All are playthings of Fate until they bond together |
The blog of an idealistic FE fan
All are playthings of Fate until they bond together |
So, as I said in a previous post, I have been hacking FE7 for fun, but also to see how my characters' growth rates work out, and despite the lack of the ability to have both magic and strength, and the brain-dead easy enemies making my units look like deities, I have gotten a general idea of what to do with the units.
I will be writing today on the first two or three chapters of FE7 that I did, the adventures of Lyn, Sain, and Kent, AKA not Taren, not Tenn, and not Tyken, respectively. I altered the characters' palettes (blonde Lyn for the win), I altered their bases and growths (good Lord Lyn is awful, I'm so glad you weren't forced to use her after her part of the story, and also glad I got to change her stats), and I had to put in several cheats to repair the tutorial :/ Oops. Lyn/Taren, or Lynren (?), was, as anticipated, a very strong unit. She had her first struggle when she... didn't struggle. In the tutorial, the first axe-wielding bandit is supposed to hit Lyn, and then lose. So Lyn tells you to heal her wound with a vulnerary. Except, no matter how many times she fought that bandit, Lynren would not allow herself to get hit. Every time, she would dodge, ask for a vulnerary, and then I'd tell her she didn't need one, and then she'd go "well, maybe I would feel a little less like turning to vulneraries if someone was here to support me" and then I would say that she always pulls that card and she'd start crying and- wait. No, that's a bad drama show. Never mind. What I ended up doing was using a Codebreaker cheat to alter her current HP so that when she needed a vulnerary, she could actually use it. Granted, I forgot to turn off the cheat before I used the vulnerary, so when she used the healing item, the game kept her HP at 17, which is where I put it when she needed to be injured, but whatever. The boss was a piece of cake, though Lynren did not crit like she was supposed to *shrug of indifference*. Sain/Tenn and Kent/Tyken's new selves were no issue, however. Their classes had been altered, unlike Lynren, because there's no female fighters in the GBA titles and I have yet to figure out how to add new classes to replace unused ones, and I have to say Sainn and Kenken worked out well. There was actually one or two times where Sainn was so stupid that he got hit and died from the axe of the second brigand he wanted to go after, even though he was a myrmidon with Tenn's evasive stats, but I think that's just because Sain, as a character, is an idiot and I dislike him so strongly that he sensed it and committed suicide via lack of dodging. The third chapter was just weird because Kenken wanted to visit the same house twice? Like, the game made me take him there twice. Other than that, smooth sailing. Stat-wise, Lynren grew like a weed, and Kenken was pretty good, while Sainn had some issues dealing damage, but doubled all the time and became very evasive, as well as growing once or twice in defense/HP, which was nice. Unfortunately, his competition, Esther, grew like a maniac in a later chapter, which normally would make me bench him if I didn't need to balance Esther's bases anyway, and that's a discussion for a later hack post. I also refused to bench him because it's a requirement in the project (theoretically) that, in battle, you bring all three protagonists, and all three, if they die, it leads to game over, so I have to bring Lynren, Kenken, and Sainn to every level. There you have it, my first hack post. It's not anything grand, but hopefully I can figure out more of this stuff, get some experience, and maybe even someday create a whole hack of my own.
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I felt the need to quickly apologize for the lack of content. Apparently, that started on Friday, when I went out with a friend to a festival. I had set up the weekly unit spotlight to release at 9 AM, but it did not automatically post like the others did. I will manually put that up today. Saturday I was just not in the mood, so I planned to put up a post on Sunday, but then I was stuck somewhere for a good six hours, that was fun -_- So my new content today will be Karti's Unit Spotlight and a possible support convo, with a report on balancing the FE7 hack I started coming soon! That's right, I messed with something I know nothing about, and it hasn't gotten any less confusing! But I'll talk about that later. For now, just know I am an inconsistent person when it comes to projects like this, so forgive me for that, but I will try to post reliably, even if I can't promise things like the biweekly questions will stay constant.
Karti, the silver-haired archer, with a penchant for perfect shots. Her description: A reserved archer known for keeping Gill company, she sees him as the father she never had, as he adopted her and trained her into the army after noting her potential. She is determined to prove herself as the greatest sharpshooter in all of Lyrouche, and she never stops trying to show Gill why he was right about her. Karti is the only archer your team has for a long time. Eventually, Cris is presented as a more unorthodox sharpshooter, and Crystal is recruited as a sniper with fairly usable bases and a very useful personal skill, but until those later chapters, Karti is your only option as an offensive bow user and is a faithful and true-to-her-class archer. The pluses of utilizing her in battle:
Today's country spotlight is on Tryst, the rural ungoverned country above Lyrouche.
