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

[Flere210]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well they're pretty decent in Three Houses...so now?

You awakened a dormant monster...

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

You awakened a dormant monster...

Oh? Are magic weapons in Three Houses yet another one of Mir's many triggers? Well here we go again then.

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well they're pretty decent in Three Houses...so now?

How so? Outside of the Levin Sword and maybe the Magic Bow, I'm not seeing it, considering that the Arrow of Indra has severe availability issues (only available in Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, and in the case of the latter, you only get to use it for endgame), the Bolt Axe is as much of a joke as it was in Path of Radiance, and the Aura Knuckles are practically useless (the only units that have an easy time getting to an A in brawling, which is needed to use it, all have bad to iffy magic growths at best, and on top of that, they're range locked. Not helping matters is that you need A+ Professor Level just to create them).

Edited December 13, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Jotari]

14 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

How so? Outside of the Levin Sword and maybe the Magic Bow, I'm not seeing it, considering that the Arrow of Indra has severe availability issues (only available in Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, and in the case of the latter, you only get to use it for endgame), the Bolt Axe is as much of a joke as it was in Path of Radiance, and the Aura Knuckles are practically useless (the only units that have an easy time getting to an A in brawling, which is needed to use it, all have bad to iffy magic growths at best, and on top of that, they're range locked. Not helping matters is that you need A+ Professor Level just to create them).

I don't know. I find the ability to give melee units three range pretty useful. Giving magic units an ability to use combat arts with their magic stat also seems like it'd be useful, though I can't recall actually doing that myself. The extra hit from the magic formula is also not unappreciated.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 5: Chapter 4

Well, as if I didn't already have enough reason to hate the bastard, the opening narration of this chapter explains that Raydrik got his current position as baron of Manster by being the general of Connaught who betrayed Leif's grandfather!

Oh! Cool! Dalsin's here already!

And oh dear, Eyvel's being led to see Mareeta and Nanna by Raydrik. Alas, I already know how this is going to end up.

Yes! Ced comes to save the day! This was the kind of thing I was talking about in Genealogy, the sort of stuff I want to see a lot of, Ced's story as the leader of an army of freedom fighters in Thracia. And his second in command, Asbel is here too! Ooohhh... Oh man is Asbel awesome. Alas, he and Ced ran off to do some other shit deeper in the fort, so I don't get him quite yet. But very, very soon. And he did leave behind some fellow freedom fighters to help me.

...Ohhhhhh. So that's why I inexplicably remembered Lithis being with me on this. He doesn't break me out, he's... a fellow prisoner. Yeah, actually, come to think of it, I didn't hear him mentioned at all at the end of last chapter either.

We do have a bunch of new recruits. Fergus and Karin, a free knight and a pegasus knight in Leif's cell (dismounted, obviously, though they can inexplicably reclaim their mounts the second they next step outside in a later chapter), and our liberators, Brighton the dismounted axe knight with Wrath, Macha the myrmidon with Vantage, and Lara, a thief with amazingly terrible stats (zero strength, and a three might slim sword she barely has the con to carry without penalty) who seems to only exist to ensure that you start this mission with at least one thief in case Lithis died.

Speaking of Lithis, he's in a separate cell with three brigands. Apparently this is the cell for genuine criminals. But the brigands are green and will presumably help you out when you release them, if only out of their best interests.

Leif's completely unarmed. All of his and Lithis's possessions are strewn around the prison in chests, mixed, I think, with a few new items too. Not sure.

Anyway, the lance-using soldiers aren't going to be very useful at the moment for their gear, but their vulneraries will be, so I'll be sure to at least swipe a few of those. Right now there are pretty much no enemies, but I have a feeling that's about to change.

Hahahaha! Okay, I think I like Fergus and Karin. I really wish they had supports, they have a pretty amusing dynamic.

Uh... huh. So apparently “Karin” is an exotic name to the people of Thracia, because she's from Silesse. I... literally would not have the slightest clue of that if they didn't say. They're just mixing names haphazardly between countries with no consistent through line I can see. This isn't like Fates where the cultural roots of the names are clear and distinct.

Ooh! And we hear a bit more about that resistance movement in Silesse! Curiously, they mention the prince “ran away”. I can't tell if they're talking about Lewyn, who I could've sworn was supposed to be the king at this point, or Ced, who in this game is canonically Lewyn's son and as a result has the ludicrously overpowered Forseti at his command. I'm sure I'll find out sooner or later. I'd have to assume it's Ced though, because Karin said she's here to look for the prince, and it's Ced who's here, not Lewyn. I wonder why he's fighting for justice here and not in his home country?

Oooh, another named pegasus! This one is named Hermes, which I'm pretty sure isn't a reference to any past riders, unlike Mahnya. And apparently they do explain that Hermes is out there looking for her, explaining why she can re-mount the second she touches grass in a few chapters.

Yep, further in the conversation, it confirms Ced went looking for Lewyn, hence why he ran off from Silesse. But now the people of Silesse have given up on Lewyn and just want Ced to return home to free them and have him be the new ruler.

