Fire Emblem: Fates

[sabao]

I finished Conquest on Classic Normal last week. I have Birthright ready, but don't really care too much for the Hoshidans so I'm doing Conquest again on Hard. I like it. Map design, balance and variety in objectives are a huge improvement over Awakening and is a great callback to Fire Emblem titles of yore (by yore, my limited experience in the series means FE7, Shadow Dragon and Sacred Stones. I tried a little bit of Radiant Dawn as well) while retaining a lot of what Awakening had that elevated the franchise to its status today.


The english release is much maligned for a number of cut side content and a lot of liberties done in localizing the script (which, I believe is normal). Without a reference of the original Japanese script, the localized script doesn't bother me much. I believe the script is charming in its own right. The overall story was interesting, if a little flat in execution. There's a lot of playing up of how your character sold his/her soul for his/her convictions and adopted family, but the gravity of that was mostly lost on me, for whatever reason. Maybe it's the limited presentation of the game, or the overall brevity of the script for each chapter. Some questions are left unanswered as well. I assume playing Revelation will remedy that. Playing halfway through Birthright, I've found answers for some of my lingering questions already, anyway.


The kids are back! Hurray for eugenics! I've always loved support convos in the series, and having offspring with stats and skills inherited from the parents was wonderful incentive for collecting them. It's a beautiful mechanic. It's practically a series trademark now. I'm juuust a little worried all these alternate realities, hyperbolic time chambers, time travellers and spiritual incarnations are hurting the narrative though. FE has never been FFT in terms of plot, but does anyone else feel the same way as I do?


The Live2D sequences used in the bonding portions feel too tacked on with how short they are. They're functionally useless outside of the limited interaction NOA's decided to keep for international relase, so it's weird seeing it in its current form. I neither really wanted nor needed the petting feature, but with how it was handled here, how the feature was gutted out feels incredibly apparent. I'm not sure I needed the Live2D portions at all in the form it was in.


Anyway, here's my castle address for anyone who wants to feed me accessories: 14649-23072-05768-50403. My first save file is probably better stocked with skills and items at the moment, but I really wanted to redo so I could better optimize pairs and builds. I've collected some decent skills for the characters, for anyone looking to collect for Nohrians.

 

[Baerthe]

I'm currently playing conquest on classic hard and I am loving it; so far my favorite fire emblem. I also picked up revelations and tried it a little; it is okay, but not as good as the other two (though slightly harder then birthright which is stupid easy...).


Personally I feel the story is a little simple but the mechanics make up for it.

 

[Ghost of Christmas Kloe]

I can't wait to play it!! (Too bad I'm in Europe, dang it!)


It looks great and I love what I've seen of it so far! I heard the English VA was bad, but I kinda like it! ESPECIALLY the song that Azura sings! [♪Sing me a song, of conquest and fate! ♪]


The characters are always my favourite bit of Fire Emblems, I always have a favourite, and this time I have a favourite from each path (Kaze, the younger sister girl of Nohr, and Miss.Maid (I don't know most names of characters yet))


Also My Castle  is a nice touch, and I really like it, I like how it gives you a place to go when you need to relax and is a base of operations.


Can't wait to play it, so jealous of you guys who already have it! 

 

[Uzuki]

Yeah I'm finishing up Conquest as I type this. Just finished Chapter 23 where you have to take out the wall with all the ballista. I'm happy I caved at around chapter 10 and turned off classic mode. I had to sacrifice 4 units to get even close to the damn wall. When we got to the bridge we turtled up and my defenses was pretty solid. But thanks to 2 8% Crits, both my General and Paladin were killed in one hit and the archers killed my healers, Jakob and Ellise. After that we just kept pushing while Best Waifu Camillia and 2nd Best Waifu Xander covered the Eastern side of the wall. We squeezed out a victory with only six units left. I did a poor job handling my money in the early, forgetting that conquest plays more like the older games the Awakening. Once I finish this play through I plan on playing birthright Hard+Classic and a three limit use on the Grinding DLC Maps.

 

[sabao]

The characters are always my favourite bit of Fire Emblems, I always have a favourite, and this time I have a favourite from each path (Kaze, the younger sister girl of Nohr, and Miss.Maid (I don't know most names of characters yet))


Also My Castle  is a nice touch, and I really like it, I like how it gives you a place to go when you need to relax and is a base of operations.

Support conversations on Fire Emblem 7 may be the first time I encountered character interaction outside the context of the overarching plot. I thought it was a brilliant method of fleshing all the characters out while still keeping the main plot lean (important for a GBA title).


