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

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Dayni said:

She is also of house Cornwell.

Though we don't get any indication Lycian lands are also used as surnames by their respective lords.

Good point. Like, Elbert and Eliwood hold the title of "Marquess Pherae", but that doesn't mean "Pherae" is their last name.

[Alastor15243]

Banner of the Maid Day 1: April Fools

It occurred to me yesterday that today would be April Fools' day, and realizing I completely failed to do anything last year, I figured I might as well try something. But rather than faking you guys out with a completely fictitious game over in Chapter 16 or something, I figured I'd do the more modern content creator's take on April Fools' day, and do something ridiculous or out of left-field, but still of merit.

So let's just pick the first game to catch my eye when I search “Strategy RPGs on Switch” that I haven't already bought yet, and do a blind playlog of my first few hours with it.

So yeah, today we're playing some game called Banner of the Maid.

Okay, booting up now...

...So, for a game apparently taking place in France, it's kind of amusing that the language options don't include French, but maybe that's just me.

The music is... okay, I guess. It does its job, and it's not out of tune or badly-composed, but the opening title theme doesn't really do anything for me.

The game asks me whether I want officer mode, which gives me perpetual mid-battle saving, penalty-free retreats, and bonus funds and reputation at the start of the game... or general mode, where you only get one save per battle, retreating gives you penalties, and no bonus funds or reputation are given at the start.

Which one do you think I'm going with?

General all the way!

Okay, so the game's isometric, and we've got a bunch of guys on horses, some in tall funny hats and the leader in a powdered wig, charging down a pixel roadway at night. They're going on the offensive against some footsoldiers and mowing them down like wheat, but they seem to be the good guys, or at least the ones playable in the prologue.

Okay, so this is some guy named Marquis De Lafayette, and he's talking to a likewise-powdered-wig-wearing politician named... “White-haired Politician”. Given that this is the age of powdered wigs, I've got a feeling that the fact that they call this guy that... means we won't be seeing many more politicians in this game.

We're apparently here to retrieve the King of France, so yeah, since we're the French in this game I'm pretty sure, yeah, we're the heroes right now.

There are Fates-esque voice grunts, I just noticed, but I'll have to listen again to see if they're in Japanese or... something else. They didn't sound French.

...It's definitely not Japanese. What country was this made in...?

...China. Right. That'd explain why it sounded Chinese. Right, well, let's keep moving.

Weapons seem to have durability, though it's way, way lower than in Fire Emblem. Twelve uses for a “standard” cavalry sword? I'll have to see how this goes.

Combat seems to play an awful lot like Advance Wars or Langrisser, with units on the map representing whole battalions. Curiously, they seem to have more available than what's readily visible, as to a point, fallen units will be swiftly replaced. Does that imply that units keep doing full damage until they hit half HP or something?

But the leader isn't charging into battle himself, which is lame.

Actually, your unit forces visually seem to remain full up until moment of death. What the heck is going on?

Christ, hearing French people speaking Chinese with English subtitles whenever you select them is just so disarming and distracting.

Right, now it's teaching me about “Go here to win” objectives, which I guess means this sequence is over.

I also have an option called “heroic” but it seems to be an attack and there's nobody nearby, so I'll have to wait until later to find out what the fuck is going on there.

The woman's wearing a very fanservice-y low-cut dress with the kind of artistic emphasis on cleavage that would be typical of anime, but I mean, it's nothing compared to some of the shit in Fates, and also, I just looked it up, there were women's outfits like this back in the time of the French Revolution, though I'm willing to bet their cleavage didn't glisten in the moonlight like they'd just been lightly drizzled with oil. I'm not gonna dwell on this too much longer. It doesn't really bug me, I just find it kinda amusing because the artwork I've seen of the game suggests there's gonna be a lot of cleavage to go around.

Okay, I assume royalists are those loyal to the crown, which means that these guys I'm playing as are members of the French Revolution, I think. But yeah, just as I suspected from the general vibe of his character design, the White-haired Politician seems to be a bad guy given how he's antagonizing the defenseless, meek pretty lady, which... I guess means we were playing as the bad guys all this time. I misunderstood why these guys were after the king I guess.

Okay, full disclosure: I know next to nothing about the French Revolution. All I know is what I saw in the Scarlet Pimpernel when my high school theater group put that on, the historical accuracy of which is probably not very high. If we ever discussed it in school, I remember roughly as much about it as I remember about long division, and the subject has not come up once since leaving school, so, uh... yeah. I don't know the grievances or crimes of the parties involved, just that it involved a revolution against the upper class and a hell of a lot of decapitations. Hence why I've been so unsure who I'm supposed to be rooting for here.

Probably not the best game to pick for this, but hopefully my confusion will be amusing.

