Why Ironman is the best way to play Fire Emblem (feat. Donlot)
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- You ever wondered why Ironmans are such an interesting form of play in Fire Emblem? Well.. look no further.
Today joined by the amazing Donlot, we discuss why Ironmans are the best way to play Fire Emblem and why you should join in on these adventures as well!!!
Donlot's Channel:
/ @donlot_
Some footage was taken from Muuhiro's channel:
/ @muuhiro1
Thank you all for your support and let us know in the comments below what you enjoy most about ironmans in Fire Emblem!
Timestamps:
00:00 - Intro
00:25 - Defining ironmans
02:15 - Unlikely heroes
05:04 - First units to go
08:00 - Punished but recovered
10:05 - Ambush spawns and sieges
12:25 - Combat vs utility
14:50 - Different stats have more value
18:08 - Which units to take?
18:53 - Content more replayable
21:21 - Play whatever difficulty, but play it! - Hry
I've adopted an soft ironman style where I don't restart if people die, but i won't delete my run if my lord dies unless I feel like I don't want to play that run anymore. but yeah it's something everyone should try out atleast once even on a low level, I feel good every time I do an Ironman with no deaths on normal because there tends to be one or two dude's that die due to careless mistakes or bad luck.
Great video, Iron manning isn't for everyone but I encourage people that have never done it to give it a try. There's something about basically playing against your personal best, getting further than you did last run or having a unit alive at a certain point that you didn't before which can be immensely satisfying. This goes even further in some of the newer games where you have a large range of options for unit building with skill inheritance and reclassing, enabling completely different runs and strategies each time. Once you've done it a few times it almost becomes addictive.
As a kid I did Iron Man, it didn't end well when only the lord remained.
Great video and I think you both made some great points. I myself can’t get into Ironmans because I have a perfectionist view on a lot of stuff I do and I will always find FE to be most enjoyable in an LTC setting, I love trying to optimize and even just making minor improvements brings me so much joy. Treating it like a puzzle rather then an epic battle, that’s just me though
DONLOT MENTIONED, LETS GO
ANOTHER DAY ANOTHER FIRE EMBROS BANGER
When I first started Fire Emblem I never did Ironmans, and even now I don’t do them if I just wanna turn my brain off, but after I did in Engage, I understand why they’re so fun…
My first ever FE game was Path of Radiance, and I was pretty young at the time. Never even thought to restart the levels, so I ended up in the late chapters with only Ike and Elincia.
Found you today and been watching a few of your videos, keep up the great work! I would love to see your thoughts with a co-host on FIre Emblem Conquest as personally I feel it has the strongest gameplay in the series.
Ooooh, that sounds like an interesting video to do. I do consider conquest one of the best of the series and from gameplay standpoint it's one of the better ones! I'll try to see if I can find someone who's interested in a Conquest dissection of sorts.
I've been doing a run of FE1 as intended, I guess "Soft Ironman" or "Tin Man" but I'm actually really enjoying it. FE really should go back the the roots of having a large cast of characters that make it so you almost never run short.
they prefer having time travel
21:35 I've started my very first Ironman on Sacred Stones and on Normal just to learn and gain experience, the more I'll do them the more I'll understand everything and play on harder difficulties
For sure!!! Do it at your pace and enjoy it!
That thumbnail goes HARD.
Glad you liked it ahahhah! I tried to convey that every death matters
I still need to try the iron man challenge. Maybe I start eith fe7 after my current gameplays from other games
At first, i was hesitant to try ironmaning. But eventually when i tried to ironman fe8 and completed it. I was surprised how fun it was. But my personal favorite way to ironman is to play fe8 randomizer. Is really fun and very chaotic at times. Now i'm also doing an ironman run, an fe romhack called vision quest. And i'm also having a lot of fun with it
You already know I'm on this shit. I'm gonna watch the video now
Edit: be prepared for a chunky comment in the future. also, I would appreciate if you created segments that separate the different points made. It would make this discussion more organized, but that's just me.
Actually I was speaking about that today to someone, so I'll go back and organize the topics for each one! Thank you for the feedback!
Child you are so cringe. Baby boy
I do think Deathless/Ironman is the best way to play FE nowadays, but my favorite game in the series is FE4, one of the lesser Ironman friendly game in the series. However, since I love playing Ranked FE4 and became quite good at it, I've realized that it's much more fun following the rulea of the game than savestate abusing in a ranked run (if a unit dies, it stays on their record unless you reset the enitre chapter, not just the turn). The moat fun I've had in an FE game is where I have to change my strategy due to my mistakes and I become more attached to units when they fall in battle.
Ironman makes games like Revelations feel much more refreshing IMO, especially when the game has a huge cast. I can never forget the first rev run that I won where my casualties were Valkyrie Felicia (Who died to Valla Scarlett) and Keaton (Who was murdered in the Valla woods chapter because Rev's lategame has Enemies that can easily 2 round your units). I even remember units from my failed runs like a Great Master Subaki (Who was extremely good and I want to try the build again in another run).
