Board 8 > Fire Emblem Franchise Playthrough Topic

(+) Yeah! (+)

Norne is cute

You get the ones that matter in New Mystery anyway (like the ones that aren't obviously jokes) and there are actual like, dialogue and stuff for them there anyway.

Yeah, there's a ton of largely pointless units in Shadow Dragon. If you want to get the "less than 15 units" gaiden chapters you have to deliberately march dozens of people into a meat grinder.

IIRC Barst is pretty good. Bord and Cord, less so. This also applies to their personalities, what little there is at least.

You can turn Cord into a passable Dark Mage, at least. Draug is another interesting unit to reclass; his personal Spd is amazing and his personal Def nonexistent, so he develops into a glass cannon outside of Knight. (Well, I guess you do need to make him a Fighter/Pirate or Dark Mage in order to get the damage part of "glass cannon".)

Ohhhh noooo I think I just got a big Geneology of the Holy War spoiler. Gotta try not to think about it and cross my fingers.

I hear that one has the best plot by far. Part of the reason I'm knocking Shadow Dragon out early here is under the assumption that it's going to be pretty dry.

"Such a sweet boy, take this axe...this EVIL axe! Beware! It sucks your blood!!"

OK this localization is a lot cheekier than I expected.

Shadow Dragon's story/localization is unironically probably the best part of it.

Notes so far:

VERY difficult to get back in the vibe of weapon durability. The last....300 hours of FE gameplay I've done hasn't had to worry about it. Meanwhile here I just accidentally used 4 of my 7 warp charges. Not saying there's a problem with it, but I need to pay attention! At least I've gotten by without wasting a single Rapier charge yet.

With the army already enormous, I find myself missing Autobattle. I think that's just because I'm intentionally not using some of the units so they're just standing around.

Wait I can just...reclass....whenever now?

I stopped last night after chapter 6, having the pre battle menu is making WORLDS of a difference here, I'm way more enthused now.

Also as a side note....phones are crazy nowadays my dudes.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/1/9/AAeolZAADumn.jpg

Wait I can just...reclass....whenever now?

Yep. FE11 reclassing is completely free. There is a cap on how many units can be in a given class line at once (as I recall it is "# of units in that class line a player could theoretically have recruited by this chapter, +1 free slot") but that's all.

'Course, if you keep shuffling some poor character to a different class every chapter, they may be stuck with E-rank weapons for a while!

It's a totally wild system on its face, and early on here with low weapon levels it's basically telling me to do whatever I want with these characters! I'm nsuoerninri it, even if I would need to deep dive on growth rates to see where it could really benefit

I got the second theif and am hard pressed to see why I should level then unless they're WAY better than the other one, assuming I'm not just gonna end up replacing them both.

Thieves aren't really that useful in this game, since Marth can open any chest for free and there's no stealing from enemies. They're more useful if you're trying to play efficiently since Marth needs to get to the throne, but there's still no reason to level them.

Julian > Rickard in pretty much every way. I think the idea is that Julian is the good Thief, and if players screw up and get him killed, being stuck with Rickard the bad Thief is their punishment. That's why FE1 has so many objectively useless units: the original expectation was that players take a lot of casualties and be okay with it.

Of course, by the time FE11 was made, FEs no longer expected that. FE11 tried to shake things up (in addition to obvious things like the mandatory sacrifice in the prologue, I believe it's the first Fire Emblem where a dead character's inventory is returned to the convoy, rather than lost forever), but it didn't really take, so... lots of pointless units in Shadow Dragon.

Although a few of the early filler twerps are diamonds in the rough. Specifically, Wolf and Sedgar have bizarrely high stat growth.

Through Chapter 8 now, I guess I'm a third through the game? This is pretty short!

I think I'm making good character choices? Haven't had any major difficulties thus far, ditched the thieves as recommended.

Shadow Dragon is pretty short yeah, though you're probably more like 1/4th than a third because the chapters get longer.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/3/2/AAeolZAADutE.jpg

Maybe overleveled Lena a bit...

FFFFFFFFF ACCIDENTALLY KILLED MINERVA WHEN SHE RODE UP ON ME ON REFLEX

Gotta start the chapter all overrrrrrr

Can't even imagine how I was supposed to recruit Jake without using warp. Reclass Shiida for just that fight?

