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

[Eltosian Kadath]

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Here are what I think the new scores should be, can someone check this? Eltosian, unless I'm mistaken you made a mistake or two with your own, hence why they don't quite add up, but please correct me if I'm wrong.

Oh yeah, for some reason I had it in my head that that Mystery of the Emblem was a NES/Famicom game and not a SNES/Super Famicom game, when I set those numbers...

 

Edit:

Quote

 

* Demoting Revelation from +9 to +6 in ironmannability, because in hindsight the shitty early-game cast and the handful of maps with obnoxious gimmicks (including at least one instance I can remember of hiding the contents of a room until you unlock the door) are enough to make it not deserve to sit in the same tier as Conquest. -3.

To add to this, the way Revelation tries to bait the player into a game over/mass death with the trap door in the stealth chapter was probably egregious enough to warrant this drop anyway...

Edited February 14, 2021 by Eltosian Kadath
Wanted to add something without double posting...

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Obligatory note that I don't need to play it to see how bad Genealogy's balance and pacing are, as it's as easy as going to YouTube. Hell, even this thread made me think "God, Genealogy is absolutely GLACIAL..."  when I was reading through the Genealogy playthrough (I know emulators have a speed up function, but if I have to heavily lean on one just for the game to be playable, that's a red flag). On balance, even a blind man can see that the big maps heavily favour mounted units, and the weapon balance is what I can only describe as shit.

...Anyway, is it just me, or does this series frequently have young people in leadership positions for one reason or another?

Yeah, you sort of do. Because thats the differences between you actually thinking Genealogy has bad pacing and you assuming Genealogy has bad pacing.  If you're going to actually make a claim that it's the worst in the series then you should at the very least play it, and preferably every other game in the series. And this has nothing to do with Genealogy specifically, if you were showing this kind of prejudice towards any other game in the series, or basically any game or shows, then it'd still feel it necessary to point out whenever you don't that your opinion is completely uninformed. Because some people may be fooled into thinking you actually know what you're talking about.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Jotari

[Axie]

the ice chapter must also be a bitch to blind ironman. imagine breaking the wrong block of ice at the end of your turn and not being able to reposition your (currently shitty) characters. revelation's gimmicks make it clearly inferior to both birthright and conquest in that aspect.

also genealogy being horse emblem is entirely overstated. your horse characters aren't even better, they just get to places faster lol. who actually wants to use naoise and alec? they just need to distract the enemy until your actually good foot units such as ayra and lewyn get there. sigurd can't kill everything. gen 2 is much the same. i will be the first to admit the elibe duo, including even my dear BinBla, has a bigger horse problem than genealogy. no, genealogy has busted balance because of the, oh, everything else.

Edited February 14, 2021 by Axie

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Axie said:

the ice chapter must also be a bitch to blind ironman. imagine breaking the wrong block of ice at the end of your turn and not being able to reposition your (currently shitty) characters. revelation's gimmicks make it clearly inferior to both birthright and conquest in that aspect.

This is what pisses me off about it, because really unless you have a map you have to break just one block a turn or else risk horrible consequences.

[Lightcosmo]

3 hours ago, Axie said:

who actually wants to use naoise and alec?

This made me laugh, which always makes my day, so thanks! Needed a good laugh.

On the topic of FE4: I also think that to judge it, you really should at least playthrough it once.

[lenticular]

6 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

If you haven't already, you should play the Jugdral games then. One of the strongest points of them is how strongly they integrate the story and gameplay together (some may complain that is to the detriment of the gameplay...).

I haven't played them, but I also doubt that I ever will. The various hassles required to obtain a copy just aren't for me. Thanks for the recommendation though; I've heard good things about them, and am hoping a remake will appear some day.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

6 hours ago, Axie said:

also genealogy being horse emblem is entirely overstated. your horse characters aren't even better, they just get to places faster lol. who actually wants to use naoise and alec? they just need to distract the enemy until your actually good foot units such as ayra and lewyn get there. sigurd can't kill everything. gen 2 is much the same. i will be the first to admit the elibe duo, including even my dear BinBla, has a bigger horse problem than genealogy. no, genealogy has busted balance because of the, oh, everything else.

