screenshot FE3 Book 2 Reversed Recruitment LP

[Robert Stewart]

Fingers crossed SF doesn't nuke my first post.

What is this?

This is a reversed recruitment playthrough of FE3 Book 2.

What about Book 1?

I did Book 1 in a thread in the Smashboards FE subforum. There weren't a whole lot of people reading regularly there, so I'm mirroring updates starting from Book 2 here so hopefully more people will be able to enjoy this nonsense.

You can read the Book 1 run there if you wish.

What patch are you using?

One that I made myself. I might release it once I'm done with the run and fixed most of the bugs I've found, if there's enough interest.

Who replaces who?

Here, for those who want to know:

Spoiler

Elice replaces Marth
Maria replaces Luke
Nyna replaces Arran
Lena replaces Cecil
Midia replaces Rody
Roshe replaces Gordin
Samson replaces Ryan
Sheena replaces Draug
Astram replaces Malliesia
Abel replaces Catria
Est replaces Warren
Tiki replaces Linde
Xane replaces Palla
Ellerean replaces Julian
Merric replaces Matthis
Minerva replaces Ogma
Jeorge replaces Yumina
Bantu replaces Yubello
Cain replaces Sirius
Navarre replaces Castor
Feena replaces Caeda
Wendel replaces Rickard
Samto doesn't change.
Rickard replaces Wendel
Caeda replaces Feena
Castor replaces Navarre
Sirius replaces Cain
Yubello replaces Bantu
Yumina replaces Jeorge
Ogma replaces Minerva
Matthis replaces Merric
Julian replaces Ellerean
Palla replaces Xane
Linde replaces Tiki
Warren replaces Est
Catria replaces Abel
Malliesia replaces Astram
Draug replaces Sheena
Ryan replaces Samson
Gordin replaces Roshe
Rody replaces Midia
Cecil replaces Lena
Arran replaces Nyna
Luke replaces Maria
Marth replaces Elice

 

Other stuff:

In some other runs I've done, I did screenshots/gifs of each character level up. I have since decided this is "dumb" and "bad" because too much of my screenshots were being taken up by level ups rather than actual gameplay. So instead at the end of each update, there will be a "Stat Update" section to show how everyone is progressing and comment on it.

Now on to the show. Featuring 2 chapters instead of the usual 1 cuz I felt like it! And also the updates individually were kinda short.

Chapter 2-1:

Spoiler

Skipping the story cause who even cares about that :^)

Growths: HP 10% Strength 10% Skill 50% Speed 60% Luck 80% Weapon Level 90% Defense 10%
Well...she has more Str and Wlv than book 1, so...yay? Also IDK why her HP growth rate suddenly dropped.

If book 1 was any indication her combat abilities won't be that important for a long time, but still...oof.

Growths: HP 10% Strength 10% Skill 10% Speed 10% Luck 10% Weapon Level 30% Defense 10%

Our Jagen, sporting very Jagen like growths. Her bases seem serviceable enough and we should be able to do....something about her growths if I really want to use her long term.

Growths: HP 10% Strength 10% Skill 10% Speed 20% Luck 40% Weapon Level 30% Defense 10%

Dang, is Elice already getting overshadowed? Aside from Luck her bases aren't even that much lower that Nyna's.

Growths: HP 10% Strength 10% Skill 10% Speed 20% Luck 30% Weapon Level 70% Defense 10%

Man this RR is like "Did you like having a healer lord in Book 1? Here, have 3 in Book 2."

I would say more about Maria herself, but I don't think there's a lot to say. I think the healer slots on my team are already getting pretty full so I doubt she'll be sticking around much.

Growths: HP 80% Strength 30% Skill 50% Speed 50% Luck 10% Weapon Level 50% Defense 20%

...you know, I probably should have implemented HP/Wlv minimums. >_>

Considering she lost something like 25 levels, I'm surprised she has non-zero stats in anything.

Growths: HP 80% Strength 40% Skill 50% Speed 40% Luck 50% Weapon Level 30% Defense 30%

He has a more balanced stat spread than Midia and a bit of an edge in certain key stats. Wonder which of these two will end up being more useful?

Growths: HP 70% Strength 30% Skill 10% Speed 20% Luck 50% Weapon Level 70% Defense 20%

Jeez, even with a 15 level demote, Samson is just incapable of not being good.

Growths: HP 60% Strength 60% Skill 70% Speed 50% Luck 60% Weapon Level 60% Defense 20%

Do we have Lorenz 2.0 here? Actually, I think Sheema might be strictly better than Lorenz, and I think Midia with her 9 HP might be the more meme character. But I guess it's a subjective thing.

Speaking of Lorenz, he's our boss, sort of. Seems he's seen better days.

To start off, we bunch up to deal with all the bandits down here. And yes, they're Bandits, even though they have the same map sprite as a Fighter. not sure why they're a different class. Though Book 2 in general has several odd enemy-only classes.

Nyna's bolganone tome is actually quite handy for weakening enemies for other to kill.

Excellent showings from Samson and Midia.

And we already have more new blood!

Growths: HP 90% Strength 50% Skill 40% Speed 20% Luck 50% Weapon Level 40% Defense 10%

Well...he has more defense than Samson? But also less HP.  Oh, and more Wlv, for whatever that ends up being worth.

After we clear out the bandits, we have to make our way through this mess. FE12 actuallly changed this part pretty significantly, but in this version the terrain is mostly mountains, which slows our progress significantly.

Actually, since in vanilla FE3 Clerics can't cross mountains, I had to edit the cleric's movement properties in order to make it even possible to beat Book 2.

Once we get to the middle section a cutscene happens and the remaining Bandits will  approach. Thought the Hunter AI doesn't seem to change...

Also, there's been thieves spawning occasionally from this cave. They can spawn on the first turn I think, but whether they appear is random. Book 2 has a lot of RNG reinforcements, so get used to that.

Blegh. I may have mixed feelings on FE12, but fixing this mess was A-OK in my book.

Instead of fighting Lorenz, we just have a chat. And then he explodes.

No, really. I  don't understand it either.

Yeesh. Really can't wait till we get our hands on the boots for this Book.

