guarded reaction to fire emblem: awakening

i’m more than a month behind, but here’s the first of my catch-up posts. the fire emblem series has long been one of my favorites, and although copies were initially scarce apparently due to delays with shipments i was able to pick up my pre-order of fire emblem: awakening for 3DS from gamestop just a few days later than its actual release date (along with the pre-order bonus art book).

the game has gotten some of the best reception of any game in the series to date, as evidenced by the glowing reviews and the fact it’s had “the best first month sales in the entire history of the franchise, shifting 180,000 units since its launch”. as a long-time fan there was a lot i was looking forward to for this, the 13th entry in the series, especially since the previous game in the series, a sequel to shadow dragon on DS (itself a remake of the very first fire emblem game) didn’t make it outside of japan.

i can see why the game has been popular, as it’s significantly more accessible than other entries in the series. it’s the first (outside of the previous japan-only release) to feature a “casual mode” whereby characters who fall in battle aren’t lost forever, but just for the current map. this mode is entirely optional, though, but the bigger change is that the game has a world map which allows you to fight optional battles for as little or as much as you want to grind for experience and gold. i don’t know why i found this to be such a problem since i loved sacred stones which featured a similar mechanic, but i think one of the big differences is that in that game you couldn’t get really good items like stat boosters and special weapons from the map shops. in awakening not only can you buy special items and weapons whenever you want, but you can also receive them through spotpass and through free and paid DLC.

awakening also allows you to change classes however much you want (resetting your level to level 1 of that class but for the most part without making you lose your increased stats), which means you have unlimited level ups. part of the fun of the fire emblem games thus far has been optimizing your strategy to make your character as powerful as possible by the end of the game and by the time s/he reaches level 20 of her/his final class, but this game is so open-ended that that aspect of the game has been lost. as a result, the game also lacks a ranking system, a feature from earlier games and one that greatly increases replayability.

skills have been an aspect of the game for years, but because of the emphasis on reclassing the game takes on a more final fantasy tactics-like feel but without nearly as much variety in the skills or in the classes themselves (although new skills have been introduced to the fire emblem universe, only a small subset, such as galeforce which allows you to attack twice in one turn, are clearly superior, so much so that they seem overly advantageous). part of the reason the classes have lost some of their uniqueness is that more classes have been added and previous classes adjusted to make reclassing more viable by adding more overlap in the abilities of each class. for example, falcon knights can use staves in this game, which makes it easier for players to reclass a character into or from another class that uses staves since then that character won’t have lost her experience with that weapon type. similarly, the bow knight can use bows and swords, again, making it easier to reclass him/her into a class that uses swords and another weapon, or bows and another weapon. the net result, though, is that the finely tuned balance of classes in previous games is somewhat muddled here.

as i mentioned, the spotpass and paid DLC also make the game more casual since they provide powerful weapons, skills, or characters. a ton of characters from all the previous games in the series are available to recruit via free spotpass DLC, but they’re the characters pretty much in name only since their character models don’t actually look much like them and they only have a minimal amount of unique dialogue (and in some cases feature completely different attributes such as their class). the paid DLC seems pretty useless to me beyond providing advantages to your playthrough even beyond the ones the game and the free DLC provide; they generally include a new map with only a few snippets of dialogue, although i probably will get the ones that include more actual conversations. there is a series of side stories offered as free spotpass DLC that feature unique recruitable characters related to the main game and serve as a sort of epilogue and are much more worthwhile, however.

despite this litany of complaints, i did play play the game obsessively for more than 50 hours and definitely enjoyed some of the brand-new mechanics, namely the dual system whereby two characters can either pair up to create a “superunit”, or fight next to each other and not only give added bonuses like extra avoid as in previous games, but also join in with a follow-up attack or completely guard the other unit from an attack. awakening really emphasizes one of my favorite parts about the series, which is building relationships between characters. i was looking forward to the marriage system, which was previously seen in the japan-only seisen no keifu (aka genealogy of the holy war), and it’s impressive that the developers allowed so many possible pairings. this leads to a huge number of support conversations (although this comes at the expense of exploring more of the same-sex relationships). the children generally tend to be a bit immature and whiny (and outside of unlocking support conversations aren’t really worth using since by the time they arrive they’re much more underlevelled compared to their parents), but it’s fun to see the series explore parent/child and, to a much lesser extent, sibling dynamics and to have different families moving as a group around the battlefield, each member gaining advantages from fighting alongside the rest of his/her family. in order to expedite the marriages, support conversations unlock at a much faster pace than the rest of the series, and it doesn’t seem like certain pairings are harder to get than others. in the previous games it was satisfying to finally earn the highest support rank for the most unlikely pair before the final battle, but, again, that aspect of the series is lost in this game.

