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

[Baudshaw]

I suppose so, but Fe7 has everything else better going for it. Better music, gameplay, visuals, setting...

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Baudshaw said:

I suppose so, but Fe7 has everything else better going for it. Better music, gameplay, visuals, setting...

You will notice it was a very close race.

[Alastor15243]

The series is slated to resume on Friday, ladies and gentlemen! Next stop: Fire Emblem Engage! I am attempting to play blind, so please, no spoilers in the thread until we reach them. See you soon!

[Acacia Sgt]

Oh, I remember this.

[AnonymousSpeed]

I hate the new SF layout.

[Sunwoo]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The series is slated to resume on Friday, ladies and gentlemen! Next stop: Fire Emblem Engage! I am attempting to play blind, so please, no spoilers in the thread until we reach them. See you soon!

Have fun with that

[BubbleOdyssey]

And the saga continues...

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 1: Prologue to Chapter 2

Well here we are again.

It’s always such a pleasure.

…Well no, I guess not since I finished Fates.

Let’s find out what he thinks

About this new installment

Will it be awesome or another one that he hates?

 

…Okay, so, this is weird. Not just re-starting this play-and-rank after a little over a year of hiatus, but more the fact that usually when I start these, it’s with a summary of my history with the game. Y’know. Because I have one. Or at least I’ve heard about its reputation, or have some idea of what to expect.

Not so here.

I have been aggressively avoiding any discussion of this game. I know precious little about it beyond that initial trailer and the tidbits that have inevitably reached my ears in spite of my best efforts.

I did not want to form an opinion about this game.

For the last four months or so, I’ve been actively avoiding thinking about this game as much as I proved capable of. I did not want to have a pre-release opinion on the game. For four months, it was a continuous echo in my head of “Hype is a scam and hope is a lie”. I did not want to form expectations that would be shattered. I’ve let FE games hurt me before when I let trailers convince me they were going to be masterpieces.

…Not that Engage’s trailer bore any risk of convincing me of that.

…Yes, on the flipside, I also just didn’t want to dwell on how utterly nonsensical and tacky I found every concept they revealed in the trailer. I have since calmed down in the intervening months, but at the time my reaction was very much “what the Reyson-reaming fuck is this”.

So… after all that… what are my painstakingly-tempered expectations?

Well… I am under no delusions that this thing’s story is going to surpass Path of Radiance. I mean, I suppose it could in its own way, and be some kind of gut-bustingly hilarious cavalcade of lighthearted nonsense. And hell, maybe even on purpose. But really, let’s just say that I do not expect to cry. This feels very much like a spiritual successor to Awakening. A story hopped up on a continuous IV drip of continuity fanservice. Now, this is far from the end of the world. I actually like Awakening. I had issues with it during the playlog, but as I said in the final ranking, I’ve since drastically come around on it and remembered a lot of its positives. It managed to be enjoyable despite its utter lack of narrative depth. Hell, it managed to be enjoyable despite its utter lack of gameplay depth! But that is due to a looooooooot of mitigating factors that are in no conceivable way a given for Engage.

Bottom line: My best-case scenario for this game is another Conquest. An enjoyably ridiculous story (perhaps intentionally so this time), with fantastic gameplay.

Do I expect to get my best-case scenario?

No. I do not. I have concerns.

But fuck it, it’s 7 AM, I’ve spent half an hour writing this, I want to get this show on the road. So why don’t we just jump right in? Who knows? Maybe this actually will have a great amount of care put into its gameplay!

Make it so!

Engage!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

…So uh…

…Apparently Fire Emblem has anime OPs now. That is a thing. A thing which 3H established… and Engage is continuing.

…Plus side, I didn’t notice any shitty lyrical placement! Not saying it ain’t there, but I sure didn’t notice it in any of the lyrics I caught on first listen!

Not sure how I feel about the song. Could be worse, but I mostly just kinda found it… profoundly surreal. And it kinda just reminded me that this game looks utterly fucking ridiculous. Also, it took me a second to remember that 3H already did this, and my initial reaction was me realizing that I apparently still had some benefit of the doubt baked into my soul as to how anime Fire Emblem could get, and it had just been shattered.

Alright, time to start up the game.

First choice is whether to be male or female, and we’re going male this time, because thankfully, while the game still only lets your name be eight characters long, this time we only need eight characters to adorn our hero with the shitpost name du jour:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc9lcCw91YE

Moving on, what are the file creation options like? Do we get to turn off the turnwheel?

Nope! Just difficulty and mode again, and my heart aches that casual is the default option. But on the plus side, maddening is available from a clean file! Anyway, we’re going hard classic, because we’re blind ironmanning this sumbitch! No resets, no rewinds, nothin’!

Why? Well, if you’re new to this playlog, first off, welcome! Second of all, as I have mentioned in prior installments, I have a history since Fates of having my first playthrough of every new game be a blind ironman. This is for two reasons: first, because when the game is good, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime magical experience, an adventure as you react to the gameplay’s twists and turns with fresh eyes and tell stories of death and glory made all the more poignant by the fact that you have to press on with the consequences of everything you do.

And second, because when the game is bad, it’s a perfect measuring stick for how much the devs hate you!

This is critical information, and I will be gathering it.

I have concerns, however. I have yet to have a good experience blind ironmanning a game with rewinds in it. Mostly because, as I’ve said previously, the rewind system amounts to a rocket-powered wheelchair someone gives you in the hopes that it keeps you from noticing that they broke both of your legs.

