I love how Conquest Lunatic just added skills instead of bumping enemy stats. If the final part of the game wasn´t so full of gimmick maps it´d be so good
Agreed. The biggest mistake Shadow Dragon did in the early game was make the enemy defense way too high and in Awakening adding random skills made some maps nearly impossible forcing a reset until you got what you wanted. Conquest and FE12 did difficulty the best as it seemed heavily tested by the dev team.
@@lanceareadbhar I dunno... There are instances where I prefer rankings being the means of difficulty. Just like the games that have different difficulty modes, ranked runs also requires high efficiency. Difference being that in games with rankings, the game is designed to have a higher possible chance to complete. Difference being the means to get there. Unfortunately, you only find out at the end of the run to know the results. Games with different difficulties, there's more of a guarantee that you wouldn't complete the game at all. But at least one is aware of success every time a map is completed.
I think the gimmick of Conquest Endgame is what really ties it together. As with all games, it's possible to roll through a huge chunk of it by power leveling only a few units. But if you were to do that in CQ, the endgame would tear you up. It's probably the only FE game that truly punishes you for attempting to do this with the endgame, and it incentivizes creative unit creation. Master Ninja Soleil for the hallway, stuff like that.
it's worth noting that in the Japanese version of Radiant Dawn the three difficulties were called Normal, Hard and Maniac rather than Easy, Normal and Hard. They did not actually change the difficulties besides that name in the international release, meaning that the names are very deceptive.
@@georgemeyers7172 I believe I’ve heard someone say it’s likely it was done so it matched Path of Radiance having easy, normal, and hard. I’m pretty sure if you had an easy mode file of PoR set up with transfer bonuses for Radiant Dawn it wouldn’t work in some way due to Easy not being a thing in the Japanese release of PoR as well.
There are a lot of differences between JP and EN vers which overall serve to make the EN Hard be easier than JP Maniac. Notably: -Forging Points make part 1 even harder due to being a money drain -Can't promo with level 21 tier 2 -> 3 -Laguz upon unshifting manually will drop their gauge to 0 -Wrath and Resolve are % procs below 20% HP which makes them unusable
Path of Radiance actually has a ton of differences between Normal and Difficult. Shops are different, Final Boss has a second phase, and the difficulties effect when your Laguz Royal joins. I'd have to check again for anything else, but Difficult Mode has a lot more going on than said here, though I hardly blame ya for not going through every little thing and checking it.
in chapter 11 the Black Knight moves 2 tiles per turn on difficult and 3 on maniac. also on difficult/maniac Ashnard will chase you if you get in his range or after a certain amount of turns have passed in the final chapter
12:22 Literally actually rolled an anti-existence run-ruining Myrmidon in the Prologue. Glad to see you're properly showing us the genuine Lunatic+ experience.
You didn't mention another effect of Gaiden Easy mode - on Normal mode, Alm's and Celica's convoys are separated (like in Shadows of Valentia), while on Easy mode they share the convoy, so you can easily transfer items between the two groups.
Having beaten all FE games on highest difficulties, these are the 5 most evil on the highest difficulties, ranked: 5: Binding Blade 4: Conquest 3: Awakening 2: New Mystery 1: Shadow Dragon
@@ryanprjgamingchannel9437 Radiant Dawn can be pretty hard. There are certainly some brutal chapters: The ones where you play as the Dawn Brigade in part 3 comes to mind. However, Radiant Dawn absolutely showers you in overpowered prepromotes and gives you so many tools to make the game easier like Bonus EXP and swapable skills, which can all be exploited by an experienced player. It's certainly above average in terms of difficulty, but compared to my top 5, where all the games just brutally mistreat you from start to finish, Radiant Dawn is alright.
@@Anonymos185 So it's just a massive power seep. The easiest way to beat the game to use most of the unit provided later, especially the Gotohs at the end?
