Look I‘m not saying it’s on Matsuno's level but it is very clear which of the posters itt have and have not played Radiant Dawn
mods give me and Tradegood little crown icons as Lord & Lady of the thread who respect this crap darn it
(Video Game King has the name already)
@“captain”#p102396 Did you watch the official Fire Emblem OVA I posted? It’s from the 90s….
While I agree with a lot of this, and I know you‘re being reductive for hyperbole sake…. Fire Emblem’s story is important in that it‘s a vehicle for the real shit, which is the strategy gameplay. The story is there to add depth and meaning to battles, the permadeaths, the unlikely heroes, the close calls, etc. When the story synchronizes with your own experience playing the game it’s uniquely beautiful.
My issue with Engage‘s story is by FE standards, the characters lack opposing motivations and as a result every conflict is almost immediately diffused. The game’s opening melodrama had me hoping there would be more dramatic turns, but the game but just kind of evened out because they want every character on team Alear. There was a brief moment that showed promise between Ivy and Hortensia but blink and you miss it. In other FE games, the 4 kingdoms would their own goals and set of internal logic and you‘d end up with recruits from all 4 and more interesting supports. Instead, Engage’s supports are just being about what tea flavor is best.
But its still fun flirting with my husbandos about their favorite tea flavor, so idgaf
...Also, screw you all, Three Houses had one of the most intricate and well crafted stories in the last decade of games and apparently no one here played because it was too story heavy lol. I realize no one will EVER believe me, but just put in 100 hours and you'll see.
@“2501”#p102320 Genuinely, playing through the maps on the highest difficulty feels fantastic.
good, Hard felt awful in Awakening which in addition to what you‘ve pointed out goes toward explaining why I didn’t have a good time with it
did you say you’d checked out the Gaiden remake
I haven't. When it came out I was riding high on the Fates Hate Train and assumed it was more of that stuff. Your earlier comments do have me intrigued!
@“2501”#p102372 reducing its narrative to a paper-thin excuse to ogle quirky anime friends is not some huge fall from grace
it is if it's keeping me from these awesome character designs:
Summary
@sabertoothalex storytelling of this series
The plots are not so special but the interest is in the telling. I thought it was really cool to replay the GBA games and find out more about the world and character relationships through different support conversations and player routes. In FE7 the villain‘s goals and motivation are made more complex when, through conversation with several different characters, you find out how he’s related to your guys, and consequently other actors at play. In FE8 the villain‘s behavior completely changes based on which protagonist you play as. It’s cool stuff, and appeals to the same brain muscle as item descriptions in FromSoft games—ooh, it turns out this character is this other character‘s brother and you’re finding him out here in this map because he felt ashamed of his aristocratic past and is in self-imposed warrior exile. It‘s melodramatic and not always particularly deep sure but it’s a matter of tone as much as anything—that it takes itself remotely seriously makes the characters feel human, compared to e.g. support conversations in Awakening about soldiers being bad at making soup.
The stories used to be good, and for kids—these are not mutually exclusive qualities—but now they seem more geared toward 30-year-olds with an ironic interest in anime tropes they‘re nostalgic for, which I’m not saying is invalid, but it is meaningfully different from what it used to be in a way I find off-putting. I won't pretend to have played every game in the series but FEs 7, 8, and 9 tell stories with some dignity if nothing else. 10 is on another level. I think it is worth pointing out when stories geared toward the young are decent!
@“sabertoothalex”#p102361 the GCN game having one aspect of the story be a little good
It's all setup for the Wii game!
___
You people are getting these videos in my YT recommendations I hope you‘re happy (I admit I’m entertained)
@“Tradegood”#p102399 Three Houses had one of the most intricate and well crafted stories in the last decade of games
I am being 100% serious when I say you have done what no one else could w/r/t getting me interested in Three Houses
@“2501”#p102398 I tried it once but thought it was schlocky—compared to the video games!!!