Also, White-haired Politician got named Mirabeau in the dialogue and I never noticed. But yeah, I can just tell looking at these two characters and reading their lines and body language that Mirabeau is the bad guy and whatever side this noble woman on is the one we're supposed to be sympathetic towards.

SUDDENLY MAGIC!

AND THE NOBLEWOMAN SEEMS JUST AS SURPRISED AS I AM!

AND APPARENTLY MIRABEAU EXPECTED THIS BECAUSE A PAINTING TOLD HIM!

AND SUDDENLY MIRABEAU HAS STARTED ACTING MORE HEROIC AND EVEN GETS POV NARRATION WHAT THE-

I AM SEVERAL LEAGUES BEYOND CONFUSED RIGHT NOW.

Alright, so, from the sounds of it, this is some fantastic alternate history of the French Revolution where some women have magical powers.

Honestly, I'm... not huge on the translation job here. The writing is really, really dry and formal, with no effort to make any of the writing particularly impressive or amusing as appropriate. Maybe that was contributing to my confusion too?

Apparently in this alternate history, women were recently allowed to join the military wholly separate from the ones that have magic powers, who apparently are regarded as a myth at this time 5 years after that cutscene and I AM SO FUCKING CONFUSED RIGHT NOW.

And this girl who I think is our main character (she's the woman used visually on the difficulty setting screen at any rate) is named Pauline Bonaparte. Gee, wonder if there's any connection.

Okay finally I get to ask some damned questions. Thank you.

…

…

“The Estates-General intensified the contradiction between the Estates, and finally a revolution took place in Paris.”

YEP, THAT SETTLES IT, THIS TRANSLATION JOB IS VOLCANIC GARBAGE.

“Intensified the contradiction between the Estates”!? I can only assume that they mean the conflict escalated between the Estates-General or something.

Granted, it's not like the game's in broken English, but what the flaming fuck was going on there?

Mirabeau notices the medal on Pauline and says “Even it's awarded by the Royal Family as a response to the current situation, it must be a considerable degree of military merit”.

I can only assume they meant something like “Even if it's been awarded”.

But yeah, our heroine recently suffered a massive pyrrhic victory that she got a medal for but it's completely shaken her up, so she's taking the time to go visit her brother and talk to him about it and how to deal with it. Interesting concept, honestly. I like it.

Apparently Toulon has been occupied by “The foreign army”. That seems really weird that they wouldn't name which one, but... apparently that's because it's a joint occupation by the Prussians, the Austrians and the British?

...Does that happen? Do multiple different countries occupy the same foreign territory at the same time?

...Oh my god I know this update is just going to make the day of one of my regular readers.

But we're finally done with the round of Ace-Attorney-esque interrogation options. Are we gonna have our first proper fight soon, or is this game like 90% impenetrably verbose and/or badly-translated dialogue?

Pauline: Your storytelling skills could use some work. Please do hone your speech before we meet next time!

YES. YES, PLEASE DO.

Chapter 1: The Cannons of Toulon.

WELL WHADDYA KNOW! BIG BROTHER BONAPARTE IS FUCKING NAPOLEON.

So, we got a new ally named Leclerc and we're supposed to have him fight through these enemies to meet up with us, and... in his inventory he has a gun and...

...bread.

Please tell me that isn' a healing item. That's dumb enough when it's healing an individual person instantly, but when it heals a fucking formation where you lose HP by part of your forces becoming dead or at least brutally crippled... please tell me that this isn't a setting where they expect me to accept that bread can resurrect the dead.

Pauline is getting a bunch of items from dead bodies while wandering down this enemy-free path. I'm assuming this is introducing some collectible or accessory feature or something.

BREAD FUCKING HEALS YOU.

WELCOME TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, WHERE SLICED BREAD CAN WAKE THE DEAD!

NO WONDER THEY DID SO MANY DECAPITATIONS, I GUESS THAT'S THE ONLY WAY TO STOP THEM FROM EATING BREAD!

AND I REALLY WISH I KNEW ENOUGH ABOUT THE FRENCH REVOLUTION TO DO A PROPER “LET THEM EAT CAKE” JOKE RIGHT NOW.

Also, HP doesn't seem to have any impact at all on how much damage you do. The troops seem purely aesthetic.

So, the game indirectly explains that weapons regain their durability between battles by saying that unlike weapons, items will disappear permanently when used up. Good to know. Maybe get your tutorials in order though?

And then Leclerc does a diving save to get us out of the way of cannonfire...

...whilst on horseback, mind you...

...and he gets brutally wounded.

Is this fucker dead right after we met him?

...Nope, he seems fine. Yeah, that would've been so weird.

Yeah, the purpose seems to be to get Napoleon's right-hand man injured and out of the way so that Pauline has an opportunity to do the job.

I have to say the backdrop of this scene is weird. That teacup is way too big for how far back in the background it is.

Okay, by the looks of it, this is going to be our first real battle. Good. Let's get moving so I can have some actual impressions of the gameplay before April Fools' day is over.

