I just picked up Fire Emblem Awakening and am starting my game. I flipped through the small instruction guide to see if anything had changed, no nothing really. I know there are some pretty big changes in the game, but the game will tell me whats up when the time comes.
The difficulties are:
Normal - For beginners that have never played a Fire Emblem
Hard - For veterans of Fire Emblem
Lunatic - The hard mode
No big deal about the difficulties, I find it amusing that it isn't easy/medium/hard like normal, its more normal/hard/really fucking hard. This is pretty normal for Fire Emblem, all of them have several difficulties to choose from. Interesting that I can go straight into the hardest mode at the start though, usually you have to beat it once on normal to unlock it.
But here is what bugs me a bit. After you choose your difficulty, you choose 'Game mode'
Casual - Fallen units return. You can save anywhere.
Classic - Units are lost forever. Each decision counts.
For those of you who have never played a Fire Emblem game--first of all, I pity you, they are amazing games--when a unit dies, it stays dead. Permanently. For characters that are essential to the story, they are "wounded" and can never fight again, but are still alive for cutscenes. For characters that are not essential to the story, they are dead. You can't talk to them, they don't say anything in the story, their items are gone, they are dead. This makes you, the strategist/commander of the field, play very carefully to keep everyone alive, or play like a dick and sacrifice someone so you can complete an objective. When I play Fire Emblem, I never let someone die. If anyone dies, I restart the level and play differently so I can keep everyone alive.
But back to this Casual mode, it kind of bugs me. I'll never play it because it goes against everything I know about Fire Emblem, so it doesn't affect me. Should I be mad that it is there? Well, I think people who pick it are doing it because they don't want that much of a challenge in the game. Maybe they just want to play the story and get through the combat easily. This additional mode doesn't affect my experience of the game. Halo has an easy and normal difficulty which I never touch, and they don't bug me.
So is there anything wrong with this Casual mode? Since it doesn't affect me in any way, no, there is nothing wrong with it. Do I like it? No, I think it takes away from the experience of Fire Emblem, but it is impossible for me to say what other people enjoy about Fire Emblem.
TL;DR: This extremely easy mode bothers me, but since I don't have to use it and can play the game the way I want to, its not a bad thing. I can understand why people might want to use it, but its not for me.
Discussion value:
This kind of ties into the "easy mode" for Dark Souls or other games that have "easier than normal" difficulties discussion. It doesn't affect you in any way, you can play the game your way, and other people can play the game their way. If you feel that it takes away from the core experience of the game, then that is just being narrow minded. There is no way that you can say, "this is the way that the game is meant to be played". What you actually mean is, "this is the way I enjoy the game, and I think it is the best way to enjoy this game to the fullest. Any other way is inferior to my way of playing" which is extremely narrow minded. You are welcome to your opinions, but expecting other people to follow them is just silly. Yes, I know how ironic it is for me to say that.
What do you think about this Casual mode?
Have you played games that have an "easy mode" included? What did you think about it?
The difficulties are:
Normal - For beginners that have never played a Fire Emblem
Hard - For veterans of Fire Emblem
Lunatic - The hard mode
No big deal about the difficulties, I find it amusing that it isn't easy/medium/hard like normal, its more normal/hard/really fucking hard. This is pretty normal for Fire Emblem, all of them have several difficulties to choose from. Interesting that I can go straight into the hardest mode at the start though, usually you have to beat it once on normal to unlock it.
But here is what bugs me a bit. After you choose your difficulty, you choose 'Game mode'
Casual - Fallen units return. You can save anywhere.
Classic - Units are lost forever. Each decision counts.
For those of you who have never played a Fire Emblem game--first of all, I pity you, they are amazing games--when a unit dies, it stays dead. Permanently. For characters that are essential to the story, they are "wounded" and can never fight again, but are still alive for cutscenes. For characters that are not essential to the story, they are dead. You can't talk to them, they don't say anything in the story, their items are gone, they are dead. This makes you, the strategist/commander of the field, play very carefully to keep everyone alive, or play like a dick and sacrifice someone so you can complete an objective. When I play Fire Emblem, I never let someone die. If anyone dies, I restart the level and play differently so I can keep everyone alive.
But back to this Casual mode, it kind of bugs me. I'll never play it because it goes against everything I know about Fire Emblem, so it doesn't affect me. Should I be mad that it is there? Well, I think people who pick it are doing it because they don't want that much of a challenge in the game. Maybe they just want to play the story and get through the combat easily. This additional mode doesn't affect my experience of the game. Halo has an easy and normal difficulty which I never touch, and they don't bug me.
So is there anything wrong with this Casual mode? Since it doesn't affect me in any way, no, there is nothing wrong with it. Do I like it? No, I think it takes away from the experience of Fire Emblem, but it is impossible for me to say what other people enjoy about Fire Emblem.
TL;DR: This extremely easy mode bothers me, but since I don't have to use it and can play the game the way I want to, its not a bad thing. I can understand why people might want to use it, but its not for me.
Discussion value:
This kind of ties into the "easy mode" for Dark Souls or other games that have "easier than normal" difficulties discussion. It doesn't affect you in any way, you can play the game your way, and other people can play the game their way. If you feel that it takes away from the core experience of the game, then that is just being narrow minded. There is no way that you can say, "this is the way that the game is meant to be played". What you actually mean is, "this is the way I enjoy the game, and I think it is the best way to enjoy this game to the fullest. Any other way is inferior to my way of playing" which is extremely narrow minded. You are welcome to your opinions, but expecting other people to follow them is just silly. Yes, I know how ironic it is for me to say that.
What do you think about this Casual mode?
Have you played games that have an "easy mode" included? What did you think about it?
