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

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wow, that never occurred to me. Might have if I got desperate enough to think of how to cheese it, but no. What was giving you such a hard time?

I might overestimate BR enemies and underestimate my own units.

I remember my men-only BR run got through the onslaught, or another Lunatic run, my memory is hazy besides Dark Flier!Saizo and Kaden paired to Corrin. The one where I know where I had to resort to the assassination was the females-only. I took a few turns to secure the drops, but spent no longer on the map, because another enemy phase would've killed someone.

For dodgetanking, maybe I wasn't stacking enough stuff on Ryoma, but Heroes had scarily-high on the accuracy on him at times on both BR and Rev runs. I have used Ryoma for dodgtanking before to soloing or near-soloing greatness, but usually he has been conditional tanking for me based on enemy composition, I can't bring myself to trust 1 RN that much. For Def-tanking, the problem would've been the Berserkers.

Although, I am simply not as good a player as you.😅

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

To be fair Alastor did use multiple child paralogues just to grind up his troops, so they were probably higher level than yours were, and better able to deal with the hoards...

True, but the only reason that worked is because the enemies in the mainline chapters are for some reason way, way behind the enemies in the paralogue chapters at this point in the game.

[lenticular]

18 hours ago, Jotari said:

Sounds like Radiant Dawn to me.

I guess? Radiant Dawn is a bit of an odd duck, so it's hard to compare. My first reaction was that the base conversations aren't really numerous enough to make up for the loss of support conversations. But then Radiant Dawn has its ridiculously bloated cast which means less screen time per character no matter how you slice it, so it's hard to compare it even with Path of Radiance, and even harder to compare it with a more modern FE that goes heavy on the supports.

19 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

It takes 9 dances to cap support points for a map, and 7 maps (two of those maps only requires three dances to reach the next rank, and one only requires 6 dances, and she has a fast support with Corrin, so even less required for that one) to reach S rank, and there are no restrictions like needing the stats to survive combat, or needing one to be injured to gain support points. You must be playing very fast if you can't afford a total of 48 turns of Azura dancing someone over the course of the game (and that is assuming you don't have some incidental adjacent combats to speed it up, or that the unit you are supporting is never useful enough to be the best option for her dance...). Plus random MyCastle events can push it even faster.

It isn't as simple as just do 48 dances, though. Because of the nuances of the support system, it has to be 48 dances spread across different maps in the right way. Otherwise you'll run into problems with rounding down or with someone else having more support points for the map so you not getting full credit on the pairing you're after. If you're dancing for someone 9 times then that means they're potentially going to be making 18 attacks across those nine turns and if even half of those are made with the same pair up/dual attack partner then that instantly cuts your Azura support gain by a third.

Of course, it is trivially easy to certain that you get the Azura support quickly. You can almost complete a map and then spend a while just spamming end turn and dance before killing the final enemy or completing the objective. The problem here isn't that it's difficult but that doing so is utterly tedious and that it completely kills any semblance of immersion or gameplay-story integration.

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Lilith still levels up from the food you leave for her, it still plays that level up jingle every time, and she still helps you out in castle battles from beyond the grave.

This is the dumbest and most pointless story death I have ever fucking seen, so ridiculous as to be utterly insulting.

Not to mention the gold bars that you occasionally and very conveniently find when you leave an offering of food at her grave.

To me, it feels as if Lilith was an important character in some early draft of the script, but then they kept changing things and editing down her role, until eventually all they had left was the tragic death of the beloved character but without anything that could possibly make her beloved in the first place. No idea if that's true, but that's how it felt.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

True, but the only reason that worked is because the enemies in the mainline chapters are for some reason way, way behind the enemies in the paralogue chapters at this point in the game.

It occurs to me that this might be because they had to make some way for grinding to still work in a game with a strict leveling curve. I guess they just made the main chapter enemies much lower level so that if a player got stuck, grinding on the progress-scaling scouting missions would actually have meaningful benefit? Of course it also means that using paralogues kinda breaks the game, and also it kills the player's skill progression if they don't grind. That's something annoying I never noticed or thought about before playing it this time.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The Hans lategame chapter was yet again easier for you than it was for me. I've done it on Lunatic with a full army staving off the hordes before, but I found myself rather unable to that on another. Instead, I took the cheesy strategy you didn't mention here- fly off the left or right over the open air, free of enemies, and ORKO Hans with his spectacularly low Def. Nothing stops you from doing that. Sounds like bad design, but it's BR, and CQ exists, so maybe having an easy option is okay?

