My Mechanics List Part 7

10 Mechanics I’d Like To See In Future Installments List

# 5 - Indoor Maps

I’m going to start with indoor maps. One reoccurring trend among Fire Emblem games is for higher movement units to wind up being better than infantry units. I even noticed this problem which is why I talked about it in my “Ten Tips To Improve the Fire Emblem Series” list:

http://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2015/11/ten-tips-to-improve-fire-emblem-2.html

http://thecrusadergrant.blogspot.com/2015/11/ten-tips-to-improve-fire-emblem-2_16.html

                 There’s a reason for this. Movement is usually considered to be the best stat in Fire Emblem since it lets units get from Point A to Point B faster in addition to letting them get access to more combat. Most Fire Emblem games don’t do much to balance the classes out, except for making some maps indoors. Since I’ve already talked about the indoor mechanic I thought I’d be lazy again and quote myself here:

“Bring back dismounting: As a concept I think that dismounting is a pretty nifty feature in nerfing mounted and flying units. By forcing said units to have 5 movement in certain maps you’ve effectively stripped them of their movement bonus. In the games where dismounting has been implemented (a.k.a FE’s 3 & 5) the units usually have to switch to swords as opposed to using a lance or an axe like they normally do. I don’t think this is necessary and I’m okay with letting these units be able to use their normal weaponry indoors. That being said, I think it would be helpful in nerfing said units. This comes with a caveat however since in order for dismounting to be effective you have to have a significant number of maps be indoors otherwise it won’t do its job properly.” (Source: See first “Ten Tips” link that I copy / pasted above)

                      The only difference now is that I’m okay with dismounted units being forced to use a different weapon from what they normally use. In both games where dismounting was present it was executed fairly well. While dismounting alone does not automatically make the unit balance in a Fire Emblem game great, it certainly does play a role in that. It’s no coincidence that the two games where it was present happen to have some of the best unit balance in the series. When a mechanic addresses a long standing problem with the series I think that should be sufficient enough reason to bring it back.

# 5b - Gaiden Chapters

                PLOT TWIST! The positive section of this list has another mechanic that should come back! Gaiden Chapters are a cool feature. I’ve always liked the idea of unlocking hidden chapters by fulfilling certain requirements that require the player to play differently. Whether that means beating the chapter faster, keeping a certain character alive or obtaining something. Gaiden Chapters do a great job of making players think ahead in the long term. If you know there’s an unlockable chapter ahead then you’re most likely going to play the preceding chapter differently because you want to unlock said gaiden chapter. That’s a good thing. Thinking ahead is something that strategy games should make the player do. The only issue to address is making sure that the player is aware of said requirement and that the requirement to unlock the chapter isn’t ridiculous (looking at you Hector Mode 19xx). I’m okay with games explicitly telling the player what the Gaiden Chapter requirements are so that the player won’t have to look them up in a strategy guide. Also the requirements need to require more effort of the player than simply marrying characters off too. Looking at you paralogues in Awakening and Fates.

10 Mechanics That Should Be Gone In Future Games

# 5 - Fog of War

               Fog of War is not a mechanic that I enjoy at all. The major problem I have with it is that it’s a mechanic that purposefully hides information from the player while giving the enemy no such limitation. The mechanic forces the player to turtle. After all, if you don’t know where the enemies are then how can you proceed confidently? You might end up walking into a trap and having to restart. It adds nothing to the strategy to the game and can punish the player for something that isn’t the player’s fault.

       Some people have pointed out that you can work around Fog of War with stuff like thieves and torches / torch staves. While this makes the mechanic more tolerable it kind of undermines the point. Fog of War gets even worse in a route map where there’s one random enemy hiding off in the corner. Some people have suggested that the mechanic would be better if enemies would be affected by fog of war too. I disagree. For starters it would mean that both the player and the enemy would spend the entire level crashing into each other instead of strategizing. As far as I can see Fog of War has relatively zero strategic merit and the series would be better off if the mechanic never came back.

My Mechanics List Part 6

10 Mechanics That Should Be Gone in Future Games List

# 6 - Reclassing

I’m going to switch things up a little bit in this post and start with the mechanic I want to see gone first. The reasoning behind this will be made clear in a moment. So...reclassing. Reclassing is a mechanic that is often hated by a large number of Fire Emblem fans and often for good reason. Reclassing does not have a good effect on the games it’s in. For one thing it homogenizes units to the point where unit uniqueness tends to fall by the wayside. Another problem with reclassing is that in Awakening it turned the game into a grindfest, encouraging the player to prioritize skills and stats over tactics and strategy. Reclassing in Fates suffered a similar problem to Awakening, although not to the same degree. One problem unique to Fates was how convoluted it was. First you have the Master and Heart Seals. Then you have a  Friendship Seal, which lets you “change to your A+ Rank partner’s base class”.The Partner Seal is the S rank equivalent of the Friendship Seal (why couldn’t these seals combine?) Then you have an Offspring Seal which let your children promote and adjust their stats. Personally, I think Fates should have just stuck to the good ole Master and Second Seal bit that Awakening had going for it. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.   