No stat update until after the next chapter. What I will say is Midia got really lucky and leveled up Strength and speed twice in a row, which will be very handy.

Chapter 2-2:

Spoiler

Our next map! No reinforcements in spite of all the forts. The two Dracoknights on either side of the boss will move to hold the two empty forts after turn 1.

Also, that thief is holding a Lady Sword for us to yoink. but getting to him can actually be somewhat tricky as you have to not only chase him but also have to deal with the dracoknights.

Growths: HP 70% Strength 40% Skill 50% Speed 50% Luck 40% Weapon Level 70% Defense 20%

The original Green Cav, looking like he might be our best option for one!  Good bases all around and holy crap that defense. He's one point lower that Sheena's base.

Our boss. He's actually quite scary for a chapter 2 boss - his stats aren't bad and he will go after you if you enter his range. Yeesh.

FE3 earlygame has a bunch of tanky Dracoknights. In vanilla you get a ton of archers to deal with them, but the only unit we have that can really deal with them here is Nyna.

Nyna heads left to chase the thief (sort of), while everyone else moves to the right.

Conveniently, our next recruit flies right up to Abel, but they don't self-recruit.

Growths: HP 50% Strength 70% Skill 70% Speed 70% Luck 60% Weapon Level 70% Defense 20%

She comes with slightly better bases than Book 1. She was good there and she'll be good here, most likely. She also gets a support bonus  from Abel.

Sadly she won't get access to the Triangle Attack like she did in Book 1, as her sisters won't be showing up until much later.

...I was not expecting that to hit. Nice.

Nyna handles the Dracoknight on the left.

Meanwhile everyone else bunches up  around here.

I was really lucky with Javelin chucking this chapter, I hit with 3 in the ~60% hit range.

Reminder that these guys have a pretty big range. Really needed to be sure I didn't  aggro the right one.

Hello there, you have something I need.

Est couldn't double so she needed a second turn to do the job.

The boss cometh!

lol

All that's left is to wait for Elise to get to the gate without aggro'ing the remaining dracoknight.

Funny, on my test runs this chapter was quite tricky, but here everything went smoothly.

Stat update:

Spoiler

Midia got some key levels early so I'm thinking she'll be quite useful.

Did you know in FE3 you can heal someone even if they're at full HP? I may or may not make abundant abuse of this.

See y'all next time, probably with just one chapter.

Edited May 11, 2019 by Robert of Normandy

[Ertrick36]

36 minutes ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths: HP 80% Strength 30% Skill 50% Speed 50% Luck 10% Weapon Level 50% Defense 20%

...you know, I probably should have implemented HP/Wlv minimums. >_>

lmao, that HP is like half of what you get in Awakening if you set HP as your flaw.

38 minutes ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths: HP 60% Strength 60% Skill 70% Speed 50% Luck 60% Weapon Level 60% Defense 20%

Do we have Lorenz 2.0 here? Actually, I think Sheema might be strictly better than Lorenz, and I think Midia with her 9 HP might be the more meme character. But I guess it's a subjective thing.

It's almost like her growths are meant to offset all of her base stats except the already moderately high HP and Weapon Level.  Except how do you get anywhere from zero?

At least her speed growth is high enough to get her... somewhere, if you even bother using her.

48 minutes ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths: HP 50% Strength 70% Skill 70% Speed 70% Luck 60% Weapon Level 70% Defense 20%

Holy crap, four 70's in the growth rates, and only one of the other growths is somewhat crummy, and she only gets slightly deleveled from her actual base level.  Reverse Recruitment actually done her some good, it seems.

And it's good to see Abel so early as well.  He was always my favorite Christmas Cavalier, and I'm sure that among your band of clerics, broken armors, and 9 HP cavaliers, he'll be of tremendous help.  Also fitting that he'd be the one to recruit Est.

 

I think I'll follow this.  I'm doing an LP of this game myself (though just a normal one, and only on Book 1 so far), and I always found altered recruitment hacks to be interesting at times, so this is up my alley.

[Interdimensional Observer]

RRs are fun, this ought not to disappoint. 

I'm a little surprised you've leveled Medea, 9 HP and 2 Spd say "don't use" to me. 

[Robert Stewart]

chapter 2-3:

Spoiler

Probably one of FE3's more infamous chapters. Two villages on opposite ends of the map that only your lord can visit, and an enemy in the middle that can only be recruited with a character form one of those villages. Whee.

You can take the long "safe" way around, but we'll be going for the shorter route. I think it's shorter, anyway

I see Xane has been learning art of cutscene-only mountain crossing from Lorenz.

Let's meet some new blood!

Growths: HP 80% Strength 40% Skill 30% Speed 60% Luck 60% Weapon Level 0% Defense 0%

Technically she joins at the end of the previous chapter so you can choose to deploy her or not in the select screen, which is actually somewhat unusual for FE3.

That aside, Tiki will probably be even better that she was in Book 1.  For some reason, in Book 1 she had Ice Breath, which was only effective against Fire Dragons. But in Book 2 she gets Mist Breath(I guess it's Breath of Fog now?) , which is effective against pretty much all dragons - including Wyvern Riders. This will be fun.

Growths: HP 50% Strength 30% Skill 10% Speed 40% Luck 30% Weapon Level 30% Defense 20%

He gets a bit of a better start compared to Book 1, but as usual his stats  don't really matter as he'll be busy mimicking someone else. The beefy Res is neat, though.

Our boss actually has identical stats to Lorenz, but with an actual weapon.

That item he has is important, but not for him. There are 12 of these Star Shards in the game - they're needed in order to get the best ending of the game, and they also boost growths when held. If you've played Echoes, they work basically the same way.

Instead of Matthis, we have Book Bro! He's not quite as scary as he looks - the enemy AI isn't programmed to use multiple weapons, so he'll only attack with thunder. But he will be a bit of a headache.

On with the show!

PATHETIC

While everyone else trudges on, Tiki casually slaughters 6 Dracoknights in a single turn.

:D

She took a fair bit of damage, so she heads back to heal up. Est heads north to help Xane.

Time for a cutscene!

Hey, we killed you last Book!

The cutscene doesn't seem to affect gameplay at all, so...moving on!

