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


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11 hours ago, Axie said:

 

if we are not still doing that doing where we pretend like visiting another castles doesn't exist, you could go to another castle and get her an 8 mt iron axe. a small amount of visit points would also get her the ryoma's club, which is innacurate and i know how deathly allergic you are to any weapon below 85 hit, but she starts out doing so little damage to some enemies i may just want to take the risk. a ryoma's club might be obtained from normal my castle activity anyway (though the points one is guaranteed), and also a D rank would allow her to use the throwing club sooner to chip.

meanwhile, visit points get subaki the subaki's pike, which he can use instantly and doubles to 8 mt on most enemies due to his high skill, and allows him to deal more damage sooner in the early game. and even if hinoka outclasses him, should you choose to use both (as i do) or even just him (for why? i know i am defending him but hinoka is very good lol) he can get to C for guard naginata more easily than he could if he started at E.

I would be more concerned about the speed drop from Ryoma's Club than the poor hit. Losing 5 speed is not good, no matter which way you slice it. RE: Subaki, sure, he can use it, but I don't see Subaki's Pike as an argument in his favour because anyone can use it. Besides, is he any better with it than the other lancers???

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21 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I would be more concerned about the speed drop from Ryoma's Club than the poor hit. Losing 5 speed is not good, no matter which way you slice it. RE: Subaki, sure, he can use it, but I don't see Subaki's Pike as an argument in his favour because anyone can use it. Besides, is he any better with it than the other lancers???

eh, she's not doubling at first anyway, this is about actually giving her kills so she doesn't need the thing later. this is hypothetical anyway, she can't use it at first lol. also, yes, subaki's pike is not locked to him, but it improves his combat to "better than rinkah" because we were comparing those two. i guess rinkah doesn't have competition for all the clubs she can't even use until chapter 13 though.

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4 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Imagine if he had natural access to Spear Fighter rather than Samurai. That´d be a direct upgrade from slow Peg.

It could be, but with 35% Spd growth total would he become so slow as to get doubled? Wary Fighter is General exclusive. Growths-wise, Subaki has 10% more HP/Skl/Def and 5% more Mag than Hinoka, physical durability and tanking is his slight advantage. Hinoka's +15% Str/Lck, 25% Spd, and 35% Res end up being a lot more important.

 

4 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Ngl, Sniper Hana was a sight to behold. Then again, being a Sniper in Fates and being bad is an achievement. Right Setsuna?

Wouldn't that be just an inferior Mozu? With Aptitude it's Mozu's 40/50/15/60/65/55/45/40 sans class vs. 25/55/10/45/55/25/20/30 for Hana, not a single victory other than 5% Str.

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38 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

It could be, but with 35% Spd growth total would he become so slow as to get doubled? Wary Fighter is General exclusive. Growths-wise, Subaki has 10% more HP/Skl/Def and 5% more Mag than Hinoka, physical durability and tanking is his slight advantage. Hinoka's +15% Str/Lck, 25% Spd, and 35% Res end up being a lot more important.

...but I´m not saying Subaki > Hinoka in any way shape or form? And if you want to tank Spear Fighter is simply a better class than Samurai anyway, because you aren´t dealing with Katanas and can utilize the Guard Naginata, alongside a set of more useful skills - Seal DEF/SPD, Lancefaire (Swap if you care).

47 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Wouldn't that be just an inferior Mozu? With Aptitude it's Mozu's 40/50/15/60/65/55/45/40 sans class vs. 25/55/10/45/55/25/20/30 for Hana, not a single victory other than 5% Str.

The reason I mentioned Sniper Hana is because it takes everything Hana is good at - dealing damage - and makes that better, while making her frailty (next to) a non-issue. They each face their own challenges of getting there, but growths are not among these hindrances.

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21 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

...but I´m not saying Subaki > Hinoka in any way shape or form? And if you want to tank Spear Fighter is simply a better class than Samurai anyway, because you aren´t dealing with Katanas and can utilize the Guard Naginata, alongside a set of more useful skills - Seal DEF/SPD, Lancefaire (Swap if you care).

And I'm defending Subaki or really trying to hammer him with Hinoka exactly. More "woe be him", because yes, Spear Fight would be better for his tanking, just perhaps not necessarily as good as one could hope.

 

23 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

The reason I mentioned Sniper Hana is because it takes everything Hana is good at - dealing damage - and makes that better, while making her frailty (next to) a non-issue. They each face their own challenges of getting there, but growths are not among these hindrances.

