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

[Unknown Gamer11]

Congrats on the finish! I meant to be posting a bit more for the last few chapters, but it just kinda got away from me. Glad to see you overall seem to have enjoyed the game though.

Was gonna say one thing back on Chapter 21; while it's got some questionable decisions with the reinforcements and I'm not sure what the heck happened regarding Gale's wonky and unpredictable AI, I've always really loved the chapter. Just something about the feel of it. I like the huge map, the tons of reinforcements make it feel like Bern's throwing everything of their main force at you to stop you here, with General Murdock/Murdoch waiting for you at the end, you get a ton of deployment slots, I'm partial to the music here, etc. It just hits a lot of notes that make me both love it and look back on it with fondness, while at the same time dreading any potential resets while playing it.

Regarding Fae, if I haven't used her at all prior I'll usually feed her enough Manaketes in the final chapter room crawl to max her out, since her super effectiveness makes it pretty easy to get her some kills.

Like I mentioned earlier, I strongly suggest checking out at least a few of the supports for the game you didn't see. Lugh x Miledy is nice for both characters (and Chad x Ellen hits a similar vibe), most of Raigh and Niime's are good, you'd probably enjoy Fae's, and while you didn't use them, Igrene x Astore is usually considered one of the better support chains in the series.

[Alastor15243]

11 minutes ago, Unknown Gamer11 said:

Like I mentioned earlier, I strongly suggest checking out at least a few of the supports for the game you didn't see. Lugh x Miledy is nice for both characters (and Chad x Ellen hits a similar vibe), most of Raigh and Niime's are good, you'd probably enjoy Fae's, and while you didn't use them, Igrene x Astore is usually considered one of the better support chains in the series.

Duly noted. Actually, that reminds me of something I wanted to ask from now on, since support conversations are now a thing:

If anyone wants to recommend supports I get, either because they're the best the game has to offer or the worst the game has to offer, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll check them out for myself if it's at all feasible.

Edit: Sorry for thinking you were new for a second there. It's kinda late on my end XD

Edited March 13, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

35 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Duly noted. Actually, that reminds me of something I wanted to ask from now on, since support conversations are now a thing:

If anyone wants to recommend supports I get, either because they're the best the game has to offer or the worst the game has to offer, please don't hesitate to ask and I'll check them out for myself if it's at all feasible.

Edit: Sorry for thinking you were new for a second there. It's kinda late on my end XD

I'll second the following:

• Lugh's supports (Melady is the best).
• Niime's Hugh and Fae.
• IgrenexAstolfo, and to a much lesser extent IgrenexFae.

And, I'll add:

• Klein's are generally nice too.
• ElffinxFae is cute.
• DayanxJoder, for one simple reason that'll be apparent by the time it's done.

[Jotari]

You ended up scoring the game more favourably than I was expecting. Seemed like you were mostly critical of it throughout the play, but maybe that was me just being too soft hearted because I like Binding Blade a lot.

You have an Ironmanability Ranking. Seems superfluous or inaccurate to not be Iron Manning these games with that in mind. So go for it.

 

Edited March 13, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

You have an Ironmanability Ranking. Seems superfluous or inaccurate to not be Iron Manning these games with that in mind. So go for it.

With a lot of them there was a concern that it would be actively detrimental to the marathon because the games just weren't properly designed for it, especially for a modern player. But I do want to ironman as many of the games as I can from here on out.

[Jotari]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

With a lot of them there was a concern that it would be actively detrimental to the marathon because the games just weren't properly designed for it, especially for a modern player. But I do want to ironman as many of the games as I can from here on out.

I actually think might actually be the opposite where the games were designed for it, just not designed for it in the way you personally want them to be. By that I mean why are earlier Fire Emblem games considered to have such hard early games compared to end game? Maybe it's because we're not supposed to have 20/20 murder machines and the difficulty is scaled to needing to replace units.

Regarding Jahn, I think he does have emotions, dragons just have a very different value set to humans. While he's cold, he's clearly not meant to be seen as Idoun or War Dragon level emotionless. Those are literally automotons.

[Unknown Gamer11]

13 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

DayanxJoder, for one simple reason that'll be apparent by the time it's done.

I'd forgotten about this one entirely, and re-reading it also reminds me of Hugh x Raigh.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

I actually think might actually be the opposite where the games were designed for it, just not designed for it in the way you personally want them to be. By that I mean why are earlier Fire Emblem games considered to have such hard early games compared to end game? Maybe it's because we're not supposed to have 20/20 murder machines and the difficulty is scaled to needing to replace units.

