Author Topic: Fire Emblem: Fates - More waifu, more husbando, more sales! (Read 107038 times)

commandercool · « **Reply #120 on:** March 17, 2016, 01:10:09 PM »

Hmmmm as assumed Chapter 25 is pretty rough. The game keeps topping itself on devious enemy placement, although this time it took introducing a brand new equipment type (that's seemingly enemy-exclusive?) to keep shaking things up. And because of the chapter's specific mechanics (

Spoiler:

) I no longer have enough sturdy units to safely break formations. Thank god for Freeze staves.

So far I'm getting a "hard but fair" vibe from this chapter, where all of my losses have been my fault and I get further each time. I notice the map is absolutely covered in stairs though, so I assume that will change at some point...

Edit: Oh god I just had a horrible realization about chapter 25.

Spoiler:

Hikarin · « **Reply #121 on:** March 17, 2016, 11:15:33 PM »

Is that the one with the wing of Mages and Strategists, and the other wing of Pegasi, Flyers, etc.?

commandercool · « **Reply #122 on:** March 17, 2016, 11:28:41 PM »

Nope. Both sides are ninjas and samurai, but one side has this weird Lunge killbox and the other side has a corridor that requires you to walk single-file between a bunch of three-range ninjas with stacking percent damage skills. Basically both of them funnel you into a room that's virtually guaranteed to automatically kill you regardless of stats because of all the percent damage, and you can only come at it with a few units at a time. It's a real nightmare.

Edit: Aaaaah god dammit I figured out a "strategy" to get 95% of the way through the chapter involving extremely heavy use of expensive limited-use staves, but then the game surprised me with a secret insta-kill swordsmaster who just one-shotted one of my high-defense units out of nowhere because of his ridiculously tweaked stats. Took me forever to get that far too. Well, I guess I can probably do that again, it's just going to take sooooo looooong and exceptionally bad RNG (I actually got horrible RNG the first time so odds are subsequent runs will be a little better) can just end it out of nowhere. This gaaaaame...

commandercool · « **Reply #123 on:** March 18, 2016, 11:34:00 PM »

Hmmmmm I just got 99.99999% way through the stage (got it down to just Ryoma) and died due to his damage inexplicably spiking up to massive levels allowing him to one-shot Corrin out of nowhere. Turns out the heal tiles you fight him on are not heal times AT ALL, they're actually defense bonus tiles. The game literally lies to you and says they're normal squares, but they actually give +15 defense instead of the advertised +0. I just LITERALLY lost because the game explicitly, deliberately lied to me. GOOD. THIS IS FUN. I LOVE IT.

Oh yeah,and Ryoma exactly killed me. So if I had a single extra HP or a single extra defense I would have been fine.

Edit: Finally beat it. Christ. Mozu dealt the killing blow, it was beautiful (she's amazing again now that her stats are capping and she has Life Or Death by the way). The secret was use both of my remaining uses of Entrap and eight charges of Freeze. Sure hope I don't need those for anything later.

Teewee · « **Reply #124 on:** March 19, 2016, 05:54:16 PM »

Was your Corrin hit by any debuffs (like from shurikens)? That would explain the damage spiking.

commandercool · « **Reply #125 on:** March 19, 2016, 06:46:26 PM »

No, it was a one on one fight that was ongoing for more than a dozen turns. The only additional variable was moving from a square marked as a heal tile to a square marked as normal (both of which are labeled as having 0 defense modifier).

Also, Ryoma's damage quintupled in one turn. No shuriken can do that.

Patorikku · « **Reply #126 on:** March 19, 2016, 08:20:39 PM »

Quote from: commandercool on March 19, 2016, 06:46:26 PM

Also, Ryoma's damage quintupled in one turn. No shuriken can do that.

How many turns into the map did you get? I remember there was text at the start of the map that said something like

Spoiler:

commandercool · « **Reply #127 on:** March 19, 2016, 11:29:16 PM »

No, that's definitely not it. I lost on like turn 41. I had been stalling him out for a long time while the rest of my team caught up, and it was while kiting him out into the hallway that this happened. On my winning run I tried sending other units into the arena where you fight him and they got the huge defense boost too. Then I used the Dragon Vein to turn the heal tiles off and the bonus disappeared. I'm almost positive there's a hidden defense bonus.

commandercool · « **Reply #128 on:** March 21, 2016, 12:19:21 AM »

Okay, I'm posting this with spoiler tags for anyone who really doesn't want to be spoiled on anything, but I strongly recommend anyone playing Conquest read it and potentially save yourself some pain.

