Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Emperor Hardin]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Kind of surprised you're surprised to learn the Dragon Knights mounts are part of the dragon tribe. Did you not notice the wyvern enemies have the exact same sprite as mounted Dragon Knights? For some reason the remake changed this and made the whole issue very ambiguous, mayhe because of that sterility plot hole. In the original game it's very clear that yes, the Macedonians have domesticated insane sapient creatures for combat.

On the subject of fire breathing, this isn't even the only game that confirms they can do it. Awakening has fire breathing in support convos yes no option in gameplay. I'm mystified by it too.

I like Wyverns using wind as opposed to breathing fire. 

I wouldn't be surprised if wyverns equipping fire breath was another conservation of hardware, myself.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

At least it's not Xavier levels of bad.

Xavier is the navel of his map, its cornerstone, he is its challenge, its sorrow, its joy, its reward. There is no Chapter 18 without Xavier.

He is the rare case of a character who, even if you how to recruit him, ends up being nightmarishly difficult to carry out to success, with plenty o' room for RNG failure. Were it not for Alastor's effort to go "blind", I'd outright tell him the strat I recommend. 

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Wyverns can fly anyway so the idea of them migrating to Jugdral isn't that far fetched

True, migratory birds can go quite far. And whilst Tellius domesticated Wyverns can't travel for many hours without a rest Jill says, a full-fledged Archanean Wyvern is another story. A big winged scaly should outdo any bird.

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

(according to Awakening their home is even in Valencia, despite no Wyverns appearing in Gaiden, still kind of annoyed by that lack of care)

Depending on the wording, you might be able to interpret it as "as humans think, even if it has actually only been 1000-2000 years since they migrated from Archanea".

I'll continue to pretend that the Awakening era Valmese Wyverns were the result of a Macedonian monopoly on the mounts and knowledge of how to raise them breaking down over time. Dracoknights dracoknights dracoknights is the cornerstone of Macedon military might and advantage, they carefully always labeled Dracoknights as "Macedon" in FE11.

IRL, government-enforced monopolies have existed. See China's efforts to strictly enforce a tea monopoly (but Japan seems to have broken it way earlier than everyone else?) under penalty of death for any native who tried leaking the secrets of tea cultivation, and any foreigner who tried stealing them. It took until the 1800s for the Brits to globalize production and break China's near-monopoly.

I'll just imagine Macedon wanted to keep its military's great weapon similarly secretive. But, somewhere later down the line, ardent patriots and intrepid merchants from other countries stole some Wyverns and the means of Wyvern husbandry and riding. As for any wild Wyvern population in Valm, wild stallions in North America stem from the Spanish losing track of a few equines, pretend a stable/merchant lost a few Wyverns and over time they happened to multiply in the right place.

Hardin using Dracoknights in the War of Heroes? Well he wanted the Macedon rebellion, I'll think he forced his imperial weight on Macedon into giving him some of its Wyvern troops, but he never had any interest in transmigrating the husbandry techniques to Archanea. As long as Macedon offered enough Dracoknights to please, he had no strong reason to try expanding production.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Emperor Hardin]

27 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Depending on the wording, you might be able to interpret it as "as humans think, even if it has actually only been 1000-2000 years since they migrated from Archanea".

I'll continue to pretend that the Awakening era Valmese Wyverns were the result of a Macedonian monopoly on the mounts and knowledge of how to raise them breaking down over time. Dracoknights dracoknights dracoknights is the cornerstone of Macedon military might and advantage, they carefully always labeled Dracoknights as "Macedon" in FE11.

IRL, government-enforced monopolies have existed. See China's efforts to strictly enforce a tea monopoly (but Japan seems to have broken it way earlier than everyone else?) under penalty of death for any native who tried leaking the secrets of tea cultivation, and any foreigner who tried stealing them. It took until the 1800s for the Brits to globalize production and break China's near-monopoly.

I'll just imagine Macedon wanted to keep its military's great weapon similarly secretive. But, somewhere later down the line, ardent patriots and intrepid merchants from other countries stole some Wyverns and the means of Wyvern husbandry and riding. As for any wild Wyvern population in Valm, wild stallions in North America stem from the Spanish losing track of a few equines, pretend a stable/merchant lost a few Wyverns and over time they happened to multiply in the right place.

Hardin using Dracoknights in the War of Heroes? Well he wanted the Macedon rebellion, I'll think he forced his imperial weight on Macedon into giving him some of its Wyvern troops, but he never had any interest in transmigrating the husbandry techniques to Archanea. As long as Macedon offered enough Dracoknights to please, he had no strong reason to try expanding production.

I personally have a different impression.

Dolhr has quite a few Dracoknights, which makes sense given that Wyvern's dale is right by them as well, as did the military forces of the nation of Grust and Khadein in the War of Shadows. Khadein's DracoKnights in the War of Heroes also appear to be under the command of Ellerean, rather then Archanea.

All in all, I get the impression whilst Macedon has the lion's share of Wyvern riders and the most famous wyvern riders on the continent, other nations could get them too, it was just more of a hassle for them to import Wyverns to their country and thus wyverns weren't as common as a resource.

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Xavier is the navel of his map, its cornerstone, he is its challenge, its sorrow, its joy, its reward. There is no Chapter 18 without Xavier.

He is the rare case of a character who, even if you how to recruit him, ends up being nightmarishly difficult to carry out to success, with plenty o' room for RNG failure. Were it not for Alastor's effort to go "blind", I'd outright tell him the strat I recommend. 

 

True, migratory birds can go quite far. And whilst Tellius domesticated Wyverns can't travel for many hours without a rest Jill says, a full-fledged Archanean Wyvern is another story. A big winged scaly should outdo any bird.

 

Depending on the wording, you might be able to interpret it as "as humans think, even if it has actually only been 1000-2000 years since they migrated from Archanea".

I'll continue to pretend that the Awakening era Valmese Wyverns were the result of a Macedonian monopoly on the mounts and knowledge of how to raise them breaking down over time. Dracoknights dracoknights dracoknights is the cornerstone of Macedon military might and advantage, they carefully always labeled Dracoknights as "Macedon" in FE11.

