• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Fire Emblem Awakening |OT| Lord of the RNG

Status
Not open for further replies.

demonkaze

Member
God, i'm finding this hard to wait for this game what with being in the EU. Is this game worth importing a US 3DSXL (I have a regular EU 3DS), getting pretty impatient.
 
Whoever said Pair Up is useless is mental. I love how it lets you vastly increase the range of a unit on a given turn.
I can only assume RPGamer was under that impression because they played on Normal and they just didn't mess with it much. Playing on Hard it has already become absolutely essential to me in tons of different situations. It's a game changing mechanic, honestly.

So, my game clock says I'm at 7 hours, but the 3DS stats logbook says I've played FE for 15hrs. Dat reset. :/
I know how you feel... 6 hours on the FE clock, 11 on the Activity Log.
 

Midou

Member
Hector's team on hard was pretty tough, but him being a level 20 general was awesome, I re-classed him to a Berserker, with his own Hector's Axe he has like 48 strength at level 1 berserker.
 

Tathanen

Get Inside Her!
Looking at the Marth DLC, the team is all old Fire Emblem characters, and there's Lyn in there. Her character portrait is the one from her original game, though, not the new one they made for her actual DLC chapter. I was sad that her actual character model looked nothing like her, but is that only cause she's a generic goon on this map? Does her model, and anyone's model for that matter, get more upgraded/unique when they're actually the main character of a DLC pack with their new art? Marth's model is pretty great, but I guess that might just because he's co-opting fake-Marth's model.
 
Hector's team on hard was pretty tough, but him being a level 20 general was awesome, I re-classed him to a Berserker, with his own Hector's Axe he has like 48 strength at level 1 berserker.
Everything you just said sounds unbelievably amazing.

Best character in FE7.
 
Holy shit, Paralogue 6! I'm playing on Normal/Classic and
enemy units have definitely ramped up! Jesus, the only peeps in my team who stand a chance are Donny & my Avatar with their Slink partners
.

Lon'qu just but the dust... sigh.

/presses L + R + Start
 

Delio

Member
So i just beat chapter 13 and all these side missions just popped up..im kinda overwhelmed and dont know which to do first.
 

Midou

Member
So i just beat chapter 13 and all these side missions just popped up..im kinda overwhelmed and dont know which to do first.

They are all related to recruiting children, if you're satisfied with the skills the parents have for a particular child, can go and clear their map, though some are pretty tough.
 

TheGrue

Member
So, my game clock says I'm at 7 hours, but the 3DS stats logbook says I've played FE for 15hrs. Dat reset. :/

So if you're just going to reset when you take a loss in Classic mode, why not just play Casual mode? I mean, I get that the difference is you are making yourself play the scenario again until you get it right, but if you play on Classic mode, you get the scenario done and you don't lose anyone. It saves time and in the end, the result is the same...you pass the scenario with no characters lost.

Am I the only person just taking my losses and letting them stick? Maybe I am playing the game wrong?

Edit - I guess in thinking about it, it provides a self-enforced method of playing a level "perfectly" where you only accept it if everyone survives. I still think it defeats the purpose of Classic mode, though. You could also just reload playing on Casual. To each his own and all that...
 

cjkeats

Member
So if you're just going to reset when you take a loss in Classic mode, why not just play Casual mode? I mean, I get that the difference is you are making yourself play the scenario again until you get it right, but if you play on Classic mode, you get the scenario done and you don't lose anyone. It saves time and in the end, the result is the same...you pass the scenario with no characters lost.

Am I the only person just taking my losses and letting them stick? Maybe I am playing the game wrong?

Everyone plays differently, no one plays wrong.
 
God fucking dammit I am so angry I need I need go play the game!!! I am mad I cannot and that Amazon is not shipping. What the Hell! Why not?!?!?!; why the f not?!!??!?!;?!?@?!?!?! Whyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!
 
