Fire Emblem: Awakening

chairkicker wrote:
Dyni wrote:

Alright, thanks for the info. I think I'll grab one of those two packs to see how I like it and proceed from there.

Awesome. If you do, note the difficulty levels for the maps... The Scramble Pack ones are pretty easy, and the Future Past maps are among the hardest. (And DLC difficulty scales way past anything you'll find on the critical path to the end credits.)

Thankfully, I thought to look up the difficulties before purchasing, so I went ahead and grabbed the Scramble Pack first. I haven't played them yet.

Is it worth it to reclass after getting max level?

For example, I got Miriel to a lvl 20 Sage, so she has no where to advance to. Will her stat gains continue if I second seal her back to something else and start again or is that not worth it?

Squee9 wrote:

Is it worth it to reclass after getting max level?

For example, I got Miriel to a lvl 20 Sage, so she has no where to advance to. Will her stat gains continue if I second seal her back to something else and start again or is that not worth it?

Yes. She'll start as level 1 in the new class. There is a limit to stat gain. Something around like 80 in various categories, if I remember right. But you can keep leveling and reclassing this way.

Can you do that with your Tactician, or am I just done leveling him?

All the skills you gain from previous classes you keep and can equip. So it's really nice to have a warrior, for example, be able to use Lethality. The children get a leg up because they start with skills inherited from parents.

Fedaykin98 wrote:

Can you do that with your Tactician, or am I just done leveling him?

You can Master Seal him into a Grandmaster or Second Seal into other classes. Grandmaster gets Ignis, which is one of the better skills in the game.

muttonchop wrote:
Fedaykin98 wrote:

Can you do that with your Tactician, or am I just done leveling him?

You can Master Seal him into a Grandmaster or Second Seal into other classes. Grandmaster gets Ignis, which is one of the better skills in the game.

Yeah. I would Master Seal to Grandmaster and then Second Seal to another class. In all my runs through the game (I'm on my 3rd) I've used a female lead character. I've always taken her through the Pegasus class progressions (all of them). You have time enough to do this in the game and you should gain some amazing skills in the process. The most deadly is that one of them (I think the Dark Flier) has an ability called Galeforce. This allows them to make two moves per turn if they deliver the finishing blow to an enemy. So you can start to min/max your abilities in that way and master the game a bit more.

Out of curiosity, does the game ever actually explain the Master Seal/Second Seal mechanics? I keep reading about them, and they seem confusing. I haven't gotten super far in the game (chapter 6?), and I think I've only found one or two of the things yet, so maybe they just haven't gotten to the point where they teach you how they work.

Chaz wrote:

Out of curiosity, does the game ever actually explain the Master Seal/Second Seal mechanics? I keep reading about them, and they seem confusing. I haven't gotten super far in the game (chapter 6?), and I think I've only found one or two of the things yet, so maybe they just haven't gotten to the point where they teach you how they work.

Yep, it's introduced pretty well as you go along. (Around chapter 12, I believe?) For now, don't sweat it, and any seals you've gotten so far will be very nice to have around when the time is right. As long as you don't have characters at level 20 yet, you don't need to worry about them.

Cool, thanks. I wasn't sure if this was one of those JRPG systems that gets glossed over in-game and requires internettin' to figure out how it works.

Chaz wrote:

Cool, thanks. I wasn't sure if this was one of those JRPG systems that gets glossed over in-game and requires internettin' to figure out how it works.

Nah. I just hit chapter 12 myself, and it has all been pretty easy to follow.

So I'm at about chapter five in the game, but I'd like to get my broke ass some new equipment. I haven't figured out how you gain money in this game yet. In fact, I'm basically going in blind. I'll likely do some googling during work today in order to figure out some of the game's basics.

But I really like the relationships system. It really has me thinking about how I want characters to line up and interact. However, there are some things that I'm just not following. How come the secondary character also attacks some times, but most often they do not? Are there every pairings such as flanking/pincer attacks? Do I really want to try unlocking all these bonus spotpass things that came out of nowhere?

