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For those who have completed both paths...which did you like better?


Kirokan
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In terms of story, characters, and gameplay? This is all really just opinion based, of course! So feel free to say as you please

Strangely, I enjoyed Hoshido's story more. I was expecting Nohr to be the one that would be more enticing with the "deeper, darker story," but in the end I think Hoshido had the more emotional moments and aspects of plot. There were some issues on both sides, but overall was okay. I would say they both had Awakening beat in this regard (I suppose that is not too hard to do), but seeing as this was their objective, I am glad it was successful. For me anyway!

They really seem to be leaving a lot of things for the third path though... not sure how I feel about that.

Characters were fairly even when it comes to main ones. Both sides' equivalent siblings had good and bad sides. They did contrast yet relate to each other in interesting ways. Some got more screen time than others. The male siblings certainly took the stage when it came to who had divine weapons and were amazing units, however... xD

Gameplay, Nohr had quite the variety of modes and certainly made for more interesting levels. The difficulty was definitely something that caught me off guard, and playing through for story didn't help lowering the difficulty later on so I could get through it quicker. xD I kept my Hard/Classic save file so I can go back and attempt to get through it though...

On a side note, the music for this game is lovely. They really helped with the emotional/dramatic moments for sure. : )

Overall, Hoshido was more enjoyable for me with all aspects combined. However, Nohr is not too far behind.

So what did you guys think?

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I know some people don't like giving ratings to games, but to people who've completed both games, how would you rate this game? Either on a scale from 1-10, or F to A+ is fine. I'll still read your thoughts on the games, but a rating would also be nice. :P

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I'm interested in knowing the general consensus as well.

Your comment on the dlc makes it seem like they're trying to market the third path as the "true" path, that ties everything together. Having finished both, do you think this might be the case? Or did I just completely misinterpret that?

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What from I watched from stream and spoiled myself, the real "why the fuck did I chose this route" feeling came from Hoshido and as for Nohr I found the quality of characters and its development way superior than that of Hoshido's. Reading translated support, of all route Nohr Azura x Kamui support is the best. Other supports including Char/Marx and Laz/Soli were among my favorite, this tied into that I found most of the likable units (Luna, Odin and Laz the trio were among my top favorite characters as well as the Nohrian Royal siblings) was from the Nohr's side and most of Hoshido's wasn't much desirable imo.

Hoshido's story and the feels > Nohr's

Nohr's characters and supports >> Hoshido's

It a tough call but I go for Nohr just because the Nohrian Royal sibling is just sooo much better than your Hoshido's.

Edited by Awakener_
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I'm interested in knowing the general consensus as well.

Your comment on the dlc makes it seem like they're trying to market the third path as the "true" path, that ties everything together. Having finished both, do you think this might be the case? Or did I just completely misinterpret that?

You read right, no worries. Yes, unfortunately it seems to be heading that way. Both sides leave some big mysteries about that the third path will likely answer. It is unfortunate because it means you cannot buy just one path and understand what you need to know about the overall story. : \

What from I watched from stream and spoiled myself, the real "why the fuck did I chose this route" feeling came from Hoshido and as for Nohr I found the quality of characters and its development way superior than that of Hoshido's. Reading translated support, of all route Nohr Azura x Kamui support is the best. Other supports including Char/Marx and Laz/Soli were among my favorite, this tied into that I found most of the likable units (Luna, Odin and Laz the trio were among my top favorite characters as well as the Nohrian Royal siblings) was from the Nohr's side and most of Hoshido's wasn't much desirable imo.

Hoshido's story and the feels > Nohr's

Nohr's characters and supports >> Hoshido's

It a tough call but I go for Nohr just because the Nohrian Royal sibling is just sooo much better than your Hoshido's.

Yes, I agree with this exactly. : ) I liked the characters in Nohr overall better, but the story and especially emotional bits of Hoshido (the final few chapters together) were great. However, I think having played Nohr first made these moments even stronger, because these are the people I just spent my previous (incredibly difficult) play through with. The betrayal when choosing Hoshido and Marx's words hurt more than Ryouma's did in the first time through. xD

I felt in Nohr Kamui was getting off very easily on the tough choices. Someone, or something, would always interrupt to make the choice easy. As a result, they never even really had to get their hands dirty...

