Vander is getting old, he should retire to being the MC's butler throughout the game as a last ditch effort of being "useful". Or better yet, he should get put on laundry duty, because apparently he already capped in terms of experience.
So far in my maddening run I've had a good time with Wyvern + Tiki Vander. But only because I like the guy so wanted to try and make him part of my main team because I'm a sucker for story and wanted to add the challenge. :3
vander's growths aren't actually that bad. they're pretty alright by engage standards. the problem is that his bases are terrible relative to his level, he outlevels most enemies by a significant enough margin that he gets almost no exp for fighting them, and by the time the enemies are a high enough level for vander to get decent exp from them, they're likely too powerful for him to compete with.
@@mauricioalvarezpino1818 i just started my second playthrough, and my condition for this time is that i can't make my team out of any of the units i used on my first run, so Seadall is out. (Boucheron and Etie too, tbh lol)
I wish they'd built out the adjutant system from 3H to be more robust. For gameplay reasons it makes sense to cap the number of controllable units, but it'd be nice if we saw the other units on the field providing some kind of support. They wouldn't just be sitting around 😂
They could even separate the group every once in awhile imagine if in sacred stone have your units went with each brother, that way even the weakier units can get a chance
@@kikofernandez9184 It would've been fun (if a bit difficult and potentially overwhelming) to have some split missions where you have your reserves fight their own battles simultaneously and eventually regroup with Alear's team.
@@DragonEdge10 I think skirmishes scale with level so it could just aggregate the reserve group and adjust difficultly or even boost them all to a baseline level.
@@The_Hoss Yeah, skirmishes could fill that role, but those are kinda throwaway missions. Like they're there but serve no canonical purpose. I'm talking a bit more stakes where you have the main strike team with Alear and a platoon of other units go off to do some other stuff. I vaguely recall this being done once I think, but I'm not sure.
I just assumed that the units you don't use are just doing thier own things in battle like off screen, but nope they literally just stand on the sidelines doing nothing lol
I vaguely remember that being explicitly stated in the Gangrel map in Awakening. The Khans led the larger force against the main army while Chrom's crew killed Gangrel.
I tried to do that, but underleveled units just get swarmed and die, so Alear is forced to wear the carry pants (esp if you're rotating out hard carries like Alcryst, Chloe, Anna and Timerra). I kinda wish there was a proper catchup mechanic, so I can rotate my team comp.
@@BuffPomsky I'm pretty sure skirmishes are excluded in maddening. Not like you want to try to use everybody in this game anyways because the game doesn't even give you decent opportunities to feed exp to benched units like in fates, awakening and three houses
She and Saphir are genuinely boring. They're just some sorta "strong female" token adds (like, bruh, Jade legit wears butler clothing, lol), but you're already got Etie which fills the spot 100x better without acting like a dude.
@@duetopersonalreasonsaaaaaa i would really like if people like you didnt exist and didnt waste oxygen on cringe like this. t rexs and shit died for this sort of specie?
@@bearzdlc2172 if being who I really am is cringe then I don't wanna be based ☺️ Besides, once you grow out of teenage hood you realize 'cringe' is just a new term for embarrassment, which is a super common feeling during adolescence, and that includes second-hand embarrassment (which is analogous to thinking someone else is cringe). It occurs because teens struggle with their identity and in-group/out-group dynamics and thus are more attuned to their feelings of embarrassment. It becomes a lot more natural and less threatening as ones frontal lobe develops until they're around 25 or so (although trauma can hinder the formation of a solid foundation identity). Which is great, since it means the struggle is temporary and young clients can find solace in both having their feelings validated yet also being reminded that the storm will eventually pass. My frontal lobe isn't even technically done developing, but I don't care about cringe anywhere near as much as I did when I was a teenager because my identity is a lot more solid and understood by myself, as well as having both understanding and acceptance that someone will think I'm 'cringe' no matter what I do, so it's a lot more practical to chase my own happiness than to chase others' potential acceptance constantly. As long as they're not hurting anyone who cares? ☺️ This world needs more happiness anyways 💙 Childhood psychological development is really interesting to me so I couldn't help but geek out just a tad since I've found that 'cringe' is such an excellent way to study teens' dynamics in-depth! Sorry for the long reply and thank you for being forced to read my TedTalk
@@duetopersonalreasonsaaaaaa Who you really are is pathetic and embarrassing. And saying garbage platitudes like "who I really am is fine " just shows you haven't grown as a person. Growing up is more than just accepting who you are you also have to accept your flaws and work on them rather than pretending that the current iteration of yourself is fine. It's not, and never will be. That goes for everyone. You should unironically reflect on that but in today's day of vanity and pride you hide your hideousness behind self importance you don't truly believe yourself. Also cringe.
The issue is that Engage really goes awol with the amount of units they give you per chapter. Getting 3 units every chapter is just ridiculous and it caused me from having a really healthy rotation of about 12-14 units to having 20 units I sporadically use and that is after I benched 4 units at once.
