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

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Imuabicus said:

Isn´t there something about Dorothea/Ingrid paralogue?

Guess I'll find out when we get there. But not the way I remember it.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Alastor15243

[lenticular]

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

Anyway, I'll grant that you have a lot of interesting ideas on how to change him. I kind of want him to get a Crest - not for Crusher, but for the Aegis shield. Basically, all other "defensive tank" type units (Alois, Raphael, Dedue) are Crestless, with Balthus as the sole exception. Being a high-Defense unit, who can wield the Aegis Shield without penalty, would be a nice distinguishing trait.

I quite like the story implications of him not having a Crest while Annette does, since it's a nice demonstration of how Crests in general are weakening, skipping generations, etc. It is, admitedly, a very minor benefit to keeping him Crestless, but I think that allowing him to use the Aegis Shield would be a very minor benefit to giving him the Crest. It's only a marginal difference either way.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I will have words about it.

I look forward to the rousing chorus of boos I will receive when the time comes and I try to (partially) defend that paralogue.

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 2: In Which I Manage to Get Through Roughly Fifteen Minutes of Dialogue.

So we pick up right where we left off, with Alois greeting Jeralt, and I'm sorry, I have to comment on these story scenes.

One of the many, many, many things that bothers me about Three Houses is that the game's entire presentation looks like there was a machiavellian saboteur among the development team, determined to allocate resources to all the wrong areas. The game is one of the ugliest games in the entire series, and a big part of that is the fact that damned near half the ways they tried to make the graphics better only serve to call more attention to the game's design shortcomings.

Take these story scenes for example. On paper, this is a massive, massive step forward. We've got story scenes where, instead of portraits standing in front of a 2D backdrop, with the closest they ever get to movement being little hops and slides in the GBA games... now we have actual 3D models. We have characters walking and talking and gesturing in 3D space!

...Except...

...Okay, set aside the fact that these characters are still against 2D backdrops, just grotesquely warped like a skybox. And set aside the fact that the 3DS games managed to do this shit with 3D backgrounds, as well as numerous other things as the games progressed.

The main issue I have here... is that these characters are still just standing around and talking. They don't swing their weapons, or climb trees, or jump, or even sit down. Even when the scenes call for us to believe they are doing these things.

What does this “advancement” accomplish? What new scenes can we bring to life in a way that static portraits on a 2D background could not? What has this achieved, other than completely stripping away the mind's ability to fill in the still-very-much-present gaps with the power of imagination? What does this do other than make the pretense of these characters doing things their visual representations obviously aren't even more asinine?

When I played Awakening, I remarked that its model-using story scenes usually amounted to little more than standing around, talking and gesturing. But that was a case of a development team clearly knowing their limits and not pushing them. For the most part they made sure significant action was saved for their nice fancy cutscenes where they could be done justice, and made sure to write the scenes while keeping in mind they didn't have the budget to bring too much action to justice, and therefore didn't include too much action. They made sure that when they didn't have the budget or technical know-how to surpass the power of the player's imagination, they didn't try to replace the player's imagination.

This is wisdom that Fates completely failed to heed, to my sense of humor's immeasurable delight, and Three Houses also failed to heed it in a completely different way, while somehow also failing to bring story scenes to the level the 3DS games managed to accomplish.

The only genuine benefit I can see to structuring story scenes like this, rather than simply using normal 2D backdrops and the shoulders-up portraits for all the characters that they did in fact make, is that it allows more than four or so characters to be on-screen at the same time. Which, of course, is absolutely crucial to have all those scenes where your whole house is on screen at the same time to say their mandatory one or two lines of dialogue.

Let's just say I don't think they did enough to justify it.

But anyway... moving on... Alois insists that Jeralt come back to Garreg Mach with him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he is backed up by ruthless forces that turn that insistence into a very potent demand. It's actually kind of hilarious, like some sweet naive guy oblivious to the fact that he's working for the mafia, genuinely and earnestly using mafia euphemisms in earnest rather than as veiled threats.

Jeralt and Professr are about to be conscripted into the church's service essentially, and Professr in particular... well, as much as I sound like a broken record, we'll get into that.

So, why exactly does Alois assume that Professr, who looks nothing like Jeralt, is Jeralt's daughter? I mean, she looks an awful lot like her mother, but Alois doesn't at this time suspect that Jeralt has any living children with his late wife. So... why?

Alois: Well, physical differences aside, your mannerisms do remind me of the captain.

...What “mannerisms”, Alois?

So, rather hilariously, Professor hasn't yet quite mentally processed the fact that she has a voice in her head. Just now, despite having a full conversation with her earlier, when Sothis chimes in to comment on the Knights of Seiros, Professr dispenses a “shock” emoticon thing over her blank face and scans around to look for the source of the noise.

This will not be the last time she does this.

Ah yes. This scene, where Professr talks to the three house leaders.

This is the scene where I started to openly question the quality of the writing on my first playthrough. Mostly because of Claude. His lines in this scene are just... jarring. In fairness, most of his lines are, but this scene has his worst line in the entire game by far.

The writing and vocal performances in this game... clash in this rather... uncanny way that I've struggled mightily for ages to find the right words to describe.

Bear with me as I now attempt to.

Precious few lines in this game were written with... “character voices” in mind. And I don't mean literal voices, more like... speaking patterns. Like, generally, while I had some issues with some performances in SoV, for the most part, when people said lines...

...Remember when I took issue with Delthea's characterization and sudden swerve into “I want to be non-magical and completely normal”?

Even though I took issue with what she said... that still sounded like the way she would say it. Those felt like the words she would use to convey that sentiment, even if the sentiment itself was completely out of character. Even though out-of-character desires were clearly being imposed upon her... it didn't read like a hostage being forced to read a script provided to her by an off-camera terrorist. Her words were clearly her own, and felt natural for her to say.

In SoV, characters had different vocabularies. When characters spoke, it never felt like they were using words someone else put in their mouth.

Not so here. This entire conversation reads like either Dimitri or Edelgard has crippling social anxiety, and begged their two friends to stick to a script they wrote so they don't panic and have a meltdown meeting this stranger... except they only understand their friends' personalities, and have no awareness whatsoever of how the other two talk and what their choice of words would be, and so Claude's here forced to read from a script way more formal and verbose than every cubic liter of Joe Zieja's vocal performance would indicate would feel natural to him.

And Joe does his best, make no mistake, no shade against the man himself. By all appearances Joe's a pretty cool dude. But there is no force on heaven or earth that can make this line feel remotely natural:

Claude: Oh, joy. A royal debate between Their Highnesses. I wonder how being completely predictable affects one's ability to wield power. Personally, as the embodiment of distrust, I'd say your little exchange smacks of naivete.

Somewhere out there, someplace on this godforsaken planet, there is someone who was paid to write that line for someone who greets his professor with “Hey, Teach”.

Make no mistake, while it's most jarring with Claude, all three of these characters speak in an uncomfortably verbose way that feels like it's restraining the vocal talent from sounding remotely natural. And we've had verbose characters who use big words before. Hell, just look at Miriel. But Miriel's voice actress sounds completely at ease with these ridiculous words coming out of her mouth in a way that characters in Three Houses... don't.

...Also, can we talk about those “emoticon things”? The black scribble of frustration, the pointy speech-bubble-like star of shock? They look positively uncanny when juxtaposed with faces that make absolutely no effort to reflect these emotions. When those effects are used in other games, like, say, Animal Crossing... they're accompanied by actually believable facial representations of that emotion. Here, rather than being used to cartoonishly accentuate strong emotion... they're being used as an indication to the player that that emotion is present, because the player wouldn't otherwise know.

...I am barely a minute or two into today's cutscenes, and I've already written two and a half pages. Help.

Anyway, all three start immediately fighting over Professr and want to recruit her to the service of their country after all of one battle they don't even realize only went as well as it did due to literal divine intervention by an immortal time dragon.

You're asked to choose which country to lend your services to. The leaders only revealed they were in charge of these countries mere seconds ago, and have said absolutely nothing about the lands or their politics. While in-character Professr would naturally know at least some things about the assorted countries on the continent she lives on no matter how sheltered she is, the only thing that has actually been told to us on-screen so far about these countries is that the Kingdom is far away from our current location, and we don't even know where said location is. You, the player in charge of making decisions in this game, learn less about these three countries before this moment than you learn in the little flavor-text blurbs supplied in the dialogue options to pledge allegiance to one of them. There is more information about the Empire in the dialogue option “Adrestian Empire: Land of Ancient History” than there has been in the entire game so far, and since Claude didn't even get the chance to say a damned word about his homeland, “Leicester Alliance: Burgeoning League of Nobles” is literally everything we have been told about the Alliance so far.

And do note: there is no “I just met you people” option. The only canon outcomes of this scene are agreeing to abandon your dad's mercenary company at the drop of a hat and work for someone you've literally just met. Just try to imagine what a life-changing decision that would have been if Rhea didn't have other plans for us that rendered this little chat null and void.

There is no watsonian explanation for this sequence's existence. There is no universe where anything in this conversation would feel remotely natural. The only purpose this serves is to give you an opportunity to start building up on support points with the leader of the house you'll actually be picking if you already have a good idea of what that house will be.

So that's exactly what we'll be doing. “Holy Kingdom of Faerghus: Land of Noble Knights” it is.

