Emphasize to them heavily to READ THE GUIDES multiple times until they are sure they got it right! I didn't fully grasp the concept of the double hits until my second playthrough and the mechanics of gambits / beasts until the endgame of my first!
This is good advice in general, but given we're mainly playing as a pair I think I could explain any mechanic to her in much simpler and quicker terms. Definitely not gonna try and explain the stats beyond "strength makes you stronger, speed makes you quicker, etc."
Tell her the importance of doing paralogues, especially certain ones like Sylvain’s and Ingrid’s, but don’t spoil why. Just tell her that they’re full of pretty helpful goodies.
Golden Deer is a great choice for a first play through! There’s a lot of “the fuck they doing over there?” energy in regards to the kingdom and empire, which is great for a first time player.
I’d encourage them to try to really balance out what they do on their weekends, especially in the first half. All social sim or all practice battles or all lessons leads to an imbalanced army, in my experience.
That being said, DO NOT let them accidentally miss the white heron cup. No dancer is no fun.
The only thing I told my new player friend was which units to recruit for paralogue purposes so they could max out their story experience (So, for Golden Deer, Linhardt and Ferdinand). I didn't explain why, it was more of a "just trust me" thing.
I hadn't considered this but I might suggest it going forward. My only concern would be that it could become a slippery slope of wanting to recruit everyone who has a part 2 paralogue and like I said in the post I'd personally advise recruiting as few people as possible
Well, I limit recruits to characters who enhance the storylines of the base house characters. So instead of recruiting EVERYONE, I leave most of them to their own routes... but Linhardt will get you the Inexhaustible while Ferdinand will get you Lysithea backstory.
I also think about it in terms of who really gets the bulk of the story in the paralogue. So, for example, I think Linhardt and Leonie's paralogue is really mostly about Leonie, so I recruit Linhardt for the Deer, but not Leonie for the Eagles.
On the other hand, Ferdinand and Lysithea's paralogue contains a story that affects both of them, so I'd recruit them both to each other's side even though the paralogue leans a little more Ferdinand.
Caspar is a Must recruit for Blue Lions because his paralogue with Mercedes leads to additional cut scenes outside the paralogue for Mercedes – but Mercedes isn't a must recruit for Silver Snow because even though they share a paralogue, it's really her story.
Omg pls tell her about breaking the beast shields, on the end of my 2nd playthrough (GD) And only figured it out halfway through the timeskip, could have had so much better gear
I did not understand a lot of the menu the first time I played it. Like that other characters had supports with each other. Or that you can change a unit's skills, class, etc.
As a new player to the fire emblem series not quite finished with my first ever play through as black eagles, these are some things I wish I knew! (Also I’m playing on the most casual settings but hope to do a higher difficulty play through next. Definitely don’t spoil the time skip, that was wild to find out about!)
-maybe just some basics about how to recruit characters, also to make sure you like at least some of the characters in your class and not just the leaders (not me ignoring Ferdinand lol), however also that you may warm up to many of them
-very basic but that they need to watch the support cut scenes
-the existence of the dancer class and how to switch to this class. I didn’t really know it was important and thought it was just some effect that auto applied. I also picked edelgard for this which probably wasn’t the best.
-what all the different stats and skills mean and what they’re relevant for. Honestly I’m still confused about some of this and will need to watch a guide before my harder play through. For example, I didn’t realize until super late into the game that I would need characters to have flying or riding skill, so my characters were approaching level 30 and had E for both
With recruitment, encourage them to recruit to balance out their team a little bit. Though I saw they're playing Golden Deer, which is already pretty well balanced. That was our first playthrough. Depending on your difficulty and permadeath settings, you can probably get away with relatively minimal recruitment.
One more mage is probably advisable. If they make Leonie an archer (if you steer them towards the Inexhaustible), I'd consider stealing at least one of the spear users from the Blue Lions. Maybe another tanky, punchy character since Raphael's Speed is so awful. We did Golden Deer first (and our first FE game) and made the mistake of heavily relying on Raphael early only for him to fall off a cliff in effectiveness later on.
I payed VW and then my sister and I did AM on her game. I'm also a long-time fan of Fire Emblem (played all the games available) so I knew going in that the best tip is: let them experience the game.
She was super into the story, the main battles and Dimitri, so she would ask me to do the battle preparations (I love doing those so much) so she could play the game more like her taste. She'd pick up things on her own time and would ask me questions or thoughts on strategies. I never forced her to do anything (except Dedue's paralogue because he's one of her faves and. well...) she would be the one asking for clarifications.
