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

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, I'm kinda curious why they felt the name needed to be changed at all, let alone three times.

And it's not just localisation weirdness, the original Japanese developers changed it twice too (changed twice for a total of three names that is)

8 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Harrier makes me think of aircraft (though it apparently can refer to a type of bird), too modern to me. If FE is going to have a Harrier, it'd have to be in a TMS sequel. 

Given Falcoknight is an established thing already, Dark Falcon is more fitting I'd say. Dark Flier is dull and nondescript, should we change Wyvern Lord to Flier Lord?

It's Mach in the Japanese if that helps, mach being something that flies at the speed of sound, so still pretty modern given I think nothing in the modern world can travel that fast (though certain premodern whips could break the sound barrier I think, granted that's not really flying).

6 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

There are so many ways to increase the accuracy of your units. Its only a game of Murphy's Law if you want it to be.

This is probably Mir doing his usual thing of looking at stats online and assuming something is way worse than it actually is. Though I think he's at least played Fates in this case. I've had a conversation about forging in this game which unless your binging the entire game in a single day is very feasible, while he argues it's impossible to get any ore. Point is Fates indeed has very low hit rates on paper, but in practice support boosts and other such things boost them to quite reasonable levels so they are in practices quite on par or above most other games. Well so long as you aren't fighting those damn ninjas.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Have you mentioned your thoughts on Hans yet, @Alastor15243?

Not much to say, really. He's not particularly different in quality to the rest of the villains in the story.

[Jotari]

On 1/13/2021 at 8:31 AM, Alastor15243 said:

There, that's the image I used in Dakota's War Journal to broadcast my castle address. I uh... kinda can't take a more up-to-date picture anymore thanks to Miiverse going down.

If you have Fates, Please visit me! There's a lot of stuff in this game that you can only get and achieve by visiting and being visited by other players, and just like old times with Dakota's War Journal, I'd love it if those people were my readers!

...Also, I'm still holding out hope that one day I can get the Visitation Seal and, dare I even dream, the Battle Seal. I'm so close to the former. These days I have no idea how much longer online functionality is even going to be a thing for 3DS games, given they've stopped production of the handheld system, and unfortunately the loss of online functionality is going to be devastating to Fates, for reasons I'll get into some other time. The fact that there are items in my favorite Fire Emblem game I'll probably never get to see... is kinda depressing. If by some miracle I managed to max out my VP and BP at 9999 each by the time 3DS online functionality goes down forever... words would not be able to describe my joy.

 

Well spurred by this post I went to the money and effort to get my 3DS fixed, which meant buying a second 3DS for spare parts, so I have a pink Japanese DS with no back cover or battery now, fortunately it was cheap; Japan is the glorious utopia of second hand electronics. All excited to help you reach your goal by visiting you every day, I typed in your adress and was then reminded why I never got into Fates online stuff to begin with...it's segregated based on region. And my account is European, I assume yours is American. So no visits for me it seems. Unless people have found a workaround for that. I don't think just changing your location works settings works.

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Well spurred by this post I went to the money and effort to get my 3DS fixed, which meant buying a second 3DS for spare parts, so I have a pink Japanese DS with no back cover or battery now, fortunately it was cheap; Japan is the glorious utopia of second hand electronics. All excited to help you reach your goal by visiting you every day, I typed in your adress and was then reminded why I never got into Fates online stuff to begin with...it's segregated based on region. And my account is European, I assume yours is American. So no visits for me it seems. Unless people have found a workaround for that. I don't think just changing your location works settings works.

Oh wow, I'm sorry man. Well at least you got a fixed 3DS for the trouble! Yeah I don't think there's a workaround. Especially since back in the day, when Mangs was doing Corrinquest, he had a separate event for Europeans.

[Samz707]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh wow, I'm sorry man. Well at least you got a fixed 3DS for the trouble! Yeah I don't think there's a workaround. Especially since back in the day, when Mangs was doing Corrinquest, he had a separate event for Europeans.

Shame, I was thinking of maybe finally picking up Fates (Since revelation is basically DLC only and those 3DS servers eventualyl are gonna go down) so I guess I won't be able to visit then.

[Venger_06]

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I do have one visitor today though! Somebody named Ishtar. Heya! Thanks for the milk! Enjoy a nice creepy prison mask for your troubles!

Are you sure there is only one visitor showing up there? I have already visited and fought for two days, one with an avatar with my username and the other called "Corrin".

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I can't agree with the people who think it's a ripoff, or that it all should've been released as one game for one price. Do you have any idea how much content is in these games? Birthright and Conquest are easily worth the $40 3DS game price tag, and that's not even the price they're being sold at! You get two 3DS games for 60 bucks, each one with an entire full 21-chapter Fire Emblem game's worth of content, and that's ignoring the prologue chapters and paralogues. Sure, a couple of maps are recycled. Seven, by my count, between Conquest and Birthright. But each one feels radically different to play on due to different starting locations, different dragon veins, and different enemy formations. And again, you're getting the second game at half price.