@@ryanprjgamingchannel9437 Not even necessarily later. Many of the strongest units you get very early. You can't really compare RD's game balancing to any other game in the franchise, since you play as multiple armies with party members routinely coming and going. A unit named Nailah is a good example. She joins very early and helps immensily for several chapters, then dissapears for most of the game, before rejoining in the last 1/4 of the game. She kinda goes from Jagen to Gotoh, but I feel like both terms fail to accurately describe her utility. Radiant Dawn also has quite a few regular units that are worth training, like any other FE game, and quite a few that are fantastic for a while, then leave the party and are close to worthless by the time they come back. The gap between good and bad units is just much more evident here.
@@ZX-Gear It was mostly a joke, I'm not entirely sure. But considering the randomness in enemy stats or skills in some of the games, you'd have to wonder if it was tested at all.
Well, I learned something about Shadow Dragon's difficulty at least. In hard mode, the more stars the enemy level has, the higher your chances of getting multiple game overs! Odds of progressing through the story in hard mode are slim to none! And slim got slain by Link's Master Sword.
11:50 "Experience gained by repeatedly attacking a single enemy will gradually diminish until it rewards no experience at all." You mentioned this for Awakening. I have recorded evidence that this is *also* the case in Fates. I brought a heart seal with me into Mozu's paralogue and turned her into an archer immediately, and thought she was going to get an enormous amount of xp by repeatedly plinking away at the boss (who does not move and only attacks adjacent) for 2 damage per turn. First few shots gave 10 xp each, but after that, it became 9, then 8, then 7, and so on until nothing at all. Mozu still got a ridiculous amount of xp from that one faceless, just not as much as I initially hoped. This was on Conquest Lunatic Classic. I do not know if this mechanic applies in other routes or difficulties.
For me it just depends on the game. In three houses I found hard mode to be pretty easy after my second hard playthrough. Meanwhile I think awakening's hard mode to be ridiculously harder than normal mode making the game incredibly unfun bevause of the excessive amount of ambush spawns.
Kind of like how Wolfenstein had the four difficulties, with one between semi-hard and intense (Referring to "Bring 'em on" which is between "don't hurt me" and "I am death incarnate")
I really hate it when higher difficulties put enemy reinforcement phase before movement phase. I want the increased challenge. I don't want to lose characters because of enemies I had literally no information about. Archer appears out of nowhere, 1 shots my pegasus rider without giving me any opportunity to respond. It's maddening to see this feature come and go throughout the series. Radiant Dawn's removal of the weapon triangle and enemy movement previews was also just trash. Which isn't to say I think all hard mode decisions aside from these were good. But I think a case can be made for them. Enemies always attack first? I think it's dumb and hate it. But the player knows it's going to happen, and can adjust their strategies to account for this. It's a fresh way to play the game that's obnoxious and frustrating, but still technically fair play.
Random thought I had recently, not sure if it could actually work in a video, but I was thinking just how many songs (specifically map themes) the games have. I actually havent counted for awakening (and I dunno about FE4/5) but fates wins by a fair/massive margin, though RD is also a lot higher than the others. Three houses is the first/only game where they heavily reused maps I think, although its not too bad? Counting the ratio of maps would be interesting but most games dont internally reuse maps. The three routes of fates have some overlap with each other but each route internally doesnt. Otherwise for numbers would be something like character and/or weapon/enemy statistics. Capped speed enemies in FE12 lunatic, FE9 maniac is also quite absurd. FE13 lunatic is really only difficult at the start, though the difficulty keeps you on your toes. While Fates is actually reasonably balanced, though enemies do have capped stats near the end. RD difficulty is weird because the enemy stats start high but scale slowly, so the main difficulty is the initial starting of the difficulty. (Among other things as well) I'm not sure why POR feels so weird, but the defense and stuff definitely doesnt help. RD (in general) also has really FAST enemies (24/25 speed generals in the endgame is unheard of outside of the capped speed enemies in FE12) FE12 though is more brutal than fe13 since the entire game is always on a knife edge, your units cant reliably dodge or tank and you basically have to play near borderline perfectly for 20++ chapters. In the middlegame when your units are promoting and your stats are going up its somewhat manageable, but then lategame hits and you get mauled by (near) capped stat enemies. 3H maddenning is mostly just extra difficulty and curve scaling on top, so basically more of the same. 3H syndrome really.
