Eltosian Kadath

Really should have gotten this one out earlier, but playing through it was rather draining. Thankfully the game lets you save between this two parter of a map, because that was so draining that I have left it at that save point for like a week now. I will try to reach the checkpoint by the weekend, although I don't know when I will get my writeup for it up.

Seeing as the Pokemon company have made a habit of ignoring the "third" versions in the remakes, I bet they will just ignore BW2. The main exception to this being Crystal with Heart Gold and Soul Silver, but Crystal is also the final version which changed the story the least out of all of them.

OOoh, have fun. Persona 3 is by far my favorite of the Persona games, and it sounds like it is going well for you! I haven't gotten around to getting the remake yet (and will probably wait til a Steam sale to do so), but it is nice to hear good things about it, which will hopefully encourage other to experience its fantastic story. Nice to see you get past that apathy barrier to actually start a game. I know I have been putting off a game or two for no real reason myself as well... plus I should probably get around to updating the TeeHee madness linked ironman LP... I know I have a tendency to mute games as well, usually so I can put some other audio on in the background (like a video essay, or pod cast or something). Plus I would feel bad if the game audio bothered anyone else in the house. When a JRPG's story is failing to catch your attention to the point you are mashing through text, that tends to be a bad sign for the story... Although perhaps I shouldn't over generalize like that. I know there are games where the gameplay is what shines so you mash through the story, or it is a story you know like the back of your hands, so you can mash through the duller parts. I know I love the original back in the day, although it was funnest when I could talk my brother into playing it multiplayer (tragically I never had the adapter to play it three player...). It is the game I think of first for the Action RPG subgenre, and it is a great example of it at that. The SNES really was a golden age for RPGS.

The Eltosian part of the name is an old translation of Eldigan's name, from before there was even a translation patch that reached the ending, let alone successfully translated the ending itself. No worries. I don't think I followed it all perfectly, but the playfulness of the word play made it clear the tone wasn't meant to be cruel.

I find it a bit unlikely, as it is rare for Fire Emblem to have more than two games in the same setting, and we already have Three Houses and Three Hopes. If they were to do it, my guess is they would either go the route of Gaiden and look at another part of the world (like Brigid, Dagda, Almyra, or perhaps somewhere beyond that), or the Awakening way and look at Fodlan in a very different time period, like the ancient War of Heroes, or some war far in the future.

You are a rather memorable member, although I don't think I personally had many notable interactions with you.

In an odd way this exemplifies why I find this topic far less interesting. I was trying to remember who this character was as a character that I might mention in this thread, but it is a character I dislike enough that I literally could not even remember which game they were from, let alone what they were named without someone else mentioning them...

