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

[Alastor15243]

Alright, so, I'm working on the ranking, but due to the extra work I have to do re-instating and just flat-out instating categories, I can't 100% guarantee it'll be done by tomorrow. Friday for sure though.

...It is going to be such a weight off my shoulders when I don't have to think about this game anymore.

[Sunwoo]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Still though, fuck this. I'm genuinely kinda creeped out by how often the dissolution of multiple countries to be ruled by a foreign power is considered a happy ending.

Honestly, this is an FE problem in general. None of the games have particularly deep stories (although some are better than others) and relationships between countries and their various rulers are often very simplified -- to the point where it's basically dumbed down to the 11th power. All of your "good" rulers are selfless to an unreasonable degree, and barring a few gems like Tellius giving more attention to what the common people think of the events going on around them, all that really matters is what happens to your army.

So, in reality what happens in any of the 3H paths would not constitute a happy (or stable) ending. However, FE doesn't care about that. What it cares about is the now, that lord X has come out victorious and is on top of the world as the story fades to black! Oh, the commoners? Who cares what they think, if they were important they'd have names.

But yeah.

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...If they're just gonna say “paralogue” when talking about paralogues, what the shit was the point of giving chapters different names from the map you fight at the end of them? I assumed that that was to differentiate different major battles you do in the same month! But no! They just gave every story battle two names to be associated with, perpetually confusing the shit out of everyone!

The double names are really annoying...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...So Hapi's ending confirms that we never find out about the location of Those who Slither in the Dark, and never deal with them ourselves. They just come out of the woodwork eventually, and then Hapi routs them all with an army of monsters, like they're some kind of joke.

Christ do I hate everything about how those guys were handled.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Isn't it kind of ridiculous that we don't see Rhea even once in Part 2, even after rescuing her? She just resigns and then fucks off, all entirely offscreen?

Yeah, there are clearly some rather ignored plot point on th- well I guess kinda all the routes, its just not always the same ones. I guess the game has to poke you into playing the other routes somehow...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And yeah, it... it's definitely surreal having this almost be over. The project was definitely the only thing keeping me sane during year one of Covid, and it's definitely been a lot of fun.

Yeah, this thread was a nice little distraction every week day during the hell years, and its going to feel odd when its over. I hope you end up doing the Kaga Sagas, but after burnout the game, you earned whatever break, or ending you have with this thread.

[Acacia Sgt]

39 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Oh that's easy. Because he's an incompetent nitwit like the rest of the slitherers. 

Personally, I think there's just something so hilarious of just dealing with the Slitherers in such a way. No grandiose battle storming their stronghold. Just unknowingly killing their leader in a seemingly unrelated situation.

Edited December 8, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Anterrilvraskannothdervos]

Thank you for your efforts in rating every fire emblem game(to date)

 I got to live a bit vicariously through you in the games I never played in this series.

I hope you get to have a nice break before the next game.

I am curious to see what they do for the next games FE3H was very ambitious I hope the next game is much more polished.

I put in around 400 hours into this game, (playing each route twice to the end) its by far the most time I've spent on one fire emblem game.

I do not enjoy fishing mini games and I definitely skipped most monastery phases on later play throughs, only playing on hard or normal with a small group of characters.

After an initial play through of most later titles after the GBA series I found my self relying on web posted tier lists for suggestions on what character to use unless i took a liking to a character immediately.

I don't think ill ever enjoy FE8 as much as FE7 I always went back to 7 for a spell, FE8 felt hollow in comparison though I suppose the game felt longer by comparison to me and involved.

Though I don't think I could articulate why years later.

I played Conquest because my partner liked the Birthright characters more I did appreciate the challenges that Conquest present, I had to restart so many times before chapter 10 in that game before I decided on a team composition I really liked. But Hinoka will always be my favorite of the Hoshidans (even though my nickname at work was red lobster). I really detested how long the end game was to defeat Takumi as the final boss with its 2 part no saving after battle requirements.

Awakening was a fun game but eventually it turned into let me solo everything with 1 character paired with another character game.

There were a lot of story elements to fire emblem that I guess you could say I took for granted and only looked at face value as was contingent to the game's narrative in question.

There were several points were i would be like "wow I didn't think of that or see how terrible that actual would be in reality".

This isn't also entirely to Alastor but to others as well who contributed their thoughts and insights to the games in the series. I thank all of you as well because we all experience everything differently or appreciate different aspects of games more.

I think I created an account earlier in the thread but I honestly I cant remember so I'm posting as a guest since its been over a year.

It's a little sad that I've sold my GBA, DS, and copy of FE3h but honestly Im happy with Ive experienced/gained from FE7 onward and im really looking forward to the next entry in the fire emblem series. 

I remember staying up late until 11 pm + listening to music i had unlocked on my GBA in high school on head phones

I remember playing radiant dawn and path of radiance for the very first time in college years after it came out.

I remember waiting to purchase a switch until finally three houses was released and that was my very first game to play on the switch; and I don't really regret, and I don't mind other people's grips or complaints because I can understand most of them and see why that would bother people, I attempt to immerse myself in a game even if it isn't wholly logically that just how I am I guess but I have not played fire emblem now in over 9 months at my best reckoning; so I can't explain my reasoning for justifying every that happened in game at this point.

 

A bit of a ramble but thank you everyone truly. This thread was a boon for the worst and best of times wether on my pc or on my phone.

I look forward to continued discussion.

 

 

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 12/7/2021 at 11:43 AM, Alastor15243 said:

She seems to prefer to attack two different units a turn. Okay, that makes this significantly more manageable, but she still shouldn't have a crit rate given how little space there is outside of her range. Honestly, if she always attacks two different units, couldn't they give her two attack lines then, to broadcast that?

One observation I've heard - that manifested in my own playthrough - is that one of her attacks always goes for Dimitri (if he's in range). Was this accurate to your experience, or not?

On 12/7/2021 at 11:43 AM, Alastor15243 said:

It really didn't feel like a final map. I mean, it had a big scary monster as a final boss, but it didn't really present any major challenge, and even compared to the final battles of the other routes it was profoundly subpar. Crimson Flower had an intense time limit with enemy golems constantly getting stronger, and Verdant Wind and Silver Snow had a bunch of enemies you basically had to defeat before the boss would even become mortal. Here... it was just a singular and not-too-threatening gimmick of the boss attacking two enemies per turn before she was swiftly rushed at the end of the map, with no reinforcements showing up to threaten us despite the game warning us we needed to leave units behind to secure the stairs. Which I didn't do.