It's curious that you can still inflict critical hits while trying to capture someone. You'd think that would defeat the purpose of trying to take them alive.

Yeah, Brighton has pretty lame growth rates, but he's pretty good right now, and he has wrath, a super valuable skill. And he's an axe knight with a C in axes, one rank shy of being able to use every non-prf axe in the game. I might have some use for him if I give him the right crusader scrolls at some point.

...Hang on... how the hell are the brigands in Lithis's cell armed? They had a whole conversation where Lithis tricked them into helping him out, so why the fuck didn't they take that opportunity to explain where they got their weapons in a fucking cell!?

Well, none of the other soldiers currently around have vulneraries, and I've got one short spear to give to Karin for when she gets her pegasus back. So Lara's work there is done. Time to start cracking open chests and get Leif and friends out of there. Curiously, it looks like melee weapons don't lose durability when they miss. It's only thrown weapons and maybe bows and magic. Haven't tested that yet.

Okay, I think this translation outright added in an explanation of how the escape system works. Helpful, but it feels kind of... fourth wall breaking. A little bit out of place. Then again, it's a shitty thing to leave unexplained, so sure.

...Yeah, I'm positive now that this is something the translators added. I don't think the original developers could have written this, had the power to change how the escape system works, and not done so in light of how silly this conversation makes it sound.

The bandits are rushing headfirst into the knights guarding the exit, and since they're bandit scumbags, I have to assume there's no real reward to saving them. I'll let them make themselves useful while I get my bearings and prepare to fight.

Fergus looks pretty good, stat and growth wise. Also, he has a PCC of 5, meaning any double attack is five times more likely to crit, which is... nuts. Especially considering he has a support with Karin that I will be shamelessly milking the shit out of. He's unarmed though, and swords are going to be a little bit hard to come by at the moment. Thankfully Leif brought two iron ones. Now I just have to root through all of these chests to find his shit.

Yeah, I'm gonna need to get everyone armed fast. I forgot that enemies can just capture anyone who doesn't have a weapon and steal their shit. I nearly lost Lithis's lockpick, but I managed to capture his captor to take it back.

This is pretty intense. A seemingly inexhaustible supply of reinforcements, not all of my army even has weapons, the brigands helped a lot at first but all eventually died or escaped, I'm fighting my way through here, trying to get all of my shit before I can face the final gauntlet I'm sure is in that last room with the exit while trying to cull the numbers of reinforcements before they utterly overwhelm me, all while wondering how many opportunities I'm going to have to get more swords, the only weapon literally all of my current army is capable of using indoors. It's utterly ridiculous and like nothing in any other Fire Emblem game I've played before.

I love it.

That said, the javelin reinforcements in a map with literally only one 1-2 range weapon, the light brand, is... pretty aggravating when I'm trying to get everyone over to the exit. And then theres' the question of how I'm going to rescue all of these prisoners if I have to carry them. Or, worse, what if they make a break for the escape tiles, in reckless disregard of any enemies still guarding it?

I'm going to fight off whatever final threat is in the last room, then work things out from there.

And as was promised last chapter, Leif spoke to Dalsin (who was hiding in the final chamber) and recruited him! He's an axe armor with a torch and a battle axe, which is an objectively better steel axe with 5 more hit and 10 more crit, not to mention it's lighter. But it only has 20 uses. I think I'm gonna have Brighton give Dalsin his steel axe, he's the only one who can make use of it in here. Anyway, Dalsin has... pretty decent growth rates, and more importantly for the immediate danger, 9 strength, 11 defense, and 15 con. I can imagine this will become... quite necessary at times.

Looks like there was no need to wait until the final room was clear. The green units in the cages all decided to make a break for the side exits. Also, the reinforcements seem to have cleared up finally. I haven't seen anything for more than five turns now. Now to swipe these two healers' staves, get everyone out of here, and then retreat with Leif.

…

….

…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...So.

The reinforcements... just kinda... decided to start happening again.

And attacked Fergus.

Because they're ambush spawns.

And I forgot how drastically the attack power of reinforcements can vary.

And I didn't heal Fergus up because I was trying to conserve vulneraries and the enemies he was fighting steadfastly refused to hit him so I could justify using his last vulnerary charge.

And now he's dead.

…

…

OKAY.

I SUPPOSE THAT HAPPENED.

And as a result, that... happening... for the first time in the series...

...I'm gonna have to leave this chapter unfinished today. It's way too late to attempt a redo of this fucker. I'll do this map again some time this weekend, because... holy shit. That just...

Dick move, game.

I recognize that you could argue I was careless, given that I was letting Fergus walk around with low HP. But regardless...

You do not give your game ambush spawns, make them stop, and then arbitrarily make them start again five turns later when every other threat on the field is gone. HOLY SHIT. WHAT THE HELL.

...Actually, I have another option. I was so angry I didn't even press A from his death scene. I haven't restarted yet.

I can keep going tomorrow and keep this ironman for now.

