Fire Emblem: Awakening is incredibly difficult

This has been the first Fire Emblem game that I haven't had fun playing.

I decided to play on hard mode since I have beaten all the other FE games, and my God, it's HARD.  I'm only on Chapter 5 and I've already lost two characters so far, and the chapter I'm on I can't even get a few turns into without losing more characters.  I'm actually going to have to start the game over on Normal because this is seriously just too difficult, and I'm an experienced FE veteran!  Have I just lost my luster, or it this game hard for everyone else too?

Really? I like that I keep hearing this 'cause I didn't have much trouble with hard. :P Lunatic on the other hand...

I had problems with some chapters, and I'm doing my first playthrough on Hard. Here's my advice: USE THE SUPPORTS AND PAIR UPS. Awakening doesnt have a limit on the amount of times you can support! Pair-ups not only protect one character, but give it exp and support possibilities as well. Also, the fighting unit in a pair up gets stat bonuses. Take advantage of StreetPass to find teams to grind on. Find the select amount of characters you want to powerlevel until you collect a good band of memebers you really like so you dont waste EXP oppurtunities.

I'm also an FE veteran and this is the first game where I let a character die (Maribelle, I hear she's the only one not worth it) and not restart the chapter. Its difficult, but not impossible.

It has been a very long time since I came across a game that's as challenging as FE:A. I seriously cannot remember the last time AI kicked my ass over and over. Hard mode doesn't mess around. Normal is pretty balanced, while still providing some challenge. I haven't even touched Lunatic.

I avoid hard difficulties, because I tend to curse alot when frustrated, & my Mother doesn't like that... So...

It's weird I hear some say it's easy, some say it's hard. I think hard difficulty is just the right challenge.

Normal is easy, hard is normal, lunatic is real hard and lunatic+ will make everyone cry.King_Dodongo

^^^ Truth. 

I did my share of restarting. :P A fair amount of chapters I got through the first time without losing any characters, and after beating the final chapter I think if I'd played the game on Normal difficulty it would've been too easy. I find Hard is challenging but not in the "frustrating" zone. Lunatic, on the other hand, so far seems to be sitting dangerously on the fence between "very challenging" and "frustrating"... I dread seeing what Lunatic+ is like.

I feel I should have played on Hard, but at least playing on Normal the first time has given me an idea of who I want to use for a Hard and (possibly) a Lunatic run. I'm at the point where I've used Master Seals on all my main characters that started to reach level 15-20 of their starting class and can basically march a support pair into a whole army and watch them come out with a few scratches of single digit damage. It's getting to the point where I could only lose a unit if I was trying. 

I've never played a Fire Emblem game before, and I have no idea how it works. I have the game but haven't started it... do you guys think I should try easy?rubber-chicken

[QUOTE="rubber-chicken"]I've never played a Fire Emblem game before, and I have no idea how it works. I have the game but haven't started it... do you guys think I should try easy?darkspineslayer

There is no Easy. lol

have a friend playing this and he loves it. I'd pick it up if I owned a 3DS, probably.Allicrombie

Really? I like that I keep hearing this 'cause I didn't have much trouble with hard. :P Lunatic on the other hand...

Pixel-Perfect

Same. Hard seemed about right. Lunatic, well it's insane...

Hard was a little more difficult than Easy mode on Sacred Stones, I thought. The one thing about it though is it starts out really, really hard and kind of gets easier from there. I was getting beat down early on but as you progress, you get more and more opportunities to grind out a few levels and by the end of the game on hard mode, I got to the point where I was actually passing up opportunities to grind because I didn't need them.

Definitely, the advice to use your pair ups and relationships is a good. By the end of the game, I basically paired up everyone I could. It is much easier to keep track of six sets of pairs than twelve individual characters and they are toughter to kill too. The main thing that was getting me early on was I'd overlook the position of some weaker character and they'd get wailed on and die so I'd have to restart.

I'm playing the game on Hard now and I didn't really find the first couple chapters that bad.  I decided that I was only going to use Chrom and Avatar (and Lissa for healing obviously) and I just paired people to them and didn't bother using anyone else until other characters I wanted showed up.  It's really the chapters to get those "extra characters" that are screwing me over. 

It's not as hard as Radiant Dawn. That game was impenetrable for me as my introduction to the series. It wasn't until I gave Sacred Stones a try (thanks to the Ambassador Program) that I was finally able to understand how these games work.

The pairing system in Awakening makes a huge difference, as does the ability to see all danger/safe areas with the press of a single button. Radiant Dawn also has a nasty habit of sending reinforcements in almost every mission. Awakening does that much less, and when it does, it usually lets you block their arrival.

Even the combat window in Awakening makes battle decisions a little bit easier. What used to be the basic setting is now the advanced setting, and there's an even more basic and less intimidating setting for newcomers. And being able to switch weapons in the combat window is such a small but helpful improvement.

All of that stuff makes Awakening so much easier to play than Sacred Stones or Radiant Dawn, even though I'm playing this one on Classic Hard. It's going to make going back to those games REALLY frustrating.

It's not as hard as Radiant Dawn. That game was impenetrable for me as my introduction to the series. It wasn't until I gave Sacred Stones a try (thanks to the Ambassador Program) that I was finally able to understand how these games work.

The pairing system in Awakening makes a huge difference, as does the ability to see all danger/safe areas with the press of a single button. Radiant Dawn also has a nasty habit of sending reinforcements in almost every mission. Awakening does that much less, and when it does, it usually lets you block their arrival.

Even the combat window in Awakening makes battle decisions a little bit easier. What used to be the basic setting is now the advanced setting, and there's an even more basic and less intimidating setting for newcomers. And being able to switch weapons in the combat window is such a small but helpful improvement.

All of that stuff makes Awakening so much easier to play than Sacred Stones or Radiant Dawn, even though I'm playing this one on Classic Hard. It's going to make going back to those games REALLY frustrating.

JordanElek