I wonder if it would've worked better if she were a two-phase boss, such as Ashnard in HM PoR? Defeat her in human form, and then she transforms into the Hegemon, potentially spawning reinforcements as well. Then again, that "surprise" factor is widely condemned in other chapters (like the Petradetta paralogue), so maybe this wouldn't be appreciated. 

On 12/7/2021 at 11:43 AM, Alastor15243 said:

But honestly, I'd probably be getting serious feels here if the game and story prior to this point hadn't constantly taken me out of it with its... everything. It's pretty depressing, seeing Dimitri give her one last chance and watch her throw it away in a last-ditch effort to make her dreams come true, simultaneously throwing the symbol of their tragic friendship almost literally back in his face.

There's an interesting question here: was Edelgard legitimately attempting a sneak attack to kill Dimitri, and salvage her own chance at ruling? Or was it a "suicide by cop" maneuver, to save herself from having to surrender? The game doesn't provide an explicit answer, and I honestly like that.

19 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

What even would be good enough to worth the effort at this point?

How about something that has no gameplay function, but is instead an unlockable that you can set upon the mantel, so to speak? Like a "Memory Prism" that can be viewed from the main menu, or an item that can change its bearer's epilogue script?

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Jesus fucking christ, looking at this shit all at once like this makes me realize just how outrageously terrible some of these chapter and map names are.

Personally, I think the chapter/battle names are generally quite strong in this game. "Rumors of a Reaper" is some fire alliteration, and so is "Mutiny in the Mist". It's at least better than Fates, where the devs figured "what do we call this chapter? Eh, let's just name it after the boss." To the effect that looking up "Takumi" on the wiki can refer to either the character or the Conquest chapter.

That said, giving the chapter one name, and the month-ending battle another, is... clumsy, to say the least.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The game says Flayn disappeared soon after the war while Seteth stayed around for a bit longer. Makes sense, in a way, given that children not aging is noticed way more quickly than adults not aging... but am I supposed to believe Flayn went missing from the Monastery and either nobody noticed how jarringly unconcerned Seteth was about it, or that Seteth managed to fake his trademark paranoid concern for her and being emotionally destroyed when she was never found?

A dark thought - maybe Flayn went into "suspended animation", like she was before the game? She could be gone without Seteth fearing for her safety. Alternatively, Seteth's accepting her adulthood and independence could be a form of character development.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Isn't it kind of ridiculous that we don't see Rhea even once in Part 2, even after rescuing her? She just resigns and then fucks off, all entirely offscreen?

One of the biggest holes in AM's story, honestly. That and the Slitherers. Both are addressed in SS/VW, but those routes lack the strong character story of AM. So it's all trades-off.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Her and Mercedes's ending together... uh... apparently they spent several decades being pen-pals due to how far apart they worked... and then when they retired, they got a house together. I'm assuming it's platonic, because if this is supposed to be a romantic support, uh... it seems profoundly unsatisfying.

It doesn't say what they were penning to each other, though. How do you think people did phone sex before phones were a thing? That said, quite a few endings leave a relationship (particularly a same-sex one) up to interpretation. Some are explicit, but not this one.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Sylvain: 162B 83W. Turned out pretty good towards the end, but he was easily second fiddle for a while. He only seemed good in the beginning because the only one I could compare him to was Ashe, but once Shamir and Leonie came along, it became clear just how bad he was at being an archer. ...At least until I adjutanted him to hell and back and gave him Failnaught. Then indeed... he failed naught. Still wasn't as good as Leonie though.

Beautiful pun. Alas, Point-Blank Volley is one hell of a drug.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

How the hell did Dimitri get the most support points with Dedue? They barely fought together! I couldn't even adjutant them together by accident! Did I just have them share meals a lot without realizing?

Dimitri could've had more points with Professr, Felix, or Sylvain than he did with Dedue. But Professr's relationship comes down to player choice, while Felix-Sylvain could've had more points than either Felix-Dimitri or Sylvain-Dimitri.

Still odd that Dedue beat out Ingrid, though.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I guess they had a pretty long engagement, because the game says he first served Professr as a knight and aide before becoming her husband. Or did a lot of time pass between the victory and that confession scene?

Perhaps they chose not to get married until they'd "cleaned up" the world a bit in the aftermath of the war? Not sure if anything in the "confession" scene contradicts this.

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

REACH FOR MY HAND!

I'LL SOAR AWAY,

FAR FROM THIS GAME I FORCED MYSELF TO PLAY!

NOW TO RANK IT UP!

DON'T EXPECT MUCH PRAISE!

I FEAR FOR SEVENTEEN!

NO WING!

TIME BEE TRAYS!

Congratulations. I know the ratings are still to come, but I've really been enjoying this ride.

[Alastor15243]

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

One observation I've heard - that manifested in my own playthrough - is that one of her attacks always goes for Dimitri (if he's in range). Was this accurate to your experience, or not?

...I think that wound up being the case. I do remember her attacking him a lot.

 

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

A dark thought - maybe Flayn went into "suspended animation", like she was before the game? She could be gone without Seteth fearing for her safety. Alternatively, Seteth's accepting her adulthood and independence could be a form of character development.

No, I meant more everyone else. How did they react to Flayn going missing and Seteth either not caring or faking having his characteristic meltdown?

 

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

Congratulations. I know the ratings are still to come, but I've really been enjoying this ride.

Yeah, it really has been quite the experience. As much of a timesink as it wound up being, I'm still happy I did it. And regular long-term contributors like you, Mir, Jotari, IntOb and EK, who have been with me through game after game after game, really made it worthwhile.

[Interdimensional Observer]

I'll offer my last congrats on finishing this feat of Fire Emblem fanaticism as well. It's been a long, interesting read, even for the parts where I wasn't inclined to read too much of it (the last couple games). As someone who is wildly inconsistent in their gaming habits, I can't see myself ever being so committed to something half as long as this. So enjoy your newfound freedom and whatever sense of accomplishment you may have!🍻

 

4 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Oh, the commoners? Who cares what they think, if they were important they'd have names.

