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


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

 

I choose to interpret "Gunter is possessed by Anankos" as canon only to Revelation, and not to Conquest. I always interpreted his inability to grow supports on Revelation as symptomatic of him being "not really Gunter". On Conquest, however, he can build supports - ergo, it's really him.

Mind you, I have no basis for this theory, but it makes me feel a little less terrible about Fates' plot.

Well your basis is the supports, which is a pretty good one imo. The real issue would be finding why in the flying fup he isn't possessed in Conquest when he stayed in Valla way longer than Revalation. Or why Takumi apparently isn't possessed in Revelation when nothing Corrin does should alter any of the events that led him to that point.

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

You've killed one, yes... but what about second Takumi?

 

Second Takumi is a replica, so same HP bar.

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

You've killed one, yes... but what about second Takumi?

The second is a replica, so just like what happens with replicated units, defeating the real one kills the replica as well.

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5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Second Takumi is a replica, so same HP bar.

 

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

The second is a replica, so just like what happens with replicated units, defeating the real one kills the replica as well.

Judging by the lack of reaction to saying I won, I have to assume it's just a LotR meme.

 

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6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Well your basis is the supports, which is a pretty good one imo. The real issue would be finding why in the flying fup he isn't possessed in Conquest when he stayed in Valla way longer than Revalation. Or why Takumi apparently isn't possessed in Revelation when nothing Corrin does should alter any of the events that led him to that point.

Second Takumi is a replica, so same HP bar.

 

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

The second is a replica, so just like what happens with replicated units, defeating the real one kills the replica as well.

Jinx!

Aha yeah, that is true. Still, it's not immediately obvious. My first playthrough, I thought that I had to kill both. Knowing that only the front Takumi must be taken down changes the calculus somewhat.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Judging by the lack of reaction to saying I won, I have to assume it's just a LotR meme.

Well, that too.

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

Genuinely, congratulations. It sounds like it was a nightmare. This whole account has really made me think about... never playing Conquest on Lunatic.

I, uh... definitely wasn't as ready for the difficulty as I thought I'd be. I'm hopeful I'll get good enough to handle it eventually, and namely find counters to the parts of it I find annoying. Getting better at holding on to my valuable assets would probably help too, considering I lost Azura, Elise, 10,000 gold, boots, and all four rescue staff uses.

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Just wanted give my commendations. I've been following this, although the details of battle did become -through no fault of your own- a bit difficult to fully digest. Nonetheless, I did enjoy following the ups and downs, the "excellent!" and the "oh s***" moments. And it's better to have too much to say, than to have Awakening's short comments of "same easy non-strategy as usual" to name an opposing example.

Hopefully SoV won't be too severe a regression. 

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

Genuinely, congratulations. It sounds like it was a nightmare. This whole account has really made me think about... never playing Conquest on Lunatic.

Yeah, the moment the only conceivable victory is a Pyrrhic victory, I'd say the devs have gone too far.

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

Genuinely, congratulations. It sounds like it was a nightmare. This whole account has really made me think about... never playing Conquest on Lunatic.

 

20 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Yeah, the moment the only conceivable victory is a Pyrrhic victory, I'd say the devs have gone too far.

It's not all that bad. Like yeah, it is hard. And I admittedly could not beat it without losing quite a few units, but I reckon given a few attempts, Alastor (who seems to be better than me at Fire Embelm) probably could pull it off. Remember he got his entire team slaughtered in Genesis back in Blazing Blade. And Genesis is a bit of a bullshit level, but it's by no means impossible to beat without losing a unit. Really by far the worst thing about Conquest's endgame is that you can't save before it, meaning every attempt involves playing through the previous level which severely hinders your ability to actually master the level and learn from your mistakes, as any new attempt just has that boring slog of going through the Garon level, which I think is a good level, just not when you've already beaten it and you're forced to play it again before really getting to play the chapter you want to tackle. All in all though I'd definitely prefer a level like Conquest's endgame to something like Birthright or Awakening's, which are basically animated cutscenes.

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1 hour ago, Jotari said:

 

It's not all that bad. Like yeah, it is hard. And I admittedly could not beat it without losing quite a few units, but I reckon given a few attempts, Alastor (who seems to be better than me at Fire Embelm) probably could pull it off. Remember he got his entire team slaughtered in Genesis back in Blazing Blade. And Genesis is a bit of a bullshit level, but it's by no means impossible to beat without losing a unit. Really by far the worst thing about Conquest's endgame is that you can't save before it, meaning every attempt involves playing through the previous level which severely hinders your ability to actually master the level and learn from your mistakes, as any new attempt just has that boring slog of going through the Garon level, which I think is a good level, just not when you've already beaten it and you're forced to play it again before really getting to play the chapter you want to tackle. All in all though I'd definitely prefer a level like Conquest's endgame to something like Birthright or Awakening's, which are basically animated cutscenes.

