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

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Reminds me, my own Corrin has gotten goose egg levels of magic and only 3 speed. Anyway... OUCH. That's pretty bad.

It's even worse than that. I totally forgot about the goddess icon I gave her. She's actually 1.2 behind in luck.

[Axie]

43 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

(a high bar to reach given that there's an “S support” that essentially boils down to forced marriage via threat of cannibalism played for comedy)

fates might be badly written but nothing comes CLOSE to how terrible inigo/nah is. nah isn't even good in other supports to be honest. worst character in awakening? probably. still better than a handful of fates miscreants, though.

but yeah, that hana support is absurd. who typed those lines and thought with a straight face that was a good or even funny source of conflict? fates pls.

also i know this chapter can be actually fought, but also nah. i get the treasure and SPLIT IT. i think i do it in two turns? love it when fire emblem gives me even half a chance to not actually fight, which is why i hate the stealth chapter in revelation so much - you put up a reward for not fighting and then make it so unbearably annoying to not fight that you make even me want to just fight? fuck you, revelation.

also i will still remain behind my guy subaki. yes hinoka outclasses him, but also duh, she is a royal. camilla also outclasses beruka and i always use beruka in conquest anyway. more fliers are always useful imo.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Axie

[Shadow Mir]

13 minutes ago, Axie said:

also i know this chapter can be actually fought, but also nah. i get the treasure and SPLIT IT. i think i do it in two turns? love it when fire emblem gives me even half a chance to not actually fight, which is why i hate the stealth chapter in revelation so much - you put up a reward for not fighting and then make it so unbearably annoying to not fight that you make even me want to just fight? fuck you, revelation.

Path of Radiance was worse about it in terms of giving a reward for not being caught and then turning around and making it hard to achieve, which means I just default to kicking the shit out of everything.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Peri: I'm gonna bring your guts back to Lord Xander! Teeheehee!

...Does she normally do this? I mean accepting unwanted gifts out of politeness is already awkward enough when the gifts aren't literal intestines.

"These are my retainers: a psychotic clown who kills people for fun, and a mercenary with no traceable history beyond a few months back. I trust them with my very life."

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Now we're meeting Kaden, and I'm super torn on whether I love or hate why Kaden's here. The idea of somebody who's obsessed with repaying kindness wandering out of his village one day and getting into this ridiculous chain of favor-repaying that gets him halfway across the continent is dumb as shit... but also hilarious and adorable.

I don't know why they felt the need to make Kaden the chief of his tribe. In that light, leaving his tribe, fucking off to Nestra, and joining a war cones across as downright irresponsible. He'd work better as a "Kit Everyfox", so to speak. Same with Keaton.

Anyway, I quite like him as a unit. High Res, Speed, and Beastfoe make him a perfect player-phase option against Valkyries and Dark Knights. Of course, like most beastformers, his enemy-phase is limited.

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

That does sound like nightmare fuel, and I am kinda glad that I have never seen it. But the fact that I haven't ever seen it does remind me of something I wanted to bring up. How do people generally feel about the pace of combat animations in Fates? For me, this was one of the biggest downsides of the dual attack and dual guard system. Having nearly every attack have two extra animations compared to other games made everything feel soooo sloooooow. Maybe not quite PoR levels of slow, but still slow. I ended up turning combat animations off to speed things up a bit, and I normally keep them on in most FE games.

I generally liked the animations, moreso than Awakening at least. They're expressive, and outside of units jumping in the way to dual guard, fairly snappy. To me, the benchmarks of "slow animations" are FE6 dark magic, and Gauntlets doing no damage in Three Houses.

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

I'm not saying anyone is ever forcing you to use Mozu, or that she's naturally even all that better than Takumi. She has a rough start, that's why I included the quotes from Alastor saying that he needed to use dual attacks and that she couldn't even damage the boss. My point isn't to say she's superior to Takumi, but these are the reasons people like Mozu. She's a character you have to put in effort in, but the effort gives results. That being said, the thing Alastor did in his Revalation run and making her a Dread Fighter is the best path for Mozu, as the base stats of a promoted class on a level 1 unit super help her around her early start.

I agree with all this stuff, as someone who has enjoyed using Mozu. She can definitely be made to work. Still, we should be cognizant of certain costs - babying her in her join chapter takes time (and the experience going to her isn't going to anyone else), and she needs a Heart Seal to go Archer. She can effectively use this investment, yes, but I'm not convinced that this is necessarily an efficient use of resources. Then again, everyone should play however they like best.

[Shadow Mir]

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

Could have put more focus on it, but I did address that.

And saying Takumi is not a better unit that Mozu doesn't mean I'm suggesting Takumi is a worse unit either. I did consider comparing 20/15 caps as that's when you start getting the final skills, but I actually decided against that for the reason that it would make Mozu look too good as she caps her stats a lot earlier than Takumi. But sure, for the fun of it, let's throw up some more stats for compraison.

