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

[Flere210]

A small thing on Claude. What if he saw everything, up to Julius defeat, and accepted it because it was the only way he can fathom to defeat the Loptyr's cult from go? Even if sigurd defeated Arvis, Deirdre would already be pregnant, and knowing him he would rise Julius like if he was his son.  Wich would eventually lead to him becoming a vessel anyway. 

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

A small thing on Claude. What if he saw everything, up to Julius defeat, and accepted it because it was the only way he can fathom to defeat the Loptyr's cult from go? Even if sigurd defeated Arvis, Deirdre would already be pregnant, and knowing him he would rise Julius like if he was his son.  Wich would eventually lead to him becoming a vessel anyway. 

...No. Sorry, I don't buy that. Sigurd's death wasn't the only way to stop Julius, because Julius only needed to be stopped because Julius was born in the first place, and that was an insanely convoluted sequence of events that we can only assume the gods have to have had a hand in. Claude doesn't even express the slightest horror at the idea that the gods he worships orchestrated the birth of Dragon Satan, the oppression of the entire continent for more than a decade, and his own death, on purpose.

Plus, it doesn't change anything about how unbelievably shitty it retroactively makes his relationship with his wife.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Espurrhoodie]

Yeesh, Claude sounds like a dick.

In the manga, he actually tries to go against his fate.

At least, if my memory is correct.

Also, both of Lex's nephews are spared in said manga.

[Interdimensional Observer]

I just brush aside the Claud convo. He doesn't have it unless he marries Edain- he doesn't even share the vision with Silvia, if he had it there. I'm also okay with the Turnwheel, though I try to use it not, even if it makes me play a little less cautious than I otherwise would. SoV and 3H don't have plots insofar I'm concerned, so its narrative implications don't bother me.

A quick retcon to "I feel an ominous wave of dread" would fix everything. Sigurd, Dew, and Jamke already shared one.

 

7 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

Even if sigurd defeated Arvis, Deirdre would already be pregnant, and knowing him he would rise Julius like if he was his son.  Wich would eventually lead to him becoming a vessel anyway. 

But they weren't married yet. I means the Loptians would've liked to cotton swab her with some Arvis seed as soon as they caught her, but I don't think they did that. It's wwwwwwaaaaaay safer to presume no sex until the marriage night. So beheading Arvis now would've stopped the return of Loptous.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Espurrhoodie said:

Yeesh, Claude sounds like a dick.

In the manga, he actually tries to go against his fate.

At least, if my memory is correct.

If you happen to read it again or remember more clearly, I'd love to hear what happens there. That sounds way better!

[Flere210]

From what i remember of the timeline, the twins were born soon after the bbq. I may remember wrong tho.

[Espurrhoodie]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

If you happen to read it again or remember more clearly, I'd love to hear what happens there. That sounds way better!

I actually am currently re-reading the manga. I'm at the part where Quan, Ethlyn, and Finn leave for Leonster.

I think I should just do a topic on manga comparisons at this point.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Espurrhoodie said:

I actually am currently re-reading the manga. I'm at the part where Quan, Ethlyn, and Finn leave for Leonster.

I think I should just do a topic on manga comparisons at this point.

That would definitely be interesting, though I still greatly appreciate your input to this thread!

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I just brush aside the Claud convo. He doesn't have it unless he marries Edain- he doesn't even share the vision with Silvia, if he had it there. I'm also okay with the Turnwheel, though I try to use it not, even if it makes me play a little less cautious than I otherwise would. SoV and 3H don't have plots insofar I'm concerned, so its narrative implications don't bother me.

A quick retcon to "I feel an ominous wave of dread" would fix everything. Sigurd, Dew, and Jamke already shared one.

 

But they weren't married yet. I means the Loptians would've liked to cotton swab her with some Arvis seed as soon as they caught her, but I don't think they did that. It's wwwwwwaaaaaay safer to presume no sex until the marriage night. So beheading Arvis now would've stopped the return of Loptous.

Claude's premonition doesn't necessarily mean he knows when and where, and most importantly how, things are going to go down. He even only says that he thinks his death is "likely". So with that in mind, it is more like an "ominous wave of dread" more than a clear picture of what is to come. Just one that he can attribute to vague divine guidance compared to just sensing the gestalt like most of the other characters.

6 hours ago, Flere210 said:

From what i remember of the timeline, the twins were born soon after the bbq. I may remember wrong tho.

I don't think there's any official confirmation on the twins's birth year. I've always assumed it's a little later as Juilus looks a bit younger than the other Gen 2 characters in my eyes. Plus I just like the idea of killing a young teen over an older teen. More messed up that way.

