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

[Alastor15243]

Genealogy Day 15: Taking Silvail

So, here's the final update of the week, and hopefully it'll be about us finally conquering Silvail. Still have those dracoknights to deal with however...

But thankfully it looks like they're not making a beeline for Erin or Madino. They're headed Silvailbound, so it looks like my heavy cavalry will be the ones to intercept them. Which is fine by me!

Incidentally, I forgot to mention this, but at the beginning of the chapter I bought Raquesis a silver axe, since she's the only one who both can use it and has pursuit, and that heavy attack power has come in useful at times. Overall the absurd weight makes it situational, but it's good to have a really, really heavy duty DPS option against really bulky foes.

Speaking of Raquesis... Honestly, I've seen a couple of these “welcome home, dear” scenes, including hers just now and really, all of them are lame. Probably way more the fault of the original game than the translation, I'm guessing, but there's not even the slightest attempt to add any personality or charm to these patchwork exchanges like there was in Awakening and to a lesser extent Fates.

Meanwhile, “oop north”, Madino has broken out into chaos as Dew and Ayra have gotten into their long-awaited sexy naked coin fight, in broad daylight, right outside the castle gates, out of sheer boredom. Sylvia has joined in on the erotic chaotic affair and is dancing each of them in turn to egg on the whole sordid thing while my heavy cavalry does the actual fighting to the southwest. A massive crowd of the less mobile units I want to get a head start on the pirates has gathered around Madino and is chanting as the coins go back and forth: “DEW AYRA DEW! AYRA DEW AYRA! DEW AYRA DEW! AYRA DEW AYRA!”

In other words Dew is gaining an average of 30 exp per turn, and there is no conceivable way to capture Silvail before Dew has reached level 20 and can become a thief fighter.

Unfortunately, in the midst of all this drunken naked coin-flinging and pole dancing, the dracoknights have suddenly made a sharp turn towards Madino, no doubt sensing the vulnerable stench of drunken, decadent decay from miles away. There's still a good amount of time before they get there, but it looks like I'll have to do some more aggressive coaxing to have the heavy cavalry intercept them.

I manage to get both Lex and Erin in range of several of them, including the boss, before they pass north of the big forest between Madino and Silvail. Raquesis is poised with her physic staff fully repaired to help back Erin up as my heavy hitters move in to intercept the dragon riders. Just in case the dragon riders are hard-coded to rush Madino for story reasons, I also have Lewyn poised to do some really good dodgetanking to guard Madino. Meanwhile, remembering Dew has to be at Augusty castle to promote, I send Ayra, Dew and Sylvia back with warp (Sylvia can dance them both at once when they're in the castle), while having Aideen walk the path back to intercept them and give them a lift to Madino once Dew's promoted.

Thankfully Lewyn risking a very low chance of death isn't necessary: Erin baits the boss and that makes the whole group turn back towards the heavy cavalry, just as planned.

Oh wow. Apparently the warp speed travel of news hasn't reached the villages yet. Poor lass, gushing about her awesome boyfriend in the Cross Knights, totally oblivious to the fact that he's dead.

On the plus side, Dew's finally a thief fighter, or as this translation calls it, rogue. Mediocre defense of 12 and strength of 16, but a whopping 27 speed, which I think is CAPPED, and his avoid is so psychotically high (63 with a 5 weight sword, 71 with a slim sword) that through aura abuse I think I can make him 100% dodgetank enemies that don't use lances! Especially once he gets the wind sword later this chapter! Time to test him out in the arena!

First thing he does is buy the armorslayer he can now use to slaughter the armor knight who gave him trouble before. The brave lance duke knight only has a 36% hit rate on him! HOLY SHIT.

That said, due to a run of terrible luck that proves how scary dodgetanking can be in ironman, it takes a while to get past said duke knight. The great knight after him though, obviously can't do shit, and Dew gains two levels, each one proccing strength and defense. He's quite the respectable fighter actually, and I think I'll be comfortable using him to train up the wind sword. Maxing out his level along with Ayra should help make Larcei and Ulster awesome. Incidentally, Larcei and Ulster are basically the only name changes I immediately embraced with open arms. Their old names, Lakche and Skasaha... I mean like WHAT THE FLAMING FUCK.

Anyway, I have my heavy cavalry and Erin take out the swam of armors guarding Chagall. Pretty basic stuff, mostly just trying to get as many of the bow armors as possible to attack Azel so he can rack up kills on the thunder sword without having to fight any of the melee armors with his terrible physical power.

...Why is Filat just randomly staying at one of the villages? Of all the people to sprite-copy...

Anyway, Chagall goes down like the bitch he is, and we seize Silvail, and...

...We receive the one piece of news that doesn't travel from castle to castle instantly: Dierdre has gone missing.

Anyway, the pirates make their move, and I just now realized they made a pretty good effort to present Briggid (Bridget here) in a good light. The enemies are arranged so that the hand axe pirates attack Bridget on enemy phase and get their asses handed to them, with hit rates in the 20s and 4 damage even if they do manage to land a blow.

Oh wow, this translation actually has Claude call the life force that dictates who can and can't be brought back to life “quintessence”. I wonder if the original Japanese used the same word for this that the Japanese version of FE7 used?

