Games you are playing

[Etrian Veteran]

[Ninten]

Yeah, I heard that Canada already has Fire Emblem: Awakening.

[zamisk]

Sacred Stones was just... Stressful. I couldn't enjoy the awesome characters and world and stuff because I was freaking out about people dying and stuff. I know you can just re-load your file, but I just couldn't enjoy it. Anyways: did not enjoy ≠ too hard

Also, I was discussing this with my friends, and sorted out my top 5 games, unless I'm forgetting something major.

Top 5:
1. The Wind Waker
2. Kid Icarus Uprising
3. Dragon Quest IX
3. Etrian Odyssey II
5. The World Ends With You

My favorite older game would be the original Sonic, and my favorite MMO for a while has been DCUO. Not sure if those count in the same way. What is your top 5, ItL?

[Ninten]

You know Awakening has a "Casual mode" where permadeath doesn't exist?

Also, as for my top 5. (Not in order)
1. Killer7
2. Breath of Fire: Dragon Quarter
3. Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne
4. MOTHER/EarthBound Zero
5. Monkey Island 2

[Hong]

[Skele Von Mann]

Well that's enough gushing about my top 5.



Also god, reinforcements moving on the same turn. Don't know when or where they're coming from? Having fun resetting when that one wyvren knight decides to say hi to your healer.


Oh and that lucky 1% crit.

[Maxine MagicFox]

1. A Link to the Past
2. Kingdom Hearts 2
3. Dark Cloud 2
4. Etrian Odyssey
5. The World Ends with You

[PLA]

1. That one.
2. The other one.
r. A thing.
&. But left.

[scy]

[ZetaBladeX13]

1. Thunder Force IV
2. La-Mulana
3. Cave Story
4. Golden Axe II
5. Dark Souls



?. Imperishable Night
?. A Link to the Past
?. Megaman X
?. Jet Set Radio Future
?. Streets of Rage, Battletoads, TMNT, [insert beat-em-up here]

?. one of the other 1,000+ games I own :V


Edit: Just realized how much I subconsciously care about RPGs (very little, evidently), so:

?. Chrono Trigger
?. The Legend of Dragoon
?. Etrian Odyssey
?. Dragon Quest (I)
?. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles

[Hong]

I hope my post did not come across as too elitist, but scy is correct. The easier difficulties are the ideal option for newcomers to the series: Not only are the enemy stats toned down, but the game will run you through the basics of Fire Emblem and provide some advice. If that were not lenient enough, the Casual difficulty will not have you resetting your game with every unit that has fallen. You can just play straight through the game, at your luxury, without having to replay a chapter over just because you accidentally left your Pegasus Knight 1 tile too close to that Archer which was off screen.

Of course, you will still need to apply some level of tactical foresight. Nearly any RPG will have you control a cast of characters, each with their own strength and weaknesses. What changes with Fire Emblem, is the increased emphasis on positioning. Having the right units in the right place is everything. Compared to basic RPG affairs such as Etrian Odyssey, Final Fantasy (sans Tactics), Breath of Fire, etc., at most you are concerned with perhaps rows and order... something generally static in nature. One of the biggest beginner traps is players do not assume the worst outcome of a probability: Do not leave a unit close to the enemy if there is even a small chance they could die. Consider avoidance as a fortune and injury as negligence.

Fire Emblem can seem hard for people who have not had the most tactical prowess in the past. Nothing to be ashamed of. I, for example, am absolutely terrible at rhythm games. I do have any fun because I am not getting any better, and I am not getting better because I am not having fun. On the other hand, even if I suck at shooters, I am able to find a way to make them work. If you are generally a more hardcore gamer who takes things to the hardest difficulty, you may or may not have a bad time if you try to take on too much with Fire Emblem without a background in strategy.

I encourage anyone to at least download the demo of Awakening and try it out. Others who have had bad experiences with the Fire Emblem in the past have generally enjoyed it. Not going to promise you will suddenly like the series, but Intelligent Systems is really trying something new... so at least you will know if the unforgiving nature of the series was all that was stopping you from enjoying it.

Unfortunately, despite it already being released at some locations in Canada, that does not seem to be the case around here. :/ Going to have to wait for the release date proper.

[PLA]

^ Both Strum-battles in Advance Wars are like wooden walls to me. The blood from my face may eventually cause enough moisture-damage to beat them.

[Reynard-Miri]

A complaint I've heard about Fire Emlem, and it seems fairly accurate for Sacred Stones, is that it's more of a puzzle game than a strategy game. With the exception of the occasional scipted movement patterns (cavalry that appear behind you part way through the level and move along the same path you need to, for example), enemies typically only move if you are within range of their attacks. And when they do, it's highly predictable who they will go for. The AI seems incapable of thinking beyond it's own turn.

Still had a lot of fun with it. All hail the mage drop.

[Ninten]

[PLA]

^ That battle is all a blur of death and debris to me. :3