[Maniac] Let's Play Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance

[BrightBow]

10 Dragon Knights at once. Yikes. That's a nice cliffhanger.

Btw, don't blame Elincia for joining so late. She was going to enter the battlefield all the way back in chapter 6 but Ike shot her down back then:

Quote

Elincia: “My lord Ike, I…I will fight with you!”

Ike: “…No, you won’t.”

Elincia: “My lord?”

Ike: “I cannot let you expose yourself to danger of any kind. Everyone here is risking his life to ensure your safety. If you understand that, you’ll cooperate and do as I ask.”

Elincia: “I see…I will do my part.”

I've got to say, that's a very different tone compared to this chapter where he rejects the very idea that he could object to her wishes at all:

Ike: This is not something that I can allow or disallow. She is my employer. If this is what the princess wants, all I can do is comply.

Of course back then he wasn't the commander. I suppose it makes sense that this new responsibility would change his perspective on things.

Edited August 23, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

That's actually a pretty good explanation for Elincia, I stand corrected. 

I wish like nothing else I had remembered the Rescue Staff for this one, it would have really cleaned up my endgame by quite a bit. I say basically everything I wanted to about this map in the two videos, so I think I'll leave it at that. This map is long!

 

Edited August 27, 2017 by Deltre

[Deltre]

Here's Chapter 27! Once again I had to split the video into two parts. 

 

I think this map is pretty good, overall. There's the obvious story reasons, with the climactic showdown between Ike and the Black Knight (that I do admit I wish wasn't so luck based), but the design of the actual chapter itself was solid as well. I feel like the indoors maps have been far and away some of the best ones in this game, and this one is no exception. Enemies are dense (like in just about every map on Maniac), but it never really goes into the realm of absurdity like some of the other stages do. Looking back, there are some beginner's traps (opening the East/West treasure rooms with low-Res units who get eaten by Siege weapons/Staves), but once you know what to expect the level has a nice pace to it. 

Weirdly enough, there are no reinforcements for the entire map. Maybe I cleared the map too quickly, but it's definitely strange.

Edited August 31, 2017 by Deltre

[BrightBow]

On Hard Mode there are some generic enemies with skills on the final map. So it might be a good to watch out for that.

Despite Ashnard being invincible to most of your characters, he actually has boss conversations with quite a few of them. The most interesting of them is probably the one that he has with Reyson of all people, which has Ashnard explain why he thinks that awakening an evil god is a good idea. Just wanted to point that out since no one would think to send Reyson against Ashnard. Otherwise I suppose the only conversation that contains some new story details is the one he has with Nasir.

 

And in case you don't know, if Ike doesn't manage to defeat the Black Knight in time, Nasir shows up and attacks the Black Knight. This causes the collapse of the castle, seemingly killing them both. So that's why you only get Nasir if you manage to beat the Black Knight.

Edited August 31, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

On 8/31/2017 at 2:57 PM, BrightBow said:

On Hard Mode there are some generic enemies with skills on the final map. So it might be a good to watch out for that.

Despite Ashnard being invincible to most of your characters, he actually has boss conversations with quite a few of them. The most interesting of them is probably the one that he has with Reyson of all people, which has Ashnard explain why he thinks that awakening an evil god is a good idea. Just wanted to point that out since no one would think to send Reyson against Ashnard. Otherwise I suppose the only conversation that contains some new story details is the one he has with Nasir.

 

And in case you don't know, if Ike doesn't manage to defeat the Black Knight in time, Nasir shows up and attacks the Black Knight. This causes the collapse of the castle, seemingly killing them both. So that's why you only get Nasir if you manage to beat the Black Knight.

Good information once again man. I'll be sure to mention that in the endgame.

I'll be brutally honest though, having Ashnard's motivations hidden behind an in-battle conversation that no sane player would ever get is incredibly stupid and poorly thought out. If Reyson is getting attacked by the final boss, you're probably smashing that reset button more than anything else. And even if you decided to watch on, how would you know to do that in the first place? Reyson can't fight anyone, let alone the last boss in the game. I can't think of one situation where someone playing normally would even get this conversation to trigger, and it just so happens to be pretty god damned important. I'm getting a bit ahead of myself with this, but it's this exact kind of thing that cements my opinion that Ashnard is such a lame villain. Fortunately, he happens to appear in a well written game so it's not the end of the world, but geez man. What were they thinking?