There is a touch of irony in this. To compare FE with the typical JRPG, a genre to which FE has some relation from a narrative and characters perspectives, Fire Emblem has a much larger cast of playable characters.

Let us put the typical JRPG at 7 playable characters, to pick a roughly average number, could be a little lower, or higher. Playability open the door to being the player potentially becoming very bonded to them, more so than they could to NPCs. Playability grants the chance for significant characterization, and that character development can be used to develop the world too. So we have seven beings able to contain the full spectrum of stories about the world at large, the question is, how many can you realistically fit into that seven.

With Fire Emblem having at a minimum a cast in the low 30s, we have the room for many more stories, more perspectives. Hence, it becomes entirely more possible to fit in those common perspectives you're complaining are absent. -But the ancient tradition of permadeath gets in the way of this I suppose. The ironman folk would be in an uproar if you tried abolishing that for hypothetical story improvements (which are by no means guaranteed) if IS did that though. 

[Jotari]

I'll also note, because I don't think anyone else has, that the game ends without us ever finding out what the deal with Dimitri and Edelgard's mother is. Is she alive and did she work with the Agarthans? *shrug* the game doesn't want to answer. And I'm kind of okay with that. Though I do note that the person Thales is posing as is the brother of Dimitri's step mother, so they are entrenched in that family. Though slightly disappointingly the cessation of church funds from Arundel blows away my theory that she was a straight up Agarthan herself, which would have been a wonderfully distressing thing for Edelgard to discover.

[Etrurian emperor]

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

I'll also note, because I don't think anyone else has, that the game ends without us ever finding out what the deal with Dimitri and Edelgard's mother is. Is she alive and did she work with the Agarthans? *shrug* the game doesn't want to answer. And I'm kind of okay with that. Though I do note that the person Thales is posing as is the brother of Dimitri's step mother, so they are entrenched in that family. Though slightly disappointingly the cessation of church funds from Arundel blows away my theory that she was a straight up Agarthan herself, which would have been a wonderfully distressing thing for Edelgard to discover.

I made a topic about just that 😃 Her being the arch agarthan always had my preference since its both more interesting and gives the slitherers a hope for redemption after a long line of failed villains. And considering what she did to Dimitri we know she's so thoroughly evil she might as well have been a mole woman. Making Dimitri think she loves him like her child while setting him up for slaughter at least implies she's a manipulative sociopath.

Of course Hapi suggests she could be nice too which decreases the odds of her being a mole lady. 

[AnonymousSpeed]

10 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The ironman folk would be in an uproar if you tried abolishing that for hypothetical story improvements (which are by no means guaranteed) if IS did that though. 

Alright, here me out. Ironmans are great- usually- so we gotta keep that. But what if dead characters stay around as non-fighting ghosts?

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Of course Hapi suggests she could be nice too which decreases the odds of her being a mole lady. 

Not being intimately familiar with the lore, it can't be terrible to imply mole people are also capable of empathy. I mean, we're not racist or anything.

[Etrurian emperor]

11 minutes ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Not being intimately familiar with the lore, it can't be terrible to imply mole people are also capable of empathy. I mean, we're not racist or anything.

In that case they're not sending their best. They're sending their serial killers, their mad scientists, their nuke shooters and some I suppose are fine people. I think Edelgard should build a wall around Agartha and make Almyra pay for it.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I made a topic about just that 😃 Her being the arch agarthan always had my preference since its both more interesting and gives the slitherers a hope for redemption after a long line of failed villains. And considering what she did to Dimitri we know she's so thoroughly evil she might as well have been a mole woman. Making Dimitri think she loves him like her child while setting him up for slaughter at least implies she's a manipulative sociopath.

Of course Hapi suggests she could be nice too which decreases the odds of her being a mole lady. 

I think I missed that one. Though I'm not surprised to see people had similar thoughts about it to me.

[Benice]

Congrats on finally completing every FE! It's a huge accomplishment and a long jorney to get here. I am looking forwards to you playing KagSaga, particularly Berwick, since it is my favorite FE-like ever by a long shot. Dspite that, I hope you enjoy your break from ranking and take as long as you want off!

[Boatinater]

Hello!  Just wanted to echo some of the appreciative sentiments in some recent posts.  I've been lurking since about the beginning of your Shadows of Valentia play log and have made it a regular part of my reading diet.  The logs themselves and the conversation they have sparked have been a nice way to relax these past few months.

 

Three Houses was my first FE game, and I only found out about it because I was complaining to someone that I miss Advance Wars.  I had loved AW when I was in high school and, in retrospect, it's stunning that I never connected the dots between Smash Bros and the GBA games.  That same friend has been into FE for years now, and he helped me get started on playing through the old games when I decided I wanted to do that during lockdown in May of last year.  I've since played through everything except for 1-3, which is still up in the air as to whether or not I actually want to take that on as a thing.

 

Fire Emblem seems like such a strange thing to love, because I don't even know if I could articulate what I think the platonic ideal of a Fire Emblem game is.  They all have the same bones to suck you in, but they're different enough that there are always things that I wish were different or better in each game.  Sometimes there are things that I think are cool and interesting, but I also don't know if I want to see it ever again. I feel like each game ends up being more than just a sum of its specific parts, and my enjoyment of the series as a whole seems to be similar.

 

Who knows? I'm still pretty early in my Fire Emblem experience and maybe some day I'll be able to better understand what it is that I find so appealing about it.  Whether or not that happens, I'm sure the discourse in this thread will have something to do with that, so I wanted to make sure to stop in at least once and say thanks to you and your interlocutors. 🙂

 

I hope you enjoy your well-deserved break! And I look forward to checking in on any future play logs you feel like doing. Until then, I guess there's still a couple hundred unread pages here for me to pass the time. 🙂  

[Alastor15243]

Thank you so much for the kind feedback, everyone. I promise, the final writeup is in fact coming... but not tonight. I have some issues I'm trying to sort out. I'm trying to see if adding in some last-minute categories can let me finally make this damned ranking list line up with my actual feelings about the game, but some games are just blatant outliers and I can't figure out why. Frankly the idea of finishing this marathon without making peace with this thing once and for all is just frustrating me to no end.