Spoiler:

Ghaleon · « **Reply #129 on:** March 22, 2016, 07:30:00 AM »

So uhh... I haven't played an FE game since the DS Shadow dragon remake which I thought was kinda lame (not neccesarily as a remake, just the game in general, I never played the original). I seem to recall someone telling me shadow dragon was practically the worst possible game to play as a first experience (trance-hime I think? I may be wrong). I'm thinking about giving the series another shot.

However I'm thinking about giving the previous 3ds game a shot rather than the newest one ( I forgot the name of the first one, the newest one is called fates iirc, but I forgot the one previous, I'll research it for sure before I buy obviously but for now my limited flawed knoweldge is enough to convey my point). However I've heard about the localization...gripes regarding the newest game. Don't get me wrong, I normally DETEST people who want to 'punish' game developers for localization gripes... I have no issues about forced dubbing or subbing, lack of dual audio, any of that... I have no issues for disputed translations for specific words or phrases... i have no issues with Carpe fulgar putting towels on the girls in Fortune summoners in that bath scene. That's all cool. But what I've seen with fates disturbs me. I don't want to argue this in of itself, but just factor in fates gets SOME of a minus in that regard by my viewpoint... should I consider the previous 3ds FE game instead? I'm thinking yes, but I'm curious if Is houldn't because I hear Fates sold like the best thing since sliced bread in comparison and... surely it did something right to compensate? I don't really know. I tried reading some reviews and whatnot and none of it really seems to be something the previous game lacks (that really matters anyway).

Any enlightenment is appreciated!

Reddyne · « **Reply #130 on:** March 22, 2016, 12:50:03 PM »

So Birthright chapter 12 is a thing and it's great. Glad the gloves are coming off. Getting Kaden also rounds out my party and it's time for Waifu Emblem 2: Waifu Goes West to the Revenge of the Boogaloo.

Quote from: Ghaleon on March 22, 2016, 07:30:00 AM

So uhh... I haven't played an FE game since the DS Shadow dragon remake which I thought was kinda lame (not neccesarily as a remake, just the game in general, I never played the original). I seem to recall someone telling me shadow dragon was practically the worst possible game to play as a first experience (trance-hime I think? I may be wrong). I'm thinking about giving the series another shot.

Well from what I've experienced of Shadow Dragon, it's a 1:1 remake of the original. It's the most bare-bones version of an FE game you can get. You had units that served as the framework for all the games to come but that was about it. Design choices weren't great back then. They also decided to go with the fully robotic CGI battle animations, which really didn't help. It's fine if you want the very basic experience, but ugh everything else just felt too old or fake.

Quote from: Ghaleon on March 22, 2016, 07:30:00 AM

I've heard about the localization...gripes regarding the newest game.

In Fates, the more recent one, one single voice clip from one VA of one character (in a game with dozens, mind you) whose voice pitch, inflections, and personality perfectly fit the character failed to properly enunciate one word and it resulted in an internet firestorm. People are just way too picky sometimes. The localization team pitched some downright creepy stuff which I'm more than fine with. Some of the flatter characters got a bit of a personality lift, which is also something they did in Awakening, the first 3DS title. The dubious choices that I know of have been few and far between, are minor, completely missable, and largely inconsequential.

If anything, go based on gameplay merits and story choices. A lot of what was in Awakening transfers over to Fates, including the basic gameplay engine, which is fantastic, but there are a bunch of differences between Awakening and Fates. Awakening slowly opens up to give you plenty of time to grind for levels, skills (which you get via leveling), and job classes. It can come off as a bit simpler than Fates and easier due to flexibility. Fates has a bunch of content with 3 different paths, but only 1 is available to you until you shell out the cash for the others. Each path is a full-length game with its own set of characters. Due to the increase in job classes, each route is sufficiently unique enough. Fates is a bit more complex as the skills and weapons are a bit more complex, resulting in stuff like debuffs, which weren't really a thing in Awakening. Unit individuality is retained a bit more by more class restrictions, which isn't a bad thing. It feels a bit experimental but the routes are made to emulate past FE games and gives the player a choice as to what kind of experience they want.

They both share almost identical Support systems which really help flesh out the characters. Music is great in both. Presentation is pretty much the same. I dunno. Both are far more solid choices than Shadow Dragon. I do think voice acting in Awakening benefited from an extra take or two per line per character, but Awakening had its weak spots too.

commandercool · « **Reply #131 on:** March 22, 2016, 01:05:21 PM »

I can't really make an informed comment about that without having played Birthright. I kind of doubt you'll want to start with Conquest. My guess is that Awakening or Birthright are both solid choices but you may as well go with Birthright while it's still hot and people are still talking about and playing it. Awakening has some design choices that I find really irritating, but apparently they're still a thing in Birthright, so I hope you like JRPG mechanics that feel misplaced in a tactical RPG.