And then there's this sequence where we briefly get Professr's observations about the three, as if the writers felt they didn't do a good enough job establishing their characters in the previous scene. And in their defense, they didn't.

Though actually these observations have Professr observing stuff that the game completely lacks the capacity to convey to the player naturally due to how limited the models' emotional ranges are. Like how Edelgard looks like she's always evaluating Professr, or how Professr senses darkness lurking beneath Dimitri, or how Claude's smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. So this technically isn't the fault of the last scene's terrible writing at all.

And I'm suddenly given another opportunity to save. Weird, we just got one (I say “just”; in real time it's been approximately three hours of playlogging). I don't think I've ever heard of two save opportunities separated by literally nothing but a dialogue scene. Not just in Fire Emblem. I mean in literally any game ever.

But now it's Chapter 1. And we're introduced to our narrator. Who's either Jeralt, or just coincidentally given Jeralt's voice.

And either way, I am not impressed with his job. He genuinely sounds bored with the things he is describing. He's no Tellius narrator, that's for sure (and, incidentally, the Radiant Dawn narrator is a guy named Lev Liberman, and I am absolutely crushed to report to you that the man has landed almost no significant roles in anything else).

Okay, so the narrator mentions the “new year” in this, and I'm not sure if he means this literally or not, but it's as good of an excuse as any to ask this question, which has been eating away at me, like, forever...

...When exactly does the school year start at Garreg Mach?

We're not joining at the start of it. We're about to be, through a combination of blackmail and nepotism, landed in this position while the school year was already going on. But I don't think we're ever given any sign of when exactly the school year started, or in fact when the current school year ends. Because we play through all twelve months in part one through the first twelve chapters. And the school year appears to be perpetual and year-round, with no talk I can recall of any kind regarding breaks or vacations or trips home to see our families. But then, given the absurd established ease of travel across the continent, perhaps these things aren't necessary because they're about as far removed from their families as the average student at a community college.

That was sarcasm, to be clear. That is in no way an excuse for how weird this is.

The massive medieval-European-styled illustrations drawing themselves to life as the narration plays out is a pretty nice touch, but I can't help but be reminded of the fact that these things are literally the only physical evidence the game ever provides of the seasons passing. No matter what they describe happening to the world with the changing of seasons, the trees and grass and climate of Garreg Mach Monastery is locked in a perpetual summer.

We are getting the expositional map narration describing the continent now. I would just like to reiterate that. Now. This happened after that above “pick me, pick me!” nonsense with the three house leaders and their countries, and not before.

Now we get a cutscene that shows various little scenes of life at the monastery, and while most of it is obviously the usual 3D, for some strange reason the art style briefly shifts into 2D animation for a scene of Manuela and a student crushing/perving on her.

Rhea: I wonder... did the flow of time bring you here?

...I've beaten this game three times, on three different routes, and I still have no idea what that means. Unless she's really weirdly metaphorically referring to Sothis's time powers.

I can't help but cringe any time I hear the unironic use of “as you know” in all but a handful of circumstances.

And in that “as you know” line, Jeralt says that the majority of the people in Fodlan worship at the Church of Seiros. But I don't think we ever hear about a single other religion followed by anyone, unless you count the separate denomination of the Western Church, the vague things we hear about the spiritual practices of Almyra, or the “fuck you, you colonizing space invaders and your literal shapeshifting reptilian conspiracy, we want our fucking planet back” antitheism of the Agarthans.

(Incidentally, even though I hate Three Houses, in the outrageously unlikely event that XCOM and Fire Emblem ever do a crossover, the plot should definitely have us playing as the Agarthans).

Okay, time for another small bit of praise: as much as I hate the turnwheel, it's really cute that the “re-read and listen to previous lines” action uses the same button.

This conversation between Jeralt and Rhea... feels weird. Like, this is a man who faked his daughter's death in order to escape from an extremely powerful woman he had suspected (correctly) had unknown, sinister plans for his daughter. He's been caught by her, and now he's lying to her face about Professr's parentage to protect her from Rhea. Meanwhile it's implied Rhea already knows full well he's lying his ass off, but is just playing along because it doesn't matter, they're both here and they're trapped like rats.

At the time you first see this, you have absolutely no reason to know about any of this subtext.

But, one would think, upon re-watching, you would be able to see this conversation for what it is, and feel the previously-unrecognized undertones of this conversation.

And yet neither character's voice actor seems to have been instructed to read these lines with the true nature of the scene in mind at all. Jeralt seems bored, and Rhea sounds exactly as warm and genuine as she sounds all times when she hasn't gone psycho. Granted, Rhea is a consummate liar with millennia of practice emotionally manipulating people, so maybe in her case not hearing anything in the performance is understandable, but Jeralt? No way. This guy shouldn't sound bored. He doesn't need to sound scared or nervous, but he needs to sound focused. There are very serious stakes to what he says here.

And it's not just his vocal performance. It's his actions too. This guy was willing to set a fucking building on fire to fake Professr's death and get her out of there, and yet he barely makes any effort at all to avoid heading back to the Monastery the second he has a run-in with church soldiers who recognize him, Professr in tow?

And for that fucking matter, why didn't he change his name? He fled from the Monastery for 20 years, and still worked publicly as a mercenary under the same goddamned name? It's frankly a miracle that it's taken him this long to be found!

So yes, due to the fact that the Monastery apparently just has the ability to forcibly conscript people, Professr is now a teacher at Garreg Mach Monastery. Despite having no experience teaching, no training teaching, and not a single teachable skill rank above a D+.

“Those who can't do...”

Also, amusing fact: Professr has the “Professor's Guidance” personal skill before becoming a teacher. Imagine playing this game completely blind, knowing nothing about it, and running into that skill on the unit info screen in the prologue.

So, Manuela introduces herself as “A professor, a physician, a songstress, and available”.

You're prompted to ask for clarification on one of the middle two things.

Words cannot describe how funny I'd find it if it listed all four.

At any rate, for some reason, Rhea decides to give us free reign to choose which of the academy's three houses to become head professor of, despite the fact that, presumably, both of these teachers were already teaching a house for a decent period of time, and they're now going to have to shuffle around like musical chairs at our random whims, at great disruption both to the students and faculty.

And incidentally, we never hear a goddamned word about which of the professors was previously in charge of which house. Not even a brief comment from Sylvain of “Aw, we're losing Manuela for him?” or “Oh hey, she's much easier on the eyes than Hanneman!”. Yet again, the events of the school year leading up to the moment we pick a house may as well not exist. This might as well have been the start of the school year, except that the writer's particular bizarre methods of introducing the house leaders to us would have to be rewritten.

Manuela says she's only informed the house leaders that Professr's the new professor. She says “it's more fun that way”, but I don't know why or what this accomplishes.

Then we have a cutscene between Rhea and Seteth. He doesn't trust us, and I don't blame him.

...Okay, while the loading screens are probably longer than the graphical quality of this game could possibly justify, the controller-tilting minigame to guide cute little sprite Professr back and forth across the screen is pretty charming. I like playing jump-rope running back and forth jumping over the edge of the progress bar.

I also like that the university bell tower plays the Fire Emblem theme. Cute touch.

This cutscene seems to be 2D animation again.

Okay, the shot of Bernadetta hiding under an open book for shelter from her own crippling social anxiety is pretty damned adorable, I'm not surprised that image got so popular.

...And...

...at long last...

...we get to the bane of my existence.

The fully explorable, 3D Garreg Mach Monastery.

And if I even attempt to open up that can of worms today, I will be editing and proofreading this damned thing until 2 in the morning.

So I think this is a good spot to leave things off today.

Stay safe, everyone.

[lenticular]

29 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...When exactly does the school year start at Garreg Mach?

We're not joining at the start of it. We're about to be, through a combination of blackmail and nepotism, landed in this position while the school year was already going on.

Are you sure about that? The impression I've always had is that we are arriving at the start of the year. I haven't really paid that close attention to be sure of this, but I also don't remember anything that contradicts my reading of things. What is it that makes you think it isn't the start of the year?

31 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Rhea: I wonder... did the flow of time bring you here?

...I've beaten this game three times, on three different routes, and I still have no idea what that means. Unless she's really weirdly metaphorically referring to Sothis's time powers.

My understanding is that this was a theme that was fairly heavily present in the original Japanese script that mostly got cut out of the localisation, except for a few weird relics like that one that are left feeling very out-of-place.

Overall, my feelings about most of your complaints this time are either "that just wasn't my experience at all" or "yeah, that's kinda weak but very minor and not a big deal". Which, honestly, is probably the result of cognitive biases all around. I like Three Houses so am more likely to look for things to like about it and overlook its flaws; you dislike Three Houses so are more likely to find its strengths less convincing and its flaws more damning.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Are you sure about that? The impression I've always had is that we are arriving at the start of the year. I haven't really paid that close attention to be sure of this, but I also don't remember anything that contradicts my reading of things. What is it that makes you think it isn't the start of the year?

I can't at this moment identify the specific line of dialogue that would explicitly confirm it off the top of my head, but I can list several strong implications off the cuff:

1: The house leaders already know a significant amount about their classmates' personalities and histories.

2: There's a teacher who ran off like a coward that you are actively replacing.

3: Classes were in progress in both cutscenes between you arriving and you becoming a professor.

