Shanty Pete's 1st Mate

Crazy idea: break it up by setting, as follows: Volume 1: The Archanea Collection Volume 2: The Three Great Continents Volume 3: The Scattered Realms Pretty simple: one collection with all the Archanea games; a second, with all the other continents that hosted multiple games; and a third, with all the "one-off" settings. This way, you can get the "full story" of a particular setting, without having to buy multiple games. The obvious exception here is Awakening, as it's set in a future version of Archanea and Valentia. However, the connection is kinda tenuous, relative to all the other connections between games. Plus, that collection is stuffed to the gills already. Also, I'm including 3H and Engage here because, by the time "Volume 3" makes it out, I assume we've moved beyond the Switch. Perhaps onto a system that's not backwards-compatible with Switch games; who knows? Without them, Volume 3 would be pretty barebones. I'll do you one better - include the option to play the original, Japanese-language versions, within internationally-released copies. International players can already legally play FE1, Old Mystery, and Genealogy in Japanese, via Switch's (S)NES Online. This would also give players access to "FE7 with 3x weapon effectiveness", or "RD where Eddie and Leo suck even more than usual." Fun stuff!

I've come to make an announcement! Shadow the Hedgehog is... a welcome addition to this film franchise. I assume. I haven't watched any of them. Anyway, can't wait for Halle Berry as Rouge the Bat.

Of course, enemy Sonya doesn't have Rewarp, so she's unlikely to reach Valbar in the first place. Saber and Kamui won't get doubled, either, if you've gotten them into Myrmidon. But yes, Sonya is a threat. A crit from Excalibur is one-shotting almost everyone in your army. Best way to handle her is probably to have Leon snipe at her from too far away for her to reach. Deen's map is easier, since you can trivialize him, and his Mercenaries, by simply plopping Valbar in their way.

Valbar isn't screwed by Witches because of his low Resistance. He's screwed by Witches because of his low Speed, letting them double him. That's not a problem most of Celica's army faces. Eh, maybe his captors have a thing for hot blonde guys? You never know! ...Huh? His supports are all about getting back rubs from Celica. He's very much into the younger ladies. And yes, it's very uncomfortable to watch. I made the same mistake on my first playthrough, haha. "Turn Est into the best Pegasus Knight, with this one easy trick!" Ooh, I can! Genealogy is actually a cleverly-disguised micromanagement simulator. Seriously, there are so many options available to the player, but none of them are "free". You have to choose who to get what resources (EXP, Items, Gold) to, and how. And you have to do it while racing against the (turncount) clock, and dealing with a Pawnbroker who will screw over everyone who isn't a cute blonde thief. Beyond this, the map you play on is the world map, just cut into pieces. Each chapter feeds directly into the next... with a couple exceptions. And with multiple missions on a single map, you can allocate your units wherever you feel is appropriate. The story is quite strong and impressive for the series standard... through the first half. The second half isn't bad, just very... basic instead. Also, astonishingly good music for its era, and one of my favorite FE soundtracks to this date. Broke: Playing CF, because I like Edelgard Woke: Not playing CF, because I hate Edelgard Bespoke: Soloing CF with Ferdinand von Aegir because I really hate Edelgard (This is a joke, pls no Edeldiscourse). I genuinely never hear that about Ingrid. She makes her straightness clear in her paralogue with Dorothea. Although, you definitely could've thrown Hilda up here. "A soul for a soul", as it were.

Since we're talking about shifters, it's time for a shift in my approach. That's right, I'll be breaking them up into the three kinds that exist. Internally ranked from worst to best, of course. Beginning with... Birdfolk Beastformers Manaketes (and the like) Anyway, those are my thoughts on the shifters. Three Houses, Genealogy, FE7... huh, I haven't played a game with any shifters in a while. Perhaps I should get back into that? Who knows! Let me know what you think.

Frosty came back again some day? The prophecy is fulfilled! Welcome (back) to the Forest.

Hm... if I make memes about Coldsteel the Hedgehe, am I trolling Sonic fans, or Trails of Cold Steel fans? Psh... either way, I wouldn't want them to feel too offended. It's really nothing personnel, kid.

