Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

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2:03If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash kind of funny. What's up and welcome to the kind of funny games cast for Wednesday, September 16th, 2020. Six, of course. I am your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by the master of hype snow, bike, mic. Tim Gettys. It's the biggest day of the fall for me. Biggest day of the fall. Been waiting for this day. Here we are. We're talking fire emblem. We are. Finally, not the review the review. Not the preview game the review. It's time for the full thing, Tim. And joining us for the very first time at this desk. I'm the cause of the funny games. It's bear it cordy. Hi Tim. Hi, bear it. How you doing? You know, it's a pleasure to be here for the first time last time. First time call our last time caller, a big fan of the show. You ever feel if you like you've been gaslit by like an entire industry?

3:05I don't know. I have to think about that one. Think about that one. Think about that one. Think about that one. Probably. I'm interested to see where you are taking us with that. If you watch it live, be part of the show by super chatting on youtube.com slash kind of funny games. If you have any questions about fire emblem fortunes we've on the Nintendo switch to, please get those all in. And remember, we couldn't do this without your support on patreon.com slash kind of funny. So shout out to our producers omega buster Delaney the song, whining and Michael pace of anto. For now, let's begin with the topic of the show. That's fire emblem fortunes we've were reviewing it. Both of you were reviewing it. I know how cool is that pretty cool. Yeah. Shout out to bear it. He was like, hey, I heard the preview and I want to get it on this. And I was like, bear it. I would love to be able to. The great calls to me. Yeah. You're in for the grid, you know. I'm newer to tactics. They are not newer, but like tactics is not a genre. I go to quite often, but I like your Mario plus rabbits.

4:07I like your your persona five tactics. I like your demon schools, you know, like I think games that I think are really like welcoming to someone who doesn't play these types of games quite often. And after hearing my previous like, you know what? I'm really I really want to play this game and try it out and like give myself to like a franchise or like a series within this genre that I think is like so like renowned and beloved that I was like, you know what? I finally want to do it. I know people love three houses. So like I hear it is. It's right time, right place. It's a 2026. It is a new genre everywhere. Star Wars Z-com. Now we're here with Fire Emblem. I mean, like if you're in the tactics games or you're like on the sidelines going, hey, I'm ready to be put in coach. Like let me jump in. There's a number of tactics games here that we could give you some different options. And you might find one that you really enjoy and love. Yeah. And shots in Nintendo for given us two codes for this one. A rarity from them. So very, very cool to have the opportunity to have two people

5:07given their thoughts on a Nintendo video game at Bargo. Speaking of today is September 16th. Tomorrow is September 17th, which means you will be able to play Fire Emblem fortunes. We when it releases. It's on the switch to exclusively. You cannot play this one on switch one. It's a 2026 tactical role playing game co-developed by intelligent systems and Nintendo obviously published by Nintendo. It's the 18th main line installment in the fire emblem series. That's why it was a storied franchise, but yeah, yeah, I don't. 18. I'm trying to do the math on that. I like to think some mobile games. There's got to be a fire. Well, there's fire. I'm heroes. I don't really be counting that here. They got to be count. I mean, because there were. They did a Pokemon red and blue type thing on the DS with a with a party of them. Fates conquest and then there was a. What was the third one? That's a matter. They really did that though. So they're probably counting those as well.

6:07But this one takes place in the same world as Fire Emblem three houses that came out in 2019. It is at a 90 on open critic and 89 on metacritic. But what do we think before I get your thoughts? I want to know how much time you have played of these games and if you have rolled credits on this because I know. Fire Emblem is a chunker Mike. Tim, this game is massive. And of course, many of you know that I took my first steps into the Fire Emblem Universe in December last year. Went through the holiday break playing Fire Emblem three houses and fell in love with the tactical grid style combat. Fell in love with the social aspects of the game. Really had a great time being kind of the teacher in the monastery. Taking on the kids, helping them grow with students and then following that storyline. I really had a great time with that. And so I've been eager to jump in to Fire Emblem's fortunes. We've been lucky enough. I didn't have to wait too long right for the next big installments.

7:08And I'm happy to say that I've put in 69 hours. Nice. Nice. I have stuck to my goal of playing through two characters. You know, that was the big question. There's four main characters in this game. There are interweaving stories. There are stories that you're going to want to hear from each perspective. And the question was Mike, are you going to play through all of them, right? And I love Fire Emblem. I don't love Fire Emblem like that. I don't got that much time. And so I said, you know what? I'll get lucky if I do one. I'll get crazy if I get two. And I'm happy to say I did two. You did two. Very. Really happy that I played through Theodora and Kai's story perspectives. I have not rolled credits. You hear that? I'm knocking on the door. I can see the finish line. I'm going to probably need though. As Baron and I will tell you during this review. I'm knocking. That should be like two hours. No, no. I probably have ten hours left. You can see the finish line. That's probably going to be 10 to 15 more hours of gameplay. Because this game is massive.

8:08But I'm very happy with where I'm at. I'm really pumped up to talk about this game. And so yeah, I'm pleased that I did two. Barrett, how much have you played and have you rolled credits? I have not rolled credits. I don't have 69 hours. I have 70. Just a little bit over. I only did one playthrough of like a full playthrough of one of the four main character stories. I dipped my toe into a second one just to kind of see what that was like. But found myself a bit more interested in continuing on where the game goes. After you see like a particular storyline. So decided to continue on with that. I would say Mike and I are probably roughly around the same like area of like what the We're at in like the campaign of it all. So yeah, 70 hours good. Good. Good chunk. Spent with. Lita. Lita. Her story line. She's the musician who's out for revenge in this huge tournament.

9:10Story that's going on for a bulk of the game. So yeah. All right. Let's start with our top level thoughts. Mike, where you at with Fire Emblem fortunes. We've. Jim Gettys. I think that Fire Emblem fortunes. We've. It's a great game. I am really pleased with my time with it. I think it is a massive expansion from Fire Emblem's three houses and of course their Latest game on top of that. I believe it's called engage, but they have taken everything that you know and love about Fire Emblem with the grid based combat and taking that to 11. Everything that you loved and enjoyed in the social aspects of Fire Emblem three houses. They've taken that and cranked that to 11. A lot of things that I'm going to talk about today. I'm going to echo from my preview, right? Of like, wow, this game is massive and I truly mean that they have layered on system master system. There is so much to do and so much to see that at sometimes it's overwhelming. And then on top of that, sometimes it's overbearing and kind of boring.