Moving on, I have Ayra and Dew take on the hordes of pirates. Their evasion is actually high enough for me to feel comfortable letting them dodgetank (Dew's is way too high and is basically invincible, but Ayra is right in the sweet spot if my calculations are correct). Only major concern is that at this exact moment there is no healer up there, so I'll have to get Aideen to warp Raquesis in immediately.

Raquesis arrives before anything even has a chance to go wrong, and we start immediately cutting our way through the pirates to rescue Bridget, Taillte and Claude. Erin is with them, and having her brave sword really, really helps against these pirates. She can one-round basically anything also, which is a plus.

Also, really, really gotta remember to get Aideen to give Bridget the Yewfelle.

FUCK. SPEAKING OF BRIDGET...

This game has completely killed the “spam the R button at the end of your turn to make sure you haven't missed anyone” reflex I usually have because of how obnoxiously tedious it is, and wouldn't ya know it, I forget to move Bridget, and she nearly gets swarmed right by the village. Thankfully I can have her double back behind the rock, limiting enemy facings due to the awkward turn it forces the myrmidons to make, so she can run away in a different direction along the face of the cliff, and I think I might be able to keep her alive against the myrmidons long enough to get Erin there to save her and then eventually heal her with Claude.

And if not... well, I just got Claude. I can bring her back, no harm done save 30k in expenses.

Meanwhile, speaking of gold, Dew's getting a shitton of it taking potshots at these pirates. He's not killing them without a crit weapon, but still, 5k per attack is insanely useful, and it's awesome he can take advantage of that now without endangering himself.

Okay, I'm amazed I don't remember ever having trouble with this before. A SHITTON of pirates are still chasing after Briggid, and it suddenly occurs to me how difficult it's going to be to fight them all off with a priest, a sniper, a pegasus knight and a mage. Especially when it's going to take ages for the heavy cavalry to arrive.

...I may want to sleep on this one, guys. This could get really, really, REALLY ugly.

[Interdimensional Observer]

26 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh wow, this translation actually has Claude call the life force that dictates who can and can't be brought back to life “quintessence”. I wonder if the original Japanese used the same word for this that the Japanese version of FE7 used?

Yes. The Japanese in both FE4 and FE7 is "Aegir". Not sure why FE hasn't recycled this magic life force more in its lore. But if it exists in Jugdral, then unless Archaneans and Valentians are spiritually different (not to say Quintessence = soul, they never outright said that), then Quintessence should exist there too.

Aegir looks similar to "Aenir", which supposedly explains Nergal's dying mistranslation. Although the katakana for these terms look quite different, so NoA must have overruled the spelling difference by assuming it was just two spellings for the same term (despite correctly translating Aenir once before). Nergal fell into being a husk of human being because of a magical essence, not because his wife died and he wanted to bring her back.

 

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Skasaha... I mean like WHAT THE FLAMING FUCK.

The best explanation is that it was meant to be "Scathach" the shadow warrior woman who trained Cu Chulainn and gave him the Gae Bolg. Odd name for a man though.

No idea what Larcei is supposed to be.

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Yes. The Japanese in both FE4 and FE7 is "Aegir".

I AM FERDINAND VON QUINTESSENCE.

4 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Aegir looks similar to "Aenir", which supposedly explains Nergal's dying mistranslation. Although the katakana for these terms look quite different, so NoA must have overruled the spelling difference by assuming it was just two spellings for the same term (despite correctly translating Aenir once before). Nergal fell into being a husk of human being because of a magical essence, not because his wife died and he wanted to bring her back.

A mistranslation in his dying words? I don't think I've heard about this.

[Interdimensional Observer]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

A mistranslation in his dying words? I don't think I've heard about this.

Only his true dying words are affected. Nergal's death dialogue changes if you're on Hector Mode and visited A Glimpse in Time (19xx), and maybe Genesis and The Value of Life, completing all three of these chapter does for sure unlock a CG after the credits. You should be aware of this. I don't get why they made Kishuna relevant to all this, when it has nothing to do with him.

 

Anyway, the normal death quote:

(Nergal dies)

Nergal:
“Why? Why must I lose? Gaa… Not like this… I will not die…like this. With my last breath… tremble…and…despair. Hwah ha ha… Ha…ha ha ha…”

The altered death quote (the bold is the addition):

(Nergal dies, Chapter 19xx completed)

Nergal:
“Why? Why must I lose? More power… I must be… stronger… I… Why? Why did I… want power? ……Quintessence? …Don’t…under…stand… but… Gaa… Not like this… I will not die…like this. With my last breath… tremble…and…despair. Hwah ha ha… Ha…ha ha ha…”

The Japanese here was for "Aenir", not Aegir. The original meaning is lost. Nergal, seen unnamed in the post-credits bonus CG with his presumed wife, clearly loved her a lot.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

25 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Only his true dying words are affected. Nergal's death dialogue changes if you're on Hector Mode and visited A Glimpse in Time (19xx), and maybe Genesis and The Value of Life, completing all three of these chapter does for sure unlock a CG after the credits. You should be aware of this. I don't get why they made Kishuna relevant to all this, when it has nothing to do with him.

Yes, I kind of am. I never beat the secret stuff in Hector mode, but I was aware of the secrets about Nergal's true backstory later in life after looking it up long after I lost my copy. I didn't realize a mistranslation had happened there though.

