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

[Koops]

Hoo boy, Chapter 5 is next.

In the entire FE8 early-game, I'd say that might be the hardest chapter if you're willing to go for all the objectives. Do be careful with that. I could give advice if you wanted but I'm not willing to spoil anything unless you're ok with it, so...

[Etrurian emperor]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Selena is... wow.

Okay, so... lemme just double check...

We've had four Camuses so far. Camus, Eldigan, Reinhardt and Brunnya.

As far as the Camus archetype go I tend to have more sympathy for the likes of Selena and Ishtar then for Camus or Eldigan. The former are loyal to a person they love and thus have some reason to stay loyal and ensure their loved one isn't killed. The later type of Camus often loudly claims to be loyal to their country while at the same time knowing they are causing the destruction of their country. 

Ishtar and Selena know their lords are in the wrong but they also love their lord and just don't have the emotional strength to leave him. With Ishtar it works a little better because her lord actually loves her back. I can sympathize with not having the power to do the right thing. 

But Camus and Eldigan always strike me as a bit dishonest. Camus knows his lord is selling out the country he loves so much to a crazy dragon out to subjugate humanity. Eldigan knows he serves a king who started a civil war and nearly destroyed everything Eldigan loved purely because he found it funny to do so. Both claim to loyally serve their country but because they know their rulers are maliciously driving their countries into ruin this line of thinking doesn't hold up to scrutiny. It seems to me that they are more in love with the idea of themselves loving their country rather then actually being in love with their country. 

Its easier to sympathize for characters fighting for people they love then to sympathize with characters who are willingly taking part in the destruction of what they claim to love. 

Xander is a curious middle ground in that his evil lord is his father who he loves very much, but he also has some of the more conventional Camus traits. 

[Koops]

Imo Camuses would work better if they had something at stake if they disobeyed their evil twisted lieges. Kinda like Eagler in FE7 Lyn mode, who it's implied he was forced into it (of course FE7 being FE7 we never found out exactly how he was forced). In Eldigan's case, I think that him turning against Sigurd was... only so very loosely justified? At this point, all the Agustrian lords (or what remains of them) were against the Grannvale occupation, and while you can argue that Eldigan could've sided with Sigurd and become King of Agustria himself, it's kinda hard to see how the hell he's gonna rebuild that country himself when he has no support from any other Agustrian territory whatsoever, having only a handful of civilians at best. Doesn't justify his actions but I feel that makes sense. Camus is just dumb tho.

In Selena's case, she does say later on everything Vigarde has done to her and her family and that's a way of really clarifying why she's so loyal to him, on a personal level. Unfortunate as the fact that she still doesn't budge may be, she is not one of those cases where you question why she didn't choose to change sides.

[Alastor15243]

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Vigarde's title stated in the Prologue was the "Silent Emperor", it's feasible from that he doesn't do long speeches. Terse and to the point, no frivolous language.

Yeah, but there's terse, and there's sounding like a literal zombie.

Vigarde: I appreciate your work in fulfilling my previous orders. You are the hammers that drive the nails of the empire's will... You will continue to operate... without hesitation... wherever I send you.

What the fuck kind of thing to say is "You will continue to do what you are told"?

[Jotari]

Personally I think Eldigan works the best because he's the one stuck between a rock and a hard place. He simply has no good options. Chagall might be an idiot, but Sigurd is working for the evil empire that wants to invade and subjugate his people.

Camus honestly we actually don't know enough about despite him being like the most recurring character in the series. Mainly because we never see his king and have no idea if he knew the royal heirs were being held hostage due to it being a retcon (that Shadow Dragon ignored).

Edited May 2, 2020 by Jotari

[Icelerate]

On 4/29/2020 at 7:33 PM, Alastor15243 said:

I don't read that as "paralysis" at all.

"If you remain behind, then so shall I!"

She's either resolutely deciding to not abandon her father, or using herself staying as a threat to keep her father from being an idiot. Either one of those is an active decision on her part, and not an inability to act.

Fair enough but it still goes against you saying Eirika wasn't freaking out or else she wouldn't have decided not to abandon her father despite it being foolish to stay in the castle. 

[Alastor15243]

13 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

Fair enough but it still goes against you saying Eirika wasn't freaking out or else she wouldn't have decided not to abandon her father despite it being foolish to stay in the castle. 

I'm talking about her behavior after leaving the castle. Her exchange with Seth before Valter arrives is... alarmingly detached and casual for someone who just got forcibly torn away from the father she was trying to convince not to stay in certain danger.

[AnonymousSpeed]

On 5/1/2020 at 12:54 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...is Creature Campaign canon?

 

If you need more padding before FE9, do a review of Lagdou.

On 5/1/2020 at 2:16 PM, Sweet Summer Tana said:

In regard to the monsters, it becomes even more stupid when you know L'Arachel and Eirika's support. L'Arachel tells her that monsters in the Darkling Woods killed her parents when she was too young to remember them. So these legendary and mythical monsters that NO ONE knows about have already existed for at least the 15 or 16 (or however old L'Arachel is) years but NO ONE but Raustenians know about it?

Yeah. Between this and Chapter 6, it's pretty clear that monsters have existed in certain localized areas of Magvel regardless of how novel the cast considers them.

