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

[Alastor15243]

12 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Does this mean you thank me for giving you a hard time? 

Hey, you keep me on my toes!

[Shadow Mir]

I must say, one thing I like about this game in terms of story is that for once the player actually sees the consequences of a war from the perspective of the side who lost said war.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

I must say, one thing I like about this game in terms of story is that for once the player actually sees the consequences of a war from the perspective of the side who lost said war.

Well I guess there's a bit of that with Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776. Mainly in Thracia 776. Though I guess the time skip makes it feel like it's less directly this.

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 12: Chapter 2-P

Alright, we've got a nice, simple, short chapter for us today, and good thing too, because I just got PS2 emulation to work last night, and as someone who hasn't had a Sony console since high school, I am fucking raring to play Kingdom Hearts again for the first time in more than 10 years.

But that can wait. For now, time to check out Radiant Dawn Part 2: Of Countries and Kings.

Alright, so, news of Pelleas's coronation reaches Crimea within days. Two things:

1: Whether this is an official messenger or civilian word of mouth, we at least have precedent that news can travel that distance that fast without sending stones. That sounds about in line with Soren's journey towards the beginning of PoR, whichever mode of transport he took.

2: Given the fact that they say news of Pelleas's coronation reached Crimea, and not news of Begnion's numerous abuses of power, and since as far as I can remember, those were never a topic of discussion in this part, we have to assume that Crimea already knew and did nothing about it, hence why that information wan't a massive shock.

...Which makes Brom's lack of concern either for knowingly sending his daughter to Daein to meet someone who would either be fighting for freedom or stuck in prison... or his lack of concern for his daughter just up and vanishing without his permission... rather alarming.

But they do bring up the interesting point that Crimea's just spent the last three years rebuilding from what Daein did to them, and now... “What the fuck... Ashnard's bloodline is now running the country again!?”

Yeah, I can see why that would make the Crimean people get a bit antsy.

Yep, so, yeah, suddenly now the fact that Elincia was raised in secret is an issue, at least for the nobility.

And apparently Crimean noblemen wear the same incredibly stupid hats as certain members of the Begnion senate.

Okay, so, the noblemen are also pissed off that Ike was granted peerage, and, like...

...Okay, if making a commoner into a nobleman is considered borderline heresy for literally any reason... then how the fuck did the nobility become the nobility in the first place?

But yeah, Ike was all “fuck this” and left, just like he said he would. Though the narrator makes it sound like this wasn't something he'd have done if the nobility weren't so hostile to him, even though he said at the end of PoR that it was his plan all along.

So now we get a sepia tone flashback CG of the aristocrats (none of which are wearing those dumb hats) having a meeting with Queen Elincia about Pelleas's coronation (with Lucia and Geoffrey in the background). And the fact that they don't put Elincia's portrait next to her lines makes it clear that this is literally from her POV. We are seeing this through her eyes, from her seat at the table.

Yeah, so, this is mostly just repeating what the narrator said, though we do get the added info that Bastian is apparently serving as envoy to Daein, something that pisses the nobility off because “His skills in court are vital to Crimea”. How? What exactly does he do “in court”?

...Anyway... we get some stupid gossip about Geoffrey and Elincia, and then... we're outside, getting ready to set up the fight of the day.

...Okay, quick note: we're in Melior right now. The Crimean Capital. Not Begnion yet. If that mystery voice we hear is Marcia...

...I am going to be very confused.

...Aaaaaand I am very confused.

...Yep. Looks like the game just straight-up says that Elincia hired both Marcia and Makalov as Crimean Royal Knights. That... they don't even seem to be bothering to explain that. Everyone who the game said was going back to Begnion is now in Crimea (except for Devdan, who is definitely not the Crimean-native Danved). Without any explanation of why they would leave Begnion or their existing positions.

Yeah, looks like there really was a Begnion story for this game that got scrapped. That's the only explanation I can think of for this really bizarre and clumsy retcon.

Anyway, so far the game isn't showing Elincia as being as flawed or green as I had hoped. She's got self-esteem issues, to be sure, but everyone around her assures her that nothing going on right now is her fault, and she's running the country perfectly. I'll have to see how this proceeds. This may make me re-assess my opinion of how the game treats Elincia compared to Pelleas.

So, we randomly run into Leanne and Nealuchi being harassed by Begnion dracoknights, and this random troop of Begnion soldiers is apparently just planning to kidnap Leanne and sell her into slavery. Two things:

1: This means that Sanaki still hasn't done jack shit about cracking down on laguz slave trading in the past three goddamned years, if these guys can still be so confident they can kidnap Leanne and sell her to some noble with ease.

2: The general public doesn't seem as contrite about the Serenes Massacre as Sanaki would like to have us think, if this entire battalion of troops can casually talk about enslaving one like it's an everyday occurrence.

The new translators still seem to be using raven and crow interchangeably. ...And as a friend of mine has pointed out to me... that might have to do with the fact that in Japan, they use the same word to refer to both.

Yep, these guys are trespassing on Crimean territory and don't give a shit because Begnion doesn't respect Crimea, but that just makes me wonder what the fuck they were even here for. What were they planning to do with their day if they didn't run into a heron girl to kidnap and sell into slavery? Get drunk and have their wyverns shit on peasants from midair or something?

…

…

…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So, lemme just sum up this nonsense that just happened:

Elincia: We can't let anyone know I'm the queen, Marcia, or we'll have a national incident. I'm going to pretend to just be a soldier. HEY! NEALUCHI! LEANNE! WE'RE GOING TO SAVE YOU, SO HANG ON!

Nealuchi: OH THANK GOODNESS! IT'S QUEEN ELINCIA, HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!

Yes, that's right, Nealuchi fucking blabs that Elincia is queen, while standing much closer to the dracoknights than he is to Elincia, and nothing whatsoever happens as a consequence.

This is so stupid. I wish one of these days, one of these fucking games could get some semblance of a grasp of what these exotic forces called space and time are.

But yeah, we've got a fucking dogfight map. I love the concept of this. An all-flier map, with Elincia, Marcia, Nealuchi and Leanne on our side, and an army of dracoknights on the other.

And speaking of Elincia, she's our first tier 3 unit (yes, this game has that, and I will discuss my thoughts on that once we start getting more), and she's pretty great, especially for this point in the game.

...Only issue is that for this map, she had the poor judgment to arm herself with nothing but the shittiest weapon on the goddamned planet. Instead of her personal infinite-use brave sword, she brought... a slim sword, with a might of two. Keep in mind that this woman is just one point of strength away from being able to wield the heaviest sword in the game without penalty. There is nobody on earth so weak that they need to use a three weight slim sword, least of all her.