For the video itself: FE9 on hard (and maniac) the final chapter is slightly different because ashnard doesnt go second form in easy/normal (and the tibarn/naesala/giffca joins you earlier). FE9 also doesnt have FOW on easy/normal. In maniac there are also more promoted enemies and they are earlier, and more siege tomes and status staves in the later chapters.
I only briefly played FE10 easy, but some maps have objectives totally changed. While its been awhile I dont recall most of the games having "smarter ai" on the harder difficulties. From what I heard the endgame is also somewhat changed if you play easy mode. BK doesnt have the imbue skill to recover hp, and from 4E3 onwards all your units get +5 to all stats. Ashera's auto revive also "only" recovers 30 hp but eh.
To my knowledge in fates the exp gain is (supposedly) the same on all difficulties. I've only played on lunatic myself but from what I recall the numbers seem similar/identical to what i've seen others play on hard and normal.
While not an official FE game, I find that the most recent warriors really crystallizes what is wrong about modern FE difficulty. You pick hard and the first map you get after the route split recommends a level of 16....when shez is likely your highest at about 6-8. Hard, but navigable with knowledge of the combat system and exploits of triangle advantages. Meanwhile that same "optinal" mission in madding recommends being level fucking 108! Even with NG+, unless is is a third/forth cycle or you grind-ed excessively, one of the few characters you brought over and can use would only be in their 50s. Is a middle ground too much to ask for?
The highest difficulty in Musou games is intended as a challenge for maxed characters. A middle ground would have been nice, but it's not unbalanced in and of itself.
50 is actually good enough to deal with level 100 enemies, if you have good weapons, abuse weapon triangle and don't get hit too much. Stats just matter much less in Warriors (though they still do matter in that you just can't NG Maddening).
you don't even unlock maddening before beating the game, so it's clearly intended to be played with new game + unit levels. i really don't see the problem.
@@GKoopa yeah, especially since you can just bump the levels of your crew to that of your highest leveled unit. My Shez after Hard Scarlet Blaze was like lvl 80 (I S ranked everything), whereas everyone else was lvl 50. I finished Maddening Azure Gleam with lvl 120 Shez and everyone else at around lvl 45, and it was still easier than Hard just because of NG+ bonuses. There's literally zero reason to play Maddening without NG+ though, unless you just want to torture yourself.
@@UltimusTerminus NG Maddening might just be unwinnable depending on route - the FIRST Scarlet Blaze mission requires you to kill several leaders in three minutes, and it's just not happening with a 90 level gap.
I think you forgot the Radiant Dawn script changes. I've heard that in the JP version of Radiant Dawn, you got a more detailed script the higher the difficulty setting you were playing on but in the NA release they used the normal mode script for each difficulty setting.
this is actually false, the english script for radiant dawn is actually a hybrid of the japanese normal and hard mode script. in japanese normal mode (english easy), the script is simplified, things are explained more directly, and there's less character moments, while the hard/lunatic script is the intended script. the english script is not only consistent on all difficulties, but it has some character moments from the japanese hard script, while also being a bit more simplified compared to it. tbh the english script is probably the best, if only due to making the fuck up that is the blood pact make some level of sense in universe and not just be an absurdly obvious plot point
Great analysis! I'd like to inquire tho about which paralogue in 3H maddening scale with your levels/chapter? In my experience it was the opposite: paralogue immediately seem daunting at first in maddening when they first unlock, but after a chapter or 2, when your units are higher levels, they get much easier.
It doesn't happen for all paralogues, but a couple examples would be War for the Weak in which the enemies are level 18 and the boss is level 20, if this paralogue is attempted during chapter 6. If attempted in chapter 7 or later the enemies will be level 19 and the boss is level 21. In Legend of the Lake the enemies are level 35 if attempted during chapter 15. If attempted in chapter 16 or later the enemies are level 38.
@@halvey_ Those are the Dedue and Leonie paralogues, correct? Hmm, I'll confess I've never noticed if that's the case. The enemies in Leonie paralogue are hard to see given the fog of war, so I can't say that I've ever noticed their levels. As for the Dedue paralogue, that one is always troublesome when it pops up in chapter 6, so it's best to wait until chapter 7 or 8.
