What Makes Fire Emblem Games Replayable?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 ส.ค. 2024
- Fire Emblem is the only series where I have felt compelled to replay almost every game in the series. But what is it that makes them so replayable? I look at what makes the series replayable in general, as well as what makes certain games in the series more replayable than others.
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Definitely the characters and the class system, for rosters with a huge roster and options for reclassing especially.
I do wonder, what if I tried an FE game using only either units with normal names that can be seen IRL or units with "Aerith names".
Which FE would be hardest to do a Bob run and an Aerith run?
(Originates from "Bob and Aerith", a trope where everyday names exist in the same world as fantasy names.)
I have over 1000+ hours on three houses and when ppl ask me how, i just say i was experimenting on a lot of different runs! Its a lot of fun (i also just like looking at dimitri)
Everyone should all enjoy looking at Dimitri tbh
Doubly based, experimentation is awesome and Dimitri is best boy!
And also your pfp is cool!
Shadow Dragon is my absolute favorite to replay because I love Marth's tale and the brutal nature of its gameplay, but part of it is also because the DSFE UI is so good, it's so fast and fluid and the sound effects are so punchy. Using the menu on its own is fun!
What's brutal about its gameplay? /gen
It all boils down to reclass Wolf into a general, use Caeda's wing spears and win
I literally made a tweet about how dedicated this community is to small things like replayability of this series, and I enjoyed the video quite a lot
FE7 is definitely my fire emblem comfort game. I don't really know what it is about it but I've played it over and over without getting bored of it.
One of the biggest appeals of Fire Emblem for me is finding fun dumb strategies with different kinds of units to see how far I can go with the strats, the Binding Blade is one of my most replayed games in the series because it really encourages a lot of fun experimentation from the (sometimes frankly REALLY BAD) map design which makes every run enjoyable to replay. I will always love a game which allows me to use the berserk staff to have the enemies to kill each other for my entertainment, or find some goofy rescue chain which makes going through the maps feel very goofy in an enjoyable way.
I should try actually using the berserk staff next time i play this game lol. Which maps are good to use it on?
Shadow Dragon is incredible in its replayability. After completing Normal, I went from Hard 1, to Hard 3, to Hard 5 without batting an eye. Its simpler story with well written dialogue also makes it easy to read a little more if you want to, but this slow boil approach made me really appreciate the QoL features, the amazing OST and sound design, which units are more viable, what kind of battles the chapters want to represent, who to promote first... And you slowly feel the difficulty increase, to the point that you are calculating how much damage you need to do naturally, and how to use Jagen just to survive on early Hard 5. Save points are a fantastic addition that lets players breathe while the game still challenges them (sometimes more than needed, early H5 bosses are too much, lmao).
Reforging and reclassing breathe so much life into SD, specially on non-Hard 5 difficulties, since you have more space to experiment. I finished the game lots of times and I also never felt the need to Warp Skip a chapter, nearly all of them are great.
Though Sacred Stones also flows really well, been replaying about 5 times trying an Ironman and I find it interesting how the pace and speed of GBA FEs make it almost painless to replay from the beginning. Maps are at least interesting, most are really well done and you have to plan out decently well their beginning sections (same with SD). Split promotion paths and being showered with money, great weapons and items makes replayaing SS more interesting too, seeing where you want to invest the resources you get.
Engage's limits on customizing unit's skills hit the perfect balance between giving you many ways to play the game while still managing to make them meaningful, which games like SD don't do as well. Great maps, Emblems, tons of units to play with, skill inheritance, reclassing and deployment limits are used very well here... I've thought about adding weapon durability back, but I think it would've been a little too much to manage, considering all the options you're given. Engage travels a fine line of just enough unit customization and management to not be overwhelming, while still being really.. engaging. Replaying it on Maddening and it feels just as fresh.
And to add some discussion: personally, I'm not a huge fan of reclassing, maybe because I've grown up with GBA FEs, but I prefer the unit's identity being preserved. I do like using it, but I prefer when most characters are written with their classes in mind. Reclassing has a ton of uses, from changing the unit's growths, making more characters fit classes that the player wants, to using an unit's bases in a more suitable context, but I rarely use it more than twice in a playthorugh.