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Claude's premonition doesn't necessarily mean he knows when and where, and most importantly how, things are going to go down. He even only says that he thinks his death is "likely". So with that in mind, it is more like an "ominous wave of dread" more than a clear picture of what is to come. Just one that he can attribute to vague divine guidance compared to just sensing the gestalt like most of the other characters.

If true, I can only imagine his conversation with the gods being... very weird. They start off super helpful and specific with their explanations of what's going on, and then suddenly get super vague and unhelpful when it gets to the topic of the result.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

If true, I can only imagine his conversation with the gods being... very weird. They start off super helpful and specific with their explanations of what's going on, and then suddenly get super vague and unhelpful when it gets to the topic of the result.

Claude just went in there and got high. Then accused the two most obviously evil guys in the court. I mean, have you seen Reptor. Dude just screams evil vizer.

[Shadow Mir]

15 hours ago, Flere210 said:

It depend on many thing such as the wheater and id there are obstacle around. Also, from far enought a single wyvern may pass as a bird, while an army of knights would be noticeable.

Unless the wingbeats of a wyvern somehow sound like those of a bird, I very highly doubt it.

[Interdimensional Observer]

52 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Claude just went in there and got high. Then accused the two most obviously evil guys in the court. I mean, have you seen Reptor. Dude just screams evil vizer.

Eh... I'd rather go for divine anorexia excuse for Claud, not that it's always my choice. Fasting to the point that you start hallucinating. It's the clothes are thick and bulky, not him.

[Flere210]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Unless the wingbeats of a wyvern somehow sound like those of a bird, I very highly doubt it.

I don't think wyvern are as noisy as helicopters, but it may be, so i don't know how to answer.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

I don't think wyvern are as noisy as helicopters, but it may be, so i don't know how to answer.

I'd say even at a fair distance a helicopter would be able to stalk a platoon of horses. Sky's really big and a big group of horses probably stands out really easily on a coastal road like that. You could observe from really far away. We also might need to consider Thriacia 776 where it reveals the Lopt sect leaked the info that Cuan was going to be there. So this could be a case of a retcon. You know, less we're following him and more we're taking the same path as him because we knew he was going to be here. Tailing is vague enough it could even mean tracking like a hunter rather than direct observation.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

Genealogy Day 23: Tonight Someone Dies

Alright, let's get moving. Time to kill as few of Johan's forces as possible (not that it really matters, they're all going to die by the end probably) and recruit Johan.

I finish up my turn by getting Larcei and Ulster in position, and having Fee brave sword the bandit in her range while Arthur sprints north to get the other one. I'm hoping the bandits don't all charge Arthur. That might not end well. Like I said, he's not really dodgetank ready yet.

They do, unfortunately, so I have him retreat and have Dermott advance to try and catch their attention. Meanwhile Fee flies over the hills to take out one of the other bandits, while after recruiting Johan, he rushes off to take out another.

Johan's recruitment dialogue is... dumb. I get the sense that it's going to be hilarious when actually officially localized, but this fanmade script doesn't really do anything for me in terms of wit. I did like Johalvier's line in the original translation though: “You lot! From this point forward we are an army of liberators fighting for love and justice!” I dunno why, but that line always tickled me as a teenager.

You know, it just occurred to me: While I've read and always assumed that you can only recruit one of the axe brothers, I've never actually tried to see if Larcei can talk to the other one. I just checked, and turns out no she can't. But given that Larcei and Ulster have perfect dodgetanking against these enemies, I figure: why not have Larcei attack Johalvier and see if he has any unique dialogue for fighting her.

...Ouch. So he still doesn't want to fight Larcei, but he refuses to join you anyway. In fact, I'm guessing that's the same dialogue that happens if you attack him before recruiting either. It's weird that he gets so mad at his brother joining that he refuses to join himself, and yet his dialogue for combat doesn't change at all.

Interesting. So, seizing an enemy castle makes all the enemies allied with that group disappear with a visual effect. Turns out the same thing happens when the enemy captures a green castle, but there's no visual effect, the units just vanish offscreen.

Also, I notice that Julia has a circlet on (obviously, otherwise everyone would see the brand on her forehead and know she's of Naga blood), but apparently it's not THE circlet. The one Dierdre wore, and which she later obtains in order to get the book of Naga. Curious. But I can't comment on it until I see that part of the story again.

