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

[Shadow Mir]

On 10/18/2020 at 8:40 PM, Jotari said:

Starlight absolutely should be the one to get the stats on par with a legendary weapon. It's a tome created by a divine dragon designed to take down an invincible sorcerer. It should be better than bloody Thoron (same mt and accuracy, but with less uses and no crit rate). Give it the star sphere and light sphere's infinite durability and terrain negating abilities at least, so it doesn't feel like you're giving up something way better (though making any weapon infinite in uses is probably going to be better than an infinite use weapon). Starlight's only purpose is to take out Gharnef, which like makes sense for the lore, but I mean literally that's all you're going to use it for in gameplay. There's no reason to keep it around beyond that. And that's a shame. Dropping the light sphere means getting not just one underwhelming legendary weapons, but two. And it's a real shame because Starlight seems to be the only weapon in the game that they put a bit of effort into the battle animation for.

Seeing this reminds me of a complaint that I have with the titular weapon in Gungnir - for all the storyline hype it gets, it doesn't measure up to said hype in actual gameplay.

[Alastor15243]

Shadow Dragon Day 17: Chapter 22

...I...

...I think this chapter's graphic is trying to tell me that Michalis is riding on his draco mount... standing up, arms folded, with his cape blowing in the wind.

HOLY SHIT.

Okay, let's get ready.

First off, promoting Palla to falcoknight with my freshly-obtained elysian whip.

Weirdly, falcoknights still lose one magic upon promotion for reasons I can't fathom.

Oh yeah, and falcoknights get swords instead of axes, forgot that detail. Yeah, not nearly as good of a weapon access upgrade.

...They also face to the right instead of to the left like literally everyone but unpromoted mages. Weird.

Okay, so, I literally don't have to give a shit about Gotoh's village. Good to know, because I'd have to send in a warp assassin to take out that thief, and the only real candidate for that is Wolf. And I'd like to save the exp for other guys in my army instead of having Wolf just kill them all.

...Okay, so, interestingly enough, Michalis is immobile, and starts off with his Javelin. Meaning that for at least one turn, I can have units attack him at range and not immediately die.

…

...HMMMMMMMM...

So you guys say all the Macedonians have boss conversations with him, eh?

Right, so, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna reclass Maria and Est to mages. They don't have to do damage after all, they just need to attack him.

All of the other units that can fight him can survive a single round of combat as well. So the plan is to use Wolf and Barst as a human wall to block the entrance to the building in case of ambush spawns, block all of the forts in there with my most mobile units, and then on my final turn, with Marth ready to seize, have the Macedonians all fight him, and then nuke him from orbit with Merric. Excalibur won't be effective effective, but it'll still be just plain ol' effective.

32 attack.

133 hit.

31 crit.

22 attack speed.

Versus Michalis's 48 HP, 3 res, 16 avoid, and 16 attack speed.

Yeah, Michalis doesn't stand a chance.

...Okay, just noticed something. The thief is also labeled as a “dragoon”, just like all the other enemies on the map. Wow, I didn't realize they allowed such lofty career advancements for cutthroats! His mother must be so proud, getting to tell all of her friends that her boy's a proud member of the esteemed Macedonian Dragoons, 24^th Rape and Pillage Battalion.

Do your mama proud, boy. I'm not obligated to stop you this time.

Alright, I'm all prepped. Let's go.

So... Michalis... this version strikes me like... the guy's just way too stubborn and prideful to admit he fucked up royally, and he practically says as much, despite being cool and collected the whole time.

Gotoh seems to think he's committing suicide-by-army because he can't live with the guilt of killing his father, and... yeah, uh... as I think I made quite clear when discussing Selena in FE8, I have literally no sympathy for anyone of authority in an army who decides to commit suicide-by-army while ordering their troops into battle.

Also, amusingly, Michalis tells Gotoh he wants him to go somewhere safe... and yet still apparently orders his bandit dragoons--that Macedon apparently has--to burn the village down with him in it.

Alright, I'm gonna try to split this guy's army in half. I'll have my land units take the northwest route, while my fliers will fly northeast, further than the foot units, but hiding in the mountains. Meaning only the ranged units and fliers will consider them a closer target.

This probably isn't the wisest idea, honestly, since that'll send most of them (the fliers) towards my fliers, only a few of which are genuinely badass, but it's better than risking all of them rushing one side.

Okay, yeah, that didn't go well at all. At least not at first. I forgot that the east side is way less roundabout than the west side, and thus way closer. Everyone was rushing the east side, ranged or no, because not all of my fliers were 2-deep in mountains, just the ones I sent forward. But ordering a full retreat on the right flank and a full advance on the left one wound up rectifying the problem and getting some of them to go west.

Man, these dracoknights are pretty fast. You need 21 speed to double some of them. If they get just a bit faster, even Caeda will stop doubling them.

Oh yeah, also, since we have Hammerne now, I decided to forge Jake's 7 use arrowspate so that he can just be an emergency instant-death button for all fliers.

Alright, just saw the melee attack animation for the falcoknight class. It feels like a less exaggerated (and thus more boring) version of the GBA one. That's nothing new though, the animations in this game just suck in general.

Okay, so when a village is destroyed, there's no GBA-seque “the village was destroyed” message, it just blows up in a cloud of dust. Good to know.

Wolf got everything but luck, and he has two levels left. If he gets at least one proc each of speed and defense in the next 2 levels, he'll have capped speed and 20 defense.

