What Makes a Good Fire Emblem Map?
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 31 дек 2022
- With Fire Emblem Engage Coming out soon I plan to be talking about maps a lot on stream, with that in ming, this video covers what I think are the foundations of a good Fire Emblem map.
The biggest narrative dissonance in the series is probably 'Ryoma will wait patiently for his revenge. After 25 turns, he will begin his assault.'
"Wait patently for his revenge" has got to be one of the dumbest things I've ever heard
@@secondstominutes224 *Waits patently for a revenge reply to this comment*
20 turns if you play on Lunatic because you aren't a coward
@@azuma9047 conquest on lunatic sounds like an awful experience
@@SwaxMain4u oh, it is. Can confirm lol
"Don't worry, we're not killing anyone!"
_[Crit OHKO]_
"They are totally fine!"
Gotta love awakening with its absolutely obscene map design like the Gangrel map where it doesn’t take place in a castle, there’s random chests out in an open field, and there’s a super out of place top left corner of the map for an item drop.
Radiant Dawn in particular commits very hard to narrative synergy. You've got early escape maps, changing armies, an entire map in the sky, and an objective that lies to you in a sensical way. Looking forward to further analyses, whatever the game.
"an objective that lies to you in a sensical way"
Which one is that? I'm struggling to remember any that are outright lies, though I guess 3-F claims to be a Rout map that ends prematurely (and admittedly is one of the coolest features of that map, as you'll likely hit the kill count just as you're preparing for the final push)
@@Julford That's the one. Rout isn't the true objective, but attempting to defeat lots of enemies is still the way to win.
3h made It a lot but ultimately failed in making it fun
While these different maps are really fun on Tellius, 3h maps that decide to give "different" objectives or whatever they always end up being extremely annoying, boring or they are just... There
@@Zerorenren4761 theyre all just rout maps at core
Radiant Dawn is a wonderful Fire Emblem to start with, from my experience.
Bringing up Battle Before Dawn was a deep memory unlock for me, I struggled SO hard with this one as a kid. I remember resetting multiple times because I never wanted anyone to die for any reason! Saving Jafar was the hardest part for me, because I typically moved pretty slowly (to keep everyone safe). Good video!
Yeah Battle Before Dawn felt so hard to me when I was kid! But also I thought Jaffar was really cool so I guess it balanced out 😅.
It was saving Nino that was the harder part. And BOLTING. IN THE DARK.
I liked Elincia gambit because how it felt story wise and gameplay wise, defense maps should make a come back.
I really love this, I feel really similarly. I think your three factors more or less covers how I evaluate most FE maps. Sometimes one factor is shinning so brightly that the others can be weaker but typically all three working together makes the coolest maps.
I love in particular in POR/RD the bonus XP stuff which requires you to play in more of a roleplayish way and how the map lay outs, the story and everything else laid out how to engage them. I do wish they made those things more clear for the player but I do think the way Bonus Objectives added to the maps is why I can remember Tellius's maps so well.
Thanks! Yeah bonus xp objectives is a good call out. I really enjoyed those little optional objectives in Tellius
I also like to think of another criteria to make a good map: considering the players tools. Every map has to account for the fact that its possible for the player to have lost a large chunk of good units. Therefore, enemy amount, power, and placement on the map all have to be considered so as to not make it too easy for players who still have most of their units but also to not make it impossible for people to win if they lost some of their powerhouses (like in an ironman run.) They also have to consider how the maps objectives mesh with the current units and their strengths or weaknesses. For example, FE6 has a lot of maps that are fairly well designed. However, when considering the fact that you are forced to cart around an underpowered lord with low movement to a seize objective in every single map (with some maps having time limits that can lock the true ending) it hampers the overall experience and makes quite a few maps not live up to their true potential. In chapter 14, having to protect Sophia to get the guiding ring messes with the experience. Like you mentioned, you have to protect 3 green units in danger in Battle before dawn, messing with the experience. Considering the units available and special conditions put in place is almost as important as the map itself, at least in my opinion
i'm glad you showcased chapter 10 of FE8 as it's one of my more remembered maps. Later fire emblem games seem to have more lackluster maps so I hope engage will have maps with interesting mechanics
Yeah some of the more recent games have been disappointing map wise. I think Conquest was the only recent one where I really love a lot of the maps. Here's hoping Engage has some good ones!
