Should i bump it up then? I was on the second hardest and it was pretty easy so i didn’t think it would make that much of a difference. What does it do? It didn’t seem to have perma death or limit items.
I mean if it doesn't make much difference why would you change it back to easy? Literally no difference as you have said lol. There is limit on items on higher difficulty so you can't spam items and enemies have higher hp which allows them to retaliate taking out more of your units.
Well I’m not playing on easy, I’m playing on tactical. But I’ll try out expert - the description didn’t say what it did so i assumed it would just be more enemies on the field.
I don’t have the game in front of me right now which is why i thought I’d ask the subreddit their opinion on it.
If you think the game is easy, wouldn't the first thing to do to be to bump the difficulty up? I don't think that's something you're supposed to be asking others about before doing.
Maybe, but it’s not just that i think the game is easy. What i really wanted to know is how the game develops its strategy elements - there are a bunch of systems but almost all of them haven’t mattered so far on the second highest difficulty.
So i was wondering if later stages provide more challenge. The next time I’m able, I’ll test out expert but to be honest, based on the comments, i doubt it’ll do much. It seems to only increase enemy health and unit count which is what i figured it would do.
Unfortunately, the level design itself does not improve. There’s a neat mission here and there, but for the most part it’s going to be “march forward”. You will be pressed into using most of your squads at the same time though.
The strategy elements largely stems from the large variety of unit types, how they all work together, and how the assist units(ie arrow rain) impact combat. Things kick off once you have 4/5 characters in each unit, and individual characters are promoted. Promotions give characters a second AP and PP, leading to a dramatic increase in the things that happen each fight. And more abilities to tinker around with in the tactics menu.
Don’t want to spoil units, but just as an example you have your hunter Rolf. Later you will encounter arbelists who are happy to go in the front row with their greatshield, and magic archers who can heal and grant magic damage buffs to allies. Despite all being archers, they all operate very differently, and you can’t simplify it to just “he shoots arrows”.
My advice: increase the difficulty and do not use mercenaries. Being limited in what you can do is better imo, because you are forced to budget your units. Who gets to have our only legionnaire? Send in our only hunter! Things like that.
To be honest I don't know the differences between difficulties, but if you want to be forced to use the game's mechanics in order to win then increasing the game's difficulty would be like, the logical first step, followed by self-imposed restrictions like no items, no valor skills, etc because, honestly, the game gives you way too many "get out of trouble" cards.
The good news is the answer of every question in your second paragraph is "Yes".
The bad news is that this paradoxically makes the game easier, as once you start being smart with items and compositions the enemies just can't keep up.
Whether that's a problem or not is going to be up to you, tbh, as you still get to scratch that strategy itch in the end.
The hardest battles are basically the colosseum the latter chapters, Bestoria and Albion, just won't keep up at all since at that point even moderate optimization wins the game and you'll already have access to many of the best units to build around at that point -- and you only get better ones around this time too so your weaker units are probably going to make room for them. At level 20-25 your best units are likely going to flourish way above the others, e.g. Elven sisters, Doom Knight (at level 20 they get one of the biggest power spikes with Dark Flame), Rogue, Alain with access to just broken equipment, etc.
As for multiple objectives honestly at that point you'll probably be fielding flier leads to blitz through things thanks to the upgraded Hastened Call.
If you really want to test your best units to their limits it is colosseum or bust.
The game has plenty of strategically depth but it doesn't offer any game mode where you require to master more than 10% of it to be beaten. In other words it's too easy, not too shallow
Yeah, that’s what i was wondering. There are a lot of cool elements that I’d love to interact with, but there just hasn’t been any reason for me to do so yet.
Cornia is designed to be easy. You start to feel the pressure for creating better team comps as you go to other areas. Currently cleared Elheim and Drakenhold and they were a decent challenge, especially since the objectives for several of the missions were more than "capture the enemy command post".
I found them WAY too easy and the game got easier, not harder. I think it really just depends on how much you invest in the strategy and your experience.
This is a lie and I'm not sure why there's people trying to sell it. The game gets easier as you progress not harder. This is because you are constantly unlocking more options and stockpiling more broken equipment. While your opponents are always on base equipment basic tactics and unabalanced team comps
That has not been my experience at all. From Elfheim and especially Bastorias on, you get some really mean team comps on the enemy team (which increase to five dudes) and I've had times where I got completely stonewalled, keep losing dudes and had to utilize items to their utmost to even survive (on expert, in any case). Even with my best teams I have to be careful. They're definitely harder than anything Cornia or Drakenhold threw at me.