A bit more threatening, but still not too worrying. Est has a Vulnerary to heal up.

And Xane takes out the Thief in a fittingly stylish manner.

Bye-bye Mr. Ballista.

Elice heads for the village while the drawbridge is lowered.  I think in FE12 the enemies will  all rush at you once the bridge in down, but here that's not the case, so we can pick them off one by one.

More Dracos for Tiki to slaughter.

Very RIP.

Hey hold still while I'm trying to kill you! >:[

Also reinforcements start happening a few turns in.  They have a random chance to appear from each of the forts.

Don't really get the AI of these Dracos. They kinda just sit there. Even with Tiki right next to him, this one didn't attack.

Xane wasn't exactly able to do a lot of damage to these guys with his 4 Attack, so he and Est switch places.

We get a silver axe, even though we have no axe users! They''re meant to be sold and are worth like 5000 gold.

Operation "Bait Merric into a corner with unequipped Nyna while we wait for Elice to get to the other village" is a go.

Tiki finished with the Dracos, and here's the loot we got.

More baiting.

Meanwhile I decided to have Xane mimic Est. Not really sure that helped.

And he's trapped! Well, more or less. He could cross the mountains, but the AI seems to mostly keep him in place.

Oops

Down you go!

Now we just...wait for Elice to finish walking places. Whee.

Meanwhile, Tiki takes on the boss!

She missed! D:

We did get hidden treasure though. Convenient!

And after a crit, the boss is down!

Waiting for Elice to get places leaves plenty of time for Est to arena abuse. :3

Finally.

More new blood!

Growths: HP 90% Strength 10% Skill 30% Speed 40% Luck 10% Weapon Level 70% Defense 30%

He's alright I guess? That Def growth is actually rather high, relatively speaking. Only the axe dudes in Book 1 have higher def growths.

Since he's Julian's replacement he's necessary for endgame, so we will be using him regardless.

in the meantime, more arena and shopping!

Time for Book Bro to chill out.

Growths: HP 80% Strength 20% Skill 50% Speed 50% Luck 50% Weapon Level 80% Defense 20%

A bit worse start than Elrean, but a bit better growths overall. He does get a support bonus from Ellis, so maybe we'll use him even if he's not required for endgame anymore.

Now Elice just needs to get to the gate and we're done!

...sigh.

...well, that's not as bad as it could have been, I guess.

Hopefully the next chapter will have less waiting?

Stat Update:

Spoiler

Besides Tiki and Est not many people levelled  up. Lena and Maria got bumps to their speed and Abel got more bulk. I wonder if that's going to be a trend...

11 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

Except how do you get anywhere from zero?

Someone needs to read the book 1 updates.

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'm a little surprised you've leveled Medea, 9 HP and 2 Spd say "don't use" to me. 

That's exactly why I  used her, duh.

Though she might get crowded out later on.

Edit: SF borked and put everything in one spoiler, so sorry if anyone got double pinged because of the edit.

Edited January 14, 2019 by Robert of Normandy
SF borked and put everythign in one spoiler

[Punished Dayni]

21 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths: HP 80% Strength 30% Skill 50% Speed 50% Luck 10% Weapon Level 50% Defense 20%

...you know, I probably should have implemented HP/Wlv minimums. >_>

Considering she lost something like 25 levels, I'm surprised she has non-zero stats in anything.

Growths: HP 80% Strength 40% Skill 50% Speed 40% Luck 50% Weapon Level 30% Defense 30%

He has a more balanced stat spread than Midia and a bit of an edge in certain key stats. Wonder which of these two will end up being more useful?

At first I was asking how Midia was much worse than Roshea that long term it mattered.

Then I noticed Midia has 9 HP. RIP, though I'd consider using all the angelic robes on her. :P

21 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths: HP 50% Strength 70% Skill 70% Speed 70% Luck 60% Weapon Level 70% Defense 20%

This? This is beautiful, exactly what RR makes into beasts.

Oh and Abel's solid too.

21 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Least she's getting stats.

9 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Probably one of FE3's more infamous chapters. Two villages on opposite ends of the map that only your lord can visit, and an enemy in the middle that can only be recruited with a character form one of those villages. Whee.

You can take the long "safe" way around, but we'll be going for the shorter route. I think it's shorter, anyway

Yep, not with Elice as your lord you wouldn't.

9 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Very RIP.

Super dead.

It's like a dust cloud is just evaporating it. No coming back from that.

9 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Now we just...wait for Elice to finish walking places. Whee.

Considering her move, yeah this is absolutely shorter.

9 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Good to see that Lena's useful again, considering hat Mystery did to her.

[Robert Stewart]

Spent half of my day today fixing stuff for this, but that won't be relevant until a future chapter. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Chapter 2-4:
 

Spoiler

Another two villages on other sides of the map to visit.  :/

We also get a bunch of new blood!

Growths:
HP: 40% STR: 30% SKL: 50% SPD: 40% LCK: 40% WLV: 70% DEF: 20%
She fared pretty well here, methinks. Base skill and luck are a little  worrisome but everything else is fine. /nobias

Growths:
HP: 60% STR: 20% SKL: 10% SPD: 20% LCK: 10% WLV: 50% DEF: 10%

Oh, you again. After my experience in Book 1, he's going to need to get seriously lucky if he wants to stick around.

Growths:
HP: 10% STR: 0% SKL: 0% SPD: 0% LCK: 10% WLV: 0% DEF: 0%
 
Given the positioning of the new units in this chapter I think he'll actually be useful for now, but as for afterwards? Yeah, to the bench with him.

Our boss. Not much of a family man, or  much of anything, really. He has slightly better stats than most of the bandit bosses in book 1.

Est missed one attack, so I needed to bring Roshe down to corral this thief in place so he doesn't immediately destroy this village.

And meanwhile we deal with a few of these pirates.

Oh wait, they're bandits, not pirates. But since they're vikings, shouldn't they be pirates?

We have more new blood already!

Growths:
HP: 90% STR: 30% SKL: 60% SPD: 60% LCK: 50% WLV: 60% DEF: 20%

Holy shit I think we found our MVP

He's basically in the same role as Sirius int he base game but with even better bases.