Yes those are the Dedue and Leonie paralogues. Another example is Weathervanes of Fodlan, the Annette and Gilbert paralogue. In it enemies are level 34 during chapter 14, then level 35 during chapter 15, then level 36 during chapter 16 or later.
next to awakening Lunatic+ which is just "play and survive til you can buy your broken einherjars", Radiant Dawn's hard mode is.. deff legit one of the worse ones in the series primarily due to removing enemy range, but especially no battle saves to abuse level ups with. the suspend feature that you get, is generally, functionally worse compared to battle saves, as with battle saves, the rng is rerolled everytime you start it up. but with suspend, while it is a good way to take a break from playing, it means the game's rng is usually "set in stone". for that turn. meaning, the next time you play, unless you go out of your way to ensure the same result doesn't happen via ending turns or move/use a diff unit to attack, usually the result's almost always the same. the removal of weapon triangle was deff very interesting for Radiant Dawn, but them removing battle saves, which were specifically intended for the very long chapters in the latter half of the game(aside manipulating level ups), and esp the enemy ranges preview was a horrible idea. its basically path of radiance with no battle saves(POR never had any, making perfect levels for RD stat transfers more painful) but worse due to much longer maps. those two changes in hard mode of RD, the removal of enemy range preview and no battle saves are just cruel with how long the game's chapters can be and how dangerous the enemies, especially laguz types and your own characters in the dawn brigade vs Greil mercenaries chapters are in RD. but I'll deff give the weapon triangle removal a point cuz thats a really neat idea despite the lost of triangle advantages.
If only echoes had a higher difficulty setting. Then again I guess I could ban killer bows for myself. Also 3H's maddening mode is lame the enemies are way too high of a level I want to have a variety of units not have an army of wyvern lords lol
Enemies start moving the same turn they appear REGARDLESS of difficulty in all games that have same turn reinforcements Also no, the enemies AI don't change between difficulties Also again, in fates you can't reset for different lvl ups regardless of difficulty Eh in echoes you don't get more xp in hard mode, the enemies are higher lvl so you gain more xp per kill BUT the exp formula is the same
@@mysmallnoman fe4 AI definitely changes, that's the entire point. AI in fe4 is based on the leadership of their commander. In clever mode, every commander is treated like having 5 Stars in terms of AI.
@@mysmallnoman he didn't say anything about FE4 having different difficulty modes, he said that FE4's AI becomes smarter when you activate clever mode as is said in the video at around 0:35
I love how Conquest Lunatic just added skills instead of bumping enemy stats. If the final part of the game wasn´t so full of gimmick maps it´d be so good
Agreed. The biggest mistake Shadow Dragon did in the early game was make the enemy defense way too high and in Awakening adding random skills made some maps nearly impossible forcing a reset until you got what you wanted. Conquest and FE12 did difficulty the best as it seemed heavily tested by the dev team.
@@lanceareadbhar I dunno... There are instances where I prefer rankings being the means of difficulty.
Just like the games that have different difficulty modes, ranked runs also requires high efficiency.
Difference being that in games with rankings, the game is designed to have a higher possible chance to complete. Difference being the means to get there. Unfortunately, you only find out at the end of the run to know the results.
Games with different difficulties, there's more of a guarantee that you wouldn't complete the game at all. But at least one is aware of success every time a map is completed.
@@lanceareadbhar Also fe12
12 move 1-2 range ambush spawn dragons that spawn when you cross THIS line
I think the gimmick of Conquest Endgame is what really ties it together. As with all games, it's possible to roll through a huge chunk of it by power leveling only a few units. But if you were to do that in CQ, the endgame would tear you up. It's probably the only FE game that truly punishes you for attempting to do this with the endgame, and it incentivizes creative unit creation. Master Ninja Soleil for the hallway, stuff like that.
it's worth noting that in the Japanese version of Radiant Dawn the three difficulties were called Normal, Hard and Maniac rather than Easy, Normal and Hard. They did not actually change the difficulties besides that name in the international release, meaning that the names are very deceptive.
