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Fire Emblem Fates (ask me stuff if you want)


GSR

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Oh hey! Fire Emblem Fates comes out in English next week, and... I still haven't finished the Japanese version! But I know there's a good chunk of FE fans on BZP, so I thought I'd post a bit about the game and let folks ask questions.

 

So what happened was, after starting the game back in June, I got stuck on a certain chapter, life happened, and I put the game down until last month. Then I picked it up and started making real progress, and I'm a few chapters away from the end. So, impressions!

 

Note that I'm playing Conquest, on Hard/Classic.

  • The gameplay is really really really really really really good. This is just such a perfect polish on Awakening's systems, with much improved map variety to help it along.
  • Conquest on hard is hard. In a good way! Enemies will have the perfect skill loadouts to ruin your day if you aren't paying attention. Example: in one recent chapter, the boss was in a small room accompanied by an archer and two paired-up lancers. Your natural instinct might be to have someone go in, hug the wall, and draw the lancers towards them. But the lancers have a skill that lets them swap places with their enemy after a battle - meaning they'd attack you, then drop you right in front of the boss. Oh, and the archer? He had counter, just to keep things interesting.
  • Also, Conquest doesn't let you grind at all. So there's that.
  • The story, on the other hand, is basically
    . Seriously, it's really dumb.
  • The characters are all over the map. Some are pretty decent, some are one-note, some are eye-rolling, and one was so bad that Nintendo had to change one of her support convos in the English version.
  • Following up on that last point, the Japanese version had some honestly kinda skeevy stuff in it. Again, it sounds like Nintendo's toning it down for the localization - which is probably for the best.
  • The marriage/kids system returns! The biggest change this time is that the parents have much less influence on the kids' stats - instead, the kids automatically scale their level depending on where you are in the campaign. This is nice because it ensures the kids will be at a pace with your army when you recruit them - also, the enemies in their sidequests scale as well, so you don't get ridiculously easy/hard maps. That said, I haven't really used them on Nohr, since their support options are so limited if you haven't recruited a bunch of them.
  • The rationale for the kids is pretty dumb, though. Also, if you take the one (1) male gay option, you lose two kids (and their associated sidequests), and if you take the one (1) female gay option, you lose one kid. So that's a bit of a kick in the teeth for players who wanted to pursue a non-straight romance.
  • I don't know if I can entirely say "buying one version is a full game". Length-wise, there seems to be enough bang for your buck - I'm at 30 hours on my file, plus X hours spent on resets, and I've still got about five chapters to go. But the story is really clearly set up to encourage playing at least the two standard versions, and ideally the third (DLC/SE-only) route.

Overall, though? I really like it. The gameplay is just so fantastic that it makes up for the story being weak. I can't wait to hear folks' impressions once it releases in English next week. (I'm also debating if I'll play Birthright once I finish Conquest, or just skip to the third route...)

 

If you've got any questions - or if you've already played yourself - leave a comment!

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The biggest change this time is that the parents have much less influence on the kids' stats - instead, the kids automatically scale their level depending on where you are in the campaign.

 

RIP Eugenics Emblem

 

Edit: Oh, questions

 

I think we all know the most important one

 

Best waifu???

 

*Snaps fingers*

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What is the location of a 2x2 Lego brick named Samantha?

 

Wait, we can be gay in this one? But only one couple? Is it with the player character, and if so, can you choose which character to be paired with?

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I think we all know the most important one

 

Best waifu???

 

*Snaps fingers*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1wg1DNHbNU

 

Wait, we can be gay in this one? But only one couple? Is it with the player character, and if so, can you choose which character to be paired with?

To be clear: there are exactly three bi- (or pan-, or however)sexual characters in the game. The player character, a guy named Niles, and a girl named Rahjat. As the player character (Corrin), you can marry Niles or Rahjat regardless of gender. But at least in terms of gameplay mechanics, every other person in the game is straight. (Including, apparently, the girl whose entire character is how much she loves girls and how much time she spends chasing after them. Yet somehow she can only marry guys. ...Yeah, she's the one who they had to rewrite some of the support convos in the NA release.)

 

Anyway, the downside of marrying Niles as a guy or Rahjat as a girl is that you lose access to Corrin's kid and their sidequest, and since kids are linked to dads in this game by default, by marrying Niles as a guy you lose access to Niles' kid and their sidequest.

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And there lies the dilemma... Do I pursue a gay relationship in the game (finally) or do I just play as female Corrin?

 

Wait, is there more than one save file (like in Awakening)? If so, that makes this decision easier.

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Anyway, the downside of marrying Niles as a guy or Rahjat as a girl is that you lose access to Corrin's kid and their sidequest, and since kids are linked to dads in this game by default, by marrying Niles as a guy you lose access to Niles' kid and their sidequest.

 

Wait

 

So does this mean male Corrin gets a kid their female counterpart doesn't?

 

*Snaps fingers*

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And there lies the dilemma... Do I pursue a gay relationship in the game (finally) or do I just play as female Corrin? Wait, is there more than one save file (like in Awakening)? If so, that makes this decision easier.

There are three save files per path you own, so up to a total of nine. (Be warned: the extra slots you get for downloading more paths are tied to the DLC, so if you uninstall it you lose those slots and the associated saves.) Note that that doesn't mean you can only use each three for a certain route; you could have all three routes bought and nine Conquest saves, for instance.

 

 

Anyway, the downside of marrying Niles as a guy or Rahjat as a girl is that you lose access to Corrin's kid and their sidequest, and since kids are linked to dads in this game by default, by marrying Niles as a guy you lose access to Niles' kid and their sidequest.

 

Wait

 

So does this mean male Corrin gets a kid their female counterpart doesn't?

 

*Snaps fingers*

 

Nope! Let me be more clear: in this game, it's the male characters who are tied to kids by default. But like how male Robin and Chrom had kids in Awakening despite being dudes, in this game female Robin and Azura have kids despite being girls.

 

Thus, if you marry Niles as a guy you lose two kids (Corrin's and Niles'), and if you marry Rahjat as a girl you lose one (Corrin's).

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is the plot still terrible

The story, on the other hand, is basically this. Seriously, it's really dumb.

It's only gotten worse since I wrote that, by the way. There's a lot of moments where the writers clearly wanted plot event X to happen but it made no sense so they crammed in a bunch of contrived circumstances so it would "work".

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