Of course, it's that or Master Ninja that could fix Hana's faults, but Ninja has weak weapons in terms of raw damage, so Sniper is better.

I'm not really condemning her for being worse than Mozu, just lightly pointing out that, while Hana!Sniper would be good, it wouldn't be "objectively" the option around. But who cares about optimization?

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Birthright Day 3: Paralogue 1

Christ, I'm still feeling more sleep-deprived in the morning than usual after two consecutive full nights of sleep. Hopefully this will wear off eventually, but at least we've established I'm no longer a total wreck.

I won't be doing any castle visits today. I got to it too late in the day yesterday so I'd be waiting way too long and we've got shit to do. Skipping today will let me do it at the proper time tomorrow, so that's what we'll be doing.

Kaze and Azura got a support, but it's the same one I already saw, so, moving on.

I remodeled the base to get some semblance of order, but something about the Hoshidan My Castle designs just... doesn't feel right. It's weird, they're just too open and exposed, it barely seems to feel like how I design it matters.

Alright, let's move on to Chapter 8.

Oh no wait! We also have Paralogue 1!

I don't think I've ever trained Mozu in Birthright! Just Conquest and Revelation! Okay, this'll be a fun change of pace then!

Enemies here are stronger than I remember on Lunatic. Only Dakota can reliably one-round these guys. Hopefully this doesn't result in the same shit we ran into in Revelation where enemies got too ridiculous for player-phase tactics to be remotely useful.

At any rate, I've got a brass yumi and a heart seal for Mozu. I went on a bit of a shopping spree to take advantage of Sakura running the rod shop, so I've spent most of my money on sun festals and a rescue staff, but it was worth it. Besides, Birthright is overflowing with cash.

The strategy here is pretty similar to how I did it last time: feed as many kills into Mozu as humanly possible. Key difference being that Mozu is now bowlocked and has worse starting stats.

I've got Silas with Hana support, Dakota with Kaze support, Sakura with Subaki support, and then Azura and Jakob on their own. While Silas can't one-round yet, he can double with a katana and Hana support, if just barely. Pity tonics wouldn't have made a difference either for finishing off enemies with a katana or for letting him double with a steel sword. But with Azura's help I'm managing, and we're making it to Mozu at a reasonable pace.

We've got Mozu. Alright, awesome. Making her an archer now.

The fact that Silas can't one-round these faceless is actually working out in our favor. He can weaken them enough for Mozu to be able to kill with the help of a dual strike from him.

...Provided Silas doesn't crit. Oh well, guess there's next time.

ANOTHER THREE PERCENT CRIT, SILAS!?

Okay, fine, guess third time's the charm.

Alright, after that awkward start, things seem to be going well. Though Silas is taking so many hits that his horse armor broke and he's just sitting on top of a naked horse, which looks way more awkward and dumb than it sounds.

But Mozu got her first level, and she got everything but magic and res! Awesome start! And Silas also got a level up from his killing dual strike, and got... everything but magic and luck! Even better!

Mozu's second level up was the same but unfortunately missed strength, which is a shame. But still, she's making a ton of progress.

...Not as much as I'm used to though. I usually have Mozu chip away at enemies without the assistance of dual strikes, which obviously gets her more hits in and adds in some extra chip exp. I didn't do that this time, and as a result we're nearing the end of the level and I've only gotten her to level 4 with 72 exp, which is way less than I'm used to. Still, it should be no issue getting her up to speed as long as she keeps providing chip damage. Plus, there's still the boss.

...A boss she can't hurt.

...Not without dual strikes.

Okay, so, guess Silas is back in the game for the boss, helping her out with dual strikes. Time to milk this guy for all his diminishing returns are worth.

Mozu's fourth level up was total shit. HP and magic. Oh well. We all have our bad days. Once she hits level 10 I have no doubt she'll be a total monster with quick draw.

Mozu's fifth level up was another comparative dud, though on anyone else the sheer fact that she got speed at this early point in the game would have delighted me.

And after finishing off the last two, we're done!

...Silas and Mozu got a support conversation, which I suppose was inevitable. I forget what this one is...

...Maaaaan. Another short one that ends on a “let's go do something” cliffhanger. Christ. Also, the fact that they depict her basically giving up on fighting in a support that can happen right after she signs on is pretty dang dumb.