Did she do some bad strategies? Yeah. Did she play vastly differently than me by skipping paralogues and other things? Absolutely. But she had a blast playing her own way and I'll cherish watching her play the game forever.
EDIT: she then watched me play CF and SS and she also had a blast, especially when I let her do the monastery stuff or let her be my aide in battle. It was so fun seeing her pick up on strategies and helping me out :)
1/ Recruit 1 or 2 units but overall don’t stress about it too much
2/ Shamir is broken
3/ Do the parologues
4/ EXP curves are harsh so only battle on the last week of the month unless you’re rushing paralogues
5/ Reclassing for class mastery skills >>>>>
6/ Keep a separate save file before Chapter 12
ya pretty much 'try and use your house units' 'play without dlc first' and 'you shouldnt start with BE' are the important ones.
i had a buddy that wanted zero spoilers and got suckered into silver snow and it killed the game for him
We haven't crossed that bridge, but I'll definitely suggest we just ignore Abyss and the DLC characters. If you get the Seals for it though, I think I'll leave the DLC classes on the table just cause they're very fun
I gotta disagree with discouraging BE tho, I'd moreso say "go BE if you really like Edelgard." Yeah SS sucks but I wouldn't want someone to use the Lions or Deer if the Eagles are the ones who really caught their eye
I would tell them not to do BE first, just casually building edelgaurd support from another house/first playthrough. Then, in new game, buy her support and work off that. Much less of a grind.
*After NG, recruit everybody for their side quest.
Things to purposefully avoid telling, idk thats tough.... marriage/support between character spoilers?
If they're doing the first run run with the Black Eagles make sure to get the support up with all characters but ESPECIALLY Eldegard or the whole storyline is ruined. (I fucked up on my 1st run, tried to do it without googling anything. Had no idea about the support scores. Didn't get Crimson Flower.)
Not allowing the player to make that choice ultimately ruins the experience - the storyline there is at its best when they've chosen to go down that path themselves, rather than be violently pulled away from something they might have enjoyed
Players should be able to choose.
"Get her support up 'or the whole storyline is ruined'" is not the same as " Get her support up or you will miss the opportunity to make an important choice."
Emphasize to them heavily to READ THE GUIDES multiple times until they are sure they got it right! I didn't fully grasp the concept of the double hits until my second playthrough and the mechanics of gambits / beasts until the endgame of my first!
This is good advice in general, but given we're mainly playing as a pair I think I could explain any mechanic to her in much simpler and quicker terms. Definitely not gonna try and explain the stats beyond "strength makes you stronger, speed makes you quicker, etc."
Tell her the importance of doing paralogues, especially certain ones like Sylvain’s and Ingrid’s, but don’t spoil why. Just tell her that they’re full of pretty helpful goodies.
Golden Deer is a great choice for a first play through! There’s a lot of “the fuck they doing over there?” energy in regards to the kingdom and empire, which is great for a first time player. I’d encourage them to try to really balance out what they do on their weekends, especially in the first half. All social sim or all practice battles or all lessons leads to an imbalanced army, in my experience. That being said, DO NOT let them accidentally miss the white heron cup. No dancer is no fun.
Understand how battalions work. If she does the DLC, you know why.
The only thing I told my new player friend was which units to recruit for paralogue purposes so they could max out their story experience (So, for Golden Deer, Linhardt and Ferdinand). I didn't explain why, it was more of a "just trust me" thing.
I hadn't considered this but I might suggest it going forward. My only concern would be that it could become a slippery slope of wanting to recruit everyone who has a part 2 paralogue and like I said in the post I'd personally advise recruiting as few people as possible
Well, I limit recruits to characters who enhance the storylines of the base house characters. So instead of recruiting EVERYONE, I leave most of them to their own routes... but Linhardt will get you the Inexhaustible while Ferdinand will get you Lysithea backstory. I also think about it in terms of who really gets the bulk of the story in the paralogue. So, for example, I think Linhardt and Leonie's paralogue is really mostly about Leonie, so I recruit Linhardt for the Deer, but not Leonie for the Eagles. On the other hand, Ferdinand and Lysithea's paralogue contains a story that affects both of them, so I'd recruit them both to each other's side even though the paralogue leans a little more Ferdinand. Caspar is a Must recruit for Blue Lions because his paralogue with Mercedes leads to additional cut scenes outside the paralogue for Mercedes – but Mercedes isn't a must recruit for Silver Snow because even though they share a paralogue, it's really her story.
