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Radiant Dawn Gameplay Changes?


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There's been a lot of talk about the story of Radiant Dawn recently, so I thought I'd start a thread on gameplay. Much as I love RD (it's my favorite Fire Emblem by far) I have to admit the gameplay has it's flaws. The game can get very frustrating at times, especially on the harder difficulties. So I thought I'd put together a list of things that I'd change about RD's gameplay. I'll try not to state the obvious such as proper Supports, translating the difficulty names correctly, etc. as no doubt you've heard it all before. There will be spoilers, you have been warned. And of course, this is all my opinion.

So, here we go.

Part 1: Silver Haired Maiden

Map-wise, I think that this part is mostly fine as it is, actually, apart from the Endgame, which should be more units other than the Black Knight and Naliah friendly. Other than that, allow Jill to be deployed in Chapter 8. I also think that the Dawn Brigade should earn more experience in these chapters, so they can catch up to the Greil Mercs. and make their chapters easier. 

I also think that more experience should be earned for healing in the tier 1 class, so Laura can reach her tier 2 class without dumping your entire bexp store on her.

Now for the characters. I'm one of the few people who thinks that Micaiah's gameplay is fine. She is not meant to be a female Ike, she is a glass cannon armor/horse killer who does her job well but should be protected by her team. She is also your best DB healer once she reaches her tier 2 class.

Nolan is fine as is, as are Edward, Jill, Zihark, Tauoreno, Volug, Naliah and Rafiel.

Sothe is a tricky one to judge, as while he is good in Part 1 he is pretty much useless after that, aside from using the beast killer to kill Laguz in part 3. That said, I think he is also fine as is, with some of the changes that I will talk more about later on.

Fiona should have better base stats or join earlier so she can be of some actual use to your team. Meg is uh... Meg. She is beyond fixing. She should just be a joke character in my opinion.  Aran should be an armored unit. As I mentioned earlier, Laura should gain more exp for healing, but apart from that, she's fine.

Now for the harder ones to judge, Leonardo and Ilyana. Leonardo is my favourite Radiant Dawn character, and I've used him on every playthrough (yes, even on HM). While he can be a good unit, and I've got some great results using him, he really needs higher strength and speed growths. Maybe just a 10% increase in both Strength and Speed (that would bring him to 50% strength and 45% speed). As for Ilyana, some of her strength growth should go into her speed, although she mostly suffers from the Thunder magic nerf and the Archsage class' low caps.

And that's all for Part 1.

Part 2: Of Countries and Kings

I honestly don't have anything I'd change about this part map-wise. Yes, I find Elincia's Gambit fine. This might be just me, but I've never had a problem with it? I haven't got a Game Over on it once. 

Now, as for the characters. Most of Geoffrey's Knight's suffer from poor availability, just like the DB, but are still good units. And then there's Astrid. Astrid is another character I like to bring to the endgame, however she, like Leonardo, needs better Str and Spd growths. Her luck growth could be lowered by 20% to make up for it. Her low base stats aren't that much of an issue if her growths are good, since she's a bow user. Lucia needs a better Str growth. 25% is horrible. Lethe is a very underrated character, just grind her on the cave chapter and level her up when you can in Part 3, give her Rend and a Laguz Gem later on and she'll be set for the endgame. Aside from that, I think that Geoffrey's group, like Micaiah's, should gain more exp so they don't end up underlevelled when they join the Greil Mercs.

Part 3: Intersecting Vows

And here is where the problems start for the maps. The main problem I have with many of Ike's maps is that they're just so boring. The Prologue is just "watch NPC laguz kill everything for 15 minutes just for Soren to get 3% criticaled by one of the enemies at the end of the level forcing you to play through the whole map again". Chapter 1 is good, but then you get Haar and that's when the game becomes truly repetitive. Even if you didn't recruit Haar or he died in Part 2, it's still boring as you'll just be watching Ike/Shinon/Titania kill everything instead. Honestly I just don't find the Greil Mercs. fun to use at all, usually I challenge myself by levelling up Mist through combat or using the laguz characters or something. Ike's part 3 maps are my least favourite part of Radiant Dawn. The main issue I have with the majority of the Part 3 maps, which is an issue I have with the Micaiah/Geoffrey Part 3 maps as well, is the amount of NPC characters in each map. In fact, most of Micaiah's Part 3 maps are just the NPCs killing laguz for you and stealing your experience. These are the maps I have the most issues with and why:

Prologue - Stated earlier

Chapter 4 - Just find it really boring, goes on for way too long, and you'll most likely be using just Haar for most of the map.