I’m actually doing a revelation rebalance hack Ironman live on this channel and it’s been a ton of fun. The different units being utilized plus the combination of the high stacks has been super engaging!!!
I think Ironman's really emphasize the strategy side of FE games. So intrigued to do one but the anxiety of losing units really take over me sometimes so i chicken out sooner.
Not to sound like a Kaga fanboy, but Ironmanning is how Kaga intended us to play Fire Emblem. He said so himself. That's why earlier FE games gave "replacement units" that were not as good as your initial ones. The reward for playing well was keeping your good units alive, death meant you could keep playing, but you'd get worse units. That's why you get guys like Radd and Caesar after Ougma, they're not meant to be as good as him, they're your punishment units.
Ironman really makes everything feel so much more real. It gives weaker units a chance to shine, and you just appreciate all aspects of the game so much more. Of course it feels awful when you lose a unit, but that's just the price you pay.
I REALLY pray that one day, a future Fire Emblem game has a built in Ironman mode that you can select. This playstyle deserves more love and recognition.
I do agree that adding an Ironman mode to future fire emblems would be a much welcomed addition to the series!!! I love the tales that are created from your units used and how new heroes emerge from the misadventures that occur. It also shows how perseverance is key in succeeding for Ironmans!!!
I used to want to keep people alive to get a complete impression of the game and get the "whole story", but then I realized that deployment slots and support slots severely limits this approach anyway, and you end up with people who are so far behind that they might as well be dead, without a single support unlocked. This is sorta mitigated in 3H and so on, which is structurally VERY different than the classics, and I think this turns a lot of newcomers off those older titles...
I feel like a great way to incentivize the player to experiment with different units would be if IS implemented a fatigue mode where units get fatigued like in Thracia. Having it as an optional mode would allow players who dislike fatigue, or just don't feel like playing in that style for the run, to play normally while giving players a new way to play and strategize in the games they enjoy. I tried doing something like this a couple years ago, and it was a fair bit more fun than I expected.
I think I have a little bit of experience of Ironman without having knowing it, as like "officialy" I haven't really done one, but back with a friend when we put ourselves stupid challenges and that, he put me 2 challenges on Fates, one using only Corrin and Sakura in Revelation (that one was hilarious as my friend expected me to fail hard, but not complete it with pretty much "I don't have choice but to believe that Sakura procs Miracle in lethal blows to her" or extremely unlikely 80-99% hit-rate dodges... spoiler alert... 55 Miracle procs and around 30 unlikely dodges at the perfect time) and another in Conquest of beating the game with the least amount of casualties possible (I could restart a map, but only if a Mission Failed happened, otherwise was deal with the losses... but even so I restarted the run at least twice anyway, this one was pretty much my first true Ironman experience), is very fun to do and I think I'll either stream or record an Ironman run soon, I still don't know if I'll do an "Ironman -" (AKA: Use Ironman rules but I'm allowed to restart the map if Mission Failed happens) or the "Hardcore" way of "if Mission Failed happens, is back to square one", either way, I bet I'm gonna have a lot of fun (as for difficulty it would be either the middle ground of the hardest, but that will depend on my mood and the game I pick).
4:01 Hi from that stream 😊😊😊
I was just thinking about starting an ironman yesterday. I'll have to think about which game.
You know what is more fun, CASUAL MODE. Thats the bijesus of fan. But some people are not ready for that and still its ok. Each to his own. So enjoy your iron man, some other people will enjoy casual mode.
Tbh I find skill as the suprising stat in iron mans. One of the worst feelings is when you are getting yourself out of a jam or trying a risky play and your clutch unit misses.
Spacing and positioning can help with defense, but a missed hit at the wrong time can kill multiple units
I dont like ironman that much because i get sad when my favorite characters die and i dont want to play anymore.
i feel like my relationship with ironmans is somewhat weird. so, the two main things going on here are that it's my preferred way to play fire emblem, but I'm also, like, not good at strategy games, like, at all. So, out of the six fire emblem games I've played, I only managed to successfully complete blind ironman on two of them (on lowest difficulty in all cases), the other games resulted in me getting my entire army killed within the first few hours of gameplay. But yeah, I really love the combination of low difficulty high punishment in fe7 & fe8 (both on normal mode). Like, losing vanessa because I failed to notice that the fog of war map was a fog of war map was pretty tragic, but also kinda funny. Meanwhile I got really attached to Seth because, like, he definitely felt like the rock holding my army together. I think it added a lot to the story. I was honestly confused about the term "ironman" for the longest time because I was like "isn't that how you're supposed to play the game...?" because it really does feel that way for those two games, while I think classic mode feels more like a difficulty setting than an intended way to first experience the game in the games with that distinction. there's also this mounting sense of dread you get when you realize that the map you're walking into blind has a max deployment count of roughly twice the size of your surviving army. Plus, it makes the process of grinding (in games with it), a lot more interesting because I definitely got, like, at least 3 different characters killed while attempting to grind some of them (rip Kyle, Saleh, and a few other people). I think maps where, like, half of your army dies can also be memorable. Like, FE8 had the Tragedy at Serafew, where Joshua killed Franz, Lute, and then himself (on Seth) meanwhile Cole, like, almost died (he lived on 1 hp and a dream). Meanwhile, there was the Horsegirl Massacre (18x) where quite literally every single one of my mounted units except florina died (she died, like, 2 chapters later). So, the Horsegirl Massacre was felt for the rest of the run. And you don't really get those stories with heavy resetting. And, like, the being bad at strategy games also results in memorable things, like my tendency to accidentally deploy unarmed units (rip Dozla, who died with zero axes but a dream).
