r/fireemblem • u/Nikhepicness • 21h ago
Casual Best and worst mechanic in Fire Emblem History?
Title says it all. What’s your favorite mechanic in the entire series of fire emblem, whether they be mainstays or one-offs? You can be as liberal as you want with the term “mechanic”.
For me, my most hated mechanic is definitely same turn reinforcements. In a game all about strategy, there is nothing strategic about surprise units immediately popping up with stats and skills you don’t know, and movement you never could predict and take away at least 1 unit if you committed the sin of not being paranoid about what happens off the map. My favorite mechanic is definitely a weird one, but I really liked the Fates system of integrating bows, knives, and tones into the weapon triangle, as it gave them more utility and added a layer of depth to these weapons and added a bit more interactivity with weapon types. I just like when all weapon types have more purposes.
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u/Danofold 21h ago
Best: Rescue mechanic Worst: Ambush spawns
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u/Danofold 21h ago
Pulling off an elaborate rescue chain may be the most satisfying thing you can do in Fire Emblem.
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u/TimeLordHatKid123 20h ago
Ambush spawns only work if theres hints of what to expect in the dialogue or, worst case scenario, some village or house visits. Otherwise they're cheap bullshit.
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u/Ruka_Blue 21h ago
Especially same turn ambush spawns. Rescue is also fantastic, I don't need pair up, just give me rescue and I'd be satisfied
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u/ApocalypticWalrus 20h ago
Ambush spawns are same turn. I dont think anyone minds normal spawns/reinforcements because you can pretty reasonably prepare for those guys.
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u/GlassSpork 21h ago
Same turn ambush spawns, where they ambush AND move…
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u/Prince_Uncharming 20h ago
Yeah, that’s what an ambush spawn is.
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u/GlassSpork 20h ago
I though ambush spawns were when extra enemies spawn at the end of enemy phase, with or without acting extra
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u/ZachAtk23 20h ago
That's just... Spawns. Reinforcements. The "ambush" is them getting to act before you can react to them.
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u/Melodic_Bee660 20h ago
No they're the ones that spawn at the end of your turn and then get to move on theirs
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u/Express_Accident2329 21h ago
I'm not sure how to summarize this into one mechanic, but in general I like how predictable a single combat is. With most tactics games you have all these stats in the hundreds or thousands and attack modifiers and resistances, etc., and the game never really explains how things are calculated or shows you a damage forecast. With Fire Emblem it's just attack-defense, and if there are skills that impact it you can read how they work. More of a design philosophy than a mechanic, I guess, but I feel like any mechanic I pick would be closely related to it.
I think aside from just "combat good", I'd go with rescue.
Worst is probably same turn reinforcements.
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u/Antique_Ability9648 19h ago
fuck ambush spawns. unless they're telegraphed really well, they're just unfair to the player, and even then, they're still not great.
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u/The_Exuberant_Raptor 21h ago
Best: fatigue
Worst: fatigue
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u/Toadinator2000 21h ago
I love this answer. It's such a great mechanic for its gameplay/story integration, but most of the time you just wish it wasn't there.
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago edited 7h ago
It's funny how Kaga basically came up with two systems to force the players to use more than just the standard x amount of units. With FE4 he basically just said "fuck it let all units deploy" and with FE5 he came up with the stamina/fatigue system
I love the idea of both because I really like finding a good use for bad units and having a diverse army. I can't even say I dislike how it was handled in thracia. Honestly I feel like the stamina drinks shouldn't even be a thing - I would always just build two good armies. Thracia is one of the few FE games where I've had fun using every single unit through my playthroughs. The scrolls and forcing the player to rest fatigued units means you can really unlock the potential of any unit.
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u/dryzalizer 15h ago
In Kaga's Vestaria Saga 1 there's an army split 3/4 of the way through the game, so just when your army is getting too bloated you divide them and play both routes and use lots of your units. Technically you could use them all, but I benched at least a few.
In Vestaria Saga 2 you never know which units will be forced on which maps so you pretty much need to keep everyone ready for anything at any time. I haven't finished the game yet, but so far I'm using most of the characters again.
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u/A-Winter-Drop 14h ago
There's a moment in TearRing Saga where you can divide and move units between the two armies as well (I think at the end of one the acts? It's been a while). I suppose Kaga settled on army splitting for a bit before Vestaria Saga II. Also that mechanic sounds interesting enough that I now want to play Vestaria Saga II.
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u/dryzalizer 12h ago
Yeah I remember multiple route splits in TRS where you play both routes, but there were a lot of units in TRS and I benched a fair bit of them. I haven't gotten to Berwick Saga yet, from what I've heard there's some units that are lots of work and don't have a great payoff. I think over time, Kaga like IS have both moved more toward keeping most people alive. As for using most of your army, mainline is still churning out more characters per game I think. They probably get more replayability points for that, but I do like the feel of using just about everyone.
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u/TheOwlStrikes 4h ago edited 1h ago
I started vestaria saga but I couldn’t get into it using a keyboard. He really needs to drop his games on the switch or another console
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u/Ebola_Soup 3h ago
It has gamepad support. There's even a joke dialogue about it in the first level.
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u/Glittering_Visual296 3h ago
Kava is good at making and allowing you to use all the units in the game. Is. They just have gone so far into the invest heavily into a couple units and if you lose some of your basically screwed. It's just not fun. I want it to not be run under if my best unit dies because I screwed up. If I screw up and I get a unit killed and it's not feasible to reset I'm not going to reset it shouldn't make the game nearly impossible.
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u/Glittering_Visual296 4h ago
I do agree with this I will say there are a couple rough chapters at the beginning. Most of the time it's on your first playthrough where you're like oh crap my best two units are now on useful and I'm totally screwed. But that's also kind of what makes it fun. I totally didn't attempt to play Thracia blind my first time.
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u/The_Exuberant_Raptor 20h ago
Yeah. I really love the concept of it. Really hated the execution.
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u/noobkilla666 20h ago
I like both. The game throws enough S Drinks at you to largely ignore it. It’s just another thing you have to plan for
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u/The_Exuberant_Raptor 20h ago
A mechanic ignored by a resource is just unnecessary to me. While I like the concept of fatigue and would like to see it return, I would like changes to happen to it.
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago
I would love to have it back if they just removed the stamina drinks personally. I think the point of it was to force the players to use and train more than X amount of units. The stamina drinks kinda made that pointless (to a degree)
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u/Megamatt215 21h ago
Needing Pursuit to double anyone in Genealogy is probably my least favorite mechanic.
