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

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, ZeManaphy said:

Just because it feels like they have no effect doesn’t mean that they in function have zero effect. I really don’t know what to say if you find it so time-consuming to literally press a button once in order to skip a cutscene. It really doesn’t take much time at all. I guess you are more impatient than you think? 
 

Also, the DLC lady being the only way to track relationships is false. If you check your character’s personal history page, it will show you the closet ally to that person from left to right, with left being the closest. That’s how I managed to see who were the closest prior to the DLC.

As for how to get characters to their ideal match, I never had too much trouble for my units to get paired up. It does require planning and some manipulation, like taking advantage of Axuillary battles and  the pair up to help increase support points. I did not get all the paired endings, and the ones I did not get were single endings, but I never found it that bothersome because Paired ending are purely aesthetic in this game, at least not to the point you guys are making out to be. 

 

I did say that I don't care about paired endings myself, so it's not something that bothers me personally. I just felt like pointing out an inherent contradiction of "There is a tangible gameplay benefit to getting supports" and "you can just not get supports to avoid paired endings", provided someone actually wants the gameplay advantages.

[AnonymousSpeed]

4 hours ago, lenticular said:

Conversely, if I feel frustrated, disappointed or hollow while or after I play a video game, then what's the point? Why am I even playing?

Well, if it's contrasted with some greater high or emphasizes some useful lesson, then those emotions are fine. I'm not some auteur who thinks something is only art if it makes you sad and I don't even really consider games to be art (nor do I really care), but negative emotions have their place in games.

"You should never say 'I'll check that room later' in a game about checking rooms!" - Arin "Actually 12 Years Old" Hanson.

Saying that you can just skip them is a counterargument which seems to put the critic in a double-bind. Either he endures the things he doesn't enjoy, or he skips them and suffers through the accusations he didn't give them a "fair shake". Whatever sampling method you use to pick which supports to read, you're still stuck with the concern of whether you're missing something or not. This wouldn't be a problem if the game had better pacing for its support conversation, but ultimately it just vomits 10 or so of them at you at once.

That said, the real problem is that the supports are bad, and the quantity of them exacerbates that issue. Most of them just re-emphasize the same few points which make up each character's personality. If the purpose of them is to offer narrative value, the system fails because of this and the generally poor presentation hampering even those few characters and supports which are interesting.

From a gameplay perspective, I question the merits of having so many supports for characters. In addition to the amount of bloat and tedium this causes (vomit), it feels incredibly lukewarm. The support system isn't truly limited (because everyone supports with everyone) but it isn't truly unlimited either. If the point was for each character to be able to get a small combat bonus from any other character, it should have worked like in Radiant Dawn or like leadership stars. If it's supposed to be between specific characters in some way that encourages certain teams, it fails because most teams of two support each other.

I'll stick up for the movie metaphor. Let's go back to Alastor's point about the BluRay. What makes the ability to skip the support conversations different than the ability to skip the "bad" scene? Take a YouTube short film, say there's a comment with a timestamp to skip past this scene- one click (analogous to one press of the start button) and you've passed it. While skipping the scene in a movie might not be intentional, the result is still the same.

[henrymidfields]

Meh, I'd take Three Houses supports over Fates or Awakening any day. There's some misses like Sylvain/Leonie, sure, and the pacing is admittedly a big issue, but more often than not, I find that there's something new I learn about each character's, or Fodlan's backstories. Can I say the same thing about Awakening or Fates? Not really. They're also easier to access compared to the GBA games, so that's a big plus for me. Speaking of which, if they're really bad, I can just press the + button and skip it.

I'm also surprised you're not a fan of 3H's story considering how you like to talk about alternate history stuff. Me? I've just finished CF and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I liked the basic political paradigm to Napoleon, or the Meiji Restoration - out with the old, in with the new.

Edited August 30, 2021 by henrymidfields

[Etrurian emperor]

Quote

And then there's some... “big brother” stuff, and Dimitri implying that he feels that literally any story about his childhood would be embarrassing... which probably made more sense in the original Japanese when that was before he started putting on a macho act

While baby Dimitri isn't given much focus I could see why Dimitri would be embarrassed about it. He looked like a complete girl and according to his supports he was not happy with Catherine loudly shouting that for everyone to hear, he's wimpy enough to seemingly get bossed around by baby Edelgard and the whole dagger incident gets referenced in a sense that implies it took a while for him to live it down. 