[Jotari]

55 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I quite like the story implications of him not having a Crest while Annette does, since it's a nice demonstration of how Crests in general are weakening, skipping generations, etc. It is, admitedly, a very minor benefit to keeping him Crestless, but I think that allowing him to use the Aegis Shield would be a very minor benefit to giving him the Crest. It's only a marginal difference either way.

I look forward to the rousing chorus of boos I will receive when the time comes and I try to (partially) defend that paralogue.

I think you could have the same effect by giving him a minor crest. Having him have no crest at all just makes my mind jump to people having affairs and not really being the inheritors of the bloodlines they propose (which absolutely would happen).

 

Quote

But anyway... moving on... Alois insists that Jeralt come back to Garreg Mach with him, seemingly oblivious to the fact that he is backed up by ruthless forces that turn that insistence into a very potent demand. It's actually kind of hilarious, like some sweet naive guy oblivious to the fact that he's working for the mafia, genuinely and earnestly using mafia euphemisms in earnest rather than as veiled threats.

That's an accurate description of Alois. He is such a pure soul.

Quote

Make no mistake, while it's most jarring with Claude, all three of these characters speak in an uncomfortably verbose way that feels like it's restraining the vocal talent from sounding remotely natural. And we've had verbose characters who use big words before. Hell, just look at Miriel. But Miriel's voice actress sounds completely at ease with these ridiculous words coming out of her mouth in a way that characters in Three Houses... don't.

To be fair, I don't think Miriel's voice actor ever had to actually read many of her lines. Since Awakening just used incidental voices.

Quote

...Also, can we talk about those “emoticon things”? The black scribble of frustration, the pointy speech-bubble-like star of shock? They look positively uncanny when juxtaposed with faces that make absolutely no effort to reflect these emotions. When those effects are used in other games, like, say, Animal Crossing... they're accompanied by actually believable facial representations of that emotion. Here, rather than being used to cartoonishly accentuate strong emotion... they're being used as an indication to the player that that emotion is present, because the player wouldn't otherwise know.

 

Ever play Golden Sun Dark Dawn? That gives you a list of emojis for your character's dialogue prompt throughout the game. And if you select the angry emoji the other characters get so hilariously offended by your bad atittude. Like it doesn't give any dialogue for the protagonist, but by hor harshly the othe rparty members react, it seems like he talks about eating babies or something when he pulls a cartoony angry face...not super relevant, but I find it amusing.

Quote

And do note: there is no “I just met you people” option. The only canon outcomes of this scene are agreeing to abandon your dad's mercenary company at the drop of a hat and work for someone you've literally just met. Just try to imagine what a life-changing decision that would have been if Rhea didn't have other plans for us that rendered this little chat null and void.

I actually think you might be able to pull an Awakening and skip this choice entirely, I guess leading to a canon where Byleth sort of just dazes off and ignores all of them.

Quote

Though actually these observations have Professr observing stuff that the game completely lacks the capacity to convey to the player naturally due to how limited the models' emotional ranges are. Like how Edelgard looks like she's always evaluating Professr, or how Professr senses darkness lurking beneath Dimitri, or how Claude's smile doesn't quite reach his eyes. So this technically isn't the fault of the last scene's terrible writing at all.

 

I think Claude's smile is conveyed through the models, precesly because of their limited emotional range. The kind of wide eyed slightly high look he has on it does make it look like a warm, friendly expression, but not a genuine one.

Quote

Okay, so the narrator mentions the “new year” in this, and I'm not sure if he means this literally or not, but it's as good of an excuse as any to ask this question, which has been eating away at me, like, forever...

...When exactly does the school year start at Garreg Mach?

We're not joining at the start of it. We're about to be, through a combination of blackmail and nepotism, landed in this position while the school year was already going on. But I don't think we're ever given any sign of when exactly the school year started, or in fact when the current school year ends. Because we play through all twelve months in part one through the first twelve chapters. And the school year appears to be perpetual and year-round, with no talk I can recall of any kind regarding breaks or vacations or trips home to see our families. But then, given the absurd established ease of travel across the continent, perhaps these things aren't necessary because they're about as far removed from their families as the average student at a community college.

My fix for the game would have had a term break after Chapter 6, wherein Byleth would choose their house to teach at the start of the next semester, being a tutor assigned to one of the three houses up until that point, with Jeritrza being the teacher who conveniently needs replacing after he runs away in Chapter 6.

Quote

 

That was sarcasm, to be clear. That is in no way an excuse for how weird this is.

The massive medieval-European-styled illustrations drawing themselves to life as the narration plays out is a pretty nice touch, but I can't help but be reminded of the fact that these things are literally the only physical evidence the game ever provides of the seasons passing. No matter what they describe happening to the world with the changing of seasons, the trees and grass and climate of Garreg Mach Monastery is locked in a perpetual summer.

 

Yeah, that's a major missed oppertunity. Even among the maps we get no indication of it where as in games like Genealogy or Path of Radiance they'd throw you a snow map and say it's winter now, but since almost all of the maps are reused here they can't get away with that. Maybe Fodlan is actually right on the equator and the whole idea of seasons is a myth passed down by Sothis XD

Quote

And in that “as you know” line, Jeralt says that the majority of the people in Fodlan worship at the Church of Seiros. But I don't think we ever hear about a single other religion followed by anyone, unless you count the separate denomination of the Western Church, the vague things we hear about the spiritual practices of Almyra, or the “fuck you, you colonizing space invaders and your literal shapeshifting reptilian conspiracy, we want our fucking planet back” antitheism of the Agarthans.

(Incidentally, even though I hate Three Houses, in the outrageously unlikely event that XCOM and Fire Emblem ever do a crossover, the plot should definitely have us playing as the Agarthans).

 

The Agarthans get a lot of flack from the community, and pretty rightly so, they're absolutely atroiciously written. But you've summed up here why I actually really like them as far as generic evil Fire Emblem cults go. I really wish they'd had the fortune to be used in a game that could be more accomodating to them.

Quote

 

 

And for that fucking matter, why didn't he change his name? He fled from the Monastery for 20 years, and still worked publicly as a mercenary under the same goddamned name? It's frankly a miracle that it's taken him this long to be found!

 

Alois: "Jearlt! Pride of the church."

Jearlt: "That was my name, once. But I...considered throwing it away but then realized I liked it."

Quote

 

So yes, due to the fact that the Monastery apparently just has the ability to forcibly conscript people, Professr is now a teacher at Garreg Mach Monastery. Despite having no experience teaching, no training teaching, and not a single teachable skill rank above a D+.

“Those who can't do...”

Byleth really must be bullshiting those lectures hard to be teaching the likes of Hubert or Lysethia anything about magic. I can just imagine some of the magically inclined students complaining behind Byleth's back about how the professor clearly has no experience in this subject and wish they could be in Hanneman's house. "I'm serious he can't even cast a basic fire ball!"

7 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Overall, my feelings about most of your complaints this time are either "that just wasn't my experience at all" or "yeah, that's kinda weak but very minor and not a big deal". Which, honestly, is probably the result of cognitive biases all around. I like Three Houses so am more likely to look for things to like about it and overlook its flaws; you dislike Three Houses so are more likely to find its strengths less convincing and its flaws more damning.

I like Three Houses, but I think I'm much more likely to find its strengts less convincing and its flaws more damning. I'm generally much more critical about things I like than don't like. That's why I have so much more to say about Three House's story, which tries and fails to be a proper narrative, compared to Fates which never feels like it tries at all.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

Year begins in the equivalent of April. Because back then Spring was the mark of the new year. New Year's Eve used to be on April 1st in the Christian Calendar, before it moved to January 1st.

Also, School Years in Japan also begin in April, following this same logic of Spring being a new beginning. So it's very likely the school year is also just starting at Garreg. Since Japanese game and all that.

[Alastor15243]

32 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Year begins in the equivalent of April. Because back then Spring was the mark of the new year. New Year's Eve used to be on April 1st in the Christian Calendar, before it moved to January 1st.

Also, School Years in Japan also begin in April, following this same logic of Spring being a new beginning. So it's very likely the school year is also just starting at Garreg. Since Japanese game and all that.

That would be the one month of the year where they'd be able to get away with it not coming up in story, given the start of "Great Tree Moon" never happens until after the timeskip. Makes sense. Guess class has been in session for a few weeks or so then.

@Jotari Glad you got a kick out of the Agarthans thing. I'll have more to say about them as well. It's amazing how potentially nuanced and sympathetic they are in concept, and how kitten-eatingly evil they are in practice.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Alastor15243

[lenticular]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I can't at this moment identify the specific line of dialogue that would explicitly confirm it off the top of my head, but I can list several strong implications off the cuff:

1: The house leaders already know a significant amount about their classmates' personalities and histories.

2: There's a teacher who ran off like a coward that you are actively replacing.

3: Classes were in progress in both cutscenes between you arriving and you becoming a professor.

1. That's largely to be expected. Half of the characters are members of prominent noble families who the house leaders would absolutely be familiar with. Of the rest, most of the others are at least somewhat prominent: famous opera singer, foreign princess, adopted son of a noble, graduate of Fhirdiad School of Sorcery, sons of prominent merchant families, etc. The only character who wasn't somewhat prominent in society prior to Garreg Mach is Leonie. And even if the house leaders didn't know (or know of) all their classmates already, they'd probably make it their business to get to know them quickly.
2. I'd always interpreted that as him running away while they were travelling to the monastery for the start of the year, rather than running away after having assumed his post.
3. That's fair. Maybe a few classes had already been taught with Hanneman and Manuela splitting duties for all three classes between the two of them for the very start of the year before a replacement teacher was found?

