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

[Punished Dayni]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Aaaaand we have a winner!

.....I have not seen enough Dexter's Laboratory it turns out.

It has been a long, long time.

[Jotari]

I decided to do an Iron Man play through of Revalation just because I wanted to test out Gunther Loedstar (and yes, I passed Before Awakening quite easily for the record Mir) and because I never Iron Moded the game before (though I did end up making Jacob my Loedstar instead as his deffensive support seems more functional for it). It was going well, I made Mozu a Drad Fighter too and she was great. But then in the sea chapter just before taking out the boss I lef Mozu in range of a mage that could deal 0 damage to her, only the enemy moved a Berserker adjacent to where the mage attacks from for an attack stance attack and then the bloody berserker got a crit on his attack stance attack and killed Mozu -=- Its cool that the AI is smart enough to move its enemies in such a way that they trigger their own atack stance, but now Im feeling like proccing crits and brave stikes on attack stances is a bit unfair. Mozu was my best unit (at least for that map as Ive briefly made Corrin a Witch to get warp which lowerer her effectiveness for the moment) at the time, I don:t think there was any other unit I should have put in range of the enemy sage, though I guess I could have paired her up just to avoid the dual attack, but I wasn:t counting on a random crit to ruin my day. Enemy crits are annoying enough as it is, I really dont want to deal with them coming from enemies I cant even get close enough to test the combat window on. Man low percent crits always seem to fuck me over way more in Fates than any other game in the series. I:m actually starting to think Rally Luck is a top tier skill just because Fates has been so cruel to me in the past.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I decided to do an Iron Man play through of Revalation just because I wanted to test out Gunther Loedstar (and yes, I passed Before Awakening quite easily for the record Mir) and because I never Iron Moded the game before (though I did end up making Jacob my Loedstar instead as his deffensive support seems more functional for it). It was going well, I made Mozu a Drad Fighter too and she was great. But then in the sea chapter just before taking out the boss I lef Mozu in range of a mage that could deal 0 damage to her, only the enemy moved a Berserker adjacent to where the mage attacks from for an attack stance attack and then the bloody berserker got a crit on his attack stance attack and killed Mozu -=- Its cool that the AI is smart enough to move its enemies in such a way that they trigger their own atack stance, but now Im feeling like priccing crits and brave stikes on attack stances is a bit unfair. Mozu was my best unit (at least for that map as Ive briefly made Corrin a Witch to get warp which lowerer her effectiveness for the moment) at the time, I don:t think there was any other unit I should have put in range of the enemy sage, though I guess I could have paired her up just to avoid the dual attack, but I wasn:t counting on a random crit to ruin my day. Enemy crits are annoying enough as it is, I really dont want to dela with them coming from enemies I cant even get close enough to test the combat window on. Man low percent crits always seem to fuck me over way more in Fates than any other game in the series. I:m actually starting to think Rally Luck is a top tier skill just because Fates has been so cruel to me in the past.

Shit, sorry to hear about the setback. Yeah, this is why I never, ever leave any unit not in guard stance in range of the enemy on enemy phase. It's too easy for shit like this to happen. Who are you going to train up to replace her?

[Jotari]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Shit, sorry to hear about the setback. Yeah, this is why I never, ever leave any unit not in guard stance in range of the enemy on enemy phase. It's too easy for shit like this to happen. Who are you going to train up to replace her?

She certainly made a great Dread Fighter, I think maybe Dread Fighter Xander? Though that might be not playing to the natrual strengths, as in my previous expereince in a Conquest Lunatic playthrough, Kaze made a fantastic Dread Fighter too, he was my primary attacker for being strong and able to double for guard stance attacks. So its clear Dread Fighter is an amazing class, but perhaps its better suited to units with natrually low attack due to agressor. Another major loss is that I was hoping to pair Mozu with Odin to get an aptitude enhanced mega Ophelia. Ive just picked up Keaton and Kaden now so I guess I:ll asses things after the double chapter wherein you gain a tonne of units all of a sudden.

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Tangentially, but I was a little disappointed in the naming of some of the Hoshidan S-rank weapons. Like, I'd have preferred that Waterwheel and Pursuer keep their Japanese names (Suisha and Zanshin, respectively) to what we got. Or add weapon type after the name, like how they did "Hagakure Blade". The Chakram, I think the name is fine, even if bringing in a historically Indian weapon was... a really weird choice.

Anyway, that's just a small nit to pick.

Considering they didn't translate Rajinto and Fujin Yumi -Sword of the Lightning/Thunder God and Bow of the Wind God- keeping the naming more consistent would've been I think.

Though what I'd really like to know, is what is so special about a "waterwheel"? What Japanese poetic or mythical reference aren't we getting assuming there is one? As is, it makes me think of a watermill, which is neither elegant nor dangerous. Pursuer is less odd in translation, but still in need of an explanation.

