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

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I mean, on the contrary. Within Marth's army Minerva can count on her being looked after, if not by herself even. And, realistically, Maria would be on duty in a field hospital, not outright on the battlefield.

As Nyna and Malledus shows, there is some non-combatant position in Marth's army that is more protected than the units you can field that Maria could have joined. When Maria is recruited she goes out of her way to join as a combat unit despite somebody (presumably Marth) protesting that.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

As Nyna and Malledus shows, there is some non-combatant position in Marth's army that is more protected than the units you can field that Maria could have joined. When Maria is recruited she goes out of her way to join as a combat unit despite somebody (presumably Marth) protesting that.

Yes, since this is still structured as a game, so Maria becomes a playable unit. Which is why I said "realistically", since without the fact that this is a video game, Maria wouldn't be placed on the frontlines otherwise. Minerva would be like the first to suggest it, and in Maria's own words: "No protesting!"

Same would go for other "too young even for medieval fantasy" characters in the series. For Marth's next adventure the same would befall for the likes of Yuliya and Yubelo. They wouldn't be fighting either if it wasn't a video game.

[Eltosian Kadath]

45 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yes, since this is still structured as a game, so Maria becomes a playable unit. Which is why I said "realistically", since without the fact that this is a video game, Maria wouldn't be placed on the frontlines otherwise. Minerva would be like the first to suggest it, and in Maria's own words: "No protesting!"

Same would go for other "too young even for medieval fantasy" characters in the series. For Marth's next adventure the same would befall for the likes of Yuliya and Yubelo. They wouldn't be fighting either if it wasn't a video game.

I specifically pointed out a part of how those games are structured that would allow her (or Yuliya and Yubelo) to be an important named character, without her being a frontline combatant...

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Samz707 said:

Fire Emblem Echoes! 12 For kids!

Good job taking care of your Followers, Mila.

 

Well it does have a Teen rating, and "suggestive themes" is one of the stated reasons, so not really for kids.

[Etrurian emperor]

10 hours ago, Samz707 said:

Good job taking care of your Followers, Mila.

Mila: Lima leave that poor girl alone!
Lima: But mooooom! I want her! I want her! I want her!
Mila: Oh okay sweetie you just take her home with you
 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Mila: Lima leave that poor girl alone!
Lima: But mooooom! I want her! I want her! I want her!
Mila: Oh okay sweetie you just take her home with you
 

One thing to note is that Lima apparently married all his victims, rather than having one main wife and concubines on the side like most tyrants of his ilk. So Mila might have objected on the grounds that he can't just go around raping random women. But if he marries them then everything is kocher, because faith and stuff.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

One thing to note is that Lima apparently married all his victims, rather than having one main wife and concubines on the side like most tyrants of his ilk. So Mila might have objected on the grounds that he can't just go around raping random women. But if he marries them then everything is kocher, because faith and stuff.

Or just a sign of Mila's own degeneration. I mean, with Duma it may be obvious, but Mila's sanity was also checking out for lunch. It's just that hers manifested more subtly, or in a different matter that hardly set off alarms to onlookers, unlike what Rudolf and Jedah clearly saw with Duma. Lima may or not noticed with Mila, but knowing his character, he'd hardly care if it lets him continue his own lifestyle.

Regardless, Lima officially marrying his concubines is pretty much a distinction without difference considering how many like Liprica it was most likely forced on them, yep.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

So basically the story is about two puppets dancing in the palms of the hands of a perfect storm of religious and governmental authority figures who are almost entirely unsympathetic and are all completely off their collective rockers.

Edited June 26, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Regardless, Lima officially marrying his concubines is pretty much a distinction without difference considering how many like Liprica it was most likely forced on them, yep.

Well sure I agree, but I'm suggesting Mila might have seen some distinction.

[Interdimensional Observer]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So basically the story is about two puppets dancing in the palms of the hands of a perfect storm of religious and governmental authority figures who are almost entirely unsympathetic and are all completely off their collective rockers.

Officials with great power, but few formal checks or outlined responsibilities, so one book once put it, is a recipe for arbitrary government.

When monarchs claim absolute authority, but find themselves incapable of being everywhere at once and properly watching their ministers' activity, those bureaucrats claiming to obey them gain a lot of unintended leeway. The author in this case was referring to the workaholic Frederick II of Prussia, not a senile fool, but I can imagine it applies to countless rulers of same or less ability.