Alright, we're approaching the entrance now. Wolf and Barst are primed to block it off next turn and wait out the reinforcements.

WELL.

APPARENTLY THERE ARE SIEGE TOME AMBUSH SPAWNS ON THIS MAP.

Thank goodness, Maria managed to survive because her pitiful 3 speed was apparently still somehow enough to avoid being doubled by this guy. Needless to say I killed that guy immediately, and got Maria and Est out of range of their attacks. This... could get very nasty.

Plus side, Wolf's level 19, and he got another “everything but luck” level up. He may very well wind up with 21 defense.

Barst doesn't seem up to the task of handling these reinforcements long-term, so I'm switching him out for Tiki, whose improved defense and only slightly worse HP is a much better fit for tanking these guys. Luckily, the AI seems to make the swarm bishop want to go right within Wolf's hand-axe range where he can be swiftly obliterated on player phase, so I don't think we have to worry about them piling up if we keep Jake perfectly still.

Okay, the reinforcements seem to have finally stopped. Once we clear out the buildup of units, we'll rush in and block those forts immediately, then move on to the final phase.

Unfortunately, Wolf didn't get that final defense level. In fact, for what I think is the first time ever, he only got 1 HP. No matter. 56 is more than enough.

Since Wolf's max level, I decided that for the hell of it, I should unequip him and funnel the remaining enemies into Tiki. She's now at 18 speed (counting dragonstone bonuses). One more and she'll be able to start doubling some of these slower dracoknights. Two more and she can double Michalis.

Alright. We're in position.

First, we'll send in Est.

Oh, shame, it's just a single generic “Whitewings” talk, where the actual character doesn't say a word, it's just Michalis's reaction. There was no need to bring Est at all. Oh well.

...Wait... Maria doesn't have a battle conversation either?

And it's not working for Minerva either?

Hold on... are you telling me you can't get all of the talks at once? YOU ONLY GET ONE PER ATTEMPT!?

...Fuck, I'm really gonna have to look these up, aren't I?

...Ugh. Minerva's the only one who actually gets to talk to him. Even Maria just gets a reaction from Michalis, no talk about what the fuck she's going through, finding herself forced to attack her own brother when she's, what, thirteen at the oldest?

Christ. They only tried once, and they still managed to disappoint me.

Oh yeah, and during this boss fight, just as with Camus, there's the battle theme “Clash of Two Virtues”. I love this song, but I don't think the DS instruments quite do it justice. This song would be amazing if covered properly, in a way that can do the guitar in this guitar-and-synth combo justice.

Alright, that's us halfway done for the day.

Now it's time for us to not get Falchion.

Day 17 Bonus: Chapter 23

Weirdly, we didn't talk to Gotoh at the end of last chapter, but he still warps us to the Temple of Thabes.

“Thabes was once an advanced civilization, but only its decay advanced now.”

Holy shit. So many good lines. Why was this localization team given so little to work with!?

Anyway... Yeah, with this map, I'm just gonna warp skip this shit. We're dealing with an invincible foe and a shitton of siege tomes I'd rather not keep track of, so really, there's no point to lingering around and risking someone's death. I'll loot the chests, and then warp three people to the boss room. Someone to kill the guy on the throne, someone to kill the guy with the droppable fortify staff next to him, and then Marth to seize.

I don't care, I've got like three chapters left, 16 warps between three staves, and a Hammerne staff I've only used once to replenish a physic. By my math, we'll be out of here by the end of turn 4.

Let's go.

Now Gharnef claims he's just been letting Marth live so that Marth can kill off all the people that Gharnef was going to kill off eventually anyway, basically making him into his unwitting errand boy.

Yeah, uh, we'll see about that.

Oh shit. I forgot about this. They actually explain how you can “win” this battle just by seizing the throne. There's apparently a “magical apparatus” at the top of the temple that's giving Gharnef more power. That's what you're doing by seizing the throne, destroying that magic totem or whatever. But that won't stop Imhullu, so he'll still get away with Falchion unless we kill him with Starlight.

Right, so the chests had a small bullion and a talisman. Right, time to go. It feels weird that I'm warp-skipping the one late-game chapter I didn't warp-skip in FE1, but really, I just wanna play it safe here.

Oh, and I didn't forget about the secret shop. I'm just choosing to ignore it All it's got to offer is a couple of master seals, and I already have more of those than I know what to do with now that everyone's promoted.

...Yeah, I just used Wolf's last turn to have Wolf fight a bolganone bishop with a sword to build up his sword rank. Fucker had 24 attack power against Wolf. I think I made the right call not fighting all of these insanely powerful mages.

Speaking of weapon ranks, Caeda finally got enough of an axe rank to use hand axes by killing that fortify curate! Sweet! But now it's time to go.

Yeah, so, Gharnef gets away.

...Honestly, I wonder how the hell Malledus found out about that apparatus when it was balls deep in enemy territory.

And Marth is finally reunited with Elice.

Ahhhhh. So Elice was kept alive because Gharnef found the Aum staff in “the Resurrectory”, which is apparently a temple in the middle of Dolhr, and needed her alive so she could use it, because only “women of royal blood” can use it. I wonder why.

...So, they say “found”, but apparently it's still there, so he literally just found it. He didn't actually take it. Funny.

...Okay, so...

...Um...

...I'm reading the script here...

...And I have literally no fucking clue how teenage me misunderstood how the Aum staff worked.