You're not the only one. I remember having a tonne of trouble playing this on my first, and actually only, Birthright playthrough. I've played Conquest and Revalation a few times, but I think I only ever did my first blind playthrough of Birthright. Maybe I just wasn't acclimated to the mechanics. But this was the only Birthright chapter I remember giving me trouble. And I remember it as more frustrating trouble than challenging trouble, so maybe I just kept on getting unlucky or kept doing stupid things.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

It occurs to me that this might be because they had to make some way for grinding to still work in a game with a strict leveling curve. I guess they just made the main chapter enemies much lower level so that if a player got stuck, grinding on the progress-scaling scouting missions would actually have meaningful benefit? Of course it also means that using paralogues kinda breaks the game, and also it kills the player's skill progression if they don't grind. That's something annoying I never noticed or thought about before playing it this time.

I think its just that they scaled all of the paralogues with the Conquest level curve in mind. Enemy levels are noticeably higher in Conquest than in the other two routs for the same chapter...

 

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

The Hans lategame chapter was yet again easier for you than it was for me. I've done it on Lunatic with a full army staving off the hordes before, but I found myself rather unable to that on another. Instead, I took the cheesy strategy you didn't mention here- fly off the left or right over the open air, free of enemies, and ORKO Hans with his spectacularly low Def. Nothing stops you from doing that. Sounds like bad design, but it's BR, and CQ exists, so maybe having an easy option is okay?

25 minutes ago, Jotari said:

You're not the only one. I remember having a tonne of trouble playing this on my first, and actually only, Birthright playthrough. I've played Conquest and Revalation a few times, but I think I only ever did my first blind playthrough of Birthright. Maybe I just wasn't acclimated to the mechanics. But this was the only Birthright chapter I remember giving me trouble. And I remember it as more frustrating trouble than challenging trouble, so maybe I just kept on getting unlucky or kept doing stupid things.

Figured I would add my two cents to this commentary on the difficulty of Han's chapter. I always consider this chapter a notable difficulty spike in Birthright, which heralds the endgame. If your troops can't hit the right numbers to deal with the highly defensive, and highly offensive enemies on this map, it is just plain frustrating. I figured Alastor's paralogue grinding got his troops strong enough that it just wasn't an issue at all...

I wonder if his team is strong enough to weather the storm of the opening of next chapter without worrying about how tight the numbers are...

 

[Shadow Mir]

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Never have a spare turn or two where the action dies down a little, or is this a I completed every chapter in under 9 turns thing. You are acting like its a monumental task to have someone you dance when your dance use isn't critical that turn...

Again, this is extremely tedious, not practical in the slightest (because far more often than not, I'm going to refresh whoever it benefits me most to give an extra turn to at the given moment), and the other nuances of the support system are bound to crop up as well, which can potentially cause you to not get full credit for it (also, how many times do you refresh the same person 9 times over the course of a single chapter??? Almost never, I bet, unless you're purposefully turtling).

Edited March 9, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Again, this is extremely tedious, not practical in the slightest (because far more often than not, I'm going to refresh whoever it benefits me most to give an extra turn to at the given moment), and the other nuances of the support system are bound to crop up as well, which can potentially cause you to not get full credit for it (also, how many times do you refresh the same person 9 times over the course of a single chapter??? Almost never, I bet, unless you're purposefully turtling).

You're acting like you're in some kind of hurry to get it done. Reclassing and replacement units don't really become important until halfway through the game.

Edited March 9, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

I cant sau I've ever had any trouble at all pairing Azura. In fact my past experiences has kind of made me think I'm better off using her later, as I want to use Shigure as a staff bot, but grinding up his staff rank from E is a pain. Giving him an offspring seal would probably alleviate some of that.

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 19: Chapter 25

Unfortunately I'm having some issues with wifi today. I managed to visit one place, but I got a wifi error with the second and can't remember how much longer I'll have to wait to unlock the others, and I've already exhausted everything I can do to stall for time. Let's go.

Ah yes, I remember this chapter being completely crazy. I'm hoping it's a satisfying challenge for my army. I feel kinda weird about having broken the game by accident in the same way the game expects you'd break it by grinding.

Ah yes, Iago shows up, and Elise is all “Why would I ever listen to YOU! You tried to make Xander and Leo fight Dakota! And you've tried to kill her, like, five times already!

Huh. Was it really five? I guess if you count Iago taking blame for the Hoshido massacre, then it's that, the wind tribe, Macarath, Fort Dragonfall, and the Wolfskin incident.

But yeah, he reveals that Takumi is under his control, which begs the question of how the fuck much he knows about Garon's stuff in Valla, since he's actually possessed by Anankos, not brainwashed. But I don't think the game ever makes it clear that he knows.

Anyway, during Dakota's War Journal, I had Dakota laugh his head off at the fact that Iago had a fucking sniper under his control during a run where Dakota spent a hell of a lot of time as a wyvern rider and malig knight, and it somehow never occurred to Iago to have Takumi assassinate him.

Yeah, it's this corny “power of family” speech Dakota gives to get Takumi to snap out of it long enough to stop... what's implied to be choking Azura so that she can cure him.

