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


Alastor15243
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Recruiting characters in 3H really is janky as fuck. If the devs really wanted to do the "recruit everyone except Edelgard/Hubert and Dimitri/Dedue and Claude" thing, they could have at least made some recruitments depend on ... well, other factors. There should be an extra step required for any Kingdom studentĀ or for Alliance characters who are not pro-Empire to join Edelgard. I also think it'd be cool if some students could recruit their friends over with high enough support levels and stuff. At the very least, maybe if we could recruit more students besides Lysithea in CF during time skip, even if you didn't recruit them during the school, it would feel more genuine.

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18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

And maybe if this were a game where having high supports meant jack shit, maybe only the students you're on really good terms with stick by you.

*Checks recruitment conditions*

Wait, they don't require any support level to Part 2 re-recruit at all? Nor do you have to fight them first?Ā And here I thought those wouldĀ have been the obvious things to do.Ā That game really is better 3H.

Speaking of a semi-FE game, if you opt to continue this play log for the KagaSagas you might like Berwick Saga just a little then. The majority of playable characters there are mercenaries, who will not join forĀ the last couple battles unless you fulfill certain requirements to permanently recruit them. The conditions are somewhat varied and range from veryĀ easy to fulfill to not as easy. -So I read. I haven't gotten to playing Berwick yet myself.

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2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But then we get to magic.

They were way, way stricter on magic than they needed to be, by locking it behind only specific classes.

The mage classes have skills that do things like double spell charges and boost your magic damage or healing.

That's great. That's fine. That's all the incentive I would have needed to use a magic-specializing class.

Magic could easily have been something you're capable of using in any class, as a sort of limited-use special attack available to anyone who did the proper training. It could've made the str-mag dichotomy a lot more interesting by having both stats be something you could conceivably get a use out of in any class if you had a good score in it, meaning that physical fighters who have magic as their dump stat would actually suffer consequences for dumping magic. But instead, access to magic is locked behind specific classes that usually fall under the very strict framework of ā€œsquishy wizardā€. And at launch, there wasn't even a single one of them that could fly.

Personally, I'm more miffed that the offensive white magic in this game is just bad, with the sole exception of Seraphim. FFS, the game has a class that gets extra damage when using damaging white magic...Ā but said class is often avoided becauseĀ offensive white magic is just ill suited for having being your primary offensive tool, so in practice it just ends up being a worse Dark Knight (and Dark Knight isn't exactly a great class considering the investment it needs...). It's extremely telling that the game actually cheats and gives the three characters who show up post-timeskip as Bishops magic they can't even learn when they're playable. Anyway, I'd think your idea would penalize the units who are not magically inclined, so I think it's a terrible one. I mean, I already have issues justifying the use of hybrid classes that use weapons and magic *EXCEPT for Robin and Corrin and their children*...

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On 7/31/2021 at 10:08 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly,Ā that's kind of the problem. The narrative doesn't even acknowledge how messed up the fact that we wind up ruling the continent is, it's just treated as a happy ending and a natural result.

Oh, I agree with that much. The game seems to treat a "unified Fodlan" as a desirable state of affairs, and has every route ending on it. Without particularly justifying why it would be desirable. Only Edelgard seems to make a case for it, but even hers is rooted somewhat in Imperial revanchism and half-truths. On the other routes, unification... just kinda happens.

On 7/31/2021 at 10:33 PM, lenticular said:

I'll add to this that FĆ³dlan is still very much in a faux-medieval political structure with feudalism, vassalage and the likes. There's no Westphalian Sovereignity, no principle of territorial integrity, nothing that we really associate with the modern concept of statehood. Instead, we see borders shift as nobles shift their allegiance from one liege to another (eg, when House Galatea splits from House Daphnel to join the Kingdom of Faerghus). If we do assume that the various noble houses of the Kingdom retain their titles -- and I don't see why they wouldn't -- then it would probably be a fairly orderly transition with very little of the existing infrastructure of governance needing to be overturned.

Yeah, it doesn't seem that hard, if the existing system of nobility is allowed to be retained. There are some that raise questions, admittedly (i.e. should House Rowe be punished for siding with Cornelia? What happens to House Vestra?), but most of the mid-scale power blocks are still intact.

On 7/31/2021 at 10:49 PM, ZeManaphy said:

I donā€™t know what you are trying to say here. Thinking and doing are completely different things. You cannot punish someone for thinking, but you can punish someone for actions. ā€œ Actions speak louder than words ā€œ as the saying goes. Regardless, Claude does indeed achieve his goals of reforming FĆ³dlan without bloodshed through opening the borders allowing cultural diffusion between FĆ³dlan and Almyra, something Edelgard does not accomplish with her methods.Ā 

I was being sarcastic. We agree on this front.

On 7/31/2021 at 10:49 PM, ZeManaphy said:

I donā€™t see how Byleth being in charge of FĆ³dlan is a bad decision at all. Byleth is not a nobody that Claude just appointed out of the blue.Ā Byleth fought alongside Claude to stop the empire and defeat Nemesis. Rhea even appoints Byleth as the head of the Church in case something happened to her. Byleth ends up succeeding her, and since the Church is the only dominant power remaining, it makes sense that it takes over to resurrect the land.Ā 

Yeah, but the Professor never demonstrates either skill or interest in administering the Church - much less an entire continent. They're a skilled fighter and tactician, and they're able to manage students in the classroom and soldiers in battle alike - I'll grant that. But they're also quite ignorant about politics, history, and the various people groups that make up the continent. They don't appear to be equipped to take on such a massive role.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Put an orphanage on campus, and have it be part of the explorable area of Garreg Mach. Show little kids singing nursery rhymes, the kind we teach kids in real life to help them memorize basic information. A ā€œthese are the months of the yearā€ song for starters, but this would be a great way to exposit information to the player without talking down to the protagonist like a child. Just let the player overhear conversations with actual children.

We're five episodes in, and Alastor is already suggesting expanding the monastery with additional NPC dialogue. Send help.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...That being said, due to being mostly blind about the story of this game on my first playthrough, and not knowing the nature of the timeskip... I came to some weird conclusions about this. I genuinely thought it was some future Edelgard or something. And then I was theorizing that Death Knight was future Dimitri or something, and... yeah, it was a dumb, weird mess and I was completely off-base, but excuse me for thinking the devs had a point to introducing the concept of time manipulation into the story.

Damn, I wanna read this fanfic. Calling it right now, Tomas is future Ashe. He just went a little bit farther along than everyone else.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Either that or, alternate theory, this was given for faith magic because the other weapon skills have arena tournaments devoted to them or something. Still feels weird, especially if it turns out that arena tournaments don't boost weapon skill at all. Also, still nothing for authority, riding, flying or armor.

