#except for claire who is the only one thats consistent

[lostacelonnie]

Hell yeah! Mood every time i go to a beach i always miss her after. I will keep my fingers crossed for your return on another trip. Oh those are all so good. Im especially a fan of churros & empanadas. I should get paella again sometime. That is a very mismatched group but i respect the vibe based friendship. Also reminds me i should get back to finishing mag archives thats a good podcast. Also been meaning to look into goth music to see what thats all about. The peak goal of adhd people. To rember. High luck stat to not be attacked by gulls. I think i got a tad bit there too because ive never been attacked by them but like. You can see the simple minded desire in their eyes. Especially if you have food. Damn best of luck to her. Thats like people tellin me they moved to florida, where the gators climb over fences often. Group chat for geo teacher fans that is amazing. Love that for yall. Oh there's one thing xabi & i share as i too do not know whats goin on so often. Thanks! I only hope i have enough but i think sw is in the back half so i can save even more pulls than i have. Probably will have to pass her light cone up like i did for seele's til next time. Meta can leave i dont care for it i use who i want when i want this is an anti meta zone. Oh? Im not sure. What to ask about them. Like i wanna know more of their role in the story of honkai i guess. What happens to them & all that. Welt seems to have history with otto/luocha. & himeko is my coffee lovin mom character i like her a lot. We love a girl who keeps complex machinery like the express working. Skirk showed up so briefly at the end of the archon quest but damn if it wasnt funny. Yeeting childe out of the abyss & just lore dropping on us all. I think i saw you played the story quest & learned about furina? I think it was uh. Durandal's jp va that she shared with skirk i cant remember cant wait to see if she becomes playable though. Oh damn really? The range is insane indeed what a queen. Oooh congrats! I also got her & had enough for her weapon next is navia but i might only have enough for her & try for her weapon later. Since arlecchino is a few updates out. Im not yet at a world level where relics matter but same. Not the best luck on that yet. 7 am exam? That should be illegal but i wish you luck on your studies. Especially with feelin a bit sick trying to study while sick is awful. Ooooh nice! Such a fun & good series. I just got the fifth volume last week & finally had time to finish it. Quickly became a favorite for me. Now if only i had time to read everything else im behind on.

FOR REAL FOR REAL ive never been much of a sea person but ahh this is such a universal experience... and thankies!!! while i could never Live in spain permanently [hot and everyone tries to talk to you] i did end up becoming quite fond of the country. GOD YEAH CHURROS ARE SOO GOOD generally speaking i like ALL spanish food. banger after banger after banger. need to learn how to cook some because i miss it so bad. but i DID manage to not fuck up scrambled eggs when i made them for the first time ever recently so thats a good sign for my culinary abilities id say. anyway IT IS AJDKKFJF but i vibe with them so its chill. ah nice!! im terrible with podcasts [can never quite concentrate on them.....] but i wanna listen to it Someday since i heard only good things ab it. also good luck luck with that!! i like goth music as in i think its Good and i generally enjoy it if i happen to hear it but its also sth i just Do Not listen to in my free time. i respect it tho. coming back YEAH AJSKDKFK I WAS JUST. observing the gulls the whole time but surprisingly nobody from my class was attacked ajdjfkgjs. and ill pass on the message when i talk to her next time AJKSLJFJG i really Do wonder what even prompted her moving there sometimes. i believe it was her boyfriend but also she changes those as often as clothes so she must Really like this guy, i guess. good for her tho shes my coolest sibling. and thanks SHJDKFKA were really devoted to her. also ive been accused of simping for her by the ice skater which is extremely funny because this is not even the first time ive been accused of being into a 30-40 y/o woman by someone at school [ITS ALL CHILL BTW its just for the shits. still. attacked and slandered!]. and same ajdkfjgj tho in his role its actually Quite Annoying for my class since like. we NEED to get things done sometimes and he just. does not do that. like literally our english teacher [who also looks like shes constantly dead inside and hates her job but we love her] did more to help us with this one thing than he did even tho she did not have to do that in any capacity. shes just epic. AHH GOOD LUCK WITH THAT!! i love ignoring meta sooooo much which might sound weird from someone who spends half his life grinding for stuff in honkai but its true. honkai is literally the only game where i care about meta and thats bc honkai meta is UNFORGIVING. but hey at least the gacha is much better with the 100 pulls guarantee for each char + 50 pull guarantee for gear pieces. IM NOT VERY GOOD WITH OTTO LORE TO BE ENTIRELY HONEST as in i know quite a lot of it but it hasnt quite Clicked in my head BUT IM ALWAYS HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS AB THEM YOU MAY HAVE [<- GUY WHO IS SOO SO NORMAL]. AND YEAH SKIRK IS SO FUCKIGN FUNNY TO ME like the way she was previously described painted her as just so strong and intimidating but her speech pattern is so funny to me shes so chill. i feel like i could meet her smoking her evening cig and shed tell me where to pirate shit. id do a polish joke here but it is literally untranslatable without a 30 minute long backstory so nevermind. AND OOOOOH EPIC ALSO RIGHT?????? i respect voice actors above anyone else. ahh good luck getting navia!!!!!! i was Planning to pull for her but im much less efficient at grinding rn since i got a screentime limit due to having fucked up eyes [which im Not following btw but i am trying to touch grass a little bit more at least] [this is also the reason why i responded so late im sorry the change kinda threw me out of the loop]. ah understandable i was. well not Very high but enough to have trouble without decent gear so yeah. good luck in the future farming tho!! AND RIGHT I AGREE tho honestly the alternative would be an exam at like FOUR PM which is actually Worse imo. i personally function pretty well during my 7am classes and learned to enjoy them [public transport is very charming early in the morning..... i get to catch the sunrise sometimes] but that is also because i live like maybe 40 minutes away from my school. so i get up at around 6 am to get to school.