Anyway, yeah, so, you may have noticed that we have a second heron unit in this game. First Rafiel, and now Leanne. The game makes sure you're never able to use more than on at once, first by having them split up across three different armies, and then... by just telling you you're only allowed to bring one into the endgame. And of the three, Leanne is generally agreed to be the worst.

Reyson works just the same as last time: can sing for one in human form, and can sing for four in heron form. Rafiel can sing for 4 at all times, but can't fly. Leanne, however... can sing for exactly 2, either up and down or left and right, regardless of what form she's in. This isn't exactly bad, but the issue is that there are ways to get around the limitations of the others that leave Leanne kind of the odd heron out. Doesn't help that she has the worst availability I'm pretty sure.

This map is pretty damned straightforward. It mostly revolves around making good use of Leanne and Nealuchi to take out enough of these dracoknights on player phase to have some good early breathing room, then work things out from there.

…

…

…

So...

Uh... fun thing about this map...

The terrain is clouds. Terrain that will defend and impede even fliers.

The problem...

Is that they shift. The clouds constantly move to the left.

And I just learned that they shift... on enemy phase. Not just player phase, but on enemy phase too.

I thought I was putting Marcia in range of only one enemy, but no, I was putting her in range of two. Thank goodness that's not enough to kill her, but holy shit is that a dick move, especially when you don't explain in advance how far the clouds shift.

...Also apparently the clouds also kept me out of range of the hand axe one, meaning I equipped a weaker weapon for literally nothing.

I wound up in a bit of trouble when I untransformed Nealuchi prematurely in the hopes of building up his gauge again, only for enemies to start advancing on their own, forcing me to use a laguz stone that he can't use and attack in the same action. Thankfully, Elincia procced her tier 3 mastery skill, stun, which like all mastery skills in the game, has been radically buffed to also do triple damage, which honestly makes them all feel... same-y, and really makes Sol and Flare objectively the best ones, since most other bonus effects do not matter in the slightest for killing enemies.

Anyway, Haar randomly shows up, and apparently even his mount is scolding him for being lazy. Or it's just his guilty conscience imagining that being what his non-talking wyvern is trying to say with body language.

Also, something just occurred to me. How deep into Crimean territory are we? How much of a ridiculous exaggeration was it when the Begnion dracoknights said they “strayed a bit” in their border patrol? Because when Elincia took off, she was in Melior, the capital, in the middle of the continent.

Wow, Haar is a lazy ass in this game. They really seem to have flanderized his laziness. I got the impression in the last game that he was a really responsible soldier when it counted, especially from his interaction with Jill during their first scene together in PoR. I really got “Uncle Iroh” vibes from the guy, where if he's ever pretending he doesn't know when to take things seriously, it's almost always for some ulterior motive. Here, though? It takes ages for Marcia to convince him to help stop these guys.

But after that chat, we have Haar. AKA the best unit in the game. Psychotically high bulk, enough speed to double all of these dracoknights, growth rates and bases perfect for bonus experience abuse... and after he's done in Part 2, he'll be joining up with Ike's team! He's pretty damned amazing. Only real issue is that he's not nearly as useful as Jill in the endgame because his resistance is significantly worse, and... well... after a certain point in the endgame, defense becomes useless. Only dodging and res matter. I'll be having him take care of the rest of the enemies, because none of these guys are going to be on my long-term team except him.

Shit, one thing I'm gonna have to remember from now on: staves are equipped in this game. If you use a staff, that's your weapon now. You counter-attack with them, and they have infinite durability for counter-attacks, but they have 0 might (though some of them have crazy high crit).

Okay, so Haar seems to think what happened was that they did just stray a little away from their patrol... because they saw Leanne. Which makes me wonder what Leanne and Nealuchi were doing at the outer limits of Crimean territory.

Anyway, I have Haar take the kill because he's the most useful guy here, and also because the short axe Zeffren has is most useful on him.

He managed to double-proc cancel.

I like how they have Zeffren's dying words just be screaming, because he's almost certainly spending his last moments falling out of the sky. Battle doesn't end though. Maybe if I kill the last enemy...?

...Nope, gotta “survive” the last turn.

And there're no reinforcements on the last turn either. So I'm literally just waiting around for the map to end.

And then at the end, Marcia gives a... somewhat delayed... victory taunt to the completely routed “dragonbackers”.

Marcia's made a lot of shit-talking comments about dragon riders. It's rather amusing to think the Begnion pegsasus knights and dracoknights have this huge of a rivalry, because Haar almost seems to share it.

...So apparently Leanne was in Gallia... but went to see Ike... and wound up straying so far away from Melior... that she wound up at the Crimea-Begnion border.

...I initially wrote that as Crimean-Begnion, then I realized I have no idea what the “adjective” form of Begnion is. Begnionian? Begnionese? Begnian? Does the game ever say?

Also, apparently, if there were any bonus exp objectives, I didn't achieve them.

...But that's the end of the map. I'm curious to see how this develops, but yeah... looking at the Tellius map... if those dracoknights were really at the border when they saw Leanne, there was no reason Leanne and Nealuchi would be straying that far. This feels... really contrived.

...But anyway, that's it for me today.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Shadow Mir]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, yeah, so, you may have noticed that we have a second heron unit in this game. First Rafiel, and now Leanne. The game makes sure you're never able to use more than on at once, first by having them split up across three different armies, and then... by just telling you you're only allowed to bring one into the endgame. And of the three, Leanne is generally agreed to be the worst.

Reyson works just the same as last time: can sing for one in human form, and can sing for four in heron form. Rafiel can sing for 4 at all times, but can't fly. Leanne, however... can sing for exactly 2, either up and down or left and right, regardless of what form she's in. This isn't exactly bad, but the issue is that there are ways to get around the limitations of the others that leave Leanne kind of the odd heron out. Doesn't help that she has the worst availability I'm pretty sure.

I think the one with the worst availability is Rafiel, who also has the questionable honour of having one of his maps be one where he's more of a liability than an asset (4-1).

*checks*

...Yep, it's Rafiel.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So now we get a sepia tone flashback CG of the aristocrats (none of which are wearing those dumb hats) having a meeting with Queen Elincia about Pelleas's coronation (with Lucia and Geoffrey in the background). And the fact that they don't put Elincia's portrait next to her lines makes it clear that this is literally from her POV. We are seeing this through her eyes, from her seat at the table.

I... literally never got this until now! New headcanon, Elincia is colorblind. That's probably contradicted by her noticing color at some point, but whatever.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But yeah, we've got a fucking dogfight map. I love the concept of this. An all-flier map, with Elincia, Marcia, Nealuchi and Leanne on our side, and an army of dracoknights on the other.

