12 replies to this topic

[Mercurius]

This is assuming that you can do everything the way you want it to as long as the game allows it. (Aside from hacking it)

If you want, you:

can not use Pair-Up.

can not class change.

can not use any of the DLC.

can pretend casual mode doesn't exist and get frustrated and bitch at Intelligent Systems over having to restart chapters again every time someone dies.

can play with only one dragonstone. Well, two since you get two dragons.

Or you can just play it with all its additional features in mind, that's cool too.

The part that interests me most is chapter design, that is, what you actually do on the chapter. The map, enemy positions, enemy weapons/classes, when they show up, and if it actually requires some thinking or is mostly just a stats contest and whatnot. There's also character availability and stuff too, I guess. The balance of classes relative to the other games is also something to bring up, since I hear a lot about mages being OP in Awakening despite finding the physical units more or less at least just as OP.

You can also be totally biased as hell and just go with speculation when crap you didn't expect shows up, like every time I got hit by a 20% or less hit rate in Radiant Dawn I pretty much assumed the RNG doesn't even work in the same way it does in the GBA games(I had to play as if everything over 40% would probably hit me too), while I can pretty much treat all hit rates below 70 as fairly safe in the GBA games. (Idr about FE11/12 or anything before the GBA ones.)

[Fire Blazer]

I found it exceptionally fun and refreshing

It's in many ways unlike other Fire Emblems

there's a large variety of choices--characters, classes, items, difficulty, general play settings...

I didn't think highly of the DLC, but the main story was very fun to play.

However, it is also very easy to break and at many times is kind of poorly balanced

Normal and hard run playthroughs were generally very enjoyable though. Even Lunatic was pretty enjoyable. I'm the kind of guy who will exploit what he needs to but won't break the game just because he can (so I'm not the kind of guy to try to solo Lunatic with Avatar and another character, even if it's totally possible)

[kirant]

QUOTE (Tenebrae Candidae @ Jun 4 2014, 07:43 AM)

The part that interests me most is chapter design, that is, what you actually do on the chapter. The map, enemy positions, enemy weapons/classes, when they show up, and if it actually requires some thinking or is mostly just a stats contest and whatnot. There's also character availability and stuff too, I guess. The balance of classes relative to the other games is also something to bring up, since I hear a lot about mages being OP in Awakening despite finding the physical units more or less at least just as OP.

Personally the map designs were very much hit and miss. Some were excellent (final chapter, Walmart's (sic) battles), but some were outright terrible and either boring (2nd last map) or sadistic on higher difficulties (Cordelia's recruitment chapter should you try to protect your clerics without Pair Up) and were obviously built up for the broken Pair Up system.

Balancing character is a major pain for sure, but FE:A certainly missed the mark quite badly in many regards...though FE typically does this and you get a lot of what I, as a sports fan, call Waiver wire garbage. Poor Virion. Poor, poor, poor Virion. Actually, poor archers as a whole. Don't worry, I'll try to bring you back to relevance on my own game . Seriously though, mages, especially those with access to Galeforce, were evil and probably the most insane thing in this game. Reclassing, Pair Up, and Stat Cap Modifiers made it far too easy to break this game...really if you're not intentionally challenging yourself, it's more or less how you're going to break it more than how you're going to survive it. Granted, this is all expected as FE:A is more of an RPG than a TBT game and they want to pump it with agency more than hardcore planning. None of this is bad mind you. Heck, the oft argued 'best' Fire Emblem, FE4, had wildly boring maps. But it's divisive based on how you interpreted Fire Emblem before.

[^Leo^]

Fe4's chapters were close to the size of 3-4 "normal" sized maps(often bigger). And a few of them did get rather tedious, but I wouldn't say it was ever boring. No more than advanced wars was ever boring anyway. On the subject of awakening, my biggest complaint is how the difficulty isn't consistent. From one map to the next you couldn't really take a guess as to whether or not you'd be able to bring your super weak units(this doesn't apply to normal mode or if you're using pair up of course).

[kirant]

QUOTE (Tenebrae Candidae @ Jun 4 2014, 03:38 PM)

The final chapter's map is just a flat vertical field with narrower edges + enemy spam though. Unless you mean the enemy spamming mechanic was excellent(since I was trying to get this to be about gameplay as opposed to visuals.)

The visuals were great. That's what I meant. From a design PoV, it's alright...it integrates with the theme well but yeah, it's really bland.

QUOTE (Tenebrae Candidae @ Jun 4 2014, 03:38 PM)

The only thing I've really heard of FE4 maps is that they are ridiculously huge.

