This game's Hard is bloody hard. I thought "Hard" would be real Normal like Awakening. But I don't think I have ever reset so many times in a handheld Fire Emblem game and at chapter 8.
I found Awakening's Hard to be comparable in difficulty to Path of Radiance on Normal, and so far, Conquest's Hard to be closer to Radiant Dawn on Normal, though my memory may be playing tricks on me here. For some reason I recall Radiant Dawn as incredibly punishing right out of the gate, but it's possible I've become a better player since.
Conquest on Hard is definitely easier than Awakening on Lunatic, where I found myself depending on RNG more than I would like. In Conquest I'm finding that I still have enough of a margin to make every play with a guaranteed (or near-guaranteed) chance of survival/success. It's more observationally demanding than usual (you really do need to check every single enemy for skills, whereas I don't think I ever had to do that in any do-or-die scenarios in Awakening's Hard) and the new mechanics take some adjustment, but these are problems that are fundamentally tractable.
I see an awful lot of people bailing on Hard at Conquest 10. I can only recommend that you all stick with it. It's a roadblock, yes, but clearing it cleanly is one of the best experiences in the series, and it's a turning point where you pick up so much EXP and weapon levels with your party, and learn so much about the mechanics, that it doesn't get much harder from there. Finishing it is the point in the campaign where you have a good amount of class/weapon diversity in your party and also an emergent core of heavy hitters, both of which put you ahead of the difficulty curve as you move on.
The biggest improvements in my play in Hard came from precisely two things:
- Observation: always checking skills and accounting for where the enemy AI might close in for a dual attack.
- Understanding how the new dual attack system works, both to maximize damage and also spot when I need to defend with Pair Up. The new support system is much more reliable and transparent than older cames when it comes to damage numbers, and any information is an advantage for the player. Learn how to set these up. Learn to switch to the best weapons on the supporting character, which may not be the same as the best weapon for a main attacker. Learn when to merge and when to split. Learn how to bait or defend against an AI that knows how to support. None of this requires a guide, and it all works very reliably. You just need to learn the quirks that come with a new entry in the series.
One simple tactic: let's say you have two adjacent attackers, A and B, and a third character C that works well as a Pair Up supporter thanks to a boost to your attack (Str/Mag). You can pair C up with B, then attack with A for (A damage + 0.5*(B damage + C buff)). Then you can use B to transfer C to A, and attack with B for (B damage + 0.5*(A damage + C buff)). The improvement on your damage output will make a difference. It's vital to know that you can transfer and take an action on the same turn, something that you could play all of Awakening without running into as in that game there was rarely a tactical reason to break up pairs.
Something I will say very strongly in favour of Fates is this: with so much information on the table like guaranteed supporting attacks and the Dual Guard gauge, unlike past games (even easier ones, like Awakening with its same-turn reinforcements) I'm never made to feel like I've been screwed by RNG. Every mistake I've made has owed itself to poor observation. It's something you don't notice until you think about it, but it feels amazing.