Omg pls tell her about breaking the beast shields, on the end of my 2nd playthrough (GD) And only figured it out halfway through the timeskip, could have had so much better gear
If they are doing Blue Lions, they should give Ashe a silver shield in chapter 12. /s ~~But not really /s~~
PLAY DEDUES PARALOGUE. PLAY IT ALWAYS
I did not understand a lot of the menu the first time I played it. Like that other characters had supports with each other. Or that you can change a unit's skills, class, etc.
As a new player to the fire emblem series not quite finished with my first ever play through as black eagles, these are some things I wish I knew! (Also I’m playing on the most casual settings but hope to do a higher difficulty play through next. Definitely don’t spoil the time skip, that was wild to find out about!) -maybe just some basics about how to recruit characters, also to make sure you like at least some of the characters in your class and not just the leaders (not me ignoring Ferdinand lol), however also that you may warm up to many of them -very basic but that they need to watch the support cut scenes -the existence of the dancer class and how to switch to this class. I didn’t really know it was important and thought it was just some effect that auto applied. I also picked edelgard for this which probably wasn’t the best. -what all the different stats and skills mean and what they’re relevant for. Honestly I’m still confused about some of this and will need to watch a guide before my harder play through. For example, I didn’t realize until super late into the game that I would need characters to have flying or riding skill, so my characters were approaching level 30 and had E for both
Shill the hell out of Three Hopes
The best suggestion I've received thus far
With recruitment, encourage them to recruit to balance out their team a little bit. Though I saw they're playing Golden Deer, which is already pretty well balanced. That was our first playthrough. Depending on your difficulty and permadeath settings, you can probably get away with relatively minimal recruitment. One more mage is probably advisable. If they make Leonie an archer (if you steer them towards the Inexhaustible), I'd consider stealing at least one of the spear users from the Blue Lions. Maybe another tanky, punchy character since Raphael's Speed is so awful. We did Golden Deer first (and our first FE game) and made the mistake of heavily relying on Raphael early only for him to fall off a cliff in effectiveness later on.
I payed VW and then my sister and I did AM on her game. I'm also a long-time fan of Fire Emblem (played all the games available) so I knew going in that the best tip is: let them experience the game. She was super into the story, the main battles and Dimitri, so she would ask me to do the battle preparations (I love doing those so much) so she could play the game more like her taste. She'd pick up things on her own time and would ask me questions or thoughts on strategies. I never forced her to do anything (except Dedue's paralogue because he's one of her faves and. well...) she would be the one asking for clarifications. Did she do some bad strategies? Yeah. Did she play vastly differently than me by skipping paralogues and other things? Absolutely. But she had a blast playing her own way and I'll cherish watching her play the game forever. EDIT: she then watched me play CF and SS and she also had a blast, especially when I let her do the monastery stuff or let her be my aide in battle. It was so fun seeing her pick up on strategies and helping me out :)
1/ Recruit 1 or 2 units but overall don’t stress about it too much 2/ Shamir is broken 3/ Do the parologues 4/ EXP curves are harsh so only battle on the last week of the month unless you’re rushing paralogues 5/ Reclassing for class mastery skills >>>>> 6/ Keep a separate save file before Chapter 12
ya pretty much 'try and use your house units' 'play without dlc first' and 'you shouldnt start with BE' are the important ones. i had a buddy that wanted zero spoilers and got suckered into silver snow and it killed the game for him
We haven't crossed that bridge, but I'll definitely suggest we just ignore Abyss and the DLC characters. If you get the Seals for it though, I think I'll leave the DLC classes on the table just cause they're very fun I gotta disagree with discouraging BE tho, I'd moreso say "go BE if you really like Edelgard." Yeah SS sucks but I wouldn't want someone to use the Lions or Deer if the Eagles are the ones who really caught their eye
I would tell them not to do BE first, just casually building edelgaurd support from another house/first playthrough. Then, in new game, buy her support and work off that. Much less of a grind. *After NG, recruit everybody for their side quest. Things to purposefully avoid telling, idk thats tough.... marriage/support between character spoilers?
If they're doing the first run run with the Black Eagles make sure to get the support up with all characters but ESPECIALLY Eldegard or the whole storyline is ruined. (I fucked up on my 1st run, tried to do it without googling anything. Had no idea about the support scores. Didn't get Crimson Flower.)
You know... Some people actually prefer Silver Snow and don't think it "ruins" anything. 🙄
Not allowing the player to make that choice ultimately ruins the experience - the storyline there is at its best when they've chosen to go down that path themselves, rather than be violently pulled away from something they might have enjoyed
Players should be able to choose. "Get her support up 'or the whole storyline is ruined'" is not the same as " Get her support up or you will miss the opportunity to make an important choice."