I think the problem at the time was that they divided the storyline into 3 different versions, and basically forced the audience to play the 3 versions to fully understand it. We now know that this is not worth it because Fates' story sucks, but then we have people who bought the 3 versions and don't even play 2 of them for example, effectively throwing money down

15 hours ago, Ottservia said:

I mean just look at Fairy tail which is a shounen manga. Which has shit like this.

https://mangadex.org/chapter/950156/7

https://mangadex.org/chapter/950158/16

This is supposed to be a gruesome torture scene btw

Ah, I miss the first few arcs, where everything was still serviceable. It's a shame Fairy Tail ended like this, Mashima's designs are one of the nicest.

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

Well spurred by this post I went to the money and effort to get my 3DS fixed, which meant buying a second 3DS for spare parts, so I have a pink Japanese DS with no back cover or battery now, fortunately it was cheap; Japan is the glorious utopia of second hand electronics. All excited to help you reach your goal by visiting you every day, I typed in your adress and was then reminded why I never got into Fates online stuff to begin with...it's segregated based on region. And my account is European, I assume yours is American. So no visits for me it seems. Unless people have found a workaround for that. I don't think just changing your location works settings works.

53 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

Shame, I was thinking of maybe finally picking up Fates (Since revelation is basically DLC only and those 3DS servers eventualyl are gonna go down) so I guess I won't be able to visit then.

The servers are not tied to the account, but to the game. You can workaround this by installing a USA version of Fates in your 3DS (.cia or .3dsx if you have a flashcard). You may even be able to transfer your saves between regions using a save manager like Checkpoint. I haven't tested this, but it works with Pokémon games, so it should work with FE since they share assets. BTW, I think you can also do this with Awakening or Echoes.

[Jotari]

15 minutes ago, Maof06 said:

The servers are not tied to the account, but to the game. You can workaround this by installing a USA version of Fates in your 3DS (.cia or .3dsx if you have a flashcard). You may even be able to transfer your saves between regions using a save manager like Checkpoint. I haven't tested this, but it works with Pokémon games, so it should work with FE since they share assets. BTW, I think you can also do this with Awakening or Echoes.

I have all 3 games (plus all the DLC) downloaded onto my SD card. Would this be as simple as sticking my SD card into my computer and changing the file names? Or would I have to download an installer? In either case I'd be down for trying if you could provide more info.

[Venger_06]

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I have all 3 games (plus all the DLC) downloaded onto my SD card. Would this be as simple as sticking my SD card into my computer and changing the file names? Or would I have to download an installer? In either case I'd be down for trying if you could provide more info.

If only it were that simple. 3DS games downloaded by eshop are encrypted, so you have to install custom firmware on your 3DS if you want to do all of that. If it is already hacked, great, if not, you will have to hack. The process is simple (and free) and you will be able to do a lot of cool things with your 3DS, so I recommend it, but if you are afraid of bans or something, you can just buy a flashcard. Or if all of this is still a hassle for you, you can do nothing and leave Alastor's dreams unfulfilled.

[Alastor15243]

Revelation Day 5: Chapter 9

Yeah, not much to do this morning, so let's just get right into the chapter. I suppose I could do the invasion instead, but I still only have three units who can handle combat, so... yeah no thank you.

Not that we're getting any more here. We'll start getting halfway decent units in Chapter 10.

Ohhhhh holy shit Chapter 10.

A chapter in the front running for shittiest chapter I've ever seen.

“Foreign Land and Sky” hates you and wants you to die, but once you get past the fact that it's a lying whore, it's still technically possible to get it over with quickly with minimal consequences.

Chapter 10, on the other hand...

...I'm getting ahead of myself. I don't have to do that shitty chapter. Yet.

No, I have to do this shitty chapter.

We start with a flashback of Garon in his throne room, and Elise must have the best ears in the world if she can hear him clearly across that huge-ass throne room from behind the thick giant doors. Same goes for the previous conversation in Chapter 3 as well, obviously. I just didn't notice at the time because I think they cheated the camera or something to make the room look much less long than it actually was when Dakota came in and looked around for whoever Garon was talking to.

But anyway, both Elise and Camilla seem to be on our side right now, which makes me curious as to how Chapter 12 is gonna play out, because I remember...

...fuck it, let's focus on this.

Ah yes, and faceless suddenly appear, and... so, these are actually Wind Tribesmen, and-

…

…

…

…

Sorry. I just remembered something from earlier in this conversation.

So.

Azura says... that they're headed to Izumo. They're going up the Eternal Stairway, they're going to stop by the Wind Tribe this chapter, and then they're going to Izumo. That's the visiting order.

