Hexmaster44

So I actually wrote an essay on this. I fully expect folks to disagree with me. It's specifically about FE10's story, but I think it fits well into the discussion. Whenever someone asks me what my favorite videogame is, my instinctive response is Radiant Dawn. But it’s not even the best Tellius game, they say. And the class system. And the support system. And Micaiah’s character is insufferable. And the Black Knight is poorly handled. And. And. Sure, yeah. Some things could better. But the gameplay, although it’s what initially interested me, is not why I have completed probably around 20 playthroughs of the game--it was the story. First, I’d like to address the criticism of Micaiah’s character as generic. There are certainly times where she seems exceptionally good-hearted, which hurts her relatability. Despite others’ suspicions, she is the one to approach Rafiel, Naesala, and Volug in the temple. She is the one to first object to the poison at Umono Prison Camp. She is the one that runs willingly into a trap at Shifu Swamp. And all of these situations work out for her--the Dawn Brigade is successful and she returns a hero. Her legend grows. She has a tendency to give up, too. Or at least to want to give up. It strikes me as stressing her femininity, which I think is relatively rare in Fire Emblem games. Gender issues aside, it contributes to the feeling that she’s a weak character. However, not everything continues to go exactly as she would like. As she is playing the down-to-earth heroine, directly assisting in the rebuilding efforts, she receives word that she will be leading the army to war against the Laguz Alliance. Here is the first of the real conflicts of the game. General Jarrod is pretty undoubtedly evil. It’s impossible for me to take his side. And Ludveck, while he may be “right” in some sense of political pragmatism, has methods that are pretty underhanded. Actually, in the end, he gets what he wants: a stronger head of state, willing to sacrifice personal goals for the well-being of the country. It just wasn’t the one he hoped it would be. By 3-6, you have PCs on opposite sides of a war. Suddenly (and I do really mean suddenly. I actually stopped playing for a bit the first time I got to 3-6 because I was upset and confused) the player can’t be sure of which side they’re “supposed” to root for. Yeah, I can see how some people would think it’s contrived. Micaiah, who’s been so much on the side of ideals instead of pragmatism (like storming Daein Keep to stop the bombardment of Nevassa when the Imperial Occupation Army is days away from being dismantled), suddenly goes against what her ideals tell her. She’s actually aware of, and repulsed by, the “laguz-hunting” culture that the soldiers have created, and yet does nothing to directly address it. It seems like the developers just needed her to be on the opposite side of this war, so they put her on the other side, disregarding previous characterization. I suppose that’s true, in a sense. But a good piece of roleplaying advice is not to say outright “My character wouldn’t do that” but rather to find a reason that your character would. So the developers chose to use Micaiah’s sense of country and her (perhaps misguided) trust in Pelleas. She chooses allegiance even before she’s aware of the complications of the blood pact. That’s an extremely strong choice that she’s made; arguments that she’s making the immoral choice are fairly simple: Laguz-hunting is blatantly wrong, and her choice to enter a war based on the say-so of Pelleas, whose motives at this point are really unclear, perhaps needlessly endangers her army and friends. But I can also make the argument that she’s making the right choice--that it’s best for her young country to be united and that she trusts a king who has been, thus far, trustworthy and a good friend. This, for me, makes the conflict believable. The Greil Mercenaries’ reactions in 3-6 and 3-7 are pretty wonderful. They’re so...angry. They recognize the hypocritical and illogical nature of Daein’s entrance. And as the conflict progresses, Daein continues to be a thorn in the Laguz Alliance’s side--and Ike’s anger and frustration grows. Out of this hypocrisy arises the motives for Jill and Zihark to defect. Both of these characters have pretty significant convictions about laguz racism and it’s basically incomprehensible for them to be fighting against the Laguz Alliance, especially with Zihark’s weak ties to country. Unfortunately, the developers (and players) are stuck between choosing story or gameplay--to have them stay with Daein contradicts their characterization; to have them defect greatly reduces their usability and cripples the Daein army even more. Honestly, I think it’s a shame that, if the player doesn’t trigger the right conditions for them to defect, Jill and Zihark don’t confront the contradictions of fighting the laguz--which is where the meat of the story lies. Micaiah, however, continues making strong choices. When she learns of the blood pact, her country’s well-being becomes paramount. Sothe tries to convince her to leave, but Micaiah won’t: “Leaving the army would be the same as abandoning the people of Daein.” She learns of Pelleas’s deception, but also recognizes that it was necessary. And so her pity, which was so apparent in her use of Sacrifice on the injured civilian as the Dawn Brigade escaped Nevassa, is once again on display when she agrees to help Pelleas. Micaiah’s faith is severely tested, though. It’s partly due to the increased chaos in the world that she’s so tired. But there’s also an incredible amount of stress that she’s under. She collapses (or nearly collapses--it’s not clear) after the fight at the Riven Bridge after she’s just disobeyed a recommendation from an Imperial Senate advisor (another strong choice). After she learns of the blood pact, she’s even more determined to delay the advance of the Laguz Alliance, using the oil and rocks that she normally would have abhorred. To her, though, it’s all for naught: Ike’s troops break through the other Daein army and storm Micaiah’s position; Tibarn grabs Sothe and holds him over the cliff. Here does Micaiah break down. She finds she isn’t able to sacrifice Sothe for her country, notably something that Elincia was able to do with Lucia. Her weakness