Fire Emblem Fates

[fairytale]

So who's playing?

Who are your favorite units, gameplay and story wise?

How do you feel about the gameplay/mechanics overall?

All discussion welcome.

I'm currently 18 chapters into the Nohr route. I'm doing hard/classic, and this game is much harder than it's most recent predecessor Awakening ever was. Hard is probably somewhere between Awakening Hard and Lunatic level of difficulty. From everything I've heard, the Hoshido route is significantly easier. The gameplay overall, despite how frustrating it is because I'm playing on hard and I may suck a little bit, is phenomenal in my opinion. The chapters are much more diverse, dynamic, and interesting than in previous games. The story is fun but leaves a bit to be desired in my opinion and I can't say I care about the characters as much as I did in Awakening. It's not bad, I'm really enjoying it, it's just underdeveloped when compared to awakening. Then again, the story won't even be finished until Revelations is released, I guess.

My team right now is "Corrin" x Niles, Camilla x Arthur, Selena x Silas, Felicia x Leo, Xander x Charlotte, and Benny x Effie. All my other units are basically useless from lack of leveling. Casualties: Mozu, Azura, and Kaze. Camilla is basically Goddess-Queen of the game and things would be extremely difficult without her. All of the royal family is really strong, as are Niles, Selena and Benny. Silas really fell of for me as the game went on, but still a good unit. Corrin is not nearly as strong as Robin was, but still up their with the strongest of my team.

 

[Blazade]

Really enjoying this one. I just finished the Conquest Campaign on Normal and I'm so happy that I'm definitely playing the harder difficulties and probably shelling out for the other routes, even if they may be easier.

What struck me was they dealt with basically every gripe I had with Awakening when as far as I knew my complaints weren't common. Mechanics stuff that's really cool:

-Really interesting level design, such that even the normal campaign was a fresh and interesting challenge for an experienced player like me. Many of the environments created a unique type of pressure that forced interesting tactics with even a strong army composition.

-No durability on weapons, and the corresponding re-balance in weapon identity that followed. Steel weapons are harder to double attack with, silver weapons are like overheat, ranged melee can't double attack and has further vulnerabilities, and a bevvy of new and unique weapons with balanced and interesting effects that feel like they're worth the cost to purchase in the shop. I really love what they did here, and to me it's pretty representative of a good modern Fire Emblem direction. Most notable to me is how magic is affected, it feels a lot less swingy now.

-Distinct classes and weapon types for Hoshido and Nohr, with the ability to grab unit types from the other side with heart seals or in a limited way through the story. This made previously similar classes feel more distinct and exaggerated their differences, and further gave each army a more distinct identity. We also get new classes like the ninja and butler out of this which are AOK in my book.

-Second seals getting nuked so that characters can't keep re classing and going down to level 1. Being able to laterally shift to only a couple different classes, while also expanding your options through marriage and catching up on skills more quickly was a huge plus. I really hated this aspect of awakening and I'm happy to see better priorities in this leveling system

-Support Stances, and how the enemies passively and actively incorporate this. Stand next to each other for more offense, or pair up to counter this strategy and get passive bonuses. Ultimately as the game went on and some characters outpaced others I was forced to pair up more and more consistently, squeezing as much as I could out of the buffs and making a denser army rather than one that was spread thin, but I still think it added to the game way more than it retracted from it.

So yeah, really good experience with this one and I wasn't expecting that. Now that I have a feel for how each character plays and what skills they have it's time to tackle some harder difficulties.

 

[Adamant Zoroark]

So first of all, I would like to say, that if you're playing male avatar on Conquest and didn't marry Niles, what the fuck is wrong with you?

Okay, on a serious note, I haven't gotten through all the game yet (I'm on chapter 15 and have been playing Keitai Denjuu Telefang) but I am glad that they got rid of the weapon durability mechanic for certain items. It just seemed like an arbitrary mechanic that made you spend more gold for no reason at all. I haven't yet taken advantage of the S/A+ support reclass options but it seems like a fun thing to toy around with.

Currently I have male avatar x Niles and Felicia x Silas. Currently working at Laslow x Effie, Selena x Kaze, Benny x Charlotte, and I am kind of still waiting to get new female characters who can do S supports with Leo and Keaton.

