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

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Welcome to hell.

Weather's great here! So pull up a chair...!

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Needless to say I am simultaneously excited and terrified someone is going to die. Emotionally I’m kind of conflicted. It’s a cool story beat, but it deserves a better story to beat. And also, gameplaywise… I have a feeling we’re not getting these Emblems back for a while, and that’s sad, because the Emblems are probably the most fun aspect of the gameplay. I hope we get some new toys to play with soon. My guess is we’re going to retreat to the final kingdom to get our hands on theirs, and then slowly regain the old ones. Perhaps via these Emblem paralogues I’ve heard people talking about.

Look at this way. The chapter is designed with that in mind.

Alternatively... *laughs in DLC Emblems*

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so the game does let you re-assign bond rings to the people who lost their Emblems. Which pretty heavily indicates that even if we kill the Corrupted who got them… we’re not magically getting them back. I wonder how they’re gonna explain that.

In a way, they won't.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Yep, as suspected, Veyle teleported the ring away before we could take it.

Yeah, keep that in mind for the future.

Still... apparently the Rings being worn on one's finger stops that since otherwise why even bother using the Crystal to take them.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

IVY COMES IN!

The only saving grace of the chapter.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay maybe this isn’t the best time to say this, what with her saving our ass and everything, but… I’ve never really been a fan of Lyn’s voice. It’s absolutely nothing like I imagined her voice as a child. Honestly, the way I imagined her voice was closer to Lucina’s than what we got. But I guess I’m gonna have to deal with that, because it’s been pretty thoroughly cemented.

Admittedly, I play with Japanese voices... do you have them in English? What's the problem with her voice again?

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…And it’s pretty thematically cute how we get Lucina after we lose Marth, given that, as they allude to, she took up his name for a while.

After a moment of despair, the Emblem from the savior of the series.

Symbolism!

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I notice that Alfred has been in these conversations, but not Céline. Either the game’s shafting her as a main character, or as soon as this Brodia-centric arc is over, Alcryst will fade into the background too, leaving only Diamant as a main character representative from Brodia.

It's not a coincidence, I shall say.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, what did I think of the map?

Pretty damned intense. I can only imagine how terrifying it is on Maddening. But the fact that they expect you to do most of it without rewinds is something I absolutely adore about it. Because it demonstrates confidence that they aren’t necessary for the game to be fair, even on Maddening. Honestly, part of me really wants to start playing this game on Maddening too, but I’m worried that’ll cheapen my impression of the blind ironman Hard mode difficulty and make my blind ironman less fun. I’m gonna have to come up with something though, because I wanna give this game’s difficulty a totally fair assessment for the ranking.

Gameplay wise, I agree, it's great.

Story wise... ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...

[Alastor15243]

30 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

What's the problem with her voice again?

There's this quality to it I never saw in her voice or personality that I can only describe as a hint of "bright sassiness".

[Sunwoo]

Late comments are late, but even when I saw it on a playthrough I thought the "sovereign blood" thing was pretty fucking bullshit anyway. Just comes off as a bad storytelling justification for Sombron to not annihilate everyone at the low level the party is at, and to conveniently remove an enemy character when he stops being useful.

It's also just a very lazy way of getting the point across that the bad guys are EEEEEEVIL and will sacrifice their own for the lulz, even when it probably hurts them more in the long run to keep killing off their allies!

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Late comments are late, but even when I saw it on a playthrough I thought the "sovereign blood" thing was pretty fucking bullshit anyway. Just comes off as a bad storytelling justification for Sombron to not annihilate everyone at the low level the party is at, and to conveniently remove an enemy character when he stops being useful.

It's also just a very lazy way of getting the point across that the bad guys are EEEEEEVIL and will sacrifice their own for the lulz, even when it probably hurts them more in the long run to keep killing off their allies!

Yeah, story's hot garbage. Just because I don't hate it as much as I hate Three Houses' story, friendly reminder that I don't think it's better. It just doesn't piss me off as much because it's not as badly-localized, time-consuming, shitty in presentation or up its own ass.

Edited February 5, 2023 by Alastor15243

[Sunwoo]

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, story's hot garbage. Just because I don't hate it as much as I hate Three Houses' story, friendly reminder that I don't think it's better. It just doesn't piss me off as much because it's not as badly-localized, time-consuming, shitty in presentation or up its own ass.

Oh no, I agree. I've definitely noticed that the stories that I dislike the most are definitely the ones that act like it's some novel masterpiece rather than the ones that don't take themselves so seriously. I guess when it comes to writing I tend to dislike stories that are bad AND pretentious more than stories that are just bad 😛

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Oh no, I agree. I've definitely noticed that the stories that I dislike the most are definitely the ones that act like it's some novel masterpiece rather than the ones that don't take themselves so seriously. I guess when it comes to writing I tend to dislike stories that are bad AND pretentious more than stories that are just bad 😛

On that topic, of me is still tempted to incorporate the Mediocre Valley bell curve SuperEyepatchWolf talked about into my writing rankings.

 

 

Except replacing Cowboy Bebop with Path of Radiance and The Room with Fates.

[Sunwoo]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

On that topic, of me is still tempted to incorporate the Mediocre Valley bell curve SuperEyepatchWolf talked about into my writing rankings.

 

 

Except replacing Cowboy Bebop with Path of Radiance and The Room with Fates.

Lol

This is a great visual

[Alastor15243]

Day 13 Bonus: Post-Mission Cleanup

Right, so, I found myself with way less shit to do this Sunday evening than I expected to, and as a result, as the title implies, I’m just gonna do the post-mission cleanup tonight so I can jump right into the action tomorrow.

So time for some Somniel exploration.

…So apparently the fact that I have damned near all the Fire Emblem amiibo in my possession does count for something with this game. Turns out you only get those tickets for each unique Fire Emblem amiibo you scan. Which I just ran out of. I haven’t really been using these things regularly, and maybe I should, since they seem to give some fairly decent random prizes, and my amiibo collection is like 5 feet away from my desk in my apartment.

The new songs we get are Wind Across the Plains and Destiny (Ablaze). Fairly good picks, honestly!

…Ooh, looks like I might want to get my hands on the Byleth amiibo if I want to get all the songs. Alright, I’ll see if I can get more for a good price later.

More importantly, let’s work out who’s getting our Emblem rings.

I’m thinking Alcryst is gonna get Lyn, because it’ll get him sword proficiency in the long term while making him a better archer in the general-term. In fact, I’m gonna boost his bond with Lyn significantly to make up for the fact that we don’t actually have anyone who’s an expert with any of our current rings.

…Okay, given that Diamant has gained two levels since promoting, I’m gonna say that at least in the short term, promoting early doesn’t seem to have much of an effect on exp gain. In that case, I’ll start doing it more for the units I think need the help, and hedge my long-term bets by making sure the units who are good without a promotion will wait for theirs.

Speaking of which, lets get Clanne to level 20 right away because I want to ensure he’s good long term but also holy fuck do I want him to use staves again.

…So I forgot to take elthunder off of Clanne, and I have to say, it’s frustrating that you use your equipped weapon and yet you have to leave the arena menu to change what weapon you fight with.

…Either Lucina’s really terrible or Alcryst is way better than I’ve been aware, because when I accidentally picked Lucina for a bond battle instead of Lyn, Alcryst wiped the floor with her despite wielding a longbow. Lucina was doing 4 damage and not doubling compared to Alcryst’s 15.

…It’s amusing to me that both of these ladies use swords and bows.

