It's great to see more videos from you Halvey! I kept thinking all games had arenas, but Fire Emblem Gaiden, and by extension Shadows of Valentia don't have any at all. It makes sense since there's just optional battle maps on the world map you can re-visit anytime. Same with Awakening, since there's optional maps I guess they saw the need for no arenas. Though Sacred Stones is the exception in that case, you can grind in arenas and have optional maps you can grind in anytime.
I remember in 2012 seeing an arena tile sprite for awakening (forgot if it was datamined, or spotted in a screenshot or trailer) back before it was even confirmed if it'd come to the west, and back when speculation for that game was crazy. I can't find the image, but it looked a lot like the arenas for other games, so maybe it was a planned feature there that was scrapped
I tried searching, but couldn't find anything. As far as I'm aware it's mostly rng. I do think your units' stats may affect it, because I remember lots of times I would try sending someone like Oswin into the arena and he would always be more likely to be matched up against a silver sword myrmidon because of his high defense.
@@halvey_ High Defense units definitely get more unfavorable matchups. That's why I pretty much never send Armor Knights into the arena. Though I do remember one time many years ago that I tried to train Barthe in an arena in FE6. That was a horrible experience. Not only did he get matched up with enemies with silver weapons, but he also got doubled and would usually miss his attacks because of his low Skill stat.
Quick rundown of FEH Arena for completionism sake: The idea is to get the highest score possible after 5 wins in a row. (You're allowed two defeats without breaking your streak though). You'll be matched with players with similar or less investment to you (base stat total, merges, skill costs… the lesser players serving as easier difficulties) and you'll fight an AI-controlled version of their team. The stronger opponents you beat, the more you score, but losing units will badly hit your score. At the end of the week, you'll receive rewards based on your score percentile compared to other players in the same tier as you. Each week also has a selection of bonus units, of which you need one on your team as they'll double your score, and not having that is basically just giving up at that point. Getting a kill with the bonus unit will also give extra score once per match. Oh and of course your team is fully healed after every match. There's some "do many maps in a row" modes in FEH where you aren't healed and even units you lost stay dead until you quit/finish the game mode, but Arena is not one of them thankfully. There's no real permadeath in FEH, the closest truly is those self-contained modes making you push through with an incomplete team. Because of powercreep and the fact that this is a gacha you can throw money at, it really reeks of pay to win, but you can get by with more f2p-friendly units and/or a couple smart investments. You're also just fighting the AI so you can just outplay them at times. It's still pretty stressful since you'll be fighting extremely stacked opponents that you'll need to sweep while you can't lose a single unit in practice lest you ruin your score. So while realistically it's completely different to traditional FE arenas, it certainly captures the anxiety quite well :/
I appreciate that modern arenas are branching out a bit and trying new things, but I don't think they've quite hit their proper potential. Three Houses had a big emphasis on activities to do outside of battle. Engage let you explore the battlefield after combat. I think combining those approaches could actually provide a nice new function for the arena. Each chapter, you have a team to bring into combat, but what about those not in combat? We can assign them activities based on the area we're in. Send a unit to town with a bunch of items to sell, and the amount of money they come back with varies a bit based on personal skills and luck stat. Send a team out to do fishing, hunting, scouting, mining, guard duty, foraging, logging, shopping, or of course, training in the arena. Each activity has its own benefit. And each chapter of the game has different activities available. It gives your non-combat units things to do. And the benefits could help prevent your lesser used units from falling behind the level curve.
It could also have the function of a second army that fights a weaker ebemy army while you fight in the main chapter. How many units you send in the second army will have an effect on the main chapter's fight, enemy reinforcements, enemy squads be more complex or not, the enemy's fighters being more spread out or not. And the obvious part is that you will have fewer potential fighters during the actual main chapter fight. Maybe just an after fight "clean up" crew of weaker fighters fighting a small squad of fleeing enemy fighters. Maybe even gain the chance to retrieve stolen goods or those pesty thieves that ran away with your treasures. Have it either automatic or gaideneste where it's just a small fight. Or skip it. Hopefully, this is coherent.
@@dustgraystone9448 This idea sounds a bit like a halfway point between what I proposed, and the split armies for paralell routes approach of the final part of Radiant Dawn. You've got extra combat maps like Radiant Dawn, but the extra maps are non-essential, and instead offer perks. The idea definitely has some merits. I wouldn't mind seeing that in a game to see how it turns out. Although a tricky aspect with utilizing the remainder of the army is how to get things to play nice with iron man runs. Iron Man relies on your units being at least somewhat replaceable, and the more you rely on a full army contribution, the more of an issue this becomes. Still, we're just tossing some ideas around. A serious attempt at creating a system along these lines would involve a lot of trial and error. I'm hoping somebody at Intelligent Systems is willing to put in the work though :)
The genealogy arena is so interesting to me. It feels like it rewards players for their knowledge far more than other games, and allows for real strategy. I dont have an issue with how the arena is handled in things like gba, where its just rng who you end up fighting since its entirely optional but its so much more well thought out in fe4.
