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

[Venger_06]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...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?

He probably received Hubert's letter after the ending. It shouldn't be too different from the other routes.

A bit off-topic, but holy shit, it's almost 2 months and you're still on part 1? Just how long is this game?

[ZeManaphy]

1 minute ago, Ghost_06_ said:

He probably received Hubert's letter after the ending. It shouldn't be too different from the other routes.

A bit off-topic, but holy shit, it's almost 2 months and you're still on part 1? Just how long is this game?

I believe for most people one run is 80 hours. 

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

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?

Nope. Though he ultimately screws over Those Who Slither in the Dark anyways (albeit inadvertently).

[Etrurian emperor]

The Slitherer plotline gets settled in the Hapi support. Without it Dimitri has to settle for accidentally killing Thales and never finding out about it, which I always considered the better and more fitting end to the Blue Lions since Dimitri really isn't in any state to go snoop up centuries old conspiracies. 

[AnonymousSpeed]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

Sothis circa 65,000,000 BCE, colorized:

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

Well we actually have a pretty decent metric by which to figure out the size of Sothis's body. Namely that we know the Sword of the Creator is made from her spinal column, which seems...maybe a little bigger than a standard human but not by a huge amount.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...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.

 

Yeah, that's so stupid I legit thought I'd done something wrong first time I tried to go Crimson Flowers. It's a really bad look for Edelgard just in general, yet her fans will still defend the decision to literally try and murder her friends (because of course she didn't really mean it when she told her soldiers to "kill anyone who stands in are way", she had counter manned that order with another order before hand making sure every soldier was aware they were only going to pretend they were willing to kill the classmates, even if the soldiers end up dying as a result, and all of the soldiers agreed to this, even the sociopathic Metody and the freaking Black Beasts that are so wild they can damage units on the same side of them).

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

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.

 

Why no Rewarp Hubert 😞

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

I think they can use them to make people into demonic beasts. But given that no matter how many Edelgard ends up stealing or failing to steal, absolutely nothing actually changes about it and the desire to get them is never mentioned again (even on Crimson Flower where she's pretty muc guaranteed to have all of the Crest Stones by the end of the battle), yeah, it's pretty much a non plot element. Edelgard's desire to get the crest stones exists purely so we have a reason for her to reveal herself.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

 

Manuela and Hanneman actually act as enemies if you don't recruit them in Blue Lions, and only Blue Lions. It stands out as a bit strange to me that, as I expect they'd stand by Rhea, but you can bullshit a justification for them just like you can any character in the game. Maybe they wanted to even out the number of units that join Edelgard by default, as she's on the low side given she only has one house versus the two that go against her and that the other faculty units are pretty locked into being on Rhea's side given their positions. The really weird thing is that they're Blue Lions exclusive as enemies in Part 2, if you play any other route and don't recruit them they just up and vanish without any mention. Even in Crimson Flower, if they're canonically meant to be Edelgard supporters, they don't appear (also Manuela's final default class is Assassin, which is actually one of her most useful paths as a playable unit).

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

You should have one more chance before the actual battle starts, I think.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

Sothis? More like So Thicc amirite?

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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

I believe they can use Crest Stones to make Demonic Beasts. Buuut Edelgard and the imperial army have the same number of demonic beasts regardless of whether they succeed in stealing any of the stones, so shrug.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.

"The Crest of Blaiddyd will make you want to CRUSH a HUMAN SKULL with your BARE HANDS! But you won't need to, because this Crest TASTES how that would FEEL!"

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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?

Presumably, Professr was bedridden due to shock at Edelgard's sudden yet inevitable betrayal. 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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

He's level 30 already, before the timeskip? This is making me appreciate Maddening's brutal EXP curve a bit more.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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.ii

iirc, the Imperial army infiltrated by disguising themselves as merchants and pilgrims; this is revealed by a quest in chapter 12.

[Alastor15243]

3 hours ago, Ghost_06_ said:

A bit off-topic, but holy shit, it's almost 2 months and you're still on part 1? Just how long is this game?