…And Lyn performed even worse! Wow! What’s going on here? Usually the Emblems put up way better fights than this at level 5!

…And I just realized through their bond conversation that I’m making Alcryst use the Emblem that killed his father.

…And… holy shit, I was apparently right! They do have Lyn acknowledge what she was used for and feel upset about it!

Lyn: Until you can forgive me, Alcryst, think of me only as an Emblem, not as Lyn.

Holy shit, speedtaker is a basic inheritable skill in this game!? How much does it cost!?

…A lot, as I figured. 2,000 SP, to be exact. Alright, that’s definitely something I’m saving up for.

Oh, and I like what they replaced those “proficiency” skills with in this game. Instead of skills that give objective net gains to using a weapon type, undermining 3H’s allegedly freeform weapon system and cluttering up characters’ skill slots with skills that are simultaneously objective no-brainers and fucking boring, these are cheap skills that give pretty good and diverse bonuses, but at a cost. That said, while I like it in concept, I think they might be too underpowered in this game, given that they’re competing for one of your two skill slots. Some, like Sigurd’s lance power boost at the cost of evade, are great, but others, like Lyn’s bow accuracy boost at the cost of dodge, are terrible.

I gave Alcryst speed +2, since it was cheap and this is a game where more speed is always handy.

I’m keeping Lucina on Pepsiman because he’s a dragon and he gets the best use out of Emblems in general, and I can’t see any of my units benefiting from Lucina as a particular niche… hmm… lemme double check what she does, actually…

…

“Dual Assist”

“If unit is able to chain attack, unit will do so when allies attack foes unit could reach by moving.”

…That is insane. I need to unlock that and see if dragon gets any “this unit can chain attack” bonuses from this, otherwise I think I might actually want to give this to Diamant.

…Nope, no bonus for Pepsiman there. Though he gets some pretty great bonuses for other skills. And upon closer inspection, it’s only a 35% chance the skill will activate, that’s not remotely reliable enough to be basing who gets it on. Shame they gave this girl a skill that’s basically “for backup only” though.

Honestly Lucina’s inheritable skills are pretty shitty in general, though that’s probably to be expected for whoever gets saddled with dex as the stat they boost. Still, an Emblem is an Emblem, and she’s got plenty of nifty use when engaged.

And it looks like we’ve got a load of supports, so I’ll just run through these real quick.

Pepsiman and Celine’s C.

PFF.

So Pepsiman and Céline apparently had a tea party. Which reminds me, when I looked up that song on Youtube, I was highly amused to see that the comments for that lighthearted quirky song were akin to those of traumatized war veterans having flashbacks, because teatime was just that fucking stressful of a minigame.

So it’s a bunch of talk about tea, some mild worldbuilding about Firene, and then…

Okay, she says there’s a folktale that Céline thinks Pepsiman will find interesting. Okay, I’m going to predict… that it’s saved for next part!

…Oof, looks like I pushed my cynicism a bit too much. She does, in fact, go on.

…But it’s not much of a “Folk Tale”. She basically recited the one-sentence synopsis of the folk tale. Which is lame as all get the fuck out.

Now for Anna and Pepsiman’s C.

…I am always tickled by how comically massive Pepsiman looks whenever he’s in the same shot as Anna.

…So while the Heroes counterpart of Valentines’ Day is the “Day of Devotion”, here it’s “Sweethearts Day”.

Oh heaven help us. An endearingly plucky commercialist is brainstorming gift concepts for a world where people only think to give flowers. What madness will she be inventing? Hallmark cards? Please tell me she invents Hallmark cards.

…Oh, okay, so it isn’t just flowers like she implied. They also give gifts like necklaces. For a second I was thinking this was going to be an “Anna corrupts an innocent world with rampant materialism” plot, but it’s looking like it might not be that at all. Shame, that would’ve been hilarious. But I’ll keep my mind open.

Now we’ve got Clanne and Louis’s B!

Okay, so thankfully this isn’t actually about what they set out to do in the C support. It’s about the aftermath. Which makes sense, because it would imply implausible things about the timeframe of these supports if what they next set out to do had to wait until now.

…I cannot fucking put finger on why, but I find Louis’s behavior amusing here. Very weird while well-restrained. He, uh… he seems to be weirdly wildly imaginative about the implications of Clanne and Alfred’s friendship… almost to the degree that I’d expect Nina to be, just not saying the naughty implications out loud. I wonder what the hell he’s thinking, and what the punchline of this is gonna be.

Now for Alfred and Diamant’s C.

So, this is an interesting bit of worldbuilding. Diamant’s trying to work out how many political favors he can afford to owe Brodia’s nobles in exchange for funding for the Brodian military. Which is an interesting concept, if somewhat undermined by the fact that we’re kind of ambiguously on the run and it’s not clear how much access to Brodia we actually have.

Meanwhile, judging by the voice acting, I’m guessing that Alfred doesn’t have clue one about this because his country is so pacifistic, but is pretending he knows all about this sort of situation so he can sound cool in front of a fellow crown prince. Whether it’s this or him being genuine about relating to the issue of political bullshit in general, however, is not explicitly said here, because the conversation ends.

…Actually, the ending lines make me think I may have read too much into it. Thinking back on it, Alfred’s not really the sort of person to be ingenuine or put on fronts. He’s actually kind of endearingly, obliviously forward. Well, at least they’re being consistent.

…No, wait, he was “putting on an act”? I’ll have to wait until the next conversation to see if they follow up on this.

Louis and Céline’s B.

…Céline… talks an awful fucking lot about tea. Honestly, so far she’s come across as the most boring character in supports from what I can explicitly remember. Though in fairness, if I were to forget about anyone, I would entirely believe that it would be someone even more boring than her.

It does at least get more interesting by her being upset that Louis endangered himself to get his hands on the tea leaves, and deciding she doesn’t want to encourage him no matter how good it is by accepting that second cup.

Louis and Yunaka’s C.

Yet more tea talk, but at least now it’s between two of my favorite characters.

And yet again Yunaka accidentally brings the conversation to something she doesn’t want to talk about.

Louis is polite enough to take the pressure off and change the subject, however, which is cool of him.

Pff, Louis pronounced “specialty” and “speciality”.

Alright, that’s all the supports.

Honestly, this is a pretty good cast. It’s something of an Awakening situation where the main story is dumb as all hell, but the characters are pretty good and interact well. Though personally I prefer the Awakening cast, but then again that might be because I know the ins and outs of all my favorite supports in that game. I’ll give this more time.

…Okay, so, I’m a bit frustrated to discover that Zelkov is just objectively better than Yunaka in basically every way except crit rate. He’s a far more advanced level, has better offensive and defensive stats, way better build, to the point that I don’t know if there’s a single knife he can’t carry flawlessly, and he’s even faster. Does he just come absurdly overleveled for his join time, or have I somehow been underleveling Yunaka by a ton while laboring under the delusion that I’ve been showing her a decent amount of favoritism?

…No, my new recruits are just, like, Radiant Dawn Zihark levels of better than my existing ones. Which, hey, great news for me, but I do feel a bit miffed that these nobodies I have no attachment to have just waltzed in and outclassed characters I’ve been invested in from the get-go. I was expecting to get these characters way later than I wound up getting them.

I cooked up some Kind of Odd Steamed Dango that boosts everyone’s speed, def and res by 1.

Now then, let’s see what Lyn and Lucina’s engravings are like.

