Fire Emblem

Yeah, me will be genderbending a Myrmidon...I is also sad no thief My Unit s....Aww...I love my fragile speedsters....

^True. I love fragile speedsters in everything ever. I have to say that I started to love myrmidons because of Joshua in the sacred stones, who starts out with killing edge. This being my first Fire Emblem, I didn't realize most of the critical came from the sword, and I thought Joshua had a natural 30% crit.

Regardless, they're awesome.

edited 15th Jul '10 8:42:59 AM by Deathonabun

The RNG boosted every stat that wasn't Magic Power OR Magic Defense in a single level up? And I hardly expect any frequent Magic Power or Magic Defense gains. Oh, and guess what? Here are his L1 and L6 stats:

• Class: Social Knight
• HP: 20, 25
• Strength: 8, 11
• Magic Power: 1, 1
• Skill: 7, 9
• Speed: 9, 13
• Luck: 3, 6
• Physical Defense: 7, 10
• Magic Defense: 0, 0

Totally not broken. May I point out once again that I am supposed to have Squishy Wizard growths.

As for the archer, I didn't know I could surround him on A CHOKEPOINT MAP FULL OF ENEMIES! Seriously, you're giving me advice for a scenario you clearly have not seen with your own eyes. There is no way Lunatic doesn't make Hard 5 look like a joke. At least Chapter 4 on Hard 5 can be beaten with generally in-training units.

edited 15th Jul '10 11:03:55 AM by MasterKnight

...Considering I have no possible means of playing the game, as I have no interest in importing it, yeah, I guess I can only go off what you're saying about that chapter when trying to give advice.

And again, the RNG can screw you over big time; one time in FE 7, my Hector only had 12 Strength by Level 20. Does anybody even know how the base stats for My Unit work? I mean, the game's been out a whole day. The fact that you chose a Social Knight, which has very low Magic Attack and Defense growths, probably has to do with why your magic stats are so low even though you made the choices for greater magic growth.

edited 15th Jul '10 9:00:05 PM by jtmmachine

Its strange that Wolf and Sedgar are so powerful in the remake. In the original they were pretty weak and in the story they're throwaway MauveShirts.

and I thought Joshua had a natural 30% crit.

To be fair, he gets there. And beyond.

Fun to put him up against a level 15 promoted Lagdou Ruins centaur on Hard, give him a Killing Edge, and look at the 65% crit.

edited 15th Jul '10 12:00:16 PM by Pykrete

Wait its already out, only in Japan right? Or is it IN AMERICA too?

The post-game content of Sacred Stones is awesome just for how cathartic it is to be able to tear through enemies like nobody's business. A nice change compared to how cautious you normally have to be in this series. The unlockable characters were a nice addition too, even though getting some of them can be a pain in the butt.

^ It's only out in Japan right now.

edited 15th Jul '10 12:53:01 PM by jtmmachine

Er...that's certainly true for Tower of Valni, but try Lagdou. Now try Lagdou on Hard. Make sure your young, impressionable siblings aren't in the room lest they learn a few new words.

edited 15th Jul '10 12:55:29 PM by Pykrete

SS was my favorite in the series because you could actually use all of your characters. The deadweights can be trained to become awesome and all stats could be maxed.

Darn, oh well that makes me save money.

I also loved SS because of that, hey look Ewan joined at level 1, oh thats easy to take care of. Also Ephraim is my favorite Lord, I just love spear wielders for some reason(of course Lyn is really my favorite, but for different reasons). SS had a good plot and actually had endgame content, all around its my favorite FE so far.

We need more spear lords, really. Too many swords.

^^ Also yes, that's exactly why I liked SS. You actually had the slip room to goof around with dudes that would otherwise have been stuffed in the overhead compartment never to be seen again.

edited 15th Jul '10 1:06:43 PM by Pykrete

^^^^ Oh yeah, forgot some of the later floors in Lagdou can be brutal—been a while since I played Sacred Stones. And considering the first chapter on Ephraim's route was kicking my butt on Hard mode, I can only imagine how difficult things get in the endgame. At least I don't have to worry about traumatizing any younger siblings—I AM the youngest.

^ At some point, we're going to need a Dark magic Lord, if only for the pun. And another axe lord wouldn't hurt either, considering how awesome Hector was.

edited 15th Jul '10 1:09:57 PM by jtmmachine

Wait till you get to the boat mission.

Actually, go Level Grinding for a bit before you get to the boat mission. You get ambushed by like 15 flying units from all directions, most of which are magic, and one of which is a boss with a high-level lance. I only won that one because Gilliam dodged like five Mogalls and a Crimson Eye in a row.

Also, my favorite story in Lagdou is Franz as a Great Knight getting swarmed by four units. The first one dies and drops a Devil Axe. Next two die, but break his sword. He auto-equips the Devil Axe and when the fourth guy attacks he crits himself and dies.

edited 15th Jul '10 1:25:23 PM by Pykrete

Finally beat that God forsaken map, but I had abused an Experience allocated custom unit AND had to use up a full bottle of my Ointment.

In comparison, Prologue 5 Lunatic is a JOKE. Sure you still can't rest, but there's no way it's near as difficult as Prologue 4 Lunatic.

