Also, did anyone do any of the orb stuff? I looked into it, but it looks like such a grind to upgrade some rarely used weapons. Or am I missing something?
Ehh I had each of my characters with 2 awesome skills for a build I planned for them to have.
A couple didn’t have the max ranks for both of them if they had ranks, but considering I only did 2 skirmishes all game that seems pretty fair.
The whole orb system did seem slow so I ignored it wholesale. But the skills seemed fine. Got to have builds set up while just playing the main chapters and paralogues and would have had full busted upgrades if I was regularly doing extra maps. That seems normal for RPG progression.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
The thing about SP is I think they expect you to fight silver corrupted for big boosts. But you're usually too bust fighting the gold corrupted. Why they couldn't have just all been on the same map idk
The thing about SP is I think they expect you to fight silver corrupted for big boosts. But you're usually too bust fighting the gold corrupted. Why they couldn't have just all been on the same map idk
They also could have just not required you to grind for literally every single resource in this game.
The thing about SP is I think they expect you to fight silver corrupted for big boosts. But you're usually too bust fighting the gold corrupted. Why they couldn't have just all been on the same map idk
They also could have just not required you to grind for literally every single resource in this game.
None of it is required.
And there are folks that love that kind of stuff. So it seems unfair to suggest those folks should have that stuff taken away from them as an option because others don’t like the option merely existing.
Not saying many systems couldn’t have been cooked a bit longer. But there’s nothing wrong with optional grindy content for people that like optional grindy content.
There's absolutely a point at which "optional" content begins to feel like a punishment for players who don't engage with it. I don't think that Engage gets to that point, because it happens to be relatively easy (with DLC, which again, incidentally breaks the hardest part of the game in half), but I think in a number-optimization tactics game like Fire Emblem, it's absolutely a mistake to put a ton of different fiddly optimization systems behind a truly excessive grind.
I ate an engineer
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
The thing about SP is I think they expect you to fight silver corrupted for big boosts. But you're usually too bust fighting the gold corrupted. Why they couldn't have just all been on the same map idk
They also could have just not required you to grind for literally every single resource in this game.
I mean you could say this about any game with an economy.
+1
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DemonStaceyTTODewback's DaughterIn love with the TaySwayRegistered Userregular
There's absolutely a point at which "optional" content begins to feel like a punishment for players who don't engage with it. I don't think that Engage gets to that point, because it happens to be relatively easy (with DLC, which again, incidentally breaks the hardest part of the game in half), but I think in a number-optimization tactics game like Fire Emblem, it's absolutely a mistake to put a ton of different fiddly optimization systems behind a truly excessive grind.
Oh sure. There is a point where it would start getting in the way of the game for others. But I agree that here it does not.
You can interact with the systems enough to make use of them and get strong enough for all the content in the game just playing through normally. And if you just want an excuse to spend more time in the world you have plenty of options to dive in and get rewarded for doing so with mega busted characters.
I certainly didn’t do that myself in this game, but it’s good to have that option available for those that are looking for it.
DemonStacey on
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silence1186Character shields down!As a wingmanRegistered Userregular
I beat the entire game without spending any SP. When I checked out the level 50 trials in the post game, those seemed to require fully optimized units, and I checked out then and there.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
So I replayed three hopes and you know what ? I really think the game would have been better served without all the mini battles on the way to the actual battle . The small battles were all in the same maps just chopped up and sometimes they were oriented differently and just felt like extreme filler . I realize this makes the game shorter but with three routes I feel like this wouldn’t matter . Oh well it’s still a fun game just feels padded for length .
So I replayed three hopes and you know what ? I really think the game would have been better served without all the mini battles on the way to the actual battle . The small battles were all in the same maps just chopped up and sometimes they were oriented differently and just felt like extreme filler . I realize this makes the game shorter but with three routes I feel like this wouldn’t matter . Oh well it’s still a fun game just feels padded for length .