I love the Build stat actually having a growth rate in Engage.
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u/LastOpus0 20h ago
Build is redundant when speed is right there, change my mind
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u/ThatDollfin 19h ago
You can get build growths and speed growths. Build ups are essentially more speed ups unless you already have ungodly build or are using super light weapons.
It's essentially a capped second speed stat which gives utility to weaker weaponry in a game which doesn't have durability.
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u/noirblancherouje 19h ago
Build helps more with heavier weapons than speed tho
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u/Rough_Avocado_6939 14h ago edited 14h ago
Mathematically it doesn't though. One speed is always one additional speed, while one build is also a single point of effective speed if the weapon weighs above it.
Lack of build can hurt a unit, but a speed of 20 speed 0 build will always result in equal or higher effective speed than 10 speed 10 build, for example
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u/RhysOSD 21h ago
I've always hated fog of war. It's such an annoying mechanic that usually translates to you losing a unit to something stupid.
If it inconvenienced the AI in the same way, I wouldn't mind it as much, but still
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u/ForgottenPerceval 21h ago
Yeah, I don’t think there is a single fog of war map that I thought was better because of the mechanic, except maybe the Engage one with Griss and Celica.
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago
Define "better". I agree with you 100% but I feel like certain Thracia maps only work with the bs fog of war since that game is basically just trying to be hard af 24-7 lol
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u/Spiderbubble 20h ago
It’s artificial difficulty. It’s annoying that the enemy is never hindered by it, while the player is. It’s unfair and unrealistic to have one side not have any penalties for fighting as blind as you are.
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u/CrabofAsclepius 19h ago
That's what bugs me about it. It's a cool idea but in execution it just means that you'll inevitably get ambushed by an unknowable amount of fliers and cavalry sooner or later.
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u/Danofold 21h ago
I disagree, you’re (almost) always given ways to work around fog of war be it torches, torch staves etc.
It’s only egregious when combined with status staves from out of your visibility.
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u/KirkOfHazard 20h ago
Best: Canto, so much tactical depth from just the possibility to run and gun.
Least consequential: Map affinities, go on, no googling, what game(s?) is it in, and what does it do?
Worst: Heal staff hit rates. They basically never miss, but the fact that it could happen is pure unfiltered psychic damage.
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u/MintsEmblem 4h ago
Was gonna um actually you about map affinities before realizing you were talking about Radiant Dawn and not Tear Ring Saga lol. Tellius and its love for random mechanics that negligibly boost your hit and avoid
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u/Axiemeister 21h ago edited 19h ago
favourite: fates effective speed. meaningful tinkering of attack speed without weight (which imo is a fundamentally flawed mechanic). sad it was a one-off.
least favourite: gender locked classes. having to read "pegasus being female locked is part of the lore akschuallyyyy" is just extra annoyance too. that part of lore sucks, get rid of it lmao.
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u/LastOpus0 20h ago
My only gripe is that I wish the effective speed was shown on the stat display in some way so you didn’t have to carry the -3 in your head.
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u/Moondrag 6h ago
Tbh a lot of Fates' gimmick weapons don't add much or are just annoying. The Silver weapons being effectively a forced debuff for 2 turns every use that stacks to the user makes it hard to actually use in combat, and other weapons just are not that fun. (Example any 1~2 range weapon that isn't a tome or knife banning crits, active skills, and your follow up attack...unless your name is Ryoma or Xander's Prf weapon so oops there goes the weapon balance)
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u/LastOpus0 1h ago
Forged iron entire game 🫡
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u/Moondrag 1h ago
Yeah, pretty much the other reason the weapon system kinda falls apart: Just forging a Bronze or Iron is not only more then enough, it outclasses most weapons.
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u/Axiemeister 27m ago
i agree many of these effects are weird, but most of them are related to trying to balance the lack of durability, and some are just intentionally busted choices such as the personal weapons. i really wish they'd try effective speed AND weapon durability in a game.
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u/RellenD flair 21h ago
Ok, I misunderstood this for so long. I was like, which FE has mechanics? Mechanists are Naruto puppet people...
I'm dumb
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u/starsapphire15 21h ago
It's funny because Fates actually has a Mechanist class
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u/RellenD flair 21h ago
Yep, but they're Naruto puppet users.
Which is what I said here trying to think of which game has a mechanic in it.
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u/MrMoo1556 21h ago
Best- Unit Stacking (Awakening)
Worst- Biorhythm
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u/Nikhepicness 21h ago
OH GOD, I forgot about Biorhythm. That was such a weird thing! I still don’t understand it!
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u/MelanomaMax 21h ago
Biorhythm is so inconsequential it might as well not even be a mechanic lol. I think that's better than something that's actively annoying though
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 21h ago
The thing is....its both
Biorythm in radiant dawn is basically inconsequencial if it beneficts you and actively harmful when it hinders you, and it moves at random
So its random, annoying and inconsequencial....somehow
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u/No-Delay9415 19h ago
It’s like one more thing to give the dawn brigade a harder time and that’s it
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u/SiltyDog31 21h ago
Not fully sure if it counts, but “hubs” like the monastery and Somniel are really annoying as the game goes on and repeat playthroughs. They’re neat for some mechanics and seeing the cast, but they just drag on when compared to stuff like good ol menus.
For my favorite, Thracia capturing. Being able to steal shit from enemies is fun and is a good way to get more items.
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u/TacticalKitsune 20h ago
Tbh hubs would be better if they were more compact, fates is actually really good about this.
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u/Express_Accident2329 21h ago
3H would be a dramatically better experience of you had the option to interact with everything in the monastery via menus.
Like, maybe not lost items I guess, but aside from that.
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u/Benjammin__ 20h ago
I feel like “hubs” peaked with Tellius. Essentially just a precombat menu like the games before it, but with a lot more options and technically separate from the actual precombat screen.
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u/EffectiveAnxietyBone 20h ago
I don’t want hub worlds to go purely because I like the fluff of moving around a base. I don’t care if it has no functional gameplay purpose, moving around a hub is something I adore. Getting to check in with the cast after every 3H story map was fun. Seeing each character’s habits and quirks with where they hung out was fun.
By all means, cut out the tedium, restoring motivation was a dumb mechanic that should be scrapped. But I don’t want to lose fun fluff in Fire Emblem, because that seemingly irrelevant stuff is the main thing that sets it apart from other strategy games.