Samson gets two crits in a row!

As I hinted earlier, Bantu was immensly useful in choking this point.

I completely forgot to move Elise one turn and ended up getting to this village later than I could have. >_>

Wind magic get.

Luckily, Jeorge actually ended up hitting all the things I needed him to this chapter!

Minerva dismounts on a mountain for maximum defensiveness. Nobody has any access to healing here, so maximizing survival is extra important.

Cain and Bantu can handle the rest of the pirates. (Yes, these ones are actual pirates.)

More randomly spawning reinforcements! The one Astram is blocking spawns hunters, the other three spawn pirates with hand axes.

I accidentally let Jeorge get attacked twice, but he took the hits pretty well.

I was planning to let Astram take care of these guys as they spawned, but I forgot the had hand axes. >_>

Meanwhile,  Tiki flies over the mountain to the boss area!

These guts are slightly annoying to deal with, but at least with a hand axe their hit rate is complete garbage.

Le gasp, Tiki missed!

A few turns later, Merric and Elrean team up to take him out.

With the boss down, we're just  waiting on Elice to walk places again. So in the mean time, we corner a few forts for a bit of grinding.

This felt like it took forever. >_>

Growths:
HP: 90% STR: 50% SKL: 40% SPD: 50% LCK: 60% WLV: 30% DEF: 20%

Jesus, Samson and Astram just got powercrept hard, lol.

Midia had an annoying habit of missing here. Maybe I should have tried having her use something other than the steel lance.

Darn stupid gates with their higher than regular terrain movement cost. >_>

Well I guess that's not as bad as it could have been.

Stat Update:

Spoiler

Getting a bit crowded in here...

Marginal improvements all around. I gave Astram a bit of a chance here, but he didn't improve much. with Navarre as an option I don't see any reason to try to keep using him.

 

[Robert Stewart]

One more for the weekend!

Chapter 2-5:

Spoiler

For the first time, we don't get to deploy everyone.

Another village in an inconvenient spot, but at least it's just the one.

Growths:
HP: 40% Str: 60% Skl: 70% Spd: 80% Lck: 70% Wlv: 80% Def: 20%

The first dancer in the series! We get her a bit earlier than in vanilla. She actually has surprisingly stacked growths across the board.

Our boss is...actually not that threatening. Weirdly, I don't think he even ever attacked. Couldn't  they at least have given him a better weapon?

He's holding the Gemeni shard, which boosts Stength and Def growths, but slightly reduces Weapon Level growth.

If not for the hit rate, these two might actually be more threatening.

Yumina is also here, being Jeorge's replacement. We can't recruit her yet, though. Not sure why really since we have the person who can recruit him, but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

There's also this guy who drops a physic, if you want to go after him.

More new blood already!

Growths:
HP: 60% STR: 10% SKL: 30% SPD: 20% LCK: 40% WLV: 70% DEF: 10%

Well...he's faster than Elrean or Merric, at least.

Had a couple close calls dealing with these guys, but it ended up okay. yumina  & Co won't move unless you get REALLY close to them.

Thief down!

Midia no.

Tiki and Cain head north to clear the dracoknights for Elice. Meanwhile everyone else crowd onto the bridge.

with the Iote's shiel, Est can pretty easily take out the Stonehoists.

Tiki no

probably should have used the divinestone for this map

Cain helps out as well.

Ended up accidentally making Elrean wait instead of attack , which was a bit annoying to correct.

Est takes out the last Stonehoist and Minerva takes out the Armor.

And that's all of the regular enemies!

The boss goes down easily to Elrean.

:3

Now we're just waiting on Elice.

Doing some miscellaneous shopping in the meantime. Made sure to get two door keys for the next chapter.

*eyes emoji*

A bit of a close call here, but Est got some lucky doges and crits to pull of a win.

Got Tiki in position to try for the Physic staff. Even this close, Yumina and co won't move.

Also, thieves start randomly spawning form this spot. not sure why this spot, but whatever.

Blergh

Having Feena does help a bit here.

Darn, didn't get the physic. Oh well, well get another one soon-ish.

Exactly the same time as the last map. :/

Stat Update:

Spoiler

Next map is indoors, so some of the mounted units have their stats reduced. Est grew a lot thanks to all that arena grinding. :3

 

[Mega Koopa]

You know, you never realize how little units you get in these games until you play a RR run and you already have midgame units in chapter 6.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Mega Koopa said:

You know, you never realize how little units you get in these games until you play a RR run and you already have midgame units in chapter 6.

I think it is just more front-loaded.

Mystery Book 2 gives you 45 characters. For comparison PoR gives 44 (because Ena/Nasir and Giffca/Tibarn/Naesala reduce the 47 total in practice). New Mystery has the most at 77, RD is 72, Revelation is over sixty.

Now let us count the character distribution in Book 2:

Spoiler

C1- 9  C2- 2  C3- 4

C4- 5  C5- 2  C6- 1

C7- 3  C8- 3  C9- 1

C10- 2  C11- 0  C12- 0

C13- 0  C14- 2  C15- 2

C16- 1 C17- 2  C18- 0

C19- 1  C20- 1 CF1- 0

CF2- 4

Halfway in at Chapter 10, you already have 32 of the 45, if you ignore the four maidens, you've only nine characters left. As you see, there are triple zeroes after C10, and much lower recruitment numbers beyond it.

 

Path of Radiance I brought up before, because it is so very anti-front-loaded in comparison to Mystery. The first eight chapters give you an incredibly small roster, just a handful of the GMs. Despite being a little longer, it spaces out its characters much more evenly even after the starting eight battles.

Because I like to gather data:

Spoiler

After Prologue-Chapter 7 (since unit numbers here are in continual flux) and before starting Chapter 8:  7

C8- 1  C9- 3  C10- 3

C11- 4  C12- 2  C13- 2

C14- 1 C15-1  C16- 3

C17- 0  C18- 4  C19- 1

C20- 1  C21- 1  C22- 0

C23- 2  C24- 2  C25- 2

C26- 1  C27- 0  C28- 1

CF- 1

So by the time we're done with Chapter 16, a little over halfway with the long C17 being a good break point due to no recruits there, we've 27 of the 44. 17 units remain unobtained. The number of "empty" chapters after C7 is both absolutely and as a percentage of the total game much lower than for Mystery, despite being a smaller cast and a little longer game.

