Superbus

Shrinking the maps is an absolute. The maps are so large, and after taking some castles, it's so customary to see a first time player take a castle, and then find out "oops, here comes an entire army aaaaand Noish's dead". Some maps can be cut up into three or four stages with modern standards. They also need to consider streamlining supports. It's not just about making Seisen better, it's about making Seisen palatable to modern gamers.

Every unit in this game, assuming RNG friendliness, is usable. Even Anna can be used effectively. I do think Manuela has some usable niches - she's an outstanding trickster - but would she be as good with as much training as any other Assassin-trained character? I.E.: in any way, shape or form, is she as good in that role as Petra, Ignatz, or especially Felix? And even as a Trickster, is she better than Marianne?

I'll go one better: it's a *benefit*. All of the interface issues, once you get over them, are able to be adjusted to. Once you get used to it, the things like animations and the like don't really matter. And any interface issues this game has, it's still better than what the Famicom and earlier Super Famicom games had. At least these, we're working with full English; the older games, until recently, you had to fight through them either in Japanese or with a not-100% patch. Now consider that the game runs sharp. Click, bang, you have a move. More recent Fire Emblem games look great, but they tend to meander. You load this game up and you're killing bandits within a minute. And this game can run on just about anything, so even lower-end systems can play this at 100%. If you're old school or are familiar with Battle for Wesnoth, this is actually a nice change of pace.

A lot has changed since I was last a regular member of the Fire Emblem fandom. A LOT. In the time that's passed, I went from being simply "the old guy" to an actual old guy. As such, I'm now involved in a lot of charities in my hometown, where over a thousand people simultaneously went insane on November 5th and elected me as a legislator. Our usual charities are typical fare; breakfasts, 50/50, etc. I'd like to change that to bring in younger people and get some attention. But I'm not really updated on how the gaming community works now - I play games at home and that's about it - so my ideas need to be fleshed out. One major idea I had was a Smash tournament, because it's virtually ubiquitous, would bring in people from surrounding towns, and the Switch travels well. So that's why I come here for ideas: - What is understood to be a good Smash ruleset for low-level tournaments? - What would go into getting so many people together and playing simultaneously? - Would it be beneficial to have multiple brackets (I.E.: 1v1, free for all, etc.)? I know a lot about video games, but the last time I actually played in and won a tournament was a Madden tournament on my old ship in 2002; that's legitimately older than some of the members here. So I need some people to explain how today's tournaments work, and I thank you all in advance.

My first couple of times through, I did everything I could to recruit whoever I could. So the only character I missed in the first run (Crimson) was Lorenz, and who cares. I figured once I beat all the routes, I could go through and do a minimal recruit; only recruit people who asked. I can't do it. The characters are so entrenched into this game, that I can't see myself going through and taking out anyone I don't absolutely have to take out (I.E.: Hilda in CF, the leaders and their retainers, etc.). I'm too OCD to not recruit everyone, and too attached to murder them, so I resort instead to Youtube videos if I want to see how it goes down.

I'm going back through the Edelgard routes now, and... much to @Etrurian emperor's point above, it's almost like i'm playing a different game. The things I'm noticing pre-timeskip compared to my first playthrough are exceptional. I just have an alarm in my head going off saying "this chick is not playing around". My first playthrough (CF), I picked Edelgard because I couldn't see myself going for an increasingly unhinged Rhea. Second time through (SS), I couldn't see myself going with someone who was so obviously working with the enemy (though I'm interested to see how a playable Jeritza works into this).

That wasn't my understanding from my CF playthrough, which is also the only one that didn't give me the Paralogue with Ferdinand and Lysithea. It was my first playthrough so I could have made some mistakes, though. Basically, I thought that in CF (and only CF?), Hubert basically killed everyone. His father, Count Varley, Duke Aegir, etc.

