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[rickyson1]

My personal favourite FEs are Echoes, Thracia, and Conquest, in that order. Those second and third choices should tell you how gameplay-focused my tastes are. And for me, this game is a joy to play.

However, everything you've heard about Echoes that gives you pause is probably true. The combat scenarios are not even close to as tightly designed as the best FEs, there's less customization, fewer options in battle, and so on. The thing is, the game still works, because it feels so different that you don't find yourself missing what's absent. It doesn't feel necessary.
Despite my love for the game, I cannot reasonably say that its combat is top-tier. But I implore you to give it a chance anyway.

agreed with this,couldn't quite put my finger on why i'm enjoying myself as much as I am so far when I agree with most complaints about it but this sounds about right

I do feel like a lot of things about it would get old if it wasn't just a one off though

 

[Touch fuzZy. get BizZay]

This has got to be the first time that I picked up a new Fire Emblem before I finished the old one. I've feel like I've put a ton of hours into Fates but the end is quite a ways off yet.

 

[YAWN]

SoV is strange in that, yeah, its maps aren't anything to write home about, but every other single quality it possesses makes it a massive joy to play.
I'd definitely say your missing out if your a FE fan and don't play it.

 

[SolVanderlyn]

Are my voice recognitions correct?

Alm = Rean from Cold Steel
Mae = Chie from P4 Golden
Celica = Vita from Cold Steel
Saber = Shido from Persona 5

 

[Busaiku]

Berkut's voice actor steals the show.
I hope we can play as him in a possible future DLC. We are getting Fernand after all.

I'm surprised they went with Texas VAs.
Is this a first for Nintendo?

 

[patapuf]

I have finished the first chapter now, and it's fun but it's also really easy.

I'm playing hard classic hand haven't lost anyone yet. I've not really come close to loosing anyone either.

Maps seem meh. There's really nothing but a few bushes.

Magic is really strong so far.

The other changeups seem interesting so far. certainly a change of pace from the usual FE games.

 

[nubbe]

On one hand I hate the summoners and on the other hand they add some needed tension since your always under pressure.

 

[Busaiku]

Are my voice recognitions correct?

Alm = Rean from Cold Steel
Mae = Chie from P4 Golden
Celica = Vita from Cold Steel
Saber = Shido from Persona 5

Alm is Kyle McCarley, Mae is Cherami Leigh.
Celica is the same VA (Erica Lindbeck).
Dunno Saber's VA.

 

[Laws00]

So this is a remake of the 2nd game for the famicom?

Okay check

 

[Starwolf_UK]

Gray is OP.

Boey is trash, as always.

Mae is also OP.

Thank goodness Maye (and the other female mages) do not have to wait until level 20 to promote now. That was particular torturous in the original Gaiden.

Also that masked man is totally

Spoiler

Celicas brother who survived the fire. How do I know? The power of anime hair colours of course!

I deeply regret

Spoiler

reading the memory prism which made it go from "high probability of being a relative of Celica?" to "oh brother...". If you want a disguise to work you need to wear a helmet

 

[QuackkAttack]

Are my voice recognitions correct?

Alm = Rean from Cold Steel
Mae = Chie from P4 Golden
Celica = Vita from Cold Steel
Saber = Shido from Persona 5

Celica is Futaba from P5.
Mae is Makoto from P5.

Alm is 9S from Nier, definitely not Rean.

 

[Golnei]

I deeply regret

Spoiler

reading the memory prism which made it go from "high probability of being a relative of Celica?" to "oh brother...". If you want a disguise to work you need to wear a helmet

I haven't gotten around to recruiting him yet, but at this point I don't see why

Spoiler

Conrad had to exist - or at least survive. How is the story improved by his presence?

 

[Roman]

I haven't gotten around to recruiting him yet, but at this point I don't see why

Spoiler

Conrad had to exist - or at least survive. How is the story improved by his presence?

It isn't. Act 4 spoilers:

Spoiler

I am now at the point of recruiting him and there is practically nothing interesting there except his mother being Rigelian. The whole thing only adds bad moments to Celica's path in which she is a damsel in distress for no real reason.

One particularly bad moment I've just witnessed is after defeating Dolth. He is beaten and cornered, and yet Celica is ready to throw her life away and get killed by him.
She even pushes her friends away and screams at them how nobody understands her feelings.
I am aware this is about conflicting emotions regarding Alm and the deal with Jedah (which she honestly shouldn't even consider for a second), but it's getting ridiculous.

