Wander

Basically. I know the Israelis are killing a lot more Palestinians than the rockets are doing damage, but it's hardly their fault for having an effective defense system. Without the iron dome, who knows how many civilian casualties there could be? Ideally, a ceasefire could be negotiated, but until such time they have to retaliate in some form. I guess you could argue that Hamas would stop attacking if Israel did, but I was under the impression Hamas was the one that started firing first. One of the things I do wonder is if the citizens of Gaza have anywhere to escape to. Maybe Egypt? Israel may be offering them escape routes but it'd hardly be a wise idea to use them and enter a country that is essentially at war with you.

I'm not going to pretend to have full knowledge of whatever the hell is going on over there. And shit like this is part of the reason I hate religion (no offense, but it really does cause way too many wars). I will say, though, that if the US were getting rocketed by a foreign country I wouldn't want our government to sit around and not retaliate. I don't care how good our defense system would be in this hypothetical, I'd still want us to do something about. It's perfectly possible that Israel is taking more lives than they absolutely need to to defend themselves, though. I really don't think anybody knows, besides the countries directly involved and you know both will put their spin on it. Hopefully a ceasefire can be agreed to, what with Hamas running out of rockets soon enough and Israel looking increasingly bad, even to their allies. I think everyone on both sides can agree that the deaths are tragic and we should keep them and their families in our thoughts, though.

I'd like weapon weight back, as long as it's well balanced. Tomes weighed way too much in Sacred Stones, in my opinion. Fenrir had a weight of EIGHTEEN. It makes dark mages nearly useless, and higher power anima tomes were pretty bad too. Lances were also a bit weighty, when you factor in the low con of pegasus knights. On the other hand, weapon weight only mattered to mages after the early game in Radiant Dawn, so that's not necessarily ideal either. I still would like it back if they could balance it.

I like Lissa's sage outfit a lot. Myrmidon, Swordmaster, (Lucina) Lord, Tactician, Dread Fighter, and Taguel are all pretty cool too in my opinion. I dislike...a lot. Knight, General, Conqueror, Great Knight, and most of all, Mercenary/Hero. Man, Mercenaries/Heroes disappointed me, they're usually one of my favorites.

@ZM: Thanks for your input! I dunno how much huge maps would irritate me, as none of the games I've played have had particularly large maps imo. I've heard FE 12 is much better than FE 11, so hopefully that's the case as I didn't enjoy FE 11 all that much. @Marty: I'm pretty flexible, I think. I don't think the different mechanics of the earlier ones would turn me off too much, although I am worried FE 5 would be too hard for me. @Nobody: I wasn't a fan of 11's story, mostly because of the characters. I also didn't like most of the maps and some of the calculations (dodging is much less common, for example). Finally, it may have just been me, but it really felt like most of the characters had crappy growth rates. I prefer the higher growth rates of Awakening, to be honest. Oh, and this is odd because I usually don't care about them, but man 11's graphics were uninspired. @Levant: Thanks! What about 4 is wonky? I know there's no rescue or trading (except between lovers?) and I'm not entirely sure how castles work. Oh, and weapon weight confuses me-- I read you subtract it directly from speed, but I'm not sure if it takes negative speed into account when calculating doubling with Pursuit. @Alg: Mostly it was the characters of 11 having no personality/dialogue and the chapter design being meh. They also seemed to have poor growth rates, which can hurt the feeling of progression (imo). I don't like 11's reclassing system either, but I could just ignore it in 12, so that's a moot point. Anyways, thank you guys for your input! Keep it coming, though it's looking like 12 is the favorite (which surprises me a bit).

So, yeah, having played all the international Fire Emblems, I've decided it may be time for me to play the ones only released in Japan. Which one should I start with? If at all helpful, here's my favorites to least favorites: FE 9 > FE 10 = FE 7 > FE 13 > FE 8 >>>> FE 11. I'm leaning towards 4 or 6, seeing as I should probably play 4 before 5 and I should probably play 6 since I've played 7, but I'm open to suggestions. No point in playing FE 1 since I've played 11, and 3 has a remake, so that's about all of them. I've heard Gaiden's outdated but if enough people suggest it I'm open to playing it.

