Topic: Fire Emblem: Casual or Classic?

Sorry I know there is a Fire Emblem post there, but I honestly don't want to shuffle through the countless pages because

a) too lazy
b) I don't want to trip over any spoilers since I am getting the game in April (PAL Region here)

I was just wondering, since I am replaying the Fire Emblem on the GBA at the moment, loving every second of it, if I should go CASUAL or PERMA DEATH CLASSIC mode in the upcoming FE:Awakening? Does it have any consequences if I just go casual? Because I find myself so much in love with the characters in Fire Emblem on GBA that whenever I lose a unit, I restart the whole chapter replaying single chapters over and over again, dumping ridiculous amounts of time into it.

So, any advice - please SPOILER FREE - you can give me?
Help is appreciated. Thank you!

I also don't have the game yet, but I'll definitely be going for Perma Death.
It's how Fire Emblem's meant to be.
Trying to get through the stages without letting any units die adds another layer of strategy to the game and I expect that it'd all be a little too easy if you can just run in hard and let a bunch of units die just for them to be brought back again at the end of the level.

The consequence of casual is that you can't say you're good at the game at all. And full survival means nothing.

Yup. Casual mode is for wimps. :3

Classic. I just beat the game on hard+classic a few minutes ago, and it makes the game so much more rewarding.@BenAV My thoughts exactly. The game was designed with permadeath as a main feature. It's how the game is ment to be.

I'm somewhat in the same situation as you. Since I live in Europe I'm also getting the game in April.

I love permadeath with solid saves (like FE: Radiant Dawn).

That's why I'm also unsure which option to chose. I think I'll go for casual, but whenever somebody dies, I'll simply restart the game. I guess that's the best option to simulate the Radiant Dawn experience.

If it's your first time (which I know isn't yours) then you should choose casual, then if you want a harder challenge, then choose classic the second time. I chose casual first, because I want to see the difference when I play it again on classic later, but at least i'll be more ready for that, that's a good thing, but there's just two characters that I don't wan't to get killed though........I mean, four characters..........five...........maybe six................seven at most........

To actually answer your question--you will see all the same stuff, can unlock all the same characters, etc., so no, there are no consequences.

Well, except for people on the internet to say you suck at a video game for choosing one of the in-game features.

It is a very different game on Casual, however, because you will not put nearly as much thought into battle decisions, so the difficulty level of Casual (even on Lunatic) is nowhere near that of Classic. I played a few levels on Casual to see if I would like it, and I found I did not because it does take away nearly all the tension and pressure of the battles.

If you want a greater challenge, go Classic. However, I can see how Classic could become very frustrating for some players and turn them off to the game. It's good that developers decided to include Casual mode so more people could try out the game. Awakening is the best game to come out on the 3DS (in my opinion) so I'm glad it's been made more accessible. Either way you play, you'll enjoy it.

LOL!
To the point!
Haha.

I've not seen it from this perspective obviously! Thank you!

Thank you!
Thank you all!
Made up my mind.
Im replaying plenty of missions on the GBA game and saw it as a chore, but if I'd lose that sense of accomplishment or that sense of threat to my beloved characters if all my turns didn't have a solid consequence (i.e. poor move kills my fav. char) it wouldn't be the same. Too many games get casualized for the masses without any option to play them "hardcore". I should be thankfull that FE still offers this challenge and embrace it. Which I will do.

Thank you folks, I made up my mind.

Once I finally decide to sit down with Awakening, I'll be doing Casual mode as this is my first Fire Emblem game. Perma death really isn't my preference for any kind of game, even more so in a game that's less about my skill and more so about the build of my characters. I also think it'll be fun to be more open with my strategies for battles, see what all can work and what can't, as I won't be worrying about losing a character.

My first FE game was the one on the GBA, the first one and I can tell you it's really more about your turn-choices and tactical thinking than actual character build. Sure if you run around with only iron weapons when everyone else has silver already or your characters lack several levels behind, sure you could be in trouble. But otherwise I've yet to find a game thats so accessible compared to its depth of strategy. For some people it looks like simple rock/paper/scissor game at first but after a few hours in you realize with all the factors like environment, character classes, relationships, weapon triangle, spell triangle, etc... it's more like chess on crack. And I love it.

I can understand your need to go casual at first, but I have to agree to the other posters above me, if I would have played my first FE (the GBA one) which only HAS permadeath and no other option, in casual mode (if it had it) I wouldn't have been as emotionally touched as I was/am. It's really stiring up big emotions. I just lost Marcus that day. Darn...

Classic, for sure. EO4 shouldn't be played on casual difficulty either. It takes away from the experience.

I'll admit to being a wimp and playing on Casual, lol. It's my first FE game and strategy RPGs are usually not my cup of tea (I sorely lack the patience for them, but FE:A is awesome so far) so still getting used to the flow of battle. I like being able to experiment with different battle formations without risking the loss of a character trained up to a higher level. So I'd say Classic for people who like the challenge and suspense, Casual if more interested in the characters/experiencing the story and relatively new to FE.

Casual for me. I don't have the time to devote to the never-slack-off-for-a-second mentality and restart-because-that-unit-died-because-you-didn't-think resets needed to be successful at later levels. Call me a gaming wimp, but I just can't work on a Classic play through (even on Normal) right now.

It's not FE for me if I'm not playing classic. It's a FE staple and gives the game greater strategic value.

Unless you're playing on Lunatic, then casual is forgiven.

Casual. Permadeath just makes things more frustrating, not fun.

I say permadeath is how Fire Emblem is supposed to be played. It promotes different and more difficult strategies making the game a lot more satisfying for me. If you feel like permadeath is too difficult you don't have to feel bad about playing casual, you won't get any respect from anyone else though.

Since it was my first time playing the series I decided to go Casual.
On my second go at it I'm gonna go Classic.

I would really suggest Classic... Unless you want a more laid-back experience like I did with Casual.