Eltosian Kadath

Shrug, I have played something like 3-4 rather different translations of that game over the years (5 if you count the original Japanese, as I have had a bit of fun with my hard copy of it), there is no official translation of FE4, and the places FE4 character names have come up in modern times are not consistent. Plus these versions are one of the easiest to look up. Holy blood inheritance is meant to be a bit more random than the gameplay indicates, how the holy blood of Dierdre's children end up is definitely one hint at that, the story of Hezul's youngest of something silly like 7 children being the one to inherit strong hoy blood is another hint at that... Ehhh...there is more than one way to skin a cat (for example are you using the extremely foreign ヴ to represent V sounds or just characters with B sounds...) and its important to remember that Japanese characters represent sounds not simply letters, such that I think the first is a lot closer to Darius than the second is (the u sounds are more of an oo sound like fool) That is especially silly, as there are a lot of FE4 Mythological names applied to people of different genders from their mythological counterparts. I don't think FE has really gotten enough into the weeds enough to talk about a title as one given to a consort. Really that distinction that has kind of lost so much relevance in our times of irrelevant monarchs that it isn't something people generally think about. I don't think religion has ever had a causal relationship with misogyny, at most it is an easy lie to point to for the lazy. Its more that the consequences of such desires in medieval time were so dire that any writing about it are treated like lies, slander, or criminal evidence (even in modern day). You are definitely painting the religions in FE in far too wide a brush. Due to you playing one of Kaga's games right now, I will be a bit vague here, but Kaga tends to play it fairly straight with the polytheistic gods being powerful being in the world, or that once were part of the world, without much moralizing beyond the most malicious being seen as evil, and kindest as good, although most are rather aloof. If you read through the more religious of FE6's supports, Elibe's Church of St. Elmine is a simple monotheistic faith, very like our modern day one with St. Elmine as the prophet of this perfect ideal god that isn't treated as a part of the world. The people of the Sacae also follow a far more animistic religion very vaguely reminiscent of Shintoism. I have never cared enough about FE8 to figure out if it even had a religion. Tellius is an interesting case, as the truth of the matter is more similar to the flawed character with only minor limitations on their powers, but because the goddesses have not been a part of the world for so long, a faith more similar to that of the moralist nature of monotheism falsely arisen. It is a bit of a theme on FE10 that the gods are flawed in spite of human's beliefs that have come to pass in their absence. This is probably a fair critique of how Awakening handles things, but that is another game I do not feel strongly about. Fates definitely doesn't have that sense of morality attached to its gods, we don't hear all that much about the dragon gods of old, or how they are usually worshiped (because Fates world building is hilariously bad) but it comes across far more similarly to the way you describe polytheistic faiths. I will point out for Three Houses that it comes across to me as a bit of intentional propaganda from Rhea for her own purposes. How much that changes things is debatable, but I do feel it is a bit of interesting context to add.

I am a bit surprised by myself that I didn't mention the Dual Protagonists sharing a throne in Gaiden. People love to talk about Alm overshadowing Celica, but Celica's role as a more religious Christ like figure has always muddled those comparisons. ...Odd as it is to say Kaga tends to make his avatars of the gods women. The heir of the Divine Dragon god Naga is the little dragon girl Tiki, Celica is believed to be the reincarnation of the Goddess Mila in her Gaiden ending, you have the godly dragons of TRS, not to mention the Popess of Berwick, and the Circlet Sisters of Vestaria Saga. The remake is more willing to say Queen about Minerva, but is ambiguous enough that Ping may be right about that technicality, and is certainly right about it in the original, but even in the official translation of the original they indicate she is a ruling princess. This is kind of about FE4's ending, so spoiler box away. Actually, I seem to remember TRS's ending being just as convoluted, and would really need to look it up to remember who ends up as king and queen of what in the ending.

I honestly can't believe a Vtuber controversy got big enough for me to here about it. Really more of a monstrous train wreck of capitalism...

One rare one that I rather like is when the protagonist is the only one without magic/special powers, and has to compensate for that with their wits instead.

I think one of the mods mentioned they broke in the server transfer last night in another thread.

Yeah the tyrant Marth's manifest destiny is very stupid.