Having to start chapters over due to a mistake is the worst.

I remember when I tried to level up Mist in Path of Radiance from her starting level of 1 when she joins about a third of the way into the game. That took a few attempts, especially with loading her down with healing staffs, and forcing a situation where another character would repeatedly take damage so she could heal him turn after turn. [Obviously, you have to unequip the targeted character so he does not counter attack.]

Eventually I pulled it off, after several failures. So, in the next battle, Mist was Level 20/1 and was able to use Swords & Staffs.

Whenever I play FE games nowadays unless its my first playthrough I like to play Ironman runs the most. They're pretty fun. Restarting does suck.

Don't do it on first playthroughs though.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Can't even imagine how I was supposed to recruit Jake without using warp. Reclass Shiida for just that fight?

If you use the one Master Seal you have at this point on her, Dracoknight has exactly enough move to go from outside ballista range to right next to him in one turn, so you can do that to fly in and recruit him when you're ready.

First Master seal used (she reaches 20 didn't really have a choice)

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/8/AAeolZAADu0M.jpg

Now that she can blast magic she's gonna rock this shit...I hope.

Panthera posted...

If you use the one Master Seal you have at this point on her, Dracoknight has exactly enough move to go from outside ballista range to right next to him in one turn, so you can do that to fly in and recruit him when you're ready.

My lizard brain fights me furiously on promoting before 20... Even though I KNOW I won't be capping the promoted units anyways so it doesn't matter at all.

Ballistas.

Why.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Can't even imagine how I was supposed to recruit Jake without using warp. Reclass Shiida for just that fight?

Ballisticians in the original game were basically just fancy archers with poor move, so they designed Caeda recruiting Jake based on that. Here, they changed them to work how they do in the rest of the series and I guess they figured reclassing was enough to cover for the fact that they'll now wreck Caeda if she gets close.

Well, for the first time ever in an FE game I have let a character die and moved on. It's less impactful in this than, say...any other FE, but still!

Ogma a you were perfectly decent, but I'm gonna just keep Astram here and roll with it.

Chapter 14

Maps like this make the failures Echoes', and I assume Gaiden's, maps all the more obvious. Are the maps in SD basically the same as they were in FE1?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Chapter 14

Maps like this make the failures Echoes', and I assume Gaiden's, maps all the more obvious. Are the maps in SD basically the same as they were in FE1?

Yeah, most if not all of the maps in SD are unchanged I believe.

16 down, really felt the hurt on those reinforcements there.

Spent like 30 turns in the arena to help my weapon leveling which was really sufferer for some characters.

I think I may have gotten the worst RNG imaginable with Cain.

He's just total dead weight here and his last level up was a zero point lol.

RNG screw is one of the "fun" parts of Fire Emblem.

Yeah, I love the RNG screw. I do FE Drafts with my friends and I usually draft Sain in FE7, who I think is more of a premium pick.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/3/2/AAMDNAAADu-Q.png https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/3/3/AAMDNAAADu-R.png

It hasn't worked out for me the last few drafts. For the record, his Speed is supposed to be around 22, his Defense is supposed to be around 16, and his Resistance is supposed to be around 9.

Of course, we all know who's most susceptible to RNG screw. Seriously. -_-

SSBM_Guy posted...

Yeah, I love the RNG screw. I do FE Drafts with my friends and I usually draft Sain in FE7, who I think is more of a premium pick.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/3/2/AAMDNAAADu-Q.png https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/8/3/3/AAMDNAAADu-R.png

It hasn't worked out for me the last few drafts. For the record, his Speed is supposed to be around 22, his Defense is supposed to be around 16, and his Resistance is supposed to be around 9.

I mean, if you're not getting empty levels at practically every turn a 20/20 Sain (or 20/20 anyone in a good class, really) is still overkill for almost everything in the game

Yeah, even 17 speed is enough to double everything except Valkyries and Heroes. FE7 enemies aren't that strong, outside of the bosses in the final chapter.

Chp17 sure was easy considering the absolute plethora of rewards.

