Ranking First Maps Part 4

Below Average Tier (Continued)

Fates: Revelation

Next on the list is Revelation. The easiest way to summarize this map is that it's a Corrin steamroll. It's a map where you have to kill two bosses before Chapter 5. On paper this sounds like a net positive. In practice...well, I'll just quote what somebody else had to say:

"RV: On normal and hard? Easy, just throw Corrin at the enemies as they run toward you. On Lunatic? Fuck this map, never play Revelation Lunatic. You have 5 turns to kill the Nohr mooks, and some genius decided to take away their Wyverns. Usually a lack of Wyverns is a good thing, but this time it means they can't cross the river, and you have to cross the river 1 square at a time yourself. Whoever though this was a good idea should be fed to Lilith.""

"Fuck Revelation's version of this map. Particularly the Lunatic one. Like somebody else has said, you've basically gotta cross the river to bait the cavalier to win. Which is some shit because to do this you have to realize that it's a thing you can do. I mean, I thought of it because of Awakening's water trick, and memories of having Hector ferry mounted units across rivers. But it's such a stupid and obscure thing to actually require from the player at any point in the game - let alone 6 chapters in, without telling or even hinting at the player's ability to Jesus their way across a body of water. For that reason alone Chapter 6 is probably the hardest map in Lunatic Revelation, for all the wrong reasons"

Source for both quotes: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/65995c/fates_map_discussion_thread_48_chapter_6_all/

Birthright

Are you kidding me? A boss kill map where the boss killer is literally right next to the boss? I get that Birthright is meant to be for beginners, but did the designers just assume that people who are new to the series are idiots? The only reason why it's not listed in the "garbage" tier is because you're given plenty of units to use, and you can choose to give other units experience. 

Garbage Tier

As far as I'm concerned, these first chapters have no redeeming qualities. There's an awful lot of them.

Gaiden

Yep. This is the first map of the OG Gaiden. It's a pretty solid indicator of what's to come: An empty field with terrain haphazardly strewn about, and enemies in a random formation. To the game's credit, you at least get to start out with 5 units (Faye doesn't exist in Gaiden). There's very little in the way of strategy here. Maybe getting Tobin and Cliff to promotion level in preparation for the shrine? 

Why the other first maps on this list are considered garbage

For the sake of saving time, I figure that since the first maps of these games suffer from the same issues, I can just summarize why they all suck:

• Sacred Stones 
• Echoes
• FE 12 
• Awakening & Engage: (They basically have the same first chapter)
•  Path of Radiance
•  The prologue of Fates (yep. The first map of the Fates prologue is in this tier) 

1) 2 playable characters or less: All of these first chapters give you two playable characters or less. Technically, Echoes gives you a lot more than just two, but let's not kid ourselves: This map is a Mycen solo. It may as well be a 1 unit map. 

As a result of having so few characters, there are very few strategies and ways to replay these maps. That leads to a duller experience all around. 

2) Really short map with nothing else going on: All of these maps are really short, and having nothing else to them. I guess Sacred Stones has terrain, but it's a dull implementation of its terrain that just makes it easier for Seth to chokepoint the map. Once again, this hurts replayability. 

I get that a designer would want to make their first map simple, but you can have a first chapter that's simple without insulting the player's intelligence, and that's what these first chapters do.

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The Multi-Rate Tier

There are two games whose first chapter can be different based on the player's choice. Blazing Sword and Shadow Dragon. Since they rate so differently, they needed their own tier:

Blazing Sword - Lyn Mode: Garbage

There's only one playable character and two enemies. There's nothing else to this map. Textbook example of a map that treats the player like an idiot.

Hector Mode: Meh

You know, this is almost a good map. The biggest problem is that there's only two playable characters here, and only one of them (Hector) is going to be doing any fighting. What's cool about this map is that there are two different methods of approach, and Matthew's thief utility comes in handy here. The lack of a healer makes the map marginally more challenging. Still, it's not bad.

