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

[Acacia Sgt]

I'm pretty sure the intention is that she considers even those that married into the Nuvelle family as also Nuvelles.

Gotta admit, considering FE being what it is and how it worked historically as well, it is amusing to see it that way too, heh.

[Alastor15243]

12 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I'm pretty sure the intention is that she considers even those that married into the Nuvelle family as also Nuvelles.

Gotta admit, considering FE being what it is and how it worked historically as well, it is amusing to see it that way too, heh.

Even if you assume that, unless it retroactively applies to the entire family tree of every new member too... it's STILL implying off things.

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Even if you assume that, unless it retroactively applies to the entire family tree of every new member too... it's STILL implying off things.

I mean, any one's ancestors had to have been part of one's family, unless adoptions were involved at some point. Either by blood or because they joined it through marriage. That doesn't mean everyone within the same generation had to be related or closely related when said marriages happened. What you imply might've still happened at some point since it tends to happen for cases like those, but overall it's not as drastic as what you're implying.

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 30: Chapter 7 Week 4 Skirmish 2

Jesus Fucking Christ we're at Day 30 and I'm about a third of the way through the game.

Well, I've got three hours today, so let's try and tackle Sylvain's paralogue.

So, apparently Sylvain's dad is literally batshit insane, trying to get Sylvain to fend off a group of bandits alone, with literally no backup at all.

Okay, the way he phrases this makes it sound like he's going with the help of some of his classmates, and the “do paralogue” dialogue option is just us saying whether or not we're coming too, or if he does it without us. What does he say if I say no...?

“If you change you mind, let me know. I'll be around for a bit.”

...So... he doesn't change his mind about going soon. Yet again the game's just calling in-universe attention to how backing out of paralogues plays havoc with the fabric of space and time.

I picked other dialogue options this time and apparently his dad's worried about losing face if he asks the church for help. But uh... surely his own house has soldiers he could support Sylvain with...?

But anyway, we're split up into two groups on the map for reasons I'm hoping they'll explain, so I better split my guys who can take a hit between them.

This map also strangely has a massive deployment limit of 11. And believe me, for this game, that is a lot. I'm pretty sure even in the endgame you only have like 10 slots.

Since that means I have little excuse not to use Flayn, I'm reclassing her back to Priest. Pity, she's halfway to mastering darting blow, but I guess that can wait a bit. She won't be a Dark Flier quite yet.

...Shit, I should've given her mage too, she really should be training for fiendish blow here.

...Fuck it, what's one missing deployment slot? I'll reclass her back to pegasus knight and adjutant her onto Professr again.

Thanks to that def+2 from soldier, Dimitri's suddenly become pretty beefy, which is pretty cool. ...Which makes me suddenly realize how weird it is that soldier doesn't use the same weapon type as knight anymore, because knight is suddenly an axe class.

...Fuck it, let's just go.

Right, so we have to take out the enemies in the four corners of the map to keep the thieves in the center from escaping. That really would have been nice to know while I was preparing, but I can't shit on the game too hard for this when Conquest is guilty of this too with its gimmicks.

...Okay, so, apparently, at least for now before they possibly arbitrarily change the rules on us, the thieves won't move until they're attacked, so it's not even a race to get to the strongholds, we just need to take the bosses out before approaching the thieves.

For some reason, all of the units that Professr's side is trying to bait in keep flocking to the east side if they can't attack Professr. Do they prioritize the weakest targets no matter where they are on the map if nobody's literally directly in their range?

...Uh... okay, I'm drawing a blank. Maybe this is how it always was and I just didn't skip battles enough to notice, but... did previous games also not skip the exp gain screen if you pressed start in the middle of a battle? I seem to remember it skipping that too except for the level ups, but maybe that's only when you skip the whole turn?

Oh look! The thieves suddenly have their move back without anybody mentioning it! Who fucking called it? I did!

