Fire Emblem Fates

[Fireburn]

I've read similar complaints about Chapter 12, and it was no cakewalk, but I didn't find it nearly as hard as Chapter 10. My only complaint was that I had mapped up an elaborate scheme to use pair-up transfers to unlock the final treasure chest and either escape or defeat the boss. I proc Dragon Fang and kill the boss on accident. Fuck, I needed that 5k gold. I'm so fucking broke.

Out of curiosity, what have you been buying? The only things I've bought so far are Tonics, Heal staves, an Iron Lance, and a Freeze staff and I still have about 20000G after Ch10. Unless there is something I need to know about 11...

In any case I've been doing a semiblind Conquest Lunatic run and I honestly think this game is better than Awakening in almost every way. I greatly enjoy the nerfs to reclass and pairup, new weapon mechs, and thus far more challenging map design. I'm only on Chapter 11 and I already feel like the game has posed a more satisfying tactical challenge than most of Awakening.

Ch10 Lunatic was definitely a doozy. I used a pretty aggressive strategy concentrating most of my team on the southern end of the map while leaving the two sides lightly defended by bulked out units, which the aim of killing as much as possible before the curveball Takumi throws at the halfway point. Effie with Arthur pairup and HP + Def Tonics held the right side on lock since she could tank archers with ease and OHKO them back. The left side went undefended until Camilla and her retainers arrived. Selena + Str Tonic + Strong Riposte + Beruka pairup could ORKO the left side Onis who only had ~50% max hitrates and could only 2HKO Selena with consecutive Steel Club hits so she handled the left side fine. I feel like this Chapter really emphasizes playing Camilla smartly - you absolutely need her to not get overwhelmed later in the map, but as strong as she is she isn't invincible and can still be felled by arrows or being overexposed to attack after a ninja/Seal Defense debuff. I sent her southeast first to kill Oboro and thin out that corner before moving her left to help with the Onis and then back up to chase down a few Pegs. With Arthur's Iron Axe, Camilla easily ORKOs Oboro which prevents her from inflicting massive debuffs onto one of your other units. Sadly I wasn't able to grab the bottom right house since Camilla was needed elsewhere, but I got everything else.

Currently running +Mag/-Lck Corrin and it has been great, the Dragonstone is really useful for increased bulk and massive magical hits.

 

[Eo Ut Mortus]

Out of curiosity, what have you been buying? The only things I've bought so far are Tonics, Heal staves, an Iron Lance, and a Freeze staff and I still have about 20000G after Ch10. Unless there is something I need to know about 11...

I couldn't believe it at first, but I had a Ch. 12 save, so I double-checked, and it checks out. I bought two Javelins, a Steel Sword, a Steel Axe, a Hand Axe, and the big ticket purchase, Nosferatu (at 4000). This all adds up to 13400, and I had 5500 left over. Nosferatu was almost definitely not worth the price at the time, although there was one chapter further on where I managed to Nosferatank a bunch of archers over two turns. I also messed up in buying two Javelins because I eventually ditched all my possible Javelin users except for one. The other purchases earned their worth, though.

By the way, I was also lured by the wiles of the Dragonstone after it put in so much work in Chapter 10, so much so that I went with the default Corrin promotion. It ended up falling off so hard for my +Spe/-Skl Avatar (this spread turned out to be as poor of an idea as it sounds, by the way). Dragonstone can't double, negating the point of my high speed, and its Skill debuff compounds with my -Skill to ensure I never hit anything. Worst combo ever. I still need to get around to reclassing the Avatar.

So what do you guys think the hardest chapter was so far? I think 10 and 17 in Conquest were hard, but I heard 21 was a pain.

I have to agree on both counts. I've heard so little fanfare regarding Ch. 17 compared to Ch. 10, but I found it just as trying. It's ingenious, really: Grisly Wounds and Poison Strike on most of the enemies mean that if you try to do the classic "stick your tankiest unit in the middle of all the enemies and watch them suicide on it during enemy phase" strategy, you'll end up taking 20-40% health damage per enemy and dying immediately. Then there's the fact that the enemies won't attack you if they don't deal damage to you, meaning you can't bait individual units into the rest of your team by leaving a unit just in range of one of them; you have to actually go up to them and attack them, thereby putting yourself in the range of more threatening units. It's a level where common reactive strategies are challenged, and you're more likely to be punished for not moving forward/attacking enough. Although it was tough, I thought the idea behind it was great, and I did like the mechanics involving the Dragon Veins/Caltrops as well (on my final try, I somehow unintentionally managed to time the Dragon Veins so that Saizo was running back and forth between the first two rooms for almost the entire map).