So the turn after the incoming axe knights killed Johan's castle guard and seized Isaach, they all start moving really weirdly, and I'm wondering what they're doing, until I realize: they're getting back into formation again after splitting up to attack! Y'know, I've noticed this for a while, but now I'd like to comment on it: I like how enemy units don't march at full speed. They tend to move 1 or 2 spaces less than their slowest soldier's full movement. This ensures they always stay in formation no matter who their leader is or what the terrain is like, but more importantly it keeps the player's non-mounted units from being completely screwed over if they're caught away from the main group when new enemies show up. And it even adds a touch of realism too, which is amusing given how absurd this game is. Armies don't march at full gallop.

I just noticed that none of my characters have that much money. I think either you don't inherit your parent's money after all, or it's drastically reduced. Good thing Larcei and Ulster have Bargain then! Better let Arthur get most of the villages, so he can keep using Forseti.

And we got Lex's brave axe back from... I've forgotten his name already, but the great knight who was leading the axe knight battalion. And it still has all of Lex's kill stars on it! Awesome! This thing is gonna start critting soon! Johan, you may have a place in this army yet!

...Just gotta get you the 8000 gold to buy it. Which should be easy. Just one village.

Everyone calls Seliph “Lord Seliph”. Is this actually correct, or is it just a sign of respect and recognizing his birthright in spite of the empire's lies? Would Seliph still be a lord despite his father dying in disgrace and having no castle anymore?

I find it hilarious that even when Arthur's father is Lewyn, Arthur still refers to his mother as if she were the biggest magical name in his family. Despite knowing full well that it sure ain't her blood that's letting him use that kickass tome of his.

Okay, now that all the enemies are gone, I'm pretty disappointed there's nothing coming out of the castle to face me. I appreciate that this game isn't a psychotic dick about reinforcements and all, but this map could at least have done with some enemies guarding the castle or something. Ah well. Maybe that'll happen when I capture Isaach and get Nosferatu for Julia.

Nope. Not at all. That's... super duper lame. Outrageously lame. Half of the damned map has nothing to do on it!

It's still no chapter 2, but even so...

...On a happier note, Julia has Nosferatu now! And she sure as hell knows how to use it! At 12 weight it's still pretty damned heavy, but she's got a passable speed growth of 30 and enough of a base to nearly completely negate the weight to begin with, so there are still going to be plenty of enemies she's borderline invincible against, namely dark mages. Especially with her magic growth of a FUCKING HUNDRED.

I MIGHT be marrying her to Ulster. Two nigh-indestructible footsoldiers sounds like a nice fit. Problem is, she kind of disappears for a decent chunk of Gen 2. Nearly two of the six chapters. Meaning half of the game after they're married she won't be available. But the issue is there aren't many good female footsoldiers in the game. Patty might work out, maybe. And then I can let Larcei shack it up with her cousin she's got the hots for.

Anyway, Johan got the village with the skill ring, and I have him sell that to buy the brave axe off of Ulster. Ulster's gonna buy the skill ring once he can afford it, since Larcei has the other, and it'll help them get off critical hits, Astra and Sol.

So, Dannan calls Larcei a she-witch in his pre-battle conversation with Johan, and... jeez, that term feels redundant now, but I guess back then witch was more of a gender-neutral word, so you had to specify...

Seliph unfortunately doesn't quite have enough HP to tank even a single hit from the boss, so I have to have someone else do it. Preferably Ulster at range, so he can catch up on Larcei in levels (though her luck hasn't improved and they're still roughly even on stats) after all of the axe knights decided they wanted to kill her and ignore Ulster.

It's funny, I just realized I've gotten so thoroughly used to the new translation font that I don't even notice it anymore. In fact, I can't even remember what the difference was between this and the old one!

That's weird. Lewyn says it's been 15 years since Arvis conquered the world, but the opening narration said it was 17. I wonder what's going on here. Maybe the prologue was talking about Sigurd's death, and it took 2 years to make the whole empire?

So we get to chapter 7, and... ouch. OUCH. That's a pretty bleak context for FE5, isn't it? Damn near every single character I meet and recruit in that game is doomed by canon, huh? Everyone except Finn, Leif and Nanna is probably gonna die?

That's... pretty dark. I'm kind of morbidly curious how that's gonna turn out once we start that one.

Anyway,

Ulster gets an insanely good series of level ups as usual in the arena, while...

...Okay this is just unfortunate and bizarre.