Eliwood Mode: Meh

For a first map, there's nothing super wrong with it, but it's also not super great either. I might rate it higher if that village were actually threatened. Still, 6 playable characters has to count for something. Not much else to say about the map.

Shadow Dragon: Prologue - Garbage

So this map is basically a Marth solo with nothing else that's interesting about it. Joy.

Shadow Dragon Chapter 1

The first chapter of Shadow Dragon gets the same rating as FE 1's first map (Meh) unless we're talking about H5. Based on what I've been told, H5 is significantly harder. I've also been told that the boss has to break his weapon before you can move on. That sounds like terrible design to me. If it's not H5, then I'm assuming that it plays pretty similarly to FE 1's first map, right? So it ranges from Meh to Garbage.

Ranking the First Maps Part 3

Meh

First chapters that are ranked in the "Meh" tier are chapters that aren't bad per se, but they're not particularly good either. Another important criteria of the "Meh" tier is that with a couple of tweaks, these could be good maps.

Fire Emblem 1

And here is the first map of the entire franchise and.....it's meh. To the map's credit, you do get a total of 8 characters (this includes Wrys in the village) so it at least checks one box off. I think the thief down below is supposed to threaten the village up top? If that's the case, then this doesn't work. Just like with Mystery of the Emblem, the thief is closer to the player than the village. It's pretty easy to kill the thief before it has a chance to destroy the village. 

This map lets you buy weapons, which is pretty rare for a first map. The fact that you have to recruit your healer after beating most of the map is an interesting twist. Forts and forests make life easier for the player, and the map layout is simple enough. 

Overall, not a bad first chapter, especially since this is the first time a Japanese player would have been exposed to the franchise as a whole. With a couple of tweaks, it could have been better.

Conquest

As a quick heads-up: Fates is one of those games where the player has different choices on how to begin. So, I'm going to rate the first map of each route, and then I'll rate the first chapter of the prologue. 

Conquest's first chapter is the best first chapter of Fates and it leaves room to be desired. The only interesting elements of this map are: 

1) Choosing whether to kill Ryoma or Sakura 

AND 

2) Baiting the Takumi / Hinoka pair up.

Outside of those two choices, there's really not much else to say. There are very few enemies to fight, which hurts the replayability of the map, and there are no turtle disincentives. Ryoma's avoid is really high, so fighting him feels like an even bigger RNG gamble than is usual for Fire Emblem. That counts as a negative.

 To the map's credit, you at least get 6 characters, so it checks one box. Another positive is that Elise has a Freeze staff, which can be helpful here. There's also the Dragon Vein, which makes the map a little more playable, since you can have more characters attack Ryoma. Considering how powerful he is, this isn't recommended but at least the option exists. And another positive is that poor unit positioning can cause a restart. 

Overall, this map is not terrible, but there also aren't too many positives to say here either.

Tearring Saga

What I find interesting about Tearring Saga's first chapter is that you spend the first four chapters buying stuff with Runan and his crew. Once again, it's pretty rare for the first chapter to give the player the option to buy things. Points for creativity. Afterward, the drawbridge goes down, and Runan's crew have to take on the enemies. Meanwhile, Sasha and Kate have to flee the bad guys.

One big negative is that Runan's crew are forced to sit behind the drawbridge, so there's nothing you can do about Sasha and Kate. It feels like the map takes longer than it needs to because of that. Another negative is that the terrain layout is really dull. The actual combat takes place on an open field with a little bit of forests if you need an evasion boost. 

Unlike the maps ranked below it, it feels like a couple of tweaks could have made it good. The maps in the "Below Average" tier are just mostly really bad.

Below Average Tier

These first maps are straight up bad. They might have one quality that prevents them from being outright terrible, but they're still a net negative overall.

Three Houses

The only nice thing I can say about this map is that it has 4 playable characters. So it checks off one box. Unfortunately, this is mitigated by the fact that Dimitri, Edelgard, and Byleth play too similarly to each other. They're basically just sturdy(ish) melee fighters. Claude's the only playable character on this map who fights differently than the others. In practice, it almost feels like you've got 2 different characters, as opposed to four.

