What Makes a Good Early Game Map in Fire Emblem?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 17 พ.ค. 2024
- Early game Fire Emblem maps are interesting because they have a lot of jobs. They have to teach a new player how to play the game, while ideally still being interesting for other players, and they need to provide you with an introduction to the setting and atmosphere. Here's what I think makes a good early game map in Fire Emblem
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I want to comment of Fates Chapter 5 being a good and weirdly difficult early game chapter that teaches the players a lot of mechanics without being to obvious about it. Like the existence of the 1-2 range healing staff, dancers, weapon being more effective against certain types of enemy, enemy being able to pair up and the usage of tonics
That map rotation shit blew my mind unironically
FE6 was designed to be a callback to FE1 in so many ways lol. They were really scared after losing Kaga.
I've always held that FE1 has surprisingly strong level design for having absolutely nothing to go off in the past. Love seeing it get praised!
As someone whose first game in the series was FE7, I actually really appreciated that the tutorials in that game took things slowly to make sure you absorbed all of the information. I think the main problem is that they can’t be toggled off, meaning that series veterans will have to sit through them if they want to play Lyn’s route.
I'm a huge defender of Lyn Mode, but one bad thing about it is that it makes the early map of Eliwood and Hector Mode somewhat redundant. Because both Chapter 11, and chapter 12 are really good early maps!
HM Ch11 is the one who benefits the most from Lyn Mode, because it makes Matthew more valuable if he got the extra exp.
If you could chose between all three modes (and difficulties) from the start, you'll have a perfect option for all players, instead of having a perfect beginner's tutorial that will immediately discourage any veterans from trying it.
Making a great early chapter for new and veteran players is very difficult. You want to introduce almost every mechanic as early as possible while keeping a good pace.
My favorite early game chapters is Geneaology. You learn how a unit feels early, map size and objectives, and set the tone of the world in one prologue. Its longer than most FE but i think it nailed it perfectly.
It being longer than most fe works, since it's teaching players from other fe games that genealogy maps are super long
I really like radiant dawns early game for the idea it counts ANY death as a fail state. I wish this idea was played with more. It’s a good way of conditioning new players the importance of playing non suicidally and can be used to improve character attachment because you can assure a character will be there for a scene.
Radiant Dawn's early game is brutally difficult, some of the most challenging maps in the series. Since RD is very heavily enemy phase focused, the early maps really try to drill into you how important it is to maximize player phase by accomplishing something with your 1 turn while still ending your turn in a favorable position, without over-exposing yourself to counter-attacks.
It's definitely tough, but it's also a great time imo
For specifically chapter one maps I think the key is to have around 6 characters that you can play with on turn 1. It allows you to make meaningful decisions from the get go and it doesnt become a chore to do on repeat playthroughs.
I think 2 really good early maps are chapters 3 and 5 of radiant dawn. In chapter 3 it's the first time you are introduced to the ledge mechanics and the combination of the longbow archer and the reinforcements that spawn at the bottom it's a good way of showing just how huge that boost is. The placement of the chest is also pretty big since the first few have the thani tome which greatly helps with boss who is guarding a another helpful chest.
Chapter 5 is a another good one since it's your introduction to laguze and it be a route map with lots of treasure it. The rest being by the bosses mean if you want them you have to mindful of the laguze gauges.
Hi Lizard!
Have you ever considered redesigning FE8's maps to be the best they can possibly be? In my opinion, this kind of thing is a fun exercise! It stretches the mind in new ways and forces you to consider why the developers made the choices they did, which can lead to a deeper appreciation of the original content.
engage earlygame is almost flawless, is fun and challening, it gives you a lot of tools to find a way clear the maps but nothing is too op, perfectly balanced
As much as i dislike Engage, i wholeheartedly agree. In fact, the early game was what kept me coming back when the game initially came out. Unfortunately I cannot say the same for late game.
Yeah the first handful of maps of Engage are great. Really almost all of Engage's maps are solid, I think they nailed the map design for the most part.