Lyn gives a nasty -3 might penalty, but gives +40 hit and +20 crit, in addition to some weight loss. Which seems like a great thing to put on the unexpectedly-heavy killer weapons. Meanwhile, Lucina also has an attack penalty, but just -1, and it gives a +30 to evasion, -1 to weight, and +30 to hit. Okay, so these are pretty good. Though I think in general Lucina’s is better.

I Lyn-engraved a killer bow I bought. Its might isn’t too impressive now, but it’s got 50 crit and a hell of a lot of accuracy. I think it’ll be pretty handy for Alcryst, which is good because I think the upcoming chapters are going to be his time to shine.

I’m making a Lucina-engraved steel dagger so that Yunaka can have some crazy avoid. But I’m really starting to run out of money now, unfortunately. Hopefully I’ll be getting some more soon. At the very least I still have just about all of the supplies I stocked up on, so I’m not in too heavy need of vital supplies at the moment.

…Forging a steel dagger to +3 adds six might. Holy shit! Alright, this is totally worth it. Can I get it even higher!?

Yes I can! After some resources trading, I have a +4 with +8 might! Holy shit, this is gonna be such a game changer for Yunaka, especially with that +30 evasion that’s on it now! She’s gonna be untouchable!

…Alright, I think I’m feeling pretty good about the next map. But let’s see what exactly the next map is, shall we?

…Looks like a paralogue opened up at the Brodian arena. Hmmm…

…Interesting. Apparently this is one of the Emblem trials, this time for Lucina. Which makes sense, since it’s a pretty memorable early-game Awakening map concept. So it seems like trials are for Emblems I already have, not ones I wish to reclaim.

…But it suggests I be significantly more powerful than I currently am, I notice. Let’ see the main story map, then.

…Yeah, let’s actually carry on with the story premise of us being in retreat and not given full movement range over the continent.

Alright, that’s what I’ll check out tomorrow.

Alastor, signing off!

[Jotari]

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

They’re pretty blatantly there to keep us from trying to do anything but escape in this chapter. And I like that. I like actually having insurmountable odds to run away from. Very few maps genuinely do this in Fire Emblem. There’s always the optional side-objective of just completely trouncing them instead of running away, and maps that do that bug me. It cheapens the urgency and aesthetics of the whole “running for your life” thing when you know it’s entirely realistic to win.

Well that's usually our own fault for being good at the game and knowing how to break it. In games with seemingly unsurmountable odds, 95% of players will not be able to overcome those odds, and of the remaining 5%, they won't be doing it on a blind run. Galzus is my favourite example of this. He is a complete beast in Thracia that pretty much every player will run in terror from, but how could the developers perdict players would be able to kill him by baiting him into capturing a unit to reduce his stats and then rigging a Grafcalibur crit on him XD Maybe we will figure out a way to kick Veyle's ass here in this game some day...probably not, since this chapter takes away the mechanic that most let's you break it. But, *shrug* some normal mode level grinding and a full team of Dire Thunder users might be able to do the job.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…And as I hunt to give him new weapons, I can’t help but notice that my engravings are still apparently active and valid. That’s handy as hell, but I wasn’t expecting it. Glad I made them while I had the chance!

And I'm just kciking myself all over again for not knowing engravings exist. As they would have been really useful for me on this map.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, Lucina’s was pretty funny. She does that “hands on one shin” cute pose she’s done in a lot of media, and then it’s a zoom in on her eyes which suddenly choose violence, and it zooms out and she’s got her sword.

It's an iconic pose, but am I the only one that things it doesn't really suit her? She's actually a super serious character.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so I just checked, and the game doesn’t let you rewind to before you had the time crystal. I see! Makes sense, and I was very, very curious about that.

Oh how I wish it did. It must have been 7 or 8 times I managed to reach that cutscene, but someone just happened to die the very same turn that I could rewind back to.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, story's hot garbage. Just because I don't hate it as much as I hate Three Houses' story, friendly reminder that I don't think it's better. It just doesn't piss me off as much because it's not as badly-localized, time-consuming, shitty in presentation or up its own ass.

Honestly I find the story to be a repeat of Binding Blade. As in this is the most "yeah, sure, this is fine" a story can possibly be. Which...I mean that's not a good thing, but helps me enjoy it more than anything we've got in a long time. Though, I guess in isolation and theory I'd prefer "Go big and dramatic and fail big rather than play it safe", but a story that plays it safe after Three Houses suits my mood. If we'd received this before Three Houses I probably would be a lot more negative about it.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

29 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Oh, okay, so it isn’t just flowers like she implied. They also give gifts like necklaces. For a second I was thinking this was going to be an “Anna corrupts an innocent world with rampant materialism” plot, but it’s looking like it might not be that at all. Shame, that would’ve been hilarious. But I’ll keep my mind open.

Well, she's still a child. Give it a few years of reading the Rules of Acquisitions.

29 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so, I’m a bit frustrated to discover that Zelkov is just objectively better than Yunaka in basically every way except crit rate. He’s a far more advanced level, has better offensive and defensive stats, way better build, to the point that I don’t know if there’s a single knife he can’t carry flawlessly, and he’s even faster. Does he just come absurdly overleveled for his join time, or have I somehow been underleveling Yunaka by a ton while laboring under the delusion that I’ve been showing her a decent amount of favoritism?

…No, my new recruits are just, like, Radiant Dawn Zihark levels of better than my existing ones. Which, hey, great news for me, but I do feel a bit miffed that these nobodies I have no attachment to have just waltzed in and outclassed characters I’ve been invested in from the get-go. I was expecting to get these characters way later than I wound up getting them.

There's certainly a divide here post Chapter 11. Recruits start to come either promoted or very high leveled (like Ivy coming at Base Level 17), and you lost the very things you've been using to boost the starting cast (like your Micaiah!Clanne).

29 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Interesting. Apparently this is one of the Emblem trials, this time for Lucina. Which makes sense, since it’s a pretty memorable early-game Awakening map concept. So it seems like trials are for Emblems I already have, not ones I wish to reclaim.

Well, you need the Emblems in question for the Paralogues to unlock... and to be post Chapter 11, since otherwise you could've done some of them by now. Suggested Level aside.

[Jotari]

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…It’s amusing to me that both of these ladies use swords and bows.

I'm beginning to be of the opinion that Robin would have been a better pick than Lucina for the Emblem. I'm finding myself depending on magic a lot in this game and there are way too few magical Emblems. It's just Micaiah and Celica, both of which you've lost now, and later some Byleth. Robin would actually have slotted in really fine here.

Also, don't try to use Lyn on Ivy. At least on Maddening that is a super sucky combination. She'll appreciate Speed Eater, but so will literally everyone. It's the best skill in the game. Lyn is purely physical and needs to go on someone with high strength to make use of Astra Storm, which Ivy is very definitely not.

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…So while the Heroes counterpart of Valentines’ Day is the “Day of Devotion”, here it’s “Sweethearts Day”.

Shame. Continuity between fictional counterparts to real world holidays is something I'd like the series have. It just feels like the kind of minor lore building that can bring synergy to these disperate settings.

36 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…No, my new recruits are just, like, Radiant Dawn Zihark levels of better than my existing ones. Which, hey, great news for me, but I do feel a bit miffed that these nobodies I have no attachment to have just waltzed in and outclassed characters I’ve been invested in from the get-go. I was expecting to get these characters way later than I wound up getting them.

I've personally found that Emblems have also been a bit of a crutch for a lot of the early game units, and now without them they're performing significantly worse, to the extent that I kind of replaced my whole army with the units you get in the next few chapters. They do seem to just be better.

