Why is the effectiveness coeficent X2 in fe7's english version?

[sirmola]

I was playing a hector mode fe7 run, and i was reminded for how the effectiveness coefficient (the value that weapon might is multiplied by during a successful attack) was 2 in the English localization of this game, as opposed to 3 like in the Japanese version or in most other FEs. This is a significant mechanical change, given the relatively large number of effective weapons in this game. Why do you think the localizers did this?

[Irysa]

I imagine their intent was to make the game less unforgiving. It effectively stops archers from being able to oneshot Pegs, and makes various effective weaponry enemies less threatening. On the flipside, player units tend to do a significant chunk of damage with X2 coefficiency due to low enemy defensive stats, so it's felt less strongly there.

Edited May 4, 2015 by Irysa

[HF Makalov Fanboy Kai]

I imagine their intent was to make the game less unforgiving. It effectively stops archers from being able to oneshot Pegs, and makes various effective weaponry enemies less threatening. On the flipside, player units tend to do a significant chunk of damage with X2 coefficiency due to low enemy defensive stats, so it's felt less strongly there.

this might be true, but i beg to differ in some cases, for example, the horseslayer's effective on horses is only just as good as a silver lance on the same target.

there is barely a point when silver can't do the same job, unless that unit can't use silver yet.

Edited May 4, 2015 by HF Makalov Fanboy Kai

[Irysa]

Yeah but the weapon rank requirements are much lower.

I mean don't get me wrong, the difference is noticable, but you still hit fairly hard with them, just by merit of the fact enemies have worse Hp/Def than player units in this game.

Edited May 4, 2015 by Irysa

[sirmola]

Yeah but the weapon rank requirements are much lower.

I mean don't get me wrong, the difference is noticable, but you still hit fairly hard with them, just by merit of the fact enemies have worse Hp/Def than player units in this game.

Geting, say, rath, to d swords is much easier then getting him to a.

Also, it is easier to get your hands on effective weapons then silvers (the shop that sells effective weapons comes around 5 chapters earlier, plus the copies enemies drop), and they have lower worth. (some effectives have a slight mt advantage over a silver as well). So thay are not useless, but thay are generaly a lot more niche then in other games.

[chococoke]

I also believe it was done to reduce the difficulty. Enemies in FE7 are mostly bad, and not having to worry about enemies with effective weaponry blicking your units makes the game much easier. Of course, it also means weapons like the Longsword and Heavy Spear are more useful as novelties than actual weaponry.

Ironically enough, FE8 returning to the 3x bonus made that game even easier than FE7 due to the enemies being even worse AND effective weaponry being incredibly abundant/OP for the player. Hell, base!Ephraim can absolutely slaughter Cavs/Knights for most of the game with Reginleif (or however you spell it)

And then you consider that an entire class has 3x might against almost all endgame enemies... yeah.