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

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I don't think kaze's the kind of unit you're going to send around the map soloing things by himself. Kaze's best strengths are fighting with others and activating dual strikes.

What can I say? I got away with it playing blind on hard.

[Jotari]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

What can I say? I got away with it playing blind on hard.

Hey, it is absolutely possible I'm way off base and this scripted sequence has affected way more people than I'd estimate. I'm sure if it did happen to me on my first playthrough of it then I would be significantly more pissed and unforgiving of the whole affair.

Edited February 20, 2021 by Jotari

[Stones]

In my Birthright playthrough I only got the A support in the previous chapter, and I knew I needed it in advance. On Hard Kaze can definitely do a lot of work by himself if you staple Rinkah onto him. When I reclassed Corrin into Ninja, he stopped being able to 1RKO due to the Strength and Might loss, so Kaze was one of the few, if not only, units I had that could 1-round on EP for a while.

[lenticular]

30 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Hey, it is absolutely possible I'm way off base and this scripted sequence has affected way more people than I'd estimate. I'm sure if it did happen to me on my first playthrough of it then I would be significantly more pissed and unforgiving of the whole affair.

I think the egregious and frankly baffling thing here isn't necessarily how many players it screws over, but more that it does so without really benefiting anyone else in return. Design trade-offs are absolutely a thing and sometimes it is desirable or even necessary to screw over a small percentage of the player base if it's going to create a better experience for everyone else. Like the problems that I had with recruitment by not picking up any S supports. The mechanics around that undoubtedly made the game worse for me, but it provides benefit to other players so I can at least understand the design decisions there even if I don't agree with them. With Kaze's cut scene death, I can easily imagine people for whom it would be a negative and people who would be fairly neutral on it but I have a hard time imagining the people and the circumstances where it would actually be a positive experience.

And another problem is that even for people who aren't using Kaze at all, it's still a negative experience because it breeds paranoia. Once a game shows me that it's willing to completely arbitrarily kill off a character, then I'm always going to be wondering if it's going to do it again. In turn, that means I'm not going to want to get too invested in any character, just in case, which is never good. If one of my characters dies and it doesn't elicit any sort of emotional response -- either for the gameplay or the story loss -- then that's a sign the game messed up somewhere.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, lenticular said:

And another problem is that even for people who aren't using Kaze at all, it's still a negative experience because it breeds paranoia. Once a game shows me that it's willing to completely arbitrarily kill off a character, then I'm always going to be wondering if it's going to do it again. In turn, that means I'm not going to want to get too invested in any character, just in case, which is never good. If one of my characters dies and it doesn't elicit any sort of emotional response -- either for the gameplay or the story loss -- then that's a sign the game messed up somewhere.

Shit, I hadn't even considered that aspect. It didn't make me paranoid, but yeah, it totally could have. And if there's anything my playlogs of Thracia, Binding Blade and New Mystery will indicate, it's that I hate it when a game makes the player paranoid.

[Jotari]

40 minutes ago, lenticular said:

I think the egregious and frankly baffling thing here isn't necessarily how many players it screws over, but more that it does so without really benefiting anyone else in return. Design trade-offs are absolutely a thing and sometimes it is desirable or even necessary to screw over a small percentage of the player base if it's going to create a better experience for everyone else. Like the problems that I had with recruitment by not picking up any S supports. The mechanics around that undoubtedly made the game worse for me, but it provides benefit to other players so I can at least understand the design decisions there even if I don't agree with them. With Kaze's cut scene death, I can easily imagine people for whom it would be a negative and people who would be fairly neutral on it but I have a hard time imagining the people and the circumstances where it would actually be a positive experience.

And another problem is that even for people who aren't using Kaze at all, it's still a negative experience because it breeds paranoia. Once a game shows me that it's willing to completely arbitrarily kill off a character, then I'm always going to be wondering if it's going to do it again. In turn, that means I'm not going to want to get too invested in any character, just in case, which is never good. If one of my characters dies and it doesn't elicit any sort of emotional response -- either for the gameplay or the story loss -- then that's a sign the game messed up somewhere.

And that goes back to what I was saying about how I'd feel much better about it if it were a more integrated aspect of the plot. Like if you're using it to enhance the story, even though it's equally as shitty in terms of gameplay, it could potentially make the plot better if this was a significantly invested moment of the story wherein taking the right actions could save the character, but they don't even remotely do that. Kaze just literally dies out of absolutely nowhere with the flimsiest justification imaginable. So, yeah, you're absolutely right, I can't think of any scenario where this moment would be considered a positive for a player. As I noted I saved Kaze on my first playthrough, but my reaction wasn't "Oh good job, I saved Kaze," it was "Well that was a really weird scene. What was the point of that? Is Kaze going to do something important in the following chapters? No? Then what was all that about?"

[Interdimensional Observer]

Since I skipped every story scene, I didn't notice Kaze died on my first BR playthrough. Because I had done CQ first, I wanted to use Saizo as my ninja for a change. I didn't realize the absence of Kaze until long after the fact.

[Shadow Mir]

You know, I like the approach this game takes to weapons, but on the other hand, I feel that they went too far with some weapons... For one, the Spellbane Yumi. On paper, it's like the Swordcatcher, Pike-Ruin Club, and Axe Splitter. EXCEPT....unlike those weapons, it's got WTD against the weapons it's meant to be used on, meaning its already suspect accuracy goes further into the gutter. Oh, and as an extra kick in the nuts, even against those weapons, you'd probably be better using a Dual Yumi instead. What in Anankos's name is the point of a weapon that can't even be relied on to counter the weapon it's supposed to be effective against?! Then we have Beruka's Axe, as well as the "Great" Club.  I cannot fathom how the devs thought that a sightly better crit rate than a Killer Axe, which is already not that useful a weapon, is worth putting up with the litany of serious downsides the former has... or how they can think an astounding crit rate makes up for a laughable 45 hit.