 

3 hours ago, ZeManaphy said:

I believe for most people one run is 80 hours. 

Yeah that's roughly how long it took for me too. This file's playtime is running at 54 hours, but that might be counting some time I left it open to type.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Why no Rewarp Hubert 😞

Real talk, that would be awesome.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

Manuela and Hanneman actually act as enemies if you don't recruit them in Blue Lions, and only Blue Lions. It stands out as a bit strange to me that, as I expect they'd stand by Rhea, but you can bullshit a justification for them just like you can any character in the game. Maybe they wanted to even out the number of units that join Edelgard by default, as she's on the low side given she only has one house versus the two that go against her and that the other faculty units are pretty locked into being on Rhea's side given their positions. The really weird thing is that they're Blue Lions exclusive as enemies in Part 2, if you play any other route and don't recruit them they just up and vanish without any mention. Even in Crimson Flower, if they're canonically meant to be Edelgard supporters, they don't appear (also Manuela's final default class is Assassin, which is actually one of her most useful paths as a playable unit).

Genuinely surprising, I would not have expected that.

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

"The Crest of Blaiddyd will make you want to CRUSH a HUMAN SKULL with your BARE HANDS! But you won't need to, because this Crest TASTES how that would FEEL!"

How did I know the people of Powerthirst were behind that before even looking up what that was from?

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

He's level 30 already, before the timeskip? This is making me appreciate Maddening's brutal EXP curve a bit more.

The others aren't quite that high level, but they're all generally in the mid-high 20s.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

How did I know the people of Powerthirst were behind that before even looking up what that was from?

Now we know why Those Who Slither in the Dark were after Flayn's blood - IT'S GOT ELECTROLYTES! What are electrolytes? I don't know, but they're what Agarthans crave!

20 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah that's roughly how long it took for me too. This file's playtime is running at 54 hours, but that might be counting some time I left it open to type.

My first playthrough (VW Normal) was at about that point by the timeskip. Maybe a little longer. I didn't make it through the endgame until 115 hours in.

[Shadow Mir]

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

My first playthrough (VW Normal) was at about that point by the timeskip. Maybe a little longer. I didn't make it through the endgame until 115 hours in.

Is this including time you just left it unattended to do something else?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

50 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Is this including time you just left it unattended to do something else?

I mean, to an extent. I would let a support play out while I did the dishes, for instance. And maybe I don't get back to the game right away, leaving it idle. A minute here, two minutes there. I don't see them adding up to more than, say, 5 hours across the playthrough. Mostly, I just take a long time prepping (i.e. reassigning skills, combat arts, and weapons before every battle).

Edited October 19, 2021 by Shanty Pete's 1st Mate
Clarification.

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 47: Chapter 12 Final Week and Supports

I'm spending this last week exploring because there's a quest I forgot to actually finish that Mir reminded me about.

Alright, with that done, time to feed everyone back up to full motivation (except the newcomers I don't plan to use), do some training with the teachers... and then do supports.

Alright, first, we've got that big pre-battle cutscene, and the big dramatic “Final battle prep” music plays. I'm a fan of it, even though it's not enough to get me to take this seriously.

It's funny how despite having such a grip on the continent, the Church's actual army isn't strong enough to confidently stand up to even one nation invading, let alone multiple.

Okay. Props to the game. Dimitri's voice actor is doing a great job with Dimitri now that he's gone totally stonk bonkers. He's also clearly having fun. Like I said, now that we're here, I'm enjoying Dementri, even if the transition was not a believable one. Also, that slow, creepy up-tilt of the head as his eyes closed after talking about how everyone he watched die is whispering to him to kill Edelgard... woooooow that was creepy. Probably the most impressive thing this engine has ever done in these dumb talk scenes. That was the only facial expression that almost felt alive.

Dimitri: Even if it costs me my life, I won't rest until I've crushed her skull in my bare hands!

You don't even need your hands, Dimitri! You did it with your fingers! To a guy wearing a helmet!