in terms of other, more-minor complaints, i got to like the character artwork okay eventually, but i never got into the 3-D models, which look very cutesy and final fantasy crystal chronicles to me since everyone has short bodies. the sound samples for each character helped bring them to life (although got rather repetitive), but the story feels fairly generic even by fire emblem standards and chrom just isn’t a very memorable main character. still, the gameplay is as solid as ever and the characters are still fun to use, and i have a feeling i’ll like it more when i play on a harder mode. although as a long-time fan i feel a bit disappointed overall at how much more accessible this entry is, but if the overall net effect is to bring new fans to the series and thus ensure its continuation (and evolution) then i’m happy to enjoy the game for the characters and new dual mechanics and will wait to see if the next entry can surpass some of my favorites in the series.

oh, and in case you’re wondering, here were my main units: chrom/sully, kjelle/lucina, ricken/miriel, sumia/avatar(M), donnel/maribelle, gaius/tharja, and noire/laurent. gaius was completely useless (a thief who can’t dodge? ugh), and ricken, tharja, and avatar were similarly weak. my MVPs were definitely miriel, sully, donnel (he often got every single +1 possible on his level ups), and kjelle, and noire was worth using because she’s pretty hilarious. her S-rank with laurent is really creepy, though. and of course henry was an easy favorite (his A-rank convo with lissa is really cute haha).

guarded fire emblem: awakening links:
- official website, includes wallpapers
- serenesforest.net is still my #1 fire emblem resource. don’t leave ylisse without it.
- iwata asks feature

you never forget your first … replaying fire emblem 8

[note: this post is more ruminative than a typical review, seeing as how my love for FE burns bright and this post is about a replay of a game. consider yourself warned. ]

it’s been several years now since i first played fire emblem: the sacred stones for GBA. since then i’ve played all the other games in the series that have been released in the US (and am waiting impatiently for the US release of FE12 which was released in japan 5 months ago). but although i haven’t mentioned it since then, i’ve actually been playing it off and on over the past few years. one of the unique things about FE8 compared to the other games in the series is that after you beat the main quest, there are two areas, the tower of valni and the lagdou ruins, that you can torture yourself by trying to complete. i say torture, because both of them provide significant challenges simply due to the fact that you have to defeat multiple maps (8 for one and 10 for the other) without being able to save, i.e. if you lose a character due to one stupid mistake, due to the game’s central permanent death mechanic if you want to keep him/her you have to START THE ENTIRE DUNGEON OVER AGAIN. the lagdou ruins aren’t a walk in the park as it is, and i’ve spent way too much time trying to make my way through the ruins with absurdly underpowered characters.

and that brings me to my next point, which is that one of the things i love about the FE series is that you can always choose how difficult to make the game for yourself. in RPGs in general i suppose you can make the game harder by going out of your way to not use certain equipment or certain characters, but since you can always train your characters up through random battles there’s not really any sense of really being able to limit yourself. in the FE games, the majority of which don’t include random battles, you can place limitations upon yourself to such varying degrees that the same game constantly feels fresh, helped in no small part by the huge cast of characters you can choose from, each with his/her own distinct personality. of course the games are challenging enough in and of themselves, but advanced players can always find some new twist to make things more fun, such as limiting yourself to only magic users or unmounted units or characters who appear with the lowest base level or even something as arbitrary as characters with green hair. other games in the series have more challenges within the game, such as being graded on how quickly you finish each chapter, but FE8 has the advantage of being shorter than other games in the series, and thus perhaps a more likely candidate for challenges among fans. one of the things i find particularly worthwhile myself is using the characters who start off being the worst. since virtually all the characters become worthwhile once they reach the higher levels, it’s quite gratifying to carefully train up an egregiously ignored character and then have him/her blaze his/her way through the remainder of the game (see my 2nd playthrough (PT) of FE10 for a prime example ).

okay, now on to the particulars. as i mentioned, i’ve made my way through both the tower and the ruins a couple of times each successfully (and many more times unsuccessfully for the latter), but i’ve also been playing the hard mode off and on. this is the first hard mode i’ve played in an FE game, and as FE8 is pretty much unanimously considered to be the easiest of the lot i didn’t mind easing myself into a greater challenge. it wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult, although there are a couple of chapters here and there that will make your blood pressure rise. it was nice to get to play through the second of the two main characters’ quests (which differ by 5 of the 21 chapters), and support conversations (short sequences of dialogue between characters you use together) are as much of a draw as ever.

ah, support convos! in my first PT, as with the other FE games, i stuck with pairings that the game makes obvious, which are pretty much all romantic pairings between a male and a female character. but the game has many more pairings that trigger support convos, and it’s fascinating to me to see what conversations the game’s writers have come up with for characters who would seem to have very little in common. sometimes this leads to unexpected romances or friendships, but oftentimes it also makes the world of the game feel more alive as the two may discuss the events that are happening or talk about one of the other characters. these insights into each character’s personality are painstaking to uncover and are spaced out over the course of a PT, and although one could easily just read them online it’s much more satisfying for a completist like myself to unlock them one at a time by actually playing the game. which isn’t too much of a chore, since the game continues to be as enjoyable as ever.