The previous game was an absolute nightmare to blind ironman. But of course, none of you actually saw me do it. You only have my shell-shocked melodramatic war stories about becoming a paranoid wreck who practically expected menu options to trigger ambush spawns.

So if it turns out this game has not improved in that regard in any way, well, the plus side of that is you finally get to experience my hysterical suffering firsthand.

But let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, eh?

Alright, finally let’s turn on online features… and begin!

So we’re treated to an in-medias-res opening, and I think I hear the harp riff of the character creation screen turned into a guitar riff in this cutscene, so that’s cool!

So here they say your name in text, but skip over it in voice. There always needs to be some concession made when a game’s fully voiced. But yeah, speaking of this game being a spiritual successor to Awakening, we apparently start in the “final battle” which is just our paired-up ass versus one singular guy in a creepy stone temple.

Right, as I heard, we have a movement range of 4 now. Iiiiinteresting. I wonder what they’ll do with this.

Also, I like the music so far!

…So a red square appeared around the boss at first, which I initially thought was indicating a seize space, but no, the game said it was a rout enemy map. And now the enemy’s moved, and there’s no trace of the red square, so I’m not sure what that was.

…So now there’s a description of what an action does right next to the option when you select it. I vaguely remember similar things being off to the side in other games. I think it’s a tiiiiiny bit ugly where it is.

The game’s telling me to use the engage system to save my ass against an enemy I’m outmatched against, but I stopped a bit to check out unit info, and I notice they’ve significantly overhauled the thing. You have to press a separate button to check out a unit’s stats than you have to press to see more info on specific things, and this seems to be so you can see “more info” on the stuff that appears on screen at all times, even outside of the unit info screen.

Anyway, regarding this info screen…

…OH SHIT!

THEY DISPLAY DODGE! DODGE IS A CALCULATED STAT ON THE UNIT INFO SCREEN! HUZZAH!

…Also, I haven’t yet found out how to look at the raw stats of a weapon. Instead, they primarily tell you what your combat stats will be while equipping it. That’s also pretty damned useful, but I’m assuming a way to see the raw stats exists, because otherwise that would be dumb.

Anyway, I “engage” Pepsiman’s nostalgia persona, and he grows fucking laser wings.

…That’s cool and all, I like it, but honestly, the presentation of this game is beyond weird. I hope I get used to it, because right now I’m just… cringing. One thing I find supremely concerning is the new talking heads. At least from initial impressions, they appear to be devoid of any expressiveness entirely. I’m hoping that’s just when they show up on maps, and not in dialogue scenes.

But apparently you can engage and then do the rest of your action, which is pretty cool. And yeah, lodestar rush is basically astra.

…I feel weird stepping away from the game every few seconds to comment. But fuck it, it must be done.

I find it absolutely hysterical that they aren’t telling you what Marth’s name is. I doubt there are even many casual newcomers who wouldn’t know.

…And while, just like in Awakening, it was all just a dream that ends with opening our eyes to people staring at us… we didn’t stab Marth with lightning or anything. Everything was hunky-dory, no tainted victory.

…I’m starting to find the awkward disconnect of seeing the protag’s name in text and just having it kind of awkwardly skipped over in voice profoundly disorienting. But I will say: I burst out into hysterical fucking laughter at reading “You’re the divine dragon, Pepsiman!”

Okay, there’s something I find weirdly endearing about Pepsiman’s awkward, confused, sleepy dialogue.

…Is Clanne voiced by the guy who voices Pit and Percy? Not gonna google it, probably unwise to google anything about this game right now. But it sounds like it, and that would be my educated guess.

Oh, so Marth needs to tell us his name before his dialogue boxes show it, but these chucklefucks are labeled before their explicit introduction? Alright, game.

I will say though, way happier about the game’s capacity for emoting after seeing these cutscenes. I’m far more optimistic about supports and the like now.

…Unfortunately, apparently these conversations are still taking place against painted 2D backdrops. I may be wrong, but I don’t see any parallax when the camera zooms in and out.

Oh hey, according to these people my mother’s alive! Start the clock, people!

Pepsiman’s mom apparently hasn’t had any other children in the thousand years in which Pepsiman has slept. That is… curious.

It’s kind of interesting now being in Sothis’s shoes, being the immortal being everyone reveres and has grown up on stories of, and having no memory of it. It’s definitely an interesting character concept. I can imagine cool stuff being done with it. Let’s see how it develops.

Ah yes, and now we’re introduced to the Somniel, our flying island fortress. Which is what Garreg Mach probably should’ve been, so here’s hoping this helps explain some nonsense about travel time!

…Well, I say “introduced.” It’s mentioned in passing after we already left it in a fade to black after leaving the… “bedroom” I guess? Really bizarre thing to skip over.

…I wonder how old Framme and Clanne are supposed to be. They look barely into puberty, which A: makes me wonder what that implies about how supports work, and maybe implies a reduced emphasis on romance, and B: makes me wonder how the hell they got the job taking care of the Somniel, sharing the post with what is clearly one of the most senior and trusted knights in the kingdom.

And now Pepsiman’s just been informed that dignitaries of a highly devout kingdom regularly come over to pray over him and talk to him (well, at him), and personally I’d be a bit weirded out by that. Kind of a shame he has a bland and pleasant reaction to it, but let’s move on.

