I want to try unlocking the golden ending on my first run for the extra challenge, but I heard it splits your army up so you'll be short on units unless you've already played the campaign 3 times to recruit all the exclusive characters. Has anyone here tried it before? How did it go for you?

>>3802130 (OP)
the whole conceit of a GOLDEN ending makes me mad and not want to play it at all. Way to fuck up your core concept.

>>3802143
>Way to fuck up your core concept
I don't see the contradiction. Now if the execution is dependent on some meta element that's a separate issue, but it's only proper for a story about enduring compromise after compromise to culminate with a rewarding, cathartic triumph. Besides being morally correct to aspire to, the story would be artistically dull without that sort of turning point.

>>3802143
first time hearing about a japanese game with multiple endings huh

>>3802152
>first time hearing about a japanese game with multiple endings huh
this is nothing new

>>3802162
chrono trigger isn't really an example of the whole "true end" thing because it's really just "how good/complete of an end do you get" rather than "you know, if you trigger the right scenes, you can save the character that dies and change the ending to a happy one."

>>3802130 (OP)
The golden ending is gay as fuck and has you being a subservient cuck, the Benedict ending will always be the best.

>>3802130 (OP)
You are robbing yourself so hard if you do this, the Serenoa end hits different after you’ve seen the 3 companion ends. It’s closer to a VN with how it’s treated, narratively speaking. You want to see the bad before you can get to the good.
>>3802143
You (and many others) are misunderstanding the core concept because TriStrat resembles route-based games where you’re supposed to debatefag at the end like FE3H. The game very clearly wants to tell a story and the 3 companion ends are narrative devices that help achieve that, Serenoa end is basically the reckoning between the oft-mentioned Conviction and a game world that forces you to compromise at every turn. Conviction comes out on top and you carefully realize your vision for a better world.

I've had this game for years now and still only tried to play it once. Stopped after 20 min because I wasn't in the mood for a lot of storytelling. I'll go back to it at some point. I don't like how you can't really grind in it - unless I understood that wrong. I like being able to OP myself in strategy games in case I suck.

I think I started on hard mode and found the first battle challenging which I guess is nice if I'm in the mood for that sorta thing.

>>3802248
The way the plot is kinda hamfisted and shoved in your face doesn't help either. Too much "tell don't show" with boring cutscene direction and sprite animations. Still a miles better than Octopath, although that's not a high bar indeed.
The implication in the endings are a decent saving grace, but ultimately it still drags too much

>>3802225
I heard that too. I planned on keeping a save at the branch, provided I can unlock it on a blind run, and reloading it after each ending. One of the things that rubs me the wrong way is how NG+ seems to imply the Serenoa ending isn't achievable in actual conditions. You would basically have to "cheat".

>>3802248
You can, actually. Mock battles can be replayed infinitely, and even when you lose a battle, the XP you gained carries over to the next attempt. I prefer strategy games to have strict resource management with campaign-long routing and commitment, so the way the game seems balanced around doing the mock battles is actually my least favorite part.

>>3802251
The story is mostly politics, so I'm not sure how it would be shown besides policy discussions or their effects on their subjects. It's not too didactic, either. When you visit the capitals, the game trusts you to recognize the contradictions in their ideologies as well as characters' hidden motivations. So far, the only things it has explained without a proper depiction are the large movements of armies and what resources and morale the raid on Castle Wolffort supposedly drained.

>>3802361
>One of the things that rubs me the wrong way is how NG+ seems to imply the Serenoa ending isn't achievable in actual conditions. You would basically have to "cheat".
its achievable blind, it just requires winning a difficult fight early and making a somewhat out of character choice in the midgame

>>3802248
the experience curve in this game is in steps: you get huge gains when underlevelled to catch up, and then its almost impossible to overlevel without insane time wasting
Mock Battles are to catch up weaker units, every story battle is designed for you to be at a disadvantage early

>>3802130 (OP)
Am I the only one strongly disliking the fact theat there are no mercaneries?

>>3802438
>am I the only one
Gay snowflake phrase.
Each individual unit being completely different from one another and bringing some pretty unique shit to the table is really cool.

>>3802130 (OP)
It's not even an issue because you only need Benedict and Hughette for Benedict's fight, so you can field full teams for the other two. You just snipe everyone from the rooftops with Hughette and you take no damage.
None of the fights are as hard as Chapter 15 Part Two anyways. That fight is a fucking cunt of a fight because the green NPC who can't die runs straight for the fucking boss every fucking time.
If you got past that fight there won't be another fight as hard as it for the rest of the game and you don't need to worry.

>>3802774
Also, Roland's fight is the hardest of the three split up party fights but you just want to turtle in the high ground to the right of the gate outside of the gate. You can bottleneck the opponents there and keep the high ground and continuously hit from above.
Frederica's fight is very easy - you just turtle by the statue and all the enemies have to go through bottlenecks to get to you.

Don't sleep on Picoletta. Decoy is so fucking good.

>>3802361
It’s soft-implied in the game’s narrative map because it’ll show an extra branch for the breakpoint choice at Ch17 (the branch being the Serenoa route) with the expectation that you’ll go “oooh what’s that?”. The game was datamined pretty early so everyone knew about it on release day though.

>>3802747
>Gay snowflake phrase.
In the burgerlands maybe. I do appreciate the friendly heads up, burgers are hyper fast in (mi's)judging, so that ks for the service announcement.
>everyone unique
Idk, do you feel as leader in the game? Having mindless minions does the trick for me. I rarely, if ever, use named units, no matter if ttrpg or crpg.