It happened at the start of my turn though, and I don't have to worry about their attack ranges anyway, and I'm close to securing all of the strongholds.

...I just used Sylvain's relic for the first time to one-shot a thief I didn't want to chase down. It's... kind of ridiculous that Ruined Sky, the combat art of the legendary lance of House Gautier... has the exact same combat art animation as tempest lance... which is the very first lance combat art you learn.

Another one of the nitpicks I have: the “got an item” jingle mutes the start of the “you just did an awesome thing” commentary that Echoes introduced.

Also, near as I can tell, you can't check the stats of units you're “carrying” in this game (in this case I mean the adjutant system). Granted, until this marathon I didn't know you could do that at all for any of the games with the rescue system, but now that I know it used to be there, it's just another thing I'm noticing that's missing.

This is a pretty boring map. I was kinda hoping it would be a race against time to get to the numerous bosses, but it was trivial to get to all of them before the thieves got anywhere near.

Aaaaand I'm done.

Sylvain: Thieves everywhere... I can't believe this is what the world is coming to.

He said. With a smile.

We got an extra large bullion, a longbow, a talisman, and a vulnerary from ending on one of those wifi spaces (hilariously that doesn't happen until after the ending dialogue scene and item awarding).

Yeah, it's weird how wholly divorced from any form of story all of the battalion rewards are. This weird “you successfully completed the paralogue and have been awarded with a battalion” thing pops up.

...This was the weirdest fucking thing. Sylvain talks about his father “using Miklan” for the purpose of training Sylvain with the Lance of Ruin... I think...? Even though he's dead now and they were just using his bandit remnants? And then...

...Okay, in what universe would someone hearing someone talk about someone say “you're still thinking about [that person], aren't you?”?

He's talking about all of the dark political woes of his people with that same default smile on his face, and honestly at this point it's kind of creepy. His model's facial expressions are slightly more appropriate, but his portrait just keeps... smiling.

“End of the War of the Eagle and Lion is today. There is a special dish in the dining hall. Partake in the festivities?”

...What? The end of it? It's saying we're celebrating the end of something before it's even started?

And the game only had the decency to select one of my unmotivated students for the meal anyway, which is annoying.

...Alright, let's see... how many supports do we have to do?

...Six people are lighting up, and I've got... roughly an hour. Alright, sure, I can do this.

First, Sylvain and Dedue.

...Okay, so... they seem to be trying to draw a parallel between Dedue and Sylvain in terms of having undeserved bad reputations, but uh... that kind of falls flat when Sylvain really is a shitbag, and the stuff he rattles off about all the shitty things he does to women is... pretty much true. And these “new rumors” that are completely undeserved aren't remotely elaborated on. They just kind of bond over the fact that people hate them for ignorant reasons, and... yeah, I kinda can't sympathize with Sylvain here. Certainly not without concrete examples of stuff he doesn't deserve.

Alright, now for Dedue and Annette's B1.

So... they talk about cooking, and about how Dedue has ridiculously high standards for making Dimitri smile with his cooking, and Annette talks about how scatterbrained she is, due to the lack of sleep she mentioned in a previous support.

And then the support ends with implying Dedue has resting bitch face and that people think he's stern because of that, so maybe he should smile more.

Alright, Ashe and Sylvain's B.

So, uh... I just noticed... what is that thing Ashe is wearing? It looks like he's wearing a hoodie under his school uniform and the hood and draw strings are poking out. And yet given what the uniforms are usually supposed to look like... it also looks like it's built in to his uniform. Or that he cut out a ridiculous amount of the collar, to the point that without the hoodie he'd be exposing some man cleavage.

But yeah, this is pretty meaningless fluff about Sylvain demonstrating unexpectedly decent qualities out of nowhere, pretty standard way for a support chain like this to end. Not particularly interesting.

There's a twist at the end of him actually indeed having ulterior motives, but that's... pretty typical for how story arcs with these sorts of characters end too. Happens with Ringabel all the time.

