Does anyone else....

[MCProductions]

Well, I'm going to catch some hate for this, but I find Geneology of the Holy War highly overrated. The majority of your units in the first gen(I quit at chapter 7 due to boredom) suck. Lex and Arden are both downright useless. The battle saves are easily abused. Arvis kills Sigurd for literally no reason other than to gloat. The chapters take WAY too freaking long. There is NO WAY to restart a chapter if you need too, if you battle saved over your save file. Something the game does not warn you about. There is way too much incest in this highly overrated game. And its plot is just as far fatched as Awakenings.

That last bit will bring on the majority of the hate, but its the truth.

Explain to me why, Quan, Ethlyn, and Finn stay in Silesse with Sigurd for a whole year before going to get reinforments, why Arvis wasn't hidden away like Deirdre, any many other small things.

[Katie]

Lex isn't useless. He gets double EXP and the Brave Axe, plus he's mounted.

[Elibean Spaceman]

I don't see how the units in the first generation are bad. Lex isn't useless either. Then again, I've only finished the prologue of this game

Edited March 2, 2015 by Larverto

[eclipse]

Well, I'm going to catch some hate for this, but I find Geneology of the Holy War highly overrated. The majority of your units in the first gen(I quit at chapter 7 due to boredom) suck. Lex and Arden are both downright useless. The battle saves are easily abused. Arvis kills Sigurd for literally no reason other than to gloat. The chapters take WAY too freaking long. There is NO WAY to restart a chapter if you need too, if you battle saved over your save file. Something the game does not warn you about. There is way too much incest in this highly overrated game. And its plot is just as far fatched as Awakenings.

That last bit will bring on the majority of the hate, but its the truth.

Explain to me why, Quan, Ethlyn, and Finn stay in Silesse with Sigurd for a whole year before going to get reinforments, why Arvis wasn't hidden away like Deirdre, any many other small things.

"Hey, let's tell people on a board that's somewhat specific to this game that this game sucks!"

There's plenty of places for you to personally rant about things, and they're NOT here. Your opinion is not truth - it's just an opinion. Truth is that Ardan has less base movement than Sigurd.

[MCProductions]

When does he get the Brave axe, not that it matters considering he gets one-rounded in Chapter 1(girl of the spirt forest) by basic enemies and two rounded in the Prolouge so yeah, I would say he's useless.

And I'm not saying the game sucks, I was just curious as to why plenty of people see this as the best in the series and it sorta came out as a rant. My bad.

Its definately not my favorite but I'm not saying its a bad game

Edited March 2, 2015 by randomsonicvideos123

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Lex is very high up there in terms of units in the first generation, definitely in the top 5. He does get two shotted in the prologue, but with his super high defense growth as well as elite he quickly becomes very hard to kill. With the hero axe he can one round almost everything in the game and things only get more stacked in his favor once he promotes (and very early too, that's elite for you.) Lex is a beast. Arden is absolutely useless though, I'll give you that.

In terms of plot I can agree with the Silesia part, that is a little strange. Arvis probably wasn't hidden because he was the heir to Velthomer, whereas Deidre was because after Victor's suicide Cigyn fled back in shame to her home and promptly died IIRC. Alvis killed Sigurd because he was highly idealistic and wanted to unite the continent under one ruler no matter the cost, thinking it would make things better (which it did, at least before the Lopt takeover.)

Edited March 2, 2015 by MartyTheDemonSlayer

[MCProductions]

Okay you've sold me on Lex, Next time i play this game, I'll put more effort into him but Azel always seemed to be better faster so I always wound up using him.

Seriously tho, Is there any use for Arden other than castle defense?

[MartyTheDemonSlayer]

Azel is very useful once promoted, the issue is getting him there . FE4 isn't kind to five move units, as I'm sure you could tell. Arden is useless unless you want to show him a lot of favoritism, in which case he's a beast, but then again the same can be said of any unit. Avoid him entirely outside of ranked runs or if you just feel like using him out of pity. He's probably the only 100% useless character in the first generation (though there definitely is still massive imbalance between other characters.)

[Zasplach]

Arden is bad, but pretty much like all units in Fire Emblem, if he's given enough babying he can still be used. You just have to be patient. And don't give up on the 2nd generation, it's not as good as the first half, but having all of your children units is kind of cool. The game has its flaws, but I find it quiet fun.

