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

[Jotari]

Cherish Glade, for he is, as far as an objective measure can be garnered, the least popular Fire Emblem character.

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I did think of neutralizing the ballistae and advancing quickly, but once I discovered the Glade cheese strategy, I realized there was literally no need to, and I was mostly just going carefully to make absolutely sure I wouldn't have to redo the map, and also because it was a good opportunity to train some of my weaker units.

But you're right, I may have phrased things unfairly/inaccurately. The fact that it took me five hours to beat the level is, true, not the game's fault. What is the game's fault is that all of this ridiculous trivializing bullshit worked, and in fact was the smartest way to go about it when ignoring ranked score. I really wish they actually bothered to make a defense map here, and not a "sit Glade down on a defense tile and wait to be rescued" map. Also, I wish the reinforcements actually showed up in places that threatened my army.

That said, putting mid-range units around those constantly-spawning bow knights seemed exceedingly risky, so I did feel the need to at least wait those out for the sake of my main army. However, beyond those two, I drained them purely for Lithis exp.

As for the powerful armor knights, I did notice them, but they had almost no impact on the battle because none of them could reach Glade. All they really did was threaten Olwen a little as she worked her way through the pile-up before the boss died.

Blume showing up behind your army wielding Mjolnir would have been epic here. Now that would be something that can threaten your army. But alas, Thracia seems to hate Blume because he barely appears at all despite being in charge of this entire region.

[Alastor15243]

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

Cherish Glade, for he is, as far as an objective measure can be garnered, the least popular Fire Emblem character.

 

Oh shit! So that's why I remember him! Curious how he was the least popular. He's turning out pretty good for me!

11 hours ago, Jotari said:

Blume showing up behind your army wielding Mjolnir would have been epic here. Now that would be something that can threaten your army. But alas, Thracia seems to hate Blume because he barely appears at all despite being in charge of this entire region.

Oh yeah, that really should have happened. Dead serious. I would have liked this chapter a lot better if it had been designed with that kind of pressure in mind.

 

 

Thracia Day 22: Chapter 14

Before we proceed with this map, I just wanna voice an observation that just occurred to me a little while ago:

Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 is just about the only game I've ever played that feels like a rom hack of itself.

The thing that really made me notice this was that observation I made yesterday about escape maps. A side-effect of the “everyone who escapes before Leif gets captured” part of the objective is that it's basically a seize objective you can't warp-skip.

Now, a very common trait of rom hacks is that often the side-effects of certain objects or pieces of terrain, effects that the hackers have discovered can be repurposed for interesting challenges, generally do get repurposed for said interesting challenges, often at the cost of looking outrageously tasteless. For example, back when I was building stages in Super Smash Brothers Brawl, I quickly realized that if you blocked a passageway from the side with one of those blocks that drop when you stand on them, you could create a one-way door that locks itself behind you and can't be opened from the other side, since the top of the block is no longer accessible to you, you can only touch one of the sides, which oes nothing. It's not exactly aesthetically elegant, but it worked for my purposes. But if the designers of Brawl actually wanted to make one-way doors, they'd just make one-way doors.

Here, the fact that escape objectives can basically function identically to seize objectives except you can't warp-skip them... that also sounds like something that fans would figure out later to keep the warp staff from breaking the entire game. It feels like something the fans, having little more than the tools the game made already, would do to create new challenges in light of the game's established post-launch meta, knowing it isn't pretty and doesn't really fit, but doing it anyway because they care about the challenge. As does the idea of creating an entire level whose purpose is to be warp-skipped. That sounds like something that hardcore fans, well-versed in the ins and outs and abuses of the game's metagame, would put in thinking they're clever.

It doesn't sound like something the actual developer would do.

On one hand, it's kind of impressive that Kaga predicted so much of the metagame of his own video game before it was even released. But on the other hand, these things also come across as childish and unprofessional.

I still can't wrap my head around the idea of a level whose purpose is to not be played, and worse still, one that rewards you for doing literally nothing for thirty turns. Furthermore, it seems utterly bizarre to me that by this point, the last three escape chapters have felt like seize chapters. These aren't maps where you're perpetually hounded by enemies you need to “escape” from, these are chapters where by the time everyone's escaping, the threat has been all but entirely dealt with, and you're escaping to the sounds of the “victory is near” map music. It's especially odd since, in the latter two cases, all of the enemies are between you and the “escape” point, and none of them are behind you!

No reinforcements chasing you!

In an ESCAPE chapter!

But I digress. Let's move on to the actual map itself. And this chapter, we get two more fliers at long last! Eda, a dracorider, and Dean, a dracoknight! And almost as importantly, we get Dean's Dain scroll, the best scroll in the game, which at the cost of -10% to speed growth, boosts defense by 30%, and move by 5%!

Anyway, the story they discuss here is kind of cool, though it's difficult to get fully invested in this much backstory about characters I've basically just met.

Anyway, let's get started. First off, like the guide I skimmed said, Homer can only be recruited with Nanna, so I had to give her a stamina drink to bring her along. Thankfully, Homer comes with his own replacement stamina drink! He's a bard with paragon, so he should be okay, as long as literally any opportunities to train weak units are left. But that certainly won't be here. No, I've got a tight schedule to get all the shit in this chapter, especially the badass lance Deen needs to get, which is currently trapped under heavy-duty ballistafire.

And to do that, it looks like it's finally gonna be time to break out the major, heavy-duty big guns. Now that I have the Dain scroll, and Callion can safely be promoted without ruining his chances of capping defense...

...Time to promote him, and watch him steamroll these fuckers.