Chapter 10 - My least favourite map in the game. I think that it should have been a Royal Knight level and much shorter. 

Chapter 11 - Give the player some way of knowing which tiles are the paralysis tiles! Close second for my least favourite map in RD.

Chapter 12 - Might as well remove Micaiah's group entirely and this chapter would be no different. So, in other words, too many NPCs

And now, on to the characters. Lyre needs better bases so you have some reason to try to use her, she's pretty much the Greil Mercs. version of Fiona. 

One of the biggest issues I have with Radiant Dawn's gameplay is the fact that you get a Game Over if Sothe dies all the way up to the endgame. This should not be the case! Sothe has zero story purpose aside from a bit in Part 3 that could be replaced by Nolan or any of the Dawn Brigade. Or if that couldn't happen, then just have him retreat. He should not be treated like a Lord character. Sothe is the cause of about 90% of my Radiant Dawn Game Overs.

Aside from that, the Black Knight should join before Chapter 6 starts. By the time he finally shows up he's near useless. And Ranulf should not be a forced deploy on all of Ike's maps (that said, I don't think I've used him for anything other than shoving). 

Part 4: Gods and Men

The only map I have an issue with here is Chapter 5, as anyone who isn't Elincia or Tibarn won't do much.

As for the characters, do not make Ena and Sothe forced for the Endgame, swap Ena's strength and magic stats and growths, put a limit on the amount of Laguz Royals allowed (pick two (not including Kurth) like with the Herons). Kurth coming with Paragon would be nice too. Not really gameplay, but I'd like for the spirits in Sephiran and Ashera's levels to have attack animations.

Knives/Daggers and Thunder magic should be buffed, the Archsage class should have a higher spd cap.

Well, I think that's it. I really don't have many problems with RD, I guess! So, what would you like to change about RD's gameplay? What are your thoughts on what you just read? 

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The biggest change that should be made is greatly buff the Laguz and their transformation gauge. The meter fills up far to slowly and because it drains every time they see combat they can drain their entire transformation in one turn if they are attacked a lot. I'm not really sure why they received a nerf to begin with since their transformation was hardly broken in POR. Just increase the duration of their transformation by a good margin and the Laguz should be good to go. 

 

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Radiant Dawn has a variety of problems associated with the multiple armies. Certain armies either lack a sufficient enough experience to keep everyone relevant for choosing by the tower, while others literally have too little chapters to be used. Furthermore, there's some solid distances between the game's great characters and the game's awful characters. 

Part 1:

The Dawn Brigade in General: Their chapters are lacking in enough experience to give around, which leads to situations where everyone turns out sucking because you tried to use a full team. This could be fixed by bumping the experience totals for Part one and bumping their bases to encourage promoting early. 

Micaiah: Her stats are super lopsided, but there's nothing wrong with that. What is a problem is that her caps absolutely suck for Tier 2 and Tier 3. If she's supposed to be a nuke, give her the caps to do so. It makes no sense for the slowest mage to have the highest speed cap. She could reasonably have her magic cap bumped to 50 and it wouldn't break the game considering she hits like once.  Also, bump her base speed by 1 and her growth by 10 to lightly assist in the early game. Also, improve Rexaura give her Creiddlydad. 

Sothe: He could do with a bump in his Tier 2 and 3 Strength caps. 40 speed means nothing when you have a 28 strength cap. Also, if he was to stay forced in the tower, give him a Prf dagger to free up Baselard for those who want to use Heather or Volke. 

Edward: I don't think he's too bad; he's pretty good when used. Problem is that Zihark and Mia do similar without any extra effort. Maybe make him a bit bulkier to give him a niche from the other Trueblades. 

Leonardo: This guy lacks both Strength and Speed and is replaced by Skill and Resistance. If he was meant to be a mage killer, give him all the way to do this. His Resistance growth and caps should be better at all tiers; if his strength should stay low, he could have improved speed and specialize in crossbows to deal with squishy mages. It would at least give him something to differentiate him from Rolf and Shinon. 

