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

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

In regards the Soren thing, for its worth, there's this. From the PoR Memorial Book. Mileage may vary.

Hmmm... Well that's his apparent age in FE9 at least. I guess the real question is how long Pelleas has been "reunited with his mother".

Edited September 26, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

For its worth, almost every age is given as "designed", except for those whose ages are confirmed. Sure, it's apt for Laguz and Branded, but even the Beorc only have their ages as "designed".

So Soren being sixteen in PoR I wouldn't call it that out there. Which would only make him and Ike just one year apart, or as an approximation.

[Alastor15243]

7 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

For its worth, almost every age is given as "designed", except for those whose ages are confirmed. Sure, it's apt for Laguz and Branded, but even the Beorc only have their ages as "designed".

So Soren being sixteen in PoR I wouldn't call it that out there. Which would only make him and Ike just one year apart, or as an approximation.

Yeah, but... how exactly does one have a 19 year old son with somebody you haven't seen in "more than 20" years?

[Sunwoo]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, but... how exactly does one have a 19 year old son with somebody you haven't seen in "more than 20" years?

The same way Ena gave birth to Rajaion's child at least three years after he was last living.

But in all seriousness, Ashnard knew that his child existed and lost interest in him because he had no special powers. So unless Ashnard took Soren from Almedha without seeing her and then gave him back to her when he was bored (once again without actually seeing her) or whatnot, math here doesn't add up.

Kind of like how Leif's given age doesn't make sense in Jugdral because he would've been born after both his parents died.

[Acacia Sgt]

It's barely doable if they never saw each other after conceiving Soren, and he'd be born nine months later, when it'd be almost a year since last seeing each other. So his age will be close to one year less. But that's like the absolute minimum. Otherwise, it's like Sunwoo says, he'd have to have seen Soren to be disappointed without ever seeing Almedha. Soren can't be younger than the time Almedha saw Ashnard last unless the last time was for between the act of conception and birth.

But yes, short of her pregnancy also lasting more than nine months...

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

But yes, short of her pregnancy also lasting more than nine months...

People act like this is a joke, but the only way the Ena-Rajaion child makes any sense is if Dragon Laguz have a much longer than human gestation period.

 

39 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

 

Kind of like how Leif's given age doesn't make sense in Jugdral because he would've been born after both his parents died.

Quan and Ethlin died in 760 (chapter 5 starts in early spring 760), Lief was born earlier in the year (Quan even comments on how recently she gave birth to Lief when they arrive), as long as the start of Thracia 776 takes place before Lief's 16th birthday (when they comment that he is 15) the numbers make sense (if Jugdral has the seasons of the southern hemisphere his birthday could be a bit later into the year, which would fit this sorta timeline a bit better...).

[Acacia Sgt]

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

People act like this is a joke, but the only way the Ena-Rajaion child makes any sense is if Dragon Laguz have a much longer than human gestation period.

 

Quan and Ethlin died in 760 (chapter 5 starts in early spring 760), Lief was born earlier in the year (Quan even comments on how recently she gave birth to Lief when they arrive), as long as the start of Thracia 776 takes place before Lief's 16th birthday (when they comment that he is 15) the numbers make sense (if Jugdral has the seasons of the southern hemisphere his birthday could be a bit later into the year, which would fit this sorta timeline a bit better...).

It wouldn't be too weird, considering their lifespans. If the body matures slowly, why wouldn't that be the same while in the womb?

Then why Finn wouldn't say "almost 16" rather than "already 15"? It's doable if he just turns 16 quietly during the game, but still...

Edited September 27, 2020 by Acacia Sgt

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It wouldn't be too weird, considering their lifespans. If the body matures slowly, why wouldn't that be the same while in the womb?

Though...

...Okay, so Almedha says she lost her powers when she became pregnant, and not afterwards, so that's a good thing to know. The laguz losing their powers is caused by the conception, not the birth, of the branded. But that doesn't necessarily mean she had a normal nine month pregnancy, since she's still not a fully human woman. She definitely doesn't look like she's aged 20 years since her days with Ashnard, for one thing.

...Jesus Christ, that's another thing, why did nobody question how young she looked? There's no way she could be the mother of a late teens early twenties son and still look like that if she were human.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It wouldn't be too weird, considering their lifespans. If the body matures slowly, why wouldn't that be the same while in the womb?