 

[Falgaia]

Quick warning to anyone wanting to get Kana on Paralogue 2:

Don't equip any new skills on the parents during the fight. Kana's skills lock in AFTER the chapter completes due to game programming and it WILL screw over your skill set for him. I'm now having to restart the mission from square 1 because I just accidentally passed down Magic +2 and Nohrian Trust instead of my intended Quixotic Astra set.

As far as I know, Kana is the only character like this.

Don't make the same mistake as me.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

Quick warning to anyone wanting to get Kana on Paralogue 2:

Don't equip any new skills on the parents during the fight. Kana's skills lock in AFTER the chapter completes due to game programming and it WILL screw over your skill set for him. I'm now having to restart the mission from square 1 because I just accidentally passed down Magic +2 and Nohrian Trust instead of my intended Quixotic Astra set.

As far as I know, Kana is the only character like this.

Don't make the same mistake as me.

I could've sworn all offspring worked like that. At least they did in Awakening I'm pretty sure. I've yet to focus on the offspring yet, as I haven't finished Revelations (my "main" file) completely. However, I'm quite sure it's always the last slot before the chapter begins, regardless of who the child is. Perhaps they changed that.

 

[Falgaia]

I could've sworn all offspring worked like that. At least they did in Awakening I'm pretty sure. I've yet to focus on the offspring yet, as I haven't finished Revelations (my "main" file) completely. However, I'm quite sure it's always the last slot before the chapter begins, regardless of who the child is. Perhaps they changed that.

It still works that way, but Kana has a mission spoiler that makes it so that his character only gets locked in at the mission's end. Every other child works like they do in Awakening, where their skills are locked in the moment you start the mission.

Just be wary of Kana. No child deserves to be passed down Magic +2.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

It still works that way, but Kana has a mission spoiler that makes it so that his character only gets locked in at the mission's end. Every other child works like they do in Awakening, where their skills are locked in the moment you start the mission.

Just be wary of Kana. No child deserves to be passed down Magic +2.

You could have probably just cheesed your way and found some My Castles with the requisite skills already unlocked and everyone on hold making an easy defense.

Speaking of that, we should probably share our own My Castle codes. I'll share mine when I get home and get access to the game again.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

You could have probably just cheesed your way and found some My Castles with the requisite skills already unlocked and everyone on hold making an easy defense.

Speaking of that, we should probably share our own My Castle codes. I'll share mine when I get home and get access to the game again.

Actually, I can dig that! Gotta love pulling skills I don't want to spend the time to grind for! :D

Castle Address
14615-46514-45468-93240

Wouldn't recommend going right now if you want to skill farm, as I'm more focused on the Revelations storyline right now. But, give me a little bit and I'll set it up for everyone.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

My Castle Address is: 02115-66477-90290-31509. Mine's not ready for skill farming. I don't have people set right for skill farming but if you want to go against a ridiculous Corrin/Ophelia pair, you're welcome to it. Those two are the only ones with good skills right now

 

[Of Moose & Men]

My Castle Address is: 02115-66477-90290-31509. Mine's not ready for skill farming. I don't have people set right for skill farming but if you want to go against a ridiculous Corrin/Ophelia pair, you're welcome to it. Those two are the only ones with good skills right now

Corrin!Ophelia Master couple!

 

[Acklow]

Hi, I'm a filthy casual now and I own a physical copy of Conquest. I was mostly motivated to brag to one of my coworkers that I managed to get a physical copy. I am glad to join all you disgusting human beings in playing Waifu SRPG Simulator 2016.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

Revelations Chapter 16 + 17 is stupid. I like my down time man. . . I understand endgame, but freakin' mid story?! You lose one damn character you now have to restart BOTH damn chapters. . . I may lower the difficulty just to get through this one set of chapters as it's more annoying than it is anything, doesn't help that most of the Nohrians that join up in 17 die in all of about one hit, and damn near EVERY enemy has Rng. 1-2 weapons.

Conquest 10 was hard, 20 was tough too, but these are just tedious. Perhaps I'm just upset I'm having to play these two chapters for the 3rd damn time.