shows; even she struggles to hold her faith, which has wavered in all of her comrades. Then we reach the goddess. Oh, the goddess. It’s so...cinematic. The image of Ike in the boneyard of statues is really incredible. I’ll skip ahead a bit. I don’t think anything particularly important happens during the chapters leading up to the endgame, with the exception of Naesala’s encounter with Skrimir, which is excellent, especially with Leanne and Nealuchi’s presence. Even though Ike and Micaiah have smoothed things over, it’s good to see that there’s still tension (and that Skrimir has grown). Well, maybe the reveal of the Black Knight’s identity. I mean, it makes sense from a realism point of view. As written, Ranulf would have been the one to figure it out--he fought the Black Knight in Path of Radiance and then Zelgius in Radiant Dawn. And it does make sense for him to tell Ike--they are indeed going in different groups towards the capital. But why not earlier, at an appropriately dramatic moment? And I’m sure there could be a way for Ike to be the one to find out. Maybe have them engage in 3-7 after the battle? Something similar to the chapter in PoR where the Black Knight shows up in the chapter where Ike liberates Geoffrey and the two have a brief little chat after the battle. I suppose the Black Knight is a side character in this story, but they should do him better justice than this. In general, the writing up until Endgame is pretty poor, in my opinion. I think a lot of writing, with the exception of the flashbacks, doesn’t add much to the story. There are good moments, of course, but there are more bad ones. Ok, here we go with the goddess. Let’s be clear. In a binary sense, humanity (which I’m using to inclusively mean both beorc and laguz) broke their pact with the goddess. They had a continent-spanning war. Even Goldoa, Hatari, and Serenes are involved. So the goddess was right, again in a binary sense, to wake up, see war, and make everyone stone. Which makes the character of Lehran super interesting. He instigated the Mad King’s War (although Ashnard didn’t need much prodding). Associated with this war and the more recent war, of course, are the deaths of thousands. But on a grander scale, that’s not how we should judge Lehran, as his goals were, of course, on a grander scale. Ending the world is generally frowned upon, and I think I fall on the side of condemning Lehran’s actions, but allow me to make an argument in his favor anyways. He’s tortured. Up until fathering a child with Altina, he enjoyed both his wings and the ability to sing to the goddess, not to mention the respect and admiration of the people. Imagine being a world-class cellist and losing your left hand. Perhaps that doesn’t describe it accurately, as playing the cello isn’t a unique talent. Perhaps something more like the last native speaker of a language having a stroke and being unable to speak clearly. At least for me, it’s hard to fathom. And then put on top of that having to watch your people enslaved and those with the power to free them not lift a finger. And then see your homeland (with your people) burned. After a while, it’s not hard to see where Lehran gets the idea that humanity is unsalvageable. So, to him, the thousands that die as a result of his wars is inconsequential. The point is not that I believe that killing everyone in the world could be justified as easily as “they’re cruel and heartless,” because I have a higher regard for the sanctity of life than that. But the point the story presented in Radiant Dawn allows me to suspend my own beliefs, replacing them with the beliefs of the characters, and still have a consistent worldview. Put less poetically, I can understand why the characters take the actions they do. And then the heroes go on and face the goddess. Ike and Yune’s conversation with the goddess is wonderful. Ashera is oblivious and rigid. Ike and Yune are passionate and convicted. The binary that I mentioned earlier that “humanity started a continent-spanning war” is all that matters to Ashera (and to Dheginsea, for that matter). Strictly speaking, the goddess is awoken by Micaiah’s galdr of release, but that in and of itself does not necessarily mean that the goddess shouldn’t destroy the world. In the goddess’s parting words to Lehran, she says that they can use the galdr of release “to tell us your tale… We will listen, and we will judge fairly and impartially.” And indeed, humanity failed the goddess’s decree for “a world of peace and order, where all prosper as equals.” Besides the mitigating factor of the galdr of release, the heroes argue that humanity is naturally imperfect and therefore that the bargain they made not to war is not realistic for them to uphold. Of course, this is ridiculous, at least in the way I’ve framed it. If the bargain is null, then we’re back to square one with Lehran pleading with the goddess not to destroy the world after Yune’s defeat, in which case the goddess should have dusted everyone on the spot anyways. But much more important, I think, is the fact that it is Lehran was the one that instigated these wars. Without him, these wars might not have happened. Sure, laguz-beorc relations were not exactly perfect, but things were improving with Sanaki’s exposure of Oliver (and the general exposure of laguz slavery) in PoR and Gallia’s help in rebuilding Crimea. Aside from Lehran seeing himself as an agent of the goddess, which undermines the goddess’s good faith in the agreement, the pact becomes a sort of self-fulfilling prophecy. Without the existence of the agreement, Lehran would not have instigated a continent-spanning war as a way of waking the goddess. Of course, Lehran only has to tap into what’s already there, and Ashnard practically falls into his lap as the perfect man for the job he wants done. To put all of the blame of the last two wars at the feet of Lehran is plainly wrong. But the point remains that the existence of the pact, in Lehran’s case, incentivizes continent-spanning war. These are the types of investigations I can make into this story. Yes, of course the story has its flaws, the most severe of which I’ve addressed here. But the central conflicts are strong ones, and I can understand why both sides fight. That’s what makes the story a strong one. And that’s why I keep coming back.