@@actuallizard yeah, overall engage's map are great, the only that i actually hate are some paralogues... ike and celica💀💀
Personally I would prefer higher enemy density. Or to rework xp because the game punishes you for spreading out xp by trying out the different units.
The only issue I have about early game engage is, on subsequent playthroughs, I find it to be really repetitive and boring since you don't have access to the whole sandbox that the game is known for and you just got done playing with. A new game+ would have helped immensely with that but we all know how that went.
I never even realized that FE games before Engage didn't teach how to use warp at all. On one hand it's nice that the game has faith in the player, but on the other it would be nice to at least get a glimpse of what you can do with it, if only to ease the player that it's a convenient tool, not some gatekeeper of extra content that they'll miss if they won't have it.
If I recall correctly there is a Secret Shop in FE7 that you can only reach with Warp though. So at least in that specific scenario there is a bit of gatekeeping so to speak. Unless I'm wrong, which I certainly could be...
@@GreatAether58 Well you're not going to know about it on your first playthrough unless you look it up so it's fine. Plus warp in FE7 comes very late, in fact it's two chapters before it's required (there isn't any use for it in the chapter you get it and the next one is Eliwood/Hector trial so you got very limited deployment slots and you likely won't pick a warper there. So you would have to actively try to run out of warp before that shop becomes available.
Radiant Dawn 1-P and 1-1 are huge tone setters. You do one good thing and then get chased out of town for it.
The mountain tiles in FE1's first maps also teach the player on difficult terrain. Theyre placed in a small space where youre forced to move into a range where their effect on movement is noticable. You can see how you can walk on them, but they still slow you down.
They may not be good in the category of teaching the players stuff, I wouldn't know, but I really love most of the part 1 maps from Radiant Dawn.
Langrisser 1 first map imo is the peak of early map design. An hidden tutorial that naturally teach almost everything about the game to an observant player.
Wow I never noticed that Chapter 1 of FE1/3/11 has basically the same layout as Chapter 1 of FE6, except rotated. My mind is blown.
That said, I actually like Lyn mode, even as a veteran. It's excellent for beginners, that much is certain. But replaying it recently through NSO on Switch I didn't feel like the tutorial bored me even though I already know all the basics. I've been trying to get some of my friends into playing FE and I always suggest FE7 as the best starting point because of the tutorial. So going through it again felt nice to be validated when I saw first hand that I have been giving potential new players good advice.
I also really like the early game in Path of Radiance. Ike training against Boyd and then Greil, as well as Chapter 1, were both great ways to teach the player about the weapon triangle, healing items, and the danger that bandits pose to houses on the map. Chapter 2 kind of just reinforces the importance of the weapon triangle but it also does a good job showing you the value of a healer. Chapter 3 is great for time sensitive objectives because you want to get to Marcia as fast as possible so the pirates don't kill her. Chapter 4 teaches you to use bulkier units to defend less bulky units. Titania, Gatrie, and Shinon are really helpful to keep enemies away from Soren and Rhys in particular, but also Ike too if he hasn't leveled well so far. Chapter 5 I think is a great example of a defense map and fog of war too. Etc...
I think Awakening does a good job of balancing out the need for explicit tutorialising with its story quite well.
Premonition hits the right balance of being straightforward while still giving the player just enough control to impact things. More importantly, it underlines the themes of the game and sets up several key plot ideas that will come back in more interesting ways. It's why the similar maps in Fates and Engage kinda suck. Fates' is way more restrictive in terms of gameplay, doesn't make a lick of sense even by dream sequence standards, and is followed by multiple better tutorial maps (though Fates Chapter 1 also isn't very good). Engage's does a good job at establishing Emblems but is less interesting and also kind of nonsense in the context of the wider story. Engage Chapter 1 is a much better tutorial map, though the drip-feeding of mechanics across the next couple of chapters is to its detriment.
