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

[ping]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

If a game is portable, I should be able to play it on the train without getting stares from half the passengers.

"Mommy's here~~~"
"ELDRITCH SMACKDOWN!!"
"TEEHEEHEE YAYYYYY"
"Ohhhh yessssss"
"WE'VE GOT TROUBLE"
(groans of increasing discomfort)

Related ProZD content.

Spoiler

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of "muting"

 

[Punished Dayni]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...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!?

Considering Antonius, maybe?

But that contradicts Nohr's making of Faceless..... but then again we see them coming from graves in BR18. After a certain someone manipulates the area to make them.

Holy shit Nohr's been necromancers all along.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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

Oh boy can't wait for Selkie and that to be all the time /s

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

Best royal?

Best royal.

[Axie]

i also love elise now that i also discovered she is definitely a minor and doesn't marry anyone and have kids ever in this game at all whatsoever nope doesn't happen. god bless this thread for this... revelation.

also i never used keaton so i've never had velouria. maybe the next time i play revelation i should use him over my beloved kaden because they join together, but oh my god playing revelation again.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Axie said:

also i never used keaton so i've never had velouria. maybe the next time i play revelation i should use him over my beloved kaden because they join together, but oh my god playing revelation again.

I've never really liked Kaden. I tried him out on my first Birthright playthrough for the hell of it, but ultimately regretted it. He's not good at the right stats to justify being meleelocked. The wolfskin stat spread is way, way better. Wolfskins just have a great combo of strength, speed and defense if you train them right.

Edited February 3, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Punished Dayni]

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I've never really liked Kaden. I tried him out on my first Birthright playthrough for the hell of it, but ultimately regretted it. He's not good at the right stats to justify being meleelocked. The wolfskin stat spread is way, way better. Wolfskins just have a great combo of strength, speed and defense if you train them right.

I don't know about Lunatic, but he's turning out very solid for me in my Birthright Hard playthrough, Beastrune helps his defences and he's fast enough to be pretty impressive for dodging.

And I'd hope so with no royals (Also their retainers).

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Dayni said:

I don't know about Lunatic, but he's turning out very solid for me in my Birthright Hard playthrough, Beastrune helps his defences and he's fast enough to be pretty impressive for dodging.

And I'd hope so with no royals (Also their retainers).

Wow, that really cripples your options, doesn't it?

[Punished Dayni]

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wow, that really cripples your options, doesn't it?

It's not as tight as you might think: I can't ban Corrin because he's forced, Azura's just a dancer (I should probably ban her too) and I still have Corrin's retainers (Also I was using Mikoto's, though I will be banning them soon enough), though Jakob and Felicia are healers I might start forcing bans on them (I had other plans but looked at the numbers and held off. I'm at the point where I should probably enforce them).

Still have Mozu (Bow on the go), Rinkah (Who's mostly defence, sadly she's not turned out amazing beyond her defence but a stint in Master Ninja will hopefully help, Hayato (if his Magic was closer to Orochi's he'd be stellar, is the guy who beat Xander in Chapter 12, Rev Hayato would be better. Could also argue he's a royal, but he's treated differently enough in universe and in game to let it slide imo), Kaden (I've already said he's had a positive impact since Chapter 12 (Not beating Xander positive, but still positive), Daniela (Captured boss, has none of her class skills yet. 😛), Scarlet (Pretty good, is not quite as mad as Camilla sadly, imagine if she was) and there's Izana and Shura too. Considering if I ban all the retainers I lose Silas (Reliable(ish) tanking, but I'm not as stuck there as all that), Kaze (Mostly has high speed, nothing much else), the help, Orochi (Sure she's just magic damage but I can't knock her for it) and Reina (Would be disappointing to lose, but also not a fatal blow), that's a big drop for sure. I would make it easier by getting kids (Kaze's and Silas's would count, as would most of the others I suspect), though I wasn't accounting for using them.

I made it harder using -Spd Corrin, but still. Least she's +Str.

[xigbar7]

Just chiming in to say I have read like 80 pages of this thread over the last few days and love it. As someone who had basically the same experience as yourself by getting initially introduced to the series through the GBA releases and progressing to the 3DS games when they came out while also going back to older titles through emulators, seeing someone do this project of yours is refreshing.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, xigbar7 said:

Just chiming in to say I have read like 80 pages of this thread over the last few days and love it. As someone who had basically the same experience as yourself by getting initially introduced to the series through the GBA releases and progressing to the 3DS games when they came out while also going back to older titles through emulators, seeing someone do this project of yours is refreshing.