Until I learned about the strategies to cheese Medeus or get both Tiki and Nagi, I was under the impression that the Aum staff only works inside that temple building where you find it, and can't be used anywhere else.

Reading the script again? I haven't a tenth of the foggiest how I got that impression, but somehow I did.

Not that it mattered much. I only ever beat the game twice. Once on normal, and then a second time as a Marth solo also on normal, I think out of some weird emotional investment in turning Marth into a proper badass (and also seeing all the extra chapters I missed).

And then I never touched the game again, simply because it didn't appeal to my childish desire to just watch enemies destroy themselves while cool animations play.

Words cannot express how grateful I am that circumstance forced me to play this game again. For some reason my reluctance to play this game persisted even as the things I wanted out of a Fire Emblem game radically altered over the years. If it weren't for this project, I may have never found out how much I'd actually enjoy it.

...But at any rate, that's it for today.

Tomorrow we kill Tiki, get Nagi, bring Tiki back, and set the stage for the final battle.

And I can't wait.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Shadow Mir]

What difficulty are you planning on playing New Mystery on?

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

What difficulty are you planning on playing New Mystery on?

I'm not familiar with what the difficulties are like, other than that lunatic and lunatic reverse are psychotic.

[Benice]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm not familiar with what the difficulties are like, other than that lunatic and lunatic reverse are psychotic.

From what I've heard, Lunatic is actually very well-designed for the most part, but I haven't yet tried.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Benice

[Shadow Mir]

2 minutes ago, Benice said:

From what I've heard, Lunatic is actually very well-designed for the most part, but I haven't yet tried.

On what grounds? Because "well designed" is one of the last things I would use to refer to FE12 Lunatic.

[Benice]

5 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

On what grounds? Because "well designed" is one of the last things I would use to refer to FE12 Lunatic.

Not resorting to randomly put range-triggered ambush spawns in the middle of a path where no enemies should feasibly be, at the very least. From what I've played, (up to the first map where Jeorge appears) the bosses are better than SD's earlygame ones as well.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Benice

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...And I have literally no fucking clue how teenage me misunderstood how the Aum staff worked.

Until I learned about the strategies to cheese Medeus or get both Tiki and Nagi, I was under the impression that the Aum staff only works inside that temple building where you find it, and can't be used anywhere else.

Thats actually true in FE1 and FE3B1. Not so good from a gameplay perspective (not like it matters with 1 chapter left), but I like the lore implication that I'd guess is magic places are sometimes needed in addition to magic objects.

...Which, is actually what Malledus (or was it Gotoh?) tells you at the end of the next chapter! Well, thats about Medeus, but it's close enough for me.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Honestly, I wonder how the hell Malledus found out about that apparatus when it was balls deep in enemy territory.

And would you get a spy in Gharnef's group? -If Malledus used one to find that out over a scout that somehow didn't die on their reconnaissance mission. Gra is next to Altea and is kind of a crappy country, I'm sure you could buy a Gra soldier a six-pack of Old Pales Ale and they'd turn turncoat for you. Grust and Macedon are more proud and professional, but they're still big conventional armies where you could somewhere find a would-be worm if you dug deep enough.

Gharnef commands a self-centered cult of dark sorcerers armed with powerful magics. His Khadein-Thabes forces can't be that numerous, nor accessible given the remoteness of Thabes from the rest of humanity. Gharnef's cult doesn't seem like it'd be a real world one, where the impression of niceness emanating from the cult leader exists at first, and only somewhere later down the line do you become devoted to him, providing the cult with all your private property and Mr. Cult with sexual access to your wife and daughter. If you joined Gharnef, you were probably non compos mentis from the very start, and not a good dude/ette.

Unfortunately, the book I've been slowly reading on a history of intelligence admits a giant gap in our understanding of Medieval intelligence and espionage, though historical records vaguely indicate the English used it during the Hundred Years' War. After the Arab conquests, the book skips ahead to the Inquisition, which is Medieval, but not military. Apparently it's Shakespeare in the Early Modern period who in one of his history plays coined the use of the English word "intelligence" in the context of gathering information on your military opponents and the terrain and such of the territory you'll be fighting in and around.

 

29 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm not familiar with what the difficulties are like, other than that lunatic and lunatic reverse are psychotic.

Hard may be too easy if you use the best of the best. I think it would be. Maniac for a middle ground? 

Edited October 21, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Stones]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh yeah, and during this boss fight, just as with Camus, there's the battle theme “Clash of Two Virtues”. I love this song, but I don't think the DS instruments quite do it justice. This song would be amazing if covered properly, in a way that can do the guitar in this guitar-and-synth combo justice.

I agree, but I think FE12 (and FE3 actually) has it a lot worse. Some tracks like Liberation and Dark Emperor Hardin deserve to sound really cool, but they sound weak and feeble in FE3 and FE12 (but at least they have official covers that sound great). Overall I think Shadow Dragon sounds pretty good, but there are a handful of tracks that would be significantly better on a better sounding console. However I definitely think that GBA music would be improved the most from an upgrade, especially FE6.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shadow Dragon Day 17: Chapter 22

...I...

...I think this chapter's graphic is trying to tell me that Michalis is riding on his draco mount... standing up, arms folded, with his cape blowing in the wind.

HOLY SHIT.

Okay, let's get ready.

