Tormod

Nearing the end of the game on Hard Classic: Best unit has solidly become Jean (Martial Master w/Eirika). Lunar brace's bonus damage with fists' double attack functionality is absolutely monstrous, and he now one rounds basically everything he attacks. A solid ~25 in defenses, an evasion boosting engrave on the Flashing Art, and a very high speed plus Marth's +evade passive also makes him dodge enough to never have to worry. Dealing with 2 life bars off a boss just by having Jean get backed up by Seadall has gotten me out of a ton of situations. Most disappointing has been Diamant. He's not been so bad as to be replaced for me, but he's been so solidly well rounded that he doesn't have any particular strengths I can leverage. He won't die easy, but he also can basically never get any kills for me, when every other member of my team has at least some enemy types they can one round. It's sad too because I've been hearing so much of people loving him. Worst has unfortunately been Alfred, who got even more screwed in levelups than Diamant. At a point where my units had multiple 20s, Alfred didn't have a single stat over 15.

FE seems to inspire a lot of the human visual design; the 'transformations' the main party are taking are clearly FE class inspired, and I have a feeling you can expect that the various NPCs throughout the game are going to be analogues or direct cameos of actual Fire Emblem characters. I know Intelligent Systems has also expressed desire to do a modern FE at some point in time, although they're not the core development team. SMT meanwhile seems to have inspired everything else - being set in modern tokyo is the biggest one (Literally, this is a defining element to mainline SMT and is literally the developer-reported reason for why Strange Journey couldn't be called SMT4, as it wasn't set in Tokyo), but also the suggested themes of sub-realities/monsters interfering with real life, the visual design (The dungeon glances seen have a very... what's the word? Sci-fi modern glamour? feel that does remind me of some of the more colorful Nocturne locations, Raidou Kuzunoha, etc), and especially on monster design. It's probably going to play heavily into the story too. Given they've opted to give it a new title instead of raw SMT, I wouldn't expect it to carry the traditionally dark/dangerous atmosphere or law/chaos attributions that are typical to SMT, but it's not like this is the first spinoff they've done that didn't follow quite what tradition was either. And it being "too anime" doesn't preclude it from these kinds of things (see Devil Survivor). The battle engine, from what I could glimpse and can guess, definitely seems highly SMT in interface... but there appears to be a mixture of combination attacks, turn order control, etc. to add an extra layer of strategy likely inspired by FE?

That's what I was thinking. Still, it does have a distinctly SMT feel (Being set in Tokyo does that above everything else), even if more colorful. It seems a lot more like they decided against simply slapping characters together in some excuse plot crossover world and doing something more "inspired by" both series. Which is... actually more acceptable to me? Mostly because I'm used to crossover games that try to do the former thing feeling really, really uninspired and lackluster and blagh.

Nothing else in this show has been fake though, and they specifically said on the announcement of the direct yesterday that this wouldn't be a joke at all. I'm... so curious but so f***ed up right now.

#1 - When you buy the pack, the unreleased DLC will show up on your list as purchased and appear in the "play a map" menu; however, if you try right now it'll just say "Please come back when it's out!" and send you back to the menu. All you'll need to do when the DLC is released is go back to the purchase list - the game will inform you that there's an "update for previously downloaded content" - hit yes and it'll download the map automatically and there you go. #2 - I believe you can pick and choose which maps you want freely. I could, however, be wrong; I always bought the packs on day one so someone else will have to confirm.

Challenge Name: "True Classic" Mode Basic Concept Summary: Removes a number of added features in FE13 to provide a more "core" Fire Emblem experience Difficulty Setting: Normal or Hard suggested (Lunatic is probably impossible), Classic of course Number of Continues: Infinite Resets Allowed: Infinite Risen Encounters Allowed: No Skirmishes Whatsoever Pair-Up Allowed: Absolutely Not Characters Allowed: Any main-game characters, including Avatar (no Logbook/DLC Characters/Spotpass/Streetpass) Support Restrictions: None DLC Allowed: No DLC Allowed (See notes though) Bonus Box Allowed: Nothing from the Wireless Menu is allowed Event Tiles Allowed: Yes (No Barracks though) Items Allowed: Any obtained Miscellaneous Restrictions: -No using Second Seals. Master Seals are the only option. Once your level is capped, that's it. (One exception, see below). You can sell Second Seals for cash, consider them a Bullion. -You can only visit the shop of a chapter you just completed. No Anna Merchants, no shopping via streetpass, and no going back to previous chapters for extra items. -Paralogue 1-4 & Tiki's must be challenged immediately or skipped. -No using Renown. (One exception, see below) Notes: -Children Paralogues: You can't farm to unlock these, but if you DO unlock them, you have freedom to challenge them whenever feels most comfortable to you. The longer you wait the harder it could be to raise these characters but the better they will be. -Event Tiles are allowed because they're basically like the old "hidden items" throughout the series. -(Notably) Easier variant: You are permitted to visit DLC maps once each, with the exception of Golden Pack maps. You can also allow Bonus Paralogues from the bonus box if you so desire, but they don't come into play until super late and many are harder than the final chapter anyway. Up to you, but it's suggested to do this if you end up finding that enemies have become too powerful for your team (It can happen). You are still not permitted to use DLC characters; but can use any other rewards (from villages or other rewards such as the Silver Card and Paragon manual) you obtain -Donnel: Donnel functions as a rookie character. You can use the Renown menu to get a Second Seal for him (But not sell it!) - if you do, he absolutely must 'promote' into a first class at level 10. Creator: Garlyle Challenge Rating: I'll get back to you when I finish it but it's pretty tough (though not unreasonable); feels similar to around FE12 ** when done on Hard Classic. I've made it up to 17 currently even with a handful of dead weight units I could potentially have dropped a while ago.

