GameDadGrant said:

By the way, you can have two melee units attack the same target while getting stat boosts. They don't have to be "paired" together to trigger that.

How? If they attack the same enemy, there's no way they can be positioned directly next to each other for the stat boost.


If Stahl attacks that guy from the left, and Sully then attacks him from the bottom, they don't get support boosts. In earlier FE games, they did. Or am I missing something?

@nate38
Could be a ranged attack from the square on top or bottom or left of Stahl.

@nate38

Correct. Grant was saying that they don't have to physically be "paired up" (a new mechanic to Awakening that puts the unit on the same square) to get the boost, but they do have to be on adjacent squares (diagonals don't count). Like anon pointed out, though, if one or both of them has a ranged attack, it's possible, so it's good to keep those javelins and spells handy.

@TriforceBun Yeah I got that. Oh well. I just miss tearing it up with myrmidons and swordmasters and not bothering with wimpy hand axes and javelins so much.

After finishing Shining Force on the 3DS VC I've been putting some time back into this game. All I have left to do is the hardest of the hard levels. And goddamn they are hard. I've reclassed a good amount of capped characters so I could get their levels up. For some of these levels it still isn't enough.

I've been playing the level where you can recruit Aversa. The one where you fight what seems to be better versions of the characters you bring into the battle. It feels like the only way to do well in this level is to have a bunch of weak characters. Which I really don't have at this point in the game.

Maybe it's time to start a new file and choose the casual mode so I don't have to worry about losing a couple of characters when doing those battles.

@nate38

So long as the characters are next to each other, they'll get support boosts. The boxes do have to be touching, but the characters don't have to be paired (possessing the same square) in order to trigger it.

Keep in mind of course, not all characters will get support boosts from everyone.

This game is consuuuuming me right now. I'm towards the end of the game and I'm finding myself just trying to level up characters. It took me forever to realize that you could basically just get a character up to level 20, reclass them, get that up to 20, and then Master Seal them. Donnel is just ridiculously broken at this point. Hardly gets hit, deals a TON of damage. My Kellam is a beast too, and he's just about to get married to Nowi. I'm still finding Nowi pretty weak though. I hope she gets better?

I'd say I'm enjoying this game way more than Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn, and I will fully admit it's because of Casual Mode. Call me a wuss if you will, but it's the only way to play the game if you want to be able to save mid-mission, which is huge for me. That, and if I've been playing a level for 20 minutes and someone dies, I don't feel like I've wasted 20 minutes of my life.

The story IMO has been a lot better than the previous two games as well. It hit a lull at times, but there are a couple parts of the game where you feel like the stakes get raised and some shit's going down. I just did the part where Lucina wants to kill me, and the game actually prompts me to accept or reject it. What did you guys say? I said she can go eff herself and that there's no way I'm letting her kill me, but maybe I picked the wrong choice. Does it matter?

The speed of the game is great, and I usually watch all of the battles take place. The animations are stylish and quick, and it never feels like I have to wait around for it to load. They're way more lively than the stiff, cardboard animations in the last two games. Intelligent Systems really stepped it up here. Just wish they gave people feet.

The relationship stuff is a great addition to the game. Not only does it give you incentive to keep certain characters close to each other, but it also allows you to have a better understanding of all the characters. There are certain characters I didn't care about at first, but after seeing their interactions with their future mates, I grew to like them a lot more. I think it works way better than what they've previously done. The writing as well, is way better. The other cool part about the relationships is that it gives you incentive to unlock other characters and challenge maps. At this point I'm trying to marry people simply because I want some more levels to play. There's also that thrill where you're not exactly sure which offspring you're going to meet, so it's fun to see who they are and how similar (or un similar) they are to mom and dad.

Further, the reclassing system just lets you make any (or most?) characters fare well in battle. Whereas before, you had to maybe rely on a risk/reward Arena (which could wind up costing tons of time and frustration), now you can simply take your weaker character and take them through a different class, plus their advanced class. So, you may not like ::insert weak character here::, but over time, you can turn them into a character that fits your team much better.

