Just got this game and I like it a lot so far.

[Anacybele]

Yeah, I finally bought Echoes today. This is already looking like it blows Awakening and maybe even Fates out of the water. Though I didn't set my expectations very high since my initial impressions of it weren't great. I thought it looked meh overall. So maybe that's a reason too.

Gameplay lacks features I really liked from other FE games, like pair-up or ledge mechanics and whatnot. But what it does have is pretty neat. Extra exp for everyone after the battle is over, even if some units got no kills? I'm into that! It's like PoR and RD's bonus exp, but better!

I also like picking up nicknacks like flour and bread and stuff (even though it makes no sense. The villagers complain about having no food, yet they have all this lying around and even an orange tree in Alm's yard... seriously. And why would Alm take it all if other villagers need it too? Oh well...). And Alm's little tidbits about various things around him are cute. Reminds me of Luigi's comments on stuff in the first Luigi's Mansion game! That was some entertainment right there. lol

Also, this game has more world-building in the prologue than either Awakening or Fates do in their entirety. IS needs to use this and Tellius as their world-building examples, seriously.

I don't have any favorite characters yet. Glad losing someone in the prologue doesn't mean they're lost forever though. I accidentally let Gray get beat back there, but I got him back again later even though I picked classic mode like always. And speaking of these characters, their banters are amusing. lol But another thing here doesn't make sense. They're mentioned to have trained with magic and a bow, yet they all have swords. Just...what?

So, a couple things in the story make no sense to me at all, but otherwise, already much better than Awakening and Fates. Especially Awakening.

[TheTrueKnight]

I wanted to answer to every point but you're just saying shit so I don't know what to answer...
Better than Awakening (especially???) and Fates? Lol, story is trash and there is almost no background for everything. It's a lazy remake, even though I enjoy playing the game (I'm currently in the top 50 in Europe lol).

Edited June 3, 2017 by TheTrueKnight
Sent too fast lol.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, TheTrueKnight said:

I wanted to answer to every point but you're just saying shit so I don't know what to answer...

Wow, is this uncalled for. You can't just call people's posts shit.

[TheTrueKnight]

1 minute ago, Anacybele said:

Wow, is this uncalled for. You can't just call people's posts shit.

I call a shit a shit, eh. Excuse me if it sounds rude but that's the point.

Edited June 3, 2017 by TheTrueKnight
Forgot a word.

[Magical Glace]

22 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

They're mentioned to have trained with magic and a bow, yet they all have swords. Just...what?

It's to encourage certain classes for them.  Kliff has an amazing Mage Spell list, for instance.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

19 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

But another thing here doesn't make sense. They're mentioned to have trained with magic and a bow, yet they all have swords. Just...what?

Mycen taught them all the sword. The game just alludes a bit to Tobin having a knack for archery because archer is sort of his "canon" class that they want to push the player toward. Even in the original his niche was skill and luck growths which are what an archer needs most. Or just because he really wanted to have something he's better than Alm at. He's a bit competitive with the main lord - like other archers in this series. 

[Midori Mage]

Glad to see you're enjoying the game.

Honestly, a majority of the characters are great so it would be hard to pick favorites in my opinion.

And like Glac said, it's only there to suggest classes for you to use.

Faye's the only wildcard character who doesn't have a suggested class for her, but I believe most people would put her in Cleric.

[Anacybele]

30 minutes ago, TheTrueKnight said:

I call a shit a shit, eh. Excuse me if it sounds rude but that's the point.

Then I think you're a rude person.

14 minutes ago, Gustavos said:

Mycen taught them all the sword. The game just alludes a bit to Tobin having a knack for archery because archer is sort of his "canon" class that they want to push the player toward. Even in the original his niche was skill and luck growths which are what an archer needs most. Or just because he really wanted to have something he's better than Alm at. He's a bit competitive with the main lord - like other archers in this series. 

I see. So Tobin is still best as an archer? Huh, skill is his lowest stat though... And I was tempted to make him a cavalier since he looks a bit like one of my Zelda OCs who is a cavalier knight. :P But if he's actually best as an archer, I can go that way no problem.

14 minutes ago, Midori Mage said:

Glad to see you're enjoying the game.

Honestly, a majority of the characters are great so it would be hard to pick favorites in my opinion.

And like Glac said, it's only there to suggest classes for you to use.

Faye's the only wildcard character who doesn't have a suggested class for her, but I believe most people would put her in Cleric.

I see then. What about Gray though? I didn't find any hints to what class he'd be best in.

