Replayed Fire Emblem Awakening on Hard. Meh.

fire emblem chrom

Hey! Since when does Chrom have feet?!

When I played Fire Emblem Awakening two years ago, I thought playing the game on Normal instead of Hard was a big part of why it seemed so dull and uninspired to me. After all, without any worthwhile challenge 90% of the game system just went out of the window, making it just like any other SRPG I’d ever played, only easier and with a messier story.

After finishing Tokyo Majin I felt like an SRPG (I always feel like an SRPG) and borrowed FEA again to test my theory, but! It was too late for this experiment. Between the time of my first playthrough and this game, I had already discovered the joys of playing Fire Emblem in Casual Mode. I can’t go back. I won’t go back!

The problem is that Fire Emblem is designed around users playing Classic permadeath mode. Once you take away that fear of death, the enemies are revealed for the wimps that they are and each battle just becomes a matter of bulldozing and steamrolling everything in your path.

If Intelligent Systems had wanted to keep things the same, they would have removed world map Risen battles from Casual mode, thus making it important to keep your characters alive as long as possible so they can gain EXP. As it is I don’t even blink when any character bites the dust and I don’t make any effort to keep healers and squishy mages out of harm’s way. I think Sumia has died on virtually every map I have fielded her on, but it’s all good because Casual Mode. This rocks!

So, several easy deaths and easy resurrections later, I’ve made it up to the Endgame. For most of the game I still didn’t pair anyone up and I only reclassed Lon’qu and Sully because they were terrible. I used more Silver and other powerful weapons because to their credit the enemies have more HP and DEF now but that’s about it for all the difference Hard makes. Oh yeah, and either Support rates grow more slowly on Hard or I’m doing it wrong, because apart from Chrom’s forced marriage, no one else has reached S support with anyone else. Which is kinda good because I like keeping my options open and don’t particularly need any kids. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Hanayaka nari Waga Ichizoku – Final roundup

hanayaka nari waga ichizoku coverHmm, I wasn’t going to do this, but for the sake of closure… Besides, I’ve talked about the gameplay and the various routes I did, but I haven’t said much about my thoughts on Hanayaka nari Waga Ichizoku quality-wise, so here goes. In point form. Which always ends up longer than if I’d just written a proper review ^^;

Pluses

– Short routes, snappy dialogue, frequent scene changes and a small cast means you can 100% the game easily without trying.
– It’s fun (and funny) to watch the happier interactions between the brothers, especially on Susumu’s route and on Tadashi’s route. I’m a level 98 Sibling Teaser in RL so I can totally relate.
– I like the non-anime-ish character designs. Realistic eye sizes, realistic hair and skin colors, realistic clothing choices for the era. They don’t go so far as to look like real human beings or anything, but the non-cartoony designs are a nice change from the usual.
– I also liked the fashions and cultural attitudes of the Taisho era – family means everything, you marry when you’re 18, women have no real say in who they marry, foreign foods like cake are an exciting novelty, everyone who wants to seem cultured is reading English or German books, celebrating your birthday on your birthdate is weird, men and women dancing together is like AAAH THE WORLD IS ENDING!! etc. There’s a glossary of Taisho keywords that explains many of these customs and concepts if you’re really interested (I wasn’t that interested). Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Hanayaka nari Waga Ichizoku – Masashi GET!

"HOW POSSIBLE?!" I actually screamed out loud when I saw this scene.

“HOW POSSIBLE?!” I actually screamed out loud when I saw this scene.

*boing* I jumped from Isami’s arms straight into Masashi’s without looking back. When I watched the HanaIchi trailers years ago before the game came out, Masashi’s was the one route I swore I would never go on, but lo and behold, it’s my favorite. In fact, they’re all my favorite, depending on what I played most recently.

Masashi is just a tsundere through and through, but instead of being bewildered by his changing attitudes, Haru susses out his personality pretty quickly and has plenty of fun at his expense. It was also pretty funny when he decided to ‘take responsibility’ for accidentally kissing Haru by marrying her… In retrospect he was probably just looking for an excuse to get closer to her. Yeah yeah, Masashi, I know you like me, you just keep pretending you don’t. The harder he tried, the more I enjoyed watching him squirm ^_^ Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Hanayaka nari Waga Ichizoku – Isami GET!

I know you~ I dated your brother once upon a dream~

I know you~ I dated your brother once upon a dream~

Hmm. I don’t know… Isami’s route is the most romantic so far in HanaIchi, and it’s nice to be loved and wanted, but the man in question… hmm. He’s a rather dense idiot, which makes him easy enough to fool and lie to, but he’s also a huge jerk who doesn’t know he’s a jerk. He may treat Haru nicely, but it’s just her: Haru. All other maids and servants are still less than dirt to him, plus he has conveniently ‘forgotten’ all the mean things he said to her when she was ‘just a maid’ so I don’t see the remorse or change of heart there. Once the blush of newlywed life wears off, will he keep treating her well or will he revert to being a jerk? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t have risked it if I were Haru.

But she did and we got Isami and they’re happy together, and that’s what matters. Not much was revealed about the real story with the assassin on this route. The assassin attacks, they fight, he gets away, he comes back, they fight again, and on and on. I’m really not sure what this assassin is after, but he doesn’t seem like a particularly competent guy to me. If he really wanted Isami and Genichiro dead he had tons of opportunities. Well, I don’t care. Do please go on, this is most interesting →

Hanayaka nari Waga Ichizoku – Tadashi GET!

I know you~ I walked with you once upon a dream~~

I know you~ I walked with you once upon a dream~~

I can’t decide whether I’m happy or not. Tadashi is a much more interesting character and his route was a lot more fun than Susumu’s, plus he actually proposes marriage at the end and is willing to throw everything away to make it happen but I’m kind of wishing he hadn’t been.

I was well on my way to a bittersweet ending where Haru leaves the mansion while Tadashi enters a loveless marriage which he regrets every day for the rest of his life, boo hoo hoo, it’s so sad, sniff sniff… And then they had to ruin it all with a typical Cinderella Hollywood ending. I’m not unhappy, but the separated-for-life ending would have been fresher and more exciting. Plenty of games have ‘bad’ endings, but this would have been an unusually well-planned and telegraphed one, so I was looking forward to it until the last-minute swerve. Do please go on, this is most interesting →