Glad you enjoy! What game are you most excited to read the playlog for, out of curiosity?

[xigbar7]

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Glad you enjoy! What game are you most excited to read the playlog for, out of curiosity?

Hmm...Well, it was initially was Blazing Sword due to the fact it was the first one in the series to really hook me, like yourself, but I just finished that. Incidentally just got around to doing HHM for the first time myself a couple weeks ago and had a similar experience to yourself in terms of what units ended up being better due to reliability that I might normally overlook in normal mode in favor of 'growth' units that I have time to feed against easier scenarios.

 

At this point, I'd probably say Awakening. I think from a presentation standpoint it is a big departure from what had been the dominant feel of the GBA entries. I think as a byproduct of them trying to cater to western audiences for the first time they made the GBA games have more western storytelling conventions as well as being more euro-fantasy in general. I think due to a combination of having established some franchise loyalty through that point as well as anime having become decidedly more culturally mainstream here in america they went with some changes in Awakening that might be considered a bit more japanese by comparison, especially where visual character design is concerned. So gauging the transition from GBA/Gamecube to that will be interesting.

Editted for clarity.

Edited February 4, 2021 by xigbar7

[Alastor15243]

Just now, xigbar7 said:

At this point, I'd probably say Awakening. I think from a presentation standpoint it is a big departure from what had been the dominant feel of the GBA entries. I think as a byproduct of them trying to cater to western audiences for the first time they made the game have more western storytelling conventions as well as being more euro-fantasy in general. I think due to a combination of having established some franchise loyalty through that point as well as anime having become decidedly more culturally mainstream here in america they went with some changes that might be considered a bit more japanese by comparison, especially where visual character design is concerned. So gauging the transition from GBA/Gamecube to that will be interesting.

Well, I hope you enjoy! My experience with Awakening was... well it was definitely something...

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Dayni said:

I don't know about Lunatic, but he's turning out very solid for me in my Birthright Hard playthrough, Beastrune helps his defences and he's fast enough to be pretty impressive for dodging.

On Lunatic, I'm not entirely sure of the Kitsune's dodging, I think a Velouria with Kagero as her mother failed to ORKO enemies on the right side of Chapter 25, and still had a 20-chance of being hit. All I do remember is that it didn't feel safe enough for me. 

I think this was on my females-only run, which saw Guard Naginata+Spear Master!Hinoka paired with Rinkah solo the left side of that map, literally everyone else was needed to the right side to keep the reinforcements there at bay. It was the best I could do, after I had Scarlet and a pal dispatch Hans over the open air in the prior fight b/c too many strong foes, not enough terrain.

 

1 hour ago, Dayni said:

Scarlet (Pretty good, is not quite as mad as Camilla sadly, imagine if she was)

Growths-wise, Scarlet is Camilla-lite:

• 10% less HP
• 5% less Str
• 5% less Mag
• 10% less Skl
• 5% less Spd
• 10% less Def
• 25% less Res
• 15% more Lck.

Now, regarding bases, both come at level 1 promoted. Scarlet has:

• Same HP. 1 less if you changed her or Camilla to the other Wyvern promotion.
• 4 more Str. 3 more if you reclass Camilla to WL.
• 1 less Mag if you brought her into Malig Knight.
•  Same Skl factoring in the class difference.
• 1 less Spd factoring in the class difference.
• 1 less Lck factoring in the class difference.
• 2 more Def factoring in the class difference.
• 4 less Res factoring in the class difference.

So, pretty much the same in practice, Scarlet's losses are so small that you might actually prefer her 3 Str lead.

Camilla has a non-Corrinsexual support list, First Blood, and a better personal skill in her favor too.

The real reason why Scarlet is merely good and Camilla is divine, is likely that Camilla comes a whole lot sooner and you've a lot of pressure to use her for early-mid Conquest. Scarlet comes significantly later, undermining her comparable stats *Seth vs. Syrene flashbacks triggered*, and Birthright isn't so hard to softly demand her either.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wow, that really cripples your options, doesn't it?

That reminds me, on paper I sorta like the premise of most of Fates's cast being royals and retainers. It could add certain thematics to the cast, that being the games are a clash between two elite of elite families. On the other hand, it could come off as limiting, does sticking to R&R mean the diversity of the characters' backstories and roles as deliverers of world-building is restricted? Maybe, maybe not.