The way I see it, though, I dislike when the strategies that get encouraged are cheese strategies, which is the case here, not unlike in SD. Have you seen anyone do CQ Lunatic endgame without Rescue cheese AND without letting units die???

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40 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

The way I see it, though, I dislike when the strategies that get encouraged are cheese strategies, which is the case here, not unlike in SD. Have you seen anyone do CQ Lunatic endgame without Rescue cheese AND without letting units die???

I don't typically watch other people play Fire Emblem. But I'm sure it's possible. Given a certain definition of cheese. I wouldn't consider rushing Takumi when you've cleared half the map to be a cheese strategy. Nor would I consider using a rescue staff after you've send someone down to take out a maid. Using rescue pass chains from turn 1 though, yeah, that's cheese and presumably what you meant.

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6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

The way I see it, though, I dislike when the strategies that get encouraged are cheese strategies, which is the case here, not unlike in SD. Have you seen anyone do CQ Lunatic endgame without Rescue cheese AND without letting units die???

The 0% growths Conquest Lunatic clear all enemies run managed it. No player units used staff use at all on that map...be warned the video of this is over 4 hours with the Garon kill.

Spoiler

 

 

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Shadows of Valentia Day 1: Fire Emblem: Three Genders

Man.

Uh, this is gonna be weird.

Okay, so, my really, really, really long-time readers (Christ, it's getting the point where taking two years total might be an optimistic guess) will know that when I played the original Gaiden, it was right after playing what is unquestionably the worst game in the entire series, the first one. And in that context, I was delighted by all the positive changes it made in comparison, and the contrast made such an impact on my impression of it that it took until, like, the GBA games before I stopped wanting to put it in the top half of the list.

In contrast to that... I'm going to be playing its remake... immediately after playing what I consider the best game in the series. That... uh... this might get ugly.

But on the plus side, I am actually looking forward to getting to chill out and play a less intense game. Like I said during my Birthright playthrough, Conquest may provide the best and most engaging challenge... but I ain't always up for that.

But yeah, I'm gonna come right out and say it: I'm not even going to try to ironman this game. While it fixes the egregious “you literally can't do anything to resist critical hits” thing from the original, and while it does have revival shrines...

...the cast is fucking tiny, and in overworld battles you're allowed (possibly required, depending on how I remember things) to field everyone, which isn't exactly the most encouraging for ironmans, since it means there's no buffer before losing units starts depleting your deployable numbers.

Alright. So yeah. I should probably talk about how I felt about this game when I first played it a few years back.

It was alright. I found it fun enough to play once seriously and then another time memeing the shit out of it by soloing with the villagers and mercenaries as much as humanly possible, then doing the dread fighter loop at the very end of the game (I wasn't grinding to abuse it even more). After that though, I never really felt the desire to come back to it, largely due to its lack of real difficulty. Making matters worse was that this game had the beginnings of something that came to a head in Three Houses: visual novel elements to the story making advancing the story parts between battles more than just pressing start if you've already seen them. It felt way worse at the time, though I'm sure coming back to it it's gonna feel nothing like Three Houses, especially since I'm actually paying attention to the story again, but at the time I remember that the extremely story-heavy beginning always felt like the last straw that nipped any attempt to replay the game in the bud.

That said... with one very particularly infuriating exception that we will get to, I always remembered loving the story and writing and voice acting. I think it's practically become a cliché to say this, but yeah, definitely the best-looking game in the series. Hands-down best presentation, from the visuals to the voice acting. Only sour spot is the weird choppy cutscenes compared to Fateswakening.

Alright.

Starting now.

Watching the opening.

I'm loving the music, and the cutscenes seem slightly better than I remember. But... this is mostly just a mix of cutscenes from the game played in a weird montage like some kind of Youtube AMV. I'm reminded of the Radiant Dawn opening, except with better music and slightly better mixed visuals. Contrast this with Fates and Awakening, which had actual proper openings made of footage made specifically for it. The difference in quality is palpable, even if I don't watch the openings nearly enough to give enough of a shit to take off points.

Alright, I get the post-victory opening with Alm and Celica as adults instead of little kids, and I'm wondering if there's any way to see the old opening again without deleting my file.

But enough of that, new game. I select hard, and the way I remember it, this increases enemy stats slightly compared to the original game, while normal mode I think uses the original game's stats despite growth rates being increased for your units all around.

...Okay, I just noticed that Casual is the default option the cursor starts on. This instantly intrigues me and makes me wonder if it's always been like this. But really, I think a certain game mechanic this game introduced kinda invalidates the concept of casual mode basically entirely. But I'll be getting to that likely tomorrow.

