Topic: Fire Emblem GBA question

I’m playing Fire Emblem for the first time and it’s the first GBA game released outside of Japan (Blazing Blade). I know if you lose a character he/she is gone forever. Admittedly I’m not playing the game legitimately. I update my save state on almost every turn and if a unit is killed I reload the save state and move the character in different places/ change strategy to undo the mistake. Sometimes even restart the mission if necessary. I managed to pull this off until Eliwood mission 25, I’m having a hard time due to mages hitting my characters from miles away and the snow limiting my movements. I lost Marcus but for the first time decided to press on accepting this permanent loss.

So if I lose a character does the game get more difficult? Let’s say if I lost 75% of my party by the final level, will I be outnumbered to the point that I have to literally restart the whole game? Does the game get more difficult after chapter 25? I really just want to play the game for the story and not too good of a strategist. I would welcome any feedback from the Fire Emblem veterans here.

Oh man, that's a tough spot to be in! Losing units was a lot more impactful in the older titles as the standard difficulty was higher. You can get away with losing some units, since not every one is great. I don't remember off the top of my head whether Marcus was a good one but tbh losing anyone is sad.

There are some hard maps, but either way, losing 75% of your party would a bit much. Especially if you run out of healers and mages. Try to keep the really good units alive (ones with high stats, especially magic)

Have you been levelling up your 3 main lords a lot (Lyn, Eliwood and Hector)?. The Lords in pretty much all FE games are really good and worth the investment in Experience points.

@NotAceAttorney
I only lost Marcus so far but that’s only because I am playing the virtual console version on Wii U and I was resetting save states or restart the chapter when I was losing characters. I asked about losing 75% of characters because I was curious if in a situation like that whether it’s near impossible to beat the game. I decided to accept loss of Marcus because chapter 25 was frustrating due to mages hitting my party from a really far distance and I couldn’t move far during my turn due to the snow on the map. I didn’t want to restart the chapter again.

I have been leveling up Lyndis, Eliwood and Hector although for Hector I was running low on compatible weapons for him so I didn’t use him much in chapter 25. I think I have about 6 more chapters left. I made multiple save files so if I mess up too much I will load a backup save. I will probably accept loss of characters towards the end since I just want to finish the story. Do you recall if the game gets harder after chapter 25? That chapter was frustrating for me mainly because of the enemy mages. Even though I lost Marcus for good I did recruit a new member Harken near the end of that level.

@Don The last stage can be quite brutal, but as long as at least 2 of your Lords are levelled up, it should be okay. I wouldn't worry too much about losing a lot of units, if you've got this far, then you should be able to complete the game with minimal losses.

As for overall difficulty, be prepared to have to go through lots and lots of enemy units in the last few levels. My advice, take your time through the maps and play it safe.

@Pungu
Thank you for the info and advice. I will definitely take my time towards the end (Although the game in many instances force me to rush for example the treasure chests get opened by enemies if I take too long to get to them). I’m concerned about weapons breaking since I didn’t have a huge reserve amount and not sure how many of the remaining missions have shops and armory. Also I didn’t bother using the arena at all so far I hope it’s not a problem.

@Don Arena helps with grinding for levels for the most part and some money if I recall. There should be a couple of shops near the end, you can re-stock up there.

And yeah I feel you on enemies taking treasures, but sometimes you have to let it go for the sake of the mission haha

Good luck for the rest of the game! The maps are intense but really fun as well.