*cough, cough*

I'm generally disappointed with this game's version of the "Arena". It really only boils down to having the right stats and skills, not being particularly talented in the weapon type in question. And the player always gets initiative, so the enemies never benefit from initiative skills (i.e. Death Blow) or brave effects (from Gauntlets). And and, you're often facing the same class several matchups in a row. And and and, the unit you send in doesn't even benefit with experience or weapon rank. The benefit is money, an item, and professor rank - the unit you sent in is completely unaffected.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...We apparently have... an entire week off from studies right after the mock battle. What? Why did it skip that free time and that Monday study session?

Yeah, sometimes the game does this. In theory, I get a motive to not make the months "too dense". But it's frustrating in its inconsistency.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

For that matter, what the fuck is the deal with Seteth and Flayn? Seteth looks thirty at the oldest, and yet he spoke of the events of 20 years ago like he was personally there. But, like, he couldn't have been, right? He can't have continuously been a public presence at the Monastery for the last twenty years. He's an immortal dragon trying to hide the fact that he and his ā€œsisterā€ are immortal dragons, and that must naturally involve only staying in public view until your lack of aging would start to get suspicious, and then either moving, or going underground for a while until you can pretend to be someone else. Which would logically mean waiting until everyone who was working at the monastery the last time you went public (like, say, Alois) is either gone or dead. But like... Rhea, Seteth and Flayn... is it ever mentioned what their strategy is for doing that? Because Flayn has to make it something that at least she and Seteth have to do all the damned time.

Personally, I've thought Seteth could pass for mid-thirties. Anyway, he wasn't there (at least, not in an outward-facing role) when Jeralt left, roughly 20 years ago. I don't think it's ever specified how long he's been known to the public as Rhea's right-hand man.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

There's no weapon triangle to make axes situationally more useful unless you spend a skill slot to put that situational bonus there, you need to spend another skill slot to equip the skill that provides massive hit/avoid/crit/dodge bonuses while using axes to make them worthwhile, and falcon knights, like damned near every late-game class in existence, have a class-inherent faire skill that makes them do 5 more damage with their class's weapon of choice, which in this case is lances. Meaning that there isn't a single axe in the game where you wouldn't be faster, more accurate, and more powerful using the equivalent lance. Unless of course you spend another skill slot and waited until the end of the game to unlock axefaire and put it on.

My "well, ackshually" contribution is to note that there really aren't any anti-Armor lances. Ergo, there could still be a motive for a Falcoknight to bring a Mace/Hammer/Axe of Ukonvasara. Not to mention, the Hero's relics. That said, in an Axe build, they'd almost certainly rather go Wyvern Lord.

I think they were stuck in a bind. They wanted to provide the player with a great deal of freedom, while also not letting the individual classes lose their character. I mean, I definitely like that builds like "Wyvern Lord Petra who wields swords for a high crit on enemy phase" and "Gremory Marianne who stabs people for close-range one-shots" are an option. I'd be very curious to see whether the next original game reintroduces class limitations, or goes more towards a "break down the class system entirely" model.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Magic could easily have been something you're capable of using in any class, as a sort of limited-use special attack available to anyone who did the proper training. It could've made the str-mag dichotomy a lot more interesting by having both stats be something you could conceivably get a use out of in any class if you had a good score in it, meaning that physical fighters who have magic as their dump stat would actually suffer consequences for dumping magic. But instead, access to magic is locked behind specific classes that usually fall under the very strict framework of ā€œsquishy wizardā€. And at launch, there wasn't even a single one of them that could fly.

There are a few ways they could have done this:

A) Limit innate spell access to magical classes, but allow the player to buy tomes that can be used in non-magical classes. So, Swordmaster!Felix can't use Thoron innately, but he can by buying and equipping the Thoron tome.

B) Let physical classes use learned spells, but at half-use count (a la Commoner/Noble). Presumably, Trickster and War Monk would get their spell charges upped to full (which is where they should have been in the first place).

C) Rather than halved use counts, different classes can bring different numbers of spells into battle. Physical classes can bring more combat arts (seriously, a War Master should get more than the same 3 slots of a Fighter) with maybe a spell or two, while magic-specialist classes can load up on the spells, but have less leeway in combat arts.

One more point - it's worth noting that each weapon type has at least one associated magical weapon*, and at least one magical combat art. Ergo, even without spell access, units in physical classes can still benefit from their Magic stat (enter Assassin!Lysithea with a Levin Sword and Soulblade).

*admittedly the confusingly-named "Arrow of Indra" is basically CF-exclusive, which is a right shame.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

I think this hurts the Black Eagles the most. Particularly with the whole existence of Silver Snow. It makes their loyalty to Edelgard and their empire seem entirely false when there's a route in which they all unanimously side against her. It'd have been a very bold move in terms of gameplay, but I actually would have had all the Black Eagles, except maybe Petra, side against you should you go down the route of Silver Snow.

I would say Ferdinand has reason to turn against Edelgard too. Since she deposed her father and dissolved the role of Prime Minister, she effectively undercut his political future. He may see opposing her as his best path toward political power in the Empire. And not to mention, a chance to prove his own perceived superiority to Edelgard.

Also, Dorothea would stay with the Church because she's hot for Teacher. Then again, she's certainly into Edie as well... decisions, decisions.

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2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Yes, while the game is uncomfortably good at making you feel like massive lengths of time are passing by in-game, it's frankly terrible at making what anyone does with this length of time remotely believable. Almost every meaningful event in this game happens with a whole damned month of warning no matter how much sense that makes, and this will get frankly ridiculous at some points in Part 1 and basically the entirety of Part 2.

For me, I always took a lot of the weird time nonsense as being a gameplay abstraction, so it doesn't bother me. Just as I don't imagine that all the units in a battle are actually standing in one place and waiting patiently while everyone moves one at a time and then taking turns to swing their swords at each other, I also don't assume that the exact ordering of events in and around the monastery should be taken literally. I basically take it as "hey, here are some things that happened this month", and not "and then the professor ate 7 large meals on Saturday and fasted for the res tof the week". Though I will say that the end of Part 2 with its constant returns to the monastery did get a little bit much even for me.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, I have to say, as I explore the Monastery... a lot has been said about the massive number of recycled maps, and how it's probably because each map was so resource-intensive to make due to how detailed they are on zoom-in. If that's the case, isn't it a massive waste that we never fight a single battle inside Garreg Mach Monastery? Oh, there are battles that ostensibly take place in the Monastery, but they're underground or in some remote part of it we're never allowed to explore. None of them happen in the parts of the Monastery we're actually familiar with. Wouldn't it have made the Part 1 finale's siege/invasion of Garreg Mach Monastery far more impactful if it actually took place... in the Garreg Mach Monastery we've come to know and presumably love, and not in some generic nondescript battlefield allegedly just outside of it? If that explorable campus we've run through constantly until we know it like the backs of our hands... suddenly turned into a massive battlefield we had to fight to protect?

