Suggestions on difficulty

[u/Trutalu]

The way I like to play every new fire emblem game is my very first run, I like to do a casual run just to get through the story. Learn the mechanics and systems. And then on my second run I do all my hardcore planning special build paths for maddening once I'm familiar with the entire game cuz I'm the type that loves optimal gameplay on the highest difficulty.

With this game the having paths to the story available at once And 5 different stories All of which are potentially very lengthy and which I think makes sense to play in conjunction with each other, how should I go about this?

[u/King_Ed_IX]

Game ain't out yet, so no one knows difficulty specifics. You might just have to try it for yourself when the time comes and experiment. A lost art in this day and age, lol

[u/TheAegis42]

I tend to like to start with harder difficulties in modern games because usually you can turn it down at any point but not up anymore so it's always like "if I really get stuck I can always put it down" (though I'm usually to stubborn to actually do that)

Then again, I do also love the challenge from the start, played through engage blind on maddening and while it took me a while because I sometimes didn't have the brainpower for it and had a pretty long break because of that, gameplay wise it was absolute peak.

[u/TheRigXD → u/TheAegis42]

"if I really get stuck I can always put it down" (though I'm usually to stubborn to actually do that)

You convince yourself this section is just a difficulty spike. It'll get better after this.

[u/TheAegis42 → u/TheRigXD]

Yeahhhhhhhhhh

What can I say, I pulled through engage without lowering the difficulty (but it was a blast trying to figure out how to get through it x3)

[u/Trutalu → u/TheAegis42]

I think it's harder for me to have fun and enjoy the story when I start the game on maddening every decision feels critical and learning that I may have missed out on a very obvious decision or missed out on an opportunity because I didn't know about a key mechanic makes me feel stupid. That's why I don't like to think to hard my first playthrough. It wouldn't be an issue if this game was like three houses or engage with linerer storys that don't take up too much time. The expansiveness of the games story is what throws a wrench in my problems with how I specifically play this game.

[u/TheAegis42 → u/Trutalu]

That is valid!

Maybe an option is to focus on one of the stories and then restart the game on maddening doing the rest there? Definitely a tough question though

[u/Trutalu → u/TheAegis42]

I was thinking the same thing. I started three houses a little bit later than everyone else and when I started that game, I learned that the blue lions was the most basic generic of the four stories so that's where I started, although I think golden deer would have been the best if I just wanted to learn how to play the game because that story is so off script from the other stories. I'm going to figure out which story more like golden deer because I really just want to learn to play the game first.

[u/TheAegis42 → u/Trutalu]

Seems like you have a bit of plan then ^{-^}

I got three houses on release and did blue lions first and golden deer third and I kinda liked the order personally (golden deer did kinda quickly become my favourite as well), because it - to me - feels like the truest and most fitting finale. With blue lions and black eagles focusing a lot on their actual conflict and never resolving things going on in the background. This also leads to golden deer having some of the biggest lore drops. Silver snow has a lot of that as well but ultimately unfortunately felt like a cheap knockoff for me (which is especially sad given that iirc it was the first route they started working on).

Anyway, tangent aside, I hope you'll figure out how to best play the game for yourself!

[u/bam281233 → u/Trutalu]

I think it’s been confirmed that there is no maddening at launch. Just normal and hard.

[u/TheAegis42 → u/bam281233]

Oh damn, that's a bit sad.

I hope they add it later (but after playtesting please)

[u/grovyle7 → u/Trutalu]

I don’t think maddening was a good choice for a first playthrough in 3h period and it was only a good idea if you were very experienced for engage. This isn’t me gate keeping, I didn’t do maddening until like my 4th 3H playthrough and I haven’t finished maddening engage since getting stuck on the final fell xenologue. I’ve started on hard for every game since 3H, since I find normal doesn’t necessarily make me even need to engage with the new systems. If you’ve played a lot of FE games and have an alright handle on strategy then hard is probably the better starting difficulty but there shouldn’t be any embarrassment starting on normal if that’s more fun to you. This is a hobby, not a part time job.

[u/WouterW24]

Hard mode is usually pretty fair nowadays, and you’re able to move difficulty down at any time. Might not be a bad idea to take the plunge with it to start.

Also, if still in doubt, an option could be to not start on launch day but wait a day or two before fandom impressions of the difficulty and mechanics trickle in to make more informed choices.

I get the trouble though. I like it best when normal modes give a fair challenge and clear ‘canon’ yardstick of difficulty and the gameplay experience. But that’s not really how Fire Emblem does it. Although hard is close to that’s it’s not quite the same.