I do remember someone commented once that Nohr & Hoshido are opposites on retainers. Hoshido's retainers are people from elite families with subdued personalities, whilst Nohr is across classes with crazy personalities.

[Punished Dayni]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

On Lunatic, I'm not entirely sure of the Kitsune's dodging, I think a Velouria with Kagero as her mother failed to ORKO enemies on the right side of Chapter 25, and still had a 20-chance of being hit. All I do remember is that it didn't feel safe enough for me. 

I think this was on my females-only run, which saw Guard Naginata+Spear Master!Hinoka paired with Rinkah solo the left side of that map, literally everyone else was needed to the right side to keep the reinforcements there at bay. It was the best I could do, after I had Scarlet and a pal dispatch Hans over the open air in the prior fight b/c too many strong foes, not enough terrain.

Sorry, is it Selkie you're one about?

I assume this was a large group of enemies she was facing at 20%, I've not really had that situation for Kaden yet, where I'm still able to appreciate his offence while not expecting he's taking on so many at once (Though yet, his Str isn't like Keaton's). Yet.

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Growths-wise, Scarlet is Camilla-lite:

• 10% less HP
• 5% less Str
• 5% less Mag
• 10% less Skl
• 5% less Spd
• 10% less Def
• 25% less Res
• 15% more Lck.

Now, regarding bases, both come at level 1 promoted. Scarlet has:

• Same HP. 1 less if you changed her or Camilla to the other Wyvern promotion.
• 4 more Str. 3 more if you reclass Camilla to WL.
• 1 less Mag if you brought her into Malig Knight.
•  Same Skl factoring in the class difference.
• 1 less Spd factoring in the class difference.
• 1 less Lck factoring in the class difference.
• 2 more Def factoring in the class difference.
• 4 less Res factoring in the class difference.

So, pretty much the same in practice, Scarlet's losses are so small that you might actually prefer her 3 Str lead.

Camilla has a non-Corrinsexual support list, First Blood, and a better personal skill in her favor too.

The real reason why Scarlet is merely good and Camilla is divine, is likely that Camilla comes a whole lot sooner and you've a lot of pressure to use her for early-mid Conquest. Scarlet comes significantly later, undermining her comparable stats *Seth vs. Syrene flashbacks triggered*, and Birthright isn't so hard to softly demand her either.

Yeah, Camilla's three chapter lead, more supports, better personal (Scarlet's is definitely niche) and DV are certainly factors. Camilla's also in a route where she's more necessary too.

[Interdimensional Observer]

15 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Sorry, is it Selkie you're one about?

I assume this was a large group of enemies she was facing at 20%, I've not really had that situation for Kaden yet, where I'm still able to appreciate his offence while not expecting he's taking on so many at once (Though yet, his Str isn't like Keaton's). Yet.

Whoops, wrong beastie girl!😅

And of course it was a good crowd of enemies, thats what BR's lategame is. Was it a Berserker with that hit rate? If it was, I think she was threatened with a OHKO. Girl needs super-extreme Spd to compensate for her worse than dad's durability, and she doesn't have enough.

 

15 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Yeah, Camilla's three chapter lead, more supports, better personal (Scarlet's is definitely niche) and DV are certainly factors. Camilla's also in a route where she's more necessary too.

Only three chapters? Boy it feels like more than that.

In Extremis isn't entirely useless, I think I calculated once it is just about possible to reach 100 Crit with her, although though you'll need Before Awakening to make her a Great Lord for Awakening to complete the setup, and Dread Fighter for Barb Shuriken so she can run Vantage with 1-2 range. Speaking of Vantage, that'll demand a Male Corrin's thighs with Samurai Talent, which provides Life or Death to assure OHKOs on everything as well. Meaning, this a total showoff build thats too impractical for practice.

Edited February 4, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Punished Dayni]

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Speaking of Vantage, that'll demand a Male Corrin's thighs

That's definitely a funny way to put it.

(This would be so much simpler if she could pair up with Ryoma)

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Only three chapters? Boy it feels like more than that.

Probably because it's actually 4 and I miscalculated.

25% HP threshold for the crit boost doesn't help.

[Shadow Mir]

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

If a game is portable, I should be able to play it on the train without getting stares from half the passengers.

