Zapp Branniglenn

Liberating the region's oil has been the conspicuous dream of the western world for at least a century. Although in real life, we tend to back the theocrat over the democrat in vulnerable nations. If anything I think it's an unfair comparison because of the Oil. The Empire doesn't get any equivalent or unique resource from taking over Fodlan. Just a few more holy relics to add to the war vault - assuming any crest bearers still live on their side to wield them. And they're at the point where they're making their own relics (to say nothing of Nukes). Agarthan weapons require no Crest, and they made matching strength weapons for The Zombie Elites. When it's time to turn the conquest beyond Fodlan, Having the Spear of Assal in Ferdinand's hands will hardly be noteworthy. It's like if we went into battle today with a World War 2 era re-commissioned tank. Still dangerous, but outdated.

The Exoprimal x Street Fighter thing really threw me with that shot of Ryu holding a machine gun. They're not cyborg versions of street fighters, they would have to mechs with pilots. Somebody is gonna flash kick some dinos in a GuileBot and I wanna see that. Anyway here's the second biggest documentary announced this week. All about Volvy, Gaming's biggest mascot What's the first biggest? Obviously it's Hideo Kojima's directed and produced documentary about Hideo Kojima. I'm pretty sure that one's unironic though

I guess there's an easy way to test if there is merit. Read a wikipedia plot synopsis of a movie, then watch the movie. Obviously a film is about more than its plot. Wikipedia won't tell you if there's a character you connect with. It won't tell you how well the scenes were shot or about the actors' performances. I follow an essayist Patrick H Willems and his recent Tenet video is all about films where the plot, What is happening and Why, does not have to matter. But in a prequel/sequel situation it's hard to make broad statements without locking down an approach For a video game example, Red Dead Redemption 2 was an interesting experience. If you played the first game then you know the broad strokes of what happened to the Dutch Van Der Linde gang, then the pre-sequel has you playing a member of that notorious gang in its final days. I remember some folks talking about how they know Dutch is going to do *something and so there was no twist. But that's not the story. There are more characters in this gang than Dutch. 95% of RDR2's plot is not known from the bits and pieces we got in the first game.

Oh that's right. Here's the Skedge Summer Games Fest is Indie Christmas so my favorites will probably be games I have never heard of. I'm also looking forward to Mortal Kombat 1's Gameplay premiere. And the Devolver Direct, starring Volvy, everyone's favorite mascot that absolutely exists and you just forgot. Volvy for Smash!

I usually use the Wiki for information like that https://fireemblemwiki.org/wiki/List_of_chapters_in_Fire_Emblem:_The_Blazing_Blade

I'm out the other end of some bleak grown up stuff. So I'm regaining some normalcy with our regularly scheduled gaming Fire Emblem: The Last Promise Warhammer 40K: Boltgun Turok: Dinosaur Hunter

I've seen AI make baffling decisions like that in older games regarding javelins. Or an enemy mage attacks you at 1 range. Not consistently but maybe once in a playthrough. I've heard that FE4 tweaks the AI's targeting parameters depending on whether they have a commander and how much leadership stars that commander has. But I can't say I've noticed anything anecdotally.

