Alastor15243

One big thing for me, aside from the awesome ideas from @Elephantus, is that the story needs to be overhauled to make the route split happen at the end of part 1, not the beginning. You don't pick a house to teach, you pick a subject. This determines what Byleth is good at, and he teaches this to all three houses, getting to know (and crucially, getting attached to) all three houses. Then the big chaos happens and you have to pick a side, meaning the decision happens when you actually know what the decision means.

I dunno, seems like she'd rather put the place where she's a queen in her title rather than the place where she doesn't have nearly as much power. But I can't remember too many details about that aspect, so I can't say more.

I generally just assumed C when I played the game.

I don't think marrying the king had anything to do with that. She's been married to Blume for a while, because Ishtar sure as hell didn't get the ability to wield Mjölnir from her mom.

Isn't she Blume's wife?

Thracia Day 31: Chapter 21x Like I said, I can't wait. But also I checked and it looks like I'll finish this game this next upcoming Friday if I do one weekend map, which is a nice and tidy way to do it, so... looks like there's no reason not to! I also wanna make sure I don't just unceremoniously throw the final installment at you guys with no fanfare or buildup. Y'know. Like I've done with every single other game so far. This time, I promise, Thracia's finale is coming on Friday, and not a day sooner. This is gonna be a tricky map, but also, I suspect, a lot of fun. The main issue is the 6 warp staff users summoning what amount to ambush spawns at my party at all times, which I suspect means deploying any weak links at all is going to be completely impossible. I'm hoping not, because Asbel's my only sturdy A rank staff user. Nanna is close, but not quite there unfortunately. I'm gonna deploy Safiya to see if it's remotely practical, but I'm probably gonna have to give up on that depending on how the AI behaves. I'm going to have to deploy Asbel and Callion, both of whom are fatigued, so while I still have a few S drinks left, I'm gonna have to be more frugal with them from now on. I'm bringing my big guns here... and Safiya. Leif, Lithis, Asbel, Callion, Tanya, Orsin and Pan are all coming. Unfortunately Tanya and Orsin do not start on the same side, which is... very, very inconvenient, but I'll have to make do. I have a feeling I'll want them both on my team by the end of the mission. Attempt one was... a pretty big failure. It initially seemed to be going fine; I warped in Lithis first to the chamber with the warp priests and the mages, and doing that stopped the mages from being warped as they simply attacked Lithis, saving the warp staff uses for him to steal at his leisure. However, on turn two, after I warped in Callion and Leif to start taking care of the upper warp room, since the other warp staff room ran out of people to warp in to fight Lithis (and not Safiya, for some reason I'll have to do more research on), they immediately started breaking out the seige tomes on Lithis, which cost him his life. I think I'll have to warp in Callion and Leif first, then Lithis. Let's try that. Also, I'm kind of disappointed that the basic map theme is playing here. As much as I like it, I feel that literally any other map theme in the entire game could fit here better than this one. This is a fucking prison break chapter. A heavily fortified base is being stormed by a handful of troops to rescue prisoners. The fog of war map theme would work. The “we're fucked” map theme would work. The “we're Galzus fucked” map theme would work! Hell, even Leif's theme would work here! No, scratch that, especially Leif's theme would work here! I was half-hoping to hear it, honestly, to underscore this badass and heroic rescue mission, showing the good sides of Leif's rash and heartfelt decision-making. ...Speaking of Leif's theme... ...A small tangent, if you will. One thing that occurred to me about a remake, and this is something I wanted to share because I like it so much... It would be absolutely awesome if, in a Genealogy remake, they find a way to add in a scene with baby Leif, and add in a sort of musicbox/lullaby rendition of Leif's theme during that scene. I think it would be really sweet and the melody of Leif's theme really fits a lullaby as well, amazingly enough. And also it would be an amazing gut-punch, to help to hammer home the impact of something that kind of fails to sink in emotionally due to how overdone it is in this series: this kid is a fucking orphan. He had amazing, wonderful parents who brought him into the world with a big, happy, wonderful life ready for him, and they were slaughtered in the desert like cattle over a centuries-long feud they had almost nothing to do with. If we got to see a bit more of baby Leif, maybe showing us the moment when Cuan finally gets to lay eyes on his new son, that could make Ethlyn and Cuan's deaths hit just that much harder. It would give us the tiniest taste of what sorts of parents they could have been. ...Well. ...This is... outrageously embarrassing. ...I guess we have to make that four Fire Emblem songs that have moved me to tears. I'm sorry, I actually couldn't keep my composure while writing that. Just trying to picture that scene, with that music... ...Let's... uh... ...Let's move on. So it turns out that in both cases, if you warp someone in, the warp-ready soldiers will attack the intruder first, preventing the warp staves from being used at all. So maybe I should someone into each chamber on turn one, making sure none of them use the warp staves? I'll have to see if that's actually how this works. ...Nope, if I warp Lithis in on turn one, and Zaun has no one to warp, he'll use blizzard, and the lower treasure room is easily within his range. For some reason, none of the warp staff users have ever wanted to warp anyone outside of the fortress bounds. Funny thing is, this map could easily be 2-turn cleared with a rescue staff, but obviously there's a shitton of cool shit to steal in this chapter I'd be missing out on. Also... damn it, I just wanna do this the proper, badass way. Anyway, about the music: I discovered the absolutely lovely “turn off the music” option, and