Lonely_Dolphin said:
I'm all about the gameplay!
How far are you in the game? I liked the monastery at first too but time I've started to see it short comings. I still like that the characters say new stuff with the story. but I just end up doing the same 2-3 interactions and hearing the same dialogue over n over. I'm not saying they should cut the monastery, I just wish it evolved more. I don't think game mechanics would change drastically between paths so it's surely the same for Black Eagles. Between overall higher base HP compared to offensive stats, HP+5 skill every unit has easy access to, Shields and Battalions, every unit can tank hits. The Range Meta I.E. Bows and Magic that can eventually reach up to 5 range means you can reach enemies from outside their attack range and avoid taking a counterattack. Finally you have immediate access to innate double attacking via gauntlets, which can nuke everything except armor and potentially kill the enemy before they can counter. |
I'm at Chapter 15. Which I think is fairly close to the end for my route.
HP + 5 isn't really that big of a deal with the amount of damage enemies do. It's nice in the early game, but All units definitely cannot tank hits. Unless I'm just drastically underleveled or something. My magic units are going to die around 100% of the time if left within range of a physical attacker. My bulkier units can usually survive one enemy attack, two if I'm lucky. Shields can help, but the better ones have a really high weight, which leaves you less likely to double attack and more likely to get double attacked. And that means sacrificing another item. By contrast in Fates, I would literally send Ryoma out into the battlefield completely unequipped (so he didn't get the kills) and let enemies wail on him.
By bows and magic that reach five range, the only such stuff I've encountered is the meteor spell (which is limited to one use) and the deadeye ability (with sniper class). Deadeye uses up a lot of durability and weakens your attack significantly. Also has a pretty low hit rate so you'll need to have an ability increasing hit percentage to use it effectively. (hit rate in general goes down the farther away you are). Good for softening up or finishing off units, but it's pretty much never going to one shot anything, so unless you send someone else in, you're going to wind up getting hit on the next turn. I still haven't gotten anyone to bow knight, so we'll see if that maybe makes bows too powerful.
As for gauntlets, they double attack, but their mt is really low. For example, silver gauntlets have an mt of 4 vs a silver lance having an mt of 13. Plus while the other weapons get a mt bonus for their + states, but the gauntlets don't. They also have imo the worst combat arts. In the early game they felt overpowered, but less and less as the game goes on.
You're also ignoring many features that the other games had that this one doesn't. You can't pair units which was absolutely broken in Awakening, and still a huge bonus in fates. There are less luck based abilities. Your crests kind of serve the same function, but they're not as overpowered as things like Ignis, Aether, or Dragon Fang. You can also only use rally on one ally at a time instead of boosting them all.
Aside from the fact that you can use divine pulse (which is a feature I like a lot), I'm finding the game to be overall more difficult than the 3DS entries. In Awakening and Fates, I found the early missions to be really tough, but once I settled in and figured out which abilities to exploit, the later missions became very easy. I'm finding the opposite here where I breezed through the early missions, but started having a lot of trouble (minor spoilers) after the time skip.