I love Sacred Stones' GBA instruments
@“captain”#p102402 30-year-olds with an ironic interest in anime tropes they’re nostalgic for
Never have I ever been called out like this on this forum
Anyway, you should definitely play Shadows of Valentia then because it’s basically everything you want. Takes itself somewhat seriously, minimal post-ironic animu nonsense, character designs are geared toward romantic whimsy rather than otaku lust, etc. It’s a largely faithful update of one of the Kaga games and you can feel the difference from the modern games. I don’t remember finding anything in the GBA titles’ narratives especially interesting but Valentia had at least a few bits I was genuinely fond of and I’d probably say it has the strongest narrative of any game in the series I’ve played (for whatever that’s worth). Some of the game mechanics are a little weird since it’s based on the Zelda II/Super Mario USA equivalent of the series but I don’t remember having any huge issues with it. It also isn’t 100 hours long and the DLC will no longer be accessible after next month, so if you still have a 3DS you might wanna hurry!
Also I played the DS remake of the first game and you cannot tell me the OVA isn’t a faithful adaptation, schlock and all… the English version by our friends at ADV (featuring pretty much every dub voice actor from Neon Genesis Evangelion) just gives it a little extra grated cheese on top.
who is saying they’re disappointed in Engage bc Fire Emblem used to have good writing in the old days? Speaking for myself: Engage is disappointing (wrt to writing, setting aside the other ways it’s disappointing) because it’s obnoxious and rote. And when I describe feeling deceived by reviews calling Engage a return to form, it’s bc I was (foolishly) anticipating that meant a more focused, challenging tactics game with nice aesthetics and a grounded setting (like Radiant Dawn). Also without the weird shit.
I suppose I have Radiant Dawn, Thracia, Tear Ring, and Berwick filed in the Ys section of simplistic, nothing special narratives that have enough forward momentum and leanness that the aesthetics and atmosphere + distinctive game mechanics = greater than the sum of its parts. Engage has a goofy amount of parts that don’t cohere into anything. It’s a big pile of weird chores
@“yeso”#p102421 a more focused, challenging tactics game
This is the critique I just don’t get - this much, at least, is absolutely in there, certainly compared to the other non-remake _FE_s of the last decade.
Are you expecting something that’s _exactly_ on the level of the pre-10s games in terms of leanness? What difficulty setting are you playing on? Have you tried just ignoring all or most of the Somniel content if you aren’t stuck? It really sounds like you’re engaging in a bunch of sub-mechanics under the assumption that you need to when you actually don’t - they literally all amount to a handful of min-maxing number boosts to make the game easier, and with the rate you’re progressing through maps it doesn’t sound like high difficulty is an issue. What challenge level is good enough in the challenge department? I have not been stringently min-maxing every possible thing and I’m finding Maddening difficulty largely very well balanced.
Like… you seriously don’t have to do the fishing minigame! Or any of the minigames! I’m pretty sure there’s no crucial hidden content locked behind them! The game is definitely not balanced around the assumption that you will do them all the instant they become available! You can go back and do them later at any point if you change your mind! They’re just alternatives to grinding! They’re about as essential to this game as they are to something like Zelda, only in this one you can access them all from a menu.
I know HowLongToBeat.com is a bit infamous for lowballing completion time estimates, but I think it should be pretty telling that even in _relative terms_ this game is listed as being shorter than the SFC games, shorter than the Wii one, and a whole lot shorter than the previous Switch game. If you ignore the Somniel (which, I want to repeat, you are allowed to do!) it is straight up just funneling you directly from map to map, no different from the classic titles. You can skip each and every “walk around the battlefield after a battle” segment and the consequences will be trivial (a couple random loot trinkets on the ground that you could get more reliably through other means). Probably the most important thing you can get from side content is bond points… which the game also throws at you in much larger amounts just for playing it normally. There is so much in there you just never need to encounter if you don’t feel like hitting the menu icon for it, because it is all extraneous to the core experience which is clearly delineated from the side stuff and, yeah, pretty focused! And challenging!
played on hard and it wasn't too difficult at least as far as I got into the game
About all the extra stuff and the game being unfocused: sure most of it is optional, but these are games about building characters and putting elements of that behind excruciating adult baby activities is imo not too cool. I'm not crazy about granting that a large amount of the game is trash I should just ignore and that's something I ought to adapt to. Some of it is just optional yes but the leveling up those rings and social links stuff is connected to important character skills and math stuff. Yes, I could put blinders on and ignore literally everything but the menu actions needed to skip cutscenes and transition into the next battle, so that would essentially make a "focused" game., but that's not exactly a back of the box feature
@“2501”#p102432 There is so much in there you just never need to encounter if you don’t feel like hitting the menu icon for it, because it is all extraneous to the core experience
unfocused is a reasonable critique then?