The writing on Celica's side of the story is getting legitimately bad.

 

[Shifty1897]

Just hit Act 2. The plot and characters are so much better than Fates, the art too. Hope they go back to give some of the other older Fire Emblems remakes like this in the future.

Do we know if the game is selling well?

 

[Nohar]

The writing on Celica's side of the story is getting legitimately bad.

Are we talking "Conquest bad" here?

 

[Busaiku]

Just hit Act 2. The plot and characters are so much better than Fates, the art too. Hope they go back to give some of the other older Fire Emblems remakes like this in the future.

Do we know if the game is selling well?

Did really badly in Japan (worst selling game since Radiant Dawn).

 

[Roman]

Are we talking "Conquest bad" here?

No, not at all. Just very disappointing compared to the strong start and the entirety of Alm's half.

 

[Shiggy]

I was looking at the DLC now. The description says:

A Season Pass for Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia that includes all five DLC packs will also be available for £39.99 / €44.99.

By purchasing the Season Pass, fans who want to receive all the DLC content will save over 30% compared to purchasing all 22 pieces of content on their own.

If that was correct, purchasing everything individually would cost at least €64.29 (64.27 * 30% = 19.28). However, when adding the price of all individual packs, the price is just €50.95. Am I seeing anything wrong here?

Prices of individual packs:
7.99
9.99
14.99
12.99
4.99

Edit: Oh, they are referring to the prices of the individual pack pieces I guess.

 

[Sephend]

Celica is Futaba from P5.
Mae is Makoto from P5.

Alm is 9S from Nier, definitely not Rean.

Coming off of Persona 5 to this has been causing me double takes constantly so far. My favorites and what made me actually laugh out loud was hearing Sojiro as the Rigelian Emperor and then the SIU Director as Nomah.

Then you have Ryuji as Gray, Akechi as Tobin and Shido as Saber and the rabbit hole never ends.

 

[Draxal]

Berkut's va does such a good job, when will he be FE heroes?

 

[Golnei]

It isn't. Act 4 spoilers:

Spoiler

I am now at the point of recruiting him and there is practically nothing interesting there except his mother being Rigelian. The whole thing only adds bad moments to Celica's path in which she is a damsel in distress for no real reason.

One particularly bad moment I've just witnessed is after defeating Dolth. He is beaten and cornered, and yet Celica is ready to throw her life away and get killed by him.
She even pushes her friends away and screams at them how nobody understands her feelings.
I am aware this is about conflicting emotions regarding Alm and the deal with Jedah (which she honestly shouldn't even consider for a second), but it's getting ridiculous.

The writing on Celica's side of the story is getting legitimately bad.

It's disappointing to hear that, but I'm not all that surprised - Celica's path has had a few rough patches already, and it's a shame they weren't able to improve on the original in that regard; as well as making her motivations more coherent and consistent.

It seems like some of those larger additions weren't really used to their fullest potential - Berkut and Fernand's roles help to characterise the world the game takes place in, but

Spoiler

Conrad

doesn't seem to offer much, and Faye is...Faye.

 

[Weebos]

Berkut's va does such a good job, when will he be FE heroes?

Yeah, Berkut is excellent. I love his ingame art too. His expression on the official art is very odd, he looks much better in game.

 

[Draxal]

Yeah, Berkut is excellent. I love his ingame art too. His expression on the official art is very odd, he looks much better in game.

You know something that I find very annoying? The critical art doesn't use the angry/combat faces that they have in the bottom screen but their official art.

I really wanted to see Claire's smug combat face in that screen, Claire's smug face is probably my most favorite piece of art in the game.

 

[YAWN]

Did really badly in Japan (worst selling game since Radiant Dawn).

It wasn't too great but it's worth noting it sold through 80% of its initial shipment, so about to IS' expectations. It hasn't deterred them from doing remakes by the sound of things too, and Gaiden wasn't exactly a stellar preformer when first released. Its know as the black sheep for a reason, but Im hoping the West will do it justice.
We seem to be the main audience now, and SoV is a game deserving of many many sales.

