Fire Emblem Fates

[The Shoemaker]

Ah geez, started playing this again and I'm on chapter 25 so I'm almost done, but half way through this chapter some bishop comes out of nowhere and warps a set of paired up units to the other side of the map where they get recked by a hoard of enemies. They were my top assisting characters as well so I'm not sure if I want to reset or not considering there's only like 2 chapters left anyways. I don't have a lot of great units on the backburner but I could probably make something work. Poor Tharja, I've never had a Mage that OP. The mages aren't great on the Hoshido side but man, the tomes are so good.

[Jordan]

I just hate the other options for mages on the Hoshido side. NotRicken aka Hayato just irks me and Orochi, although awesome personality wise, really blows stat wise. Tharja is really good though and the Hoshido tomes are great. I especially like sheep spirit because lugging it around is a free infinitely refilling vulnerary.

i think what I would do in your case is make a separate save file after you finish that chapter.

[The Shoemaker]

I just hate the other options for mages on the Hoshido side. NotRicken aka Hayato just irks me and Orochi, although awesome personality wise, really blows stat wise. Tharja is really good though and the Hoshido tomes are great. I especially like sheep spirit because lugging it around is a free infinitely refilling vulnerary.

i think what I would do in your case is make a separate save file after you finish that chapter.

Yeah I worked up Hayato but ultimately he didn't come close to Tharja, and Orochi died early on for me. I ended up saying screw it and replaced them with Rinkah and Saizo - just did a couple prologues to level them up a bit.

Sheep Spirit is good, I had lifeforce on Tharja though which heals half your HP after killing an enemy so she was always a tank. I think it's horse spirit I like, which gives something like +3 to speed, defence and Res. Might be the wrong stats but speed for sure, which is useful early on when most mages have crap speed.

[The Shoemaker]

Alright, beat Birthright yesterday. Overall great game. Like I've said before the mechanics are at their best, the map design has improved (still need to see the superior Conquest maps though), music took a good step up from Awakening, the addition of My Castle was a good element to have, I liked that there were more cut scenes than ever, it's just really the story and characters that drag.

It's hard to say without experiencing all 3 sides of the story, but I think it's clear the story took a hit when they decided to split the game three ways. The plot is very simple - neighboring country is acting evil, lets go take them out. I think the game was hoping the personal side of the story would take over, but it never really felt like it did. I think it wanted you to feel like there was a struggle between the characters of Hoshido and Norh, but it always felt like Hoshido was doing the right thing and Norh the wrong. It also made the characters on the Norh side feel like idiots. I can't help but think back to Radiant Dawn where you would have chapters where you're fighting against Ike's army as the Daein army, actually coming face to face with these characters you've raised, there was a tension between both sides where neither one wanted to go through with the battle, but they had to. I feel like those few battles in that game achieved much more than this entire game did when it comes to character struggle. It also felt like there were many questions left unanswered and too many deus ex machina devices.

Character wise, I wasn't attached to the characters as much as I was in previous titles, though that might just be me. I find the support conversations to be a little more fluff this time and less backstory. It's possible we could have had some stronger characters if they focused on making 40 solid ones over 70. Corrin as a character I never really felt for either, so I'm definitely ready to swap the avatar character for a solid set character again. Kind of the same thing with the children mechanic, its been nice having it, but the logic was a huge stretch for this game and they felt even much more out of place than in Awakening. I would rather for the next game they make a skill sharing marriage mechanic rather than continuing with children - unless there's a time gap. On a side note, I wouldn't mind conversations from Radiant Dawn making a return (in addition to supports). These were nice because they featured multiple characters and they would talk about what's going on with the war which I thought helped make the characters seem more involved in the story.

So yeah, the story is a huge disappointment, which is too bad considering everything else is right up there. Maybe Conquest will be a little better, but I'm still looking forward to it anyways for the gameplay.

[Jordan]

I think Conquest has better characters personally. It might just be bias on my part, but I definitely prefer them. Arthur is probably my favorite because of how tropeish he is. His epic voice and do-gooder attitude really hits all the right notes for me. Niles and Elise are big winners as well, in my opinion, and Niles actually does get some interesting backstories through some of his supports.

I agree that the story is not anything great and suffered a little from being parceled up. I still thought it was ok though. The gameplay is much better than previous games so I don't mind the story being a bit weaker.

I'm hoping the next Fire Emblem game will be a FE4 remake that actually does have generations of characters so that the child raising mechanic is a lot more important.

[The Shoemaker]

I think Conquest has better characters personally. It might just be bias on my part, but I definitely prefer them. Arthur is probably my favorite because of how tropeish he is. His epic voice and do-gooder attitude really hits all the right notes for me. Niles and Elise are big winners as well, in my opinion, and Niles actually does get some interesting backstories through some of his supports.

I agree that the story is not anything great and suffered a little from being parceled up. I still thought it was ok though. The gameplay is much better than previous games so I don't mind the story being a bit weaker.