five FE games later it’s interesting to look back on the first one i’d played. the game itself can be much easier than any of the other games simply by virtue of the aforementioned random encounters you can use to train up your characters, but the small cast of characters and its post-game objectives make it unique and still an easy favorite. the color palette is bolder and more striking than the other two GBA FE games, and although it’s hard to assess objectively how i would rank this compared to the others, i’ll always have a soft spot for this, my first fire emblem experience. awwww.

oh, and in case anyone similarly FE crazy is reading this and wondering, my final team was: ephraim/l’arachel, lute/ross, gerik/tethys, colm/kyle, moulder/vannesa, and eirika/seth, with neimi/gilliam, joshua/artur, and cormag/natasha as backups. i don’t remember why, but i trained my group really unevenly. on average only about half of them reached around level 12 promoted while the rest were around level 1 promoted or hardly used at all and just hung around for the ride (and the support convos). ross was the MVP, but vanessa (who i hadn’t used last time) turned out to be the star player. ephraim, lute, kyle, and tethys were as reliable as ever, and cormag was shaping up to be pretty useful also. moulder was surprisingly useful. although he’s not nearly as strong offensively as the other magic users, his high defense and HP make him uniquely durable. gerik turned out to be kind of weak, which was surprising since he had dominated my first PT. and yet again i seem to have avoided all the latecomers to the team (mostly prepromotes) like the plague.

i started a 3rd PT and am sorely tempted to continue with it, but i really should move on to other games. for now at least!

some sacred links:
- as usual serenesforest.net is the go-to source of info for all things FE including official character art
- the serenesforest forums are quite active, and include such relevant topics of discussion as FE8 tier lists
- hard mode enemy stats
- entertaining video compilation of characters’ critical hit animations
- most of the links from my previous FE8 post are outdated now, but this promo chart is still extremely useful (although i have it pretty much memorized by now. ha.)

shadow of a fire emblem

anyone who’s taken even a cursory look through this blog has probably picked up on the fact that fire emblem is one of my favorite video game series, as evidenced by, among other things, the fact that i played through the heretofore latest installment in the series, the epically long fire emblem: radiant dawn, twice in a row. i’ve been totally psyched to play the newest entry in the series fire emblem: shadow dragon ever since it was announced: at long last fire emblem fans the world over can rejoice that the original fire emblem has finally been released outside of japan. well, not the original since shadow dragon is actually a remake, but in many ways we’re better off with a remake than the original, even aside from the fact it’s been translated.

first off, yes, this game features the same marth made famous to western audiences through his appearance in super smash bros. melee and who also made a second appearance in the more recent super smash bros. brawl. my initial reaction, like many other hardcore FE fans, was disappointment that so many of the features, even relatively basic ones, that were present in the recent games weren’t carried over to this iteration. in particular i was really disappointed that support conversations hadn’t been included, which are easily one of my favorite things about the games. support convos are sections of dialogue between pairs of characters that occur when they fight close to each other in battle, and they really give the game’s storyline much more depth and also give the game more replayability.

it’s no secret that nintendo was looking to make a more accessible version of what is a hardcore series in order to attract newcomers, and in fact in an interview the creators said that they were afraid the support conversations would make the storyline more confusing (which i completely disagree with, a classic case of a developer and a fan not seeing eye to eye). in terms of making the game friendly to newcomers there’s no doubt that intelligent systems succeeded in their goal, though (helped in no small part by the fact that marth is such a popular character in the smash bros. series), and some of the changes they’ve made are: the number of actions and stats each unit has are much more limited than in the other recent games; there’s a slew of powerful characters to use and replacement characters available if you happen to lose too many of the story characters; there’s a method of borrowing more powerful characters from a friend to get through a tough spot; there’s an online shop you can connect to in order to buy powerful weapons; and for the first time save points are included on the maps. the additions to make the game easier can mostly be ignored if you choose, but the save points are a welcome change, even to me, a long-time vet, and a nice compromise between radiant dawn‘s ability to save anywhere at any time.

i don’t have a problem with nintendo making their games accessible so long as they satisfy the hardcore audience as well. so how does shadow dragon shape up? well, at first i was looking at the game from the point of view of the recent games, and in that respect there’s so much that wasn’t included that it’s impossible not to be disappointed. but when you look at the game from the point of view of the original famicom game and see what was added, it makes you feel like you’re getting a taste of what the original was like and makes you really appreciate for the first time the innovations that came later as the series progressed, particularly since entries #1-6 weren’t released outside of japan.