 

FEs tend to be frontloaded to some extent with the characters, Fates gives you all but two prepromotes and the kids (which you can get whenever) by the start of Chapter 14 on BR, the same at the start of Chapter 17 on CQ. Frontloading is good in ways because it gives you plenty of options from the start, and increases the likelihood more of the characters you'll like will be usable for most of the game.

 

Anywho, enough dissection...

Glad to see the Cain will be dishin' the pain. Early Tiki looks to be an MVP of this run, probably couldn't have happened if dragonstones had the durability they did in the later games. The older games clearly did better here. These two and Est aside, everyone looks fairly tame.

[Ertrick36]

On 1/14/2019 at 6:37 AM, Robert of Normandy said:

Someone needs to read the book 1 updates.

I just realized... RR in Book 1 would make Elice and Lorenz lovers, wouldn't it?

Elice, why?  And then he goes and kills himself in Book 2, leaving Elice to flock to her new lover... which is Feena, from the looks of your last update???  Man, Elice's sexual/romantic preferences are just all over the place, aren't they?  Old grizzled war veterans and young dancer girls?  Elice is like one of those harem princes with peculiar tastes.  "Hmm...  I'll take that old man with the scars, and that small, clear-skinned girl with a nice breast!"

Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Different strokes for different folks, and all that.  It'd just be nice if she could've waited more than a couple of days after her previous lover's death before she went and found a new one.

23 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths:
HP: 90% STR: 30% SKL: 60% SPD: 60% LCK: 50% WLV: 60% DEF: 20%

If it wasn't for his lacking HP and slightly lower WLV, I'd almost say Cain is better than Sirius, which is absolutely insane.

Too bad paladins get significantly lower stats when they dismount.  But at least Midia's HP wouldn't lower down to less than her already low HP stat of goddamn 13, holy hell that's still lower than the lowest base HP stats in the series, even frickin' Azura from Fates has better HP than that.

[Robert Stewart]

21 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Early Tiki looks to be an MVP of this run, probably couldn't have happened if dragonstones had the durability they did in the later games. The older games clearly did better here.

Well it's not so much increased durability as the transformation mechanic meaning one use is more meaningful.

17 hours ago, Ertrick36 said:

If it wasn't for his lacking HP and slightly lower WLV, I'd almost say Cain is better than Sirius, which is absolutely insane.

Well his Wlv is still high enough that it won't really matter until endgame.

[Ertrick36]

1 hour ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Well his Wlv is still high enough that it won't really matter until endgame.

Given that it got to 12 already, he has all the WLV he really needs to use every weapon a Paladin can use, so it just doesn't matter period at this point.

Only weapons that require a WLV that is beyond 12 are Bolganone and the Again Staff.

And to consider the possibility of him being stuck with a weapon level lower than 12...  I'll just say you'd have to have been born under a lucky star, passed by a cat, walked under a ladder, and broke a mirror with a monkey's paw for him to not gain at least two more points in weapon level throughout the rest of the game.  I mean, it's a 60% growth rate and 16 chances for it to increase.  You just can't go wrong there unless your luck is absolutely awful.

Make no mistake, Reverse Recruitment did him some real good.  Though I have to wonder what this means for our dear masked friend who is now a loyal knight in the service of Queen Elice and her lovely wife Feena.

[Interdimensional Observer]

32 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

Given that it got to 12 already, he has all the WLV he really needs to use every weapon a Paladin can use, so it just doesn't matter period at this point.

Only weapons that require a WLV that is beyond 12 are Bolganone and the Again Staff.

And to consider the possibility of him being stuck with a weapon level lower than 12...  I'll just say you'd have to have been born under a lucky star, passed by a cat, walked under a ladder, and broke a mirror with a monkey's paw for him to not gain at least two more points in weapon level throughout the rest of the game.  I mean, it's a 60% growth rate and 16 chances for it to increase.  You just can't go wrong there unless your luck is absolutely awful.

 

I'm feeling this might be a reason why they got rid of WLV and went to Weapon Ranks.

There is not very often a totally superfluous on paper Weapon Rank, each adds something new. WLV, as you identify, might as well cap at eight points lower than actually can for most units, consider any level up just WLV empty ones at that point.

Weapon Ranks are also RNG-free. You can't make a Silver Sword need 16 WLV, since RNG means it might be possible few units will ever get to use it, how unlucky that would be. Ranks, unless FE4 or at a cap, grow without RNG, and thus if you use Nino enough, it is possible to get her A Staffs. And because WR screwage isn't possible, IS could set the Weapon Rank demands higher than they could with WLV.

Another issue I've heard with WLV is Mages promoting before Staffers and thus making Staffers save the personal ones obsolete, since WLV is only one stat applying for all weapon types. WR made unpromoted healers still valuable, and later games let other unit types toy with variety through specified WRs, like Geitz's B Bows giving him a little advantage over Dorcas and Bartre.

 

Although I still can't help but wonder if WLV could ever return and coexist with WR. I've considered some ideas, like making WTA dependent partly on WTAer's WLV vs. the enemy's.

 

47 minutes ago, Ertrick36 said:

Make no mistake, Reverse Recruitment did him some real good.  Though I have to wonder what this means for our dear masked friend who is now a loyal knight in the service of Queen Elice and her lovely wife Feena.

Well now his bro is Catria, I'm going to assume it's platonic. And it means Tatiana fell for a redhead in this alternate universe, even though it was Camus who fell in battle that one time.

Abel I guess is now unrequitedly in love with Elice, Astram the same and later a pole dancer. And Abel has Xane and Warren as big brother and little brother, with Warren breaking up with Catria- which actually makes some sense.

I'm guessing, Ogma is the King of Macedon now, Luke his adorable little brother. And Hardin fell madly in love with Arran, only for him to prefer a blonde cavalryman, but somehow only be awakened by a new flame in Cain. 

