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    Fire Emblem (OC) Beacons? Felix doesn't need any stinkin' warning beacons!

    March 31, 2021

    Fire Emblem (OC) Beacons? Felix doesn't need any stinkin' warning beacons!

    (OC) Beacons? Felix doesn't need any stinkin' warning beacons!

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    Reminder, Mario isn't the only one who Nintendo will shoot today

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    [OC] Fitness Lucina

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    Don't forget to recruit him before he is gone, boys and girls

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    [Art] Adios Minna~

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    [OC] Painted Gunnthrá from FEH in Nowi's outfit

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    Nintendo publicly executes Marth (March 31, 2021, Colorized)

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    Drew Byleth in my favourite DLC outfit!

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    [Discuss] Fire Emblem games should include an official "Ironman" mode.

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    This is intended to be a discussion post; I talk at length about my points and their motivations, because I want to hear the community's thoughts and spark conversation about all that I've written here. Enjoy!

    Casual and Classic: The value of different gameplay modes

    Modern Fire Emblem games have included, in addition to a difficulty setting, two gameplay "modes": Casual (units who die in battle retreat but are still available for the next chapter) and Classic (units who die in battle can no longer be used for the rest of the game).

    The simplest justification for having both modes is that they each cater to a different kind of player. Casual is forgiving and Classic is less so, in a way that goes beyond choosing Normal or Hard difficulty; The same chapter played on Casual/Hard instead of Classic/Normal has more room for mistakes, but a single mistake won't have permanent consequences.

    Is Casual/Hard more difficult than Classic/Normal? It depends on the game, the context, and the player. The two modes present fundamentally different obstacles. This is a very good thing! More different spins on the core tactical gameplay provide more replayability (for those that like all modes) and expand the series' audience (for people who only gravitate towards a single mode). This is why self-imposed challenge runs (like Ironman, 0% growths, character drafts, etc) are popular.

    Since modes are such a great thing, we should have more of them!

    Oops, someone died! How players tend to engage with Classic mode

    I can't extrapolate from how I personally play Fire Emblem games, but anyone who frequents this subreddit or any Fire Emblem forum has probably heard some variation of this opinion enough times:

    "I prefer Classic mode to Casual, but I can't stand letting my units die. If I've committed to using a unit and have put resources into them, if they die I always restart the chapter immediately."

    This is how I play Fire Emblem, and I would even venture a guess that this is how most players who prefer Classic mode engage with the games. We could call it Classic-Deathless (some players may reset when any unit dies, while others may only give this preferential treatment to units they're already training, but from a tactical perspective the effect on gameplay is mostly the same).

    Here's another closely-related opinion, for those that don't quite fit into the above category:

    "Oh my god, no way. Shit! Arthur died to a 5% crit on the LAST TURN of Conquest Chapter 10 on Lunatic [insert colorful cursing]. I love him, but...I can't do that again, I just can't. Everyone had great level-ups, Camilla picked up all the loot from the houses...I'm sorry Arthur, but I'm leaving you behind."

    (We'll call this Classic-Oops-Almost-Deathless. Yes, that's me in the above scenario).

    It's certainly possible to imagine a player who refuses to restart a chapter under any circumstances because they are just that impatient to get through the game (or see the story bits). But it's hard to see why this player wouldn't prefer Casual mode. No, players who play on Classic without resetting are generally understood to be doing a self-imposed challenge known as, among other names, an Ironman run.

    Where does this leave Classic mode, in the absence of any self-imposed challenges? By engagement alone, the tagline Classic mode deserves is less "Units who fall in battle are lost for good", and more "The death of any unit results in an immediate Game Over". For people who play Classic-Oops-Almost-Deathless, this is obviously a significant difference in select cases, but modern Fire Emblem games have made that style obsolete with plentiful turn rewind mechanics like Divine Pulse and Mila's Turnwheel anyway.

    Ironman: Self-imposed challenge vs. New official mode?

    There's absolutely nothing wrong with Classic mode filling this role as a gameplay mode. In fact, I would say the games narratively encourage this style of play; modern entries like Awakening, Fates, and Three Houses spend a lot of time musing about the power of the bonds between allies and the value of individual life, and the visuals, voice acting, and contextual dialogue go a long way towards making the player feel guilty about a unit's death, as if things weren't "supposed" to end this way and the game is being played sub-optimally.

