Fire Emblem Fates

[peterl0]

Wow, castle invasion 3 is hard on birthright. Must have taken me about 20 goes to get a completion with no one dying.

In the end I had to use tonics and rearrange my whole castle to protect various important health giving buildings.

 

Other than that, just about to play the last chapter....

 

Okay, so I've made a bit of a mistake. On classic, as I mentioned earlier I had lots of characters saying the are retreating so I got complacent and it all slipped my mind, now on chapter 10 and all of a sudden I realise most of my team is dead. I have 6 characters including corrin, one woman (is marrying and babies a thing in this?)... On the character list there are 3 unknowns so there's hope... But I'm tempted to start again from the beginning, one because I want to marry that woman with the bow, but I'm thinking I'm missing out on character relayinships and such which is a great thing about fire emblem, plus worried at some point I'm going to need a bigger team....

 

The Royal Family (Takumi, Ryoma, Hinoka, Sakura, Azura(*)) are by far the best units in the game it would appear. If you have let any of these die, I would restart. If you haven't, then there are quite a few more that join you after chapter 10 so it might be worth going on.

 

(* She is not powerful, but sing is very useful)

[dazzybee]

The Royal Family (Takumi, Ryoma, Hinoka, Sakura, Azura(*)) are by far the best units in the game it would appear. If you have let any of these die, I would restart. If you haven't, then there are quite a few more that join you after chapter 10 so it might be worth going on.

 

(* She is not powerful, but sing is very useful)

 

All of them are dead.... Well I'm sure the story is saying Ryoma and Takumi we are looking for them so maybe they'll return. Haven't played a story mission in a while as doing challenges and invasions....

 

Yeah that sounds like you may have messed up. :P

 

Marriage and children are in this game, so if you marry someone, a new mission will show up where you can recruit a child. But not sure it would give you enough characters for the rest of the game (I'm not very far into it myself, so can't tell you how many characters would be best to advance).

 

Yes indeed.... Hmmm.... Good job I love this game Think I'll start again!! Dammit!! Any other game and something like this is what would make me turn it off and never play it again. Own stupid fault though the game allowing for retreats and such made it all unnecessarily confusing...

[Agent Gibbs]

I need some advice

 

SO i got the special edition and have all three campaigns

I finished the Birthright/hoshido Storyline last night and loved the game spending 75 hours building characters, marrying them off and then marrying up the kids

Today i've started the Nohr Questline...............

 

Tell me it gets better! I'm up to the 8th? chapter where you go to the Ice Tribe and its just awful!

"oh i'm siding with my adopted family who obviously just killed my real mother brutally, but just so i can find out if my adopted father really intended to sacrifice me"

"oh he did try to kill me and my family know now and are scared of him......but we'll try to win his favour by going on a suicide mission"

"oh no now the people want to kill me, i best wipe out all the generic troops and spare the leaders"

 

I mean seriously is that what this is going to be, blindly following tasks for the obvious bad guy? surely you rebel at some point right? a quick google search has summaries tells me it gets no better plot wise! the end game is kill your real family to end the war you evil not real father started and put him on the throne......

 

I normally love Fire Emblem but i feel like i should skip Nohr and move to Revelations, but then do i miss out on overall plot? Characters that you don't get in Revleations and are worth it?

I certainly don't want to spend as long on Nohr/Conquest so far

[Glen-i]

Hey, you made your choice. Your path should be clear!

 

Not even got this yet, sorry for not being helpful. I just wanted to spout Smash Bros Corrin quotes.

[Agent Gibbs]

Hey, you made your choice. Your path should be clear!

 

Not even got this yet, sorry for not being helpful. I just wanted to spout Smash Bros Corrin quotes.

 

FOR HOSIHIDO!

[V. Amoleo]

A bit short notice, with today being the last day, but the DLC is on sale for this.

 

Story Paths

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright – was £17.99 / €19.99, now £12.59 / €13.99

Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest – was £17.99 / €19.99, now £12.59 / €13.99

Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation – was £17.99 / €19.99, now £12.59 / €13.99

 

Maps

Fire Emblem Fates: Map Pack 1 – was £16.19 / €17.99, now £11.30 / €12.59

Fire Emblem Fates: Map Pack 2 – was £7.19 / €7.99, now £5.03 / €5.59

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 2 Boo Camp – was £2.29 / €2.49, now £1.60 / €1.74

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 3 Beach Brawl – was £2.29 / €2.49, now £1.60 / €1.74

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 4 Ghostly Gold – was £2.29 / €2.49, now £1.60 / €1.74

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 5 Museum Melee – was £2.29 / €2.49, now £1.60 / €1.74

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 6 Royal Royale – was £2.29 / €2.49, now £1.60 / €1.74

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 7 Hidden Truths 1+2 – was £4.09 / €4.49, now £2.86 / €3.14

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 8 Vanguard Dawn – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 9 Anna on the Run – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 10 Ballistician Blitz – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: Map 12 Witches’ Trial – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: I: In Endless Dreams – was £0.49 / €0.49, now £0.34 / €0.34

Fire Emblem Fates: II: Realms Collide – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: III: The Changing Tide – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: IV: Light’s Sacrifice – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: V: Endless Dawn – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: End: Lost in the Waves – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

 

Are the maps worth it?