I actually really liked replaying Three House... way too many times. I get why it's not for everyone, but for me, the class options, weapons training, skills combinations, recruiting, and calendar options made it feel like I was always playing with wildly different teams. I never thought I'd enjoy tank-mage Dedue or hunter's-volley Rafael so much, for example, but unexpected-class runs are a blast!
that feeling of wanting to replay the game before you're even finished is definetly something i'm experiencig with the binding blade. especially since i'm playing blind without resetting, there's a lot of "how would i do this map if all my swordfighters hadn't died? could i complete this objective if i'd recruited the pegasus sisters? what if i used thieves more often?"
i'm not even done, just barely close to it, and i'm already so excited to play the game again, with the route splits and the true ending only adding to it. great video!
Por and Radiant Dawn
Speeding up on an emulator makes the long gameplay a non-issue and the story is the best that I've played (haven't played Fe 4 or 5)
I'd say Fire Emblem 4 has the strongest story among all the games, if only for how well it ties all gameplay mechanics to the story.
Sadly it is also probably the least replayable Fire Emblem game because of the low character count, and few ways of playing each map.
@@Tartarwell it does have the generation system to add alot of replayability. Plus you could do a playthrough with the substitute units exclusively
I just finished Engage for the first time and I loved it so much that part of me kind of wants to replay it sometime despite not really replaying games often, I think I will now.
Any emulated FE.
Fast forward button, baybee!
Played like five or six Three Houses runs but the monastery stops me dead any more.
Nice video! I think one thing that harms Three Houses' replayability beyond the monastery stuff you mentioned is the extensive map reuse. The first 12 chapters are virtually identical no matter what route your pick, and three out of the four routes have the same skeleton in terms of main story map progression.
And on top of that, maps are re-used even on their own route too. You always play the gates of Garreg Mach AT LEAST twice, three times for Silver Snow. Verdant Wind is also the only route to have a unique final map.
I wish they'd handled them like FE7 handled Eliwood and Hector mode. Same maps, but the Hector versions often felt radically different due to shaking up the enemy types (Chapter 12 Eliwood is mostly Mercs and Fighters, Chapter 12 Hector is full of Pegasus Knights) or your starting location.
RD and 3H are my most played FE games, and in both cases I've realized that's due to circumstance almost as much as the quality of the games themselves. Radiant Dawn was my first FE title and the one I had access to most during my school days. Three Houses came out right around the time COVID lockdown hit, so I sank a ton of time into it (over 10 playthroughs) to help cope.
On radiant dawn you can use the ""battle save" feature (on easy/normal), so you can create a checkpoint at the beginning of each turn.
You still need to overwrite the checkpoint on the same map for different turns, so if you need to go back more turns than your checkpoint is ,you might still need to restart the map, but is something that can help with mistakes and long animations, especially on your first run xD
Great video!
Really good video! I've played a handful of newer Fire Emblem games starting with Awakening from a casual standpoint, but I've recently been wanting to play some older titles in the series as well as replay some of the more recent ones I've already gone through. Lately I've been wanting to learn more about game mechanics and play on harder difficulties for an extra challenge.
Ah I wish you talked about SoV! I feel like that game offers a good amount of replayability bc of the great artwork/OST, the stat booster fountains, experimenting with different weapons since units can only have 1 item at a time, choosing between Sonya or Deen, and how you can choose different classes for the villagers Gray, Tobin, Kliff, Faye on Alm's route and Atlas on Celica's! On one playthrough you could have Merc Gray, Archer Tobin, Mage Kliff, and Peg Knight Faye while on another playthrough you run Archer Gray, Mage Tobin, Merc Kliff, and Cleric Faye.
What I think FE shrines in replayability is the combat flow compared to other srpg like triangle strategy
I replay FE a lot because the counter attack makes the battle ends faster and with all the QoL features, like, skiping enemy phase, I don't feel I'm losing my time.
With Triangle Strategy, I feel bored and decided to do three routes with one save file before the branch chapter instead of doing 3 runs
The huge cast is a huge boon to replayability tbh. Especially if you go in blind for your first playthrough using no tier lists or anything. Like for Engage I had a team of mostly "mid tier" units since I hadn't looked at any tier lists. Its just nice to not worry about unit viability and just go through the game. And the large cast means that you won't be able to use everyone, and that's okay. Using Engage as an example again, I was so excited to start a new play through since it meant getting to use units I wasn't able to before. Its why like you said, I want to replay the game before I'm finished with it. Or using bad units just to see if you can make them useful.
One thing I really like about Engage over 3 houses & the 3ds titles is how they changed skills.