…Okay, these two are… uh… while I guess it makes sense in-universe, they’re extremely simpish towards Pepsiman.

And then this gem happens:

Framme: Don’t worry! We’ll be right there with you!

Clanne: You can even hold my hand if you like!

Pepsiman: Thank you. …Hm?

He notices the ring on his hand, as if he were actually planning on holding Clanne’s hand and that action brought his hand into view.

Aaaaaaaand suddenly, monsters!

I dunno, I haven’t even played Genshin Impact, but the moment I saw these guys in a trailer I was just like “this feels like Genshin Impact”. But yeah, at least now it goes into a more involved cutscene with a proper backdrop and non-standing movements. And I think this means it’s our first battle! I wonder what classes the twins are!

PFFFFFFFFFF

Pepsiman just orders them to dip because they have no idea what they are and he’s got a funny feeling about that. That’s hilarious and also kinda sensible. Comedic timing wasn’t the best though.

But the twins just fucking lunge into battle to cover our retreat, kinda missing the point of retreating, and it looks like we’re gonna have to fight anyway.

Also it looks like Clanne’s a mage and Framme’s a healer. So basically the Awakening group: mounted Jagen, swordfighter lord, magic user and healer. Except the magic user isn’t the most broken character in the game. Presumably. I mean, he could be, for all I know right now.

That was a really weird sequence of events. Hopefully there was a point to it, establishing something important about Pepsiman’s personality.

The level of map zoom-in seems fairly minimal. More or less the characters are the same size relative to the map zoomed in as they are zoomed out. Nice. I like that!

Damage levels seem pretty damned low right now. Not even Vander, my Jagen, appears to be capable of one-rounding anyone.

I have Vander rush up ahead to take care of Clanne and Framme, meanwhile Alear eventually finishes off the remaining ones while hiding in a thicket.

…And then more enemies show up!

But we don’t get to find out if those reinforcements are ambush spawns, because now Marth shows up from the ring!

…And wow, okay, apparently what happened in the opening… wasn’t a premonition? It was a flashback? To something that happened to Pepsiman before he went to sleep? Cuz Marth echoes that line about hoping Pepsiman will remember his ring-buddies, and…

…No, something’s going on here. Those characters were way too prominent in the opening to all have died 1000 years ago. We’ll be seeing them again, a lot of them, in some playable capacity. Let’s see how this develops.

Okay, this cutscene with the Marth-Pepsiman tag-team is actually pretty hype… or it would be, if it weren’t against a fucking basic mook. There’s just something hilarious to me about this big epic climactic highly-choreographed fight scene against one single axe man.

…And now that the tooltips mention avoid bonuses in a skill, I check the stat screen on a sudden bit of curiosity, and…

…I’m not entirely sure what’s going on, but I think they buffed evasion again! It’s double speed, baby! Luck doesn’t seem to have an effect on it, but screw it! That’s awesome that stats actually have a meaningful impact on hit and avoid again!

Also, it seems that at least in the case of Marth, Pepsiman gains extra bonuses from engaging. I don’t know whether that means that some emblems are better for certain class types, or if Pepsiman just flat-out is special and gets extra benefits from using any ring, but that’s something to be on the lookout for either way.

But it looks like Pepsiman gets a mini-sol as one of his emblem abilities with Marth. Nice!

I don’t see any indication that using Lodestar Rush consumes anything or makes engaging take less time, so fuck it, sure!

Also, I’m digging this song, which I’m guessing is the theme of the, eh, pardon the pun, “engagement rings”. I also recognize it as the opening song, and I’m digging it a lot more now that I’m not experiencing the shell-shock of hearing it sung, which does not have a good history in this series.

Also it seems like the third, half-strength sol hit goes last, but doesn’t heal less health if the enemy doesn’t have that much HP left to take all the damage. I wonder what happens if you kill on the first or second hit. I wonder if it still does the heal…

Pepsiman got a level and got speed def and res! Good first level! But I’m noticing that the level up quotes aren’t voiced anymore, which is… curious.

I apparently can’t use lodestar rush anymore. Is it just once per engagement?

And I got an ability that lets me have 10 more avoid and 10 less crit while using a sword. I hope that has some means of being toggled. It’s damned useful, but sometimes I’d prefer to crit, y’know?

Oh, and there are 10 slots apparently for saves, I discover as I clear the map. I wonder if more will appear if I use these 10.

Let’s find out! I’ll save over a new slot each time!

…I don’t understand why, but I find the design of the enemies… or at least something about the experience of looking at them in action… goofily off-putting. Like, if I had to put it into words… it feels like I’m looking at the generic bad guys in a Power Rangers show.

Then a cutscene happens when more enemies appear…

Pepsiman: There’s more!?

(Dragon shows up behind him)

Pepsiman: And they’ve got a dragon!?

Silly Pepsiman! That dragon can’t be evil! It’s white!

Yep, and of course, profoundly predictably, the dragon shoots over Pepsiman’s head at the enemies behind him, and, let’s just take a shot in the dark, this is Pepsiman’s mom.

Yep!

PFFFFFFFF

Lumera: You cannot understand how I’ve missed you, my dear child.

Pepsiman: …Oh! You’re… my mother!

PFFFFFF

 Okay, so she’s taking the fact that her son’s forgotten her reasonably well, all things considered. Though she is still clearly broken up by it. Anyway, now for an exploration phase in the middle of the battlefield! Huh, I wonder if that will become a thing, a la Triangle Strategy, or if this is just a basic tutorial to prep for exploring the Somniel.