Dread Fighter (well, Demon Fighter) was a class unique to Gaiden. Interestingly enough, the promotion path involved was Villager -> Mercenary -> Swordsman (basically Hero without axes) -> Demon Fighter, and if you promoted again you'd go back to Villager. So clearly you should turn Donnel into one. Its initial skill - RES+10 - is also a reference to Gaiden (Demon Fighter had years more RES than any other class) ...But on a more serious note, if you've got a limited supply of cash, either pick a well-rewarding DLC or grab the Harvest for conversation fun.

For those wondering about the progression of time and technology: Remember that human science and technology has improved more in the last hundred years than throughout the whole of human history. And while magic and the laws governing it may have been common, Miriel is (to my knowledge) one of the first FE characters to take an actively scientific approach even though she uses magic (Or perhaps because she uses magic). You can go "But it's magic you don't need to explain shit" and I think that fits for 99% of the cast - but she goes "No I do want to explain shit" and figures it out. Assuming they're successful in the future, Miriel and Laurent may, in the distant future of the FE universe, be looked back on in the same way we think of people like Aristotle, Steno, Copernicus, Galileo, etc - a figure whose studies would end up revolutionizing the world and becoming the foundations of modern sciences, even if not during the era they were alive.

I'm not much of a fan of War Cleric mostly because most characters that have it as an option are simply better off as Sages generally, and I think Rally Luck is one of the worst skills you can get from promoted classes (Renewal is alright though)... ...but that's on a gameplay front. I really want to find excuses to use them because they're kind of awesome in design.

I'm on the Stahl/Donnel bandwagon too honestly. In terms of practical effects on the kid though I guess I'm for Stahl/Panne (Only one class overlaps and the final cap mods are amazing) or Stahl/Cherche though.

I find that to be pretty minor. If you're selecting pairings for gameplay-based reasons (and thus worrying about things like inheriting Galeforce etc) you're probably thinking in the long term - in which case "difficulty of the recruitment chapter" is pretty irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. it's still way easier than Gerome or Nah's paralogues regardless

Well, that's one way to beat this chapter... good job 8D

Okay, I guess look at it this way: The balance issue at the core is overcentralization - when a single choice is so broken that the value of every other choice is measured against it. I know, I know. FE13 is 99.9% a single-player game effectively. Balance is less important here than in other games. I get that. But the reality is that the game is giving you a boatload of choices of skills that you could be using, then essentially creating one skill soes immensely powerful that either A) you have it and your power is drastically increased, or B) you don't have it and you're forever far weaker than you could be. I know, I know. People bring up Galeforce. As cool as Galeforce is though people are realising it's not the uber skill it's often thought of as - for one, it is only during the player phase, and for two, it's basically null on a Spotpass team because if a unit were to get a kill your 'opponent' would restart anyway. Nevermind the part where not everyone can get Galeforce - Galeforce is, ultimately, not an 'automatic' in building the strongest units possible, but just a highly favourable option. That's how it's different from Limit Breaker. There's a lot of ways to break the game in Fire Emblem games, and a lot of really powerful choices - but it's very, very rare than any single choice is "If you don't use this your power is dropping dramatically" (MAYBE the closest thing would be Seth in FE8 IF you're insistant on ignoring non-main-game events/purchases. Maybe.) Within the bounds of FE13 and creating strong teams, either you have limit break or you don't and the power difference is huge.

I definitely feel like Axefaire is the best male-only option. Counter just isn't worth it to me - most of the time I'm in a situation where either a. I'm not being hit in the first place, or b. getting hit too much kills you in which case I might not want to be doing more damage to the enemy than absolutely necessary/don't want to be taking too many hits anyway/etc. My point is, I just don't find the added damage from Counter has ever mattered on anything that I've seen have Counter. If it's kills I'm after, Axefaire just does it that much better because +5 power. Of the other options I'd take either Gamble or Despoil; maybe Wrath if they're going to be a Nosferatanker or something. As for females obviously Galeforce is a top-of-the-line option, but Demoiselle is a reasonable low-investment option or Lancefaire if I don't feel like the obvious choice. Otherwise either of the rallies can be nice should the kid be Male Morgan so he can Spectrum even better, but since there's two... yeah.

The only teams I pick up on Streetpass belong to my roommate and friend who have FE13. I finished the game well before them but they currently have a far stronger team than I do ):