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

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Its something that is worth discussing in a review.

My main reservation with adding graphics is that I feel it gives an unfair skewing of the games as technology progresses, regardless of the quality of the game itself. Then again, it's not really a strictly linear improvement and depends a lot on art direction. I'd take FE4/5's animations over like a third of the games that came after it.

[Emperor Hardin]

51 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

My main reservation with adding graphics is that I feel it gives an unfair skewing of the games as technology progresses, regardless of the quality of the game itself. Then again, it's not really a strictly linear improvement and depends a lot on art direction. I'd take FE4/5's animations over like a third of the games that came after it.

*Internal shrug* I was thinking of animations and character/class designs rather then strict graphical power. Like FE2 has very well animated sprites and diverse character designs(most of the enemy versions of classes have unique sprites).

Any thoughts on grading games by length?

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Any thoughts on grading games by length?

The issue is that that's one of those things that isn't inherently good. Writing, ironmannability, usability, these are things that it's always good to get a high score in. If a game is complete garbage, I can say "at least it was well-written". I can't say "at least it was long".

Edited October 16, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Emperor Hardin]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

The issue is that that's one of those things that isn't inherently good. Writing, ironmannability, usability, these are things that it's always good to get a high score in. If a game is complete garbage, I can say "at least it was well-written". I can't say "at least it was long".

The only thing I can of to add is personal preference, which you already kinda covered.

Are you ok giving final stats and the wins/battles fought(provided in the character endings)?

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

The only thing I can of to add is personal preference, which you already kinda covered.

Are you ok giving final stats and the wins/battles fought(provided in the character endings)?

If enough people would like to see it and don't mind that I already ruined having a full set.

[Alastor15243]

Mystery of the Emblem Day 18: Book 2, Chapter 1

And so we move on to what I assume is the real meat and potatoes of FE3: Book 2, the actual sequel.

I’m greeted with a bit more glitched up text announcing that Book 2 is called War of Heroes, and we begin.

They show a series of portrait-like images, similar to the stuff they used all the time in FE7, to recap the story, and they show one of Medeus, and I still can’t believe that’s the model for Medeus they went with. The demon dragons look far more impressive than he does.

Oh wow. That… that is a striking fucking image they use as part of the intro narration, with Queen Nyna marrying Hardin while Camus’s face is behind Hardin’s and looking away, this lingering, unspoken awkward pall over the whole marriage. I do know about this whole love triangle from indirect exposure, and I like this image a lot, really captures it.

Yeah, um… okay, the term “emperor” is just always really fucking ominous, isn’t it? Second the narration says Hardin declared himself emperor that just raises SO many fucking alarm bells narratively, even if I didn’t know how it ended. Has there ever really been an unambiguously heroic empire? I’ve seen it as a sympathetic faction in a few games (Der Langrisser, Three Houses, two games that incidentally I really wish I could adore and that's partly why), but has it ever just been “the good guys” ever? That’d be an interesting thing to see.

“We seemed to be entering an era of peace… but the wheels of fate appear to have a fault.”

I’m suddenly picturing some kind of divine car mechanic looking at a set of wheels and going “Well THERE’S your problem!”

So, basically, Altea is the empire’s bitch right now, and when Hardin tells Marth to send his full army to crush a rebellion, he just goes. For now at least. Hilariously shitty thing to do though, making him do this just before his wedding. I wonder if we’re gonna find out if that was on purpose? Either to keep him from becoming “King Marth”, or because Hardin’s just amazingly petty when it comes to seeing couples in love? Either one would be interesting actually.

But when I hear “Send your full army”, I’m thinking that means something horrible is gonna happen while we’re gone. I just know it.

Keep in mind, I officially don’t remember the proper spellings/names of more than half the cast, so I’m just going to use the names the game gives for all the newcomers. Sorry about that!

JEEEEEEEEZUS! Lang is a MASSIVE sack of shit. That’s the strongest emotion I’ve ever felt towards any villain in the retrospective so far. He’s absurdly one-dimensional from what I can tell so far, but they sure as shit know how to make a guy unlikable, so props for that.

Oh, and he’s also an opportunistic traitor who supported Dolhr before?

Well that’s… I can’t decide if it’s an obnoxious cop-out, to have Jagen say that all the sympathetic rebels are in the castle and that all the people they’re fighting are pirates. It’s absurdly convenient, yes, but it also could have been acceptable if it had just been presented a little differently.

Anyway, the level of writing and story is an insane jump upwards from Book 1. Looks like Book 2 was really the focus of their writing energy, understandably. Hopefully by the end I’ll feel more comfortable putting it over Gaiden if I have to?