Alright, time for Ingrid and Felix's B.

Felix: Go find a husband.

...Wow. Okay then.

If I'm reading this right, he said that out of frustration with her obsession with being a knight in defiance of her conscience (she brought up a “my country right or wrong” ethical question and said she “knows” the right answer is to obey your commander but she doubts she'd have the will to do it if it put her hometown in danger), and he hates the knighthood anyway, but... uh... that's still an absurdly weird thing to say.

Now for Ingrid and Sylvain's B.

Ingrid explicitly says a month has passed since their last talk, which feels weird in that I'm pretty damned sure that can be manipulated to not be true.

...Honestly, this is just a frustrating relationship. It's times like these where it really becomes questionable why anyone puts up with this jackass.

Alright, finally... Leonie and Felix.

Which took one battle adjutanting together.

When for Professr and Leonie not even three did it.

...Oh shit.

I just realized that Leonie's wearing an archer's glove. That's a cool detail! It only covers some of the fingers, mostly to protect the ones touching the bowstring when it's held tight.

But yeah, the conversation's just them challenging each other to a duel. For a later time.

Yeah, and all that remains is a Professr-Ingrid suppport I can't do from the menu, infuriatingly. Alright, time to wrap things up. On Monday... we'll do the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.

Stay safe, everyone.

[lenticular]

50 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

This map also strangely has a massive deployment limit of 11. And believe me, for this game, that is a lot. I'm pretty sure even in the endgame you only have like 10 slots.

Endgame is 12 slots plus 3 adjutants (same on all routes).

50 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

“End of the War of the Eagle and Lion is today. There is a special dish in the dining hall. Partake in the festivities?”

...What? The end of it? It's saying we're celebrating the end of something before it's even started?

The War of the Eagle and Lion is a historical war from centuries ago, which saw the Kingdom win independence from the Empire. The Battle of the Eagle and Lion that we participate in during the game is basically a re-enactment.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Three Houses Day 30: Chapter 7 Week 4 Skirmish 2

Jesus Fucking Christ we're at Day 30 and I'm about a third of the way through the game.

Well, I've got three hours today, so let's try and tackle Sylvain's paralogue.

So, apparently Sylvain's dad is literally batshit insane, trying to get Sylvain to fend off a group of bandits alone, with literally no backup at all.

Okay, the way he phrases this makes it sound like he's going with the help of some of his classmates, and the “do paralogue” dialogue option is just us saying whether or not we're coming too, or if he does it without us. What does he say if I say no...?

“If you change you mind, let me know. I'll be around for a bit.”

...So... he doesn't change his mind about going soon. Yet again the game's just calling in-universe attention to how backing out of paralogues plays havoc with the fabric of space and time.

 

If you say no Sylvain just really procrastinates it. He'll get to it eventually. Like next week. Or maybe next month. Until eventually his dad gives up and he doesn't do it at all.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, near as I can tell, you can't check the stats of units you're “carrying” in this game (in this case I mean the adjutant system). Granted, until this marathon I didn't know you could do that at all for any of the games with the rescue system, but now that I know it used to be there, it's just another thing I'm noticing that's missing.

 

Given the adjutant is basically an unremovable piece of equipment for the duration of the map, there isn't a massive reason you'd really need to. It'd basically just be gazing at your units stats just for the sake of it to see how they're doing. Since you can't remove or change the adjutant mid map, knowing what their stats are doesn't actually change your tactical options, unless you just really want to gamble on an adjutant strike occurring to take down an enemy (which to be fair, given how plentiful time rewinding is, isn't actually the most unrealistic thing to gamble on like it would be in older games).

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

We got an extra large bullion, a longbow, a talisman, and a vulnerary from ending on one of those wifi spaces (hilariously that doesn't happen until after the ending dialogue scene and item awarding).

