Help a noob in Fire Emblem! [No reward guaranteed]

[Atticus]

Fire Emblem is a franchise that I always wanted to go deeper, but never really did something about it. With the recent announcement of a new FE game coming (I think I read somewhere that it's a remake of FE2?) and FE Heroes coming to mobiles, I decided that it was about time to start playing.

 

I was told that the best game for beginners is FE7, better follow the tips. Downloaded the ROM, I'm currently at chapter 3, and boi, OH BOI.

Just a quick review of the first thirty minutes I spent playing:

 

• I LOVE the OST, I was aware that FE's songs are good but... oh my;

• I am a huge fan of pixels. For me, they're much more appealing than 3D Models. Accordingly, I fell in love with the battle animations, they're just so smooth and cool... I just like them;

• I like the mechanics, they're simple and easy to understand (as of now).

 

Well, here comes the deal: I am the kind of guy that before playing a new generation of Pokémon, for example, I like to be aware of the existance of all the new Pokémon: their types, their evolutions, how to evolve them and where to find them. It makes me feel prepared and I really don't mind knowing these things because all that really matters for me is the plot and the mechanics.

 

After discovering that there are classes in FE (Yes, I was playing the game completely blind), I decided to do some research about the mechanics and other things without getting spoiled.

I discovered some things:

 

• Lyn's story is just a tutorial and the real deal starts at Chapter 11;

• There are MANY units but it's good to use only 10-15 to keep track of EXP;

• To not use Dorcas;

• There are special chapters where you can recruit certain units;

 

See I marked the last one as bold? Yeah.

So, I'm kind of a completionist. You know where I want to go with this, right? I want to know if there's something I can use as a guide to get every_unit.txt

Also, there's this thing called "promotion". Is it like a class upgrade? Do all units promote? Where can I find the items to promote units?

 

I've seen that there are some FE fans around here so I decided to ask for help

thank ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Farnsworth]

FE 7 is definitely NOT the best game for beginners. For someone just starting out, I'd recommend Awakening on Casual mode. But since you've already started FE7 try seeing how far into it you can go. There are plenty of guides out there that explain where to find promotion items, how to recruit characters and how to get certain classes (and what each class does). So try searching for a few guides, just be wary since they may contain spoilers (but usually they separate it by sections so you should be fine).

[5hift]

My first and only FE game was the Sacred Stones.

 

From what my friends tell me, certain classes can change in terms of viability from game to game.

 

I also remember there being that one super OP character you get pretty early on.

 

In the SS, it was Ross. He would absolutely clean house in that game.

[Maelstrom]

A unit can only be promoted if they are a base class unit. If they come to you pre-promoted, well there isn't anything to do about that. For most characters, you have to find or buy the item that lets you promote them and use it on them once they are at least level 10. But most people hold off till later (max level is 20) to promote because they want the stat growths from those level ups and have the best chance of hitting stat caps when they level up after their promotion. (promoted units revert to level 1 but don't lose stats or anything, it just allows for more growth).

 

Finding promotion items can be given by the story missions, or sometimes you have to save villages and they might give one as a reward, but there are shops you sometimes come across that may have one to buy. Keep in mind that they're expensive, and it's part of the challenge that you spend your paltry war chest on things your amy needs- weapons of different strengths (which break after enough uses), healing items, etc. iirc, there's also a thing that gives a rating at the end if you spend less and have a certain amount of gold saved up.

 

Idk about useful guides, but you should definitely browse the wiki for good references and general knowledge, like which characters need to be recruited (and some of them have to be recruited by certain characters).

 

But yeah, Awakening is for sure the game you want if you're a blind beginner to the series.

 

As for the OP character at the beginning, most players end up ditching them, since they're prepromoted but actually have kind of low stats when compared to enemy units and other friendly units late game. someone like ross and boyd, who start off weak usually end up having great stat growths that make them powerful later on. Also, there may have been a unit or two who actually could be promoted twice.

