I’ll say it because I feel others are being too polite - you’re abrasiveness makes it hard to take any and all ‘constructive’ criticism you may have seriously.
There is a serious difference between providing helpful advice versus being adversarial towards what amounts to a passion project within a niche realm. You don’t win points for being brash or abrasive; your tone is aggressive and frankly demeaning.
There’s a difference between saying, “Faith is a difficult character to utilize in the early game, I think upping her con or strength by ‘x’ would really alleviate some of these issues while still maintaining difficulty” versus “Many of your units can’t run well and are destined to a forceful bench” or “that doesn’t mean that Leah has to be a complete underwhelming mess of a lord with completely anti-synergetic weapons”
The criticisms in many cases, I don’t even think are valid, comparing Leah’s Majestra, which is meant to be an early game rapier, to Saorise’s Florette, which is meant to be a midgame PRF don’t really hold much water. Her Majestra still holds a 1-2 range advantage, so they both still hold unique advantages over each other.
Nor do your criticisms of Parvarti, who yes, holds a niche position within the game, but is meant to during the early chapters, and later has several promotion options that can make her more viable. I’ve used her on a complete playthrough and she was a completely average unit, so I can’t really buy what you’re saying.
Also considering there’s like what, nearly 40 characters? They are all not made equal. Much like every other Fire Emblem. Some of them are going to be harder to train. Some of them are not going to be amazing at harder difficulties. Some of them are solid for a couple of chapters before they become more difficult to utilize in a standard playthrough.
I think you should reconsider your tone and the tenor of the conversation when you are trying to provide criticism of a product. This isn’t some triple AAA game - it’s a passion project by a single creator. And one, for my money, is one of the better romhacks out there. I don’t think it’s perfect - I’ve provided criticism of certain aspects or chapters in the past - but I feel that you have come across as hostile and belittling, and your manner is not something that would encourage any creator to take your points or criticisms as good arguments, nor inspire them to try and adapt and change their game.
Not trying to be difficult, but I felt like it needed to be said.
Nah, that’s not Faith problem because she joins the group more or less early. The real problem with Faith is that she rejoins the group very late in the game, in that battle against Amanda.
Do allow me to remain brash and adversarial, but there are plenty more ways to solve “potential issues” than just upping X stat a bit. Besides, as you may as well agree - I didn’t make this game.
Chances are that the maker of it can think of a better option to make Faith’s usage more predominant, and besides, I’ve highlighted her issue enough - her lack of good fights across ger prologue jointime. She cannot fight against axes, bows or wind magic whatsoever, and her maps are filled with either those or ballistas.
Facts are facts and I am not going to paint it and call it pretty, I will call it for what it is.
They do, not only because of the complete difference between usages and enemies you find across her join chapters, but also because Saoirse’s Florette is not a PRF. Any other female character that can wield swords in your party, which is Ranger Winifred for example can make use of the Florette.
Additionally, consider the usefulness of the Majestra compared to the Florette. The Majestra appears locked to, not only a low Str character, but also on a chapter where most enemies have a ranged option. Knights with Javelins that will take more than half of Leah’s HP. Mages which Leah will deal low damage against.
Comparing it to the Florette, not only its an item you can buy to use again by Chapter 17x, which also has that 1-2 range advantage, that can be used by other units, but by Saioirse’s jointime, she mainly faces physical units, and magic ones are oftentimes rare, with mainly some spare Thunder Mages placed across the map which Joseph can take care of. So this argument of mine does hold its water pretty well. Besides, Leah begins the game with a Rapier (and can hardly make good full usage of it).
Except the units who share her promotion paths not only have an easier way there due to being able to get XP faster without being locked to 5-fight runes, but also gain more from it.
Saoirse? Gets a promotion that allows her usage of swords, staves and runes. Now that runes are a secondary weapon and her main focus are swords and healing support, runes are in a better position for her.