Here are the sword siblings' stats. And keep in mind their bases, after the +1 luck conversation for Larcei, were pretty much IDENTICAL. In fact, the only difference was that Larcei had better HP. Now look at them:

Ulster: Level 8, HP 34, Strength 15, Magic 0, Skill 20, Speed 19, Luck 15, Defense 12, Resistance 1.

Larcei: Level 10, HP 38, Strength 13, Magic 0, Skill 23, Speed 18, Luck 13, Defense 8, Resistance 4.

I'm really hoping this isn't a trend. Larcei's only gained 1 defense in 9 levels with a 40% growth, which is the most worrying, but really, aside from HP, resistance and skill (I don't remember seeing her proc resistance, so maybe she started with a higher base?), she's doing worse than her brother in everything.

Okay, I'm noticing a hell of a lot of enemies in the arena that seem to be named after Archanea characters, or close at least. Lester just fought a hunter named Castor. I can only assume the translation team did that and it was originally Kashim or something.

Anyway, let's take a look at what we actually have to deal with. It's pretty nasty, but honestly, I think that makes this one of my favorite chapters in the game.

First off, Patty and Shanan are currently stuck, with two enemies in front of them and a TON of enemies behind them. The gear I gave Patty turned out to be utterly useless for improving her chances to survive. She has no inherited swords because her dad is Lex, so she only has the sleep sword, which is almost worse than useless. It has 12 weight, bringing her decent starting speed stat, even when boosted by the speed ring, down to a miserable 3, which isn't enough to protect her from being doubled by the silver sword myrmidon in front of her, and even with the defense ring, she has exactly enough bulk... to still be one-rounded by that myrmidon. She can take a single hit from the dark mage next to the myrmidon, no thanks to anything I've given her, but that's it.

Shanan's odds are WAY better, or at least they will be once I have him talk to Patty at the edge of his movement range and get Balmung back. Like I said when talking about Tyrfing, it's got the exact same stat bonuses as Forseti, only it's two points lighter. While this makes Forseti much better overall, Balmung is even better than Forseti when it comes to dodgetanking, which is good. Unfortunately, it's not enough to make sticking around to face off all of these enemies a remotely sane idea. Hell, if we're not careful we might find ourselves in a position where it's impossible to escape without risking someone's death. While that's not the end of the world, since they've already been recruited and thus can be brought back next chapter with Ced's Valkyria staff... yeah, I'm not keen on doing that. At all. So we're going to push through the enemies ahead of us and then get the fuck out of here before the boss can get his Fenrir tome back.

Meanwhile, down south, we've got another obstacle, though this is less stressful and much more fun. Leif, Finn and Nanna are trapped in close proximity to the final castle of this map, who has just sent a battalion of sword armors and a thunder mage, led by a general, to storm them and finish them off. They've got a castle, but it's a neutral castle with EXTREMELY limited facilities. They can make repairs there... and that's pretty much it. They've got to make do with that, completely blocked off from my main army for the next three castles, desperately fighting to survive while I work my way towards them.

Now, I said I don't like to reinforcement abuse, but... I think I'm going to make an exception this time, because if you don't let yourself kill the leader of this battalion... it makes the chapter sooooooo much more fun. It means you've got a defense chapter, a pretty tricky defense chapter in fact, running simultaneously with your main chapter, regardless of how uneventful the rest of the chapter gets at times.

Anyway, Finn, the only character who is playable in both Gen 1 and Gen 2, makes his return, and as a result of me making a half-assed effort to use him, at level 15 he's statistically the best unit this little trio has. Unfortunately, that's not saying much. None of them are capable of one-rounding these sword armors. Not even Fee, who I'm sending across the canyon to help out. Even though both Fee and Nanna have armorslayers.

I'm really starting to regret my decision to put those rings on Lex.

Thankfully, since Ulster has thoroughly established that at least for the time being he REALLY doesn't need it, I have him send his Defender Fee's way. This will allow her to take only 3 damage from the sword armors, 12 from the thunder mage, and 14 from the boss, which will allow for a suitable defensive position near the castle if everything goes to hell like I think it will. So I send her flying off to the rescue... and get to work.

My first turn with Shanan and Patty is just as I described: move Patty as far as she can go towards freedom without being too far away for Shanan to talk to on turn one. Have Shanan talk to her, get the Balmung, raising his evasion from 44 to a ludicrous 90, and hope for the best when the 106-hit swordfighter attacks him on enemy phase.

For team Leif, Fee flies to the rescue like I said, while Finn, Nanna and to a lesser extent Leif try to deal with as many of the bandits as they can before they have to retreat.

The main army has the job of clearing up all the dark mages scattered about the starting area, so that they're not around to endanger Shanan or Patty as they make their escape.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

OH MY GOD.