Then why Finn wouldn't say "almost 16" rather than "already 15"? It's doable if he just turns 16 quietly during the game, but still...

Leif must quietly turn 16 at some point throughout the game as it takes place over the course of a full year iirc.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Though...

...Okay, so Almedha says she lost her powers when she became pregnant, and not afterwards, so that's a good thing to know. The laguz losing their powers is caused by the conception, not the birth, of the branded. But that doesn't necessarily mean she had a normal nine month pregnancy, since she's still not a fully human woman. She definitely doesn't look like she's aged 20 years since her days with Ashnard, for one thing.

...Jesus Christ, that's another thing, why did nobody question how young she looked? There's no way she could be the mother of a late teens early twenties son and still look like that if she were human.

I have no trouble believing Almedha could be in her forties. Some people do just look much younger than they appear (in fact my own girlfriend is in her 40s and is commonly mistaken for being younger than me {and I'm still in my 20s}). But even ignoring that, I imagine most of the time when people saw Almedha she looks like this.

She doesn't really interact a whole lot with people other than Pelleas until Part 4.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

But even ignoring that, I imagine most of the time when people saw Almedha she looks like this.

She doesn't really interact a whole lot with people other than Pelleas until Part 4.

Yeah, but like, even Pelleas didn't question anything, and he saw her up close all the time.

 

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

(in fact my own girlfriend is in her 40s and is commonly mistaken for being younger than me {and I'm still in my 20s})

That's gotta be... completely and totally surreal.

[Jotari]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, but like, even Pelleas didn't question anything, and he saw her up close all the time.

It's even worse than that really. Not only did Pelleas never notice she's a dragon, it these two never actually talked about who they were at all. I'm fortunate enough not to be an orphan, but I imagine that if I were I'd want to know everything about the parent I'd eventually find. But either Almedha is intentionally hiding her dragon origins from Pelleas, he one shining gem in her life, or Pelleas just never asked. And conversely, if Pelleas never did ask and Almedha just sort of assumed he knew, she never asked him anything (like even his hobbies) that would lead her to discover he's a spirit charmer and not a branded. Really this plot point takes such a ridiculous suspension of disbelief. Most of which would have been solved if they actually just went and made Pelleas a branded from the start.

On 9/26/2020 at 1:48 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Also, apparently Almedha hadn't seen her son in “fifteen years”. Only fifteen? But that would make Soren something like... sixteen, at the absolute oldest.

Soren was thirteen during Path of Radiance?

 

Also on this point, when did Izuka "reunite" Pelleas and Almedha? Because if the answer is "right after the Mad King War" then we could add an extra three years to the timeline that would make sense. Ie, she hadn't seen her son in fifteen years, three years ago. And now presently she hasn't seen Ashnard in (approximately) twenty years (adding about a year for the events of the game on and nine months of pregnancy that would actually get pretty close to twenty ie, 15 years+3 year time gap+1 year of Radiant Dawn+9 months of pregnancy = almost 20 years since she's seen him). I think they make references to it being "recent" and stuff, but I'm not sure if any exact time frames are given for how long Pelleas and Almedha have been together.

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

That's gotta be... completely and totally surreal.

No more surreal than being only two years older than her eldest son.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It's even worse than that really. Not only did Pelleas never notice she's a dragon, it these two never actually talked about who they were at all. I'm fortunate enough not to be an orphan, but I imagine that if I were I'd want to know everything about the parent I'd eventually find. But either Almedha is intentionally hiding her dragon origins from Pelleas, he one shining gem in her life, or Pelleas just never asked. And conversely, if Pelleas never did ask and Almedha just sort of assumed he knew, she never asked him anything (like even his hobbies) that would lead her to discover he's a spirit charmer and not a branded. Really this plot point takes such a ridiculous suspension of disbelief. Most of which would have been solved if they actually just went and made Pelleas a branded from the start.

Yeah, I definitely remember discussing this in Part 1. It just feels totally unbelievable that neither Pelleas nor Almedha would figure out they aren't related until now.

[Sunwoo]

3 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Quan and Ethlin died in 760 (chapter 5 starts in early spring 760), Lief was born earlier in the year (Quan even comments on how recently she gave birth to Lief when they arrive), as long as the start of Thracia 776 takes place before Lief's 16th birthday (when they comment that he is 15) the numbers make sense (if Jugdral has the seasons of the southern hemisphere his birthday could be a bit later into the year, which would fit this sorta timeline a bit better...).

