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

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I actually wasn't expecting such a high rating for PoR given Alastor's preferences. But he does seem to acknowledge quality when he sees it. Bravo. 

Thanks, but what were you expecting it to score worse in?

Edited August 14, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Fabulously Olivier]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Thanks, but what were you expecting it to score worse in?

I was honestly expecting you to score it low overall just because of its rather low difficulty. But I guess with your scoring system, it sort of evens out. 

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I was honestly expecting you to score it low overall just because of its rather low difficulty. But I guess with your scoring system, it sort of evens out. 

Yeah, I stand by each individual category ranking, but the "overall" ranking kind of popped out of sync with which ones are my favorites a while ago. I think it's due to a disparity in how much I care about each field, or at least I don't remember the impact of each category as strongly. If you asked me which of these games I most wanted to play again, it would be Thracia (with mods) and Binding Blade. And Genealogy and Path of Radiance would be somewhere near the bottom, though above things like Dark Dragon obviously.

Part of me thinks I should re-assess the points each category is worth for me at some point before the end of this marathon, maybe organize the games into tiers in each category, assign a baseline 0-points "basic expectation" tier, and then make every tier above and below it award and remove points respectively. But I won't know if that works until I try it.

Edited August 14, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Fabulously Olivier]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, I stand by each individual category ranking, but the "overall" ranking kind of popped out of sync with which ones are my favorites a while ago. I think it's due to a disparity in how much I care about each field, or at least I don't remember the impact of each category as strongly. If you asked me which of these games I most wanted to play again, it would be Thracia (with mods) and Binding Blade. And Genealogy and Path of Radiance would be somewhere near the bottom, though above things like Dark Dragon obviously.

Part of me thinks I should re-assess the points each category is worth for me at some point before the end of this marathon, maybe organize the games into tiers in each category, assign a baseline 0-points "basic expectation" tier, and then make every tier above and below it award and remove points respectively. But I won't know if that works until I try it.

I would suggest you hybridize. Give an overall, unweighted take that is likely to be more reflective of general sentiment. Then give your take, with categories weighted, alongside it.

[Icelerate]

You should definitely weight the categories depending on how important they are. 

[Alastor15243]

16 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

I would suggest you hybridize. Give an overall, unweighted take that is likely to be more reflective of general sentiment. Then give your take, with categories weighted, alongside it.

 

11 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

You should definitely weight the categories depending on how important they are. 

Yeah. Either I'll do that starting in a game or two, or I'll leave it until the end to do all at once.

[Icelerate]

42 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I don't think there's really anything wrong with it being "Greil Mercenaries fanservice", given that they were a huge part of the last game and also, y'know, they're the stars of the story starting next chapter. And I wouldn't say it defeats the purpose of the scene. She already demonstrated enough strength of character in even making the choice in the first place, and the explanation for how they could save the day made perfect sense. Honestly, I think having Lucia die would make the story worse, not better, assuming that this was still the end of Elincia's tale. If Lucia died, there would need to be more to the story to show the aftermath. You couldn't just cut away from her and have her be a minor part after making that much of an earth-shattering alteration to her world.

Okay I'm going to play devil's advocate and add another criticism of part 2. Part 2 is quite irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, aka filler. Given that you complained that part 1 was rushed and that people complain about certain plot developments later in the game, it stands to reason that the writers should not have bothered with Elincia's story and focused more on Micaiah and Sanaki's stories to improve the core plot. Shanebrained argued this in his RD review. 

Edited August 14, 2020 by Icelerate

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Okay I'm going to play devil's advocate and add another criticism of part 2. Part 2 is quite irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, aka filler. Given that you complained that part 1 was rushed and that people complain about certain plot developments later in the game, it stands to reason that the writers should not have bothered with Elincia's story and focused more on Micaiah and Sanaki's stories to improve the core plot. Shanebrained argued this in his RD review. 

Honestly, I would agree with this, as good as it turned out. As I argued before, if we were going to have a story about a civil war, we would have been better served seeing one in, say, Gallia, so we could actually get a serious inside look at laguz society and culture rather than the cursory outside perspective we had to settle for.

That said though, I do still like the results.