[Alastor15243]

27 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Also, don't try to use Lyn on Ivy. At least on Maddening that is a super sucky combination. She'll appreciate Speed Eater, but so will literally everyone. It's the best skill in the game. Lyn is purely physical and needs to go on someone with high strength to make use of Astra Storm, which Ivy is very definitely not.

That was literally my immediate thought upon seeing Ivy get it.

28 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I've personally found that Emblems have also been a bit of a crutch for a lot of the early game units, and now without them they're performing significantly worse, to the extent that I kind of replaced my whole army with the units you get in the next few chapters. They do seem to just be better.

Honestly, what that tells me now is that next time, when I know which of these later units I want to use in advance, I'll try to pump as much exp as possible into a smaller group of about half the size of my deployable roster and hope they're then as good as the newcomers due to the extra attention.

[Acacia Sgt]

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm beginning to be of the opinion that Robin would have been a better pick than Lucina for the Emblem. I'm finding myself depending on magic a lot in this game and there are way too few magical Emblems. It's just Micaiah and Celica, both of which you've lost now, and later some Byleth. Robin would actually have slotted in really fine here.

Oh yeah, that's quite annoying. They should've put one of Celica or Micaiah to after Chapter 10... or yeah, had made Robin the Emblem from Awakening instead of Lucina. But I guess they wanted more the symbolism?

I suppose the DLC Emblems will be a good substitute. Considering we know who will be.

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Also, don't try to use Lyn on Ivy. At least on Maddening that is a super sucky combination. She'll appreciate Speed Eater, but so will literally everyone. It's the best skill in the game. Lyn is purely physical and needs to go on someone with high strength to make use of Astra Storm, which Ivy is very definitely not.

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That was literally my immediate thought upon seeing Ivy get it.

Oh yeah, Ivy is best with the magical ones... if you had them. As it is, Lyn is still good if only for the Dex boost, which is Ivy's main weakness statistically speaking.

As it is, if you had the DLC, then Edelgard is also not a bad option for her. Since flier movement means it's easier to use the Gambits/CombatArts... plus, the Emblem gives Bow Guard, so not a bad thing to have on a flier either, heh. And the Emblem also gives Dex.

35 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I've personally found that Emblems have also been a bit of a crutch for a lot of the early game units, and now without them they're performing significantly worse, to the extent that I kind of replaced my whole army with the units you get in the next few chapters. They do seem to just be better.

I certainly felt it. But at least you keep the DLC Emblems, so it wasn't that bad for me.

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, what that tells me now is that next time, when I know which of these later units I want to use in advance, I'll try to pump as much exp as possible into a smaller group of about half the size of my deployable roster and hope they're then as good as the newcomers due to the extra attention.

Yeah, I also went for using everybody... and truly everybody. Made even Normal have quite the challenge, hahaha.

[Jotari]

30 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Oh yeah, that's quite annoying. They should've put one of Celica or Micaiah to after Chapter 10... or yeah, had made Robin the Emblem from Awakening instead of Lucina. But I guess they wanted more the symbolism?

I wouldn't be surprised if the Emblems had been selected long before the story had actually been written in anything more detailed than broadstrokes. The symbolism is nice, but Lucina probably got in over Robin by being a more popular character and nothing to do with story quality.

[Eltosian Kadath]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

But christ am I going to miss Sigurd-Louis-chan-san-sama-senpai-san-sama-san-chan-san-sempai-chan. And I am definitely going to miss Micaiah-Clanne. Speaking of… that reminds me about some things I needed to check on…

Having all the busted Emblems you have gotten used to turned against you is such a fun reversal to deal with, and makes you miss them all the more.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

WHY DIDN’T I USE TONICS ON EVERYONE!?

Yeah that might have been a good idea, especially since you talked about buying some before chapter 10 for just this kind of situation. To be fair they were a limited resources just recently, so it takes a little getting used to them again.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…No, holy shit, I can’t fucking let Sigurd’s brave lance get Framme. She’d be fucked the next turn. How…

 

…Restore… is ranged.

 

RESTORE IS RANGED!

 

YES! THANK YOU!

What a perfect time to notice this nice little detail. Although it isn't that far of range, its nice that it has that little wiggle room, especially with the more limited move of most units in this game.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

IVY COMES IN!

 

AND ZELKOV SOMEHOW FUCKING MANAGED TO STEAL THE TIME CRYSTAL BACK FROM VEYLE!?

 

AND WE HAVE TWO RINGS NOW!

 

LYN AND LUCINA WOOOOOOOOO!

A strangely triumphant moment, although I don't think what is left of this map shows off these Emblem's skills all that well. Admittedly Lucina is particularly difficult to use well in general, so I don't know how you would make a map to show her skills off.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Okay, so I just checked, and the game doesn’t let you rewind to before you had the time crystal. I see! Makes sense, and I was very, very curious about that.

Fun fact, this was also sort of the case with the first chapter it was in, where it is introduced a turn or so into the map, and you can't rewind to before it was introduced.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Only Pepsiman needs to escape? I’m noticing nobody else can do it.

 

…Well that… drastically simplifies things.

 

…I’ll be honest, I was hoping this was going to be an “Everyone needs to escape” map. But in fairness I guess that makes that terrifying freeze staff more reasonable.

Yeah, I much prefer everyone escape maps, or Thracia's way of handling escape maps. Despite this weakness, I do think they still managed to make a solid defense map here.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

I notice that Alfred has been in these conversations, but not Céline. Either the game’s shafting her as a main character, or as soon as this Brodia-centric arc is over, Alcryst will fade into the background too, leaving only Diamant as a main character representative from Brodia.

I did find that kind of random how the story gives such preference to Alfred over Céline (especially since I dropped Alfred much sooner than his sister).

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

On that topic, of me is still tempted to incorporate the Mediocre Valley bell curve SuperEyepatchWolf talked about into my writing rankings.

 

 

Except replacing Cowboy Bebop with Path of Radiance and The Room with Fates.

The graphic is missing the Star Wars Christmas Special valley of even worseness that lies beyond The Room's placement on the quality end of things.

 

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

So, what did I think of the map?

 

Pretty damned intense. I can only imagine how terrifying it is on Maddening. But the fact that they expect you to do most of it without rewinds is something I absolutely adore about it. Because it demonstrates confidence that they aren’t necessary for the game to be fair, even on Maddening. Honestly, part of me really wants to start playing this game on Maddening too, but I’m worried that’ll cheapen my impression of the blind ironman Hard mode difficulty and make my blind ironman less fun. I’m gonna have to come up with something though, because I wanna give this game’s difficulty a totally fair assessment for the ranking.

I love this map, it would be better if it was all escape, but they did a good job of making this have both a reason for escaping mechanically, and feel like a deserved penalty for Pepsiman falling for the Fell Dragon's trap, in spite of Marth's warnings. One detail I particularly love about it is how Veyle will redistribute the rings, so killing one of the Engaged Corrupted is more of a temporary respite to dealing with that Emblem rather than a real solution to them

 

40 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

I’m thinking Alcryst is gonna get Lyn, because it’ll get him sword proficiency in the long term while making him a better archer in the general-term. In fact, I’m gonna boost his bond with Lyn significantly to make up for the fact that we don’t actually have anyone who’s an expert with any of our current rings.

Sounds like a good choice to me, as I rather like the +10 range her super gets when used by a Covert unit.

 

43 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…And I just realized through their bond conversation that I’m making Alcryst use the Emblem that killed his father.