...Huh, I never thought about the BEXP thing that way. Next time I play PoR I might focus on turn counts a bit more. I do tend to use Titania more than Marcus, Frederick, and Sothe though. I never use Seth either because he kinda breaks the game

Is it bad that I use Jeigans almost exclusively for meat-shielding? Maybe it's because I don't care about efficiency, because that's pretty much all I use them for. Only exceptions are things like getting to Priscilla's village in time in FE7, as using characters other than Marcus for things like that can have a low success rate.

Not quite a month, so I think I'll revive this~ FE6: Still need to finish it, but the chapter where you rescue Lillina is pretty cool in my opinion. FE7: Cog of Destiny can drag on but it's pretty epic. I also like Final Chapter: Light. FE8: Easily Scorched Sand, one of the better chapters I've played in the series and I don't even like Sacred Stones all that much. Phantom Ship is really frustrating, but at the same time I kind of like it, perhaps for being one of the few challenging chapters in the game (assuming no tower abuse) FE9: Too many good chapters to list. Chapter 8 (Despair and Hope) for the atmosphere and the game finally opening up. Chapter 18 (Crimea Marches) is pretty great for a variety of things to deal with (recruiting Shinon, dealing with Naesela) and it has cool design. It's also when the game starts to feel like a true war. The ship chapter with Gatrie and Astrid, as well as the one with all the priests, get points for being pretty unique. FE10: Also too many good chapters. 2-E (Ellincia's Gambit) is awesome, although Haar sort of breaks it. Half of Part 3 has great chapters, specifically 3-E (In Pain, Awakening) for the atmosphere, 3-13 (Blood Contract) because I like defense maps, and 3-6 (A Reason to Fight) for reintroducing the Dawn Brigade, usually somewhat competent by this point. 3-7 (Rivals Collide) is also satisfying because you get to rip said Dawn Brigade to shreds. The fact that the goal is to "survive" is hilarious. Finally, 4-E-2. Facing down the Black Knight, mano-a-mano. Doesn't get much better than that. FE11: Meh. FE13: Meh for the most part, much as I love the game itself. Chapter 22 (An Ill Presage) is cool though, being basically a boss rush.

1. Path of Radiance. My favorite FE does somewhat vary, but PoR is usually it. This was my first one, so might be slight nostalgia bias. 2. Smash Bros. Brawl/Melee: Melee for nostalgia, Brawl for more characters and stages. 3. Pokemon Emerald: Hoenn best region 4. Fire Emblem 7: Even though this is like, my fourth Fire Emblem, I love it. It gives me a nostalgic feel playing it in spite of not being my first one. 5. Shadow of the Colossus: If you haven't played this game, you need to. 6. Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn: Awesome game, just not as good as PoR or FE7 to me. 7. Super Mario World: Nostalgia, sort of, but still great. 8. Age of Mythology: Pretty much my first real-time strategy game. 9. RuneScape/World of Warcraft: I dunno why, but I still go back to these games sometimes. 10. Medieval II: Total War or Rome Total War. Discovered these games recently, but they're AMAZING. Thank you, Steam! ^The order may be slightly off, so I may edit this later, but my top 10 would be these games. Honorable Mentions to FE: Awakening, Pokemon Gold/Silver, half the Zelda series, XCOM: Enemy Unknown.

