Fire Emblem

[Kador]

Okay, so i just finished my blind maddening run today, and it felt as good as an old school fire emblem.

There is a constant flux of replacing bad/dead units by new ones as the game progresses, because those new units had enough stats to be meaningful from the start. Having units dying to 1% crit or 5% hit is no longer a reset, but a dramatic event which adds taste. The last two units recruited are unfortunately too bad for use, and since it's impossible to train from 0 an unit to catch up, going from 12slots team to 14slots team felt like 12slots team + 2 staves holders. Most new players prefer to limit themselves to a few units for the whole game, and that's okay because hard difficulty exists for them, I also genuinely thought Bors and general Amelia were great choices to invest in back then.

Unlike 3H where everyone has to get a pegasus/wyvern or die, the rings allow build creativity and make every unit different. Every bullshit scenario had an overpowered answer:

• A thief guarded by too many units? snipe him with lyn's astral arrow.
• 20 thoron cavs coming in? sigurd's override with a riderbane and now they are either dead or killable by leif's vantage.
• A boss with engage ready is coming in? block with corrin's ice dragon vein.
• Need to fight under meteor or ballistae's fire? lucina's bonded shield.
• Need an unit to act 4 times in the same turn to survive? byleth.
• The boss takes 0 dmg from everyone? eirika's lunar brace.
  

The resources are scarce, the skirmishes are extra punishing, but it can be played without minmaxing. Indeed, even without Tempest Trials, DLC and reclassing, the game is totally manageable. I didnt have to resort to warp+rescue until chapter 25. Of course, if a bad overall strategy is used the player has to restart the chapter, but's that's to be expected.
Chain attacks' true damage, break effects and heavy weapons punish bad habits such as soloing with yunaka, turtling, or simply autopiloting.
Although it felt as an old school fire emblem, the modern elements are greatly appreciated. The timestone cancels typical fire emblem gotcha moments and fatfinger, recruiting an unit doesnt need to read a wiki, there is no event locked behind a specific unit standing on a specific tile and no weapon durability, and everyone escapes when alear escapes.


Actually, it felt like conquest lunatic, exceptional gameplay with subpar writing.

[Malgos]

And character balance is also all over the place, with many early shitters being total shitters and then there are units like hiya papaya

Speaking of Yunaka and altered dialogue there's no way her dialogue is as cringe in Japanese as it is with the English translation, right? I don't speak Japanese, but Yoropippi is at least partially a word, yoroshiku, combined with something or am I wrong about that? Whether the "pippi" part is supposed to be something random that sounds cute or has actual meaning I wouldn't know. But from this one instance of her eccentric speech I'd guess they might've wanted to go for having her act like a trendy "anime highschool girl", because this kinda reminds me of "yahallo" from Yui (Oregairu). Since it's all an act she's trying to push and seemingly felt kinda awkward about it when Alear said it I think she's just randomly coming up with these as she talks, but still I feel like it can't be as weird as the English version. Reading the translation feels like an older person trying to translate her to be kinda "hip" I guess? Also I did see a really random translation, which apparently was a really really old 40+ year "in" way of saying hello, on the level of hiya papaya for that yahallo as well so I could never shake that similarity.

Also I think Maddening giving about 20% less exp than hard also leads to early units, with their bad personal skills, to also fall behind hard. That and that if you wanted to use all the characters you get in the early game, you need a 3 man rotation as well, since the deployment slots get eaten up by the better newer units.

Also somehow I managed to struggle really, really, really badly with chapter 11. I tried to keep Alfred relevant which I think might just be impossible in maddening. And by really struggled I mean it's the only chapter until then which I had to reset for, not counting mistakes, really bad early rng or forgetting something that needed to be in the inventory etc. usually once I got past turn 1 or 2 (depending on when I noticed that I missed an item or something) I cleared the chapter I started.

Chapter 11

I think partially it's because of my team at the time of clearing chapter 10 was bad with my sucky Alfred and medicore Etie. Granted, you can't do rewinds for the relevant part of the chapter but you know. I think that might just be cause I'm amazing at choking when faced with the treat of Sigurd running in, Celica teleporting at the same time all the while for example armor knight Roy or Leif is finally close enough to engage. The way I beat that chapter after an extremely embarrassing amount of time was not killing the enemies as quickly - after quite a few tries I started leaving freeze staff alone and if Celica ported in I made sure to have it be on a more mobile unit so she couldn't catch up as quickly. Anyways my stubbornness to not change my team, which had meh units in it rather than better ones like changing Alfred for Chloe or taking out Framme or maybe not bringing Etie, was really the main factor I think. I knew I could beat it with my units, but the time it cost me was insane.