[Samz707]

4 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

FTFY

 

WAIT WHAT?
I was just talking about those guys appearing from the not-even-identifiable doors when you kill Miklan, there's reinforcement Siege Tomes? 

On the topic of calling attention, that's why I hate Batallions visually.

In Classic FE, I only notice "Hey this is kinda technically a small battle" in hindsight, I never really feel myself drawn to the fact that I don't have generics except without fail anytime the series tries to cover that up, I notice.

Generic Troops in an SOV cutscene? well they literally never exist in gameplay and I actually though the Deliverance were a relatively small group winning via blitzkrieg on a too divided army, why are we suddenly seemingly an equal massive army with Generics that didn't exist before or after?

Battalions literally vanish in/out of combat unless you play the entire battle zoomed all the way in (which no one is going to.), it really draws attention to it rather than hiding it. (I'd honestly rather Battalions be Generic units, you fixed the problem of 3H having not many characters, you could make good Generics highly expensive but also low tier ones costly enough that using human wave tactics is still a terrible idea.)

Yeah I don't like the emotion stuff, they feel like a misguided thing to cover for the fact the character models aren't super-detailed but just look like clutter, IMO, those emoticon things are like motion blur, they're good in moderation when the scene requires it, but slapping them ontop of everything just looks bad.  (Same with Support points being earned being these dumb massive love-hearts that feel out of place, I kinda miss the purple effect Echoes had, admittingly maybe it's because it reminds me of Awakening's support thing.)

Just use the teleport feature all the time for the Monastery, that's what I do.

But yeah it has no right being as slow to load, bad looking or...well anything.

Deadly Premonition and Red Faction Guerilla are on the Switch, both games look better, run better and load faster than 3H with a full proper open world and both games actually predate 3H by a not insignificant amount of time. (DP was 2010, RF:G was 2009 while 3H is 2019.)

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by Samz707

[Shadow Mir]

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

Gilbert - you know, the bulky fortress knight - loses more than half his HP from a single round with an enemy Sniper. Partially because they gave him a weak battalion at level 1, and no Shield. Also, no healing items. That's the biggest problem - you're not given a chance to prep your team members, some of whom you might not have trained. And there's something obnoxious about having to "prepare" your team what is, canonically, 5 years ahead of time.

The enemies are frustratingly overtuned for the constraints the chapter forces you into. An undertrained Lord, in particular, can be a death sentence. It sets up loss conditions that totally could've been avoided in previous chapters. And, in narrative? This battle isn't even a strictly necessary one. You're not fighting for control of Garreg Mach monastery, but for the town nearby it.

Yeah, I mean, there was a thread about solos in the 3H board, and I was quick to chime in that if we were talking about Maddening, chapter 13 was very likely going to be the bane of any solos that did not involve Byleth.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, lenticular said:

I quite like the story implications of him not having a Crest while Annette does, since it's a nice demonstration of how Crests in general are weakening, skipping generations, etc. It is, admitedly, a very minor benefit to keeping him Crestless, but I think that allowing him to use the Aegis Shield would be a very minor benefit to giving him the Crest. It's only a marginal difference either way.

Narratively, I will say that, yes, having Gilbert lack the Crest of Dominic feels better. An exceptionally radical change might have been to give the Crest to Gilbert, but not Annette (her own Crested status comes up quite rarely, and the Blue Lions already start with an absurd number of Crest-bearers). Then again, it wouldn't make much sense for her knightly father to bear a magic-oriented Crest, while his magical daughter lacks one.

As for the Aegis Shield, it's just kinda frustrating that it has no obvious users. Its high weight undermines one of Felix's strongest aspects (his high speed), while on an actual tank like Dedue, losing 10 HP per combat completely sabotages the defensive boost. It's a way worse penalty than, say, Dorothea losing 10 HP from using Thyrsus, since it's not like she'll have to absorb any hits on enemy-phase.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I think you could have the same effect by giving him a minor crest. Having him have no crest at all just makes my mind jump to people having affairs and not really being the inheritors of the bloodlines they propose (which absolutely would happen).

Annette also has a minor Crest, though. And I think there's value in demonstrating the possibility of a Crest "skipping generations". Kind of like how Lissa lacks the Brand, but Owain has it (different realms, similar concept).

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The main issue I have here... is that these characters are still just standing around and talking. They don't swing their weapons, or climb trees, or jump, or even sit down. Even when the scenes call for us to believe they are doing these things.

It is frustrating seeing them underuse certain elements of the game in storytelling. Like, I've complained before about supports set in the monastery... not actually being set there, but instead set against a 2D background that apes the 3D monastery. But if two characters are having a support over tea, why not use the existing tea party infrastructure? If two characters are dueling, why not show them in combat, a la the monthly Tournaments? I get that there are loading concerns, but I can only see enough JPEGs of everyday objects, or let the screen just go black, before I roll my eyes.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And Joe does his best, make no mistake, no shade against the man himself. By all appearances Joe's a pretty cool dude. But there is no force on heaven or earth that can make this line feel remotely natural:

Claude: Oh, joy. A royal debate between Their Highnesses. I wonder how being completely predictable affects one's ability to wield power. Personally, as the embodiment of distrust, I'd say your little exchange smacks of naivete.

Joe Zieja has become one of my favorite people to watch on YouTube. Even if it's not Fire Emblem - he's done collabs with Faye Mata (the voice of Petra) on other games, as well as a playthrough of KFC's very own otome game. I appreciate that the enmity against this game isn't extended to him.

That said... it never occurred to me, but I can see how this line looks a bit clunky. It's possible that he's using more flowery language in a bid to leave a good impression on all involved? I dunno. That said, I am in love with his follow-up line:

Claude: Whoa, there! You two sure are hasty. Trying to recruit someone you just met. Tactless, really. I was personally planning to develop a deep and lasting friendship on our journey back to the monastery before begging for favors. But it seems there's no time for niceties in this world. So, capable stranger, let's get right to it. Where does your allegiance lie?

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

We're not joining at the start of it. We're about to be, through a combination of blackmail and nepotism, landed in this position while the school year was already going on. But I don't think we're ever given any sign of when exactly the school year started, or in fact when the current school year ends. Because we play through all twelve months in part one through the first twelve chapters. And the school year appears to be perpetual and year-round, with no talk I can recall of any kind regarding breaks or vacations or trips home to see our families. But then, given the absurd established ease of travel across the continent, perhaps these things aren't necessary because they're about as far removed from their families as the average student at a community college.

The bulk of the evidence is that the school year is just starting, or started very recently. The "fleeing professor", who had been traveling with the main Lords, was presumably someone hired for the role of Professor, but who had not yet gotten into it. Note that the month's end assignment (the first mock battle) is described as the first major obligation of the year. Showing classes already going on brings this into question, yes - but note that, in the first scene (where Manuela and Hanneman are teaching), the classes they're leading are filled with generics. So it's not clear either one of them has been assigned a particular set of students yet. As for the follow-up scene (where the three classes are depicted), they don't appear to be "in class", or necessarily even doing homework - Claude is showing off a map, Edelgard is exhibiting a spell (or Crest), and Dimitri is training with the other Blue Lions. These could just be social activities, representing each character - and even giving each Lord an excuse to know about them, before being asked by Teach.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And in that “as you know” line, Jeralt says that the majority of the people in Fodlan worship at the Church of Seiros. But I don't think we ever hear about a single other religion followed by anyone, unless you count the separate denomination of the Western Church, the vague things we hear about the spiritual practices of Almyra, or the “fuck you, you colonizing space invaders and your literal shapeshifting reptilian conspiracy, we want our fucking planet back” antitheism of the Agarthans.

The minority that Jeralt is referring to (assuming he lumps the Western Church into the Church of Seiros, and is ignorant of the Agarthans), could simply be irreligious. Not anti-Seiros, necessarily, but agnostic toward her. Which is actually what Jeralt and their child are implied to be. I do think the people of Duscur (which is generally treated as part of Fodlan) have their own religious traditions, but I don't remember specifically.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And it's not just his vocal performance. It's his actions too. This guy was willing to set a fucking building on fire to fake Professr's death and get her out of there, and yet he barely makes any effort at all to avoid heading back to the Monastery the second he has a run-in with church soldiers who recognize him, Professr in tow?

And for that fucking matter, why didn't he change his name? He fled from the Monastery for 20 years, and still worked publicly as a mercenary under the same goddamned name? It's frankly a miracle that it's taken him this long to be found!

I can't imagine Rhea was searching for Jeralt in earnest. She likely felt guilty about the death of his wife, and (apparently) his child. She may be a lizard monster, but she still has feelings, dammit. Perhaps she simply put her faith in Sothis that Jeralt would return, and found herself rewarded just now.