but aside from the historical context of the original game, the standard addictive FE core mechanics, and the chance to finally see marth in a starring role, there still were just enough new features that i was kept entertained. there were the DS-specific interface features which were great, wifi multiplayer for the first time (although not particularly well designed at all in terms of matching you with a player at a similar level), and two new classes that non-japanese audiences had never seen before that were fun to use (chameleon a.k.a. freelancer and the incredibly useful ballistician). but the main new feature is the brand new reclassing system. each unit has base stats and growths and class-specific stats and growths, and it’s quite a lot of geeky fun to study the stats and work out which units would benefit the most from being changed to a different class (e.g. changing an archer to a dark mage) in order to make up for their shortcomings or emphasize their strengths even more. the FE series has always had a strong component of nerdiness in determining which units are the best and the best way to maximize each character’s stats as efficiently as possible, and the reclassing feature definitely helps make up for some of the features that weren’t included. the reclassing system isn’t intended to be anything like the complex, central system of the final fantasy tactics games, though, and it fits into the aesthetic of the game in the sense that it doesn’t change the core gameplay at all and it can help make the game easier for a novice. the addition of six levels of difficulty isn’t much of a saving grace, although there’s no doubt that i’ll be playing through at least some of them in the future.

so all in all although i was a bit disappointed with the shallowness of the story and the simpler gameplay, it’s still a fire emblem game and i definitely enjoyed it. in this great interview for nintendo between sakurai of brawl fame and FE series producer narihiro, the latter mentions that the game was created to acknowledge the 25th year of fire emblem and the creation of the 10th game in the series (although shadow dragon is actually the 11th game). he also says the game was intended to be “an opportunity to once again introduce everyone to the fun and attractions that this series has to offer.” in that sense it’s much easier to forgive the game’s lack of more hardcore offerings. the handheld games have historically had less features than the console ones anyway, so as long as this is just a dip and the next game will be as jam-packed with content as before i won’t be complaining too much. in any case, i’m hoping the game sells well enough that the SNES sequel to the game (the original FE3) comes out before too long. like shadow dragon, it would be the next best thing to playing the original games in japanese.

oh, and if anyone’s wondering, my main team consisted of frey, abel, ogma, cord (dark mage), bord, beck, shiida (a.k.a. caeda), wrys, marth, darros, lena, merric, and gordin. the game has less balanced characters than other games, in that some characters are clearly superior to others. i happened to pick a lot of the uber units this time around, but in other playthroughs i’ll focus more on the less godly ones. and if anyone is wondering and doesn’t already know, cord makes a great dark mage: he’s one of the few non-magic units who has a relatively high base magic growth, so he’s clearly an ideal choice. yes, i know, i’m an FE geek. i gotta get a FE t-shirt or some figurines or something hahaha.

some fiery links!
- yet again serenesforest.net has the most awe-inspiringly complete shadow dragon site around, with all the essential info including characters’ base stats and growths, info on reclassing and the online shop, as well as the soundtrack and wallpapers.
- also worth mentioning is that serenesforest.net has loads of information on the original version of the game, including some entertaining in-game character artwork, official character artwork from the japanese-only trading card game, and scanlations (some in english) of the official manga of the original game.
- the reviews all seem to be basically in agreement. here are the reviews at 1up, IGN, and IGN UK.
- nice interview with the director of intelligent systems with the tantalizing comment, “As the basis of the series is supported by features of ‘Strategy RPGs’, we will continue to make new titles based upon them even in the future. But I think all of the Fire Emblem games do not have to be so…” yowza! i think i just wet my pants.
- the official site doesn’t have that much information, but it may be interesting to newbies and it has a nice section on the various character classes.
- hardcore gaming 101 has a nice run-down of the entire 11-game series, including shadow dragon
- for the european release nintendo UK put out a video on the history of the series (youtube version here).
- presumably in order to make the game even more accessible to newbies nintendo sent out an official release offering up hints and tips for the game, hahaha.

out with the old, in with the new

another year draws to a close, and the internet has been abuzz with retrospectives and previews. in the former category IGN has pretty nice 6-page year in review features for all the various video gaming platforms, including the wii and DS. the features include a look back at the year’s news, game highlights, and a look ahead. it’s almost impossible to believe that the wii, in its third holiday season, is still selling out, but the big N continues to dominate, even with its DS in its fifth holiday season.

there’s no question that they’re making big bucks, but nintendo’s fanbase has been increasingly disappointed ever since this past year’s E3. (i hesitate to say their “core” fanbase b/c the true core fanbase are an almost painfully loyal group and don’t get disappointed easily.) wii music and the new animal crossing failed to satisfy any of the “hardcore” gamers, and nintendo’s press release of what we have to look forward to in Q1 of next year (which somehow omitted capcom’s offerings) has left a lot of them despairing (like most online groups they’re a rather melodramatic lot). for nintendo’s first party offerings it does seem they could have paced their releases better, but the backlog of great games on the virtual console and wiiware doesn’t make me personally feel like i’m twiddling my thumbs with nothing to play (not to mention the literally hundreds of retro games i have lying around waiting to be touched). in terms of third party games it seems we’re still in the midst of the gap left from the releases put out by early developers (the gamblers who banked on the wii’s success and were proven right) and those that are still being developed by the ones who were waiting to see how the wii would fare before they committed to developing for it. but once we bridge that gap hopefully we’ll see a steadier supply from both nintendo and third parties. or am i just being optimistic?