According to SF's "character ages" page here, Leif is 16 in Genealogy. Chapter 6 is implicitly said in the script to take place 17 years after Belhalla. Quan and Ethlyn died before Sigurd. Therefore, if Leif really is 16 when he's introduced in Genealogy and the time skip between the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6 is really 17 years, Leif cannot have been born. Granted, I'm not 100% sure where they're getting the actual numbers. I'm assuming that whoever put these up has done their research. But apparently Leif is explicitly 15 in Thracia, which is a year or so before Genealogy.

It's not the only issue with Genealogy's given character ages, though. Seliph's age is given as 17, although he has to be a year old at the very least by the time chapter 5 ends, making him 18. The other children's' ages assume that literally every father who is not Sigurd or Ayra's husband (because Ayra had twins) survived long enough for the kid to be conceived and then fucked off and died afterwards. It's, uh ... it's not great, Genealogy's timeline. I'm inclined to believe that the writer(s) screwed up on the character ages because they wanted a 17-year time skip but they had a vision of the characters being younger than they'd realistically have to be rather than breaking my brain to find a way to make Leif's (and Seliph's) ages work.

[Eltosian Kadath]

3 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

According to SF's "character ages" page here, Leif is 16 in Genealogy. Chapter 6 is implicitly said in the script to take place 17 years after Belhalla. Quan and Ethlyn died before Sigurd. Therefore, if Leif really is 16 when he's introduced in Genealogy and the time skip between the end of chapter 5 and the beginning of chapter 6 is really 17 years, Leif cannot have been born. Granted, I'm not 100% sure where they're getting the actual numbers. I'm assuming that whoever put these up has done their research. But apparently Leif is explicitly 15 in Thracia, which is a year or so before Genealogy.

My guess is that 17 years after comes from just looking at the two year numbers of 760 (the year the battle of Belhalla takes place), and 777 (the year Gen 2  takes place in). A lot of the Genealogy of the Holy War timing comes across as more reasonable if this takes place in the southern hemisphere where the Battle of Belhalla comes late into the year, and the second generation starting early into the year, where the time gap is closer to 16 and change, rather than just under 17.

 

3 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

 

It's not the only issue with Genealogy's given character ages, though. Seliph's age is given as 17, although he has to be a year old at the very least by the time chapter 5 ends, making him 18. The other children's' ages assume that literally every father who is not Sigurd or Ayra's husband (because Ayra had twins) survived long enough for the kid to be conceived and then fucked off and died afterwards. It's, uh ... it's not great, Genealogy's timeline. I'm inclined to believe that the writer(s) screwed up on the character ages because they wanted a 17-year time skip but they had a vision of the characters being younger than they'd realistically have to be rather than breaking my brain to find a way to make Leif's (and Seliph's) ages work.

Many of the parents surviving the Battle of Belhalla itself is a thing that happened (quite a few of them explicitly so, like Edain, Bridget, Lachesis, Fee, Lewyn's revived body and Tailtiu are some that immediately come to mind). Plus that whole Serenes Forest page on their ages has a note about how most of these ages were implied, and many are based on the explicitly non-canon Kaga's dream scenario.

Edited September 27, 2020 by Eltosian Kadath
wanted to edit a slight inaccuracy

[Alastor15243]

8 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

My guess is that 17 years after comes from just looking at the two year numbers of 760 (the year the battle of Belhalla takes place), and 777 (the year Gen 2  takes place in). A lot of the Genealogy of the Holy War timing comes across as more reasonable if this takes place in the southern hemisphere where the Battle of Belhalla comes late into the year, and the second generation starting early into the year, where the time gap is closer to 16 and change, rather than just under 17.

 

Many of the parents surviving the Battle of Belhalla itself is a thing that happened (quite a few of them explicitly so, like Edain, Bridget, Lachesis, Fee, Lewyn's revived body and Tailtiu are some that immediately come to mind). Plus that whole Serenes Forest page on their ages has a note about how most of these ages were implied, and many are based on the explicitly non-canon Kaga's dream scenario.

Also, that's hardly the biggest hiccup in Genealogy's relationship with the fabric of space and time.

Friendly reminder that most of the invasion of Verdane took place in the time it took King Batou to bleed to death on the floor.