10:12And it's like, hey, I don't want to do this or don't need to do that. And the positive thing about this is you don't have to do a lot of it. You can just do your own way. And that's what Fire Emblem has been to me, especially with three houses. And what they've add onto the game of Fire Emblem is you choose your adventure. You don't have to do it all. You can do it all. You can do certain aspects of it. You can do it little as possible and get through it. But for this one, it was very much of like, hey, there's a ton of things to do. You're either going to love it. You're going to like it or you're not going to want any of it. And for me, I found that I loved a lot of it. I really enjoyed getting lost on the open world map that they had. I enjoyed counting the days as they ticked by. And I tried to navigate this giant map to gain resources, treasures, come back and build my social bonds with my team to recruit more people. I enjoyed being on the grid for the combat of the main scenarios and going, hey, let me nail that final critical hit. Let me get that finishing blow. Oh, man, I'm really comboing well right now with my team into a blazer attack.

11:14That is going to do massive damage. It would take away health from one person, but I'm going to follow it up with my medical. We'll heal them and then I'm going to follow it up with this one to maybe stun that enemy. And so I just, there's so much going into this game that I picked and choose what I wanted from the buffet table. And I enjoyed so much of it, but I did have moments where I rolled and I was like, are we really doing that? There was moments where it felt heavy. There was too much going on and I didn't want to rerun a number of things that they just introduced. Where I said, you know what, I did this like I don't want to do it again. And the video game unfortunately falls victim to that in the later stages where you're going to have to do stuff over again where it just feels like it's just adding to add and not really doesn't have really a lot of quality to it. It's just quantity. Yep. And so for me, I'm settling in at 8.5. Great. I think the fire emblem freaks out there are going to love this. They're going to eat this up. This is an RPG that can you can spend 100 plus hours in and get lost in.

12:16And then I think if you're a tactical fan, I think you really need to look yourself in the mirror and go, is this the tactics game for me and tactics 2026. There's a lot of options out there. And I think for newbies to the genre, there are better options for you to jump into. But if you're like, no, my heart is set on fire on them. This is the world I want to be in. I think you will have a really good time. It's just going to be a lot. Well said, Mike. Very excited to hear your thoughts on fire emblem fortunes. We've. Fire emblem fortunes. We've, I think is a game with a lot of premises. You know, you early on get the premise of very basic tactics game play to set you up to understand what you're doing in this world, especially I think is welcoming to people who are not as familiar with tactics games. It's got the premise of all of these four different storylines that you can go through. And then, you know, the ultimate premise on top of that, which, you know, we won't get into like right at the very top here.

13:21There's a lot of things that are set up in fire emblem that I think never leaves its premise. I think it's a game that's kind of stuck in first gear and never really goes beyond that. And I think that is because and due to the quantity of how much is in this game that none of it feels very interesting and it all feels like an inch deep while being a mile wide. I found very little connection in what I was doing, whether it was taking in story for latest journey, whether it was trying to unpack. You know, the tactics to sign throughout your battles, which don't feel like ask very much of you. And it it all really landed to me that like a lot of the story to me is very it feels obsessed with lore and like political kind of intrigue that feels so disconnected to what any of your actual characters are going through.

14:21And it feels more interested in telling you about things rather than like letting there be actual character arcs and letting kind of like lore and story stuff serve and set up character. And I think that's a big misstep for a game that's in its premise is all about kind of like raising up your team of badasses. You're presented at the very beginning of this game with like here these four crazy motherfuckers, you know, and you want them on your team. And so I think the the premise of this game is so interested in being invested in story and being invested in your entire crew. And I think it fails at actually paying off that investment in both like it's narrative. And then also it's gameplay design to the point where I feel like there's very little stakes in a lot of what I'm doing. Whether that is the tactics gameplay for the most part, there's a couple of things that I'll shout out later on. Whether it's the open world stuff where you're kind of just dronelessly mindlessly going around this kind of like in its own way, a board game tactics kind of presentation that I don't think really presents itself that way until 60 hours into the game.

15:29Yeah, I was really I came into this game really wanting to give myself fully to it. I was really excited to try this one out. Again, I yearned for the grid and 70 hours in the last time I played this game was Saturday night because I stopped myself. And I was like, I don't know what I'm doing to myself anymore. I'm not having fun. As far as a score, it's one of those weird ones where my brain I tell myself four out of 10 bad, but our review score, our review scale, I was reminded earlier this week is for his men, which is so that puts me in a predicament here because I think Matt and mediocre kind of evoke the same emotion. But I would stick with even though for is men three is bad in my brain, it makes more sense to stick with a four out of 10. I really found nothing out of this game that I really connected to in any way shape or form. But you know, it works. It has great presentation. It's very pretty. The music's good. I just I don't know if any of its systems come together. And I mean that from a story side and a mechanical side that do anything of note that I find really like emotional like emotionally engaging and what didn't like any sort of way.

16:50That's where the gaslighting. Yeah, that's where the gaslighting comes in where I woke up. I mean, I had a feeling last night I went to I looked over at a list. I was like, listen, I think I'm about to be the villain of the internet tomorrow. I'm pretty sure. And then yeah, I was sure to shake woke up this morning and because like I've been fascinated this entire review cycle, because this being my first fire emblem game. It was like I'm playing through it and it's about 20 hours in I'm starting to get a good grasp on like what my emotions and like what my intersection with this game is becoming. And I was like, man, is this the bar that like three houses hit or is like, is this a misstep like I because I know people love three houses. And I just I leave this game abandoning it. I'm not going to finish it. Just kind of really confused on what people see in this stuff. And so yeah, that's where I land on it. You could talk about the technical aspects and all that which I know people are probably wanting for me to kind of consider in the review score.