...First off, maybe I should sort out what exactly my actual feelings are. Take the games based on how fun the idea of replaying them is, and put them in order. Then see if there's any common theme that causes the games to deviate from that list and see if I'm awarding too many or too few points somewhere.

Anyone have any other advice?

[Alastor15243]

Finale: Ranking the Whole Damned Series

...Well. Here it is. The final ranking. For now. Inevitably a new game will be announced, the drums of war shall beat once more, and I shall hear them from my humble plot of farmland and once again trade the blade of a plow for the blade of a sword. But for now... this is it. The end of a two. Year. Long. Journey.

I wish we could end on a high note, but alas, fate has not been as kind as Fates. However, I do have one bit of unfinished business to attend to before continuing:

I'm bumping up Awakening's pacing score again.

My opinion on Awakening was quite sour at the time of ranking it, but it has improved considerably in hindsight to the point that I feel that I took points off that it really didn't deserve to lose. Not to say that the game doesn't feel like it was built with grinding in mind. But I don't think that's a fair or reasonable thing to take away pacing points on, given that I managed to beat the game quite comfortably on nearly the highest difficulty with basically no grinding at all, and that even if you do decide to grind... I mean, you're still playing the actual core game. You're still having about as much fun as the rest of the game has to offer.

I still maintain that the My Castle system is largely inoffensive, but I have to be fair and award the top spot to the unquestionable king of breakneck pace. The one with fast-forward, turn skipping, a responsive interface, precious little in terms of pre-mission upkeep, and maps that, while simplistic, never, ever waste the player's time. At times it sacrifices a lot to keep this breakneck pace, but I have to respect the results of the sacrifice, certainly at least in this category.

So I'm re-shuffling the pacing tier list a bit.

Before:

+5: Doesn't waste much of your time making anything more tedious than it needs to be.

Conquest, Birthright.

+3: May make you wait, but doesn't make you do any pointless stuff to proceed.

Blazing Blade, Binding Blade, Sacred Stones.

+1: Generally respects your time, slow animations or weird maps notwithstanding.

Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Radiant Dawn.

+0: Has some moments of frustration or slow pace, but mostly inoffensive.

Path of Radiance, Thracia 776, Awakening, Shadows of Valentia.

-4: Baffling map design that often wastes your time with pointless tasks.

Revelation, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2, Gaiden.

-8: Makes you do a lot of stuff on or between maps that really takes you out of the experience.

Dark Dragon, Genealogy of the Holy War.

-12: “This game really makes you FEEL like you're waiting a month for shit to happen!”

???

 

After:

 

+8: The pinnacle of keeping you in the action and having fun playing the actual game.

Awakening.

+5: Doesn't waste much of your time making anything more tedious than it needs to be.

Conquest, Birthright.

+3: May make you wait, but doesn't make you do any pointless stuff to proceed.

Blazing Blade, Binding Blade, Sacred Stones.

+0: Has some moments of frustration or slow pace, but mostly inoffensive.

Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Radiant Dawn, Path of Radiance, Thracia 776, Shadows of Valentia.

-4: Baffling map design that often wastes your time with pointless tasks.

Revelation, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2, Gaiden.

-8: Makes you do a lot of stuff on or between maps that really takes you out of the experience.

Dark Dragon, Genealogy of the Holy War.

-12: “This game really makes you FEEL like you're waiting a month for shit to happen!”

???

 

As a result, Awakening has gained 8 points, and Shadow Dragon, New Mystery and Radiant Dawn have all lost 1. I fused those categories together because the point of differentiation over a single point seemed kinda silly after looking at it, and I want to keep things clean with 7 categories each.

So that means Awakening's new overall score is -1 instead of -9, Shadow Dragon is now a 14, New Mystery is now a 3, and Radiant Dawn is now a -6.

Which means, unless I'm quite mistaken, the new list so far is this:

 

1: Conquest (49)

2: Birthright (25)

3: Shadow Dragon (14)

4: Path of Radiance (11)

5: Revelation (6)

6: Genealogy of the Holy War (5)

7: New Mystery (3)

8: Blazing Blade (1)

9: Binding Blade (0)

10: Awakening (-1)

11: Shadows of Valentia (-4)

12: Sacred Stones (-5)

13: Radiant Dawn (-6)

14: Thracia 776 (-9)

15: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-22)

16: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-31)

17: Gaiden (-33)

18: Dark Dragon (-54)

 

...Yep, I think that's correct.

I have other position-reshuffling to do as well, but it occurred to me that for one of them, I couldn't really set that up in advance without spoiling where Three Houses was going to go in at least one of them (though that sure as hell didn't stop me with pacing, come to think of it). For now, let's just go down the list normally and see where things land.

 

Difficulty: This is by far the most uncomfortable for me to grade, because I haven't played on the hardest difficulty. In my defense, 1: the only difficulty higher is of a caliber that I have already had a history of declining to playlog for various practical and personal reasons, and 2: Maddening wasn't even in the game at launch, making it feel like something of an afterthought.

I briefly also was given pause by the worry that it was only so easy due to how thoroughly I exploited this game's broken bullshit, but two counterpoints there: 1: I know for a fact that I have not even scratched the surface of the broken shit you can do in Three Houses, evidenced by the fact that I did not even once attempt to use vantage/wrath, and 2: I stand by what I said in Shadows of Valentia. Difficulty is about how hard the game is even when taking advantage of your strongest tools, and balance is about how much of the game is capable of delivering that level of play.

With that in mind... speaking of Shadows of Valentia...

-4: Mostly dull with excessive enemy-phase combat, and/or what difficulty it has is kinda BS.

Genealogy of the Holy War, Shadows of Valentia, Gaiden, Revelation, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Three Houses.

Current score: -4.

 

Ironmannability: Hoooooo fuckin' boy. Where do I even start with this one, boys and girls?

I've said my piece about this game's numerous dirty tricks. How they are a transparent attempt to make the turnwheel seem useful or cool by manufacturing a problem for their “solution” in need of one. How they reduced me to a paranoid wreck during my first playthrough of Crimson Flower. How they made Foreign Land and Sky my single most hated map in Fire Emblem history. How their sheer inconsistency in nature and effect left me half-dreading an ambush spawn even after the final map was completed.