If you're playing with any sort of efficiency mindset, your mounted units generally sit above your infantry combatants. Getting to the enemy first is crucial for getting to kill the enemy (and Genealogy is notorious for hordes of low-quality enemies). Plus, in times of danger, you can Canto away to relative safety - a luxury that footbound units lack sorely. Being on horseback also means getting to the villages (and saving them from bandits) all the sooner.

Alec and Noish aren't even bad. Alec gets the ever-valuable Pursuit, while Nihil actually gives him a neat niche in chapter 5. Noish lacks good skills, but he has fairly good combat stats. Either of them can use the Brave Sword when that shows up - and on promotion, the Brave Lance. As for Sigurd... unironically, he can kill everything, or at least everything that he needs to kill. You'll want to stack rings on him, and there may be some luck required, but a Sigurd solo is absolutely possible.

[Jotari]

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

If you're playing with any sort of efficiency mindset, your mounted units generally sit above your infantry combatants. Getting to the enemy first is crucial for getting to kill the enemy (and Genealogy is notorious for hordes of low-quality enemies). Plus, in times of danger, you can Canto away to relative safety - a luxury that footbound units lack sorely. Being on horseback also means getting to the villages (and saving them from bandits) all the sooner.

Alec and Noish aren't even bad. Alec gets the ever-valuable Pursuit, while Nihil actually gives him a neat niche in chapter 5. Noish lacks good skills, but he has fairly good combat stats. Either of them can use the Brave Sword when that shows up - and on promotion, the Brave Lance. As for Sigurd... unironically, he can kill everything, or at least everything that he needs to kill. You'll want to stack rings on him, and there may be some luck required, but a Sigurd solo is absolutely possible.

It depends on what you mean by efficiency. If it's just LTCing the game, then yeah, but using Genealogy's own ranking system then the EXP rank suddenly becomes very relevant. So getting certain units to clear the arena and level up (or in the case of pegasus knights and some other units, enough levels to promote and gain staffs which can be farmed for exp). Ultimately because Genealogy doesn't have deployment slots everyone in your army can contribute, even if they're just staying at the home castle and clearing the arena to get enough money to pass to lovers to pass around rings, or even just passing down skills and weapons to children. And it's not like foot units never see combat at all, especially if you've already played the game and know where the next target castle will be (or indeed if there are multiple castles to seize at a given time anyway). You can send foot units one way and mounted units the other way.

[Alastor15243]

Apparently, according to my notifications, "Guest" commented on this thread while I was asleep, but I can't see the comment. Anyone know what happened?

[Axie]

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

If you're playing with any sort of efficiency mindset, your mounted units generally sit above your infantry combatants. Getting to the enemy first is crucial for getting to kill the enemy (and Genealogy is notorious for hordes of low-quality enemies). Plus, in times of danger, you can Canto away to relative safety - a luxury that footbound units lack sorely. Being on horseback also means getting to the villages (and saving them from bandits) all the sooner.

Alec and Noish aren't even bad. Alec gets the ever-valuable Pursuit, while Nihil actually gives him a neat niche in chapter 5. Noish lacks good skills, but he has fairly good combat stats. Either of them can use the Brave Sword when that shows up - and on promotion, the Brave Lance. As for Sigurd... unironically, he can kill everything, or at least everything that he needs to kill. You'll want to stack rings on him, and there may be some luck required, but a Sigurd solo is absolutely possible.

yes, i know that in LTC people just make do with the horsies they have, but that doesn't change the fact some key footies have better combat (when they actually get there). having to rely on braves to double isn't the best if my experience with lex is anything to go by. genealogy enemies are crappy, but plentiful, and if you are not one-rounding, you are not advancing as quickly. i am sure LTCers get the job done, but i am also sure the thought on everyone's mind is "ugh, i wish i was using ayra BUT he is the one with a horse, so...". they definitely don't measure up to cavaliers who are also equal or better stat-wise than most of the roster of the GBA games.

as for sigurd, i did say that thinking of a more efficient play style because while a sigurdskip is feasible, it would be a lot slower because javelins in genealogy are so bad, no? it's no sethskip in that regard.

8 hours ago, lightcosmo said:

This made me laugh, which always makes my day, so thanks! Needed a good laugh.

glad to be of service!