Okay.

Hats off to the new translation.

Having the creepy merchant guy not quite able to remember Seliph's name and have him list “Celice” as one of his half-hearted dismissive guesses was pretty funny.

Also, looks like Operation: Get Laylea has gone off without a hitch. Ares is talking to Laylea in the castle town, not Leen. I was pretty confident, but there was a lingering doubt, since I heard something about deadlines for pairings that I was worried might go the other way too.

Except apparently it's Leylia? Well... Alright, I guess. I like Laylea better, honestly. Visually it looks better and more fitting for her appearance. But really that's a nitpick.

I've always liked Leen/Leylia's talk with Ares here, where she points out that, even if Ares were right about Sigurd killing Eldigan, it's a bit silly to hold a grudge against somebody for just doing his job when his father had that exact same job.

Anyway, Leif's army is doing way better than I thought they would at clearing out the bandits. They should all be dead before they have to retreat. Thankfully, despite their pitiful prospects against the upcoming battalion, both Finn and Nanna can one-round the bandits. Finn with his steel lance, Nanna with her Earth Sword (only at range though). Meanwhile Leif eventually picks off the final one after several turns with his... unfortunate pre-pursuit damage output.

Back in Pattyland, things are down to the absolute wire. In order to not get hit by either the swordfighter in front of her or the swordfighter immediately behind, she has to take the turn around this corner a bit wide, which will leave her wide open to a lethal sword attack she can't run away from next turn because she'll have to waste movement backtracking towards the swordfighter in order to keep running away. But thankfully, if the dark mage moves his full range, it's going to work out perfectly. Shanan will be able to kill him AND end his turn in a bottleneck, blocking the path forward so Patty can hide behind him. And if the dark mage doesn't, well, Shanan can stand in that spot anyway, because thankfully as I said, Patty can survive one shot from the dark mage, and that's enough time to let Patty refresh her head start against these pursuing enemies.

As for the main force, Lester's been able to gain some exp taking these dark mages out on enemy phase, as he's the cheapest reliable option I have (Arthur with Forseti will obviously work too, but that seems like a waste).

OH NO.

OH FUCK.

I FORGOT TO HEAL LESTER BEFORE MOVING HIM FORWARD AND NOW ONLY LANA CAN HEAL HIM, AND ONLY WITH PHYSIC, AND IT'S NOT ENOUGH.

The best I can do is aura him up with Dermott, put as many other options in the way as I can, and hope for the best.

The best does not occur.

Lester died, just as I was starting to think he might be useful.

Damn it. I wonder if he'll be able to catch up on the time he's going to lose until I can revive him. Probably not. He was on thin ice as far as viability went to begin with.

But this isn't the end of the world. I can easily recover from this. So I will.

Also... it's kind of sad that this game doesn't have a character death song. Not even a jingle like in FE1 and 2.

But anyway, I finally managed to get Shanan and Patty free of the Yied Shrine cliffs, and cleared out the remaining dark mages chasing them with Julia, just in time for ...Ctuzof... whatever the fuck kind of a name that is... to get his precious little Fenrir tome. So up next: gotta work out how best to deal with that. Until then!

[Interdimensional Observer]

28 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just noticed that none of my characters have that much money. I think either you don't inherit your parent's money after all, or it's drastically reduced.

[(Father's Gold + Mother's Gold) / 10] + 2000

So the minimum is 2000. The max, with two parents of 50000 each, is 12000. 

Thus, it's always better to have a parent buy something for their respective child, than have the child themselves buy it if possible.

 

28 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So we get to chapter 7, and... ouch. OUCH. That's a pretty bleak context for FE5, isn't it? Damn near every single character I meet and recruit in that game is doomed by canon, huh? Everyone except Finn, Leif and Nanna is probably gonna die?

Wrong! Are you even looking at the map? This is what I saw (unit class and number spoilers for FE5):

Spoiler

But some say I have the power of seeing invisible people, or the power to borrow pics of others' quick hacks.

Seriously though, people invisibly exist in FE, do ya think Grannvale had less than 100 soldiers defending Issach? Pretend Leif, Nanna, and Finn are each backed by some of the ~40 people seen there, and more.

 

RIP Lester. Midir's son is done. The Brave Bow is lost, not that anybody needed it.

Edited November 24, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Jotari]

Yeah, it took two years for Alvis two yearsthe other countries 

17 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

[(Father's Gold + Mother's Gold) / 10] + 2000

So the minimum is 2000. The max, with two parents of 50000 each, is 12000. 

