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 Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 3:55 pm
I actually found the level of challenge refreshing. I play most of the FE games for the story, so (once I got over my mindset of "must play Classic" ) I found that Casual was such a nice touch. (I'm still not going to play Casual on Normal, though. That's waaaaaaay too easy.)
Adding my one cent on the map design: I liked how the different maps encouraged mixing up your team. Like, Gerome's map, which encourages fliers. (I can't think of any other examples at the moment.)
Without repeating stuff that's already been said, I'll just say that I really didn't like Cherche and Kellam's supports together. For some reason, I found them very bland; mileage on supports will vary, though.
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Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 4:31 pm
Manic Martini Nah's is also a real standout that somewhat reminds me of Sonia's chapter in FE7. Paths you need to take open up and close haphazardly, potentially trapping your units in isolation from the rest of your party or impeding your progress. It's really fun. Takes place in a mansion instead of a water temple, but the effect is similar if not more intense. Oh, this one also has a secondary rescue objective since Nah starts trapped and isolated (a Rescue Staff trivializes this, but a Rescue Staff can trivialize a lot of things, frankly). Really? I haven't played hers yet... why couldn't they have done this with the water temple as well... Also, while I do think Valm is sort of a filler arc to the main story, it does set some things up that are important. (The state of our troops, completing the fire emblem, getting Wallhart out of Validar's way, us thinking Basilio is dead) Plus, that arc has some of the best bosses in the game to make up for it: Cervantes, Pheros, Yen'fay, Excellus, Wallhart. They're all iconic and unique. I wish we got more out of Excellus though; he's pretty much the enemy counterpart to MU, with them both being tacticians. Also, we never got to understand the deeper significance of his correspondence with Aversa.
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Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:08 pm
Nomad Rath Manic Martini Nah's is also a real standout that somewhat reminds me of Sonia's chapter in FE7. Paths you need to take open up and close haphazardly, potentially trapping your units in isolation from the rest of your party or impeding your progress. It's really fun. Takes place in a mansion instead of a water temple, but the effect is similar if not more intense. Oh, this one also has a secondary rescue objective since Nah starts trapped and isolated (a Rescue Staff trivializes this, but a Rescue Staff can trivialize a lot of things, frankly). Really? I haven't played hers yet... why couldn't they have done this with the water temple as well... Also, while I do think Valm is sort of a filler arc to the main story, it does set some things up that are important. (The state of our troops, completing the fire emblem, getting Wallhart out of Validar's way, us thinking Basilio is dead) Plus, that arc has some of the best bosses in the game to make up for it: Cervantes, Pheros, Yen'fay, Excellus, Wallhart. They're all iconic and unique. I wish we got more out of Excellus though; he's pretty much the enemy counterpart to MU, with them both being tacticians. Also, we never got to understand the deeper significance of his correspondence with Aversa. I might respond to this thread in depth later when I'm less dead, but I just want to say I am mega disappointed in Yen'Fay. Just because this brought it on. Maybe his streetpass chapter will add to his character more, but he really shows how weirdly paced things are in Valm. And even then that would be too little too late and not change how he was handled in the main story. You hear about him, sure, but you only actually SEE him in the chapter in which you kill him. Then once you do, Excellus just pops in and tells you why you should TOTALLY FEEL BAD NOW GUYS. Not like we could have seen more of Yen'Fay for ourselves and be shown instead of told. Even if he was being all stoic and serious and not telling anyone anything, if we just saw more of him in the main story I feel like this would come across better instead of just telling me how to feel when I... don't. And because of this, the follow up falls flat on me too since I don't give two shits about Yen'fay. Even though I wish I did. I love his design, though. Also for the record, I do like Say'ri as a character. Makes things even worse. A lot of the stuff in Valm does feel rushed and more like a sidestory than a continuation of the main story, even though plenty of important events happen there and we get some good characters out of the deal (Like Tiki!). When Chrom's army gets back to Ylisse, it's almost like the story suddenly resumes the way it was supposed to go all along. I don't dislike the Valm stuff, I just think it deserved more time and better pacing then it was given. There are some nuggets of coolness in there, but I feel like it could have been much better if it used everything it had.
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Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:21 pm
I think you're too harsh on Yen'fay. We don't need to see a character in order to feel something for it. The point of him was for us to dislike him as a traitor that we get to exact justice on.... personally, I had Say'ri kill him because it seemed suitable. Then we learn the truth and just seeing how Say'ri now feels.... I feel bad for Say'ri because she hated her brother for so long and even killed him and now she finds out he was fighting because he was doing what he had to do. I also feel bad for him for being in that position and having to endure all the hatred from his sister and people.
The game's telling me how I should feel? Ok. It was doing the same thing for Mustafa. And every other camus. The difference in Mustafa is that the chapter spends its time making us not want to to have to kill him, while in Yen'fay's case, it makes us want to kill him instead.
I like Mustafa as a Camus more. However, Yen'fay had to endure a lot more and his sister now has to live with what has happened. You really should give at least a little s**t about this...
I do concede that if the game had been longer, with Valm getting more chapters, then Yen'fay should have gotten more screentime.