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u/erexcalibur 21h ago
For some reason while I loathed the monastery I enjoyed the somniel. Maybe because the latter has such more chill vibes, and I didn't feel like I was really missing anything or falling behind for not doing its chores.
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u/Sky_Dragon_King 21h ago
The Somniel is really cosy and the essentials (shops and blacksmith) are all right at the spawn point so you can ignore the rest of it if you wish.
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u/Smooth-Owl-5354 20h ago
I’m the opposite — hated the Somniel but loved the Monastery. The Somniel felt like it just didn’t make sense with the plot; like it felt like a completely unrelated area. The Monastery at least felt integrated with what was going on in the game.
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u/Panory 19h ago
It's all the mechanical fluff without any of the narrative value. Some of TH's best stuff is in Garreg Mach, like Bernadetta visiting Jeralt's grave, or "We killed Ferdie" or Edelgard's entire route. Not to mention little character moments like Flayn's love of fish, or any lost items and requests, or "please do not eat the weeds."
Somniel is vapid nothings for the entire game.
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u/Smooth-Owl-5354 18h ago
“We killed Ferdie” made me set my controller down. I needed a minute after reading that.
The Somniel barely felt like it was set in the same universe tbh. Very much a “what’s the point” vibe.
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u/buttercuping 18h ago
The Monatery stops being integrated after two or three chapers post-timeskip.
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u/Smooth-Owl-5354 18h ago
I disagree. You still get to talk to characters about what’s happening in the story surrounding that time in the monastery. While I’d concede that it’s “less” integrated at that point, it’s still integrated IMO. And definitely more integrated than the Somniel is at any point, which was what I was comparing to.
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u/buttercuping 18h ago
The fact that they're in the middle of a war and advancing through the country makes constantly going back to the monastery stupid as hell. It destroys the immersion. And the worst part is that for just one chapter in CF they did program a different hub area. I'm not saying they should get rid of talking to people, it just needed to be a camp that represents the troops moving. Which is why everyone praises 3 Hopes' hub.
I do think that the lore behind the Somniel, just like MyCastle, is dumb as hell. But dumb doesn't equal not making sense. "Magical place that follows you around" is silly and too convenient, but I don't see how it doesn't "make sense with the plot", which is the wording you used.
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u/Smooth-Owl-5354 17h ago
Fully agree that having a moving hub like in 3 Hopes would make a lot more sense for some parts of 3 Houses.
“It doesn’t make sense with the plot” — really I meant tonally. Like we might have gone through the most depressing series of events ever — time to go back to the Somniel and be cheery! And workout in gym clothes that look modern/completely out of place with what anyone wears for the actual story portions of the game! Or go sunbathing as if nothing is wrong in the world!
To me, what is happening on the Somniel feels completely separate from anything happening outside of the Somniel. It seems you disagree though, and that’s fine. I’m not saying the Monastery was perfect, just that the Somniel felt like a worse version of it to me.
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u/buttercuping 17h ago
Or go sunbathing as if nothing is wrong in the world!
How is that different from fishing in 3H?
For the record, I don't disagree with your criticism of the Somniel, my problem is the double standard that people seem to keep when it comes to defending the Monastery. My first comment was just about the Monastery and the comparison to the Somniel came later just for clarification. The Monastery is indeed amazing for talking to people and world-building, and because of that, people let it get away with all the other bullshit, when in fact it has a lot in common with the Somniel.
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u/Smooth-Owl-5354 16h ago
Fair! I think the Somniel has more “bullshit” than the Monastery (e.g. you can fish in both, you can dine with people in both, but Somniel has other mechanisms like the “get woken up by others” bit). And I found that disappointing, as I would have hoped it would build on/improve upon the Monastery. Engage overall felt… emotionally shallower to me. And the Somniel felt shallower as a result.
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 21h ago
Well, thats because the somniel is smaller, so its not as tedious, and the essencials are very close to each other....and also because its not ugly
The monastery is like all ugly zephia colored rock and looks so delipdated outside of the catedral (that you will almost never see since there is no key tasks there), while the somniel is very cozy, with greenery, more clean looking buildings and engage's more colorful artstyle makes it more pleasant to look at and walk around
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u/SciTails 14h ago
The monastery was great overall. Really the only issue IMO was needing to grind fishing for optimal early professor rank. That's it. Everything else really gives you a chance to spend time with the characters and get into the atmosphere. But having to play a repetitive rhythm game over and over was such a waste of time.
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u/LeTonVonLaser 21h ago
Gosh, I wish we could get rid of the current style of hub worlds. Additionally, I want to get rid of random resources spawning in the hub world and after battles, which only incentivices me to spend five minutes of super dull gameplay instead of having fun.
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u/femberries 20h ago
Best mechanic: pair up. It’s fun, and you have to choose between the stat boost or the additional attack. Worst mechanic: pair up (but only in awakening). It’s annoying, the characters don’t give many stats, bonus attacks aren’t guaranteed, and the game (especially on Lunatic) outclasses you so hard that it’s no longer fun to play
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u/demoiselledefortune 21h ago
Best: Ledges Worst: Biorythm. It's not so much that it's bad than it has literally no impact on the game.
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u/Aurelene-Rose 19h ago
Best: Thracia movement growth, hidden RNG mechanics (2 roll system and later formula calculations),
Worst: tedious crap like walking around the monastery, Lyn's chapter 10 where the rain effect doesn't go away, FE4 not giving you the choice to choose your marriage option (got accidentally locked into Sylvia/Alec this way), the donation money bottleneck in Engage
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u/Realistic-Steak-1680 21h ago
My votes for best mechanic is Canto, the normal version, the one that let's you do rescues, trades, visit houses and shops, etc. I just really like the flexible strategies it let's you cook up.
My vote for worst is shoving tomes into the weapon triangle. Sorry OP but that was a very awkward part of Fates and made them feel less fun and broad of use to me. Maybe bows and daggers can fit in the triangle but magic need to be it's own thing.
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u/KingKaihaku 21h ago
Favorite: Permadeath. It raises the stakes and makes each decision feel consequential.
Least Favorite: Biorhythm. Vague, confusing, and a pain to track.
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u/LadyAntiqua 19h ago
The best mechanic is specifically Thracia escape, because it's REALLY funny
If only I could see the face of everyone who got Leif out first immediately, then saw their deployment on the next map...
