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

[Jotari]

I'm in the bonus content camp. Since there's no story involved, at least for FE8, I expect you could do write ups on it rather quickly. Lagdou Ruins is long, but it is pretty much designed to be done in one sitting considering you cant save in-between each chapter. Plus you'll probably want to check out that one extra map you never knew existed (for what little there is to it). And while I don't think all the DLC later down the road is reasonable, Future Past and Heirs of Fate I think would be nice (would also like to see Apotheosis, but that basically requires playing all the other DOC multiple times to finish).

Edited June 7, 2020 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

I feel like the postgame is something that should be played as part of you ranking FE8 (as it is a notable innovation FE8 did add to the series), but I also think it would outlive its welcome quickly, so I would like to suggest a compromise. After you complete FE8 story, the play through as much of the postgame as you will get through for the rest of the week, and then move onto Path of Radiance on the following Monday.

[Koops]

Path of Radiance is my favorite game in the series so I'd tell you to move on to it quickly but at the same time the postgame in FE8 does have interesting things, like getting access to all secret shops through the world map, and the two monster-infested areas (Tower and Ruins).

I don't mind either way.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I feel like the postgame is something that should be played as part of you ranking FE8 (as it is a notable innovation FE8 did add to the series), but I also think it would outlive its welcome quickly, so I would like to suggest a compromise. After you complete FE8 story, the play through as much of the postgame as you will get through for the rest of the week, and then move onto Path of Radiance on the following Monday.

On the other hand FE6 also innovated the real first post game for the series with trial maps and we've already ignored them. Perhaps when the project has ended we can go back to all the post game content and review them seperately to see which game had the best post game.

[Eltosian Kadath]

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

On the other hand FE6 also innovated the real first post game for the series with trial maps and we've already ignored them. Perhaps when the project has ended we can go back to all the post game content and review them seperately to see which game had the best post game.

(Honestly I forgot FE6 had trial maps in it)

That is a good point, and an interesting idea.

[Alastor15243]

37 minutes ago, Jotari said:

On the other hand FE6 also innovated the real first post game for the series with trial maps and we've already ignored them. Perhaps when the project has ended we can go back to all the post game content and review them seperately to see which game had the best post game.

Shit, I completely forgot about that.

[Koops]

You know what's hilarious about trial maps in FE6 tho.

Imagine finishing a HM file and then going to the trial maps, Roy will double and kill Mercenaries.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Koops said:

You know what's hilarious about trial maps in FE6 tho.

Imagine finishing a HM file and then going to the trial maps, Roy will double and kill Mercenaries.

The enemy quality in that Roy solo map is so bad that it's less a test of how good you are at the game and more a test of how many swords you happened to have hoarded by end game.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

The enemy quality in that Roy solo map is so bad that it's less a test of how good you are at the game and more a test of how many swords you happened to have hoarded by end game.

Jesus Christ, I just checked it out. These weren't even calibrated for hard mode. Even after playing Sacred Stones for a while, I'm still disgusted by how easy these enemies are. And holy shit, the "music" sounds like someone just took a shitty midi like this was a rom hack. This is barely even worth commenting on. I don't feel bad about skipping it anymore, and I'm still entirely on board with checking out postgame content and DLC if people want it.

Edited June 7, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 31: Chapter 19EPH

Right. Well, now that I actually have Path of Radiance back, I think I might be doing some double-feature days this week, just to make sure we can get everything done sooner. I'll see how I feel at the end of this chapter. I may not want to do it twice, either because it's too good or because it's too bad. Who knows?

Anyway, on to Chapter 19, Last Hope.

I'm once again made aware of just how many promotion items this game throws at you. I guess they wanna make sure you can promote all of the characters you decide you want to grind up? It seems like far more than you would ever need in the actual core game, and at this point I'm just using them for money.

I decided to give that dragonshield to Lute yet again, because while L'arachel has slightly lower defense, thanks to Ephraim and her supreme luck stat she has much better evasion, whereas Lute, while she has pretty good evasion, doesn't have a boyfriend to bring it to levels I'd call comfortable.

Cormag and Franz get the talismans, since they have the worst resistance by far of my army.

Alright, I bought some shines and javelins... I think I'm good to go now.

It just occurs to me as I watch the intro: what are those two spinning and colliding spheres of light on the chapter title screen representing? I have to assume Eirika and Ephraim, or maybe just the recurring theme of duality that permeates through this entire game.

Rausten looks kinda weird. This is supposed to be daytime, right? But the colors still seem fairly... muted. Maybe they're using the night time color tones for this map to save money. I'll know for sure once the battle starts.

Oh that's right, this is L'arachel's uncle, not her father. Strange. People tasked with taking care of their family's kids are generally shown to take their job more seriously than this. Like, I'm sure he cares about her, but he's still letting her go on her crazy Don Quixote LARP.

Yeah, honestly, at this point it feels really weird that Joshua isn't a can't-canonically-die, appears-in-cutscenes character. He's of the same standing as the other characters here (or would be if he were alive in this route), but even if he's alive, and even on Eirika Route, he doesn't even introduce himself to the Rausten court in this scene.

Also, I find it amusing that Eirika is still on that message delivery mission to Rausten, and is still, according to her, acting “as an emissary of Frelia”. That is a frankly bizarre circumstance, wouldn't you say?

Waaaaaaaaait a goddamned second. What did the pontifex say? If I read that right before I accidentally skipped, it sounds like he said... that he's “heard” of the creatures in Darkling Woods. Heard. Like they're a thing he's heard of academically but has never directly impacted his life.

Yes! He did! He did say it exactly like that! That word! “Heard”! He's heard about the fell creatures in Darkling Woods!

Dude! I don't know which of L'arachel's parents was related to you, but whichever it was, you lost a fucking sibling to these things! Their existence consumes your niece's life! They are the gasoline poured upon her burning soul! Saying you've “heard” of the fuckers seems like a bit of an understatement, no!?

...Aaaanyway...

Curious how, since L'arachel considers Eirika her good friend, she has apparently been befriending Eirika since Chapter 16 behind the scenes. Remember, they weren't journeying together in this continuity until then. I wish, like... we saw any of that. If Eirika's had free time in the middle of all of this chaos to expand her character and socialize with people, like... maybe that would have been nice to get a hint of?

Right, so, this is the thing I remember from before. Ephraim's talking with Tana at Castle Rausten.

...Really though, it's not much. It's just Ephraim temporarily becoming jaded and cynical about the idea of being close to people from other countries due to what happened with Lyon. He snaps out of it almost instantly from Tana saying... I mean just listen to a single Kingdom Hearts speech and you'll get the idea of how inspired and original it is.

The escaping cavalry messenger describes the plight of the green units as “less of a battle than a slaughter”, a phrase I could have sworn was used during the siege of Valni.

...Nope, looks like I just misremembered. Looks like my memories bled together between the various instances of green units reporting that they've been curb-stomped in this game.

At any rate, though they didn't say how, apparently word has been sent to the Knights of Rausten, and they'll be coming. But, of course, they'll be too late unless we do something.

So let's do this.

…Looks like I was right, the visible map is the exact same color it was in the daytime scene.

Also, Ephraim complains about being “useless and worse” lately, and like... we've seen literally one scene of that. Generally, if your main character is going to be in a funk... it should actually have some on-screen consequences before he snaps out of it.

I was initially scared when I realized I forgot to buy any fog of war supplies, but it looks like I have a 2-use torch and a 5-use torch staff, which should be plenty for a defense chapter.

Speaking of which, the torch staff change in FE7 was a brilliant addition to the fog of war system, even if it wasn't really intentional I suspect. It's a great way of mitigating the unfairness of Fog of War by letting you see even further into the dark without putting enemies in range of, say, the steel lance wyverns that might be lurking at the edge of it. Especially indoors, it provides a way to safety know what's ahead and plan around it.

God damn but the deployment limit for this is high. Seventeen units? I'm gonna have to send an incomplete team, because I don't have that many units I'm confident aren't going to die!

Now, one of the benefits of doing that is that I don't have to put anyone in the northwestern corner of the map, which is miles away from anything of strategic relevance and mostly just a risk of getting intercepted. Honestly, if they're going to make that place, they should at least have a point to it.

Now... there's a pretty amusing trick you can do with this map in emergencies, one I learned from watching Mekkah.

You see, it didn't occur to me until I saw his 31% enemy growth boost ironman that you can actually rescue Mansel and take him wherever the fuck you want. You can hole up in the western treasure room and block the door with an unarmed unit you constantly heal, and this chapter becomes a breeze. But I'll be going for the eastern treasure and exp, so I can't really afford to do that.

Lute, Seth and Franz are going to charge the front gate to cover Rennac raiding the western treasure vault. Meanwhile Ephraim and L'arachel will take the eastern chests thanks to the door and chest keys he's stocked up. After those are secured, we'll assess the battlefield and work out how much of this we can handle and if we need to evacuate Mansel.

Let's go.

So... Riev just outright calls these remnant Grado soldiers “minions of the Demon King”. Did they actually hear Riev call them that? Are these Fomortiian cultists from within Grado, loyal specifically to Riev and Fomortiis or something?