Marisha and Rody are dear lovers, and Yuliya is their best friend. Cecil is Arlen's lover, and Merric her brother. Julian and Matthis are rivals in Khadein studying under master Rickard. Matthis alone can rescue his lover Marth (you have poor taste Marth). Castor is an edgy mystery mercenary and Caeda won't just leave him alone. Linde is at risk of degenerating, but loves her caretaker who it looks like she should be taking care of, JuJu. 

[Robert Stewart]

Chapter 2-6:

Spoiler

An indoor map, and with a big covered area! Book 2 does this fairly frequently, actually.

Elice heads to grab these chests.

That really stung.

:3

Pretty much everyone else heads over to deal with these armors.

The Swarm bishop goes down pretty quick, actually.

The armor squad also was pretty easy to take out.

Libra? I thought this was FE3, not Awakening!

Back to serious mode, Libra mainly boosts speed(40%) and slightly boosts luck and weapon level growth(10%), while reducing HP and resistance growths(-10%).

Tiki can't quite one-shot this bishop, but he only has physic so he's not as much of a problem.

Reinforcements! Potentially two soldiers, and archer, and an armored unit can spawn here. I say "potentially" because again, who appears is up to RNG.

Tiki opens the right door, revealing the boss area.

Our Boss, not-Jiol. Compared to the previous General Boss, Rucke, he actually only does one more point of damage even though he has a 3-point edge in attack. But he hes have 1-2 range now.

We also have Castor....

Psych! It's a faaake!

Growths:
HP: 70% STR: 20% SKL: 20% SPD: 60% LCK: 10% WLV: 40% DEF: 10%

This little shit has caused me so many problems. First, there was a bug that cause Navarre to not respond to input after Samto was recruited. Then as I was writing this update, I realized Samto's stats were wrong and had to fix that. Blegh.

Anyway, he's the midpoint character so his stats don't change at all.

And his Aquarius orb boosts Strength, Skill, Speed, and Weapon Level growth by 10%.

These jerks move to block these narrow hallways. This will be annoying later.

I noticed Tiki has an interesting dodge animation on the map where she sort of...phases? Doesn't  really come through in the screenshots, though.

Oops! Luckily she survived and will be out of harms way shortly.

Things got a little dicey for Sheema at times...

Vulnerary to the rescue! Est helped a bit too.

With the main group in the boss room, it's time to slowly peel off the armors around Lang.

Managed to funnel everyone here so that Sheema only has to face one enemy at a time.

Stupid bishop is blocking my way. >_>

Feena helps, but it'll take another turn to finish.

And with this guy  killed, Sheema can move to where everyone else is without having to worry about taking damage.

Merric starts on the boss.

And Elrean finishes.

We got Cancer. insert your own joke here.

The Cancer orb boosts defense growth by 50% and reduces Strength growth by 10%.

Even with Lang dead, reinforcements can still spawn.

There's actually quite a lot of these guys following us.

Missed this Archer twice in a row. The hist rate was 71%, but still. >_>

Killed a few guys but I didn't really want to take the time to grind.

Not a bad time.

Stat Update:

Spoiler

Not a whole lot new here, mostly increment gains again.

See y'all next time.

Edited January 27, 2019 by Robert of Normandy

[Emperor Hardin]

I wasn't aware this was a thing, I'm gonna watch it.

By the way, what tool are you using to mod FE3? I've been writing down some FE3 mod ideas myself in my spare time.

[Robert Stewart]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

I wasn't aware this was a thing, I'm gonna watch it.

By the way, what tool are you using to mod FE3? I've been writing down some FE3 mod ideas myself in my spare time.

I'm not really using a tool - I wrote a program myself to do the reversing and some other needed fixes, and then an assembler for some other miscellaneous patches.

[Emperor Hardin]

5 minutes ago, Robert of Normandy said:

I'm not really using a tool - I wrote a program myself to do the reversing and some other needed fixes, and then an assembler for some other miscellaneous patches.

Awesome.

I have some bizarre ideas for an FE3 patch, but I use a mac so I'm not sure if I can implement them easily, so right now I'm just writing them down.

We can talk about on PM if you'd like?

On Topic, I bet Sheena will be pretty good in this run(just saw she has 0 SKILL/SPD, maybe not)!

Edited January 29, 2019 by Emperor Hardin

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 1/26/2019 at 9:10 PM, Robert of Normandy said:

I noticed Tiki has an interesting dodge animation on the map where she sort of...phases? Doesn't  really come through in the screenshots, though.

 

Hmm... dragon, Mist Breath, oh, I get it she does this:

It is scientifically proven, FFIV's world is Archanea 1000000 years later. That'd explain Rydia's green hair.

 

Haven't played Mystery ever or watched a run, but Chapter 6 looks a bit... well weak in enemy layout and map design. Guess Lang spent too much time being corrupt and a pedophile rapist to have any to arrange an actual defense. Well he did hire the famed "Navarre" as well, so maybe they thought his blood sword hand would be enough, thanks for your duplicity Samto/Samuel! (Although he does, as always from what I'm aware, look pretty darn bad statistically.)

[Emperor Hardin]

 

On 1/26/2019 at 6:10 PM, Robert of Normandy said:

I noticed Tiki has an interesting dodge animation on the map where she sort of...phases? Doesn't  really come through in the screenshots, though.

FE3 had some interesting map animations. Besides Divine Dragons teleporting, Fire Dragons temporarily fly, Earth/Ice Dragons duck into their pool of dirt/water respectively.

[Robert Stewart]

Oh that's right, I have an LP.

Chapter 2-7:

Spoiler

Le squad and le map. Let's meet our new blood:

Growths:
Rickard: HP 50% Str 50% Skl 20% Spd 60% Lck 40% Wlv 30% Def 20%
Castor: HP 70% Str 60% Skl 40% Spd 40% Lck 20% Wlv 20% Def 20%
Shiida: HP 50% Str 20% Skl 70% Spd 90% Lck 70% Wlv 80% Def 20%

Wow, Rickard is actually pretty stacked! He replaced a promoted unit so I guess that makes sense. He'll be doing utility stuff for a while, so I'm not actually sure how much combat he'll see.

On the others, Castor looks fine enough, but Shiida...well, I wouldn't say she's bad, but at this point I don't see any reason to use  her.