I think those are rewards for letting stopping the thieves from escaping. A talisman from a wifi tile would be fairly goddamned beneficial and certainly not something I've ever been rewarded at random.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

“End of the War of the Eagle and Lion is today. There is a special dish in the dining hall. Partake in the festivities?”

...What? The end of it? It's saying we're celebrating the end of something before it's even started?

It's the historic day the real battle ended, not because the mock battle reenactment has ended.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just realized that Leonie's wearing an archer's glove. That's a cool detail! It only covers some of the fingers, mostly to protect the ones touching the bowstring when it's held tight.

But yeah, the conversation's just them challenging each other to a duel. For a later time.

Yeah, and all that remains is a Professr-Ingrid suppport I can't do from the menu, infuriatingly. Alright, time to wrap things up. On Monday... we'll do the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.

Stay safe, everyone.

Say have you been giving shit to Rhea to get a support with her? The timing on when her supports are available are pretty strict and if you miss one then they're all gone. I think you need to get to at least B to get her paralogue.

[Alastor15243]

22 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Given the adjutant is basically an unremovable piece of equipment for the duration of the map, there isn't a massive reason you'd really need to. It'd basically just be gazing at your units stats just for the sake of it to see how they're doing. Since you can't remove or change the adjutant mid map, knowing what their stats are doesn't actually change your tactical options, unless you just really want to gamble on an adjutant strike occurring to take down an enemy (which to be fair, given how plentiful time rewinding is, isn't actually the most unrealistic thing to gamble on like it would be in older games).

Wait, adjutant strikes actually work? I thought they were glitched to do nothing! I've seen the adjutant attack, but then there was no resulting damage number.

 

24 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I think those are rewards for letting stopping the thieves from escaping. A talisman from a wifi tile would be fairly goddamned beneficial and certainly not something I've ever been rewarded at random.

Damn ambiguous syntax. The vulnerary was the only one I was implying was from the wifi tile.

 

24 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Say have you been giving shit to Rhea to get a support with her? The timing on when her supports are available are pretty strict and if you miss one then they're all gone. I think you need to get to at least B to get her paralogue.

I have not. Am I too late to start trying?

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wait, adjutant strikes actually work? I thought they were glitched to do nothing! I've seen the adjutant attack, but then there was no resulting damage number.

Ehh...maybe not? I just kind of assumed the game actually did something with them, they certainly never figured into gameplay for me at all. More fool me for expecting polish out of a game like Three Houses XD

Quote

Damn ambiguous syntax. The vulnerary was the only one I was implying was from the wifi tile.

This is the damage the Oxford comma does to the English language.

Quote

I have not. Am I too late to start trying?

Probably? You can't get the B support until after Jearlt's death, and then you can't get the A support until after the Holy Tomb. You still have Remire to do before Jearlt kicks it, so perhaps next month is your last chance. Unless the window of opportunity for the C support ends before the B support becomes available.

EDIT: Doing some research, people online seem to be saying you have to get both the C and B supports before Jearlt dies, but that both are available up until that moment. Just feed her a few feathers until you reach the C support, it'll tell you if you've reached the support threshold before you can few it, so you're not stuck giving her things endlessly in the event that the time has passed.

Edited September 17, 2021 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

EDIT: Doing some research, people online seem to be saying you have to get both the C and B supports before Jearlt dies, but that both are available up until that moment. Just feed her a few feathers until you reach the C support, it'll tell you if you've reached the support threshold before you can few it, so you're not stuck giving her things endlessly in the event that the time has passed.

Does she like flowers?

[Jotari]

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Does she like flowers?

Everyone likes flowers.

https://www.ign.com/wikis/fire-emblem-three-houses/Gifts_Guide_-_List_of_Gifts_and_Recipient_Guide

[Shadow Mir]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

This map also strangely has a massive deployment limit of 11. And believe me, for this game, that is a lot. I'm pretty sure even in the endgame you only have like 10 slots.

