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[PK Gaming]

I never said it was comparable, so I'm not sure what you're getting at
I said Echoes maps are a step back from the gimmicky design of fates. And when I said gimicky I meant it. Having to deal with shit like poison pots and levers and dragon powers to change maps isn't exactly what I want from a fire emblem game...
I'm not saying I prefer barren simple maps like most of the ones in Echoes over the variety presented in Conquest, but I don't dislike them either. The challenge they present is completely different and satisfying when you finally overcome the realize what the game expects you to do. The challenge doesn't come from destroying pots or hitting levers but from carefully moving your units back and forth so they won't get killed

Right, my bad.

Anyway, here's the problem with the bolded; the Echoes didn't present a real challenge. They're barren, poorly designed and depressingly shallow. Every map is approached the same way, with little variance in strategy. There are no side objectives, and 99% of the maps are rout. Send your strongest, fastest units and kill everything. The game also littered its maps with enemies in an indiscriminate fashion with no real focus. That's what happens when you faithfully adapt the worst Fire Emblem game's maps and do nothing to change things. Hard mode was more tedious than outright difficult.

Conquest offered the polar opposite of that. The maps in that game actually required strategy and thinking ahead. Things that are fundamental to a strategy game. The pot map is the perfect example of that; you actually had to carefully map a route past Ryoma, and somehow find a way to do it before time ran out. Or maybe you found a way to defeat him yourself? Maps like that are bad if you're the type who enjoyed throwing units at enemies and killing swathes of enemies but for people who enjoy strategy, Conquest is among the best in the series.

The challenge doesn't come from destroying pots or hitting levers but from carefully moving your units back and forth so they won't get killed

This is fundamental to literally every Fire Emblem game in existence, and Echoes is by far one of the easiest games when it comes to keeping your units alive.

 

[Thud]

Picked the game up for a bit. That Desaix mission in act 3 was a lot easier this time. I could have sworn he had more archers the last time I tried it...

The reinforcements in Celica's side are relentness. I wonder who I should fight, Deen or Sonya. Then to reclass Atlas hmm.

 

[Forward]

Picked the game up for a bit. That Desaix mission in act 3 was a lot easier this time. I could have sworn he had more archers the last time I tried it...

The reinforcements in Celica's side are relentness. I wonder who I should fight, Deen or Sonya. Then to reclass Atlas hmm.

I fought Sonya, just to say I did it. Then I reset, and merked Deen for his sword. AND because Atlas was born to be the D'artagnan of my Musketeers.

Seriously. With the O.G. Three of Saber, Kamui, and Jesse, alongside mister ridic farmboy trope hero's journey gone wild Atlas (33 ATK, 20 Skill, 23 SPD, 15 LCK, 17 DEF alone, at DF lvl 7, this run), sparing Sonya is a matter of principle, if not Deen. Yes, the puns suck, and Deen's growths do not, but he is beyond redundant if you nurse Atlas along just a tad. It's so bad, Sonya really ought to have plot armor.

 

[PunjabiPlaya]

If anyone is still looking for it, the Limited Edition is back in stock at Best Buy according to our boy Wario64. Here's the link, looks like it's still up:

http://bit.ly/2nrd0SD

 

[Thud]

Alright played a lot yesterday. Did some light grinding to promote some units. Grieth is down. Atlas is a archer now. Dat attack son.

Now to continue with Alm's route. Took me quite some time, but nearly done with chapter 3 .

 

[PunjabiPlaya]

Just got my Limited Edition shipped from Best Buy today and they conveniently sent it in a soft plastic bubble packaging... so naturally the box was crushed when I got it. Guess I'm not keeping this LE in mint condition for collection sake. >_>

 

[RaginRoss]

I'm mid-way through Act 4 at the moment and enjoying the game a lot. One quick question - i've moved Celica through the forest but want to go back to the Act 3 area. Do I need to run the forest in reverse or can I just move across it on the map?