anyway, as for me, i’m just psyched we have a US release date for fire emblem DS (feb. 16!!!). the other game on nintendo’s list that i have my eye on is retro game challenge (apparently actually not due out until feb. 10), featuring versions of classic arcade games with xbox-like achievements as their main focus. in terms of the rest of 2009 i’m keeping my eye out on rhythm heaven, an apparently warioware-like rhythm game, punch-out!! wii, and wii sports 2. and of course looking forward to getting our hands on the DSi and the accompanying DSiware. (can virtual console game boy and game boy advance games be far behind? fingers crossed.) in any case i trust that the head honchos at nintendo know what they’re doing and that they have more than a few surprises up their sleeves. it’s a couple of weeks early, but what the heck: here’s to a great 2009!

sword sealed

since i’ve exhausted all the fire emblem games that have been released in the states, it was inevitable that i would turn my attention sooner or later to the ones that haven’t been officially translated into english. in this case, sooner, w/ the first GBA fire emblem game, FE6, subtitled “the sword of seals” (no, not the sea world variety). although learning japanese has steadily risen among the items on my master list of things to do in my lifetime, luckily i didn’t have to wait before tackling this game b/c online you can find a great fan translation of it.

sword of seals is notable for several reasons. for one, it was the first GBA fire emblem, so the vast majority of its engine (inc. game mechanics, menus, calculations, and graphics) was re-used for the two subsequent GBA releases, the blazing sword and the sacred stones. second, it features roy as the protagonist, who was featured in super smash bros. melee and who along with fire emblem icon marth, also featured in melee, first sparked the interest of most english-speakers in the fire emblem series and eventually led to the first fire emblem game released outside of japan (although the first to get an international release wasn’t this one, roy’s game, but the next one, blazing sword). third, unbeknownst to most english speakers at the time, the aforementioned game blazing sword, which followed sword of seals, was actually a prequel to that game, and features several of the same characters and more than a few cameo appearances.

so, being the first of the GBA fire emblem trio it’s perhaps not surprising that there are several ways that the game pales in comparison. the main one for me is that support conversations feel slightly less developed. according to wikipedia this was actually the first game in the series that had support conversations, and although the types of conversations are similar to the other games, the characters here just seem slightly less alive. this may be in part due to the fan translation as opposed to having an official one. also, the lack of a support reader showing supports that have been unlocked makes me slightly less motivated to play the game again. similarly, the ranking system tracking overall game performance feels slightly less polished here.

in terms of specifics, one complaint i had about the game is that thieves don’t promote, which was a surprise when i realized it, and somewhat of a disappointment as it screwed up my previous strategy. also, there are three extra chapters at the end that contain the “real” ending that you can only get if you fulfill certain conditions, several of which would be fairly easy to miss on your first or even your second playthrough. the other complaint i had is that the enemies’ overuse of berserk staffs seems fairly pointless and cheap. to my recollection the other two GBA games minimized this, what i feel is just a cheap tactic.

newcomers to the series would be unlikely to miss anything, though, and refraining from comparisons to the others the game on its own is quite enjoyable. the story is engaging, and like the other two games this one has a branching storyline for several chapters. there’s a huge cast of characters which adds to the replayability, and the gameplay, while permanently etched into my brain by now, is still fun and addictive. prequels and sequels are generally entertaining and this one’s no exception for those who have already played FE7. all in all this isn’t going to be the first fire emblem game i’d pick up to replay, but it’s definitely a game that i’m looking forward to playing again despite being so similar to the others. and, yes, even after this my 5th fire emblem game my flame for the series still burns. haha. but i think now may be the time for a longer hiatus, believe it or not. we’ll just have to see how that pans out.

some sealed sword links:
- great walkthrough at fireemblemworld.com
- english fire emblem documentary has some great stuff, inc. a a good character guide, the character endings, and the official artwork.
- serenes forest: indispensible for the other games, but for this one there are some things you’ll have to find elsewhere. also includes the soundtrack and maps.
- gamefaqs has a copy of the translation of the game script.
- text of all the support conversations at neoseeker.com
- coupla wallpapers at feplanet.net
- for the really nerdy (you know who you are), a listing of all the expected averages in all the stats at every level for all the characters in all the games.

another day, another dawn of radiance

so despite my best efforts i hadn’t gotten fire emblem completely out of my system, even after all of last year’s fire emblem gluttony and having finished the newest game fire emblem: radiant dawn less than a month ago. but i still had fire emblem on the brain and there wasn’t any other game grabbing me, so there was nothing to do but play through the game a second time. yes, i played that 50 hour game two times in a row. someone needs to schedule an intervention.

it’s always interesting to me to see how games hold up on multiple playthroughs. fire emblem games have an easier time than most other series by simple virtue of the large casts and the different strategies required for different combinations of characters. in this case i used almost all different characters and in particular focused on two characters that since the game came out have been virtually ignored, namely meg and fiona. [warning: heavy geek-speak follows. skip ahead a few paragraphs to avoid.]

