Fire Emblem Fates

[Jordan]

Thoughts on Conquest thus far:

-It's a much harder game than Awakening (playing on hard mode).

-I like a lot of the new things they added, such as knives, status effects and the castle.

-The removal of weapon durability is inconsequential because weapons are exorbitantly expensive now and some things like staves still have durability.

Character specific:

Protag: Very powerful though somewhat of a glass cannon.

Effie: Exactly what you want from a knight. She's a perfect frontliner.

Silas: He seems like a pretty standard cavalier, and feels balanced.

Felicia: Felicia feels extremely strong to me. I wasn't sure what to make of a "maid" unit at first, but overall she seems great both as offense and support.

Odin: Unfortunately, mages seem kinda crappy in this game. Odin seems very weak and I mainly use him to finish off enemies. he's neither particularly powerful nor sturdy, but he can be useful against low res units like wyvern knights.

Arthur: I never liked the fighter class in Fire Emblem, but I've been babying Arthur a lot since I love the character. In all honesty, he seems kinda crappy to me and reaffirms why I dislike fighters. Mine has ended up powerful just because I overleveled him, but he still can get doubled by certain units and has awful hit% (even without gamble).

Niles: Wow. I'm not used to good archer units, but Niles is actually amazing. Reminds me of Shinon from Radiant Dawn.

Elise: Exactly what you want from a troubadour. for some reason she's been getting great level ups for me, which feel kinda wasted admittedly.

Camilla: This game's Haar. She's monstrously powerful.

Beruka: This game's Jill. She's good but she's no Haar.

Serena: She seems like a character that needs a lot of work. Imo she's on the weak side.

Unfortunately I blew it hard and let Mozu die mainly because I misread that particular map and falsely thought there were villages to visit (which I wanted to prioritize). Oh well.

Shame that my two favorites seem kinda mediocre. Admittedly I'm not too far yet. SMT: Devil Summoner was on sale for 10$ and I bought it alongside Fates. I've actually been putting more time into the SMT game which is why my progression in Fates has been slow.

[Claytone]

I wasn't originally planning on getting this game, but a friend ended up with an extra copy of the collector's edition, so I bit. I'll be grabbing it from his place Friday and look forward to joining the discussion. Hope you guys are enjoying them.

[Kong Wen]

I wasn't originally planning on getting this game, but a friend ended up with an extra copy of the collector's edition, so I bit. I'll be grabbing it from his place Friday and look forward to joining the discussion. Hope you guys are enjoying them.

I'll trade you. Collector's Editions didn't go on sale in Canada until they were sold out.

[The Shoemaker]

Thoughts on Conquest thus far:

-It's a much harder game than Awakening (playing on hard mode).

-I like a lot of the new things they added, such as knives, status effects and the castle.

-The removal of weapon durability is inconsequential because weapons are exorbitantly expensive now and some things like staves still have durability.

Character specific:

Protag: Very powerful though somewhat of a glass cannon.

Effie: Exactly what you want from a knight. She's a perfect frontliner.

Silas: He seems like a pretty standard cavalier, and feels balanced.

Felicia: Felicia feels extremely strong to me. I wasn't sure what to make of a "maid" unit at first, but overall she seems great both as offense and support.

Odin: Unfortunately, mages seem kinda crappy in this game. Odin seems very weak and I mainly use him to finish off enemies. he's neither particularly powerful nor sturdy, but he can be useful against low res units like wyvern knights.

Arthur: I never liked the fighter class in Fire Emblem, but I've been babying Arthur a lot since I love the character. In all honesty, he seems kinda crappy to me and reaffirms why I dislike fighters. Mine has ended up powerful just because I overleveled him, but he still can get doubled by certain units and has awful hit% (even without gamble).

Niles: Wow. I'm not used to good archer units, but Niles is actually amazing. Reminds me of Shinon from Radiant Dawn.

Elise: Exactly what you want from a troubadour. for some reason she's been getting great level ups for me, which feel kinda wasted admittedly.

Unfortunately I blew it hard and let Mozu die mainly because I misread that particular map and falsely thought there were villages to visit (which I wanted to prioritize). Oh well.

Shame that my two favorites seem kinda mediocre. Admittedly I'm not too far yet. SMT: Devil Summoner was on sale for 10$ and I bought it alongside Fates. I've actually been putting more time into the SMT game which is why my progression in Fates has been slow.

Can't comment on all the units, but I agree that Felica is great as both a healer and a supporting attack unit. You don't need to fear for her as much as other healers. My Silas has great strength and decent speed and defence, so a good unit.