Why the hell would they do that? Oh wait... Probably because they think The Westerners wouldn't go for Hard/Normal or something like that I think?
@@georgemeyers7172 I believe I’ve heard someone say it’s likely it was done so it matched Path of Radiance having easy, normal, and hard. I’m pretty sure if you had an easy mode file of PoR set up with transfer bonuses for Radiant Dawn it wouldn’t work in some way due to Easy not being a thing in the Japanese release of PoR as well.
@SigmaXVII_ Only in the first NA release. A patched version also came out: and then the EUR version fixed even more stuff.
@@qazentro4444 Okay?
There are a lot of differences between JP and EN vers which overall serve to make the EN Hard be easier than JP Maniac. Notably:
-Forging Points make part 1 even harder due to being a money drain
-Can't promo with level 21 tier 2 -> 3
-Laguz upon unshifting manually will drop their gauge to 0
-Wrath and Resolve are % procs below 20% HP which makes them unusable
Path of Radiance actually has a ton of differences between Normal and Difficult. Shops are different, Final Boss has a second phase, and the difficulties effect when your Laguz Royal joins. I'd have to check again for anything else, but Difficult Mode has a lot more going on than said here, though I hardly blame ya for not going through every little thing and checking it.
in chapter 11 the Black Knight moves 2 tiles per turn on difficult and 3 on maniac. also on difficult/maniac Ashnard will chase you if you get in his range or after a certain amount of turns have passed in the final chapter
very nice recap, would also like to add that Path of Radiance's final boss has a second form on higher difficulties
Other Fe games:ai better. Stronger and more enemies
Fe awakening:so we decided to make this game a lottery instead. Have fun with resetting.
FE Sacred Stones: Yeah, we gave enemies, like, +1 HP, and maybe +1 in another stat.
12:22 Literally actually rolled an anti-existence run-ruining Myrmidon in the Prologue. Glad to see you're properly showing us the genuine Lunatic+ experience.
You didn't mention another effect of Gaiden Easy mode - on Normal mode, Alm's and Celica's convoys are separated (like in Shadows of Valentia), while on Easy mode they share the convoy, so you can easily transfer items between the two groups.
Is that Gaiden exclusive? I can't remember but I don't think any mode in Echoes allowed that.
@@l.n.3372 Yes, it is Gaiden exdlusive.
Having beaten all FE games on highest difficulties, these are the 5 most evil on the highest difficulties, ranked:
5: Binding Blade
4: Conquest
3: Awakening
2: New Mystery
1: Shadow Dragon
Why is Radiant Dawn Hard mode in global feels easy compared to these?
@@ryanprjgamingchannel9437 Radiant Dawn can be pretty hard. There are certainly some brutal chapters: The ones where you play as the Dawn Brigade in part 3 comes to mind.
However, Radiant Dawn absolutely showers you in overpowered prepromotes and gives you so many tools to make the game easier like Bonus EXP and swapable skills, which can all be exploited by an experienced player.
It's certainly above average in terms of difficulty, but compared to my top 5, where all the games just brutally mistreat you from start to finish, Radiant Dawn is alright.
@@Anonymos185 So it's just a massive power seep. The easiest way to beat the game to use most of the unit provided later, especially the Gotohs at the end?
@@ryanprjgamingchannel9437 Not even necessarily later. Many of the strongest units you get very early. You can't really compare RD's game balancing to any other game in the franchise, since you play as multiple armies with party members routinely coming and going.
A unit named Nailah is a good example. She joins very early and helps immensily for several chapters, then dissapears for most of the game, before rejoining in the last 1/4 of the game. She kinda goes from Jagen to Gotoh, but I feel like both terms fail to accurately describe her utility.
Radiant Dawn also has quite a few regular units that are worth training, like any other FE game, and quite a few that are fantastic for a while, then leave the party and are close to worthless by the time they come back. The gap between good and bad units is just much more evident here.
@@Anonymos185 Only like 1/5 of the cast start at tier 1. Makes sense. It happens that some of these are "worst units"
Damn. What were IS thinking when they gave FE12's Lunatic Mode enemies Vantage as a base skill?
