The Last To Post Wins!

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Also Leif leveled STRENGTH (!!!).

Now he has as much as Lithis and only one behind Tanya.

Seriously Tanya totally stole Leif's strength.

She is only level 9 and has 7 strength already.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Zemuria

[DragonFlames]

So... I just learned about a genre of Heavy Metal originating in Japan. It's called Kawaii Metal.
I'm... not sure what to make of that, honestly.

---

In other news, I almost finished Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth on Switch (the one that came bundled with the sequel). What I like about it is that you can get every Digimon that was introduced in Hacker's Memory (the aforementioned sequel) in the original game, which makes for some awesome team compilations. And they removed some restrictions on getting a few Digimon, such as needing to do sidequests in order to get the Royal Knights, meaning you can get them whenever the heck you want. It's hilarious fighting the Royal Knights in mirror battles.

On the other hand, some of the new Digimon from Hacker's Memory can downright trivialize bosses in the original.
There is a questline very late into the game that has you fight the Seven Great Demon Lords (Digimon based on the Seven Deadly Sins), which were THE toughest fights in the original Cyber Sleuth.
Now, in the Complete Edition, you have access to a little Digimon called Sistermon Blanc Awakened, who has a Special Attack called Protective Wave that makes it so your entire team is now immune to status effects (something which the Demon Lords, particularly the later ones, just LOVE spamming at you), which lasts for I think 5 turns AND damage, which lasts only until your next turn. This attack alone breaks the difficulty of these battles in half.
Only downside is it costs 99 SP to use and Sistermon has a max of 243 at level 99, but items that fully restore SP exist, so... yeah. Broken 'mon is broken.
Combine this with some heavy hitters such as Imperialdramon Paladin Mode or WarGreymon for damage and you have some very dead Demon Lords on your hands with little trouble.

Edited January 1, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shadow Mir]

On 12/27/2019 at 11:13 AM, DragonFlames said:

Yup.
One of these was the reason FE5 beat me instead of the other way around.

 

I'ma be honest - I cannot grasp how people can like Thracia. It has all the makings of a terrible game imho.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I just want to admit if Thracia 776 did not exist, Three Houses would not exist in the way how it does right now.

 

 

 

[DragonFlames]

45 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I'ma be honest - I cannot grasp how people can like Thracia. It has all the makings of a terrible game imho.

What roped me into playing Thracia was that I found it mechanically interesting. Things like movement stars, movement and Constitution level ups, capturing enemy units (a good version of it, not the hackjob that was Fates' idea) and skills are interesting and potentially great, so I wanted to see what that's like in practice.

What I got in practice was a bit of a mess. The story is interesting based on what I've seen about it in Zemuria's LP, the characters I've seen range from bland to forgettable, the game seems designed around f***ing the player about, only a few units you get are actually capable of fighting pretty much anything at the start (Leif vs. Roy, who is worse?) and ambush spawns are one thing I will never accept as good game design or fair difficulty.
All the negative things I listed off here culminated in Chapter 4 on TOP of giving you only three units, of which only two (if Brighton could actually hit stuff, that is) can fight to start off with, which is the point where I said "screw it, I'm not wasting my time on this".

28 minutes ago, Zemuria said:

I just want to admit if Thracia 776 did not exist, Three Houses would not exist in the way how it does right now.

You might want to direct that gratitude to Romance of the Three Kingdoms instead. Three Houses uses many of that novel's story beats and world building.

Edited January 1, 2020 by DragonFlames

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Thracia 776 introduced tons of new good things, most of them returned in the same or slightly different way in future parts, which means this game had stuff people appreciate.

Thracia's story is actually the best in the series, at least the story of the lord, who is running away his entire life and doesn't actually know what inquities are going on.

The antagonists from this game follow traits which return in future parts: Raydrik shares traits with Jarod as Kempf does with Narcian.

About Veld, idk, he was really bland from what I remember, not only that he is the 

Spoiler

most pathetic final boss in the series statwise.

 

[Shrimpica]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

I'ma be honest - I cannot grasp how people can like Thracia. It has all the makings of a terrible game imho.

Because, imo, it has alot of features that are pretty damn fun to play with. Some of them to never make a return. Not to mention the map design is pretty damn good as well, especially the Manster arc.

I can see why people would hate, and the faults are certainly glaring, but for me it's positives outweigh it's negatives.

Story is ok. Like FE4, FE5's story is really hurt by the existence of the Loptyr cult.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Shrimperor

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Capturing is a big reason why FE5 is a particullary fun game to me, best mechanic in FE.