...But the thought of doing this infamous part of the game a member short... and such a good member too, with a PCC of 5 and a support bonus with my pegasus knight...

...Holy shit. Yeah I'm kind of just done for tonight guys.

[Lightcosmo]

Yeah the escape chapter can be pretty rough for that. As for the reinforcements, other FE games have that. I'm pretty sure FE7 has that as well, doesnt it? Good luck with the run, though!

[Alastor15243]

Just now, lightcosmo said:

Yeah the escape chapter can be pretty rough for that. As for the reinforcements, other FE games have that. I'm pretty sure FE7 has that as well, doesnt it? Good luck with the run, though!

What do you mean by "that"? Ambush spawns, or ambush spawns that start, stop, and then start again?

[Lightcosmo]

Like, in the chapter with Lloyd/Linus, i think its 27/28?

[Eltosian Kadath]

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, I think this translation outright added in an explanation of how the escape system works. Helpful, but it feels kind of... fourth wall breaking.

From what I remember from the discussion the translators had during last year FEE3, the fourth wall breaking is in the Japanese text with special brackets to make it clear that Escape is a command you give your troops. I would bring up a youtube clip, but they are playing through this chapter during the discussion.

 

22 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...So.

The reinforcements... just kinda... decided to start happening again.

This might be a Thracia only thing, but the reinforcements here are...random. Each of the three stairways have a chance of spawning reinforcements, between certain turns (I don't remember exactly what turn they start, and some of them stop early, the last spawn point end on turn 60 if you are ridiculously patient). Usually I would say you got rather lucky to have a lull in the reinforcement, but playing it blind turned it into a disaster.

 

[Interdimensional Observer]

49 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, I think this translation outright added in an explanation of how the escape system works. Helpful, but it feels kind of... fourth wall breaking. A little bit out of place. Then again, it's a shitty thing to leave unexplained, so sure.

The brackets around the word escape are in the Japanese version actually. The Shaya/Fire Lizard old patch didn't get that.

I'd say it for sure, but because Project Exile is presently undergoing a final-final rendition of the translation after having done a little player-peer review, they took down the PDF scripts of every chapter until the final finaler finalest ultimate ne plus ultra version is done. It's just a little tweaking.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

This might be a Thracia only thing, but the reinforcements here are...random. Each of the three stairways have a chance of spawning reinforcements, between certain turns (I don't remember exactly what turn they start, and some of them stop early, the last spawn point end on turn 60 if you are ridiculously patient). Usually I would say you got rather lucky to have a lull in the reinforcement, but playing it blind turned it into a disaster.

...

Well.

That explains why the reinforcements were acting so weird.

That is... okay, I'd say that's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard for how to handle ambush spawns. A terrible additional twist on an already terrible idea.

4 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

From what I remember from the discussion the translators had during last year FEE3, the fourth wall breaking is in the Japanese text with special brackets to make it clear that Escape is a command you give your troops. I would bring up a youtube clip, but they are playing through this chapter during the discussion.

Just now, Interdimensional Observer said:

The brackets around the word escape are in the Japanese version actually. The Shaya/Fire Lizard old patch didn't get that.

I'd say it for sure, but because Project Exile is presently undergoing a final-final rendition of the translation after having done a little player-peer review, they took down the PDF scripts of every chapter until the final finaler finalest ultimate ne plus ultra version is done. It's just a little tweaking.

Curious. I didn't remember them trying to justify the immediate assumed capture of everyone you leave behind when I last played the game, and as I said, it felt like the sort of thing you couldn't write without realizing how odd it was. Plus, it's kind of weird, having Leif insist he would never do that, and yet you can still totally force him to do it and he'll do i without hesitation.

 

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Curious. I didn't remember them trying to justify the immediate assumed capture of everyone you leave behind when I last played the game, and as I said, it felt like the sort of thing you couldn't write without realizing how odd it was. Plus, it's kind of weird, having Leif insist he would never do that, and yet you can still totally force him to do it and he'll do i without hesitation.

 

The old translation's take on this scene

Quote

Fergus:
“It could be anybody. For now, we have to run. The stairs to the north lead outside. I’ll buy time for you, so you go first.”

Leaf:
“But what about you?”

Fergus:
“Probably we’ll get captured again. But I don’t mind as long as you’re able to escape.”

Leaf:
“I can’t do that! When I escape, so does everyone else!”

accidentally implied that everyone escapes when Lief uses the escape command instead...

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...

Well.

That explains why the reinforcements were acting so weird.

That is... okay, I'd say that's one of the worst ideas I've ever heard for how to handle ambush spawns. A terrible additional twist on an already terrible idea.

Curious. I didn't remember them trying to justify the immediate assumed capture of everyone you leave behind when I last played the game, and as I said, it felt like the sort of thing you couldn't write without realizing how odd it was. Plus, it's kind of weird, having Leif insist he would never do that, and yet you can still totally force him to do it and he'll do i without hesitation.

 

Presumably it happens under dire intense circumstances where Leif really feels he has no choice, rather than casually doing it without hesitation.

