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Fire Emblem Awakening |OT| Lord of the RNG

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That's a very good point!
For instance in FE4, the HQ in the end of each map was your starting point for the next area and that was fucking amazing because that amplified the travel feeling.

I haven't played FE4 (I really need to...the fan translations are good, right?), is that anything like the base in FE9/10? Because I loved the base in those games. The barracks in Awakening just aren't the same...
 
Also, why is the option to optimize equipment for all of my characters always grayed out? I feel like at one time I was able to hit L for "Manage" while on the inventory screen (on the map) then "optimize" and it would basically "optimize all." Now that option is never available to select. By I can go in an optimize each individual character, so it's not like they are all already optimized. Puzzling.
 
Also, why is the option to optimize equipment for all of my characters always grayed out? I feel like at one time I was able to hit L for "Manage" while on the inventory screen (on the map) then "optimize" and it would basically "optimize all." Now that option is never available to select. By I can go in an optimize each individual character, so it's not like they are all already optimized. Puzzling.
I honestly have no idea how the optimize feature works so I just don't mess with it. While we're complaining about the inventory system though, what's up with the "reorder" option? It seems like it randomly pops up now and then (on staves, I think?) but definitely not all the time. The only way I've found to order my items on a character is equipping them to get them at the top of the list which is just silly.

Something about seeing a concoction or elixir wedged between two weapons just doesn't feel right, you know?
 

ultron87

Member
Also, why is the option to optimize equipment for all of my characters always grayed out? I feel like at one time I was able to hit L for "Manage" while on the inventory screen (on the map) then "optimize" and it would basically "optimize all." Now that option is never available to select. By I can go in an optimize each individual character, so it's not like they are all already optimized. Puzzling.

I think you can only do it before a battle. It needs to know who you want to use before it can give out everything. Otherwise it would just spread everything too thin to a bunch of characters that aren't even fighting.
 

Soulhouf

Member
I haven't played FE4 (I really need to...the fan translations are good, right?), is that anything like the base in FE9/10? Because I loved the base in those games. The barracks in Awakening just aren't the same...

It's different. You have a main base and you have to protect it. If it's captured by the enemy, you loose.
You can also capture castles to use them as your base. Yes there are a gameplay feature to capture buildings and it's a very strategic.
When a chapter begins, all your characters are in the base and the chapter doesn't begin unless characters start to go out of your base. You don't lose turns when you are in the base either.

This is what you can do in a base:
- Deploy your units. You can hide unit in the base any time and use it as a shelter.
- Fight in the arena to gain experience and gold. You can also recruit some particular characters in the arena.
- Buy/sell items
- Stock up items
- Repair your weapons. If a weapon reaches 0, it doesn't disappear and you can repair it with your gold.
- Speak with the fortune-teller who will give you hints about affinity between characters
- Evolve your characters who reached level 20

Your base looks like this from the inside:
fire_emblem__seisen_no_keifu_screen_31.jpg


As you can see, its function is far more important in that episode. FE4 remains by far my favorite because it did everything right and oddly enough it had the most advanced gameplay system in the entire series. Really an awesome game.
Also there wasn't any limit regarding the number of characters to use during a battle which was awesome. You never had the painful dilemma: which character I'm going to use in this chapter :/

TBH I didn't check the translation and only played the Japanese version.

Also, why is the option to optimize equipment for all of my characters always grayed out? I feel like at one time I was able to hit L for "Manage" while on the inventory screen (on the map) then "optimize" and it would basically "optimize all." Now that option is never available to select. By I can go in an optimize each individual character, so it's not like they are all already optimized. Puzzling.

Optimize actually doesn't optimize a shit.
I did it once to see and had to re equip everybody because the so called optimize screwed everything lol
 

Lunar15

Member
Path of Radiance felt like a full campaign. The the introduction built up the drama slowly and once everything went hell the plot across the different nations got really interesting. It did meander a bit during Serenes Forest, but by the time you mounted the campaign to drive into Daein, it felt like you had really gathered an army and were marching on the enemy. While cliched, Ike's "honorable mercenary" attitude towards Elincia and her crisis just felt really fresh for the series. The added bonus of having Ike's personal vendetta with the Black Knight really drove home Ike as a hero with purpose. There's a reason Radiant Dawn was so massive; Tellius was fully fleshed out and ripe for more conflict by the end of PoR.

