Chasing the Future: Hunter Plays Fire Emblem Awakening (Interest Check)

[Chase]

"You should really play Awakening." - Amethyst, 2015

"Oh my god, seriously, just play Awakening..." - Amethyst, 2016

 

 

...well, fine....

 

---

 

Why DO you want to play Fire Emblem Awakening, Hunter?

 

I want to play Fire Emblem Awakening because I started my fanboying over the Fire Emblem series with a game that isn't ideal for beginners, even if it was the easier of the two paths. Fates is a fantastic game - but with regards to it's place in the franchise it may be something that's one of it's kind - and it may be something that doesn't help me transition to other games as well as it's predecessor will. Awakening is available for the 3DS and is still sold in stores today, making it easy to pick up at the moment in comparison to Fire Emblem for the GBA, which is what I PERSONALLY would recommend to newer players myself. (I assume that's the game with Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn....I hope. It's THAT game that I would recommend to other players.)

 

I also told Ame that I would - and after playing a ton of Fire Emblem Heroes, I spent a lot of my weekend studying over this game and what I would like and dislike about it. I must say. I'm intrigued.

 

Why are you making a thread about your playthrough?

 

I'm making a thread about the game NOW because I would ideally like to play the game and have you guys critique and comment on my play and decision making as I go. One of the reasons I'm inspired to play this game is how well FE:A was received by the community when it came out and how for a while, it was "Waifu Wars I" that dominated the server chat over League of Legends, Memes, and Rule 7. I missed out, and I'm going to atone for my sins.

 

 

What do you like about Awakening before even purchasing it for yourself?

 

Unlike Awakening, the My Unit Tactician is actually important WITHOUT being the main driver of the story - and when they DO drive it, they don't utterly botch the job. It's essentially what Fates tried to re-create in terms of making Corrin important (....like...much else of Fates...) without giving Robin exalt blood and the "Lord" class.

 

I also like how it (possibly) fits in the potential Fire Emblem timeline, combining the worlds of Marth, Ike, Lyn, Alm and Celica, and Corrin to form the equivalent of the three-way timeline split you find the Legend of Zelda timeline. That's a lot of lore to digest, and I like me some lore....damn it....

 

Finally, the game features a "so-so" execution of the Second Generation Unit mechanic. It's not as well done as Genealogy of the Holy War, but it's much more forgivable than Fates in that regard. Some of this games most intriguing characters are child units.

 

Which Robin is "canon" in your opinion, Hunter? Male - or Female?

 

Awakening's tactician's gender is actually pretty important with regards to it's singular lore - and the lore of the Fire Emblem franchise outside of it - and it also changes Robin's personality between the Smooth Micheal Jackson Criminal dudebro and the delightfully feminazi super smart definitely attractive dude-not-bro. Both characters are 100% more refreshing than Corrin.

 

In terms of the entire Fire Emblem franchise, I would say that Robin's generic Smash skin is the canon Robin (Sorry, ladies.) - because of a particular theory involved regarding Mark (the same Mark that is found by Lyn at the beginning of FE7) and Female Morgan being "twins". However, the somewhat intimate nature between Chrom and Robin makes a lot more sense if Robin is female (sorry Yaoi-preferred Chrobin fanboys/girls), making a better Awakening story that feels canon to itself.

 

It's a matter of perspective.

 

Which Robin are you playing as, and who is your Waifu/Husbando?

 

I will be playing the game TWICE.

 

1st playthrough - Female Robin, marrying Chrom. - This renders a very good Lucina that is tasked with potentially committing matricide to prevent Chrom from dying like what happens in the future she came from. It also makes fighting Grima in The Future Past a particularly heartwrenching scene for Lucina. (Lucina is my favorite character in this game. And yes, she's my Sm4sh main. I like clones.)

 

2nd playthrough - Male Robin, marrying Lissa. - WHOA WHOA WHOA Hunter?!?. You're a lolicon now? You're just thirsty for that Exalt booty? WHAT'S YO DEAL MAN?...