Okay can we take a second to appreciate how bitchin Michalis's design is in Shadow Dragon. The guy gets only a single chapter of screen time, basically just that one conversation with Gotoh, yet he still manages to be a memorable character and boss. Just look at him.

Maybe it's just my Alvis ginger bias peeking through but he's really got this stern yet regal look to him. And it's just in this game, he looks awful in the previous incarnations.

I actually like some of the NES portraits better than the remakes, especially in Gaiden, but this one is atrocious. He doesn't look like a guy able to command a hair cut. He looks like a sad emo kid who refuses to get a hair cut. I can't imagine why they wanted to retcon this guy back alive for the sequel (a terrible decision imo). He does look at least a bit better in the SNES

But honestly I can't look at him there and not think he just looks like ginger Sigurd.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...I'm reading the script here...

...And I have literally no fucking clue how teenage me misunderstood how the Aum staff worked.

Until I learned about the strategies to cheese Medeus or get both Tiki and Nagi, I was under the impression that the Aum staff only works inside that temple building where you find it, and can't be used anywhere else.

Reading the script again? I haven't a tenth of the foggiest how I got that impression, but somehow I did.

I don't think you're crazy. I think that is exactly how the Aum staff works in NES and SNES games (only in Book 2 the alter is literally where Medeus is standing, so it's only useful for reviving people after the game is finished so you can get their endings). They took away that restriction to make it more useful in the DS remakes though (and expanded the number of units who could use it to all the ones that make sense).

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Okay can we take a second to appreciate how bitchin Michalis's design is in Shadow Dragon. The guy gets only a single chapter of screen time, basically just that one conversation with Gotoh, yet he still manages to be a memorable character and boss. Just look at him.

YES, LET'S. I can't believe I forgot to do that. The sheer level of improvement they made to his design, making him that fucking cool-looking, left me in utter shock at the start of this marathon when I saw how he originally looked.

 

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I don't think you're crazy. I think that is exactly how the Aum staff works in NES and SNES games (only in Book 2 the alter is literally where Medeus is standing, so it's only useful for reviving people after the game is finished so you can get their endings). They took away that restriction to make it more useful in the DS remakes though (and expanded the number of units who could use it to all the ones that make sense).

Unless I'm mis-remembering my teenage years, and that misimpression was actually much later, possibly even in this marathon, that isn't possible, because FE11 is the first time I ever saw the staff. I'm starting to think I'm mis-remembering my teenage years.

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Thats actually true in FE1 and FE3B1. Not so good from a gameplay perspective (not like it matters with 1 chapter left), but I like the lore implication that I'd guess is magic places are sometimes needed in addition to magic objects.

...Which, is actually what Malledus (or was it Gotoh?) tells you at the end of the next chapter! Well, thats about Medeus, but it's close enough for me.

 

 

Ah I see someone else got to me on the aum staff mechanic.

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

 

And would you get a spy in Gharnef's group? -If Malledus used one to find that out over a scout that somehow didn't die on their reconnaissance mission. Gra is next to Altea and is kind of a crappy country, I'm sure you could buy a Gra soldier a six-pack of Old Pales Ale and they'd turn turncoat for you. Grust and Macedon are more proud and professional, but they're still big conventional armies where you could somewhere find a would-be worm if you dug deep enough.

Gharnef commands a self-centered cult of dark sorcerers armed with powerful magics. His Khadein-Thabes forces can't be that numerous, nor accessible given the remoteness of Thabes from the rest of humanity. Gharnef's cult doesn't seem like it'd be a real world one, where the impression of niceness emanating from the cult leader exists at first, and only somewhere later down the line do you become devoted to him, providing the cult with all your private property and Mr. Cult with sexual access to your wife and daughter. If you joined Gharnef, you were probably non compos mentis from the very start, and not a good dude/ette.

Unfortunately, the book I've been slowly reading on a history of intelligence admits a giant gap in our understanding of Medieval intelligence and espionage, though historical records vaguely indicate the English used it during the Hundred Years' War. After the Arab conquests, the book skips ahead to the Inquisition, which is Medieval, but not military. Apparently it's Shakespeare in the Early Modern period who in one of his history plays coined the use of the English word "intelligence" in the context of gathering information on your military opponents and the terrain and such of the territory you'll be fighting in and around.

We can at least confirm that  spies and such do exist in Archanea as the risk of spies is a concern that's brought up when the replacement units randomly appear to volunteer to join the army. Maybe it was our heroic unit Wymp and Wieklin who infiltrated Gharnef's cult.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm starting to think I'm mis-remembering my teenage years.

That is incredible likely. Luckily you have video proof of how much of a fool you were in regards to Shadow Dragon!

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Hold on... are you telling me you can't get all of the talks at once? YOU ONLY GET ONE PER ATTEMPT!?

...Fuck, I'm really gonna have to look these up, aren't I?

...Ugh. Minerva's the only one who actually gets to talk to him. Even Maria just gets a reaction from Michalis, no talk about what the fuck she's going through, finding herself forced to attack her own brother when she's, what, thirteen at the oldest?

Christ. They only tried once, and they still managed to disappoint me.

Ugh. Sorry I hyped it up, I honestly forgot how disappointing Shadow Dragoon always seems to be with how it implemented its story.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm not familiar with what the difficulties are like, other than that lunatic and lunatic reverse are psychotic.

