Author Topic: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - Echos - The Fire Emblem we waited for!  (Read 22189 times)

MewMewHeart

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I would be playing my copy if it wasn't raining so bad and tired from work... so how's everyone doing on their side of the game? ^_^;;
« Last Edit: May 20, 2017, 03:59:26 PM by MewMewHeart »
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commandercool

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #1 on: May 20, 2017, 03:44:15 AM »
I picked mine up but every review I've seen has been preeeeetty mediocre so honestly I'm not in a huge hurry to start. That's not to say I definitely think they're right, might just be a matter of weird expectations, I'm definitely going to play it. I just haven't started yet...
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MewMewHeart

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #2 on: May 20, 2017, 04:41:52 AM »
I picked mine up but every review I've seen has been preeeeetty mediocre so honestly I'm not in a huge hurry to start. That's not to say I definitely think they're right, might just be a matter of weird expectations, I'm definitely going to play it. I just haven't started yet...
Huh... that is pretty interesting with the way people hyped it up I would of expect partial Persona 5 like praise.
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commandercool

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #3 on: May 20, 2017, 05:15:31 AM »
If I'm not mistaken Fire Emblem Gaiden is considered the worst game in the franchise, isn't it?

Nobody I've talked to even really seemed to know Echoes was out, so I guess I can't say I've been seeing too much hype personally. There's definitely a huuuuge difference in hype between waiting nine fucking years for P5 and just a little over a year between Fire Emblems. Maybe the snobbiest and most elitist part of the Fire Emblem community was very excited for it? Although of those that I know personally they won't even look at it because "the franchise is dead to them", so I don't know...
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Kilgamayan

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #4 on: May 20, 2017, 05:30:37 AM »
I've found it reasonably cute so far (my life for Faye), but am only an hour or two in, so who knows where things will go. Being able to actually wander around like I'm playing a 3D Zelda feels weird, but not unwelcomely so.
[22:40:12] <Drake> "guys i donwloaded esod but its not workan"
[22:40:21] <Drake> REPORTED
[22:40:25] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> PROBATED
[22:40:30] <Drake> ORGASM
[22:40:32] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> FUCK YEAH

[22:28:39] <Edible> Mafia would be a much easier game if we were playing "spot the asshole"

BT

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #5 on: May 20, 2017, 07:15:49 AM »
This game is a whole different beast compared to the Awakening/Fates line. It has its own faults, but it's exciting we get this kind of unprofitable love-child project released at all, so hey!

Teewee

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #6 on: May 20, 2017, 03:13:21 PM »
Funny you mention unprofitable, since it sold a third of what Fates did, and apparently IS expected that. Either they expect the DLC sales to make up for it, they expect it to do well in the west, or maybe they were given some breathing room to fail, since Awakening and Fates sold well.

Though, I'm enjoying what I've played of it thus far. Just
Spoiler:
reclaimed Zofia Castle
, and while the gameplay feels a bit outdated at times, I still think its pretty good. This certainly is no Shadow Dragon, at least not too much from what I've seen.

MewMewHeart

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #7 on: May 20, 2017, 03:35:57 PM »
I thought so lol I laugh at the elitist who say this was gonna blow Fates and Awakening out of the water.

@commandercool I had to look at my receipt a little closer about the Alm and Celica amiibo set it's $24.99 almost $25 for the set.

I'll come back with my opinions for the game when I play it although I might have to do that Monday afternoon due to work and plus Sunday I'm going out. I do enjoy the fact that I'm going to experience amiibos at first hand.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2017, 05:59:00 AM by MewMewHeart »
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commandercool

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Re: Fire Emblem: Shadows of Valentia - The Fire Emblem we waited for!
« Reply #8 on: May 20, 2017, 04:19:21 PM »
This certainly is no Shadow Dragon, at least not too much from what I've seen.

Ooh, that makes me much more confident. That's what I was worried about.

I'll pick up the Amiibos for sure if I see them for sale assuming they look cool. Probably won't really use the DLC (I think I scanned my Breath of the Wild Amiibos like twice) but I collect them regardless so whatever.
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Kilgamayan

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I may get the Amiibos if I can find them at a reasonable price. Particularly if I can get just a Celica.