EDIT: Never mind, difficulty changes can only drop, can't go back up. . . Guess I'll have to muscle through it. . . Great.

 

[moonbound]

Revelation ch17 is nothing compared to FE9 ch17, where you play 4 chapters at once in a game where weapon durability is a real concern because ~fuck you~. Revelation lunatic blind with captured units only is going way easier than I expected; probably because My Unit is almost good enough to solo lunatic, revelation in general isn't very difficult, and having tons of disposable pre-promoted generics with maxed weapon ranks to throw around is actually pretty good. Only complaint so far is that it's pretty tedious to recruit the captured enemies because I basically have to do 3 random battles per captured unit (with characters I'm not actually using to avoid grinding) between story chapters.

I finished conquest lunatic and it was pretty good, but the abundance of infinite use enemy status staves in the last few chapters is tedious and probably just encourages turtling (which is lame).

 

[Darth Manaphy]

Recently, Conquest has really felt like one of those games where my first run through any particular chapter is a "practice run". It's sometimes difficult to ascertain how a particular level is going to screw you over until it does and chapters like Chapter 8, 10, 17, and 20.

I'll admit that I was 100% prepared for the nightmareish winds in Chapter 19 with all my royal running around to find another Dragon Vein to use. So, it wasn't TOO hard except for when I accidentally sent Elise to this one Dragon Vein without realizing what I thought were magic users were really the spear users causing me to reset. Luckily I had a whole lot of glass cannons (Ophelia, Elise) and characters that could both tank and give hits (Effie, Keaton, and Xander (along with Elise, Niles, and Kaze for magic units)) that I was able to turtle in the right positions to give my characters the right places to move. It was like being in a Phalanx style here. I would move the entire group at once making sure whoever tanked hits this round got healed if necessary.

Chapter 20 was a pain because I didn't realize that there were obstacles blocking your way until it was too late. On my final attempt at it, I almost lost Camilla thanks to having to run around and freezing the map with the Dragon Veins, but luckily a dual guard saved the day there.

 

[newtonja]

The fact the localization is terrible is making me really, really salty.

 

[TheRationalDove]

I've heard about the horrible localization team, which makes me upset, especially when Nintendo games are so good, and people here like games with engaging stories. I hope that some people start creating their own localization/translations so that the games are played more faithfully to the original.

 

[Blazade]

Recently, Conquest has really felt like one of those games where my first run through any particular chapter is a "practice run". It's sometimes difficult to ascertain how a particular level is going to screw you over until it does and chapters like Chapter 8, 10, 17, and 20.

Yeah that's why I did a normal mode run through of everything first, I don't have the time to just grind out a Lunatic run blind while I get killed by the first reinforcement I don't expect every single time. At least in normal mode I can get blown out by something I didn't see coming and probably walk away without casualties anyway. But I have long abandoned the notion that Fire Emblem isn't going to screw me over, I've grown to play first runs extremely conservatively.

I finished revelations today, pretty chill stuff. What I didn't like about the map design of most of the endgame was how segregated everything was. It felt like it was always your initiative to go into a room and kill a group of enemies that don't serve to move or pressure you, then you do it again and again, getting as much of a break between skirmishes as you want and being able to set yourself up optimally for the next fight. Obviously you can fix this problem with a low turn count run or something but it still seems stale to me. Overall story's about as good as the others and the gameplay was still different and respectable outside of that.

Now I'm ready to go lunatic on all three stories, cause this is definitely a good enough game that I want to put in the time to do that. I'm also kind of inspired to clean up some of the FEs I haven't done yet, like Hector Hard Mode FE7, FE5, or FE10. I've never done a draft before, but if someone wants to start up a Revelations or Conquest draft like moonbound's been talking about in a week or two, I'm still down.

 

[moonbound]

I'm a bit busy until Tuesday but I'll look into starting the draft towards the end of next week provided there's enough interest. Knowing the number of people involved will also help decide which route to do (I was thinking something like 3/4 : one draft pool on conquest and 5+ : one pool on Revelation or multiple pools on Conquest) and how to run the draft itself.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

The fact the localization is terrible is making me really, really salty.

Mind elaborating on this?
I've yet to come up on any majorly "terrible" changes.

 

[Astra]

The confession scenes are so cringy, their lips aren't even in sync with the voice.

 

[newtonja]

Mind elaborating on this?
I've yet to come up on any majorly "terrible" changes.