 

10 hours ago, ping said:

"Mommy's here~~~"
"ELDRITCH SMACKDOWN!!"
"TEEHEEHEE YAYYYYY"
"Ohhhh yessssss"
"WE'VE GOT TROUBLE"
(groans of increasing discomfort)

Related ProZD content.

  Reveal hidden contents

Yes, I'm familiar with the concept of "muting"

 

Am I really the only one here who commonly uses headphones..?

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

In Extremis isn't entirely useless, I think I calculated once it is just about possible to reach 100 Crit with her, although though you'll need Before Awakening to make her a Great Lord for Awakening to complete the setup, and Dread Fighter for Barb Shuriken so she can run Vantage with 1-2 range. Speaking of Vantage, that'll demand a Male Corrin's thighs with Samurai Talent, which provides Life or Death to assure OHKOs on everything as well. Meaning, this a total showoff build thats too impractical for practice.

That... just makes it sound completely useless. The need for more than one level 15 skill ensures that it's impractical as hell, and the really finicky 25% threshold doesn't help.

[Punished Dayni]

4 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Am I really the only one here who commonly uses headphones..?

You're not alone.

I just wish the ones I got were easier to use on the go.

Or I could actually go somewhere because lockdown.

[Alastor15243]

Revelation Day 19: Chapter 22

Well, I'm feeling pretty good today! My back is slightly less sore from shoveling, and last night I finally got an achievement in Invisible, Inc that's been eluding me for ages. Let's get started with the prep and do Chapter 22!

I decided to make Hisame a master of arms, because +2 to strength, defense, skill and speed is pretty nice for Velouria. Granted, I could've done with those 2 points of skill going to something else, but it's my best bet for getting strength, speed and defense all boosted at least.

Also, while I get the beastrune in this map, thankfully Velouria came with her own, which is awesome.

Everyone I visit gets a royal feather today, since I'm running out of new gift ideas and this has a pretty nice castle battle attack bonus.

I'm starting a bit early, so while I wait for the rest of my castle visits to refresh, I'm selling some weapons I know I'm never going to use, namely the silver weapons I've accumulated. Those things are basically just a free 1k each. No point whatsoever in using them.

...But that's made me notice that buying and selling prices don't seem to have any consistent rate. It's not like you always sell things for half or a quarter of what they're worth. Iron and bronze weapons can be sold for half the price they're bought at, but beyond that it gets funky. Steel weapons can be bought for 2000 but sell for 750. Silver weapons cost twice that but only sell for 250 more. Weird. I don't think I've ever seen a Fire Emblem game do that before, except the fact that all those event tile weapons in Awakening sell for a quarter of what you buy them for from spotpass armies instead of half like everything else.

Alright, I think that's everyone! Let's do Chapter 22!

Man, the total failure of drama here is hilarious. Xander and Ryoma are just basically telling us how awful it is that we have to fight Azura's mother, and I'm like “we barely know jack shit about her and she barely even exists as a character”.

Anyway, this has the same gimmick as Midori's paralogue, where you're in a thick forest with dragon veins that let you burn the trees down to get through. But unlike that paralogue, which had a race-against-time factor to it, this seems pretty trivially straightforward.

...I keep forgetting how many rallies I have on the little sisters. Adding +4 to basically every stat is really powerful and handy. If only they had replicate...

Anyway, I haven't even touched a dragon vein yet. It's way more fun to cheese the shit out of this map by abusing my fliers to isolate everyone.

...Yeah, rallies are pretty overwhelmingly strong when you know how to use them. I kinda get why they were nerfed in Three Houses, but... single-target rallies just aren't nearly as interesting or fun, and they further disincentivize player-phase combat by rewarding you for reducing your available unit pool by making one unit stronger instead of multiple. That's almost never worth it except when doing enemy phase or fighting a boss. If they wanted to nerf rallies, they should've nerfed the bonuses, not the range.

Hardest part of the map was the central area with the mechanists and the master ninjas, mostly because those are annoying enemies to take out with fliers. But Felicia allowed for hit-and-run tactics, so everything worked out.

...Wow, I have so little to say about this map that I can't possibly justify this being a single map day. Okay, in fairness, it's not totally mindless. I mean, it's still Fates. And those ninja in the center gave me some trouble because I haven't really trained up anyone specifically tailored to counter them like I normally would when playing Conquest. But still... my mind just blanks out most of the time, because I never actually have to stop and think long enough about what I'm doing to post my thought process, or even react to the challenge. It never seems to be worth the effort, and before I know it, I've gone a whole entry without saying much of anything about how I beat it.

