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Fire Emblem Awakening |OT| Lord of the RNG

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You guys think if I liked Advance War, I will enjoy Fire Emblem?
It's a pretty safe bet, although the games are fairly different in some significant ways. The most important difference is that FE is a much more RPG focused series where you have individual units that level up and change classes as the game progresses. In previous FE's whenever you lost a unit they were gone forever (unless they were an important main character in which case you got game over and had to retry the chapter) but Awakening has a "casual" mode that allows all of your units to rejoin you after a battle in which they fell. I'd advise against that option since the tense nature of FE is part of what makes it so great for me but if it's a barrier keeping you from being interested at least you have the option of avoiding it.

You won't really be worrying about manufacturing units and controlling bases in FE, instead you'll be focused on growing your favorite characters and equipping them with new weapons and spells as the game goes along. There is also a good deal of inventory management that takes place outside of the battles themselves, as well as a world map that you'll navigate in between chapters.

Also, Fire Emblem is about 1000x better than Advance Wars.
 

Artemisia

Banned
They're still fighting Aizen?

toofunny.gif
that's exactly why I stopped watching that shit
 

Prax

Member
The one new mechanic in this FE that I was the most curious about (and skeptical) was the ability to pair up two units so that they share a tile. According to RPGamer's review, this feature is basically pointless:


That's fine with me really, since the idea didn't seem too promising to begin with. For anyone who has played a significant amount of the game, is this also your experience with the pairing mechanic?

RPGamer sounds like that don't know what they're talking about?
On the higher difficulty, it seems really necessary to use Pair Up to pad weaker units with stat boosts. Plus it's fun!
I wouldn't call it a rescue move though, because it doesn't work that way. You don't swoop in and "rescue" the endangered unit, because the target unit you pair with turns into the main unit, and if you already used up your turn "endangering" yourself, then pairing up will only give a stat boost instead of letting you whisk them away. But the stat boost itself can be the unit's savior (extra def, spd, dodge, etc.). But it can also get them killed if you are REALLY hoping they don't crit the next enemy attack or have the dual battle partner activate, killing their buffer, and leaving themselves open for the next wave. XD

Cramming all the units into more limited space is also useful for me (hole yourself up better and activate more friendship bonuses at once?). And being able to switch and transfer units to juggle with stat boosts also seems useful.

Or maybe I am playing it wrong, but yeah.. it seems to be a fundamental mechanic and you won't truly "get it" until you play with it (and are trying to level up squishy units on hard/lunatic lol).
 

Chrom

Junior Member
RPGamer sounds like that don't know what they're talking about?
On the higher difficulty, it seems really necessary to use Pair Up to pad weaker units with stat boosts. Plus it's fun!
I wouldn't call it a rescue move though, because it doesn't work that way. You don't swoop in and "rescue" the endangered unit, because the target unit you pair with turns into the main unit, and if you already used up your turn "endangering" yourself, then pairing up will only give a stat boost instead of letting you whisk them away. But the stat boost itself can be the unit's savior (extra def, spd, dodge, etc.). But it can also get them killed if you are REALLY hoping they don't crit the next enemy attack or have the dual battle partner activate, killing their buffer, and leaving themselves open for the next wave. XD

Cramming all the units into more limited space is also useful for me (hole yourself up better and activate more friendship bonuses at once?). And being able to switch and transfer units to juggle with stat boosts also seems useful.

Or maybe I am playing it wrong, but yeah.. it seems to be a fundamental mechanic and you won't truly "get it" until you play with it (and are trying to level up squishy units on hard/lunatic lol).

I thought you able to switch roles immediately after getting together on the same turn? I forget. If not, it almost sounds like it's a reverse rescue or something, haha.
 

JollyWolf

Member
It's a pretty safe bet, although the games are fairly different in some significant ways. The most important difference is that FE is a much more RPG focused series where you have individual units that level up and change classes as the game progresses. In previous FE's whenever you lost a unit they were gone forever (unless they were an important main character in which case you got game over and had to retry the chapter) but Awakening has a "casual" mode that allows all of your units to rejoin you after a battle in which they fell. I'd advise against that option since the tense nature of FE is part of what makes it so great for me but if it's a barrier keeping you from being interested at least you have the option of avoiding it.

You won't really be worrying about manufacturing units and controlling bases in FE, instead you'll be focused on growing your favorite characters and equipping them with new weapons and spells as the game goes along. There is also a good deal of inventory management that takes place outside of the battles themselves, as well as a world map that you'll navigate in between chapters.

Also, Fire Emblem is about 1000x better than Advance Wars.
Sound good to me! I'll try this out.
 

Javier

Member
Japan-only characters
Julia, Deirdre, Nanna and Lilina
, who appear in the first DLC, all retained their names.
 

Prax

Member
I thought you able to switch roles immediately after getting together on the same turn? I forget. If not, it almost sounds like it's a reverse rescue or something, haha.