Nolan: Actually, he's pretty good. I like that he's a bit more tanky and accurate compared to Boyd. He's solid. 

Laura: BUFF STAFF EXP. She actually has good growths. Also, maybe bump her Tier 3 Speed cap so she can be the faster counterpart to Rhys. 

Aran: Um, he's okay? He could maybe have a bit better bases so he is more initially usable. Nephennee has a bit of a lead on him in usability. 

Ilyana: She has okay bases, but her growths and speed caps suck so hard. Furthermore, Thunder Magic sucks to high heaven. Just improve all Thunder Magic and maybe lower her base level to help her out. And maybe improve one of her primary growths. 

Meg: Okay, we need to give this girl a total makeover. Firstly, I don't have a problem with her niche: a quicker, more resistant armor knight. My problem is that they didn't even try. Buff her strength and defense growths so they are usable (they don't need to be comparable to the other knight). Next, give her a solid +3 across the board. Bump her Resistance caps to be much higher than they are (maybe switch her defense and resistance). Finally, give her celerity: if she's the fast knight, make her the quick knight too. Also, Bump her weapon rank a bit. 

Jill, Zihark, and Tauraneo: Honestly, they're great. If anything, the Taur needs a nerf. 

Tormod and Gang: Availability. This is literally it. If they could be used at all in Part three, they'd be good. 

Nailah: Already too good. 

Rafiel: He's fine; low movement in exchange for 4 galdr. maybe a bump to res and speed so he can take a mage hit. 

And that's Part 1 and I'm tired. 

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8 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The biggest change that should be made is greatly buff the Laguz and their transformation gauge. The meter fills up far to slowly and because it drains every time they see combat they can drain their entire transformation in one turn if they are attacked a lot. I'm not really sure why they received a nerf to begin with since their transformation was hardly broken in POR. Just increase the duration of their transformation by a good margin and the Laguz should be good to go. 

 

olivi grass exists and it is far from uncommon, sure you cant have a laguz solo a map with it but it certainly acts just fine for circumventing the problem, and if you are a risk taker you can also have laguz get attacked while untransformed, while dangerous it does fill the gauge faster, laguz stones are also an option for getting into the fray quickly, as are laguz gems but those are endgame only so I guess that's an unfair thing to use. The laguz are supposed to be tricky to use but have some great results when used correctly, I much prefer how they were handled in RD personally, in por you were at the mercy of a gauge that forces a transformation whether or not you can use it, I also recall in my most recent playthrough lethe was pretty ridiculous on the "could solo a map" scale.

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22 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The biggest change that should be made is greatly buff the Laguz and their transformation gauge. The meter fills up far to slowly and because it drains every time they see combat they can drain their entire transformation in one turn if they are attacked a lot. I'm not really sure why they received a nerf to begin with since their transformation was hardly broken in POR. Just increase the duration of their transformation by a good margin and the Laguz should be good to go. 
 

...Lethe was pretty broken in PoR, tbh.

The beast laguz were the biggest nerf recipients going into RD. Jannaff ang Ulki and Reyson still play about the same, while the dragons are endgame only units and have minimal impact on the gameplay to begin with.

They went overboard with the cat nerf. But I get why they did it. 

______

In terms of fixing bad gameplay, I guess the main thing I'd want them to do is create "hard mode" difficulty by creating stronger enemies and more of them, instead of by taking away weapon triangle and enemy range check.

I like getting a challenge from hard mode. I don't like playing without core game mechanics--that's not fun and it makes me want to stay on normal difficulty, which is something that no other Fire Emblem game has ever made me want to do.

Make a proper hard mode without disassembling the game--is that too much to ask???

Edited by Shoblongoo
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The main issue of FE10 is the poor Balance.
Imo the difficulty of the DB chapters is perfect in normal + hard. 
GM's chapters and 2-P and 2-F definitely need higher leveled enemies since you have a lot overleveled party members.