25 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Anyway, the normal death quote:

(Nergal dies)

Nergal:
“Why? Why must I lose? Gaa… Not like this… I will not die…like this. With my last breath… tremble…and…despair. Hwah ha ha… Ha…ha ha ha…”

The altered death quote (the bold is the addition):

(Nergal dies, Chapter 19xx completed)

Nergal:
“Why? Why must I lose? More power… I must be… stronger… I… Why? Why did I… want power? ……Quintessence? …Don’t…under…stand… but… Gaa… Not like this… I will not die…like this. With my last breath… tremble…and…despair. Hwah ha ha… Ha…ha ha ha…”

The Japanese here was for "Aenir", not Aegir. The original meaning is lost. Nergal, seen unnamed in the post-credits bonus CG with his presumed wife, clearly loved her a lot.

So her name sounds an awful lot like the thing he eventually obsessed over, and the two were only confused by the English translators? No use of wordplay in the original Japanese to demonstrate how far he's lost the plot? That's a little disappointing honestly. It would've been interesting if instead of power, it was quintessence, and the Japanese was like" More aegir... I must be... strong... I... Why? Why did I... want Aegir? ...Aenir?

Maybe not exactly that, and doing it wrong might risk sounding as stupid as the Martha horseshit in BVS, but I'm surprised they sound so similar and nothing was done with it.

Edited November 15, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Maybe not exactly that, and doing it wrong might risk sounding as stupid as the Martha horseshit in BVS, but I'm surprised they sound so similar and nothing was done with it.

I can see your point, having Nergal struggle in his final moments to find clarity in what he had sought long ago. They're going to have to fix this line in an FE7 remake eventually, and localizers might be able to consider blending the FE7 translation folly and the intended truth. But that'd be slightly difficult to make natural unless they retroactively went over to using Aegir instead of Quintessence as the term in question. And whether localizers should do that deviation from the Japanese is another issue.

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Unfortunately, in the midst of all this drunken naked coin-flinging and pole dancing, the dracoknights have suddenly made a sharp turn towards Madino, no doubt sensing the vulnerable stench of drunken, decadent decay from miles away. There's still a good amount of time before they get there, but it looks like I'll have to do some more aggressive coaxing to have the heavy cavalry intercept them.

Fun fact seizing Sivail causes the dracoknights to puff, which is another way you can dealing with them if they start heading towards one of the other castles. I don't think it has been mentioned yet, but when a castle is seized any unit that moved during that castle's phase dies.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

This game has completely killed the “spam the R button at the end of your turn to make sure you haven't missed anyone” reflex I usually have because of how obnoxiously tedious it is, and wouldn't ya know it, I forget to move Bridget, and she nearly gets swarmed right by the village.

I have always found pressing A twice on a blank space to check if everyone important on the unit list is greyed out helps.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, I'm amazed I don't remember ever having trouble with this before. A SHITTON of pirates are still chasing after Briggid, and it suddenly occurs to me how difficult it's going to be to fight them all off with a priest, a sniper, a pegasus knight and a mage. Especially when it's going to take ages for the heavy cavalry to arrive.

This doesn't surprise me, as long as Bridget can get to Claud and Taillte you can setup a choke point that can last almost indefinitely as long as you are careful (no Erin needed), but with Bridget missing a turn, she is going to have a hard time reaching safety.

[Alastor15243]

On 11/15/2019 at 7:34 PM, Eltosian Kadath said:

This doesn't surprise me, as long as Bridget can get to Claud and Taillte you can setup a choke point that can last almost indefinitely as long as you are careful (no Erin needed), but with Bridget missing a turn, she is going to have a hard time reaching safety.

Yes, my experience with this chapter bears that out.

 

Genealogy Day 16: Space is Warped and Time is Bendable

Alright, my Saturday's boring as shit, no game is really clicking with me at the moment, and I really need to pick up the pace with this game after accomplishing practically nothing all of last week.

Let's keep going.

Luckily I found a solution to yesterday's cliffhanger pretty quickly. Raquesis is right nearby, just in time to physic Bridget, and that should keep her alive long enough to get her support. The main concern is getting rid of the pirates before they overwhelm the other three, especially Claude, the only one we can't get back.

Also, it's way too late in the map to make any real progress, but I try to sneak in some love points between Claude and Erin. In case I forgot to mention any of my plans, now that I have all the women, here they are, along with my reasonings:

Aideen X Midir (Done): Neither of Aideen's kids are high priority, but passing down a brave bow to someone who can use it is pretty much a no-brainer, and Midir gives pursuit. I can't afford to spare the pursuit ring for reasons that, if not already obvious, will make sense a few pairs down.

Ayra X Dew (Done): Mostly just for fun. While I managed to train this pair pretty well without really wasting any of my team's time, so it wasn't what I'd call a pairing I made purely out of favoritism, it is an old favorite back from when I loved using immortal solar fighters. But honestly it's worked out better so far than I thought it would in chapter 1, and hasn't been that much of a hassle to accomplish. I'm looking forward to those psychotic growths on Larcei and especially Ulster for sure.

Raquesis X Azel (Done): Like I said, SF's guide taught me this one, and I like it. It's the only way to give Nanna a good magic growth and pursuit, and the minor Hezul blood means it's impossible to give them bad strength even with a mage father. Azel was a pain in the ass to train up and required unfathomable amounts of babying and waiting up for him that made chapter 2 a colossal pain, but the results are... if not exactly “worth it”, at least fun? Now that the babying is over and he's on a horse?