in pretty much all the fire emblem games given enough training any unit can be worthwhile, but meg and fiona both turned out to be quite good units. meg’s only problem is that she comes in underlevelled, and once she gets caught up w/ the others she’s definitely as useful as any of the other characters from part 1. she’s not too hard to train either; the only concession was that i had to give her the brave sword and a wind sword, but by the laguz in the swamp chapter she was easily holding her own. in general generals/marshalls are among the best classes in radiant dawn, so you can’t go wrong there even w/ meg (and prob. tauroneo also).

fiona is a different story in that she comes in underlevelled and she has terrible base stats, so she’s without a doubt one of the hardest units to train up. i had to boss abuse like crazy up to tier 2, but once she hit the middle of second tier she’s fine for the rest of the game and in fact well worth using as her combined defense and resistance is unparalleled, even compared to defense powerhouses like generals. if i had forged her a light lance at the beginning i prob. could’ve trained her a bit more easily. her worst fault is that her str lags behind a lot (but once it catches up a bit it’s not much worse than a falcoknight), but her incredible def/res, great avoid (+ earth affinity), and great mag (b/c she has the imbue skill from the beginning so it’s incredibly useful), and her skill (sol, one of the best) make her a great unit to use and as good a wall as any general. she almost made my top 10, and if i hadn’t boss abused her at the beginning she prob. would’ve been right up there.

for the record, for the second playthrough my final team consisted of: ike/soren, micaiah/sothe, sanaki/ilyana, meg/aran, astrid/makalov, kyza/rhys, fiona/pelleas, and rafiel. that’s right, no royals this time. haha. i do like to make things hard for myself. astrid and makalov turned out to be fairly usable as well. i’ve never really seen much use for a mounted archer instead of a marksman (who in this game gains a range of 3 at 3rd tier), but astrid has some great dialogue in the final and her hit-and-run ability was pretty useful at times. makalov wasn’t bad at all either. not one of the uber units in FE10, but he gets some good criticals and has good speed. not the highest strength of the mounted units though. pelleas was also not bad at all. he’s nothing too special, maybe slightly better than the average mage, but you gotta love the dark magic.

and once again i had quite a few characters i could’ve used instead for the ending, including ulki who was already maxed out before 4F, rolf, laura/leonardo, lucia/elincia, edward/nolan, and boyd/mist. ah well. next time!

comparing the 2nd playthrough to the 1st, in terms of strategizing which characters to use the most i think i was thrown off the first time through b/c i was expecting it to be like the other FE games where you have to really focus on the units you want to take through to the final chapter if you want to get their stats as high as possible. but since there’s so much EXP in part 4 of radiant dawn, it seems that if you just try to use every character in your party for every chapter you have them pretty much anyone you want can make it to your final group. so this mentally took me some getting adjusted to.

also, this time through i tried focusing more on the laguz, but as much as i wanted them to be useful they really just took up space and stole EXP. which is too bad, b/c from a gameplay perspective they provide some variety. next time through i’m really going to just completely leave them out until maybe part 4 if i really want to use them b/c by then they’re not stealing EXP. the only one i found to be at all useful pre-part 4 was ulki who dodges everything, can gain a lot of experience by striking in human form, and can quickly recover from being completely untranformed.

one thing that i found myself really disliking about radiant dawn this time through compared to the other FE games is that there are a lot of chapters where you have no choice about who you get to use. in the other games you generally only have to use the same characters for about the first 1/4 of the game, but by then you’ve recruited enough other characters that you can then choose who you want to use. this makes a big difference in replayability, as different characters on the same board layout make for quite a different experience. the inflexibility in FE10 makes me feel like it’ll be rather longer before i pick it up again compared to some of the others. like most of the other FE games FE10 does include the advantage of slightly different story elements on the 2nd playthrough, and with all the different approaches i tried this time i had a good time, and in some ways it was even more enjoyable than the first time through. and i’m somewhat looking forward to tackling the hardest mode, which lacking the save state feature, the weapon triangle, and being able to view enemies’ movement ranges sounds like it’ll be as much of a pain as a fun challenge. but it’s nice to know that although my fire emblem obsession has been partially satiated i’ll still have plenty to satisfy me in the future when the craving hits.

just a reminder of the one link you need:
- serenes forest: easily the best FE10 resource. don’t leave home without it.

radiant fire emblem

by now even semi-regular visitors to this blog know that whenever there’s a long break between posts you can count on it being due to me obsessing over another fire emblem game, in this case the latest in the series, fire emblem: radiant dawn for the wii. this was against my better judgement, seeing as how i had almost literally just finished its prequel on the gamecube, path of radiance, but obsession runs in the family and so why bother resisting it? it’s easy to not feel guilty when you can blame the genes.