...Oh hey, in case anyone was wondering, if you have an HP boon, the game doesn't give you an HP-buffing statue, it gives you a strength-buffing statue. Similar to what they do with strength ingredients for Lilith.

Now then... let's check out Chapter 8.


 

Day 3 Bonus: Chapter 8

Oh thank goodness. For a second I was really scared that this was gonna be Izumo. Could've sworn that was Chapter 8, but I guess I wasn't thinking straight and forgot about this chapter. No, we're doing the wind tribe one. This is a different map from the one in CQ and RV. It's a desert with dragon veins that let you turn the desert into grassland. Pretty cute concept. And we get Hinoka and her retainers here, which will be a huge help, because Chapter 8 opens with a pretty tricky enemy setup that I was not remotely looking forward to doing with my current manpower.

But yeah, same thing happens here as happens in Revelation. Iago tricks us into killing some wind tribe soldiers.

Dakota: Azura, can you please guard Sakura while we deal with this?

WHAT IS WITH THIS GAME AND ACTING LIKE AZURA IS SOME MASSIVE BADASS!?

Anyway, they're really unclear about whether or not the guys we attacked are dead or whether or not we brought them back to the village, or how the fuck the wind tribe found out, just as was the case in Revelation.

But yeah, basically, yet again, it's trial by combat. We've got to beat the shit out of a bunch of Wind Tribesfolk to get to Fuga to prove our innocence. Honestly, if they're willing to make plot points this stupid, they might as well just make the Wind Tribe weird so that the idea that they'd be like this is not only believable, but entertaining.

I went back to East Dakota for the mess hall. Hana was on duty, and she says she “used salt instead of sugar”. That seems like a pretty dumb thing to have her say when not everything she makes is even supposed to have sugar. I'm pretty sure sashimi isn't!

Anyway, we're good to go. I've got a good enough opening gambit to take out these three enemies by the starting area with little difficulty. Let's do this.

The first and most crucial order of business is to have Sakura, the only unit I have with both sand-walking and dragon blood, activate the dragon vein so our units can actually move. After that, I have Orochi exploit Silas's starting position to...

...nope, totally forgot, enemies in guard stance can't be dual-struck.

In my defense, it suddenly occurs to me that I don't think Revelation had a single fucking pair of enemies in guard stance.

Well no matter, my plan is quite flexible. I'll have her go to the west of Silas instead of the north and do chip damage on the samurai with Silas's dual strike helping out, then Silas will rush in and exploit the softening up Saizo did to one-round this oni savage, and then get sung by Azura to finish off the diviner who was hiding behind him. Then Dakota will soften up the western samurai, Mozu will finish him off for some nice exp, and Jakob will finish off the remaining samurai. Sakura is in range of an enemy, but it's just a diviner, and with her resistance that's no issue. I would've liked it if I could've gotten Mozu a double kill, but alas, my plan has to be altered because Azura needs to sing for someone else.

Nope! Wait! I can still salvage this! Dakota will just barely one-shot the oni savage with a dragonstone, meaning I can have Silas finish off the diviner and then have Jakob and Subaki soften up the other samurai instead, and Mozu can take out both samurai. Score! Mozu's now level 7, and she got the crucial stats of strength, skill and speed, as well as HP and defense as a bonus!

Have I mentioned that Revelation basically never made me think like this? Dual striking always felt so criminally underutilized in Revelation, and the ridiculously low deployment limits are almost assuredly to blame for that.

Dakota gets yet another shitty level up. Jeez, if this keeps up it may wind up being a good idea to just give up on her entirely, ship her with Ryoma, and exploit her personal skill to give Ryoma an amazing pair-up boost.

...It would help that this would help me show off what's so amazingly dumb about the Hoshidan royal family S supports. Though Ryoma doesn't have “the letter”, which is a shame. I guess I can tell you about “the letter” when it happens though.

I've noticed that green unit Azama always seems to wander into range of this oni savage. It's possible this was intentional in order to show off his personal skill, which would be amusing.

Anyway, the rest of the map is probably gonna be pretty straightforward, though I will have some fun working out how to feed kills into Mozu. The rough terrain the enemies are traveling through gives us a lot of leeway as to how to control their approach. Would've been interesting if the wind tribe were immune to the sands due to living there. Maybe they could all have a personal skill reflecting that? Would've made using the dragon veins more important to even the playing field.

Mozu can finally use iron weapons, which is great.

