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On 10/13/2021 at 9:05 AM, Alastor15243 said:

[Insert House Leader Here]

Using this phrase really emphasize how stupid it is to have the first half of the game be basically identical for all of the routes. If only there was a means to skip it after the first time this game would be so much more bearable...sigh...I feel like I have harped on this point before, but I think it is one of this game's biggest problems.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:


 

Three Houses... created that basic concept... and somehow decided the best thing to do with this amazingly fascinatingly tragic people... these people rich with potential to be anti-villains, anti-heroes, hell, even straight-out heroes...

...was to turn them into objectively, unsympathetically evil, mustache-twirling, puppy-raping demons.

like playing Cowboys and Indians...honestly this does remind me of how the Native Americans were treated in media for a long time...

 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And then we get the third cutscene of Professr being a complete and total dumbass for the sake of the plot. It starts with her chasing a fleeing Kronya through the woods, winding up back on the altar that She initially started on (they apparently assume you'll let her come to you like I did I guess), when Solon arrives and uses her as a human sacrifice to banish Professr to the shadow realm.

This did reinforce the notion I had that the Agarthans had some counter measures against Byleth's time shenanigans...I held that belief for a while really, as I started with Crimson Flower...

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5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

In other instances of "two souls, one body" that I've seen in gaming, IIRC.:

Admittedly, this is complicated somewhat by Teach's nature as "more than one body". They also carry the Crest Stone of the Goddess inside them. Presumably, this is why Sothis's soul lives in their head. The "fusion" has external effects, like their hair changing color and sword glowing up, but it's not clear that the fusion in any way affects the relationship between Teach and the Crest Stone inside of them.

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

I would have liked if Byleth automatically promoted into the Enlightened One mid chapter here. For the story gameplay integration aspect. Sure a mid chapter promotion might kind of upset players who want Byleth in a certain class, but it's so close to the end of the chapter I'm tempted to just say deal with it. Having Byleth forcibly put in a different class for a few turns isn't the worst thing in the world. What is annoying is that (as far as I can remember) they actually do forcibly reclass Byleth into Enlightened One, but it's between chapters as soon as you reach a menu where the promotion and reclass stuff is available. That just seems unhelpful. If you want to forcibly reclass into Enlightened One, then do it in the chapter so players can see it. Doing it between chapters mean interested players need to wait through monastery stuff before actually trying the class out, while players not interested in using the class then have to reclass Byleth back to something else and even run the risk of forgetting to do so and starting a chapter in an undesired class.

Since they always (to my memory) make the "you get a new class" scene happen in front of the bulletin board, maybe they could've done that here? Give Teach a bulletin board in their horrifying netherrealm, where they get the class change, and then their only option is to return to battle.

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

No mention of the fact that Solon seems to just reach into her body, grab her heart, and crush it in his hand like it was a bug? Because that's really unnerving by Fire Emblem standards. Anyway, for someone who called himself "the savior of all" only a couple chapters ago, he's not above sacrificing his own allies for his own ends.

Maybe they need an "Agarthan heart" to pull off the spell of Za'haras (which seems to have been invented on the spot)? It's honestly bizarre to see this frail old sorceror type have "heart ripping out" powers. Like, he's way less threatening to your own units than he is to Kronya.

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3H, much like Awakening and Fates, was written to manipulate your emotions but forgot to write in any sort of internal logic.

If you're immune to being blinded by emotion, it all just becomes an infuriating head scratcher.

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6 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

3H, much like Awakening and Fates, was written to manipulate your emotions but forgot to write in any sort of internal logic.

If you're immune to being blinded by emotion, it all just becomes an infuriating head scratcher.

On that subject, how is the audience even meant to feel at Kronya's death? They animated it pretty gruesomely which makes her look sympathetic, but she was also unabashedly evil and, more importantly, Byleth doesn't seem to show any disgust or horror at her demise. So did they want us celebrating the painful death of Jearlts murderer? Or hating Solon for for betraying his own? I don't really feel a vibe from either emotion. Maybe that's just because the plot has done little to engage me overall, but usually at least I can see what they were trying to go for, but here I outright can't quite grasp what they were doing.

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Three Houses Day 45: Chapter 11 Pre-Battle weeks

So Seteth is now visibly upset, knowing that Rhea has to be withholding massive amounts of information from him now that Professr's walking around rockin' light green hair, but Rhea says she refuses to explain anything until the end of the month.