Also, @Fabulously Olivier, here's hoping we'll be hearing more from you!

Edited August 14, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Fabulously Olivier]

The additional unweighted approach is also important, because it gives people the opportunity to evaluate based on their own weight judgements. 

 

If I were weighting things, for example, Writing would be the most important category. Followed by depth. Followed by pacing. Followed by replayability. Followed by usability. Followed by presentation. Followed by music. Then balance. The ironmannibility. And difficulty in dead last (my comfort difficulty is PoR hard mode, and I'll rate anything beneath that as a small negative, while anything substantially above that is a major negative).

 

I'd also have a separate category, called map memorability (which I imagine you lump into depth). This category ranks somewhere inbetween writing and usability. Though if it's notably bad enough (caugh, SoV, caugh) it can single handedly kill a game for me.

 

By my weights, pretty much the opposite of what I imagine Alastors to be:

Spoiler

 

Path of Radiance tops the list in all regards.

Sacred Stones and Geneology land at a distant second and third. Three Houses gets an honorable mention for personal bias, though I have to dock major points for pacing and replayability (good lord, the pacing).

Blazing Sword and Awakening land clean down the middle.

SD and Fates skews low.

I can't yet rate Thracia, NM, or Binding Blade.

And Gaiden/SoV pulls bottom because the extra map design category, when below a bare minimum threshold, trumps everything. Even with the strong writing, mechanics, presentation, and music.

 

 

As for why I have no intention of making my own ratings thread, doing so would make playing the games a "job" to me, and thus make me enjoy completing them much less. Plus, I have no illusions that people care that much about my opinion.

[Icelerate]

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, I would agree with this, as good as it turned out. As I argued before, if we were going to have a story about a civil war, we would have been better served seeing one in, say, Gallia, so we could actually get a serious inside look at laguz society and culture rather than the cursory outside perspective we had to settle for.

That said though, I do still like the results.

Also, @Fabulously Olivier, here's hoping we'll be hearing more from you!

I was always under the impression that the laguz politics and world building were under developed compared to the beorc which is why I'm generally speaking more a fan of the beorc cast than the laguz. At least part 3 does something with them. 

[Fabulously Olivier]

I agree that Part 2 was a story weakpoint for RD. But Elincia's Gambit? Mwah! Pure defense map perfection. And I love me a good defense map. I wish the series had more of them.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

The one warrior who the late King Ashnard trusted.”

I... I don't get the sense of that, Elincia. He seemed very suspicious of almost everything about the enigmatic knight, he just didn't care because of how useful he was.

It's a stretch, but this could be interpreted as Ashnard trusting the Black Knight's abilities, if not his loyalties. And the Black Knight deserves credit for being a recurring villain who shows up as an unbeatable force - like in his initial cutscene, or that racist Crimean town, or all his RD appearances pre-tower. Compared to Berkut or the Death Knight, who keep losing to you.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, something I forgot to mention: Daniel is apparently the only forger on the planet, as the goddamned Crimean royal armory can't supply you with fancy custom weapons like he can. Frankly I think that's pretty stupid. It feels like someone trying to be “realistic” without having much perspective on what “realism” even is. “Well obviously these armies can't forge weapons. How much sense would it make for the player to be able to forge when their forger isn't in the army?”

Yeah that's kind of weird, and something I never really thought of before. Maybe they could make it so that you can always Forge at the base, but you can only use Coins if Daniel is running it?

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of which, this is absolutely adorable: they're selling a slim sword in the bargain section. Like anyone would ever buy that! There aren't even any sword users in my current army except the one who has a personal, infinite use, fifteen might brave sword with plus three to defense and resistance.

I won't stand for this sort of Brom erasure. Clearly, giving him the II-E Slim Sword is the optimal play.

[Alastor15243]

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

I won't stand for this sort of Brom erasure. 

 

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

So, Haar's story involvement is making me think that his recruitment probably isn't optional, and that even if you didn't get him in 2-P, he still shows up here.

