screenshot Matthewtheman Plays FE4 Project Naga: 9 Movement Bonanza! (with other minor edits)[Chapter 1 Prelude up]

[Katie]

EDIT: Note that most of the skills I added to the characters eventually got removed, as I decided it'd be more interesting to add class skills instead, so the enemy benefits too.

Before anyone asks, yes I'm still doing GhebSaga. I'm just procrastinating waiting until the poll gives me a clear top 5 to use in the next test. This is a side LP I'll be doing alongside GhebSaga. Anyway, I've been wanting to LP the new FE4 translation ever since it came out, but I wanted to wait until the beta was over or nearly over. At this point, beta 7, the patch is pretty much finished enough for me, and has a bunch of cool bugfixes and shit, too. However, I don't want to do a standard FE4 run, because anybody can do one of those. Instead, I decided to hack it so that every class (except pirates and brigands, because I don't want to have to rush villages) now has 9 move, making the gap in usefulness between mounted and non-mounted units in this game significantly, if not entirely, narrowed. Yes, I mainly did this so Arden could be good. Because my units will be facing a lot more combat now that everything has 9 move, I also buffed everyone's bases and growths to varying degrees. And just for fun, I gave most units more skills and made some minor edits to many of the weapons. I'll probably release a patch of this to the public so you guys can experience it for yourselves eventually, but right now I've geared it towards this specific playthrough, and the units I'm benching (the cavs, Midir, and Lex) haven't been buffed nearly as much as everyone else. As far as pairings go, this is what I have planned:

Jamke/Aideen

Arden/Ayra

Finn/Raquesis

Claude/Sylvia

Lewyn/Erin

Azel/Taillte

Dew/Bridget

Anyway, without further adieu, let's begin...

Prologue part 1:

I'm gonna try and focus more on the translation than my problems with the game's plot. If you wanna know why FE4 has a bad plot, go read Integrity's LP. Anyway, we now have a translated opening, which is cool.

???: A devil's shade cast upon our land

Plunging it into deepest darkness

And condemning us to grief without end

Who's supposed to be speaking here, anyway?

???: The twelve gods descended from above

To lead the charge against the great evil.

I'm assuming the devil is supposed to be Loptyr, whom I believe is the dragon pictured here. I just realized this opening pretty much spoils the twist that Loptyr and the other "gods" are actually dragons.

I'm guessing this dragon is Naga.

???: We and our world were thus reborn.

And here are the holy weapons. I can get the gist of what this opening is talking about, but I don't really follow some of it.

???: As time flows endlessly on...

Our nightmare has faded into legend...

Already? As we'll see shortly, it's only been a little over a century since the Loptyr Empire fell. Are there no historians in Jugdral?

Here's a pretty sweet looking translated title screen.

Here's the Jugdral Chronology opening roll, which scrolls by way too fast, by the way. I definitely like this translation better all ready. The old patch's Jugdral Chronology section was mainly made up of short, blunt, sentence fragments. Seriously, just look at it:

Anyway, on to the opening narration...

Look, they even edited the world map to match with the new translations. Anyway, like most FEs, the game start off with a big plot dump. One thing I really like about Awakening is that instead of having a big info dump narration at the start of each chapter, you instead find out all the relevant plot info in the cutscenes themselves.

Opening narration: Saint Heim of the Twelve Crusaders. Supporting the royal family, the heirs of Heim, are six noble houses, each also descended from a Crusader of old. The six states, while still subservient to the royal family, each occupy vast swaths

Those of you who've played EarthBound may recognize this font, as it's lifted from that game. As an EB fan myself, I quite like the font.

Like with most FE narrations, the portraits of plot relevant characters will pop up as they're mentioned.

Some of them, like Kurth's here, only get used in the narration, for various reasons. In Kurth's case, it's because he gets killed offscreen before we even meet him.

ON: Kurth has two trusted advisors in his rule:

The top one is Sigurd's daddy, Lord Byron, while the moustache dude is Ring, Bridget and Aideen's daddy.

Gee, this guy sure doesn't look evil at all.

ON: has long objected to the threat to his influence posed by Kurth and his advisors,

In case the scowls didn't already tip you off, these are the bad guys.

ON: opposed to Kurth's rule over Grannvale.

Here's Arvis, one of the only well written villains in this game. It certainly helps that unlike a good majority of this games villains, he's actually pretty looking.

That may be true right now, but he eventually ends up "allying" himself with Langbalt and Reptor. I say "allying" with quotation marks because he eventually backstabs both of them and leaves them to die at the hands of Sigurd's army. Oh, and if you can't tell already, this LP is NOT spoiler free, and I'm assuming you're already familiar with the game's plot. (If you aren't, go read Integrity's LP)

Claude will be joining our army later, but not for a while.