In that vein, Clair is absolutely wonderful. It's a shame there are so few women so far, all of them are great in their own ways.
[22:40:12] <Drake> "guys i donwloaded esod but its not workan"
[22:40:21] <Drake> REPORTED
[22:40:25] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> PROBATED
[22:40:30] <Drake> ORGASM
[22:40:32] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> FUCK YEAH

[22:28:39] <Edible> Mafia would be a much easier game if we were playing "spot the asshole"

MewMewHeart

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  • Just chilling like a hermit.
I may get the Amiibos if I can find them at a reasonable price. Particularly if I can get just a Celica.

In that vein, Clair is absolutely wonderful. It's a shame there are so few women so far, all of them are great in their own ways.
So far I only know they have the Alm and Celica amiibos in a set.

Wow the Season pass dlc is only 526 blocks of data!

Edit: So far I'm having fun especially with the dungeons!
« Last Edit: May 21, 2017, 02:04:24 AM by MewMewHeart »
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commandercool

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Started my game earlier but got interrupted before I got to any combat. Picked up my Amiibos at thr store earlier though.
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commandercool

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I'm like ninety minutes in (toward the end of the first dungeon) and I don't like how slow this game is rolling out explaining all of its weird mechanics...

Am I supposed to not promote my units until they level cap like in other Fire Emblem games? And if not, what's the level cap for Villager?
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MewMewHeart

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I'm like ninety minutes in (toward the end of the first dungeon) and I don't like how slow this game is rolling out explaining all of its weird mechanics...

Am I supposed to not promote my units until they level cap like in other Fire Emblem games? And if not, what's the level cap for Villager?
I just promoted mine ASAP however Imma have to make Tobin an archer thankfully I have an extra save at the Thieves Shrine. But from what I read on Gamefaqs most people promoted there's either now or at level 10+ due to stat gain issues on villagers.
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Kilgamayan

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Yeah, I promoted ASAP because none of the villagers were gaining meaningful stats while they were villagers. Gains in more than one stat were abnormal.
[22:40:12] <Drake> "guys i donwloaded esod but its not workan"
[22:40:21] <Drake> REPORTED
[22:40:25] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> PROBATED
[22:40:30] <Drake> ORGASM
[22:40:32] <NaturallyOccurringChoja> FUCK YEAH

[22:28:39] <Edible> Mafia would be a much easier game if we were playing "spot the asshole"

commandercool

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Oof, been playing too much Fire Emblem Heroes so the weird Echoes archers are hard for me to handle. I keep running them adjacent to the enemy to attack because I expect them to smart path...
I made a PADHerder. It's probably out of date though.

I just promoted mine ASAP however Imma have to make Tobin an archer thankfully I have an extra save at the Thieves Shrine. But from what I read on Gamefaqs most people promoted there's either now or at level 10+ due to stat gain issues on villagers.
Yes it's an odd system.
What happens on unit promotion is all stats go up to new class's minimum values (or stay the same if above them)
So promote straight away or wait for ages DO NOT TAKE THE MIDDLE GROUND!!


BT

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I have been enlightened by mother mila and so can you if you listen to the full game soundtrack oh my god

MewMewHeart

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Gonna have to explore more before anything else! For now it's off to dreamland with me.
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commandercool

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I've been enjoying the game a lot so far. I'm a couple of hours in, and it's very different from the Fire Emblem I'm used to but certainly not in a bad way. The individual encounters feel kind of stripped down and simple, but they're also very quick so they don't necessarily feel boring. Not sure if they'll become more complex throughout the game, but the unit abilities will at least develop to add some depth. "Quick" is not generally how I'd describe Fire Emblem, but only one stage so far has been more than a couple of minutes.

Is it just me or are clerics amazingly powerful? Two clerics can infinitely chain-heal each other to grind up relationship and experience (no idea if that tapers off after a while, but I've milked a ton of experience out of it without really dedicating any time specifically to it) and Nosferatu is extremely good in Echoes. I feel like I could throw a cleric into the middle of a lot of maps solo and have a decent shot at winning provided their shaky accuracy doesn't fuck me too badly. Plus they get infinite uses of very powerful support skills like Warp. I have two and am almost starting to think three would be worth it.