...So we got this “the final battle is upon us” scene... two days before the actual battle. Seems odd.

Woo! Flayn hit dark flier! Excellent. Alas, at the moment we have no battalion for her. Shame. But now let's try Dimitri in wyvern lord...

Yep! Success there too!

Alright, and after shuffling some combat arts and discovering that no, I haven't just been refusing to update Sylvain's combat art list, he really hasn't learned any bow arts other than curved shot...

...Time for supports.

Dedue and Annette first.

So apparently Dedue spooked a horse because they find his stern face off-putting. ...Yeah, this is pretty standard “getting to be better friends” stuff.

Now for Dimitri and Mercedes.

And of course Dimitri is totally sane here. It'll be funny if I somehow failed to hit cutoff points for his supports with some and he'll be locked out of supporting with anyone because obviously any support written with young Dimitri in mind wouldn't work with older Dimitri.

But yeah, this is... yeah, this is okay. They're bonding over dead parents, and I can't find anything specific to speak about to praise or criticize.

Alright, now for Dimitri and Ingrid's B.

Dimitri... has survivor's guilt about all the people who died in front of him when he was younger, and feels he owes Ingrid an apology for not saving Glenn.

...So Ingrid's proud of Glenn for how he died. Might this be the source of some of the friction between Felix and Ingrid?

...And... Dimitri... uh... seems to agree with Felix to a degree, because he becomes upset about her praising his needless death, and then she goes off on him for calling Glenn's death “needless” when he died protecting him. And then Dimitri tells her that she doesn't have any idea how he really died because she wasn't there, but she doesn't want to hear about how he died, and basically calls him ungrateful for not thinking Glenn died well.

...Honestly, this was a pretty interesting conversation. I liked it.

Now for Ingrid and Seteth. She repeats her situation with her father to him.

Seteth: I know Crests are highly valued, but they are also a burden. My feelings are mixed.

Yeah, Seteth. I'm sure they are.

Now for Dimitri and Annette.

Annette wants Dimitri to tell her about her father.

It's... a decent support, though I'm a little confused as to whether the anecdote about him sending them out in the dead of night to hunt a deer was supposed to be a prank or him being ridiculously stern. The lead-in suggests the former but it doesn't feel like one.

And that's all the supports, so I'm finishing here for today. Tomorrow... we finish Part 1.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Dimitri... has survivor's guilt about all the people who died in front of him when he was younger, and feels he owes Ingrid an apology for not saving Glenn.

 

...So Ingrid's proud of Glenn for how he died. Might this be the source of some of the friction between Felix and Ingrid?

...And... Dimitri... uh... seems to agree with Felix to a degree, because he becomes upset about her praising his needless death, and then she goes off on him for calling Glenn's death “needless” when he died protecting him. And then Dimitri tells her that she doesn't have any idea how he really died because she wasn't there, but she doesn't want to hear about how he died, and basically calls him ungrateful for not thinking Glenn died well.

I don't think I've mentioned it, but I actually really, really like Glenn as a character. Well, I guess it's inaccurate to say he's a character, but as a plot device. He looms so large as a shadow and connects several characters together in the same way, but they all pretty very different perspectives on him and what it all means. I don't think we get any solid info about Glenn as an actual person, but just as a postmortem plot device I think he works really well, especially in a game that doesn't exactly entice me to care about supports.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Woo! Flayn hit dark flier! Excellent. Alas, at the moment we have no battalion for her. Shame. But now let's try Dimitri in wyvern lord...

Yep! Success there too!

Wait a minute... just what are your levels at this point?

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

Wait a minute... just what are your levels at this point?

Like I said earlier, Dimitri is my highest level unit at 30, and the others range around the mid 20s.

[Shadow Mir]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Like I said earlier, Dimitri is my highest level unit at 30, and the others range around the mid 20s.

Already? Because to be quite honest with you, I have a hard time seeing Dimitri get to level 30 before finishing part 1 without deliberate favoritism...