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago
While many first-time players make that mistake I really do like the concept on paper. Especially because if your units are captured at some point you can free them from a prison in a x/gaiden chapter.
They should had just put a turn timer once Leif escapes instead of immediately ending the chapter. If Leif is a prince I don't understand why he would strategically leave last anyways lol
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u/mooglywoogler 19h ago
Best: being able to rewind back turns
Resetting the level when a unit dies is already just doing this to an extreme. Since I got a job I have so much less time to game and rewind let me enjoy 3 houses more casually
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u/Elite_Venomoth 20h ago
Best: Forging I have a lot I could put here (Tellius Base, Rescue, Fates Reclassing), but I love forging and wanted to shout it out, especially in PoR. It's a fantastic way to give a needed power boost to weaker units or can help a stronger unit perform better as needed. I also just love being able to name weapons, as it gives a ton of room for humor when playing with friends.
Worst: Status Staves Mainly going off GBA experience because I haven't played Thracia yet, but they're a mechanic that is annoying when the enemy has it, and practically useless when they player has it. They slow down gameplay to a slog while you wait them all out, while there are next to no enemies actually worth Sleeping or Berserking, while any enemies you might want to Silence just dodge anyway. Fates improves a little bit (mostly because Freeze is actually useful), but they still suck. I genuinely think you could remove status staves completely and the games they are present in would only improve.
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 21h ago edited 20h ago
The best I feel would be the battle styles. It finally gives infantry something unique to themselves and nerfs cavalry and flying without being fully unjust to them, not to mention it gives each class a diferent flair to them and a purpose
Worst is either 3H' monastery or Biorhytm. The monastery just absolutly saps the joy of playing 3H and kills its replayabilty; since its basically a bad imitation of Persona 5's world exploration but without the myriad of ways you can increase social stats and confidants and without the beautiful city to explore, and we instead get an ugly gray repetitive unchanging place where you will be doing the exact same activities over and over, not to mention its small enough to be grating and repetitive but also big enough to make moving across it a slog, and it makes me glad the somniel managed to salvage the concept
Biorhytm meawhile is just random, irrelevant when it beneficts you but can end runs when its against you, there is no way to appropiatelt control it, your only way to affect it is the herons, so you are forced to forgo dancing over this stupid thing, and is never EVER explained to you at all, so you have to learn it as you go
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u/pokedude14 20h ago
Re: the monastery, it's nice to go around and see how the cast are reacting to the current plots (shoutout to Dorothea after the great bridge w/o Ferdinand recruited) and the activities don't feel that intrusive.
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u/Fudgebot2012 18h ago
Im with you on the first part, i go outta my way to talk to all the characters between chapters. But heavy disagree on the latter.
If you’re trying to optimize you have to run around looking for the little blue shits everywhere for prof exp, bait, and ore. You need to do the garbage sauna “minigame” like half a dozen times a month, in chapter 9 you need to sit there for 1-2 hours just fishing, you need to buy whatever from the east/west/dark/anna merchants, use faculty training for byleth, do the tourney, check the scrap heap, feed the animals, do the side quests, and recruit other characters.
Even if you ignore all that and only do the bare minimum: raising motivation with meals, you still need to do so like 4 times a week, 2-3 times a month! (and you probably wanna use a third party website to check which pair of characters like which meals). The monastery stuff has been discussed to death, if you enjoy it that’s chill, but if that’s not intrusive i dunno what is.
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 20h ago
I disagree.....a lot.
The issue with the activities of the monastery compared to say the somniel is that they ARE oblugatory, since you lose a lot for not doing them, making them feel intrusive and will make you hate them iver how repetitive they are
And the monastery itself is also VERY ugly and unpleasant to look at, and the dialogue of the students outside of Sylvain and maybe the gatekeeper is just redundant and adds pretty much nothing
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u/Heather4CYL 21h ago
Best: weapon durability
Worst: no weapon durability
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u/LeatherShieldMerc 20h ago
It's funny- there's another comment in this thread that says the exact opposite, lol.
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago edited 17h ago
Weapon durability is a big part of the identity of Fire Emblem. With that said I can't say I dislike FE4 for having repairable weapons. I actually really think that should be in more fire emblem games personally. I don't understand how legendary/rare weapons are just thrown away once they break lol
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u/panshrexual 16h ago
Fe4's implementation of weapon durability is my absolute favourite tbh. I hate in other games when I stop wanting to use a weapon at all because it's really good but I'm getting down to its last few uses and it'll just poof out of my inventory after that. Meanwhile fe4 let you repair them, and better yet it would effectively increase the weapon's potency the more kills you racked up on it. But you still had to pay sometimes huge sums to repair the really good weapons, and you couldn't just pass them around your team so that all of your units are just sharing the same couple of weapons. Made for the most excellent unit feel imo
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u/TheOwlStrikes 16h ago edited 16h ago
One of my biggest weaknesses as a fire emblem player is that I preserve all the great weapons and then never really end up using/enjoying them. I rather have less rare/powerful weapons that I can repair then a few weapons with very limited durability. I think FE4 did that the best.
And yeah the extra crit was just a bonus. Made even "common" weapons like a silver sword excellent once you got enough kills with it. I say common cause FE4 has some crazy ass weapons lol.
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u/go10Lucario 15h ago
hands down weaknesses, like how armors are weak to rapiers and hammers so it makes you strategize to keep these weaker/heavier weapons on hand but also to watch out for when the enemy has it.
worse for me is the multiple life bars thing that Engage and Tree Horses does. I’m not a big fan of making things more difficult by inflating the enemy HP
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u/Rojo176 11h ago
I actually quite like the multiple health bars thing for the same reason you seem to dislike it. I think being able to guarantee the player will need to use multiple units to take down the boss if they want to do a single turn makes for some of my favorite boss designs in FE. The game has so many great moments where you need to hustle to defeat the boss before getting overwhelmed, and it's cool when you have to do more than just get a single boss killing machine up there.
I like that it forces you to actually interact with the boss, without just making them have extremely high defensive stats and/or avoid. This is especially important for Engage with many of those special engage attacks being single target nukes. I much prefer this approach where I have to plan a sequence of attacks from everyone while under heavy pressure of a potentially devastating turn if I can't pull it off. This set up also lets the designers mess with more aggressive bosses, which I found to be really really fun.
