Fire Emblem If

[OLD GREGG (im back baby)]

So FE: Awakening really kicked this series back into gear selling over two million copies. I have very high expectations for the upcoming entry even though I won't be able to play it until next year.

I've been closely following any news around this new entry and Intelligent Systems is definitely showing a solid effort at making this game more noob friendly. There will be two versions, white and black, with different selling points. They have reworked the weapon triangle and added a Phoenix mode where all defeated units are brought back to life at the end of the turn. Also, casual and classic modes will be returning. Super hyped for this game.

What say you Smogon, discuss away.

 

[UncleSam]

All I want is a path of radiance remake with better AI and multiplayer...

 

[OLD GREGG (im back baby)]

All I want is a path of radiance remake with better AI and multiplayer...

That would be very cool

 

[Aura Guardian]

Better AI: PLEASE. I'm tired of dumb AI :(
Multiplayer: If they encouraged it without making it vital for enjoyment... I would love that.

 

[Fatecrashers]

the op missed one other important change which is that weapons now have unlimited uses but the weaker ones buff stats while the stronger ones have debuffs, personally i am very happy about this change

 

[OLD GREGG (im back baby)]

the op missed one other important change which is that weapons now have unlimited uses but the weaker ones buff stats while the stronger ones have debuffs, personally i am very happy about this change

Yeah forgot to mention that, I really liked this change too. No more hoarding that one powerful weapon because you are afraid to break it!

 

[Ortheore]

OH wow really that is one super cool change, I loathe limited use equipment, especially if there's a finite amount available.

I personally was disappointed with FE:A when compared with Radiant Dawn (I swear I've posted this elsewhere but oh well). I liked that you couldn't grind, it made maximising exp gains for each level a challenge, while FE:A became a grindfest, especially because I can't stand ignoring available battles. I liked the BExp system, which was enjoyable abusing and imo really made the most of FE's random level ups.

By the sounds of things the Nohr campaign has no grinding which is great. So yeah, I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Minwu]

If only they put the game on a single cartridge

 

[moonbound]

As someone who easily prefers the older entries (play FE4) but still sees the merits of Awakening, I appreciate that IS seems to be attempting to fix the most broken gameplay mechanics from 13 (Pair-up, infinite leveling via reclassing, etc.) and hired a professional writer after Awakening's plot left much to be desired. However, I think a few of the design choices we know of so far (including a handful of character designs) are pretty questionable.

That said, here is the latest infodump from a JP Nintendo Direct, presented with absolutely no comment (I've been caught up in 2~3 flame wars too many today):

 

[Fatecrashers]

oh my goodness it's fire emblem: friends of mineral town

 

[Fishin]

The advantages and disadvantages vs durability thing for weapons took me some time to get used to but I think I like the idea now. Some of the spears:

bronze
5 pow, 90 hit, +10 crit evade, no crits

iron
7 pow, 80 hit

steel
10 pow, 75 hit, -3 speed for double attacks, -5 evade

killer
7 pow, 75 hit, 25 crit, bonus damage on crit, -10 evade

silver
14 pow, 80 hit, after combat reduces str/skl by 2, recovers next turn

javelin
6 pow, 75 hit, 1-2 range, cannot double, -5 speed for double attacks, no crits

slender spear
12 pow, 65 hit, 2 range, cannot double, -5 speed for double attacks, -10 evade

holy spear
6 pow, 70 hit, effective against monsters, recovers hp each turn, def/res -3

naginata of protection
5 pow, 75 hit, -10 evade, def/res +5

then there are Naginata versions of the standard spears which seem to have 1 less power in exchange for +1 def/res and a couple others, there seem to be a lot of weapons in general. I also like the idea of Magic/Bows/the new concealed weapons (which are all supposedly 1-2 range and carry debuffing effects) being a part of the regular weapon triangle rather than some secondary magic triangle that hardly ever comes into play and it has the advantage of making bows slightly less terrible!


The whole Black vs White thing I'm not quite as sure on, but it'd be pretty neat if they did something with the planned third story where you combine your forces from saves of both, kind of like in Radiant Dawn endgame or w/e. Also, it saddens me a bit that we probably won't see the game for awhile (it comes out in Japan in a month, but Awakening took like 10 months for localization and Black and White are both supposed to be the size of Awakening on their own so this might take even longer).

