Fire Emblem

Some choice comments from a Japanese blog (rough translation lol):

大好きだったFEはお亡くなりになりました

"My love for FE has passed away"

使用回数あっての戦略がよかったのに

"Number of uses (referring to weapon durability) was good for strategy"

使用回数ないのはいただけないなぁ ファイアーエンブレムじゃないみたい

"I wonder why there's no more weapon durability. This isn't like Fire Emblem"

終わった、本当に終わった 蒼炎までは良かったのに

"It's over. It's really over. (This series) was good until after Path of Radiance"

あ、ヤバいこれ 俺のクソゲーセンサーが凄い反応しとるわ

"This is dangerous! My Shitty Game Sensor is going off like crazy!"

フェニックスモードってなんだ？ ゾンビ兵かよ

"Phoenix mode? Zombie soldiers!"

武器使用無制限は流石に拙いわ。

"Unlimited weapon use is really awkward."

カジュアル向けにファイアーエンブレムを新シリーズとして売り出せば？ シリーズ古参のファンにはファイアーエムブレムのままにして

"So Fire Emblem is selling out for the casual fans? The veteran fans are leaving Fire Emblem..."

課金エムブレム

"Pay-to-Play Emblem"

どんどんクソ化してんな

"more and more of this shit..."

これはファイアーエムブレムではない

ファイヤーエンブレムという偽物だ

"This is not a (real) Fire Emblem. This is a (fake) Fire Emblem."

FEはただのキャラ萌えゲーになりました

"Fire Emblem is just a Moe-game now"

戦略は？

"Where's the strategy?"

トラキアの頃が一番FEとしては面白かったな 覚醒はマジがっかりゲーだったし

"Thracia 776 was when Fire Emblem was the most interesting. Awakening was a seriously disappointing game."

I think it could be cool if like, you could toggle which features, both anti-frustration or otherwise, you want in a playthrough at will when starting a file.

Like, you can toggle Casual, Phoenix, Reverse Lunatic style "enemy always attacks first", weapon uses, and even world map access, giving the game more replayablity (and ease of access if needed though...Phoenix mode still seems iffy to me).

Good to see that FE fans are the same all over the world.

edited 12th May '15 3:37:59 PM by Otherarrow

Phoenix is optional, right? Why is anyone complaining?

They will complain about anything.

They did the same song and dance when Casual was first revealed.

I bet they did the same song and dance once The Sacred Stones brought the world map back.

Anyone who uses the word "casual" in reference to gaming unironically loses the argument in my view. It's a No True Scotsman.

So basically the same "BOO HOO CASUALS" shit asshole gamerbros have been doing for years. Alright.

All I want is to be able to do mid-battle saves (as opposed to suspends) without having to choose casual mode.

As for phoenix mode, all I can say is "so?". It's not like If will be the first game to have a "no difficulty, just pay attention to the story" mode.

And with respect to unbreakable weapons, I expect that weapons, or at least weapons better than iron or steel, will be harder to come by. I mean, just making weapons unbreakable, while having them be as easily available as in past games would be so obviously imbalanced that I doubt Intsys would be that dumb.

edited 12th May '15 3:46:07 PM by Balmung

As for playing itself, we've already had several Nintendo games that literally did just that. Notably the NSMB games. Those games haven't actually gotten easier. Ideally these things will allow IS to make the main game on the normal difficulties more pleasing to old-school fans while allowing less experienced players to breeze through the story and play for the supports. Ideally. We'll see how it actually goes of course.

1~2 range weapons, the best in the game, have historically not been recognized as such by IS, though. Even a couple unbreakable Hand Axes could really skew things. This would also encourage and enable lowmanning by virtue of always having a couple units that are more versatile. There are plenty of ways to nerf them, but I have my doubts that IS will address them.

Another answer to this is that it's an amazingly silly - and redundant, even - modification to any game (where failure normally matters, I suppose I might as well add) no matter how you slice it.

edited 12th May '15 4:27:39 PM by Demonfly

So don't use it, then?

I probably won't use it in this game, but man would I kill for a mode like that in a game like, say, Persona.

It's an amazingly silly and redundant addition, yeah, but the game isn't pointing a gun at your head demanding you play it. Hopefully the enemy AI and stats will be a bit better to make Classic more challenging.

An Ironman mode would be fun to add as a notch above Classic. The game saves before and after each chapter, and turning off the power or otherwise resetting mid-battle deletes your save file, as does getting a game over. So you can't just reset when a unit dies or somesuch.