I'm not far enough into Awakening to really make any real judgement calls, but the world building does seem weak. Characters are interesting, however, and the writing is not bad. It definitely feels like they've scaled back the "medieval politics" angle in order to have a more streamlined story. Not necessarily a bad thing.
 
It's different. You have a main base and you have to protect it. If it's captured by the enemy, you loose.
You can also capture castles to use them as your base. Yes there are a gameplay feature to capture buildings and it's a very strategic.
When a chapter begins, all your characters are in the base and the chapter doesn't begin unless characters start to go out of your base. You don't lose turns when you are in the base either.

This is what you can do in a base:
- Deploy your units. You can hide unit in the base any time and use it as a shelter.
- Fight in the arena to gain experience and gold. You can also recruit some particular characters in the arena.
- Buy/sell items
- Stock up items
- Repair your weapons. If a weapon reaches 0, it doesn't disappear and you can repair it with your gold.
- Speak with the fortune-teller who will give you hints about affinity between characters
- Evolve your characters who reached level 20

As you can see, its function is far more important in that episode. FE4 remains by far my favorite because it did everything right and oddly enough it had the most advanced gameplay system in the entire series. Really an awesome game.
Also there wasn't any limit regarding the number of characters to use during a battle which was awesome. You never had the painful dilemma: which character I'm going to use in this chapter :/

TBH I didn't check the translation and only played the Japanese version.

That sounds awesome. I really need to check that one out.

Path of Radiance felt like a full campaign. The the introduction built up the drama slowly and once everything went hell the plot across the different nations got really interesting. It did meander a bit during Serenes Forest, but by the time you mounted the campaign to drive into Daein, it felt like you had really gathered an army and were marching on the enemy. While cliched, Ike's "honorable mercenary" attitude towards Elincia and her crisis just felt really fresh for the series. The added bonus of having Ike's personal vendetta with the Black Knight really drove home Ike as a hero with purpose. There's a reason Radiant Dawn was so massive; Tellius was fully fleshed out and ripe for more conflict by the end of PoR.

I'm not far enough into Awakening to really make any real judgement calls, but the world building does seem weak. Characters are interesting, however, and the writing is not bad. It definitely feels like they've scaled back the "medieval politics" angle in order to have a more streamlined story. Not necessarily a bad thing.

Yeah, I agree that Awakening's characters and writing are pretty good so far. In terms of scaling back, this does kind of seem like "Fire Emblem all-stars" game, what with all the DLC and SpotPass characters and scenarios. To me, it almost feels like a "last hurrah" for the series as we know it. I'm wondering if Intelligent Systems is a little tired of making Fire Emblem games in the same general format, like they've been doing for the last 23 years? I wouldn't be surprised if the next iteration was significantly different, especially given their comments about how they considered having this game take place on Mars. I think I would actually really like a sci-fi based Fire Emblem game...
 

GeekyDad

Member
Characters are interesting, however, and the writing is not bad. It definitely feels like they've scaled back the "medieval politics" angle in order to have a more streamlined story. Not necessarily a bad thing.

I feel kinda the opposite. I like the somewhat dry, political tone over the "Tales of" melodrama. I do enjoy the overarching story and plot, but the details -- a lot of the dialogue and plot devices -- are mostly poorly written in my opinion. Again, though, I'm coming off of another playthrough of War of the Lions, so my expectations in that department are pretty high.
 
Whoo, reclassed my avatar to Dark Mage since he hit level 20 before some of my units got to level 8 lol.

I'm pairing Lon Qu with Panne because he's afraid of girls. I figure a rabbit is less offensive.

edit: Dark Mage is so UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYY noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

double edit: what's the point of dark magic having a lower hit rate if Dark Mages get the hex skill?
 