Alright, so we’ve got a paladin, a knight, three cavaliers and two archers. I know about these guys from playing the first few chapters of FE12. Anyway, looking at their growths online… Jesus Christ Luke is trash. Rody beats or ties him in literally everything but HP. Cecil is pretty great, mostly suffering in strength and defense, but thankfully, we have star shards that can help with that! Those are gonna be fun to use, but I hope they don’t break the game!

So, we clear out the first batch of bandits with little difficulty, go figure, though it definitely took more thought than the end of Book 1 got me used to, so that’s nice. Anyway, time to get the cleric at the village, patch up our army, and fight the rest of the bandits while visiting the villages like Jagen said.

That’s odd… book 2 has… a completely separate, less upbeat version of Together We Ride? That’s… curious. I kinda like it, and I kinda don’t.

Malliesia? I notice they shortened her name on the character screen by taking out the first "i". Well at any rate, we have our healer now, so awesome. Time to patch up our forces!

Fascinating bit of lore, that Lorenz and the king of Talys are friends.

Oh shit. Now, I don’t actually know for sure, but from what I’ve heard, I’m assuming that the empire took all of the country’s girls because it was trying to find the ones it needed for some kind of ceremony? I know there are a bunch of healers you rescue late-game.

I’m liking the music a bit better in Book 2 than in Book 1. I’m starting to get the feeling that Book 1 was kind of phoned in.

Okay, I think this is the first we see of something that is going to royally piss me off as the game progresses: unit groups that refuse to move until you’re in range of a ton of them, often without any realistic means to survive that eventual charge or even get the drop on them on player phase, like Conquest lets you do when it does that. I know that’s going to be the case a few levels from now with a certain obnoxious set of wyvern riders on a mountain you have to circle around, constantly in their attack range.

Looks like I’m gonna have to have Rody dash in and plug the entrance to this narrow mountain pass and just patiently hack away at them.

…Nope, turns out they just don’t fucking move at all. So I just have to slowly, slowly hack my way through these with Rody while Cecil takes out the continuous thief reinforcements down south.

This is a pretty boring first level. Fighting through this solid immobile wall of enemies is SUUUPER dumb and requires basically no strategy at all besides not pushing your luck with dodging and making sure to heal at reasonable times. I know I’ve done similarly tedious shit in Gaiden to train some units, but at least that was technically self-inflicted, and not… the only possible way to beat a level.

Plus side: Rody consistently leveled up strength and speed three times in a row, which is awesome, and basically means from now on I probably only need to worry about how to get his and Cecil's defense up. I know that some of the first star shards we get will boost defense, so I’ll be sure to make Cecil and Rody use them, especially since Cecil’s def growth is only 10%.

Anyway, learning the lesson of last time, I decide to buy most things only as I need them, never having a surplus of more than one at a time. Hopefully that’ll give me more money to splurge on shit with when we get the secret shops.

Oh shit. I love this new “victory is near” song. Way better than the FE1 or FE3 rendition of Book 1’s. I do like Shadow Dragon’s version of Book 1’s slightly more than this version of Book 2's though.

Actually, Rody’s luck with leveling up has been so amazing that he, like Cecil, can now double 0 AS enemies with an iron lance RIGHT NOW.

So these guys really are just literally ordered to never move. Even when they’re fucking hunters being attacked in melee. Well. I think that just about officially settles it. This is the absolute worst first level of any Fire Emblem game I’ve ever played. Jesus Christ, what the hell, developers? I’ve never seen an FE game give a worse first impression of map design!

Anyway, we get to General Lorenz, and… he… explodes. That weirdness aside, I do genuinely like the plot so far! A lot better than FE1 actually. And I can’t wait to kick Lang’s ass.

And Lang just comes in from behind after seizing the throne. What the fuck route did he take?

While the dialogue conveying it could have been better, it’s interesting having Marth be so powerless to do what’s right at this stage in the story. Having Lang outright say he’s going to take and kill those children and Marth has to just watch because he has to go rescue Minerva and if he does anything to stop Lang he’ll be a traitor… it hurts. But not in a “this is terribly written” way like with Nohrrin.

And Book 2 has a better victory theme too? It sounds the same but just with more instruments and better. I don’t get why they’d keep that out of Book 1.

Well, needless to say this was a serious mixed bag. I’m still looking forward to playing more of this game, but holy FLAMING SHIT was that a terrible first map gameplaywise. It’s far from the worst map I’ve ever played in the series, not when there are entire games that are full of competition for that title, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a first map of any Fire Emblem game be genuinely tedious like that.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Cecil is pretty great, mostly suffering in strength and defense, but thankfully, we have star shards that can help with that! Those are gonna be fun to use, but I hope they don’t break the game!