Meanwhile, the Conquest endgame is kicking my ass. I need to experiment with a couple of different formations but I can't because it takes so long just to get to it... I beat Castle Invasion 3 and all of the available paralogues though, so I have nothing better to do than bash my head into this stage and hope I figure it out.

commandercool · « **Reply #132 on:** March 22, 2016, 07:18:12 PM »

Oh ho shit I just figured out how amazing Offspring Seal is. Great addition.

By the way, what gender is Shigure? People refer to him with male pronouns, but he has a skill called Foreign Princess. He's pretty androgynous so it's hard to tell. Is he trans or is that just a mistake since he inherited the skill, name and all, from his mother?

Reddyne · « **Reply #133 on:** March 22, 2016, 07:34:25 PM »

Quote from: commandercool on March 22, 2016, 07:18:12 PM

By the way, what gender is Shigure? People refer to him with male pronouns, but he has a skill called Foreign Princess. He's pretty androgynous so it's hard to tell. Is he trans or is that just a mistake since he inherited the skill, name and all, from his mother?

Dollars to donuts he just inherited it from Ma. I'm guessing that's just a translation oversight.

Teewee · « **Reply #134 on:** March 22, 2016, 11:13:54 PM »

>translation oversights

Relevant.

commandercool · « **Reply #135 on:** March 23, 2016, 01:18:51 AM »

Okay, I did it. I beat Conquest on hard mode completely blind with no DLC. The last fight was brutal. I lost most of my units, including every single one of my Nohr siblings, Arthur, Laslow, Niles, and all of our kids except Kanna. I was a single movement short on any character of beating it without losing anyone, but

Spoiler:

.

Fortunately for me the game is giving me the cop out "no, most of those dudes actually didn't die, they're just injured" thing or I would probably feel so bad I would have to restart. But it did give me that, so I'll take it I guess. I did suffer some notable actual deaths

Spoiler:

but they died heroes so I guess it's okay..?

So I guess it's on to Birthright, then Revelation. I intend to play Birthright on normal just because I don't really care about it that much and would like to zip through it, but I'll probably go back to hard for Revelation.

I feel like I probably shouldn't review this game yet since it's not really a "complete game", but if I was going to anyway I'm not really sure what I would say. In many ways this run was more of a masochistic slog than a game, but I am a masochist so that's fine by me I guess. I haven't really parsed out how fair or interesting I think the difficulty was. In many ways it did make me feel smart, since many of my wins on difficult stages were just a matter of figuring out a new strategy that worked on the first or second try, as opposed to Awakening's rote memorization of where all of the surprise enemies spawn (although there's certainly some of that here as well). Mechanically I think it was a step in the right direction, although it still had some systems I didn't really care for and I'm still not sure what I think of the new pair-up mechanics.

I'm not really sure what to expect from Revelation. There are only a couple of loose plot threads that need to be wrapped up in a whole new game, so I assume a lot of new story elements will be introduced. I also don't know how much stuff caries over from previous saves. I hope it's not very much, since things did kind of go south in this run at the last possible second...

Edit: Oh god, I ended up with just barely more dead units than alive units. Oof. :V

Edit edit:

Spoiler:

PX · « **Reply #136 on:** March 23, 2016, 04:54:53 AM »

They're characters you save so you can buy them with the Einhjar w/e shop in your other save files if you don't give a shit

commandercool · « **Reply #137 on:** March 23, 2016, 05:05:21 AM »

Oh okay. Thanks. Yeah, I don't think I care about that.

I keep trying to buy Birthright but the e-shop is giving me an error code. I was just at the store too and seriously considered just buying the cartridge but I decided against it. Wasn't sure if there's a reason you need all three games saved on the same cartridge, and it's cheaper this way. In theory, if I can get it to work.

Hikarin · « **Reply #138 on:** March 23, 2016, 02:27:38 PM »

The only reason to buy the second one as a cartridge is... You don't have enough space on your microSD/SD? I'm 90% sure that if you get both as physicals, then you don't get path bonus, and you don't get the branching option at Chapter 6; the extent of the choice is that you insert one cart for Birthright, and another for Conquest.

MewMewHeart · « **Reply #139 on:** March 23, 2016, 03:04:14 PM »

Quote from: The Real Shady Train on March 22, 2016, 11:13:54 PM

>translation oversights

Relevant.

...ing INTENSIFIES!

Hikarin · « **Reply #140 on:** March 23, 2016, 11:36:57 PM »

I could tell those two were having a very in-depth conversation. Beruka's silence was a perfect response to Saizo's silence.