 

[Draxal]

It wasn't too great but it's worth noting it sold through 80% of its initial shipment, so about to IS' expectations. It hasn't deterred them from doing remakes by the sound of things too, and Gaiden wasn't exactly a stellar preformer when first released. Its know as the black sheep for a reason, but Im hoping the West will do it justice.
We seem to be the main audience now, and SoV is a game deserving of many many sales.

Nah, we're not the main audience, Cipher and all the other merchandise is mostly Japanese exclusive, and FEHeroes had like 70% of its profits come from Japan.

 

[Peff]

It wasn't too great but it's worth noting it sold through 80% of its initial shipment, so about to IS' expectations. It hasn't deterred them from doing remakes by the sound of things too, and Gaiden wasn't exactly a stellar preformer when first released. Its know as the black sheep for a reason, but Im hoping the West will do it justice.
We seem to be the main audience now, and SoV is a game deserving of many many sales.

Nintendo doesn't decide on shipments unilaterally, so whatever they managed to get retailers to agree with doesn't necessarily have anything to do with their internal projections. And given the ramped-up production values of this game, it's rather hard to imagine that they greenlit the project with expectations of a significant sales decrease. It's not bad enough to kill the series or anything, and it may even be made up by the US/Europe, but another remake is probably not a priority right now.

 

[Taruranto]

It isn't. Act 4 spoilers:

Spoiler

I am now at the point of recruiting him and there is practically nothing interesting there except his mother being Rigelian. The whole thing only adds bad moments to Celica's path in which she is a damsel in distress for no real reason.

One particularly bad moment I've just witnessed is after defeating Dolth. He is beaten and cornered, and yet Celica is ready to throw her life away and get killed by him.
She even pushes her friends away and screams at them how nobody understands her feelings.
I am aware this is about conflicting emotions regarding Alm and the deal with Jedah (which she honestly shouldn't even consider for a second), but it's getting ridiculous.

The writing on Celica's side of the story is getting legitimately bad.

Yeah, I was incredibly disappointing by The Masked Man, his design is a legit 10/10.

Spoiler

but Celica's idiocy took over the route and he doesn't get to do anything.

At the end of the day, (CH5 end spoiler)

Spoiler

Alm feels like the true main character, Celica's is the dumb love interest that needs to be rescued.

I feels like even FE7 did the dual protagonist better than this, to be honest.

 

[DecoReturns]

Did really badly in Japan (worst selling game since Radiant Dawn).

I wouldn't say it did really badly.

In fact I wouldn't say it did bad at all, but of course we don't know why extacly IS/Nintendo's expectations were. Most likely dumb logic to follow, but if Awakening need 250k to succeed, then Gaiden should be fine.

It actually performed extacly how I expected it, it came off as a unexciting release honestly. Like a stop gap before the actual Fire Emblem game you want(if that makes sense).

 

[robotzombie]

Is there any solid advice on how to use the stat fountains? Should they be used immediately or saved? Should you concentrate stat ups on a small group of people or spread around? Any stats not worth it to upgrade over the other (like health vs speed at the first one?)

 

[Ninferno]

Not sure if anyone here has posted this before but I just came across this compilation of death mourning quotes on Youtube; it is astonishingly good and depressing. The VAs really nail it. Kudos to the dev and localization teams for putting the effort into something 95% of the playerbase won't even get to see because they either reset or turnwheeled before seeing it.

I think Est mourning over her sisters is the best. And also Deen's.

 

[dawgparty]

Did I goof starting this in Classic mode? I've played the past few in Classic and have beaten SS and FE7 but my time is way more limited.precious now so I don't want to spend a ton of time retreading ground. I've heard that this game is super brutal on Classic due to the way the enemies spawn.

 

[Draxal]

Did I goof starting this in Classic mode? I've played the past few in Classic and have beaten SS and FE7 but my time is way more limited.precious now so I don't want to spend a ton of time retreading ground. I've heard that this game is super brutal on Classic due to the way the enemies spawn.

Mila's turnwheel helps a ton in this regard.

 

[Weebos]

So I'm nearly at the end of Act 4, I have a quick question about Act 5, since I'm curious.

Spoiler

Do I get to use Celica's party in Act 5, or are they gone until postgame?

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

Did really badly in Japan (worst selling game since Radiant Dawn).

That's a shame. I am really liking the game.

How many acts are there btw? Just started act 4.

 

[Frost_Ace]

The maps are infinitely worse - you definitely shouldn't expect anything comparable to it. The unit balance and skills are also quite different (no weapon triangle, actively-triggered weapon-based skills as opposed to passives, interesting growth rates), so that may also count against your potential enjoyment of the game.