New female character named Rose de Beaumont, and it's hilarious how jarring I'm finding stuff like military uniforms with short skirts and thighhighs and cleavage windows and tiny belly-button windows in this game. Maybe its pretension to being based on history is what's making it so weird? Outfits like this aren't really that crazy in terms of video games.

Jesus this game is just badly-translated enough to make me just kinda perpetually confused about everything. But Rose is apparently one of the few members of the nobility serving in the army because most of the army is revolutionists, but...

Pauline: Speaking of the legend of the Maids, it has been taboo for the past hundreds of years as it's always related to witches and heresy. Recently there have been positive rumors spreading in the country, precisely because of the performance of General Rose de Beaumont on the battlefield, and the publicity of the Royal Family.

...I thought Maids were supposed to be seen as a myth by the common people. How could Rose's performance in the military improve people's impression of the Maids unless people know she is one?

Or was the “it” that “has been taboo for the past hundreds of years” the practice of having women in the military at all?

How can this game explain so fucking much and still leave me this fucking confused!?

And now we've got this asshole Hubert guy who apparently got his promotion without any real combat experience due to being a favorite of his superiors who got a bunch of even higher promotions, and now he's trying to avoid taking part in battle by pretending to have a cold. So now he's put in charge of the artillery, and I have a feeling this is going to go badly.

Alright, so the “Ally” marker means they're temporary and don't gain EXP, like the Fates Chapter 6 royal family units, while “Com” means they're on your side but they can't be controlled. Gotcha.

Okay, so apparently double-attacks are a thing in this game, like Fire Emblem. It seems to take at most 3 more speed than the enemy.

...Croissants have been translated as “special bread”.

Alright, so, nothing seems to be going wrong with the artillery work of Hubert.

...Apparently Rose's units are wheeled cannons.

She's been walking up ledges like it's nothing.

Okay, so they're openly talking about Rose as a Maid, so... what the fuck is going on? Why did Pauline think they weren't real?

So apparently the British's involvement in this was part of this new unnamed female character's plan to convince the British to invade for real or something. They mentioned her name in enemy dialogue a while back, but they won't say what her name is now, so maybe it's not the same person and it's a red herring? Or the game's just being an asshole. Anyway, so our victory to repel the British war ships played into her plans or something.

Oh that's adorable. The French national anthem plays when you win a battle!

Okay, this is kinda cute. I didn't like their interactions before, but when Napoleon mentions their snowball fights back in Corsica, Pauline dejectedly comments she lost 20-35, and Napoleon goes “You have snatched 20 victories from the best soldier in France! Give yourself some credit!”

...It occurs to me I haven't had any opportunity to save yet. And that I haven't talked much about the gameplay.

Honestly, it's not interesting enough yet to really comment on. Most of the enemies last map were auto-killed by story-based artillery fire, so I was mostly just feeding kills into Pauline, the only party member I had who was actually going to stick around or gain EXP.

Shit, I accidentally skipped a scene trying to find a pause menu to save, thinking this might be like a visual novel or something.

Thank goodness the text log keeps stuff you skipped in it.

...They talk about Pauline being an “adjuvant”, and... everything I'm looking up on the subject relates to medicine. Was that a misspelling of “adjutant” or something?

The dialogue said a bunch of stuff about factions and gaining fame and holy shit is this just the worst way to get me to absorb information.

Okay I finally get an opportunity to save. Excellent. I'm thinking I should take that and call it for this look at the game.

I, uh...

...I'll be honest, I'm not confident I'm gonna give this game another look.

Well, at least it was relatively cheap.

Tune in tomorrow when we'll do the real next update for Conquest.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Punished Dayni]

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So let's just pick the first game to catch my eye when I search “Strategy RPGs on Switch” that I haven't already bought yet, and do a blind playlog of my first few hours with it.

So yeah, today we're playing some game called Banner of the Maid.

Turns out that's on Switch.

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just looked it up, there were women's outfits like this back in the time of the French Revolution, though I'm willing to bet their cleavage didn't glisten in the moonlight like they'd just been lightly drizzled with oil.

20 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

BREAD FUCKING HEALS YOU.

WELCOME TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION, WHERE SLICED BREAD CAN WAKE THE DEAD!

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

Good point. Like, Elbert and Eliwood hold the title of "Marquess Pherae", but that doesn't mean "Pherae" is their last name.

Pity I couldn't remember any others in the series.

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 14: Chapter 16

Right, so, now that I've thrown off my weekday-to-playlog-day numbering for a stupid April Fools' day celebration, time to get back to the proper game and play Chapter 16.

Hey, full disclosure: I kinda... haven't... been visiting at all since I stopped doing it during playlog time. The time I put in my daily calendar to do it has just consistently... never been an appealing time. And funny enough I've basically never felt the need. The closest I got was a concern about running out of strength ingredients for Chapter 10, but after some dedicated arena work I've got my supplies of that right back up!