At first I was royally grossed out when Takumi still said “Sister...” when snapping out of possession, but then I remembered he was talking to Dakota. But then, what about if Dakota married him? I don't think a single instance of calling someone brother or sister changes due to marriage, which is totally dumb.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sakura attacks Iago to stop him from interrupting Azura's song, and I'm just picturing her rushing at Iago with her eyes squinted shut and her mouth wide open like her shouting portrait, wielding her staff over her head and smacking him on the head with it. But then when he goes to retaliate, Takumi breaks free and shoots Iago, and with that, after an obnoxious speech about his character development, it's time to suit up and fight.

Hmmm...

...Now I could probably do this with my current team...

...But I think I might be able to do something even more daring if I just had one more unit. A unit I really should have recruited sooner because he's perfect for my army and I've found myself deploying a lot of filler.

...Yeah, this map should be a ton of fun anyway, so I'm gonna go grab Kiragi and finally complete my air force.

 

Day 19 Change of Plans: Paralogue 8

I'll still be doing Chapter 25 today, probably, but I really wanna do this paralogue too real quick. I probably won't do much commentary though, but with my massive army of kinshi knights, fighting an entire map of fliers sounds like so much fucking fun.

I wish this map gave less exp though. Not that a couple of levels are going to matter now that I've got all my skills, but it would help to make this less significantly undermine my assessment of...

...No, this is a normal part of gameplay, I have to address and acknowledge how much paralogues break the game.

Alright, I cleared out everyone dangerous on turn one, got myself some breathing room, and got Kiragi to safety without having to rescue him and promoted him to kinshi knight. I even managed to activate vow of friendship while I was at it!

This map should be over in a couple of turns now. While I'm here I'd like to get Asugi to level 15 if I can, but... eh, once I arms scroll Asugi to be able to use the chakram, he'll have plenty of firepower in the meantime.

This map is probably terrifying to somebody doing it blind without many fliers, but the enemies really don't approach you right away, giving you plenty of time to work something out.

HAHAHAHAHA! A wounded flier fled to a healer, but the healer wound up attacking Ryoma instead of healing her! I didn't even realize the AI could fuck up coordinated moves like that!

But yeah, the map's over, in about half an hour, and I even managed to get Asugi shurikenfaire and limit how much exp my fliers got so only one of them leveled up.

Time for the real main attraction.

 

Day 19 Bonus: Chapter 25

Alright, I've got Asugi arms-scrolled up to use the chakram, and I bought a third one from the shop so Takumi can use the pursuer when we get it this chapter. Asugi has basically 50 attack now and there's no way in hell he'll ever fail to double something. The enemy would need 39 speed to keep him from doubling them at this point.

...Ah yes, I have to actually read the family supports I got. Damn it. Kiragi's... I mean he's kinda funny, but also teeters really close to being annoying. Let's see...

The C support is basically Takumi secretly showing shades of jealous of how good Kiragi is and how soon he'll surpass him, and also how... he seems to have grown up to be bizarrely well-behaved and well-adjusted for someone who was banished to the babyrealm.

But Kiragi's support with Azura makes it clear that this patience and desire to learn only extend to using the bow, because he hates studying. He's really bad at academic subjects and fell way behind in the babyrealm, and he hates studying because in addition to making him feel like an idiot, it just isn't fun. It's an interesting support angle, though I doubt I'll see the rest of it.

Ah yes, and now Shigure and Kiragi.

Kiragi: We are siblings, yet you and I barely know each other.

HMMMMMMMMMM.

HMMMMMMMMMM.

NOW WHY MIGHT THAT BE!?

Seriously, the abusive shit the story's forced the parents to do is beyond vile. It is completely ridiculous that any of these children have any emotional attachment to their biological parents at all. I saw somebody on reddit really hammer home how much these guys are not these kids' parents. Someone else saw their first steps, heard their first words, took care of them day after day for more than a decade... there is no way they'd have this kind of relationship with people this distant from their lives, biology be damned.

...Weirdly, Jakob did his “failure” line in the kitchen about forgetting an ingredient, but still produced his usual “exquisite” dish.

Okay, now let's go do Chapter 25.

...Yeah, I just don't have the manpower to do the crazy player-phase opening gambit I wanted to do, even with Kiragi. Still, I'm glad I have him. The sheer number of enemies we have here mean I'm gonna want all the player-phasers I can get, because these enemies are pretty damned strong.

The obvious first move is to force my way into this little central hallway with the generals. That's a piece of cake with the firepower I've got at my disposal. The real question is what to do about the eighteen units on either side of me that I think are gonna rush me. Obviously I'll have to take off some of the pressure with Silas and Ryoma, but I'll have to be sure not to take off too much pressure, because unless Ryoma gets really lucky with dodges, or Silas with Sol, facing all nine enemies on one side just might kill them.