proceeded to play Leif's theme on YouTube in the background, turning it into what I'm hoping it'll be in a remake: a completely uninterrupted triumphant anthem that keeps playing, even over fights and over the enemy phase. And I love it. So, yeah. Plus side to this game: it has that option! I don't know if I've even explored the options menus of other games, honestly. Maybe I should go back and check that for a little bit of usability extra credit? I gave Safiya a restore staff, and I'm having Pan bait out Zaun's Blizzard tome on the first turn so that I don't have to risk someone I've warped out getting hit by it. Also, I moved Alba to the corner of his room, out of siege tome range. Leif got a movement level here, and the warp rooms have been neutralized! Now to quickly but carefully get all of the loot and then GET THE FLYING FUCK OUT OF HERE. One trick I learned to improve my strategy once I realized Lithis couldn't be warped in until turn 2: I had Lithis unlock the door to enter the west side of the fort on turn 2, then I warped him away. He couldn't then act on the same turn, but since those priests won't warp each other, there's no rush. All 6 staff uses are his for the taking. Honestly, my little experiment with turning off the music and playing my own in the background really cements to me how much I feel the new system introduced in Awakening is an improvement. Now that I consistently have uninterrupted, awesome music playing in the background, I don't even feel like fast-forwarding through these fights! This feels way more entertaining and cinematic! It occurs to me now that since the Zaun can't be captured, a better thing to do would have been to assassinate the boss on turn one, then warp in Lithis to the lower room also on turn one, to make sure that none of the warp staff uses get used before I can take them. Oh well. I'm not keen to restart this chapter over just 3 warp uses out of 15 when I got a move level up for Leif, but I will be sure to do that if I have to restart. Which I'm hoping I don't. Another thing I'll probably do if I have to restart: Give Leif a damned door key. I wanted to save the two I have in case there was another “Chapter 20” incident, but I feel kind of dumb now that Leif and Callion are stuck doing nothing for a few turns while Pan rushes in to unlock their door. But anyway, at long last, it's finally time for Asbel to have some fun with the rewarp staff! First, he warps in to the room above Leif and Callion in order to take out the axe armors there. Next, he warps in with Lithis to help him block the staircases so he doesn't have to get too much blood on that wind sword I gave him. Asbel's then gonna help Lithis steal the rest of their shit, and then he's gonna warp Lithis out of there to help Callion and Leif get out and take the treasure. Honestly, given the game's expectation of cheesing chapters, a 30 turn time limit before shit hits the fan is kind of ridiculous. Alright, I've gotten everything but the one chest with a vulnerary, and it's turn 20. Time to start making my way out of here, with a ridiculous amount of time to spare. Honestly I'm kind of shocked the game's being this lenient given the kind of warp staff abuse it expected out of me in order to get (and clear) chapter 12x. But the item and ambush spawn guide confirms there aren't any more dirty tricks coming up. Not that I'm going to rely on that. There's little else left to do. I almost badly screwed up by prematurely taking Leif off the staircase blocking the hero reinforcements. But I caught myself just in time and realized that a high-skill enemy with a hand axe could easily get a lucky potshot on Alba. So I waited another turn for him to get out of the way. That's funny. I saw Orsin's escape quote and it seemed entirely new to me. Have I really never once taken Orsin into an escape chapter? Funny. Anyway, I cleared it in 17 turns, getting everything but 6 warp uses (if you count the one I could have stolen from the boss). But still, that's four warps I traded for 12, for a net gain of 8, with only five chapters left! I can warp once a chapter from now on and still have four for the final chapter! And that's ignoring the rewarp staves! Also, this chapter reminds me of stuff I read about Hilda that didn't occur to me before: Hilda is related to Arvis. I'm not sure how, but they're from the same royal family. So Julius marrying Ishtar is basically Julius marrying some kind of cousin. Of course... that's kind of the least fucked up thing he's done, honestly. By a substantial margin. Julius changing the subject about the child hunts by deflecting into flirting with Ishtar with talk of a romantic date and lavish gifts is... honestly impressively creepy. But it still brings into question what the hell she sees in him. When I've seen her in this game she seems like a battered spouse in a gilded cage, staying with him only out of fear, but in Genealogy a lot of the time she seemed genuinely in love with him. Still though, I haven't seen anything that bad in this game, so I can't really blame this game for writing her in a more consistent and believable manner. Anyway... tons of fun, but not remotely difficult after I worked out the first opening gambit. That... that seems to be a recurring theme with the “hard” late-game levels I've seen. And yes, some of that was thanks to Asbel's insane staff rank, but I get the idea I could have easily done this with Schroff instead, just not quite as magnificently, since the game's decent enough to not warp enemies outside and thus allows you to bring weaker units. Strangely nice of the game, even if yet again there's no consistency to when it's forgiving and when it wants to sucker-punch your skull into a fine paste. Leif has really come into his own. Especially when he's holding his light brand, he can easily fight alongside my other best warriors. Which is good, because he has infinite stamina, and my best warriors... do not. I did however manage to get Asbel through this without crippling his stamina for a second chapter in a row (those advanced staves are taking a toll on him). I should be fine for units in the next chapter. Speaking of which... next chapter... ...Ah yes. The enemy now uses the Reinhardt. See you on Monday, guys. Last week of Thracia. Let's do it.

