Do you think there will be gameplay changes in the localization?

[Light Master]

While everyone is worried about Plot/Fanservice changes in the translation one huge question comes up in my disturbed mind:

In the localization process of the game (mainly Conquest) there will be changes to tone down the difficulty like in FE7?

For those who don't know about i'm talking about, in FE7 (and 8 in some extent) the trones and gates have avoid and def bonuses nerfed and the effective damage reduced from 3x to 2x, etc....

I'm don't remember anything like that in the Awakening localization, so..........

What do you think?

Edited January 8, 2016 by Light Master

[Jedi]

I'm fairly sure the gameplay will remain the same, like earlier games changed some stuff overseas, but iirc Awakening kept everything the same.

I've been wrong in the past though.

[angienessyo]

I couldn't see them changing the gameplay. With the existence of phoenix mode they have no reason to tone down difficulty on the other difficulty levels.

[Peppy]

I hope not (i don't want them to do an FE9 again, where they removed the hardest difficulty and replaced it with an easy mode in the localized versions).

[DarkDestr0yer61]

I hope not. Honestly, I don't see why they should

[Jedi]

I hope not (i don't want them to do an FE9 again, where they removed the hardest difficulty and replaced it with an easy mode in the localized versions).

Yeah, I wasn't happy when I learned about this.

[Shephen]

A man can hope that they fix IK.

Past that I don't really expect much to be changed aside from maybe the Brigand Weapons.

[CrimeanRoyalKnight]

I wouldn't like them to touch the difficulties, but stuff akin to giving the Dawn Brigade their PRF weapons, or Lyn' Sol Katti animations, would be awesome.

They could give the Royal Princesses proper personal weapons, for example, and give different icons to different weapons.

The last thing is so shameful! Even FE3 on the SNES had different icons for each item! I can't fathom why they did this.

Yeah, it doesn't detract much from gameplay, but it hurts the aesthethic. Another thing I'd like them to do (but this one is even more impossible) is to give every unit a personal color, because I loathe seeing units with the standard outfits.

Another thing that I might expect is buff some weak units. Stuff like modifying Subaki's growths and Rinka's weapon rank, fix Revelations' levels for later playable units, etc.

But what are the chances of them doing this?

[Viberum]

Maybe they'll change growth rates of some characters. They've done that in the past at least.

Here's hoping. I'd change growth rates if I were part of the localization team.

[Homosexualbeard]

I think that any changes to gameplay for localization, these days, might end up as a balance patch to the JP version first.

[Dai]

Fixing Dragon Stones would be nice. Those things are so borked.

[exizel]

Gameplay change would be a possible explanation as to why we haven't seen DLC since october,or they broke the PAL version and the team is too busy working on it

Edited January 8, 2016 by exizel

[Tolvir]

With the amount of information there is about this game from the japanese version, I don't see them removing anything gameplay wise without huge backlash, and they probably know it. They may fix some things, but probably nothing too drastic like removal of a difficulty or anything big like that.

[Light Master]

Maybe they'll change growth rates of some characters. They've done that in the past at least.

Here's hoping. I'd change growth rates if I were part of the localization team.

There are units with poor growth rates in this game? (Besides Gunther)

Most units that I checked have 45% average.

Edited January 9, 2016 by Light Master

[gayserbeam]

There are units with poor growth rates in this game? (Besides Gunther)

Most units that I checked have 45% average.

Rinkah could use a definite boost in STR and HP, of at least 10%. At the moment her only value is sticking glued to other units for monster pair-up bonuses.

Averaging growths isn't a very good indicator of their quality. One point of LCK is worth less than one point of SPD, and some stats are more or less useful depending on the value of the unit's other stats. Rinkah is the most tragic example

[Solkia]

don't see why there would be, I was under the impression just localizing the script was hard enough

[Ownagepuffs]

I'd realy like for them to reduce Nohr throne bonuses. IK throne bonuses are the usual +20 Avo but Nohr's +30 avo gets really fucking dumb sometimes since they love putting dodgy enemies on them.

[Deallocate]

don't see why there would be, I was under the impression just localizing the script was hard enough

It's not like changing growths or bases is incredibly time-consuming. It takes like 5 seconds. Playtesting and balancing are another issue, but I believe any effort put into balance is well worth the time it takes to test it.

[Book of Ereshkigal]

Hmm. I'm trying to remember the last time they did a 'major' gameplay change in localization. That was... Radiant Dawn, I think? They renamed the difficulty modes, made units autopromote at 20 and removed a number of master seals and replaced them with other items due to the autopromote. (that might actually be FE9, but yeah. FE9 actually removed the hardest mode and made an easier mode lol)

I don't recall any big changes in Shadow Dragon or Awakening, but I know they nerfed enemies and bosses in FE8.

Edited January 9, 2016 by L95

[Dunal]

Rinkah could use a definite boost in STR and HP, of at least 10%. At the moment her only value is sticking glued to other units for monster pair-up bonuses.

Averaging growths isn't a very good indicator of their quality. One point of LCK is worth less than one point of SPD, and some stats are more or less useful depending on the value of the unit's other stats. Rinkah is the most tragic example

Bit of an exaggeration on Rinkah. 45% STR growth isn't that tragic when she essentially has 12 base STR without max HP. And a 65% DEF growth with a 10 base makes up for a HP deficiency. Her RES break skill is also the gateway to making Tsukuyomi usable/good too (bumps up his base magic to essentially 15 before weapon mt).

Typically if a unit has the bases to be usable/good then growths doesn't matter all that much anyway (unless they are extremely low or extremely high). That sums up FE. A 10% growth difference is on average, 1 stat every 10 level ups. It's insignificant.