I had Saul cast Sleep on Douglas, to slow him down. Even without the highest Magic stat, Douglas's low Res means he's highly susceptible. Once he wakes up, you'll want him moving in the opposite direction of your main army. This can be done by luring him, with a small group of units at least 6 tiles away. One more approach - Douglas will not attack Elphin or Larum. Per that, I believe it's possible to use your refresher to wall him off, especially on the stairs at the southeast corner. Of course, there's a couple Bolting mages in the room nearby. So you'll want them to have a Pure Water and Healing item - or else, their own healer backing them up.

Actually, Paul is a boss (alongside Jasmine) in FE7. Saul is playable in FE6, where the "Buff Bandit Bosses" are Maggie and Rose. ...Also, Scott is a pallette swap of those two, but has no thematic connection to them. Didn't mean to imply that there was a formal relation between "Saul" and "Solomon". Aside from both of them being early Kings of Israel. And speaking of Jewish kings, let's add "Herod" onto the not-yet-used pile. Kinda funny how many biblical names still haven't been used, when the first chapter of the first game gave us a "Cain" and "Abel".

We're also missing a "Solomon", but we do have a "Saul". And while "Paul" hasn't been a playable character, he has been a Bandit Boss. Would be cool to see a lot of these Biblical names, especially if we get a game inspired by the Middle East, or the Mediterranean.

Well, the Ocean Seal is weird, by its very existence. Pirates (Geese) could already promote via the Hero Crest, so why not keep that the case? And why is this new promotion item so valuable? They (sort of) regularized it in Sacred Stones, even if Thieves using it makes little sense, flavor-wise. I'm a little conflicted here, because most games do hide "one-of-a-kind" items, such as the Boots or the Silver Card, in the desert. Those sorts of things are a big deal to miss. Personally, I like the idea of using "tile sparkles", as Awakening introduced, to show where hidden treasure is. That way, as long as the player is observant enough, they won't miss anything, even without a guide. This would particularly make Radiant Dawn, a game with treasure in almost half the maps, way less of a hassle.

Ironically, it was replaying the Nabata map (on Normal Mode) that made me think of this take. FE6 is very generous with the Fog of War, giving your units actually decent vision ranges - somehow, every iteration since has dropped the ball, IMO. While the map does start with Wyverns, there are no Wyvern reinforcements. The only reinforcements are Axe Infantry, who start near the edge of the map, so you should have no problem outrunning them. Sophia is... bad, of course... but the map is actually relatively friendly to her, since her mobility means she's only really in danger from enemy fliers. She can also take one Silence cast for the team, potentially sparing one of your better magical units. My bigger issue, actually, is with Cecilia. She has 2 effective movement, meaning she'll almost never see combat. But at least she can support allies with Physic, right? Nope, because she only has C Staves at base! She leaves a terrible first impression, which is a shame, as her performance for the next few chapters is solid. Now, maybe when I replay this chapter on Hard Mode, I'll experience the suffering everyone speaks of. But as it stands, I honestly don't think it's that bad. Certainly not as troublesome as Chapter 7, "Wyvern Hell", or the Mulagir map. Yeah, I was basically thinking that I actually tend to look forward to the desert map in any given game. Like, RD's IV-3 is probably my favorite Part IV pre-Tower map (although that's not saying much, haha). Maybe it's as simple as a "lizard brain activated when free item" reaction? Who knows!

Which difficulty were you playing on? Because Lunatic on the 3DS games can get pretty punishing. Way beyond the Hard modes of Path of Radiance and Sacred Stones. Anyway, new unpopular opinion: Desert Maps. I like 'em. It's a refreshing change of pace, especially in the games that otherwise go "deploy your Cavs, and you win". Giving your Mages a big boost to relative mobility is very welcome, while the hidden treasures give your Thief something to do (while also beefing up your Convoy with added tools). And sure, they make fliers better - but in my exlerience, moreso by how useful it is to Rescue-Drop their infantry allies around, than by flying out and just soloing the map with a Javelin. Come to think of it, my least favorite desert maps have to be the Valentian ones. Because they don't have any of this "desert map weirdness", nor any Rescue-carry. They're just... a slog.

Ah, the Mage and the Sage. Sure, I've got some Thyme to consider these two. I'd throw in some Parsley and Rosemary, too, but unfortunately they're out of Season. Regardless, they're staple classes at this point. So, which kind of flavor do they add to the game? Ranked from foulest to most flavorful: Anyway, these are my thoughts on the classes! I don't have the strongest feelings on Mages and Sages, and I don't think there's a huge gap between their "worst" and "best" games. Let me know what you think!