I've got the Dain, Neir and Heim scrolls on him. The Heim scroll will bite into his defense a little, but he should still probably cap it most of the time with his 55% growth, and the resulting 40% magic growth will be insanely useful for keeping him relevant in the apparently staff-heavy late-game. And he doesn't need anything else. All he has left to cap, aside from HP and move, is luck, magic and defense.

...Unfortunately, on my very first attempt, Nanna got hit by both ballistae on turn one in her efforts to nab Homer. Two consecutive 36% chances. Fffuuuuuuck.

Second time was the charm, though it was almost a repeat of the first. The massive horde of enemies that came in was initially scary, but Orsin and Callion easily took care of them via dodgetanking.

Unfortunately, the boss started moving. And he attacked Callion with a horseslayer. I was planning on him doing that, to see if I could get away with not using a precious sleep staff use on the guy.

Also, I was hoping to get rid of the initial wave and then send Callion rushing towards that house with the dragon lance and maybe the bolting, but... something tells me that given that the reinforcements don't appear to show any signs of stopping, that would be extreme foolishness. So, instead... I think I'm just gonna cheese the thing by warping and then rescuing Dean to and from the village. Then I'll send him after the southeast village when I get an opening, since that seems way more clear.

But while I'm here at the prep menu... why don't I do something to salvage my dignity from 12x and make my massive blunder even remotely worthwhile? I stole a lot of slim swords from the dancers, so fuck it, let's sell 'em! They're worth a decent amount of money after all.

I did some more testing to see if there was any way out of this “Nanna risking getting shot down on turn one” business, and at least preliminarily, it seems Leif is a higher priority than Nanna despite not remotely being killable by them.

Now, I have to say, I don't... hate how the ballistae are used here. They seem to be there to apply pressure to you and keep you from from going too far on the offensive, keeping you generally in the castle area and defending yourself rather than going out on the attack. If you want to do aura-boosting and all that beautiful stuff, you have to keep it indoors, and it makes it harder to set up support boosts. Harder, though not remotely impossible.

That said, this is no Conquest Chapter 10, for obvious reasons. You may be defending a large town, and you may get a promoted and unpromoted dragon rider, but really this just comes down to blocking two chokepoints with relatively simple enemy-phase combat. Conquest Chapter 10 is laughing at this chapter.

...Lana has movement stars.

...And she's a dancer.

...She can dance fucking twice. Only sometimes, but still.

I wonder what the justification is going to be for why visiting these villages and listening to people moping unlocks the gaiden chapter. I don't seem to be accomplishing anything. I don't even seem to be cheering them up.

Fuck. I didn't even notice that Baldach moved last turn. Looks like he's another fucking example of Two-Face AI. I really wish I knew what the rationale for this was. I'm gonna try to aura up Callion as much as I can and hope he survives. It's too late to move him out of the way.

Also, I gave Callion the Wrath manual, since he's easily going to be one of my most powerful units, and he has 1-2 range (and he'll have it indoors too, at least occasionally, once his sword rank is up a bit). Seemed like a natural decision, and I'm surprised it took me this long to use the damned thing. It'll help here too, since it'll drastically save him javelin uses, and this army is going to wear those down fast. Thankfully, Orsin has wrath too, and he's covering the western flank, but...

...Okay actually it occurs to me I haven't fully explained what I'm doing here. There are three main openings into the elevated northern part of the town. All three of them are a sort of crossroads with stairs to the north. I'm sitting Callion and Orsin on the east and west of these respectively, soaking up all of the enemy fire and killing them before they have a chance to try and swarm the middle gate that Asbel's guarding. I've got Leif and Kingmaker Pan (that is such a fucking awesome sword name, btw, the Kingmaker) supporting Callion, Tanya and Nanna supporting Orsin, and Pan, Nanna and Leif are supporting Asbel, who's holding the bottom one but really isn't getting any takers since everyone's much closer to either Orsin or Callion. Still though, while he's fragile, his evasion with all that aura botting is insane.

Originally, as in on the run where Callion died, I put Pan on Orsin's side too, since his accuracy is so terrible (I've given him the Odo scroll constantly and his skill is still at fucking nine, not to mention he's wielding hand axes). I moved Pan over to support Callion last-minute once I realized Baldach was on the move, to avoid a repeat of last time. It was a slaughter, yet again, but this time in Callion's favor. Baldach is down, and the rest of this map should be clear... as long as they don't start throwing status staves at us.

And now I'm moving Pan back because the worst is over for Callion and Orsin whiffed a few enemies and clogged up the pipes, as it were.

So, I spring my plan into action to get Dean over to that village and back with a rescue and warp, and who should be there but Altena? I have to assume that the girl who said she was waiting for him is supposed to keep her hidden from everyone else. I wonder if they have any special dialogue for Leif, though... a special bit of dramatic irony or something?

...Anyway, this weird, indirect alliance between Leif and South Thracia is kind of interesting, but also a little odd since there was no indication of it in Genalogy. I wonder how this is going to turn out in the end. It's interesting, having the son of the murderer of the main character's parents send his finest knight on a deep cover “I faked deserting the army to do this” mission to protect his fiancé, who just happens to be part of our team. Granted, Leif doesn't know much about that, but there's also Hannibal. given how helpful Hannibal's been to Leif, it feels like in hindsight Leif would have had something to say about hearing Hannibal's been forced to fight Seliph's army.