There is an argument to be made there, but I think one of the important things that a game needs to have before it's truly good ironmanning material is that your losses have to be your fault. And in the early games, there are way too many mechanics that simply leave your survival up to the whims of fate, including random crits that can one-shot your lord. In a sense I can get the idea of having to adapt to unforeseen circumstances, but when we're talking unavoidable criticals, or trial-and-error nonsense that loses all staying power once you've played it once... I just don't think that's remotely as engaging a way to make ironmans exciting as what later games in the series can offer.

[Unknown Gamer11]

Oh, meant to add one more thought regarding the endings and lack of paired endings. Since they hadn't really invented them yet for anyone outside of Roy's wives, I just tend to head-canon a bunch of them, since there are some support chains that make no sense that there wouldn't be a paired ending. Maybe they wanted to play it safe in case a unit died or something, or perhaps the idea just hadn't popped up yet? Again, outside of Roy's potential wives.

[Alastor15243]

Alright, so, I've read up on the supports you recommended real quick. Man, looks like I missed some good ones. I remember the quality being more well-rounded in later games, though that could just be due to professional localization, but there's still some choice ones to find if you look hard enough it seems.

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

I'll have some safety nets so as not to completely ruin the run if I get in over my head. I'll have some limit on how many units I can lose before I give up on ironmanning, and if I get a single true game-over, the ironman's done and I'm doing the rest of it with resetting, but I'd love to see firsthand how well a GBA game without ambush spawns holds up for ironmanning. But I'll only do it if you guys think it's a good idea. I'm open to any arguments why it wouldn't be. So! Speak your mind... now!

...Until then, my pen's going back in the scabbard for today. Take care, everyone!

You should go for it, although one of the reset conditions should be having your thief die, due to how staggeringly many of the promotion can only be gotten with a thief. Side note if you want to see FE7 at its least ironmanable state jump into HHM without Lyn mode.

 

49 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

With a lot of them there was a concern that it would be actively detrimental to the marathon because the games just weren't properly designed for it, especially for a modern player. But I do want to ironman as many of the games as I can from here on out.

A big part of it is blind play as well, Ironmaning Thracia 776 gave me that same sorta every death felt deserved thing you look for, but you need to understand Thracis to get to that point. I kinda hope its been long enough since you've played FE7 that the blind traps it leaves for you in HHM sting a bit.

 

[Boomhauer007]

Iron man isn't too bad in fe7, go for it. Only really rough ones are the fog of war maps, but that's to be expected.

Also the chance of getting 19xx without a bit of save scumming in 19x is probably pretty low, might be a necessary step of you intend to play all the chapters. 

[Shadow Mir]

On 3/10/2020 at 3:42 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay, hearing Zephiel's actual motive rant is kind of... no, really disappointing. Given everything I've seen him go through, I expected his hatred of humanity to be... a bit more original than this nonsense. Of all the reasons he could hate humanity, he hates them... because they have emotions? And he thinks that because the dragons are mindless, emotionless war machines, they'd therefore be better... rulers...?

I mean what!? I mean he's just flat-out canonically insane now, and not even in a visionary way. I can't grasp what he even values or wants at this point. It's not even that he wants to undo the injustice of the Scouring. He just admires the mindless war machines that the dragons created to try to win the war, and wants to give the world to them!? He doesn't want to give it back to the real dragons, he wants to give it to their drones!? Why!? Because he just flat-out hates intelligent life because his dad was a dick!? That doesn't... that doesn't even logically follow! I don't even have a grasp of what he even admires about the concept of a world ruled by what are essentially organic machines. By what standards or values does he draw the conviction that emotions are evil and emotionlessness is good!?

See, this is why I think Zephiel is a steaming pile of shit as a villain. I agree that what he went through is unfortunate, but still, genocide is rather over-the-top when you're blaming ONE person. And it's not like he's the only FE character who had an asshole parent either. Look at Bernadetta, Nino, and some others that aren't coming to me at the moment. Long story short, I think the misanthrope trope was done much better, both within this series and in other series.

[Boomhauer007]

I've always thought Zephiel could have had a cool idea for a villain but that the execution was pretty bad. Like a lot of people have said, he'd be a lot more interesting if he was perfectly sane but was hard line "humans suck, I want dragons to rule again no matter what". 

At least he wasn't possessed lol. 

[Emperor Hardin]

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh god. I forgot we hadn't been told about what the Demon Dragon is yet. I wish I could judge this twist based on how well it's revealed, but obviously I can't. But what I do know is that for me right now, this is... absolutely painful. This just doesn't feel right, waiting this long to reveal this much about what we're fighting.

