So I started it tonight, and I'm just about to undertake chapter 4 (The first chapter with the monsters)
I've enjoyed your posting a lot, and I'm looking forward reading about your experience with The Sacred Stones.
You can grind alright. Careful about your money and equipment, though it shouldn't become an issue unless you overdo it. Seth is an excellent unit, careful to not overuse him.
Thanks, I'll remember that. I've already lost a red gem thanks to a pesky thief during chapter 3, so that's annoying
At one point the game will split into two paths, I suggest you go with the first route. And unlike the previous game when you promote this time you'll get two choices. Oh and make sure you recruit Joshua, haha he's my favorite SwordMaster in the series. Around a certain point you'll unlock a tower and I consider that the best place to grind if you want to. The boss of the first floor pretty much gives a 100% exp to who ever kills it.
I'm trying to recruit everyone I meet and so far I think I've done that. I'm making sure to go to all the villages and I'm also making sure I speak to all the green units to turn them blue.
How important are the promotion choices? Do they make a huge difference to how the characters play?
You don't really need to grind to complete Sacred Stones since it's pretty easy, You don't really need to go for 20 / 20 since the promo bonuses, promoting around level 15 then to be better than waiting to 20 and since you will never hit 20 / 20.
Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. I ended up promoting most of my units at level 10-14 during the previous game (including Lyn and Eliwood) and that just about worked out in the end. However I was pretty worried about making my file unwinnable too, whereas because I know I can grind if I mess things up badly, I'll probably be more relaxed about it in this game
Have fun! Sacred Stones is a guilty pleasure of mine. I think I've finished that game four times at least, twice on hard (with grinding I must admit) and each time with a different strategy. Looking forward to your impressions.
Thanks, so some initial impressions:
I like how quickly the story takes off. I understand the previous game needed a long intro to teach players the game (was this in the JP version too?) and that did really help me learn the systems, but this game throws you right into things.
The opening levels are really easy (I'm playing on normal btw) but that is to be expected, and as the last game is so fresh in my mind I've been able to plow though them at a rapid pace. I've played for an hour and I think about 60% of that time has been story/cutscenes
I like Eirika as a character but a lot of the others don't seem too defined yet, and as I'm picking up 2/3 characters a chapter the game doesn't have much time to flesh them out. This was something the last game was able to do as it had a dedicated 3 hour long tutorial campaign
I'm not sure how I feel about the monsters yet, but more enemy types is a good thing, and I can already see/tell they have reused a lot of assets and animations from the FE6 (which isn't something I have a problem with as I enjoy the look and feel of the game)
I also like that the game gives you a way of storing excess items really early on, as it was a pain having to throw so much away in FE6 if you didn't bring the tent to missions, so I glad that seems like it's been removed
I will post more updates when I get a chance to play some more