Oh, look! Odin and Dakota got a support from that present I gave him!

I love how this implies that Odin's idle portrait is a pose that he actually frequently makes all the time.

I've also refused to bond with Jakob at the treehouse because I don't want to “upgrade” the treehouse to involve those stupid blowing minigames.

Anyway, let's check out Chapter 16.

So, we outright told Garon that Gunter fell into the bottomless canyon.

What the fuck is our explanation for how he's still alive?

I do like the silent glare Gunter gives Hans when he welcomes Gunter back though.

So yes, we're just kind of occupying Cyrkensia right now to use it as a base of operations with which to occupy Nohr.

Right after a mass execution of every singer in Cyrkensia.

If this were Tellius, there is no way in hell we wouldn't be getting a map about the occupation.

No, hell, if the writers of the Tellius games had the audacity to have Garon issue such a psychotic order, we'd have gotten two more maps in Cyrkensia about the aftermath.

I can't believe all of this shit happens offscreen. Where the fuck are the writers' priorities that they see this as not worth covering!?

So yeah, how exactly does Iago not know where they were? I'm not even talking about his magical omnipresent illusion shit, I mean how did we bring back Gunter and have him say he fell into the bottomless canyon... without giving Garon and Iago any idea where we had been!?

Dakota: Winning the war won't matter if we can't convince [Garon] to sit on the throne.

Something you never actually do in any conceivable way, and in fact you aren't present when he does it.

Also, Dakota is still calling Garon “Father” in her dialogue. To Azura.

Despite knowing he's not even Garon anymore, but a sociopathic slime monster who murdered the closest thing to a real father she ever knew.

...I'll be honest, I seem to remember the Nohr Noble cape covering up the ass shots, but apparently not, at least not at certain angles like this cutscene where Xander finally shows up. ...The cape actually weirdly appears to be way off to her left side in this cutscene. What's going on? Is this an effect of the tome fighting stance or something?

Ah yes, and then we get the only main-story mention of “the concubine wars”, which by the sound of it is one of the only interesting aspects of Nohrian worldbuilding at all.

What I find interesting is apparently Garon himself told his children not to associate with Arete or Azura, his wife and stepdaughter, due to public backlash to the marriage, which... isn't this supposed to have been back when Garon wasn't a total monster? What the fuck was going on there?

Oh, but I like how the immediately pre-battle dialogue confirms that, just like in traditional Japanese, the plural of ninja is... ninja!

So this map is... well basically it's pseudo-timed. You've got 10,000 gold, but you lose some of it every enemy phase. So since we never seem to have enough money to go around, we have to strike a good balance between training our army and doing it quickly.

...Holy shit, I just took another look at my schedule. I do not have enough time to do an update today. I've got way too much on my plate today, too many obligations. I'd have two hours to finish this map and write something up if I want to get something done before we hit the time of day where I don't feel nearly as comfortable making strategic decisions. I mean I've already technically done stuff today so I can't really just not post this, or add it on to my post on Monday... so I guess I'll post this. But I feel bad not doing this game for two days in a row just before the weekend.

So fuck it, weekend update it is. I'll post on Saturday for sure.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Etrurian emperor]

The Kotaro chapter is coming up which is about the worst piece of writing within Fates. And that's saying something. 

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The Kotaro chapter is coming up which is about the worst piece of writing within Fates.

It really, really isn't. Not because it isn't bad, but because Chapter 15 exists.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

 

23 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, full disclosure: I know next to nothing about the French Revolution. All I know is what I saw in the Scarlet Pimpernel when my high school theater group put that on, the historical accuracy of which is probably not very high. If we ever discussed it in school, I remember roughly as much about it as I remember about long division, and the subject has not come up once since leaving school, so, uh... yeah. I don't know the grievances or crimes of the parties involved, just that it involved a revolution against the upper class and a hell of a lot of decapitations. Hence why I've been so unsure who I'm supposed to be rooting for here.

Well here's one bit of trivia to educate you, the oh so popular and completely uninformative political terms of "left wing" and "right wing" come from the French revolution, where one side was pro monarchy in the assembly and one side was pro revolution. Given how the debate about monarchy versus radical republicanism is virtually non existent in any political landscape outside of maybe Thailand, I think it does a good job of showing how completely arbitrary the terms left and right are.

 

[Venger_06]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

The Kotaro chapter is coming up which is about the worst piece of writing within Fates. And that's saying something. 

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

It really, really isn't. Not because it isn't bad, but because Chapter 15 exists.

Chapter 18 says hi.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Maof06 said:

 

Chapter 18 says hi.

Chapters 17 and 18 don't leave a stink on the entire rest of the game like 15 does.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Etrurian emperor]

2 hours ago, Maof06 said:

 

Chapter 18 says hi.