This was a really cool innovation! Clouds could have been used in other chapters, as a way to limit flier mobility, but they probably wouldn't work as well graphically when everyone else is on the ground.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shit, one thing I'm gonna have to remember from now on: staves are equipped in this game. If you use a staff, that's your weapon now. You counter-attack with them, and they have infinite durability for counter-attacks, but they have 0 might (though some of them have crazy high crit).

This made for a big change from Path of Radiance - in that game, enemy staff-users can easily be robbed. Now, though, they equip it, so the staff can't be taken from them. And can you really say you've beaten Radiant Dawn if you haven't beaten anyone to death with a staff?

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

2: Given the fact that they say news of Pelleas's coronation reached Crimea, and not news of Begnion's numerous abuses of power, and since as far as I can remember, those were never a topic of discussion in this part, we have to assume that Crimea already knew and did nothing about it, hence why that information wan't a massive shock.

Or that the Crimean are still ignorant of how bad it was, either due to Begnion intentionally spreading false or misleading information, or like the holocaust people thought it too inhumane to be real, until people actual saw the camps first hand.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, so, this is mostly just repeating what the narrator said, though we do get the added info that Bastian is apparently serving as envoy to Daein, something that pisses the nobility off because “His skills in court are vital to Crimea”. How? What exactly does he do “in court”?

I always got the impression that he was effectively the spy master of Crimea in Radiant Dawn.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

I thought I was putting Marcia in range of only one enemy, but no, I was putting her in range of two. Thank goodness that's not enough to kill her, but holy shit is that a dick move, especially when you don't explain in advance how far the clouds shift.

...Also apparently the clouds also kept me out of range of the hand axe one, meaning I equipped a weaker weapon for literally nothing.

I like that they put cloud terrain in the otherwise empty sky, but they really should have given the player a better idea of where they will be at certain times.

[Alastor15243]

6 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I always got the impression that he was effectively the spy master of Crimea in Radiant Dawn.

Yeah, and I suppose the rest of the game will make that abundantly clear.

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

I... literally never got this until now! New headcanon, Elincia is colorblind. That's probably contradicted by her noticing color at some point, but whatever.

That would be a fascinating way to conceal colorblindness as a plot twist, wouldn't it?

@Shadow Mir Thanks for checking the heron availability! I really should have looked that up before posting that.

Edited August 11, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

The new translators still seem to be using raven and crow interchangeably. ...And as a friend of mine has pointed out to me... that might have to do with the fact that in Japan, they use the same word to refer to both.

 

Really this means there's even less reason to be using two separate terms. If every time raven or crow show up in the script they're the same word in the Japanese, then that means the localizers are either willfully changing them at random or it's two (or more) separate people translating the term differently and whoever's in charge of overseeing things for consistency just didn't care. If one were to be a derogatory term used intentionally then that would be the localizing adding nuance, but here it's just them being lazy. Like imagine if the dragon laguz were interchangeably also referred to as the wyvern laguz. That would really jump out as an "Uh what?"

Also fun fact, PAL Radiant Dawn has some alternate translations to the American version. Not as many as Shadow Dragon though. What springs to mind now is that Astra is called Astrum and Sentinel is called Lancer (the original Japanese name was Holy Lancer so that one seems like it might be a bit closer at least). There's some more too but I can't recall them off the top of my head.

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So, lemme just sum up this nonsense that just happened:

Elincia: We can't let anyone know I'm the queen, Marcia, or we'll have a national incident. I'm going to pretend to just be a soldier. HEY! NEALUCHI! LEANNE! WE'RE GOING TO SAVE YOU, SO HANG ON!

Nealuchi: OH THANK GOODNESS! IT'S QUEEN ELINCIA, HERE TO SAVE THE DAY!

Yes, that's right, Nealuchi fucking blabs that Elincia is queen, while standing much closer to the dracoknights than he is to Elincia, and nothing whatsoever happens as a consequence.

 

You know I'm sure that was probably unintentional, but it sounds like a moment of comedic genius. Is the all caps your addition or how its rendered in game?

[Alastor15243]

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

You know I'm sure that was probably unintentional, but it sounds like a moment of comedic genius. Is the all caps your addition or how its rendered in game?

My addition, to remind the viewer that they'd have to be shouting these lines to be heard across the battlefield. The actual line:

 

Marcia:
“Hey, Begnion dracoknights! Are you lost, or have you just been letting those scaly fleabags do your navigating? What’re you doing in Crimea’s sky?”

Zeffren:
“…We’ve merely strayed a bit in our duties patrolling the border. Do you have a problem with that?”

Marcia:
“You and your flying snakes are in violation of Crimea’s sovereignty! Besides, do you have any idea who you’re dealing with here, reptile breath?”

Elincia:
“Marcia, stop. We cannot afford to start antagonizing the Begnion army. I am the queen of Crimea…”

Marcia:
“But, Your Majesty! We can’t just let these wyvern monkeys run rampant–“

Elincia:
“And we’re not going to. As long as they don’t realize I’m the queen, we should be fine.”

Elincia:
“Begnion dracoknights… You will only be warned once. Leave this area immediately! I serve the queen of Crimea. Trespassers on Crimean territory will be dealt with. No exceptions.”

Zeffren:
“The queen, she says! The very queen that relied on us, the Begnion Empire, to free her nation. Imperial dracoknights are not frightened by soldiers so weak as Crimean pegasus knights. Listen up! Leave those two alone. It’s the Serenes maiden we want. Do not allow her to escape!”

Elincia:
“…Looks like we’ll not talk any sense into them. I suppose we have no choice. Sir Nealuchi! We’re here to help you!”

Nealuchi:
“I’ll be! It’s Her Majesty, Queen Elincia! Fate has smiled upon us! I hate to be a bother, considering it has been so long, but… Your assistance is most appreciated.”

 

 

Edited August 11, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 13: Chapter 2-1

Alright, I had some concerns that I wouldn't be able to do this today due to a power outage on my street yesterday evening, but they fixed it last night.

Let's do this.

I love how Leanne being invited to the court pisses off the nobles, but they can't say jack shit because both of the big scary bird kings like her.

Okay, so, when the game says that Elincia letting Leanne stay at the palace drastically increased the number of her detractors, I have to assume Mr. Narrator means it increased the number of nobles who are pissed off with Elincia's rule. If it's saying that this is what made it spread like wildfire among the civilians, well, given how much they owe the rebuilding of their home to Gallian assistance, it feels like they'd be significantly less likely to be pissed off at laguz, as a later info conversation I'm pretty sure is going to remind us.