[Venger_06]

 On 2/12/2021 at 11:55 PM, lenticular said:

In theory, I guess that the main reason to play Revelation would be if you were really into the story and lore of Fates and want to get to the bottom of some of the mysteries of the first two games and learn what's really going on. Except. Well. Let's just say that there are probably not all that many people for whom that applies. Although, if anyone was that invested in the story, then I think they'd have a legitimate case to be pissed off with Fates' business model, since that's conceivably the one way that Conquest and Birthright aren't complete standalone games.

I can't stop agreeing with you.

On 2/12/2021 at 11:04 PM, Jotari said:

Yeah, but when did he decide that? 

...From the start. They wanted the player to have a third option ever since the game's idea was conceived.

22 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

...Anyway, is it just me, or does this series frequently have young people in leadership positions for one reason or another?

It's a cultural thing. The japanese adults work too much and don't have much time for entertainment, so their works cater a specific audience (young people). This age is also considered the time to venture out before eventually leaving everything behind and concentrating on work.

[Ottservia]

38 minutes ago, Maof06 said:

It's a cultural thing. The japanese adults work too much and don't have much time for entertainment, so their works cater a specific audience (young people). This age is also considered the time to venture out before eventually leaving everything behind and concentrating on work.

Pretty much it’s why so much anime and manga take place in high school. High school is typically the time associated with the last to be free so to speak before being bucked off into the unforgiving hyper capitalistic society that is adult life in Japan. Its not only relatable to Japanese high school students but also reminds adults of a much simpler time in their lives. It’s the kind of setting that appeals to pretty much every young adult demographic. 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

10 hours ago, Jotari said:

It depends on what you mean by efficiency. If it's just LTCing the game, then yeah, but using Genealogy's own ranking system then the EXP rank suddenly becomes very relevant. So getting certain units to clear the arena and level up (or in the case of pegasus knights and some other units, enough levels to promote and gain staffs which can be farmed for exp). Ultimately because Genealogy doesn't have deployment slots everyone in your army can contribute, even if they're just staying at the home castle and clearing the arena to get enough money to pass to lovers to pass around rings, or even just passing down skills and weapons to children. And it's not like foot units never see combat at all, especially if you've already played the game and know where the next target castle will be (or indeed if there are multiple castles to seize at a given time anyway). You can send foot units one way and mounted units the other way.

Yeah, I never said "don't use foot units", or anything of the sort. They should all be used, to some extent, in a ranked playthrough. As for efficiency, I basically mean the minimum to get the highest-possible tactics ranking. As well as reaching time-sensitive hazards as quickly as possible (such as Brigands ruining villages, or Elliot's troops trying to kill Raquesis). In these cases, mounted units are a league above infantry.

6 hours ago, Axie said:

yes, i know that in LTC people just make do with the horsies they have, but that doesn't change the fact some key footies have better combat (when they actually get there). having to rely on braves to double isn't the best if my experience with lex is anything to go by. genealogy enemies are crappy, but plentiful, and if you are not one-rounding, you are not advancing as quickly. i am sure LTCers get the job done, but i am also sure the thought on everyone's mind is "ugh, i wish i was using ayra BUT he is the one with a horse, so...". they definitely don't measure up to cavaliers who are also equal or better stat-wise than most of the roster of the GBA games.

as for sigurd, i did say that thinking of a more efficient play style because while a sigurdskip is feasible, it would be a lot slower because javelins in genealogy are so bad, no? it's no sethskip in that regard.

glad to be of service!

Ayra deals good damage, sure, but her bulk is pretty poor. You can't count on her to take on a battalion as effectively as, say, Sigurd or Lex. As for Lewyn, he's missing Pursuit, so it's a gamble whether he'll be able to secure the one-round. Re: Brave weapons, they're excellent in FE4 overall, and I can get more out of one by putting it on a 9-move unit, than a 6-move one. And regarding the Sigurd solo, remember that he doesn't have to kill everyone. FE4 is a game of seizing, so all he has to kill are the bosses, and anyone blocking his path to said bosses.

[Alastor15243]

Alright, I've updated the scoring, but I've got this lingering concern I did the math wrong. If anyone wants to double-check for me that'd be awesome, but for now, the OP has the updated scores. Revelation's been demoted to third.