With you going in incredibly blind, actively avoiding the map save point, and trying to ironman it, H1 might be safer. Honestly I am expecting the AI to catch you off guard at least once, and I would not be surprised if the Path of Anri arc (or one of the Gaiden chapters) breaks the ironman. Then again if you drop the ironman, or get enough advice to figure out FE12, H2 will probably be right.

 

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

On what grounds? Because "well designed" is one of the last things I would use to refer to FE12 Lunatic.

It may be a hard mode, that expects you to make full use of every mechanic, but "poorly designed" is one of the last things I would use to refer to FE12 Lunatic. FE12 Lunatic is hard in a way that is unforgiving, one mistake will ruin you, but it always gives you the means to pass through it challenges, and the mistakes are always your own. FE12 Lunatic expects you to use every tool it has given you, from class change, to forges, to save points, to the training area, to the stat boosters, to the triangle attacks, to the star shards/orb (and shield of seals I suppose), to the utility staves, even down to the bond items you get with the A supports. When I fail in FE12 I always feel it was my fault, and when I find a solution with the resources I have, that always reinforces that further, and the design is so well done that is always feels like I just barely had the resources to surpass that next chapter.

[Alastor15243]

Shadow Dragon Day 18: Chapter 24

Alright, here we are. Last day before the final chapter. This is where we get the only gaiden chapter we're gonna see.

...And Gotoh warps us again. Honestly, couldn't we have any conversations with this guy about this?

I guess they didn't want to have to have Marth talk to him when he might not have Starlight or Falchion or Tiki or whatever, and the tone of the conversation would have to change to some kind of disappointed grandpa throughout the whole thing.

Still though, I'm glad that thanks to Elice, Marth had a reason to seek out Gharnef even if he didn't have Starlight. That could've been a plothole. Funny how even the original thought of that.

Anyway, nice chapter graphic. Marth and a bunch of soldiers standing on a ledge, drawing their weapons, as an army of Manaketes and other soldiers waits a few feet below them.

…

...Xemcel.

...The boss's name...

...is Xemcel.

Okay, I'm sure that that name might have sounded cool at some point, but unfortunately, the internet and the march of time have ruined this name for me forever, because it sounds like what you'd call a non-binary incel.

Anyway, we've got a new character, Elice. She's got an A rank in staves... and not much else of merit. But that's really all she needs to be useful, as it means we've got another warp user if we need one. I'll use a master seal on her to buff her movement, since I have spares.

Anyway, the speed stat of these Manaketes is just as terrifying as I heard it was on H5. Capped, across the board. That has me... very, very worried about how Medeus is gonna go. But thankfully I'll have both Tiki and Nagi.

Good news: Tiki has 76 attack against Manaketes, and these guys all have 46 HP, meaning it is physically impossible for these guys to have enough defense to resist being one-shot by her, even before looking their stats up.

...But after I did look their stats up, I am very confused. How do these mage dragons have 22 avoid when they're supposed to have 19 speed since magestones reduce their capped speed by 1?

...Yeah, looks like everyone has slightly more avoid than they should. That... worries me. What mechanic is giving them that slight increase in avoid?

Alright, so, looks like my first priority is to kill that thief. I'll be doing it with Jake and Beck, sniping him while he's still in our immediate range, because once that thief is down, I can tackle the rest of the map however I please with no worries. I wanna take on these guys carefully, with all of my army as one unit.

If either one of them misses (not likely, they'll be using an accurate forged weapon), I'll have Caeda swoop in with the Iote Shield and Gradivus to finish him off, out of range of everyone but the snipers that said shield lets her tank.

Also, since Palla's practically dead weight right now, I'm sending her off to grab the secret shop stuff now before I forget.

I'm gonna train up Marth and Tiki some more, clear the map, then unequip Tiki so that she can be killed by the boss.

I see a couple of ominous-looking forts, but I have enough filler units that I can easily secure them one at a time with Tiki or Wolf. The only enemies those two are truly afraid of are Manaketes, and their low mov means I don't have to be quite as scared of forts as usual.

I'm feeling pretty good about the final boss. Even if he does wind up having 30 speed, I'll have two divine dragons, an admittedly inferior Falchion, and people capable of using Gradivus, Mercurius and Hauteclere with good strength. I'll have to use some arms scrolls on Wolf for Mercurius, but going by his progress towards B rank, probably only one. Then Barst will use the Hauteclere, and Caeda the Gradivus. Or maybe Catria since she's slightly stronger.

...Man, if only Sedgar were still alive, then I'd have a powerhouse who could use Parthia too probably, with the help of the remaining three arms scrolls I can get here.

No point wallowing in regret though. I've done well as far as deaths are concerned. Sedgar was really my only devastating loss. Gotta keep moving forward.

Let's go.

The thief is down. Beck and Jake did their job wonderfully. Now it's time to get away from these mountains before the Manaketes can start charging over them.

I haven't bought any javelins or hand axes since I first splurged on them when I first got the silver card, and they've been lasting me basically the entire game since then. Wow.

Anyway, Jake and Beck might be slowing down my rear flank a bit. Enemies are charging at them through the mountains for now, and once they break free, Jake and Beck will be too slow to stay away from them forever. We'll have to rely on hit and run tactics with some of our other units to keep them away. We'll work that out once we see what the situation is though.

Alright, I just got to the secret shop, and cleaned it out of all of its defensive stat boosters. Dracoshields, talismans and seraph robes, I have 3 of each now. I also got 3 arms scrolls, so now I can buff up some weapon ranks if need be, beyond what I'll be doing for Wolf.