Thing is, base stats are essentially the thing that enables growth rates to come into play to begin with. If a unit has decent bases then they are more likely to gain more EXP on the virtue of being useful. While another unit with 20% higher growths n everything but slightly lower bases? They might end up seeing 20% less combat because of their bases. Therefore grow at exactly the same rate.

Rinkah is fine.

It's like Leonardo from FE10. His growths are not a problem whatsoever (even though people seem to think it's the main reason why he isn't good), it's the fact that his base stats are low enough that him gaining EXP is just plain hard... and can only gain EXP on player phase at that. In reality higher str/spd growths would not save him.

To put it into perspective, increasing someone's base stat by 2, but lowering the growth by 10% is actually a huge buff for the first twenty levels. And in most FEs, a tier 1 unit will gain 25-30 levels on average.

Bit of a ramble but I do see people put too much emphasis on growths quite a lot.

Edited January 9, 2016 by DLuna

[Dark Sage]

Growth boosts are dumb anyway. Growth rates in the recent games are too high, the last thing we need is to make them even higher.

Also since when was a 45% strength growth bad, or even mediocre? Rinka's main problems are her weapon rank and really meh bases. Her growths are fine for the most part.

[Dunal]

Growth boosts are dumb anyway. Growth rates in the recent games are too high, the last thing we need is to make them even higher.

Also since when was a 45% strength growth bad, or even mediocre? Rinka's main problems are her weapon rank and really meh bases. Her growths are fine for the most part.

Yes, growths should be lower. It makes late game scaling less power creeped. It also makes underleveled units better off and vice versa for overleveled ones. The higher growths are, the greater power difference there is in levels.

I wouldn't say her bases are bad. 12 STR (when damaged) and 10 DEF (with a 65% growth... which does matter quite a bit) is pretty nice. And her resist break skill just flat out makes Tsuku/Orochi a lot better too. In fact, I'd argue Rinka is pretty much necessary for Tsuku to scale in general, as mentioned before.

She''s a support unit but that's not a bad thing. She's an axe armor knight (trading a bit of defence for speed) who buffs the damage of your magi. That's a cool niche as far as I'm concerned.

Edited January 9, 2016 by DLuna

[solrocknroll]

I much prefer higher growths. It's insane going back to games with low growths like FE6 and FE11 and getting insanely mad at having terrible characters. Growths have always been abusable though. FE3 and FE5 use Shards/Scrolls and by stacking them, you'd end up with higher growths than most characters in this game have anyway. Playing games with low growths is much more of a gamble. Even in PoR with good growths, my most recent run has seen Rolf and Mist get majorly screwed. Of course, my Oscar and Marcia are majorly blessed. Growths allow for a ton of fun variance.

I enjoy the Tellius and 3DS era growths quite a bit more. Growths have already gone down from Awakening. I'd appreciate it if they stayed the way they are now.

[Dunal]

I much prefer higher growths. It's insane going back to games with low growths like FE6 and FE11 and getting insanely mad at having terrible characters. Growths have always been abusable though. FE3 and FE5 use Shards/Scrolls and by stacking them, you'd end up with higher growths than most characters in this game have anyway. Playing games with low growths is much more of a gamble. Even in PoR with good growths, my most recent run has seen Rolf and Mist get majorly screwed. Of course, my Oscar and Marcia are majorly blessed. Growths allow for a ton of fun variance.

I enjoy the Tellius and 3DS era growths quite a bit more. Growths have already gone down from Awakening. I'd appreciate it if they stayed the way they are now.

Strongly disagree because high growths means less balance no matter how you slice it. Unless you decrease EXP gain.

Fire Emblem is a game where small differences on stats can make a huge difference in power level. So with really high growths, units generally grow too fast and this can cause certain issues:

A) It means that units that are underleveled become worse, because missing out on a few levels can be pretty huge if growths are made to be high.

B) Overleveled units become ridiculous. See Robin as a standout for it. If Awakening had FE6/FE7 growths, Robin would be a far more balanced unit because stats won't go so ahead from the rest of your team.

C) It means that units that join you mid way though the game need to be balanced around much higher base stats and this can cause issues based on the growth and expectations of earlier units. So these units that join you are more likely to be too strong or too weak based on how your other units have grown.

D) Too much stat disparity for blessed or screwed units. RNG actually becomes more extreme. A 30% growth means that over 10 levels, you are only expected to gain the stat 3 times and the game is balanced as such. If they gain only 1 or 2 then it's less problematic for them. 60% though? Unit is expected to gain 6 of that stat over 10 levels. So if they end up gaining 1 or 2 of that stat they will be far worse off than the former scenario since they will be otherwise balanced around reaching that higher value. So if they don't mean expectations they become bad.

Speaking of Fates though, the growths are not too high. A bit higher than Radiant Dawn overall. I think the best number is around ~300-330% total growths or so. Going near or beyond 400% is when things get a bit extreme. Fates is certainly guilty of this and overall could be a bit lower IMO.

It's strange though because you have units like Nyx who have below 300% growths. But Corrin with above 400%. Granted IS (these days...) know that certain stats mean more than others. Nyx has amazing Magic/Speed. So the distribution of her growths aren't actually as bad as they seem. She's a glasscannon and that concept isn't bad by all means.

Edited January 9, 2016 by DLuna

[gayserbeam]

Bit of a ramble

What I said before is an ultrasimplification and I agree strongly with everything you said except for "Rinkah is fine." I won't bother going into detail because I've written way too much already in the Worst Units thread and these kinds of debates often end in "you can use anyone successfully in Birthright" which is absolutely true.

There are no significant glitches in the game that need to be fixed and although I believe Rinkah to be generally inferior, she isn't in such an awful position where buffing her would really change gameplay in any significant way. So I don't expect or hope for any changes, unless clearer item descriptions counts.

Edited January 10, 2016 by gayserbeam