Board 8 > So i'm playing Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon *SPOILERS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

Echoes was definitely the least stressful FE for me

No worrying about units dying because of casual mode plus no worrying about who to marry to who or even who to support with who (because there are no support caps), no weapon durability, no items required to promote...

I guess I've heard that a lot of people consider the map design to be bad, but I hadn't played an FE game in a long enough time to have a frame of reference for that.
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so this whole time I was confusing Echoes with Fates with yall's posts

what do yall think of Fates?
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So i'm on this mission thats letting me bring like 16 people

They've only been letting me bring in like 14 or less

so I changed Jagan and Minerva into Dracoknights

time to wreck shit
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dang, got a game over. I think that's my first one. I'm in the desert Magic Place and some guy that can't be harmed just killed me in one attack. They were mentioning something about needing some white magic but I don't think I had it
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Punnyz posted...

what do yall think of Fates?

Bad. Particularly the writing. But also the gameplay.

Lots of people love it though.
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We're here to get the sword and there were chests in the corner

Maybe there's something I can use there
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I haven't played Echoes but I have played the original Gaiden on NES. I remember the map design being fairly simple. Maybe that's what people were complaining about.

As for the guy in the desert

yeah he's an unkillable god tier enemy. you have to just run away and try to avoid him for as long as possible. I thought that was actually a pretty unique mission objective, so it really impressed me the first time I played.
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Yeah, I enjoyed that map concept. I love how he's a mage and it's a desert, so of course he can outmaneuver most of your units.

Echoes maps suffer from having a lot of empty space and it's obvious little thought was given to unit placement. It was an enjoyable enough romp and I liked the different take on various mechanics (magic costing HP is super-cool and reins in an otherwise overpowered skillset in an interesting way) but I don't have much desire to replay it compared to like every other FE, even ones I consider worse than it.

Punnyz posted...

what do yall think of Fates?

Outstanding game (mostly Conquest, but Birthright is fine too; it just has notably worse map design) with the best gameplay in the series. Conquest is the game to play if you're looking for a tough challenge which is also extremely fair. (And if you find it too tough you can adjust the difficulty downwards midplaythrough). Every map is very obviously hand-crafted with a lot of love and most of them are really memorable. Good characters too. Plot and setting is weak but I feel that way about the rest of the non-Tellius series too so eh.

It's very controversial though, even moreso than Awakening (which is impressive). Both games brought in lots of new fans but do some things differently with respect to characters and tone (there are more goofy joke characters). Fates in particular also brings back the second-generation mechanic but gives it the goofiest explanation imaginable (it's obvious that it wasn't "supposed" to be in the game but IntSys was terrified that not having it would lead to a drop in sales). Regardless, there's a definite friction in the fanbase between the old and new fans over the two games, which is unfortunate IMO because I think both the older and newer FE games do great things which makes them 100% worth playing.
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I figured it out but I appreciate the tip

so my plan was to go clockwise, around the map, starting to the left, and have him follow me around until I hit the bottom right corner and get the treasures

buuuuut he actually retreats after awhile! which had my heart pounding because HE CAUGHT UP TO ME and at least 3 of my men, including marth, in his sights

He GAVE UP ON HIS TURN. he could've just taken one on the way out

PHEW

but now theres like 6 mages on the map

I ended up benching ALL of my footsoldiers except my mage and my thief, as well as my 2 white mages

I had the latter 2 use Psychic staves since they weren't gonna be joining them on this crazy journey

my mage was on Dragon duty with his excalibur.

this was intense.

I think the misunderstanding took some of the thrill out. I really thought I had to fight him at first. I wish I knew the situation off the bat
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Wow that was really well put.
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NeoElfboy posted...

Fates in particular also brings back the second-generation mechanic but gives it the goofiest explanation imaginable

whats that?
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Punnyz posted...

NeoElfboy posted...

Fates in particular also brings back the second-generation mechanic but gives it the goofiest explanation imaginable

whats that?

All the kids are shoved into an alternate dimension and grow up there until theyre old enough to join your army.
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I should mention I also used those Pegasus chicks I got. They had dialog with minerva

yay supports

sorta

but yea, their res stat was valuable too

my regular men didn't get much exp

it all went to the Pegasus chicks (including Caena tho), Minerva, and Jagan.

well, The mage dude got alot of exp from dragonslaying

OH

I forgot to mention, I evolved Lena a few chapters back

I dunno what it is but I feel like shes more confident now

she can FOIGHT and shes been kicking ass
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so i'm at Altea and a villager told me that there are two units in two villages but I can only get one

I decided to google them and I wasn't impressed by one of them. Then I looked at Samson and OH MY GOD, ITS MOTHER FUCKIN JOJO
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https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/fireemblem/images/1/1c/SamsonTCG.png/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20151021072620

https://justseriesandstuff.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/jonathan_sword_jojo_bizarre_adventure_animation.jpg

http://pa1.narvii.com/5919/e5d9c28d4da5b0739229fb6293353487eb607b61_hq.gif
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Arran is by far the more interesting character though.
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They're both prepromotes so who cares about either.
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Kenri posted...

Arran is by far the more interesting character though.

no hes not, hes not fuckin jojo
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so theres a character with a portrait that was behind 2 locked doors

Xane

and one of the villagers said "theres a lad"

DAMMIT FE

I THOUGHT IT WAS A GIRL AGAIN

especially with that feather decoration
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Grand Kirby posted...