EDIT: Also, in the private quarters, where it says "Bond," that may as well say "Fuck," because we all know that's what's going on.

Spoilers from here on out

So, story-wise, I'm pretty sure Hoshido are bigger dicks than Nohr. Nohr has this brutal king with a no-mercy attitude, but as far as I can tell, all of the other Nohrians barring Iago object to it. Meanwhile, the Hoshidans are a bunch of fucking racists who take the attitudes of Garon as being representative of all Nohrians. The Nohrians, for the most part, seem to be noble people who just can't outright resist their brutal king without losing their heads, but the Hoshidans don't seem to understand that; in fact, when the avatar refrains from killing the Hoshidans, they seem to have a hard time wrapping their head around the idea of Nohrians going to war without taking everyone's heads.

 

[OLD GREGG (im back baby)]

My biggest gripe about fates is how they took what is essentially one cohesive game and broke into seperate peices to make more cash. I don't mind paying a little extra for high quality, but unless you got the special edition you will be forking over 40 for each physical game seperately, 40 for one and 20 for digital download of other, as well as 20 for revelations.
So, to get all three you will need at least 80 bucks. They could have put it all on one cartridge and decided not to, that's my biggest complaint.


Other than that it's really good. I started conquest and got five hours into it before stoping and making myself play birthright first. The selection of characters here is awesome, as always. The gameplay is spot on and both versions bring a lot to the table. If you enjoy loot and grinding then birthright is awesome. If you enjoy limited resources and challenging maps conquest has what you need. You can hit S-Rank supports as early as right after chapter 6 and start opening up children paralogues very early, unlike in awakening. The online interface for my castle is a bit clunky but still usable. So far I'm very much enjoying Fates.

All except for the fact that I will have shelled out over 80 in total for what is essentially one game, when revelations hits the eshop.

 

[imperfectluck]

Playing Conquest on Lunatic Classic after I beat it in Normal Casual first, currently on Chapter 16. Other than the avatar, Odin, Silas, and Niles are my MVPs. Chapter 10 was noticeably by far the hardest chapter to complete with no casualties so far.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

I'm playing Conquest right now. I bought the special edition so I will have free access to Birthright and Revelations too so I might play that. I will admit I wasn't really that good to begin with. I started in Hard Classic but downgraded to Normal Classic because I just wanted to really play a somewhat challenging game for the story rather than wrack my head over how to do every little thing and nearly have a heart attack with every enemy phase. I'm telling myself I'm going to play it again in hard mode when I get used to it and figure out the right gimmicks and surprises (like Chapter 8 in Conquest in Hard Mode was a nightmare for me because of the whole villager thing swarming me but when it was a straightforward map in Chapter 9 I did it in Hard Mode in like 3 times). After failing the "free EXP" DLC level like 5 times, compounded with my whole day struggle of Chapter 8, I lowered the difficulty to Normal.

The one thing I like about this game (even when I was still in Hard mode) was that the game was honestly super fair even though it was hard. One of my biggest gripes about Awakening was its same turn reinforcements. That made me lose Maribelle a few times on the Mila Tree level because the enemies would always spawn near her and would automatically swarm her. Honestly while it was extremely hard, Fates made me feel that most of my deaths were my own damn fault (a few bad random numbers notwithstanding).

So far, Niles and Effie are my MVPs. I'm surprised about Niles. Considering he is billed to be a thief-like character, he's one of my strongest units and also can double-attack easily. Normally I don't play Archers unless I think they're cute (literally the only two I ever attempted to play with was Rebecca in FE7 and Norne in FE11), but this time his sheer strength and durability kept him on the front lines for me ESPECIALLY during that Chapter 8. Effie is similar but trades double attacking for more durability and more raw power.