Okay so the year is 402 in some place called Flostym. And we get a cutscene of Alm having just stabbed Celica to get the player curious as to what the fuck just happened.

I caught “Avistym”, but not the year before that scene change card vanished. And since I know for a fact this takes place in Ram Village, this makes me conclude that Flostym probably wasn't a place, but a month.

Ah yes, but now we get cute widdle babby versions of the starting villagers, including the first character exclusive to the remake: Faye! She's cute, and she's obsessed with Alm, and that's it. I've just described her. She's that and nothing else. But gameplaywise she's awesome, because she's a female villager, and while they can't become mercenaries for the almighty dread fighter loop, they can become healers, which means my team has two healers from the very start.

Yeah, all three original villagers have... radically different appearances and personalities here compared to the original game. And I like them way better, not that that's a hard bar to leap. I like Kliff's design the best. He's not objectively the best villager anymore, and sadly global growth rates have been increased so much that he's really not that awesome anymore, though obviously I'll still be using him. Personality-wise, he's become more of a snarky bookworm compared to his original cowardly dork persona in Gaiden.

Ah yes, and then they have this weird comment where Faye says Celica is Alm's cousin, but then Kliff mentions how they're Not Blood Siblings, because of course, it ain't incest if you say “no chromo”. And then Faye just instantly assumes this means she's lost this love triangle already at the age of ten.

But then Tobin comes in and tells everyone that there's a real knight coming by, and they all run off to see him, completely oblivious to the shit they've gotten themselves into. And then we get a sequence where, for the first time in the series, we're given the ability to freely move around a fully 3D environment, but it doesn't last long for now, just to walk over to Celica in a grassy field.

I do appreciate that this opening gives us some added depth to Alm and Celica's relationship.

It's an interesting design choice to make the story scenes from the first person perspective, and put shots of Alm's face on the bottom screen. That added touch definitely helps keep Alm well-emoted with this design choice.

...Oh. Right. The marks on their hands. Shit, I can't remember, was this ever discussed in Gaiden? Also, are those marks double-sided? Because I notice it only shows it on the back of Alm's hand, and on Celica's palm. Though Alm saying that this obviously means they're meant to be together forever is, uh... kinda weird. And of course, before she can finish the sentence where she promises to never leave Alm, they get interrupted by Faye screaming. Slayde, another new character, this time among the enemies, is a sleazebag Zofian soldier abusing his position to impose upon Ram Village's hospitality, ordering the kids to lead them there and then making some creepy comments about Alm's two older sisters.

...Okay, so, I just noticed that Slayde's head and beard hair are the exact same color and seamlessly flow into each other, and with his long hair, uh... that's a bit of a weird look.

But yeah, Alm comes by to fight, but he's not nearly strong enough now to be of any help, and all he accomplishes is exposing Celica to this guy. It's really up to Sir Mycen to show up and save them.

Slayde (to Mycen): We never finished what we started in the flames that night, old man.

I have to assume that has to do with the fire in the castle that I think killed most of the Zofian heirs?

And Mycen, an extremely experienced soldier, gives the children what is in this universe the soundest advice to survive combat you could possibly give: run to the graveyard and hide behind the nearest tombstone, because those fuckers have crazy avoid bonuses in this game, just like in the original. They didn't mess around with too many of the game mechanics. That, uh... is gonna cause problems.

Mycen tells the children to help him fight off the soldiers, and the children all balk at this. As well they should, because their stats are so pathetic compared to the soldiers that I've never even bothered trying to get a single kill. Because Mycen really doesn't need these brats to do anything. He's every bit as powerful as when you get him at the end of the game.

...Okay, I definitely remember it being easier to distinguish highlighted tiles from the blue of movement selection in Awakening and Fates. I'll have to check that later. Here it seems pretty damned hard to see the magenta.

Ah yes, and as the meme goes, the game very helpfully lists which of the three genders the playable cast is. We've got four boys, two girls, and one gold knight.

Anyway, the combat animations here are much more fast-paced and lively, and way less floaty. A massive improvement over the ones in Awakening and Fates. What's more, there are more types of animations too, including counter-attacks, which are animations you do when you attack right after dodging. For gold knights, that means kicking the enemy with your horse's back hooves, which is incredibly badass. They also have lines for some things they do in battle, most notably taking the minimum damage of one.

The bottom screen unit info is a bit weird and uses a lot more space for the character portrait, but as far as I can tell right now it works perfectly for conveying all needed information.

I also notice that when I zoomed in on Gray on his unit info screen to see him fight, his sword swipes actually cut the grass.