I'm pretty sure the answer to that is that it doesn't work, now that you mention it. But I am curious what happens if you hack Path of Radiance to put Sephiran's Mantle on an enemy. I wonder if Ragnell would work on them. It would be funny if it did.

Oh! Well, at least this map discourages turtling in some way. But it would be nice if the game discouraged it in a way that was less arcane.

That is actually a fair point. Can Ragnell damage anyone with the Mantle skill without Yune's blessing? That just occurred to me, and I always blessed Ragnell so I don't think I've ever checked.

Wow, it looks like I might actually have an opportunity to join in on this, at least at the end, by the time I'm done with FE6 in my marathon! I'll be honest, I was... not expecting that, given the number of games I had to work through. Would there still be an opening available for me if that works out?

Remember that both the Black Knight's armor and Ragnell were blessed by the same goddess and yet Ragnell can still pierce the armor. I don't think there's much basis to say that Yune's power is only anti-order.

Sigurd with Tyrfing, and Seliph possibly without Tyrfing but definitely with it, immediately spring to mind.

"This game gets less annoying if you grind for 150 turns" is not really a hill I intend to die on, as much fun as the result may turn out to be.

It would be utterly trivial if they're shelling out for full voice acting, honestly. If they're paying for that many lines already, recording one sentence for every father in gen 1 per child doesn't seem like that much extra.