[S.C.G]

I was considering buying the dlc myself but alas...

 

Even though this was just over two weeks ago...

 

...I haven't yet.

 

But I feel like I'm back in-sync with my review patterns now so, hopefully over the next few days I'll finally start playing.

 

This was six months ago now and I feel terrible about it.

 

The game is back on my desk again now still sealed, I just researched about the dlc though and you need to have reached at least Chapter Six in order to access the dlc realm in game.

 

I wonder how long that would actually realistically take?

 

I'm half contemplating starting the game this afternoon just to play up to that point so I can get all the dlc, but if it would likely take five hours or so I might just have to chance it as I have other reviews on and lots to write again currently.

 

Surely there will be another sale or another offer somewhere down the line? This is my fault for not starting playing the game much sooner though.

[bob]

Can't you buy the DLC now and access it later?

[V. Amoleo]

I'm half contemplating starting the game this afternoon just to play up to that point so I can get all the dlc, but if it would likely take five hours or so I might just have to chance it as I have other reviews on and lots to write again currently.

 

You can do it well under an hour if you're skipping all the cut scenes. I did it prior to posting the message just in case I decide to buy the DLC myself.

[Ike]

A bit short notice, with today being the last day, but the DLC is on sale for this.

 

Are the maps worth it?

 

Fire Emblem Fates: I: In Endless Dreams – was £0.49 / €0.49, now £0.34 / €0.34

Fire Emblem Fates: II: Realms Collide – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: III: The Changing Tide – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: IV: Light’s Sacrifice – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: V: Endless Dawn – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

Fire Emblem Fates: End: Lost in the Waves – was £1.79 / €1.99, now £1.25 / €1.39

 

These are a new story that foscuses on the child units, sounds pretty cool. (not played them myself).

 

The rest with either unlock a new class or skill or something, you can probably guess from the title what they give. Some are just for grinding EXP or gold or just for extra converstations(/fan service).

[Hero-of-Time]

Can't you buy the DLC now and access it later?

 

I checked this last night and it seems you have to have the game to access the DLC to buy. I couldn't find the option to buy it directly from the Eshop and all it said was to buy it when you are in the game.

 

It's a bit of a kick in the nuts as, like Sam, i've yet to start the game but would have picked up a few of the maps in the sale and just kept them for when I was ready to play. I'm baffled as to why the DLC has been set up like this.

[Dufniall]

So apparently Amazon had this online for a couple of hours:

 

 

Would really open the door for 3DS ports to Switch!

 

Edit: apparently the box art is fan art, so probably fake news

 

 

 

 

[Grazza]

Would be a good idea.  I think the DLC did put a lot of people off.  Not that people don't buy DLC, but it was a strange combination of possibly buying one physically and then completing it digitally.

[Hero-of-Time]

Inspired by the recent anniversary of the series, I decided to finally start playing through Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright. I've had the game since it's release but never got around to playing it. At the start of the year when Argos were selling off all of their 3DS games for dirt cheap I picked up the game again. This allows me to keep the collectors version of the game that has everything on it as a sealed collectors piece. Anyway, I'm now on the 16th chapter of the game and have REALLY enjoyed what i've played so far.

The story in this is quite weird and yet interesting. Corrin being part of two different families and having to choose one of them was quite a heavy choice that the player is presented with very early on in the game. On the one hand you have a family that isn't really yours but it's the only family you have known and on the other hand you have your real family who seem to be honourable people but are total strangers. I think this choice would have been harder had the game not shown you the actions of your adopted father so early on. Knowing what he did and what a nasty piece of work he seems to be makes the choice an easy one. Granted, the choice wasn't really mine to make seeing as I was playing Birthright but if I was playing the complete version of the game then I probably would have went with Hoshiden anyway.

I'm wondering, are all of these characters actually brother and sister or are they just using the phrase purely because they are all part of the same clan? Just seems weird that they are all part of the same family but some of them look nothing like each other. You also have the weird thing of Camilla coming on to you...although with you not actually being part of that family I suppose that makes it alright. Still doesn't seem right that she's acting all seductive and yet still calls you little brother.

