Fire Emblem: Awakening

I'm really torn on how I feel about the whole support system. I get the feeling Bnice is the only person far enough along to get into any of this, so don't read unless you've gotten past chapter 13.

Spoiler:

The narrative method they employ to explain how your children join the party is a bit cheesy but quirky in a fun way. The offspring, from what I can tell, are just super-powered versions of their parents - my avatar is marrying Cordelia, and their offspring Morgan is a Pegasus Knight is far superior statistically to any other I've seen, assuming average stat growth. This would be more intriguing if I wasn't already kind of set for flying units, as she does need about fifteen levels to catch up to mom. I'm at a point where hard isn't terribly taxing, I can usually get through story missions on the first go with no losses. The kind of power you can unlock through offspring would be helpful on Lunatic, but getting to the point in the game where you can actually start breeding seems like an absolute nightmare.

Overall I'm a little concerned about the reasons behind certain design elements and how well they're balanced and implemented.

Actually, this is scary. I'm reading about the implications and realizing this is a terribly deep game, you can get about as deep into it as Pokemon/Monster Hunter if you like. I was figuring this to be another typical FE game that I put 40 hours into and then remember fondly but never touch again, and that's seeming unlikely.

Edit: Maybe I'm reading my own tastes into it, but I couldn't help but see a couple overt Final Fantasy references.

Spoiler:

One of the characters has a son named Owain, which was the originally translated name of Cyan's son in Final Fantasy VI. Also, one of the support conversations involves teaching someone how to make a reed whistle. Reed whistles were an important thematic device in Final Fantasy Tactics.

So I just got to the part you are talking about. My understanding:

Spoiler:

The offspring takes after the mother. So if the mother was a Mage, then the daughter/son will be a mage. However, it looks like both the skills of the parents are carried over so you could have some incredible combos. Also, when I got the first offspring I was worried because he was only lvl 10 but their stats are great and they already have decent skills so you could potentially just Master Seal them off the bat.

I wonder if there are any women with Donnel's OP skills so you could potentially have offspring with that doubled up. Be crazy

If the offspring can have offspring, this could get nuts...

I've been working on Donnel and if you can get through the early levels where he gets one shot, he turns pretty damn OP. Also, I love the little event that occurs when you use a seal, it's so satisfying watching the transformation.

Fredrick died in my last battle After benching him for so long, I brought him back and made a really stupid tactical decision thinking he was still super powerful. I wonder how cut scenes will be affected by this.

*pours some liquor on the concrete*

In the interest of finishing the game in a timely manner and getting back to Ni No Kuni, I've let my first troop die. Damned mages v_v that one had promise, too.

BNice wrote:

I've been working on Donnel and if you can get through the early levels where he gets one shot, he turns pretty damn OP. Also, I love the little event that occurs when you use a seal, it's so satisfying watching the transformation.

Did you use the seal on a level 10 character or wait until 20?

Also, is there any point in using a Master Seal on your main character?

I switched the Avatar from a Tactician to a Mercenary at level 12. Two questions:

Should I have waited until 20 to make that switch?

Is the mercenary an advanced class?

Your character promotes like any other unit with the Master Seal.

Mercenary isn't advanced, it can promote to either

Spoiler:

hero or bow knight.

As a rule I wait til 20 to promote, but it's not the end of the world. This game is long enough and has enough experience that I'm actually going to need to change some peoples' classes after they max their promoted class. It's less important than in prior games because you aren't limited to one class change.

DSGamer wrote:
BNice wrote:

I've been working on Donnel and if you can get through the early levels where he gets one shot, he turns pretty damn OP. Also, I love the little event that occurs when you use a seal, it's so satisfying watching the transformation.

Did you use the seal on a level 10 character or wait until 20?

Also, is there any point in using a Master Seal on your main character?

Waiting until 20 is debatable as the amount of XP goes down when you are an advanced class. I waited until lvl 20 to get the most out of my characters stat wise but I believe it's really up to preference.

Definitely Master Seal your main character.

Xeknos wrote:

I switched the Avatar from a Tactician to a Mercenary at level 12. Two questions:

Should I have waited until 20 to make that switch?

Is the mercenary an advanced class?

Second Seal's just changes the class. Master Seal's promote to advanced classes. Really, it's all about the skills you can earn. You also get a nice stat boost when you Master Seal.