Erin X Claude (In Progress): This is ironman. Claude needs a mate. Plus, giving a good staff rank to a pegasus knight in gen 2 is probably gonna be useful, and as IntOb oh-so-very helpfully pointed out in the comments, a flier who can tank status staves is probably going to come in handy too.

Bridget X Lex (In Progress): Thieves. Archers. Two units in grotesque need of help gaining experience. They get Paragon. That's pretty much the end of my reasoning here.

Taillte X Lewyn (In Progress): I want Forseti passed down as soon as possible and given to someone who can get on a horse. That's pretty much it. Teeny's probably gonna suffer due to only Arthur getting pursuit with the ring, but I've literally never used her, so... fuck it.

Sylvia X The Icy Scythe of Death: I want Leene's extra 10% aura, and if a low-level priest is going to see any action at all, Sharlow having Paragon's gonna make that way more likely than anything I could give Corple.

Right. I think that's everyone. Let's continue.

Bridget manages to make a bottleneck despite being separated from her allies, but the fact that pirates can walk on water means that unless she can fight them off on player phase, she's gonna need Erin's help to keep from being swarmed from the sides and behind.

Well that's bizarre. You know what I just anticipated happening in the last paragraph? It isn't happening. The pirates can clearly walk across water, but they're still getting themselves jammed up at the bottleneck as if they can't cross it. Maybe it's similar to why enemies crowding around one unit won't give up and try to attack another when there are no viable spaces? Just like none of the axe fighters took the long way around the cliff in chapter 1 to attack Dew from the other side because the blocked side was “faster”, they think the same thing about approaching by sea? But surely walking on the water a little will still get them closer, won't it? And the pirate who had a hand axe went onto the water to attack Bridget... or did he...? Was the 2-range space on dry land occupied when he attacked, or did he use that one...?

Fuck. I wish I had thought something of that at the time, then I would have made notes.

Oh, so NOW the pirates start marching across the ocean? What gives!?

I love using evasion auras to trick the enemy AI into attacking people they can't possibly hit. It's super useful for safely training dodgetanks.

Alright, I just had Sigurd talk to Claude.

Mental note, people: Claude says Byron is “still alive”, but is “injured and weak” and is “not long for this world”.

I am going to be watching chapter 4 like a FUCKING HAWK for signs of how much time passes between now and when we find him in chapter 5 just in time for him to collapse and die. Something tells me the answer they're gonna give me is gonna be ludicrous.

Also, they weren't careful about Bridget's conversations. I notice that having Aideen talk to Bridget before Sigurd does... makes her reaction to Sigurd make very little sense.

Alright, Dew gets the wind sword, and that's it for all the shit you can get this chapter. Time to finish up the boss and high-tail it to chapter 4.

Okay. Not gonna lie. When I saw the absurd number of great knights, mage knights, and other promoted mounted units swarming around my castle, I was legit terrified. That's just such a massive step up from the kinds of armies you've been fighting before that it instantly gave a very real sense of danger, which was obviously the point, so ku fucking dos.

Thankfully, envoys from Silesse come to bail us out, and grant us sanctuary in their nation just across the sea.

Alright, so, apparently the wind crusader was also renamed to Ced, just like Erin's son was. Honestly I don't like this change. They should have called him Seti or something, because having “Sety” and “Holsety” go to “Ced” and “Forseti” just feels... wrong.

Okay, so apparently the late king's younger brother objected to Lewyn being next in line and “confined himself” to the eastern castle “in protest”. If anyone knows anything about medieval politics, I'd be delighted to hear some insight on this, because the way it comes across to me sounds incredibly childish and also totally ineffectual, like a child refusing to leave his room.

Also, I'm noticing absolutely no family resemblance between Lewyn and his uncles. At all.

Okay, so, Queen Rahna has apparently sent Belhalla “letter after letter”. Two things:

1: This flies in the face of how ludicrously fast news travels at almost all other times

2: This implies that Byron has been clinging to life for MULTIPLE FUCKING WEEKS.

Alright, so, here we get to the part where Rahna tells Sigurd the “good news” that Kurth's daughter has shown up, totally unaware that this happy couple that looks so perfect together is Arvis fucking his wife. Rahna says they knew it was Kurth's daughter because, among other things, she “bears the brand of Naga”.

Uh... huh.

...Alright.

Where?

WHERE ON HER BODY DOES SHE BEAR IT?

SIGURD.

MY DUDE.

MY BRO.

YOU HAVE A SON, DO YOU NOT?

AND THEREFORE YOU HAVE SEEN YOUR WIFE NAKED, HAVE YOU NOT?

DID YOU NEVER SEE THAT MARK?

DID YOU SEE IT, BUT JUST NOT KNOW THE IMPLICATIONS? AND DID YOU THEN LITERALLY NEVER ASK?

HOW IS THIS NOT IMMEDIATELY RINGING OFF ALARM BELLS THAT THIS IS DIERDRE THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT!?

 

And then.

And then.

AND FUCKING THEN.

THEY SAY A YEAR HAS PASSED BETWEEN DIERDRE'S DISAPPEARANCE AND NOW.

A FUCKING YEAR.

See, viewers, this is what I was talking about before. Byron has apparently been “clinging to life” not for a week, as I lowballed it just a few seconds ago, but for a FUCKING YEAR.

I can only assume that when we finally see Byron in chapter 5, those will be completely different mortal wounds he dies from right before Sigurd's eyes, because JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS GAME'S SENSE OF SPACE AND TIME?