Silas is consistent for me so he's making it on my main team. He's not particularly "good" but he's not bad either. And Mozu was pretty good after letting her catch up. She has some problems with durability (one of the lowest HPs in my army outside of those explicitly non-combat folks) but in terms of attacking guys that can't counterattack (people that would die that turn/archers) she's one of the best. Nyx and Odin are about the same now that I bumped Odin with EXP. Odin's a bit tankier than Nyx but Nyx hits a bit harder. So I've been pairing them up and using Nyx for strong attacks and Odin for luring people in. My Corrin is...surprisingly fragile. And his (at that time) 2 resistance for a level 10 character with only "average" health really made Chapter 8 a nightmare and was glad that Niles was there. I made him such that his strength and magic increase at about the same rate because honestly I feel like he's his own mini-version of Mozu/Effie - with the Yato he's incredibly fragile but with the Dragonstone he's incredibly strong and a bit more resilient but can't double attack.

I just beat Chapter 10 this morning and I got my favorite class to play as - Wyvern Knights. I will admit that it was a hard chapter and I'm certainly glad I dodged that bullet in hard mode.

 

[Killah]

Playing Conquest on Lunatic Classic after I beat it in Normal Casual first, currently on Chapter 16. Other than the avatar, Odin, Silas, and Niles are my MVPs. Chapter 10 was noticeably by far the hardest chapter to complete with no casualties so far.

I've been stuck on this level for at least 6-8 hours on Hard Classic (so, about half my playtime in the game) and I'm wondering if I'm just screwed beyond belief because of a lot of shitty level ups/I funneled too much XP into Corrin/Effie and so Silas/Arthur are trash

it'd be OK but the fucking shurikens keep wrecking me, feels real bad man

 

[fairytale]

I've been stuck on this level for at least 6-8 hours on Hard Classic (so, about half my playtime in the game) and I'm wondering if I'm just screwed beyond belief because of a lot of shitty level ups/I funneled too much XP into Corrin/Effie and so Silas/Arthur are trash

it'd be OK but the fucking shurikens keep wrecking me, feels real bad man

Having played up to level 19, 10 is still the hardest fucking chapter. Do you have more than one archer unit to man both battalions? If not, Heart Seal Mozu. I didn't beat the chapter until I did this. I also ended up using her as a meat shield (she died) and that's the only reason I beat the level without any of my good units dying.

Just fyi on how I did it if you want to try. Odin went fire battalion things, Niles was South Archer Battalion, Mozu was East Archer Battalion. Sent two units (Arthur and Silas I think) to defend Mozu East, because she is obviously weak as shit. Effie did what Knights do and defended the big southeast choke with all the enemies. Felicia and Azura were in position to reach both Niles and Effie if they needed helped. I used Azura a lot to let Niles either double battalion or use the battalion once and then finish off enemies over the wall. The southwest wall is still hard to defend but with Niles and another unit or two you can hold them off or at least block the choke after they break it. By the time they're really pressuring you there, Camilla and her girls will appear. Send Camilla to this choke and destroy them all basically. You don't need to send anyone at the enemies approaching the westmost house. Just shoot them with Odin once or twice, and once Beruka shows up with Camilla she can fly over and beat them quite handily. I actually used Odin's first shot to hit the enemies closer to where Niles will be positioned.

Eventually things got really sticky and I was scrambling all around, mostly with Niles, trying to take the Pegasus out of the air. But that was an effective strategy for the first half or so of the chapter. I did it after two tries after Heart Sealing Mozu, and I managed to get three out of the four houses.

 

[imperfectluck]

Oh yes, anyone want to share some Castle codes? I'd be interested in seeing what skills you all have available for me to steal, I mean learn, or just to check out people's castle layouts.

 

[Eo Ut Mortus]

Playing Lunatic Conquest because I'm a cocky fuck and make it a point to play on the highest difficulties of any game. I came in expecting an experience similar to Awakening Lunatic and got burned; this is definitely bordering on Awakening Lunatic+ levels (especially given my comparative unfamiliarity with the game). I'm enjoying it so far, though, and I can't help but echo what everyone else has already said about it regarding the diverse map objectives, and the changes to the combat system. I'm not yet fully sold on the plot or some of the characters, but we'll see how it ends up.