On 5/1/2020 at 12:54 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...Wow. I just looked at the growth rates for the game, and Eirika apparently has all-around better growths than Franz, with the exception of a couple of ties and 10% less HP growth. Really goes to show what a difference class and 1-2 range access can do for a character.

Not having 4 base strength is also really good.

On 5/1/2020 at 12:54 PM, Alastor15243 said:

...So apparently even revenants, the weakest of Fomortiis's monsters, are strong enough to “outmatch any normal man”.

What kind of power scaling are we working with here?

Regular people are trainees.

[Alastor15243]

Sorry for how long overdue this quality of life feature is, but I've finally added a chapter guide! You can skip to first entry for any game you like by clicking the links in the OP now.

[Alastor15243]

Also: I just looked back at my FE1 ranking assessment, and I remembered I had originally planned to keep up a "total days" tally for this project and then... completely forgot. Is that something anyone cares about? My final posts are too big to update retroactively, but I suppose I can keep up that total from here on out.

 

Sacred Stones Day 6: Chapter 5

Alright, on to Serafew, the big market town that means our first opportunity to buy some non-iron weapons. Namely some more javelins.

Glenn... feels... wrong. “I don't care if you have to tear this town apart, find that traitor”... doesn't feel like something someone with misgivings about the Empire's actions would say when giving orders to hunt down an unarmed, noncombatant cleric. Specifically the “I don't care”. If he said “Emperor Vigarde doesn't care if you have to tear this town apart”, that I could understand more. But he said that he doesn't care. And his misgivings after the conversation are... not as significant as I would have liked. It didn't really indicate he didn't mean that.

And then Saleh comes in, asking the party about Myrrh, who they obviously haven't seen yet.

Strange how when Saleh leaves, he doesn't just exit stage left; all three of them flash out of existence and then Eirika and Seth re-appear.

It suddenly occurs to me how similar Natasha is to... fuck, I don't even remember her name, but your first healer in FE6...

...Ellen, apparently. Yeah, they serve an alarmingly similar role in the story. Both flee from the enemy nation to deliver vital information to your party.

Not really much to do to prepare here, so let's just get right into it.

My main strategy is going to be to have Seth clear the path for Natasha to recruit Joshua by standing on that forest tile (Joshua has just enough luck that Seth can't crit him, so it's safe to have Joshua fight him), have Franz and maybe a few others deal with the left flank to get to those villages, and then clean up as much as I can with Lute and Artur. I really wanna use both of them this time.

...Franz continues to get terrible level ups, this time getting skillsauce. His only really noteworthy stat at this point is his 11 strength.

First village has Tethys inside, and apparently somebody simped for her so hard that she can't carry everything home, and the item she decides to dump on us to make room for the better ones is a fucking dragonshield.

How much did she get from that man!?

Anyway, that also makes me wonder who that man was. I'm not saying I'm assuming she's alluding to someone playable or even named, but... if they can afford to spend time (and a ludicrous amount of money) watching a girl dance in a town overrun by Grado forces, then I have to assume they're from Grado. A wealthy merchant? A noble? Curious... very curious indeed.

Anyway...

I successfully recruited Joshua. He took a nasty hit from Seth... with an iron sword... but he's on our side now, and that's what matters. Franz is also making good time getting to that furthest village. Colm was actually surprisingly helpful with chip damage against the numerous enemies Franz couldn't double. That six move especially helped him save the day, keeping up with Franz really well.

“Gambling's what I live for. Even when I lose, I never want to stop.”

...Uh... huh.

Has, uh... has Mangs played Sacred Stones on his channel recently without skipping dialogue? I'm very curious how he'd react to hearing that line.

I would've liked if they had a sound effect here that would indicate a coin being flicked into the air.

Joshua is... interesting. He's a swordmaster in an easy GBA game, so he's kinda worthless gameplaywise, but... I mean he seems fun. I never really got any of his supports though. As a kid though, I used him a ton, and I often made him an assassin. I always found it amusing that Joshua's assassin sprite is almost identical to Jaffar's, due to their identical hair colors and near-identical clothing colors.

...I think this game just... subtly implied that Grado is sending certain Renais citizens of Serafew to “internment camps”... or something similar. That... wow. I don't see how that even benefits Fomortiis's ultimate goals though.

Franz finally gains some more speed, reaching 9. Thank goodness this game doesn't have high speed demands.

Speaking of Franz, I'm planning on supporting him with Seth. Anima and Light gives the incredibly rare +3 atk and def bonus, which I don't remember ever getting to see in action in a Fire Emblem game.

Lute gains magic, speed and defense, which is quite promising. I'll be feeding her the dracoshield too, as soon as it'll actually make a difference to her survivability. Which is probably when I get an angelic robe too. I just wanna avoid giving it to someone who's then gonna die.

We get a cute, Nino-ish scene of Amelia doing an inventory check before heading out to “do her best” for the Grado Empire. But alas, she leaves what is hopefully only one of her many torches behind. Fitting that it's Colm who just decides to swipe it from the girl's house without permission.

Strange. Not even this map is selling javelins. Have we really not found a javelin shop yet? Did I forget? I'll have to check after this map.

