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Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia


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Finished Act 6 blind on my first try with only one DF loop abused unit (Saber) and no other grinding done, so yay. Mathilda and Genny died while zerging the last boss but that's what the revival shrine is for. Time to play on HM!

Edited by Alm
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I'm probably overthinking things and seeing shit that doesn't exist, but I almost wonder if Faye is some kind of mean-spirited parody of a self insert or at least the result of some MU nearly getting shoehorned in as a villager, but whoever was in charge said nuts to that and had them replaced with this bitch. It just seems weird how everybody else seems competently written and satisfyingly expanded, but Faye is just so blatantly one-note and shit.

Likewise, I wonder if Conrad is some leftover from IntSys attempting to throw future children into the game, but again, whoever called the shots here said fuck off before that idea could do too much damage, so they just repurposed him into Celica's lost brother instead of her son (which still has its own potential consequences on the story, but nothing nearly as bad as future children)

Again, I'm probably thinking about this kind of shit too much and coming up with stupid head-canons for a game's fucking development, but I wonder about IntSys too much sometimes.

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Disclaimer: I haven't read a single post in this topic as to not spoil anything.

 

So I started on this a few days after I got the game (haven't beaten Birthright). Decided to go Hard/Casual to not deal with resetting after someone dies. I'm liking the game so far with how it plays, the dungeon segments and the voice overs.

 

My question is this for those that are mainly playing Casual but it could apply to Classic if you reset when a unit dies. At the moment I'm in Act 3 going to Desaix's Fortress with Alm while going for Grieth as Celica. So up until that point, has anyone had a specific unit that consistently kept getting killed?

 

Spoiler

Mine on Alm's side is Python and Celica's side is Atlas. I made Atlas an Archer since I had too many Sword Wielders/Mages and I didn't want another Lance user. It's working out for him since he's catching up to Leon in usefulness.

 

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Just beat the main story. The story was definitely a big step up from the other 3DS Fire Emblem games. I enjoyed the simplicity. I found the enemies compelling, playable characters were decent, and the music was absolutely fantastic. I liked the way Alm's party and Celica's party handle in Acts 3 and 4. 

 

I didn't like some of the mechanics in the game, though. I didn't enjoy the dungeons, nor did I find visiting towns very fun. I also HATED the Arcanists that would hide behind fortress walls and conjure enemy wave after enemy wave. The enemies spawned were never difficult to beat, but it clogged the maps up and took forever to get through. I think it got really bad in Act 4 on Celica's side. 

 

Aside from that, though, I don't have many complaints about the game. I'd probably rank the FE games released in North America as follows:

 

1. Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn

2. Blazing Sword

3. Sacred Stones

4. Echoes

5. Fates

6. Awakening

 

Not much desire to spend money on the DLC for this one. I also don't really care about tackling that labyrinth in the post-game. I'll probably replay the main story down the road, however.

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Me: 

 

1. Awakening 

2. Sacred Stones 

3. Fates

4. Shadow Dragon 

5. Echoes 

 

I did play Radiant Dawn, but never Path of Radiance (or Blazing Sword for that matter), so I'm not equipped well to defend those two.  

 

 

And besides from some minor gripes I have with gameplay seemingly being unfair compared to the games I love, I have a problem with... 

 

CELICA. Not the person in this forum, just the game character.  

 

Maybe I'll buy Path of Radiance to see what I *sees price* ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 

Edited by XLW
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My order's unchanged, it's New Mystery > Awakening > a giant pile of whatever > FE1/2.


Echoes is held back way too much by the gameplay (my #1 reason for playing FE) for me, sadly.

 

1 hour ago, XLW said:

Maybe I'll buy Path of Radiance to see what I *sees price* ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! 

 

yeah this is why most people just pirate it. >.>

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I still haven't actually finished Echoes yet (my husband is using my 3DS a lot lately to finish playing Spirit of Justice (stupid download-only games) and been busy grinding events in Heroes and Granblue), but overall I'm really fucking pleased with it. Gameplay is a bit grindy and very different from traditional FE, but everything else is spot on. I have a hard time picking favourites (for example, my current favourite FE at any given time tends to flop between four different games: Genealogy, FE7, RD, and Awakening), but this one is definitely near the top.

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Just finished the main story.

 

Can we take a minute to talk about how great the villains are in this game? More specifically, how they stack up against other members of their archetype?

 



Fernand and Berkut feel like they took Orson from Sacred Stones and split him in half. Fernand is the allied soldier who ends up betraying you shortly after he's introduced, but unlike Orson, we actually get to see what a noble person he was before he went turncoat. And by the time we meet him for the last time, it's clear that he deeply regrets what he's done to you.

