KMT4ever

Blue for In the Moment. 4* Clair: No. Red for Past Meets Future. 4* Caeda: No. Blue for the Draconic Aura banner. 3* Thea: No. Grey for Weekly Revival 4. 3* Wil: No. Red for Weekly Revival 50. 4* Sophia: No. Now to pull circles from Gullveig and Kvasir's banner until I get something or give up. 214 orbs on hand. Two full circles got me a +Atk/-HP copy of L!Yuri, which I think is more than adequate. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Ayra: Fine. +Res/-Def is mediocre, so merge fodder for my +4 +Spd copy.

Grey for Weekly Revival 3. 4* Jakob: No. Green for Weekly Revival 49. 4* F!Shez: No. Blue for the Luna banner. 3* Catria: No. Blue for Catria and Est's BHB banner. 5* Valentian!Est: Yeah! +Def/-HP is fine for her. Grey for the Hall of Forms banner. 4* Soleil: Only reds and blues... Grey for the Double Special banner. 3* Linhardt: No. 3* Sakura: No. 4* Luthier: No. 4* Sothe: No. 3* Colm: No. 5* Rinkah: At least I got a 4* Special from this. +Atk/-Def is a good base, but I'll stick with my +2 +Spd copy. That went nicely. I'm sitting on 278 orbs, so I'm going to try to snipe for Ascendant!Fir on Plumeria's Remix banner. Hopefully this doesn't turn into a disaster. Down to 153 orbs, I find myself with a new Ascendant!Fir and a merge for L!Lyn. For 33 total pulls from the Remix banner that's not too bad, especially considering the two freebies I just picked up. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Gatrie: A new unit! That hasn't happened for a while. +Def/-HP (the same as Est, funnily enough) is good for him, so a nice capstone to a good pull session.

Blue for Weekly Revival 2. 3* Mathilda: No. Red for Weekly Revival 48. 3* Eliwood: No. Grey for Ninja Training. 3* Linhardt: No. Blue for Wyvern Ninja. 3* Jagen: No. Since I'm sitting on 263 orbs, one full circle from each Remix banner. First Plumeria... 4* Seteth: No. 3* Mae: No. 4* Chad: No. 3* Dwyer: No. 4* Sothe: No. And now Dimitri. 248 orbs left. 3* A!Tiki: No. 4* Fir: No. 4* Bantu: No. 3* Mordecai: No. 4* Oscar: No. That was bad. Now to see if I can get Attuned!Nino from the tickets on her banner. 4* Wil: Huh. Well, I'm pleased you showed up early. +Spd/-Def is a nice combo as well. 5* Dedue: Not bad. +Res/-Atk is only okay, but it's a way better base than my current +Spd/-Res copy. 3* Cherche: No. 4* Python: No. 4* Gunter: No. Well, at least I got some nice things out of this session. Wil is good to have, and Dedue can finally have a good asset. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Mikoto: Could be better. +HP/-Atk isn't great, so I think I'll keep my current +1 +Spd copy.

Green for Weekly Revival 1. 4* Valbar: No. Red for Weekly Revival 47. 4* Bantu: No. Green for the New Power banner. 4* Scathach: No. Red for the Hall of Forms Revival banner. 4* Seliph: No. Red for Seidr's revival banner. 4* Arthur: No. 4* Shigure: No. 4* Merric: No. 4* Ares: No. 4* Caeda: No. That was unfortunate. Now for the Weekly Arena ticket. 5* Perceval: Meh. +Atk/-HP is good, but my current +3 copy is +Atk already. Merge it is then.

Something amusing I noticed in the intro to the Paralogue is Sanaki getting annoyed at Micaiah constantly going on and on about Sothe. I don't know if this was intentional, but it reminds me of Micaiah herself getting annoyed at Sothe's praising of Ike and the ever-famous line, "leader of the Greil Mercenaries, and father of Sothe's children...". Of course that exact retort wouldn't work so well in Micaiah's case, but it's cute to see Sanaki being possessive over her one surviving family member and Micaiah playing the role of big sister to the hilt.

Normally I'd wait for this week's Revivals, but since I quite want Sanaki and Micaiah I'm going to get a head start on their banner. First things first, red for the TT banner. 4* Tanith: No, but appropriate. And now to see if I can find the ninja duo. 177 orbs on hand, starting with a full circle (excluding greys of course). Alright, that actually went faster than I expected. It only cost me 35 orbs to pull Duo!Sanaki, so I'll leave things there for now. Depending on future banners I may try to find them a merge, but given they're +Atk/-Def they don't particularly need one.