Which is going to be... right now! We just visited all the houses and cleared out the remaining reinforcements! Honestly, this chapter was... pretty trivial. The fact that nearly everyone and their grandma joins with at least one vulnerary, sometimes two, is definitely playing a role, considering what early Hector Hard Mode was like. But really, it's mostly that the enemies are less numerous (though they don't feel weaker yet) and there's barely any pressure to use Seth at all, save for baiting in Joshua.

We got a secret book from that last village, incidentally, and the story behind it... I think it's basically exactly the same as the story behind the FE7 one. An old man who was once a legendary fighter, putting his techniques in a book for others to read. Or more specifically, one other. Yeah... these... don't really work well as consumables in-story.

Okay, so, Natasha's superior in the church warned her with his final breath, as he was executed, that Vigarde plans to destroy the Sacred Stones. Hence she went on her mission to warn the others.

But, uh...

...How exactly was he in a position to warn her, specifically, while being executed? I have to assume that he was... executed publicly, and that his warning was issued to the whole crowd, a crowd that Natasha was part of. Which means I have to assume that Grado is so far gone in mindless zeal for its Emperor that they can watch priests being publicly executed “for treason” and not feel like anything is wrong. Because if this was a non-public execution, how the fuck could he warn her without instantly making her a target to be executed next?

...Maybe these soldiers weren't high enough on the ladder to know that he was telling the truth when he said the goal was to have the Sacred Stones destroyed? They thought he was just lying his ass off, and anything he said to that effect didn't need to be silenced with force? If so, that seems like a ridiculous amount of outsourcing for what should have probably been a matter for the higher-ups in the army.

...But then again... which higher ups? Honestly, I didn't get the sense during that conversation we saw earlier that even the six generals (with the obvious exception of Riev) knew yet that the ultimate goal was to destroy the Sacred Stones. And what do the three original generals believe once they do know that's the goal? What are they told is the reason?

...To demonstrate what utterly shit writing this is... I am going to compare this game's writing...

...to the superior writing...

...of Bravely Default.

Say what you will about the writing of Bravely Default – it's unquestionably SNES JRPG era cheese – but when the Duchy of Eternia sends its vast armies out to conquer every crystal-bearing country in Luxendarc to occupy every government and keep the vestals from restoring the crystals at all costs, even as the seas rot and the wind dies due to lack of religious maintenance... we know what the Duchy soldiers are fighting for. It's made perfectly clear that that Eternia sees the entire church the vestals are part of as a backwards and oppressive cult using their unearned authority over the crystals to use them for what amounts to idol worship when they could be harnessed by competent minds for the betterment of mankind. The further the game goes in, the more we learn about what Eternia went through, and the more believable it becomes that Eternian youths would sign up to risk their lives to rip the crystals out of the Crystal Orthodoxy's grip forever.

The best part of this comparison? I won't say too much to avoid Bravely Default spoilers, but suffice to say, just like with Grado, this isn't even the real ultimate motive the higher-ups have for taking over the crystals. But it doesn't have to be. What matters is that the populace has something believable that they're being told. They have a reason to fight and die that's more convincing and satisfying than “because I said so”. Something for the nobler members of the Eternian Duchy's elite army to remain loyal to the crown over, even in the face of the atrocities their more morally repugnant allies are committing.

Meanwhile... why is Grado's army so zealously willing to fight and die to conquer the continent? As far as I remember, we're literally never told. Everyone below Riev on the chain of command seems to be operating entirely on “because he's the emperor, and we have to do what he says”.

...But moving on... looks like I got a guiding ring, either just for free, or as a reward for getting all of the villages. Oh goodie! It's crazy how early this is, though. Is it even possible to be able to use it by this point? I mean without heal staff grinding with unarmed units I guess.

...Well... looks like we're at the first, and only gaiden chapter of the game. Which we will be doing tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited May 4, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

The whole lacking any personal motivation thing for the Grado soldiers thing is even more questionable when they continue to fight for several chapters after Vigarde is deposed.

[Boomhauer007]

40 minutes ago, Jotari said:

The whole lacking any personal motivation thing for the Grado soldiers thing is even more questionable when they continue to fight for several chapters after Vigarde is deposed.

Isn't that just 15 and 16? Lyon is personally commanding the army by 17, and most of the units are druids which makes sense. 

16 is definitely the worse of the two in that regard to me, as I don't think it's too crazy to headcanon Valter killing any deserters in 15. And while absolutely inconsistent with the speed at which information travels in this game, I think 15 is supposed to take place directly after 14 with Ephraim's group going straight from Grado keep to Jehanna.

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of Franz, I'm planning on supporting him with Seth. Anima and Light gives the incredibly rare +3 atk and def bonus, which I don't remember ever getting to see in action in a Fire Emblem game.

Any other support plans you have?

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Any other support plans you have?

Lute and Artur... but beyond that, nothing set in stone.

[Hello72207]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I successfully recruited Joshua. He took a nasty hit from Seth... with an iron sword... but he's on our side now, and that's what matters.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

My main strategy is going to be to have Seth clear the path for Natasha to recruit Joshua by standing on that forest tile (Joshua has just enough luck that Seth can't crit him, so it's safe to have Joshua fight him

Sorry to break it to you, but Joshua's AI actually will not attack Natasha, and the enemies around him charge you, so the easiest and most risk-free way to get him is to slaughter the enemies around him, and then recruit him.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Joshua is... interesting. He's a swordmaster in an easy GBA game, so he's kinda worthless gameplaywise, but... I mean he seems fun. I never really got any of his supports though. As a kid though, I used him a ton, and I often made him an assassin. I always found it amusing that Joshua's assassin sprite is almost identical to Jaffar's, due to their identical hair colors and near-identical clothing colors.