Another major negative is that generic enemies double attack your characters on Maddening mode, which is terrible design. It practically incentivizes the player to play slower (as opposed to faster) and to take their time fighting one enemy at a time. Incentivizing slow play is always a net negative. 

Bytheway, the reason why Three Houses is only having this map rated is because no matter which route you play, this will always be your first chapter. That separates it from Fates, FE 7, or Shadow Dragon. So this will be the only Three Houses map on this list, and it's a pretty poor showing.

Radiant Dawn

Unlike Three Houses, Radiant Dawn's first map only gives you three playable characters to start with. Two of them are squishy ranged fighters, and the other one is Edward. The basic premise of this map is to have Edward take the hits while Micaiah and Leonardo provide chip damage from a safe distance. The terrain makes distance combat fun, since Micaiah and Leo have fun walls to attack behind. 

There is one negative that is unique to Hard Mode: No Weapon Triangle. This map feels like it was designed with the weapon triangle in mind. It really benefits Edward. Take that away, and suddenly his chances of blocking axes with his face improves. That's a big negative, which really hurts the ranking of this map. Another negative is no turtle disincentives. 

I want to like this map more, but I can't because there's not enough going for it to merit a higher rank. 

Ranking the First Maps (Part 2)

Really Good

This tier is reserved for first maps that get lots of things right. The reason why these maps are a whole tier below the top tier is because their turtle disincentives aren't as strong.

Binding Blade

The first map of Binding Blade gives the player 6 characters to use, and there's a brigand that pops up next to the village with the intent to destroy it. It's a weak turtle disincentive, but it still exists so it counts. So it checks both boxes as far as first maps go.

On Hard mode, most of the cast will do menial damage while Marcus carries the team. I am going to deduct points for that, since it's more ideal to have multiple viable characters during the first map. To the game's credit, at least enemy strength is more balanced than in some of the games that have come after.

Thracia 776

Next on the list is Thracia 776. Here, you get a total of 8 characters to use, two houses you can visit that will result in obtaining the Pugi Axe and a Brave Axe, and multiple enemies to fight. Weissman is more difficult than the typical first chapter boss, and while the enemies aren't that difficult to beat, they're still better than the normal axe wielding brigand that frequently show up in a first chapter. 

The map gets points for having side objectives, but also loses points for no turtle disincentive. This doesn't hurt the map as much since most first chapters typically don't have them, but it is worth noting.

 It's really cool how the game gives you such powerful weapons and characters right off the bat: Eyvel kicks ass in this part of the game, Dagdar's really strong, Finn is super useful (and joins with a Brave Lance. How many games just let you have a Brave Lance from the first chapter?), and you get Orsin with the Pugi. 

It's a strong start to an excellently designed game.

Mystery of the Emblem 

For a first chapter, Mystery of the Emblem sure knows how to start on the right foot. If you count Mallicia, you start this map with 9 characters. Thieves will appear from the cave to the left and will attempt to destroy the village. On the one hand, this is a turtle disincentive so kudos to the map for that. On the other hand, the thieves are closer to the player than they are to the village, so there's no reason to rush toward the village. It gets some points for the attempt at a turtle disincentive, but then it loses points for how weak it is.

The mountain pass where the brigands are can be a little tedious to get through too. I went back and checked my notes  on this map and I said there that only Marth and Arran can move here. That's another net negative for tedious terrain. Still, it's a pretty good map to start a game on.

Above Average: Holy War

Holy War's first map is kind of weird to rate in this particular context. On the one hand, it checks both the boxes off. By the end of the map you wind up with ten different characters in your army:

• Sigurd
• Alec
• Noish
• Arden
• Quan
• Ethlyn
• Finn
• Lex
• Azel
• Midir

But you don't get them all at once. You just start out with Sigurd, your Christmas Cavs, and Arden. Your Lenster squad shows up later and has to play catch up after Sigurd, Alec, and Noish have already started moving. Lex and Azel also show up way the heck out there on the map, away from your main army. So, Holy War's prologue is kind of weird in this respect. Credit given to where credit's due, you still get a bunch of units to use on the first map, and that's always a positive.