The endgames have 12.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Say have you been giving shit to Rhea to get a support with her? The timing on when her supports are available are pretty strict and if you miss one then they're all gone. I think you need to get to at least B to get her paralogue.

Only a C is needed.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wait, adjutant strikes actually work? I thought they were glitched to do nothing! I've seen the adjutant attack, but then there was no resulting damage number.

You might not have been paying attention. Either way, attack adjutants WERE glitched for a time (which affected their chance of attacking), but that was fixed in 1.1.0. Also, two things: one, adjutant follow-ups cannot trigger during Enemy Phase, and second, the adjutant must be able to attack from the same range as the host unit.

On 9/16/2021 at 3:04 PM, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

@Shadow Mir I generally alternate between avatar options, particularly if there are associated gameplay or narrative impacts. When it comes to Pokemon, I prefer the female character (especially since customization was introduced).

Huh. Like I said, it depends on the game for me, unless it's Pokemon, in which case I always pick the girl.

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 31: Chapter 7 Finale

Alright, time for the Battle of the Eagle and Lion! And after a brief issue with getting my right joycon working for some reason... we're golden!

I've been putting off making Professr promote to an intermediate because she only had mercenary and thief as options, and they didn't seem worth a seal. But then I remembered she's stuck in a 4 move class right now, so fuck it, sure, I'll make her a mercenary.

…

…

…

…

…

…

Dimitri: After all, it's not like we've spent the last half-year sitting idle.

...It's occurred to me that, with 20-ish entries a month... ignoring breaks... only 4x more time has passed in-game than out of it since the start of this playthrough.

God damn, all of these barely-connected comments from the students again. And they're inevitably predictable. Yet again Felix is only concerned with challenging himself, Mercedes and Annette are only concerned with ignoring their supposed spat, Sylvain's only concerned with women, Ingrid's only concerned with being responsible in reaction to Sylvain, Dedue's only concerned with doing his best for His Highness... it's ridiculous. More than half of these comments write themselves.

Repairing weapons feels kinda tedious in this game. More so than restocking weapons was in other games with weapon durability. Which is weird, because I can't for the life of me pin down why. It could be bias, but it could just be clunky menu incompetence. I can't really say right now.

Ah yes, and since I finally got to this battle with the Blue Lions... everyone's actually their proper house color on the map! The Blue Lions are blue, the Black Eagles are red, and the Golden Deer are yellow!

Okay, so, hilariously, though they don't acknowledge this, it looks like there isn't too much favoritism for the Blue Lions here. They may be letting their teacher take part, but they're also letting the other houses send out more students, and they've even given the Black Eagles a head start manning the ballista! And they put Bernie on that frontline duty, poor thing.

Alright, so commences the Battle of the Eagle and Lion... featuring Hufflepuff. By way of Slytherin.

With new Funky Mode.

And we get the cutscene, and... okay, they have Professr off on her own in this scene to make it vague which house she's leading, but really, this looks like an in-engine cutscene. Couldn't they just put Professr with a different house depending on the route? That doesn't sound like it would be too hard.

But yes... Blue Skies and a Battle is a great song. Absolutely no denying that. And I also like the variation of it that plays in Part 2, but more on that later. Much later.

Ah yes, and here we're introduced to this game's version of the ballistae. I get that most games don't even give the ballistae an animation, but this one's animation is so god-awful I genuinely wish it didn't have an animation at all.

Wow, cavalry with steel lances are apparently so shitty that my 8-AS Dedue can double them. Woooow. I mean I remember cavalry being slow, but still...

But anyway, yeah, as usual I charge right for the central area with the ballista so I can begin my assault from there.

Oh yes! And here's that graphical mix-up I mentioned! Lorenz is throwing his short spear like a hand axe, spinning it!

I used a stride gambit to take out the Black Eagle fliers who swarmed on my position, and Felix got Healing Focus, which would've been nice to be able to equip immediately, game.