Speaking of luck, I just used my two goddess icons on Silas to buff his luck up to the cap. I don't want these berserkers being able to land a crit on him when they simultaneously have WTA.

I'm impressed with how well Dakota's stats have kept up. She can still just barely survive an attack stance counterattack from two generals after a defense meal and a naginata have buffed her defense.

Shit, I totally forgot I needed to forge Kiragi a good weapon. His attack power is still good, but he's not on the level of his fellow kinshi knights as a result.

Alright, so, I'm enemy-phasing four enemies on each side. I've worked it out so that I can avoid fighting two of the great knights on the sides thanks to the bow knights and dark knights behind them having better reach due to range and one more mov. Alright. That works for me. They can handle that no problem.

Jesus Christ it's like a fucking hydra. No sooner did the western flank rush than an identical group of reinforcements took their place. I'm gonna have to have Ryoma hold this side off while everyone else rushes to the east so that they can take out the reinforcements that will inevitably spawn there. Since they haven't yet, I have an opportunity to approach.

Alright, that worked out just fine. I managed to get everyone to evacuate to the east while Ryoma stayed behind to hold the line and Silas forged ahead to take out the eastern berserkers.

And just as I suspected, reinforcements showed up. But my army is more than equipped to handle them. The first great knight goes down like a chump to sting shuriken Asugi, and then my air force rushes in to finish the job.

The reinforcements show no sign of stopping, which is annoying because at this point they aren't actually in any locations where they're remotely difficult to deal with, just annoying. In the meantime, however, I'm working on penetrating that central room. The main thing I want to deal with is the shuriken launcher. I wanna take out the maid in charge of it before I head in, and I'll probably be doing that with a kinshi knight and rescue rod.

...Shit, the green of the strategist's staff range wasn't clear when lined up against the maximum range of the launcher, and I forgot it was there. Thankfully Silas dodged the entrap staff, but that could've been fucking nasty. Silas probably still would've survived thanks to Sol, but still.

The side reinforcements seem to have stopped though, and now we just have to deal with the reinforcements from the top. I took out the launcher maid with Mozu after killing the entrap strategist with her and singing with Azura. Then Sakura rescued her back. Good, that was gonna annoy the shit out of me.

...Pairing Kana up with Saizo made me realize I kinda wanna see a support between the two. Or really how Saizo would interact with any new member of the royal family who probably doesn't take the whole royalty thing as seriously as Saizo would like them to.

...Yeah, these reinforcements are really annoying. I'm just waiting for them to stop so I can continue forward and take out the obnoxious defenses being put in my way. The most annoying part of this is I can't even take the detours to grab the treasure yet, because both treasure rooms are in range of this damned entrap strategist that still remains. My plan for the entrap strategists is just to throw either Silas or Ryoma at them. Only one of them can move, so I'll stand at the edge of the mobile one's range so that she can't pull me in too deep. Once she's down, the immobile one probably won't be an issue at all.

My kinshi knights are starting to get Amaterasu, which is pretty great, though it would've been cool to have all this in a chapter with more for specifically-aerial units to do. Ah well.

The second entrap strategist missed too, which means she's a sitting duck next turn.

Alright. I'm finally on my way to grab those chests. After that, Ryoma will rush in for the kill.

Done. And Leo finishes Iago off in the story scene, then talks to his retainers teasing us with some info about what he knows that we'll learn for ourselves in Conquest, making me wish for a better Conquest where Leo actually knew about what the fuck was going on.

I will admit, though: This made me laugh.

Dakota: Your collar is inside out again.

Leo: DAMN IT.

Man, they're practically making a joke of how many royals know about the “secret entrance”.

Alright, chapter over. Let's finish up for the day with some new supports. Both Takumi and Azura seem to have gotten a support with Sakura.

...Takumi and Sakura's is just filler talk about the banquet they don't want to go to. Though Takumi talking about potentially setting the guards' hair on fire did get a chuckle out of me.

And Sakura's with Azura we already know from Revelation.

So that's it!

Alright guys, see you tomorrow when I tackle Chapter 26 and face off against Xander!

...Given my nerfed Dakota, this might actually be interesting.

Stay safe, everyone!

Edited March 10, 2021 by Alastor15243

[lenticular]

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Yeah, these reinforcements are really annoying. I'm just waiting for them to stop so I can continue forward and take out the obnoxious defenses being put in my way. The most annoying part of this is I can't even take the detours to grab the treasure yet, because both treasure rooms are in range of this damned entrap strategist that still remains. My plan for the entrap strategists is just to throw either Silas or Ryoma at them. Only one of them can move, so I'll stand at the edge of the mobile one's range so that she can't pull me in too deep. Once she's down, the immobile one probably won't be an issue at all.

