Chapter 7
So I might be in the minority on this but I found this chapter rather middling. The enemies are legitimately strong and the combination of skills adds an extra layer of strategy. Poison Strike is a great example of this. If the enemy manages to attack the player then they get to deal additional damage. It makes the chapter more player phase oriented, which is a good thing. However, there’s also Grisly Wound and Seal Speed which activate even if the player is the one making the attack. You could make the argument that these skills encourage the player to play even faster since the only way to avoid the negative side effects is to 1 Round KO the Faceless, but I’ve never been a fan of the implications of this. Basically it’s either 1RKO enemies or get hit with a nasty skill, which leaves little room for anything in-between. It’s not super challenging to clear the bottom of the map and then choke point everything else off which for me is a significant negative.
Overall Rating: Meh
Chapter 8
I’ve already reviewed this chapter and even after re-reading it again I still agree with what I said in that post: http://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2016/09/analyzing-conquest-chapter-8.html
Overall Rating: Excellent
Chapter 9
Chapter 9 gives the player three routes to approach it with. The top route gives the player access to a Rescue staff, which is a great staff. The bottom route has Nyx and help the player avoid the lancer / archer brigade sitting outside the middle section of the map. The frequency of Defense Seal makes tanking more difficult and the enemy stats in general are powerful all around. Haitaka makes for a challenging boss. The Dragon Vein is a cool idea, but it’s a bit out of the player’s way and it probably would have been more effective if it were in a place the player would most likely end up at.
Lunatic mode has a staff user that throws Enfeeble at the player. Personally I’m not the biggest fan here since there aren’t a whole lot of ways to deal with this outside of either boosting one’s stats or having someone else take the hit and wait for said staff to break. The bit with Azura is a missed opportunity since she isn’t in any real danger. The player could keep her there and wait until they’re ready to eliminate the enemy standing guard over her. The biggest weakness of this map is its lack of a turtle disincentive. Still, I find that this map gets more right than wrong.
Overall Rating: Pretty Good
Chapter 10
Ah the legendary Chapter 10. This map deserves all the praise that it gets. For starters, there are multiple points that have to be defended which makes the map more challenging. The enemy unit variety is also superb. This chapter throws ninjas, archers, myrmidons, fighters and pegasus knights at the player. Speaking of pegasus knights Conquest does something cool by programming the AI of the peg knights to ignore the player and make a beeline for the green zone. This is great because it means that they can’t be baited out and the player is forced to actually stop them.
The houses on this chapter incentivize aggressive strategies since they’re a bit out of the way. The rewards are great and actually worth getting which makes the effort feel all the more rewarding. Then there’s Takumi’s infamous Dragon Vein. This does a fantastic job of throwing the rug underneath the player’s feet since it opens up additional avenues of attack for enemy units making the map all the more difficult to chokepoint. There’s also two additional mini-bosses and Takumi himself is no slouch either. For some weird reason chapter 10 on Lunatic mode has a reputation for being really hard. I don’t get it, because I cleared that sucker on my first try. It didn’t feel any different from its Hard mode counterpart.
Overall Rating: Excellent
Chapter 11
Aka “Awkward Stair Gimmick: The Map”. This chapter introduces the awkward stair gimmick that shows up in Chapters 23 & 27. The reason why I call it that is because the only purpose it serves is to make moving between rooms fairly awkward. Maybe it serves a different purpose that I’m not aware of, but I just don’t see the point. The map throws several interesting enemy unit combinations at the player. Lunge ninjas, Counter archers, the Hexing Rod, and fast Life and Death enemies. The only problem here is that the rooms themselves consist of single enemy weapon types. It’s the combination of rooms that gives this map variety.
The map lacks a turtle disincentive and comes across as incredibly slow paced. The reason for this is that Chapter 10 was pretty intense and Chapter 12 also requires a fast pace too. I can understand the desire to make a “breather” chapter but I still think there should be something to try and get the player to play faster. Chapter 8 of Thracia 776 served a similar purpose and managed to have a turtle disincentive. Then there’s also this little tidbit from FE Wiki:
“The enemy unit in the uppermost tile (two away from Hinoka whenever she takes damage. You can use this to grind some EXP for several of your units (especially your healers and Azura), as described below:
- Kill all enemy units except Hinoka and her healer.
- Have a unit who is relatively weak but also won't die to Hinoka's counterattack, attack Hinoka.
- That unit will likely suffer some damage, so use Elise/Felicia/Jakob to heal.
- Have Azura Sing to the unit that has already attacked.
- Repeat steps 2 and 3.
Overall Rating: Meh
Mozu’s Paralogue
Free experience, the map. There’s not much to this map. Mozu in theory is supposed to be a turtle disincentive for the map, but she’s pretty easy to reach even if you’re deliberately going slow. If the player doesn’t even try to save her the map becomes that much easier to beat. The map lacks enemy unit variety (every enemy in this chapter is a Faceless) and the boss may as well not exist for all the impact it has on the chapter. Heck you could give Mozu a bow and whittle that thing down with it.
Overall Rating: Fail
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Thoughts on the Earlygame: From a map design standpoint this is the strongest part of the game. When the maps are good, they are incredibly well designed. With the exception of Mozu’s paralogue the not so well designed maps are merely just “meh” as opposed to being notoriously bad and I can see people disagreeing with even that. All in all it’s solid and I wish the rest of the game’s maps didn’t go downhill like they do.
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