CappnRob

Yeah I was conflating events together there lol. Still, if you want Levin to marry someone else better safe than sorry!

Whoa hold up The +5 from being adjacent is in ADDITION to the base love growth? I always thought it superceeded the base love growth. Huh. Also this isn't REALLY a concern, but pair Levin before you get Forsetti from Silesia castle or else he'll auto-marry Fury lol.

Love points are only given by turn, not individual "wait" commands inputted lol. Sorry! As for Brigid and Tiltyu, they start with a high love point base with several guys, just maybe avoid Tiltyu's conversation with Azel in chapter 4 (tho it is nice writing). You'll still need to keep them adjacent for some turns, but you've got the later half of Ch3 (up until 50 turns are up if you wanna spam them) and all of chapter 4 and 5 to get them to be lovers. Even if they become lovers on the very last turn before Sigurd talks to Aida and triggers the ending, it still counts.

Here's a few favorites I've had or I've seen others have: I once had a Lyn that capped strength unpromoted. A 20 str Lyn fucking melts the arena lol. (FE7) I once had Finn miss twice in a row with his Hero's Lance... with a 98% (FE4) My sister once had a Hector that didn't break double digit defense until he promoted. (FE7) Someone in the SF Discord was doing an FE4 run and their Arden had like 15 speed unpromoted (FE4)

Spearguys are popular because they're basically the Fire Emblem equivalent to these guys: People love a good underdog, especially if they're iconic yet simple.

I actually did forget about the website's music section, as I have been poisoned by modern net design and forgot that well designed fansites exist with archives of good content! :P Even still, no one in the Discord seemed familiar with the soundtrack, and I recently grabbed it off Ebay, so I figured I'd do a public service... lol the GSM's mix of the Fire Emblem theme is similar to FE3's, which is very good imo. Counterattack is a good arrangement too!

So I bought off Ebay an unusual arrangement album for the original Fire Emblem. I decided to rip the music from it and upload it onto Youtube... and its a bit of a wild ride honestly, lol Lots of cheesy synthesizer and electric rock sounds. The first track is obviously the Fire Emblem theme. The second is called Marth's Determination, which is essentially the chapter start music most recognizable when Caeda tells Marth that Talis was attacked by pirates. The third is Declaration of War, which is the Player Phase music... as a slow electric piano piece. Fourth is Counterattack, a funky synthesizer medley of the combat music. Fifth is Fight to the End, a cheesy as all hell electric rock arrangement of the "victory is near" theme. Sixth is Victory March, an awful attempt at arranging the victory/post-chapter theme with synthesized instrumentals. Seventh is Chosen People, another electric rock mix, this one of the final chapter map. Eighth is Servants of Fear, the enemy phase music for the final chapter. Ninth is Mediuth, the Traitor Dragon, and its his battle music. Tenth is Hero-King Marth, which I think is some kind of victory conversation track? Eleventh is Prayers of the People, which is the ending theme. Twelfth is a medley of various original chiptunes from the game itself. I've never seen this soundtrack uploaded anywhere before, so I'm happy to bring this obscure bit of Fire Emblem music to the community!

tfw you get an entire tier to yourself

Marcus isn't THAT great mind, he has pretty awful sped and overkill skill. Still, he can carry you out of pinches until at least the Dread Isle chapters, if not to right after.

Kent and Sain are solid characters Oswin is really great too if you don't leave him behind. Basically a second Hector! Priscilla is probably your best healer but Serra is no slouch if you leveled her good in Lyn's Story Raven is generally fantastic. Matthew is a decent thief but replace him with legault unless he gets really good Level Ups Florina has early game advantage but I prefer Fiora the most. Florina is still good tho esp for Eliwood Normal Mode Canas is a great unit just by virtue of being your only dark magic user Dart -can- be fun if you don't mind a super fast super strong super inaccurate character. If you find the ocean seal he can become a berserker. He has one of the ebst supports in the game too, with Rebecca. Fire x Fire gives obscene crits and attack boosts. Heath is a good flier if all your peg knights come out bad. As for pre-promoted units, all are more or less useable, but the stand outs are.... Marcus, just don't let him suck up early game EXP needlessly (or waste his Silver lance uses) Pent, he's just a solid all around magic user with flexible use Harken and Karel are both great sword infantry units and both are basically RNG proof Jaffar can basically replace Matthew/Legault as promoting either of them is no guarantee they'll come out good (and Jaffar is just solid all around and can still use lockpicks. Can't steal, though).