However, to be perfectly honest, I do not think that this game's sense of honor is overall as gross as Thracia's. It may have individual maps that are way worse than anything Thracia ever inflicted upon its unsuspecting players, but said dirty tricks are significantly sparser, which ironically I think only made it a bigger mindfuck during my initial blind playthrough of Crimson Flower.

...But it's still going in the same tier.

Why?

Two words: replacement drought.

This game is absolutely terrible about giving you new units to replace the fallen, in that it stops doing it after the beginning of Part 2. You get like one new unit, like Gilbert or Lysithea or Lorenz, and that's it. The only cushion you have is the ability to train two or three more units than you actually field thanks to the adjutant system, but that can only stretch so far, and especially when you consider how the game usually only lets you deploy like 10 units normally, individual deaths have a pretty big impact on your fighting force. Adding in enemy crit rates getting uncomfortably high at times and subpar methods of reducing them, and also the fact that full on ambush spawns are a thing on Maddening... yeah, I think I'm justified in putting this in the worst tier.

-9: Expects you to reset as naturally as you breathe, and has profound contempt for the blind.

Thracia 776, Three Houses.

Current score: -13.

 

Usability: This was never going to be as high as the dual-screened games for obvious reasons, but it certainly doesn't help that the unit info screen is a bloated four-page mess, the formulae for gambit accuracy and damage is obtuse as all get out, and the series just flat-out backslid on assorted little things here and there far too numerous to name, among them the inability to highlight individual enemy range on the prep screen and the inability to use items straight from the convoy. The gambits in particular are such an intel black hole that I think I feel justified in saying this one goes below Genealogy and Path of Radiance.

+0: Doing some calculations might be more annoying than necessary, but a passable interface.

Three Houses, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones, Binding Blade.

Current score: -13.

 

Depth: I mean I'm kinda morally obligated to give this one to the game. It's not as good as Conquest due to its refusal to do anything even remotely interesting with enemy skills (not that it was properly equipped to make that fun), and I can't genuinely say that I think the system of getting these skills is remotely interesting, but if the SNES games are a +4, then so is this.

Make no mistake though: the game's depth could've been so much more. If the game had just delivered a little more on the spirit of the “every class can use every weapon” promise, I genuinely might not have even cared about the lack of enemy depth and placed this up there with Conquest regardless. Alas, we do not live in that world.

+4: Lots of interesting mechanics, plenty of ways beyond stats to set allies apart.

Birthright, Revelation, Awakening, Genealogy of the Holy War, Thracia 776, Three Houses.

Current score: -9.

 

Balance: Ah yes, my “favorite” category to rank. I always feel gross doing this, mostly due to usually having to pick the best of a bad lot.

Here though, reviewing the one-sentence descriptions of each category, I think the answer is pretty obvious: I think this is a pretty clear-cut case of a -3. It's got some blatantly overpowered nonsense, but unless I've mentally suppressed something horrifying, there aren't any instances I can think of where a casual examination of the game's balance makes me unable to process how a sober developer thought it was a good idea.

-3: Questionable balance decisions are everywhere, and/or the game is open to abuse.

Shadow Dragon, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Sacred Stones, Three Houses, Thracia 776, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2.

Current score: -12.

 

Pacing: UCKLE THE BUCK FUP, boys and girls.

This game took me 73 days to complete, had a total playtime of 91 hours not counting the time I suspended it to type up more than 250 combined pages of commentary on it, and less than half of those entries had chapters or paralogues in them.

The game is, at a conservative estimate, 60% filler. It is ridiculous how much character and resource progression is gated behind pointless, tedious, ill-thought-out minigames. I had to take one or two days at a time to get through the stuff leading up to a single chapter. Granted, I've had less free time and less of a desire to devote the same percentage of my free time to this project lately, but still, the fact that I spent more days of this playlog out of maps than in them speaks volumes.

I should get a fucking tax break for the act of charity that is only taking away 12 points for this game's pacing. It is a shitshow of a slog without the slightest hint of respect for the player's time, and the game is so grotesquely padded and fluffed that I have seen people who started the series with this game unironically declare for posterity that they didn't realize that the actual battles themselves are the main point of the franchise. The Monastery is an abomination against man, beast and the fabric of reality itself, and I say without any hesitation whatsoever that I will never enjoy Fire Emblem again if this amount of padding becomes a mainstay. Maybe if I played this game when I was younger I would have tolerated it, but holy shit.

Know, for the record, that -12 points does not even begin to describe my actual contempt for this game's atrocious pacing. I would play a game as mindless as Awakening or as user-unfriendly as Dark Dragon well before I ever played a game as poorly paced as Three Houses, despite all three scores in those categories taking off the same number of points. Capping it at -12 is my effort to reign myself in and keep the game's final ranking from seeming like it's primarily due to a single-handed cop-out. If I could take 30 points off in this category with a straight face, I would. But I can't, so I won't. You're welcome, Three Houses.

-12: “This game really makes you FEEL like you're waiting a month for shit to happen!”

Three Houses.

Current score: -24.

 

Writing: Ohhhh, this is a hard one. I found myself almost completely unable to become emotionally invested in the story in any way, but I find it profoundly difficult to parse how much of that was due to shitty writing and how much of it was due to the game's god-awful presentation making most story scenes a farce. It's also hard to tell how much of my lack of emotional connection to this story is tied to my general contempt for this game.

Part of me feels guilty for hating this game's story so much, given that it has more of a serious effort at worldbuilding put into it than any game in the franchise other than the Tellius games. In many senses, there's a more sincere effort being put in here than any game we've seen in more than a decade. It's just... the result... isn't good.

The story is constantly struggling to be taken seriously in spite of numerous game mechanics it insisted on anchoring itself to, from the “only do one thing a month” calendar system to the abomination that is the story implementation of divine pulse. And its efforts to tell a story in spite of its presentation limitations are so transparent as to be laughable. As I've said before, the entire thing feels like a shitty high school play where damned near everything interesting happens offscreen. Your house students feel shoehorned into scenes with very little of actual substance to ever say, the game grossly overestimates the emotional investment it inspires in you about characters you didn't recruit, the plot comes apart at the seams with even the slightest amount of scrutiny, and every last damned character grotesquely overstays their welcome due to how many damned supports they shove down your throat.