[Shadow Mir]

18 hours ago, Axie said:

also genealogy being horse emblem is entirely overstated. your horse characters aren't even better, they just get to places faster lol. who actually wants to use naoise and alec? they just need to distract the enemy until your actually good foot units such as ayra and lewyn get there. sigurd can't kill everything. gen 2 is much the same. i will be the first to admit the elibe duo, including even my dear BinBla, has a bigger horse problem than genealogy. no, genealogy has busted balance because of the, oh, everything else.

I hard disagree - largely because with how much ground you have to cover before you get to the enemy, horse units are head and shoulders above infantry units. It's not just that they get to the enemy well before infantry units can - it's also that they get to retreat after attacking (something which, incidentally, makes cavalry squads among the most dangerous things to face in Genealogy, because they'll tear any unit unlucky enough to be overexposed apart).

Coincidentally, I once happened upon a Fire Emblem blog that had, among other topics, the 15 most overrated characters in the series. Genealogy ALONE had 1/3 of that list, and all except one of them was in the top 5 (the one Genealogy unit that WASN'T in the top 5 is Ayra [whose entry had a blurb about her being an example of how far perceptions of unit worth have changed]; the others are Ced, Lewyn, Briggid, and Larcei). Guess what all five of those units had in common? If you guessed "They're foot units in Holy War", you win the grand prize!

Edited February 14, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I hard disagree - largely because with how much ground you have to cover before you get to the enemy, horse units are head and shoulders above infantry units. It's not just that they get to the enemy well before infantry units can - it's also that they get to retreat after attacking (something which, incidentally, makes cavalry squads among the most dangerous things to face in Genealogy, because they'll tear any unit unlucky enough to be overexposed apart).

Coincidentally, I once happened upon a Fire Emblem blog that had, among other topics, the 15 most overrated characters in the series. Genealogy ALONE had 1/3 of that list, and all except one of them was in the top 5 (the one Genealogy unit that WASN'T in the top 5 is Ayra [whose entry had a blurb about her being an example of how far perceptions of unit worth have changed]; the others are Ced, Lewyn, Briggid, and Larcei). Guess what all five of those units had in common? If you guessed "They're foot units in Holy War", you win the grand prize!

Hard disagree after you've played the game. Say what you presume might be the case until then.

[Lightcosmo]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Hard disagree after you've played the game. Say what you presume might be the case until then.

Damn, that was perfect. Of course, as someone who just played through SPM, i can respect this as well.

TBF, people can have their own feelings while not having played, it's just hard to justify them against the flow/gameplay of the game.

Edited February 15, 2021 by lightcosmo

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 1: Prologue to Chapter 6

Well, a false fire alarm at 3 in the morning cost me roughly half of my night's sleep, and I have serious doubts I'll be able to get back to sleep again tonight. So I'm just gonna blaze through the shit I've already done on Revelation and get to the good stuff as soon as possible. I doubt I'll have as much to say this time around, especially since I've literally already done this shit, but I'm sure I'll have enough to say over 5 chapters to justify an entry, even though I don't expect Chapter 6 to take very long.

...Alright, just as promised, female Dakota it is!

One order of the royal chef's finest Nohrian cheesecake, coming right up!

Something I'm doing differently this time: while I'm keeping the same bane, I'm planning on ending the game as a master ninja, so I'm switching up my boon to go more defensive, considering Nohrian enemies aren't exactly known for their speed. Robust is... I mean this is just embarrassing. So, when you compare robust and sturdy, going robust gets you a 15% higher HP growth, and sturdy gives you... a 5% higher defense growth and a 5% higher luck growth.

Yeah, I'm going HP.

The endgame build plan is a procstacking build. Hoshidan unity, defender, luna, astra, and dragon fang. To this end, to make sure I don't have to marry Silas (who I also have frontline plans for), I'm selecting cavalier as my talent. Who will I marry? Probably Kaze. I'll need to get the A rank anyway for master ninja and... story reasons...

...Problem is I've already done it before...

...But I literally don't remember anything about any S support in this game, even the one with Kagero I did a few weeks ago, so sure, I'll do it.