so how does my 4th fire emblem game in six months stack up? i have to admit there was a fair amount i didn’t personally like about the game but that others would see as strengths. for one, i wasn’t really into the groups of characters i could use changing on me all the time, mostly b/c i’d rather see a small cast get really well developed and well delineated. i was rather disappointed that there were some characters i wanted to use more but just weren’t in enough chapters (e.g. marcia and kieran, tormod and his crew). but others may like having the opportunity to use almost all the characters instead of having to focus on a few to get through the end.

i, and apparently most of the other fans of the series, also really disliked the way that support conversations are almost completely reduced. i didn’t feel that the ability to change supports on the fly and support with anyone counterbalanced the lack of real support dialogue, which is one of my favorite features of the previous FE games. also, despite really enjoying having a sequel to a FE game (the first sequel we’ve gotten for the FE games in english), i thought the first part was too similar to the storyline of FE9 and that overall the game itself was a bit too long (although again, the length may be seen as a plus to many).

the 3rd tier promotions didn’t seem like quite as big a change as i thought they would be. i was hoping that the characters that started at the 1st tier (i.e. the dawn brigade) would become powerhouses to compensate for the difficulty in training them, like the trainee classes in fire emblem: the sacred stones, but no such luck. in my playthrough most of those early characters capped their stats at earlier levels than the others, but they reached those levels at about the same time as the other teams. in other words, most of my dawn brigade were capping their stats around the middle of the 3rd tier while the other teams capped their stats closer to level 19 or 20 of that tier, but since all the characters reach those points at about the same time it didn’t really give the dawn brigade any advantage. part of the problem is that the last part (part 4) is where a large amount of levelling up happens due to the stronger enemies. with more bonus exp usage i could’ve prob. gotten the earlier characters caught up quicker, but there’s not a lot of incentive to with so many other characters to use; plus there are already a fair number of overpowered units you could use instead.

despite these complaints, there were def. some nice touches though. having different heights for terrain was a nice (although mostly maddening) addition, and there were several chapters that stood out in my memory as unique even among all the FE games i’ve played. the laguz are slightly more usable in this game, and i was also pretty impressed w/ how even w/ the expanded the cast and no support conversations all the characters are pretty memorable. the character designs continue to be one of the things that i really enjoy about the FE games in general. i also appreciated the difficulty of the game which i thought was more than a fair trade for the fact you can save the game at any point, a change which will no doubt attract a wider audience but which the hardcore gamer in me doesn’t quite wholly embrace yet.

so all in all i had a good if not great time. def. worth playing through again, esp. with some worthwhile extra content during the 2nd playthrough. for posterity, my final team consisted of: ike/soren, micaiah/sothe, haar/brom, nolan/ilyana, boyd/mia, and laura/aran for the heck of it. (images of some of the characters i particularly enjoyed using in FE10 but hadn’t used much in FE9 are spotlighted above.) haar, nolan, and boyd are good characters everyone seems to agree on, but brom ended up being a surprise powerhouse early on for me. at 3rd tier he literally dodges practically everything, and w/ a poleax he’s pretty much unstoppable. i’m def. going to have to go back and use him in FE9 just b/c he was so good in FE10. i had a lot of pairs i could’ve used instead for the ending, including nephenee/heather, marcia/kieran, edward/leonardo, rhys/rolf, and danved/calill, but i guess they’re going to have to wait for my next time through.

some radiant links:
- serenes forest continues to be an indispensible resource. tons of great stuff here, including a good run-down of the new features, details on the herons’ abilities, a walkthrough, details on all the skills and supports, stat growths and caps, wallpapers, boss conversations, the list goes on. bookmark it now.
- wallpapers, icons, and character portraits at feplanet.net
- info on the bug with transferring data from FE9 and getting a replacement disc from nintendo

radiant path

so i’m sure i’m not the only one who worked his way through fire emblem: path of radiance in preparation for the release of fire emblem: radiant dawn, its sequel. this would explain my hermit-like state for however long it took me to finish the game, a state that was uncannily similar to when i was playing fire emblem: the sacred stones and when i was playing the first US GBA fire emblem. by now i’ve learned my lesson that i should only start playing these games when i have a lot of free time.

despite being my 3rd fire emblem game (in some six months no less!), i found the experience to be as compelling as ever. the support conversations are still one of my top motivations for playing, and there were enough minor changes to the already compelling gameplay to keep me obsessed. i particularly liked one of the bigger changes, having half-beast characters with their advantages and limitations, although i can easily see why most people don’t seem to be fond of them. one area that i think the series could improve on in general are more ingenious level design, perhaps with different goals. but otherwise, even though it was pretty easy overall (maybe b/c i’m so far from being a rookie nowadays but also i think b/c of the addition of bonus experience), i had a great time. and if you were wondering, my dream team was: soren, boyd, kieran, nephenee, ike, ilyana, rhys, marcia, mia, and rolf. i’m def. chomping at the bit to play the new game, which was just released this week, but four fire emblem games in six months might be a wee bit much … you think? in any case i’m def. looking forward to seeing ike in brawl.

