Breaking or unbreaking weapons

[Protato]

Simply put, what's your stance on breaking or unbreaking weapons in FE?  My take is that most weapons should be breakable.  However, there should be exceptions.  In my ideal system, there would be Bronze weapons (and equivalent tomes) that every character joins your side with, and you get a new one added to your convoy for free each time someone joins if they don't have one in their inventory.  They would be very weak, very heavy (making doubling less likely) and cannot get critical hits, but would be useful to finish off/weaken enemies.  Also, the Lord/Avatar unit would have an unbreaking Prf. weapon.  The Lord's could perhaps be their starting Rapier, which gets stronger at plot-relevant moments, and the Avatar's is somewhere between a Silver and Steel Sword in effectiveness.    

[Jotari]

Everything should be breakable. But everything should also be repairable Genealogy style.

[Avarice Shadow]

15 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Everything should be breakable. But everything should also be repairable Genealogy style.

I agree with this, though I've never played FE4... it sounds like a good idea. 

[X-Naut]

Agreed that everything should be breakable, unless it has a story reason for being unbreakable. Even legendary weapons. Complaints about running out can be addressed by the base shop, allowing thieves to steal weapons again (and giving more enemies multiple weapons so that you can), and re-introducing weapon merging for low-use pieces.

[Sage of the Mist]

I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to weapon durability. On one hand it makes the game more challenging, which I like. However, on the other hand keeping track of weapon durability can be bothersome and is ultimately means you must spend more money. I suppose it depends on the game we are discussing, in Awakening you have access to near unlimited gold so its really a non issue. Unfortunately,  in games with a stricter budget and limited opportunities  to buy supplies, i've found that it ended up being a case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because there simply aren't enough funds to ensure everyone is fully equipped. Overall I would say that i lean slightly towards unbreakable weapons, but I also enjoy the challenge breakable weapons bring.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Sage of the Mist
Spelling mistake

[SavageVolug]

I think all weapons should have durability. Weapons should wear down after a while, along with that there should also be a weapon repair function. (basically how weapons and staves were handled in FE4). However I see nothing wrong with certain weapons being unbreakable, namely legendary weapons they are after all legendary. But at the very least there should be a weapon repair function.

[Jotari]

9 minutes ago, Sage of the Mist said:

I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to weapon durability. On one hand it makes the game more challenging, which I like. However, on the other hand keeping track of weapon durability can be bothersome and is ultimately means you must spend more money. I suppose it depends on the game we are discussing, in Awakening you have access to near unlimited gold so its really a non issue. Unfortunately,  in games with a stricter budget and limited opportunities  to buy supplies, i've found that it ended up being a case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because there simply art enghough funds to ensure everyone is fully equipped. Overall I would say that i lean slightly towards unbreakable weapons, but I also enjoy the challenge breakable weapons bring.

As someone who's recently gotten into Iron Man Runs with a mindset of "The Game Provides," I've found that almost every game in the serious is very generous about the number of weapons it gives you. Hoarding is a natural instinct for players, but if you actually ignore that instinct and simply don't care about what weapons you use, it won't screw you over in most circumstances. I actually found myself completely at a loss as to what I should spend my money on in FE7 as the game gives you so many powerful weapons with little draw back. Genealogy has it's repair system so it's more about how you spread the money around using villages and thieves than how the weapons are used. FE1 gives you basically infinite money and Path of Radiance isn't that far behind in the same regard. Thracia forces you to earn your good weapons, but likewise, it throws many powerful weapons at you frequently so if you know what you're doing you can end up with tonnes of them (it also has an easy exploitable glitch where if you steal every weapon from an enemy and there is a shop on the map, they will buy a weapon in the shop which you can then steal for infinite money and or infinite strong weapons). The Sacred Stones only runs into durability problems if you're going for the Lagdou Ruins, playing through the game straight leads to little trouble, the Sacred Twins in particular probably having the best arrival time for S Ranked weapons in the series, with just enough time to be useful, but not too much time to trivialize things. Try to play Fire Emblem without hoarding anything (characters included) and you might be surprised by how much the games actually provide. Mend Staves in particular should never be hoarded. The window of the game in which the extra healing they provide over Heal being useful is very small and on the whole they provide much more experience and get your healers into tome using class much quicker.

Edited June 20, 2018 by Jotari

[Sage of the Mist]

I'm a bit on the fence when it comes to weapon durability. On one hand it makes the game more challenging, which I like. However, on the other hand keeping track of weapon durability can be bothersome and is ultimately means you must spend more money. I suppose it depends on the game we are discussing, in Awakening you have access to near unlimited gold so its really a non issue. Unfortunately,  in games with a stricter budget and limited opportunities  to buy supplies, i've found that it ended up being a case of the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because there simply art enghough funds to ensure everyone is fully equipped. Overall I would say that i lean slightly towards unbreakable weapons, but I also enjoy the challenge breakable weapons bring.

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

As someone who's recently gotten into Iron Man Runs with a mindset of "The Game Provides," I've found that almost every game in the serious is very generous about the number of weapons it gives you. Hoarding is a natural instinct for players, but if you actually ignore that instinct and simply don't care about what weapons you use, it won't screw you over in most circumstances. I actually found myself completely at a loss as to what I should spend my money on in FE7 as the game gives you so many powerful weapons with little draw back. Genealogy has it's repair system so it's more about how you spread the money around using villages and thieves than how the weapons are used. FE1 gives you basically infinite money and Path of Radiance isn't that far behind in the same regard. Thracia forces you to earn your good weapons, but likewise, it throws many powerful weapons at you frequently so if you know what you're doing you can end up with tonnes of them (it also has an easy exploitable glitch where if you steal every weapon from an enemy and there is a shop on the map, they will buy a weapon in the shop which you can then steal for infinite money and or infinite strong weapons). The Sacred Stones only runs into durability problems if you're going for the Lagdou Ruins, playing through the game straight leads to little trouble, the Sacred Twins in particular probably having the best arrival time for S Ranked weapons in the series, with just enough time to be useful, but not too much time to trivialize things. Try to play Fire Emblem without hoarding anything (characters included) and you might be surprised by how much the games actually provide.

I guess it's just a matter of differing play styles. I very much have an attitude of "Anything can and will go wrong when playing Fire Emblem" so yes I would say I tend to play very conservatively since I don't want anyone to die or run out of weapons at an inopportune time. Regardless it's food for thought and i'll try to taking into consideration on my next Binding Blade run.