How exactly does the Support mechanic work in the GBA games?

>>385490658
>Googling it makes it seem that you have to just put two characters adjacent to one another away from battle and pass turns until the option shows up, but this seems more like cheesing the mechanic than an actual intended method.
Nope, that's how it's done, welcome to GBA era supports.

>>385490767

Huh. So the mechanic is more of an Easter Egg than something essential for the gameplay, I suppose.

>>385490990
Supports for the most part aren't that essential to gameplay, and the GBA games are definitely not balanced around your army having maxed supports. Stats and weapons are far more important.

>>385491241
>and the GBA games are definitely not balanced around your army having maxed supports

Yeah, I'm asking specifically about the GBA games, which are the ones I'm playing for the first time now.

I remember supports being pretty central to the gameplay and plot in Path of Radiance, and if I remember correctly they were way easier to get and the game actually tells you about how it works.

>>385490990
It's not really essential in FE7. It's a neat little boost that's slightly more effective in FE6 where stats and general unit reliability is all over the fucking place.

But there's a reason they made it less obtuse as the series went on, with the 3DS titles just straight up giving you pure values per skirmish, since it's such a vaunted part of the series.

The intention was that they would happen seemingly by chance as your army fought together.

Hector and Eliwood's first support I didn't realize was a support at first, because its only like 6 turns together.

I could be wrong, but I also think you can only get a support between 2 characters ranked up once per chapter.

>>385490658
If you're playing the way the developers intended, you're sectioning off your army into groups of three or four units each to do specific tasks during a chapter. If you pair up characters that already have shown relationships or would work well mechanically (like pairing Merlinus with meatshield Marcus, or keeping Nino next to Camus the magetank), over a few chapters they'd develop kinship in the manner soldiers that frequently sortie together do. Games back then, we weren't supposed to know how these things worked. They were there to make your playthrough unique.

>>385492181
I think he understands how it works mechanically, but he means how would one do this during normal gameplay without going out of his way to get supports by wasting turns

>>385492392
>but he means how would one do this during normal gameplay without going out of his way to get supports by wasting turns

you don't

>>385492392

I understand that that's how it's supposed to happen, but the ridiculous amount of turns it takes to advance a support to A class makes me think that those higher ranked support conversations were supposed to be more of a completionist extra than something that would arise normally through gameplay.

>>385492392
I miss when games had a mysterious allure to them with hidden/obscure features, Easter eggs, and cheat codes.

>>385492792
really REALLY close. To get two characters to fall in love they have to be rubbing their dicks together pretty much constantly.

From what I recall, the only A supports I managed to get without deliberately trying were Eliwood/Hector, Eliwood/Ninian, Lyn/Rath, and Lyn/Florina. Some A Ranks are more easily obtainable if you plod through the maps really slowly, keeping your entire army in one big lump and ignoring bonus objectives in favor of keeping your army safe (Come to think of it, ironman runs where survival is prioritized over side objectives may be a good idea to naturally get them.)

I guess ones with pre-established history or wetness are more likely to talk to each other during war.

Some of them are definitely just bonuses for the truly insane and obsessed, especially the later character's supports, like Karla's or Vaida's. I suppose, without looking it up how to get it, NPC's near the beginning vaguely hint that something good would happen if soldiers stick close to eachother. If you guessed that was how Supports are made, you could then have the late-game characters built up supports just to see what would happen.