[Sunwoo]

Yeah, like ... the thing is, I'm not inclined to give Genealogy the benefit of the doubt here. If it was just one or two things, sure, but there's just so much "WTF is math" moments there that I just believe the writer couldn't do math and had a vision that couldn't completely fit with the timeline.

It's not exclusive to Genealogy either. A lot of the games just don't have a concept of space/time or timelines in general. They can't always keep their facts straight, and who knows if it's because they're making some of the stuff up as they go along without consulting their old notes.

For example, Astrid in Radiant Dawn exclaims about how she wishes she had a sibling when watching Marcia and Makalov fight. Path of Radiance has her mention in her support conversation with Sothe that she has brothers who are highly regarded by the family while her sisters are wedded off to men much older than they are. There is just no way to try to explain that away other than someone fucked up.

[Jotari]

5 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

Yeah, like ... the thing is, I'm not inclined to give Genealogy the benefit of the doubt here. If it was just one or two things, sure, but there's just so much "WTF is math" moments there that I just believe the writer couldn't do math and had a vision that couldn't completely fit with the timeline.

It's not exclusive to Genealogy either. A lot of the games just don't have a concept of space/time or timelines in general. They can't always keep their facts straight, and who knows if it's because they're making some of the stuff up as they go along without consulting their old notes.

For example, Astrid in Radiant Dawn exclaims about how she wishes she had a sibling when watching Marcia and Makalov fight. Path of Radiance has her mention in her support conversation with Sothe that she has brothers who are highly regarded by the family while her sisters are wedded off to men much older than they are. There is just no way to try to explain that away other than someone fucked up.

Maybe she wants dysfunctional siblings instead of proud upright ones?

[Sunwoo]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Maybe she wants dysfunctional siblings instead of proud upright ones?

Unless Astrid has essentially disowned her entire family (which is never actually stated outright in RD), her quote still sounds more like she wishes for siblings in general rather than a certain type of sibling. There are ways to convey wanting a "dysfunctional" sibling over a "proud uptight" sibling that are way clearer than "I wish I had a sibling!"

[Alastor15243]

Holy shit did this take a while. Sorry for the delay, guys. I'll post this in two parts, and I'm proofreading the second part as we speak.

 

Radiant Dawn Day 41: Chapter 4-E-1

...Y'know, there are some accents you could read that in where it'd sound like the day and chapter numbers lined up again.

Anyway, here's the first chapter of the final endgame, in which we do not storm the streets of Sienne. That part is sadly done completely offscreen, and now we'll spend the entirety of the endgame climbing the Tower of Guidance. Cool enough place, but honestly, did the whole thing have to be in it? Couldn't we get one map of storming the capital!?

Hooooold on. Okay, I just noticed that bigass tower, drawn on the world map almost identically to the tower of guidance you can see at the top of Sienne. And this tower is on that island to the east. I think I remember hearing about that in the timeline, yeah, that's the place where the first apostle first “heard the goddess”, right? Funny how we never go there and yet it's still on the map. Interesting attention to detail, I guess?

Anyway, we're at the outer gates of Sienne, about to prepare our army and units for endgame. And all of our armies are starting to meet up, with Ike's group second to arrive, after Micaiah.

...But then the gates ominously open by themselves... but it's not an enemy attack, it's King Caineghis, who apparently somehow beat us here despite us having a head start and his mobility across the country canonically being an issue. Tibarn's with him, so yeah, apparently Tibarn was first, not last.

Caineghis: In an occurrence I'm told is increasingly common, we heard a voice in our dreams and followed it here.

I mean... I'm still mad, but that sounds like something Dumbledore would say, and I love it.

...Yeah, so, he streets of Sienne have been “mopped up” offscreen. Yaaaaaaaaay.

But then Yune shows up and ominously reveals that Goldoa is completely empty.

Deghinsea, and basically the entire dragon race, have sided with Ashera.

...And then we camp for the night. Which means this is our final proper base. The game doesn't explicitly tell you this, but the merchant caravan will not be joining you in the tower, so no more forging, no more anything.

We've got some talks here, and... let's start with the first one: Renning.

Okay, so... yeah, I get that Renning's strong-willed and all, and he's been “cured”, but like... he shouldn't still be this completely okay, right? He still remembers all the fucked-up stuff he did as Bertram, right? That's gotta be eating at him. It was bad enough that he begged Ike for the sweet release of death, remember?