Seteth says he “happened” upon Jeralt's diary in his room. Either Professr completely forgot to hide it again after reading it last, or Seteth's lying his ass off and he literally ransacked Jeralt's room looking for it.

Seteth: Jeralt realized that you had done something to the child and decided to flee. What did you do to that baby, Rhea? Nothing... questionable, I should hope?

Yeah, uh, as if the “creeper Rhea” jokes didn't already write themselves.

I'm not sure, but I think this is the point where Rhea expects Professr's consciousness to be obliterated and overwritten by Sothis's? I know there was some point where that was the plan.

So they act like going to the tomb and receiving the revelation is the “mission” for the month. There's no explanation for why it can't happen now, and also they can't conceivably be counting on this being an actual battle (indeed it seems to be purely ceremonial), so yet again they're trying to fit a square story into a round game.

Alright, this is my last opportunity to do the last two paralogues.

OH MY GOD I FUCKING FORGOT ABOUT THIS.

So...

So...

...Due to getting to this point in the story, I just unlocked the “Enlightened One”. Professr's personal class.

And it is a fucking fashion disaster. Like, I can't even describe this fucking monstrosity. It's bad enough on the male avatar, where it looks like the getup of a rejected Nintendo-era Final Fantasy villain, but then the female one adds back in the tube top, miniskirt and ripped leggings. Hell, it looks like she just changed her coat to one way less cool and way more gaudy!

And without any fanfare, without any big music or magical lights, it just shows her reclassed to it, standing there with that blank look on her face in the dumbest outfit I've seen in a while, and I just couldn't help myself from laughing uncontrollably.

...Also, the sad, mellow music from before is still playing, which I really feel doesn't fit anymore.

But anyway, let's move on. Ingrid failed to hit a 75% chance twice in a row (and by that I mean on two separate weeks; I know save-scumming doesn't work on the same week), so I'll have to try again after getting her those last points in mage. Also, I should take a skill off her so that she'll equip fiendish blow automatically. ...I should do that with the others too, since they each have a skill equipped that isn't that important.

Alright, let's try a quick auxiliary battle and then the Balthus paralogue. BRB.

...Okay, so, quick thing: I accidentally clicked the Balthus/Hapi paralogue first, and when I turned it down after going through all of those pointless button presses, he's like “You're really going to abandon her? Didn't think you had it in ya.” And he, like... sounds impressed. Which I find pretty hilarious.

Okay, so, I did two auxiliary battles, and I wound up just barely getting both Constance and Annette to master pegasus knight, meaning they're both ready for dark flier. Unfortunately, Annette didn't pass the test, though Ingrid did. So we've at least got two dark fliers. I'm gonna do a monastery visit to get motivation up and do quests, then use the last free week to do the paralogues once Annette is a dark flier too. Having three dark fliers flying around is gonna be awesome.

SO! I did the tournament quest again, since it turned out there are no new ones, and this time I kicked its ass. And it turns out the ringleader of this bunch of women who are pissed off at Professr for being too close to the students... is Manuela. Of course.

And I got a brave lance! Nice!

Also, a random NPC confirms that next month is going to be graduation. Or it would be if not for what's about to go down. So I guess that confirms that thing I was wondering about since the beginning of this playlog.

Also, I found something in the library and thus just barely managed to reach Professor Rank A. Which means we have more exploration and tutoring points now. Really, these things should just improve what can be done with a point, not give me more. It would make the game a lot more streamlined.

...Shit, I totally forgot to recruit Leonie. I'll have to recruit her next month. I'd do it now, but this is the deadline for doing these paralogues, so I'll just barely make it if I do them now.

And now Annette's a dark flier! Awesome! Now with all of these fliers, the clusterfuck that is Balthus's paralogue should be a cakewalk.

Time to do a paralogue at roughly double the recommended level.

If I have any trouble at all, that will speak volumes about how fucked this level is.

...God damn it, it's so infuriating to not be able to skip this shit, even after the decision and scene change.

So yeah, Baron Ochs isn't even with the bandits. He's just... here to grab the Vajra-Mushti for Those Who Slither to get his allegedly held-hostage daughter back, and... is trying to protect his treasure from the thieves. Despite not fighting them. And not running away. And not attacking anybody but us.

...Let's just do this.

...So yeah, honestly, by this point the battle is a cakewalk. It's just that initial “forced to split up” clusterfuck that's such an issue. With that fixed, I'm having a pretty easy time. I just need to focus on getting everyone together so I can defend Balthus and Hapi properly.

