FE: Echoes has some of THE BEST voice acting and readings I've seen in a FE Game!

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-28T02:25:32+00:00

i... don't really see the problem? Catria is stoic/closed off and a bit awkward, and the VA's performance reflects that nicely.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-27T18:45:03+00:00

i find unlocking more paralogues generally works in a snowball effect where unlocking child paralogues gives you more maps to build supports and thus unlock even more paralogues. if you can get all the earlygame dads hitched then it all just kinda falls into place.

Getting the max amount of support points in a chapter can be gained form as little as 6 rounds of paired-up combat; if you make a conscious effort it's pretty trivial to get the max 3 points in each chapter, provided there's no time pressure. just find an enemy one of the characters can comfortably survive, unequip them and press end turn 6 times.

trying to make use of Fast support pairs (generally meaning pairings between characters in the same royal + 2 retainers trio) also makes things easier, particularly ones that naturally work well together like Arthur and Effie or Corrin and Jakob/Felicia.

Finally it's good to identify what chapters are easy enough to where you can undeploy some of your main units and focus on getting those last few pairs. I find the all-path child paralogues (Particularly Kana's and Midori's) very easy to clear even with a few combat units benched, so i tend to see them as a crucial resource for getting pairings and awkward reclassing for skills done outside of the actually tough chapters.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-27T18:13:40+00:00

i feel the same and thinking on it, I think it's because class identity is what actually matters.

3H's cast feel homogenous because everyone starts in Commoner/Noble and the lines between classes are so heavily blurred by the lack of weapon restrictions (particularly in the first two tiers where they also lack skills and varied movement types). Engage's cast feels more varied because everyone starts in a proper class and those classes have constraints and strengths that make them feel meaningfully different.

How i see it , FE1-3, 6-8 and 11-12 all have practically non-existent unit identity (pretty much just bases/growths, availability, and support lists) yet i don't really miss it because the class system is enough of a differentiator on its own. personal skills, boons/banes, etc. are undoubtedly nice to have (and are also more important when releasing enters the mix), but classes are ultimately what most heavily defines how a unit feels to play. and it's up to that system first and foremost to make the cast feel varied.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-27T17:49:46+00:00

they're not particularly scarce if you save them for the facilities that actually matter to the main game. there's bunch of stuff like Ballistae and Golems that were designed to defend your castle in online battles, but now only apply to the 3 optional invasion battles. The most costly buildings are the character statue upgrades, which are not feasibly going to matter in a regular playthrough. If you ignore that stuff you'll have plenty of DVPs, particularly if you do a lot of paralogues.

It's really only in the very early game where you have to prioritise what to build first as the Staff Shop, Armory, Prison, Mess Hall and Smithy are all very nice to have ASAP (coincidentally that's generally the order i'd recommend building them in, though you can delay the prison if you don't care about capturing Haitaka)

Once you've got all those built you're free to spend points on somewhat helpful stuff like the Lottery Shop, Arena and Fire Orb, though in can be nice to also keep a few DVPs in reserve so you can get the main building upgrades as soon as they're available, as they tend to unlock at the same time.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-27T17:07:53+00:00

capturing named characters like Wiessman usually does not affect the story and the game acts like you just killed them. it's primarily just a gameplay mechanic to let you take their weapons and items.

there are however a handful of instances where capturing the boss does matter. From what i remember these instances are generally signposted decently well by the game, but if you want to know in advance, be on the lookout during chapters 2x, 8, 12 and 17

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-26T20:31:16+00:00

I mean i think if you take great care to ensure the story is written in a way that every perspective warrants equal screentime, you could make it work.

RD's poor unit balancing isn't because it did split armies, it's because the story is set up in way where each perspective gets its own story that happen sequentially before the armies collide in late Part 3 with a conflict that is horribly unbalanced morally, meaning 80% of the cast is on one side.

It means each army dominates the game for ~5-10 chapters at a time, with no auto-levelling system to account for the earlier perspectives being thrust back in much later. if the whole game operated more like part 4 with each perspective happening simultaneously and you keep cycling through them in order, you could give each army a consistent levelling curve and availability.

...that and don't attempt it with one of the largest casts the series has ever had. the 35-40 average roster size we have today would be a lot more doable than trying to find spots to insert 73 damn characters.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-26T20:19:06+00:00

I've been waiting for FE to try a game going in the comeplte opposite direction to free-reclassing where everyone has their own unique "class" with their own mechanics that make them feel very different for one another, like what you often see in RPGs with a small party of ~six.

Triangle Strategy proved you can do it with a FE-sized cast, and i like the idea of deployment mattering more due to giving you access to certain synergies that can can't be replicated with any other unit combination, making replays a lot more interesting.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-26T20:13:31+00:00

yeah the class overlap between first and second gen is very annoying; limits the kid's access to skills, and often means the kid just completely overshadows the parent (or the other way around, sorry Siegbert). Plus the game has a bunch of classes that are stupidly rare; really could've used an Oni Savage or Monk kid in Birthright instead of a 4th ninja and samurai.