Alright, we got Excalibur, which would be great if we had any sorcerers, but alas we do not. So I'll probably sell it for 5K. Anywho... time to seize.

Okay, now Azura's saying that the resurrected Vallites don't have their souls in their bodies. So I guess that isn't proof that Faceless have souls then. But then I wonder why the hell Mikoto is going to act the way she does later...

Not a fan of the music choice for this scene where Azura talks about her mother. Azura's theme almost sounds whimsical when placed in this context, it's fairly bizarre.

Whoo! We got Flora! And her stats are...

...fuckin' yikes, sixteen speed at promoted level 7!?

Only her skill and resistance even break into the twenties!

Fuck it, we've got some supports.

Xander and Selena are having a kid. I don't really have any room for little sword junior, but it's nice to have the paralogue open as an option for training.

...Okay, again, like with the A support, I liked Selena's side of this blossoming romance, but Xander's... really came out of nowhere. For these “straight from friendship to marriage” things to really work, you've gotta establish that they have some chemistry together in the A support. Like... ugh, I can't believe I'm saying this...

...like the way potentially-romantic A supports end in Three Houses. Except, y'know, don't fucking do your support system like Three Houses. Words cannot properly convey how much I despise the support system of Three Houses, but they had a good idea going on there, using the A support to establish that they could have chemistry first before any actual marriage happens... even if they ruin it by not actually having the marriage part be even remotely satisfying.

...Next, Velouria and Hisame.

...Yeah, not a fan. Hisame's just flipping out about the giant spider inside of an amber fossil that Velouria found. Incidentally, I wonder why amber's a uniquely Hoshidan resource. Amber's just hardened tree sap. Nohr has trees!

Finally, Dakota and Sakura.

Apparently Sakura overheard some Hoshidan “maids” talking about how apparently Dakota wasn't the intended kidnapping victim. This is...

...Okay, I mean the fact that Dakota was there at all is ludicrous enough. Who the fuck brings a small child into unsecured territory to talk with a shady world leader? And how the fuck could Sakura be the intended target? Did Sumeragi bring the wrong kid? Was he told to bring Sakura, and did Sumeragi simultaneously believe Garon was acting in good enough faith to justify bringing a child at all, but not believe Garon was acting in good enough faith to bring the child he requested?

Sakura says it was probably just a rumor, but how the fuck could such a rumor have circulated!? Nothing about it makes any sense whatsoever!

...Fuck it, let's see if we can fit another chapter in today.

 

Day 19 Bonus: Chapter 23

And of course, Ryoma just has to bring up Scarlet in the exact map where she shows up as a zombie. Frankly, it would be cool if everyone who died during the run showed up as an enemy in the final battle or something. Just a thought. But of course since this is a game where all the male units and several of the female units have to survive, that would have drastically reduced impact.

Yeah, and then Ryoma brings up the possibility that there's a traitor in the group who was responsible for killing Scarlet, and... hahahaha, Gunter agrees.

Okay, these floating blocks are gonna be a pain in the ass if we need to funnel all of our units through them, so I'll be relying a lot on my fliers. I'll have Dakota, Felicia, Xander (via Selena) and Sakura fly around abusing the lack of navigable terrain to do nasty hit and run attacks, particularly with Sakura rallying up Felicia. Meanwhile Velouria, Mozu, Azura and Elise will take another route more up north.

No hint screen shows up to explain the floating block gimmick of this map, so I'm going to have to do a test run to make absolutely sure that the platforms move at the beginning of my phase, and not the enemy's.

...Yep, they move after the enemy phase is over, so no worries. That would've been a nightmare if I couldn't bring my more fragile units across the bridge.

...'Course this is still absolutely annoying. This gimmick of floating blocks moving back and forth across chasms isn't even remotely fun, it just makes anyone who's land-locked have to skip multiple turns to get shit done.

It's hard to describe the enemies in this game. They're... annoying. Not terrifying, not hard... just annoying. They seem almost deliberately designed to overstay their welcome without actually being all that threatening to anybody.

Oh yeah, we got the chakram at some point too, forgot to mention. That's the S rank shuriken. No users for it either.

