I’m an SRPG fan, and I have a soft spot for Fire Emblem in particular. The only reason I haven’t posted on FE since I started this blog 4 years ago is that Intelligent Systems hasn’t made an FE worth playing since then.
That said, I don’t like Fire Emblem enough to buy a 3DS for, so I just laid low and bided my time until someone I knew bought one. Then I pounced. Playing a borrowed game on a borrowed handheld means I’m on borrowed time, which means I have to finish Fire Emblem Awakening
(Some spoilers below)
– Easiest FE since Sacred Stones. I’m not even talking about the availability of free battles. It’s more stuff like how kind the RNG is this time, and how the game throws Physics, Rescues, Master Seals and all manner of buffing items and super weapons at you left, right, center. In fact, this feels a lot like an FE8 remake, with some time-traveling thrown in.
– The opening sequence with the traitor thing reminded me of the Chrono Cross opening. Too bad that game was all downhill from there.
– “Everyone’s dead in my timeline, so I’m going to travel back and change things.” y halo thar, Trunks. Although if I remember my Dragon Ball Z correctly, Trunks traveling back in time simply created a different timeline which had no effect on his original timeline, so I’m betting things will work out the same in this case.
– Perma-death is not permanent enough. When your party members get killed, they usually mumble something like “I must retreat and live a quiet life far from the battlefield” blah blah blah. You can’t run away, that’s cheating! People should die when they are killed!
– Supports are a PITA. In most FEs I don’t go out of my way to create supports, but here I’m seemingly expected to pair people up so they can have kids. Kids I don’t even use anyway, because I’m happy with my existing crew. Plus they might break the game even further, and I can’t have that. Can anyone confirm for me, in a non-spoilerish way, whether I’ll be penalized for not producing any more kids? I just want to finish the game.
– Excellent localization as always from the Nintendo team. The dialogue really sparkles, though they did go a bit overboard with the flowery language this time. And “dastard”? Yeah, it’s a word, but who ever says that?
– Lon’qu, Virion, Miriel. Between them they probably have 50% of all in-game kills. Why are they so darned good?!
– And why is my main character so useless?! Both her magic and her physical attacks are rubbish. She’s only good for her S-support with Chrom, and I’m kinda regretting that right now. Can anyone confirm for me, again in a non-spoilerish way, if I’ll be penalized for benching her for good? I’m getting to the point where I want to finalize my party.
– Sidequests. I like sidequests. I think I lost out on something by letting all those villagers die that other time, though. ;___;
Apart from those few nagging issues I’m having a great time. I mean, it’s Fire Emblem, after all. Apart from the abomination known only as Shadow Dragon, all the other ones I’ve tried have been above-average at worst. I’ll try and post something a little more comprehensive once I actually finish the game.
What difficulty are you playing on, Normal? Hard?
You won’t strictly be punished for not enacting an Eugenics plan. While technically all the children are completely superior to their parents (based off their growths/class availability/etc), they’re usually walled behind pretty tough missions (especially on difficulties above Normal) and you basically have to grind them all over, which is something I really hate doing in RPGs so for me they’re practically worthless for completing the “main game” portion. If you’re planning to do post-game then you’ll need the extra power but eh, this is one mechanic of this FE that I don’t think is implemented well.
Your RNG luck is very weird. The main character tends to be an overpowered juggernaut that can solo games. On the flip side, Virion isn’t considered very good and Miriel’s usually considered very average.
Like, I’m really having a hard time answering the question of whether you’re at a disadvantage for benching the main character because they’re usually OP and I wouldn’t take them out willingly even if I could.
You probably shouldn’t be sad about marrying her off to Chrom though… sort of. The MU has the best genes in the game and in fact on optimal play it’s… uh, not optimal (I guess) to marry her off to someone as average as Chrom.
But if you don’t plan on recruiting and using children then at least the only required kid in the game will have the best inheritance.
I’m playing on Normal i.e. Super-Easy. Mea culpa.
I do think my RNG luck is weird. The person I borrowed the game from kept going on about how wonderful Tharja was, but she’s unbelievably slow and weak for me. Meanwhile Virion and Miriel just keep going from strength to strength. Still, the game is easy enough that all this stuff doesn’t matter. Almost done, I think, just completed the Fire Emblem only to hand it over to the bad guy.
Less “Tharja is good”, more Dark Mage class, really.
Or more specifically, the Nosferatu tome which is completely broken into half (and it’s a buyable weapon!). It drains HP from the enemy and restores the casters health, and as long as the user doesn’t get one-shot, a Nosferatu tome user can solo maps on their own.
And the Dark Mage/Sorceror line is the only one that can use it. Which might be an ok balance factor if they were weak classes, but Sorceror actually has one of the highest DEF bases in the game, which is just nuts.
I dunno. Even paired with Gaius for S support, Tharja still misses with Nosferatu more often than she hits, and Henry just gets killed All. The. Time. The best use I get out of Tharja is to give her Ruin and pair her with someone for the inevitable criticals.
The MC is required to kill the final boss, so you’d better level him/her up. I’m not sure why your MC is so useless, since mine was always the one getting the most kills (I mainly used magic).
You won’t be penalized for not using the children, their recruitment maps stay there once unlocked.
Right-ho. My MC is seriously terrible though. Maybe I shouldn’t have chosen Luck as her worst stat.
Oh I suddenly remembered, there’s a battle near the end where you fight a boss with only Chrom and Main Character. He’s a wuss though.
Is it the same as the one in the prologue? Because if it is, I’m sure Chrom can solo it.