The visiting order in Birthright is likewise Eternal Stairway, Wind Tribe, Izumo. Just like here.

The visiting order in Conquest is Izumo, Wind Tribe, Eternal Stairway. Also fair enough. They're doing it backwards.

The problem is that I distinctly remember that in all three routes, whether the map was only done in a cutscene or if it was actually fought... they were always climbing up.

...Hmm... I guess you can read this as them actually going back to the Wind Tribe, rather than stopping on their way. Yeah, they decide to explain the fact that they were tricked into murdering some of their citizens because that's just the sort of guy Dakota is. But then that assumes that Iago knew he'd do this in both routes where this happens. Sure, maybe it would've damaged his credibility if it got traced back to him in Rev, but what exactly would've happened in Birthright if the avatar hadn't gone back to the Wind Tribe? Sure, maybe some long-term political damages, but... there's a war going on! What practical help would Iago be providing to the Nohrian cause now by tricking him into killing a handful of random people?

WAAAAAAAIT A MINUTE, HOLD THE PHONE GOING BACK TO THE WIND TRIBE DOESN'T MAKE THIS OKAY AT ALL!

I just checked the map to confirm I'm not just imagining things. If Conquest is to be believed, then if you go up the eternal stairway, you're headed away from Izumo, not toward it! What, does the Eternal Stairway somehow go up both fucking ways?

...I'm making notes for myself in a little text file to check every so often, to make sure I follow up on these questions. I don't think I've done as great a job at that as I'd like in other games.

So yeah, apparently everyone at the Wind Tribe already knows that he attacked those tribesmen, and... how? Did Iago use illusion magic to have people disguised as Dakota kill more innocents? If so, what was the point in tricking Dakota into killing tribesmen when nobody but him would ever know unless he told? Surely framing him with illusion magic would've worked much better having others disguise as him, right?

...Apparently the people they're talking about didn't actually die though. What? Are these separate people or did Dakota's victims actually survive? Couldn't he try explaining to them before coming back to the village? What the fuck is going on!?

...Apparently wild rumors are being spread that Dakota plans to destroy both Hoshido and Nohr, which... what? There's no explanation of where these rumors are coming from, or why anyone would be afraid of a handful of soldiers with no resources or army.

Thankfully Rinkah shows up to vouch for him. But it's not enough, and in the words of Chrom:

“All right. The Feroxi way it is!”

Yep, we have to beat up a bunch of people to prove that we aren't the sorts of people who would beat up a bunch of people.

Yeah, when I played Birthright, it really looked like the wind tribe had a ridiculously cavalier attitude towards life and death, and I justified this in Dakota's War Journal by having the Wind Tribe turn out to have reincarnational immortality. But this is just... cartoonishly dumb. You can't really hand-wave this as non-lethal sparring when you're fully capable of electrocuting, freezing, or immolating your enemies. This feels like the stupid “friendly sparring wars” that happened in Advance Wars all the time, and it's only slightly less ridiculous here. Which isn't even remotely less ridiculous enough.

Alright, I've got a quick support between Kaze and Hana to do that I didn't notice before. They must've gotten it from that little event talk in My Castle.

...It was a little cute, but nothing I'm really interested in talking about.

Alright, I went back to base to forge some stuff for Dakota and Mozu, but unfortunately I mixed up onyx and quartz and thus couldn't forge the thing for Mozu. I've got an axe for Dakota though, called Gigirant, named after the club I made for him in my Birthright Dakota's War Journal run.

Anyway... okay, so a lot of people hate the Conquest version of this map, while I love it. The Revelation one, however... is just fucking annoying. Same problem as last map: nobody's gonna move unless you get close. Which means all of these dang gusts of wind... only serve to waste your time rather than serve as a perpetual terrifying risk of being blown to your death.

I'm glad I have two combat-ready fliers for this.

Let's go.

Ah yes, so, once you deploy, the game explains the gimmick of the chapter. Personally, I wish they'd do this before you're done with deployment, but at least it's not anything like “you need to bring this character to get this character”. You may need to adjust your plans, but you still can adjust them.

...Okay, so I'm wrong, a handful of enemies start moving. I guess that's a change that Lunatic mode makes? Because I could've sworn that on hard mode they didn't move at all.

...Nope, looks like that same handful moves on Rev too. I guess the sheer number that hold still was all I could remember because the handful barely matters.

Okay, a little of the fun of the Conquest version is happening. Mostly due to the groups that I inadvertently wound up splitting my units into due to the winds. That happened in my Conquest run too, and adapting to having units I don't usually use together forced to work together is interesting. Right now I've got everyone up by the boss after having gotten the eastern physic chest, except Mozu and Azura are fighting off the enemies more to the south. Thankfully Mozu has a fruit knife (built-in infinite vulnerary like the sheep spirit) so I don't have to rely on Azura's slow personal aura for HP.