And why couldn't I have a subtitle option before selecting "new game", and how come the English "Voice 2" option for the female sounds deeper and thus more fitting for my character while the Japanese "Voice 2" sounds like she's a 15 year-old kawaii-desu lolicon character?

Not that it really matters much. Just awfully awkward.

ccesarano wrote:

But I really like the relationships system. It really has me thinking about how I want characters to line up and interact. However, there are some things that I'm just not following. How come the secondary character also attacks some times, but most often they do not? Are there every pairings such as flanking/pincer attacks? Do I really want to try unlocking all these bonus spotpass things that came out of nowhere?

The better the supporting person's relationship is to the attacker, the more impressive the bonuses they give to (including % chance for the free hit).

Beyond that, the closest FE A gets to flanking/etc. is that there are many character abilities that provide a boost within some small radius. Those are pretty fun to play with as you get a little further in to the campaign.

As for the Streetpass and Spotpass stuff, are you talking about the random encounters that show up on the map, or the paralogues that appear after you set up Spotpass for the game? The latter are all endgame content that can show on the world map anytime, but aren't accessible until the end.

So I'm about 25 hours or so in and just replayed a paralogue what feels like ten-thousand times, yet the game was still fun.

I'm really not sure what to make of this game or my play style half the time. It started out quite difficult with lots of restarts, and then other times I'm just plowing through the battlefield. Sometimes a character dies and I say "f*ck IT!", other times I reset because nope nope nope nope nope. Sometimes I find the gameplay boring or tedious, other times invigorating.

I've never bounced across the board so often for one game.

However, I did get my first married couple:

Spoiler:

Vaike and Miriel, of all pairs.

ccesarano wrote:

So I'm about 25 hours or so in and just replayed a paralogue what feels like ten-thousand times, yet the game was still fun.

I'm really not sure what to make of this game or my play style half the time. It started out quite difficult with lots of restarts, and then other times I'm just plowing through the battlefield. Sometimes a character dies and I say "f*ck IT!", other times I reset because nope nope nope nope nope. Sometimes I find the gameplay boring or tedious, other times invigorating.

I've never bounced across the board so often for one game.

However, I did get my first married couple:

Spoiler:

Vaike and Miriel, of all pairs.

About the marriage - heh. In my playthrough, it was something about as unlikely:

Miriel and Libra

.

I just started replaying Fire Emblem Awakening for the *fourth* time and it's still fun. Really feels different each time - with different pairings/children, and by taking characters through different classes as they level up.

Hard/Classic this time. Lunatic was aggressively unfun last playthrough.

Alright I'm trying this again. Now that I finished Mario 3D Land I needed something to consistently play on the 3DS.

Going to try hard/casual. I know I will reset too much and become frustrated with any variation of Classic, like I did the first time I tried to play this 6-7 months ago.

I did load up my old save file and give it a try but it has been too long and I'd rather restart the story anyway. Plus Sully died the first mission I tried. I did notice one thing though... the streetpasses I had had some really nice items and heroes but holy crap they were expensive.

So thinking I might want to grab that one DLC map for earning money. Since I'm in a high streetpass environment I'd like to take advantage of some of that, but it appears the only way to do so will be grinding for a lot of cash. Anybody else have that map? Agree it's worth the $2.50?

I have that DLC. It is a good way to make money!

Overall I found it less fun than the other ways to get money (by fighting the Streetpass teams and other random encounters). There are also some items and skills that you can develop to help get more bullion.

So I haven't used it much, but it does what it says on the tin. (Ditto the "e-z experience" map.) The weapons DLC is different from these two - some interesting combat challenge, and very fun writing.

So I had wondered before why sometimes I'll see the hearts between two characters after combat and other times I won't. I figured all characters were essentially compatible, and there was simply some requirement I wasn't fulfilling that I also wasn't aware of.

Turns out that requirement was the characters even have the option to develop a relationship.

I must confess, that makes things simultaneously more interesting and more frustrating than I had originally thought, and it would explain why I have so few characters past a C-grade relationship, if they have a grade at all. So I already decided I'll grind a bit to build levels, cash, and relationships, but now I have further planning and plotting to work on. It really makes your approach to combat change, but it's also so much information to keep track of I wish they still had relationships between characters even if they don't have cut-scenes.