No. You definitely can't switch after the main unit already used their turn. Pairing uses up the unit's turn that wants to activate the pairing relationship.
Otherwise it would be broken and the game would be balanced to be even harder.

It pretty much is reverse rescue.. with with extra stuff! And kind of totally different.. lol

SO glad rescue and the advanced version of that, capturing, didn't make it into the game with enemies capturing/mugging your units. They probably thought of it, but it would have been too crazy and brutal. XD
 

bonercop

Member
You guys think if I liked Advance War, I will enjoy Fire Emblem?

Would you enjoy Advance Wars if it had a limited pool of units that were all unique, customizable and progressed in a RPG fashion rather than being generic units tied to a resource?

If that sounds good to you, you'll love Fire Emblem.
 

Joule

Member
Edit: anyone have a problem with the language options? Mine keeps switching back from Japanese to English :/

Yeah it seems to switch back to English when you start it up despite the setting it to Japanese. I suppose you can just switch it to back every time you play.

I've put about 4 hours into the game thus far and it's quite fun unsurprisingly. I'm liking the pair up system at this point in the game. It gives me some more options as to how I can plan out my moves. The stat bonus are pretty nice too. The additional boost is sometimes just I what I need to do enough damage or reduce it or even enough for a x2 attack. Having Sumia carry Chrom around and then switching to Chrom for a 2x Falchion is fantastic.

Some of these chapters have been fairly challenging on Hard and that's exactly what I want. The paralouge where Anna appears gave me a fair bit of trouble.

Haven't decided too much on how I want to work my supports but MC + Sully have been putting in work as well as Sumia and Chrom.
 

Socreges

Banned
I wish rescue was in. I love the complexity of it. Bailing myself out of impossible situations with rescue+shove is always very cool. Doesn't have to be more helpful for it to be a superior feature, imo.
 

Chrom

Junior Member
Maybe it's just me, but I think they probably didn't add in the traditional rescue mechanic because of how Constitution isn't a thing anymore. That's how it was with the DS games, too.
 
i thought we were friends
Haha, I thought I would be safe saying that in a FE thread.

Maybe it's just because I got into FE way before Advance Wars, but honestly I just love FE's focus on unique individual units and RPG elements. I can certainly understand why someone would prefer Advance Wars but for me personally it just can't touch FE. The progression of your units from battle to battle is something that I really love and obviously that just isn't a focus in Advance Wars.

Plus, in Advance Wars I'm constantly worrying about letting the enemy attack first, whereas in FE I'm building up my units to the point where they can stand in the face of danger and confidently proclaim, "bring it on."
Only to be slaughtered by the RNG but that's neither here nor there.

I still like Advance Wars, though. I hope IS makes another one for the 3DS (or WiiU).
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Anyone know how long the game is?

20 hours to beat it is the rough estimate I guess. I'm 7 hours and just beat Chapter 6 (early). Much longer if you play the DLC. Much much longer if you replay for more support convos, different marriages. Much much much longer if you play Lunatic and then Lunatic+. :p
 

Emitan

Member
20 hours to beat it is the rough estimate I guess. I'm 7 hours and just beat Chapter 6 (early). Much longer if you play the DLC. Much much longer if you replay for more support convos, different marriages. Much much much longer if you play Lunatic and then Lunatic+. :p

The in game timer sort of lies though. Unless you never restart a chapter.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
The in game timer sort of lies though. Unless you never restart a chapter.

Indeed. I've put more than my seven hours on game clock into it, although I haven't been restarting too much in the last few chapters. I imagine if you choose to play on Normal / Casual, it could be finished quickly though.
 

Wiz

Member
20 hours to beat it is the rough estimate I guess. I'm 7 hours and just beat Chapter 6 (early). Much longer if you play the DLC. Much much longer if you replay for more support convos, different marriages. Much much much longer if you play Lunatic and then Lunatic+. :p

So basically it's as long as you want it to be. :p
 
I also chose luck as my asset on my MC without knowing what it contributes to. I hope it does good things.

Luck does a bunch of things. The main thing is that it decreases the enemies chances of criticals. It also slightly adds to your avoid and hit rate. Also, some skills rely on luck for activation.
 

Socreges

Banned
Maybe it's just me, but I think they probably didn't add in the traditional rescue mechanic because of how Constitution isn't a thing anymore. That's how it was with the DS games, too.
Yeah, that's what I've assumed. Same reason why shove isn't in. But that's why they should have constitution in these games. It also affects which weapons certain units can use, which is an interesting layer.

I wonder why they decided to remove it. Seems like they spent enough time with the remakes (which wouldn't have features like constitution, rescue, etc) that they weren't interested in including it in the new title...? Hopefully the next FE has constitution returned.
 

EvilMario

Will QA for food.
Luck does a bunch of things. The main thing is that it decreases the enemies chances of criticals. It also slightly adds to your avoid and hit rate. Also, some skills rely on luck for activation.

