Fire Emblem: Awakening

Yeah that's as traditional to FE games as permadeath. Always an advanced class to trick you.

I've probably said this before, but I'll say it again since we have new peeps here. A good technique is to take someone like Frederick and strip him of all of his weapons. The way the game calculates damage is based on comparing weapons. So someone as overpowered as Frederick, without weapons, will generally take little to no damage. So a fun technique is to send him out to draw the attention of enemies and then pick them off. Eventually you stop using the "Frederick" character, but I've done this in every Fire Emblem I've played. Don't remember the names of the characters, but every Fire Emblem has one. Frederick is actually less OP than past iterations of his ilk.

I made it back to Chapter 12 now, on classic/normal. I definitely took the advice of leaving Frederick on the bench, while I levelled up other characters. Now they're all pretty badass, especially that farmer kid… love him.

Onward and upward!

I also read that I should save the Master Seal to use on characters that have reached level 20, and not earlier, correct? I guess that allows them to max out their attributes before changing to an advanced class?

gamerparent wrote:

I made it back to Chapter 12 now, on classic/normal. I definitely took the advice of leaving Frederick on the bench, while I levelled up other characters. Now they're all pretty badass, especially that farmer kid… love him.

Onward and upward!

I also read that I should save the Master Seal to use on characters that have reached level 20, and not earlier, correct? I guess that allows them to max out their attributes before changing to an advanced class?

I'm open to being proven wrong, but I actually disagree with that school of thought. I don't think many abilities get added after level 15. And the abilities are bigger modifiers than the pure stats. Sure, you can min/max someone better that way, but in the same time you're going from level 15 - 20 you could be adding abilities from another class after using a Second Seal. I found it much more valuable to go bonkers with Second Seals and cycle all female characters I could through Pegasus Knights, etc.

Hard/Classic is hard. I can see where you just let guys die in order to move on. I'm on Chapter 3 or something. I've failed the battle

Spoiler:

outside the Barbarians' fortress

around four times.

On the upside, playing this game makes my recumbent bike workout fly by.

Soooo... If I have to eliminate either Hard or Classic, which one should it be? Dudes keep dying on me!

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Soooo... If I have to eliminate either Hard or Classic, which one should it be? Dudes keep dying on me!

I would play it on Normal. I beat it the first time (veteran of the series and all) on Normal/Classic. Only then did I play Hard/Classic.

Based on the descriptions, I can't really tell the difference between Master and Second seals. Is that for a second class change or something?

Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Based on the descriptions, I can't really tell the difference between Master and Second seals. Is that for a second class change or something?

Basically, yes. Master seal is for upgrading a character into a subclass of the current class. So Lord to Great Lord, etc. Second Seal is for switching entirely into an unrelated class. Making a Swordmaster into a Wyvern Knight or something like that.

DSGamer wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Based on the descriptions, I can't really tell the difference between Master and Second seals. Is that for a second class change or something?

Basically, yes. Master seal is for upgrading a character into a subclass of the current class. So Lord to Great Lord, etc. Second Seal is for switching entirely into an unrelated class. Making a Swordmaster into a Wyvern Knight or something like that.

Ah ok gotcha. I feel like Ill need a second play-through to fully enjoy the mechanics side of this game. This is basically my first SRPG that I've played for more than a few minutes.

Warriorpoet897 wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
Warriorpoet897 wrote:

Based on the descriptions, I can't really tell the difference between Master and Second seals. Is that for a second class change or something?

Basically, yes. Master seal is for upgrading a character into a subclass of the current class. So Lord to Great Lord, etc. Second Seal is for switching entirely into an unrelated class. Making a Swordmaster into a Wyvern Knight or something like that.

Ah ok gotcha. I feel like Ill need a second play-through to fully enjoy the mechanics side of this game. This is basically my first SRPG that I've played for more than a few minutes.

Oh yeah, then that makes sense. This is my... 15th? I don't know. Also my 4th Fire Emblem.

Okay, someone explain to me how I'm supposed to understand this game.

I turned the difficulty down to Normal/Classic, but I still can't get through a battle without someone dying. I understand that's part of the history of the series, but I'm not used to it. Do I just let them die? Do I just hope it's not someone of much use to the story?

This is so different than any game experience I've had before. And I'm only just past the early mission where you battle with your northern neighbors to prove your earnestness. And Frederick died on that one! I let him, since y'all said he isn't good in the long term.

I think you'd be better off on casual for now, until you get what's going on. It is the same here with me, I never played FE before, and I didn't really get how to properly choose who to send to attack, who to hold back, and who would be better to attack which unit until I slogged through maybe 8 or 9 battles. I couldn't have done it without being on casual because I'd just lose everybody.

I learned early on that sword beats axe, and axe beats lance, and lance beats sword. The triangle of weapons.

What I haven't quite figured out is how much damage someone is going to take from whom / what yet. I am often surprised by an encounter that I think will go my way, but ends up my unit dies.

I ended up getting to about Chapter 13 on casual before restarting and doing it all again (!) on Classic. So fun, though, and it was totally worth replaying, in my opinion.

