[3DS] Fire Emblem: if / Fire Emblem Fates

[Tong]

Originally Posted by Shadow5YA

Tong defends it to death as accurate to the Japanese version (despite having no knowledge of Japanese), while I find that the English is broken in a lot of places.

Me? More like anyone with a bit of common sense and has seen both TLs. But enough of that, this matter has been stressfully discussed already. Plus, obvious bait.
In fact, this issue is so out of hand that it deserved an article on Forbes: http://archive.is/OvU8l

This is the interesting part:

In the instance of Fates, the motive for changing the game is profit-driven rather than purely moralistic and authoritarian, but the results are similar enough. People are deprived of the work in its originally intended form based on decisions made largely by corporate suits rather than game designers. The changes are made to appease a small but vocal slice of the gaming community without much consideration for many franchise fans who’d rather experience the game as it was intended. (And many others will never know about the changes, never wade into the controversy, etc.)

Some data:


Phew...

[Firefly00]

...incoming soundtrack (scheduled deployment 27 Apr.).

[blakstealth]

8 discs...just how much music does this game have?

[serenade_beta]

I'd say they just have less music on 1 CD, if the soundtrack really has 8 of them.
This game doesn't have that many tracks. Though I guess since they have 3 versions of various BGMs for each route, they might have been able to buff up the numbers.

[DevilHighDxD]

The localization is cancer, important characters skinship's dialogues that foreshadow future events are completely removed and replaced by "Please kiss me" or whatever generic craps they think of.

Read the translated Azura's Japanese skinship dialogues and see how much better that was compared to what we have. I am angry that they censored skinship not because of the petting but that I afraid that they will too removed the dialogues that your spouse gave when you interact with them. I am happy when the skinship's dialogue is announced still in there but I am very disappointed in the way they turn out to be. Well at least the game is good, Nintendo really drop the ball with Fates regarding the localization.

Honestly Fates is very unpolished compared to Awakening, there so many plot and story inconsistencies that I questioned if they read what they wrote. The story in general really suffer due to the multi-path split release that they chose to take.

[DragoonKain3]

You know what I wish I knew in Conquest? Support growths are capped per map, effectively making each support rank up every 2 maps for anything over C rank (exception to 'fast' supports who can get to B rank in just 1 map). I think it was also capped in Awakening, but considering that Awakening was just pure grind I think I forgot. Man wasted so much time plonking enemies with low MT weapons...

So ideally, you want to use your seed of trusts on the map where you just ranked up last battle, so you'd be able to straight rank up in just 1 map (barring S rank ups). If you're feeling lucky, characters talking in My Castle has the same effect, but as your army grows, the harder it is to get specific match ups.

Still not sure if multiple Seeds of Trust stack on the same map, because I'm 100% sure that a 26 turn map that got solod by a fresh A-rank support pair using 1 Seed of Trust did not get them to S. Still don't have a 2nd Seed to play around in the same save, unfortunately, since I can't resist using them ASAP. XD

[einhorn303]

Originally Posted by DragoonKain3

You know what I wish I knew in Conquest? Support growths are capped per map, effectively making each support rank up every 2 maps for anything over C rank (exception to 'fast' supports who can get to B rank in just 1 map). I think it was also capped in Awakening, but considering that Awakening was just pure grind I think I forgot. Man wasted so much time plonking enemies with low MT weapons...

So ideally, you want to use your seed of trusts on the map where you just ranked up last battle, so you'd be able to straight rank up in just 1 map (barring S rank ups). If you're feeling lucky, characters talking in My Castle has the same effect, but as your army grows, the harder it is to get specific match ups.

Still not sure if multiple Seeds of Trust stack on the same map, because I'm 100% sure that a 26 turn map that got solod by a fresh A-rank support pair using 1 Seed of Trust did not get them to S. Still don't have a 2nd Seed to play around in the same save, unfortunately, since I can't resist using them ASAP. XD

Interesting, thanks for sharing this. This really matters to me, since I play without grinding, but choosing supports for story reasons. So to get a kid unit from late recruit, and be able to get the kid to S-rank, I gotta build up supports really quick and carefully!

BTW, do you know if there's anywhere to get Seeds of Trust in Conquest besides visit bonuses?