    But there's still an unfulfilled promise in Classic mode's description: "Units who fall in battle are lost for good". And the only kind of playthrough that can deliver on the intent behind those words is an Ironman run. A real, high-stakes war where every decision counts and your fragile army is at the mercy of fate.

    The question is, why does Ironman deserve its own official mode? As I mentioned, creative self-imposed challenge runs abound in all Fire Emblem titles, and every Fire Emblem game can't well have ten different game-modes; if an Ironman run can be done easily by just playing the game without resetting (as opposed to something like a 0% growths run that requires modding the game if it isn't an official inclusion), why should it be more worthy of being "official" than any other challenge run?

    My first argument in favor of an official Ironman mode is simply the existence of that unfulfilled promise above. Fire Emblem has dangled it in front of us for the series' entire lifetime, as though we are meant to be able to experience the game that way, and yet the games don't officially acknowledge the only avenue we can take to that experience!

    My second argument is against an assumption buried in the rhetorical question above: "If an Ironman run can done easily...". I can't speak for others, but for me, this is false. I feel immense psychological pressure to turn any Ironman run into a Classic-Oops-Almost-Deathless run as soon as a unit eats a 3% crit at the end of a chapter. Some readers might scoff at this and chalk it up to a lack of willpower – if you can't accept a unit's death, why are you even trying to do an Ironman run? But the fact is, I really want to complete an Ironman run, and more than that, my primate brain wants to see a little gold star on my save file when I beat the game in Ironman mode. It's subjective, I know, but the punishing unfairness and the lack of acknowledgement or reward makes it hard to keep going and dulls the excitement of the run – "I don't have to be doing this," I think. "I could stop at any time, the game doesn't care".

    (This is an argument/complaint that can be made against any kind of self-imposed challenge, of which I have done many – it's right there in the word "self-imposed". I do think it has unique force when applied to Ironman runs specifically, because of some of the particulars: no in-game evidence that you're doing Ironman, no code modifications to enforce any rules, etc. But I think I'm already pushing it on the scope of this discussion).

    I want the challenge to be forced on me, so I can rise to it, so to speak. I'm very curious if any other players share this feeling, and one of the main reasons I wrote this post is to hear from the community. Do any of you also experience this tension?

    Addendum: Implementation considerations

    Obviously the difficulty and developer effort required to add a mode to a Fire Emblem is an essential consideration. Having the option to play a Fire Emblem game backwards from the last chapter to the first with negative growths sounds like a cool mode (fun fact: before I played New Mystery, this is what I thought "Lunatic Reverse" was), but it's unclear how one would even begin designing and building such a thing.

    Thankfully the implementation of Ironman is relatively easy and already exists in plenty of tactics games and RPGs, like XCOM and Darkest Dungeon, as an optional or mandatory feature. All that's required is for the playthrough to use a single save file, and autosave the game after every single action the player takes in battle. A potential hurdle in Fire Emblem's case is that the auto-saving would have to be rather fine-grained – if a player commits to an attack with a 50% hit chance, sees that it misses, and then immediately shuts the game off, the save file should still record that the player took that action. How easy or hard this is to implement really depends on how the game is coded.

    As far as interaction with game mechanics, the only big one that would cause problems in an Ironman run is Divine Pulse, not because it wouldn't work, but because rewinding turns for extra tries chafes against the principle of an Ironman run in the first place (every decision is permanent). The easiest and best remedy in my estimation is for Divine Pulse (or its equivalent) to be disabled in Ironman mode. Alternatively, it could be limited to just one use per map, like the Reset Turn mechanic in Into The Breach, to provide a mulligan for those annoying meta-mistakes where you heal/attack the wrong person by button-mashing too fast, or your pet steps on your controller or something.

    Another smaller game mechanic that should probably be canned for Ironman is the slightly-random distribution of stats and skills given to enemies when a battle is first loaded. Most Fire Emblem games do this, but in a playthrough where there's no going back, a battle/map should be an entirely static challenge that is the exact same for all players, every time, to avoid any unfairness. There might be other mechanics that ought to be tweaked, but nothing else comes to mind at the moment.

    Lastly, and perhaps obviously, if an Ironman mode were included, I don't think it should be called "Ironman", since it's mostly a slang term used in the gaming community and has no particular meaning within the Fire Emblem universe. I can't think of something as catchy and simple as "Casual" and "Classic". Anyone have any thoughts?