tbf addressing its shortcomings and critiquing it doesn't mean we hate it or even that we all think its bad. I have a reply building up in the works to counter some points, but either way I think a lot of this conversation largely comes from love for the series and the game, not hate. If we hated it, we wouldn't care so much. Besides, FE4 -is- an old video game in the long run of things, and even when it was unconditionally praised it still had/has writing weirdness and caveats (like plot being dumped in chunks every castle taken is just the Fire Emblem standard back then).

Chapter 3 lacked an Arden joke. otherwise 10/10 true perfection (I kid but they are short sweet and funny, and always like seeing a new one!)

Wow, that's some hella replies. I've my own responses to get to, I'll post them later when I have more time to muse over them all.

Of all the FEW characters you've played as so far, who is your most and least favorite to use? Why? Similarly, of the FEW characters you know of so far, who are you most excited to see added and least? Again, why?

So while browsing the various threads in this subforum I cam across some quotes that struck my attention. Now this is not a call out post mind you, but it did make me think some on FE4 (and to a lesser extent FE5's) narrative. It's one of my favorites in the franchise (if not my most favorite, storywise), but I do fully admit it is flawed. But flawed in what ways? I know the infamy of the Blood Pact plot twist in Radiant Dawn and how many plot holes that opens up, but nothing in FE4 really struck me as THAT glaring personally. So, let's discuss then! What do we like and dislike about the Judral Saga? What would you like to personally fix or change and why? I am curious to know.

God really I love so many how can I even pick some oldies but goldies tho "Doga will CHOKE THIS POINT" (and Doga in general) Sigurd + Fire jokes SIGURD'S PANTS Sirrius is Tuxedo Mask Pregnant Ninian (i created that one and still see it reposted sometimes all these years later, bahaha) any and all Dorcas memes, but I'm fond of this stupid family man one I made YEARS ago "Thany is the cutest little shota EVER" "Ayra could fuck a broomstick and still have amazing kids" FIIIYAAAH EMMMBUREEEEM opera Hectorcopter GENERALS ARE MECHA (I miss those custom sprites :( ) calling the Black Knight the BURGER KING Marty Party BANETOU (and by extension Wrys who is basically his successor in this kind of meme) Making fun of NoA naming Sety "Ced" because seriously why "I fight for my friends" ZIGLUDO YOU THINK YOU CAN STAND UP TO BATTA THE BEAST? Denning posting Knollroll Gerik's beard so pointy it can shatter glass god Im sure theres more but these are all off the top of my head (some are really obscure or just FESS-centric, lol). I don't really have any least favorites atm, I've been out of the loop too long to be exposed to bad memes :P

tfw i like gilliam :'( I used to make Amelia a general for the gimmick of it, but paladin suits her better. FE8 is ez mode though, so just go with what you like or need more! (Which you already picked armor soooo).

Eliwood and Ninian is my OTP When I was much younger I heavily shipped Lyn with Rath, but now I'm conflicted because I like her with Hector and Kent too. It's a hard pick between the three. Hector I really only like with Lyn but yeah I also like Lyn with Kent and Rath so reeeeeee.

In short, FE5 is hard mechanically, filled with tricky new functions and concepts and you have to think on your feet and learn the game to survive. FE6 Hard Mode is difficulty pretty much through virtue of brute force: the stat gains enemies get are ridiculous and early game you'll be hurting for it. Normal Mode FE6 I found to be a solid but not overwhelming challenge, though.

