Fire Emblem Fates

[Kong Wen]

No more weapon durability and more weapon types.

and

I'm open to the idea, since the trade off is having traits for generic weapons. Like I think brave weapons now leave you with -2 speed on enemy turns or something.

Meh, the tradeoff of weapon durability was your weapons would break and have to be replaced.

[The Shoemaker]

Meh, the tradeoff of weapon durability was your weapons would break and have to be replaced.

I wonder how the whole money situation will be balanced considering you'll be buying less weapons.

I heard a preview of the games today and the Conquest side sounds very promising in terms of difficulty and map variety. The My Castle feature sounds pretty neat as well.

[Jordan]

I've been half paying attention to this, but yeah I'll probably get it. I'm going for the Nohr version but I may end up getting the full game, including the Hoshido and third path.

I blissfully don't know what Nohr and Hoshido are.

I'm really hoping the core game manages to be more engaging than the previous game. I found the DLC model of the last game to be kind of alienating (I didn't want to pick up legacy characters and play weird optional maps, I didn't like the gimmicks, I didn't like the grinding and repetition). I prefer the traditional style of FE games where you progress through the game. If these ones must have some kind of DLC/microtransaction model, I hope they integrate it into the game a lot better than the previous one did. (Of course, maybe they simply won't, and the 3-stories model will replace the DLC model. That would be fine.)

I've heard some of the core mechanics will be different between the two different games. I actually hope that's the case, because if I like one more than the other, then I can focus on playing that one more.

Get the Nohr version then.

I'm with you 100% though, brother. I wasn't a big fan of Awakening for similar reasons as I wasn't a big fan of Sacred Stones. Awakening felt even worse though.

This game is definitely going to fleece people with DLC, but some of the DLC will actually be worthwhile. For example, if you buy one path you can pick up the other for $20.00 and you can also purchase the third path for a set price.

[Kong Wen]

This game is definitely going to fleece people with DLC, but some of the DLC will actually be worthwhile. For example, if you buy one path you can pick up the other for $20.00 and you can also purchase the third path for a set price.

I won't mind the DLC if it's story paths. But the way Awakening did it, with ridiculous add-on characters and one-off maps, felt very cynical and disjointed.

[The Shoemaker]

Some quick impressions

I've put in 8 hours so far (between today and yesterday). Comparing it to Awakening, I'd say it's a good evolution in that everything feels better. Combat is more interesting, maps are decent so far (Birthright edition), music is much better (wasn't a big fan of Awakening's) and the story is more engaging.

I especially like My Castle. Lots of little features that give you things to do between battles and interact with your party more. Good stuff good stuff.

The pair up system was a good fix, as it's sort of a give and take system now. I also like the new ninja class and the status debuffs they deal to enemies. I also like that for maybe the first time at the beginning of the game we're given healers, theives and singers/dancers that can actually fight and aren't torn to shreads after one battle.

There are also a lot of new skills in this game, so much so that they make old classes feel new. Everything feels different in a good way.

I'm playing Birthright on Hard, and I will say the first few chapters were pretty tough. Now that I'm getting more into the groove of it I'd say it's about as hard as Awakening's Hard mode.

[squishy]

Definitely a better game than Awakening. I'm mostly playing Birthright at the moment, although I did pick up Conquest as well. I was a little wary of the two separate games thing at first but I feel it might be okay now after having played it some. I think I'll have a lot of time in this game. New characters are interesting and the gameplay has a few new twists, which is nice.

[The Shoemaker]

Definitely a better game than Awakening. I'm mostly playing Birthright at the moment, although I did pick up Conquest as well. I was a little wary of the two separate games thing at first but I feel it might be okay now after having played it some. I think I'll have a lot of time in this game. New characters are interesting and the gameplay has a few new twists, which is nice.

Yeah I'm around chapter 12 right now in Birthright and I'm happy to see that the map selection is still good, not nearly as many open fields as Awakening.

I will say that my only complaint so far is I think the writing is a little weak. Something about it just seems a little off. Which might play into why I'm not really into any of the characters so far, at least not in the way that I was with past Fire Emblems.

[Kong Wen]

My copies should be arriving today or tomorrow, so I'll be happy to hop right in. Since you guys are both playing Birthright, I think I'll go ahead and start with Conquest, to flesh out our impressions.

[Jordan]

I'll be joining you guys soon as well. I'm downloading conquest right now.

[The Shoemaker]

My copies should be arriving today or tomorrow, so I'll be happy to hop right in. Since you guys are both playing Birthright, I think I'll go ahead and start with Conquest, to flesh out our impressions.

I'll be joining you guys soon as well. I'm downloading conquest right now.

Awesome, excited to see what you guys think.

Despite Birthright being the "easier" more Awakening-esc title, it's still very well balanced I feel. On the Birthright side as of chapter 15 there really aren't any high defence units, no knights and only one horse rider. This makes the earlier chapters a little tough because you don't have one single super unit that can take a bunch of hits. Even when pairing up it's tough because barely anyone gives you a boost in defence. You actually have more balanced units and low defence high speed units. So you really need to have a plan when setting up an attack to make sure there won't be too many other enemies that will be able to counter-attack, especially now that they can double attack too.

I also find it's a little difficult to grind despite having the option. I find most of the optional battles are full of low leveled units that basically only give you a few exp per kill. So I definitely wouldn't call Birthright a cake walk.