One of the most memorable maps in FE9 for me was Chapter 22 - Solo, the one where the priests are held hostage and forced to attack you.
You gain a Bonus EXP for each surviving priest (18, giving 20 Bonus EXP each), and if you manage to leave every priest alive, you get the Ashera Staff. But to complicate things, all the priests have a 1-2 range, deal quite a bit of magic damage but are too fragile to survive combat with your most likely high level units. They are in the way, so you need to position your non-mounted units in a manner where they can shove the priests aside to free up space for your strongest 1 ranged units to reach the boss and end the chapter quickly.
Things get more complicated if you're aiming for the extra loot, a whole 10 items spread between enemies and 6 chests split across the map. You're gonna need Sothe and Volke for this one if you want to beat the thieves that occasionally show up, although they're likely to be underleveled, especially Sothe. And of course, the enemy mages have a 3-10 range spells waiting for your units with the lowest Res values to come close.
If you want an extra challenge, try beating this map in under 12 turns for that sweet 300 Bonus EXP. Complete all side challenges and you get a whole 860 Bonus EXP plus Bolting, Killer Bow, Sleep Staff, Nosferatu, Spirit Dust, Silver Bow, Tomahawk, Bolganone and 2 Chest Keys for the future maps, and also the Ashera Staff.
The map itself is very straight forward, just slaughter your way through the enemies and kill the boss, but the challenge comes from completing each side objective as quickly as possible if you want the extra loot and EXP. And thrust me, you will want to reserve all the Bonus EXP they have to dump on Elincia once she joins, since she's only available for 3 chapters.
If you want to cover specific maps, I think Conquest chapter 10 has one of the best Map designs + Map objectives in the series. Because it's early game, your units arn't OP and you cant stomp the enemy. Which is prolly why it has so many video clears on RUclips. (Shoutout to @Zoran)
Meanwhile bad map designs is easily : Hunting at daybreak, map is so bad and un-optimized people can softlock themselves out of it in Maddening/Lunatic.
I actually just recorded some footage of Chapter 10 conquest for a video on defense maps yesterday! I'll probably have that video up this weekend or next :)
On the note of narrative synergy, the best experience I've had for this was actually in the Triangle Strategy demo. The story is meant to be bleak and a mechanic is revealed while your lord's domain is under siege where you can burn your peoples' houses to cause massive damage to enemy units. It acted like this was inevitable and had to be done, but you can simply not. It makes the map incredibly difficult, but the game does acknowledge it. Really made me feel like a proud lord.
P.S. Jaffar is one of my favorite characters and Battle Before Dawn one of my favorite experiences because of it... but I assumed Jaffar was unsavable and also didn't save Nino on my first playthrough as a kid for reasons stated here
TS had some cool maps, but I think narratively, gameplay-wise compared to FE it feels shallow and too rigid to its original setting. Too few cast of characters, too many unnamed NPCs.
Just got recommended this channel and I'm very happy about it!
I love FE (the older entries) but never really our much thought into the quality of the map design. It was great to listen to you breaking it down and putting words on why specific maps feel so rewarding when you finish them and some less
Great video. You deserve way more subscribers than you have.
One thing I noticed that FE7 does really well is making each map take turns between small and big. I'll have to look up the names of maps, but it provides nice variety and pacing when you do a map with 5 deployment slots, then a map with 13 deployment slots, then a map with 7 deployment slots, then a map with 12 deployment slots, etc. It's kind of akin to lots of rpgs doing small/random battles then a boss then small/random battles then a boss etc.
Reminding me of my most frustrating lesson in FE with Battle Before Dawn - random numbers really are random. I was just about to get to Jafar after a grueling amount of time working my way over to him on my first play of Hector mode. I just needed a couple more turns before reaching him and clearing baddies out to protect him when he went to attack someone.
