Hard mode bonuses

[Heptade]

My question doesn't even concern my own experience with the game, since I'm playing on normal mode for now.

But I've been wondering about something concerning the hard mode stat bonuses. Why does Milady get them? Why doesn't Raigh? Or Douglas? Or Hugh? It seems it should be that recruitable characters fought as enemies get them as a rule, but why the arbitrary exceptions? I can understand the programming issues for Hugh, because of the way he is recruited, but the other two, I see no explanation.

Also, does anyone think that the boosts are a bit too big? They seem to pretty much dictate who is usable in hard mode, not that the game is that well-balanced in normal mode in the first place, but still...

[X-Naut]

There's a routine that prevents units that are loaded at the start of the map (i.e. on the prep screen) from getting bonuses. All of the characters that don't are loaded as enemies after you start the map, even if that happens to be in the opening cutscene. There's a way to turn this off and make everyone get the bonuses.

[ping]

23 minutes ago, Heptade said:

Also, does anyone think that the boosts are a bit too big? They seem to pretty much dictate who is usable in hard mode, not that the game is that well-balanced in normal mode in the first place, but still...

I'd even say that they're bad in principle because of that reason. A few units (Klein and Thite come to mind) are quite well-balanced with HM bonuses, but that's rather because their normal bases are a tad too low and HM bonuses accidently fix that.

[Refa]

They still perform around the same/better against enemies due to NM being remarkably easier, though.

[Jedi]

Yeah Normal mode is super easy compared to HM, so you can use practically anyone effectively with bias.

Well except Gwendolyn and Sophia maybe, but they have more of a chance on NM to get going with their ok growths.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Jedi

[Heptade]

21 minutes ago, Jedi said:

Yeah Normal mode is super easy compared to HM, so you can use practically anyone effectively with bias.

Well except Gwendolyn and Sophia maybe, but they have more of a chance on NM to get going with their ok growths.

I'm pretty sure Gwendolyn at least is salvageable in NM. I got her to kill an enemy without really trying in her joining chapter. She wasn't any good, and I benched her right after, but she really didn't seem nearly as awful as she is made to be here.

[Colonel M]

Nein.

Wendy really is that godawful.

[ping]

9 hours ago, Refa said:

They still perform around the same/better against enemies due to NM being remarkably easier, though.

Yeah, but for the most part, FE6!HM increases difficulty by increasing enemy stats (and occasionally adding more enemy units), so your units are supposed to do worse than in normal mode. Giving the same stat boosts to a few player units a) partly undermines that and b) increases the differences in performance between the unit even further. I mean, on NM it's perfectly viable to give Deke the first hero crest, and Shin doesn't completely outclass Sue when he joins.

FE6 balance between PC's isn't without issues anyway, and HM bonuses really don't make it better.

[Refa]

Fair enough.  I agree that HM bonuses skew character balance even further, but I also think that they mitigate some of the more obnoxious elements of FE6.