Reinforcements are just showing up fucking wherever. On turn three. Man am I glad I didn't try to do this at the recommended level.

Christ, imagine doing this on Maddening, when they're ambush spawns.

I will concede there is a good amount of dumb fun to be had fucking around with this map with my new fliers. Very satisfying flying around and destroying things.

...Right, now we're at the end, but reinforcements keep coming in ridiculous numbers, which only makes it more obvious how fucking slow and cheap the reinforcement animation is. Seriously, this is pathetic. Instead of having groups all come in at once, they go in one at a time, and each individual one has to do their weapon flourish that makes it take longer than an entire group would in any other game.

I sniped the boss from a distance with Constance's bolting so I wouldn't have to get close, because I remember that being nothing but pain last time. Let's see how this plays out.

Aaaaand hovering over the boss doesn't highlight his movement range because he spawned in weirdly. Of course game, carry on with the glitches.

I love how the baron's attendants see him turn into a horrible monster and they just assume, unfazed, that he's still on our side, because red is one big happy family regardless of canon, and literally everyone but the heroes and skirmish bandits knows how to control monsters.

I got one umbral steel for breaking the barriers, which is lame, but Flayn kills the last HP bar with double 12% crits, so that's pretty cool.

Okay, so this “Replica hero's relic” story is... kinda weird. Who the fuck would have the motivation to create this specific relic? The demographics who would consider it in good taste to model a weapon after the corpses of dragons and the people who would want to bind it to the specific crests that these two relics have... do not sound like they overlap at all.

Anyway, I'll be giving it to Felix, because he's my brawler, and it's the strongest set of gauntlets in the game. The combat art isn't necessary, and he has a crest so it won't hurt him.

Alright, I've got... an hour left, for another paralogue I'm overleveled for.

...Yeah, okay, I think I can manage this. Probably.

Alright, I'll have Ashe on torch-spamming duty, and I'll try to sweep these guys quickly.

...That's weird, the visual effect for fog was a lot less... square... in the first chapter I saw it in. Now it's just like in the GBA games, a flat color tinting every square not in vision range.

And yeah, the inability to move after using items is really annoying when it comes to torches and a bunch of mounted units.

Yep, I'm rounding up the stragglers now that I've taken out the reinforcement sources hiding in the fog.

One more batch of enemies left I think.

Finally. And I get... shoes of the wind, a critical ring, and umbral steel.

...The shoes are nice.

And Ashe... learns some stuff... that he doesn't share with us... from some papers he got. What's even the point of saying that he's learned something about his family if there's no opportunity other than this paralogue to reveal what it is?

...But that's it. That's all the paralogues.

After more than two months of weekdays... We're nearly done with... the first half... of the game.

In the time it took to beat Radiant Dawn.

Holy shit am I ready for this to be over, but it's only just begun.

See you next week, when we'll see... I dunno, something, I guess. Maybe some kind of twisted joke?

Stay safe, everyone.

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Here's where I display my utter lack if taste by declaring that I actually really like the see if  for Male Byleth's Enlightened One. What? I like the old school Final Fantasy villains!

If you're going to recruit Leonie, I suggest picking up Lindhardt too so you can do The Immovable paralogue. That us if you feel inclined to talk about it and if the Black Eagles are even recruitable in the final month.

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If I remember correctly the stuff that Ashe finds out from the papers is revealed in his supports with Catherine, and the support chain can't actually start until the paralogue is completed.

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10 minutes ago, deskita said:

If I remember correctly the stuff that Ashe finds out from the papers is revealed in his supports with Catherine, and the support chain can't actually start until the paralogue is completed.

...Huh. that'll explain it.

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2 hours ago, Jotari said:

If you're going to recruit Leonie, I suggest picking up Lindhardt too so you can do The Immovable paralogue. That us if you feel inclined to talk about it and if the Black Eagles are even recruitable in the final month.

You can definitely recruit the Black Eagles in Chapter 12. On my first VW run, I accidentally picked up Dorothea then.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Seteth: Jeralt realized that you had done something to the child and decided to flee. What did you do to that baby, Rhea? Nothing... questionable, I should hope?

Moments like these really make me love Mark Whitten's vocal performance as Seteth. How he's able to convey his faith in Rhea wavering here. Probably my favorite voice in the game, honestly.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So yeah, Baron Ochs isn't even with the bandits. He's just... here to grab the Vajra-Mushti for Those Who Slither to get his allegedly held-hostage daughter back, and... is trying to protect his treasure from the thieves. Despite not fighting them. And not running away. And not attacking anybody but us.