The chapter is called the threshold of fate... That could easily be part of it, although I generally got more the impression that it is more of a male preference form of succession generally, but with Dierdre being an amnesiac stranger that has never been trained to rule even before losing her memories, Azmur might be making the practical assumption that her husband will probably be the real power when he passes, with Dierdre as a figure head at best. It would barely be an FE game without dead parents 😛 It is funny that you have to repair Sigurd's holy weapon. Literally one of the images in GuardianSing's post is showing General Aida. I guess there is a clear difference in that as all the strong women I can think of raised in Granvale are magically oriented. It wasn't short for Greatest Of All Time before, it was just a joke about the obnoxious animal in the past, like jokes about the Jack Ass. ...That is a bit more debatable. Archanea has queens rule between the games, with Sheema, and Minerva, although both were vassal queens of the Archanean empire, just like Marth's Altea; and in Jugdral Hilda would do the same after the death of her son and husband. Plus there are certainly ways to arrange for Genealogy to end with Regnant queens, although it usually requires the death of their brothers to get them there. As for Vestaria Saga, are you talking about Athol? I kind of remember there being something about a Queen in Sphire too after a succession crisis in the region, but I don't think that has been a region we really get to explore in any of the games. You loss out on all the lock picks you can steal in later chapter, and sell into more boots money.

Fates definitely has the best and worst character design. What, you meant that to be two seperate entries...fine I will do the extra work for that. I think for worst I have to go with Shadow Dragon. It feels like they went out of their way to make the characters in that game feel even more generic than they already are. New Mystery avoids sharing the same distinction thanks to some of the oddballs they added in with their everything and the kitchen sink approach, especially the amazing coated trio of Camus subordinates. Best I think I will give to Binding Blade, for having the guts to have a playable old woman, something almost unheard of in videogames. That isn't to detract from the other great designs in that game, but that is what really pushes it over the edge for me. I am a bit surprised by how much I am seeing Engage for the worst design option, as I think it has some of the best female character design in the series, although I guess a lot of the men came off as a bit generic, and new game syndrome may be hurting it a fair bit as well.

That is a bit debatable, as there are hints at it possibly being Beowulf x Lachesis as well.

I see what you are saying. Funny it was a track from Majora's Mask that reminded you of it, as Majora's Mask is my favorite of the Zelda games. I am glad Azel got a lover, as one of his kids living to the end is necessary to see the only mention of the Fire Emblem in all of Jugdral. Admittedly I kind of prefer the Azel x Tailtiu pairing, as the two were childhood friend, but this is a fairly solid choice storywise. Not all that surprising, there are a bunch of events pushing either the Lewyn x Sylvia or Leywn x Erin, so getting one of those two accidentally is very common, and I think the Lewyn x Sylvia is a little more common, but there is a Lewyn x Erin talk after retaking Silesia castle that basically pushes those two into marriage, if you see it and neither are already married. Poor guy lost his first crush to Azel, figures he would fall for her cooler twin sister. Funnily enough, all but one of the pairing you have and planned are ones that have notable talks after they become lovers. I am glad you are planning on letting Jamke have a kid, for spoilery reasons, even if that is the one without a lover's talk. Discussing shipping in Genealogy is a time honored tradition among Fire Emblem fans. I am not much of a music person, but I do have a soft spot for Genealogy's music, although my favorite tracks are rather late game. I am still debating whether Towards the Light, or Velthomer Palace theme is my favorite of the bunch. Interesting... Eh, TRS does some interesting things, especially when you get to the convergence points where you get to rearrange the two armies. Also it has one of my favorite final maps. As the only person who has ever cared about Lamia and her all female mercenary band, that would fill me with so much hate. Lol Yeah, the Master Knight promotion is ridiculous, best promotion in the franchise hands down. Also the first dark mage in the franchise was in Thracia 776, so that Dark Magic rank is basically enemy only. That thing turns him into a monster. +20 speed is enough to turn anyone into an invincible dodge tanking beast that dominates almost all battles. Each one you keep from falling is worth money on every unit at the end on the chapter, and each one you lose, loses you a tactics rank a piece.

Rarely has a game let you harm a child, so I have a fair bit of respect for it pretending to let you eat one...although the fact that they back pedal on it, even when playing as a baby eating monster like Venom is still sad. Please, they will just release the Orange Box 2, that way they can release Half-Life 3, Portal 3, and Team Fortress 3 with the number 2 instead of 3 😛 It cracks me up every time FEH has a new hero reveal where they have this massive wall of text explaining the new hero's skill...only to need a second page of text to show all of them. The showrunners really showing their ass with that statement. It took a bit to figure out based on just a screenshot, but I believe its the Grannvale Army 1 Theme that plays there, although I am not entirely sure where you might have heard it before. I did a quick check of other places you might have heard it earlier in the game, the two that came to mind were when the Granvale army forces you to flee to Silesia (nope that is the Enemy Message 2 theme), and possibly when Arvis is around during the prologue (nope that was obviously Arvis's Theme), but neither of those played it. I think they used a version of it in one of FEH's tempest trials, so perhaps you remember it from that. A fair number of the themes intentionally call back to other themes related to them, so maybe that is why it seems so reminiscent... Naw they got this (just ignore the murder bows coming in from the far corner). This is entirely unrelated, but just out of curiosity, which characters are lovers so far, and are there any people you are trying to make lovers?