Scouring through this thread and back on Page 11 I found these, relating to pair ups:

DSGamer wrote:
Chaz wrote:
AndrewA wrote:
Chaz wrote:

Means that accidentally positioning a single guy inside the attack radius (I sometimes have a hard time seeing it on the map) can result in someone being dead before you can adjust.

Use the highlight functionality on the most dangerous enemies, and avoid getting in their way.

Also: pairing up your units really helps survivability, and the synergies that you develop become really powerful as you play.

I guess I need to refresh myself on how pairing works. It's not like I can have Unit A be the primary and attack someone, then swap to the stronger Unit B for the enemy's turn so he can take the hits, right?

No. But if you pair the other member of the pair will frequently step in to defend or counterattack. The whole pairing / relationship / children system was designed really well and really thoroughly thought-out. It all reinforces other parts of the system to encourage you to pair characters up.

imbiginjapan wrote:

I was referring to actually pairing them.... in which case only one gets to attack, and gains the majority of the experience. This isn't so bad in the long haul so long as you rotate who is primary in the pairing as you play through different battles.

I think - but don't have confirmation - that actually pairing the units (as opposed to having them adjacent) gives better bonuses and a higher chance for the secondary character to deflect all damage from attacks. It certainly FEELS that way.... but even if I'm wrong, having units actually paired certainly makes the logistics of keeping them together and thus getting bonuses a heck of a lot easier.

Definitely what I was looking for. I've barely used Pair Up because when I first tried it, I was frustrated that one unit isn't getting XP, and it feels like a waste. But the bonus of keeping the other unit alive, and the extra support bonuses probably means I should try it more. And I guess as their relationship goes up the chance for them to both attack goes up too, so maybe they will both get xp?

Did you guys try to pair up the same characters on every map to build their relationship? Should I be thinking about future marriages and working on those supports through the pair up system? And also, did you find times to unpair them during battle, or just switch if you needed the other one to attack? Pairing and unpairing taking up a whole turn has also frustrated me and kept me from using it.

My approach was to plan out relationships ahead of time, and then pair those characters up all the time. I rarely used un-paired characters unless a particular map makes you take an odd number.

The way I see it, two paired units is basically one super-unit. You can switch them as needed to take advantage of different strengths and weaknesses, and you also have two health bars to burn through before you have to worry about anyone dying. Support bonuses and double-attacks also mean you can pump a ton of damage out of a single attack. Plus, some maps have a lot of chokepoints or limited space so fewer units can be advantageous.

Also, your support ranks will increase a lot faster since those two units will always be supporting one another, so you don't have to worry about some other adjacent friendly unit supporting one of them instead.

That all sounds good. So I'm not crazy to be planning out S-rank relationships 5 chapters before I have access to children then.

Finally got my first Master Seal tonight. Not sure if I should use it on MU or Chrom first, but both just hit level 15 or so and I'm starting to get antsy about them sucking up too much XP.

Interesting. I generally feel like pairing them up actually puts me at a disadvantage due to fewer units available. Then again, if I paired Stahl up with someone in that last battle he might still be alive.

Poor Stahl.

Stele wrote:

That all sounds good. So I'm not crazy to be planning out S-rank relationships 5 chapters before I have access to children then.

Finally got my first Master Seal tonight. Not sure if I should use it on MU or Chrom first, but both just hit level 15 or so and I'm starting to get antsy about them sucking up too much XP.

I fell into the pairs, honestly. And I kind of liked that. Outside of pairing Chrom and the main character with someone different on my second play through I never thought about it. I just let it happen organically, which created like an organic secondary narrative to me.

Later in the game I'd things like strategically pair pegasus characters. Or throughout the game I would place every weaker character with a stronger character. But the relationships were all organic.

Stele wrote:

I've barely used Pair Up because when I first tried it, I was frustrated that one unit isn't getting XP, and it feels like a waste. But the bonus of keeping the other unit alive, and the extra support bonuses probably means I should try it more. And I guess as their relationship goes up the chance for them to both attack goes up too, so maybe they will both get xp?