...Oh man. Oh man.

It is going to be SO painful ranking this game's writing. Not immediately, of course. This is still the best-written game in the entire marathon so far, simply because it's the only one of the games so far with an even remotely interesting story to tell. But all of this bizarre nonsense and inconsistency... is going to make it very painful to judge against other stories moving forward. I love this story. I love this world. But it's like if the Mona Lisa were torn to shreds, and then held together with scotch tape. It's gorgeous, but when you look too closely it all falls apart.

So for the first time, I saw the “leaving for Leonster” scene with just Finn. I only managed to get him to level 15. Level 15 and no brave lance. Hopefully he'll still be useful in chapter 7, because I only get one shot at it.

Actually, Chapter 7 in general terrifies me. Especially the prospect of having to dodgetank with Shanan against those dark mages while defending Patty.

...Okay. So. One of the enemies is named Dithorba.

...Fuck it, the names in this game are just weird.

Alright, after a bunch of pre-battle shenanigans and a lot of money trading, Ayra and Dew empty out their massive bank accounts into Erin and Claude, who were both in serious need of money. I also get Lewyn the leg ring, so Arthur is going to be a piece of cake to train.

At the moment, Erin has the power ring from last chapter, and I think for the moment that's a good place for it.

I've got all of the new couples getting acquainted on the front lawn of Sailane, and hopefully they'll all be a thing by the end of the chapter. My main priorities now are, first of all, to start racking up kills on the wind sword to catch it up to the thunder sword. I may wind up just letting Raquesis borrow the wind sword for this purpose, since she'll be way better at killing with it than Dew would be.

Enemy phase comes. Those wind mages all moving exactly one space each is kind of ridiculous to watch.

So the bad guys are talking about their plans, and the deal with Grannvale.

Okay.

How did it take a year to set this up, and how did Silesse defend themselves from Grannvale for so long? Grannvale is literally right next door, and their Grannvale border is being “guarded” by a treasonous asshat. How did it take a year for Grannvale to offer to help out, and why did Silesse let the eastern evil uncle take such a ridiculously territorially critical position in the country when they knew he had been plotting treason for ages!?

While I had to do a bit of backtracking to retrieve it, Raquesis thankfully has just barely enough res with the barrier ring that she can resist the sleep staff user surrounding those wind mages, and fight them off.

Alright. While this map also involves backtracking across it after seizing a castle, just like chapter 2, I have enough well-trained units that this isn't a problem like it was then. I'll have all of my budding couples wait around by the bridge while my mounted units (and dew) go up to handle this castle. Then when the business down south happens, I'll have units who can handle it, namely Lewyn, Lex and Ayra, already at the village, with more to be warped in later.

I haven't forgotten about the defender, by the way. I think I know which village it's in, but if I'm wrong, I'll try them all until I get it right.

But that'll have to wait until later, because it's getting a bit too late to continue more of this today. I might do it tomorrow though!

Edited November 17, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

14 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I can only assume that when we finally see Byron in chapter 5, those will be completely different mortal wounds he dies from right before Sigurd's eyes, because JESUS CHRIST WHAT THE FUCK IS WITH THIS GAME'S SENSE OF SPACE AND TIME?

I'd say its in this little thing called time that grand narratives can run into issues. People don't proofread to make sure they all make sense.

And, for FE4, how would certain scenes and events be handled if information didn't flow so fast? Would for say this very chapter, you want it to be "Well we defeated the evil uncle up north, and now we're almost back to Sallane, we check on Queen Ra-" "Lord Sigurd! Castle Silesse has fallen! Lady Mahnya and her forces are dead!"

And, it'd make more sense for Claud to just say he senses Byron is in ever-present danger, but alive, and perhaps predict a terrible end for him in the future, but is not bodily in dire straits presently.

 

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so apparently the late king's younger brother objected to Lewyn being next in line and “confined himself” to the eastern castle “in protest”. If anyone knows anything about medieval politics, I'd be delighted to hear some insight on this, because the way it comes across to me sounds incredibly childish and also totally ineffectual, like a child refusing to leave his room.

I'm guessing its a refusal to obey royal authority. A king needs lesser royals and nobles to enact their rule throughout the country, or at least have them order their underlings to do that. And, one is better fomenting outright rebellion away from the royal court.

Although its early modern (so ~1492-1789, Renaissance to French Revolution), Louis XIV of France practically forced all of the nobility to own apartments in his lavish new palace in Versailles for a reason.

• A noble that came to Versailles was less suspicious, even though he spied on them and their letters anyhow. Such nobles who, regardless whatever they thought of their king behind his back, came to Versailles and participated in the outlandish rituals of watching the king: sleep, wake, get dressed, eat, hunt, and go back to bed, was behaving themselves and worthy of court patronage.
• Nobles who stayed away from Versailles couldn't expect royal favors, because they couldn't be trusted. Versailles, keeping the nobles as close to the king as possible and trapped in subservient ritual, was a gilded cage.
• In his youth, Louis XIV had survived a series of noble insurrections collectively called "The Fronde". So the nobility in France had power independent of the king. For the later decades of his rule, Versailles kept the nobles toothless, and although the degree of absurd king-worshipping faded once XIV died in 1715, Louis XV managed to have a peaceful nobility through his entire reign. And when the Versailles fantasy collapsed under Louis XVI, it wasn't the nobles who were to blame, it was debt and that new group yearning for power- the middle class.