[DragonFlames]

As far as I'm concerned, I don't hate Thracia.
On the one hand, I can appreciate the interesting mechanics and story, on the other hand, the culmination of what I mentioned in my post above was what prevented me from getting farther than I did and I'll be honest, I'm not exactly inclined to go back to it and try again. Not with so many other games I have yet to play/will come out/are worthy of replaying that I'd much rather play.

[Shrimpica]

5 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

the culmination of what I mentioned in my post above was what prevented me from getting farther than I did and I'll be honest, I'm not exactly inclined to go back to it and try again.

Totally understandable. Not every FE game is for everyone. Do not let me start on GBAFE, for example, because for the love of me i can't understand why the fanbase loves them so much.

Going from FE5 to FE6 was like....''Where are all the features?'' They removed everything and only kept the basic math and everything i hated.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Quote

Going from FE5 to FE6 was like....''Where are all the features?'' They removed everything and only kept the basic math and everything i hated.

FE6 was like two steps back to the dark age.

 

[DragonFlames]

9 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Going from FE5 to FE6 was like....''Where are all the features?'' They removed everything and only kept the basic math and everything i hated.

They kept the gameplay-wise craptastic lord. How can you NOT love that? XD

But yeah, I can definitely see where you're coming from. The GBA FEs are so far on my list of games I've played once to have played them. I did play FE7 and 8 twice each because of the different routes and that was the end of it. FE6 I played once and I didn't really enjoy it.
I just realized that this basically means that I'm of the mind that FE didn't truly get good until FE9. Oh my.

One thing I do love about FE7 in particular is the music.
Then again, every FE game has good to great music, so that's not exactly a point in its favor.

Edited January 1, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shrimpica]

6 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

They kept the gameplay-wise craptastic lord. XD

...I think that's just @Zemuriabeing unlucky xD

Leif, for me, has been one of my better lords stat-wise, and from what i've seen from other people and streams, Leif usually turns out to be pretty damn good. Especially early on he was the only one i could tank anything with (before my whole team just started evading everything). He also has support with alot of strong peeps, which raises their hit and avo by quite alot.

Reminder that i once had this Ike

Edited January 1, 2020 by Shrimperor

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

Having a weak Leif is not too bad since enemies don't grow as much as in other games. The cap of 20 defense at best (excludeing terrain boosts) comes to my favor in this game. 

Having a weak Ike is more problematic since his strength is required for two bossfights.

 

 

[Armagon]

Vestaria Saga did not have to go that hard on it's shop theme but it did.

[Acacia Sgt]

That was a very bad decision to make in PoR.

At least they learned for RD. Even if Ike still has to land the killing blow, at least anyone else can reliably damage Ashera. If you ask, yes, anyone, since I'm sure Herons with the Magic Cards can still damage her too if their Mag stat is high enough.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Shrimpica]

6 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

At least they learned for RD

By making Ike super op? xD

I am pretty sure he can solo the game at base xD

And in PoR post promotion my Ike turned out fine, thankfully.

6 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

a. If you ask, yes, anyone, since I'm sure Herons with the Magic Cards can still damage her too if their Mag stat is high enough.

Good luck dealing with her total 920HP (iirc) that way though xD

Edited January 1, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

21 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

...I think that's just @Zemuriabeing unlucky xD

Leif, for me, has been one of my better lords stat-wise, and from what i've seen from other people and streams, Leif usually turns out to be pretty damn good. Especially early on he was the only one i could tank anything with (before my whole team just started evading everything). He also has support with alot of strong peeps, which raises their hit and avo by quite alot.

I stand corrected, then.
I really need to tread carefully, since I haven't gotten far into the game. I myself wasn't impressed with Leif's performance. With the exception of Marty, everyone on the starting squad was more useful in combat than he was. Maybe that changes after Chapter 4 or I got just as unlucky.

21 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Reminder that i once had this Ike

I do remember this one, but still: Omega Ouch.

13 minutes ago, Zemuria said:

Having a weak Ike is more problematic since his strength is required for two bossfights.

I 100% agree with this one.
Though you could make the argument that one of these boss fights is optional. And Nasir isn't THAT much better than Ena, to be honest.

11 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

At least they learned for RD. Even if Ike still has to land the killing blow, at least anyone else can reliably damage Ashera. If you ask, yes, anyone, since I'm sure Herons with the Magic Cards can still damage her too if their Mag stat is high enough.