The amount of unnecessary changes is disgusting. They have completely reworked many of the character's to become meme spouting idiots. One just spouts puns about pickles. In the Japanese version he just kinda likes pickles so in the American version they decide to replace the rest of his characterization with pickle jokes (he isn't the only character to do this just the most famous one). The translations even when they decide to not completely change it are just straight up bad. And the worse thing about it is that the writing is absolutely terrible. If they changed a ton but had good writing then it would actually be okay, but it doesn't. Also the voice acting for a lot of the characters is really terrible. Now there are some parts I am okay with them changing things like that weird petting feature and changing things that strait up would not make sense to western audiences but this? This is too far, they cut text, butcher writing, and change things to become unrecognizable to what they were originally.
Sorry if I went on a crusade there, it's just that this game was soooooooo close to absolute greatness and for it to be held back by a poor translation is very, very frustrating.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

The confession scenes are so cringy, their lips aren't even in sync with the voice.

I honestly hate bonding with my wife because there's literally only one of those scenes that's anything but cringy (though I thought it was because I married Ophelia who's over the top cringy like that).

 

[Fireburn]

This is too far, they cut text, butcher writing, and change things to become unrecognizable to what they were originally.

Pretty much every Fire Emblem game goes through this treatment. Some examples:

FE7 Eliwood - In the JP version he was more submissive, humble, and shy - what a lot of Western audiences might call "weak". The localization team changed his personality to be much more bold and confident, traits that are typically more admired in heroes by Western audiences. Shadow Dragon Marth went through the exact same treatment - if you've played FE11 and FE12, you can easily see how different their personalities are.

The Black Knight - In the localized version, the BK refused to kill Ike since he didn't think he was yet strong enough to live up to Greil's swordsmanship (which was after he learned Greil severed the tendons in his sword arm). In the JP version, there was some lame excuse about a warp powder malfunction so Ike really fought the BK's armor instead of him. Which do you think makes better characterization?

RD Kyza and Heather - They were explicitly gay in the JP version, considered to be borderline offensive stereotypes. In the US version, Kyza's personality was completely changed and Heather is toned down significantly. Whether or not this is good is debatable, but the fact is attitudes towards homosexuality in America were different back when RD came out then now.

Awakening Henry - He was a MUCH darker character than his jokester self in the localized version. This was presumably changed since his original character didn't fit in well with Awakening's overall trend of lighthearted anime goofiness.

You also wouldn't believe how many people get upset over minor things such as renaming a character. A few of my friends are boycotting Fates because there is no option for Dual Audio. While I can understand why this would greatly annoy some people, the fact that this minor feature could be a complete dealbreaker for Conquest Fates is a bit of a shame.

There is plenty more, but the fact is that this kind of thing you complain about has happened in every officially localized Fire Emblem game and will not stop, especially before Fire Emblem "hit the mainstream" with Awakening revitalizing the series. I am curious to know what bugs you specifically about the localization - I've had no problems with it so far and any issues I find in the narrative are more due to a flawed premise (Conquest's story is pretty contrived overall and Corrin is about as smart/charismatic as a rock) that localization won't usually be able to fix. It seems to me like you're harping on a few things you consider especially egregious such as Mr. Pickles, Saizo/Beruka C-support, and a general dislike of the English VA selection. I'm not saying you have to like these things and if you prefer the JP version that is perfectly fine, but I don't think I would call the localization "disgusting" and I overall find it improves the quality of the prose since most fan translations, though very much appreciated and certainly time-intensive, are rather dry and literal.

On a different note, for those playing/having played Conquest Lunatic, how did you handle Ch. 17? The multiple health sap from the Master Ninjas quickly take their toll and I'm having trouble figuring out how to handle them without going super slow (which I don't want to do since I want to keep Saizo alive for that juicy Speedwing). Shuriken having WTA over Swords is also annoying since tossing a Tonic'd Xander at a wave of Master Ninjas suddenly becomes not so simple.

 

[imperfectluck]

Conquest Lunatic Chapter 17 was super easy for me, but I went super slow and let Saizo die. I think it's probably better to let him die, even with the Speedwing, because if he remains alive he just eats up so much EXP which could be better served going to your army. But it's probably still possible to do it at a faster rate as long as you have a high enough defense on Corrin, Effie, or Benny that they can tank all the shurikens they want and take 0 damage, so that they can tank through hordes of ninjas with 1 HP. I found the next chapter much more difficult with its high Mag Sorceror spam.