They're both prepromotes so who cares about either.

that's not necessarily a bad thing, but they are both complete garbage
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Xane i sort of understand mistaking for a girl. Roshea, Wolf and Etzel though...
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I think I should get a pass on wolf, especially since he has eyes like Minerva

and I already provided proof on etzel
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so i usually let the enemies come to me and I just slaughter them as they trickle in

I think they want it to go the other way around but I ain't about that shit

https://imgur.com/bC9z7Sw

but THIS time I set up a formation inside that Jail. THE HALLWAY OF DEATH

I dunno but I'm pretty proud of this for some reason
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https://imgur.com/aLxDfIW

Barst took a critical hit, which is the first time I've seen an enemy do that, and I had to cover him towards the end

but they all got slaughtered other than that General there

all of my men at least got a hit in and most of them got kills
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I can take as many turns as I want, right?

Theres no limit?

I think I'm gonna grind the arena for once
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Yeah, you can take as long as you want as long as you don't seize the throne.
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Grumble

I understand why they carry silver weapons and I only carry iron weapons in the arena but dammit Nintendo, I'm STILL gonna abuse this place

you should just LET me
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My heart just jumped

an enemy mercenary pulled a critical hit on my knight

being a knight he survived

but that just opened up the possibility that they can be critical'd on in the arena

this might not be the best idea

I don't have any save points anymore either
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grrr

someone like Caena can't do the arena, her hp is too low
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so something happened

I was training my Pirate, Darros, and I came up against a Pegasus Knight

I hit B because I assumed she would be too fast

it didn't work

I started mashing B

didn't work

I STARTED PRESSING IT AS HARD AS I CAN

IT DIDN"T WORK

SHE KILLED HIM
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So moment of Silence to my homie Pirate friend Darros

I actually really liked him and his durag too

I'm absolutely livid right now
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When you quit arena matches, you don't leave until the current "round" is over. So if someone is getting double hits/countering, you won't leave until all those attacks go through. That's why it's risky to keep up long streaks, enemies will get stronger and faster and you might end up with a match that you'll lose on the first round of attacks.
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They exchanged attacks 4 times

I think that, and the fact I was mashing B after the first attack, makes the entire scenario bullshit
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it just happened again, guys

but guess what?

IT WAS WITH MARTH

SO I JUST FUCKING WASTED THE PAST TWO FUCKING HOURS

FUCK THIS GAME, I WAS MASHING B AS SOON AS I SAW THE 40 HP AXE GUY
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I guess you're not understanding. You cannot back out once you've started the fight and seen the enemy.
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I most definitely have backed out once we started fighting before

boot up the game and give it a go
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Huh, was that a thing in this one? You could back in the GBA games after the round was over.
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https://imgur.com/3BnRJp2
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Like, I said, you can't quit in a middle of a "round", no matter when you press the B button. Imagine the arena as an endless series of on-map battles. When one battle ends, a new one begins until someone is dead. You can only exit after the end of one battle and before the next one starts. So for example, let's say you have a unit that's getting doubled by an enemy unit:

Match starts
- You attack.
- Enemy attacks.
- Enemy attacks.

Round 2 begins
-You attack.
- Enemy attacks.
- Enemy attacks.

Round 3 begins
- Etc.

If you try to quit in the middle of any of those rounds, you'd have to wait until it completes before it will work. If your character ends up dying before then, well... tough luck.
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and like "I" said

they exchanged attack several times

they attack

I attack

they attack

I attack

they attack

I attack

they attack

I attack

and so on

at what point does that "round" end?

It should've been the first back and forth
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It depends of how much speed both characters have. It's not always easy to tell when the new round begins if there's doubling, especially since the player always goes first, which throws things off (since it's possible it can go in a 1-1-2 pattern). Unless you're saying your match literally went 4+ rounds, I'm just guessing you didn't recognize the pattern and thought you could escape when you couldn't. I'd fallen into that trap a couple of times when I was first playing, which is why I'm trying to explain it.

But maybe there's something wrong with your B button, I dunno.
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I was mashing B the entire time so its no longer the issue about not being able to recognize the attack turns. It should have registered

and I thought that too, the B button is definitely working on everything I tested it on
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As soon as you hit the B button it will cancel out after that "round" is completed. So either you are exaggerating on how many hits happened since depending on who you are facing it can go 2 against 1 for 2 against for a round or you weren't hitting the "B" button when you started to panic. Like maybe you were mashing the "A" button by accident, regardless the game didn't screw up.

Also as someone who has lost way to many hours to the arena in FE games and have done both of the things above yea it sucks.
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I know I was hitting b because I have my whole thumb on the face buttons and I just lean it to whatever direction I need to whatever button

I was definitely learning downwards to hit B

I wasn't in a panic because he wasn't in any danger at first. "Oh a Pegasus knight, shes gonna be faster, I'm gonna bail"

*proceeds to mashing B for 30 seconds and not work*

and its not fucking super mario RPG, if I hit B at the wrong place, its not gonna disable the whole thing. I've mashed while their turns are going and it bails me out the second it can

I'm actually starting to suspect the only thing that explains this is an in-universe reason

since these people are shady, probably not law abiding people. Maybe wanting to yield goes dead because they want to pocket your money

okay I thought way too hard about that but this was such a bullshit thing that happened I can't think of anything else
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okay I steamed off

I'll give this a go later today

god damn assholes
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Punnyz posted...

Grumble

I understand why they carry silver weapons and I only carry iron weapons in the arena but dammit Nintendo, I'm STILL gonna abuse this place

you should just LET me

this was borderline prophetic
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it's really not a hard enough game where you need to grind in the arena, anyway.
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You are totally correct. I got dozens of game overs in PoR. (Probably part of it is because it was my first FE game but still)

The only reason I got one here is because I dicked around in the arena
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If you guys had to choose just one of the American GBA titles, which one would it be?
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I'd pick Sacred Stones personally, but I know that's the more unpopular opinion.
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