Looks like these exploration lines aren’t fully voiced like Monastery lines were. Probably not the worst way to save money to allocate to other areas, so no complaints, but it is notable.

So, this place is fenced in by a huge amount of invisible walls, which I find annoying. There’s nothing to do here as far as I can tell except talk to four NPCs literally all clumped together around the exit. Step away from that and it’s just a whole lot of nothing that looks like an even bigger whole lot of nothing than it actually is.

Also we get a flash of Dragon Lumera again, without any sound effects or vocal distortions, which feels disorienting. Not even a transformation sound and a voice echo like in every other game? This feels like a cut corner in story scene presentation.

PFF.

The world map gets introduced a bit, and the idea of a “queendom of freedom” seems silly to me, like any country that emphasized freedom probably wouldn’t have a hereditary monarchy.

OH MY FUCKING GOD.

THAT WASN’T A CUTSCENE LIMITATION.

Bigass Dragon Mommy Lumera is just fucking talking out of her dragon mouth exactly like it’s her human one. That is just so goofy to me.

Please let that bit about her transforming soundlessly be canon too! That would be so hilarious! Pepsiman just looks away from his mom one second and he turns back to see her in dragon form to troll him! That would be great!

Okay, keep track people! Corrupted is capitalized! Noted!

Pepsiman: The Corrupted?

Lumera: Those enemies you were fighting out on the grasslands.

Pepsiman: Oh, I didn’t like those things one bit. Just the sight of them made my blood run cold.

Lumera: Understandably so. The Corrupted are corpses revived by an evil power.

So the Corrupted are just literally Risen. Got it.

Also, something about Pepsiman saying “I didn’t like those things one bit” just tickles me. It’s just such a childishly understated thing to say.

So apparently the rings only activate when Pepsiman remembers them. Is that gonna be an explanation of why we don’t get them all at once despite presumably having them? It doesn’t sound like there was any conflict in the last 1000 years that would have split them up. Unless they were entrusted to the assorted kingdoms?

Okay, so, only three of the rings are in the big ring room. So I guess yes, they are scattered in some way. Holy Knight, Sage Lord, Azure Twins. Sounds like that means Sigurd, Micaiah and Eirika/Ephraim.

Oh no, wait, also Lucina and Byleth are mentioned, or at least titles that I think apply to them are.

Ah, alright, so I guessed correctly! Six rings entrusted to the other countries! But I only counted four countries. I wonder who got the short or longer ends of the stick? Or maybe there’s more going on. Or I could have just misremembered.

Okay, so they were divided up so nobody had all 12 in case the power got in the wrong hands. That’s an entirely fair justification now that it isn’t going in flagrant violation of the purpose of a pre-existing magical artifact, Awakening.

…So the rings only work once every thousand years? …Then why is there a danger of them being abused if stolen?

And they say the rings need to be activated by people with dragon blood. I’m assuming that means Pepsiman has to find them before anyone can use them, and not that they’re only usable by people with a Fates-esque royal blood system.

…Sounds like it’s the former.

So, now we’ve having a little training exercise here. Apparently solo. Well, as solo as you can be with a ghost allied with you. But yeah the focus appears to be on learning more about emblems.

…Oh, no, we get our allies. But we’re fighting mommy! Interesting!

…Also, a loading screen flavor tip made me realize that Pepsiman’s skill is just Rose’s Thorns. Interesting.

…So apparently Mommy Dragon can create things similar to Corrupted, but out of nature rather than human corpses. And they’re much prettier-looking than the Corrupted.

…Wow, Pepsiman’s really freaked out by these artificial humans, even the golems Mom made. Yeah, I’m definitely smelling a plot point. Past trauma or something?

Oh thank fucking god bows are normal again. No more of this psycho long range nonsense. Hopefully they’re still good in their own way, like they are in CQ for example, but at least they aren’t as dumb as they were in Echoes and Three Houses. That had bugged the hell out of me.

So now we’re introducing breaking! It wasn’t active in the last battle against those axe wielders, but apparently you can debuff enemies by beating them in the weapon triangle. And apparently knights are immune to this, which is fantastic news, a great idea to give them a buff and make them important on enemy phase.

And apparently fists are effective against bows, tomes, and knives! Which are back! Nice! But back to the original thing I was going to say, I don’t see any indication that bows tomes and knives are effective against anything, or that anything’s effective against fists.

Neutralizing counterattacks for the rest of the turn with weapon triangle advantage sounds really interesting. Anything that increases how devastating a team’s phase can be against its opponent is encouraging. Makes me suspect that enemy-phasing a crowd is rarely going to be the answer.

Shit I hope so.

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

…

Framme… is apparently a war monk.

She can punch things.

See, uh, given that she didn’t fight back against the Corrupted last battle, I was under the assumption that she was a noncombatant. Did I miss some part of the cutscene where she lost some magic thing vital to punching things? I mean maybe I did, I’ll leave the option open, but let’s see if she needs any items to do qi attacks.

…Qi adepts can apparently take hits for nearby enemies when at full HP. Iiiiinteresting. And yeah, apparently you need scrolls to do attacks, so fuck it, I’ll give the game the benefit of the doubt for now and assume that in the chaos that is going between sofa and desk to play this on the big screen, I forgot to pause or look at some critical point that showed her losing her scroll like her brother lost his tome.