IRL, government-enforced monopolies have existed. See China's efforts to strictly enforce a tea monopoly (but Japan seems to have broken it way earlier than everyone else?) under penalty of death for any native who tried leaking the secrets of tea cultivation, and any foreigner who tried stealing them. It took until the 1800s for the Brits to globalize production and break China's near-monopoly.

I'll just imagine Macedon wanted to keep its military's great weapon similarly secretive. But, somewhere later down the line, ardent patriots and intrepid merchants from other countries stole some Wyverns and the means of Wyvern husbandry and riding. As for any wild Wyvern population in Valm, wild stallions in North America stem from the Spanish losing track of a few equines, pretend a stable/merchant lost a few Wyverns and over time they happened to multiply in the right place.

Hardin using Dracoknights in the War of Heroes? Well he wanted the Macedon rebellion, I'll think he forced his imperial weight on Macedon into giving him some of its Wyvern troops, but he never had any interest in transmigrating the husbandry techniques to Archanea. As long as Macedon offered enough Dracoknights to please, he had no strong reason to try expanding production.

It's not the issue that it's impossible for Wyvren valley to exist in Valm, it's that there's absolutely no reason for it to exist there. They don't have any deep lore of Macedon's downfall or the origin of wyvrens. They were just like "hey, here's the Gerome chapter." "Cool, stick it on an empty space on the map." Wyvren valley's location had zero to do with the chapter itself, they just simply didn't care about being faithful to Gaiden's geography or Archanea's lore in the slightest. And it's far from the only example of this philosophy.

[Alastor15243]

Mystery of the Emblem Day 26: Book 2, Chapter 22

It’s good of the game to tell me that I need to bring the four princesses’ loved ones to this map. That would be nice if I didn’t already know. Though… I can’t remember… does the game ever hint that Merric is Elice’s loved one?

Now, at first I thought the “we can’t bring everyone inside” thing was referring to a limited roster. But no, I guess it’s just referring to the fact that we can’t change deployment between the next two battles.

After that dialogue though, for some reason the prep screen uses the mediocre player phase music for the preparation music. Man, I’m really looking forward to when games have dedicated preparation music.

And the ability to fucking arrange your starting party.

In fairness, for the most part, starting formation hasn’t mattered all that much. Mostly since enemies start so far away from you. One area where one bad element of map design dulls the edge of another bad element of map design. But it has mattered in a few situations, and that’s annoyed the hell out of me that they made it matter so much but didn’t let you change it.

Anyway, I already suited up my army last map, so there’s not much left to do but select the same army and start.

Okay, so the Falchion sword WAS stolen from Altea. I’m assuming this happened at the same time Altea was invaded?

Okay, but if so, why the hell wasn’t Marth carrying the Falchion at the time, and why the hell wasn’t any comment made about the sword being stolen until this moment? Surely Marth would have tried to get it and commented on the fact that it wasn’t there?

Oh shit. A hell of a lot of the dark priests seem to have the “reduce HP to 1” spell, Doulam.

Alright, so, I see three main areas I have to cover, so I send my three best 1-2 range fighters, one in each direction. Linde up front with Nosferatu, Merric to the right with Thoron, and Draug to the left with Gradivus, constantly wary of making sure only Linde ever gets in range of Doulam dark mages, since even if it hits, she'll get tons of HP back with the counter-attack.

The map’s pretty straightforward. Two treasure chests to the sides, and then a bunch of enemies up front, who will be taken care of shortly. And then there’s a locked room, which I can only assume has Gharnef and maybe the princesses.

And the dragons I tried to bait… just flat-out didn’t approach. Considering they’re each guarded by Doulam dark mages… that makes things a little complicated.

Only a little though.

I should be able to fix things next turn. For now I’ll keep having Linde advance forward.

Alright, I solved the issue of the left dragon by having Marth dash in with his 11 move and merc it with the Mercurius, meaning there’ll be nothing nearby to finish Marth off if Doulam hits. Meanwhile Merric attacks the right dragon, who he can’t kill without a crit, with Excalibur, with Feena right behind him so that if he fails to crit, he can move again to kill him so at least nothing can finish him off if Doulam hits, and if he does crit (which he did), Feena dan dance him to kill the Doulam mage too. Which he does.

Now I’m going to get these chests and GET THE FUCK OUT OF HERE BEFORE THE REINFORCEMENTS SPAWN, BECAUSE I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW WHAT THEY DO.

And all of that stress for… a pure water and a door key. Oh goodie.

I have to tell you, readers… those terrifying turns where I was getting my dancer and thief safely behind my defensive wall in the event that ambush spawns show up? AGONIZING. My relief was immeasurable when they finally made it and no reinforcements showed up like the dialogue suggested they’re going to any moment. I kept asking myself “should I have sent Linde so far forward? Did I kill too many enemies? What’s the trigger the game’s going to use to send reinforcements after me!? WHERE’S THE TRIGGER!? WHERE IS IT!?

Just as I secure my army safely on the upper platform, it suddenly occurs to me that the door I’m about to open might be full of meteor mages for all I know, and that I should PROBABLY have my weaker units, including Rickard, stand back, and have one of my heavy hitters, preferably Merric, open the door with a door key.

The reinforcements finally start arriving, which is my cue to hurry up, because it’s probably only going to get worse than a couple of demon dragons.

My assessment of what was inside that room turned out to be very wise. Unfortunately, the reinforcements demanded I make so many moves to get into the room that I was completely helpless against what was inside of it. So I had to use my second use of the again staff, with Merric.

At any rate, looks like Gharnef isn’t inside. Pity, but at any rate, what is inside will be swiftly dealt with by Linde and her Nosferatu tome.

Incidentally, despite getting basically no training at all, Tiki is insanely useful holding off all of these demon dragons, as while her defense isn’t great by my army’s standards, it’s the only defense stat that applies. If she had a few more points of attack she could even one-shot these fuckers. Pity, I should’ve used the energy rings there.

Okay, this is actually pretty scary, I wound up screwing up and now it’s technically possible for Merric to die yet again, if he fails three pretty easy dodges in a row.

No fate-tempting comment here.

Thankfully he dodges the first one right out of the gate. But we’ve got to get this done quickly now. Linde is almost out of Nosferatu and needs to be topped off by Malliesia, who I can’t risk bringing into this room. Nor do I have the time to send Linde out. We have to advance in. And that miiiiight mean using the again staff… again.