[Etrurian emperor]

On 8/28/2021 at 5:48 PM, Jotari said:

Yeah, that's why I was specifying Chapter 4 over Chapter 3.

I think the opening conversation has Sigurd state that Chagal is attacking just as the Granvalians are leaving, which indicates he attacks more out of wounded pride and a desire to beat Granvelle than any attempt to defend his kingdom. And him starting a civil war purely for the fun of it kinda implies he never had much of an interest in the well being of his kingdom to begin with. 

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I think the opening conversation has Sigurd state that Chagal is attacking just as the Granvalians are leaving, which indicates he attacks more out of wounded pride and a desire to beat Granvelle than any attempt to defend his kingdom. And him starting a civil war purely for the fun of it kinda implies he never had much of an interest in the well being of his kingdom to begin with. 

The opening narration for the chapter says the following.

Despite his determination to restore Chagall's rule, his orders from Belhalla never change: to remain in Agusti and to govern its citizens. Scarcely six months have passed, and yet Grannvale's ruling administrators have already grown arrogant and have taken to abusing their power over Agustria for their own gain. Day by day, the Agustrian people grow ever wearier of Grannvale's actions. Before long, as he feared, Sigurd finds himself yet again caught in a new conflict. Reports abound of Chagall raising his army anew at Madino Castle, vying to reclaim his lost capital from Sigurd.

Sigurd does say he thinks they're close to withdrawing from Agustria, but it's clear he's just flat out wrong. Sigurd is naive about how machiavellian Grannvale has become. The narration outright states that Belhalla is basically ignoring Sigurd's attempts to resolve the situation. Meanwhile Chagall's people are outright being opressed by Granvallian administrators who are abusing their power. And all Sigurd has given him are assurances, no actual practical action, only assurances. Now that being said, Sigurd asked Eldigan to give him a year and that time period was only half over, so he could have served to have been a little less hot headed and a bit more trusting of Sigurd, he did break the agreement, the agreement he was forced to make at sword point, but still. Though I doubt Sigurd could have convinced anyone to actually return Agustia's sovereignty even if Chagall did give him the extra six months.

[Alastor15243]

Three Houses Day 19: Flayn is Missing

My apologies, this is going to be a very small update. Combination of factors, the two biggest ones being “I have way too many battles to do this month to rush it like before” and “I'm trying to cut back on my caffeine intake and I'm immediately feeling the effects”. I'll be doing our first paralogue tomorrow. For now, my quick notes:

I spent about 15 minutes fucking around with that damned wild goose chase of all 7 false leads regarding Flayn before I realized you can just finish the Manuela one and be done. That said, this is still a really dumb sequence, given that most people's suspicions for who they task you with pointing fingers at are childishly basic, and I mean that literally. It feels like this is some little kid's show where the kids decide they want to play at being detectives to solve the case of the missing pie, and they come up with these amazingly simplistic guesses at who the culprit could be, only to swiftly be instantly proven wrong each time. Perhaps that was deliberate, and you were supposed to just ignore the dumb ones? No, I don't really buy that. If that were the case, you'd think they'd have let you, y'know, talk to said people without accusing them. And also, it still doesn't excuse how dumb some of these accusations are when they're supposed to be coming from people above the age of ten.

Tomas's claim of not knowing Flayn was kidnapped is so comically suspicious that the fact that I can't call him out on his horseshit feels like bad writing, like it was supposed to sound more reasonable than it actually did. He tries to explain that the reason he was asking about Flayn was because he was suspicious about having never heard about her until recent years (deliberate foreshadowing there)... but you'd think if he were going around asking about Flayn... he'd hear that she went missing at some point in the last week or two. And yet he maintains that he didn't realize she was kidnapped until you talked to him.

Also, the only valid response you're allowed to give to Dorothea at one point is shock that she's on a first-name basis with Manuela... which... what? Everyone is on a first-name basis with everyone. She didn't even say Manuela, she said Professor Manuela! Is this some poorly-translated leftover shit from the Japanese game? Was everyone calling everyone by their last names in the Japanese version? Because in the western release, I have literally never fucking once heard anyone call anyone by just their last name. Usually it's exclusively by first name, and then maybe when they're introducing themselves, or if they're Ferdinand Von Quintessence, they'll use their full name, first and last. They went to the trouble of giving basically everyone a last name, then they never use them, and then this line happens?

...Moving on...