I'd reword that as Brawl being a great game considered terrible by some. Brawl is by no means an objectively bad game, it's just not a good competitive fighting game. I don't think that makes it bad.Nitpicking, but felt the need to point that out. @Red Falcon: Awakening's story isn't terrible, I suppose, but a lot of it lacked impact for me. The moments that were supposed to be emotional/tragic fell kind of short for the most part. And I'll have to agree with Czar about the villains, as I found all of Awakening's villains rather underwhelming. Especially in comparison to the villains in Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, and Path of Radiance. Hell, FE7 and FE6 have better villains. The soundtrack is good, but weaker than some others (Radiant Dawn's the best) in my opinion. Good choice on ID (Return), though; I've always liked it more than Id (Purpose). I'd recommend you try some of the other FE games out, though! Finally, @Zeusinator: Like others have pointed out, Awakening is really good at some things and really bad at others. I'll break it down (all opinion, of course): Pros: +The characters. Some argue they're too one-trait focused, but I've enjoyed most of the support conversations I've seen. Most of them have fleshed out backgrounds and interesting personalities, really. Some of them have worked their way onto my favorites list. +The gameplay. It's a lot of fun, there's tons of options, you can do self-imposed challenges, etc. +Support system: I'm sure you've heard about the whole marriage things. It's awesome. +Soundtrack. Very good, as you'd expect from Fire Emblem + Graphics. Much, much better than the DS FEs. +Replay Value: I think I have like 200 hours on Awakening? Yeah, it has replay value. Cons: -The story. I like the player characters, but the villains and plot in general suck. Also, Chrom is something of a step down protagonist-wise. -The maps. Too wide-open, no varied objectives like in Radiant Dawn. They're all basically full charges to rout the enemy. DLC and some extra optional maps alleviate this a bit, but not a whole lot. -Balance. This game does not have it. -Difficulty: somewhat tied to balance, but the step from Hard to Lunatic should not be as big as it is. The first few chapters of the game in Lunatic are basically Frederick Emblem (Frederick is the game's Jeigan character). In summary, it's still a really good game. Can't compare it to FE4/5 as I haven't played them, but I'd put it somewhere around 3 on my personal favorites list, having played all the international Fire Emblem games, I'm not sure if you should buy a 3DS solely for Awakening, but there's a lot of other good games like A Link Between Worlds, Etrian Odyssey IV, Shin Megami Tensei IV, Pokemon X/Y, Animal Crossing...yeah, the 3DS has a pretty good lineup of games.You should get one anyways!

I always marry Lucina, because I liked her cutscenes and character in general. The first time I also wanted Lord!Morgan and thought I could pass down the class. Ah well. XD Oh, the post-chapter 21 cutscene is pretty cool with Avatar married to Lucina. It goes from being kinda meaningless to being impactful if they're lovers or if Fem!Robin is Lucina's mother.

For me: Hector > Ephraim = Lyn > Eliwood > Eirika PoR was my first FE and Hector's sorta a GBA Ike (hell, he even has swords after promotion), so that may be why I love him so much. He's just a badass both in story and in gameplay. I tried doing a FE7 HHM run, no resets, and he was basically carrying my entire army. Ephraim is pretty awesome too, and lance-wielding lords are not exactly common. His shining moment is storming Renvall, gettting trapped, and waltzing back out like it was a morning stroll. I really like Lyn's mode, for some reason-- I know it's really easy, but I think it's the simplistic nature of it that appeals to me. It's just a lot of fun, I dunno. Lyn herself usually turns out well for me, and she's one of the better female characters around imo. Eliwood turns out poorly for me half the time and he's a bit generic in comparison to his competition. He's not a bad character, though, and his supports with Hector are pretty good. Then again, that may just be Hector carrying everything around him, like usual. I'm not a big fan of Eirika, just because she's so irredeemably stupid sometimes. Handing the stone over to Lyon is defensible, but it still irritates me every time. Finally, I've actually liked Roy from what I've seen of him, but that isn't very much because I've only gotten to chapter 10ish in his game. I can't make a verdict on him yet.

I'm learning Brawl Marth now solely so I can be (slightly) more prepared for Lucina when Smash 4 comes out. And then she'll end up vastly different and it will have been for nothing. But I will learn him nonetheless!

Well, yes, that's true. I was more referring to tomes like Blizzard, Rexflame, Flux etc. Just different tomes from the ones shown in general. Otherwise I'm not sure what they can do for his custom specials.

No mention of Lucina being faster/lighter/aerial based then? That's a little disappointing, hopefully she does have more to differentiate herself besides the tipping thing. Robin sounds awesome though! I wonder if he'll have upper-level tomes for custom moves, like Bolting.

