SoV's Good/Strong Points

[property of nuvelle]

I thought it was a little unfair that we had quite a few threads that are to point out flaws or nitpick so I thought this was a little needed. What do you think are SoV's strong points or what do you enjoy aboht it?

For me:

Hidari Art. A nice fresh breath of air from Kozaki. Both are great artist but getting a new one is always nice to see. All of Hidari's stuff is absolutely gorgeous too. There isn't a single character design that I dislike here.

Characters. This game did an amazing job with their characters and exploring them. Base convos, added supports, voice lines for almost every action/interaction. We learn multiple things about our units and they feel much more like people than pawns when they speak.

Originality. Of course, it was a remake of Gaiden, but I'm glad that we got to experience something new. With the way Gaiden played and adding new mechanics to SoV, it felt like a FE game but with distinct differences from the series.

Story telling. The game does very well at developing the story and has a considerably good plot. Despite barely beginning Act 4, this is still very noticable to me. Keeping other characters relevant too is also pretty great.

Animations. Without being as flashy and crazy as Fates was, many of the battle animations are really cool. The flow of combat is paced normally now, rather than being abnormally slow.

There are plenty more things to like so what are your thoughts?

[Cute Chao]

Characters and voice acting make this game for me. I love the animations as whole, but those really make the game.

[Dinar87]

I agree that the story and characters were pretty good...in fact that's why the game is enjoyable for me much more so than others. These negative topics complaining about echoes may be due to the fact that many hate some game play related factors such as the map design or other things like that. Since I value story over game play I don't mind as much but there are many who feel the opposite. Of course, there may be those who hate the story for some reason and that's fine as well.

[Carnation]

I like how there's more voice acting in combat. Now the characters have lines for missing and dodging attacks and I just love it. It's such a small thing, but it makes combat even more engaging and fun to watch.

The selection quotes I'm less keen on, but at least they change depending on how much HP units have.

[Thane]

I love how they've thought of so many minor and even optional things. More voice acting in combat and when clicking on units who respond differently depending on their health, the comments Alm and Celica make when checking out their surroundings, the dialogue that's very sharp for the most part, such as Fernand ripping out Lukas' tongue and the latter replies that he would then finally hold the truth in his grasp, more characters being involved in the plot, even if it's usually two characters tied together (Gray/Tobin, Mae/Boey). Those are the things that make the presentation stand out and makes for a much smoother experience that has set the bar for the next Fire Emblem game. 

[badatfireemblem]

I've really enjoyed playing SoV. The gameplay is lovely and the character's voice acting is superb! The maps don't really bother me at all (maybe because I haven't played Gaiden) and I actually think it's a breath of fresh air after Fates/Awakening. For me, the story's strong and the game looks good, so I'm happy.

[Great Dane]

I feel SoV's biggest strong point for me is how it improves the presentation, yet still keeps true to the original Gaiden. Gaiden was overall pretty fun, but there were a number of archaic limitations on the Famicom such as long battle animations, slow movement on the map, and a lot more. I appreciate how sped-up it feels, I rarely turn off animations because their still so much fun to watch. I appreciate the additions to the characters and story of course, but I'm most glad Gaiden got the overhaul it needed to keep up a good pace.

[Sentinel07]

As someone who didn't play Gaiden before, I honestly love this game.

Sure, it's got some archaic mechanics and sometimes questionable maps, but neither of them detracted too much from my experience.

And I will agree that the story, characters, art, and music makes up for a lot. All of these just have a certain charm to them. I feel that this is a game where the presentation does make up for perhaps one or two gameplay faults.

[Folt]

The fact that I'm actually playing a FE game that has never been seen over international shores until now is quite frankly baffling in a good way, but I actually like how characters get their own unique spell lists (though I wish I could set any of their attack spells as their personal spells because having my mages cast Excalibur or Seraphim on the counter would have been nice).

[Loki Laufeyson]

The voice acting, character depth, those beautiful anime cutscenes, the music, aww yiss. But my favorite thing is the dungeon crawling. The 3D movement and battling junk on my terms and finding hidey holes. Its great. 

[Delfino]

SoV does so many things right, I cannot emphasize that enough. Even just the little things make a huge difference.