I assume none of of these weapons have in-game lore behind them (barring Hagakure as maybe the fine weapon Sumeragi died with), and are merely a collection of random but very strong weapons? Not like lore is always necessary for ultimate weapons, barring Urvan, none of Tellius's did. Though it's never a bad thing. Lore could salvage the mixed bag they are in combat just a little.

Agreed on the Chakram being weird, although what an ultimate Shuriken would be, not entirely sure. Maybe go the direction of the Fujin Yumi- a "Blinding Light Shuriken"? A throwing star comprised of concentrated light energy that dissipates after tearing into its target and returns to its user's palm. Being comprised of energy altered into solid matter just enough to be held in the human hand, its weight is infinitesimally small, one may forget they are holding anything. And yet, one wishes to be mindful of holding this shuriken, as its points, its edges, are sharper than the finest steel, they may injure themselves clenching the legendary weapon and not notice until the blood trickles out. Just the same, the enemy who wildly charges towards a true master of this weapon, will collapse in shock before they reach them, still unaware of the painless gash they received that will soon end them.

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I assume none of of these weapons have in-game lore behind them (barring Hagakure as maybe the fine weapon Sumeragi died with), and are merely a collection of random but very strong weapons? Not like lore is always necessary for ultimate weapons, barring Urvan, none of Tellius's did. Though it's never a bad thing. Lore could salvage the mixed bag they are in combat just a little.

With regards to lore: I always headcanon that the reason why Bifröst is in Hoshido is because Hoshidan ninja stole it because Mikoto thought it could bring Sumeragi back.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

I must admit, the Chakram always makes me think of Xena, Warrior Princess, as it was her signature weapon...

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I decided to do an Iron Man play through of Revalation just because I wanted to test out Gunther Loedstar (and yes, I passed Before Awakening quite easily for the record Mir) and because I never Iron Moded the game before (though I did end up making Jacob my Loedstar instead as his deffensive support seems more functional for it). It was going well, I made Mozu a Drad Fighter too and she was great. But then in the sea chapter just before taking out the boss I lef Mozu in range of a mage that could deal 0 damage to her, only the enemy moved a Berserker adjacent to where the mage attacks from for an attack stance attack and then the bloody berserker got a crit on his attack stance attack and killed Mozu -=- Its cool that the AI is smart enough to move its enemies in such a way that they trigger their own atack stance, but now Im feeling like proccing crits and brave stikes on attack stances is a bit unfair. Mozu was my best unit (at least for that map as Ive briefly made Corrin a Witch to get warp which lowerer her effectiveness for the moment) at the time, I don:t think there was any other unit I should have put in range of the enemy sage, though I guess I could have paired her up just to avoid the dual attack, but I wasn:t counting on a random crit to ruin my day. Enemy crits are annoying enough as it is, I really dont want to deal with them coming from enemies I cant even get close enough to test the combat window on. Man low percent crits always seem to fuck me over way more in Fates than any other game in the series. I:m actually starting to think Rally Luck is a top tier skill just because Fates has been so cruel to me in the past.

Yowch. This is why I think Berserkers are much better as an enemy class than as a player class in this game. That reminds me, I saw another ironman run where the player tried to use Mozu, but she died before she could get going. Which makes me think that she might be more trouble than she's worth in a run where you can't reset (it brings to mind trying to raise a Magikarp during a Nuzlocke)... Anyways, when did you clear Before Awakening, and who did you use?

36 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I must admit, the Chakram always makes me think of Xena, Warrior Princess, as it was her signature weapon...

Ditto.

[Jotari]

17 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Yowch. This is why I think Berserkers are much better as an enemy class than as a player class in this game. That reminds me, I saw another ironman run where the player tried to use Mozu, but she died before she could get going. Which makes me think that she might be more trouble than she's worth in a run where you can't reset (it brings to mind trying to raise a Magikarp during a Nuzlocke)... Anyways, when did you clear Before Awakening, and who did you use?

Ditto.

Mozu was no trouble to get at all. It only took two or three turns to get Corrin down south (on foot, I believe Alastor did it even quicker by flying). The faceless don:t go near or for a handful of turns and once shes under your control you just need to get in a few dual attacks with her to get her some levels. She only needs a few before shes absolutely flying. Shes actually a really great unit as a Drad Fighter. Her later death was not because she:s not sturdy, she was one of my best units by far with only Corrin rivaling in terms of usefulness at that point. I did Before Awakening right ater getting her using all the units I had at the time, Gunther, Corrin, Jacob, Azura and Mozu. Corrin was over levelled (or as much as you can be over levelled in Fates, which isn:t a whole lot) since I had her doing almost all the fighting while Jacob sat paired on her in the first real Revalation map (ie the valla one).