Jafar: hit 96, crit 36 MISSED
baddie: hit 16 or 36 (can't remember), crit 3 - CRITICAL HIT
After this battle, I never questioned how random RNG can be after that
Lots of NPC "allies" that rush into battle and die before you can "save" them
Fantastic video that makes me go back and think about why I've been rating maps the way I have been. The only thing I would add to narrative synergy is that difficulty matters a lot. I may love the fundamentals of the Duessel map, but because it's pretty much impossible for him to die in 10 turns it feels like the map is lying to you when it says defending Duessel is your main objective, when really the side objectives usurp the main objective in player importance because of the good rewards and time limits.
real fun video, definitely articulates a lot of interesting ideas that many people overlook really well. would love to see more of this kinda thing
This really explains why Sacred Stones is one if my favorite FE games. It is easier than other FE games but most of its maps are really well designer. Even if you grind all your units, there are still some maps that provide a reasonable challenge on completing all the side objectives, even if your units were to strong to die.
Great Video! Really Great Analysis with the 3 categories!
Excellent breakdown! I feel like map design is talked about a lot (particularly in the newer games) but it's usually surface level stuff like "we want more varied end objectives." Glad this video broke down the core attributes and explained everything. Here's hoping Engage will have great maps!
Watching this video helped me understand why I love my favorite GBA strategy game, Yggdra Union (and also why I hate the game). One of the first abilities is Steal, which can only be used by your thief-hero Milanor. Yggdra Union is card-based in movement and skill use, so Steal is often a one-time use ability--you get your chance to steal enemy equipment both on your attack phase and the enemy attack phase, and then that's it. Steal has one of the highest movement points in the game, a whopping 12 spaces, meaning you can chase down enemies with good loot. But enemies with good loot get to use that good loot on you: block your counterattack, 50% critical, fire damage up, instant kill on 1 v. 1. Mowing down an enemy with an amazing item may be safer than meticulously planning a way to get Milanor in a position, possibly against a terrible match-up for him, for a chance to steal that item for yourself. I implemented some truly demented strategies to get items in that game, and those moments were so memorable. If only the game didn't love to spring things on you that you couldn't possibly have predicted, in the last third of a three-part map, dooming you to run out of turns because you were too far from the objective point.
Oh man Yggdra Union is a deep cut. I played it when I was kid, but you've reminded me how neat it is, I'll have to play it again
3:27 i just dont agree with this. the story makes it very clear jaffar is the one placing himself in danger for her sake. Sure I understand the criticism that its a little unfair he can die without you being able to do anything about it, but I would still consider this map good 'Narrative Synergy' like you did for ch4 in thracia.
nice video king, it was a pleasant surprise seeing this in my recommended
Clarity and fairness is exactly how I would describe my issues with Vestaria Saga.
I'd probably add flexibility to that list, otherwise I totally agree. Like how many different approaches can you take the map on with, eg thracia ch6 where you can sneak through the city, rescue drop everyone, force your way through, rout the map before galzus appears, etc
PoR's map Blood Runs Red is the most well-designed map of any SRPG and no one can convince me otherwise
Yes I agree, that map is perfection!
This video is really helpful as someone who wants to start designing Fe maps. I don't rlyyy know what made a good map just some fan favs and that "side objective based on speed = good" but I think this helps explain some unspoken criteria that many people dont discuss.
Great video I'll be interested to see where this series goes!
There's "planning" that I feel like is also a good element, usually the only planning you have to make is try not to make anyone die and recruitment. The perfect example is 10B and 11A in FE6, it's tied down to "Risks for Rewards". If you don't want to spare Klein's and Tate's buddies then it's okay but if you want to though you can with an extensive planning; no rng since their buddies are so weak for your units by that time and the chance of the recruited enemies to move don't matter much.
I had so much fun with those maps I gotta finish my current runs to play those maps again.