That's the thing, they probably weren't.
@@mcihay246 I am guessing play testing these modes weren't and probably still isn't a thing?
@@ZX-Gear It was mostly a joke, I'm not entirely sure.
But considering the randomness in enemy stats or skills in some of the games, you'd have to wonder if it was tested at all.
@@mcihay246 I know Radiant Historia's(3DS) Deadly Mode was not play tested at all as some of the bosses are pretty much impossible in that game.
That's literally one mode (H4)
And it's an extremely challenging mode that's actually good
Well, I learned something about Shadow Dragon's difficulty at least.
In hard mode, the more stars the enemy level has, the higher your chances of getting multiple game overs! Odds of progressing through the story in hard mode are slim to none! And slim got slain by Link's Master Sword.
Congrats on having this video pop off
11:50 "Experience gained by repeatedly attacking a single enemy will gradually diminish until it rewards no experience at all."
You mentioned this for Awakening. I have recorded evidence that this is *also* the case in Fates. I brought a heart seal with me into Mozu's paralogue and turned her into an archer immediately, and thought she was going to get an enormous amount of xp by repeatedly plinking away at the boss (who does not move and only attacks adjacent) for 2 damage per turn. First few shots gave 10 xp each, but after that, it became 9, then 8, then 7, and so on until nothing at all. Mozu still got a ridiculous amount of xp from that one faceless, just not as much as I initially hoped.
This was on Conquest Lunatic Classic. I do not know if this mechanic applies in other routes or difficulties.
In my opinion, hard mode is too easy and lunatic mode is too hard.
I think we need a difficulty in the middle.
For me it just depends on the game. In three houses I found hard mode to be pretty easy after my second hard playthrough. Meanwhile I think awakening's hard mode to be ridiculously harder than normal mode making the game incredibly unfun bevause of the excessive amount of ambush spawns.
Kind of like how Wolfenstein had the four difficulties, with one between semi-hard and intense
(Referring to "Bring 'em on" which is between "don't hurt me" and "I am death incarnate")
There are things you can do to add to the difficulty though. Like not using items that give buffs or limiting the class of weapons you can use.
@@riaz8783 yeah but i'm talking about playing it normally w/o handicaps
I really hate it when higher difficulties put enemy reinforcement phase before movement phase.
I want the increased challenge.
I don't want to lose characters because of enemies I had literally no information about. Archer appears out of nowhere, 1 shots my pegasus rider without giving me any opportunity to respond.
It's maddening to see this feature come and go throughout the series.
Radiant Dawn's removal of the weapon triangle and enemy movement previews was also just trash.
Which isn't to say I think all hard mode decisions aside from these were good. But I think a case can be made for them.
Enemies always attack first? I think it's dumb and hate it. But the player knows it's going to happen, and can adjust their strategies to account for this. It's a fresh way to play the game that's obnoxious and frustrating, but still technically fair play.
Thanks for this video, sometimes those differences get blured and result on a frustrating firdt playthrough
W upload
Random thought I had recently, not sure if it could actually work in a video, but I was thinking just how many songs (specifically map themes) the games have. I actually havent counted for awakening (and I dunno about FE4/5) but fates wins by a fair/massive margin, though RD is also a lot higher than the others.
Three houses is the first/only game where they heavily reused maps I think, although its not too bad? Counting the ratio of maps would be interesting but most games dont internally reuse maps. The three routes of fates have some overlap with each other but each route internally doesnt.
Otherwise for numbers would be something like character and/or weapon/enemy statistics. Capped speed enemies in FE12 lunatic, FE9 maniac is also quite absurd. FE13 lunatic is really only difficult at the start, though the difficulty keeps you on your toes. While Fates is actually reasonably balanced, though enemies do have capped stats near the end.