ON: Into the midst of this tense situation, comes dire news from Jugdral's east.

Darna is the location where the twelve crusaders met with the "gods" and formed a blood pact.

ON: Is now besieged by savage warriors from Isaach. Reports of a brutal massacre abound. The news is met by the people of Grannvale with furious cries for retribution, and before long the kingdom declares war on Isaach. Prince Kurth leads Grannvale's charge on his father's behalf, commanding the military might of the kingdom's six houses. At Kurth's side as always is none other than Lord Byron, a highly decorated hero of peerless valor in his own right.

Just FYI, this hero of "peerless valor" is a level 10 Master Knight with only 20 HP. I have a feeling retrieving Tyrfing will be an exercise in frustration.

ON: Grannvale has poured its entire military might into the Isaach campaign, and precious few soldiers remain behind.

I believe this is the game's flimsy justification for why our army is so small.

ON: With its neighbors -

Here's Agustria. Its royalty are some of my least favorite characters in gen 1.

Verdane is literally an entire country of earlygame axe wielding bandits.

ON: None dare to dream they could ever be threatened.

Too bad all but one chapter in gen 1 takes place in at least one of these three allied countries.

ON: It is not long at all, however, before the people's confidence is shattered.

Not to be confused with the wizard Gandalf from LOTR.

ON: crosses the Grannvale border and lays siege to Jungby Castle.

Because leaving an unarmed healer as your castle's only defense is always a good idea!

ON: Lord Byron has entrusted the defense of Grannvale in his absence to his son,

It's not even a handful, it's literally just 3 dudes who all suck. Sigurd more than makes up for the failings of his comrades, though.

ON: A friend of Aideen since childhood, Sigurd is horrified to hear of the Jungby siege, and even with so few soldiers, is determined to protect Aideen and his fatherland from the savage Verdanite hordes.

Fucking finally. That narration was almost as wordy as MFV.

ON: Nobody could have known then that this simply disturbance was but the first of countless calamities to come.

Translated chapter title!

Every one of them? Isn't it just Aideen and Midir?

Aideen: You must ensure that as many of you survive this as possible.

Midir: No, milady. We might not stand a chance, but every last one of us will give our lives to protect you, right to the very end.

Aideen: Thank you, Midir. ...I'm so sorry.

Here we have Sigurd and Noish.

I really like the way bookofholsety translated these lines. It looks like something you'd find in an official FE localization. Anyway, Noish, Sigurd can solo gen 1, while you're just deadweight.

Sigurd: Nearly all of our forces are already on the march to Isaach with Father. There's hardly anybody left to call upon.

Don't even think about it, Noish. I'd like to have a decent survival ranking by the end of this run, thank you very much.

Nope, only Arden will be, because I actually buffed him. Your scrub ass is staying in the castle for most of the first gen.

Noish: Alec, I trust you're of the same mind?

And here's the other half of the Christmas cav duo, diaperheadAlec.

Which is exactly why I didn't give them 9 move.

Alec: We've gotta get there first, and lend the locals a hand in locking the villages down and fortifying their defenses.

Sigurd: Absolutely. We musn't neglect our knightly duties to the people, especially not at a time like this. Good point, Alec.

Alec: Actually, that was all Oifey's idea. That kid's every bit the tactician they say he is. Give him a few years and he'll be a match for his old grandpa, Lord Cesare!

Is Lord Cesare ever even brought up again?

Here's Oifey, the 14 year old tactician for Sigurd's army. He won't be joining us in battle until gen 2.

Oifey: I can't just sit back while you risk your lives.

You know, some of the people that join our army are barely any older than he is, if at all.

Oifey: Please, allow me to accompany you. I swear I won't let you down.

Sigurd: Fair enough, Oifey. After all, you've already spent two years training as my squire. Real battlefield experience would be fantastic for your training, but you're still definitely not up to actual combat duty for now. How about you ride with me as my advisor instead?

Oifey: Y-yes! Thank you, sire! Thank you!

Noish, there aren't even any enemy reinforcements that pop up near the home castle in this map.

I find myself rarely, if ever, actually leaving someone behind to defend the home castle.

Yeah, fuck you, diaper head. Arden's gonna be the MVP of this run.

I really like the way these lines were translated. Anyway, guess what, Diaper Head? Arden got a buff to his speed base and growth, so he's no longer too slow. IIRC, I gave him a 45% speed growth and a slight point buff to his base speed.

Don't worry, Arden. I'm gonna make Diaper Head take over for you in guard duty.