[ignore the random paragraph break i hit the character limit JSJFIGKJSWIJF] some of my classmates, however, have to get up at 4 am which. respect i could never. anyway thanks!!! the exam went quite well actually hehehe im doing much better in history than i thought. im becoming a nerd along with my entire friend group. every single day someone has new historical memes to share and theres already some inside jokes as well. fun. AND AHHHHHH THATS SO EPIC!!!!!!! i love this series sososoososooso much even tho i didnt have time to start the 3rd volume yet... however i DID read a translation of the "she's so cheeky for a commoner!" web novels and im about to read the light novel so im quite excited for that. first and only loretta and pipi fan ever.....

#also i love wataoshi for the fact everyone has like 3 different localizations of their name #except for claire who is the only one thats consistent #asks #pen pals

[burgermiester]

Fire Emblem Echoes: Another Hero King (Shadows of Valentia) Impressions

***No Story or Character Spoilers***

I dont speak or read a word of Japanese so I couldnt give my thoughts on the characters or story even if I wanted to.  In addition to missing out on the story and character development I also only scratched the surface of the skill(tech) system as well as the sidequest system.  All of that is enough to make me not want to call this a review; I need to play it in English and do the postgame content to have a complete opinion on the game, but as it stands I still have a lot of thoughts about the game after one complete playthrough. So...here are those thoughts:

Presentation:  I dont think I can praise the presentation highly enough.  Its always been the case with Fire Emblems on the same console that they look slightly better than the one before it, and thats no exception here.  The music, color palate, animations, menus, character and weapon designs are all among the best in the entire franchise.  Even though I couldnt understand the words, it was incredible to play a Fire Emblem game with full voice acting.  It really elevates the experience and I’m very pleased we have finally gotten to that point.  No idea if the localization will have good voice acting to make it work, but what we have heard so far has been great and generally speaking I think the 3DS games have done a good job in the area of localizations so I am not too concerned.  If I have one gripe about the presentation its in the fully animated CG cutscenes.  They still look very nice but the animation is a step down from what we saw in Awakening and Fates.

