So I picked the game back up and I thought, 'you know what, let's troll anyone who spotpasses me.' so I'm basically going through and recruiting any decent looking streetpass avatar I can find.

Now personally I think, as my first entry, a General with Renewal and 4 of the 5 breaker skills sounds absolutely delightful (no bow breaker, I doubt anyone will care) don't you?

Also, the 3rd lost bloodlines map is better then Exponential Growth for postgame grinding. Conveniently it's also the one that gets you a 2x exp skill. Thanks game!

Played the Demo today while waiting at Toys R Us. I wish the screen was much bigger, like 42 inches or something.

I like that you can SEE the support growing (*hearts!*), which seems like it would let you know / remind you that they're getting closer. The one with Lyn in it drives me nuts. I can't see CRAP between anybody!

So yeah, I liked that stuff. Feels like there is SO MUCH MORE TALKING though. I just wanna playyyy.
And I wish it were on Wii U. Guess I'll just settle for "X SMT."

@Mr_Mustache

It feels like we're overdue for a new handheld-to-home console adaptor. I wonder if they'll even bother at this point when they can get people to rebuy their old DS games on the Wii U or do retail ports like with RE Revelations. The market's a different place than it was in the days of the GBA player.

I finished this game on Normal/Classic a day or two ago. I had somewhat mixed feelings when I was starting this up, as the game's attempts at humor/funny lines, particularly during the super-whimsical early chapters, sometimes... end up being very cringeworthy. There's some painfully bad dialogue at times, and also some spotty writing overall. That's somewhat to be expected when you're dealing with a time travel plot, but even beyond that, certain things struck me as flat-out ridiculous.

I especially found it annoying how there are literally like four or five different points in the game where you fight a certain villain character on a map, defeat them, see their body fly to the ground in defeat/death, only for your characters to later remark after the battle about how said enemy "got away", and then you see that villain walking up and about like nothing happened. Why did that happen so often?! What gives?! It was like the equivalent of an editing error in a film, to have no transition or on-screen explanation for how the hell said enemy could still be up walking and about like nothing happened. Ugh. Goddamn.

Still though, the game must have done something right to have made me feel invested enough to cry at the game's credits. Overall... I liked this game. This is my third Fire Emblem I've played, after FE7 and Path of Radiance. I don't think this is my favorite in the series, for various reasons, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit.

@X-pert74

What parts of the story did you find particularly ridiculous?

That thing about death in gameplay not matching with narrative death bothered me too. Like at the point where you're on the border to Ferox early on and you kill all the guards and the game's just like "and then they got up from the ground and forgave you". It feels like a cop-out and it devalues the villain. In past Fire Emblem games, you would often see the villain, but not actually defeat them until they could be permanently killed. A lot of the time you catch glimpses of them, only for the villain the leave a subordinate commander in their place. When you finally faced that villain in battle it felt like the game had been building up to that point- even if they weren't the final boss. There had been a chase leading to that battle. They were usually a step ahead of you too. So by the time you went toe-to-toe with them in battle, you knew you had brought them down to the wire and shit was about to get serious. Think of the 6 big villains in Sacred Stones. They did this wonderfully.

If you defeat them ahead before this point, that sense of finality and climax is lost. They no longer play by the rules established by the game's system, so your investment is shot in the foot and they merely become an interchangeable set of code for you to work against, rather than buying into them as an authentic villain you've been waiting to overcome.

@Hero_Of_Hyrule Things like my player character randomly wondering out loud about how disgusting she imagined the Feroxi leader would be, only for Flavia to introduce herself to prove me wrong. Like... who in their right mind would talk the way my character did? Also, the huge mismatch between the silly quirky antics in the first few chapters, like Sumia tripping over everything or Kellam not being noticed by his fellow Shepherds, or Vaike forgetting to bring his goddamn axe into battle... clashing with the fact that zombies are literally warping into their existence and trying to kill everyone, which is a plot point that doesn't feel like it gets nearly enough attention as it deserves. It all felt wrong.