The initial onslaught Rennac exposes with his torch isn't too bad. Two mercenaries, two druids, and two generals. Sneaky of them to put the weakest ones in front to trick you, but hey, I managed to expose it and position accordingly.

Looks like the game's going to give me both the brave sword and the brave lance at once here. I can see the enemies carrying both of them.

The generals activate great shield. Both of them. That was... quite annoying, but at least it wasn't an offensive skill.

And it happened a third time. It got so ridiculous I wound up using Excalibur against one of them just to make sure she actually killed it if one of the hits was blocked.

...That worked, but when Seth tried to finish off the other general, the one with the brave lance, he just decided to proc great shield twice. These are only supposed to be like 10-16% chances here! It scales with the level of the non-general unit! What the fuck are the odds of it happening this frequently!?

Thankfully the fucker finally fell on enemy phase, and so the brave lance and brave sword fell into my hands in quick succession, and at this stage in the game, ignoring grinding, you can use these things pretty damned freely given how little of the game you have left.

I remember that when I was a kid, and played this on normal mode, what I'd always do was wait until this exact chapter to start training up Myrrh, plop her down in this frontal area with all the promoted enemies, and just watch her clean house and rapidly level into a killing machine, getting to full power just in time to fight Morva next chapter. But looking at this now, on hard mode, that seems like an insanely dangerous idea. She could take them now, but that's after her training's already been completed. And she'd still probably need the Fili Shield.

There's an archer with a goddess icon, but it's not worth stealing now. We don't really need the money, anyway.

The potshots I'm having Innes take while assisted by Tethys mean he should probably be able to use Nidhogg by the end of the chapter. Hopefully. Saleh using Ivaldi is far, far less likely though, given that he's only at B rank to begin with.

...Okay, these promoted enemies are actually starting to get pretty damned scary by the entrance. It might be a good idea to start evacuating to the treasure room after all. Franz very easily could have died if I had been just a little too unlucky.

Yeah, this is starting to get scary. I think I'm gonna have to have Seth and Franz drop their javelins, have Duessel and Cormag replace the rest of their stuff with axes and shields, and then have them wall this location unarmed so they can minimize the attacks they take per turn.

Honestly though, this is a really cool map from an atmosphere perspective. Probably one of my favorite fog of war maps ever in that regard. So it's a shame that the map music is so boring. This map deserved something like Scars of the Scouring, or... no, fuck that, it deserved something on the level of Murderous Puppets, which is my favorite “scary” map theme of the entire series. Pity's it's enemy-phase. Fire Emblem Awakening's DLC demonstrated just how effective it could be as a player-phase theme.

In fact... fuck it! Music change time!

Here, so you can enjoy along with me:

 

I accidentally forgot to re-equip thunder on Lute, so she'll be using Excalibur on the enemy-phase. Shame, but like, I still have Hammerne at full charge, so it's really not that big a deal.

Looks like unequipping Seth and Franz was an extremely good call. Their luck just ran out, and a warrior planted a silver axe right in Franz's face. But thanks to my decision, not enough people can attack him for him to be in peril.

Innes nearly died because I didn't see the archers in the dark. But thankfully he dodged one of the bow shots from the brave bow and didn't critical him on counter-attack, so he's safe. For now. But it looks like they're giving me the whole brave collection now, aside from the brave axe I already have.

That's weird. I was wondering why the Excalibur animation seemed to be delayed, but I think part of it just wasn't playing in melee for some reason. Once Lute was attacked at range, that long pause was replaced by a Forseti-esque wind-gusting animation.

L'arachel and Ephraim have the treasure. No more need to be aggressive.

...It's frankly amazing how having good music playing that isn't constantly interrupted by battle and healing music completely strips me of any desire to fast-forward animations. I really, really love the dynamic map theme system of modern Fire Emblem, and really, what I wish they'd do for remakes is just take the player phase, enemy phase and healing themes, and just... put them somewhere else. Like, use the first two as minor boss themes, and give the healing one to cutscenes involving healers or something like that. And then just make dynamic versions of the retro game map themes.

I forgot to heal Seth and Franz, but thankfully Myrrh was just barely nearby and had a two-use vulnerary they could use for the emergency. And now L'arachel should be in physic range too starting either next turn or the turn after, so I should have more options for healing.

Saleh with the torch staff has been really helpful here. Getting to light up hallways far in advance has been a huge boon.

The enemies might have had a chance to kill Franz anyway if they were smarter, since he failed to restore to full HP and the warrior got lucky with another attack again. If that mage knight moved into a 2-range space, I may very well have been fucked. But of course, he didn't, because the his friends refused to make room for him.

It's kinda hilarious how pathetic the castle guard of Rausten is. Why would they guard the castle with soldiers this much worse than the Knights of Rausten, who are apparently strong enough to rescue the party from not one but two survive maps?

Lute got a complete dud of a level up, but honestly, she's probably set for the rest of the game.

It's so frustrating seeing this massive wall of promoted enemies I could probably get a lot of exp from, but it's just too ridiculously dangerous. Any change in formation could be catastrophic depending on who I kill from behind Seth and Franz, and how lucky they get.

I got Cormag and Duessel's B support. Let's check it out:

Oh come on, game, you can't tease shit like the “Lance of Gavaleus” and not allow me to use the fucking thing! That is one of the coolest names for a lance (and for a weaponsmith) that I have ever heard! Zoltan, eat your fucking heart out!

Amusingly, Duessel says that Cormag will one day be a “splendid wyvern knight to equal [his] brother”. Curious, since that's not what his brother was.

It seems that enemies are still freely spawning despite the ridiculous buildup of promoted units outside. Does this game have a higher enemy cap? I guess I can't confirm since I can't see how many are at the southern entrance, but...

...Well, the battle's over at any rate. And now Mansel gives us the Sacred Twins of Rausten, explicitly saying they're for Ephraim. So apparently in spite of the major funk we're supposed to assume he's still in, and despite never once talking to Mansel that we could see on-screen, Mansel somehow knows Ephraim is the leader of the group.

I wonder how much more ridiculous this is going to get in Eirika's version.

...Actually, no, it'll be less ridiculous! Because in this version, and I have to assume Eirika's too, she was the one to introduce herself to Mansel (since she still had that message to deliver) while Ephraim said nothing! Unless for some reason they have Ephraim be the one next time and decide to only give Eirika's mission payoff in the opposite route...

...But I'll have to wait until tomorrow before I can find out. Doing the exact same map twice in one day... yeah, sorry, but that feels like it would be exhausting and would give me an unfair negative impression of the map. Especially since it slows down a lot at the end.

...And as I feared, my convoy has reached its limit. I have to throw away either my 10 use Reginleif, Siegmund, my member card, my silver card, or Ivaldi/Latona. Now, strictly speaking, Ivaldi is the best choice here, since the odds of me getting any use of out if are nil. But fuck it, I'll throw away the 10 use Reginleif.

Also, L'arachel mentions that she's “heard” that the people who enter Darkling Woods' borders never leave again. This implies that Rausten is not responsible for going into the forest to fight monsters, which makes me wonder how L'arachel's parents died. Did they really stray far enough from the forest to kill no-doubt heavily-guarded royalty who weren't actively looking to fight them? Before Lyon got possessed?

I think there's a typo here, where Ephraim says “Yes, I think stocking up would be in our best interest. I intended to see that we all return unharmed”. That's... the past tense feels inaccurate here, unless he's implying “yes, obviously, I've been planning that for a while, L'arachel, don't patronize me.” Which doesn't seem right.

But at any rate, we're done for the day.

And... well, I'm starting to feel end-of-game fatigue. Yet again, I'm looking forward to being done with this game and moving on, either to the tower and ruins or to FE9. In fairness, I've felt that way with most of the games on this list, not just the ones I ranked poorly. And since the current poll is pretty well decided, I'm gonna make a new poll shortly before posting this, asking what people wanna see.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Benice]

32 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

splendid wyvern knight to equal [his] brother”. Curious, since that's not what his brother was.

I do believe that it was a rank; they call him "General" Duessel, but he's a great knight. It could be the same thing there? That or there was a brain lapse.

32 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I wonder how much more ridiculous this is going to get in Eirika's version.

She actually has some decent lines with L'Arachel in her version of the chapter. Not sure if you'll like it since she's not your preferred type of lord,  but I think it's one of her good moments.

Also, for your sake, I'd not do the next chapter for both Eph and Eir routes; it's a really boring one.

Edited June 8, 2020 by Benice

[Boomhauer007]

So you let the timer run out right? If you don't want to go through all that again, you can just warp a decent physical unit to the bottom left where Riev is hanging out. He's holding Aura which has lol 15 weight against his 7 con, so basically anybody can double him, although he's a bit tanky with 51 HP and 16 def. I can't remember the last time I played that chapter properly, it's a slog. 

If you wanted to do 20 in one day it's also very easy to warp (or even rescue) skip, could do one full go of it and one skip go of it. 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Boomhauer007

[Hello72207]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

You see, it didn't occur to me until I saw his 31% enemy growth boost ironman that you can actually rescue Mansel and take him wherever the fuck you want. You can hole up in the western treasure room and block the door with an unarmed unit you constantly heal, and this chapter becomes a breeze. But I'll be going for the eastern treasure and exp, so I can't really afford to do that.

That was a revelation for most of us.