Awakening's Prologue and first few maps play very differently depending on difficulty settings thanks to enforcing no Pair Up on Normal and being far more dangerous on Lunatic. Unlike the other games I mentioned, its first 'real' map has enough going on that I think the prior tutorial map is actually justified. (As an aside: I wonder if Fates has such an extensive tutorial because player feedback indicated that a lot of people were confused starting Awakening?)
The unfortunate conclusion, however, is that Awakening's map design is kind of ass. There's a lot of maps where enemy positions are effectively the only terrain, and while that can always be a factor, it makes a ton of gameplay 'bait as few enemies as possible, kill them, repeat' since there's not much in the way of objectives, time pressure or obstacles. Chapters 1 and 2 kind of solve this by having the enemies be extremely aggressive and reasonably dangerous even on Hard, but the game isn't balanced around keeping that kind of pressure up the way most of Engage or the better Conquest maps are.
This might be a hot take, but I think Chapter 1 Lyn Mode (NOT the prologue) is a great introductory chapter. On lower difficulties it simultaneously teaches about the weapon triangle and terrain, and does so with great story/mechanical integration, establishing Kent and Sain's characters naturally while it teaches you how to play the game. And on harder difficulties, the map is structured in a way with spread out enemies that an experienced player can feed all of the exp to one unit they want to power level. Nothing revolutionary, but very efficient and successful in its purpose.
For my favorite early game, Id say Thracia 776 and Engage took the cake; both are intuitive, very to the point and you're constantly learning something from the gameplay or the plot/vibes of the world, which make them very dynamic. This video made me realize how important a good early map is, you cannot hand hold too much but you can't drop your player unaware. Cool video.
Thanks! And yeah, Thracia and Engage are def two great early games. Thracia chapter 4 is one of my all time favorite maps
Not that anyone really notices but Thracia 776 also hardcodes Eyvel to be invincible to encourage occasionally taking risk for higher reward.
You mention FE6's first map is comparable but I think one big thing missing are forts. Without the passive healing the chapter is a lot more punishing especially on Bors who has weapon triangle disadvantage on nearly every enemy on the entire map. His ability to tank is worth much less and while you do get a vulnerary the healing is limited to 3 uses and so the game is a lot less forgiving, despite how similar it is to FE1's first map.
I'm a big fan of FE 10's first map for letting me know that the Dawn Brigade is going to be perpetual pain and suffering.
Tear Ring Saga's first map does a good job introducing one of the core mechanics of the game: Sit still and press 'end turn' until an on-map event that happens entirely too late allows you to keep playing the game.
I kid, but only slightly. I love TRS but its early game is easily the worst early game that Kaga ever made, and it turns *so many* people off from an otherwise great game. There are several maps in the first handful of chapters which have an excessive amount of "End Turn" and this almost completely goes away after like... chapter 10 (of a 40 chapter game), but several of my friends never made it that far before dropping the game... and even I myself dropped it for years before being convinced to pick it back up.
I need to get back to my TRS playthrough, but I agree, the early game is slower than I would have liked.
FE4 has the best intro chapter in my opinion. It is also my favourite chapter in that game. (except maybe for the last one)
My favourite early maps are Path of Radiance. They're quick and punchy, and almost perfectly explain the new mechanics without dragging on (Almost as biorhythm is vague af)
Alongside FE5 and FE1/3B1/11, some other personal favorites of mine are FE4's Prologue, and the opening sequence of FE10 as a whole. Both set up the stories quite well, introduce a lot of mechanics in ways that feel pretty natural (Except maybe for Leonardo's Cancel skill, not sure what IS was up to there), and are generally just fun to play. Even though I have ways I consistently play all of those maps in a typical run, they feel tight enough to encourage careful planning while also loose enough to let you experiment a bit. I think they also teach how to use Jagens quite well, too - FE4's Prologue lets you send Sigurd to cover the main objective while all your other units cover side objectives and/or offer support, while Chapter 1-2 of FE10 heavily encourages Sothe usage in such a way that he feels important but not overpowering.