Joshua's supports are fun to read. Even if you don't plan on using either of them, Joshua and L'arachel's support conversations are the funniest support conversations ever, and they give some pretty good bonuses, like +3 attack and +15 critical. A few others are pretty funny as well, and he has a love interest in Natasha or Marisa. Another useful support to utilize of his is his support with Gerik, which together they can annihilate whole armies while standing next to each other. He has useful supports with a bunch of people, and most of them are fairly quick. I usually make him a swordmaster, but whatever you want.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But moving on... looks like I got a guiding ring, either just for free, or as a reward for getting all of the villages. Oh goodie! It's crazy how early this is, though. Is it even possible to be able to use it by this point? I mean without heal staff grinding with unarmed units I guess.

It is a reward for saving all of the villages.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Well... looks like we're at the first, and only gaiden chapter of the game. Which we will be doing tomorrow.

Can you even count 5x as a gaiden chapter, I mean, its not even optional, its just called a gaiden for some reason.

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Hello72207 said:

Sorry to break it to you, but Joshua's AI actually will not attack Natasha, and the enemies around him charge you, so the easiest and most risk-free way to get him is to slaughter the enemies around him, and then recruit him.

This series has been hilariously inconsistent as to whether or not recruitable enemies will attack their recruiters. I suspected something like that would be true, but this is an ironman, so I didn't dare try it.

[Shadow Mir]

18 minutes ago, Hello72207 said:

Can you even count 5x as a gaiden chapter, I mean, its not even optional, its just called a gaiden for some reason.

I... kinda don't. It seems to be this game's "And Now for Someone Completely Different" much like the one the prior game pulled, albeit for one chapter before going back to Eirika.

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

This series has been hilariously inconsistent as to whether or not recruitable enemies will attack their recruiters. I suspected something like that would be true, but this is an ironman, so I didn't dare try it.

Unfortunately, exceptions to this are rare, to my knowledge.

EDIT: And Joshua and Natasha isn't an exception to this in the Japanese version either.

Edited May 4, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Interdimensional Observer]

Serafew I felt was a bit challenging, the enemies around Joshua didn't let up fast enough for me to be to be not concerned that bandits would spawn behind him and raid a house. Sending Seth instead of Gilliam up the back alley to the left and around Joshua that way should've mitigated that concern I admit in retrospect.

 

8 hours ago, Boomhauer007 said:

Isn't that just 15 and 16? Lyon is personally commanding the army by 17, and most of the units are druids which makes sense. 

16 is definitely the worse of the two in that regard to me, as I don't think it's too crazy to headcanon Valter killing any deserters in 15. And while absolutely inconsistent with the speed at which information travels in this game, I think 15 is supposed to take place directly after 14 with Ephraim's group going straight from Grado keep to Jehanna.

Most aren't Druids though, the ones nearest to Lyon are, but the rest of C17 has Wyvern Riders, Heroes, a Berserker, Cavs, and even Valkyries. Chapter 19, the very last human enemy struggle, has similar or greater variety in classes.

Chapter 16 is commandeered by Orson too, and I would imagine those troops have been with him since Chapter 8.

There is this line however:

Soldier 2:
“I don’t care. I’m here for the money. As long as I get paid, I’m happy. But on the subject of rumors, have you heard the stories of the secret treasure? There’s supposed to be some fabulous wealth hidden in Castle Renais. I tell you, if I find it, I’m gone.”

This could mean that by the time of Chapter 16, the good and noble knights of Grado have died or betrayed or surrendered, and that 16/17/19 are scummier grunts. Valkyries in enemy ranks would visually be sorta opposed to this notion, but gameplay-story segregation would excuse that and why this scum is stronger than the honorable stuff you murdered earlier.

I have no hard evidence for this possibility, but if Lyon was willing to elevate Caellach and Valter to Gemstone rank, who is to say he didn't let the body of the army experience an influx of the bane of chivalry too?

Edited May 5, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Icelerate]

I agree with you that Glen felt a bit out of character when he basically gave permission to destroy a village to find a maiden. Considering how he's the second most sympathetic Grado general, it wasn't a great choice to have him be that brutal. 

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 7: Chaper 5x

Okay! Fascinating! First thing I learn is that Ephraim's ludicrous military prowess... isn't nearly as ludicrous as I thought. Apparently the forces of Renvall merely “more than double his numbers”. So either he has a much bigger force than the game actually shows, or the numbers that have been sent to capture him are... hilariously tiny.

...Then they say he “has no army”. Just a small band of knights loyal to him. Which means... it's the latter? Either that, or he has more loyal knights than just those three we see, or “more than double” is the understatement of the century.

I like how Valter doesn't even punish Tirado for his failure. You'd think, based on his general “psycho boss” status, he'd be one of the types to do that, but no, he's psycho in an entirely different way. After hearing that Ephraim's still free, he's not upset with Tirado, he's got a raging bloodlust boner for Ephraim.

Okay, so... apparently Ephraim doesn't know that Renais has fallen? Kyle is saying that the invasion has “progressed quite far”.