And I guess I'll have to choose carefully with Faye.

Also, I wish Alm aged a little better. He doesn't really look any different than in the prologue except for height. The others look more realistically aged though.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Anacybele

[ChibiToastExplosion]

3 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I see. So Tobin is still best as an archer? Huh, skill is his lowest stat though... And I was tempted to make him a cavalier since he looks a bit like one of my Zelda OCs who is a cavalier knight. :P But if he's actually best as an archer, I can go that way no problem.

I see then. What about Gray though? I didn't find any hints to what class he'd be best in.

I'm glad you're enjoying the game! I've always loved Gaiden and I'm glad people are giving the game a chance.

Tobin's skill growth is very high, and archer class boosts that a bit. It's actually his speed growth that becomes a problem, because while he has the best base he has a pretty low growth.

There is debate on whether Tobin is better as an archer or mage (Kliff has the spell list, but Tobin learns 2/3 of the spells that actually matter: Physic/Excalibur. And he learns it early). I myself made Tobin an archer, but I'm of the opinion that Tobin/Kliff can interchange their roles pretty easily. I don't think Tobin would make a particularly bad cav, though. The only problem with that is that Zeke/Mathilda are a thing, and he'll be outshined easily in that role.

Gray is mercenary all the way. It fixes his only weaknesses.

[Elincia]

This game quickly became one of my favorites. (if not my favorite game in the series) It's character and world building are just so well done, Gray especially is just fucking awesome. Also the soundtrack is just so <3 It's endgame theme is one of the best in the series imo.

Being a huge fan of the Tellius games (if that wasnt already obvious, lol) I honestly have to say that this game has them beat in a lot of areas, though I still stand by my opinion that RD still has some of the best maps in the series. This games maps can get a little boring and repetitive at times, due to there being so many damn rout maps, though it seems to handle that way better than Awakening did imo.

[Anacybele]

1 minute ago, ChibiToastExplosion said:

I'm glad you're enjoying the game! I've always loved Gaiden and I'm glad people are giving the game a chance.

Tobin's skill growth is very high, and archer class boosts that a bit. It's actually his speed growth that becomes a problem, because while he has the best base he has a pretty low growth.

There is debate on whether Tobin is better as an archer or mage (Kliff has the spell list, but Tobin learns 2/3 of the spells that actually matter: Physic/Excalibur. And he learns it early). I myself made Tobin an archer, but I'm of the opinion that Tobin/Kliff can interchange their roles pretty easily. I don't think Tobin would make a particularly bad cav, though. The only problem with that is that Zeke/Mathilda are a thing, and he'll be outshined easily in that role.

Gray is mercenary all the way. It fixes his only weaknesses.

The archer class wasn't going to boost it though, actually. And Cavalier was going to. So I made him that anyway. And more cavs coming later, yay! They're my favs along with Peg knights, so yeah. Speaking of which, I made Faye a Peg. I wanted one of those too.

I'll make Kliff a mage though, since I'll lack one early on otherwise.

And...that is what I made Gray. A mercenary, I mean. Glad I picked right on that one!

[Slumber]

If you like it right off the bat, then you'll be in for a good ride.

It doesn't get much better or worse gameplay wise(Well, swamps and Cantors...), but it does characters VERY well, and does them well throughout the game.

[ChibiToastExplosion]

7 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

The archer class wasn't going to boost it though, actually. And Cavalier was going to. So I made him that anyway. And more cavs coming later, yay! They're my favs along with Peg knights, so yeah. Speaking of which, I made Faye a Peg. I wanted one of those too.

I'll make Kliff a mage though, since I'll lack one early on otherwise.

And...that is what I made Gray. A mercenary, I mean. Glad I picked right on that one!

No - promotion bonuses only boost stats to the next class' floor. I was talking about Tobin's actual character growth, which will see his skill improve a lot over time compared to other characters. I hope things work out well for you - having a sniper/bow knight was invaluable so many times in the game, and I couldn't imagine Python cutting it in the same way Tobin did for me or Kliff for my wife.

Yes, getting a mage on Alm's side is a great idea. Luthier is awesome but underwhelming, and you won't have a solid mage until the last battle in part 3 with Delthea.

Also, there is no "right" choice for villagers, that's half the fun, haha.

[Anacybele]

8 minutes ago, ChibiToastExplosion said:

No - promotion bonuses only boost stats to the next class' floor. I was talking about Tobin's actual character growth, which will see his skill improve a lot over time compared to other characters. I hope things work out well for you - having a sniper/bow knight was invaluable so many times in the game, and I couldn't imagine Python cutting it in the same way Tobin did for me or Kliff for my wife.