But there's this kinda funny scene where Geoffrey and Renning get into this extremely polite pissing contest over who has the right to stand at the queen's side and defend her, culminating in a challenge to a duel outside. And then when Elincia tells Bastian to “do something”, he does: he goes out and plays referee.

Anyway, next, this is Stefan's last scene in the entire series.

Okay, so Yune claims she didn't create anything, laguz or beorc. I have to assume she means she specifically didn't, as in Ashunera did.

But then Yune says she's “never seen” a branded, and I'm like nani the fuck? Bitch, you're wearing one!

Stefan points this out, and she's like

Yune: Ohhh... I thought Micaiah was the only one. She could hear my voice and sing the galdr of release.

Is she saying that Micaiah is literally the only one in the apostle's bloodline that she's ever consciously communicated with? Then what were all the previous apostles hearing?

That's weird. Only the beorc name for branded is capitalized in this story. Again, I've refused to do that in this playlog because it would be annoying and confusing given that laguz and beorc aren't capitalized. But look at this:

Stefan: It means that we carry the blood of both beorc and laguz. Beorc call us Branded, and laguz call us parentless.

Branded is capitalized, but parentless is not. That's... a bizarre choice.

Huh. Okay, so... apparently the brand isn't there at birth, but “One day, the laguz blood shows itself, marking the child's body with a brand”. That just raises more questions of how old Soren was when Almedha last saw him. The fact that Pelleas's spirit charmer mark is on his forehead just screams that there was a pre-existing brand that Izuka had to find a match for, which means that Soren and Almedha being separated almost certainly wasn't an “immediately after birth” thing.

Okay, yeah, so Stefan says that “The laguz blood gives the Branded unnatural powers”. It would be really, really nice if this were even remotely backed up in gameplay or really even story for anyone but Micaiah. We get subtle hints? Maybe? But nothing actually spelled out for literally anyone but Micaiah.

There that is again, Stefan saying the plural of beorc as “beorcs”. But I know I've heard “beorc” used as the plural too.

And yeah, Stefan says, plain as day, that the laguz “can sense what we are... They have an instinct for it. Not all laguz know for sure, but the sharp ones figure it out instantly. Others just feel uneasy around us. Some never figure it out, but they're surrounded by ones who do. Either way, the laguz would never talk to us voluntarily.”

And yet Soren was able to be the tactician for the Laguz Alliance without even the tiniest peep of controversy popping up.

This also means Muarim is canonically the “sharpest” laguz in the entire Tellius canon, as he's the only one who has actually ever been able to “figure it out instantly” that a branded is a branded. Unless we assume that every single laguz in the entire story other than Muarim and Vika who has ever interacted with a branded (which is most of the laguz cast) could tell instantly and was just super duper polite about it and didn't want to out them.

Yeah, fuck this. The branded's interaction with laguz is pretty damned terrible.

Now that I think about it... wouldn't it be interesting if the branded had their own slur for laguz? Using “sub-human” as an insult wouldn't really work for a branded, because they don't identify with the people who call themselves “humans” as an apparently-supremacist term. They'd probably call them something specific to their experience with the laguz.

Then again, I guess they don't really have a culture of their own that would allow for them to come up with their own words. They call themselves what the beorc call them, and with the exception of the people in Stefan's village, most go their whole lives without ever meeting one of their own kind, because they're always hiding.

But anyway... this is when Stefan hears from Yune's own lips that the idea of branded being a “crime against the goddess” is complete horseshit, because they didn't even know branded could exist. And this causes him to break down in laughter at the sadistic farce that his own life is therefore revealed to be. I like this climax of the conversation, but I think the buildup could have used sooooooo much more work. Stefan really should've been a playable character before this so he could have more development.

This still begs the question, also, of why the hell the laguz lose their powers when they impregnate or get impregnated by a beorc. I could easily bullshit a magical explanation for when this happens to laguz mothers, but with laguz fathers, suddenly losing their powers the second their disembodied sperm fertilizes a beorc egg makes no fucking sense as an accidental quirk of biology.

Anyway, Ena has a talk with Almedha and Kurthnaga, where she announces Nasir's arrival to warn Kurthnaga of Deghinsea's decision to side with Ashera and ask him to join them.

...How the fuck did he make it into camp unnoticed? Did Ashera teleport him in? No, that can't be it. How could he get Ashera's permission to teleport into this base without Deghinsea's knowledge?