I'm pretty sure you could have your character Second Seal to Mage, level up to get the 5/10 skills, Master Seal to Sorcerer, level up to get the 5/15 skills, Second Seal to Dark Knight and level up tot get the 5/15 skills etc. etc.

Also, I'm not sure of this but I think when a stat turns green it means it can't grow any more through leveling and you need to use either seal to continue development. Not 100% sure though.

Also, the difficulty really ramps up around chapter 12. I'm not sure how people playing on hard will be able to not lose a soul on some of these missions.

This site has a list of all the skills. Obviously don't look if you don't want to be spoiled.

I am up to 19 with one death, and very few restarts since I took the time to promote my main team. It's still challenging but that grinding I did really helped cut down the restarts.

Post chapter 13 & support:

Spoiler:

Holy crap, your kids can have kids? How deep does this rabbit hole go? :shock:

BNice wrote:

Post chapter 13 & support:

Spoiler:

Holy crap, your kids can have kids? How deep does this rabbit hole go? :shock:

WHUT!!!

I waited on my Amazon pre-order, and it arrived on Tuesday. Now, that I'm in game, it's fantastic!

I think the battle pacing is just right on the 3DS - everything is sharp and quick, and I like the support/pair-up system. Anyway, I know first impressions are a week late now, but hey - it was hard to get

Also, the Hubba Meter (or whatever) is hilarious.

My Amazon pre-order is out for delivery today, so I think the stock is coming in. Hope not too many people were paying the outrageous ($60+) prices on the Amazon Marketplace.

As someone new to the series I'm having a little trouble sorting things out regarding the various iconography in the stats and effects. Is there a good starter's guide to the game? I'm a few missions in, and while I do grasp the core mechanics, I'm not always sure who to pair up with who (or why), who I should position to fight one enemy vs. another (based on who will have the greatest effect), or how some of the stats really shake out and influence the numbers in combat. A lot of the icons, regarding classes, effects, etc. aren't really explained or described anywhere that I've seen and so in battles I feel kind of unprepared. I'm also a bit lost when it comes to what weapons I should be buying and who should be getting them (are certain characters better off getting equipped with an axe vs. a sword, etc.?). So beginners help would be awesome, thanks!

jordn613 wrote:

As someone new to the series I'm having a little trouble sorting things out regarding the various iconography in the stats and effects. Is there a good starter's guide to the game? I'm a few missions in, and while I do grasp the core mechanics, I'm not always sure who to pair up with who (or why), who I should position to fight one enemy vs. another (based on who will have the greatest effect), or how some of the stats really shake out and influence the numbers in combat. A lot of the icons, regarding classes, effects, etc. aren't really explained or described anywhere that I've seen and so in battles I feel kind of unprepared. I'm also a bit lost when it comes to what weapons I should be buying and who should be getting them (are certain characters better off getting equipped with an axe vs. a sword, etc.?). So beginners help would be awesome, thanks!

Here are my Top 5 Tips to surviving Fire Emblem:

5 - Tap everything on the touch screen. Those icons you're talking about, if they're the ones I'm thinking of, all have explanations if you tap them. This goes for weapons, items, pretty much anything that appears on the lower screen. That will give you a ton of information you will need. Also go through the Guide if you haven't already, it explains most of the basics.

4 - Weapon choice will be determined by whether or not the unit can use it. If you're early on, and can't reclass yet, just buy axes for your axe users, swords for your swords-people, etc. You'll see characters gaining skill with weapons, when in doubt give them a weapon they have high skill in.

3 - Positioning is all about the threat zone of the enemy, and whether or not the unit can survive the next incoming wave. You can press... I think it's X at any time to see the global threat zone of all enemies, or you can select individual enemy units (any number of them) to see their threat zone. Use this when determining who goes in front and who stays behind.

2 - Always remember the weapon triangle! The battle will favor you heavily if you keep this in mind when deciding who to send forward. Is the enemy composed primarily of swords-people? Then you probably want a lance user on your front lines. Is there an axe user who will screw that up? Pair your lance user with a high speed character to give them a better chance of dodging. It's all about gathering the information you need for the next wave, then proceeding.