I think the big problem is there just isn't enough chapters, so it's a crap ton of units rapidly instead of the usual drip feed. I wish they spent more time expanding the main missions rather than the lame and boring trials mode for heroes bait.
@@unitlonda4925 It is, but I think OP's point is that Engage is *really* bad at just dumping a truckload of characters on you all at once. Almost every mission where you get one of the royals, you get their retainers as well. Then you have parts of the game like arriving in Brodia or after Destinea Cathedral where that happens *several missions in a row* and suddenly your party has grown exponentially before you've really had time to feel out any of the new recruits. Compare that to previous games like the Tellius games, where (aside from RD with switching between factions at the start of every new act and the various playable factions merging over the course of Act 3) you'd almost never get more than two new characters per mission (and even that only happened like, three or four times per game), and the result of that slower pace was that new recruits had a bit more time to breathe before you were given new ones to play with.
I've been in the process of training up my benched units - with the ability to retain exp after game over, I set them in a skirmish and they're not allowed to leave until they win 😆
When I played Pokemon Violet I tried to do a rotating team strategy where I was constantly adding new team members and swapping out old ones between every few of the 3 story paths. The only constant member was Sprigatito. I tried to do that in this game but because of the low amount of master seals in the early and midgame, I stopped because I worried about character growth if I promoted units too late. So now here I am around chapter 18 with my squad of Alear, Merrin, Goldmary, Etie, Chloe, Lapis, Jean, Seadall, and Louis being set while everyone else has to fight for those last deployment slots. Seeing these "put me in coach" messages made me feel sad about how low deployment is.
One of my most disliked things about this game It's one thing to gives us 100 characters with only like 12 deploy slots at most and constantly scale skirmishes so you cant really raise up lower level units but to then have the gall to make characters complain to you when they're benched, awful
At first I tried to use skirmish maps to bring my bench up to speed, then wondered why the skirmishes were scaling like crazy and becoming borderline unwinnable... the calculation of the skirmish levels makes it easy for your first team units to pull even further ahead, but almost impossible for an obsolete unit to make up any ground. I think that's what the training arena was intended for, but you just can't get enough XP out of it per map to use it that way, let alone justify investing it in irrelevant units.
I cant imagine benching Boucheron of all people. He's such a sweetheart and he's becoming a powerhouse in my playthrough like he has the highest Str rn. That said I did felt bad for Framme so I did give her another chance for 1 - 2 maps, but I ended going back to Jean. Her obsession to Alear was pretty weird anyway
Alfred and Alcryst (sorry Etie) are always on my team, from the very beginning they joined. People complain about Alfred, but mine is pretty damn powerful. He's one of my main tanks in group (along with Alear and Louis).
@@Xxsorafan Diamant was an absolute monster in my run. I synced him up with Ike and he was a near unkillable one-man-army just like Ike was in his own games.
The unit being benched- “ I’d really like to fight by your side again” Me- “And I’d really like you to hit the stuff I ask you to hit and hit it hard! If you did that, you wouldn’t be benched so hard! Also me- “I don’t want you dying on me soldier 🥲”
Their cuteness aside, it hurts me disappointing the twins, but their also the first to join the army and depending on your preferences they are usually going to be benched when new recruitments follow soon afterwards. Same with Bucheron, Jean, Amber, Zelkov, even Panette.
I kept most of my early units. The latest unit I kept (aside from Mauvier) was Seadall. I benched everybody else I gained afterward. My final team in first playthrough was Alear, Framme, Boucheron, Etie, Chloe, Louise, Citrinne, Yunaka, Diamant, Ivy, Seadall, Mauvier, Merrin, and Veyle.
@@bearzdlc2172 Somehow only noticing this comment now, but - wtf man? Feeling empathy towards fictional characters showing nicely written emotions, and feeling sad because you cannot use them all in a game, does not inidacte any kind of social issue. But choosing to spend your time to leave harassing comments for strangers, probably just for your own amusement, instead of using it for better things, certainly does.
Yeah, the last couple of FE games have felt insanely restrictive on party size. They give us so many interesting characters to play with (especially now that every character gets their own unique personal skill and a lot of them get unique classes, especially in Engage), then make it that you can't even use, like, two-thirds of them on a given run. (And there's even maps on Engage where you only field, like, 6-8 units max, so you even had to make cuts among your active party just to run those maps) Like, in Three Houses they made a big deal about recruiting units from other factions, but while I grinded to recruit them just to save their lives (and get paired endings), I almost never actually used them because by the time I recruited most of them my party was too overleveled to replace them and you almost never were given more slots to fit them in alongside your current party. (In my Black Eagles run, for instance, the only character from another House that found their way into active use was the absolute beast of a man that is Raphael) TH and Engage would have been so much better if they increased the party size by, like, 50%. If they're going to give us a roster of 30-40 units per game, they should at least let us field half of them.
This is what I was afraid of, but after reading Luigi's complaint…yeah, no. You stay several thousand feet away from Alear! I'm saving that Pact Ring for Nel!
Kagetsu? That dirty fuccboi earned a permanent bench seat when he tried to proposition Anna during training in the arena. Though he backed off after she replied with Dire Thunder.
