Just wondering if she stays in the same place, with the same stuff, after I run a battle. She has another Master Seal that I really want to snag.

To promote a bit of discussion, what difficulty are you guys playing on? I'm rolling on normal on chapter 7 and I've still lost a couple guys (save scummed for a few, Miriel is dead though and I feel like such a dick) It seemed like this one is just harder than the others. The GBA and earlier DS one's were pretty easy in comparision, even on hard.

Maybe I've just lost my mojo.

Hard mode is giving me Radiant Dawn flashbacks. It's really challenging and I have yet to clear Chapter 5. I'm considering starting over on Normal and saving Hard for a second playthrough.

After battles Anna will disappear and reappear at random on the map. Each place she spawns usually changes out what she'll carry so she'll probably not have that Master Seal anymore. I do know later on there's a non-Anna store that sells Master Seals. What I personally want out of Anna are Second Seals though. -_- DLC maps don't cause her to leave I think. Not sure if challenge maps make her leave or not.

I'm playing on Hard and just finished Chapter 15. I haven't lost anybody but that's mainly because I restarted whenever they died. >_> There were a few maps that caused me to die a good number of times (like 5 and Paralogue 2) but for the most part I'll only die once of a particularly hard map before I figure out how to take the map better and beat it the second time around. Things got a little easier once I was able to start promoting my units but I still run into the danger of having my units die if I rush forward too hard.

@Hailinel said:

Hard mode is giving me Radiant Dawn flashbacks. It's really challenging and I have yet to clear Chapter 5. I'm considering starting over on Normal and saving Hard for a second playthrough.

What's causing you problems on that map exactly? Things don't stay quite so hard once you get over that Chapter 5 bump.

There are stores later on that just sell Master Seals all the time. Anna will often have them on the cheap when she does but they aren't in short supply.

As for difficulty, I'm starting on normal but I intend to go through all the difficulties. I lost...Ricken I think his name was. But I don't really mind since I have two mages that tear shit up. One of them is on a horse and she is my favorite.

I was playing it on Hard, but I've recently reset on Insane (mostly because beating the game on insane in the only way to get insane+), but god damn does that difficulty punish you. It's an absolute blast, and an amazing thrill when you finally finish a map, but I've restarted the game more times then I can count (if you don't know, L+R+Start resets the game)!

@llamaegg said:

(if you don't know, L+R+Start resets the game)!

You beautiful bastard, I didn't know that. Thank you!

I'm on normal classic. At first I had to do a couple restarts, but I've gotten a swing of it that I won't lose anyone at all. I'm afraid to bump it up to hard though, I'm not a very good strategist. Also did you get Anna to fight with you? Oh my god is she ever powerful.

@EarlessShrimp said:

I'm on normal classic. At first I had to do a couple restarts, but I've gotten a swing of it that I won't lose anyone at all. I'm afraid to bump it up to hard though, I'm not a very good strategist. Also did you get Anna to fight with you? Oh my god is she ever powerful.

I'm also playing on normal classic, and have not restarted or lost anyone yet, as of chapter 8. I almost restarted on Hard early on, but was also worried it would be too much of a jump in difficulty. I think I'm going to just finish out this playthrough and then start again on Insane or something. I see myself playing a ton of this game, it's great! :)

How do you recruit Anna? Is it in one of the Paralogues? I only finished the first one so far and got that ol' country bumpkin (his name escapes me at the moment XD).

@beard_of_zeus: oh jeez... Donnell!? I got him too, still level 2. But I think it's possibly the third paralogue? It's the 2nd paralogue with anna in it I remember that much. I don't know if you can get her in your fist encounter because I didn't try. But, you just don't let her die and have Chrom talk to her.

@beard_of_zeus: Have you or anyone else for that matter found a use for that guy? On Hard Classic he's just too hard for me to try to level up. Does he get awesome or is he just a nuisance to avoid?

Going it on hard, which is a nice balance in terms of difficulty. No one is neigh invicible just yet with the exception of Chrom, due to his A rank support with the avatar. Haven't lost anyone yet either, though I have restarted a few times for Sully's sake, as well as a case horrible rng during stat level ups in the first encounter of a map.

@kojip: His stat gains are INSANE. Get him to 10 then switch him to Merc and he's a God among men.

@smokeyd123 said:

@kojip: His stat gains are INSANE. Get him to 10 then switch him to Merc and he's a God among men.

Are his better than normal stat gains a result of his innate abilities, or the skill that he starts equipped with that gives him a higher chance to level up stats? If it's the latter, you could unequip it and give it to someone else, right?

@smokeyd123: how'd you go about leveling him to 10 anyway? Just using him as they said in the quicklook "a finisher?"

@beard_of_zeus: both. he has a skill for it and his gains are better in general.

@EarlessShrimp: pretty much, I did a bit of grinding on the dlc. Otherwise I just isolated ranged units and used him to kill them.

@StarvingGamer said:

@smokeyd123 No she moves around.
@Hailinel I wouldn't. The balance on Hard seems just right for a Fire Emblem game. I have to play really smart and think out every turn to completion before making my first move. I feel like Normal would end up being too easy.

Normally I'd agree, but I really don't feel like beating my head against Chapter 5 like it's a brick wall. Making matters worse is the fact that I was low on gold, I hadn't found any bullion yet, and I can't keep grinding forever with so little gold in the bank. I feel like I really fucked up somewhere, but I can't say for sure where that is.

The early going is too easy on Normal, but it does seem to be getting at least a bit more difficult. But frankly, I'm enjoying it more simply due to there being less stress. With the way work is going on some days, I really don't need to be coming home to the frustration of constantly restarting the same chapter because I refuse to let anyone die.

@Hailinel: dont. hard is the hardest at the start but offers a much more consistent fun challenge afterwards.

advice for chapter 5 ( one of the hardest maps of the game so far for me):

group mirabell move her so she will get hit by only one axe guy

move kellam up and then sneak her by

hold at in the corner

get lucky, gl!

@smokeyd123: so you can do DLC maps over and over? Fuck me, I should get going on that then.

So did you all just download the game, or is the whole retail problem limited?

@Hunter5024: it's definitely not limited for me. I ended up going to a place and they said that the retail version has a super limited release and they stopped taking pre-orders about a month before it came out. So, I got a prepaid card and downloaded it.

@EarlessShrimp: I preordered the game in early January and I still didn't get it. I can't even download it because I promised to loan it to my friend when I was done with it. What a pain in the ass.

Donny is the Magikarp of Fire Emblem.

@Hunter5024: I grabbed my copy on Wednesday. I was the only pre-order at that store, so It might just be your region. I live in Southeastern Murrica',