Edited December 14, 2019 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

On 12/13/2019 at 6:26 PM, Jotari said:

I don't know. I find the ability to give melee units three range pretty useful. Giving magic units an ability to use combat arts with their magic stat also seems like it'd be useful, though I can't recall actually doing that myself. The extra hit from the magic formula is also not unappreciated.

The only units I could see feasibly using magic weapons off the top of my head are Ingrid and Manuela. Most anyone else either has too little magic for them to be viable or is likely a mage, in which case they're likely to be redundant. Also, the fact that Arcane Crystals aren't buyable for most of the game doesn't help much.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

The only units I could see feasibly using magic weapons off the top of my head are Ingrid and Manuela. Most anyone else either has too little magic for them to be viable or is likely a mage, in which case they're likely to be redundant. Also, the fact that Arcane Crystals aren't buyable for most of the game doesn't help much.

Bolt Axe is also pretty decent on Edelgard. Though anyone really can get some use out of them, if only for the extra range and (more importantly especially on Maniac Mode) hit. Even someone with a lower magic stat can use it for chip damage from afar. It won't be the best option at all times, but it is an option that allows for extra functionality that other weapons simply don't allow. I'm not sure how you could even make them better besides giving every unit in the game a capable magic stat and basically having them outright replace physical weapons entirely. Though I certainly wouldn't be dissapointed with a few more non mages with capable magic stats, much as I complain that I want Edelgard to have magic access in the Emperor Should Be Able To Use Magic thread, I do think it's pretty cool she's a physical unit with a magic stat that can be useful due to combat arts and magic weapons. Still want Emperor to use magic, but only really because it's a Unique class for her and would make for a sick Alvis reference. Three Houses doesn't do awful on that front overall either though. There's quite a few units around the place with a respectable 30% magic growth (versus about 40-50% for dedicated mage units). That will net them a respectable magic stat by games end. Sylvain probably won't be wrecking everything with magic weapons, but having one on him will give rise to situations where he can deal more damage (or damage more accurately) than with physical weapons.

Edited December 15, 2019 by Jotari

[Seafarer]

So I just finished Mystery of the Emblem, and I thought there were a couple of things worth mentioning that Alastor didn't bring up, so:

There is a unit that has a niche regardless of stats: Tiki, who's the only viable unit in the game who can tank dragons with impunity. She came in so handy for me against the late-game Flying Dragons and Mage Dragons. I didn't abuse the Starsphere shards as effectively, but I think Tiki would still have stood out even if I had.

The other thing is how insane the staff utility in this game is. Quite apart from the well-established (in the series) Warp and Rescue, Silence was amazing for dealing with the massive number of siege tomes with overlapping range in the lategame, and Anew/Again is just stupid. This is the first game in the series where staff utility has felt really essential to me beating the game.

Also, yeah: screw asshole reinforcements and especially screw randomly-spawning asshole reinforcements.

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Seafarer said:

So I just finished Mystery of the Emblem, and I thought there were a couple of things worth mentioning that Alastor didn't bring up, so:

There is a unit that has a niche regardless of stats: Tiki, who's the only viable unit in the game who can tank dragons with impunity. She came in so handy for me against the late-game Flying Dragons and Mage Dragons. I didn't abuse the Starsphere shards as effectively, but I think Tiki would still have stood out even if I had.

I did in fact discover this in my run, but a bit too late to fully appreciate it. She mostly helped out in the second to last map, defending my rear flank against the constant dragon reinforcements, because that was when it occurred to me how tanky she was against them. Her contribution was appreciated regardless of how long it took me to use her though.

[Shadow Mir]

On 12/15/2019 at 10:19 AM, Jotari said:

Bolt Axe is also pretty decent on Edelgard. Though anyone really can get some use out of them, if only for the extra range and (more importantly especially on Maniac Mode) hit. Even someone with a lower magic stat can use it for chip damage from afar. It won't be the best option at all times, but it is an option that allows for extra functionality that other weapons simply don't allow. I'm not sure how you could even make them better besides giving every unit in the game a capable magic stat and basically having them outright replace physical weapons entirely. Though I certainly wouldn't be dissapointed with a few more non mages with capable magic stats, much as I complain that I want Edelgard to have magic access in the Emperor Should Be Able To Use Magic thread, I do think it's pretty cool she's a physical unit with a magic stat that can be useful due to combat arts and magic weapons. Still want Emperor to use magic, but only really because it's a Unique class for her and would make for a sick Alvis reference. Three Houses doesn't do awful on that front overall either though. There's quite a few units around the place with a respectable 30% magic growth (versus about 40-50% for dedicated mage units). That will net them a respectable magic stat by games end. Sylvain probably won't be wrecking everything with magic weapons, but having one on him will give rise to situations where he can deal more damage (or damage more accurately) than with physical weapons.