I will say, though, that now that I'm reminded about this business of destroying Idunn's soul against her will to make what's essentially a dragon Master Mold, it paints the dragons as a lot darker than the opening narration led me to believe. I mean, I still remembered that, but I remembered it being painted as more tragic and desperate, whereas... Jahn seems... scarily coldhearted about it. Honestly, it's funny that the (presumably) human narrator makes the dragons seem far more in the right than they currently appear to be.

Jahn is more amoral then sadistic, basically his stance is humans and dragons are biologically unable to live together, so it's survival of the fittest.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, uh... between FE7 and... fucking FAE... I'm gonna have to assume that Jahn is just spouting edgy bullshit, that he's part war dragon, or something is going on here that is making him so cold and cruel and “you humans and your silly emotions”-y. Because this really doesn't make sense, and Jahn is the only dragon we see who's like this.

Jahn isn't saying he doesn't have emotions. Remember he states Dragons were giving in to despair as humans were winning the Scouring and that the creation of War Dragons caused them to slowly regain their hope of survival. 

It should be noted that Jahn's belief that humans and dragons are incapable of living together in peace is mirrored by Athos's reaction to Arcadia in a flashback in Blazing Blade, who states that he believed that human/dragon co-existence and that the sight of Arcadia shattered his world view.

Another thing to keep in mind is the Scouring lasted for generations, enough that many were being born during the war. With this in mind, Jahn's views make sense. He basically represents the typical soldier during the Scouring.

[Alastor15243]

Hey, while we're between games, random thought and observation about Genealogy:

Do you think maybe the massive maps and the utterly borked pacing of the game, massively padding out the actual strategic content of the thing, might have been on purpose for the sake of the story? To make blind, first-time players feel like that first half of the game could actually be the whole thing given how long it took, before it's revealed how horribly to shit it all goes in the end and that they hid an entire second half of the game behind it?

Doesn't make me enjoy the pacing much more, but... it's interesting to think about.

[Acacia Sgt]

From an old interview:

Kaga’s comment: Since the aim of this game is to showcase its history and world, the maps were made larger as a result, to illustrate its larger scale.

Who knows about hiding the fact second gen exists. The interview itself hints it wasn't.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

To make blind, first-time players feel like that first half of the game could actually be the whole thing given how long it took, before it's revealed how horribly to shit it all goes in the end and that they hid an entire second half of the game behind it?

I find this a little questionable because of the boxart:

Could someone back in '96 look at that and think "Sigurd" in the forefront person? Possibly. And, the boxart doesn't have "this boy up front is the son of the guy in the back who dies a violent, tragic death halfway into the game with most of his friends" written on it. 

I wonder how much the back of this box and the manual said on the 2nd Gen matter, if anything.

[Acacia Sgt]

16 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I wonder how much the back of this box and the manual said on the 2nd Gen matter, if anything.

Quite a bit.

Junior Lord is on the class list depicted on the manual's page twenty-eight. Plus Seliph himself is in the character list on the thirty-third.

Edited March 14, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Unknown Gamer11]

On 3/12/2020 at 10:54 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so, I've read up on the supports you recommended real quick. Man, looks like I missed some good ones. I remember the quality being more well-rounded in later games, though that could just be due to professional localization, but there's still some choice ones to find if you look hard enough it seems.

Glad to hear it! Yeah, some of the game's ones can be a little bit bland or short, but it was also the first game with supports, so I give it a little leeway with that, in addition to the localization thing you mentioned. Doesn't mean there's not some really good ones in there.

One last thing before you switch games, do you ever post stats of your endgame teams? I always really enjoy seeing how people's units turn out compared to averages, and where RNG blessings/screwings happen.

[Alastor15243]

53 minutes ago, Unknown Gamer11 said:

Glad to hear it! Yeah, some of the game's ones can be a little bit bland or short, but it was also the first game with supports, so I give it a little leeway with that, in addition to the localization thing you mentioned. Doesn't mean there's not some really good ones in there.

One last thing before you switch games, do you ever post stats of your endgame teams? I always really enjoy seeing how people's units turn out compared to averages, and where RNG blessings/screwings happen.

I might be able to do that at some point, given I still have all the files, but copying that down for every unit I used right at the end of the game during my big write up and ranking has never sounded like a fun idea at the time.

Edited March 15, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

Loved seeing your thoughts on Roy's Emblem, even if I wasn't around to comment much. It's actually one of my least-played games - I've only played it twice (once Randomized), both on Normal, both times getting the bad ending. Would like to give it another try.

Anyway, definitely curious to see what you think of Eliwood's Emblem! It's neither my first, nor my favirite, but I do have more experience with it than the first six games combined. ...Not that that's saying much, ahah.