I'm sure early on that Azura mentioned that she was taken away as a child. I don't think this has come up anymore during the game and I just find it really weird that Nohr are seen as bad guys for kidnapping Corrin as a child but Hoshiden seems to have done the same thing with Azura. Speaking of her, she was the one I ended up marrying. She's not who my first choice would have been but she was the first to reach S rank. I guess you could say that I just settled.

I was devastated when...

Spoiler

Kaze was killed off. The guy was one of my favourites and I was levelling him up nicely and using him in every battle. It also didn't help that I loved both his design and personaility. I was gobsmacked when he died. It's frustrating as he was one of my best units but luckily I hadn't used a Master Seal on him yet. I'm still hoping he shows up again. *crosses fingers*

As for the rest of my team, i've mainly been using a squad of Corrin, Azura, Silas, Felicia, Hinoka, Setsuna, Sakura, Kagero, Hana, Reina, Rinkah and Orochi. Azura has been invaluable due to her Sing ability. Being able to allow another unit to have another turn has helped out in many a situation. Sakura and Felicia are my two healers. I've always loved the archer class in these games and Setsuna brought the goods in this game. Most of the others I picked either because they were part of my squad early on or I simply like the look of them. Orochi and Kagero fit the latter point...for obvious reasons. I would have liked to have fit both Scarlet and Ryoma into the team but they both arrived on the scene too late and so far there's been no room for them.

I will say that Hinoka's voice doesn't really seem to match her personality or look. I imagined her to speak in a firm manner and have a strong voice but that isn't the case at all. The voice they gave her is quite high pitched and i'm not a fan of it at all. I wonder how she's portrayed in the Japanese version of the game?

The castle setup in the game is quite a nifty little thing. Being able to buy shops, hot springs and other things and then place them where you want has been quite enjoyable. I'm just glad that I can move the buildings around as much as I want until I like the layout without having to pay a fee to a thieving raccoon. It's a nice change of pace. I've only done the one castle battles and that was early on. It was probably the hardest battle i've had in the game so far. It's not something i'm too fussed with but it's a nice distraction from the main story if needed. 

Last year I played through Shadows of Valentia and I really loved the game EXCEPT for the map design on a lot of the stages. That hasn't been the case here. I've found all of the maps that i've encountered so far to be very fair in terms of enemy placement and respawns. I've never felt overwhelmed and using things like the Dragon Vein spots allow for a more tactical approach if that's what you desire. It's definitely a step up in that regard but I suppose that makes sense given that SoV was a remake of an old FE game. 

So, yeah, 12 hours in and the game has me hooked. I've been pleasantly surprised by it seeing as it gets a lot of hate from the FE community. Oh, and I adore the vocal track in this game.

 

[Jonnas]

9 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

So, yeah, 12 hours in and the game has me hooked. I've been pleasantly surprised by it seeing as it gets a lot of hate from the FE community.

FE Fates looks good, sounds gorgeous, and the gameplay is super solid... However, story-wise, it's the sort of lore that crumbles under any sort of scrutiny. The more you look into it, the less sense it makes, and the messier it gets. Hence why the community that cares more for that would hate it (but still play it a lot, because the main game is solid), but on a casual playthrough it's perfectly fine.

I also hear Revelations just plain sucks, but I haven't seen that one for myself.

[Hero-of-Time]

3 minutes ago, Jonnas said:

FE Fates looks good, sounds gorgeous, and the gameplay is super solid... However, story-wise, it's the sort of lore that crumbles under any sort of scrutiny. The more you look into it, the less sense it makes, and the messier it gets. Hence why the community that cares more for that would hate it (but still play it a lot, because the main game is solid), but on a casual playthrough it's perfectly fine.

I also hear Revelations just plain sucks, but I haven't seen that one for myself.

Did you play through both Birthright and Conquest? I've quite enjoyed the story of the game and i'm wondering if it's worth playing through Conquest to see the other side of things.

[Jonnas]

48 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

Did you play through both Birthright and Conquest? I've quite enjoyed the story of the game and i'm wondering if it's worth playing through Conquest to see the other side of things.

FE Fates happens to be the one I missed (I had Conquest in my backlog, but it unfortunately got lost in a move). I was mostly repeating the general thoughts of the fandom in general, and the major criticisms all come down to plot and lore stuff, namely how it all looks once you piece everything together and look at it as a whole. It's hard to be specific about it right now, but I have a couple of reveals for you after you finish the game.

Though there is widely-criticised plot point you should've seen by now... did you already recruit anyone named Shigure or Kana?