• The character art is beautiful and fits really well with Fire Emblem in that it has this soft, authentic feel. Everyone looks painted and I love it. Other Fire Emblem games use art that appears computer-generated and more modern, which I think doesn't fit as well with the time period and setting of the games.
• Characters are a huge step up from Fates in that they feel far more real, making them more relatable and likeable. They're defined by their personalities instead of by a quirk that consumes their whole character (aside from Faye), and while plenty of them are funny, no character exists solely to be comic relief, which is something that bugged me with a big portion of Fates' cast. It felt like half the characters were just one big joke. Most everyone I talk to about this game says that they like almost the entire playable cast usually with only a few exceptions. I'm in the same boat.
• I appreciate that a good portion of the cast is older with many characters being within the age range of 24-34.
• Base conversations add a lot.
• The soundtrack is superb.
• Animations are still fun to watch but are much less exaggerated and flashy, instead opting for a more realistic approach, which ironically makes them far more appealing to me since they cut the bull. They move at a decent speed to the point in which I very rarely find myself holding down the A button to speed them up (I was in a constant state of doing this throughout the entirety of Awakening and Fates). Animations also flow better from one to the other, like how characters will roll right into an attack animation after dodging. I love how when a battle begins, the characters seem to be running toward each other instead of just awkwardly standing around having stare-downs.
• Armor designs are more realistic and less ridiculous. No more stupid butt windows and wedgie-giving leotards for the female characters.
• Characters have more quotes, sassing the enemy when they dodge or take 1 damage, commenting on their status when they're injured, etc. There are also mourning quotes that take place after a battle during which a character dies.
• Speaking of characters dying, this may sound terrible, but I like that literally anyone can actually die. It killed the emotional impact of getting a character slaughtered in Fates when half the damn cast just retreats instead of dying.
• The game being almost entirely fully voiced breathes so much life into it, especially when the voice acting is so good. The characters really come to life and supports are that much more of a joy to listen to. It's also far more engaging for spectators (sharing funny support convos with my friends just got a hell of a lot easier). It's a luxury I don't take for granted; as a person with ADHD, it's much easier for me to concentrate when I don't have to read everything.
• On a personal note, I'm so glad that the fanservice is far more subtle this time around. We still get some skin showing on the ladies and some nice defined muscles to look at on the men, but nothing is in your face.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Delfino

[Thane]

1 hour ago, Delfino said:

• I appreciate that a good portion of the cast is older with many characters being within the age range of 24-34.

Oh my goodness, me too! This is so rare in the series - sure, of course we have our Jagens and Tauroneos to spice the dynamic up a bit, but this feels so much more natural. I know Fire Emblem loves its good looking characters, but it's not like people become decrepit once they hit 20!

[Delfino]

20 minutes ago, Thane said:

Oh my goodness, me too! This is so rare in the series - sure, of course we have our Jagens and Tauroneos to spice the dynamic up a bit, but this feels so much more natural. I know Fire Emblem loves its good looking characters, but it's not like people become decrepit once they hit 20!

Haha! Saber is 14 years past that and I still think he's attractive! It's really a breath of fresh air after coming from past games in which there seems to be very little middle ground between bishie characters in their late teens and the older folks. I sincerely hope that they're not afraid to dabble in this age group more in the future.

[Tolvir]

Voice Acting has been great, it adds so much to the emotion of everything. And I have to say, the voice acting was so well done this time around. These guys did a great job. It could of been a complete disaster.

I like that the characters interact. The fact that they comment on when another character crits, or when another character does an action that could otherwise be seen as amazing. Like summoning, one rounding an enemy, etc. Or even when they are low on HP. It adds so much to the characters. That and their post battle quotes as well. I hope this trend continues, and maybe they take a page from Bioware's book and have characters actually just talking while traveling somewhere. It would fit so well with Fire Emblem.

Characters were handled real well too. I was worried how the limited amount of supports would effect the cast, but I have to say this may be one of the best cast of characters in the series. They feel so fleshed out and great. Even characters that have so little amount of supports, like Genny, you can get an idea of who they are because there are so many opportunities to talk to them and learn more about them. It has taken the idea of Supports being the main way of learning about a character, and spread it across the game as a whole, which is what Fire Emblem sorely needed.