Jesus, why did they ever have to stop making games for the 3DS!? If the next game had been made on the 3DS it would've looked gorgeous.

...The game doesn't seem to automatically end your turn when all your units move. That's usually the default setting in Fire Emblem games.

Anyway, Slayde refuses to move until attacked, at which point I promptly lure him off his tombstone to his death.

Damn! They nearly have me... But not today. I must return to the castle.”

Man, that feels like it was probably the origin of “Damn, I've been defeated! But I can't fall here!”

But yeah, since Slayde escaped and wasn't promptly killed (somehow), this means Celica has to be relocated before Slayde can tell General Desaix that she's still alive.

But of course, Alm has no understanding about why all of this means Celica has to leave, so he's scared and confused and angry and on the verge of tears.

...And then Gray says something weird that almost implies he can tell those two are the main characters of this story.

Yeah, uh... it may be that I've already seen this before, but I'm not finding myself exactly gripped by what's happening. I'm noticing too many things that are taking me out of it or feeling off in this opening. But I definitely stand by my opinion that this is way, way better than the writing and voice acting in Three Houses.

And now we get another cutscene, this time describing Mila and Duma, the gods of Valentia. Basically Mila's the overbearing doting mother and Duma's the hard-ass pragmatic father, but they had a big divorce and split custody of the human race between them, a metaphor that works way, way too well considering the fact that these two are siblings.

Lima_IV_cutscene.jpg

Jesus Christ the king of Zofia is, uh... uncomfortably gaunt for someone who lives in a land of decadence and plenty. He's the idle, useless king of a land spoiled rotten by the goddess's bounty, so I'd expect him to be fat. But the guy's a fucking skeleton!

...He has to be on drugs. No other explanation. This guy's just constantly high, on some cocaine analogue most likely, and it's making him all gaunt and sickly. He just does nothing all day but snort powdered dragonstones, fuck his massive harem of dancer girls, and maaaaaybe eat during the hour or two a day he has the presence of mind to indulge a vice as pedestrian as food.

Seriously though, missed opportunity, not going into detail about what the fuck this dude was on. It would make a great story hook for a sidequest, having to fight a drug dealer or something.

Okay, so we're at Ram Village again, with Alm all grown up, clearly vastly improved in his training, but Mycen still won't let him leave the village. I'm not quite sure of the reasoning behind this, given the truth of who he is. He thinks he isn't ready, but then deliberately fucks off right when the call to adventure happens, and then talks to him again at the end of the act like him leaving was his plan all along. Is this reverse psychology? But then did he know that Lukas would come here?

...Questions for later.

But yeah, Alm's expositing a lot of stuff that really should've been part of that opening cinematic, since a lot has radically changed from the world of the cutscene we just saw. Namely the sudden drought and famine in Zofia as opposed to the decadent bounty of yesteryear. And then we're put into free exploration mode, where we can explore the town like a visual novel rather than like the NES RPG style town exploration of the original.

...But yeah. I think this is a comfortable place to stop today. Barely did any actual combat, but, uh... with a story-heavy game like this, I think four and a half pages of notes is enough for one day. I don't want to overdo it.

Tomorrow, we'll get involved in our first battles and explore the game a bit more.

Stay safe, everyone!

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On 5/23/2021 at 2:13 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

The 0% growths Conquest Lunatic clear all enemies run managed it. No player units used staff use at all on that map...be warned the video of this is over 4 hours with the Garon kill.

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

Holy cheese, 4 hours!?! Damn. Also, while the wiki mentions there being reinforcements other than Faceless, actually seeing them is something else (I never got to see anything besides Faceless because I finish the map beforehand). Which begs the question of which ones of these are Lunatic exclusive... and second, who in the name of Arceus is this guy!?! Also, the video's private =(

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18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

That said... with one very particularly infuriating exception that we will get to, I always remembered loving the story and writing and voice acting. I think it's practically become a cliché to say this, but yeah, definitely the best-looking game in the series. Hands-down best presentation, from the visuals to the voice acting. Only sour spot is the weird choppy cutscenes compared to Fateswakening.

 

Yeah, I was going to wait until that point ot say it, but since it's brought up, I'll say it now. I really, really don't like how Alm and Celica's battle models look in the final cutscene with Duma. They look fine when they're running around and stuff, but not in that mostly lull final moments thing where we're just looking at those faces that are really low res yet still manage to crash really hard into the uncanny valley. Fortunately the times where they actually use models for the characters are few and far between.

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Alright.

Starting now.

Watching the opening.

I'm loving the music, and the cutscenes seem slightly better than I remember. But... this is mostly just a mix of cutscenes from the game played in a weird montage like some kind of Youtube AMV. I'm reminded of the Radiant Dawn opening, except with better music and slightly better mixed visuals. Contrast this with Fates and Awakening, which had actual proper openings made of footage made specifically for it. The difference in quality is palpable, even if I don't watch the openings nearly enough to give enough of a shit to take off points.