I was very surprised when all those filler battles showed up at the battle summaries during the end credits. I really didn't think they merited such an inclusion.
It's only now that I approach the final map that I notice ring polishing has a critical hit system where you're supposed to polish around with A first to find the weakpoints and then heavily polish with trigger. I've avoided polishing rings for so long because of the tedium and awkwardness and knowing about this now, I don't exactly see that changing. This system was dumb and I hope to never see it again.
It's only now that I approach the final map that I notice ring polishing has a critical hit system where you're supposed to polish around with A first to find the weakpoints and then heavily polish with trigger. I've avoided polishing rings for so long because of the tedium and awkwardness and knowing about this now, I don't exactly see that changing. This system was dumb and I hope to never see it again.
Does the happiness level of the rings even do anything mechanically in game? (Outside of the stupid mini-game giving rep between the ring and the character you picked)
It's only now that I approach the final map that I notice ring polishing has a critical hit system where you're supposed to polish around with A first to find the weakpoints and then heavily polish with trigger. I've avoided polishing rings for so long because of the tedium and awkwardness and knowing about this now, I don't exactly see that changing. This system was dumb and I hope to never see it again.
Does the happiness level of the rings even do anything mechanically in game? (Outside of the stupid mini-game giving rep between the ring and the character you picked)
As far as I can tell it doesn't. I'm pretty sure it's simply to improve bond level without needing to use fragments and I'm sure someone there is some market out there that is tickled the right way by this mechanic without needing the bond xp as a reward.
It's only now that I approach the final map that I notice ring polishing has a critical hit system where you're supposed to polish around with A first to find the weakpoints and then heavily polish with trigger. I've avoided polishing rings for so long because of the tedium and awkwardness and knowing about this now, I don't exactly see that changing. This system was dumb and I hope to never see it again.
I always wondered why there was "clean" and "really clean" option. The whole thing is weird and sort of gross, so I try not to clean the rings that often.
I'm on the 2nd to last level. I have...thoughts about the levels that I'll detail once I beat the game.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
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Dr. ChaosPost nuclear nuisanceRegistered Userregular
Currently going through Fates for the first time, just finished Chapter 10 of Conquest on Hard.
Goddamn, that was intense. Was almost sweating the entire time, can't even imagine what its like on Lunatic.
Awakening was brain dead easy becuase of the pair up mechanic but feels like an actual strategic choice here, one that can actually cost you if you choose to utilize it at the wrong time when you need to cast a wider net.
Finally beat the game. Alear, Yunaka, Chloe, and Jade fighting over most MVPs although Alear had the early game advantage. Best game play mechanics in the series (love the break, chain attack, and dagger poison systems), some tunes I know I'm going to keep playing forever, and a story I'm already trying to forget about.
Because of the prologue I spent the entire game waiting for some kind of final reveal, that we were actually in a dream or meta-verse alternate world all along or Lumera was secretly the BBEG, or something similar explaining why the royals were fighting with you 1000 years ago. Nothing came of it. WTF was the prologue since it wasn't the typical "start with the climax before starting with the beginning" cut and it wasn't a premonition of the coming battle and it wasn't some "we beat the BBEG but oh no he cheated by changing the setting with magic hand wave either.
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Andy JoeWe claim the land for the highlord!The AdirondacksRegistered Userregular
Because of the prologue I spent the entire game waiting for some kind of final reveal, that we were actually in a dream or meta-verse alternate world all along or Lumera was secretly the BBEG, or something similar explaining why the royals were fighting with you 1000 years ago. Nothing came of it. WTF was the prologue since it wasn't the typical "start with the climax before starting with the beginning" cut and it wasn't a premonition of the coming battle and it wasn't some "we beat the BBEG but oh no he cheated by changing the setting with magic hand wave either.
OK, just spent an hour prepping for the final chapter. Finally spent all my SP, assigned skills, got all equipment up to date, and got the party lined up the way I want them. Let's finish this up so I can play a new game.