I just wanted to say I think you are 100% spot on regarding most of this, particularly the Crimson Flower route. That was my first route, so on my first playthrough it was a strongly written one, but having seen the rest now, it just feels... kind of schizophrenic in hindsight. Then again, I think - and this is positive criticism, what they did with the story of this game was exceptional - everyone feels like their whole purpose in life is to bend to the whims of Byleth. Fire Emblem in the MU era has always been Mary Sue/Gary Stu-ish, and it isn't as bad in this game as it was in the abominably written Fates games, but watching the reactions of each character to their situation is kind of jarring, especially comparing Silver Snow to Crimson Flower. Particularly with the noble classes, because Ferdinand von Aegir~ openly serves the woman who like KILLED HIS DAMN FATHER. They kind of papered over a lot of the background stuff in Crimson Flower to point out that Edelgard really likes the professor. I get where they were going with it, I just don't think the results quite matched the ambitions. But that they came so close is to their credit. Excellent write-up.

I honestly think it's the best Musou crossover game ever. It's got the catharsis of killing a whole bunch of people, a sliding scale on difficulty in stages, a lot of things to do, a constant effort to keep improving, and it took in the personality of the characters very well as well (though I miss not having the Elibe characters). Tecmo Koei has shown - particularly with TH - that they are a very good development house so long as they have a strong hand on their shoulders. With their own properties - ROTK, Nobunaga, I'll even put Dead or Alive here - they've really faltered, and DW9 was atrocious. But the FE and Zelda Warriors games were good.

I've had a problem with the Fire Emblem games for almost 15 years: I am addicted to "metagaming", or as it's known now, "min-maxing". When the Game Boy games were still new, I would take the ROM versions, load Codebreaker codes onto them, and just see how people did when I leveled them up infinitely. What were their stats at 20, 20-20, and how long would it take to cap them out. I know there's maths for that, but I didn't bomb out of Nuke School in 2000 to be doing that kind of nonsense. I think my habit started with the Suikoden games. For those who don't know how Suikoden works, if you don't do certain things JUST right, you won't get all 108 characters, and if that happens, your favourite character fucking dies. Later favourite games of mine were not much better: Trails (Cold Steel/In The Sky), Persona, and Atelier were made for obsessive-compulsives who tolerate GameFAQs text files and the amateur comedians who write them. My min-max tendencies continued with Awakening and Fates - the latter an almost aggressively shitty set of games, nothing more than Mary Sue fanfiction with a pinch of horny - as I would pair up characters with different pairings* to see how the kids turned out, how certain combinations came out, etc. (* - Not always. IT WILL ALWAYS BE CHROM X SUMIA AND TAKUMI X OBORO, DAMNIT) Then came Three Heroes. Not only is there a certain way to adjust growths, but I'm guessing (no FUCKING SPOILERS, I'm still in June) a perfectly done way of who to talk to on X school day, who to give what gifts to, and a scientifically perfect way of ensuring that you get everyone on your team with S supports and perfectly calibrated stats and if my experiences back at FESS are indicative, they will tell you this at high volume with much caps-lock usage. When I got the game and learned what I was in for, I was intimidated. I am obsessive about good runs and leaving nothing left behind, if only because I'm damn near 40, with a wife and a home I own and like 42 different careers, and don't have time to go back and do it again, but right this time. It looked like I was dealing with a game that combined the worst OCD tendencies of Trails, Suikoden and Fire Emblem. That's when I realized... let it happen! I don't need FAQs, or Prima Guides (pour one out), or anything like that. So what if I don't get all the items, or if someone dies because I killed them? Let it happen! Let's take this as an indication of my skill, and see what actually *role playing* is good for! This is exceptionally good for this game, where half the game seems to be a personality test. I don't 'even remember what kind of flowers my wife likes, I'm not going to study a website to find out that Random Anime Trope 81 likes cats. I feel relieved. I feel free! I feel like dancing in a field of flowers barefoot while singing showtunes, until I realize that I'm not as agile as I was as a young man and things start to ache and I start sweating profusely and also my wife is telling me nonsense like "honey, you're outside of a Wendy's, please stop embarrassing me".

Any votes I don't use on Tate, I'm going to burn on Makalov. Some people just like to watch the world burn.

If I have to pick five... 5: Fire Emblem - Though it's still the most *important* to me, there are games I like better. 4: Suikoden - Only dropped down a spot or two because holy hell did IV and Tierkreis suck. 3: Zelda - I can't describe what it was like to play that game 30 years ago, before walkthroughs became ubiquitous. I don't know if it's different for little kids playing, oh, BotW. But this game was so far ahead of its time it wasn't funny, and the others expanded upon it perfectly. 2: NHL - Don't laugh. This game has been there for me every year since the early 90s. 1: Final Fantasy - Just so many hits, so many life-changing games. I beat VII again for the first time since it was new, and... yeah, it is still great. Apologies to the haters.