Though maybe it's because my Beck is a level 16 GOD and was murdering the whole map.

Forgot to mention, but I did get Xane, and it's certainly an interesting idea for a character class. Not something I would EVER use though.

Xane is pretty fun to use.

Fun fact: before we got official name translations, his name was usually translated as Chainy.

I didn't know Tiki was is this one!

...I gotta drag this level 1 old man through here, huh...

OK thank God for the arena on this next map, because there's no way I'm not using Tiki.

What game did you think Tiki was from?

Edit:
I guess you thought she first showed up in Awakening?

Yep!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/0/4/AAeolZAADvFo.jpg

I wanna die.

Tiki is probably the most popular/iconic character from the original FE (aside from Marth) so them putting her as someone you could marry in Awakening went over reeeeeally well with the Japanese fanbase lol

She's even in Tokyo Mirage Sessions as a pretty important character, too.

OK so I guess you don't NEED to level up Tiki much, and the stats are misleading.

The Starsphere gives you a chance to abuse the Divinestone to level her anyway, so not being able to arena isn't a problem.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

OK so I guess you don't NEED to level up Tiki much, and the stats are misleading.

Ohh yeah, I guess you haven't played anything with OG Manaketes in it. The idea is basically that they'll kill whatever you want, but their dragonstones really limit how much you can use them. Awakening-style Manaketes are balanced more like normal units, in comparison.

That said I just hit chapter 23, Tiki reached level 9 near the end of 22 and I gave her a bunch of boosts and she's absolutely annihilating everything lol.

....Turn 1 boss kill in chapter 24 with Caeda and a Dragonpike.

Don't feel like I should have been able to do that!

Chapter 24 is pretty well known for easy it is to end it super quickly. Which is kind of nice because on H5 playing it out normally is brutal beyond belief, enemy manaketes in Shadow Dragon are flat out unfair on that difficulty (they can literally have more speed than the actual cap allows for)

And that's a wrap on Shadow Dragon! I bought this game on launch, got to prologue 2, and never picked it up again. Enormous mistake!

To be honest, I only played this here as an obligation so I could play New Mystery of the Emblem, who's origin of the avatar character and untrabslated status made it very intriguing to me. While the story here is obviously nothing, I've gained a real appreciation for quality map design, and specified weapons have shone here more than ever before. Things like anti cavelier weapons were something I might throw on one character at most of these games, but Ridersbane was my life and soul here.

Shout out for my class changed to Archer Frey being the biggest glowup between pre and post promotion I have ever experienced in this game. Went from total dead weight as an Archer to a Sniper that I couldn't stop from killing enemies even if I wanted to to give someone else EXP.

Beck is still the MVP, though.

Was going to give Cain the biggest loser, but I actually dropped him a few chapters from the end so he's ineligible. Instead going to give it to Nabarl, who's job it was to crit, and by the end of the game had crited less than 5 times.

OK so first....I'm gonna start a rank list here. Take note that FE7, 9, and 10 are very tentative, I do not have enough recollection to be confident of their positions. Awakening I am more confident on, but I do feel I need to play that again regardless.

Also, as I've said before, I like wvryvFE game I've ever played. Last in this list doesn't mean much.

1. 3 Houses
2. Awakening
3. Radiant Dawn
4. Blazing Blade
5. Path of Radiance
6. Shadow Dragon
7. Echoes
8. Fates

Fates is still GOOD, but it's release structure, and feeling like a worse, phoned in Awakening, make it just stand out as an..."unnecessary" game? Even when talking about it on an anime marriage simulator, the cast is twice as large and half as good as Awakening's.

Obviously I like Echoes a lot, but the actual gameplay felt pretty basic. Loved the presentation.

Shadow Dragon is the exact opposite.

That 3 to 5 chunk is purely a gut feeling and I can't say more than that.

Awakening is what made me an FE fan to begin with, which pretty firmly makes me part of the new generation, which I'm hoping to balance out. I had played FE7, 9, and 10 of course, but I didn't really care about it as a series. Awakening made me ENTHUSIASTIC. Or maybe Tharja is just that hot.

And then I have over 300 hours in 3 Houses, pretty self explanatory.