Fixing Fog of War - Fire Emblem

You hate Fog of War, I hate Fog of War, we all hate Fog of War. Could it be better? I sure hope so cause it isn't going away.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Footage Credit:
AeroClash - / aeroclash
Axelrod - / dracodragon09
Blazeplays - / @blazeplays9678
Mekkah - / mekkkah
Numenume - / @numenume3079
Thoron - / @thoron1008
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Music:
Thracia 776 Rearrange Soundtrack - 07. Sunrise in Thracia

[@spara7401]

For your note on FoW affecting enemies, Kaga actually did that in Berwick Saga, and it has some genuinely wonderful fog maps! Basically, all units still had the 3 tile vision system, but by pressing the Select button, you could check whether or not your units were visible by enemies and therefore targetable by enemies. In one map later in the game, there are thieves hiding in a forest in the night, and near the boss of the map (who is revealed in the fog), there is a siege tome user who can hit any player unit on the map they can see, though they cannot kill. As a result of this, the map becomes an intense, chaotic fight for vision and Area of Denial as you try to keep your units out of sight and thus out of siege tome range, while completing the various objectives and ultimately killing the boss. It's actually my favorite map in that game, and possibly my favorite over all FE, because it's such a well-designed and thought-out concept. So, yeah, give Berwick a shot if you want to see that in action. It's a very weird game, but has some fantastic concepts like that which work very well!

[@lowkeydorkie]

Underrated FE content imo. Keep up the work homie

[@marcoasturias8520]

In a nutshell: IS, bring back advance wars

[@MisF1998]

Advance Wars did a pretty good job with the FoW mechanic and I can't believe it I love FoW in that game. It adds more strategic value and most of all the AI doesn't cheat and also doesn't know know position too. I love how this mechanic pushes you to some tactics like scouting, hiding and ambushing and not charging in blind. I wish AW could have a collab with command and conquer, that would me amazing!

[@brandoncamp4953]

Well there’s some good news about that recently lmao

[@ChillstoneBlakeBlast]

4:12 what is an Exmaple? Great Video, I agree that FoW has mostly been something they slap on just to make a map "harder" and not make the map based on it. One of my other gripes is that Most games never tell you about having to play A fog of War map in the next Chapter. If I knew it would be Fog of War last Chapter, I could make actual preparations and not forget to buy torches. The best FoW map IMO is Three Houses' Chapter 2, as it is the only chapter that allows you to buy torches on the fly, Fog is removed halfway through the chapter and it is a good way to teach the player involuntarily that having your units stuck together like an actual army is Optimal. There are still many problems with the map though... The only Addition I want for the next FoW use in the series is have Enemies be affected by fog and Fog clears up depending on how you moved (fe12 fog).

[@hairyballs089]

I'm glad you brought up advanced wars. Advanced wars/famicom wars imo is actually a lot more fun with the fog of war mechanic since it actually gives you a good reason to invest in units with high vision.

[@costelinha1867]

I agree so much with the final point, more than anything we need is to make sure the AI IS ACTUALLY AFFECTED BY THE FOG OF WAR! otherwise we get more aberrations such as battle before dawn (Which I hate with all my strenght).

[@TheZatharias]

Nice vid man!

[@caralambson]

I think you saying that fog of war feels like it was thrown on at the end is so true. I don't feel like many maps are intuitively built around fog of war.

[@finkerdoodle5867]

Great vid!

[@d.altounian244]

This is a good video, the last one and everything before that was good I hope the next one is also good because you deserve it.

[@agenthappypotato868]

I think mages and archers having vision buffs would be neat. With mages (especially those with light/fire tomes) you could explain it as them using magic to dispel the fog around them. The schtick of archer is that they shoot from a distance, so it'd make sense for them to have good eyesight.

[@xamadfp]

4:56 Radiant Dawn uses torches in a couple more chapters, actually. Part 3 Chapter 1 and Part 4 Chapter 1 both feature torch objects on the map, and enemies can extinguish them.

[@fogblades6811]

This kinda gave me a bit of hope for FoW maps. Though, originally, I stated that I think that FoW should've just been outright removed, because of the fact that its a deliberate hadicap, and one can argue that's not real strategy.

[@itachiaurion3198]

I strongly agree with the video and like the change proposed, I was always complaigning back then when playing Advance Wars that the AI must also play with the fog of war and I never understand why did they not do this in the Fire Emblem series despite being the same dev (i guess?), if not for all this change, at least make the AI play with the FoG not ignore it. Else it doesn't deserve to return to the franchise. Great video.

[@charleouel9012]

Perso I would put the vision on Flyers (tho don't make them busted stats wise) and I would also put the vision on the archer? like I don't know they are kinda the marksman they should carry a glass to see far right?... Same for Pirate if they got some in that game for the same reason as Marksman your a freaking pirate you should carry a scope to see enemy ships or something. tho I wouldn't give it to mounted cavalier I don't think it make much sence lorewise + they struggle in forest already so there low vision would force them more into the field where they should be good. If you want you could have 1 or 2 other class have extended vision because they carry a torch all the time (like some type of sentry guy I don't know think hero - the shield insteed with a torch.) Overall It unpopular but I would like to see them just do 1 full game with fog of war but like implement it really well and have the game be tought about it. (like in day map it effect would be small may be three and wall would stop your vision but overall your vision would bassicly be almost infinite there - terrain blocking it) Still there would be unite that improve the ability to see those area. (Archer, Sentry, Pirates (sea vision only?), Flyers (Wall vision only?)) any way overall It just need to be like build into the game and tought about to not fell frustrating to play because it had alot of interesting moment mainly to night or slow army mission.

[@ryanprjgamingchannel9437]

The most important change that we need is the AI acting like Advance Wars. Maybe Intellegent Systems want to keep the game series hard and require trial and error stuff. Kaga didn't even really want to agree with it if the TRPG Saga games are an indicator

[@blankblank6214]

So you want shadow dragon PvP map objectives in the main game

[@metroid7299]

i like and hate fog of war

[@pickyphysicsstudent201]

The reason its not an engaging mechanic is that there is nothing strategic about it. Its just trial & error of cautiously moving through the map, praying that your 2 defence Healer isn't moved in range of a Wyvern Rider. Now, if it had some kind of interaction via class/item/stats of your units, that would make it engaging. As it stands, Fire Emblem is at its worse when you are just turtling with a few walls on the frontlines, mages in the middle, archers in the back and trying to lure out/bottleneck the enemy AI who think its smart to face an army of 12, just 3 at a time. There's nothing to think about, the most optimal & safest play is one which requires the least effort.

[@blankblank6214]

But fog of war is really good like ambush spawns