Another year, another ninja banner. The art all looks really nice, although Heather's "shuriken" is hilariously oversized. Sanaki and Micaiah are definitely the stars of this banner for me though. Their outfits look sufficiently ninja-like while still keeping in line with their normal clothes, and as usual it tickles my heart to see yet another pair that deserved more screen time than it got. I have a good number of orbs thanks to Veyle's banner being generous, so I think I'm going to pull for them when the time comes.

Grey for the BHB banner. 4* Kaze: No. Green for The Land's Bounty. 4* Soren: No. Grey for Trick or Defeat. 4* Matthew: No. Blue for Weekly Revival 46. 3* Marcia: No. Red for Weekly Revival 80. 5* Luke: A worthless 4* Special. +Atk/-Res is perfect, but he's so bad I'm just going to merge into my current +1 +HP copy. One circle from Veyle's banner for now. 163 orbs isn't enough to really commit unless I know there's nothing interesting coming soon. 3* Donnel: No. 5* Veyle: Yay! +Atk/-Spd is quite good for her, so I'm definitely happy. 3* Cherche: No. 4* Azama: No. 5* Alcryst: Very nice, no matter what he says about himself. +Atk/-Def is excellent as well. That went very nicely, so I'm not going to bother coming back. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Hilda: Sure. +Res/-Spd is awful, so merge fodder for my +2 +Spd copy.

Red for Weekly Revival 45. 3* Scathach: No. Green for Weekly Revival 73. 4* Libra: No. Red for the Smoke banner. 4* Olivia: No. Blue for Divine Harvest. 3* Shigure: No. Red for the Ascendant/Rearmed banner. 4* Erk: No. 3* Chrom: No. 4* Laslow: No. 4* Lapis: No. 3* Olivia: No. 4* Kamui: No. That's disappointing. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Myrrh: Okay. +Atk/-Spd is a good base, better than my current +3 +Res copy.

For me the most prominent one is archers, especially if mounted. Even if they're usually considered subpar I've always been a big fan of bows. I also always squeeze in at least one mage, as well as a troubadour, but those aren't unusual choices except perhaps in Birthright where I will use Hayato no matter how mediocre he is. I would add cavaliers and wyverns, but FE7 specifically breaks that habit for me. Kent and Sain have never turned out great for me, and I cannot find it in myself to care about Lowen or Heath.

Blue for the Glimmer banner. 3* Jeorge: Or not. Green for Dragons' Harvest. 4* Rath: No. Grey for Treat Fiends. 3* Silvia: Or not. Green for Weekly Revival 44. 3* Cherche: No. Red for Weekly Revival 79. 5* Flayn: Yay. +Res/-HP is only alright, but it's a better base than my current +Spd/-Def copy. Red for the Hall of Forms banner. 3* Tatiana: Figures. Only 2 out of 6 banners actually gave me the color I wanted...At least I got a free merge for Flayn. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Say'ri: Okay. +HP/-Def isn't great, so merge fodder for my +2 +Atk copy.