Chapter 28 is done. Once again, in two parts, although to be honest this probably could have been one video since they're both much shorter than average. A bit of a filler chapter in terms of story, but it's at least interesting filler, revealing the origins of the Feral Ones and reuniting us with Leanne. The stage itself plays pretty smoothly too, although that might be because most of my heavy hitters have ascended into godhood by this point. The Oscar/Ike Wombo Combo is hilariously broken once Ike gets the Ragnell.

Only one more map to go!

[BrightBow]

Obviously the artists would never have been able to do justice to what the characters are describing without it severely affecting the game's age rating but It would probably have been better to keep the screen black and let one's imagination do the work instead of showing everyone freaking out over an empty room.

Although looking at it again, I'd say that the CG is a bit more graphic then it looks at first glance. There is a fair amount of blood on the floor. It just doesn't really contrast it's surroundings so it's hard to notice, especially with the CG's low resolution. And it seems there is a lot of fur hanging from the chains which is also drenched in blood. I suppose I'm just going to post the image:

Spoiler

 

Edited September 2, 2017 by BrightBow

[Deltre]

Yeah, I was mostly poking fun at the disconnect between what is shown on screen and the reaction of the characters. I think that a black screen could have been more effective, now that you mention it. Or perhaps a camera pan/fade to black before the whole room is shown, just to establish what is there without having to be held back by the fact that at the end of the day, Fire Emblem will always be a T rated game. 

Anyways folks, we're done here! It's been a ride, but the game is finally complete. It's been a real mixed bag with the gameplay, and I feel like some characters were just doomed from the start with all the really questionable things that Maniac does. This playthrough was fun, but frustrating at times for sure. It goes without saying that the storyline and characters  great, the best in the series IMO, but man does Maniac Mode have it's gameplay issues. Honestly, to anyone who's thinking about whether or not to start up a Maniac Mode run, I'd say don't bother. It just feels so...tedious, not helped by PoR already being kinda slow as it is. If you're looking for specifics, watch the second video, but as a quick summary I'd say this: FE9 is overall a great game; terribly designed on Maniac.

Thank you to anyone who stuck it out to the end of this adventure, and to anyone who watched at any point in between. There's still a few more things I'd like to show off in this game, but this will probably be the final update I post in this thread, since it could take a while to get everything recorded. 

 

[BrightBow]

Congrats on making it to the end. And enduring that ridiculously long unskipable ending sequence. Now you only need to play through the game 14 more times to unlock Ashnard for the Trial Maps.

On the subject of the Branded, the reason they are shunned is because the union between a Beorc and a Laguz is seen as a crime against the goddess. It's worth nothing that being a Branded does not necessarily mean that one of your parents was a Laguz. Stefan for example mentions explicitly that both of his parents were Beorc. It just means that you have an ancestor who is a Laguz, but that union may very well have happened many generations ago.

And the whole thing with Soren is explained in his A support with Ike. I would recommend watching or reading the support yourself since I really can't do it justice.

That support mentions that the mark of a Branded can be mistaken for the mark of a Spirit Charmer. Spirit Charmer's is someone who let a spirit into their body in order to gain magical power. It's not explicitly stated but I would guess that the reason Soren wears his mark in the open is because he puts a deliberate effort towards coming across as a Spirit Charmer. Either way, what it is explicitly mentioned is that the Sage who "adopted" Soren thought that he was a Spirit Charmer, which is why he was interested in him.

The support also mentions that Soren and the Sage lived in Gallia. While Soren himself does not address how he was treated by the Laguz (at least until Radiant Dawn), the support between Stefan and Mordecai mentions that the Laguz refer to them as the "parentless" and that they treat them as if they literally don't exist. So this means that Soren is very familiar with how the Laguz treat people they deem as "subhuman". Considering this, I would say that it's no surprise that Soren had little patience for Lethe's whining back when they first meet. This also explains where his savage speech on the people of Toha came from. You may recall that back then Soren had some harsh words to say on the subject of people who "pretend not to see".

 

 

Edited September 13, 2017 by BrightBow

[Omegaprism]

Well, that was a journey. I enjoyed this playthrough, though I can't say it sold me on ever playing maniac mode again. Just as tedious as I remember.

Anyway, thanks again for all the trivia and informative bits! I will continue watching your stuff for the foreseeable future.