...A Manakete just doubled Marth.

Marth has 22 speed.

He hung on with 1 HP, thank goodness, vindicating my decision to use my first seraph robe on him, but... I think I get what's going on with the weird avoid numbers now. The reason why this guy has 26 avoid when he should have 20 + 4 speed... is that he actually has 20 + 6 speed.

These guys have powered up firestones with different unseen stat boosts.

Christ. What the fuck is wrong with you, game!?

If it weren't for the fact that this game is miles above every other game so far in terms of usability aside from this, this probably would have jeopardized your top spot.

...Moving on...

...Okay. I think I might know how I could have gotten the impression in this game that Aum only works in the temple.

There's a village. And the old man there says this:

“Nestled in the mountains far to the southeast is a holy temple known as the Resurrectory. Use the staff of Aum there, and they say you can call a departed friend back from beyond the river of death.”

“Use the staff of Aum there”.

They meant “Use the staff of Aum that is there”, but I think I might have taken it to literally mean you had to use the staff of Aum there.

The reinforcements started coming just as I finally got ready to pounce on the eastern ones (they're far enough away from the western ones that I don't need to worry about, say, horsemen ambush-spawning and killing the nearest fort-sitting flier), but thankfully it was just one Manakete and one pegasus knight, so I rushed the forts anyway after having Tiki kill the Manakete. I'll have to get someone down to take care of the incoming western Manakete soon though. Caeda can take a hit from one, but that's about it.

We're going south, passing by the Resurrectory, on our way to the main temple. Meanwhile, Wolf is taking out the northern enemies by cutting through the northern mountains, simultaneously keeping the western reinforcements from getting near the fliers staying behind to block forts.

...Okay, so, I was replaying Sacred Stones yesterday, retrying the trainee tower challenge, and thanks to that, I suddenly realized just now...

...That the sides that the player and enemy units are on in this game... are inverted compared to the GBA ones. Allies are always on the right in GBA, but here I know I just saw Tiki be on the left.

...And now she's on the right this time again. Does it depend on which side you're facing when you attack in this game?

...Yep. Attack from below or from the left, you're on the left of the screen. Attack from the top or the right, you're on the right.

Also, Tiki just took out most of the Resurrectory guards. It's official. Tiki can double heroes now.

We've got the Aum staff. And I'll stare at it for about 50 seconds before sending Tiki to her death, just to be sure.

Since I got a second fortify staff last map, I've kinda been going ham with my first one whenever it's convenient. And it's been convenient a lot. But I'm still not one with the first one!

Alright, yep, I've got the Aum staff, I just triple-confirmed. And I've secured all of the forts, so there will be no more nasty surprises. Time to have Tiki dump her stuff and suicide on the boss.

Oh, the things this game encourages me to do an innocent, traumatized child.

Also, this game doubles your convoy space compared to the GBA games, and quintuples it compared to the original. I wonder why...?

Hahahahaha. So Xemcel's boss conversation has him talking to “you humans”, apparently not caring that he's fighting Tiki.

Man, killing Tiki is taking some doing. Even without her stone, she's still pretty dodgy against this guy and takes a hit without going down.

Alright, she's down. Time to send in Wolf to wyrmslayer this fucker.

The only unit in my army fast enough to double this guy.

Man I wish I hadn't missed the secret shop that sold speedwings.

Alright, we're done. And now we get the talk with Gotoh where he tells us how badly we fucked up.

Hahahahahaha. So Gotoh claims that Tiki isn't dead, she just “returned to her slumber”. Which doesn't explain why the Aum staff can bring her back when it can't bring back Frey from his non-death incapacitation.

...

...Or Marth's dead parents, for that matter.

Why can't Elice and Marth bring back their mom or dad!?

Incidentally, that's my headcanon for why the Nohrian S rank staff is in a chest in Castle Shirasagi in Conquest. Ninjas stole it after Corrin was kidnapped because the Hoshidan royal family thought they could bring Sumeragi back with it.

But yeah, now Gotoh has to resort to desperate measures, and sends us to an alternate dimension to get another divine dragon and another Falchion.

 

Day 18 Bonus: Chapter 24x

Ah, yes, I see that this is where they've been hiding all the new classes they added. The gaiden chapters. I see swordmasters, berserkers, dark mages (Gharnef is the only dark mage in the main game)... only thing I don't see is sages! And I guess warriors, those are new too.

...Yeah, the enemies here are really easy compared to elsewhere. Looks like they really don't buff the stats of enemy units in these gaiden chapters. I mean, it makes sense. If you get to any of them, you're in really dire straits.

Alright, so, stat booster time. I gave all five of my talismans to Wolf, because it'll help him function as an enemy-phase tank against basically anything now. I also gave him one of my four arms scrolls to let him use Mercurius, since he managed to get to B rank swords last chapter. Caeda got one of the seraph robes, while Marth got the other two, and I gave the three dracoshields to Merric because it seemed like a waste of his great HP stat to not let him take as many physical hits as Wolf can now take magical ones.

But I'm using this opportunity to train Barst, Marth and Tiki as much as I can. They're the big hitters in my army with the most to gain from this easy exp.

There are siege tome users, but they aren't too numerous. And I don't see any openings for ambush spawns, so I think we're safe.

Alright, let's go.

Oooh! Merric has a talk with Elice!