As for certain chapters:

  • 1-6-2: Replace the myrm by an other class or place him farer away from Fiona. In hard mode he can ORKO her with a crit before you Can defeat Laverton. Technically you can prevent it by rescuing Tauroneo in turn 1 with Jill and dropping him in Laverton's range in turn 2, but It's just a waste of exp. No one aside of LTC Players do it.
  • 1-8: Making Tormod, Muarim and Vika non forced and allow Jill and Tauroneo to be brought to this chapter
  • 2-1: Giving Nephenee an iron greatlance instead of a steel greatlance and furthermore a javelin by default. Neither Brom nor Nephenee Can encounter hand axe, javelin and bow.
  • 2-3: Making this a seize in a turn limit mission (12-15 turns) since It's fairly easy and it would make sense storywise since the CK's don't have infinite time to conquer Castle Felirae and then ride back to Melior.
  • Part 3: Making Ilyana stay in Micaiah's part because this party needs a range weapon user so badly since Micaiah is rather busy with healing and Leonardo is pretty meh, furthermore she has access to effective weapons against the Laguz. Trading the convoy should be handled by recruiting Jill, Meg or Zihark in 3-6 / 3-13.
  • 3-2: Add more enemies since this map has some empty areas.
  • E-5: Giving anyone access to give Ashera the final blow.
     

 

General changes:

  • giving Meg and Fiona higher base Level (Meg: Level 7, Fiona: Level 12) with appropirate base stats
  • giving more exp. for staff uses (degressive model as in FE11-13 would be a fair solution)
  • giving Laguz more battle exp.
  • untransformed Laguz should have 33% instead of 50% lower stats

     

Screw autocorrect for adding some capitals.

Edited by 豊聡耳 神子
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19 hours ago, thecrimsonflash said:

olivi grass exists and it is far from uncommon, sure you cant have a laguz solo a map with it but it certainly acts just fine for circumventing the problem, and if you are a risk taker you can also have laguz get attacked while untransformed, while dangerous it does fill the gauge faster, laguz stones are also an option for getting into the fray quickly, as are laguz gems but those are endgame only so I guess that's an unfair thing to use. The laguz are supposed to be tricky to use but have some great results when used correctly, I much prefer how they were handled in RD personally, in por you were at the mercy of a gauge that forces a transformation whether or not you can use it, I also recall in my most recent playthrough lethe was pretty ridiculous on the "could solo a map" scale.

Except it's a rip-off, and for most units, 2 combats and a turn wipe away most of what an olivi grass restores. Laguz Stones are rather limited until part 4, too. I would agree that most laguz did have great results... if by "most laguz" you actually meant Skrimir, the hawks, Muarim, and Mordecai, that is. Most of the rest just were not good enough to warrant the headache of juggling a gauge, especially knowing their exp gain stunk transformed.

Edited by Levant Mir Celestia
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3 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

Make a proper hard mode without disassembling the game--is that too much to ask???

If difficulty is your thing then you might be interested in this (although, it depends on what you define as 'disassembling the game':

Spoiler

(Overview of the hack at the beginning covers a good amount of the main changes. Also once again, shout-out to @Deltre for showcasing this!)

It's still WIP but it seems like the hack would satisfy a lot of the preferred changes in this topic. The entire game is being overhauled and Part 1 is fairly complete if you want to check it out. The video above gives a very good demonstration of the changes made and scope of the project.

Although, if you're more interested in something very close to the original game; just with some improvements/balancing here and there, this isn't really it. It's more of a re-imagining of FE10 where the mechanics/balance is built from the ground up as opposed to "improving" the original. Think of it as a wholly separate experience in comparison. Still, it attempts to address common criticisms of the original, most notably the difficulty curve and the relative scaling between the different armies. Part 1 now being the easiest part of the game as opposed to the most difficult. Every map has been completely re-designed in terms of enemy layout and 'feel' -- so again, strives to offer a fresh experience.

It's not going to be for everyone though. It does largely depend on whether you enjoy the large scope of changes as opposed to something far closer to the original.

Forgive me for the shameless plug

 

42 minutes ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

Except it's a rip-off, and for most units, 2 combats and a turn wipe away most of what an olivi grass restores. Laguz Stones are rather limited until part 4, too. I would agree that most laguz did have great results... if by "most laguz" you actually meant Skrimir, the hawks, Muarim, and Mordecai, that is. Most of the rest just were not good enough to warrant the headache of juggling a gauge, especially knowing their exp gain stunk transformed.