So if you're just going to reset when you take a loss in Classic mode, why not just play Casual mode? I mean, I get that the difference is you are making yourself play the scenario again until you get it right, but if you play on Classic mode, you get the scenario done and you don't lose anyone. It saves time and in the end, the result is the same...you pass the scenario with no characters lost.

Am I the only person just taking my losses and letting them stick? Maybe I am playing the game wrong?
To me classic mode is basically centered around the idea that if you want to keep a unit alive you will have to make it through the battle with them surviving. How many tries it takes isn't relevant, only that you have to do it right for it to count and if you lose someone in the process they are gone. You get into tough situations where you have to ask yourself, is it worth replaying an hour and a half long mission just to try and save the unit you just lost? That is part of what I love about the series.

I'm sure there are some people who never reset when they lose a character but I definitely think the majority of FE players start over when they lose a unit they really want to keep. That's always been my impression, anyway.

If anyone has finished the game on Hard or above on Classic without resetting once I would love to hear about it!
 

Midou

Member
I absolutely agree. Just trying to understand the mindset.

I play classic cause I am gonna restart anyways, and I don't like mid-battle saving because it screwed me over a bunch in FE10, none of the chapters seem so long so far, so it hasn't been a problem restarting.
 

TheGrue

Member
To me classic mode is basically centered around the idea that if you want to keep a unit alive you will have to make it through the battle with them surviving. How many tries it takes isn't relevant, only that you have to do it right for it to count and if you lose someone in the process they are gone.

I'm sure there are some people who never reset when they lose a character but I definitely think the majority of FE players start over when they lose a unit they really want to keep. That's always been my impression, anyway.


Yeah, I hear ya, but I guess my thought is you could also do that on Casual. Maybe the thought is if you have the out of everyone being allowed to wake up after the level is over, then they might fall prey into taking the easy way out.

For me, Classic mode gives me a cool custom game that I can talk to people about. Talking about how I lost Sumia that time or other painful stories like that. I lost Virion today just being a dummy and pulling him into enemy range of about 3 enemies. I should have just moved him outside, but I guess I thought they might go for the other characters in there. Really dumb because of course they will go for the weakest guy. So, no more Virion.

I guess in retrospect, that's not that great of a story. :) What am I doing?
 

Moonlight

Banned
So if you're just going to reset when you take a loss in Classic mode, why not just play Casual mode? I mean, I get that the difference is you are making yourself play the scenario again until you get it right, but if you play on Classic mode, you get the scenario done and you don't lose anyone. It saves time and in the end, the result is the same...you pass the scenario with no characters lost.
It's more keeping in line with, well, the classic Fire Emblem experience. It's something that I view as a real component of the experience. I'd also restart and try it again and again until I'd save everyone because I wanted them to survive. It can be frustrating, sure. I think of it like a process of trial and error until you come up with a flawless formula of strategy and a little bit of luck, with failure punished with redoing the scenario until you get it right.

That said, I'm thinking of attempting an Iron Man/Hard playthrough and push on through death at some point. It'd encourage me to play better, at least. Even on Normal, I make a few dumb mistakes that cost me a replay.

EDIT: It's also worth mentioning it still ups the tension of the match dramatically. It's the appeal of the way permanent death influences your play plus the, err, advantages of making sure everyone survives. Especially when you've had some exceptionally good level ups that you could easily lose if things go south.
 

cjkeats

Member
I absolutely agree. Just trying to understand the mindset.

There's a fun challenge in trying to keep everyone alive and the pressures of perma-death. So I can see why, people do it. Casual is different because when someone dies, the only thing I get bummed about is not being able to up the relationship levels.
 
Yeah, I hear ya, but I guess my thought is you could also do that on Casual. Maybe the thought is if you have the out of everyone being allowed to wake up after the level is over, then they might fall prey into taking the easy way out.