Agree with this. One of the things that I like about the monastery is that it adds a sense of place and attachment that isn't typically present in other Fire Emblem games. It's a huge wasted opportunity that they didn't take advantage of that to really raise the emotional stakes.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, I'm told to find some students who like to sing, and seriously, who finds this fun? These qusts would be outrageously tedious and trial-and-error if they didn't flat-out tell you who to talk to with a flashing dot on your minimap, but with that flashing dot, it's just ā€œgo here and come backā€. I can picture people tolerating this, but does anyone actually find it fun?

For me, personally: yes and no. Did I find that particular individual quest fun? No, I can't say I did. I didn't mind it, it didn't meaningfully detract from the overall experience for me, but I also can't say I particularly enjoyed it. What I did enjoy was the more general and wider experience of wandering around the monastery, talking to people, learning a bit more about the world, having some downtime, etc.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Now we're introduced to choir practice, which practically screams ā€œthe last vestige of cut contentā€ to me. Why would there be a campus activity specifically devoted to raising your students' faith skill... when there's no corresponding task for basically any other skill?

Last vestige of cut content does seem likely but I do have a different guess as to why it was specifically the activity for the faith skill that survived. If you use it semi-regularly, you're going to passively gain a bit of faith skill on Byleth which means there's a good chance that you have at least the Heal spell when the game suddenly dumps you into a White Magic class near the end of Part 1. Which you likely wouldn't otherwise, since most people are going to be training Byleth in a physical class.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Someone, at some point, presumably once asked the question: ā€œCan I use axe as a falcon knight?ā€.

Fire Emblem's answer used to be ā€œNoā€.

Three Houses changed it to ā€œSure, I guess, if you're an idiotā€.

OK, so there's not really any good reason to use an axe if you're a Falcon Knight. (I can think of a few circumstances, but they're all either contrvied or very situational, so wouldn't contest your point.) But are there times you would want to use a bow as a Falcon Knight? Or use a lance as a Wyvern Lord? Or a sword as a Bishop? Yes to all of the above, and more. And that's just for end-game classes. For Beginner and Intermediate tier classes, mixing and matching weapons becomes much more important. If you change the question to "can I use an axe as a Pegasus Knight?" then the answer is resoundingly "yes, and there are a lot of circumstances where you probably should". The class system isn't the wide-open sandbox that you hoped for (and that I would also have loved to see), but it is more free and open to experimentation than you seem to be implying.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

They were way, way stricter on magic than they needed to be, by locking it behind only specific classes.

The mage classes have skills that do things like double spell charges and boost your magic damage or healing.

That's great. That's fine. That's all the incentive I would have needed to use a magic-specializing class.

Magic could easily have been something you're capable of using in any class, as a sort of limited-use special attack available to anyone who did the proper training. It could've made the str-mag dichotomy a lot more interesting by having both stats be something you could conceivably get a use out of in any class if you had a good score in it, meaning that physical fighters who have magic as their dump stat would actually suffer consequences for dumping magic. But instead, access to magic is locked behind specific classes that usually fall under the very strict framework of ā€œsquishy wizardā€. And at launch, there wasn't even a single one of them that could fly.

Another benefit to that would have been to improve the viability of hybrid builds and builds that use magic weapons or magic combat arts. Builds like magic bow sniper for Hanneman or lightning axe wyvern for Annette are fun, but they'd be a lot stronger if they could retain spell use as well, even if it was at half-uses. As is, only Mortal Savant and War Monk/Cleric have both a weaponfaire skill and the ability to use magic, which is a little sad.

My other gripe with magic is that "can use magic" is an all or nothing affair with no differentiation between white and black magic. This generally just makes the white magic classes bad. Holy Knight is notoriously terrible, but I'd also say that Priest is almost as bad and that Mage is usually a better pick, even for healers. I'd have liked for them to give White Magic classes only half uses of Black Magic spells and vice versa, to differentiate the classes a bit more and make the White Magic classes actually useful (Bishop is already useful, mind). That could potentially fit with giving half-magic use to all classes, too.

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13 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Last vestige of cut content does seem likely but I do have a different guess as to why it was specifically the activity for the faith skill that survived. If you use it semi-regularly, you're going to passively gain a bit of faith skill on Byleth which means there's a good chance that you have at least the Heal spell when the game suddenly dumps you into a White Magic class near the end of Part 1.

Wait, what? It boosts Byleth's faith? I could've sworn the game said it only boosts the students' faith and instead boosts Byleth's authority. If it turns out it does boost Byleth's faith, fair point I suppose.

13 minutes ago, lenticular said:

My other gripe with magic is that "can use magic" is an all or nothing affair with no differentiation between white and black magic. This generally just makes the white magic classes bad. Holy Knight is notoriously terrible, but I'd also say that Priest is almost as bad and that Mage is usually a better pick, even for healers. I'd have liked for them to give White Magic classes only half uses of Black Magic spells and vice versa, to differentiate the classes a bit more and make the White Magic classes actually useful (Bishop is already useful, mind). That could potentially fit with giving half-magic use to all classes, too.

Agreed, as strange as it sounds. Even though I would have preferred any class to be able to use magic, splitting up which class can use which in exchange for making more classes able to use it would probably have been an improvement over the current system.

13 minutes ago, lenticular said:

OK, so there's not really any good reason to use an axe if you're a Falcon Knight. (I can think of a few circumstances, but they're all either contrvied or very situational, so wouldn't contest your point.) But are there times you would want to use a bow as a Falcon Knight? Or use a lance as a Wyvern Lord? Or a sword as a Bishop? Yes to all of the above, and more.

In fairness, I did list the bow one. And yes, there would be an accuracy/weight bonus to using a sword as a falcon knight or a lance as a wyvern lord (not to mention the swift strikes combat art if you have that). I picked axes in a lance class to highlight just how profound that +5 attack is in making a joke of weapon type stat comparisons.

Incidentally, if I can eventually get the free time and motivation after this project to make a FE clone game, one thing I'd do is stop swords, lances and axesĀ from just being a sliding scale of trading speedĀ and accuracy for might. Personally I'd make swords lightĀ but weak, lances accurate but heavy, and axes powerful but inaccurate.

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

Yeah, but the Professor never demonstrates either skill or interest in administering the Church - much less an entire continent. They're a skilled fighter and tactician, and they're able to manage students in the classroom and soldiers in battle alike - I'll grant that. But they're also quite ignorant about politics, history, and the various people groups that make up the continent. They don't appear to be equipped to take on such a massive role

Yes, but they do save the entire continent from two threats that could have potentially ended the continent. Not to mention they are successfully the heads of an army that managed to secure victory over a nation, and those nations no longer exist because of the war. This leaves the church as the only institution of power remaining, and they are already the head of the church. Ā In this delicate aftermath for the commoners who do not support the empire, Byleth is the best option for the aforementioned reasons, and the fact they already the head of the church, as well as possessing the Goddesses power also adds to why Byleth should lead the people.Ā 
Ā 

Or George Washington was a general in the US army, but he came the 1st president of the US, a huge factor came from his victories as a US general.Ā 

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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wait, what? It boosts Byleth's faith? I could've sworn the game said it only boosts the students' faith and instead boosts Byleth's authority. If it turns out it does boost Byleth's faith, fair point I suppose.