Name	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu 0/11	20	11.5	0.5	14.5	14	7	8.5	5
Takumi 0/11	26	13	0	17	11	13	10	4
Mozu 20/1	25.6	18.45	0.95	23.35	24.3	12.5	14.55	8.7
Takumi 20/1	33.4	19.5	0	26.75	19.95	18.5	16.05	6.8

 

So as we can see from comparing Archer!Mozu's stats at the level Takumi joins and their stats upon promotion to a Sniper (though personally I always prefer Kinshi Knight over Sniper, shame it kind of removes the use of Takumi's exclusive acrobat skill), Mozu is already faster than Takumi from the start, which could be very important if you're facing enemies you can't double (probably more of a concern in Revelation than Birthright). By the time they're promoting they're pretty comparable in everything, Takumi's main strength over her is being bulky (which isn't the biggest strength for an archer).

I'm not saying anyone is ever forcing you to use Mozu, or that she's naturally even all that better than Takumi. She has a rough start, that's why I included the quotes from Alastor saying that he needed to use dual attacks and that she couldn't even damage the boss. My point isn't to say she's superior to Takumi, but these are the reasons people like Mozu. She's a character you have to put in effort in, but the effort gives results. That being said, the thing Alastor did in his Revalation run and making her a Dread Fighter is the best path for Mozu, as the base stats of a promoted class on a level 1 unit super help her around her early start.

Name	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu Dread Fighter 0/11	22.5	14.5	4	12.5	17	5.5	10	15
Takumi 0/11	26	13	0	17	11	13	10	4
Mozu Dread Fighter 20/1	27	20	5	18	24	10	14	20
Takumi 20/1	33.4	19.5	0	26.75	19.95	18.5	16.05	6.8

 

Dread Fighter Mozu outstrips Takumi not only in speed, but strength too, and a Resistance stat that's actually worth a damn making her a great anti mage unit, course any Dread Fighter would be, the point is to combine early relative stat gains with good growths to remove her weakness of really struggling to kill things at first.

So, yeah, strength and speed are the reason to use Mozu. You have to baby her for two or so chapters before she starts actually getting that strength stat (she literally starts at 0, which is a bit ridiculous). Takumi is a fine unit too (his personal skill is definitely better than Mozu's whose is too situational and on a unit you don't really want to be tanking tonnes of hits anyway), though neither of them are even as close to as good as Rymoa.

Anyone physical would improve massively from Dread Fighter, so I don't see that as much of a point in Mozu's favor. Also, your stats are comparing them at equal levels, which they won't be at without massive favoritism for Mozu.

3 hours ago, Axie said:

also i will still remain behind my guy subaki. yes hinoka outclasses him, but also duh, she is a royal. camilla also outclasses beruka and i always use beruka in conquest anyway. more fliers are always useful imo.

Wings can only do so much good when you lack just about everywhere statistically. Watching him fight pretty much anything that is either not a mage or didn't get the business end of Seal Defense is like watching Mr. Satan try to attack Cell in Dragon Ball. Doesn't help that Perfectionist is hot garbage as a personal skill (+15 hit and avoid at full health... Yay. That's (not very) useful).

Edited February 23, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Because she does next to nothing to the enemies, and it incurs a massive opportunity cost in the form of a Heart Seal, which is limited for a huge chunk of the game. Am I supposed to believe that something that valuable is better spent babying Mozu than having Felicia get Inspiration early or something? Because that is a very, very, VERY hard sell.

No one's making you use Mozu. If you don't want to then that's fine. But the reason people do like her is because babying her for a chapter has greater benefits than babying anyone else.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Anyone physical would improve massively from Dread Fighter, so I don't see that as much of a point in Mozu's favor. Also, your stats are comparing them at equal levels, which they won't be at without massive favoritism for Mozu.

Wings can only do so much good when you lack just about everywhere statistically. Watching him fight pretty much anything that is either not a mage or didn't get the business end of Seal Defense is like watching Mr. Satan try to attack Cell in Dragon Ball. Doesn't help that Perfectionist is hot garbage as a personal skill (+15 hit and avoid at full health... Yay. That's (not very) useful).

Yeah, I noted that. You missed the part where I said the whole point is to combine good relative class bases with good growths. In other words, Dread Fighter Mozu mitigates one of her biggest issues in that she requires less babying and is more easily able to compete immediately.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so while I definitely remember taking Garon out on hard, with his Lunatic stats it's looking kind of... impossible for my army. Nobody in my army even comes close to having the physical bulk necessary to take a single hit from that fucking axe. Thankfully he doesn't move, so we can just move around him as you're supposed to.

I haven't ever been able to take Garon out here. You really need some heavy grinding (or some other cheese) to pull it off (perhaps its easier on the lowest difficulty...)