Tryst, as previously stated, has no government. This is not due to chaos and rebellion, but actually a lack thereof. Tryst's citizens are not interested in their country, they are only interested in farming and making money off of their produce. They leave each other alone, and so, despite the lonely lives the people there live, there aren't wars and other countries really have no desire to take the land because all it's good for is farming. Additionally, some military forces are afraid of striking Tryst, for it is the only country that does not enforce the removal of shape-shifting beasts, and so these creatures roam the area and defend their territory with ferocity. The area has a temperate climate, and it has many thick forests. The trees in Tryst are the oldest on the continent, some have existed longer than people are estimated to have began living on the continent of Seinara. These trees are not touched by the population, as they are superstitious and believe that damaging the ancient trees will result in the death of livestock. Tryst has no consistent religion, although there are rumors of a cult worshiping the dark god Larces and killing farmers' livestock in sacrificial ceremonies. Unfortunately, Trystans do not bother with helping others, they live very individual lifestyles, and so no one has sought out this possible cult to stop them. There are no playable or notable Trystan characters. C
Annika: Hey, me and some friends were going to head downtown and see if there was anything we could buy for Taren. She seems a bit stressed out. Simon: And? Annika: Well, I thought that maybe you could come with us? Simon: Why? What benefits would I reap by waltzing around with ditzy young girls and shopping? Annika: If we find the right present, we could really get Taren’s spirits up. Simon: So what? Who cares how she feels? Annika: She’s our friend. Simon: She’s YOUR friend. Not mine. You go buy her a present on your own accord. I have no interest in expending my time for a stranger’s well-being. Annika: Simon, she isn’t a stranger. Simon: I don’t expect you socialites to understand my reasoning for declining your offer, but my decision isn’t changing anytime soon. Annika: Whatever. But I’m not letting you off the hook next time. Simon: Right, like you can tell me to do anything. B Annika: Simon. Simon: … Annika: Simon. Simon: … Annika: Simon! Simon: … Annika: SIMON!! Simon: Eh? Annika: Taren wants me to tell you you’re a huge jerk. Simon: Oh. Alright. Annika: That's it? You don't even look the slightest bit bothered. Simon: That is because I'm not. Annika: So is this what you do all day? Read? Simon: Is it any of your business? Annika: What's the book about? Who wrote it? Simon: Give it back! You and your grimy paws shouldn't be on my book! Annika: This is- Simon: It's mine, that's what it is! Annika: Simon, I- Simon: I don't care what you think about what I read, I don't care what you think about what I do, and I don't care about you, so buzz off! Annika: Fine. But don't expect me to apologize. Simon: I don't. I expect you to leave. Annika: Whatever. Simon: ... A Annika: Simon? Simon: Ahhhg... oww. Annika: Here- Simon: Don't touch me! Stop that! Annika: How did you get all the way out here? Simon: What? Annika: You're so far from camp. What happened? Simon: I don't know. Annika: Did it have to do with that book? Simon: No. Annika: You're lying. Simon: I am not. Annika: Simon, my mother wrote that book. And the curses in it aren't safe. They are only to be used with years of magic experience. You aren't even old enough to do basic spells in there. Simon: Ugh. Why don't you leave me alone? Annika: It was supposed to help you stop fainting, wasn't it? Simon: How do you know about that? Annika: ...Your sister told me about it. She said you get tired in high altitudes and that you can't do much physical labor without passing out, that- Simon: I- it isn't- rrggh! So what if I was up here to try and get rid of it! It isn't like it worked! Here I was thinking for once things would go my way and I could be normal! And here you are looking at me like I'm a diseased puppy or something, I don't need your pity! Annika: It's okay to admit you're upset- Simon: I don't have time for this! I'm going back down to camp alone! I'll just put one foot here, and then the other one- there. Annika: Let me just be your crutch, until we get to camp. Simon: I can manage, cleric. Annika: ... Simon: ...Fine. If you must. But I don't want anyone seeing me with you, we separate as soon as we get close. Annika: I'll drop you off, then. Literally. Simon: Don't drop me. That isn't funny. I have never had enough patience to train healers. There is never enough opportunities for healers to gain experience, because my units don't take significant damage often once they've gained around 10 levels, and when I'm at that point with my other units, it means my healers have probably leveled up three or four times. If I can reclass them, I do it. My Maribelle was a mage and Lissa became a pegasus knight, my Sakura temporarily was a dark mage (she was married to Leo), and Elise was abandoned due to her awful skill stat. In harder games, I pick one healer, and they might be lucky enough to be promotable once I've gotten through about 75% of the game.