...Nope, they seem to be implying that the spreading discontent is among civilians too. I'll have to check what the “recruiter”'s list of grievances against Elincia is, and if laguz are mentioned.

Anyway, this chapter has a completely different playable cast. This time instead of Elincia, Marcia, Nealuchi, Leanne and Haar... we've got Brom and Nephenee, and a third unit who will be joining us mid-battle. That's gonna be a recurring thing about Part 2. Our team is constantly gonna be switched up, and while this is certainly interesting, I am a bit annoyed by the fact that nobody is really with me long enough to properly train them. I don't really enjoy game modes where you've got a fixed party that can't grow, because they generally don't have much replay value, because your army is always basically the same. Honestly, Cindered Shadows kinda felt the same way. Nobody in my army really felt like they grew at all, despite having them for multiple chapters.

Anyway, we see Brom working on the farm. It's kinda cool, getting to see a soldier in their civilian life. I wonder if Brom and Jacob are gonna have any smalltalk that brings up his daughter and what the situation there is?

...Oh.

...It's literally just a “hello” and then one line each about how nice the crops are growing.

And then Nephenee crashes the party.

...There's that rushed pacing I remember! After the last map I almost thought you were gone!

Alright, and now we hear the grievances Yeardley uses to stir the young men up into violent revolution after they've just barely rebuilt their homes.

Yeardley: ...We are the victors. It was Crimean blood and sweat that defeated Ashnard! And what do we have to show for it? We do not rule Crimea. Our towns have been destroyed. We need coin to ease our suffering. Who is to blame?

Youth: The queen!

Yeardley: We've been violated! Daein robbed us of families, friends, and homes! We cannot reconcile with monsters! And now, our hated enemy is rebuilding to threaten us again. Will we stand by and accept this?

Youth: No! We will not!

Yeardley: To arms, I say! We are not afraid! We shall fight for the prosperity of our fatherland, as did Ike the patriot!

Right, and then a fade to black, and all the villagers are replaced with fighter and myrmidon models.

Okay, so, two things stick out at me:

1: Just as I thought, “inviting a heron girl to the royal palace” is not something that the peasants seem too stirred up about. Yeardley's decision not to mention it, despite it apparently being the “last straw” for at least the nobles, pretty much confirms that Lord Ludveck at least feels confident the peasants don't give a shit.

2: “We do not rule Crimea”. What the fuck does he mean by that? I can read that so many different ways, and none of them are fully satisfying.

Does he mean “Our country is still in ruins to the point that we can barely be considered to have a country to be ruled”? If so, why does he say “we”? Would “We rule Crimea” be a statement that could be said to be true in that context even if the country weren't in tatters?

Does he mean “Begnion is asserting its authority here and treating us like children in our own country”? Is that what the Begnion border guard “trespassing” was supposed to demonstrate last chapter? Was it supposed to hint at a much wider problem that was affecting even the civilians? If so, that probably would have warranted a second sentence.

Or did they literally mean “We do not rule Crimea”? As in “The people whose hard work won the war are not the people shaping its destiny”? Is this meant to be some kind of anti-monarchy uprising? Highly doubtful, since they're fighting to appoint a new king.

Ugh. Y'know, I spend a hell of a lot of time analyzing the story of these games. Definitely a disproportionate amount compared to how much I talk about every other aspect of the game that makes up an equal part of the game's ultimate score. And the story parts have just been getting more and more bloated the more story-heavy the games have gotten. I'm starting to think all of this story discussion might be overkill, because I sure as hell know the answer isn't to make the entries even longer by talking more about other things to compensate.

I'll have to think about it, I guess.

Yeah, and then the game just rather clumsily exposits that Brom's been using axes lately instead of lances. Pretty dumb, honestly, considering that the war's been over for years and Brom's had little reason to do any serious training with any weapon, much less a new one. They should've had them say something about the fact that Brom's been doing a lot of wood chopping and is feeling way more comfortable with an axe lately than a lance he hasn't used in ages.

I do find it interesting that Nephenee decided to get them both armed and armored before talking with the angry mob. On one hand, it shows she knew the possibility she'd have to defend herself was extremely present, but on the other, it might have made her significantly less persuasive to her fellow villagers.

See, they show up armed. Everyone, naturally, assumes that this means they're gonna join them in their violent uprising.

But then they reveal that isn't why they're there at all, and they're telling them they're being idiots for blaming the queen for all of their problems.

So, then, the youths must be asking themselves... why did they come to this gathering armed and armored?

And then Yeardley says they're working for the queen, who's planning on killing all of them for their treason. And while yes, Yeardley says that they're spies who are going to inform the queen of what's happening here, rather than do it themselves... showing up armed but not planning to help probably still increased the suspiciousness of this.

Anyway, we've gotta fight, and we're being rewarded apparently for not killing too many of them, but that's gonna be tough, considering that the map has a shitton of villages all over that we're probably gonna want to grab.

It's frustrating having only two units when all of the enemies but one so far have had ranged attacks and we don't.

Meanwhile, yet again the game makes us fight in the range of a shitton of enemies and trust they won't gang up on us. Man, I don't think I've played a Fire Emblem game that's been this guilty of doing that since Thracia.

Ah yes, but then who should show up but Heather, the smoking-hot man-hating lesbian. That's pretty much her... entire deal. She's hot, she hates men, and she wants to fuck every pretty lady on earth. I have just summed up literally everything you will ever learn about this woman in this game, other than the fact that she steals shit to support her elderly mother. She's also the only thief Elincia and Ike are going to have access to, so I'm gonna want to recruit her. This is gonna be a pain though, because she seems keen to fight her way into considerable danger.

And also, incidentally, her first in-game action was to brutally murder a priest in cold blood simply because she could. She doesn't have clue one about the reason why these men are fighting, and what violent and immoral cause this priest is nonviolently supporting with his healing. And she doesn't care. They're men, so she just assumed whatever they were getting angry about was so dumb that the nonviolent staff wielder supporting them deserved to die.

Also, keep in mind, this is the only enemy in range of her on her first move.

This is what she's almost guaranteed to do for her first move every single goddamned time you do this map.

The developers saw this behavior from her and never once thought it out of character.

Anyway, I've gotta chase her down. I was way too slow about getting down to that area, having gotten hung up on these enemies here, and I'm hoping it's not too late, because she starts absurdly close to the central enemy formation.

NOPE!

She has pass, you see, and she seems to have a fondness for using it even if it will put her in deeper danger. She just ran straight into the enemy-filled town square, past the myrmidon guarding the entrance, and stole his antitoxin rather than fighting him so I can't even kill him this turn.

