Fire Emblem: Fates

[AngelCityOutlaw]

So, I'm gonna go ahead and assume that the reason no one is talking about this game is because their souls are consumed by it as is mine, but what do you all think of it? I managed to get the Special Edition, which comes with all three paths. I'm currently halfway through the Nohr storyline and I absolutely love it. A great return to form that brings the best elements of Awakening with it. Great story, characters, the audio and music are top-notch, great level design, well-balanced, varied and fun victory/defeat conditions and I would say gameplay-wise it's the best tactical-rpg I've played. I'll wait until I finish all three stories to make a final judgement, but what I have experienced thus far is a 10/10 for me. I can't think of anything to bitch about.

What path did you choose first?

[wildfire]

The launch has been super confusing for me. I just want all 3 versions, but I guess there's no way to get them all without either buying 1 full and the other 2 as DLC, or buying the super-rare 3-in-1 cartridge?

I loved Awakening and know I will love Fates too, but I haven't picked it up yet. If I had to choose, I'd choose Conquest first.

[Rexy]

There's no release date for Europe yet and I'm super stoked to play through Fates!  Awakening was the first FE game I ever played and it made me re-think how to approach tactical RPGs, so I'm totally set for going through the new installment.  Birthright playing a lot like Awakening should be no problem, so that'll be a case of getting back to how the system works.

Yet from what I read on the net though, I noticed people saying that Conquest (the one that plays more like a traditional FE) is insanely difficult and has nowhere to grind if you're stuck on a certain map.  And being the challenge seeker that I am, I feel uneasy at the idea of playing through it on Casual mode.  @AngelCityOutlaw - considering that you're actually making good progress through what I presume to be Conquest (in comparison to one journalist I read taking 12 hours to beat an early map, apparently), do you have any tips to share that would help out anyone that's currently struggling?

[AngelCityOutlaw]

8 hours ago, wildfire said:

The launch has been super confusing for me. I just want all 3 versions, but I guess there's no way to get them all without either buying 1 full and the other 2 as DLC, or buying the super-rare 3-in-1 cartridge?

I loved Awakening and know I will love Fates too, but I haven't picked it up yet. If I had to choose, I'd choose Conquest first.

Yes. I believe that if you buy either conquest or birthright, you get the other two for 50% off. I read that the Special Edition with all 3 sold out in just a few hours - so I was super lucky to get that. I wouldn't buy the special edition second-hand - people are selling it for ridiculous prices online but buying the other two as DLC amounts to roughly the same price, maybe a little less, as the special edition cost brand new.

6 hours ago, Rexy said:

@AngelCityOutlaw - considering that you're actually making good progress through what I presume to be Conquest (in comparison to one journalist I read taking 12 hours to beat an early map, apparently), do you have any tips to share that would help out anyone that's currently struggling?

I have a few. Conquest definitely isn't messing around.

1) Always have Azura on the map. Especially in the timed missions or ones where an enemy mage has "freeze", being able to move twice in a turn is more useful than it's ever been in these games. It's very easy to level her up by just having her sing on every turn. Have her sing for someone even if moving someone on a second turn isn't necessary - it's easy exp.

2) In Awakening, "pairing up" was almost a win button. In Conquest, pairing up will only give you a defensive boost or your partner possibly defending you - they will not attack with you. Have them stand side-by-side and they will give you an offensive bonus and possibly attack with you, but they won't throw themselves in harm's way. For the most part. "pairing up" is only useful if you intend to use a weaker unit or a support unit as a shield when your squad is cornered, such as on a survival mission. Alternatively, you could use a high-level unit as a shield when trying to level a lower level unit.

I suspect a common mistake is that people would pair up units too often and the lack of exp to the supporting unit as well as being unable to utilize each party member will put you at a disadvantage. Also, be mindful of the new color triangle as well as the traditional weapon triangle! It's not enough to just look at axe/lance/sword anymore!

3) Wherever possible, let a low-level person or support unit (even Azura) get a kill. In a game where you can't level grind, getting everybody as equal as possible in levels and promoted to an advanced class is super important. 

4) Maids, Butlers and Adventurers ftw! Definitely do your best to keep Felicia, Jakob and a promoted Niles alive. They are so useful because maids & butlers can throw daggers AND wield staves. Adventurers can fire arrows and wield staves, but can open chests too! Always have these people standing right behind your front-line units.

and lastly

5) It's not always ideal or possible, but in general this type of formation is usually good

Frontline - Heavy units like knights or melee fighters like Berserkers and Heroes.

2nd line - Cavalry units and ranged units. When an enemy is killed, your horsemen can quickly move in and score another kill either on the enemy frontline (where your cavalry unit will likely be standing next to a heavy unit for an offensive bonus) or attack enemy archers etc. a few spaces back.

Back row - Healers, songstress and fliers.

 

 

[Native Jovian]

I'm definitely interested, but I haven't bought the game yet.  Probably would have picked up the special edition (or tried to, at least) but by the time I heard about it that ship had sailed.  I was actually pretty irritated until I realized that you could get all the same content for the same price, it's just one cart plus two DLC rather than all three being on-cart.

 

Anyway, I'll probably pick it up eventually.  I'm always trying (and usually failing) to chip away at my backlog of unfinished games, so I intend to beat what I'm playing now before picking up anything new.

