FEH: thoughts at the 4th anniversary mark

Friendship ended with Olivia. Now Dimitri is Ayra's best friend!

A typical game in its fifth year -- rigid system with stable and visible powercreeping. Since I am not really into the meta (got stuck at AR tier 36-37. I really need to get more whale units...) I am not at a good position to talk about these, instead I would like to write something about the new events.

Also, it's good to see Yuri scoring 6th in CYL, I hope that he will be in a banner soon!

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Changes in Mjolnir Strike

Hmmm...the change is weird.

For now I have Cherche(Effie) and Ayra(L!Micaiah) on one side. The galeforce tactic is greatly hindered and sometimes she'd rather go to the other side and kill some blues instead. Ayra still works well as a tank on both phases, but sometimes it's tough for her to deal with half the units, basically without healing.

On the other side I have the summoner, Itsuki(B!Dimitri) and Genny(Flame Emperor), and it's basically Itsuki and Dimitri doing all the tanking and the summoner sweeps the rest. Genny sometimes need to heal on the other side, and that is essentially the same problem as for Cherche.

Larger maps means more separated unit, but the enemy is also further away from the portal. In previous maps you need to hold the line till turn 6, but now enemies at the top aren't threats anymore after turn 5. Defending the portal is definitely easier in such sense.

Difficulty-wise I simply don't see much point in the change other than finding a random place to fit the summoner in. Or to boost the sale of mystic units? AR has been the main attraction and they just don't need Mjonir Strike for that...

Pawns of Loki

Definitely a very interesting game mode. Unfortunately the same problem as for arena kicks in, that you need extreme luck to get a top score. Given that every complete playthrough lasts 12 turns it takes much longer to grind a top score out of it.

At intermediate with a proper setup, the later turns never cause any problem. Instead score optimization relies on having optimal choices during the first four turns. It's almost necessary to obtain 26+ combo score before turn 6, or you will lose a significant bit of score.

It's even harder at advanced where you get disgusting opponent with high combo score. Getting perfect score out there is simply brutal and extremely luck dependent. 

The game mode is fun, but the grinding is so painful. The only good news is that you only need a decent score at intermediate level to stay at tier 9.5, while a top score at intermediate suffices for tier 10. I really hope that they will listen to the players and change the matchup mechanics.

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14/2/2021 update: the latest survey on reddit is out! The general feedback is of recent high due to accumulative improvements during the past year, altogether with the really welcomed 4th anniversary update including upgrade of the old legendary heroes, sparking on more banners and the 4* special rate which is essentially demoting all gen 1-2 units to 4* but better! We have to say that IS is doing great listening to the players over the past year, and I hope they will continue to do so in the coming days.