In general, though, I do think a different setup would make more sense. A main character who doesn't know the Church of Seiros, or their father's reputation therein? Whose an outsider to Fodlan politics? It would've made far more sense for them to have been brought up in a different continent (say, Albinea, or Morfis). Meeting Alois and the three Lords can be explained as something of a "field trip", for the sake of cultural exchange. That way, Jeralt looks like he at least tried to run away, while Professr's naivete makes narrative sense.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Manuela says she's only informed the house leaders that Professr's the new professor. She says “it's more fun that way”, but I don't know why or what this accomplishes.

She doesn't say it, but I think this is good judgement. Saying that Professr is the new Professor would impact how the other students relate to her, so they're not coming across as honest. It could lead them to act in such a way that Professr picks their class - or, conversely, rejects their class, if they'd rather have one of the older (more qualified) teachers. Not saying it may not make things any more "fun", but it does allow Professr to select with a clearer head.

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Year begins in the equivalent of April. Because back then Spring was the mark of the new year. New Year's Eve used to be on April 1st in the Christian Calendar, before it moved to January 1st.

Also, School Years in Japan also begin in April, following this same logic of Spring being a new beginning. So it's very likely the school year is also just starting at Garreg. Since Japanese game and all that.

It definitely frustrates me, though, that the year "starts" in "Moon 4". Like, I get that they want to establish an analogue with the real-world Gregorian calendar, but what sense does this make in-universe? We already get totally-not-Jeralt-the-narrator giving us the weather, so I'm not going to assume "the game starts in Moon 1? That must feel like our January!". Plus, such a change would finally make the Moons line up with the Chapters, at least in the pre-skip.

So I'm fine with the year starting in Spring, in our equivalent to April. But it should be designated as "Moon 1", not "Moon 4".

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Byleth really must be bullshiting those lectures hard to be teaching the likes of Hubert or Lysethia anything about magic. I can just imagine some of the magically inclined students complaining behind Byleth's back about how the professor clearly has no experience in this subject and wish they could be in Hanneman's house. "I'm serious he can't even cast a basic fire ball!"

My interpretation is, when it's something Teach is totally ignorant on, they just assign the students a book to read. "Here's a Flux tome, knock yourself out". Hence, when it's something they're actually qualified in, they receive a boost to their tutoring effectiveness.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

To be fair, I don't think Miriel's voice actor ever had to actually read many of her lines. Since Awakening just used incidental voices.

Miriel's voice actor is great. She should definitely do more for the series.

[Alastor15243]

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

Miriel's voice actor is great. She should definitely do more for the series.

Oh shit. She voices Edelgard. I totally failed to see it and yet now I totally can. That just further proves that it's all about voice direction though, that Miriel's few lines felt more natural than Edelgard's.

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

It is frustrating seeing them underuse certain elements of the game in storytelling. Like, I've complained before about supports set in the monastery... not actually being set there, but instead set against a 2D background that apes the 3D monastery. But if two characters are having a support over tea, why not use the existing tea party infrastructure? If two characters are dueling, why not show them in combat, a la the monthly Tournaments? I get that there are loading concerns, but I can only see enough JPEGs of everyday objects, or let the screen just go black, before I roll my eyes.

I find it hilarious when supports with Byleth demand you physically find them on campus... and the conversations literally never take place in the location you met them at.

[lenticular]

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

Narratively, I will say that, yes, having Gilbert lack the Crest of Dominic feels better. An exceptionally radical change might have been to give the Crest to Gilbert, but not Annette (her own Crested status comes up quite rarely, and the Blue Lions already start with an absurd number of Crest-bearers). Then again, it wouldn't make much sense for her knightly father to bear a magic-oriented Crest, while his magical daughter lacks one.

Although, weirdly, Dominic himself is physically oriented, with higher strength than magic. If they'd made Gilbert have a Crest but Annette lack it then they'd have presumably given it a completely different effect, and had Crusher work completely differently too, which would make Dominic make sense as a unit too. It could also be presented as Annette  not inheriting the family Crest and that being what motivated her to study magic instead,

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

As for the Aegis Shield, it's just kinda frustrating that it has no obvious users. Its high weight undermines one of Felix's strongest aspects (his high speed), while on an actual tank like Dedue, losing 10 HP per combat completely sabotages the defensive boost. It's a way worse penalty than, say, Dorothea losing 10 HP from using Thyrsus, since it's not like she'll have to absorb any hits on enemy-phase.

I get the feeling that the Aegis Shield is one of the many victims of "was only tested on Hard" in Three Houses. On Hard, I think it works fine on Felix. He's strong enough and fast enough that he can still reliably double most things on Hard (provided you're in a fast class like Swordmaster or Assassin). On Maddening, though, yeah, I agree that it doesn't really have anyone who it fits on.

Here's my suggestions for a set of changes:

1. Change the crest of Dominic from a magic-oriented crest to a physically-oriented crest that is suited for tanking. Either a health-regain effect or a counterattack-prevention effect would work well.
2. Give the Crest to Gilbert and take it away from Annette.
3. Add a story beat or two about how Annette didn't inherit her father's crest, how that motivated her to study magic, etc.
4. Change Crusher so it's a Sacred Weapon instead of a Heroes' Relic. (It loses Dust that way; little of value is lost.)
5. Change the Aegis Shield to be linked to the Crest of Dominic rather than the Crest of Fraldarius.
6. Have Gilbert show up in Chapter 13 carrying the Aegis Shield.
7. Create an entirely new relic from scratch for Felix that's actually useful for him. I would suggest a sword with a high crit rate.

1 hour ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

It definitely frustrates me, though, that the year "starts" in "Moon 4". Like, I get that they want to establish an analogue with the real-world Gregorian calendar, but what sense does this make in-universe? We already get totally-not-Jeralt-the-narrator giving us the weather, so I'm not going to assume "the game starts in Moon 1? That must feel like our January!". Plus, such a change would finally make the Moons line up with the Chapters, at least in the pre-skip.

So I'm fine with the year starting in Spring, in our equivalent to April. But it should be designated as "Moon 1", not "Moon 4".

I presume that the one-to-one connection with the Gregorian calendar was to allow Byleth's birthday to match the player's real life birthday. Which I would consider very much not worth the cost of verisimilitude of the world building.

[Shadow Mir]

7 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Although, weirdly, Dominic himself is physically oriented, with higher strength than magic. If they'd made Gilbert have a Crest but Annette lack it then they'd have presumably given it a completely different effect, and had Crusher work completely differently too, which would make Dominic make sense as a unit too. It could also be presented as Annette  not inheriting the family Crest and that being what motivated her to study magic instead,

This is one of the many things about Heroes' Relics that makes no sense; it bothers me that for all the story hype they get, most of the relics that actually are useful are NOT weapons. It's bad enough many of the relic weapons underdeliver in gameplay, but it's even worse that the Crusher has not a single thing about it make one iota of sense...

[Sunwoo]

Admittedly 3H was a bit better about this than Awakening and Fates since in-universe the months are different than as they are known in the real world ... but I hate the "birthday" mechanic that exists just so players can customize an avatar. Why the fuck does August exist in Ylisse? In Fateslandia? What is a December or February? 3H at least calls them different things, which is nice, but other than the actual names of months it's clearly meant to correspond with our calendar. Which is only a thing because, once again, avatar and birthday.

Blazing Sword at least didn't make a big deal about when everybody's birthday was, and the only time it asked you to pick your birth month was when you're creating the tactician, which apparently has slight gameplay benefits for characters matching your affinity. I liked affinities better.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 minutes ago, lenticular said:

• Change the crest of Dominic from a magic-oriented crest to a physically-oriented crest that is suited for tanking. Either a health-regain effect or a counterattack-prevention effect would work well.
• Give the Crest to Gilbert and take it away from Annette.
• Add a story beat or two about how Annette didn't inherit her father's crest, how that motivated her to study magic, etc.
• Change Crusher so it's a Sacred Weapon instead of a Heroes' Relic. (It loses Dust that way; little of value is lost.)
• Change the Aegis Shield to be linked to the Crest of Dominic rather than the Crest of Fraldarius.
• Have Gilbert show up in Chapter 13 carrying the Aegis Shield.
• Create an entirely new relic from scratch for Felix that's actually useful for him. I would suggest a sword with a high crit rate.

1. The current effect of the Crest is to retain a spell charge. Maybe instead, the new Crest of Dominic could retain a weapon use? So, if Gilbert were to use a Brave Lance, and activate it on the second hit, the weapon would only lose 1 durability.

2/3. I kinda like this one. She's studious, like Lysithea, but perhaps her studiousness could come from misding a Crest (whereas Lysithea is burdened by them). Also makes a great contrast with Sylvain, whose Crest helps him fall back into a lazy demeanor.

4. Not in love with the thought of losing Crusher's funky design, but I can live with this one.

5/6. Good by me - it would definitely help Gilbert prove himself in chapter 13. Perhaps on CF, enemy Gilbert could show up with it in the final chapter. Unfortunately, though, CF loses its only cool shield as a result. Unless... Seteth were to drop his Ochain Shield in chapter 15?

7. Maybe just turn the Sword of Moralta into a Hero's Relic? And instead of getting it just on AM, as a conversation piece from Rodrigue in chapter 15, it can now be acquired pre-skip on any route. As for the associated combat art, it lets Felix teleport behind the enemy to attack them with a massively boosted crit rate. I call it "Nothing Personnel, Kid".

