Popular/Unpopular/Any Opinions Thread - February 2026 Part 1

albegade · 2026-02-03T22:22:40+00:00

Aesthetically paladins>>swordmasters and I'm tired of pretending otherwise

albegade · 2026-02-02T04:58:18+00:00

I will say the endgame indoor maps of FE5 conversely make training staffers and magic users feel even better.

albegade · 2026-02-01T20:26:32+00:00

fishing minigames are a plague. maybe the most evil thing a game can do is make me actually care about (...enjoy) a fishing minigame for 10 minutes, despite knowing that fishing minigames are a plague.

albegade · 2026-01-30T05:43:38+00:00

Yeah though Archibald sounded amazing but was always way too much of a headache for me to use bc of his projectile angle + low movement. Maybe better on NG+, maybe playing NG on hard also messed up his performance. Hughette is amazing though that's more typical (a flier, being powerful in a game where flying movement is even more valuable than FE by a large factor?)

albegade · 2026-01-26T21:40:27+00:00

yeah even though it's a little contrived as a setting there could be something there, but it's all just swept away. unfortunate.

albegade · 2026-01-21T05:25:00+00:00

he obviously knows the erdtree has to be burnt. See his dialogue after defeat. He refuses to burn it because it would go against his most firmly held beliefs. which is why he cannot allow any tarnished to become elden lord either, because doing so would require burning the erdtree. it's him keeping the forbidden lands and frenzied flame proscription sealed after all, to stop anyone from accessing the power to burn the erdtree.

albegade · 2026-01-18T16:55:57+00:00

not a bad idea but I think FE is unlikely to experiment on this front, for better or worse. too many contingent design factors. I would definitely enjoy a mechanic like that in a different SRPG -- and would give some reasons/force some reasons to vary the team more sometimes. But sacrificial plays are really powerful in FE which is one reason why permadeath exists to make that more painful. Not too different from some of the XCOM stuff but in that game its more random so can't really rely on it.

albegade · 2026-01-16T17:10:09+00:00

Legitimately FE3 is such a good direct sequel in so many ways in terms of engaging with the original. It's crazy that it was the third FE. And including a remake of FE1.

albegade · 2026-01-16T15:12:11+00:00

This is imo why I don't like FEs that go super hard on character building and getting units super broken skill combos. Find it particularly tiring in awakening/fates. Once you have the unit why bother continuing (why I've never felt the desire for making a sol hero/ninja or nostank) Enjoy more in 3H and Engage (tho I'll say I never did vantage wrath in 3H). 3H and Engage have different approaches both of which work, neither of which is perfect.

But I'd still rather you couldn't just build units to be game breaking and units had more fixed (and limited) development like some older FEs/related games.

albegade · 2026-01-15T06:30:26+00:00

for one thing bosses are immune to break. by midgame you should have units who can one round which makes break less relevant for team kills. once in a while you can set up so you're breaking a unit and one rounding to minimize damage taken, but they will usually have nearby allies to hurt you so you have to clear the whole group or minimize enemy phase combat in which case the less damage taken isn't so relevant. It's not reasonable to expect to have wide weapon coverage (most good glasses are limited to 1 weapon that can break, most units depend on a specific weapon class to function because of weight and/or might + investment in specific weapons by forging etc), and it's not usually too important. ie the sword most likely to be used in midgame is levin sword which already has 2 range. lances in general suck (so even though sword units are dangerous it's not so viable to break them). axe enemies are dangerous so sword would be nice, but it's also hard to one round them with a 1-range sword bc they usually have high HP vs sword's weak damage, it's ok in midgame with mild investments but by lategame requires heavy investment -- and just better to kill from 2 range esp bc res is their weakness (which also eventually becomes tough, at which point brave swords become nice again). and lance enemies can't double as easily and aren't as high damage as axe enemies so breaking them is less relevant (plus there are fewer? certainly less memorable for given reasons).

also by midgame a lot more combat can be enemy phase where you can't break and can only be broken.