And with that, we can finally begin the gameplay.

Here's Sigurd. He's the lord and he's amazing.

Here's Noish. He sucks and I'm not using him.

Here's Alec. He sucks and I'm not using him.

Here's Arden. In regular FE4, he sucks, but I've made him actually good, so I will be using him. You'll notice I gave him the POWER OF PURSUIT despite the fact that he gets the Pursuit Ring in chapter 2. This is because I want Ethlyn, who leaves after chapter 3, to pass the Pursuit Ring down to Leif, but I don't want Arden to be pursuitless for most of gen 1.

Anyway, let's start killing things!

Sigurd curbstomps the poor chap.

The gallant hero Arden marches towards a nearby village, hoping to save its citizens from the Verdanite savages.

Just as I promised mah boi Arden, I made Diaper Head guard the castle. Noish retreats inside the safety of its walls.

Meanwhile, enemy phase kicks off with a cutscene!

Gandolf takes out Midir with a crit, despite the fact that he lacks the critical skill. Cheating AI at its finest.

It's okay Midir. That was BS and we both know it.

I'd like to point out that other than the villagers, Jamke, and the king, Verdane is literally an entire kingdom of thugs.

Here's the boss of Jungby castle. I'd like to end this update after we seize it, but I may end up having to cut it short before then, as I'm already over halfway through the screenshot limit and it's still only the first turn.

DiMaggio's portrait contrasts with the way the line is delivered.

Gandolf: When I do, all Grannvale's our oyster. Even Belhalla ought to be easy pickings, what with nobody around to stop us! The kingdom's all ours, boys!

DiMaggio: Leave it to us, sir!

He begins dragging Aideen all the way back to Verdane.

I like the "Grannvale worms" phrase he uses here.

Gerrard, like many of the villains in this game, is ugly to the point of looking like a caricature. Subtle, Genealogy is not.

I forgot to screencap or transcribe the next lines of dialogue, but the gist of it is that Gandolf says he's taking Aideen back to Verdane to marry him, and Gerrard comments that just looking at Aideen is making his mouth water.

Gandolf: Back off! This one's mine! You'll have your pick of all Grannvale once we're done here.

Poor Aideen, she surrounded by exaggeratedly villainous earlygame bandits.

Gandolf: Oi, what're you mumbling about now? We're outta here. No dawdling, y'hear?

And with this, enemy phase can finally start.

A bandit tries to attack Arden, but he shows what a pro he is by dodging, and then one-rounding the bandit by activating Pursuit AND Adept. Another barbarian tries to Hand Axe Arden, but he's having none of that. #arden2opplznerf

Here comes our two new units, Azel and Lex. This conversation already looks much better than the old translation's.

Lex is someone I'll be using for this chapter and the next, but benching afterwards. I'm sure Arden will make good use of his axes.

Azel: With the war in Isaach going on, there's hardly anyone left to defend Grannvale. Sigurd's few knights are all we have, and they're out here risking their lives on behalf of the entire country.

Azel seems to be treating the situation with the appropriate gravity. Lex... isn't.

Too bad Azel isn't a very good father for Lester.

Azel, you're marrying Tailte, and that's that.

Overall, I have to say this scene is much better done than in the old patch.

Here's Azel, who is a pretty good unit, especially after promotion, when he gets sword access and a horse, along with the ability to wield B rank wind and thunder tomes. He's being used, an he'll be paired with Tailte once we get her.

Here's Lex. He's pretty good, albeit rather slow. Because I mainly want EXP to be spread among the mommies and daddies (and Finn and Arden), he's getting benched after I get the Brave Axe. I'm sure promoted Arden will make good use of his axes.

Azel kills a Brigand.

Turns out to be a good thing I left Alec guarding the castle, because this Barabarian would have seized it otherwise.

Lex chips some Barbarians that try and attack him.

These two are Quan and Ethlyn. Both are amazing.

Ethlyn: I want to do all I can as a healer to help out and save lives... Quan, I'm sorry I dragged you into this mess as well... I know Chalphy isn't my family anymore, now that we're married, but I couldn't just sit back and do nothing. Thank you so much for coming. Not just from me, but from Sigurd.

Quan: There's no need for thanks, Ethlyn. Sigurd is every bit as important to me as he is you, remember? He is my brother-in-law now, after all. ...And I couldn't possibly leave you to fight all alone.

Ethlyn: Thank you, dear... Thank you so much...

This is Finn. He's also amazing.

Quan is amazing. His only downside is his lack of Pursuit, and even then, Adept can still proc to make up for it. There's no sense in not using him, especially if you plan on using Leif and/or Altena.