I've been stuck on this level for at least 6-8 hours on Hard Classic (so, about half my playtime in the game) and I'm wondering if I'm just screwed beyond belief because of a lot of shitty level ups/I funneled too much XP into Corrin/Effie and so Silas/Arthur are trash

it'd be OK but the fucking shurikens keep wrecking me, feels real bad man

I probably spent just as much time dying to that chapter. It's so hard to remain focused for the entire turn duration. Here are my tips (can you tell how much time I spent attempting this chapter):

- Camilla is so tanky that she can singlehandedly take on the first wave of enemies in the northeast corner with a pair-up. There are four of them, and you can one-shot one of the archers the first turn you move in range and facetank the rest of the enemies. Doing this allowed me to leave the northeast corner undefended (I only had one archer) and concentrate all my units in the southern area. My Arthur was also undertrained, so I had him get the item from the northwest village and pair up with Camilla when she arrived. The trade-off is that you don't have Camilla to help you with the southern enemies, but if you can do enough work with the two units you would've send southeast in the first two turns before Camilla arives, it's probably worth it.

- Ninjas are definitely a pain. Save your turret shots for them so you can hopefully one-shot them without suffering a stat drop. I remember I only needed to use one fire orb shot to get the axe users on the left into KO range; the rest were used on the ninjas.

- One thing to note is that not all of the enemies are aggressive. Every other wave of Pegasus Knights is non-aggressive and will never attack you (unless you're blocking the defend point, maybe). This may also apply to some of the melee fighters who attack the wall and some of the units who are running down the sides. I didn't keep track of them enough to tell. But the important thing is the Pegasus Knights because they are the biggest pain. If you can keep track of which ones will attack you, you can ignore the others until later for Niles/Camilla to pick off.

- Finally, I bought Freeze from the staff shop. There are two of them in stock, I think. I saved them for emergencies, but I imagine you could get away with using most of the charges on this chapter (don't quote me on this).

Despite the grief it caused me, I thought this was a great chapter. It's fairly early on, so everyone's using nearly the same team, and there's less variance in which units will be trained across all games. As a result, I imagine that someone will eventually come up with a pretty sound strategy for beating this chapter, regardless of party formation. My only qualm with it has to do with the AI trick I mentioned before: it should be more clearly defined which enemies aren't going to attack you; otherwise, a fair bit of potential success is hinging on figuring out an AI exploit.

My personal strategy was to send all my units except for the turret operators and Camilla/Arthur to the area in the south, moving back and forth between the left and the right and having Corrin (paired with Effie) and Silas take the initial hits from enemies to draw them into the range of my full party. As the units approaching from the left and right drew closer, I would begin to send units back to help Camilla take care of them, leaving Corrin and a few others to deal with the rest. This strategy was contingent upon me being able to kill enough units per turn so that I wouldn't be overwhelmed. In particular, I had to have Corrin kill the Pegasus Knight on turn 2 by landing two ~75% hit rate Yato shots, and as anyone who has ever used Focus Blast knows, this is near impossible. So probably not the most reliable approach, but the only alternative seemed to be turtling in the two chokepoints, which looked just as hard given the Pegasus Knights.

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.

 

[Magcargo]

Love this game so far. The map design in both versions is much better than in awakening, which had pretty but rather dull maps. The revamped pairing up system is also much better since instead of making your units blatantly overpowered, it instead provides a more reasonable set of stat boost while now giving merit to leave your units unpaired for the attack stance. The CPUs being able to use these tactics too makes the game more challenging, especially on hard mode, where ranged units such as Dark mages and Ninjas will be capable of dealing massive damage against your unpaired units when they are in attack stance. I like several other changes as well, such as the new weapon system, where durability is removed in exchanged for side effects on more powerful weapons (i.e. Silver Sword), being able to forge two weapons by combining them, and the new accessory system. I do have some issues with the game, however.

• Story and dialogue, while solid for the most part, suffer from some really bad moments and confusing decisions and actions made by the characters.
• I felt the game wasn't advertised properly. It made the game seem like a choice between your family when really the choice is between stopping an evil Kingdom's misdeeds through either reform or going to war against them, with the choice of family being more of a side thing, especially since you don't really know Nohr that well in the first six chapters.
• While the localization team did a great job at localizing the game, there were a few things that were poorly handled, primarily the voice acting. Some of the support conversations are also poorly done, primarily this one. That being said, I feel most of the people are over exaggerating this issue.
• Overpowered classes and units hidden behind DLC.

 

[Alfalfa]

• While the localization team did a great job at localizing the game, there were a few things that were poorly handled, primarily the voice acting. Some of the support conversations are also poorly done, primarily this one.