For me, Classic mode gives me a cool custom game that I can talk to people about. Talking about how I lost Sumia that time or other painful stories like that. I lost Virion today just being a dummy and pulling him into enemy range of about 3 enemies. I should have just moved him outside, but I guess I thought they might go for the other characters in there. Really dumb because of course they will go for the weakest guy. So, no more Virion.

I guess in retrospect, that's not that great of a story. :) What am I doing?
I get what you're saying, and I understand the appeal as someone who played through XCOM:EU in ironman just a few months ago. The thing is, it's really hard to keep people alive in FE sometimes and each character means so much to me that I can't let myself let them go.

If I tried doing what you're doing in Hard I would probably hit a brick wall by Chapter 10 or so, haha. As in, I don't think I'd be able to progress because I would have lost too many crucial units.

The reason I don't go for Casual is basically what others have already said, I love the classic FE formula and the tension and threat of perma-death is part of what makes it so enjoyable.
 

TheGrue

Member
If I tried doing what you're doing in Hard I would probably hit a brick wall by Chapter 10 or so, haha. As in, I don't think I'd be able to progress because I would have lost too many crucial units.

Yeah, I will say I'm not bold enough to play on Hard. This is really my first Fire Emblem experience and I was lured into by the thought of the permadeath thing, so I was surprised that not a lot of people seemed to be letting it stick. I imagine I could potentially get myself into a position where I lose everybody and then I can't progress. I imagine such a thing is possible?
 
Yeah, I will say I'm not bold enough to play on Hard. This is really my first Fire Emblem experience and I was lured into by the thought of the permadeath thing, so I was surprised that not a lot of people seemed to be letting it stick. I imagine I could potentially get myself into a position where I lose everybody and then I can't progress. I imagine such a thing is possible?
Oh yes, it's very possible. My first experience with FE was the first GBA game in the US (FE7). I made it all the way to the final level using some really questionable tactics (like abusing Marcus, FE7's version of Frederick) and by the time I reached the end I was properly punished. I honestly don't think I could have finished the game with the units I had available at the time.

The thing about it is, I learned a lot from that experience, so the next time I tried things went much more smoothly. That's part of why I love this series so much, it teaches you to be smart but it doesn't force you to. Instead, you will eventually reach a point where your crappy play comes back to haunt you.
 

TheGrue

Member
Oh yes, it's very possible. My first experience with FE was the first GBA game in the US (FE7). I made it all the way to the final level using some really questionable tactics (like abusing Marcus, FE7's version of Frederick) and by the time I reached the end I was properly punished. I honestly don't think I could have finished the game with the units I had available at the time.

The thing about it is, I learned a lot from that experience, so the next time I tried things went much more smoothly. That's part of why I love this series so much, it teaches you to be smart but it doesn't force you to. Instead, you will eventually reach a point where your crappy play comes back to haunt you.

Now, I think in this version you have ways to get guys gained up in experience if they are behind in things like DLC and random encounters and such, right? I just tried out the DLC map and was able to level up some guys. I assume I could play that over and over and bring in underleveled guys to get them up to speed, right?
 

Delio

Member
They are all related to recruiting children, if you're satisfied with the skills the parents have for a particular child, can go and clear their map, though some are pretty tough.

Okay..how do I know which map is for which kid?
 

Chrom

Junior Member
Looking at the Marth DLC, the team is all old Fire Emblem characters, and there's Lyn in there. Her character portrait is the one from her original game, though, not the new one they made for her actual DLC chapter. I was sad that her actual character model looked nothing like her, but is that only cause she's a generic goon on this map? Does her model, and anyone's model for that matter, get more upgraded/unique when they're actually the main character of a DLC pack with their new art? Marth's model is pretty great, but I guess that might just because he's co-opting fake-Marth's model.