I believe this is the reason they didn't repeat the 'only the lord and certain special units can do damage to the Final Boss' thing, because while it creates a Gameplay-Story-Segregation situation (nowhere more egregious than Revelation, where the game makes it clear you can't fight Anankos without the Omega Yato, but you can absolutely kill him without ever attacking him once with Corrin), it prevents you from getting softlocked by RNG-screwage in a worst case scenario.

7 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

By making Ike super op? xD

I am pretty sure he can solo the game at base xD

He gets slaughtered by mages, though. Even with Ragnell, mages are still the bane of his existence.

Edited January 1, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shrimpica]

6 minutes ago, DragonFlames said:

He gets slaughtered by mages, though. Even with Ragnell, mages are still the bane of his existence.

yes.

I remember one of my game over's being Ike being utterly destroyed by a thunder Mage on the Bridge map. The Mage didn't even need the crit, but he critted anyway xD

Real talk though, i much prefer an OP lord of a weak lord. Weak lords are the worst, especially since you need them to seize and stuff, and always have to be on the front for events.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Shrimperor

[Interdimensional Observer]

Tried for a Cultural Victory in Civ VI. It was going well, until around turn 250 Montezuma started going to war against me. I had only garrisons, he had tens of units, he destroyed two of my cities, not captured, destroyed. That being unbearable, I reloaded a save and started doing everything I could to placate Montezuma, offering all my luxuries and all the money I could to keep him happy, but that never lasted long.

This might stem from me capturing the city he made right where I intended to put one in the Ancient Age. Considering it didn't have anything necessary for my Cultural Victory, I returned the city to him, which provided a massive improvement in the relationship.

Except it still wasn't enough! He declared war on me tens of turns later, which given the open borders I conceded to him earlier and the fact I hadn't spent anything on improving my army, meant it was still a game over. Even forking 2000 Gold over to him wasn't enough! I didn't have anything left other than the Great Works I need for my Culture win to give him! And the yellow circle was just a hair short of being full! I was this close to winning!

Maybe I have a city I can concede, perhaps on the other continent that I don't need for my Cultural Victory, maybe that will end the terror by letting Montezuma war on someone else. But given how things have gone so far, I'm doubtful of it.

 

Edit: Tried giving up a city, it delayed war for 1 turn. Stupid stupid Montezuma! I had Cyrus and Alexander on the same map, yet neither declared war on me despite being so bellicose.

I have a turn ~240 save, about 60 prior. I could try to salvage things by reloading this and spending all my funds to amass some forces to attack him. Considering I'm playing with a 500 turn limit, even if this delayed my Culture Victory, I have a time cushion.

Edited January 1, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[DragonFlames]

4 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

yes.

I remember one of my game over's being Ike being utterly destroyed by a thunder Mage on the Bridge map. The Mage didn't even need the crit, but he critted anyway xD

I had a moment in 4-1, I think (the FoW map where you're in the middle surrounded on all sides by enemies), where I sent him off on his own and he got slaughtered by the mages that come up there. He did have Ragnell, but it didn't save him.
Also, in 4-3, there are those nasty Sleep staff users that have very high hit on him. Those guys f***ed me over once or twice as well.

4 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Real talk though, i much prefer an OP lord of a weak lord. Weak lords are the worst, especially since you need them to seize and stuff, and always have to be on the front for events.

Saaame.
I don't even mind if the lord isn't the strongest unit on the team, but they have to be able to at least do SOMETHING instead of just being a liability.

Besides, it's pretty weird to have a lord labelled as a hero in the end when they did jack and shit during the entire campaign. XD

Edited January 1, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shrimpica]

Since we are talking about FE, Maps and stuff, what are your some of your fav. Maps in the series, everyone? We had a similiar discussion on the sub yesterday, so might as well copy my answer xD

Thracia 776 Chapter 5

This. This map. Has everything. From Story and gameplay prespective. It kicks ass. The only thing i really hate about it is the chest at the bottom right. Like why, Kaga <.<

May or may not be my fav. Chapter in the series, but definetly my fav. in T776 and where Thracia peaked imo.

Conquest Chapter 10

The best defence chapter in the Series. Period. So much stuff to do, so much stuff to take care of. And while super tough, it's also very fair.

In general, i want the conquest gameplay designers to work on FE again. Put them together with FE3H Story peeps for extreme hype.

Radiant Dawn Endgame

So far, the best Final boss in the seires (Unless GD or BL final boss change my mind). The map itself is nothing special (infact, it's quite plain), but this is the first final boss in the series to have so many different attacks, AOE stuff and stuff you have to take care of first. It just isn't an onverglorified mob unit like most of the final Bosses in the Series.

