Fire Emblem: Awakening

EverythingsTentative wrote:

If Panne and Nowi use a seal will they still be able to transform?

No, I think -- they can only equip the transformation orbs if they are of the appropriate class.

Okay, I thought that was the case. But since they can level beyond 20 I don't think it will be a problem.

grobstein wrote:
EverythingsTentative wrote:

If Panne and Nowi use a seal will they still be able to transform?

No, I think -- they can only equip the transformation orbs if they are of the appropriate class.

Yep. But one thing to consider is taking them through some other (unpromoted) class or two to grab some useful skills. As long as you never promote them to an advanced class, you'll find they will still level up pretty quickly once you return them to their "base" transforming class.

Finally fired this up today, although I only got the 3DS this week. Animal Crossing had occupied most of my time for a few days.

Debated Classic/Casual for a long time before starting. And I see there was some discussion on the last page (although it was in July :D). I guess it came down to, without permadeath it's not really a Fire Emblem game, but just any old SRPG. That's one of the things that has always made this series stand apart. And oh yes it sucked having to restart missions on the GBA games because I lost a Pegasus or something. But that's just what had to be done.

I may get frustrated after a while, but I think I can handle Normal difficulty without quitting in frustration.

Just been through a couple of the Prologue missions so far and I really love everything. Cutscenes are great and the 3D effect is well done. Voice acting, and even the partial-voice acting in regular conversations really add a lot of personality to the characters.

Seems like the support system is so improved now with actual aid in attacks, and the payoff for S support with new characters will apparently be there down the road.

Love all the touch screen interactions. Clicking on weapon, stat, whatever and getting instant extra information is invaluable. Granted I know the Sword-Axe-Spear triangle by heart at this point but it's still nice to have.

And then the actual battle stuff is great. Cycling weapons after a target, and seeing the varios hit, dmg, etc. and the arrows for the triangle stuff is so helpful. Locking in an enemy by pressing A and being able to monitor their range while you move your team around is good for strategy. Just a lot of things that fit together very well and seem to make battle flow as easily as possible. Any information I might need is right there and easily accessible.

And even just through a couple of missions and support conversations, I'm having fun with the characters. Frederick and Chrom's first support conversation was hilarious. Hopefully I'll be able to finish this one, as I've had trouble with the previous games in this series. So far it seems very well put together and tough to put down.

If you've played any Fire Emblem before, Normal difficulty is what you want. Hard is equivalent to the other Fire Emblem games I've played. (This is not a complaint.)

Just enjoy the game, you're in for a real treat. Give the (local only) multiplayer a go if you ever get a chance. My wife and I played that a *bunch* well after we'd both finished the campaign.

I just started this a couple days ago. I'm experiencing my typical problems with games of this nature; mainly since it is my first foray into the FE world and a lot of the systems are not well explained or don't get explained until later on I am not really sure what anything actually does. For that reason I am sticking to Normal/Classic. I can get over the loss of characters but I don't feel like getting all that deep into the mechanics. There's just too much there. Basically I'm just hitting "Optimize" on the inventory screen and getting on with it.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I just started this a couple days ago. I'm experiencing my typical problems with games of this nature; mainly since it is my first foray into the FE world and a lot of the systems are not well explained or don't get explained until later on I am not really sure what anything actually does. For that reason I am sticking to Normal/Classic. I can get over the loss of characters but I don't feel like getting all that deep into the mechanics. There's just too much there. Basically I'm just hitting "Optimize" on the inventory screen and getting on with it.

I have exactly the same issue. This is why I tend to play more PC games, because they have better explanations as well as tooltips. The manual barely reaches the level of minimal and while the tutorials are helpful, there's a lot they don't cover.

I'm also on Normal but went with Casual, because I really like the relationship parts and know I won't have time to play it through more than once. Still, fantastic game.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I just started this a couple days ago. I'm experiencing my typical problems with games of this nature; mainly since it is my first foray into the FE world and a lot of the systems are not well explained or don't get explained until later on I am not really sure what anything actually does. For that reason I am sticking to Normal/Classic. I can get over the loss of characters but I don't feel like getting all that deep into the mechanics. There's just too much there. Basically I'm just hitting "Optimize" on the inventory screen and getting on with it.