 

...actually, there's a story reasoning behind this too (and Lissa's cute in an adorkable sort of way, aight?) - only this time, pertaining to the game I started this franchise with. Fates. Owain eventually is warped into the land of Nohr to track down Corrin and assist her/him (as Nohr!Corrin is canonically Female.) - becoming "ODIN DARK."..... Odin uses a lot of adjectives that align with Nohr's darkness theme, but he has a penchant for one term in particular.... "Fell". The My Unit in Awakening is essentially the human embodiment (er....vessel?) of the Fell Dragon, Grima. Meaning, it would totally make sense if there was Fell Dragon blood in Owains veins. I call this playthrough #MakeOwainGreatAgain (because Odin was my first experience with Owain.)

 

First Gen Units you're likely to use?

 

Robin

Chrom

Lissa

Virion

Vaike

Donnell

Lon'qu

Maribelle

Gaius

Anna

Cordelia

Gregor

Olivia

Tharja

Libra

Cherche

 

Second Gen Units you're likely to use?

 

Lucina

Morgan

GEROMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Severa

Owain

Inigo

Brady

Laurent

Kjelle

 

Favorite Villain?

 

Aversa

 

Favorite Music Tracks?

 

Id (Sorrow) - "Lucina's Judgement"

"Such Bonds are the True Strength of This Army" - support music

"Don't speak her name!" - Battle music

 

 

 

 

 

[Sheep]

Ayy you're gonna play Awakening! A few thoughts of mine:

 

RIP Stahl the main bro of all of Fire Emblem. I am surprised that you're forgoing a cavalier altogether though, most people use Sully because she joins super early and doesn't have a Y chromosome. No cavaliers and no Sumia means your early game is going to be trudging along at a snail's pace, though it's not like Awakening is Genealogy so that really doesn't matter (for the record Genealogy has HUGE maps and cavalry/fliers are completely mandatory).

 

I am glad you want to use Maribelle and Brady though, those two are a couple of my favourite characters from this game, their supports are a lot of fun. 

 

I'll definitely read along and give my thoughts though, Awakening isn't my favourite Fire Emblem game but I do like it a lot (contrary to a lot of other people who have played the games I've played), and I'm always going to be interested in you playing new FE games.

[Chase]

Yeah. It's mainly an aesthetic choice coupled with the fact that I don't really like Sully. Stahl is fine - but he's not Silas and he still has to deal with that toilet store riding gear.

 

if I'm going to use a cavalry unit - it's going to be Frederick. Frederick doesn't look like a dunce. (Rip early game.)

 

Seriously Ylisse. What the hell are your cavaliers and knights being armored with.

 

Sumia can shove her pies on the butt end of her lance. Talk about forced Chrom pairing.

 

---

 

I don't really care for any of the original Shepards save for Chrom, Kellam, and Maribelle. Then Kellam walks around in the most disrespectful armor design ever. And Maribelle is a staff lock at first.

 

I fully expect a rough early game.

 

---

 

That being said - the Feroxi/ Plegia/Valmese joins (Lon'qu/Olivia/Tharja/Cherche/Say'ri) as well as Cordelia and Libra are pretty cool.

 

Most of the kids are pretty neat too. Cherche is best girl and her son literally Batman. Kjelle is essentially discount Effie. Lucina is my favorite character. Then there's the Fates reprisals. Good 2nd gen cast.

 

except Cynthia.

 

 

[Maelstrom]

Excuse you, Effie is discount Kjelle. For me, Cherche was just kinda there in the background, cuz Virion was doing his best to hog the limelight. Well, until you get some supports in and hear about her and Minerva.

 

Gregor was probably one of my favorite units, even though the game practically ships him with Nowie at the beginning for the dichotomy of appearances and age. If you look at his supports, they use his age/experience to make him the down to earth guy who helps the others learn the things they need to learn- with an endearing accent and way of speaking.

 

Yeah... please, not cynthia. she's just... no.