 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, so, this is the trick I alluded to last time. Using fliers to exploit enemy ground pathing to send them on a perpetual wild goose chase as you constantly change which direction they have to go in in order to get to the closest unit. It's how I survived Chapter 6 in Thracia and kept Galzus off my tail, and while I will be taking out Xander here unlike Galzus, I don't want to do it right now.

Ah, that makes sense.

 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

I think this is just about the worst avatar I've ever gotten, and if I were using path bonuses, you can bet your ass I'd be giving all the dragon herbs to her. But nope, this is the last straw. Dakota, I'm sorry, but you're gonna be Ryoma's pocket wife this time around. Honestly, I'm almost grateful for an excuse to do this, because I've never married Dakota to a frontliner before. It always seemed so wasteful. But now here there's nothing to waste, and so I can put Dakota's personal skill to amazing use.

I will note that Corrin's skill does work with attack stances as well, which is where I think it really tends to shine.

 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, Xander and Garon are way stronger than I remember them being last time I played this, and I remember playing this on Lunatic! Okay, I really can't take out Xander. I'm gonna have to just make a break for it by air. Thankfully I just have to hold out for one more turn, and Silas, while he can't put a dent on Xander, can at least take a beating from him and still survive another gang-up attack from the nearby knight. It helps that I was able to just barely skirt Xander's personal skill by luckily healing Silas up to one shy of full HP.

I did manage to take Xander out in my Lunatic run...just barely. It took forever to do, with Oboro having to tank the entire way, very...very...very slowly whittling his health down, while finding ways to keep my healing resources from running fully dry...

 

 

[lenticular]

  

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But yeah, I've gotta say, I love the aesthetics of this level. This is a huge theater with a stage surrounded by water, and we're fighting on a makeshift battlefield of gondolas and docks. It's pretty cool. Also, I could've sworn there was some promotional material that showed these gondolas moving between turns, and I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or grateful that that didn't wind up happening. I'm frankly surprised Revelation didn't use that as a gimmick.

Yeah, it's a great concept for a setting, and the aesthetics are pulled off really well. I actually like it enough that I've made a mental note to some day steal it for a D&D game. I don't think the map design worked out as well as it could, but the aesthetic is top notch.

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

"These are my retainers: a psychotic clown who kills people for fun, and a mercenary with no traceable history beyond a few months back. I trust them with my very life."

I laughed.

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

I don't know why they felt the need to make Kaden the chief of his tribe. In that light, leaving his tribe, fucking off to Nestra, and joining a war cones across as downright irresponsible. He'd work better as a "Kit Everyfox", so to speak. Same with Keaton.

I assume that it's that way so that it makes a little more sense that he's the boss of the Conquest level where you fight the kitsune. I agree it would have been better if they hadn't, though.

And as an aside, I wish they hadn't given Kaden and Keaton such similar names. I have no idea what purpose it serves other than making it harder for me to remember which dog-boy is which.

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, lenticular said:

 And as an aside, I wish they hadn't given Kaden and Keaton such similar names. I have no idea what purpose it serves other than making it harder for me to remember which dog-boy is which.

I don't know why, but basically every single 3DS shifter had their name changed radically. Panne was Velvet, Yarne was Chambray, Kaden was Nishiki, Keaton was Flannel, and Selkie was Kinu. The only one who's name was kept mostly the same was Velouria, who was originally Velour.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Alastor15243

[lenticular]

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I don't know why, but basically every single 3DS shifter had their name changed radically. Panne was Velvet, Yarne was Chambray, Kaden was Nishiki, Keaton was Flannel, and Selkie was Kinu. The only one who's name was kept mostly the same was Velouria, who was originally Velour.

Ohhhh, that makes sense now. At least partially. I didn't realise they were all named after fabrics originally. Can't say I blame them for changing them all; the fabric names sound incredibly doofy to me. And I sort of understand what they were going for by nodding to the original naming scheme by choosing names that sound like "cotton", but why they couldn't have had, say, "Kaden" and "Flannery" or something like that, I don't know.

Edited February 24, 2021 by lenticular

[Femboy Advance SP]

I remember when I managed to defeat xander on this chapter it was all thanks to saizo's personal.    Shame you get zero reward for doing so, or from garon either for that matter.

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, lenticular said:

Ohhhh, that makes sense now. At least partially. I didn't realise they were all named after fabrics originally. Can't say I blame them for changing them all; the fabrid name sound incredibly doofy to me. And I sort of understand what they were going for by nodding to the original naming scheme by choosing names that sound like "cotton", but why they couldn't have had, say, "Kaden" and "Flannery" or something like that, I don't know.