AND NOW SHE'S RUNNING RIGHT TOWARDS SOME ENEMIES AND DOING NOTHING WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS WOMAN!?

And of course since I waited on the villages, now bandits are showing up to rob them.

How?

How does news spread so quickly to bandits? How did they hear about the commotion and then get here quickly enough to take advantage of it? Is this bandit group a colony of mole men living under the town?

Well, the northern village is doomed. But thankfully my trust that the enemies wouldn't swarm Nephenee for running after Heather paid off, and Heather's on our team and Nephenee's alive. I managed to save the remaining villages, also.

I'll be honest: last time I tried to ironman this, I lost Heather on this very map because I brought her along when storming the central area and the enemies started moving because I hit some trigger. Apparently that trigger wasn't entering the town square though. I'm not sure why I dove in to try and save Heather at the risk of Nephenee's life when I knew doing something in here last time got Heather killed. Maybe I just didn't want this ironman to turn out exactly like the last one, and wanted Heather to survive this time. In fairness it's been ages since I've seen her actual info conversations, so if I'm gonna shit on how shallow she is, I might as well see actual proof.

Anyway, to avoid whatever trigger I triggered last time, this time I'm gonna head back to the beginning of the map and approach the town square from the front, so I don't have to be in range of all of the enemies in order to attack any of them. By the time I fight Yeardley's group, everyone else will be dead.

Weird how they made the subweapon of the axe general swords. You'd think that since Brom's the only playable axe general, they'd have made it at least be the weapon he used last game? But then, I guess generals could use swords last time too, so no matter what somebody would be using a weapon they couldn't last time, or not using a weapon they could.

Man, honestly, this map is really frustrating, because all of the danger comes from being in fear of when these stationary enemies are gonna stop being stationary.

Alright, so, I decided to just have Brom walk up to the last three enemies, and see if that triggers them to move.

...It does not. It triggers them to attack, bu not to move. The javelin guy by Yeardley that I didn't get in range of hasn't budged an inch.

How the fuck did Heather die last time!?

Also, Yeardley calls Brom a “blundering cow”, which I just realized isn't just a “fat” insult, but also an attack on his masculinity, if that was intentional.

Oh, and now all three of them move, huh? What the fuck was the trigger for that? I didn't do anything to the Javelin guy! I moved in one turn, everyone but javelin guy attacks, I have Brom run away, everyone including javelin guy follows!

FUCK! My thumb slipped, and I accidentally attacked with Nephenee when I was just trying to figure out how much damage she'd do to an enemy. I had to go a bit desperate and on the offensive to save her, tempting people with the more dodgy but more fragile Heather, because Brom needed to heal and Heather was the only one who could finish off the greatlance guy and turn these three enemies into two. And if Heather gets hit by Yeardley's 30% attack, we'll be seeing a repeat of her fate last time.

Thankfully, the boss conversation does at least clarify that Heather does know about Ludveck's revolt-stirring, and it's apparently been going on in a couple of villages she's been to now. But she still didn't show any sign in her opening monologue that she knew or cared about the details of why the “men” were “fussing” at the beginning of the map, so yeah, no, sorry, bitch still stabbed a healer.

“Nothing personal... I just don't like men like you!”

...I seriously hope that was supposed to be a joke at Heather's expense, or that Heather herself was joking around. Because if not...

...Heather, that's what something being “personal” means!

More importantly though, thank goodness, Heather dodged. That means nobody's dying this turn.

And now everyone but Yeardley is down. We're home free.

And then the “youth” calls Brom a bumpkin in the ending cinematic, and I'm like... “bitch, are you not from the same farming village?”

...They are, right?

But anyway, this is otherwise a pretty cool scene where these hotheads so eager to go to war to dethrone the queen... actually get injured in a fight.

They then realize...

...that war is... gasp... painful!

And Brom lectures the idiots about how little they understand about war, and what idiots they are for trying to bring it back over petty complaints.

…

...And then Brom had to ruin it.

Oh, now you're worried about your daughter, Brom? You're worried about her now that things are getting crazy in the place she is not currently located? And not when she was in an active oppressive war zone for months!?

It honestly gives the impression that Brom doesn't actually know where specifically Meg is.

...But at any rate, that's the end of the map. Honestly, not a fan. It was just generally a big bundle of empty stress. Literally nothing was hard except not knowing when the enemies moved, and that's honestly pretty damned frustrating.

But anyway, tomorrow we'll be reaching the midpoint of this five-chapter story, Chapter 2-2! And if I remember correctly, it'll be introducing a new mechanic! Oh joy!

Stay safe, everyone.

[lenticular]

I remember liking Heather a whole lot when I played Radiant Dawn originally. I strongly suspect that was entirely because of how terrible lesbian representation in video games was at the time, rather than anything to do with good writing or characterisation. It may have been the bare minimum of representation and inclusivity, but that was still a step above other games, and I latched onto it.

38 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, this chapter has a completely different playable cast. This time instead of Elincia, Marcia, Nealuchi, Leanne and Haar... we've got Brom and Nephenee, and a third unit who will be joining us mid-battle. That's gonna be a recurring thing about Part 2. Our team is constantly gonna be switched up, and while this is certainly interesting, I am a bit annoyed by the fact that nobody is really with me long enough to properly train them. I don't really enjoy game modes where you've got a fixed party that can't grow, because they generally don't have much replay value, because your army is always basically the same. Honestly, Cindered Shadows kinda felt the same way. Nobody in my army really felt like they grew at all, despite having them for multiple chapters.

Largely agreed, except I don't care too much about replay value. I don't really replay many games, and when I do replay, it's usually long enough afterwards that I've forgotten how things played out the first time. For me, the big problem is that without the incentive to train up weaker units for later, there's little reason not to lean heavily on a few units, namely pre-promotes, lords, and other over-powered characters. It's especially annoying when playing blind, if you do put time or resources into training someone only for them to disappear and make all the training just so much wasted effort. "Just do what it takes to get through the chapter and don't worry about later" took a lot away from the game, as far as I'm concerned.

[Jotari]

For what it's worth I'm pretty fine with the ratio of story to non story stuff you've got going on. Only so much you can talk about gameplay and pacing and stuff while a story you can analyze line by line.

5 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I remember liking Heather a whole lot when I played Radiant Dawn originally. I strongly suspect that was entirely because of how terrible lesbian representation in video games was at the time, rather than anything to do with good writing or characterisation. It may have been the bare minimum of representation and inclusivity, but that was still a step above other games, and I latched onto it.