As for turtle disincentives, this map introduces the concept that villages don't automatically get destroyed, but instead burn over time. Considering the fact that you lose 500 gold per burn, this works to incentivize the player to move fast. 

However, some brigands are so close to the villages that you'll still lose some money even if you go fast. This is something that could have been handled better, but at least some form of turtle disincentives exist. The village by Jungby gives you a Speed Ring, which is really important, so you'll definitely want to save that asap.

Arvis also gives you a Silver Sword, which helps to teach the player that conversations can net the player free stuff. 

Two negatives worth mentioning are that Sigurd can obliterate enemies by himself, which puts some pressure off of the player in addition to the Evans army being easy to dismantle by simply blocking the bridge.

On the one hand, Holy War meets both criteria for a first map. On the other hand, it does so in funky ways that hurt the rating. Even with its negatives taken into account, Holy War's first chapter is still leagues better than the maps ranked below it. It fits both criteria, and it manages to teach the player a great deal about the game's mechanics. This is why it merits its own unique rating. It's much more interesting to play than the map where you have few characters in a small map, but it's also not quite as good as the maps ranked above it, hence it's own tier titled "Above Average". 

Ranking the First Maps of Fire Emblem

Ranking the final chapters of each Fire Emblem game was fun. This naturally made me want to rank the first chapters of each map. I added the Kaga Sagas to this list because I've at least played the first chapter of each Kaga Saga, even if I haven't beaten Tearring Saga or Vestaria Saga yet. First, we need to establish the criteria for what makes a well designed first chapter:

1) Does the first chapter have more than 3 characters?  The reason why this is a metric is because there's a difference in quality between maps where you can play 3 characters or fewer versus maps where you have 6 - 7. More characters usually means more strategies, and thus more ways to play the game. That's good. It also makes the map more interesting.

2) Bonus points for turtle disincentives or side objectives: I tend to be easier on the first chapter, because I don't expect it to happen, but there are first chapters that do this and they deserve to be rewarded for it.

Gold Standard: Berwick and Vestaria Saga

These are the two games that come to mind that do pretty much everything right when it comes to the first map. I've already done a map design review for the first chapter of Berwick Saga: https://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2022/03/berwick-saga-map-design-review-part-1.html

Tl;dr - "So, to recap. On the first freaking map of the game we have:

• Multiple bosses.
• Good map layout with 2 avenues of approach.
• 1 timed side objective where the player has to protect their healer on the opposite side of the map.
• 1 side objective where enemies drop gold. If the player doesn't get to these enemies in time, they permanently leave the map.

Yeah, this map is a case study on how to start your game. It does everything right. It also gives you 9 characters to start out with. Each character has their own nuances of how to use, which really increases the strategy in this chapter. Brilliantly done!

Vestaria Saga

Vestaria Saga is a map that I never thought would be ranked this high, and yet its first map does everything correctly. You get 6 characters right off the bat, a turtle disincentive in the form of an extra defeat condition: If the ships' HP drops to 0, you lose, and you also have a thief threatening to destroy a house. It's pretty rare for the first map to have all these things. 

You get 5 units, so it meets that requirement. The houses in between the player and the ship can be visited, which can net them money and funny NPC dialogue. It can also run the risk of slowing the player down since that could be time used to get to the ship faster. 

The village to the side will also be threatened by an enemy. This is both a turtle disincentive, and it counts as a side objective since it's out of the way. Overall, it's a great map that pretty much does everything one could want from a first chapter.