And now the winds have provided a perfect opportunity for everyone to reunite. The winds can push Dakota's team down and Azura's team up.

…

...So I just realized this... the “fruit knife” has a built-in vulnerary effect... just like Falchion has a built-in concoction effect. Was... was that supposed to double as a reference to Lucina's sibling supports?

...Yeah, so, Rinkah just got her first level up from nothing but dual guarding. It was skill. And nothing else.

Yeah, I... I have a bad track record with Rinkah. I tried to use her before, but... this game has a nasty habit, like I said, of taking the Hoshidan units who are the first to buck the now-broken gender restrictions (the first female “fighter”, the first male “pegasus knight”, even if they aren't called those things)... and make them terrible at the thing their class is supposed to be good at. Rinkah has a personal strength growth of 25% (becomes 45% when an oni savage), and Subaki has a personal speed growth of 20% (becomes 35% when a sky knight). Charlotte fares much better and is actually genuinely strong, which is cool, so I don't get why they did this with the Hoshidan units.

...Also apparently Kaze has a strength growth only five percent behind Silas's, and yet I've never gotten him to get his strength up to snuff.

...Anyway, Not much to talk about beyond that. I slowly work my way through the enemies, get all the treasure, and then send my three units who can fight worth a damn to face the boss.

The boss is, yet again, really annoying to take out but also meleelocked. So since that means he won't change weapons as long as we don't get into his range, I can just keep throwing knives at him and he'll never change to adapt with his full access to the weapon triangle as a master of arms. Of course, we have the whole weapon triangle covered technically, between tomes, shuriken and axes, but I don't have an axe with good 1-2 range I think... lemme check... nope, doesn't look like it.

...Oh yeah, also, Fuga has seal strength, which is a huge pain. But thankfully after that I got lucky with Felicia's magic, and Fuga went down.

The last chest, which I was getting while fighting the boss, has 10,000 gold in it, so that's another 5k I can work with.

Ah yes, and Hayato joins us. In a weird inversion, he's actually fairly okay in this route, and... really, like I have a choice? Sure, I'll use him, at least for a little while.

Oooh! Alright, so after the battle, my streetpass finally updated. Nephenee, Corrin and BenP visited, along with Ishtar from last time! Alright, time for some visits!

BenP: BEGONE MONSTER!

...Is that, like, a personal attack or something?

I kid. Have a cross eyepatch!

I just noticed I forgot to do the new stuff in My Castle since coming back from Chapter 9, and... I've gotten three silver prizes in a row at the lottery, which is pretty cool. I tend to just pick the lottery of the person running the shop. There's no particular prize I'm going for, but free shit is free shit.

Anyway, back to visiting! Oh, and thanks so much to those of you who took the time to kick my ass! Much obliged!

If any of you wanna request specific accessories, feel free to speak up! I don't have that many though, just the ones others have given me (speaking of which, still looking for a chef's hat!).

Here's a hero mask for Ishtar, and a princess bow for Corrin, and for Nephenee... how about a flamboyant mardi gras mask?

And with the arena now built, the lower wall of my fort is now complete!

Man, it would be nice if I could still do screenshots for this, but that would also really slow down the process. Oh well, at least the people reading now can visit Lower Dakota and see what I've been doing with it if they have the game.

It's amusing that this route lets you build the prison several chapters before you even get a unit with the capture skill.

...Christ. Okay. No way I'm doing Chapter 10 as part of a double feature. This fucker deserves its own day just in case.

So I'll try and do the invasion.

But first... ah yes. Kaze and Rinkah have a pretty cute support with Rinkah being in denial that she likes candy for reasons I can't quite recall.

Sakura and Azura have a FE12-short support conversation about how Azura used to tell Sakura scary stories at night. We're not actually going to get to hear one until next support though.

...Alright, I think I can do this. With a pair-up with Hayato and a calamity gate, Felicia can one-shot the ninja on the east side, and then handle the diviner and samurai there too. After that, Dakota can one-round the western archer and then get sung by Azura to take out the oni savage immediately south while simultaneously blocking the second oni savage's path to Azura. Then Dakota will deal with the fliers down south and we'll clean up the rest.

These maps are pretty cool, but always kinda nerve-racking on ironmans, because so much about them can change depending on what the enemy decides to do about breaking buildings. Plus, they're defense chapters. Those are always terrifying in an ironman.

Alright, break.

...Yep, it worked out exactly as planned, and then Mozu took out the enemies down south. All they managed to do was break the treehouse because Dakota couldn't get there in time to intervene.