I may have to play this hack, although I have never really gotten into any FE hacks. Ah a classic. I know the youtuber Mekkah is open about him being a fan of Ronan as well. I have always made it a point of using a different bow unit each run for funsies, so I know the shenanigans Ronan and his high movement stars and growth can get up to. I am glad someone gave her a more thorough mention, beyond my little one line note about liking all the Kinships Bond units was not enough. Despite not having used them much, I have a real soft spot for a fair number of Fate's capturable bosses. A fair number of them have some really silly thing of note about them, but two I think I will briefly highlight are Nichol and Gazak. Nichol I just find hilarious for how unabashedly and comically evil he is. The man's death quote is literally: "So hope triumphed in the end? Not cruelty? It seems I backed the wrong horse. Alas, no turning back now...". Why this literal cartoon villain is recruitable in any way is baffling in a hilarious way. As for Gazak, I love how he is just casually name dropped in the middle of a paralogue he isn't in, because the noble Arthur is mistaken for this villain because they have that same distinctive cleft chin, despite them in all other regards looking nothing alike, they don't even have the same skin tones to them. Honestly I could add little thing that make me like quite a few of the capturable bosses, but I will stop it off with these two for now. Another unit I came to appreciate thanks to my insistence on using a new bow unit on every Thracia 776 run. She was the bow unit on my ironman run of Thracia, and she made it all the way to the last chapter, before the last great bloodbath of the run, but her death helped secure my bloody victory. Also, I do kind of like when Fire Emblem includes married characters in it, and her marriage to Glade is an interesting little detail for the both of them. It is utterly baffling that Seforia isn't a playable character. They would barely have to change anything at all, and as it stands, she is just forgotten by the story for no reason. As for Morion, I find him to be a fascinating character due to how the more toxic and positive aspects of masculinity class within him. It is very clear that fatherhood has brought forth this conflict, for example we can see him push past his obvious discomfort with talking about feeling for the sake of helping his children. We hear about him being a monster on the battlefield, a monstrous beacon of masculinity, but we only see the deeper strength of a loving father. It is a tragedy that he can not escape those toxic threads, as he willing kills himself by walking into what he knows is a death trap (he even takes multiple measure to make sure his death wont materially impact his children...), because to do otherwise would be "cowardly". I am surprised I am not seeing more Est like characters showing up in this thread, but it is nice that the original is getting a bit of love in here. Also you might be thinking of how Abel marries Est between Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem, although thing don't end up going all that well for the couple. Yeah Clement is a great little "villain", destroyed by what would normally be a very healthy sense of caution. I agree whole heartedly I guess I can add a few more to the pile here with FE7's Legault. Its his history with so many of the villains so very interesting, as despite his very minor role, his past as a former Black Fang member gives him a boss quote with almost all of them, which gives us an insight into what they were lie before Nergal corrupted the organization. Plus facial scar are a fascinating feature to me that I regularly add to characters when I am able to. Here is a rare Awakening option added to the mix, with Kellam. I love the joke about him never being noticed, and all the little ways they commit to the bit, by hiding him in the background of an early scene where they know most people will miss him, to the way the enemy AI of his join chapter even ignores him makes it all the more hilarious. I am not the biggest fan of a lot of the Awakening character's gimmick, but this one is a grade A bit, and I almost feel bad for breaking it by talking about him.

This little secret is hidden where Palmark roughly reaches in the original before handing over the Tyrfing. As for FE4 the only real secret on this map is if Seliph personally kills Arvis, he can wait near the water to have a scene with the spirits of his deceased parents. That is an ominous statement to make in an ironman. They are being rather faithful to Shadow Dragon generals with that move. Your Draug is such a beast. I mean look at this monster doubling everything on top of that strength and defenses (even resistance). Wow, giving Mercurius a ranged exp boost, such an interesting improvement. Nice of them to give a nod to its old Mystery of the Emblem exp boosting effect with this one (although they probably got the reminder from Engage's revival of that old effect...) As a massive fan of the Triangle Attack, I am looking forward to it OMG, what a way to improve Est, and you could setup some real impressive multi-Triangle attack turns with that skill and some creative unit placement. Est still has that old Est-y growth rates as well. What an amusing little unit they have made here. ...Oof. Killing off not only my favorite character from Shadow Dragon, but also one of my most consistently used units that is difficult to replace. Seems Ivy is doomed to never make it through an Ironman with me. ...Wow, the man is already a speed demon, and now this? It is a clever use of the FEH art there, as she goes from the FEH version of her that is specifically the mind controlled version of her to a more normal version. I thought that was the Wooden Cavalry chapter a few maps back. Yikes, another close call... To be fair, not all equipment in this hack even has uses, so I guess they felt the need to boost it a little because of that. Eh, I doubt I would have used her anyway...although that does now make it literally impossible for me to have a flying mage. Yeah that is rather understandable, as I would not have expected that space to be traversable by non-fliers either. It really is fun to setup and use. Another spooky moment, but at least it was early enough in the turn to fix things before enemy phase. Taking cues from New Mystery's chapter 2 I guess...or perhaps FE1's chapter 22. For some reason Macedon was always the most willing to have bosses abandon their castles. At least this little oversight didn't end up biting you in the butt. And I am guessing there weren't even boots there to lure you into spending. Originally my plan was to do quite a few of the paralogues here, but I think I will save most of them for after I decide which of Veyle or Mauvier ends up replacing Ivy...but I did decide to do one before the main chapter, so its time for Eirika's paralogue Next time I will be doing a story map, promise.