I don't think chapter 18 is that bad. With Kotaro Corrin thinks that merely the act of prisoners of war is enough to anger his allies, who then think Corrin throwing a hissyfit is enough of a reason to kill off the entire Nohrian royal family. 

But the opposition to Zola's plot is a lot more sensible. Posing as a third power and kidnapping a royal family on neutral grounds probably counts as a war crime and could rightfully be considered a bridge too far. 

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Maof06 said:

Chapter 18 says hi.

I'd think that posing as the head of a neutral power and kidnapping people as important as a royal family on neutral grounds would be a very serious war crime, let alone trying to execute them...

[Jotari]

45 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I'd think that posing as the head of a neutral power and kidnapping people as important as a royal family on neutral grounds would be a very serious war crime, let alone trying to execute them...

Still it would basically end the war then and there. Especially if you keep some of them not named Ryoma alive as blackmail to make the likes of Yukimura stand down.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Still it would basically end the war then and there. Especially if you keep some of them not named Ryoma alive as blackmail to make the likes of Yukimura stand down.

But it would also legitimize the friendly baron of Krakenburg inviting Garon and the family over for dinner and slitting them all up. Its not an affair that's going to enforce stable rule. It might also harden Hoshidan resistance considerably. 

[UNLEASH IT]

I mean, if the Hoshidans had an anti-Nohrian sentiment before, I can't imagine how worse it would be if Nohr won the war in that manner.

[Etrurian emperor]

6 minutes ago, UNLEASH IT said:

I mean, if the Hoshidans had an anti-Nohrian sentiment before, I can't imagine how worse it would be if Nohr won the war in that manner.

The entirety of Westeros had anti Frey sentiments before the red wedding. And then those sentiments got a lot worse after the red wedding. 

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Still it would basically end the war then and there. Especially if you keep some of them not named Ryoma alive as blackmail to make the likes of Yukimura stand down.

Doesn't change the fact that it's low not only from a moral perspective, but from an honor perspective - two things that I'd imagine one should adhere to even in war, otherwise you get people like Caellach or Hans, both of who I would consider as despicable as they come. Besides, that would not only make anti-Nohrian sentiment among Hoshidans even worse than it already is, it would possibly cause rifts in Nohr as well. Basically, nothing good would come out of this whatsoever. Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is ten billion percent unrealistic.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Venger_06]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Chapters 17 and 18 don't leave a stink on the entire rest of the game like 15 does.

Chapter 15 is bad, but it is only abysmally bad because the plan created in it is actually put into practice, which brings us to the next chapters. Basically, chapters 17 and 18 are the symptoms of the disease caused by chapter 15.

 

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

But the opposition to Zola's plot is a lot more sensible. Posing as a third power and kidnapping a royal family on neutral grounds probably counts as a war crime and could rightfully be considered a bridge too far. 

4 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I'd think that posing as the head of a neutral power and kidnapping people as important as a royal family on neutral grounds would be a very serious war crime, let alone trying to execute them...

War crimes are fucking meme. They only exist to exact Victor's justice on the loser. And we don't know if there is any power that can face Nohr so that this treaty (which is only commented on in the chapters of Izumo) is important. Yeah, Fates' worldbuilding is that bad. Also, do you think that Garon "I'm going to send a sword to explode and kill thousands of civilians" would give a fuck about that?

I don't think I need to comment on Corrin's army killing soldiers from their own country who were just doing their job.

[Sunwoo]

Real talk, does the concept of "war crimes" even really exist in FE generally?

[Venger_06]

13 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Real talk, does the concept of "war crimes" even really exist in FE generally?

Probably not, because otherwise most lords would be guilty of using child soldiers.

[Sunwoo]

26 minutes ago, Maof06 said:

Probably not, because otherwise most lords would be guilty of using child soldiers.

If that's true, that means we probably can't judge characters' actions as a war crime based on our modern day Earth standards. From what I remember when I played Conquest (which isn't much, tbh, I think I've actively blocked most of it from my memory), Corrin or Xander or someone would cry about their ally playing dirty and stuff, but I don't think they called it a war crime. Just "dishonorable" or something. Which is like what does that even fucking mean.

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

But it would also legitimize the friendly baron of Krakenburg inviting Garon and the family over for dinner and slitting them all up. Its not an affair that's going to enforce stable rule. It might also harden Hoshidan resistance considerably. 

 

8 hours ago, UNLEASH IT said:

I mean, if the Hoshidans had an anti-Nohrian sentiment before, I can't imagine how worse it would be if Nohr won the war in that manner.

 

7 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Doesn't change the fact that it's low not only from a moral perspective, but from an honor perspective - two things that I'd imagine one should adhere to even in war, otherwise you get people like Caellach or Hans, both of who I would consider as despicable as they come. Besides, that would not only make anti-Nohrian sentiment among Hoshidans even worse than it already is, it would possibly cause rifts in Nohr as well. Basically, nothing good would come out of this whatsoever. Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is ten billion percent unrealistic.