Hinoka... I mean at this point I'm really grateful for someone who can reliably double even without a speed pair-up, but her offense needs work. Probably needs a stronger weapon than the guard naginata. I can probably get one for her.

Mozu, on the other hand, has reached the point where she can one-round enemies with a little help from Setsuna for speed and strength.

Aaaand Mozu just learned quick draw. That's 8 more damage per round of combat if she doubles. Oh, it's gonna be smooth sailing with her from now on.

Fuga's got a lot of bulk and an annoying seal strength skill, but it only took one turn to take him out. Saizo, Jakob and Silas. That got Silas to level 10, netting him shelter, a skill I know is good but I've never been ballsy enough to exploit.

Funny, Dakota doesn't actually explain the reasons for the attack. She's about to but gets distracted by talk about the Yato. But apparently it isn't necessary because Fuga already trusts her due to knowing her father and seeing her fight, and... I mean, seriously, the fact that she doesn't explain herself when she was about to still feels awkward.

Oh wait, then he offers to hear their full story over some tea...

...nope, Dakota turns him down. Fuck. Yeah, this is annoying.

Ah yes, and then we get Hayato, who, in contrast to his starting level in Rev...

...starts at level one here.

...Yeah, I'm not going through that shit twice.

Time for supports. Dakota and Kaze's B support, at long last.

...This was... pretty awkward and weird. I'm not even sure how to describe it. Dakota just had an extremely socially inept plan to boost Kaze's apparently cripplingly low self-esteem, and the idea wasn't received well. I wouldn't have minded much if it had been funny, but... it really wasn't.

Alright, now Silas and Hana.

...Silas is... rather randomly extremely rude and blunt. Like... no exaggeration, I could picture Jakob having this support with Hana. He's basically bluntly (though correctly) pointing out how terribly she was fighting last battle, and then infers some negative things about her loyalty to Sakura because of it. I'm really confused, this doesn't feel like Silas at all.

One last thing before I go: I've gotta build the accessory shop early so I can put the Chef's hat on Jakob so he'll be free to cook meals come tomorrow morning. Gotta plan ahead.

...And that's it for the day. Alright, that was nice and productive. We got Mozu from zero to hero in the span of two chapters, meaning we've got one more vital and powerful ally for the next chapter... which could get nasty.

...Can't wait!

Stay safe, everyone!

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21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Dakota: Azura, can you please guard Sakura while we deal with this?

WHAT IS WITH THIS GAME AND ACTING LIKE AZURA IS SOME MASSIVE BADASS!?

Seems Gameplay and Story Segregation 101 involves taking combat zeros and making them out to be actually decent at fighting.

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2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Besides, Birthright is overflowing with cash.

Not particularly compared to Conquest. I can't remember the exact numbers, and I lost the document where I kept track of every acquisition, but I think the two routes had ...~120k in obtainable raw Gold? CQ might have possibly had more if you used the Dragon Veins on Percy's Paralogue with maximum efficacy. Revelation had about 60k total, including the sum provided for successful stealth in the Mikoto chapter. 

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1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Not particularly compared to Conquest. I can't remember the exact numbers, and I lost the document where I kept track of every acquisition, but I think the two routes had ...~120k in obtainable raw Gold? CQ might have possibly had more if you used the Dragon Veins on Percy's Paralogue with maximum efficacy. Revelation had about 60k total, including the sum provided for successful stealth in the Mikoto chapter. 

Weird, it definitely feels like Birthright has more gold. Certainly at the beginning.

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Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Weird, it definitely feels like Birthright has more gold. Certainly at the beginning.

You could double-check my numbers, and see if I miscalculated. I think CQ was advertised as "limited resources", and sure, skirmishes provide no end to EXP and to a lesser extent Gold in BR, but I was surprised to see that Gold wasn't actually restrained in CQ -if I did my numbers right.

Besides the Percy Gold, it did take into consideration the optional Nina Paralogue Gold of... 5k? Did Forrest have a 5k chest too? Those being things BR doesn't get, I don't think any BR exclusive child brings money in their Paralogue.

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i never particularly felt like birthright had more money than conquest. in both games i manage to end up overspending in the midgame somehow anyway lol.

what shocks me is that revelation actually gives us less money. definitely doesn't feel like it.