RD difficulty is weird because the enemy stats start high but scale slowly, so the main difficulty is the initial starting of the difficulty. (Among other things as well)
I'm not sure why POR feels so weird, but the defense and stuff definitely doesnt help. RD (in general) also has really FAST enemies (24/25 speed generals in the endgame is unheard of outside of the capped speed enemies in FE12)
FE12 though is more brutal than fe13 since the entire game is always on a knife edge, your units cant reliably dodge or tank and you basically have to play near borderline perfectly for 20++ chapters. In the middlegame when your units are promoting and your stats are going up its somewhat manageable, but then lategame hits and you get mauled by (near) capped stat enemies.
3H maddenning is mostly just extra difficulty and curve scaling on top, so basically more of the same. 3H syndrome really.
For the video itself:
FE9 on hard (and maniac) the final chapter is slightly different because ashnard doesnt go second form in easy/normal (and the tibarn/naesala/giffca joins you earlier). FE9 also doesnt have FOW on easy/normal. In maniac there are also more promoted enemies and they are earlier, and more siege tomes and status staves in the later chapters.
I only briefly played FE10 easy, but some maps have objectives totally changed.
While its been awhile I dont recall most of the games having "smarter ai" on the harder difficulties.
From what I heard the endgame is also somewhat changed if you play easy mode. BK doesnt have the imbue skill to recover hp, and from 4E3 onwards all your units get +5 to all stats. Ashera's auto revive also "only" recovers 30 hp but eh.
To my knowledge in fates the exp gain is (supposedly) the same on all difficulties. I've only played on lunatic myself but from what I recall the numbers seem similar/identical to what i've seen others play on hard and normal.
While not an official FE game, I find that the most recent warriors really crystallizes what is wrong about modern FE difficulty. You pick hard and the first map you get after the route split recommends a level of 16....when shez is likely your highest at about 6-8. Hard, but navigable with knowledge of the combat system and exploits of triangle advantages. Meanwhile that same "optinal" mission in madding recommends being level fucking 108! Even with NG+, unless is is a third/forth cycle or you grind-ed excessively, one of the few characters you brought over and can use would only be in their 50s. Is a middle ground too much to ask for?
The highest difficulty in Musou games is intended as a challenge for maxed characters. A middle ground would have been nice, but it's not unbalanced in and of itself.
50 is actually good enough to deal with level 100 enemies, if you have good weapons, abuse weapon triangle and don't get hit too much. Stats just matter much less in Warriors (though they still do matter in that you just can't NG Maddening).
you don't even unlock maddening before beating the game, so it's clearly intended to be played with new game + unit levels. i really don't see the problem.
@@GKoopa yeah, especially since you can just bump the levels of your crew to that of your highest leveled unit. My Shez after Hard Scarlet Blaze was like lvl 80 (I S ranked everything), whereas everyone else was lvl 50. I finished Maddening Azure Gleam with lvl 120 Shez and everyone else at around lvl 45, and it was still easier than Hard just because of NG+ bonuses. There's literally zero reason to play Maddening without NG+ though, unless you just want to torture yourself.
@@UltimusTerminus NG Maddening might just be unwinnable depending on route - the FIRST Scarlet Blaze mission requires you to kill several leaders in three minutes, and it's just not happening with a 90 level gap.
I love these videos, really puts into perspective how much firsts kaga did before the joke was even funny.
I think you forgot the Radiant Dawn script changes. I've heard that in the JP version of Radiant Dawn, you got a more detailed script the higher the difficulty setting you were playing on but in the NA release they used the normal mode script for each difficulty setting.
this is actually false, the english script for radiant dawn is actually a hybrid of the japanese normal and hard mode script. in japanese normal mode (english easy), the script is simplified, things are explained more directly, and there's less character moments, while the hard/lunatic script is the intended script. the english script is not only consistent on all difficulties, but it has some character moments from the japanese hard script, while also being a bit more simplified compared to it. tbh the english script is probably the best, if only due to making the fuck up that is the blood pact make some level of sense in universe and not just be an absurdly obvious plot point
Great analysis! I'd like to inquire tho about which paralogue in 3H maddening scale with your levels/chapter? In my experience it was the opposite: paralogue immediately seem daunting at first in maddening when they first unlock, but after a chapter or 2, when your units are higher levels, they get much easier.