The average Edelgard defense starts and ends with What About Rhea? Yes what about this genocide survivor who has lived long enough to see several magnitudes more human cruelty than any person? She's a damaged mind propped up by a massive religion. If you've lived long enough to have some great injustice done to you, than you know how hard it is to walk away from that pain so that it doesn't define everything in your life. Now imagine that difficulty stems from a Holocaust-level injustice, AND you're the world's biggest known celebrity with legions of people who would defend your actions to their dying breath. By erasing history, even the history that makes her look like the victim she factually was, she was desperate to seem mortal. It's up for debate whether she was motivated by this, but her own "Kill the memory of God" initiative did more to "abolish the Church" than Edelgard did. Her war sets back the clock a thousand years in re-justifying the Church's existence. Any time there is a revolt against the church, Rhea has to contend with nightmares that Nemesis and his men would come back and finish the job. And in a bizarre cosmic coincidence, they factually do come back to finish the job. There's also that dragon degeneration stuff, which, is not textualized in Three Houses. More of a "Fire Emblem fans? If you know you know." And I wouldn't bring it up if not for the Silver Snow finale being so inexplicable without it. Rhea does not sleep every other lifetime like Flayn and Seteth do. And if we follow Archanean's canon, hibernation is the only way to stave off the madness. Even in real life the average person can end up with un unrecognizeably cruel personality past 60, no dementia required. Are dragon minds built different? And if they are, are they built different enough where it doesn't have to be inevitable? If we can't answer, then what is the basis for comparison with some tortured, radicalized teenager? Not a lot happens with that story event. All that's worthy of mention is that Lonato's Rebellion was expected to be suppressed (as in surrender, not exactly dead) before we got there and that Rhea sends your class there as some dumb Scared Straight program that demonstrates what Knights are out to protect against. The real life version with cops is controversial too. But the fog lets them slip past the Knights' perimeter and suddenly your students are fighting a revolt made mostly of rallied civilians. That is a worst case scenario, not the initial plan. But we know who really caused the revolt with hindsight. And the immediate concern without that hindsight is that assassination note. Nobody believes that this revolt was part of a larger assassination plot, not even the shrewd, over-protective Seteth, but it ends up being part of the conspiracy. We catch them in the act, stealing relics and presumably the crest stones and anything else not nailed down to wage war on the Goddess. Armed with new WMDs, would the Agarthans have made their attempt on Rhea's life during the Rite of Rebirth, or quit and wait for a better opportunity when she's not as guarded? Hard to say, but it would have been a win regardless without Byleth's intervention. I'm thinking people do tend to conflate Chapter 3's narrative with Chapter 4. That's the one where surviving "Western Church members" (Agarthans) are executed, but those weren't Lonato and his men. Pretty much everybody is shocked at the cruelty of capital punishment though. It doesn't sound like a common thing in Fodlan. It doesn't sound like a common thing in our world either, if you live in a sheltered country like the US that only executes eleven people a year. That's our lowest since 1988 woo! One wonders if they would have faced life imprisonment instead if they hadn't gone after Rhea's "mother" or if more of them surrendered than a small group that could be made an example of. In Chapter 11 when the Empire makes another attempt at the Tomb with Rhea present, and there's no deception this time about it being the Empire, she orders you to kill them. I don't see any alternative order when the new Emperor has shown up in person to declare her war. I tell you, given recent world events, reading up about fictional insurrections is kind of...annoying. Hearing the same "Wait they didn't say this would happen!" You mean it's Illegal to overthrow the government??? We thought we were saving this country! And we know in real life, even when they've been exposed to the grift, some of these people can't be reformed. Proudly boasting they'd do it again. Another Jan 6 in 2025 feels like it's somewhere between Probably and More than Likely.

I'd be curious how the game would change if the Attack command was banned, on top of banning combat arts and gambits that deal damage. Basically, only enemy phase combat is allowed. No relying on Smash or curved shot. Tons of abilities that only activate on player phase become useless. It may make for a more dull, slower playthrough in practice. But your turn is now freed to use Reposition, Vulneraries and rallies. I'm curious what else in the game suddenly becomes much more useful in that ecosystem. One thing's for sure though, Monster battles become a nightmare in a way that wouldn't be fun. I know what it's like to ban damage dealing gambits, and it's already a pain dealing with them when I can still go for the armor break and make use of Seal skills to debuff them. Those aren't options if the attack command is banned. Banning gambits against monsters may be the one step that's too far. The only answer I can think of is to surround a monster on all four sides so that they cannot move and must attack you from 1 range. But some of them have Renewal.

Heroes relics that are outlined in Gold (these are the ones that require the wielder to have a crest) are repaired with Umbral Steel. You don't need to use them if you don't want to, but they can be powerful with Combat Arts especially. You may not have much Umbral Steel now, but they're the most common material drop from monsters in most missions. To get more, you want to break all their armor pieces to inflict a Full Break. You need to hit all their squares twice before they get repaired by their big AOE (you know that's coming on the next turn if they start roaring). To break their armor faster, look out for that monster's weapon weakness (Sword, Lance, Axe, or Bows if it's a flier), those weapons will break a piece in one hit. Gambits also break the targeted piece one hit, while damaging all others in the AOE. Monster Battles are tricky to master. You'll want to practice going for the Full Break. If the enemy's Atk stat does not surpass your unit's Prt stat (Or Rsl stat if it's magical damage) then they take 0 damage. You can do the math yourself, but the Aggro lines will also tell you how much damage an enemy will do to their intended target, so pay attention to that. Killing the Death Knight early on is very difficult, but it can make for a fun challenge on repeat runs. You'll run into the Death Knight a lot as the game goes on, and eventually you're expected to fight him. You'll get strong enough to take him on though, so try it out when you feel you're ready. There really isn't much of a reason to pick seminars. You're absolutely correct that Explore and Battle are more lucrative in terms of bonuses, but you can pick seminars once you start to get tired of all the busy work. To get more out of seminars, look at what skills they teach. If you adjust your unit's Goals to include one of those skills, they will attend the seminar. Up to six attendees total. So in this way you get to choose who gets the bonuses. As for Rest, again, not much point beyond just passing your turn if you don't want to do any busy work. I would pick Seminar over this any day.

