dakkumauji
Member
Leif needs his time to shine again!
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Fire Emblem Awakening |OT| Lord of the RNG
- Thread starter Mr. Fix
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Leif needs his time to shine again!
As much as I loved Blazing Sword back in the day, that would be a hard game to go back to in some ways. Namely supports, which Awakening does infinitely better. Blazing Sword had that weird deal where supports would only go up when units end a turn next to each other. The number of turns needed for A ranks were so absurdly high that I would have to clear a map of everyone but the boss on his gate/throne, group all my units up in a big hug orgy, then just End Turn continuously. And each character could only support five times total, so if you support with more than two characters you screw yourself out of a possible A rank.
Plus babysitting the caravan was for the birds. That guy was a living magnet for wyvern rider reinforcements.
Get the 3DS XL -- this game looks astounding on it, grand sweeping graphics all lush, full and vibrant.
As for Awakening, it's my first Fire Emblem, and I normally don't like SRPGS, but this game is VERY fast, fluid and accessible. Play on Casual mode, where you can save each turn and where fallen units return at the end of the mission, and set the difficulty to Normal (the default).
It's an extremely content-rich game. I've played for 20 hours so far, and I'm only on Ch. 15 (roughly halfway through the game). There are also many paralogues (side missions) available to me, as well as free battles I can elect to do at any time. There are countless character combinations when it comes to Supports, and when you beat the game once, you can try a higher difficulty setting, or even switch over to Classic mode, where fallen units stay dead.
The production values are superb. The game moves at a brisk clip. The menus are streamlined and refined -- just tap on any element you don't understand, and it will be explained in a succinct, easy-to-understand sentence or two. Every explanation can be revisited in a guide, but you won't need to since they teach it so well and it's not hard to understand. And if you don't play for a while and want to refresh on the story, there's a story icon that allows you to read summaries of what happened in previously completed chapters.
Again, I usually only play action games. For me to take to this game so well proves it's very accessible. It's definitely worth purchasing with a 3DS XL -- it could last you for months. It's like a warm immersive book, transporting you to another world you can get lost in for hours, or even play for 15 minutes and come away completely fulfilled and satisfied. And there are plenty of others games worth your while after that.
Go for it!
Thanks Neiteio!
I guess I should start shopping around for a 3DS...
Fred/Lissa canon pairing?
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Oh yeah, Lethality? That shit is amazing.
I ended Chapter 23 with it, as soon as
the second boss showed up
Eh... I wouldn't call Shining Force games limited EXP...
But, you essentially move from chapter to chapter, and might have an arena to abuse in between.
You'll see it on WiiU before 3DS going by Nintendos wonderful Virtual Console logic.
Anyways, I have an unplayed copy of Blazing Swords in my GBA collection that I only got due to impulse (it was $15 instead of it being $30 everywhere else) so after my hard/classic replay of Awakening I should get around to playing that one too.
Speaking of the differences between FE games, my favorite little feature in Awakening: bosses that stay put have a threat range that indicate they don't move. I hated it in past games were all bosses would have a threat range equal as if they had movement, even if they didn't. Now I don't have to tiptoe up to a boss, wondering if he's going to jump out and bite me or not.
Can you change from casual to classic in a started file, or is it permanent when you start a new game?
WrenchNinja
Member
It's permanent.
Basileus777
Member
It's permanent.
I couldn't find anywhere to grind my centaur women when I first played.
Egress and repeat battles. Infinite EXP.
Oh wow, I did not know that...I might go play Shining Force again one day.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I know everyone's talking about how bad grinding is.
But considering IS's success with Awakening and its DLC I wonder if they are going to retain the grinding element in future games.
If they've attributed part of their success to the addition of grinding in the game I think it's fair to say there's a good chance it will appear in future titles.
I'm all for tighter and more cohesive FE experiences but it's not looking good right now.
But considering IS's success with Awakening and its DLC I wonder if they are going to retain the grinding element in future games.