More First Impressions of Engage (Up to Chapter 15)

 

The Map Design

• So, I LOVE Chapters 10 and 11 from both a gameplay and a storytelling perspective! Getting your current Emblems taken from you, and then having enemies use them against you, feels like the kind of thing Thracia 776 would do. It reminds me a lot of the Manster Arc in all the best ways. 

• Chapter 11 is currently my favorite map! I love the fact that it's "a seize map disguised as an escape map" to borrow Scylla's words. This map does the best job of putting pressure on the player by providing turtle disincentives. I hope more chapters in Engage do that.

• Chapter 12 is a desert map that I don't hate. That's refreshing. Quicksand is annoying, but at least it can be played around. The only issue I have is that it's a rout map with reinforcements. Why does IS give reinforcements to rout maps? 

• Chapter 13 is a solid fog of war map. The destructible parts of the map provide options as to where the player should / shouldn't go. They also provide a level of choice as to which enemies the player can deal at a given moment. 

• Chapter 14 is excellently designed! It has multiple paths to approach the boss, treasure chests that get threatened by thieves, and turtle disincentives in the form of enemy reinforcements that show up behind the player, a status staff that breaks you, OH and a flying boss with a dancer ability! That's pretty cool!

Map Design Wrap-Up: It feels like the map design has dramatically improved ever since Chapter 10! It's really exciting to see this game provide interesting challenges and scenarios for the player. I haven't finished Chapter 15, but I like I've seen so far. If the game maintains this level of quality, it will definitely reach "Top 5 Best Map Design" for me.

The Unit Balance

• This game has some really strange unit balance, which is why I reached out and asked people what their thoughts were on it. I agree with Scylla that there aren't any Haars / Camilla type characters. Nobody strikes me as "this is the uber unit that will destroy everything". I'm not used to that. Perhaps over time we'll all find out who the best units are. It's really strange not having an obvious juggernaut.

• Alear is probably the most underpowered "My Unit" I've come across. I'll take it! In addition to the damage that My Units deal to the game's narrative, they're also usually OP. Kris, Robin, and Corrin (at least on Revelation). Byleth was really good, but a step in the right direction. Alear is even less powerful, and I really like that. Alear's good, but not game-breakingly good. 

• As of right now, the best characters in my army are a mix of Kagetsu, Merrin, Timerra, Alear, Alcryst, Louis, and Ivy. Forged a Wo Dao for Kagetsu to have even more crit so he can land some sweet kills. Ivy is fun to use, but she still gets critted or double attacked, a lot. Is she supposed to have the Lyn Emblem?

• Merrin's really good! Double attacks everything and can one round KO a lot. Wolf Knight enemies also double quite a bit. Is this class supposed to be strong?

•  Timerra and Louis's tanking abilities are much appreciated. Great Aether is fun. There are plenty of fliers for Alcryst to snipe, and the occasional Luna proc is also fun. Lucina's Emblem is fun to use on Alear. I really like the way this game handles Chain Attacks. It's neat to set them up in order to dish out extra damage. 

• Diamant was promoted to Successor, and he's coming across as decent, but not an uber unit. He started off so much better, and hasn't scaled super well. Is there a better class to promote him to than Successor? If so, which is it?

Unit Balance Wrap-Up: This game's unit balance is strange. In a sense, it's almost the reverse Fire Emblem 12. Fire Emblem 12 was a game where all your earlygame units were the best, and the later units were lame. In this game, being an early game unit is no guarantee of success. Being a mid / later game prepromote is better. It's an interesting take on unit balance. Not sure how I feel about that.

Other Gameplay Thoughts

• Hard Mode so far hits the sweet spot for me in terms of difficulty and challenge. It's tough enough to require me to think and turn my brain on without being stupidly difficult. This game does a good job of punishing a player's mistakes, which makes me respect it all the more. 

• When it comes to gold, I feel like I have plenty for what I want to do. I usually buy up Master Seals and Second Seals whenever they're available. Every now and then, I'll buy a weapon or two, but I always feel like the weapons that I have are sufficient. The game doesn't strike me as too generous with its resources, but it's also not super restricting. Resource management is turning out to be a net positive for this game.