Edited February 2, 2021 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Mozu was no trouble to get at all. It only took two or three turns to get Corrin down south (on foot, I believe Alastor did it even quicker by flying). The faceless don:t go near or for a handful of turns and once shes under your control you just need to get in a few dual attacks with her to get her some levels. She only needs a few before shes absolutely flying. Shes actually a really great unit as a Drad Fighter. Her later death was not because she:s not sturdy, she was one of my best units by far with only Corrin rivaling in terms of usefulness at that point. I did Before Awakening right ater getting her using all the units I had at the time, Gunther, Corrin, Jacob, Azura and Mozu. Corrin was over levelled (or as much as you can be over levelled in Fates, which isn:t a whole lot) since I had her doing almost all the fighting while Jacob sat paired on her in the first real Revalation map (ie the valla one).

Well, that's fast. In general, it takes me about... well, I can usually get to her before she gets attacked, which, according to the wiki, happens on turn 7. Anyway, on Revelation, I tend to delay doing it until having completed chapter 8, because trying to babysit Mozu would make that chapter, which is already a slog, even more of one (incidentally, my biggest gripe with Revelation is that the early chapters are so darn slow), not to mention harder than it needs to be on account of only having Corrin as a reliable combat unit. Also, what difficulty was this on?  In any instance, I had said this earlier, but I find Mozu to be too much investment - especially when that amount of investment could have gone to a unit that doesn't start in a massive hole* and made them better, instead of having me slow down to a crawl just to make Mozu passable..

*To be fair, in Revelation, Hana and Subaki do start underleveled compared to Corrin.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I would disagree, simply because it's more effort for no meaningful reward. Compared to Felicia, anyway.

9 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

And as I see it, the fact that Elise cannot fight makes pairing her up with Odin slower, with whatever benefits that it comes with being insufficient to make up for this.

You can get Ophelia a lot earlier with Elise than with Felicia - that also means Horse Spirit and Lightning earlier and, in your case, I imagine, also an earlier benched Odin.

As Maof06 pointed out, Felicia joins after chapter 15, that means you have to use Odin either throughout the entirety of the campaign and then through some more chapters - otherwise  it´s going to be a painful experience in being underleveled.

Thankfully, you get the most amount of support points when being adjacent to each other and Elise just happens to be good to stand around.

16 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Yeah, that's another thing, weapon ranks are capped depending on class in this game. Generally S rank weapons are exclusive to the classes that can't use any other weapon type. The ones that traditionally get special crit bonuses. I say “generally” because maids and butlers can still use daggers in addition to S staves, and ninjas inexplicably also get C in swords, because I guess people would riot if their ninja couldn't use katana. Oh yes, and ninja also get special bonuses to hit and evade and crit and the like, bonuses usually reserved for classes that can't use any other weapons, because I guess fuck the very concept of consistency.

9 hours ago, Dayni said:

I'm one of those people who wasn't a fan of the caps originally, thinking it limited what you could do with certain classes.

I'm a bit less against it on principle now, but thanks for reminding me Ninja Master is the class that gets all the fun.

I mean how often did people put Swords on their Ninjas? The reason to go Ninja is good 1-2 range - Swords don´t really offer that and even if reclassing Laslow or others you´ll probably want them to get that Hidden Weapons rank up and keep Swords as a last resort, no?

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Well, that's fast. In general, it takes me about... well, I can usually get to her before she gets attacked, which, according to the wiki, happens on turn 7. Anyway, on Revelation, I tend to delay doing it until having completed chapter 8, because trying to babysit Mozu would make that chapter, which is already a slog, even more of one (incidentally, my biggest gripe with Revelation is that the early chapters are so darn slow), not to mention harder than it needs to be on account of only having Corrin as a reliable combat unit. Also, what difficulty was this on?  In any instance, I had said this earlier, but I find Mozu to be too much investment - especially when that amount of investment could have gone to a unit that doesn't start in a massive hole* and made them better, instead of having me slow down to a crawl just to make Mozu passable..

*To be fair, in Revelation, Hana and Subaki do start underleveled compared to Corrin.

Lunatic difficulty.  And you really don't have to wait that long. It's just a short walk south. Giving boots to Corrin and Azura is pretty helpful too. And the Faceless aren't that strong. My Corrin could pretty safely walk right through them without fear of death. I also threw paragon on Mozu too to get her up to speed quicker.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Jotari

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I assume none of of these weapons have in-game lore behind them (barring Hagakure as maybe the fine weapon Sumeragi died with), and are merely a collection of random but very strong weapons? Not like lore is always necessary for ultimate weapons, barring Urvan, none of Tellius's did. Though it's never a bad thing. Lore could salvage the mixed bag they are in combat just a little.