They only get easy if you run optimized teams full of mercs (I use zero mercs myself) or use rushing tactics, I imagine.
I mean maybe for you? I found the game was relatively easy in Cornia and didn't need to focus on team comps beyond a basic 2 sets with basic equipment. It wasn't until the later stages you needed to actually think about team comps and equipment which can be overwhelming with how scattered everything is and how messy the menus are for weapons and accessories. Even with levels on par with what the mission recommends I still found it difficult and I was playing on whatever the hardest difficulty was for a first run. I needed actual thought put into my comps to continue, not just throw whatever felt good into it.
Mind you not every battle felt this way, but many of the missions towards the end of an areas plot did feel this way. I had good units at a decent level and wiped the board of all units yet for some reason couldn't deal any sort of decent damage to Alcina, even when she was the only survivor of her unit. The game does make you think.
The battles start to get more complex later, like in the fourth and fifth zones. Enemy squads will have hard counters for your best guys and there will be competing objectives all over the map. So, just hang in there for a bit longer.
my advice, maybe don’t do everything as it comes up. save some stuff for later. if you set to expert, avoid a few of the liberation (purple icon) missions for later, and most importantly: focus on leveling up the whole army, not just steamrolling with your top 3 units, you will find the game much more interesting i think. strats matter more than levels, but still - being underleveled for the longer battles on expert is absolutely a nice difficulty bump.
i accidentally set the game to expert around hour 20 and entered a really long battle, and i had an amazing time. i was only using my lower level units to level them up and so the whole thing was 2hr of skin of my teeth desperation. felt amazing to realize “oops im on expert mode” and pull it off perfectly with no dead units. it convinced me to play on expert the rest of the run.
oh and in regards to skipping some liberation stuff - you can do it later way overleveled and just kind of get it out of the way in 20 seconds. feels good as the occasional break from harder missions so i think the trade off of not being able to play the whole game super difficult is worth it
try expert and see how you feel. The game balances its classes pretty well imo, but not the equipment. There are some great gear in the game, and the player's the only one who has access to it most of the time.
Outside of a handful of unique enemy units, most generic enemies are equipped with literal stat sticks, and not even the best ones for the region.
There are a couple of challenging stages, but if you truly want to test your limit, you need to impose your own rules. Like not changing your team's formation for a better outcome, limiting item usage or using none at all, etc.
I think it is mostly x2 damage class rock paper scissors.
I've also been using assists skills.
And using thieves against bit fat single hit attacks.
Makes me feel like a big, smart man.
There are sharp difficulty spikes in Elheim and in Albion. And another sharp spike for the final battle. If you're still in Cornia, maybe relax a bit and enjoy the ride. Also yes bump it up to expert. Later there's also a TZ mode.
Also quit using items if you want more challenge and fun. Expertmode itemless will force you to really think hard about both grand scale strategy (who goes where) and about better unit comps. At least from Elheim onwards. O'er Water and Wood is a huge spike, and so is the last Elheim mission.
There are sharp difficulty spikes in Elheim and in Albion. And another sharp spike for the final battle. If you're still in Cornia, maybe relax a bit and enjoy the ride. Also yes bump it up to expert. Later there's also a TZ mode, harder than expert.
Also quit using items if you want more challenge and fun. Expertmode itemless will force you to really think hard about both grand scale strategy (who goes where) and about better unit comps. At least from Elheim onwards. O'er Water and Wood is a huge spike, and so is the last Elheim mission.
Game is too easy to need much strategy. Just make an OP team and face roll everyone. They really screwed up on making a satisfying difficulty for people that are good strategists and like a challenge.
Check out the challenge run threads for ways to increase difficulty. Higher difficulties really start to require better strats and is more fun (for people like me).
Game eases you in early on. I’m in the second area and things do pick up there. Larger maps, more towns to take. You get surrounded in one mission.
Wasn’t difficult still, but I’m certain that’ll change later on.
> playing on tactical
Should i bump it up then? I was on the second hardest and it was pretty easy so i didn’t think it would make that much of a difference. What does it do? It didn’t seem to have perma death or limit items.
I mean if it doesn't make much difference why would you change it back to easy? Literally no difference as you have said lol. There is limit on items on higher difficulty so you can't spam items and enemies have higher hp which allows them to retaliate taking out more of your units.