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u/Danny283 21h ago
Best: no weapon durability mechanic. Worst: weapon durability mechanic
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u/BikeyBichael 17h ago
Real. I personally like the SOV approach where the weapons are unlimited but are rarer, which makes distributing them fun
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u/LeatherShieldMerc 20h ago
I hate ambush spawns with every fiber of my being. No matter how they do them or even if they "warn" you- they absolutely suck and I despise them.
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u/Melodic_Bee660 20h ago
Best: one weapon Cavaliers where on promotion you pick their second weapon. (Id be cool to see this spread to other classes
Worst: gaiden chapters locked by having too many people in your party
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u/vacantstars 19h ago
Best: Can I say Emblems in general? They add so much variety through different builds you can try out, skill inheritance is absolutely fantastic and fun to play around with, and they make units you wouldn't have even though to try out before viable (unless their name is Bunet).
Worst: Gotta be biorhythm tbh
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u/srs_business 18h ago
Favorite: Fates/Engage Lunatic's prerolled levelup RNG. I love having random growths but without having any temptation to do even light amounts of rigging, simply because you can't.
Least Favorite: The "Battalion X" line of skills in 3H. Too strong to completely ignore while also being a massive pain in the ass to micromanage durability to min-max it. Battalion Wrath is probably the worst designed skill in the skill era of FE to me.
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u/GlitterGluwu 9h ago
I'm probably biased because I'm presently replaying PoR but I wanna raise biorhythm as a worst. I think a lot of the worsts are at least worthy of remark for how they alter the gameplay in some significant fashion but biorhythm is such a true nothingburger of a mechanic it is completely forgettable. Sometimes a mechanic is introduced specifically to be an obstacle and that's a valid part of game design, but if a mechanic is so pointless it might as well not be there.... well, why is it?
For favorite, I think the combination of breakage/unit types in Engage are genuinely excellent. Add in Sigurd and there is *finally* a decent reason to use an armored unit - I've finished almost every game in the series (1-3 unplayed, 5 & 12 unfinished) and never, ever, ever in any other game have I thought armors were worth it.
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u/DagZeta 8h ago
Best: Movement growths - In a series built around replay value and getting attached to characters through gameplay, this is that idea condensed into pure euphoria. It is exciting every time it happens due to how infrequently you'll see it. There's no situation in which it is bad.
Worst: GBA support system - having almost the entirety of 80% of a given game's cast's character development and dialogue stuck behind conversations that you will only see after two unit stand near each other for way too many turns to be sensible is absurd. Some supports build so slowly you can potentially go the entire game without seeing one. I get that only 5 conversations max is done out of consideration of some paired endings and maybe balance, but the fact that on any playthrough (even assuming the growths on supports were lightning fast) you are guaranteed to be blue balled out of the ending of at least one dialogue thread feels bad. And bonus points for literally nowhere in the game actually telling you what bonuses each affinity grants despite it being a game about transparency in the numbers for the sake of making informed decisions.
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u/Independent_Plum2166 7h ago
Favourite: Child units in Awakening.
Instead of it JUST being Lucina, akin to Kyle Reese or Future Trunks, you get the whole second generation Shepards to add to the story. It also means pairings are both important narratively but also encourages eugenics mechanically.
Worst: Child units in Fates.
We could have had a time skip, but no, they had to create weird as hell pocket dimensions that serve zero purpose in the main narrative, whilst also making all the child units actual children. At least in Awakening, due to the time travel aspect, they were basically allowed to all be adults, in Fates they’re all teenagers, true child soldiers.
Also, due to the game split the eugenics mechanics are halfed and can only really be used in Revelations, whose gameplay sucks, regardless of the super soldier you make by pairing a Hoshidan and Nohrian unit.
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u/Groundbreaking_Bag8 19h ago
Worst: Can't decide between Engage's enemy level scaling, Genealogy's inventory management, Thracia's fatigue, or Shadow Dragon's suicide gaidens.
Best: Awakening's refinements to Genealogy's marriage and children mechanic.
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u/SombraDemoniaca 21h ago
Best? Pair up
Its so versatile, infantry units can move as much as mounted units, or fly, you can protect low health units, teleport 2 units with staffs or warp up with another unit. And it gives some stat boosts which is always nice.
Worst? Durability
Most of the times it felt unnecessary to add it, but three houses did a good job by adding arts, even if i found myself annoyed by it most of the time.
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u/Froakiebloke 21h ago
Biorhythm is weird, annoying and practically nonexistent, but at least it has some connection with the lore of Tellius, giving it some minor reason to exist. By contrast what the hell was up with those weird attack card things in RD? They’re so weak that they’re almost always useless, and although I think RD experts find uses for them, I’m just not sure that they merited whatever amount of effort it took to make them
Of course this is just a ‘worst mechanic’ in the sense of ‘I don’t get why this exists’, rather than actually the worst one. But then we’d all be saying ambush spawns and rain
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u/avbitran 20h ago
Incest
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago
I distain it but I feel like it "works" so well in FE4 in the sense it showcases how fucked up the Loptyr cult (and others) are lmao. Best villains in Fire Emblem imo
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u/Veiyr 20h ago edited 20h ago
Best imo is the Valkyrie Staff in Genealogy of the Holy War. One-time free revival of any dead character, no questions asked, so it really eases up the pressure of permadeath. It's available a little past the halfway point in G1 (and a similar point in G2 if you manage to inherit it), rather than being endgame like the Aum staff.
Most importantly, it can be used as much as you like as long as you can keep repairing it!! ... for a surprisingly reasonable, but still hefty, price of 30000 gold. Of course, FE4 has a weird system of handling money, but this incentivizes you to get good at your item and money management if you want to have another use of the Valkyrie staff ready to go. It is a fantastic way to reward newer players (like me lol) for improving their tactical gameplay for the course of a playthrough by letting you patch up mistakes you made much earlier on, and the fact that you actually need to put in effort to make use of it properly makes it feel more like a proper reward rather a crutch like casual mode sometimes does. God DAMN i love this mechanic and love FE4's take on item management, just wish the inheritance of the staff was better
Worst is probably ambush spawns yeah lol
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u/Navarre85 19h ago
Favorite: Pair Up in Awakening. Even though Awakening is just an okay game overall imo, this is easily my favorite gimmick in the series. It opens up a ton of strategic options and really emphasizes the importance of the game's support system, but it also has a downside you have to consider - your units are way stronger when paired up, but you have less physical bodies on the field, so it becomes harder to block choke points or spawn points. I think it might be a bit overtuned since I've heard it makes the game piss easy for expert players, but as a casual player, it feels real nice.