Weird - as good as Tellius' world-building is, the legendary weapons (aside from Alondite and Ragnell) don't get much lore. Would've been nice if Fates gave more, granted.

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Agreed on the Chakram being weird, although what an ultimate Shuriken would be, not entirely sure. Maybe go the direction of the Fujin Yumi- a "Blinding Light Shuriken"? A throwing star comprised of concentrated light energy that dissipates after tearing into its target and returns to its user's palm. Being comprised of energy altered into solid matter just enough to be held in the human hand, its weight is infinitesimally small, one may forget they are holding anything. And yet, one wishes to be mindful of holding this shuriken, as its points, its edges, are sharper than the finest steel, they may injure themselves clenching the legendary weapon and not notice until the blood trickles out. Just the same, the enemy who wildly charges towards a true master of this weapon, will collapse in shock before they reach them, still unaware of the painless gash they received that will soon end them.

This one sounds really cool! Re: "hurting themselves", maybe the user of the S-rank Shuriken could lose 20% HP after combat, as its "backlash" effect? In lieu of the defensive nerfs. They could also make it the "national treasure" of Mokushu, so that you get it on all routes, once you defeat Kotaro.

[Jotari]

8 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Weird - as good as Tellius' world-building is, the legendary weapons (aside from Alondite and Ragnell) don't get much lore. Would've been nice if Fates gave more, granted.

This one sounds really cool! Re: "hurting themselves", maybe the user of the S-rank Shuriken could lose 20% HP after combat, as its "backlash" effect? In lieu of the defensive nerfs. They could also make it the "national treasure" of Mokushu, so that you get it on all routes, once you defeat Kotaro.

You defeat Kotaro super early in Revalations though. Granted the S rank limitation still means it won't be till a good but into the latter half of the game before you can use it though. Worked with Durandel in Binding Blade, course it had durability nerfing it there.

[Shadow Mir]

7 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

You can get Ophelia a lot earlier with Elise than with Felicia - that also means Horse Spirit and Lightning earlier and, in your case, I imagine, also an earlier benched Odin.

As Maof06 pointed out, Felicia joins after chapter 15, that means you have to use Odin either throughout the entirety of the campaign and then through some more chapters - otherwise  it´s going to be a painful experience in being underleveled.

Thankfully, you get the most amount of support points when being adjacent to each other and Elise just happens to be good to stand around.

Your first two statements are only true if Corrin is female - and not all of us are okay with playing with a female Corrin.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Lunatic difficulty.  And you really don't have to wait that long. It's just a short walk south. Giving boots to Corrin and Azura is pretty helpful too. And the Faceless aren't that strong. My Corrin could pretty safely walk right through them without fear of death. I also threw paragon on Mozu too to get her up to speed quicker.

Okay. Anyway, I would note that Lunatic makes the Faceless in her joining chapter strong enough to OHKO Mozu (11 strength + 8 weapon might + 2 from weapon rank bonus = 21 attack; Mozu at base has 16 HP + 5 defense[with 1 coming from her weapon]). This means she'd practically need reclassing to be trained in Lunatic.

Edited February 2, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Revelation Day 17: Chapter 21

Someone who chose to remain “Corrinonymous” donated tinted glasses to me! So I'm returning the favor and giving them to everyone!

Also, you guys got me another BP reward: the shining bow! Thanks to everyone who's still battling me every day! I really appreciate any help I can get towards this!

Oh man, I can't get over Saizo's amazing treehouse line:

“...That seemed completely pointless. But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.”

It's right up there with Azama's.

...I just went into the accessory shop and suddenly remembered why I never, ever go in there. Holy shit. The prices are ludicrous. Some accessories take thirty of a resource! Thirty! For a fucking hat! Worst of all, the chef's hat requires 30 quartz! Not only do I just barely not have that even now after getting it daily from some of you and gambling for it and winning almost every day, but it's a Hoshidan resource, meaning that you can't even get the damned thing in Conquest without online! Thank goodness for all of you guys.

Man, I hope someone comes up with a cool mod to balance all of this nonsense around not having online once we no longer have online. I've seen some cool mods already, including one that adds in “select me” voice quotes a la Echoes and Three Houses. Not new ones, obviously, just other voice lines repurposed for selection. It'd be nice to get something that makes this resource nonsense better than “broken if you play online and broken in the other direction if you don't”.

Honestly, when the Fates part of the marathon is over, I think I'm gonna make a new file on Lunatic Conquest, leave it at Chapter 7, and then just leave it open for accessory donations so I can use it every time I want to start a new game after the servers go down. Ideally I'd set that up for all three routes, but I'm not sure how long that would take and how long people will be interested in visiting my castle.

Anyway, I stop by the kitchen to give everyone a boost (I get speed, defense and strength), and now for the story scene.