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9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, the rest of the map is probably gonna be pretty straightforward, though I will have some fun working out how to feed kills into Mozu. The rough terrain the enemies are traveling through gives us a lot of leeway as to how to control their approach. Would've been interesting if the wind tribe were immune to the sands due to living there. Maybe they could all have a personal skill reflecting that? Would've made using the dragon veins more important to even the playing field.

 

I would have liked it if some enemies did have personal skills in this game. Specifically, I'd like it if the enemies who have enemy exclusive skills like Inevitable End or that faceless no exp Void something skill, had them in their personal slots, so it'd feel less like the game is giving the enemies something that I'm not allowed to have (not that the no exp skill would ever be useful in the player's hand). It'd just suit me better thinking this is something exclusive to those units by design rather than just lol no Staff Savant for you. Iago in particular could have done with Staff Savant as his personal. Would have made it feel more like it's something he's doing rather than the game just cheating. Also Iago should have been a staff unit in Heroes. His effect already mimics his Conquest battle anyway.

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12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Enemies here are stronger than I remember on Lunatic. Only Dakota can reliably one-round these guys. Hopefully this doesn't result in the same shit we ran into in Revelation where enemies got too ridiculous for player-phase tactics to be remotely useful.

Lunatic does boost the stats of enemies in Birthright, although I always found the increase in the number of enemies more noticeable in Birthright's Lunatic mode...

 

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Have I mentioned that Revelation basically never made me think like this? Dual striking always felt so criminally underutilized in Revelation, and the ridiculously low deployment limits are almost assuredly to blame for that.

Odd, I generally find dual strike more relevant the smaller the deployment limit, as the loss of actions from pairup is a greater percentage of actions overall.

 

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Fuga's got a lot of bulk and an annoying seal strength skill, but it only took one turn to take him out. Saizo, Jakob and Silas. That got Silas to level 10, netting him shelter, a skill I know is good but I've never been ballsy enough to exploit.

The shelter Pseudo-dance (not to mention the incredible shelter double dance technique) are potent, although even if you aren't using shelter for cheese I still find its more basic abilities of opening up a space you already attacked from for another attack, and protecting a glass canon/wounded unit after a kill are still really useful...

 

6 hours ago, Axie said:

 

what shocks me is that revelation actually gives us less money. definitely doesn't feel like it.

Revelation does give out a lot more physical loot than the other two routes, so if you are selling unwanted equipment Revelations probably nets you more cash...

 

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Birthright Day 4: Chapter 9

I stroll around the base and find Hinoka, who goes “What's this? I'm a bit wary...”

...before revealing she found a fish. Prompting me to burst out laughing while I imagine her crouched on the grass, poking a dead fish with a stick with a look on her face like it might explode.

...If I ever needed a practical demonstration of why I hate using Kaze, it would be this. Kaze just got a surge of strength and defense, and Silas still beats Kaze in both.

Everyone gets an arena shield today, since it's been ages and I want to make sure everyone still has one on whatever file they're currently using!

...Fuko, I've gotta ask, what's the motivation for making your base so incredibly hostile to visitors? I know the trick to doing it and it still takes me longer than usual. Is his useful for some invasion strategy?

Alright, that's done, time to get a good meal for my army and hope it gets the important units.

...Boost to magic in addition to speed isn't the best, but I did get Silas, Mozu and even Hinoka with the +speed, so that's pretty awesome. Alright, let's see if the smithy is up so I can make some nice weapons.

Yep! Alright, let's see... who needs a good weapon...

...I guess first we'll need to see who needs help killing shit next battle. Oh I remember loving how nasty the opening turn is.

Hmm... I also have an invasion as an option to keep in mind.

Alright, so, of the three introductions to Zola that the three routes engage in, I think this is probably the best. I like the whole “Hinoka coming to the rescue” thing.

...I notice Izana's model has its eyes closed too, not just his portrait, when they're trying to introduce him as incredibly serene and dignified before revealing him to be a wacky weirdo.

I also notice that this route seems to be the only one that does that. I seem to remember Conquest and Revelation both skipping the act, like they assumed you played Birthright first and already knew.

So yeah, as was the case in the other routes, the Izana we meet is actually Zola in disguise, and he uses the pretense of inviting everyone to his spa to relax and heal up in order to kill Sakura and Dakota. Hilariously enough, the others actually only suspect it's a trap because Zola's Izana impression was so weird, not realizing that Izana actually is like that.

I have to assume that Izana didn't have an execution chamber, and that this is a new renovation. I wonder how thorough the “renovations” are, and how long Zola would need to be impersonating Izana in order for this to happen.