Ahhhhh... Okay, so this explains how the fuck Daein got its hands on dragon laguz. It was a red dragon platoon sent to retrieve Almedha that was captured and turned into... okay, apparently “Feral Ones” is capitalized too? Fuck this game's arbitrary capitalization business.

And apparently Deghinsea was this close to going into a rage and joining in the Mad King's War had Ike not ended it when he did. That seems... well I guess believable, if not exactly the most flattering thing to be revealed about him. It implies that losing his own countrymen and children (he thought Almedha was dead) was enough to make him snap and abandon neutrality, while 200 years of laguz slavery were not. Also, it makes his later treatment of Ike and his friends exceptionally heartless, since Deghinsea apparently flew over to Daein and carried Rajaion's body back himself, and must therefore know on some level who the Greil Mercenaries are and how they helped facilitate that. There had been a ton of talk about them among the laguz royals.

Also, the game just said that the dragons are even more vulnerable to the madness of war than other laguz, and... bullshit. That would've come up. We've seen dragons fight in Path of Radiance, and Ena managed to remain completely calm while fighting the Crimean Liberation Army when she was an enemy.

Apparently though, Deghinsea and the rest of the dragon tribe... have just decided to accept annihilation as the fate they deserve, and Nasir in particular seems to agree with him, or at least be unquestioningly loyal to the decisions of the dragon king. Kurthnaga rightly points this out as madness, and that they have literally nothing whatsoever to gain and everything to lose by letting Ashera do what she wants. And doesn't the nigh-immortal Deghinsea, who was alive before the flood, know full well that the “goddess” he's taking orders from is a broken, empathy-void, isolation-mad unfeeling machine in desperate need of being made whole again if the entirety of conceivable reality, past, present and future, is to have any hope at all?

I just...

...Deghinsea is clearly suicidal. He has to be. He clearly has to think that the entire world deserves to die, with him in it. But that doesn't explain the other dragons, unless they are just that mindlessly deferential to authority like I theorized back in the playlog of PoR.

Anyway, Caineghis stopped by Greil's grave and grabbed Urvan, Greil's axe. Ike can't use it, because it requires an SS rank in axes and he only has A, but still, it's appreciated. Especially for Nolan.

Finally, a talk with Volke that I can't remember the details of because I didn't get him in my playthroughs for the longest time.

...Fuck, I accidentally skipped it. Well, I got 20,000 gold. Time to check what it said.

Oh wow, that's weirdly adorable. Volke gets awkwardly embarrassed at being thanked for everything he did in the Mad King's War. Anyway, he gives us the 20,000 gold as a refund for what he didn't earn of the 50,000 gold payment he was given in PoR. Those are our endgame funds. Which we only get if we know how to recruit Volke.

Real smooth, game.

Anyway, time to forge like there's no tomorrow. But first...

BEXP time.

Alright, so, Nolan's level 20/20/15, and that was... all of my bonus exp. He's capped everything but strength and HP, and if he gets even one level that doesn't proc strength he won't cap naturally, which would be a shame. Zihark, on the other hand, has capped everything but HP, which he's got 51 in, and luck, which he's 1 shy of capping at 30. So I can send him into battle with literally no consequences. Jill can likewise be sent out with few consequences since she's capped everything except her skill, which is still okay, and her defense, which is going to be irrelevant by the time I can properly cap it, so fuck it. Oscar, Aran and Nolan could probably do with bonus exp, but it's not like they'll be worthless if I can't do it. But I think I'll still keep them from getting exp as much as I can.

Now let's get to forging like it's not tomorrow.

Honestly, I don't like this randomized bonus forging system. There's too much of the weapon that you decide on before knowing what the bonus is, including the color. Also, in-story, it makes absolutely no sense why these forges are determined by playing cards, or why Daniel would put useless cards in the deck and essentially rip you off.

Alright, this is really frustrating, trying to wade through all of these units to find the ones I want to outfit. I'm gonna end base, then go back to it after I use character select to put everyone relevant in front.

Oh right. This. So, in the time that everyone camped out overnight, more enemies showed up, and this is their excuse for why we need so much of our army to stay behind and have a huge, epic, offscreen war with them.

I hate how transparent this is, how clearly it's contrived for gameplay purposes.

That said, I love how creepy it is that these are people we've already killed, being revived as what's essentially zombies.

That said, the dialogue between Ike and Yune actually makes this a bit less contrived and significantly more dramatically interesting.