Edited February 21, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 6: Invasion 1

So I unlock the B conversation with Azura and yet again the game makes ridiculous light of the continent's size, acting like a trip to the Northern Fortress was so trivial Elise could afford to come and visit literally every day. Of course we don't know how far away the Northern Fortress is, as far as I can tell, but still, it can't be that close...

Everyone gets a fox tail today, because I just got my first one and everyone should have one!

...And I'd like everyone to be able to send me more if they want.

After that... ahhhh... it's nice to actually have enough DVP and castle space to actually build everything available. Revelation is just a complete overload of stuff. Okay then, time to see what we've got to deal with today.

...Let's start with the invasion, because why not? I've been putting that off but should really do it.

First off I'll forge Silas an iron naginata called the NagintaNaginta, because while a single point of defense and resistance may not seem like much, when switching from katanas it's a boost of +2.

Amusingly, “Naginta Naginta”, with a space, almost fit, but “a” is just a bit too big. The game doesn't actually have a character limit, it has a space limit. I could've easily made a “Naginta Nagintf”, but an “a” was too wide for the space I had left by the end.

Alright, seems pretty straightforward. The only one really in a position to get anything out of this is Subaki, who I'd like to get a level or two for next chapter. Hence why I'm having him take on the east side.

Really, nobody's in danger. The treehouse and record hall buff everyone's offense and defense by three, and the enemies do so little damage at this point (it's been a few chapters since I first could select this) that even Azura can survive combat with two of them at once. Everyone else is damned near indestructible.

Plus, the enemies prioritize killing buildings and puppets generally, and unfortunately the puppets start equipped with their bows so they're sitting ducks. I never built the things on my first run of Birthright, so my first introduction to the fuckers was in Conquest Chapter 17. Holy shit are these things freaky. Those heavy-debuff buzzsaws that come out of their fucking faces... pure unleaded nightmare fuel.

...But yeah, this was a Birthright invasion several chapters stale, so no big deal. I did manage to get Subaki a pretty good level up, boosting speed and defense, and a support with Hinoka that's gonna come in handy.

That was short, but not unbearably short like usual, and it was a reasonably self-contained little conversation about Hinoka's early days as a sky knight.

Alright, another visit to the arena. The first one today had Takumi and Azura just completely stomp the enemy in the first set of attacks, which was fun. Kaze did pretty well here too, getting a crit on the first attack and getting his incredibly badass crit quote “The pain will pass.”

...I apparently got two more fox tails in the last 24 hours. You guys are the best. Especially since I haven't even posted the request for them yet.

Anyway, on to Chapter 11.

 

Day 6 Bonus: Chapter 11

...They used the same voice grunt for Takumi two lines in a row. Annoying.

But yeah, Zola's still a thing.

...It's unclear how long Dakota and company have been on this boat, but assuming they just left port, “The captain even says we could reach Nohr tomorrow with favorable winds” implies that a boat ride across the ocean takes a day at best. Especially since Sakura says that Dakota's “been out here for hours”.

So yeah, the game's sense of space and time is completely and totally borked.

But yeah, this was a fun chapter to write in Dakota's War Journal. See, the whole “with favorable winds” thing set me off because this was clearly a steamboat, with waterwheel paddles and no visible sails. So I wrote that this caused Dakota to realize the captain was a Nohrian impostor, then he tied him up, hung him upside down from the ship's bow, and started interrogating him Batman style with his pet wyvern Gigi.

...Only to be told by Azura that, as I had googled at the time to check when I heard this line, apparently the wind significantly affects travel speed even for boats without sails.

Anyway, Vallite soldiers, including Sumeragi, show up to harass our ship, and only now does the game treat Azura as fragile in cutscenes, having Kaze step in to protect her.

Now time for battle, and...

...Aw, this was a lot more fun when I had another reclassed flier, specifically Dakota as a wyvern rider. It looks like I won't actually be able to safely do my favorite part of this map, which is the actual aerial combat surrounding the boat. I love taking my fliers down south to fight a lot of the southern enemies. But I may have to adjust my plans slightly, or at least wait until I've successfully recruited Reina, because right now Hinoka and Subaki don't have the best of odds against those wyverns. I was thinking of maybe adding another flier to the mix with a heart seal, but... I don't have any heart seals. Early birthright is annoyingly stingy with them.

...Yeah, I'll at least tonic up Hinoka and Subaki and see if things get more favorable for them once Reina shows up and the initial enemies are cleared.

At any rate, this mission shouldn't be hard. All of the enemies are fliers, and there's a set of really cool dragon veins that lets you make terrain that fliers, and only fliers, are slowed down by. It's not exactly the most tactically demanding dragon vein in the game, but it is pretty dang fun to use.

Dakota's going to start building her supports with Hana, and Silas is gonna start building his supports with Kagero. I've decided Silas will marry Kagero instead of Hana because I really want to try out this cool master ninja build I've heard about with him. Dakota, if she gets over the hump she's in, will need swordmaster access eventually, so she's gotta endure becoming besties with Little Miss Victim-Blamer..

Reina shows up on turn 1 neutral phase and lands close enough to Dakota to be recruited turn 2. She's really good for this map. Kinshi knights are tons of fun. Anti-air fliers are such a cool idea, I'm glad they made them a thing here.