Entrap is such a pain. Anything long range and with a high chance to be fatal is a pain. Or rather, they have to be used exceedingly sparingly otherwise they become a pain. They necessitate very slow and cautious play, and while that can be fun to play around once, if it gets too common then it can really drag the game to a halt.

 

14 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright guys, see you tomorrow when I tackle Chapter 26 and face off against Xander!

...Given my nerfed Dakota, this might actually be interesting.

My prediction: it will not actually be interesting. Just having a single regular locked door between the player's starting location and the boss is such a weird decision and I do not understand it.

[Etrurian emperor]

Yeah Lilith's death just reinforce that she's not at all a character but merely a gameplay mechanic pretending to be a character. She's there to introduce My Castle and serve as a weapon during My Castle battles. Both are still possible when she's dead and aside from those gameplay mechenics she never said or did anything of note. 

And I think that her death in particular is that cynical streak that dominates the writing of Fates showing its head again. The Writers wanted a touching death scene but they didn't want one that actually upset the players or made them lose something. So they settled on Lilith who could easily die without the player losing a unit they invested in, and then they went the extra mile by also not making her death take away the gameplay mechanic in a side feature. Its the same with Revelation where everyone who dies is an extremely minor character and Corrinsexual. They want the weight of death without the consequence of death and so just resort to cowardice. 

[Samz707]

39 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

Yeah Lilith's death just reinforce that she's not at all a character but merely a gameplay mechanic pretending to be a character. She's there to introduce My Castle and serve as a weapon during My Castle battles. Both are still possible when she's dead and aside from those gameplay mechenics she never said or did anything of note. 

And I think that her death in particular is that cynical streak that dominates the writing of Fates showing its head again. The Writers wanted a touching death scene but they didn't want one that actually upset the players or made them lose something. So they settled on Lilith who could easily die without the player losing a unit they invested in, and then they went the extra mile by also not making her death take away the gameplay mechanic in a side feature. Its the same with Revelation where everyone who dies is an extremely minor character and Corrinsexual. They want the weight of death without the consequence of death and so just resort to cowardice. 

I mean it's not like this is a perma-death series...where merely putting the player in difficult situations leads to deaths with actual weight due to actually being the player's fault.

I swear if the Fates/Awakening writers ever  come back, they're gonna have a rescue chapter where the unit you're rescuing dies to a single archer in a cutscene after all of that to be "DRAMATIC" rather than actually just making rescuing them in-game impossible/highly difficult.

I can somewhat tolerate it in other genres but in games with Perma-death, you already have weighty deaths, it's called "When the player screws up and gets a unit killed.".

I legitimately cared more for when my Generics in X-com died then any of the "dramatic" death scenes in Awakening.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Samz707

[Jotari]

23 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

I mean it's not like this is a perma-death series...where merely putting the player in difficult situations leads to deaths with actual weight due to actually being the player's fault.

I swear if the Fates/Awakening writers ever  come back, they're gonna have a rescue chapter where the unit you're rescuing dies to a single archer in a cutscene after all of that to be "DRAMATIC" rather than actually just making rescuing them in-game impossible/highly difficult.

I can somewhat tolerate it in other genres but in games with Perma-death, you already have weighty deaths, it's called "When the player screws up and gets a unit killed.".

I legitimately cared more for when my Generics in X-com died then any of the "dramatic" death scenes in Awakening.

Well let's not pretend they should never do plot based deaths at all. Plot based deaths can service the plot very well and there are some noteable examples in the series of well done plot deaths, like Greil and Sigurd. And as terrible as Lilith's death is and most of Fate's overall, Elise's upcoming plot death is generally considered pretty well done. Bad plot deaths are the issue, not the core concept of a plot induced death.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

21 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Jesus Christ it's like a fucking hydra. No sooner did the western flank rush than an identical group of reinforcements took their place. I'm gonna have to have Ryoma hold this side off while everyone else rushes to the east so that they can take out the reinforcments that will inevitably spawn there. Since they haven't yet, I have an opportunity to approach.

Alright, that worked out just fine. I managed to get everyone to evacuate to the east while Ryoma stayed behind to hold the line and Silas forged ahead to take out the eastern berserkers.

And just as I suspected, reinforcements showed up. But my army is more than equipped to handle them. The first great knight goes down like a chump to sting shuriken Asugi, and then my air force rushes in to finish the job.

The reinforcements show no sign of stopping, which is annoying because at this point they aren't actually in any locations where they're remotely difficult to deal with, just annoying. In the meantime, however, I'm working on penetrating that central room. The main thing I want to deal with is the shuriken launcher. I wanna take out the maid in charge of it before I head in, and I'll probably be doing that with a kinshi knight and rescue rod.