34 minutes ago, Boomhauer007 said:

So you let the timer run out right? If you don't want to go through all that again, you can just warp a decent physical unit to the bottom left where Riev is hanging out. He's holding Aura which has lol 15 weight against his 7 con, so basically anybody can double him, although he's a bit tanky with 51 HP and 16 def. I can't remember the last time I played that chapter properly, it's a slog. 

yeah, I tried warpskipping this map, and the first attempt was one of my more memorable parts in sacred stones ever. It was on my +10% ironman, I decided I didn't want to lose too many units to the strongish promoted enemies, so I decided to warpskip. It was hilariously bad. I put weaker units in the top, thinking, I'll be done before they die, all but Forde died. In the down area, Rennac died after sending all treasures to supply, Gerik and a few others died down below, but Joshua finally killed Riev.

[Koops]

Funnily enough, I once had a Warrior somehow get dangerously close to Mansel and I was desperate, but then I used Moulder's Rescue staff and it worked. That also allowed me to discover that losing the throne in this map does not equal a game-over, since the Warrior then proceeded to kill the Green General while on the throne.

Also don't worry, Eirika is the one who introduces herslef to Mansel in her route, since you're wondering.

Also pretty sure keeping as many green units alive as possible gives you rewards. MIGHT be why they're so weak to begin with, to make that secondary objective not a joke.

[Alastor15243]

Okay, I'm gonna experiment with something tomorrow. Now that I've already done 19EPH, I'm thinking that until I beat the game, I'll do one chapter on Eirika Route, and then the next chapter on Ephraim Route, so that I'm doing two a day without ever doing the same map twice in one day. I'll see how I feel about doing that tomorrow.

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 32: Chapter 19EIR

Alright, our team's a little different, so let's see if we can make this a bit more interesting and aggressive.

Also, strangely enough, both yesterday and today, I turned on the game to the “new location available” animation followed by a monster spawning directly behind me. Is that supposed to happen?

Well, someone's gotta go shopping, so we'll have to enter and retreat.

Anyway, as I'm working out what to buy, and being careful this time not to overload the convoy, I notice that the +5 stat boost of Audhulma is pretty much the worst in the game. It's +5 res, which might be nice... on a weapon that can counter-attack against mages. As it stands, it's only really useful for resisting status staves and seige tomes, and monsters can't even use the former.

Anyway, doing a second skirmish-retreat made me realize that they use the fog of war music for maps that were fog-of-war in the main campaign... even when there isn't fog of war on the map anymore. Curious.

I now have two full 10-use torch staves, one on Saleh and one on Lute, so no more needing to be sparing with my fog of war supplies.

Okay, it seems I mis-remembered the opening dialogue last time. Looks like Eirika and Ephraim did have a long, offscreen talk with Mansel, and it wasn't L'arachel doing most of the talking. Okay, I guess you could argue that the shit we don't see could give Mansel the impression that one of them is the leader, and that said leader can vary because what they say offscreen is different... if you ignore that we don't get any impressions like that from what we do see for the entire rest of the united phase of the game.

...I also find it extremely curious that L'arachel says the exact same thing about Eirika having had “a very trying time of late” regardless of which path you're on and who confronted Lyon. That line doesn't change in any way. Yeah, it really feels like a line that was written with Eirika Mode in mind.

But at any rate, now we get the scene we should have gotten a while ago. A scene where Eirika actually opens up to somebody. Talks about her feelings. Helps us understand that the shit going down is having an actual impact on her.

And honestly, this is a way better scene than the one with Ephraim and Tana. It's hard to put into words exactly why, but... their conversation just feels more needed and relevant. I especially like that it doesn't just take just one single speech to snap Eirika out of her funk, and L'arachel tells her she needs to take time to think about it herself and come to an answer of what Lyon would want her to do.

Alright, I'm actually doing the map now, and I'm sending a full force since I actually have enough prepromotes. Not everyone's equally good, obviously, but the weaker guys should be enough to cover the rear invasion. I'm gonna try and see if I can avoid being overwhelmed by reinforcements by going on an all-out offensive and actually fighting everyone down south.

For that mission, Kyle, Lute, Seth, Franz, Ephraim, L'arachel, and Saleh for torch staff duty when Lute needs to fight, are heading down south, while Rennac heads for the chests to the west and Eirika, Dozla, Knoll and Syrene head east to take care of those chests with chest keys.

I also discovered that Sieglinde is actually lighter than a steel sword, which is not something I would have intuitively assumed after my encounters with FE7 Durandal.

Anyway... yeah, even with the addition of Kyle, Ephraim and L'arachel to my forward offensive... I'm getting outrageously overwhelmed. You just can't one-round these guys with javelins. Which, I mean, that should be a good thing, but when you're spamming enemy forces in these numbers...

...Also, I just randomly got Gerik and Tethys's C support, so let's check this out...

...Not sure why it seems to be implied Tethys is dabbling in fortune telling, but, like, okay, this was a nice conversation. Sounds like she's not exactly proud of how she got into dancing though. I'd say I'm intrigued, but dancers have been, like, two steps removed from sex workers in the Fire Emblem World enough times that I think I know where this is going.

I'm keeping at the offensive a bit longer to see if I can push through long enough to get the treasure and then make a dive to assassinate Riev, but it's not looking too great.

...No, actually, it looks like it's gonna work out pretty well! Seth can't fully take care of the reinforcements as they come at him, due to his insufficient speed, but he can take care of enough that if I focus entirely on that side and pull out all troops on the eastern half of the entrance just before Rennac, Eirika and Syrene can steal the final treasures and we get the brave bow from the sniper, then I should be able to assassinate Riev on the next turn after getting all the treasure assuming nothing goes horribly, horribly wrong.

...Nothing went horribly, horribly wrong. I managed it. And good thing too, because I put way too much of my fighting force in this area, and there was no way I was gonna keep that up.

...And the exchange between Eirika and L'arachel is yet another instance where L'arachel's words can be taken the wrong way to imply a lesbian crush. And here it's even less innocent!

Apparently I saved enough of the guards this time to earn a light brand. Hardly worth the effort, but I suppose it's something. But at any rate, if I got it last time, I'd probably have thrown it away when forced to choose between that and the rest of Ephraim's inventory.

Anyway...

 

Day 32 Bonus: Chapter 20EPH

Alright, let's deal with my ridiculously cluttered inventory by selling some shit, then prepare for the final battle.

I just cleared up 30 inventory slots by restocking everyone's javelins from the convoy and then selling all of my iron and non-monster-targeting slayer weapons, as well as any mostly-broken weapons I never got to selling. So I'll be buying some silver weapons, making sure I still have enough javelins and hand axes for the next two maps, and then heading in.

Alright. I've made all the preparations I think I can at this point.

Time to go.

...Okay, I'm not sure if I mentioned this before, but I think this game has the lamest narration of any game in the series that has it. At least as far as I remember. Comparing it only to the professionally localized ones to be completely fair: FE7, FE9, FE10 and FE11 all had narrators with more interesting things to say. Far too often the lines this narrator says are dry, robotic, and often even incorrectly recounting events. It completely fails to hype me up for things.

...I will hand it to the game though: That Lovecraft reference, saying that the Demon King lies in the forest “not dead, but dreaming”... that was pretty cool. Actually, everything after that line was pretty good too. Still though, for most of the game, it's been a pretty bad performance when it comes to narration.

Alright, we get another scene with Lyon. I wish we got more of these. A lot of my issues with Lyon's Ephraim Route characterization stem from how little we get to see him after the twist, meaning the exposition of what's really going on is... amazingly rushed.

Thankfully, Morva's dialogue at least confirms that idea I mentioned about Lyon being delusional about how much control he has. Which makes me wonder why Fomortiis isn't controlling him directly. Is it that Lyon's spirit is too strong in this continuity to take over completely, even when he's clearly stopped resisting Fomortiis's will? Like, he doesn't even need to fight back for his spirit and desire to change the world to be too strong for Fomortiis to completely take over? Or is Fomortiis just less powerful in this continuity?

If this were better explained, frankly, I think this would be pretty great. But it should have been revealed much sooner, so it could have time to develop. They should have been willing to make more changes to route-shared dialogue, and not make both Lyon encounters canon to both routes. That way the twist that Lyon's “in control” could happen much sooner, and we'd get more time to develop it. As it stands... I like Eirika!Fomortiis better simply because, while it's a simpler idea, it had way more time to bake.

Honestly, looking at Darkling Woods again after all these years, and after seeing that description of the very land itself being corrupted and vile... I'm disappointed. Everything except the poison lake around the temple is completely normal-looking. All the grass is green, and the trees too. They aren't even leaf-less!

And the backdrop of the next conversation that takes place in it looks pretty normal too. Damn.

It's weird how suddenly, despite saying before that it was imperative that we make it to the temple, Myrrh is saying they have nothing to worry about because her dad will stop Fomortiis.

Also, Myrrh says that Morva “leads the dragon tribe”. Leads. Present tense. So there are other dragons alive.

Okay.

Where the fuck are they?

Genuine question, Myrrh. Where are they?

...And she's not going to answer. Of course.

...But I like how they imply with just that tiny bit of visible silence from Myrrh after Seth says they're under attack, and Ephraim saying she looks pale... that Myrrh already knows her father's been killed. Ouch. That's a gut punch right there.

