BrightBow

Haldyn now gets so salty when meeting his sister, that he actually learns Wrath from it. Impotent rage represented as a skill. That's so perfectly Haldyn. Especially since it's not even a good skill. That poor dolt.

Got Prody to level 15. He still hasn't learned anything that would compensate for the loss of Good Neighbor. At this point I am inclined to give up, but I suppose there is precedent for units getting skills at max level just for the hell of it. Like Jonathan getting skills at level 15 and 30 despite not being able to do anything that earns him exp. So I guess for the sake of science I keep up with it. Chapter 15 is also a good map to pike some cavalry. Hopefully it's enough to get him to 20, so that I can then ditch him.

And everyone with low luck appreciates the crit immunity. Or after a set number of turns. Don't remember how long, but I remember the turn limit being quite generous. Yeah, I can see why they ditched this concept going forward. Well, technically there is an optional map in Tear Ring Saga, but that's the result of Holmes getting to walk around on the world map freely. So I don't think it makes for a very effective point of comparison.

Only arguing in favor relative to Athos. Gotoh is bad, sure. But Athos is a special kind of awful. Gotoh's actions generally at least make sense on a conceptual level. Like, sending Marth across Anri's way to see the forgotten corners of the continent with his own eyes and give him a history lesson along the way is not a bad concept and makes sense for his character. But it runs into all kinds of problems, like being part of the plot of Book 2 instead of Book 1, where the dragons were actually an important part of the plot. But Book 2 has Hardin as a fellow human being the main villain. Not to mention him acknowledging at the end of Book 1 that Marth has proven himself to him, so why sending him through hoops in Book 2? Athos just acts the way he does because he is not written as an actual character, but merely to resemble an existing mold, with no consideration for how his actions and behavior make sense for his personal character and background. Like how he addresses Eliwood and Hector that one time as "children of Roland" and Lyn as "daughter of Hanon and Roland". I mean, do you talk like that? When a friend gets a kid, do you address them as "child of Steve" instead of addressing them by their given name? Like FE7 in general, it's both ridiculous at it's face and somehow gets even dumber the more you think about it. I mean, they are not even "children of Roland" in any way that isn't completely abstract to the point of being meaningless. Their parents just happened to be native to the country he founded. Sure, they might be part of some of the ruling families of the Lycian league. But after 1000 years I wouldn't exactly bet on any of them being a part of Roland's personal family tree, no matter how incestuous the various houses of the league might historically have been. But of course it sounds mysterious, and FE7 treats "mysterious" like being a character trait instead of something that is the result of character traits. So he also gives the heroes "trials" because that's what the ancient ones do to young heroes. In a good story the writers would of course think about such trivial questions as "What are heroes supposed to prove with those trials?" or "Why does the quest giver want anything proven to him in the first place?". Not here, though.

Not to mention Athos also had the option of just teleporting straight to the weakened Nergal and finish him off. Maybe aided by Eliwood in order to keep his morph army busy. Wouldn't have worked with Gharnef because unless you have Starlight, Gharnef is literally and Gotoh cannot create the spell without the Star Orb. Meanwhile Nergal had to lick his wounds after being stabbed by Elbert's knife. Forblazing him in this state would probably be more than enough. Plus, Gotoh is one of the survivors of the genocide that the humans committed against his people, instead of being one of the perpetrators of it. So he's got plenty of reason to not care all that much about humanity's fate.

Genocide is on a whole different level of evil, you know. Besides, Athos pretty much did all of that anyway, being a poor knockoff of an already poor character. For one thing the world very much was at stake, with Nergal needing to be defeated while he was still licking his wounds. Knowing that, Athol let Eliwood and Co. wander aimlessly through the desert instead of simply teleporting to them. He eventually send out Hawkeye, just like Goto send out Xane, to guide them slowly to his location instead of getting off his own ass. Then he did the same thing again, sending them without directions to find a secret location in the hostile Biran. By the time all that pointlessness was done, Nergal was already restored and nearly untouchable even by divine weapons and teleported straight onto their asses. Oops. And the only reason Nergal didn't just kill everyone right then and there is because then the game would be over. As Athos himself admits, Nergal was more than capable of that. Also held on to those Heaven Seals too. Just kinda handing them out whenever he feels like. Not to mention all the other shit he has stuck in his sock drawer, like the Sol Katti.

Pre-FE7 anyway. FE7 got Athos, who is basically Elibe's version of a retired Nazi general. Also Karel, who kills people just for fun. And of course in Awakening, everyone kills people for fun. Almost everyone has a chance to level move. Although yeah, Ronan's is slightly higher than Tanya. 3% vs 2%. But that's nothing too out of the ordinary either way. What's probably more important is that Ronan has a PCC of 1, while Tanya has 2. Though I suppose there is something to be said about having a low crit chance so you are less likely to kill something that you intend to capture. ...speaking of untimely critical hits, the capture mechanic in this game is a lot like Pokemon, come to think of it. It should be noted that while male Bow Fighters have more movement than female Bow Fighters, the same is not true for Snipers. So while Ronan has a movement advantage now, that's gonna disappear after a class change. Also Ronan is supported by Leaf. Sometimes Leaf just supports people who don't have anyone else looking out for them. It might be worth noting that Tanya is not actually supported by Dagdar, only by Othin. I guess they wanted to avoid too much support stacking. Othin and Tanya could have had a Talk on the previous map, btw. In any case, being a bow user is just not great in Thracia. Not just because Tanya and Ronan have really poor bases, but also because capturing is such a huge part of the game. And bows simply cannot do that because they cannot initiate combat at 1 range. Being a green unit would not necessarily have been better. Oh definitely. 3 protagonists and they are all just Marth clones. I mean, we had two different protagonists before with Alm and Celica. And they both play very differently. Not being playable is a very big distinction. As for Book 2 Arran, you know it wouldn't surprise me if it at one point he was actually meant to be the same old Jagen. Then one day they decided to have Jagen take Malledus's role, so he became too important to die as a unit.