The thing is, most of the time a physical unit would want to use a magic weapon would be against the likes of Fortress Knights and Wyvern Lords, and even then their damage output would most likely be gimped as opposed to just using the weapons they're weak against instead. What's more, those same physical units are probably going into classes that have no bonus to magic, as opposed to dedicated mages. It doesn't help matters that only two of the 5 magic weapons are anything resembling usable (like I stated, the Arrow of Indra has availability issues, and the Bolt Axe is laughable, as are the Aura Knuckles). There's also the Crusher and Blutgang, but both of those, especially the former, are hindered by their being relic weapons (the former is also an axe... which is meant to be used by a mage... and also requires the user to get in close, aka where mages generally want to avoid being, to use it. Yeah, no). Long story short, I'd pretty much have to grasp at straws to find situations where a physical unit would be better off using a magic weapon.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Thracia Day 6: Chapter 4, Take 2

Things went a little more smoothly with prior knowledge of how things go, and I managed to get my army armed and dangerous a lot quicker this time since I stopped in the northeastern room on my way there. I didn't do that last time out of fear of aggroing those heavy duty knights with my tiny thief girl, but now I know they don't move.

Curiously enough, one of the green bandits decided to capture an enemy soldier and just... never let him go. It did wind up saving him sort of in that it gave him a vulnerary to use, but he never took any opportunity to drop the bastard. Ran right out the exit still holding the fucker in a full nelson.

One thing I find bizarre is that when the reinforcements appear, the camera moves towards them, ish, but often doesn't actually fully pan to show actual the spaces on the edge of the map where they spawn.

Unfortunately, even though level ups haven't exactly been fantastic to begin with in this game, Brighton got some especially terrible luck, with two consecutive levels of literally nothing. Not only that, but he's been missing an absurd number of wrath counterattacks that should have been one-hit kills on his enemies.

Anyway, I finished up. I like how everyone has escape quotes. It's a nice little bit of added dialogue to give these characters to flesh out their personality in lieu of support conversations.

...I can't believe we're only one game away from seeing those for the first time.

It was a pretty cool reveal that there was an evil Loptian altar in that big black wall area in the middle of the map. It didn't even occur to me until this moment that it was a conspicuously large space to be blocked off.

Holy shit, Manfroy looks so much different, but while the fact that we can't see his hair anymore makes him look a little bit more generic, I do feel the new art style makes him look a good deal more intimidating, so on the whole I like it. Veld, however... please tell me that isn' the same Veld that I've heard is the final boss of the game. He doesn't look cool or even unique. I've heard he's one of the easiest final bosses in FE history (it's just getting to him that's hard), but look at him, he's not even trying to look like a final boss! He's a bald guy in a brown hood! Seriously!? At least give him a fancy hood like Manfroy's!

...Also, Ishtar shows up again with Julius. And I still can't make heads or tails of her character. She clearly despises the child hunts, so I have absolutely clue what the fuck this woman sees in Julius.

Aaaaanywho, after saving, chapter 4x arrives without any world map narration, so that looks like what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm sorry I barely had much to say today, but I had a long day and don't think I can start and finish a second chapter in a row, especially not with this game.

But I did have one thing I'm wondering about that I'll leave us off with:

So, this game has a fatigue system coming up, where units who do too much in too many consecutive battles without a break will be forced to sit a battle out. This is an interesting mechanic I'm very eager to see in action, as its mere existence suggests to me that the game will let me get away with having a larger active roster than most other games, one that I repeatedly rotate out. However, I do have a question that only recently occurred to me...

...This game is supposed to take place over a year, right? Roughly?

And there's, what, 20 ish more chapters left after fatigue gets introduced? 30, if I'm highballing ludicrously?

...There are timeskip chapters, right? Chapters where it sets everyone's fatigue back to 0 because a large amount of time has passed? Right?

Surely?

Because if not...

Does this game really expect me to believe that fighting an average of one battle every 15+ days isn't enough rest for these guys!?

[Interdimensional Observer]

58 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...There are timeskip chapters, right? Chapters where it sets everyone's fatigue back to 0 because a large amount of time has passed? Right?

Surely?

Because if not...

Does this game really expect me to believe that fighting an average of one battle every 15+ days isn't enough rest for these guys!?

Nope, never is everyone's fatigue relieved. You'll always have to be rotating in and out, though a good melee unit can usually go 2-3 fights before hitting the point of being unable to fight in the next battle. I didn't find it so bad in practice, and if anything, I over-rotated my units for fear what awaited me next (which is why I also alternated my saves between two files- which wasn't ever necessary).

Never though of how unrealistic-ish it can seem to have the weariness of one battle always carry straight on into the next. A few full fatigue restores wouldn't be the worst idea to add.

 

58 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I can't believe we're only one game away from seeing those for the first time.

Whilst I'm not a believer supports were the remedy to all characterization issues, they did absolutely help. So praise be due to Binding Blade there and hope they get added to Thracia in a remake.

Also, if you wanted to consider playing TearRing Saga, chronologically it's the next game to be released. 24th May 2001 compared to Binding Blade's 29th March 2002. Player accessibility/good user interface is between these two games I'd say.