Actually, no! After those three barbarians died, suddenly the room’s looking a lot less scary.

Yep, so, I use a little bit more of Nosferatu, not enough to break it, but enough that I’ll need to repair it right away, and then rush the throne with Marth after killing the dragon on it with Merric and Excalibur.

Really it seems despite all of Merric’s statistical superiority in res, defense and HP, Linde is going to be the MVP of the final maps with her two nosferatu tomes once I repair them up.

So the final map is revealed, and…

THANK GOODNESS I ONLY WASTED ONE USE OF THE THIEF STAFF.

Turns out this game has EXACTLY four chests, in total, that can only be obtained via warping or the thief staff. I wasted one in Hardin’s castle, and I’m glad I didn’t waste anymore. So, I guess tomorrow we’ll be finishing this up! I can’t see the princesses, but then I can’t see Medeus either, so this may have to be a two-parter tomorrow. No big deal, I think I can handle it.

But before I go, one thing I’m noticing right away: basically no enemy in the entire final act of the game so far has any attack speed whatsoever. I recognize that was a recurring problem throughout the game in general for most classes, but at least before, especially in Book 1’s final map, there were some enemies it took a good speed stat to double, like heroes and snipers. Here? Speed might as well be a worthless dump stat for all the good it’s done me. Nothing but dragons and barbarians and heavy-tome mages. It’s frankly a little ridiculous.

Alright, that’s it for now. I’m out.

[Alastor15243]

Mystery of the Emblem Day 27: Book 2, Chapter 23

Right, well, this map is pretty straightforward. Just a march up a staircase, some treasure chests to get with the thief staff, and then a Gharnef to kill with Starlight.

First thing I do is repair both of Linde’s Nosferatu tomes, giving her at least 24 rounds of combat she can fight with near impunity. This could very well be important, considering how near-impossible it’s going to be to set up a proper player-phase assault on that narrow staircase. Then I transform TIki and send her and Merric forward.

Unfortunately, I make the unpleasant discovery that the thief staff is utterly useless on any chest an enemy is standing on. And enemies are standing on both of the chests. So I may have to use the last two uses of my warp staff, in addition to the last two uses of my thief staff, to get those chests and get Aum. Thankfully the enemies on those platforms are unarmed, so I should be able to manage it pretty realistically, but I’ll wait to get closer to Gharnef just in case something else happens. Anyone I warp there isn’t coming back until we take the throne.

You know, I think I’ve decided I don’t like dismounting. At least not in this game. Specifically, I don’t like the fact that it forces mounted units to give up everything interesting about them on every indoor map. Especially since it makes them really, really, REALLY boring during the final maps of the game. Actually I’ve heard that’s a problem with Thracia too, that the last few maps are indoors and thus all of your fliers and cavalry are reduced to boring old “knights” wielding swords. It really feels like overkill in terms of balancing cavalry, and the fact that the last maps of the game don’t let you use their best features kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth regarding their performance throughout the rest of the game, even if they were still useful up to that point. It just doesn’t feel good or right.

Alright. So, I’m nearing the point where I’m going to be warping people in to clear those chests. I want them to be units who aren’t important either for rescuing the princesses or for general combat. Filler units basically. And for that I think I’ll go with Palla and Samson. Palla’s great, but her defensive stats are subpar among my best fighters, and Samson hasn’t really seen any action, he’s just a passable late prepromote. Not up for any major combat, but can certainly take out some staff-wielding dark priests. And the reason I’m doing this, taking units I don’t have much use for, is in case taking Gharnef’s throne doesn’t actually take you to a new map, and anyone I banished to those platforms is out of commission for the final battle with Medeus. I doubt it, but it would pretty well ruin the run if it did happen, wouldn’t it?

Oh fuck. I put Linde in range of Gharnef, who as it turns out MOVES DESPITE GUARDING A THRONE, and her Nosferatu tome won’t heal her if this connects. PLEASE. NO. SHE HAS MY WARP STAFF.

Okay. she took some damage. But thankfully not much since she got a barrier staff on her a few turns ago. It all depends on who attacks her next…

OH THANK GOD IT’S A DOULAM USER. THOSE GUYS ARE MENACES BUT THEY CAN’T KILL.

Alright. Linde is fine now. Fuck. I forgot that the game let a boss leave the seize spot, like, once before in the entire game.

Now to kill the fucker with Starlight, get Falchion, clear out the rest of these mages, and get those fucking chests.

And I have Marth equip Falchion right away because why the fuck not? It’s not like the 10 AS drop matters at all on this map.

Alright, Aum staff secured. Now then, what’s in the other…?

A HAMMERNE STAFF!?

HOLY FUCK YES. AMAZING. WITH THIS, WE ARE PRETTY MUCH INVINCIBLE.

Alright, time to seize.

…Hmmm…

Okay, so this final battle has literally nothing here but the princesses and Medeus

…Who now has his own, way better sprite.

GOD DAMN IT GAME, IF YOU WERE GOING TO GIVE HIM A COOLER SPRITE, WHY WOULD YOU MAKE HIS BOOK 1 FORM IDENTICAL TO A BUNCH OF GENERICS?

But anyway, the only other enemies on the map were a handful of earth dragons, which… puzzles me. Either this is just a formality battle, or he’s going to summon stuff later…

…Or you don’t need the complete Fire Emblem to get past the Hardin chapter, and if you didn’t get it, then you’re expected to fight all of those Earth Dragons before fighting Medeus.

Anyway…

This seems pretty straightforward. I'll talk to Nyna with Sirius, Maria with Minerva, give the Aum staff to Merric, have Merric talk to Elice, then have Elice take the Aum staff and resurrect Julian, who talks to Lena, and then they’re all safe. That is assuming Medeus doesn’t move.

Medeus does a pretty nasty defense-piercing 32 damage, but thankfully that isn’t enough to kill any of my heavy hitters, if just barely for Linde and Draug with their 33 HP.

Another issue is that Minerva and, when I resurrect him, Julian, will have to get in range of Medeus to rescue their respective princesses, so I’m gonna have to use Feena to get them back out, forcing me to do this one at a time. I suppose the first thing to do is test the waters with Marth to make absolutely sure that, as I suspect, he doesn’t move.