In terms of the plot, it's a pretty realistic medieval story. A group of nobles wants to coup against their king, but they get double crossed and the last man standing marries the princess and becomes King. Then the rightful heir shows up to attempt to reclaim the throne.

Why do Cuan and company stay in Silesia, maybe because Grandbell is on the look for them and just because the conversation happens right before the chapter happens doesn't mean it didn't happen months before the disturbance that occurs in Silesia. Remember it is a big world, it could take months, maybe close to a year to get back to Lenster, especially if Ethlyn is pregnant and they are trying to be stealthy.

Lastly, always be careful with your tone, you might start a flame war :p.

Edited March 2, 2015 by Zasplach

[MCProductions]

Azel is very useful once promoted, the issue is getting him there . FE4 isn't kind to five move units, as I'm sure you could tell. Arden is useless unless you want to show him a lot of favoritism, in which case he's a beast, but then again the same can be said of any unit. Avoid him entirely outside of ranked runs or if you just feel like using him out of pity. He's probably the only 100% useless character in the first generation (though there definitely is still massive imbalance between other characters.)

Agreed, I'm planning on forceing myself through both generations soon( and by that I mean that long boring desert chapter). The game is good, don't get me wrong, but I'm just curious as to why so many people see it as the best in the series.

seriously tho, chapter 7 is the reason I put down this game.

[Zasplach]

I'm just curious as to why so many people see it as the best in the series.

Breeding, interesting story, unique game play to the Fire emblem series.

[Elibean Spaceman]

Truth is that Ardan has less base movement than Sigurd.

Or any unit in the game in general.

[MCProductions]

Breeding, interesting story, unique game play to the Fire emblem series.

whatever works, I suppose tho the second bit could be said bout most entries in the series.

Arden is bad, but pretty much like all units in Fire Emblem, if he's given enough babying he can still be used. You just have to be patient. And don't give up on the 2nd generation, it's not as good as the first half, but having all of your children units is kind of cool. The game has its flaws, but I find it quiet fun.

In terms of the plot, it's a pretty realistic medieval story. A group of nobles wants to coup against their king, but they get double crossed and the last man standing marries the princess and becomes King. Then the rightful heir shows up to attempt to reclaim the throne.

Lastly, always be careful with your tone, you might start a flame war :p.

Thats my logic with FE 7 ironically.

I find it funny that people claim Lyn's tale is unrealistic when this game's (and several other entries) follow a similer plotline.

and lastly, point taken Aspergers kills my social skills online too aparently

[Katie]

Arden can be good once he's promoted, provided he has the Pursuit and Leg Rings since he gets access to every weapon type. Plus Vantage is a nice skill to have.

[MCProductions]

thanks for clearing up why its loved so much and I apoligize to anyone I may have offended in the OP. also known as the accidental rant

As said before, I like the game but it isn't my favorite. It just takes too darn long for me to play.

Darn high school, why must you get in my way

[fengaridotdll]

There's plenty of places for you to personally rant about things, and they're NOT here. Your opinion is not truth - it's just an opinion. Truth is that Ardan has less base movement than Sigurd.

Eclipse speaks the truth!

[Lord Raven]

When does he get the Brave axe, not that it matters considering he gets one-rounded in Chapter 1(girl of the spirt forest) by basic enemies and two rounded in the Prolouge so yeah, I would say he's useless.

Lex gets two rounded in the Prologue and 1 rounded in Chapter 1?

Did we play the same game?

And I'm not saying the game sucks, I was just curious as to why plenty of people see this as the best in the series and it sorta came out as a rant. My bad.

I wasn't aware this was still the consensus. A lot of your complaints are complaints that players have these days about FE4.

[BrightBow]

I always find myself surprised by the fact that Lex can actually die in the first chapter. Since he spends the most part of the game being an unstoppable god of destruction, it's easy to forget that he starts out with basically the same stats as Alec and Noish, just without a WTA advantage, so he always blocks axes with his face.

Arvis kills Sigurd for literally no reason other than to gloat.

Most things have already been said but I really wonder how people keep missing that one. I mean Manfroy spells it even out for us directly, so we don't have to bother to actually think about Alvis's character:

Alvis: Of course, Sigurd knows way too much. Consider him a sacrifice to the greater good.