                                    Another problem with reclassing was its negative impact on the balance of the game. It either breaks the game due to being able to reclass to a powerful class, or being able to get powerful skills that the game isn’t ready for, or the difficulty designs itself around reclassing and the end result is that reclassing becomes a necessity so the player is practically forced to use it. Either way it made the game less fun to play.

To be fair, there are people who argue that reclassing has strategic value. Some people will say that in the DS remakes the different weapon ranks, base stats and growths were enough to keep certain units different from one another. Another point I’ve seen made in reclassing’s favor is that units can “ fulfill roles that you wouldn't have been able to do in the original games.” (Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/4e1oxj/what_are_your_opinions_of_reclassing_in_fire/#bottom-comments)

                               Bytheway, that last quote was made by dondon151. Yeah, dondon likes reclassing. At the very least he likes how reclassing was implemented in FE 11 & 12. I’m not sure if he’s played Awakening and Fates though. I’m not entirely convinced by the arguments made in reclassing’s defense, but I have to admit there may be some truth to reclassing’s merits when it comes to the DS remakes. The way reclassing was done in the 3DS games is enough to get me to really dislike it though, hence it’s inclusion on this list at # 6. However, I can think of 5 other mechanics that are far, far worse than this one. You might be asking what I’d use as an alternative to reclassing. Well I’m glad you asked because my alternative would be…

# 6 - Branched Promotions

Yep. Branched Promotions is my alternative to reclassing. Another major defense some people may bring up when discussing reclassing is that it adds replayability. Branched promotions can offer replayability too without any of the drawbacks caused by reclassing. In the link I posted (or was it the other FE Reddit thread? I forget) Branched Promotions were criticized on the basis that one class is usually better than the other which then makes the choice relatively moot. While there is some degree of truth in here, the problem is that I could say the same thing about reclassing. In general there’s a better class to reclass to for most units then they’re other options so that’s not a point that’s unique to branched promotions. Also, branched promotions don’t have the baggage and drawbacks reclassing does so I’d still consider branch promotions to be a superior mechanic. There’s also another solution when it comes to branched promotion: Find a way for each class to contribute something and make the unit worthwhile in all of them. Think Tobin and Kliff from Shadows of Valentia, but on a bigger and better scale.

Personally I’ve been interested in combined third tiers and branched promotions and seeing what comes of that. Ideally every unit gets 3 choices for promotion and whatever second tier they choose they get that third tier option when the time comes of that. Or if you want to get more complicated you could still add branches to the second tier class, which could make for some insane replayability options. Either way, it’d be really cool to see.

                                  So to sum it up: Branched Promotions give you replayability value while remaining far more balanced than reclassing. I would also argue that the player’s choices tend to matter more with branched promotions because you’re forced to stick with whatever choice you make, as opposed to reclassing which can be changed at virtually any time the player wants the change to happen. If you want to spice things up even further give every unit 3 “branches” to promote to and add third tiers and now you’ve got something going.  

My Mechanics List Part 5

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.

_______________________________________________________

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 +.

My Mechanics List Part 4

10 Mechanics I’d Like To See In Future Installments List

# 8 - Personal Skills

                         For all the crap that I’ve given Fates I will say that I like the personal skills system and would like to see it come back. What I like about personal skills is that it helps to give each character their unique “flavor” if you will. It can add to the type of contributions that a character can make which I consider to always be a good thing. There’s a lot of things that a personal skill can affect so it’s an idea that has a vast amount of possibilities. Here are the kind of things that personal skills are capable of in Fates:

• Stat modifiers: Most personal skills fall under this umbrella. Whether it’s increasing damage for allies, decreasing damage that enemies dish out or affecting accuracy, avoid or critical hit rates.

