The Fire Emblem Thread

[Violentvixen]

Assuming the final DLC answers this question I guess we find out tomorrow!

Nope, different world but that's fine.

Finished the DLC Wave 4 Xenologue, it's fun but difficulty is really imbalanced. I had to drop down to normal which was too easy, but I couldn't survive the first half of chapter 1 on Hard. Your character's Emblem relationship levels carry over to the Xenologue, but their levels and inventory are locked. Which is a big step down and a bit disorienting if you've already beaten the game. I'm not exactly sure where this would unlock in the storyline, but suddenly only having steel weapons was weird. I got over that though.

What I didn't get over is that you immediately have two new units whose death is a game over (like the main character). And one in particular absolutely sucks! It's part of the plot but ugh. Still, since the DLC is about the bracelets I made good use of Tiki and Soren and once I got that pattern down it was manageable, but again just felt imbalanced.

There are several plot twists I didn't see coming at all, and the overall mirror/dark world effect is well done and I like seeing this version of the characters. You get two new classes and new characters when you beat it, but if you've been debating whether or not to get the DLC I would say that the bracelets added in waves 1-3 were of much more interest and use, so use those to decide whether or not to purchase. If you've already bought the DLC you shouldn't avoid playing the Xenologue, there's some neat stuff in here. Just note that it seems to be either way too easy or way too frustrating. Ah well.

 

[Dark Medusa]

Do we know if you start a new file, when you get the unlocked characters? Do you need to beat the xenologue again just to get them? That'd be a bit of a shame seeing that it (at least on hard) really feels like you need emblem bonds at a high level to deal with the chapters? Also, I don't really feel like there's much replayability with the xenologues.

That being said, I didn't find Chapter 1 all that hard on Hard if you keep a tight formation and have some pretty powerful emblem/unit combos. Rosado plus Lyn made quick work of the boss, and because there's no real exp or carry overs from chapter to chapter there's no worry about missing out on something. I was able to get through it first try (but only because people like VV let me know the quirks of the Xenologue chapters). Chapter 3 (the last one I've beaten so far) was a bit more annoying, but with some finagling was able to get through it, probably third try? Still was very rough.

 

[Violentvixen]

Do we know if you start a new file, when you get the unlocked characters? Do you need to beat the xenologue again just to get them? That'd be a bit of a shame seeing that it (at least on hard) really feels like you need emblem bonds at a high level to deal with the chapters? Also, I don't really feel like there's much replayability with the xenologues.

That being said, I didn't find Chapter 1 all that hard on Hard if you keep a tight formation and have some pretty powerful emblem/unit combos. Rosado plus Lyn made quick work of the boss, and because there's no real exp or carry overs from chapter to chapter there's no worry about missing out on something. I was able to get through it first try (but only because people like VV let me know the quirks of the Xenologue chapters). Chapter 3 (the last one I've beaten so far) was a bit more annoying, but with some finagling was able to get through it, probably third try? Still was very rough.

I couldn't use them and didn't have their supports available until I beat it so I would assume the same is true on a new file. I'm really curious when this unlocks in the main game. I would assume it's after you've recruited all the royal families and have met all four hounds since they all show up here, but how much after that I couldn't guess.

My issue was probably that I spread Emblems across characters in the main game. Very few had any Emblems at level 20. I'm glad to hear this though!

 

[Dark Medusa]

I take back everything I said about Hard being manageable for the Fell Xenologue (which is was, until...), the final chapter. My god. It's so bad. Why did they even think this was fun?

Honestly, any enthusiasm I had from the Ashen Wolves campaign has dried up. This is just so much worse on so many levels, and I am truly just completing it just to get the rewards. I sure hope I don't need to do it again in future playthroughs to get the nice rewards, because I will truly just be bored to tears.

 

[Bongo]

You need to do it on each save file to get the rewards again. Also, the unlocked characters arrive at level 20, which means if you do it too early, they bust the level scaling for the divine paralogues and skirmishes. Kind of a disappointing conclusion to what had otherwise been very solid DLC.

 

[Becksworth]

Yeah, my playthrough is at 90 hours and I still got the last couple of chapters to finish. I think I'll skip the xenologue...

 

[Dark Medusa]

aaaaaaaaaaand normal was trivial. Ok. Unlocked the new characters, sadly way too far into the game to take advantage of them, but they seem cool.

Wouldn't it be nice if it were easier to get these characters in a way that didn't require you to play through six inane chapters with somewhat competent characters that didn't also mess up the level curve if you don't do it in the exact right way? Sheesh. Sorry, fixating on this a little, but I did want to try out some of these new characters and the game is making it way too hard.

 

[Becksworth]

Okay, beat it, clocking a total playtime of 97 hours.

Between Engage, Xenoblades 3, and Chained Echoes being longer than anticipated I think I'm burnt out on long RPGs...

