i haven't played VC, but i can say that Radiant Dawn was my first fire emblem title and is one of my 3 fav. wii titles!

Mia, Ulki, Janaff are useless? One of them is arguably the best sword-user thanks to her starting level and the other two are probably the best non-royal laguz in the game!

By which I mean they're worth using if you like to use laguz and have lots of Olivi Grass

Jeeze can't believe you found that old post. Well okay I'm a "fan" of the series. If it makes you feel better that I don't like it as well as other, more progressive, SRPGs for me to remove the word "huge" because I don't play on hard mode that's fine with me. It doesn't change my opinions.

I hate being brutally punished for thinking outside the box, and Fire Emblem's style of strategy, at least on normal, does that to you. I suppose I prefer more forgiving games because it allows me to be more creative with my approach to battles, and while I understand there are multiple options to most Fire Emblem maps they are still very constricted by, as you yourself just pointed out, how well you level and use a small amount of preset classes without as many gameplay options of adjusting your strategy in the field.

Basically for Fire Emblem to be fun in any variety of strategic styles you have to completely master the gameplay mechanics to a T, and absolutely understand every minutia of the game's structure and design. Whereas with Valkyria Chronicles the myriad of options available to you on any map and the massive amount of customizable class upgrades and equipment allows you to complete maps in any variety of strategies, while still forcing you to take some time to plan and prepare.

You can just say "the game is too hard," nobody will judge yu for it. It's very hard. If you don't learn the mechanics, it will beat you to deaht on higher difficulties.

But there are still many ways to approach the majority of maps, even looking at each of them with the same army compositions, which you will rarely have across two playthroughs.

You are absolutely useless in this conversation. Go away. You add nothing to it. At least Rol took the time to explain. 

Also, i'd give Radiant Dawn an edge in Replayability for what it's worth.

The varying stats and the fact that each character of the same class is so different leads to a lot of replayability...

While Valkria Chronicles... fun as it was... I beat it once and was done with it.

I usually replay SRPGs many many times over.

Pshaw.

Listen. You acknowledge in a prior post that there are multiple wyas to approach maps, but contend that these do not make themselves apaprent in Normal mode, but that's counter-intuitive: Hard mode actually constrains the options through which one can operate, because the increased power and aggression of the enemy necessitates fewer venues through which one can achieve victory. Every option which is present in Hard mode is present in Normal, but with much more besides: all it takes is an expansion of one's knowledge of what can be done in any given situation, but that does not qualify as an absolute knowledge of the minutia of a system.

Knowledge of a system is primary to one's ability to enjoy the game, yes, but absolute knowledge isn't; it just opens up more and more opportunities. Fire Emblem's strategic and tactical options open up drastically as one becomes better at reading the field and anticipating the enemy; that's just fact.

More, you're letting a narrow band off experiences dictate what you think is the general options available to each player. Judging from your post quoted by Rol, you didn't actually use any Archers in your playthrough - since Rolf and Shinon are immensely superior to Leo - and this alone changes the composition and options available to you immensely. It does not necessarily constrain you, so to speak, it just necessitates different strategies to be utilized.

To be able to understand this in the easiest possible fashion, play again; change your army composition. See how much it changes things.

Question:

isnt normal = hard actuelly in FE RD? (and hard = expert or something like that?)
(or normal US/EU = easy Jp, or normal Jp = hard US/EU or the other way around?)

I have to agree, that the games shouldnt be played on easy or on an "easy" normal,

Val should also be played on hard (really)

Val and FE are just to simple on easy, and like said before, you're not forced to play it like the programmers intended you to play it, meaning, you dont have to really use all or the best possibilitys or try to plan ahead (like said before, on easy you dont have to understand the true depths of the gameplay mechanics and game structure design or at least not till the games maby almost over, and theres no thrill trying to bring everysingle one character to the end of the game)

(but I wouldnt say that Leo isnt as good as Rolf or Shinnon, it can varie, no matter what the tier stats lists say, you just have to push Leo from the beginning, and he's a killer worth it, wont need to push shinnon or rolf)

for anybody who hasnt finished FE RD yet (and loves it), should really really try to get FE Path of Radiance (it works on the Wii, just need a GC controller, not sure about the memory card though...., it really makes the expierience a lot better)
and FE PoR (GC) a great game to, with an advantage (or disadvantage, depending how you look at it), that you can play with each character from beginning to end, they wont be skipping or missing whole chapters like in FE RD, wich can make it a bit easy toward the end, when there maxed out, but it lets you experiment a bit more with diffrent characters (dont have to max them non stop like in FE RD), in FE RD you should (expet on easy) really try to push the "chosen" characters as long as possible, because you cant max then so easy like in FE PoR
wich is also a cool thing about FE in generall, the gameplay ist so need, you have to play with the secondary goal (primary goal is: not one single one character must die), the secondary goal is: max out your chosen Characters (give them as much EXP as possible), that gameplay part dindnt feel so important in Val (because the Fear in FE is around, kowing that the end battle can ripp you to pieces, if your team isnst (at least partially) max out)

have to agree with Kasn216, that if you played every single FE (including some imports), that you can simply get a overdose, expecially since FE games eat up a lot of time
then I can understand, that Val will feel a lot fresher (wich it is in fact)

so if you do intend to play FE Path of Radiance first (wich I can really recommend), then I suggest you take a break from FE, and play Val first for a while, then come back to FE RD

(the only thing that pi....es me off, is that the Press rated the GBA FE's all so great, and gave the GC/Wii Versions bad (or worse) Ratings, even if there cooler...(who gives a f.... on the in game animation grafix, they should be put of anyways....)

becouse of that, the GC/Wii FE's never really sold well (and maby because of the in game fight grafix?), and we just might never see another big (3D) Wii FE again...snif....., so if you havent finished FE RD, really try to get FE PoR and finish it first, theses might be last "big" FE's ever!!!

I've tried raising Leonardo before. He always turns out slower than molasses and has one of the worst strength growth rates outside of the Laguz!

leonardo is quite deasent, but it takes a while, till is cool, but then, I got the impression, that all dawn brigade units are a bit more powerfull then all others (except Ike and some other lords), but it takes some time for some of them, till they reach a cool state
maby there so good, because, they cant recieve any bonus stats from FE PoR, like the other ones from Ikes groupe
but really, I had the impression, that all dawn brigade units are extraordinary, just some only start to take off after the level up
(at first I couldnt get warm the new brigade characters, was really waiting till I could finally controlle the familiar ones in Ikes group, but the longer I played, the more I liked the brigade ones, dispite the fact that I think theyre strong)

but it does take a while, till Leonard it good, can be to big risk, to level him up, instead of other ones, wich are stronger faster