My overall favorite, however, has to go to Berwick Saga's first chapter. If I had to describe everything about it, I'd be here a long time due to all the weird mechanics, but it introduces so many ideas naturally even if you decide to skip the mechanic explanations the map offers you the choice of viewing at its start. There are several ways to tackle each obstacle on the map, such as the beefy guy on the bridge: you could either use Ward, your Jagen unit, to hit him a bunch and try to clear him out ASAP, or even just go around him the long way and focus on providing support to some of your other units who are stuck on the far side of the map. Plus, in terms of story setup, fighting a gang of deserters from the Good Guy Army:tm: is pretty unique from most FE setups - as you said, it's pretty much always bandits or some smaller forces belonging to a big enemy army.
Basically the first maps before the game truly opens up should be it's own mini story to really get people into the fe games.
Eliwoods game does this well with lyn same wirh awakening and engage for the first 5 chapters can be a whole arc itself.
You can also tell when quality drops as the game opens up.
I'd say potential for variance is a big point in an early maps favor
There's a reason nobody talks about Hector Mode Chapter 11, or basically all of Lyn mode
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Some early game sequences that I like:
Path of Radiance: the prologue is useless, but after that the maps are pretty good from the start. Even though Titania is pretty Seth-like, there's enough for other units to do in every chapter that you'd have to go out of your way to avoid using them and just bulldozing everything with her (and she's briefly unavailable in Chapter 2). I'm not sure where I'd say the early game stops, exactly - maybe when you get access to the convoy after Chapter 8? Too much to cover in detail, but I think pretty much all the maps have interesting things going on, with the possible exception of Chapter 4, where just bulldozing everything with Titania is at its most viable. Though from a story standpoint that's a pretty pivotal chapter.
Radiant Dawn: The early Dawn Brigade arc, before you get to the point where you can truly roflstomp everything with god units, is really engaging on repeat playthroughs. The feeling of being scrappy underdogs really comes across well. In general I'm a big fan of part 1 outside of the dumpster fire that is 1-9, but for that early game feel I'd probably say the cutoff is between 1-5 and 1-6. And I think every map from 1-P through 1-5 is really tightly designed, with the one caveat being the possibility of Jill or Zihark dying outside of your control in 1-5 (though I have to say that I've never actually experienced this myself and am somewhat skeptical that you can't guarantee their safety with Volug).
Engage: I think you're right in singling out Chapter 4 for praise, but ignoring the useless premonition prologue thing, I think the entirety of the intro plus Firene arc, culminating in Chapter 5, is really well done. The first couple of maps are simple but there's still enough going on to be interesting (definitely more so Chapter 2 than Chapter 1). Chapter 3 is legitimately challenging and does a good job of showing off several things (e.g. fliers, chain attacks, flier effectiveness, using magic against armors). Chapter 4 is as you said. And then Chapter 5 is a step up in difficulty that really puts everything you've learned to the test against the toughest map and certainly the toughest boss so far.
omg my first patreon shoutout .....
I think your points on FE8's beginner maps are legit. Even as a FE8 Fanboy myself can attest to that. I think what IS wanted to do was give the player a sense of urgency while also juggling on how you should play the game. That, and the game itself has an easy mode for people to learn the game with. It's not the best design, but I think the ways around it are acceptable.
4:14 wait were you playing this on the switch?? if so how?
The early sacred stones chapters are fairly lacking, admittedly, but I'd argue that Chapter 2 is at least decent. The introduction of Ross and Garcia across the mountains serves to quite efficiently introduce how flyers can bypass terrain, rescue mechanics, green unit recruitment requirements, and the usage of healers (since Ross comes pre-damaged and this is Moulder's first map). Plus, it has a little time pressure from the southern village. It is perhaps not the engaging map on replays, but it is a very good introduction for new players, imo.