And speaking of her brother and tomes, apparently magic ignores terrain again. Honestly, I don’t mind this change, though I do have more mixed opinions about the psychotic terrain bonuses that tend to go with it. Which appear to be in place given the +30 avoid thickets.

…What the fuck.

…Uh, quoth myself prior in this part:

“Except the magic user isn’t the most broken character in the game. Presumably. I mean, he could be, for all I know right now.”

Yeah, uh, about that… Clanne is one-shotting this bowman with a 100% hit rate and damage to spare.

Okay, shit, lemme examine these guys and their skills, what’s going on here?

…Okay no, my mistake, I mixed things up. He does one-round enemies, but he’s not that powerful. The combat screen in this game just shows total damage, not individual hit damage, and he doubles. He does two hits of 12, not one fucking psycho hit of 24. I was gonna say.

…As I examine these characters, I notice that the music here sounds vaguely reminiscent of one of the first map themes in Path of Radiance. At least parts of it, that is. Part of it also resembles the base theme.

Also, all three of my retainers’ personal skills offer mutual bonuses to both themselves and Pepsiman when they’re adjacent. Interesting. I’ll have to keep that in mind.

Also, breaking, at least in this particular instance, doesn’t seem to confer any stat debuffs, or any effects beyond negating counterattacks. Alright, fair enough. That’s probably enough to carry the concept, and it’s uncomplicated. Let’s see how things go.

I screwed up my placement by trying to get in some combat experience with Framme, and now I can’t finish them all off because Vander and Clanne need the same space to attack their respective targets. Unfortunate, but the boss is immobile, and there’s only one other enemy, so leaving that one alive isn’t the end of the world.

But it very soon might be, so I’d better shape up fast.

…Okay, so the boss became mobile without any warning. At least it didn’t happen on enemy phase, but it’s been a while since I played a game with highlighting so I almost didn’t notice. On that note, I don’t think I like the colors they use for highlighting enemy ranges here. They’re very faint and individual and group highlighting ranges aren’t nearly as distinct as they used to be.

…I’ll see if I get used to it.

…I appear to have been mistaken about the amount of healing a final blow does with Marth’s skill. It’s not that it does the full amount even if you lack enough HP to withstand it, it’s that I mistook it for doing 50% and then healing 50% of that 50%, like it’s just a half-damage guaranteed sol hit. But no, it’s a 50% damage attack that then heals all of the damage it inflicts, not half, like sol used to do. The enemy just happened to have half of the remaining attack’s power left in HP, so I was misled to think that I was healing back the full potential amount of a half-healer, instead of half of the potential amount of a full-healer. Well, as long as the enemy lives long enough for that blow to land, I suppose that’s better! But shit, this skill is worthless once you start one-rounding. I wonder what that implies about how enemies are going to be designed…

I really appreciate that you can see ally and enemy stats on the bottom of the screen without going into any menus! It’s not as great as the dual-screen system, but we don’t have two screens anymore, and this is pretty dang okay!

“So sorry…”

So that’s Lumera’s defeat quote. Iiiiiiinteresting.

Wanna know why it’s interesting?

It doesn’t feel like it was designed for this specific battle at all.

Which means we’ll be seeing her in combat… more.

What, pray tell, might that imply?

Does she have a scripted combat sequence with the big bad before her highly-likely death?

Is she playable?

Is she EVIL?

Oh, only time will tell, my friends! Only time will tell!

…Ah, I see. I guess I underestimated the game a bit to think that two enemies and a boss would be the whole of chapter 2. There’s more. We’ve got more enemies to fight, and Mommy ain’t done yet.

And shit, she’s got her own ring!

Sigurd’s!

Alright, I’m gonna try to stay away from the laptop for a bit while finishing this up. This is already nearly 5000 words, which is a daily word count I wish I could achieve with anything else. I’m just gonna focus on playing uninterrupted and say how I feel about the map at the end.

SO NEVERMIND THAT, I NEARLY GOT FUCKED!

I don’t know what happened, whether I misinterpreted enemy highlighting, or I just wasn’t paying attention because I’m rusty, but Vander nearly got rocked by Lumera’s ridersbane when I didn’t realize I left basically everyone in enemy attack range. Fuck, let’s see how I can salvage this…

WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK LUMERA HAS TWELVE MOVE WHILE ENGAGED!?

…Thankfully, okay, so for those who haven’t seen chapter two, it’s in a big garden courtyard, and there’s this strategic defensive point in the middle with some statues and thickets forming a defensive wall. I hid the wounded Framme in the middle, and used her staff and Vander’s vulnerary to heal the brutally wounded Vander back up. He still would’ve been fucked if he got ganged up on and I got unlucky, but Lumera went after Pepsiman instead, and partook in a swordfight rather than breaking him with the ridersbane lance. For reasons I cannot fathom. It certainly wasn’t a good idea of the AI as far as I can tell. I’m concerned this might mean the AI isn’t that bright about breaking.

I got dex, speed, defense and luck from Pepsiman’s level 3 level up. No complaints here, though I hope this isn’t a full pattern, I’d like some strength.

One thing I will say about the interface is that the game isn’t very good at making it clear when a unit is fully de-selected. It takes some getting used to.

At any rate, I managed to win without casualties. Once Lumera went down, things got significantly simpler to clean up. But lesson learned: this game runs the risk of laying some serious hurt on me if I don’t pay attention. Ergo, I shall do so.

Alright, on to the aftermath cutscene.

