
So I went back and read the previous translations of Serenes Forest, and am still making my way through this big one, and I got some thoughts going through my mind. Firstly, this conversation makes me laugh.
I hear boys seem to prefer cute, normal girls over stunning beauties. But isn’t it like how dukes are always above viscounts? What do you think, teacher?>It’s hard to approach those superior to you.
>Nothing really matters at the end of the day.
>You’d get bored eating fine cuisine everyday.
That's supposed to be one of those moments a student asks you a question and if you give the "right answer", good things will happen. On a very base level I kind of hate the mentality of this approach, but now I'm tempted to just be the awful Professor telling students "Nothing really matters at the end of the day".
The funny thing is, this is all described as being like Persona even in the Serenes Forest translation, and I suppose I understand why since that's the most recent mainstream RPG to have those mechanics. But as I'm reading the calendar information I'm thinking about Harvest Moon, the first time I encountered social mechanics mixed into a calendar with limited time in the day. I would later learn in high school when I tried my first (and I think last) dating sim that Harvest Moon was certainly not the inventor of such mechanics.
Given that I came in with Awakening and never minded the social element, I have mixed feelings here. On one hand, it looks like the social mechanics will be better than Fates, but better and good do not always go hand-in-hand. I imagine that question I quoted isn't far too different from other games of this nature, but I still don't know if I trust Intelligent Systems/Nintendo to have the good writing to pull this off. Or maybe I just don't trust current Intelligent Systems. Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones had decent writing and localization, though even there most characters are little more than archetypes. I dunno.
But most of all, the theory the translator has is that the big story mission is at the end of each month, meaning you effectively spend the rest of the month in social and practice skirmishes to build, buff, and customize your army. Maybe you can control how often you take students on combat exercises throughout the game, but it certainly feels like it's a huge shift in how you approach the game compared to prior entries. While I am open to seeing how they pull this off, I can understand how other players would be incredibly disappointed. I can only imagine that, at some point in the game's story, there will be a "break" from status quo and suddenly you'll be lunged into constant combat (as would fit common Japanese narrative structure). I mean, try and tell me there won't be a moment the Monastery is under attack, falls apart, and now you and your students have to go and fight whoever the big bad is.
It's all pointless speculation, regardless, but I'm certainly not surprised that I'm the only person whose enthusiasm for the game hasn't actually been diminished. There are going to be things I don't like, I'm certain, but at the same time I'm curious to see how it all comes together. I just kind of feel bad at the same time because, around here at least, it feels like the franchise is moving further and further away from what everyone else wants, and what sort of discussion and conversation can be shared by time the game releases?
I look forward to seeing more of this in motion at E3, at the very least (even though I have a doctor's appointment scheduled that will no doubt cause me to miss the Nintendo Direct, drat it all).
Oh! And DSGamer, I might have given you a hard time in the past, but I'm looking at some of the comments on that Serenes Forest website, and at least you aren't complaining at the very existence of Casual difficulty modes. Evidently these are a blight to some of the hardest of the hardcore Fire Emblem fans.
But most of all, the theory the translator has is that the big story mission is at the end of each month, meaning you effectively spend the rest of the month in social and practice skirmishes to build, buff, and customize your army.
This is Persona to a T. The fact they're calling it a "Field Study" is ripped from Trails of Cold Steel. All of this is so original.
I'm glad to see a new weapon being introduced (Guantlets) and I'm still waiting to hear about how Battalion strength works. Are the extra units visual window dressing? Does it decrease as they're killed.
The bit about Gambits reminds me of Valkyria Chronicles, which is welcome.
The funny thing is, this is all described as being like Persona even in the Serenes Forest translation, and I suppose I understand why since that's the most recent mainstream RPG to have those mechanics.
It's the difference between "this is a painting of a woman, and there are lots of paintings of women" and "this is literally a photocopy of the Mona Lisa". We are well and truly into photocopy-of-the-Mona-Lisa territory here with Fire Emblem and Persona.