Considering it becomes entirely possible to stack someone with say: Leo, Cancer, Libra, and Gemini for a total of: +70% Str, +60% Def, +40% Spd, and +10% Lck, with the minor losses of -10% HP and Res, you most certainly can. Particularly with how easy it to figure out when someone will level in FE3 due to the simple EXP gain formula.

The game gives you no ingame descriptive idea at all that the Shards boost growths though, so you could just not use them. Or you could quit looking a guide and try to figure it out on your own. Or, you could enact a rule of only 1 or 2 Shards per person. That will balance it a bit more. 

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

So these guys really are just literally ordered to never move. Even when they’re fucking hunters being attacked in melee. Well. I think that just about officially settles it. This is the absolute worst first level of any Fire Emblem game I’ve ever played. Jesus Christ, what the hell, developers? I’ve never seen an FE game give a worse first impression of map design!

Those stupid chokepoint mountains were bad enough they fixed it for FE12, and I think they fixed it for FE13 too IIRC. Gangrel's Spotpass Paralogue is this map.

[Emperor Hardin]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Mystery of the Emblem Day 18: Book 2, Chapter 1

And so we move on to what I assume is the real meat and potatoes of FE3: Book 2, the actual sequel.

I’m greeted with a bit more glitched up text announcing that Book 2 is called War of Heroes, and we begin.

They show a series of portrait-like images, similar to the stuff they used all the time in FE7, to recap the story, and they show one of Medeus, and I still can’t believe that’s the model for Medeus they went with. The demon dragons look far more impressive than he does.

Oh wow. That… that is a striking fucking image they use as part of the intro narration, with Queen Nyna marrying Hardin while Camus’s face is behind Hardin’s and looking away, this lingering, unspoken awkward pall over the whole marriage. I do know about this whole love triangle from indirect exposure, and I like this image a lot, really captures it.

I really love the CG images.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, um… okay, the term “emperor” is just always really fucking ominous, isn’t it? Second the narration says Hardin declared himself emperor that just raises SO many fucking alarm bells narratively, even if I didn’t know how it ended. Has there ever really been an unambiguously heroic empire? I’ve seen it as a sympathetic faction in a few games (Der Langrisser, Three Houses, two games that incidentally I really wish I could adore and that's partly why), but has it ever just been “the good guys” ever? That’d be an interesting thing to see.

Der Langrisser, been meaning to play that.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

JEEEEEEEEZUS! Lang is a MASSIVE sack of shit. That’s the strongest emotion I’ve ever felt towards any villain in the retrospective so far. He’s absurdly one-dimensional from what I can tell so far, but they sure as shit know how to make a guy unlikable, so props for that.

 Oh, and he’s also an opportunistic traitor who supported Dolhr before?

From what I remember he immediately starts talking about how he's going to destroy ever village that any rebel came from and this is a second after his intro, pleasant guy!

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so we’ve got a paladin, a knight, three cavaliers and two archers. I know about these guys from playing the first few chapters of FE12. Anyway, looking at their growths online… Jesus Christ Luke is trash. Rody beats or ties him in literally everything but HP. Cecil is pretty great, mostly suffering in strength and defense, but thankfully, we have star shards that can help with that! Those are gonna be fun to use, but I hope they don’t break the game!

Cecil also gets a nice advantage as she gives support bonuses to Luke and Rody, as well as recieving one from Rody(Luke is out in the cold).

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 Well that’s… I can’t decide if it’s an obnoxious cop-out, to have Jagen say that all the sympathetic rebels are in the castle and that all the people they’re fighting are pirates. It’s absurdly convenient, yes, but it also could have been acceptable if it had just been presented a little differently.

I do have to admit that bugged me too.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, we get to General Lorenz, and… he… explodes. That weirdness aside, I do genuinely like the plot so far! A lot better than FE1 actually. And I can’t wait to kick Lang’s ass.

 

You can actually potentially fight and kill Lorenz pretty easily.

I just read online that the novelization said the explosion was from Pachyderm gunpowder, AKA the giant cannon shooters/ballisticians use.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 And Lang just comes in from behind after seizing the throne. What the fuck route did he take?

He must have used some boots.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Well, needless to say this was a serious mixed bag. I’m still looking forward to playing more of this game, but holy FLAMING SHIT was that a terrible first map gameplaywise. It’s far from the worst map I’ve ever played in the series, not when there are entire games that are full of competition for that title, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a first map of any Fire Emblem game be genuinely tedious like that.

While you didn't mention it, there was also a mountain tile preventing mounted units, Knights and Archers from reaching the boss.

Book II is a good deal tougher then Book 1 and we'll see why soon.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’m liking the music a bit better in Book 2 than in Book 1. I’m starting to get the feeling that Book 1 was kind of phoned in.