…And this conversation goes some way to demonstrating that the whole “just don’t say the name” strategy might have some complications when talking to more than one person. Here, Lumera addresses and congratulates everyone, but then shifts to talking to Pepsiman specifically, but the spoken line gives absolutely no indication of that.

Okay, so that explains why Lumera’s sword was so familiar. It’s mine. The one I used in the opening sequence. Okay, and she makes no mention of this previously being mine, so either she’s hiding something, or that flashback sequence wasn’t actually a flashback after all, and was a premonition of the future, and that echoed line about remembering all the emblems is referring to… something else entirely?

Curiously, when the game wants to show an item, sometimes it keeps it on screen instead of quickly flashing it and bringing it down, but makes the background around the item transparent to keep it from getting in the way of the screen.

And Mommy Dearest gives us… a “purely ornamental” ring.

Apparently a birthday present she promised to Pepsiman before he went to sleep. Pepsiman refuses because he doesn’t remember the promise and would feel bad about accepting it, like accepting a gift made for someone else. He then says…

“Please offer me this gift again once I’ve remembered everything.”

And Lumera’s response is…

“Everything, you say.”

And then she just lets out an emotionally pained breath.

Oh yes.

Oh she is definitely hiding something. Is she evil? I seriously doubt she’s evil but I would be over the fucking moon if she were evil.

“Did facing me in battle stir any recollections, Pepsiman?”

It didn’t, but yet again, I am curious that she thinks that it would. Why would fighting her stir up anything that a hug wouldn’t? Gee, it’s almost like they fought in the past and she’s wondering if he’s remembering that. Though on that interpretation it sounds like she doesn’t want him to, which would beg the question of why the fuck she’d fight him then.

Still, I’m keeping my eyes open.

Lumera: Perhaps we should call it a day, hm?

…Yes, probably. If I weren’t playlogging I’d probably play even further, but I’ve written more than five and a half thousand words today. Every chapter I play is more writing to write and proofread and post, and I’m gonna cut things here and see what time it is when I’m done. Don’t wanna push myself after a year of being out of the habit, no?

Anyway, my impressions so far are… guardedly optimistic about the gameplay. I like just about everything I’ve seen (or to be precise, noticed) so far, and while there are certainly plenty of ways the game could screw up, very little I’ve seen so far is inconsistent with the idea of this being the best game in the series. So I still have hope I’ll have fun with this thing.

Alastor, signing off!

Edited January 21, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Glad to see this series make a comeback! I still haven't gotten the game, and I'm not sure about whether I will. But I really hope you have a positive experience with the game!

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

“Hype is a scam and hope is a lie”.

Wow, you manage to have the exact same prerelease reaction as me, only slanted with a waaaaay more negative world view XD

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But fuck it, it’s 7 AM, I’ve spent half an hour writing this, I want to get this show on the road. So why don’t we just jump right in? Who knows? Maybe this actually will have a great amount of care put into its gameplay!

7am? What day? I had to wait until 9 or 10am on Friday to download the game >.>. And, well, I guess it can't be 7am Saturday morning unless you're in, like Kiribati or something. Must be because I'm ahead on Japanese time and once they released it here Friday morning it was released everywhere (so Thursday night for a lot of places).

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Nope! Just difficulty and mode again, and my heart aches that casual is the default option. But on the plus side, maddening is available from a clean file! Anyway, we’re going hard classic, because we’re blind ironmanning this sumbitch! No resets, no rewinds, nothin’!

Oh dang. I've went Maddening. That means you're probably going to quickly out pace me.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…So now there’s a description of what an action does right next to the option when you select it. I vaguely remember similar things being off to the side in other games. I think it’s a tiiiiiny bit ugly where it is.

I don't really like it either. I suppose it's good for beginners coming to the game, who always need to be factored in, but, are stuff like Wait and Trade really that unintuitive? I don't think I ever had much difficulty figuring them out.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I find it absolutely hysterical that they aren’t telling you what Marth’s name is. I doubt there are even many casual newcomers who wouldn’t know.

Maybe there's a plot twist and that's actually Lucina with improved disguise abilities!

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah yes, and now we’re introduced to the Somniel, our flying island fortress. Which is what Garreg Mach probably should’ve been, so here’s hoping this helps explain some nonsense about travel time!

You say we're introduced, but I feel immeasurably disappointed they didn't actually give us a wide shot of the freaking thing. From either air or ground. It's like "Hey, you have this cool flying fortress" "May I see it?" "...No". I was even  confused about whether the first few chapters were taking place there or somewhere else. I've concluded "somewhere else", but I really wish they'd given me an establishing shot of it.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Well, I say “introduced.” It’s mentioned in passing after we already left it in a fade to black after leaving the… “bedroom” I guess? Really bizarre thing to skip over.

Oh, I see you've had a somewhat similar reaction. Validation!

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I wonder how old Framme and Clanne are supposed to be. They look barely into puberty, which A: makes me wonder what that implies about how supports work, and maybe implies a reduced emphasis on romance, and B: makes me wonder how the hell they got the job taking care of the Somniel, sharing the post with what is clearly one of the most senior and trusted knights in the kingdom.

I assumed they were his children at first and that it was a hereditary thing, but he mentions one of their parents in a support, so, *shrug*.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

PFFFFFFFFFF

 

Pepsiman just orders them to dip because they have no idea what they are and he’s got a funny feeling about that. That’s hilarious and also kinda sensible. Comedic timing wasn’t the best though.