It's because: The Empire = The Agarthans, politically speaking. I am pleased I don't have to prove it since you agree. She knows it better than anyone. And it's been that way since before the events of the game. She doesn't need to launch a world war, she needs to launch a coup. And as the heiress, people would follow her when her only public opposition is her "Uncle". She could solicit the Church for help. She could even solicit The Kingdom for help if she uncovered the truth about Duscur (Dimitri got his hunch by heading to the library) and banked on her relationship with their next in line king. And if she's smart enough to wait until her coronation, then it's not technically a coup. Optics! You seem to understand nothing. You can say "no offense intended" but this is dripping with condescension. I already told you I sped past the gameplay of those other routes to experience the story and characters. It wasn't happenstance, it was the whole point of the exercise. And I've been posting links to the game script, so that you don't have to wonder if I'm misconstruing anything. We played the same game. Told and not shown, I remember. In other routes we actually do the grunt work of waging a war at their doorstep, and it's not easy. The Agarthans are totally unprepared for us and still have a full suite of defenses and a self destruct button in place. Everyone would have died if Rhea wasn't there to intercept the nukes. How did Hubert wage an unseen war and win? How do we know he wasn't defeated and replaced with a body double? Where's Nemesis and the Elites? These are the things worth talking about when we say CF seems at odds with the other routes. If CF were the only route, we would still have questions about this, but not counter-examples from the same video game.

Maybe this creates an opportunity to flex with the class' animations. We've seen mages in modern games temporarily float in the air during their attacks. That defying of the laws of physics can be taken to a new extreme. So imagine this mage using their magic powers to float around with an exoskeleton of armor pieces. Like an arcane golem of dis-attached parts of armor that only suggest the shape of a man. So when an attack is coming, the armor pieces fall off and disassemble, the person is yanked free from the mesh, then the parts reassemble in their new location around them. Then for physical attacks we can get the callback to GBA generals where they throw their lance, and reach out with their hand to pull it back with telekenetic force. The justification for low move and low speed is that it takes a lot of magical concentration to fight like that and the person's natural agility isn't contributing to the fighting style.

I repeat: It's one thing to privately disapprove of someone's actions or motivations, and another thing entirely to wage a war in their name going on five years that has taken the lives of countless people that trusted you to Lead. And if Edelgard really does see the Slitherers as a comparatively great evil, then it's a case of 'Woman who made her own bed is Outraged she must now lie in it'. Nothing about her motivations and backstory lines up in siding with her abusers, and that's why CF is so odd to read as a Heroic-Route-Actually. You have to ignore so much of what's going on. Like the Javelins of Light at Arianrhod scene. This is a direct attack from Uncle and a huge military setback for both parties. When the events are described to us, the twist about Nukes has a new perspective in this route "what we thought the Goddess was capable of was actually our allies". And instead of turning on them right then and there, or at least acknowledging them as a greater threat than perceived, it's "wow we better take the L and blame the church if anyone asks". Maybe Hopes is the second (and third?) chance to Do CF and its characters right. But it doesn't excuse Three Houses. Its not "their intention all along" clarified. It's a revision. I stopped reading about Hopes when I learned of the multiple routes. They didn't learn anything from TH! Yet I didn't want to trash a game I haven't played. I stayed away from news and discussion specifically to avoid being the kill joy up to and after release. Me speed running through the two other routes of Three Houses grants the impression that I was invested in that story. But really I was just desperate to find something I liked about the new, sixty dollar fire emblem. They made these other routes, I guess I'll play them as fast as possible. In retrospect, cutting out the Fire Emblem bits and only being left with the Monastery junk I didn't like was really short sighted on my end. Avoiding Hopes was my "call me when Fire Emblem is Fire Emblem again" redemption arc.

I cannot parse what this means. The only thing these two games have in common is that Book 2 and FE6 both end early if you didn't get all the macguffins. We call them the "bad" ending, but really nothing in the ending's tone implies you did anything wrong. Someone on a first playthrough would be none the wiser. And every loose end that gets resolved in the true ending either won't happen inexplicably or resolves itself offscreen. Wow. Just like CF. Archanea's Dragon Altar. Elibe's Dragon Temple. Fodlan's Shambala. Definitely feels like a route missing it's "true ending" chapters.

That's why I brought it up. Most enemies in FE4 don't double you because they lack pursuit, therefore Arden's another example of an armor knight who wasn't getting doubled in the first place. But even if Wary Fighter doesn't hurt, it's a skill obtained as a level 5 general. Surely Fates has some skills gotten at that level of other classes that are more helpful than Wary Fighter. And with no drawback tied to it. Those classes get a real boost at the same time Effie gets Wary Fighter. That should say something about General as a class right?