I don't feel it was phoned in, but I feel Book 2 was always the main event. 

By the way, do you think you'll use Draug? You don't get many other armors in Book II for a reference sake.

 

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Emperor Hardin said:

While you didn't mention it, there was also a mountain tile preventing mounted units, Knights and Archers from reaching the boss.

Yes, I did notice that, and I was so close to mentioning it.

2 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

By the way, do you think you'll use Draug? You don't get many other armors in Book II for a reference sake.

If I use an armor knight, it'll be to get somebody who can us Gradivus indoors. I'm assuming it should be trivial once I get a speed-boosting shard, and when I do I might, might start using Draug.

[Emperor Hardin]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Yes, I did notice that, and I was so close to mentioning it.

If I use an armor knight, it'll be to get somebody who can us Gradivus indoors. I'm assuming it should be trivial once I get a speed-boosting shard, and when I do I might, might start using Draug.

Its such an odd decision, I wonder why they did it?

Mind if I give some class recruitment spoilers. By the way who used Gradivus in the final chapter during your book 1 run?

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Emperor Hardin said:

Mind if I give some class recruitment spoilers. By the way who used Gradivus in the final chapter during your book 1 run?

Yes, I wanna exprience this game relatively blind and first-impression-y. As for who used Gradivus in book 1, no one, something I'm somewhat interested in changing for this time.

[Emperor Hardin]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Yes, I wanna exprience this game relatively blind and first-impression-y. As for who used Gradivus in book 1, no one, something I'm somewhat interested in changing for this time.

No problem. Good luck.

[Jotari]

I think a category for pure bias enjoyment is needed.

[De Geso]

I think Cecil is so good because of her base weapon level, right? Can't she use Silvers right off the bat?

[Alastor15243]

19 hours ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Cecil also gets a nice advantage as she gives support bonuses to Luke and Rody, as well as recieving one from Rody(Luke is out in the cold).

Not true, as I just discovered: Cecil gives 5 to both Rody and Luke. Honestly I would have preferred it if Cecil just gave 10 to Rody. Not a whole lot of difference you can make with 5.

[Alastor15243]

Mystery of the Emblem Day 19: Book 2, Chapter 2

Ah yes, I remember this. We get Catria, and now the first order of business is taking out the thief with the infamous Lady Sword, which for those of you who don't know is an extremely powerful sword that only women can use, with an absurdly superfluous slayer effect against thieves. Infuriatingly, they intentionally start Catria off in range of the fucker, but he’s surrounded by three hunters so that would be suicide. Worse still, the place is so riddled with forests that none of my riders can catch up to him going straight in either. We’re gonna have to go around the forest with our fliers and riders, in both directions, and hope we can cut him off.

Speaking of which, the game warns us that if we go straight through the forest, we’ll be attacked by the dragon riders at the castle, which is an interesting concept. Certainly better than last map. But we’ll see how it goes.

And looks like we found a new recruit, Warren! Damn, if only he didn’t have a speed growth of 10%, I might have chosen to use him. His skill, strength and HP are great. Still, I guess we’ll have to let him attack us to get a hint of how to recruit him, then retreat from the MASSIVE HORDE OF ENEMIES that has charged after my right flank.

Never mind! One of the villages lets you know that Catria knows him. Looks like we’ll have to run and stall until we can get Catria, who I sent after the harder-to-get-to left flank, to kill the thief (who luckily ran left) and then get back to recruit him.

Cecil gets an extremely lucky defense level that I’m really hoping I get to keep.

And it’s looking like I will, because thanks to Rody’s incredibly lucky level ups, he just barely manages to one-round cavalry, and Catria easily takes out the thief. The lady sword is indeed safely in our hands!

…And the boss fucking moves. WHAT.

First off, boss theme is really lame. Second off, this puts Catria in a very awkward spot.

ESPECIALLY SINCE THE ONLY PERSON WITH VULNERARIES JUST LOST HIS TURN BECAUSE I DIDN’T REALIZE THAT DISMOUNTING ISN’T AN ACTION YOU CAN CANCEL BY PRESSING B.

…Okay. I think I have a plan that can get me out of this.

Here’s the situation: Catria, a pegasus knight, is flanked on the north and east sides by dragon riders, one a minion, one the boss. They have 10 move, she has 8. Thanks to dodging the minion with the iron lance (though not the boss with the horseslayer), she has enough HP to survive either one of them attacking her, but not both. I can’t heal her without putting Malliesia in range of both dragon riders, because I fucked up passing a vulnerary from Rody to Draug. To survive, I need to make sure only one of those dragon riders attacks Catria, and then kill them both quickly.