[Alastor15243]

Shadows of Valentia Day 25: Dragon Shrine

Let's not waste any time and get the fuck in here.

Unfortunately I don't have enough space to bring everyone I want to into the cave. Jesse, Valbar, Mae and Boey are sitting this out so I have space to bring Est and Sonya, who I want to see if I can use this shrine to train. Alright. Let's go.

Unfortunately crits spoiled three separate attempts to feed a kill to Est, but everyone who critted leveled up, so at least there's that.

Est finally levels up and gets attack, skill and defense, so that's pretty nice. But she's basically exclusively relying on triangle attacks to do jack shit and needs to get a clean kill or she'll die in response due to the HP cost.

...I got a nethergranate, which is the “secret book” of this game. Honestly, it makes more sense for consumable stat-ups to be food like this instead of things that should by all conceivable logic be either re-usable or re-allocatable.

And I found the dying journal of that woman's son. Poor guy. Funny thing, on my first run I missed Wolff's fort entirely and when I heard about Jesse, I assumed it was this poor sap and that I had been too late to rescue him due to going to Grieth's Citadel first. Silly me, turns out this guy just cannot be saved.

God damn but this place is sprawling. I am highly suspicious that I'm going to miss something somewhere, but I'll do my best.

Ah yes, one thing I like about this game's generally inadequate stat window is that it shows a unit's status effect and lets you click on it for more info. In this case, stunned, caused by numbing claws from one of these level 20 zombies.

Okay, and we're facing one necrodragon guarding an entrance, and that one necrodragon is actually four, and they won't let us do a charge attack on it to get an advantage, and...

Ooh! Genny and Sonya have their C support!

WHAT THE VALFLAMING VALFUCK IS UP WITH THESE FALSE START C SUPPORTS WHERE ONE OF THEM DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO TALK TO THE OTHER!?

Anyway, Celica and Atlas bait in the necrodragons, with Celica wounding two and Atlas killing one.

Est got attack and defense among her level up stats again, which is pretty nice. Now, let's see what they were guarding...

A coral ring, a cog, and the revival shrine. So, a coral ring, for my purposes. Though I guess this means if I lose someone today I can just head back and not have to re-do this massive dungeon.

I ran into multiple entombed, but unfortunately they run the fuck away when they see you, and my fumblings with the awkward combat controls meant I missed both of them. But on the plus side, Est's been getting some awesome levels, consistently gaining strength and defense. Granted, she's still garbage against most enemies, but that'll change once she promotes. I'll see how close I can get her to making that happen in here.

...So looks like this place wasn't as huge as I thought. Despite the initial branch-off into three sections, I wound up taking the only path of any substance at all, giving me a false impression of how big it was. And with that, it's over.

So, let's check out that memory prism I forgot about before!

“The Flirt and the Faithful”.

...Did... Jesse and Silque interact at one point? Or is this a really creepily understated description of Lima and Liprica?

Yet again I find myself amused by the creative liberties taken with written laughter. “Gyar har har” was said more like “Teheheh!”

Yeah, so I guessed right. It was indeed Jesse and Silque.

...And that was an absolutely atrocious scream from Silque. Holy shit, even ignoring the voice crack there, it just was not convincing.

...Ohhhhhhhhhh.

...So it seems like Silque was the girl Jesse saw getting kidnapped from Zofia Harbor, not Est. So I'm assuming Jesse's about to get overwhelmed by reinforcements, and Jesse's gonna be brought to Wolff's fortress and Silque will be... instead brought to the thief shrine...? For some reason...?

Silque: May Mila's blessing shine extra bright upon Jesse's path. He sorely needs it...

I like how she's smiling when she says this, like she likes him despite his visible vices.

I think I like Jesse. Definitely up there with Sain in terms of the “shameless flirt” archetype. Not too obsessed with getting dates, just kinda in love with the idea of being a dashing romantic hero.

...But the conversation ends before there's any sign of Jesse or Silque getting captured. It would be pretty ridiculous if it turned out that yes, it was Est whom Jesse tried and failed to save, and these two eventual kidnapping victims crossed paths in a situation that could have been, but was entirely unrelated to their separate kidnapping events.

Alright, now Est has supports with Palla and Catria. I got them earlier but since I was focused on training Est in there with the triangle attack, I didn't have any time to have them use turns adjacent to each other to get those supports. But now that we've got some time in the graveyard on the way back to the village for some pre-conclusion forging... let's see what we've got here...