The only thing about getting this conversation is that you need to work quickly. I've hard the Knights catch up to Marth before. And also don't stand right next to the door because the archer will attack you and you'll have a buildup. That's why Marth got killed by the Knights; the archer came to the door, then the soldiers, then the pegasus knights, and he just never moved forward.

I guess i never noticed that items were never lost when characters died. I've always been taking off weapons from weak characters when i send them into arenas because I know in FE10 I lost quite a few valuable weapons that way (i.e. Double Bows), so I've always erred on the side of caution. And isn't the difficulty level the same from regular to casual but you just get extra lives? I don't know why that was in the form of a question, because you obviously haven't played it, but I think from the information we've been given, the difficulty levels are the same in terms of unit levels, quantities, etc.

I'm thinking that the characters just won't be able to be used in that chapter, but you can get them back in the next chapter. If you had to wait 3 chapters or something, the character would become outleveled quickly. Will all experience gained in the chapter that the character "died" in be forfit? Will you lose all the items the character held before his/her "death"? I can't imagine that it would go unpunished to be so careless as to lose one of your characters. Actually, just losing the character for 3 chapters might be enough punishment.

And the scene with Ike and Rolf cowering in the dungeon of the bandits would be a little bit more awkward. Ike cries... and Rolf comforts him.

I thought I was original when I used this name! I generally name the forges after similar weapons; for example, I name a knife "dirk."

How much harder/easier would it be if you said only 3 units, but could use the healer of your choice? 2 units?

Melior, the capital of Crimea, is "better" in Latin.

Espeon, Quilava and Cronconaw. My first game was Crystal, fyi.

Swordmaster!Hardin is pretty good.

Sorry. Was Palla Paola somewhere else?

The palla in Roman culture is basically a multi-purpose shawl that women wore. It was used as a blanket, to cover a woman's hair, as a carpet, as a sail, draped on a horse for show, etc. Neither of the Pallas strike me as a jack-of-all trades type of person, so I'm not sure this is it. The cholsyne palla is a rare butterfly found in the U.S. west. It's a little obscure, and likely unrelated. Another obscure reference: the palla softstem bulrush (schoenoplectus tabernaemontani) is a plant. I don't feel like trying to find any similarities in this. Palla's cat is a cat that lives in rocky areas and deserts between Iran and China. It is apparently a good hunter, a quiet stalker, and are nocturnal. They also have three eyelids. Probably unrelated. Maybe if the renamed someone like Volke Palla. I'm not going to say what the urban dictionary says. Look it up for yourself if you want. It's doubtful that google search is helping me. I found a few obscure blogs of people with the last names of Palla or first name of Pallas.

I have seen the name Palla in two instances. In both cases, Palla is motherly (or older sisterly), but always ready to fight. Does this have anything to do with Pallas Athena, from the Greeks? I realize that Pallas Athena is a maiden, and she isn't really a big sister to Apollo, but she is certainly ready to fight at any moment. Think of the story of Niobe. If Pallas Athena isn't the namesake of these two, I would like to know who is. The other Palla was in The Sight by David Clement-Davies, in case you were wondering. Thoughts?

I have to say that 3-10 and 3-13 are pretty hard. I like to take my time. Elincia doesn't like it when I take my time. It doesn't help that she has 9 move and most of the other characters have 6 or 7.

I'm pretty sure that they are the exact same bridge, with only sandbags moved around and stuff. And those aren't too hard to move over the course of three years.