But Corrin and Azura's goal here is very specific. They need Garon to sit on the Hoshidon throne. Having resistance to that, the Hoshidon leadership, removed will further that goal with less bloodshed. Sure it is low, but storming their capital and murdering everyone inside is pretty gosh darn low as well. A situation where they can strong arm Hoshido into surrendering and then overthrow slime Garon would be far, far better for both Hoshido and Nohr in the long run. I think if it were merely about achieving victory Red Wedding style it'd be a different scenario, but here victory is a means to an end for Corrin and Azura since they don't actually want to see Hoshido defeated.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

 

 

But Corrin and Azura's goal here is very specific. They need Garon to sit on the Hoshidon throne. Having resistance to that, the Hoshidon leadership, removed will further that goal with less bloodshed. Sure it is low, but storming their capital and murdering everyone inside is pretty gosh darn low as well. A situation where they can strong arm Hoshido into surrendering and then overthrow slime Garon would be far, far better for both Hoshido and Nohr in the long run. I think if it were merely about achieving victory Red Wedding style it'd be a different scenario, but here victory is a means to an end for Corrin and Azura since they don't actually want to see Hoshido defeated.

You missed an important part of Corrin and Azura's goal, that Garon sits on the throne when the rest of the royal family is close enough to see him. If they win the whole shebang here in Izumo, than there is no guarantee they will be, whereas leading the royal family in taking the Hoshidan capital will. Plus victory through such betrayal leaves a lot of complicated issues on the table that could ruin those plans entirely. First they could run into the same issue the Prussian had after they captured Emperor Napoleon III, with the head of government captive, whom do they negotiate with to make their negotiations have any legitimacy, or lasting impact? If they negotiate with the captives everyone will believe it is under such duress as to let the Hoshidan's easily renege on it after they are released, and who will believe it if they aren't released? If they negotiate with whomever is ruling in the Hoshidan royalty's absence, would the Hoshidan royalty even be a valuable hostage/bargaining chip when their safe return would end this temporary government's rule? Even if this temporary government did want the Hoshidan royals safe, why would they believe the Nohrians would honor any agreement they made after such flagrant treachery? Even if they do successfully negotiate a surrender, the Hoshidans would still have an undefeated army, and especially after the way Nohr won, would Garon risk giving Hosihdans the opportunity to perform the same kind of betrayal that won him the war by waltzing into their capital to sit on their throne? Taking the capital will cause a lot of bloodshed, but is a more certain route to their objective.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

You missed an important part of Corrin and Azura's goal, that Garon sits on the throne when the rest of the royal family is close enough to see him. If they win the whole shebang here in Izumo, than there is no guarantee they will be, whereas leading the royal family in taking the Hoshidan capital will. Plus victory through such betrayal leaves a lot of complicated issues on the table that could ruin those plans entirely. First they could run into the same issue the Prussian had after they captured Emperor Napoleon III, with the head of government captive, whom do they negotiate with to make their negotiations have any legitimacy, or lasting impact? If they negotiate with the captives everyone will believe it is under such duress as to let the Hoshidan's easily renege on it after they are released, and who will believe it if they aren't released? If they negotiate with whomever is ruling in the Hoshidan royalty's absence, would the Hoshidan royalty even be a valuable hostage/bargaining chip when their safe return would end this temporary government's rule? Even if this temporary government did want the Hoshidan royals safe, why would they believe the Nohrians would honor any agreement they made after such flagrant treachery? Even if they do successfully negotiate a surrender, the Hoshidans would still have an undefeated army, and especially after the way Nohr won, would Garon risk giving Hosihdans the opportunity to perform the same kind of betrayal that won him the war by waltzing into their capital to sit on their throne? Taking the capital will cause a lot of bloodshed, but is a more certain route to their objective.

But that's my whole point. The Hoshidan's absolutely can renege on the deal afterwards, because Corrin and Azura don't actually want to win the war. They literally just want Garon to sit on the throne. Consider it this way from Hoshido's perspective, since Corrin and Azura's ultimate goal is at the end of the day to essentially say "Sorry about that bit of trouble, let's be friends." I think that bit of trouble being to treacherously kidnap the royal family is a bit more forgiving than a full frontal assault on the capital in which said members of the royal family will likely (and end up do) die. Because that's really the alternative they're fully committing to here.

As for the point of the royals not being around to see Garon do it, well that's just as likely no matter how they're getting there. Maybe Garon would just send them all home to Nohr instead of wanting the royals there to witness them, but he has no express reason to given that he clearly doesn't know about the throne's power.