 

Also in the early modern period, albeit earlier in origin, the Tokugawa Bakufu/Shogunate enacted its own policy of forcing the daimyo warlords to come to the capital of Edo on a yearly basis and pay homage to the shogun.

• These yearly trips and gifts were expensive, and indebted the daimyo to the shogun, who'd help pay their debts and give them ritual gifts in return for the ones they gave to the shogun. The heirs and wives of the daimyo would be held hostage in Edo as another precaution.
• The yearly visits to Edo and childhood confinement therein served to weaken the connections of daimyo to their fiefs and ensure they always paid public tribute to the shogun. Even if the shogunate quietly acknowledged its authority was not absolute, and what a daimyo did in their own fief was not capable of being subject to full shogunal control and oversight, it wanted to make the nominal point that it and its eastern capital was the center of all authority in Japan.
• And considering the Tokugawa Bakufu lasted into the mid-1800s, without a hitch in the peace and stability after 1615 (barring the tiniest moment of Shimabara), despite the very violent Sengoku period that had preceded it, that nominal point was in reality true.

 

I haven't a clue if medieval monarchs undertook endeavors as bold to reign in their nobles (I need to study medieval history more). I'm guessing they did not or could not by virtue of the Middle Ages being a period of greater political decentralization in European history. But, who said FE had to stick to late 400s-1492 European political arrangements? 

[Flere210]

It's possible that Byron woundwas not trated properly and caused an infection or something similar that slowly killed him. A bit too realistic for an fe game, altrought, i assume healing staves disinfect and this is why the party never have to deal whit diseases.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Flere210

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

It's possible that Byron woundwas not trated properly and caused an infection or something similar that slowly killed him. A bit too realistic for an fe game, altrought, i assume healing staves disinfect and this is why the party never have to deal whit diseases.

It's stuff like this that makes me want Byron and Kurth's story to be a side story in the remake. Either as dialogue scenes between chapters or as DLC at least.

9 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'm guessing its a refusal to obey royal authority. A king needs lesser royals and nobles to enact their rule throughout the country, or at least have them order their underlings to do that. And, one is better fomenting outright rebellion away from the royal court.

Although its early modern (so ~1492-1789, Renaissance to French Revolution), Louis XIV of France practically forced all of the nobility to own apartments in his lavish new palace in Versailles for a reason.

• A noble that came to Versailles was less suspicious, even though he spied on them and their letters anyhow. Such nobles who, regardless whatever they thought of their king behind his back, came to Versailles and participated in the outlandish rituals of watching the king: sleep, wake, get dressed, eat, hunt, and go back to bed, was behaving themselves and worthy of court patronage.
• Nobles who stayed away from Versailles couldn't expect royal favors, because they couldn't be trusted. Versailles, keeping the nobles as close to the king as possible and trapped in subservient ritual, was a gilded cage.
• In his youth, Louis XIV had survived a series of noble insurrections collectively called "The Fronde". So the nobility in France had power independent of the king. For the later decades of his rule, Versailles kept the nobles toothless, and although the degree of absurd king-worshipping faded once XIV died in 1715, Louis XV managed to have a peaceful nobility through his entire reign. And when the Versailles fantasy collapsed under Louis XVI, it wasn't the nobles who were to blame, it was debt and that new group yearning for power- the middle class.

 

Also in the early modern period, albeit earlier in origin, the Tokugawa Bakufu/Shogunate enacted its own policy of forcing the daimyo warlords to come to the capital of Edo on a yearly basis and pay homage to the shogun.

• These yearly trips and gifts were expensive, and indebted the daimyo to the shogun, who'd help pay their debts and give them ritual gifts in return for the ones they gave to the shogun. The heirs and wives of the daimyo would be held hostage in Edo as another precaution.
• The yearly visits to Edo and childhood confinement therein served to weaken the connections of daimyo to their fiefs and ensure they always paid public tribute to the shogun. Even if the shogunate quietly acknowledged its authority was not absolute, and what a daimyo did in their own fief was not capable of being subject to full shogunal control and oversight, it wanted to make the nominal point that it and its eastern capital was the center of all authority in Japan.
• And considering the Tokugawa Bakufu lasted into the mid-1800s, without a hitch in the peace and stability after 1615 (barring the tiniest moment of Shimabara), despite the very violent Sengoku period that had preceded it, that nominal point was in reality true.

 

I haven't a clue if medieval monarchs undertook endeavors as bold to reign in their nobles (I need to study medieval history more). I'm guessing they did not or could not by virtue of the Middle Ages being a period of greater political decentralization in European history. But, who said FE had to stick to late 400s-1492 European political arrangements? 

Thanks for the info!

[Espurrhoodie]

I thought Deirdre's brand was on her forehead? Still kinda dumb though.

[Interdimensional Observer]

18 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

i assume healing staves disinfect and this is why the party never have to deal whit diseases.

Then why can't Eliwood ORKO everyone in Binding Blade Chapter 1, and for the next ~31 after that? 😜

I'm going to assume two things:

1. FE doesn't want deal with disease being commonplace in pre-WWI warfare because disease is: complicated, ugly, and messy.
2. Bern attempted to invade Lycia after Chapter 12x. It failed because Eliwood literally stood in the way.