The Conquest characters are all obviously using the blunt edge of the magic
just found your channel; love the content! wish i discovered you later in your career so i would have more to binge lol. keep it up!
Great video, I am surprised there are no FE4 references. Some maps like Chapter 2 and Chapter 7 get under people’s skin, and some things I’d say you wouldn’t get without a guide (Brave Axe, pursuit band, Dew needs to unlock this bridge? Etc.) but in general the game sets up its formula really well in the Prologue and expands upon it in different ways.
The game doesn’t have to worry about you turtling since most enemies don’t come to you in a way easy to feed into the unit grinder, but to make this problem occur even less, villages appear on the map as side objectives. Most don’t give too insane of awards and they are flexible with time limits (10 turns after the bandit gets to the village), but the gold from them is sizable income and can really swing how you can use some of your units. This, combined with the village by the first enemy castle having a speed ring, portray the constant and extreme rewards consistently saving villages brings.
This doesn’t even go into how maps are made to geographically match what you see of the world before you enter the gameplay side of things. Verdane on the world map has a massive lake in the middle surrounded by forests, with the most prominent one being in the far West. Castles are exactly where the map shows them to be as well!
Finally one thing I wanted to note were the churches on the map. In FE4 there are no vulnearies, so the only way to heal without a staff user or clearing an arena were castles, which heal you over a few turns for free, and churches, which gave your unit 1 hp back for every 5 gold spent (if you know anything about FE4, that shouldn’t seem like any significant amount of gold). While both these methods reduce in usefulness as you get more staff users and more staff actions via your dancers, not to mention units who can simply get success without too much effort, the game is dictating where you can and cannot heal. This has a similar effect to DS Fire Emblem’s save tiles controlling your tempo and *where* you do things, thus rippling down to effect *when* you do things and *why* you do it (need to clear out enemies so I can get my low hp unit to heal).
Sorry for the rant, hope you get more traction!
Thanks for watching! And I agree, there's tons to learn from FE4. The villages in particular I think work very well for pushing you forward through the maps. At some point I plan to make a video about inventory/money management in FE4, which I thought was a super fun and unique system.
I really enjoyed your video and i am probably binge watching the others, your subscriber count is surprisingly low for such a quality content, i am guessing it will increase exponentially soon. Keep up the good work man. Also your voice sounds really cool
Great analysis!
Bro idk why youtube decided to send me your way but I'm happy it did. have been watching a few of your videos and they are very entertaining. Why do you only have 70 subscribers lmao
Very engaging video essay! There are not enough video essays about Fire Emblem Map design. I would add some more flare to the video if possible. Music, sound effects and graphics and all that. Otherwise, excellent video!
This was amazing. 🔥
On that Erika map with the water I always just drop some unit into the area to the south with a flyer. The squares also fit perfectly with ross over the water. I thought it was really cool when it all worked.
1:34
Okay guys, from now on "Water Walking" is the official term for swimming in the Fire Emblem multiverse
I always called it waterwalking because pirates kinda look like jesus gliding across the water lol
I never thought of them as swimming before tbh 😂
Good analysis! I agree. :)
I think it's interesting how you bring up RNG in as a factor in map fairness--that's something that's baked into FE's mechanics, so I feel like IS is a little bit painted into a corner on that one. I'd be curious to see how you feel about Telepath Tactics Liberated.
Very good video! Nice!
In the fe7 battle before dawn map my issue was getting to the chests on the left in time. My solution was to advance a unit without any weapons and just place him at the door which has already been broken into by a thief. And then just wait until I can get my thief to steal from the bad thief. Looking back i may not have to have given my weapons because I don't think the thief attacks first.
Honestly I forgot Ursula spawned on the left in BBD if not on HHM. Also forgot lyns animation was that cool.
Cool video! Surprised ambush spawns wasn't a part of it as that's a common complaint to force difficulty that leaves a bad taste in your mouth
12:54 Looking at you Three Houses and your non existent fog of war during chapter 17 !
