Fire Emblem

[Knight-Dragon]

Finally started in ernest on the game. I like it! And it's less tactical and cerebral than FFTA, less of a frustrating factor as in no Laws.

Now up to Chpt 5, just crossed the Lycian border. In just one gaming session...

Q : You know that weopans have a durability? Will there be any way to repair them, back to max?

 

[Silverflame]

I was just about to start this thread. (long post ahead, but I have "convieniently" split it into sections )


Warning to everyone:

DO NOT USE MARCUS

You won't get him until after the tutorial (chapter 11), but DO NOT USE HIM! When you first get him, he will be the best, slaughtering enemies left and right, but will only get 3 xp in the process when others could have gotten 70. Just about every other character in the game will bypass him when leveled. So, DO NOT USE MARCUS.

There is a use for him, take away his weapons and he makes a good meatshield, most damage he will take is 2-3, and he will only get one xp for being hit.

That out of the way, I must answer the next question anyone who has played SSBM will ask:

No, Marth and Roy are NOT in this game. The guy on the cover is Roy's Father

All right, the two main issues addressed, I can talk about the gameplay itself now

About durability: Every weapon has durability, and will eventually "break" I hear there is a repair staff much later on, but that can only be used three times

About death: If a character dies, they are gone for good (exception: tutorial, see below). No phoenix downs. No magical life spells. Nothing, except the "restart chapter" function, which can be used without guilt since every event is autosaved, so if someone dies the chapter should be started over. If any of the lords die (Eliwood, Lyn, Hector) then it's game over. If anyone else dies, if they are significant to the plot they will simply become mortally wounded and retreat, never seeing action again but will still take part in cutscenes, or they will die their death. Whether you choose to leave them behind or not is up to you, but I can't find myself leaving anyone behind, even Marcus.

About the tutorial: The first ten chapters (tutorial) is Lyn's story. Chapter 11 is the beginning of Eliwood's story, where you pretty much start fresh, although you will re-recruit just about everyone from Lyn's story by Chapter 16. That being said, anyone who dies in Lyn's story will come back in Eliwood's story normally, however it is best not to leave them behind, as those characters will miss out on a lot of experience.

About Florinia: Florinia of the Pegesaus knight seems pretty weak when you first get her, but from what I hear, it's well worth the wait when she gets to a really high level and stuff. Give her death blows for exp, it will pay off. She makes a good anti-mage as well.

About Leveling: There are no random encounters. Later, only a certain amount of characters can be brought into battle (usually around 10-13 range), so it's best to concentrate on 15 or so, and bench the rest. The only exception to this is the arena, but unlike FFTA, when training the enemy usually has an equal or higher chance of wining. I wouldn't know, I haven't tried the arena yet.

About Support: Note that support does not start until Eliwood's route or later. Fire Emblem has extremely good character support, and that comes from its support. Support is when two characters pretty much talk to each other during battle, whether it's about plot events, personal affairs, love, and even breakfast. Support also gives battle bonuses, like additional strength and such. There are three levels in support, C B and A, but each character can only have a total of five support convos, so one A and two Cs or five Cs or whatever. Sometimes when two characters get an A convo, they will get a *special ending* together. Could be marriage, could be really close friends, depends on the pairing. To get support, the two characters must stand next to each other for a certain number of turns and a "support" function will pop up.

As for where I am in the game, I'm only on chapter 19 . There's 30 or so chapters I believe.

I'll type up more later... mostly on the actual gameplay for anyone wondering whether to get the game or not or something.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

My Florine died... in chpt 4. Fortunately I had saved chpt 5 separately, or was it 6? Guessed I'll 'reload'.

Weopan-wise, does it mean needing to buy a new weopan each time it finally breaks down?

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII

Weopan-wise, does it mean needing to buy a new weopan each time it finally breaks down?

Yes, buying new weapons in shops in the middle of battle. Convienient. Just mostly use your iron weapons (those are easily replaced and can be used 46 times), save the special weapons (Lyn's Mani Katti, later Eliwood's rapier and Hector's Wolf Beil) for bosses and such. But you can use the Mani Katti pretty much all you want in the tutorial, since when you get her back it's all new again. Everyone else from the tutorial will have new weapons as well.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

'Rebooted' and got back up to the two kids mission. Florina lives!