Catria's support with Est is about Est being a hilariously gullible snake oil sap, buying ridiculous stories about things she's been sold. But unfortunately it's too short to be anything more than mildly amusing. But at least this isn't another C support non-conversation.

As for with Palla...

...They seem to justify Est still being the weakest sister despite presumably having fought in the previous war by saying she's gotten rusty from being imprisoned for so long. Fair enough, I guess?

Once again I find myself doing the “accidentally ending turn when trying to select someone and move them upwards” thing that seems to happen in some playlogs exactly once. Thankfully nothing significantly bad came from it.

Amusingly the camera angle when Sonya went in for an excalibur attack caused the crit-flash to happen immediately when the camera zoomed in on her and was centered on her cleavage.

The Temple of Mila is just spitting out reinforcements. Hopefully I won't have to fight them and the temple forces at once. But let's see here about completing some quests and doing some forging in the village...

I think the reason I so readily assumed Jesse needed to be rescued before it was too late is because... this quest has no closure. There's not even a quest reward, you just show the mother the journal and she goes off in despair.

...The woodcutter is apparently Rigelian, considering he says “Sweet Duma” when you give him the axe.

Not sure what the bear carving is for though.

...Doesn't seem to have any practical use from its description, and it can only be traded in for one silver. If this thing has a purpose, I've never found it.

Speaking of silver though, time to turn the shadow sword into a second brave sword!

Also, I'm gonna make the Beloved Zofia, give Celica's old blessed sword to Atlas, and give the brave swords to Saber and Kamui. Atlas's attack stat is so ridiculous it's a bit of an overkill waste to give him one of my two brave swords. Atlas will do fine with the blessed sword, and...

...What's that grayed out ??? ability on Celica? It's grayed out like a combat art she learned for a weapon she no longer has equipped, but it's all question marks so it hasn't been learned yet. And yet the other “????” art isn't grayed out despite also not yet being learnt. Is it disabled until she promotes or something?

Questions for later. For now, I'm done here. See you guys tomorrow!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Acacia Sgt]

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...So it seems like Silque was the girl Jesse saw getting kidnapped from Zofia Harbor, not Est. So I'm assuming Jesse's about to get overwhelmed by reinforcements, and Jesse's gonna be brought to Wolff's fortress and Silque will be... instead brought to the thief shrine...? For some reason...?

...But the conversation ends before there's any sign of Jesse or Silque getting captured. It would be pretty ridiculous if it turned out that yes, it was Est whom Jesse tried and failed to save, and these two eventual kidnapping victims crossed paths in a situation that could have been, but was entirely unrelated to their separate kidnapping events.

No, they're two separate things. Jesse rescued Silque, escorted her back to Zofia Harbor, and parted ways. Then he saw the other kidnapping. Silque meanwhile made it almost to Ram but was caught by the local bandits, far from being affiliated with Greith. It's as they say:

Brigand: Didja get a look at the wench we nabbed this morning? Hoo-ee!

That said, it is possible Jesse was indeed trying to rescue someone else instead of Est which made him captured too instead. But it wasn't Silque either.

Edited June 28, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...What's that grayed out ??? ability on Celica? It's grayed out like a combat art she learned for a weapon she no longer has equipped, but it's all question marks so it hasn't been learned yet. And yet the other “????” art isn't grayed out despite also not yet being learnt. Is it disabled until she promotes or something?

I'm guessing one is a partially learned ability for a weapon you're no longer using, while the other is an ability with the current weapon you have.

[Acacia Sgt]

Did Celica had the Golden Dagger mastered? Maybe it's a skill you can no longer learn since you no longer have an item that teaches it. Assuming this only showed up after you made the Beloved Zofia.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Did Celica had the Golden Dagger mastered? Maybe it's a skill you can no longer learn since you no longer have an item that teaches it. Assuming this only showed up after you made the Beloved Zofia.

Celica never touched the BZ. Saber used it until now. All Celica's ever touched is the blessed sword and maaaaaaybe the leather shield at some point.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Celica never touched the BZ. Saber used it until now. All Celica's ever touched is the blessed sword and maaaaaaybe the leather shield at some point.

She starts equipped with the Golden Dagger, though. Did you got some wexp with it before taking it off?

Edited June 29, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

She starts equipped with the Golden Dagger, though. Did you got some wexp with it before taking it off?