I like that Engage gives you 2 powerful skill slots rather than 5 slots. I find that its easier to keep track of and that the inheritable skills feel designed to me more impactful individually.
Fire Emblem is a game where I get excited to start a new play-through again when I finish it!
Plus coming up with personal challenges are super fun. So is finding out how to break the game in half.
And the characters are charming! That’s a bonus.
Fates in particular hits a sweet spot for me. With the child unit mechanic, it encourages you to mix and match, as well as the class changing mechanics, where in one play-through you marry Effie to Silas for Paladin access, but in another you marry her to Arthur for Berserker access!
Honestly, FE4 is by far my favorite game to replay. Finding a new way to use a unit I had always neglected or finding use for a weapon I thought was useless is always amazing. Also, making weird pairings like Arden-Tiltyu or Holyn-Briggid and having them work out is always so much fun.
P.S. give Sigurd the speed ring and get a crit javelin by chapter 2, best strat ever
while i absolutely agree with you points about Radiant Dawn's slow animations and long chapters, I still find myself coming back to it the most in the series (pretty much once a year).
I think it's down to me loving the huge cast of Tellius so much, and Radiant Dawn hitting that sweet spot of difficulty for me where I have to think about my moves but it always feels like there's many solutions and a small margin of error tog all back on.
Plus there's a good deal of customisation with skills and how you distribute BEXP, but it isn't on the same level of the 3DS and Switch games which often results in decision paralysis for me with how many impactful decision you have to make each run.
I like Three Houses the most because it depended on the route you take and the smaller group of people you use compared to the 36 in all you have in in Engage.
I agree with everything you said in this video. But I also really like to replay both of the Tellius games. They don't have nearly as much customization as 3H or Engage. But the other factors like RNG still make them fun to replay and different every time even if I don't vary my unit selection much anymore. They also have my favorite storylines in the series, so I like to replay them to experience the stories again as well. I actually played through both Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn at least once every year since 2010 except for 2020. Might not fit them in this year but I definitely intend to try!
I wanna add that in Fates the playthrough customization also allows you to create entirely new units with the Logbook by recruting other playercharacters or buying Einherjar, buying your characters new skill, etc. without the need to mod your game. I hoped so much that SOV would eventually get more than 3 Forks to make a more or less budget randomizer out of it but its alright the way it is now - I think what Fates did so well was that its the perfect line between freedom and "earning" said freedom. You gotta marry characters if you want them to have specific classes or a certain child, Supports play into this too. Class Seals are very well utilized. There are many descisions you gotta do and for me I've reached the point where no run is like the same. That fascinates me and my ever growing ammount of hours in this game every single time. A while ago I made a Conquest run where a friend and I recreated an army of our OCs, plus the fitting shippings by preparing Einherjars of otherwise unobtainable units. Don't even get me started on Bond Units... All that has the same feeling as replaying a Pokémon Game but adding a little extra by trading an unobtainable Pokémon from a different version over. (Or, playing Heart Gold and giving you the item to evolve Togetic before Kanto around the time when a usual last evolution would happen.) If there is ever a game like Fates again with a good story, the same customization and additional improvements it could very well become my new fav in the series.
I really wish that Three Houses didn't lock its bonus stuff behind a NG+ that forces you to carry over Statue Bonuses - I can create a Savefile (and am actually doing that) where I simply not upgrade statues and have a "clean" NG+ Savefile. But I am forced to ignore these if I'd like to stack all the bonuses so I don't have the benefit I had with the Logbook. Fates' Log was a tool that let you create your very own army while increasing your possibilities the more you played. The perfect loop.
I also enjoyed replaying older games with Permadeath cause it (and RNG) changes outcomes there even more. Currently I'm in a HHM run where all my mages died. This did result in me having to abandon the Ironman-Idea here since I was not able to progress otherwise - Then again, just because streamers reset their playthroughs you don't have to if you're playing casually? This whle situation left me in a spot I've never been before. One I've probably never would've reached if that didn't happen. Not to mention that my POR Blind Ironman lead to Sorens death, resulting in me using and becoming a big fan of Ilyana, resulting in me using her in a new Radiant Dawn Run.
Ultimately you can have so many different things even in a game that has one sinlge route, even in one that has only one promotion, etc. Not many games solve replayability this great.