 

Radiant Dawn opening did have some exclusive scenes made just for it  (either that or they were intended to be used elsewhere and never were). M ost noteably that ending section with Sothe and Micaiah in a green field. I also think the close ups of Ashera are exclusive to it, though maybe they use footage like that when she wakes up. Been a hell of a long time since I played Raidant Dawn.

 

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Oh. Right. The marks on their hands. Shit, I can't remember, was this ever discussed in Gaiden? Also, are those marks double-sided? Because I notice it only shows it on the back of Alm's hand, and on Celica's palm. Though Alm saying that this obviously means they're meant to be together forever is, uh... kinda weird. And of course, before she can finish the sentence where she promises to never leave Alm, they get interrupted by Faye screaming. Slayde, another new character, this time among the enemies, is a sleazebag Zofian soldier abusing his position to impose upon Ram Village's hospitality, ordering the kids to lead them there and then making some creepy comments about Alm's two older sisters.

 

They're not nearly as relevant in Gaiden, being an actual normal birthmark, but surprisingly, yes, Shadows of Valentia did not make this up. It's even noted to be cross shaped in Gaiden. Well, at the very least Alm had one in Gaiden. I don't think Celica is ever noted to have a birthmark. Though maybe there's som emention of one for dualism in the ancillary materials.

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Okay, so, I just noticed that Slayde's head and beard hair are the exact same color and seamlessly flow into each other, and with his long hair, uh... that's a bit of a weird look.

But yeah, Alm comes by to fight, but he's not nearly strong enough now to be of any help, and all he accomplishes is exposing Celica to this guy. It's really up to Sir Mycen to show up and save them.

Slayde (to Mycen): We never finished what we started in the flames that night, old man.

I have to assume that has to do with the fire in the castle that I think killed most of the Zofian heirs?

And Mycen, an extremely experienced soldier, gives the children what is in this universe the soundest advice to survive combat you could possibly give: run to the graveyard and hide behind the nearest tombstone, because those fuckers have crazy avoid bonuses in this game, just like in the original. They didn't mess around with too many of the game mechanics. That, uh... is gonna cause problems.

Mycen tells the children to help him fight off the soldiers, and the children all balk at this. As well they should, because their stats are so pathetic compared to the soldiers that I've never even bothered trying to get a single kill. Because Mycen really doesn't need these brats to do anything. He's every bit as powerful as when you get him at the end of the game.

...Okay, I definitely remember it being easier to distinguish highlighted tiles from the blue of movement selection in Awakening and Fates. I'll have to check that later. Here it seems pretty damned hard to see the magenta.

Ah yes, and as the meme goes, the game very helpfully lists which of the three genders the playable cast is. We've got four boys, two girls, and one gold knight.

Anyway, the combat animations here are much more fast-paced and lively, and way less floaty. A massive improvement over the ones in Awakening and Fates. What's more, there are more types of animations too, including counter-attacks, which are animations you do when you attack right after dodging. For gold knights, that means kicking the enemy with your horse's back hooves, which is incredibly badass. They also have lines for some things they do in battle, most notably taking the minimum damage of one.

The bottom screen unit info is a bit weird and uses a lot more space for the character portrait, but as far as I can tell right now it works perfectly for conveying all needed information.

I also notice that when I zoomed in on Gray on his unit info screen to see him fight, his sword swipes actually cut the grass.

Jesus, why did they ever have to stop making games for the 3DS!? If the next game had been made on the 3DS it would've looked gorgeous.

...The game doesn't seem to automatically end your turn when all your units move. That's usually the default setting in Fire Emblem games.

Anyway, Slayde refuses to move until attacked, at which point I promptly lure him off his tombstone to his death.

Damn! They nearly have me... But not today. I must return to the castle.”

Man, that feels like it was probably the origin of “Damn, I've been defeated! But I can't fall here!”

But yeah, since Slayde escaped and wasn't promptly killed (somehow), this means Celica has to be relocated before Slayde can tell General Desaix that she's still alive.

But of course, Alm has no understanding about why all of this means Celica has to leave, so he's scared and confused and angry and on the verge of tears.

...And then Gray says something weird that almost implies he can tell those two are the main characters of this story.

Yeah, uh... it may be that I've already seen this before, but I'm not finding myself exactly gripped by what's happening. I'm noticing too many things that are taking me out of it or feeling off in this opening. But I definitely stand by my opinion that this is way, way better than the writing and voice acting in Three Houses.