 

Nope, he's completely optional. I missed him on my first playthrough of Radiant Dawn, which was also my first playthrough of any Fire Emblem game, so I was jumping onto the story without the benefit of the first game. I assumed Haar with his black dragon and eyepatch was a villainous character and stayed well away from him in the prologue! Despite him being a green (or was he yellow?) unit. Having him on my second playthrough made it quite a treat to see him in plot cutscenes.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Nope, he's completely optional. I missed him on my first playthrough of Radiant Dawn, which was also my first playthrough of any Fire Emblem game, so I was jumping onto the story without the benefit of the first game. I assumed Haar with his black dragon and eyepatch was a villainous character and stayed well away from him in the prologue! Despite him being a green (or was he yellow?) unit. Having him on my second playthrough made it quite a treat to see him in plot cutscenes.

Fascinating! So who, if anyone, did Lucia talk to in that scene instead?

[Jotari]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Fascinating! So who, if anyone, did Lucia talk to in that scene instead?

Honestly I can't recall. It was over ten years ago. 

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Astrid died. Not restarting for her. I know she has another info conversation with Marcia and Makalov later, but, like... no. I'm not restarting this chapter now, I've been playing it for hours and it's only 2/3 done. And she's a terrible unit. But yes, her death was my fault. I foolishly forgot the turn order and relied on the position of a yellow unit to protect her and Elincia, and the enemies went for her when the yellow cav inevitably moved way to suicide on the enemy. Honestly, no big loss, Astrid could contribute almost literally nothing. Honestly, characters like her make me think that the game was balanced on easy mode and then the higher difficulties were never even looked at. Which would be crazy, but... I just can't imagine how anyone could play normal or hard mode, look at Astrid, and not conclude that she needed a serious buff.

 

As an avid Astrid player I must object to so much shade. I played her in hard mode and ParaBlossomed the shit out of her. She had capped stats by the time she was a level 14 Silver Knight (the Valtome chapter). I had to stop using her not because she hit max level but because she literally couldn't grow any more (and the two Hawk Army chapters are basically free exp for under levelled units). She requires babying but she can turn into a fantastic unit for the tower, especially if she's your double bow option.  Ests are never going to be favourite units of efficency or LTC players, but I think they deserve to exist. Only thing I'd like form Astrid is just a touch more strength. Though honestly manipulating the biorhtym to help her more easily take kills is another reason I like that much derided feature. So -> my opinions                  the norm (that's uh, meant to be far away).

 

[Alastor15243]

29 minutes ago, Jotari said:

As an avid Astrid player I must object to so much shade. I played her in hard mode and ParaBlossomed the shit out of her. She had capped stats by the time she was a level 14 Silver Knight (the Valtome chapter). I had to stop using her not because she hit max level but because she literally couldn't grow any more (and the two Hawk Army chapters are basically free exp for under levelled units). She requires babying but she can turn into a fantastic unit for the tower, especially if she's your double bow option.  Ests are never going to be favourite units of efficency or LTC players, but I think they deserve to exist. Only thing I'd like form Astrid is just a touch more strength. Though honestly manipulating the biorhtym to help her more easily take kills is another reason I like that much derided feature. So -> my opinions                  the norm (that's uh, meant to be far away).

 

I keep forgetting that blossom is a thing in this game. I don't remember ever finding it and have no idea where it is.

[Jotari]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I keep forgetting that blossom is a thing in this game. I don't remember ever finding it and have no idea where it is.

You get it pretty soon into Part 3 I believe. Also good for Ike since he's probably going to hit his level cap quite a few chapters before his story promotion anyway, so slowing down his growth to increase its potency isn't a bad choice.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Jotari said:

You get it pretty soon into Part 3 I believe. Also good for Ike since he's probably going to hit his level cap quite a few chapters before his story promotion anyway, so slowing down his growth to increase its potency isn't a bad choice.

That said, I'm pretty sure his levels with bonus exp would still be better than his blossom levels once he caps HP/str/skl/spd/def, which is ridiculously soon.

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

These small crit rates due to the crit bonuses given to so many classes are... extremely worrying, especially in a game with no way to buff your crit resistance except fortune and luck. ...I think I'm starting to realize why fortune was considered so valuable. Honestly though, I prefer it when games give you more methods to deal with crit rates.

