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I've said it before and I'll say it again. There is no really bad Fire Emblem game. Some are better than others, but all of them are a pretty good experience.
The issue is just that its a niche franchise which is hard for other people to get into. Fire Emblem is awesome and I love every game in the series I played, although some are REALLY hard to get through (Thracia 776 and Shadow Dragon).
Hard not to.
Y-You read my posts? *~*
The blood of Grima flows through you! You cannot challenge your own birthright!
Generally I find the concept of Archers eludes international fans. I won't pretend they are hot stuff around Japanese fans either, but they've always had a spot on many rosters.
For all I love Thracia 776, I would never dare recommend it to anyone.
I killed Gaius at first, and then I was like "Wait a second... His name isn't 'Thief!'" So being the genre savvy FE player I am, I reset.
I got stuck on Shadow Dragon because I tried to Arena Abuse and I just kept getting killed. I usually got Caeda WAY up, and then somehow a bad hit slayed my character (either Caeda, or someone after her). Then in Thracia 776, I couldn't get passed the chapter where you lose Eyvel. I always lost SOMEONE in that chapter no matter what I do.Hard not to.
She has all the attack power of a Mage, with tanking ability akin to Mercenaries. If that doesn't sound good enough, it gets better: You only need to give her a speedy pairing early on and she can be doubling everyone. Since she gains 50% more EXP, it won't take long for her to gain those 5 Speed necessary to double everyone even without speedy pairing. Chapter 2 to 3, she is a modest nuker. Not to sturdy, but does the trick. Chapter 4 to 5, she is can carefully pick through the enemy lines. By Chapter 6 she will have already long snowballed out of control; an unstoppable juggernaut that will be shrugging off hits and blowing everyone to smithereens.
Y-You read my posts? *~*
And yeah. I can understand why he would choose someone like Lucas even though we already had Ness, because not only was Lucas planned since Melee, but Brawl was all about quantity and little quality. It didn't make the redundancy okay with me, but I can understand where they were coming from.
But now? With Marth and Ike, an increased level of quality with the newcomer additions, and every design direction headed towards diversity, I am seriously straining myself with trying to fathom why they would ever want Chrom. So much that I feel he is more likely not to show up, even if I would never be so bold as to refute the prospect.The blood of Grima flows through you! You cannot challenge your own birthright!
In the end, whether Chrom shows up or not, I'll never say Robin supporters were wrong. Even if they can make Chrom into an original fighter, there were always better, more reasonable choices. I think the majority of people who have played a Fire Emblem game, and even a lot of the people who haven't can clearly see why there are better choices.
Generally I find the concept of Archers eludes international fans. I won't pretend they are hot stuff around Japanese fans either, but they've always had a spot on many rosters.
You really need to have a good sense of positioning to use bows well. For all intents and purposes, they are like a staff-wielder in that you don't want them exposed to the wrong kind of enemy at the end of your town, and you are not supposed to expect them to be taking enemy attacks. The whole thing is, the optimal strategies also mean about 80% of the classes are not supposed to be absorbing hits anyways, so as you get better at making sure the right kinds of units are absorbing the right kinds of attacks, Archers are not bad.
Generally their purpose is in delivering reliable, high physical damage. Now, in Awakening, everyone can get high hit rates pretty easily, whether it's because of forges or pairing. That said, Archers are better than ever. Not only are they great pairings for any physical fighter with strength and defensive bonuses, but if you leave them unpaired, they can use Double/Towering Bows while standing next to a friendly unit to allow them to attack with someone like a Hammer up to 4 cells away! They become even better when you get Gale Force on them, since not only does it let them fire and move away, but it also lets them swap with a paired unit to attack.
All in all, not a lot of newcomers or even intermediate Fire Emblem fans grasp Archers. Generally they are favoured by veterans of the series, or people who play with a greater emphasis on math and a lower emphasis on chance. The international community has been unhappy with them, but since the developer already considers them strong, it's hard to say if we'll ever something happen. A lot of people ask for 3 range to be baseline for bows, but I'll be surprised if that happens.
If I were to make a call for Intelligent Systems, I would make all physical weapons capable of indirect attacks use half the strength in their formulas if they are used at a range, except bows of course. IMO they simplify strategy too much and absolutely nullify the majority of enemy threats with ranged attacks.
For all I love Thracia 776, I would never dare recommend it to anyone.
I would only wish Shadow Dragon on my enemies.
Isn't that Guy she's pointing at? Although technically Matthew recruits Guy, not Lyn... in fact Lyn doesn't even rejoin until two chapters later
Jokes aside, I'm glad they decreased the ambiguity of recruitment for Awakening. There were so many places you could go wrong with previous entries, and honestly it felt so needless.
Tell me about it. I gave up on Shadow Dragon after I went into a chapter, saved midway, and discovered a recruitable enemy that I couldn't convert because I didn't have the right person to talk to him in my party.
Jokes aside, I'm glad they decreased the ambiguity of recruitment for Awakening. There were so many places you could go wrong with previous entries, and honestly it felt so needless.