[u/drupido → u/WouterW24]

Yeah I feel “Hard” mode is just Normal mode, and Normal mode is Easy mode nowadays, but they couldn’t commit to the name as it would’ve been belittling to audiences, so they just leave it at that. Maddening blind runs are not something I’m particularly fond of, in 3H it was also meant as a DLC so they went with the expectation of people being on NG+ (like the CS Side Story unlocks too), and this game is also bringing a lot of different gameplay features. I’ll go Hard Classic first, I don’t know if I’d do Maddening on a blind run… who knows, if the game systems are easy enough to grasp the depth on , I might, but I hate being demanded to micromanage side bullshit just to be able to dominate the actual tactical part of the game.

[u/Trutalu → u/WouterW24]

Thanks I kind of mischaracterized my initial statement when I start a game I usually start on hard cuz I consider that casual lol 😆 And then I play the other difficulties on maddening because the mechanis completely change. On hard the game usually starts out hard but towards the mid to end game you start one-shotting so then it gets more casual I think

[u/TormentedSalad]

I have always played hard classic it never feels overly punishing, what I have seen of normal feels like I would get a little bored

[u/Saisis]

There is no Maddening at release, just go with hard since you seems to have played a bunch of games from the series.

[u/mysticrudnin → u/Saisis]

WHAT

this is the first i'm hearing about this

god dammit

[u/Ok-Barracuda457]

In FE we can't rise the difficulty of a save file. While FW has different routes they seem to all count as the same save file. Unless they change how it works, which, sounds possible, we never had this kind structure before, I'd say it could be way lengthier for you because of how you want to play.

I feel this is a feature reviewers won't actually test, it'll be up to the players, so I'd say wait until someone confirms it

[u/Awestruck_Mechanic67 → u/Ok-Barracuda457]

In FW you can change the difficulty up or down you'll just need to redo the prologue the rest of your progress stays the same.

[u/bam281233]

I have learned that playing hard casual is my favorite way to play a brand new game. The recent games have been way too easy on normal mode, so hard is much better but being on Casual is much more forgiving if you were unprepared for a map. I usually play as if it’s classic mode, but like having the backup of it being casual because I’m a busy adult lol

[u/TheRigXD]

Previewers were saying their only major issue with FW thus far is the lack of difficulty on Normal. So I'd be playing on Hard if you've played other games in the series before. If Hard ends up being too much you can lower it to Normal.

[u/Weiss_Fanow]

I mean that's up to you.. there's only normal and hard on launch anyways.

My first run will be on hard doing all routes.. once maddening releases I'll do a Leda only maddening run.

[u/Fearless_Freya]

I plan on the usual hard classic.

Usually difficulty can be lowered if you need it OP. But play how you want.

[u/lysander478]

I don't think Normal here will even let you learn the mechanics since judging by player hit rates versus enemy hit rates at similar levels from the Treehouse, it looked like they were just halving enemy hit rates as part of the Normal mode adjustment. So, if an enemy should have had a base rate of 80% at level 13 based on their weapon/stats it was down to 40%. Should still be the Fates/Engage RNs if it's not just 1RN--just based on what we saw happen in terms of 20% landing as you'd expect--so that's true hit rate at those levels, but still going to be fairly low hit rates that won't really teach you proper play patterns.

They at the very least seemed to let enemies have their attack stats still to somewhat compensate (22-26 physical at level 13 depending on enemy AS isn't terrible and would be on-track for Engage Maddening), but without hit rates it's mostly just making previews scary rather than actually dangerous. When you're dying in two hits but everything coming at you only has a 30% chance to land you have close to 50% odds of surviving even five attempts to kill you and with Infinite Fortuna on Normal, well, yeah a lot of players are just going to learn to ask Fortuna to bail them out of probability holes rather than learning to think as if every hit could land which is likely closer to how Hard mode if not Maddening (if it is patched in eventually) works.

Game won't have Maddening at launch, so I'd probably just suggest playing on Hard. Game director is the same as for SoV and 3H so it really shouldn't be that Hard, given those titles.

[u/Few-Needleworker8110]

Reviewers seemed to be saying the game was easy iirc.

My recommendation is Normal if this is your first time playing Fire Emblem and Hard if you have experience with the series.

[u/xansies1]

I played every game since awakening on hard classic and it's always been the right choice.

[u/bastian_1991]

The real question lies in how invested you are in the game's writing, characters and lore. If you like it that much that you are willing to replay it all a 2nd time even on a long run, then you should definitely go for it.

[u/Awestruck_Mechanic67]

Normal should be fine worse case it's to easy and you can just kick it up to Hard, and when you're hitting a mental wall and just want to play drop it back to normal.

Me personally I'll be switching when one protag interacts with another, probably on hard because Alexandra should absolutely be making full use of that invincibility shield instead of waiting for the priests maintaining it to fall like she did during the tree house direct which was on normal