• Healing HP: (Azura’s personal skill. Setsuna’s personal skill lets her get healed more so it falls under this category)

• Prevent counter attacks under certain circumstances: (Shura’s personal skill)

• Let’s the enemy receive damage under certain circumstances: (Kagero and Hinata’s personal skills)

• “Capturing” characters: (Niles and Orochi’s personal skills)

• Getting Stuff: (Kaden and Keaton’s personal skills)

                         Alright you get the point. There were 6 different categories of things that could happen with personal skills. Even though the majority of them are stat modifiers in some way, there’s still a long list of ways in which they’re different from each other. Personal skills can help the player think and can act as an extra variable to take into consideration when planning strategies. For example if a unit has a personal skill that increases damage when the enemy is incapable of counterattacking that’s going to be something that the player will be thinking about when planning for their strategy. There are also personal skills that activate when a playable unit is adjacent to an ally. In that case you’re more likely to want to put that character next to an allied unit. That kind of personal skill puts an extra emphasis on unit positioning.

                            So in other words, personal skills as a whole tend to do a good job of adding strategy to the game. The only caveat I have is that if they do come back I’d like to see personal skills be a little less situational. Some of the personal skills in Fates only happen under very specific circumstances which means that you may not get to see their benefits as much. Even with that caveat I still think personal skills have a lot of potential to make future Fire Emblem installments more interesting and strategic.

10 Mechanics That Should Be Gone In Future Games

# 8 - World Map

                           I’ve never been a fan of the world map concept in any of the installments it’s been in. One problem is that it basically screams grindfest. Now I’m not saying that you have to grind in order to beat these games, I’m just saying that grinding is made extremely easy and in your face. World maps tend to make resources a bit too plentiful which undermines weapon durability and tosses out the concept of resource management. They’re over simplistic in terms of where it is you need to go, as opposed to providing multiple routes and ways to get to a certain destination. World maps break story immersion and tend to kill any sense of urgency a given part of the story might want you to have. One minute you have to escape an enemy that’s chasing you, the next you’re able to walk all over the map.  

                            I’m not a fan of My Castle either for similar reasons. Putting in an alternate dimension was a bad idea in the case of Fates story immersion. It also came across as exceptionally gimmicky too since most of the stuff in My Castle is not needed for beating the game.

My Mechanics List Part 3

10 Mechanics I’d Like To See In Future Games

# 9 - The Magic Trinity

               It’s been 10 years since we’ve had a Fire Emblem game that had the magic trinity. 10 years! Radiant Dawn was the last Fire Emblem game where we not only had anima, light & dark magic but was the last game where they had a weapon triangle. The magic trinity in theory is meant to diversify magic. Light, anima and dark magic had their own unique properties (or at least were supposed to. The key phrase here is “supposed to”) with each one having its pros and cons. These unique properties led to having different mage classes which meant that most playable magic users had their own unique identity.

Unfortunately the magic trinity has not always been executed as well as it could have. In order for the magic trinity to matter more in future installments it’s going to need the following changes:

• More mages in enemy armies
• More playable magic users (and more playable magic classes too wouldn’t hurt)
• A greater level of distinction between the different magic types
• A greater emphasis on balancing the different magic types

                       Some people would argue that more would need to be done, but at least this can serve as the start for what would be needed. After seeing this topic broached on different Fire Emblem forums I can see why IS hasn’t bothered to bring back the magic trinity. Call me an optimist, but I believe that it’s possible to accomplish everything I just mentioned. If executed correctly this could lead to the best magic system in the Fire Emblem series.

                 

10 Mechanics That Should Be Gone In Future Games List

# 9 - Phoenix Mode

                           Now here’s an idea that’s as stupid in execution as it is in principle. Phoenix Mode is basically the “press the A button to win” mode. That should already tell you all you need to know about the awfulness of the mechanic but I’m going to bother explaining why this atrocity needs to die anyway. Phoenix mode throws any semblance of strategy that the game may have had out the window. Why bother trying to carefully place your units when they’ll just come back to life anyway? What good are stats when you can whittle down even the strongest of enemies since you can come back to life and they can’t?

                      I hear some people mention that they play phoenix mode “just to experience the story”. This excuse would be more believable if Fates had a well written story but it doesn’t. In fact, Conquest and Revelation have TERRIBLE writing and Birthright at best is pretty bland. Also, why would you bother buying the game? You could save yourself a lot of money by going online and watching someone else play the game.

                   We already have casual mode and low difficulty settings for noobs so Phoenix Mode comes across as redundant in addition to being a brain dead difficulty setting that’s extremely condescending to newcomers. You might be wondering why this is so far down the list and the answer is that Phoenix Mode can be ignored which means that it’s stupidity can at least be ignored which mitigates the harm that it does. The other mechanics rated higher on this list cannot be ignored which makes their impact on the game all the more present. I also have to wonder if there’s a Fire Emblem game out there that recently invented a new mechanic that saves the player a lot of frustration without eliminating the strategy of the game altogether. If only such a mechanic existed. Oh wait….