Very frustrating that this is the game that finally figures out how to display two separate enemy factions, and yet it doesn't do so for this map. Make Baron Ochs yellow, dammit.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so this “Replica hero's relic” story is... kinda weird. Who the fuck would have the motivation to create this specific relic? The demographics who would consider it in good taste to model a weapon after the corpses of dragons and the people who would want to bind it to the specific crests that these two relics have... do not sound like they overlap at all.

Not sure why they didn't leave this one as "the real deal", especially in light of it demanding Umbral Steel. Maybe they needed Chevalier to survive? But it could've been made well after the other Relics, say by an enterprising Agarthan Assassin.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And it is a fucking fashion disaster. Like, I can't even describe this fucking monstrosity. It's bad enough on the male avatar, where it looks like the getup of a rejected Nintendo-era Final Fantasy villain, but then the female one adds back in the tube top, miniskirt and ripped leggings. Hell, it looks like she just changed her coat to one way less cool and way more gaudy!

The Professor was going to turn it down offscreen, but Rhea insisted that insults to the sacred vestments was a heresy of the highest order, so...

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

SO! I did the tournament quest again, since it turned out there are no new ones, and this time I kicked its ass. And it turns out the ringleader of this bunch of women who are pissed off at Professr for being too close to the students... is Manuela. Of course.

And I got a brave lance! Nice!

The Brave Lance award kinda bugs me, because it comes from nowhere thematically. Like, you're challenged to fight with Swords, and you get... a Lance? Can Teach even use B-rank Lances? I dunno, I feel like various teas would be a better reward (since they're implicitly caving to you doing teatime with your students).

Then again, Brave Lance Dimitri go brrr, so.

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

Moments like these really make me love Mark Whitten's vocal performance as Seteth. How he's able to convey his faith in Rhea wavering here. Probably my favorite voice in the game, honestly.

Honestly that was an interesting scene in hindsight. Especially the fact that it's like towards the very beginning of the game, but now that he's gotten to know and respect the avatar, he genuinely sounds concerned for her, and that he might now be worried not that Professr is abusing Rhea's trust, but the other way around.

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You didn't get Alois, or do his and Shamir's paralogue, did you?

EDIT: I always make it a point to get Petra on my side if I'm on Azure Moon or Verdant Wind. Makes two chapters ten billion percent easier.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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3 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

You didn't get Alois, or do his and Shamir's paralogue, did you?

EDIT: I always make it a point to get Petra on my side if I'm on Azure Moon or Verdant Wind. Makes two chapters ten billion percent easier.

No to the first, yes to the second.

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5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

No to the first, yes to the second.

Oh. I asked because it come to mind that you'd have to do their paralogue after recruiting him for a high-end battalion.

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

Moments like these really make me love Mark Whitten's vocal performance as Seteth. How he's able to convey his faith in Rhea wavering here. Probably my favorite voice in the game, honestly.

Shout out to Rhea's voice actor too. We talked about her somewhere on the site, I don't think it was here, but someone pointed out how Rhea's actual dialogue is pretty atrocious when analyzed in a vacuum. It's overly bombastic and cringy. But my goodness does the voice actor sell the ever loving shit out of it and really exemplify her personality. The character wouldn't work nearly as well in a text only medium.

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6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Christ, imagine doing this on Maddening, when they're ambush spawns.

To give the map a tiny bit of credit, they’re not ambush spawns even on Maddening- they still spawn whenever you move out of the trigger areas, or at the beginning of player phase turn 5 (or 6 I can’t remember which). So the added difficulty just comes from plain old bullshit stat inflation.

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

Not sure why they didn't leave this one as "the real deal", especially in light of it demanding Umbral Steel. Maybe they needed Chevalier to survive? But it could've been made well after the other Relics, say by an enterprising Agarthan Assassin.

Actually that might still have been the case. Since at the time of the paralogue we don’t know where the relics come from, and we assume they were still given by the goddess, Vajra-Mushti doesn’t fit with that fake story since it wasn’t wielded by any of the elites. The actual Relics are all accounted for, but if the agarthans got the drop on Chevalier somehow and made the gauntlets, then they turned up in the world without a goddess going “here have more free shit”, the people might have just assumed someone made a fake relic.

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2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Oh. I asked because it come to mind that you'd have to do their paralogue after recruiting him for a high-end battalion.