Subaki gets a second good level up! Fascinating! Maybe there's some future for him yet! My hope at the moment is to use him long enough to get Caeldori, one of the kids I rarely get. I only got her once before.

Oh yeah, Subaki and Hinoka are doing just fine with the help of Reina's dual strikes.

Man, Silas is turning out great. At level 13 he's got 12 speed, which I can easily get to doubling range with a pair-up and maybe a tonic, but also 15 strength and 17 defense.

And now sky knights show up to the south, and those are an absolute cakewalk for my fliers. Subaki gets his third consecutive level up where he gains speed. Is this where my Dakota luck has been going?

Only now on the fourth level up does Subaki's speed luck fail, as of course it eventually had to. Still, that was one hell of a head start.

Oh, meanwhile, during all of this, the rest of my army has been huddled up in the tornado we summoned, taking out the fliers as they come to us. Once the coast is clear, we're gonna head for the boss, but not before reaching the bow of the ship and triggering the reinforcement with a droppable... I think it's a snake spirit? I didn't know this was a thing on my first attempt. I don't really want the tome, just the money I can get from selling it, because it's a pretty high level one.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA NOPE! Gotta retreat! The entire rest of the map just charged my three fliers' location! They're heading back to the rest of my army so we can take these guys out.

SUBAKI GOT SPEED AGAIN!

And a convenient inconvenient kinshi knight reinforcement showed up last minute just as I was about to kill the last wyvern rider and finish the map, so I used the time to perform the dark ritual to summon the snake spirit malig knight so I can finish this map with all the treasure, including the illusory yumi the kinshi knight spawned with.

Amusingly, the two pine branches I forged together as a joke wound up being absurdly useful here for doing heavy damage with Hinoka. It's not as inaccurate as I thought it would be, thanks to attack stance.

And Mozu finishes off the kinshi knight and ends the map.

Blah blah blah, Zola “redeems” himself by saving Takumi when he knew full well a healer would be nearby, meaningless character development, yada yada yada...

Oof! Saizo got supports with three separate people this map thanks to his religious dual-striking.

Well let's check them out, starting with Dakota.

Okay, while this is mostly textbook “I don't trust you” dialogue, this exchange was pretty damned funny:

Saizo: I'm keeping thorough surveillance notes on you, you know.

Dakota: Yes, the “Surveillance Notes–Dakota” on your notebook suggested as much.

Though these lines get a bit less funny when Saizo and the avatar aren't the same sex:

Saizo: All you need to know is that I'm watching you. Always.

Dakota: Even when–

Saizo: ESPECIALLY then.

The support with Saizo and Sakura is way too short. Would've been nice if we saw some buildup to the mission that went wrong for Saizo and that Sakura saved him from.

Saizo apparently still doesn't trust Azura after all this time, which is frankly ridiculous. This is less comical and more serious than the Dakota support though, and while it's annoying that they recycled motivations, I do like that we get to see the difference in their reactions to being told someone doesn't trust them.

Now for Kagero and Silas.

Ah yes, I forgot. Kagero is absolutely atrocious at art.

...I'm suddenly highly compelled to see if Unassuming Venusaur has an Azura x Kagero support set made so I can see how a non-generic, fan-made support would tackle the artistic contrast between Kagero and Shigure.

...There's an Azura x Kagero set, but not a parent-child Kagero Shigure support set that I can find.

...Anyway, back to this.

Okay, so it's not clear if her art is bad, the implication is more that it's just... absurdly dark and morbid even though she isn't trying to do that.

Sakura and Azura. Seen it.

Alright, Silas and Dakota's B. Yeah, honestly, the whole “forgotten best friend” thing just seems super dumb. They don't really do enough with it in my opinion. But I do like part of the next support, though we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Anyway, I did some castle maintenance, and with that, I'm done. Tomorrow we'll be tackling the opera house chapter, which is where we get Kaden, a member of the less-fun shifter class, the kitsune. Thankfully I know full well how to cheese this. Figured it out on my first attempt and I've been having fun exploiting the strategy ever since. Long-time readers might remember what it is. Everyone else will find out tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Shadow Mir]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, Vallite soldiers, including Sumeragi, show up to harass our ship

Why does he even show up here anyway? Because that's a serious headscratcher, considering he doesn't show up any more after this.

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, I did some castle maintenance, and with that, I'm done. Tomorrow we'll be tackling the opera house chapter, which is where we get Kaden, a member of the less-fun shifter class, the kitsune. Thankfully I know full well how to cheese this. Figured it out on my first attempt and I've been having fun exploiting the strategy ever since. Long-time readers might remember what it is. Everyone else will find out tomorrow.

Lemme guess, have Corrin hitch a ride with a flier to the escape point.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Lemme guess, have Corrin hitch a ride with a flier to the escape point.

Not exactly.

[Shadow Mir]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Not exactly.

Is it Rope-a-Xander?

Anyway, I started a BR Lunatic run not too long ago. I seriously must question why in the name of Mila people hype Mozu up, because once I got to her paralogue and saw that she does next to nothing with a reclass, I immediately went "nope, this cannot be worth it, especially when I get Takumi later".

Edited February 22, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I don't have any heart seals. Early birthright is annoyingly stingy with them.

You could just visit a castle with max rank staff/rod shop to buy one.

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Subaki gets a second good level up! Fascinating! Maybe there's some future for him yet! My hope at the moment is to use him long enough to get Caeldori, one of the kids I rarely get. I only got her once before.