    That's all I've got! If you made it this far (or even made it halfway and scrolled to the end), thanks for reading! :)

    submitted by /u/Roadrick2
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    Greetings Professor!

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    Some sketches of a dragon!Byleth design as over the last couple days I've been fond of the idea :>

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    Here’s my really sketchy Saint Seiros from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Also posted this to my Instagram @techisense_00

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    Top 5 favorite FE characters of all time

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    Who are your personal top 5 FE characters of all time. It could be aesthetic, design, personalities, story line, power level etc.

    Which characters make you go "hell yeah that's my dude/girl".

    Bonus points for hype and or more obscure choices, like if you just come in with a group of the 5 biggest FE fatties cuz you love characters who can chow down then even better. Is your list just your top waifu's/himbos? Lay it all out there, we can stan that.

    Just an appreciation thread for the great characters that make their series great and to have some fun. Hope everyone has fun and thanks to all who throw in their submissions

    submitted by /u/Meeqs
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    Wow Mercedes.

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    Gunters Conquest: Fire Emblem Fates

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    After narrowly avoiding death via game removal, Marth did the next best thing to do while hiding: turn into a marketable plushie (in other words, I got him from the mail today.)

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    (OC) The Crest of Flames

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    I’m sorry what

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    FE7 Redux Tier List Round 9: Marcus and Lowen

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    Welcome to Round 9: Marcus and Lowen.

    Each round will last about 24 hours in between each other. Rate the units in each tier, and give clear explanations as to why. Feel free to comment on each other and discuss why you agree or disagree. Be polite, and remember, this is all in good fun. After the 24 hours, I will review all the answers and understand what the consensus reached has been, posting the result in the next round. If there is no clear majority, a tally will be made. If a tie ensues, well the round will be extended until a tiebreaker comment appears. At the very end, a hub finalized tier list will be created, with links to each and every one of these rounds, providing full analyses for FE7 units as well as a good solid tier list for the community.

    Last Round resulted in Oswin in B tier and Eliwood in D tier.

    Preliminary Round

    Marcus

    Class: Paladin (Swords, Lances and Axes)

    Joins: Chapter 12

    Base Stats

    Level HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES CON AID MOV
    1 31 15 15 11 8 10 8 11 14 8

    Growth Rates

    HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
    65 30 50 25 30 15 35

    Weapon Ranks

    Swords Lances Axes Bows Staves Anima Magic Light Magic Dark Magic
    A A B 0 0 0 0 0

    Supports

    Affinity: Ice

    Lowen

    Class: #Class: Cavalier (Swords and Lances-Axes on promo)

    Joins: Chapter 12

    Base Stats

    Level HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES CON AID MOV
    2 23 7 5 7 3 7 0 10 15 7

    Growth Rates

    HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES
    90 30 30 30 50 40 30

    Promotion Gains (Paladin)

    HP STR SKL SPD LCK DEF RES CON MOV
    +2 +1 +1 +1 +0 +2 +1 +2 +1

    Weapon Ranks

    Swords Lances Axes Bows Staves Anima Magic Light Magic Dark Magic
    D D 0 0 0 0 0 0

    Supports

    Affinity: Fire

    Tiers Being Used:

    Fantastic Performance: S

    Insanely useful from the get go, always a dominant force from the moment they arrive and require little investment if any. Contributes in a significant enough manner that they always sticks out and have a substantial role.

    Includes: Lyn Mode Florina, Nils, Ninian

    Great Performance: A

    Extremely useful and always a good addition to a team. Doesn't require too much investment and if they do then it's enough to make them stand out compared to most units. Biggest things holding them back are that they either don't stand out as much as the S tiers or even with investment they aren't as dominant in their role as the S tiers.

    Includes: Lyn Mode Sain, Lyn Mode Kent

    Good Performance: B

    Is pretty useful and has some sections of the game where they stand out and help. Overall solid, isn't the most significant unit, but definitely contributes in a helpful way. Aren't the highest priority when it comes to deployment, but will definitely be one of your main choices for deployment to fill out your team at multiple points in the game. Biggest things holding them back are good but not amazing stats that may cause them to be dropped later on for other units, not the best class access, not the best weapon access and maybe not the best availability. Good, but has some significant flaws that hold them back from being great.

    Includes: Florina, Lyn Mode Lucius, Hector, Matthew, Oswin

    AOK Performance: C

    Perfectly average, they can make contributions at base sometimes, but investing in them doesn't tend to improve them very much . They may not be deployed for the whole game, but it doesn't hurt to deploy them most of the time either. At the end of the day they are just serviceable, neither a detriment nor a priority when it comes to being used and are essentially filler.