Holy shit I just checked his movement range, which I’m concerned about him having, and JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. HIS MAP SPRITE IS MASSIVE ONCE IT POKES ITS HEAD OUT OF THE GROUND.

Alright. But thankfully he doesn’t move. At least not yet. I guess… we’re gonna have to count on that, because there’s no way to fence him in safely without putting someone he can kill irrevocably in his attack range, like I said. Until we secure all four princesses and get rid of spaces he can pass through, he can move freely, and the only way to get rid of all four at once is to put Minerva and Julian in his attack range at the same time, too much for Feena to salvage.

Oh shit. No. Please no.

I JUST REALIZED SOME OF THEM HAVE WEAPONS.

…Okay, well, one of them was in range of Marth, so if they attacked, they would by now. Thank goodness for that.

OH THANKS GAME. SO EARTH DRAGONS JUST FUCKING SPAWN, DO THEY? ARBITRARY AMBUSH SPAWNS, AND THEY’RE ALLOWED TO ATTACK BEFORE THE SHIELD OF SEALS SEALS THEM!?

WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT KIND OF BULLSHIT IS THAT?

Well they all target Marth so I’ll just have to hurry and do this quickly. Please don’t be every turn…

FUCK. I SCREWED UP WITH MY PLACEMENT OF MERRIC AND LENA ATTACKED HIM. WELL, LOOKS LIKE I’LL ONLY BE SAVING THREE OF THEM.

AND LOOKS LIKE THEY DON’T ALL PRIORITIZE MARTH. MALLIESIA WAS NEARLY KILLED.

Oh. Looks like I couldn’t have saved Lena anyway. Aum isn’t working for Elice. I guess I DO need to kill Medeus first. Well that makes me feel a little bit better I guess. But anyway, time to use the last use of the Again staff and kill the fuck out of Medeus.

Okay, this is a much better, MUCH more terrifying battle sprite for Medeus. I realize you might have wanted to up the stakes from Book 1, developers, but seriously, you could have at least made the original Medeus look at least a little cool too!

Oh, and the final battle theme is… I mean, it’s my favorite final boss theme in the marathon so far, but the instruments are still a little weak.

All together, thanks to getting to attack twice each, Marth, Rody and Draug manage to finish him off.

Oh.

Okay, suddenly Medeus’s Dracula-sounding “I will rise again from the evil in the hearts of men” speech makes more sense. He’s referring to the fact that the seal was initially broken by a thief driven by human greed, and as long as there is greed, the shield of seals could be stolen and the seal broken again. Alright, game. That’s actually a fairly clever way to have made Medeus sound objectively evil before while having a hidden meaning.

Anyway, that means we can bring back everyone. Unfortunately we’re too late to save Lena, but we can at least save all the people we recruited and then lost, most crucially Caeda so we don’t get the “Marth is alone” ending I’m assuming happens if she dies.

Funny, they seem to spawn atop the pentagram-formation dragon bone tiles around the altar. Clever!

WELCOME BACK CASTOR, MY MAN! BOY IS YOUR MOM GONNA BE HAPPY TO SEE YOU!

But yeah, that’s everyone. Okay, I’ll be frank. That is an UNBELIEVABLY shitty thing to do for a final level. I don’t know if it’s even physically possible to guarantee survival in combat against three connecting hits from an earth dragon. And since they’re all ambush spawns, that’s obscenely obnoxious. Especially when the spaces they spawn from, which I don't quite remember, either aren’t marked, or are the bone tiles you literally can’t move onto, meaning it’s impossible to block the reinforcements off. Making a map you have to do in three parts into a luck-based mission is… psychotically shitty, game.

Huh. So Malliesia has a speaking role in the ending scene, which DOES change if Caeda is alive! Cool! I wish Malliesia literally had any other speaking roles though beyond her recruitment so I had any idea if this weird, childish behavior is in character for her.

According to Caeda, she prayed that if Marth had to die, to take her instead.

Smart move, Caeda. We could bring you back, but not him.

But why is she acting like she still needs to confess her love to him despite them being engaged when the story began?

But at this point, the story is over. And really… that ending dialogue really made me realize that until that very moment, for most of the game, this game didn’t have dialogue so much as... exposition. Hell, I don’t think I can recall a single line of dialogue that wasn’t just exposition. And that’s… amazingly disappointing. Maybe it had more character in the original Japanese, but unfortunately I can’t judge that. All I can judge is how it was translated, and the impression I get was that it was just a game full of exposition. Only a handful of character interactions, tons of instance of Marth asking people to expodump, and no real emotional payoff to that exposition either. The game’s story only seems to exist to justify itself. To exist. But at least it does… for the most part… make sense.

Anyway, you guys asked me to post my record, so… here:

Assuming the glitches still applied and all of these numbers I'm seeing have an extra 0 tacked on at the end:

Chapter 1 took 24 turns,
Chapter 2 took 13 turns,
Chapter 3 took FORTY EIGHT turns,
Chapter 4 took 19 turns,
Chaper 5 took 34 turns,
Chapter 6 took 33 turns,
Chapter 7 took 16 turns,
Chapter 8 took 8 turns,
Chapter 9 took 12 turns,
Chapter 10 took 14 turns,
Chapter 11 took 26 turns,
Chapter 12 took 27 turns,
Chapter 13 took 26 turns,
Chapter 14 took 27 turns,
Chapter 15 took 33 turns,
Chapter 16 took 24 turns,
Chapter 17 took 22 turns,
Chapter 18 took 30 turns,
Chapter 19 took 21 turns,
Chapter 20 took 21 turns,
Chapter Final 1 took 12 turns,
and Chapter Final 2 took 37 turns.

Book 2 total: 270 turns.

Marth: 61 wins, 0 losses, 1700 exp.

Caeda: 11 wins, 1 loss, 420 exp.

Cecil: 70 wins, 0 losses, 2842 exp.

Draug: 44 wins, 0 losses, 2072 exp.

Gordin: 1 win, 0 losses, 100 exp.

Alan: 2 wins, 0 losses, 107 exp.

Luke: 0 wins, 0 losses, 48 exp.

Rody: 65 wins, 0 losses, 3075 exp.

Ryan: 0 wins, 0 losses, 37 exp.

Malliesia: 0 wins, 0 losses, 2180 exp.

Catria: 11 wins, 0 losses, 475 exp.

Warren: 0 wins, 0 losses, 50 exp.