It's also cool that it gives you an alternate method of recruiting a character. Unfortunately, the only other time that I remember was in fe7 when you're recruiting Karla with Bartre.
@@dustgraystone9448You don't use the arena in FE7 to recruit Karla though. She's standing on the arena (and not on the square you use to enter) and Bartre just fights her. As long as both survive she joins.
@@JaidynReiman obviously. That's why it's sad. They might have been referencing that without the ability to implement it. Since she is technically in the arena as she's standing in the part, the combatants would stand in battle. Visual storytelling via map, I guess. Though just as likely they were just doing a Fir.
Also for FE4, I think a special mention for Chulainn (formerly known as Holyn) is in order since he is a recruitable unit only if you can fully clear the arena in chapter 2.
It's kind of a pain, so i usually save the arena to train potential units i wouldn't normally use. That way, if they do win, then I'll have a reason to use them, and if they lose and die, i can casually move on without having a heart attack of losing my favorite unit.
I don't know if I missed it or not, but in fe1 healers don't gain exp from healing allies. So arenainh is purely for the fighting class and the money you gain from it. Likely to put back into the healing staves and weapons used on the arena grind.
Charm does not work in FE5 Arena Also Higher wages have better odds at giving units a Silver weapon, It's always Iron v Silver, Steel v Steel, or Silver v Iron. So it balances the stronger enemies sometimes. Edit2: I just sprung out of my sleep cause I remembered that Crusader scrolls also don't block crits in the arena either, that's how I lost Fergus
I never liked Fates arena, it was just too gimmicky and didn't gave you something good at all, the max of items you can multiplicate in that arena are 8, which isn't as good as one may think and I'll rather have the standard arena or the Drill Grounds
At least in ds games, the bets look that they take you level into acount because for me is almost imposible to get below 750 gold in arenas post level 15
![Noob To Max With DRAGON REWORK In Blox Fruits [FULL MOVIE]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LnBMOinoOvA/mqdefault.jpg)
I like how he says that awakening is missing an arena while Chrom and Lucina are fighting in an arena lol
It's great to see more videos from you Halvey! I kept thinking all games had arenas, but Fire Emblem Gaiden, and by extension Shadows of Valentia don't have any at all. It makes sense since there's just optional battle maps on the world map you can re-visit anytime. Same with Awakening, since there's optional maps I guess they saw the need for no arenas. Though Sacred Stones is the exception in that case, you can grind in arenas and have optional maps you can grind in anytime.
I remember in 2012 seeing an arena tile sprite for awakening (forgot if it was datamined, or spotted in a screenshot or trailer) back before it was even confirmed if it'd come to the west, and back when speculation for that game was crazy. I can't find the image, but it looked a lot like the arenas for other games, so maybe it was a planned feature there that was scrapped
I kinda wish there was a full mechanical breakdown somewhere that dissects exactly how wagers/opponents are generated
I tried searching, but couldn't find anything. As far as I'm aware it's mostly rng. I do think your units' stats may affect it, because I remember lots of times I would try sending someone like Oswin into the arena and he would always be more likely to be matched up against a silver sword myrmidon because of his high defense.
@@halvey_ High Defense units definitely get more unfavorable matchups. That's why I pretty much never send Armor Knights into the arena. Though I do remember one time many years ago that I tried to train Barthe in an arena in FE6. That was a horrible experience. Not only did he get matched up with enemies with silver weapons, but he also got doubled and would usually miss his attacks because of his low Skill stat.
Quick rundown of FEH Arena for completionism sake: The idea is to get the highest score possible after 5 wins in a row. (You're allowed two defeats without breaking your streak though).
You'll be matched with players with similar or less investment to you (base stat total, merges, skill costs… the lesser players serving as easier difficulties) and you'll fight an AI-controlled version of their team. The stronger opponents you beat, the more you score, but losing units will badly hit your score. At the end of the week, you'll receive rewards based on your score percentile compared to other players in the same tier as you. Each week also has a selection of bonus units, of which you need one on your team as they'll double your score, and not having that is basically just giving up at that point. Getting a kill with the bonus unit will also give extra score once per match.
Oh and of course your team is fully healed after every match. There's some "do many maps in a row" modes in FEH where you aren't healed and even units you lost stay dead until you quit/finish the game mode, but Arena is not one of them thankfully. There's no real permadeath in FEH, the closest truly is those self-contained modes making you push through with an incomplete team.
Because of powercreep and the fact that this is a gacha you can throw money at, it really reeks of pay to win, but you can get by with more f2p-friendly units and/or a couple smart investments. You're also just fighting the AI so you can just outplay them at times. It's still pretty stressful since you'll be fighting extremely stacked opponents that you'll need to sweep while you can't lose a single unit in practice lest you ruin your score. So while realistically it's completely different to traditional FE arenas, it certainly captures the anxiety quite well :/
I appreciate that modern arenas are branching out a bit and trying new things, but I don't think they've quite hit their proper potential.