 

Hmm, never found a use for Libra, especially since I got him way after turning Gregor into an axe unit to take advantage of his str and skill as well as already using Vaike. Speaking of Vaike, he's one of those silly dudebrowannaberival guys

 

I don't find Severa interesting, but then I think her being yandere AF is overrated and overdone. I get yanderes are all over the place cuz it adds in some variety and silly situations, but I get sick of it quick.

 

Now that you mention Brady, I'd say he's a sort of prototype for Benny. I can see why Sheep likes him.

[Chase]

I'm no mega weeb or anything - but Severa is Tsun. Perhaps you were thinking about Tharja? I happen to think she's more appealing than Henry or the non-dark Mages as a unit. 

 

I'm with ya on Gregor though. He's pretty cool.

 

I happen to like the War Monk class.

[Ikaru]

>units of interest include Cordelia Maribelle Anna Olivia Severa Owain Inigo

There are Tharja some I can't Aversa forgive, and I'm also a little sad you didn't include a couple things but only Tiki really comes to mind immediately; but that aside the list looks pretty good. I'm down for this to be a thing.

 

Frederick is a special case as far as the typical prepromote exp sink goes because second seals exist and can drop his level back to 1 should you so choose to use one of the first couple on him. Personally I would probably do that for Maribelle (or Lissa) but I always make them Pegasus Knights to go into Dark Flier, so that would be even harder probably... 

 

And yes, Severa is absolutely tsun don't you ever mix those two up again, Mael. It's like you're not even a fkn loser like me. Come on.

[Sheep]

3 hours ago, Chase said:

and he still has to deal with that toilet store riding gear.

 

I KNOW THIS FEEL SO MUCH!

 

2 hours ago, Chase said:

I happen to like the War Monk class.

 

I actually used Libra once and he was pretty good, not as good as the best but not as bad as the worst either. I think you'll really like his character though.

 

1 hour ago, Ikaru said:

Frederick is a special case as far as the typical prepromote exp sink goes because second seals exist and can drop his level back to 1 should you so choose to use one of the first couple on him.

 

Yeah this is pretty true, as far as Oifeys go Frederick probably sits around the same level as FE7 Marcus. My opinion on the full ranking looks something like Titania>Seth>Marcus=Frederick>Oifey with the rest of the early game prepromotes being Jagens rather than Oifeys.

[Chase]

So. I think I probably -will- second seal Frederick (debating between Wyvern and Cav) - because I do want him to marry Cordelia. (Because nobody deserves to be paired with Sumia.)

 

1. This makes Severa a fantastic Hero, which is the class I wanted to use her in.

2. Aegis+Pavis, Open Combat, Luna

3. Only issue is that this makes Selena slow, which isn't canon - but I'll be okay.

 

While I wasn't keen on Forrest, Libra is an awesome character.

 

I don't know who I should pair Gregor with.

[YinYang9705]

4 hours ago, Chase said:

So. I think I probably -will- second seal Frederick (debating between Wyvern and Cav) - because I do want him to marry Cordelia. (Because nobody deserves to be paired with Sumia.)

 

Excuse you, sumia!lucina is awesome,

 

4 hours ago, Chase said:

I don't know who I should pair Gregor with.

as far as options go, I actually get a decent amount of millage with him and nowi.

[Chase]

Sumia's worst gril, man. "Hi Chrom I like you Chrom saved your life Chrom here's some pie Chrom marry me Chrom?"

 

(Chrolivia all the way, Inigo4President)

 

Speaking of forced pairings, Gregor and Nowi has the same thing as Sumichrom due to being shoehorned in the same chapter together - but both personalities are fun. I personally think Cherche should go to Gregor (Great Irish Rainbows, Batman!) after doing some personal consideration. And his support with Tharja is hilarious and great. And his support with FemRobin is just gold. So. The jury is still out on this on.

 

Is Vaike Sully a good pairing?