Thracia Day 30: Chapter 21 Honestly, it's pretty cool seeing Seliph in the FE5-8 sort of art style. Makes him look cooler. But more importantly, it's time to get started on this chapter. It seems pretty straightforward. There'll be some tough reinforcements, but the reinforcements end around turn 10, meaning I am free to spend all the turns I have to with Asbel to get him to his 150th staff use and making him a rewarping fiend. Obviously this is outrageously cheap and will destroy my ranking, but now that I know it can be done, I refuse to finish this game without creating a self-teleporting badass. It just feels like something I am morally obligated to do as a Fire Emblem fan, and it sounds fun as hell. Also, I'm not really a fan of LTCing at any rate. Or at least I hate it when that's what they do to encourage difficulty. I prefer it when games punish, or at least just avoid rewarding, the player for turtling or taking things slow, rather than when games go “yes, we're well aware you can snap our game in half by doing it slowly, but we'll give you a shiny star if you don't!” I like being challenged in more direct, concrete ways. Incidenally, I've seen LTC videos, and while the actual movements and strategies look like they took a lot of work to come up with, a lot of it seems to revolve around finding the quickest way you are physically capable of doing something, and then constantly retrying the level until you get lucky enough to do it. And that does not sound like fun to me. Speaking of incentives to move quickly, this map seems to have... literally no incentives to move quickly. No time-sensitive villages you have to save from bandit reinforcements, no time limit for getting the gaiden chapter (which I'm really looking forward to doing with warp Asbel), no reinforcements coming from behind to make me at least move to a better position... nothing. Well, that works for me I guess. Well that's lame! They almost completely skip over Seliph and Leif's first meeting! We only really see the end of it! I was hoping to actually see Leif's reaction to meeting Seliph for the first time! Also, it's kind of hilarious how worthless and redundant Dermott's Beo Blade's qualities are. It gives Wrath and Vantage, but if I understand correctly, Wrath only activates on the second attack if you have Vantage. But he has a PCC of five and the Beo Blade already has a crit rate of 30, so there's literally no point whatsoever to Wrath being there! His second attack is always going to be a crit with this thing regardless! Still though, he's a free unit with charm and decent stats, so I can't really complain here. I brought Linoan along because apparently she has a special promotion sequence if she visits the church. I haven't really been using her, but I figure I might as well deploy her for that, since I'm not really struggling for deployment slots here. Also, apparently we'll be getting a new shipment of rewarp staves, courtesy of a dark mage delivery from turns 7 to 10. I'll be keeping my army relatively close together until the reinforcements stop showing up, for this reason (yet another way this map doesn't discourage and in fact rewards turtling). And I'm also bringing along two cavalry units, Kane and Hicks, with empty inventories so I can store all the cool shit I get. And also so that I don't have to have a unit I'm actually using be the one who gets poisoned. Unfortunately, I failed a spot check and didn't notice the sleep staff user. He took out Orsin, so now I'm gonna restart and silence him with Linoan. That should solve my problems here. I do have restore staves, but I don't want to risk it being someone who I put in danger on the first few turns. ...Nope, Linoan can't use silence staves. Gotta bring someone else for this purpose. Sarah should do nicely! Alright, that's done. Hicks got poisoned and survived, Lithis is baiting all three initial ballistae at once, and I'm bracing myself for the reinforcements. The reinforcements arrive right on schedule. The soldiers are trivial, Orsin and Tanya just stand in place and let the soldiers unmake themselves upon them. The cavalry is a bit trickier, but I have Callion take care of it. He's got more than enough avoid to dodgetank the poleaxes. Making this the turn where the rewarp mages finally show up. ...But they don't. Disappointing. Guess it's an RNG reinforcement thing. Oh well, I've still got more than enough uses of the things to last me until the end of the game. Especially since I've barely been using them. The Thracian dracoknights seem to have a bizarre AI where they'll only advance when there are units in the area, and if those units retreat, so will the dracoknights, back to the mountains. Well, Orsin and Tanya should make quick work of them regardless once it's finally time to face them. Yeah, I got exceptionally (un)lucky, and the rewarp dark mages didn't show up on literally any of those turns. They're kind of poorly designed, honestly. Less