I consider Echoes, Fates, Awakening, Shadow Dragon, and New Mystery of The Emblem and maybe Sacred Stones to be good games, but every other game is just not good, the easy way to make those games better is to just give all PCs higher growth rates like Ike in PoR so you don’t have to reset a lot for his stats with the BEXP, and the same for Erk.
I think a lot of those games you mentioned have players with already absurd enough growths as it is, you don’t need to reset for any unit’s level ups, if you feel like you do then no offence but you’re probably just bad at Fire Emblem. Especially considering how low enemy stats are in games like FE5, 7, 8, 9 and 15 which are all games you haven’t mentioned. There’s no need for player units to outpace enemy scaling harder than they already do. Perhaps FE6 could benefit from some raised growths on a portion of units and better promotion item distribution time but otherwise you can mitigate low stats there too with powerful promo gains.
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The games I didn’t mention except FE8 I found becoming annoyingly difficult (an enemy does just enough damage to kill an unit, you don’t do enough to kill an enemy e.g.) unless I have character’s good stats high as well as HP and Def, and just don’t mention FE5 (I have recently beat the nightmare going for getting all characters, in all its enemy ballista, siege tomes, and random appearing OP dark mages that do just enough damage and if not, poison which lasts the whole battle if not cured, but particularly it’s leadership star and enemy ballista horror I mean gosh, however that’s only if your looking to obtain every character like I was, if your not and grind it should be very easy with Nanna’s OP Earth Sword and Wrath combo and other OP combos like Olwen’s Vantage and Dire Thunder combo after EXP farming with scrolls).
I have no idea how it’s possible for FE7, 9 or 15 to even become annoyingly difficult at all outside of a very select few chapters (Cog of Destiny, Bow Fort, etc.).
FE9 did have the Bridge of Eternal PTSD ™ (FFS) (ASHERA WHY) but otherwise yeah those games really weren’t usually that hard.
You wanna talk about super annoying levels, look at anything in Revelations. The entire game is basically just gimmick map after gimmick map with no end.
tbh I found the bridge easy, frustrating, but easy.
Huh. Maybe I was just having really bad luck with the ballistas.
Wait, Fire Emblem was supposed to be good? I thought it was a joke…
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That’s because it is. (LOL)
since this is a thread on your opinion I don’t feel like I should try and argue your ideas of difficulty however I will say that most FE games after 6 were designed hard mode, this is one of the many reasons why most discussions on FE units and difficulty are on the hardest difficulties or the difficulty below in the case of games like awakening and shadow dragon.
one more thing, grinding shouldn’t be taken into account when discussing difficulty, this is the same as going into a final fantasy game and grinding your characters to max level then complaining the game is easy, sure the game allows grinding but it’s not necessarily built around that.
now then my own thoughts on mechanics that are broken
I think the biggest problem with gba fe is staff experience and the very rigid structure of fe6 and 7. I much prefer being either given options of alternate classes for units like fates or the ability to do extra maps… like fates… This allows for newer players to use as many characters as they want while also controlling their own difficulty
also, this may be a hot take, but every fire emblem game should have a casual mode. The fact that your characters die for good is a big turning away point for many would-be fans so what harm is there in an optional casual mode?
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I was saying that because the bases and growths of certain if not most characters are really good they can easily become too OP even for Hard mode and that’s why they should would probably farm because it wouldn’t make that much of a difference.
Basically, some if not most of the GBA FE games’s allies’ base stats and growths are too good for even Hard mode (Rutger, Alen, Lance, Marcus, Seth, Ephraim, Ross, Gerik, Gonzales, Sain, Guy, Eliwood, Hector, Raven, Pent, Erk, Lucius, and Rath as examples.)
Also, staff EXP can be nerfed by reducing the uses of staves and increasing their price and I agree that casual mode is a good addition that should be added to every FE.
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Struggling to see how many of those units do have issues with their stats on Hard modes that end up warping the balance or difficulty of their respective games.
Starting with FE6, Rutger is good largely on the basis of the innate qualities his class. Myrmidons and especially their promotion, Swordmasters, are very potent boss killers in a game which really demands the use of one. However, Deke, Zealot & Marcus are also similarly competent boss killers even if they’re worse early game so the player can still opt to use them as a viable option usually. The only other Myrmidon in the game, Fir, can still be justified deployment alongside Rutger as one of your extra picks as she benefits strongly from HM bonuses, her only remaining issues being her base level and weapon rank. Furthermore Rutger doesn’t have the kind of movement or bulk to effectively or reliably juggernaut to such an extent where he massively trivialises the difficulty of the game without making significant losses in other aspects like villages and funds elsewhere.
Alan and Lance are statistically unlikely to even surpass Perceval in stats and by mid-late game they’re most likely being deployed on the basis of being an 8 mov mounted unit with passable (but certainly not amazing) stats who can also contribute chip damage and situational kills. I’d definitely consider them to be balanced units, likewise with FE6!Marcus who legitimately falls off after Ch13 or so. Gonzales also isn’t even good I’d argue, just okay at best. His Skl and general reliability leaves a lot to be desired and while you could arguably patch it up with Secret Books, you’d gain so much more utility from just selling them really or by using them on a unit who can get pushed from serviceable hit rates to very reliable hit rates. There are other units who require less investment if it’s a solid infantry combat unit you’re looking for like Fir, Deke, Echidna or Bartre.
Also I’m struggling to see how Guy, Rath, Hector, Eliwood, Lucius and Erk would be too powerful for HHM for instance. Hector doesn’t manage to break more than 10 AS typically for most of the game typically and is also locked at 5 Mov, meaning he’s not particularly effective at killing enemies later on nor does he contribute much extra over units like Marcus who can meatshield just as well. Furthermore the mentioned Sacaens and Eliwood are either 1 range locked or 2 ranged locked in an enemy phase heavy game so they’re not really capable of warping its balance to an unhealthy degree. Erk can become similar to Pent I’ll admit with enough investment but he doesn’t really bring anything new to a team as a result compared to Lucius who contributes powerful staffing utility (moreso than Erk by a significant margin) and Canas who has Luna access. All he has over time is some availability. Lucius also doesn’t really have the bulk to trivialise the game either.
Ross isn’t that absurd, he’s decent at best but ultimately he’s somewhat costly to train, particularly if you’re not holding Seth back and at the end of the day he’s still an infantry unit which limits the choice for the player to both juggernaut with him and pursue other objectives. Likewise I’d say the latter mostly applies to Ephraim as well. Gerik however, is different imo, since his bases are very powerful to the point where he can become a very potent boss killer in a very reliable context like 0% and arguably still your best boss killer in regular runs too.
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10/20/1 ross has a ~36.4% chance of matching instapromo hero!gerik’s speed. 10/10/1 has like, 3% chance
i want whatever IS was smoking when they decided your first hero crest comes at the same time as gerik
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He got the funny crit doe
axe go weeeee and then sjdjdisnfhjsbdhdusj
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I just kinda feel bad for syrene, she’s a late-game flyer in the wrong class that is very underpowered compared to everyone else, why does only Gerik get the Gerik treatment?
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Why does only Seth receive the Seth treatment?
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Well, it’s in the name. Only one person in GBAFE is called Seth.
How to solve the problem with GBAFE: make everyone Seth.
Seth Emblem: The Sacred Seths
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