Finally going to post in one of these topics. I'm going in order for the games I've played, keeping in mind that it's been a while for a lot of them. Binding Blade: Roy is bad. His growths are meh, he's foot-locked in a game with big maps and lots of good mounted units, there are wyverns everywhere that eat him for breakfast, and he promotes hideously late even if the true ending is unlocked. He doesn't even have convoy access. Easily bottom of the barrel, with the Binding Blade itself being his one saving grace. Blazing Blade: I personally never understood the hate for Lyn. She's not fantastic, especially if you compare her to Raven who comes immediately afterwards, but if you play her mode (which you should IMO) she can get plenty of experience to give her a leg up and she becomes perfectly functional. Her promotion isn't great, but bow access lets her do something at range. Eliwood isn't as bad as his son, but that's in part due to being in an easier game. He can turn out good at everything, but he can also end up terrible at everything, where Lyn can at least be counted on to have good skill and speed. At least his promotion is really good, gaining lances and a horse. Hector is definitely the best thanks to axes and being overall beefy, but his promotion is pretty bad. He mostly doesn't need swords, he gains zero movement, and he's harder to rescue. I'd say Eliwood and Hector are better in Hector mode, since the former wants to promote ASAP and the latter doesn't really need to. Sacred Stones: This game has the complication of the route split massively changing each lord's viability. Eirika suffers less since she gets the first third of the game to herself regardless, but on the other hand she needs as much help as she can get to even try to compare to Ephraim. She's like if Lyn had a lot more competition for EXP during her story, which is a problem considering how many good units show up early in FE8. All in all she's only okay in her route and plain bad in Ephraim's. Meanwhile Ephraim has awesome bases, growths, and weapons, but if you take Eirika's route he's barely even in the game. By the time he comes back there's not much point in raising him, good growths or not. On his route he can get enough EXP to actually grow to his full potential, at which point he becomes incredible. Overall I'd say the two are similarly bad if you didn't pick their route, but Ephraim is much better in his route than Eirika is in hers. At least both of them get good promotions, gaining horses and the Renais Sacred Twins. Radiant Dawn: Micaiah suffers from being a slow, squishy mage in an army that's already squishy in general. She is the Dawn Brigade's sole source of magic aside from Part 1!Ilyana, who's a terrible investment, so she at least has some relatively unique utility. Thani's also very handy, plus stave access later on. Her second promotion does come with the problem that it's difficult to get her much experience in the measly five chapters she's playable in before that point. She's not completely awful, but she struggles to achieve much without dying. Ike on the other hand is extremely strong and has a much easier time getting to level 20, especially given how enemy-dense RD is. Definitely on the higher end of lords. Shadow Dragon: Marth is pretty awful here. He has less room for growth than regular units, he's sword-locked in an extremely lance-heavy game, and he's badly overshadowed by fellow starting units. His growths and caps aren't good enough to make up for any of this, and he has to spend so much time visiting villages that he has even less chance to grow. He doesn't even get a promotion to help him get a leg up. Overall he starts okay, then gets progressively worse until he's just...ugh. New Mystery: Marth's not as bad as in the previous game, but he's still not great. Sword-lock isn't as bad as it was, but it's still not ideal. He still has the village problem, and despite amazing growths his caps are pretty low for someone who's expected to beat the final boss. Okay at best. Awakening: Robin is god-tier, with an amazing class, perfect availability, and immense build flexibility. Literally no downsides. Chrom is also very good, with strong growths and a nice reclassing option in Cavalier/Paladin. Lucina isn't amazing in a non-grinding run, but she's still got a lot going for her between her class, growths, and strong personal weapon. Really great all around. Fates: Corrin's amazing. Not as good as Robin due to only getting one reclass option by default, but they still have great stats and perfect availability. Nohr Noble is definitely better than Hoshido Noble thanks to Draconic Hex, but neither is really outstanding. If there's one advantage they have over Robin, it's having a strong personal weapon. Final comparison: Awakening > Fates > Radiant Dawn > Blazing Blade > Sacred Stones > New Mystery > Shadow Dragon > Binding Blade

Alright, blue for the Double Special banner. 4* Ferdinand: Reposition fodder. Red for Shared Bounty. 4* H!Kurthnaga: Good. +Atk/-Def is decent as well. Blue for Weekly Revival 43. 3* Gordin: Or not. Green for Weekly Revival 72. 4* Frederick: No. Green for Attuned Peony & Triandra's banner. 3* Atlas: No. 4* Reyson: No. 4* Balthus: No. 4* Mustafa: No. 3* Merric: No. Oh well. Now to finally start sniping for Harmonic!Anna on the Harvest banner. Only 47 orbs to start since I haven't been very diligent with quests lately. That actually went well for once. It only took 29 orbs to get a copy of Anna & Anna, which considering my orb supply is all I'll have to settle for. Now time to use the weekly Arena ticket. 5* B!Lysithea: Not bad at all. +Atk/-HP is excellent, but I think I'll keep my current +Spd/-HP copy. Merge time.

I really need to break my pity rate on the Legendary banner. 37 orbs on hand. Well, 32 more orbs got me a third copy of Fallen!Chrom. That's hardly bad, but I'm peeved that I didn't get a single copy of either Elincia or Hinoka.

Blue for the Engage revival. 4* Tatiana: No. 4* Altena: No. 3* Cordelia: No. 3* Robin: No. 4* Miriel: No. Grey for the TT banner. 4* Tanya: No. Blue for the New Power banner. 5* Farina: Nice! +Def/-Spd is pretty bad, so merge fodder for my +3 +Res copy. Red for Weekly Revival 42. 4* Fee: You showed up quickly. +Spd/-HP is good, so welcome to the barracks. Red again for Weekly Revival 78. 3* Laslow: No. And back to trying to find L!Elincia. 92 orbs on hand. 84 more orbs and 18 more pulls got me absolutely nothing, which doesn't surprise me in the slightest. Now to see what the weekly Arena ticket yields. 5* Asbel: Not bad. +Res/-Def is good, but I'll keep my +3 +Spd copy.