[Alastor15243]

Blazing Blade Day 1: Prologue to Chapter 3

Well, Corona-chan's made her first stop in my neighborhood, and everyone's self-isolating, including quite a few of my usual clients at work, so I've got more free time than I'm used to. Let's get this sumbitch started.

As people have seemed to agree on, I'll be ironmanning this on Hector Hard Mode, with Lyn Hard Mode included because that's pretty much a necessity when it comes to assessing the game as a whole. While I'll do my best to get the extra chapters, I won't be restarting if I fail to, as this is ironman. I will be canceling the ironman run and going back to resetting, however, if any of the following conditions are met:

1: I get a game over.

2: I lose all of my healers.

3: I lose all of my thieves.

4: The general body count at any point exceeds the chapter number divided by two.

…Man this is gonna be a trip. This was my first ever Fire Emblem game, and like I said, I've got way too many fond memories of playing this damned thing over and over and over again. I even got that Gamecube add-on that lets you play GBA games on your TV (which makes me really want GBA games on the Switch, NINTENDO), and this and Pokemon are 90% of what I used it for.

I replayed the game a year or two ago, at least the first half of it or so, and more of it held up than I was bracing myself for... but I think doing this marathon may have given me an even more critical eye, so I'm hoping this doesn't ruin all those fond memories I had of playing this.

But let's get started.

 

 

...Oh man. Oh man that intro. I love it. I especially love it because it adds that unbelievably epic intro riff to the Fire Emblem main theme, and I always wait to listen to that.

Even as a kid though, that unmistakable, crystal clear, and yet completely unexplained declaration that humans started the Scouring was... extremely frustrating. One thing a remake of these games absolutely has to do is explain what the hell the motivations for this conflict were.

Looking at the “class intro” stuff, the listed stats of these classes... confuse me greatly. Is that really all they have as base stats?

...Yeah, according to Serenes Forest, it is! Well I guess since personal bases are a thing, that doesn't matter much for my guys, but as a kid I always found those listed stats to be super weird and completely non-indicative of what the classes were really like.

But anyway, let's get started. Selecting Lyn Hard mode... now.

Lyn mode has a really special place in my heart. It was the first Fire Emblem story I ever experienced, and thus it wasn't until somebody pointed it out to me years later... that I realized just how completely uncharacteristic it is for the series. There's no evil dragon, no big monster, no continent-spanning war... strictly speaking, this isn't even really a story about a hero. It's a story about a lonely orphan teenage girl who has a chance encounter with a stranger and winds up going on a cross-country road trip to meet the grandfather she just learned she still has, all the while picking up new friends along the way. Yes, there's a royal conspiracy and a territory-wide power struggle she winds up involved in, but that feels... almost incidental. Like it's just a way to make sure that this story still has a strategy RPG in it. Lyn's sole motivation is to see her grandfather for the first, and possibly last time, and the only reason she gets involved in any of this war nonsense is because Lundgren had the poor sense to try and take that away from her.

It's, at least comparatively, extremely low-stakes, but it's... personal. Human. And it's the only story in the entire series that's ever been allowed to be that simple. Its greatest asset is that it's part of a tutorial, which means it doesn't have the responsibility of needing to end the game it's part of. It didn't have to have a big finale with the whole world at stake. And that allows it to be the kind of story we basically never get to see in a Fire Emblem game. The kind of story I wish we'd get to see more of, because looking at it in hindsight, whatever I wind up saying about the quality of how it's told... it really is one-of-a-kind.

Alright. That's enough preemptive praise. I'll be calling my tactician Dakota, who will be born in April, and... yeah, let's make her a girl. I always made the tactician a guy as a kid, but I did remember the one time I did otherwise that certain characters react to you differently as a woman, and I wanna see those again to refresh my memory of what they were like. Because I don't remember how Florina greeted the female tactician for one thing.

Oh yeah, this is the stuff. This is the style of music I like to hear with GBA graphics. The instruments don't quite hold up to modern standards, but they do the job for the system, and the music itself is catchy as hell.

At any rate, this is something I already noticed during my relatively-recent replay, but the story is going a little quicker than I remembered it going as a kid. I remembered it having more dialogue, and not in a bad way either. I especially remember this opening pre-battle dialogue in the prologue being longer, and it's a little disappointing that there isn't more. Just a little though.

Honestly, now that this isn't a tutorial anymore on hard mode, having this map still be so barren is kind of annoying. But then again, I only have one unit, so there's a limit to how much more they could do here without changing the story.

Beat it, and with a very Lyn-ish level up to finish it off. HP, skill, speed and luck.

Now then, let's see the ending dialogue and...

