The first professional review is out!

[Superbus]

I hate pimping my work, but I think it's relevant to our interests.

My own review of FE:DS won't be live on Diehard GameFAN until Friday. Until then, Crystal's Mercury Ice has my review of the game. It's the first professional English review of the game, and I think I did a good job on it. I'll link the DHGF entry when it's up, but until then...

http://mercuryice.com/index.php/videogamereviews/298

[Foxy-Woxy The Sandwich Scout]

Where's that 5.5 you promised us, huh? 

Great review.

[Superbus]

Where's that 5.5 you promised us, huh? 

Great review.

I figured 5.5-6. And that's a six.

EDIT: And before anyone flame me for "just" a six, we take the "five is average" standard very seriously at DHGF. My average review score is about a 5.15.

[burning_phoneix]

Just so people get what a six means to Superbus, he gave NBA2k9 a 7 and called it the greatest basketball game of all time.

[Neofox]

Hey 'Bus, would you mind if I linked to your review in my Furaffinity journal? I know a few fans of the series there and I know they'd like a professional's opinion since none of us would trust the words of Gamespot or the like (heck, I had to review RD, myself for them).

[FE3_Player]

Balance: Bad

I highly disagree with this.  The balance in FEDS is better than in most FE games, and H5 balances the game even more (fast units are actually useful).

Yes, there are a bunch of crappy characters, but the good characters you do get aren't as overpowered as some examples of demigods in other games unless you grind them or you're playing on Normal Mode (which even bad characters will be usable on that mode).

There is only one or two truly broken characters.  That's it, and you can easily ignore using them in their most overpowered class.

[Neofox]

Eh, no review is perfect. I personally disagree about the shop being a point against it (you're supposed to build strategy around what's available at the time, not wait to play on certain dates to get what you want), but it's not enough to change the fact it's going to be better than anything IGN or whatever will put out...

[FE3_Player]

I wasn't speaking about the whole review, just that one point.  He mentions that characters will cap stats before promotion, which is true, but H5 addresses that point by making max speed actually useful, and that characters focused on strength will suck badly in both speed and defense, and balanced characters will rarely have more than 35%/40% Str growth.

[SlippyToasterTrooper_UK]

If you want to prove the balance is bad try WiFi battles. Units with 30 speed cap (and that stat reached) and forged brave weapons are the route to victory (Swordmasters are prefered due to no weakness). Possibly a few mages throwing the long range spell in the back as well.

But basically very little can stand up to 40 might (well 43 if WT neutral and 44 if WTA) done four times. Generals are fine...they'll "only" lose 36 of their 60 hit points (though the swordmaster would lose about 46...). Berserkers and Snipers won't be doubled but are still losing well over half thier HP and thats just what one character does. The only hope is your opponent isn't aware of this

True thats multiplayer and single player is a rather different best (Fire Emlbme wasn't really built for PVP and as the review basically said its a throwaway extra). I didn't agree about the Commandos being useless...a clone of any unit isn't something to turn down...it allows you to react to an evolving battlefield.

Comments aside its a good detailed reivew. The Short Attention Span Summary was good too.

[Superbus]

Hey 'Bus, would you mind if I linked to your review in my Furaffinity journal? I know a few fans of the series there and I know they'd like a professional's opinion since none of us would trust the words of Gamespot or the like (heck, I had to review RD, myself for them).

Wait until tomorrow. Then, I'll have the DHGF link.

[Superbus]

I highly disagree with this.  The balance in FEDS is better than in most FE games, and H5 balances the game even more (fast units are actually useful).

Yes, there are a bunch of crappy characters, but the good characters you do get aren't as overpowered as some examples of demigods in other games unless you grind them or you're playing on Normal Mode (which even bad characters will be usable on that mode).

There is only one or two truly broken characters.  That's it, and you can easily ignore using them in their most overpowered class.

(Double posting because I'm God)

You're right. It's more balanced than other FE games.

But is it as balanced as other similar games in the genre? Is it as balanced as Shining Force? Is it as balanced as FF Tactics (itself not really balanced; thanks, Orlandu!)? Or Advance Wars? No. And to give you perspective: "Bad" is about equal to a 3/10. If this was, say, Seisen no Keifu? Knock that down to a 2, because you HAVE to do certain things a certain way, or your playthrough looks like my first playthrough (desperately trying to break the spell on Yuria before she decides to nuke my ENTIRE party, instead of just half).