 

…And… holy shit, I was apparently right! They do have Lyn acknowledge what she was used for and feel upset about it!

Damn, that is an interesting detail...

 

44 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

I’m keeping Lucina on Pepsiman because he’s a dragon and he gets the best use out of Emblems in general, and I can’t see any of my units benefiting from Lucina as a particular niche… hmm… lemme double check what she does, actually…

I kinda like Lucina on Louis (or just a tanky unit in a non-backup class), as I tend to use him to draw a lot of enemies in with his bulk, so he is in a position to add a lot of bonus attacks he otherwise wouldn't, or get a functional version of her super off (you really have to work to make that thing better than a basic attack...), and starting the turn in the thick of things gives him a chance of being in position to use the block skill on someone squishy who got too close to the front lines getting a kill if you need it. Admittedly I am working really hard to find a way not to describe Lucina as bad...

 

45 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

“Dual Assist”

 

“If unit is able to chain attack, unit will do so when allies attack foes unit could reach by moving.”

Excellbum has already done a video on some cheesy strats involving that skill being inherited on a majority of your army, especially in combination with the Hero class skill...

 

[Acacia Sgt]

33 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I did find that kind of random how the story gives such preference to Alfred over Céline (especially since I dropped Alfred much sooner than his sister).

It's not random. He's the crown heir.

[Alastor15243]

5 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Sounds like a good choice to me, as I rather like the +10 range her super gets when used by a Covert unit.

[Acacia Sgt]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Her Engage Attack, Astra Storm. If used by a Covert type unit, it adds ten range.

Edited February 6, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

2 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Her Engage Attack, Astra Storm. If used by a Covert type unit, it adds ten range.

Yes, yes, I know, it was just incredibly shocking to hear of a 20 range attack.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 14: Chapter 12

Alright, new country, new map theme! Can’t wait!

Pepsiman: So, this is Solm. It’s very… sandy.

Okay, I actually think Pepsiman is my new favorite avatar in terms of personality. Not that there was much competition on this front, but the “endearingly awkward” thing is really well done here. I also like, as said before, how the omnipresent avatar worship is actually recognized as weird in this story, despite it also being entirely justified.

So Ivy informs us that Solm was visited multiple times by the Hounds and that Solm neither negotiated nor was conquered. Good sign, but I have a feeling that’s gonna change the second that fact gets in the way of us having battles there.

…They might justify it with the fact that Sombron’s back and they have a shitton more Emblems now.

Alfred: Thanks, Ivy! Pretty handy, having an enemy as a friend!

Ivy: I will choose to take that as a compliment.

Knowing Alfred, it was definitely meant as one.

YES! FUCKING YES! IKE IS SOLM’S EMBLEM! WE’RE GETTING IKE!

And we’re all hopelessly lost in the desert. Of course.

If they have a plot where we’re worried about dying in here, despite the fact that they can teleport back to the Somniel at will, I am going to scream.

Ohp! Cutscene time! We’re meeting a royal!

…I, uh… see the localization has decided that the people of Solm are black. I have to say, the hair is not selling that impression. I don’t know what impression it is selling, but “black guy” is definitely not it. Personally, if I were localizing this, I would’ve gone more “Egyptian” or “Middle Eastern”, personally.

The disconnect between his voice and his appearance is, uh… very jarring.

…I don’t exactly dislike the performance in a vacuum though. He seems like a pretty cool and chill guy. Honestly, part of me was thinking they’d be more hostile, because that’d fit the story. The heroes are at the lowest point they’ve ever been when meeting a new nation, so having a drastically more uphill battle to do things like get new Emblem rings would’ve been both fitting and interesting. But hey, part of me is still kind of resentful of the game taking away all of my cool toys after I spent so much of the game getting attached to them, so gameplaywise less red tape before getting my toys back is music to my ears.

Also, may I note: I was right! Alcryst is gone, and it’s just Alfred, Diamant and Ivy now in scenes with Pepsiman!

…Huh. That’s interesting. Fogado’s retainers are pale-skinned. Now I’m quite curious about the ethnic background of Solm.

Fogado: Pandreo, my pious friend… this… is really gonna blow your mind.

PFFFF.

So, Pandreo’s religiously devout, and Bunet’s a chef. Okay. We have their surface gimmicks out of the way. I wonder if there’s a way to stick the latter in the kitchen permanently. Because I imagine he’s really good at it.

Oh wow, unit choice is really selective. Well, at least I’ve already been encouraged to focus on who I most value.

So, we have our obligatory desert map, and…

…Nobody’s… slowed… down?

…That’s awesome! I mean, given an entire quarter of the world is desert, it would be super annoying if we had to deal with traditional desert maps, especially in a game with such low movement! They have low movement tiles, but it’s this interesting new gimmick where it only slows you down if you start your turn on it. That’s interesting, improves strategy and the importance of placement without mandatorily being a slog!

Okay, let’s check out our new characters!

…So we’ve got some pretty powerful allies here, all promoted, naturally, save for Fogado who’s just level 17 like Ivy. Pretty great stats, awesome items… terrible personal skills, for the most part. Party Animal might have some utility against a high evasion boss, but a luck% chance to re-use a packed lunch sounds almost utterly useless unless those things are way better than I initially thought. I’ll have to check. And Charmer is hot garbage. It’s enemy crit-10… against an enemy who was already the last enemy he fought. Meaning in most cases if the crit reduction would be useful, they already got a chance to crit him before it activates. No thanks.

Still, they’re strong. I’m obviously gonna use them now, and I’ll almost certainly use them later if I have the space and don’t have to drop too many of the units I’m emotionally invested in.

As for my main army, I’m bringing my mainstays: Pepsiman, Clanne, Framme, Louis, Yunaka, Alcryst since he’s an Emblem user now, and our newcomer Ivy because of fucking course I’m going to bring a tome flier. I dropped Celine for her. Her speed is atrocious and she isn’t nearly as handy now that she no longer has Warp Ragnarok to nuke with.

Holy shit speedtaker is innate? I don’t have to buy it? As long as I have a high enough bond with Lyn, Alcryst will get it automatically while he has the ring!?

He’s already become the fastest unit in my army, so that makes him a fucking menace! Noted!

And yes, it is exactly like EK said: Lyn’s special is 20 range when used by a covert.

Alright, let’s go. This map seems pretty straightforward, though I do notice some promoted enemies, like, say, that wolf knight. Also the fact that there doesn’t seem to be any defensive terrain (the trees are all obstacles instead of defensive shrubbery) might be a problem for Yunaka, but fuck it, she just got a new kickass dagger to compensate, so let’s go.

Oh shit, we’ve got civilians we need to save.

Oh man, I really like this music playing during the opening. Is this dialogue music, or is it the actual map music? I have a feeling it’s the former. Hey, anyone know what music was playing in the scene when Ivy tells the heroes where to find the cathedral? I really like it but I haven’t been able to find it when doing YouTube searches.

It is the map music! Ooooooh! Let’s goooooo!

…

Pepsiman… just activated Dual Assist. So what, does that mean the “if unit is able to chain attack” part of the description is bull?

…Christ, the two attack range colors are identical against the sand. This is frustrating. You have to notice the dotted line distinction. Couldn’t they have made the colors more distinct?

Oh wow, I really like the wind tome animation. It reminds me of the attacks the Mantis Lords do in Hollow Knight.