This game's pretty light, compared with FFTA, both on the RPG or the tactical level.

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII

This game's pretty light, compared with FFTA, both on the RPG or the tactical level.

Just you wait, you're still in the tutorial. I actually think the opposite.

I'll make comparisons to FFTA and Fire Emblem then:

Fire Emblem's Tactics: Fire Emblem uses a lot more strategy. There's ten chapters in the tutorial, and each chapter pretty much introduces at least one main element (chapter 7x introduces indoor fighting, for example) in strategy. So by the time Eliwood's route is reached, you'll see a lot more tactics.

In the beginning they introduce the weapon triangle.
Swords beat axes
Axes beat lances
Lances beat swords

Attacking with disadvantaged weapon is similar to attacking someone head-on in FFTA. There's also a similar thing for magic:
Amiga (nature) beats Light
Light beats Dark
Dark beats Amiga

The thing about magi is that they have low defense, but most melee attackers have low resistance, and magi can attack from either one square OR two squares away. Pegasaus Knights make good anti-mages, with extremely high resistance, but are weak to archers. Archers are defensively weak and indirect, so most melee attackers can chew them, but they are strong against Dragon Knights as well, which are weak against magic. So, everything sort of intervenes together.

Even among weapons there are differences:
Swords are generally high hit rate but low damage
Lances are medium
Axes are generally low hit rate but high damage

Within the weapons themselves, there's many different types. There's slim, iron, steel, and silver, strongest being silver, weakest being slim. Slim weighs the least, iron has longest durability, steel is extremely heavy, silver weapons can only be used 20 times. Then there's a bunch mixed in as well, such as hammers and armorslayers that cut through the heavy knight/general amor. That's just the melee fighters, there's a ton of different weapons for magic users can have.

There's also terrain and weather differences. Woods have higher defense and avoid rates for example. There's rain, which is a real pain as it slows down everyone a ton (particularily horses). Also fog of war, but theives can see really far in fog.

Then there's those level-specific stuff, like ballistas, indoor fighting, reinforcements from areas you least expect, that kind of thing.

FFTA's strategy: I actually thought it was close to nil. The main thing is facing, which is mostly a time waster, all that really happens is that you circle around instead of fighting head on. Besides that, what is there? Height makes no difference, unless you're an archer attacking up. Terrain makes no difference, except those trees that are just in the way, and the fact that you can't attack in rivers. There is no weather. The only thing that seperates areas apart is how they look, but fighting in Eluut Sands is no different than fighting Koringwood, other than the way it looks.

RPG sections of both coming up...

 

[Silverflame]

RPG elements of FFTA and Fire Emblem (I'll start with FFTA first this time ):

FFTA in RPG: Most of the fun in FFTA rests in it's class system. Classes are vastly different from each other, skills are very unique and nice. With the ability to be able to pretty much fully customize my characters, that makes FFTA much more RPG-ish. Not much else to be said here, but this is what makes FFTA so fun.

Fire Emblem's RPG elements: Fire Emblem does not have a complex class system. There's also less character leveling, 20 is the max, then promote back to 1, so it's a max of 40 levels, whereas FFTA has a max of 50. No one can ever change their class, and most characters do one thing: attack. There are a few things like healers, sleep-staffs, poison and mines, but everything is based on combat, which is mostly goes into the strategy section.
HOWEVER
I fell much, much, much, MUCH more attached to my characters in Fire Emblem. Unlike FFTA, where some guy without a face joins because the RNG said so, everyone in Fire Emblem has a reason for joining, whether it be for fighting the common foe, for being rescued, or revenge. Not only that, but every character has a personality. For example, the first two cavaliers, Kent and Sain, have very contrasting personalities. Kent's that serious guy, and Sain's the opposite, and always goes after the ladies. Most of the character development comes from the support system. Character development is primarily the reason why I won't let ANYONE die (not even Marcus).
About leveling itself, stats matter a LOT more in Fire Emblem than FFTA. FFTA I felt it all depended on the weapon or skill, not the base stats. In Fire Emblem, there's random stat gain, and all the stats are to a much smaller scale (the most any stat can go up at a time is one, except when promoting). Also, THERE ARE NO RANDOM BATTLES! There is an arena, but that is risky. So in general, not every character can be used.