Playing on Casual has definitely made it a lot more enjoyable for me. Cantors / teleporting Witches would have driven me insane by now if I was losing units permanently.

 

[Golnei]

I'm mid-way through Act 4 at the moment and enjoying the game a lot. One quick question - i've moved Celica through the forest but want to go back to the Act 3 area. Do I need to run the forest in reverse or can I just move across it on the map?

Playing on Casual has definitely made it a lot more enjoyable for me. Cantors / teleporting Witches would have driven me insane by now if I was losing units permanently.

There is a route between them directly on the world map, but it doesn't show up immediately. I can't quite remember which Act 4 map you need to clear to get it to appear, though.

 

[RaginRoss]

There is a route between them directly on the world map, but it doesn't show up immediately. I can't quite remember which Act 4 map you need to clear to get it to appear, though.

Thanks! It was pretty much right next to the exit i'd come through.

The battle there was one of the toughest yet - need to watch out for massive AoE attacks like that going forward as I wasn't expecting it.

 

[RaginRoss]

I've reached the final battle in Act 5. Seems like it's going to be pretty tough.

I saved at the start of the battle - I take it there's no way to escape now and come back later?

I have a whole load of people from Celica's party that are ready to move onto their final class, since I didn't realize

Spoiler

that i'd lose control of them during Celica's segment of the story.

Edit - it's cool, got through it on the 3rd attempt. That was hard!

 

[jholmes]

Anyone want to tell me how to cheese the final boss? In at the end but I'm so sick of this game's shit and I don't want to invest any more time into getting one-shotted or guessing if I'm allowed to attack a boss at any given time or whatever.

Why these games are designed to deliberately waste so much fucking time is beyond me.

 

[NeonZ]

I don't think there's any way to cheese it. You just need an overpowered Alm. Maybe surround it with other units that can take his attacks without dying to stop him from moving. Still, only Alm will be able to take the 2nd half of his health, so everything relies on his power.

 

[jholmes]

I don't think there's any way to cheese. You just need an overpowered Alm. Maybe surround it with other units that can take his attacks without dying to stop him from moving. Still, only Alm will be able to take the 2nd half of his health, so everything relies on his power.

I was doing fine until Alm got one-shotted by a 21 per cent hit rate after an attack so I guess I gotta just try again.

 

[RaginRoss]

I was doing fine until Alm got one-shotted by a 21 per cent hit rate after an attack so I guess I gotta just try again.

Do you have someone with you that has the Invoke skill to summon allies?

AI always seems to target those guys over anyone else. Final boss wasted all his attacks taking those guys out and ignored Alm who was right next to him.

 

[jholmes]

Do you have someone with you that has the Invoke skill to summon allies?

AI always seems to target those guys over anyone else. Final boss wasted all his attacks taking those guys out and ignored Alm who was right next to him.

Yes, I have everything, I know how to use everything and it doesn't matter, the CPU always bullshits me out of something, I just spent the last five hours trying to beat this boss, last encounter I got killed on a one-shot when Alm got hit with death from the one warlock enemy and then got nailed by one of the 7,000 underlings that always get spawned in this fight.

I don't get why people buy these shitty games, I keep pushing through this and the game just shovels more shit at me. This whole last dungeon is just built to waste your fucking time. I don't even care that I'm losing, but 100% of my video game time has gone into this game all week and I am absolutely resentful of the developers for devising ways to waste my time. It is unbelievable what a time sink this final boss is, even when it goes well the attempts still take well in excess of an hour.

How can anyone defend there being a boss where sometimes you can't hit him and it's all up to chance, but you're supposed to figure that out with no hints from the game at all? Why would I ever make that assumption?! Every unhittable boss in the game up to this point is unhittable for a reason and you can't ever attack them. This is like some Other M shit.