...Alright, I'm done. I hear “Destiny By Blood” for the first time (not a huge fan, it's got nothing on “Perplexing Dream”), and Arete falls and gives signs that she's coming to her senses in her final moments.

...Yeah, uh... the voice actress isn't doing a good job of selling these voice lines as a woman who genuinely remembers her daughter.

Also, now suddenly her soul is in her body. She's talking about both of them disappearing and being “cleansed from Anankos's control”...

...The fuck is going on here?

And Dakota tells Azura to just blindly trust that this is her mother because the writer's can't think of a single good reason why they should believe she's really back.

This is corny, but not really funny. It's kinda frustrating that way. I remember Birthright and Conquest, but especially Conquest, having way more moments that were so terrible they were amazing. Here... I just aggressively don't care about anything.

Alright, we have two quick supports to do, and then I'm off.

Selena and Dakoa's conversation was beyond awkward. Why the fuck is Dakota surprised to be Selena's third-best friend? He sounds like he was under the impression he was first, but they've basically never interacted! And how is he not guessing that the first two might be Camilla and Beruka (even though I'm pretty sure the implication is that they're Odin and Laslow)? This is beyond weird, it sucks.

Ah yes, and now Elise and Azura's support.

...They had to have known what they were doing when they had Azura say she wanted to be “alone with [her] thoughts”.

...Elise is pretty annoying here. I recognize that she's a little kid, but something feels... off about her particular brand of immaturity here, pushing Azura to go play with her when she'd rather be left alone and then getting pissed off when she mentions Sakura. I can't really describe why it feels off for her to be immature in this specific way though, so... more importantly...

...I'm frankly amazed this conversation didn't change for Revelation, since it's entirely possible, like is the case here, that Elise and Sakura are good friends already by the time this support happens. And in spite of that, here Elise flips out and goes “Oh, so you think your stinky sister from Hoshido is better than me. Hmph!”

Still though, I like her outburst when she's mad at Azura and telling her “Why don't you just go to a forest and... and make friends with a mean ol' bear!” It's pretty hilarious and cute.

Alright, that's it for today. Hope you enjoyed! Man, while the fatigue is nowhere near as bad as it's been with other games... I am really ready for this to be over. Birthright and Conquest are going to be so much more fun than this.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Punished Dayni]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

even if they ruin it by not actually having the marriage part be even remotely satisfying.

Can't say I disagree.

It's really the in game changes that end up for the worse there huh?

Was shocked when I first learned I had no power there.

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, now Azura's saying that the resurrected Vallites don't have their souls in their bodies. So I guess that isn't proof that Faceless have souls then. But then I wonder why the hell Mikoto is going to act the way she does later...

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, now suddenly her soul is in her body. She's talking about both of them disappearing and being “cleansed from Anankos's control”...

...The fuck is going on here?

Like morphs in BS?

I feel like that might the intention here.

They're talked about being soulless, but the ones in Light hint at that not being the case, versus here which is explicit about them having souls by this point. But not for the generics, is it?

[Shadow Mir]

54 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, now suddenly her soul is in her body. She's talking about both of them disappearing and being “cleansed from Anankos's control”...

...The fuck is going on here?

Apparently when a Vallite soldier dies, they remember who they were before dying.

[Eltosian Kadath]

35 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

If they wanted to nerf rallies, they should've nerfed the bonuses, not the range.

I feel like the obvious nerf is to simply make you choose which of your rallies you are using...

 

46 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Yeah, not a fan. Hisame's just flipping out about the giant spider inside of an amber fossil that Velouria found. Incidentally, I wonder why amber's a uniquely Hoshidan resource. Amber's just hardened tree sap. Nohr has trees!

Amber is petrified sap, so it could just be indicative of a lot of geological change in Nohr. I am reminded of the fun I would have as a kid trying to find shell fossils on the mountain I lived on, because the mountain range used to be underwater in prehistoric times...

 

54 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And of course, Ryoma just has to bring up Scarlet in the exact map where she shows up as a zombie. Frankly, it would be cool if everyone who died during the run showed up as an enemy in the final battle or something. Just a thought. But of course since this is a game where all the male units and several of the female units have to survive, that would have drastically reduced impact.

Kinda like the Thracia 776 ending map but taken to the extreme then...that actually sounds kinda cool...

 

56 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

No hint screen shows up to explain the floating block gimmick of this map, so I'm going to have to do a test run to make absolutely sure that the platforms move at the beginning of my phase, and not the enemy's.