links of radiance:
- serenes forest: an amazing, amazing site. i don’t know how i missed this when i was playing the other games, but maybe the site was temporarily down at the time. so much great info here, including translations of the “ancient language”, info on in-built support bonuses (not mentioned in the instructions at all), wallpapers, sprites, bonus tables, the works. will be coming back to this again and again.
- good guide at gamerhelp.com
- FAQ at IGN
- guide at IGN
- marimbamonkey14 has some fantastic fire emblem fan art on deviantart.com
- the official site doesn’t have much, but it’s there if you’re obsessed with everything fire emblem (ahem …)
- there were some other fire emblem sites i mentioned in my previous posts that also have some good info, most of which can also be found on the aforementioned serenes forest

thumbs down for IGN

one of the main complaints about the wii is that the current library of must-have titles is fairly small, which was one of the gamecube’s biggest problems. the wii has only been out for a little less than a year, but just when i was starting to get worried more developers have announced wii titles, hoping to capitalize on the wii’s phenomenal success. from a business standpoint it makes sense for them, since wii titles will be significantly quicker and easier to make. in any case hopefully we should see some big changes soon.

regardless, this holiday season isn’t looking too shabby, which for the wii includes the release of fire emblem: radiant dawn, the sequel to fire emblem: path of radiance. there was a minor ruckus on IGN’s fire emblem message boards due to bozon’s egregiously rushed (and in my opinion completely unprofessional) review in which he dismisses the game on the grounds of it being a sequel and provides little to no detail about the game itself. in fact, the conspicuous lack of detail has led more than one reader to wonder whether he even played the game, which for such a respected site is just, in a word, pathetic. i am in no way exaggerating when i say it’s one of the shabbiest reviews i’ve ever read on a professional site. hopefully this doesn’t indicate IGN is jumping the shark, but this has been a big blow to their credibility and has lead me to a conveniently apt nickname for bozon, provided by simply removing the last letter of his name. i’ve been getting more and more disappointed in IGN’s reviews which seem to confuse aesthetic preferences in game design with unique and quality game experiences. the radiant dawn review reflects this, and casamassina in particular keeps complaining about games like zelda not featuring voice acting when the creators have made it clear that it’s an aesthetic choice. time will tell how loyal i stay to IGN, but in the meantime i’ve already started spending more time at other sites like 1up.com and i’ve always enjoyed the reviews at gonintendo.com. i also find myself often agreeing with the reviewers at nintendo power, so i may spend more time reading that as well.

well, that was a longer editorial than i’d meant it to be. i’ll split off what i was actually going to write about to make archiving more convenient.

fire emblem advanced

ech. yet again i’m in catch up mode. part of why i got behind again was because, like the obsessive freak i am, i started bulldozing my way through fire emblem (a.k.a. fire emblem 7) less than a week after making my obsessive way through fire emblem: the sacred stones (a.k.a. fire emblem 8).

unlike most people i played FE8 before FE7, so it’s perhaps not too surprising that overall i liked FE8 better. i enjoyed the smaller cast of characters in FE8, which means you get to focus on them more, and i really liked the post-win “creature campaign” where you get to embark on marathon missions (with no saves!) with your favorites to unlock secret characters and, perhaps more importantly, max out your characters’ stats. i also liked that there’s a world map and that in between missions you can take a break and fight some monsters, although this ability to level up outside of the story chapters does break any of the game’s control on its level of difficulty. i found i also missed getting to choose which class to promote to (although in most of the cases it’s fairly clear which you should pick), and you also get characters that can be promoted twice which is cool. all in all i found most of the differences make FE8 the more interesting game overall, but as i said it could just be that i’m just biased b/c i played it first. in any case, i’ll def. be playing through the second storyline.

overall i also found the story in FE7 to be less compelling somehow. it’s been just a couple of weeks since i finished it and i had to really try to remember anything about the characters i used. the character images above, taken from the english fire emblem documentary site, are the three characters i got to level 20 by the end (kent, erk, and bartre), plus canas who as the only dark mage was an easy favorite (not to mention the awesome purple hair!).

i thought i’d conquered my fire emblem obsession after playing this game and resisting starting fire emblem: path of radiance, but it turns out i haven’t: i have to confess that i’m playing through the other quest of sacred stones on hard mode. playing with different characters is fun, and the satisfaction of unlocking more support conversations is a big lure. it’s also nice to be playing it less obsessively than before, and i might even be able to actually give it a rest by the time i get back to where the two stories join up again (although somehow i doubt it).

a-link-a link-a link:

- a handy table of the supports at rpgclassics.com
- as with FE8, english fire emblem documentary has some great stuff on FE7, inc. wallpapers, cool official artwork, a good character guide, and a table that lists all the bonuses from supports.
- fire emblem online has some good stuff too, including all the cutscene artwork and wallpapers.
- ign has a decent, although somewhat barebones, guide, though it omits the bonus chapters.
- ign also has this good FAQ and this FAQ which contains a good character FAQ section.
- some random tips ‘n tricks
- wikipedia has a general guide to the characters.