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
OK, I'm done with FE:Engage. And by done I mean, I'm on the last level on turn 26 and I don't have the desire to keep going. This last boss fight is mechanically stupid.
Final boss fight spoiler:
Four, 100hp health bars is bad enough, but then he becomes basically damage resistant until you kill 4 spread out baddies? OK, I did the first wave to drop his shield and you get that fucking turn to do damage before he summons 4 more? And waves of non-stop reinforcements?
Like, I went 26 turns in. I tried, I really did, but this is just too much. I know I can defeat the game, I just can't defeat the grind. To quote Danny Glover, "I'm getting too old for this shit."
I really like the FE games. The first game on the GBA opened my third eye to turn-based strategy games. Each game that came out after that added cool new stuff that I generally enjoyed. Some games went a bit too far with the power creep and complexity (Awakenings), but overall they were still enjoyable.
My spoiler free thoughts:
This game is a massive step backwards in a lot of ways.
The story is just bad. It's so chock full of tropes it hurts my soul.
The character's designs, with a few exceptions, are goofy as hell. Not my cup of tea.
Speaking of tea, can we give the characters more than one thing they enjoy? Hell, any depth would be neat. Support convos should be better.
Way too many young kids and busty females. They leaning way into anime waifu stuff here. Some is fine, but this game went overboard.
A lot of grinding. Granted it is optional, so it being there is good for those who want to power up.
Not a good economy balance with gold farming.
Limited skill sharing is a nice balance to avoid making "Kill machines" ala Awakening. SP is a bit sparse though.
I wish the online battles had an option to send off characters to auto-complete missions for orbs instead of grinding through maps.
Too many reused animations. It looks cheap as hell and out of place.
Emblems were a neat concept, but I felt like they were an Elixir you used vs the level boss.
The maps had very little complexity or alt win conditions. 90%+ were just kill the boss. Boring!
Later maps relied way too much on excessive reinforcements.
The main hub could use a lot more automation with how much there was to do. Same thing with post-victory chats. Just give me all the stuff.
This game really did a number on me. I'm going to be extremely cautious with FE going forward. If the next game is anything remotely close to this, I'll pass on it. I really hate to even think that since I love the FE series.
At least I'm free now to try other games. Just pre-ordered AW and Zelda, so I just need something to play until they arrive. RE4 maybe? Hate buying RE games when I know if I wait I can get the "ultimate collector's edition" with all the DLC for a crazy reduced price. But Leon though....
Need a voice actor? Hire me at bengrayVO.com
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051 Steam ID Twitch Page
OK, I'm done with FE:Engage. And by done I mean, I'm on the last level on turn 26 and I don't have the desire to keep going. This last boss fight is mechanically stupid.
Final boss fight spoiler:
Four, 100hp health bars is bad enough, but then he becomes basically damage resistant until you kill 4 spread out baddies? OK, I did the first wave to drop his shield and you get that fucking turn to do damage before he summons 4 more? And waves of non-stop reinforcements?
Like, I went 26 turns in. I tried, I really did, but this is just too much. I know I can defeat the game, I just can't defeat the grind. To quote Danny Glover, "I'm getting too old for this shit."
I really like the FE games. The first game on the GBA opened my third eye to turn-based strategy games. Each game that came out after that added cool new stuff that I generally enjoyed. Some games went a bit too far with the power creep and complexity (Awakenings), but overall they were still enjoyable.
My spoiler free thoughts:
This game is a massive step backwards in a lot of ways.
The story is just bad. It's so chock full of tropes it hurts my soul.
The character's designs, with a few exceptions, are goofy as hell. Not my cup of tea.
Speaking of tea, can we give the characters more than one thing they enjoy? Hell, any depth would be neat. Support convos should be better.
Way too many young kids and busty females. They leaning way into anime waifu stuff here. Some is fine, but this game went overboard.
A lot of grinding. Granted it is optional, so it being there is good for those who want to power up.
Not a good economy balance with gold farming.