[Alastor15243]

17 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Already? Because to be quite honest with you, I have a hard time seeing Dimitri get to level 30 before finishing part 1 without deliberate favoritism...

It just kinda happened. I wasn't even trying too hard to get him to master class skills. And he's only a few levels above the average. Probably his personal.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I don't think we get any solid info about Glenn as an actual person, but just as a postmortem plot device I think he works really well

So Glenn is Glen 2.0? 😛

How coincidental is that name, with that of the Gemstone General who is probably the least important of them all. Who exists primarily to be impaled on Valter's spear, and thereby motivate Cormag into vengeance.

Edited October 19, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Jotari]

15 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

So Glenn is Glen 2.0? 😛

How coincidental is that name, with that of the Gemstone General who is probably the least important of them all. Who exists primarily to be impaled on Valter's spear, and thereby motivate Cormag into vengeance.

All Glens must be stuffed in a fridge.

[Anathaco]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

I don't think I've mentioned it, but I actually really, really like Glenn as a character. Well, I guess it's inaccurate to say he's a character, but as a plot device. He looms so large as a shadow and connects several characters together in the same way, but they all pretty very different perspectives on him and what it all means. I don't think we get any solid info about Glenn as an actual person, but just as a postmortem plot device I think he works really well, especially in a game that doesn't exactly entice me to care about supports.

Closest thing we ever get to any information on his personality off the top of my head was Dimitri mentioning that Edgy Felix is remarkably similar to how Glenn once acted, which is actually kinda funny. But yeah I agree, I really like how everyone has their own thoughts on Glenn and his death.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

7 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Already? Because to be quite honest with you, I have a hard time seeing Dimitri get to level 30 before finishing part 1 without deliberate favoritism...

I was surprised too. But the Hard Mode experience curve is generous enough for this, I guess.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

It's funny how despite having such a grip on the continent, the Church's actual army isn't strong enough to confidently stand up to even one nation invading, let alone multiple.

The Church is as strong or as weak as the story demands at a given point. Still, I'd say that the Empire is clearly established beforehand as the strongest of the three nations, militarily. The Kingdom has been in disarray since Lambert's death - likely why they call on the Church to stop Lonato and Miklan. And the Alliance has always been in a precarious spot - just look at the Cyrilda and Alomir paralogues. The Empire, meanwhile, never asks the Church for any favors (at least, not that I can recall).

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Dimitri: Even if it costs me my life, I won't rest until I've crushed her skull in my bare hands!

You don't even need your hands, Dimitri! You did it with your fingers! To a guy wearing a helmet!

This is tempting me to do Grappler Dimitri as a joke build on my next playthrough. Let our angry boy punch out his frustrations.

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

don't think I've mentioned it, but I actually really, really like Glenn as a character. Well, I guess it's inaccurate to say he's a character, but as a plot device. He looms so large as a shadow and connects several characters together in the same way, but they all pretty very different perspectives on him and what it all means. I don't think we get any solid info about Glenn as an actual person, but just as a postmortem plot device I think he works really well, especially in a game that doesn't exactly entice me to care about supports.

Yeah, he's great for prompting dialogue among Dimitri, Felix, Ingrid, and Rodrigue. On the culture of Faerghus, the notion of duty, and the best way to honor the dead. I definitely enjoy supports where the "connected backstory" is brought up, like Edelgard/Lysithea or Caspar/Petra. 

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 48: Chapter 12 Mission

I keep being taken off guard by the jarring music change when you select the market from the school menu. When the music changes in the later parts of part 1, it always feels so out of place to suddenly switch to the happy bustling jig of shopping.

But yeah, let's get on with the show.

I'm unfortunately gonna have to think about dropping some people, and I think Dedue might be a big candidate. I just don't need heavy duty tanks anymore. Especially not slow ones who can get wrecked by magic. I've got a way more offensively-oriented army now, and I have better plans for enemy-phase tanking on the way.