PX · « **Reply #141 on:** March 23, 2016, 11:41:17 PM »

Quote from: Hikari on March 23, 2016, 02:27:38 PM

The only reason to buy the second one as a cartridge is... You don't have enough space on your microSD/SD? I'm 90% sure that if you get both as physicals, then you don't get path bonus, and you don't get the branching option at Chapter 6; the extent of the choice is that you insert one cart for Birthright, and another for Conquest.

You also pay full price for it IIRC

commandercool · « **Reply #142 on:** March 24, 2016, 12:16:52 AM »

Well yeah, but you can also sell it afterward.

Reddyne · « **Reply #143 on:** March 24, 2016, 11:48:36 AM »

Birthright chapter 13.

Spoiler:

commandercool · « **Reply #144 on:** March 24, 2016, 12:39:53 PM »

Birthright is easy modo in so many subtler ways beyond just the obvious ones.

-Enemies are back to being baseline Fire Emblem stupid. They'll frequently break formation to make pointless attacks just because they can, and they rarely move if not given a chance to attack. This never happens in Conquest.

-Enemies have fewer and weaker abilities. I'm guessing there aren't going to be many Counter archers this time.

-More equipment drops from enemies in addition to the infinite available gold, meaning you get FAR more items overall.

-Because there are way more fights in the game you'll have a much more developed castle from all the upgrade points, more support conversations, and more OP child units.

-This might just be a coincidence, but I swear stats have better growth rates. It seems like every other level up gives five or six stat points, and that virtually never happened in Conquest.

An hour in I went to change the difficulty to hard and I found out it had been on hard the whole time. Game's easy. At least right now it is, presumably there will be a spike at some point, although I don't know if it will outpace the free stuff curve.

Quote from: Reddyne on March 24, 2016, 11:48:36 AM

Birthright chapter 13.
Spoiler:
Oh great its the designated fanservice girl. What a creep.
How's about I beat you with the brother you creep on so much?
Ha ha the day is mine, Trebek.
"I still love you."

You better not be talking about my girl Camilla.

Spoiler:

Reddyne · « **Reply #145 on:** March 24, 2016, 02:33:15 PM »

Quote from: commandercool on March 24, 2016, 12:39:53 PM

You better not be talking about my girl Camilla.

Yup. Then again I get way too many clingy/creepy Tharja vibes from her. When I was playing Awakening, I kept getting prodded to give Tharja a try and HOO BOY! If I had known that she was a grating goth stereotype on top of being kinky for child abuse, I would've dropped her like a hot beat even sooner. It's just a difference in character preferences anyway.

And yeah, all of my deaths in Birthright so far have been from either deliberately dicking around way too much or a 1% crit chance. Again, chapter 12 changes things and the difficulty does slowly ramp up, but this route was designed for people who got into this series via Awakening and thus are used to squishing everything. I dunno if the overal growth rates are any different. The HP growth rates are wonky across the board though.

commandercool · « **Reply #146 on:** March 24, 2016, 06:37:16 PM »

Yeah, Camilla is not Tharja. From her support conversations it seems pretty clear that she's a reasonably well-adjusted person, if maybe a bit bloodthirsty at times.

I'm pretty sure HP numbers are just lower now. I think that's a deliberate balance choice to go with the new pairing mechanics. It makes offensive pairs very high risk and very high reward. Or is that not what ypu meant by "wonky"?

On another note, it seems like in Birthright dodging-based units are back to being viable again. Since enemy stats are no longer so high that you'll never get them below a 50% hit chance and any stray hit that lands no longer one-shots frail units you can get away with trying to dodge. There was literally one brief time in all of Conquest during last castle invasion where I felt comfortable sending a unit into battle planning to dodge, and that was with the benefit of Tomebreaker.

MewMewHeart · « **Reply #147 on:** March 25, 2016, 02:55:43 AM »

Quote from: Reddyne on March 24, 2016, 11:48:36 AM

Birthright chapter 13.
Spoiler:
Oh great its the designated fanservice girl. What a creep.
How's about I beat you with the brother you creep on so much?
Ha ha the day is mine, Trebek.
"I still love you."

Spoiler:

Reddyne · « **Reply #148 on:** March 25, 2016, 01:31:21 PM »

I have had to repeat chapter 14 like 4 times now. Twice it was relearning that scouting is important, twice to FRIKKIN RNG.

Hikarin · « **Reply #149 on:** March 26, 2016, 03:56:32 PM »

That moment when you're at the end of a level and start button-mashing for no reason, and hit L+R+Select :getdown:

EDIT: And then you aren't paying attention, and you do it again on the next run :getdown: :getdown: :getdown:

EDIT2: And then after that, you RNG-die from things that usually never kill you, like low-level Mages.

EDIT3: You know what, I'm done for today.