 

12 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

It's stuff like this that makes me want Byron and Kurth's story to be a side story in the remake. Either as dialogue scenes between chapters or as DLC at least.

Issach Campaign Issach Campaign! DLC like Rise of the Deliverance!

Sure we have few if any named individuals who could be playable, but I'd be fine with generics. Or, a few individuals with names and portraits, but next to no personality beyond just a snippet we get, but who, if told right, we would still develop a bond for.

I'd make it 3-4 battles.:

1. Crossing the Yied.
2. Conquest of Castle Issach.
3. Prince Marricle's last stand at Ganeishire.
4. Kurth's murder, Lord Ring's murder, Byron is framed, Byron flees into hiding for months to come. To make it poetic, have him end up in Tirnanogue, the place where his grandson would later rise up in freedom. Tirnanogue would be near the Issach-Silesse border too, which makes geographic sense for his last will flight to Sigurd in Chapter 5.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

16 minutes ago, Espurrhoodie said:

I thought Deirdre's brand was on her forehead? Still kinda dumb though.

Hidden by the circlet?

As in it's canon that Dierdre had sex with the circlet on?

[Espurrhoodie]

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hidden by the circlet?

As in it's canon that Dierdre had sex with the circlet on?

Presumably.

I hope the remake fixes that plothole.

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so apparently the late king's younger brother objected to Lewyn being next in line and “confined himself” to the eastern castle “in protest”. If anyone knows anything about medieval politics, I'd be delighted to hear some insight on this, because the way it comes across to me sounds incredibly childish and also totally ineffectual, like a child refusing to leave his room.

I'm guessing the taxes and troops of his personal lands are also confined to his castle in protest as well, and seeing as there are only four castles worth mentioning, that is probably a sizable number of troops and income.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

It is going to be SO painful ranking this game's writing. Not immediately, of course. This is still the best-written game in the entire series so far, simply because it's the only one of the games so far with an even remotely interesting story to tell. But all of this bizarre nonsense and inconsistency... is going to make it very painful to judge against other stories moving forward. I love this story. I love this world. But it's like if the Mona Lisa were torn to shreds, and then held together with scotch tape. It's gorgeous, but when you look too closely it all falls apart.

I suspect a lot of FE games' story will fall apart with too much scrutiny, as I remember Mekkkah having this extended series about how FE7's story falls to pieces with enough analysis, and I remember that one as fairly well constructed for an FE story.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Kurth's daughter because, among other things, she “bears the brand of Naga”.

Uh... huh.

...Alright.

Where?

WHERE ON HER BODY DOES SHE BEAR IT?

If I remember correctly its on her forehead usually hidden by her circlet, and in intimate moments, its probably hidden by that overabundance of hair. If you look at any of her official art her hair so thoroughly covers her circlet that I am not sure what, if any, design it has at the center that would cover the brand.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Okay. So. One of the enemies is named Dithorba.

...Fuck it, the names in this game are just weird.

Dithorba is a name from Irish legends, although it is a male name, so it is a little odd in this case.

 

[Espurrhoodie]

4 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

If I remember correctly its on her forehead usually hidden by her circlet, and in intimate moments, its probably hidden by that overabundance of hair. If you look at any of her official art her hair so thoroughly covers her circlet that I am not sure what, if any, design it has at the center that would cover the brand.

I can confirm that an overabundance of hair could cover her forehead.

And also nearly strangle her.

So glad I got mine cut.

[Flere210]

I lowkey remember that this  game have a lot of bullshit, but i never remember the details, this is going to be a good reference point when a Kaga Fanboy claim again that the games in his era had a decent story. Does the FE fans never play Suikoden games that aren't 4?

Edited November 17, 2019 by Flere210

[Eltosian Kadath]

This is a bit of a non sequitur, but while looking at Deirdre art I have stumbled upon one too adorable not to share

[Alastor15243]

36 minutes ago, Flere210 said:

I lowkey remember that this  game have a lot of bullshit, but i never remember the details, this is going to be a good reference point when a Kaga Fanboy claim again that the games in his era had a decent story. Does the FE fans never play Suikoden games that aren't 4?

Well, I haven't. I've heard good things about them though.

And to be clear, it eats me alive that I have to rip on this game's story so much, because I thought it was absolute brilliance as a kid, and even now, there are still so many things it did right that no other game in the franchise (and even few games in general honestly) has been able to accomplish as well. The potential is there for the remake to make this utter brilliance.

...Of course, the potential is also there for the remake to be even bigger nonsense if they approach certain features with the same non-existant levels of grace that they have in recent games...

Edited November 17, 2019 by Alastor15243

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I suspect a lot of FE games' story will fall apart with too much scrutiny, as I remember Mekkkah having this extended series about how FE7's story falls to pieces with enough analysis, and I remember that one as fairly well constructed for an FE story.