And now Mozu is in the arena. Might as well take advantage of this and try to ore swap for some quartz and gamble to double it. I really wish there were an “ore swap” counterpart for food. Honestly, I wish there were offline traders in this game. Would've been nice if there were already a system to get more than just your castle's resources in any kind of reliable fashion without just getting tons of free shit online.

Mission accomplished, I now have 2 quartz. Soon I'll be able to make a nice forged shuriken for Mozu.

...Alright, I think that's a good place to stop for the day. Thanks again to everyone who visited me! And sorry to my European readers who are having issues!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Samz707]

19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, I... I have a bad track record with Rinkah. I tried to use her before, but... this game has a nasty habit, like I said, of taking the Hoshidan units who are the first to buck the now-broken gender restrictions (the first female “fighter”, the first male “pegasus knight”, even if they aren't called those things)... and make them terrible at the thing their class is supposed to be good at. Rinkah has a personal strength growth of 25% (becomes 45% when an oni savage), and Subaki has a personal speed growth of 20% (becomes 35% when a sky knight). Charlotte fares much better and is actually genuinely strong, which is cool, so I don't get why they did this with the Hoshidan units.

So...for some reason they make characters really terrible in their "canon" classes? I guess it could maybe work once or twice as a character thing, like there's some dude who's been forced into a fighter role despite a calling for magic or such, though here it sounds more like not good design.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Yeah, so, Rinkah just got her first level up from nothing but dual guarding. It was skill. And nothing else.

Yeah, I... I have a bad track record with Rinkah. I tried to use her before, but... this game has a nasty habit, like I said, of taking the Hoshidan units who are the first to buck the now-broken gender restrictions (the first female “fighter”, the first male “pegasus knight”, even if they aren't called those things)... and make them terrible at the thing their class is supposed to be good at. Rinkah has a personal strength growth of 25% (becomes 45% when an oni savage), and Subaki has a personal speed growth of 20% (becomes 35% when a sky knight). Charlotte fares much better and is actually genuinely strong, which is cool, so I don't get why they did this with the Hoshidan units.

If it's any consolation, my luck with Rinkah is not much better. Then again, she's only one of the units in this game who I perpetually have shit luck with. At any rate, I seriously question why in the seven hells the devs think it's okay to pull bullshit like this. Rinkah is supposed to be a tank, but can't really do so because her HP is poor, compromising her defense.  And then there's Charlotte; while she can hit hard, unlike Rinkah, she's pigeonholed into a glass cannon role, which is not exactly appealing in this game. Especially when she can't hit the broad side of a barn if her life depended on it.

52 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

So...for some reason they make characters really terrible in their "canon" classes? I guess it could maybe work once or twice as a character thing, like there's some dude who's been forced into a fighter role despite a calling for magic or such, though here it sounds more like not good design.

Or maybe they just make them terrible period, like Rinkah and Subaki here.

[ping]

So, just for curiosity's sake, I took a quick look at growth rates in Fates and they are actually incredibly variant, even between "growth units". In some cases, this comes from "mixed" characters that have both a Str and Mag growth - for example, Saizo has 50% Str and 45% Mag, which puts him at the highest growth total in all of Fates (suck on that, Corrin!), but if it wasn't for that, he'd "only" be in the same ballpark as Ryoma and Takumi.

But even disregarding that - there's a huge span between the top (Elise with 305%, only 5% of which are Str) and the bottom (ignoring prepromoted characters, that would be Setsuna with 225%, i.e. 75% or 80% worse than Elise). Rinkah happens to be closer to the bottom with 255%, although the bigger problem is probably still the combination of average Str base, shit Str growth, and a base E weapon rank (in a game where those grow very slowly, iirc).

(all those numbers are the character's personal growths. The class growths add another 80-ish% to that)

Edited January 15, 2021 by ping

[Ottservia]

5 hours ago, Maof06 said:

Ah, I miss the first few arcs, where everything was still serviceable. It's a shame Fairy Tail ended like this, Mashima's designs are one of the nicest.

I don’t think Fairy Tail is that bad with its fanservice. It’s just sometimes Mashima is too horny for his own good

[Emperor Hardin]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Not much to say, really. He's not particularly different in quality to the rest of the villains in the story.

Right you haven't played through conquest yet?

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Emperor Hardin said:

Right you haven't played through conquest yet?

Not in this playlog, no. I have played it before though obviously.

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

Eh, I think Rinkah is just here to give you access to the Oni class line - I think the only other character who has it is Hinata, his kid Hisame and/or Corrin if you choose so.

The only desirable thing about that classline, as it looks to me, is Death Blow for Critphelia & Berserker shenanigans and perhaps Lancebreaker. Maybe Ltcers could find some use in Shove?

Other than that, solid pair up bot,  +4STR/2DEF, would do again.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

This feels like the stupid “friendly sparring wars” that happened in Advance Wars all the time, and it's only slightly less ridiculous here. Which isn't even remotely less ridiculous enough.