…Oh, that’s interesting. Apparently the game doesn’t let you send your equipped item to the convoy anymore! Guess they don’t want those strats where you use it to change weapons at the end of your turn like this is mounted Genealogy. That never even occurred to me as something to fix! Man, this is such a refreshing change from Three Houses. It’s like the anti-Three-Houses, in fact, where instead of constantly finding tiny things the devs didn’t comprehend were important from previous games, I’m finding all sorts of little new things that show the devs care!

…Tragically, I’ve just discovered you can’t engage after using the convoy. Unfortunate, but good information to have.

We’ve got reinforcements incoming, and the civilians are moving. And tragically, as awesome as Alcryst is right now, he’s not strong enough to one-round the axe Corrupted who reached them with Lyn’s special. But thankfully help is on the way, and they can take a single hit at least.

DAMN IT, THE GREEN UNITS ARE SCATTERING LIKE RATS IN EVERY DIRECTION! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO PROTECT THEM LIKE THIS!?

Thankfully, one of them was such a titanic dumbass she ran straight into quicksand. So she’s pretty much staying put.

Okay, so actually it seems the AI’s stupidity is the result of a glitch in what is otherwise fairly intelligent AI. So, when someone steps in their range, they run away. However, they do this even when they have nowhere to run, hence the problem earlier. But now that they do have somewhere to run, they’re getting out of the way of the reinforcements pouring in, and back into the place I just made safe.

Unfortunately, one of them decided there was nothing wrong with stepping on an engage refill tile.

…So it seems that when both units have a heavy weapon equipped, the attacking heavy weapon takes priority on not taking priority. Makes sense, since the smashing happens on player phase, so it’s more important that the attacker goes last.

I just noticed that Yunaka was able to chain attack with All for One even though she wasn’t in range of the ene-

…Oh, it’s characters around the ally who join in even if they can’t chain attack. Right.

Also I’m disappointed by how bad Pepsiman is with the levin sword. I kind of expected him to be better with it, but as I realized just now, his magic is terrible. He literally just got his first magic level up. I dunno, I weirdly assumed he’d have a decent magic stat like Robin, Corrin and Byleth.

Honestly, this map theme is unexpected but refreshing. Desert battle themes are usually rather dark, full of either ominous emptiness to go with the sheer bleakness of the setting, or intensity to go with the deathly heat. But this is an incredibly upbeat and charming song, really going well with the whole “we’re not done yet” attitude of the cast at the moment. Finding yourself welcome in the absolute last place on earth anyone would ever expect to feel welcome: a scorching desert.

Aaaaaand, victory! I just finished off the last foes without even realizing it!

…I sure hope there wasn’t a cutscene after this that I accidentally stepped away from my computer at the worst time about. I find myself immediately at the post-battle screen. Well, alright, I still have some time. Let’s finish up here.

What’s a fucking stray beagle doing in the desert!? Come on, buddy! Here boy! Don’t go near the quicksand!

The civilians we saved… are giving us items… during exploration. I sure hope we still get these even if we leave early.

Also, they’re weirdly conspicuously fully voiced for these conversations when everyone else isn’t.

Alcryst: Aw, my gloominess must be darkening the bright, sunny mood of this desert... Sorry.

If Pepsiman could talk right now, I’m almost certain he’d say “I mean, if so, thanks. I don’t know what we’d do if it were even hotter.”

So we got a master seal, an obstruct, and an elixir. Pretty good!

They stopped the exploration music… only to restart it again with the story scene that followed.

So Alfred’s talking about how little time he’s spent in Solm and how little he knows about the royal family, as does Diamant, an obvious method to mask the fact that Fogado is obviously the prince, and I don’t get why the hell they’re trying to hide that when he follows every damned convention of the royals of the previous three fucking kingdoms.

Alfred: It didn’t make sense. If you’re royalty, you can’t just leave your castle whenever you like.

Um…

Please.

Someone.

For the love of god.

Call out the hypocrisy of this.

And wooooooooow, Solm Palace looks awesome. Honestly, this is another place where I’d love to fight in the city streets, but something tells me we’ll be seeing very little of the place.

…They are really dragging out the “Fogado is the prince” reveal. Do they think this is… funny? Is this supposed to be a joke? Dramatic irony at the main cast’s expense because it’s way more obvious to us than it would logically be in-universe to them? The humor is lost on me.

…Yeah, this really feels like a prolonged repeat of the Chrom reveal in the early chapters of Awakening. Emphasis on prolonged.

Though there does still seem to be a mystery to be solved about why none of them met him before when they visited.

Now we get a scene with the bad guys over music that reminds me of Matrix music.

So apparently Veyle’s plan is that, since they couldn’t beat Solm, they’re gonna let us get the ring from Solm… and then steal it from us like the rest.

I seriously, seriously hope that plan doesn’t work. It would be hilarious, but I want my fucking toys damn it.

Griss: Praise is for chumps. It’s much more fun to be punished.

…Oooooookaaaaaay then.

Ohp! Evil Veyle’s having a heart attack! Is good Veyle coming out again?

Ah, her evil personality needs rest. I wonder what they’ll do with good Veyle. Or how the hell good Veyle kept wandering off out in the open.

 And it looks like we’ve unlocked Lyn’s paralogue too. Okay, noted. But not yet.

It also seems that our mission isn’t at the castle we just entered, meaning we’re probably going to leave it after the story beat. Ah, the weirdness of limiting every location to a single chapter.

Alright, I think I have enough time to keep going. Time for between-battle cleanup then.

So I just maxed out Lilith’s friendship. Huh. Okay, I wonder what’ll happen with that.

So, I just made Peach Cake, and it boosts four stats. Four of the best stats, incidentally! Strength, magic, speed and defense! And Citrine made it well enough to throw in some luck!

I just checked, leftovers just seem to be a pretty basic one-use 20 HP vulnerary. That… makes that “seconds” personal skill really, really lame.

Alright, we’ve got some supports!

Pepsiman and Yunaka’s B.

So Pepsiman’s trying hard to get Yunaka to open up and stop being so hard on herself about her past. Given that he doesn’t know what her past is, and she knows it, I have a feeling this isn’t really going to help.

She talks about walking away from her past, not so much because she didn’t like who she was, but because others didn’t. Which I have to say… would make a very interesting contrast with Pepsiman post-reveal. He too has a “self” that he’s running away from, even if he doesn’t know it, but he definitely is going to hate who he used to be when he finds out.

And now the supports Pepsiman got during the arena training. Jean and Boucheron.

Jean’s apparently picking herbs that have gotten harder to find on his island lately, to send back home to help the clinic.

Beyond that it’s a fairly simple conversation.

Now for Boucheron. A character I got a horrible first impression of. Let’s see what his deal is here.

It seems to mostly just be a discussion of Pepsiman’s health.

Basically we get an invitation to go fishing for stress relief next time he goes. Okay.

Now for Louis and Yunaka’s B. I’ve been working on their supports together at the kitchens since they’re two of my favorite units gameplaywise.

So Yunaka got her hands on a bunch of really good tea leaves to pay back Louis for the tea he’s been making for her. That’s nice.

Yunaka: I do enjoy chatting with you. So much so I worry I might… slip up.

Oh wow, that’s gotta be tough.

PFFFFFFF

And Louis “remarks” that he plans to talk hear ear off about himself (since he’s caught on to how much she hates talking about herself). That’s weirdly charming.

I upgraded the Liberation to +2. I need to keep reminding myself to train Pepsiman, because I find him constantly having more utility for his personal skill than his combat. Especially now that he doesn’t have a really good Emblem anymore.