There is also a Dark Mage that gains access to Scholar, which is honestly a rare choice due to its tome clutter knowledge. They learn full Anima, Light, Dark and Runes. While you can consider making use of the maxed version of the Anima weapons that you have, Light and Dark tomes have a slight variety to it, not to count healing items, and the effect of runes on them is less powerful considering their tomes already give them the magical options they needed.
So Parvati all in all is not in a good position when better replacements exist that come in with better utility, better levels, or with less of a struggle to level considering Parvati’s limited usefulness.
By the way, I will ask you - in how many maps have you run out of runes? How many maps has Parvati had to run around trying to find runes? How many of those kills she has gotten have been fed to her? Her competitions are honestly tremendously better than her.
That does not mean that some of those units should be dead on arrival. Faith is dead on arrival.
And hear me out on this, but there is a pretty big difference between being “Dead on Arrival” and being a replacement unit, which is honestly the role that Caden’s Archer has taken for me, with Winifred taking the lead as an offensive archer and Liang faring well against magic enemies.
Kind of on the same line as Caspian with Vergil and Silvan. Caspian’s use is going to see itself shadowed by Vergil on the prologue, who not only is mounted but has had seven chapters of advantage to level and get great stats.
Following shortly, Silvan appears shortly by the main story at Chapter 13 boasting a pretty strong and aggressive statline, making himself the better alternative to Caspian. Caspian turns to be a replacement unit.
Faith is not a replacement unit. Simple as.
I will not give unnecessary praise unless it is deserved, which Chapter 17x has very well done, and I will simply be straight about things. If you take things as me being aggressive, then take them that way. The mainline answer to people being a softie about it and saying “uhm, maddening too hard” has been “why u playing maddening, lmao”, so that’s why my (if you want to see it as rude) concise feedback about the struggles of the game itself is to highlight the problems you can bring yourself into are.
People have made plenty suggestions already, such as re-leveling units if they are too low on a level, f.e., if you don’t take Shiloh on Chapter 14, he appears on Chapter 17x as a lv6 Cleric.
Yeah he is getting squashed. Some have also mentioned that not leveling the units on the main party (The White Lions) have left them struggling against the first chapter of the main story - which they suggested to set a level bar on.
I will not repeat suggestions that have been thrown about as the maker probably is well aware of them, nor I will try to think that I know best and forcefully guide what or who needs a change and how specific that change must be.
As many others have said, the maker should “know” best, and many others have said that a stat rebalance would be unhelpful, or it “would kill the fun of the game”. So putting it simple, I am making issues or problems be made aware of, and I’ll keep such suggestions to myself as none of the ones I’ve made have been acknowledged either.
Yeah, I’m not going to get into an extensive debate about the gameplay because:
a. I’ve only played through the game once on Maddening, almost a year ago, so it ain’t fresh in my mind. But for the record, I found the game overall difficult but fair.
b. More importantly, you missed the point of my post. I’m not trying to debate gameplay issues. The tone in how you present a criticism is often just as important as the criticism itself.
Your comments have often, at least to me, come across as hostile, rude, and belittling. Considering I’m not the first person in this thread to discuss it with you, you should maybe reflect and try and realize how you come across. I’m sure some of the critiques are valid. I’m sure some of the points are good points. But when your comments come off as almost an attack rather than as an actual critique, it’s pretty much impossible to take any of them seriously.
Food for thought. Hope you enjoy the rest of the game.
Just play it again, if you do have the time for it. If you can’t or don’t want to, that is okay as well, 'cause you don’t have to play the game again, but as of now on Chapter 17x (my current progress) difficulty has stabilized, so that isn’t exactly any kind of issue that I have.
I drive my point across and make what my gripes are known instead of making a bullet list after buttering things up so any bug reports or comments made get drowned down or not acknowledged.
You’re the second, and when your comments come off as buttering someone up they are dismissed and never acknowledged, so it’s pretty much impossible to take them at face value.
It’s unnecessary, this isn’t even a warning.