Closing comparisons (graphics, music, that stuff):
Graphics: FFTA wins in the graphics department. However, Fire Emblem has much better animation, particularily the criticals. No Illusionist move can ever compare to Lyn's light speed attack.

Music: In game, FFTA's music sucks. It more than just sucks, it's annoying. But I have the soundtrack, where the instrumental variety brings the songs to life. Even that annoying random battle music is great in the soundtrack.
Fire Emblem's music, on the other hand, is very good in-game. I don't know if a soundtrack exists, but if there was, it would probably beat FFTA. So Fire Emblem wins this one.

Lastabilty: FFTA, no contest. 300 missions and random battles, compared to 30 chapters, a Hector's route, and a hard mode.

Story: Fire Emblem easily. As I have said before, I am one of the few to see FFTA's story for what it really is, but Fire Emblem's is just better, even without the superior character development. One thing that annoys me is the cut-scene music (only tracks I don't like in the soundtrack), the fact that there's no facial expressions, and the most anyone ever does is Marche jumping up and down.

So there's my long and pointless comparison of Fire Emblem of FFTA. Fire Emblem has more strategy, and much more plot-oriented. FFTA has freedom to do pretty much anything. So in the end, it all goes down to personal preference.

 

[Silverflame]

On a side note, I just beat Chapter 19 after many tries. It's not hard, it's just that there's a lot of secrets that are easy to miss. I had to rush Eliwood up to recruit this theif (Legault) before he ran away, then I had to race my theif to another theif to steal a member card so I could go to the secret shops, two that are on opposite sides of the map. Then there was a really long cutscene. So, I spent an hour on that one try alone.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

All of that fr just one little offhand comment I've made... You shld use the time to play the game instead.

Now up to chpt 9 - running thru the area with loads of enemy units appearing each turn, almost reaching Caelin.

Q : How to keep those forts fr spewing out troops, apart fr stationing one unit over it?

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII
All of that fr just one little offhand comment I've made... You shld use the time to play the game instead.

I was mostly just procastinating

Now up to chpt 9 - running thru the area with loads of enemy units appearing each turn, almost reaching Caelin.

Q : How to keep those forts fr spewing out troops, apart fr stationing one unit over it?

The only way to keep reinforcements from appearing is to stand on the square they will come out of. It's actually better to kill the reinforcements for the exp, since you can't really get on the forts anyway (only bandits can walk on mts). The reinforcements will stop after two or three waves. What I did was I advanced forward and put Wallace at the back to take care of any reinforcements, and let my other chars get killing blows for the exp.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Silverflame
(only bandits can walk on mts).

And pegasus knights.

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII
And pegasus knights.

Flyers go on anything besides walls.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Played thru chpt 9, but lost Florina (again!) at the very end, carelessly... Replayed.

Going to play chpt 10 later, on a full romp to Castle Caelin.

Q : Is it better to chg class after you've upped your unit to lvl 20, or is it better to chg as soon as you got the appropriate item (and pass lvl 10)?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Finished 10 easily; starting on 11. Damn, Marcus really is strong. Note to self - Must keep him to the rear...

And then my battery ran out...

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII

Q : Is it better to chg class after you've upped your unit to lvl 20, or is it better to chg as soon as you got the appropriate item (and pass lvl 10)?

It's better to promote at level 20, so there's 40 levels instead of 20. Unless you are in a really bad situation and need someone strong, usually it's better to wait. I haven't promoted anyone yet, but I have quite a few of the items.

Finished 10 easily; starting on 11. Damn, Marcus really is strong. Note to self - Must keep him to the rear...

Take away his weapons and use him as a meat sheild. Axe users rarely hit him, and sword users won't even scratch him. Then he only gets 1 exp every time he gets attacked. My Marcus gained about 40xp this way before I benched him.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Doing 13.x now... First night battle too.