17:53But I have to be honest of like where I connect with with this game. And I don't. So yeah, I am quite surprised. I will say that that is a significantly lower score than I would have ever expected. So bummed to hear it. Mike hearing all of that in terms of connecting with the story and characters and gameplay. Where you a much higher 8.5. You kind of expound there and say a little bit more about what you did see in it. Yeah, me and bear had a really fun back and forth the past two plus weeks, right of like engaging with one another and sharing story and plot points of like what we're seeing what we're engaging with and what we like, right. And I think a big moment comes down to this like, who do you select first? There's four characters for you to choose. And that's kind of going to be your onboarding in your moment into this. And of course the game boasts. So you can stop it any moment and jump ship play a different character, progress their story, meet in the middle. And I think for me and bear is like, man, he would tell me stories about his story. And I would tell him about my story. And I'm like, man, they're building something here.

18:55There's some intrigue when it comes to the door and what she has going on in her story so much show that when I finished her and the moments that she shared with Kai another character. And then I jump over to him, right? I think so many people will see the layout of the four and they'll get attracted to who's the guy. Dietrich, who is on the hunt for he's just fueled by blood. He wants to be the number one. He wants to be the baddest guy on the block. And it's like, I thought that would draw me over to him. I was more intrigued by Kai and Theodore story and how they kind of weaved in about each other. And what happened to me was as I started with the Adora. I got on board for her story, right? We talked about it in the preview. This gal who's from the South. She now has become the queen of serimus, but her brother lays clay to the throne. And then they go back and forth. And then she gets invited to the hero games. And I like everything that they built with her. And so much show that when Kai got introduced and he had ties to her and ties to dag does like, I want to see his through. And when I played his I was like, Oh, wow, that's also a really strong story, right? I come to bear and be like, Hey, if you know Fire Emblem and you know Fire Emblem three houses, they built a lot of lore around fold lin.

20:11And probably dumps even more lore about dagda, the dagda empire and so much more into this world. And I felt like I was getting so much lore where there was moments where I loved the lore with Theodore and Kai story. I loved the Lord of Dagnar. There was moments where I was I rolling up like, who's this character? What does this even mean? Like that. A lot of that later, like there's they just start throwing lore at you and you're like, all right, like I clearly understand you're building the biggest world you've ever built. Some of it, I don't need some of it. I do, but like there was moments in Kai story, when I'm like, man, like Theodore didn't get to see this. I don't think Barrett saw this at all, but like there was awesome side content. When I'm like, man, this mission rocks like there was. You're not seeing this and Barrett's like, no, I didn't see that at all. And so for me, I really got into these two stories. Now the story progresses into act two and act three. We won't spoil anything. But I was in through act two started to fall off act three. Where it's like this needs to finish. That's why I definitely got into like the quantity over quality of like they make me rerun a number of things back gameplay wise, where I just was ready for like this multiple moments where this game could have ended. And I would have been happy with that.

21:21After act one. Hey, that was really fun. That's a great time. After act two. That's good. I'm happy with that act three right now. I'm like, I don't want gameplay wise to keep doing this, but I want to see the end because I am invested. I really like the two characters. I chose the story that we've been put on, especially coming from three houses. I think it's an improvement. The question I would have for you just because I didn't full. I had started the adora and then quickly was just like, all right, I kind of want to move on to see like act two and three. The question I would have for you is like, you're talking about lore, you're talking about connections with kind of the adora story, which I would say from talking to you off screen, it does seem like they're more interconnected with like the core of what this game is trying to do. Would you say anything that you learned throughout their stories, did any sort of service to their like personal character arcs where they start at the beginning of the game and then where they end before you go into like essentially like the second half of the game.

22:22Because that was the thing I really struggled with is that like, Leda, who is this person who's out for revenge on this character who killed her father. I really felt there were some roller coaster ups and downs of where we're going. I felt like where she started at the beginning of her journey and where she ended before they start throwing away any importance to the personal stories. She did not change whatsoever I just found that like truly uninteresting so that's where I found difficulty and even getting the motivation to start another character story because I get to the end of that. And then I'm asked trying to get to the other acts like, hey, don't you want to kind of like see these other campaigns? I'm like, I just spent the last 35 hours going through something that's. Holy uninteresting and not written very well. Do you have it in the other stories like I really don't know.

23:22Yeah, for me, I was lucky with theodore. I felt both ways on that right with theodore story. It's very a kind of house of dragons. Ask game of throwing story wise, especially with her brother in the kingdom down to the south. Her goals of what she wants from the hero games and like the goals to strive for that she is looking to achieve. And there's moments that we learn about the ador in ceramics the country down to the south where it's like she has this one line. What's like, oh, we don't believe in writing a reading, right? We just tell stories through one person and all of us talking like that is one of her right hand guys is just the keeper of all lower knowledge. And then they get to a point where he's like, hey, I can't remember a lot of stuff. Like I would love for us to write these things down. And she has this moment of growth where like she realizes that like her ways are wrong and like maybe they should change. And I was like, oh man, like check out the ador like growing right now. And then not like three hours later, he's like, hey, I'm going to read this note to you. And she's like, we don't believe in reading or writing. And I was like, okay, like that just completely threw away everything I started vibing with you for right or another one is she's the queen. And at first she doesn't want to get married.

24:30She just wants her own life. She wants to prove to her people that she can be a strong competent ruler. And then at first they're like, hey, let's find a suit or for you. She's like, no, no, no, I don't need anybody. And then afterwards, she's like, you know what, we've done a really good job. Maybe I'm open to that. I'm like, okay, that's cool. And then she's like, you know what, don't don't talk to me about that. Like, all right, I'll get a lot of nick signals with the adora. But I liked her. She had moments of growth. She had interesting stories and then Kai on the other side. I think Kai has a lot going for him. You know, I think Kai's just kind of more intertwined between all of their stories, especially with the adora that the adora felt like this is her story. Kai's in it. The other two not even a part of it. Which is very interesting to see. Like this is a game that promotes all four of these people's lives are going to be intersecting at some way shape or form. And in the hero games, you'll see that right. You'll do a couple of preliminary battles where yeah, you get to share the battlefield with one of the four. And it's pretty cool. It's like, oh, man, there's Dietrich over there. I'm with letter right now. Like these are all fun moments. And then there's moments where you'll go up against them and their stories will kind of deviate from yours. But nobody was as tight as the adora. And then I think that's the first thing I can do is I'm going to do a couple of things. I'm going to do a couple of things that I'm going to do. I'm going to do a couple of things that I'm going to do. I'm going to do a couple of things that I'm going to do. I'm going to do a couple of things that I'm going

25:41to do. And, um, Kies, where I'm like, oh, both of them share a very similar story of going back and forth. And I was intrigued to see his. And it definitely answered my call. Yeah. And to me, it felt like I got the sense that they were a bit more like what I'm quote, important to all of the kind of machinations working around in this world, where I felt like Leda, like, really felt disconnected from everything. And it felt like having only half of the pieces of a, of a jigsaw puzzle where I was like, OK, this is connected. Did that, but like, and then that would all end with the same question of like, OK, does any of this actually like serve Leda as a character that makes her an interesting person to follow through on. Um, and then like talking about the actual like dialogue writing, which to me eventually got grading. Um, you know, there's a point where there's a lot of like interesting story setups. And that's why I talk about premises. There's a lot of interesting ideas that the story will find itself in throughout. But I feel like it constantly like, let's go.