It was also stated previously multiple times by other members in this topic. Had you complied at that point I never would have stepped in.
If you want to continue this conversation specifically, feel free to message the staff. Otherwise, back to the topic please.
I wouldn’t exactly say Faith’s DOA, funnily enough she’s what I call a “Slow Go” character. Some call them trainees some call them ninos (if I’m remembering right) just about every hack under the sun has a few units that are by rights a headache to use/train but almost all of them also end up being polarizing.
While that first map is a pain for faith I usually manage to get some levels under her belt she doesn’t fair too bad for a bit.
and to give you an idea of my cursed luck in my first go round miles didn’t gain a single point of speed for 6 levels and he couldn’t even consistently double on his join map.
Meanwhile Parvati became one of my most heavily snowballed units, and everything was just weird all around.
Now this is me more directly wanting to refer to your perceived tone in this whole debacle. Always pay attention to when the last post in a thread was made or when the Main Post was last edited.
Sometimes hacks can go dormant for a long time due largely to life being a massive pile of fetid meat left out for too long, and then just get a massive update out of left field.
as such there is a level of decorum that has to be upheld, and this is coming from someone who’s usually more blunt then I’d like to admit.
While poor luck is a factor (and so is terribly good luck, as a second player I know has been playing this and had a Leah by level 6 that had about double the stats gained over mine), I do tend to consider too on a character’s jointime and their competition, I reckon, so that is why I tend to default to a unit’s competition in both that chapter and following ones as well, to their level averages as well.
While you could try to call Faith a Nino-ish character, considering both her overly difficult usage in the Prologue and how she supposedly gets a very late return, by that point if you wanted to run a Pegasus, you probably took on Helga, who not only has better maps, but also better Constitution, even if just slightly.
It doesn’t mean that units such as Caspian will be bad - just that they can potentially have enough of a lucky glow up for them to hold their ground for the following chapters.
In my case, seen by my first (unremoved) post, I was planning to bench Liang, and then he joined Chapter 11 (as I chose to take the bow instead of the tome). First off, Hunter’s Bow has been a great tool with taking care of mounted combatants, and combined with Liang’s speed, he has been able to keep up well enough that by when Chapter 15 arrived he has obtained a spot in the usual 12 units I field every map, alongside with Winifred.
On the subject of Parvati, I consider both her struggling method of combat and how leveling is heavily tied to it, that by when I promoted Saoirse by the end of Chapter 16, she not only already had a tremendous headstart against Parvati, but she had the stats and the weapons to fight that off.
I do honestly consider Saoirse the better Rune user, and Scholar a hard class to use for both Tanya and Parvati due to the lack of a powerful motive to use runes other than finding and burning through the last one found.
What made me go back here was the fact that Lonely Mirror was on the front page once I revisited FEU after about a year or so - of course, the last edit had been about a bit less than a month and a half, but it was all a whole “huh?” moment that made see how the game held out.
Although, and I’ll say this, I’ll run through and be potentially as blunt or as rough with any hack that I see, unless I hit a point where a hack actually strikes me with awe (see: Chapter 17x).
Spoilers
Meanwhile me A-supporting Boone with Silvan:
Chapter 19
If it isn’t the consequences of (her bad level ups) my actions.
Now, on my defense.
You might think of these stats as “bad”, but considering her level (12, so 11 level ups), and her growths, let’s consider what are the stat averages.
No I totally understand that. There have been plenty of hacks where I just get flabbergasted at how completely shafted I feel due to a mixture of enemy quality, weaponry, and variety that when combined with the units I deployed suddenly struggle against.
I myself have made a few rage posts across the threads of a few of the 80-ish hacks I’ve played, as a side effect I’ve somewhat learned how to be both critical and blunt about my opinion on some facets of certain maps while not being so crass as to come off like a complete jerk.
But back on topic, I usually don’t have units that particularly cursed oddly enough.