Finn is the only unit to be with you for both generations, and he's a pretty good unit at that. As such, I'll use him in both generations.

Ethlyn's a mounted healer. What more could you ask for?

Anyway, I'm gonna end it here.

Next time, we take back Jungby castle!

P.S. Keep in mind that this run is primarily experimental, and a result of me dicking around with Nightmare. And while some of the extra skills were added on a whim because I wanted to see how a character performs with them, while others were given because I wanted to see how their kids do with them. Leif and Seliph's parents in particular were given sword skills because I want to see if Leif and Seliph can inherit them.

Addendum: I learned that Patty, Lene, Ulster, and Larcei are literally the only kids who can inherit sword skills. Turns out inheritance of them is by child, not class. This was a major reason I removed the personal skills in favor of added class skills.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Matthewtheman

[Ansem]

so you just made the game easier for yourself by throwing astra at sigurd/giving skills to the units you're going to use?

wont it be boring for you just curbstomping the whole game? the difficulty(as little as there is in FE4) is there to keep you challenged.

[Moblin Major General]

Does Arden still have Vantage? That's one of his draws besides the Pursuit Ring. This hack also shows that armor isn't as hindering as most people think.

[Katie]

so you just made the game easier for yourself by throwing astra at sigurd/giving skills to the units you're going to use?

wont it be boring for you just curbstomping the whole game? the difficulty(as little as there is in FE4) is there to keep you challenged.

EDIT: Nvm. I removed most of the extra skills.

Does Arden still have Vantage? That's one of his draws besides the Pursuit Ring. This hack also shows that armor isn't as hindering as most people think.

Of course he does. Whether or not his HP will ever get low enough to actually activate Vantage is the real question.

Edited August 10, 2016 by Matthewtheman

[Katie]

Anyway, on to the next part, in...

Prologue part 2

Arden starts us off on the right foot by getting a near perfect level up. Only missed Magic and Resistance, the former of which only matters if I give him a magic sword. One thing I like about the new patch is how the stat increases remain on the screen until it goes away. It's very convenient for SSLPs.

Azel's level, meanwhile, is a disappointment.

Finn kills the Barbarian that tried to take over Chalphy.

I didn't put Ethlyn here with the intention of having her talk to Sigurd, but now that I'm reminded she can, let's do it.

Especially in this hack. Sigurd will probably be one of the first to get nerfed for the public release. At least he'll get me through gen 1 faster.

Ethlyn: I'd heard that Chalphy barely has any soldiers left behind, given that most of the army is away in Isaach.

To be fair, most of the conflicts in gen 1 bring themselves to Sigurd, rather than the other way around.

Ethlyn: With Father away at war... I knew I had to come. Someone has to save you from yourself, after all.

Sigurd: Heh heh. Wow, it feels as if I was getting this very lecture only yesterday! I swear, after Mother passed away, it was you who single-handedly kept us in check. Once you went off to marry Quan, we could've sworn that Father finally had a proper little lady for a daughter... But no, nothing's changed at all! I feel so sorry for Quan... Ahahaha!

Ethlyn: Sigurd, I'm only what you and Father made me! If I'm a fusspot, then it's squarely your fault. Perhaps if the two of you hadn't been so unkempt...

Sigurd: Heh, perhaps you're right. Listen, Ethlyn... We might not act like it, but everything you've done means the world to us. I'm so sorry for all the trouble I've always caused you... And thank you so much for coming.

Ethlyn: Sigurd...

Azel gets another disappointing level on enemy phase.

Ethlyn's a pro at dodge-tanking axe users, btw.

Quan finishes off the Hand Axe Barbarian that foolishly attempted to harm his waifu.

Might as well do this convo.

I can't help but associate the word twerp with Jessie and James from Pokemon.

Sigurd: But what about your father, Lord Langbalt? Does he know you've come here?

I like to imagine Lex saying this in a very sassy manner.

Lex: There's no way he'd ever let me help House Chalphy, even if his life depended on it. I had to slip out behind his back.

Too bad Lex is getting benched after the next chapter. And I would use him, but I can't have units who aren't even parents or returning in gen 2 hogging EXP, unless their name is Arden.

Lex: Well, I'll do what I can. Those Verdane dogs have had their run of our land for long enough!

Arden collects his reward from saving the village.

Azel does likewise. This is the obligatory weapon triangle explaining villager.

Except even in vanilla FE4, Quan and Finn are so good that they can disregard the weapon triangle and murderize these axe wielding bandits.

Eh, I prefer using healers so they can get EXP.