26:41And I feel like it's a lot of that very quickly. There's a monologue. Leda has like a couple hours into the game before you get to like the center to start in the tournament. Where she's like, yeah, this, this guy that I'm looking for who killed my dad. I found out that he was sentenced to death. And then I, I saw a black void because I had no purpose in trying to figure this out. And then a little bit later after that I found out he wasn't actually dead. And it's like, whoa, that's like an entire interesting story that we could have. Hang on there that I think would have like actually built up something a bit more interesting through this entire journey. Let's stick with, you know, you thinking like for a while, oh, this person that you made your life's mission is dead. And now you have no point. How do you unpack that? How do you go through that? And I felt like any sort of interesting moment this game had at least with Leda's story. Just like quickly, like, let go of like anything interesting soon after it picks something up. And that was kind of like my, that was my frustration throughout a lot of it. What?

27:41drove you to pick Leda as the your first playthrough musician cool as hell like out for revenge as well. There's something about that premise that I thought was really interesting. I also thought like I wanted to go against the green of starting as like, you know, Kai feels very much. Anime anime protagonist on whatever shown in that you see on, you know, crunchy roll. And so I wanted to start with someone who I felt like was more of like a support role in a tackle. And so I think it's like game because I thought that was such a interesting idea of that kind of being a leading member for a while. And so that's what led me to starting off with her. And at one point, I just kind of found myself committed like I didn't. I wasn't confident in the game. If I jumped over to somewhere else. What that was actually it was going to do anything different for me in terms of story. But that's just like story stuff like, do we want to talk about gameplay?

28:41And like the tactics, the meat of the tactics. We do want to talk about the game. We want to all about those tactics in the grid after a quick word from our sponsor. This episode is brought to you by five hour energy indulge your sweet tooth with a fruity rainbow extra strength. Five hour energy shot. It's basically a candy sword a bottle. We're talking juicy berry burst tangy citrus squeezes and a pop of tropical vibes all hitting like your favorite childhood sweets, but with an actual boost. The sweet treat that you won't feel guilty about packed with B vitamins nutrients and that all important caffeine to keep you going. Best is pocket size is your favorite candy, but with zero sugar and zero sugar crash. Forget boring. Find the rainbow. Grab the shot. Dive into the sweet boost for your sweet tooth. Visit five hour energy dot com or Amazon today. This episode is brought to you by factor. This gaming review season has been the busiest yet. And sometimes hunger strikes and you are just way too exhausted to set up and prepare. The whole meal you thought you'd have time for. That's why so many of us here at kind of funny love factor.

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31:50May this year, most rewarding season ever with fan tool, agent location restrictions apply product availability varies by market. See fan tool comfort eligibility gambling problem called 1-800-Gemmar. Hey Spotify listeners. When you travel with American Airlines, you'll enjoy comfort and convenience at every altitude. Before takeoff, unwind in the AdMIRAL's club lounge with curated self serve offerings of party bites and refreshments in flight stay connected with high speed Wi-Fi sponsored by AT&T. Your journey is designed to feel easy from the moment you check in to the moment you arrive. No matter where you're going, American gets you there. Book now at AA.com. This episode is brought to you by TickTack. Lay sub and get your game on because the TickTack lineup just got a new teammate. Dr. Pepper TickTack. This new double threat puts two of your favorite flavors into one box of mince. And when two iconic flavors come together, the result can only be iconic. Score big. Try Dr. Pepper TickTack today. We've talked a lot about the story and characters, which is a major part of a Fire Emblem game.

32:56What the most major part, I would say, is the tactics. It's the gameplay and what is it like? Snowbike Mike. It is a lot. In this game is a lot. And there's so much I felt like I'm getting flashbacks to when I did the preview. And it's like just an hour of us talking here is not enough time because I could talk about every crazy system at play and how they all interweave and connect and things that I don't even use, that I don't need to use that I can use. Of course, if we want to take it to the grid, you have your main battles, right? And those start off in the hero games. Of course, that is the top down on the grid strategy game that you know, Fire Emblem 4. And that is where the tactics really come in and shine, right? I had a good time with it. I wish I had a great time. It felt like it became very repetitive at the beginning and all the way through the end with the map layouts, the wind conditions. You know, I think we're going to talk a lot about like wind conditions and for certain

33:57characters, when you start, everybody kind of has a very similar story of we come to Dagda for the hero games. And we kind of onboard you very similar, but everybody kind of has different battles that they go through. And for Theodora, it very much became, hey, your wind condition is simple. Kill everybody on the battlefield or kill the one main person. It's like, all right, that's cool, but like I wish that we could try some different things, right? I think we've seen other tactics games have some fun, different wind conditions when you're on the battlefield. And then I went over to Kai and I'm like, oh, wow, they're giving Kai different games and different wind conditions. And I'm like, I'm enjoying that, right? I like that. That kind of quickly got pushed to the side at the end of all of this when it just became kill everything on the board or kill the one person. That is what it always boils down to. And that's kind of the tactics, genre, as it's whole, but I do like when they play with the formula. And for me, it will always come down to, am I having a good time fighting for my life where I'm up against the wall and they're sending so many enemies at me.