Milotic is such an iconic wall of gen 3, and I am glad you took the time to actually get one. All that clever encounter routing to get yourself this little pink puffball of a fairy. Its funny how much better Battle Armor is in nuzlockes than any other context. Cawthorn? I do like how you are going over your encounter routing a fair bit here. I respect the refusal to use Legendaries. I know what you mean, I have had to double check so many things when commenting to make sure I am not just remembering Emerald, and spreading lies about the remake... Alright, I decided to do another paralogue, so my troops wont have to share the one fresh heal staff... Next time, I promise to do a real story map, but in the meantime, take care everyone.

At least that is a bonus chapter to keep me from falling too far behind. Oh boy, siege tomes really suppressing you forces with that much coverage ...Unless even your armors are so magically tanky that they take no damage. To think the magic nuke wasn't even promoted . Jeeze, that is a cruel combination. If only I could have all that tasty lucre to spend more on fashion Time for a paralogue to get more money for clothes...and healing staves I guess.

Glad to see you back, and hopefully things look brighter for you. It is kind of funny to just get one from the grass, just before it becomes a very reliable static encounter. Feeling empty is always the most dangerous of moods. Eh, the remake neutered that Altaria to the point it really isn't dangerous. Switching the incredibly dangerous Dragon Dance for Cotton Guard is a bit of a joke. Hey, that's my game 😛 That is giving me some New Mystert vibes with that set of recruitments. Yikes, that is an uncomfortable situation to deal with for a map. Hopefully he gets the point or two of Luck he needs to mitigate that issue on this map. That is a scary skill to miss on an archer. Fortunately you noticed before it was unsalvageable. This chapter is really giving you some sweet loot in it. Somewhat fitting that Hardin gets revenge on his 1% crit tormentor. Shelter is just so useful, letting this goober soak a hit instead of your delicate magical nuke (especially since he isn't linked to any of my troops 😛 ) Lunging through walls is always such a funny strategy to implement. SPEED TOO...wow, what an amazing support skill they created there, like three separate skills all combined into one super skill. And on top of all that loot it has this amazing secret shop as well... I feel like I am falling behind now, especially since I am taking at least one paralogue as my next chapter, plus how much between chapter prep getting Sigurd back is adding to things...

@Saint Rubenio Fair enough, that is one I have seen before.

I am a little curious as to which video you mean by that. It is a rather popular game to talk about

I do find it funny that there was a whole little discussion about games not having to be fun while I was away, and nobody brought up the poster child of games not having to be fun, Pathologic. Such a purely instrumental view of play, abandoning the interplay between free play and instrumental play that videogames in particular often find themselves in tension between. For a little context here, as I just dropped two terms out of nowhere, instrumental play is like children chasing eachother in a game of football, whereas free play is children chasing eachother because it is simply fun to chase people around; one is about goals and rules, and the other is far more self directed or for its own sake. Utterly disrespectful of the far superior Persona 3 there.

Is the Gharnef inclusion from the New Mystery DLC maps? I tried one of these quizes, but my inability to spell sapped way too much time for it to really feel satisfying to do (like it took about 5 tries to get the right spelling of Jeigen for instance, and I just gave up trying to spell Lackshe, or whatever mess of consonants that name has...) Not liking a thing doesn't mean it is badly designed, which was the quote I directly commented on, and assuming the two are the same is unreasonable. A lot of RPGs aren't going out of their way to emphasize you are playing as a specific singular character, taking a wider approach to displaying its story. A lot less than 99% of RPGs allow you to customize your party to the point of excluding any character you wish, or have sections where you play as entirely different characters for some section. A very clear distinction is made here with that design choice, like a novel that talks about its main characters in the third person, one that transitions between perspectives, and one that is only in the first person (which is far more similar to what P3 is doing). For instance, I don't think we are meant to be playing as specifically Marth in FE1/11, our role is a far more nebulous one. Part of the reason for that is that Persona 3 is art, and the game makes no illusions about that point. A more common reason people consider P3P an inferior version has to do with modifications necessary to get it onto the PSP, like cutting out the animated cutscenes and replacing them with text and in extremely rare cases in engine action, and the utter lack of an explorable overworld outside the dungeons, replacing it instead with series of images of locations that you can move a cursor over to interact with people, shops, and objects, or to change locations. I think so. I will put the version of that village talk from the Serenes Forest translation in a spoiler box here, if you want its help. That is a bit debatable. Analyzing an enemy gives the AI perfect knowledge of its elemental weaknesses/resistances, even in situations where the player isn't given that knowledge, and that seems like a fair enough compromise to make, even if players looking that up on the internet could make better decisions. AI healing tends to prioritize health and revival over healing status afflictions, which can situationally be irritating. Some people think status afflictions are useless, and laugh at the AI treating them similar to debuffing. I am sure there are more niche examples I can think of, but it is fairly solid, especially once you get a hang of what all the tactics mean, and start changing them up for what you need each turn.

