Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave
Oddly futuristic. UI elements look so good. Read a helpful tips and tricks thing that says it's better to play the characters serially instead of in parallel.
I've decided to play as Cai first, the character I care about least, since if I fuck up any of the systems as I'm learning I won't care so much. His start feels very not Fire Emblem and just kind of bog standard jrpg stuff. I like the lords and ladies and the military paegentry and all that jazz.
Cai's story is really just fucking wild and random. His party members seem not very good so far or maybe he's just very strong. It's hard to keep a balanced party, they just don't deal good damage.
Settings wise I really like the Mediterranean/Romanesque vibe.
The turn based dungeon battles haven't really justified themselves to me so far. Mechanically it's very shallow and before I used to get all the stuff I needed via battles and the monastery and now I have to do this other second thing which seems bolted on and largely filler. Maybe they'll get better.
I'm also getting like...Triangle Strategy levels of nonsense between the actual story battles.
It's fine right now. I feel like there are so many systems and yet they don't bother to go very deep on any of them in explanation, even when some of the systems are actually deep. I'm not sure what to equip on who.
Alright I really don't know how I feel about this. The main battles are so good and there's SO MUCH FILLER between it. I wish it would just let me sim the overworld battles. They're extremely boring and sometimes you have to do them multiple times. Same battles, same map. Same boring.
And it's so easy. I'm playing on hard and it's still easy. But I also wouldn't want it to be harder because then the stupid repetitive overworld battles would just take longer.
I think I might have to let go of what Fire Emblem was/what I want it to be and evaluate my relationship with it now based on what it is. Which I'm fine with that. I don't want to come across as someone who fears change and wants stuff to be the same. I can evaluate it without the baggage of my hopes or what it was as a stand alone unit.
But I'm not sure what it is what I want out of it. Or at least not large chunks of it.
Chapter 5's battle was the first one I felt I wasn't absolutely facerolling. It was a fun one, (but damn those chariots). The battle was so good, and so fun, and the plot around the main story stuff is so good and then there's just a lot of extra between me and the next part.
Cai is growing on me, but fighting alongside Theorora or Dietrich and their retinues, his friends feel woefully out of place. They're bog standard jrpg "kids save the world" characters in the wrong game.
This game is one that I do think benefits from a guide because there are so many options for every step of what I could be doing with my time that it's just paralyzing. And I guess to be fair, this game is so easy it really doesn't matter, but it feels like for advanced classes I want to be planning that out. And I personally just don't know enough to look at this and say "ah, Cai should do this, therefore I should do this into that."
As I play this game I'm reminded a lot of Tom Haverford in this episode of Parks & Rec where they're trying out food and Tom declined to eat something because it came with a dipping sauce. His reason: drizzle it on there for me! I'm not here to do work.
I feel like that a lot with a bunch of the mechanics here. Let me just skip the dungeons, press the button, get the rewards. Let me skip the overworld battles! Just make everything faster. It's not like there's actually good content here. Once you've seen it once you've seen it.
Having said that, I'm having a lot of fun. I've gotten as far as the chapter 7 main battle and I've managed to get a couple characters to the next level. I think some of the problem is a lot of QOL shit is gated, you get the fast travel stations waaaaay too late.
The lack of a weapon triangle definitely I think removes some texture. Sure, it's just rock paper scissors, but it means Cai can't just tank EVERYONE, an axe wielder makes you think twice. And sure spears do more vs mounted units but you can dismount for very free.
I think I'm also not using weapon arts aggressively enough but the game doesn't make me so...
Bird time is the silliest mechanic ever. Every time I do it I just think about how dumb it is in fiction. Imagine being a bystander for this exchange.
"Bird, do you ever think I'll be better than my dad with a spear?"
Bird sings a song
"You're right, I'll NEVER be as good as him. I'M A FAILURE! ...so anyways, today's a perfect day for fishing, you wanna come along?"
It is currently the middle of the night.
If they want to rip off persona so much just do it harder in the dungeons. Make it a one more system. Make it at least mildly interesting.
It's getting pretty interesting and I've gotten to the part where I've unlocked the paralogues.
One thing that I do find frustrating about this is just the recruitment requirements and I wish they would telegraph that stuff in advance: "Oh I need to save money" or "I need to be gathering these items out on the overworld to be prepared for it." That would just be a nice quality-of-life thing.
I do also really like the Roman Mediterranean setting and I wish Fire Emblem would do this stuff more. I thought it was such a cool breath of fresh air when we got Face and there was a Japan-inspired one. Why haven't we revisited that? Can we do more? Can we go to a Nordic-inspired area or a Middle Eastern-inspired area?
The first paralogue was really good. It was a three way battle with bandits and birds to collect treasure. Fun and interesting, so much better than your standard boring overworld battles.
The paralogues are so good and they made me smile the whole time with how interesting and inventive they are. Some of the best fights this game has to offer so far and I just wish there were more.
For all my gripes, I think my biggest one is that I can't recruit Anatolia.
I'm getting close to turning off combat animations to speed it up. This game never totally recaptured the charm of the pixel art versions.