One of the things they could do is break up FE4's stages - which were very large, and often prone to issues where taking one castle too early leads to cheap deaths - into smaller chunks. You could get 25 stages out of that. That way, you can also use Thracia as a sequel of sorts. The issue then becomes the fact that you are fundamentally changing how the game works. They showed they were willing to do that for Monshou, but they kept it close to the vest for Echoes for the most part.

You know this isn't a competition, right?

Overhead. The cost of development is fucking astronomical nowadays, and yet the game is still $60 before the DLC and loot box bullshit. So the work that goes into cases, the labels, etc., wherever you can cut corners, you cut them to increase that profit margin even a little bit. For you younger members, go find an old instruction booklet for most NES games. They were huge sometimes! Large, with hints in the back, some were in full colour, with art. I think Final Fantasy's was 77 pages or something. Now, even the PDF manuals look cheaper in comparison. It's just a matter of dollars and sense in an industry that's as tight and competitive as it's ever been.

Not entirely sure what constitutes hard nowadays, because most of today's "hard" games - non Dark Souls division - are hard for the sake of being hard, usually by calling it "retro" and making it cheap as hell. But these definitely qualify: Ninja Gaiden 1 through 3 Castlevania 1, Simon's Quest + 3, + Super Castlevania Every Zelda before Ocarina of Time Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 Battletoads Star Tropics Metroid Kid Icarus Metal Storm* Streets of Rage (2 + 3 weren't too bad, but one was hard as hell). VVVVVV (though to hell with the perfect clear bollocks)* Mike Tyson's Punch Out!! (the NES game) 14-0 Solomon's Key An asterisk denotes anything I beat for the first time in the past ten years (I'm 37), which goes to show how much harder it gets over time. Now, I very rarely play a game over the default difficulty and if it's an older game, I'm very likely to use things like savestates.

The first time I went into Dubai, I accidentally bought a bunch of European PS1 games (this was 2000). Needless to say, no one was interested in taking returns, and I had to sell them for like a fraction of the cost.

I've been burned so much by the virtual consoles of old that I'm a little bit skittish regarding the idea of a new one. There's only so many times I can buy Metroid, and if I'm going to go in for Gamecube games that I don't already own, then at this point, I need a guarantee that I don't get burned when Nintendo updates their system in the future. Having to repurchase all of these VC games again and again on the newer systems is terrible, and unnecessary, and just exploitative.

Forgive me if this was addressed in this three year old thread of 19 pages, but am I the only one having a world of problems importing this patch to use w/ OpenEmu on Mac? I just get a blank screen despite patching effectively. It's notable that OpenEmu doesn't support the standard ips patching method (simply renaming the patch)

Actually, I checked the math, and revenue did jump when the Ayra banner hit. But it also jumped on every other new character focus: Graph is from App Annie, from 9-1 to 10-20. Those peaks you see are, listing as Date: Event (Rank among all US games on iOS): - Sept. 1: CYH 2nd day (3rd on Aug. 31) - Sept. 15: Dauntless Crimeans (9) - Sept. 29: Performing Arts (5) - Oct. 16: World of Holy War (8) - Oct. 19: Tempest Trials/Ayra (9) So it would appear that this specific incident hasn't really had any more noticeable impact than any other summons, and in fact the CYH one was far more successful and even sustained. Going back to the issue of power creep, it should be noted that top tier units have been given out as freebies in the latest events. Black Knight was free, and he's ridiculous. Arden is going to be free, and JESUS CHRIST. Everyone's mad about Arya, but Arden - who was a middling unit in Seisen - is the real issue.