For me, the features of a good map are (and not necessarily all together, that might get chaotic)
1. Choice in approach. A good map, to me, presents you with "a problem", whatever that may be, and it's up to the player to use their tools. Say, you have a river on the map with a single bridge that naturally slows and chokes movement. Your options are A: Commit to being slow and play through this section defensively. Any urgency on the map must be ignored or dealt with by other means. B: Use units that can move across the river, like Pirates or Heroes. The map itself can expand on this, perhaps the main enemies are spear wielding cavaliers to empower this strategy, or perhaps they have swords, or are mercenaries to mean you need good axe users to do this. C: Use fliers to ferry units over. The fliers themselves have to do this task so cannot fight until it is done, and units ferried over will require assistance if they begin to be overwhelmed. D: Knock over one or both of the two trees to cross the river. Doing this allows you to get units across the river more aggressively, but the enemy can now use them to invalidate your choke. All of these options are worth considering, and have different merits based on what units you are using, or who has gotten lucky or unlucky levels. In a perfect world, a map should feel different between many first time players.
2. Notable enemies. The least interesting Fire Emblem maps are the ones that are hordes of bandits, that only have stats by legal insistence, with hit rates hovering in the single digits, with that 7% chance to deal 2 damage. Not every unit needs to be great, but, there NEED to be at least some units in the mix that you need to keep an eye on. That Guy with a Hammer or a Ridersbane is a fabulous unit.
3: Urgency. Chests and villages with Thieves and Bandits are great, they encourage taking more risky plays to get the loot. This does have to be considered carefully, because while upending the gear economy is rough, at the other end, if it's not valuable it will be ignored.
4: Multiple tasks. SOMETHING to discourage deathstar turtling, and consider splitting groups of units off. Making the player divide forces seems to almost always make for good maps.
5. At least SOME degree of narrative influence on the map. A field of dudes to kill because the game needs it is sad.
If the player fights some dudes in a field, BUT THEN, some advance units of the army they were being chased by catch up, that's WAY more interesting.
As an additional point, I ADORE Defend maps. Straining resources, sustainability, and really presenting a scenerio where you probably CAN'T just kill everything, and need to prioritize targets and plan a turn or two in advance to think about retreating are wonderful. Even smaller mini defend objectives, where say, a map starts spawning a group of enemy reinforcements every few turns, that need to be dealt with, and quickly so that whoever is doing it doesn't get swarmed add so much interest and complexity to the objectives of a map.
I think of the final map of Silver Snow in 3 houses, where you have to deal with the two White Beast reinforcements every other turn.
Oh.
And attention needs to be paid to where on the map the main points of conflict will be.
This is hard to explain it going right, but I can give a reat good example of it going wrong.
FE 6, I forget the map number, but it's the one where you get Jerot/Zealot and his cavaliers. That map is awful, it always turns into an absolute mess kinda over by the towns, then the wyverns try to pull it back towards the arena.
Chaotic maps can be fun, but that map specifically very much feels like the main point of conflict wasn't intended to be where it is.
Great video
One feedback I want to give out here is how it would be better if you can give an overview of the map shown on the screen when you’re explaining them, or at least a better focus on telling which part of the map that you are referring to when you’re talking about them. For example, in the first map (the one on Eirika’s route in Sacreed Stones, you said there were two objectives, specifically, the two villages. But for people who haven’t played the game, they wouldn’t have known that what you were actually talking about are the two red houses there (“that’s just a house, not a whole village!”).
Other than that, this is a great analysis video, I like it, and would loved to see you breaking down more FE maps and why/how they were designed that way.
the way engage nails these
great video
Please may you add subtitles to your videos? It's really interesting and i want to watch them with the sound turned off if I'm with other people in a room, or if I'm eating it's easier to follow what you say with added subtitles!
What fire emblem game should I play next? I’ve only ever played three houses.
Great video!
In 10 more days you can play Engage next lol.
Imagine making a map with a mechanic that everyone hates and is poorly executed, looking at it and saying, "Let's do that again". This is how you get the Tellius bridge map twice
Yeah Tellius bridge pitfalls was a bit of narrative synergy gone wrong. Hard to believe they did it twice 😬
Crazy that after 3 years (in universe) no one bothered to repair the bridge. 🤣
@@DaniDoyle
I mean.