Linde: 113 wins, 0 losses, 3500 exp.

Palla: 63 wins, 0 losses, 2455 exp.

Julian: 0 wins, 1 loss, 0 exp. Seems he does have an ending for when he survives and Lena doesn’t.

Ogma: 3 wins, 0 losses, 106 exp.

Yubello: 1 win, 0 losses, 46 exp.

Yumina: 0 wins, 1 loss, 988 exp.

Castor: 29 wins, 1 loss, 1245 exp. Looks like he finally managed to catch a break after the war and rack up some money!

Sirius: 12 wins, 1 loss, 416 exp.

Rickard: 0 wins, 0 losses, 0 exp. The epilogue actually insults his choice to return to thievery, which is pretty hilarious. Having the epilogue suddenly come alive with its own opinion, which never happens, is pretty priceless.

Wendel: 0 wins, 0 losses, 14 exp.

Navarre: 3 wins, 0 losses, 120 exp. “He ignored the hopes of others, and once again left like the wind.” Classic Navarre. Never change.

Feena (who’s strangely spelled Fina on the epilogue screen): 0 wins, 0 losses, 1328 exp. “After the war, she left with the one like the wind.” I wonder how much say Navarre had in that.

Minerva: 5 wins, 0 losses, 210 exp.

Merric: 113 wins, 0 losses, 2900 exp. Wow, looks like he and Linde tied in the end!

And it was at this point the music cut out yet again, like the game just assumes I wouldn’t have this many people alive. Considering that this time it was mostly ironman, I’m taking that as praise.

Tiki: 7 wins, 0 losses, 390 exp.

From what I understand about outside lore, though the epilogue doesn’t explain his, Est has a major complex about getting kidnapped and held hostage to control Abel, and leaves Abel in order to avoid being a burden to him? Strange they don’t explain that here, just that Est ran off and Abel chased after her and neither was ever seen again.

Samson: 1 win, 0 losses, 40 exp.

Elice: 0 wins, 0 losses, 262 exp.

(I skipped anyone who was all zeroes and had nothing interesting to say)

Aw… there’s a little picture of Maria praying over Michalis’s dead body, which, considering Minerva lied to her and said he was alive in order to keep her from getting upset in the middle of battle, is pretty sad.

This second image I can’t make fucking heads or tails of. Some cute girl with long hair is tackling a shirtless man who shimmers like a bronze statue, while a shirtless bald guy JoJo poses in the background? The fuck?

A third one is a woman in a dress and a big man in a massive caped robe walking into a smoky door?

Then there’s Tiki and Gotoh walking into the desert sunset, and Tiki is FUCKING TINY AND IT’S ADORABLE.

One of Julian and Lena talking to each other while Lena is behind bars, while… some long haired man is watching from the corner. Can’t make heads or tails of that vague silhouette.

Merric and Elice being cute while Marth smiles approvingly over his shoulder, that’s adorable. I just wish their relationship had… literally any buildup whatsofuckingever.

Xane leaning against a wall while watching desert dragons in the background.

And that seems to be the end of the pictures in the credits! Initially I was worried I wouldn’t be able to make sense of a lot, but I managed to get most!

And one last picture of Marth posing on a cliff with his sword drawn, which would be much cooler if he were wearing pants.

Well. That was the game. Now… what did I think?

 

 

Difficulty: The game generally started out promising, with enemy formations I had to be clever about dealing with, but for the entire middle of the game it was just a long parade of kill-feeding when I wasn't laying waste with my overpowered units. By the end things got a bit more complicated, but Nosferatu made the whole thing a joke in the end. However... looking back, I think the meaty challenges I ran into in this game were slightly better, and a good deal more plentiful, than the ones in Gaiden. So, I suppose this is the new top of the list. For now.

1: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

2: Gaiden

3: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

4: Dark Dragon

 

Ironmannability: This is hard, but I think ultimately I may have to yet again give this game the "you win, but don't you dare get comfortable on that throne" award. We've yet to play a game genuinely devoid of ironman-hostile horseshit, and this game has a few issues of its own that are especially hostile to blind play, not to mention that utterly inexcusable horseshit in the fucking throne room... but given this game's tendency to position its ambush spawns responsibly... for the most part... I'm gonna have to say it's the best of a bad lot.

1: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

2: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

3: Dark Dragon

4: Gaiden

 

Usability: My previous comments apply. This is just a general objective upgrade to the interface, with easily the best menu so far. And in fact I know a couple of menus later in the series that this one beats, with features like listing effective attack power and attack speed, and giving all of the relevant information on a single, compact and readable page. It's still missing some major features we'll see later though, like showing attack range along with movement range, and the ability to highlight attack ranges too.

1: Mystery of the Emblem

2: Gaiden

3: Dark Dragon

 

Depth: Yet again, everything I said for Book 1 is still relevant here. Gaiden still reigns here, but it definitely adds enough to make it above Dark Dragon. That said, some of its depth is to its detriment. Like I said earlier in this last part, I think dismounting was a mistake that really just serves to make cavalry more boring.

1: Gaiden

2: Mystery of the Emblem

3: Dark Dragon

 

Balance: The star shards really break this. I mean on one hand it makes almost any unit viable, which technically means the cast is well-balanced? Sort of? But really, the growth bonuses are way too high, and by the end of the game I couldn't even tell if the game was counting on me abusing them. I can make arguments to myself that go either way, what with all the enemies that seem to revolve around being threatening no matter how high your stats are. Really though, I think the star shards make this objectively less balanced than Book 1, and I think even Gaiden. In Gaiden, as I said before, while I was relying on a small handful of useful units, at least each one of those units has a fundamentally different niche to fill that the others couldn't, and no on of them could satisfyingly do the jobs I needed the others for. I can't say that about any other game on this list. Merric and Linde were just my all-around delete buttons all game long.

1: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

2: Gaiden

3: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

4: Dark Dragon

 

Pacing: Here's another area where Book 2 suffers compared to Book 1. Like I said, it has some obnoxiously, terribly slow-paced maps. They weren't frequent enough to make it on par with basically what Celica's entire campaign felt like, but they were pretty bad, and the fact that they put this in the first map in the whole game was absolutely unacceptable.