Thus, it's always better to have a parent buy something for their respective child, than have the child themselves buy it if possible.

 

Wrong! Are you even looking at the map? This is what I saw (unit class and number spoilers for FE5):

  Hide contents

But some say I have the power of seeing invisible people, or the power to borrow pics of others' quick hacks.

Seriously though, people invisibly exist in FE, do ya think Grannvale had less than 100 soldiers defending Issach? Pretend Leif, Nanna, and Finn are each backed by some of the ~40 people seen there, and more.

 

RIP Lester. Midir's son is done. The Brave Bow is lost, not that anybody needed it.

Galzus at least has no canon reason to be dead 

[Icelerate]

On 11/22/2019 at 5:25 PM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Agreed, it robs Travant of some of his agency and makes him Loptian Pawn #6. He and his spiritual successor Naesala both get robbed of agency in their second games.

No it improves the writing. 

[Jotari]

7 hours ago, Icelerate said:

No it improves the writing. 

Don't see the original quote your posting from. But I'll add that I was of the opinion that it was a bad retcon until I actually played the game and discovered it's actually really minor. The lopt sect just let Travant know where Cuan would be. Travant still went and killed Cuan on his own initiative. If anything it makes Cuan look like less of an idiot (though not Ethlyn).

Saying this before I read the reddit post.

[Alastor15243]

Genealogy Day 24: Dickbags with Siege Tomes

Right, so, the best way I can come up with to deal with this Fenrir user whose name I refuse to spell again is to have Shanan go back up there, this time with Physic support from Lana, and cut him and his castle guards to ribbons.

...Except I ran the numbers and discovered even that has a risk of failure since, as Lester demonstrated yesterday, Naga rest his soul, Lana can only heal 20ish HP with Physic. Looks like I have no choice but to send BOTH of my healers, Lana and Julia, up there so they can go straight into Fenrir's range and mend each other and Shanan when hurt.

CHRIST this is gonna be tedious. But hey, like I said, I still have shit to do every turn.

...Though admittedly that's not exactly hard at the moment. With Fee there we've got a good thing going that can only potentially be ruined by running out of supplies.

I'm bringing Patty back to base in the meantime to see if she can get some better weapons and some arena kills to let that Paragon skill of hers catch her up to speed some.

...And unfortunately that bandit has started moving towards the village, and I don't know if I can make it in time to stop it. And I really, really want to, because it has a shield ring. As I've cleared up the dangerous part of Leif's continuous defense mission however, I'm going to see if Fee can fly over there. If she can, she'll make it in time. If not... looks like that shield ring is on a ludicrous time limit if you want to clear this mission reliably.

Alright, so my revised plan is to send Shanan up ahead, to kill the dark mages as quickly as possible, while distracting Fenrir man with Seliph, escorted by Julia and Lana so that he can be healed immediately. I can PROBABLY just send one of the healers, since Seliph is the most tempting target and the healers PROBABLY won't be attacked... but I lost Quan last time I assumed too much about what the clever AI will do.

Unfortunately, no, it looks like Fee can't reach the village. It was a longshot, since she couldn't reach the castle, but I had to try, since it was my only shot. Looks like the defense ring is going up in smoke.

I can't for the life of me imagine how I was supposed to get that on time without recklessly rushing the shrine's enemies with Shanan and giving the leg ring to Seliph. But whatever the proper solution was... I didn't do it, suffice to say.

Anyway, I've... I've gotta get Fee back to Leonster, like, yesterday.

...Because without Fee, things became a lot scarier than I expected when I realized the general brought back the whole army at once when he fled, rather than the gradual dripfeed that had been happening before. Which led to a prolonged series of failed attempts to bait out and kill the thunder mage before he and the general could gang up and kill Finn. This ultimately ended in Nanna retreating behind the Leonster castle cliff to bait him out with the Earth Sword, which I was hoping would kill him, but no, the enemy was saved by the AI's own foolishness as a sword armor blocked the thunder mage's attack space before he could use it, forcing me to retreat, spend a huge chunk of Nanna's change repairing the Earth Sword, and have Finn and Leif back themselves into a literal corner to the side of the castle. Another turn and they'll be dead.

