Part 3: TearRing Saga vs. Fire Emblem - Mechanics Edition

The subtle difference between TearRing Saga and Fire Emblem - Mechanics Edition

Even with only one chapter played it is hard to not call TearRing Saga a downright clone of Fire Emblem. While it uses a lot of the same principles and mechanics there are at least some subtle differences between the two system. These differences will be explained here to the best of my abilities.

1. Combat and Weapons

- TearRing Saga does not use the weapon triangle. As such you won't be at a disadvantage (or an advantage for those pesky low skill units) when fighting with a specific weapon type unless you trained (read: killed lots of units) with it.

- Weapons scale with the amounts of kills they get and can be repaired with a Repair Hammer/Staff. While this is also true for FE4, TRS has a rather annoying mechanic in place. Once a weapon reaches 100 kills it will turn into a star weapon to show that it is fully upgraded/mastered. This star can be either blue or red and it's determined randomly. A blue star is all fine and dandy but a red one signifies that the weapon is cursed e.g. it gets the devil property of the FE games. It's kind of a sensational dick move to turn an upgraded weapon against you by the sheer force of bad luck.

2. Magic and Magic Defense

- Magic Defense is no longer a separate stat but is determined by dividing your current Mag score by 2. Given that most non mage units have atrocious Magic growths (if at all) this means keep them away from any mage unless you want them to die or they are wearing a magic shield.

- Magic itself is similar to the FE games with the exception of some more varied tomes. For instance there are AoE tomes as well as tomes that can only be used under special conditions (e.g. every even turn or turns divisible by 5, uncounterable etc.).

- Buffs granted by staffs tend to last for an entire chapter rather than a number of turns (which makes them pretty damn strong).

3. Usable Weapons

- In FE games your rank with a weapon type determines which weapons of that type the character is capable of using. TRS on the other hand determines which weapons you can use by W.lvl. W.lvl is a stat that has its own growth and can only go up through promotion or a level up. As such you are reliant on the RNG o smile your way or otherwise your preferred unit may not be able to use the weapon you want him to use, which can result in his otherwise good stats to become wasted on an inferior weapon.

4. Leveling up and Promotions

In TRS your maximum level is going to be lvl 40. However this cap can be lower under one of the following circumstances: 1. your unit has no promotion (max lvl 30) or 2. you promote your unit before lvl 20 (max lvl = (level of promotion)+20).
Promotion itself works rather similar to FE but with a few key differences: Promoted units get the same exp as unpromoted units of the same lvl, which makes promoting units early, in order to access their promotion gains (be it stats or a horse for instance), a good choice especially given the Super-Proof item which can "correct" a units level cap by giving a unit ten more levels to grow up to a maximum of lvl 40.

5. Supports

Supports in this game are predetermined. Instead of raising a support between two people by having them stand beside one another and ending turns over and over again on a siege map, you will support with every possible option at the same time (if they are in range). The bonuses you get from these supports can be raised through special events between the people in question on specific maps or before them. As such it can be a pain in the ass to raise the supports without a guide at hand, as there is no real indication on whether there will be a map talk between a certain pair or not. Furthermore every character has its own supports and all supports are a one-way deal, meaning the supporting person won't necessarily receive any benefits back unless the supported unit has one with them as well. Support bonuses affect Accuracy, Evasion, Crit Rate and Crit Evasion and cannot go beyond 15% even if enough supports are present that would boost it beyond that. The range for supports is a 3 square radius.

That's it for now. If any more questions pop up feel free to ask hem and I will answer them to the best of my abilities and add them into this post.