*Proceeds to hit you with a practice missile silo* Yes, there was one during the Dual Strike Yellow Comet meet & greet scuffle IIRC. 

Valkyria Chronicles does this too. Practice bullets I can get, practice tank rounds, grenades, and flamethrowers, not so much. Although I think FE's magic use makes it the less believable of the two, possibly. Practice air-to-ground bombs can be... loaded with lots of colorful paint pigment which if you get covered in, means you dead. Good luck doing the same with lightning bolts.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, I... I have a bad track record with Rinkah. I tried to use her before, but... this game has a nasty habit, like I said, of taking the Hoshidan units who are the first to buck the now-broken gender restrictions (the first female “fighter”, the first male “pegasus knight”, even if they aren't called those things)... and make them terrible at the thing their class is supposed to be good at. Rinkah has a personal strength growth of 25% (becomes 45% when an oni savage), and Subaki has a personal speed growth of 20% (becomes 35% when a sky knight). Charlotte fares much better and is actually genuinely strong, which is cool, so I don't get why they did this with the Hoshidan units.

There have been plenty of cases in FE where base > growth, and where balanced stats have been associated with gameplay godliness. These two Hoshidans (and Hinata too) are failures in both ways.

Although, don't forget Rinkah's Fiery Blood, +4 Str when even 1 HP is missing is great and would be awesome on other units. It's does reduce some of her Str issues. Though Rinkah's HP is low so you may wish to keep her at full health all the time. Maybe if she had less Skl or Spd she could have a good HP growth... except lower Skl would hurt her accuracy (but Clubs are mostly accurate), and lower Spd would be terrible because only Nohrians get Wary Fighter, the absence of which ruins her durability.

Pity points for Rinkah from me.

 

2 hours ago, ping said:

So, just for curiosity's sake, I took a quick look at growth rates in Fates and they are actually incredibly variant, even between "growth units". In some cases, this comes from "mixed" characters that have both a Str and Mag growth - for example, Saizo has 50% Str and 45% Mag, which puts him at the highest growth total in all of Fates (suck on that, Corrin!), but if it wasn't for that, he'd "only" be in the same ballpark as Ryoma and Takumi.

But even disregarding that - there's a huge span between the top (Elise with 305%, only 5% of which are Str) and the bottom (ignoring prepromoted characters, that would be Setsuna with 225%, i.e. 75% or 80% worse than Elise). Rinkah happens to be closer to the bottom with 255%, although the bigger problem is probably still the combination of average Str base, shit Str growth, and a base E weapon rank (in a game where those grow very slowly, iirc).

(all those numbers are the character's personal growths. The class growths add another 80-ish% to that)

I assembled my own growth rate total data some years ago, here it is for Fates.:

Fates Characters:

Spoiler

Fates Personal Growths (might be a little off)

Gunter: 50 Fuga: 100 Reina: 195 Yukimura: 195

Shura: 190 Nyx: 235 Setsuna: 225 Hinata: 235

Subaki: 250 Selena: 250 Orochi: 275 Rinkah: 255 

Arthur: 255 Felicia: 260 Kagero: 270 Flora: 265

Jakob: 265 Hana: 265 Scarlet: 270 Peri: 270

Izana: 290 Niles: 275 Kaze: 280 Takumi: 285

Keaton: 280 Beruka: 280 Oboro: 280 Silas: 285

Charlotte: 285 Laslow: 285 Xander: 290 Kaden: 290

Hayato: 315 Benny: 285 Elise: 305 Hinoka: 305

Azura: 310 Ryoma: 300 Sakura: 310 Odin: 330

Effie: 295 Azama: 310 Camilla: 325 Saizo: 330

Anna: 315 Leo: 325 Mozu: 290 (without the +80 of Aptitude)

 

Children (without parents modding the growths)

Kana: 275 Shigure: 250 Dwyer: 265 Sophie: 280

Midori: 275 Shiro: 285 Kiragi: 280 Asugi: 335

Selkie: 310 Hisame: 245 Mitama: 315 Caeldori: 285

Rhajat: 265 Soleil: 275 Percy: 295 Ignatius: 295

Velouria: 290 Ophelia: 305 Nina: 300 Forrest: 295

Siegbert: 280

Fates Classes:

Spoiler

Fates Class Growths Rates Totals:

Hoshidan: Nohrian:

Hoshido Noble: 85 Nohr Prince(ss): 85

Samurai: 80 Nohr Noble: 85

Sword-master: 85 Cavalier: 75

Master of Arms: 75 Paladin: 80

Oni Savage: 80 Great Knight: 80

Oni Chieftain: 80 Knight: 90

Blacksmith: 80 General: 95 (Awesome!!!!!)