I believe that this is only explicitly the case for Anyway, I disagree with the framing of the post. We, the fan community, don't create archetypes, we observe them. We're not the ones creating red-and-green-haired Cavaliers, but we are the ones noticing "hey, isn't it weird that these trends tend to show up across games?" I don't recall Nuibaba actually using her "feminine wiles" to persuade... Berkut, I assume? She just offers him a powerful weapon of dark magic, to help him achieve his goals. Maybe she does so seductively, but it's not as though he'd turn down the same offer from a blue-skinned ugly old man.

Jeez, the "frail Ostian Cleric" is really making her way in the world! Bringing her beloved music to Jugdral and Ylisse alike. Oh, I agree that there's still value to healers. I agree with you and @lenticular about it. The "Sacrifice + Heal" combo is such a big "stonks" energy. I also would've accepted "Renewal on Micaiah, do she can Sacrifice luke 2 HP every turn". However, let's compare Game A and Game B. In Game A, the Vulnerary restores 10 HP, while the Heal Staff restores 20 HP. In Game B, the Vulnerary restores 20 HP, while the Heal Staff restores 20 HP. I believe it would be fair to say that the Heal Staff is weaker, relatively speaking, in Game B, than it is in Game A. So, if you have a unit with exclusive Heal Staff access, then all else equal, they would be less valuable in Game B than in Game A. Oh, and I didn't even get into RD's "staves are now equippable" system. Now, in theory, this helps pure healers, by letting them counter-attack and self-heal between turns. In practice, Laura generally isn't doing damage to, nor surviving combat with - well, anyone - so it's largely irrelevant. And for promoted healers, it's sometimes a bit of a negative. If I want Rhys to Mend an ally - but also to lure in an enemy Mage, and counter-attack with Ellight - then I need to do some tradestrats to make it happen. In any other game, Ellight would stay equipped, regardless of the staff he uses.

I picked "Kirby" as an "Animated Movie". I, uh, don't even want to think about how "live-action Kirby" would look. My rationale was simple - Kirby already had an adaptation. That is, the "Kirby: Right Back At Ya" cartoon series. They were willing to do it before, so why not again? Moreover, if they're sticking with Illumination for animated films, then Kurby is perhaps their most suitable property for such an adaptation.

Certainly, it depends on how you play. I've gotten a lot of use out of Hammerne, but truth be told, I've never really played Shadow Dragon with a heavy warp-skip strategy. If you play the next six-to-eight maps (counting chapter 20) conventionally, then it will be very handy. Of course, the less useful Hammerne is to you, the more useful Warp, and vice versa. Lena stays winning. Well, I think the presence of a class needs to be counted in how good a class is in a given game. If Natasha were a Troubadour, and L'Arachel a Cleric, then I would probably boost FE8's "Troubadour" ranking (since one exists at a reasonable time), and lower my "Infantry Healer" ranking (you only have one, until Cl'erachel or Artur promotion). How much value are members of this class giving me, on any given playthrough? That changes with how available the class is. Of course, I considered PoR my "second-to-last-place" game for Healers, so there's not much room for him to drop. Even then, I could see a case for RD jumping it, purely because it's a harder game, thus making healers (arguably) more necessary. Izana joins with the Monk skills, because that's his canon "base class". That's why I counted him here. Of course, by a similar measure, Jacob and Felicia would be Troubadours... hm... Sigh, it's all very confused, isn't it? Before Awakening, every staves-only class promoted to a magic-using class. Then the War Clerics showed up, and I was prepared to accept them, since they promoted directly from Cleric. Sure, they also came from Troubadpur, but that was a weird artefact of the split promotions system. Come Fates, and the obvious analogue is the Hoshidan Priestess, now using Bows (or Great Master, with Lances). But on the Nohrian side, we have... the Maids (and Butlers). Infantry healers with weapon access. They promote only from Troubadour, which is the last game's weirdness times two. Do I say "they promote from Troubadours, and the other side has the Bishop analogue, so they count in Troubadour rankings"? Or, do I say "they join as infantry with staves, and aren't offense-focused, so they count in Healer rankings"? Or, do I throw my hands up and declare "Maids and Butlers are weird, they don't belong anywhere"? That's basically what I've been going for.