Well done. I distinctly remember getting effectively trapped by those reinforcements when I was playing Lunatic Birthright. I found a way to take out those enemies that are starting on the flanks by fully committing my forces in both directions. It was a really tense moment where I had to find some way keeping that pressure up on both sides turn after turn, as my forces are whittle down faster than I can heal them, and find some way to keep my formation from crumbling to the point that they can skewer my squishies, hoping the end of the reinforcements was in sight...It was by far the tensest part of the map, as I found a way to deal with the entraps easily enough thanks to dances and rescue staff.

 

21 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Alright guys, see you tomorrow when I tackle Chapter 26 and face off against Xander!

...Given my nerfed Dakota, this might actually be interesting.

Stay safe, everyone!

I doubt you will have any trouble. Even in Lunatic Xander is a joke in Birthright, that you actively have to avoid fighting if you want there to be a map...

 

21 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Man, they're practically making a joke of how many royals know about the “secret entrance”.

To be fair, if you are going to build a secret entrance/exit to your castle, the royal family is the one group of people that should know about it...

[Alastor15243]

47 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

To be fair, if you are going to build a secret entrance/exit to your castle, the royal family is the one group of people that should know about it...

Which makes it all the more ridiculous that Shura claimed none of the royals knew.

[Alastor15243]

Birthright Day 20: Chapter 26

First order of business for the day: forge Kiragi a bow. I give him a +3 iron called the Heckswath, and it's stronger than the Fujin Yumi. But then, Takumi isn't using the Fujin Yumi anymore, is he? Oh no. He has the Pursuer.

The Pursuer, just to be clear, is fucking bonkers. It's got 22 fucking might. Outside of Genealogy holy weapons, I have never seen a weapon with attack power that high. It also makes it 5 easier to double, so you can double an enemy with equal speed to them. Granted, it also makes it that much easier for the enemy to double you, and it nerfs your defense by 5 and resistance by 3 (yumi increase res by 2), but still, for a purely player-phase unit, this weapon is fucking psychotic.

Speaking of, since I'm tired of Mozu's only forged weapon being a strength-nerfing silver bow forge, I forged her a +3 iron yumi after pooling together the assorted iron bows that were lying around and buying 5 more. I called it the Reaper, for obvious reasons, and decided she doesn't need the Soi-Soi anymore. With bowfaire, she has no business using a lance that isn't effective against something, so I had Subaki combine it with his own NagintaNaginta for a +4 NagintaNaginta.

I sold the Waterwheel by the way, along with the Hagakure Blade. It's not that I'm still certain they're worthless, it's just that I don't have any S-rank lance user, and the only S-rank sword user I have is Ryoma, who absolutely has no business using anything other than the Raijinto 99.99% of the time. The 5000 gold is gonna see much more use than me lugging that thing around in case Ryoma needs to do a really really really insane amount of damage in one turn.

Alright, I've finished up with the prep I can think of. Time to check out the map and see if there's anything I'll need. Sorry I won't be doing any visits today, but I have a feeling I may want to leave time to do a second map today in case the playlog for 26 isn't satisfactory.

Ah yes, but first, I got a support with Silas. B rank. It's kinda cute, with her looking at the list of places she wanted to go to as a kid and kinda cringing at how basic so many of them are, showing how sheltered she was. But yeah, the explanation for why she doesn't remember Silas is coming next support, and the way I remember it... it isn't that satisfying.

Alright, now we do the story.

Right, Xander's talking to Laslow and Peri about how he's going to face Dakota in single combat to end this with minimal bloodshed.

Laslow... “[doesn't] trust those Hoshido brigands one bit”? The fuck is this xenophobic nationalism coming from? Isn't this guy here on a mission from Anankos's human half to protect his child, a child they cannot conceivably not know is Dakota? This makes no sense, just like Odin's moment in Conquest Chapter 8 where he complains about the avatar's orders not to kill the Ice Tribe villagers because he's got a lot of cool moves he wants to try out. These guys are outsiders on a mission. Does the game really want to convince me that these guys are so easily swayed by, what, Nohrian propaganda or something? They went here on a mission but then bought into the xenophobic nationalism of this psychotic shithole of a country and went native? If this an act Laslow is putting on, to what purpose?

Scene change, and the questions only keep coming. Why is Dakota asking if they're almost there, and why is Elise telling her that “Father's room is at the top of this tower”, when Dakota's been to the Nohrian throne room before, and Elise was fucking with her when she visited it!?

...This room is cool and creepy and all, and the cutscene is great, but why are there coffins everywhere? Is his some kind of sacred royal tomb? Then why the fuck is Xander challenging Dakota to a duel in it?

So yeah, Xander is still psychotically, steadfastly loyal to Garon, and, uh...

...look, I've seen people say that people are too hard on Xander, and that he's one of the most sympathetic of “les Camus” because the corrupt dictator he's loyal to is his once-loving father.