If you ever play Revelation again, you should try for a Selena!Caeldori, as they have a unique parent-child support that is rather interesting to see...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Though these lines get a bit less funny when Saizo and the avatar aren't the same sex:

Saizo: All you need to know is that I'm watching you. Always.

Dakota: Even when–

Saizo: ESPECIALLY then.

...Yeah that is kinda creepy...in general, not just with a female Corrin. It creeps me out in the same way Fredric posting naked pictures of Chrom all over camp kinda creeps me out. I think its that they are both played for laughs...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Anyway, I did some castle maintenance, and with that, I'm done. Tomorrow we'll be tackling the opera house chapter, which is where we get Kaden, a member of the less-fun shifter class, the kitsune. Thankfully I know full well how to cheese this. Figured it out on my first attempt and I've been having fun exploiting the strategy ever since. Long-time readers might remember what it is. Everyone else will find out tomorrow.

I honestly don't remember, but I kinda hope its using Oboro at the one tile choke point to whittle down Xander's crew to dust.

 

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

You could just visit a castle with max rank staff/rod shop to buy one.

I completely forgot that was a thing. It's weird how they let you get away with that. Like, why even limit those items if they're going to let you do that?

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

...Yeah that is kinda creepy...in general, not just with a female Corrin.

To be clear, if the genders were reversed, I'd find it pretty much just as creepy. The reason it didn't register to me as creepy with a male Corrin was because the whole "same sex" thing kinda kept the voyeuristic implications from really being there. I mean the castle has a hot spring with gender-segregated public bathing and all.

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Anyway, I started a BR Lunatic run not too long ago. I seriously must question why in the name of Mila people hype Mozu up, because once I got to her paralogue and saw that she does next to nothing with a reclass, I immediately went "nope, this cannot be worth it, especially when I get Takumi later".

It's called a growth unit.

On 2/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alastor15243 said:

The strategy here is pretty similar to how I did it last time: feed as many kills into Mozu as humanly possible. Key difference being that Mozu is now bowlocked and has worse starting stats.

I've got Silas with Hana support, Dakota with Kaze support, Sakura with Subaki support, and then Azura and Jakob on their own. While Silas can't one-round yet, he can double with a katana and Hana support, if just barely. Pity tonics wouldn't have made a difference either for finishing off enemies with a katana or for letting him double with a steel sword. But with Azura's help I'm managing, and we're making it to Mozu at a reasonable pace.

We've got Mozu. Alright, awesome. Making her an archer now.

 

 

On 2/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alastor15243 said:

But Mozu got her first level, and she got everything but magic and res! Awesome start! And Silas also got a level up from his killing dual strike, and got... everything but magic and luck! Even better!

Mozu's second level up was the same but unfortunately missed strength, which is a shame. But still, she's making a ton of progress.

 

On 2/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alastor15243 said:

...Not as much as I'm used to though. I usually have Mozu chip away at enemies without the assistance of dual strikes, which obviously gets her more hits in and adds in some extra chip exp. I didn't do that this time, and as a result we're nearing the end of the level and I've only gotten her to level 4 with 72 exp, which is way less than I'm used to. Still, it should be no issue getting her up to speed as long as she keeps providing chip damage. Plus, there's still the boss.

...A boss she can't hurt.

...Not without dual strikes.

 

 

On 2/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alastor15243 said:

Mozu's fourth level up was total shit. HP and magic. Oh well. We all have our bad days. Once she hits level 10 I have no doubt she'll be a total monster with quick draw.

Mozu's fifth level up was another comparative dud, though on anyone else the sheer fact that she got speed at this early point in the game would have delighted me.

And after finishing off the last two, we're done!

 

 

On 2/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alastor15243 said:

Mozu, on the other hand, has reached the point where she can one-round enemies with a little help from Setsuna for speed and strength.

 

Aaaand Mozu just learned quick draw. That's 8 more damage per round of combat if she doubles. Oh, it's gonna be smooth sailing with her from now on.

 

 

On 2/18/2021 at 2:26 AM, Alastor15243 said:

...And that's it for the day. Alright, that was nice and productive. We got Mozu from zero to hero in the span of two chapters, meaning we've got one more vital and powerful ally for the next chapter... which could get nasty.

 

You might not have the patience or tactical skills to actually spend a chapter and a half getting her levels, but the reason people say she's good is because she is. Here are her 20/20 stats as a Sniper compared to Takumi's

Character	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu	37	31	5.7	36	34	25.8	26.9	18.2
Takumi	44.8	29	0	38	30.4	28	24.6	10.6

 

As you can see, Takumim has the edge on her in HP and a little bit on skill (quite irrelevant as they're both going to be very accurate), but Mozu is stronger, faster, slightly more defense and a lot more res. Takumi, while an easier unit to use thanks to his joining bases and prf weapon, is, if you put in the effort, not a better unit than Mozu. And taking these 20/20 stats are deceptive, because archer Mozu caps her speed at Level 11 as a Sniper, that's really early for any unit to be capping stats. She is a super fast unit in otherwords (and that's very useful in a game like Fates). She also caps skill at level 15 and strength at level 18. The only stat Takumi ever caps naturally is skill.