New Mystery is definitely the most difficult game for this challenge. The largest playable roster in the game, a bunch of awful units recruited near the end, and a deployment limit that never goes above 12. If I did my counting correctly, the last 10 units recruited, and thus the endgame squad in addition to Marth and Kris, are: Nagi Michalis Ymir Midia Wolf Sedgar Vyland Roshea Frost Samson/Tomas Yeah, good luck surviving the dragon hordes with that roster... Looking at the matter a little more carefully Radiant Dawn wouldn't actually be too different under this system. The Royal Knights wouldn't even notice during their chapters, although they'd actually end up taking over from the Greil Mercenaries once the two groups join up. Likewise the Dawn Brigade in Part 3 has full availability, although they might have issues near the end of Part 1 due to having to drop Laura. The Tower would be heavily dependent on the Laguz Royals sans Nailah, and you'd have to drop Naesala and Tibarn for Nasir and Gareth eventually.

Grey for A Splendid Soiree. 4* Kiragi: No. Grey again for Performing Arts. 4* Mercedes: No. Green for Weekly Revival 41. 3* Echidna: No. Red for Weekly Revival 71. 4* Hinata: No. And now to snipe reds on L!Elincia's banner. 169 orbs on hand, starting with one full circle for fun. That actually went very well for a Legendary banner. 157 orbs and 36 pulls got me two good copies of Fallen!Chrom and a merge for Gotoh. No Elincia though, so unless the upcoming Halloween banner has someone I really like I'm definitely coming back here. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Fallen!Mareeta: Continuing the theme, I see. +Def/-HP, so merge fodder for my +3 +Spd copy.

Let's see what this week has to offer. Grey for the Scion banner. 4* Gaius: No. Red for the Catch banner. 4* Ares: No. Red again for To Stay Dreaming. 4* Miranda: No. Blue for the Hall of Forms banner. 3* Tatiana: No. Blue for the BHB banner. 4* Effie: No. Blue again for Weekly Revival 40. 4* Ilyana: No. Grey for Weekly Revival 77. 3* Shanna: Desperation fodder. Grey for the Omega Special Heroes banner. Fingers crossed for the tickets. 5* Valentine!Chrom: That's a good start! +Atk/-Res is excellent. 4* Priscilla: No. 5* Duo!Nina: Nice. +Atk/-HP is good as well. 4* Nanna: No. 4* Mercedes: No. 4* Sakura: No. That went extremely well. Two new units with good assets and flaws, although I can't help but be annoyed that I didn't get a merge for Harmonic!Lysithea. Now to dump 11 Arena tickets all at once and see what fortune gives me. Taking the top orb each time for randomness: 5* Alm: Meh. +Spd/-Res isn't great, so merge fodder for my +5 +Atk copy. 5* Rinkah: Okay. +Def/-HP is good, but I'll stick with my +1 +Spd copy. 5* Lene: Meh. +Res/-Atk is bad, so merge fodder for my +2 +Spd copy. 5* Fallen!Julia: That's more like it. +Def/-HP is terrible, but she's merge fodder for my +5 copy anyway. 5* Ryoma: Meh. +HP/-Spd is bad, so merge fodder for my +Spd/-Def copy. 5* Keaton: Okay. Full neutral, so merge fodder for my +2 +Atk copy. 5* Asbel: Okay. +Res/-Atk is bad, so merge fodder for my +2 +Spd copy. 5* Shamir: Okay. +Def/-Res is mediocre, so merge fodder for my +1 +Spd copy. 5* Elincia: Nice: +Def/-HP is bad, so merge fodder for my +2 +Atk copy. 5* Annand: +Res/-HP is mediocre, so I think I'll keep my current full neutral copy. 5* Mikoto: Alright. +Spd/-Res is redundant with my current +Spd/-HP copy, so merge fodder it is. 7 reds, three greens, and 1 grey. I'm not seeing a lot of randomness here...Well, I got some nice merges, so I'm happy enough. All in all a very good pull session.

A lot of banners this week. Starting with grey for L&M Remix 1. 4* Nanna: No. Green for L&M Remix 2. 3* Atlas: No. Grey for the New Power banner. 4* Saul: No. Green for Bite of Flame. 3* Soren: No. Blue for Weekly Revival 39. 3* Mae: No. Red for Weekly Revival 70. 4* Hana: No. Blue for Rearmed Plumeria's banner. 3* Benny: No. 3* Benny: Really? 3* Gunter: No. 4* Oboro: No. 3* L'Arachel: No. That was insultingly bad. Now to try to kill my pity rate on the Wind banner with 92 orbs. That went okay. 3 more circles (bringing me up to a total of 217 orbs spent) got me a total haul of Dagr, two 4* copies of Catria, and merges for Sonya, Ingrid, and Keaton. I'm mostly not happy with the specific units I pulled, but at least I got a decent number of them overall. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Ayra: Alright. +HP/-Spd is terrible, so merge fodder for my +3 +Spd copy.