Okay. This is curious. So. Lyon appears to Riev with his creepy demon mode face, and... like... why? Does Riev not know about the nature of Lyon's possession? Is Lyon “pretending” to be the demon king in front of Riev to command his loyalty? That seems... odd.

At any rate...

...So, when I was a kid, this part of the game was hype. I would take my team and grind the shit out of them at Valni and Lagdou before doing this. I'd get my entire army to level 20, make sure I trained up as many units as I could to use as many of the sacred twins as I could. I'd have an assassin, I'd have a general, I'd have Neimi, I'd have all three trainees every single time... and I'd just steamroll this, and it would be the most satisfying thing ever.

Looking at it now?

...I take one look at this chapter, and all I see is a mix of tedium and chances to fuck up. Really, this chapter just screams “warp-skip me”, what with its ridiculously winding, roundabout path, the incredibly thick unit placement, and the white-hot warning lights that there's gonna be reinforcement spam up the wazoo. If I had made Lute a sage, I could easily one-turn this, but as it stands, I'll need to got a little bit into the map in order to warp Myrrh and Ephraim in to do the job.

Let's do this.

Honestly, I get the impression from Riev's lines that he wasn't excommunicated for worshipping the Demon King... he started worshipping the Demon King in order to get revenge for being excommunicated. Which seems... hilariously childish. Granted, the game could just be unclear again, but... like... that's another problem in and of itself.

Yep, looks like I was right on the money, this map looks like it's gonna have lots of reinforcements to power through, judging by the three cyclopes that just showed up to the north. But at any rate, I've got it all set up. Took me two turns, but I did it. On turn three, I'll have Myrrh, Ephraim and Vidofnir-wielding Cormag in range of the temple. If Myrrh can't one-round Morva, maybe Cormag can.

...Well, looks like Cormag won't get the opening due to fliers crowding around the temple and lake, clogging up Cormag's flight path. But that's no obstacle for the warp staff, so let's send in Myrrh.

...And it looks like Myrrh can't one-round him, because I missed that Morva just barely has enough speed to resist being doubled. However, Cormag can double him, and just barely one-round him with Vidofnir, so Myrrh will kill someone to clear the path for him, and then Ephraim will seize after Tethys dances for Lute.

Shame I didn't get to see Myrrh's conversation with Morva though.

But at any rate, mission accomplished.

...I have such mixed feelings about warp-skipping. I enjoy doing it when I actually do it, but... I only ever want to do it on maps I don't think are going to be fun to do normally. Whenever I enjoy warp-skipping, it's because doing a map the right way fundamentally doesn't appeal to me, which means that while I wouldn't go so far as to say “if people are warp-skipping your maps, you're designing your maps wrong”... if I'm warp-skipping your maps, it's because I don't want to play them. That may be because of marathon fatigue with the game, that may be because I'm doing two chapters in a day and I want to get this entry out in a timely fashion, or it may be because merely having the temptation there has made the map feel like more trouble than it's worth. Whatever the case, as anyone who's been with me since the beginning and read my FE1 playlog can tell you... if I'm ever warp-skipping a map... that's a bad sign for how I feel about the game.

But anyway, we're at the “Black Temple” now. Hey, uh... question about the Black Temple...

...What is it?

If I'm reading the narration right (yet again, it's vague), this area apparently wasn't evil incarnate until Fomortiis's soulless body corrupted the landscape after his defeat. So likely... this wasn't originally a temple for Formortiis, since otherwise he'd have had enough time to have had this place be corrupted long before the heroes arrived to stop him. So... was this just a normal temple that became the nexus of evil when Fomortiis was exorcised there? Then why was Fomortiis there? Had he set up shop there, just recently planning to make the place his new base of operations just when he was ambushed and slain? If so, who used to live here?

Did this place belong to some human settlement wiped out beyond recognition by Fomortiis's cruelty? Or maybe the dragons built it? Was this once a dragon temple? Has this place always been the home of dragons, and they refused to leave after it became a wasteland? Are there other buildings in this forest besides the temple that we just don't see, or are dragons some pious elf-like race so in touch with nature they don't even believe in roofs over their heads? And if so, surely this must have been a really important building, yes, to justify them building it? And why would they be so skilled at building when it's so rarely required?

I ramble, but my point here is that we know literally nothing about this temple's origins and purposes. We know just enough to know that there's so much more that we don't. And I find that infuriating, because it indicates a complete lack of thought put into worldbuilding.

Ah yes, now we get to Myrrh mourning her dead, zombified foster father. One thing I always found... interesting about this part is that Myrrh tries to hide the fact that Morva was her father from the group in both timelines, but... Eirika falls for it, while Ephraim doesn't.

I'll have to check out the details tomorrow, but... yeah, that might have been another contributing factor to Eirika's reputation as oblivious and naive.

Yeah, honestly... I like Myrrh. She doesn't get much screentime, but her screentime in this chapter was pretty great.

Oooh! Now Lyon's having a flashback to when his father was still alive!

...I like this scene. I like how Vigarde tells Lyon that asking the other countries to accept the entirety of the population of the largest country on the continent as refugees is an impossible and unreasonable idea, and that they have to find some way to save the country themselves.

...What I don't like is Lyon talking about the “ancient scrolls” describing a “rite” that can save Grado, and how he needs to have the power of the dark stone inside him in order to be the human sacrifice to perform the rite, because apparently the amount of power the sacrifice needs to possess is a level of power “the human body cannot contain”.

Question.

If this rite is literally impossible without harnessing the powers of Fantasy Satan himself...

...Then how and why the fuck does the rite exist?

Who performed it?

How?

With what?

How was the rite initially proven to work, and why can't Lyon and Knoll do it the same way? And if it's all just baseless theory not yet put into practice, then why are they trusting these unproven hypotheses on magic so old that they're described as ancient?

Wait, actually... do they say they're “ancient”, or did I just imagine that? What did they describe them as...?

...They didn't. They didn't say anything about the scrolls. No adjectives at all. They're just “the scrolls”. What the fuck are they? Who wrote them? Why are Lyon and Knoll confident they'll work if they're describing something that Lyon and Knoll both seem to accept cannot physically be performed by any other means than consorting with the devil himself?

This is a blatantly half-baked excuse plot to justify Lyon's desperate actions.

...And, obviously, I hate it.

...Now what?

Lyon: Everything is in readiness.

Lyon, you're in hot enough water as it is, don't start talking like Petra.

...Lyon also seems to think that all of the stones have been destroyed. That's... I mean, how is that possible? Surely Riev reported back, right?

...But he says no more on that. So... looks like that's it for today.

...I am not looking forward to writing out my end-of-game statistics two days in a row, but that looks like something I'm going to have to do.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Ephraim and Eirika undergo opposite character development on Lyon from 17-19.

• Ephraim starts assuming Lyon is dead and wants to destroy his body, lost to the Demon King forevermore, unable to be saved. Two Faces of Evil convinces him some of Lyon's soul endures, and Ephraim loses the will to kill the Demon King, because it means killing his friend. He does not choose to try to save Lyon from the DK's influence in Chapter 19, he is still set on defeating him, but Ephraim is resolved to do so now realizing it means killing his friend. Prior to Two Faces of Evil, I presume Ephraim felt no guilt at the idea of stabbing Lyon's body, because he wanted to believe Lyon was already gone- you can't murder a dead person.
• Eirika starts assuming Lyon still lives and can save him, she refuses to kill him. Two Faces of Evil forces her to accept that Lyon cannot be saved. She accepts she must kill Lyon to defeat the Demon King, it's what he would've wanted.

It's sorta interesting, if but a small segment of a game with many chapters besides these three.

 

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I like this scene. I like how Vigarde tells Lyon that asking the other countries to accept the entirety of the population of the largest country on the continent as refugees is an impossible and unreasonable idea, and that they have to find some way to save the country themselves.

Indeed, as the world has shown in contemporary times, one's forced migration is another's invasion, sad it is to say.

Knoll explains the methodology behind the earthquake vision in greater detail to Duessel and more so to Natasha:

Spoiler

Knoll: …Our researches ended in miserable failure. Grado’s Sacred Stone was shattered. Prince Lyon, corrupted… And this whole tragedy that unfolds around us even now. It’s true. We mages have triggered this age’s greatest calamity.
Natasha: But why? What was it all for? What did you hope to accomplish with the power of the Sacred Stone?
Knoll: All Prince Lyon wanted was to help people…and we are his servants.
Natasha: Help people?
Knoll: We read of a spell entitled the time shear. It causes, in effect, a hole in time. This spell warps time, punches a hole through cause and effect.
Natasha: ……
Knoll: We lack the knowledge to reproduce this ancient spell today. Prince Lyon, however, was convinced that we could unravel its secret. He felt we could use it to predict–
and even prevent–future events.
Natasha: …Prevent…the future?
Knoll: Oh, we dedicated years to studying this spell. You see, the greater the disaster, the farther it sends ripples through time. We learned to read these ripples from the future, hoping to save lives. If we could know when a disaster would strike, we could evacuate people. We could save millions of lives.
Natasha: But… It seems so, so blasphemous. That worldly creatures should take control of fate, it–
Knoll: Are you saying that, knowing the future, we should do nothing? We should simply allow people to die in order to preserve “fate”?
Natasha: I…
Knoll: I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound hostile. Prince Lyon himself was troubled by these same doubts, you see. But we pressed on with our studies. We felt it was our duty, in the interest of all Grado’s people.
Natasha: ……
Knoll: Perhaps we were bitter that we receive no credit for aiding Grado. That we receive no accolades for our research, for the benefit it brings. I do not know. But we pressed on, nonetheless. The misconceptions linking the ancient magics to “evil” die hard and slow. Prince Lyon sought to change that. He wanted, as we all wanted, to prove that our magic had good uses.
Natasha: Prince Lyon would never–
Knoll: With our aid, Prince Lyon predicted a great storm rising in the south. He barred ships from leaving port, and, oh, how the people complained. But the storm came, and the seas raged. We saved countless lives. And Prince Lyon cared not at all if the people loved him for it. He only wanted them to be safe.
Natasha: ……
Knoll: And now, I see it all so clearly. All our research amounts to nothing. All I can do now is lament our hunger for knowledge. Our greed.