I liked that moment too. Was unexpected from an Avatar and suggested some kind of depth. Imagine a Fire Emblem protagonist who's a bit of a coward! Unfortunately it seems they just had it for the lols and to establish an innate distaste for the Risen.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so she’s taking the fact that her son’s forgotten her reasonably well, all things considered. Though she is still clearly broken up by it. Anyway, now for an exploration phase in the middle of the battlefield! Huh, I wonder if that will become a thing, a la Triangle Strategy, or if this is just a basic tutorial to prep for exploring the Somniel.

Yep, you can just explore the battlefields after each chapter. Which imo is pretty cool. One of the coolest things about Shadows of Valentia were people hacking it to let you do that unintended by the game. I legitimately wondered if someone actually saw those videos and decided to implement it, because despite being trivially easy to do in Shadows of Valentia from a mechanical stand point, it clearly wasn't planned at all.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The world map gets introduced a bit, and the idea of a “queendom of freedom” seems silly to me, like any country that emphasized freedom probably wouldn’t have a hereditary monarchy.

Bit weird that it's a Queendom too, especially considering one of the other nations has a ruling queen too. Maybe it's a matriarchy with female inheritance?

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so, only three of the rings are in the big ring room. So I guess yes, they are scattered in some way. Holy Knight, Sage Lord, Azure Twins. Sounds like that means Sigurd, Micaiah and Eirika/Ephraim.

Azure twins confuses me, as only Eirika is shown on the trailer wheel. Maybe Eirika and Ephraim will be some kind of duo Stand with both of them being present at once.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…So the rings only work once every thousand years? …Then why is there a danger of them being abused if stolen?

Well when you're an effectively immortal dragon you have an actual life span to not want to deal with the bucket of shit that will crop up in a few centuries time if you get irresonsponsible about such things.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

See, uh, given that she didn’t fight back against the Corrupted last battle, I was under the assumption that she was a noncombatant. Did I miss some part of the cutscene where she lost some magic thing vital to punching things? I mean maybe I did, I’ll leave the option open, but let’s see if she needs any items to do qi attacks.

She does need an item, but it's not like a gauntlet or anything, it seems to be an item that just represents the knowledge of punching things. Though, in her defense, at least on Maddening, there's very few enemies she can actively damage using her offensive skills, at least until I levelled her a few times from healing.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay no, my mistake, I mixed things up. He does one-round enemies, but he’s not that powerful. The combat screen in this game just shows total damage, not individual hit damage, and he doubles. He does two hits of 12, not one fucking psycho hit of 24. I was gonna say.

It does show doubling, but as like a back and forth flow below the place your eyes instinctually look to. The flow is nice and all, but I really don't like how there's no simple x2 indicator. Plenty of times I've went and attacked something without realising they'd live long enough to counter.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

It doesn’t feel like it was designed for this specific battle at all.

 

Which means we’ll be seeing her in combat… more.

I do have some sneaking suspicion that her being the protagonist's mother is bullshit. I get Rhea vibes from her, and with all the inspiration they've taken from Awakening, I wouldn't be surprised if Pepsiman turns out to be the Fell Dragon too. We really can't trust anything these characters are saying about his amnesia.

 

[Alastor15243]

12 minutes ago, Jotari said:

7am? What day? I had to wait until 9 or 10am on Friday to download the game >.>. And, well, I guess it can't be 7am Saturday morning unless you're in, like Kiribati or something. Must be because I'm ahead on Japanese time and once they released it here Friday morning it was released everywhere (so Thursday night for a lot of places).

7 AM Friday, EST. I downloaded it in advance days ago and it worked this morning.

14 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It does show doubling, but as like a back and forth flow below the place your eyes instinctually look to. The flow is nice and all, but I really don't like how there's no simple x2 indicator. Plenty of times I've went and attacked something without realising they'd live long enough to counter.

Yeah, I'm aware of this, and I agree. It feels like a needless oversimplification of the math.

[Jotari]

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, I'm aware of this, and I agree. It feels like a needless oversimplification of the math.

I'd say its largely muscle memory. A back and forth flow showing exactly when each unit will attack is a pretty good idea. Especially for people who might not know stuff like how brave weapons work. And this game has something like a dual attack system. So their new system is a good idea...but it really wasn't necessary to remove the old interface of just saying multiplied by 2. Both can coexist. I'm sure in time I'll just get used to looking at the flow rather than the total number, but there will be plenty of mistakes before then.

[Alastor15243]

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

Glad to see this series make a comeback! I still haven't gotten the game, and I'm not sure about whether I will. But I really hope you have a positive experience with the game!

Thanks! Will you be reading along, or avoiding spoilers in case you get it?

[Interdimensional Observer]

Good luck the latest FE. I hope it engages you!😀

I'm not going to be following things this time, I'm in no rush to pick up Engage (it'll be many months) and I want to go in blind myself. I will read over your experience eventually though.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Good luck the latest FE. I hope it engages you!😀

I'm not going to be following things this time, I'm in no rush to pick up Engage (it'll be many months) and I want to go in blind myself. I will read over your experience eventually though.

Unfortunate, but entirely understandable! Good luck!

[Sunwoo]

Hello, following this too. I won't comment on it too much though, I am watching a YouTube playthrough so I'm pretty aware of spoilers that I don't want to drop here before you get to them.

[Acacia Sgt]

In regards to the twins' ages...