...No, next sentence he says that the capital has fallen. So now's when Ephraim learns that Renais has fallen.

Huh.

...What's the timeline here? Is this happening at the same time as Chapter 5, or is this happening earlier, towards the beginning of the game?

Ugh.

Okay, this game basically flat-out admits that the game is assuming instantaneous transmission of information. He's heard the capital has fallen, and his reaction is to say their job is to keep the enemy occupied enough to buy time for Eirika and Fado's escape. This assumes that by the time news that “Renais has fallen” reaches his ears, Eirika and Fado haven't already escaped or been captured or killed. For that matter, it requires that anything he does in Grado territory is going to have any effect on the war in Renais in time for Eirika and Fado to escape.

So we're not only dealing with instant transmission of information, we're dealing with instant transmission of troops.

Hmmm... did games other than 4 and 8 have this problem of completely unexplained super-fast messengers? Those are the only games I remember noticing this in, but it's possible I only noticed it in just those games.

Anyway, Ephraim learns about the massive number of troops sent to take them, and his response is to... rush Renvall itself while 90% of its troops are out looking for him, taking it over while it's poorly guarded and relying on the fact that nobody would think he's crazy enough to attempt it.

 

In fairness, it doesn't sound like Ephraim's primary objectives here involve him getting out alive. He just wants to waste as much of Grado's time as he possibly can with what few forces he has remaining, and taking over a castle that's crucial to Grado's defenses, if you can manage it, is a very, very good way to do that, given what a force multiplier having a castle under your control is. Plus, they're nearly out of supplies...

...Honestly, this isn't a half-bad strategy given his situation.

Ugh. I forgot about this. Everyone's got steel lances, except for Forde and his javelin. I hate GBA steel lances. They're a massive speed sink in all three games. Could I just have one iron lance here? I don't want to have to use Ephraim's Reginleif to double here.

But speaking of... we've got Ephraim now, a small taste until we get him for real. He's... honestly, objectively speaking, he's probably the best lord in the entire GBA series. He's one of only two who can achieve reliable 1-2 range unpromoted, and then he promotes to have a horse. And as if that weren't good enough, he's got great growths that guarantee his relatively low caps are met with ease when it comes to strength, skill and speed. His defense is pretty great for this game too, and he starts with a badass 45 use, 80 hit, 10 might prf lance that slays cavalry and knights.

I always hated that he promoted to be on a horse as a kid. I wanted to badly to have a badass lance-using footsoldier. Nowadays I don't mind quite as much, and I appreciate the extra mobility, but man was that a letdown that kept him from being my favorite lord in the “series” as I understood it at the time.

This chapter is hilariously straightforward. No reason to rush, no particularly powerful enemies so far... really, the only serious hiccup is the whole thing about limited healing resources, and given the number of vulneraries we have, that shouldn't be an issue. It does call into question, however, why Ephraim didn't bring a healer with him.

...Or did he? Something just occurred to me... is this small group all Ephraim brought... or all Ephraim has left?

Either one has some rather uncomfortable implications for the story. In the former... well, I mean, holy shit, that's amazingly stupid to deliberately bring only this small group... unless the intention all along was to efficiently waste Grado's time and resources, and not to achieve any real victories, which I suppose is plausible. If it's the latter... he's... alarmingly cavalier about doing dangerous strategies when most of his army has already been killed.

Anyway, the battle progresses, and Ephraim gets a solid left column of stats for his first level up, which is very promising. Kyle is one speed sky of doing the same thing.

I really hope I get at least one cavalier who turns out well.

Shit. I forgot we don't have a convoy, and had to drop a 2-use vulnerary to make room for the door key.

Weirdly... okay, funny story... both beginning map themes of this game have riffs in them that make me nostalgic for music I heard in my childhood. As I said before, I suspect I know where I get it from for Eirika's maps, but for this one... I have this vague sense of it reminding me of something I heard on Sesame Street.

...Oh shit.

I think I know what it is.

 

...The beginning of "Sing, Sing a Song" sounds kinda similar to the beginning of the 5x map theme. I think that's where I get it from. But part of me thinks it's something else.

Anyway, I nearly made a terrible mistake with my placement of Ephraim. I very nearly put Ephraim in a situation where he would have died with exact change to the mage and fighter guarding the treasure chests, because I didn't check how powerful they were before going in, or how much HP Ephraim would have left after healing up with a vulnerary. Thankfully, I managed to take every lance out of Ephraim's inventory with Kyle, allowing him to hang on with exactly 1 HP once the fighter lost WTA.

That would have been a profoundly embarrassing way to end the ironman run.

...Just as I was thinking that Kyle is pretty great given his impressive base defense, he gets an HPsauce level up, right after one that didn't have speed or defense.

...Really, the fact that 9 defense is all it takes to barely take damage from a lot of these enemies just tells me I was wrong about the enemies here not being weaker yet. Holy shit yes they are. Or rather, compared to this point in Hector Hard Mode. This feels... pretty in line with this point in Lyn Hard Mode in terms of enemy difficulty. Which is disappointing, because this game is shorter than Hector Hard Mode even when you compare that mode to all of Sacred Stones. Sacrificing part of its runtime to make another easy tutorial section, even on “difficult”...

