How many paralogue maps is there...? I got one and that's it. I'm now on chapter 15 or something so I figure I'd have seen more by now.
Also I'm leaning towards having my main character marry Rinkah. She's become a monster Usually axe units aren't my favorites for some reason but it's just hilarious seeing her plow through everything when I pair her with Corrin.
Heads up--if you marry most of the women, you miss out on a kid because there're more men in Birthright than women (and men determine the kids). If you want to get all the kids and you have a male avatar, you have to marry a kid yourself, or marry Scarlet or Reina (who can't marry anyone other than the avatar).
What difficulty are you playing on? What did you play Awakening on?
What would want from an ideal sequel to Awakening? What do you think about the direction the series has gone since awakening compared to older Fire Emblem games?
I'm probably not the best person to ask since I've only played FE7, Sacred Stones, and Awakening prior to Fates.
Personally, I think Awakening is great! Like, exemplary. I thought it was jam-packed full of content, looked and sounded great, had an interesting enough plot (if a bit flawed), and had a fun and charming cast. I think it's one of the best 3DS games and honestly the only turn-based strategy game I've ever beaten. I liked the extra focus on characters and supports that came with Awakening--I thought some of the past FE games could get a little "stuffy" in their characters; Awakening felt a bit more approachable with slightly quirkier characters and a bit more focus on (a reasonable amount of) comedy. I thought the art style was gorgeous and the classing system gave way to a lot of fun customization.
I think Fates isn't a bad follow-up to Awakening, but I find myself a little less enchanted with the story elements. Both the plot and the characters seem overall less engaging or interesting than in FEA (although still "good enough," at least so far). Some of the new Seal/reclass elements feel overly confusing.
Otherwise I still like it quite a bit.
I'm playing on Normal/Classic and I've had to reset (after someone died) maybe a dozen or more times. I played Awakening on Normal/Classic and later through most of it on Hard/Classic.
Heads up--if you marry most of the women, you miss out on a kid because there're more men in Birthright than women (and men determine the kids). If you want to get all the kids and you have a male avatar, you have to marry a kid yourself, or marry Scarlet or Reina (who can't marry anyone other than the avatar).
Well, I just learned of something else that's kinda related to this. Birthright Chapter 15 SPOILERSApparently, you can get Kaze back after Chapter 15 if the main character has an A or S rank him prior to that point. If not, he's gone forever, as well as his kid! That kinda stinks for me--I've been careful not to lose anyone and now I won't have all the characters. That said, if you have lost him, you can then marry anyone you want and still get all the kids.
Thanks for the tips. I'm way to late to save Kaze though. Well this game just dropped another notch as far as enjoyment goes. Sure that kinda of thing was somewhat normal for older Fire Emblems, but it seems really out of place in this game.
I'm probably not the best person to ask since I've only played FE7, Sacred Stones, and Awakening prior to Fates.
I'm asking because you have a different perspective from my own. Since we both started with different games and at different points in time, what we want from the series and think it should be is going to vary. Sure, that's not going to comprise the whole of our expectations, but I still enjoy learning how your affinity for Awakening influences your view of its sequel.
For example, the things you like about Awakening are qualities I'm either indifferent towards or dislike. The thing you mentioned disliking about past games ("stuffy characters") is something that I liked about the previous games. If nothing else, I find this difference in perspective interesting. So thank you for taking the time to write that out.
I think it was handled incredibly poorly, just like other unavoidable deaths or the main conflict for that matter. Instead of Kaze sacrificing himself or Corrin choosing to conquer Hoshido out of belief in some ideology, it's just by stupid coincidences or twists of fate. In the former rocks just happened to fall and in the latter, it's because the king is possessed and needs to sit on Hoshido's throne to reveal this to the rest of the cast. Why did Kaze die? He stood in the wrong place. Why did Corrin choose to perpetuate a pointless conflict and fight against a birth family that loves him/her? Magic.
Know what kinda bugs me about all the Fire Emblem games? There's so much inventory management and pre-battle downtime! With 30+ playable characters, each having an ever-changing inventory dependent on weapon usage, class changes, weapon proficiency, staves, etc all adds up to me spending around 10-20 minutes every battle or two just fiddling around with pre-fight micromanagement! It'd be nice if there was a way to streamline this somewhat tedious element further.
Yeah, most Nintendo series I tend to get on-board with earlier rather than later, so some critiques of their earlier games (like the original Mario and Zelda) are interesting to me because it seems that different people play the series for different high points. So it's unusual to be on the other side of that fence with Fire Emblem, where I prefer some of the later games' choices.
I usually stick to the same characters and their inventories... so I've never had that issue. How the heck do you take up to 20 minutes for this?
As for that buff stranger, I got him when getting Corrin's daughter. Captured him when he and his brother, who I also captured, were trying to kill her. They were too funny looking to just leave them be
Which characters do you guys like? Which do you dislike?