The nation was in a pretty bad state of post war devastation, political unrest, and such.
It's not THAT unsurprising that nobody got around to un booby trapping a bridge
Yeah these two chapters are weak points in the Tellius games. Can't argue with that...
You’ve got a nice voice for this
The one map from 3 houses where Claude sneak attacks during the fog not having fog is a hilarious oversight
God, I love Fire Emblem
Your issue with battle before dawn in not knowing what in the fog can be easily solved by.... using a thief or a torch staff/torch
Like you mentioned that a first time player won't know that the boss in the south west corner with a bolting, however there's nothing preventing even a first time player from using a torch staff or a normal torch there and then rescuing the thief/torch user after getting information about what's there
Subscribing for map analysis videos
I gave the Ranger boss on that Ephraim map a Light Brand (E), 5000G, and a Longbow (Droppable), along with a stat boost, making it possible for the player to get any one of those if they plan well ahead, with Light Brand requiring a 20 Speed Thief, and a rescuer, a Tank, and a Sweeper to all make it to him in time and defeat him over 2 turns. How's that for risk and reward?
Although after seeing this video, I just realized I should have given Serena a similar item structure (say. Bolting (E), Fimbulvetr, 5000G and a Thoron-esque Thunder tome) to make planning for it possible for first time players.
i'm playing fe6 rn and what's not fair is me ending a turn and then these enemies spawn from no where and attack immediately. How do i calculate for that?
lol Oh. Good luck, my man... I hated that game (largely for that reason). It's my most disliked FE game, having played about half of the series.
Btw, idk how far into the game you are, but be warned, that happens in more than one level. Watch your back.
When I clicked on this video I thought for sure that would come up.
i haven't finished engage but there has been one instance of interesting narrative element affecting gameplay in a unique way (around chapter 10 i think) but i still think it suffers from the game having too small maps so it doesn't have much time to sink in before help arrives
spoilers:
i was too reliant on the time crystal up till that point (just not in the mood to want to think too hard), so i had to restart the chapter where the time crystal is taken a couple times lol
Dude i loved the video and indeed, maps always were the key.. But GOD damn i CANT listen to your video on a headphone
About BBD, saving jaffar is not essential. Neither is Nino. The only actual map objective is Zeph.
Not to mention the cutscene before the map jaffar is acting as a distraction so Nino can escape so you could assume there's danger over there
I love this! I feel like map design in this series
really isn’t something that’s talked about enough. Your presentation is well thought out and I agree with all three of your criteria, but I think you’re neglecting something: map objective and obstacles. Put simply, what is the map asking of the player? You could argue this falls under clarity/fairness but that’s more about the player’s ability to analyze what’s happening in a map, and not their process of formulating a strategy. To me, objective/obstacles is the factor that ties a map together, and usually what I think goes wrong when making for an uninteresting map.
What a map asks the player defines the ways they’ll try to solve it. When side objectives are layered on top of this, it makes for a complex web of decision-making, forcing players to weigh opportunity cost and make sacrifices in some areas to achieve their goal in others. While the objective definitely plays a hand, I find the obstacles a map presents make more of an impact on this aspect of a map. The only real exception to this is with rout maps, which have only one real method of victory. Sure, the only way to win a seize map is to take the throne, but a player can choose how to approach doing so - maybe they turtle, or split into a couple of parties to achieve side objectives, or even rush the objective with a flier or two. Rout maps, though not to say they’re objectively bad, provide the least flexibility and creativity to the player, often devolving into a giant block of units slowly pressing forward. Splitting the starting placements of units is a good way to make a rout map more interesting.