...Alright. Good to be back doing an ironman. Pity the last one went wrong.

...Has anyone noticed that Ryoma's face looks... different... in that one shot in the opening cutscene where he goes “I challenge you to single combat!”? The eyes look different.

...Funny how this dream is half prophetic and half “shit that would never happen”. Like, Nyx is fighting for the Nohrian army, and I'm 99% sure you never fight her in Birthright because she never joins the Nohrian army because she's a fucking hermit.

...Keaton, too. You fight him, but he's not fighting for Nohr when you do. I guess this is just more of a “and you were there” thing... for people she hasn't met yet.

...Well this is annoying. When you heal up at the Chapter 1 dragon vein heal tile with an HP asset... you heal to full. Meaning Xander's Chivalry never goes away and it takes a turn longer to kill him.

...Oh no wait I can finish him off just barely, I forgot.

First level up: Magic, skill and defense. If it weren't for the defense I'd be pissed off, but I think I'm happy with this. Hope I get enough speed to double in a timely fashion though.

Alright, time for Chapter 2. With a sturdier servant, this should be easier.

Ah man, good ol' Castle Krakenburg. I've got something I noticed about this chapter to comment about once we get back here in Birthright, but it's not quite relevant now.

Jakob and Dakota manage to one-round the kodachi swordmaster on the west side...

...and I fuck up. Jakob took too much damage to be able to eat a counter-attack from Rinkah, meaning I can't kill her, forcing me to awkwardly retreat, which combined with the fact that the eastern samurai split up from Kaze for some reason... meant I got caught in a pincer attack with Rinkah still alive.

I might still get out of this, but I'm probably gonna have to do Chapter 3 without Jakob, which could be nasty.

Yeah, if anyone dies in the prologue, it doesn't matter, they come back when the route split happens.

...Yep, just as expected, they took out Jakob, but Jakob managed to get in a heal with his last action.

...It's tempting to blame the lack of sleep for this shit, but no, I misjudged enemy behavior, got too cocky with having Jakob around, and paid the price.

I told you this map can be tricky. If you don't plan ahead several turns, it'll eat you the fuck alive.

But I just barely managed to squeeze through.

And Dakota finally gets speed and strength. Good. She'll be needing those. A lot.

...Okay, so far Dakota's managing to get through Chapter 3 on the sheer power of her Gunter pairup. She's also getting really lucky defense level ups. She's 3 for 4 right now.

The sky knight reinforcements apparently won't even move if nobody with sufficiently low defense is in their attack range. Or maybe that's just because Jakob's gone and there's nobody with sufficiently low defense anywhere. Well at any rate I took them out by splitting up Gunter and Dakota into attack stance.

Now Dakota's five for four with defense! Pity she's only gotten one speed level up though. Figures, the second I go off speed boon, my speed sucks.

Amusingly, to make sure I have a clear escape route to the fort tile, I wound up going back and using that northern dragon vein to give me another way out of there.

...For the second time in this marathon I've heard the “you're boned” music when there was literally no risk of death. Not sure what the fuck was going on there.

...But it looks like I can do this now. Only major obstacle is that the fucking samurai doubles me with his archer pair-up.

...Shit, no, he can double Dakota without the archer pair-up! Oh this is gonna huuuuuurt.

Thankfully I'm making progress. Unless the enemy AI is smart enough to have the lead unit shift for the sole purpose of getting them healed up by a fort tile, I've done some damage to the duo that's gonna stick for round three after I heal up.

...Yep, the AI isn't that smart. Let's do this sumbitch.

Breach achieved. The archer is down, repeat, the archer is down.

And Dakota gets her second point of speed, too late for it to be any use against that fucking samurai. Oh well. I can't complain too much, especially with that insane string of early defense growths. But yet again, she's never gotten speed and defense at the same time.

There. I've seized, and now it's like I never lost a unit at all.

...Took me 70 turns though.

Yet again, did not feel like it. I guess because I was only moving one unit.

Alright! I had some issues feeding Kaze kills at first, but his first level up gave strength, which is great news.

...The second was just HP and speed though.

Alright, I'm on Chapter 5 now. Last one before we get to new content. Hopefully I won't fuck this one up.