I can't in good conscience award the full -5 to a game that clearly put far more earnest effort into its story than the Fates games or the NES games did, but that's the only thing I feel I can dignify this game's story with: being better than that of Fates.

-4: Technically a story, but distractingly difficult to take seriously due to copious writing flaws.

Shadows of Valentia, Sacred Stones, Awakening, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1, Three Houses.

Current score: -28.

 

Music: Alright, a bit of respite from the general negativity I've displayed towards this game. The music's pretty damned good. Not good enough to be in the same category as Awakening or Fates, but good enough to stand with SoV, Genealogy and Thracia. My biggest complaint, by far, is the absolutely atrocious choices they made with the battle versions of map themes. But it sure as hell has good songs to ruin. I've found myself listening to quite a few tracks from this game on my own in spite of my feelings about it, particularly God-Shattering Star and Tearing Through Heaven. So yeah, well done there, Three Houses.

+4: Consistently great music marred by poor instruments or poor flow.

Genealogy of the Holy War, Shadows of Valentia, Thracia 776, Three Houses.

Current score: -24

 

Alright. So, so far, the new ranking is:

1: Conquest (49)

2: Birthright (25)

3: Shadow Dragon (14)

4: Path of Radiance (11)

5: Revelation (6)

6: Genealogy of the Holy War (5)

7: New Mystery (3)

8: Blazing Blade (1)

9: Binding Blade (0)

10: Awakening (-1)

11: Shadows of Valentia (-4)

12: Sacred Stones (-5)

13: Radiant Dawn (-6)

14: Thracia 776 (-9)

15: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-22)

16: Three Houses (-24)

17: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-31)

18: Gaiden (-33)

19: Dark Dragon (-54)

 

But hold on there a minute! There are two more things we need to do: re-instating an old category and introducing a new one.

First, the old one that got discontinued due to not feeling right about it. I've come to realize that was a mistake, as this category, presentation, definitely impacts my enjoyment of a game, and I've found plenty to say about it.

To play it safe, I think I'm gonna give this category as much weight as music has. So a point range from +6 to -6. And I think I'm just gonna re-construct this from scratch, given my mistrust, in many ways, of the old ranking system.

At the top of this list, in the +6 category, I think it's pretty damned safe to place Shadows of Valentia. I genuinely feel this is the best effort put into combat animations since the legendary sprites of the GBA era, and when you combine that with the voice acting, the introduction of entirely new combat animation categories like counterattacks, and the absolutely gorgeous spritework employed in all five 3DS games, you get something that, while not perfect, is the best combination of visuals we have.

Stepping down a bit to the +4 tier, I think we can put the other 3DS games and the GBA games, for two vastly differing reasons. Awakening and Fates may have a way better studio animating their cutscenes, but Shadows of Valentia I feel added enough polish to the rest of the game's presentation to set it an entire tier apart. Particularly in the combat animations, which definitely feel like they have more weight and life to them. Plus... a lot of the stuff in these games just feels goofy. Fates in particular shows the limitations of the 3D models by pushing a bit too hard up against them. By contrast, while the GBA era may leave something to be desired by modern standards in many ways, that sprite work is goddamned legendary, and what limitations the rest of the presentation has bears its own sort of charm. What's more, the limitations never make the story it's trying to tell feel farcical. It's frankly amazing how well those old games hold up against games made a decade or so later.

In the +2 category, we have the Tellius duology. Its combat animations are rather tame compared to plenty of other entries on the list, but they're very competently put together and, again, the visuals never, ever feel like they're holding the story back.

In the +0 category, we have the DS duology of Archanea remakes. I think, looking back on things, “neutrality” is the best way to sum up my opinion of that game's presentation. It's insubstantial, but clean and modern. Inoffensive.

In the -2 category, we have the Jugdral duology. We've reached the point where those games are showing their age, though Genealogy suffers from this more than Thracia does. Some of the combat animations are legendary, but most are rather mediocre, and some are outright silly. Just barely bad enough to negatively impact the experience, at least for me.

In the -4 category, we have... Three Houses. Yeah, it's kind of embarrassing how this turned out. But in spite of being made with the best technology of the bunch by a country mile, the tech is just so grossly mishandled. It feels like half the graphical advances that were applied to the series here just served to strip away any room for the power of imagination, forcing the visuals to carry a weight that no game in the series has been able to carry alone, and it was not up to the task. The lifeless, barely-animated 3D models, more cuts to black for anything more complicated than a hand-wave than even Sword and Shield, repetitive combat art animations that those of SoV soundly put to shame, and not to mention the generally awkward nature to half the animations that often feel like they belong in an asset flip. Yeah, it's not pretty.

In the -6 category, we have... I mean, I kind of have to. As much as I'd love to put Three Houses beneath even the NES games for how profoundly clumsy the whole visual affair is... I mean, they're NES games. They're like a step above the Atari. And the animations in those games were pretty damned hit or miss as well. Proto-GBA animations these very decidedly are not.

 

PRESENTATION

+6: The pinnacle of what Fire Emblem visuals have to offer.

Shadows of Valentia.

+4: Either cutting edge or highly polished, but not both.

Awakening, Conquest, Birthright, Revelation, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones, Binding Blade.

+2: The visuals never feel like they're holding the experience back.

Radiant Dawn, Path of Radiance.

+0: Mediocre, but inoffensive. Does the job.

New Mystery, Shadow Dragon.

-2: Showing its age a bit too much.

Thracia 776, Genealogy of the Holy War, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1.

-4: Vastly overstretched its boundaries to the point that it managed to do less with more.

Three Houses.

-6: Really, really showing its age.

Gaiden, Dark Dragon.