1 - Remember that you don't have to attack! Every unit, including enemies, gets a counter-attack after an attack has finished, so if you attack an enemy and their counter-attack leaves that unit wounded they're likely to die on the next turn. Sometimes the best thing to do is just move a unit to block an enemy, and have them sit there. Let your own counter-attack soften them up, then next turn you can finish them off in your first attack, and they won't get a counter-attack. This will allow you to hold choke points, especially 1 square wide ones, almost indefinitely.

Great post!

grobstein wrote:

Great post!

^

Also, I didn't know about the hubba-meter until last night. It's hilarious.

I just had a Barracks event and I could swear Chrom told me, "A true leader must never reset and never surrender."

So is it just me or are you guys grinding more?

#1 - They put lots of grinding out in front of you. Random-ish battles, battles against online street pass teams, etc.

#2 - I feel like I have to. I'm playing on pseudo-baby mode (Normal Classic) and I'm having a hard time leveling up some of the weaker characters like Donnel.

Also, has anyone played Paralogue 3 yet? I'm having a hard time saving the villagers and would welcome any advice. They seem impossible to heard off of the screen.

BNice wrote:
grobstein wrote:

Great post!

^

Also, I didn't know about the hubba-meter until last night. It's hilarious.

Wait, what? I need to look for that.

DSGamer wrote:

So is it just me or are you guys grinding more?

#1 - They put lots of grinding out in front of you. Random-ish battles, battles against online street pass teams, etc.

#2 - I feel like I have to. I'm playing on pseudo-baby mode (Normal Classic) and I'm having a hard time leveling up some of the weaker characters like Donnel.

Also, has anyone played Paralogue 3 yet? I'm having a hard time saving the villagers and would welcome any advice. They seem impossible to heard off of the screen.

1: I am. All of my characters are 17 or 18, and I'm at Chapter 9 or 10 or so.

Also, I only lost one of the villagers, and it took be a few tries to even get that. The key is to get your higher mobility units (both Cordelia and Sumia have had awesome stat growth in my game) near the villagers for close support. Send Sully with backup to the rear of the villagers, and send the rest of the force out in front to draw the units in. Easy. The trick is getting set up before you lose all three.

For those in Europe: release date is April 19th and the limited edition of blue 3DS XL+ Fire Emblem game will also be available.

DSGamer wrote:
BNice wrote:
grobstein wrote:

Great post!

^

Also, I didn't know about the hubba-meter until last night. It's hilarious.

Wait, what? I need to look for that.

It's outside of the main game, in extras I think.

Xeknos wrote:
DSGamer wrote:

So is it just me or are you guys grinding more?

#1 - They put lots of grinding out in front of you. Random-ish battles, battles against online street pass teams, etc.

#2 - I feel like I have to. I'm playing on pseudo-baby mode (Normal Classic) and I'm having a hard time leveling up some of the weaker characters like Donnel.

Also, has anyone played Paralogue 3 yet? I'm having a hard time saving the villagers and would welcome any advice. They seem impossible to heard off of the screen.

1: I am. All of my characters are 17 or 18, and I'm at Chapter 9 or 10 or so.

Also, I only lost one of the villagers, and it took be a few tries to even get that. The key is to get your higher mobility units (both Cordelia and Sumia have had awesome stat growth in my game) near the villagers for close support. Send Sully with backup to the rear of the villagers, and send the rest of the force out in front to draw the units in. Easy. The trick is getting set up before you lose all three.

Just cast rescue on them.

DrunkenSleipnir wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
BNice wrote:
grobstein wrote:

Great post!

^

Also, I didn't know about the hubba-meter until last night. It's hilarious.

Wait, what? I need to look for that.

It's outside of the main game, in extras I think.

Thanks, found it. I now have 4 married couples. Not sure where this is going, but I really love this game. Once you start pairing up you realize that this is frequently better strategy.

Finished the game over the weekend (normal-classic).

This was my Fire Emblem game and I really enjoyed it. The support system was the highlight for me as it expanded my tactical options and drew me closer to the characters. By the end of the game, I had certain power couples that would come through for each other and it felt awesome. The dialogue in the support system was also an interesting reward for gaining levels and often I would find myself more into seeing the next section of dialogue instead of the tactical bonus attributed to it. But I also found that it increased the tension with permadeath as it wasn't just some random chuck dying, it was X, they were married, they had friends, they had a family and you had been through so much with them. The feeling of dread when one of my favorite characters was close to death would get crazy high.