Ending a battle with the turn based boss mode is a cool idea...if the turn based jrpg battle thing was more interesting.
The restart chapter button really shouldn't be so close to the battle one...
Alright, we're on Cai's final chapter. Initially I had thought to play Leda next but now I'm not sure! I might want to save her for even later, when she'll be even more powerful. Bwahaha.
Beaten Cai's final battle. It was good! Story was fine. I maintain Cai feels like a character in the wrong franchise and nothing about his story really changed my opinion of that.
Some spoilers: spoiler: His dad's illness still seems random and pointless.
spoiler: I disliked how many adult characters appeared to...just be waiting for him to be of age which is...a vibe.
spoiler: The "gods" in this setting are just weird and I think it's partially because they've all been flattened age wise. Solel is Aurora's dad but she could just be his sister or lover or whatever.
Overall I think subsequent runs will go much faster without all the side questing to do. Which, good! The game takes too long between major plot elements. I just wonder how much there will even be to do. I now know I don't need to recruit as much so there's kind of a double lessening of time pressure.
We're on to Theodora next. She seemed like the opposite side of Cai's coin. Going to try to reduce overlap with some of my characters from last time.
Oof, it is ROUGH to go back to level 1, three units, and intro fights. I think the overall tutorialization could be further reduced here.
Dyan sucks but we're laying it on a bit thick with the forked tongue? It's so hard to take this greaser with the pompadour seriously. He's so anachronistic. There's a lot of tell, don't show about the Saraminians being a sea people.
Overall her story feels much more in line with a standard Fire Emblem, at least to start. A lord with a mission for their people. It also goes MUCH faster this time between story battles which is a good thing. Part of that is definitely me just knowing the ropes better, and part of it is just that by having done the other route a lot of things are just done for me.
It really feels like THIS is the way the game should be played. Although one caveat, don't go so deep in the paint on the karma shard prizes. They can really quickly trivialize the game and it's a one way ratchet: I can't reinstate 10% exp boost, now it's 30% or nothing.
I really can't emphasize enough how much better this game feels after one round through. It just feels like the actual correct amount of time between things.
I also think part of it might be that Theodora's overworld stuff is mechanically so much more interesting than Cai's. Sure, the mounts are cool but Theodora feels a bit like you're conquering the map. You're recruiting units, you're deploying them (to gather shit sure) but you're getting around and you're doing stuff.
Okay, you get kind of a ton of renown very quickly it feels like on a replay.
I'm really uncertain how much I want to commit to using new people vs old favorites. You do gain a benefit for reusing the old favorites, but I should give other people a shot.
Also there are not nearly enough supports for Theodora!
When I do bird time it reminds me of Eshmel and what a bizarre decision it was to include that in the game. Okay, make a character, get semi attached to it, then totally ignore it for potentially 20-60+ hours? Why am I going to care about this non character.
It would be one thing if bird talked to the other characters, or if it was just NOT bird time and maybe it was some temporal realm out of time where you could actually chat and bond. But nothing.
I also wish the game showcased the recruitables better. How am I supposed to like any of these characters beyond just "I dunno, they look cool." You get to see some of the retainers in some of the pre/post fight chats, but it's very little I feel like you got to see more of them in Three Houses and say "oooh, I need to poach this one."
We're ending today at chapter 10 of Theodora, right at the battle start. I might be getting a little burnt out. We'll see. I may try to do Leda and then assess how I feel. Doing act 2 might feel better than repeating the early game grind.
Most of the way through, I think the Theodora MVPs are Bonaventure, Lilian, and Nezha (of course). None of them are really strong enough that I think I'd try to poach them for other runs.
Sirocco is also someone who I think I'd put in the B+ tier so far? Tobias is fine, but boring to me, and Lysander is quite whelming I think. Sofia is a boring character who I don't think I would bother to grab in any run. She's very one dimensional.
Theodora herself is strong, but seems less so than Cai. I made her into a guardian. Seemed most appropriate? Also, it really seems like the game is pushing towards a Theodora/spoiler: Bertrand relationship which I am here for. For a minute I was disappointed it wasn't Simon and there wasn't another support between them, but now I feel like I get it.
Oh my god I did the thing where I hit Restart Chapter instead of Battle. That's like 3 paralogues and 112 turns undone. Ugh I wish they made it harder to do that because it's the second time I've done it. Yes, maybe I should be less ADHD and more patient but I cannot help it. I feel like they could make you back out to the obelisk screen to redo a chapter or just do something simple and invert the Yes/No so you cannot do it just by tapping A.
Okay, I think I see what's happening here spoiler: and there is a "canon" ending? Theodora withdrawing from the games seems to let Cai back in by default. This will make him the canonical winner of the games. This is mildly disappointing because I thought maybe this was actually four different timelines. Also, if everything ends the same way wtf are Eshmel and Fortuna even DOING?
Missed one paralogue in Theodora's chapter 12. Man that's tight timing to get all of those done. Paralogues are another thing where I'm irritated by some QOL stuff. I dislike how easy it is to miss them, and then the timing requirements about it.