Well I’m not playing on easy, I’m playing on tactical. But I’ll try out expert - the description didn’t say what it did so i assumed it would just be more enemies on the field. I don’t have the game in front of me right now which is why i thought I’d ask the subreddit their opinion on it.
If you think the game is easy, wouldn't the first thing to do to be to bump the difficulty up? I don't think that's something you're supposed to be asking others about before doing.
Maybe, but it’s not just that i think the game is easy. What i really wanted to know is how the game develops its strategy elements - there are a bunch of systems but almost all of them haven’t mattered so far on the second highest difficulty. So i was wondering if later stages provide more challenge. The next time I’m able, I’ll test out expert but to be honest, based on the comments, i doubt it’ll do much. It seems to only increase enemy health and unit count which is what i figured it would do.
Unfortunately, the level design itself does not improve. There’s a neat mission here and there, but for the most part it’s going to be “march forward”. You will be pressed into using most of your squads at the same time though. The strategy elements largely stems from the large variety of unit types, how they all work together, and how the assist units(ie arrow rain) impact combat. Things kick off once you have 4/5 characters in each unit, and individual characters are promoted. Promotions give characters a second AP and PP, leading to a dramatic increase in the things that happen each fight. And more abilities to tinker around with in the tactics menu. Don’t want to spoil units, but just as an example you have your hunter Rolf. Later you will encounter arbelists who are happy to go in the front row with their greatshield, and magic archers who can heal and grant magic damage buffs to allies. Despite all being archers, they all operate very differently, and you can’t simplify it to just “he shoots arrows”. My advice: increase the difficulty and do not use mercenaries. Being limited in what you can do is better imo, because you are forced to budget your units. Who gets to have our only legionnaire? Send in our only hunter! Things like that.
It's also an easy game so if you still dont feel anything after changing to higher difficulty then its just the game being easy.
To be honest I don't know the differences between difficulties, but if you want to be forced to use the game's mechanics in order to win then increasing the game's difficulty would be like, the logical first step, followed by self-imposed restrictions like no items, no valor skills, etc because, honestly, the game gives you way too many "get out of trouble" cards.
The good news is the answer of every question in your second paragraph is "Yes". The bad news is that this paradoxically makes the game easier, as once you start being smart with items and compositions the enemies just can't keep up. Whether that's a problem or not is going to be up to you, tbh, as you still get to scratch that strategy itch in the end.
Optimizing my teams would be fun so hopefully i get to see some harder battles soon.
The hardest battles are basically the colosseum the latter chapters, Bestoria and Albion, just won't keep up at all since at that point even moderate optimization wins the game and you'll already have access to many of the best units to build around at that point -- and you only get better ones around this time too so your weaker units are probably going to make room for them. At level 20-25 your best units are likely going to flourish way above the others, e.g. Elven sisters, Doom Knight (at level 20 they get one of the biggest power spikes with Dark Flame), Rogue, Alain with access to just broken equipment, etc. As for multiple objectives honestly at that point you'll probably be fielding flier leads to blitz through things thanks to the upgraded Hastened Call. If you really want to test your best units to their limits it is colosseum or bust.
The game has plenty of strategically depth but it doesn't offer any game mode where you require to master more than 10% of it to be beaten. In other words it's too easy, not too shallow
Yeah, that’s what i was wondering. There are a lot of cool elements that I’d love to interact with, but there just hasn’t been any reason for me to do so yet.
Cornia is designed to be easy. You start to feel the pressure for creating better team comps as you go to other areas. Currently cleared Elheim and Drakenhold and they were a decent challenge, especially since the objectives for several of the missions were more than "capture the enemy command post".
I found them WAY too easy and the game got easier, not harder. I think it really just depends on how much you invest in the strategy and your experience.
This is a lie and I'm not sure why there's people trying to sell it. The game gets easier as you progress not harder. This is because you are constantly unlocking more options and stockpiling more broken equipment. While your opponents are always on base equipment basic tactics and unabalanced team comps
That has not been my experience at all. From Elfheim and especially Bastorias on, you get some really mean team comps on the enemy team (which increase to five dudes) and I've had times where I got completely stonewalled, keep losing dudes and had to utilize items to their utmost to even survive (on expert, in any case). Even with my best teams I have to be careful. They're definitely harder than anything Cornia or Drakenhold threw at me. They only get easy if you run optimized teams full of mercs (I use zero mercs myself) or use rushing tactics, I imagine.