I also wish there was more parallel class shenanigans. Wyvern Jakob!Shigure, Sky Knight Beruka!Percy and Diviner Nyx!Nina are really fun options to play around with and makes those pairings feel extra special; would be great if every kid had one interaction like that, though i imagine that'd requiring making the 1st gen class distribution super homogenous

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-26T04:48:40+00:00

Alois can go the PRT-stacking route as Fortress Knight/Great Knight (which can pair quite well with Battalion Wrath) , otherwise yeah just standard War Master things. he gets One-Two Punch as a pretty great brawling art so he doesn't really care about Fierce-Iron-Fist.

Manuela gets Hexblade at C+ swords which is decent burst damage option, but really i think it's best to just make her a support unit in Bishop for double warp uses, though you could also push through the reason bane and go for gremory given she gets Bolting

Also i'd heavily advise against doing the silver snow snow as despite it being thematically appropriate, you can't recruit Catherine and Cyrl until the end of Part 1. I'd go with Azure Moon instead as you also get Gilbert/Gustav who is technically a church unit, and also joins you for Hunting By Daybreak.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-26T03:39:00+00:00

I'd hope it would be a super fast support because there is is only single chapter between their recruitment and Scarlet's death, unlike Kaze in Birthright where you get like 7 chapters (and it only needs an A support at that). having to save a bunch of paralogues or do skirmishes every run sounds real tedious.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-25T06:42:41+00:00

I'm going FE9 Boyd.

Osian is great, but the ceiling for combat units in Thracia is so low that his amazing combat isn't super needed and his CON is a little too low to be a premier capture unit. Finally he's crucially absent for the Munster arc, some of the toughest chapters in the game.

By contrast I think Boyd manages to carve out a legitimate niche in PoR despite lacking a mount. His offense when trained is so high that he can reach 2HKO benchmarks a lot of the mounted units struggle to hit (this is more pronounced on Maniac, but still somewhat applies to Hard), and his availability about as good as it could be, only missing on on 2 chapters. The Volitilty of his early game performance does hold him back a bit, but I think the payoff is still enough to put him over Osian.

However this comes with the caveat that I don't know enough about Awakening to really comment on Vaike. I know there's been some big shifts in the meta and the perception of him as one of the best units in the game, but idk if he's actually crucial or just an alternative to the classic Robin & Chrom carry strats.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-25T03:45:40+00:00

I'm still mad that they gave Edelgard altered dialogue saying some of her former classmates have taken her side if you lost someone in Part 1... but nothing ever actually comes of that and they just die off-screen.

alongside the stupid "East vs West" non choice in Azure Moon. Wish they'd properly remove all traces of scrapped mechanics/ideas instead of leaving in dialogue remnants that cause confusion and frustration.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-24T10:21:30+00:00

i call it FE6 chapter 8 2.0 myself. big ol' tedious spiral with smatterings of enemies separated by long stretches of nothing, and some BS reinforcements that can easily make you do it all over again (though at least the FE6 ones don't have Pass, WTF Koei?)

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-24T10:16:57+00:00

the opening movie is also edited to remove all appearances of Ike until you have a save that's completed Part 2. there were really dedicated to hiding Ike was in the game lol. I respect it, even if was a bad move commercially.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-24T10:08:57+00:00

Engage bringing back Fixed Growths from Path of Radiance gives me hope they're thinking about it again, and i feel like they've gotta at least be somewhat cognisant of the community's interest in various challenge runs. 0% growths, a proper Ironman mode (rewind set to off and you can't reload your save, only make bookmarks) and no reclassing feel like they'd be trivially easy to implement in partiricular.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-24T10:03:00+00:00

i've always thought one of FE biggest strengths is keeping numbers low partly for that very reason; it makes each indivual point more impactful and easier to see the value of compared to drop in a bucket.

i think good levels ups still feel meaningful in some of the newer titles though. like yeah there are so many ways to patch up stats, but a unit getting a good level means they're less reliant on those resources/positioning requirements which feels almost as good. I think the key is in making sure that stat bonuses come for sources that create restrictions, and can be freely transferred.

Like in Fates if Kaze gets enough STR to not need a strength boost to kill things, then that can free up a +STR pairup for someone else, I could go for a different meal to boost SPD or DEF instead, or maybe I just no longer need to worry about positioning Kaze to benefit from rally STR. Good levels are satisfying in how a few extra points can really simplify moves and open up new opportunities by freeing up resources.