Yeah, so, Anthony does a pretty impressive Batman gambit by telling Dakota he plans to go in the back entrance alone since the royal families don't trust him anymore (I still wish we saw the reaction of the Hoshidan royals or Azura). He says that if he opens the front gate for everyone, it won't be nearly as suspicious, and the fact that they don't trust him won't cripple their chances of success. And of course Dakota, being Dakota, offers to help.

Which was Anthony's plan the whole time, getting Dakota trapped in the ruins alone.

And then Anthony shows his true colors, with this absolutely ridiculously evil grin for some little shit whose voice hasn't even broken yet. But surprise surprise, Dakota left a note for everyone just in case it turned out to be a trap, and they come to the rescue.

Honestly, Anthony's just... wow. He could've been interesting if his true colors had, like, the tiniest bit of nuance, but no, this child is fanatically loyal to Anankos for no discernible reason.

But then when Anthony is clearly outmatched by the reinforcements... Anankos turns him into a faceless.

Which brings us to the terrible, terrible gimmick of this map.

If enemies step on red tiles, they're promoted. If they step on blue tiles, they're then instantly demoted. Interesting premise, you might say. Defeating an almost insurmountable force by tricking them into weakening themselves and taking them out in their weakened state. But it would still give you the option to fight the terrifying enemies for extra experience. It would've especially been an interesting thing to do in the earlier parts of the game, where fighting unpromoted enemies was still normal.

Here's the thing... the promoted enemies here? They aren't any stronger than usual.

So this is just a map where the enemies are absolutely worthless half the time. That's it.

And no, you can't save Anthony by baiting him onto a blue tile to cure his “power up”. That would've been cool, but alas.

Anyway, nothing really complicated about prep, but thankfully I finally have enough deployment slots to bring Fuga and Hayato! Awesome! Let's try him out and get their supports!

...Okay, good, the class change happens after the end of an enemy's turn. No having to worry about enemies spontaneously having different stats when they attack you than they had when they were moving towards you just because they stepped on a different space. Given the game would give you no means of seeing said stats to plan ahead, that would be beyond vile, and I'm glad to see that not even Revelation was so careless. Yeah, in general, Fates seems to put a lot of priority in making sure you have time to analyze and react to whatever situation the game puts you into. It's not perfect about it, as will be seen later, but aside from those issues with the weapon triangle and weapon rank bonuses, any problems the system has are exclusive to Birthright and Revelation.

We have some nice music here, though honestly I prefer “Past Below” to “Land Below”. But if you count Glory/Ruin as the third Valla” music, holy shit do I love that psychotically chaotic song more than both of them combined.

Yeah, this map is shaping up to be profoundly boring. It's really just a matter of avoiding wasting exp by missing the opportunity to kill enemies while they're strong.

Plus side: I just got Elise to learn rally resistance, and now she's reclassed and is about to gain the weapon rank to use Valhallen in wyvern lord. I'll teach her rally defense yet!

...Looks like these guys don't actually provide any less experience in their unpromoted forms, or at least not nearly as little as they should. So... there's not even the semblance of a tradeoff here.

It didn't occur to me until embarrassingly late that the reason the ninja weren't attacking me was because they were running off to nab the treasure chests. In my defense, the game hasn't done this until now I'm pretty sure.

A ninja swiped the S rank axe, though I still have time to take it back.

The one who nabbed a master seal is much further away, but that's no loss at this stage. Just as long as he doesn't take the other one too before it's too late...

...Fuck, I'm too late, they just ran away immediately after nabbing the chests. I couldn't even get the axe. Not that I was planning to use it, but still, that's 5K I could've sold it for. That's what I get for trying to take things slow.

...Not worth resetting over though.

...For utterly inexplicable reasons, the “you're in danger of death” music started playing when I attacked a general with Elise.

The general couldn't even counter-attack.

I lost a second treasure chest because Anthony moved without us getting into his range, forcing me to dive for the chest early, and unfortunately Dakota couldn't get to the second one before Keaton critted Anthony into oblivion.

Oh well. I kinda really don't care enough to reset.

Yeah, yeah, story time, “Please don't ever stop blindly believing people, because if you stopped, you wouldn't be you anymore and you couldn't unite us all, so let us clean up your mistakes while you keep being you”, fuck you very much, blah blah blah...

Ooooh, lots of supports today! I think we've got some more child paralogues then! Lemme know if you want me to do any tomorrow!

Sakura has a cute little interaction with Xander, but she can't spit out what she wants to say, so I guess we have to wait.

And then with Selena, Xander relays the horrific shitshow that was the joke Selena taught him. He told it, and everyone looked at him like he had gone completely mad. Leo and Dakota went off to find a healer. Elise burst into tears.

But then Selena rather adorably (and backhandedly) reveals she only did it because she thought Camilla might want to see Xander smile.