...Is it actually possible for the player house to get the morale boost stat buff? It seems no matter how many enemies I kill, and I kill a lot in the beginning, someone else always hits the threshold first.

Aaaaaand Sylvain's progressed so much in archer that he's actually better than Claude at it! Though it helped that he had a forest tile and Claude had a steel bow that crippled his slight (only slight!) speed edge.

...Yeah, it looks like only enemies get the morale boost buff from hitting a kill threshold. Which, naturally, because this is Three Houses, can – and most likely will – happen on enemy-phase.

Edelgard: If you stand in my way, I will cut you down until you have no more blood left to bleed.

Jesus, Edelgard, this is a mock battle.

And after Professr stares at her blankly in response, she goes “What? I was just trying to rally your spirits. Now, to victory!”

...Which makes no sense to say to an enemy...

And after taking out Petra... who was wielding an armorslayer without me noticing and still couldn't take out Dedue... we win.

And now Edelgard says “I'll accept a challenge from either of you at any time”... but swiftly says she was kidding, and then Dimitri reacts like she just made a joking declaration of actual war, and like... what?

Hmmm... yet another “You so fuckin' precious when you smile” comment from Dimitri makes me wonder how the script differs when the avatar is male.

Yet again Dimitri tells a story of his initial reaction to Professr that is in stark contrast to all available evidence of his behavior.

Annette: Yes, that! Without you, the Blue Lions... Well, we wouldn't even be the Blue Lions at all! Except for the blue part. Because we'd be sad.

Okay, that got a chuckle out of me, I will concede.

We talk to Rhea, who awards us with something she doesn't say, and then assigns us our next mission, to investigate Remire Village. Gee, I'm sure those villagers will be totally fine if we wait a month for that!

...No, apparently the knights have already been sent there to investigate and “should be back shortly”. So... what's going on...?

Okay, now we get the blessed lance. On to the next month, and we'll get to the first free time event before finishing up for the day.

Jeralt says he heard everything “after you mentioned that it's not likely an infectious disease”. Comically petty nitpick, but that implies he didn't hear that it's not likely an infectious disease, which of course would make that sentence impossible.

“Shut up, you grammar nazi!” I hear you cry. But hey, you know what they say: you're either a grammar nazi, or you're an anti-semantic.

But yeah, apparently it's some nasty business there, but it's not clear at the moment what our goal is going to be in a month's time that can't be done now. Assuming there is one. Which there probably isn't.

Jeralt is gonna be in his office “making preparations”. Apparently that's so urgent, for something a month down the line, that he can't talk to the knights about what happened and needs Professr to do it.

...She then promptly passes out.

...I don't remember if this is ever specifically explained.

But we get a week of instruction, weirdly, before our first free time. I think that's a first, or at least it hasn't happened in ages.

Lord Arundel shows up, and... I can't remember if this conversation with him happens in other routes with the other house leaders. If it does, it doesn't make much sense why your class assignment would affect who he talks to...

...Huh. So Dimitri is Lord Arundel's nephew?

...Ah, through Dimitri's stepmother. Who “was Edelgard's birth mother”.

...Huh.

...Was her birth mother? Odd choice of words for someone implied to still be alive.

...And now for Professr and Ingrid's B support. It opens with another torn up letter from her father.

So she lets us read the letter... that she just tore up... and... ...and Ingrid's unseen father... actually gets a voice actor. That's unexpected.

So, you have two dialogue options, but they're both basically the same thing, expressing disgust at what her father's doing, arranging political marriages for her. It would've been interesting to let you sympathize with the plight of House Galatea's impoverished people, since it seems this isn't just an issue of her family living in comfort. They've been given ownership of some pretty poor and meager land, which implies their subjects are hurting for it too.

Damn it, she stops right before she elaborates her own feelings on her situation. I wanna see how I can reconcile this letter-ripping with her behavior in her paralogue with Dorothea.