Spear Fighter: 80 Fighter: 80

Spear Master: 80 Berserker: 85

Basara: 90 Hero: 85

Diviner: 60 Mercenary: 80

Onmyoji: 60 Bow Knight: 70

Monk/Shrine Maiden: 75 Outlaw: 75

Great Master: 85 Adventurer: 65

Priestess: 85 Wyvern Rider: 75

Sky Knight: 75 Wyvern Lord: 75

Falcon Knight: 85 Malig Knight: 70

Kinshi Knight: 65 Dark Mage: 55 (Why!?!)

Archer: 70 Sorcerer: 55

Sniper: 75 Dark Knight: 80

Ninja: 70 Troubadour: 70

Master Ninja: 75 Strategist: 65

Mechanist: 70 Butler/Maid: 75

Apothecary: 80 Wolfskin/Wolfssegner: 75

Merchant: 85 Dark Falcon: 80

Kitsune: 85 Ballistician: 65

Nine-Tails: 85 Witch: 70

Songstress: 70 Lodestar: 90

Villager: 70 Vanguard: 75

Dread Fighter: 80 Great Lord: 80

Grandmaster: 80

 

1 hour ago, Imuabicus said:

Eh, I think Rinkah is just here to give you access to the Oni class line - I think the only other character who has it is Hinata, his kid Hisame and/or Corrin if you choose so.

The only desirable thing about that classline, as it looks to me, is Death Blow for Critphelia & Berserker shenanigans and perhaps Lancebreaker. Maybe Ltcers could find some use in Shove?

Other than that, solid pair up bot,  +4STR/2DEF, would do again.

Hayato & daughter have Oni Savage too, he isn't bad there, beyond abysmal Skl. Fuga bring it on Rev, though I leave him in MoA.

Given Hinata's crappy stats, I think at 20/20 SM he beats Ryoma by like 5 HP and 1 Def and otherwise loses out, Hinata likes Oni Savage. But not for offense, can't do that with no Skl or Spd; and not for defense, no Spd, no Res, and no Wary Fighter means dead if a mage sneezes his way.

Hinata's destiny as far as I'm concerned, as you allude to, is to be Defensive Stance fodder. Attached to his partner as the goddess Ganga is to Shiva's hair. And in this regard, Hinata has is pretty good.:

• Swordmaster is +5 Spd if someone needs to be faster.
• Oni Chieftain is +4 Str and +4 Def for physical unit in need of offense or durability. 
• Master of Arms is a balanced +2 Str/Skl/Spd/Def.
• And because Hinata joins at level 10, he can grab a Master Seal whenever and never need see combat for those slightly higher than unpromoted promoted class DS bonuses. +2 Def and +1 Str from support ranks if applicable ain't bad either.

 

As with Rinkah, I pity the Oni Savage classline as a whole. It has no inherently great users among the very few with access to it. Wheres the Flame Tribe Chieftain with awesome stats? I doubly pity Blacksmith, it's a lousy class, very few enemies ever use it, and it shares the weapon types and movement type of Hero, which it seems wholly inferior to.

Edited January 15, 2021 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As with Rinkah, I pity the Oni Savage class, it has no inherently great users of the very few with access to it. Wheres the Flame Tribe Chieftain with awesome stats? I doubly pity Blacksmith, it's a lousy class, very few enemies ever use it, and it shares the weapon types and movement type of Hero, which it seems wholly inferior to.

I remember one time I made Oboro a blacksmith. Salvage blow was pretty fun actually, though I don't remember much else about how well it did.

[Emperor Hardin]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Not in this playlog, no. I have played it before though obviously.

Hans is handled better in revelations from what I remember, I'll say.

[Shadow Mir]

57 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Dark Mage: 55 (Why!?!)

Translation: They noticed that Dark Mages and Sorcerers were overpowered in Awakening, and thus brought the nerf hammer down on them.

2 hours ago, Imuabicus said:

Eh, I think Rinkah is just here to give you access to the Oni class line - I think the only other character who has it is Hinata, his kid Hisame and/or Corrin if you choose so.

The only desirable thing about that classline, as it looks to me, is Death Blow for Critphelia & Berserker shenanigans and perhaps Lancebreaker. Maybe Ltcers could find some use in Shove?

Other than that, solid pair up bot,  +4STR/2DEF, would do again.

And even then, I wouldn't consider Death Blow a must. Their pair up bonuses are good, but it's a shame that that's about the only good thing about them.

57 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

As with Rinkah, I pity the Oni Savage classline as a whole. It has no inherently great users among the very few with access to it. Wheres the Flame Tribe Chieftain with awesome stats? I doubly pity Blacksmith, it's a lousy class, very few enemies ever use it, and it shares the weapon types and movement type of Hero, which it seems wholly inferior to.