The closest I've played to a Persona is Tokyo Mirage Sessions, which lacked the time-mechanics of the Persona series, so I don't really have a comparison point to go by myself. I suppose the first Persona I'll ever play is a Fire Emblem, then.
and I'm still waiting to hear about how Battalion strength works. Are the extra units visual window dressing? Does it decrease as they're killed.
Based on the Serenes Forest information, different "Battalions" or "Brigades" or whatever will have HP values in addition to stat modifiers.
If the character leading the battalion takes damage, the battalion’s health will decrease. Once the health reaches 0, the battalion’s effects will disappear and Gambits cannot be used. A battalion’s health can be restored at a guild. For E to D rank battalions, it seems to cost 1 Gold per health, while C rank battalions cost 2 Gold per health.Like characters, battalions can level up and increase their abilities by fighting.
There will be three icons depicting how much health the Battalion has. It largely seems, aside from stat boosts, that the benefit to Battalions is in Gambits. The wording doesn't seem to clarify if the Battalion absorbs the HP damage of your character, or if your character and the Battalion both take damage as individual entities.
Basically, some general ideas of how they work, but I'm looking forward to Treehouse for clarification.
Still in wait and see mode. Nothing I can do but vote with my wallet in the end.
If it sucks I'll go back and grab that last 3DS one instead.
garion333 wrote:and I'm still waiting to hear about how Battalion strength works. Are the extra units visual window dressing? Does it decrease as they're killed.
Based on the Serenes Forest information, different "Battalions" or "Brigades" or whatever will have HP values in addition to stat modifiers.
If the character leading the battalion takes damage, the battalion’s health will decrease. Once the health reaches 0, the battalion’s effects will disappear and Gambits cannot be used. A battalion’s health can be restored at a guild. For E to D rank battalions, it seems to cost 1 Gold per health, while C rank battalions cost 2 Gold per health.Like characters, battalions can level up and increase their abilities by fighting.
There will be three icons depicting how much health the Battalion has. It largely seems, aside from stat boosts, that the benefit to Battalions is in Gambits. The wording doesn't seem to clarify if the Battalion absorbs the HP damage of your character, or if your character and the Battalion both take damage as individual entities.
Basically, some general ideas of how they work, but I'm looking forward to Treehouse for clarification.
Right, still want more info. I'm specifically curious if their stats decrease as their health decreases and they lose units, visually. Losing the ability to gambit makes sense, but is there more to it?
I'm nearing the end of my playthrough of FE: Echoes SoV (Hard/Classic), and I wanted to toss my thoughts out there since some had mentioned being interested in checking it out.
Starting off, the game was fairly boring; no weapon triangle, and some small, basic maps. For the first two acts, I kept pushing on since it was still sort of fun but not super satisfying, but everything else about the game was well done: the art was fantastic, the writing was good, the voice acting was fantastic (by Fire Emblem standards), and the story, while basic, was well executed on.
Around act 3 the difficulty started to mount and I had to work for it a bit more. Also by this time, there is enough unit diversity that there are more interesting tactical decisions to make. Only being able to carry one items started off as a headache, but later on made the choices of who got what weapons carry a lot more weight. For instance, Valbar (the knight/general) could laugh off all physical damage if I gave him a shield nothing, but then he couldn't do any damage at all, which made it really hard to level him up. So you can give him a really good spear, but of course that means a more mobile or hard hitting character can't use it to double or take down bosses. This made for some interesting choices around the mid game.
But it was in the beginning of middle of act 4 (both routes) that I got slapped down, and actually had to go back and grind a bit to promote a few characters so they weren't dead weight or just waiting to get sniped by a witch. After the promotions, I got back into the winning groove, but I was still having to think a lot more carefully about what I was doing and take a few gambles. And despite the simplicity of the maps, there are some legit interesting level design later on (storming a mountain fortress on Alm's route while having gargoyles thrown at you every other turn) (poison marshes are awful, though). But I think by the middle of the game and on, the only mediocre part of the game (the gameplay) catches up and holds it's own, so I would have no problem recommending Echoes to anyone who wants to play it.