By the way, my custom unit's L6 stats on my Lunatic file, with Wisdom for sure and not Diversity:

• Class: Social Knight
• HP: 25
• Strength: 9
• Magic Power: 0
• Skill: 11
• Speed: 12
• Luck: 9 (yep, I gained Luck on EVERY level up)
• Physical Defense: 10 (AGAIN I gained 3 points within 5 level ups)
• Magic Defense: 1

Tell me NOW the custom unit somehow isn't totally not broken. I'm not expecting Magic Power or Magic Defense gains because of my class. I'm simply expecting so-so gains at best, but I get these obscene growths anyway.

edited 15th Jul '10 3:38:13 PM by MasterKnight

So basically the custom unit has about equal to OR better then a Lord+base class stat growths? At least thats what it looks like to me. Anyway I am so planning on doing Mercenary-Wyvern Lord(as long as the models for the wyverns look better this time).

^^ You're kinda confusing me here. You mentioned that you expected your character to have Squishy Wizard growths, and you seemed upset that you were getting stats closer to that of a well-developed Cavalier. If you really wanted a Squishy Wizard character, why go with a Cavalier, which has completely different growths?

And I'm curious, cause I haven't been keeping up with this game, has anyone determined how the choices you make for the personality of your character affect their stat growths? For all you know, the choices you made might be why your character's Defense stat is higher than usual.

That said, I think I'll go with a Mercenary-General route myself. I'm fond of the design of the General's armor, and the Generals I've used in the series have in general been able to hit hard while warding off most physical attacks. Generally. Their lack of mobility's easily fixed with a pair of Boots, and most eventually get high enough Speed that they can at least avoid being double-hit (unless you're Oswin; then you're doing the double-hitting).

I decided to go with it to begin with. And hey, I'm having broken growths anyway. Might as well wait later to become a Mage and make the whole thing come full circle.

There's a topic on Game FA Qs about how your custom unit's past, present, and future affects your stats. Wise and Diverse do not affect Physical Defense.

[[hottip:And here are the choices in order from top to bottom for each group:Past: Merchant Clergy Orphan Farmer Noble

Present: Beauty Wisdom Heterogeneity Kindness Strength

Future: Philanthropist Honour Seeker Wealth Recluse

Note that whichever Past option you choose eliminates one option from Present and one from Future. (In order for Present: Wisdom, Heterogeneity, Kindness, Strength, Beauty. For Future: Wealth, Philanthropist, Recluse, Seeker, Honour.) Your option for Present also eliminates another choice from Future. (Order: Honour, Wealth, Recluse, Seeker, Philanthropist.)]]

Hm. I'm somewhat struggling on P-8 Lunatic. I'd like to blame RNG, but that'd make me seem like a whiner, lulz. Honestly, though, I think I'll wait till the rest of the growth rates come out on serenes or something. Also, Masterknight, I'm assuming that since you pulled up the gamefaqs topic, you at least lurk there. What other FE community sites are you part of? Serenes, FEFF, FES (though thats basically dead), etc, and what handle? It'd be pretty crazy if we knew each other.

It sounds like Nintendo still has a flare for complex number-crunching behind the scenes, if those are anything to go by.

Exactly what they use to crunch those numbers, though... First getting Critically Hit eight consecutive times by an enemy with a "0" sitting in his Crit box during 1:3: A Faint Light in Radiant Dawn and only breaking the cycle by sending in Sothe to critical him for a change. After that, I one-rounded Blazing Sword's Dragon with Hector. Hector with Armads doubled for 20 with a 2% critical chance and an 88% hit chance. Both times, he critically hit, doing exactly the dragon's health. I'm not complaining about that, just wondering exactly what Nintendo's Random Number God is on.

I do enjoy the series, been playing since they came State-side. But the RNG is always a bitch to deal with. Hate slogging through a long mission, multiple times to avoid casualties, and lose somebody useful to some random critical or because the boss dodged that lethal blow and countered.

It's pretty easy to avoid randomness if you're careful. When fighting bosses I always plan for the worst case scenario. Killer weapons are the only real problem in terms of random deaths.

What really bugs me is the random growths which have to possibility of turning a great character into useless cannon fodder. And vice versa. Speaking of which, I seem to recall something about a Fixed Growth mode in the newer games. Is that worth playing on? It sound good at first thought, but then I realized that in addition to not getting useless characters I'd also not end up with randomly generated gods. Everyone would just be... average. Does anyone have any experience with that?

edited 8th Aug '10 8:44:35 PM by Clarste

^Not much. I played a few chapters of FE 9 on fixed growth. But then I remembered that randomness is part of the fun, and started over again.

While I am certainly bitter about Rolf getting screwed on strenght, it is more then made up for by Marcia's and Astrid's awesomeness this time around. And since I've never seriously used either Astrid or Marcia, I like it better this way.

What are some good games to start with for a newcomer? Any one's that are successfully translated?

^Ermmmm, all Fire Emblem games after 6 have been commercially translated. And the first one recently got a remake.

If you are dependent on a handheld, I guess that the one simply titled 'Fire Emblem' (FE 7, for purists) would be the best bet.'Shadow Dragon' (FE 1 remake) may have done a good job on remaking the first game, but completely forgot some of the things that made the later games so popular in the west (extensive characterisation, to be specific). 'The Sacred Stones' is different from the other games on a key point, which might ruin the experience of the other games.

If you have a Wii or Gamecube ready, I would suggest to pick up 'Path of Radiance' (FE 9). It's my personal favorite, and the most forgiving of the series as released in the west. 'Radiant Dawn' (FE 10) is a direct sequel, and also Nintendo Hard, so shouldn't be played before FE 9.

So, yeah, if you got the console, 'Path of Radiance'. If you got the handheld, Fire Emblem.