Spoiler

Internal data states they're 16. Or meant to be 16 at least.

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Ah yes, and now we’re introduced to the Somniel, our flying island fortress. Which is what Garreg Mach probably should’ve been, so here’s hoping this helps explain some nonsense about travel time!

I seem to remember that being one of the suggestions for how to improve Garreg Mach in this thread, so I guess IS had the same idea...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

A: makes me wonder what that implies about how supports work, and maybe implies a reduced emphasis on romance

There is a meta answer to this, which might be considered a spoiler, but also unlikely to learn about without being told...

Spoiler

One of the differences between the Japanese, and International releases is that it cut out the players option to romance underage characters...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…I don’t understand why, but I find the design of the enemies… or at least something about the experience of looking at them in action… goofily off-putting. Like, if I had to put it into words… it feels like I’m looking at the generic bad guys in a Power Rangers show.

It has been giving Power Ranger vibes for a while, I mean listen to the opening song...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

SO NEVERMIND THAT, I NEARLY GOT FUCKED!

 

I don’t know what happened, whether I misinterpreted enemy highlighting, or I just wasn’t paying attention because I’m rusty, but Vander nearly got rocked by Lumera’s ridersbane when I didn’t realize I left basically everyone in enemy attack range. Fuck, let’s see how I can salvage this…

If you stopped before the start of chapter 2, I would have warned you to pay careful attention even in these early chapters, as I have heard multiple people either needing a reset, or had a close call on their Vandad thanks to that ridersbane (or just didn't worry about losing them as it is a mock battle).

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

For reasons I cannot fathom. It certainly wasn’t a good idea of the AI as far as I can tell. I’m concerned this might mean the AI isn’t that bright about breaking.

I have noticed what might be the opposite issue, the AI going for a break, even when there is no one to take advantage of that after the fact, and it could have dealt a lot more damage to someone else. I get the feeling that instance is more a scripted thing where she specifically will use that sword on Pepsiman for story reasons.

 

Random side note, if you haven't done it yet, try holding Zr.

[Jotari]

For the record, I also got surprised by the crazy move of Sigurd Dragon Mommy and had my Vander eat the Riderbane. However, even though I was playing on Maddening, he didn't die. I think the battle is scripted to give you a bit of leeway, and the stats are curated enough to give you a pretty good chance of survival. And, for what it's worth, I think Vander might be my favourite Jagen in the series. He's just powerful enough to be able to deal hefty chunks of damage without dominating enemies and his bulk is largely in HP, meaning you can be reasonably certain he can survive attacks. The break system also hits him bad meaning you can't just toss him at problems and expect him to be the solution. All in all he manages to be a pretty invaluable piece of the early game without being useless, a crutch or needlessly vital.

4 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

In regards to the twins' ages...

  Hide contents

Internal data states they're 16. Or meant to be 16 at least.

 

Ha! Bullshit!

On the topic of Supports though, the supports in this game are much shorter than Three Houses. They're almost on Shadows of Valentia levels. Which is good for viewing expedience, but I don't really feel like I'm getting much more than their basic personality from them. Which, yeah, is fine. More than I can say for Thracia characters. The only one so far that seems to have had any narrative is Vander and Clanne, though that's also the only one I think I've reached B on so far.

Edited January 21, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

Having just played through that part... Vander dodged every one of her attacks. XD

On the other hand, he missed a 93 against her... well then.

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Ha! Bullshit! On the topic of Supports though, the supports in this game are much shorter than Three Houses. They're almost on Shadows of Valentia levels. Which is good for viewing expedience, but I don't really feel like I'm getting much more than their basic personality from them. Which, yeah, is fine. More than I can say for Thracia characters. The only one so far that seems to have had any narrative is Vander and Clanne, though that's also the only one I think I've reached B on so far.

Hm? What's so outrageous about it? I do see them being that age.

[Sunwoo]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Having just played through that part... Vander dodged every one of her attacks. XD

On the other hand, he missed a 93 against her... well then.

Hm? What's so outrageous about it? I do see them being that age.

They look and act like they're 12

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Sunwoo said:

They look and act like they're 12

Eh, they just seem quite excitable, more expectedly when it's Alear related since, well, the whole "veneration to the Divine Dragon" thing and they along Vander being the first on the job to get to actually interact with Alear after a thousand years.

[Seazas]

3 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

They look and act like they're 12

Disagree. There's all sorts of young teenagers that act like Clanne and Framme, especially when it comes to their crush/idol. Have you seen how cringe they can get?

[Alastor15243]

8 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

If you stopped before the start of chapter 2, I would have warned you to pay careful attention even in these early chapters, as I have heard multiple people either needing a reset, or had a close call on their Vandad thanks to that ridersbane (or just didn't worry about losing them as it is a mock battle).

Well, it's encouraging to know it wasn't just me.

 

9 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Random side note, if you haven't done it yet, try holding Zr.

I'll give that a closer look then!

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

13 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Hm? What's so outrageous about it? I do see them being that age.

Their appearances and voices come across as more "middle schooler" than "high schooler" to me. Like they've already hit puberty, but still have some growing to do.

Of course, this is the same series that says Elise is 18 and Jaffar is 17. So.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Thanks! Will you be reading along, or avoiding spoilers in case you get it?

I'm in a place of thinking "if I cared enough to avoid spoilers, then I would care enough to start playing right away". So maybe I'll be in and out. I've already watched the first couple chapters in a Let's Play.