 

[Eo Ut Mortus]

If you're going slowly, there's a trick you can use to make sure Saizo doesn't get too far ahead of you. Just clog all of the spaces he can move to with your own units so that he has to go in a different direction. Works best at chokepoints, and it's possible to manipulate him into moving into a room that you can seal off with a Dragon Vein.

I didn't really bother attempting to keep Saizo alive, though; it just worked out for me that he did on my final attempt. I opted for an aggressive approach: first, I had Xander hold the chokepoint to the first room of ninjas while I moved all my units into the corridor. He took 0 damage with Demoiselle support, so nobody bothered to attack him. From there, I opened the room to the northeast with a Dragon Vein and split my units into roughly two groups, with the majority going to the north, getting the chest along the way, and the rest accompanying Xander. Both groups traversed the perimeter, routing all the enemies, and eventually reunited at the large room to the east to deal with the last two waves of reinforcements.

For me, the key was using Dragon Veins to split waves of enemies in half and collapse on them. This meant I had to distribute the Royals appropriately to ensure that someone could always activate one, and I had to constantly advance through rooms as quickly as possible to make sure I didn't cut off my path forward with an untimely Dragon Vein. I probably ended up activating a Vein close to every other turn, and I still had some left over near the beginning just in case. It helped that my strongest/tankiest units were Wyverns, for their bulk, WTA, Lunge to get over blocked paths, and flight to travel freely over the caltrops, which I usually left up to impede enemy movement. I rarely remained completely grouped: I frequently had my high mobility units travel ahead of my slower ones to draw enemy aggression so that I would never be stalled and get caught by the reinforcements at my back (whom I dealt with primarily through kiting). This strategy might not work as well if you've tended toward the low mobility units, though.

 

[Fireburn]

If you're going slowly, there's a trick you can use to make sure Saizo doesn't get too far ahead of you. Just clog all of the spaces he can move to with your own units so that he has to go in a different direction. Works best at chokepoints, and it's possible to manipulate him into moving into a room that you can seal off with a Dragon Vein.

I didn't really bother attempting to keep Saizo alive, though; it just worked out for me that he did on my final attempt. I opted for an aggressive approach: first, I had Xander hold the chokepoint to the first room of ninjas while I moved all my units into the corridor. He took 0 damage with Demoiselle support, so nobody bothered to attack him. From there, I opened the room to the northeast with a Dragon Vein and split my units into roughly two groups, with the majority going to the north, getting the chest along the way, and the rest accompanying Xander. Both groups traversed the perimeter, routing all the enemies, and eventually reunited at the large room to the east to deal with the last two waves of reinforcements.

For me, the key was using Dragon Veins to split waves of enemies in half and collapse on them. This meant I had to distribute the Royals appropriately to ensure that someone could always activate one, and I had to constantly advance through rooms as quickly as possible to make sure I didn't cut off my path forward with an untimely Dragon Vein. I probably ended up activating a Vein close to every other turn, and I still had some left over near the beginning just in case. It helped that my strongest/tankiest units were Wyverns, for their bulk, WTA, Lunge to get over blocked paths, and flight to travel freely over the caltrops, which I usually left up to impede enemy movement. I rarely remained completely grouped: I frequently had my high mobility units travel ahead of my slower ones to draw enemy aggression so that I would never be stalled and get caught by the reinforcements at my back (whom I dealt with primarily through kiting). This strategy might not work as well if you've tended toward the low mobility units, though.

Yeah, I've been trying to trap Saizo in the north treasure room after grabbing the 5000G, but he sometimes refuses to cooperate which is a little frustrating since he seems to prioritize attacking enemies if they are him his range. The chapter is substantially easier if you don't bother keeping Saizo alive, but imo that Speedwing is too valuable to give up since Xander/Leo start with low base Speed for their level (but become monsters if you can overcome it). My general strategy has been using Xander to block chokepoints - ninjas will not attack him since his Defense is too high for them to do damage - while the rest of my units rush into the north treasure room. The idea is to try and lure Saizo into the north room so I can seal him off and take the rest of the map slowly. I almost got it once, but made a mistake that got Silas killed. :(

My Selena also has 18 Speed as a level 19 Mercenary which I'm pretty sure is awful RNG screwage, lol