Largely agreed, except I don't care too much about replay value. I don't really replay many games, and when I do replay, it's usually long enough afterwards that I've forgotten how things played out the first time. For me, the big problem is that without the incentive to train up weaker units for later, there's little reason not to lean heavily on a few units, namely pre-promotes, lords, and other over-powered characters. It's especially annoying when playing blind, if you do put time or resources into training someone only for them to disappear and make all the training just so much wasted effort. "Just do what it takes to get through the chapter and don't worry about later" took a lot away from the game, as far as I'm concerned.

I just generally like her for the swindler aspect of her personality. Legit think the fact that she was a lesbian might have went over my head the first time I played. She is unfortunately cursed by being a non Path of Radiance character in Radiant Dawn, so inevitably under established (though I think there is one reference to her Path of Radiance somewhere).

Edited August 11, 2020 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh, and now all three of them move, huh? What the fuck was the trigger for that? I didn't do anything to the Javelin guy! I moved in one turn, everyone but javelin guy attacks, I have Brom run away, everyone including javelin guy follows!

Probably when Yeardley is provoked. That's my guess, anyway.

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

For what it's worth I'm pretty fine with the ratio of story to non story stuff you've got going on. Only so much you can talk about gameplay and pacing and stuff while a story you can analyze line by line.

I just generally like her for the swindler aspect of her personality. Legit think the fact that she was a lesbian might have went over my head the first time I played. She is unfortunately cursed by being a non Path of Radiance character in Radiant Dawn, so inevitably under established (though I think there is one reference to her Path of Radiance somewhere).

I think the Heather that was in Path or Radiance is a completely different character who happens to have the same name.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

Probably when Yeardley is provoked. That's my guess, anyway.

The thing is, he didn't move until the turn after Yeardley was provoked.

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 14: Chapter 2-2

Welcome back, everyone! Time for the middle of the week, and the middle of Elincia's story! Man, how convenient is that? An entire story I get to complete in five days!

Anyway, after a brief narration scene that doesn't say much new of substance, we get a scene where Geoffrey and Lucia reveal, after Nephenee and Brom report their story to the queen, that they've suspected Ludveck for a while, but have been trying to come up with actual concrete proof before bringing it to Elincia's attention.

We get a scene where Elincia talks about her aspirations as a ruler over a CG of a lively Crimean market with several laguz visibly hanging out and shopping without incident, implying that yes, the civilian opinion of laguz has drastically improved since they helped out with Crimea's restoration, and that yes, mere proximity can often do wonders for getting rid of the most ridiculous forms of bigotry, simply by exposing people to basic observational information that makes the more extreme stuff harder to believe.

Anyway, yeah, now we have to get some proof of Ludveck's guilt, so that we can capture him. I'm wondering how much of that is must, and how much of this is should. How many checks and balances are on the Crimean throne? Is this just to stop the other nobles from accusing her of silencing her critics? It sure as hell isn't going to work for PR purposes for anyone else. Proof of Ludveck's guilt couldn't possibly be reproduced in a convincing fashion to disseminate among the civilians. Anyone who's been convinced she'd get her critics imprisoned on trumped-up charges isn't going to be convinced otherwise no matter what proof they get their hands on.

But at any rate, we've got a base again.

And we get a talk with Heather, Brom and Nephenee.

Yeah, uh, full disclosure, now that she's a topic again: I had a thing for Heather as a teenager. Not to “waifu” degrees, though (and thank goodness for small mercies like that; imagine a teenage boy having a man-hating lesbian as a “waifu”). More of a casual “damn, she's hot” sort of thing. I think I considered her the hottest character in the series at one point, and in all honesty, she's still pretty high up there. It's just that more... shall we say... “openly competitive” direct competition has arrived in recent years. The tube top and cape combo is still pretty dang hot, especially in the official, out-of-game artwork where she's bending over. It's like some kind of cleavage zettai ryouiki effect or something.

However, while we're on the topic of my younger opinions on this game, I can't really remember any opinions I may have formed about her personality, good or bad. I don't think it provoked any emotional reaction at all, it was just kinda something that was there.

Okay, so, uh... I'm a bit confused here. Heather apparently wasn't allowed in to see the queen. Why not? She was a witness to Ludveck's conspiracy the same as the other two! Hell, she's seen more of those rallies! Were the other two only allowed in due to their status in the last war, and the guards who let them in said that Heather couldn't come along? But she's acting like Ludveck was somehow responsible for keeping her from seeing the queen, when if anything, him pulling all of this horseshit is the only reason she got to go to the castle in the first place!

I find it amusing that Heather actually snaps at Nephenee for mistaking espionage for some kind of rash-inducing sickness she got as a child, saying “don't you know anything!?”.

Yep, okay, and we get a rather nice talk between Lucia, Lethe and Mordecai, but as nice as it is to hear them talk about the politics of whether or not Gallia should intervene, it confirms one of my many concerns about laguz worldbuilding: that any laguz has the right to challenge the reigning king for the title in single combat at any time, which... pretty much cements the Gallian government as the shittiest style of government on the continent, held together by nothing but plot convenience and dumb luck. For those of you just now joining us:

1: Path of Radiance's incessant claim that only beorc have the concept of a privileged bloodline of nobility is complete horseshit, because Gallia's sure as hell got a privileged generational noble class, and it's called the lions. The laguz decide their rulers based on strength, and the lions are the strongest cat laguz, so they're literally born to rule, and nobody but them can rule. Every single lion we have ever heard of has been in an elite position of Gallian and laguz society, and every elite position of Gallian society we have ever seen has been filled by a lion, with Ranulf being the closest thing to an exception we've ever seen. Therefore, Gallian leadership is only a “meritocracy” within the context of one group of people, a group of people that doesn't even appear to make up one percent of Gallia's population. There is no generic lion portrait. There are no green unit lions. There aren't even any lion feral ones as far as I can tell. The lions have a literal 0% redshirt rate. They are that rare and they are that privileged.

2: Being physically strong is an almost entirely worthless quality in a ruler, especially since they can't fight in any battle that doesn't take place on their own soil due to their slowness in getting around compared to the birds. Not only are they selecting for a quality that is utterly worthless in a ruler, but as Lethe just implied, they force that ruler to waste a considerable amount of the time they should spend running the country keeping up that quality, making sure they're physically fit enough that no arrogant hothead lion can challenge them for the title. Like I said in Path of Radiance, imagine how little shit any world leader could possibly get done if they also had to be the strongest warrior in the country at all times, and could be challenged for the position at any time, by anyone.

This is a terrible system of government, and the fact that it's repeatedly depicted in this game as completely flawless pisses me off significantly.