[Sheep]

As far as Gregor supports go Cherche is hands down the best conversation imo and that's usually how I marry him off. Sumia isn't so much worst girl as she is subjected to a terrible support conversation chain with Chrom, I actually rather like her convos with Male Robin and Gaius. The best partner for Cordelia is objectively Robin Stahl because Stahl!Severa is the best Severa there is except for Robin!Severa, but I'd understand if you don't want to marry outside of the people you're using.

 

Is Vaike Sully good? Kjelle looks like she'll turn out well but I can't speak for the conversation. Kjelle will have good HP, Str, Skl, and Spd growths but will have low Def for a General. That's par for the course with Kjelle though, Sully does it to her and it's hard to reverse, you might want to slip her over into Paladin or Assassin to take advantage of her growth distribution.

[Chase]

I wish Sully didn't wear a toilet bowl lid around her neck and hurt her child. I like her tomboyish "she's the man" ....cavalier... demeanor. That's about though. 

 

See Mael. That sounds like discount Effie to me.

 

I want to go with Frederick for Cordelia. Stahl's a fine gent and gives Severa the speed she wants, but I like bulkier heroes.

 

I may want to pair up Tharja with someone. The two notable archers in this game are Virion and Noire. And screw Virion. If I keep Noire as a bow user- who would help her out?

 

Yep. Going Gregor and Cherche.

[Sheep]

17 minutes ago, Chase said:

I may want to pair up Tharja with someone. The two notable archers in this game are Virion and Noire. And screw Virion. If I keep Noire as a bow user- who would help her out?

 

Gaius? Offers a good balance of Str, Skl, and Spd, and gives her access to Assassin if she wants an alternate bow using class. I like her as Bow Knight though.

[Chase]

I forgot assassin was a thing in this game. Fatesprobs.

 

Anyway. I will buy the game -THIS. WEEK.- then. Never really thanked you guys for the support - so Thanks! I appreciate it!

[Chase]

 

It's happening!

[Maelstrom]

How hardcore you doing this? Cuz you could get the money or exp dlc's. They really only speed up things you could do by doing those random enemies on cleared map anyways.

[Chase]

I'm trying to do this run without DLC, but I'm also only playing the game on normal classic.

 

Chrobin support thus far: B.

 

Just got Donny. This guy reminds me of home and I dig the pot headgear. To raise him up - I opted to have Kellam backpack him for extra defence and follow Hunter or Stahl around to pick up some experience. I like trainee units like he and Mozu - but it's gotta be the villager-bumpkin theme.

 

Units I like so far

 

Chrom (he's so dreamy.)

Lissa

Stahl

Vaike

Virion

Donnel

Kellam

Myself (OP)

 

Dislike

 

Sumia (great unit though.)

 

[Sheep]

Yeah Donny's a really lovable character, some of his crit quotes are fantastic. What happened to Frederick though? Didn't like him as much as you thought you would?

[Ikaru]

>flaw: defense

ohhhhh no.

[Chase]

I read somewhere that your mods in general are affected by your Asset/Flaw decisions as opposed to just those two selected stats.

 

- Luck was going to be my flaw originally, but I saw that it made magic mods worse as well, whereas defense left the avatar's strength and magic mods in a favorable spot. Robin being able to abuse both stats seems more fun to me over Robin tanking everything.

 

- Chrom is a good father and will help Lucina with the physical defense some. I just wanted to leave Tactician Lucina an option.

 

- Morgan is in the same boat as Robin. He'll need to use tomes with reckless abandon.

 

[Ikaru]

That's fair enough, I'm just having flashbacks to Birthright where I didn't look things up in advance and just chose an asset/flaw that I thought fit me (since they were less obvious than in awakening); my avatar had 15 defense and 10 res at the end of the game because I ended up +mag -def.

[Chase]

Oh yeah, .... I remember that screenshot.... ouch. At least you like magic.

 

---

 

So, Here's some progress.