 

Knoll: We students of ancient magic, along with Prince Lyon himself, were researching certain arcane techniques lost long ago. We were able to reproduce one… phenomenon, but only briefly.
Duessel: ……
Knoll: I should be more concise. Prince Lyon and I pierced the veil that clouds our futures.
Duessel: What? You…could see into the future? How is that possible? What magic is powerful enough to–
Knoll: Time is like the water of a river: it flows ever on, never stopping. Certain disturbances can cause ripples that speed swiftly downstream. If you can see the water, you can read the flow, the ripples, the waves.
Duessel: Hmm…
Knoll: It is possible, General. Possible and, at times, easy. Just think of it: If you knew a storm was coming in advance, you could evacuate everyone in its way. If you could see what was to come, you could help those who might have died. Prince Lyon explained this to us with much joy in his voice and heart. His power would, at long last, be able to help the citizens of Grado.
Duessel: ……
Knoll: We continued our work. There were ceremonies, rituals–such horrors… And then we saw it. In the near future, Grado would be ravaged by catastrophe.
Duessel: A catastrophe? Do you…
Knoll: No, it’s not the conflict in which we are currently embroiled. This event is still in our future. We saw Grado. We saw the earth crumble. We saw our people dying. We saw the shape our future would take.
Duessel: What? That’s madness… Idiocy! I’ve lived a long life, and I’ve never heard of anything like that. Not ever.
Knoll: I am not surprised that you do not believe me, General. We could not believe it, either. We tried to disprove what we had seen. But nothing could shake the vision. In this disaster, Grado would be destroyed. Countless would die. Those who died quickly would be spared the slow horror of starvation. This was when the emperor died, by the way. Lyon was shattered by despair. He devoted himself to research, and then came the Dark Stone…
Duessel: So that’s what happened? Is that when the decision to invade Renais was made?
Knoll: I don’t know. Only one person knows the truth behind that.
Duessel: ……
Knoll: I have told you only the truths I have seen.

 

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Knoll explains the methodology behind the earthquake vision in greater detail to Duessel and more so to Natasha:

  Hide contents

Knoll: …Our researches ended in miserable failure. Grado’s Sacred Stone was shattered. Prince Lyon, corrupted… And this whole tragedy that unfolds around us even now. It’s true. We mages have triggered this age’s greatest calamity.
Natasha: But why? What was it all for? What did you hope to accomplish with the power of the Sacred Stone?
Knoll: All Prince Lyon wanted was to help people…and we are his servants.
Natasha: Help people?
Knoll: We read of a spell entitled the time shear. It causes, in effect, a hole in time. This spell warps time, punches a hole through cause and effect.
Natasha: ……
Knoll: We lack the knowledge to reproduce this ancient spell today. Prince Lyon, however, was convinced that we could unravel its secret. He felt we could use it to predict–
and even prevent–future events.
Natasha: …Prevent…the future?
Knoll: Oh, we dedicated years to studying this spell. You see, the greater the disaster, the farther it sends ripples through time. We learned to read these ripples from the future, hoping to save lives. If we could know when a disaster would strike, we could evacuate people. We could save millions of lives.
Natasha: But… It seems so, so blasphemous. That worldly creatures should take control of fate, it–
Knoll: Are you saying that, knowing the future, we should do nothing? We should simply allow people to die in order to preserve “fate”?
Natasha: I…
Knoll: I’m sorry. I don’t mean to sound hostile. Prince Lyon himself was troubled by these same doubts, you see. But we pressed on with our studies. We felt it was our duty, in the interest of all Grado’s people.
Natasha: ……
Knoll: Perhaps we were bitter that we receive no credit for aiding Grado. That we receive no accolades for our research, for the benefit it brings. I do not know. But we pressed on, nonetheless. The misconceptions linking the ancient magics to “evil” die hard and slow. Prince Lyon sought to change that. He wanted, as we all wanted, to prove that our magic had good uses.
Natasha: Prince Lyon would never–
Knoll: With our aid, Prince Lyon predicted a great storm rising in the south. He barred ships from leaving port, and, oh, how the people complained. But the storm came, and the seas raged. We saved countless lives. And Prince Lyon cared not at all if the people loved him for it. He only wanted them to be safe.
Natasha: ……
Knoll: And now, I see it all so clearly. All our research amounts to nothing. All I can do now is lament our hunger for knowledge. Our greed.

 

Knoll: We students of ancient magic, along with Prince Lyon himself, were researching certain arcane techniques lost long ago. We were able to reproduce one… phenomenon, but only briefly.
Duessel: ……
Knoll: I should be more concise. Prince Lyon and I pierced the veil that clouds our futures.
Duessel: What? You…could see into the future? How is that possible? What magic is powerful enough to–
Knoll: Time is like the water of a river: it flows ever on, never stopping. Certain disturbances can cause ripples that speed swiftly downstream. If you can see the water, you can read the flow, the ripples, the waves.
Duessel: Hmm…
Knoll: It is possible, General. Possible and, at times, easy. Just think of it: If you knew a storm was coming in advance, you could evacuate everyone in its way. If you could see what was to come, you could help those who might have died. Prince Lyon explained this to us with much joy in his voice and heart. His power would, at long last, be able to help the citizens of Grado.
Duessel: ……
Knoll: We continued our work. There were ceremonies, rituals–such horrors… And then we saw it. In the near future, Grado would be ravaged by catastrophe.
Duessel: A catastrophe? Do you…
Knoll: No, it’s not the conflict in which we are currently embroiled. This event is still in our future. We saw Grado. We saw the earth crumble. We saw our people dying. We saw the shape our future would take.
Duessel: What? That’s madness… Idiocy! I’ve lived a long life, and I’ve never heard of anything like that. Not ever.
Knoll: I am not surprised that you do not believe me, General. We could not believe it, either. We tried to disprove what we had seen. But nothing could shake the vision. In this disaster, Grado would be destroyed. Countless would die. Those who died quickly would be spared the slow horror of starvation. This was when the emperor died, by the way. Lyon was shattered by despair. He devoted himself to research, and then came the Dark Stone…
Duessel: So that’s what happened? Is that when the decision to invade Renais was made?
Knoll: I don’t know. Only one person knows the truth behind that.
Duessel: ……
Knoll: I have told you only the truths I have seen.

 

Man, this tells me two things:

1: I like Knoll a hell of a lot more than Claude.

2: This dude's supports are waaaaay better-written than the main story. And he got soooooo close to explaining why "the rite" could be done before but not now. Are they just trying to brute force the magic to make up for gaps in their knowledge of how the magic works? Or was he talking about the future-sight spell, and not the apparently undescribed spell to stop the collapse of Grado into the sea?

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

2: This dude's supports are waaaaay better-written than the main story. And he got soooooo close to explaining why "the rite" could be done before but not now. Are they just trying to brute force the magic to make up for gaps in their knowledge of how the magic works? Or was he talking about the future-sight spell, and not the apparently undescribed spell to stop the collapse of Grado into the sea?

I don't know about "the rite", I think the "There were ceremonies, rituals- such horrors..." refers to the future-sight spell. I guess they saw the giant ripple in the flow of time, but needed to expend great effort to see precisely what the event was.

But,  did put out one other line, from the very end of the C-Natasha, which I like to keep in mind regarding magic in at least GBA FE.:

Knoll: Hm… Well, I suppose you are right about that. Your magic [Light I assume] stems from faith in the unknowable, the divine presence. In contrast, dark magic stems from knowledge, from understanding. We distrust what we do not understand, and we strive to know the unknowable. Perhaps our disciplines truly are incompatible.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Knoll: Hm… Well, I suppose you are right about that. Your magic [Light I assume] stems from faith in the unknowable, the divine presence. In contrast, dark magic stems from knowledge, from understanding. We distrust what we do not understand, and we strive to know the unknowable. Perhaps our disciplines truly are incompatible.