I have to say, I like Selena's art in Fates a lot more than Severa's in Awakening. That scowl on her face in Awakening was really annoying, as was her embarrassed tsundere face, but here she looks a lot better, and she looks so much cuter when she does her Fates aside glance.

Yeah, honestly, for me, tsundere are at their best when they're absolutely terrible at pretending to be assholes. Keaton's a pretty great male example, due to his canine body language constantly sabotaging his efforts to maintain his wolfskin pride.

Okay, so, this A support is kinda half-and-half. I can buy that Selena might have a crush on Xander at this point, but I don't really get the impression that Xander likely has feelings for Selena back.

Alright, here's another A support, between Ryoma and Camilla!

...It was really boring. They didn't really find much of any common ground of conversation at all. They're almost exactly where they were at the start.

Alright, we've got Keaton and Effie's S support!

Man, Keaton is just adorable here. But it really shows that Effie's characterization revolves so heavily around training and eating. It's kind of embarrassing, and I'm starting to really wonder how much of that is Treehouse's fault.

Ooh! Fuga and Hayato get a conversation!

...This conversation was... interesting, but weird in a way I can't really describe. Sorry, I'll have to wait until the next one to see if I can say more.

But with that... we're done for the day! Alright, hope you enjoyed! Tomorrow we'll be... I think this is when we first fight Arete? In the forest? Or I guess we could do Velouria's paralogue if you want! I'm inclined to do that eventually anyway, but lemme know!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Punished Dayni]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But with that... we're done for the day! Alright, hope you enjoyed! Tomorrow we'll be... I think this is when we first fight Arete? In the forest? Or I guess we could do Velouria's paralogue if you want! I'm inclined to do that eventually anyway, but lemme know!

You fight her in the map with the sigil and the tons of teleporters first.

She shows up in three maps, Hubert scoffing at her in disgust right now because she's not on his level.

Considering how paralogues are, the sooner the better right?

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Dayni said:

You fight her in the map with the sigil and the tons of teleporters first.

She shows up in three maps, Hubert scoffing at her in disgust right now because she's not on his level.

Considering how paralogues are, the sooner the better right?

Hahaha, I completely forgot about Arete being there. Just goes to show how memorable she was.

[Punished Dayni]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hahaha, I completely forgot about Arete being there. Just goes to show how memorable she was.

I forgot about her last map, they really stretched out her time in the game and even then there's still generic enemy bosses during that period in Valla.

I'm not sure what the solution would be to that honestly, considering the amount of non-Valla characters confirmed to know about Valla outside the player's forces can be counted on one hand and there's less Vallites, but there are some lore characters and I can think of one we've seen who won't be used..........

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Dayni said:

I forgot about her last map, they really stretched out her time in the game and even then there's still generic enemy bosses during that period in Valla.

I'm not sure what the solution would be to that honestly, considering the amount of non-Valla characters confirmed to know about Valla outside the player's forces can be counted on one hand and there's less Vallites, but there are some lore characters and I can think of one we've seen who won't be used..........

I mean, the Nohr siblings should've had a fight with Garon for closure at the very least.

 

Oh, by the way... so, a recent Kickstarter email reminded me that the FE-inspired game I backed, Dark Deity, is coming out in like a quarter of a year. Is anyone interested in me posting my initial blind thoughts when I play that game? And if so, to what degree? I know a lot of you wouldn't be in the mood for putting the playlog on hold to do that in full playlog style, but I have no intention of waiting to play this game until the marathon's over, because that'll take ages. So naturally the window to get my blind thoughts, if indeed that's something anyone's interested in, is pretty narrow.

[Axie]

i am always interested in side stories! i vote yes on posting your thoughts on this game, and also it looks like you will already be in echoes or three houses by the time it's out, and if it's three houses you apparently could really use a distraction lol.

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hahaha, I completely forgot about Arete being there. Just goes to show how memorable she was.

To be fair her name is ??? on that map, and they don't reveal that it is her until her next map. Also of note she appears in the story segment at the end of chapter 7 to scare the party out of Valla (still with ??? as her name)...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Oh, by the way... so, a recent Kickstarter email reminded me that the FE-inspired game I backed, Dark Deity, is coming out in like a quarter of a year. Is anyone interested in me posting my initial blind thoughts when I play that game? And if so, to what degree? I know a lot of you wouldn't be in the mood for putting the playlog on hold to do that in full playlog style, but I have no intention of waiting to play this game until the marathon's over, because that'll take ages. So naturally the window to get my blind thoughts, if indeed that's something anyone's interested in, is pretty narrow.

Put me down for someone that wouldn't mind some initial blind thoughts, but don't derail the playlog for it.