That is a bit deceptive as crit rates generally scale very poorly in this game. Crit rate increases by Skill/2 and crit avoid is your full Luck; while crit has large jumps during promotions with some of the classes thanks to those skills, Luck has its general cap open from the start, so it doesn't stop gaining like skill might with lower unpromoted caps and has a more consistent growth. Plus I will point out that bond supports also increase crit avoid by either 5 or 10 depending on the strength (note these are the supports that are either transferred over, or are built into characters from the start).

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, I decided to wait until 15 turns passed rather than trying to assassinate Ludveck. I lost my opening around the time Astrid died for unrelated reasons, and the reward's nothing but a tomahawk anyway. I already got the real reward for this map on turn 2.

What about the dragon shield you can steal off of one of Ludveck's guards? I remember always planning for how I would nab that thing in this chapter...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

If Lucia died, there would need to be more to the story to show the aftermath. You couldn't just cut away from her and have her be a minor part after making that much of an earth-shattering alteration to her world.

They could change the tone of her part 3 appearance, and in part 4 have her talk with Tibarn, and either the still grieving Almedha, or King Pelleas in the first of the Hawk army maps about the high personal cost of being a just ruler (as nothing story relevant happens during that section of the story), plus the return of Bastion, and the reveal of Lord Renning could have even more weight to them in the next one with talk about Lucia added in. Its not perfect, but there are places they could fit some of that development in.

 

4 hours ago, Icelerate said:

Okay I'm going to play devil's advocate and add another criticism of part 2. Part 2 is quite irrelevant in the grand scheme of things, aka filler. Given that you complained that part 1 was rushed and that people complain about certain plot developments later in the game, it stands to reason that the writers should not have bothered with Elincia's story and focused more on Micaiah and Sanaki's stories to improve the core plot. Shanebrained argued this in his RD review. 

This something that has been stewing in the back of my mind since someone asked where part 2 should go if RD got split into 2 games, but Part 2 is clearly made to contrast with part 1. Part 1 is all about us being put into the shoes of the defeated and oppressed villains of last game, and seeing that not everyone from Daein was a monster; meanwhile part 2 shows us that despite the good guys winning in the last game, there are still monsters in Crimea that could destroy what they earned. Part 1 is about scrappy rebels piling up small victories until it cascades into an unstoppable forces; Part 2 is about quickly and decisively crushing a rebellion before it can cascade. Looking at it alone without the context of Part 1 it is filler, but the way it contrasts with part 1 gives it greater meaning, as the two together are trying to give us a more complex world, where Crimea doesn't mean good, and Daein doesn't mean bad; where neither the rebel deposing the old ruler, or those trying to stave off the chaos of rebellion are always in the wrong or right. I think the use of contrast between these two parts is one of the strength of RD's structure.

[Jotari]

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

That said, I'm pretty sure his levels with bonus exp would still be better than his blossom levels once he caps HP/str/skl/spd/def, which is ridiculously soon.

There's really nothing stopping you from both blosmming and bonus exping his growths though (just be sure to take blossom off while giving bonus exp as I think blossom affects that).

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 17: Chapter 3-P(?)

Welcome back, everyone! Time for the moment a lot of you have been waiting for: Part 3, Intersecting Vows! The part where the Greil Mercenaries return! Alright, let's check out the opening narration!

...Apparently “scrabble”, as in “scrabble for power”, is an actual term. Who knew? Not me.

Okay, honestly, it's utterly ridiculous that Ike and the Greil Mercenaries are apparently still poor. I know he renounced his lordship, but seriously, he's a legendary fucking war hero who is selling his services as a warrior. The demand for his work has to be so ridiculously high, even after turning down the jobs he morally disagrees with, that the Greil Mercenaries can't possibly have the time, energy or sanity to do mercenary work for as cheap as they did before the war. And even if you want to say that they want to make sure they don't lose sight of the poor, weak and downtrodden... the poor aren't the only ones who have important, heroic jobs for them to do, as Elincia pretty well demonstrated. I just find it so hard to believe that Ike could still be poor without deliberately working for peanuts even from the clients who can afford to pay him properly.