Also worth mentioning that Laguz:

  • Lack 2-range (or higher) for the most part. They can use cards, but they're pretty bad.
  • Do not gain access to effective weapons or utility (for the common Laguz), unlike Beorc.
  • Cannot take advantage of WTA.
  • Higher movement Laguz like Cats/Tigers do not have Canto unlike their Beorc equivalents (Cavalry).
  • Are weak to a particular type of magic.
  • Often have good bases but grow very little. Gaining very few EXP makes them feel unrewarding to feed kills to, even if their bases can carry them far into the game (The Hawks/Ranulf).
  • Have weapons that are weak compared to later Beorc weaponry, and many Laguz can't be used enough to reliably get SS rank.
  • On top of all this... then has to worry about the Laguz Gauge. Matters are even worse if you're a Cat. Then the Royal Laguz come along and make non-royals feel even worse because the former doesn't even need to suffer with this. 

The plus sides for them are... they're gold efficient (in terms of weaponry) and typically have high move / low terrain costs? That's really the only innate advantages they get aside from any statistical advantages they may have at base (which again, won't grow much -- someone like Lethe is decent enough at base but "decent" just doesn't cut it when you don't really grow much more under standard usage).

Olivi Grass could honestly be completely free/infinite and wouldn't be gamebreaking whatsoever. For instance, If Laguz simply all had a 'Rest' command to restore 15 gauge... The fact that they have to use up their turn is pretty substantial when they have worse enemy phase than other units (lack of 2-range and losing gauge when attacked from it). And Halfshift is kinda a joke when the Royals exist.

(In order to make Cats feel good/rewarding to use I had to fully revamp their Laguz gauge, give them situational canto, provide them with innate crit, faster WEXP and also put their growth/scaling in line with Beorc. Sounds a like a lot, but unless you give them crazy bases or something which is a less than optimal solution, it's completely necessary)

On 04/03/2018 at 4:25 PM, Lost Impact said:

The main issue I have with the majority of the Part 3 maps, which is an issue I have with the Micaiah/Geoffrey Part 3 maps as well, is the amount of NPC characters in each map. In fact, most of Micaiah's Part 3 maps are just the NPCs killing laguz for you and stealing your experience.

Toning down on the NPCs was/is definitely a priority for me. Some maps can definitely use less enemies as well. Geoffrey's charge is a good example. Quality > Quantity.

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Made this account a while back, but didn't post what I intended back then and then just kind of forgot about it. So first post, I guess.

Radiant Dawn is my favourite fire emblem game, but yes, there are a lot of things you could improve about it gameplay-wise. Something I think should have been done in particular is to tie the laguz royals in part 4 endgame to a specific heron. If you choose to take Rafiel to the tower you get Nailah, if you choose Reyson you get Tibarn and if you choose Leanne you get Neasala. This could be rationalised as the royals each wanting to protect their specific heron.

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14 hours ago, MonocleMage said:

Something I think should have been done in particular is to tie the laguz royals in part 4 endgame to a specific heron. If you choose to take Rafiel to the tower you get Nailah, if you choose Reyson you get Tibarn and if you choose Leanne you get Neasala. This could be rationalised as the royals each wanting to protect their specific heron.

It's bad enough that I'm forced to take Sothe into Part 4's Endgame, but forced to take a Laguz Royal? No thank you!

Anyway, Vika having more availability would be nice... Oh, and I suppose Muarim and Tormod as well.

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16 hours ago, MonocleMage said:

Radiant Dawn is my favourite fire emblem game, but yes, there are a lot of things you could improve about it gameplay-wise. Something I think should have been done in particular is to tie the laguz royals in part 4 endgame to a specific heron. If you choose to take Rafiel to the tower you get Nailah, if you choose Reyson you get Tibarn and if you choose Leanne you get Neasala. This could be rationalised as the royals each wanting to protect their specific heron.

Funny you talk about wanting to improve Radiant Dawn, and yet you turn around and bring up an idea that does the exact opposite... I already consider forcing characters big enough of a problem in the game as it is. And forcing more units is your version of a good idea?!! H-e-two hockey sticks no!

Edited by Levant Mir Celestia
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9 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

It's bad enough that I'm forced to take Sothe into Part 4's Endgame, but forced to take a Laguz Royal? No thank you!

