10 Mechanics I’d Like to See in Future Games List
# 7 - Hidden Weapons / Terrain Alteration
In case you’re wondering why I have two mechanics on this list there’s a couple of reasons. The first is that I’ve already expressed my thoughts on Hidden Weapons before and since I still stand by what I said there I’m going to copy and paste my thoughts from a previous post that I’ve made.
So rather than being completely lazy I’ll have one mechanic that’s more or less a copy / paste of something I’ve said before while another one will be a little more original. Now to Hidden Weapons. Here’s my original post where I said this: http://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2016/12/a-further-look-into-conquests-gameplay.html
Debuffing: Of the three Fates installments Conquest has the highest number of enemies with the power to debuff player units. Debuffing is a fantastic idea since its job is to keep your best units from steamrolling the game. This raises the question of how we deal with his. Unfortunately, the answer here is “boost your stats so high that even if you take a debuff it won’t matter”. This is something that really surprised me during my run of Conquest Lunatic mode. For most of my playthrough I just didn’t care about whether or not my units got debuffed because overall it generally didn’t affect me as much. I think this is because I started taking advantage of all the resources at my disposal which really made a difference here. Take for example this picture of my Xander.
That Xander has + 14 Speed in addition to being fed 3 Speedwings prior that particular level. That’s insane! I had absolutely zero problem with Xander getting a speed debuff because he’d still be fast enough to double attack virtually every enemy on the map. When I initially uploaded this picture onto my Facebook profile people were pointing out that there were still other things I could do to boost Xander’s speed which further proves my point at how ridiculously easy it is in Fates to boost one’s stats.
Once you figure out how to properly boost your character’s stats debuffing loses most of it’s bite. In other words, instead of debuffing preventing stat-stacking it encourages it because the game provides no other alternatives to dealing with it. I would still prefer to keep debuffing in future installments, but it’s in serious need of some polishing.
- The first thing I would do is give debuffs the power to instantly nullify stat boosts. Going back to the example of my Xander, if he gets hit by a Seal skill or any Hidden Weapon his + 14 speed, along with all his other stats boosts, should vanish and instead be replaced with whatever the debuff was supposed to be. This would do a better job of “juggernaut prevention” since boosting your best character’s stats would no longer be a guarantee to victory.
- The second thing I would do is make the debuffs effect last for a shorter period of time. Maybe instead of recovering by 1 per turn you could recover by 2 per turn. Another idea would be to make them only last for one phase. This would still make their effect sting, but it wouldn’t screw you over forever.
- The last thing I would do is provide skills and items that undid the effects of debuffs. Giving some units access to skills that make them immune to debuffs give them a niche since debuffing would be something you’d rather avoid. How about a staff that undoes the effects of debuffing? That would encourage the player to continue moving forward.”
Since I initially wrote that post Heroes came out and they used Hidden Weapons in a different way. I haven’t played much of Heroes so I can’t comment on how well it handled Hidden Weapons. Would someone with more experience like to comment on this? How well did Heroes handle Hidden Weapons in your opinion?
Terrain Alteration
When Fates first came out I was excited about the idea of Dragon Veins. The ability to manipulate terrain has appealed to me for a long time and I thought it’d be cool to see that explored in a Fire Emblem game. Dragon Veins execution was hit or miss. In some chapters it worked really well like in Chapter 8 of Conquest, Chapter 18 of Revelation and Chapter 3 of the Prologue while in other chapters it made the maps less fun to play. What made the difference? I find that Dragon Vein worked better when it acted like a means to an end that added tactical options as opposed to being the central focus of a particular chapter. A major reason why I don’t like Chapter 24 of Conquest (that’s the chapter where Hinoka’s the boss) is because the Dragon Vein is the central focus of that chapter. You either use it to your advantage and break the chapter or you get crushed. There’s little to no gray area. Chapter 20 (aka Mr. Fuga’s Wild Ride) is also an example of when a major terrain altering gimmick becomes the central focus of the map and it ruins the experience. (Yes I know that it’s the Wind Pillar and not the Dragon Vein that’s the problem but my point stands nonetheless)
By contrast the Dragon Vein in Chapter 8 of Conquest provided additional routes to take when playing the chapter and a means of preventing enemies from attacking the player’s units. So I think Fates has proven that it can work, the developers just have to be careful about how they go about improving it. Being able to manipulate the battlefield can help to augment the map design in an even bigger way than ledges from Radiant Dawn could and it can open up a variety of strategies from both the player and the enemy which is why I’d like to see terrain alteration come back in some form. It doesn’t have to be Dragon Vein per se but if they do it right I’d be happy to see terrain alteration further explored in future Fire Emblem games.
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10 Mechanics That Should Be Gone in Future Games List
# 7 - Enemy Only Skills
Here’s a list of enemy only skills from previous Fire Emblem games:
- Rightful God: + 30 % Skill Activation Rates
- Luna +: Automatic Luna activation with every attack
- Hawkeye: 100 % accuracy all day every day
- Staff Savant: Staves can be used without expending uses and if its Range is under 10, it is increased to 10
- Inevitable End: Stat reduction effects on the enemy will stack
Hopefully you’ve figured out why enemy only skills are on the list. It comes across as a lazy way to make the game more challenging. It gets even worse when enemy skills can reset at random, making the game more luck reliant. I like the idea of giving enemies skills, and I’m fine with giving enemies skills on par with the player as the player grows in power. This can make the game challenging for the right reasons since games with skill systems tend to favor the player in significant ways. However, giving the enemies access to power that the player cannot have comes across as outright cheap. The skills I listed don’t do much to increase the strategy of the game. They just make the game more difficult for difficulties sake.
Now, many of you will notice that not all enemy only skills were present on the list. There’s a reason why. It’s because those other skills aren’t bad. This is why “enemy Only Skills” is relatively low on the list. There are good enemy only skills like Void Curse or Dragonskin, which can either make grinding impossible or can make enemies more challenging by protecting them from potential cheesing on the part of the player. So on the one hand enemy skills can be used for good, but on the other hand they can make the game less fun overall. A better solution is to make skills available to both the player and the enemy and to scale the power of enemy skills in relation to the player. That way you can make enemies more challenging without needing to rely on artificial power like Luna +.
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