That's not how it works, and I just confirmed. Despite Palla having unfinished weapon exp with the steel lance and a single unlearned art, there's no grayed out "???" art when she switches to something else, just a grayed out "Armorcrush" that she can use with the steel lance but can't without it. And yet with Beloved Zofia, Celica does have an art that is both grayed out and hidden by question marks.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's not how it works, and I just confirmed. Despite Palla having unfinished weapon exp with the steel lance and a single unlearned art, there's no grayed out "???" art when she switches to something else, just a grayed out "Armorcrush" that she can use with the steel lance but can't without it. And yet with Beloved Zofia, Celica does have an art that is both grayed out and hidden by question marks.

Equipped with BZ? Then I guess it is Ragnarok Omega then.

But to clarify, I meant as in no longer having it in your inventory, not just unequipped. Since Golden Dagger's CA's are unique, only shared with Mila's Bow. But you definitely don't have the latter, so once you forge the GD into BZ, you lose the ability to learn GD's combat arts.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I got a nethergranate, which is the “secret book” of this game. Honestly, it makes more sense for consumable stat-ups to be food like this instead of things that should by all conceivable logic be either re-usable or re-allocatable.

Yep. The Energy Ring and Seraph Robe would make more sense as, say, 3H-style equippables. Then again, 3H also kept up the "consumable" stat boosters through gardening (i.e. Speed Carrot), albeit in weaker forms).

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

WHAT THE VALFLAMING VALFUCK IS UP WITH THESE FALSE START C SUPPORTS WHERE ONE OF THEM DOESN'T EVEN WANT TO TALK TO THE OTHER!?

Well, this was the first Fire Emblem game with full voice acting. The voice cast was obviously taking some time to "warm up" to one another.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...What's that grayed out ??? ability on Celica? It's grayed out like a combat art she learned for a weapon she no longer has equipped, but it's all question marks so it hasn't been learned yet. And yet the other “????” art isn't grayed out despite also not yet being learnt. Is it disabled until she promotes or something?

Questions for later. For now, I'm done here. See you guys tomorrow!

A good question - for another time. My best guess? Ragnarok-Omega (maybe it only opens up after she promotes? IDK I never used it). Which @Acacia Sgt totally beat me too.

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

But to clarify, I meant as in no longer having it in your inventory, not just unequipped. Since Golden Dagger's CA's are unique, only shared with Mila's Bow. But you definitely don't have the latter, so once you forge the GD into BZ, you lose the ability to learn GD's combat arts.

Good thinking, but I just checked, and that's not it either. Plenitude and Earth's Boon are both legible, just grayed out, for Saber, the one who learned them. Sounds like it is Ragnarok-Omega, and I guess it's promotion-gated or something.

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Good thinking, but I just checked, and that's not it either. Plenitude and Earth's Boon are both legible, just grayed out, for Saber, the one who learned them. Sounds like it is Ragnarok-Omega, and I guess it's promotion-gated or something.

No, what I and Jotari were getting at is it was a partially-learned skill, not one learnt already.

But yeah, Ragnarok Omega is gated to the promotion as it is.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

No, what I and Jotari were getting at is it was a partially-learned skill, not one learnt already.

But that isn't the case either, like I said. The second steel lance art isn't shown as a grayed out question mark for palla when I take the steel lance off her.

[Acacia Sgt]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

But that isn't the case either, like I said. The second steel lance art isn't shown as a grayed out question mark for palla when I take the steel lance off her.

Yes, but you still have the Steel Lance in your inventory. It's a distinction with the Golden Dagger which is outright gone, turned into a different sword.

But well, at this point it's clear it's not what we were thinking about.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Acacia Sgt said:

Yes, but you still have the Steel Lance in your inventory. It's a distinction with the Golden Dagger which is outright gone, turned into a different sword.

But well, at this point it's clear it's not what we were thinking about.

Yeah, as I suspected it wouldn't be. That would be a weird thing to program, wouldn't it? Specifically for items you only get one of?

But yeah. Weird how the BZ doesn't have healing though, like the royal sword and Falchion do.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, as I suspected it wouldn't be. That would be a weird thing to program, wouldn't it? Specifically for items you only get one of?

But yeah. Weird how the BZ doesn't have healing though, like the royal sword and Falchion do.

Maybe not one of, but just if you no longer have anything that teach you any given thing.

It does have Recover... unless it's actually something you need to unlock.

Edited June 29, 2021 by Acacia Sgt