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 2/2/2021 at 8:53 AM, Jotari said:

You defeat Kotaro super early in Revalations though. Granted the S rank limitation still means it won't be till a good but into the latter half of the game before you can use it though. Worked with Durandel in Binding Blade, course it had durability nerfing it there.

I don't see it as an especially big issue. The only class that can reach S-Shurikens is Master Ninja, which only Kaze, Saizo, and Kagero start in. Kaze starts with D, and the other two start at C, so it's a long road to mastery. Other units (i.e. Jakob, Felicia) can go Master Ninja with the right support, plus a Partner Seal, but they still can't surpass B before getting their support up. Granted, both of these can be obviated with grinding, but that's already a conscious choice to undermine the difficulty.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

..I just went into the accessory shop and suddenly remembered why I never, ever go in there. Holy shit. The prices are ludicrous. Some accessories take thirty of a resource! Thirty! For a fucking hat! Worst of all, the chef's hat requires 30 quartz! Not only do I just barely not have that even now after getting it daily from some of you and gambling for it and winning almost every day, but it's a Hoshidan resource, meaning that you can't even get the damned thing in Conquest without online! Thank goodness for all of you guys.

Yeah, no idea what they were thinking here. The Resource system was neat conceptually, and I feel it works with forging and meals, but I don't know who decided on these prices.

15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh, by the way... so, a recent Kickstarter email reminded me that the FE-inspired game I backed, Dark Deity, is coming out in like a quarter of a year. Is anyone interested in me posting my initial blind thoughts when I play that game? And if so, to what degree? I know a lot of you wouldn't be in the mood for putting the playlog on hold to do that in full playlog style, but I have no intention of waiting to play this game until the marathon's over, because that'll take ages. So naturally the window to get my blind thoughts, if indeed that's something anyone's interested in, is pretty narrow.

That could be pretty cool. I do wonder, though, if it'd be proper to post it in the same thread. Like, maybe it'd be better to include in the "General Gaming" subforum, and share a link to there. But it's your call, barring the Mods saying anything.

[Alastor15243]

11 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

That could be pretty cool. I do wonder, though, if it'd be proper to post it in the same thread. Like, maybe it'd be better to include in the "General Gaming" subforum, and share a link to there. But it's your call, barring the Mods saying anything.

Yeah, definitely wouldn't be in the same thread. I'll link to it though when it happens.

[Alastor15243]

Revelation Day 18: Paralogue 18

I can't think of anything new to give out today, so, have another fox tail, everyone!

Ah yes, and for the first time this marathon I get the “Wake that slugabed up!” minigame. That one isn't nearly as annoying as the “blow gently” minigame, which is infuriating. Honestly, the concept of mandatory voice commands or the like in games on portable fucking systems is absolutely ridiculous. If a game is portable, I should be able to play it on the train without getting stares from half the passengers.

Anyway, we're recruiting Velouria today. Which means we'll have a Conquest-style chapter on our hands, so the difficulty's gonna go way up, and I'll have to be on my toes. This may not be ironman anymore, but I'm not keen to reset.

...Oh fuck, I forgot how much this paralogue annoys me. It's just this massive wall of faceless, sorcerers, status staves and siege tomes. I hate getting hit by debuffs, so this tends to really mess with me. Thankfully, the map provides a solution: there are three dragon veins that are basically Mystery of the Emblem's iteration of silence, a map-wide, ally-and-enemy debuff, except it carries over to your next turn too so that you can't just abuse it by having all your magic users move first and suffer no consequences. That's more than enough time to take out the entrap guy in the center, but I need a somewhat more intricate plan if I wanna take out the two strategists with the nastier staves hidden behind the mountains in one turn. Also, some of my units need some help to one-round these faceless so they don't inflict their nasty seal skills, so I gave Mozu an upgrade to her Mozurang, waited until Jakob got a +2 strength bonus on his cooking in addition to the speed and defense, and used some tonics. After worrying that repeated cooking attempts might cripple the cooking success rate after Jakob somehow managed to burn the macaroni, I did finally manage to get it without wasting too much of my plentiful wheat and milk.

Alright, I've got my plan all set up. This is gonna be good. So, first off, I'm ditching Ryoma for this battle to bring in Felicia and Azura, who I haven't had space for lately. I'm gonna have Felicia take out the northern freeze strategist with lightning and then galeforce away to safety. Then I'm gonna use the silence vein and have Selena fly Xander in to take out the southern enfeeble one while Mozu takes out the middle entrap one.

...I think this will work, though Mozu's gonna be cutting it close with those trample malig knights and their silver axes, and of course the slightest miss against the facless will ruin her.

Of course, the other, cheap option would be to just make the strategists waste all of their charges of their status staves by waiting at the absolute, non-overlapping limits of their ranges before dealing with the entrap strategist in the middle, but uh... yeah, let's not do that today.

