Fire Emblem Classic or Casual? (Fire Emblem)

[GoronGainz]

I know there are some fans of Fire Emblem that don't care for the casual mode in the newer games thinking that it takes away from the experience of the older games.

But I've seen & heard some of these fans say that if one of their favourite/most useful character dies they'd just reset the chapter & play it again making sure they survived.

Then surely casual mode would be more convenient taking away the need for resetting, right?

So how do you play Fire Emblem? Causal?, Classic?, Both? & if classic do you reset or follow the games perma-death rule?

Just curious what your optimum FE experience is & why?

 

[Spirit]

Casual because I suck at the series.

 

[Ten Thousand Needles]

Then surely casual mode would be more convenient taking away the need for resetting, right

No, because at that point losing a character is like getting a game over. Playing on casual mode you can lose as many units as you want and there's no punishment. It's totally different to get through a mission without losing any units as opposed to winning but losing half your army. When there's no risk or possibility of consequences, it stops being fun because you're just brainlessly pressing buttons until the screen says you win. Casual mode takes away any need for strategy, which is not a good thing for a strategy game.

Sometimes it's good for games to be punishing.

 

[Fraxinus]

Casual because I'm a casual. I still try to make a point not to lose any units on a map, but I act with more confidence when I don't have the pressure of mistakes weighing on me. I have played on classic mode from time to time, though.

 

[Azure Sage]

Permadeath is not a risk I want to take, ever. I absolutely hate it when there's no margin for error. It sucks all the fun and motivation out of playing for me. I refuse to touch classic mode.

 

[Kirino]

I've only played classic. At least for me, casual is so easy that it's basically impossible to lose, so there's no real challenge or strategy involved. I reset whenever I lose a unit anyway, so permadeath isn't much of a worry for me.

 

[DekuNut]

I like Classic because it forces me to use different tools. I can't just sacrifice a unit to draw the AI without consequence.
It also helps that most of the games I've played haven't had the choice; the only games with a Casual mode I've played have been New Mystery, Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses. As such, playing Classic mode in those games keeps my skills at that same level for when I'm playing the earlier titles.
That said, I do prefer the titles that have some form of time manipulation to make Classic more fair. Mila's Turnwheel was the single best gameplay addition in Shadows of Valentia, and I'm glad to see that it's carried forward to Three Houses and Heroes. I feel like it's the perfect in-between.

 

[mαrkαsscoρ]

playing classic raises the stakes and causes you to be more methodical in how you approach the map, w/ no one truly dying then there's no real consequence for reckless play unless you're really careless and keep losing units every map
so if there is permadeath and you do end up losing a unit, then it becomes a matter of whether you want to redo the map all over again or just accept your loss and move on, so again, there's more stakes involved, it's also quite a rush when you do make a mistake but your unit ends up surviving b/c RNGesus is at your side

though w/ that being said....casual's quite nice

 

[Storm_Echo]

I'm a huge fan of the permadeath, and difficulty in videogames in general. In Fire Emblem, there are two reasons for this:

1. No permadeath means low stakes on a map and changes how I approach a level fundamentally. I have nothing to lose, so now bum rushing objectives and sacking units along the way to get there becomes a very viable strategy - a lot of the time, I could just roll my cavaliers through a level protecting my crit gods and oneshot the boss. Cavaliers dying didn't make a difference, and you could safely ignore big chunks of enemies and levels. This made late levels (where you don't need to grind anymore) a total afterthought and took the air out of the campaign.

2. No permadeath means no reason to use side characters outside of your "core" team. You will very quickly develop a squad of OP gods, and if none of them ever die (or get strategically sacrificed to make it through a tough level) then you just get to use them again and again in every game. Eventually you're like a kid in Pokemon with their level 75 charizard one-shotting every single pokemon and ignoring the type chart. Permadeath means you'll need to find substitutes for valuable members who die in a level, leading to a lot more use of later-game or "weak" characters. It diversifies playthroughs and makes them much more memorable.

 

[~Kilza~]

I play casual because I'm a scrub. I prefer not having to worry that any little mistake I make might cost me a unit, since I know I'd just reset if I lost a unit to permadeath anyways, so might as well save any wasted time and play the mode that allows me to avoid that.

 

[twilitfalchion]

I started out playing exclusively casual to learn how to play FE in general, but over time I've switched to exclusively playing classic mode. It just feels more meaningful when the possibility of losing the units you've raised is there. Is it punishing? Sure. But that's the incentive to plan and play better.

Of course, playing on what one enjoys most matters before anything else. Doesn't make a playthrough any less valid regardless of what mode you play on.

 

[A Link In Time]

I've always gone with classic so far. I think that preserves the authenticity of the experience. If I ever play Fire Emblem Fates Conquest, though, I might go for casual. I've heard that one is very hard.