Seconded! I don’t think I’ve taken FE out of my GBA since I bought it a couple of months ago…
I played it non-stop until I finished Eliwood’s campaign. I plan to go back and play Hector’s eventually but I’m building a Pokémon army to rule the world right now! MUHUHAHAHAHA!
–Dave
:([/quote]
Fuck, dude, don’t get me wrong: I think that the perma-death thing is one of the most captivating strategic aspects of Fire Emblem, although I’d personally like it to be a tad more forgiving - maybe rare powerups or something in game that allows you to bring certain chars back to life. However, it would be incredibly frustrating to an 8 year old, which is why Shining Force is so good for that age group - you only have to worry about winning turn-based battles: if a character dies during that time, he’s immediately resurrected after the battle, he just loses out on xp.
Guildboss, if your kid is into Zelda, I’d actually recommend the three GBC Zelda titles (Link’s Awakening DX, Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages) over a Link to the Past. Maybe it’s just me, but they are just a hell of a lot more satisfying, and I even think the art direction is better given the system capabilities of the time.
DrCrypt, I actually picked up Shining Force for Sega Genesis on Ebay a while ago. I just sorta put it on the shelf and forgot about it. I didn’t realize it was available for GBA… ANyway, maybe I’ll just get him set up with SF on the Genesis. Thanks.
:D
I’ve barely even nicked the surface (Chapter 1) but one of the neat little things I liked was that I’m playing a strategist vice a directly controllable character or non-existant overseer. It was pretty cool when Lyn was like “oh, you can’t fight? Oh well, you can just give me orders then.” Don’t think I’ve ever encountered that it in a game before.
Does anyone have any advice for character promotion in Fire Emblem? Is it better to promote your character earlier or when they reach level 20? I know in other games of this type (Shining Force) the rule of thumb is to promote as late as possible, or even not at all.
It’s best to wait as long as you can before promoting, but if you have someone who is not doing so well in battle, promote them early, because the promotion gives a big one-time stat boost.
I agree with Matthew. When I played the Eliwood campaign, I promoted characters as soon as they were able to be promoted (level 10) and didn’t seem to suffer for my decision. Not a single one of my characters had the time to level up to their maximum before I finished the game, anyhow.
Update on hardcore quest: I’m playing Hector’s campaign on “Normal” and am on level 17. Thus far, I’ve only lost the mage Erk. This is probably my tenth attempt at beating this campaign; I kept making dumb decisions in my haste to beat “Normal”, assuming it would be simple. It isn’t so simple, at least not for me.
So let me ask another character-management question while this topic’s on the front page: how do you handle leveling your characters?
Right now I’ve been trying to keep all the characters’ levels balanced. For example, if I have two axemen available to bring into a battle, I’ll choose the lower-leveled one and sit the higher-level guy. The result is that I have a bunch of level-8 characters (I’m at the pirate attack level) and no real standouts.
Would I be better off power-leveling some of my troops? I’m afraid that if I do that and the high-level guys die, I’ll be stuck with an ineffective army of level-3 replacements.
Depends. I tend to choose which characters I like and I’m going to use and I try my best to keep them all equal. I tend to avoid redundancy. (no point in leveling up Barte & Dorcas, esp since you have Hector.) Also, with few exceptions, the weaker a unit starts, the more powerful they become in the end. Pegasus knights, Guy, and magic users all become insanely powerful, while regular knights and other tanks don’t really get that much better. Hector is the major exception - he tends to always be the best character in the game at any point.
-Scott-
This post has certain character spoilers so don’t read if you haven’t finished the game at least once yet.
I always pick certain characters that I like and just use them the whole game, and just make sure I don’t make stupid decisions that cost lives.
The rule of thumb is to always wait till level 20 before promoting, although I’ll promote as early as 18 if it’s a character that’s gotten particularly screwed by the RNG on level-ups. I always end up maxing a few key characters at 20/20 fairly early (Hector, Oswin, Canas, Dart, Karel or Harken, Jaffar, and whichever Pegasus Knight I feel like using this go-around [Farina is usually my favorite]), as well, so waiting till level 20 before promotion gives them better stats overall.
Nino, in particular, is a character that you get that’s very weak at first, but becomes an absolute monster if you promote her at level 20 and build her up to catch up with your main characters (Although I’d argue that Canas with his Dark Magic is better/more useful).
In general, you almost always get several characters that fulfill the same roles on your team, so just pick the ones that you like the most and stick with them, and don’t get them killed. :)
My personal favorites were:
Hector
Lyndis
Canas
Jaffar
Nino
Vaida
Farina
Guy
Raven
Serra
Oswin
Dart
What about the support levels that Bartre and Dorcas can build up? They can’t generate support unless you play them together.
I tend to choose my characters based on what enemies are on the map (e.g. lots of lance enemies, I take my axe characters). But truthfully, I also decide by who is cute; thus, Rebecca, Isadora, Priscilla get chosen a lot!
True, but they aren’t much of a combo. Good combos, imo, match characters that use different weapons and it makes sense to have them next to each other. Fast, useful support levels are:
Lyn/Florina
Hector/Eliwood
Eliwood/Dancing chick (forget her name)
Dart/Rebecca (not that fast, but good together)
Erk or Raven or Lucius/Pricilla (again, not particularly fast, but pricilla is a good one to have support since she’ll be in every level.)
I tend to choose my characters based on what enemies are on the map (e.g. lots of lance enemies, I take my axe characters). But truthfully, I also decide by who is cute; thus, Rebecca, Isadora, Priscilla get chosen a lot!
Don’t use Isadora. Tho cute, she’s already promoted and won’t grow as fast as Kent/Sain. As a general rule, don’t use the upgraded units they provide you. If you keep your original units alive they’ll turn out much better.
-Scott-
My Harken/Vaida combo was pretty fearsome. Harken covers sword and axe, Vaida covers lance and spear.
Oh, and Canas/Pent is almost absurd in magical power.
OTOH, Canas/Vaida may be some of the funniest support convos in the game.
Actually, Vaida in general almost always has funny support convos.
Oh, and Jaffar/Nino is both cute, storywise, and excellent in battle.
That may be good advice for Acoustic Rob, but it’s not like I can help myself. I have a crush.
That may be good advice for Acoustic Rob, but it’s not like I can help myself. I have a crush.[/quote]
You should make sure to get level A support between Isadora and Harken then.
Yeah, if you can manage to ‘not get them killed’, that’s pretty good advice. I tend to get sloppy, though, and get folks killed…so I think I probably need to develop my backups as well. <shrug>
BTW, Ninian’s Dance + Arena + Rescue is a fairly common, albeit abusable, method to build up your weaker characters, especially in non-turn-limited levels.