Let's Talk Fire Emblem

[Nester the Lark]

So, I inadvertently took about a week off from Sacred Stones, but I've just gotten back to it. I've finished chapter 18, so I'm getting near the end. I'm wondering if I should try to do the tower before I get to the endgame. Is there a point of no return? Or any reason to do the tower outside of just for fun?

So far, I think I enjoy this game more than Blazing Blade, and at least as much as Shadow Dragon. I like being able to roam around a world map and do things between chapters, as well as the branching promotions. It makes the game feel a little more flexible. (I think Shadow Dragon let you change a character's class at any time, but I never messed with it.) Also, I like that it's only 20 chapters plus endgame. The shorter campaign keeps me from feeling too burned out, but the length can still be extended through optional content like the tower and skirmishes, so I can decide what kind of experience I want.

I did kinda miss the illustrations from Blazing Blade and Shadow Dragon, tho. There were certain story events that would've benefited from them, and their absence made it feel like Sacred Stones had a smaller budget.

Eirika and Ephraim are probably among my favorite FE lords, if mainly because of their sweet brother-sister relationship. The fact that they spend much of the game separated made it feel very satisfying when they were finally together. (Naturally, I maxed out their support level.) Neither of them had better die by the end...

I don't have much to say about the story until I finish the game.

Overall, out of the FE games I've played, I feel like this is the one I'd be most likely to replay, mainly to see Ephraim's route.

[Leon]

After you beat the final boss, you can explore the tower as much as you want, and even unlock some extra characters. As for the game feeling smaller budget, that's pretty accurate for its development. This game was announced after Path of Radiance was announced, and released before PoR, so that should give you a pretty good idea about it.

[Nester the Lark]

It took me a while to get around to it, but I finally finished Sacred Stones. I have now finished all the Fire Emblem games I own.

I don't really have much more to add from what I said before. I really enjoyed it, especially considering it's the third FE game I've finished since I started Shadow Dragon in November.

For the story... To be honest, I usually just glaze over the stories in FE, as well as many RPGs, but I did enjoy the story. I tend to be more interested in the characters, themselves, though, and I liked the cast overall at least as much as Blazing Blade's.

Special shout-out to Neimi, who is probably now my favorite FE bow-user. I wasn't sure how I felt about her at first, but then I realized that I can kinda relate to her, and I got really attached. I paired her with Artur and promoted her to a ranger, and they both ended up being some of my best units. Also, she came from a village named Lark, so what's not to love?

But now, I'm going to take a long break from FE until Three Houses comes out.

[Nester the Lark]

BUMP!

I posted this in the shoutbox, but I think it's worth preserving in a post.

Here's an English fan cover of the song "Reincarnation" from Tokyo Mirage Sessions. It's interesting because it suggests what an English dub of the game could have been like. I can easily imagine an English voice actor for Kiria sounding just like this.



This person also did a cover of "The Edge of Dawn" from Fire Emblem: Three houses that's really good, too.

[nocturnal YL]

This is quite interesting indeed. Whenever I listen to English fan covers I often get this weird feeling that something is off, but this is better than that.

I'm under the impression that they wouldn't dub ♯FE even if they have the resource to because of the story setting, but this is an interesting thought.

[Nester the Lark]

Nintendo of America is going to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Fire Emblem with a discussion with some of the English voice actors.

I'm a little disappointed that Joe Zieja (Claude in Three Houses) isn't a part of it.

[Nester the Lark]

Here's the interviews:



This isn't what I expected. I thought it might just be a quick 10-20 minute Nintendo Minute video, but this is much bigger than that. I also wasn't expecting a Fire Emblem Heroes character to be conducting the interviews. Well worth watching, though!

Christian La Monte tells the best story about voicing Ignatz's S-support conversation. (EDIT: I keep writing "S-rank" when I mean S-support.)

[Nester the Lark]

I saw this meme and thought of how YL feels about Shadow Dragon.

[nocturnal YL]

That's pretty much how I feel about Shadow Dragon DS.

[Nester the Lark]

Remember that English fan cover of "Reincarnation" from Tokyo Mirage Sessions (a few posts up)? I just discovered that the person who made it, Nicki Gee, also did an English cover of "She is..." from TMS Encore earlier this year.



I kinda think that the person singing Tsubasa's part doesn't quite fit the character, but otherwise, I think this is a really good cover!

[Nester the Lark]

So, I tried the demo for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. I only went through the Golden Deer route, but all three are available. It took me around four hours.

I haven't really been hyped for this game at all, so I wasn't expecting much, but I have to say, I'm far more interested now. The gameplay finally feels more strategic in the way I liked about the original Hyrule Warriors. It also felt far more polished than the shoddy demos I played for other recent Musou games. Heck, the graphics even look better than Three Houses.

Plus, I have to admit it was nice seeing my Golden Deer kids again.

I still don't think this will be a day one purchase, but I'm considering more seriously about getting it at some point in the future.

[nocturnal YL]

Didn't feel like trying out the demo until this weekend, due to work and other reasons.

The demo is quite long, which reminds me of Age of Calamity. The maps aren't forced to be grid-shaped now, and enemy leaders now have a complex stun gauge with them.

It controls a bit differently from the original Fire Emblem Warriors, since now it has to incorporate skills/magic spells. And yes, switching between this demo, the original FE Warriors and the Ys games is still very confusing.

It looks like the frame rate is dynamic, with the renderer targeting 30 fps but rendering more frames if it can.

From what the demo covers, there doesn't seem to be a big difference between the three sides. Jeritza is always the teacher, and the first task is always to get to the thieves' hideout, although I didn't check what goes beyond that. The story is very different from Three Houses. I picked Edelgard, and from the get go everything was different from Three Houses.

(Edelgard's route in the demo, not really spoilers)

SPOILER: Click to show

Those Who Slither in the Dark were exposed early. They were able to save Monica (no, not Orson's dead wife; the other Monica). And there's an achievement for getting Failnaught. Maybe those carry over between playthroughs, but now I'm wondering if the three groups will eventually meet.

I like the story details it adds to the world of Fódlan. Previously unnamed nobles now have full names and are shown in person, and dead people now get a chance to show their personality. And Byleth is a lot chattier than I thought in their fight with Shez. I'm also glad Shez isn't silent.

There are a lot of minor gameplay details that I like. The weapon triangle is back, though not as an inherent mechanism. Rather, it's done with class skills. Still a lot better than what Three Houses did, which had them as equippable skills unlocked with weapon level, which often end up unused to make room for other skills. And it shows character support levels in more granular details, making it better than every other Fire Emblem title to date. The support level preview for sharing meals and volunteering also do a better job to show how exactly do support levels increase.

Classes are shown in a tree, which hopefully means there are meaningful promotion paths and more final classes. Pegasus Knights and Wyvern Knights don't have straightforward promotion paths in Three Houses.

Looks like I'm going to like this game. If anything, it puts the Fire Emblem part back to Fire Emblem Three Houses, ignoring many of its Echoes-induced weirdness.

EDIT — Also, the speed stat is now actually about speed, unlike in the original Fire Emblem Warriors.