It doesn't happen for all paralogues, but a couple examples would be War for the Weak in which the enemies are level 18 and the boss is level 20, if this paralogue is attempted during chapter 6. If attempted in chapter 7 or later the enemies will be level 19 and the boss is level 21. In Legend of the Lake the enemies are level 35 if attempted during chapter 15. If attempted in chapter 16 or later the enemies are level 38.
@@halvey_
Those are the Dedue and Leonie paralogues, correct? Hmm, I'll confess I've never noticed if that's the case. The enemies in Leonie paralogue are hard to see given the fog of war, so I can't say that I've ever noticed their levels. As for the Dedue paralogue, that one is always troublesome when it pops up in chapter 6, so it's best to wait until chapter 7 or 8.
Yes those are the Dedue and Leonie paralogues. Another example is Weathervanes of Fodlan, the Annette and Gilbert paralogue. In it enemies are level 34 during chapter 14, then level 35 during chapter 15, then level 36 during chapter 16 or later.
Honestly obviously the randomized skills of Awakening are probably the worst, I find the reduced exp more annoying.
On Sacred Stones hard mode Seth dies in the first cutscene
next to awakening Lunatic+ which is just "play and survive til you can buy your broken einherjars", Radiant Dawn's hard mode is.. deff legit one of the worse ones in the series primarily due to removing enemy range, but especially no battle saves to abuse level ups with.
the suspend feature that you get, is generally, functionally worse compared to battle saves, as with battle saves, the rng is rerolled everytime you start it up. but with suspend, while it is a good way to take a break from playing, it means the game's rng is usually "set in stone". for that turn. meaning, the next time you play, unless you go out of your way to ensure the same result doesn't happen via ending turns or move/use a diff unit to attack, usually the result's almost always the same.
the removal of weapon triangle was deff very interesting for Radiant Dawn, but them removing battle saves, which were specifically intended for the very long chapters in the latter half of the game(aside manipulating level ups), and esp the enemy ranges preview was a horrible idea. its basically path of radiance with no battle saves(POR never had any, making perfect levels for RD stat transfers more painful) but worse due to much longer maps.
those two changes in hard mode of RD, the removal of enemy range preview and no battle saves are just cruel with how long the game's chapters can be and how dangerous the enemies, especially laguz types and your own characters in the dawn brigade vs Greil mercenaries chapters are in RD. but I'll deff give the weapon triangle removal a point cuz thats a really neat idea despite the lost of triangle advantages.
Huh? It’s bad that you can’t reset for level ups? That’s one of the most absurd takes on FE I’ve ever read
If only echoes had a higher difficulty setting. Then again I guess I could ban killer bows for myself. Also 3H's maddening mode is lame the enemies are way too high of a level I want to have a variety of units not have an army of wyvern lords lol
like the pegasus knight in maddenig mode 3h with 48 spd who likes to strike in the same turn they appear
Choose your difficulty modes from Fire Emblem.
What's the name of the song played in the Three Houses section?
Echoes has a map where hard mode has double the number of enemies compared to normal mode. Is this the record for the series?
my problem with this franchise's difficulty modes is that they are not balanced and certainly not fun to play.
Enemies start moving the same turn they appear REGARDLESS of difficulty in all games that have same turn reinforcements
Also no, the enemies AI don't change between difficulties
Also again, in fates you can't reset for different lvl ups regardless of difficulty
Eh in echoes you don't get more xp in hard mode, the enemies are higher lvl so you gain more xp per kill BUT the exp formula is the same
exp formula is the same but enemies fought on average have higher levels... ergo you get more xp throughout a playthrough
@@ivanlagayacrus1891 i Literally said this ???
Why are repeating what i said ?
@@mysmallnoman fe4 AI definitely changes, that's the entire point. AI in fe4 is based on the leadership of their commander. In clever mode, every commander is treated like having 5 Stars in terms of AI.
@@kentknightofcaelin4537 FE4 doesn't have different difficulty modes TF you talking about
@@mysmallnoman he didn't say anything about FE4 having different difficulty modes, he said that FE4's AI becomes smarter when you activate clever mode as is said in the video at around 0:35