And as someone who will always reset when someone dies (except maybe against a final boss), being able to use the turnwheel to just roll back a turn or two to fix the mistake seems like a great innovation. I might have scoffed at it when I was younger, but now it feels like the designers are respecting our time and I appreciate it.
Spoiler for one of the later classes:
Dread Fighters are hilariously broken. Gold Knights seem overpowered since they have great growths, but DFs are ridiculous. They have the movement of horses, they double everything, if they're Jesse they crit everything that moves, and they laugh at magic. And being touched by any attack that's not from another DF. And you get three of them easily in Celica's route!
Saber is easily my do-it-all MVP, much like Raven and Nephenee were in their respective games
Can't recall if we knew this or not, but the Weapon Triangle is confirmed to be gone from Three Houses. That surprises me, but also explains why we got a new weapon.
While a sword won't naturally beat an axe, teaching a character the Axebreaker combat art will give them an edge in battle. These arts are powerful moves and abilities that can go above and beyond the average attack, but cost additional weapon durability. There is the tradeoff: do you want to hit an enemy with everything you've got now, knowing an attack three turns later might break your lance and leave you without a weapon?
Another interesting bit:
Rather than a single fighter, each character commands a batch of forces called a "battalion." These are not limited to your character's class or weapons, and can be used to either augment or supplement their abilities. An archer who's always pestered by speedy cavalry units can have a lance battalion, warding off any bold riders. My personal favorite was a batch of gauntlet-wiedling hype men, whose Gambit—a special ability unique to each character's battalion—was to cheer on our forces, giving them further range to move.
So far, so good. I'm still concerned with the school aspect, but I'm getting enough good vibes from the rest I may put up with that aspect if it stinks and focus on the rest.
Also, sounds like the way the story is structured it's more like Sacred Stones where you're given a choice of paths (the three houses), instead of having separate, distinct stories like in Fates.
Removing the weapon triangle was one of the better design choices in Shadows of Valentia, so I'm happy to see them follow-up on that. I'm still nervous enough about the school aspect to not get my hopes up, but I like what I've heard from E3.
Holy crap.
I guess 3 routes in one game is much better than the Fates split. Hopefully gameplay is good enough for replays.
At this point I'm going on media blackout, I think. I've seen and read enough, and there's never been a question of whether I'll be buying the game or not.
Just a little over a month to go!
Planning to do the same. Just got Amazon money for Father's Day and want to use it on eShop for this.
Weird, I just assumed it was up for preorder since it has been included in the voucher thing.
Make sure you have subtitles on.
That "5 Years Later" part is what intrigues me about the story. How much of the game is dedicated to that compared to the school?
As for the expansion pass, I'll wait until I see specifically what kind of content. They say Quests and Side Stories, but I might be fine enough with the base game content.
Without skipping cutscenes and dialog it appears the Three Houses takes 80 hours. So, probably, 60 hours for most folks and 20 hours for some freaks.
That's only one house though. Director says three houses will take over 200 hours. Yikes!
Given it took me what, three months to complete Caligula Effect: Overdose in around 50-some hours? That's not the news I quite wanted to hear.
Then again, Fire Emblem should hopefully be more enjoyable to play.
How much of that is restarts to keep characters from dying?
Hopefully none with the turnwheel from Echoes in there.
How much of that is restarts to keep characters from dying?
Proper rofl.
I'm going to buy this day 1 aren't I?
I already preorder it from the Nintendo eShop since I had some gold points expiring. I was disappointed with Fates but Echoes was good so I am giving them the benefit of the doubt this time
If yall are really interested it appears a preview went up early on Engadget and before it got pulled people screenshotted it: https://imgur.com/a/9YAdimg#ubGYQ7Q
It's long and practically a review.
Unless I'm missing something the screenshots didn't say anything about children, so maybe I'll play this.
If yall are really interested it appears a preview went up early on Engadget and before it got pulled people screenshotted it: https://imgur.com/a/9YAdimg#ubGYQ7Q
It's long and practically a review.
First line is nice. This "is the game Fates should have been".
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