...Waaaaaaiiiiiiiit.

The takeover couldn't have happened before Mikoto's death, because of the magic hippie shield that kept any enemy Nohrian from going far beyond the bottomless canyon without losing the will to fight! ...Which means that the takeover of Izumo must have happened ridiculously quickly in order for any of this shit to have happened.

But yeah, Hinoka and the others save the day by, after disguising themselves as Nohrian soldiers, stabbing the real Nohrian soldiers in the back.

And yeah, so, I count seven enemies in range of our general starting position, and we're gonna have to take out as many as we can with haste.

First off: Time to use the smithy. Mozu gets a forged brass yumi if for no other reason than because I already bought the brass yumi to make it when I set out to recruit her, I think forgetting that the smithy wan't available yet. It's a +2 called Big Brass. Hinoka gets a +1 iron naginata called the Soi-Soi, and I sincerely hope that some of you get the reference or I am going to feel very, very old.

...Holy shit, Setsuna only joins at level three? Seriously? What the hell!? Orochi and Saizo joined with higher levels than that, and they joined earlier!

...But anyway, I think I've got a plan. The biggest threats are the three cavaliers at the bottom, because they're the hardest to kill. What I need to do is take them out with my strongest units. Mozu shooting the center one, Silas taking out the eastern one, and Dakota the western one. Azura will then come in to sing for Silas, Saizo and Jakob will take out the mages using Mozu as a dual strike partner, Hinoka will take out the outlaw to the west, and Silas will take out the further-out outlaw to the east that we can't reach without song assistance. Hinoka and Silas will both be in range of a dark mage, but they can easily handle that.

...Incidentally, in the process of crafting this plan, I finally noticed that Fates actually brings between-unit trading and the like back! It's not just the list command! Nice! No wonder I was so disarmed by that in Awakening! It wasn't what I was used to!

...Mission accomplished. Lemme tell ya, this took a lot of speed and strength tonics to hit critical damage thresholds. I might have been better off trying this after the invasion, but by the time that became apparent, I was in too deep with tonics and was scraping the bottom of the piggy bank. Gotta do this map to get some more cash again.

Also, point of personal criticism: I forgot to check if Silas was fast enough with Hana's help to double the outlaw he had to rush out and kill. He was, incidentally, but I don't believe I checked. A dangerous mistake, considering Silas's usual issues with speed. Mozu and Hinoka also relied on shaky hit rates, and while I had a back up in the event of Hinoka missing an attack, I had no such contingency for Mozu.

Hinoka gets her first level: HP, strength, speed and luck. Alright, good start! Especially the strength.

...Hinata and Oboro show up, and their intro dialogue is so dumb. I'm supposed to believe that Takumi hired someone to be his retainer when he's so dumb that he tried to interrogate somebody who had a gag in their mouth!?

So, I forgot to mention, but Orochi is our capturer for this playthrough. She has a crippling lack of speed, but it's easy enough to capture units if you want to. The issue is that you probably don't want to, because aside from capturable bosses, they all come with bland skills, if they come with any at all. Conquest is way better about having interesting enemies to capture.

Silas gets a fantastic level up, everything but magic and luck. I also manage a second player-phase gambit on turn 3 to take care of the incoming cavalry.

Alright, while it's annoying that I have to talk to Oboro and Hinata separately and they won't recruit themselves, I do like Hinata's conversation with Dakota. Idiot though he may be, he's pretty likable, and I like how it's clear that Takumi's been talking shit about Dakota to his retainers, but they don't believe a word of it unless you actually betray Hoshido.

It's gonna take way too long to penetrate this wall of knights, and the outlaws have just gotten to the treasure. I've gotta take the roundabout way, taking out the guards to the sides. Thankfully Hinoka's already broken through to the west and I've got plenty of firepower to the east to blast the remaining one down in a single turn to Silas can ride straight through to the rescue.

Yep, Hinoka just took out the speedwings outlaw, and now Silas is poised to take out the eastern one with the all-important gold. Reinforcements have been coming from the sides, but Saizo and Mozu have the eastern ones, and Oboro and Hinata can easily take out the ones on the west with dual strikes. They've got heavy weapons, but thankfully Hinata's base speed, if not his speed growth, is great, so he can double with ease. Also, they were mages. Slow as hell.