I remember spending about a week when I played Rekka no Ken trying to recruit Raven to my side. It was hard at first because there were a few characters that were tied to him, and I didn't realize initially that it was his sister that needed to do the talking, iirc. Not only that, but Raven's sister being a troubadour iirc would get torn apart, so I had to lure Raven into her range but not so that he could attack and kill her, and then I had to save both of them when I recruited Raven which I happened to do in front of a line of enemies. It took forever. I had the same issue when trying to deal with Jaffar as well.
Jokes aside, I'm glad they decreased the ambiguity of recruitment for Awakening. There were so many places you could go wrong with previous entries, and honestly it felt so needless.
When playing that chapter within the past few weeks again, as soon as I saw Raven moving out I remembered "oh crap, I have to RUSH to get up there as fast as frickin' possible to get him!" That was so damn annoying. Jafar usually causes me trouble as well, I tend to try and get Nino as many levels as possible by killing enemies in that chapter, then once I get the Gaiden I let her solo almost the entire chapter (well, not "solo" persay, I just let her get most of the kills) to try and level her up and then promote her in the same chapter. I'm going to try it again on this playthrough (only two more chapters right now until I get there).I remember spending about a week when I played Rekka no Ken trying to recruit Raven to my side. It was hard at first because there were a few characters that were tied to him, and I didn't realize initially that it was his sister that needed to do the talking, iirc. Not only that, but Raven's sister being a troubadour iirc would get torn apart, so I had to lure Raven into her range but not so that he could attack and kill her, and then I had to save both of them when I recruited Raven which I happened to do in front of a line of enemies. It took forever. I had the same issue when trying to deal with Jaffar as well.
I love Archers. They're my favorites. Brides, Warriors and Assassins are fine too, but the pure Archer classes are my favorite.
I've had Astrid be able to survive a single turn... but its VERY rare. I still like Astrid, though, she's actually very useful if you level her up. In Radiant Dawn she's less useful, but is still quite good if you give her Blossom; she tends to cap all stats by 20-20-18 and she's got high caps, just with low Growths. She and Geoffrey are the only ones who can effectively use Blossom, but Geoffrey's lack of availability seriously hurts him.Path of Radiance
**** Astrid.
You got to SHOVE DAT IKE and pray she can find sanctity after you talk to her. She cannot even survive a single turn if you don't talk to her right away.
I've had Pokemon on the mind way too much lately...
It's the biggest reason Galeforce units in FE13 are pretty much the best ones.
I think skills should be revised. It was something that, once again, Tellius did best.
I like Astrid and typically really like making use of those characters that start weak but have immense potential given attention. The only unit I've ever been able to think of that starts weak and just wouldn't become useful or strong at all was Meg from RD. Not only do you recruit her as a weak knight, but you also do it right before a Laguz Chapter of all things, so she just gets eaten alive if you're not careful, you have to do the classic strategy of weakening the enemies to kill range before bringing her in for the kill (and praying she didn't miss, all the Laguz would double her and even unshifted they would still do like 6 per hit) to get her experience as well, which is a pain. This is not to mention that she simply isn't useful because much better knight options exist with Brom and Tauroneo (given, they start as generals, but still). I remember I had to tank up front hard with Nolan and Aran and stay confined to the little square you start that fight in for the first 10 turns to have any chance of keeping her alive. I remember in my first playthrough the Dawn Brigade characters were pathetically under-leveled compared to the Greil Mercenary party and I brought almost none of them in for Endgame (the first time through Micaiah was basically useless for me in endgame).
I like Leif far more for FE4 than FE5, I could never beat Thracia. But I am well aware of his central role in Thracia, and I fully agree, I think a remake of Jugdral merging the events of Geneology and Thracia would be epic. Although I think they'd probably have to rewrite the story slighlty and bring back most of the first generation cast (probably after the second generation has leveled significantly).
One time I was EXTREMELY close to getting a great Fiona, I had to boss abuse her in the indoors chapter and have her kill as many enemy units as I possibly could throughout that entire chapter. I managed to get her promoted in the Dawn Brigade chapters, but I still ended up using Astrid in the end because Fiona was still too weak. She was extremely useful to use before the Endgame, though, and I did use her in the final pre-Endgame chapters, but I had to promote her early (at 20-8) so she was underpowered and not suited for the Tower of Guidance.I like Astrid and typically really like making use of those characters that start weak but have immense potential given attention. The only unit I've ever been able to think of that starts weak and just wouldn't become useful or strong at all was Meg from RD. Not only do you recruit her as a weak knight, but you also do it right before a Laguz Chapter of all things, so she just gets eaten alive if you're not careful, you have to do the classic strategy of weakening the enemies to kill range before bringing her in for the kill (and praying she didn't miss, all the Laguz would double her and even unshifted they would still do like 6 per hit) to get her experience as well, which is a pain. This is not to mention that she simply isn't useful because much better knight options exist with Brom and Tauroneo (given, they start as generals, but still). I remember I had to tank up front hard with Nolan and Aran and stay confined to the little square you start that fight in for the first 10 turns to have any chance of keeping her alive. I remember in my first playthrough the Dawn Brigade characters were pathetically under-leveled compared to the Greil Mercenary party and I brought almost none of them in for Endgame (the first time through Micaiah was basically useless for me in endgame).