Yes, getting a mage on Alm's side is a great idea. Luthier is awesome but underwhelming, and you won't have a solid mage until the last battle in part 3 with Delthea.

Also, there is no "right" choice for villagers, that's half the fun, haha.

I see. Glad to know I didn't make any really bad decisions. This is kind of why I hate having to choose classes for characters like this. I don't know if they'll end up being really good or really terrible.

But I hope I get another good archer or two since I don't have one now after deciding against making one of the villagers one.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Anacybele

[ChibiToastExplosion]

3 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

But I hope I get another good archer or two since I don't have one now after deciding against making one of the villagers one.

You get Python on Alm's side, which is the only other archer for him. I don't think Python is super terribad like a lot of others think he is, but he was so outshined by my Tobin that I ended up dropping him. Which kinda stank, as I really like Python.

A lot of people do their severe analysis when they play on hard, so if you're playing on normal you should be double fine.

Edited June 3, 2017 by ChibiToastExplosion

[TheTrueKnight]

48 minutes ago, Midori Mage said:

Glad to see you're enjoying the game.

Honestly, a majority of the characters are great so it would be hard to pick favorites in my opinion.

And like Glac said, it's only there to suggest classes for you to use.

Faye's the only wildcard character who doesn't have a suggested class for her, but I believe most people would put her in Cleric.

Sounds like the best class for Faye because Silque can't use ranged heal.

[Doof]

You'll get another one soon enough. But he's... one of those characters that can be REALLY good or really underwhelming. Still, Archers are a good class to have; You'll see soon enough :P

But yeah, promoting/class change never reduces your stats or changes your growths or caps so don't really worry about class changing/promoting early. If a unit starts to fall behind, promoting is recommending, especially since growths are back to pre-Awakening growths

[Tamanoir]

Just now, Anacybele said:

I see. Glad to know I didn't make any really bad decisions. This is kind of why I hate having to choose classes for characters like this. I don't know if they'll end up being really good or really terrible.

But I hope I get another good archer or two since I don't have one now after deciding against making one of the villagers one.

If you like to grind, Mercenary can loop back to villager late game. There's also a free DLC item that allows you to makes anyone a villager.

 

You only get 1 archer for each route (Alm's and Celica's), and the one you get in Am's route really lacks Skill (The Iron Bow early on (forged if necessary), and the Killer bow later do wonder though...) He is decently tough and fast, though. The ones in Cellica's route have good skill, but his other stats may vary greatly.  Archer can be quite hard to use at the beiginning (they miss often), but their gigantic range can be helpfull in many different situations. If you're on normal, you should do OK.

 

[Tolvir]

18 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

The archer class wasn't going to boost it though, actually. And Cavalier was going to. So I made him that anyway. And more cavs coming later, yay! They're my favs along with Peg knights, so yeah. Speaking of which, I made Faye a Peg. I wanted one of those too.

I'll make Kliff a mage though, since I'll lack one early on otherwise.

And...that is what I made Gray. A mercenary, I mean. Glad I picked right on that one!

Ultimately the villagers are whatever you want them to be. They wont be exactly terrible in any class, except for maybe Atlas who can have some major issues depending on the class. Though Faye makes a great Cleric, especially since she gets Again later which is pretty much the dancer ability in the past FE games. So on a future playthrough I recommend Cleric for Faye.

Gray as a merc did wonders for me though, His res didnt get very high, but he rarely got hit anyway so I didnt have to worry about it. Mage Tobin was pretty good for me, but to be honest he had a huge drop off in Part 4 and 5. Luthier and Delthea outclassed him by so much, and Mae was on par with them on Celica's team. He kind of got benched for Chapter 6.

Kliff was an amazing archer for me, dusted everything, and I was lucky enough for him to get to Sniper for the final Chapter 1 map, which was a ton of help.

As far as Atlas goes, I really recommend either Merc or Archer for him. Merc helps patch up his speed, and also gives him access to the Dread Fighter loop later which can let him turn into a villager again to go into any class you want. Only problem with that is you already have 3 Mercs, a potential 4th with Deen, and then a 5th with Atlas if you go that route. Let alone Mae and Celica having sword use as well, swords will be heavily contested on Celica's route. Archer also worked really well for me, his low skill never effected his hit too bad for me, and it eventually caught up by the time he hit Bow Knight.