 

As a result, the list goes from this:

Conquest (49)

Birthright (25)

Shadow Dragon (14)

Path of Radiance (11)

Revelation (6)

Genealogy of the Holy War (5)

New Mystery (3)

Blazing Blade (1)

Binding Blade (0)

Awakening (-1)

Shadows of Valentia (-4)

Sacred Stones (-5)

Radiant Dawn (-6)

Thracia 776 (-9)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-22)

Three Houses (-24)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-31)

Gaiden (-33)

Dark Dragon (-54)

 

To this:

Conquest (53)

Birthright (29)

Shadow Dragon (14)

Path of Radiance (13)

Revelation (10)

Genealogy of the Holy War (3)

New Mystery (3)

Blazing Blade (5)

Binding Blade (4)

Awakening (3)

Shadows of Valentia (2)

Sacred Stones (-1)

Radiant Dawn (-4)

Thracia 776 (-11)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-24)

Three Houses (-28)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-33)

Gaiden (-39)

Dark Dragon (-60)

 

Some spaces got mixed around, but I'm not gonna update that just yet. Time for the final category, the new one, one that I feel has been sorely missing from the playlog this entire time:

And it's not Dumb Fun.

I considered that, but it quickly became apparent that this wouldn't solve my problems with this list. The problem is that not everything that I like or hate about these games can neatly be fit into the other nine categories. And besides that... just adding in another category and praying that'll make the list make sense in a way the other nine didn't... doesn't seem remotely sensible or wise.

And so... we're gonna get a bit more surgical here.

Time for a grab bag of point awards.

It's X-Factor time. For miscellaneous points of shame or merit that cannot be categorized elsewhere.

And so... in the name of ending this series on a more positive and hopeful note... I shall do this list in reverse, and start with the worst, leading up to the best.

Cue Harry Potter music. And Dumbledore voice, I guess.

First... for having almost no redeeming qualities whatsoever that it does not share with two nigh-objectively superior games that you have to own at least one of in order to even possess it... I deduct 12 points... from Revelation.

Second... For having four separate branching routes and having the sheer nerve to make them all functionally identical for more than half of a playthrough's nigh-100-hour runtime... I deduct 8 points... from Three Houses.

Yes, yes, shame on you. However! On to more pleasant business.

Third... For its surprisingly liberal policy on what the player should be allowed to buy at shops, including killer weapons, nosferatu, bolting, stat boosters and boots... I award 4 points... to Binding Blade!

Fourth! For being the undisputed grandmaster of pure, simple, mindless dumb fun, something I have in fact decided is worthy of praise... I award 8 points... to Awakening!

Fifth! For its unrivaled power trip, for giving you toys that live rent-free in my head for how awesome they are and that have factored into every idea for a fan-game that has ever entered my stupid head, and for having the audacity, nay, the courage to stand up, point at an enemy's inventory, and proudly declare: “See that weapon? You can steal it!”... I award 12 points... to Thracia 776!

 

X-FACTOR

+12: A truly splendid point of merit.

Thracia 776.

+8: A point worthy of praise.

Awakening.

+4: A feather in its cap.

Binding Blade.

+0: No changes, its merits and faults fit the system pretty damned well.

Dark Dragon, Gaiden, Mystery of the Emblem Book 1, Mystery of the Emblem Book 2, Genealogy of the Holy War, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones, Path of Radiance, Radiant Dawn, Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Birthright, Conquest, Shadows of Valentia.

-4: A point of criticism that's otherwise difficult to categorize.

???

-8: A major issue I'm having trouble categorizing.

Three Houses.

-12: An uncategorizable deal-breaker.

Revelation.

 

And so... with those points included... the final list becomes...

 

FINAL SCORE

1: Conquest (53)

2: Birthright (29)

3: Shadow Dragon (14)

4: Path of Radiance (13)

5: Awakening (11)

6: Binding Blade (8)

7: Blazing Blade (5)

8/9: Genealogy of the Holy War / New Mystery (3)

10: Shadows of Valentia (2)

11: Thracia 776 (1)

12: Sacred Stones (-1)

13: Revelation (-2)

14: Radiant Dawn (-4)

15: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-24)

16: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-33)

17: Three Houses (-36)

18: Gaiden (-39)

19: Dark Dragon (-60)

 

It's... it's beautiful. It... it actually makes sense. It actually lines up, more or less, with my feelings. I don't believe it. The answer was really that simple... this whole damned time...?

I DID IT!

THE QUEST IS OVER!

I HAVE PLAYED THEM, AND I HAVE RANKED THEM!

ALL OF THEM!

I...

...Wow. Wow, this is...

...This is really bittersweet, guys. I... I genuinely don't know how to feel about being done with this. How do you say goodbye to something that's been a regular part of your routine for more than two years?

What do I say to cap this off? What can I possibly say that would feel like I'm saying enough?

...This has been a trip and a half, my friends. What started as a pet project kicked off by sheer spite at a game I felt alone in hating... turned into an incredible, eye-opening adventure through the history of a series that has been near and dear to my heart for more than half of my life. I have learned so much about what I love and hate about Fire Emblem games, I caught up on every game in the entire series that I had never gotten around to playing, I rediscovered a lost gem that I had carelessly and wrongly thrown into the trash in my youth, and above all else...

...Oh this is gonna sound so stupid.

...I... I finished something. I said I would do something creative, something long-term, something that would take truckloads of work... and I did it. I proved to myself that I could, for the first time in years that I can remember, after more than a decade of abandoned and ultimately ill-fated creative projects. I prove that I have it in me... to create something. To finish something. And you know what? I did it once... I can do it again.

...But though I am quite satisfied in calling this a “finished” project... this isn't the end. I'm sure of it. Burnout may have taken me, but it will not consume me. As soon as the next game comes out, whenever that may turn out to be... I will be here. And I will be ready.

But until then...

...I guess the only thing I can really say is...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...Stay safe, everyone.

Edited January 21, 2022 by Alastor15243

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Look at me being late. Congratulations. I suppose the forum will get just a tad quieter with this thread being finished up.

On 12/7/2021 at 5:43 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Three Houses Day 72: Chapter 22 Mission

...It really didn't feel like a final map. I mean, it had a big scary monster as a final boss, but it didn't really present any major challenge, and even compared to the final battles of the other routes it was profoundly subpar. Crimson Flower had an intense time limit with enemy golems constantly getting stronger, and Verdant Wind and Silver Snow had a bunch of enemies you basically had to defeat before the boss would even become mortal. Here... it was just a singular and not-too-threatening gimmick of the boss attacking two enemies per turn before she was swiftly rushed at the end of the map, with no reinforcements showing up to threaten us despite the game warning us we needed to leave units behind to secure the stairs. Which I didn't do.