It's poor map design since you're marching 15 units across a map for turns on end after your clear up an army. I honestly delayed on the game a few times because it'd take me 15 minutes of pure button grinding to cross a map.

[Fire Blazer]

"It's part of the "adventure"! It's what makes FE4 so great!"

no I don't really feel that way, I could never beat FE4 partly because of how huge the maps were (like, it's not that it was too hard, I just couldn't force myself to play a game I didn't enjoy that much)

[^Leo^]

yeah i had that same problem actually...still can't find it. i don't know about complaining that it took too long tbh. since there were only 12 chapters total iirc, you could spend a couple of hours on each individual one. and you almost had to considering the size of them. i mean, yeah the prologue took me over half an hour my first playthrough, but it was a very fun game on the whole.

[Cero]

FE4 can be damn fun if you get past the gigantic maps. And yeah, the maos are definitely it's biggest flaw.

On the topic of Awakening's gameplay the bast amount of options on how to play it. On the other hand I found to map design to be overall poor with only a few good maps actually being good. And I also don't like how the enemies in this game zerg rush you so much more in this game. It's more like an endurance test, but it being pretty much every enemy in the game it got tiring fast.

Also the skill system in this game is like the worst skill system in the series (barring FE4 and FE5 since I barely know anything about their skill systems). It is entirely driven by grinding and overall much less intuitive compared to FE9's and especially compared to FE10's.

And also poor Virion.

[Fire Blazer]

*maps

^FE10 fanboy

the skill system is by far the most diverse if you ask me

but I kinda preferred other ones too

the only thing with me and skills in FE9/10 is that they were rarely ever useful for me

I found them rarely activating or else just not being that useful or not activating when I need them to

FE13 had a lot skills that weren't just "X chance of activating" and even then the chance of them happening felt like it was higher so skills like Luna and Sol were actually a bit useful for me lol

[kirant]

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Jun 6 2014, 01:56 PM)

*maps

Nope. He mean maos.

QUOTE (Fire Blazer @ Jun 6 2014, 01:56 PM)

FE13 had a lot skills that weren't just "X chance of activating" and even then the chance of them happening felt like it was higher so skills like Luna and Sol were actually a bit useful for me lol

Except skills like Luna and Sol are poorly balanced for the x% chance of activation doesn't really work with high statistics. Really, these worked when your stats would cap at 20-25 and your chances were stuck at 20-30%. Letting it activate the majority of the time begins to break it...more than FE13 was broken already.

[Bobryk]

Loved Fe13's gameplay. It's fresh, new and a ton of fun. For me, stories are only good the first time though, and after that, it's all about the gameplay/replayability, and Fe13 has some of the best of that in the series, imo. Sure, the game can be broken, but that requires time and grinding, much like Fe8. In a normal playthrough it's just not worth it to grind until postgame.

Fe4's huge maps could have been so much better if there was, well, something interesting to do when you marched from castle to castle once all the enemies were dead. I mean, it gives the feel that you're, well, marching, but with nothing interesting to do except for move units....that becomes rather bland. That game would've done exceptionally well had the command option been implemented then (surround the lord, etc), so you could move everyone without manually clicking everybody.

[Cheshire]

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I've visited the FE Shrine.

I just bought myself a Gameboy 3DS and I love it! I had been waiting a long time in order to play Awakening, and am amped to experience it after all this time. This game rocks. I've been into for about a week now. The gameplay is refreshing and exciting. The new 'pairing up' and side-by-side fighting is sweet! I'm still getting used to the mechanics and collecting all the support conversations. I want to obtain them all so I can experiment with the available second generation characters. I really love the voice acting, it adds depth to the gameplay... not to mention the 3D aspect to it. The marriage system is wicked, I've yet to play a Fire Emblem game that implemented such a feature.

I have two save files at the moment, but have yet to progress past the introduction of the 2nd generation characters. It's tough to pick a favorite unit, but I really like the tactician. Customization is one of my favorite aspects to video games. So the opportunity to play as your own character is very pleasing.

[Fire Blazer]

Gameboy 3DS, hahaha. Glad to see you're alive... and you're liking Awakening so much to boot! I like most of what you said as well, minus the marriage thing and the fact that pairing up gets kinda broken later haha. Collecting all the support conversations is going to be really hard and/or time-consuming, good luck with that!

You like customization, huh? Then that makes sense the Avatar would be a fave, haha. I'm not as much into customization (I like it but not with create-your-own characters, for various reasons) but I know a lot of people are and having that probably helps to draw in more people~