Flayn got rescue, which is awesome... and nobody else got anything of significant value except characters I'm not using.

...So, that conversation with the knights never happened. That's... annoying.

But it seems like that's all I have time for today.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Repairing weapons feels kinda tedious in this game. More so than restocking weapons was in other games with weapon durability. Which is weird, because I can't for the life of me pin down why. It could be bias, but it could just be clunky menu incompetence. I can't really say right now.

Hmm, I might be mixing things up here, but isn´t it because they didn´t separate weapons by type like they did in the shop and just threw everything in one big category that resets to the top whenever you repair/forge something?

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Imuabicus said:

Hmm, I might be mixing things up here, but isn´t it because they didn´t separate weapons by type like they did in the shop and just threw everything in one big category that resets to the top whenever you repair/forge something?

Definitely part of it, but I'm not quite sure if that genuinely makes it more tedious than, say, FE7 javelin restocking.

[Jotari]

One thing that's pretty disappointing to me about the Grondor maps is that they're all the same no matter whichbroute you take. It's always you start in the north with Edelgard or Dimitri in the south west or Claude or Dimitri in the south east (huh, not only is Dimitri the one with indeterminate placing but like Alastor says, playing blue lions aligns all the colours). Like would it really have been so difficult to design the map around three different deployment points so you can actually play as the other  side, rather than playing as the same side just with three different sets of characters? That seems not only the most obvious way to handle it, but also the most fun to play and the one that leads the most diversity to the different routes.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

One thing that's pretty disappointing to me about the Grondor maps is that they're all the same no matter whichbroute you take. It's always you start in the north with Edelgard or Dimitri in the south west or Claude or Dimitri in the south east (huh, not only is Dimitri the one with indeterminate placing but like Alastor says, playing blue lions aligns all the colours). Like would it really have been so difficult to design the map around three different deployment points so you can actually play as the other  side, rather than playing as the same side just with three different sets of characters? That seems not only the most obvious way to handle it, but also the most fun to play and the one that leads the most diversity to the different routes.

...Yeah, good point. Hadn't thought much about that, but yeah it'd be better.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Definitely part of it, but I'm not quite sure if that genuinely makes it more tedious than, say, FE7 javelin restocking.

Yeah I think so - considering the amount of weapon uses you´ll use up with Combat Arts, you´ll be repairing a whole lot so you´ll be getting intimate with the repair menu. 

Not that the comparison with FE7 is one i get since I haven´t played it.

[Jotari]

Alsonif you want Rhea's paralogue, better start sweet talking her now.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

One thing that's pretty disappointing to me about the Grondor maps is that they're all the same no matter whichbroute you take. It's always you start in the north with Edelgard or Dimitri in the south west or Claude or Dimitri in the south east (huh, not only is Dimitri the one with indeterminate placing but like Alastor says, playing blue lions aligns all the colours). Like would it really have been so difficult to design the map around three different deployment points so you can actually play as the other  side, rather than playing as the same side just with three different sets of characters? That seems not only the most obvious way to handle it, but also the most fun to play and the one that leads the most diversity to the different routes.

Yeah, this would've been great. Presumably, then, your player army would get handed some generics, like the other two houses get. I would generally keep the three armies where they are in the Blue Lions version, except how about giving the Lions control over the central hill to start things off?

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

We talk to Rhea, who awards us with something she doesn't say, and then assigns us our next mission, to investigate Remire Village. Gee, I'm sure those villagers will be totally fine if we wait a month for that!

Really hate unnecessarily vague language. Presumably, they weren't certain what the reward was going to be when writing (and recording) the lines.

Side-note, but as rewards go... it's not even especially good. Anti-monster effectiveness is nice, for sure, but the Blessed Lance's high weight makes it hard to double with. And its low durability makes me wary of spamming combat arts with it. Especially since it demands Mythril, one of the rarest ores, to repair or forge.

