Fire Emblem

I went up to floor 4 of the Lagdou ruins. These enemies give a lot of good EXP for sure. My Rachel is so much better. <3 I didn't have to beat the final boss though - I haven't even been to the Dark Forest.

I'll try to finish the game tonight.

I don't think the troop mechanic would fit into remakes of the older games without a serious overhaul. Battalions would just kind of massively break the map design. Sacred Stones especially doesn't really need it. Aesthetically, however, I wouldn't mind if the additional troops show up during combat sequences (where appropriate, anyway).

I don't remember how far you can get deep into the Lagdou Ruins before you get booted out (I know that the Tower kicks you out when you enter it the first time and will only progress through story progress) but that is practically made for the post-game. In fact, doing the entirety of the Tower and the Ruins is meant to be done in the post-game as the final chapter was, clearly, not built with the Ruins in mind.

For reference, the highest level of the advanced mooks in Chapter 20 and Final Chapter is around 4 to 7.

Edited by mariovsonic999 on May 4th 2021 at 12:12:54 PM

I'd be fine with Aesthetic only, It makes me feel like I'm leading an actual army instead of a few dozen schmucks. I was amazed and ecstatic when I saw Three Houses added them in, I always felt it would add to the feel of the game.

I will say though that I feel like there are times when a smaller strike force might be more appropriate.

Like, I get that castles are big, but are they THAT big?

That's fair, though you could just scale the number of troops of each unit to fit the kind of battle each map is. Make the numbers Dynamic almost, then it could easily work to fit the story and maps.

Three Houses itself could have even benefited from such scaling, as one Cinder Shadows map has an example where they're hilariously inappropriately large.

Lunatic+ time.

The System was the first of it's kind in Fire Emblem, there's plenty of room to improve it. Dynamic sizes based on maps are one such example.

I hope the next game brings back Pair Up- and I mean the actual mechanic, not that Adjutant system.

Awakening version or Fates version?

Awakening/Fates Pair-Up was kinda OP. I like the Adjutant system being much more low-key while still letting you train weak units or build supports more efficiently.

I don’t mind it being more low key, but it’d be nice if it triggered more often - sometimes it’s like it doesn’t matter at all.

The Adjutant system needs to buff up the Dual Strike equivalent. There's a limit of 3 deployed, and it's limited to same weapon range, plus it can't trigger on EP. I think if the cap stays at 3 with the weapon type restriction in place, it needs to be buffed to allow multiple DSs during PP or keep the DS limit at 1 per engagement, but allow it to trigger on EP. That would bring it approximately in line with the defense Adjutants, which are barely less powerful than the Fates version (blocks half damage from all follow-up attacks, and prevents follow-ups from killing in 3H; whereas Fates straight blocks one attack, but can be strategically pre-charged to block a huge frontal attack). Heal Adjutants could also use a small buff. Maybe increase the amount they heal by a little, or guard against debuffs (Rattled, Seal Stat, etc.).

Pair Up was a good mechanic because it was flexible and allowed the player to do interesting things if they were creative. If they feel like they have to nerf the benefits, fine. Just bring back the part that made it interesting.

Adjutant is only good for leaked experience. not only does it not give you any flexibility in combat, your options are: sacrifice a healer to automatically heal if you fall below a threshold you aren't told, sacrifice one fortress knight to make another fortress knight (and it's basically the only class it's useful for) slightly tankier, or have one character follow another and do nothing, ever.

Nothing wrong with Pair-Up being OP. Nothing says you have to use it if you don't want to. Same with Phoenix Mode which I definitely prefer over Mila's Turnwheel and the the other time reversing power in Three Houses.

Until certain maps demand you use it (hi, Conquest).

x3 There's more to it than that. You can use a defensive Adjutant to set Bernie (or Dedue or Cyril) up at 1 HP for Vengeance one-shots (and I really do mean one-shots—my meme War Cleric Bernie was one-shotting Maddening CF Endgame Paladins without any especially notable skill setup). It's really silly.

It also allows you to have an offensive powerhouse with poor Spd, like a Swift Strikes Sylvain/Ferd, attack straight into the Counterattack super bosses without worrying about being one-rounded on retaliation.

I'll definitely agree that I miss the flexibility of pairing compared to Adjutants. Anyone who has seen me play knows I love abusing the Transfer-Pair-Up combo for kiting strats.

They're not really doing their jobs as designers if they can't balance their system. Pair-up is technically fine in Awakening, though, because Lunatic+ exists, and abusing that is entirely a requirement to reliably succeed. Fates' is also mostly fine for what Conquest demands. Three Houses's is 2/3s too far nerfed.

I actually use Pair-Up less in Lunatic+, since it cuts down on the number of attacks you can get on your turn, and the sheer power of the enemies encourages very aggressive strategies focused on eliminating as many enemies as possible during the player phase.

Oh? On which maps with who?

You are NOT getting through early game Lunatic+ Awakening without Pair Up. You just aren’t.

I said i used it less, as in "I don't have every character Paired Up throughout the entire battle".

It's been awhile since I've played on my Lunatic+ file, though I'm up to partway through the Valm arc.

Ah, so you don't recall any specific examples? And I'm assuming it would be specific cases that make a big difference, since early game units need Pair-Up 95% of the time, or else they miss survival benchmarks (due to usually being 1 Spd short without a Cavalier for help), and then late game, the team juggernauts want their glass cannon husbands/wives/best buddies hiding behind them to perform safe Dual Strikes in order to not be inhibited by Pavise+/Aegis+.

Like, most of the time in the early game, I strategically unpair units in order to set up Transfer-Pair-Up cheese for the next turn; or have someone like lone Virion/Vaike sitting off to the side, just out of range, to bait the AI into bad movement; or Switch-Separate to achieve an extra 1 Move every turn; or unpair everyone idle while kiting back so that they can quickly swap pair partners without awkwardly burning unit turns. But in terms of straight combat, it's pretty rare that anyone fights alone (due to dying from missing the aforementioned benchmarks) The most notable example I can think of for myself is in C5, at the start, where the Barb and Myrm rush down the central ramp. If I know Fred can score a finisher so long as Virion hits for his full base damage, I might have Virion attack while adjacent to try to provoke an unpaired DS from Fred, so then that frees up his action for something else. But again, that's a pretty rare, and niche scenario, where it's also easily derailed by Aegis+.

Speaking of Lunatic+...

Rachel/L'Arachel is, by most people's estimates, the best character in The Sacred Stones by a country mile, and she absolutely is Eirika's girlfriend.