Makes even less sense to me. The original at least could get away with some presumed references or something to have such similar names (remamber the Keaton mask from Zelda? The fox one...yeah Keaton here is the wolf). But the localizers are the one's whose job it is to have these names make sense to an English (or whatever) speaking audience. And they decided to take to distinct names for two similar classes and change them into two very similar names for two similar classes -_-

Imo Velvet would have been an absolutely fine name for Panne. The others are a bit iffy though.

[Venger_06]

23 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so, I just did all my stuff for today, including giving everyone a smithy shield. Reminder that you can make requests for what I send everyone!

Just started a new playthrough. A Chef's Hat or an Arena Shield would be good. My avatar's name is Edythe (Carla Eleanor Carine Alexandra Wolfgang Sieghart of Nohr). I still accept any advice.

Edited February 24, 2021 by Maof06

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 8: Chapter 13

So I just gave Oboro a fox tail and she says it's “what the sophisticated ladies are wearing right now”, and I've gotta ask... is there anyone who doesn't like getting fox tails as a gift? Anyone at all? I've never seen it happen!

Everyone gets an item shield today. Handy to get a staff wielder in the shop for a consistent tiny discount.

Also... I've realized that I don't have a single emerald. Not one. After all this time. It's the only resource I have nothing of.

...That's gonna be a problem when it comes time to forge bows in Conquest.

Alright, let's get into it. The Camilla fight.

I'm excited about this. Mostly because I finally get to upgrade my shops after this, but also because there's a lot of houses here for treasure, and, of course, I get to roast this story for what a lunatic Camilla is.

Ah yes, and we get an absolutely shamelessly gorgeous cutscene with Camilla slowly walking in high heels while the camera gets so close to her crotch, tits and ass that it would probably interfere with the lighting in live action.

I'm almost impressed by their complete lack of shame here. They know what this is for, and god damn it, they're doing it. Honestly, if I wanted to really, really amp up the game's “so bad it's good” quality, I would've removed every cutscene in the game except this one. Replace them all with in-engine fight scenes. Some of those would look so stupid. It would be amazing.

Camilla starts off being super reasonable and sweet, saying that she's happy Dakota is loved and happy, even if they aren't together anymore.

But then...

...she starts dropping the fireballs.

Takumi: Will someone hurry up and take her out?

Hinoka: I'm working on it!

No you aren't, Hinoka! You haven't budged an inch since you entered your fighting stance!

Yep, Camilla's gone full yandere psycho, and she's gonna kill everyone with the help of Hans, and then kill Dakota, and cradle her in her arms “just like [she did] when [she was] a child”.

Obviously we have a few things to say about that.

Yeeeeeesh! So many axes and bows on this first part!

Anyway, yeah, this is a fun map. A lot of stuff going on in the first half, a brief break in the middle, and then another crazy full-army rush. Lots of fun to be had here.

Also, now that Dakota is officially a rear unit... I get to do something fun I've never really gotten to take advantage of before.

Let's do this.

First off! Have Dakota get herself brutally injured and stay that way for the rest of the battle. Which means that Silas just got himself a cool +3/-3 buff, and even with a katana, his effective defense is now 19. So he's going to go up the northern alleyway behind the house right above us to take on the rushing enemies from the northwest.

Meanwhile, we've got an extremely tight schedule to get to the villages before the outlaws do. By the looks of things, this outlaw's gonna make it to the furthest village by the end of turn 3. Thankfully, Saizo can make it there in time to kill him. I paired him up with Dakota for the benefits of Dakota's personal skill, and he's doing passably as a 1-2 range enemy phaser. He needs help doubling with a steel shuriken though. Thankfully, the way things worked out, there's a little opening where if I kill the fighter by the northeasternmost house, only one other enemy can attack him.

Man, pair-up is insanely useful for ferrying characters across the map super quickly. I remember this coming in handy to save the houses on my first attempt, and here it's handy to get my healers to where they need to be when they need to be there. I had a wounded Subaki, but not only was there no healer around, I couldn't have him use a healing item because if I wanted to get him to bait in an enemy on enemy-phase, I'd have to pair him up with Hinoka and have Hinoka drop him there, because he was one space short. Thankfully I had a ton of units scattered about, standing by and waiting for a moment they'd be useful, and I could thus ferry Jakob between fronts.

Silas is fucking cleaning house here. I hope it stays this easy to activate vow of friendship early in the map, because I would love to take advantage of this for the rest of the game.

Oh nice, cute generic bandana-wearing Nohrian village girl! We meet again! Honestly, I wish this girl were playable. I'm pretty sure I've already said that.

We get a talisman from her, and also we get a heart seal from one of the other houses! I kinda held off on visiting them until the place was secure, due to the tight timetable here. I got a spirit dust with Hinoka on turn one, but that was only because it was convenient for dual-strike positioning for enemy-phase.

The outlaws seem to have abandoned the closest houses and are going... somewhere else. Not sure where. But I'm keeping an eye on them and clearing out the area as fast as I can.