I'd say TRS is ironmannable, and not particularly hard, if anything it leans on the easy side, though there are a few "what the heck were they thinking?!" moments in map design (not to say FE6 doesn't have them- Hi C14!). There are a ton of goodies, little events and even a few characters who you might miss going in blind. I doubt if you played it you'd rank it highly, but I wouldn't call it terrible either. More a middle-of-the-pack game for me.

-Not pushing TRS on you, I'm only making a statement about it. If you try this at the end of your FE marathon, you might find it hard to adjust to after constant UI/quality of life improvements culminating in Fates/SoV. 

 

 

Oh, and I'd add the after battle scene in Chapter 4 really is good. To think that those monstrosities of gameplay were right there the entire time, and had they noticed/went after you, could have swatted everyone down with the sway of an eyelash.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Things went a little more smoothly with prior knowledge of how things go,

Why do I get the feeling this phrase will come up a couple of times.

 

50 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Curiously enough, one of the green bandits decided to capture an enemy soldier and just... never let him go. It did wind up saving him sort of in that it gave him a vulnerary to use, but he never took any opportunity to drop the bastard. Ran right out the exit still holding the fucker in a full nelson.

That is one of the odd behaviors of those allies, and they tend to do that a fair bit. I think it comes from them using the same ai behavior enemies use when they capture a unit.

 

55 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...This game is supposed to take place over a year, right? Roughly?

And there's, what, 20 ish more chapters left after fatigue gets introduced? 30, if I'm highballing ludicrously?

...There are timeskip chapters, right? Chapters where it sets everyone's fatigue back to 0 because a large amount of time has passed? Right?

Surely?

Because if not...

Does this game really expect me to believe that fighting an average of one battle every 15+ days isn't enough rest for these guys!?

I don't remember any huge time skips specified (although there are points where there might be a time skip), but it generally implies there is a fair bit of travel time between missions (with some minor exceptions, but generally those take place immediately after, or with a little time to shore up defenses) which might keep units from fully recovering. Plus as @Interdimensional Observer points out the combat ready units take a few battles to exhaust themselves.

[Jotari]

15 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

The thing is, most of the time a physical unit would want to use a magic weapon would be against the likes of Fortress Knights and Wyvern Lords, and even then their damage output would most likely be gimped as opposed to just using the weapons they're weak against instead. What's more, those same physical units are probably going into classes that have no bonus to magic, as opposed to dedicated mages. It doesn't help matters that only two of the 5 magic weapons are anything resembling usable (like I stated, the Arrow of Indra has availability issues, and the Bolt Axe is laughable, as are the Aura Knuckles). There's also the Crusher and Blutgang, but both of those, especially the former, are hindered by their being relic weapons (the former is also an axe... which is meant to be used by a mage... and also requires the user to get in close, aka where mages generally want to avoid being, to use it. Yeah, no). Long story short, I'd pretty much have to grasp at straws to find situations where a physical unit would be better off using a magic weapon.

It feels like you didn't read any of my points at all. I'll post them in bullet form.

*They will generally be more accurate than physical weapons.

*When forged they will have more range than physical weapons.

*It lets magic users use combat arts

*There are primarily physical units that have capable magic stats in the game

The first point alone is a great reason for them to be in the game. Your view seems to be that if they're not the best weapon in the game than they're useless. No, they will likely not deal more damage than an average physical weapon when being used against enemy by an average physical unit. But they don't have to be. Because sometimes they actually will deal higher damage, you can stock more than one weapon at once and they can do things physical weapons can't. I don't think any of the points I've brought up are even remotely grasping at straws, (except for maybe the advantage of letting magic units use combat arts as that's more theoretical than actual experience on my part). What do you want magic weapons to do? Just be objectively better than physical weapons?

Viability of Fate's magic weapons is really off topic here. If you want to discuss it further make a new thread and @ me there.

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Thracia Day 6: Chapter 4, Take 2

Things went a little more smoothly with prior knowledge of how things go, and I managed to get my army armed and dangerous a lot quicker this time since I stopped in the northeastern room on my way there. I didn't do that last time out of fear of aggroing those heavy duty knights with my tiny thief girl, but now I know they don't move.

Curiously enough, one of the green bandits decided to capture an enemy soldier and just... never let him go. It did wind up saving him sort of in that it gave him a vulnerary to use, but he never took any opportunity to drop the bastard. Ran right out the exit still holding the fucker in a full nelson.

One thing I find bizarre is that when the reinforcements appear, the camera moves towards them, ish, but often doesn't actually fully pan to show actual the spaces on the edge of the map where they spawn.

Unfortunately, even though level ups haven't exactly been fantastic to begin with in this game, Brighton got some especially terrible luck, with two consecutive levels of literally nothing. Not only that, but he's been missing an absurd number of wrath counterattacks that should have been one-hit kills on his enemies.

Anyway, I finished up. I like how everyone has escape quotes. It's a nice little bit of added dialogue to give these characters to flesh out their personality in lieu of support conversations.