And as powerful stuff goes, the game just throws you a Levin Sword very early on, in a game with no weapon durability, and just lets you go nuts with it with seemingly no downside. I'm playing on hard but the game certainly doesn't feel hard yet, it seems like it's pretty generous with powerful abilities and items.

The game flow is pretty different form normal Fire Emblems in that most of the time all enemies on the map will rush toward you starting on turn one, rather than waiting for you to come to them or being easily baited. That helps contribute to the "plays very quickly" thing but also makes battles feel more intense because if you fuck around you can get completely surrounded in just a turn or two. It's interesting. Not sure I prefer it over more complex terrain and enemy formations, but it's a nice change of pace.
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MewMewHeart

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Had to pause at Zofia castle gate, but I'm enjoying the fights and dungeons although the maps are so... how can I say full of deadspace.
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commandercool

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Speaking of clerics being the best unit type:

(Mechanical spoilers for toward the beginning of Celica's campaign.)

Spoiler:
What the fuck is up with Incarnate?! As far as I can tell it's a spammable-ish spell you can just cast to win the map.

For those who haven't seen it, it's the Summoner ability from Sacred Stones but it fills as many adjacent squares as possible and the phantoms are MUCH stronger. The downside is that you can't control them so they sponge experience, but they just swarm all over everything and win the map singlehandedly. And if not, then you can just wait for them to kamikaze and CAST IT AGAIN! The lost experience would be a huge deal except that you can grind experience in this game, so... This ability can't be as good as I think it is, right? Maybe the phantoms don't scale so you can't just sweep everything with them after enemies become a little more powerful? Maybe the game takes it away after a few levels (possibly along with Alm's free, unbreakable Levin Sword)?

I don't think these phantoms are as AI-breaking as the Sacred Stones ones since they have more than one HP, so enemies won't necessarily ALWAYS feel compelled to attack them over less disposable units, and because enemies tend to all blitz you anyway they're not as useful for baiting, but they clog the map up so much that enemies will never get close to you anyway. And Echoes has a lot of very long-range weapons, so you can snipe enemies through your regenerating mass of disposable soldiers. Christ.
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MewMewHeart

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Spoiler:
So.... I'm pretty tempted to take on the Sea Side shrine on Celica's route should go back to it later, is not necessary, or it's plot relevant later?
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commandercool

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Spoiler:
So.... I'm pretty tempted to take on the Sea Side shrine on Celica's route should go back to it later, is not necessary, or it's plot relevant later?

Spoiler:
I just finished it. It nets you a pretty strong magic ring, a magic sword of some kind (haven't unlocked any of its abilities yet), a few stat bonus springs, some money, a renown bonus (whatever that is), some experience, and a memory crystal that gives some backstory that you already know if you've been paying attention. No idea if any of that is important in the larger scheme, I assume the sword is good because the game kept mentioning it.

If Celica knows Seraphim, which she learns pretty quickly from leveling up, then you're already ready to do it. You weirdly have to do the boss fight the second you select it so the hard part is frontloaded. You might as well just save and give it a shot to see if you can beat it now.

Edit: Okay, nevermind, you don't have to unlock the sword abilities. It gives
Spoiler:
massive bonuses against terrors and regenerates five of the user's HP every turn. Not sure if anyone but Celica can use it. So yeah, seems pretty fucking great.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2017, 12:52:38 AM by commandercool »
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Reddyne

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I blessedly had more free time than usual this weekend and picked this up pretty much as soon as I could. The game has its flaws and is mechanically out of my comfort zone, but still lots of fun. Took me a good bit too long to figure out that skills learned from a particular weapon are sidelined when swapping to another weapon. Also I will continue to have an existential crisis when it comes to promoting units. I got the villager classes and difficulty right on the first try at least.

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theshirn

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Everything else about the game aside, the production values are A+++.  Game looks and sounds gorgeous, voicework is top-notch, Mae and Gray are superb, translation knocked it out of the park (good to have 8-4 back after Treehouse and Fates combining for a dumpster fire).  A little ways into Act 4 right now and the new music aaaaaaaaaa

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MewMewHeart

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Spoiler:
I just finished it. It nets you a pretty strong magic ring, a magic sword of some kind (haven't unlocked any of its abilities yet), a few stat bonus springs, some money, a renown bonus (whatever that is), some experience, and a memory crystal that gives some backstory that you already know if you've been paying attention. No idea if any of that is important in the larger scheme, I assume the sword is good because the game kept mentioning it.