...Now, this is something curious I'm noticing how. Having the tactician tell Lyn they want her to get permission from her parents before leaving... I never noticed before, but that implies that the tactician is a good deal older than Lyn and the other lords are. That isn't something a teenage wanderer would be likely to say. Combined with the fact that he's clearly well-trained as a strategist...

...I think this is the most thought I've ever given to the mysterious tactician's background and history. Call me cynical though, but noticing these things doesn't give me a sense of “ooh, mysterious!” and more a sense of “they didn't even think about this, this is an excuse plot character.”

Honestly, wow. I don't know if this makes it more or less sad to realize I've been misinterpreting what happened to Lyn's tribe. I thought the “they wouldn't follow a woman” thing was that she tried to lead her people to safety after her father died, but they refused and wound up slaughtered down to the last man. No, what happened was that what little remained of the tribe just flat-out disbanded, refusing to acknowledge her as the new chieftain and abandoning her in the middle of the plains, forcing her to live entirely on her own, for the past six months. Wow... poor girl.

...Huh. So the narrator clarifies that Dakota is an apprentice strategist. Okay. Who's her master? Who's she learning from? Is this some sort of rite-of-passage that tacticians have to do to become professionals? Wander off on their own and lead some ragtag army to victory? What's going on here? And why is she at least five years older than Lyn and still an apprentice? Didn't apprentices start young in those days?

I do find it interesting though that until the two cavaliers come into the picture next chapter, Lyn's plan was to just spend her time training for the day she could avenge her parents. Really goes to show that while it's no brought up all the time, that burning desire for vengeance against the Taliver bandits is definitely an ever-present part of her character, hiding in the background.

But now we're just going out shopping for our planned aimless adventure, when who should come into our lives but Sain, probably my favorite member of the “shameless flirt” archetype.

I love how pissed off Kent gets in this scene. He's such a great straight man here.

Oh shit. Yeah, Sain doesn't have a sword. I get they did that for the tutorial, but Kent gave him a sword in the tutorial. Can he not start with one here? Especially when we can't buy any yet?

Anyway, yeah, these first few tutorial maps are really boring. They go fast though.

Sain gets the one level up of the chapter, and gets HP, strength, speed and defense. Very promising for him. I wish it were possible to get someone even close to level 20 in Lyn Hard Mode without using them basically exclusively. It would be nice to get some use out of that free knight's crest without crippling one of my great cavaliers.

Oh wow, I just realized, these mid-cutscene illustrations are new to the series, aren't they? I like them a lot. Great way to work with the limitations of the game.

Yep. Looks like I misremembered things as a kid. Sacae is in the same place in his game that it was in Binding Blade.

Ah yes. 18-year-old Lyn. If I understand correctly, she was aged up from the 15 that she was in the original Japanese. I can't imagine why. She isn't even really sexualized. I mean she's got that thigh-slit and all, but if that's the only reason they aged her up, that would feel... exceptionally odd.

...In fact, I think they made her the oldest of the three lords as a result of this change. Aren't the others 17?

At any rate, so begins Lyndis's grand road trip to see her grandfather.

But as we move on to chapter 2, one question though... exactly how nomadic are the nomad tribes of Sacae? Because in real-life, the word nomad means, well... they don't actually build villages and cities. At all. They make, like, camps, and stick around for a little while, then move on to a new place, rinse and repeat. But even in FE6, (just so we don't just go blaming it on FE7), Sacae had villages. Not just that, it had cities. It had plenty of them. Are the nomads nomads in name alone, or is here just an entirely separate, non-nomadic people and culture inhabiting the plains of Sacae as well?

Hmmm...

Okay, so the Mani Katti is a sacred blade, inhabited by spirits, and using it in combat is sacrilege. But, ah... it was originally used in combat, right? At some point in the past? For what purpose was it made? Who originally used it, and in what battle? Was it always holy, or did the spirits inhabit an originally-ordinary sword after its forging? And if it was always holy, and if it was never intended to be used in an actual fight... then why was this sacred spirit vessel made into the shape of a sword, by people who clearly knew how to make a genuine, deadly sword?

Yeah, apparently according to these houses, the Mani Katti is also waiting for its rightful owner to appear. But then why is using it in combat sacrilege, if once Lyn shows up as the rightful owner she's allowed to use it in combat and everything's hunky dory, and anyone who isn't worthy can't draw the sword at all? Was there an original owner, or was this sword specifically forged to be unusable by anyone but Lyn, the chosen one, who would only arrive centuries after its forging? And if so, why!?

This is starting to annoy me, honestly. When a plot point raises way more questions than it answers and the game isn't trying to be mysterious or creepy, that's when I start feeling like the game just isn't giving a shit about a plot point. The Mani Katti is a cool weapon, but this is... not good worldbuilding at all. Nothing a remake can't expand on though.