Yeah, there's an option for it from the title screen options menu, although I can't remember what it's called (I think zoom)

On the Lucina discussion: I'm perfectly okay with her being a Melee-esque clone. My example is that in Melee, I didn't enjoy playing as Fox very much but Falco was my main. If she's anything like that I'll be happy. I would've preferred she got her own style entirely, but I don't think this is a case of Lucina (clone) or a different Fire Emblem character entirely. I think it was Lucina or nothing. The more characters the merrier, and Lucina was one of the ones I wanted most, so I'm cool with it. Having said that, if the only difference is the tipper mechanic I'll be a bit disappointed, but I'm reserving judgement until we see more + her custom moves. I can see why people don't like clones if they think they take roster spots...but I think the whole idea of there being a set number of roster spots is faulty.

I was able to get the new release working fine on my mac running a windows emulator (Parallels), so that's a bit odd. Then again, I just dragged the script file onto the run application. Worked for both FE 7 and FE 8. I did notice a few oddities, though-- yes i got two shamans in the first chapter. too good I don't think they should have speed wings, should they? I mean, I could certainly USE them, Bartre has base 2 speed, but I'm guessing they aren't supposed to be there. I know you already know about the derpy sacred stones inventories but I figured I'd take a couple screens anyways (stats screenshot is for klok if he plans on doing a fix patch for sacred stones) The rapier is from the event in the prologue, so you can safely ignore that as it's not being put there by the randomizer. Speedwing (again) is odd and I know Gleipnir was reported like a page ago, but eh, here it is anyways. Lemee know if either of you want me to test anything in particular out for either game and I'll see what I can do. Love the work you guys have done, it's great fun :)

My first forum was this place called AOM Heaven; dedicated to Age of Mythology. I can't quite remember why I discovered it; I think I was looking for mods/scenarios to play and I stumbled upon it. I wasn't too terrible a member; actually ended up on the "official" review team for a brief stint. How, I don't really know, because when I go to look at those reviews now they're filled with typos and generally unnecessarily positive. The site's still around, and I imagine it's gotten a brief surge of activity from AOM's release on Steam, which I really need to get sometime. In any case, I find it pretty humorous to look at 11-12 year old me taking his baby steps on the internet.

So I did this bracket thing and did okay I guess? Coulda been worse anyways. I believe in Messi plz

Kept playing when people died in my first ever play through of any Fire Emblem game in Path of Radiance. Got to the chapter with Bertram as the boss with, I shit you not, twelve characters left alive in my entire army. Twelve. Probably didn't help that I skipped most of the tutorials. 10 year old me couldn't figure out what the hell to do (somehow I had no healing items and 20/?? Ike kept dying to Bertram), so I ended up not completing the file. I got Sacred Stones soon after, beat it (because lol sacred stones) and came back to Path of Radiance later with a better understanding of the series and beat it too. Now it's my favorite Fire Emblem, ironically, but that was not my proudest moment. EDIT: I forgot one! Playing Sacred Stones for the first time, I had Orson basically solo 5x with Ephraim chipping in some kills here and there. Man, did I feel dumb afterwards. Also, I played FE7 well after I played those two, and for some reason when I got Lowen I always thought he'd turn out to be a traitor like Orson so I never used him. I was like 13-14 when I did that so I really don't have a "little kid" excuse for that one.

Alright! I'll periodically post things I notice, then. Here's a couple to start with:

Is it possible to recruit Legault when he's not a thief? As soon as he enters the map he leaves on my runs. edit: Oh, and I'm not sure what I did, but it turns out Ninian was randomized in my rom. I'm definitely using fix patch 0.73, so just thought I'd point that out. No negative stats or anything. In any case, this is a lot of fun! I'm inwardly cursing the fact that I'm on chapter 20 and have only managed to get 2 magic users, though-- Dorcas the Cleric and Fiora the mage. Definitely looking forward to randomized enemies if you guys ever get around to that. And FE6/8 support would be cool as well If you want, I'll post stats screenshots, although I'm guessing you're good without the feedback Edit 2: I think you nerfed Pent to hell a bit TOO hard. Makes the desert chapter an RNG fest.

It would probably weird me out in real life, but eh, video games. I tend to marry Lucina anyways because I like her character. Logically, the children characters are different people than the ones born from first gen, with the whole timeline shenanigans, so I wouldn't call it pedophilia. It is rather funny/odd to think about, though.