Anyone else play maniac mode? Thoughts?

[Errorik]

I'm almost done with chapter 17 on my first maniac run. I've noticed that there is an obvious difference between units that can be used and units that are pointless. Mages are a good example. Their chip damage and inability to take any themselves leaves them gasping for xp that they will never get. I noticed once Marcia, Jill, and Oscar start rolling, the difficulty feels much much lower. Titania is probably the best fire emblem character ever, aside from Robin (who I like to pretend doesn't exist).

Edited September 8, 2017 by Centh

[Nobody]

I have. It's not a hard mode, but the enemies being super bulky is annoying. It just forces you to forge Steels and use that through the entire game. I did find the early game a decent challenge, but as you said, as soon as your units start getting stronger, it's not very different from hard. And yeah, Titania is super invaluable in it. Early game without her would be extremely reliant on turtling. Actually, I don't even think it would be possible, since your weapons would legitimately break before you being able to buy more. 

[thejohnmatthews]

Maniac is pretty interesting as an idea, but playing it is a slog. TItania is pretty much mandatory in the early chapters and is a great asset, but she does fall off a little bit at endgame (which isn't too big of an issue, she'll still be in top 5, just not god status anymore). A good strategy for it is to pick like two unpromoted cavaliers/fliers (most likely two of Oscar/Marcia/Jill?) and invest all your resources into them, essentially making a "super unit" to take on the large groups of enemies. Also, I didn't have an issue with the bulk of enemies, but the amount of enemies on the maps was what made me dislike the mode. And there's also some other annoying changes, such as removing Chest Keys, or adding more siege tomes, which don't add much difficulty really, the changes are just there to piss the player off, hence "Maniac" difficulty.