#i miss the art style of echoes. still my fav fire emblem game for the art the music the tactics the storyline. everything.

[orcelito]

The new fire emblem's protagonists Do kinda look better with fanartists. But I just hate how they look in the actual game. They look so ridiculous and incongruent within their own designs. It's so glaring, it will probably be hard to ignore in-game.

[aquajolt]

Fire Emblem Echoes

Just gonna rant about Echoes now. Rant under the bit. Have you played Echoes? Did you like? How would you compare it to others FE games you’ve played? Which in the series is your fav?

I loved Echoes’ ‘return to form’ as they say compared to Fates and Awakening. I start with FE7 and tho you have the world map to grind experience, I played it like I would an normal RPG (Pokemon/Tales/FF etc). You fight everything in your way!

So by the end of the game, I was on par or under leveled. I still muscled through and beat the game, so here are some things I think back on, smile and remember how cool the setting./characters/mechanics were. =) 

- Genny. Genny was 1) adorable. 2) Healers were dope. 3) Spells were learned as you leveled up which was cool. and 4) Expel. Expel was a spell you cast that unleashed a wave of holy energy. It had a 65-70% chance to instant destory a lesser ‘spawned’ minion of darkness. It got negated near the end of the game where greater minions spawned. But throughout 95% of the game, Genny was mvp everywhere! She healed for days. She absorbed enemies with her 24+ attack stat. She Physic healed at range. And OMG! 5) She had invoke. Another handy spell that summons mooks to act as decoys and meatshields. They got off chip damage and formed walls to protect Genny and her Allies. Genny was amazing! Everytime I had her use Expel, I felt like she was in a Tales game yelling it out when she cast it. EXPEL! WOOOOSH! So good

Chip Damage. If you’re defensive stats are greater than your opponents attack, in other games you took zero damage. In echoes. the defending unit takes 1 damage. This was AMAZING! You tanks slowly were slipping defending the front lines. Your archers and ranged units were softening up bosses and enemy tanks. It just felt GOOD. It felt realistic. 

Speaking of wearing units down. There was exhaustion. If you used the same unit over and over and over again. They got tired. A little like the Biorhythm mechanic from Radiant Dawn. If you let them eat food to restore stamina (in Echoes) they got their energy back and could keep fighting. It never was a real big deal but it was cool thing to keep track of. 

Spells - in echoes, spellcasting had an HP cost. No longer can you spell spam. Spells also had weight (which I’ll get to in a minute) which slowed down the casters speed. Higher damage, higher hp cost, no longer can double probably. Made healers VERY useful keeping your mages’ hp topped off. ALSO! Magic had a flat accuracy rate. It ignored dodge/avoid %. Which I thought was dope! Also spells had more range! 1-2, 1-3!  O! And as a default, mages when counterattacked use the lowest hp costing spell to counterattack, e.g. fire. While in some cases, if they had used a stronger spell, having it default to fire ensured that if your mage was baiting 2-5 enemies they could tank, the hp cost of fire wasn’t going to have them die to chip damage or something. Nice of IS to do that. 

Weight came back. They did this a little bit in Fates. Why would you NOT use a stronger weapon. Well, it would add more attack but minus your speed. Or your crit rate. Or your hit rate was lower. Weight in echoes simply subtracted from your speed stat when figuring out if you or the enemy can double attack.  

Weapons and items sometimes gave you special abilities that you learned over time. Shields give you passive abilities or the swap action. Weapons gave you unique bonuses to hit and sometimes increased your defense or crit avoid that attack. They were all pretty interesting. My Lance Knight had Tempest. He’d attack with +20 to hit and +6 to damage. I found it very useful when I needed to just Go big to finish off a boss or something. 

Voice acting. OOOO. Did they gamble big with this. Almost every line is voiced and the cast is pretty great overall. The visuals and delivery was excellent. I loved Mae’s “I’m still hyper. LET’S GO!” when you select her in battle was hilarious throughout the game. 

I love how when a battle starts the units race into battle, draw their weapons and then make their attacks (akin to what RD did). I love how when enemies deal chip damage, the unit actually BLOCKS their attack and then counterattacks. 

Archers with 1-5 range. Close counter archers. LONG RANGE ARCHERS! What is this Trueshot Rank 3 Archers from RD?! Rolf Double Bow 2-4 range?! X_x

Can’t forget the music. The score was divine. It was a classic FE, fantasy score to complement the turn based strategy nature of the game. I loved Alm and Celica’s Act 4 map themes. The final boss theme was phenomenal. It was just SO GOOD! =D 

Art and character designs were fantastic. I’m a sucker for the Tellius series and I wasn’t a huge fan of Awakening and Fates style. So when Echoes showcased its style, I felt that it was a return to FE9/10. It felt... nice. 

Going into the final level without some promotions (opps Celica route chars) or Global heal was iffy. =p  But. I had 6 healers, 3 of which were Saints. Sooooo it worked! =D I also didn’t kill the ‘midboss’. I never figured that out. =p WHEEE!

And that’s all I got. Sure I’m missing some stuff. If you read this, thanks for reading. If you played Echoes, what did you like about the game? Agree with something on my list? Let me know! =D