Lucina gives a bit of needless worldbuilding about what happens to rings between battles that doesn’t actually jive with what you can do with them between battles. She says they warp to the ring chamber between battles and then warp back to whoever last used them when they leave. That at least sets precedent for rings being teleportationally loyal to their last wielder, hence the bullshit in Chapter 11, but it does beg the question of why they couldn’t warp back from Veyle’s clutches in that cutscene before Sombron corrupted them. Also, we can switch who wears rings in the Somniel and it’ll warp back to them, not the person who “held it last”.

Lyn: We’re so high up… I can feel the winds of Father Sky with the whole of my being.

Emblems have a sense of touch? I mean, I guess they can physically manifest with attacks.

But anyway, she hangs out by the fishing hole apparently. Okay. Let’s see if Lilith does anything interesting with fishing now that she likes us a lot.

Huh, I actually caught a pretty good one that time! I didn’t see Lilith do anything explicitly to help. Is she just a good luck charm?

…Oh god, so apparently there aren’t really that many gifts in the game. So far just three. Pretty pebbles, spirit gems, and horse manure. So while initially I thought there was a huge variety of gifts like in Three Houses, and horse manure was just something you gave to gardening enthusiasts… no, it’s apparently just a joke present. “You could give this to someone, but why would you?”

Part of me is sorely tempted to see some reactions, but most of me doesn’t want to actually do it.

We appear to have some sort of quarry tucked away in the back of the Somniel. Will that be an actual proper place eventually? It would be nice to get a new source of ore.

Alright, I think that’s it. If I have time to do a second half, I’ll post another bonus one today.

Alastor, signing off!

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Okay maybe this isn’t the best time to say this, what with her saving our ass and everything, but… I’ve never really been a fan of Lyn’s voice. It’s absolutely nothing like I imagined her voice as a child. Honestly, the way I imagined her voice was closer to Lucina’s than what we got. But I guess I’m gonna have to deal with that, because it’s been pretty thoroughly cemented.

I have a great deal of respect for Wendee Lee as a voice actress, but I'm not sure if she was right for the role. Just looking back to the last couple games, I think Faye Mata (Petra), Brittany Cox (Ingrid), or Conner Kelley (Catria) could have done the part even better. I'll just have to get used to this, though.

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, thankfully the dragons don’t seem to be advancing. Which means he should be fine just handling a couple of enemies for three turns. And he’s the one I had stock up on extra vulneraries for everyone, so he’s fine for healing. Good. Alright, let’s keep moving then. Diamant will have to catch up.

 

AND THE HOUNDS SHOW UP.

Were you really rushing it? I didn't have the Hounds show up until, like, turn 10. I think it's based on how far south your army (or maybe Pepsiman in particular?) gets.

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

…Clanne can’t use staves anymore.

 

Framme is my only healer.

 

…That realization hits so fucking hard.

 

…Okay, vulneraries for everyone.

Yep, ran into the same problem. Except I already had Celine promoted at this point, so she was providing staff support, too. That was a big help.

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

AND ZELKOV SOMEHOW FUCKING MANAGED TO STEAL THE TIME CRYSTAL BACK FROM VEYLE!?

The Thief class' ability to steal unequipped items, coming in clutch.

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

I’ll be honest, I was hoping this was going to be an “Everyone needs to escape” map. But in fairness I guess that makes that terrifying freeze staff more reasonable.

Pepsiman: "When I escape, so does everyone else!"

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

I notice that Alfred has been in these conversations, but not Céline. Either the game’s shafting her as a main character, or as soon as this Brodia-centric arc is over, Alcryst will fade into the background too, leaving only Diamant as a main character representative from Brodia.

The game definitely seems to be giving higher billing to the "Crown Princ(ess)es" than to their other royal siblings. Think back to the very first scene of the game. Who was depicted fighting as part of Pepsiman's army? And who was missing?

On 2/5/2023 at 12:00 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Pretty damned intense. I can only imagine how terrifying it is on Maddening. But the fact that they expect you to do most of it without rewinds is something I absolutely adore about it. Because it demonstrates confidence that they aren’t necessary for the game to be fair, even on Maddening. Honestly, part of me really wants to start playing this game on Maddening too, but I’m worried that’ll cheapen my impression of the blind ironman Hard mode difficulty and make my blind ironman less fun. I’m gonna have to come up with something though, because I wanna give this game’s difficulty a totally fair assessment for the ranking.

It really felt like this game's "Hunting by Daybreak" - a pivotal map, coming after some serious loss, that takes a power away from you, the player, to control the game. In that case, it was an inability to choose units, assign battalions and inventories, etc. This time, it's the loss of Emblem Rings and ability to rewind. I don't imagine it would present the same threat of a "softlock", even on Maddening, but I haven't played it at that level to find out.

[lenticular]

The taking away of the Emblem Rings is my single least favourite thing about Engage (so far). It'll probably be fine on subsequent plays, but I don't like how it played out on the first time through. That's because the game's skill system and reclassing system are heavily tied to the Emblems, so taking them away has a high chance to completely wrecks any long-term planning the player may have had. If you lose the Emblem before you have a chance to inherit an important skill or learn an important weapon proficiency, then that build idea is definitely delayed and quite likely to just be completely dead. To me, it just felt as if the game was telling me not to plan ahead and not to engage with its systems, because the rules could change at any moment. I hate it when games teach me not to trust them like that (see also: Foreign Land and Sky, Kaze in Birthright, etc.).

[Alastor15243]

Day 14 Bonus: Assorted Prep

Alright, let’s proceed!

Time for Oasis Village!

No, right, first we’re still in the palace! And here’s the queen, Seforia.

I notice that both Seforia and Fogado have star eyes. I wonder what, if any, significance that has.

They seem to have skipped past the introductions. Honestly, they spent time having her needlessly talk about it, so it probably would’ve been better to just do introductions. Unless they just wanted to keep the lesser royalty out of the scene.

…Seforia… didn’t know about the fell dragon?

What did she think those Elusians were coming to her queendom for?

…Guess she just didn’t talk to the invaders much?

…PFFFFFFF

Seforia can’t remember where she put Ike’s ring.

Oh my god, Pepsiman’s voice acting continues to deliver. The combination of awkwardness, forced calm, and bone-chilling panic in his voice when he says “Oh! OK…” after they casually wander off to go look for the ring… it’s beautiful. The fact that they think it might be in the “doodad drawer” is a really, really effective way of selling just how little they’re taking this responsibility seriously.

Like holy shit, given all the bullshit we’ve gone through at this point, and how desperate we are for more power, this is a top tier joke. Like, this feels like all of that dark bullshit has doubled as the set-up to this punchline, and I love it.

Right, and as I expected, it’s with the crown princess with the weird fashion sense I’ve seen pics of. Who’s apparently named Timerra. Alright, guess we’re going to meet her. Which means we’ll get to check out Ike right away in battle! Hopefully.

HOLY SHIT.

THE ACTING HERE.

THE SHEER CASUAL ATTITUDE THESE PEOPLE HAVE TOWARDS THE FACT THAT TIMERRA’S BEEN “GONE FOR DAYS”.

IT FEELS LIKE THEY’RE DELIBERATELY TORTURING THESE POOR DESPERATE SOULS.

I LOVE IT. IT’S STUPID AND INCONGRUOUS BUT I ABSOLUTELY UNIRONICALLY LOVE IT.

So it seems that’s the answer to the mystery of why they didn’t get to see the prince and princess on their visits. They just regularly, serially fuck off to who-knows-where for indefinite periods of time. She wasn’t hiding any dark mysterious secrets from them, they’re really just that fucking casual about it.