I mentioned it before but I'm really impressed at the lack of frustration when interacting with the game. I sort of assumed that it would take a while to get used to the UI, menus, looking around the map tactically etc. but that never occurred as it all felt very natural even though I never played a FE game before.

The story wasn't exactly full of depth and nuance but I found myself being pumped for missions on numerous occasions because of it. I'm sure the excellent sound track was a big part of this.

And I really liked the skills. I never got sick of watching astra or the assassinate skill trigger. The little event that occurred during assassinate was so damn satisfying.

Post End Game

Spoiler:

I love how they ran through every battle and who the MVP's were in the credits. The epilogues for each character and all their stats were also awesome. Even the credits were enjoyable!

In the last battle when it reduced all my troops to 1 HP I was devastated. But then when Naga gave everyone their health back I was PUMPED.

I chose to sacrifice myself.

My usual crew:
- Donny/Maribelle was the unstoppable couple. Donny had armsthrift (the skill that stops weapon durability loss based on luck and he had crazy high luck) so I juiced the brave sword to max through forging. By the end of the game, he would be wandering around paired with Mirabelle doing 4X attacks consisting of ~40 damage. He also had Sol(heal yourself based on attack damage) which would trigger often and he had a whopping 80hp and absurd defensive stats. The guy was a beast.
- Chrom/Avatar.
- Miriel/Lon'qu.
- Sully/Virion.
- Gaius/Lissa.

And I would usually bring Kellam, Lucina, Tharja and Morgan.

I loved Basilio, the Japanese voice actor had the best audio with him.

RIP: Vaike, Ricken, Henry (not really, didn't like this dude at all :lol:), Fredrick, Stahl and Olivia

I have a feeling I'm going to play through again sometime and go with different characters just to see all the different dialogue.

Merged. Ignore this.

Is it better to link units or leave them separate? If you link them, how do you get around the issue of the other person not gaining much xp?

Chapter 12-13 spoiler:

Spoiler:

I just got Lucina and her sister (the knight chick, can't remember her name) and have Chrom paired with Lucina and Sully (the mother) paired with the knight to build support. It's not a big deal since both Chrom and Sully are promoted, but I'm wondering how it would work normally.

Does the support get to the point where they're attacking often enough to make up for not getting kill-shots on their own?

BNice wrote:

Post chapter 13 & support:

Spoiler:

Holy crap, your kids can have kids? How deep does this rabbit hole go? :shock:

Interesting. How are they brought in?

Spoiler:

Your kids are supposed to be from a craptastic near-end of the world. It's difficult to imagine what the future of THAT world is like. Though, if I had a male avatar I would TOTALLY hit Lucina.

I don't think you should always pair up units because the joiner will always get less experience. I only tend to use it for four reasons - if I'm 1). using a bottleneck and only two or three spaces will be exposed to enemies, 2). if you just need that extra power to kill a boss without casualties, 3). for transporting non-mounted units, and 4). if you're looking to quickly farm support levels between two units as you're doing.

Re: BNice's spoiler

Spoiler:

I don't think your kids have kids, just get married.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Re: BNice's spoiler

Spoiler:

I don't think your kids have kids, just get married.

Yeah, I definitely jumped to conclusions

Xeknos wrote:

Is it better to link units or leave them separate? If you link them, how do you get around the issue of the other person not gaining much xp?

Something useful you can do is pair people and "switch" based on the circumstance. So lets say you have ranged character and a melee character paired. When you move the paired unit, you can switch who is in front by moving then issuing the "switch" command and then you can attack after.

So you could have your tanky melee character in front most of the time and switch to your ranged character from time to time to finish people off and get good XP for the ranged character.

Also I've found that characters will frequently pitch in and both will fight and gain XP. I think pairing is good for relationships AND good for gaining XP as well. If anything I feel like my party is OP and I wish I'd played on Hard/Classic instead of Normal/Classic. My party is at a point now where I can go into random encounters and encounters sent from Street Pass and I can simply put it on Auto. I'm going to get wiped out the next time I have to think strategically again. The amount of out of battle preparations and grinding you can do breaks the game a bit. At this point it's too late to go back. I'm 15 chapters in and my characters are fairly customized.