Now let's do the Quan Sigurd convo. (EP was unremarkable. It consisted of Ethlyn dodge-tanking some axes and chipping the two foes that attacked her at one range in retaliation)

Sigurd and Quan are old pals, btw. They're pretty much BFFs. And while there's always the possibility that Quan only befriended Siggy so he could bang his sister, the fact that he's married to Ethlyn now yet still sticks his neck out for Sigurd means his friendship is likely genuine.

Quan: Indeed. That's why Finn is the only knight here with me.

Speaking of Quan's parents, it isn't until the next game that you even find out what happened to them, iirc.

Quan: Sorry? Surely you jest, Sigurd! Don't you recall our old pledge?

Sigurd: Hm?

Quan: Come now! How could you forget?

What were an Agustrian and a Thracian doing attending a military academy in Grannvale, anyway? Is this ever explained? Do Agustria and Thracia not have academies of their own? Or is it some fancy pants academy that all the nobles in Jugdral attend, perhaps?

Sigurd tryna cover his ass here.

This is very true. Sigurd and Quan are some of the best gen 1 units, and could be considered its "Jagen" units, or at least the closest thing to the archetype gen 1 has.

Shouldn't it be lowlifes? I think I may have spotted a typo!

Sigurd's first level is nearly as good as Arden's!

The enemies swarmed Ethlyn on EP, and she finally got her first level when I had her chip one of them during PP. Pretty good first level, I'd say.

I thought FE4 enemies wouldn't attack units they can't hit? Weird. Maybe it's because Sigurd can't counterattack?

Finn gets his first level. As magic is useless on him since there are no magic lances and he isn't being paired, he effectively only got 3 stats here.

Yep, you're getting benched. Your buddy Azel may have gotten the same exact level, but Azel actually uses magic. The sad thing is I even boosted Lex's growths a bit.

Speaking of Azel, he got 3 stats this time! I'm still disappointed, though.

Quan gets his first level. Now all of my non-cav units have leveled up at least once.

Azel visits another village.

Village lady: It no wonder, being that they bear the bloodline of Baldur, the god light of old.

True enough. While Byron's stats may be bad, he could still likely solo the prologue. Even though his HP is a mere 20, I doubt these axe users could even hit him anyway.

Finn gets the Speed Ring.

Azel finally decides to get a great level.

I love how, aside from HP, Quan has the exact same combat stats as Dimaggio here.

Except Quan's gonna annihilate you. I know this for a fact because he and Ethlyn just got the little heart thing that symbolizes that Quan's about to pull off a lover's crit. I couldn't screencap it in time though.

One-shot!

Dimaggio's death quote: No... This ain't right...

Time to seize this baby so we can finish up here.

It's Midir. Like the other benched units, he only got a buff to his growths and his base HP, so I won't even bother showing his stat screen. I just realized all the benched units join in the prologue. Anyway, Midir is a decent unit. Despite being bow-locked, he has a horse which means he gets canto, so he can use hit and run tactics effectively. One thing I like about FE4 is that all its bow users (except maybe the subs) are actually good. I'll use him for this chapter because he gets a unique boss convo with Gerrard, but bench him afterwards.

Why are there trees inside the castle?

Waiting for us in the next chapter.

Despite having been injured, Midir thankfully joins with full HP.

Midir doesn't get much characterization outside of his relationship with Aideen. The only other character he even gets conversations with is her identical twin.

As soon as the next turn begins, I'm gonna end this update.

"Stuffed up" is Australian slang that basically means you dun goofed.

Putting the bridge back up is exactly what will be your downfall.

>Implying we're actually struggling. Seriously, even in vanilla FE4 this map is braindead easy.

Here's where we get our first implications that Arvis isn't such a nice guy. Here he is, talking shit about Sigurd behind his back. Anyway, here's where we'll end the update.

Next time, we take over Evans!

Edited July 28, 2016 by Matthewtheman

[Katie]

All right, first of all, I have made some changes regarding my planned pairings. I've decided to pair Ayra with Arden instead of Holyn, who is now getting benched, because I've never actually married Arden before and I want to see their conversation in chapter 5 and Arden's secret +5 skill event that only occurs if he's married. I've also decided to pair Raquesis with Finn after all, as I figure I can have Finn just sell off his lances to Erin, as she and Fee could make good use of them, and just have Fee sell the Brave Lance back to him when he rejoins. (I like to keep the Brave Lance on Finn) Beowulf is now getting benched, meaning only parents of kids are being used permanently in gen 1.

Anyway, let's finish off the prologue in...

Prologue part 3:

First of all, it turns out I forgot to save after seizing Jungby, so I have to redo that turn. Azel's level contains luck in addition to all the same stats as last time, which is nice. Unfortunately, Quan didn't get the lovers crit this time, so it takes another turn before I've seized Jungby.