I've been training Saizo because he's got amazing growths and I'd love to have a sturdy 1-2 range unit on my side. He can't kill anything but mages on his own, but he can double with an iron shuriken (and sometimes even with a steel one), and that's enough to get kills with a little dual strike help. Pity he gets such a bad first impression due to coming with a brass and steel shuriken when iron is the middle ground he needs.

Right, time to kill these center guys for the exp, kill the remaining reinforcements, and get out of here.

...Ah yes, Zola has Mjölnir. Better take him out with Hinoka then, since she's got the best matchup. And by that I mean she has to not use the guard naginata in order to take any damage at all.

And we get a master seal! Huh, that's funny. The Chapter 9 boss has a seal in both Birthright and Conquest, but it's a heart seal in Birthright. Honestly, I'd have liked that more considering how limited they are in shops. We don't have any right now.

Anyway yeah, Zola uses a smokescreen to get away in the cutscene, but like in every other route, Leo shows up to take out the trash.

Except this time, we ask Leo to spare him for some reason.

And... and Dakota... shames Leo for trying to kill Zola, saying he shouldn't do it just because he's “one of [Leo's] own”. That... that doesn't feel right for the Birthright avatar to say at all. Surely the one who sided with justice over family shouldn't be shaming others for acting out of justice over nationality, surely?

It's weird how Dakota has to say that Leo's changed, because we really didn't see enough of him for this to feel too out of character when he's angry.

Anyway, we meet the real Izana, and... okay, while I prefer the plot of this chapter to the Conquest one, I think the comedy of the heroes' reactions to Izana is better in Conquest.

And then Izana sings the Birthright verse of Lost in Thoughts All Alone, and... as I think about why it doesn't hurt him to sing it, I'm reminded of the necklace, and it suddenly occurs to me that I don't think we ever got an explanation of what the fuck Azura's necklace is.

But yeah, we're done with the map.

Oh wait, no, now there's a scene with Azura.

...Who says that the lyrics seem to be singing directly to Dakota, which... how the fuck is she getting that?

Azura's “Thank you!” always seems way too emotive for the lines it's used for. But then, again, they never seem to have Azura's personality consistently pinned down.

Alright, time for the supports and then we're done here.

First, Jakob and Hinoka.

Interestingly, Jakob seems to respect Hinoka quite a lot. Maybe it has to do with her lack of royal arrogance or something? Her insistence on fighting on the front lines? Let's see...

...Nope, no further information on that aspect.

I watched ShaneBrained's video on Fates, and while I disagree with a lot of the stuff he said gameplaywise (in particular he didn't seem to think any of the three games were better or worse than the others), I like an observation he made that these support conversations in Fates feel like one long support conversation artificially broken up into multiple parts, whereas Awakening's supports were three separate organic conversations most of the time, even if they had a tying story arc. I think he hit the nail right on the head.

Saizo and Mozu got a support, which doesn't surprise me at all since they were a pretty extensive team, especially against the cavalry reinforcements. Similar to how Jakob was helping Hinoka a lot.

It's a brief, pleasant conversation where Saizo and Mozu bond over being the only ones with experience in farming because they had to be self-sufficient where they lived. I like it.

Ah yes, and Hinoka with Setsuna. I used the latter as a support partner for the former in this map and last a bit.

...And Setsuna makes some shitty tea, tea “so bitter [Hinoka's] tongue has gone numb in self-defense”. Okay, that's a pretty funny line.

So they both suck at cooking and they're going to try and get better together. Okay. Fine.

And Oboro and Hinata, of course. It's a mildly cute conversation about Oboro giving Hinata a hair cut, and... it's nice and all, but yet again way too short.

And... that's it! Alright then. Well, I guess I'll finish up for today. Tomorrow we'll be doing Mokushu, yet another map with a beginning I remember very fondly!

Stay safe, everyone!

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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And yeah, so, I count seven enemies in range of our general starting position, and we're gonna have to take out as many as we can with haste.

This chapter has a hilariously difficult opening, which I find so odd for Birthright. I forget what I did on my males-only BR Lunatic run, but Spear Fighter!Hinoka with Rinkah as her backpack and the Guard Naginata spent a couple turns tanking things while I kept the rest held up in the starting room. I think I was concerned that the Outlaws would raid the chests before I got to them, but they never did.

I think that is the same run I tried leaving Mozu as a Villager and sending her into Master of Arms. Not recommended, I recall her concrete durability being too low long after promotion.