Rebecca makes a good early fire emblem map
Is it actually Vulnerary? I’ve been looking at it as “Vulnary” my whole run of Sacred Stones.
Could be a Rotisserarie Chicken situation once again.
It genuinely is. I just missed all those letters that whole time.
Love chapter 1 of 776
fe4 has the best early game map in my opinion. It teaches you or shows you about all the mechanics in a very complex game.
Before watching. I love the maps that play as a puzzle that throw you into the game and want you to solve it
Awakening you get all the pieces for chapter 4 to beat an armor boss by getting a hammer. Elixir and so on. Shows you how you can raise your dodge and pair up for more. It's very fun
Engage probably one of the better ones as the first 5 chapters are a great experience by themselves when playing like having the theif rob the chests before you defeat them or not opening the gate to clear the side room first.
3 houses the first two maps were good in letting you play and learn as tou go but i wish it held your hand less.
Dude you’re an actual lizard. Just thought I’d point it out for no particular reasons.
One (admittedly very basic) thing that you didn't mention about FE1 is that the large amount of ocean and mountain terrain gives a good intro to fluer mechanics.
**Happy bird noises**
My take away from Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon T5. You can not reliably beat the level due to hit rate being what it is. You will have to correct that problem if you want to progress further into the game. A few chapters later you learn that only the units which have high speed or armor knights can reliably tank. Unless you abused map 1 gaining as much experience as you can before moving on with the game. Any unit which does not fall into the high enough of speed, high end of defense, or heavily over-leveled will not be able to reliably play the later maps. The latter being able to one round enemies and tank at high enough grinded levels. The problem is, only those high leveled units will be able to continue being relivent later on in the game. I never did get past late game T4 and only made some progress in T5. My take away is that T4 and T5 are not balanced enough to play reliably. Your success is more based on your ability to maintain constant grinding on the bosses.
I'm shocked you threw Sacred Stones Chapter 2 in the forgettable/non-interesting category, since it seems to hit many of the same notes you praised Chapter 1 of FE1 and 6. It teaches you about villages, villages being destroyed, green units, recruitment, rescue & canto mechanics, the importance of flyers, etc. I agree the presence of Seth rather than a Marcus or Jagen actually does weaken Sacred Stones early game quite a bit, but I always thought Chapter 2 was done quite well.
I agree on Engage, I absolutely love the early game, but I wish the game started on Chapter 3. I don't think Chapters 1 or 2 are done well. I guess it was done to give you a little more time with Lumera.
My thoughts exactly on Sacred Stones Chapter 2.
I think an optional tutorial mode would still be nice. Im tired of being on my 5th playthrough and the game making me play through the chapter of, to attack, press a, move unit next to opponent, etc.
What game are you reffering to? For thr most part, FE games only give tutorials like that if you're still playing on easy...
@vidsman625 3 houses and engage. Three houses is very bad about the tutorial windows and engage wastes like the first 2 maps by just being very low exp and basic, with the next map still being a very tutorial based.
@@skypaladin9878 Ah thats totally fair. Engage can at least be done pretty quickly, but 3 Houses is a slog imo.
This is some really random and minor criticism, but I think you tend to use the same handful of lo fi emblem songs in a lot of your videos and honestly it’s to the point I’m getting sick of hearing those same few again and again.
Yeah I reuse too often. Though I think this week's video doesn't have any I've used in the last month or two.
Lofi emblem 3 just came out, so expect to hear some more variety soon :)
I can say things that will make me go a long way to forgiving your early game map's faults in a Romhack or Fire Emblem game:
1. Give me all the features first.
2. No forced tutorials.
3. Convoy available at start (big deal in romhacks).
4. Just let me use the prep menu from the second mission, if not the first.
I agree with all of those except preps on the first map, the unit placement of units of a first map can be very important in teaching players about different unit strengths and weaknesses.
every map is good until you realize that game (looking at you awakening) have ambush spawn. 🗡 🗡
Thracia 776 and Binding Blade too...