...And this is ignoring the fact that you have a nigh-indestructible prepromote panic button that I can't imagine anyone actually needing to use.

Okay, finally, after two levels of mediocrity and shit respectively, Kyle finally gains a str-def level, with some res added for good measure.

...And a second str-def level. Holy shit, once he actually starts gaining speed, Kyle's gonna be pretty great now!

But really, this is just Revelation-tier map design here. Damned near all of the enemies are just waiting for me to approach. The lowest form of AI in Fire Emblem history, and what made me so phenomenally bored with much of FE3.

And the boss is absolutely pathetic. A mercenary robbed of his one good stat, his speed, by a ludicrously heavy steel blade.

And then the boss's death quote reminds me...

...Ephraim just fell into a trap.

Either Orson used magical instant messengers to rat out Ephraim's plan, or, as the dying quote where the boss realizes he was just a pawn suggests... they actually predicted that Ephraim would try taking the castle, and the plan was always for these guards to be left to die.

...Considering how much Ephraim was relying on sheer unpredictable audacity to make this plan work in the first place... having his ridiculous plan actually predicted makes Tirado a pretty impressive strategist, in a way.

Ephraim's first few level ups have been mediocre in everything but speed, but hopefully the rest of him will catch up. And that added doubling ability this early in the game is very appreciated.

Alright, time to finish up, check out the ending cutscene, and then check if I missed a place where I can buy javelins.

...Wait...

...Ephraim says, immediately after getting there, that they don't have the manpower to hold it in a seige.

...How did you not know that until you got here? Wasn't the entire plan to make Grado waste valuable resources getting the place back?

What even was the point of taking the castle over, then!? Aside from restocking supplies, what have you accomplished!?

And now you're just going to keep on going into Grado Keep!?

WITH FOUR MEN!?

INCLUDING YOU!?

Wow, this is...

Jesus Christ this game is dumb.

...And yet apparently I spoke too soon. I have nary begun to plumb the depths of this game's stupidity.

Because, you see...

When Valter arrives to taunt Ephraim...

...Valter's calling himself the Moonstone.

And may I remind you, his performance during the successful invasion of Renais is what was used to justify said promotion to Gemstone General.

...Wow, not exactly the most badass nickname there.

But that hardly matters. My point is, this means that no, we are not dealing with instantaneous messengers here. When Ephraim first gets the news that Castle Renais has fallen, it is already a good fucking while after the fact. Which means...

...Okay. So.

This chapter showed us the moment that Ephraim first learned Renais fell.

A moment that, if Hayden's news to Eirika in Chapter 1 was anything other than titanically retarded bullshit, happened, by necessity, before Chapter 1.

But Valter doesn't get his promotion to Moonstone until, at the absolute earliest, after Chapter 2, the last time we see Selena before she leaves the Renais front and witnesses said post-conquest promotion.

Which means...

Which means...

That this chapter has to simultaneously take place before Chapter 1... and after Chapter 2.

FUCK ME SIDEWAYS WITH A RUSTY DEVIL AXE, THESE SONS OF THE SAME GODDAMNED BITCH ACTUALLY WROTE THEMSELVES INTO A FUCKING TIME PARADOX.

AND THEN...

AND FUCKING THEN...

VALTER IMPLIES THAT THE REASON THEY KNEW EPHRAIM WOULD ATTACK RENVALL WAS BECAUSE OF THEIR SPY.

WHEN THE FUCK DID ORSON HAVE AN OPPORTUNITY TO RAT EPHRAIM OUT IN TIME FOR THE TRAP TO BE SET UP FOR HIM!? HE DIDN'T DECIDE TO ATTACK RENVALL UNTIL AFTER THE TROOPS HAD BEEN SENT OUT OF THE CASTLE!

...Ugh.

I'm done, guys.

I'm fucking done for today.

Stay safe, guys.

[Shadow Mir]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ugh. I forgot about this. Everyone's got steel lances, except for Forde and his javelin. I hate GBA steel lances. They're a massive speed sink in all three games. Could I just have one iron lance here? I don't want to have to use Ephraim's Reginleif to double here.

Ditto. I seriously hope the remakes of them incorporate some mechanics changes so as to make them usable; as is, unless you're an armored knight or something, you're better off using iron, especially in Binding Blade.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...And this is ignoring the fact that you have a nigh-indestructible prepromote panic button that I can't imagine anyone actually needing to use.

Owing to the oversize, low manpower, limited healing and excessive enemies of this map, Orson absolutely helps make this less tedious. If you're willing to forgo some (obviously not all) EXP on the other three, he is worth using out of sheer convenience.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And now you're just going to keep on going into Grado Keep!?

WITH FOUR MEN!?

INCLUDING YOU!?

Invisible implied armmmmmmy! But yeah, I'd hazard his invisible army amounts to no more than a guerrilla force. By no means should he have remotely considered going after the enemy's capital, which ya know would be under heavy and elite guard. Renvall ain't far from Grado keep judging from the map though- either the same or less distance than Taizel the site of Chapter 12.

Ephraim might not be downright savage, but he is one heckuva rooster, cockiness on full display. Hector may be more boorish upfront, but who knows whether he'd agree with Ephraim's choice here?

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Valter's calling himself the Moonstone.

And may I remind you, his performance during the successful invasion of Renais is what was used to justify said promotion to Gemstone General.