And now we get Micaiah's promotion, and... she's... actually pretty good. Also, this makes her I think the only character in the entire series to get three gameplay portraits in one game.

Okay, one thing I'm noticing I can't do here is adjust skills. I'm not sure if that's just for now, or if that's permanent for the rest of the game, but I'm not taking chances. I'm working out who I want to bring here, and then I'm resetting to get their skills on them at base.

Ohhhh fuck.

OHHHH FUCK.

I'm going to have to make so many hard choices here. I can only bring 10 units, not counting the mandatory units and the one heron I'm allowed to bring for no clear reason.

Oscar, Zihark, Nolan, Aran and Jill make up half of it. I'm only allowed to bring 5 more. And I really, really, really wanna bring Janaff, Ulki, Tibarn and Elincia to do some fun stuff with Reyson. I could replace Elincia with Jill, but she's also my best healer.

But I also want to bring Mist so that I can make a blessed brave sword without sacrificing Alondite...

...Fuck, okay, so, I'm dropping Nailah. I love her, she's awesome and all, but she doesn't have canto, she can't heal, and she's meleelocked. I just have so many units capable of doing things better than her that I can't justify bringing her over the combination of gameplay utility and emotional investment I have in other units. I'd drop Soren for her, but I can't remember how badly I'm gonna want magical power against the def-tile auras in the final battle, so I'm gonna have to bring him.

I was initially guilty about bringing Mist instead of Elincia, but Mist actually has an identical magic stat and staff rank to her. Yes, Elincia has Amiti, but her by-this-point terrible speed means she's not really gonna have much combat utility anyway. I'll have Jill take the fourth slot in Reyson's angels, completing her character arc with the laguz in spectacular fashion.

Alright, so, looks like the 10 units I'll be bringing are:

Aran

Jill

Mist

Soren

Oscar

Janaff

Ulki

Zihark

Nolan

Tibarn

Now to take care of skills and prepare this for real.

Alright, so, I'm putting wrath on Nolan, and hilariously, one of the two flavor texts for wrath is wrong. One says 20% HP is the threshold, the other says 30%.

The heron-exclusive blessing skill is apparently not locked and can be removed, despite it being impossible to put it on anyone who doesn't already get it for free. So I'm taking it off Rafiel and Leanne to sell them, since I've decided to bring Reyson.

Alright, I think that's everything. Christ, this preparation is taking me as long as some chapters in this game have taken.

I took paragon off Nolan and replaced it with wrath, put miracle on Zihark for the hell of it, gave Kurthnaga resolve, paragon and nullify, gave Aran celerity and provoke, gave Oscar imbue, gave Ulki cancel, and... that's about it for skills. I also took everything not locked down, both the personal and the taught, off of everyone I'm not bringing.

Let's do this.

Hilariously, people taking blessing off of their herons is such an unheard of and unthinkable thing that the localizers never caught that they labeled the skill scroll, not “blessing”, but “sky boon”.

Man, since I'll be losing the gear of anyone I don't bring in, I wish there was a whole-army “give all” button like the later games (starting with I think Awakening?) added. I have to do it manually, which thankfully isn't quite as tiresome as it could have been. The game remembers what your last selection on the item menu was, so I just have to go to each unit, press 2 twice, then back out with 1.

But holy shit is this massive unit list causing slowdown. This game's roster is comically large, and yet it still managed to make so many parts of the game feel completely starved for recruitment.

Anyway, now that I know I won't be leaving anything behind permanently by not bringing anyone, time to make a ton of forges and make sure everyone has nice weapons to last the next two battles before they can get their unbreakable blessed weapons.

...

...Why the flaming fuck is stillness less valuable than shade when sold!?

...I just got insanely lucky and drew a raven card, which means, somehow, that instead of getting a forge bonus... I get four more coins.

Which means I need more gold to make use of those coins for forges, and I do that by selling some excess consumables, namely the laguz stones and olivi grass that I'm never going to use again, because between the 15 uses of laguz gems I'll get over the next 5 maps, I'll never have to worry about the transformation gauge ever again.

...Well, the dragons may be cutting it close, but as long as I can make judicious use of Gareth's laguz stone, I should be fine.

...Alright, I think I've gotten enough good 1-2 range to tide my lance and axe users over for the rest of the game. I just gave an energy drop and two speedwings to Kurthnaga so that when he's transformed and in resolve range, he can double basically anything.