Three Houses Chapter 7

Spoiler

his one. The game hypes it up for all the game until there. And damn does it deserve all the hype. And the music. THE MUSIC. The unique ObjectiveTo defeat more enemies than the other 2 classes that forces you to play super aggresive. The amount of strong enemy units (Damn it Hilda stop 24 x 2'ing my whole Team. Damn it Golden Deer stop kicking Blue Lion's ass, i need to kick their ass first! Poor Blue Lions, got sandwhiched between me and Golden deer xD) A Super Hype Battle.

In general, two things i give Three Houses credit for is that almost every map has multipe side objectives, and that the game is extremly Player Phase focused (I don't wanna EP those 50+ ATK Wyvern Squad with their 62 Brave ATK! boss while my tankiest unit had 20 Prt xD)

Radiant Dawn 2-E

Also known as Elincia's Gambit. One of the best in the series. If only Haar didn't trivalize it so much XD.

Thracia 776 Chapter 19

This Map. Boy this map. At a glance, it may seem like an empty long map. But boy, are you wrong. This map is like that to make use of all the (Re-)Warp staves the player acquired during the game. Warping around the map is soooooooo muuchhhhhh fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun. Of course, you can try to do it the classic way, but that's boring 😛 (and probably pretty hard with 2 horse squads near half your units)

Conquest Chapters 22, 23, 24

The Maps where you face Takumi, Sakura and Hinoka. Especially Sakura's and Hinoka's. So damn well design. So goooooooooooooooooood. How you've to play around the dragon veins, how you've to take the enemies' Skills into consideration (not to mention their high quality), and how you navigate the map in general. 

Sadly, they are followed by that atrocious Ryoma map.

Did i mention i love Conquest's Map design? xD

Three Houses Chapter 12

Spoiler

The last chapter of Part 1. Wether on the attack or the defence, i found this map to be quite a fun challenge, and pretty damn fun. Honestly, it kinda reminds me of Radiant Dawn 3-13, but biiiiiig. Not to mention the Story relevance of the map. It's where everything really starts kicking. One of the best gameplay/story integration maps in the series, without sacrificing either of them.

 

[Armagon]

Three chapters into Vestaria Saga and i found the first instance of Kaga bullshit. One of my Lord characters (the game has two, Zade and Princess Athol) died to a ballista except

You can't actually tell it's a ballista unit unless you check his range. I'm so used to seeing ballista tiles that this completely caught me off guard. Kaga, i know you made this without a budget but c'mon.

1 hour ago, DragonFlames said:

the characters I've seen range from bland to forgettable,

Tbf, Supports were not a thing until FE6. Unless it's a major character, i give FE4 and 5 a pass for having forgettable characters since those games haven't had remakes with Supports.

43 minutes ago, Shrimperor said:

Going from FE5 to FE6 was like....''Where are all the features?''

I personally don't mind that the GBA games were rather simpler than the Jugdral games. Especially with Blazing the first FE to ever come to the West, it kinda made sense that these games weren't as complex as the previous ones.

But i also feel that FE4 and 5's mechanics, while good in concept, were not executed properly in those games so while i can understand FE5 -> FE6 feeling like a downgrade, i personally see it as a fresh start (which makes sense given Kaga had already left). If i'm looking for more complex FEs, the post-GBA games are there while the GBA games (and FE3 i guess) exist when i want a simpler experience.

 

 

[Shrimpica]

3 minutes ago, Armagon said:

You can't actually tell it's a ballista unit unless you check his range. I'm so used to seeing ballista tiles that this completely caught me off guard. Kaga, i know you made this without a budget but c'mon.

 

tbf though, you should always check every unit before the Map starts. Especially since you just came from three houses with the 5 Range enemy Snipers, and 4 Range 7 Mov Bow Knights.

Also, Siege Mages are always a thing 😉

Edited January 1, 2020 by Shrimperor

[DragonFlames]

4 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Three chapters into Vestaria Saga and i found the first instance of Kaga bullshit. One of my Lord characters (the game has two, Zade and Princess Athol) died to a ballista except

You can't actually tell it's a ballista unit unless you check his range. I'm so used to seeing ballista tiles that this completely caught me off guard. Kaga, i know you made this without a budget but c'mon.

I think this says more about Kaga as a game designer than anything else.

4 minutes ago, Armagon said:

Tbf, Supports were not a thing until FE6. Unless it's a major character, i give FE4 and 5 a pass for having forgettable characters since those games haven't had remakes with Supports.

That is a good point, I admit.
Which is why I prefer the modern games that have supports to flesh out the characters.