Sees Tears of the Kingdom releases in a month: fuck...

 

[SabreCat]

I got a Switch as an early Christmas present, and Fire Emblem Engage is currently the one and only game I can play on it.

I'm having a good time, but god is there a lot of padding and busywork. How bad would it be if I just don't pick up the sparkly trash off the ground of the Somnium twice per mission, ignore the garbage disposal well, skip the button-mashing minigames, and just do support conversations in between chapters?

Seriously, who thought "you know what would give players joy and make them excited to play this game? A minigame where you scrub dirt off of rings!!"

 

[Octopus Prime]

Now try Three Houses!

 

[estragon]

Now try Three Houses!

I'm not sure if this is a joke about how Three Houses has even more busywork that is more detrimental to skip, or if it's just a sincere recommendation because it's a fun game despite this.

I haven't got around to playing Engage yet, but the consensus I've heard is that they made it less mandatory feeling by comparison and a bit closer to the 3DS games, even if there's still a lot of it.

 

[Octopus Prime]

The former; that game is more Busy Work than Video Game

 

[estragon]

The former; that game is more Busy Work than Video Game

Yeah. I recently finally got around to finishing the Cindered Shadows expansion to Three Houses and really enjoyed it. I was starting to feel the urge to play the main game again so I'd have a chance to try out the characters Cindered Shadows unlocked in the main game, but then I started to remember what the busy work is like and thought better of it. I liked 3H for exactly one playthrough, but just have no desire to go back to it. It left me thinking that instead I should probably either move on to Engage or try one of the older ones I haven't yet.

 

[balder the brave]

Playing Engage now. Wow, there are a lot of menu options and they're not very well organized. You access the support conversations by opening the "Reference" menu?

I still haven't wrapped my head around inheriting skills from the rings. You build up your level with the ring and then buy skills? What about after you get to level 10 with the Emblem? Is the idea that you then rotate the ring to a different character?

 

[Bongo]

Skill inheritance works like this: The bond level between a unit and an emblem determines which skills the unit can inherit from the emblem. The higher the bond level, the more skills available to inherit, but you can't inherit any skills below bond level 5. (Increasing the bond level has other benefits as well.) In order to inherit a skill, the unit must spend SP. If an inheritable skill is an upgraded version of a lower-level one, the higher-level one gets a discount if you get the lower-level one, so there's no net loss of SP if, for instance, you inherit Dexterity+1 before inheriting Dexterity+2 (which will replace the lower-level one). A unit can equip at most two inherited skills at a time; equip them from the Inventory menu.

SP is acquired in the following ways:

• If a unit gains EXP while equipped with an emblem ring, they gain an amount of SP equal to the gained EXP
• If a unit gains EXP while equipped with a bond ring, they gain an amount of SP equal to half the gained EXP
• Units who are recruited later tend to join with a bunch of SP already
• Use a Novice Book, Adept Book, or Expert Book to gain SP immediately

It seems like the developers didn't realize until after launch that the SP economy is wack, with some skills being unrealistically expensive, so post-launch patches added the mysterious well, which is a repeatable source of SP books.

Not every skill is a good investment. Some expensive skills are worse than cheaper ones. However, SP can't be used for anything else, so don't end the game with unspent SP.

 

[balder the brave]

Thanks. So, I got Yunaka to Level 5 with Micaia. A Micaia level 3 skill is Staff Proficiency. However, I can't see Staff Proficiency available for purchase and after switching to another ring, Yunaka seems unable to use staves. Are you able to explain? I read the help section too and still can't wrap my head around how proficiency works in this game.

 

[Becksworth]

If I recall Staff Proficiency is a permanent upgrade to a characters proficiencies and not a skill, and you still have to change classes to one that uses staves. Yunaka just has increased eligibility to do so now.

 

[Bongo]

Emblems provide other benefits for increasing the bond level besides unlocking inheritable skills. These just apply automatically, and include, but are not limited to, weapon proficiencies (which apply permanently), better sync skills (which apply when the emblem ring is equipped), and engage skills (which apply while engaged). To add to this confusion, some sync skills double as inheritable skills (they don't stack if you get it from two sources).

Weapon proficiencies determine what classes a unit can switch to with a Second Seal, but they don't directly grant the ability to use weapons of that type. Reaching bond level 3 with Micaiah grants "Staff Proficiency," which makes the unit eligible to change into a class which requires staff proficiency, such as High Priest.

The ability to equip staves while Micaiah's emblem ring is equipped doesn't come from Staff Proficiency. Rather, it comes from "Cleric," which is a sync skill. Sync skills cannot be inherited, but they apply as long as the emblem ring is equipped. Incidentally, Cleric is the only thing in the game that allows using off-class weapons like that, other than engage weapons.