Mozu absolutely wiped the floor with that trash, not even taking half damage due to some good dodges and dual strikes.

Oh man, Velouria's here. I absolutely love her sprite. It's really badass. The whole “little red riding hood is the wolf” motif might be a bit silly, but holy shit does she make it work when she stands there, looking off to the side while her cloak blows in the wind. And when I make her a wolfssegner, she keeps that exact same sprite, she just recolors her outfit a bit, so that's awesome.

Unfortunately, she's not as fast as I'd hoped. At least not without a pair-up partner. Even with the beaststone equipped, she's only at 26 speed. I guess she doesn't get really good unless you're consistently training both her mom and dad. When I married Keaton in my blind Conquest ironman, she was soooooo much better than Keaton it was nuts.

So, right after I launched my rush across the mountains, 8 faceless spawned from the forts on my side, when most of the units I left behind can't even attack properly due to the silencing. Thankfully I managed to evacuate and leave Keaton behind to one-round most of the northern ones while I wait for silence to wear off so the rest of my army can start attacking. Interestingly, silence appears to disable magical weapons too. Do you need some kind of incantation to use a levin sword?

...I just remembered that these are Vallite enemies. Why are there Vallite faceless? Aren't these the enslaved souls of fallen troops?

...Do faceless have souls!?

...There's no time to ponder such questions, because Elise just got rally defense! Awesome!

Unfortunately I didn't really think much about Xander's exit strategy. I didn't give much thought to how he'd deal with the sorcerers after they stopped being silenced when he can't fly away without spending a turn with vulnerable Selena in front. Thankfully I managed to come up with a plan afterwards.

...One annoying thing about stationary siege weapons is that it makes the attack range of any compatible enemy light up like a damned christmas tree with no way to turn it specifically off. It would be great if it didn't highlight a tower's attack range unless you highlighted the tower. But I'm 99% sure that the only reason Sakura's in anyone's attack range right now is because of that fire orb, so I can send her in there to rescue Xander. So I do so, and she gets rally speed for her trouble! Which means I've got every important rally except rally strength now! Time to make her a strategist again so she can learn inspiration.

...And those sorcerer reinforcements decided to head straight for Velouria. That is very, very bad, because she can't survive a single round of combat with them without a guard stance partner. Thankfully, I can have Sakura fly all the way up the map with Azura's help to use the other charge of the rescue rod to save her. Given that the rescue rod is a rod, and thus can't be bought in Nohrian shops, Using two rescue charges in as many turns would, in a Conquest ironman, be a devastating loss of resources that I'd be kicking myself for all day. Here, though? Fuck it, I've got tons.

After that though... things are fairly straightforward. But honestly, a Conquest chapter with one of my least favorite mechanics in Fates was still way more fun than anything Revelation had to offer, which just demonstrates the sheer whole other fucking level that Conquest is on, and has me very excited for what's to come.

...Oh god, the writing. This is just screaming “OwO What's this?”, and it's so uncomfortable.

...But anyway, the plan is to use Velouria now instead of Keaton, and try to pair her up with Hisame. Not sure what class will be best to give her the best pair-up bonuses, but I'll check them out and see.

...But we've got some supports, obviously. Okay, let's check these out!

Sakura and Elise have their B support!

...Oh this is just absolutely, sickeningly, grotesquely wholesome.

I fucking love it.

Elise wound up asking literally everyone in town if someone had a koto Sakura could use, and being her hyperactive self, practically dragged Sakura over to it so she could play. And now that they both have their instruments, Elise wants them to play a duet. Man, Elise is unironically one of my favorite characters in the entire series.

...Felicia and Keaton is just Keaton harassing Felicia by trying to show her gross bugs, which he apparently has done repeatedly and refused to entertain the idea that anyone could possibly not want to see them.

...I don't like this support. This sort of behavior... doesn't feel in line with how he acts normally, honestly. I don't remember him ever being this... pushy.

But time for the parental supports. First, Keaton and Velouria.

...This... this still makes me deeply uncomfortable. Woooow. She basically wants to glomp and sniff her father constantly. I mean, in fairness, she hasn't been able to be around her father much for her entire life, but this... I can't help but feel this was written to appeal to a fetish, and it would be going way too overboard for me even if this weren't her father.

Alright, hopefully her support with her mom will be less annoying.

...Okay, it is cute, but yeah, yet again, Effie barely has anything of substance to say here other than “me like muscly stuff”. It's so frustrating. But still, cute. Velouria's basically acting like an attention-starved puppy (which, I mean, she completely is), but in a much less OwO sort of way. Very cute and wholesome little scene, even if Effie's lines were dumb.

Sorry for the short update people, but this chapter took longer to play than it took to write. This is where I'm gonna leave it today.

Stay safe, everyone!