Yeah, that was pretty cute. I'm glad that they took this opportunity to expand on Merric's relationship with Elice.

Okay, so I use Aum, and I'm treated with a drop-down list of everyone who's died. It sadly doesn't let us see their stats on the top screen, which would've been a really nice touch, but yeah, I totally forgot about Darros, Macellan and Tomas.

But yeah, not lingering on this screen any longer than I have to, in case I make a mistake while typing this. I revive Tiki, and she's back. And I like how the game doesn't do the sad “weapon broke” jingle afterwards, it just quietly lets Aum disappear. No need for that sound effect when you're using one-use amazing staves, like something bad just happened.

Yeah, these Manaketes are so pathetic that Marth can kill them without wyrmslayers.

Not much to say here. This is a really easy map. Only real danger is avoiding getting careless. Stark reminder of how different the lategame of this game is, compared to the lategames of most of the other games so far.

But anyway, Barst's been gaining some much-needed speed level ups. He's at 20 now, which should be enough to double plenty of endgame mooks, though obviously not Manaketes.

The chests contained another aura and excalibur, which is awesome, though a bit late to take into account when pacing weapon uses. I doubt I'll be able to use the whole thing at this point even if I have Merric use nothing else.

...Weirdly, the “victory is near!” music is still playing over the cutscene, which is... really goofy.

...But thankfully it's just until they actually go downstairs.

Okay, so I've heard people claim that Nagi is just Naga suffering from some sort of cosmic loss of power and memory.

...A green-haired goddess who's lost her memory after leaving the mortal plane.

...I'm frankly amazed the writers of Three Houses gave enough of a shit about Fire Emblem lore to actually rip that off.

Well, with that... we're done for today.

Tomorrow, we finish this.

Tomorrow, we fight Medeus and beat Shadow Dragon.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Interdimensional Observer]

10 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Xemcel.

...The boss's name...

...is Xemcel.

Okay, I'm sure that that name might have sounded cool at some point, but unfortunately, the internet and the march of time have ruined this name for me forever, because it sounds like what you'd call a non-binary incel.

No, it's the Nobody of Celem. How do you not know that? Emblem Hearts -17*12 Fables Actuated Killing Eternity made that clear.😛

 

20 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so I've heard people claim that Nagi is just Naga suffering from some sort of cosmic loss of power and memory.

Medeus:
“Hmm? So… I am not the only dragon revived. I had heard you perished the last time. No matter; you’ve recovered even less of your power than me. This time, you have no chance!”

This is Medeus's only special boss conversation.

Nagi's character ending title is "Holy Avatar". In the New Mystery fan translation (and maybe in SD's Japanese) it's "Dragon King's Avatar". "King" in this case being gender-neutral in Japanese and defaulting to male because that was the assumption of the FE fanbase until Awakening and Fates made it officially clear Naga is a she.

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

No, it's the Nobody of Celem. How do you not know that? Emblem Hearts -17*12 Fables Actuated Killing Eternity made that clear.😛

My bad, I'm still stuck on BBS. Had the poor judgment to play it on Proud, not realizing how broken the combat is 🙂

Edited October 22, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

23 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...But after I did look their stats up, I am very confused. How do these mage dragons have 22 avoid when they're supposed to have 19 speed since magestones reduce their capped speed by 1?

...Yeah, looks like everyone has slightly more avoid than they should. That... worries me. What mechanic is giving them that slight increase in avoid?

I thought that was just a Xemcel thing, where he has stats higher than his caps, despite the game only displaying the caps (in both Speed and Skill if I remember correctly).

 

54 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

These guys have powered up firestones with different unseen stat boosts.

Christ. What the fuck is wrong with you, game!?

If it weren't for the fact that this game is miles above every other game so far in terms of usability aside from this, this probably would have jeopardized your top spot.

I was kinda wondering if the way Shadow Dragon deals with their Manaketes would impact this rank, but I guess the way it lies to the player wasn't quite egregious enough to detract from all the improvements it made. Although I guess this confirms New Mysteries top spot when it gets ranked.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Yeah, the enemies here are really easy compared to elsewhere. Looks like they really don't buff the stats of enemy units in these gaiden chapters. I mean, it makes sense. If you get to any of them, you're in really dire straits.

They do increase them, just not as much as rest of the game.

 

49 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so I've heard people claim that Nagi is just Naga suffering from some sort of cosmic loss of power and memory.

This is mostly based on Medeus and Nagi's battle convo.

 

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I was kinda wondering if the way Shadow Dragon deals with their Manaketes would impact this rank, but I guess the way it lies to the player wasn't quite egregious enough to detract from all the improvements it made. Although I guess this confirms New Mysteries top spot when it gets ranked.

Yeah, it feels weird to forgive such an obnoxious thing, but it's just one thing, in a game that makes so many other advances, like persistent enemy highlighting, the "highlight all" button, and the absolutely sublime dual-screen unit info window. The sheer degree to which that's improved my experience still brings this out on top, even though it's gonna lose its top spot immediately, as you suspected.

[Shadow Mir]

54 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

My bad, I'm still stuck on BBS. Had the poor judgment to play it on Proud, not realizing how broken the combat is 🙂

Was it your first Kingdom Hearts game? And is Vanitas the reason you're struggling?

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Was it your first Kingdom Hearts game? And is Vanitas the reason you're struggling?

