1728 replies to this topic

[Othin]

FE13 came in the mail today, and I've spent the hour since then playing through the first four maps. Thoughts so far: it's fucking amazing.

The story is certainly starting off fast; of course that was obvious from the Intermission video but even the main story seems to have stuff happening quickly. Each character getting a lot of attention is also a good sign, even though I barely understand any of what they're saying yet. The graphics are also beautiful; my only complaint is that the map sprites sometimes look like they're floating.

However, I'm mainly basing my opinion of it so far on the gameplay. I decided to start on Normal Mode, which is pitifully easy: enemies start off using Bronze weapons, which sometimes fail to even scratch Krom. However, knowing how much more difficult it gets in the future, I'm not too worried. What gets my attention more is the options. The support system really does add thought with character placement to get those bonuses, and the Double system is fantastic. The main character I'm not interested in using so far is Frederick, since he's overpowered and boring, so I've been sticking him onto random characters for decent Def bonuses and even +1 Move to unmounted characters.

There's a lot to try with it so far: I've been having him guard Liz, which helps her worry less about taking attacks and to reach characters more easily to heal him, but I can also pass him to other characters to give them a Move bonus if necessary. When Vake joined without a weapon, I had him hop onto Viole to give him +4 Str, and after he got an axe to hit things with, I later had him do it again when he couldn't reach enemies. Right now, it's mostly just fun tricks to play around with since the enemies are no real threat, but in the meantime, it's enough to keep things livelier, and I can tell it'll be much more important when I play the harder modes.

I'll keep using this as a log of my progress and to post more thoughts as I progress further. In the meantime, I can try to answer any questions anyone is wondering about. As my work on the Berwick Saga section should indicate, I'm crafty enough and obsessive enough to dig up all sorts of answers to even the most obscure questions.

[Emperor Hardin]

Could you try to do some weird class changes like General Sumia?

Edited by Emperor Hardin, 23 April 2012 - 02:25 PM.

[General Banzai]

How many bandit chapters?

[Geriba]

Biggest question: is the music great, amazing, or best ever? I was getting an FFT vibe from the trailers, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

Edited by Geriba, 23 April 2012 - 02:27 PM.

[Only My Unit]

Will Barbarians and thieves work well together?

[Othin]

Could you try to do some weird class changes like General Sumia?

No promises. I'm probably going for the more natural-feeling class changes when possible, like Soiree going Cavalier --> Great Knight --> Dragonmaster. But we'll see depending on how many class changes I wind up making and what options they wind up having.

How many bandit chapters?

Just one so far, the Prologue. Based on checking enemy data on other sites, I don't remember seeing more, at least in the main story chapters.

Biggest question: is the music great, amazing, or best ever? I was getting an FFT vibe from the trailers, and I'd like to hear your thoughts on it.

It's really good, but there hasn't been much of a cut for the best tunes yet, so it's hard to say for sure.

Will Barbarians and thieves work well together?

I'm not aware of any particular synergy, and I don't yet have any characters of either class.

[Only My Unit]

Ah. Well keep on blazin'!

[L95]

One bandit chapter? Thank goodness.

[Shun One]

Glad to hear you have positive early impressions. About how fast do Support Levels increase? Just curious about them

[H-Bastaki]

Oh cool congrats! im still waiting mine to arrive :B

can't wait for it, especially the music and the cutscenes...and of course everything else :D

[Othin]

Glad to hear you have positive early impressions. About how fast do Support Levels increase? Just curious about them

I'm already seeing some characters getting the +10 Avo from supports indicating a C support, so pretty fast, it seems.

[Refa]

Is it better than Berwick Saga?

[Othin]

Is it better than Berwick Saga?

Can't say yet.

What I can say is that it seems to be matching up with my hopes that it would surpass all past FE games. Matching up to TearRing Saga and Berwick Saga is its next challenge, and we'll have to see about that.

[Wooster]

Less a question, and more a request, (Lord knows you're being inundated with them either way, so feel free to ignore this as I imagine this thread will be filled with them soon).

Just prior to attaining S support, could you note things pertaining to the parents? Namely classes used at the time of S support, and both the order of skills earned and what skills were equipped. I'd like to know if child alt class choices are in flux or not, and what determines skill inheritance.

[Discord]

I expect you'll be attempting to record everyone's stat caps, in the hopes to figure out how it works, which is the main thing I'm curious about.

Also: How do growth rates seem? Higher than normal? Or is it too difficult to tell yet?

[Bee]

Did you get any of the spotpass units yet? And can you buy Marth DLC?

[pegasusmage]

Is it possible to turn off the annoying grunts during dialogue......

[Othin]

It looks like I spoke too soon. Enemies are hitting harder and I'm being forced to bring limited teams, already had to reset a couple of times. Played through Ch3/4, and also Ga1. Ga1 is another bandit chapter, but being optional, I don't think it's a huge concern.

Also, after completing Ga1, what looked like a group of monsters showed up. I ignored it; don't feel like bothering with skirmishes, but it looks like there are monster battles available without paying. Quantities may be limited, though.

Less a question, and more a request, (Lord knows you're being inundated with them either way, so feel free to ignore this as I imagine this thread will be filled with them soon).

Just prior to attaining S support, could you note things pertaining to the parents? Namely classes used at the time of S support, and both the order of skills earned and what skills were equipped. I'd like to know if child alt class choices are in flux or not, and what determines skill inheritance.

According to Vincent, the children inherit all class sets available, with gender-specific classes being replaced. I'll see if I can verify this, though, and I'll also check out whatever I need to to figure out skill inheritance.

Don't worry about too many questions. Chances are, after hearing about any unknown matter, I'll be even more curious than you are about it.

I expect you'll be attempting to record everyone's stat caps, in the hopes to figure out how it works, which is the main thing I'm curious about.

Also: How do growth rates seem? Higher than normal? Or is it too difficult to tell yet?

I don't think I'll need to go that far to figure out the caps. I may be able to work out almost all the base caps just from the information we have already, but I'll definitely post any other caps I hit to try to figure out more details and verify things.

Growth rates seem higher for the most part.

Did you get any of the spotpass units yet? And can you buy Marth DLC?

No SpotPass yet. I haven't set up an internet connection with this 3DS yet, so I don't think I'll be able to access the DLC until I do, and SpotPass may have the same issue; not entirely sure how it works. I'll set up the internet eventually, but my first priority right now is playing the game.

Is it possible to turn off the annoying grunts during dialogue......

Have you poked around in the Options menu? I'm sure there's something that will do it.

I don't mind them, personally.

[L95]

Will you be taking any pictures?

Edited by L95, 23 April 2012 - 04:37 PM.

[Othin]

Will you be taking any pictures?

Probably at some point.