This is exactly how I felt too. 10 hours later and I'm completely in love with the game and I feel like I have a decent grasp on it all. In most games I avoid optimize, but in this I don't think you're actually missing much by using optimize either, it does what you would have done anyway.

concentric wrote:

This is why I tend to play more PC games, because they have better explanations as well as tooltips.

I have tried to play Paradox games, so I know this is a lie.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
concentric wrote:

This is why I tend to play more PC games, because they have better explanations as well as tooltips.

I have tried to play Paradox games, so I know this is a lie. ;)

Hehe. Actually I think FE:A does a pretty good job with it's help system, so it's not super hard to find out what something does or how it works. What's hard is figuring out what you should be doing with these things. A basic example that veterans will probably think is funny is the Second Seal. I get what it does, but I have no idea if it's worth it. If it is worth it, I have no idea when the right time to use it is.

Edit: And I'm OK with that. I'm just going after every Master Seal I can and sticking with the straight upgrade route. Working well so far.

ClockworkHouse wrote:
concentric wrote:

This is why I tend to play more PC games, because they have better explanations as well as tooltips.

I have tried to play Paradox games, so I know this is a lie. ;)

Haha, so true. Paradox is in a class of its own. It's amazing that Crusader Kings II is seen as a breakthrough for user-friendliness for them, but people talk all the time about needing to watch hours of let's play videos before attempting it.

ETA: I think that a big part of the issue for me is that JRPGs in general are pretty much completely new to me, so everything about them is pretty unfamiliar. I don't know what to assume or take for granted.

SixteenBlue wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
concentric wrote:

This is why I tend to play more PC games, because they have better explanations as well as tooltips.

I have tried to play Paradox games, so I know this is a lie. ;)

Hehe. Actually I think FE:A does a pretty good job with it's help system, so it's not super hard to find out what something does or how it works. What's hard is figuring out what you should be doing with these things. A basic example that veterans will probably think is funny is the Second Seal. I get what it does, but I have no idea if it's worth it. If it is worth it, I have no idea when the right time to use it is.

Edit: And I'm OK with that. I'm just going after every Master Seal I can and sticking with the straight upgrade route. Working well so far.

Actually, the Second Seal is similar to how you'd change classes in FFT or FFTA to pick up skills from other classes. FE:A has that system of learning skills that you can turn on or off. Things like +5 Agility, or the ability to move a second time after defeating an enemy. That second one is the one that stands out the most. You get it by being one of the Pegasus Rider classes. I tried to cycle as many characters as possible through the Pegasus Rider classes so they would pick up the ability to get extra turns.

DSGamer wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:
concentric wrote:

This is why I tend to play more PC games, because they have better explanations as well as tooltips.

I have tried to play Paradox games, so I know this is a lie. ;)

Hehe. Actually I think FE:A does a pretty good job with it's help system, so it's not super hard to find out what something does or how it works. What's hard is figuring out what you should be doing with these things. A basic example that veterans will probably think is funny is the Second Seal. I get what it does, but I have no idea if it's worth it. If it is worth it, I have no idea when the right time to use it is.

Edit: And I'm OK with that. I'm just going after every Master Seal I can and sticking with the straight upgrade route. Working well so far.

Actually, the Second Seal is similar to how you'd change classes in FFT or FFTA to pick up skills from other classes. FE:A has that system of learning skills that you can turn on or off. Things like +5 Agility, or the ability to move a second time after defeating an enemy. That second one is the one that stands out the most. You get it by being one of the Pegasus Rider classes. I tried to cycle as many characters as possible through the Pegasus Rider classes so they would pick up the ability to get extra turns.

That's more or less what I figured although I didn't think there were skills that powerful. Oops. My main concern was resetting at level 1 since it appears you don't keep your stat gains.

You usually keep most of the stat gains and you also get to learn the new skills. Second Seals are mostly useful for nabbing a skill that's really specifically useful (multiple turns per character, once again) or for changing to a class that's a better fit for what your team composition needs.