Kagetsu? That dude is a weirdo... I swear, you've only met him ONCE and all of a sudden he's like, your best friend in the entire world now? And this is literally him self-imposing himself as your "friend" without even getting to know you. 🙄 *roll eyes* I don't regret benching him. The only thing I like about him was his unique sword that he randomly crit me with a LOW PERCENTAGE RATE on my FIRST PLAYTHROUGH during his seige against Brodia's castle... 😑 After that moment, I can never trust the bs that is the rng mechanic in this game. I swear, the amount of broken a** hit rates in this game is unreal that it's completely bonkers... P.S. Also, if you try to gift Kagetsu something. He will literally say that he will "...quiz you..." on the lips for how ecstatic he is to receive a gift personally from YOU... That is just damn creepy next to Louis staring at girls...
The difficulty that is not Normal cycle: 1. You finish a map 2. Units ask to join the fight 3. You go to the nearest skirmish with the eager units. 4. They all die and you run out of Time Crystal uses. 5. Return to title screen. 6. Proceed to next story chapter where they would more likely survive.
Funny, Clanne and Jean never complain to me about not seeing any action... then again they're almost ALWAYS in my party at all times so that might the reason why!
NGL, I didn't even know units would start complaining at you if you haven't used them in a while. It's one of the reasons I do Skirmishes. I can't imagine benching a number of these units. Imagine benching Yunaka Tohno...
I'm probably the only Fire Emblem player that benches no one so those reactions are completely new to me. Switching characters and not grinding makes the game even harder but still enjoyable.
Reminds me of Warriors Orochi 3 and the Officer Info menu. Oof Also, benching Alcryst and Kagetsu? That seems impossible! Aren't they among the best? 😮
Name your Top 3 "Never seen the bench" units (besides Alear)! Mine: 1. Céline. In since she joined, never left, has my highest ingame stat rating 2. Citrinne. My mage of choice, don't think she sat out a single round either 3. Lapis. I think she might have acutally gotten benched for a map or two when she joined, but soon after, I have learned to absolutely love her, and now she's my favourite unit and the last one I'd ever bench.
1. Panette. She's just top tier material. Psycopath Axe wielding Smol Cutie; can't go wrong with her. And she's just gorgeous. 2. Veyle. Another addition to the dragon lolis! How could someone not use Veyle? She's also the only other Dragon unit in the game and is good compared to Alear. 3. Lapis. Except I reclassed her, Swordmasters bore me a little bit, but she's still a very speedy unit not matter what class you put her in. Honorific Mention: Goldmary. I didn't use her in my first playthrough, but I won't bench her ever again if I play a 3rd, 4th, or 5th game. She's pretty adorable and will dish out some punishment if left unchecked.
Diamant, Alfred, and Celine, at least throughout the early into the midgame. Diamant and Alfred are strong fighters, one with cavalier utility (they DID steal rescue from me, but the extra move is nice), and the other with probably the hardest hitting swords I have as of right now. Celine is a powerful enough mage with staff utility, and also has enough cool points to not be fully outclassed by Ida. Honorable mention to Yunaka for despite being 100% outclassed is still my thief of choice.
Mauvier, Veyle, and Diamant. Mauvier is my husbando and makes a great Sage, Veyle is my daughter and is also extremely powerful, and Diamant because he's my side-hoe (side-bro?) and is also pretty good when paired with Ike.
@@athyestic8374 I like to try and slot Yunaka into a Wolf Rider cause it makes her a crit menace to anything in her way. If anything I feel bad for a few of my benchs.
I remembered reading that Timera line and I'm like, "Yeah, I highly doubt you'd do well against High Strength, Speedy, and/or Magic Wielding enemies/bosses"
Character who's been benched: PUT ME IN COACH Alear: OK *Benched character dies because they're underleveled and Skirmishes tend to be overleveled so you can't catch up* Also having the 11-year old Anna basically ask to be allowed to murder people is uh....
So what do they do when they aren't fighting? Do they just kinda sit and watch? Do they warp back to the Somniel for a snack? I always wondered that with RPGs with big parties.
In other games it was generally implied that they are fighting in the back lines, or as reinforcements or whatever. The units you use are just part of the main lord's "elite" so to speak. Here in Engage it really does a bad job of conveying a war, this is the first game where it legit feels more like a small armed conflict rather than a full blown war.
But imagine how embarassing it was, when I sent Kagetsu to die. He not only survived, but also killed every enemy coming at him. I had to avoid talking to him for the rest of the playthrough.
I've never used her at all in 4 playthroughs. I can't stand her design and personality. Not mention fliers in this game goes down waaaay too easily. All those things outweigh her potential during battle, in my book.