Limited skill sharing is a nice balance to avoid making "Kill machines" ala Awakening. SP is a bit sparse though.
I wish the online battles had an option to send off characters to auto-complete missions for orbs instead of grinding through maps.
Too many reused animations. It looks cheap as hell and out of place.
Emblems were a neat concept, but I felt like they were an Elixir you used vs the level boss.
The maps had very little complexity or alt win conditions. 90%+ were just kill the boss. Boring!
Later maps relied way too much on excessive reinforcements.
The main hub could use a lot more automation with how much there was to do. Same thing with post-victory chats. Just give me all the stuff.
This game really did a number on me. I'm going to be extremely cautious with FE going forward. If the next game is anything remotely close to this, I'll pass on it. I really hate to even think that since I love the FE series.
At least I'm free now to try other games. Just pre-ordered AW and Zelda, so I just need something to play until they arrive. RE4 maybe? Hate buying RE games when I know if I wait I can get the "ultimate collector's edition" with all the DLC for a crazy reduced price. But Leon though....
Maybe you need something that's a quick get in and play, look into Pocky and Rocky Re-shrined if you're into shoot 'em ups.
I agree with a vast majority of what you said, although I wouldn't say it made me cautious about Fire Emblem, as the games overall have been pretty good on average. The final level took me 4.5 hours to complete (the reinforcements eventually stop, but I think you have to progress for that to happen), so it is an extremely long level. The game is incredibly lengthy as well (took me 80+ hours not counting the 10+ lost to corrupted saves), which is far longer, I think, than the others (I could be remembering incorrectly). I agree about the Emblem mechanic, for the most part. I usually was just saving it for the bosses, for the most part. There are a few levels where they try to make it more clear that you can use it earlier (with the regen spaces), but often I was saving it unless I felt like I had no choice to clear out some enemies. Thankfully, with the time rewind mechanic, perhaps using an Emblem too early didn't necessarily cause a full restart.
Yup, since I kept having to clear the reinforcements due to my unit positioning. I eventually had to press a lot more because I figured they would infinite spawn until some of the boss units were taken down.
sometimes I feel like I played a completely different game than some of y'all (albeit, I was on normal, I didn't do skirmishes at all and I still had units that hit the level cap and wrapped around again)
The daunting time commitment for completing (story) maps is why I've stalled on completing the latter half of the game, honestly. Hard Classic still has some tricky parts that require my attention. I really should make some mid-fight saves so that I can split a fight across two gaming periods rather than just waiting until I know I have two hours free to take my time with it.
sometimes I feel like I played a completely different game than some of y'all (albeit, I was on normal, I didn't do skirmishes at all and I still had units that hit the level cap and wrapped around again)
The daunting time commitment for completing (story) maps is why I've stalled on completing the latter half of the game, honestly. Hard Classic still has some tricky parts that require my attention. I really should make some mid-fight saves so that I can split a fight across two gaming periods rather than just waiting until I know I have two hours free to take my time with it.
I kept telling myself to do that, but I didn't want to lose the context of the battle. I also figured some of the maps wouldn't take me 3-4 hours, but lesson learned.
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Ehh I had each of my characters with 2 awesome skills for a build I planned for them to have.
A couple didn’t have the max ranks for both of them if they had ranks, but considering I only did 2 skirmishes all game that seems pretty fair.
The whole orb system did seem slow so I ignored it wholesale. But the skills seemed fine. Got to have builds set up while just playing the main chapters and paralogues and would have had full busted upgrades if I was regularly doing extra maps. That seems normal for RPG progression.
They also could have just not required you to grind for literally every single resource in this game.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
None of it is required.
And there are folks that love that kind of stuff. So it seems unfair to suggest those folks should have that stuff taken away from them as an option because others don’t like the option merely existing.
Not saying many systems couldn’t have been cooked a bit longer. But there’s nothing wrong with optional grindy content for people that like optional grindy content.
I mean you could say this about any game with an economy.