Our boss. Actually kind of interesting. His defense his low but he actually has decent avoid, which could be annoying.

Malicia is also hanging around, being Astram's replacement and all. Like Yumina in Chapter 5, she won't move unless you get pretty close.

Lots of thieves holding valuable loot. The Scorpio shard boosts Strength and Skill growths by 20%, Speed by 10%, and reduces Luck by 10%.

Even with the Silver Lance, Caeda can't finish off the thieves here. :/

For some reason I thought this was funny enough to include. :v

Some of the thieves will run away like they normally do, but some are programmed to attack.

Est heads up to lend a hand.

I'll be honest, I'm kinda surprised that hit. :v

When you get close enough a dragon spawns from this cave.

Feena takes out the last thief down here.

Castor actually took a fair amount of damage, but luckily he dodged here.

Lucky Javelin hit while staying just out of range to aggro the heroes! \o/

Giving Shiida a weapon she can actually make some use of.

The dragon had enough HP he needed an extra turn to finish off.

And we get a spare Firestone for our trouble.

After a few turns reinforcements start coming from the open forts.

Yikes. Shiida took a lot of damage this chapter.

Finishing off more thieves.

And we get a physic staff from the dragon cave.

And Shiida and Castor get patched up.

And down goes the last of the thieves.

Elise has to walk through the edge of the forest to avoid aggroing the Heroes, which slows her down even more. :/

Meanwhile everyone else is dealing with the armors.

Not much I could do about this since you can't block the mage spawn fort.

The boss was really annoying to kill, Minerva kept missing him. >_>

Elice gets away from the reinforcements and gets patched up.

More healing.

Finally got a hit using the Javelin, but the trade off is Minerva now gets doubled.

Down he goes. Jeez.

That was actually quicker than it felt like.

Stat Update:

Spoiler

See y'all next time.

[Robert Stewart]

Time for more of this again!

Chapter 2-8:

Spoiler

Hey look it's that chapter that got cut in Book 1! Quite a lot of promoted enemies here, actually.

Roshe is here for recruitment reasons.

Some more thieves with loot. The Leo orb is really handy, it boosts strength growth by 50% and reduces Defense growth by 10%.

Damn we can't escape the OP armors even in games other than Heroes.

Edit: Forgot to mention, the darkspere makes him immune to damage, so even without the ridiculous stats there's no point in fighting him.

Hardin did some, uh, working out, it seems.

Oh, and Malicia and Yumina are here too.

New blood!
Growths:
HP: 80% STR: 50% SKL: 50% SPD: 40% LCK: 30% WLV: 40% 30%

He's  worse than Cain was originally, but he doesn't look like he'd be that bad. But I think we're good as far as cavaliers go.

Start off with Abel and Sheema taking out the thieves.

Sent Lena to do some shopping, and I finally remembered to sell the Silver Axes I had.

Elrean dodged both of these paladins. I think they both had Javelins, but still, not bad.

More new blood!

Growths:
HP: 50% STR: 50% SKL: 30% SPD: 40% LCK: 40% WLV: 60% DEF: 10%

Yubello's main distinguishing feature is that he has a strength growth, unlike most other mages in the game. Again, I wouldn't say he's bad, but I  think we already have better options.

More dodging, and a double crit to boot! :o

Darn, I was counting on a crit.

Thankfully we have infinite range healing. :3

More reinforcements, in the same arrangement as the last chapter actually.

Oof

Luckily the AI prioritized healing and didn't go for the second hit.

Down they both go on the next turn.

And Castor takes out the remaining General with a lucky crit.

Feena is helping Elice get to the gate slightly faster.

Tiki can handle the mage reinforcements easily.

More new blood!

Growths:
HP: 30% STR: 20% SKL: 30% SPD: 40% LCK: 40% WLV: 60% DEF: 10%
She looks really good. Probably better than Nyna at this  point, but I'm kinda committed to using Nyna at this point, so...

Rescue is a PRF for her though, so we'll have to user her on occasion.

A cutscene happens, some more generals appear, and all the enemies start to move.

It's that time already?

:3

Took out a few enemies for a bit of EXP but It's time to skedaddle.

Wow, really not a bad time.

Stat Update:

Spoiler

This was actually the last chapter I had recorded, so I'll have to actually start playing the game again soon.

[Robert Stewart]

*insert witty update intro here*

Chapter 2-9:

Spoiler

Minor thing: did you know that you can start a chapter in FE3 by moving the cursor up to the "Start" menu text and pressing A? I didn't! And based on the cursor overlapping the text, I'm betting most fan translators of this game didn't either.

Hey, this looks familiar! :v

We're in a new section of the game, so we get new map music! The player phase theme is pretty good, but the enemy phase theme is so lame that most of the soundtrack rips of the game leave it completely out. :v

Abel and Sheema are sitting this one out, with Yumina along because of the desert.

Some of the thieves have some decent loot. Though there's a pretty big caveat on that thief staff - if you've played FE3 you might be able to guess, but I'll leave it to next chapter to explain.

The boss. Like most mage bosses, he's packing a hard-hitting tome that also weighs him down significantly.

He's flanked by two swarm bishops - one with a Speed Ring!

Getting the thieves with the loot was pretty easy.

Like in Chapter 3, Tiki is really useful here for easily taking out these dragons.

I accidentally let Yumina get attacked but it wasn't a big deal. Actually ended up getting Merric a level.

Elice has another out of the way village to get to, but being able to ignore the desert terrain helps a bunch.

Meanwhile Rickard is looting these chests that are here for...some reason.

Tiki's resistance is too high to bait the mages, but Elrean can clear them out just fine with the Shaver tome.

Merric also draws one out, though he's not quite as able to one round them.

And Tiki handles the rest of the dragons.

While she's immune to the regular mages, the Swarm bishops can damage her. Not much, luckily.

Tiki  can oneshot them actually. :v

A lucky get, we don't need to bring Rickard back over to grab the silver axe.

This ones a bit of a mixed bag, boosting HP by 20% and Wlv 30%, while boosting Def and reducing Skl/Spd by 10%. Not quite as useful as others, honestly.