Yeah. I get that.

But do you know why you need to remind people of this fact, when it should by all rights be blindingly obvious?

Because we never see it in action.

We never see a single scene with Xander and Garon where Garon isn't acting like a complete and total unreasonable authoritarian psychopath. Not in this route nor in any other. We don't see any emotional manipulation. We don't see any “battered child” syndrome. We don't see Garon lying about the motivations for the war, or what Hoshido did, or what Hoshido's like. We don't see any semblance of an effort on Garon's part to make him seem like anything other than Skeletor with a face. Even Selena the Fluorspar of Grado was given more convincing and sympathetic depth behind her relationship with Vigarde. ...Even if she ruined it by getting herself and her entire army killed fighting someone she knew was in the right once she found out the truth, preferring to die knowingly following the orders of a resurrected corpse rather than join Ephraim to drive the evil conspirators out of the nation of the man she loved.

Xander's loyalty has no fucking depth to it. They're just using the fact that the villain is masquerading as Xander's father as if that sheer factual information is all it needs to give to make us believe Xander's behavior. It fucking isn't.

Blah blah fight scene, yada yada justice is an illusion, tons of talk about right and wrong without any semblance of specifics or political arguments or attempts of any kind to convince Xander that Hoshido isn't going to destroy the country...

...and then...

Okay. So.

As Xander's about to deal the final blow...

…Elise jumps in the way.

And gets brutally sliced by Siegfried.

And I will say, the slow-motion shot of Xander's face as he realizes who he's just hit is really well done.

This didn't hit me as much as it might have when I first played, mostly because I knew it was going to happen. You see, some dumbass on the marketing team decided that the “try to be... at peace...” clip needed to be in a trailer, and I just knew the moment I saw that that she had to be dying when she said it.

Elise says a lot of childish stuff that mostly works in context, except that it's way too poetic for the Elise we know, and then... she dies in Xander's arms.

...Yeah, seeing Dakota's face look... mildly annoyed and sweaty while she's screaming her heart out in emotional agony... really drives home yet again just how much they needed to draw more facial expressions for certain characters.

...But...

...Xander's not done.

He wants us to finish our duel.

...Yeah, a lot of these voice grunts are super dumb and unfitting after the much-better screaming and crying. Now Dakota's just grunting and annoyedly sighing to the revelation that Xander still wants to duel to the death.

But yeah, in a weirdly touching scene, Peri and Laslow both revealed they disobeyed Xander's orders and brought in the cavalry to protect him. Though I don't see how they can possibly see the dead Elise through the doors of the locked room.

...Okay, so Dakota can double Xander, but... she still isn't doing that much damage unfortunately on her own. I'll tonic and boost her up, but if I want to make this a proper duel, I'll have to use a lot of wane festals to keep her healthy.

...This map is practically screaming to be one-turned, by the way. The initial enemy placement is really obnoxious, with deeply-layered enemies that punish player-phasing but also enemies ridiculously close to your starting position that make it nearly impossible to keep your squishies alive without player-phasing.

Oh, and both fronts are covered by silver dagger maids.

...Fuck it. It wouldn't be fairly assessing the game's difficulty to intentionally hobble myself by not one-turning this. So let's suit up to kick this guy's ass. Pity, I already bought a bunch of wane festals for the purpose of having the duel, but holy shit, this chapter just does not look fun to do normally. Especially when I only have two enemy-phase units, and one of them has a missing backpack.

...And when Xander has a fucking eight percent critical rate on Dakota holy shit.

Alright, let's one-turn this. I know I already failed the ironman, but I'd rather still play like it.

Takumi uses the Pursuer to one-round the central general. Asugi supports with a sting shuriken but it was wholly unnecessary, because the Pursuer is just that psychotic. Holy shit do I wish every route got access to all the S rank weapons. I don't understand why not, seeing how in every weapon's case you're either invading the country that's holding it, or allied with the country that's holding it.

...Anyway, then I have Ryoma rush in paired up with Scarlet, then Scarlet passes Ryoma off to Dakota, and then Dakota rushes forward, switches to Ryoma, and...

...it's over in one round.

And... Xander, in his dying moments, starts acting friendly to Dakota again, revealing he still loves her, and... seems to be wishing her luck in her quest and... and begging her to stop Garon because he's not like he used to be... and... like... holy shit does that make this whole thing ridiculous.

And of course Xander did the obligatory “this could have gone differently” speech that happens in both Birthright and Conquest where the game basically soft-shills the opposite route using the pointless deaths of these characters as emotional bait, and... yeah, that's scummy. You're selling Conquest for 20 bucks, Intelligent Systems, you don't need to do shit like this.

...I'm sorry, this has just barely taken enough time that I don't feel I can get away with doing another chapter. Besides, the only option would be another paralogue, because of the whole two-chapters-in-one thing that Chapter 27 is going to do.