And now we have the Dragonpike! Personally I would prefer Dragonlance, but that's just me. But who the fuck cares what it's called, it's a 60 use personal brave lance with built-in Vantage! Easily worth a rescue and warp charge. I'm sure there was probably some way I could have gotten the bastard in the time limit without using one use each of those valuable staves, but... I kind of have to get this chapter done today. I only had one staff user good enough to use either of those staves, unfortunately, but that's fine, because I had Lara here to dance for Safiya so she could do both jobs!

Five turns down, five to go, and now it's time to send Dean over to the other house outside Tahra city limits. Pretty much no enemies down that way, so this shouldn't be a problem. And he has five whole turns too!

I finally snapped from all the 90% misses and had Orsin whip out the Bhuj for one turn to get rid of the ridiculous horde gathering at his gate. I really hope this doesn't shred the thing. He should kill everyone with a single crit since it's stronger and he was close to killing the armor knights before with a hand axe.

Leif got an abysmal HPsauce level up for his final level before his story promotion... or so I thought until it revealed he got another movement level up. Holy shit, I really hope I don't have to abandon this run of the chapter.

I captured a stray healer with Dean on his way over, because why not? I could always use another heal staff, and he's not near anyone who can take advantage of his halved stats in the turn before the fleece-and-release.

Thankfully, due to wonky enemy priority seeming to prioritize the recent reinforcements over the old units closer to Orsin, I only lost about 8 uses of the Bhuj. Time to switch back to the hand axe now that things are more manageable. Holy shit how is this guy still so useful despite being so skill-screwed?

It took pretty much my entire supply of javelins and hand axes to arm these two for this mission. I'm gonna have to start building up again soon.

Speaking of building up supplies, I decided to spend the slim sword money on a stamina drink at the store. Stores are so overpriced anyway, especially the tomes given how easy they are to steal. So I might as well spend my gold on something genuinely rare.

And speaking of rare... the second house has a Nosferatu tome! Awesome! That's gonna be insanely useful, apparently when we get Linoan apparently, who the tome is supposed to be given to storywise.

Oh fuck. Here come the enemy green units I heard about. Well, at least they don't make it a surprise that they're against me. But I have to wonder why the fuck they're green units.

...And if this is literally the only reason why you're not allowed to heal green units in this game... if it's only because they wanted to make some green units act like red units...

...Then I would like to deliver a very hardy “fuck you” to whoever came up with that idea.

Anyway, some of these guys have ridersbanes, so Callion can't handle them. I'll have to have Asbel dodgetank them and hope to sweet gorgeous Anna that I'm not really, really unlucky.

I nearly had a heart attack when I realized (as the ballista was firing) that I had forgotten to heal Pan. Thankfully, my slip-up was not punished, and he survived. I immediately healed him the next chance I got.

Asbel thankfully slaughtered the dragon riders, and gained way, way more experience from this than I was expecting, making me regret not promoting him a level early when I had the chance. Well, he's promoted now, and just for the hell of it I gave him the Dain and Neir scrolls to boost his defense growth.

Asbel looks absolutely badass as a sage. I've heard a lot of people promote him early to get a head start on his staff rank and... yeah... honestly, in this game, in hindsight, I think that would have been a good call. Especially since he caps everything relevant so effortlessly. Oh well, time to at least make the most of it by slapping that Dain scroll on him and making him a damned tanky mage.

The second-to-last-turn Loptian mage reinforcements scared the shit out of me. I was really hoping none of them had siege tomes, which would have ruined everything. Thankfully, they did not.

...Oh god. Last NPC phase. Arion and Travant show up. And I had just placed Dean around there since the dark mage reinforcements had him in a bit of a bind, sandwiched between them and the dragon riders. Please, please, please, don't kill Dean on the last fucking phase of the last fucking turn....!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh thank goodness. They aren't that heartless.

But the chapter ends with the city being captured anyway. Arion at least manages to negotiate running the place instead of the Loptian Welkenrosen, but the chapter still ends in failure, with Leif having to escape after everything he fought for.

...What? No scene? No scene with Leif, y'know, reacting to the fact that the city he's been journeying to rescue this whole time has just been captured anyway? That half of his entire journey has been for nothing? I mean, if there's going to be such a scene, it has to happen now, otherwise it'd be weird if it only happened in the gaiden chapter (which I unlocked, thankfully) or if he waited until after the gaiden chapter to vent about it.

And to top it all off, the chapter also ends without me seeing literally any reason why those dragon riders had to be green. None whatsofuckingever.

And to top that, we've got another fucking fog of war map.

Oh. Fucking. Goodie.

Well, that's the end of that for today. I mean, it was way, way better-designed than the last three chapters, but it wasn't really much of a defense map until the very, very end. I was mostly just aura-tanking the whole damned time, enemy-phasing 99% of the enemies I fought. And unlike Radiant Dawn Part 2 Endgame and especially unlike Conquest Chapter 10, there wasn't really much thought I had to put into things beyond setting up my initial strategy and then adapting to the dracoknights. Not exactly the kind of masterclass defense chapter I had envisioned when I first heard about this chapter before playing the game.

Tune in tomorrow when we play another fucking fog of war gaiden chapter.

...Wait...

...All of the gaiden chapters so far have been in fog of war.

Please tell me that's a coincidence.

 

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

I've heard some people praise Chapter 14 as a good chapter, and I don't see it.

Defending is as easy as it tends to be, offense is restrained b/c baiIIsta (sorry if I eave out "I"s, Ietters g trou l sometimes don't wor on my 7-year oId computer's eyboard), but tat is about it. I ust warped Dean to et te Draonpie, since te boss sometimes won't move and tere is a safe spot Dean can sit in after ettin it and before oin for te Nosferatu.

