I’d call this more of a discussion of Fire Emblem game design than a review, at least in regards to the opening post’s intent.
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Having just reached the final chapter of Azure Moon, I can’t help but wonder if they playtested this shit at all. Or even spent more than ten seconds thinking about it.
hurr durr
Okay so we’ve got:
- A huge map with a bunch of superpowered level 50 enemies (my own units being slightly above 40).
- A generous helping of siege tomes, ballistae and magic ballistate
- An enemy with an infinite use siege tome that reduces your HP to 1.
Whatever, so far I could deal. Not exactly a recipe for a fun chapter but given the fact that 3H is basically an inflation hack I was expecting something like this. The thing that really takes the cake, though?
- The boss with one to THIRTY TWO range, a nonzero crit chance and can attack two times per turn. So not only do you have to deal with all of the above, but you have to deal with it all while suffering from random chance instant kills. And even if it doesn’t crit you’re still stuck healing from it every round unless you get lucky and dodge. It’s not like you can just tank through it either, since the boss targets your weakest unit with the second attack (first one always seems to go to Dimitri).
And predictably, the instant I run out of divine pulses from all the other crap is when the boss gets a crit. Yes, I am mad. Ha ha funny maddening mode.
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I got to deal with most of that on Hard as well. Sylvain died for the completion of this route.
I did AM Maddening too. There are a lot of “whose idea was this” moments but that final chapter really got to me. Siege weapons be damned, my biggest gripe is the 1-32 range. Not because it’s annoying, not because she only targets healers(supposedly she targets Dimitri first every time but I’m not 100% on that) not even because of crits, but because of how much it makes you highlight/un-highlight enemy ranges. I hate that pink/red glow so much now. You know having to be sure who was in range of what is a reasonable part of the so-called strategy but when it becomes a game needle in a haystack I get annoyed. I restarted that map a hand full of times mostly due to forgetting whose range was what. There are many things I hate about maddening but I didn’t think I come out hating a necessary part of the game.
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Ambush reinforcements? Yeah sure whatever. I’ll move my units to the stairwell that they’re coming out of, the ingame dialog implies I’m supposed to do that.
Nope, that doesn’t stop them, they run straight through my units. Ok whatever, pull everyone back and just leave characters who can dodge tank because that’s the only way to survive enemies with this much inflation.
Wait what why is Felix dead he’s nowhere near…
oh
ambush reinforcements
with siege tomes
wonderful
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i mean, it says fire emblem in the title, i don’t think you can say it’s not fire emblem
games adapt :OOO
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Over time a series develops, generates and carries with it consistent aspects which define the series, be it story themes, game mechanics or even just visual designs.
And even the player themselves build a perspective of how they feel a game within a series should be, they have their measures and if that’s not met then it doesn’t feel like a true, genuine entry.
Fair either way, imo.
Also fair to change things up once in a while, but you gotta be smart about it, there’s no “I can do what I want” defence, at least one that shouldn’t be accepted in a discussion like this.
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“Not because it’s annoying, not because she only targets healers(supposedly she targets Dimitri first every time but I’m not 100% on that)”
I’m not 100% sure on this but I’m positive she only targets Dimitri once you get close enough, maybe after the point where Dimitri reacts to Edelgard’s Hegemon form.
I had a lot of fun on that map mainly because the units I had at that point were able to deal with a lot of that map’s frustrating design choices (or maybe because I played on Hard). Ingrid had the Res and damage to deal with the meteor mages. Ashe can snipe Myson outside of his range, I’m pretty sure a flier or strided unit that can survive enemy phase can attempt to oneshot Myson to clear up that side of the map. If Edelgard landed hits on my squished units more frequently I’d be pissed. Whilst I don’t think this is an ideal solution, I think making Edelgard’s range the throne room and replacing the meteor mages with other enemies would’ve fixed a lot of that map’s problems.
Yeah, try it on umad mode where all the enemies are Level 50 with gigantic stats (my units were low 40s for comparison). While I greatly enjoy the player phase focused gameplay that strong enemies brings, it’s another thing when enemies are so strong that only dodge tanks can hope to survive anything at all. 3H feels like I’m playing an inflation hack some of the time, no joke.
Myson isn’t really any trouble though, warp Byleth in boom dead.
In the end I cleared it by resorting to premium Dimitri strats. I think part of the problem is just how huge the map is and how many enemies there are (Dimitri broke a Killer Lance+ and a half in the throne room alone). If you’re going to do bullshit difficulty, make the map short and quick so that the player can repeat it to try different strategies without wasting hours.
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