Oh sure. There is a point where it would start getting in the way of the game for others. But I agree that here it does not.
You can interact with the systems enough to make use of them and get strong enough for all the content in the game just playing through normally. And if you just want an excuse to spend more time in the world you have plenty of options to dive in and get rewarded for doing so with mega busted characters.
I certainly didn’t do that myself in this game, but it’s good to have that option available for those that are looking for it.
With that name I wondered if the Four Hounds might be playable, and the answer seems to be: Kind of?
I was very surprised when all those filler battles showed up at the battle summaries during the end credits. I really didn't think they merited such an inclusion.
Does the happiness level of the rings even do anything mechanically in game? (Outside of the stupid mini-game giving rep between the ring and the character you picked)
As far as I can tell it doesn't. I'm pretty sure it's simply to improve bond level without needing to use fragments and I'm sure someone there is some market out there that is tickled the right way by this mechanic without needing the bond xp as a reward.
I always wondered why there was "clean" and "really clean" option. The whole thing is weird and sort of gross, so I try not to clean the rings that often.
I'm on the 2nd to last level. I have...thoughts about the levels that I'll detail once I beat the game.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
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Goddamn, that was intense. Was almost sweating the entire time, can't even imagine what its like on Lunatic.
Awakening was brain dead easy becuase of the pair up mechanic but feels like an actual strategic choice here, one that can actually cost you if you choose to utilize it at the wrong time when you need to cast a wider net.
Last bit of Engage's DLC is out.
Oh, new class types. Hope they'll be interesting.
Some of them are pretty spot on.
Celica is your very traditional "pure-hearted maiden" type...meaning she is incredibly dense.
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
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Final boss fight spoiler:
Like, I went 26 turns in. I tried, I really did, but this is just too much. I know I can defeat the game, I just can't defeat the grind. To quote Danny Glover, "I'm getting too old for this shit."
I really like the FE games. The first game on the GBA opened my third eye to turn-based strategy games. Each game that came out after that added cool new stuff that I generally enjoyed. Some games went a bit too far with the power creep and complexity (Awakenings), but overall they were still enjoyable.
My spoiler free thoughts:
This game really did a number on me. I'm going to be extremely cautious with FE going forward. If the next game is anything remotely close to this, I'll pass on it. I really hate to even think that since I love the FE series.
At least I'm free now to try other games. Just pre-ordered AW and Zelda, so I just need something to play until they arrive. RE4 maybe? Hate buying RE games when I know if I wait I can get the "ultimate collector's edition" with all the DLC for a crazy reduced price. But Leon though....
Legends of Runeterra: MNCdover #moc
Switch ID: MNC Dover SW-1154-3107-1051
Steam ID
Twitch Page
Maybe you need something that's a quick get in and play, look into Pocky and Rocky Re-shrined if you're into shoot 'em ups.
I agree with a vast majority of what you said, although I wouldn't say it made me cautious about Fire Emblem, as the games overall have been pretty good on average. The final level took me 4.5 hours to complete (the reinforcements eventually stop, but I think you have to progress for that to happen), so it is an extremely long level. The game is incredibly lengthy as well (took me 80+ hours not counting the 10+ lost to corrupted saves), which is far longer, I think, than the others (I could be remembering incorrectly). I agree about the Emblem mechanic, for the most part. I usually was just saving it for the bosses, for the most part. There are a few levels where they try to make it more clear that you can use it earlier (with the regen spaces), but often I was saving it unless I felt like I had no choice to clear out some enemies. Thankfully, with the time rewind mechanic, perhaps using an Emblem too early didn't necessarily cause a full restart.
Yup, since I kept having to clear the reinforcements due to my unit positioning. I eventually had to press a lot more because I figured they would infinite spawn until some of the boss units were taken down.
I played on Hard/Classic
I kept telling myself to do that, but I didn't want to lose the context of the battle. I also figured some of the maps wouldn't take me 3-4 hours, but lesson learned.