The biggest factor for me is a lack of exploration. It's one of the few series I've played where I don't I have to explore every nook or run back and forth completing side quests
Ironically despite trying to tout itself with “replayability”, I find Three Houses to be one of the worst games in the series to replay. Even besides the Monastery being a huge slog that the game forces you to use, White Clouds is just insufferable having to play through three times at minimum, and besides Crimson Flower, most of the routes post time skip are just way too similar to each other. It’s why I vastly prefer replaying single route games like PoR, or even just games that only have minor route splits like the GBA games. The fact that most of them have almost no fluff between chapters to pad out the game also helps.
Great video, I really agree too. I think old Fire Emblem's are somewhat like Etrian Odyssey (maybe a weird comparison), it's fun to experiment with different units or classes, some games have way too many units and you only end up using a dozen or so, I never like looking up characters' stats growths but at the same time sometimes I do end up with a few un-optimal units but what can you do. The only game that had less replay value was Three Houses for me, the school made the game way too bloated, I like hubs like in Radiant duology or even the hubs in Fates and Engage too but Three Houses was structured in such a bloated way. I just did the all the routes and called it a day, I enjoyed the lore, world-building and how all characters had a story role, but my goodness it felt like playing an epic grandiose tale. I was happy Engage toned the story and bloatedness down a notch, but still kept the very fun gameplay, which is surprisingly because I bet we all expected it to be a throwaway anniversary game but no it stands tall as a mainline Fire Emblem game.
Favorites to replay are conquest for having some of my favorite characters with the best customization and class options
And echoes because of the short maps and worldbuilding
Canas with Luna is not even a question
Good gameplay that feels good
Canas is always the right choice for FE7 mage. Slurrrrrrrrweeerrrrmmpp.
Also Conquest/echoes are the games I replay the most. Both pretty quickly get to the good stuff. (Reclassing/team composition)
right. who would choose erk.
To me, supports tend to be the biggest factor in if I want to replay a game or not. I've replayed the gba games many times to see all of the supports, but in Three Houses I saw the vast majority by the time I had finished all of the routes, so I haven't had any desire to return to it. In Engage I'm limiting myself in how many supports I get with each character in each playthrough so I don't burn through it like I did Three Houses.
One subtle thing that helps make Fire Emblem so replayable to me is the fact that you often cant do everything in a single playthrough.
In Final Fantasy Tactics for instance, despite its massive customization, still only felt good to play for one playthrough. Because no matter what, you could do everything on one playthrough. Choices are only interesteing if sacrifices are made. And in FFT, you have an infinite ammount of exp and jp.
Combat flow is another reason. Combat flow in Matsuno games prior to the PSP remake of Tactics Ogre, was absolutely dismal.
for me its the characters. im doing my second engage run cause of all the interesting characters i didnt use on my first go. its the shortest turn around ive had from finishing a fe game for the first time to replaying it
Making stupid ass builds in fates and awakening will never get old
I'd say Fates: Conquest is one of favorites to replay casually even just to try out builds and also toy with some of the MyCastle rewards and DLC classes to make things a little easier and fun. Shadow Dragon and New Mystery are also very fun to replay because the map save points are an excellent anti-frustration feature, and the sheer amount of difficulty settings give you a lot to chew on. Lunatic Reverse is a wild and brutal ride.
The weakest games to replay for me are probably Echoes and Path of Radiance. Echoes lack of any extreme difficulty mode and lackluster map design don't give me much of a reason to go back to it, and PoR with its long enemy phases filled with bulky foes that barely pose a threat just bores me to tears.
i've replayed conquest and awakening so many times at this point i feel like i should be tired of them. i just love the character customization and team building and while the child units story wise are not my fav they are really fun to plan for as units. having to time out when you're gonna switch a unit's class so that they can get new skills and gain new weapon ranks while also keeping them viable on the maps you're about to play is fun to plan out. it makes the game larger than just the decisions you make during combat and you can end up taking actions because it will pay off wayyy later down the line which adds a layer of complexity i appreciate.
like there is a chunk of my gameplay with those games that does not involve me actually the game! just sitting down and figuring out what classes i need to put units in and in what order can be just as fun as actually executing it in game.
and i also appreciate that the out-of-map prep in those games is very light. i have only played through three houses 2.5 times because of how tedious it is, which is a shame. i think fates did the best job where my castle had a lot of tools to make your army stronger but could be done very quickly and it didn't feel like you were making a mistake to just immediately go play the next map, unlike three houses where i felt like i was forced to spend as much time in the monastery as i did playing the maps.