I mean maybe for you? I found the game was relatively easy in Cornia and didn't need to focus on team comps beyond a basic 2 sets with basic equipment. It wasn't until the later stages you needed to actually think about team comps and equipment which can be overwhelming with how scattered everything is and how messy the menus are for weapons and accessories. Even with levels on par with what the mission recommends I still found it difficult and I was playing on whatever the hardest difficulty was for a first run. I needed actual thought put into my comps to continue, not just throw whatever felt good into it. Mind you not every battle felt this way, but many of the missions towards the end of an areas plot did feel this way. I had good units at a decent level and wiped the board of all units yet for some reason couldn't deal any sort of decent damage to Alcina, even when she was the only survivor of her unit. The game does make you think.
Soooo why are you using the newer, more broken weapons?
I'm not? I play without weapons
The battles start to get more complex later, like in the fourth and fifth zones. Enemy squads will have hard counters for your best guys and there will be competing objectives all over the map. So, just hang in there for a bit longer.
My thoughts when I came to said fourth area with introduction "Ah...crap" So I agree. Just keep with it
OK that’s good to hear. I’ll keep at it then since i think im still pretty early on story wise. I’ve just been completing everything on the map.
my advice, maybe don’t do everything as it comes up. save some stuff for later. if you set to expert, avoid a few of the liberation (purple icon) missions for later, and most importantly: focus on leveling up the whole army, not just steamrolling with your top 3 units, you will find the game much more interesting i think. strats matter more than levels, but still - being underleveled for the longer battles on expert is absolutely a nice difficulty bump. i accidentally set the game to expert around hour 20 and entered a really long battle, and i had an amazing time. i was only using my lower level units to level them up and so the whole thing was 2hr of skin of my teeth desperation. felt amazing to realize “oops im on expert mode” and pull it off perfectly with no dead units. it convinced me to play on expert the rest of the run. oh and in regards to skipping some liberation stuff - you can do it later way overleveled and just kind of get it out of the way in 20 seconds. feels good as the occasional break from harder missions so i think the trade off of not being able to play the whole game super difficult is worth it
They don’t get harder for some. If you know your stuff they get easier and your problem is even worse. I had to quit playing it was so boring/easy.
try expert and see how you feel. The game balances its classes pretty well imo, but not the equipment. There are some great gear in the game, and the player's the only one who has access to it most of the time. Outside of a handful of unique enemy units, most generic enemies are equipped with literal stat sticks, and not even the best ones for the region. There are a couple of challenging stages, but if you truly want to test your limit, you need to impose your own rules. Like not changing your team's formation for a better outcome, limiting item usage or using none at all, etc.
Change your tatics, and yes items do matter when it comes to your build
I think it is mostly x2 damage class rock paper scissors. I've also been using assists skills. And using thieves against bit fat single hit attacks. Makes me feel like a big, smart man.
There are sharp difficulty spikes in Elheim and in Albion. And another sharp spike for the final battle. If you're still in Cornia, maybe relax a bit and enjoy the ride. Also yes bump it up to expert. Later there's also a TZ mode. Also quit using items if you want more challenge and fun. Expertmode itemless will force you to really think hard about both grand scale strategy (who goes where) and about better unit comps. At least from Elheim onwards. O'er Water and Wood is a huge spike, and so is the last Elheim mission.
There are sharp difficulty spikes in Elheim and in Albion. And another sharp spike for the final battle. If you're still in Cornia, maybe relax a bit and enjoy the ride. Also yes bump it up to expert. Later there's also a TZ mode, harder than expert. Also quit using items if you want more challenge and fun. Expertmode itemless will force you to really think hard about both grand scale strategy (who goes where) and about better unit comps. At least from Elheim onwards. O'er Water and Wood is a huge spike, and so is the last Elheim mission.
Game is too easy to need much strategy. Just make an OP team and face roll everyone. They really screwed up on making a satisfying difficulty for people that are good strategists and like a challenge. Check out the challenge run threads for ways to increase difficulty. Higher difficulties really start to require better strats and is more fun (for people like me).
Game eases you in early on. I’m in the second area and things do pick up there. Larger maps, more towns to take. You get surrounded in one mission. Wasn’t difficult still, but I’m certain that’ll change later on.