Doesn't help that the weapon types of Oni Chieftain clash - what the bloody fuck is a physical unit gonna do with magic when their magic stat is likely gonna be too low to do any real damage???

Edited January 15, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just checked the map to confirm I'm not just imagining things. If Conquest is to be believed, then if you go up the eternal stairway, you're headed away from Izumo, not toward it! What, does the Eternal Stairway somehow go up both fucking ways?

I kind of like the idea of a location that's enchanted/cursed - such that, no matter which way you're going, your destination is always uphill. Not sure that's what they intended with the Eternal Stairway, though.

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway... okay, so a lot of people hate the Conquest version of this map, while I love it. The Revelation one, however... is just fucking annoying. Same problem as last map: nobody's gonna move unless you get close. Which means all of these dang gusts of wind... only serve to waste your time rather than serve as a perpetual terrifying risk of being blown to your death.

The map is way too big for its point in the game - most of your army is unpromoted, and you usually have just one flier at this point. Maybe it could've worked if they trimmed the bottom third off the map, and changed enemy AI so it's not bait-n-switch? Or encourage rushing by having Ninjas threaten to open the chests?

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Man, it would be nice if I could still do screenshots for this, but that would also really slow down the process. Oh well, at least the people reading now can visit Lower Dakota and see what I've been doing with it if they have the game.

It's amusing that this route lets you build the prison several chapters before you even get a unit with the capture skill.

I visited earlier tonight with my Rev Hard Avatar, Cori 2! (Named because my Ironman with Cori 1 ended after taking too long on chapter 6.) Feel free to visit my domain as well.

Also, if you're planning to Capture enemies, good luck getting Orochi... she died to a Ninja, turn one, in my playthrough.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

I visited earlier tonight with my Rev Hard Avatar, Cori 2! (Named because my Ironman with Cori 1 ended after taking too long on chapter 6.) Feel free to visit my domain as well.

Not sure if I'll be doing weekend playlogs, but I'll definitely be visiting over the weekend anyway!

1 minute ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Also, if you're planning to Capture enemies, good luck getting Orochi... she died to a Ninja, turn one, in my playthrough.

I'm usually not that huge on capturing enemies. Usually because I've gotten bad luck with Niles' growth rates, causing him to never stay useful for long despite all the talk I've heard about him being good. He's one of the two guys in Nohr I've never gotten married to anyone for that reason, the other being Odin. I'm gonna try and change that. I'd like to get as many of the children as I can between the three playlogs.

[Samz707]

25 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Not sure if I'll be doing weekend playlogs, but I'll definitely be visiting over the weekend anyway!

I'm usually not that huge on capturing enemies. Usually because I've gotten bad luck with Niles' growth rates, causing him to never stay useful for long despite all the talk I've heard about him being good. He's one of the two guys in Nohr I've never gotten married to anyone for that reason, the other being Odin. I'm gonna try and change that. I'd like to get as many of the children as I can between the three playlogs.

So what difficulty would you recommend for Fates? will probably start either Birthright/Conquest sometime next week, assuming I don't procrastinate.

I'm curious, I know in Thracia it was so you could steal equipment but what's the point of capturing units in Fates?

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

So what difficulty would you recommend for Fates? will probably start either Birthright/Conquest sometime next week, assuming I don't procrastinate.

If you're decent at Fire Emblem and playing Fates for the first time, do hard. Normal mode gets rid of the skills that are a big part of what makes Conquest so interesting. I also highly recommend doing a blind ironman if that sounds fun. Fates was my first ironman and it practically spoiled me with how good it was.

 

5 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

I'm curious, I know in Thracia it was so you could steal equipment but what's the point of capturing units in Fates?

You throw them in jail in My Castle and then try to convince them to join you through persuasion and bribery. They don't have great growth rates generally, though the named bosses generally have better ones. But they can have some awesome skills and utility (just keep in mind any Lunatic-only skills won't be there when you recruit them).

Edited January 16, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

28 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

So what difficulty would you recommend for Fates? will probably start either Birthright/Conquest sometime next week, assuming I don't procrastinate.

I'm curious, I know in Thracia it was so you could steal equipment but what's the point of capturing units in Fates?

Hard if you're playing it for the first time.

There isn't much of one imho.

55 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm usually not that huge on capturing enemies. Usually because I've gotten bad luck with Niles' growth rates, causing him to never stay useful for long despite all the talk I've heard about him being good. He's one of the two guys in Nohr I've never gotten married to anyone for that reason, the other being Odin. I'm gonna try and change that. I'd like to get as many of the children as I can between the three playlogs.

That reminds me, Niles NEVER turned out good for me at all, which is why I much prefer his daughter Nina. It doesn't help that a huge majority of the capturable bosses are criminals and thugs.

Edited January 16, 2021 by Shadow Mir