The second time I played through I did much better with the Dawn Brigade units, Micaiah was actually pretty good and Aran and Nolan could straight-up eat enemy attacks for Breakfast. The third time I played through I finally managed to evenly level everybody and the Dawn Brigade units became quite useful.
I also remember in my first time with RD that I abused the "half-shift" too much for characters like Volug and Skrimir and they basically were useless later on.
My best characters though were Shinon, Boyd, Oscar, Soren, Aran, Haar, and Nephenee.
For whatever reason I was able to max out Shinon's defense and he just did not take damage from anything aside from the bosses when I played through endgame.
On the topic of my favorite unit, it is hands down the Dark Mage line (which was the major reason I married Tharja in my first playthrough, although I feel the design of Awakening's Dark Mage/Sorcerer could've been better), followed by Swordmaster, Assassin, Sage, Sniper, and Hero. I really wish they would bring back the Summoner class from SS. Summoning the Meat Shield warriors was my favorite thing to do with Knoll (my favorite male character of FE).
That reminded me of the Priest Exploitation I used to do, since some of the staves would actually heal the user. So I remember during one of the later chapters during the first section with the Dawn Brigade I had Leonardo and Edward or Nolan down away from the bossfight just abusing a poor priest who had a Mend staff or something and just couldn't fight back. That was actually how I managed to turn Leonardo into a Sniper before the parties switched, iirc.
Have I failed myself? Tibarn is the most broken unit I've ever had the fortune of using, he doubled everything with an insane amount of damage (Tear activation helped). To be honest I feel like the Hawks in PoR and RD are by far the best class overall, statistically speaking. With the Dragon tribe as an honorable mention due to their ridiculous HP and damage potential.
I avoid having too many front-line fighters. Melee units have limited area in which they can function around other melee units, and when you need to move a bunch of units from point A to B, melee units are more likely forced to take less efficient movements because other melee units are standing on the ideal tile.
If you get past the presentation (how it looks and how it sounds), Shadow Dragon isn't that bad.(Goes out today on a quest to find and purchase any fire emblem I can get my hands on, in order to expand my pathetically small collection. After Many hours of driving, finds and scours a total of 6 stores selling used and new video games. Finally stumbles across a find: Shadow Dragon. Immediately purchases the game, and continues searching for others, then returns home otherwise fruitless. Gets on forums to express my excitement for the find I did make.)
P.s., I actually did find out about a second game. Gamestop informed me that another of their stores had Radiant Dawn in stock, for only 65 dollars! And I'd only have to drive five hours to reach it!
I sure hope so! I've heard great things about that one.
Astrid was always pretty easy for me to get, actually. And she was a beast when I got to use her in the following chapters (gotta thank BEXP for that).Path of Radiance
**** Astrid.
You got to SHOVE DAT IKE and pray she can find sanctity after you talk to her. She cannot even survive a single turn if you don't talk to her right away.
Well, I played Maniac on the Japanese version, so mathematically she has a slim chance of surviving unless you get to her on the first turn.
I guess mages are my favorite kind of unit.
The FE games helps me in this choice too, giving us awesome choices of magic users (Soren, Merric, Linina, Nino, Laurent and Artur (who is a monk but basically a light tome wielder mage ).
But for gameplay, mages tend to start strong, and quickly earning levels and by the point they start doubling opponents, its basically a easy kill. They also are units that battle 1 or 2 squares of range, and can counter the same way. They also normally evolve into classes that wield staves, to greatly increases they usability.
Of course their defenses are very bad, bu they will normally avoid most of the moves too. This is why I think myrmydons and archers get some credit here, since their consistent damage and high hit normally means the end of a underlooked mage. Still, I believe its more pros than cons.
To get only one, I think I will let nostalgia win this one and get Artur. (Sorry Soren).
I mean, look at that critical animation!
I wasn't able to find a gif of my red haired demon criting, so I let Lucius do the job.
When Robin movesets comes up that suggest swords, I always imagined a Levin Sword, and all movements having thundering effects. I think sword would comes in play just to get enemies away on in position where you want then to be. Also, multi hits to rack up %, with low knockback.For people who want a stance changing Robin:
One way that it could work is the sword stance could utilize the Levin Sword, and naturally be more powerful than the magic stance, but the Levin Sword uses up energy. It would recharge over time, and recharge even faster whenever you deal damage while in the magic stance. Of course, they could go the other way; where the magic stance is stronger, but draws from a limited resource.
Just throwing this out there, of course! Never a shortage of ways to make Robin a 100% original playable character.
But wouldn't a skilled tactician know that only carrying weapons that deal magic damage could put them in a bind against enemies with high resistance?
Won't have a hard time with Marth and Ike.
Yes, but closer analysis on Robin's competition (Marth, Ike, and maybe Chrom) would reveal that they all suffer from having terrible resistance.
I think that's when strategy comes in play, and you need your warmates to help you dealing with enemies you can't.
After all, you cannot win a war with only one person.
Except that in some FE, you can.
*glances at poll before kicking Chrom off and putting Robin in his place*