@@GSS1Sirius it wouldn't matter really if she had 1 hp. You never put her in harms way. She's not a combat unit. Just amazing to fly around and heal stuff and other utility. Agree on her design and personality though. She is kinda irritating lol
I didn't use Lapis at first but after I started she quickly turned into one of my best units. Synced her with Lyn, gave her a refined Killing Edge and now she is a doubling crit monster, especially with Alacrity and Speedtaker
This is one of many things I just pissed me off about this game. Oh wow this is a cool area I bet you x character has something interesting to say about it. Insert Same dialoge you've read a hundred times About either Not fighting or Did great in the fight. Never mind
Do you realise how much time that would take to make unique dialogue for every character for every map? I think the 3-5 or so characters they give unique dialogue after every battle is plenty
@Coshi Pie No i'm talking about the fact that They'll say the same dialogue of "i did amazing this fight" instead of just tell me what they think about the area. Don't make excuses I can't read What they think about a place because they were doing great and multiple different fights.
It usually doesn't matter who I put in since alear just sits in the middle of the map with a 1-2 range weapon and full clears it on his own 99% of the time XD
It's IS's fault for making a lot of the early game units absolutely inferior to everyone else lol. They don't even scale well on normal mode. It's awful
If you wanted to get on the team you shouldnt have had the +1HP and thats it level up back in chapter 10. You remember when you missed that 97%? or that time I had to restart because you got crit by that wyvern rider?
"Aaaand you're dreadfully underleveled, and I don't want you to die, so on the bench you stay."
Vander: “Should you ever need my aid again, do not hesitate to place me in the front lines.”
Not with those growths your not.
Vander is getting old, he should retire to being the MC's butler throughout the game as a last ditch effort of being "useful". Or better yet, he should get put on laundry duty, because apparently he already capped in terms of experience.
So far in my maddening run I've had a good time with Wyvern + Tiki Vander. But only because I like the guy so wanted to try and make him part of my main team because I'm a sucker for story and wanted to add the challenge. :3
vander's growths aren't actually that bad. they're pretty alright by engage standards. the problem is that his bases are terrible relative to his level, he outlevels most enemies by a significant enough margin that he gets almost no exp for fighting them, and by the time the enemies are a high enough level for vander to get decent exp from them, they're likely too powerful for him to compete with.
If you want to blame someone blame IS for putting in so many sick characters but only 12 slots of which 2 are non negotiable(Alear and Seadall)
Not to mention locking you with 8 most of the game
Or you can be like me and not be smart enough to use a dancer, meaning you have 11 whole slots for your Boucheron and Etie needs!
@@mauricioalvarezpino1818 i just started my second playthrough, and my condition for this time is that i can't make my team out of any of the units i used on my first run, so Seadall is out. (Boucheron and Etie too, tbh lol)
For me that’s 3 non negotiable because Chloé must always be there
You don't need Seadall.
He's the worst dancer in the whole fucking series anyway, why'd you wanna use him?
I wish they'd built out the adjutant system from 3H to be more robust. For gameplay reasons it makes sense to cap the number of controllable units, but it'd be nice if we saw the other units on the field providing some kind of support. They wouldn't just be sitting around 😂
They could even separate the group every once in awhile imagine if in sacred stone have your units went with each brother, that way even the weakier units can get a chance
@@kikofernandez9184 It would've been fun (if a bit difficult and potentially overwhelming) to have some split missions where you have your reserves fight their own battles simultaneously and eventually regroup with Alear's team.
@@DragonEdge10 I think skirmishes scale with level so it could just aggregate the reserve group and adjust difficultly or even boost them all to a baseline level.
@@The_Hoss Yeah, skirmishes could fill that role, but those are kinda throwaway missions. Like they're there but serve no canonical purpose. I'm talking a bit more stakes where you have the main strike team with Alear and a platoon of other units go off to do some other stuff. I vaguely recall this being done once I think, but I'm not sure.
@@DragonEdge10 basically, Alm and Celica's army?
I just assumed that the units you don't use are just doing thier own things in battle like off screen, but nope they literally just stand on the sidelines doing nothing lol
I vaguely remember that being explicitly stated in the Gangrel map in Awakening. The Khans led the larger force against the main army while Chrom's crew killed Gangrel.
Alear bench convo: "It hurts watching everyone fight for my sake, I should get back in the front lines soon."
Poor Alcryst
My S-tier boy 😭
nah fuck that guy he's annoying as hell
I love it when they give you 10 Bond Fragments, as if they're trying to bribe you. 🤣
Man I hate it when this game makes you feel bad for benching units. Not my fault I can’t grind all of you
Alear could punch Fogado in the face and he’d just be like “Haha! Ya got me!”
i wish they leaned more into high comedy like this with the avatar worship
The sheer amount of times Boucheron kept showing up to remind me once again how the bench is was ludicrous
As it should be.
In my playthrough of Engage, I always give everyone a chance to join in a battle or a skirmish
I tried to do that, but underleveled units just get swarmed and die, so Alear is forced to wear the carry pants (esp if you're rotating out hard carries like Alcryst, Chloe, Anna and Timerra).
I kinda wish there was a proper catchup mechanic, so I can rotate my team comp.