To remedy this, I wanted there to be healer units that could participate in combat and defend themselves. What came to mind first was the troubadour class, a class which I always hated because they had little to no differences in comparison to clerics outside of being mounted, essentially making clerics an obsolete class. Additionally, in Fates, they had poor skill, HP, and defense, making them sitting ducks that had lower speed than the Monk/Shrine Maiden class, causing their evasion to not be high enough to stay alive if they are put in danger. Due to their similarity to cleric, I decided that troubadour should be reworked in its entirety to not only help me reintroduce the Anima-Light-Dark weapon triangle, but to create a class that works less like a cleric on a horse. Troubadours are much better when it comes to bulk, with a nice HP and defense growth, and they can utilize light magic to defend themselves. I chose to use light magic in this class because it has low might, assuring that while troubadours can defend themselves, they serve a better role in either being a shield for their teammates or supporting their allies with staves. Light magic also has high accuracy, which allows troubadours to hit more often, even with their relatively low skill. Terra Cure was a class sort of designed around Harley. I really liked her, but I didn't see her as a basic healer. She had a vibe, something that told me she had the inner courage to defend herself, the kind of person that's personality displays timidity, but when situations become dire, they come to grips quickly and become steely and fearless. So I put her somewhere where her character was comfortable, a class that could easily transition to war cleric and had equal use as support and as a combat unit. They have skill issues, as they aren't there to fight, but terra cure have passable offense, as well as usable defense and speed. They struggle in HP and resistance, sort of like oni savages in Fates (a class with lots of wasted potential). Of the three healer types, they have the lowest magic, and they have 4 movement points instead of the typical infantry unit's 5, but this is because they do not suffer any sort of movement penalty once they get one of their class' signature skills, Hardy Traveler. Balancing these two classes to make Clerics their equals was difficult, but I feel that I've done the best I can, and that, depending on the player, the choice in which healer to use, as well as how many healers will be deployed, would fluctuate each playthrough. Just a quick post to tell readers that on Wednesday and Sunday, I will not be making posts. I missed Thursday this week, but that was because of an exhausting and long trip I did not know I was going to be a part of. On Wednesday I have prior engagements, and on Sunday I have time with my family that I like to spend without too much stress. So, don't worry about checking in on those days, I will not be posting anything most of the time (though there are always exceptions), although there will be times where, knowing that a different day I will be doing something else, I will post on a break day.
Fire Emblem is a game based upon RNG. So, to say that a character is doomed to fail every time is false, because even if growths were 1% on each stat, said character could still become capable according to randomness. It's astronomically unlikely, but it is possible. However, one of the staples of the franchise is that certain units will normally turn out much better than others. Lord characters are designed to overshadow other allies, notably Ike in Path of Radiance, Marth in Mystery of the Emblem, and Ephraim in Sacred Stones. Some units are given poor growths and high bases in order to trick the player into giving valuable experience to a vacuum, such as Frederick and Marcus.