 

Berkut, on the other hand, is amazing because of his personal vendetta against Alm. Unlike, say, Lundgren or Michalis, who try to seize power by murdering their relatives, Berkut doesn't even realize his relationship with Alm until after Rudolf is dead. By that point, he's gone too far off the deep end to accept Alm's offer of friendship, culminating with sacrificing Rinea for the sake of satisfying his own lust for power.

 

Speaking of Rinea, while she's not technically an antagonist, she still fits nicely into the Ishtar archetype, and in some ways even surpasses Ishtar herself. In FE4, Ishtar was a tragic figure because she was in love with Julius, but she still tried to put a stop to the Child Hunts. However, because we never got to see what Julius was like before Manfroy gave him the Loptyr tome, all of his interactions with Ishtar in-game seem more like an abusive relationship. We don't know why Ishtar fell in love with him in the first place. Unlike Julius, we actually get to see how much Berkut genuinely cares for Rinea, to the point that watching him fall off the deep end and sacrifice her to Duma comes across as genuinely shocking. This also provides another contrast to Ishtar: whereas Ishtar ultimately made her own decision to fight alongside Julius, Rinea was sacrificed against her will.

 

But it's not just the original villains added to the remake; they also did a fantastic job of characterizing the villains that were in the original game. Jedah, for example, is different from most other members of the Gharnef archetype because he's not just trying to resurrect Duma for the sake of doing something evil. Unlike Manfroy, who was the leader of a heavily-persecuted cult, Jedah is basically the Pope of Rigel's dominant religion. He wants to resurrect Duma because he truly believes that Valentia cannot survive without Duma's influence. If it weren't for Jedah's stereotypical evil laughter or clear enjoyment from other people's suffering, I'd almost call him a tragic villain like Lyon or Sephirain.

 

Finally, that brings us to the bad dragon himself, Duma. As the founder of the series' "evil god" archetype, he's also, ironically, one of the biggest subversions of it: he's a perfectly chill dude who's losing his ability to control his own power. All of his villainous actions throughout the game's backstory are merely his attempt to save the world from himself. Sort of like Anankos, except without a mind-bendingly retarded plot twist.

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So I've started Act 4 and the game is still kicking my ass. On Alm's side, I'm struggling against Nuibaba's infinite witches. My sages obviously have the most resistance towards them, but they're not at all a solution in getting rid of them. My other units just risk getting doubled and destroyed from their magic. I'm currently stuck on Fear Mountain, and while I could have Clair swoop in to defeat the stage boss, I run the risk of her getting killed by the generals around the boss. I've gone to the latest shrine to do some level grinding and job promotions, but there's still some struggle, even after I've invested in some Smithing. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a particular character/class I should have?

 

I don't know, I can appreciate a challenge, but the difficulty spikes are hurting my impression of this game. The difficult wouldn't be so bad if the map design lended towards any strategy or approach. The game starts really strong and while it's not very challenging at all, it's engaging enough. Then somewhere in Act 3 and definitely in Act 4, all momentum grinds to a halt.

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19 hours ago, Youngster Joey said:

So I've started Act 4 and the game is still kicking my ass. On Alm's side, I'm struggling against Nuibaba's infinite witches. My sages obviously have the most resistance towards them, but they're not at all a solution in getting rid of them. My other units just risk getting doubled and destroyed from their magic. I'm currently stuck on Fear Mountain, and while I could have Clair swoop in to defeat the stage boss, I run the risk of her getting killed by the generals around the boss. I've gone to the latest shrine to do some level grinding and job promotions, but there's still some struggle, even after I've invested in some Smithing. Is there something I'm missing? Is there a particular character/class I should have?

 

I don't know, I can appreciate a challenge, but the difficulty spikes are hurting my impression of this game. The difficult wouldn't be so bad if the map design lended towards any strategy or approach. The game starts really strong and while it's not very challenging at all, it's engaging enough. Then somewhere in Act 3 and definitely in Act 4, all momentum grinds to a halt.

 

What I did was fuck around in caves until everybody was roughly the same level. Mathilda has decent RES and great MOV, so I gave her a Javelin and had her charge ahead and try to pick off a few Witches before too many of them could spawn.

 

Alternately, if you're feeling pretty ballsy, you could have Silque Warp Alm directly in front of Nuibaba and try to kill her on the first turn. Once she's dead, any Witches that she summoned will automatically disappear.

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