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Best Designed Map in the Franchise?


Mandokarla
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Because I saw another thread discussing the worst map in the franchise (with several entries from Thracia), I thought it would also be fun to see what we all consider to be the best designed map in the franchise. 

For me, I feel like Chapter 10 of Conquest is one of the best designed maps of the franchise, for a couple of reasons. The initial placement of certain enemies both gives you a couple turns to get a few of the houses, and encourages you to aggressively push outward from your starting position. Picking the first of those two choices risks you not having enough space to navigate the second half of the chapter's reinforcements (and the corresponding dragon vein activation) without risking resets or losses, and picking the second can -- if you don't plan it out -- lead to you not grabbing one or two of the houses (usually the dracoshield, in my experience). The two ballistae and the Fire Orb encourage you to use, and move, your units to use those defensive structures -- but the leftmost turret is also a potential risk for the unaware. The dragon vein activation doubles the pressure on you as your progress, and without the water's removal the map would be extremely easy to turtle. 

Additionally, just as you might find yourself in need of aid, you get reinforced by the best unit in the game (and her retainers). With those fliers to help deal with loose pegasi, you can breathe a bit before the DV. Alternatively, you can use them to grab the houses -- again, this map forces you into a decision. Can you afford to not use the fliers on player phase for combat? Do you value the dracoshield and the dual club highly enough to expose them? I love those choices. 

Also, and this might be a plus just for me because I love status staves, this map encourages, but does not require, the use of Freeze staves to give you some space. 

 

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I have a particular fondness for CQ ch10 as well, but I think my favorites are Book 1 Finale and Port Warren.

Actually, I think my true favorite has to be Binding Blade chapter 4, Collapse of the Alliance on Hard. It forces you to press, defend, save villages, recruit, and watch for reinforcements with a decent boss. It's like a microcosm of everything that makes FE, well, FE.

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I really should make myself play FE6, huh?

5 minutes ago, ChibiToastExplosion said:

I have a particular fondness for CQ ch10 as well, but I think my favorites are Book 1 Finale and Port Warren.

Actually, I think my true favorite has to be Binding Blade chapter 4, Collapse of the Alliance on Hard. It forces you to press, defend, save villages, recruit, and watch for reinforcements with a decent boss. It's like a microcosm of everything that makes FE, well, FE.

 

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10 minutes ago, Mandokarla said:

I really should make myself play FE6, huh?

It's definitely one of my favorites! Mileage with it may vary, but I'm in the camp that loves the difficulty, loves the long maps, loves seize chapters, and really loves how Roy is well, Roy. I personally enjoy a lot of the "flaws" the some really don't like about it.

The only bad thing I can say about 6 is that it makes it difficult for me to play both 7 (and to a lesser extent 8), as it makes me wish I was just playing 6 instead LoL

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I love a lot of Conquest, but I think my favorites are chapters 10, 12 and 24.

I also really enjoy chapter 6 of Shadow Dragon, which has strong enemies (at least on H5), a nice layout and thiefs that will steal the chests, who you have to kill fast.

Another chapter that I think is greatly designed is The Dragon's Gate, from Blazing Blade. I really like the fact that you have to rush to recruit Legault and get the Member Card, how complex it is, and the fact that there is also the opportunity to train your weak units even if you're going fast, due to the high amount of deployment slots even on HHM and the enemies that are all over the map. There's also plenty of hard to reach chests, which reward players who are smart about getting them, including a luna tome and IIRC a stat booster.

Edited by Nobody
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I was literally just going to say Conquest chapter 10. I really really love that map. The aesthetic, the objective (especially since Rout and Defeat Boss were very common objectives in Fates), and the use of dragon vein clearing the water were nice touches to the map. I also really liked the use of the magic orb, shooting archer thing, that helped you get enemies from afar.

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much crap as I've seen it get, part 3 chapter 13 from radiant dawn is probably my favorite chapter in the series, I love defense chapters and this one is really good when you think about it, the way it is designed is that you are not dead if one line falls, most defense chapters in fire emblem gives you only about 3 - 5 bottlenecks to watch for, here you have close to 14, but the thing that makes it good is the fact that due to the way it is tiered you don't need to watch for all of the bottlenecks yourself, if one area seems like it is getting too intense and you are afraid that you may lose a unit, you are able to make a tactical retreat to strengthen your defensive options, holding the line is also an interesting idea that I would not mind seeing again. Another aspect of the chapter is that Ike is not hard to take out provided you have a strong enough unit, the sleep staff that is obtained earlier through an info conversation, normally has a 100% hit rate on Ike due to his low resistance.

Edited by thecrimsonflash
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I'd also say part 3 chapter 13 of Radiant Dawn, although I also like the first Valla chapter from Revelations (the one with the teleporting stone) as I thought that gimmick really worked and made for an enjoyable chapter, and the Eternal Stairway chapter from Conquest (I really like escape levels and I found this one both fun and challenging). While Fates did have lots of bad maps, it also had some really great ones imo.

Edited by Lost Impact
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I agree with the defense maps like Conquest chapter 10 and Radiant Dawn part 3-13. They're hard but pretty fair.

Chapter 15 of Sacred Stones stands out to me just for being a fun desert map. There are a lot of tiles that aren't desert so you aren't slowed down too much, it has two tough boss fights, after a few turns the other lord appears on the opposite side of the map with their army so you don't get overwhelmed, and you can even kind of tell where most of the hidden items are because they're near the bones.

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Kinship’s Bond in FE7 (the one where you defend Nils). It has a bevy if objectives but doesn’t ever spread you too thin or have you running ragged back and forth across the map. It’s a defend map with a boss that’s tough to reach (in Hector mode) but who is rewarding to kill, as it he drops a promotion item and ends the level too. All of the melee enemies having reaver weapons is a cool twist too. 

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Chapter 3-13 from Radiant Dawn is by far my favourite map. It's a solid defense chapter where you can get attacked from multiple fronts and have to face powerful foes. Despite these disadvantages, luckily for you, you have the terrain advantage and can block of the ledges which the laguz can't cross. The NPCs can be useful, especially the bishop and the infamously memed 3-13 archer without being annoying or dragging out the map. This map is difficult to cheese because killing Ike is a difficult task but the map still gives you the option to end it early if you are good/lucky enough to do so. 

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