Out of pure impulse I decided to boot up fates with a retranslation mod and go through each route on lunatic, starting with the one route I never actually finished.
It was....good?? But looking at some of the maps here I really can't see myself saying it's "unquestionably the best designed fire emblem".
Conquest Lunatic does actually start off incredibly strong, with its first 10 or so chapters being total bangers. It actually feels like it was playtested on higher difficulties, which is something I don't think I can say about any other fe game's hardest difficulties (except 7 and 8 which aren't too difficult anyway). Additionally shocking is that all the units you get are actually worth a damn and pretty competent out of the gate, including your resident earlygame armour knight, Effie. Chapter 10 is just as good as people say it is and the ball keeps rolling for another 6 chapters.
So Conquest makes an incredible first impression. The maps are challenging but clearly thought out, fair, and feel purposeful. Until you get to chapter 17.
Ninja Hell, as the community has aptly described it, is kind of fucking torturous. It's the start of Conquest's descent in map design quality and but a sign of what Conquest has in store for some of its endgame maps. While admittedly having an interesting gimmick, it's just. Totally overloaded with ninjas. Dodgy, speedy, debuff inflicting ninjas, that are difficult to one-round and can inflict up to 20 damage after any combat thanks to poison strike. It's certainly beatable, but boy is it not fun.
And just two chapters later, there's the infamous "Furry Hell". A route map consisting of kitsune with high bulk and speed that carry effective weaponry against a sizeable portion of your army. Did I mention it's a route map? And that you just. Can't damage some enemies on alternating turns? And that those undamageable enemies can damage your units on their enemy phase? If you want my advice, reclass Camilla into a wyvern lord after reaching level 5 in malig knight and raise her lance rank to D. Pump her with defence and give her a beastkiller.
Chapter 20 is the wind tribe map. If you didn't like it in rev you'll fucking hate it here.
And lastly, there's the final five maps. These suck so, so bad that the community recommends totally skipping as much as you can. Abuse the movement bonus in 24 to kill Hinoka and seize ASAP otherwise endure an onslaught of reinforcements. Have Corrin solo Ryoma in 25 otherwise face infinitely stacking ninja debuffs. Take the right path in 26 and painstakingly pay attention to the turn count to avoid Iago's infinite use Hexing rod. Only deploy units in the upper rooms of chapter 27, and lastly one-turn endgame with a rescue chain. Some of this shit is downright EVIL and demands near meticulous play. Lunatic Conquest is a lot like FE12 lunatic, where it's a lot like solving a puzzle (and maybe knowing about shitty reinforcement spawns beforehand). Not only does fe12 have a lot more room for error, it also doesn't have enemy exclusive skills, and has mid chapter saves. I can absolutely say if Conquest had mid-chapter saves, it'd be a much fairer experience, but it kinda just ends up as super mentally exhausting by the end. It's doable; I mean, I did it. I feel accomplished, and I'm glad I beat it, but it's unquestionably the most difficult FE experience and I can only see myself replaying conquest on hard.
As for the writing? idk you all know at this point it's fates corrin is a mega pacifist dumbass hypocrite but the retranslation definitely bumps it up from offensively bad to just kinda okay. Honestly think we took fates writing for granted because it at the very least tried telling a story that had a lot of passion behind it but got heavily cut. Engage's writing just makes me sad.
It was....good?? But looking at some of the maps here I really can't see myself saying it's "unquestionably the best designed fire emblem".
Conquest Lunatic does actually start off incredibly strong, with its first 10 or so chapters being total bangers. It actually feels like it was playtested on higher difficulties, which is something I don't think I can say about any other fe game's hardest difficulties (except 7 and 8 which aren't too difficult anyway). Additionally shocking is that all the units you get are actually worth a damn and pretty competent out of the gate, including your resident earlygame armour knight, Effie. Chapter 10 is just as good as people say it is and the ball keeps rolling for another 6 chapters.
So Conquest makes an incredible first impression. The maps are challenging but clearly thought out, fair, and feel purposeful. Until you get to chapter 17.
Ninja Hell, as the community has aptly described it, is kind of fucking torturous. It's the start of Conquest's descent in map design quality and but a sign of what Conquest has in store for some of its endgame maps. While admittedly having an interesting gimmick, it's just. Totally overloaded with ninjas. Dodgy, speedy, debuff inflicting ninjas, that are difficult to one-round and can inflict up to 20 damage after any combat thanks to poison strike. It's certainly beatable, but boy is it not fun.
And just two chapters later, there's the infamous "Furry Hell". A route map consisting of kitsune with high bulk and speed that carry effective weaponry against a sizeable portion of your army. Did I mention it's a route map? And that you just. Can't damage some enemies on alternating turns? And that those undamageable enemies can damage your units on their enemy phase? If you want my advice, reclass Camilla into a wyvern lord after reaching level 5 in malig knight and raise her lance rank to D. Pump her with defence and give her a beastkiller.
Chapter 20 is the wind tribe map. If you didn't like it in rev you'll fucking hate it here.
And lastly, there's the final five maps. These suck so, so bad that the community recommends totally skipping as much as you can. Abuse the movement bonus in 24 to kill Hinoka and seize ASAP otherwise endure an onslaught of reinforcements. Have Corrin solo Ryoma in 25 otherwise face infinitely stacking ninja debuffs. Take the right path in 26 and painstakingly pay attention to the turn count to avoid Iago's infinite use Hexing rod. Only deploy units in the upper rooms of chapter 27, and lastly one-turn endgame with a rescue chain. Some of this shit is downright EVIL and demands near meticulous play. Lunatic Conquest is a lot like FE12 lunatic, where it's a lot like solving a puzzle (and maybe knowing about shitty reinforcement spawns beforehand). Not only does fe12 have a lot more room for error, it also doesn't have enemy exclusive skills, and has mid chapter saves. I can absolutely say if Conquest had mid-chapter saves, it'd be a much fairer experience, but it kinda just ends up as super mentally exhausting by the end. It's doable; I mean, I did it. I feel accomplished, and I'm glad I beat it, but it's unquestionably the most difficult FE experience and I can only see myself replaying conquest on hard.
As for the writing? idk you all know at this point it's fates corrin is a mega pacifist dumbass hypocrite but the retranslation definitely bumps it up from offensively bad to just kinda okay. Honestly think we took fates writing for granted because it at the very least tried telling a story that had a lot of passion behind it but got heavily cut. Engage's writing just makes me sad.