrative is simplistic, yet overly convoluted. It's classic poor video game storytelling. But even by Fire Emblem standards, it falls short. The villian(s) are not as interesting as Sacred Stones' nuanced Lyon character, and any interesting political overtones from Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn are completely gone.
Hammering You Over The Head With The Theme - While Intelligent Systems is great at integrating the theme of friendships/relationships into gameplay (form and content), the writing is awful. You're frequently left with bizarre quasi-homoerotic dialogue like:
Rather than using subtext to imply a growing friendship, the writers just choose to blatantly have characters talk about being friends way too often.
OVERALL:
A great Fire Emblem game with a new innovation of pairing based on the old support system. I wonder if the series will continue on like this or if Awakening will truly be the Double Dash of the series.
The difficulty is all over the place, but hopefully IntSys can refine this as they get used to offering all these new options like a world map, random encounters, optional sidequests, DLC, Classic vs Casual, and four levels of difficulty. Still, the refinement of past games with finite EXP is missed.
Unfortunately, video game storytelling is still shit, even for games that spend a lot of time on story. The characters have some nice interactions though, and nothing takes itself so seriously that this can detract from the experience.
I'd put the game under Path of Radiance and FE7 (nostalgia?), but above Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, and definitely Shadow Dragon.
You get definitely make it to the end with everyone. Just select casual so no one is permanently gone.
Every time there's dialogue with Kellam related, I end up laughing and being all like damn. I paired him up with Miriel, so I'm looking forward to the support convos with his son.
Boss Doggie
all my loli wolf companions are so moe
Ah I thought you'd do some more quests. Thank goodness.
Oh apparently it's Scion of Legend.
Incendiary
Banned
Yeah I just got him. He looks like he's gonna be badass. Not sure if he'll be better than Zihark, though, he's always been my favorite.
Whoa whoa whoa, there are CHILDREN in this game? Mind BLOWN. Somehow I missed that. (I never fully read the OT because I wanted to go in fresh with as little knowledge as possible.) Holy crap. This game just got even better!
yeah man you can outfit your 1 year old kid with a ladle and pot pan as his sword and shield. Kids in this game are freaking ferocious; they levitate and shit and zip across an entire field stabbing people left and right. Like fuck, it is fucking grotesque. After the battle, the map is covered in the blood of the enemy. Fucking blood, fucking everywhere.
Nah I'm just kidding. Enjoy the game.
Hours Left
Member
Eh, I don't like his design either. I know he can be a beast, but so can a lot of other units that I like much better.
I rarely choose a team based on stats.
I started a second playthrough and this time I'm using mostly units I didn't use my first time through. Especially Kellam. He waves for attention when he gets healed. Muhahah. (I'm going to use Gregor again because Gregor is the best. "Don't vant to get along, eh?" *critical* In fact, I'm using a female avatar, so I'm going to marry Gregor because I want his babies.)
Uh, I said if he didn't want to baby him. It'd be more annoying to do so in Lunatic. But of course yeah there's ways around it thanks to the DLC maps.
I think so too. It's not like in Radiant Dawn where half the Dawn Brigade was bad because you didn't have time to get their levels up. With the Risen appearing over the map from time to time, you can get some fights with a certain class one of your units is better against. Donny will still have his 80HP and 40 something in everything like he currently has for me. That's simply really good, considering he always gets back up to that 80HP with Sol and amazing weapons given to him don't drop in durability (Luck x2 means it loses a use around 20x slower).
clay_ghost
Member
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Hope you have better luck next time.
Yeah the story and worldbuilding is fucked. I could probably think up 2 or 3 paragraphs that would adequately describe a country or region in Elibe or Tellius, but trying to think anything substantial about Yllisse or Valm or wherever turns my head hollow. Those worlds aren't even that novel or original it's just there's nothing to work with in Awakening's case.
Yeah, I think a lot of people are overlooking the fact that he maxes out lower than practically every other character in the game and he's rather limited in classes (then again, Hero isn't necessarily that bad).
Donnel just has really good growths. He'll eventually fall off if you try to go all the way with characters.
He really is, I leveled him in my Hard mode playthrough. He is a walking tank, too OP.
Hours Left
Member
I was pretty much breezing past Hard/Classic without any losses or big mistakes through CoY1, Paralogue #1 and the first 4 chapters. Then Chapter 5 hit me like a brick wall. 
My dream team of Stahl and Miriel (who are now S rank) continue to wreak havoc, however. Where they go, a flurry of crits follow.
My dream team of Stahl and Miriel (who are now S rank) continue to wreak havoc, however. Where they go, a flurry of crits follow.
Hours Left
Member
I wasn't expecting to use Panne much pre-game, but now I love her. (Her supports with Virion are a lot more interesting than I thought, I had them paired up by necessity at first, but now I'm really into the pair.) I'm excited for their offspring, I plan to make him a main in my army.
(╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
The worst one was when my Avatar gained 1 to Res, and that's supposed to be my negative and his comment was someone having to keep the status quo. Fucken RNG
HawthorneKitty
Sgt. 2nd Class in the Creep Battalion, Waifu Wars
Just hit chapter 19 and had to bumrush the level since I went reclassing crazy, leaving the majority of my units hiding in bushes, clinging for their lives.
Time to grind I guess....
Time to grind I guess....
SolarKnight
Member
Note to self: Just because the map is full of Wyverns it doesn't mean bringing all of your squishy-yet-strong-against-flying-enemies characters is a good idea =.=
God damn it Ricken stop fucking dying.
God damn it Ricken stop fucking dying.
The worst is just not getting anything for one skill. My avatar promoted at level20 with 10 fukking speed.
How can one of the main characters get doubled so easily lol...
DXB-KNIGHT
Member
Should I use the master seal as soon as one of my characters hits lv10 or should I wait a bit and level them up some more?
firehawk12
Subete no aware
Newbie question:
So I know there's some debate about whether or not to promote a class at level 10 or level 20... and I'm not sure what the consensus is on that, but I was wondering - after you reach level 15 in your promoted class, should you keep leveling to 30 or should you change class to start getting new skills?
So I know there's some debate about whether or not to promote a class at level 10 or level 20... and I'm not sure what the consensus is on that, but I was wondering - after you reach level 15 in your promoted class, should you keep leveling to 30 or should you change class to start getting new skills?
I just realized that we're getting DLC at a slower pace than Japan did. Why??
First time playing? I'd recommend waiting till level 20. They don't lose stats during a promotion anyway.
Use the Master Seals to promote.
If you're skill hunting then it's recommended that you promote as soon as you learn the other skills.
First time playing? I'd recommend waiting till level 20. They don't lose stats during a promotion anyway.
So I have several characters at level 20 now. What do I do with them?
And did I miss something in the game that teaches me about promoting and class changes? Everyone seems so knowledgeable on the subject and if I didn't browse GAF I wouldn't know class change even existed.
Use the Master Seals to promote.
If you're skill hunting then it's recommended that you promote as soon as you learn the other skills.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
So there's no reason to even try to hit level 20 on the normal classes?
I'm just worried about being under-leveled, but I guess on Normal, that isn't really a problem?
Basileus777
Member
For using master seals, the trade-off is more stat gains before promotion or quicker access to better skills. Either way you go, you won't be penalized, so don't worry about it too much. But when using second seals, gaining unnecessary levels will raise your character's internal level and make you level more slowly, so definitely use second seals once you've gained the 2nd skill for your promoted class.
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