Edited April 3, 2021 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 15: Chapter 16 (For Real This Time)

I'm really nervous about this chapter. You've gotta talk to all four green soldiers (whom the enemies won't attack) to find out which one is actually Shura in disguise, then beat him. It's always the last one you pick, something that, interestingly, really pissed off a friend of mine I got the game for. He thought it should've been random, which personally I do not agree with or even understand. Having a random chance for the map to be over as early as a quarter of the way through it sounds amazingly anticlimactic and open to cheese and abuse, especially since it's a timed mission. But I was wondering what you guys think.

But also, like I said, the longer you take to beat this one, the less of that 10,000 gold you get, I think at a rate of 300 per turn. I'm in major need of that gold, which makes me want to rush this. I could take Xander, who hits like a truck and is about as tough as one to knock down without magic, and have him rush the eastern side and take out that enfeeble adventurer in a single shot. And I've also got Dakota, who with a Jakob pair-up is really powerful and in fact more all-around tanky than Xander. But that would cost a lot of exp for my weaker guys and might go wrong in some way I'm not seeing despite how many times I've checked.

...Nope, I have training opportunities if I need them. Even with the Percy paralogue available, it's become pretty obvious that money is gonna be in shorter supply than experience.

...Fuck it, I hate sticking around on the prep screen in fear. Let's just bite the bullet and do this. I got a pretty awesome str/spd/def meal for a good portion of my army. Let's just do this map and see how it goes. I'll be having Arthur sit this one out because he's the least-useful member of my army who doesn't have any support ranks he needs to gain. Gotta get Effie's supports with Niles and Mozu and Selena's supports with Laslow.

Let's do this.

I paired up Xander with Charlotte and had him dive for the enfeeble adventurer. His defense is so high that almost nobody will even dare attack him. He'll get frozen, but he'll be fine. My main concern is Odin, who I probably should've tonic'd up. I've run this in my head a bit, and while he's guaranteed to hit all the enemies up north... we've got something of a problem.

He has 28 attack power (counting malefic aura as +atk for him rather than -res for the enemy).

The fimbulvetr dark mages do 16 damage to him and take 15 in turn, for a net loss of 9 HP.

That's -18 for both, out of 27 HP, and he needs to take one more hit before he can activate a dual guard, so if he takes 9 more damage, he dies. And that's exactly how much damage the weaker fighter can do. Meaning that unless I count on the enemy AI fucking up attack order...

...Oh shit! Wait!

He has vantage!

So if I assume the weakest one gets dual-guarded...

...he'll heal himself back up to 20 HP on the hand axe fighter, then take 14 damage from the last one...

...so yes! He'll survive!

Fuck I love vantage! Let's do it!

...Holy shit that was a close call. I forgot one step in the calculation that could've been disastrous. I didn't make sure that the second dark mage didn't kill him before he healed back, because I just subtracted the healing from the damage the dark mage did. Bad call. If that guy had done 2 more damage, and if Odin had 4 more attack, I would've calculated Odin could survive, and I'd have been wrong.

But yeah, back to good calculations I made, Xander one-shots the shining bow archer even with that hero pair-up thanks to his own pair-up with Charlotte.

One thing that annoys me is that Xander's “No mercy!” crit quote sounds out and finishes before his cut-in even shows up on the screen. It sounds the moment you see the crit flash.

After having Effie, Niles, Mozu and Selena finish off those enemies Odin fought, I regrouped down south to fight some other enemies Dakota accidentally baited in, and I did a ridiculously ballsy and fate-tempting move with Odin to take out the enemies on the upper deck, but I trusted in my math and it paid off. The two dark mages on the upper deck were taken out by Odin not with nosferatu, but with the StripperTwister, so that they wouldn't seal his defense or resistance through their survival. They could kill him between them, but Odin would just barely build up enough of a dual guard to survive.

Provided he didn't crit.

In which case vantage would still let him get the dual guard gauge in time.

Either way, I win, and a crit from Odin proved me right.

Oh, yeah. It's all coming together.

Meanwhile Laslow baited in the sorcerer so that Selena could kill him and then have a full dual guard gauge against the berserker (which she didn't need because Bronze Wagon is more than enough to make her crit-immune in guard stance).

Alright, while there are still a good deal of enemies left, we're in the final third I'd say. On turn 6. Which means we'll probably be getting at least 7k, which is pretty good, though obviously less than ideal. Incidentally, Elise is now tanky enough to survive a steel bow attack from an outlaw, which is pretty badass. Also, Odin just got to level 20, which is awesome. I'll be promoting him now.

I wound up giving Dakota a spirit dust just put allow her to one-round these damned sorcerers on the west side with Rose's Thorns assistance. In hindsight, a magic tonic probably would've been wise, but hey, I should probably be using these stat boosters sooner than I usually do anyway, and this is a pretty damned good investment.