Most of the remaining enemies aren't very threatening.

Let's see what we get here...

We'll get to his stats in a bit. But if you're thinking "hey, his HP Looks awfully low..." well, you're right. It took me until halfway to book 2 to relaize it, but when I was recalculating unit stats I was using the same cap for every stat when I should have been using a cap of 52(I think) for HP. So I was unintentionally nerfing anyone with high HP.

But I fixed it now! Not going to change units who already were affected, but for future units they will have the proper HP amount. Unless there's some huge outcry demanding I continue with the 20HP bug intact, but since no one reads this LP anyway I doubt anyone will care.

And now for the corrected stats with a slight difference in color because I took the screenshot in the BSNES emulator I use for debugging...

Growths:
HP: 80% STR: 40% SKL: 30% SPD: 30% LCK: 40% WLV: 70% DEF: 30%

Holy shitballs Ogma is busted. He's even got better stats than Samson does in the vanilla game. Combined with him being needed for endgame, there's not really much reason to use another mercenary...but honestly I think we have enough busted characters as is, so I'm kinda leaning towards not using him much. him being so busted means I think we can leave him benched for endgame and not worry about him not keeping up.

Onto the boss, who goes down easily like his flunkies.

Yes please. :D

Did some shopping for tomes and healing staves - this will actually be our last shop for a while.

Elrean gets the promotion, natch.

And just as we finish up. these guys show up! Kind of a time limit on the map.

Managed to take out one before we finish.

Not bad at all.

 

Stat Update:

Spoiler

Castor used a manual but I totally forgot to screencap that, so here's the result.

This chapter was pretty focused on a few units, so only a few people got level ups. This isn't our last desert map, so that could happen again.

See y'all next time.

[Punished Dayni]

The Ogma is just beautiful.

I understand not wanting to smash the game in half with him.

[Ertrick36]

17 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

but since no one reads this LP anyway I doubt anyone will care

Hey, don't say that.

I've read every part of this so far, and it seems at least a few others have as well.

17 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

I didn't think I'd see the day Elrean finally beat his self-proclaimed rival.  Then again, I'm not the one having to work towards bringing Elrean to endgame.

And now is when I realize you're gonna be forced to take Matthis to endgame if you want to recruit everyone, and it's gonna be for the one guy that is able to wield the best weapon for defeating the endgame boss (except I think Tiki's mist breath, though I don't remember entirely).  Naga have mercy on you.

17 hours ago, Robert of Normandy said:

Growths:
HP: 80% STR: 40% SKL: 30% SPD: 30% LCK: 40% WLV: 70% DEF: 30%

Of course this hack just made Ogma a stupider unit.

Why would I think it wouldn't make him busted?  This is the hack that made Est a viable unit without arena grinding.

[Robert Stewart]

Only a short update today, but perhaps still an interesting one.

Chapter 2-10:

Spoiler

This chapter will actually be fairly easy so we don't need our heavy hitters with us as much.

An indoor map with some outdoor bits that don't matter. You maybe be wondering about those chests on the outside, but...well, they're troublesome. I'll explain why later.

Growths:
HP: 50% STR: 40% SKL: 30% SPD: 20% LCK: 20% WLV: 70% DEF: 20%

Yeah, I'd be lying if I said he's great, but he's certainly not the worst cavalier we've seen. He's forced for the endgame anyway so I'm probably going to use him, but with star shards that's not the worst fate out there.

No boss screenshot either, his stats don't matter until later.

The bishops are both packing swarm, so I gave Rickard a res boost to help shield him form that. With a dance he's able to cross the stream andd take one of the bishops out easily.

And Yumina kindly yoinks Matthis to safety.

The mercenary has a killing edge, which could have been an issue, but luckily  he doesn't get the crit and Rickard one-rounds him.

And with that, on turn two the chapter becomes a cakewalk.

Growths:
HP: 80% STR: 70% SKL: 50% SPD: 50% LCK: 80% WLV: 40% DEF: 30%

A bit more of a balanced spread in terms of Rickard, with slightly lower strength and speed but higher in other areas. I'd say they're about even.

After this, the enemy AI changes. They won't attack and instead will move toward the exit.

They're easy pickings for a bit of training.

I know in the DS remake you have to leave these clerics alive to get a bonus at the end of the chapter. I'm unsure if the same rule applies here, but they give so little EXP I left them alone anyway.

The watch staff is an odd one, it allows you to show areas hidden under roofs in some places. Not super useful, really.

Merric missed out killing this guy and I prioritized killing other enemies, so he managed to slip back to the throne. Kind of ended up being a pain.

>_>

On turn 11 a thief shows up with the silver card. I think he doesn't appear if you killed any of the clerics, but I'm not sure.

Down he goes, and the last mage as well. And with that the chapter is over...but there's still some business to deal with.

You may  be thinking it's weird I didn't show anyone opening the chests on the outside of the map. Well, that's because I can't.

See those weird stone looking tiles? Those are "Blocked" terrain, meaning literally no one can move past them. Don't ask me why someone can't just fly over them(it is an outdoor area), I have no idea. And the bit of water is in the "border" area, which means even though we can see it, we can't actually put any units there.

The only way to open the chests is the Thief staff - which we have! Except in FE3 the staff is a PRF for Malicia, and since we can't recruit her yet, the thief staff is useless for now. So we can't get them.

The right chest has an unlock staff, which isn't that big of a deal, but the left one contains the Silence staff. That's an even bigger loss than usual, since Silence is busted AF in FE3 - it silences ALL enemies on the map for a single turn. So missing it is a great loss.

For a semi-related tangent: turns out in FE3 Yumina can use rescue even if she's completely surrounded. If you're thinking maybe it could be possible to force rescue to warp a unit outside the walls, that won't work - I'm pretty sure the game specifically checks for blocked terrain and doesn't permit warping past it. Trust me, I tried to make it work.

Oh boy did I try.

...well, that's that, I guess.

Stat Update:

Spoiler

Navarre finally got another level ! He's been sitting at level 8, ninety something experience for a few chapters now, but it was never convenient to get him a level.

You might be able to spot the terrain for the next map already, so that should be...fun? See you all then.