What difficulty? I don't even know if that's possible to sustain in maddening
@@westenev they should have kept the mechanics to buy level ups for your units 🤔 that is the biggest downer for me so far regarding Engage
@@BuffPomsky I'm pretty sure skirmishes are excluded in maddening. Not like you want to try to use everybody in this game anyways because the game doesn't even give you decent opportunities to feed exp to benched units like in fates, awakening and three houses
@@Punpun6745 it's _very rare_ to get one in maddening, not excluded
I have genuinely never used Jade after she was recruited and still forget about her often
She and Saphir are genuinely boring.
They're just some sorta "strong female" token adds (like, bruh, Jade legit wears butler clothing, lol), but you're already got Etie which fills the spot 100x better without acting like a dude.
@@cryofigment4949 Jade is so cute tho. I would love to be her failwife anyday
@@duetopersonalreasonsaaaaaa i would really like if people like you didnt exist and didnt waste oxygen on cringe like this. t rexs and shit died for this sort of specie?
@@bearzdlc2172 if being who I really am is cringe then I don't wanna be based ☺️
Besides, once you grow out of teenage hood you realize 'cringe' is just a new term for embarrassment, which is a super common feeling during adolescence, and that includes second-hand embarrassment (which is analogous to thinking someone else is cringe). It occurs because teens struggle with their identity and in-group/out-group dynamics and thus are more attuned to their feelings of embarrassment. It becomes a lot more natural and less threatening as ones frontal lobe develops until they're around 25 or so (although trauma can hinder the formation of a solid foundation identity). Which is great, since it means the struggle is temporary and young clients can find solace in both having their feelings validated yet also being reminded that the storm will eventually pass. My frontal lobe isn't even technically done developing, but I don't care about cringe anywhere near as much as I did when I was a teenager because my identity is a lot more solid and understood by myself, as well as having both understanding and acceptance that someone will think I'm 'cringe' no matter what I do, so it's a lot more practical to chase my own happiness than to chase others' potential acceptance constantly. As long as they're not hurting anyone who cares? ☺️ This world needs more happiness anyways 💙 Childhood psychological development is really interesting to me so I couldn't help but geek out just a tad since I've found that 'cringe' is such an excellent way to study teens' dynamics in-depth! Sorry for the long reply and thank you for being forced to read my TedTalk
@@duetopersonalreasonsaaaaaa Who you really are is pathetic and embarrassing. And saying garbage platitudes like "who I really am is fine " just shows you haven't grown as a person. Growing up is more than just accepting who you are you also have to accept your flaws and work on them rather than pretending that the current iteration of yourself is fine. It's not, and never will be. That goes for everyone. You should unironically reflect on that but in today's day of vanity and pride you hide your hideousness behind self importance you don't truly believe yourself.
Also cringe.
Best feature ever added
Damn this made me sad
Me during my maddening classic run:
"Hmmm I could use a sacrificial meat shield for chapter 11. OK, you're in."
I've seen a lot of people straight up not realize when Hortensia joins
Probably because she's recruited upon completing a chapter, and shows up at the very bottom of the unit list at first.
@@Error403HRD To be fair she does her job of being a flying S rank staffbot with zero investment
"No one *told* you to stand idle, Zelkov."
Imagine benching All-crits
Exactly the best archer in the game smh.
Been using Etie over him, and she’s plenty good herself.
Epic archer moment
“I won’t miss!”
The issue is that Engage really goes awol with the amount of units they give you per chapter. Getting 3 units every chapter is just ridiculous and it caused me from having a really healthy rotation of about 12-14 units to having 20 units I sporadically use and that is after I benched 4 units at once.
I'd say that's pretty on brand for fire emblem in general. They love to give you a lot of units so you always have to bench more than half of them
I think the big problem is there just isn't enough chapters, so it's a crap ton of units rapidly instead of the usual drip feed. I wish they spent more time expanding the main missions rather than the lame and boring trials mode for heroes bait.
@@unitlonda4925 It is, but I think OP's point is that Engage is *really* bad at just dumping a truckload of characters on you all at once. Almost every mission where you get one of the royals, you get their retainers as well. Then you have parts of the game like arriving in Brodia or after Destinea Cathedral where that happens *several missions in a row* and suddenly your party has grown exponentially before you've really had time to feel out any of the new recruits.
Compare that to previous games like the Tellius games, where (aside from RD with switching between factions at the start of every new act and the various playable factions merging over the course of Act 3) you'd almost never get more than two new characters per mission (and even that only happened like, three or four times per game), and the result of that slower pace was that new recruits had a bit more time to breathe before you were given new ones to play with.
Dude this actually made me sad lol
There’s also All Units being MVP
"Dude, It's chapter 24 and you're still in your base class. You really want to die that badly?"
I couldn't even finish the video I just feel so bad about benching units now
same.
I've been in the process of training up my benched units - with the ability to retain exp after game over, I set them in a skirmish and they're not allowed to leave until they win 😆
"The beatings stop when morale and skill improve"
Wow I have not gotten these dialogues before, been spending time in the tower grinding up all my units
When I played Pokemon Violet I tried to do a rotating team strategy where I was constantly adding new team members and swapping out old ones between every few of the 3 story paths. The only constant member was Sprigatito. I tried to do that in this game but because of the low amount of master seals in the early and midgame, I stopped because I worried about character growth if I promoted units too late. So now here I am around chapter 18 with my squad of Alear, Merrin, Goldmary, Etie, Chloe, Lapis, Jean, Seadall, and Louis being set while everyone else has to fight for those last deployment slots. Seeing these "put me in coach" messages made me feel sad about how low deployment is.