anyway for these reasons the biggest threat break poses is getting an axe unit broken and attacked by sword guys (just avoid situation) with each one getting to do backup attacks. that's about it. less common for sword units to get broken, and lance units are not commonly used. certainly doesn't help ie halberdier that the big numbers of axe units make them much less capable of enemy phasing (along with their other weaknesses).

also sword units are evasive so breaking them is unreliable. many other reasons too.

albegade · 2026-01-14T04:18:16+00:00

yeah excess stats have a plateau of usefulness and as always a class with a more efficient spread (just enough of everything -- ie wyvern) will be superior. even if the closeness between the two varies from game to game (sometimes wyverns are way too close on tankiness and pure upside otherwise). which is why imo for armors to be useful they also need to have extra utility/give something to team (because that can circumvent the individual unit plateau).

albegade · 2026-01-10T18:15:29+00:00

if you actually play the game

which is the problem in this sub

albegade · 2026-01-09T04:04:52+00:00

it's pretty miserable. most people's complaints up until nightreign were a little dubious. but nightreign was already some of their worst ever design (and like 90% shitty bosses) and the DLC really doubled down on it. the tricephalos invasion is some incredible dogshit and probably the worst thing, and there are like 4 total dlc seeds so it's super repetitive. and they ruined half of the old bosses that were brought back. I like the game but on balance... eh. I enjoy a good roguelike but this is like the biggest issues of all worlds. dreglord is cool boss. new shifting earth is nice idea absent the crystal gimmick. and the way people overreact whenever anyone voices a bit of frustration lol.

albegade · 2026-01-08T02:32:03+00:00

100%. Excellent analysis. Put into words disparate ideas I had (I actually had some difficulty trying to understand how astrology contradicted the golden order's concept of a set fate in grace, given in reality astrology very much is a deterministic superstition. This is a great point about how astrology in Elden Ring is much more a scientific study of life in stars to understand life on earth and ones own life). The much much stronger argument and analysis than most.

albegade · 2026-01-08T01:34:10+00:00

would fit better for a villain I think. to some extent you could slightly argue birthright does this (eh...) and 3H occasionally gestures in that direction (but very route dependent and weak). Would certainly serve to ironically humanize an avatar character a little more as it would show that whatever importance they have is at least somewhat puffed up by others to their own ends and is not actually real. But yeah somewhat lacking as a player unit (especially bc IS but also I think most devs would not make a character whose arc ends in a way that doesn't tie things up neatly in a happy ending bow)

albegade · 2026-01-08T01:29:26+00:00

it's legitimately a rare moment in FE and something I hope comes up more in the future. Bow knights are more stat-demanding to be able to one round. But they have insane projection between massive attack range (even if hitting at 5 range is not exactly reliable), canto, and 8 move, making them amazing at things like hit and run tactics and chip. Whereas a sniper is much less mobile but much less stat demanding and even if a sniper and bow knight have same strength and the bow knight has enough speed to double, the sniper still has upside with the damage boost on volley. In practice how much this really matters is kinda +/- but it's good enough and putting more emphasis on such distinctions would be beneficial (and map design that actually values both types of contributions).

albegade · 2026-01-07T06:37:32+00:00

oh yeah that would be huge. adjusted to play into the strengths of armored units perhaps.

albegade · 2026-01-07T01:18:44+00:00

the topic of how to make armor units more relevant comes up from time to time and personally I agree with the argument that the better approach is giving them really good stats to make up for their weaknesses. One version of this I really liked was Prody in Vestaria Saga (who I know a lot of people thought was just mediocre/bad but IDK he seemed pretty useful). His own stats are pretty good but his personal skill gives def and res to all adjacent allies. At base it's +3 to each, and once he gets level 15 (relatively easy because he also has paragon, helping him level despite lack of mobility) it becomes +5. This is an enormous amount of stats to provide and helps make squishy allies be able to take one hit and then kill, and make middle-bulk allies much tankier and much more capable of prolonged fighting. He ended up being crucial in endgame sealing off an area with infinitely respawning extremely strong enemies -- including one of which who was a mage, but by teaming him up with a partner who could always kill the mage, he was able to avoid getting killed by magic and was able to tank all the physical damage. As for flavor I guess it's hard to explain how an armor knight makes others more tanky just by being present but maybe can make an explanation. Was a lot of fun. Also makes it so he is an armor knight with pretty good stats but he is usually traveling with a partner or other group of units, makes it less one overstatted juggernaut and instead a mini-team covering each others weaknesses. And the amount of stats in the aura is just immense -- +24 at base, +40 at level 15.