I think weapon durability was well balanced. For one thing, you're given a reason to use weak weapons over strong ones because they might give you more speed or avoid, so they're not immediately outclassed. Also you're given only a small selection of the strong weapons and especially ranged weapons so you need to decided who gets what. Also with forging in order to make a weapon better you need to sacrifice another copy of the same weapon so it's a choice between having two units have a weapon or having one unit have a stronger weapon.

[Claytone]

I wasn't originally planning on getting this game, but a friend ended up with an extra copy of the collector's edition, so I bit. I'll be grabbing it from his place Friday and look forward to joining the discussion. Hope you guys are enjoying them.

I'll trade you. Collector's Editions didn't go on sale in Canada until they were sold out.

Condolences.

[Jordan]

I agree with you that the weapon system is very well balanced despite removal of durability. At least in Conquest, funds are greatly limited.

[The Shoemaker]

I noticed they changed the StreetPass feature for this game. In Awakening you could parley with people you passed and buy any item they had off of them, which meant access to lots of sweet weapons and stat boosters like Dracoshields and speedwings. Now it's basically exactly the same as the online features in that you can visit their castle and battle to earn new skills/recruit. A little more balanced I suppose, I used to just streetpass my second 3DS and buy infinite speedwings

I visit Castles a lot to gather different materials, but I haven't tried the actually online matchmaking system yet.

[Kong Wen]

I noticed they changed the StreetPass feature for this game. In Awakening you could parley with people you passed and buy any item they had off of them, which meant access to lots of sweet weapons and stat boosters like Dracoshields and speedwings. I used to just streetpass my second 3DS and buy infinite speedwings

Yeah, that shouldn't be possible. What an awful system.

[Jordan]

I noticed they changed the StreetPass feature for this game. In Awakening you could parley with people you passed and buy any item they had off of them, which meant access to lots of sweet weapons and stat boosters like Dracoshields and speedwings. Now it's basically exactly the same as the online features in that you can visit their castle and battle to earn new skills/recruit. A little more balanced I suppose, I used to just streetpass my second 3DS and buy infinite speedwings

I visit Castles a lot to gather different materials, but I haven't tried the actually online matchmaking system yet.

The best thing to do with castles is use them to bolster supports through castle battles. In Hoshido I guess that doesn't matter, but in Nohr it's very useful and fair imo since they don't give you any exp otherwise. They're mainly useful for getting marriages set up so that you can get the kids and do their chapters. You can also learn skills off other people if they did any class changes, which is another cool feature.

Imo FE Fates Conquest is the best Fire Emblem game to date. I don't say this lightly, especially after the colossal disappointment (for me at least) that was Awakening. But Fates Conquest fixes all of Awakening's problems and also introduces some other good ideas. The most important change is that Fates Conquest makes pair ups into a clever system instead of a broken and retarded one. There are several major improvements:

#1-Enemies can also pair up. This is hugely important and results in some devilishly difficult challenge throughout the game.

#2-Pair ups work either with adjacent units or stacked units. This applies to enemies as well.

#3-Stacking units is DEFENSIVE. It bolsters the stats of the main unit leading the pair and allows for the possibility of ally blocking. Unlike in Awakening, there's a major disadvantage to stacking which is that you effectively lose a unit. This can be absolutely crippling in many maps since you are often swarmed by numerous units and need as many actions in a turn as possible. Stacking pair ups directly detract from your ability to utilize adjacent pair ups. However, at times stacking is a must to save your ass.

#4-Adjacent pair ups are OFFENSIVE and are critical in getting through the game. They provide bonuses to hit % and damage and sometimes to other things as well. Among other things, they allow you to utilize units that wouldn't otherwise be in range to execute pair up attacks.

#5-Adjacent and stacking pair ups are how you build up supports so placing your units well is pivotal. you almost always want to have your units (at least two) acting in concert with one another rather than just sending out one lone wolf to clean up one side of the map. Sometimes the latter strategy has merits though.

This game has been brutally difficult for me on hard mode thus far, but I've really had fun. I went in with low expectations and had them blown away.

I also really like all the characters on Nohr's side. They made PERFECT decisions as far as which characters to keep from Awakening. Owain was a favorite of mine in Awakening and is absolutely hilarious in this game. Inigo was also a huge bro, but more importantly II am always glad to have Liam O'Brien's voice in any game. Beyond the old guard, the new characters are also mostly pretty charming. I'm hard pressed to think of ones that I particularly dislike. I guess Silas is a little generic but it's easily forgiven.