@“yeso”#p102455 Leveling up rings and supports can literally be done through ordinary battles in the process of playing the game like a regular, straightforward Fire Emblem. If you want to level them up further you can either grind battles on the world map or you can do any (but by no means need to do all) of the Somniel activities. The only things on the Somniel that don’t functionally boil down to grinding alternatives or minor temp bonuses are the ring chamber where you obtain upgrades and the weapon refinement shop that buffs your items. The game is entirely centered around the completely focused and traditional process of playing through a succession of battle maps - which should rarely require you to grind, if you’re clever - and it makes very clear that all the additional stuff is just alternative means toward the very simple end of giving your units various extra performance boosts without just grinding the old-fashioned way. I’m just not seeing this mass of obligatory chores you’re referring to, and maybe what that boils down to is the understanding that unless you do hours and hours of it, all this extra stuff only amounts to minor boosts that you do not actually need if you would rather just clear the game’s maps using strategy. You’re not limiting your characters’ future growth potential or class change options by not doing every minigame after every battle, it really is just for when you’re stuck or if you’re worried about becoming stuck. I’m not trying to be belligerent here, I’m really just kind of confused by your experience with the game relative to mine - granted I am ironically LOLing at the game’s aesthetic choices rather than feeling tortured by them so I also don’t resent every second this game is asking me to spend in it, and maybe that’s all the difference.
@“2501”#p102496 You’re not limiting your characters’ future growth potential or class change options by not doing every minigame after every battle
I take your point about these features being volitional, but the stuff with the ring level up much faster in that little hut thing on the somniel, to the extent that I don't think the traits/skills/whatever are mathmatically achievable in just doing the combat side. And the way you use the little hut thing is by picking up "bond points" off the ground and talking to every dumb character when the battles are over. I stuck with the game to I think around the halfway point (maybe beyond) and the rings were at like level 5/20 so. Those rings the headline game mechanic.
I think even if so much of the non-battle side is functionally extraneous, it's still the game. A no-somniel run is a truncated path through the game, right?
@“2501”#p102411 I’d probably say it has the strongest narrative of any game in the series I’ve played (for whatever that’s worth)
The OP video there is kind of rubbing me the wrong way, but I do take this seriously and will probably give it a try now! I appreciate your perspective on it.
the DLC will no longer be accessible after next month
oh my dear, these are details, details...
English version by our friends at ADV
ok I'll watch it lol
@“yeso”#p102508 As others have said, you actually can skip the post-battle segments entirely and the game still gives you the bond points! It just dumps them right in your lap. Also at least where I’m at in my playthrough, you earn far more bond points through “achievements” given to you for playing the game normally or just checking out each side activity once or twice than you do from any strenuous minigaming. If you don’t want to have to make hard choices about how to SPEND those points and just get ALL the upgrades, that’s when things get grindy.
Personally I’ve never gotten every heart piece in a Zelda game, because I know perfectly well the games contain way more of them than you will ever conceivably need and treating the minigames and such like chores just isn’t fun. I really think this game’s approach to side content is more in line with that than something like Xenoblade or even Final Fantasy, where there is often truly major stuff locked behind it (character classes and upgrade paths, endgame equipment, questlines and entire areas and game features) and sometimes limited windows of opportunity to get them if you don’t want to be permanently barred from 100% completion on your current save.
@“captain”#p102515 Curious what’s giving you bad vibes about the intro vid? I promise the game’s narrative is precisely the earnest shonen fantasy melodrama finely aged cheese you’re looking for.
