Fire Emblem

**Silver** · 02-11-13 09:25 PM

This series deserves it's own thread,

So to get in the feel for Awakening's release in April I bought a copy of Radiant Dawn. I can't wait to start playing but first I have to find my WiiMote...

**ImmunityBow** · 02-11-13 10:33 PM

Yes! Radiant Dawn is my favourite in the series! It's super long has loads of characters, and the Dawn Brigade section has mostly characters that suck so much that you have to use lots of strategy and teamwork within your party to keep everyone alive. Have you played any of the other games yet? Radiant Dawn I feel is not the easiest game in the series to start off with. Path of Radiance or the Sacred Stones are in my opinion the "beginner games" of the series. PoR because every character ever except Sothe is very good. Sacred Stones because you get Tower of Valni grinding if you're having trouble, and because worst comes to worst, Seth beats the game for you.

I might get Awakening... I just need to figure out whether I want to buy a 3DS yet...

**Silver** · 02-12-13 11:36 AM

I've already played FE7, 6(ENG Patch), Sacred Stones And a bit of PoR

**ImmunityBow** · 02-12-13 03:10 PM

Just for storyline purposes, you may want to finish PoR first before starting Radiant Dawn?

**Silver** · 02-12-13 06:17 PM

It was at a friends house,
But f*ck the story, that's what YouTube's for =D

**SilentSentinel** · 02-17-13 07:17 AM

Awakening is excellent so far. The production value is excellent for the most part, and I love the cutscenes. There's a lot of free Spotpass based content and a full slate of paid DLC as well to expand the game beyond what's on the cart. I believe there are over 120 legacy characters from older games that can be acquired in this way.

There are some parts of the plot that I think aren't that great, but it has some of my favorite characters in the entire series (Owain, Vaike, Henry in particular). I really like how they took elements from FE4 (My favorite game), FE8, and FE11/12 and combined them to make a very advanced system of customizing your characters by class, stats, caps, and skills.

I've nearly finished my "test the waters" playthrough on Normal. Now that I've got a general sense of things, I'll likely start my Lunatic run before long.

Overall, I would say that Awakening is probably tied for 2nd with FE5, behind FE4 for my favorite game in the series. I just really love FE4's plot and somewhat similar inheritance system, and I think that FE5's excellent level design matches up well with Awakening's sheer amount of options available to play through the game, and overall usability of just about every character.

I think that some of the mechanics that Awakening has introduced (Pairing up, more in-depth inheritance system) would work wonders in a remake of FE4. Perhaps with the worldwide introduction of characters from the Japan-only games, we will get a remake of FE4 and FE5, or at the very least a localized version on the E-shop.

**Silver** · 02-17-13 03:08 PM

Marksman Rolf + Silencer
'nuff said

**SilentSentinel** · 02-18-13 02:33 AM

lolRolf

I've never used him honestly. Shinon is just soooo much easier.

**ImmunityBow** · 02-18-13 03:42 AM

In Radiant Dawn Rolf isn't as hard to train up. There are also some arguments why you'd want to use PoR Rolf. Basically Raven Ship and Shinon coming several years too late. And then sometimes you need a tank for Naesala to attack that won't kill him, and your Rolf has 21 defense...

**SilentSentinel** · 02-18-13 07:36 PM

I'd argue that he's a huge waste of time in PoR, as he requires a metric ton of BEXP to be anything useful. I prefer to give my BEXP to units who need a little more to catch up like Jill and Kieran, both of whom can be excellent with a bit of help. (Shinon's growths are actually better than Rolf's too).

In RD he and Shinon have the same join time, but Shinon comes with much better stats and can be promoted to Marksman as soon as the player wishes (I usually just level him, he's already at 13). He's two points away from capping HP, Skill, and Speed for the Sniper Class, which means without transfers he can be quickly BEXP abused to patch up any lagging stats. If you happen to have transfers (Likely Skill and Speed), this can happen even sooner, and the BEXP abuse can help offset what advantages Rolf might have in strength, while increasing his already ample defense and resistance.

**ImmunityBow** · 02-18-13 11:45 PM

Yes, I agree. It's just that my Rolfs have always turned out well somehow. Such that I look at Shinon when rerecruiting him and think "oh wow... he's that far behind Rolf already..." And if you can make Rolf useful enough for the Ravens then he'll be useful for the rest of the game, at least. But yes, I'd never use him in a PoR draft.

**Silver** · 02-22-13 11:02 PM

Give him the skill Daunt, just adds to the fun, and a support with either Mist or Rhys, preferably Mist.