[Skyline Drop]

I've been playing through Conquest the last few days on my copy of the Special Edition (my brother managed to grab one just before they sold out, I guess). It's really no joke. I'm playing on Hard mode (at that same brother's suggestion) and I don't think I've finished a single scenario on my first try without somebody dying. I'm not even ashamed to admit that I've been hardcore save-scumming the entire time.

[yangfeili]

The only FE game I ever fully played was FE7 on the GBA (the one simply called "Fire Emblem" in the US). Liked it a lot, got a lot of time out of it between Normal/Hard/Hector Hard mode.

Started up Sacred Stones... and was very quickly turned off by the world map, unlimited skirmishes, etc. I liked the "never look back" linear structure of FE7, where I could safely assume that all missions had been balanced to be beatable so long as you managed your units/resources from previous missions appropriately. In FE8, I could never shake the vibe that because I was now allowed to grind, I was therefore expected to grind, but had no way of knowing just how much grinding I needed to do. Did I fail that mission because I need to grind more, or because my strategy sucks? (I should probably give it another chance, maybe it's not as bad as my initial impression and you can just plow through the missions as if the option to grind didn't exist.)

But with all that in mind, I assume Conquest is probably the way to go for me? Or are there any preceding games in the series I should look into first?

[Skyline Drop]

If you prefer the more linear gameplay, then you should probably consider Conquest. There are a handful of side-scenarios you can do exactly once each, but they're totally optional. The game is definitely beatable by just running through it one mission after another, but it is hard.

That said, my brother (who is playing through Birthright atm) has had no struggle just going through the story without grinding the sidequests, either, so perhaps they've rebalanced that aspect a bit better this time. Both games feel a lot more tactically-oriented than Awakening did, so I'd say feel free to grab whichever.

I never played Sacred Stones so I can't say how much you actually needed to grind with that one.

[Kat]

I picked up Birthright yesterday(and bought Conquest via DLC) and I'm loving it so far. I've heard Birthright is the "easier" one and I haven't played any FE game since the DS one, though I opted to leave perma-death on because that was always a huge part of FE for me.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

2 hours ago, Skyline Drop said:

If you prefer the more linear gameplay, then you should probably consider Conquest. There are a handful of side-scenarios you can do exactly once each, but they're totally optional. The game is definitely beatable by just running through it one mission after another, but it is hard.

That said, my brother (who is playing through Birthright atm) has had no struggle just going through the story without grinding the sidequests, either, so perhaps they've rebalanced that aspect a bit better this time. Both games feel a lot more tactically-oriented than Awakening did, so I'd say feel free to grab whichever.

I never played Sacred Stones so I can't say how much you actually needed to grind with that one.

Yeah. The key to a good tactical-rpg, and why I personally prefer them to traditional rpgs, is balance. I actually beat Awakening without grinding at all, but on my second and third playthroughs I made all of my units incredibly overpowered. Like, I could just leave Lucina by herself on the map and watch all of the enemies kill themselves on her.

That definitely made me develop the bad habit of not paying enough attention to what classes have an advantage against another. I'm on the home stretch of Conquest right now and the three units I've lost so far probably all died for this reason. Like, I lost Gunter because it slipped my mind that it's just the Paladins who have high resistance as far as Knights go.

Those sorcerers made an example out of him...

[Servbot#36]

I've been playing Birthright and Conquest simultaneously and I gotta say I'm having a blast. I feel like this is the best the gameplay has ever been. Conquest is pulling no punches but I like how the difficulty really makes you develop strategies for each individual map instead of just making a few units overpowered enough to sweep everything. I'm only at chapter 18 right now and I've been barely scraping by just about every chapter so far. Birthright is a lot more relaxing, but I still feel challenged enough to be engaged.

15 hours ago, yangfeili said:

Started up Sacred Stones... and was very quickly turned off by the world map, unlimited skirmishes, etc. I liked the "never look back" linear structure of FE7, where I could safely assume that all missions had been balanced to be beatable so long as you managed your units/resources from previous missions appropriately. In FE8, I could never shake the vibe that because I was now allowed to grind, I was therefore expected to grind, but had no way of knowing just how much grinding I needed to do. Did I fail that mission because I need to grind more, or because my strategy sucks? (I should probably give it another chance, maybe it's not as bad as my initial impression and you can just plow through the missions as if the option to grind didn't exist.)

I'd say it's still pretty good if you just ignore the grinding tower. The game is still balanced around no grind runs so it's totally an option. Also maybe ignore Seth too, he's pretty OP for a Jeigan.

15 hours ago, yangfeili said:

But with all that in mind, I assume Conquest is probably the way to go for me? Or are there any preceding games in the series I should look into first?

Storywise, of course, there's nothing you'd need to play first since they're mostly unrelated. All the games between Sacred Stones and Awakening are still in the classic style without grinding or a world map though, and I'd say FE9 and 10 at least are worth trying if you can get your hands on them. But yeah, you seem like you'd prefer Conquest.

[AngelCityOutlaw]

Well, good news @Rexy!

It's out in Europe on May 20th.

Also, has anyone played any of the DLC yet? I just did the free "Before Awakening" one. I bought all the currently available DLC, but haven't got around to trying it out yet.

[Rexy]

I saw the news!  Now I'm trying to find anywhere that is accepting preorders for the Special Edition, which is hard when it's just got a date xD