I've got a dual guard primed and ready for baiting in Hans. Good thing too, because even without concerns about crits, Hans is a monster, and could've one-hit killed Saizo. Wow. 40 damage is a high benchmark to tank, and the only guy I have who can do it is Silas.

I just got 10,000 gold and a wane festal from the last houses. Time to take out these wyvern lords and then bait in Camilla to trigger wave 2.

Alright, we're on wave 2. Camilla has bowbreaker, which makes her a bit trickier than she could be, but Saizo was able to take her out thanks to his absolutely ridiculous personal skill. 40% HP damage when combined with poison strike is insanely useful on high-bulk opponents if you know how to use it. I also managed to rip through a general the same way, which was good, because I'm being swarmed on both sides right now.

Yeah, the combat here still isn't anything on the level of what I'd have to deal with in, say, Shadow Dragon, but I think this might warrant a +4 in difficulty if it keeps improving like this. But I'm not entirely sure. I may have to replay FE6 sometime soon to see if I'm remembering correctly.

And after the battle, Dakota actually manages to convince Camilla that Garon is insane by telling her about the exploding sword and how it's sheer luck that the plan didn't kill her...

...and then Leo shows up to take Camilla away, and the next time we see her, she's back to being loyal to Nohr and even more psycho crazy. Yeah, I don't get what went down there.

But then a green general shows up to save the day, challenging Leo to single combat.

But he is no general. He is HIGH PRINCE RYOMA OF HOSHIDO!

And then the Chevois rebellion forces arrive to save the day, and Leo and Hans retreat.

...and Camilla flies off with them.

Why? Why would she fly off rather than staying with Dakota to hear more!? WE'VE ALREADY ESTABLISHED WE'RE NOT GOING TO HURT HER, AND SHE WAS JUST DEFENDING DAKOTA TO LEO LAST TIME SHE SPOKE! SHE BELIEVES US!

...And then we talk with the Chevois resistance without so much as a “CAMILLA! WAIT!”, and Ryoma reveals himself, and then... the scene... abruptly ends, and we're all back in My Castle. That was... bizarre. Well, we have Ryoma now. Let's get some supports done and keep going. I've still got time!

Silas and Jakob... has Jakob giving Silas shit about what a bleeding heart he is and how much he takes other people's problems as his own burden, and... already the conversation's over. Ugh. This is potentially interesting, but I hate these cliffhangers. Though I will concede the brevity makes supports less exhausting to cover in this playlog.

Have I mentioned recently how much I'm dreading Three Houses? It's... Jesus Christ, only two and a half games to go, seriously!? Wow, I've come a long way with this.

Alright, now for Silas and Kagero.

Okay, while it was more of the same, this time with tea, it was pretty funny seeing Silas's reactions to the abomination to beverages that Kagero apparently created.

Alright, so we have three heart seals now, and we have to wait until the end of Chapter 20 before we can get infinite of them. We might get some more later, but for now, since I don't want to look item locations up, we've gotta ration these three.

...Is there any explanation why Ryoma starts with a sun festal in his inventory? Any at all?

...Holy shit is Scarlet awesome. I didn't realize until just now that despite my Silas being pretty damned good, Scarlet outstrips him in strength, defense and speed, even after counting the boosts from vow of friendship. That's gonna be insanely useful.

But Ryoma, yeah, uh... while he's gonna take some work to improve his bulk, make no mistake: he's the best all-around warrior in the entire game of Birthright, and it's almost entirely thanks to that fucking sword of his. He's gonna get some serious help with his survivability though, thanks to Dakota.

Because I'm gonna promote her at level 13, reclass her to paladin, and have her stick to Ryoma like glue until they're married, only coming out to activate vow of friendship at the first ideal opportunity every fight.

...As an added bonus, this reclass means we add more fuel to the unleaded bathos that is this game's story by having Dakota spend every single story scene from now on in assless armor complete with thong. Because that's the mandatory dress code for basically every female rider in Nohr, and I have no fucking idea why.

I'm also promoting Kagero to master ninja to give Silas more of a speed boost when they're paired up. Everyone I've been using regularly is around level 16 now, so we're getting close to promotion time. On my first run of Hard I started promoting units at level 20 by the end of this upcoming chapter, but given Lunatic's modified exp curve, not sure if that'll happen. It might happen in Chapter 15 though.

 

Day 8 Bonus: Chapter 14

Apparently Scarlet has a Hoshidan grandfather, or at least one who served the Hoshidan king of the time.

Okay, so Takumi, as an unknowing sleeper agent, ratted the resistance out to Nohr. Somehow. Not sure when exactly he was supposed to do that, since this is the moment everyone's being introduced to the resistance.

And Ryoma decides to respond by using a secret pathway directly to Nohr's border, using the Ephraim logic of “something this ballsy is the last thing the enemy expects us to do in our situation”.