Btw, the Light Sword can also be used for a full heal. Another little perk that your average "Rapier" does not have. Right out of the gate we have just so many interesting tools here. 2 magic swords. 2 double attacking weapons. Othin with his ability to always deal critical hits on counter attacks and to also deal reliable critical hits with his personal throwing axe. 2 units in advanced classes. And also some really useful support bonuses, which are quite potent due to PCC and because base weapon accuracy is not terrible high. Crits are also just more interesting in general. Since they double the attack power, they can be used to punch through things regular attacks won't even scratch. Add in the ability to deal 100% reliable crits under the right circumstances, and it adds genuine depth to the mechanic. And considering that even the very first boss will shrug of regular physical attacks, there are most certainly obstacles that incentivize to take advantage of that distinction.

I suppose now that we are 5 games in, it might be worthwhile to reflect on some things we haven't seen 5 times. For one thing, Marth is still the only protagonist who starts with a Rapier or a functionally identical weapon with effective damage against cavalry, armors and a small crit bonus. There has also so far been only one trio of playable Pegasus Knight sisters with the Triangle Attack. Even if their appearance in Gaiden means they aren't strictly limited to just Marth's games. Marth's games are also the only ones were you start out with a level 1 Paladin with a Silver Lance. A lot of things just suddenly became "obligatory" with FE6 because that's how FE3 had done it.

It's probably a different lake lady. For one thing, she is described as "old" here. Though I suppose this is 15 years later. But more importantly she also clearly operates differently, considering Patricia makes no mention of having dropped an iron axe or anything. The one from Vestaria also looks entirely different from her. So there are probably just a lot of lake ladies around trying to get rid of the junk people are dropping into their home.

Well, at least this one is likely correct. Considering the old translation said the same thing. Patricia: “It’s a nice axe, isn’t it? I got it from a strange old lady who came out of the lake in the mountain. But I can’t really use it, so take it.”

Urgh, why did the translators think some random local militia needed a fancy name? Idk, maybe this is a Heroes thing. And of course 30% crit with his base skill is enough for a 100% crit chance on follow up attacks. Yeah, but the weapon triangle is only +/-5 hit here. I can most certainly see how by the time of Tear Ring Saga, the mechanic was reduced to an optional rule in Versus Mode. The only good Tanya in C&C, even if she got Kaga'd at one point. The low weapon rank is really the main problem here. Weapon rank goes up slow, so starting at the bottom with limited opportunities for enemy phase action is far from ideal. Tanya's best perk is that she supports 2 excellent units in Dagdar and Othin. That +10 for Othin translates to +30% crit with PCC right there. Bold of you to assume that there are no other characters with 0 bases in important stats. Anyway, Marty is... bad. But not as bad as he looks. Warrior class bases are amazing and he has good bulk. Which is nice because speed and skill shortcomings are much easier to address. Joke character he is not. It's way easier than it sounds, because of PCC. Doubling attack power does wonders against a little 10 defense boost. Of course magic works too. On the subject of capture, it's probably good to point out that the Trading command has unlimited uses. So you are free to move item and bodies around as much as you like. Leaf is good. The idea of Eyvel giving a cutesy nickname to the heir of Lenster is so out of character. Or the lady of Nordion for that matter. Urgh. Anyway, speaking of... You did see the Leadership stars on the 2nd stat page? The way they work her that for any star you have among your allies, you get +3% hit and avoid for everyone in your army. No 3 tile range or anything. Finn and Eyvel have both 1 Leadership star, so that's a +6% boost for everyone simply by having them deployed. Just keep in mind that not every red unit is necessarily part of the same "army". Or even among blue units, if the characters in question are still just guest units. So you can't always tell who benefits from whose's stars simply by their color.

The numbers don't always make sense in those scenes. Like with Alvis vs Sigurd. We see Sigurd wielding the Tyrfing but only having 10 Res. With the Tyrfing alone giving 20 Res, this is obviously not possible. Meanwhile Alvis has no values listed at all. But maybe patch shenanigans have something to do with that. Also it's kinda funny how Alvis of all people is depicted with a generic Sage palette. So he ends up with washed out green hair and blue spandex.

Well, 70. In that post he said that he was 69. About to become 10 years older than Eugen, as he put it.

Yeah, it's a proper Berwick Saga base menu and everything. And there are several optional missions you can pick before progressing into chapter 16 proper. This is also where the score shop is. I was content with the very likely reality that we will never see Vestaria Saga III, but all those new features do really make me wish for it to become a reality somehow. You know, having a game that is designed with all of those features from the ground up. VSI+ is a very elaborate remake, but it's not redoing the whole game from scratch.