Paralogue after chapter 12 or 13 or so?

Also the next chapter I actually needed to reset on was Lyn's paralogue, but I think I tried that way too early. Despite having apparently the same recommended level as Lucina's it was way tougher. Alfred also did almost nothing in my first attempts, but die or barely after setup get kills with a forged horseslayer, if he didn't miss if he did he usually died.

[Deathhappens]

Speaking of Yunaka and altered dialogue there's no way her dialogue is as cringe in Japanese as it is with the English translation, right? I don't speak Japanese, but Yoropippi is at least partially a word, yoroshiku, combined with something or am I wrong about that? Whether the "pippi" part is supposed to be something random that sounds cute or has actual meaning I wouldn't know. But from this one instance of her eccentric speech I'd guess they might've wanted to go for having her act like a trendy "anime highschool girl", because this kinda reminds me of "yahallo" from Yui (Oregairu). Since it's all an act she's trying to push and seemingly felt kinda awkward about it when Alear said it I think she's just randomly coming up with these as she talks, but still I feel like it can't be as weird as the English version. Reading the translation feels like an older person trying to translate her to be kinda "hip" I guess? Also I did see a really random translation, which apparently was a really really old 40+ year "in" way of saying hello, on the level of hiya papaya for that yahallo as well so I could never shake that similarity.

Also I think Maddening giving about 20% less exp than hard also leads to early units, with their bad personal skills, to also fall behind hard. That and that if you wanted to use all the characters you get in the early game, you need a 3 man rotation as well, since the deployment slots get eaten up by the better newer units.

Also somehow I managed to struggle really, really, really badly with chapter 11. I tried to keep Alfred relevant which I think might just be impossible in maddening. And by really struggled I mean it's the only chapter until then which I had to reset for, not counting mistakes, really bad early rng or forgetting something that needed to be in the inventory etc. usually once I got past turn 1 or 2 (depending on when I noticed that I missed an item or something) I cleared the chapter I started.

Chapter 11

I think partially it's because of my team at the time of clearing chapter 10 was bad with my sucky Alfred and medicore Etie. Granted, you can't do rewinds for the relevant part of the chapter but you know. I think that might just be cause I'm amazing at choking when faced with the treat of Sigurd running in, Celica teleporting at the same time all the while for example armor knight Roy or Leif is finally close enough to engage. The way I beat that chapter after an extremely embarrassing amount of time was not killing the enemies as quickly - after quite a few tries I started leaving freeze staff alone and if Celica ported in I made sure to have it be on a more mobile unit so she couldn't catch up as quickly. Anyways my stubbornness to not change my team, which had meh units in it rather than better ones like changing Alfred for Chloe or taking out Framme or maybe not bringing Etie, was really the main factor I think. I knew I could beat it with my units, but the time it cost me was insane.

Paralogue after chapter 12 or 13 or so?

Also the next chapter I actually needed to reset on was Lyn's paralogue, but I think I tried that way too early. Despite having apparently the same recommended level as Lucina's it was way tougher. Alfred also did almost nothing in my first attempts, but die or barely after setup get kills with a forged horseslayer, if he didn't miss if he did he usually died.

Having encountered the same "greeting" before, I'm reasonably sure that's a gyaru stereotype thing. Which, given the character, fits to a tee.

Anyway, I managed to get a couple people killed in Hard in the first "real" fight of the game so I'm considering just switching to Normal. Replaying every map twice because lol reinforcement fliers up your ass isn't my idea of fun.

[pinetree]

Anyway, I managed to get a couple people killed in Hard in the first "real" fight of the game so I'm considering just switching to Normal. Replaying every map twice because lol reinforcement fliers up your ass isn't my idea of fun.

The fliers were there from the start mate

[Deathhappens]

No, a new couple popped up from the forts.

[pinetree]

Oh I thought you meant Ch 3

[Kador]

Chapter 11

I think partially it's because of my team at the time of clearing chapter 10 was bad with my sucky Alfred and medicore Etie. Granted, you can't do rewinds for the relevant part of the chapter but you know. I think that might just be cause I'm amazing at choking when faced with the treat of Sigurd running in, Celica teleporting at the same time all the while for example armor knight Roy or Leif is finally close enough to engage. The way I beat that chapter after an extremely embarrassing amount of time was not killing the enemies as quickly - after quite a few tries I started leaving freeze staff alone and if Celica ported in I made sure to have it be on a more mobile unit so she couldn't catch up as quickly. Anyways my stubbornness to not change my team, which had meh units in it rather than better ones like changing Alfred for Chloe or taking out Framme or maybe not bringing Etie, was really the main factor I think. I knew I could beat it with my units, but the time it cost me was insane.