 

[Netto-kun]

Edit: Guess I'll post it on the Gaming part as well

OST out on October 25th.

http://symphony-5.com/fe-echoes/

Sample tracks

- 5300 yen
- Package art by Hidari
- 4 CDs (91 tracks) + 1 data CD (includes 63 tracks (DLC/amiibo tracks and the entire Fire Emblem Gaiden OST) in MP3 format and the title movie in HD)
- Will also include multiple version of Heritors of Arcadia (English, instrumental, short version). Lyrics too!
- Full color 24 pages booklet. "Secret talk" with the composer also included
- 5 original postcards
- Original Fire Emblem Cipher promotion card
- Some stickers

 

[Hylian7]

This game, despite it's flaws, continues to impress me. I've been playing through it slowly but surely (stuff like Mario + Rabbids distracting me). I'm playing on Normal mode, which I thought for a while if I should play Normal or Hard on my first playthrough. On one hand, Normal might be too easy in modern FE, but Hard might not be the "true normal", I'm looking for either and could be too far on the opposite end of the spectrum. I never actually finished Awakening (got near the end though), and I played Awakening on hard and found it frustrating plenty of times, to the point where I almost regretted playing on Hard.

Can we please just keep this art style and presentation for future games? Would be great, this is by far my favorite artwork in the series. Also if the voice acting in future FE games is up to this quality, I'll be very impressed.

Maybe it bothers me less, but I didn't mind the swamp maps and Cantors. I just enjoyed finding efficient ways to get my units through the swamp, and take down the summoned minions while approaching the Cantor safely. Normal is kind of on the easy side, but I still feel like with this game that Hard might be too far on the opposite end of the spectrum, so I likely made the right choice to play on Normal.

The two biggest things that bother me about the game are the map designs, specifically the ones with tons of dead space between you and enemies, where you can't even encounter enemies on the first turn. The other is Dread Fighters...why. What were they thinking with those? They're almost purely up to RNGesus if you beat them or not.

Also my Celica is a fucking goddess with Blessed Sword.

Edit: Guess I'll post it on the Gaming part as well

OST out on October 25th.

http://symphony-5.com/fe-echoes/

Sample tracks

- 5300 yen
- Package art by Hidari
- 4 CDs (91 tracks) + 1 data CD (includes 63 tracks (DLC/amiibo tracks and the entire Fire Emblem Gaiden OST) in MP3 format and the title movie in HD)
- Will also include multiple version of Heritors of Arcadia (English, instrumental, short version). Lyrics too!
- Full color 24 pages booklet. "Secret talk" with the composer also included
- 5 original postcards
- Original Fire Emblem Cipher promotion card
- Some stickers

I want to believe this will come stateside, but I seriously doubt it will. This game has an incredible soundtrack. I never played the original, but I am a little surprised that it doesn't get more recognition as far as music goes.

 

[Hylian7]

Not really, she's more making fun of the fanbase if anything.

I got a certain support conversation with her:

Spoiler

The one where she straight up confesses her love for Alm, and he's basically like "I don't really have time for that,
sorry." The definition of "Old FE vs Modern FE.jpg"

 

[TheMoon]

I want to believe this will come stateside, but I seriously doubt it will. This game has an incredible soundtrack. I never played the original, but I am a little surprised that it doesn't get more recognition as far as music goes.

They never do. no need to even doubt it. this is a 100% certainty. FE always gets these OST releases in Japan, they never come over. There's no market for this in the West. Thankfully, with CDs, this doesn't matter. CDjapan is your friend.

 

[Hylian7]

So wait...was this game's soundtrack actually recorded by live orchestra?! If it wasn't, it still sounds incredible.

 

[Golnei]

So wait...was this game's soundtrack actually recorded by live orchestra?! If it wasn't, it still sounds incredible.

Like Fates and Awakening, I was under the impression that it was mostly synth.

 

[Hylian7]

Dumb question about a certain battle in Alm act 4:

Spoiler

On the battle against Magnus, how do I get the South squad across the river?