35:00And I'm hoping that I'll get the right dodge into a parry. Maybe I'll get that killing blow, that super crit where I love Fire Emblemware. You can see when you get the crit, they slow down, they have the extra prison, the agent layer, it does a double flip. You're like, yes, you got it. That's what I needed, right? Or like I brought up before, like the comboing and using all of my chess pieces on the board in the right order to land exactly what I need. And so early on, I think this game, unnormal that I played it on, is very easy. I think it kind of loathes you into this sense of like, you can do anything. You don't have to learn a lot of the systems. You don't have to use the blaze arts because these new moves called the blaze arts are your four and some other characters have very special moves. And they'll call upon the gods and they'll do these high powerful moves, but they'll do it at the cost of them taking damage. And so now you play the game of, well, do I really want the ador to take 2015 damage right now that could leave her open to doing this move as opposed to,

36:01well, she could just slash him and do the same amount of damage. And it's all good, right? Later on, I think I really leaned on those blaze arts. And that's when I started the combo that, which I really enjoyed. I liked having to think about that and using those at the beginning. It was a cakewalk. I was just smashing fun superhero characters together. And it was all good and easy. And so I had a good time. I enjoyed it. I wish the win conditions were a little bit more. I do wish the maps. There's like so many blob maps. And then there's like a couple that stand out and you're like, that was the coolest thing ever. They have some great maps in the hero games where they play with the gladiator arena and they change the formula and they build it out differently. There's a couple later on in the open world where you're like, oh, wow, like someone thought of a really fun way to manipulate the tactics, whether it be obstacles on the battlefield, whether it be different game play wise of like, hey, this, this whole map is enshrouded and fogged. You can't see in front of you. So it's kind of a guessing game. You're like, all right.

37:02That's what I want to see more of. Nine times that it was always, hey, here's the most basic map. Here's a couple of small obstacles that you're just going to weave around and nothing crazy. That was like, yeah, that I wanted more of. Yeah, I don't feel like the the gameplay of the tactics really asked much of me for the first like 40 hours. That's then that's where you start to get in some more kind of interesting map design. But I feel like a lot of it was just flat and just kind of asked you to understand to the basics of rock paper scissors, what's strong against what and all that stuff were to the point where, you know, there was a there was a match that I or not a match, but there was like a battle that I had like 30 hours in that I was kind of like hitting my head against the wall at first. And I was like, what is happening? And I realized it was the first time that like the way a map was laid out because it was happening within the city. It wasn't in the game. So it was all like it was a very specific kind of like special story side quest thing

38:04that has you kind of running around in the streets of like the city. The reason I was hitting my head against the wall was because I was lulled into not having to think about the tactics for so long that I finally like woke up a little bit and I was like, oh, shit, wait. So we're like trying to escape these people and like now we're in like this city scape. And now I can think about like alleyways and like how to block people and like actually thinking about the tactics of the tactics game for the first time in 30 hours. I was like, oh, this is cool. But then everything before that felt like so flat and not interesting and how things are laid out and just again has you kind of like just like recognizing like pattern recognizing of, oh, this guy is coming up to the forefront. Who in my party is throwing against them? Have them approach fight. And I think like there's a lack of interactivity with like a lot of the characters and what you can do together. There's a little bit in the weird like classic JRPG kind of thing. Clash is what they call that.

39:05Where you're kind of doing like turn based stuff or you can do like the link arts. There's something there with like connectivity with like what you're doing amongst your crew. But then the classic tactics gameplay. I found like a lot of just like, oh, it's you know, either you're giving someone a buff or you're healing someone and not really much else past that. That I also found like a lack of engagement where much like a lot of the other stuff as well. Yeah. Towards the end there, unfortunately, like there just became battles where it was very much of like, I'm fighting the spongiest of spongy bosses. And there's a lot of conditions that you have to do to defeat this boss. And then on top of that what they decided to do is just constantly throw more and more enemies at you with reinforcements where you play this game of like, I'm already fighting for my life here in the end game. It's like best that I can do. That's where really it goes from super easy to ramping up difficulty in the final part of the game. And the difficulty isn't very interesting. It's just like a spongier boss that you have to get to

40:09with just like waves and waves of enemies and that like that's like again, not all the time. And like the later parts, there is some interesting layouts that actually have you think about the entire board and have you from the jump think about 10 moves later. Yeah. Yeah, that's why I get to are we really doing this right? My quote there of like, there's some battles at the end where it's like, do we really need the 40 extra reinforcements here at all times? It's like you clearly have seen around move 34 turn 34. I'm fighting for my life. We don't need more more like it's a great battle. Let's keep it going as such and they do a couple moments at the end when I'm like, I don't like that. We got some super chats here for gameplay stops. So fairy lady phrases got to ask what difficulty and classic slash casual to y'all go with. Yeah, I went with normal no permadeath man. I would regret myself playing permadeath in act three because I was dying a lot and I was really relying on the forza horizon turnback time mechanic

41:11of course in this you can go and pray to the gods. You can give service throughout the week which we haven't talked about the social and the giant map. But there are a bunch of different churches and houses that you can go pray at give service to and they'll give you different moves and buffs that will help you during that. And so of course, I really leaned on the oh man. That person died. I'm not no rewind time. Let's figure this out. And I didn't need that the whole beginning of it. It's not till the final act where I really have leaned on that. Kevin, I'm about to hit you with a games cast game tip. Because it's a games cast game tip if you need help don't feel ashamed to game. Don't play classic mode. Okay, I can get the outro.

42:18So classic mode is the permadeath mode, right? That was what I decided to play with. I did normal difficulty classic mode, permadeath because the perception that I had going into this fire emblem being my first one of the series is like permadeath's a big thing in this series. And I understood that. I was like, you know what? I want to give that a shot and I want to like understand like why this is so like an important thing. And so yeah, it wasn't really a problem for the first 15 hours. I get to my first like core party member death in a battle, right? And you know the way this works. I don't know how three houses work. So sorry if I'm re-explaining things, right? It's like you have your main character in a storyline and then they usually have like four or five like main story like party members that you have. And then there's like all the other Gibronis that you can recruit that don't really add a lot to or don't really get inserted into like the main story really. They're just kind of there to serve as your crew.