The original Star Fox on SNES was 3D though, one of the first ever, and literally the first Nintendo game to use polygons. It was a revolutionary game thanks to the Super FX chip the thing had.

Alright, time for a controversial Star Fox take, but I always found Star Fox 64 to be too similar to the original on the SNES to ever be all that impressive. It always felt more like a remake than a game of its own. The comment was rather funny as Star Fox Adventures was perhaps the most controversial of the Star Fox games for the very reasons IO mentions, and a lot of die hard fans utterly hate it for shifting Star Fox away from the genre it started in. My personal opinion of the game is that it is a fine game, nothing spectacular, but it gets a lot of undeserved hate due to it being called a Star Fox game. To quote a fantastic video essay by Bobbybroccoli: "...the Canadian identity, if there is such a thing, is one defined in opposition to the United States"

Even in this form it is an interesting little read through...although I get it. I remember never getting around to responding to Jotari's themes thread for a similar reason. The thread I was delaying this time was just because I had to tell myself to stop gushing and just push something out (which my little venting here actually got me to do with my new minor character appreciation thread). Also I think I will hide away all my comments on the spoilered stuff in my own spoiler tab.

Now I don't want to anyone mentioning any character you could even pretend to consider a main character or even major in this thread, this for all those Brom, Vander, and Matthis lovers to gush about their favorites minor characters that no one else seems to appreciate. Obviously this is also an excuse for me to talk about a bunch of minor characters that I appreciate, and this is a place for all of you to do the same...yeah might have gone a bit overboard below, but its fun to talk about the units you like that aren't important enough to generally get much attention from others. Lets start with one that I am probably the only person that has ever cared about them, the minor villain from Genealogy of the Holy War's chapter 4, the mercenary leader Lamia. The vicious leader of an all female mercenary band (the game even brings out all the obscure female enemy sprites just for her little band), famed for their ruthlessness, and being one of the few minor bosses with a unique face sprite (although it is speculated that it might have originally been planned as a face used for a younger Queen Hilda...). She is just plain cool for such a minor villain. Moving onto generation 2, I have a soft spot for the substitute unit Asaello, the hitman of Connacht. With such a title, one may think I am fawning over minor villains again, but this hitman takes such an ignoble path to help feed the orphans that he grew up with, and has always had a soft spot for children. As someone who also has a soft spot for children, I can kinda relate to the guy. It is a down right a shame that he was cut from Thracia 776, as he would have fit in there perfectly, but they didn't want to imply too much about Thracia 776's continuity by including the replacements... Next comes a hero from Thracia 776 with Miranda, and with her being the princess of Alster with a noticeable impact on the plot it might seem like a bit of a cheat, but she is not only exclusive to the least popular route of Thracia 776, but also generally considered a difficult to use unit, and much as it pains me to say it, she is. Really she shouldn't be an optional character, as she makes Leif's disastrous attack on Alster make so much more sense. She has a lot of fun spunk to go with her fiery magic, although it is really tough to get her off the ground. Another Thracia unit, its time to talk about the oft overshadowed Eda. Poor girl had to come with her top tier prepromoted brother Dean, so no one looks at this young dragon rider, but she is still a flier, and a cool little dragon rider, and I have trained her enough to see her become a powerhouse on her own. I kind of pity her really, she gets unfairly overshadowed by units Thracia showers with gifts, and she is constantly putting the feeling of other above her own, following her brother into exile, and in her ending sacrificing her joy to help Altena. I am going to cheat a little here, as I would be remiss not to mention my love of the Triangle Attack of Ostia, the three great generals Bors, Barthe, and Gwendolyn. This poor trio always gets trash talked, with the dutiful Wendy oft called one of the worst units in Binding Blade, but they can combine their powers into the automatic hit and crit of a deadly Triangle attack. That isn't to dismiss the over protective big brother she looks up to so much, or that loyalist of knights Barthe. What can I say, its fun to setup the right positioning to maximize my number of triangle attacks, and the more restrictive movements of an armored knight just makes it all the more satisfying when you can setup multiple in a turn due to the extra planning needed. In a very similar vein, I love New Mystery's Axey boy trio as well, with their silly names, and the jokes about people not being able to distinguish Cord and Bord, with ol' Barst as a bit of an outlier. There the lack of the rescue command adds a whole new layer of difficulty to the setup for them to make thing all the more fun, and they hit some impressive benchamarks with the triangle attack as well. Time for another trio, as I like all the units you recruit in Blazing Blade's Kinship's Bond. I rather like dragon riders, and that split haired Heath was the first one I ever got the chance to use. As for Rath, the quite horse archer that defies discrimination is an interesting mix that appeals to me. Finally a quick word on Isadora, but it always felt a bit funny that she felt more like a friend of Eliwood's mom than him, and discovering her fiance latter in the game was an interesting detail to stumble upon. I know I am rushing a bit here, but I have been rambling on way too long already. I think I will jump ahead a few games before getting to New Mystery of the Emblem, with another edge case here, of my little prince, Yubello. A bit of a cheat again as he would be royalty if emperor Marth didn't take all the crowns for himself at the end of New Mystery. He is just my little boy, who can be the best mage he wants to be, and I care about my little boy far too much not to mention him a fair bit here. It is time to jump ahead to the end of things with one from Engage, my Bouchy Boy. He grew on me, I started using him just because he was one of the more functional axe units, but I found a man that loves reading, even genre's generally seen as very feminine like romance novels, and is sensitive enough to cry when he needs to. Plus he has a fun personal skill if you use him after the early game.