1: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

2: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

3: Gaiden

4: Dark Dragon

Writing: Yet another baaaaare winner. The production values were upped just barely enough that I consider this the best story, and even then, it's a huge mess that doesn't tell a story so much as spout exposition nonstop. But it's not like anything it does wrong is done any better by any of the other games, so... looks like we'll have to give it to this one.

1: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

2: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

3: Dark Dragon

4: Gaiden

 

Music: Now this one at least manages to get some good music out there. While the general average quality isn't as good or catchy as Gaiden, it has multiple tracks I enjoy, so looks like it comfortably rests behind it.

1: Gaiden

2: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

3: Dark Dragon

4: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

 

 

So... overall... I think I'm gonna have to make it the new list:

 

Overall:

1: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2

2: Gaiden

3: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1

4: Dark Dragon

I know I had issues before where Book 1 won more areas than Gaiden, but I think the issue I was having was that the victories and losses weren't equal or as important. I think it lost to a pretty significant degree in the difficulty category, to the point that the game was rendered nearly pointless and I struggled to decide whether its lack of difficulty was better than Dark Dragon being hard for all the wrong reasons. I think that was a big contributor to why I just don't find the idea of replaying Book 1 nearly as interesting or fun of a concept as replaying Gaiden. So I'm going to have to let Gaiden keep the number 2 spot among the list so far.

And... I think that's it! Unless anyone has any questions!

Tune in either this weekend or Monday, when I'll dive into the prologue of Uncle R.R. Martin's Happytime Eugenics Fuckfest, also known as Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War!

And having read about me doing Book 2 ironman, are you interested in me keeping it up for Genealogy? Vote in the poll!

Edited October 25, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Emperor Hardin]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

This second image I can’t make fucking heads or tails of. Some cute girl with long hair is tackling a shirtless man who shimmers like a bronze statue, while a shirtless bald guy JoJo poses in the background? The fuck?

Before I do my full reply, a mini post.

That is Caeda and Ogma in the backstory described in Samuto's recruitment where Caeda as a young girl saved slave Ogma's life when he ewas

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

A third one is a woman in a dress and a big man in a massive caped robe walking into a smoky door?

Thats possesed Hardin and Nyna. minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

One of Julian and Lena talking to each other while Lena is behind bars, while… some long haired man is watching from the corner. Can’t make heads or tails of that vague silhouette.

The longhaired man is Navarre.

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

One of Julian and Lena talking to each other while Lena is behind bars, while… some long haired man is watching from the corner. Can’t make heads or tails of that vague silhouette.

Funfact, Marth's book 1 portrait is the toga/pantless form, whilst his book 2 portrait is the pants design.

[Espurrhoodie]

25 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Uncle R.R. Martin's Happytime Eugenics Fuckfest

I am now going to call FE4 that from now on.

That is beautiful.

[Eltosian Kadath]

10 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh fuck. I put Linde in range of Gharnef, who as it turns out MOVES DESPITE GUARDING A THRONE, and her Nosferatu tome won’t heal her if this connects. PLEASE. NO. SHE HAS MY WARP STAFF.

Okay. she took some damage. But thankfully not much since she got a barrier staff on her a few turns ago. It all depends on who attacks her next… 

OH THANK GOD IT’S A DOULAM USER. THOSE GUYS ARE MENACES BUT THEY CAN’T KILL.

Alright. Linde is fine now. Fuck. I forgot that the game let a boss leave the seize spot, like, once before in the entire game.

To be fair if he didn't move anyone that missed the starlight would be soft lock, unable to kill Gharnef off the throne to seize.

 

Too bad you missed the extra ending scrawl you get if you continue on from book I and kept everyone alive through both.

 

33 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Tune in either this weekend or Monday, when I'll dive into the prologue of Uncle R.R. Martin's Happytime Eugenics Fuckfest, also known as Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War!

Can't wait, as it is my favorite game in the franchise.

[Emperor Hardin]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

You know, I think I’ve decided I don’t like dismounting. At least not in this game. Specifically, I don’t like the fact that it forces mounted units to give up everything interesting about them on every indoor map. Especially since it makes them really, really, REALLY boring during the final maps of the game. Actually I’ve heard that’s a problem with Thracia too, that the last few maps are indoors and thus all of your fliers and cavalry are reduced to boring old “knights” wielding swords. It really feels like overkill in terms of balancing cavalry, and the fact that the last maps of the game don’t let you use their best features kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth regarding their performance throughout the rest of the game, even if they were still useful up to that point. It just doesn’t feel good or right.

Are you referring to them losing lances and gaining swords? Would you like it better if some mounted units become soldiers when they dismounted or is it the movement loss specifically that is bothering you in these maps? 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Actually I’ve heard that’s a problem with Thracia too, that the last few maps are indoors and thus all of your fliers and cavalry are reduced to boring old “knights” wielding swords. It really feels like overkill in terms of balancing cavalry, and the fact that the last maps of the game don’t let you use their best features kind of leaves a sour taste in your mouth regarding their performance throughout the rest of the game, even if they were still useful up to that point. It just doesn’t feel good or right.

Thracia 776 is weird because you have classes like Axe only Knight and Lance only Knight, yet they still dismount to regular old sword only guy and the game uses the modern weapon rank system. So like you'lll have a lance only paladin with A rank Lances, but you get to an indoor chapter and he's reduced to E rank Swords. Weapon EXP also increases at a snail's pace in the game; you get one exp for every swing of a weapon and you need 50 exp to increase a weapon rank.

So basically you can't use lances at all in the final chapters.

Honestly Berwick Saga seems like it handles dismounting the best. In that game, stats are only "gained" when mounting if you are equipping rare horses, as they are actual equipment in that game. And in Berwick Saga, no weapon ranks are lost when dismounting, there is a subset of lances you can't use on foot, but their damage is based around high movement anyhow. Finally the last chapter, while indoors, has outdoor sections where you can use your mounts.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Holy shit I just checked his movement range, which I’m concerned about him having, and JESUS FUCKING CHRIST. HIS MAP SPRITE IS MASSIVE ONCE IT POKES ITS HEAD OUT OF THE GROUND.

 Alright. But thankfully he doesn’t move. At least not yet. I guess… we’re gonna have to count on that, because there’s no way to fence him in safely without putting someone he can kill irrevocably in his attack range, like I said. Until we secure all four princesses and get rid of spaces he can pass through, he can move freely, and the only way to get rid of all four at once is to put Minerva and Julian in his attack range at the same time, too much for Feena to salvage.