Ah yes, I've seen you quote that before a lot. What I find most intriguing is the idea that that suggests light magic is powered by something somewhere between emotion and force of will, unlike dark magic (and possibly anima magic) which is powered by application of learned techniques.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Boomhauer007]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I notice that the +5 stat boost of Audhulma is pretty much the worst in the game. It's +5 res, which might be nice... on a weapon that can counter-attack against mages. As it stands, it's only really useful for resisting status staves and seige tomes, and monsters can't even use the former

I actually think it's a bit handy late game when chapter 17/19/endgame 1 all have magic bosses that don't move, that +5 can be the difference between surviving and not surviving the counter attack from final Lyon who hits like a truck. 

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Boomhauer007 said:

I actually think it's a bit handy late game when chapter 17/19/endgame 1 all have magic bosses that don't move, that +5 can be the difference between surviving and not surviving the counter attack from final Lyon who hits like a truck. 

Fair point. And bosses are a valid use for the thing.

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 33: Chapter 20EIR

Alright. Second to last day, if everything goes according to plan. Today I'll be beating the game on Ephraim Route, and tomorrow I'll finish up Eirika Route and do my final ranking.

Speaking of which...

...I've run into a dilemma. I have a pretty good idea of how I'm going to rank most categories, but given that this is the first game in the series with a safe, reliable and accessible form of grinding that's clearly intended to be used as such, I'm conflicted about how I should grade the game's “balance”.

Do I mark this game down even a little in the balance category for the blatantly-unusable trainee units, unfairly judging them in the absence of the game feature they were clearly designed to be used with? Because if I don't, then I have to mark down the game's difficulty for how much grinding trivializes the already-easy game. The latter is obviously going to be unfair, as nearly every modern game in the series allows for unlimited grinding, even Conquest if you use DLC. But the former seems... wrong somehow, like I'm judging this game for failing to meet standards it was never even trying to meet.

...But then, the same could be said for the turnwheel, and setting aside my profoundly volcanic emotions about the turnwheel for the time being, the ironmannability rating of this marathon is assuming it isn't used. So obviously the answer is that yes, I should mark down balance for the trainee units, as Sacred Stones put characters in the game who are completely unusable without a mechanic that utterly trivializes the game anyway. Even with grinding, arguing that they're “balanced” is a really, really tough sell.

But anyway... I may actually be doing this chapter the “proper” way today. Partly because I feel like I'm in a better mood to do it, but mostly because none of the resources I used to do it last time are available to me. Cormag is too slow, Myrrh isn't trained at all, Lute doesn't have A staves (she doesn't even have B yet), and L'arachel, the next best one to do it, only has a warp range of 9. Taking all of these factors together... well I suppose I could have Lute finish Morva off, but... we'll work that out in a sec. First off, story differences!

Incidentally, something I didn't notice in the intro narration is that they describe the stuff corrupting Darkling Woods as, among other things, “venom”, which, fun fact, is probably inaccurate! If they're talking about the stuff that came out of the Demon King's body when it was kinda-sorta slain (they don't really clarify what the difference is between how the legendary heroes “killed” it versus how we're gonna kill him for real), then that's poison, not venom. For those of you who don't know, those terms are not interchangeable:

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/df/bc/0b/dfbc0b6ac121f4c90f196c7eda9b30db.jpg

Curious how Morva could sense Fomortiis much more easily in Eirika Route. I guess that his hold on Ephraim!Lyon, being less conventionally powerful, was less noticeable until closer inspection?

“I am changed. I can no longer be stopped by the likes of you.”

...How? Why? Why are you more powerful in this body than you were in your actual one?

...Anyway, I kinda let the battle go on for a good bit without updating this. Sorry 'bout that. I've been taking advantage of the effective damage Myrrh has to let her gain 1-2 levels a turn by one-shotting monsters. It's not likely she'll be able to take down Morva by the end, but fuck it, might as well. I have way more deployment slots now than I know what to do with. I never noticed this as a kid, but I suppose that's because by this point I always had enough units tower-trained up that I could fill out my entire roster with units I actually wanted to use.

That's weird. Myrrh didn't have an attack animation against the stone-wielding gorgon. I wonder why.

The shadowshot arch mogalls initially look intimidating, until you realize they don't move, and Cormag can easily rush in from the edge of their range to assassinate them.

Cormag also gained a crucial level up, getting fast enough to double these gargoyles. Huge benefit there.

...I don't know what to say here. I barely feel the need to update. It's not like I'm making no decisions here, but it's really about as mindless as you'd expect. The only real challenge comes from working out how to approach the shadowshot arch mogalls and the stone gorgons on the side Cormag isn't on, and even then, as soon as I found out how high an evasion rate Lute has on a forest with a Kyle support... yeah.

...It just occurred to me: Three games, and I still haven't come up with any theories as to why all item-based commands except for “item” are flashing green. Pity.

Well, that was easy. Myrrh's just reached the threshold needed to one-round Morva. Too late to make warp-skipping anything but pointless, but hey, at least the turn I decide to see her conversation with him, we can get out of here!

It's kind of crazy how good Lute is. Like, I'm surprised it isn't good enough to make her top tier. As a mage knight with ludicrously high magic, She's the only unit in the game capable of reliably one-rounding basically everything, all the time, forever, at 1-2 range. Even my paladins can't do that. Even if you're doing LTC runs, surely getting her enough exp to promote her early for the mount and then dumping all of the stat boosters onto her to make up for her reduced stats would be enough to make her obscenely useful, right? It's not like putting those boosters onto anyone else is going to make them do what she can do, right? Does wyvern knight Vanessa need all the sat boosters that badly to hit her thresholds? What am I missing here?

I sent Myrrh in to face off against the final gauntlet of enemies, only to remember too late that the enemy AI loves targeting enemies who can't fight back, no matter how little it accomplishes. So Myrrh got swarmed and can barely move towards Morva.

Also, holy shit. Morva can one-shot her. Was that the case last time and I didn't even notice? Or maybe she had more HP last time... at any rate, Morva completely pierces defense, so I'm gonna have to wound him before going in with Myrrh.

...Also, unlike his daughter, Morva has 1-2 range. Unfortunate, but Cormag can handle it.

Myrrh fights him, and... her quote with him isn't as good as I remember. I remembered her crying, not making a sound like she's gonna be sick.

Anyway, fight's over, time for the ending scene with Myrrh and Eirika.

Yeah, It's just as I remember. Eirika completely fails to put two and two together that Myrrh's father is dead. Myrrh tells a different lie this time, but Eirika apparently completely fails to pick up on the fact that Myrrh has just been crying, something Ephraim noticed immediately.

How weird is it that Eirika is the one who can't pick up on obvious social cues here? Honestly, this one really makes Eirika seem completely oblivious.

In fairness, it's the fact that she doesn't notice it while Ephraim does that makes this so annoying. If neither of them had put two and two together, I'd probably have assumed from this conversation that Myrrh is just really, really good at lying, given her generally quiet and stoic demeanor. But given that Ephraim's version confirms that Myrrh had visible tears in her eyes during this scene, it... it just makes Eirika seem even worse.

Well then, that's one job done. Time for step two.

Edited June 10, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Day 33 Bonus: Final Chapter EPH

Curious. Okay, so this starts with a 1.5 years ago flashback. So this is the time of that visit to Serafew.

...Ignoring the implication that less than a month has passed since the start of this story...

...where exactly is this happening? The background looks like some sort of castle courtyard, but they can't be at Grado, can they?

Seeing Innes and L'arachel accompanying the twins in so many cutscenes makes it feel kind of awkward that L'arachel wasn't an Ephraim-Route-exclusive character, a counterpart to Innes, with more relevance to the Ephraim-Route-exclusive chapters. She could have made an interesting/amusing foil to Ephraim.

...Then again, she might have been a poor fit for the tone of the story, which was largely about raw military strategy. And honestly, her role in Eirika Route suited her too, given the presence of Rausten troops towards the end.

Hell, fuck that, the hell am I thinking? Here's what would really have been interesting: if L'arachel was only on Eirika Route, and Innes was moved to Ephraim Route. Given that they have this established and much-discussed-by-others dynamic that we basically never get to see in person, that was a massively wasted opportunity. And more importantly, getting rid of Innes, and instead having the wacky and reckless L'arachel be the only other person of authority in Eirika's army, would give Eirika a great opportunity to be the proactive voice of reason in her own party, allowing herself to get shit done. And maybe we would see more clearly this deep friendship growing behind the scenes between Eirika and L'arachel. If it were just them in multiple scenes, we could see them opening up to each other and maybe get some hints that the events of the game are taking a bigger toll on her than she lets on, and that she's starting to crack from the pressure.

…

…

Ephraim says, literally just after a flashback labeled 1 ½ years ago, that “I haven't seen you for two years now”.

Either that flashback label was wrong, and yes, the events of the game have taken six months, or Ephraim is wrong here, or this is some, as I said before, “irresponsibly subtle” writing that's implying Ephraim doesn't remember that important conversation that Lyon just remembered.

...Nope, it's not that last one, because Ephraim references that exact same conversation.

Okay. Wow.

I don't know what that fading and black-flickering effect on Lyon's map sprite was supposed to signify, and I won't find out, because he just teleports away without another word.

There appear to be sets of glowing eyes peeking out from the depths of the dark water. Creepy effect. Would've been better if they moved at all, maybe closed or blinked some.