Pretty sure you can also buy the Holy Knights of Seiros post-skip. Doing the Alomir paralogue with Alois recruited just gives them to you a bit earlier.

29 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Shout out to Rhea's voice actor too. We talked about her somewhere on the site, I don't think it was here, but someone pointed out how Rhea's actual dialogue is pretty atrocious when analyzed in a vacuum. It's overly bombastic and cringy. But my goodness does the voice actor sell the ever loving shit out of it and really exemplify her personality. The character wouldn't work nearly as well in a text only medium.

Yeah - I especially appreciate how Cherami Leigh manages to take Rhea "off the deep end" in Crimson Flower. Other vocal roles I found to stand out were Robbie Draymond's Hubert (I swear, his voice is dripping with venom), Abby Trott's Annette (actually getting to hear her sing those songs is such a treat), and Chris Hackney's Dimitri (the role that demanded more emotional range than any other, I would say). Three Houses' presentation is lacking in many regards, but the voicework isn't one of them.

24 minutes ago, Anathaco said:

Actually that might still have been the case. Since at the time of the paralogue we don’t know where the relics come from, and we assume they were still given by the goddess, Vajra-Mushti doesn’t fit with that fake story since it wasn’t wielded by any of the elites. The actual Relics are all accounted for, but if the agarthans got the drop on Chevalier somehow and made the gauntlets, then they turned up in the world without a goddess going “here have more free shit”, the people might have just assumed someone made a fake relic.

So, real Relics, that people think are fake, because they don't match the "official" by-line describing where Relics come from? That makes a lot of sense to me, actually.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly that was an interesting scene in hindsight. Especially the fact that it's like towards the very beginning of the game, but now that he's gotten to know and respect the avatar, he genuinely sounds concerned for her, and that he might now be worried not that Professr is abusing Rhea's trust, but the other way around.

I really appreciate Seteth's dynamicism as a character, at least up until the timeskip. When I played Silver Snow, I was really hoping that the lack of a main Lord would allow Seteth to take a more prominent role (say, as the interim Archbishop until Rhea is found). Sadly, his role was barely expanded from what little he got on either VW or AM. That, coupled with the fact that he apparently spent the five-year timeskip doing... nothing. Ugh, Seteth deserved better.

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13 hours ago, Jotari said:

On that subject, how is the audience even meant to feel at Kronya's death? They animated it pretty gruesomely which makes her look sympathetic, but she was also unabashedly evil and, more importantly, Byleth doesn't seem to show any disgust or horror at her demise. So did they want us celebrating the painful death of Jearlts murderer? Or hating Solon for for betraying his own? I don't really feel a vibe from either emotion. Maybe that's just because the plot has done little to engage me overall, but usually at least I can see what they were trying to go for, but here I outright can't quite grasp what they were doing.

Were we supposed to feel anything at all? Because I'm not sure if the developers knew what they were going for there. Kronya was such a non-character.

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

So, real Relics, that people think are fake, because they don't match the "official" by-line describing where Relics come from? That makes a lot of sense to me, actually.

That's what I first assumed was the case with these co called artificial relics...but then I remembered all the elites have Dark versions of the Relics in the Verdant Wind final battle, and those things must be artificial in nature. Because if the Agarthans just had a bunch more Nabatean bones lying around at the time then we would have had the 25 elites or something instead.

2 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Were we supposed to feel anything at all? Because I'm not sure if the developers knew what they were going for there. Kronya was such a non-character.

She feels like she has more character than Jearlt, I can say that much about her. Though liking her in Heroes is probably playing some bias on me.

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14 hours ago, Jotari said:

On that subject, how is the audience even meant to feel at Kronya's death? They animated it pretty gruesomely which makes her look sympathetic, but she was also unabashedly evil and, more importantly, Byleth doesn't seem to show any disgust or horror at her demise. So did they want us celebrating the painful death of Jearlts murderer? Or hating Solon for for betraying his own? I don't really feel a vibe from either emotion. Maybe that's just because the plot has done little to engage me overall, but usually at least I can see what they were trying to go for, but here I outright can't quite grasp what they were doing.

I think it’s supposed to reveal two things: The Agarthans are cruel, cold people who have no regard for life in order to achieve their goals, yet despite that, they are people at heart who also have emotions and can feel pain and want to live. I always feel disturbed watching that cutscene, and despite Kronya being a sadistic killer, I still can’t help feel a bit sympathetic thinking that despite successfully following out all orders, she’s still treated as dispensable by her superiors despite not deserving any sympathy at all. 