It boosts everyone's Faith, but Teach additionaly receives some growth in Authority.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Incidentally, if I can eventually get the free time and motivation after this project to make a FE clone game, one thing I'd do is stop swords, lances and axesĀ from just being a sliding scale of trading speedĀ and accuracy for might. Personally I'd make swords lightĀ but weak, lances accurate but heavy, and axes powerful but inaccurate.

I'd say this game was pretty successful in making Swords their own thing - physical ranged Swords don't exist, but to compensate, the Levin Sword in more easily accessible. Plus,Ā the weapon type has higher-crit options than any other. Lances and Axes do fall into the "slightly heavier, mightier, and less accurate" relationship, save for the aforementioned effectiveness difference (Lances against Cavalry, Axes against Armor).

That said, any discussion of weapon type differences in 3H is incomplete without considering combat arts. Units who get Swift Strikes, for instance, will likely want to use Lances even in non-Lancefaire classes (i.e. Wyvern Lord). Likewise, those who get Windsweep might enjoy the uncounterable chip option in a non-Swordfaire class (say, Paladin). Even the early arts show these weapons giving different options (a crit boost from Smash on Axes, versus a major might increase in Tempest Lance).

11 minutes ago, ZeManaphy said:

Yes, but they do save the entire continent from two threats that could have potentially ended the continent. Not to mention they are successfully the heads of an army that managed to secure victory over a nation, and those nations no longer exist because of the war. This leaves the church as the only institution of power remaining, and they are already the head of the church. Ā In this delicate aftermath for the commoners who do not support the empire, Byleth is the best option for the aforementioned reasons, and the fact they already the head of the church, as well as possessing the Goddesses power also adds to why Byleth should lead the people.Ā 

I'd counter that they weren't a good choice to "lead the Church" in the first place. And de facto, they weren't leading anything during the five-year timeskip. Seteth, for instance, not only has more experience with the Church, but has more administrative knowledge to his name. He'd honestly be a more qualified leader.

Anyway, the biggest disappointment is that, in a game where "your choices really matter", your character's ending is set for you. If you got the choice to lead all of Fodlan, but could elect to decline (say, to become a mercenary like Jeralt, or to support your chosen spouse in their area of interest), I'd be more cool with it.

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8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But anyway, I really don't like the ā€œrecruitmentā€ mechanic for numerous reasons.

First of all, it makes no goddamned sense that this is even possible. If it were really possible for students to switch to a different house than the one tied to their nation... you'd think there'd be a single student who canonically did that. But no, near as I can tell, everyone's in the house of their country of residence until Professr comes around with her infinite plot charisma to seduce half of them into committing house-treason.

Second of all, it drastically reduces the gameplay variety between routes by making it so that there's only three route-exclusive units for any given route, and in Golden Deer's case there's just one and in Silver Snow there are no route-exclusive units at all. Which also is frustrating from a story perspective as it makes it seem like the vast, vast majority of the cast has absolutely no values of their own and can easily be convinced to betray their homeland and families to fight for literally any cause imaginable out of loyalty to some teacher they've known for less than a year.

Third of all, it utterly invalidates the emotional tension of having to fight the other students after the timeskip, because thanks to the fact that you can recruit all of your favorite students, the odds that you'll have to fight a given student are inversely proportional to how much you'd give a shit. Because almost anyone you'd actually feel torn up about fighting... will have been recruited by you. Anyone you didn't recruit and thus will have to fight... will be someone you most likely had no interest in, and maybe even have had no interaction with at all.

Not really a story integration thing, but the knight members arenĀ“t all present at the monastery - meaning if you finally hit whatever lvl you need but are in the wrong month you may just miss out one more month, which delays training etc. pp.Ā 

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But instead, access to magic is locked behind specific classes that usually fall under the very strict framework of ā€œsquishy wizardā€. And at launch, there wasn't even a single one of them that could fly.

And low movement. DonĀ“t forget the low movement for some ~20/30 levels.Ā 

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

I think they were stuck in a bind. They wanted to provide the player with a great deal of freedom, while also not letting the individual classes lose their character.

Cries in Armor Knight/Fortress/Hero. Not to mention, on Maddening everyone wo isnĀ“t a mage is also some kind of Archer.

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

There's no weapon triangle to make axes situationally more useful

There is an inkling of Weapon Triangle on Maddening - some enemies receive , as early as chapter 2 I think, exclusive Breaker skills, which are a tad stronger than the regular ones the player has access to. I wanna say these enemies become more prevalent the later the game goes on, but alas IĀ“m too forgetful.

Other than that, hey, look at it this way: if you equip the weapon your unit is good with, the WT isĀ always in your favor.

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

Also, Dorothea would stay with the Church because she's hot for Teacher. Then again, she's certainly into Edie as well... decisions, decisions.

New DLC: Bisexuals for Peace. Now with facepetting during teatime for extra immersion.

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There's actually cut content of Edelgard turning some of the Black Eagles against you in Silver Snow under some kind of criteria.

We know because due to an error, her "Some of the Black Eagles joined me" dialogue plays if any BE die pre time skip on Classic mode.Ā 

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1 hour ago, Samz707 said:

There's actually cut content of Edelgard turning some of the Black Eagles against you in Silver Snow under some kind of criteria.

There's also the cut content of the Azure Moon house splitting up post-timeskip, with at least Felix and Annette leaving you. (There may have been a third student, but I do not remember.) There're recorded dialog for it, and map placements for them when they're not in your party/dead in a later AM map.

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

Yeah, sometimes the game does this. In theory, I get a motive to not make the months "too dense". But it's frustrating in its inconsistency.
Ā 

If the idea is not to make the month too dense, then the rather novel solution in my eyes would be to just put the main chapter battle in the middle of the month sometimes. Would help solve the issue of things only happening in the last five days of the month.

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I would say Ferdinand has reason to turn against Edelgard too. Since she deposed her father and dissolved the role of Prime Minister, she effectively undercut his political future. He may see opposing her as his best path toward political power in the Empire. And not to mention, a chance to prove his own perceived superiority to Edelgard.

Ferdinand is also in the position wherein he can only get his paralogue by being recruited away from Crimson Flower šŸ˜•

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Also, Dorothea would stay with the Church because she's hot for Teacher. Then again, she's certainly into Edie as well... decisions, decisions.

That's really the whole issue. All of them turning on Edelgard in Silver Snow makes them look like they're all doing it because they're hot for Teacher and not because they have any personal political or philosophical opinions on the conflict.

Edited by Jotari
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11 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Ā 

That's a bit of an issue. All of them turning on Edelgard in Silver Snow makes them look like they're all doing it because they're hot for Teacher and not because they have any personal political or philosophical opinions on the conflict.

Frankly, you should have either A: needed to have a high support or B: maybe you even talk to them post-time skip and actually have to convince them via dialogue to join you somehow. (No idea if that's practical.)