Story wise, I think this was great too. It was a step in the right direction at least, and the story even though it has issues and holes, is pretty good. I like that it is covering the effects of war, I like that we actually have villains with layers to them instead of being the typical saturday morning or Shonen style villain we have seen so much.

Think I am going to place some of this into spoilers before I take up pages worth of room.

Game Structure

Spoiler

As far as gameplay goes, I really have to comment on how this game played out in terms of structure, things to do, etc. Shadows of Valentia, I think, should really be used as a step forward for the series when it comes to how the game is structured. I am not meaning maps and actual gameplay, but rather how to structure the chapters and things to do. I know that Fire Emblem games, starting with Gaiden, have done the World Map in the past, but the way SoV did it by including side quests and long dungeons have taken the typical FE experience and really given it a facelift it sorely needed. Fire Emblem has always been among the shortest games I have played when you look at the actual amount of content you have done. On average there are around 30 chapters, and that is about it. Even with World Maps in the past it was mostly just moving from Chapter to Chapter unless you were using arenas or grinding a bit. Now, there are side quests to do, dungeons to explore, random battles to have. Sure the side quests were the typical "Go collect 10 bear asses for me" but its a step in the right direction, at least to me, for Fire Emblem. I think this formula of splitting chapters into acts with multiple maps to play through, side quests to complete, and dungeons to explore should be something that is used going forward for Fire Emblem. It really added so much to SoV's experience. I would really like to see Fire Emblem's RPG aspects expanded on going forward for the series, hopefully SoV revitalizing Gaiden's concepts and doing them right (outside of map design and balance) can start that.

Aspects of map design and enemies

Spoiler

While the map design itself isnt all that great, there is an aspect of it I want to comment on for being good. And that is the chapters dealing with actually invading a castle. I think the one area that SoV/Gaiden did a good job one was making invading a fortified building or structure actually feel a bit like a slog and take a bit of work to get through. One of my, albeit minor complaints, for the series has always been that getting into a castle or building has always been just too easy. Now with archers that can shoot from 1-5 range, mages with 1-3 range, cantor's summoning swarms of essentially cannon-fodder, and key parts being defended with things giving high avoidance. All it needed was the height and ledge mechanics of RD and I would have been amazed. I like that it felt like a slog. I enjoy that it took me a while to get in, not because I am some crazy masochist, but because it just felt like I was working to get into this enemy fortress. The more progress I made getting inside, the more I felt like I was actually achieving something. I havent felt that before with any other siege based map in Fire Emblem. I thought it was great.

I will also say I actually liked Cantor's and summoning. While I think AI should be fixed a bit in terms of player summoning so NPCs dont just fix their attention on it like a dog does to a ball, but I did actually like Cantor's and their summoning. I think it added some interesting things to the way a map played out, providing what are essentially reinforcements to a map indefinitely until they are taken out. It was a good way of discouraging turtling, and I think provides a lot to how you progress through a map. I think the idea of summoners can be used going forward, maybe toning down their annoyance a bit, but I think summoners like that should be looked at in the future. It was something I actually enjoyed dealing with.

Weapons, Weapon Skills, and Spell Casting

Spoiler

Weapon System was really cool to me as well. The one item per character while having no weapon durability is a nice way of balancingg the idea in my opinion, as opposed to Fates debuff system which practically discouraged using anything above a steel weapon at all. With this there is more of a focus on who gets what weapon. Do you provide a unique, powerful bow to your best archer to make him better, or do you provide it to your second archer to allow him to catch up to the main one? That kind of management of items was fun to me, and I like the weapon skill system that went with it. I think it can be a great way of revitalizing the weapon skill system of old to be a little more useful. Obviously the weapon skills need some work, maybe making them more of a special ability than just an attack with increased hit or damange would work better. For example the skill that came from the silver bow that disabled casting for 1 round was incredibly useful, but the one that increased might from the iron sword I never used. Also making some of these able to be used across weapons could be nice.