I also ended up marrying Lazward, so in the conversation with Soleil, I was upset that he was suggesting taking Soleil with him without even consulting her mother. What a terrible husband!

So as said above, I would go for Hoshido's story/emotional moments, but Nohr's for characters and the like.

Edited by Kirokan
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Hmmm... that's a hard choice to make. But quite honestly, Hoshido is the winner for me. Nohr however had more memorable characters than Hoshido. Hoshido only wins by just a mere inch. My Asian blood ditches my Asian heritage for being a Europhile.

I, too, had begun with Nohr. However, it didn't have the more emotional pact for me as "less" people died in the Nohr campaign. But Hoshido... it was very hard for me to go through the chapters, it gave me that much of an impact.

I find the Nohr Royal siblings much more memorable than the Hoshidans. I mean... we all know what's actually up with the Hoshido Royals. Nohr royals are more of a family than the Hoshidans.

If you just put Nohr's characters and the emotional Hoshido story, we have a winner.

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I also ended up marrying Lazward, so in the conversation with Soleil, I was upset that he was suggesting taking Soleil with him without even consulting his mother. What a terrible husband!

Question regarding the awakening characters and their kids

What happens to them in their epilogues? I heard something about them returning to the Awakening timeline, but I am curious to hear for sure

Edited by TheWerdna
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Question regarding the awakening characters and their kids

What happens to them in their epilogues? I heard something about them returning to the Awakening timeline, but I am curious to hear for sure

You may want to edit that spoiler tag. : ) (I fixed it in the quote above though)

All three are said to disappear/leave no record behind, so likely returned... but does not say directly

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You may want to edit that spoiler tag. : ) (I fixed it in the quote above though)

All three are said to disappear/leave no record behind, so likely returned... but does not say directly

and their kids? Specifically Soleil and Ophelia as said supports bring it up directly

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and their kids? Specifically Soleil and Ophelia as said supports bring it up directly

Soleil was said to go on a journey leaving vague records behind, but was said to become a dancer after being a mercenary group head.Ophelia got a rare tome and jewel and left to a far away continent, and then official records disappear, but it was said she became a great magic user. I guess you can take these to mean they went home, or went elsewhere. Maybe they'll appear in the next game instead? Sigh. xD

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I'm not gonna lie, as I played through the Nohr route, I just felt disconnected. Kamui in Hoshido is a redeemable person and the characters are really fun to use while in Nohr, I didn't really enjoy the supports or the plot as much.

Now don't get me wrong, Nohr has a good story. I just didn't find it that good. I thought Kamui would rebel but he didn't. I enjoyed King Garon and characters like Zero and Azura but.... I dunno, one of the things that turned me off from Nohr were the Awakening children. I didn't like them. Luna was still a tsundere and didn't have a different character, while Lazard and Odin were... differentish. (I killed off Matoi eventually.)

So yeah... Overall, Hoshido was a better experience.

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Soleil was said to go on a journey leaving vague records behind, but was said to become a dancer after being a mercenary group head.Ophelia got a rare tome and jewel and left to a far away continent, and then official records disappear, but it was said she became a great magic user. I guess you can take these to mean they went home, or went elsewhere. Maybe they'll appear in the next game instead? Sigh. xD

do the awakening kids' spouses go with them or do they stay?

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I'm not gonna lie, as I played through the Nohr route, I just felt disconnected. Kamui in Hoshido is a redeemable person and the characters are really fun to use while in Nohr, I didn't really enjoy the supports or the plot as much.

Now don't get me wrong, Nohr has a good story. I just didn't find it that good. I thought Kamui would rebel but he didn't. I enjoyed King Garon and characters like Zero and Azura but.... I dunno, one of the things that turned me off from Nohr were the Awakening children. I didn't like them. Luna was still a tsundere and didn't have a different character, while Lazard and Odin were... differentish. (I killed off Matoi eventually.)