Also, it's weird how you can do Lilian's support things and she grows less money motivated and yet she just remains that way in the main story scenes because they have to assume you didn't do the supports.
I really like how Theodora's story has more traditional Fire Emblem lords and ladies leading nations in war with political intrigue.
Leda next.
God damn the tone of this one is so different, not just from the darkness but the interaction of the initial party members too. It feels like a wildly different game.
Leda is definitely the most complicated character of the three I've done so far so I'll be interested to see how they pull it off. There's obviously a terrible darkness to her but she's also a very nice and sweet person, so I'm interested to see how they reconcile this. Will it be believable as a unified whole or will it feel disjointed?
Her allies also feel the most...loosely aligned? Basically everyone on Cai and Theodora's runs were very highly on board with the plan and the vision. Everyone seems to be supporting Leda if not so much her goals. This isn't a problem, in fact I think it kind of builds extra texture for them.
Sirocco is the one I think I'm iffiest on, but I have a feeling we're going to learn something underlying that redeems him? He'll still suck though. Well and Buccar just seems...fine.
Why does everyone want so much sandworm meat and why is it so hard to get?
Also, so many of Leda's supports are locked, I assume they're for later when she'll be like "I'm so sorry I was a crazy person starved for revenge thanks for bearing with me."
Leda has to be the most...I've been saying "hit on" but that's not quite it. Flirtatious? Relationshippy? Her supports deal with her being hit on but also her teasing others. It's very interesting. I'd say she's likely not straight, but I don't know to what extent. Quite refreshing to see a character firmly put down the advances of others while also not being prudish.
Leda makes a pact with a demonic entity and then is surprised when the bill comes due. COME ON GIRL.
This game has me thinking about why I play games. I find myself regretting that this game isn't harder to force me to reach deeper into the system and bag of tricks. Like I realized I never really use the second tier of Blaze Arts because well, I've never needed to. And how easy some of the Blessings can make the games (Aurora, Kalla).
But I could choose to NOT do those things and make the game harder. But I dont' want to. And I don't know why. So do I want it to be harder? Or why do some kinds of harder feel more legitimate? I've never been a person for arbitrary self imposed challenge modes.
I'm still very much liking Leda's game although I do think it's going to end up feeling quite schizophrenic. The problem is in the structure of the game and the game's unwillingness to bend for her.
Right now the supports feel like a very different character from the mainline plot for her and that's a necessity because:
- The game needs her to be happy and cute and fluffy and sweet. It's afraid to let her just be a very dark person.
- The game can't really control when you see them either.
- There are just not enough of them.
What Leda needs is like six supports with her core cast to show some level of arc, so you can see her baseline, then her succumbing to the darkness after she makes that pact with the Viuela, and then coming out of it (I assume, I hope, at some point on the other end). Three supports is just not enough to build that.
One is just a core structural problem. I think people won't like her if she is dark and a little evil, which maybe they need this to be someone that people are happy to fall in love with and slap on a shirt or merch.
Two is a problem where every character has the same treatment and so they're not willing to gate her support dialogues specifically. They all have to feel ephemeral and timeless because you could see them at any point. They can restrict you from viewing them too early but they can't ensure that you'll view them before it's too late in a lot of these cases, given the amount of tailoring that would need to be done.
They can't have a really dark part in C before that's happened in the story. Nor can they have it be sensible to be really light and fluffy if you're going to see it deep into her arc. The problem is they kind of do a little bit of both anyways but it suffers from that timing issue.
For 3 I think they could cut half of the recruitable cast and double the supports with the existing people and that would do the game a big service. That's so tough to do, though, because every character is going to be someone's favorite, so who do you decide to cut, right, especially after the fact when players have fallen in love with them? For me personally I could see some that's like, "This person is pointless. I don't need this person," but again someone's going to like that.
I think Leda is the character who suffers the most from the scope and ambition of this game. It's hard to invest so much more into her when this game is so big, and how many players are even going to play through her route at all? I think as the star of a standalone game she would really knock it out of the park.
Some of these motherfuckers got too many names. It's like they needed a way to jam more proper nouns in here somewhere.
I think Leda is probably the most interesting unit in the game, and maybe in any Fire Emblem game. She has such a variety of what she can do from turn to turn, she's a very strong attacker, she can dance, and she has situationally powerful supporting Blaze Arts. She gives you a lot of optionality on how to tackle the fights.
Okay Leda 12 done. I have some thoughts about her story. Spoilers DUH.
spoiler: I think her overall arc is good, obviously she was never going to kill Bertrand (although maybe less obvious if you didn't play other routes). I think the resolution has the same issue that the rest of her arc does, it feels a little unearned? I don't think the sufficiently showed her softening her stance at any point. Like the result is logical, but it's a bit of tell, not show.
spoiler: But again, she remains a fantastic set of parts that aren't well stitched together. I think the final moment with Bertrand is really good and the performances maybe do a lot of heavy lifting there, I just think the game/narrative forces us to take it for granted or fill in the gaps on our own.