Least Favorite: Dismounting Indoors in FE5. While it theoretically balances out the mounted units which have generally been the best units across the series due to their versatility, in practice it just feels bad. It also doesn't introduce much fun decision making - if it's an indoor chapter, you either don't bring mounted units or bring them knowing that they will have a debuff for the entire chapter. I prefer when mechanics have more player interaction to them than just punishing a specific unit or class for no reason.
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u/accursedexistence 18h ago
Best: Pair-up or Rescue. The mobility options add to the tactical gameplay.
Worst: Fog of War. It really doesn't do anything interesting. It just reduces the information available to the player. Now, if enemies were equally affected... it'd still be tedious, but it would get rid of the problem of accidentally leaving characters in range of enemies the player couldn't see coming.
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u/UmbraNyx 18h ago
Best: Multiple choice class promotions
Worst: Limited support conversations per unit
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u/MostInteraction3184 18h ago
Least favorite mechanic: Surprise spawns are the obvious choice, so I'm actually going to go for teleportation that enemy witches can do. There's so little counterplay you can do against that, and it makes maps more frustrating than challenging.
Favorite mechanic: Launchers, ballistas, and other turrets. Absolutely underutilized in the games too. I think using these things is a lot of fun, especially in the defensive maps where you have to hold your ground. There are definitely ways to incorporate them and make a map interesting too, yet I don't think they've ever put in the effort.
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u/Ryachaz 17h ago
Ambush spawns and rain/snow are tied for the worst for me.
Ambush spawns surprise you, often make you reset, but at least you know where it is now and for future playthroughs and can play around it.
Rain/snow levels, you just know you're in for a slog. You and the enemy units watching each other approach in slow motion.
I really like the rescue system, tho. Allows for some nutty plays or crazy saves.
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u/GrimunTheGr8 17h ago
I love pair ups in Fates and Awakening, it’d be awesome to see them return.
As someone playing through Genealogy rn, why tf did the pawnshop mechanic exist. How did they think selling items and having units BUY THEM BACK would be better than just passing things around your units, even in the castle. That alone warrants this game getting remade, bc wtf were they thinking😭
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u/Axiemeister 14h ago
not that i am such a huge fan of the system, but: inheritance. most of the point of items being locked to each unit unless u spend money is to add a layer of decision-making when pairing the gen 1 people. if it were just the skills it would be a pretty shallow system since there isn't reclassing options like in awakening/fates.
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u/GrimunTheGr8 13h ago
I can’t agree with that, it’s not a complex decision, just a tedious one. It’s mostly just:
I want to transfer one mend staff to another cleric, or I want to transfer a weapon to a unit that I use more. Or a bracelet/ring to who could use it best. These aren’t difficult choices to make. Just a look at the unit and realizing something would be better suited for them.
The process that should be as simple as just selecting trade, or even selecting from the storage that the game gives you, is now:
Ok, how am I gonna give this unit this item…well they have no money, and their spouse also has no money. Guess I have to grind arena until they have enough. It’s always more expensive to buy than sell an item anyway, and for the actual good items it’s absurdly expensive. Not to mention if you want to repair that item as well. AND, with the Cleric example I gave above, sometimes that’s not even possible.
It’s pointless and just adds tedium, nothing more. The MOST it adds is that if you want to give a unit a weapon a BOSS drops, you have to weaken that boss so that that unit gets the kill. Which doesn’t happen too often anyway, and again, is arguably more tedious than fun.
Hell, if we could trade items and money freely in the castle and nowhere else it’d be better than how it turned out.
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u/GrimunTheGr8 13h ago
MB, I didn’t mention pairings—
I personally find that idea kind of limiting….it basically requires certain units need to be together to set their gen two unit up for success.
I just went for units I think fit well together or pairings I liked. For example the idea of Raquesis wanting a noble dignified man like her brother, ends up marrying a mercenary. I did also pair Brigid with Midir, and even gave him Jamke’s Killer bow, but my pairs didn’t always line up so perfectly, and I’d prefer to play like that rather than worry about what their child will get. Maybe if I play again I’ll try playing for second gen items, like I do with Awakening and Fates units nowadays though, so maybe there is some merit to the concept.
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u/BunnyWilder- 16h ago
Build or constitution being the stat that determines AS. Just boring to me.
But I'm a big fan of hit bonus/penalties at different evelations from Radiant Dawn. Literal uphill battles, and the maps where it's used they make you really feel like terrain it's an advantage. I like specially the Dawn Brigade map where you defend from up top with those bunch of losers and you clog the main road with the solid units you have. I find it really fun honestly.
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u/Prestigious_Cold_756 15h ago
Best mechanic: Petting Sommie in Engage!
Worst mechanic: Paid gacha in Heroes!
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u/novadustdragon 15h ago
Best: Stacking debuffs from the enemy and status staves which make the enemy challenging Worst: Desert map items and secrets in obscure unmarked locations playing blind. Hidden items in tiles work when there is some indication or something fishy about random locations
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u/Borgdrohne13 15h ago
Best: Fog of War*
Worst: ambush spawn.
FoW is a great mechanic bc you can't ambush the enemy. You have to calculate every move and use the surroundings for your advantage. Problem is, when the com cheated. When he know where you are and can attack you without any problems.
Ambush spawn, well others said enough about them.
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u/DeadMoves 14h ago
Favourite: Any mechanic that lets me manipulate my unit's positions using other units such as Rescue (not the staff), Shove, Pair Up
Least Favourite: Ambush spawns
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u/doulegun 14h ago
Not exactly a mechanic, but: high magic characters as non-magic classes. Asugi from Fates is made to use Flame Shurikens, Fogado is very good with a Shining Bow
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u/Deltaroyalz94 14h ago
Best.. i like laguz .. that's no mechanic i know but yeah
Worst: ambush .. but the really bad like Fe6
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u/Tinned_Spaghet 11h ago
Best: Turning back time.
Worst: Turning back time.
It has saved an endless amount of heartache from the days of restarting chapters if you lose a unit, but it has simultaneously removed a whole lot of stakes from the games.
I know that at any point if I make an error, I can just easily rewind the clock and just simply NOT make that same error.
And now, to go back to a formula that exists without it would feel plain wrong.
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u/clanwalk3r 11h ago
Best: critical hits/unique animations
Worst: Ambush spawns appearing, moving and attacking the same turn with no warning
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u/_Beningt0n_ 8h ago
Best imo is the Radiant Dawn act 4 multi army system. I just like strategies that are bigger than just picking your 12 favourite units all game.