Seems like I need to do repeat games of every chapter. First to get a feel of things; second to really go for it.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Just saw a Goldenflame posting last, in the 4th Civ3 demo game.

Any relation of yours?

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII
Doing 13.x now... First night battle too.

Seems like I need to do repeat games of every chapter. First to get a feel of things; second to really go for it.

I do that too. Only since I play a lot less than you, I spent most of today getting the feel of chapter 20. My first playthrough was fine (I got extremely lucky in the arena, Matthew barely won with 2hp left) but I accidentally lured the boss too close and he killed Priscilla. I'll probably finish that chapter tommorrow, and I'll mostly use the arena just for a little bit of gold, I'm not going to level everyone or anything, no fun in that.

Just saw a Goldenflame posting last, in the 4th Civ3 demo game.

Any relation of yours?

He did? He's a friend in real life, I got him hooked into Civ, but he still plays Civ and I don't. He never really got around to posting around here though, I'll ask him about that.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Starting on chapter 21 - the one about protecting sleeping Nils fr the last guys following Laus, and the Black Fang (incl the Four Fangs I think)...

Just a quick check - you know what's available in that house in chpt 20 at the most upper right? Bandit destroyed it before I realize it's there; if it's nothing important, won't bother with it.

Also at this stage I got 2 hero crests, 1 knight crest, 1 orion bow, 2 guiding rings - did I miss any?

Sailed thru chpt 19 and 20 on first tries...

My Lyn is now lvl 19; shld be able to trans this chpt. Also got Eliwood to 18; Hector to 16 IIRC and a couple of others fr 10 - 15.

 

[Silverflame]

Originally posted by XIII
Starting on chapter 21 - the one about protecting sleeping Nils fr the last guys following Laus, and the Black Fang (incl the Four Fangs I think)...

Just a quick check - you know what's available in that house in chpt 20 at the most upper right? Bandit destroyed it before I realize it's there; if it's nothing important, won't bother with it.

Also at this stage I got 2 hero crests, 1 knight crest, 1 orion bow, 2 guiding rings - did I miss any?

Sailed thru chpt 19 and 20 on first tries...

My Lyn is now lvl 19; shld be able to trans this chpt. Also got Eliwood to 18; Hector to 16 IIRC and a couple of others fr 10 - 15.

You missed an Elyssian Whip, used to promote flyers. Considering that there's only another one left for free (you can buy some, but that shop comes too late)...

I just beat 21. I'm moving very slowly, making sure I get everything and stuff. Usually I take two days per mission.

My current team:

Eliwood- Lv 15
He feels weak, but in truth that's because he doesn't excel at anything. He deals as much damage as Lyn or Guy, but doesn't always hit twice like they do. He has pretty high defense though

Hector- Lv18
He's insane, as much defense as Oswin, and the only stats he lacks in is luck and res (which is still high). I'm not using him as much knowing I can't promote him until Chapter 24.

Lyn- Lv14

Rebecca-Lv18
I did use a strength ring on her, she makes a good anti-mage and dodges nearly every attack.

Guy- Lv14
I like Guy. His strength was a little low so I used a strength ring on him, he almost always attacks twice and he has very high chances of getting criticals (right now it's 15 with an iron sword)

Priscilla- Lv12
My healer. I use psychic staffs to heal her faster (they give about 30 exp instead of 10) and usually use Ninian to give her another turn.

Sain- Lv14
I use Sain instead of Kent mostly because he has a better personality.

Oswin- Lv18

Matthew-Lv7
I use him instead of Legault mostly because I got him earlier

Lucius- Lv18
Very offensive mage, shaman killer. Only problem is his luck and defense.

Florina- Lv13
She's already starting to make a turn-around from weak to godly. The way she acts around men reminds me of myself when I'm around girls.

Canas- Lv13
Good all-around stats for a shaman, pretty high defense for a shaman. Can't really see any main weaknesses to this guy.

Ninian- Lv7

Ones I squeeze in whenever possible:

Fiora- Lv 9
Heath- Lv7
Dart- Lv8

The rest I mostly bench.