And now we get another cutscene, this time describing Mila and Duma, the gods of Valentia. Basically Mila's the overbearing doting mother and Duma's the hard-ass pragmatic father, but they had a big divorce and split custody of the human race between them, a metaphor that works way, way too well considering the fact that these two are siblings.

Lima_IV_cutscene.jpg

Jesus Christ the king of Zofia is, uh... uncomfortably gaunt for someone who lives in a land of decadence and plenty. He's the idle, useless king of a land spoiled rotten by the goddess's bounty, so I'd expect him to be fat. But the guy's a fucking skeleton!

...He has to be on drugs. No other explanation. This guy's just constantly high, on some cocaine analogue most likely, and it's making him all gaunt and sickly. He just does nothing all day but snort powdered dragonstones, fuck his massive harem of dancer girls, and maaaaaybe eat during the hour or two a day he has the presence of mind to indulge a vice as pedestrian as food.

Seriously though, missed opportunity, not going into detail about what the fuck this dude was on. It would make a great story hook for a sidequest, having to fight a drug dealer or something.

 

I freaking love Lima's design and, basically everything about him as a character. I'm super glad they kept him as an ass and actually further played it up in Shadows of Valentia, but a bit dissapointed they never used any Memory Prisms or DLC to actually see him in action. I'm fascinated to see how he would actually be depicted. Because while you jumped to drugs ( a reasonable jump), my mind went to depression. As in all this hedonism he's indulging in isn't actually making him any happier as a person and his body is slowly withering away due to a general disinterestin and dispassion for life (which isn't mutually exclusive to drug abuse mind you). I guess they didn't quite want to go there, but if ever Fire Emblem were to have a drug abuse plot, Sofia is absolutely the setting to do it.

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so we're at Ram Village again, with Alm all grown up, clearly vastly improved in his training, but Mycen still won't let him leave the village. I'm not quite sure of the reasoning behind this, given the truth of who he is. He thinks he isn't ready, but then deliberately fucks off right when the call to adventure happens, and then talks to him again at the end of the act like him leaving was his plan all along. Is this reverse psychology? But then did he know that Lukas would come here?

...Questions for later.

But yeah, Alm's expositing a lot of stuff that really should've been part of that opening cinematic, since a lot has radically changed from the world of the cutscene we just saw. Namely the sudden drought and famine in Zofia as opposed to the decadent bounty of yesteryear. And then we're put into free exploration mode, where we can explore the town like a visual novel rather than like the NES RPG style town exploration of the original.

...But yeah. I think this is a comfortable place to stop today. Barely did any actual combat, but, uh... with a story-heavy game like this, I think four and a half pages of notes is enough for one day. I don't want to overdo it.

Tomorrow, we'll get involved in our first battles and explore the game a bit more.

Stay safe, everyone!

 

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Well that old lovely glitch of not allowing the editing of comments hit me. I wanted to say tt actually dissapoints me quite a bit that they went for the adventure game aesthetic for the towns when they already had a fully functioning explore mechanic built in. It wouldn't have taken that much effort. Most of its done already. All they need is some collision detection.

 

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35 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, I get the post-victory opening with Alm and Celica as adults instead of little kids, and I'm wondering if there's any way to see the old opening again without deleting my file.

It switches between the two for me, but I don't exactly remember how to trigger it.

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah yes, and as the meme goes, the game very helpfully lists which of the three genders the playable cast is. We've got four boys, two girls, and one gold knight.

Actually, there's only one gender: the human gender.

38 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But yeah, since Slayde escaped and wasn't promptly killed (somehow), this means Celica has to be relocated before Slayde can tell General Desaix that she's still alive.

It's conceivable that they would want to relocate her even if the knights had been killed. A bunch of knights traveling to Ram Village, and never coming back, surely warrants a follow-up investigation.

40 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But yeah, Alm's expositing a lot of stuff that really should've been part of that opening cinematic, since a lot has radically changed from the world of the cutscene we just saw. Namely the sudden drought and famine in Zofia as opposed to the decadent bounty of yesteryear. And then we're put into free exploration mode, where we can explore the town like a visual novel rather than like the NES RPG style town exploration of the original.

Yeah, he seems to lean against the screen here, when it comes to exposition. Without spoiling anything, I'll be curious to hear what you think of how the "drought/famine" story curremt develops.

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9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I freaking love Lima's design and, basically everything about him as a character. I'm super glad they kept him as an ass and actually further played it up in Shadows of Valentia, but a bit dissapointed they never used any Memory Prisms or DLC to actually see him in action. I'm fascinated to see how he would actually be depicted. Because while you jumped to drugs ( a reasonable jump), my mind went to depression. As in all this hedonism he's indulging in isn't actually making him any happier as a person and his body is slowly withering away due to a general disinterestin and dispassion for life (which isn't mutually exclusive to drug abuse mind you). I guess they didn't quite want to go there, but if ever Fire Emblem were to have a drug abuse plot, Sofia is absolutely the setting to do it.