- Nintendo / Intelligent Systems recycling old FE7 memes smh

Also smh for me making Corrin in-game propose to a ~13 year old girl

 

[jrp]

my only complaint about this game is that something seems really screwy with the RNG. I've been hearing rumours that the game went back to a single roll RNG, which would make sense since the original implementation was far more forgiving than what I've been encountering.

Also growths being seeded in lunatic is something of a blessing and a curse combined

 

[moonbound]

I'm almost finished with Conquest Lunatic (I played Birthright Lunatic and Conquest Hard on the JP version) and I started a captured units only run of Revelation Lunatic, and I'll post more detailed thoughts once I finish those.

Before that, to share something I only just learned/fully understood: While I generally don't think many of the child characters are very good (especially compared to how busted children can be in 4 and 13), the timing that you recruit them is pretty important. Any child recruited after story ch19 will join with an offspring seal, which is effectively a master seal that will autolevel them past level 1 promoted (I believe it's like ch19:lvl2, ch20:lvl4, ch21:lvl8 or something). It honestly might not make a difference on birthright/revelation where resources (including exp) aren't limited at all, but it was pretty helpful on conquest: you save money on potential master seals, can focus exp into first generation units (potentially enough to pass down lvl15 promoted skills maybe), and auto-leveled weapon ranks are really helpful considering arms scrolls barely exist (especially if you want access to multiple users of high-rank staves, which are super important on the higher difficulties of conquest imo).

Again I'll add more later but Conquest is in my opinion the best FE game since Radiant Dawn, although it's not without faults of its own.

On lunatic growth seeds: I understand the point of preventing save-scumming, but there are several better ways to have semi-variable fixed growths including FE9 fixed mode and Berwick Saga (the FE clone made by the original FE director) growth bracketing.

Edit: also I think it would be fun for some of us to do a draft run of Revelation once the dlc drops on the 10th and people have played it normally at least once. If enough people are interested when the time comes we could set that up and organize rules and whatever when the time comes.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

Screw Chp. 19+ on Conquest. I meant that.
Beat it last night, I still have a few patches of Brown hair left, so that's an accomplishment.
I was going to start Birthright today, but I just felt REALLY enticed to play Revelations, so I started that this morning. The "1%" crit rates are deceptive, it's amazing how they happen at the end when you're about to seize an area causing you to SR and rage out for a few hours minutes.

 

[Falgaia]

^^ This perfectly sums up my experience with that chapter.

I suffered a bit in this game from not knowing which characters were going to be on my final team, got my first S Rank support as of chapter 18 end. Other than that, I also was expecting the seals to work as they did in Awakening, and my avatar is a little bitch now because I master classed him too early and she had to pretty much sit out the first few chapters in guard stance due to heavily stunted EXP growth rates for Master Classes when you first unlock them. Other than that, I've been enjoying my blind Lunatic Casual No Deaths run of Conquest.

also wtf why aren't my spoiler tags working

 

[Blazade]

On lunatic growth seeds: I understand the point of preventing save-scumming, but there are several better ways to have semi-variable fixed growths including FE9 fixed mode and Berwick Saga (the FE clone made by the original FE director) growth bracketing.

I did a quick search for info on how the growths work for Lunatic because I didn't know it was fixed, basically some guy said your character gets rolled when you recruit them but it's still random, just unchangeable. Can you confirm that's how it works? Also I haven't been able to find anything about how Offspring seals compensate for level ups stat and weapon EXP wise, i.e how important it is to pick up your kids early. In my experience it didn't seem to matter much either way but I didn't have particularly stellar kids either

I'd also totally be down for a draft of Revelations, I've never done something like that before.

Did a normal Birthright run, probably should have done hard/lunatic because it was piss easy compared to Conquest especially toward the end. As for the story, I liked the Birthright characters and Conquest story more. Playing around with the new classes was fun too. Now time to try to finish hard conquest before Revelations hits and I like the fresh experience. For instance Ch 9 I feel like I had to do properly this time through.