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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...before revealing she found a fish. Prompting me to burst out laughing while I imagine her crouched on the grass, poking a dead fish with a stick with a look on her face like it might explode.

Considering the Deeprealms, I can imagine there was one with explosive fish.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I have to assume that Izana didn't have an execution chamber, and that this is a new renovation. I wonder how thorough the “renovations” are, and how long Zola would need to be impersonating Izana in order for this to happen.

...Waaaaaaiiiiiiiit.

The takeover couldn't have happened before Mikoto's death, because of the magic hippie shield that kept any enemy Nohrian from going far beyond the bottomless canyon without losing the will to fight! ...Which means that the takeover of Izumo must have happened ridiculously quickly in order for any of this shit to have happened.

Does Zola have a portable execution chamber?

Did he just sneak all the fittings with him into Izumo?

Come to think of it, does Mikoto's shield suggest that Corrin could have had their mind altered after they arrived? Hmm.........

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, I forgot to mention, but Orochi is our capturer for this playthrough. She has a crippling lack of speed, but it's easy enough to capture units if you want to. The issue is that you probably don't want to, because aside from capturable bosses, they all come with bland skills, if they come with any at all. Conquest is way better about having interesting enemies to capture.

I checked, only one capturable boss and they're the only unit with skills outside their class.

It was disappointing to learn.

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14 minutes ago, Dayni said:

I checked, only one capturable boss and they're the only unit with skills outside their class.

It was disappointing to learn.

I believe that's Daniela you're mentioning. She's actually got a pretty unusual bug where if an Ebon Wing is used on her, she'll continue using her strategist model. Resulting in her flying around with a horse somehow.

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5 minutes ago, deskita said:

I believe that's Daniela you're mentioning. She's actually got a pretty unusual bug where if an Ebon Wing is used on her, she'll continue using her strategist model. Resulting in her flying around with a horse somehow.

.... It doesn't have to make sense?

I'll confirm it at some point, I had planned on having her reclass to Dark Falcon. Guess there's another reason.

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Fun mathematical fact about this chapter, the number of enemies (ignoring the boss) on map is increased by 50% when increasing the difficulty one layer, and the number or reinforcements double (16 to 24 to 36 on map, and 4 to 8 to 16 reinforcements...)

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Fuko, I've gotta ask, what's the motivation for making your base so incredibly hostile to visitors? I know the trick to doing it and it still takes me longer than usual. Is his useful for some invasion strategy?

That is one of my old castles from my first Revelations run (I had it out there to help someone get some skills they were looking for from the Fates thread). I honestly can't remember how effective it was defensively, although I find aesthetically appealing. Plus its fairly easy to navigate by going through the center (heading just right of center), the statues don't block the main bridge, the Dusk Dragon lets you pass (although the Dawn Dragon doesn't for some reason...), you cab squeeze between the Arena and smithy, and the Records Hall easily lets you pass by.

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37 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Fun mathematical fact about this chapter, the number of enemies (ignoring the boss) on map is increased by 50% when increasing the difficulty one layer, and the number or reinforcements double (16 to 24 to 36 on map, and 4 to 8 to 16 reinforcements...)

And that answers my question before I even had a chance to ask it. I was just thinking that I don't recall this chapter as being even a little bit difficult and wondering what the difference was between hard and lunatic. That's a frankly ridiculous increase and explains a lot.

My main memories of this map are "yet another case of pointless dragon veins" and "annoying reinforcements that were threatening enough to be time-consuming but not threatening enough to be difficult or interesting".

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1 minute ago, lenticular said:

My main memories of this map are "yet another case of pointless dragon veins" and "annoying reinforcements that were threatening enough to be time-consuming but not threatening enough to be difficult or interesting".

Funny enough, I actually found the dragon veins useful this time to keep people healed up while rushing towards the treasure thieves.

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Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Funny enough, I actually found the dragon veins useful this time to keep people healed up while rushing towards the treasure thieves.

I can believe that, given the difference between hard and lunatic. They sound like they're practically completely different maps, honestly.

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Just now, lenticular said:

I can believe that, given the difference between hard and lunatic. They sound like they're practically completely different maps, honestly.

Yeah, from what I remember, enemy spam is generally how Lunatic differentiates itself from Hard, and while I'm worried that might cause serious problems later, at the moment I'm actually liking the enemy density. I felt a decent amount of pressure across the whole map and felt like my skills were being tested continuously, especially at the beginning.

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