 

[Linkstrikesback]

Dumb question about a certain battle in Alm act 4:

Spoiler

On the battle against Magnus, how do I get the South squad across the river?

If I remember correctly.

Footsoldiers should be able to walk across the broken bridge, albeit very slowly. any armoured or horse units will need to be teleported using a warp spell or similar.

 

[Hylian7]

If I remember correctly.

Footsoldiers should be able to walk across the broken bridge, albeit very slowly. any armoured or horse units will need to be teleported using a warp spell or similar.

Ah okay, I didn't think of that. I'm just using Python to pick off the enemies right across the bridge, and pretty much am mostly able to ignore the Gargoyles and Witches and can get across now.

 

[yrba1]

Looking to pick this up Friday (I know, I should be picking up Metroid but I'll save that for later)

Just need to know if the story is better than Awakening and Fates. By better, I mean toning down or getting rid of the cringy weeb tropes.

 

[Thud]

Looking to pick this up Friday (I know, I should be picking up Metroid but I'll save that for later)

Just need to know if the story is better than Awakening and Fates. By better, I mean toning down or getting rid of the cringy weeb tropes.

Yes. Although I would say it still has some archetypes from a different time.

The full voice acting and new soundtrack is a great addition to the series. Hoping they keep that level of quality.

 

[Hylian7]

Looking to pick this up Friday (I know, I should be picking up Metroid but I'll save that for later)

Just need to know if the story is better than Awakening and Fates. By better, I mean toning down or getting rid of the cringy weeb tropes.

I haven't played Fates, but there's very little cringy weeb tropes in this game. There's one character that you might look at and think "Oh that's exactly what that is", and then you're in for a nice surprise in a support conversation.

The story is very predictable, but still pretty decent.

 

[yrba1]

Nice, will get it then. 90s tropes aren't cringy like contemporary ones. Thanks guys!

 

[Shinypogs]

Looking to pick this up Friday (I know, I should be picking up Metroid but I'll save that for later)

Just need to know if the story is better than Awakening and Fates. By better, I mean toning down or getting rid of the cringy weeb tropes.

It has it's tropey moments and a certain character whose level of annoyance depends on your tolerance for their shtick and if you read their ending. Overall it's got a more solid narrative though and most character and their interactions are more nuanced or believable. Oh and fair warning one of the protagonists spends some time holding an idiot ball. I'd still say it;s a good pickup and you should enjoy your time without weather you do one play through or multiple. I'm partway through my second doing some silly reclass shenanigans with the villagers fork item.

 

[Forward]

So this happened my most recent playthrough.

 

[Hylian7]

I was hoping to have finished this game by today, but I got close. I'm on Act 5 now. Where I stopped;

Spoiler

The Berkut battle

I really like that the last act is a dungeon. That's so cool. I will get back to this after Metroid though. I've been waiting for years for a new Metroid, nothing can stop me at this point.

 

[Gambit]

So this happened my most recent playthrough.

Impressed indeed. Very lucky

I just loved the Echoes cast.

 

[yrba1]

So this happened my most recent playthrough.

I loathe RNG in general but that's impressive

 

[mdubs]

Finished this tonight, one of my favourite ones in the series in many respects. Obviously the map design and some of the mechanics are not quite there due to them keeping with the original, but the presentation is so damn good. Hidari's character designs are the best this series has ever had, and the fully voice dialogue is fantastic. We can't go back after this (and I assume that since the next new one will be for Switch they'll certainly being doing a full voice over since the presentation will probably be a priority)

It's also remarkable how good the story is compared to the silliness we've had recently (particularly Awakening).

 

[Forward]

Still on the same run (been busy), but nabbed a rusty sword somewhere in Act 4, so I took it to a smith to forge it up into a Steel +2 for a Zwei...

...and it came up Astra.

Main game? Really?