5 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

This is one of the many things about Heroes' Relics that makes no sense; it bothers me that for all the story hype they get, most of the relics that actually are useful are NOT weapons. It's bad enough many of the relic weapons underdeliver in gameplay, but it's even worse that the Crusher has not a single thing about it make one iota of sense...

?

The only particularly good Relic that isn't a weapon is Thyrsus. The Aegis Shield has a lack of viable users, while the Rafail Gem barely does anything whatsoever (okay, it's decent on fliers). The Fetters are very good, sure, but they're DLC and I forgot about them until just now.

As for weapons - yeah Crusher ain't great, and I've never found much use for Blutgang. But the other weapons are all pretty solid. Thunderbrand and Vajra-Mushti are brave weapons with solid Might; Luin is quite accurate; Freikugel and the Lance of Ruin have punishingly high Mights; Areadbhar and Aymr both offer absurdly good combat arts; Failnaught is a souped-up Longbow; and, the Sword of the Creator is a physical sword with range.

[Acacia Sgt]

35 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Admittedly 3H was a bit better about this than Awakening and Fates since in-universe the months are different than as they are known in the real world ... but I hate the "birthday" mechanic that exists just so players can customize an avatar. Why the fuck does August exist in Ylisse? In Fateslandia? What is a December or February? 3H at least calls them different things, which is nice, but other than the actual names of months it's clearly meant to correspond with our calendar. Which is only a thing because, once again, avatar and birthday.

Well, personally, I can see December existing since it literally means part of "Tenth Month" in Latin (Mensis December). Back when the Roman Calendar only had 10 months... because Winter deserved no months to its name, apparently. Until the Julian Calendar said, "screw it, let's put the remaining days into two more months". And we can chalk the usage of Latin as Translation Convention.

It helps Archanea in Marth's time has/had a Greco-Roman aesthetic, specially in the NES days.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Sunwoo]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Well, personally, I can see December existing since it literally means part of "Tenth Month" in Latin (Mensis December). Back when the Roman Calendar only had 10 months... because Winter deserved no months to its name, apparently. Until the Julian Calendar said, "screw it, let's put the remaining days into two more months". And we can chalk the usage of Latin as Translation Convention.

Yeah, but Fates and Awakening clearly use December as a twelfth month like in the real world, despite (as you said) the root word not meaning "twelve", and no story reason for the rulers of ancient Fateslandia/Ylisse/not-Archanea to do it the way the real world did.

[Jotari]

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

I can't imagine Rhea was searching for Jeralt in earnest. She likely felt guilty about the death of his wife, and (apparently) his child. She may be a lizard monster, but she still has feelings, dammit. Perhaps she simply put her faith in Sothis that Jeralt would return, and found herself rewarded just now.

In general, though, I do think a different setup would make more sense. A main character who doesn't know the Church of Seiros, or their father's reputation therein? Whose an outsider to Fodlan politics? It would've made far more sense for them to have been brought up in a different continent (say, Albinea, or Morfis). Meeting Alois and the three Lords can be explained as something of a "field trip", for the sake of cultural exchange. That way, Jeralt looks like he at least tried to run away, while Professr's naivete makes narrative sense.

It's a suggestion I've heard before and one I'm really down with, as I like that there's genuine foreign nations in Three House's World building. Though if they did do it I have to wonder how Leonie's backstory with Jearlt would factor in. Would he be making multiple trips back to Fodlan without Byleth? Eh, well I guess that doesn't strain belief any more than what we have now, wherein he's making secret trips across Fodlan to visit his secret pseudo adopted daughter that Byleth is kept ignorant off for no reason.

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

She doesn't say it, but I think this is good judgement. Saying that Professr is the new Professor would impact how the other students relate to her, so they're not coming across as honest. It could lead them to act in such a way that Professr picks their class - or, conversely, rejects their class, if they'd rather have one of the older (more qualified) teachers. Not saying it may not make things any more "fun", but it does allow Professr to select with a clearer head.

Like Hubert wanting a teacher who can actually teach him something about magic XD

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

My interpretation is, when it's something Teach is totally ignorant on, they just assign the students a book to read. "Here's a Flux tome, knock yourself out". Hence, when it's something they're actually qualified in, they receive a boost to their tutoring effectiveness.

"You can learn magic by reading a tome! Who ever heard of such nonsense!"

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

It definitely frustrates me, though, that the year "starts" in "Moon 4". Like, I get that they want to establish an analogue with the real-world Gregorian calendar, but what sense does this make in-universe? We already get totally-not-Jeralt-the-narrator giving us the weather, so I'm not going to assume "the game starts in Moon 1? That must feel like our January!". Plus, such a change would finally make the Moons line up with the Chapters, at least in the pre-skip.

So I'm fine with the year starting in Spring, in our equivalent to April. But it should be designated as "Moon 1", not "Moon 4".

Gregorian calendar is even worse.  We start the year in -2. Yeah, think about it, what number are the months September and October. The months used to be just numbers (as they are in a lot of langues), but then some fool decided to add two extra months to the end instead of the start. We also start the year right in the middle of a season. So calendars being ass backwards is pretty realistic.

4 hours ago, lenticular said:

Although, weirdly, Dominic himself is physically oriented, with higher strength than magic. If they'd made Gilbert have a Crest but Annette lack it then they'd have presumably given it a completely different effect, and had Crusher work completely differently too, which would make Dominic make sense as a unit too. It could also be presented as Annette  not inheriting the family Crest and that being what motivated her to study magic instead,

I get the feeling that the Aegis Shield is one of the many victims of "was only tested on Hard" in Three Houses. On Hard, I think it works fine on Felix. He's strong enough and fast enough that he can still reliably double most things on Hard (provided you're in a fast class like Swordmaster or Assassin). On Maddening, though, yeah, I agree that it doesn't really have anyone who it fits on.

Here's my suggestions for a set of changes:

1. Change the crest of Dominic from a magic-oriented crest to a physically-oriented crest that is suited for tanking. Either a health-regain effect or a counterattack-prevention effect would work well.
2. Give the Crest to Gilbert and take it away from Annette.
3. Add a story beat or two about how Annette didn't inherit her father's crest, how that motivated her to study magic, etc.
4. Change Crusher so it's a Sacred Weapon instead of a Heroes' Relic. (It loses Dust that way; little of value is lost.)
5. Change the Aegis Shield to be linked to the Crest of Dominic rather than the Crest of Fraldarius.
6. Have Gilbert show up in Chapter 13 carrying the Aegis Shield.
7. Create an entirely new relic from scratch for Felix that's actually useful for him. I would suggest a sword with a high crit rate.

I presume that the one-to-one connection with the Gregorian calendar was to allow Byleth's birthday to match the player's real life birthday. Which I would consider very much not worth the cost of verisimilitude of the world building.

Felix already has a Fraldraius aligned sword, It's a sacred weapon and not a relic though. And while I see suggestions for simply moving it, it is a pretty useful, though optional, scene with Rodrigue that gives the player more attachment to him in Azure Moon.

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

The only particularly good Relic that isn't a weapon is Thyrsus. The Aegis Shield has a lack of viable users, while the Rafail Gem barely does anything whatsoever (okay, it's decent on fliers). The Fetters are very good, sure, but they're DLC and I forgot about them until just now.

As useless as the Rafail Gem is, I still feel gimped that it just completely vanishes in Crimson Flower. Like we know the Death Knight had it all along, so why doesn't he just have it in Crimson Flower? Hell why doesn't he have it as an enemy in White Clouds? That would make him a significantly more dangerous threat as it would cover up your cheese options on him significantly, making Gambits pretty much the holy way to deal with him.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Gregorian calendar is even worse.  We start the year in -2. Yeah, think about it, what number are the months September and October. The months used to be just numbers (as they are in a lot of langues), but then some fool decided to add two extra months to the end instead of the start. We also start the year right in the middle of a season. So calendars being ass backwards is pretty realistic.

Yeah, but nobody thinks "oh October is month 8". The "October = 10" association is so ingrained, at least in the Western World, that the "Oct" part is little more than a trivial historical artifact. The Fodlan system requires, simultaneously, calling a month the first in the year - yet also designating it with the number 4. It's a cardinal-ordinal mismatch.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Felix already has a Fraldraius aligned sword, It's a sacred weapon and not a relic though. And while I see suggestions for simply moving it, it is a pretty useful, though optional, scene with Rodrigue that gives the player more attachment to him in Azure Moon.

It is kind of weird, though, to hide something like that behind a talk conversation. Why couldn't Rodrigue give it later, as a visitor ti the Monastery? You could still have the conversation without the sword.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

As useless as the Rafail Gem is, I still feel gimped that it just completely vanishes in Crimson Flower. Like we know the Death Knight had it all along, so why doesn't he just have it in Crimson Flower? Hell why doesn't he have it as an enemy in White Clouds? That would make him a significantly more dangerous threat as it would cover up your cheese options on him significantly, making Gambits pretty much the holy way to deal with him.

That would make the Death Knight tougher in gameplay, certainly - you could no longer trivialize him with Dark Spikes or Knightkneeler. But it would sort of betray his secret identity early on. "Hey, why does this masked enemy have an item associated with Mercedes' crest?"

[Jotari]

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

Yeah, but nobody thinks "oh October is month 8". The "October = 10" association is so ingrained, at least in the Western World, that the "Oct" part is little more than a trivial historical artifact. The Fodlan system requires, simultaneously, calling a month the first in the year - yet also designating it with the number 4. It's a cardinal-ordinal mismatch.

