Cactus Game Design Message Boards

I know not many people here play Fire Emblem, one of the best Strategy RPGs ever, but I figured since I was doing a play log for Fire Emblem on another forum, I might as well move it over here as well and maybe get the game some exposure.

This topic will be a log where I post videos of myself playing the game Fire Emblem (a GBA game that came out in 2003. It is the 7th installment of the Fire Emblem Series, but first English released Fire Emblem game). The playthough I am undertaking will be on Hector Hard Mode, the hardest mode in the game, without the support of a previously completely Lyn Mode (which is essentially just a tutorial mode to those new to the series). The goal is to complete the game in as few turns as possible while recruiting all playable units (with two notable exceptions; Wallace and Karla because by design they cost far too many turns to recruit). This playthrough is designed to be "average". I am an average player of the game from a tactical standpoint (Some of you might think I'm doing pretty well, but most of the strongest strategies that I will be using are adaptation of other players' strategies that are far better than my own). In order to insure complete averageness, I have installed a mod to my game (I will be playing on the computer, rather than the cartridge I own, in order to allow recording to be much, much simpler) that will prevent the games use of random numbers to choose stat gains from making my playthrough incredibly hard or easy. If you would like more information on what exactly this mod does, I would be happy to detail.

So, without further ado, here is the first chapter of my playthrough. Those of you who have not played the should know that Hector, the axe user in this video, is the main character of the game in this case. If Hector dies, the game is over. The goal of the chapter is to defeat enemy Knight Wire, which I do in the absolute minimum turncoutn (meaning, due to the movement restrictions on characters, there is not a faster way to complete the map).

Janissary's Average Through Chapter 11

The second character in this level is Matthew, a theif. Theives have the special ability of opening doors (if they have a lockpick in their inventory) and stealing from enemies (weapons can not be stolen, and Theives can only steal from enemies with lower speed than that of the Theif)

Without going into too much detail, the combat system (from the perspective of weapons) uses a RPS model. Swords gain bonuses against Axes, Axes gain bonuses against Lances, and Lances gain bonuses against Swords. Bows do not gain any special bonuses, and can only be used from 2 range (meaning that there is one space between the attacker and the victim).

Spoiler: Turncount by Chapter (hover to show)

Chapter 11: 6
Chapter 12: 5
Chapter 13: 5
Chapter 13x: 8
Chapter 14: 5
Chapter 15: 5
Chapter 16: 5
Chapter 17: 8
Chapter 17x: 4
Chapter 18: 3
Chapter 19: 4
Chapter 19x: 5
Chapter 20: 8
Total: 74

Too much fire emblem, not enough pokemon.

Pokemon isn't strategic unless I play online, and it's no fun to log online Pokemon battles. This run also has relevance to the Fire Embelm 7 Tier List that I like debating about for no reason, so it's not all fun and games kids.

Srs, Srs stuff. Don't mess with GBA.


Chapter 12:

Janissary's Average Through Chapter 12

This chapter introduces Eliwood, the other main character of the game. The game also ends if Eliwood dies (a third Lord character, Lyn, will be introduced in Chapter 16). Since many have not played this game before, I thought I would take this time to run through some of the classes of characters you see in this video

Fighter (Dorcas and Bartre): Fighters uses axes. They have a high strength (meaning they can do lots of damage) and high Hit Points. They usually lack in skill (which affects weapon hit rates) and speed (which affects double attacking and dodging attacks).

Archer (Rebecca): Archers use bows. They have average stats across the board, and are unable to attack from 1 range (adjacent to another unit) because they can only use bows.

Cavalier (Lowen) + Paladin (Marcus): Cavaliers and Paladians are mounted warriors who can Swords, Lances, and once a Cavalier promotes to a Paladin, axes. Cavaliers have high movement and fairly consistant stats across the board.

Knight (Oswin): Knights are heavy infantry specializing in Lances. They have high defense (which reduces damage taken), HP, and Strength, making them the primary chokepoint holders of the game.

Cleric (Serra): Clerics can not deal damage, but are able to use staves to heal damaged units.

I had to wiki that one, but it does look like it's a similar concept.