agree 2 disagree I guess. I don‘t mind games having extra stuff - I just don’t think there‘s much game here if you ignore all the optional stuff. It’s then a couple dozen missions of rote gameplay and a totally phoned-in story - which I think relies on people enjoying all the optional content to have any kind of I want to say ‘substance’ but that's not quite right. Alternately, if you do do give the optional stuff the old college try, you wind up doing lots of chores. But I repeat myself
I mean, buying a game then spending time having to figure how to avoid as much of it as is mechanically possible while still playing is not idea imo
@“2501”#p102608 Sorry I don‘t mean to be cagey. I guess there are a number of things about this specific slice of Shadows of Valentia that I’m focusing on as differing sharply from what I tend to like about the presentation in other Fire Emblems (even though, I understand, the rest of the game and its narrative presentation may not be wholly reflected by this particular montage of scenes):
[size=8]*this analysis may be basically irrelevant given that I'm sure most of the game is the same text box drama as the old games, but just for the sake of answering your question[/size]
Consequently, you don't see the following in a [GBA Fire Emblem](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIaFW3K4HgY):
IN SUM: whatever aesthetic difference there is between [this](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/a/a9/Fess-ephraim.png/revision/latest?cb=20160930100119) and [this](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/c/c5/AlmFEE.png/revision/latest?cb=20170223045323), or [this](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/b/bf/Fess-eirika.png/revision/latest?cb=20200217121011) and [this](https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/b/b1/CelicaFEE.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/1000?cb=20170223045230), feels illustrative of the grander difference I feel watching this OP (where, in general, there is greater emphasis on characters' bright faces and eyes than their bodies/arms/clothes). There are things going on here I may not have the vocabulary to describe. Does Shadows of Valentia ever feel tonally like [this](https://www.youtube.com/clip/UgkxCJvBJMVsDxX_xO1KR8j3t0RPNRiegDFN)?
I don't want to sound like I'm Rifftraxing this or dismissing your opinion, just trying to explain my gut reaction more clearly.
___
It should please you to know I've spent all my game time in the past 24 hours playing Tactics Ogre instead. In fact, now that I'm done typing this......
@“yeso”#p102611 idk my time with the game has mostly been playing the story maps amd trying everything else once or twice out of curiosity without really minding it! It quickly became apparent which stuff is actually important to do vs. which is a momentary distraction, but I guess the key difference is I don’t mind the presence of all the distractions just so long as their non-essential nature is clearly communicated. I won’t deny that the game could’ve pared the sheer volume of this stuff back a bit and been even more forthcoming about what parts of the Somniel are actually important or not, it just doesn’t reach the level of constant stress inducer in my experience.
@"captain"#p102654 I played both of the GBA games that got official English releases and I guess I just have no exceptional attachment to their aesthetics at all outside of the sick critical animations that are everyone’s favorite. I remember the narratives being very much on the bland side. (Fun fact though, _FE7_ was localized to English by the legendary Alexander Smith of Matsuno game fame, so we probably owe him a bunch of the series’ English-language conventions like potions being “vulneraries” and so on.) I even looked up some vids from _Radiant Dawn_ due to your enthusiasm and… aesthetically they still look very bland to me!! _FE_ has always been geared toward colorful animu melodrama (literally every entry has characters with green and purple hair ffs) so I have no issue with any game in the series playing up either the color or the melodrama. Anyway I think if you accept that _Valentia_ is not trying to be one of the 00s-era games but respects the same lineage they came from you will get some enjoyment out of it. Also I promise you won’t compare the ballroom dancing scene to waifu-era _FE_ when you discover the story context behind it, which involves what I would easily call the best written (and best voice-acted!) antagonist arc in any of these games.
Anyway yes _Valentia_ does in fact allow itself to have moments of emotional weight where characters pontificate about the Badness of War, although I think you’ll find _Tactics Ogre_ blows that particular field of JRPG storytelling out of the water to an extent that makes most other attempts at it look kind of silly. It’s one thing to have the Good Dude Hero Man in your game observe that people on the other side of a battlefield _have families_, but only _TO_ will give you a complete life history overview of every generic-sprite level boss character in the game after you’ve killed them.
Also,
>@"captain"#p102654 complete authorial earnestness
I assumed this was implied from the intro but it is intended to be read with quite a bit of irony, because those two characters will grow up to have opposing stances on a war that kills a lot of people! Yes it’s cheesy but its cheesiness is entirely in keeping with classic animu melodrama standards.
[upl-image-preview url=https://i.imgur.com/rzKkaeT.jpeg]
btw if you play as male Alear does Yunaka's catchphrase change from 'zappy' to 'zaddy'?
@“Tradegood”#p102891 Really important to emphasize that this character is a dude