But that'd require actually using the dialogue system for something more than "Press the right option for a support point and rarely mostly only in the requests box/certain supports pick the obviously wrong but hilarious answer." and actually be a little bit like a proper roleplaying game.

Edited by Samz707
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8 hours ago, lenticular said:

Another benefit to that would have been to improve the viability of hybrid builds and builds that use magic weapons or magic combat arts. Builds like magic bow sniper for Hanneman or lightning axe wyvern for Annette are fun, but they'd be a lot stronger if they could retain spell use as well, even if it was at half-uses. As is, only Mortal Savant and War Monk/Cleric have both a weaponfaire skill and the ability to use magic, which is a little sad.

My other gripe with magic is that "can use magic" is an all or nothing affair with no differentiation between white and black magic. This generally just makes the white magic classes bad. Holy Knight is notoriously terrible, but I'd also say that Priest is almost as bad and that Mage is usually a better pick, even for healers. I'd have liked for them to give White Magic classes only half uses of Black Magic spells and vice versa, to differentiate the classes a bit more and make the White Magic classes actually useful (Bishop is already useful, mind). That could potentially fit with giving half-magic use to all classes, too.

Ā 

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Agreed, as strange as it sounds. Even though I would have preferred any class to be able to use magic, splitting up which class can use which in exchange for making more classes able to use it would probably have been an improvement over the current system.

I dunno - I mean, there was a thread on the 3H forum talking about hybrid units, and when you consider that most characters are not specced for both magic use and weapons use, it would take a really lopsided defense gapĀ (think the tower in Fates Birthright where some enemies have one of their defensive stats capped while the other is at zero) to justify using magic on someone like Felix. Ergo, I fail to see how you two can considerĀ having anyone be able to play a half-assed magic knight role to be ANYTHING resembling an improvement.

3 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Not really a story integration thing, but the knight members arenĀ“t all present at the monastery - meaning if you finally hit whatever lvl you need but are in the wrong month you may just miss out one more month, which delays training etc. pp.Ā 

Yeah, some peeps are occasionallyĀ unavailable for faculty training for various reasons. Though this, hilariously, does NOT render them unusable as far as paralogues go, in the case of Shamir and Catherine (both are unusable in chapter 10's main story mission)...

Edited by Shadow Mir
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...Ugh, I'm sorry to be doing thisĀ again, but I think I needed a full week off, and not just a day. This was just bad timing for me all around. This is the busiest period of the year for me, and it happened to coincide precisely with a game I'm not really playlogging so much as writing daily essays about. Enough about my situation will change come Monday that I should be able to continue as normal, but this week makes playlogging this particular game a bit too much for me.

See you on Monday, but of course as always I'm happy to chat 'til then.

Edited by Alastor15243
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24 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Ugh, I'm sorry to be doing thisĀ again, but I think I needed a full week off, and not just a day. This was just bad timing for me all around. This is the busiest period of the year for me, and it happened to coincide precisely with a game I'm not really playlogging so much as writing daily essays about. Enough about my situation will change come Monday that I should be able to continue as normal, but this week makes playlogging this particular game a bit too much for me.

See you on Monday, but of course as always I'm happy to chat 'til then.

Don't worry about it, take as much time as you need.

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6 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

New DLC: Bisexuals for Peace. Now with facepetting during teatime for extra immersion.

Crack headcanon - the true cause of the war was a schism in Garreg Mach's Gay-Straight Alliance. The club president (Edelgard) had a very different vision from the Faculty sponsor (Rhea). Thus forcing Linhardt, Dorothea, Mercedes, and Teach to all pick a side in their squabble.

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

If the idea is not to make the month too dense, then the rather novel solution in my eyes would be to just put the main chapter battle in the middle of the month sometimes. Would help solve the issue of things only happening in the last five days of the month.

Sure, I'd like stuff to happen mid-month. Also, not have everything planned out well ahead of time. What's the point of saying "you're going to Remire" if you're not actually going there until things get worse? Instead, that things were bad there should've been a surpriseĀ out of left field, and maybe even interrupted a planned mission (say, where you take your students fishing to catch a Scarlet Herring).

5 hours ago, Jotari said:

Ferdinand is also in the position wherein he can only get his paralogue by being recruited away from Crimson Flower šŸ˜•

Very same boat forĀ Caspar. Something something "CF wasn't developed until late in the process."

Edited by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Forgot to name drop Rhea.
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6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Ferdinand is also in the position wherein he can only get his paralogue by being recruited away from Crimson Flower šŸ˜•

Same for Caspar, but he's easier to recruit (needs brawling, which Byleth is strong in, as opposed to heavy armor, which must be tutored from Alois and Gilbert, who aren't always around). What's even more notable than this is the fact that they're the only students whose B supports are locked until after the timeskip, so you gotta get them the hard way.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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15 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

*Checks recruitment conditions*

Wait, they don't require any support level to Part 2 re-recruit at all? Nor do you have to fight them first?Ā And here I thought those wouldĀ have been the obvious things to do.Ā That game really is better 3H.

Speaking of a semi-FE game, if you opt to continue this play log for the KagaSagas you might like Berwick Saga just a little then. The majority of playable characters there are mercenaries, who will not join forĀ the last couple battles unless you fulfill certain requirements to permanently recruit them. The conditions are somewhat varied and range from veryĀ easy to fulfill to not as easy. -So I read. I haven't gotten to playing Berwick yet myself.

NGL, thats what i expect before 3H releases too. not some shallow conviction to follow someone that gets swayed because byleth have bigger dick higher str/skill in particular areas. the worst offender still Edelgard route split tho.

blame the multiple routes that constraint development i guess

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Ferdinand seems to be the most obvious "defect from Black Eagles" character to me. In addition to Edelgard nuking his family's position, Ferdinand in the other routes just seems to genuinely not agree with what she's willing to do. Petra and Caspar feel like big maybes -- Caspar because he doesn't seem like he'd be too into Edelgard's conquest either, and apparently the ONLY reason he joins you in Crimson Flower was because he was going after Byleth. Like, when he said that I just ... wanted to throw my Switch or something. Petra would probably want to defect, but I don't know whether she'd feel safe doing so with Brigid's well-being on her shoulders.

Linhardt and Bernadetta would probably have to be dragged away by the rest of the cast. Linhardt's too lazy to make a decision, he'd probably stay in the Empire by default because it's too much effort to leave. Having a high support with Caspar or Byleth or any other non-BE character he supports with should motivate him enough. Bernadetta most likely wants to just hide in her room and not get involved in the war, but could probably be convinced to leave in a similar manner as Linhardt.

Dorothea could probably go either way? On the one hand, Edelgard's vision for the world if taken at face value could be more beneficial for her. She's a commoner, and Edelgard's friend, and if the only thing that matters in Edelgard's new world is merit then she has a better chance than beingĀ in a world where being a noble and/or crested is what matters. On the other hand, she probably won't be too big on the war and how it hurts innocent people who had no say in it being waged.