Manfroy: I assume that greater good includes Diadora as well! Lord Alvis, you’re afraid, aren’t you. Afraid her memories may be restored!”

His main reason for killing Sigurd is because he would get in the way of his relationship with Deidre, seeing how she is Sigurd's wife. He can't exactly hide the new queen of Velthomer and the future queen of the entire Grandbell kingdom from him forever.

And it shouldn't take a lot of imagination to figue out that he didn't let Deidre and Sigurd come face to face to gloat. I mean, it's already established that he is afraid of her regaining her memory, so it would make no sense for him to do something this pointless. Heck, he doesn't even dislike Sigurd anyway. It's far more plausible that he had them meet face to face to assure himself that she would never regain her memory.

Btw, this is confirmed in the Playing Guide but I think this is obvisious enough that it doesn't necessarily need to be spelled out in the game itself.

Edited March 2, 2015 by BrightBow

[GrySun]

Lex is terrible. Look at the stats when he joins you:he will keep them all the same except hp and 1-2 str and speed AT BEST. Or I was just extremely rng screwed with him. And if you miss the brave axe(the only way to even get it is by looking it up on the internet, essentially cheating)he gets even less useful. He's extremely substitute for me and rarely is allowed to do any dangerous work unlike most other dependable units I have.

[Jotari]

There is NO WAY to restart a chapter if you need too, if you battle saved over your save file. Something the game does not warn you about. There is way too much incest in this highly overrated game. And its plot is just as far fatched as Awakenings.

I'm pretty sure there's a way to start a chapter from the beginning. I can't remember exactly how to do it but I'm sure I've done it before. Maybe I'm wrong though, I don't have it on hand to check. I think a bigger issue is the fact that it in no way alerts you to the possibility of battle saving. I went through the entire game on my first playthrough before discovering it, using save states occasionally and feeling really guilty about it. The menu activate prompt should be on by default in my opinion.

Brightbow is also completely right about Alvis' motivation. I would have pointed it out myself had he not got here sooner. As for the incest, the only confirmed incest is between Deirdre and Alvis which results in dragon Hitler hell spawn so I don't think it's depicted in an all too positive light. The only other examples are the rumors between Laquesis and Eltshan and the pairing hijinks the player can partake in at their own leisure. There's also no reason why Alvis should have been hidden in the forest since no one other than Cigyun, Manfroy and, eventually, Alvis himself knew he had Lopt Blood. If anyone else was aware of it he would have been instantly killed. Questions might arise as to why Cigyun didn't take her son with him but considering she voluntarily left the forest because she didn't like the isolation and she physically might not have been able to kidnap the new ruler of Velthomer even if it is her son, it's far from a plot hole.

[BrightBow]

I'm pretty sure there's a way to start a chapter from the beginning. I can't remember exactly how to do it but I'm sure I've done it before. Maybe I'm wrong though, I don't have it on hand to check. I think a bigger issue is the fact that it in no way alerts you to the possibility of battle saving. I went through the entire game on my first playthrough before discovering it, using save states occasionally and feeling really guilty about it. The menu activate prompt should be on by default in my opinion.

I don't know if saving would even be an issue unless you come from other Fire Emblem games. I mean, the saving system in this game is basically the same as seen in just about any game that's not Fire Emblem. You want to save? You go into the menu and select a save file.

The only thing that makes this a bit more complicated then other games is that you can't save after you have moved any unit, so it's a bit easier to miss it then elsewhere.

Given the length of a map, this traditional saving system is quite appropiate but they still should have added a Chapter Restart to help the players if they end up in a corner. Especially because the Auto Save feature could cause trouble.

...come to think of it, the existance of Auto-Save makes FE4 the only game with an actual Iron Run mode.

Edited March 2, 2015 by BrightBow

[General Horace]

Lex is terrible. Look at the stats when he joins you:he will keep them all the same except hp and 1-2 str and speed AT BEST. Or I was just extremely rng screwed with him. And if you miss the brave axe(the only way to even get it is by looking it up on the internet, essentially cheating)he gets even less useful. He's extremely substitute for me and rarely is allowed to do any dangerous work unlike most other dependable units I have.

out of curiosity what are your other dependable units?

I will admit it is pretty easy to get RNG screwed in the first gen with most units since growths usually hover in the 20-40% mark though. Lex has one of the best strength growths and is tied for the best defence growth of the first gen though. Even without the Hero Axe he 2hko's everything the moment he gets the steel axe anyway. It takes him a few levels for his durability to kick in for sure. It sounds like you got unlucky with his defence though.