[Damage]

I use Dorcas on every run. Usually drop for Hector though. I don't think you can get all characters in any given run since at the split you go with Eliwood or Hector which means you miss a few units. The game is hard but on a rom its easy since you can always restart like a filthy casual Get your lords to lvl 15 as fast as possible for a better scene. Lastly. The angel of death. Just remember that.

[Sheep]

I dunno guys, I'd probably recommend FE7 out of all of them as the best one to start on. It's reasonably easy without being a cake walk and it has the best tutorial out of any of them ever. It also doesn't do anything extra like pair up, which you're then going to miss in installments that don't have it, it's just the basic formula with a great tutorial. What better start can you ask for?

 

For accessing all of the bonus chapters I'd just use this. Any chapter listed as "chapter numberx" (e.g. 7x) is a bonus chapter and the page of that chapter will tell you how to access it. Just keep an eye on where the bonus chapters come up with respect to where you currently are at. The wiki is also really handy for promotion items, but tbh Fire Emblem isn't a good game franchise to be a completionist on as it's very difficult and counter productive to try and raise each unit to promotion. I'm not even sure that it's possible, and you definitely won't get each unit to the level cap.

[Atticus]

My main doubt was about promotion, but I think I got it by now. It'll be made clearer once I reach the point where I can promote units... I guess

 

Oh, and about Awakening: I WAS going to buy it, but after a deep, long research on google:

and then clicking on the first link that appeared

I decided to go with FE7. But if everything else fails OR I end up finishing the game, I'll buy Awakening afterwards.

 

Thanks for the replies! I think I'll get the rest by myself, but feel free to leave a tip, I'm just a beginner after all - 

[The darn 4th chaos emerald]

Awakening is the best game to start with honestly and I'd recommend it even though it's a huge mixed bag for vets and newcomers. (I like it a lot and will admit its problems.) I also liked Sacred Stones which can be easy if you grind but is still really fun and the characters are pretty good. Fates is.....well... I like it kinda, but Conquest: Meh story, good maps and characters  Birthright: God awful maps, nonexistent strategy (I shake my head at those who actually found it hard) and bad characters, it took everything bad about awakening and upped it to the extreme without retaining anything good. But decent story I guess    Revelations: Oh dear god no. Story practically wrote itself yet they still messed up big time and the game design is some of the worst. Seriously, their idea of challenge is "We're gonna give you these guys who come in too late and too low leveled to catch up and die in one hit and you have to make it past these promoted enemies who are higher than your strongest units with huge stats". It's pay to win basically. Also you're gonna have to fork over 70$ when all 3 are only worth about 40. Shadow dragon is ok, kinda simple though with no supports. However, Fire emblem genealogy of the holy war (The 4th for the snes and I'm pretty sure there is a patched rom for it still) is amazing. Exp is a limited resource, the strategies involved are so great, awesome writing, character pair ups that can make interesting children combinations and are fun to experiment with, and the challenge is for the most part fair. But I'd get used to the series more before trying that one. Honestly fe gba bored me but whatevs. If I had to rank them: 5. fates 4. Shadow Dragon 3. Sacred Stones 2. Awakening 1. Genealogy

[Guzam]

Use your gold wisely. You don't need to worry about it in Lyn's mode too much, but once you hit chapter 11, you really need to watch your gold.

 

I'm also going to inform you about the stealing mechanic rn. Thieves can steal items from enemies if they are faster than them iirc. Not all enemies have stealable items, but if you see a boss or enemy with a stat booster, promotion item, healing item, something that isn't a weapon, etc. you can probably steal it from them. Keep this in mind as it will add value to your thieves and will also help you get some goodies later on.

 

Don't promote early. Unless you absolutely have to.

 

That's about it really. Make sure you have fun.

 

Edit: Apparently this is a "which FE game is the easiest" thread. ooook. Awakening or Birthrout. done. That said, I don't think anyone should start with those games if they plan to play older FE games. Older FE games lack pair ups, child paralogues, and also have things like Con, rescuing and weapon durability. Having to pick up/put down all those after playing awakening or birthrout doesn't seem like a solid idea.