One thing I noticed is that enemy debuffs wear off on enemy phase, not on player phase. I could imagine them deciding to do it either way, and it's important information to note, so... noted.

Anyway, it went off without a hitch. I am officially past the repeated content. One last comment though: I have to wonder why the fuck Dakota's dragon form hits resistance when she's clearly goring her opponents with her horns. Man, the dragon form really should've been able to blast water. At range.

...And I get a shitty level that gives nothing but strength. Man, I think I'm dumping all of my speedwings on Dakota as soon as I get them. This is ridiculous. Thankfully having Kaze as a pair-up partner will help with this.

...Alright. Let's do this. Time to Defend Hoshido.

Yep, so “Thorn in You” starts playing as Dakota tells Xander to withdraw and denounces her father as evil, and...

Xander: Father... evil? How could you say that, little princess?

PFFFFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I love how that first “sentence” almost makes him sound like a robot trying to process a basic calculation his programming forbids him from acknowledging exists.

He then proceeds to beat the shit out of Dakota, trying to break through her “brainwashing”, before ultimately giving up and going to kill her.

Honestly, I'm just finding this hilarious. Again, even though they're fine in battle, there's just this quality to the combat animations that make them slapstick comedy gold whenever they're used in a dramatic scene.

Ryoma: Oh why don't you spare ME the chitchat?

...Uh... why the emphasis on “me”, Ryoma? Xander didn't say anything about sparing anyone the chitchat.

Also, Xander talks about “introducing” Ryoma to a sword he already used when they literally just clashed moments ago.

Oh yes, and the ultimate, meme-worthy, beautiful moment-killing line comes when Ryoma rallies everyone to fight the Nohrian royal family and keep them from taking Dakota back. Takumi, who spent all of last chapter flipping out at the horrific death of his mother... says this.

Takumi: Stupid Nohrian jerks! I'll kill all of you!

Oh, Takumi. Never change.

...And Jakob's come back, just as I said he would!

Okay, so, full disclosure: when I first played this when it first came out... I mistook Ryoma for a green unit and didn't realize you could control him.

…

…

...And... this went... really badly... really quickly.

For one thing, I forgot that apparently on Lunatic, Xander will ignore Ryoma and go straight after your more vulnerable units. That, combined with one miscalculation and a really unfortunate miss, meant that Leo, clinging to life with 2 HP, just blasted Dakota to pieces even with her dragonstone.

Which means I've lost the ironman again.

…

…

…

…

…

BEFORE EVEN GETTING TO MY CASTLE.

...Okay, on the one hand, I still feel like blaming the fact that I'm running on four hours of sleep isn't fair, because I don't feel that loopy.

On the other, it doesn't really matter how I feel at this point. Not even ironmanning the game, and thus hampering my ability to judge the game's ironmannability in as unbiased of a fashion as possible, all because of something that happened while rushing through the first six chapters on 4 hours of sleep... would be absolutely ridiculous. So obviously we're not going to do that.

The purist in me wants to do the whole thing over tomorrow, prologue chapters and all, but I may just say “fuck it” since the game casually lets you skip those starting chapters anyway. I'm actually interested in having to deal with this particular speed-screwed Dakota after all.

But I'm open to listening to what people have to say and what people want to see.

Looks like I'm done for the day before it's even time for breakfast.

Stay safe, everyone.

Stay safer than this fucking run.

Edited February 15, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Punished Dayni]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Funny how this dream is half prophetic and half “shit that would never happen”. Like, Nyx is fighting for the Nohrian army, and I'm 99% sure you never fight her in Birthright because she never joins the Nohrian army because she's a fucking hermit.

...Keaton, too. You fight him, but he's not fighting for Nohr when you do. I guess this is just more of a “and you were there” thing... for people she hasn't met yet.

On the Hoshidan side, there's Kaden and Hayato, where Hayato is still in the Wind Tribe and Kaden is probably lost in his favour returning run. Benny's been taken from the border fort without Charlotte and Flora and Gunter have come as well, which makes double nonsense when the latter's supposed to have taken a tumble by this point.

Yeah, you're probably right, just noting everyone else who isn't directly employed by their crown/Corrin's servants. Except Rinkah because she canonically is there in Birthright and would follow before that point.