Odin's become a sorcerer, and most crucially he gains 3 magic, 3 speed, 2 defense and 3 resistance. That's awesome. Seriously, I can't believe I ever thought Odin sucked in Conquest.

Okay, it's taking a little longer than 10 turns thanks to some retreating I had to do on the west side. To be specific, I can't reach all the soldiers until turn 11. Shame.

Now, here's one thing about the map I think was a pretty bad call design-wise: the fact that the boss is, by certain definitions, a tripwire reinforcement. He shows up right after you talk to him, and so you have to be prepared to kill him immediately unless the guy you talked to him with can survive the turn. Problem there is that he comes with counter and a killer weapon. Thankfully he's still pretty easy to take out, but it's definitely heading closer to a compromising position than would be ideal. I'm attacking with Dakota in melee (since whoever talks to him has to fight in melee if they want to fight him at all), and either she'll hit and be brutally wounded but survive, or she'll hit with dragon fang or a crit and thus one-hit kill, taking no counter damage at all.

We get the former. Mozu gets the kill then. She levels up, and she's 1 shy from promoting. She also gets everything but magic, which is kickass.

Alright, took me 12 turns, and I got 6700 gold. ...Could've done better, but I was already being ballsier than would probably be wise for an ironman when I did this.

Ah yes, and here comes the big question of whether or not to spare Shura's life and recruit him. If you don't, you get a pair of boots. Ordinarily in a non-bonuses run I'd probably pick the boots because improving Azura's mov is just that valuable, but I don't have Azura. So yeah, definitely going with Shura here.

So, Xander seems to be deferring to Dakota's orders, and... it's kinda weird, I don't really feel like they established Dakota as the leader of this army. Certainly not anyone saying she had authority over Xander.

Yep, and Shura confirms that he personally led Yukimura through a secret tunnel into Castle Krakenburg.

That means that Yukimura must have known about the secret passage that nobody in our Birthright army was told about. That's some strategist we have, sending a letter to Ryoma that didn't have that information.

I also find it hilarious that you never get the gold back from Shura. What, did the other pirates already run off with it or something?

Honestly, having more choices like this might be interesting. I kinda like them. They're basically the ones in Path of Radiance, except not completely one-sided in terms of which is the better choice. Probably shouldn't be posed as “to trust or not to trust” though, because that kinda completely breaks down on a second playthrough where you know how the story ends.

Aaaaaand we've got supports! Lots of them!

Ah yes, Dakota with Camilla. Seen it. Next.

Mozu and Niles get a support, huh?

So Mozu just casually strolled off to her ruined village in the middle of a war alone. Dandy.

Basically she's looking for a religious artifact that was lost in the chaos, but Niles indirectly convinces her to head back by offhandedly pointing out that whatever blessings the village allegedly received, the gods didn't save them from being brutally slaughtered.

Alright, Effie and Niles's A support.

Oh wow, that's cute. Turns out Niles was just helping Elise pick out a present for Leo, and Niles was indirectly asking Effie advice for how to figure out what Leo wanted. And talking so much caused Elise to pick up Niles's speech habits on her own.

Hahahaha! Okay, while this is kinda dumb, I do find it funny that Effie wants to kiss Niles on the cheek for his help because if she did anything with her hands like a handshake, she might break one of Niles's bones.

And finally Xander and Charlotte.

Well, good to know that even though Xander apparently thinks flirting is worse behavior than serial murder, he's at least consistent about that and isn't just singling out Laslow. Apparently what she's doing is breaking army violations in some way. Does that mean he's getting complaints about her? Actually, I wonder how many people actually know about her true nature.

Ooh nice! A Nohrian Blade! That gives +3 defense, which is pretty cool in a pinch. I love having ways to modify my defense on the fly. Part of why I love wolfskin units so much.

...Shit, looks like I'll need to do more visiting again. No excuse this time, I've got a lot of buildings to upgrade and not enough DVP.

Alright, well, I'll get on that over the weekend and see you guys later.

And on Monday...

...we'll tackle one of my favorite maps in the game. A map a lot of people seem to despise.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Jotari]

And here we have the most unrealistic thing in Fates. A POW deciding to join you without demanding you give them cabbages first! Seriously though they could have had some nice gameplay story integration there. The prison is a cool feature, but it's just so easy to forget it even exists. Also wow, I didn't know you could get a pair of boots from not recruiting Shura. That's awesome and something I think I'll definitely do on my next playthrough. I just never considered not recruiting him. That's kind of the downside to a game giving meaningful choices on like a single instances, it's hard to actually spot it as a meaningful choice. At least Path of Radiance did it on a somewhat frequent basis, even though pretty much all of them come down to a wrong and right choice (Janaff, Ulki and Reyson vs Renewal -_- yeah you're really enticing me with that lower mid tier skill I'll have to commit to giving a single unit since you don't let me rearrange skills at all).

Edited April 3, 2021 by Jotari