Fire Emblem: Awakening

OK, holy cow, I love this game. I want to buy some DLC for some unknown reason. Any recommendations? I'm thinking the Golden Gaffe just so I can make money and stuff, but maybe that breaks the game too much?

I got 3 sets:

The Golden Pack (includes the Golden Gaffe)
Champions of Yore
The Scramble Pack

I checked out the content of all of them before I bought them on Serenes Forest or either of the 2 Fire Emblem wikis. I am definitely a noob when it comes to this game, so the pack that includes EXPonential Growth was really attractive. I got the other two because they were rated as easier, meaning good for lower character development. They also have some nice connections to characters in earlier Fire Emblem games or more character dialogue, something I've really enjoyed. I'm going to wait until I finish the game proper before I look at the more difficult DLC content.

The Scramble Pack is the best of the bunch, IMO. It gives you a couple of extra maps which feature LOTS of new dialogue between various sets of characters.

Augh, I just discovered that I missed out on recruiting Tharja. (And who knows who else I killed instead of talking to)

Should I restart the game, or just try on the next play through?

gamerparent wrote:

Augh, I just discovered that I missed out on recruiting Tharja. (And who knows who else I killed instead of talking to)

Should I restart the game, or just try on the next play through? :(

I guess that depends on what is important to you. After the first few chapters where I was getting my bearings I just played through and just accepted any consequences (Classic/Normal).

While I tried to use wikis to understand skills and items I avoided looking walkthroughs so I wouldn't get the feeling of having missed something. I lost a lot of characters by the end but still had plenty for the final battle, and still have plenty of interactions left for another playthrough if I want.

Thanks. I started on Casual/Normal, and I think I'm getting the hang of things now, but I'm at about Chapter 13. I might just restart on Classic/Normal in a new save slot and see. It shouldn't take too long now that I know what I'm doing, I think. In any case, I'm really enjoying the game, so I don't mind restarting.

Generally I would say don't restart as that's part of the game. I know I missed out some people in a similar way. But, man, Tharja is awesome.

Personally, I'd just keep going. You're not gonna get or see everything in Awakening in one playthrough.

The reason to restart now would be if you're not finding any challenge since you've figured the game out.

The campaign only ets easier as it goes along, and the second half seems a lot faster than the first (IMO) (although there is way more "extra" stuff to do towards the end).

Like my father-in-law says: whatever you do is right.

I'm restarting now, and just speeding through and skipping everything, so it's going fast through the stuff I've already seen. Got to Chapter 3 in about 20 minutes.

I'm about to play this game. I was thinking about doing Normal/Casual since I don't have a lot of time and don't want to be frustrated. Would you guys recommend this difficulty setting? Never played a Fire Emblem game before.

I'm about to play this game. I was thinking about doing Normal/Casual since I don't have a lot of time and don't want to be frustrated. Would you guys recommend this difficulty setting? Never played a Fire Emblem game before.

I really enjoyed the game on Normal/Casual. I think it's a great change to the game and perfect for a situation like yours. If you enjoy it enough you can start over mid game or play it again on a harder difficulty. The style of play is so different between Normal/Casual and Hard/Classic that it's not tiresome to play the game again. It's a whole new game.

I am at Grimleal now. Haven't had too much time over Christmas, but managed a few sessions. It really is very different playing on Classic, but also frustrating as anything when you lose a unit right at the end. L-R-Start has become my most used button combo now.

gamerparent wrote:

I'm restarting now, and just speeding through and skipping everything, so it's going fast through the stuff I've already seen. Got to Chapter 3 in about 20 minutes.

I had to restart because I lost my game card and bought a digital copy. I made sure I got Donnel and Tharja this time around. Normal/Casual has been a really good choice for me since this is the first Fire Emblem game I've played. I needed to be able to figure out the gameplay without the restarts and frustration that would have come with Classic mode. Otherwise I may well have stopped playing, and that really would have been a shame.

I just downloaded this game this morning! I haven't played basically any Fire Emblem before, but have played plenty of FFT-style tactics games and a bit of this style as well. Like others, I'm looking for difficulty suggestions. I'm tempted to pick some form of Classic, but I'm not sure. Thoughts?