I think every DLC character except for Marth has their model based on an Avatar.
 

sammy

Member
Wait, people actually watch Fire Emblem battle animations?

but :[ the character designs, animations, and backgrounds are way awesome. I love to see the battle animations.

still not as beautiful as the old 2d GBA sprite animations, droooool... Advance Wars has fun battle animations too
 
Now, I think in this version you have ways to get guys gained up in experience if they are behind in things like DLC and random encounters and such, right? I just tried out the DLC map and was able to level up some guys. I assume I could play that over and over and bring in underleveled guys to get them up to speed, right?
Yep, the DLC maps are infinitely replayable and I'm guessing the same goes for the random encounters. In FE7 (and, if I recall correctly, all FE's other than Sacred Stones) you basically have a limited pool of EXP available throughout the course of the game which makes every decision that much more important.
 

Chrom

Junior Member
Yep, the DLC maps are infinitely replayable and I'm guessing the same goes for the random encounters. In FE7 (and, if I recall correctly, all FE's other than Sacred Stones) you basically have a limited pool of EXP available throughout the course of the game which makes every decision that much more important.

Gaiden too is an exception since it plays very similar to Sacred Stones and Awakening, but yeah, every other game only gives you limited experience.
 

Midou

Member
I played 7,9,10 all for the first time in the last couple months, Awakening might be quite a bit easier with all the side-stuff and limitless pool of exp, but I like it a lot and it's a nice change of pace.

Plus soooooooooo many supports, even among the second generation of characters, it really breaths a lot more life into the characters.
 
What's the best time to level up the Avatar? I want to be a Grandmaster, but I don't know if I'll lose out on something if I do it now (level 11).
 
Gaiden too is an exception since it plays very similar to Sacred Stones and Awakening, but yeah, every other game only gives you limited experience.
Ah, I thought Gaiden might be another exception but I couldn't remember for sure. Sadly I've never played any of the FE's prior to 6 (besides dabbling with Shadow Dragon) and I never picked up Radiant Dawn or Path of Radiance either since I was late buying a GC and Wii and by that point they were fairly rare and expensive. The GBA FE's are easily some of my favorite games ever made, though.
 
Finally got my copy. Damn. At a Target!

Anyway, loving the game. It's like the first one on the GBA, my favorite one in the series. But I think Awakening will surpass that one as my personal favorite.

In past FE games, I would play without the cut scenes. But not with this one. I love watching the cut scenes during battle.
 
paralogue 2... any tips? I try rushing the pegasus knight over, but then she gets sniped by bowman T_T
Pair up a unit with Frederick (I used Stahl) and make a beeline for Anna. Use your other units at the beginning of the Chapter to clear out the bridge for him. You should have Frederick a good 4 or 5 spaces over the bridge at the end of his second turn. Once you get near Anna split up your units and use them to defend Anna and get to the village before an enemy coming from the right takes it out.

Someone also mentioned pairing Chrom with Sumia and having her make a beeline to Anna. Apparently most of the archers won't mess with you so you can probably do it that way as long as you don't leave her sitting around within their range for too long.

No matter how you do it it takes some luck.
 
1349490616415.gif

The problem with the 3D models isn't the 3D. It's that the models act naturalistically instead of stylistically. They just lack the flair of the sprites, particularly in the criticals.

Think of Lyn's critical in FE7. She lines up her sword. Then her sprite blinks until it suddenly disappears. Then over the enemy sprite, you just see three slash marks, until the enemy is hit and Lyn appears back on your side.

Think of the mages attacking with magic. They twirl around, stepping backwards, and blast magic at the enemy. Their robes and hood get blown back, as if by wind, showing the sheer force of the magic.

Then look again at the sprite posted. Holding out the sword very deliberately. The weight of the shield hangs awkwardly. Then a sudden strike with a huge jump and somersault. Very distinctive.

All of these animation examples could have the same stylistic flourishes in 3D. Nothing about 3D necessitates that a myrmidon cannot disappear and reappear nearby an enemy or that a mage's robes can't get blown back.

Because the 3D models stick very close to naturalism, they simply lack the charm and distinctiveness of the sprite work.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom