(Tongue-in-Cheek) FE4 Strategy Guide

So, the evening special Farmers' Market I'd anticipated for a month was cancelled thanks to the heat and the family dog had to be put down today. Nice.

FE4 is not like other FE games. (So, if anyone is citing an installment of the franchise as "not real Fire Emblem" yet praising FE4, they're either a poseur or trolling.) The huge, mostly empty maps present a massive, massive bias toward mounted units that is only partially overcome by intermittent sand and forests. And by "partially" I mean "not much, really." Even a mediocre mounted unit is more useful than most foot units in many situations, and the ability of a mounted unit to move after making a strike (in most cases) makes them even more effective in neutralizing bosses. Since there's no shoving and no GBA-style rescue, having a foot unit charge in against a boss can be fatal during enemy phase, whereas your mounted units can do hit-and-runs in succession.

In that sense, FE5's forced dismounting is kind of like the revenge of the foot soldier. "Oh, hey, dude on a horse-- you think you're so fucking special with your unique weapon and your ability to capture just about anything? Well, try this on for size! Now you have to walk on your own skinny legs and use a shitty iron sword! ROFL. Good luck not getting captured yourself, asshole."

But in FE4, the bias for horsies is just a little bit sad, and the only thing that really overcomes it is a-MAZ-ing skills like Meteor Strike or a holy weapon like Holsety.

( Only somewhat exaggerating here... )