43:18I had my first permadeath like 15 hours in. It was like one of my core party members. And I was like, oh, this is interesting because it happened within the games like the actual arena battle games. And I'm going through the motions. I'm like, damn, that sucks. I was building this relationship between later and this girl. I feel like, you know, probably not intended by I was there's an energy between them. I like seeing what that all does. But now this is over, right? But then I thought to myself, well, we're not actually killing each other in like the heroic games, you know, it's like the reason I know that is because I've defeated other people and then been able to recruit them afterwards. So I'm like, hmm, I wonder if there's like any sort of explanation to like her like being out or is she out because she technically didn't die? I finished that combat scenario. Get on the other side. And she's just alive. Just hanging out, but does not part of my party anymore. And there's no acknowledgement that like, oh, I'm not like mechanically in here

44:23anymore. There's no acknowledgement of like, oh, story wise, I'm not allowed to participate in the games. And I think I wouldn't call this moment the catalyst, but I think this was the moment where it came into focus of like why I was not connecting so much with a lot of the game is because I felt so little stakes in a lot of stuff. I would have liked and because I was really willing to get myself into the permadeath thing, but that not countering into any sort of aspect of like the actual kind of repercussions of having one of your core like core people sacrifice on the battlefield. Like, I don't know, it just really fell flat for me. We're on the other side, started Star Wars Zero Company on Sunday, only a couple hours into that game. And that came literally in its tutorial, tutorial, as you threw losing a party member. And you feel that you feel that consequence mechanically, but then also like emotionally and story wise as well. It's not a big like emotional moment, but it's like, acknowledge it like this is, hey, he knew what he was signing up

45:27for. Like he didn't make it out and all this stuff. And I felt kind of frustrated and like a major disconnect with like any sort of acknowledgement with that. And that's where, you know, like I really started to kind of put the pieces together of like why a lot of this game wasn't working for me. So that's just that's my tip because I think the I think the permadeath mode I think honestly is there probably just for like the heads, the people who've been around for a long time, but I do think it adds to this layer of like, does any of this even really matter kind of thing? So that's my tip. Clack again says, did you miss the weapon wheel or weapon triangle, which that also wasn't in three houses. So I kind of want to take that and jump off with you Mike compared to three houses, which you did play not too long ago. Where what does this game do better and what does it do worse? I think it just does everything better, right? I mean, there's no classic weapon wheel of like this versus that. There's like buff for each one. And you kind of know which one's stronger, but

46:29there is no like classic just rock paper scissors, right? Like each one has its own positives and each one has its own like I'm stronger than you at this, right? Well, you're talking about in combat, in tactics. I mean, there is a rock paper scissors to it all like magic, you know, is strong heavy as strong against like armored people, you know, arrows is strong against people who are on like horses and like, Pegasus and all that stuff. Like there is not like the classic mode that it was always there. I enjoyed the new classes that they had the teachings. I think was better. I would say the social aspect and the character growth of like skill development was better for me of like it was faster. It was more fine tuned than it was in three houses where I felt like it really slowed me down. This one I very much felt like, hey, I'm a snappier pace now getting my characters up to certain skills within the tree that I want them to then progress at. I really enjoyed getting like, you know, having my sniper, I knew was going to be great against air dialing that in. I really leaned less on magic. I felt like in my first game in Fire Emblem,

47:33Fire or three houses, I really leaned into magic and there was some moments where I was had more casters out there right now, but I would say maybe a little bit different than three houses where I fell in three houses. I was playing that rock paper scissors game. This one very much felt like the indoor is going to smash you and I felt like Mike felt like there's a couple heroes there that were just going to smash you regardless. That character is going to smash you. This side character who's clearly like a big time character. He's going to smash you. My my god character. He's like, there wasn't much there. There were and like there are even some recruiters that felt like a little OP against everybody shout out to you. Goosemon. I want to say his name is voiced by the homie fellow kind of funny best friends. Matthew David a rod. And that that always made me smile hearing him call out like attacks and all that stuff, but like he just became like a tank against everything and it was like, oh, like this is this is the guy now, I guess the goose is what we call the elephant warriors too.

48:34Like there was a couple of fun ones of like I enjoyed the enemy variety slash like see what three houses in them then them adding on to a couple of them like the elephant warriors were a menace out on the battlefield, right? They have this move where they charge similar to the cherry. It's which I thought were really cool as well, but like you can clearly see the line of like here's a line of effect. They're going to blaze right through you and either you're going to take a bunch of damage or with the elephant warriors, they're going to move you on the battlefield in and away from where you wanted. And there was a lot of moments where they were just feed them over and over on the battlefield. It's like this is a lot to handle. Should I one just take them out one by one and like hopefully I get through them with a stop responding or two and I try to navigate around them because their body blocking up to four spaces here that are like really tight quarters. There's one with the elephant warriors were in the city and like they were cutting off all the main veins to get through and I was struggling to get my army through all of that and it made a lot of fun. I didn't make any elephant warriors even though I had the outfit

49:35I did not. Chattano who's the voice actor I'm blanking on his name but a box of go from my hero which is one. Yeah. My boy Io on his big ole ill food. We got some superchats I want to get to here. Oak milk tea says hey guys thanks for the two different perspectives on this review. Is there romance? I'm a sickle for the social aspects with romance options thanks and Oscar also says can you confirm if there's romance in the game? I never got to a point where like maybe there is but like I don't know if I ever got to a high enough level in relationships between characters that that would have been a thing. I last one here we got fair lady phrasing are there any queer supports romance options? Also are they all ash or can you create bonds of romances between other lords and merks? So romance conversation. I don't I don't think there's any f**king hero romance in mind. Of course Kai is a 15 year old boy. Yeah. So yeah he wasn't really romancing anyone. He had his you can still give us. Yeah. He was a cute girl friend of like from the town who loved him and wanted to spend time with him. And then there was an awkward scene at the end there was like okay

50:37don't love this but okay. It's saying it like we can't talk about it because it's one of the things we're not allowed to talk about but there's it in same scene Mike described to me that even like we were talking about it and blessing looked over like what? Yeah. What? And then the ador is like said on I don't need a man. I'm the queen. I'm trying to make sure my country is taking care. I'm trying to come to the hero games of like there was and I was raising up support levels for certain characters up from C to B to A and there wasn't given the romance like it was in Fire Emblem 3 Houses and now mind you this was like we're going through the hero games into the war arc and onward there wasn't really a moment and like Fire Emblem felt like the romance started at the very end of it all you kind of had that. And so I don't know if we'll see that maybe at the end of it again you're knocking on the door so I think that would be such a weird place to finally implement stuff like that. Yeah. And like just talking about that with like just relationships stuff not even just romance. I found a lot of that to be like really just again a lot of it but just again