Anyway, amusingly, I see a way to two-turn this, thanks once again to Lute and her 25 magic and A rank staves. All I have to do is get Ephraim and Myrrh to the edge of this first platform, and...

...realize too late that it's where the target is, and not where the caster is, that the warp staff's range extends out from. So I need to move them both one space and wait for turn three.

I promise I'll do it normally tomorrow if you want, but right now I wanna get this done quickly, just so I can just have this chapter left on Eirika's side to do tomorrow, along with the writeup.

Yeah, there's no way this can fail. Lyon's evasion is absolutely terrible due to how heavy Naglfar is. He packs a punch, to be sure, but when you can't move, that just makes it a binary “can they survive long enough to be healed or can't they” thing. The only danger is if...

...Oh. Okay, there's a slight chance this will blow up horribly in my face if Myrrh gets critted. But fuck it, I'm doing it.

I'll have Ephraim attack first, just in case Myrrh crits, and also to minimize the chance that Myrrh will get critted back. If Myrrh crits on the first hit, then she's completely safe. In hindsight, I probably should have given her the Hoplon Guard.

...I hate it when I get bored and reckless and don't think of shit like that until it's too late.

But anyway, as Ephraim goes to fight Lyon, I suddenly realize how weird it is that Eirika hasn't had a single thing to say to this newly-revealed version of Lyon. Given her hangups on Eirika Route, surely she would have some noteworthy things to say to this version? But no, I checked the boss conversation list. It seems that whenever it comes to Lyon after the fight by the river, the non-route sibling ceases to exist. No dialogue, in cutscenes or out. It's frankly bizarre.

...There. It's done.

Then the musicbox version of Lyon's theme plays. I like this song a lot. A nice song to send Lyon out with.

Alright, Fomortiis's dialogue at the end of this scene seems to confirm that Fomortiis seems to feel that what he did was the best he could do to take over Lyon.

...Unless he just thought this more subtle control was funny or something.

...And he probably would.

Alright, so, Ephraim arbitrarily decides that now is the time to use the Sacred Stone. When exactly was he originally planning to use it, before he discovered that Lyon's death didn't stop Fomortiis's resurrection?

...And... oh wow... I completely forgot about this...

...the Sacred Stone is powered by “clap if you believe in fairies” bullshit.

Everyone has a line to say here, just like with FE7, and... honestly...

...I wish that the lines here were as good as the ones in Echoes. That had some pretty awesome one-liners from the cast. I also liked how you didn't hear them all at once, so they didn't have to be quite so short. You heard them as you selected each unit for the first time.

And L'arachel... basically confirms that the heroes did fight the Demon King's soulless body, suffering “a mountain of corpses” worth of casualties before he went down. So...

...Why the fuck is he still here, if what we're about to do to him is going to take him out forever? What did our predecessors do wrong?

Fomortiis has some pretty terrifying stats, but I remember this being absurdly easy. I remember he always summons enemies on turn one, and by turn two we'll have a bunch of legendary weapon users in range to smite him.

...And hey, we've got three who can show up immediately! Ephraim, Cormag and whoever Tethys dances can make it right away. Eirika can too, but uh... yeah, she kinda... gets doubled by Fomortiis? So no.

L'arachel will use Latona to make sure everyone I bring to fight him (who all can take at least one hit, thankfully) can survive enemy phase even after fighting on player phase, in case I'm wrong about him not attacking.

I like the final battle music. Both the map theme and the final boss theme, actually. As much as the gameplay here bores me, the music is pretty damned hype.

But make no mistake, the gameplay bores me. This is probably one of the easiest final bosses in Fire Emblem history. I don't think I've ever seen this battle take more than two turns. Even as a kid.

I would have gotten it done in one turn if this guy weren't surprisingly fast. Of all of my sacred twin users, only Ephraim was fast enough to double him.

...This could be a fascinating challenge on a no-sacred-twins run though. There'd be a ridiculous amount of damage you'd have to do, with very few weapons and units capable of doing it, all while fighting off his minions. Hell, it might feel a lot like the final battle of Radiant Dawn.

Anyway, Ephraim missed twice on turn two after Lute brought Fomortiis into killing range, so I had to have Cormag finish Fomortiis off with Vidofnir. If that failed, I planned on having Seth and Franz trade it around so that one of them could take the next available melee space to fight him.

...Yep, just as I remember, Innes says that they surpassed the legends of old by destroying Fomortiis's body so he can never come back.

I still don't get why the predecessors, and everyone in the entire eight century long meantime, either could not or would not do that.

…

...Okay, this is the first I'm hearing about the “five legendary heroes” being supernaturally powerful, to the point that apparently my significantly larger group conquering Fomortiis was more impressive than the heroes doing it, rather than less.

...I'm sorry, this is the big, grand finale of the game, and I just... I'm not moved by it at all. I just can't bring myself to do anything but notice all the weird shit in the story that's been bugging me this whole time. I'm just not invested in this story, and haven't been since... basically the prologue.

...Okay, Saleh telling Myrrh “let's return home”, after she's just lost her father... would have been really sweet, if they had Myrrh react to hearing that she still has a home with the people of Caer Pelyn. But honestly, it just makes me wonder what exactly Myrrh's life and upbringing have been like, and how much of her life was actually spent being raised by Morva in the forest and how much of it was as an object of worship at Caer Pelyn, with the people who think she's the Great Dragon.

Also... surely Saleh knows the truth about his village's religion now, right? That the real Great Dragon is dead, and that Myrrh isn't really just a form he took? Is this going to have... literally any impact on anything at all?

Also, I always found it weird that L'arachel proposes marriage to Ephraim on Ephraim Route... regardless of whether or not they A ranked. And now it strikes me as even more odd, given how little they interacted together before Eirika came along, at which point those two apparently became fast friends offscreen.

And now Myrrh says that she has to go back to Darkling Woods again, to assume her duties as the new chief of the Dragon Tribe... that we have not seen.

Now we get to Innes and Frelia's troops saying goodbye, and... it just occurred to me that they had to make that excuse of the subject being Frelia promising to aid in Renais's restoration... in order to justify why this conversation isn't taking place at the map of Frelia Castle that does not exist, because we never fight there.

And the catastrophe that Lyon saw coming... happened shortly after the events of the game.

And as a bookend to the end of the previous Ephraim chapter, when Vigarde said they couldn't ask for help from Renais because they wouldn't be able or willing to help, and it would be ridiculous to expect them to... Ephraim rides out to help, despite his own country being in ruins too.

I mean... it's nice. It's sweet. But like... what the fuck can they actually do to help a country much larger than their own in danger of ruin due to a multiple-city-spanning landslide, while their own country is a ravaged wreck?

...And as a bookend to the entire damned game...

The game began with Eirika at the castle while Ephraim was off in Grado...

...and the game ends with Eirika at the castle while Ephraim is off in Grado.

Oh wow, this organ end credits music is so cheesy and yet... super nostalgic. And not even for this game, just for... something. I know something I saw in my childhood had a similar style of music.

...Hell, it may even be reminding me of the best end credits song ever made: the one for Super Mario 64. Needless to say... this doesn't compare to that in the slightest, but I still like the feel of it a lot.

As I'm watching the credits though... man, I'm really regretting my decision to keep doing each chapter twice after the route split ended. After Chapter 16, I haven't noticed one difference between these modes in terms of gameplay or map design. It's surreal. There they were for the first two, and then... nothing. I think it may have accomplished nothing but increasing my fatigue with this game at the end.

Speaking of, the credits are, like in FE3, FE6, and... I believe FE5, filled with CGs used exclusively for the credits, which makes no fucking sense to me at all. If you're going to spend the money making the damned things, and if they're going to involve moments that actually happen in the story, why the hell wouldn't you use them to punctuate critical story moments as they happen? Especially since Fire Emblem 7 already came up with that idea for you. Why are you walking back on this!?

Okay, this is curious... there's a CG at the very end showing the moment Lyon and the twins first met, and... two things stick out at me:

1: Eirika's doing that girlish both-hands-clenched-together-on-the-cheek “Oh how cute” pose, which... like, I struggle to even imagine her doing that...

2: They all seem... not very visibly different than they are at present day. Exactly how long have these three known each other? Given how infrequently they're implied to see each other, I assumed it had been years, maybe even a full decade, in order to develop the bond they had, but they look like they couldn't have been more than 3 or so years younger back then.

…Aaaaaand I completely forgot to record the turn statistics. Looks like I'll have to restart the epilogue to get those and be right back.

Alright, here we go:

EPHRAIM ROUTE STATS:

Prologue: 6 turns

Chapter 1: 7 turns

Chapter 2: 6 turns

Chapter 3: 15 turns

Chapter 4: 11 turns

Chapter 5: 9 turns

Chapter 5x: 30 turns

Chapter 6: 11 turns

Chapter 7: 26 turns

Chapter 8: 26 turns

Chapter 9: 27 turns

Chapter 10: 11 turns

Chapter 11: 8 turns

Chapter 12: 28 turns

Chapter 13: 15 turns

Chapter 14: 48 turns

Chapter 15: 27 turns

Chapter 16: 22 turns

Chapter 17: 30 turns

Chapter 18: 9 turns

Chapter 19: 14 turns

Chapter 20: 3 turns

Final Chapter: 5 turns

Total: 394 turns

 

Seth: B180 W114 L0. Hardly expected any different. It's nuts how useful he consistently was throughout the whole game, in contrast to Marcus, who became alarmingly fragile by the end (though still useful). I'd have to look at the stats of the enemies to really get a sense of what was going on there, but the important thing is that Franz never really surpassed Seth like Lowen surpassed the hell out of Marcus.