Personality i think Ironman is the worst way to play
I like taking my time to think and find stratégie where everyone in my army lives, if i don't like a characters i bench them and give the xp to my fav
Even stratégie whise it's more interesting looking for stratégie to end the map with eveyone than sacrifice some of your army
I totally respect this!!! It’s definitely not for everyone and I understand the frustrations it can bring. I do think doing it as a second or third attempt, when you’re more comfortable and want to experiment a bit more with the game creates a lot of interesting moments in gameplay!
thx for the nice but i'l keep to my casual ways
I can’t even play without iron manning anymore. It’s great but very frustrating for sure.
I recently did a Soft Ironman,or Tinman as I've called it, of Engage....well continued from when I left the game on April. I got to the final chapter with 6 units. Was not possible.
once you try ironman u never come back to normal anymore
i think a lot of people are afraid of having to reset the run if you game over, but... you literally don't have to. I find that a "soft ironman" still has the same fun and chaos, just with slightly lower stakes. if *only* the lord makes it out unscathed... now that's fun. yeah, sure, you're not doing a "hard ironman" or whatever, but you should play to have fun, not play for clout. source: i did my first playthrough of fe6 as a blind soft ironman, and it was absolutely the best thing ever, and the reason i'm an fe6 stan now.
great video, tons of great points. the personal narrative of ironmans.... i did sacred stones as a blind ironman, and lost ross (but not garcia) one chapter after recruiting both. what a story there's in that! or cormag dying in the *second last* chapter, or losing vanessa to the early fog map and then using tana instead for the entire game. absolutely fantastic. i love it.
I live for these moments in Ironmans too. Especially the “alternate” units that wind up becoming heroes
Literally Bord for me@@fireembros1165
Learned how to play Ironman as a kid because I was tired of resetting maps because one character would die simple as.
I will say in games with postgame rankings (FE4,5,6,7 etc.) I obviously play deathless and I personally prefer those games
What was that custom map Fates footage from?
From a hack called silent waves. It’s missing only the final chapters. I have a play through of it as an Ironman on lunatic in the live section. Many cool and different maps utilized and rebalances. In the video description of those streams is where you can download it too!
I’m fine with the idea of an iron man… though I’m unsure which Fe games that I can do an iron man first?
My recommendation is shadow dragon (the DS one) on any difficulty other than H4/5 on a first try. If you’re confident in your skills H3 is a solid good challenge ( it was my first one) , if you’re trying to test the waters, H1/H2 will be perfect as well!
Well what you know it that I have the physical copy of shadow dragon in my storage. Might as well give it a shot.
I totally agree with this honestly, it's how the series started and the games are different now but at least still structured around it, I'm just a lazy cunt that doesn't like the units i've been using the whole time leaving a hole for me to replace 💀
Defense is a more way important stat than strength and I will die on this hill.
FINALLY someone who appreciates FE6 ambush spawns, I understand why people complain about not being told about them but they're so heavilly telegraphed by the map design that it's natural for you to be on guard around they're spawn points even if you're not completely sure of when it'll happen.
YES
I feel like this is a good argument. But sometimes, a difficulty comes along that makes such a playstyle impossible for the average person.
Been doing a Blue Lions run on NG maddening. And hooo boy, did chapter 2 piss me off. Absolute madness in that chapter. Half a dozen crits and an archer that dodged 3 different 80% chance hits. I had an easier time with the chapter 3 fog of war map -_-'
I personally don't think that the games that have turnwheels are designed well for ironman, and, as a matter of fact, believe their balance is designed around abusing it as much as possible. As of such I usually try to stay away from iron manning those, just because it seems to me counterintuitive and I usually don't find enjoyment in it.
Three houses is egregiously bad with this, requiring almost a mandatory usage of the turnwheel on a first playthrough due to the abundance of same turn reinforcements and other shenanigans that occur without the players knowledge.
I won't do it because it sucks, its frustrating and unreasonably punishing. I don't know what the map is going to be about, how strong the enemies are. If you play nothing but fire emblem your entire life whatever, but i play those games for the first time. Why i should ruin my experience because of gatekeeping.
Nobody's saying to do it on a first attempt. As a matter of fact, I do recommend in the video to do it after getting familiarized with the game a couple of times for a different experience. Ultimately it's a single player experience and people should do whatever floats their boat. I'm merely suggesting that there is more to be gained from it then lost by just never trying it out.
LTCs and/or 100% completion are baby-brained ways to play, anyway.
Because saving is for cowards
YOOOOO MEKKAH COLLAB