I love the way magic was handled here. I will be honest, I was really hesitant about magic costing HP, but after experiencing the magic system for myself I loved it. I think it is an improvement on the typical tome system. If weapon durability stays as a thing of the past, I think this type of spell casting system should be considered for mages rather than tomes like in Fates. I do think the spell list should be a little more balanced in the future, so that no characters fall behind massively compared to others. Kliff and Silque being two that come to mind with that since they lacked some key abilities. Maybe providing a place to actually buy spell scrolls or tomes for mages to learn actual spells from in the future could be a good way of balancing that. I also think by making it cost HP, it made spell casting interesting and require a bit more thought than just running up and throwing your biggest, baddest spell at the enemy. With the stronger spells costing more HP, it really made you make a choice of either casting a powerful spell and leaving them potential vulnerable for a round, or casting a simple fireball and leaving them with most of their HP for the enemy phase. It was fun and interesting.

There was a lot that I loved with SoV, I could probably write an entire article on this, but I think I will leave it at that.

Edited May 24, 2017 by Tolvir

[Res]

1 hour ago, Delfino said:

Haha! Saber is 14 years past that and I still think he's attractive! It's really a breath of fresh air after coming from past games in which there seems to be very little middle ground between bishie characters in their late teens and the older folks. I sincerely hope that they're not afraid to dabble in this age group more in the future.

Woo, Saber's my age! It IS good to have characters in their 30s in particular, usually character ages jump from the 20s to the 50s. 

I agree with what everyone's written here. I do like the less-flashy combat animations and the combat dialogue in particular - the 'nice shots!' from fellow party members, or how they even complain when an ally steals a kill.

[property of nuvelle]

Thanks everyone for your thoughts!

I definitely agree with the age thing. I'm glad this game had a lot of people with a considerably normal age. I don't mean to nag on Fates, but many characters (Hayato, Hana, Sakura, Elise, Mozu, ALL THE CHILDREN) didn't seem very natural in an army.

[MediocreLee]

Hidari's art is amazing and definitely my most favorite thing from SoV.  I do like the battle animations too, like the deflect or dodge and counter stuff was all really entertaining to see.  The voice acting is also really good and add a lot to the characters.

[Thane]

I must admit, I never thought the voice acting would bring the characters to life like this. I have always been fond of reading text in games for the most part, but it really works here because it's of such high quality. I hope whoever the voice director this time around is sticks around for Fire Emblem Switch, because it's very impressive how good everyone's performances are.

[nyainou]

I enjoyed the dungeons very much! It was always a treat to come across a chest and get something good.

[NekoKnight]

In addition to the art and presentation people have been praising, I really like what they did to make archers and mages different in their function. I hope going forward, archers in the series will have 2-3 range at default and 2-4 promoted. Mages having a spell list was an interesting alternative to tomes as well. I don't think fixed accuracy and spells cast from HP should be series mainstays but they work well in SoV.

Weapon skills are pretty neat too.

Edited May 25, 2017 by NekoKnight

[Book Bro]

I'm still early in the game, act 2 to be specific, but so far I feel the writing is some of the best in FE. The characters are all interesting and feel like there's more depth to them than in any game before (the voice acting helps too), and the villains are so much better than Awakening and Fates it's ridiculous. The story is not so complicated, but it's executed really well. I had seen a LP of Gaiden and to say the story was bare bones doesn't quite get across how lacking it was. It's impressive how much was added while still keeping true to what was originally there, and it shows that the team at IS can still put out quality plots and casts.

The gameplay is fun as well. I didn't know how it would feel to play this game since it's so different from the others, but the quirks make it stand out.

This game does so much right that it makes me really excited for the next original game.

[Korath88]

I'm nearing the end of act 4. So far, the voice acting has been superb, and really makes me like and enjoy the game's cast even more.

Characterisation is really well done through story, base and support convos. I like just about everyone in the cast, a stark contrast to the other 2 3ds games, where I honestly didn't care for most of the cast. The character design and artwork probably contributed to this as well.

Story is by far the best in the 3ds era, it's engaging and brings back a certain feeling, like the same magic I felt when playing through the GBA games for the first time.

Gameplay is not the best, but I still find it really fun, the uniqueness of the game's mechanics makes it a great experience regardless of map design. In comparison, Awakening and Fates' (Revelation) maps felt much more like a slog to me, especially as I didn't enjoy their stories and characters as much.

One more thing, I feel that the cutscenes are done well, despite complaints about low frame rates. It feels very dramatised like an old-school anime, which I really like.

Edited May 25, 2017 by Korath88