So unfortunately, that's it for today.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Shadow Mir]

23 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sakura attacks Iago to stop him from interrupting Azura's song, and I'm just picturing her rushing at Iago with her eyes squinted shut and her mouth wide open like her shouting portrait, wielding her staff over her head and smacking him on the head with it.

I imagine something more like Sakura wildly flailing her arms while running at Iago, with the same expression. 

43 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I'm sorry, this has just barely taken enough time that I don't feel I can get away with doing another chapter. Besides, the only option would be another paralogue, because of the whole two-chapters-in-one thing that Chapter 27 is going to do.

Who's left? Paralogue-wise.

[Alastor15243]

38 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Who's left? Paralogue-wise.

Sophie.

[Shadow Mir]

9 hours ago, lenticular said:

Entrap is such a pain. Anything long range and with a high chance to be fatal is a pain. Or rather, they have to be used exceedingly sparingly otherwise they become a pain. They necessitate very slow and cautious play, and while that can be fun to play around once, if it gets too common then it can really drag the game to a halt.

I agree. And personally, it's why I find the Sacae route of chapter 20 one of the worst designed maps in Binding Blade. One Bolting sage is bad enough, but TWO? In the same area? Where you can do fuck all about them but pick a god and pray they don't hit whoever they're attacking because just about everyone has low resistance??? There IS such a thing as "going too far", and this takes a running leap over the line. And those aren't the only long range threats in that chapter...

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Sophie.

Oof. I hope you can stomach artificial stupidity, because you're gonna see a case that'll make you want to scream.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...But...

...Xander's not done.

He wants us to finish our duel.

...Yeah, a lot of these voice grunts are super dumb and unfitting after the much-better screaming and crying. Now Dakota's just grunting and annoyedly sighing to the revelation that Xander still wants to duel to the death.

Well, considering what he's done, he wants suicide by cop. Or suicide by Hoshidan Army, as it were.

[Sunwoo]

4 hours ago, Jotari said:

And as terrible as Lilith's death is and most of Fate's overall, Elise's upcoming plot death is generally considered pretty well done. Bad plot deaths are the issue, not the core concept of a plot induced death.

Elise's plot death felt really stupid tbh. Hers and Xander's deaths felt like a result of the writers forcing a dichotomy of killing off two siblings from each kingdom, which results in Xander being a shit person who disrespected his little sister's dying wishes and traumatizing his so-called beloved brother/sister into killing him because "he can't live with himself anymore!!!!!" But the game still wants us to ignore all that and see him as a noble man who was trapped on a path he had no choice but to follow.

Fates (and Awakening) had similar issues of character deaths just being there for shock value rather than actually affecting characters beyond the one or two chapters after it takes place. Chrom feeling the weight of Emmeryn's death is debatable in that it did affect him, but Fates ... nah. Fates gets no credit from me.

[Interdimensional Observer]

I've never played BR's penultimate battle (counting 27 & 28 as two halves of a whole) the "slow" way. When I look at the map, it is unit vomit without care for placement or strategy, and Xander being so weak to start really feeds into the temptation of getting it all done in one turn.

I remember SoV drastically changes the enemy unit placement in the Rudolf Zoldark battle based on the difficulty. Would've been great for Lunatic here, as is, the Xander battle is basically a waste of a chapter.

[Axie]

i think elise's death scene is jaw-droppingly stupid and the crowning jewel of birthright's "this IS as bad as conquest and revelation" storyline. everything about it is sooooo pointless. it only isn't as bad as flora setting herself on fire because that wasn't a cutscene and therefore looked ridiculous.

[lenticular]

I remember there's a line somewhere in the run up to this chapter where someone (probably Elise?) talks about how Xander is super strong and a step above everyone we've fought up to that point, and that Garron might be even stronger still. And then it gives us this, the easiest chapter since the initial two tutorial levels. Terrible difficulty curve, terrible game/story integration, and terrible setting expectation for the final boss. I don't know what they were thinking with this one.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, lenticular said:

I remember there's a line somewhere in the run up to this chapter where someone (probably Elise?) talks about how Xander is super strong and a step above everyone we've fought up to that point, and that Garron might be even stronger still. And then it gives us this, the easiest chapter since the initial two tutorial levels. Terrible difficulty curve, terrible game/story integration, and terrible setting expectation for the final boss. I don't know what they were thinking with this one.

I would say it's good gameplay and story integration, but for entirely different reasons - He's not fighting at his best (compare his stats here to in his prior appearance - on Normal and Lunatic, his strength and defense have dropped; also, I find it odd that for whatever reason, his HP actually DECREASES on Hard compared to Normal); for that matter, Leo was holding back too.

Edited March 11, 2021 by Shadow Mir