...Honestly, I can remember so many games from my childhood where, early on, core gameplay would come to a screeching halt for this one moment, and there would be this sequence where someone would force you to talk to, like, everyone in town, or everyone in a building, and you had to talk to literally everyone to proceed. I remember always hating those fucking things when I was a kid, and these start-of- month quests always remind me of them. Especially before and unless you figure out how to skip them.

Speaking of quests, in what motherfucking universe would someone too shy to deliver a love letter in-person... not explicitly specify to the person delivering it who it's for? The weapons-grade cringe they'd experience if they found out their love letter got sent to the wrong person because they were so vague... oof, like, I can just feel the social pain all the way from here.

Alright, also, I got Professr and Dimitri's B support. I literally don't remember a goddamned thing about the one that came before this.

Dimitri talks a lot about the horrors of war and how easy it is to forget that enemy soldiers are people, but then says something utterly baffling to me... he says that when he first met Professr, before he really got to know her... he thought her too close to a heartless killing machine for his liking and didn't trust her.

Dimitri, are you usually in the habit of throwing job offers at people immediately after they give you a bad first impression?

Finally, end-of-week chores, in this case pegasus riding, showed me something that finally put the words in my head for how to describe something. The animations in this game... at times it feels like an asset flip. You know, where people just buy pre-made assets and cram them together to make something that's technically a game but with zero heart and soul? I wouldn't dream of literally comparing Three Houses to that, but there are certainly times where I'm reminded of the visual feel of one. As if the people who did the animations are wholly alien from, and far less talented and passionate than, the people who did the models. So many movements and animations, especially around the monastery and in those painted-background story scenes, feel incredibly stiff and alien and devoid of any sense of proper momentum.

...Alright, unfortunately that's all I've got for now.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ferdinand Von Quintessence

His real name, that you can only discover by scanning the Kishuna amiibo.

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of quests, in what motherfucking universe would someone too shy to deliver a love letter in-person... not explicitly specify to the person delivering it who it's for? The weapons-grade cringe they'd experience if they found out their love letter got sent to the wrong person because they were so vague... oof, like, I can just feel the social pain all the way from here.

"I watched as you delivered the letter... even though I'm transfixed in this one place all month."

I remember pre-release, there were some miscommunications that some love letters would be directed to the Professor. Can you imagine this game promoting a romantic relationship between teacher and student?

14 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Tomas's claim of not knowing Flayn was kidnapped is so comically suspicious that the fact that I can't call him out on his horseshit feels like bad writing, like it was supposed to sound more reasonable than it actually did. He tries to explain that the reason he was asking about Flayn was because he was suspicious about having never heard about her until recent years (deliberate foreshadowing there)... but you'd think if he were going around asking about Flayn... he'd hear that she went missing at some point in the last week or two. And yet he maintains that he didn't realize she was kidnapped until you talked to him.

Teach: ... (TN: "Flayn's been kidnapped.")

Solon: play dumb!

Tomas: "Who's Flayn?"

Solon: not that dumb!

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

The opening narration for the chapter says the following.

Despite his determination to restore Chagall's rule, his orders from Belhalla never change: to remain in Agusti and to govern its citizens. Scarcely six months have passed, and yet Grannvale's ruling administrators have already grown arrogant and have taken to abusing their power over Agustria for their own gain. Day by day, the Agustrian people grow ever wearier of Grannvale's actions. Before long, as he feared, Sigurd finds himself yet again caught in a new conflict. Reports abound of Chagall raising his army anew at Madino Castle, vying to reclaim his lost capital from Sigurd.

Sigurd does say he thinks they're close to withdrawing from Agustria, but it's clear he's just flat out wrong. Sigurd is naive about how machiavellian Grannvale has become. The narration outright states that Belhalla is basically ignoring Sigurd's attempts to resolve the situation. Meanwhile Chagall's people are outright being opressed by Granvallian administrators who are abusing their power. And all Sigurd has given him are assurances, no actual practical action, only assurances. Now that being said, Sigurd asked Eldigan to give him a year and that time period was only half over, so he could have served to have been a little less hot headed and a bit more trusting of Sigurd, he did break the agreement, the agreement he was forced to make at sword point, but still. Though I doubt Sigurd could have convinced anyone to actually return Agustia's sovereignty even if Chagall did give him the extra six months.

This is giving me some serious current events parallels that belong in "Serious Discussion".