To do this, I send Catria into the lowest part of the forest below her, dismount, and then bait out the boss by putting my healer in the way of just him, not the minion. My healer will just barely survive, and hopefully the enemy AI will prove to prioritize maximum damage it can do rather than coordinating attacks to kill anyone they have a chance to kill. If the latter is the case, I can still at least hope for a dodge from the forest evasion bonus.

Meanwhile my retreating army is getting gained on by the cavalry as my units try to escape through the forest.

Looks like I was right! The boss goes for the squishy healer rather than teaming up with the mook to take out Cecil.

And miraculously, due to a mess of trading, shifting units around, and general panic, I managed to take out the two dragon riders. But unfortunately, archers only have ONE FUCKING MOVE when traveling through forests, so Gordin is about to be swarmed by enemies, along with Luke.

I might not even restart for him. I value that defense point on Cecil that much.

They both survived, but I’m still not out of the woods yet. I had to do a very risky all-out assault that unless I’m correct about the AI, will still risk one of my units dying even though it was completely successful. I just killed all but four of the enemies, but those four enemies have just enough attack power that, if they figure it out, they can kill Catria if they all work together. Hopefully Gordin the helpless archer, freshly healed up with a vulnerary after surviving last turn’s assault, is a more tempting target for some of them.

And given that Rody got a defense level from this assault, I really, REALLY hope I don’t have to restart.

…I don’t. Thank fucking goodness. Though oddly for some reason the cavalier found the javelin-holding Luke a more tempting target than melee-vulnerable Gordin. Ouch. Luke’s ego never catches a break, does it?

Anyway, we’re mostly home free, except that I’m morally certain that since the castle is left completely unguarded, there are going to be ambush spawns coming from those forts. Thankfully we’re all in one group now, and I’m going to try to see if I can sneak a break for the castle.

I managed to get Marth in range of the castle without triggering any ambush spawns, and given that there’s nothing else to do on this map, I’m not waiting around to find out if there are ambush spawns. MAP OVER. BOTH DEFENSE LEVELS LOCKED IN. FUCK YES.

Huh! So Linda’s going to be our first mage! I think I’m still gonna wind up liking Merric more, but sure, let’s use her! Might as well!

Actually, speaking of things we might as well do…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 19 Bonus: Book 2, Chapter 3

Yep, let’s keep going! Honestly that map, annoying as it was to navigate, was the most interesting strategic challenge I’ve had in ages when it comes to this project. I don’t think I’ve felt that tested since around the midgame of Gaiden! Which granted was really just last game, but given the length of this thing, it sure doesn’t feel like it.

Okay. So. The backstory of Macedonia is… fucking awesome. Slaves finding dragons and riding them to beat the shit out of their masters is such an insanely metal backstory for a kingdom that I want a game about Iote right now. Alright, game, let’s see what you’ve…

…Oh.

…oohhhhhh.

THIS FUCKING MAP.

Let me level with you, readers. I HATE this fucking map. I despise it with an absolute flaming passion. It has the most ridiculously, pointlessly massive amount of empty space I’ve ever seen in a Fire Emblem map. Look at that. LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT WHAT THE GAME MAKES YOU DO IF YOU DON’T HAVE WARREN’S DRAWBRIDGE KEY. AND LOOK AT WHAT IT MAKES YOU DO ANYWAY IF YOU WANT MATTHIS! BECAUSE WE SURE AS HELL DON’T HAVE LENA YET, DO WE? NOT UNTIL WE VISIT ONE OF THOSE FUCKING VILLAGES!

You have to circumnavigate. The entire. FUCKING. MAP. While not attacked by any enemies, and not threatened by any enemies except the damned dragon knights who refuse to leave their mountain perches until the worst conceivable time for you, and all the time the only unit you have who can do anything, besides Catria, is your turn-one recruit Palla. There’s nothing there. NOTHING. FUCKING. THERE. The entire map except for the center and the lone thief on top is entirely enemy free, but they make you RUN AROUND THE WHOLE DAMNED THING BEFORE YOU GET TO DO ANYTHING.

…Fuck it.

FUCK IT.

I’m not doing two maps today. Not if one of them is this.

See you guys tomorrow.

[Emperor Hardin]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Not true, as I just discovered: Cecil gives 5 to both Rody and Luke. Honestly I would have preferred it if Cecil just gave 10 to Rody. Not a whole lot of difference you can make with 5.

Its true, I just never said it was a 10% support. Cecil gets a 5 from Rody, but nothing from Luke, hence the left out in the cold comment as his affection is unrequited.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 Speaking of which, the game warns us that if we go straight through the forest, we’ll be attacked by the dragon riders at the castle, which is an interesting concept. Certainly better than last map. But we’ll see how it goes.