From what I hear, Conquest is very distinct from Birthright, gameplay-wise. There's no world map, no grinding, and it's more challenging as a whole (thanks to good map design). FE veterans love it for that, but I'm not sure if it's a good fit for your playstyle.

Edited April 29, 2020 by Jonnas

[Hero-of-Time]

7 hours ago, Jonnas said:

Though there is widely-criticised plot point you should've seen by now... did you already recruit anyone named Shigure or Kana?

From what I hear, Conquest is very distinct from Birthright, gameplay-wise. There's no world map, no grinding, and it's more challenging as a whole (thanks to good map design). FE veterans love it for that, but I'm not sure if it's a good fit for your playstyle.

Yeah, I unlocked them both last night. I shelved Shigure straight away as I already have enough air units.

As for Conquest, yeah I read that you can't grind in the game. It's not really an issue as I have played some of the earlier FE games where this wasn't really possible. Besides, it's on the shelf waiting to be played at some point.

[Hero-of-Time]

Another day, another Fire Emblem game is on the completed shelf.

Spoiler

The game doesn't reach the heights of my favourite Fire Emblem games but it's still very enjoyable. I'm trying to decide if it's better than Shadows of Valentia or not. As I mentioned the other day, this game has much better map design and the gameplay felt very balanced. However, SoV had the better characters and story. It's a tough call so i'll just call it a tie.  

Spoiler

I was surprised just how many characters got killed off throughout the game. Kaze was just the first ( he never returned  ) and was soon followed by Lilith, Flora, Xander, Elise and Azura. I felt for a while that Azura was going to be killed off. I knew once she used her song during the final battle that she was done for. I wonder if any of the ending scenes play out differently if she's not your wife? Also, it's weird that when she died you have no cutscenes that involve your children. Surely they would have been heart broken over what happened but they don't even get a mention.

Some of the maps that you get to play through are fantastic. There was one where your team had to split into two groups and attack a building from different ends. You then have to travel down stairs but you have to be careful when you use them due to the enemies waiting on the other side. Once you make your way through the building your characters eventually meet up again and join forces for the final push.

Another favourite was in a fire/volcano area. You have to use the Dragon Vein points in order to create pathways across the lava. Use the wrong Dragon Vein and the floor will set on fire and hurt your characters, as well as spawning more enemies. This was one of the few maps where I had to try a couple of times in order to get things right. Picking the wrong point really does a number on you and if that  happened I just ended up quitting and starting again. 

I had to play the first part of final map a second time after failing the first. I tried to bum rush the boss and things went horribly wrong. I only had 3 units left when I got to the boss and it wasn't enough to whittle his health down. Had he not been healing on every turn I would have probably had him. On my second attempt I just let the enemies come to me. Playing the stage this way made it far easier and I took the boss down pretty quickly. The reason I charged him in the first place was because I was unsure if any reinforcements would arrive. Thankfully this wasn't the case.

During the second part of the battle I fell back to my original strategy of bum rushing the boss and this time it worked. I sacrificed a few of my units in order to clear the path but once I reached him there was only going to be one outcome. It was actually one of my under levelled characters that got the killer blow.

My MVP characters were Setsuna, Reina, Corrin and Ryoma. The first two were super useful in taking care of enemies from a distance, especially Reina. With her being an air unit she was able to fly around the maps and pick off many an enemy. Ryoma didn't arrive on the scene until late on and once there was room for him in my team he became quite the power house. I often sent him to the front line to draw in the enemy and then ambushed them with other characters. He was strong enough to hold his own and usually ended up killing most of those who decided to take him on.

A couple of things I didn't really care for in the game were the character sounds and the face touching mini game. The voices/grunts that play during the cutscenes become very tiresome. Constantly hearing things like "Yes", "Big Brother", "NOOOOO" got annoying very quickly. If the game wasn't to be fully voiced then i'd rather the characters had just remained silent. The mini game I mentioned is weird. It's there for your characters to build up their relationship points but it comes off as creepy. There's one where Azura say's she's in the bath and for some reason you have to blow in the 3DS mic. Then there's a scene where the character is facing you, looking embarrassed and saying how she loves you. Yeah, the whole thing is very unsettling and very weird. It's not really needed at all and is clearly there to keep the waifu lovers happy. 

Considering the hate the game gets I don't think it's justified at all. It's a more than solid entry to the franchise and certainly well worth playing through. Seeing some of the Nohr characters that pop up during Birthright has me excited to play through Conquest and see what their deal is and how the story differs. That will have to wait for another time though as I don't really want to play two traditional FE games back to back.