**SilentSentinel** · 03-01-13 07:49 AM

Just got the Spotpass map that came out with a somewhat spoilery character. That guy is a boss even though he needs to be reclassed a bunch to get skills.

**ImmunityBow** · 03-01-13 09:01 AM

Was reading the TVTropes on 8.8. Can't believe Gamespot gave Radiant Dawn such a low score...

**SilentSentinel** · 03-01-13 05:18 PM

The only issue I had with Radiant Dawn is that some characters were utterly useless or at the very least paled in comparison to others by such a degree that they were nigh unusable.

Like Tormod. What the heck are you supposed to do with Tormod?

**ImmunityBow** · 03-01-13 05:32 PM

Jack Celerity for other people?

But I think Path of Radiance, Seisen no Keifu and the Sacred Stones were the only ones that didn't suffer that problem. And the latter two it was mostly just due to the fact that there were so few characters, there really wasn't anyone to outclass. Any game with loads and loads of characters had lots of useless ones. Sword of Seals? Shadow Dragon? Radiant Dawn is like the longest game, and in many ways divvies up the chapters so you're forced to use subpar characters sometimes, even if you'll never take them to the final part.

But yes... Fiona should have been able to do SOMETHING, >_>

**SilentSentinel** · 03-01-13 07:32 PM

Fiona is another one where I'm just like... "why are you here?"

You can at least make some arguments for in games like FE6 or 7 for one character over another, but some of the RD characters (much of the Dawn Brigade units) just pale in comparison to all the Greil Mercenaries. I did enjoy Radiant Dawn though, and played it years before I ever played Path of Radiance. One thing that I thought it really did well was level design on particular chapters. The one where you have to burn the crates is pretty unique, and I also liked the feel of that godawful Dawn Brigade chapter in part 3 where you basically have to survive against a mountain of laguz until the BK shows up to save you.

Shadow Dragon (and New Mystery to an extent) just kept throwing character after character into your face with no lines or backstory. New Mystery is slightly better in this regard, but Shadow Dragon has endless amounts of characters that have one or two lines for their join chapter and then rot on your bench for the rest of the game.

That's one thing I was very happy about with Awakening. There aren't really any "bad" characters (except maybe Donnel on Lunatic difficulty).

**ImmunityBow** · 03-02-13 05:13 PM

Sword of Seals has whole classes like this. Bartz, Bors and Wendy are all terrible, even if Bors arrives at the very first chapter. Nope, no generals for you. And Douglas is not really that great either. Est archetypes? Well... Lilina's not enough? Here, have Sophia too! Oh and she's actually an interesting character! But her growths are not that different from Ray's, she just comes years later at level 1. Good luck using her! Path of Radiance also has Makalov...

**Silver** · 03-02-13 05:28 PM

radient dawn cahill, heather, mia, tormod, makalov, kirean,
the list of unnecessary characters is endless!!!

**ImmunityBow** · 03-02-13 05:38 PM

Heather is useful during the Nephenee chapter. Heather also greatly adds to the diversity of Radiant Dawn's cast, and is a genuinely interesting character. Kieran's not bad either. Calill is really useful early on, and won't turn out terrible, if I remember correctly. But mages in general are pretty bad in Radiant Dawn. Even Soren's not that strong.

**Silver** · 03-02-13 05:57 PM

Originally Posted by ImmunityBow

Heather is useful during the Nephenee chapter. Heather also greatly adds to the diversity of Radiant Dawn's cast, and is a genuinely interesting character.

I disagree, She's only useful for pinching items from enemies when you don't have Sothe as she's extremely frail.

Originally Posted by ImmunityBow

Kieran's not bad either.

He is good, until Titania comes along 2-3 chapters later

Originally Posted by ImmunityBow

Calill is really useful early on, and won't turn out terrible, if I remember correctly. But mages in general are pretty bad in Radiant Dawn.

No, your thinking of Ilyana

Originally Posted by ImmunityBow

Even Soren's not that strong.

FUCK YOU, SOREN'S AMAZING!
(sorry, couldn't resist raging!)

**ImmunityBow** · 03-02-13 06:05 PM

Soren's Sage speed cap is the worst thing in the game. I realize you can level other things because of this, but it seriously crippled him throughout my run.

No, Calill is useful for a few chapters, I'm pretty sure.

Also isn't this Radiant Dawn? You want to jam as many mounted units as you can because they all get to move after attacking... which is a little ridiculous since they were ALREADY the strongest units before they could do that.