Gameplay other than combat: Fire Emblem Echoes, like Gaiden, is as different from any other Fire Emblem game as it could possibly be while still having that Fire Emblem feel.  There are a lot of things that work together to make the game feel so unique.  In addition to the world map that was in the original Gaiden and brought back in Sacred Stones and Awakening we also have towns and dungeons.  Now, towns and dungeons were a thing in Gaiden but they were the definition of minimal.  Towns consisted of one or two buildings where you talked to everyone and they either joined the party or warned you of a tough enemy coming up, and once in a while there was a chest as well.  Now towns are 4 or 5 screens with many more npcs to talk to and more items to find, as well as a blacksmith (who in Echoes is a cool buff lady instead of the normal gruff guy in most FE games!) in most of the towns.  It must be said that in the original game you could walk freely around the towns and now they are split up into screens and function more like a visual novel.  Some people are upset by this change, but I personally dont really care either way.  Being able to walk around would be slightly more immersive and the visual novel style is slightly more efficient and makes it easier to not miss any items, and I think both those things are valuable. 

Dungeons, on the other hand, are just a straight upgrade.  In Gaiden you walked down a hall and did a fight, sometimes thats repeated x2 or 3 times.  It got a little more complicated near the end in Celicas route and then again at the end of the game, but not much more complicated.  Now they are actually dungeons with secret passages and breakable objects and treasure and enemies that you can ambush or can ambush you.  All the dungeons have a really great atmosphere and feel unique from one another.  I admittedly dont play a lot of dungeon crawler type games, so I dont have a huge frame of reference here, but to me it felt like it was on the simpler side of dungeon crawlers, but not too simple that it wasnt enjoyable.  Aside from the lost woods which is a maze with a lot of signs that I couldnt read, I liked all of the dungeons in the game, and I expect that I wont have any problems with the lost woods once I can understand them better.  The fights themselves are simple and much easier than what you face in the main battles, so its overall just a fun atmospheric break from the main game where you win some easy fights, collect items, and maybe grab a promotion if anyone is ready. 

Oh, I almost forgot, fatigue is a mechanic in dungeons.  But just barely.  At no point was fatigue ever more than the most extremely minor inconvenience.  I really cant understand why they put it in the game.  It usually only even sets in if you stick around in a dungeon longer than normal to grind, so I assume its meant to penalize grinding, but that doesnt make a ton of sense because 1) dungeons are there for you to grind and 2) its not even a big punishment because its so easy to get around via just leaving the dungeon or using one of the ample foodstuffs to cure it.  So basically, its a bad mechanic that was poorly thought out and executed, but it barely matters so its easy to ignore and forget about.

I dont know what it is about finding weapons in a dungeon or picking it up from a castle you gained access to after a hard battle on the map, but it really makes them feel incredibly precious to me.  That feeling is made even stronger by multiple design elements: first, like Gaiden and Fates before it, weapons are unbreakable, so you can keep using them as long as you want and get more attached. Second, as your characters use the weapons they unlock techniques that they can use if they have those weapons equipped.  Last, forging has been added to the game and it uses a tiered system where you keep upgrading until you reach max level and then can upgrade it to an even better weapon entirely, letting you stay with your weapons throughout the game.  And unlike Fates which added a bunch of drawbacks to the S rank weapons to offset their power and infinite durability, the legendary weapons in Echoes are just great. I think its an amazing system.  I didnt fully understand the rings or shields, though I did use them as well, I got more out of having weapons equipped in general, but rings all have big descriptions as to their effects so I will have more to say when the game releases in English. 

I also didnt get a ton out of the skill system.  Since most skills dont double, I dont think youll be using them much on your mercenaries, pegs, or fast cavaliers, meaning typically worse off units like knights and archers might benefit from it.  I mainly used two skills in my playthrough: A very strong double attack from Alm’s personal weapon and a super accurate attack with Atlas using an iron bow which in conjunction with his massive attack stat meant big chip damage.  Ill have more to say about this later, but I am tentatively pretty excited about this system.