Maddening mode pov. You clicked on me in error while trying to get that ingot over there.
One of my most disliked things about this game
It's one thing to gives us 100 characters with only like 12 deploy slots at most and constantly scale skirmishes so you cant really raise up lower level units but to then have the gall to make characters complain to you when they're benched, awful
At first I tried to use skirmish maps to bring my bench up to speed, then wondered why the skirmishes were scaling like crazy and becoming borderline unwinnable... the calculation of the skirmish levels makes it easy for your first team units to pull even further ahead, but almost impossible for an obsolete unit to make up any ground. I think that's what the training arena was intended for, but you just can't get enough XP out of it per map to use it that way, let alone justify investing it in irrelevant units.
Well fire emblem was always built with perma death in mind so they need a lot of units in case you lose some in battle. It’s unfortunate but oh well
The boucheron experience
I cant imagine benching Boucheron of all people. He's such a sweetheart and he's becoming a powerhouse in my playthrough like he has the highest Str rn. That said I did felt bad for Framme so I did give her another chance for 1 - 2 maps, but I ended going back to Jean. Her obsession to Alear was pretty weird anyway
Ok Framme, I’m giving you another chance as a sniper-
“THE DIVINE DRAGON LOOKED AT ME”
Never mind
Alfred and Alcryst (sorry Etie) are always on my team, from the very beginning they joined. People complain about Alfred, but mine is pretty damn powerful. He's one of my main tanks in group (along with Alear and Louis).
same here, though to be fair I did fit him with Fensalir +5 lmao
Both Alfred and Alcryst were perma-benched in my playthrough , while Etie was one of the strongest unit (sniper crit-bonk with 80%+ chance, hehe)
Alfred tears through the battlefield for me also I didn’t realize there was an issue with him. I have more issues with diamant than Alfred
@@Xxsorafan Diamant was an absolute monster in my run. I synced him up with Ike and he was a near unkillable one-man-army just like Ike was in his own games.
@@MG_Spy I later bench him and pair panette with Ike and it’s the same thing clearing a crowd of enemies and more resistant to magic thanks to him
Well since my comment was lost with the other video I post it again.
Breadette is cute.
0:43 Hiya Papaya!
The unit being benched- “ I’d really like to fight by your side again”
Me- “And I’d really like you to hit the stuff I ask you to hit and hit it hard! If you did that, you wouldn’t be benched so hard!
Also me- “I don’t want you dying on me soldier 🥲”
Alfred, you will be remaining on that bench until I’ve built EVERY SINGLE OTHER CHARACTER.
Their cuteness aside, it hurts me disappointing the twins, but their also the first to join the army and depending on your preferences they are usually going to be benched when new recruitments follow soon afterwards. Same with Bucheron, Jean, Amber, Zelkov, even Panette.
No we are not, go home Rosado
I kept most of my early units. The latest unit I kept (aside from Mauvier) was Seadall. I benched everybody else I gained afterward.
My final team in first playthrough was Alear, Framme, Boucheron, Etie, Chloe, Louise, Citrinne, Yunaka, Diamant, Ivy, Seadall, Mauvier, Merrin, and Veyle.
Aww. No Clanne.
I didn't even know this was a thing. After like... chapter 6 I stopped talking to ppl after a chapter
Since skirmishes are zerg rush of over-leveled powerhouses on your weak units no mater what difficulty you play it is impossible to level up them up.
For some of them, I felt genuinely bad. But there are only so many slots :/
you should probably go outside and interact with people, even if its just at a store :/
@@bearzdlc2172 Somehow only noticing this comment now, but - wtf man? Feeling empathy towards fictional characters showing nicely written emotions, and feeling sad because you cannot use them all in a game, does not inidacte any kind of social issue.
But choosing to spend your time to leave harassing comments for strangers, probably just for your own amusement, instead of using it for better things, certainly does.
Yeah, the last couple of FE games have felt insanely restrictive on party size. They give us so many interesting characters to play with (especially now that every character gets their own unique personal skill and a lot of them get unique classes, especially in Engage), then make it that you can't even use, like, two-thirds of them on a given run. (And there's even maps on Engage where you only field, like, 6-8 units max, so you even had to make cuts among your active party just to run those maps)
Like, in Three Houses they made a big deal about recruiting units from other factions, but while I grinded to recruit them just to save their lives (and get paired endings), I almost never actually used them because by the time I recruited most of them my party was too overleveled to replace them and you almost never were given more slots to fit them in alongside your current party. (In my Black Eagles run, for instance, the only character from another House that found their way into active use was the absolute beast of a man that is Raphael)
TH and Engage would have been so much better if they increased the party size by, like, 50%. If they're going to give us a roster of 30-40 units per game, they should at least let us field half of them.