The save system is pretty unfourtunate though. I usually just keep a start of chapter save at the top with three midchapter saves below it. The autosave feature kind of punishes this if you forget to change slots though.

[Jotari]

I don't know if saving would even be an issue unless you come from other Fire Emblem games. I mean, the saving system in this game is basically the same as seen in just about any game that's not Fire Emblem. You want to save? You go into the menu and select a save file.

The only thing that makes this a bit more complicated then other games is that you can't save after you have moved any unit, so it's a bit easier to miss it then elsewhere.

Given the length of a map, this traditional saving system is quite appropiate but they still should have added a Chapter Restart to help the players if they end up in a corner. Especially because the Auto Save feature could cause trouble.

...come to think of it, the existance of Auto-Save makes FE4 the only game with an actual Iron Run mode.

I found out after my first playthrough that saving was possible at all. Immediately after my second playthrough when checking something I found out you could save other than going into options and using the menu prompt. I don't know if it's just experience with Fire Eblem but whenever I start my turn I select a unit and get them to do something. I really have no reason to check the general non unit menu so noticing it has an extra option when you've done nothing so far completely slipped by me. If they option was maybe greyed out it would help matter phenomenally.

[Yojinbo]

Alvis 'had' to kill Sigurd. Deidre could easily have fallen in love with him again and being the daughter of the late prince Kurth would be a strong argument for taking the throne in Alvis' place. Sigurd himself also could have been a contender as the one who uncovered Reptor's and Langobalt's ploy and also being Deidre's potential husband. After everybody else had died, getting rid of Sigurd was the final piece in Alvis' puzzle

I think people overrate the size of the maps a bit. It's actually very tolerable if you look at each castle as a little chapter of its own and the overall amount of turns it takes to complete FE4 isn't actually that remarkable either. Ch.2 is kind of long and Ch.7 is pretty much the worst one in the game. It probably would have been better had they switched Darna and Melgen castle around so you don't have to backtrack all the way north. It's really the worst point of the game though everything else isn't too bad [except getting through the spirit forest in Ch1 ofc -.-].

[GrySun]

out of curiosity what are your other dependable units?

I will admit it is pretty easy to get RNG screwed in the first gen with most units since growths usually hover in the 20-40% mark though. Lex has one of the best strength growths and is tied for the best defence growth of the first gen though. Even without the Hero Axe he 2hko's everything the moment he gets the steel axe anyway. It takes him a few levels for his durability to kick in for sure. It sounds like you got unlucky with his defence though.

The save system is pretty unfourtunate though. I usually just keep a start of chapter save at the top with three midchapter saves below it. The autosave feature kind of punishes this if you forget to change slots though.

Well lvl 20, ready for promoting, Lex had whooping 13 str and 13 defense. Not the highest by any means.

My most dependable units who can take care of "dangerous" situations like taking multiple enemy attacks at once when luring them closer etc. and overall kill everything are:

-Finn(easily the best unit in the game, stats better than Sigurds, sadly only lances but if you can chose only 1 weapon then lance is the best for that, doubles and kills everything and has huge def as well, won every arena fight there was). Sadly lower hp at 41-ish but it's fine. Sadly he left me at chapter 4...)

-Sigurd(kind of a no brainer I think, swords and lances for all situations, high stats everywhere, Unlike Finn though he failed at some arenas, most notably Dyuma the godly dark mage where very few passed)

-Aira(okay the evasion isn't always reliable and neither is astra, but she's been doing extremely well both in arena and in actual war. Over 10 defense for a myrmidon is quite silly. Arena had extreme rng astra situations. Some units in this game start with extremely high base stats)

-Lachesis(She sucked terribly with 1 stat per level up basically all her levels until 20. Then she promoted and gained huge stats everywhere. Seems fair. Trying not to use her as she doesn't even get exp but she can handle a dire situation)

-Cuan(basically a weaker Finn and whatever I did with him he just never seemed to die. High str, def and hp, good at setting up kills for weaker ones and for taking on armies alone)

->Many others are good like Briggid(huge base stats), Holyn(basically Aira without astra), Levin(high dodge rate but low magic). Others are from normal to bad.