I wish you had played this on Maddening. It adds so much to the map. Especially in terms of reinforcement. The only reinforcements that would have mattered.

On 12/1/2021 at 3:22 PM, Jotari said:

So are you trying to play some kind laweresque gotcha game here? Or are you now saying that you do indeed find Three Houses to be a fun game and that you enjoy the way that you play the game and think its fine for other people to plau dofferently to the way you play? Because if all those points are true then I question what it is youre even talking about.

I was tryna find out where I said any of that, because you are using it as a means to try and invalidate my statements. Seeing as you haven´t been able to bring up these quotes anywhere in the thread, I rest easy knowing it´s made up bs. 

On 12/7/2021 at 5:43 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, these walls everywhere make this place a paradise for my two bow knights. I think they're gonna be my MVPs here, but Dimitri is also obviously going to put in some serious work, especially taking out the mages in the western...

...treasure room?

...A treasure room, on a final fucking map?

...Yeah, I just looked it up. The shit inside isn't worth the effort. Let's just charge ahead.

That´s true for a lot of TH lategame, no? Throwing random loot out on the map a ways off from the boss, but the boss is also closer to you than the sweet loot, to do... something I guess?

20 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

Alright, here me out. Ironmans are great- usually- so we gotta keep that. But what if dead characters stay around as non-fighting ghosts?

Like Gilbert if he dies in chapter 13? Granted he was no ghost.

FE: Ghostbusters?

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Finale: Ranking the Whole Damned Series

So how much did you write in total, not just for TH but from start to finish? Any ideas?

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Two words: replacement drought.

Hmmm, don´t you get staff/knights members depending on route too. Whole lot of them in Church route? Sure untrained, but a Sniper is a Sniper, even in TH.

Also Jeritza.

Edited December 10, 2021 by Imuabicus

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

I was tryna find out where I said any of that, because you are using it as a means to try and invalidate my statements. Seeing as you haven´t been able to bring up these quotes anywhere in the thread, I rest easy knowing it´s made up bs.

The way you were presenting yourself those were your statements. But if you, despite all appearances, you do indeed find Three Houses to be a fun game and that you enjoy the way that you play the game and think its fine for other people to play differently to the way you play then great. Though it also means I have no idea what it is that you were talking about. Because critisizing the game for being bad based on the playtstyle you were choosing to undergo certainly seemed to be the crux of what you were saying.

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

To this:

Conquest (53)

Birthright (29)

Shadow Dragon (14)

Path of Radiance (13)

Revelation (10)

Genealogy of the Holy War (3)

New Mystery (3)

Blazing Blade (5)

Binding Blade (4)

Awakening (3)

Shadows of Valentia (2)

Sacred Stones (-1)

Radiant Dawn (-4)

Thracia 776 (-11)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-24)

Three Houses (-28)

Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-33)

Gaiden (-39)

Dark Dragon (-60)

It's not twice the points of Birthright anymore, but conquest still seems inordinately high to me.

[Alastor15243]

16 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It's not twice the points of Birthright anymore, but conquest still seems inordinately high to me.

I notice the opposite is true as well. A lot of very close calls in the middle, but the further to the top or bottom you go the more extreme the scores. Interesting. I wonder what caused that. I have some theories, but...

Edited December 10, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Sunwoo]

I have to agree that Conquest seems too high. But I guess this is your own personal tier ranking (and not so much an objective one) so eh.

Congrats on finishing the atrocity that is the Fire Emblem series.

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

I have to agree that Conquest seems too high. But I guess this is your own personal tier ranking (and not so much an objective one) so eh.

Congrats on finishing the atrocity that is the Fire Emblem series.

What's weird is that it's so much higher than Birthright and Revelation. Because while yes, they are different enough to be considered different games, they  still are basically the same game. One could understandably say Conquest much much better than Revelation, but when half the categories are made up of stuff like music, presentation and user interface (not to mention story which Conquest royally sucks at), it seems weird that the difference is so immense. Even if the -12 points for Revelations uncategorized deal breaker are removed, Conquest is still coming out of things almost five times better than Rev.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

48 minutes ago, Jotari said:

What's weird is that it's so much higher than Birthright and Revelation. Because while yes, they are different enough to be considered different games, they  still are basically the same game. One could understandably say Conquest much much better than Revelation, but when half the categories are made up of stuff like music, presentation and user interface (not to mention story which Conquest royally sucks at), it seems weird that the difference is so immense. Even if the -12 points for Revelations uncategorized deal breaker are removed, Conquest is still coming out of things almost five times better than Rev.

That's largely because it "sweeps the awards" as it were. It has the highest score in every category except writing and pacing. While maybe it's evidence that point awards are too high, I don't think any of those positions are undeserved, so the only way it specifically could be lower is to invent new categories it fails in.

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

What's weird is that it's so much higher than Birthright and Revelation. Because while yes, they are different enough to be considered different games, they  still are basically the same game. One could understandably say Conquest much much better than Revelation, but when half the categories are made up of stuff like music, presentation and user interface (not to mention story which Conquest royally sucks at), it seems weird that the difference is so immense. Even if the -12 points for Revelations uncategorized deal breaker are removed, Conquest is still coming out of things almost five times better than Rev.

A big part of it is that difficulty is one of the highest scoring categories, and it gives Conquest a +12 edge over Birthright (which is half of its score lead right there), and +16 over Revelations.

[Alastor15243]

Hey, incidentally: I started playing Project Ember with the fixed growths patch they offer yesterday and I'm having a blast so far! One thing I really like is that everyone's useful from the outset. More characters double basic enemies at base, for one thing, including Wolt! I like how this makes my party feel like one I've already had for a while, which alleviates the annoyances I have with early chapters when they try to get too hard. They also seem to have removed ambush spawns.

I'm not playing the maniac mode they offer, mostly because the devs said they were inspired by the higher difficulties of New Mystery that I don't particularly care for. Maybe after I beat hard mode if I'm still looking for a challenge? But I don't think so at the moment.

Would anyone be interested in seeing me post more thoughts about it? Not in a playlog sort of way but more like this. If so, I'm debating where would be appropriate.