Now, these obstacles make or break player enjoyment. Take Battle Before Dawn, for example. Thematically, I think that most would agree that the objective, or concept of the map, is a good one. Rushing to defend some squishy green units as a side objective isn’t anything new, but as a main objective? Count me in. The reason the map can feel unfair is because the obstacles presented aren’t tweaked well for the situation the player starts in. If Jaffar and Nino were slightly closer, had less enemies swarming them, or even had scripted encounters not allowing them to die until a certain turn, I think people on the whole would be a lot more amiable about the map as a whole. The current problem isn’t that the player can’t understand what to do, it’s that the player can’t engage with that objective because of how the obstacles are designed.
All in all, while I certainly take things like clarity, rewarding risk, and narrative synergy into account, my primary focus, both as a player and when looking from an outside perspective, is to ask ‘what does this map want from me, and how is it going to try to impede me from achieving that goal?’. That’s my view on what defines map design.
It’s interesting to me that battle before dawn is apparently notorious among fans. Maybe it’s because I never played Hector Hard mode, but I didn’t have much trouble with that one, at least no more than what was usual for me. Maybe it’s because I split my forces down both sides
Personally I love Battle Before Dawn for that rng variant it has.
Im the type of person that like a little bit of chaos some times.
6:05 and this is why I hate ambush spawns as well. They appear out of nowhere and attack you, often killing a weaker unit because you're more focused on another objective with more capable units, then you get ambushed from behind and now you lost your healer or dancer or some such.
I think you should have talked about defense maps thoes add an intersting change to usual dynamic of a map where instead of having to Rush you need to choose were to send and Who when it comes to optional loot. Also side note when you talked about failing a chapter showing footage of this or something you talk about in the moment makes the video More ingadeing.
I love map design in fire emblem it made me a life long fan, but I feel the longer than franchise goes we get less and less objectives and more and more kill the bad guy except you don't cuz they'll muhahaha and run away at the end once you do kinda crap.
Shadows of Valentia is my fave FE and one of my all time fave games ever, and so I often hear the "maps are bad" argument whenever I sing it's praises. Every single time it's brought up, my rebuttal is how well it works narratively. Mountains, bases, and forests aren't conveniently placed in wars. The "realistic" placement of terrain options leads to a choose-your-own-adventure style to combat. You can choose to phalanx, you can forgo using units, you can bottleneck bridges, you can even choose to solo random battles with tanky units.
While other games have memorable maps that lead to fond discussions, SoV is a uniquely personal experience because of how combat and maps are designed. Is it weird? Absolutely. Is it bad? Depends on who you ask. Is it interesting? Very.
Play SoV, the voice acting and story are amazing.
For me Battle before Dawn is my favourite defense map. Don't ask me why. And yes I played through Radiant Dawn before you bring that up. I just like that you start so far away from the defend point(s) and have to find a way to go fast to these points. While having low vission. That makes it interesting.
I actually really like the idea of the map! Having to rush to the defend point is a cool idea. I would love if they included that aspect of the map in Fire Emblem games more often. I just didn't like the rest of the execution of Battle Before Dawn, particularly saving Jaffar on higher difficulties.
@@actuallizard Understandable. For me that is the reason I like it so much. It forces me to use a different playstyle than I normaly do. Also a reason why I like Revalations. Having to addapt is fun imo. This is a reason I don't like FE6 or FE11 that much because everything is the same objective and that causes me to use make a defense. Send a small amount to do side stuff. Go to the end. Tho that may be just me.
I played this map for the first time (no redos) about a week ago, and I actually liked it a great deal.
I was already incentivised to rush in Jaffar's direction to beat potential thieves to the chests, and I was incentivised to bring strong units given the amount of enemies in that direction (which I could see by using a torch staff). Jaffar being able to take them on by himself just wasn't an assumption I made. I felt rushed to help him too ("Other" units tend to be dumb).
Ursala was a surprise to me, but wasn't a problem because I don't tend to throw squishy units into the unexplored darkness anyway.
Luckily, I didn't encounter either of the auto-deaths (which I didn't know were possible until this video). So I suppose I got lucky in that regard.
One pitfall of the more recent games I think is giving out too many characters early on, making new characters less of an incentive since you already have way more than you can bring in a fight. The older games did it well where you only got a handful and slowly pick up more every few maps.