Paralogue after chapter 12 or 13 or so?

Also the next chapter I actually needed to reset on was Lyn's paralogue, but I think I tried that way too early. Despite having apparently the same recommended level as Lucina's it was way tougher. Alfred also did almost nothing in my first attempts, but die or barely after setup get kills with a forged horseslayer, if he didn't miss if he did he usually died.

The stubborness to not change your team is indeed making the game harder, chapter 10 didnt feel that much hard with chloe on sigurd, just wanted to confirm.
While being itself an achievement, expecting to clear engage maddening deathless might chip away at your sanity.

Chapter 11

That's basically when the player realizes Alfred fell behind and became useless. He managed to survive somehow in my playthrough, only to get benched. You werent the only one to experience riderbane's miss from alfred, since maddening has fixed growth for every player.
The "story" sells the chapter as escaping quickly, but actually it's a very slow escape. Sigurd reveals himself being the weakest bonus and the fastest to farm, while leif is better kept far from the rest by yunaka.
The difficulty's spike forced me to actually use the convoy, and reminded me there are so many tools in the game.

Paralogue after chapter 12 or 13 or so?

I also think the paralogues arent meant to get cleared the moment they are unlocked. I felt powerless against lucina back then.
For lyn, I found a strategy by playing in the top right corner until lyn starts moving. To reach top right corner, she needs to walks counter clockwise, and the reinforcements cant pop until she uses astral arrow. So once she reaches bottom left corner, I cleared every yurt in counter clockwise order, except the one at the bottom of the top right corner, since it's always in lyn's range.

[Deathhappens]

Having encountered the same "greeting" before, I'm reasonably sure that's a gyaru stereotype thing. Which, given the character, fits to a tee.

Anyway, I managed to get a couple people killed in Hard in the first "real" fight of the game so I'm considering just switching to Normal. Replaying every map twice because lol reinforcement fliers up your ass isn't my idea of fun.

So,yeah, on to the Ch.5 battle (the castle raid) and I can confirm two things: First, nobody in this entire extended group has any brains, and second, fuck playing this game on hard the first time through. I have one swordsman unit (and Celine if you squint really, really hard) and every map is chock full of axe units that outdamage my steel bow archer with a handaxe.

[Aozaki-desu]

beat ch21 and ch22. 21 wasnt so bad once i tonic'd up, 22 was the dullest shit i've seen so far in this game.
14 deployment slots in ch23, nice. if they give me more i would have to field some benchwarmer as a cleric i guess.
my only problem now is that skills i want are behind bond10 and i did not grind any. maybe its time to try (?) to hit some skirmishes. I also have 2 paralogues left and i need to get lucina to 18 twice.
maybe i should just reconsider.

[Spinach]

You can just dump bond fragments in the arena to buy those bond ranks. Unless you've been buying them nonstop and ran out it shouldn't be an issue.

[Aozaki-desu]

buying your way up to bond 18 is extremely expensive

[Spinach]

Surely you have the points for it though. I've bought bond 15+ for a multitude of characters and I have a spare 25k or so points. You are collecting your points from the achievement board right?

- - - Updated - - -

Also, finished 21 last night. I really enjoyed it honestly, most fun "kill boss" map yet for this game.

[Aozaki-desu]

Surely you have the points for it though. I've bought bond 15+ for a multitude of characters and I have a spare 25k or so points. You are collecting your points from the achievement board right?

now i have

Spoiler:

[Spinach]

lmaoooo godly

[Deathhappens]

now i have

Spoiler:

Heh.

[GDB]

Just did my first Maddening skirmish, between ch11 and ch12, on the map where Anna's prologue was. Holy crap that was rough. Took like 5 tries because you start in the middle and get flanked on all 3 sides.

[pinetree]

Skirmishes suck. Putting aside the fact that I rarely grind in FE anyway, they're impossible to use to level characters that got lefft behind and the few I've tried are just all the enemies rushing at you so they're not even fun to play. Total waste of time.

[Aozaki-desu]

i couldnt do first skirmish until after i got byleth and corrin, it was elusian cathedral one

[Spinach]

Ok, ch 22 had "we didn't consider fun in the game design equation" energy. That was terrible.

[Aozaki-desu]

I think Ch25 is my favorite so far
Ch24 is pretty good too but its a bit too easy