One of the nice things about the adjutant system, though, is that you can have people who don't participate in the fight get EXP, so you can technically maintain a larger army than you have deployment slots for.

Anyway... time for the big “Defend Garreg Mach Monastery” map. But alas, it doesn't actually take place inside Garreg Mach Monastery. It takes place in the town just outside of it. As I said before, hugely wasted missed opportunity, not taking that detailed environment we've gotten to know over the dozens of hours we've played this... and turning it into an active, all-out war zone. If I actually gave a shit about this game's story, that would've been simultaneously an epic climax and a huge gut punch. If they planned it from the start, it would have even saved them the budget of designing another map, given the demands for environment detail that the explorable Garreg Mach would obviously already satisfy. Of course, Garreg Mach would have to be redesigned to work better as a battlefield too, but I mean... it needs redesigning now.

I like the big, epic, dramatic prep music they play here. It sounds like it was written by Two Steps from Hell, which I'm a big fan of. One of the duo, Thomas Bergersen, wrote one of my favorite pieces of music of all time, Fearless.

...But I don't think it's gonna work so well when it's used as the map theme, which I think it will.

Anyway, I'm not too worried about this map. I have a full-on air force here, and a lot of mobility as a result. My main priority is finding opportunities to train Leonie, but she seems like that won't be too much of a problem. Her stats line up pretty well here!

The trebuchet animations are absolutely pathetic. The projectiles look like they've been lightly tossed in moon gravity an then just instantly teleport to their target.

...One of my allied green units actually used a gambit on a demonic beast. Fantastic, that'll really help breaking it down.

By the end of turn three, the two demonic beasts are already down, and all pretense of this being a defense map vanishes. I very nearly fucked up by putting Sylvain in the Death Knight's range, but thankfully I had Flayn nearby to rescue him.

Leonie's doing a pretty good job against these enemies. I focus on having her use bows, and she's one-rounding well enough. The str-dex-cha level she got wasn't ideal (would've preferred , but I'm hoping her growths hold. That's part of why I recruited her so late, to RNG-proof most of her development.

Ah yes, Randolph and Ladislava (a name I really like for some reason I don't understand). I've been spoiled that Randolph's little sister has a role in Blue Lions. I wonder if they're gonna have the audacity to have Randolph die in this fight unceremoniously and then later make a big dramatic deal out of it.

Aaaaand I got careless, forgot how fast those damned winged demonic beasts were, and went in to kill a ballista archer with bolting from Constance, leaving her vulnerable to be one-rounded even though she's not weighed down by her now-depleted bolting. Totally my fault, but I'm still divine pulsing this shit because I've gotta finish this up soon if I'm gonna have an update for you today. Which I will.

Alright, yeah, Randolph retreats. Looks like they're going to give him a more plot-significant death, which is good.

Annette just got recover, which is always handy to have, though there's not quite as much of a point to it for units with strong magic.

I thankfully just confirmed that you can shatter a demonic beast's armor with the killing blow and it'll still give you the ore. Excellent to know.

And after sending Ingrid and Annette in to bum rush Edelgard... we've won.

And of course, here's another cutscene where Professr completely forgets about her powers. It starts with a massive army of empire soldiers (and by that I mean clones of the gatekeeper with recolored skirts) storming Garreg Mach in massive numbers. Apparently Edelgard's victory was assured from the outset, and she only led the vanguard to satisfy her own ego.

And then Rhea goes and turns into a dragon (in a really sudden transition that appears to have also teleported her several dozen feet in the air at the same time) and starts having a mini kaiju battle with some demonic beasts. The fight breaks open a wall that happens to be situated over a massive fucking abyss...

...And then Thales conjures a really telegraphed ball of dark magic that hits Professr dead-on... and she falls in straight through that opening into a bottomless pit.

No rewinding. She just falls.

...And so ends Part 1.

We just... disappear from history. For five years. Allegedly asleep the whole time.

This is never fucking explained.