Also, this terrain is... weird. Any sense of scale when it comes to Fire Emblem maps is always a crapshoot when it comes to how much sense it makes, but uh... this game's use of the term “mountain” is, like... irresponsibly loose. It's too steep and vast for a horse to cross, but... it's also the same size as a house... which is apparently also the same size as the circumference of a single temple pillar. And whatever the fuck these “mountains” are, they're apparently just casually in the way of the front entrance to a temple, in-between the temple and what looks like some kind of incomplete outer wall?

...Yeah, even if we assume, as I usually do, that indoor maps are done to scale, while the outdoors depict units as way bigger than they actually are, the positioning of those mountains makes... like, literally no sense whatsofuckingever. They're just there to explain movement types, impassable terrain, and alternate means to get past obstacles, all for the tutorial. And, I mean, it serves that purpose well, but...

Kent got some mediocre level ups, one mostly just HP and strength, the other just HP. Not promising, but he's still a cavalier in a game where that's an utterly ridiculous advantage. I plan on using all three of the early-game ones.

Sain got strength and defense again. Looks like the second they reversed personalities, the green one started being the one leaving the other in the dust. And that's another weird thing. Sain's always gotten good defense for me, despite Kent being the one with the higher actual growth rate, making me assume that Sain was the strength and defense one, while Kent was the skill and speed one, and Lowen was the “I never fucking used him as a kid” one.

Wait... the priest put a spell on the blade to keep it from being drawn? What was that about the spirits rejecting Glass then? And why is it special that Lyn can take it out of the sheath?

It kind of feels like this conversation here, where Kent, Sain and Lyn are talking about how only Lyn can use the Mani Katti, is taking the piss out of the idea of personal weapons, with one of them even saying it's not that unusual for special weapons to only be usable by one person. Not sure what to think about this.

Ooh! We actually get an established timescale for how long her journey's taking. Chapter 3 happens on day 10 of it! Cool to know. I'll have to keep that in mind in case it makes anything weird.

Curious that Sain assumes there would be a marquess in charge of the mountains between Sacae and Bern. I thought only Lycia had marquesses. In fact, Elibe is the only place I've ever heard the term marquess used. Let's look that up, real quick, just to be sure we're on the same page...

...What I'm getting here is that it's a reasonably high rank, “above an earl and below a duke”, in medieval European nobility.. It's also apparently called a marquis, and a marquis's job is important because they're put in charge of territories at the edges of a kingdom. But then why is there an entire country ruled by an alliance of them? I just checked the map, they aren't in some kind of circle with all of them bordering another country. I mean, that would be a cool idea if they were, but it's clearly not so. It would appear that significant liberty is being taken with this term, if what I'm reading here on Wikipedia is anything to go by.

...Wait... what's this part say...?

...“The term is also used to translate equivalent Asian styles, such as in Imperial China and Imperial Japan.”

Uh... huh.

I think I see what's going on here.

If I had to guess, this appears to be a bit of Japan's version of medieval times bleeding into their fantasy take on the European version of medieval times.

But more importantly, this story beat right here, where Lyn talks about the Taliver bandits, this is way more character development than we ever got at the beginning of any chapter in Binding Blade. Like, this chapter feels like it could have been expanded to be a 20 minute episode of a cartoon like Avatar. All of the last few chapters have felt like that, and very few FE6 chapters did. I've heard everyone talking shit about the logic and worldbuilding of this game's story, and I've braced myself for that being deserved. But the actual storytelling part of Blazing Blade seems unquestionably superior.

...Shit. I just realized, right as Florina appeared and I started thinking about all that gender-sensitive dialogue, that I think Sain's hitting on the female tactician was normal mode only. I missed it. Honestly, I almost regret picking hard mode, given how much dialogue I've missed out on as a result, with little gameplay gained.

I like how even though they have Lyn-specific dialogue for the village with Wil, they still let you visit it with anyone, and just paraphrase it into a more traditional “only one talks” recruitment conversation.

Now we've got Wil, and... okay, he's basically worthless. Anyone who's player-phase exclusive should be able to one-round mooks at base, or if we're playing a game with high enemy quality, at least do serious, accurate damage.

Florina though, I'm sure as hell gonna take the opportunity to try and get some use out of her. Managing to get a flier off the ground for the early game would be fantastic. Amusingly, I went through my first playthrough of the game never even learning what the flier promotion item even was. Didn't have the skill/patience to get whatever chests they were in on my first runthrough. Hopefully that's not a bad sign for how this ironman will go.