So yeah, Mozu is good. You don't have to train her, but she's good.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

7 hours ago, Jotari said:

You might not have the patience or tactical skills to actually spend a chapter and a half getting her levels, but the reason people say she's good is because she is. Here are her 20/20 stats as a Sniper compared to Takumi's

C'mon now, using 20/20 averages to assess a unit's quality is the oldest pitfall in the book. A more significant question is, how much work does it take to get her there? Archer!Mozu, with E-Bows, starts off in rougher shape than Takumi. Even Setsuna, whom I'd consider to be a bad unit, has an easier start. That doesn't mean Mozu lacks potential - the potential is absolutely there, and she can be formed into a great unit. But she starts out weak, and not training her may not be a sign of impatience, but simply of not wanting to exhaust turns, or of preferring to invest EXP in another unit.

[Jotari]

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

C'mon now, using 20/20 averages to assess a unit's quality is the oldest pitfall in the book. A more significant question is, how much work does it take to get her there? Archer!Mozu, with E-Bows, starts off in rougher shape than Takumi. Even Setsuna, whom I'd consider to be a bad unit, has an easier start. That doesn't mean Mozu lacks potential - the potential is absolutely there, and she can be formed into a great unit. But she starts out weak, and not training her may not be a sign of impatience, but simply of not wanting to exhaust turns, or of preferring to invest EXP in another unit.

Could have put more focus on it, but I did address that.

9 hours ago, Jotari said:

You might not have the patience or tactical skills to actually spend a chapter and a half getting her levels, but the reason people say she's good is because she is. Here are her 20/20 stats as a Sniper compared to Takumi's

 

Character	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu	37	31	5.7	36	34	25.8	26.9	18.2
Takumi	44.8	29	0	38	30.4	28	24.6	10.6

 

As you can see, Takumim has the edge on her in HP and a little bit on skill (quite irrelevant as they're both going to be very accurate), but Mozu is stronger, faster, slightly more defense and a lot more res. Takumi, while an easier unit to use thanks to his joining bases and prf weapon, is, if you put in the effort, not a better unit than Mozu. And taking these 20/20 stats are deceptive, because archer Mozu caps her speed at Level 11 as a Sniper, that's really early for any unit to be capping stats. She is a super fast unit in otherwords (and that's very useful in a game like Fates). She also caps skill at level 15 and strength at level 18. The only stat Takumi ever caps naturally is skill.

So yeah, Mozu is good. You don't have to train her, but she's good.

And saying Takumi is not a better unit that Mozu doesn't mean I'm suggesting Takumi is a worse unit either. I did consider comparing 20/15 caps as that's when you start getting the final skills, but I actually decided against that for the reason that it would make Mozu look too good as she caps her stats a lot earlier than Takumi. But sure, for the fun of it, let's throw up some more stats for compraison.

Name	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu 0/11	20	11.5	0.5	14.5	14	7	8.5	5
Takumi 0/11	26	13	0	17	11	13	10	4
Mozu 20/1	25.6	18.45	0.95	23.35	24.3	12.5	14.55	8.7
Takumi 20/1	33.4	19.5	0	26.75	19.95	18.5	16.05	6.8

 

So as we can see from comparing Archer!Mozu's stats at the level Takumi joins and their stats upon promotion to a Sniper (though personally I always prefer Kinshi Knight over Sniper, shame it kind of removes the use of Takumi's exclusive acrobat skill), Mozu is already faster than Takumi from the start, which could be very important if you're facing enemies you can't double (probably more of a concern in Revelation than Birthright). By the time they're promoting they're pretty comparable in everything, Takumi's main strength over her is being bulky (which isn't the biggest strength for an archer).

I'm not saying anyone is ever forcing you to use Mozu, or that she's naturally even all that better than Takumi. She has a rough start, that's why I included the quotes from Alastor saying that he needed to use dual attacks and that she couldn't even damage the boss. My point isn't to say she's superior to Takumi, but these are the reasons people like Mozu. She's a character you have to put in effort in, but the effort gives results. That being said, the thing Alastor did in his Revalation run and making her a Dread Fighter is the best path for Mozu, as the base stats of a promoted class on a level 1 unit super help her around her early start.

Name	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu Dread Fighter 0/11	22.5	14.5	4	12.5	17	5.5	10	15
Takumi 0/11	26	13	0	17	11	13	10	4
Mozu Dread Fighter 20/1	27	20	5	18	24	10	14	20
Takumi 20/1	33.4	19.5	0	26.75	19.95	18.5	16.05	6.8

 

Dread Fighter Mozu outstrips Takumi not only in speed, but strength too, and a Resistance stat that's actually worth a damn making her a great anti mage unit, course any Dread Fighter would be, the point is to combine early relative stat gains with good growths to remove her weakness of really struggling to kill things at first.

So, yeah, strength and speed are the reason to use Mozu. You have to baby her for two or so chapters before she starts actually getting that strength stat (she literally starts at 0, which is a bit ridiculous). Takumi is a fine unit too (his personal skill is definitely better than Mozu's whose is too situational and on a unit you don't really want to be tanking tonnes of hits anyway), though neither of them are even as close to as good as Rymoa.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Jotari

[lenticular]

23 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Plus, the enemies prioritize killing buildings and puppets generally, and unfortunately the puppets start equipped with their bows so they're sitting ducks. I never built the things on my first run of Birthright, so my first introduction to the fuckers was in Conquest Chapter 17. Holy shit are these things freaky. Those heavy-debuff buzzsaws that come out of their fucking faces... pure unleaded nightmare fuel.

That does sound like nightmare fuel, and I am kinda glad that I have never seen it. But the fact that I haven't ever seen it does remind me of something I wanted to bring up. How do people generally feel about the pace of combat animations in Fates? For me, this was one of the biggest downsides of the dual attack and dual guard system. Having nearly every attack have two extra animations compared to other games made everything feel soooo sloooooow. Maybe not quite PoR levels of slow, but still slow. I ended up turning combat animations off to speed things up a bit, and I normally keep them on in most FE games.