…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...So who should arrive just in time to save the day but Fee, back from her bandit killing attempt insanely early thanks to her Return Ring which I SURE AS FUCK AM GLAD I DECIDED TO GIVE HER. This isn't quite the reason why (as I said, I imagined her needing to retreat from a bad situation, not to quickly arrive to save others from one), but holy shit did it pay off. She baits the axe general away to the side of the cliff, flies over to kill the thunder mage, and parks herself in front of Finn to stop him from taking any more damage. Meanwhile, literally simultaneously, Seliph, Shanan, Lana and Julia make it to the Yied Shrine and prepare to enemy phase the boss by standing in front of the castle after killing both the two remaining dark mages guarding it that turn. That doesn't quite work, because he still finds Seliph a more tempting target (understandably), but he still goes down like a chump, and Lana then warps Shanan back to base to save some time, get him away from the gate, and get this shrine seized immediately.

And now we get to the really dark scene where Seliph sees the place where the Loptyr cultists hid for generations, and Seliph sees a child's writing on the wall, begging for Loptyr to come back. I mean this is sad and fucked up... but like, uh...

...I've gotta interject here. My bullshit alarm is going off.

Lewyn claims they weren't that much different from other people at first, just innocents persecuted for their religion and their bloodline, but... I mean... come the fuck on on, game.

They worshipped Loptyr.

They openly and unapologetically worshipped Dragon Satan as their lord and savior.

The exact same god who directly speaks to the people now and demands CHILD SACRIFICES. And that's just what the story's told us about SO FAR. I know Loptyr demands even more fucked up shit later, though I can't quite remember exactly what it was.

How the fuck could they openly praise that bastard, think that bastard is glorious and wonderful, and not be incredibly fucked up themselves? This isn't some harmless religion getting radicalized by mistreatment and oppression. This is a religion for SOCIOPATHS, that OPENLY DEMANDS BLOOD. I get that it's wrong to assume people are evil because of their bloodline, but it's not presumptuous to think someone's fucked up if they openly practice religious beliefs that are also absurdly fucked up.

Also, I just prefer the phrasing of the original translation again. Much more to the point, while still giving a line that still sticks with me: “Is Loptyr the only god they have?” the new one's “Was Loptyr the only hope they had” may sound a bit more fitting, but something about the original line feels more profound and memorable to me, if undermined by the above.

Thankfully this game is merciful enough to not make me backtrack through all of that winding mess of cliffs again, as the cliffs have for some reason spontaneously collapsed upon seizing the shrine, allowing us to run straight down to the bottom of the cliffs to rejoin the main forces.

But small mercies aside... that was a really, really, REALLY shitty castle. It took me 30 turns to finally seize it, and most of that was spent getting Seliph there on foot. If there's some way to reliably do it faster than that (it would probably involve Fee if there is), I'd love to see it, but it feels designed to be tedious. Thankfully, as I said, Leif's situation kept things perpetually exciting, especially when they had to manage without Fee for a bit. But now we can move forward.

Actually, that's another thing. You get so many units, and there's no limit on how many you're allowed to deploy... but there's rarely ever more than one place to be at any one time. I think there was the beginning of the prologue, and the beginning of chapter 2, and... that's about it. It's weird the game gives you so many units when, due to the bunching up of enemies emphasizing enemy phase combat and the lack of simultaneous jobs to do, you often only wind up using one to three of them at any given time.

I have to say, Ares inheriting Eldigan's flowery speaking pattern... is kind of disappointing. I always pictured Ares as this sort of adorably stupid edgelord, consumed by a thirst for vengeance that his cute girlfriend thinks is silly and that he eventually realizes was based on a lie the whole time. I mean, I guess that can still work if you picture it a bit more Owain-ish, but... no, I like the old script so much better for that. I still feel the old script is better in general, by the way, this playthrough really hasn't changed my mind on that front. Pity this is the only translation that's actually complete.

I just had Patty and Seliph talk, and Seliph now has a brave sword. Awesome, but it's possible somebody else could use it more. I'll have to work that out at some point.

Castle Melgen's forces are pretty easy to deal with, mostly thanks to an aura'd up Arthur. Facing off against thunder mages and a bunch of inaccurate armors, Arthur cleans house, and Ulster manages to get in on some of the action from the edge of enemy attack range while gaining some support points with Patty.

Patty, speaking of which, has gotten alarmingly bad defense procs despite having a 60% growth rate. In six levels she's gotten exactly one defense proc. That is... disappointing, but the dice have no memory, so hopefully it won't stick.