enemy reinforcements and more “free shit”. They can warp, yes, but unlike when enemies use warp staves, rewarp users can't move and attack on the same turn. So really they just show up and you get a whole turn to capture them with minimal consequences beyond the risk of poisoning yourself. And if you use a brave weapon, probably not even that. So yeah, serious shame they didn't show up, but... On the plus side, Asbel got 3 for 3 with his remaining 3 levels on both luck and defense, and has now capped his luck and has 12 defense. Which is largely why I'm not restarting to get luckier with the rewarp staves. The odds of Asbel capping luck again if I retry … aren't bad, but I prefer this. I have plenty of rewarp staves. Due to the formation of the Thracian dracoknights, Tanya can enemy-phase three of them in one turn when they attack at maximum range with their javelins. They'll be a cakewalk. And with the Njörun scroll I gave her, she's consistently gotten great level ups in the one relevant stat she needs to max out: strength. Pity about her low con, but she's doing fine with 15AS, and she can go up to 17 with a killer bow now that she's promoted and she got an extra weapon level for free. She's not amazing, but it's nice having an aura bot partner for Orsin who's just as dodge-tanky as he is. Alright, everything that has any kind of initiative against me has been defeated. Now to grind 100+ turns to finish off that staff rank, and be very, very, very careful taking out the rest of this map. I'm going to do most of it while I staff grind with Asbel, and I'm gonna take this opportunity to finally scroll train Leif. Watching Leif whiff against a ballista, twice, was a surreal but hilarious experience that I'm so grateful I got to witness in a safe environment. 46 turns in, and Asbel's reached C rank staves! Only 100 more turns to go~! Now, the fact that I am choosing to do this is not the game's fault. You could argue that it's a problem that I can milk this much free exp out of a single chapter, but obviously I'm not holding this against the game's pacing. I'm only doing this because I consider the fun of having a rewarping Asbel to be worth this tedium, so if anything, this is a point in the game's favor when it comes to fun factor. However, I do have to question the wisdom of making weapon ranks this slow to level in a game that's intended to be beaten in a time limit of only a few hundred turns for ideal ranked runs. Especially since staff ranks can, at best, be leveled three times a turn, with dancing and a movement star proc. Most of the time just once. In the meantime, I bought some wind tomes with my excess cash flow, since they're the best common tomes, they let him reach 19 AS and 58 base avoid, and Asbel needs to level up his wind rank anyway to be able to use blizzard. I also take the opportunity to sell some of my mostly-broken stuff in storage, since there's a storage house. For some reason, hammers are way cheaper than armorslayers despite basically being the same thing. Pity I can't get much for them. Linoan promoted. The bonuses were... kind of impressive, and it was cool to learn she has Naga blood, but I don't think I'm gonna use her for anything beyond staff botting. Because however good it made the rest of her stats, 17 HP is... abysmal. Shame I never got around to training her, but she was just never a priority for me. Whew! Well, I'm finally done! My hand was getting sore towards the end, once I had finished up all the stuff I wanted to do in the meantime, because I was mostly just healing and turboing as fast as I could. But I did it! Asbel has an A rank in staves! Time to finish this level! I warped in Callion to the little opening in the middle of the enemy forces, which I believe was made when I made the sleep staff priest retreat by silencing him. I warped him in hoping to capture the boss with the Kingmaker and then move on to the gate to be safe until next turn. That... didn't work, because all but one of the four hits missed. I'm pretty sure Callion will still be fine though. I am acutely aware that he doesn't have a crusader scroll. I am going to be very, very displeased if I have to do that over again. Well, Callion survived, but unfortunately since he was stuck in melee range, there was no escaping killing the boss and wasting his fortify and blizzard. Oh well, a win's a win. And at least I can nab the other guy's bolting and physic! Alright, map's over. Holy shit guys. Asbel can rewarp. Asbel, an 11 defense, 20 everything else badass magical juggernaut, can now teleport himself around the map at will. Totally fucking worth it. I can't wait to try this out tomorrow. We've got a prison break chapter! An escape right point by our starting location, we have to break in, get out, all within a strict time limit before massive reinforcements of Fenrir dark mages arrive. I think this is the most hyped for a Thracia chapter I've ever been. I can't wait to get started on it!