For now we are simply struggling with Chapter 19 due to either the Axereaver Watchmen getting himself killed, or Leah herself getting shot to death. Fun times.
Yeah, It’s been a while since I’ve played this particular hack but due largely to how I deploy units and their exp gains go I just sorta roll with who shows potential. Like in my first go that fire mage with the like 60% magic growth kept wanting to get defense and speed.
It’s always just a laugh seeing how “not intended” some of my units become.
I am seeing a lot of attention on Leah, Faith, and Parvati as units, and I wanted to add some thoughts to the discussion.
Thoughts on Parvati as a unit: @LeskLyfeld, I have reflected and reviewed Parvati as a unit, and I am inclined to agree with you on many of your points. I feel like she is really challenging to level up as a combat unit unless you feed her kill EXP. It is tough to use her runes to weaken enemies and expect her to stay relevant after completing Ch10 in this game. I do think there are a couple maps midgame where she does do all right (Ch16, which was mentioned), but she does get outclassed by Saoirse or Alouette (if you recruit her). I do feel like if I had a skill system in Lonely Mirror, which I decided not to use by choice, I think Parvati could have had a personal ability to improve her rune usage in some way to set her apart. In any case, I will see if there is a way to improve her feel as a unit, so that she doesn’t have totally useless turns.
Thoughts on Faith as a unit:
A couple thoughts here:
Faith’s character was intentionally crafted to be a challenging character to train, primarily for narrative reasons. She embodies the concept of a character who has faced adversity head-on, challenging the hand she was dealt, and persevering through her struggles. Faith consistently rises to the occasion, whether it’s her role as Princess Leah’s protector or her duties as an ambassador for Celyste. Her journey is one of constantly having to prove herself against the odds. For example, if you read Faith’s support with Joseph, you’ll learn that Joseph thought of Faith as expendable and often sent her on very dangerous missions. Faith repeatedly manages to succeed against all odds, which leaves Joseph astounded by her resilience and capability.
While it may be difficult to train Faith on Chapter 4, because of the many axe users, Faith can still have a role on the field in visiting the northern village and fending off a couple bandits with Parvati’s help. Faith is still helpful on Chapter 5 in visiting shops or picking off weaker enemies. There is 1 archer and 1 wind mage that she does have to watch out for though. Chapter 6 and some of the later chapters in part 1 are a lot kinder to Faith, and she can gain some levels. You can also use her to shortcut Chapter 8. She does return later in the game, but I still find that she can catch up pretty easily, especially if you use the wing spear on her return chapter.
Flying units have dominated virtually all Fire Emblem games, and I also wanted to take a break from that narrative. Flying units are still incredibly great in Lonely Mirror, but I also like how Grant, a usually benched armor knight, can feel like your best unit for a lot of the beginning.
Thoughts on Leah:
I partially agree with a lot of your assessment. I do feel like there is a lot of variance on how Leah turns out as a unit. Sometimes she is amazing, and sometimes she is unusable, and it doesn’t feel great to have a lord who cannot do anything. I have had level 14 Leah’s on Chapter 19 still at base power, which was rough. I have since improved Leah’s bases a little though, so she starts a bit more capable; though, this is not in a version that is available.
No. The Nino archetype (which was the Est archetyoe originally) is a character that appears once you’re past midgame or in the last stretch. It’s a very weak unity at first but also has the best stats growth in the entire game in multiple or all stats. Examples of this are Est in Marth games, Mareeta in Thracia or Nino in Blazing sword.
Faith has not excellent stat growth, being just your average pegasus unit. She dissapears for most of the game and only comes back in the last stretch, when she is not needed anymore and because she does not have excellent stats growth, you have no reason to give her some training like you did with Nino or Mareeta.
There are only 2 ways to make faith an interesting character to use, and I say this because I like Faith, and I want her to stop being useless:
Option 1: make her growth better and give her a preferent weapon when she rejoins.
Option 2: let her rejoin sooner. She could help the white lions escape from prison, for example.