ADDN'L: I think Frederick is great, just not early on. Now that everyone else is around his level, ie. reached level 20 and used Master Seal to promote to an advanced class, he's awesome to have around.

Yeah, it's just a tough game. No shame in dialing back the difficulty until you sort it out. Once the system clicks with you, play it on a harder difficulty and the challenge is super fun.

One thing to think about, just as a general tip: make sure your squad makes the most of equipment. Give people the best weapons you have in the skills they're best at, and don't be afraid to use any more powerful/smaller use cap weapons you find.

Also, consider pairing people up if you haven't been. Characters who've had more support conversations will give one another increasing meaningful supports and bonuses when paired up. I feel like most of the maps in Awakening can be played with most/all units paired, or with few to none paired.

Hold up, Frederick just appeared in a cutscene, even though he's dead. Huh?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Hold up, Frederick just appeared in a cutscene, even though he's dead. Huh?

Yep! Watch the dialogue/etc. when somebody dies. If they're plot-relevant, they'll say some variation on "I've been critically hit, I can't fight anymore!" -- just so they can chime in when the story requires.

The other thing to remember is to probe at the enemy and not rush in. Not saying you're doing this, but it's easy to lose even your strongest character if you leave them hanging in the middle of a battle where they're exposed to too much damage and maybe an enemy with a high crit level. It's a lot more strategic, closer to Advance Wars than FFTA, IMO.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Okay, someone explain to me how I'm supposed to understand this game.

It's really just a complicated version of rock paper scissor, but you know what the other person is going to throw. If you have a scissor and they are facing a strong rock, or more than one rock, they're probably toast. Eventually your characters become less fragile and can risk a little more, but the strongest Pegasus Knight can still get one-shotted by a lowly archer.

Positioning is a huge part of the game. It's usually a good idea to move your people in formations, so they don't get ganged up on in a given round. If you're facing a lot of short-range characters, a solid line will keep any of them from being attacked more than once in a round. If there are issues with ranged enemies, box them in so they can't target any of the adjacent characters.

Honestly, no way in hell would I have played classic if this had been my first FE game. I struggled a lot playing hard/classic with five of them under my belt. Try normal/casual, there's no shame in it.

Blind_Evil has good advice. Also, don't forget the X button. This shows you the attack range of the entire enemy side, allowing you to poke and prod at the enemy.

Good tips. I just finished the

Spoiler:

Assassination attempt

mission. Lost Kellam and Panne. Gonna try to just accept it and move on.

Blind_Evil wrote:

Positioning is a huge part of the game. It's usually a good idea to move your people in formations, so they don't get ganged up on in a given round. If you're facing a lot of short-range characters, a solid line will keep any of them from being attacked more than once in a round. If there are issues with ranged enemies, box them in so they can't target any of the adjacent characters.

I'm much less experienced than Blind_Evil, but attention to pairing up and positioning has really paid off for me. I also load everyone up with healing items and am careful about where I locate healers. Using the X button to toggle on enemy range is essential. It makes me much more deliberate about my strategy.

The battle bonuses and support conversations as the characters build relationships is a nice bridge between the strategy and story elements of the game.

Keeping characters alive means you get to

Spoiler:

meet their children! Worth it.

Oh yeah. I paired 99% of the time.

I will try to figure out pairing up. Anyone want to tell me how we feel about forging?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

I will try to figure out pairing up. Anyone want to tell me how we feel about forging?

I didn't do it once. Maybe that was a mistake but it just didn't seem worth it to me.

Another tip for the pile is it's not always bad to keep "bad" weapons, even going so far as unequipping characters in some situations; it can get very ugly if a character repeatedly kills any enemy that attacks them, leaving room for another enemy to attack.

SixteenBlue wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

I will try to figure out pairing up. Anyone want to tell me how we feel about forging?

I didn't do it once. Maybe that was a mistake but it just didn't seem worth it to me.

It's something that gets more important as you play on difficulties that approximate the other Fire Emblem games. On Hard/Classic you still don't really *need* to forge, but it's a great way to harden up a character or help them gain weapon skills they're lacking (by making the crappy weapons they can use slightly better).

Yeah. I would forge weapons or use things like seriph (sp?) robes to boost weak characters. I would buy these above all else and use them liberally to make sure weaker characters like the Pegasus Knights were able of withstanding a few mistakes.

Any of y'all seen the Fire Emblem anime from many years back? Worth hunting down?

I'm so loving this game right now, and the fantastic, first-quality anime scenes that I want more in a similar vein. In fact, I realized that I'm already overdue to finish watching one anime show that might pair well with Fire Emblem: Scrapped Princess.

Please, help!

Spoiler:

I'm at Chapter 21, 5 Stones, and I can't figure out why my units are attacking each other, and what I can do about it?

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Any of y'all seen the Fire Emblem anime from many years back? Worth hunting down?

I'm so loving this game right now, and the fantastic, first-quality anime scenes that I want more in a similar vein. In fact, I realized that I'm already overdue to finish watching one anime show that might pair well with Fire Emblem: Scrapped Princess.

None of the prior games hold a candle to Awakening in terms of presentation. Or anything else, really. And most of the old ones run from kind-of to very expensive.