And then we get a narrator telling us what happened while we were gone. I hate how the game, in all routes, glosses over Edelgard's progression from declaring war on the Church to declaring war on the whole continent. Even in the route where you side with her, from what I remember, the post-timeskip efforts for world domination just came out of left field after her initial declared beef with the church.

...But that's it.

That's Part 1.

Forty fucking eight days later... Part 1 is over.

Tomorrow we'll begin part 2.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway... time for the big “Defend Garreg Mach Monastery” map. But alas, it doesn't actually take place inside Garreg Mach Monastery. It takes place in the town just outside of it. As I said before, hugely wasted missed opportunity, not taking that detailed environment we've gotten to know over the dozens of hours we've played this... and turning it into an active, all-out war zone. If I actually gave a shit about this game's story, that would've been simultaneously an epic climax and a huge gut punch. If they planned it from the start, it would have even saved them the budget of designing another map, given the demands for environment detail that the explorable Garreg Mach would obviously already satisfy. Of course, Garreg Mach would have to be redesigned to work better as a battlefield too, but I mean... it needs redesigning now.

 

 

I'm not sure it actually would. The corridors and building rooms already do enough to segregate off areas, and any gaps they do leave open can be done away with using makeshift barriers. With just a bit of tinkering with it you can probably get away with a map that resembles the map they do end up going with for Garrek Mach rather easily.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And then Rhea goes and turns into a dragon (in a really sudden transition that appears to have also teleported her several dozen feet in the air at the same time) and starts having a mini kaiju battle with some demonic beasts. The fight breaks open a wall that happens to be situated over a massive fucking abyss...

 

I can believe I've never questioned that big honking hole before, but do we have an explanation for that? It's kind of plot relevant, and they even keep it around in the next monastery map (but it apparently vanishes or gets fixed for Rhea's Silver Snow final boss map), but I can't remember the game ever trying to explain why there's a massive hole in the battle field or what in the world actually happens to Byleth during the five year time skip.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...And then Thales conjures a really telegraphed ball of dark magic that hits Professr dead-on... and she falls in straight through that opening into a bottomless pit.

 

Oh no. Byleth got his by the Mega Destruction Dark Ball of Darkness and Destruction.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

We just... disappear from history. For five years. Allegedly asleep the whole time.

This is never fucking explained.

You clocked that before I did. I guess when I first played and it wasn't explained in Silver Snow I was just naturally expecting one of the other routes to address it, so by the time I finished I'd just  forgotten about the plot hole. Well played Three Houses Writers, well played.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And then we get a narrator telling us what happened while we were gone. I hate how the game, in all routes, glosses over Edelgard's progression from declaring war on the Church to declaring war on the whole continent. Even in the route where you side with her, from what I remember, the post-timeskip efforts for world domination just came out of left field after her initial declared beef with the church.

I would say that the church is so ingrained in the system of Fodlan that declaring war on it is testament to declaring war on the whole continent. Like if Austria attacked the papal states the pope would summon a crusade on their ass and a bunch of European nations would take up the cause. What is weirder about this being just skipped over is that this doesn't actually seem to be the case with at least the alliance, as Edelgard isn't at war with them during the five year skip in Crimson Flower (doesn't stop her from just outright invading them anyway in, an act Edelgard fans defend by saying Claude is meddling with her plans...by keeping his country united and being a non belligerent with her).

[Etrurian emperor]

I think the transition towards the timeskip should have been a bit more graceful. 

The big thing that keeps Byleth out of the running for five years is that...they fell down a hole. But there was no need for that when Solon's spell is a far more impressive way to get Byleth out of the picture. Just have Byleth take five years to break out of it and when they return they find Fodlan aflame with war. The defense of the monastery could be a paralogue without Byleth present if need be. I actually think the siege of the monastery might be much more grim and foreboding when the students need to deal with the fact that the professor they relied on won't be there just when they need her most. 

Its just really silly that Byleth easily breaks out of another dimension but requires five years to climb out of a hole. Narrative and thematically it would have been better for the spell of whatever to force Byleth to leave Fodlan instead of a random cliff dive.