51:40very like so paper thin and how to engage with like recruiting people it's like all felt kind of again pattern recognition superficial like oh this character card tells me this person likes books okay and then I go buy him a book and I give him a book and they're like they liked it and that's like the the most you get engagement with like building up a team which I found like very uninteresting. Yeah the support conversations are exactly what I got out of Fire Emblem 3 Houses right you with the other fall in love with these characters and I think they did a great job having a really awesome diverse cast of characters that you can recruit in this right every single person you walked up to you like wow you have a ton of personality you are different from the other one right like that's really cool. I'm building out the squad that I dream of and that I like but then like yeah when it comes to the support conversations you're either fully engaged on this and you love hearing what they have to say and learning the little backstory or you're like here's seven sentences that mean absolutely nothing right like a lot of these characters because there's so many of them

52:40they're not that deep there's not much going on there it's going to be very basic when it comes especially when you have the two supports together right and so there's moments where I really enjoyed it I had Kai in this guy Goliath become just best bros right and it's like man that's so cool like these guys rock together and then I had like Theodore and another person like this is just nothing going on yeah. Rabbit of carbon ox says for someone like me that hasn't played Fire Emblem but has been intrigued would this be a good first Fire Emblem or do you have another recommendation? I mean it pretty clearly feel like we know we're barrens out with this but Mike and I just really quick of like this is connected to three houses which I didn't even know my assumption was that like this was just like a safe entry to get into like was that the wrong perception to have and that is that why I'm missing a lot of like I think it's still safe entry I think it's still safe entry I mean fold winds up to the north they refer to it every now and then but like there's nothing deep where it's like oh you didn't play three houses you're going to miss all of that it definitely doesn't feel like that okay. There's references but I think it's tough because

53:44I think three houses any Fire Emblems that goes going to tell you got to play all the people you got to play at least two minimum I think three houses a little bit smaller you can get through it in a better chunk of time and finish it wrap it up this one though like I really like a lot that goes on like we haven't got to the open world map but I didn't enjoy that I liked that and so I think right now for me it is probably you know because it's recent you know it's hot on my mind but I do like Fire Emblems for since we've over three houses would be wadley. Yeah the open world map stuff were you know in between like big battles you're going out and you know grinding for you know resources and crawling doing like small dungeon crawly type of stuff and some other tactics gameplay stuff and yeah that's a big chunk of the game that I felt to be kind of like repetitive and monotonous and not in a way that really like served anything but then there's the interesting payoff

54:44or like at the near the end of the game they turn the entire map into kind of a tactics board game in and of itself and I'm like see this is interesting like now we're getting somewhere and I see the finish line of this game and that I found to be a bit frustrating I'm like spending so much time with this map and like just the interactivity of it I found to be really dull until I'm getting into like the last 10 hours of the game and then yeah that's just like again frustrating yeah that's where they really cranked it up to 11 on this is adding this open world map right three houses was very much of like you're at the monastery then you take on a little side quest to get your troops up and then you go to the main story and there wasn't much else to do besides run around that little monastery dagda the capital city that you're in is already gigantic it's the size of the monastery if not bigger now so there's plenty to run around in there's plenty of things that you inside of that shout out to fast travel on all of that you can fast travel right to the characters that you are trying to bond with you fast travel right to their feet you can fast travel to a

55:48number of different locations in that which is really really great learned that 20 and each character is kind of got something different going on right the adora is very much she's the queen of ceremonies she's in the ultimate warrior when she shows up her side quests are very much of like hey go fight like you're gonna battle here or go to this bulletin board help out the city ties is very much tuned to like hey you're just a kid go help me find that cat over there hey there's some like small animals blocking the road go handle that right so it's like very interesting to come the adora's story and how they treated her in the city and the missions in the tone to Kai where it was like oh this is a child and like they weren't there was no bullets in board for Kai it was very much of like hey we're just giving you small side of and to reiterate on that like a lot of like the game becomes this open world map how much interactivity did you get with the open world is Kai yeah and so that was the interesting one bear it's like then I started to yearn for the open world map that's where I found the most fun of this I liked being on the grid but this board is so much fun to navigate through and to build and be like hey on your first attempt

56:53you get 24 days which is your resource for how many moves you get on the map right and so I'll take the adora I'll move over X amount of spaces and be like that's one day you go down to 23 and onward right and so your balance now is to start doing side quests to get more reputation in the town to help you recruit of course get stronger there's going to be resources to help you build out better weapons to of course repair your weapons to help buy things there's also the many dungeons where you'll find treasure and better weapons in general there's some great weapons out there that you should go search for and go find but it was interesting with the adora she's got a boat the adora is out there sailing the seven seas I'm catching fish I'm sailing around dagdom having the greatest time she can go anywhere she wants because she's the boss then I become Kai and there's a quarter of the map and they're like no Kai can't go out there because you're just a kid like what what are you talking about the resource that I need for Kai to recruit this guy is way out there and they're like no no Kai can't go out there and so it felt very limiting of like what Kai is

57:59what Kai can do and of course what's cool like that's his story I guess he's a kid and we limited that point you brought up is like he's fighting these heroic games like the front leader of the heroic games he's the best dude on the block just let him go there's got to be a moment because I honestly like that as a decision of like them treating him like this thing but it's like there's a disconnect for me there when you think about it for more than 10 seconds of like yeah he is doing like pretty big fights and if he's one of these like kind of big champions out of assumes like maybe start off that way but then like the higher Kai goes up in the ranks of this whole tournament maybe the more recognition he gets and then he can finally go out and each one has their own thing that they do right and bear will talk about what his characters does but like I brought up in the preview but Theodore her goal is to go out there and send troops back to Sarah miss so she's gonna go out to each town she gives this rousing speech and she can recruit soldiers to be part of your gambit if you remember that you have like for Theodore's favorite excellent she's allowed to have the gambits