In addition to what Jotari said, Alec's name in katakana is アレク (A-re-ku). There's no r/l distinction in Japanese, so this could be either "Arec" or "Alec". But as the latter isn't a name, so far as I'm aware, they translate it to "Alec". Of course, there are ambiguous cases. Lex, in the same game, is レックス (Re-kku-su). While this can obviously be read as "Lex", it can just as easily be read as "Rex". Since both are recognized names, we have to really on the official localization to work it out. Speaking of which, these names, in comvination, give us a clear path to "Alex". If that's the name they wanted to get across, they'd almost certainly write it as アレクス (A-re-ku-su). Since that's not how they wrote the green cavalier's name, we can be confident knowing that they were going for "Alec", not "Alex".

Time to rank some Healers - the Priests, the Bishops, the Clerics, and the Curates. They're the sort of class I always tend to use - not only do they perform a unique function, but they're also not competing for experience with other combat units. This calculus may change a bit as you turn Mages to Sages, or if you have mounted healers at your disposal. But overall, it's almost always a good choice to bring along a staffbot or two. So, how would I rank them - from worst to best? See below: Those are my thoughts, I am eager to read everyone else's!

Okay, thank you. I thought Jotari was saying that there was some official material where a person is saying the name "Narga". That doesn't seem to be the case. So, for comparison, I looked to Japanese names for Pokemon. Koffing, for instance, is ドガース. The most common way to transliterate this would be "Dogaasu". But, Koffing also has a romaji name, which is "Dogars". As another example, Magmar is ブーバー. The direct transliteration in "Buubaa", but the romaji name is instead "Boober". Yes, really. If you ever feel embarassed about your name, just know that it could be worse. Your parents could've named you "Boober". Point is, turning "mora that ends in a, followed by a vowel extender" into "-ar" isn't exactly untread ground, as far as Japanese-language transliteration goes. It's not a one-to-one, as sounds exist in either language that don't happen in the other. əəəəə... I prefer Dunkel. Or Radler in the summer months. TBH I don't really want to revisit FE1, but if I do, I would definitely make mega-Bantu. Hold up - Amazon Warrior Naga time?

Wait, can't you use a promotion item on Bantu in FE1 to buff his defense, without actually consuming the item? I assume that anyone who wants to use Bantu long-term would be exploiting this mechanic. Well, one question to ask is - if the name they originally had in mind was "Narga", then how would they write that in katakana? Something like ナルガ (na-ru-ga) could hypothetically work, but that would be flawed, on account of creating a middle "ru" syllable, where it's not supposed to exist. As for ナーガ (naa-ga), while it's missing a "hard r" sound, that's not something that was necessarily even intended. The sound of a long "ahhhh" is probably closer to how English-speakers would say "ar", than going with "a-ru". Also, maybe I missed the original context for this discussion, but who is speaking the name "Narga"? Are we talking the old OVA? The Sattelaview game? Some other source?

So, the name in Japanese is ナーガ. "Na" + (vowel extender) + "ga". I would transliterate this as "Naaga" or "Nahga". Essentially the same sound as "Naga", but with the first syllable emphasized. That said, I can understand where "Narga" comes from. They probably weren't going for a "hard r" sound, but for the kind of vowel change that "-ar" has, relative to "-a". Like the difference between "part" and "pat". Yeah, that's a good point too. If they wanted it to be "Nay-ga", they probably would've gone with ネーガ. Of course, that would be most directly transliterated as "Neega", which people might think sounds like "Knee-ga". Alas, getting vowel sounds across between language is no easy one-to-one feat. "Resting bitch face" Minerva is indeed best Minerva.

Prediction - they're going to adapt Twilight Princess, by slapping a CGI Midna on top of a nature documentary about wolves. That would be really neat to see! But I'm highly doubtful of getting an inaugural Legend of Zelda film that doesn't feature... y'know... Zelda. Obviously, the second through the second-to-last dungeon will be portrayed solely in a three-minute montage, with an upbeat "Zero to Hero"-like track blaring over all of Link's discoveries and bosskills. I'd be all for a return to 80's-style practical effects, please and thank you. Give me Gorons in the way of TNG Klingons, dammit!

It was Tuesday when I posted this (and still is, here in Eagleland). Election Day is always "the day after the first Monday in November", and it's not a holiday. Would be cool to see it changed as such, but my state has early voting (including on weekends) as an option, so I don't see it as essential.