 

I tin te battIe as a ood narrative and potentiaI fee beind it, I ope a remae wi one day wi maximize te drama tat tis capter souId ave. Ieif comes to te pace e as been tod to save since 2x, and fais, a ero to be fops bi time. Sad, but I Iie it.

 

I wiII EDIT tis post Iater wen te eyboard wors aain. 'ust wanted to post tis now.

[Eltosian Kadath]

53 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Furthermore, it seems utterly bizarre to me that by this point, the last three escape chapters have felt like seize chapters. These aren't maps where you're perpetually hounded by enemies you need to “escape” from, these are chapters where by the time everyone's escaping, the threat has been all but entirely dealt with, and you're escaping to the sounds of the “victory is near” map music. It's especially odd since, in the latter two cases, all of the enemies are between you and the “escape” point, and none of them are behind you!

No reinforcements chasing you!

In an ESCAPE chapter!

Three? I am guessing you mean two, as I see what you are saying with chapter 9 which is more of a race to the exit, and with you waiting out the reinforcements of chapter 13 before they arrive, and even then they are a more indirect pressure, as they give the feel of you being warn down if you don't escape to the safety of the city soon, as opposed to actually chase you.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

And to top it all off, the chapter also ends without me seeing literally any reason why those dragon riders had to be green. None whatsofuckingever.

Them being green does a handful of things, it means the red healers can't heal the green units, they have separate leadership pools as well, which both emphasize that while these are your enemies, they aren't cooperating. Now they should have just added another color like purple to indicate enemy allies (they should add this feature in general, as I remember Revelations chapter 13 feels especially weird with both the Hoshidan and Nohrian armies being both red units, and being especially cooperative).

 

 

40 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...All of the gaiden chapters so far have been in fog of war.

Please tell me that's a coincidence.

There is exactly 1 gaiden without fog of war, and its the one where you rescue your captured characters. Make of that what you will.

 

One thing I will note is that you can cheese this chapter in a way very similar to how you did 13 as well, just with 3 unequipped tanky units with scrolls, and three healers, and it also reveals one of the technical limitations of this game, that the unit limit for a faction is 50, so once you have 50 red units you are ignoring no more can spawn (although the green units will, which are the only real enemies you have to deal with as they can fly)

 

This was the last map I did on New Year eve/day, and I spent time on the prep screen figuring out how I would takeout Paulus and nab the dragon pike, and I found my solution, pure watering Tina to thief staff his Master Axe, then warping an enscorceled Olwen to wipe out Paulus, using the iron ballista to block the space more than one of the lance armors would need to attack. Then she just wipes out the rest of the forces there with canto to minimize the number or retaliations she has to face (if her vantage Dire Thunder has a miss). This lets Deen just mosey on over to grab the two houses in the south.The thing was I didn't think of a plan for Baldrach and was a little too focused on my Paulus plan, and by the time he was a problem, I had already sent most of my best ways of salvaging that situation away, so Alfred got ganked by Baldrach (who immediately afterwards died to Asbel).

 

[Alastor15243]

16 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Three? I am guessing you mean two, as I see what you are saying with chapter 9 which is more of a race to the exit, and with you waiting out the reinforcements of chapter 13 before they arrive, and even then they are a more indirect pressure, as they give the feel of you being warn down if you don't escape to the safety of the city soon, as opposed to actually chase you. 

 

In 7, by the time I made it to Hannibal's castle, all the threats chasing me were gone. In my case that was because I was fighting it out to buy time to get Shiva, but I believe I heard that getting someone to Hannibal's castle will also make them retreat normally? In either case there's no pressure during the actual evacuation process.

Edited January 8, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 23: Chapter 14x

Apparently this is a fog of war map with location-randomized ambush spawns.

Wow! That sounds worse than terrible!

Well, Orsin and Callion are probably completely worn out, so I have to bring some of my weaker-

...They're both still fine. Orsin less so, but I can deploy both of them.

...But I won't. This map doesn't have many units, so it feels like deploying both of my main physical fighters would be a bad idea. Especially since I want both of them to be able to use the Dain scroll for a lot of their levels. Not that either of them are gaining many levels. Even with paragon, Callion's leveling very slowly against these enemies now that he's promoted.

Anyway, what I really wanna do is catch Fergus and Karin up, since they've both fallen pretty heavily behind. Hopefully with all of my fancy scrolls, I can catch them up to a degree.

Oh shit. When they mentioned the civilians, I nearly freaked. Thankfully it looks like I won't actually be escorting green units through a valley of ambush spawns, which would be psychotic.

I was worried about getting Linoan supplies, but she really only needs a tome; she already comes with a ton of staves, including three really rare ones: torch, ensorcel, and restore! Ooh! Restore's gonna be super useful, but I wish it had more than 5 uses.

Nosferatu is pretty badass, with 60 uses, but given that it means she has 0 AS and 16 HP... she still might be in trouble. Well, we'll have to see how powerful the enemies are. Hopefully she can take at least one round of combat per turn.

Alright, this map is looking pretty easy so far actually. The reinforcements aren't that powerful, so maybe I was worrying too much.

...Yeah, right. Famous last words whenever dealing with Thracia.

Anyway, I send Leif ahead with a torch while Nanna uses her torch staff to keep the main party illuminated. I wanna keep on top of these reinforce-

OH SHIT. ONE OF THE DARK MAGES HAS A REWARP STAFF.

YOU CAN GET THOSE IN THIS GAME!?

I think the chances of getting a combat unit with an A rank in staves is exceedingly unlikely, but fuck it, I wanna make it happen!

...Oh fuck. NPCs ARE coming. WHY!?