While not an FE map, my favorite map is always map 4 in the ps1 srpg Vandal Hearts. There is 12 enemies placed on one side of a bride that your 5 units are on. The enemies have placed explosives on the bride and will blow up parts of it behind you every round. Allies caught in the explosion are killed instantly leading to a large loss of funds at the end of the map. If you know effective damage (archers hitting fliers) the map can be a breeze, but if you go in blind you can easily find yourself dying in a few turns due to the pressure.
I think my favorite map ever is Elincia's Gambit. Maybe because I never use most of those characters again.
good video. you should add some music to the background in order to kill the awkward silence
This is why you make a fun game before writing the story. The story is the most extraneous part of a game, as they are meant to be fun games before being good stories. When you do that, you can ensure to make a story that most fits within the core experience and alleviate narrative dissonance.
11A is probably my favorite maps with it's multiple side objective. Playing it blind is super unfair tho
The Ephraim version of chapter 9 also had the nifty narrative element of Tana being thrown in a prison while some asshole archer tries to snipe her. It’s a cool element but makes you be at the mercy of RNG also.
Eh, I am going to kill those reinforcements anyway. I want that exp
Good map design is why I play FE and not Matsuno games.
Well, I still play Matsuno games, but I dont find myself returning to them.
The more I play FE the more I notice how important it is to use defensive terrain sparingly. This includes defensive tiles and choke points.
Also, FoW adds nothing of value and its quiet literally, the antithesis of what makes FE great. FE can afford to ve hard, because it plays with it doesn't conceal it's "cards".
It is the polar opposite. One of the reasons flyers are so broken is because most terrain does not offer bonus, meaning they don't lose anything 90% of the times.
Shining Force give the basic plain terrain a 15% def bonus and that alone goes a long way to knock the WL equivalent down a peg. Unless it's SF 2 Peter that has obscene stats.
@@noukan42 not every flyer can break a map. You just said it, that unit has obscene stats. Many broken flyers are recruitable enemy wyverns with almost boss stats.
Furthermore, those bonuses are borderline meaningless, action economy is what matters for those kinds of strats. You gain action economy by being in range of the objective, flyers can basically go everywhere they want. If the terrain doesn't restrict grounded movement, then many ground units will have as much chance as flyers, leveling the playing field.
Honestly, i never cared about tiles and its affects, i never understood much of it
Not me enjoying the Jaffar map
Unironically i think hunting by daybreak is one of the best fire emblem maps
Shoutout to the fe5 and fe6 gaiden chapters for having the worst map designs that makes me wish I skipped it along with the whole game.
Fe5 24x is a hell of a drug
@@actuallizard do not get me started. Why did they feel the need to make all of the fe5 gaiden chapters fog of war on top of them just being cancer anyways. I hate Gomez chapter and the Perne chapter where your just supposed to skip it. I will never play 24x again.
Along with this. FE devs need to leave “reinforcements act the turn they arrive” to the highest difficulty only; they’re basically the definition of unclairty
Talks about map design, shows one of the games with my least favorite maps in the series, lol
Something about everything before the routesplit Sacred Stones just feels so boring and puts me to sleep, that by the time I can pick Ephraim Ive already put the game down. I really don't know why, but its really prevalent up to the chapter with Neimi and Colm.
The problem with SS is that you can make the best map ever, but it will not matter if enemies are garbage and Seth exist. A good map and a bad map are functionally the same if the game is not hard enought to makes you adapt your playstyly to the map.
Well, it's not like I'm saying Sacred Stones has great map design overall (there are plenty of bad maps in Sacred Stones), I just think the two maps from fe8 I talked about are well designed.
3:93 Chapter 28 Eliwood mode sucks so bad.
Unpopular opinion, I dislike most of FE8's maps for some reason find most of those irritating like the times where I must make my army move through narrow places...
I remember a map in birthright fighting monks and this stupid wind mechanic blowing everyone around. Yeah that map was cancer.