...Wow, not exactly the most badass nickname there.

I like the Gemstone titles, but "Moonstone" can be less awesome if you've too spent too much time with Pokemon. Clefable and Wigglytuff are not things Valter would want to be associated with.

 

Notice that Orson does not appear after the battle, he must've abandoned his post then and there. Notice too how extreme Valter's army is confronting Ephraim, and he is stuck on a peninsula, noooooooo realistic chance of escape, and yet he does.

 

Ephraim's "theme"- the map music of 5x- was, in a tradition going back to FE4, recycled for the Arena introduction of Shadow Dragon. The addition of pause-unpaused clapping kicked it up a notch I felt. FE8's Arena intro I never really put much though into identifying, but I can safely say on quick analysis it's FE4 Prologue map theme.

Edited May 5, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I like the Gemstone titles, but "Moonstone" can be less awesome if you've too spent too much time with Pokemon. Clefable and Wigglytuff are not things Valter would want to be associated with.

Oh no, I meant my nickname of the "Gemstone Generals".

[Alastor15243]

Sacred Stones Day 8: Chapter 6

Looks like I was right, I did forget that a previous store sold javelins: the one in chapter 2. Alright. So. Let's get some gear and get moving.

Ugh. This game, for no reason, extends the dialogue chain for buying stuff and sending it to storage by one window by turning “Looks like you're full. Send to storage?” into two separate dialogue windows you have to press A on.

I just made a note of that, because it's an important thing to remember. It's the tiniest thing, but it is a difference, and it's probably going to make Sacred Stones just baaaaarely lose out to Blazing Blade in usability.

Speaking of storage, this game marks the beginning of lords being the convoy and... I hate that system. It means the lord basically might as well have infinite inventory space, and that's open to sooooooo much abuse depending on the game. I really liked the concept of needing a specialized unit to access this stuff mid-map, and otherwise only being able to access it at the prep screen.

Anyway, I sold that secret book from last map because of course I did, and bought a torch staff and restore staff for Natasha. She's gonna be our main healer for now, and she'll need them.

Let's move on to chapter 6, the first fog of war map of the game.

Hearing the boss of the chapter describe to Riev that he's had people following Eirika since leaving Serafew, and then mentally picturing them following her all the way back into Renais and back again when she did some shopping, made me remember how utterly silly this between-battle cross-continental travel really is.

From this conversation here, I can't tell if Novala is a member of the Grado army, or a member of the Fomortiis cult Riev is from. I'll have to see if he directly commands any monsters. He refers to replacing Riev at “our master's side”, but I can't tell if it's Vigarde or Fomortiis he means.

...Nope, he confirms it's Vigarde he's referring to.

...Which means the Grado empire openly has access to teleportation magic.

Magic Knoll disappointingly never demonstrates the ability to use.

...This could answer so many questions about message travel speed, and makes Chapter 1's ending make a little more sense, but Chapter 5x is still a time paradox, because Valter was only hunting Ephraim to begin with in that chapter because of orders he received at a meeting that, again, had to take place after Chapter 2.

And then Novala brings out the child hostage.

“Look familiar? She's a citizen of your precious Renais.”

Look, Novala, either you're suggesting that a princess knows the faces of literally every citizen of her entire country by heart, or you're suggesting there's a way to tell just by looking at this little girl that she's from Renais and not Grado. Which would suggest that Renais and Grado have different ethnicities, styles of dress or accents, which we both know for a fact is not the case and will never be the case in any remake of this game. Shit, and now I've got flashbacks of 3H's white Almyrans, and of Frederick mentioning a “Plegian accent” that blatantly does not exist.

I wonder why the mother and father were kept separate. Why did Novala teleport the girl to her mother, and then teleport the girl and mother to the father? Why wasn't the mother already trapped in the mountains where the father was?

...This is something I'm adding upon proofreading: having beaten the map, looks like I didn't appreciate fully that this plot weirdness had the gameplay benefit of actually showing where in the fog the boss is hiding, which is... a pretty nice feature, honestly.

Anyway, yeah, this guy is... a total psycho. Laughing maniacally like a cartoon supervillain, and none of the Grado soldiers care.

I think I've just about given up on any aspect of Grado's army feeling believable. Nothing about it makes sense, least of all how all of these changes to Grado's army happened without anyone in any other country getting tipped off. Especially when the countries were formerly friendly and there must have been Renais citizens in Grado who would have known and would have been missed if their return had been prevented in any way.

Anyway, I want to save those villagers, so I'll be having Seth rush out, sticking to forests whenever possible in case a horseslayer or halberd user is among the enemies in the woods. He'll be carrying a torch, and Natasha will light his way on turn one for added security.

There is indeed a halberd user among the fog, but far, far away from where Seth needs to go.

I didn't notice the dark humor of the kid who gives you an antitoxin and says “they might still eat you, but at least they won't be able to poison you!”.

Anyway, things seem to be going smoothly. Of course, nothing at this point in the game can threaten Seth, but some of these enemies can resist being one-rounded, which is mildly unfortunate and may interfere with his speed at rescuing the civilians. Not too much though. Now I just need to have Natasha torch some more areas to make sure reinforcements don't sneak up on us.

HOLY SHIT.