This should be a video on the forest of fire emblem so everyone including newbies see it. Good video
Radd actually has an insane DEF growth, he gets 30% growth in Cavalier. If you are willing to grind him up, it can get quite hilarious, as Dracoknights and Paladin have a DEF cap of 30 - the same as General.
My favourite to replay is Radiant Dawn by far, because it's easily the game I can beat the fastest.
If I'm ever in one of those really cold winter days when there's nothing to do, boot up Radiant Dawn in the morning, and by the evening, the run'll be over.
It's always fun to try to beat the game in one sitting and see what funny unit can hit the leaderboard each time, 'cause I've gotten the movements to beat each map as quickly as possible almost coded to muscle memory at this point, so it's not tedious to screw around and use hilarious units to get to the high end of kills.
Getting Reyson to top 3 alongside Sanaki and Micaiah will never not be an accomplishment (Leanne was also just outside the leaderboard at 6th).
It's my comfort "Don't have to try" game for sure.
For me I have to wait some time before playing a FE again. Cycling through them, I tend to forget what each is like so it feels somewhat new every time.
As a new fe player, I don’t really feel the same about replayability, maybe it’s because I’m partially overwhelmed by all the games that I feel more compelled to just play a different fe game than the same one I just played. Though I would be interested in replaying a game on a harder difficulty but only after I have enough experience to feel confident in that harder difficulty.
I played radiant dawn when I was a lot younger and barely remember it, and 3 houses was the 2nd one I played. I didn't find 3h replayable at all, because I was so dragged down by the monastery that by the time I finished my first run I had zero motivation to go through another. However, Engage has been highly replayable and I'm on my 3rd maddening run with more planned because of just how much QoL there is and how good the game looks.
A bit late to this, but I'm going to have to disagree with you and say my favorite Fire Emblem to replay is Radiant Dawn. I don't mind big battles with animations, and I find RD's animations a lot faster than PoR's despite the increased enemy density.
So Radiant Dawn has a massive cast, but it also has a lot of ways to make anyone you want viable, such as swappable skills and using Bonus Exp to compensate for flaws or bring weak starters up to par. What's cool is how this all plays out once you hit Endgame: it lets anyone you want become a legendary hero through its "blessed weapons" system: everyone you bring gets to choose one weapon and it becomes infinite-use and able to damage the final bosses. While SS weapons are the obvious choices, depending on your team you can do fun things like blessing a Wyrmslayer to kill dragons more easily, blessing Bolting or Meteor for unlimited-use long-range attacks, blessing Brave weapons, and more.
Speaking of Endgame, you get to pick one of three Herons to use and they all have different mechanics.
Furthermore, the multiple armies system means some parts of the game feel different based on who you plan to take to Endgame. If you want to use a lot of Crimean characters, for example, suddenly the Part 2 maps become a lot more important, while you might focus less on the Greil Mercs in Part 3. There's also opportunities to swap characters between parties a few times in Part 3 (even though removing Jill and Zihark from Micaiah's team is generally a bad idea, it's an OPTION, and it'll change how you play), and the Part 4 armies are almost entirely customizable, which can add more replay value.
I also feel Radiant Dawn's difficulty levels are about right. The lowest is fairly easy, the middle is a nice mix of challenge and comfort, and the highest is tough but not as brutal as modern Maddening. (Removing the weapon triangle and viewable enemy ranges is dumb though)
In terms of time played, it was FE3H. Between the characters and just the fact that Fire Emblem in general is a comfort series, it was easy to pour so much time into the series, especially when it was the one thing to keep my brain happy. Plus, I’ve had some small aspect new each time, which helps counter the tedium
Route splits are certainly fun and adds replay value, but only if the route splits are discernible.
I.E
Fates has a route spilt, each route differs so much and stand on its on. (Gameplay wise) It also allows you to skip to the route split.
While three houses, unlike Fates, you have to play through all of white clouds before the route spilt. And once you get to the route split, they reuse a lot of the maps, or the maps just boil down to defeat the boss and open spaces.
It’s a shame because I’m invested in the characters and story but it’s such a slog to get through it. Unit customization in 3H is fun tho(albeit tedious)
I had a memory of fe4. I actually used Arden and he got 10 levels in magic. Capped defense obviously. and I meme'd around and gave him a flame sword or a wind sword. Didn't think much about it but I paired him with someone (forgot her name sorry) and I remember telling my friend and he said she was going to have garbage magic and be a glorified staff bot.