[Hero-of-Time]

I decided the next game I would play would be this one (Conquest). It would get another RPG off my backlog and it's been two years now since I played Birthright. It's been long enough that I'm ready to play another FE game but also just enough time has past for this to feel fresh and also familiar at the same time.

I'm currently on chapter 9 and my thoughts so far are...

It does feel a bit strange playing on the other side after fighting alongside Corrin's blood family. It's also a little off putting knowing that I'm fighting on the wrong side of the war. Saying that, I can already see signs that the family are seeing the king as the nut job he truly is.

My units so far are a good bunch. Well, everyone except Arthur. Dude is very annoying and looks like an idiot. I just use him as bait. Elise is adorable, Effie is a tank and Silas has proven very useful. Miles and Odin have just joined the group and I like both of their designs. Plus, I love having a cool archer unit in my ranks when playing these games. As for the waifu situation, I'll imagine I'll hook Corrin up with Felicia. What? She's dressed up as a maid. I don't see any other way about it.  

With the option to grind levels being removed in this version, I'm making sure to do the side quests in order to gain any extra levels I can for the later battles. I imagine it's going to prove more challenging than Birthright because of this.

[Hero-of-Time]

I completed a few more missions last night, a couple of which had some great map designs.

One of them was similar to the one I loved when I played Birthright. It may even have been the same map. It was the one where your team is split up and you have to make your way through the building and then meet up at the end. It felt a lot more difficult this time through though. A lot of my units got wiped out and it was only thanks to Camilla being an absolute tank that I was able to bring home the win.

The other map I loved had my army trying to hold on to a town for 11 turns. There were constant waves of enemies spawning and I done my best to kill as my as possible for the experience points. I tried to create choke points and then used Nyx and Niles to fire the magic and arrow ballista on the enemies that were stuck in said points. It was a really fun battle.

I brought my 3DS to work with me in order to carry on my save during my lunch break. I need my FE fix!

[darksnowman]

7 hours ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I brought my 3DS to work with me in order to carry on my save during my lunch break. I need my FE fix!

Loved doing this with Nintendo handhelds.

How are these games, then? I was a budding Fire Emblem fan back in the day--they played me like a fiddle with the inclusion of Roy and Marth in Smash Bros. Melee and I went on to play the series on GBA, Gamecube and Wii. I wasn't too bothered when Awakening came out as there were other RPGs to keep me occupied and I figured I'd get the next one (same thing that happened to Three Houses for me actually), and when Fates was revealed as multiple games I was immediately disinterested. It seemed tiresome to have to opt for one, be expected to buy both and then there was a third wasn't there? Pretty presumptuous on their part. I later added Valentia to my 3DS collection which despite boasting some really nice production values, I never got into.  Still, I keep it within arm's length as I know one day it will call out to me and we will click.

So yeah, nothing to add except c-c-c-c-c-combo breakerrrrr!!  

[Hero-of-Time]

@darksnowman I'd say both Fates and SoV are definitely worth playing. I really enjoyed my time with both back in 2019 and I'm loving playing this part of the story of Fates.

I get your concern about the game having multiple versions but when I played Birthright I never felt like I was missing out on anything. It lead to a very satsfying conclusion on its own.

[Hero-of-Time]

I put some more time into the game over the past couple of days and I think i'm on Chapter 20 at the moment. I may get it finished today. I'm still really enjoying the game. Although, it has started to do that thing in FE games which I dislike, where you keep getting more and more characters, even towards the end. Once I have my team sorted i'm not really bothered about any new characters that may join late on. Sure, it's nice to have a bit of variety but i'll always stick with the ones that have been on the journey since the start over any new comers.

I will say that Corrin is an absolute moron. His father has tried to kill him numerous times and yet he seems very much in denial about the whole thing. Idiot.

During one of the private quarters conversations I invited Camilla up to the room. She came out with this...

Yeah, they knew exactly what they were doing here. To make things even funnier, after she left Corrin was laid back on his bed looking very relaxed.  

[Glen-i]

2 minutes ago, Hero-of-Time said:

I put some more time into the game over the past couple of days and I think i'm on Chapter 20 at the moment. I may get it finished today. I'm still really enjoying the game. Although, it has started to do that thing in FE games which I dislike, where you keep getting more and more characters, even towards the end. Once I have my team sorted i'm not really bothered about any new characters that may join late on. Sure, it's nice to have a bit of variety but i'll always stick with the ones that have been on the journey since the start over any new comers.

This is usually because of the permadeath feature. Those late game characters are meant to be a fallback for those who go for an "Iron Man" run. Otherwise, you could find yourself in an unwinnable situation very easily.