I love these people.

…So we see Timerra, and…

…Her retainers are also pale-skinned. Why is that? All the generic villagers here seem to be darker-skinned. What exactly are the ethnic demographics of this place?

Oh hey!

We’ve got bandit twins! Tetchie and Totchie! Nice! Glad to see that piece of FE history returning!

…And they can control Corrupted? So I take it they’re Elusian bandits? That’d explain the pale skin, though evidently a lot of things would explain the pale skin. But like, are they affiliated with Sombron in some way? That’s… weird… for bandits… especially since the orders from Sombron proper are apparently just to be biding their time. What’s going on here?

Apparently it wasn’t just Timerra who was supposed to be singing. Do they just have no idea how to write text for simultaneous speaking or something? Why was it only Timerra?

…Also, it’s fitting that the bearer of Emblem Ike is a huge meat lover.

But also, it seems like these people might know more than they’re letting on. I wonder what this is about with Timerra guessing who Pepsiman is and saying “Fogado wouldn’t have come here unless he found you first”.

Honestly, I wish they went with “His Father’s Son” instead of “Eternal Bond” as Ike’s theme here. It’d be super triumphant hearing those swelling notes played on an electric guitar. But I find it interesting that Ike assumes his Path of Radiance unpromoted fighting stance despite obviously being based on his Radiant Dawn incarnation. Despite ostensibly being the Path of Radiance representative.

…And we’ve got fog of war. Oh dear. Okay, let’s take a look at this.

Wooo! We’ve got a wolf knight, like I figured from her costume! This should be fun! Looking forward to using her.

Panette’s got a weirdly-worded personal skill. It only checks for activating the not-full-HP crit bonus after combat. I think that might be to prevent level ups and HP tonics from activating it?

Ike has some… very interesting skills. Great Aether seems like it’s kind of tricky to use though. And it can’t be used on command. I’ll have to experiment with it.

…Ike’s basic Emblem weapon is a hammer.

Brilliant.

Merrin… well, her personal skill is kind of interesting, if a bit bleh in effect. When she has two or more female allies nearby, she buffs their hit/avoid and her own by 5. That is never enough to be game-changing unfortunately. Damage and defense probably would’ve been nicer, even just one. But it does have me very intrigued about her personality if she’s specifically obsessed with being chivalrous towards women.

So Timerra uses lances. That’s cool, because eventually (provided I choose to continue using her and using Ike on her) she’ll get both of the other two from Ike.

…Holy shit are her weapon choices terrible. She’s weighed down massively from 18 speed to ten by her silver lance. I gotta get this girl an iron or slim lance stat.

…I notice that Tetchie’s res of 15 is green. Is 15 really the res cap for barbarians?

…I also notice he’s level 21. Can you go beyond 20 even in non-special classes?

…Okay, this map is not fucking around. There are a lot of enemies, including a ton of them floating over the lake.

Alright, okay, let’s see if I can get another flier helping out here. Maybe one of my new friendly prepromotes can reclass into a good one?

…Man, Kagetsu would be a great one if I could just fucking get him lance or axe proficiency, which I cannot give him right now because both of my emblems specialize in swords and bows.

Great lords can use lances in Awakening! Why couldn’t Lucina give proficiency in lances?

…Also I just noticed they changed Fogado’s description after the reveal that he’s the prince. Before then he was like “Leader of the sentinels, but there’s something strange about him…” or something. Well done! Nice, I don’t think games have done that before!

Meanwhile, Bunet can reclass into basically any variety of class since he’s proficient in axes and swords. Hm… is it really worth a second seal on him just to give me an extra flier in this one map, when just waiting one map more will let me train Kagetsu with Ike at the Somniel and make him into an insanely good wyvern lord?

…I think I’m just gonna use some of these tonics on my best units and hope for the best. But holy shit am I excited to make Kagetsu an axe-and-sword-using wyvern lord with twenty fucking speed.

…Unfortunately I don’t think I have time to do this map tonight. I’m gonna do my best to see if I can post some manner of update tomorrow, but I do not want to rush this one. Not a fog of war map. Definitely not.

Alastor, signing off.

[Anathaco]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just checked, leftovers just seem to be a pretty basic one-use 20 HP vulnerary. That… makes that “seconds” personal skill really, really lame.

Literally the only thing I can think of is combining it with Celica’s Favourite Food skill, which lets leftovers restore a full Emblem gauge, which sounds fairly broken in theory if seconds keeps giving him more uses of it. But even if you maxed out his luck by turning him into a high priest for the highest possible cap, and then give him one of the luck boosting emblems AND inherit a luck+ skill, the cap for bonuses in this game is apparently 20 to one stat so he can literally only get to 59 luck. Not nearly reliable enough to be worth it.

…don’t ask why I know all this off the top of my head.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Part of me is sorely tempted to see some reactions, but most of me doesn’t want to actually do it.

ZeShado posted a montage on YouTube that shows most of the funniest reactions, but it contains spoiler characters as well. Highlights include Alcryst thinking you’re giving it to him to throw out, Lapis calling it quality manure, and Zelkov’s “yes, very *amusing*. I trust you’re *proud* of yourself.”

38 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also I just noticed they changed Fogado’s description after the reveal that he’s the prince. Before then he was like “Leader of the sentinels, but there’s something strange about him…” or something. Well done! Nice, I don’t think games have done that before!

That’s actually pretty neat, I never bothered to check those descriptions so I never noticed.

39 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Great lords can use lances in Awakening! Why couldn’t Lucina give proficiency in lances?

And then the game does stuff like this and I’m immediately soured on it again lol

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Pepsiman… just activated Dual Assist. So what, does that mean the “if unit is able to chain attack” part of the description is bull?

One of Lucina's main abilities is to make the unit wielding it be able to chain attack regardless of class.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Unfortunately, one of them decided there was nothing wrong with stepping on an engage refill tile.

Yeah I remember one of those green units goofing their way into doing that to me too.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

The civilians we saved… are giving us items… during exploration. I sure hope we still get these even if we leave early.

I got items from leaving early, so I am fairly certain that is how it works.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

So I just maxed out Lilith’s friendship. Huh. Okay, I wonder what’ll happen with that.

If you want to feel a little sad, check on the extra page they got in the Ally Notebook.

 

2 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

It really felt like this game's "Hunting by Daybreak" - a pivotal map, coming after some serious loss, that takes a power away from you, the player, to control the game. In that case, it was an inability to choose units, assign battalions and inventories, etc. This time, it's the loss of Emblem Rings and ability to rewind. I don't imagine it would present the same threat of a "softlock", even on Maddening, but I haven't played it at that level to find out

"Hunting by Daybreak" wishes it was as good as this map. Also its far more analogous to Thracia 776's chapter 19.

 

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Her retainers are also pale-skinned. Why is that? All the generic villagers here seem to be darker-skinned. What exactly are the ethnic demographics of this place?

Yeah, it is really strange that all of their retainers are pale skinned, when so many of the other people of Solm we see are dark-skinned. I think the page in the Ally Notebook added at B supports talks about character's background, which might mention if they are foreign, although Merrin's at least is vague on the matter (mostly just saying that she ran away from her home village), not sure about the others.

 

20 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Wooo! We’ve got a wolf knight, like I figured from her costume! This should be fun! Looking forward to using her.

Merrin is great, fun to use and with a charming little wolf friend.

 

23 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Ike’s basic Emblem weapon is a hammer.

 

Brilliant.

I love that little reference to the old cheese strat against RD's BK