Janissary's Average Through Chapter 13

I completed chapter 13 in 5 turns. The most notable new concept in this Chapter will be the first use of rescuing. Rescuing is a game concept where a unit "picks" up a another units and then "drops" them off. Units have a stat called CON and AID that governs who can and cannot be rescued. A general rule of thumb is that horses have high AID and units like Fighters and Knights have high CON. A unit can carry another unit if its AID is greater than the other units CON.

Janissary's Average Through Chapter 14

There's nothing majorly new in this chapter. If anyone is actually watching these, you should tell me so I feel some encouragement, haha.

Ignore the end of the video. I had to mine the game for good random numbers to get a critical (aka triple damage) in order to kill that cavalier and get a five turn clear.

Yeah, the early levels are kind of boring. You'll probably be more interested in some of the later levels based on what you said - there's some serious shenanigans with multiple battlefronts that have to occur to quickly clear levels. Also, more enemy units use magic towards the end of the game - generally speaking, units users magic are harder to handle because typically only other magic units have a strong defense against magic (and I won't be using many magic units). Staff users towards the end of the game can also use cool staves to try to put units to sleep or other annoying status effects.

I actually forgot about Merlinus (the tent). He's new. He is a merchant; each unit can hold only 5 items. When a unit visits a shop to buy weapons, he/she can normally only buy up to a full inventory of five items. If Merlinus is alive when a unit would go over his/hers inventory count, I can send the items to Merlinus instead. Merlinus can hold up to 100 items in his Merchant tent. Before chapter, I can trade items around from Merlinus to units and units to units. Units can also trade into Merlinus' stash if they are next to Merlinus (which, for the record, will likely never occur).

For those who want a slightly more informed reasoning as to why I'm on this quest to kill stuff in the context of the game, here is the wikipedia page if you would like to read a short plot summary.

And, finally, have another video:

Janissary's Average Through Chapter 15

If you didn't figure it out, this level is super easy which is why I finished it so quickly after that last level. The goal of this level is to prevent any enemy unit from stepping on the throne my units start near. I rout all enemy units on turn 5 because I'm a boss (actually it's because when I killed the enemy Nomad Sealen with Marcus on turn 2, I stopped all enemy reinforcements from coming so there were only a few enemies to deal with).

Prof U should commentate your playthrough.

It's actually really funny you say that, since I was going to start commentating soon probably since I am most likely getting a mic soon.

Haha, wow, you went intense up there with all kinds of Fire Emblem references. I was just trying to introduce people to the series which is why I didn't say stuff like Jeigan.

I'd be up for an FE7 or FE8 draft on any difficulty. I think we would have an issue with people still. Isildur and Josh Kopp are the only two on here I know of that play. I was surprised to learn that; I thought more Redemption players would be drawn to the strategy of the series. I wish I could more adequately show that in my videos/comments.

EDIT: Obligatory lol at your ENM progress

I thought you had FE7 already... I take back my laugh.

I haven't played any FE but the GBs. Well, actually I messed around with the FE5. I'll probably play one of them for the huge car ride to Nats.

Janissary's Average Through Chapter 16

Welcome to the first real tactical map that involves some serious rescue shenanigans.

There are lots of new characters this map. Down in south is Lyn, the third and last Lord character of the game, Kent and Sain, two Cavaliers, and Wil, an archer. In the north I have Florina, the first pegasus knight of hte game. Because peg knights can fly, they ignore impassible terrain like the cliffs I use Florina to Rescue-Drop over on the first turn. This makes Peg Knights invaluable for low turn counts, as I can rescue units and carry them across normally impassable terrain to shorten levels.

Welcome to the first real tactical map that involves some serious rescue shenanigans.

At 7:25, why didn't you trade for one of Lyn's Javelins with Kent? I guess it didn't really matter at that point, but it would have saved Kent from being attacked twice...

I play FE as well, although I've only played this one and Sacred Stones.

Someone mentioned Gladius in this thread, which is the best game ever. I would give anything for a Gladius 2 that fixes the problems with the first game while staying true to the incredible concept and gameplay.