Soulhouf

Member
I feel kinda the opposite. I like the somewhat dry, political tone over the "Tales of" melodrama. I do enjoy the overarching story and plot, but the details -- a lot of the dialogue and plot devices -- are mostly poorly written in my opinion. Again, though, I'm coming off of another playthrough of War of the Lions, so my expectations in that department are pretty high.

Haha you'll have a hard time finding something equivalent to that or Tactics Ogre.
Fire Emblem is more aimed to a younger audience, that's why the characters are so clean and conversations never go so high. I still love it though.
 
I reclassed my avatar to a Hero once he hit 20 in Grandmaster and now he's basically just a poor man's Donnel. :(

In other tales of tragedy, I suffered my second casualty yesterday (that I was willing to go through with) when Maribelle went down in Chapter 20. Lon'qu is so upset at losing his wife that I'm afraid he won't be able to participate as frequently in future battles. Her sacrifice will not be forgotten.
 

Forkball

Member
Whoo, reclassed my avatar to Dark Mage since he hit level 20 before some of my units got to level 8 lol.

I'm pairing Lon Qu with Panne because he's afraid of girls. I figure a rabbit is less offensive.

edit: Dark Mage is so UGLYYYYYYYYYYYYY noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Haha I made my Avatar a Dark Mage too. It looks so out of place when you are trying to seriously discuss tactics but you are wearing a see-through shirt.

I just married off Lonqu and Panne, now working on VirionXMaribelle and GaiusXOlivia(they are so underleveled...). The paralogue where you recruit Panne's kid is wild.
I decided to fight both armies but regretted it when I saw the reinforcements. Let's just say I'm glad I'm playing on casual.

Also for spotpass teams, is the only way to recruit them via buying them with gold, or can you fight them and they join?
 
I have no idea why I'm so hesitant to pair my avatar with anyone. I just don't know who. I just got Anna and apparently my avatar is one of few people she can have an S rank with, so I'm considering her.
 
FE4 remains by far my favorite because it did everything right and oddly enough it had the most advanced gameplay system in the entire series. Really an awesome game.

I love FE4, but I think it's a bit much to say that it did everything right and had the most advanced gameplay system. Some people may not love the giant maps where whole turns are lost just moving soldiers across the field. Capturing multiple enemy castles is cool, but there's not a whole lot of strategy to it since there are few penalties to losing those castles (once captured) and it's pretty rare that enemies even try to recapture (destroy) them. I don't want to make it sound like these features are bad - FE4 is tied for my favorite game in the series. I'm just not sure why they would make FE4 more advanced than, say, Thracia 776, which added a lot of interesting features like rescuing allies, capturing enemy soldiers, and varied mission objectives.

SenseiJinx, the fan translation for FE4 is perfectly good for getting you through the game. The major drawback is that the epilogue is not translated.

EDIT: I'm approaching the end of Awakening. I'm surprised by how much I've enjoyed the characters and the support convos in this game, since I usually skip/fast-forward through them in other FE games. They don't make up for the bland world and cliché story (seriously, aren't IS bored of using the same plot in fully half the FE games?), but they're nice. As far as the gameplay goes, I like the pair-up mechanic, and I like the return of the marriage system. I continue to dislike reclassing. I'll write a more thorough breakdown when I've finished.
 

zroid

Banned
"looks like Teach just got tenure"

Vaike is my favourite character now confirmed


PS: I agree about the inventory, it's oddly unintuitive
 

Soulhouf

Member
I love FE4, but I think it's a bit much to say that it did everything right and had the most advanced gameplay system. Some people may not love the giant maps where whole turns are lost just moving soldiers across the field. Capturing multiple enemy castles is cool, but there's not a whole lot of strategy to it since there are few penalties to losing those castles (once captured) and it's pretty rare that enemies even try to recapture (destroy) them. I don't want to make it sound like these features are bad - FE4 is tied for my favorite game in the series. I'm just not sure why they would make FE4 more advanced than, say, Thracia 776, which added a lot of interesting features like rescuing allies, capturing enemy soldiers, and varied mission objectives.