    Includes: Sain, Kent, Serra, Erk, Rath, Lucius

    Iffy Performance: D

    Can perform a niche role and do something, but generally aren't that useful. Don't really do much and if they do something unique then it's usually done much better by a bunch of other units. Severely outclassed by most other units and while they can do something, it's usually pretty bleh in execution.

    Includes: Lyn Mode Lyn, Lyn Mode Dorcas, Eliwood

    Lame Performance: E

    Straight up bad, no way around it. There are very few places where they are actually useful, and they are actively difficult units to use effectively. Can probably do something at base such as heal other units, rescue canto others or chip stuff with effective weapons but it's such a bare minimum contribution that calling them good would be a stretch. They can do something, that's the most you can say for them. Other then that they're bad.

    Includes: Lyn, Dorcas, Wallace

    Meme Performance: F Rank

    These units are just really bad, complete bottom of the barrel. So bad that even with an insane amount of investment they either end up still bad or at best incredibly mediocre and this is accounting for immense babying and all stat boosters going to them. E ranks can at least do something that counts as contribution. These units can't even have that as a claim to fame, they're so bad that they just do little if anything in a non casual/non meme context.

    Includes: Wil

    Next Round will be Rebecca and Bartre.

    submitted by /u/Excadrill1201
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    Nosferatu Tier List

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    I'm currently playing Conquest lunatic for the first time, and it really made me appreciate the unique way nosferatu provides bulk for mages. As there has always been a trend to make tier lists about everything and their mom in the FE community, I have decided to make a tier list of nosferatus throughout the series. This list assumes the highest difficulty, unless stated otherwise.

    S+ Tier

    Awakening

    The obvious number 1. Awakening nos can be bought from the chapter 13 armory (and a couple of later ones) and can be used and forged without any restrictions. The fact that you can double with it without any restrictions means that this is basically the only way to juggernaut in FE13 without having to worry about avoid all that much. (I have no idea if and/or how it works on lunatic+, but that difficulty is a meme anyways.)

    S Tier

    New Mystery Of The Emblem

    You can only get 3 tomes throughout the game, meaning that you can't just nos-spam through the entire game like in Awakening. However, since the enemies are arguably even more dangerous than Awakening lunatic enemies, being able to enemy phase a bunch of enemies without dying as long as you don't get oneshot is one of the very few ways you can actually "cheese" situations in FE12 and pull groups of enemies you're normally not able not able to trigger deathless. On top of that, FE12 nos in one of the most reliable ones in the series, as hit rates are generally high in the DS games.

    Fates: Conquest

    The weapons that lifts Odin from trash tier to pretty good tier. Other units can also use it, but nobody is as good with it as Odin. In the earlygame, it helps him survive situations even your most bulky units would have trouble with, and even later on, you can find situations where it heals him enough to a point where he won't die even if every enemy hits him, especially with an S support pairup with a sorcerer. One of its main perks is that it's infinite, however. I a lot of games, nosferatu is balanced by the fact that it's a very limited resource and will run out if you rely on it too much, but Fates nos will never gonna give you up or desert you.

    A Tier

    Thracia 776

    I'll count the earth sword as another iteration of nosferatu in the Jugdral games.
    Nos isn't infinite in this game, but it might as well be. You're hardly ever going to run out of 60 use weapons; especially the actual tome will usually not run out. While Thracia enemies aren't exactly top tier, they can be a threat later on, or in particular instances when there are a lot of them at once. Nosferatu, especially if combined with wrath, will come in clutch in those situations as it will keep your unit alive no matter what as long as you hit. It's also the only way to survive getting hit by Hel and Jörmungandr during the same enemy phase (apart from sol, which is unreliable).

    Genealogy Of The Holy War

    Nosferatu is slightly worse in this game. While is can be repaired and is usually more accurate, the enemies are usually more powerful, you need to double to defeat enemies as wrath works differently and isn't available for Julia and there are brave weapons here and there later on. The earth sword is also a lot worse, as it only has 10 uses and nobody will have both enough strength and magic to keep themselves healthy regardless of whether the enemies attack at 1 or 2 range.