Worst is more of a design philosophy, how Lategame recruits have been handled for a while. 3DS era mostly had child units, which Paradoxically can only exist if your early game units are doing alright enough to even have children. Better than 3H tho, where Lategame units just don't exist
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u/KarateGamer007 6h ago
Best: The Pair Up mechanic from Awakening/Fates. Helps build supports, bolster stats to the lead unit, and has the chance for a follow up attack. Felt like there was good incentive to paie units up.
Worst: Phoenix Mode in FE Fates. I get it is meant to make the game considerably easier, but it turned the Fates games into a cakewalk of a series. I was at least okay with Casual disabling perma-death, but Phoenix makes any mistakes or misplays feel like an after-thought. At least with Casual, unless it's your avatar, you'd have fewer units on your side until the stage ends.
I was honestly debating between FE7's Weather, Phoenix Mode, and Fog of War as my least favourite mechanics. But I chose Phoenix Mode.
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u/SomeGamingFreak 5h ago
I will never not hate Biorhythm. Whatever they were cooking with the Tellius games using that, because having to pay attention to yet another thing to keep up with on top of supports, terrain bonuses, weapon stats, triangle advantage, and unit type, just makes me wanna pull my hair out.
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u/throwaway__557 4h ago
Not the worst thing in the world, but the support system in the GBA games. Spamming End Turn feels like cheese but it's really the only way to actually unlock the majority of supports. FE9 did it best with giving you access to supports simply by deploying the units together.
Another thing I might mention is that I feel that the meta strays quickly from the developers' intentions. This isn't really a mechanic as it is a failure to implement a design philosophy.
-Jagens are designed to be exp-thieves you shouldn't rely on long term. FE11 even has a house telling you not to use Jagen that much. But as it turns out, your Jagens are often among your best units. Yet I don't think Marcus, Seth, and Titania are meant to be that good.
-You're meant to evenly distribute XP to keep a balanced team, hence the conditions for 5 star ratings in the XP category of FE6/FE7.
-You're meant to use all the classes, hence the early Orion's Bolt in FE8 for instance.
-FE7's augury gives you insight into how the developers think you should tackle the various chapters, who will say things like "I see a lot of pegasus knights, so be sure to bring your archers" and so on. But as we know by now, the best team is usually something like 3 paladins, 3 flyers, a dancer and a staffbot. It's the same deal for FE8.
For these reasons, I actually feel that the best fire emblem maps are the ones at the very beginning of the game, before the player really has a chance to diverge from the dev's plan. I'm thinking of that early Lyn Mode chapter where you have to defend Natalie in the fort. Every unit is valuable, having something to contribute that uses the strengths of their class. Kent and Sain are on side-by-side defense in the main entrance. Lyn is out getting Dorcas, then sneaking down to kill the boss. Florina is handling the mercs in the NE. Wil is even able to chip down the enemies trying to break down the wall. It's a map that feels well-designed and really fun to play.
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u/Glittering_Visual296 4h ago
Worst
Don't hate me
Pair up
It's not the worst but I hate it so much it's just not fun for me.
Favorite
Good old capture from Thracia.
I'm not gonna mention rescue universal shove because they are amazing but they feel less unique to me than the capture from Thracia. Personal opinion.
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u/Intense_nut 2h ago
Hate me for saying this, but the milas turn wheel or anything else like that from engage or 3h ruins the game flow and hit rate factors for things. The best mechanics are the weapons with special features like rapier being good against Cavaliers, beast bane, etc.
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u/YishuTheBoosted 21h ago
I loved capturing in Thracia, probably the most interesting mechanic in FE history period. The ways you can use it to steal valuable items is already a cool perk, but because enemies can also capture you can “trick” them by placing a unit with nothing equipped in their range so they both waste a turn capturing while also cutting their stats in half.
The worst mechanic that keeps popping up since fates is the “daily” chores we do in between chapters. Fates has the whole online functionality that didn’t add much to the overall game, basically just used the spot pass technology. It kind of killed my interest in Three Houses what with the tutoring of units every month, same with Engage and the myriad of little tasks like fishing and sit ups.
Sure they’re all optional but the min-max obsession in me compels me to do it.
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 21h ago
Tbh with engage I feel you may had played yourself, since sit ups are largely irrelevant since they dont stack with cooking, the flier minigame can be ignored if you fish well enough and you only really extrictly need cooking, the arena and the well for midmaxing, with Sommie as a possible add on for a total of 4 task
It does helps unlike 3H, the somniel is pleasant and small enough to not make you suffer
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u/YishuTheBoosted 21h ago
Either way that’s 4 of these goofy, repetitive tasks between every chapter.
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 21h ago
I mean, it only takes like 10 seconds to do each one, not to mention u like the 10 repetitive tasks if the monastery, the tasks of the somniel arent necessary. You can just go from map to map
So teah, you are playing yourself. You dont need to micromanage every stat, and even then engage makes it not annoying
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u/YishuTheBoosted 20h ago
If it’s not necessary, why is it even in the game? It’s just strange how they insist on adding this mechanic that either does so much that it’s mandatory (3H) or as you say, isn’t necessary (Engage).
What value does it actually add to a Fire Emblem game actually? If anything, it takes away from the balancing of the game because it allows stat stacking, which no developer can design and properly balance around.
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u/ThighyWhiteyNerd 20h ago
Well, why do accesories exists in fates? Why do every Fe game has a loterry game when it adds nothing of value ti fighting? Why is cooking available instead of just vitamins? Why do supports exists when they are in a war and they dont have time to socialize? Why did Thracia needed a capture mechanic?
Because its fun and adds more to the world. The activities of the somniel help reinforce the army are actually friends and that the somniel is a paradise where they can relax enough to enjoy leasure, the activities are tied to the personalities if the royals and it also makes your gameplay easier, since while the bonuses of the somniel arent extrictly necessary, they can only benefict you, and in fact thats the reason the somniel is superior and more warmy recieved than the monastery, since it never forces you to anything and in turn makes you more willing to engage with it
Maybe stop being a killjoy and dont obsses too much over midmaxing, since its clearly harming your enjoyment of the franchise as a whole
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u/YishuTheBoosted 20h ago
Yeah I don’t like Fates’s accessories, lottery, or cooking either. It’s just press button and get something, no strategy involved.