I was perhaps exaggerating when I said it did everything right.
Right. FE5 added many interesting features but lost some as well and many players were frustrated by that game. I still love it and consider it one of the finest. Perhaps if I play it again nowadays, it will become my favorite since I'm much more experienced, who knows?
I understand people who don't like spending turns advancing through giant battlefields but that added credibility and enhanced the sens of traveling and being in the middle of a war IMO.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
"looks like Teach just got tenure"

Vaike is my favourite character now confirmed


PS: I agree about the inventory, it's oddly unintuitive

When I first saw him, I thought there was no way I was going to use him. But he ended up being pretty hilarious.. not to mention useful.
 

Draxal

Member
I think FE IV is Japan's favorite. I would love a proper remake (.ie second ds fe and not first one) of it except you know !!! huge character spoilers !!!
POOR SIGURD
. But I wouldn't want another game like it again.

Anyway, I really don't mind the story in this game as it doesn't get in the way, and in all honesty it's kinda annoying to frame a story around Fire Emblem's gameplay. Give me all the character support like this and I'll be happier with the story compared to say the Tellius emblems.
 

ultron87

Member
Do some character level up support slower than others or something? I've been running Vaike with Tharja for a couple battles now and they only just got C. Or maybe I've just been not actually using them or something.
 

Lunar15

Member
Then you have Radiant Dawn, which focused so much on the world and story that it sacrificed gameplay. That game jumps around so much that it takes a lot of effort to properly train a great team for the final battles. Not to mention, they had to axe individual support convos and allow you to support anyone. Game was absolutely bonkers. Don't get me wrong, I love it because it was more Tellius, but that game was nuts. The final, multi-part chapter got pretty insane, even if you had really overpowered units.
 

Draxal

Member
"looks like Teach just got tenure"

Vaike is my favourite character now confirmed


PS: I agree about the inventory, it's oddly unintuitive

Proper usage of the restock option makes the inventory system alot stronger. But they really don't explain it at all.
 

Cheska

Member
Am I the only one getting overwhelmed by the decisions? Like, I'm hesitating on who to use my second seals and master seals on. And then we have the pairing, there's so many characters than can S link! My head feels like it's going to explode :O
 
can you redo the DLC over and over to level characters? If yes or no, are there any places to do such? I almost beat the free DLC but got crit near the end and lost a character so i reset before i could find out myself.
 
Then you have Radiant Dawn, which focused so much on the world and story that it sacrificed gameplay. That game jumps around so much that it takes a lot of effort to properly train a great team for the final battles. Not to mention, they had to axe individual support convos and allow you to support anyone. Game was absolutely bonkers. Don't get me wrong, I love it because it was more Tellius, but that game was nuts. The final, multi-part chapter got pretty insane, even if you had really overpowered units.

The scope of that game was awesome, but it did suffer from a lack of cohesion.
 

Draxal

Member
can you redo the DLC over and over to level characters? If yes or no, are there any places to do such? I almost beat the free DLC but got crit near the end and lost a character so i reset before i could find out myself.

Yes you can, it's also a fast way to grind up support.
 

Soulhouf

Member
Proper usage of the restock option makes the inventory system alot stronger. But they really don't explain it at all.

I discovered this not long ago and agree, it changed everything.
But it's very strange since it makes you think every weapon no longer has durability but you are carrying a pile of them. Weird...
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Am I the only one getting overwhelmed by the decisions? Like, I'm hesitating on who to use my second seals and master seals on. And then we have the pairing, there's so many characters than can S link! My head feels like it's going to explode :O

You're able to buy Seals in shops later, so you're never going to be running short. You can just build up Support with EVERYONE if you want to and decide on pairings based on their conversations.
 

Busaiku

Member
Haha I made my Avatar a Dark Mage too. It looks so out of place when you are trying to seriously discuss tactics but you are wearing a see-through shirt.