...Anyway, Ranulf shows up, and... oh yes. A rant is very likely incoming regarding this whole conflict. Brace yourselves.

...Ranulf says Ike's “never home” and so it's hard to get in touch with him. Is literally nobody left at the fort to take a message for him? They aren't leaving their fort completely unattended, to be robbed blind when they go on missions like this... are they? I mean... I'm pretty sure we saw the whole gang there in that cutscene, and there's no sign ever that the Greil Mercenaries consist of anyone but the original core members.

...Which reminds me...

...It kind of pisses me off that there aren't any new members. Literally every single member of the Greil Mercenaries is someone who was already a Greil Mercenary last game. Hell, not even a single one of the characters we recruited last game decided to stick around! There isn't a single member of the group who wasn't hand-picked by Greil. More than four years have passed since his father's death, and Ike has failed to recruit a single new member in all of that time?

Again, Ike is a fucking war hero. It doesn't matter how much he deliberately financially starves his soldiers, people are going to want to train under this guy. Enough people should be beating down his goddamned door to join his mercenary group that he would have to be deliberately obsessed with keeping it just the original team in order for any of this to make sense.

This...

...Ugh. I know I said I didn't mind that cutscene being “Greil Mercenaries fanservice”, but... it feels like the writers were a bit too obsessed with making the Greil Mercenaries nostalgic, and they didn't think at all about how they'd change and grow over the years.

Anyway, so, Ranulf eventually drops the bombshell that the laguz countries, which have formed the Laguz Alliance, are fighting against Begnion.

...Oh, alright, so this one plot point (not the one I alluded to before) isn't as bad as I thought. I thought the revelation that the Begnion senate was responsible for the assassination and frameup that led to the Serenes Massacre, and not Ashnard... was just an ass-pull that someone “recently found out”. No, the reason is because Rafiel had the knowledge, and he's just been reunited with Tellius's laguz society.

Okay, so... how long have the senators been in power? Is is literally the entire lineup of the senate the same as what it was 20 years ago? But then again, I suppose even if it were completely different, that would still be a crime that the government as an institution would have to answer for.

Hmm... Wait, didn't Rafiel and Nailah go to Gallia? Then why is Tibarn the first of the laguz royals to hear the news that the Begnion senate was behind the Serenes Massacre? Why is Tibarn the one spreading the news to Caineghis, and not the other way around?

Okay, so, the Alliance countries send messages to the senate first and are rebuffed, but apparently... they don't send any to Sanaki?

But anyway, the senate kills a messenger of the Alliance, causing the Laguz Alliance to declare war.

And this is where I am about to get very, very pissed off depending on what I am about to hear.

...Nope, different subject, though I'm still annoyed. Quick aside first though: the narration next has Ike express concern about going to war with Begnion when he's a friend of Sanaki, but he's convinced anyway when he thinks about how unjust the senators' actions were. I really hope somebody is going to discuss the fact that nobody's heard jack shit from Sanaki yet apparently.

Anyway... here's what bothers me:

“Gallia's sub-commander, Ranulf, considers the merits of attempting to simply overpower Begnion. He recognizes, however, that pitting brute force against Begnion's magic and tactical prowess will result in massive alliance casualties.”

The narrator... almost makes it out like the laguz basically don't have a concept of what strategy is, and that the idea of just planning on “brute force”ing their way through combat against beorc hasn't been stamped out as a supremely idiotic concept that nobody but literal children should be allowed to think works anymore. Like, they almost make it sound like wisdom from Ranulf that he realized this, like it took someone with above-average intelligence to realize they needed to be smarter than their raw, base instincts about this.

Meanwhile, back in Sanitopia, even the dumbest person in any war meeting about this should have gone “Hey, I'm not the biggest history buff and all, so slap me if I'm wrong, but aren't all of our countries founded on the ashes of the complete ass-handing and two hundred years of slavery that happened the last time we tried to win a war that way, back when we outnumbered them?

It's like this game really wants me to think the laguz as a people are either stupid, or psychotically, suicidally arrogant.

Oh! Goodie! Speaking of stupidity and psychotic, suicidal arrogance...

...It's Skrimir! Yaaaaaaaay!