[serenade_beta]

To be honest, the children are more "late-game experience points" in Conquest, since the child levels' enemies' levels change depending on your level. So once you get stuck, you can use one of the child levels to level up your characters.
So it's worth trying to get as many children levels as possible... just for the sake of experience. It makes it easy since you can let characters like superly-dooperly get killed without any harm.

[DevilHighDxD]

Btw anyone playing on Lunatic on Conquest? Surviving Chapter 24 is literally like trying to survive cancer, later maps (when you got to Hoshido) is the definition of anti-fun. Holy moly the amount of reinforcements is so annoying. Only a true M play this mode...

[Spectacular_Insanity]

Originally Posted by DevilHighDxD

The localization is cancer, important characters skinship's dialogues that foreshadow future events are completely removed and replaced by "Please kiss me" or whatever generic craps they think of.

Read the translated Azura's Japanese skinship dialogues and see how much better that was compared to what we have. I am angry that they censored skinship not because of the petting but that I afraid that they will too removed the dialogues that your spouse gave when you interact with them. I am happy when the skinship's dialogue is announced still in there but I am very disappointed in the way they turn out to be. Well at least the game is good, Nintendo really drop the ball with Fates regarding the localization.

Honestly Fates is very unpolished compared to Awakening, there so many plot and story inconsistencies that I questioned if they read what they wrote. The story in general really suffer due to the multi-path split release that they chose to take.

Ugh. This majorly disappoints me. I was considering giving it a shot despite them splitting up the game due to greed, but if they're wrecking the writing because of it, count me out. One of my favorite elements in Fire Emblem games is the character interaction. It's what makes it unique compared to other similar strategy games. The writing is half of the reason why I'm loyal to the series.

[DevilHighDxD]

Originally Posted by Spectacular_Insanity

Ugh. This majorly disappoints me. I was considering giving it a shot despite them splitting up the game due to greed, but if they're wrecking the writing because of it, count me out. One of my favorite elements in Fire Emblem games is the character interaction. It's what makes it unique compared to other similar strategy games. The writing is half of the reason why I'm loyal to the series.

Honestly I'm quite amazed how they fucked up the writing yet everything else such as music, art style, map design/aesthetic, units design, gameplay and graphic are so 10/10 perfect. I think the game could use another couple months of being poslish before being released, the game is rushed. Even with these complains, Fates is still a excellence SRPG, still very highly recommanded. Thank god they didn't fucked up Azura's English theme song. Rena did a great job as Azura. I will cry if my waifu's VA sucked.

[Akashin]

Originally Posted by Spectacular_Insanity

Ugh. This majorly disappoints me. I was considering giving it a shot despite them splitting up the game due to greed, but if they're wrecking the writing because of it, count me out. One of my favorite elements in Fire Emblem games is the character interaction. It's what makes it unique compared to other similar strategy games. The writing is half of the reason why I'm loyal to the series.

Huh? The game being split up has nothing to do with the localization; the issues with the script are entirely unrelated to that. And while it was of course greedy, all three versions are complete in their own right to a point, so it's not like one game was fractured for the sake of making more money.

Honestly though, butchered as the localized script apparently is, the original doesn't sound like it was much to write home about either. Though Awakening did nothing for me story-wise, too.

[serenade_beta]

Originally Posted by Akashin

Huh? The game being split up has nothing to do with the localization; the issues with the script are entirely unrelated to that. And while it was of course greedy, all three versions are complete in their own right to a point, so it's not like one game was fractured for the sake of making more money.

Honestly though, butchered as the localized script apparently is, the original doesn't sound like it was much to write home about either. Though Awakening did nothing for me story-wise, too.

I think he meant that the game being split up was minus points in the first place, and hearing about the bad translations in the localized version is another minus point.

I've only seen complaints about the support conversations being changed, but I doubt the main string of the story has changed. Though if people started complaining about the main story being changed for the worse, I'd chuckle a bit.

[Alchemist007]

Originally Posted by DevilHighDxD

Btw anyone playing on Lunatic on Conquest? Surviving Chapter 24 is literally like trying to survive cancer, later maps (when you got to Hoshido) is the definition of anti-fun. Holy moly the amount of reinforcements is so annoying. Only a true M play this mode...

Yeah, some people enjoy the super punishing or grindy playstyle required to beat that mode. I like it with FPS games, but not strategy.

[Tong]

If anything, Birthright is more grindy than Conquest because you have all the time in the world to comfortably level your characters and buy good equipment.