I felt exactly the same when I started playing, but if you develop specific relationships enough, you'll realize how much more powerful they are together. Eventually, it will be a rarity for them to not both attack in the same turn, so that loss in power you dreaded isn't actually there. That's on top of the bonus stats, extra mobility, and chance to guard their partner.

OK let me make sure I have this Second Seal/Master Seal right. 3 main questions highlighted in bold.

As usual there are Basic and Advanced classes. Like basic class Cavalier, which branches into two advanced classes, either Paladin or Great Knight.

Ok, so once you reach level 10 in a Basic Class, all the way up to the max of 20, you can use a Master Seal to change to either of the Advanced Classes available. Right?

Now Second Seals let you chance from one class to a different class in another tree. So if you're a Cavalier, but want to change to Myrmidon and keep using swords, you can do that anytime after level 10 in the Basic Class. Right?

I think I'm clear on those. What I'm confused about is when you are already an Advanced Class, and use a Second Seal. If I'm reading correctly, if you are between level 1-9 of the Advanced Class, you can only Second Seal to a Basic Class? But if you are level 10-20 of an Advanced Class, you can change to another Advanced Class and not have to go through the Basic? Right?

Just popped my first couple Master Seals as Sumia, Chrom, and MU all maxed out at level 20. And I got lucky with some Master Seals being for sale at Anna shops, and bought a couple off of StreetPass teams as well. So I've still got some to spare, as well as a few Second Seals from StreetPass teams too. Just trying to plan ahead and figure out what I want to do with skills, aside from obvious things like getting Galeforce when I can.

Specifically I was thinking about units like Lissa and Maribelle. I could promote them with Master Seals, so that I can keep using them as healers, and then use a Second Seal to make them straight into Dark Flier (Pegasus Adv. Class), for Galeforce, right? There's no need to switch them to Basic Pegasus Knight, lose the staff abilities, and then level up that way right?

Just trying to wrap my head around these skills. Not even sure if I really need it for Hard. Probably more of a Lunatic thing. But I'm also not sure how many times I will replay this and just want to explore a lot of things on this first run.

I almost used a second class for someone that was already a Master Class, figured I'd specialize them further. Problem was, too many of their stats went down, way down. It's not like second classing basic units. The Master classes are very specialized, so swapping between the two completely shifts your specialties.

I think the intention is basic classes get second-classed, obtain awesome abilities, and then are mastered into something entirely awesome.

I kept my characters paired for 99% of the game. The bonuses your characters get are outrageous, especially at S-rank, and can turn your characters in to death machines that take almost no damage. By the last half dozen chapters I had three or four pairs that I could plop in the middle of an enemy group, and the enemies would all kill themselves attacking my pair.

The speed bonus meant I was always double striking, the high chance of partner blocks and defense bonus meant I was taking little damage, and the partner strikes and damage bonus meant they were laying waste to enemy soldiers with abandon.

My Soldiers were much more effective once I started pairing them.

Sounds like I need to start setting up some arranged marriages pairs when I get back to playing this.

ccesarano wrote:

So I had wondered before why sometimes I'll see the hearts between two characters after combat and other times I won't. I figured all characters were essentially compatible, and there was simply some requirement I wasn't fulfilling that I also wasn't aware of.

Turns out that requirement was the characters even have the option to develop a relationship.

I must confess, that makes things simultaneously more interesting and more frustrating than I had originally thought, and it would explain why I have so few characters past a C-grade relationship, if they have a grade at all. So I already decided I'll grind a bit to build levels, cash, and relationships, but now I have further planning and plotting to work on. It really makes your approach to combat change, but it's also so much information to keep track of I wish they still had relationships between characters even if they don't have cut-scenes.

This is my least favorite thing about the game's user interface.

How are you supposed to know which pairings build relationships and which ones don't? You can watch closely during the combat and remember, but this requires you to do the wrong thing a lot and to pay very close attention. You can look at the relationships menu for each individual character -- but that's a giant pain. There seems to be no efficient route to this information. No?