My question is- does balancing the growths of units make an FE game too easy? Fire Emblem Fates comes to mind, as the only path of the three available that was even remotely difficult was Conquest, and the reason for that wasn't necessarily map design or units with unusable growths, it was a lack of ways to train and a consistent influx of recruits that were underleveled and/or had low bases (Charlotte, Nyx, Niles, and Odin come to mind). Balancing growths in this game meant lowering growths and making some classes virtually unusable, such as Oni Chieftain with their horrible skill and luck, and Strategists, a class I have previously talked about as being difficult to utilize outside of support due to poor hit rates and awful bulk. Fates was made certain units appear like they were designed to be used over others, like the royals, especially Camilla, Hinoka, Ryoma, and Xander. Their retainers pale in comparison to them, and their growth rates are just better. This makes me wonder if units that are just better, like the royals, should even exist. In Fire Emblem, strategy is (or should be) much more important than blindly launching strong units into the fray, but with the royals or some lord characters, the latter is the strategy. Tossing units toward the enemy without a second thought has become a trademark of the 3DS FE games, possibly to reach a more casual audience, but is it too much of a change? Echoes did a good job of steering away from this difficulty drop and lack of strategy, but in all honesty, is it better to have units that suck so that we have to use talented units intelligently and sparingly, as well as give some attention to units that start with poor bases but can become good, like Nino or Est? Highlighting strengths in characters by making other characters poor in those areas is a common practice, especially with class coutnerparts, like Hana and Hinata (Hinata's skill and speed are low, but his defense and luck are much better) or Sue and Shin (Sue being faster and Shin being a little more durable). So would doing that a little more drastically and making players find what stats and abilities they value in their strategies make a deeper and more re-playable game? Or would doing so screw up the idea of picking units based upon their personality and design, as well as make things too challenging for casual players? Schall, the naive knight, enters the battlefield with the presence of a child, but the skill of a trained mage. His description: A NEWLY APPOINTED ROYAL GUARD, HE IS RENOWNED FOR HIS PROWESS IN MAGIC. HE IS KIND TO A FAULT, BUT EXTREMELY NAIVE AND IMMATURE. HIS MOOD ON THE BATTLEFIELD IS ALWAYS SCARED AND UNHAPPY, AS HE IS NOT ADJUSTED TO VIOLENCE, BUT HE HAS ALWAYS DREAMED OF BEING A KNIGHT. HIS PARENTS ARE VERY WEALTHY NOBLES, AND HE WAS RAISED AS A SHELTERED CHILD. HIS ADOPTIVE BROTHER, MICHAEL, IS JEALOUS OF HIS POSITION. Schall is the game's only troubadour. He is also the only character to start with light magic, because troubadours now have access to magic attacks from the get-go, as well as staves, like usual. This may make some prefer him over Annika, but Schall has his own quirks, good and bad, that make him serve a different role than Annika. Here's the good stuff:
So, one of the plans I have had since I started this project was a 2nd generation campaign. I have always liked the idea of child units, especially in Awakening, but Genealogy of the Holy War had more than half of the game be dedicated to the children of the first part's units.
Taking from that, I decided that the children would have their own campaign, and that they would be affected, skill-wise, like Awakening. However, two of the main children I had an issue with: I could not see their mother and father not being two particular gen 1 units. So I decided that these two gen 1 characters would not be able to pair up romantically with any other gen 1 characters. But then I realized that some of these children act so much like their mother or father character that it doesn't seem like the other parent even mattered outside of stats. In Awakening, Laurent's supports with his father highlight this: the father doesn't understand what part he had in Laurent's upbringing, because the only thing that reflects that Laurent is related to his father is his hair color. To me, this kind of ruins some of the children, because (even though I understand completely why they can't customize conversations heavily because of different parents) the kids don't act like the player's chosen parent even matters. Wouldn't it be more interesting if the child was impacted by both parents' decisions in the child's upbringing? For example, let's say you got Lissa with Lon'qu. Owain should be at least a little bit more serious. Yet he still acts like a five-year old with a plastic lightsaber and a thesaurus. What about Miriel and Vaike? Why would Laurent be so frail and nerdy if his dad was a total meathead? Fates children are a little different, because they never really had much interaction with their parents, but that makes their conversations with their parents depressing. Look at Nina and Niles, Nina hates her father for leaving her in the Deeprealm. I don't want to make all the gen 2 units have terrible relationships with their parents. Would it be better, then, to have pairings be forced? It would dull the fun in headcanon and getting child units as a whole, but didn't Binding Blade do that in a way? And we got interesting child characters that weren't carbon copies of their father/mother, that didn't hate their parents, and were unique in that they weren't held back by the math that might mess up your child unit in Awakening. So what other option is there? Should pairing units be totally up to the FE game's creator, wouldn't that take some of the fun out of the game? It was partially what earned new fans of the series in Awakening, an inventive mechanic like that shouldn't be dropped, or should it? |
AuthorI am a recent high school grad who really should have better things to do. I have a passion for world building, video games (especially FE), and writing. I also enjoy music, doodling, and avoiding socializing :\ Archives
February 2018
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