If they've attributed part of their success to the addition of grinding in the game I think it's fair to say there's a good chance it will appear in future titles.
I'm all for tighter and more cohesive FE experiences but it's not looking good right now.
NeonZ
Member
Huh? All Dark Magic aside from Flux has some kind of special propriety. You've got life absorbing Nosferatu, than one for critical rates, another for double attacks, one for long range strikes. All the other magic types just get stronger and stronger, the one exception being Celica's Gale.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
Yesh, Dark magic is the only one that really has some variety among the different tomes you can get.
But compare the other types to say RD where you had a magic circle like the weapon circle. Lightning vs Wyverns, Wind vs Pega Ponies, Fire vs Beast Laguz.
Magic needs more complexity in the next game for sure.
I just hope they dont do another magic triangle in a magic triangle. Man that was confusing. Plus the advantages and disadvantages didnt make much of a difference
SpaceBridge
Member
Now that I'm a new born fan of this series,I'm definitely hunting down some of the older games and I'll even give Shadow Dragon a chance. That being said, what do you guys think the future will hold for FE?
Been going through on Hard/Classic. Started up a new game of Lunatic/Casual for the hell of it. And damn, Lunatic isn't playing around! Game Over'd twice on the first mission already, even with hidding behind momma Fredrick's skirt. How do you do those early levels were you only have a handful of unit and the enemy swarms over you?
At the same time you didn't really need supports in that game. They were nice if you had them, but you could go the whole game without needing one.
The caravan was for the birds though, it was definitely improved in Path of Radiance where it was just a screen before each map.
I'd also miss dual attacking but all of that said I miss some stuff Blazing Sword had like the extra levels, static classes and differing maps/objectives. I hope we get more of the first and last points in the next game.
I feel like that this game was both a step forward and a step back in a way. For all the added complexity, it was very simplified in some ways.
NeonZ
Member
The problem with RD's system is that it made wind magic basically worthless. All types had advantages against different units, but wind was the weakest and... that's it. The game's final stage clearly favored thunder use on top of that due to enemy design. Also, due to wind having vastly lower power than thunder, sometimes the extra damage caused by wind wasn't even that big. Wind needs something special like the exclusive aerial weakness, while the other magic types have nothing to not be inferior to the others.
It depends on your point of reference. Most mechanics missing here hadn't been in the last two games in the first place... Awakening is actually the first game since Path of Radiance that didn't just remove mechanics from previous ones for no reason.
Give Frederick that Bronze Sword.
All Frederick all the time.
Path had most of the features missing here. That was another Fire Emblem I really liked. But yea we probably won't see most of those features come back at this rate.
The grinding isn't even necessary for the campaign or it's paralogues. They should keep it optional, which it was in this game. In fact, it's the only reason why the whole cast is accessible.
NeonZ
Member
I like grinding in the way IS has implemented it, both here and in Sacred Stones. The main campaign is designed without it in mind, so you can just go through it without wasting time on that, or go for it if you can't get through the story chapters. The main issue with Awakening's design is just the children paralogues - which are some of the best maps in the game, but come in a confusing order regarding the level necessary to get through them.
Both Sacred Stones and this game offer much more content to be done with a basically "finished" file, like various random skirmishes and gathering more supports, without needing to reset the game and build a new party. Path of Radiance's end game was what...? 3-5 maps that couldn't save, and the only way to get new characters was replaying the game several times. Also no way to build extra supports or anything. Radiant Dawn didn't even have that feature. I guess one could always just replay the main story, but sticking around with the end game party for a while rather than just erasing it at once is rather appealing to me.
Incendiary
Banned
I think the most frustrating thing to be about Hard/Classic is that the beginning of the paralogues are basically the same. The first five/six rounds are pretty much step-by-step recreations. I get through about half-2/3 the enemies and then everything goes to shit, and then I have to start all over again.
