Hey, I saw the FEE3 showcase and decided to give the patch a play recently up to the end of the first “arc” I noticed (left off in Ch 7 preps) and figured I’d leave some feedback (highest implemented difficulty). Overall, I’d say it was fairly enjoyable and that map design generally worked out well. There were very few maps that I felt dragged or had issues, so largely, gameplay feedback will be about other areas.
My feelings on the gameplay overall is that it was fairly close to FE8, with a bit of wackiness (mostly in character stats) and a bit better enemy quality. It generally plays pretty comfortably, and my only big issue in general is that you are absolutely starved for healing. Elys is basically it for a huge chunk of the game (Anna’s Medic staff is near worthless because a 5 HP heal is usually not worth the action). This wouldn’t be so bad, but free Vulns are also scarce, and the ones you do have are fairly weak (10 HP) and oftentimes don’t heal enough to significantly change combat outcomes. It’s very tough to split when you don’t have adequate healing, and multiple maps seemed to be set up with splitting in mind. My rec would be to either make Medic better and/or make Vulns 15 HP so that they feel worth the action (especially considering how limited the latter are). More specific feedback will be in other tabs since this is getting a bit long.
Chapters
On the topic of maps, a couple quick notes: Ch 3 doesn’t account for if you kill Ven early (easily done through exploiting Lunge), so she opened the door while she was dead. Also, I ended the Kostas map on Turn 5 which felt easier than intended: I’m far from an LTCer, it was just a pretty quick romp to him with Alexander’s group.
The only chapter I had big issues with was the Prologue, especially that Turn 2/3 stretch where it feels extremely easy for Elys to just die if she did combat the turn prior. She’s kind of an active liability in this chapter, and she/Felakhos seem to have to go up to make sure that the mass of enemies to the north doesn’t kill the other two lords. The Turn 2/3 here feels incredibly tight due to that group of enemies, so if you miss or make a suboptimal play, the map can easily spiral out of control. Felakhos having 6 Mov because of an unexplained debuff doesn’t help, since it means he often is 1 tile short of being where I need him to be. I don’t really see the point, either; he’s already reached middling status around where I left off, so it’s not like he’s going to dominate the whole game if left unchecked. If you’re set on the 6 Mov, I would straight up give him a different class because it feels very hack-y.
Back to the map, I don’t think a Prologue should be this difficult, when basically every map after it is significantly easier and it’s meant to be an introduction. Better Vulns would help this a bit, but largely I’d reduce enemy density a bit. It also feels like a miss to have Alexander get owned if he tries to use his Reginleif on that armor because it just means he’s in range of the Halberd Brigand and dies. His performance stands out on this map, in a bad way (especially with Arthur right next to him, who’s massively better in the stretch I’ve played). In general, his mediocre HP (same as the two other lords, basically) means he has a hard time actually doing cav things and taking advantage of his mobility.
Units
This is a good segue to something puzzling I’ve felt while playing, which is that some player characters seem to have a lot of their “power” put into their growths, rather than just having good base performance. Elys is an obvious example of this, as her absurd bulk growths don’t mean a whole lot early when she’s getting 2HKO’d by anything with decent Mt early. Alexander is similarly squishy, and even if he is supposed to grow out of it, he’s about as bulky as Jasper is (or worse). Caitlyn has a pretty good Mag growth, but a fairly meh base, so she doesn’t actually feel like she hits that hard.
This isn’t necessarily “bad”, but I would enjoy using these units more if they just had better base contributions and weren’t as reliant on growth luck (though Alexander isn’t very funny anyway, he just feels mediocre). In particular, I feel this is important for lords who you’re going to be stuck with. Ashley definitely has way better bases than either of them, and I think their stats should trend in a similar direction.
Outside of the three I mentioned, I think most units play good or fine; some highlights to me are Felakhos (pretty strong Jagen who is deceptively fast), Arthur (big bulky cav who has a good headstart on the Knight Crest), Kalin (his Summon is sick), Willow (Spd mage with epic flight), and Jasper (delete button). However, there is one unit who just felt really awful to use, and that’s Sophia.
I get what you’re going for with her, but at base, she is physically incapable of doubling enemies without Seek (and with Seek, her already poor 6 Atk is reduced further, often ending in no tangible difference). It takes her 3 levels on average to catch up to Willow in Mag, but Sophia is massively behind on Spd in comparison and will likely stay that way the whole game. Light vs Flux, assuming she doesn’t need Seek to double, is an additional -3 Atk. Sophia doesn’t even break even in Atk until Level 8 in comparison. This is comparing her to a unit who has bad Mag, too, so compare anyone else (like Caitlyn, maybe) and it’s just tragic.
I’ll end it with this: I like using growth units. I’ve used plenty of mediocre units in hopes of some perceived payoff later (I brought RD Tormod to the tower, for god’s sake). But Sophia is so weak at base that I just can’t justify spoonfeeding her kills for a dubiously better outcome. If Seek wasn’t such a middling weapon, maybe she’d be alright; as is, she has no good weapons, no good stats, and no good reason to come off the bench. Even if she is meant to appeal to other types of players, there’s plenty of room between “is meant for the 20/20 gamers” and “is useless for anyone but them”.
Characters
Some of the main plot gripes I had (certain Ashley dialogue/design, Elys/Alexander rarely having important dialogue and feeling dull because of it) have already been mentioned, so I won’t talk much about them. Overall, I thought the characters did their jobs narratively, except for said lords. In my view, this is because Kalin is a “sublord” who probably has about as many lines as the actual lords. Ashley picks up the strategy line scraps, and then Alexander/Elys usually say nothing of consequence to the chapter (the funniest example of this was when Alexander does his big speech in Fhirdiad and then is ignored, in favor of Kalin doing his strategy talk right after). Having Kalin be less of a spotlight stealer would go a long way in making the other two lords feel like they have a reason to be here.
Plot
I can only really speak on what I’ve seen so far, but overall, I was a little disappointed in how much of a retread the early chapters are narrative-wise from 3H. Bandit attack, mock battle, Zanado, Flame Emperor. It’s all recontextualized a bit, sure, but it doesn’t really feel like its own thing until the gang goes to retake Arianrhod. Then you go into Miklan’s tower, and the vibes from the start kick up again. The Kostas fight ties a nice bow on it, since I’m listening to the GD Endgame theme while killing Nemesis 2. The part that is most original is that Agarthans seem to have more focus, though I can’t say Agarthans would be what I’d choose to follow up on after how poorly they were handled in 3H itself.
The reason this matters to me is that 3H’s care in its world was one of its standout aspects, and one of the big opportunities a sequel has to me is that it can explore a lot of areas never given proper time. So the retreading (and what I’ve seen of the future plot, which is that it goes into crossover territory with Fates, Archanea, etc all now being in Fodlan for reasons?) is not really something I’m interested in.
For a positive example, I liked Caitlyn’s gaiden more than most chapters narratively, because it said “hey remember this place from 3H” and then actually explored it a bit while fleshing out a character who otherwise was just “Oh hey that’s Annette’s kid.” That to me is a more compelling direction that I wish more chapters adopted, but ultimately, I can’t call the way you’ve taken it the wrong one. It just doesn’t do much for me, personally.
That should be basically everything. Sorry to write so much, but there’s a lot to discuss, so I didn’t want to leave out anything that I thought was important. I don’t expect I’ll continue it given the hacklog that I have to chip away at, but best of luck with its dev. It seems like one of the top WIPs to watch on the way to [COMPLETE] after this FEE3.