No, actually my first was the original. I've played most of the games in the series (though not BBS or KHIII), and I've been replaying them in order for fun lately. But I've gotten far enough into BBS to know I definitely picked a bad difficulty setting, because this game's difficulty is broken to all hell. I beat KHIIFM Critical mode and this game is still kicking my ass in ways that don't feel remotely fair.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

No, actually my first was the original. I've played most of the games in the series (though not BBS or KHIII), and I've been replaying them in order for fun lately. But I've gotten far enough into BBS to know I definitely picked a bad difficulty setting, because this game's difficulty is broken to all hell. I beat KHIIFM Critical mode and this game is still kicking my ass in ways that don't feel remotely fair.

What exactly is handing your butt to you? Because outside of Vanitas, I don't think I had too much trouble, for the most part.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

What exactly is handing your butt to you? Because outside of Vanitas, I don't think I had too much trouble, for the most part.

Honestly, the whole game. Even a lot of basic enemies just do an insane amount of damage, and a couple of bosses, particularly Braig, have attacks that will easily send you from zero to dead at lightning speed with little chance to recover. I'm not even playing on the hardest mode this time (I did for all the previous games), and I've died tons.

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shadow Dragon Day 18: Chapter 24

Alright, here we are. Last day before the final chapter. This is where we get the only gaiden chapter we're gonna see.

...And Gotoh warps us again. Honestly, couldn't we have any conversations with this guy about this?

I guess they didn't want to have to have Marth talk to him when he might not have Starlight or Falchion or Tiki or whatever, and the tone of the conversation would have to change to some kind of disappointed grandpa throughout the whole thing.

Still though, I'm glad that thanks to Elice, Marth had a reason to seek out Gharnef even if he didn't have Starlight. That could've been a plothole. Funny how even the original thought of that.

 

Coming to think of it, why don't we have Starlight now? Like I know why as gamers you fail the task if you don't get to that village, but in universe why hasn't Gotoh made Starlight for Marth? He's clearly still alive and assisting. It's not like that random bandit actually killed him. Did destroying the village destroy his uber tome making laboratory or something? It's funny how I've only ever gotten Starlight like once in this game, yet I'm questioning this plot point only for the first time now. I think some kind of explanation is warranted. Especially in the more ridiuclous situations like when you go to the village but just don't have the orbs in Marth's personal inventory, in which case Gotoh says you should have brought them and (I think) the village just closes and never lets you visit him again. So even the village's destruction couldn't be used as a catch all excuse. The fact that they tied this into a village event and not a plot event makes it kind of immensely stupid. They should have had it as an end of chapter scenario that also specifies that he's going to be warping you around for the next few chapters. That would make it harder to not get Starlight, though still possible if you never pick up the Lightsphere.

Also in addition to why isn't Gotoh making Starlight for you right now, why isn't he fighting in these three chapters? Or the Nagi version of the chapter for that matter. He's clearly willing to directly fight alongside Marth, just only when it's mechanically appropriate to fill his archetype I guess. Athos at least had the excuse that he was running around the world collecting Holy Weapons. Gotoh doesn't seem to be doing anything at all while Marth is fighting Gharnef and Xemcel (by the way I still think that character's name is cool and want him in Heroes!). Nagi at least can be explained away as it being some sort of test for Marth, but Gotoh really has no excuse for the other two.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, it feels weird to forgive such an obnoxious thing, but it's just one thing, in a game that makes so many other advances, like persistent enemy highlighting, the "highlight all" button, and the absolutely sublime dual-screen unit info window. The sheer degree to which that's improved my experience still brings this out on top, even though it's gonna lose its top spot immediately, as you suspected.

Don't forget the ability to skip enemy turns entirely!

[Alastor15243]

20 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Don't forget the ability to skip enemy turns entirely!

Oh yeah, big time.

21 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Also in addition to why isn't Gotoh making Starlight for you right now, why isn't he fighting in these three chapters? Or the Nagi version of the chapter for that matter. He's clearly willing to directly fight alongside Marth, just only when it's mechanically appropriate to fill his archetype I guess. Athos at least had the excuse that he was running around the world collecting Holy Weapons. Gotoh doesn't seem to be doing anything at all while Marth is fighting Gharnef and Xemcel (by the way I still think that character's name is cool and want him in Heroes!). Nagi at least can be explained away as it being some sort of test for Marth, but Gotoh really has no excuse for the other two.

My headcanon is that Gotoh is only motivated to directly fight alongside you if you demonstrate yourself to be a shining example of what humans can be, enough to restore his faith in humanity and help overcome the racism against humans he admits he still has.

[Interdimensional Observer]

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Don't forget the ability to skip enemy turns entirely!

I've rarely seen the point to this, unless the turn is basically just a "move everyone, nothing else happens" or "grinding super weak enemies, I stand no chance of dying". I don't want to discover Saizo took 27 damage on the enemy phase and then deduce how it happened, I want to see it as it happens. Okay, it should not be hard to figure that stuff out, but I want to see it anyhow, it feels better that way. And the more stuff that'll happen, the more I want to see it.

 

17 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

My headcanon is that Gotoh is only motivated to directly fight alongside you if you demonstrate yourself to be a shining example of what humans can be, enough to restore his faith in humanity and help overcome the racism against humans he admits he still has.

He says as much:

Gotoh:
“I washed my hands of humankind and their foolish ways long ago. But you and your companions have convinced me that was a rash decision. Perhaps there is hope for you yet. Allow me to offer what help I can.”