...I can't believe we're only one game away from seeing those for the first time.

It was a pretty cool reveal that there was an evil Loptian altar in that big black wall area in the middle of the map. It didn't even occur to me until this moment that it was a conspicuously large space to be blocked off.

Holy shit, Manfroy looks so much different, but while the fact that we can't see his hair anymore makes him look a little bit more generic, I do feel the new art style makes him look a good deal more intimidating, so on the whole I like it. Veld, however... please tell me that isn' the same Veld that I've heard is the final boss of the game. He doesn't look cool or even unique. I've heard he's one of the easiest final bosses in FE history (it's just getting to him that's hard), but look at him, he's not even trying to look like a final boss! He's a bald guy in a brown hood! Seriously!? At least give him a fancy hood like Manfroy's!

...Also, Ishtar shows up again with Julius. And I still can't make heads or tails of her character. She clearly despises the child hunts, so I have absolutely clue what the fuck this woman sees in Julius.

Aaaaanywho, after saving, chapter 4x arrives without any world map narration, so that looks like what I'll be doing tomorrow. I'm sorry I barely had much to say today, but I had a long day and don't think I can start and finish a second chapter in a row, especially not with this game.

But I did have one thing I'm wondering about that I'll leave us off with:

So, this game has a fatigue system coming up, where units who do too much in too many consecutive battles without a break will be forced to sit a battle out. This is an interesting mechanic I'm very eager to see in action, as its mere existence suggests to me that the game will let me get away with having a larger active roster than most other games, one that I repeatedly rotate out. However, I do have a question that only recently occurred to me...

...This game is supposed to take place over a year, right? Roughly?

And there's, what, 20 ish more chapters left after fatigue gets introduced? 30, if I'm highballing ludicrously?

...There are timeskip chapters, right? Chapters where it sets everyone's fatigue back to 0 because a large amount of time has passed? Right?

Surely?

Because if not...

Does this game really expect me to believe that fighting an average of one battle every 15+ days isn't enough rest for these guys!?

Well in the game's defense, the biggest time skips useually imply there's continuous fighting going on that is skipped over.

Edited December 17, 2019 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

19 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Why do I get the feeling this phrase will come up a couple of times.

Probably because it will.

 

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

*They will generally be more accurate than physical weapons.

Against what exactly? Enemies on terrain? Sure, but more often than not I'd be better off having them engage me on my terms, as opposed to engaging them on theirs.

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

*It lets magic users use combat arts

Which is probably an extremely niche option, as far more often than not, having your mages get up close to whatever they're trying to attack is ill advised. It doesn't help that mages only have 4 move for most of the game, either. And that's assuming they even get their weapon ranks high enough to use them in the first place, which is kinda iffy as they're C (Levin Sword, Arrow of Indra) or B (Bolt Axe, Magic Bow) rank. Not to mention that out of the C rank weapons, one of them is only available on one route (as in, you get to use it for more than one chapter). Out of four. And I'd say my argument about magic weapons being redundant on mages still stands. Anyway, having mages use combat arts with magic weapons sounds a hell of a lot less practical than just using spells to attack (UNLESS you run out of spells, and at the point of the game where that's most likely to be a concern, you don't even have access to magic weapons in the first place).

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

*When forged they will have more range than physical weapons.

That's true. And not what I was contesting.

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

*There are primarily physical units that have capable magic stats in the game

Except if you ask anyone, they'll tell you to have your physical units master Brigand for Death Blow.  That aside, the only units who I'd consider magic weapons on are Ingrid and Manuela (who, on paper, is built towards being a mage, but is hindered by a weakness in Reason), and Anna, off the top of my head.

Edited December 17, 2019 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

That aside, the only units who I'd consider magic weapons on are Ingrid and Manuela (who, on paper, is built towards being a mage, but is hindered by a weakness in Reason), and Anna, off the top of my head.

I found the levin sword pretty damned useful on Byleth. Given his personal class has swordfaire, it's a good deal more powerful than his rather mediocre spell list, beating out every spell on the list but the 3-use Ragnarok.

 

Anyway...

 

Thracia Day 7: Chapter 4x

Alright, now let's get back to new stuff. So, Asbel and Ced have appeared as green units, and I know I'm at least getting Asbel soon, either this map or the next, I'm assuming this one. He's... well he's not fantastic yet, at least not statistically, but he will be fantastic soon. But for now, he does have one of the best personal weapons I've ever seen on a non-main character: the supreme wind magic, Grafcalibur. It's got 100 hit, 13 might, 40 crit, and 3 weight. And it's effective against flying enemies! It's only got 40 uses though, unlike most personal weapons in this game, so I'm hoping he doesn't use too much of it before I recruit him.

Curiously, Ced, despite being a promoted level 7, barely has more HP than Asbel, though obviously his other stats are vastly superior to Asbel's even without his ludicrously powerful Forseti tome. Speaking of which, in this game Forseti is 10 might weaker and 1 weight heavier in exchange for 30 crit and another 10 points of skill to add to its ridiculous stat bonuses, effectively giving it a crit bonus of fifty.