Hubert ... lol.

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8 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

I dunno - I mean, there was a thread on the 3H forum talking about hybrid units, and when you consider that most characters are not specced for both magic use and weapons use, it would take a really lopsided defense gapĀ (think the tower in Fates Birthright where some enemies have one of their defensive stats capped while the other is at zero) to justify using magic on someone like Felix. Ergo, I fail to see how you two can considerĀ having anyone be able to play a half-assed magic knight role to be ANYTHING resembling an improvement.

A lot of the problem with hybrid classes is the opportunity cost. If you want to go into Mortal Savant, you're losing the benefits of being in Swordmaster or Assassin or whatever other class you were in before. If you just allow Swordmaster and Assassin to use magic then there would be no associated opportunity cost. That means you oculd get a bit of use out of magic in the few niche cases where it would be useful. It needn't necessarily be for increased damage either. It could be for range, for ignoring terrain, for healing, etc. And while Felix (with his high strength stat and terrible spell list) isn't going to be getting much use from magic, it would be much more useful for units like Manuela, Ingrid or Lorenz.

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

Oh, I agree with that much. The game seems to treat a "unified Fodlan" as a desirable state of affairs, and has every route ending on it. Without particularly justifying why it would be desirable. Only Edelgard seems to make a case for it, but even hers is rooted somewhat in Imperial revanchism and half-truths.

Just popping in to declare with unshakable certainty backed by righteous indignation that the unification of nation-states is generally undesirable and the division of nation-states is generally both morally and functionally superior.

Political science is fun. And while I'm here...

22 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Ā Anyway, I'd think your idea would penalize the units who are not magically inclined, so I think it's a terrible one.

I mean, terrain penalties are literally penalties and I think they work out well.

Besides.

I want to make Annette a Baron. I don't want to pay money for Flayn to be a flying mage.

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

I'd say this game was pretty successful in making Swords their own thing - physical ranged Swords don't exist, but to compensate, the Levin Sword in more easily accessible. Plus,Ā the weapon type has higher-crit options than any other. Lances and Axes do fall into the "slightly heavier, mightier, and less accurate" relationship, save for the aforementioned effectiveness difference (Lances against Cavalry, Axes against Armor).

That said, any discussion of weapon type differences in 3H is incomplete without considering combat arts. Units who get Swift Strikes, for instance, will likely want to use Lances even in non-Lancefaire classes (i.e. Wyvern Lord). Likewise, those who get Windsweep might enjoy the uncounterable chip option in a non-Swordfaire class (say, Paladin). Even the early arts show these weapons giving different options (a crit boost from Smash on Axes, versus a major might increase in Tempest Lance).

Yeah, lances and axes have always struggled to distinguish themselves from each other, although tempest lance being pretty rad does contribute something.

Also wow this game is ugly.

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9 hours ago, lenticular said:

A lot of the problem with hybrid classes is the opportunity cost. If you want to go into Mortal Savant, you're losing the benefits of being in Swordmaster or Assassin or whatever other class you were in before. If you just allow Swordmaster and Assassin to use magic then there would be no associated opportunity cost. That means you oculd get a bit of use out of magic in the few niche cases where it would be useful. It needn't necessarily be for increased damage either. It could be for range, for ignoring terrain, for healing, etc. And while Felix (with his high strength stat and terrible spell list) isn't going to be getting much use from magic, it would be much more useful for units like Manuela, Ingrid or Lorenz.

Well, the opportunity costĀ is still there, so you fail to address that. Also, this feels overly niche to the point of uselessness, because as you yourself stated in another thread, this game encourages specialization. There are only so many ability slots you can use, and in general, if you wanted to be good with both magic and physical attacks, you'd need more than the 5 slots this game gives you. Anyway, I used Felix for an exampleĀ because he's more representative of most units in this game (in terms of the fact that many of them are either blatantly slanted towards physical or blatantly slanted towards magic)Ā than Manuela, Ingrid, or Lorenz can claimĀ to be. Even if you wanted to talk about utility magic, you still need a high magic stat for most ofĀ those to beĀ effective (case in point: Rescue. With a range of Mag/4, it takes a lot of magicĀ  to have any appreciatable range with it, and when someone like Flayn, who IS magically inclined, won't have good range with it for most of the game, it's plain to see thatĀ most physically oriented units would have laughable range with it. Like Bernie, for example).

Edited by Shadow Mir
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I've finished up my no-monastery run and am here to report back. For the most part, it worked out just fine, with relatively few problems.

The whole thing was done on Hard/Classic with no NG+, no online, no amiibo, and no DLC (well, I have the DLC, but I didn't use any of the stuff it gives). I explored only when the game forces it, and then did the absolute minimum possible before ending exploration. I also never did manual instruction, only ever automated. I did set study goals, though. I also set up a group task once at the start of part 1 and then again at the start of part 2, but otherwise left it be. All story elements were skipped with + where possible or by mashing A in the cases where it won't let you skip. I did paralogue battles but not auxiliary battles (except the one mandatory one near the start). Other than paralogues and the few mandatory exploration sessions, I always either rested or (more usually) skipped to the end of the month (skipping is equivalent to always choosing rest and auto-instruct through all the time you skip). I also didn't use any sort of exploits or grinding: no save scumming for exam results, no broken weapon grinding, no using divine pulse for RNG manipulation, etc. (I did use pulse to prevent deaths and undo fat-finger mistakes, though).

(I decided to allow paralogues and setting study goals, partly because I felt it was the way to show the game in its best light and partly because they felt similar to things that have existed in previous Fire Emblem games. Paralogues, of course, actually have existed, so I felt no reason to exclude them. Setting goals feels comparable in amount of faff to something like assigning bexp in Tellius. Which is to say, very little faff. At the same time, I also recognise that there'd not have been any value if I'd come back saying "yes, the game is totally beatable this way just so long as you play on Normal/Casual, grind for 50 hours, and then use this exploit!" so I wanted to be sure not to do that.)

So, which parts worked out, and which didn't?

Weapon skills were fine. They were slower to raise than if I'd hadf all the saint statues and was tutoring manually, but not too much slower, and it was never really a big deal. There were two times during the game where I felt the loss at all. The first was at the very start of the game, not being able to rush specific breakpoints, like getting C Faith on Mercedes to have her learn Physic faster. The second was much later on, getting the necessary weapon ranks for master classes on the characters who were going into them. They still got there, just not as fast as I'm used to. Overall, this just felt like there was a different ebb and flow to picking up skills, but it still worked absolutely fine and felt completely balanced. Everyone was able to get the skills for the classes I wanted to put them into. Everyone other than Byleth had their main weapon rank somewhere between A and S by the end of the game, with A+ being the most common. Everyone also had at least a B rank in Authority by the end, with several of them being at A rank.