If you do decide to try the game, keep your expectations in check on that front.

My personal favourite FEs are Echoes, Thracia, and Conquest, in that order. Those second and third choices should tell you how gameplay-focused my tastes are. And for me, this game is a joy to play.

However, everything you've heard about Echoes that gives you pause is probably true. The combat scenarios are not even close to as tightly designed as the best FEs, there's less customization, fewer options in battle, and so on. The thing is, the game still works, because it feels so different that you don't find yourself missing what's absent. It doesn't feel necessary.
Despite my love for the game, I cannot reasonably say that its combat is top-tier. But I implore you to give it a chance anyway.

Thanks for the responses, I'll definitely buy the game then

 

[Taruranto]

Did I goof starting this in Classic mode? I've played the past few in Classic and have beaten SS and FE7 but my time is way more limited.precious now so I don't want to spend a ton of time retreading ground. I've heard that this game is super brutal on Classic due to the way the enemies spawn.

It's one of the easiest FE.

 

[Aveyn Knight]

That's a shame. I am really liking the game.

How many acts are there btw? Just started act 4.

Spoiler

Act 5 is the last one.

Actual spoiler:

Spoiler

There is a post-game Act 6, but there is no real story. It's just for fun (or getting your ass kicked).

 

[dawgparty]

It's one of the easiest FE.

Fair enough, I'll just tough it out then.


Also, there are no female myrmidons in this game? Those are always my favorite characters.

 

[Busaiku]

I wouldn't say it did really badly.

In fact I wouldn't say it did bad at all, but of course we don't know why extacly IS/Nintendo's expectations were.

Considering the production values, I'm sure Nintendo expected more than the games that almost killed the franchise.

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Considering the production values, I'm sure Nintendo expected more than the games that almost killed the franchise.

The shipped numbers in Japan seem to disagree.

I wouldn't be surprised if the remake was more for the west than Japan, but we need to wait and see sales numbers for that.

 

[Draxal]

Fair enough, I'll just tough it out then.


Also, there are no female myrmidons in this game? Those are always my favorite characters.

None, myrmidons (female myrms in particular) were introduced in Fire Emblem 4. Navarre (the inspiration for myrmidons); wasn't actually made one until Shadow Dragon, where they added Athena.

They only added one new playable female character to the game, and she can't class change into it.

 

[Taruranto]

How much did it sell exactly? I mean the actual numbers.

 

[iRAWRasaurus]

Spoiler

Act 5 is the last one.

Actual spoiler:

Spoiler

There is a post-game Act 6, but there is no real story. It's just for fun (or getting your ass kicked).

Huh the game feels short to me.

Regardless I hope the next game won't have children or marrying waifu/ hasbando. Strangely enough that's one aspect of the game I like.

 

[Busaiku]

The shipped numbers in Japan seem to disagree.

As others have mentioned, shipments are not entirely up to Nintendo.
They can exactly ship more than what retailers would want, and preorders were really bad for it, thus inspiring little retailer confidence.

How much did it sell exactly? I mean the actual numbers.

175k so far.

 

[Draxal]

How much did it sell exactly? I mean the actual numbers.

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1375473

06./05. [3DS] Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia # <SLG> (Nintendo) {2017.04.20} (¥4.980) - 5.713 / 174.868 (-61%)

JRPGS usually have 80%-90% of their sales in the first week. Note the tracker doesn't count Valentia Edition (exclusive to the my nintendo online store) or digital sales. I wouldn't be shocked that if sales of Valentia edition were really strong for a limited edition due to the DVD.

 

[Weebos]

They only added one new playable character to the game, and she can't class change into it.

Isn't

Spoiler

Conrad

a new character as well?

 

[Draxal]

Isn't

Spoiler

Conrad

a new character as well?

You are right.

Let me edit that.

 

[Totakeke]

Battles have gotten more interesting and more difficult on Act 3 on hard. The extra random mobs can really make a battle a lot more difficult.

 

[mullet2000]

I feel like the mechanic changes from newer FE games is making me think more about the entire army more so than just thinking of individual units, if that make sense? I kinda like it.

 

[Lord of Ostia]

So....do you have to wait until

Spoiler

after you've defeated Greith to promote Atlas,
Catria, and Palla?