While GRAPHICS aren't the most tell tale sign because, well yeah, GBA hardware, Magvel and Elibe seem to share similar aesthetics as well - not just of course the sprites for the majority of units, but also character designs and armor. And yeah, dragons being a rarity and Myrhh functioning the same as Fae... its grasping at straws, but they're meaningful straws! :P I would have liked some kind of Elibe cameo - a pegasus sister or maybe WALLACE somehow wandering in, but eh.

The "war dragons" as they're called in FE6 aren't trueborn dragons, they're artificial creations made of magic (heavily implied to be the same magic Nergal uses to create morphs). During the Scouring, as more and more natural born dragons died, they resorted to basically perverting their own race to make up for lost numbers, but they are nowhere as strong as the real deal. ANYWAY FE7 DEFENSE SQUAD REPORTING IN WEEEWOOOWEEEWOOO While I'll fully admit Nergal's flakeyness with regards to both his power level as remarked upon in-character and out-of-character can be frustrating, and there really is no explanation for why he tried summoning a dragon without first starting his war in Lycia first in the Elbert arc of the game, there are some things I guess I could try and defend. With regards to Nergal shrugging off Forblaze only later to get done in by it (and everyone else's weapons) - Despite Athos being all "if he really wanted to even I couldn't have saved you", I just feel like Athos is overselling Nergal here, and Nergal is probably bluffing a bit with the whole "hoho that tickled" bit. More to the point, he's basically totally out of his mind by this point too, and while vaguely defined insanity is not a good explanation for inconsistencies, its better than nothing I guess. He does say he's impervious, which blatantly shown to be not true, so.... I say he's bluffing. With regards to Ninian - Nergal didn't shapeshift her, she did it on her own accord. Now why he didn't mind control her or whatever like before, I suppose has to do with Ninian becoming stronger a character over her adventure with the lord trio. Where as before she was meek and honestly rather glum about resisting, now she's really made some friends and isn't alone and is in love with Eliwood (regardless if Eliwood loves her back or not, A support or no), and likely only gave herself to Nergal willingly so he'd spare everyone else, but had no intentions of doing his bidding. She likely shifted into her dragon form as a means of fighting back but Nergal thought it ammusing and instead let her run off, knowing if she ran back to Eliwood in this state no one would recognize her and she'd likely be attacked. So basically Ninian tried to be macho and it backfired hard and Nergal being a sociopathic creep rolled with it for the jollies. With regards to why Nergal accepted Ninian's ultimatum and didn't just blow the lords and Athos away and take Nils with him or why Athos didn't fight back then.... yeah, that's another plothole along the lines of "woops guess I didn't need my war after all I could've just sucked off Elbert the life energy I needed". Maybe that tiny bit of memory locked away in his mind of his love for Aenir and Ninian being his daughter clicked for a brief moment. I'd have to go over the dialogue again to be sure. Either way, hard to justify that part. With regards to the Black Fang, that I felt was justified in-narrative, or at least in supports. Before Nergal infiltrated them with Sonia, the Fang were a very small group of vigilantes. Sonia opened the flood gates and essentially let their numbers bloat overwhelmingly to the point they were effectively a small militia. Yes, I still say small, because where as other FEs imply your characters are just the named heroes leading unseen armies of randoms (most easily seen in the Tellius games with Ike leading a large crowd of soldiers), FE7 seems to imply what you see is literally what you get: Eliwood didn't take a small army with him, just his bodyguard captain, a single knight aspirant, and some hired muscle. Hector intended on going entirely ALONE, but Oswin tagged along by order of Uther and Matthew and Serra followed suit. Lyn definitely would not take all of Caelin's knights with her - they needed to stay with her father and safeguard the place, so she takes only those she trusts the most: Kent, Sain, Wil, and Florina. So while the Black Fang can seem a bit absurd for a "league of assassins", they've long since stopped being that. Legault's supports lament these sudden changes and influx of attendees and how he misses the "good old days". They number in the low hundreds at best. Large, but not unrealistically so for basically a militia. Either way, I still think FE7 has strong writing! The plot might have holes, but what separates FE7 from other FEs before it is this was really the game that gave character writing the polish it needed. Supports were great, characters got loads of depth in them, heck you even get little backstories you piece together through them (see: Renault). The non support writing is also good, even if the plot gets fucky. The Bern melodrama, the bromance between Hector and Eliwood, its all good shit imo. It's a somewhat bad story written better than it deserves to be.