Anyway, Vika having more availability would be nice... Oh, and I suppose Muarim and Tormod as well.

 

7 hours ago, Levant Mir Celestia said:

Funny you talk about wanting to improve Radiant Dawn, and yet you turn around and bring up an idea that does the exact opposite... I already consider forcing characters big enough of a problem in the game as it is. And forcing more units is your version of a good idea?!! H-e-two hockey sticks no!

Perhaps I expressed myself poorly. What I meant that if you choose to take, say, Rafiel into the tower, and leave Rayson and Leanne outside, then Tibarn and Naesala would be left outside as well. As in making it so that you can't have a team full of laguz royals. I wasn't really thinking about it as forcing you to take one of the royals with you, but I guess it would have that effect as well, so I suppose that is a good point.

Speaking of the herons, though, wouldn't it be nice if it was actually possible to get some of the higher level galdr in normal gameplay without dumping a ton of exp on the them? Either have the herons start out at a higher level, gain experience at a faster rate or have them learn the galdrs at lower levels. Now that I think about it, it would also be nice if each of the herons could learn their own unique galdr as well, kind of like how spells work in SoV.

Edited by MonocleMage
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On 06/03/2018 at 11:10 AM, MonocleMage said:

Radiant Dawn is my favourite fire emblem game, but yes, there are a lot of things you could improve about it gameplay-wise. Something I think should have been done in particular is to tie the laguz royals in part 4 endgame to a specific heron. If you choose to take Rafiel to the tower you get Nailah, if you choose Reyson you get Tibarn and if you choose Leanne you get Neasala. This could be rationalised as the royals each wanting to protect their specific heron.

Interesting concept, although that would still leave Caineghis and Giffca. And the downside is that unless these units gain a free/extra deployment slot, you'll just end up with less options overall. If they do get a free slot, then you risk having too many units for the size of each map/encounter at Endgame. Perhaps one of these possibilities aren't too much of a big deal, but would mean the endgame would need to be balanced around it, of course.

Most elegant solution IMO is to just tone down the Royals (slightly lower stats and no more Formshift -- just a really good Laguz gauge instead) in order to make them more comparable to a (trained) non-royal or Beorc. They still lack 2 range and other benefits Beorc have, so they wouldn't really need to be toned down all that much. Just enough so they're more like Renning or Bastian when compared to units you actually need to train. Someone like Vika should be comparable to Naesala with a healthy amount of investment (the video in my previous post should be a good demonstration of that) and need to share items like Laguz Stones/Gems  with non-royals as well.

Thematically they should still be powerful at base, more-so than others, but just having outright better caps, higher skill capacity, formshift, free mastery etc... is unfair on top of the bases they also have. 

12 hours ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Anyway, Vika having more availability would be nice... Oh, and I suppose Muarim and Tormod as well.

Not quite as effective of a solution as giving them more availability; but it's actually pretty feasible to tune them for part 1 while either auto-levelling them for Part 4 or making them scale better with BEXP or promotion gains when they return. Combined with strong EXP gains if they do get used in Part 1.

I think the developers may have neither wanted them to stay with Micaiah and fight other Laguz, while also unwilling to allow them fight Micaiah/Sothe as well (even though it could well have made sense) in the same vein as Rafiel/Nailah. Making them join right at the start of Part 4 would be plausible though, possibly with the Tibarn's army as they would benefit the most from that. 

2 hours ago, MonocleMage said:

Speaking of the herons, though, wouldn't it be nice if it was actually possible to get some of the higher level galdr in normal gameplay without dumping a ton of exp on the them? Either have the herons start out at a higher level, gain experience at a faster rate or have them learn the galdrs at lower levels. Now that I think about it, it would also be nice if each of the herons could learn their own unique galdr as well, kind of like how spells work in SoV.

Either lowering the level requirements or just making them a higher level at base works fine. As for unique abilities, there are ways to make them more unique through gauge differences, movement and other utility etc... Giving Leanne 2 range healing per turn with higher MAG for instance (meaning that compared to the other two Herons, you can possibly afford to use one less staff user if you choose her) is one example.

Edited by Dunal
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The good thing about RD's map design is that it often nails the story thematics going on, but it does have serious gameplay issues at times.