Franz: B267 W168 L0. I didn't expect him to have that many more battles and wins. Towards the end of the game I used them roughly equally, erring more on the side of Seth due to his superior defense and resistance for enemy-phase combat. I guess I used him a lot more before he promoted in order to catch him up.

Gilliam: B14 W3 L0. Gilliam is the first person I've seen in the series to have their name as part of their title. “Silent Gilliam”.

(I'm not going to mention these people unless I have something to say about their ending or I used them a good deal, just to save time.)

Moulder: B3 W0 L1. Died at “Phantom Ship”. Rest in peace, Moulder the Boulder.

Vanessa: Her stats passed by before I realized I wanted to comment on her, but her ending says “her beauty and determination became the standard her fellow knights strived for”. I... didn't realize the pegasus knight corps was so vain.

Ross: B0 W0 L0. “His Father's Son”. What a fucking title. Definitely the title of somebody who's accomplished something in life. Oh, we've gonna have an adventure with you yet, don't you worry. The people have spoken.

Colm: Paused too late to catch his record. Died at “Ruled By Madness”. Rest in peace.

Artur: B17 W9 L1. Died at “Victims of War”. Rest in peace, Lute's boyfriend #1.

Lute: B161 W129 L0. Oh yeah. Easily my favorite unit of the whole game. It's a shame Kyle died and thus she could never truly reach her full potential. I love mageknights so much.

Joshua: B9 W3 L1. Died at “Turning Traitor”. I'm really curious if Ephraim Route has an epilogue scene at Jehanna if he survives. I imagine Eirika Route must have one, but then, what scene did we get in Ephraim Route that Eirika Route isn't going to get? I can't think of one that seems likely. Rest in peace, you crazy, gambling son of a bitch.

Natasha: B3 W0 L1. Died at “Phantom Ship”. Rest in peace, Natasha. Through your death and Moulder's, Lute found the motivation to become an amazing warper.

Forde: B6 W1 L0. Curiously, apparently his secret that he's a painter got out again, despite Forde saying that it already got out earlier.

Kyle: B78 W43 L1. Died at “Phantom Ship”. Rest in peace, Lute's boyfriend #2. Your loss was felt more sorely than any other.

Amelia: B0 W0 L0. Oh yes. Free of even one single point of experience. I am going to have so much fun with this.

Duessel: B78 W44 L0. A surprisingly useful unit, though never quite as useful as Seth, Franz or Lute after the Grado arc. Still, an extremely welcome addition to my team after I was sent reeling by the Phantom Ship Triple-Threat Massacre.

Knoll: B5 W2 L1. Died at “Ruled by Madness”. Rest in peace, Lute's boyfriend #3.

Cormag: B162 W105 L0. A fantastic unit in this route from the moment he promoted, and a worthy recipient of the boots. 10 move fliers are always fantastic. I do find it odd that he deliberately rejoined the Grado military as a common soldier rather than as a knight. Maybe if I saw more of his supports I'd have some idea of his motivations behind that.

Rennac: B6 W2 L0. Curious how his title is sarcastic and even disdainful. Rich “Merchant” (quotes theirs and not mine). I find it weird how they depict him as almost being abused, obliviously, by L'arachel, and yet they make a point of showing he can never bring himself to say no to her. ...Is... is he into that shit? No judgements, but like... are they going there in this game? Given the other places they go, I'd barely be surprised, but...

Ewan: B0 W0 L0. Oh this is just fantastic. 2/3 of them have solo endings suggesting they went on big adventures by themselves. You can almost headcanon a story for the challenge I'm gonna do.

Saleh: B20 W12 L0. Curiously, the ending says he “remained a faithful servant of the manakete”, as if he knew all along that the “Great Dragon” narrative was false. Was he just humoring his grandmother as she went senile or something?

Myrrh: B28 W22 L0. Tons of fun to use, super easy to train... why couldn't Fae have been a little more like her?

Ephraim: B117 W87 L0. L'arachel: B31 W16 L0. PFFFFFHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh my god! That is hilarious. So they just wound up marrying each other eventually, and judging by the fact that they say it sent Rausten into chaos, I have to assume that means she moved to Renais and abandoned her country, and they say “L'arachel's self-centeredness carried the day”, which I just find priceless.

...And that's everyone of note. All I have to do tomorrow is finish Eirika's version of the final battle, and then do the big writeup... actually...

...No, I suppose I'll have to do the postgame stuff before I can do that writeup. The people have spoken, after all, and it would be weird to grade the game before checking this stuff out, if I've decided I'm going to look at it.

So... whew! Looks like I'll have more time, and I won't have to try cramming all that writing in before the thing I have tomorrow night!

On Friday, and possibly through the weekend, I'll be starting Creature Campaign with everyone's favorite woefully underleveled trainees.

But before that... I'll have to do this final map normally.

See you tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Interdimensional Observer]

54 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I do find it odd that he deliberately rejoined the Grado military as a common soldier rather than as a knight. Maybe if I saw more of his supports I'd have some idea of his motivations behind that.

Maybe it's in his character, this would be the best suggestion as to why.:

Cormag: Hey, Seth.
Seth: Ah, Cormag. Good timing. I had something I wanted to ask you. Your family, are they all soldiers?
Cormag: Why do you ask?
Seth: Your skill with the spear is amazing. Have you trained since you were a child?
Cormag: No, I come from a long line of dirt-poor farmers. I wielded a plough, not a spear. When we were kids, Glen and I had to chase birds and animals from our fields. We used sticks and stones, and I think that helped with our aim, to be honest.
Seth: Is that so… So why did you join the army?
Cormag: It’s a funny story, really. …The emperor’s caravan passed through our village one day. My brother and I watched the glorious procession from the top of a tree. Then, a stray dog started to harry the horses pulling the emperor’s carriage. We threw rocks to drive off the mutt, but some soldiers decided to arrest us.
Seth: Why? You were trying to help…
Cormag: Yes, well. We didn’t just hit the dog. We got a few of the soldiers as well.
Seth: Ah-ha… So, what happened next?
Cormag: Well, the emperor shows up in the room the soldiers had thrown us. He looks around and, in this very calm but stern voice, says to the soldiers: “What are you men doing, arresting mere children? They were trying to help!” Then, he invites us to dine at his table, and it was a luxurious feast, I tell you! Now, we were just kids. We lacked the basic courtesies. We were just filthy. And we kept droning on about the most idiotic things: chores, the village… But he listened to us intently, and that fatherly smile never left his face. And he said, “You lads are good at driving off dogs with stones… Your skills are wasted in the fields. Let’s see how you fare with spears instead.”

Between Glen and Selena, two the "good" Gemstones were of common background. Duessel's isn't directly stated, but that the cursed lance that changed Valter I don't like the cursed lance why can't he be a natural psychopath? has been in his family "for ages", suggests he is from a knightly/noble background.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Curious how his title is sarcastic and even disdainful. Rich “Merchant” (quotes theirs and not mine). I find it weird how they depict him as almost being abused, obliviously, by L'arachel, and yet they make a point of showing he can never bring himself to say no to her. ...Is... is he into that shit?

Even he doesn't know.:

L’Arachel: This has nothing to do with my station in life. And as for you, what need have you of money or fame? You have me! Merely serving me must be the greatest pleasure man can know.
Rennac: So, that’s what this is about, is it?
L’Arachel: Your employer is sweet and lovely. That is something most people dream of having. Surely you cannot aspire to happiness greater than this.
Rennac: …… I’ve always wondered, Princess, how your ego grew so large.
L’Arachel: You complain far too much! Come, Rennac. It’s time to go. Follow me, and try not to lag.
Rennac: Ah, Princess L’Arachel! …Perfect… True happiness? Is this really what happiness feels like?

L'Arachel gets 3 paired endings, but not one with Rennac, despite me thinking the support is fairly good.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Is... is he into that shit? No judgements, but like... are they going there in this game? Given the other places they go, I'd barely be surprised, but...

Tethys: Yep. You’ve got your knight, and I’ve got my dancer. Thanks to the two of them, the two of us are here now. Say, Chief, why don’t we become like them? I think we should work at being inspirations to other people.
Gerik: Hm…good idea. Thanks, Tethys. I think I’ll sleep soundly tonight.
Tethys: Good. You know, Chief, I’m really happy.
Gerik: Yeah, me, too. I’ve got a life I enjoy and good companions. All that and a wonderful woman to love. Everyone should be so lucky.
Tethys: Oh! Chief!
Gerik: Whoa! … Hey now… This is a battlefield. This isn’t the place for that…
Tethys: No one’s looking…
Gerik: Um… Oh, all right…

Ephraim: "Where is Gerik? I need him to shank the Cav over there. He and Tethys were here a moment ago."

*Hears the bushes nearby rustling* 

Ephraim: "An enemy?" *Rushes over to strike first.*

😳

😑

Ephraim: "You have ten minutes to withdraw, sir."