Between varied objectives, no grinding allowed, and the playable characters Black definitely looks like the better version.

 

[Lrr]

oh my goodness it's fire emblem: friends of mineral town

pick your waifu

 

[moonbound]

Double post but this is probably important

significant spoilers if this is real

http://imgur.com/Uv51v44
Only a week left until the second entry in Nintendo's popular dating simulator franchise, Awakening.

(This is supposedly a leak for a Japanese publication that isn't famitsu)

Children/marriage aren't inherently bad (see FE4), but their execution in awakening heavily detracted from both the plot and gameplay. If we're going to have them I'd hope they will be less intrusive on the rest of the game. I'm still not happy with how far the pandering had gone, and I'm worried that IS thinks they need to do it to sell games.

 

[Fishin]

pandering overload

I wonder how much of this will get censored

Double post but this is probably important

significant spoilers if this is real

http://imgur.com/Uv51v44
Only a week left until the second entry in Nintendo's popular dating simulator franchise, Awakening.

(This is supposedly a leak for a Japanese publication that isn't famitsu)

Children/marriage aren't inherently bad (see FE4), but their execution in awakening heavily detracted from both the plot and gameplay. If we're going to have them I'd hope they will be less intrusive on the rest of the game. I'm still not happy with how far the pandering had gone, and I'm worried that IS thinks they need to do it to sell games.

Hide

I thought it worked fine in Awakening, here it just kind of comes across as "well, it was popular in Awakening, so". It's also going to be really problematic for Nohr since they can't grind at all.

 

[moonbound]

So yeah, a lot of info is getting out due to people who got the game early (including mega-spoiler stuff that got data mined). Much of it is pretty controversial and honestly I'm in no mood to discuss it right now. Just wanted to let people know that the digital copies become playable tonight, so spoiler watch is on for people who care (I don't really and will be willing to discuss it once today's news blows over and settles in my mind).

 

[Minwu]

pandering overload

I wonder how much of this will get censored

HAHAHAHAHA

 

[moonbound]

FEif on my US 3DS

I'll try to post minimal-spoiler impression updates as I go, although I might wait to really start for the English menu patch (which is progressing surprisingly fast).

 

[Fatecrashers]

gay marriage confirmed for fire emblem too

 

[Fishin]

FEif on my US 3DS

I'll try to post minimal-spoiler impression updates as I go, although I might wait to really start for the English menu patch (which is progressing surprisingly fast).

Does it actually play without anything fancy required? Were it not for the whole region locked thing I'd probably import it since I'm at an impasse for 3DS games at the moment, with another month or two until Etrian U2 comes out.

 

[moonbound]

The only physical hardware you need is a 3ds/2ds at firmware 9.2 or lower (I'm using my old 3ds original that hadn't been updated in quite a while). However there's a fairly lengthy process to set it up, which involves copying you system memory/nand onto an sd card, installing custom firmware on that copy, and using the browser exploit to boot with the sd card memory instead of system memory. The process took me almost 6 hours, but there's pretty much no chance that you brick the 3DS because you aren't modifying the system memory, just a copy of it.

 

[Minwu]

http://pastebin.com/bgQC0yEa

fuck it im not buying these games

 

[ButteredToast]

I have recently been putting a large amount of thought into deciding whether or not I should get the new Fire Emblem: Fates when it comes out in the states in a couple of months. Honestly, the fact that I am thinking of getting a new version of this series and just not flat out doing it speaks a great deal to the way the series has disappointed me in recent years. This game just doesn't have the same feel to it that the Tellius games had. With the new game, I am worried about having a good storyline with a cast of dynamic characters. I feel that this whole "three paths" thing is going to weaken the storyline in a lot of aspects. I am far more interested with having a single, solid, multidimensional story than I am with being able to pick and choose the path that I take. Seeing the very piss poor support conversations and overused character archetypes kind of prove to me that there is little care about really developing the actual story itself and the deepness of it. I am hoping they take the time to put in a whole lot more depth from the different sides and characters throughout the entire story instead of just introducing bland characters and then discarding them until because they don't want to bother writing more on the off chance they might have died. Nothing stinks more than having an entire army that doesnt really say shit or mean anything outside of gameplay.