Part 1 is generally very good, some of RD's best and great by any FE's standards. Except 1-9, One Survives is really bad.

Part 2, yes Geoffrey's Charge is a little boring, Lucia's chapter isn't great, and 2-1 is bad. But I think Elincia's Gambit is good and 2-P is a novel idea at least.

Part 3 has its moments, like 3-3 and 3-13, but overall compared to Part 1 it isn't as good. Not great, but not bad.

Part 4, all the battles prior to the Tower of Guidance are poorly designed routs save Izuka's fight. And there isn't much story to compensate this for. In the Tower, well the maps aren't that good, but they're a little better. Distortions, the desert chapter, is particularly offensive.

I didn't mind the plentiful NPCs that much. They add something to the thematics having them around.

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Always felt instead of a five part endgame, the tower should have just been part five, with the climax of part four being reclaiming the city in which all the armies meet up on a giant map. Feels a bit underwhelming knowing there's a big battle that just takes place off screen.

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  • 3 months later...

I wish hard mode would actually affect unit stats instead of just disabling some gameplay mechanics.  Also, endgame felt really easy when I had multiple units in tier 3, so maybe making more enemies tier 3 in endgame or at least having  some non-boss enemies have capped stats.

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Hard mode turning off enemy movement display is extremely frustrating. It's not hard, just tedious and annoying. The laguz system needs a bit of a revamp. I don't really understand why they have a bar. Most of them aren't crazy better than the other units you have, especially since they're 1 range locked, and many of them end up being borderline mandatory to use anyways (I think of Volug, Janaff, and Ulki). Act 2 chapters and combat can be removed. Just make it dialogue and cut scenes. Those chapters are a test of patience and they really only exist to recruit Haar (maybe paragon too, but I think two are enough).

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14 minutes ago, Centh said:

Hard mode turning off enemy movement display is extremely frustrating. It's not hard, just tedious and annoying. The laguz system needs a bit of a revamp. I don't really understand why they have a bar. Most of them aren't crazy better than the other units you have, especially since they're 1 range locked, and many of them end up being borderline mandatory to use anyways (I think of Volug, Janaff, and Ulki). Act 2 chapters and combat can be removed. Just make it dialogue and cut scenes. Those chapters are a test of patience and they really only exist to recruit Haar (maybe paragon too, but I think two are enough).

That's be like a movie length series of cutscenes. And the final chapter of Act 2 is considered pretty good. The Brom and  Nephenee chapter is a good change of pace by controlling only three units (one of which is a thief), the first one is also unique in that it's an all aerial chapter. Really the only one I find grating is the Fog of War map. Geoffrey's charge is a good way of integrating gameplay and story by making it pretty easy.

Edited by Jotari
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44 minutes ago, Jotari said:

That's be like a movie length series of cutscenes. And the final chapter of Act 2 is considered pretty good. The Brom and  Nephenee chapter is a good change of pace by controlling only three units (one of which is a thief), the first one is also unique in that it's an all aerial chapter. Really the only one I find grating is the Fog of War map. Geoffrey's charge is a good way of integrating gameplay and story by making it pretty easy.

Really Geoffrey's Charge is my least favorite map in the entire game. There are no units I will be using in any of those chapters, besides those chapters exclusively. I spend more time sitting and waiting for the computer to play than I get to play.

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1 minute ago, Centh said:

Really Geoffrey's Charge is my least favorite map in the entire game. There are no units I will be using in any of those chapters, besides those chapters exclusively. I spend more time sitting and waiting for the computer to play than I get to play.

I always set the computer players to halt. Makes the level more fun and challenging.

As for my least favorite map in the game, hmm, I think I'd still stick with The Heart of Crimea. Don't like Unforgivable Sin or the Part 3 Prologue either.

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On 6/20/2018 at 11:01 AM, Lost Impact said:

I always set the computer players to halt. Makes the level more fun and challenging.

As for my least favorite map in the game, hmm, I think I'd still stick with The Heart of Crimea. Don't like Unforgivable Sin or the Part 3 Prologue either.

Wow, I never do that. HM with those units is iffy enough that I want all the help I can get. Also, I'm not using any of those units, so I'd rather clear the chapter with a lower turn count for bxp.

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