...Anyway, this talk basically confirms that we have Leanne and Nealuchi for this map, as well as Lethe and Mordecai. And then the next chat has Elincia sewing a talisman onto Lucia's collar, an extremely odd choice since we can give that to literally anyone, so what, are we ripping it out if we do?

And then Geoffrey gives her an elixir.

Anyway, yeah, Lucia's... we've got her for this chapter, and then... christ, we don't get her back for a while. I'm pretty sure not until Part 4. She's at least a level 14 swordmaster, so she's got a slightly easier time catching up than, say, Tormod, but...

...Anyway, there's no shop, so really not much else to do after those conversations.

I like how they subtly use portrait advances and retreats to depict the awkwardness of Lucia trying to stay polite with a sleazeball who's clearly hitting on her, because she has to stay in his good graces enough to get the opportunity to sneak around his property, but she also obviously doesn't want to actually reciprocate. I wonder how much that attraction is real. Given how he's clearly willing to kill her later, he's clearly not that fond of her, so either it's purely sexual and also he's a callous monster, or it's entirely fake because he's to some degree already on to her and knows it creeps her out.

I'm leaning more towards the former, since if it were the latter, I see no reason why he'd give her the opportunity to do her spying.

...Oh, wait... yeah, maybe that's part of his plan to make the events of 2-3 a distraction?

Yep, okay, so, this proof they just got is something they need to show to the royal assembly, because they need “the backing to indict him”. Looks like there are some checks and balances at play here, at least when it comes to what they can do to other nobles.

That's... interesting. I think that's the first time in the Tellius games, or... shit, in any Fire Emblem game, if memory serves... where the backdrop of a talk scene... pans. It just panned to the right after Lucia said “show yourself”, and then the portraits return, this time with Leanne and Nealuchi on the right side. It's an interesting effect, though mostly because it simply hasn't been done elsewhere to my knowledge.

But anyway, Mordecai says that guards are coming, and then... they're just resigned to not even trying to talk their way out of being here. The moment they get caught by the guards isn't even shown, they just basically resolve to fight them the second they see them. And while I get that it would be hard to talk their way out of being in this random cave that's...

...what is this, a secret conspiracy bunker? They don't say...

...I guess my point is that in almost any other game after... shit, I think even FE6... getting caught by the guards would have been a scene.

Anyway, the battle's started, and nobody has torches. But we do have “watch fires”, which are spaces on the map we can turn on and off that illuminate the area around them just like characters.

...Well, I stepped in shit on turn one. Playing Playstation games may have been a terrible, terrible idea, as it seems to have made me occasionally fuck up my muscle memory of which button is confirm and which is cancel. I ran into like four enemies lurking in the dark, and had Lucia fight one when I meant to cancel her attack.

HOLY SHIT, TWO ENEMIES WERE HIDING IN THE DARK RIGHT ABOVE ME, AND LEANNE GOT SLAUGHTERED ON ENEMY PHASE TURN ONE.

AND THAT WAS A FAILURE CONDITION.

THE IRONMAN RUN IS OVER ALREADY.

HOLY SHIT.

I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE ENEMIES WERE THERE BECAUSE OF THE “TOTAL BLACKOUT” FOG OF WAR STYLE COMBINED WITH NON-SPRITE GRAPHICS!

I. Fucking. Hate. Ironmanning. Fog of war.

Well, ironman's over. Time to join the ranks of the restarting peasants I guess. In fairness I was expecting it to happen on the last fog of war map where I had to defend a fragile heron girl. But at least Micaiah was fast enough to not be doubled.

Leanne has 6 speed. When everyone else is promoted. She has to be the most fragile unit I have ever seen in a Fire Emblem game.

So, enemies were within my starting area range from two goddamned directions, I have like four guys who can take a serious beating and three of them need to take a turn to transform, and there's a third direction enemies could come from that's a dud, just to fuck with me...

...Yeah, this game is kinda like FE7, in that while it doesn't have ambush spawns (for the most part) and the game is generally fairly ironman friendly, it does have several maps with several extremely blind-unfriendly elements to them, as well as a heck of a lot of units who make you lose the game if they die. But in this game's case, you have to also throw in the horseshit that is this game's nonsensical availability and generally-recruitment-starved part 3.

Also, just a general principle that this has reminded me of: the more fragile a unit is, the more information the player needs in order to do anything of value with them. Units that can't take a ridiculous amount of punishment are generally terrible choices for use in fog of war or in games with ambush spawns. Yet another reason why Conquest and even Birthright are in such high regard from me: they're by far the best games in the series to be a fragile unit. There are so many mechanics that, whether by deliberate genius or sheer luck, have made it more practical than ever before to be a glass cannon or even just a fragile utility unit. It has some of the most fragile units in the entire series, and yet it's still so absolutely trivial to use them if you know what you're doing. Honestly, I almost feel like Fates has spoiled me for the rest of the series in terms of certain gameplay features. Which would be... I mean... beyond depressing... but let's move on.

But speaking of Fates, one thing I've noticed about this game is that it seems to do the same thing that Fates does, and actually have the battle scenes take place on the map. It actually looks like the battle map keeps track not only of which torches are lit, but which parts of the battlefield are lit up. And we seem to be fighting on the same part of the map that the units are on, not just some generally generic cave backdrop.

Man, Lethe and Mordecai are useful, but they run out of their transformation gauge so goddamned fast.

AND THERE ARE KILLER LANCE USERS AND CROSSBOWMEN HIDING IN THE DARK.

WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH THIS MAP!?

...Ugh. I just lost Nephenee. And given how strict this game is with units... I really don't want to lose her. I may very well need her for 2-E.

Restarting.

Oooookay. Okay, I managed it. Really, yet again, there was nothing genuinely hard about this map aside from the shit I wasn't allowed to know.

I'm concerned this is going to be a recurring theme.

I'm at the boss now, and Maraj's dialogue seems to confirm that Ludveck does have a thing for Lucia, and that, in his own creepy way, it is genuine and not an act.

Man, these bosses seem pretty passionate about getting Lord Ludveck on the throne. I wonder what he does to inspire such loyalty.

But at any rate, I'm done. We get a talk about how Geoffrey's going to lead the Crimean army against Felirae next chapter, a scene with Elincia wondering if she's doing the right thing... and then a discovery on my part, since I haven't actually looked up how the ancient language works. Apparently in addition to being just coded English, it also has this massive, G-looking thing that's meant to be placed before every capital letter instead of having a capital version of every character. I suppose that means fewer characters to make...

I love how Elincia calls Ike “Sir Ike”, (and how Leanne does it too), even though he's long since stopped being a noble. Just like how Elincia called him “Lord Ike” before he became one. I notice that she doesn't do that for people like Brom, who she just referred to as “Brom”.