...It sounds like we're just leaving everybody in the resistance behind except for Scarlet. Just going back to being a guerrilla force. But uh... QUICK QUESTION...

“We must evacuate immediately”, quoth Ryoma.

“The resistance here is strong,” quoth Scarlet. “We may be outnumbered, but we'll win the day.”

She says this not as an objection to Ryoma's call to evacuate, but as an assurance that even with all of our units fleeing along with the resistance's commander, the Chevois rebel army they're leaving behind is going to be just fine.

FUCKING WHAT!?

NO!

BRING THEM WITH YOU, YOU TITANIC DUMBFUCKS!

YOU'RE EVACUATING FROM A BATTLE THAT SCARLET IS CONFIDENT YOU CAN WIN, TO GO FIGHT A BATTLE THAT SCARLET ISN'T CONFIDENT YOU CAN WIN, AND YOU'RE LEAVING THE ENTIRETY OF YOUR BRAND NEW ALLIED ARMY BEHIND WITH NO INTENTION OF COMING BACK FOR THEM!?

THIS IS WEAPONS GRADE, CANCEROUS STUPIDITY!

EVERYONE PRESENT SHOULD BE FUCKING ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!

Also, they built this underground tunnel? This massive underground tunnel long enough for them to have a conversation in? How long has this resistance been a thing!?

Also also, how did they finish the exit to the other side without any fear that the enemy will find and use it?

Okay, well, enough about that, let's get to the actual gameplay. This is a fun map, with groups of enemies that start moving depending on the turn number, so if you take too long to take care of one group, another will start charging. The second half isn't as intense, but no matter.

I'll be taking out these bands of cavalry to the east and west with Ryoma and Silas. The outlaw on the west side will be taken out by Ryoma as he comes in to bait in the cavalry, while on Silas's side, I'll have Hinoka and Subaki fly in to take out the outlaw, with Azura helping Subaki get closer after Hinoka positions for the dual strike. Subaki's got no fear of missing, thanks to his personal skill and attack stance bonuses, and he can one-round even without Hinoka's dual strike hitting, so we're safe.

I'll take on the knights in the center afterwards, once we've regrouped properly.

Oh, and I gave Ryoma my dracoshield, talisman and seraph robe, since the more bulk he has, the better.

Let's do this.

It's funny, Ryoma's getting almost no exp from fighting here, and yet I feel no shame, because I'm still building him up by boosting his support rank with Dakota. Right now he's getting +2 to str/def/res from the paladin stats, and another +2 to his offense and defense from Bushido due to Dakota being a lower level. Once they get a C support, that's gonna be another +2 to Ryoma's offensive/defensive stats thanks to Dakota's personal skill. That's +6 to attack, defense and resistance from pairing up with Dakota before adding in whatever the fuck Dakota's personalized stat boosts will be.

Yeah, so, as you could probably guess, Ryoma slaughtered the entire western third of the map, while the east and center were handled by everyone else.

Honestly, this map is way, way easier than I remember it being. I remembered having tense moments on this map on hard. And yet here I am stomping it on enemy phase on Lunatic. Even setting Ryoma aside, Silas is just destroying these cavalry. Everything but the paladin dies immediately, and the paladin is swift to follow.

Also, I don't think I've ever mentioned this, but I love the swordmaster crit animation in this game. The swordmaster fucking kicks the enemy in the chest before delivering the killing slice. It's just so satisfying.

Now for one of the dumbest enemies in the game: a berserker holding nothing but a bolt axe, a weapon incapable of exploiting any of the berserker's good qualities. With this thing he has an attack power of 16 and he can't crit. Naturally, he goes down like a bitch shortly after being baited in, and the bolt axe is now ours, if only we had anyone who could make good use of it.

Alright, we've breached the wall. Now there's just the process of taking out all the juicy promoted enemies inside for some nice exp.

Ryoma gets his first level up thanks to the handful of promoted enemies he's gotten to fight, and he gets strength skill, speed and defense! A promising start! He also gets astra, which is a great if unreliable skill for him since it boosts his damage and dual guard gauge.

And the boss goes down like a chump to Ryoma after I clear out the whole level. A berserker looked like it would be too much for Silas to handle for a moment, but I managed to trade Azura's brass naginata over to him for the crit resist and he was fine.

Ryoma's second level up is sadly HPsauce, but no matter. He's gonna be amazing.

Ah yes, and another nighttime scene with Azura, and an incoming cutscene where she's... almost corrupted by purple energy, despite her not doing anything song-related lately.

...Oh, okay, so she's singing right now, but... uh...

What for?

What's she doing in the middle of the night with her magic that causes the most brutal magical backlash she's suffered so far? Using the song for refreshing isn't supposed to hurt her. She says so herself! I think she even fucking says it here! So what the fuck is she doing with her song!?