Here's Arvis. He could solo these Bandits easily with those stats.

I finally get this talk conversation. The funny thing is, Lex has already told Sigurd Azel is here.

Azel: I'm here with Lex, We want to do whatever we can to fight the Verdanite invasion.

Arvis is up to the north, and has a present for Sigurd. One thing I like is how the reinforcements who come to help us actually arrive from the correct direction on the map. Velthomer, Belhalla, and Dozel are to the north of Chalphy, hence why that's the part of this map Lex, Azel, and Arvis arrive from, while Thracia is to the east, which is why Quan's squad arrives from the east.

He's actually heading in our direction right now.

It'd be cool if Arvis had a talk with Azel on this map, but alas.

Yet another subtle hint that Arvis isn't such a good guy. Arvis is one of the better done villains in Genealogy, as it isn't immediately obvious that he's a villain, instead he's painted as neutral in the opening narration, while during the map subtle(for Genealogy, anyway) hints are dropped that he has a sinister side, and unlike most of the villains, who are exaggeratedly dastardly and do what the do for they evulz, Arvis is well-intentioned.

Yep, he's good to have around. Especially since I lowered the weight of Fire and Elfire to 4 and 7, respectively, at least iirc. I know I made them lighter though.

Sigurd: You're more than welcome to stay for as long as you want.

Azel: Thank you, sir!

I guess this is the first time the two have met. I wonder how he recognized Sigurd, but I suppose given their both members of Grannvales nobility, Azel might have seen him from afar before, or heard about what he looked like.

Arden gets a level from killing the last brigand. Speed would have been nice, but I'll take it.

Hey look, it's Old Hubba!

You know, shouldn't Aideen and Bridget both have major Ullur given they're identical twins? I know Holy Blood isn't consistent regards who inherits what blood, or if they inherit Holy Blood at all, but you'd think identical twins would at least have, you know, identical Holy Blood.

Old Hubba: Alas, the duke lost one of the girls to pirates, years and years ago... She was just a little lass...

But Aideen's not here, Gandolf kidnapped her.

Well, Andre is kind of an over-ambitious dickwad, so...

Here's the updated holy blood screen, btw. As you can see, Arvis has major Vala, and that dot in the middle signifies that he has minor Loptyr blood as well.

Lex gets another level, and ironically gets everything BUT strength and defense, which are the stats he usually gets.

Of course, I don't get to keep it because I was a bit reckless with Midir and left him in the range of too many enemies. Arden's level ends up being the same.

Here's Lex's new level. He gets Def over Skl this time.

Ethlyn, being the axe magnet she is, gets another level on Enemy Phase.

Ethlyn is completely boxed here. Lex was also apparently in the aggro range of the enemies guarding Evans, because they've started marching towards us.

Sigurd decides he wants to increase his hit and avoid.

I strategically surround Midir on all sides so that he can only be attacked at range.

This guy foolishly attacks Arvis, just as I hoped he would, and we get to see Valflame's cool map animation.

This guy attacked Ethlyn from melee range despite having 0 hit. The AI baffles me.

Arvis attacks another poor sucker. I like the little meteors that go across the top of the screen.

Time to get the Silver Sword.

Only observe? Arvis's help would be more than appreciated, you know.

Sweet. We should be getting a lot of kills with this baby.

Sigurd is understandably grateful for receiving what is normally a mid to lategame weapon in the prologue.

He's only like 6 tiles away.

Sigurd: If at all possible, would you mind if he remained with me for a while longer?

Arvis does at least seem to care about Azel.

Except he stays with us for another 5 chapters. And you know, some of these chapters have gaps of up to a year's time between them, so I find it rather odd that out of our entire army, only the Thracian trio ever leave the army and return home.

Arvis: Good to hear it. Now, I must return to his majesty's side in the capital. I'm entrusting this crisis to you, Sigurd.

I'm kind of glad Finn's proccing magic, because Nanna will surely appreciate it.

Azel gets a nice level. He'll appreciate the strength when he promotes.

Midir is not off to a good start.

All that remains is the boss, as I just had everyone finish the last 3 enemies. Sigurd even got his first Astra proc!

But it was on a foe with 1 HP left...

I think he's remarking on the fact that I'm not attacking him directly from the castle entrance.

Ethlyn gets a two stat level from healing Azel. Speed is always nice, I suppose.

I feed Arden the bosskill. It was very frustrating, because I ended up attempting to chip him with nearly everyone in the army until his HP was low enough for Arden to one-round him (only Ethlyn was left out, because I'd had her heal Midir instead), and only Azel and Sigurd managed to actually hit him.