I'm hoping the next Fire Emblem game will be a FE4 remake that actually does have generations of characters so that the child raising mechanic is a lot more important.

From what I've seen of Conquest characters, they seem good. Arthur has been a stand out for me even though I've only seen him occasionally in other people's towns!

The story was just enough to be bearable, but ultimately I felt like nothing really happened during the trek to Norh, and like I said, Corrin bugged me :p I would have been fine with the story if I was more attached to the characters, which is what usually happens with Fire Emblem. We'll see how Conquest goes.

Would definitely prefer the FE4 style of children. I imagine a remake would be pretty easy considering they have a good working engine on the 3DS now. Though I doubt the 3DS has enough life in it for another FE.

[Jordan]

I think it's doable on 3ds, though I'd be fine with Fates being the last "game" we get on 3DS. I put game in airquotes because Fates is more like 2.5 games. That and Awakening is already a lot of Fire Emblem for one system, so I think IS met their quota. However, the other side of the argument is that Fire Emblem has done tremendously well on 3DS: better than it has ever done before. Given the success, they might as well keep capitalizing on it. To be honest, I think a FE4 remake would do them some good. They can touch up on some mechanics which were lacking in Fates such as "capture." Moreover, the generational system for children would feel a bit new. I'm not sure how they would deal with gameplay though. Fates' game mechanics are very solid. There is not much I think they could improve. Perhaps they could tone down defensive pair ups a bit and bring back Radiant Dawn's concepts of elevation (though that might be hard on portable). Maybe there could also be a bit more balance in terms of defense vs. hp tanks. For example, perhaps some weapons could ignore defense stats outright making hp or kill potential (strength or magic) more important, with hp tanks having more hp to compensate for relative lack of defense. At the moment there doesn't seem to be any benefit to classes with high hp such as fighters as opposed to high defense. Meanwhile, the standard defense tanks you get might be like Effie in terms of not having too much HP overall.

I also would not mind a Dynasty Tactics style world map either where the game gives you certain main objectives to complete within a set number of turns but additional options to conquer additional bases, sometimes with greater or less challenge, for other characters, gold, items or rewards depending on the situation. I think I read that FE4 actually did have something similar to that.

[The Shoemaker]

Decided to download Conquest, I'm at chapter 11 now. From what I have seen so far, this version is already better than Birthright. The story isn't spectacular yet, but I like the concept of going back to Nohr for the people you grew up with despite not knowing if King Garon is making the right decisions. Also makes it more interesting when you meet up with the Hoshido's as you look like you're fighting for the wrong side but trying to make the best of it. Compared to Birthright where Hoshido always seems in the right, and the entire story is essentially a campaign to Norh.

I also like the character selection. Nice to actually start out with a good tank unit (Effie). The maps have been interesting, Chapter 10 (where you had to defend the green zone for 11 turns) was a real roller coaster.

The more I play Conquest the more I wonder why Birghtright even exists. It's supposed to be for the Awakening players, but the only limitation Conquest has is you can't fight in random battles. But you can still purchase DLC to grind, you can still fight in Castle Battles to earn skills and built supports, you still have all of the side chapters to get experience in, and you can still use the wireless features to buy superior Hoshdian weapons and staffs. Personally I never really played any of the random encounters in Birthright so for me it doesn't feel all that different. The story is better too so Birthright just seems like the inferior version in every aspect.

[Kiwi the Tortoise]

I never played Birthright and directly started with Conquest.
All in all, it is an interesting story as you generally work for an evil King trying to undermine him, though the general reasoning for even obeying him is kinda nuts. From playing Conquest, I think I know what to expect of Birthright (as straightforward do-gooder).
Instead, I went for Revelations (largely since the end of Conquest mentions a true villain that never shows up).
So far it looks like both games fused together, generally easier than Conquest, grinding enabled, access to stuff from both sides incl. all characters (as far as I can tell).

But you can still purchase DLC to grind,..

Actually, you can't. You don't get XP in Castle or DLC missions in Conquest (relationship grinding works though)

[The Shoemaker]

I never played Birthright and directly started with Conquest.
All in all, it is an interesting story as you generally work for an evil King trying to undermine him, though the general reasoning for even obeying him is kinda nuts. From playing Conquest, I think I know what to expect of Birthright (as straightforward do-gooder).
Instead, I went for Revelations (largely since the end of Conquest mentions a true villain that never shows up).
So far it looks like both games fused together, generally easier than Conquest, grinding enabled, access to stuff from both sides incl. all characters (as far as I can tell).

But you can still purchase DLC to grind,..

Actually, you can't. You don't get XP in Castle or DLC missions in Conquest (relationship grinding works though)

Yeah I definitely think it's fine skipping on Birthright. I just realized after I said it that you can't grind DLC - unless you specifically get the EXP DLC map. So yeah, definitely a bit more limited in EXP gathering, but not awful considering how many side chapters there are, as well as the invasions.