25 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ryoma: Oh why don't you spare ME the chitchat?

...Uh... why the emphasis on “me”, Ryoma? Xander didn't say anything about sparing anyone the chitchat.

Ryoma is just bored and wants to get to just fighting already.

The Goku hair's not for show.

26 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

For one thing, I forgot that apparently on Lunatic, Xander will ignore Ryoma and go straight after your more vulnerable enemies. That combined with one miscalculation and a really unfortunate miss meant that Leo, clinging to life with 2 HP, just blasted Dakota to pieces even with her dragonstone.

Oh no, he'll do it on Hard as well.

I can tell you that because I was trying to wring experience out of the map.

It complicated things, alongside trying to get everyone else.

27 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

The purist in me wants to do the whole thing over tomorrow, prologue chapters and all, but I may just say “fuck it” since the game casually lets you skip those starting chapters anyway. I'm actually interested in having to deal with this particular speed-screwed Dakota after all.

But I'm open to listening to what people have to say and what people want to see

I'd say live on with it for now.

Whether you treat Jakob as out's up to you.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Dayni said:

I'd say live on with it for now.

Whether you treat Jakob as out's up to you.

Well I mean the game gives him back if you lose him in chapters 2 or 3. He's not the issue here.

[ping]

24 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, Xander talks about “introducing” Ryoma to a sword he already used when they literally just clashed moments ago.

"Evil, meet my sword! SWORD! MEET! EVIL!" (sorry, my brain immediately goes to Minsc when I see the "introduce to weapon" trope)

(actually, I'm not sorry. Minsc is always a good place for a brain to be at)

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, I've updated the scoring, but I've got this lingering concern I did the math wrong. If anyone wants to double-check for me that'd be awesome, but for now, the OP has the updated scores. Revelation's been demoted to third.

Unless I misread the scores for Awakening twice, it should be at -9 (and tied with Thracia). The rest should be correct, I think.

[Punished Dayni]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Well I mean the game gives him back if you lose him in chapters 2 or 3. He's not the issue here.

Sorry, I am saying stick with the ironman in the first part, sorry if that wasn't clear.

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, ping said:

Unless I misread the scores for Awakening twice, it should be at -9 (and tied with Thracia). The rest should be correct, I think.

Thanks, I'll update!

[lenticular]

43 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay, on the one hand, I still feel like blaming the fact that I'm running on four hours of sleep isn't fair, because I don't feel that loopy.

On the other, it doesn't really matter how I feel at this point. Not even ironmanning the game, and thus hampering my ability to judge the game's ironmannability in as unbiased of a fashion as possible, all because of something that happened while rushing through the first six chapters on 4 hours of sleep... would be absolutely ridiculous. So obviously we're not going to do that.

The purist in me wants to do the whole thing over tomorrow, prologue chapters and all, but I may just say “fuck it” since the game casually lets you skip those starting chapters anyway. I'm actually interested in having to deal with this particular speed-screwed Dakota after all.

But I'm open to listening to what people have to say and what people want to see.

Yeah. Tiredness will do that to you. You think that you're still able to think straight and generally operate at full capacity, except that you really aren't. I can't even tell you how many ironman/permadeath games I've lost over the years due to playing when tired. It's actually one of the reasons I don't ironman very often these days. I like being able to play when I'm tired (or stressed or otherwise not at 100%) without having to worry about killing my run.

As for how you proceed, I'd say to play on and treat the rest of the game as if it were an ironman. Dealing with a speed-screwed avatar sounds like it would be interesting and is also a factor in judging ironmannability, since stat-screws do happen and should always be overcomable. Only restart if you think that not having a pure ironman will dampen your enjoyment or enthusiasm for the run.

[Axie]

oh, i would keep the ironman for sure. first six chapters barely even count. replay them if you must but i don't think it's good for the playlog to have it die now.

edit: guess who also posted on little sleep and didn't notice you planned on keeping the ironman regardless! if i were you i wouldn't replay the chapters. just redo chapter 6 and move on. fates starts at chapter 7 just like BlaBla starts at chapter 11 (yes, chapter 6 is actually different for each game, but i don't care).

Edited February 15, 2021 by Axie