If Celica knows Seraphim, which she learns pretty quickly from leveling up, then you're already ready to do it. You weirdly have to do the boss fight the second you select it so the hard part is frontloaded. You might as well just save and give it a shot to see if you can beat it now.

Edit: Okay, nevermind, you don't have to unlock the sword abilities. It gives
Spoiler:
massive bonuses against terrors and regenerates five of the user's HP every turn. Not sure if anyone but Celica can use it. So yeah, seems pretty fucking great.
Spoiler:
That Cantor sure was helpful because with a bit of grinding  for the Seaside Shrine, I cheaped it out due to learning Seraphim although the dragon did whack Mae thank god I was playing on casual. I got everything out of the shrine including grinding my units a bit.
« Last Edit: May 24, 2017, 01:41:06 AM by MewMewHeart »
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commandercool

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Spoiler:
That Cantor sure was helpful because with a bit of grinding  for the Seaside Shrine, I cheaped it out due to learning Seraphim although the dragon did whack Mae thank god I was playing on casual. I got everything out of the shrine including grinding my units a bit.

Spoiler:
I don't think using Seraphim is "cheaping out". I'm pretty sure it's virtually impossible without and the game basically tells you as much. My units could do a couple of damage max while getting huge chunks taken out of them, and the boss regenerates fast so chip damage is not practical.

The dragon? Was there only one dragon for you?
« Last Edit: May 24, 2017, 01:57:07 AM by commandercool »
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MewMewHeart

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Spoiler:
I don't think using Seraphim is "cheaping out". I'm pretty sure it's virtually impossible without and the game basically tells you as much. My units could do a couple of damage max while getting huge chunks taken out of them, and the boss regenerates fast so chip damage is not practical.

The dragon? Was there only one dragon for you?
Spoiler:
Yeah, I'm playing on Normal.
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Reddyne

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I just promoted mine ASAP however Imma have to make Tobin an archer thankfully I have an extra save at the Thieves Shrine. But from what I read on Gamefaqs most people promoted there's either now or at level 10+ due to stat gain issues on villagers.
I did some quick and dirty number crunching on this and found out that the average stat gains per level was R O U G H L Y 2.3. This is a big improvement from the 1.5 or so from the original Gaiden, but still small in comparison to others. Blazing Sword clocked in at 2.9 and Awakening was about 3.2. Mind you, Resistance has ALMOST no growth and I'm not fully satisfied with the numbers because I just took a handful of character growths and threw them into Excel. It doesn't factor in everything.

Everything else about the game aside, the production values are A+++.  Game looks and sounds gorgeous, voicework is top-notch, Mae and Gray are superb, translation knocked it out of the park (good to have 8-4 back after Treehouse and Fates combining for a dumpster fire).  A little ways into Act 4 right now and the new music aaaaaaaaaa
The voicework is probably my favorite of the games with it which is pretty high praise. The localization is a step up and I never cared if it wasn't perfect. Animation and artwork is a cut above the other 3DS FE games. The remixed tunes make the most of the original material. Some of the maps show their age but you can still take advantage of terrain and stuff. Likewise, some fights devolve into slugfests, but you can still strategize your way out of a pickle. So many characters work well together and have personalities that are fun to watch bouncing against others. Alm is a suprisingly fiery lead with his own quirks and even people like Lukas, Forsyth, and Clive have their own moments that give them individuality. I like the inclusion of supports but I wish there were more even if they were debuffed as a result seriously accuracy boosts on mages and even archers is semi-broken. Also there's some loose talk of more FE games being remade like this, coming from the higher-ups. I'm trying to find the GamExplain vid with the interview but it's not workan. :(

Spoiler:
Yeah, I'm playing on Normal.
Spoiler:
Honestly, if you wish to try it, I would encourage playing on Hard. It's not punishing (yet. I'm on Chapter 2) and has been more satisfying to play from my experience. This coming from someone who usually retreats to Normal after the first couple maps in other FE games.

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