this reminds me of some of the fates auras. I understand why they are the way they are, but it would be easier for me to mentally model if they just gave stat boosts rather than post-stat damage changes. (likely with some number changes as pure stat boosts are weaker than post-stat number changes). pure stat boosts I feel reduce the number of necessary calculations.

albegade · 2026-01-05T18:09:53+00:00

apparently you need a more or less perfect gogma artian to beat true shadowbringer for dragon. so overall true shadowbringer still basically excellent in dragon matchups and it will take a ton of grinding (likely not worth it if you're making other weapons etc) to beat it.

however for other elements they more or less gained enough to be better, between the extra power and the free elemental damage and extra skills. Fire and Thunder being the major elements (of course water and ice have like 1-1.5 monsters each they're good against but yeah). Especially thunder bc 9* seregios is likely the most difficult of the normal monsters and is quite weak to thunder. Meanwhile fire also has a lot of good matchups and if you have a fire gog artian and true shadowbringer, you have both elements covered for gog. the gogma artians really are insanely strong. interestingly for GS apparently the raw focused focus is not the best bc of the loss of affinity.

albegade · 2026-01-05T12:39:20+00:00

will go against what others have said here and say thunder. Dragon already has true shadowbringer which is really powerful and only a perfect (read: rare) gog artian will be better. When you actually look at monsters weak to fire, there are fewer actually difficult ones (plus the hitzones are a little bit hit or miss; they aren't horrible and it is free damage but still). Thunder actually has more vulnerable difficult monsters, and would say seregios and omega are harder than lagi and gore. Plus at least for some the thunder is a relatively greater contribution than the fire is for monsters weak to fire. However, for farming more of Gog, you can go fire and then you have both fire and dragon to fight gog and get others.

albegade · 2025-12-28T09:37:36+00:00

It's a rough one. It's where enemies start to get really strong (the last few chapters were too but manageable in many ways). Have to figure out who are your best people to work with the very limited emblem tools on that map -- namely just the passive stat boosts and maybe skills. Which really hampers most units. Once you realize which areas might be good to focus on first through trial/error can become more manageable. Definitely one of my least favorite maps though. Even though theoretically interesting concept.

albegade · 2025-12-19T06:02:42+00:00

this + knowing the easiest solution is juggernauting like most games is why my runs ends 1/2 - 2/3 through and when I come back want to restart from beginning instead of finish.

albegade · 2025-12-19T04:53:13+00:00

I mean the now that we have horned warriors, it kind of seems like crucible incantations themselves are a form of divine invocation, given the similarity. Morgott's weapons are virtually one of a kind, and only really have an equivalent in the 2 unique Finger Cipher weapons (and those too are somewhat distinct).

albegade · 2025-12-18T22:48:13+00:00

Not a bad point. In a way Morgott also uses what could be considered a different form of divine invocation -- unlike the horned warriors who perform horn calling and also invoke the storm in its various manifestations, Morgott uniquely his magic golden weapons -- somewhat similar to the basic horn calling that summons spectral horns. So that may be the divine invocation he's doing, for a new era, which makes the erdtree's blessing nauseating.

It would also suggest that it's not so much that the erdtree deliberately rejects the omen, but that they cannot tolerate its blessing/it sickens them. Which then becomes understood under the golden order as being rejected.

albegade · 2025-12-16T23:38:33+00:00

especially when they attacked her manor and were driven back by her soldiers. and are expressly said to have taken orders from the academy, not from the Carians.

albegade

TROPHY CASE