His daughter had capped defense on recruit and had really good magic all run long. She was a hard defense carry until the mid part of seliphs campaign. And her bulk helped secure the approach towards the end game.
I remember playing RD and at one point, in the map you have to kill a bunch of units, I literally stood up and folded a whole bag of laundry, came back, and it was STILL GOING! One of the reasons I just don't like to replay it. SD also bores me to tears and I genuinely do not understand how anyone enjoys it, more power to you if you do I just don't understand. And Thracia just feels bad to play, it forces you to play in a certain way with capturing and getting enough staves that you can't intuitively know and I just hate it.
On the other hand I think Sacred Stones and Fates are my 2 most replayed. SS is just a fun game that isn't that long and has enough options that it can be fun to just grind or work towards using someone without being annoying. And I think Fates had the best combat in the series yet with the best reclassing and skill system, along with characters that are a lot more fun than they are given credit for.
omg the way you say you ‘ch’ is so cute
I've played engage for 140 counted hours on switch. It's the game I've played the most on switch, and the fell xenologues aren't out yet, so that'll go up.
My favorite game is fe5 and it's super fun to replay. There is zero fat to the game, has a couple route splits, and good unit customization whithout hampering the characterization of the units, which I think have deeper and more fleshed out characters simply through gameplay and momentary dialogue as opposed to the support system which just promotes 1 note stereotypes, atleast as of late.
I only played three houses once on blue lions. The story was good, but the game is so bloated, and the moment to moment strategy gameplay so lacking that I just couldn't get through a second playthrough.
In addition to the monastery, FE3H having such a brutal early game on Maddening makes me not want to replay it. The reunion chapter on the non-CF routes also is something I dread, it punishes not investing in your chosen house so it limits how much you can invest in out of house options to mix up your team.
Engage I think has really hit that sweetspot. Lots of units, Emblems for customization, and a really balanced class system are all great things to have to get me to come back.
I actually like radiant dawn to replay. There aren’t a lot of times I’ve replayed FEs, but RD is one I just love to play, and I’m currently on my 3rd playtheough on Hard/Maniac. It’s a nice game I can go to when I want to chill but also think, and during enemy phases I like to go and other things, like adding a few more words to a piece of writing. It’s pretty nice, though right now I don’t want to play the lagua fog of war. I want to gut whoever designed that
I have 1300+ hours in Three Houses, that game is fun but wow is the monastery a drag! I don’t even like the Somniel that much tbh, I feel like it could still be condensed and with less load time. Loading into the somniel takes a long time, and it’s really tedious if you forget to do something outside of the Ring Chamber/Arena and have to load back into the huge map
I've only played Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, and Berwick Saga. I put Radiant Dawn down after 2 playthroughs and PoR after only 1. The characters just feel so samey like okay I can use Sorin this time and Bastian this time but what's the point they're the same character they play the same role they solve the maps challenges in the same way. RD was especially egregious because you could just give skills to anyone you want. It's like it may as well not even be a jrpg just let you customize your party's appearance/dialog because that's all your doing.
But Berwick saga I can list all 36 characters and fire off something they do that nobody else can no matter how much you baby them.
Adel: Nobody else gets Vantage and combat ends after getting hit so he tanks everything at 0-range.
Aegina: prf 4x strike magic orb so if someone has low res you chip them harder than the 1x high magic users.
Alvina: late game paladin for struggling players probably the most generic of the 36 tbh.
Arthur: skill that grants 1 extra move instead of attacking. skill that increases change of injury (which leads to crippling/capture)
Axel: can swim over water tiles. Can loot corpses
Burroughs: uses a 7-range ballista
Christine: skill that causes slower weapon decay. Can heal horses and swap horses from one party member to another
Clifford: expensive to hire but Jagen++. Only user of lances midgame. Lances do low base damage but scale with movement and can't be counterattacked
Czene: can steal equipped weapons from enemies. Only thief with access to a horse
Daoud: battle cry + pulverize = damage in the literal hundreds if you take heavy turn investment.
Derrick: Highest base def. Only user of throwing axes
Dean: vengeful skill has % chance to counterattack with 3x damage taken. desperation skill allows doubling but opponent has guaranteed counterattack. designed to face-tank
Elbert: Only character with Arrowbane (bows have 33% chance to hit) and a shield for insurance in case they do hit.
Esteban: sees farther in fog. more accurate in forests.