23 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Reina shows up on turn 1 neutral phase and lands close enough to Dakota to be recruited turn 2. She's really good for this map. Kinshi knights are tons of fun. Anti-air fliers are such a cool idea, I'm glad they made them a thing here.

Agree with this completely. Of all the Fates classes, this is probably the one that I would most like to see return in future games. Not only are they super fun to use, but enemy Kinshi Knights are also a genuine threat to the player's own fliers, and can help keep down their power level a little bit. Such a good class.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, lenticular said:

That does sound like nightmare fuel, and I am kinda glad that I have never seen it. But the fact that I haven't ever seen it does remind me of something I wanted to bring up. How do people generally feel about the pace of combat animations in Fates? For me, this was one of the biggest downsides of the dual attack and dual guard system. Having nearly every attack have two extra animations compared to other games made everything feel soooo sloooooow. Maybe not quite PoR levels of slow, but still slow. I ended up turning combat animations off to speed things up a bit, and I normally keep them on in most FE games.

I kind of have a habit of just holding down the A button during combat animations to speed them up and make them more snappy. To the point that the normal animations feel like they're going in slow motion.

[Shadow Mir]

12 hours ago, Jotari said:

It's called a growth unit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You might not have the patience or tactical skills to actually spend a chapter and a half getting her levels, but the reason people say she's good is because she is. Here are her 20/20 stats as a Sniper compared to Takumi's

 

Character	HP	Str	Mag	Skl	Spd	Lck	Def	Res
Mozu	37	31	5.7	36	34	25.8	26.9	18.2
Takumi	44.8	29	0	38	30.4	28	24.6	10.6

 

As you can see, Takumim has the edge on her in HP and a little bit on skill (quite irrelevant as they're both going to be very accurate), but Mozu is stronger, faster, slightly more defense and a lot more res. Takumi, while an easier unit to use thanks to his joining bases and prf weapon, is, if you put in the effort, not a better unit than Mozu. And taking these 20/20 stats are deceptive, because archer Mozu caps her speed at Level 11 as a Sniper, that's really early for any unit to be capping stats. She is a super fast unit in otherwords (and that's very useful in a game like Fates). She also caps skill at level 15 and strength at level 18. The only stat Takumi ever caps naturally is skill.

So yeah, Mozu is good. You don't have to train her, but she's good.

Being a growth unit is one thing, but I consider having the bases to actually contribute from the start more important, which Mozu does not (and I'm pretty sure there are growth units in this franchise that don't require me to basically bend over backwards for their sake); Archer Mozu has even worse bases - and starts worse than - Setsuna, who a lot of us would say is pretty terrible. Anyway, aside from the fact that 20/20 stats are practically meaningless because they're not going to be relevant for very long, if at all, I cannot buy into Mozu being good when most of the people who defend her are like "Mozu is good if you feed her entire paralogue to her!"; I don't know about you, but I consider the fact that that's about the only defense I see for her extremely telling, on top of the fact that it makes me do a double take and think, to quote Arete, "What arrant nonsense" (she says this in Heirs of Fate V). How can I buy into someone being good when all her defenders admit to blatant favoritism, which slowing down to a Magcargo's pace to feed her most of her paralogue is?

Edited February 23, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Axie]

i always turn combat animations off lol. i don't even think i've seen the puppet animations to be honest. might have to youtube that.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Shadow Mir said:

I cannot buy into Mozu being good when most of the people who defend her are like "Mozu is good if you feed her entire paralogue to her!"; I don't know about you, but I consider the fact that that's about the only defense I see for her extremely telling, on top of the fact that it makes me do a double take and think, to quote Arete, "What arrant nonsense" (she says this in Heirs of Fate V).

Why shouldn't you feed her entire paralogue to her? Who else is going to get as much of a power gain from those enemies? She's level 1. Even when playing efficiently you can get her six levels in her join chapter if you're clever about your setup.

 

[Shadow Mir]

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Why shouldn't you feed her entire paralogue to her? Who else is going to get as much of a power gain from those enemies? She's level 1. Even when playing efficiently you can get her six levels in her join chapter if you're clever about your setup.

 

Because she does next to nothing to the enemies, and it incurs a massive opportunity cost in the form of a Heart Seal, which is limited for a huge chunk of the game. Am I supposed to believe that something that valuable is better spent babying Mozu than having Felicia get Inspiration early or something? Because that is a very, very, VERY hard sell.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 7: Chapter 12

Alright, so, I just did all my stuff for today, including giving everyone a smithy shield. Reminder that you can make requests for what I send everyone!

Anyway, the morning treehouse visit managed to top off my C support with Hana, so, let's endure this dumpster fire and get it over with.

There's really only one line I need to quote from this to really get across how garbage it is:

Hana: Lady Sakura has spent years being sad over your kidnapping. I've watched her try and hide the tears countless times. And I don't like someone who makes my best friend cry!

Yeah, so, someone's a walking pile of trash. I think that is the single dumbest reason to hate someone I have ever seen. It's not the worst support in Fire Emblem (a high bar to reach given that there's an “S support” that essentially boils down to forced marriage via threat of cannibalism played for comedy), and it's not even the worst support in Fates (given the existence of Peri and Soleil), but hooooooly shit does this support just piss me off. Like, Hana, seriously, what the fuck is your damage that this would even cross your mind as a conclusion to come to?

Anyway, on with the map proper.