Ooh! And Leanne starts speaking English! Yeah, I remember this. Back when I first played this game, I imagined her having this sort of pretty Russian accent when she talks like this.

Of course, then Heroes “canonized” her accent as... her literally not having an accent at all... just speaking slowly and confusedly. Something that pisses me off greatly, especially when it happened again in Three Houses with Petra.

Ugh. This game still makes literally nothing of the fact that people who speak the Old Tongue can understand the Modern Tongue perfectly but can't speak it. I mean for Leanne, yeah, she's kinda psychic, but then they added in Volug to the mix, who isn't psychic (and also is fluent in a tongue that's allegedly too hard for laguz to learn, but that's neither here nor there), and yet still is in that same situation of being fluent in understanding the Modern Tongue, but incapable of speaking it for some reason. And it's not just a matter of struggling to make the sounds, because Nealuchi specifically says she's been “studying your language”.

Anyway, Elincia has something of an emotional breakdown once Leanne indirectly reminds her that she can read her mind and knows exactly how she's feeling, and... I'm not feeling the writing here. It's not that great.

But... that's it! Alright, then I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone.

Stay safer than the ironman.

[Icelerate]

Quote

Well, ironman's over. Time to join the ranks of the restarting peasants I guess. In fairness I was expecting it to happen on the last fog of war map where I had to defend a fragile heron girl. But at least Micaiah was fast enough to not be doubled.

What does it mean that the iron man is over? Does that mean you're starting the game from chapter 1P? 

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Icelerate said:

What does it mean that the iron man is over? Does that mean you're starting the game from chapter 1P? 

Like I said at the start, it just means it isn't an ironman anymore. I restart when I normally would when not ironmanning. No way I'd ever start over from 1-P or anything.

[lenticular]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I like how they subtly use portrait advances and retreats to depict the awkwardness of Lucia trying to stay polite with a sleazeball who's clearly hitting on her, because she has to stay in his good graces enough to get the opportunity to sneak around his property, but she also obviously doesn't want to actually reciprocate. I wonder how much that attraction is real. Given how he's clearly willing to kill her later, he's clearly not that fond of her, so either it's purely sexual and also he's a callous monster, or it's entirely fake because he's to some degree already on to her and knows it creeps her out.

Huh. That actually kinda backs up my pet theory about her support conversation with Jannaf in PoR (that she is very used to making up excuses to fob off men who hit on her, and that the stuff about needing a chaperone was such a line). Have to say, I honestly wasn't expecting that particular theory to get more canon support.  I do like Lucia. It's a shame that she's not actually around much in either game.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

THE IRONMAN RUN IS OVER ALREADY.

HOLY SHIT.

I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE ENEMIES WERE THERE BECAUSE OF THE “TOTAL BLACKOUT” FOG OF WAR STYLE COMBINED WITH NON-SPRITE GRAPHICS!

I. Fucking. Hate. Ironmanning. Fog of war.

That sucks. Fog of war maps are the worst. Part of me wonders why they've stuck around for all this time. I very rarely hear anyone talking about how much they love fog of war, but I assume that someone somewhere likes them, otherwise they'd have been dropped by now.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Huh. That actually kinda backs up my pet theory about her support conversation with Jannaf in PoR (that she is very used to making up excuses to fob off men who hit on her, and that the stuff about needing a chaperone was such a line). Have to say, I honestly wasn't expecting that particular theory to get more canon support.  I do like Lucia. It's a shame that she's not actually around much in either game.

I suppose it does support it at that, though I wouldn't say Janaff was hitting on her.

 

2 minutes ago, lenticular said:

That sucks. Fog of war maps are the worst. Part of me wonders why they've stuck around for all this time. I very rarely hear anyone talking about how much they love fog of war, but I assume that someone somewhere likes them, otherwise they'd have been dropped by now.

I liked them as a kid, mostly for their contributions to the atmosphere of some of the biggest story moments, like Battle Before Dawn and Last Hope. Also, I know they could be made to work even in ironman in theory, because one of my favorite games of all time, Invisible Inc, has fog of war, ironman, one HP player characters and procedural generation all at once, but manages to make it work. Of course, Fire Emblem would need to add methods to see the enemy before the enemy sees you, which currently don't exist because vision range for the enemy isn't even a thing.

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

8 minutes ago, lenticular said:

That sucks. Fog of war maps are the worst. Part of me wonders why they've stuck around for all this time. I very rarely hear anyone talking about how much they love fog of war, but I assume that someone somewhere likes them, otherwise they'd have been dropped by now.

*slowly raises hand* I love Fog of War maps...

I'm weird, I know.

Also, I hate all the crossbow users in this chapter, though the general plot behind it is great. I wish they incorporated some kind of way to sneak past the enemies here like they did that time in PoR, it would contribute to the espionage feeling.

[lenticular]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I liked them as a kid, mostly for their contributions to the atmosphere of some of the biggest story moments, like Battle Before Dawn and Last Hope.

 

2 minutes ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

*slowly raises hand* I love Fog of War maps...

Welp, I guess that's me told. 😄

And actually, I am glad that people like/liked them. I'd hate to think that I've been suffering through them for no reason.

[Icelerate]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Like I said at the start, it just means it isn't an ironman anymore. I restart when I normally would when not ironmanning. No way I'd ever start over from 1-P or anything.

Which games have you stopped an iron man? 

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Which games have you stopped an iron man? 

Blazing Blade is I think the only other one. I've ironmanned 3B2, 4, 7, 8, 9 and 10 so far, and while I kind of fucked up and tainted 3B2 early on so completing that one doesn't properly count, I successfully completed 4, 8 and 9 without any complications, while 7 and 10 were failures. I lost 7 in Genesis but kept doing the ironman anyway after restarting that one due to how ridiculous that chapter was and wanting to give the rest of the game a chance, but then I lost again anyway on Pale Flower of Darkness.

Edited August 12, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

11 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so, uh... I'm a bit confused here. Heather apparently wasn't allowed in to see the queen. Why not? She was a witness to Ludveck's conspiracy the same as the other two! Hell, she's seen more of those rallies! Were the other two only allowed in due to their status in the last war, and the guards who let them in said that Heather couldn't come along? But she's acting like Ludveck was somehow responsible for keeping her from seeing the queen, when if anything, him pulling all of this horseshit is the only reason she got to go to the castle in the first place!

Well I take it from this that the only reason a pair of commoners like Brom and Nephenee managed to get an audience with the queen wasn't because they had valuable intel, but because they were already friends with the Queen. Heather isn't and for all they know could be an assassin.