Big agree here. I'd have loved to see this guy explored more. Whether it be drugs, depression or both, visually he just demands way more story than he was given.

As for the explorable towns, ah yes, I did hear about that. In practice I don't think it matters much and is quicker, but I'll have to see how my thoughts evolve.

 

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

Yeah, he seems to lean against the screen here, when it comes to exposition. Without spoiling anything, I'll be curious to hear what you think of how the "drought/famine" story curremt develops.

Given that I don't remember much of it ever coming up... well, we'll see how it goes. It's been more than 2 years since I last played.

Edited by Alastor15243
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49 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That said... with one very particularly infuriating exception that we will get to, I always remembered loving the story and writing and voice acting. I think it's practically become a cliché to say this, but yeah, definitely the best-looking game in the series. Hands-down best presentation, from the visuals to the voice acting. Only sour spot is the weird choppy cutscenes compared to Fateswakening.

Alright, I get the post-victory opening with Alm and Celica as adults instead of little kids, and I'm wondering if there's any way to see the old opening again without deleting my file.

Ah yes, but now we get cute widdle babby versions of the starting villagers, including the first character exclusive to the remake: Faye! She's cute, and she's obsessed with Alm, and that's it. I've just described her. She's that and nothing else. But gameplaywise she's awesome, because she's a female villager, and while they can't become mercenaries for the almighty dread fighter loop, they can become healers, which means my team has two healers from the very start.

Yeah, all three original villagers have... radically different appearances and personalities here compared to the original game. And I like them way better, not that that's a hard bar to leap. I like Kliff's design the best. He's not objectively the best villager anymore, and sadly global growth rates have been increased so much that he's really not that awesome anymore, though obviously I'll still be using him. Personality-wise, he's become more of a snarky bookworm compared to his original cowardly dork persona in Gaiden.

Ah yes, and then they have this weird comment where Faye says Celica is Alm's cousin, but then Kliff mentions how they're Not Blood Siblings, because of course, it ain't incest if you say “no chromo”. And then Faye just instantly assumes this means she's lost this love triangle already at the age of ten.

But then Tobin comes in and tells everyone that there's a real knight coming by, and they all run off to see him, completely oblivious to the shit they've gotten themselves into. And then we get a sequence where, for the first time in the series, we're given the ability to freely move around a fully 3D environment, but it doesn't last long for now, just to walk over to Celica in a grassy field.

...Oh. Right. The marks on their hands. Shit, I can't remember, was this ever discussed in Gaiden? Also, are those marks double-sided? Because I notice it only shows it on the back of Alm's hand, and on Celica's palm. Though Alm saying that this obviously means they're meant to be together forever is, uh... kinda weird. And of course, before she can finish the sentence where she promises to never leave Alm, they get interrupted by Faye screaming. Slayde, another new character, this time among the enemies, is a sleazebag Zofian soldier abusing his position to impose upon Ram Village's hospitality, ordering the kids to lead them there and then making some creepy comments about Alm's two older sisters.

And Mycen, an extremely experienced soldier, gives the children what is in this universe the soundest advice to survive combat you could possibly give: run to the graveyard and hide behind the nearest tombstone, because those fuckers have crazy avoid bonuses in this game, just like in the original. They didn't mess around with too many of the game mechanics. That, uh... is gonna cause problems.

Anyway, the combat animations here are much more fast-paced and lively, and way less floaty. A massive improvement over the ones in Awakening and Fates. What's more, there are more types of animations too, including counter-attacks, which are animations you do when you attack right after dodging. For gold knights, that means kicking the enemy with your horse's back hooves, which is incredibly badass. They also have lines for some things they do in battle, most notably taking the minimum damage of one.

I also notice that when I zoomed in on Gray on his unit info screen to see him fight, his sword swipes actually cut the grass.

Jesus, why did they ever have to stop making games for the 3DS!? If the next game had been made on the 3DS it would've looked gorgeous.

 

And now we get another cutscene, this time describing Mila and Duma, the gods of Valentia. Basically Mila's the overbearing doting mother and Duma's the hard-ass pragmatic father, but they had a big divorce and split custody of the human race between them, a metaphor that works way, way too well considering the fact that these two are siblings.

Lima_IV_cutscene.jpg

Jesus Christ the king of Zofia is, uh... uncomfortably gaunt for someone who lives in a land of decadence and plenty. He's the idle, useless king of a land spoiled rotten by the goddess's bounty, so I'd expect him to be fat. But the guy's a fucking skeleton!