Anyway this map... is a bit of a clusterfuck. It's got a huge mass of units right by my starting location, hidden in the darkness, which I barely see the point of. Any screw up I make on the first turn can be corrected pretty quickly with a reset, which is good, since these kinds of nasty surprises are terrible and reducing their impact is great, but it kind of begs the question of why this is even a fog of war map in the first place if it's going to be in such a tiny area I can easily use a torch for?

Anyway, I mostly dealt with it by having Leif (who thanks to those stat boosters and some decent level ups is my best fighter at the moment) use his light brand to do as much damage as he could to as many enemies as possible, relying on his evasion and bulk and praying he survived as he had a reasonable chance to. Not exactly the most brilliant strategy in the world, but when surrounded by those sheer numbers with an AI that preys on the weakest targets it can reach, you don't exactly have many options.

Well, finally got that sorted out. Due to some good luck on that opening gambit, Leif survived and thinned out the hordes enough to put us in a comfortable position.

One thing I find curious is why Ced isn't carrying a staff. You'd think that would be useful for a sage to have in this kind of situation. Does using a staff unequip your weapon? If so, that would probably explain it gameplaywise. Wouldn't do to have the invincible Forseti user killed because the AI equipped him with a staff to heal someone's papercut.

We're really close to beating this. I took care of the thunder mage (and nabbed her thunder tome) after a brief scare where I forgot about enemy crit rates (thankfully Brighton's HP is high enough that he tanked the thunder crit) and Asbel used Grafcalibur to beat that devil axe armor knight because he's not fast enough to double anything without it yet. But Lara's torch is running low, so I'm gonna take out the final enemy group while I can still see them. Meanwhile Lithis just saved the children in the cages, and Macha's raiding the chests with her chest key (first chest is a brave sword!).

This will be trivial if we abuse Ced's help, but I also really, really, really want that physic staff the bishop is carrying.

...Nevermind! Enemy reinforcements showed up from the darkness in back some time after rescuing the kids. No time! Gotta grab the remaining treasures and leave now!

But before that, I manage to have a cool conversation between Karin and Ced. The implication that in the ErinxLewyn timeline, Fee was ruling Silesse before the game started is... rather interesting. It isn't what I would have expected from her.

AND I GET THE CED SCROLL FOR IT! HOLY SHIT I AM SO GLAD I CHANCED UPON THAT CONVERSATION!

And with that, we are getting out of here! I've got Dalsin and (for the moment) Ced blocking the doorway while everyone else retreats. Then once everyone's out of the hallway and in the back rooms, Dalsin will retreat behind Leif, who's blocking the entryway to the room that final encounter was just in. Everyone will retreat, and then Leif will follow.

...Alright, done. Everyone's safe. Time to get Leif out of here.

Well, that went... pretty well! We didn't manage to get the physic staff, but nobody died, I won the map on my first try, and I managed to get all of the treasure and even stumble on the Ced scroll by accident! That +10% magic and +30% speed boost is going right on Asbel, and I'm probably giving him Hezul too to make sure his HP growth isn't crippled by the resulting -10% HP growth Ced applies. Pity Leif won't have it though; he has a 100% HP growth with the Hezul scroll equipped.

And to cap off this moderately successful chapter, Leif gains a point of defense, bringing his defense up to ten. Something tells me his late promotion isn't going to stop Leif from being really useful. Granted, I did use two stat rings and two crusader scrolls, but still, at least he can be made good, unlike the lord of the next game if his reputation is any indication.

My top priority for next chapter, now that we have some more open space to do some capturing gambits, is to replenish our scarily dwindling supplies, and also, crucially, train Asbel. Mages are going to be hugely important, and he's easily the best one in the game, at least when you count availability. Obviously Ced's probably going to be a good deal better when we finally get him, but if we're talking “who do I pick for a draft” and not “who do I pick to deploy when both are an option”, Asbel wins hands down. And he is going to start doing said winning very soon, and never, ever stop.

This map didn't take too long, but I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start chapter 5, because if memory serves, it is looooooong.

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

But for now, he does have one of the best personal weapons I've ever seen on a non-main character: the supreme wind magic, Grafcalibur. It's got 100 hit, 13 might, 40 crit, and 3 weight. And it's effective against flying enemies! It's only got 40 uses though, unlike most personal weapons in this game, so I'm hoping he doesn't use too much of it before I recruit him.

Thracia has a lot of really good personal weapons in it.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 Macha's raiding the chests with her chest key (first chest is a brave sword!).

Who do you plan on using the second health ring on?

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

That +10% magic and +30% speed boost is going right on Asbel,

That will brings his speed growth over 100%...

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Nevermind! Enemy reinforcements showed up from the darkness in back some time after rescuing the kids. No time! Gotta grab the remaining treasures and leave now!

I have never seen those reinforcements be a problem, as Ced can and will hold them off forever if you let him.

On a random side note have you been keeping an eye on Lief's leadership stars?