Its funny how quickly FE3 introduces you to DracoKnights, a promoted class.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 And looks like we found a new recruit, Warren! Damn, if only he didn’t have a speed growth of 10%, I might have chosen to use him. His skill, strength and HP are great. Still, I guess we’ll have to let him attack us to get a hint of how to recruit him, then retreat from the MASSIVE HORDE OF ENEMIES that has charged after my right flank.

You can use him if you want, shards will fix his speed. Warren is interesting because he's basically an axe fighter that uses a bow, which is part of theme of hunters I suppose.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…And the boss fucking moves. WHAT.

 First off, boss theme is really lame. Second off, this puts Catria in a very awkward spot.

ESPECIALLY SINCE THE ONLY PERSON WITH VULNERARIES JUST LOST HIS TURN BECAUSE I DIDN’T REALIZE THAT DISMOUNTING ISN’T AN ACTION YOU CAN CANCEL BY PRESSING B.

 …Okay. I think I have a plan that can get me out of this.

Here’s the situation: Catria, a pegasus knight, is flanked on the north and east sides by dragon riders, one a minion, one the boss. They have 10 move, she has 8. Thanks to dodging the minion with the iron lance (though not the boss with the horseslayer), she has enough HP to survive either one of them attacking her, but not both. I can’t heal her without putting Malliesia in range of both dragon riders, because I fucked up passing a vulnerary from Rody to Draug. To survive, I need to make sure only one of those dragon riders attacks Catria, and then kill them both quickly.

Honestly Rumel/Lumel is one of my favorite bosses in the series due to the surprise difficulty in the game's second map. You also really have to think, you want the Lady Sword from the Thief, but you also don't want to get in Rumel's range and his Ridersbane means most of your units will get ones hotted by him, with even Arran taking a good amount of damage.

Also his palette is really cool; Rumel is left, regular DracoKnight is to the right.

Sadly the DS Version nerfed this to boss to hell; not only is he a immobile on normal mode, but all difficulties nerf his defense and most notably remove his anti cavalry weapon for some reason.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Looks like I was right! The boss goes for the squishy healer rather than teaming up with the mook to take out Cecil.

And miraculously, due to a mess of trading, shifting units around, and general panic, I managed to take out the two dragon riders. But unfortunately, archers only have ONE FUCKING MOVE when traveling through forests, so Gordin is about to be swarmed by enemies, along with Luke.

I might not even restart for him. I value that defense point on Cecil that much.

They both survived, but I’m still not out of the woods yet. I had to do a very risky all-out assault that unless I’m correct about the AI, will still risk one of my units dying even though it was completely successful. I just killed all but four of the enemies, but those four enemies have just enough attack power that, if they figure it out, they can kill Catria if they all work together. Hopefully Gordin the helpless archer, freshly healed up with a vulnerary after surviving last turn’s assault, is a more tempting target for some of them.

 And given that Rody got a defense level from this assault, I really, REALLY hope I don’t have to restart.

 …I don’t. Thank fucking goodness. Though oddly for some reason the cavalier found the javelin-holding Luke a more tempting target than melee-vulnerable Gordin. Ouch. Luke’s ego never catches a break, does it?

 Anyway, we’re mostly home free, except that I’m morally certain that since the castle is left completely unguarded, there are going to be ambush spawns coming from those forts. Thankfully we’re all in one group now, and I’m going to try to see if I can sneak a break for the castle.

Now wasn't that exciting?

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay. So. The backstory of Macedonia is… fucking awesome. Slaves finding dragons and riding them to beat the shit out of their masters is such an insanely metal backstory for a kingdom that I want a game about Iote right now. Alright, game, let’s see what you’ve…

It is very awesome.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Let me level with you, readers. I HATE this fucking map. I despise it with an absolute flaming passion. It has the most ridiculously, pointlessly massive amount of empty space I’ve ever seen in a Fire Emblem map. Look at that. LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT WHAT THE GAME MAKES YOU DO IF YOU DON’T HAVE WARREN’S DRAWBRIDGE KEY. AND LOOK AT WHAT IT MAKES YOU DO ANYWAY IF YOU WANT MATTHIS! BECAUSE WE SURE AS HELL DON’T HAVE LENA YET, DO WE? NOT UNTIL WE VISIT ONE OF THOSE FUCKING VILLAGES!

 You have to circumnavigate. The entire. FUCKING. MAP. While not attacked by any enemies, and not threatened by any enemies except the damned dragon knights who refuse to leave their mountain perches until the worst conceivable time for you, and all the time the only unit you have who can do anything, besides Catria, is your turn-one recruit Palla. There’s nothing there. NOTHING. FUCKING. THERE. The entire map except for the center and the lone thief on top is entirely enemy free, but they make you RUN AROUND THE WHOLE DAMNED THING BEFORE YOU GET TO DO ANYTHING.