And we're in a war meeting with him.

And this...

...Oh, the rant is coming. I am going to get very, very angry the next time I see a map.

Anyway, Ranulf seems to be the one coming up with the strategy here, and it seems like a pretty good one, so... I'll hold off the comments I was going to make about my concerns about the “hiring the Greil Mercenaries” plot point for now.

I wonder why Ranulf includes ballistae as being on the same level as fire magic in terms of being “really bad news for us laguz”.

Yeah, and Skrimir... yeah, honestly, he... how do I put this...

...From the stuff I've been reading between the lines about laguz... Skrimir almost seems like a caricature about how the games have been implying general, non-main-character laguz society thinks and acts. Almost like they want to use him as a vehicle to critique laguz society, though I don't remember much coming from that except in terms of his own personal growth. I'll have to keep playing to find out, though.

...Yep. Here it is.

I just checked the map to confirm where Flaguerre is.

I am very, very mad, and I want answers immediately.

So, Gallia... is invading Begnion. Backed up by the bird tribes, obviously, but the land force of cat laguz we're with right now is starting in Gallia. And then we're invading Begnion, and we're starting with Flaguerre.

...I seem to remember two rather important things about this topic, one from PoR and one from later in this game:

In Path of Radiance, it is a core plot point that the quickest way to Begnion from Gallia is to spend a goddamned month at sea.

And later in this game, if memory serves, we learn that marching your soldiers through another territory in order to wage war is a big deal that requires sending a formal request for permission from the country's ruler, something that even people with no intention of taking no for an answer feel the need to do as a formality.

And yet here, apparently, Gallia just fucking invades Begninon via a land route through Crimea, as if that had just always been an option so trivial and mindless that the trip between Gallia and Begnion didn't even warrant mention.

And the worst part about this? The most frustrating thing?

Flaguerre isn't a retcon!

https://serenesforest.net/radiant-dawn/miscellaneous/world-map/

Look at this map, and see Flaguerre labeled in that gap between the mountains that divide Gallia and Crimea from Begnion.

https://serenesforest.net/path-of-radiance/miscellaneous/world-map/

Now look at this one. See how while the forts aren't named, Flaguerre and Mugil have still clearly always been there since Path of Radiance?

Which means that this was fucking planned. There has always been a land route to Begnion from Gallia by crossing through Crimea. And it isn't just that it's shorter than the sea route they wound up taking, it looks like it's shorter than the land route that they took to the start of the sea route!

And yet in PoR, we were given literally no explanation why going to that fort and seeking entry would be a bad idea, and why sailing directly to the Begnion capital would give us better odds of getting an audience with the apostle (who they hadn't originally planned on accidentally meeting in person). They basically treated it like a land route didn't exist at all, which led me to almost think (before I checked) that Flaguerre was a complete ass-pull retcon.

But yeah, apparently we're just marching straight through Crimean territory to invade Begnion through Flaguerre and... that better have diplomatic repercussions for Crimea, is all I'm gonna say. I'm gonna wait until Elincia comes back into the story with that whole Valtome incident, but I'm pretty damned confident that it doesn't have diplomatic consequences for Gallia's relationship with Crimea (like if they did it without her permission), which means that the only way this action will have any diplomatic consequences is if Elincia letting it happen puts Crimea on thinner ice with Begnion.

Okay, onto info conversations.

...Apparently Ike gave everyone in his company the opportunity to turn down the job of siding with the laguz against Begnion, and nobody bailed. Which I have to assume means that Shinon's respect for Ike has grown considerably offscreen, to the point that Ike can convince him to side with the laguz in what has very clear implications of being a race war, given how Ranulf is so antsy and conflicted about getting Ike involved at all in a war against Ike's own “kind”.

Meaning I am going to be very mad if the game contradicts this implication without explaining why Shinon would still help.

That said, I do really like Ike and Ranulf's friendship here. While it feels like it kinda just happened once Ranulf rejoined Ike's army in the previous game, they seem to have just hit it off at some point and developed some pretty great (though not mandatorily sexual) chemistry.

Ike gets a small, cute conversation with his small, cute sister...