This is what I was afraid of, but after reading Luigi's complaint…yeah, no. You stay several thousand feet away from Alear! I'm saving that Pact Ring for Nel!
They should have never written a benched line for kagetsu. No one is heartless enough to refuse his friendship!
Kagetsu? That dirty fuccboi earned a permanent bench seat when he tried to proposition Anna during training in the arena. Though he backed off after she replied with Dire Thunder.
Kagetsu? That dude is a weirdo... I swear, you've only met him ONCE and all of a sudden he's like, your best friend in the entire world now? And this is literally him self-imposing himself as your "friend" without even getting to know you. 🙄 *roll eyes* I don't regret benching him. The only thing I like about him was his unique sword that he randomly crit me with a LOW PERCENTAGE RATE on my FIRST PLAYTHROUGH during his seige against Brodia's castle... 😑 After that moment, I can never trust the bs that is the rng mechanic in this game. I swear, the amount of broken a** hit rates in this game is unreal that it's completely bonkers...
P.S.
Also, if you try to gift Kagetsu something. He will literally say that he will "...quiz you..." on the lips for how ecstatic he is to receive a gift personally from YOU... That is just damn creepy next to Louis staring at girls...
He sounds so sad too.
I am. Swordmasters kinda suck ouside of their crit chance and Panette is better at critting than Kagetsu could ever wish for.
Fire emblem : i want to die
Meanwhile me grinding the fuck out of the skirmishes just for the sake of getting to use everyone:
The difficulty that is not Normal cycle:
1. You finish a map
2. Units ask to join the fight
3. You go to the nearest skirmish with the eager units.
4. They all die and you run out of Time Crystal uses.
5. Return to title screen.
6. Proceed to next story chapter where they would more likely survive.
I really wish I could use more of them. I’ve been wanting to use Zelkov but I don’t have room and I’m not willing to replace Yunaka.
Sry guys only 10-12 slots in most of game and only 14 at endgame so half of you are getting benched. You can cook though.
Good thing I’ll never see that Kagetsu and ivy quote
Hortensia doesn't get to fight after what she did to Byleth
This is why playing with every character in hard mode was difficult yet worthy.
Didnt knew about that, specially when i want to cap everyone's stats
Fun fact, the only units that I've seen say this are Alfred, Bohcheron and Bunet. Can say I'll never use them.
This made me less sad than i remember it being
F$cking hell XD this make me feel bad for Alcryst
this is games design is at war with it self
Thank you IS for making me feel like a horrible person
I bench only Vander other still decent enough for normal mode
Just need some of them bench until chapter 17 until get enough master seal for them
Funny, Clanne and Jean never complain to me about not seeing any action... then again they're almost ALWAYS in my party at all times so that might the reason why!
NGL, I didn't even know units would start complaining at you if you haven't used them in a while. It's one of the reasons I do Skirmishes. I can't imagine benching a number of these units.
Imagine benching Yunaka Tohno...
I'm probably the only Fire Emblem player that benches no one so those reactions are completely new to me. Switching characters and not grinding makes the game even harder but still enjoyable.
Frame got the benched because she got every single. Level up. In *RES*
Reminds me of Warriors Orochi 3 and the Officer Info menu. Oof
Also, benching Alcryst and Kagetsu? That seems impossible! Aren't they among the best? 😮
Oh no... now i have to field everyone i feel bad
Boucheron said keep yourself safe 💀
They should go back to genealogy where I can put all units to fight
I mean hey, if a benched character literally asks me to put them in I'll do it, they'll die and not come back but I'll do it
Name your Top 3 "Never seen the bench" units (besides Alear)! Mine:
1. Céline. In since she joined, never left, has my highest ingame stat rating
2. Citrinne. My mage of choice, don't think she sat out a single round either
3. Lapis. I think she might have acutally gotten benched for a map or two when she joined, but soon after, I have learned to absolutely love her, and now she's my favourite unit and the last one I'd ever bench.
Unless I'm doing some kind of challenge run I know for sure that Citrinne will be a mainstay on my teams in the future.
1. Panette. She's just top tier material. Psycopath Axe wielding Smol Cutie; can't go wrong with her. And she's just gorgeous.
2. Veyle. Another addition to the dragon lolis! How could someone not use Veyle? She's also the only other Dragon unit in the game and is good compared to Alear.
3. Lapis. Except I reclassed her, Swordmasters bore me a little bit, but she's still a very speedy unit not matter what class you put her in.
Honorific Mention: Goldmary. I didn't use her in my first playthrough, but I won't bench her ever again if I play a 3rd, 4th, or 5th game. She's pretty adorable and will dish out some punishment if left unchecked.
Diamant, Alfred, and Celine, at least throughout the early into the midgame. Diamant and Alfred are strong fighters, one with cavalier utility (they DID steal rescue from me, but the extra move is nice), and the other with probably the hardest hitting swords I have as of right now. Celine is a powerful enough mage with staff utility, and also has enough cool points to not be fully outclassed by Ida.