Oh, by the way... did you happen to open the not-at-all inconspicuous chest on the southern edge of the field of battle?

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Annette: Yes, that! Without you, the Blue Lions... Well, we wouldn't even be the Blue Lions at all! Except for the blue part. Because we'd be sad.

Okay, that got a chuckle out of me, I will concede.

Annette appreciation moment!

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh yes! And here's that graphical mix-up I mentioned! Lorenz is throwing his short spear like a hand axe, spinning it!

Hm, didn't know that happened while throwing. I'll have to keep my eyes out for it.

[Alastor15243]

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

Oh, by the way... did you happen to open the not-at-all inconspicuous chest on the southern edge of the field of battle?

...I totally forgot. I hope it wasn't something important.

[Eltosian Kadath]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Repairing weapons feels kinda tedious in this game. More so than restocking weapons was in other games with weapon durability. Which is weird, because I can't for the life of me pin down why. It could be bias, but it could just be clunky menu incompetence. I can't really say right now.

 I wonder if the crafting material costs might be a small part of it, with a part of your mind having to track it, or potentially having to back out of the repair menus to buy more (or god forbid actually having to grind a monster map for some more...) adding to that annoyance.

 

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

One thing that's pretty disappointing to me about the Grondor maps is that they're all the same no matter whichbroute you take. It's always you start in the north with Edelgard or Dimitri in the south west or Claude or Dimitri in the south east (huh, not only is Dimitri the one with indeterminate placing but like Alastor says, playing blue lions aligns all the colours). Like would it really have been so difficult to design the map around three different deployment points so you can actually play as the other  side, rather than playing as the same side just with three different sets of characters? That seems not only the most obvious way to handle it, but also the most fun to play and the one that leads the most diversity to the different routes.

Can't agree more that they should have gone with the different starting positions for this map.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I totally forgot. I hope it wasn't something important.

It was, strangely enough, another lance. A Killer Lance, to be exact. So, nothing that can't be produced through buying an Iron Lance and Black-Sand Steel.

Come to think of it, this chest must be pretty big, to fit a whole lance inside. 

[Alastor15243]

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

Come to think of it, this chest must be pretty big, to fit a whole lance inside. 

Poooooosssibly not as big as you're thinking. A twice-applied pythagorean theorem goes a long way. If it's a 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot container, for example, you can fit a 17-foot-long stick in there by putting one end at the lower southeast corner and the other at the upper northwest corner. At least if my math is right.

[Acacia Sgt]

It could also be an IKEA-ller Lance, with the blade disassembled from the shaft but can be reattached in like five seconds. Thus doesn't need that much space for its full length, if only a little less.

Edited September 20, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Poooooosssibly not as big as you're thinking. A twice-applied pythagorean theorem goes a long way. If it's a 10 foot by 10 foot by 10 foot container, for example, you can fit a 17-foot-long stick in there by putting one end at the lower southeast corner and the other at the upper northwest corner. At least if my math is right.

That's a good point (assuming a stick of no appreciable thickness). As for the dimensions, a diagonal on one face of the cube would have a length of SQRT(10^2 + 10^2) = SQRT(200) = 10 * SQRT(2) ~ 14.1. Then, the "cube diagonal" would be the hypotenuse of a right triangle, formed by a face-diagonal and an orthogonal cube edge (i.e. diagonal of bottom face by vertical edge). Which equals SQRT(SQRT(200)^2 + 10^2) = SQRT(300) = 10 * SQRT(3) ~ 17.3. So your math was right.

11 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It could also be an IKEA-ller Lance, with the blade disassembled from the shaft but can be reattached in like five seconds. Thus doesn't need that much space for its full length, if only a little less.

Honestly, quick-assembly weaponry would explain how your units can walk around with as many as five weapons at a time. The "I" in IKEA must stand for "Inventory".