• Weirdly enough, I don't miss weapon durability here. This game seems to balance around that just fine.

• Scylla was right about the resurrection stones: They're a net positive. It makes the game more difficult to juggernaut when you have to kill the same boss more than once. Hortensia needing to get killed three times made me feel like I had to bring my whole army with me just to kill her. Definitely changed my mind on this.

Summary: This game is definitely earning its reputation for stellar gameplay. It gets a lot right, and it's making for a fun experience! The dialogue, supports, and the story aren't very good. However, I think this game works as "gameplay, the game". I can see this fitting in A tier along with FE 3, 12 & 6.

Quick First Impressions of Fire Emblem Engage (Up to Chapter 8)

 

So I wanted to do a quick write-up of my thoughts on Fire Emblem Engage so far. I got the game yesterday afternoon, and have been playing on Hard / Classic. I just beat Chapter 8, and wanted to leave my initial first impressions on the game.

I'll get the story and characters out of the way, since I don't have much to say about them. My thoughts on the story echo what everyone else is saying. The storytelling is shallow and vapid, the characters are bland, and Lumera's death scene isn't very good. In fact, you could make an argument that it's worse than Mikoto's death scene in Fates. I also really dislike how much pandering to Alear there is. If someone were to take a shot every time the words "Divine One" was used, you'd die of alcohol poisoning by Chapter 3 or 4. 

Now that this is out of the way, let's focus on the gameplay, shall we?

Positives

+ The Break Mechanic: I love the Break mechanic! It makes the weapon triangle more important and relevant. It also makes the game more Player Phase oriented. It's hard to juggernaut / tank through the game when your unit can be robbed of counterattacking. It also encourages the player to have a more diverse team that covers all the different weapon types so that they can take advantage of the mechanic. 

I also love how it doesn't apply to Armor Knights! It makes Armor Knights more useful (Louis is the first character in my party to get promoted, and I just reclassed Amber to an Armor Knight), and it makes fighting them more difficult. Most Armor Knights in this game are so durable that you have to change up your tactics and either use anti-armor weapons or use magic. This gives me Berwick Saga vibes, when armored enemies were so tanky that you had to use magic and Hammers to deal with them. Any game that can remind me of how glorious Berwick Saga was is definitely doing something right.

+ The Emblems Are Balanced! : When I first heard about Sigurd and Celica's Emblems, I immediately feared that they would break the game in half. I am pleasantly surprised that they don't. This game is obviously balanced around the use of emblems, and the game expects you to use them to your advantage. The fact that you can only use them for 3 turns is another positive that this game has going for it.

+ The Difficulty: I am playing on Hard / Classic, and am pleasantly surprised that I've had to reset quite a bit on some chapters. I can't speak for Maddening, but Hard / Classic is both challenging and fair. I've never felt like the game screwed me over with b.s. Every reset was because my strategy was lacking. Speaking of a lack of bs, NO AMBUSH SPAWNS! It is good to see that this game rightfully steered of that awful mechanic. 

+ Chain Stuff: Having certain enemies be "Backup" fighters that perform chain strikes, and having healers use Chain Guard is a pretty ingenious idea. It waters down the Pair Up mechanic from Awakening and Fates, and relegates it to special niches with certain characters. It can reward smart positioning without being super broken or dominating the game.

+ Skills: This game seems to have the best implementation of personal skills out of all the games that use them. I find myself actively making decisions based on them, and they seem to reward smart positioning. Stuff like Alear getting Camilla's personal skill, Framme and Clanne's personal skills providing boosts to Alear's stats, Celine's personal skill boosting recovery items, etc. It's also helpful that Engage will show you just what skills are in effect, which helps to remind the player that they're there, and that they're making an impact on the gameplay. 