...And Skrimir says hi to Ike, and I get the impression that this conversation is pleasant almost entirely because Skrimir respects Ike's skills due to what he's heard about him.

And then there's a small talk about Oscar preparing food for everyone, and...

Mordecai: Ahh! These are all the favorite foods of the beast tribe. They will be happy.

WHAT ARE THESE FOODS, MORDECAI? PLEASE! SPECIFY! GIVE ME THE TINIEST TIDDLYWINK OF TRIVIA ABOUT WHAT LIFE IN GALLIA IS LIKE, MORDECAI! GIVE ME ANYTHING!

Okay. Thank god. The writers are at least merciful enough to specify ribs and steaks by name.

That said, this was at least a funny scene, though it does make me wonder how many laguz Oscar is cooking for. There's limits to what one cook can do.

Anyway...

There's no shop yet, so not much to do to prepare, so I'll just check out the stats.

Yeah, we've got an entire army of badasses here. Some more badass than others, obviously, which unfortunately means some of them aren't badass at all compared to the enemies. But we've got three guys with transfer bonuses here, and even the weakest characters are still tier 2. The average level here appears to be 20/10. Highest level is Titania, the level 16 paladin. It's cool that she's still treated as the most experienced, though given Ike's legendary status... it does feel slightly weird. Though I guess levels aren't the same thing as stats, and Ike has definitely surpassed Titania in terms of stats. Titania's more experienced, but Ike has still surpassed her.

Anyway, I've decided that thanks to all the shit I've had to say about the story so far today, I'll be working on this playlog all damned day if I actually do the chapter, so I'm just gonna finish up by checking out my army and giving my thoughts about shit that might have slipped under the radar if I were more pressed for time. I'll do the actual map tomorrow.

As if Ike wouldn't have already been terrifying enough without transfer bonuses, he's now got +5 HP, and +2 to strength, skill, speed and defense. As a result, in at most two levels unless I'm absurdly unlucky, this guy is going to become such a perfect bonus experience candidate that ideally I won't want him to gain any normal levels at all. I'll just want him to use chapters to get close to leveling up, and then finish him up at base for the next one. Yeah, this guy is... he's ridiculously good. While I do resent his design change and the stuff they did here that inspired his Smash Bros depiction that got him typecast as a slow meathead forever... I do like how gameplaywise he's still pretty well-rounded until you get to his caps. His speed growth is pretty bad, but his speed base is the second-best in the party (and thanks to transfer bonuses, is just the straight-up best now).

He's got a personal sword called Ettard, and there's some nonsense about Ettard and Alondite changing names in the English localization. For some reason PoR decided to rename Ettard to Alondite without realizing that the sequel would actually decide to use that name for another weapon? At any rate, it's okay, but it's basically just a 50 use sword version of a steel greatlance with 2 less might, 5 more hit, and 10 more crit. Mostly, Ike's stats are gonna compensate for the fact that his weapon type got the short end of the stick... until he gets Ragnell again.

Speaking of personal swords, Mist has Florete, and there are people in this army I would kill in cold blood if that grisly ritual would allow anyone else to use this thing. Take Ettard, give up 5 of its 50 uses, and then give it 2 more might, 20 more hit, 5 more crit, 12 less weight, and then give it 1-2 range. And to top it all off, you can get a second one in the bargain section of the shop a few chapters from now! It's an amazing weapon. The only problem... is that it's personal to Mist. Who has eight strength, and has apparently lost her pony between games, being the only Greil Mercenary to not still be in her promoted class despite being tier 2. The weapon description also claims it's magical, which would help, but really even then, she wouldn't exactly be a powerhouse due to her terrible speed at the moment. The only thing I'm using this for is to get Mist chip damage to boost her weapon rank so she can equip the brave sword (I might be persuaded to go all the way to SS depending on how well it goes, though).

Oscar's looking pretty great, though he's probably not gonna be able to double for long, since his 23 speed looks juuuust shy of capping. Still though, he looks like he's gonna have a nicer start than he did last game, if not quite as spectacular an ending (especially since he can't use axes anymore). But he also has a crit bonus from standing next to Ike due to their A support from the last game, which is awesome.