Gerrard: Prince Gandolf's already... Urgh...

Good thing Arden got an excellent level out of it.

I like the way this line was translated. It really demonstrates Sigurd's frustration.

This is what segues us into Chapter 1.

It would have been nice if they'd come during the actual conflict.

Is it ever not?

Knight Lord and Paladin are functionally similar classes... Only real difference is the caps, in which Knight Lord is rather inferior, having 1 extra strength at the cost of 5 less magic and 2 less of everything else.

I think I'm gonna have Noish be the castle guard next chapter, because I'm gonna put Alec on Ayra luring duty.

IIRC, you get free money at the end of each chapter for not losing castles to the enemy. I believe he's referring to that mechanic.

And with that, the chapter is over. See you guys next time!

Death count: Midir 1

Next time, we hopefully recruit Ayra without issue!

Who am I kidding, Ayra and Jamke are gonna be a bitch to recruit...

[Katie]

I'll probably have the next part up when I get back from vacation on the 8 or 9th. I did make some changes with Nightmare though. I gave Arden minor Odo blood because I want Ulster and Larcei to get major Odo because I think I know a way to use Nightmare to give them the Balmung without exploiting the bug, via changing its rank to a temporarily, selling it to Larcei or Ulster, and then changing it back to S rank. I did lower Arden's skill and HP growths by 30 and 20, respectively, to counterbalance the boost from his new Holy Blood. I also removed most of the extra skills I gave units, so for instance Sigurd now only has Pursuit like in vanilla FE4, but I did give a lot of classes extra class skills that they had in later FEs, which both benefits me and the enemy. In one case, giving Swordmasters Astra, it only benefits the enemy, because the three Swordmasters that you do get always have Astra anyway.

[Katie]

All right, this isn't a full update, but rather an assessment of how the changes I've made have affected the game so far. This is an experimental run, after all, so I may as well analyze how my changes are affecting the game.

The extra personal skills got removed because I figured I could add class skills instead so the enemy could benefit as well, to make the game less of a cakewalk. I also found out that the game is programmed such that literally only Ayra's kids, Lene, and Patty can inherit sword skills. I haven't removed all the added personal skills, as some are there for specific reasons. Arden kept Pursuit, for instance, because I still want Ethlyn to pass down the Pursuit Ring to Leif and Arden to not be Pursuit-less after chapter 3. I'll be showing off the new class skills and any added personals that I actually let a unit keep in the next update, with explanations as to why that class or unit got that skill. It'll be interesting to see how the added class skills affect the game. I likely won't keep them in the public patch though.

The extra movement affected the game in exactly the way I was expecting, for the most part. None of my units really fell behind, and more enemies attacked my units on enemy phase, and overall gameplay felt much faster. I could also save villages faster as well. I'll admit, due to the amount of time it takes to actually burn down a village, giving the brigand and pirate classes 9 move wouldn't have affected the time it takes to save the village too much, but there's a certain village with a useful item and a rather strict turn limit as far as saving it goes, and I didn't want to risk making said turn limit even stricter. My biggest worry is how tough recruiting recruitable enemies will be. We'll be finding out soon.

Bases definitely needed to be buffed, though I probably went overboard a bit for some characters. It's a bit late to change the bases of any character who's already joined, though, so figuring out the right bases will likely be something that will happen when I release a public patch and can get input from multiple playtesters.

As far as weapon edits go, I'm pretty satisfied so far. I don't believe I've actually shown them off yet, so I'll remember to do that in the next update. With the exception of the lowered prices(which are to make inventory management less of a hassle for me), and Aura's lowered weapon rank(which is purely so I can see if Lewyn can pass it down to Ced), I think I'll keep most of the changes to weapons in the public patch.

Anyway, see you guys hopefully soon with an actual update.

[Katie]

All right, let's go ahead and do...

Chapter 1 Prelude

Ready for another opening narration? IIRC, this one isn't as long as the Prologue's, thankfully. There won't be much gameplay in this update, mainly just showing off the opening cutscenes and the castle features, after which I'll arena grind between updates.

Much to the frustration of many a player, myself included.

Probably because there's nothing to suggest it isn't.

ON: owing to their constant raids on Grannvalian soil.

Until now, I suppose, given what happened last chapter.

ON: A pacifist, King Batur has long worked to build a lasting peace with Grannvale, while also keeping his aggressive sons appeased. Ultimately, however, it was King Batur himself who violated the peace he held so dear.

Even Jamke?

I'll admit I prefer Kinbois, but I'm not too worked up about the name change, especially when a vast majority of the changed names are better than the old patches'.