 …Fuck it.

 FUCK IT.

 I’m not doing two maps today. Not if one of them is this.

 See you guys tomorrow.

Nothing much else to say other then pay attention to the villager talk and I'm not talking about the gated villages, but the regular houses.

 

 

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

THIS FUCKING MAP.

Let me level with you, readers. I HATE this fucking map. I despise it with an absolute flaming passion. It has the most ridiculously, pointlessly massive amount of empty space I’ve ever seen in a Fire Emblem map. Look at that. LOOK AT THAT. LOOK AT WHAT THE GAME MAKES YOU DO IF YOU DON’T HAVE WARREN’S DRAWBRIDGE KEY. AND LOOK AT WHAT IT MAKES YOU DO ANYWAY IF YOU WANT MATTHIS! BECAUSE WE SURE AS HELL DON’T HAVE LENA YET, DO WE? NOT UNTIL WE VISIT ONE OF THOSE FUCKING VILLAGES!

You have to circumnavigate. The entire. FUCKING. MAP. While not attacked by any enemies, and not threatened by any enemies except the damned dragon knights who refuse to leave their mountain perches until the worst conceivable time for you, and all the time the only unit you have who can do anything, besides Catria, is your turn-one recruit Palla. There’s nothing there. NOTHING. FUCKING. THERE. The entire map except for the center and the lone thief on top is entirely enemy free, but they make you RUN AROUND THE WHOLE DAMNED THING BEFORE YOU GET TO DO ANYTHING.

This is a bit of a gameplay spoiler but with that rant I figured it might help.

Spoiler

I vaguely remember this being the least suicidal version of Mathis, with him having a Javelin, and his AI preferring to avoid counter attacks (as opposed to the FE12 version that prioritizes damage dealt), so taking the bridge is a more viable option for those wanting to recruit him in this game.

 

[Jotari]

You might want to check the hidden items page on Serenes if you want to get everything. There's a pretty significant hidden item on this map.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

You might want to check the hidden items page on Serenes if you want to get everything. There's a pretty significant hidden item on this map.

Are we talking "you get the bad ending if you don't get it" significant?

[Shadow Mir]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Are we talking "you get the bad ending if you don't get it" significant?

No, but it's "negates flier weaknesses" significant.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

No, but it's "negates flier weaknesses" significant.

Then I'll see if I can find it on my own.

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Then I'll see if I can find it on my own.

Won't take a genius to figure it out now that it's been brought to your attention.

[Alastor15243]

Mystery of the Emblem Day 20: Book 2, Chapter 3

Alright. Let’s get this over with.

So the dialogue starts, and we get Palla and Julian talking and- OH SHIT RIGHT! Lena’s one of the missing healers! Oh now I remember! I recruit Matthis with Julian!

Anyway, Palla’s got great bases, though not quite great enough for me to be comfortable having her get too careless with these dragon knights. Actually, the fact that if all of them are aggro’d at once they’ll basically slaughter her has me very concerned about how they aggro. Especially since my army could barely take on two at the same time last chapter. Hopefully I can take them on one at a time.

In fact, the sheer portion of strategy that depends on knowing exactly how the AI is going to behave or else risk total obliteration borders on trial and error, though in fairness I’ve been able to survive so far on one try. So I’m going to try and bait out some of these dragons and hope their brothers don’t follow, in either direction.

OH THANK FUCKING GOD, THEY DON’T ALL AGGRO AT ONCE.

Honestly though, that makes this really, really simple, to an almost annoying degree. Really makes you think about what an art it is, finding a good middle ground between challenges that risk utterly obliterating an ironman run all on their own and challenges that can be cheesed with ease.

Oh look, Michalis is back! Somehow. Anyway, he runs off with Minerva at the end of my second turn.

So, while Draug, the archers and Linde stay behind to take out these dragon riders... very, very slowly... Marth and the mounts begin the long, long trek around the map, armed with what remains of our dwindling healing supplies. We really need a shop, and fast.

Palla’s growth rates, incidentally, are utterly bizarre. I looked them up after she got a lucky defense proc. She’s got amazing skill, great HP, great strength, and mediocre weapon level, but absolutely abysmal speed and luck, at 20% and 10% respectively. Thankfully her speed is 14 and her luck is 9, so that’s not a massive deal, but it is surprising.

Ohhhh! So that’s what you guys were talking about! I don’t get any axe users in this game apparently, so all I can do with axes is sell them! Wow, that’s… a pretty bizarre choice, to have them in the game and just elect not to use them. But I do believe that’s… is it…? I think that’s the only “normal” class that doesn’t have a promotion in this game. Maybe they wanted to get rid of it because it was a weird balancing act?