Anyway, in this light, Chagall doesn't seem that bad. Sigurd is at least somewhat complicit in Grannvale committing abuses in Augustria. That said, it does bug me that this is very much a "tell don't show" moment. We only see Sigurd's forces, so we don't view his actions or presence as problematic. A cutaway scene with, say, Reptor lording over House Nordion could have gone a long way to selling the moral nuance.

[Alastor15243]

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

Anyway, in this light, Chagall doesn't seem that bad.

Keep in mind all of this happened because Chagall murdered his own father, imprisoned Eldigan out of spite, declared war on Grandbell when he thought it was vulnerable, and then ordered Eldigan's lands invaded and ransacked by the creep trying to get in his sister's pants.

Edited August 30, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

This reminds me how one of the manga adaptations has Chaggall also execute Zyne, because the guy basically pulls an Eldigan before Eldigan. Gets convinced to stand down, goes into Agusty to plead with Chaggall to cease hostilities, gets promptly executed.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

23 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Keep in mind all of this happened because Chagall murdered his own father, imprisoned Eldigan out of spite, declared war on Grandbell when he thought it was vulnerable, and then ordered Eldigan's lands invaded and ransacked by the creep trying to get in his sister's pants.

True. Chagall bears most of the blame for Grannvale invading in the first place. My point was, the specific instance of Chagall attempting to wrest Augusty castle back from Sigurd wasn't wrong in its own right. He's still a scumbag who's majorly responsible for his own country's fall.

20 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

This reminds me how one of the manga adaptations has Chaggall also execute Zyne, because the guy basically pulls an Eldigan before Eldigan. Gets convinced to stand down, goes into Agusty to plead with Chaggall to cease hostilities, gets promptly executed.

Zyne: "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Harold, Papillon, and Musar have entered the chat.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Dimitri talks a lot about the horrors of war and how easy it is to forget that enemy soldiers are people, but then says something utterly baffling to me... he says that when he first met Professr, before he really got to know her... he thought her too close to a heartless killing machine for his liking and didn't trust her.

Dimitri, are you usually in the habit of throwing job offers at people immediately after they give you a bad first impression?

Guess being called the Ashen Demon does make you feared.

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

Zyne: "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Harold, Papillon, and Musar have entered the chat.

Those guys all use the same portrait, right..? And there may be even more.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of quests, in what motherfucking universe would someone too shy to deliver a love letter in-person... not explicitly specify to the person delivering it who it's for? The weapons-grade cringe they'd experience if they found out their love letter got sent to the wrong person because they were so vague... oof, like, I can just feel the social pain all the way from here.

You took the words right out of my mouth. And one of these quests has a letter for, of all people, Rhea...

Also, did you run into the herbs quest yet? I seriously think that one is a serious case of getting crap past the radar...

[Jotari]

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

His real name, that you can only discover by scanning the Kishuna amiibo.

"I watched as you delivered the letter... even though I'm transfixed in this one place all month."

I remember pre-release, there were some miscommunications that some love letters would be directed to the Professor. Can you imagine this game promoting a romantic relationship between teacher and student?

Teach: ... (TN: "Flayn's been kidnapped.")

Solon: play dumb!

Tomas: "Who's Flayn?"

Solon: not that dumb!

This is giving me some serious current events parallels that belong in "Serious Discussion".

Anyway, in this light, Chagall doesn't seem that bad. Sigurd is at least somewhat complicit in Grannvale committing abuses in Augustria. That said, it does bug me that this is very much a "tell don't show" moment. We only see Sigurd's forces, so we don't view his actions or presence as problematic. A cutaway scene with, say, Reptor lording over House Nordion could have gone a long way to selling the moral nuance.

Well yeah it is a telling over showing scene, but there's kind of a purpose for that. The narrative wants to make you think Chagall is completely in the wrong and that Sigurd, and by extension, Grannvale, is completely  in the right so it can later drop the bomb shell of Sigurd being betrayed. The story is purposely misrepresenting things in order to put the player on the same level as Sigurd to build up to the real plot twist that all this Agustria stuff was actually setting up the whole time.

Edited August 31, 2021 by Jotari

[AnonymousSpeed]

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

Zyne: "Strike me down, and I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine."

Harold, Papillon, and Musar have entered the chat.

 

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

 

That...was actually surprisingly good.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

10 hours ago, AnonymousSpeed said:

 

Very funny, was not expecting this! Truly, I have underestimated Riddel at my own peril.