And Soren... well he's got skill and res capped, though there's not much good I can do with that since the Greil Mercenaries army doesn't have any bonus exp due to that not being shared between armies until they all join up. He does have 20 speed, which isn't terrible, but it's about on par with a couple of units I know aren't doubling much at the start.

Aside from that, we've got Rolf, who I'm not going to use for reasons you can probably guess at...

...Shinon, who I am going to use at least for a bit because his bases are so ridiculous they're comparable to Ike's...

...Rhys, who's obviously going to be putting work in as a healer but probably not much else...

...Mia, who's still looking pretty damned useless...

...Boyd, who's gonna take a while to start doubling even if I train him but at least can pack a punch...

...Gatrie, who's not nearly as tanky as it feels like he should be, but also not nearly as slow, so he's kinda just “meh”...

...and Titania. Aside from some likely doubling issues (Oscar's faster than her due to transfer bonuses), she'll be fairly nice to have around.

...Yeah, I can't think of much more to say about these guys, and no much else I can do without starting the map, which is a can of worms that, as I said, I'm not gonna have time to do today. Sorry about this; I think it's the first time I've done it. But really, I am not looking forward to proofreading this if it gets any longer.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Shadow Mir]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

He's got a personal sword called Ettard, and there's some nonsense about Ettard and Alondite changing names in the English localization. For some reason PoR decided to rename Ettard to Alondite without realizing that the sequel would actually decide to use that name for another weapon? At any rate, it's okay, but it's basically just a 50 use sword version of a steel greatlance with 2 less might, 5 more hit, and 10 more crit. Mostly, Ike's stats are gonna compensate for the fact that his weapon type got the short end of the stick... until he gets Ragnell again.

Blame the Japanese version of Path of Radiance. While it did call the Black Knight's sword Ettard, it still had the internal file name of Alondite (which was why it was renamed in the first place).

[lenticular]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Apparently “scrabble”, as in “scrabble for power”, is an actual term. Who knew? Not me.

I actually did. As well as scrambling, it can also mean scratching or scribbling, and can be used as both a verb and a noun. And apparently this sort of obscure and useless knowledge is what I get from my mis-spent youth playing way too much Scrabble.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...It kind of pisses me off that there aren't any new members. Literally every single member of the Greil Mercenaries is someone who was already a Greil Mercenary last game. Hell, not even a single one of the characters we recruited last game decided to stick around! There isn't a single member of the group who wasn't hand-picked by Greil. More than four years have passed since his father's death, and Ike has failed to recruit a single new member in all of that time?

Well, there is Mia at least. While she did meet Greil before she met Ike, she wasn't really a core member of the group in PoR and she never really served under Greil. I always figured she was supposed to be the token new member of the group, though I do agree that it would have been better if they'd chose someone who didn't have any connection to Greil at all. I think it would have been great if they'd had a laguz member, but I don't think any of the PoR laguz units would have made sense to have leave their original roles.

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I wonder why Ranulf includes ballistae as being on the same level as fire magic in terms of being “really bad news for us laguz”.

I liked that part since it shows Ranulf as being cognisant of the capabilities and weaknesses of his bird laguz allies, rather than just thinking about beast laguz. Though, if memory serves, the battle itself only gives you Gallians as allies. Am I remembering that right? If so, I might be giving the writing more credit than it deserves again.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh! Goodie! Speaking of stupidity and psychotic, suicidal arrogance...

...It's Skrimir! Yaaaaaaaay!

Hah! That is a perfect way to introduce Skrimir.

[Alastor15243]

11 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I liked that part since it shows Ranulf as being cognisant of the capabilities and weaknesses of his bird laguz allies, rather than just thinking about beast laguz. Though, if memory serves, the battle itself only gives you Gallians as allies. Am I remembering that right? If so, I might be giving the writing more credit than it deserves again.

I'm pretty sure there aren't any bird laguz allies here. I'll find out tomorrow though.

12 minutes ago, lenticular said:

Hah! That is a perfect way to introduce Skrimir.

Words cannot describe my glee at having gone on that rant and then had that segue dropped into my lap when Skrimir appeared immediately after.