 

[ButteredToast]

I finally received my copy of Fire Emblem Fates and began my Birthright classic hard mode journey this morning after realizing that lunatic was too much for a first play through. As a seasoned Fire Emblem player who has played every NA released game, I'm finding the most amount of difficulty right now trying to plan out long term decisions for my character and party. By nature, I tend to be a planner and a researcher and these new classes, statuses, formations, marriage implications, and class changing weirdness is throwing me off quite a bit as I'm trying to wrap my head around this game.

For those who have played/are playing Birthright first, is there any kind of critical mistakes you made early on that you wish you could change? I think I completely messed up with the boon/bane/ability after realizing the plot twist involving the avatar (I went +Speed -Magic and Samarai because it felt the most safe) and am thinking about whether or not I should restart now or not. I am having moderate issues getting through these early levels, but I'm also heavily trying to train my weak units as well as experimenting best I can with these different formations...

 

[Of Moose & Men]

If you're going for optimization, I'd strongly recommend the clever/unlucky Cavalier -> Paladin. Levin sword spam is pretty ridiculous in this game so having that magic buff can come in handy more often than one would think. Its what I'm using for my Revelations run through right now and it's been working wonders. The +mag/-luck cavalier is a pretty unanimously powerful MU. Give it a try if you feel so inclined.

 

[moonbound]

The top priorities for mu build are preserving sword rank for yato, 1-2 range that doesn't suck, and mov. The best options are the aforementioned +mag/-luk cav and +str/-luk ninja followed pretty far behind by something like +spd/-luk wyvern (which I'd like to experiment with, sucks that there isn't a flying class with sword rank).

 

[OLD GREGG (im back baby)]

On my birthright play through I was a little too eager to get my s-ranks and ended up with a few badmatch children units. Female MU and Kaze is a great match, though. You can master seal Kaze to a mechanist and pass down replicate to Kana and Midori. I think replicate is def one of the best skills and the more units you have with replicate, the better.

 

[princessofmusic]

Decided to play Birthright first to have an easy start (played on Normal/Classic) and beat it about a week ago. The gameplay was pretty fun, especially the rebalanced pair-up mechanics, but story-wise I was less impressed than with Awakening. I hope Revelations won't disappoint.

I didn't bother minmaxing marriages at all since it was the initial run and mostly paired whomever I thought would make a cute or convenient couple. Ended the game with Corrin x Ryoma, Azura x Kaze, Hana x Silas, Hinoka x Subaki, and Sakura x Jakob. The first three turned out nice, the fourth I did for redhead Cordelia #2, and the fifth was a lousy pairing. Don't do it.

Layell bought Conquest instead, and according to him the storyline was equally as contrived. Soon enough, we'll switch and play each others' games and see for ourselves.

 

[Of Moose & Men]

Decided to play Birthright first to have an easy start (played on Normal/Classic) and beat it about a week ago. The gameplay was pretty fun, especially the rebalanced pair-up mechanics, but story-wise I was less impressed than with Awakening. I hope Revelations won't disappoint.

I didn't bother minmaxing marriages at all since it was the initial run and mostly paired whomever I thought would make a cute or convenient couple. Ended the game with Corrin x Ryoma, Azura x Kaze, Hana x Silas, Hinoka x Subaki, and Sakura x Jakob. The first three turned out nice, the fourth I did for redhead Cordelia #2, and the fifth was a lousy pairing. Don't do it.

Layell bought Conquest instead, and according to him the storyline was equally as contrived. Soon enough, we'll switch and play each others' games and see for ourselves.

Well, I hate to be the bearer of somewhat bad news, but Revelations is only slightly better, at least in my opinion. It's far from terrible, but it's not quite as fleshed out as a lot of the previous installments have been, though it is better than Birthright and Conquest I feel, if that says anything. I blame that on the fact they went about making it out to be 3 separate stories, which is something I will commend them on however. I won't go into any detail, but it explains a lot more than what the other two do.

Still a great game though either way. So that's a plus lol.

 

[Astra]

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.

 

[Darth Manaphy]

Six in Conquest was pretty difficult too due to only really having one character with any real Resistance and Strength to take down Dark Mages: Niles. Ten was a deal-able pain but I already lowered myself down to normal by then but I can see how hard it could be. Seventeen I just kept running bad roles on the RNG. I had a ton of my ~60%s miss and a ton of my opponent's hit.