It's ingrained to us because we've been using it for 2000 years. It must have been pretty damn ridiculous for the people who counted by literally saying the words septem, octo, novem, decem.

There's also the possibility that the number of the months is purely an interface mechanic. Or that the year really does start on the first of the first month, it's just the school year and the start of the seasonal cycle (what the narrator talks about) that starts in April. We have that in our calender too with the official beginning of the year being in the middle of winter and, for a lot of places, the school year not starting until September, 3/4 of the way through the actual year. We also have fiscal years that begin in October! If anything we have it worse than Fodlan as we crowd end the begging of our years at the end of the calendar.

Quote

 

That would make the Death Knight tougher in gameplay, certainly - you could no longer trivialize him with Dark Spikes or Knightkneeler. But it would sort of betray his secret identity early on. "Hey, why does this masked enemy have an item associated with Mercedes' crest?"

Well interface editing for spoilers are used in the game already for the likes of Marianne and Edegworth's crests. The Rafail Gem could just get a description calling it a mysterious relic until it comes into the player's hands. Or alternatively, do nothing. Leave the interface spoiler in tact, as for the players that notice, it builds intrigue. The whole connection between the two of them just sort of comes out of nowhere in the end anyway, as far as I can recall

Edited July 28, 2021 by Jotari

[lenticular]

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Felix already has a Fraldraius aligned sword, It's a sacred weapon and not a relic though. And while I see suggestions for simply moving it, it is a pretty useful, though optional, scene with Rodrigue that gives the player more attachment to him in Azure Moon.

I don't really like the way that sword is obtained, since it's so easily missable. It's reasonably easy to clear the map before Rodrigue even shows up, and even if you don't then it's likely that Byleth won't be anywhere near him unless you're specifically going out of your way to talk to him. Which you really don't have any reason to do unless you know that he has the sword. The sword itself is also pretty underwhelming. There are a lot of good swords available (Wo Dao, Rapier, Brave Sword, Levin Sword, etc.) and the Sword of Moralta just doesn't do anything well enough to justify being repaired with Mythril. It also doesn't even have a unique appearance (sharing the the Sword of Begalta) which bugs me more than it reaosnably should.

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 3: Garreg Mach-Negative-Ten Monastery

Oh golly.

Oh goodness.

Oh gracious.

Here we are, folks.

This is it.

The big one.

The crown jewel in Three Houses' crown of thorns.

Garreg. Mach. Monastery.

The massive, sprawling, fully-explorable 3D environment in which we will be spending the majority of this playthrough. And if not, it sure as shit is gonna feel like it for me.

Just about 80% of the pain that playing Three Houses inflicts upon me can be traced back to the fact that this thing exists. And if I attempt to sum up my reasons for hating this thing here, upfront, before we actually run into them, like I originally planned on doing, then I literally would not even touch the damned Switch today.

So we won't be doing that.

I'll attempt to more naturally pace my thoughts about the thing through our time with it.

Because we're going to have a lot of goddamned time with it.

I don't have a lot of time today, and I really, really want to ensure I at least pick a damned house before this day is out. So yeah, let's just get moving.

Honestly, it's curious that they really... don't do much with everyone's creepy presumptuousness about you working here, not even asking you as a formality. They just say shit like “you will be working with us here” and “your new home” with complete friendliness and warmth. Like, I'm all for subtlety, but this is so subtle that it's almost like the writers don't even realize how creepy it is. Especially given the happy music playing all through out this and previous scenes. There's no narrative indication that Professr even gives a shit about being forcibly drafted into the service of a church they literally just heard of.

So we get our first quest, where we are tasked with speaking to the three house leaders to learning about the three houses before returning to Rhea to pick one.

No lie, the second this happened in that fated first playthrough, my immediate mental reaction, while I was still excited and on-board for this game, mind, was:

“...Wow, that's not gonna age well on replays”.

And indeed... it does not.

See, here's the thing about Fire Emblem: historically, with the now-relatively-minor exception of Shadows of Valentia, even though not every story is exactly amazing, if you're not enjoying it, you can just press start and get right to the gameplay. Love the game and hate the story? Just skip the story and play the game.

Three Houses, among other things, seems to do everything in its power to make it no longer possible to do that.

These “quests” the game periodically gives you basically involve going around campus, talking to people, finding things, and then reporting back in the name of getting gameplay rewards, moving the plot forward, or both. These quests are fun exactly once, if ever. When the story is new and fresh, and you're experiencing it for the first time, yes, maybe you'll get some enjoyment out of an opportunity to talk to characters. Some people would probably have done it anyway even without gameplay rewards, just to hear what these characters have to say.

But what does it amount to for someone who's already seen it?

It amounts to an interruption in the game's flow where you're instructed to move from point A to point B, and possibly also to points C, D, E, F and G, because if you don't, either the game will deprive you of various items, or the game just flat-out won't let you continue.

That is a problem everywhere in Three Houses: tying copious gameplay rewards to mindless, tedious nonsense that drastically overstays its welcome, if the player ever even had any welcome for it in their heart.

Want to skip reading the game's four-pound script because you've already read it? Hope you won't miss those support points you could've gotten from your dialogue choices!

Are you bored to tears of the fishing minigame and can't get yourself through it without listening to podcasts on the side? Better rev up those podcasts, or not only will you have a lower professor ranking, but you won't be able to cook any speed or defense meals!

Want to get to the next battle as quickly as possible without doing things that will put literal hours between it and you? Hope you like using one of the two objectively worst free time options!

None of these minigames are fun by their own merits. None of them are inherently worth doing. The game just rewards you for doing them, which for anyone with a mind for optimizing their party, is functionally identical to punishing you for valuing your time and sanity. At every turn, at every conceivable twist and turn, the Monastery tells me I have to crawl a mile on all fours if I want to use my hands when I reach the other side.

Alois talks about how he recommended Professr as a professor, still completely oblivious to the fact that, as far as we know at the moment, that action doomed Professr to life as just about the most literal wage-slave on the planet.

Alois: Frankly, we had someone else in mind for the role, but they ran off during our dustup with the bandits.

Someone else... in mind?

Okay, so I get from what people have said that Great Tree Moon is implied to be the starting month of the school year, but this implies it hasn't even started at all yet. That there hadn't officially even been a third house leader hired yet. So first of all, what was that thing all of the students were doing together when the bandits attacked, and secondly, why were classes going on both yesterday and today?

With Seteth, meanwhile, you can hear his suspicion and scorn for you between the lines of him praising you for your heroism, but hey, at least he is praising you genuinely.

Seteth: You saved the lines of the students you came across. That, at least, was admirable.

Man, getting into the dining hall and hearing the sound effects of a full and crowded room despite seeing the camera pan around showing off the completely empty-

...It's not completely empty, it just took a whopping fifteen seconds for the people other than Edelgard to physically load into the room.

I shit you not, the camera pan cutscene ended, I was given control back, I took in the still-completely-empty room, and then as I was in the middle of writing that sentence about how empty the room was in spite of the sound effects, out of the corner of my eye I saw the other students finally load in.

Yeah, this game is... not well optimized, shall we say.

Anyway, Edelgard implies through her talk here that even though we didn't pick her in that dialogue option, she wasn't planning on giving up and was planning on convincing us further. Or at least she would have, if it hadn't been for Rhea calling dibs. Implying that either she doesn't know we're here by force, or not even the Empire has the authority to free the Professr from his wage slavery. Otherwise, surely she'd be offering Professr an out, no?

She introduces herself with her full name, and I'm kinda disappointed they didn't bother trying to properly pronounce it. I'm assuming it's based on Hraesvelgr, and... that “ae” sound is not pronounced “eh”. From what I've heard (there's conflicting info on this), it's either pronounced “Hreesvelgr” or “Hraishvelgr”. And personally, I think “Edelgard von Hraishvelg” sounds a lot cooler than “von Hresvelg”. That pronunciation just feels... empty, void of the punch that it could have had.

I decline the option to hear more about the Black Eagles, because thankfully, that isn't necessary. I just move on to talk to...

...the gatekeeper.

Everyone's favorite.

Admittedly, I'd probably love him too if I had any fondness for this game whatsoever. And the fact that he won CYL in Fire Emblem Heroes tickles me to no end, even though on some level you'd think I should be having an existential crisis over the fact that a meme character from the most overrated game in the franchise got more votes than the flagship character of the entire damned series. But fuck it, I find it hilarious.

Weirdly, he has no visible weapons, despite presumably being a guard. I seem to remember some guards having visible weapons, namely the armor knights the game places in your way in this early part of the game to keep you from exploring the parts of the Monastery you haven't unlocked yet.

Alright, and, at long last, after talking with Claude, I find Dimitri. I'll at least talk to him and the Blue Lions students, even though I will not sit through talking to all 24.

Sylvain hits on me, as to be expected, and I find it amusing that all three of his names have the “ay” sound in them. It all practically rhymes.

Oh god, Mercedes. Her voice is... so airy. It's the weirdest thing. My first impression was “she obviously had an “ara ara” voice in the Japanese version and this is the localization's terrible effort to copy it”. Probably doesn't help that she has a “dead anime mom” haircut. But yeah, it's... really grating. But she's part of our house, and we're gonna have to deal with her.