Shall I repeat the number of instances Nergal squanders his chance to win?:

Spoiler

Here I think is outline of Nergal's opportunities: 

1. Tricks Ninian and Nils to crossing over the Dragon's Gate. Doesn't summon more dragons. Why? Probably not enough quintessence to control them, which would be reasonable if he was just testing out the Gate when Ninian and Nils came over. If he couldn't lure anyone through the Gate, he couldn't open it and collecting quintessence for the task would be meaningless.
2. Hector C21- Nergal tries using Ninian to open the Dragon's Gate. Despite not having started the war he was planning to get a massive amount of quintessence from, Nergal is able to get the necessary amount just from killing Elbert. Tries to kill LEH via the Fire Dragon summoned, but Nils interrupts the summoning and the Fire Dragon dies caught between dimensions. Before Nergal can kill LEH and recapture N&N, the dying Elbert stabs Nergal with what must be a random small knife badly enough that Nergal must flee and heal his wounds to the point he can control dragons again by gathering fresh quintessence, this is until Hector C29.
3. Nergal, who must have been keeping an eye on LEH the whole time, comes to take N&N after C29, and despite having the power to take both siblings and LEH, he agrees to Ninian's begging and takes only her. Leaving a "parting gift" of a magical blast that could have killed everyone, but didn't because Athos was there. Athos for some reason doesn't attack Nergal, which could have kept him from dragon summoning. With Ninian in tow and himself in good health, Nergal could have summoned dragons, but he doesn't. Nergal shifts Ninian and lets her run off to Eliwood.
4. This brings up the Hector C30 opportunity, where Nergal shows up after Ninian is killed. Why? Probably to collect the quintessence of her mentioned before, though he does say he's there for Nils too, since Ninian refused to obey him. Needing Ninian's obedience is odd since Nergal didn't need it back in HC21 when he brainwashed her, and the Fire Dragons he planned to summon certainly wouldn't obey him of their own accord. However, in showing up to mock Eliwood in his misery and get Ninian's essence and Nils, Nergal, just as he is about to kill LEH, is attacked by Athos for 5 displayed damage, in response to which he say: Nergal:
   “The purest fire… Flame breath. Very impressive, Archsage Athos. However… However, fire is no longer my foe! Look! Not even a legendary blade can cause me harm! At long last, I am impervious! Ha ha…ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!”
5. After this laugh, Nergal teleports away. And then tells Limstella the injury leaves him incapable of controlling dragons now, since he already went through the Black Fang's quintessence reserves. While it seems that Limstella's power augmentations were done shortly before LEH showed up for the final battle, I think this implies the Black Fang Super Replicas made with the BF essences of the originals were done earlier than that, unless they're cheap to make (then why didn't he make more?). Nergal fails to kill the heroes in the final battle, thus losing his final chance to control dragons and the world.

 

From this breakdown, I think Nergal's biggest mistakes are made in Hector C29-30. He could have fulfilled his plans without any issues then, but he messed up and let himself lose too much of the quintessence he so badly needed at that point. At least with C21, he didn't know Nils would show up or that Elbert could survive a quintessence extraction- nobody else does (barring Brendan sans NoF visiting perhaps).

Edit: I just realized there is an undefined period of time when Nergal had Elbert and N&N, yet he didn't open the Gate then. This opportunity was lost when N&N tried to escape Dread Isle. And despite having Elbert, Nergal still tried to start a war in Lycia, which provided the trail of connections which led LEH to Dread Isle. So, had Nergal abandoned his Lycia plans and just offered up Elbert, all would have gone over well for him. This is a flaw.

 

55 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

This is a bit of a non sequitur, but while looking at Deirdre art I have stumbled upon one too adorable not to share

 

I like the idea of this image, I really do. It's just the styling that gets in the way. Baby Seliph doesn't look too Seliph, and Deidre's face isn't great either.

 

1 hour ago, Flere210 said:

I lowkey remember that this  game have a lot of bullshit, but i never remember the details, this is going to be a good reference point when a Kaga Fanboy claim again that the games in his era had a decent story. Does the FE fans never play Suikoden games that aren't 4?

Like 2? The game with a terribly filler vampire in the Wild West hunt, whose vampire was utter filler in the first game too, and who should've stayed dead in that game rather than waste time in the second? Pfffffffffff!

I've only played 1&2, I do have 3, I just never played beyond the very start of the young man's story (as in waste time in a capital, get into fights).

But, I'll staunchly tear down any pedestal you're trying to construct for Suikoden 2. Luca Blight was done right, there was stuff that was inoffensively decent too, and other appreciable aspects, but, I'll never call it perfect. Never. But to be fair, I don't know what game has a flawless story, it's all relative and less bad/more good, never perfection.

[Jotari]

Huh? I thought that one village girl did have alternate text for whether or not her boyfriend was dead. Maybe how you defeat Eldigan affects it. Or maybe which castle you seize first.

 

Larci's cool, but I don't like Ulster as he's stealing the name of the Irish province that is also a location in Jugdral.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hidden by the circlet?

As in it's canon that Dierdre had sex with the circlet on?

Either that or Sigurd doesn't know what the mark of Naga looks like. He might assume it's the mark of Loptyr. He does discover she has Lopt blood if you kill Sandima before recruiting her. Not sure if she ever tells him if you take the conventional route though.

Edited November 17, 2019 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

44 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Huh? I thought that one village girl did have alternate text for whether or not her boyfriend was dead. Maybe how you defeat Eldigan affects it. Or maybe which castle you seize first.

She does, although I forget what exactly triggers, but here is the other version from a let's play

 

[Alastor15243]

8 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

She does, although I forget what exactly triggers, but here is the other version from a let's play

 

I can only assume it was because they only trigger it when the chapter "stage" changes after each castle is captured, like how new conversations are unlocked. I don't believe that's ever triggered by doing anything other than seizing a castle, so I guess killing all the cross knights didn't do it yet.

[Shadow Mir]

Which game do you think is the most unfriendly to ironman runs?