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1 minute ago, ZeManaphy said:

I think it’s supposed to reveal two things: The Agarthans are cruel, cold people who have no regard for life in order to achieve their goals, yet despite that, they are people at heart who also have emotions and can feel pain and want to live. I always feel disturbed watching that cutscene, and despite Kronya being a sadistic killer, I still can’t help feel a bit sympathetic thinking that despite successfully following out all orders, she’s still treated as dispensable by her superiors despite not deserving any sympathy at all. 

If that's the case then I'd expect Byleth as audience surrogate to show some disgust. But instead s/he seems just sternly unabashed by the whole thing. And the whole psychopath angle doesn't really work as an excuse given Byleth is meant to be pissed at this moment in the story of Jeralt's death.

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1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Shout out to Rhea's voice actor too. We talked about her somewhere on the site, I don't think it was here, but someone pointed out how Rhea's actual dialogue is pretty atrocious when analyzed in a vacuum. It's overly bombastic and cringy. But my goodness does the voice actor sell the ever loving shit out of it and really exemplify her personality. The character wouldn't work nearly as well in a text only medium.

Yes. Cheremei is great with range like that. 

Standard Shonen girl like Lucy? She can do that?
Gutsy overly energetic girl like Mae. She can do that. 
Good girl class president like Makoto. She can do that. 
Cursing like a sailor with A2. She can do that. 
Motherly and serene like Rhea. She can do that. 
Completely insane like Rhea. she can do that.

That's nice to see in an industry where voice actors are usually given the same sorts of roles a lot. Like Jamesion Price always being the older, bulky gruff yet honorable villain, or Yuri Lowenthal generally being some variant of a dorky teenager. 

I think the first time I noticed her was 2017 where she played the very different Mae, Makoto and A2 while being very good in all of them.

Edited by Etrurian emperor
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1 hour ago, ZeManaphy said:

I think it’s supposed to reveal two things: The Agarthans are cruel, cold people who have no regard for life in order to achieve their goals, yet despite that, they are people at heart who also have emotions and can feel pain and want to live. I always feel disturbed watching that cutscene, and despite Kronya being a sadistic killer, I still can’t help feel a bit sympathetic thinking that despite successfully following out all orders, she’s still treated as dispensable by her superiors despite not deserving any sympathy at all. 

Yeah. That stands out for being rather unnerving as far as Nintendo games go (not on the level of Ocarina of Time, but still). And this is far from the only time that a villain in this series kills their own subordinate, but the creepy factor is what really stands out here.

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On 10/15/2021 at 1:43 AM, Jotari said:

On that subject, how is the audience even meant to feel at Kronya's death? They animated it pretty gruesomely which makes her look sympathetic, but she was also unabashedly evil and, more importantly, Byleth doesn't seem to show any disgust or horror at her demise. So did they want us celebrating the painful death of Jearlts murderer? Or hating Solon for for betraying his own? I don't really feel a vibe from either emotion. Maybe that's just because the plot has done little to engage me overall, but usually at least I can see what they were trying to go for, but here I outright can't quite grasp what they were doing.

I think the most charitable interpretation is that they are trying to capture that revenge doesn't result in the kind of emotional release we think it does, it simply leaves you feeling empty.

Random side note, but Kronya's early appearance in FEH made me think she was going to be a much more prominent villain than she was, which made her very early death feel really, really weird and out of place.

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On 10/16/2021 at 10:48 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

Random side note, but Kronya's early appearance in FEH made me think she was going to be a much more prominent villain than she was, which made her very early death feel really, really weird and out of place.

I'm honestly befuddled that they kept her in her "Monica" disguise well after the ruse had expired. Like, when she's speaking with Thales and the Flame Emperor, or at the start of the chapter 10 map. As a result, she exists as "Kronya" for less than a fraction of a map.

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Three Houses Day 46: Chapter 11 Mission

I don't know why they even bother acting like there won't be a fight at the end of the month, seriously. It's not like the player's going to be surprised when they already know how the game mechanics work, and we can clearly see the mission labeled “Conflict in the holy tomb” whenever we go for free battles, because for some reason they put it on that list.

Ingrid: If something happens to [Rhea], all of Fodlan will suffer. We must protect her at all costs!