Luck is my avatar's strong stat, and I don't regret it so far. He's by far my best sword unit right now.
 

Jarate

Banned
Called up my gamestoop and they don't have a release date tied to it...

im either worried, or wondering if the game ships on the 4th and that it just doesn't have a street date to it. Nintendo might've not made many copies of this game probably thinking it might flop
 

Joule

Member
Luck does a bunch of things. The main thing is that it decreases the enemies chances of criticals. It also slightly adds to your avoid and hit rate. Also, some skills rely on luck for activation.

Yeah I see that it's the activation stat for the miracle skill. Less criticals from the enemy side is always good.

I'm liking this sword/tome hybrid the avatar has going which makes Anna's sword/staff also appealing.
 
Yeah, that's what I've assumed. Same reason why shove isn't in. But that's why they should have constitution in these games. It also affects which weapons certain units can use, which is an interesting layer.

I wonder why they decided to remove it. Seems like they spent enough time with the remakes (which wouldn't have features like constitution, rescue, etc) that they weren't interested in including it in the new title...? Hopefully the next FE has constitution returned.

Well they also removed weapon weight with constitution so I guess they wanted to stop severely weakening some units probably. Always thought that rescue wasn't that helpful though.


Also, just called Gamestop and they said they should be getting it Sunday oddly enough. Guess I'll ask them again on that day.
 

Chrom

Junior Member
Well they also removed weapon weight with constitution so I guess they wanted to stop severely weakening some units probably. Always thought that rescue wasn't that helpful though.

Not just that, but they completely abolished Attack Speed altogether starting with New Mystery (I forgot Shadow Dragon didn't actually do this). Attack Speed is literally just Speed now. They simplified in New Mystery and Awakening how doubling in battles works. If you have 4 (5 in Awakening) or more Speed than the enemy, you attack again. That's it. It's much more streamlined now.
 

Busaiku

Member
Wait, my Gamestop already had it in stock, they just wouldn't sell it to me until Monday.
Now you're telling me it's gonna be delayed for no reason or something?
 
Not just that, but they completely abolished Attack Speed altogether starting with New Mystery (I forgot Shadow Dragon didn't actually do this). Attack Speed is literally just Speed now. They simplified in New Mystery and Awakening how doubling in battles works. If you have 4 (5 in Awakening) or more Speed than the enemy, you attack again. That's it. It's much more streamlined now.

While it makes things so much simpler, it does pretty much removes the incentive of sticking with weaker weapons once the stronger ones become common.

I did like FE9/10's method of relying on your strength but that was still pretty flawed if the RNG hated you.
 

Lumination

'enry 'ollins
I think I'm going +Spd, -Res. I definitely want a speedier character that can do both magic or physical depending on how I'm feeling. Thought about doing -Luk, but I guess the less random enemy crits, the better, and more skill activations is nice too.

Haha, I thought I would be safe saying that in a FE thread.

Maybe it's just because I got into FE way before Advance Wars, but honestly I just love FE's focus on unique individual units and RPG elements. I can certainly understand why someone would prefer Advance Wars but for me personally it just can't touch FE. The progression of your units from battle to battle is something that I really love and obviously that just isn't a focus in Advance Wars.

Plus, in Advance Wars I'm constantly worrying about letting the enemy attack first, whereas in FE I'm building up my units to the point where they can stand in the face of danger and confidently proclaim, "bring it on."
Only to be slaughtered by the RNG but that's neither here nor there.

I still like Advance Wars, though. I hope IS makes another one for the 3DS (or WiiU).
Yeah, I getcha. I love em both, but FE doesn't scratch the strategy itch as well, and AW doesn't scratch the RPG itch as well. Wish we could have both!
 

Chrom

Junior Member
While it makes things so much simpler, it does pretty much removes the incentive of sticking with weaker weapons once the stronger ones become common.

I did like FE9/10's method of relying on your strength but that was still pretty flawed if the RNG hated you.

Definitely true. The new system means that there is practically no reason to not use the strongest weapons available unless you're trying to be efficient with weapon uses or whatever. I can't say that I dislike it, though. I think it works fine as it does now.
 

Alchemy

Member
I'm thinking I might pick this up digitally, not sure yet. Guess it depends on if I can quickly find a copy on the 4th during my lunch break.
 

Chrom

Junior Member
Has anyone started to download the SpotPass content yet? It's available now.

SpotPass team: FE7
Dual Tag challengers: Virion's Archest and Lon'qu's Blades
 

Prax

Member
Yay~~ I can finally post this!
fe_awakening_countdown__4_days_remaining__by_meibatsu-d5tdh36.png

4 days left for the rest for North America, anyway! The first 4 characters in your team!
Well, replace Prax the Avatar with yourself in your mind. XD

I don't care if you are a prepromote, Frederick. I think you are useful and cool anyway. Q___Q
Lissa's currently the highest level non-prepromote among us right now. >_> All that heal abuse...
 
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