Bolded emphasis. Places like this are white noise to the devs. Maybe they'll listen to feedback on how the game *plays*, but once it comes to money, the guys that matter only listen to the bottom line. And let's face it: the DLC for Awakening and Fates did very, very well (not too sure about Echoes; I think $50 was too much even for superfans. I didn't even get any Echoes DLC, and I have every game save Thracia on display in my house), and as someone mentioned in one of the FEH threads, that game's gross earnings jumped after the Ayra update.* We have to accept that this is a major series now, and as such, in 2017, it tends to cater to people who have more money than brains, and are far more willing to use the former than the latter. That means, if we really want something to change, we have to simply start making that decision at the base level and not paying. It sucks, I know, but consider the alternatives: the closest analogue to Fire Emblem on Nintendo systems is Advance Wars. There is already a very good Advance Wars clone on iOS for like $5, and there's another indie game dropping that looks good, too. So someone will give us the core gameplay experience without IS or Nintendo's input. It's inevitable. We just have to show there's a market for it. * - Actually, the maths on this don't check out. Gross earnings did jump when the ayra update hit, but the jump wasn't even as high as it was when the Performing Arts update hit, per App Annie.

I think you misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not defending the game just because others are worse. I'm literally saying that the design of the system being used is bad and there is no real defence. The fact that it hasn't been outright shitty until now is more of a happy accident. I can assure you: I would never have gotten into it had it not been Fire Emblem, and even then, IS has - by far - the best system. Even your initial 1* Virion can be a good unit with some effort; I can't say the same for low-star units in the few others I've tolerated long enough to play a bit. But in no way is that a defence; damning with faint praise might be more appropriate. Without reading the entire thread again, I think someone mentioned that part of the problem was that people said "I'm surprised IS did this to us!". Noble, but also naive. I don't know if they've changed since the FESS days, but back then - I'm going back over a decade - they were quite difficult to deal with from a fandom perspective. Furthermore, the $50 "Season Pass" for a Gaiden remake, three separate games to tell one "canon" story, whatever the hell is going on in Warriors, the increased focus on fanservice (which is saying something!)... these decisions stick in my craw because they're decidedly anti-consumer. IS - and really, no mid to large tier developer - is worthy of "trust". Cautious optimism, maybe. But never, ever trust.

I read Vincent's article, but I have the reaction to much of the controversy regarding Ayra is overblown for one reason: if you play a gacha game, you have to expect the worst. It is designed to be a shitty, manipulative system, and the way to get people paying into a shitty, manipulative system is to offer them a carrot, with the stick being that the carrot will go away. We've learned with FEH one thing: if there's a really popular summon, everyone pays into it, with the others being ignored. I'm willing to bet no one paid into the focus for Minerva while the dancer focus was going unless they had a heavy overdose of orbs., for example. Everything that is going on with FEH right now is working as intended. They know Ayra is extremely popular. They know the other units are popular to a lesser extent. So put some super skills on them, and separate Ayra into another focus that has two characters everyone has and don't care about (Eldigan isn't at 500HM for me). More people spending orbs into more areas, and ohbytheway the dancer focus is still going. Three focuses ending within days of each other with timed, desired units. I'm willing to bet their internals look FANTASTIC on this. Vincent mentions that this game is better than other gachas. He's right; I've only played a few (P&D, Tales and Fate GO, the latter of which is terrible), but reported on the industry long enough to know how bad it can truly get. But with this system and the focus on making money that it has, things are going to escalate. Power creep is a thing in games like this for a reason; it's how to get players to keep spending, and you're not going to do that with Defiant Atk. This was inevitable, and anyone who thinks otherwise is naive. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if behind the scenes, we found out that more math was skewing the up-front numbers. If you'd told me that in the Tempest focus that Ayra had a lower pull chance than the Incest Twins, or if they were lowering the 5* rate for whales, I wouldn't bat an eyelash. Vince is right. This is a bad precedent. But it was designed to be a bad precedent and I'm shocked we didn't hit it sooner.

Yesterday, it was all someone's Asura. Granted, this is fine, because Asura is a beast. But I wish it varied a bit more. Or even let us have a choice, even if that choice sticks for the duration of the round.

I was wondering how in the blue hells people were at almost 500K points within hours of the gauntlet starting. With numbers on the line - the number of feathers for rewards, etc. - that makes the whole endeavor pointless. It's already a P2W game designed for whales, now we're adding dumb luck and fidgety, Aspie-like devotion to the mix?