So yeah... Overall, Hoshido was a better experience.

Yes, the inserted kids did harm it a little for those who did not like them (but likely helped those who did). I was more surprised they had quite a bit of dialogue and appearances, but thankfully nothing referencing things that would detract from the game (like mentioning time travel).

The issues with Nohr's story are being discussed in another thread too, if you wanted to contribute to it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

do the awakening kids' spouses go with them or do they stay?

Ah, I will have to look this up in the text dump to see about that.

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The issues with Nohr's story are being discussed in another thread too, if you wanted to contribute to it. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

I think I know where I'm going to go next...

No problem!

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Personally I say that both of them has their impacts; more-so if you played/saw both versions. I give Nohr the winner for storyline because Hoshido has too much feels. (Ironic however, I prefer Hoshido because you can FE:A grind, which is more nicer.) End line though both games will kind of elevate you to play the 3rd campaign though for the 'happy' ending.

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I'm surprised few have really touched on gameplay so far.

Oh dear will the cycle continue?!?!

Pls. Just no.

(Also, since the topic is tagged as spoilers, do we really need all these spoiler tags around in here?)

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I haven't played the game but from reading summaries, support convos, and gameplay details I can safely say that:

Story: Hoshido.

Everything else: Nohr.

I think I would prefer Nohr since you can't have more than one first experience with the story, but gameplay changes each time.

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Sadly, while the Hoshido's story is nothing to write home about, it comes across as Shakespeare in comparison to Conquest. I can't remember the last time where the cast of a game felt so unbelievably stupid and spineless just to make the story happen. There is also a clear disconnect between what was promised and what was delivered; make no mistake, you're not reforming a country from within, you're the yes-sayer until pretty much the very end. Kamui's motives are poor, his plan laughable, and the lines are awful and poorly timed ("let's talk about all the siblings getting together and laugh once the war is over - what do you mean 'I just invaded your country and am responsible for the deaths of your soldiers as well as innocent civilians'? Rude! Are you upset just because I pretended I was going to execute you?"). I can find literally nothing redeemable with the ending, as it is a complete clusterfuck, making me believe that Conquest was originally going to reveal more about the many mysteries surrounding the world and its people, but it was removed in order to entice people to buy the DLC path. There is no way, even with time constraints, that there is so little actual story without executive meddling.

Honestly I'm not sure I even like the two royal families after both paths, as the Hoshidians are rather bland and the Nohrians - particularly Xander - come across as complete and utter idiots in Birthright. Well, maybe aside from Leon. The only one I really like is Takumi for behaving like an actual person. Granted, I'm not well suited to talk about characters since I don't understand a lot of the text.

I'm not going to complain about that much more since I made a thread discussing the Conquest storyline, and I don't want to sound overly critical. I'm just very, very disappointed since I was expecting something, ANYTHING that wasn't what we got in terms of "story".

I think I'm going to give a slight edge to Nohr's characters since the supports I understood somewhat were pretty entertaining; Charlotte is far funnier than I dared to hope she would be.

As for the gameplay, while Conquest might be a bit too hard for me on occasion, is fantastic. The maps are brilliant, the objectives varied, and you really have to be clever and have some foresight when you play. Beating a few difficult maps with no casualties on the first try feels so damn satisfying. Unfortunately, a few maps have gimmicks that just feel like they're there to artificially make the game harder - some might enjoy them, but I didn't. However, those were few and definitely not enough to detract from the overall experience.

Hoshido's maps are fun as well, but I definitely think the route could've added more mission objectives. I realize they were trying to appeal to those who liked Awakening but...I loved Awakening, but I always found the lack of different objectives a bit boring. A general theme of this game seems to be that the developers wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

The music in both versions is just stellar and really captures the atmosphere perfectly, so I can't choose a favorite there.

Overall, I prefer Hoshido due to the story and the fact that I can take a breather and grind supports or whatever whenever I feel like it. I love the challenge of Nohr, but it gets taxing. If Nohr had had an actual story, especially one like what we were promised, then it might've been the favorite, since I more often than not play games for the story.