+ Weapons and Forging: While I'm still a fan of weapon durability, I don't find myself missing it too much here. My first impression is that the weapons are balanced. I could be wrong on this, and it will later turn out that there was the "One True Weapon to Break Them All", but so far there doesn't seem to be any massive imbalance in weaponry. No weapon feels too strong, or feels too weak. Again, this could be subject to change but the game is off to a good start on this point.

I still haven't managed to wrap my head around how forging works, but it also comes off as more balanced than previous titles. I'm curious what everyone else thinks. Is there something about forging that I'm missing, or is the mechanic more balanced here than in previous titles?

Negatives

+ Underwhelming Map Design: So far, I haven't been impressed by the map design in this game. I can't think of a map that I've hated, but I also can't think of any maps that I love either. Chapter 5 gets my vote for being the best designed map that I've played so far. The thief getting the treasure was actually difficult to get to, and I had to smartly use Vander with Sigurd's Override to get to him in time. The enemy reinforcements make choke pointing a bad idea, which means that the map itself works incredibly well with the Break mechanic.  

Chapter 4 is also pretty good. Your army is split up into two teams, and has to work together to get to the enemy boss, the enemy reinforcements are well positioned and succeed at putting pressure on the player, and the enemy composition is pretty good too. Overall, it's a pretty good map. 

The Chapter where you get Anna is also pretty good. Again, you have to split your army up, and the thieves gunning for the treasure help to put some pressure on the player. 

The main flaw of may of these maps is that they don't have enough turtle disincentives. You can generally play slowly and methodically progress through some of the enemies just fine. I'll also add that the first three maps of the game are obvious tutorial maps, which get progressively more boring when replaying the game, and weren't even that good on a first playthrough.

I wish the map had more objectives than just "Kill Boss" with a sprinkling of Rout maps. 

+ Boss Resurrection Stone: This game brought back the Three Houses mechanic where you have to kill certain bosses more than once. It makes boss fights more tedious (though to be fair, it does make them slightly more challenging) and drags out the pacing of the fight.

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Final Thoughts: Not a fan of the story or the characters, but the gameplay gets more right than wrong. I'm happy to see the gameplay succeed on multiple levels. I'm hoping that the map quality improves, and that we get more objectives than either "Kill Boss" or "Rout". 

I like the gameplay. I'm not super hyped / over the moon about it, but I like it. It's way too early for me to declare it "The Best Gameplay Since (Insert FE Title Here)" but I can say that the gameplay is a positive that the game has going for it. 

Keep in mind, that I could totally change my mind about this as I get further in. Who knows what the later chapters will bring?

Fire Emblem Final Map Ranking Part 3

And now we've gotten to the part where the final maps are bad. Because of how many of them there are, I'm going to try to summarize the issues that make them so bad:

• Making the final chapter a simple boss rush against a final boss that's comically weak: Idounn, Fomortiis, Ashnard, FE 3 Medeus, Garon, and Grima are all weak final bosses that can be defeated rather easily. The accompanying maps is basically just "get your unit to this weak boss and kill them" except getting to said boss usually doesn't take that much work or effort to get there. Fire Emblem 3 Book 2 doesn't even have enemies present during the Player Phase (except for Medeus).

• Fire Emblem 12's final map isn't a joke on the higher difficulties, but it can feel like a slog fighting through really powerful enemies if you don't employ some kind of Rescue shenanigan strategies. Medeus is definitely not a joke in 12, but it feels like you have to proc a critical hit or two, because otherwise he'll take a while to kill. All the same, it's a bad idea. 

•  Shadow Dragon is a whole two tiers below FE 1 due to the fact that higher difficulties require suicide-revival strategies revolving around Tiki. Yeah, Marth isn't even a major factor in fighting Medeus despite the fact that the entire game builds up to him doing exactly that! Plus, when people bring up Shadow Dragon's final map on the highest difficulty, ambush spawn ballista always seem to make it into the conversation. That's a recipe for disaster and fury right there.