Grey for the TT banner. 4* Lissa: No. Blue for the Hall of Forms Revival banner, 3* Roderick: No. Red for Weekly Revival 38. 4* Lapis: No. Red again for Weekly Revival 76. 3* Camilla: No. As for the Wind banner, I'll snipe blues until I get Catria. 162 orbs to start. That did not work out like it should have. I ended up spending 157 orbs to get one 4* copy of Catria, plus random merges for Sonya and Ingrid. Whenever I don't care about the 4* focus unit their color always shows up way out of proportion, and now it takes me forever just to get one copy. Anyway, now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Adrift!Camilla: Okay. +Res/-Def is good, but I already have a +2 +Res copy. +3 now.

Green for Festival in Hoshido. 3* Fae: No. Green again for the BHB banner. 4* Seteth: No. Blue for Weekly Revival 37. 3* Abel: No. Red for Weekly Revival 69. 4* Ogma: No. One full circle from the Ascendant/Rearmed banner with 131 orbs. 4* Draug: No. 3* Odin: No. 4* Libra: No. 3* Basilio: No. 4* Merlinus: Reposition fodder. That's disappointing. Another circle from L!Alear's banner. 116 orbs left. 3* Orochi: No. 4* Cecilia: No. 4* Boey: No. 4* Atlas: No. 3* Libra: No. Doubly disappointing. Well, let's see what the weekly Arena ticket gives me. 5* Loki: Meh. +Res/-Spd isn't great, so merge fodder for my +3 +Atk copy. Not a good week for me. Depending on what the upcoming Special Hero banner has I might try sniping reds and blues on the Ascendant/Rearmed banner.

Grey for the Hall of Forms banner. 3* Nanna: No. Grey again for the Savior banner. 4* Lucius: No. Red for the VG banner. 4* Selena: Reposition fodder. Green for Weekly Revival 36. 4* Beruka: No. Grey for Weekly Revival 75. 4* Priscilla: No. One full circle from the Double Special banner to try my luck. 76 orbs on hand. 5* Winter!Dorothea: Yay! Unfortunately +Def/-Spd is horrible, but I'll take her anyway. 4* Luthier: No. 4* Lucius: No. 4* Jeorge: No. 4* Y!Rebecca: A very nice new unit. Winter!Annette's already +2, so this is lucky. +Atk/-HP is very good too. That went extremely well. Now for the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Nah: She's okay. +HP/-Def, so merge fodder for my +2 +HP copy.

Red for Perilous Seas. 4* Laslow: No. Grey for Pirate's Pride. 4* Saul: No. Blue for Weekly Revival 35. 4* Barst: Reposition fodder. Blue again for Weekly Revival 68. 4* Shigure: No. And lastly the weekly Arena ticket. 5* Siegbert: Eh. +Spd/-Atk is a good base, but I'll keep my current +1 +Atk copy.

I'm not really excited by anyone on this banner, but I feel like I should pull until the first spark anyway and see what happens before doing the free summon. 150 orbs is just enough for that purpose, so here I go. That went okay. It took me until the last circle to get a focus unit, B!Soren, but I also picked up merges for Neimi and Fallen!Mamui (4* Special). All in all that's slightly below average for 40 pulls, but I don't care enough about this banner to try to get lucky later. Corrin's definitely my least favorite of the options here, so I suppose I'll spark for Robin and get Gullveig as the free summon to maintain my streak of always picking the blue unit for CYL.

Huh. It's probably because my last playthrough of Shadow Dragon was modded to include the Gaiden chapters automatically, but I thought you fought Grust more than you apparently do. It might also be because they tend to be the enemy in the bigger, more dramatic levels like Port Warren or the exteriors of Archanea and Altea Castles. Anyway, my point is more that you mostly get small tastes of Bern proper until the game is almost over, at which point you're barraged with massive hordes of elite troops that truly feel like the army of the strongest nation in Elibe, something worthy of the main antagonist nation. Meanwhile Grust is easily the least narratively interesting of Dolhr's minions, yet they dominate the middle of the game and present way more of a threat than Dolhr, Macedon*, or Gra. *I've always found Macedon's role in the story weird. The game makes such a big deal out of Minerva and the Whitewings, and along with bandits Macedon is the primary enemy in the beginning, but after the recapture of Aurelis in Chapter 6 they completely disappear as enemies until Grust falls and you hit them on their home ground in Chapter 21. I remember reaching that chapter and genuinely forgetting that I had actually fought Macedon before and wondering where they'd been the whole story.