Friendly reminder that if you recruited her to Black Eagles and then sided against Rhea, this is what she'd be saying mere days after this moment in time, with the only thing different being which classmates she studied with, even if you recruited her literally that week:

Ingrid: I may return to Galatea territory and try to convince my father to join our cause. It's possible that... No. In my heart, I know that my father won't listen. Still, I must get him to see reason. That this is the only way to ensure our family's future.

Nobody's political statements mean anything. They are fluid, inconstant and fickle beyond measure, because almost nobody has any actual guiding principles. There's barely half a dozen playable characters in this game who won't blindly follow you into battle on behalf of literally any side of this conflict. This game should be called three barns, because this is a school full of nothing but fucking sheep.

And then we get Sothis's ridiculously oversized throne. I had an argument with a friend about this; he seemed to think the ridiculous size of the throne was evidence that Sothis used to have an adult form that was huge. But personally I don't think it's remotely likely that Sothis was ever taller than a normal human. The throne may look oversized, but as a CG just showed, the seat is just barely elevated enough for the avatar's feet to touch the stairs beneath it when they sit on it. If an actual giant tried to sit in this thing, their legs would be stuck out in front of them in a really goofy way.

He tried to argue that the throne's way too wide to be built for a normal human, but I don't buy that being proof either, because again, it was clearly built for human height. So unless Sothis was really, really fat, the throne can't have been made that wide just to fit her.

Anyway, Rhea laments that her attempts to replace Professr with her mother haven't worked, and then...

...Flame Emperor shows up. And in every version of this, even in Black Eagles, she attacks you without giving you any chance to join her, even though she reveals herself as Edelgard in the Black Eagles version before the battle begins. You have to beat her and then join her.

And of course, the Imperial Army got in here using teleportation tech that, unless I am very much mistaken, we never, ever use when we're on her side.

Anyway, I don't know why, but I always find this map disorienting when viewed from its usual angle. I always flip it 180 degrees so we're moving up instead of down on the map.

My number one priority here, aside from securing as many of the crest stones as I can with my fliers, is to get Flayn enough points in mage that she can become a dark flier as well next fight, and I'll have my full air force, except maybe Professr if I decide to make her a wyvern rider after all.

So, the game says we'll get a reward for every crest stone we protect, and presumably this reward comes from the literal ether, just like the Aegis shield reward, because you still get it even if you side with Edelgard right after.

Anyway, they start stealing the crest stones, and... what exactly can they do with them? I can only assume TWSITD research.

Anyway, Rhea flips out, going “Do you even know what those stones are!?”, and... yeah, knowing what they are this is kinda fucked up.

My fliers, and especially Constance with her bolting, make it pretty easy to assassinate all the crest stone thieves within the first few turns. And I have to say, the crest of Noa is super useful on Constance, especially when it procs on bolting. Which is has. Multiple times.

Alright, the crest thieves and demonic beasts have been soundly dealt with, which means it's time to take out the rest of the map, and hopefully get Flayn maxed out in mage.

Yep, Flayn's maxed out. Fourth dark flier ahoy!

Mercedes is only a bit away from maxing out mage too, and Shamir's almost maxed out sniper! So I'm gonna have Shamir fight the bosses.

Nah, that wasn't feasible in a timely manner, so I had Dimitri do it. Things were looking bad for a moment when FE...

...FE...

...Christ...

...When Flame Emperor used her gambit, but Shamir and Dimitri managed to finish her off together before she could attack any of the rattled fliers.

Now then... for... the scene. I'm watching this mostly blind. I've just seen screenshots and brief snippets.

Let's go.


 


 


 


 


 

...Uh...

...So...

...I'm not sure why, but he reacts to seeing Edelgard's big, wide-eyed face inside that huge helmet as if the only place he recognized that face from was watching her kill his family, even though that didn't actually happen. For some reason, despite already strongly suspecting Edelgard was the Flame Emperor, only now does he completely and totally snap.

And by “snap”, I mean he's implied to literally cave a man's face in with his fucking fingers like that poor fighter jet pilot from Invincible.

And then the game picks this exact moment to hand me my crest rescue rewards: a rusted bow that can be turned into a silver bow, a knowledge gem, and an advanced seal. That little item jingle echoing in the awkward silence is just fucking hilarious.

I mean really, to reiterate:

Dimitri just caved a man's face in.

WHAT THE FUCKMOTHERING MOTHERFUCK.

Dimitri's motivation is maxed out!”

YEAH. YEAH, HE LOOKS VERY MOTIVATED RIGHT NOW.