Just an idle thought I had yesterday. If Sacred Stones is for all intents and purposes a spiritual successor to Gaiden, bringing back various Gaiden elements such as repeatable battles, a world map, even some of the music... could we possibly see SS in the same light as Gaiden with regards to story? Consider that both Magvel and Valentia are the only continents we never revisit in a later game, but Valentia is to the west of Akaneia, so perhaps Magvel resides in the same world as Elibe? Now there is less to support this (namely no Elibe character cameos in Sacred Stones), but it would maybe help Magvel feel less isolated from the other games, as every other Fire Emblem has given a continent two games a piece (Five for Akaneia if you count the remakes and Ylisse from Awakening). So yeah, I dunno, idle thought like I said!

I actually would make an arguement that FE7 is more Hector's story than Eliwood's when you look at it. Yes, it starts out focusing on Eliwood looking for his missing father, and yes the Ninian stuff is basically surgically attached to Eliwood as well. H O W E V E R. When playing Hector's story, all of these things happen anyway. Despite that, it isn't just "Eliwood's story from Hector's POV", its really Hector's story with Eliwood as a strong supporting part. The two are a double act, but Hector's story adds a lot more depth to the going ons: the Laus conspiracy with assassins coming after him in his own castle, the dramatic tensions between him and Uther (and Uther's eventual death while Hector is on his adventure, followed by his indignation towards Oswin for hiding this information and then later forgiveness of it). The additional chapters meat out the experience further, as well as extra side quests going into Nergal and Kishuna's backstory. Plus, in Hector's story we see not only things about Hector himself, but his reaction to things that still happen to Eliwood. His aggressive, protective nature shining through more frequently towards people like Jaffar and the like. And who is it that becomes the leader of Lycia? Hector. Ostia is the head of the league, and Hector is heir to its throne. Pherae is a close ally for sure, but HECTOR is the big man with the big destiny. Moreover, Hector has more of an arc over FE7 - Eliwood remains rather static and steadfast in his noblebright good nature, but Hector has to grow the fuck up and mature, stop being a punk who snubs his responsibilities to wrestle with the commoners, and temper his violent, vindictive nature with maturity. FE7 is not the story of a heroic lord who searches for his father and gets wrapped up in a secret conspiracy to summon dragons - its about a heroic lord who helps his best friend search for his father, get wrapped up in a conspiracy, and MATURES from it.

I thought Sol Katti was cool myself esp with its unique animations but the fact NoA -added those in- really shows that Lyn was getting the short stick here. I saw someone mention Eliwood might've meant to have been a lance lord at first and I can see that: there's beta animations for Lyn with Durandel, and Eliwood in FE6 was a paladin with a high lance rating. Either way, Murgleis would've been cool, but the problem is if you don't level/promote Lyn she can't use it. Granted the odds of doing that are slim, but I guess they wanted Lyn to have a weapon she could technically use regardless if she was promoted or not? Even if realistically an unpromoted Lyn should not be fighting at all in the final chapter... ech! However given she shows up as basically a nomad trooper in Heroes with the Murgleis maybe in a remake that will be remedied. Who knows!

Balance it out with low physical defense. Though really FE lords in general seem to have a weird reputation for having higher Mdef than regular defense at times. Seliph has high Mdef through minor Naga blood and ofc the Tyrfing (though his physical defense growth is still higher). Roy has a 5% higher Mdef growth than his physical one (though he starts with 0 at base). Eliwood does too, and Lyn's is 10% higher. Eirika's are equal (a modest 30%) and so are Ike's (an even better 40%! though that's just in FE9. FE10 it plummets to 15%). Ok so that seems more like just half (none of the NES lords have any Mdef to speak of and the remakes give them extremely low ones, Sigurd, Leif, Hector, Ephraim and Chrom all have subpar Mdef compared to their physical def). Still, interesting to note.