Whilst you never get to see it, Shadow Dragon Medeus has flying type movement.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, suddenly Medeus’s Dracula-sounding “I will rise again from the evil in the hearts of men” speech makes more sense. He’s referring to the fact that the seal was initially broken by a thief driven by human greed, and as long as there is greed, the shield of seals could be stolen and the seal broken again. Alright, game. That’s actually a fairly clever way to have made Medeus sound objectively evil before while having a hidden meaning.

Great observation.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, you guys asked me to post my record, so… here:

Looking at your record, wow Linde's nosferatu sure was helpful.

Also 48 turns on chapter 3, was it spent getting Marth around the bridge to recruit Julian?

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

From what I understand about outside lore, though the epilogue doesn’t explain his, Est has a major complex about getting kidnapped and held hostage to control Abel, and leaves Abel in order to avoid being a burden to him? Strange they don’t explain that here, just that Est ran off and Abel chased after her and neither was ever seen again.

From my understanding, Abel, Est and the other disappeared characters were going to appear in a third Archanea installment, Kaga had planned.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And having read about me doing Book 2 ironman, are you interested in me keeping it up for Genealogy? Vote in the poll!

FE4 is much less ironmanable, but you can try. It helps Sigurd is one of the strongest lords in the series.

[Alastor15243]

13 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Are you referring to them losing lances and gaining swords? Would you like it better if some mounted units become soldiers when they dismounted or is it the movement loss specifically that is bothering you in these maps?

The weapon change is part of it, yes. I don't think cavalry dismounting would bother me that much if they could still, say, use Gradivus. But also I think the dismounted classes, and the fact that all of them have exactly one sprite per sex (like how Cecil and Minerva look identical on the map despite being totally different unit types), makes them just look really dull indoors.

 

13 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Also 48 turns on chapter 3, was it spent getting Marth around the bridge to recruit Julian?

That and neutralizing the dragon riders I didn't know the aggro rules of.

13 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

FE4 is much less ironmanable, but you can try. It helps Sigurd is one of the strongest lords in the series.

Less ironmannable how? And at any rate, it might be a fun way to have to try out the replacements, which I've never used beyond Laylea (needed that third charm!)

Edited October 26, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Emperor Hardin]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

The weapon change is part of it, yes. I don't think cavalry dismounting would bother me that much if they could still, say, use Gradivus. But also I think the dismounted classes, and the fact that all of them have exactly one sprite per sex (like how Cecil and Minerva look identical on the map despite being totally different unit types), makes them just look really dull indoors.

Roughly how much more would you like dismounting if certain cavalry units dismounted to soldiers and Dracoknights and Cavaliers had separate dismounted sprites?

What did you think of the rules of dismount I told you about in Thracia 776 and Berwick Saga?

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That and neutralizing the dragon riders I didn't know the aggro rules of.

 

Oh yeah.

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Less ironmannable how?

Off the top of my head

1. Certain characters are super duper powerful, even more powerful then Excalibur Merric and Aura/Nosferatu Linde.
2. Speaking of which, you should read a guide to get some of the super weapons.
3. The game allows you to save at the start of every turn.
4. You recruit less units then other FE games.
5. Its harder to lose units for good.

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Roughly how much more would you like dismounting if certain cavalry units dismounted to soldiers and Dracoknights and Cavaliers had separate dismounted sprites?

What did you think of the rules of dismount I told you about in Thracia 776 and Berwick Saga?

I don't think I'd mind it as much, really. Though I'd still take issue with these maps being the ending maps of the game. That just feels weird, not getting to use your units to their full utility at the game's climax.

Thracia's sounds even worse. At least here if Rody can use Gradivus he can use Mercurius. I actually kind of like the weapon level system in some respects, though I prefer the modern one in others. Berwick's sounds like it could be okay though.

[Emperor Hardin]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I don't think I'd mind it as much, really. Though I'd still take issue with these maps being the ending maps of the game. That just feels weird, not getting to use your units to their full utility at the game's climax.

Thracia's sounds even worse. At least here if Rody can use Gradivus he can use Mercurius. I actually kind of like the weapon level system in some respects, though I prefer the modern one in others. Berwick's sounds like it could be okay though.

I might've mentioned this before, but given all the playable data for soldiers in this game, I think it was intended for some mounted units to dismount into Soldiers. With the game engine, its very much possible to have three paladin units that each dismount to different classes. I'd like to do a hack of that idea some day, but I can't use nightmare and the FE3 Nightmare here is said to not work very well(you can't change the weight of Javelins), though hacking FE3 is very much possible and a Japanese one has been made. Actually would a hack of FE3 interest you?

That dismounting system is easily my least favorite thing in Thracia 776, especially as I like to have a diverse army and to use lances. Not only are there no soldiers, but all Armored units are axes or bows.

Speaking of which in TearRing Saga, the weapon level system returns and many units dismount to different classes, with a few retaining the use of lances. There are also no cases where a class switches to a completely unrelated weapon like Lance only Knights going swords only when dismounting. There are no lance armors, but soldiers are playable and arguably the best they've ever been in a FE related game.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Emperor Hardin

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 10/24/2019 at 5:38 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Though… I can’t remember… does the game ever hint that Merric is Elice’s loved one?

This is the most you get. When Merric is confronting Arlen at the start of chapter 10;

I don’t hate Khadein, but I had already decided to return to my homeland upon finishing my studies.
At Aritia there is somebody that I wish to protect for my whole life…

And, if you kill Elice, she says Merric's name. A little late that is.

But, the Marth-Jagen conversation on what to do about the maidens does have a lick of relevancy. That being "saving all lives" can be difficult, not to justify the gameplay decision. -Which is why FE12 gives you a little prep menu convo outright stating "Let me recruit B!" to each of Merric, Sirius, Minerva, and Julian if they live. The game does that with most recruitments.

 

 

And thus, the woes of Archanea are resolved! No more of it for months to come.