Anyway, one of the houses told me about Sirius, AKA Camus, and I’ve heard he’s a total badass in this game. But I guess we’ll have to find out!

Also, the dragon riders on the mountain have some pretty kickass items. Are they supposed to be optional? If so, it would be nice to let the player know they won’t attack or something. I can’t even remember if they did attack, just that they gave me a perpetual heart attack.

FUUUUUCK. Okay, so apparently the armory is on the side of the rebels or something, and visiting it is going to cause some unexplained bad thing to happen. Well, guess I’m not buying shit today!

…Except that was the last house. That's the closest thing to a clue about getting Iote's shield that I'm gonna get. Damn it, I’m guessing that the secret people told me about requires going to the armory and fighting the reinforcements it sends. But first… I’m not waiting to find out how these dragon riders aggro, so I’ve got a plan to take them out right away.

So, what we learned from last chapter is that, whatever bullshit determines when they aggro, once they ARE aggro’d, they will attack the unit they can do the most damage to individually, not as a group. So, what I’m going to do is send in Palla and Catria, armed with silver lances. Palla will attack one of them outright from the north, while Catria will end her turn armed with her silver lance, in range of the westernmost one and no others. Either they just flat-out still won’t aggro as a group even when one of them is attacked, in which case, disappointing but convenient, or… they all aggro once one of them is attacked. In which case Palla will bait (and thanks to her level ups, kill) one of the remaining three, finish off the one she attacked and survive the round, while Catria will bait the last two, who will be promptly taken down by Marth’s forces.

Good plan. All that’s left is to not fuck it up.

…Well. That was… hilariously anticlimactic.

Turns out that yes, none of the dragon riders aggro but the one you attack, and not even he fought, he just ran away to a fort to heal. Wow. So this map is just hilariously tedious. Here I was hoping the obnoxious march would be mildly entertaining.

Plus side: we got a knight crest super early! I’m still gonna wait a bit to use it though, wait until I have some more shards before I skip a bunch of levels on someone.

NOT ONLY DO THE DRAGON RIDERS NOT AGGRO AS A GROUP, THEY WON’T EVEN FIGHT BACK. THEY DON’T DO ANYTHING EXCEPT RETREAT IF YOU PUT THEIR HP TOO LOW.

IT’S LIKE THEY WERE COUNTING ON THE PLAYER NOT ACTING LIKE ME!

Anyway, I finally, FINALLY get all of my units in the general northeast area.

ON TURN THIRTY FUCKING FIVE.

But we have Julian now, and he has Lena’s mend staff, which is going to Malliesia immediately. We were getting dangerous close to running out of healing.

Well… after 44 tedious turns, I routed the map. Now to check out that armory and see what all the fuss is about.

…

…

https://youtu.be/xzXBcLK4MR0?t=136

I went to every village, listened to everything they said, and the only lead I got about anything that could possibly relate to getting Iote’s shield is that tip about the treacherous armory, and now I can only assume that THAT would have been the trigger to get those fucking dragon riders to move. Well, if I was supposed to leave them alive and then get ambushed in order to get Iote’s shield, I fucked up. Time to seize, look up what I was supposed to do, and see how much I feel like an idiot.

…

…It was a fucking hidden treasure. THIS GAME INTRODUCES DESERT TREASURE.

I mean, that’s cool, but… can someone in the thread please explain to me how I was supposed to figure that out from reading village dialogue? Because I looked as hard as I could and I saw jack shit for clues remotely resembling that.

But anyway, I’m done with this level and all of its tedious nonsense.

This is… surprisingly soon to say “Fuck you” to Lang. Honestly I feel a few more chapters of having to be pushed around by him would have been better to make this more satisfying. Still, having Jagen of all people scare Lang off is nothing short of priceless.

Well, on to the next chapter, hopefully to find Ogma, the twins, and Sirius! Until then!

[Emperor Hardin]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I mean, that’s cool, but… can someone in the thread please explain to me how I was supposed to figure that out from reading village dialogue? Because I looked as hard as I could and I saw jack shit for clues remotely resembling that.

But anyway, I’m done with this level and all of its tedious nonsense.

This is… surprisingly soon to say “Fuck you” to Lang. Honestly I feel a few more chapters of having to be pushed around by him would have been better to make this more satisfying. Still, having Jagen of all people scare Lang off is nothing short of priceless.

Well, on to the next chapter, hopefully to find Ogma, the twins, and Sirius! Until then!

I was referring to the DracoKnights that attack when you visit the armory, believe me they'll tear apart even Palla.

The only way I could see people finding the Iote's shield on their is if they were find a good position to attack the boss at melee. Honestly hidden treasure is one of the cases where I imagine the game developers originally implemented it to try to sell their official guide.