 

Easiest GBA game is Sacred Stones. Difficulty in that game was : I

[Combat]

I started the franchise with FE7 too. It was long, painful, and I never could beat it.

 

Did I mention I had cheats on?

 

Personally, I'd recommend starting with either Awakening or Sacred Stones.

[YinYang9705]

While nowadays FE7 isn't the best game to start with, it at least has a decent tutorial mode known as the 1st 10 or so chapters, due to it being the 1st game in the series released overseas.

 

some tips, never use dorcas, only premote at the level cap, use Marcus only as a meatshield, and there is no shame in looking up the means to unlock the bonus chapters

and if you really get discouraged but the game, play sacred stones, the game allows level grinding and the levels are generally easier

[Ojama Yellow]

8 hours ago, Atticus said:

• I LOVE the OST, I was aware that FE's songs are good but... oh my;

• I am a huge fan of pixels. For me, they're much more appealing than 3D Models. Accordingly, I fell in love with the battle animations, they're just so smooth and cool... I just like them;

• I like the mechanics, they're simple and easy to understand (as of now).

 

basically me, and I also started playing fire emblem with 7.

 

but yeah, fe7 is decently difficult (at least from what ive heard) compared to some other games in the franchise, but its still not that bad to start out with I think. it gives a decent tutorial and everything so you understand the basics, so thats that too.

 

dont spend your gold too hard as soon as lyn mode ends. you dont want to be running low on cash when the good items start appearing in shops.

 

dont promote too early. a common mistake beginners make is promoting their units as soon as they hit level 10 (so as soon as theyre eligible to), but dont do that. promoted units gain much less exp than non-promoted units, so unpromoted ones grow much faster. meaning you can grab more levels on the way- levels that you will likely need.

 

as much as I love dorcas for his memes, yeah. the only reason to ever use him is because he gets extra levels from lyn mode compared to the characters from the next story. because dorcas is really terrible.

 

USE HECTOR. no, seriously. if everything fails, just kick the games ass with hector, because that works. especially in the early stages of eliwood mode. actually, just use all three lords- in some chapters youre forced to bring all of them along, and if you havent grinded them, they may become more of a deadweight rather than an asset.

 

last but not least, sorry if youre a completionist, buddy, but you will NEVER be able to get all the units in fe7 in a single run. two of them are locked to hector mode, which you can only unlock after beating eliwood mode. oh, and there are two cases in which, depending on your decisions, levels, or whatever in the game, one of two recruitable units will spawn. the other unit that didnt spawn will not be recruitable in that run, and wont even appear anymore. you can always only get one of the two, so never both in a single run. this is fe7s way to say 'youre not recruiting everyone in a single run'.

[SJMistery]

6 hours ago, AquaLucario3 said:

Revelations: Oh dear god no. Story practically wrote itself yet they still messed up big time and the game design is some of the worst. Seriously, their idea of challenge is "We're gonna give you these guys who come in too late and too low leveled to catch up and die in one hit and you have to make it past these promoted enemies who are higher than your strongest units with huge stats". It's pay to win basically. Also you're gonna have to fork over 70$ when all 3 are only worth about 40.

It's  basically three diferent games. I liked the story of Revelations, and "pay to win...". That's only if you are incredibly bad at planning the strategy or you are playing Lunatic on the early game, wich I admit is too brutal for it's own good. But, that's the Easy Seize castles giving you an early Replicate Avatar (or absolutely broken Einherjar units if you really suck at the game) are for.

Birthright does not require strategy only if you carry Ryoma, and that also applies to Xander in Conquest. If there is one thing that everybody agrees about Fates is that the five legendary weapons and their respective owners are absolutely broken. which is why I wish they had coded in "bronze weapon variants" for all four, not only the fujin yumi.

 

(On the prologue, Takumi's Fujin is half as strong and cannot crit. I would have done something similar for all four weapons when you get them, and give the player the upgraded versions only after they share their power with the Yato on the Rainbow Sage chapter and the endgame)

Edited January 20, 2017 by SJMistery
i feel like it, it's my post lol.