If you're interested, I assembled my own review on FE3 earlier this year. It's a little more positive than your own I'd say. And with FE12 behind me now, maybe it was just the mood I was in when I went through FE12, but I still think 3B2 has more charm, which somehow might be worth more to me than 12's gameplay improvements. -Though there was one-two maps in FE12 that infuriated me with their new ambush reinforcements. I'd also say FE3B2 has the best incarnation character-wise of Marth for me.

 

 

Take your two days' rest, you deserve it. Then, it awaits thee, Holy Sword Elm Kaiser!

Edited October 26, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

That is Caeda and Ogma in the backstory described in Samuto's recruitment where Caeda as a young girl saved slave Ogma's life when he ewas

...a gladiator, right? I assume that's how that should have ended.

[Emperor Hardin]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

...a gladiator, right? I assume that's how that should have ended.

I just realized my typo there, but yes thats how it was going to end. He was a gladiator being whipped.

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

So basically you can't use lances at all in the final chapters.

3 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

 

That dismounting system is easily my least favorite thing in Thracia 776, especially as I like to have a diverse army and to use lances. Not only are there no soldiers, but all Armored units are axes or bows.

OK, for clarification's sake I want to mention both the Generals in that game (promoted Dalsin, and Xavier) can use Lances in doors, but both start with E in it, so it takes far more dedication than it is worth to get them there.

[Jotari]

Of course Gharnef moves. It'd be pretty shitty if he didn't, what with Starlight being missable and him being invincible.

I agree that forced dismounting in doors kind of destroy mounted units in the final chapters of both games that have it.  I think there's a simple fix though. Aside from not messing up their weapon useage, make using your mount in doors a skill. That way we're still penalizing mounted units but not stopping them from actually being mounted units.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Jotari

[Interdimensional Observer]

I'll just toss in that TRS also forces dismount for the last two fights before the final battle on both Runan's and Holmes's sides. But, the final battle itself is odd, the starting area forces dismounting, but once you move past some stairs, you can apparently mount again. Not that I ever noticed that.

On the dismounting weapon issue, almost all ladies (including all who fly) are locked to Swords, but four men and two women do keep Lance use. Bow users keep their Bows, and the one Troubadour keeps their Staffs. So the one thing you miss on there is Axes, but there are only two Axe mounties in the game anyhow. (Magic mounties don't exist as playables.)

Edited October 26, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Flere210]

13 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

That dismounting system is easily my least favorite thing in Thracia 776, especially as I like to have a diverse army and to use lances. Not only are there no soldiers, but all Armored units are axes or bows.

In Thracia you have the most diverse army because you are not supposed to use the same 10 guys every map, even if technically you can if you optimize S-drink usage. 

Mounted units being almost always better outdoor and almost always worse indoor create a clear patter of unit usage. Fergus is awesome, but no need to overwork him if Orsin is better indoor anyway.

[Alastor15243]

15 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

I might've mentioned this before, but given all the playable data for soldiers in this game, I think it was intended for some mounted units to dismount into Soldiers. With the game engine, its very much possible to have three paladin units that each dismount to different classes. I'd like to do a hack of that idea some day, but I can't use nightmare and the FE3 Nightmare here is said to not work very well(you can't change the weight of Javelins), though hacking FE3 is very much possible and a Japanese one has been made. Actually would a hack of FE3 interest you?

That's the thing... of the games I've played so far, the only one I have much interest in replaying is still Gaiden. Which means I still have a sneaking feeling that something is deeply missing about my ranking system.

Granted, there is some stuff in Book 2 I wish I had the opportunity to try, but not enough to want to replay the whole game.

Edited October 26, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's the thing... of the games I've played so far, the only one I have much interest in replaying is still Gaiden. Which means I still have a sneaking feeling that something is deeply missing about my ranking system.

Perhaps it is exactly what you say feels missing, replayability.

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Perhaps it is exactly what you say feels missing, replayability.

Funny you should mention that, that occurred to me moments after posting that and I've been debating it to myself.

[Emperor Hardin]

On 10/26/2019 at 8:08 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

On the dismounting weapon issue, almost all ladies (including all who fly) are locked to Swords, but four men and two women do keep Lance use. Bow users keep their Bows, and the one Troubadour keeps their Staffs. So the one thing you miss on there is Axes, but there are only two Axe mounties in the game anyhow. (Magic mounties don't exist as playables.)

Who were the women that keep Lances, I don't remember?

 

On 10/25/2019 at 10:01 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

OK, for clarification's sake I want to mention both the Generals in that game (promoted Dalsin, and Xavier) can use Lances in doors, but both start with E in it, so it takes far more dedication than it is worth to get them there.

Adding onto this, whilst Xavier is good, he is recruited fairly late, you'd only get his lance ranks to be decent by spending 30 turns boss abusing his lance rank, and Dalshin isn't so good after the manster escape chapters.

On 10/26/2019 at 8:26 AM, Flere210 said:

In Thracia you have the most diverse army because you are not supposed to use the same 10 guys every map, even if technically you can if you optimize S-drink usage. 

Mounted units being almost always better outdoor and almost always worse indoor create a clear patter of unit usage. Fergus is awesome, but no need to overwork him if Orsin is better indoor anyway.

While fatigue was a nice system, that didn't really work alot of the time. In doors, in every playthrough it will just be a dozen swordguys, some sages/High Priests, one or two axe guys, and maybe one Bow Armor. That is very far from diverse and its especially notable when you are constantly fighting lance wielding enemies, whose weapons you have no use for when you capture them.

I assume the Fergus part was a mistype and you meant to put Karin. Fergus keeps his weapon type and unlike most other mounted units, only loses movement when dismounts.

On 10/26/2019 at 9:33 AM, Alastor15243 said:

That's the thing... of the games I've played so far, the only one I have much interest in replaying is still Gaiden. Which means I still have a sneaking feeling that something is deeply missing about my ranking system.

Granted, there is some stuff in Book 2 I wish I had the opportunity to try, but not enough to want to replay the whole game.

What makes you so interested in replaying Gaiden out of curiosity?

Funfact on Gaiden, many of the enemy classes are actually altered versions of player characters. So the enemy can never deploy Villagers, because Brigands are their villagers, with it being the same for player army.

Personally I find FE3 one of most replayable FE games, one reason being everything is usable. So if the player wants to do a Bantu run, its very much possible without being hairpullingly difficult. Anythings in FE3 you specifically don't want to replay?

Edited October 28, 2019 by Emperor Hardin