Edelgard continues to deny having any role in the Tragedy of Duscur, but Dimitri still seems convinced she's personally responsible because of that previous conversation he overheard with the allies who did.

...Wait, that means Dimitri never fights the people who actually killed his parents in-game, doesn't it? There's no fight in Shambhala in Blue Lions, right?

But anyway, two absurdly brave but wimpy-sounding soldiers shield Edelgard with their bodies even though they must have just watched this guy fucking cave a man's face in I'm sorry I can't fucking get over the fact that this just happened in a fucking Fire Emblem game... and they almost instantly die offscreen apparently, but buy Edelgard enough time to teleport away.

...I'll be honest, despite how amused I am right now that this shit just happened, and despite the fact that I'm kind of having a blast with Dimitri going full-frontal stark raving mad... it is not a natural transition. At all. It's not a natural progression, it's just kinda awkwardly sprinkled in, and he goes back to normal just as quickly.

So everyone's talking without Dimitri about what they just fucking watched him do, and I'm glad they did that, because of course they should have a reaction to that. And in the game's defense, maybe they'll explain what I've been witnessing better later, because the students themselves are pointing out how inconsistent his bloodthirsty rage has been.

Edelgard delivers her antitheist manifesto to the masses, denounces the corrupt church, and declares war.

The Monastery is in an awkward situation at this point, and I really wonder if my recruitment of anyone is gonna have a different tone to it, given what joining Professr's class implies at this point.

I'm gonna keep playing a bit more to explore this a bit, and do some character customizing.

Wow, there are barely any weeks in this month where we actually do stuff. It skips over basically half of it without comment. And then they freak out at the fact that they only have two weeks to prepare for Edelgard's invasion. The fuck were they doing with the last two weeks?

There's a quick conversation where Rhea finally comes clean to Seteth about what Professr is, and then...

Dimitri actually has a 67% chance of becoming a wyvern lord right now. Going for it.

...Nope, no luck. I'll try again next week.

But I will also try to reclass Flayn now.

...Shit, only a 41% chance. Well, might as well anyway.

No dice. Oh well.

Oh! Looks like Seteth's joined us! Alright. Duly noted.

Now then... time to buy some more smithing stones, buy some more flying battalions, recruit Leonie, some other stuff... let's go.

Leonie says she can't fathom why Edelgard wants to destroy the church. And yet, when she sided with me in my first run in Crimson Flower, she said “well, Jeralt never trusted the church, so sure, let's take 'em down!”

Anyway, she joins me with no different dialogue. Just for shits and giggles I'm gonna try to recruit Linhardt and see if someone from Black Eagles has anything with more gravitas to say.

...He doesn't join because I haven't tried to support with him and I don't have enough points in reason. Ah well. Guess no fancy brave bow, but I can forge one of those anyway.

I got a quest from Anna, but I don't think I'll be completing it for another... oh, say... five years.

Now then, I've motivated everyone up, so time to get some flying and axe training for Professr.

Oh wait, also, better not forget the quests. Looks like Seteth has one.

I'm recruiting the teachers not because I plan to use them, but because I want them in the school in case they don't automatically join in Blue Lions. I need them for training Professr.

I've got a support with Seteth, which... feels like it should've happened a lot earlier and doesn't work much now.

Right, now I'll just get Catherine, and then finish this week.

...She's... flirting with me. Given the stakes of the situation, this feels super weird. Also, a lot of these, despite me asking them, sound like they're asking me. It's kinda odd.

And before I forget... greenhouse.

Now then, let's see what we have to work with regarding Leonie...

...She's level 23 and has some really nice all-around physical stats, namely 23 strength, 21 speed, and 20 defense. Problem is she's put all of her training in lances and bows, barely has any skill in riding, and has no skill in anything else. Gotta put some work in to catch her up if I want her to be a bow knight. I'm making her focus on riding and authority for now.

Shit, forgot to buy more battalions. Better buy those before I forget.

Thankfully Annette reached B authority so she can start using the good flying battalions. Looking forward to it.

Alright, my fliers all just barely have battalions now. Annette's using the Nuvelle one.

Dimitri failed the wyvern lord test again despite good odds, and Flayn failed the 41% again. Alright then, I think we're done here for today.

Tomorrow we'll do the next battle. Man, things are going much quicker now that the paralogues are complete.

Stay safe, everyone.


 


 


 


 

JesusFuckingChristDimitriCavedInASoldier'sFuckingFace

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