However, it seems like there'll be absolutely no reason to play the original routes once the DLC path comes aside from different difficulty levels and map variety. Everything indicates the third path will have the perfect difficulty, reveal everything about the story (and boy is there a lot left to find out), give us a larger cast of characters and the "canon" ending, which will undoubtedly be a happy one. If you play through the other routes, you'll always feel like you're picking the de facto wrong path.

Edited by Thane
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Sadly, while the Hoshido's story is nothing to write home about, it comes across as Shakespeare in comparison to Conquest. I can't remember the last time where the cast of a game felt so unbelievably stupid and spineless just to make the story happen. There is also a clear disconnect between what was promised and what was delivered; make no mistake, you're not reforming a country from within, you're the yes-sayer until pretty much the very end.

<snipped>

I apologize that I have only played Nohr path thus far. But I have to come in and say that I wholeheartedly concur with this statement. Personally, at chapter 6, my body was screaming at me to choose Hoshido, given what Mikoto just did for me. But I did have some affections for the Nohr siblings, and the misconception that I was going to be given a chance to "rebel" inside Nohr, so I sided with Nohr. BIG MISTAKE. My FeMui became a yes-sayer. Nohr siblings turned out to be spineless against their ugly father. I can't count how many times Macbeth and/or Gantz show up at the end of the chapter to do evil deeds just to emphasize how helpless you are and how everyone simply say yes to Garon. (What the heck happened to FeMui who stood up for Rinka and Susukaze?)

Gameplay-wise, Nohr path is excellent. Awesome maps with varying objectives. Characters appear more colorful than Hoshido side's. And I do like Kamui and Aqua support in Nohr. (Unfortunately, I can't get S-support with FeMui... At least give me A+ rank with her, for god's sake)

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I feel like the Nohr route should have been focused on subterfuge and working behind the scenes. Where you only appear to be a yes-sayer when in the presence of your higher ups, while secretly going around undermining the Nohr's more evil actions, mitigating damage done by the war, and slowly gaining allies. You could have then eventually be found out late game, at which point you'd be forced to directly oppose Garon in the end. It would be a story of trying to do the right thing when surrounded by bad people. Of being forced to do bad things just to stay alive and in the position to influence things. You could have Kamui dealing with the guilt of these actions, questioning if all of this is worth trying to change the Nohr for the better in the long term.

I hope that someone ends up writing a fanfic retelling the Nohr storyline to actually be something more like this.

Edited by TheWerdna
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What bugs me most about the Nohr route is how it concludes.

It ends pretty much the same way as the Hoshido one does. "Garon" is beaten, Aqua uses too much of her power and dies, and you lose two members of the family you didn't side with. Pretty lazy on IS's part.



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In terms of gameplay I enjoyed both but for different reasons. When starting a map on the Hoshido side I would ask myself "who do I want to use?" On the Nohr side it was often "Who do I have to use?" For example early in the nohr path if a map has alot of spell users you WILL be spamming Zero and Joker/Felicia. I personally like Hoshido more as a result.

Character wise I felt the playable Nohr cast were alot more entertaining. No one was really annoying or anything.

Story wise I felt Hoshido was much much better than Nohr.

Personally I was really annoyed when I was on Nohr and every time we'd drive off a Hoshido invasion or stop a rebellion, in comes Ganz to brutally murder soldiers that you let live. And even though you follow orders Garon tries to have you killed so many times in the story. I just kept asking in my head "We know this isn't the real Garon why are we serving him and not at least trying to tell our siblings the truth. I'm 100% sure every sibling but Marx would immediately take our side at any point in the story." I mean on top of that Ganz 'killed' your beloved mentor gunther on Garon's orders which Kamui seemed pissesd about then just let it go. The only time on the Nohr path where Hoshido were jerks was when Ryouma wouldn't give you medicine.

I dunno there just didn't seem to be much morally gray places just good vs evil to compare the two stories.

Edited by Aquaze
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