Annette seems far more natural, and her lines are pretty natural too. Glad we have some characters like that.

And then we talk to Ingrid and Felix, and... they do not sound natural, shall we say.

Oh dear, and for the first time I fail to guess which character will actually start the conversation. Each one has a blurb of their first line over their heads, and for the first two pairs of students the one I talked to was the one who actually spoke first. Not so with this time. I talked to Dedue instead of Ashe.

Aaaaand that's everyone. Alright, let's go back to Dimitri.

Ah yes, and in talking to Dimitri...

...So, if anyone more familiar with the Japanese version could help me out here, please correct me if my understanding here is off base... but I've heard that the localization... changed Dimitri. A lot. I saw this reddit post a friend showed me that detailed how in the original game he was significantly different, much more rude and brash and the like, and far closer to what he spirals into in Part 2 than the localization would have us believe. The reddit post in fact says that Dimitri's entire story arc was supposed to be about a sweet and sensitive child nigh-irreparably scarred and twisted by the toxic elements of the culture he had been brought up in, acting like the stereotypical masculine ideal of Faerghus as a performative behavior due to the violence and machismo that his culture demands he live up to, with his childhood friends talking about how they miss the old him.

Now, as much skepticism as I would normally heap upon anything that reads profound political themes into a Fire Emblem game, it's quite obvious from the evidence cited that, however accurate or inaccurate that redditor's reading of the original work might turn out to be, localization changes were definitely made. It's obvious that the translation did something drastic to Dimitri's character, and quite frankly, as much as I'm generally annoyed by the series' various attempts to broach the subject of gender politics, what Japan got sounds way more interesting than what we got. I mean, bare minimum, it certainly would have helped distinguish Dimitri from the pack more on a surface level. It sounds like while we got two prim and proper lords and one devious and casual lord, Japan got one prim and proper lord, one devious and casual lord, and one rude and arrogant lord. Even just on a surface level that would have helped to set them apart. But it's probably premature for me to be assessing the merits and shortcomings of Dimitri's character when I haven't even played his route yet. Maybe Part 1 Dimitri is actually still really interesting even in his polite, milquetoast form the localization gave us.

Well, only one way to find out.

I finish talking to him, hear his descriptions of everyone and find little of value to comment on, and then take the game up on its offer to warp me straight back to Rhea upon quest completion.

I then pick Blue Lions.

...No wait, I do have one thing to comment on: Curiously, Blue Lions is the only house without an even split of male and female students. Both other houses have four male and four female students each, while in Blue Lions it's five male and three female. Well, I'll have Professr and later Leonie to spice things up. Not to mention probably Constance.

Flayn: Brother? ...Oh, I am so sincerely sorry! I did not mean to interrupt!

She says, as if she could have possibly arrived at this location without walking through a long hall and seeing all the people Seteth was talking to. She says that as if she literally just spontaneously appeared in the room via teleportation.

She then introduces herself to us, and then... promptly drops out of the conversation entirely.

...What was the point of her being there?

Seteth: In a few days time, there will be a mock battle between the three houses, intended to gauge the current progress of the students.

...Can this game please make up its mind about how much time these students have had to study so far? “A few days” is hardly enough time to wait before assessing progress.

Cut to the next scene, and we get one of the game's numerous sequences where the whole house is on camera and every student gets their obligatory line or two apiece.

And Professr's very first line is to declare that she wants to be the “cool” professor who's friends with all the students and doesn't act like their teacher at all, and we all know how well that goes in real life.

...I just noticed... does Felix have sleep-deprivation bags on his eyes? His face looks... kinda sickly. They don't show up in his portrait though, which makes it seem... weird.

...God, this scene is so awkward. Damn near everyone's vocal performance clashes uncomfortably with the word choices that come out of their mouth. Sylvain is a particular offender, but disappointingly so was Annette. Her introductory lines sounded fine, but here...

...No, if I attempt to come up with something new of value to say about this every time it happens, we will all be ash scattered to the seven winds before I can even get halfway through White Clouds. So I will simply allow the previous entry to be my word on the matter, just keep in mind that this will be causing me a great deal of unspoken irritation.

...Okay, no, I will say one more thing about the dialogue that I just noticed: It mostly seems to be a problem in scenes with the students. All of those scenes with the teachers so far were pretty much fine. Their voices, for the most part, flowed naturally with their word choices and felt like things they'd say. But the second the writers try to write the student characters, everything goes downhill.

...And then we get a scene alone with the walking embodiment of that “for the most part” caveat I put in there: Hanneman. I considered Daniel Woren the weak link in the voice acting chain in Shadows of Valentia, and he isn't much improved here. His lines just... none of the emotion in any of his line readings ever feels even slightly genuine. But I don't mean to pick on a specific, non-vague human being called out by name, even though the chances he'll ever read this are slim to none, so I want to take this time to offer some genuine praise: he's clearly gotten better. As bad as his Hanneman performance still is, it's better than his Desaix performance by a good margin, and considering how much worse the voice direction on this project was compared to the one where he gave his Desaix performance, the fact that he managed to improve here is honestly pretty damned admirable and impressive.

Anyway, Hanneman wants to know what kind of crest we have.

Oh god.

“Crests” is capitalized.

Anyway, Hanneman goes on a big expositional rant explaining how amazing Crests are, when really, their actual effects in-game are pretty damned underwhelming. But I'll talk about that later. Right now, I'm just looking for a good chance to save and quit for the day. My time is running out.

Yeah, this was... I dunno if it's just the bad voice acting talking, but this feels like a particularly awkward and unnatural bit of exposition about Crests here. I mean, it's almost literally a lecture, by a literal teacher. And my god, Hanneman's “excitement” about discovering a brand-new, never before seen crest sounds so unbelievably fake that I can scarcely believe they kept that take. And the fact that he finishes with “pardon my unrestrained jubilation”... woooow.

Okay, so I finally get to Sunday, and the menu where I choose what to do with my free time. And this is where I will save. Tomorrow... we'll do our first... exploration of Garreg Mach.

The game says it's taken me three hours to get to this point. Good lord do I wish I had been better about suspending the game whenever I go to write something (I only manage it about half the time, or when I step away to write long things about a particular subject), so I had a better idea of just how much of that was actually just playing the game normally. But if even two of those hours were me actually playing the game... given the game's bloat, I would totally believe that. Keep in mind, so far the only real, proper gameplay we've had... is the prologue.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited July 28, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, Edelgard implies through her talk here that even though we didn't pick her in that dialogue option, she wasn't planning on giving up and was planning on convincing us further. Or at least she would have, if it hadn't been for Rhea calling dibs. Implying that either she doesn't know we're here by force, or not even the Empire has the authority to free the Professr from his wage slavery. Otherwise, surely she'd be offering Professr an out, no?

Thing is, Byleth hasn't realized they're there by force yet. Though maybe force is too strong a word, I think if Byleth did try to leave Rhea probably would let them. She'd try to convince them first and maybe sabotage whatever life they try to make for themself, but Rhea probably would let them physically leave, per the whole she never really seemed to be looking all that much to begin with.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...So, if anyone more familiar with the Japanese version could help me out here, please correct me if my understanding here is off base... but I've heard that the localization... changed Dimitri. A lot. I saw this reddit post a friend showed me that detailed how in the original game he was significantly different, much more rude and brash and the like, and far closer to what he spirals into in Part 2 than the localization would have us believe. The reddit post in fact says that Dimitri's entire story arc was supposed to be about a sweet and sensitive child nigh-irreparably scarred and twisted by the toxic elements of the culture he had been brought up in, acting like the stereotypical masculine ideal of Faerghus as a performative behavior due to the violence and machismo that his culture demands he live up to, with his childhood friends talking about how they miss the old him.

Huh, first I'm hearing of this, but I kind of hope it's true. Because Part 1 Dimitri is just kind of boring.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

She says, as if she could have possibly arrived at this location without walking through a long hall and seeing all the people Seteth was talking to. She says that as if she literally just spontaneously appeared in the room via teleportation.

Ha XD

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And Professr's very first line is to declare that she wants to be the “cool” professor who's friends with all the students and doesn't act like their teacher at all, and we all know how well that goes in real life.

If I recall correctly that's one of the instances where they give you just one "choice". So you have to make Byleth say that. Which, as a teacher myself, had be sighing in exasperation. I can probably call it my least favorite2 line in the game, entirely for bias reasons of course.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...And then we get a scene alone with the walking embodiment of that “for the most part” caveat I put in there: Hanneman. I considered Daniel Woren the weak link in the voice acting chain in Shadows of Valentia, and he isn't much improved here. His lines just... none of the emotion in any of his line readings ever feels even slightly genuine. But I don't mean to pick on a specific, non-vague human being called out by name, even though the chances he'll ever read this are slim to none, so I want to take this time to offer some genuine praise: he's clearly gotten better. As bad as his Hanneman performance still is, it's better than his Desaix performance by a significant margin, and considering how much worse the voice direction on this project was compared to the one where he gave his Desaix performance, the fact that he managed to improve here is honestly pretty damned admirable and impressive.

 

 

You know we probably should hit him up on twitter or email or something and alert him to your comments XD Voice actors seem to be quite approachable as far as "celebrities" go.