The Bullshit Final Maps

• Three Houses Maddening Mode - Azure Moon, Crimson Flower, Silver Snow: Azure Moon, Crimson Flower, and Silver Snow's final maps on Maddening involve ludicrous stat inflation, bs skills on enemies like Miracle and Amyr being an axe that has its own version of Galeforce called "Raging Storm" that can be used up to 6 times in Crimson Flower. Does anybody actually like the Maddening mode of these maps? That's a real question too. The Fire Emblem fandom disagrees on a lot, but it seems like most people came together to agree that these maps on Maddening were straight up trash.

• Conquest 

 Conquest Fans: "Conquest has a tough, but fair difficulty."

Also Conquest Fans: "Conquest Lunatic Endgame is bullshit!"

It's strange how Conquest is lauded as being a "fair" difficulty, and yet many of the fans of this game will also say that Conquest Lunatic Endgame is bullshit without seeing the contradiction. Out of curiosity, has anyone beaten the final map of Conquest Lunatic without rescue cheesing or using a Vantage Sorcerer build? I'm curious to see if that's possible, because as of now those are the only two strategies I can think of that actually work toward beating this map.

And that's the main problem: Conquest Lunatic Endgame makes normal play either impossible, or close to it. Like Birthright and Revelation, you can't save on this map so if you restart, you have to replay the previous map which is a monumentally dumb decision. Quite a few enemies have Inevitable End combined with the Enfeeble staff, Staff Savant, and Hidden Weapons so your characters get debuffed into oblivion. By Turn 5 the enemies on the map will have you locked down in a pincer formation, which further makes the map extremely unfun to deal with. A well designed endgame map shouldn't require strategies this specific to beat it. 

In Summation: These maps suck mostly because the final bosses are poorly designed, and these levels rely way too much on fighting said final boss. As mentioned before, the best designed final chapters are the ones that focus less on the final boss, and more on how to get to said final boss.

Fire Emblem Final Map Ranking Part 2

 Next on the list are the final maps that are okay: Holy War, Gaiden, Echoes, & The Verdant Wind route of Three Houses.

Holy War

What makes Holy War's final chapter stand out is that it's basically designed like an ordinary map of Holy War. Normally this would be a negative, given Holy War's controversial map design, but here it actually makes it better than the many maps in the "These Suck" tier. Each castle has its own army, and tries to do something differently. In Edda, you have a wall of status staves and ballistic siege tomes, Dozel throws a two-pronged attack of axe knights, Friege throws armored magic users, a mini boss like Hilda, and tries to attack you from behind with a bunch of bow knights.

Then you have to deal with some surprisingly powerful Pegasus Knights with Runeswords and Awareness, and then you kill Manfroy to free Julia so that she can get the awesomely powerful Book of Naga to kill Julius with. You also have to deal with Arion, who will try to capture your castle from behind, which is pretty fun.

It's a much more involved map than many of the ones on this list, which is why it's given a mid tier rank. However, it still plays like a normal Holy War map, for better or for worse. I appreciate the fact that you can't skip it, and that the focus is more on getting closer to the final boss, rather than on fighting the final boss themselves. It could be better, but it could also be so much worse. 

Gaiden / Echoes

Another example of a game with bad map design having an okay final chapter. Both maps have a lot of empty space between the player units and the enemies they need to kill, which is a typical element of Gaiden / Echoes map design. Once again, the enemies here are more or less the kind of enemies the player has had to deal with on their way here. The swamp section between them both can help bog down the pace of the chapter, since it will reduce the movement of most of your troops.  

Verdant Wind's Final Map

Despite what the tier list might suggest, Verdant Wind's final map actually goes in the mid tier, rather than the "bullshit" tier. Tier list maker didn't have an icon for all of the routes in Three Houses and since most of them suck, Verdant Wind was treated as the oddball. This map is a boss rush to get to Nemesis, but at the very least the player is required to kill the 10 Elites before they can get to Nemesis. That being said, it does lose a lot of points for being a simple swamp with enemies strewn about in a haphazard way. At least it's better than the final map of all the other routes.