Three Houses had a big emphasis on activities to do outside of battle.
Engage let you explore the battlefield after combat.
I think combining those approaches could actually provide a nice new function for the arena.
Each chapter, you have a team to bring into combat, but what about those not in combat?
We can assign them activities based on the area we're in.
Send a unit to town with a bunch of items to sell, and the amount of money they come back with varies a bit based on personal skills and luck stat.
Send a team out to do fishing, hunting, scouting, mining, guard duty, foraging, logging, shopping, or of course, training in the arena.
Each activity has its own benefit. And each chapter of the game has different activities available.
It gives your non-combat units things to do. And the benefits could help prevent your lesser used units from falling behind the level curve.
It could also have the function of a second army that fights a weaker ebemy army while you fight in the main chapter.
How many units you send in the second army will have an effect on the main chapter's fight, enemy reinforcements, enemy squads be more complex or not, the enemy's fighters being more spread out or not. And the obvious part is that you will have fewer potential fighters during the actual main chapter fight.
Maybe just an after fight "clean up" crew of weaker fighters fighting a small squad of fleeing enemy fighters. Maybe even gain the chance to retrieve stolen goods or those pesty thieves that ran away with your treasures. Have it either automatic or gaideneste where it's just a small fight. Or skip it.
Hopefully, this is coherent.
@@dustgraystone9448 This idea sounds a bit like a halfway point between what I proposed, and the split armies for paralell routes approach of the final part of Radiant Dawn. You've got extra combat maps like Radiant Dawn, but the extra maps are non-essential, and instead offer perks.
The idea definitely has some merits. I wouldn't mind seeing that in a game to see how it turns out.
Although a tricky aspect with utilizing the remainder of the army is how to get things to play nice with iron man runs. Iron Man relies on your units being at least somewhat replaceable, and the more you rely on a full army contribution, the more of an issue this becomes.
Still, we're just tossing some ideas around. A serious attempt at creating a system along these lines would involve a lot of trial and error. I'm hoping somebody at Intelligent Systems is willing to put in the work though :)
Wow man this is some quality content, great video!
Thank you!
The genealogy arena is so interesting to me. It feels like it rewards players for their knowledge far more than other games, and allows for real strategy. I dont have an issue with how the arena is handled in things like gba, where its just rng who you end up fighting since its entirely optional but its so much more well thought out in fe4.
It's also cool that it gives you an alternate method of recruiting a character. Unfortunately, the only other time that I remember was in fe7 when you're recruiting Karla with Bartre.
@@dustgraystone9448You don't use the arena in FE7 to recruit Karla though. She's standing on the arena (and not on the square you use to enter) and Bartre just fights her. As long as both survive she joins.
@@JaidynReiman obviously. That's why it's sad. They might have been referencing that without the ability to implement it. Since she is technically in the arena as she's standing in the part, the combatants would stand in battle. Visual storytelling via map, I guess.
Though just as likely they were just doing a Fir.
Also for FE4, I think a special mention for Chulainn (formerly known as Holyn) is in order since he is a recruitable unit only if you can fully clear the arena in chapter 2.
It's kind of a pain, so i usually save the arena to train potential units i wouldn't normally use.
That way, if they do win, then I'll have a reason to use them, and if they lose and die, i can casually move on without having a heart attack of losing my favorite unit.
LET'S GO GAM- *Risk our lives*
I don't know if I missed it or not, but in fe1 healers don't gain exp from healing allies. So arenainh is purely for the fighting class and the money you gain from it. Likely to put back into the healing staves and weapons used on the arena grind.
Ah yes that's true. In the video I was just speaking generally, but yes I should've clarified that about FE1 healers.
@halvey_ In fairness, the player would find out fairly quickly, so you didn't really need to say it.
New year, new video!
Charm does not work in FE5 Arena
Also Higher wages have better odds at giving units a Silver weapon, It's always Iron v Silver, Steel v Steel, or Silver v Iron. So it balances the stronger enemies sometimes.
Edit2: I just sprung out of my sleep cause I remembered that Crusader scrolls also don't block crits in the arena either, that's how I lost Fergus
Bantu can't keep getting away with this!
I never liked Fates arena, it was just too gimmicky and didn't gave you something good at all, the max of items you can multiplicate in that arena are 8, which isn't as good as one may think and I'll rather have the standard arena or the Drill Grounds
Thinking about it, RD might have benefited of an arena.😊
At least in ds games, the bets look that they take you level into acount because for me is almost imposible to get below 750 gold in arenas post level 15
Babe, wake up. New Halvey video!
You know, I was just getting back into scripting FE content. Guess I gotta scrap this one.
(Jokes aside, glad to see fresh FE videos like this now.)
Yooo new video