Worst offender this time was I set up my defense so only my two strongest pairs could be hit. Neither could be hit more than three times total, and both had full health.
One of the pairs gets hit by all three attackers, all scoring on <50% chances to hit. Goddammit.
Worst offender this time was I set up my defense so only my two strongest pairs could be hit. Neither could be hit more than three times total, and both had full health.
One of the pairs gets hit by all three attackers, all scoring on <50% chances to hit. Goddammit.
Yeah, that's exactly what it is. We'll most likely get it next week.
I'd love to see something like the Lagdou Ruins in the next game. Maybe with more floors, or something randomly generated like Disgaea's dungeons.
So you can basically pay for ways to make the game a lot easier, huh.
I have a feeling it's going to be very hard going back to games in the series before this one, Awakening just seems so much more advanced and user friendly than others.
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
Imo, considering the difficulty of normal, I personally think you should only turn on Casual if you're playing on Hard, even if this is your first FE. I think Normal Classic is the perfect introduction to the series.
VanillaCakeIsBurning
Member
I was on RD's last 10 chapters or so before I stopped playing so I'm not sure how the ending chapters played out.
RD's system might have been flawed in that regard but I think it's a good concept that with some tweaking would be good in a future title.
I think it's more about how you kind of need to to get everything. I mean compared to previous games where grinding or just doing the optional chapters didn't make the main story missions too easy. Someone else can probably articulate the perceived issues with it more clearly than I can.
I understand your points, I'm just surprised that I could blitz through the story mode easily since the older FE games I've played required you to make do with what you had and leverage experience carefully while maintaining a good challenge. I didn't get that same experience with this game.
I haven't touched my hard mode playthrough in a few days and I'm still on chapter 2/3 if I remember correctly. Maybe after playing some more without abusing reeking boxes I'll be able to recapture that old feeling.
Grinding itself I think in the end isn't the biggest issue, it just gets more spotlight over the others for some reason.
The Awesomest
Member
Bursting out of the ground is Bolganone's thing though.
Lyn's not as uptight as Lucy seems to be. She's more rough around the edges, since she wasn't raised as nobility.
This guy has something to say about that. FE7 spoilers. Fun read.
Nope.
Having reached the point where I have a map full of these paralogues now, I definitely agree with the bolded. Even if they'd just numbered them in such a way that higher paralogues are indicative of higher difficulty, it would help out a lot. As far as I know that isn't the case though.
Of course the other issue for obsessive types like myself is that, at this point in the game, getting the skills you would actually WANT to pass down to the children requires grinding the parents (har har) higher than they concievably need to be by the point in the game you can take on the paralogue. By the time you recruit the kids the way you'd like, your first generation characters will probably all be more than strong enough to blaze through the rest of the game anyway. It's a cool system, but also one that basically asks you to break the game.
At the very least, I'll probably buy the Experience-boosting DLC for the sake of speeding up growth for skill-descending purposes. I could see that being a big timesaver in future run-throughs of the game.So you can basically pay for ways to make the game a lot easier, huh.
Freezie KO
Banned
I think grinding would be best if there were modes that had it. Like maybe only Easy/Normal has grinding. That way you can keep it optional, but it doesn't effect the main difficulty balance.
Options are fine and all, but the difficulty balance in Awakening isn't very good. Normal is easy. Hard is normal, except for a few difficult missions that are genuinely hard. And Lunatic puts your balls in a vice. I don't care if someone wants to cheat, but all the available options may have had an effect on IntSys's ability to provide a streamlined and guided experience.
Options are fine and all, but the difficulty balance in Awakening isn't very good. Normal is easy. Hard is normal, except for a few difficult missions that are genuinely hard. And Lunatic puts your balls in a vice. I don't care if someone wants to cheat, but all the available options may have had an effect on IntSys's ability to provide a streamlined and guided experience.
WrenchNinja
Member
Amusing but pretty nit picky.
Ah, I forgot about that. At the very least, I wish it were more impressive!
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