Anyway, glad you are enjoying the game. I loved it personally, even though the maps were not that great it was still a unique enough experience to make it fun regardless. I think the dungeons were the best part for me, they are a lot of fun to explore around in. Definitely take your time and look around, lots of stuff to be had. Also, check back in villages, there are a lot of side quests, and some of them want you to find things in the dungeons. So it doesnt hurt to back track a bit when you reach a checkpoint or a new chapter.

[Anacybele]

Well, I don't like this game anymore. It suddenly got extremely hard and this is normal difficulty. I've been playing FE for a long time, I shouldn't be having a hard time on the easiest difficulty. I don't like games that do this to you. Nearly every fucking attack misses the archer and he was never even in trees. You can hardly damage the mercenary guy here at all because of his shield thing. What a load of crap. I don't want that.

I decided against making Faye a Cleric because you already get Silque (who picked that name? It's dumb). I'd rather not have many healers because they die easily. So I won't ever be making Faye one.

Also, I don't see a command to heal anyone on the Cleric class anyway. That's poor design if I'm having trouble figuring out how to make them fucking heal of all things.

Edited June 3, 2017 by Anacybele

[Armagon]

Nice to see that you're enjoying this game. This game actually beat Binding Blade as my favorite FE. If you don't mind, i'll leave a few tips that can help. Some of them will be character recruitment tips, because recruiting some characters can be a bit cryptic. Not Karla levels of cryptic but you might still miss out on these characters if you don't pay attention. These recruitment tips will be in spoiler tabs, just in case you don't want to check them right away.

• Give Gray the Lightning Sword. The Lightning Sword is pretty damn powerful in Gray's hands since it targets Res, a stat that almost doesn't exist on most enemies. The Lightning Sword loses usefulness later on but you'll be using it for quite a while. I suggest swaping it out for something else when you get to Act 4 tho.
• Make Faye a Cleric......oh wait, you made her a Pegasus Knight. That's a pretty decent option for her too, though if you ever feel that you want Faye as a Cleric, just download the free DLC item called the Pitchfork. It lets any non-Dread Fighter promote into Villager, which then lets them promote into something else. To use a Pitchfork, have the unit hold it and then go to a Mila Shrine. The reason i recommended Faye as a Cleric is because she gets Physic at Lv.6, and she takes some pressure off of Silque, since normally, Silque would be your only healer on Alm's route until you promoted one of your mages or recruit a certain character in Act 4. Cleric!Faye would also let you preform the Silque Road. Silque Warps someone to the enemy, that unit kills the enemy, then Faye can use Rescue to bring back that unit to safety. It makes otherwise tough battles a cakewalk. When Faye promotes from Cleric to Saint, she'll eventually gain access to Anew, a.k.a, she's the Dancer of your team. Anew costs 24 HP to use though so be careful.
• You'll want to forge yourself a Killer Bow for your Archers. Killer Bows get the Hunter's Volley Art, which effectively makes them a Brave Bow. You can look at how weapons can be forged here.
• Adding to that, forge yourself a Zweihänder. It's Tigerstance Art is really good.
• Spam Invoke. The AI in this game will target the illusions almost every time. Useful if you're having a hard time. Do take note, however, that Invoke does not reward EXP. So don't spam it in every battle.
• Give one of Celica's Falcon Knights a forged Blessed Lance. They one-shot most of the enemies on Celica's route during Act 4.

Character recruitment tips below

Spoiler

To recruit Palla and Catria, complete the first battle of Celica's route in Act 3. Then, go down to Zofia Harbor. If both sisters survived, you can recruit them.

On Celica's route in Act 3, complete Greith's Citadel before going to Mila's Temple. Palla and Catria, as well as Atlas (who's recruited at the Mountain Village) will leave you if you go to Mila's Temple first and you'll have to re-recruit them.

In Act 4, to recruit Nomah, go to the mini dungeon in the Mila's Temple. He'll be at the end of the dungeon. Nomah's probably the worst character in the game. His growths are practically non-existent.

In Act 4, in Alm's route, there's a path split. One leads to Nuibaba's Manor. The other leads to Jerome and Zeke. Go to Nuibaba's Manor first (the game tells you to go there first anyway) and recruit Tatiana. Then, head to where Jerome and Zeke are. If Tatiana is present on the map, Zeke and his men will change from red to green units. After the battle, if Zeke survived, he'll join you in Rigel Village.

And as i was typing this, you post this

8 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I don't like this game anymore. It suddenly got extremely hard and this is normal difficulty. I've been playing FE for a long time, I shouldn't be having a hard time on the easiest difficulty. I don't like games that do this to you.