Permadeath has the unfortunate side-effect of making me second-guess every decision that I'm making. I get a bit paralyzed sometimes from worrying.

I believe I have three battles left. I'm really glad they added the Casual mode. I think without it's unlikely I would have made it all the way through the campaign, mostly for the reason Clock just posted. That said, I think they made a mistake by separating the permadeath option from difficulty. From what I can tell, the difficulty is likely balanced for Classic mode and just removing permadeath from the game makes the difficulty way too easy. I know you can just play on Hard/Casual instead, but I think rebalancing for the lack of permadeath would have been wonderful.

And I'm done. 25 hours, which goes to show how easy Normal/Casual is.

Grats. How many chapters are there? And of course, did you like it?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Grats. How many chapters are there? And of course, did you like it?

25 actual chapters, not counting prologue, paralogues, etc. I liked it a lot. If I didn't also own Shadow Dragon I'd probably be starting a Classic play through already but I think I'll give the DS game another try instead.

Is there some easy way to find out where to re-purchase broken weapons? Having to run all over the world and enter every shop gets kind of tiresome, but I feel like I must be missing something.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Is there some easy way to find out where to re-purchase broken weapons? Having to run all over the world and enter every shop gets kind of tiresome, but I feel like I must be missing something.

Lower left of the touch screen is a button that turns on a preview of the store. Still running around the map but you don't have to actually enter each store.

Weapons break? Is that what the number next to them means? Good to know.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Weapons break? Is that what the number next to them means? Good to know. :)

Yeah the best is when you find out they break in the middle of a long battle and your guy has no backup weapons, so they spend the rest of the battle running around in circles unable to attack.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Weapons break? Is that what the number next to them means? Good to know. :)

Yup. That's how many uses they have left. I think I actively replaced one weapon the whole time though. Between upgrades and found weapons I never felt compelled to find and replace a specific weapon. I always had something as good or better on hand. I also never sold my old weapons, which might have helped.

SixteenBlue wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Weapons break? Is that what the number next to them means? Good to know. :)

Yup. That's how many uses they have left. I think I actively replaced one weapon the whole time though. Between upgrades and found weapons I never felt compelled to find and replace a specific weapon. I always had something as good or better on hand. I also never sold my old weapons, which might have helped.

You obviously didn't use the Glass weapons.

ahrezmendi wrote:
SixteenBlue wrote:
ClockworkHouse wrote:

Weapons break? Is that what the number next to them means? Good to know. :)

Yup. That's how many uses they have left. I think I actively replaced one weapon the whole time though. Between upgrades and found weapons I never felt compelled to find and replace a specific weapon. I always had something as good or better on hand. I also never sold my old weapons, which might have helped.

You obviously didn't use the Glass weapons. :D

Oh haha true. I broke them but never replaced. That's probably a side effect of Normal/Casual. Didn't need to.

Optimize takes durability into account so I rarely even started battles with weapons that could break in the battle.

I'm considering replaying this game again. It'd be my third time through the campaign. Hard/Classic or Lunatic?

Probably the latter. Hard ends up being a cakewalk once you get past the first half-dozen missions.

I've heard only bad things about the difficulty levels beyond Lunatic. Another thing I could do is challenge the DLC, which I hadn't bothered with before.

This game has me itchy to repurchase Devil Survivor Overclocked. Curse you, SixteenBlue, for pointing out how similar they are!

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This game has me itchy to repurchase Devil Survivor Overclocked. Curse you, SixteenBlue, for pointing out how similar they are!

Uh-oh, that's dangerous for me too.

ClockworkHouse wrote:

This game has me itchy to repurchase Devil Survivor Overclocked. Curse you, SixteenBlue, for pointing out how similar they are!

Buy it back! Buy it back! Buy it back!

...ow, ow, wait a minute, is it really *$40* on the eShop?! I don't think it was $40 even when it came out was it? http://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/tKDJ7tyZ-olVhVBW9mswLhlRxJr0mcZG