Why is Jamke so much more conventionally attractive than his brothers? To indicate he's the one that's actually a good person, of course! No idea why he has the dot on his forehead, though. Maybe his mom was the FE4 equivalent of Indian? He does look a wee bit darker than his brothers, and IIRC, supplemental materials state they all have different mothers.

ON: Lurking deep within Verdane territory, the three now await the arrival of Sigurd.

Just as I thought, the opening narration was thankfully a lot shorter this chapter.

I kind of feel like the Spirit Forest could be given a better name. Not sure what though.

Here we have Eldigan, who was mentioned last chapter to be an old friend of Quan and Sigurd. While all three have a habit of not thinking things through, Eldigan is particularly bad about it, and much like a certain other blond haired Paladin in recent FE history, he comes across as being a naive idiot. This line right here is much better than in the old patch, where he just tells the soldier "Good work. You've got the border." which is rather awkward and unnatural sounding.

Eldigan's portrayal in this chapter though is rather decent.

Hey, I just noticed the little throne in the background. That's neat.

Sigurd: They've made it amply clear that they don't plan on releasing her. Taking her back by force is our only option.

You actually can in this chapter, but only because of Eldy here.

"A catch up"? Is that some Australian saying? I'd have likely worded it as "what do you say we catch up?".

I see bookofholsety decided to do what the old patch did and make this line sound vaguely homoerotic. It's not as homoerotic as the old patch's version, but according to Integrity in his LP(note: I like to keep Integrity's LP up in another tab as I do these so I can compare the new translation to the old one), it didn't sound homoerotic in the original Japanese anyway.

Agreed. Hopefully recruiting Ayra won't be too much trouble.

Speaking of Ayra...

Kinbaith: Rememer, first sign of funny business, and it's the brat's head.

Shanan's got some balls given he's only like 12. How did Shanan and Ayra end up in Verdane anyway? That's literally on the opposite side of the continent of their home kingdom of Isaach. I don't even think her infodump convo with Quan addresses this.

Ayra: Look, Kinbaith, you have my word. So long as you leave Shanan alone, you'll have no trouble. But I do wonder if, once this battle is over, you actually plan to return him to me.

There's no way of telling for sure if he was actually gonna keep his word, given if he seizes Evans you just get a game over. I think he was though, if only due to fear of Ayra.

If I were her, I'd just gank his ass then and there.

This background also has a throne room, but it's darker and more ominous looking. I wonder if the background will change when we seize it.

Pretty sure you already have.

Ayra: Shanan, sit tight. Be patient for just a bit longer.

Poor Shanan. Don't worry pal, you'll grow up to be broken as fuck.

And with that, the opening is done.

Here's Ayra. Recruiting her can be a bit difficult, but it's worth it. She's one of the best units in FE4 gen 1, and her kids are impossible to screw up.

Notice that she now has Critical and Vantage. These are Myrmidon class skills. Critical was added due to the crit boost they get in RD, and Vantage was given because that's one of their Awakening class skills. And since even in vanilla they also have Pursuit, Myrms will prove one of the tougher enemies to face in general.

Anyway, I'll go ahead and mention the changes to the weapons we have so far:
Iron Swords now have 95 hit.

Steel Swords now have 90 hit.

Silver Swords now have 85 hit.

Slim Swords now have 100 hit.

Iron Lances now have 85 hit and 9 weight.

Steel Lances are unchanged.

Javelins now have 80 hit and 12 weight.

Iron Axes now have 80 hit and 10 weight.

Iron Bows now have 85 hit and 6 weight.

Fire now has 4 weight.

As far as skills go, so far other than Arden keeping Pursuit, I let Azel keep Paragon so he can reach Mage Knight faster. None of my units so far have any class skills for me to show off yet though.

Arden's new holy blood. Like I said, I changed his base growth rates so that his growths would be the same as before I gave him Odo blood. Anyway, my plans as far as giving Larcei or Ulster the Balmung are to change it to A rank, have Shanan sell it to one of his cousins, and then change it back to S rank.

The town is a neat feature found in any owned castle. The blacksmith lets you repair weapons, the Pawnbroker lets you sell your weapons and have another unit buy them, Supply is where you can have Anna store any excess items you may have to free up inventory space, the arena lets you go through a series of pre-set opponents for experience and gold, Augury lets Old Hubba(not even kidding here, the augury guy and Old Hubba are implied to be the same person) tell you if you're in love with anyone as well as your win/loss record, and armory lets you buy new weapons for your units.

That's all for this update, I'm gonna arena grind offscreen and kick off the next update with the results of said grinding.

Next time, we go for Genoa and hopefully recruit Ayra with little issue.