I am going to disagree with this point a fair bit, as the P3 AI tactics menu is a lot more robust than the one in P4 and P5. If you actually engage with the mechanic, you find that they put a fair bit of design into it. It also emphasizes something important, that you are playing as your named protagonist, not as a party of adventures, where your party members are their own characters, with their own motivation, and arcs outside the protagonist. Admittedly it took me a while to come around to the mechanic, preferring P3P's version of things which does allow the player to control their allies, although its severe nerfing of the exhaustion mechanic was a weakness of that version. The Persona 3 without the protagonist challenge run is what cemented it as a mechanic with some real teeth (and emphasized how much more robust it is in P3, as the P4 and beyond versions are so inferior to it). Tartarus design on the other hand is certainly a product of its age. You mean the one @AlexArtsHere setup? Yeah I have been wondering a little about that, based on the schedule laid out before, my turn is a few weeks overdue, but perhaps the holidays delayed things a bit, and I know from experience of running one before that (which you dropped out of) that scheduling problems, and people dropping out are real common with these type of collaborative game projects, so who knows. To be fair, her grandfather is still on the throne, and while he was working on stepping down, even her father Kurth is simply considered a Prince while the old man was still around (heck, he is even still calling Kurth a prince in that very conversation). Oof, the dice have really been against you today. There is a long pass through the mountains for people to reach there, and one of the villages reveals the secret to dropping the obvious place for the bridge, plus you can bait a fair number of them into a ranged death as well.

I am thinking of waiting til the weekend to see if @Newtype06 pops out of the woodwork with an update, but I guess we should move on if not. This thing has been on hold for a while.

It did always seem to be a bit too perfect to be coincidence that the best social link in the franchise is P3's Sun, and what has a solid argument for being it's worst is P3's Moon... I don't think the Persona 3 scene was quite as bad as the original P5 one was, but it sounds like a fine enough change to make. Also it is not a very memorable scene, I had to really think about it to figure out what scene you might have meant with this one, and without all the pointless drama, I doubt many people would have even noticed. You really put a lot into Ethlyn...nice job promoting her. Although it does make one interesting event slightly less likely, but I guess we will see what happens when we get there. Lol, I guess Nohr would fit as a pirate nation in most regards. Although she does not have enough siblings on either side... Although the main difference is she is kinda a badass, with a real holy weapon on her hands, not the cheap toys they hand out in most of the franchise. Just out of curiosity, did you follow enough of court gossip from chapter 2 to figure out the little secret of this? Isn't that the truth. Poor guy is the doormat the Granvale Yeah, big oofs on that one after going through the effort of getting her promoted.

It does seem odd that the cycle of blocky rebirth seems to start with Tetris.

Still some Genealogy Spoilers in this here box. Now you just need to get all the stars as Luigi 😛 . It really was a fun version of new game + That is a cute way to hint at this standard fantasy setting being a future one instead. This game is going on a list of games I will get around to playing... What a better world we would live in...

Too real. I was always bad at saving as much as I should have as a kid...assuming it was possible to save the game at all that is. Much as I love Sonic 2, being a game before the save feature (a real selling point of Sonic 3) was rough on itty bitty baby me. Not to sell myself as older than I am, it was about a console generation old when I got to. Sorry GuardianSing, there be Jugdral spoilers aplenty in this here box. He truly was a legend. Yeah, getting him off the ground is tough. He does still have the utility of being able to give gold to people that he isn't married to (so letting him gather up the village loot can be a good plan), and he can still steal gold from foes if he can get in some safe chip. It was kind of funny how close you were to the revival staff when he died. Time for the otherwise niche warp staff to save the day. Take care, and we will welcome you on your return. I think Ephraim's gray stu-hood inspired more discourse than Eirika... Setting the bar rather low there 😛

Eltosian is an old defunct fan translation of FE4's Eldigan's name, and Kadath is a reference to the works of HP Lovecraft, in particular The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, where Kadath is the unknown city that the gods of earth reside/hide in.