From the Saint statues, the only big miss was the class xp bonus from the Cethleann statue. Not having that kina sucked. For beginner and intermediate classes, it wasn't all bad. It meant having to pick and choose which classes were the most important to master, and focusing on them, rather than being able to pick up multiple skills on everyone. This was definitely a reduction in my overall power level, but it led to some interesting choices, so I didn't mind it too much (for instance: I had both Dimitri and Felix skip getting Death Blow because I figured they'd probably be doingmore than enough damage anyway and I wanted to spend the extra time in their beginner classes to grab reposition and shove instead). For advanced classes and beyond, though, it kinda sucked. Luckily, there aren't many that are actually worth mastering, and knowledge gems are a thing, but I definitely felt the absence here. Getting Hunter's Volley online for Ashe took way longer than I was happy with.

Supports were mostly fine, with one glaring exception. I didn't actually try to build supports at all, only picked them up passively from what I was doing anyway, and even then, my people mostly ended up with a healthy mixture of A and B supports. I don't think that my play-style is particularly suited to passively building support (I am the person who nearly missed that Fates had child units, after all) so I think it's fair to say that it would be easy to get any specific pairing to A support if someone were actively trying to do so. With one glaring exception. That being Byleth. I assume that the number of support points that Byleth needs to unlock each rank of support is way higher than everyone else, due to all the opportunities to gain them in the monastery. Byleth didn't get higher than a C support with anyone, and had no support at all with a couple. Happily, I didn't actually care about Byleth supports in this run, but it would have been different if I'd been recruiting or if I was doing Crimson Flower. It's probably possible to get enough support between Byleth and Edelgard to enter Crimson Flower if you really focus on gluing the two of them together on the battlefield, but I can't say I'd want to try it. In short: Byleth supports are bad, all other supports are completely fine.

Speaking of recruiting, that was obviously lacking in this run. Other than the initial blue Lion students, the only units I got to add were Flayn, Seteth and Gilbert. Still, this wasn't bad, per se. It's enough people to fill out a complete deployment roster and that's really all that you actually need (unless you're doing an ironman, which you shouldn't be because ironman Three Houses is dreadful). It's different from typical Fire Emblem, and I do prefer having a selection of units to choose from, but just having a set selection of units to useĀ  worked fine too. That said, if I had wanted more units, then a single visit to the monastery could have netted me any or all of Cyril, Catherine, Shamir, Alois, Hanneman, and Manuela. It wouldn't have been within the confines of this run, but it's a pretty simple thing to do.

Professor Level was basically a non-issue. I think I ended up at C+ just from randomly answering the lecture questions each month. That seems bad, but there really isn't much need for more. Activity points for exploration and battle obviously weren't a concern, and I've already explained that lack of tutoring wasn't a problem. There were only two times that professor level came up at all. First, it wasn't high enough for me to have more than one adjutant slot, but given that adjutants aren't very strong anyway, this wasn't a big miss. Second, it stopped me from forging silver weapons into their + versions. this was a minor annoyance, but really not a big deal.

Access to the blacksmith for forges and repairs wasn't nearly as big an issue as you might think. It wasn't accessible at all in part 1, since it's locked behind a monastery quest. Honestly, though, this wasn't that badly missed. Part 1 is mostly all about basic weapons anyway, and not having the blacksmith just means not having the + versions and having to buy replacement weapons instead of repairing old ones. This wasn't a big deal at all. It then becomes available automatically at the start of part 2 (as do all other monastery facilities that you haven't unlocked) so it's available for repairing relics from that point on. (Interestingly, the Sword of the Creator proved far more useful on this run than it usually is. Regular resting meant that I could use it with impunity and have it fully repaired for free every month.)

Not having access to the other merchants was a bit of a bigger issue, though still not huge. Not having access to Arcane Crystals or Black Sand Steel was a little annoying (and made sure that my one Bolt Axe was a very limited resource). If I'd had access to them then that would have been another time when professor level would have been an issue too, since I think that forging Bolt Axes and Wo Dao both need high professor level. The other thing I wanted to buy but couldn't was more Master Seals. I actually forgot that I was workign with a limited supply of Master Seals, and wasted a few on speculative unsuccessful certifications. That ended up with me not being able to promote Gilbert or Seteth as I had planned, though that was as much my fault as anything else. It also didn't matter too much in the end, since Advanced classes are also fine for end-game, and Advanced Seals aren't limited in availability. Other stuff from the extra merchants wasn't missed, though. There are plenty of shields, rings and staves given out from chests or as drops or mission rewards, so the extras from Anna's shop weren't needed.

Money wasn't an issue at all. Just from the automatically gifted funds from part 1 plus the bullions I got from missions, I had more than I ever needed. Nothing more to say about that, really.

Not having a dancer was annoying. It was all completely playable without one, of course, but the game just felt smaller for not having one. Dancers are fun, they let me do fun things, and I missed having one.

I think that's about everything that I had to comment on. Overall, it did feel like a decently balanced and well-rounded experience. I felt as if I was playing the game, not like I was struggling against the game and trying to force it to do something it wasn't intended to. The overall power level of my people was certainly a bit lower than it otherwise would be, but honestly not that much. I'm not sure I'd want to do Maddening this way, but Hard was absolutely fine. (And for anyone who would struggle on Hard, Normal is still an option.) There are a few spots which feel a little bit shaky, but honestly not many. To anyone who wants to avoid the monastery, I'd recommend to unlock all the merchants, get the class xp bonus from the saint statues, unlock the dancer, and recruit any church units you want. They seem like they're sufficiently low effort and high reward to be worth it. Everything else? Nah. Totally skippable. And even those things aren't needed; they'd just have been nice to have. Having actually played through the game this way, I stand by my initial assessment.

Except for Byleth supports. They suck.

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1 hour ago, lenticular said:

I've finished up my no-monastery run and am here to report back. For the most part, it worked out just fine, with relatively few problems.

The whole thing was done on Hard/Classic with no NG+, no online, no amiibo, and no DLC (well, I have the DLC, but I didn't use any of the stuff it gives). I explored only when the game forces it, and then did the absolute minimum possible before ending exploration. I also never did manual instruction, only ever automated. I did set study goals, though. I also set up a group task once at the start of part 1 and then again at the start of part 2, but otherwise left it be. All story elements were skipped with + where possible or by mashing A in the cases where it won't let you skip. I did paralogue battles but not auxiliary battles (except the one mandatory one near the start). Other than paralogues and the few mandatory exploration sessions, I always either rested or (more usually) skipped to the end of the month (skipping is equivalent to always choosing rest and auto-instruct through all the time you skip). I also didn't use any sort of exploits or grinding: no save scumming for exam results, no broken weapon grinding, no using divine pulse for RNG manipulation, etc. (I did use pulse to prevent deaths and undo fat-finger mistakes, though).