...Apparently there's one for every non-Homer house in Tahra I visited last chapter (so all but one; I didn't get an opportunity to visit the one near Orsin's bottleneck), and every one that escapes gives you a stamina drink. Alright, so let's try to keep them alive. But given that this game has omnipresent randomized ambush spawns, that sounds like something I shouldn't lose sleep over if I fail.

Oh wow, they're just passing out these rewarp staves, aren't they? Yet another Monty Hall gaiden chapter, but hey, more rewarp staves for me, and more Jormungands for Salem!

Ooh! Apparently promoted mounted units like Olwen can move over hills! Great, so only Fergus has to dismount to cross that hill bottleneck.

One of the bosses has a siege tome, so I've gotta make him wear that out before the green units get that far.

I forgot that unarmed NPCs get captured by melee units. That actually makes this a lot easier, funny enough! They also bait out all of the rewarp mages too, who can't kill them on the same turn since they used their turn to warp!

...Unfortunately, I overestimated Linoan's magic power and got her killed by the Fenrir tome user. Totally my fault there.

Immediately on turn 2 of my retry, I managed to capture 3 rewarp staves on one turn, one of them fully intact!

...I think Karin's battle sprite is identical to the ones for these Silesian mercenaries.

Okay, so, looks like I kinda got distracted. A lot. The level's pretty much over now. I guess there for the most part wasn't much to comment on that I hadn't already done. However, I took care of all of the enemies guarding the way out. That doesn't seem to be the end of my troubles, though. It looks like the reinforcements might be getting increasingly numerous. Four in a row this turn. It looks like getting all of these guys to the exit might become a pain.

I wound up managing to get the stragglers over pretty quickly. It helps I brought so many fliers and that these villagers are so light.

...These villagers do not have map sprites matching their portraits. A young maiden reached the exit and turned out to be a big burly beard boi.

Also, it seems kind of dumb that literally everyone has stamina drinks for me.

Also, Jesus Christ, what the fuck is up with this game and its bizarre, parody-esque worldbuilding about items!? Stamina drinks are made out of pegasus parts!? THIS CUTE LADY HAS JUST BEEN CASUALLY BUTCHERING THE CORPSES OF FALLEN SILESIAN MERCENARIES' PEGASI ON THE MARCH THROUGH THIS CANYON!?

...Okay, seriously, is this a joke? Is this a bunch of meme-y, abridged series bullshit that Project Exile couldn't resist putting in? “I was worried that the long line of Tahra's esteemed Stamina Drink vintners would die in this forlorn valley!”

It's like the game recognizes how bizarre and dumb it is that literally all of these villagers have stamina drinks for rewards, and yet chooses to break the fourth wall by making fun of it instead of actually fixing the problem! Again, like I said last time, this does not feel like an official, developer-made project.

Alright, aaaaaand we're done! Honestly, I'm really disappointed in this chapter story-wise. Not just for the stupid, goofy, mood-breaking shit about stamina drinks. I'm talking about the fact that this chapter cements the fact that, if Leif's failure to protect Tahra is even the tiniest emotional speedbump to him, he's doing a disturbingly good job of hiding it considering how much he angsted over people dying for him before. If they're waiting for the canon Chapter 15 to tackle this, I'm sorry, it's too late. If it happens now, after he didn't give a shit here, it'll just be even worse. If you wanted to make sure nobody missed it, it should have been at the end of chapter 14. I would have loved to have that scene, and then in this chapter see Leif talk about how he at least managed to save the people of Tahra from the Empire, if not the city itself. Instead we got a bunch of meme-y nonsense about stamina drinks that makes me want to stab something in the eye.

But hey, Lewyn shows up! And he knows Augustus for some reason!

...OH FUCK YOU, GAME!

You let Augustus show more shame over failing to protect Tahra than Leif does!?

That's it. I'm done. I've had it for today. Fuck this shit, I'm out.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, Jesus Christ, what the fuck is up with this game and its bizarre, parody-esque worldbuilding about items!? Stamina drinks are made out of pegasus parts!? THIS CUTE LADY HAS JUST BEEN CASUALLY BUTCHERING THE CORPSES OF FALLEN SILESIAN MERCENARIES' PEGASI ON THE MARCH THROUGH THIS CANYON!?

...Okay, seriously, is this a joke? Is this a bunch of meme-y, abridged series bullshit that Project Exile couldn't resist putting in? “I was worried that the long line of Tahra's esteemed Stamina Drink vintners would die in this forlorn valley!”

Possibly, I don't remember what the script PDFs said of that particular line.

However, when it comes to the main story dialogue, Project Exile is 95% of the time accurate. They did tone down the victim-shaming and suggested-threat-of-rape-but-actually-a-bug of Tina as one of the cases where they went a little further than just literal/spirit.  

Much of the village dialogue, but not all, was rewritten with funsies. Many cases of villages/houses are a generic "Thank you for saving/visiting us! Take this item I found!" and nothing more. There are no alliterative Crusader swearings in the original script, nor the Ensorcel staff being made by sprinkling Pure Water on a tree. As this is minor, unimportant dialogue, I personally didn't mind it being altered.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Possibly, I don't remember what the script PDFs said of that particular line.

However, when it comes to the main story dialogue, Project Exile is 95% of the time accurate. They did tone down the victim-shaming and suggested-threat-of-rape-but-actually-a-bug of Tina as one of the cases where they went a little further than just literal/spirit.  

Much of the village dialogue, but not all, was rewritten with funsies. Many cases of villages/houses are a generic "Thank you for saving/visiting us! Take this item I found!" and nothing more. There are no alliterative Crusader swearings in the original script, nor the Ensorcel staff being made by sprinkling Pure Water on a tree. As this is minor, unimportant dialogue, I personally didn't mind it being altered.

