Notes for my Series Replay:
- The plot feels very safe. Apart from the first game, this feels like the most formulaic story so far. Very standard case of invading neighboring country evolves into conflict with some supernatural beings/dragons. Not saying this is bad, but just very safe for the first FE post Shouzou Kaga.
- The gameplay feels significantly more defined with characters fulfilling specific niches. Classes have different stat caps, and thus characters have specific roles they're more tailored to rather than FE5's sandbox-ish style of gameplay. Also thieves are glorified keys now, as they have little combat potential, can't steal equipped items, and there is a general lack of valuable items worth stealing in FE6.
- Map design is... a thing. Most of the maps in FE6 are questionably large for the lack of enemy density in the normal difficulty. Many of my turns were just spent moving units up to the next encounter, which got to be a little frustrating on some of the more tedious maps. Speaking of which, there are many of those. FE6 maps aren't as large as FE4's maps, but they only sometimes have a gaiden objective, and they're mostly just standard seize maps with very little complexity. Sure, there are some memorable maps, and some notoriously bad maps, but overall I just felt meh on FE6's map design.
- Speaking of gaiden chapters, I have absolutely no clue how the average player is supposed to figure out how to reach them. Thracia is also guilty of this, but this game is mostly just turn limits reqs on maps that are needlessly slow and tedious (I'm looking at you, Chapter 14).
- FE6 somewhat weakened support units and put combat units back in the spotlight compared to FE5. There are still status staves and warp, and the like, but they have been severely hindered from their previous appearance. They have either limited range or accuracy checks to mitigate their performance this time around, and as such, I found myself relying on them as a viable strategy less often.
- But hey guess what, siege tomes and ballista are back. They are not nearly as threatening as in FE5 but still frustrating as hell sometimes. FE6 tends to group together status staves and it makes a somewhat uneventful map turn into a "oh fuck did i bring restore" check. Luckily there are very few maps where this is an issue, but I still felt it was worth noting.
- The one thing I REALLY liked about FE6 was the world building. The nations and their politics made the story of this game really fascinating, and I found myself wanting more of that and less of the dragon stuff to be quite honest. But maybe that's the consequence of playing these games back to back like this.
Overall, I like the vibes of FE6 and the world that it creates, but I feel like the gameplay is just kinda "eh" and after the spectacular gameplay of FE5, I felt a little disappointed. It's a solid game, just a little too safe after what felt like a great leap forward for the series.
- The plot feels very safe. Apart from the first game, this feels like the most formulaic story so far. Very standard case of invading neighboring country evolves into conflict with some supernatural beings/dragons. Not saying this is bad, but just very safe for the first FE post Shouzou Kaga.
- The gameplay feels significantly more defined with characters fulfilling specific niches. Classes have different stat caps, and thus characters have specific roles they're more tailored to rather than FE5's sandbox-ish style of gameplay. Also thieves are glorified keys now, as they have little combat potential, can't steal equipped items, and there is a general lack of valuable items worth stealing in FE6.
- Map design is... a thing. Most of the maps in FE6 are questionably large for the lack of enemy density in the normal difficulty. Many of my turns were just spent moving units up to the next encounter, which got to be a little frustrating on some of the more tedious maps. Speaking of which, there are many of those. FE6 maps aren't as large as FE4's maps, but they only sometimes have a gaiden objective, and they're mostly just standard seize maps with very little complexity. Sure, there are some memorable maps, and some notoriously bad maps, but overall I just felt meh on FE6's map design.
- Speaking of gaiden chapters, I have absolutely no clue how the average player is supposed to figure out how to reach them. Thracia is also guilty of this, but this game is mostly just turn limits reqs on maps that are needlessly slow and tedious (I'm looking at you, Chapter 14).
- FE6 somewhat weakened support units and put combat units back in the spotlight compared to FE5. There are still status staves and warp, and the like, but they have been severely hindered from their previous appearance. They have either limited range or accuracy checks to mitigate their performance this time around, and as such, I found myself relying on them as a viable strategy less often.
- But hey guess what, siege tomes and ballista are back. They are not nearly as threatening as in FE5 but still frustrating as hell sometimes. FE6 tends to group together status staves and it makes a somewhat uneventful map turn into a "oh fuck did i bring restore" check. Luckily there are very few maps where this is an issue, but I still felt it was worth noting.
- The one thing I REALLY liked about FE6 was the world building. The nations and their politics made the story of this game really fascinating, and I found myself wanting more of that and less of the dragon stuff to be quite honest. But maybe that's the consequence of playing these games back to back like this.
Overall, I like the vibes of FE6 and the world that it creates, but I feel like the gameplay is just kinda "eh" and after the spectacular gameplay of FE5, I felt a little disappointed. It's a solid game, just a little too safe after what felt like a great leap forward for the series.