    Mystery Of The Emblem

    FE3's nos is a bit worse than in the remake as there are less tomes, the tomes have less uses, less units can use them and the enemies aren't as strong, so tanking with other units is easier. Regardless, it can still be used to take a lot of hits at once as long as your nos user doesn't get oneshot. It's especially useful in the lategame, against groups of enemies with Glower users among them.

    B Tier

    Binding Blade

    Niime and Raigh, if you trained him up a bit, can use this tome to basically regenerate all the damage they took from any attack. Niime in particular has to watch out though, as she can be oneshot by a lot of promoted enemies in the lategame. The biggest issue is that, similar to most weapons on FE6, nosferatu will not have stellar hit rates. On top of that, it's rather limited as it sells for 3,000 gold in only a single chapter (1.5k with the silver card).

    Blazing Blade

    While nosferatu in FE7 works just as well as in FE6 while being more accurate and being about as common, it's still slightly worse as the enemies are less powerful throughout the game, so nosferatanking is usually unnecessary. It will have its uses from chapter 31 onwards if you trained Canas, and even Athos might want one for extra survivability against certain enemies in the final chapter.

    Sacred Stones

    This game has unlimited nosferatus, even without Tower of Valni grinding, but what doesn't have are good nosferatu users. Ewan can work as a nos user, but he requires a lot of training and even then, his stats won't be all that exceptional. The main use for dark mages in FE8 is summoning, and nosferatu shouldn't be more than a panic button for summoners as they're usually not meant to see combat. On top of that, the enemy quality in this game is pretty similar to FE7, so you won't face strong enemies that you need nos for until the final few chapters.

    C Tier

    Three Houses

    Admittedly, I haven't invested too much thought into nosferatanking on 3H maddening, so there might be an amazing setup that I'm not aware of, but the only thing I can think of is getting Quick Riposte on a nosferatu user, and that sounds pretty unrealistic. Without any specialized setups, nosferatu will be a pretty weak, really heavy and rather inaccurate way of dealing damage and will usually get you killed on enemy phase due to its weight rather than helping you. It's useful in the earlygame when it's the only offensive spell on some mages and can be used to regain some health on player phase if you're not going to see combat on the next enemy phase.

    Path Of Radiance

    Rhys has the defense of wet tissue paper, but enemies in FE9 are too pathetic to kill base Reyson in one round of combat a lot of the time, so it's not too unrealistic to nosferatank a little bit against unpromoted enemies if you want to, but it's never going to necessary or even more than a pretty dangerous meme.

    Fates: Revelations

    This path has the same powerful nosferatu as Conquest, but without a good user of it. Odin and Nyx are terrible and Leos stats are too low for hos join time to rely on nosferatu too much. The best way you can make it work is by using a dark mage talent on Corn or reclassing Camilla, but both of these options sacrifice other, better class paths for these units.

    Radiant Dawn

    This iteration of the nosferatu tome appears too late to even matter as a sellable. Laura will never even reach tier 2 and Rhys and Oliver will get doubled a lot of the time while having really low defense, meaning that they cannot realistically see combat on enemy phase most of the time, even with nosferatu. You can theoretically make it work for a little bit with bonus exp, but that's nothing but a meme and not worth the resources.

    D Tier

    Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia

    PoV: You miss nosferatu again... and again... and again... and again.. and again... and again...
    this version of nosferatu is more of a hindrance than a boon, usually, as it prevents saints from using seraphim on enemy phase. The only way it can work is on Faye, while she is in range of A support Alm, but even then, you have ~ a 10% chance to just miss and die, and it also requires Alm to not be elsewhere, killing 20 enemies at once.

    Gaiden

    It's basically like FE15 nosferatu, but with even less hit. On top of that, there are no supports to raise your hit, and you actually need to hit nosferatus to level Silque and get her to level 7 for warp.

    Honorable Mention

    Fates: Birthright

    You can get a nosferatu in BR by gaining 1,350 battle points, and use it by picking a sorcerer talent for Corn or capturing an enemy sorcerer. If you manage to pull that off, good for you. It's going to be useless since it's in the same route that can just kill everything with Ryoma, but good for you.

    Bruh Tier

    Shadow Dragon And The Blade Of Light & Shadow Dragon

    Imagine not having a nosferatu tome.

    tl;dr: Nosferatu good

    Edit: forgot that you can buy Nos tomes in FE6, corrected the FE6 entry. Don't think that changes the placing though.

    submitted by /u/LightOfBlade
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    Birthright Negative Growths Chapter 9

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