Even as someone who loves Awakening and someone who didn't mind the removal of weapon weight, the removal of weapon durability is definitely rubbing me the wrong way. Resource management is a key element of FE and the strategy genre as a whole, and now... you don't have to think about your weapon usage apart from the weapon triangle. I'm hoping that either A) this mechanic is optional or B) there's an in-universe justification or some kind of counterbalance. I'm still hyped for the game but WTF Intelligent Systems.

What's a bit perplexing to me is the fact that Intelligent Systems is aware that a lot of people were upset at Awakening for losing key strategy elements, which is why they made the split story in the first place (Hoshido for Awakening fans, Nohr for veteran fans). So... removing resource management makes even less sense in this context.

(And before someone tells me that this mechanic existed in Gaiden and Genealogy of the Holy War, I haven't played either of those.)

As for Phoenix mode, I don't have right to complain seeing as it's optional. Instead, I'm laughing to myself about it. Because apparently Casual mode didn't make the game accessible enough. I'm not upset at Phoenix mode but I am of the opinion that it's pretty much overkill.

...that actually sounds like it'd be a good idea. Something particularly cruel for veteran fans to sink their teeth into.

edited 12th May '15 4:24:13 PM by RavenKingSage

There's still resource management even without durability. Assuming you only get a limited number of weapons of course. Then you have to figure out who uses the Javelin the best, the Hand Axe, the Killer Edge, the Mend, etc. And if objectives are good enough such that low-manning is impractical, then it may actually be very strategic as to who goes where with what. Assuming they balance for it of course, which is a must.

If the resource management instead comes from a limited amount of weapons, it'll definitely be interesting. Like I said, I'm hoping there's a counterbalance. That sounds like it'd be a good one.

It'd be pretty neat if they did a Valkyria Chronicles sort of thing, where everyone has unlimited access and use of a generic "default" weapon, but the "special" weapons like javelins and bolt axes come in short supply.

It didn't in Genealogy, but you could repair any weapon, even once broken (including Holy Weapons).

Gaiden had infinite uses, but weapons weren't the same as in most games, being basically equipment (and even then other equipment, such as stat boosting rings or defense raising shields, occupied the same slot so you had to chose who got what). Also, no shops. You either had to have enemies drop them (which is extremely rare) or find them in chests.

Also, if you don't have anything equipped in Gaiden, they default to the game's equivalent of an Iron weapon.

edited 12th May '15 4:31:20 PM by Otherarrow

I'm hoping that it's just Phoenix mode that has no durability. Or something. I feel like durability adds a nice layer of strategy.

phoenix mode seems silly.

but

not as silly as someones suggestion that bloodborne should have a "skip combat" button, effectively rendering playing the game a pointless endeavor since the gameplay is the main point of the game.

fire emblems story is at least generally on more equal footing with the gameplay, and permadeath and limited resources is rife for "unwinnable by mistake" paranoia so i can understand a desire to just not deal with that coupled with a desire to see the story, but i do think at some point a players unwillingness to learn the game has to stop being indulged. but like, the only things i know about phoenix mode are lack of permadeath and lack of weapon durability, so i cant honestly say its been indulged too far yet, cuz they might have changed things to balance it more.

The deal with Phoenix mode is that dead characters are revived on the same map next turn. So an even more casual Casual mode basically.

that...

defeats the point of being a strategy game.

then again, zerg rush is kind of a strategy.

but yeah that sounds like its gone into the "indulging an unwillingness to learn a game" zone a little too far.

It doesn't, really. Unless they get revived on the same square they died on, you still have to move them back to where they were before, which could potentially be a long way away.

It's like ordering reinforcements in Valkyria Chronicles.

Also, like, it's a single player game. Who gives a shit about "indulging unwillingness to learn?" It's not like the players who don't figure this stuff out are going to be ruining anything for you.

edited 12th May '15 4:47:13 PM by Mukora

Indeed. The mode is optional, but it's still going too far to cater to newcomers. I see it as an equivalent to the Cosmic Guide/Super Guide of Super Mario Galaxy 2 and other recent Nintendo platformers. Maybe you'll get a worse ending if you play Phoenix mode. Now that would be something.

Yeah, and that "something" is "stupid."

Like, the main reason anyone would play Phoenix Mode is because they care more about the story than the difficulty, so why mess with an intrinsic part of the very reason they're even playing at all?

i just dont see the point in catering to a group that has to be flat out refusing to learn to play the game at this point.

also just because you have to move units back to where they were before they died doesnt really change the fact that your map progress is the same. theres literally no strategy involved when theres no penalty to death, not even the whole "losing units for that map"

maybe if phoenix mode was set up more like advance wars, a game where inexhaustible supply of units went both ways

edited 12th May '15 4:54:11 PM by Tarsen