Where are you in the game? I played on Hard and the game was still relatively easy. There were only like 3 battles in this game that gave me actual trouble.

[SatsumaFSoysoy]

13 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I don't like this game anymore. It suddenly got extremely hard and this is normal difficulty. I've been playing FE for a long time, I shouldn't be having a hard time on the easiest difficulty. I don't like games that do this to you. Nearly every fucking attack misses the archer and he was never even in trees. You can hardly damage the mercenary guy here at all because of his shield thing. What a load of crap. I don't want that.

I decided against making Faye a Cleric because you already get Silque (who picked that name? It's dumb). I'd rather not have many healers because they die easily. So I won't ever be making Faye one.

Also, I don't see a command to heal anyone on the Cleric class anyway. That's poor design if I'm having trouble figuring out how to make them fucking heal of all things.

Lol that was quick...

It's better to have a mage damage the Leather Shield Mercenary.

Just have Silque walk up to someone, and then select White Magic to heal. You can literally mash the A button and you can do it.

[ChibiToastExplosion]

9 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I don't like this game anymore. It suddenly got extremely hard and this is normal difficulty. I've been playing FE for a long time, I shouldn't be having a hard time on the easiest difficulty. I don't like games that do this to you. Nearly every fucking attack misses the archer and he was never even in trees. You can hardly damage the mercenary guy here at all because of his shield thing. What a load of crap. I don't want that.

I decided against making Faye a Cleric because you already get Silque (who picked that name? It's dumb). I'd rather not have many healers because they die easily. So I won't ever be making Faye one.

Also, I don't see a command to heal anyone on the Cleric class anyway. That's poor design if I'm having trouble figuring out how to make them fucking heal of all things.

Haha, that merc is kind of infamously awesome. Magic, FYI, has set hit rates, but ignored terrain completely. Use that to your advantage, bait/shield with Alm/Lukas, and fry him from behind with Kliff. Don't expect to go in to this game with the attitude "I've been playing FE for a long time with should be easy". But you haven't been playing Gaiden for a long time, and it's very different from the Tellius/GBA/3DS games.

As for Faye, her DEF growth is bananas and with a leather shield she has higher def than most of my other units (as a cleric, mind you). She's really useful early on, but she's falling behind pretty hard. Physic is great due to cleric's low mov and silque appreciates being healed as healing also costs HP. Silque ends up a lot better when she can invoke DF's tho.

White Magic - recover. Just be careful, because if you click too fast through menus, black magic comes up first if your cleric is in attacking range.

[Magical Glace]

11 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

I decided against making Faye a Cleric because you already get Silque (who picked that name? It's dumb). I'd rather not have many healers because they die easily. So I won't ever be making Faye one.

Having more than one healer is actually incredibly valuable due to how magic works, Nosferatu is a pretty unreliable spell and you don't get an HP restoring ring for a while on Alm route.

Plus it lets you have way more fun with Silque's early access to the warp spell since Faye can just heal her right up.  Faye also has a better spell list straight up healing wise, with extremely early physic access (Silque never learns Physic).  

[Doof]

12 minutes ago, Anacybele said:

Well, I don't like this game anymore. It suddenly got extremely hard and this is normal difficulty. I've been playing FE for a long time, I shouldn't be having a hard time on the easiest difficulty. I don't like games that do this to you. Nearly every fucking attack misses the archer and he was never even in trees. You can hardly damage the mercenary guy here at all because of his shield thing. What a load of crap. I don't want that.

I decided against making Faye a Cleric because you already get Silque (who picked that name? It's dumb). I'd rather not have many healers because they die easily. So I won't ever be making Faye one.

Also, I don't see a command to heal anyone on the Cleric class anyway. That's poor design if I'm having trouble figuring out how to make them fucking heal of all things.

Echoes goes back to the single RNG system, so percentages aren't checked twice in your favor when you hit. You get used to it sometimes... or never. Before I never went for hits that ranged in 70-60% chance but in this game I do. It is a quirk of this and other single RNG games.

The infamous Mercenary is precisely the reason why we suggested you use make a villager a Mage. He's pretty hard to beat without one, meaning you'll have to rely on Lukas and Alm to actually beat him if you didn't make anyone a Mage/Cleric

And believe me, getting two healers early on is a blessing; Faye gets Physic early and Silque is the only healer you get until Act 4 for Alm until you get a Sage.

Cleric's healing is under W. Magic command. Healing Magic is under White Magic in this game.