This is still very much a tutorial chapter, but at least now things are opening up a bit as to what we can do, and I can finally get my hands on some more weapons and get both my cavaliers their own swords.

Really, not much to say beyond that. It barely required any thought, which is actually kinda terrifying given this is an ironman run.

I fed the boss kill to Florina, and she got a pretty good level. Strength, speed and resistance mainly. And with that, let's finish up the chapter, and finish up in general for today.

Aw, this is why I like Sain. You get the genuine sense that he likes and wants to help women, for all of his indiscriminate obsession over nearly the entire opposite sex. He comes up with an idea to help Florina meet her knighting requirements almost instantly, and while, yes, he's got a personal desire to keep her around, it is a genuine idea that would genuinely work and help her.

Oh, this picture is just priceless. Florina adorably cowering away from Sain, Kent facepalming, Lyn smiling at Florina... it's all just so sweet and funny at the same time.

Well, I think that's a good place to stop for today. I'm already at page 6 of my notes, despite how little gameplay I've actually done. I'll try to make a habit of doing multiple chapters like this when I can, at least for Lyn mode. After that, I'm gonna stick to one chapter a day, even with the early ones, just to make sure I don't rush and screw things up on an ironman.

Gameplaywise, I'm not having a great time here, but storywise, at least right now, I'm having a blast reliving this game, and it's holding up great. Here's hoping the gameplay picks up, and the story keeps up.

Edited March 19, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

On 3/12/2020 at 6:47 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...it's time to go on to Fire Emblem 7.

The first one I ever played.

The one that made me fall in love with the series.

The one that gave me sleepless nights curled up in bed with my original-model GBA and my big bulky fancy screen lighter, playing his game for hours into the night in my room with that bunk bed I for some reason had despite not sharing a room with my brothers, and which I mostly used as an excuse to build forts with blankets, using the top bunk as a roof. Oh god, the memories there...

That... takes me back, I must say. Of course, I had to rein in those urges to keep playing because back then I was still in school.

[Interdimensional Observer]

FE7 was my first FE too, it came in an Easter basket. Got the Nintendo Power Player's Guide with it, I flipped through it pages again and again. Besides the assistance, it did have the official artwork of the playable characters posted throughout too. In particular, I remember how they juxtaposed Raven's art with Lucius's and Priscilla's to his left and right, a merry arrangement that was.

*Checks* I still have the game guide right in my room. I need to reread it and see how outdated its advice is.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I even got that Gamecube add-on that lets you play GBA games on your TV (which makes me really want GBA games on the Switch, NINTENDO), and this and Pokemon are 90% of what I used it for.

I had, but have long since lost, the GBA Player as well. Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga was the title I primarily played on it. Now is there any way for an emulator to feature those old stylistic frames?

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

It's, at least comparatively, extremely low-stakes, but it's... personal. Human. And it's the only story in the entire series that's ever been allowed to be that simple. Its greatest asset is that it's part of a tutorial, which means it doesn't have the responsibility of needing to end the game it's part of. It didn't have to have a big finale with the whole world at stake. And that allows it to be the kind of story we basically never get to see in a Fire Emblem game. The kind of story I wish we'd get to see more of, because looking at it in hindsight, whatever I wind up saying about the quality of how it's told... it really is one-of-a-kind.

True, Fire Emblem, even with Blazing Blade and Thracia- it's two smallest stakes games- is still ultimately in some way about saving the world.

I would like a lower stakes, more personal FE. I was thinking, for a couple possibilities: 

• Without Lyn Mode in mind at the time, of a displaced and disinherited noble who becomes a vassal to another noble. But this vassalage and fief is only as a stepping stone for the sake of reclaiming the grand estate that was taken away from them. Vengeance is their primary motivator, they don't seek to fight the evil world and aid the good, and they don't care who their liege is as long as they approve their claiming of the lost family title. Wars with those who aren't the usurper of lost estate, are primarily carried out to secure support and resources for their inheritance. Them assuming the very fine title of "Duchess of Pleasant Shores" might have some repercussions within the kingdom, but not international world-redefining ones.
  • My problem, is that I have no knowledge of how Medieval European fiefdom disputes worked. Were they mostly peaceful, mostly violent, how much did the royal authorities intervene? I have a measure of understanding how Heian (~800s-early 1100s) Japan handled feuding, but not much more. I would want some semblance of realism.
• A second approach would be to play as mercenaries who don't end up like the Greils- unofficial knights in the name of one kingdom. For this, I was imagining the protagonists as fantasy Roma or Jews, an outcast minority in a world mostly hostile to it. The mercenaries in this case act as the defense force of the despised semi-nomadic minority against pogroms, and for the sake of generating additional income, fight from time to time in that mercenary role for those realms that hate them. The story could end on hope of persecution ceasing in the distant future, but it wouldn't and shouldn't require the vanquishing of a pure evil foe seeking to destroy the world.