 

ChromXHunter - S

 

This support isn't anything special due to the eschewing of character development for comic relief. FemRobin and Chrom essentially go through the "Well, now we've seen all there is to see of each other, so there's nothing to hide." schtick, and then get hitched. Fates would later immortalize this support by making it a feature in MyCastles for nearly it's entire cast to experience with Corrin. I currently approaching the final stretch of Em's arc - with a sacrificial stage dive, a battle against an unwilling pursuing Plegian force set to the tune of "Don't Speak Her Name!", and a Wild West Showdown with the Mad King standing in between the official "scene" Chrom has over his wedding and my current progress, so the two are essentially only getting max pair up bonuses, should I opt for them to use them.

 

Gameplay wise, pairing these two up and turtling maps happened somewhat to expedite the support, but both characters were so good that they didn't even need to pair up all the time - allowing me to switch it up to help other characters as soon as the S was reached.

 

FredXCordelia - C

 

I can already tell this is going to be a decent support chain.

 

Here's what happened to Frederick, Sheep. I didn't want to use Freddy until I Second Sealed him. I did - to Cavalier. Cav allows him to wield his Silver Lance and keep his movement over Knight. I didn't want to use Wyvern until I got Cherche, which is a substantial ways into the playthrough. Frederick still has insane damage output, but he isn't shrugging off enemies and he might get a little more experience now, which helps his stats a tad. Cordelia might be the best recruitment unit-wise. She's very, very, very good.

 

VaikexSully - nothing yet.

 

Gaius - Currently buddying with Chrom so that he can get some experience. His wielding swords over hidden weapons in this game is nice, as it allows him to actually kill things. Tharja joins in the next chapter, so he won't be stuck shadowing Blue for too much longer.

 

----

 

I really like Gregor, Maribelle, Gaius, and Cordelia at the moment. I may get some paralogue maps in right now, so I can push Donnel and hopefully second seal him to Merc.

 

---

 

Comments on the Emmeryn arc:

 

It's somewhat well written - and perhaps the nicest touch is Plegia becoming demoralized by having forced a peacekeeping ruler to her death. I don't like that Aversa practically douses the effort of the player to MAKE it to Emmeryn successfully by summoning arrow wielding Risen to take out the Peg Knights intending to rescue the exalt, as well as put pressure on Chrom to forfeit anyway - but I see what Intsys wanted with this arc.

[Sheep]

2 hours ago, Wheat said:

FredXCordelia - C

 

I can already tell this is going to be a decent support chain.

 

Here's what happened to Frederick, Sheep. I didn't want to use Freddy until I Second Sealed him. I did - to Cavalier. Cav allows him to wield his Silver Lance and keep his movement over Knight. I didn't want to use Wyvern until I got Cherche, which is a substantial ways into the playthrough. Frederick still has insane damage output, but he isn't shrugging off enemies and he might get a little more experience now, which helps his stats a tad. Cordelia might be the best recruitment unit-wise. She's very, very, very good.

 

Yeah Frederick and Cordelia have a good support conversation chain, it's a bit of fun and feels natural. That's a good idea with Frederick, I've never tried it myself, how's his exp gain nowadays? And yeah you're right about Cordelia, she appears for all intents and purposes to be the best unit in the game as she doesn't need babying, and she has fantastic bases, growths, and join time. Personally I prefer her as a Mercenary/Hero to a Pegasus/Falcon Knight but she works really well in either. There is however one unit that joins that is stronger than Cordelia, though it's not immediately apparent (hence my earlier statement about Cordelia appearing to be the best) and that is Panne. If you give Panne your first Second Seal and reclass her directly to Wyvern Rider you've just created a wrecking ball that'll go on a path of destruction through the rest of the game.

Seriously what even is 105% HP, 75% Str, 65% Skl, 70% Spd, 50% Def?

[Maelstrom]

I think planning marriages based on stats and growths really goes against the whole point of support convos and in game relationship pairing...

[Daniel Blackworth]

9 minutes ago, Maelstrom said:

I think planning marriages based on stats and growths really goes against the whole point of support convos and in game relationship pairing...

I think so too. I usually prefer pairing characters who suit each other.