Conquest is about getting all your characters reasonably leveled so you may have a versatile and flexible party. You really have to be mindful of things like attack/defense stance and pairing up the right characters.

And yes, I'm playing Conquest on Hard.

[ZGoten]

So guys, the game launches in Europe in about 7 weeks (finally). I should probably get Birthright, right? I didn't mind the repetitive mission goals in Awakening and I like to spend time with my crew. I'm also relatively new to this genre so I'm not looking for a great challenge. So unless there's something amazingly awesome about Conquest, I'm forgetting, I think I should get Birthrigt, is that true?

[einhorn303]

You can play Birthright like Conquest if you just prohibit yourself from grinding. I played Birthright first, specifically as a"no grinding" run...I didn't allow myself to play any of the non-story chapters, except for the paralogues where you recruit units.

ZGoten, I think Birthright might be the right game for you. It is designed for beginners and people who want a more casual experience. Conquest's gameplay is straight up better, though. And personally, I think I like the characters in Conquest more.

[blakstealth]

Recently got Conquest..and man, I'm so trash. No matter how hard I try to keep everyone alive, an enemy unit still somehow breaks through my ranks and kills someone. Maybe it's the level design of Conquest...but I'm sure my skill level is mostly to blame. But man, do I love it! lol. I haven't played an FE game since Sacred Stones back in middle/high school, so it feel so good getting back into it.

Can't wait to get Birthright.

[DragoonKain3]

For battles early, here are some tips, assuming you're playing Lunatic Conquest.

1) Beware of every stair, entrance/exit, and even suspicious landmarks. At least in Lunatic, there is only ONE map in conquest where stairs did not spawn reinforcements. Apart from that one map, it isn't a question IF these will spawn reinforcements, but when. Also, most bosses spawn more reinforcements if you get into range, while some maps have the reinforcements time based. Vast majority of reinforcements are one time only though.

1b) Which means of course to take your time. Unless a map specifically has a time limit, or one of the objectives is not to let X person escape, or there are bandits running around trying to steal your goodies, vast majority of maps don't give a shit if you finish them in 10 turns or 100.


2) You got a heart seal? If you have female MC (which you should; strictly superior mainly because one less pair you have to rank up), then reclass Jakob to Great Knight ASAP. Makes the early game so much easier, as the +4 DEF is INSANE when coupled with the -3 damage he gives the MC, effectively giving the MC +7 DEF.


3) Early game, and this is especially true with Conquest, is to use your movement to your advantage. If you have space, kite the enemy in such a way that your pointman only takes one or two attacks per turn. Holding choke points is only beneficial if you know you can't die, else it's better to keep moving back every turn and slowly whittle the enemy down with counters before you go all in, assuming you have space to retreat.

Of course flyers are a problem, but most enemy flyers are pegasus knights that are made out of paper at this stage of the game.


4) Just note by mid-game when the enemy units are promoted, you can't protect your healers by just covering their front and flanks anymore, as 6 movement is enough to get to their backside. This is where Sol comes in handy, as it lowers your dependence on healers, especially when using MNinja/GKnight or WLord combos. Still, IMO this is the most frustrating part of the game. This is because your units are still not promoted, but the enemy forces all are, which further exacerbate the level deficit issue. Once you get to promoted lvl 5, the games becomes a lot easier, since it's around this time you would have all the children paralogues, and so have time to grind out your party to how you see fit.


5) Late game comes to whether you have the right counters to inevitable end and stoneborns, as the rest can be dealt similarly with earlier tactics you have used. If you have to burn through staves, so be it, though it's nice to have as much as you can of freeze/entrap/silence staves for the final battle.



Some other things to keep in mind in conquest outside of battle, if you're doing a no dlc run...

1) Seeds of trust are probably the most important 'free' item you can get. If you get one, save your game! Note that vast majority of pairings needs 1 map to C, 1 map + 1 seed to get B/A, and 1 map + 2 seeds to get S rank. So it's best to use seeds to get ranks B/A

1a) Important number to remember are that it takes 2 battles to upgrade most relationships past C, if you don't use a seed. Also note to upgrade with with just 1 seed to get ranks B/A, that pair needs to battle 4 times IIRC in a map for this to work.

1b) Take advantage of 'free battles' by NOT doing them asap. You can use these free battles as easy way to get a map for your less used people.