59:01which are like troops that can do abilities on the battlefield that no one else can do only Theodore can and so her goal was to go around the map recruit all these people send them back to Sarah miss or sign them to my team members so I can be stronger in the battlefield what Kai he doesn't do that Kai can plant vegetables which then I can use as resources so that was cool like using the map in different ways and going out and be like all right he was going to be a farm for this so I can always come back and get this resource here's what I'm going to do there and then also he can catch wildlife which is your rideables which was very interesting so he could tame the ostrich he could tame a horse and so it's like oh well what do we do in here it's like oh he can build bonds with the rideable characters that you have there to deepen those bonds and make them stronger which I was like okay like I appreciate that every person here has something different going on in the map I talked about Dietrich he goes out and he just sends out this bloodthirst scan which like here's the strongest enemies on the map Dietrich wants to just go kill them so it's like I appreciate

1:00:03that everybody did something different I like that there's relationships with the people in the animals because someone was asking can you romance the elephant so there's maybe maybe I'm definitely building up a bond with an object so we got some super chats about Barrett here wrote home most thing as a big fireman with an I respect Barrett for his opinion I wonder if he thinks these years the genre of the specific entry and then Zeke speaks says y'all need to watch bats 2025 top games as a reminder of what his taste is like the dude has a critical opinion play the game and form your own Barrett do you think the issue is the genre or the specific entry maybe it's me maybe it's me I don't know maybe I'm broken in the brain I don't think it's the genre because again like I the reason I started off this conversation was like you know I yearn for the grid I'd played other like other games in this genre that I felt like we're a good dipping of the toe and like this was me fully going into the pool to be like let's go this is like one of the most beloved franchises in this genre I'm so excited and yeah I just I so much of it felt flat in terms of its

1:01:08tactics design that it really just didn't really speak to me and even just in the story it's like it all felt so thin compared to you know again other just kind of entry level like beginner games for the genre so for the genre like the ones you named there's some of them I'm not familiar with what the gameplay looks like yeah are any of them that when we say the grid like the literal more like chessboard grid that five of them has compared to like demon school is a good example of that demon school does have like a more traditional grid you're seeing it from like a one like a kind of very specific perspective but then the way you interact with that grid I find to be very interesting in how that gameplay kind of you have to think about it because you choose actions but then you have to think about they're not doing it one by one you have to think about they're all about to do these actions all at the same time so then you have to think about like kind of the steps and the interactivity of all your characters so I'm thinking about in that sense I'm thinking about it more so just like the you know Mario Rabbits the first one at least was a bit more tactics I know

1:02:12the second one got rid of the grid and the squares which made me sad but that one I found just to be you know not really having high expectations for it but still just like kind of quick in and out battles that at least still had layouts map layouts that had me thinking about the entire chessboard right and I just even in those games like I just I was trying to find that in this and I just wasn't getting much of it again there are a few fights you know the the one that I was talking about earlier with the you know it I think it does a really good job of a voking of like you're running from someone in the city and then trying to figure out like where to stand your ground to like get an advantage and I was like oh this is cool where was this in the first 30 hours so maybe it's me though we have IQ JDR SRT 92 who says I feel the GBA games can be more your style bear it I appreciate that you gave the series a shot sad you didn't like it yeah there's definitely a big difference between some of the older Fire Emblems and I'll be fascinating to go to three houses

1:03:13that's like honestly like we're at what I've been thinking about but I think not anytime soon so similar to this though like I feel like I'm with this where like I give a awakening a shot give like the older ones that are I think a little bit more story focused and without being like everything in the kitchen sink yeah yeah um because I do remember playing those and like the permadeath stuff it's like those characters impact destroyed felt more important last thing I'll say just because I remembered it you know with the the stuff that we shouldn't really talk about when like where the story goes and all the stuff but at least like the premise right it's like you're recruiting these people you're learning about their personal stories and I think where the big overarching thing goes at least for later it's like they completely throw out everything that was important that was like left off in like a question like all of these there's a couple of threads where her journey and from like oh this is interesting how is this going to connect to like what I'm about to play what I know what it's about to happen in this world and like all of that's thrown away important things are explained to you that happened off screen and that's that's where I

1:04:17was like what are we fucking doing here um but again it sounds like Theodora much more involved in what the actual story is being told here which makes me question of like why not just make one really solid fucking campaign you know sorry uh the final super chat saying shout out bear it always appreciate hearing your opinions big dogs yes thank you so much bear it for that thank you so much Mike uh I feel like those were any more closing words you feel good with that I'm really excited to play Zero Company I've been I've been given myself to that game the last couple days and oh my god way more interesting and immediately I did a Greg way a couple weeks ago about my flavor and style and personal likes into the tactic genre and where I really fall and it was fun talking about mugenics talking about zcom talking about this way it's like where do I fall and like what do I gravitate more towards and so yeah I think there's a lot of great options out there I think there's a lot of great opportunity to have a good conversation of like what kind of tactics came or are you what what are you really looking for out of this genre do you want to dip

1:05:22your toe and is there a better alternative for you and I think there's a lot of great options this year that you could find the right one for you which is cool to say of like it's not just XCOM anymore right or it's not fire emblem on the game boy anymore it's like you could try out a bunch of games right now that might be more your style the last thing I'll say is don't get too hung up on one man's opinion of a of a game I'm just trying to give you my honest assessment of where and uh where I in this game intersected um just to give you an idea just give you a different perspective I don't think that needs to paint your personal experience and relationship with the game I just wanted to give you my perspective on it so uh for people who are you know feeling feelings right now just know that I'm just a dude and you know looking to to share opinions and have a conversation because that's what this is all about so there you go you were fantastic I think a lot of people are going to really like this game if you're into fire emblem there's a lot going on here and I'm glad that I spent the time I'm looking forward to finishing it this week and you know we'll see where it ends up if it's a contender for me at my top 10s we'll see we'll see

1:06:29and so next time I love you all the bite band-ool is now available everywhere in the US so you can get in on the sports action no matter where you are including these places in the Minnesota Buffalo Lincoln Chai Town Arizona take this year most rewarding season ever with fan-duel agent location restrictions apply product availability varies by market cfandool.com for eligibility gambling problem called 1-800-Gemmar hi I'm Andy Richter I might not have won the mirror ball last season that was so fun that I did win the best gig ever hosting the dancing with the stars official podcast get ready for all the inside scoop from the cast all right well let's get to work behind the scene secrets and more from every episode that was mongering it's going to be iconic all my dreams are coming true dancing with the stars official podcast new episodes every

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