Only played most of Birthright so far, so from that cast I like Setsuna (funny sort of spacey persona), Kaden (got a lot of personality), Takumi (started off bratty but really grew on me), Hinoka (just a solid "big sister" type and has a funny voice), Hana (glass cannon unit with some character flaws, but hard to dislike), Silas (cool to have a nice and approachable Nohr soldier) and Orochi (good balance of serious and playful. Married her). Oh, as far as kids go I quite like Sophie, Silas's daughter. She's fun.
Most of the rest of them are fine but possibly on the forgettable side. There are two I outright dislike though: Jakob and Azama. Jakob is a total snot to everyone but the avatar, and Azama is the same way, plus his vocation makes zero sense (a nihilistic agnostic priest? Huh?). I initially tried to get him with Setsuna but after he constantly insulted her for two supports in a row, I decided she deserved better and kicked Azama down to Rinkah, who was happy to dish out insults to him herself. Jakob's supports with Felicia were pretty unsatisfying too, considering all he did was say how much her tea sucked butt.
Weird, I didn't know you could capture people. Is this on Birthright...?
As for inventory, it's just time-consuming. Like, someone'll reach rank C with a weapon, so then I'll go through and find them a C weapon. Or buy one. And then notice someone else that I just reclassed to be able to use staves doesn't have a staff, so I'll go through THAT...or buy one. And then I'll start checking supports to see who I want to talk to whom, and then choose units based on that. I dunno, it just takes forever. Might be my fault for micromanaging so much at that level.
Yeah some characters have a skill that lets you capture certain enemies. Orochi is the only one that I use that has it but I think someone else does as well. Your castle also needs a prison for this to work. You can't form relationships with them as far as I know so I'm not sure if this can turn out to be useful or not over your regular characters.
Know what kinda bugs me about all the Fire Emblem games? There's so much inventory management and pre-battle downtime! With 30+ playable characters, each having an ever-changing inventory dependent on weapon usage, class changes, weapon proficiency, staves, etc all adds up to me spending around 10-20 minutes every battle or two just fiddling around with pre-fight micromanagement! It'd be nice if there was a way to streamline this somewhat tedious element further.
Haha, that's kinda surprising. I started Fire Emblem soon after putting down Final Fantasy Tactics Advance because that game had some seriously demanding party management. Compared to changing character jobs, picking abilities, and keeping everybody clothed in the dandiest duds, Fire Emblem felt like a breeze. Twenty minutes managing the whole army was a drastic streamlining compared to FFTA for me! I guess it's all relative.
Know what kinda bugs me about all the Fire Emblem games? There's so much inventory management and pre-battle downtime! With 30+ playable characters, each having an ever-changing inventory dependent on weapon usage, class changes, weapon proficiency, staves, etc all adds up to me spending around 10-20 minutes every battle or two just fiddling around with pre-fight micromanagement! It'd be nice if there was a way to streamline this somewhat tedious element further.
You're not wrong. I know I spent a bunch of time doing all that stuff back during the Path of Radiance/Randiant Dawn days.
And yeah, even if you have a 'core' group, making sure everyone is stocked with weapons, potions, etc, can get time consuming.
Another reason I prefer the simplicity of Advance Wars
So I beat Birthright. The final boss was weirdly difficult. It shouldn't be odd that a final boss be hard to beat, but my Avatar had a absurdly small chance of even hitting the guy.
And the game itself felt a bit off for me. I can't quite specifically say what it was but I felt like there were way too many characters. Obviously not letting people die will lead to this, but I did the same thing in Awakening and didn't have the same problem. Maybe because that game had a post game aspect? I barely even used the children in Birthright and they end up being very strong. I guess there's DLC I could've gotten. And Awakening had all those battles against characters from previous FE games.
Another problem is that they changed how the seals work. I'm putting this one on me though. I'm sure the information was out there, but I just assumed they worked like Awakening but with a couple of different options. But there's no 'Second Seal' and what's there instead doesn't put your character back down to level 1. So I had totally promoted most of my units incorrectly.
The best news I've read so far is that the Lancer class is coming back. I will hopefully be able to use another Nephenee-like battle goddess.
Mozu was totally Nephenee-like, but I had promoted her to a Weapons Master instead of Spear Master (or whatever it's called). So she never got to use the best spears. But she definitely had some boss stats at the end.
The Paralogues in this game are kicking my butt! What the heck?? I'm on Normal and some of them seem ridiculously brutal. A few have promoted Lvl 15 units everywhere, when I have maybe two characters at that point. The main game itself is giving me trouble too, but not as much as the Paralogues. Am I just bad at this or playing incorrectly or what? I do try to have everyone teamed up to get more support convos, and I don't keep S's together in combat (because I want to get more support convos after they max out).
Yeah I had one that was pretty nuts but pulled through anyway. Also some of the challenge battles have been pretty nuts I'm thinking I'll have to grind a bit before moving on with the story because the battle I'm at right now is sort of insane.
Usually axe units aren't my favorites for some reason but it's just hilarious seeing her plow through everything when I pair her with Corrin.