A lot of people have complained about the main plot, but I kind of like how it deviates from standard Fire Emblem tropes. The story poses several interesting moral dilemmas. I really like how the actions of the protagonist's band are simultaneously dubious and heroic, which becomes more evident over the course of the story. I also feel that they made a good call forsaking the usual lord and just making your avatar the sole main character.

I'm a bit more than halfway through the game at the moment and I have nothing but good things to say. If anybody is concerned about length, don't be. This game is easily as long as Awakening at nearly 30 main chapters as well as several side chapter "paralogues" for child recruitment. I would actually argue that the game is even longer, however, because the maps themselves are enormous and generally take a long time to beat. There are only a few exceptions to that rule.

[The Shoemaker]

I noticed they changed the StreetPass feature for this game. In Awakening you could parley with people you passed and buy any item they had off of them, which meant access to lots of sweet weapons and stat boosters like Dracoshields and speedwings. Now it's basically exactly the same as the online features in that you can visit their castle and battle to earn new skills/recruit. A little more balanced I suppose, I used to just streetpass my second 3DS and buy infinite speedwings

I visit Castles a lot to gather different materials, but I haven't tried the actually online matchmaking system yet.

The best thing to do with castles is use them to bolster supports through castle battles. In Hoshido I guess that doesn't matter, but in Nohr it's very useful and fair imo since they don't give you any exp otherwise. They're mainly useful for getting marriages set up so that you can get the kids and do their chapters. You can also learn skills off other people if they did any class changes, which is another cool feature.

Imo FE Fates Conquest is the best Fire Emblem game to date. I don't say this lightly, especially after the colossal disappointment (for me at least) that was Awakening. But Fates Conquest fixes all of Awakening's problems and also introduces some other good ideas. The most important change is that Fates Conquest makes pair ups into a clever system instead of a broken and retarded one. There are several major improvements:

#1-Enemies can also pair up. This is hugely important and results in some devilishly difficult challenge throughout the game.

#2-Pair ups work either with adjacent units or stacked units. This applies to enemies as well.

#3-Stacking units is DEFENSIVE. It bolsters the stats of the main unit leading the pair and allows for the possibility of ally blocking. Unlike in Awakening, there's a major disadvantage to stacking which is that you effectively lose a unit. This can be absolutely crippling in many maps since you are often swarmed by numerous units and need as many actions in a turn as possible. Stacking pair ups directly detract from your ability to utilize adjacent pair ups. However, at times stacking is a must to save your ass.

#4-Adjacent pair ups are OFFENSIVE and are critical in getting through the game. They provide bonuses to hit % and damage and sometimes to other things as well. Among other things, they allow you to utilize units that wouldn't otherwise be in range to execute pair up attacks.

#5-Adjacent and stacking pair ups are how you build up supports so placing your units well is pivotal. you almost always want to have your units (at least two) acting in concert with one another rather than just sending out one lone wolf to clean up one side of the map. Sometimes the latter strategy has merits though.

This game has been brutally difficult for me on hard mode thus far, but I've really had fun. I went in with low expectations and had them blown away.

I also really like all the characters on Nohr's side. They made PERFECT decisions as far as which characters to keep from Awakening. Owain was a favorite of mine in Awakening and is absolutely hilarious in this game. Inigo was also a huge bro, but more importantly II am always glad to have Liam O'Brien's voice in any game. Beyond the old guard, the new characters are also mostly pretty charming. I'm hard pressed to think of ones that I particularly dislike. I guess Silas is a little generic but it's easily forgiven.

A lot of people have complained about the main plot, but I kind of like how it deviates from standard Fire Emblem tropes. The story poses several interesting moral dilemmas. I really like how the actions of the protagonist's band are simultaneously dubious and heroic, which becomes more evident over the course of the story. I also feel that they made a good call forsaking the usual lord and just making your avatar the sole main character.

I'm a bit more than halfway through the game at the moment and I have nothing but good things to say. If anybody is concerned about length, don't be. This game is easily as long as Awakening at nearly 30 main chapters as well as several side chapter "paralogues" for child recruitment. I would actually argue that the game is even longer, however, because the maps themselves are enormous and generally take a long time to beat. There are only a few exceptions to that rule.

Good to hear, and especially surprising considering how disappointed you were with Awakening. Makes me really want to try out the Conquest version now.
I'm on chapter 18/19 now in Birthright, so I'm edging towards the end of the game. I'm still happy to see that every chapter is really different map wise, in the game that was supposed to have more traditional map layouts. I still don't have any kids yet, still trying to figure out who should marry who and building up supports. I'm around 40 hours in now so I agree that each game seems to be about as long as any other game in the series.