Thanks for the heads up! Personally I think it detracts from the experience since this isn't supposed to be a goofy game, and also a lot of is just isn't very well thought out at all. But at least now I know I can ignore that with regards to judging the game's writing, because it isn't remotely the original game's fault.

[Jotari]

So you're obviously not enjoying Thracia...but I have to ask...are you enjoying Thracia? I know that seems like a paradox of a question, but this is Thracia, it's something of a unique beast.

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

So you're obviously not enjoying Thracia...but I have to ask...are you enjoying Thracia? I know that seems like a paradox of a question, but this is Thracia, it's something of a unique beast.

I was pretty much entirely loving this game until chapter 5, but I think my experience peaked with chapter 6. It's not terrible, mind, or at least not on the whole (it sure as hell has terrible parts). It just isn't really the proto-conquest I was hoping for. I admire its clear desire to make the game hard, but I think the philosophy for how to do it is... all kinds of wrong at times. Not always, but enough for me to question the creators' judgment.

No doubt in my mind, this is getting the worst ironmannability score in the entire series. The level of randomization elements, intelligence denial, and also the sheer scale of how much of the game's content is gated behind secret events almost offends me as a Fire Emblem fan.

It is, however, doing a lot better than most of the current list in a great many areas, and FE1 is the only one I can say I actively despised playing... so all in all I can't say I'm hating playing it. Just that there's a lot to hate about playing it.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Flere210]

Thracia is plagued by the worst of ancient RPG design: using user unfriendlines as fake difficulty, the abuse of "secrets that no normal player will ever discover whitout a guide" and in general plain unfairness. However, i kinda miss that kind of bullshit. There is a form of excitement knowing that every wall may contain a secret invisible door and a special sense of accomplishment into taming a game that was so unfriendly.

Playing Thracia the first time felt like a Rodeo. Playing it the second time felt like i was directing a raging bull to crush my enemies so to speak.

[Alastor15243]

Incidentally, Glade was pretty useful! He was handy for capturing the rewarp users on several occasions, for one. Not sure how much longer I'll be using him, but for now I'm enjoying having him around.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Considering that Thracia is usually generous with deployment slots after C9, bringing Glade to every outdoor battle is entirely feasible, I did. There is worse filler than a character who simply by being fielded, gives +3 Hit and Evade to everyone, everywhere. Not a lot, but universally appreciated nonetheless.

 

You probably are liking Olwen too much/have too much invested in her now, but if you pick the coastal /Dorius "A" path and you want to get the alternative Mage Knight, the next chapter is your last chance to kill Olwen, not capture, kill.

Here is the replacement's stats:

Spoiler

Lv 8

HP 40

Str 11

Mag 9

Skl 13

Spd 14

Lck 14

Def 10

Con 6

Mov 8

Authority 0

Movement Stars 1

Critical Multiplier 0

A,  D,  A,  D

Miracle, Sol

No Dire Thunder use for them either.

Other than Def, Con, and Mov, growths are between 40 and 55, Lck is 70.

 

[Shrimpica]

I will say, the Manster Arc is definetly peak Thracia. Sadly, it goes down from there. So my opinion might not be far from yours, Alastor. Nonetheless, i still love the game xD

Also, if you kill off Olwen, i will haunt you.

[Jotari]

On 1/8/2020 at 5:36 AM, Alastor15243 said:

I did some more testing to see if there was any way out of this “Nanna risking getting shot down on turn one” business, and at least preliminarily, it seems Leif is a higher priority than Nanna despite not remotely being killable by them.

 

 

Oh yeah, on this point, I think the enemy AI always prioritizes Leif as a target no matter the situation. Which can obviously be used as an exploit.

9 hours ago, Flere210 said:

Thracia is plagued by the worst of ancient RPG design: using user unfriendlines as fake difficulty, the abuse of "secrets that no normal player will ever discover whitout a guide" and in general plain unfairness. However, i kinda miss that kind of bullshit. There is a form of excitement knowing that every wall may contain a secret invisible door and a special sense of accomplishment into taming a game that was so unfriendly.

Playing Thracia the first time felt like a Rodeo. Playing it the second time felt like i was directing a raging bull to crush my enemies so to speak.

My love for Thracia stems from my own misery while playing it.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Oh yeah, on this point, I think the enemy AI always prioritizes Leif as a target no matter the situation. Which can obviously be used as an exploit.

Curious, because it didn't save Alfred on that first run.

[Jotari]

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Curious, because it didn't save Alfred on that first run.

Oh, perhaps I'm wrong. I do recall hearing (and experiencing myself) that the AI will always go for Leif. Perhaps it's only certain types of enemies. Well, bear it in mind for future. It did save Nana here, so it does work on some level (Leif with Charge was always my go to for baiting ballista since he doesn't lose any stamina from it).

Edited January 9, 2020 by Jotari

[Shrimpica]

Isn't it mostly Ballista AI who do that? They do seem to target Leif more often than not

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I just made my discovery in chapter 13.

Once the boss is defeated, all the enemies around him, the three bow cavaliers will leave the map and the ballistas will not act anymore, but therefore knights and mages from the top appear.

This is what I did in the first turn.

In general Glade can easily solo all the enemies if he stands on the throne.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Zemuria

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 24: Chapter 15

So, our haul from yesterday was a whopping 35 charges of rewarp! That makes me really, really, really wish I had powerful staff users who could do that and fight. It also makes me genuinely tempted to grind up the 150 staff uses it would take to get Asbel to be able to use it. But I know that making that happen is pretty much impossible.