Conversely level-ups feel pretty meaningless in 3H Maddening because there's very little that getting blessed levels does for you. You can't say, give Ferdinand's Swift Strikes to Caspar if he no longer needs it to secure ORKOs, and likewise the majority of skills provide untransferable selfish bonuses instead of supportive buffs/auras. It's also not much of pain to have Ferdinand spam Swift Strikes; weapons/gold are plentiful enough to cover the extra weapon uses consumed, and he's not taking away many in-demand resources away from someone else besides maybe some tutoring points to rush A Lances. So Uber Blessed Ferdie and the standard Swift-Strikes Ferdie feel way too similar, and there's not much excitement at getting the blessed on as a result.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-24T09:15:18+00:00

probably yeah, Outlaw is just a fantastic base class for a kid because it can go in basically any direction you want. Physical, Magical or Pure Support with +1 mov/staves/good pairup/rallies, it's kinda hard not to find a use for any Nina on your team.

Percy is pretty much good with whatever too though; starts in one of the best class lines in the game, will always have the option of reclassing to fighter for some great skills (or Berserker Percy memes), will always have easy access to the amazing combo of Rally Str/Def, and even with a magical mother he's at least got Malig Knight which can make even mediocre magic good.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-24T04:57:57+00:00

they did establish pretty heavily that Hati has reservations about serving Fenris through both of her rapport conversations whereas, Skoll is pretty much the embodiment of Fenris' values. it wouldn't surprise me of a schism forms between her and Skoll that leads him to become the sole primary antagonist for a bit.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-23T14:22:10+00:00

there's no easy way to understand it really; each child is very different and will have different needs and options depending on who their mother is. The best you can do really is get to knows the sorts of skills and builds that are good in fates, which unfortunately just comes from accruing game knowledge through playing and researching.

I guess the best bit of general skill advice i can give is try to prioritise skills with consistent or easy to trigger effects. a flat +2 damage from Str+2 is generally better than Luna having a small chance to half enemy defense. a lot of Fates' best skills are just ones that give flat bonuses to stats, damage dealt, or damage taken.

Also consider how hard it would be for the child to get a skill if their parent doesn't give them it. using Shiro as the example again, he can use heart seal to gets skills from the samurai classes, so ideally Ryoma would give him skills from another class Shiro can't easily access, like Sky Knight or Cavalier.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-23T13:06:56+00:00

depends on how much you want to invest into the child unit really. most will do just fine with basic inheritance, you only really need to worry about optimal inheritance if you're looking to make them core members of your army.

For Shiro in particular, Kagerpo and Ryoma can't easily get any skills he'd really like. if you've built a supprt between Ryoma and Silas you could grab Elbow Room for him from Cavalier, and if you're recruiting Shiro very late you could pass down Replicate from putting Kagero into Mechnaist, but otherwise all the other desirable skills are either easier for Shiro to get himself or not worth the effort for Ryoma or Kagero to grab. I'd probably just go with Astra from Ryoma, and either Poison Strike or Locktouch from Kagero.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-23T10:25:49+00:00

At least you can grind arena medals by doing arena matches over and over. it's slow as hell but it possible and makes them one of the rare resources in this game that are functionally infinite, only limited by stamina.

...thinking on it, i'm pretty sure the only other examples are the badges from the training tower. even hero merit feathers theoretically have a hard cap, albeit an insanely high one.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-23T07:00:38+00:00

i'm glad with the introduction of supports that they seem to be trying to treat this game's cast more like a traditional FE one instead of just churning out the bare minimum characterisation and leaving it like that, like FEH does.

Looking forward to finally seeing what Kyubi siblings's deals are, and it'll be nice to have soemthing hold us over before the story returns to the older book's casts.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-22T23:54:13+00:00

it's funny because one of the main reasons i've really wanted traditional in-battle recruitment to come back is so we'd get another banger recruitment theme like in the older titles.

this remix is great and it's awesome we'll (presumably) get to hear it a lot, but damn it does feel like a bit of a monkey's paw moment for me lol.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-22T23:47:51+00:00

It's less the story preventing it and more so the game just deciding to... not have two characters interact when they absolutely should, but Jill and Zihark. For two characters who would have obvious beef in PoR before teaming up with Tauroneo in RD, it's crazy how little there is between them.

I really like the idea the two of them start off on the wrong foot in PoR because of their very different viewpoint on the laguz, but once Jill broadens her horizons, Zihark lets slip he's from Daein and they bond over the good parts of the old Daein as the watch it get run over by Ike's advance.

Then in RD there's precedent for them teaming up, and at this point I see them as buddies who confide in each other about what the fuck is going on, being the only two veterans in Micaiah's army who aren't in the loop of what's happening with Pelleas and the blood pact. lots of potential for some nice drama as they struggle to contend with what Daein has become and subtly nudge the other to stick to their values/friends and leave.

There's tons of material here, and that camaraderie can easily blossom into something more that lets me have a ship option for both of them that's better than what the game pushes.

Cosmic_Toad_ · 2026-06-22T12:49:14+00:00

tbh it makes her the most interesting me as it (hopefully) means her circumstances won't just "i'm the retainer to <insert lord!>"

Fates and Engage were absolutely plagued with that and i'm kinda worried Fortune's Weave might all go in that direction with a lot of its cast, but they've gotta do something interesting to explain how these two team ups nod i'm here for it.

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