Honorable mention to Yunaka for despite being 100% outclassed is still my thief of choice.
Mauvier, Veyle, and Diamant. Mauvier is my husbando and makes a great Sage, Veyle is my daughter and is also extremely powerful, and Diamant because he's my side-hoe (side-bro?) and is also pretty good when paired with Ike.
@@athyestic8374 I like to try and slot Yunaka into a Wolf Rider cause it makes her a crit menace to anything in her way. If anything I feel bad for a few of my benchs.
I remembered reading that Timera line and I'm like, "Yeah, I highly doubt you'd do well against High Strength, Speedy, and/or Magic Wielding enemies/bosses"
Sandstorm kinda broken tho
@@constabrielbell4523 True but, I it is held back by the lower than average chance for the skill to proc alone.
Character who's been benched: PUT ME IN COACH
Alear: OK
*Benched character dies because they're underleveled and Skirmishes tend to be overleveled so you can't catch up*
Also having the 11-year old Anna basically ask to be allowed to murder people is uh....
So what do they do when they aren't fighting? Do they just kinda sit and watch? Do they warp back to the Somniel for a snack? I always wondered that with RPGs with big parties.
In other games it was generally implied that they are fighting in the back lines, or as reinforcements or whatever. The units you use are just part of the main lord's "elite" so to speak.
Here in Engage it really does a bad job of conveying a war, this is the first game where it legit feels more like a small armed conflict rather than a full blown war.
@@cryofigment4949 Considering how some games I just stop leveling certain units, the enemies they must face must suck
@@RangerRobin0404 Well, I mean, you're also always facing the enemy elite, so...
@@cryofigment4949 What about the (insert name for each games version of Zombies)?
I DID NOT KNOW IT WAS A THING THAT"S SO MESSED UP LMAO
I felt bad enough already. Stop it!
Merrin's just makes me sad
Framme is my favorite so she always has a permanent spot in my team.
I agree I enjoy her Yunaka, Lapis and Anna on my teams I paired Framme with Hector was the greatest thing I've done lol
>:(
Use everyone equally.
its so sad how early game units just get fucked if u dont go out of ur way to invest in them
Bench Warmers
That's why I kill the characters I'm not using. Saves me from embarassing situations. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Excelblem Marth: "This one looks promising."
As a friend you are... replaceable. Farewell.
But imagine how embarassing it was, when I sent Kagetsu to die. He not only survived, but also killed every enemy coming at him. I had to avoid talking to him for the rest of the playthrough.
Hortensia on the bench? What is this madness. Does that really happen? She is the best support in the game by a mile
I've never used her at all in 4 playthroughs. I can't stand her design and personality. Not mention fliers in this game goes down waaaay too easily. All those things outweigh her potential during battle, in my book.
@@GSS1Sirius it wouldn't matter really if she had 1 hp. You never put her in harms way. She's not a combat unit. Just amazing to fly around and heal stuff and other utility. Agree on her design and personality though. She is kinda irritating lol
Lapis confirmed best girl. She does not ask to be put back in like most of the cast, she is just ready if you do choose her
I didn't use Lapis at first but after I started she quickly turned into one of my best units. Synced her with Lyn, gave her a refined Killing Edge and now she is a doubling crit monster, especially with Alacrity and Speedtaker
Lol, I didn't know these even existed cuz I never talked to any of these lames.
Bench Alear.
I don't like this feature, makes me feel bad because there's just not enough slots
Imagine benching Ivy.
This is one of many things I just pissed me off about this game. Oh wow this is a cool area I bet you x character has something interesting to say about it.
Insert Same dialoge you've read a hundred times About either Not fighting or Did great in the fight.
Never mind
Do you realise how much time that would take to make unique dialogue for every character for every map? I think the 3-5 or so characters they give unique dialogue after every battle is plenty
@Coshi Pie No i'm talking about the fact that They'll say the same dialogue of "i did amazing this fight" instead of just tell me what they think about the area.
Don't make excuses I can't read What they think about a place because they were doing great and multiple different fights.
It usually doesn't matter who I put in since alear just sits in the middle of the map with a 1-2 range weapon and full clears it on his own 99% of the time XD
Yeah those dialogues just make me sad. FUCK why did they put that in the game
Y’all bench Chloe?? lol
It's IS's fault for making a lot of the early game units absolutely inferior to everyone else lol. They don't even scale well on normal mode. It's awful
Imagine benching Diamant
Lmao not even voiced. They ran out of production money 🤣🤣
Also this is a reminder for all you to support Edelgard in the voting gauntlet for feh.
clown
@@Adam-yi7gg Says the Dimitri supporter 🤡
@@edel738 What does dimitri have to do with anything?? Go play three houses and stop being obsessed in every damn comment section.
None of the exploring dialogue is voiced, so your point is half invalid lol
@@edel738 The only Clown here is you, every vid you spout some nonsense. Just take a chill pill
If you wanted to get on the team you shouldnt have had the +1HP and thats it level up back in chapter 10. You remember when you missed that 97%? or that time I had to restart because you got crit by that wyvern rider?