Keep in mind that though I haven't mastered H5 yet, this is after three playthroughs, the last one on H3. Wait until IGN and Gamespot get their mitts on this game. That's why I made SURE to review this game when I did; because I wanted a good, detailed review (and I edited that; there's a fine line between "detailed" and "fanboy bashing") before the big sites came and fucked it up.

[FE3_Player]

If you want to prove the balance is bad try WiFi battles. Units with 30 speed cap (and that stat reached) and forged brave weapons are the route to victory (Swordmasters are prefered due to no weakness). Possibly a few mages throwing the long range spell in the back as well.

I thought this was a testament to balance.  I mean, they *did* remove critical hit bonus from Swordmasters, likely *because* they can 4x on WiFi.

Plus, Brave weapons hit 2x no matter what if you strike first, so you can probably have a Paladin or General or even a Hero 2KO a Swordmaster with some planning.  Snipers are even awesome on this mode, because a good Sniper (who won't be Gordon or Norn) will have incredible stats and reliability.

Keep in mind that though I haven't mastered H5 yet, this is after three playthroughs, the last one on H3.

This is the thing.  H5 is vastly different from earlier modes in terms of stat difference.  The game's balance is different on H5 than it is on Normal mode.  Enemies have insanely high speed, very high HP, high strength, and anything that isn't carrying a Silver Weapon has a forged Javelin or a forged weakness hitting weapon, or a Brave Weapon.  Mages never use anything less than Elfire.  Wendel and Jeigan are actually useful on this mode.

Another reason I like to call FEDS a great improvement in balance is because the mechanics are much tighter now, weapon levels are much more important, and give weapons boosts that cover their weaknesses. Balanced characters no longer have strength and defense growth that's too high (with the exception of the Pegasus Sisters, who come lategame enough to require effort into using them).

Also, I admit the balance isn't perfect, but it isn't downright BAD.  H5 alone makes it go from 3/10 to 4/10 in my book, and the only reason it's not 5/10 is because there are a couple of Orlandus in the game that you can ignore, but are still there. 

Also, keep in mind that few games are ever truly balanced, but at least FEDS tries not to have too many overpowered things while still helping new players.  Yes, there are two Orlandus, but I still praise FEDS' efforts greatly, and I think they did an excellent job.

[Superbus]

Now how many people are going to go through H5? 15% 20%

I have to score to the median. The median doesn't play H5, and it wouldn't have affected my score if a lot did; MAYBE it would have gone to a 3.5. Maybe.

EDIT: Also note that the lack of balance was something I mentioned was intended, and a boon to regular fans. Pay less attention to my ultimate score than to what I actually said.

[FE3_Player]

I see...  The score itself comes off as so negative, yet your review explains why it is like that.

I honestly don't think FEDS' imbalanced aspects hurt the game so much, except for Zagaro/Wolf, whose base growths are far too high, but at least those two can never be class swapped to General if you don't want to suck the challenge out of the game.

[Superbus]

Keep in mind also a lesson I enforced this time, and that Burning_Phoneix is learning while writing his Pro Evolution Soccer review at the same site: it's a bitch to review a game you're a big fan of.

I put my first draft of this review on my Livejournal, and it came out to over 4,900 words (final tally: something like 4,200). Most of my friends that are also writers read it, and lashed me for being too wordy, bitching for a long time about things that most average gamers don't give a shit about (the bit about the Elysian Whips took two and a half paragraphs before), and generally sounded like a bitter fanboy. It took a few trips of me editing my piece before it looked like a decent, professional review.

So remember that things that fans see that they get pissy about don't matter to the average hardcore gamer, which is who we write for. That's why I did this review; I wanted to take a look at my favourite game through more realistic eyes.

That said? Once the real piece goes live tomorrow, pimp the SHIT out of it.

[Crystal Shards]

Wait until tomorrow. Then, I'll have the DHGF link.

You can link to Mercury Ice as well~ We have a link straight to DHGF on that page, so it doesn't matter really.

Anyway, to be relevant, I did think this was a well-written review, and I hope a lot of people read it before buying it, just so they know what they're getting into.

[Swordsalmon]

After the first few stages, you're able to swap any character in the game - outside of Marth, the thieves, and Manaketes

Shooters can't class-swap either.

Some of the review does seem a bit... 'rambly', but it's pretty good.

[Superbus]

http://diehardgamefan.com/2008/11/14/import-review-fire-emblem-shin-ankoku-ryu-to-hikari-no-ken-nds/