2) Castle updates to the next time period every 6 consecutive hours you do NOT play, but there's a quirk. If you save your game and just close the 3ds but do not turn it off, after 6 hours the time advances in game by TWO steps. More specifically it advances the time by the amount of 6 hour periods that has elapsed plus one, so if you wait 12 hours after closing the 3ds, it would advanced the in-game time by 3 periods instead of 2.

So if you don't like the free stuff you were given after checking it after 6 hours of the 3ds being closed, just load your saved game. You would notice then that this loaded game only advanced 1 period of time, and that the free stuff you get are more or less different. This is a great way to 'save scum' some of the buildings like in hint 3...


3) Most important early building (apart from item stores) is the Mess hall. The ability to give +2 of a stat (or 2 stats with upgrade) is INSANE when you are trying to get access to every paralogue, since your team will overall be underleveled for most of the game. Upgrade to lvl 3 is highly recommended, so you don't have to keep save scumming using the hint #2 just to get the right bonuses to the right people.

3b) Second most important store is the lottery shop. It's pretty much worthless lvl 1, but I'd upgrade this to lvl 3 before any other building not named mess hall. Reason why is that you get loads of free copies of weapons, allowing you to forge +4 and +5 iron weapons with luck. Any unwanted items can be sold for cash, which if you're reclassing a lot, you're gonna need

Just note 'save scumming' doesn't work for the lottery... the item is locked for the day, no matter when you get it. So the best thing you can do is just advance the time periods by 2 every 6 hours, so you can get a free item every 12 hours or so.



UNITS/PAIRINGS
1) MVPs of my games were the MC, Xander, Camilla, Severa, and Soleil.

Best sub-class for MC is Ninja, with STR boon and LUK bane, hands down. Shurikens to this game is what magic was to Awakening, plus they have access to the most broken skill you can get, Replicate. Oh yeah, female is superior to male because that's one less pair you have to rank up, if you want all the paralogues. (most children are based on father) Not only that, being an MC Ninja makes a certain late game map super ez if you really wanted to.

Spoiler:

The chapter Ryoma, my ninja MC paired with her own replica could solo Ryoma 100% of the time. Just didn't want to since I wanted all the XP and loot. XD

Xander as Wyvern Lord, because he has shit RES regardless of what you do. Might as well be a Wyvern Lord, as they have some of the best base stats AND growths in the game. Sure you don't get to use Siegfried, but I found I only really liked the weapon for the +4 DEF it gives anyways, so no biggie.

Camilla as Malig Knight was the only unit capable of oneshotting Stoneborns via Bolt Axe. For general purposes she's way better as a Wyvern Lord (or maybe the class itself is OP?), but having one unit who can get into range to onshot those most annoying enemy unit was a godsend in some maps. Got to admit, I got lucky in her growths, as she had enough MAG. Another reason why she is good is that I think her internal level is much lower compared to other heroes, as she was the first one to 15 promoted even when enemy units were like only lvl 10.

Oh yeah, don't be an idiot and train Severa as a pegasus knight. Hero Selena pretty much tanked 2 debuff rods, 2 shuriken attacks, and 3 axes in the last map and lived. Sure she was pretty much useless for the rest of the map (Inevitable end is the most BULLSHIT skill ever to exist), but having one unit that is able to take the initial aggro of the map is very important in the final battle. Every other map, she's pretty much beast mode for anything that she can counter, as she doubles pretty much almost everything in the game.

As for Soleil... seriously, Ninja Soleil is pretty much having a second Ninja MC if you pair her up with female. I found that Soleil not having Yato bonuses is offset by the fact that Severa was her mom, and so she MAXED out STR, SKL, and DEF without any stat items, while having enough SPD to double non-ninjas in the game.

Honorable mention goes to Laslow, because while he can't effectively drain tank heavy hitters due to poor DEF, his high STR allows him to one-round most enemies he can double. You can also have him be a good rallyer since he has access to STR (via Keaton) and SPD (via marrying Severa), but honestly it's too much work when Laslow is a very good fighter on his own.


2) Pairings... sometimes you just gotta have to have crap 'pairs' because of availability and ease of pairing up reasons.

Just keep in mind that Severa inherits Ninja from Laslow, which is really the only way you can have Laslow give Ninja to any girl. Sure having two mercenaries as a pair early game is downright useless in some early maps (particularly enemy ninja heavy ones), but that's easily solved by benching them for that map. You kinda need to build up relationships for other people anyway, so might as well give those people some ranks. This is probably the ONLY pairing I can think of where it is the absolute best for both parties involved, as Severa gets Replicate while Laslow gets SPD/DEF pair bonuses he desperately needs.