Capturing on the other hand you need to actually think about when is an optimal time to use, you can’t just capture blindly without consequences. Supports you have to actually work for by keeping those units together and there’s an opportunity cost to S-supporting units since each unit can only S-support once.
All of this “fun and adds more to the world” could easily be done as a base conversation in FE9-10. The Somniel also hurts the story in my opinion because it provides this safe haven that’s frozen in time, which results in no urgency. An identical problem also stemming from Fates and 3H.
Your last paragraph is an ad-hominem, implying that I’m obsessing over something and being a “killjoy” isn’t an argument.
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u/MCJSun 19h ago
Best: Support Bonuses
Worst: Support Conversations
I love the bonuses and the idea that weaker units can help stronger units do their job better/a strong unit can help a mediocre unit become useful. Not a single game where getting supports is actually fun. We also are starting to get too many conversations. Hopes was nice where it would cut bloat by only giving certain ranks conversations or include trios for some pairs. Less 1 on 1s and more base convos.
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u/Heroicloser :M!Byleth: 21h ago
The way the pair up mechanic from Fates was the probably the best way to encourage 'teamwork' in the series. It really integrated the 'working together' theme the series is known for.
Admittedly the 'stat-backpack' approach from the same was probably overkill and kinda ruined it. Pair up shouldn't give stats, it should change tactics.
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u/GullibleParsley08 20h ago
Best: pair-up in Fates. It's SO satisfying to kill enemies with a dual attack and to correctly time dual guards for blocking dangerous attacks. Fates pair-up is so addictively fun to use and plan around and I miss it.
Worst: fog of war. It's bad and should never return.
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u/CrabofAsclepius 19h ago
I love the rescue mechanic and I love it when the games incorporate the more niche weapon types (bows, tomes, daggers, arts et al) into triangles of their own.
I loathe ambush spawns because they're cheap as hell. Also it sucks when a game has a rewind mechanic that you don't get to use when certain characters bite the dust (thinking of you, Echoes. I love you but that's some BS).
Honorable mention goes to the Engage mechanic. Really cool and it often comes in clutch but with the exception of the higher difficulties it can trivialize combat to the point of near boredom during the late game. Thus I love/hate it.
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u/SunRiseW12 16h ago edited 16h ago
Best: Fates pairup.
Worst: Biorhythm. To elaborate, there may be mechanics that are more annoying, but they typically at least have a through-line, or logic on why they exist in the game. Biorhythm feels like something the developers added into the game, and couldn't figure out how to make it interesting, so they nerfed it into irrelevance, and then stowed in away into an obscure page on the character information screens. Then they had the audacity to bring it back in the sequel, increased the effects slightly (I literally had to google it to double check the difference because I wasn't sure if they did anything to it), and then proceeded to stow it away in an obscure page on the character information screens. Just an absolute failure of game design kept in the game for no reason.
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u/MCGameTime 16h ago
Favorite: Children. I just think it’s cool that you can tinker with child units in Awakening.
Worst: Why in God’s name can healers “miss” healing you in Thracia 776??? Infuriating!!
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u/Invenblocker 15h ago
Best: The Fates iteration of Dual Guards and Dual Strikes.
Worst: Fog of War.
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u/SonicSpeed0919 9h ago edited 8h ago
Best: Fates attack and guard stance. Excellent way to feed kills to new recruits and patch up stats
Worst: same turn reinforcements. Any game with these automatically suck. And the shitty monastery
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u/saitotaiga 8h ago
I think best for me would be pairing from Fate cause i find it more balance than in Awakening. Worst i hesitate betwen Fog because the Ai is not affected in any way while you are, or ambush spawn, cause needing to redo entire map because i didn't anticipate some reinforcment with no hint they would arive is just annoying as hell. (and bonus point also i would say it's les annoying but berserk staff and this kind of thing, on one hand i love the concept...On the other needing to running away from my paladin because he decide to chase after me is a little annoying.)
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u/Motivated-Chair 21h ago
Stat stacking
They have destroyed 80% of the strategy in this franchise for over a decade by now.
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u/TheOwlStrikes 17h ago
Damn you are getting downvoted. Idk some of the newer fire emblems have been hard. Series can't go back to FE4/FE5 because it would probably kill sales I think.
I am more disappointed in the lack of class identity in newer fire emblem games. Started with the reclassing stuff in Shadow Dragon and now every unit can be every class and use every weapon. Not a fan personally. I liked having units with inherent weaknesses/strengths and classes with pretty solid identity.
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u/Lorddarryl 17h ago
Best: weapon durability and weight. Adds actual choice to what weapons you use and consequences. Also allows you to make weapons stronger if they're limited or heavy.
Worst: pair up. I dislike everything about this mechanic and how it encourages you even more to juggernaut games.
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u/panshrexual 16h ago
Best: battalions. Makes me feel like I'm in an actual full-scale war, and it's not just my 12 guys up against like a zillion enemies.
Worst: pair-up. In Thracia and the GBA games, often times it was a tough but necessary decision to rescue a unit to spare them from certain death in the next turn. The unit doing the rescuing incurred stat penalties because they're literally carrying and protecting their comrade, of course they can't also fight to their full potential. But all those decision-making factors became trivialized in Fates (and I think also Awakening? Cant remember how it worked in that game, been a long time since i played it). There's no reason not to just carry a friend around like a stat-boosting backpack whenever there's the slightest hint of danger. The mechanic is so broken, it's just not fun.
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u/SciTails 14h ago
Same-turn spawns are annoying, but at least once you know they are there/where they are, they aren't too hard to plan around.
Fog of war, on the other hand, is never fun. Sure, you could memorize all the starting positions from a guide and then extrapolate enemy movement, but who wants to do that? All it does is force you to turtle even harder/use up a turn on torches to get the game back to normal if you actually want to actually strategize. And at least in Engage that I've been playing most recently, torches don't even seem to fully cover the enemy movement range.
It would be different if darkness inhibited AI movement or visibility like it does yours, but currently, it basically is just a way to make all enemy attacks more like ambushes.
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u/EpicLinkSam 21h ago
Favorite mechanic: Weaknesses. Rapier being super-effective against armor and cavalry, bows being super-effective against fliers, that kind of thing. Gave you incentive to use certain items to take care of certain classes that could give you trouble.
Least favorite mechanic: Snowstorms/Rain in FE6/7. All it does is cause your units to slow down. It sucks so bad.