Doesn't mean I'm not gonna try!

Since I've gotta deploy Mareeta to get Astra, I'm thinking I'm gonna be slapping her with a shitton of scrolls, including the all-important Dain scroll, and have her fight as many enemies as she can.

Also, this is the map where I have to decide which route I take.

Originally I had this plan of revealing this big secret that I was gonna do both, but... honestly, nah, that doesn't sound like fun anymore. I'm just gonna go with A route, which seems like the more fun one. So, let's fly Mareeta and Asbel over the mountains to get there a bit quicker, and...

OH FOR FUCK'S SAKE, GAME!

I THOUGHT ONLY BANDITS WITH THE STEAL SKILL COULD RAID VILLAGES! THAT WAS THE RULE LAST TIME! BUT NOW THEY DON'T NEED IT!?

I actually, genuinely assumed this game would give me more than two turns to get to those villages and save them. Guess I was wrong~!

Oh well, it's just an armorslayer, and it doesn't look like there's a reward for saving every village.

Anyway, boosting Tanya with the scrolls before has paid off, and she's now at least able to handle herself on player phase. Hell, she's at C rank bows, which I thought was enough for killer bows but apparently not, but she's not too far off from B!

So, I rescued Ralph and flew him over to Leif to recruit him faster, and apparently that made Amalda decide the village didn't need her help anymore. She apparently leaves by that logic when Ralph is talked to, regardless of the manner in which Ralph and Leif reached the same location. While yes, I did also have a few other soldiers flown over the mountain, it's kind of hilarious she comes to that conclusion when I could easily have just taken Ralph over there and not helped the village at all. Well, more exp for me then!

Unfortunately, the bandits arrived at the western village before I could save it, so I have to restart. An armorslayer is one thing, but I'm not leaving a crusader scroll behind. Looks like getting to these villages is literally impossible without flying or warp staves, so I'll be sure to keep that in mind this time. Thankfully Karin isn't fatigued yet, so I can bring all three of my fliers.

Also, looks like the game isn't even going to have Leif talk about his failure at Tahra here. I mean it would've been too late even if they did, but I just feel the need to point this out.

And, of course, in the wacky, black comedy abridged series world of item dialogue, we obtain the Ulir (Ullur, apparently) scroll by scamming a little old lady. She thinks the thing is cursed, and whoever visits her has absolutely no desire to correct her.

This is a fairly uneventful and simple map. The most eventful thing that happened was that the boss poisoned Asbel after Asbel (unsuccessfully, to my astonishment, since this speed demon could resist getting doubled even by Asbel using wind) tried to kill him before he could kill Amalda. He critted, at least, but got an unlikely poisoned shot to the face for his trouble. And it was then that I realized I hadn't brought any healers but Asbel, and that I wasn't even sure if I had vulneraries. Thankfully I did, and the few I have are gonna have to last.

...Wait, this map has a supply house, and there's plenty in there! Nevermind!

I have literally no idea where the hell Amalda's trying to run off to. She keeps changing direction and it's utterly bizarre, but more importantly, her master sword broke absurdly quickly because it's a 20 use brave weapon, and now she's a sitting duck who's attracting way too much enemy attention.

Things are just about ready for Shanam the Sham's arrival. Eda and Finn are on the west side of the map, stealing iron axes from bandits to freshen up our supply, while everyone else is congregating around the mountain.

Speaking of which... does anyone else notice how bizarrely similar this map looks to the one where you get Julian and Lena in FE1? Just with a village where the bandit's hideout originally was?

AMALDA, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING!? GO SOMEWHERE! DECIDE! MAKE A FUCKING DECISION! YOU'RE CARRYING A SHATTERED PIECE OF IRON, YOU ARE LITERALLY A LIABILITY RIGHT NOW! WHY ARE YOU JUST WANDERING AROUND LIKE AN AIMLESS IDIOT!?

….

…

…

...I have to start over.

Shanam ran away... the other way. I was counting on him running east, towards an exit, but it turns out the exit he has in mind is the little road to the west of the fort. The very next turn away.

...FFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUCK.

...Okay, so, after taking a break to do other shit that needed getting done today, I tried again, and amazingly, this time Amalda actually fucking evacuated, which for some reason she decided she could only do from this one specific spot near the enemy forts. Well, she's gone now, and now Mareeta can milk the remaining exp. All she has to do is kill the one hunter every turn on player phase, and the two bandits will take care of themselves. Now then, let's grab Shanam, who I'm ready for this time.

...HE RAN THE OTHER FUCKING WAY THIS TIME!?

...Alright. I was concerned that would be the case last time, so I know for a fact that I made sure not to block of his escape in that direction. And yet he still ran the other way. So this time, I AM going to block off his escape in that direction, and hope that he runs back towards Mareeta.

...Instead he doesn't move at all. Oh goodie. Another Two-Face AI? Or maybe this time he realizes he's trapped... and that stops him from moving in the opposite direction either?

...Did I restart for nothing? Was that road he was moving towards not an exit at all? Was he just moving randomly like an idiot?

...Well anyway, Mareeta has Astra now, and I'm ready to get moving.

Looks like the thing about “the scent of the sea” and “the scent of pine” thing isn't in this translation, and he actually just asks where I want to go. Given what I've been told, yeah, obviously I'm picking A route: Fort Nordrhein.

OH SWEET! I GET TO KILL KEMPF ON THIS ROUTE!

Alright, I'll see you guys next time!