So just note the people who can give ninja. This means for the first gen, it's MC, Kaze, and the aforementioned Laslow-->Severa. So if you really want good replicates, Kaze will pair up with Camilla (the only other female MVP I had), and MC will pair up with Xander. (Kaze can also technically give Xander and Silas Ninja via friendship, but it's already hard enough to get all the children already, so we'll skip that)

Now the only problem with MC pairing up with Xander is the difficulty of having your butler pair with anyone not the MC. Like realistically, Jakob is a subpar healer who is only useful for early access to skills (like it's easy giving away replicate to his children if MC is the wife) and early access to Great Knight pair up bonus. That said, you still want Dwyer as his paralogue is not only the EASIEST one of the lot, but you get like 7000g worth of goodies.

Upside of MC/Jakob? MC gets those awesome bonuses from class pair bonus + Jakob passive, and Dwyer is a beast healer, able to Replicate for twice the healing and Draconic Hex for debuff support. Problem is that Jakob makes Kana godly mid-game when you get him, but pretty much useless endgame because of BAD growth stats.

Upside of MC/Xander? Jakob is worthless starting midgame as a unit, so if the MC is in trouble she has problems switching to her partner. Xander on the other hand is one of the best units, and having a good switch late game is useful because of stupid stuff like inevitable end. It also makes Kana pretty much another godlike Ninja thanks to Xander.


3) Kids.

I said Soleil before was an MVP, but it's weird because her partner needs someway to get replicate. Soleil can only friends with Ophelia (shit unit because magic is nerfed bad), Nina (no good base class options), and Sophie. So we're left with Sophie who at least can turn to Great Knight, but the only way you can give Sophie Ninja is if you pair her up with Kana.

Kana then you either bench late game (if dad was Jakob), or just pair him up with someone like Siegbert (if their mom was MC). He's REAL strong with Xander dad, if you can get him to inherit, so his pairup needs just to be good enough on their own.

Percy was good too. Mozu mom means you have easy access to Profiteer (which he puts to good use with his high LUK), but Effie mom has a much better midgame due to Effie having high base STR that she can give some to him. But he needs replicate, and the only way to give him that is freinding Kana or...

...marrying Midori. Honestly, Midori with Camille mom was underwhelming as a unit, but she was still useful because of her passive + profiteer. Having an extra 1200g or so worth of bars every map (including paralogues you deploy her) adds up. Access to replicate for her and her spoouse is great, but as a fighting unit you better look elsewhere. Not like she's totally useless, but her frailness with no access to Sol does make limit her as a ranged unit.


4) Skills. I already talked about Sol, Replicate, and Profiteer, but other stuff that's useful is having a rally bot. I know there is a generic unit in one of the maps who has all the rallies that you can capture, but if you're like me who only uses story characters, then you have to make your own. While it's ideal to have Rally STR/SPD/DEF/RES, first time I beat Lunatic conquest, STR/DEF was all I got on my rallybot while rally SPD was on Shigure.

Last game, I used Forrest with Beruka mom, so he inherited Rally STR/DEF from his parents, and had him friend with Shigure to get SPD, and he has natural access to RES. Honestly, I thought it was too much work for too little payoff when I still used both as healers in the end. Rally DEF/STR are the most important, then SPD, then RES... if you can get them all on one guy, great, but don't tear your head when STR/DEF on one while SPD on the other will suffice.

Another important skill is Shurikenbreaker. There will be some late game maps where dodge tanking tons of ninjas with inevitable end is your only choice. Axebreaker is also nice in some maps because Berserkers hit for a crap load endgame, and having added insurance that they don't connect helps reduces headache.

Apart from that, anything that increases your damage is good. Reason why Ninjas are so good is that their biggest weakness (low STR) is offset by large number of skills. These include the faire skill (which they naturally learn), trample (malig knight), Str +2 (wyvern), defender (paladin), and the most ubiquitous of them all, Elbow Room (cavalier). Like seriously, if the game gave you earlier access to unlimited heart seals, I'd give everyone Elbow Room early game, as maybe 80% of all playable tiles are open.

[blakstealth]

Wow, I feel like I've been playing this game half-assed.