**Silver** · 03-02-13 06:49 PM

actually I only ever use mounted units in RD for protecting weaker units i.e. heather

**SilentSentinel** · 03-02-13 11:36 PM

Mounted units are ridiculous in games with Canto. This is one of my few gripes with FE4, the mounted units can completely steamroll the game if you let them. I usually have them keep a bit back and progress more slowly but if you want you can just turn the game into Sigurd Emblem for the whole 1st gen.

That's one reason why I really like the Pair Up feature of Awakening. If FE4 were to be remade with this Pair Up mechanic, it would make the game even better.

**ImmunityBow** · 03-03-13 12:55 AM

Pair Up sounds cool, but I don't know if I'd want it every game. I feel like Rescue has a lot of good trade-offs that make it very strategically interesting. Pair Up just removes all of the negative effects.

**SilentSentinel** · 03-03-13 12:58 AM

I wouldn't say that it removes all the negative effects.

-Instead of having two units able to each take a separate action, you only get one action per pair of units. This means that you might have to be less efficient in certain chapters.
-You can't pair up with ally units, which means that instead of simply having your best units rescue the frail allies, you'll actually need to defend them and keep enemies far away.

**Silver** · 03-03-13 02:56 PM

Say Sentinel, in awakening do you get to keep the spotpass characters I.e. Lyn, Innes, Hector?

**SilentSentinel** · 03-03-13 06:44 PM

Yeah, you have to summon them to the map and then beat their team or use some of your gold to hire them. You can have 20 active at once I think.

**Silver** · 03-03-13 07:15 PM

So I can keep Hector, declass him and make him a berserker?
Cool.

**SilentSentinel** · 03-03-13 07:43 PM

Mhm! I have hector right now but haven't used him.

**Silver** · 03-03-13 09:29 PM

You haven't used Hector, But... It's HECTOR!!!
HeCtCePtIoN...

**Silver** · 07-24-13 01:27 AM

Awakening.
Is.
Awesome!

**ImmunityBow** · 07-24-13 08:29 PM

Replaying through Radiant Dawn on hard, a couple of observations:

The best decision I've made all game was giving Nolan a Dracoshield immediately when you get him. Best. Decision. Ever.

Gah everyone gets doubled. I had to abandon Aran. Should have abandoned Meg instead but it was my nth playthrough of chapter 6 and it was just too hard to get Meg's fat butt up onto the ledge without anything going wrong, and then Aran got doubled and died. Not to mention all those 6% chance of crits he randomly died to. Oh well, getting Jill/Tauroneo/Zihark more than made up for it.

Is Jill really worth it? I've been pretty much babying her since I got her and gave her the energy drop but she still has troubles even doubling anybody, let along killing. I feel live I've made a terrible mistake... But I didn't really see a better Energy Drop candidate. Edward wouldn't kill regardless, Sothe does enough now and won't do enough later, Nolan is at that perfect spot of OHKOing mages but not doubling so not able to kill anything else except hammerbombing armors. So I gave it to Jill. But maybe I should have just saved it for someone more important later.

I finally see the use of some characters!
Tormod is actually very good the chapter you get him in on hard mode. So that's a thing! Plus you can steal Celerity.
Fiona gives you Imbue and Savior, Imbue makes Zihark less stressful.
Meg gives you Fortune to slap on someone so you randomly die less.

**Silver** · 07-25-13 11:40 PM

Lols. Funny you mention Radiant Dawn since I just finished the Champions of Yore 3 DLC, which gives you Micaiah.

Edit: *Realizes Micaiah is a dark mage from the DLC*
Me: DAFUQ?

**ImmunityBow** · 12-19-13 07:30 AM

GAH having acquired Awakening and played through 22 chapters of it before my 3DS broke I had to say... Pair up is super cool but I don't think that not being able to rescue NPCs is actually any good. It's super frustrating to just have Severa run into range of Levin Sword Tricksters and die in one hit.Eventually I realized the Rescue staff saves you but it's really annoying :X. There's also that other chapter where villagers head due southwest into waves of enemies when it'd be much safer to just stay in place.

There's only been one chapter so far where I've felt the need to not have people paired up and that's when you're defending Tiki. Admittedly though, chaining assists/defends is rather fun, and generating supports is less of a drag, at least on the characters you use often.

I do wish the non-Morgan/Gerome children were better though. Maybe I should have waited to marry everyone so the childrens' bases wouldn't be so terrible but they were so far behind that I basically couldn't use any of them. I also didn't marry Chrom in time because guideless so Lucina took me by surprise. :X

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