[Interdimensional Observer]

34 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Looks like the thing about “the scent of the sea” and “the scent of pine” thing isn't in this translation, and he actually just asks where I want to go. Given what I've been told, yeah, obviously I'm picking A route: Fort Nordrhein.

I was just keeping it vague rather than spell it out for you. Thats all, nothing to do with the text.

 

I do like Chapter 15, nothing eventful, and fairly easy enemies, but it is a good "breather" chapter. I think Thracia benefits from having one of these once in a while b/c Stamina.

 

OH YEAH! Sleep Staff one of the three Cavs with Sleep Edges, it'll help to have one for FE's most EVIL recruitment. You don't need the Sleep Edge, and it'll still be so dang bad with one in tow, but NPCs can converse with sleep foes, even though player units can't. Just space out the sleep targets- don't tranquilize them in adjacent spaces, make sure each has a space between them, like a checkerboard pattern of empty spaces and snoozing targets.

-This will make sense, in time.

The other two Sleep Edges you can nab using your first if you want to, not a bad idea. Though Sleep Edges are usually much less reliable than the Staff due to less accuracy and way less range.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

OH YEAH! Sleep Staff one of the three Cavs with Sleep Edges, it'll help to have one for FE's most EVIL recruitment. You don't need the Sleep Edge, and it'll still be so dang bad with one in tow, but NPCs can converse with sleep foes, even though player units can't. Just space out the sleep targets- don't tranquilize them in adjacent spaces, make sure each has a space between them, like a checkerboard pattern of empty spaces and snoozing targets.

-This will make sense, in time.

You have to be talking about Xavier.

Is he even worth this nonsense?

[Flere210]

It's an armor knight. Take a wild guess.

[Interdimensional Observer]

23 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

You have to be talking about Xavier.

Is he even worth this nonsense?

No, definitely not. His okay stats, and good skills and growths don't justify it, the excessive number of enemy Hammers in Thracia limits his usability. He has A Axes and Bows, yet C Swords and E Lances. 1 Authority Star is cute, but that ain't worth the headache. 

Without him, his map isn't much of a challenge. But going for him makes it a hell that even if you know what you're doing and take it slow, there is plenty that can go wrong. This is unlike say Stefan, who is easy if you know the "how" to get.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Eltosian Kadath]

Oh I forgot to comment on last chapter... eh it is one of my least favorite Thracia chapters anyway. I didn't even bother unlocking it on my ironman (although less tipsy me might have). That chapter has particularly annoying random reinforcements, and while Stamina drinks are nice I tend to hoard them by instinct, so I never end up using as many as I get from this gaiden.

 

21 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Incidentally, Glade was pretty useful! He was handy for capturing the rewarp users on several occasions, for one. Not sure how much longer I'll be using him, but for now I'm enjoying having him around.

I rather like fielding Glade if I have any extra deployment slots, as he is a solid filler unit with that leadership star to help out the main squad as well.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

So, our haul from yesterday was a whopping 35 charges of rewarp! That makes me really, really, really wish I had powerful staff users who could do that and fight. It also makes me genuinely tempted to grind up the 150 staff uses it would take to get Asbel to be able to use it. But I know that making that happen is pretty much impossible.

Another interesting thing to think about is giving one to Nanna and having her rewarp while carrying a rescued unit as a sort of poor mans warp use.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

AMALDA, WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU GOING!? GO SOMEWHERE! DECIDE! MAKE A FUCKING DECISION! YOU'RE CARRYING A SHATTERED PIECE OF IRON, YOU ARE LITERALLY A LIABILITY RIGHT NOW! WHY ARE YOU JUST WANDERING AROUND LIKE AN AIMLESS IDIOT!?

Yeah her escape tile is weirdly placed right next to the enemy spawn points. I haven't seen it documented anywhere, but I think she might have the invincibility flag here, as I have never even heard of her dying on this chapter, and the boss has a Halberd with mediocre hit on her when that sword breaks.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Did I restart for nothing? Was that road he was moving towards not an exit at all? Was he just moving randomly like an idiot?

To be fair Shanam is kinda an idiot so it is entirely in character for him to randomly move. He usually goes to the left and sits around but I have seen him head to the right before, which makes it far more annoying to chase him down for Mareeta's talk

 

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

OH YEAH! Sleep Staff one of the three Cavs with Sleep Edges, it'll help to have one for FE's most EVIL recruitment.

Alternatively use the thief staff, and then use the sleep sword to get more sleep swords...

 

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

You have to be talking about Xavier.

Is he even worth this nonsense?

He has a Leadership star, high defense with Accost (making him a good ballista breaker), and the only playable unit other than promoted Dalshin that can use Lances indoors (although he starts at E rank...). He comes with a Master Axe on him, and starts with A rank axes and Bows which is great. He is also in the weird position of having Wrath, but also an FCM of 0, which makes criticals especially weird. Probably not worth the effort, but he isn't entirely worthless (although Thracia's love of hammers means you still have to watch him).

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Given what I've been told, yeah, obviously I'm picking A route: Fort Nordrhein.

 

OH SWEET! I GET TO KILL KEMPF ON THIS ROUTE!

Alright, I'll see you guys next time!

Fair enough, most people consider the A route the best to take (as B route while easier is far more annoying). I do kinda like the characters you recruit on the B route from a lore perspective, and the B route loot, but the A route characters are clearly better, and the warp staff you can get on the A route is still probably objectively superior to all the cooler loot from the B route.

Side note I did push a little further on my little Ironman earlier to catch up, and am going B route, as with Karin gone (and my preference for Olwen), I am missing out on some of the better characters on that route, and while annoying B route maps are generally easier.