I don't know how much you experimented with what happens when the platforms move a unit onto a space occupied by a flier, but its confusing to say the least. Sometimes it moves the land unit to the nearest available land space

Spoiler

and sometimes it moves the flyer to the nearest available space...

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and I have no idea why...

 

57 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...'Course this is still absolutely annoying. This gimmick of floating blocks moving back and forth across chasms isn't even remotely fun, it just makes anyone who's land-locked have to skip multiple turns to get shit done.

The most fun I managed to have with it was luring enemies onto it with flyers, to move them strategically across gaps. Admittedly that didn't happen often, but was kinda cool when I could pull it off...

[Alastor15243]

17 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I don't know how much you experimented with what happens when the platforms move a unit onto a space occupied by a flier, but its confusing to say the least. Sometimes it moves the land unit to the nearest available land space

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and sometimes it moves the flyer to the nearest available space...

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and I have no idea why...

Oh shit, I never knew that! Wow, weird.

[lenticular]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Yeah, rallies are pretty overwhelmingly strong when you know how to use them. I kinda get why they were nerfed in Three Houses, but... single-target rallies just aren't nearly as interesting or fun, and they further disincentivize player-phase combat by rewarding you for reducing your available unit pool by making one unit stronger instead of multiple. That's almost never worth it except when doing enemy phase or fighting a boss. If they wanted to nerf rallies, they should've nerfed the bonuses, not the range.

The other thing about Three Houses rallies is that they're tied to specific character, rather than to classes. This means that there isn't really any chance to stack rallies on a single character. In theory, this should mean that they can be better balanced. From the developer standpoint, they only need to be thinking "are Annette's rallies balanced?" or "are Ignatz's rallies balanced?" rather than thinking "what's the most rallies that can be stacked through reclassing, how powerful would that be, how much effort would it take to achieve that, and is the effort to reward balance at about the level it needs to be?" That could have been used to make  sure that rallies were strong and fun to use without being overpowered, but what actually happened was that they're bad to mediocre with no real way to make them better.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...like the way potentially-romantic A supports end in Three Houses. Except, y'know, don't fucking do your support system like Three Houses. Words cannot properly convey how much I despise the support system of Three Houses, but they had a good idea going on there, using the A support to establish that they could have chemistry first before any actual marriage happens... even if they ruin it by not actually having the marriage part be even remotely satisfying.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of how Fire Emblem deals with romance and marriage in general, so anything that sidelines and de-emphasises it is welcome in my book. I'm not hating the romance and children system quite as much in my current ongoing Conquest game as I did in my Birthright game, but I'm still definitely not a fan of it.

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, lenticular said:

The other thing about Three Houses rallies is that they're tied to specific character, rather than to classes. This means that there isn't really any chance to stack rallies on a single character. In theory, this should mean that they can be better balanced. From the developer standpoint, they only need to be thinking "are Annette's rallies balanced?" or "are Ignatz's rallies balanced?" rather than thinking "what's the most rallies that can be stacked through reclassing, how powerful would that be, how much effort would it take to achieve that, and is the effort to reward balance at about the level it needs to be?" That could have been used to make  sure that rallies were strong and fun to use without being overpowered, but what actually happened was that they're bad to mediocre with no real way to make them better.

That's an excellent point! They could've made them more interesting, possibly buffing more than one stat, or buffing them to different degrees, to make them more personalized to the units who get them. Honestly, leadership as a skill could have been so much more fun than it wound up being. Is inspiration even a skill in Three Houses? That seems like it would be right up the leadership rank's alley.

[lenticular]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's an excellent point! They could've made them more interesting, possibly buffing more than one stat, or buffing them to different degrees, to make them more personalized to the units who get them. Honestly, leadership as a skill could have been so much more fun than it wound up being. Is inspiration even a skill in Three Houses? That seems like it would be right up the leadership rank's alley.

Inspiration isn't, no. There are a bunch of abilities that work somewhat similarly, though, giving other units increased damage dealt or reduced damage taken. There's the Charm ability which is unique to lords (+3 damage dealt for adjacent allies), Sacred Power is unique to Byleth (+3 dealt, -3 taken to adjacent allies), and various personal abilities (Seteth's, Hilda's, Flayn''s). However, all of them are limited to adjacent units only (meh) and none of them are linked to the authority skill (double meh). It's definitely a direction they could have done a whole lot more with.