...Please tell me this isn't the exact same CGI lake used in the other lakeside cutscenes.

Because I'm pretty sure Dakota didn't just take a midnight stroll all the way fucking back to Hoshido and just happen to run into Azura doing the same fucking thing in the same fucking place.

...I'm sorry, but her scream of pain is just so funny for some reason.

Anyway, so, Azura explains the power that Lost in Thoughts All Alone has thanks to her pendant, and... she explains that if she sings for fun, or for refreshing purposes, she's fine. But if she does any advanced song magic, just like I said, it “comes at a price”. She “suffers”.

No explanation for why she was using that power in the middle of fucking nowhere though.

“It doesn't always happen right away-”

Is the game trying to imply that that was her still suffering from the Cheve incident? Several days later?

Alright, we have three supports, one of which I've already talked about. That would be the Dakota-Ryoma C support, which means now Ryoma's got that juicy +2/-2 from Dakota's personal. Next is Hinoka and Subaki's A support.

Not much to remark on, just a rather vanilla discussion about the new recruits they're training. Moving on, Mozu and Takumi.

Mozu was surprisingly hostile to Takumi, though I guess she was mad he trampled the crops by accident. I'm kinda curious how she knows from experience that royal folk make lousy farmers like she said. I mean the way she said it, it sounds like this isn't the first time she's had a bad experience with royalty and farming, which would be... weird. But yeah, Takumi took that as a challenge and is now going to help.

Right, let's see what we've got to upgrade today.

A lot of stuff, apparently. I'll have to wait until tomorrow to get enough DVP to upgrade all of it. Honestly, looking at the option to upgrade the prison and realizing I have basically no use for it, I've gotta say it was a bad call to lock the capture system to two characters. It could've been way more fun if it were more available. But anyway...

...I guess that's it for today. Alright, tomorrow we'll be tackling the wolfskin chapter, which should be fun. I'll probably ease up on the Ryoma next time though, now that I've secured that all-important C rank. Wait until he's less overleveled, unless the situation really calls for him.

Stay safe, everyone!

Edited March 7, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, looking at the option to upgrade the prison and realizing I have basically no use for it, I've gotta say it was a bad call to lock the capture system to two characters.

And an even worse call to make both of them suck...

 

10 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh nice, cute generic bandana-wearing Nohrian village girl! We meet again! Honestly, I wish this girl were playable. I'm pretty sure I've already said that.

Is it the same village girl who shows up at the end of Soleil's paralogue?

 

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, yeah, this is a fun map. A lot of stuff going on in the first half, a brief break in the middle, and then another crazy full-army rush. Lots of fun to be had here.

Relevant:

 

[lenticular]

I would comment about Camilla, except that I'm pretty sure the forum rules prohibit excessive cursing, so I don't think I have anything left to say.

Instead, I'll just point out that Scarlett and Ryoma are the end of the regular new recruits in this game. From this point on, all that's left is Shura in chapter 22, plus a bunch of entirely missable characters who are locked behind optional game mechanics and are never actually hinted at until you get them. And yes, some day I may let this go, but today is not that day. Thanks for asking.

[Espurrhoodie]

On 2/16/2021 at 3:43 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Looks like Em had a similar idea to me, keeping the Hoshidan stuff to the east and the Nohrian stuff to the west. Though the resources seem to be backwards...

Late as hell (I've been forgetting to check in on this) but oh shit thanks for pointing that out. Guess I didn't notice when I laid everything out back then

[Alastor15243]

36 minutes ago, Espurrhoodie said:

Late as hell (I've been forgetting to check in on this) but oh shit thanks for pointing that out. Guess I didn't notice when I laid everything out back then

No problem!

 

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, lenticular said:

Instead, I'll just point out that Scarlett and Ryoma are the end of the regular new recruits in this game. From this point on, all that's left is Shura in chapter 22, plus a bunch of entirely missable characters who are locked behind optional game mechanics and are never actually hinted at until you get them. And yes, some day I may let this go, but today is not that day. Thanks for asking.

The Virgin "getting units to join you by saving their village, offering them gold, or convincing them in the moral righteousness of your own cause" versus the Chad "designing a kick-ass castle that draws people to drop their responsibilities, jump into your pocket dimension, and join your army".

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also... I've realized that I don't have a single emerald. Not one. After all this time. It's the only resource I have nothing of.

...That's gonna be a problem when it comes time to forge bows in Conquest.

Just wanna check - you know you can swap for Ore at the Smithy, right? Five of whatever makes one Emerald. Then you risk it at the Arena to get more.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But then a green general shows up to save the day, challenging Leo to single combat.