I should've remembered these fuckers from Mangs's ironman. I assumed they weren't as nasty without that +30% growth bonus, but holy shit. They just snuck out of the darkness from out of nowhere and started swarming Lute. She's still alive, but she's wounded, and so is Artur thanks to an archer who snuck out of the fog. This is a very delicate situation. There's an iron blade cavalier who can do some nasty damage if he's not taken out immediately, and there are two others and an archer that I can see.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take out all of them. I was able to take out all but one, but at the cost of Lute and Artur being unable to heal due to Natasha's position. And the lance cav remaining can kill either of them. I managed to block Lute with Colm, so I'm relying on Artur's position on a mountain to save him.

...It did not. Artur is down. He got hit by an amazingly accurate 41 hit despite him being on a mountain.

...That...

...Was a surprising difficulty spike right there.

But it seems the danger has passed. For now.

But it looks like Lute and Artur is a no-go. I'll be training Natasha as my priest, and Lute will be paired with Kyle.

OH COME ON.

CAVALRY REINFORCEMENTS RIGHT BEHIND MY LINES ON TURN FOUR!?

Thankfully, Eirika was in position to obliterate one of them with her rapier. But then it occurred to me there might be more than I saw, and I may have just sent Eirika to her death. There was indeed one more, but one of them went for Natasha and the other missed. Holy shit. This... this chapter is a fucking jump.

And just as I reach the end and Seth is ready to fight the Bael... I realize that he doesn't actually have any means to keep the Bael away from the civilians other than killing the Bael before he can attack them, which... isn't the most guaranteed thing in the world.

Aaaaand due to Natasha being distracted from torch duty, I slipped up on keeping the place lit up and forgot about wher the halberd fighter was. Thank goodness I had Franz equip that sword. He would have been one-shot if he hadn't dodged. Holy shit.

Alright. Seth managed to get the little girl out of the way over a two-turn rescue, but he only has four attacks on the Bael before he can target civilians, attacks at a roughly 50% chance, two of which need to hit in order to kill it.

...Let's hope this works. Because I just found the boss in the fog, and Franz can't make it there in time to try to one-round him.

Okay. It's more like a 62% chance, and he hit one of them on the enemy phase. Now he has the player phase to get one more. And he also gained skill, along with strength and defense, on his level up from the fight. So he has two 64% chances.

...He did it. The civilians are safe, and we can take out the remaining forces at our leisure.

Franz and Lute finish off Novala, earning Lute a level where she gets HP and speed. Not... the best, but getting to 10 speed is nice.

And my reward for saving them was... an orion's bolt. An item that only one person in the entire game can use. Thankfully, it's also worth a lot of gold, so I'll be selling that shit pronto.

...Is that the only orion's bolt in the game? If I had failed to rescue those villagers, would I have had to use a master seal to promote Neimi? If not, this might be the only game in the series that has more of a promotion item than there are units it can promote.

But back to the story. Now Seth finally comes clean about the true purpose of the Lunar Brace, which he says he was ordered to keep silent about “until the proper time arrived.”

Oh. This is gonna be good.

Do tell, Seth, and do explain, in pornographic detail, exactly why, with the kingdom in ashes and the Sacred Stone the brace guards being sought out for destruction, you thought until today that the proper time still had not yet arrived.

“They must know nothing of the bracelets. Tell them only if some great peril strikes.”

…

…

…

…

…

Fuck you, game.

Fuck you, Seth.

How the WYVERN-RIDING FUCK did you not think “some great peril” had struck until after the castle was in ruins and the Lunar Brace had been stolen a second fucking time!?

And apparently Grado learned of the bracelets' secret “somehow”. Either Fado told Vigarde and that knowledge remains inside his reanimated corpse, or Fomortiis just has... clairvoyance powers granting him intel that he's... not providing to his soldiers to help track the twins down.

Holy shit. This is...

Whyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy...

...Alright.

Well.

This chapter was... interesting.

I won't complain about the difficulty, though I will complain about the difficulty spike. Those cavalry are the most terrifying foes the game has thrown at me thus far, and he game hasn't thrown any terrifying foes at me before now. At the very least there were no ambush spawns, though this chapter used cavalry in the fog almost as obnoxiously as the previous GBA games used wyverns.

Honestly, if any enemies before now had been anywhere near this dangerous, I wouldn't have been nearly as willing to move my forces like I did, and Artur and Lute wouldn't have been put in that awful situation. Games shouldn't jump from “mindless” to “scary” this absurdly rapidly, especially not during a fog of war map, and especially especially not a fog of war map where everything else seems perfectly trivial as usual.

That said, I am hoping that this is a sign that future chapters get more interesting.

At any rate, that's it for today. Tomorrow, we'll be doing Chapter 7.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited May 6, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

20 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I like the Gemstone titles, but "Moonstone" can be less awesome if you've too spent too much time with Pokemon. Clefable and Wigglytuff are not things Valter would want to be associated with.

What about Nidoking and Nidoqueen?

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Is that the only orion's bolt in the game? If I had failed to rescue those villagers, would I have had to use a master seal to promote Neimi? If not, this might be the only game in the series that has more of a promotion item than there are units it can promote.

The game sells Orion's Bolts at a secret shop in chapter 14 (of course, it wouldn't be meaningful unless you are, one, using the one unit who needs them to promote, and two, didn't get the one in this chapter).