Battles in Echoes: The actual combat in Echoes is significantly different than any other FE game.  Three major things really work together to make that true: Theres no Weapon Triangle, Growths are pretty low across the board, and when you promote you are brought up to the class baseline in stats.  These things in conjunction with each other make it so that classes have a far stronger identity than ever before.  Every class is well suited to fighting certain other classes, and you really dont want to send one of your units up against an enemy type that is good against them.  This means that juggernauting is mostly out of the game as you really need to fight with your whole army to be able to deal with all enemy types.  And thats right, I said the whole army.  There are no deployment limits other than in dungeon battles.  This is a pretty big deal and really makes the gameplay different than other Fire Emblems.  The only other main game with no deployment limits is Genealogy of the Holy War, however in that game I almost always found myself either not fielding a few of the units or fielding them and then they never made it to the fighting because of low movement.  In Echoes, I always wanted to use everyone and they almost all were useful in some small way.  This hugely changes the feel of the game for me.  I know a lot of people were concerned about there being no pair-up and how that would diminish the feeling of bonds between units, but this game gave me a stronger feeling of togetherness between my army than any other FE game prior has done and it wasnt even in a language I understood! It was just the game mechanics working to tell that story.  I always had to keep my army in a tight bunch, both to try and keep them all within their three tile support range and to be close by to attack the enemies who attacked their friends. It feels really great to fight with my whole team, even my armor knights, for the first time. 

Compared to Gaiden: I am already a big fan of Gaiden so inevitably I couldnt help but to compare it with the original while I played.  Some of these things might not even be noticeable for anyone who didnt play Gaiden but they mattered to me and I want to point them out in any case.  First the biggest thing to Gaiden fans: all the buffing and nerfing.  Generally, I didnt really notice a lot of the buffs.  Clair and Mae were both a lot better units than previously but otherwise I couldnt tell you off the top of my head who else was improved and how.  Nerfs were a lot more noticeable: Falcoknights and Dread Fighters, while still amazing, are much less impressive than they used to be.  I suppose it makes sense but I cant help but feel disappointed.  Gaiden/Echoes pushes rpg elements and is generally a game that seems to encourage grinding, letting the player have overpowered things at endgame seems like it compliments those design decisions.  Similarly, they nerfed mummies in a major way.  Before they appeared in big groups near the end of both routes for the player to easily grind up the entire party in a very short amount of time if they wanted to do so.  Now they appear randomly, run away from you, and when/if you do get to kill them they barely give any exp unless you are extremely underleveled.  Its a game where grinding could actually be fun but they dont include any way to level up past level 12 or so without it taking a miserably long time.  On the opposite end of things, I really approve of the nerf to warp.  Before you could warp any unit to anywhere on the map and it really lent itself to letting Alm’s half become an Alm solo.  With it now having a much shorter range, its more encouraging to use your entire army and not just Alm, and I think thats a good thing. 

My One Big Fear:  This goes hand in hand with my big complaint from last section, but I think this game might just have the scummiest dlc practice of any Nintendo game.  The original Gaiden gave players easy access to endgame grinding to level up all their units to max very quickly and easily if they so desired.  Echoes changed it so that those enemies now give an insignificant amount of exp and they are selling a new way to grind easily as DLC.  That really sucks.  Theres nothing else to say than cutting something out of a remake and selling it separately is a really really shitty thing to do.  I hope enough people become aware of what they did and protest.  DLC practices have gotten progressively worse since Awakening but this is the worst of the bunch, and I really hope this trend doesnt keep going into the Switch FE era.  I also am very worried about the money in this game.  I did not have nearly enough money to do all the forging that I wanted to do and I am aware that a gold farming dlc is planned.  This would be just as shitty of a practice as with exp if the money situation is as bad as it immediately seems because giving everyone forged weapons would make the game more fun, and that fun is blocked by a paywall.  That being said, I will give them the benefit of the doubt for now because I didnt do many sidequests, and its possible that theres a lot of money to be earned there or elsewhere and I didnt know it.  If in-game gold is actually as rare as it seems and buying a dlc to getit more easily is heavily encouraged then I will be very disappointed.

In conclusion: Theres some seriously troubling aspects of monetization that actually hamper enjoyment of the game, and fatigue and food seem to largely be a waste of time, but that aside Echoes is a fantastic game and a real treat to Gaiden fans and Fire Emblem fans and video game fans in general.  Its all around an enormously fun experience that I know will get even better once I get to play it in English. 

#fire emblem #echoes #fesov #another hero king #fire emblem gameplay spoilers