I have to wonder how this battle would go. Ryoma could have Raijinto in his inventory, but wouldn't be able to use it, as Generals can't use Swords. So unless he's attacking with, say, a Javelin, Leo can get some pretty free hits in with Brynhildr. Not really sure why Ryoma was in disguise here. And I still haven't forgiven the crown prince, and de facto ruler of Hoshido, for disappearing and disguising his identity in order to take part in a proxy conflict. He should either be in the capital, or with the main Hoshidan army.

 

[Alastor15243]

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

Just wanna check - you know you can swap for Ore at the Smithy, right? Five of whatever makes one Emerald. Then you risk it at the Arena to get more.

Yep, well aware. I distinctly remember bringing it up myself when defending forging after Shadow Mir said it was impractical. It's just gonna be more annoying.

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

The Virgin "getting units to join you by saving their village, offering them gold, or convincing them in the moral righteousness of your own cause" versus the Chad "designing a kick-ass castle that draws people to drop their responsibilities, jump into your pocket dimension, and join your army".

She's talking about child units, which she almost missed entirely due to not building supports.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

She's talking about child units, which she almost missed entirely due to not building supports.

Ah okay, misinterpreted that as a dig against the joining conditions for units like Izana, Flora, and Yukimura. Weird to me that anyone wouldn't build supports, when it comes naturally with the pair-up system, but that's from the perspective of knowing what S-ranks unlock. Child Units are their own pack of gummy worms, though - I decided to totally forgo any of the babylogues on my Rev Ironman, and didn't regret it. But I've had fun with some of them in past playthroughs, I admit.

[lenticular]

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

Ah okay, misinterpreted that as a dig against the joining conditions for units like Izana, Flora, and Yukimura. Weird to me that anyone wouldn't build supports, when it comes naturally with the pair-up system, but that's from the perspective of knowing what S-ranks unlock. Child Units are their own pack of gummy worms, though - I decided to totally forgo any of the babylogues on my Rev Ironman, and didn't regret it. But I've had fun with some of them in past playthroughs, I admit.

I mean, you're not totally wrong. It was a dig at them as well. But yeah. Mostly a dig at the way child units work. Izana, Flora and the likes are way worse than the child units in terms of how obscure and hidden their join conditions are but that's mitigated somewhat by the fact that there are only two of them per game so it doesn't matter so much if you do miss them. Missing out on all the children in a sight-unseen ironman run is more of an issue, though. I'm still a little bit bitter about this but mostly I'm now at the point of finding it hilarious that I managed to stumble into a weird worst case scenario for nearly screwing myself over by playing weirdly.

As for why I didn't build supports, the short version is that I prefer the tactical flexibility of having different units work together in different maps to the stat boosts of always having the same units glued to each other at the hip, so if I don't care about the support conversations then I will generally ignore supports in any FE.

[Shadow Mir]

While my Corrin and Alastor's are not looking too hot, I'd say my Kaze is even worse - all I hear when he levels up is "remain calm" - something I CANNOT do with how much he's been sucking. He's level 13 as of now, and he only has 8 strength and 20 HP - only one above his bases for both.

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

I mean, you're not totally wrong. It was a dig at them as well. But yeah. Mostly a dig at the way child units work. Izana, Flora and the likes are way worse than the child units in terms of how obscure and hidden their join conditions are but that's mitigated somewhat by the fact that there are only two of them per game so it doesn't matter so much if you do miss them. Missing out on all the children in a sight-unseen ironman run is more of an issue, though. I'm still a little bit bitter about this but mostly I'm now at the point of finding it hilarious that I managed to stumble into a weird worst case scenario for nearly screwing myself over by playing weirdly.

As for why I didn't build supports, the short version is that I prefer the tactical flexibility of having different units work together in different maps to the stat boosts of always having the same units glued to each other at the hip, so if I don't care about the support conversations then I will generally ignore supports in any FE.

The Kaze debacle in Birthright is even worse - it screws you out of two units.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

25 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

The Kaze debacle in Birthright is even worse - it screws you out of two units.

Don't know what they were thinking with that one. Just awful.

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

I mean, you're not totally wrong. It was a dig at them as well. But yeah. Mostly a dig at the way child units work. Izana, Flora and the likes are way worse than the child units in terms of how obscure and hidden their join conditions are but that's mitigated somewhat by the fact that there are only two of them per game so it doesn't matter so much if you do miss them. Missing out on all the children in a sight-unseen ironman run is more of an issue, though. I'm still a little bit bitter about this but mostly I'm now at the point of finding it hilarious that I managed to stumble into a weird worst case scenario for nearly screwing myself over by playing weirdly.

Truth be told, I actually don't know if it's optimal to do the Babylogues in Ironman runs. I skipped out on getting Oboro!Ignatius, for instance, because the design of his chapter means he's suspect to dying - thus ending my run, then and there. Other paralogues are more generous, of course, but all of them come with a chance of screwing you and ending the run. And unless you're specifically going, say, for 100% chapter completion, I think it's more advisable in most Ironman-style runs to stick to the main story.