(I decided to allow paralogues and setting study goals, partly because I felt it was the way to show the game in its best light and partly because they felt similar to things that have existed in previous Fire Emblem games. Paralogues, of course, actually have existed, so I felt no reason to exclude them. Setting goals feels comparable in amount of faff to something like assigning bexp in Tellius. Which is to say, very little faff. At the same time, I also recognise that there'd not have been any value if I'd come back saying "yes, the game is totally beatable this way just so long as you play on Normal/Casual, grind for 50 hours, and then use this exploit!" so I wanted to be sure not to do that.)

So, which parts worked out, and which didn't?

Weapon skills were fine. They were slower to raise than if I'd hadf all the saint statues and was tutoring manually, but not too much slower, and it was never really a big deal. There were two times during the game where I felt the loss at all. The first was at the very start of the game, not being able to rush specific breakpoints, like getting C Faith on Mercedes to have her learn Physic faster. The second was much later on, getting the necessary weapon ranks for master classes on the characters who were going into them. They still got there, just not as fast as I'm used to. Overall, this just felt like there was a different ebb and flow to picking up skills, but it still worked absolutely fine and felt completely balanced. Everyone was able to get the skills for the classes I wanted to put them into. Everyone other than Byleth had their main weapon rank somewhere between A and S by the end of the game, with A+ being the most common. Everyone also had at least a B rank in Authority by the end, with several of them being at A rank.

From the Saint statues, the only big miss was the class xp bonus from the Cethleann statue. Not having that kina sucked. For beginner and intermediate classes, it wasn't all bad. It meant having to pick and choose which classes were the most important to master, and focusing on them, rather than being able to pick up multiple skills on everyone. This was definitely a reduction in my overall power level, but it led to some interesting choices, so I didn't mind it too much (for instance: I had both Dimitri and Felix skip getting Death Blow because I figured they'd probably be doingmore than enough damage anyway and I wanted to spend the extra time in their beginner classes to grab reposition and shove instead). For advanced classes and beyond, though, it kinda sucked. Luckily, there aren't many that are actually worth mastering, and knowledge gems are a thing, but I definitely felt the absence here. Getting Hunter's Volley online for Ashe took way longer than I was happy with.

Supports were mostly fine, with one glaring exception. I didn't actually try to build supports at all, only picked them up passively from what I was doing anyway, and even then, my people mostly ended up with a healthy mixture of A and B supports. I don't think that my play-style is particularly suited to passively building support (I am the person who nearly missed that Fates had child units, after all) so I think it's fair to say that it would be easy to get any specific pairing to A support if someone were actively trying to do so. With one glaring exception. That being Byleth. I assume that the number of support points that Byleth needs to unlock each rank of support is way higher than everyone else, due to all the opportunities to gain them in the monastery. Byleth didn't get higher than a C support with anyone, and had no support at all with a couple. Happily, I didn't actually care about Byleth supports in this run, but it would have been different if I'd been recruiting or if I was doing Crimson Flower. It's probably possible to get enough support between Byleth and Edelgard to enter Crimson Flower if you really focus on gluing the two of them together on the battlefield, but I can't say I'd want to try it. In short: Byleth supports are bad, all other supports are completely fine.

Speaking of recruiting, that was obviously lacking in this run. Other than the initial blue Lion students, the only units I got to add were Flayn, Seteth and Gilbert. Still, this wasn't bad, per se. It's enough people to fill out a complete deployment roster and that's really all that you actually need (unless you're doing an ironman, which you shouldn't be because ironman Three Houses is dreadful). It's different from typical Fire Emblem, and I do prefer having a selection of units to choose from, but just having a set selection of units to useĀ  worked fine too. That said, if I had wanted more units, then a single visit to the monastery could have netted me any or all of Cyril, Catherine, Shamir, Alois, Hanneman, and Manuela. It wouldn't have been within the confines of this run, but it's a pretty simple thing to do.

Professor Level was basically a non-issue. I think I ended up at C+ just from randomly answering the lecture questions each month. That seems bad, but there really isn't much need for more. Activity points for exploration and battle obviously weren't a concern, and I've already explained that lack of tutoring wasn't a problem. There were only two times that professor level came up at all. First, it wasn't high enough for me to have more than one adjutant slot, but given that adjutants aren't very strong anyway, this wasn't a big miss. Second, it stopped me from forging silver weapons into their + versions. this was a minor annoyance, but really not a big deal.

Access to the blacksmith for forges and repairs wasn't nearly as big an issue as you might think. It wasn't accessible at all in part 1, since it's locked behind a monastery quest. Honestly, though, this wasn't that badly missed. Part 1 is mostly all about basic weapons anyway, and not having the blacksmith just means not having the + versions and having to buy replacement weapons instead of repairing old ones. This wasn't a big deal at all. It then becomes available automatically at the start of part 2 (as do all other monastery facilities that you haven't unlocked) so it's available for repairing relics from that point on. (Interestingly, the Sword of the Creator proved far more useful on this run than it usually is. Regular resting meant that I could use it with impunity and have it fully repaired for free every month.)

Not having access to the other merchants was a bit of a bigger issue, though still not huge. Not having access to Arcane Crystals or Black Sand Steel was a little annoying (and made sure that my one Bolt Axe was a very limited resource). If I'd had access to them then that would have been another time when professor level would have been an issue too, since I think that forging Bolt Axes and Wo Dao both need high professor level. The other thing I wanted to buy but couldn't was more Master Seals. I actually forgot that I was workign with a limited supply of Master Seals, and wasted a few on speculative unsuccessful certifications. That ended up with me not being able to promote Gilbert or Seteth as I had planned, though that was as much my fault as anything else. It also didn't matter too much in the end, since Advanced classes are also fine for end-game, and Advanced Seals aren't limited in availability. Other stuff from the extra merchants wasn't missed, though. There are plenty of shields, rings and staves given out from chests or as drops or mission rewards, so the extras from Anna's shop weren't needed.

Money wasn't an issue at all. Just from the automatically gifted funds from part 1 plus the bullions I got from missions, I had more than I ever needed. Nothing more to say about that, really.

Not having a dancer was annoying. It was all completely playable without one, of course, but the game just felt smaller for not having one. Dancers are fun, they let me do fun things, and I missed having one.

I think that's about everything that I had to comment on. Overall, it did feel like a decently balanced and well-rounded experience. I felt as if I was playing the game, not like I was struggling against the game and trying to force it to do something it wasn't intended to. The overall power level of my people was certainly a bit lower than it otherwise would be, but honestly not that much. I'm not sure I'd want to do Maddening this way, but Hard was absolutely fine. (And for anyone who would struggle on Hard, Normal is still an option.) There are a few spots which feel a little bit shaky, but honestly not many. To anyone who wants to avoid the monastery, I'd recommend to unlock all the merchants, get the class xp bonus from the saint statues, unlock the dancer, and recruit any church units you want. They seem like they're sufficiently low effort and high reward to be worth it. Everything else? Nah. Totally skippable. And even those things aren't needed; they'd just have been nice to have. Having actually played through the game this way, I stand by my initial assessment.

Except for Byleth supports. They suck.

One more question: what was your total playtime?

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