I'm also not really all that thrilled with how the game play has gone since the Tellius games. One of the things that made Awakening a bit lackluster was that to me, I felt that the gameplay and tactics were too easy. Awakening had so many ways to create monster characters and that didn't jive with me. The children were way too strong and pretty much made the rest of your team meaningless. The class changes lead to me having crazy skills which made things crazy. I had the ability to summon monsters and wi-fi teams to train my army out of no where, and it just blew away all the need of strategy and creativeness and just substituted it with repetitive work. Pairing units also made things just a little too easy with S rank supports, because I just nuking everything in your way with a slow defensive character and a fast supporting character with galeforce. In comparison, besides having a wonderful storyline, Radiant Dawn pushed me to have to use and develop all of the characters, think up strategies, use experience and map time optimally, and to figure out ways to get the valuable bonus exp from maps. It was a puzzle more in the sense that I had to do things right or I would be kind of screwed, and winning just wasnt enough. It left me with a sense of fulfillment, because having a good team in that game was work. The maps were also really great. I liked having to play maps against my own super troops from the other side, instead of just facing nameless baddies and monsters. I liked having to earn the Micaiah chapters with the scrubs I was given. Yeah, the customization that Awakening brought with the My Character and the customizable army was a unique change. I always liked the character branches in SS. And the customizable kids was a super interesting aspect if they weren't all freaking super troops that have no story behind them besides coming from the future. But what those things gave, they took away in the effect of character development and strategy. I don't think that the 3 class tier system was bad at all, and I actually enjoyed it a lot and while I really do like having units train in other classes to gain skills and not having them max out, the skills were just too damned powerful.

What I am hoping from this game is to give me a bit of the magic of Tellius back. It seems like it has the potential to do it. The harder version of the game line seems like it is going to address the need I feel to be challenged and play a somewhat perfect game to get through to the end without losing a character. The entire 3 story dynamic seems interesting enough to give me a sort of aspect that hopefully the opposing side is going to be more dynamic than the "evil guy wants to summon a form of the devil and end the world" narrative that has been overdone. Hopefully I can feel some emotion towards the story that I will be thrust into like I did with Ike when he lost his father and went after the Black Knight. Or when I thought that Lucina was going to be killed and they flew in. Or having to pick between Ike's side and Michiah's side when I was both. The story setup is set up that it's promising, and the fact that they hired an independent story writer to do the game might be wonderful, but if they are trying to force things like weird time travel 2nd dimensions of god like children or shit archetype characters who have no role or development like Ralf or Sothe or anythone from Tellius, then I'm going to be disappointed. I can't deal with another shaddow dragon.

This game could be a merging of the great customization of Awakening, and the story and great challenging gameplay of Tellius. I hope that they take the time to do it properly. I hope that eveything I have seen that looks like a bad sign such as the "lesbian to straight powder" story line is just a low and not a normalicy. I hope if they go with a 2nd generation, it feels more like how Rune Factory 2 had it where it was almost a second game with a connecting story line and not have it come out of a whole.

These games have so much potential to them, and the series has shown it is able to make a powerful storyline to make me want to be excited. But everything I have seen makes me more disappointed in them missing my personal mark in what I love about the series. I probably will buy the harder fate because of the gameplay and with the hope that it's not as simple as being a "good guy" or a "bad guy." I really really want to like this game and for it to be special. But at the same time, I'm not sure I have it in me to play a 3rd disappointment in a row.

Edit: Good god do I need to proof read my shit writing more. I added some things I was thinking about too and changed some thoughts around to sound better...

 

[moonbound]

I'm getting tired of the nonstop shitstorm that the FE fanbase has become, so I'm gonna try to distance myself from it until things calm down (which honestly might be months after the game's western release).

If anyone wants a distraction from all of this I'd be down to start a group draft of FE 6, 7, 8, or 9 if we can scrounge up enough interest (5 people is probably ideal).

 

[Fishin]

Yeah, unlimited resources was one of my biggest beefs with Awakening and that's been sort of addressed (Hoshido will have unlimited resources, Nohr won't). Also no same-turn reinforcements afaik, thank fuck.

 

[RODAN]

NOT A LESBIAN