...He has to be on drugs. No other explanation. This guy's just constantly high, on some cocaine analogue most likely, and it's making him all gaunt and sickly. He just does nothing all day but snort powdered dragonstones, fuck his massive harem of dancer girls, and maaaaaybe eat during the hour or two a day he has the presence of mind to indulge a vice as pedestrian as food.

Seriously though, missed opportunity, not going into detail about what the fuck this dude was on. It would make a great story hook for a sidequest, having to fight a drug dealer or something.

Gee, I wonder what that exception would be, I'm sure it's not a certain poor plot point that requires a character to completely ignore tons of warnings they were given.

 

I think quitting to the main menu from the map screen uses the original menu? I can't test as my copy of the game is at a friend's house right now but I swear some way to end up back at the main menu after loading a save is what brings back the original main menu. (Also I love menus that change over time and I love the Echoes Main Menu, most kino menu of the 3DS games, fight me also I think the only one that changes?)

Yes, Kliff is best Boy. 

"It was at this moment, she knew, she was a cuck."

I totally didn't right away 180 turn to see what happens if the game has me run away from Celica (yes, I am the kind of person who defies a game in situations like this.), shame it's only an invisible wall and not Celica yelling at you.

Yeah when I saw that "kick with  the hooves" animation for the horses, thats when I realized all my apprehension towards Echoes was unneeded.

Boy, it would suuuuure suck if no one actually gets any unique boss dialogue against Slayde when you fight him later, especially Faye, the girl traumitized by the time he threatened to slit her throat, that'd sure be duuuumb.

King Lima definitely spent way too much time having sex (Part of the reason I want him in Heroes for a Forging Bonds event where Celica has to stop her young dad trying to get it on with every female in the Order of Heroes.), my friend actually though Lima wasn't even wearing pants when he saw that CG, which honestly I can see as probably in-character.

 

 

Edited by Samz707
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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shit, I can't remember, was this ever discussed in Gaiden?

23 minutes ago, Jotari said:

They're not nearly as relevant in Gaiden, being an actual normal birthmark, but surprisingly, yes, Shadows of Valentia did not make this up. It's even noted to be cross shaped in Gaiden. Well, at the very least Alm had one in Gaiden. I don't think Celica is ever noted to have a birthmark. Though maybe there's som emention of one for dualism in the ancillary materials.

Alm had one, yes, but not Celica.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay so the year is 402 in some place called Flostym. And we get a cutscene of Alm having just stabbed Celica to get the player curious as to what the fuck just happened.

I caught “Avistym”, but not the year before that scene change card vanished. And since I know for a fact this takes place in Ram Village, this makes me conclude that Flostym probably wasn't a place, but a month.

It's not hugely relevant, so might as well. Those are seasons, not months.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Slayde, another new character, this time among the enemies

He's not new. He was there in the original Gaiden as well.

18 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I wanted to say tt actually dissapoints me quite a bit that they went for the adventure game aesthetic for the towns when they already had a fully functioning explore mechanic built in. It wouldn't have taken that much effort. Most of its done already. All they need is some collision detection.

Gotta agree there. It's a shame they stripped that down to just the dungeons and select areas.

12 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Boy, it would suuuuure suck if no one actually gets any unique boss dialogue against Slayde when you fight him later, especially Faye, the girl traumitized by the time he threatened to slit her throat, that'd sure be duuuumb.

Considering it was ten years ago, would they even recognize it was him? Heck, Slayde is only name dropped once in that entire sequence, and it wasn't within earshot of the children.

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3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It's not hugely relevant, so might as well. Those are seasons, not months.

Ahhh. That also makes sense.

 

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

He's not new. He was there in the original Gaiden as well.

Shit. I knew Desaix was, but could've sworn this guy wasn't there.

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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

But enough of that, new game. I select hard, and the way I remember it, this increases enemy stats slightly compared to the original game, while normal mode I think uses the original game's stats despite growth rates being increased for your units all around.

There are a few differences in enemy placement in a handful of maps. The biggest change being the Rudolf fight, everyone was placed differently there. Also, more enemies might use weapons on Hard, namely the bow users, and a lot of the Arcanists swap 1-2 Miasma for the 1-3 & +7 Mt Mire. -Still not a lot of difference.

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12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shit. I knew Desaix was, but could've sworn this guy wasn't there.

I guess the confusion is that he doesn't show up any more after part 1 in Gaiden, whereas you see more of him in SoV?

Edited by Shadow Mir
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23 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I guess the confusion is that he doesn't show up any more after part 1 in Gaiden, whereas you see more of him in SoV?

EDITED: Turns out I was wrong. He's not there in Gaiden.

... nevermind!

Edited by Acacia Sgt
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