Played about 2 hours of this surprisingly with work, Christmas, other games. I am enjoying the hell out of it. It's fun. Graphics is old school with a mix of battle scenes and cutscenes. The thing I'm really impressed with is how fast the loading is. Compared to Animal Crossing which has a lot of bs button pushes (like leaving the recycling store, why does that person have to say thank you?)

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I just downloaded this game this morning! I haven't played basically any Fire Emblem before, but have played plenty of FFT-style tactics games and a bit of this style as well. Like others, I'm looking for difficulty suggestions. I'm tempted to pick some form of Classic, but I'm not sure. Thoughts?

Having played a decent number of SRPGs but no Fire Emblem games, I started on Hard Classic and enjoyed it.

Balthezor wrote:

Played about 2 hours of this surprisingly with work, Christmas, other games. I am enjoying the hell out of it. It's fun. Graphics is old school with a mix of battle scenes and cutscenes. The thing I'm really impressed with is how fast the loading is. Compared to Animal Crossing which has a lot of bs button pushes (like leaving the recycling store, why does that person have to say thank you?)

It's Japanese, they're being polite.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

People dont say thank you when you leave a store in Pennsylvania?

People are jerks here.

Definitely play on classic.

People don't say thank you when you leave a store in Pennsylvania?

Started a game on Hard/Classic. Hopefully that doesn't send me home crying.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Started a game on Hard/Classic. Hopefully that doesn't send me home crying.

Just finished hard/classic the other day. What a great game. It was kinda sad to see certain characters die, they did a great job making you feel attached to each one.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Started a game on Hard/Classic. Hopefully that doesn't send me home crying.

For me I found that Hard/Classic meant I had to be more careful and strategic. And I had to be willing to let go of a couple of characters.

It also meant I used every tool in my arsenal (random encounters, min/maxing items that improve character attributes, etc.) to get by.

So, Classic means permanent death, except that you can immediately reset with LR Start, or reload a previous save? I'm trying to understand how this all works. My model for difficulty and permanent consequences is Dark Souls, which overwrites your save whenever anything notable happens.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

So, Classic means permanent death, except that you can immediately reset with LR Start, or reload a previous save? I'm trying to understand how this all works. My model for difficulty and permanent consequences is Dark Souls, which overwrites your save whenever anything notable happens.

Yep. Playing Classic generally means I will be resetting a lot.

But permadeath is kind of a staple of the Fire Emblem series so...

Fedaykin98 wrote:

So, Classic means permanent death, except that you can immediately reset with LR Start, or reload a previous save? I'm trying to understand how this all works. My model for difficulty and permanent consequences is Dark Souls, which overwrites your save whenever anything notable happens.

Correct, but you can only save at the start of a battle, so reloading to save someone means starting the fight over. So you can't save scum your way through combat turn by turn. At least, that's how I played it.

(Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure the suspend saves you do mid-battle are deleted when they're loaded.)

ClockworkHouse wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

So, Classic means permanent death, except that you can immediately reset with LR Start, or reload a previous save? I'm trying to understand how this all works. My model for difficulty and permanent consequences is Dark Souls, which overwrites your save whenever anything notable happens.

Correct, but you can only save at the start of a battle, so reloading to save someone means starting the fight over. So you can't save scum your way through combat turn by turn. At least, that's how I played it.

(Someone correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure the suspend saves you do mid-battle are deleted when they're loaded.)

Sounds right to me. Doubtless there are battles later in the game that are big and tough enough that one would rather lose a character and win than reset and start all over, but I'm not there yet.

I lost Stahl in his first battle and reset, for reference.

Also, Frederick is a beast!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Also, Frederick is a beast!

Conventional veteran wisdom would tell you to ditch him. All the FE games have a starting character like him, who begins in an advance class. The problem is these characters traditionally don't grow very well in terms of stats, and if you overuse him he'll suck up all the experience.

I don't think it's that big a deal, but it's worth noting.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Also, Frederick is a beast!

Conventional veteran wisdom would tell you to ditch him. All the FE games have a starting character like him, who begins in an advance class. The problem is these characters traditionally don't grow very well in terms of stats, and if you overuse him he'll suck up all the experience.

I don't think it's that big a deal, but it's worth noting.

This is also my experience with Frederick. Some of the weaker characters will become absolute beasts if you protect them as you level them up.