Enid: highest single damage prf weapon in the game
Faye: only true myrmadon. has a skill that can hit 5 times. % chance to block and the weapon decay takes the damage instead. basically can't experience permadeath she'll always be available at the start of the next chapter
Faramir: Only 5 move foot unit. Only sword and bow user
Izerna: only early game healer. prf spell that cures crippled status.
Kramer: only character that doesn't have avoid reduced to 0 on cliffs
Larentia: flying unit
Marcel: shield tank. one of two users of large shields and the only one with the weapon exp and shieldfaire skill to proc them reliably
Owen: can use both healing and damaging magic but can only be on the battlefield for 20 turns.
Leon: cannot be injured or crippled. supporter skill with adel boosts their accuracy by 20 but only if they're close to eachother
Paramythis/Spoiler: pursuit skill lets them double slower enemies like actual fire emblem. Only horse healer
Saphira: signature late-game skill prevents enemies from using magic
Sherlock: can kill two enemies in one player phase
Sylvis: only 3-range bow user
Perceval: best 2-range thunder magic + Arrowbane skill makes him a good combat unit against bows
Reese: Lord. Gets 3 prf weapons. Boosts allies accuracy when close
Ruby: highest weapon skill growth in the game. Axebane reduces chance of getting hit by axe users to 33%
Sherpa: only character with counter skill allowing them to attack after being damaged. best defense among light infantry. prf weapon reduces avoid by 50% but hits 3 times.
Teddy: Has hide and provoke skills, so enemies try to attack him but get ambushed or just can't find him. Can steal unequipped items on command. Can boost his avoid by 50% until he takes another action.
Volo: only deathmatch user that can wear the miracle charm, preventing his own demise in a 5-round combat sequence. Takes gold from defeated enemies
Ward: Jagen
And then ofc like every fire emblem game these units all have their own stats, their own story, their own paralogues etc... but that's not so important. The point is that every playthrough feels different mechanically. And no matter who you train you'll always have a moment like 'darn I wish I trained X'
If you play Genealogy, by God you need to do it on an emulator with a fast-forward button. If it weren't for my current option having more freedom between various computers, I would seriously do that.
Yeah I think its interesting how repayable fire emblem is for a single player game.
I find that replayability comes down to variance. Weather that be through a game having multiple campaigns with different challenges, different tools/characters to tackle the existing campaign, or different people to play the game against/with.
Fire emblem has so many tools to mix and match so that even when doing the same set of challenges, it feels just different enough to justify experiencing the same challenges again.
Splits are ok so long as it doesn't end up like either Houses and Fates. The fact that they have different ends is very bad for both fans and devs, altho Fates kinda patches up with Rev. Houses tho...yeah...
Cases like Houses are bad because fans will have a bloody war once the devs are seen to lean on one route/House even slightly. Which neuters their options hard for things like Engage. Double L situation. It breeds animosity among the fans, it hampers devs' options.
dope video
I'm not used to seeing you outside of Twitter lmao
Three Houses is great for replayability for me thanks to the random run generator.
For most repayable I have to say Awakening, hands down, I have played it over 20 times by now; being able to reclass (classes being related to the character's background or personality is so cool to me too) and try different couple mixes is so much fun
But the biggest thing is trying different units, like, there are characters I will always use but some are interchangeable and is fun to try new combinations
Sadly my favorite games; Tellius duology and Genealogy are lacking at replayability bc of the animations speed and maps, really wish for a remake that fix or alivianate some of this.
But so far I think 3H is the worst at replayability, I feel no incentive just because the calendar and monastery exist, I feel those are there to add extra hours of game and keep me from playing the game and I don't like recruiting from other houses so I don't see much incentive, the plot not being that good doesn't help either. A slog of a game gameplay wise
funny how you mention 11/12 not being as replayable when those are the ones i've replayed the most, along with RD.
I think 11 is pretty replayable with its variety of difficulties and neat maps. It's just not because of the big cast for me
Really surprised you didn't mention Echoes' absolute lack of any incentive for replayability. Growths play such a minor role when compared to class bases, negating any sense of variation. And the cast is so small you can literally field every unit you have, so there's no sense of trying out other units in subsequent playthroughs.
Everyone praises this game but refuses to acknowledge these major flaws.
its the rng for me. engage messed up by making it fixed mode on the first run.
also i hate the game. too many infinite respawns. i remember the ike map was like 300 units just bunched up. yes so exiting and hard to have 2 enemy units move and having to wait for the rest to end their turn.