(actually, I don't really kick many people into playing games unless they HAVE THE GAME AVAILABLE, if you didn't notice. If I do, its usually jokingly. As far as I'm concerned, don't play a game unless you genuinely want to, not cause some one told you too; this isn't to say you shouldn't recommend games, in order to make it known or try to get some interest, but buying a game based entirely on hype and kicks is a bad move if you aren't really willing.)
Actually, I think MOST people are mostly joking when they kick people into games. Sure, they want you to play the game, but it's not like they can force you to do so, so it's mostly just a lighthearted suggestion with little seriousness behind it.
Ugh. Either I completely and utterly fail ... or Fhanatos does. Shadow's End was no where near as good as I expected =/
Fanatos is pretty underwhelming in general. I suggest just changing to Plua or Jiptus for tough boss fights.
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Mana Khemia: More night time bosses.
C9 boss: Extremely easy once you know its gimmick. Harder than the C8 boss still though!
Dualblade Emperor - Hey look he 3HKOs at night... OH WAIT TERAFLAME OW. Too bad that's only at low HP, so he died right after that. Still, MT overkill with no charge time is respectable. Anna barely survived while defending.
Witch Trio - ...uh, still working on this one. ;_;
Rondo of Swords - Up to mission 9 now. Game's kind of fun. Unique gameplay, actual challenge (while being forgiving), but has its own issues.
Unlike normal SRPGs, in Rondo of Swords, to attack, you must make a character run through the enemy. This makes the MOV stat matter quite a bit, since higher MOV allows you to go through multiple enemies, and attack them all. Enemies don't seem to attack multiple of your allies very often though, for some reason. There are skills and magic... but they cannot be used after moving, making them practically useless. Well, mages can't attack by moving through enemies, but they have low MOV stats, so they rarely get close enough to actually be able to use their magic, making them... quite useless. Add to the fact that they have poor HP/Defense (so that they get overkilled by every enemy ever), and that hiding them behind other allies DOESN'T WORK DUE TO HOW THE GAME WORKS, they just become a liability much of the time. I've been using the one mage I have to just pick off enemies that the other people just barely miss killing. It's not like they do more damage than fighters either... though I think they don't hit a defense stat. They do have some spells that hit a range of panels, though, I guess, but those don't seem as useful since I think they hit allies and uh, you have to be close, which again, is bad. There are archers as well, who are actually good. They can attack AFTER MOVING (so... why can't mages now?), but they can only attack one unit per turn. It's worth it though, as they are good for sniping enemies from afar, and the ACTUAL MOV STAT and ABILITY TO MOVE AND ATTACK make it much easier for them than mages.
So as the above already made obvious, the class balance in this game is pretty bad. Fighters have a huge advantage of being able to hit multiple enemies and actually take hits. To put things into perspective, Margus, the tanky guy, has about 400 HP and 40 Defense right now. He takes probably like 30 damage per hit on normal? He also has the skill ZOC which stops enemies from moving through him (so they can't hit other people afterwards) and lowers melee damage received. The other fighters I have have somewhere in the 200-250 range of HP and take closer to 100 damage per hit. The mage? Has 70 HP and basically just dies if a fighter looks at him. Healer? 50 HP, same thing. Archer has like 150 HP and can take one hit (I think he has decent evade too? I don't let him get hit often). So basically your fighters do all the work (Especially Margus. Margus for Godlike), while everyone else is left picking off the stray ends, or trying to catch up/stay out of the way of enemies.
Now, the mages wouldn't be so bad if they could use magic after moving. It would allow them to get out of the way and attack the enemy at the same time (and with a low MOV stat, there WOULD be times where they couldn't get all the way out of the way, but that's fine because that means you fucked up), but lacking that ability makes it hard to make them useful, since most of the time you're either moving TOWARD the enemy because you're out of range, or AWAY because enemies will kill them if you don't. Healers are a little better with this, since you can control where your allies are easier, at least.
Now that I've finished the ranting, on to other stuff. Good things about the game: Lack of permadeath. Now now, before all the FE fans start going "that makes the game 2 ez lol", there's a better system in place. Instead of dying, the character becomes Hurt, which halves all non-HP/MP stats for one battle, making them, uh, not very good for that battle. They ARE still managable (I cleared a map with 5/6 of my team Hurt just a bit ago) if you use proper strategy, but it does hamper you quite a bit. They also can't run errands (Quests/Shopping/Training, kind of FFT-style, I guess?) during the next mission either. So either you use them in the next battle with nerfed stats, or let them sit around uselessly and use other people. This means you lose out on whatever errands you would have those people do that mission. Makes dying really suck, but doesn't force a reset. And the game IS hard, so if you fuck up, someone likely WILL die. See, FE? You don't need to be retarded to try and make a game difficult.
Also, while there's a finite number of missions, EXP isn't really finite. At any point during a mission (except the first), you can quit the current mission and keep the EXP gained, and then try again. But wait, couldn't you abuse that to make people who died not get Hurt? Nope. People who died in that mission can be used again, BUT they have Hurt status for that mission, so yes, you get those nerfed stats. However, clearing the mission with them alive cures them, so they won't be Hurt for the NEXT mission. So it becomes a choice of whether or not you want to try again with current EXP and dead people being Hurt this mission, or keep going and try and win and have dead people be Hurt for the next mission. Usually if you screw up in a short, relatively easy mission, you want to go with the first one... or just reset if you really want. Having that choice is kind of nice.
Skill system's okay, I guess. Characters get skill points (I haven't figured out exactly how, but I know level ups give them, but I swore Serdic got some without levelling up too...) that can be used to learn/level up skills, which include both passive and active skills. Some increase DEF, there's one that increases DEF but lowers counter rate, and there's also the ZOC skill I mentioned earlier. Mages learn magic in this way, too. As for fighter active skills, Margus gets some that reduce damage taken from certain enemies for one turn (which would be more useful if he had a higher counter rate, I guess, due to ZOC and high defense), several get a skill that increases Momentum Counter (which I forgot to mention, I guess I'll do that next), and several also get a skill that raises ATK while lowering DEF. If counter rates were higher, or they could be used after moving, they would be more useful, but as for now, they're pretty situational.
Momentum Counter is weird. Each character has an initial MC stat, and that goes up after attacking or healing. Killing makes it go up more. There are skills/items that lower and reduce it as well. What MC does is this: The higher the MC stat, the more likely the enemy is to target that character. Theoretically, this could be used to allow mages and other weak characters get close, but it seems like enemies like to focus on them more unless the MC difference is quite large, so it's not always practical. Regardless, it does give you an idea of WHO the enemies will most likely go after, which is nice. I'd need to figure out the mechanics behind it more to be able to use it better, but eh, it's something, I guess.
I've probably missed stuff, but whatever. Overall, the game's kind of fun right now, since it's unique, challenging, but also forgiving. Has quite a few issues, though, so I hesitate to call it good, but it might be worth checking out.