But I thought the different classes aren't reflected in the character portraits.
I promoted Robin to Grandmaster and he doesn't look different outside of battles.
 
Then you have Radiant Dawn, which focused so much on the world and story that it sacrificed gameplay. That game jumps around so much that it takes a lot of effort to properly train a great team for the final battles. Not to mention, they had to axe individual support convos and allow you to support anyone. Game was absolutely bonkers. Don't get me wrong, I love it because it was more Tellius, but that game was nuts. The final, multi-part chapter got pretty insane, even if you had really overpowered units.

I actually like the fact that characters have wildly different availabilities. I can see where it would be frustrating on the first play through (although Bonus Experience and Laguz Royals will ensure you have an endgame viable team no matter what on Normal Difficulty), but half the fun of planning subsequent playthroughs is that characters are very different and force you to play differently if you want to use them.

I also didn't mind the lack of individualized support conversations because, well, most support convos are boring anyway, and there's still plenty of character and world-building dialogue at the Base.

I agree, however, with your broad point that RD sometimes sacrificed gameplay for story. Putting fifty allied units on the map may have showcased the scale of the conflict, but it also meant you could put the controller down for two minutes before it was your turn again.
 
Well, I know for a fact that at least some of Chrom's change
(You run into Chrom about to take a bath in the A support)
, so I assume they're not all the same.
 

Shig

Strap on your hooker ...
"looks like Teach just got tenure"

Vaike is my favourite character now confirmed
I hated Vaike until I reclassed him as a barbarian. That yoke with the chains hanging from it was so dumb, but with a giant bear pelt he looks ballerrrr.
 

massoluk

Banned
I promoted Vaike to Warrior, because there was exactly one dude in my army that used a bow, and he's so damn obnoxious I needed alternative.
 

Anteo

Member
I'm still in chapter 12 so it's too early to judge but story wise the game FTM seems to be weaker than FE4,9 and 10.
Hell even the gameplay lacks some refinements compared to these games (why weapons do no longer have weight? Why I can't choose a weapon after doing an action? and so on...).

Huh? What do you mean? Change a weapon after attacking? I don't remember that in any of the Tellius games, or the GBA ones. Now if you mean chose a target and then a weapon, well you can. Or you can go to options and set it to pick a weapon and then a target.
 

Draxal

Member
Huh? What do you mean? Change a weapon after attacking? I don't remember that in any of the Tellius games, or the GBA ones. Now if you mean chose a target and then a weapon, well you can. Or you can go to options and set it to pick a weapon and then a target.

I do think you could in the GBA ones, you can kinda do it in this game but it's frustrating to do it that way (send another character next to the one character who attacked and then trade to reorder the items on the attacking character).
 

mercviper

Member
Bought the game a couple days ago. I'm new to the FE series but I love tactics games in general so I'm pretty happy with this.

Started on Lunatic - Hardcore because there's no other way to play and I've reset about 40 times already lol. Probably should've done Lunatic - Casual since I can win the fights but I reset when I leave Lissa/Sully/
everyone but Frederick
unprotected and she gets run in from behind. -_-

The Risen are so strong on this difficulty. Then again, I don't know how strong they are on lower diffs. I'm only on chapter 2 but there's at least 3 guys with 5+ speed over everyone but Frederick on the maps I've seen so far so I always need to target them first.
 

Niraj

I shot people I like more for less.
I have no idea why I'm so hesitant to pair my avatar with anyone. I just don't know who. I just got Anna and apparently my avatar is one of few people she can have an S rank with, so I'm considering her.

Same problem here, so you're not alone. I think I have A ranks with Anna, Tharja, and Cordelia, and haven't taken the plunge yet. I just want to have a harem, is that so wrong?
 

massoluk

Banned
Unless you're coming from a class with high STR growth it probably takes some serious training to actually get an Assassin to the point where they are decent with a bow. I turned Gaius into an Assassin and he is completely worthless with a bow (especially compared to Vaike as a Warrior).

To be fair Gaius does rocks as assassin that I completely forgot he could use a bow.
 
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