12 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well yeah it is a telling over showing scene, but there's kind of a purpose for that. The narrative wants to make you think Chagall is completely in the wrong and that Sigurd, and by extension, Grannvale, is completely  in the right so it can later drop the bomb shell of Sigurd being betrayed. The story is purposely misrepresenting things in order to put the player on the same level as Sigurd to build up to the real plot twist that all this Agustria stuff was actually setting up the whole time.

The "Sigurd gets betrayed" moment could still be a twist while also showing some of the Grannvalian nobles being dicks to Augustrians. It's unlikely that Sigurd wouldn't have at least some communication with Reptor (or whoever is occupying southern Augustria) during the 6 months. So long as Arvis and King Azmur aren't shown as bad people, the twist can go on.

Also, it's not like the game is any stranger to showing the player things that Sigurd doesn't witness personally. Like Bato getting offed by Sandima, or Dierdre's kidnapping at the hands of Manfroy. This wouldn't be all that different. 

[Alastor15243]

Today isn't a good day for an update, sorry. I'm still happy to answer any questions or anything though!

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Today isn't a good day for an update, sorry. I'm still happy to answer any questions or anything though!

In light of recent discussion, which do you prefer: Throwaway bosses with generic enemy portraits (a la Three Houses)? Or, throwaway bosses with cut-and-paste portraits, perhaps with minor recoloring (a la Genealogy)?

[Alastor15243]

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

In light of recent discussion, which do you prefer: Throwaway bosses with generic enemy portraits (a la Three Houses)? Or, throwaway bosses with cut-and-paste portraits, perhaps with minor recoloring (a la Genealogy)?

That is a very tricky question. Both are flagrant corner-cutting, so the question really comes down to whether or not the budget saved by going with the even more corner-cutting former option lets you do anything of value.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

34 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That is a very tricky question. Both are flagrant corner-cutting, so the question really comes down to whether or not the budget saved by going with the even more corner-cutting former option lets you do anything of value.

Hard to say. On the flip side, FE4 had no generic enemy portraits at all, so universalizing portraits (which we've seen since Awakening) has its own costs. The "generic portrait bosses" make more sense in-universe (i.e. a Grappler looks like other Grapplers), even if it was taken too far in some cases (i.e. Generic Paladin as Baron Dominic). That said, there's some undeniable humor in numerous unrelated bosses having to share the same ugly mug.

[Alastor15243]

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

Hard to say. On the flip side, FE4 had no generic enemy portraits at all, so universalizing portraits (which we've seen since Awakening) has its own costs. The "generic portrait bosses" make more sense in-universe (i.e. a Grappler looks like other Grapplers), even if it was taken too far in some cases (i.e. Generic Paladin as Baron Dominic). That said, there's some undeniable humor in numerous unrelated bosses having to share the same ugly mug.

I think the worst part about how Three Houses handles it is how it uses the same generic portraits even for the generics of countries that are supposed to be a different race. I remember seeing the pirates pretending to be Almyrans, and I was like "how is anyone falling for this!? They're obviously white!"

And then I fought actual Almyrans. And their generics were also white.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I think the worst part about how Three Houses handles it is how it uses the same generic portraits even for the generics of countries that are supposed to be a different race. I remember seeing the pirates pretending to be Almyrans, and I was like "how is anyone falling for this!? They're obviously white!"

And then I fought actual Almyrans. And their generics were also white.

If I recall, their portraits stay the same ol' white as Fódlanians (Fódlanites?), but their 3D models are turned a shade darker. Same for the Duscurians in the Deduelogue. Not sure why they couldn't have applied the same change to the portraits, but... eh.

At least we're getting female generics in basically every class? That's something.

[Alastor15243]

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

If I recall, their portraits stay the same ol' white as Fódlanians (Fódlanites?), but their 3D models are turned a shade darker. Same for the Duscurians in the Deduelogue. Not sure why they couldn't have applied the same change to the portraits, but... eh.

At least we're getting female generics in basically every class? That's something.

That does raise uncomfortable questions about what, canonically, those fake almyrans were doing to "disguise" themselves as Almyrans.

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Today isn't a good day for an update, sorry. I'm still happy to answer any questions or anything though!

I got a question: Did you have plans to recruit Caspar to access Mercedes's paralogue?

Also, have you reconsidered some of your class paths?

[Acacia Sgt]

If Almyra's topography isn't uniformly an environment that make its population produce higher melanin levels in their skin, it stands to reason there could be "white" Almyrans.

Not that games really take this into account, perhaps.