In both of these approaches, there would be plenty of room for branching paths in the Sacae/Ilia style of being temporary. Fake France is being invaded by barbarians in two directions, you wish to the kingdom's favor, do you fight the Fake Vikings, or the Fake Andalusian Muslims? Pick one. Regardless of which you pick, the battles you fight should not be the only important ones that happen, a smaller feel should mean you don't fight every battle in a war, and maybe even leave it before it comes to its end.

• A third approach is to copy Thracia 776's story-within-a-larger-story again, with a significantly greater emphasis on the personal and less on saving the world.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Huh. So the narrator clarifies that Dakota is an apprentice strategist. Okay. Who's her master? Who's she learning from? Is this some sort of rite-of-passage that tacticians have to do to become professionals? Wander off on their own and lead some ragtag army to victory? What's going on here? And why is she at least five years older than Lyn and still an apprentice? Didn't apprentices start young in those days?

The Tactician of FE7 has strong resemblances to another Intelligent Systems property at the time.:

Ahh... the days when Max so very broken, and featured in a living IP.

Advance Wars released on September 11th, 2001 (yeaaaaaaah a really bad release date). A half-year before Binding Blade, and 1 1/2 years before Blazing Blade.

Advance Wars had a set of forced tutorial battles where *Insert your choice of name here* trained as an Advisor under Nell. Only after it you finished these did you the Advisor get to the main campaign helping Andy, Max, and Sami fight Blue Moon and the rest.

I find AW1 overall to be, by coincidence or speculative intention, to mirror FE7 just a little bit. The Advisor and forced tutorial apart from the main story didn't appear in AW2, just as SS didn't have the Tactician or a Lyn Mode. The trio of Andy, Max and Sami loosely aligns with the trio of Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn. Andy wears red and is balanced, just as Eliwood has red hair and is balanced. Max and Hector are both blue-haired muscled brutes. Sami wears some measure of green, Lyn has green hair, both are the one female in their trio, and neither is about raw power.

Although, in terms of balance and difficulty, AW1 is as unbalanced and brutally difficult as FE6 Hard, probably even harder.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But as we move on to chapter 2, one question though... exactly how nomadic are the nomad tribes of Sacae? Because in real-life, the word nomad means, well... they don't actually build villages and cities. At all. They make, like, camps, and stick around for a little while, then move on to a new place, rinse and repeat. But even in FE6, (just so we don't just go blaming it on FE7), Sacae had villages. Not just that, it had cities. It had plenty of them. Are the nomads nomads in name alone, or is here just an entirely separate, non-nomadic people and culture inhabiting the plains of Sacae as well?

Bulgar rests right on the border with Bern. It's useful for nomads to have some trading posts to exchange livestock, game, and associated products with the necessities and commodities only a settled civilization can provide. I guess Bulgar arose originally as a trading post and grew really big from that.

The huts seen in the very first chapter of FE7 and in the hell reinforcements battle and the gaiden chapter of FE6 look like yurts to me. You can pack up yurts when you need to, they're nicer tents.

Sacae is a very big country too, whats a few scattered towns in a sea of open plains that we mostly don't see? If Sacae really is supposed to be the Central Eurasian steppe, then it isn't very fertile at all. It could support pockets of sustained agriculture in select locations, and it'd be helpful for the nomadic majority, but not enough to create the population density over such a vast space to end nomadism. It shouldn't have the trees or stone needed to build many cities either.

I am not aware in the case of the Mani Katti if there were any permanently-settled sacred sites in Central Eurasia.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

If I had to guess, this appears to be a bit of Japan's version of medieval times bleeding into their fantasy take on the European version of medieval times.

I like to think that Marquess is used for the sake of distinguishing Lycia's nobility from Etruria's and Bern's. You don't see "Marquess" used when discussing any of their few nobles we encounter. Marquess indicates these are special nobles of greater independence and power in a special union with the rest. Sain in that one instance was just using common Lycian parlance I guess.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh wow, I just realized, these mid-cutscene illustrations are new to the series, aren't they? I like them a lot. Great way to work with the limitations of the game.

Illustrations did exist in FE5 and 6. But 5's only appeared in the credits, and 6's in the Sound Test IIRC.

So, you're right this is the first time FE ever used them to show the actual story as it happens. Prototypes of FE7 show that the CGs were originally going to be in full, bright color with a clear, not grainy resolution.:

But, for some reason these more colorful versions were never finished, and they opted for the sepia-tinted pixelated renditions.