Now we're meeting Kaden, and I'm super torn on whether I love or hate why Kaden's here. The idea of somebody who's obsessed with repaying kindness wandering out of his village one day and getting into this ridiculous chain of favor-repaying that gets him halfway across the continent is dumb as shit... but also hilarious and adorable.

Also, Kaden going “Lemme introduce you to my new friend” and then it cuts to a hysterical sobbing woman... there's just something darkly humorous about that.

The text line is “I don't think that you can”, but the voice line is “I don't think you can”, and I'm like seriously?

It's funny that Kaden considers our plan to be helping Layla out. True, we're getting Layla off the hook to go visit her dying mother, but we're also assassinating her customer while Azura's disguised as her.

...Okay, not assassinate, just capture. And I guess the ruse would be revealed shortly after. Still, one, the second it's revealed that it's Azura and not Layla, Layla's boss is gonna have some questions about where she's run off to without leave to skip town. Second, it's kinda hilarious that Layla's present for this whole conversation and doesn't seem to be all that concerned about the fact that these people are exploiting the situation here and using her likeness to kidnap a foreign king in neutral territory.

...I hope nothing bad happened to Layla in Conquest. Hell, in Revelation too, though for different reasons.

Ohhhhh, Elise is sad! Oh sweetie, don't cry...!

I wonder why Dakota has that “What are you doing!?” reaction when Azura starts singing “Lost in Thoughts All Alone”. Would the Nohrians recognize it? Would Dakota have any cause to think that the Nohrians would recognize it? But whatever the case, her concerns are never explained and nothing comes of it.

Anyway, we are forced to endure decent singing combined with absolutely atrocious lyrics, while Azura somehow has musical accompaniment for a song that clearly was not on the fucking playbook.

And then of course “(Groans of increasing discomfort)”.

But apparently her song... didn't work somehow. It's never really explained how Zola turning out to still be on Nohr's side managed to prevent the song from working, it just kinda didn't work.

Now, they call this an escape map, but it's hilariously realistic to take out the whole thing, sometimes even including Garon. This isn't like the Conquest escape map where the enemy reinforcements are infinite and have void curse (which I can't wait to gush about). I don't remember how many reinforcements there are, or even if there are any aside from Xander and co, but whatever the case, they are incredibly finite, shall we say.

Okay, so while I definitely remember taking Garon out on hard, with his Lunatic stats it's looking kind of... impossible for my army. Nobody in my army even comes close to having the physical bulk necessary to take a single hit from that fucking axe. Thankfully he doesn't move, so we can just move around him as you're supposed to.

I promoted Sakura at level 12 so that she'll get to rallying levels faster. She's not gonna need super high stats as a staff bot.

Deployment's stricter this time around than last. I had to drop Saizo temporarily in order to bring everyone I wanted to, namely Hinoka, Subaki and Takumi.

Speaking of Takumi, the plan is to have Takumi be my sniper, and have Mozu become a kinshi knight. While they have roughly equivalent weapon ranks and an equal chance to S rank bows, Takumi's personal bow is just way more useful on a ground unit (even though there's one chapter where he'd be able to utterly slaughter as a kinshi knight with that bow), and since there's only one Pursuer in the game, there doesn't seem to be much point at getting more than one sniper.

First action required me to be pretty dang ballsy and player-phase the outlaw on that island of boats with Hinoka, with Subaki dual-striking from the space two above the outlaw. Subaki had to hold the guard naginata in order to survive the dual onslaught from the fighter's hand axe and the great knight's javelin, which was necessary both to buff Hinoka's accuracy to acceptable levels and, hopefully, convince Xander to head over towards the stage when he shows up on enemy phase.

Yep, he and his retainers come in as an ambush spawn. The only ambush spawn in the game I'm pretty sure, and given how far away they are, it barely matters that it's an ambush spawn. Not sure why they chose to do that.

But yeah, I've gotta say, I love the aesthetics of this level. This is a huge theater with a stage surrounded by water, and we're fighting on a makeshift battlefield of gondolas and docks. It's pretty cool. Also, I could've sworn there was some promotional material that showed these gondolas moving between turns, and I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or grateful that that didn't wind up happening. I'm frankly surprised Revelation didn't use that as a gimmick.

Hilariously, positioning Subaki where I did, two spaces north of that outlaw who was on the boats with the fighter, meant that I split up Xander's forces. Xander went to the stage, while both Laslow and Peri went south towards us. I have to assume that's because you can only hit Subaki at his current position if you have a ranged weapon, and only Xander does. So I had to stay in the great knight's range again in order to properly bait Laslow and Peri over by going onto the stage. They're not nearly as dangerous as Xander, but I don't want to deal with them charging towards me just yet.

Yeah, so, this is the trick I alluded to last time. Using fliers to exploit enemy ground pathing to send them on a perpetual wild goose chase as you constantly change which direction they have to go in in order to get to the closest unit. It's how I survived Chapter 6 in Thracia and kept Galzus off my tail, and while I will be taking out Xander here unlike Galzus, I don't want to do it right now.

That said, it's a bit annoying that none of the enemies on this map aside from Xander's crew seem to have any initiative at all. I'm not being charged, they're all just holding their ground with nobody pursuing behind me. Pretty lame, even if the AI manipulation still makes this fun.

Okay, so, I'm gonna have to rush a little if I wanna keep the treasure, because the outlaw just started going on the move.

Thankfully, the outlaw rather idiotically runs back towards me after grabbing the dracoshield, rather than irretrievably into enemy territory where he would've been home free. I wish it were even remotely telegraphed, in, like, any fucking game, where exactly a thief's escape point is.