@PogueSquadron

I found that Nowi never really got that strong. Still, she was a good support character when paired up with someone, as she usually always followed up with a "second attack" after the primary one hit.

As for when Lucina wants to kill you, I don't think it matters which one you choose. The results play out the same, it just changes a bit of what Chrom says to you after the scene.

But yeah, I left the battle animations on! I had to turn them off after the first few missions in Path of Radiance, because it just caused the pacing to chug. But everything in Awakening is just so quick and (nearly) seamless, I left them on. I'd like to give this game another run-through someday, but my backlog kind of prevents it, lol.

You guys fast-forwarded the animations, though, right? They were pretty slow, especially since you often had three or four attacks in a single turn. I don't think I let them play at normal speed after the third mission or so. If there was no chance my unit would miss or get crit'd, I'd often skip them altogether.

Anyway yeah I finished it the other day. Beat all the child Paralogue missions as well. Didn't bother with the randomly generated battles, only promoted characters to their standard classes when they hit level 20 (except for Maribelle, I upgraded her to a Valkyrie early to make it less perilous to get her married) and only one or two characters hit 20 in their promoted class. I was a little worried that the random battles might be a symptom of mandatory grinding, but it was pretty easy without them.

@PogueSquadron

The Lucina scene is pretty heartbreaking if you're her mother and choose "yes." She basically has a total emotional breakdown.

Wow that's awesome!

I'm at the Endgame. I think I've gotten most of the characters...I think my last girl I had to marry off was Olivia (who married an incredibly unused Frederick). I missed getting Walhart due to a blunder on my part (saved after I realized I missed him). The only one I'm missing is Priam right now...but I don't know if I have it in me to beat that mission. It's tough! I'm thinking of just beating the game and finally moving on. I'm 43 hours into the game at this point.

How difficult is the final Paralogue in comparison to the Endgame mission?

Quite a few of my units perished along the way but I had a lot of fun matching up those who survived. I don't think I would enjoy playing on casual mode as much, since the looming thought that your units will die forever makes you crunch the numbers and squeeze more out of the gameplay.

I hope Nintendo puts the DLC on sale someday, I'd love to do some more missions but not at their current price.

Oh, and this game got snubbed from the handheld poll!

I just can't get into it.

Last Fire Emblem game I'll ever buy. Lesson learned.

What about SMT x FE?

lol, alright, I should go start SMTIV.

FINALLY starting this game... feel like I missed the boat a bit here, but should still be fun.

I know this has probably already been discussed, but the new thingy where you can have two units on the same square at once confuses me a bit. How does this work? Pros / cons? Is it something I should be doing all the time or just in specific occasions?

PS. WHY DOES NO ONE HAVE ANY FEET? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

Pros, I think you essentially always attack twice. Cons, less units on the battlefield guarantees that they're coming for a certain unit. You also can't box enemies in. Some characters do act differently when paired up though. I think my avatar had an ability that let co of himself or his paired member double or something.

The feet are there...they're just reealllllly small. It's really dumb looking.

Another Pro to teaming up is that you keep the secondary character safe from attacks. But they can't initiate a move. So if you're keeping a healer safe you have to make them them step in front for them to heal.

I never really used it because it basically limits your characters too much.

I never used it much as well, unless I was specifically grinding for affinity (or relationship or whatever it was called).

It can be handy, however, if you have a frail character that starts getting overwhelmed by the battle. Like, if you have a character that Dances (to give another character an extra move), you're probably safe with her early on in the battle, but when the enemies start coming, you might have no choice but to team her up with a stronger character just to get her out of the way. Or, maybe Chrom or your avatar is in serious danger, and you need to get them out of there. You could pair them up with someone to save the battle, which can also be advantageous because then your pairing will get boosts and assists from two of your strongest characters.

It can also be helpful for item management. You might have two characters that need to be near each other to trade Vulneries back and forth in a pinch, or maybe you want to keep Chrom attached to someone so that they always have access to the Convoy. I never understood that until maybe halfway through the game - that the Convoy is always accessible as long as you're near (maybe adjacent?) to Chrom.