I have tried looking, but I haven't been able to actually find the odds anywhere, and am sadly throwing in the towel. What I do know is that all the vending machines outside the Fortuna Offices have three possible drinks you can get from them randomly (and it is easy to look up which three). As for the Fortuna Offices from what I can tell there are two rolls, one where it determines which three Drinks are possible for them, and then the roll for which of those three you actually get. There are only two reasons to do so, first there is an achievement for having gotten all 11 drinks at least once, and second each drink gives different units a temporary luck boosts, but the Muscle Drink EX is the only one that gives everyone a luck boost, and is only available from the Fortuna Office vending machines, which makes it by far the rarest, but best of the drinks to try and get. Its sad how little information I could find. This game is so underappreciated, which I am putting a bit down to it not doing a good job of telling people what it is. I don't think it does a good job of capturing the feel of either Fire Emblem or SMT, but instead really successfully captures the feel of a Magical Girl anime, and I really appreciate it for that odd niche.

The sad consequences of Dexit, so many old pokemon friends can't be together in the newer games... Yeah, I know I have been a bit quite...not that I tend to be the loudest around here at the best of times. I tend to be rather socially passive. I like the fiery red hair, and the sprinkling of freckles was a great choice. Also I like that the outfit looks functional enough that I could actually believe they would be swinging a Katana around. I know what you mean, I have been planning on creating a new topic for like three days now, and I keep wasting time, and putting off what will be a fun little thread. Yeah, I miss them too. At least with Benice I feel like I got a sense of farewell, and I know they are going off to college for better things, but I still miss him a bit. @GuardianSing it felt like left out of the blue, leaving mid Genealogy playthourgh, and I was rather looking forward to hearing their thoughts and comments on that game, as well as Thracia afterwards. Theoretically their profile indicates they have been lurking a little, which makes me think it might just be computer troubles or something. Although on the otherhand part of the benefit of the internet is that you can just become something else, or simply fade away... Yeah I know what you mean. Discord is far too quick for me, about the only thing I use it for is voice chat with IRL friends where some are too far away to meet.