And after that, basically the entire fucking map charges on us.

Well, looks like it's time for the first use of rescue on this run: getting Takumi to safety after he rushes into enemy territory to kill the outlaw with the dracoshield and the gold, because I do not want to gamble with that shit.

Right now Silas is blocking off one of this map's numerous bottlenecks with a javelin as we slowly whittle away at the enemies in front of us while Hinoka and Subaki do various hit-and-run flying shenanigans to take out the enemies on the boat islands and distract Xander and co.

Almost every single enemy on this map seems to have a javelin or a bow or a hand axe. I wonder what the reason for that is? Is it to avoid us being able to use the water terrain to take potshots at sitting ducks? I figured the outlaws scattered all over the map already took care of that.

I tried to get Dakota some more levels, and I was rewarded with... HP and res.

I'd just like to make this clear for the readers: over the course of 12 level ups, Dakota has gained 7 HP, 8 strength, 3 magic, 9 skill, 7 luck, 5 defense, 3 resistance, and two speed. Her speed stat is at fucking eight.

She is 2 behind in HP, 1.4 ahead in strength, 1 behind in magic, 3 ahead in skill, 4.6 behind in speed, 2.8 ahead in luck, 1 behind in defense, and 1.2 behind in resistance.

I think this is just about the worst avatar I've ever gotten, and if I were using path bonuses, you can bet your ass I'd be giving all the dragon herbs to her. But nope, this is the last straw. Dakota, I'm sorry, but you're gonna be Ryoma's pocket wife this time around. Honestly, I'm almost grateful for an excuse to do this, because I've never married Dakota to a frontliner before. It always seemed so wasteful. But now here there's nothing to waste, and so I can put Dakota's personal skill to amazing use.

As I said we're skipping Garon, who we just now got to on turn 17. While it didn't feel unbearably long, it definitely felt longer than that. Most of the enemies are gone, so we're going to take out the rest and then get Dakota to the exit, probably ferrying her by air.

Peri: I'm gonna bring your guts back to Lord Xander! Teeheehee!

...Does she normally do this? I mean accepting unwanted gifts out of politeness is already awkward enough when the gifts aren't literal intestines.

Yeah, Xander and Garon are way stronger than I remember them being last time I played this, and I remember playing this on Lunatic! Okay, I really can't take out Xander. I'm gonna have to just make a break for it by air. Thankfully I just have to hold out for one more turn, and Silas, while he can't put a dent on Xander, can at least take a beating from him and still survive another gang-up attack from the nearby knight. It helps that I was able to just barely skirt Xander's personal skill by luckily healing Silas up to one shy of full HP.

We escape, and Xander's just instantly right outside with us somehow, but thankfully Elise comes in to stop Xander and buy us time to escape.

And then we're introduced to the physical toll Azura's more powerful song magic takes on her body. The physical toll that, in case you somehow forgot, didn't amount to anything in Revelation for reasons that went completely unexplained.

So I get back and discover I inexplicably got a shitton of visits since I last updated. Did I forget to update yesterday or something? Right now I'm only 885 visits away from getting the visitation emblem, which would definitely be awesome!

Anyway, time for supports.

Jakob and Mozu's support is probably my favorite disgustingly short support conversation in the game so far. Jakob gives Mozu some advice about her grief, which really indicates that Jakob speaks from experience.

Silas and Sakura are just... literally nothing happens except Sakura being too shy to say something.

Suddenly that support between Saizo and Beruka that Nintendo Treehouse turned into a series of “...”s doesn't seem so egregious, given that all the shit like this giving them a shorter distance to fall to rock bottom.

...Hearing anybody without a southern accent say “highfalutin” always feels jarring to me. I used to think the word was “highfaluting” or something, and that what I heard was highfalutin'. But actually I can't think of a concrete example of a place I've heard the word anywhere, so it's weird that I think this way.

But yeah, another insultingly short support.

Takumi and Azura is Takumi being good with kids. I'm going to remember this when he becomes a father, game. Let's hope you stay consistent.

Mozu and Silas get a support too. It's also pretty short, but it's okay, just Silas talking Mozu out of her low-self-esteem defeatist attitude about training. Really weird considering how good she's depicted as being at learning.

Hinoka and Subaki are at rank B, which means the time where I need to keep using Subaki is limited. He's really not that great despite all the hyping up I did about his lucky levels. I checked his stats afterward and holy shit, Hinoka still comically outstrips him in basically everything.

...Yeah, this whole conversation is ridiculously as-you-know-y. It's like they're retelling the story to a third party, it's so weird. Though it's a reasonably nice story once you get past how disgustingly lazily it was told.

Mozu: How does this spring keep producing ore?

Your guess is as good as mine, Mozu.

But yeah, that's it for today. This map wasn't as good as I remember, but I still had some fun with it. Really could've done with some additional pressure to escape, but hey, at least Xander was an interesting obstacle.

Stay safe, everyone!

[Shadow Mir]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'd just like to make this clear for the readers: over the course of 12 level ups, Dakota has gained 7 HP, 8 strength, 3 magic, 9 skill, 7 luck, 5 defense, 3 resistance, and two speed. Her speed stat is at fucking eight.

She is 2 behind in HP, 1.4 ahead in strength, 1 behind in magic, 3 ahead in skill, 4.6 behind in speed, 2.8 ahead in luck, 1 behind in defense, and 1.2 behind in resistance.

Reminds me, my own Corrin has gotten goose egg levels of magic and only 3 speed. Anyway... OUCH. That's pretty bad.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Shadow Mir