While the mooks were a piece of cake, Ishore is a piece of work. Not for a casual player, for those most of the time you can just rush him and it'll be fine, especially if you're using the save feature religiously. But for a ranked runner or an ironmanner... he can be a bitch and eleven tenths. He's got Bolting, which isn't too bad... but he's also got Adept. And there is the tiiiiiiiiniest percent of a chance that it'll activate, even with the 30 weight of Bolting slowing him down. Of course, he can't hit Arthur... when Arthur's aura'd up. But neither Seliph nor Dermott can step into Ishtore's range without risking death from double bolting. Of course, it's only a risk, and even with an un-aura'd Arthur the chance of Ishtore proccing Adept and hitting twice is pretty dang low... but I'll be damned if I give the game that chance to fuck me. So I'm going to have to have Seliph step as far as he can go while still outside of Ishtore's range, send Arhtur in as far as Seliph's aura will protect him, and then dive for that single tree diagonal to Ishtore's perch for safety.

That works, except that Thoron is lighter and slightly more accurate, so while he thinks he can't touch Arthur, thanks to his three authority stars he can, and he can kill him.

I just crunched the numbers, and it's roughly a...

...a 0.5% chance of Arthur dying if Arthur attacks Ishtore with Forseti. 13% chance to hit, 31% chance to proc Adept, and 13% chance to hit again. That's assuming Arthur doesn't activate his Adept or Critical...

...Fuck it. This is my best shot. I'm going for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Arthur procs both Adept AND Critical, killing Ishtore before he even has a chance to lay a finger on Arthur. And I get...

...Isn't this Taillte's thoron? It's got four stars on it.

Why didn't she pass this down to Tinni?

Apparently the thunder mages guarding Melgen start moving after Ishtore dies. I don't know if they were stationary like most guards stationed in a triangle in front of the castle are, or they just knew they couldn't hit Arthur, but either way, they're certainly moving now.

Adding this bit in while running through the finished entry: I like what they were trying to do with having Ishtore and Liza be a couple, but we didn't know nearly enough about either of them for it to have any emotional impact at all.

I've got the thunder mages down for the count, but it's getting late, so I think I'm gonna call it here. My goal is to finish chapter 7 tomorrow, so here's hoping that works out!

Edited November 26, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Why didn't she pass this down to Tinni?

Tinni is only a Mage, able to use all anima magic types by default, but only of C rank sans Holy Blood. Thoron is A rank, and Tailtiu was a Thunder Mage, only Thunder magic being usable, but at B rank sans blood. Tinni needs a promotion for Thoron.

Oddly, Tinni's replacement, Linda, is a Thunder Mage, so she can buy Thoron and use it from the start.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Tinni is only a Mage, able to use all anima magic types by default, but only of C rank sans Holy Blood. Thoron is A rank, and Tailtiu was a Thunder Mage, only Thunder magic being usable, but at B rank sans blood. Tinni needs a promotion for Thoron.

Oddly, Tinni's replacement, Linda, is a Thunder Mage, so she can buy Thoron and use it from the start.

Hmm... If I had to guess, that would be because whatever magical parent she gets is probably going to let her use other magic types just as well via holy blood, and they didn't want to pigeonhole her. At any rate, it feels intentional that you get her thoron tome back before you even get her.

Edited November 25, 2019 by Alastor15243

[X-Naut]

On 11/24/2019 at 6:29 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...On a happier note, Julia has Nosferatu now! And she sure as hell knows how to use it! At 12 weight it's still pretty damned heavy, but she's got a passable speed growth of 30 and enough of a base to nearly completely negate the weight to begin with, so there are still going to be plenty of enemies she's borderline invincible against, namely dark mages. Especially with her magic growth of a FUCKING HUNDRED.

I MIGHT be marrying her to Ulster. Two nigh-indestructible footsoldiers sounds like a nice fit. Problem is, she kind of disappears for a decent chunk of Gen 2. Nearly two of the six chapters. Meaning half of the game after they're married she won't be available. But the issue is there aren't many good female footsoldiers in the game. Patty might work out, maybe. And then I can let Larcei shack it up with her cousin she's got the hots for.

A bit late on this but if you want to pair Julia with anybody then you're gonna have to tether them at the hip, she has 0+0 natural love growth with everyone but Seliph (whom she's negative with) and is at the bottom of nearly every male's jealousy list. Your only option is 100 turns adjacent.

Edited November 26, 2019 by X-Naut

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, X-Naut said:

A bit late on this but if you want to pair Julia with anybody then you're gonna have to tether them at the hip, she has 0+0 natural love growth with everyone but Seliph (whom she's negative with) and is at the bottom of nearly every male's jealousy list. Your only option is 100 turns adjacent.

Thanks for the advice. I ultimately decided against it at any rate. Hardly practical for little payoff.