I am going to go with Option 3 here and leave things be.
I don’t think Faith is useless. I think Faith’s stat distribution and growths actually lend herself to be one of the better fliers in the game. In my opinion, she is probably the second best after Wise for her contributions in part 1 and her potential for end game. I would personally rank the innate fliers like this: Wise > Faith > Helga > Kurtis > Shane; though, I think all of them are very usable.
I have also made the wing spear cheaper and more accessible for the end game, which has mostly only monsters. Faith is one of only three units who can use these (Kurtis only on promotion), and she has the highest power of all these units, which allows her to more consistently one-round monsters at the end of the game without needing Dorado. To me her biggest drawback is the late rejoin affecting her support options, but she is a great support partner for Joseph if you plan for it, and can work on flier heavy teams if you also use Helga and Kurtis.
Consider the ramifications of making Faith join at the prison map to say Helga as a unit. It would be a huge slap in the face to recruit Helga, then be given a wyvern knight on the next chapter, and finally see Faith return on the next map with all the part 1 exp at her disposal. Faith would certainly outclass Helga and Wise here. Kurtis would join a two maps later. That is also a lot of fliers back to back, and as I mentioned in my previous post, I don’t want fliers to just take over.
Pulling a TLP and letting Faith promote in Leah’s part would resolve most of her issues without making her OP like Inanna - by the time she rejoins, everyone else is already promoted. Thanks to recent adjustments, she’s not a liability in her rejoin map anymore, but it still doesn’t feel like she contributes without burning through (currently) valuable Wing Spear durability. I’m glad its availability is getting increased in the coming update, but for blind players, they won’t know that they get more than one Wing Spear. I guess you could signal that you do get more than one by providing one in an earlier map, but that would reduce the “Oh cool!” feeling of Faith rejoining with a Wing Spear. It’s hard to balance vibes and player retention…
But, that’s why this is more of a personal project. I’m glad that’s your decision.
Also, you can use skillsys but not give anyone skills except for Parvati, although doing the custom build to that end would be annoying lol
By one side, let me just say that not adding the Skill System therein is perfectly good. Most people make it so it ends up being a bloated fest of skills, removing the tactical/rush of strategy games and simply making stat balls. It’s definitely based on how it is handled and whether or not that ends in a good way.
Skills - beyond some small changes that are seen in here such as Snipers getting the Swordsmaster crit, Rangers getting Sure Shot, and a Dark-Only class also getting Swordmaster crit is as good as is.
My thoughts on it - whether it is upon your ability to do so or not - is to allow Parvati to have a Blank Rune (or sort of) across the Prologue, as by when she rejoins back, if she has gained enough experience she’ll be able to promote to either class.
Thus, in that case, I do consider that a weaker, less breakable weapon might be the answer, as it would allow her to use other runes during the prologue as versatile tools, rather than her only option.
Seen across multiple dialogues, such as Prelude III Faith-Joseph, mentioned by Helga herself in her description, multiple chapters, the recruitment of Kurtis, etc.
Within narrative, that is understandable. It will probably have to fall on how she rejoins and the enemies she faces then as I still have to see her in the field, but for now we’ve managed to get through Chapter 19 without Leah getting eliminated.
This suggestion here is one that could maybe be interesting, but I’m unsure on whether or not it could be carried out at full potential.
On that line, whether this is something you aprove of or not:
I have decided to preemptively send Leah’s Light Brand to the convoy at the start of the map to allow Myles to make usage of it.
I am not biased whatsoever.
At the current point of the game, honestly, it feels like a larger upgrade compared to the prologue, but at the same time it’s mainly due to the larger amount of units and Chapter 17x bias.
Hey @aeternalight11, I am sorry that you are experiencing this. I have never had this happen to me before, and I am wondering if anyone else has had this issue.
This might be difficult to troubleshoot without understanding your save file either. It’s also possible this could be caused by the platform you are running Lonely Mirror on as there have been strange things