My Castle is a brilliant touch too! Conquest/Birthright only allow one type of each kind of resource (food and ore), so visiting other castles online to collect resources you don't naturally carry is encouraged if you're looking to produce costumes or upgrade weapons through the Smithy. You can buy skills off of other people's characters for your own as well. This is great for if you want to build your characters a certain way but don't/can't put time on putting them in a class that may be an odd fit for them. Odin, for example, starts out as a Dark Mage. I want him to learn Astra for extra damage and because his natural SKL makes triggering it likely, grinding him as a Swordmaster tends to be a chore. Don't even try it on his daughter Ophelia. In my recent playthrough, I decided I didn't need the trouble and just browsed around for a castle that had Odin with Astra and got it from there. The social aspect of My Castle is completely optional for players that don't want it, but it's a boon for anyone trying to grind support points, castle points (DRP), and skills for anyone who does, given how you have very little opportunities to do so on Conquest.

Yeah I'm finishing up Conquest as I type this. Just finished Chapter 23 where you have to take out the wall with all the ballista. I'm happy I caved at around chapter 10 and turned off classic mode. I had to sacrifice 4 units to get even close to the damn wall. When we got to the bridge we turtled up and my defenses was pretty solid. But thanks to 2 8% Crits, both my General and Paladin were killed in one hit and the archers killed my healers, Jakob and Ellise. After that we just kept pushing while Best Waifu Camillia and 2nd Best Waifu Xander covered the Eastern side of the wall. We squeezed out a victory with only six units left. I did a poor job handling my money in the early, forgetting that conquest plays more like the older games the Awakening. Once I finish this play through I plan on playing birthright Hard+Classic and a three limit use on the Grinding DLC Maps.

I had two flyers on my team (Camilla, Percy) for that one and what I did was I paired my strongest units (Xander, Avatar) with them and flew them over to the right side of the fort to pick off the guards there. After clearing them out, I had a lot of time flying my other units across two by two, because the guards at the gate don't move until you're in range. Had the first batch to cross (Xander, Avatar, + Odin, Ophelia for crits for days) clear out the units on the second floor before I moved in to handle the ones at the gate.


The grind maps are indispensible when playing on Lunatic. You can still sort of get by without them on Hard, but I'm determined to build my characters a certain way this time around so I went ahead and got them.


My favorite characters for Conquest are definitely Odin and Ophelia. Their personal skills are pretty broken. Aching Blood for Odin gives him a crit bonus if he's wearing a custom weapon with a name of 12 characters or longer. I collected enough Mjolnirs to build a +3 one and a +1 Odin's Grimoire which provide their own crit bonuses as well as bonus damage on crit. With either tomes, Odin has a 45% chance of landing a critical hit, and at the level he was at, it was practically guaranteed anything will die in one crit. Ophelia's Bibliophile gives her a crit bonus if she has three or more tomes in her inventory. I don't think her crit rate was as high as Odin's, but I did get her mom to be Elise who had exceptional MAG so she has a leg up over her dad in raw damage. Give them Lifetaker (heals up to 40% of health when you kill a unit on your turn) and Astra (chance of striking five times for half your normal damage), Death Blow, Tomefaire and cover their weaknesses with any defensive skills of your choice and they'll send almost anything to an early grave.


I still have my Lodestar and Great Lord seals here, too. Contemplating giving Ophelia the Great Lord seal so she has Aether later when I get her, but I'm not sure she's the one who needs it most.

 

[Uzuki]

Ever since the first fire emblem on the GBA, I'm scared to use flying units in levels with ballista just because with one goof up and your screwed. Plus on my first battle of a map I don't go all out. I use it to scout ahead and see what kind of tricks the map has. Then when I lose I restart and tackle it more strategically. 

 

[sabao]

Ever since the first fire emblem on the GBA, I'm scared to use flying units in levels with ballista just because with one goof up and your screwed. Plus on my first battle of a map I don't go all out. I use it to scout ahead and see what kind of tricks the map has. Then when I lose I restart and tackle it more strategically. 

I just keep the danger zones marked at all times before moving in and check what threats are in range before moving. Flyers I usually keep paired up to serve as ferries or at the back lines during a fight, usually only just to pick off the remaining few enemies for easy EXP. They're not as great as they were in Awakening, and I've yet to get one as powerful and reliable enough as I did with Florina in FE7. Caeldori in Birthright was promising but I stopped playing that game the moment I got my first unit killed to go back to Conquest, so I haven't gotten her up to her full potential just yet.


Units like Laslow, Selena and Arthur gave me a lot of trouble in my first playthrough due to the fact that they were not very durable (Arthur) and damage output wasn't reliable (either too low or missed too much-- latter case is mostly Arthur). This time around, my favorite skill seems to be Death Blow: +30 CRIT when initiating an attack. Pair that with the 20 a Killing Edge/Axe provides and you have an easy 50%. Arthur also has access to Gamble which gives +10 for -10 HIT, which gives him a clean 60%. If you can't guarantee they'll survive next turn, just make sure you clear them out before they have a chance to strike, yeah? Just make sure it hits. Looking to give Arthur Certain Blow somehow next, because his hit rate is abysmal.