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Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 9:15 pm
In the case of Mustafa, we actually got dialogue out of him in the chapter he was featured in. Admittedly Yen'fay is probably not much of a talker, but that doesn't mean we couldn't have seen more of him. Sure every little inch of chapter 10 from the music to the rain is trying to make you feel bad, but I would call that far more effective because we had reasons to think these things beyond something that was just told to us secondhand. We saw dialogue and interactions that give the character substance beyond just being told "Mustafa's a pretty cool guy" after the fact. Sure, one of the first things we learn about him is that Gangrel will kill his family and that's why he can't retreat, but it doesn't stop there. So no one needs to say anything for this picture to be super great.Really I'm disappointed because I just see so much more potential in Yen'fay than I feel was actually used. And I didn't feel anything one way or the other. I didn't think the chapter made me want to kill Yen'fay any more or less. It just felt sort of hollow. Incidentally I just read his battle/defeat convo with Say'ri, since I hadn't gotten it in my game. Well. It's a start. I actually quite like that. Like I said before I do like the angle he has, not saying anything and not telling his sister anything, therefore straining their relationship. Some real good drama potential in there. I just feel it isn't given time to breathe and Excellus trying to fill in the blanks with muahaha exposition doesn't help. Just makes it feel more inorganic. Say'ri talking about Yen'fay in her A support with Tiki feels far more organic to me. Incidentally: Likes: Mustafa, chapter 10 Likes less: Yen'fay Dislikes: Weird pacing in parts of the story More to come. Beddy bye time.
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Posted: Wed Mar 20, 2013 10:03 pm
I think the true feel for Yen'fay comes from the aftermath; the reflection on any dislike we had for him as a person before we knew the truth, and seeing how Say'ri now has to live with the outcome. Plus, reflecting on what he must have gone through- being left with our own imaginations of how hard it must have been and knowing we can never truly know because whoops we killed him.
He gets more attention than I think is warranted, though. Why does he get official art and become one of the recruitable extra characters? Cervantes, Excellus and Mustafa are just as good as he is for that. Then again, maybe the reason why he was chosen was because they wanted to use his map and supports with MU to expand upon him more, since they didn't get to do that with him as much as they wanted to in the story.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 11:41 am
Nomad Rath Then again, maybe the reason why he was chosen was because they wanted to use his map and supports with MU to expand upon him more, since they didn't get to do that with him as much as they wanted to in the story. Or.... It could be that Yen'fay is the brother of Say'ri; therefore, that's why he was chosen and not Mustafa, Excellus, and Cervantes. >>; If you ask my opinion, I think the developers choose the characters that have strong ties or should I said "relationship" toward our units or Chrom.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:57 pm
nooooooooooo any more focus on Mustafa would ruin it! I like him being a one-off boss! In the grand scheme he's relatively not notable, but he leave an impression anyway. I feel like there's more delicious ambiguity in there and much more might spoil it.
I guess the problem I have is that in order for me to have to reflect on my dislike for Yen'fay there has to be dislike there in the first place. Ah well. Maybe it just didn't get me like it got you. Though I still do think it would be far better if Excellus wasn't so darn blatant. Ah well, maybe it will be retroactively better after the streetpass chapter? Wevs, we'll see.
Likes:
-Pair up system. A lot of fun to use in different ways, and a real refreshing changeup from past games.
-The new Support system
-The return of mawwiage and children.
-Most of the characters. I don't really dislike any of them. They bug me at worst and I adore them at best.
-Creative maps
-CHAPTER 10
-The cutscenes. Kamekaze Douga does it again!
-Voice acting. These voices are really great, and add some extra flavor to these characters since most if not all of the voices fit them like a glove. And since they are only voice clips, there is still enough room to imagine conversations on your own too.
-A dynamic and different art style. It took a bit, but it really grew on me and I love it. And the cover art is still gorgeous. THE FALCHIONS ARE PARALLEL.
-I really like how reclassing has been redone. It feels more like a real mechanic worked into the game than past games, what with the inclusion of second seals.
-Lots of replayability.
-Most things, really. One more for kicks.
Dislikes:
-Sometimes, the story can be weirdly paced. I like the story overall, but yeah.
-Excessive MU gratification. Gross.
-Some of the support conversations lean too much on animu cliches. Maybe some people like it, but it's not really my cup of tea.
-The spotpass characters don't have much effort put into them. The DLC characters should have at least had some more unique looks put into their models.
-Palla's underwear.
-No DLC Eliwood, Hector, or Sigurd? Aww maaaaaan!
-I miss Fog of War. That could have made for some more interesting scenarios too.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:29 pm
....What does him being Say'ri's brother have to do with it? That's not a reason to make somebody an unlockable extra character. It has to do with who they are.
Also, to Tiki, did perhaps spoils ruin it for you so that you already knew he was a camus? Because I got spoils on that too. That could be why you never disliked him as a person at the start. We're not supposed to know he's a camus, so all we do know is that he's a traitor who has forsaken everyone, including his sister. Without knowing the truth, he's an a** that I want to bring down. Right?
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:26 pm
We could probably get some more insight on Yen'fay through supports. I don't see why you guys are making such a big deal out of it. He's just one more character that gets benched, really.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:31 pm
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:20 pm
Nomad Rath ....What does him being Say'ri's brother have to do with it? That's not a reason to make somebody an unlockable extra character. It has to do with who they are. I agree with theees but that's not what the fanbase wants ~ I'm sure most people would prefer Yenny as a DLC as opposed to Excellus? Not sure how to spell his name. Having Excellus would be nice though, just to add some villains to the group ~ Speaking of Excellus, did anyone else think he was a really unattractive female?
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:06 pm
Knightrix Speaking of Excellus, did anyone else think he was a really unattractive female? Yes. Until Pheros referred to him as "he", I was sure Excellus was a girl.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 9:15 pm
....Seriously? I thought it was pretty obvious he was a guy. Didn't you, Valtome?  "Why yes, it's plain as day that somebody with such refined taste is indeed a man, uwee hee hee!" "Oh why thank you, kind sir, hee heee heee..." "Hey guys, what are we talking about?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:30 pm
I think the facial structure and huge lips threw me. Just... something about Excellus' design makes him look very androgynous to me.
Which made it so hilarious when I saw that everyone in the Valmese army knew he was male. I was just like eek ... and then... xd
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