Let's go.

[Alastor15243]

Chapter 4-E-1 Continued

...Oh dear, the voice acting here... wooooooooooooow. So bad.

Okay, so this is... what I assume is a conversation between Sephiran and one of the apostles. Apparently several generations have gone by since Sephiran first had a child with Altina, and... he has no idea that his descendants have special powers? How can he not, since they've been ruling Begnion for ages? Did he not know that the apostles are related to him and Altina until this conversation?

Ah, this seems to be Sanaki/Micaiah's immediate predecessor talking. She's announcing her plans to reveal herself to the world and show them that being branded is nothing to be ashamed of, so that must be her.

So, okay, I brought this up before, but... how exactly does a line of succession happen with the apostles when none of them are allowed to get old? If any of them lived long enough that humans would start getting wrinkles, the secret would be out, if not to the world then certainly to the senate they constantly interact with and who the apostle apparently at least thinks don't know.

Has every single apostle died prematurely? Surely they can't all have been assassinated. Have some of them faked their own deaths, or perhaps even killed themselves for real, when they started to reach the age where staying in the public eye got dangerous?

Okay, now we're talking with Lekain and... what? The senate elevated Sephiran from “youngest senator ever” (irony of ironies) to prime minister, simply because he was the only person who seemed to be able to make 5 year old Sanaki calm down? Was that... was that part of Sephiran's plan?

Anyway, they were using Sephiran and Sanaki as puppets (still don't know what Sephiran's relationship to the senate's chessmastering is and how much he'd been manipulating it) to basically have a wholesome, likable face to present to the people to make them accept the senate's ridiculous laws. But then they actually started using the power the senate had foolishly given them, making it apparent what a terrible idea that was.

...The fuck? Lekain planned on assassinating Sanaki and blaming it on the herons again!?

HOW THE FUCK IS THAT GONNA WORK TWICE, WHEN THE PEOPLE ARE WRACKED WITH GUILT OVER THE LAST TIME THEY BELIEVED THAT, AND THE HERONS DON'T EVEN LIVE IN SERENES FOREST ANYMORE OR HAVE MORE THAN TWO ABLE-BODIED MEMBERS OF THEIR SPECIES LEFT!?

Also, apparently Sanaki is the 37^th empress of Begnion, and I'm not even going to bother checking if that makes sense. Fuck it, all of this story is giving me a headache. I can barely keep all of it straight in my head, and I honestly don't think even a quarter of the questions I've asked even have answers. Which means this is definitely going below Blazing Blade, simply because I gave more of a shit about that game's characters once you got past the stupidity of the plot.

...Okay, so, the sheer absurd number of generals here means that physical player-phase tactics... aren't really gonna help all that much. I'm gonna be leaving Janaff and Ulki behind for this map so that I can spare two laguz gem uses. Enemy phase fighters and player phase magic users are gonna win the day here.

Thankfully, these don't count as indoor maps for some reason probably relating to the place being magic, meaning for that for the first time in the entire goddamned series, a game that punishes riders indoors doesn't make them spend the last several maps of the game in that nerfed state! Yay!

Honestly, I'm starting to regret selling all of my olivi grass and laguz stones. I'll be honest, when I did that, I completely forgot about the dragons.

It's kind of alarming how small this map is. I feel like final maps should be a bit bigger than this. And with the massive enemy density, it's feeling kinda claustrophobic.

But I think I have a plan now. So let's start.

Oh hell yes. This game may not have all that many memorable songs, but holy shit are the final map themes exceptions. This one playing right now is Ascent, and it's glorious! I wish it did more with the opening riff, but as a whole it's still pretty fantastic.

Anyway, my plan. I notice that the axe armors on the eastern side have a lower speed stat than the other armors, and it's just baaarely enough for both Soren and Micaiah to reliably double them. So we'll take them out on player phase, have Nolan, Zihark, Ike and Oscar wall off the northern front, and then cover the last space between them... with Kurthnaga with a laguz gem. He'll be poking out a tile ahead so the wall is still secure but he has three facings so he can get as much exp as possible. The western flank we don't have to worry about immediately, since the generals there are too slow to catch up to anyone fragile if all of my fragile units go east.

Unfortunately, I got unlucky with a sleep staff and Ike got hit.

...The enemies still considered Kurthnaga a more viable target to attack.

I could've sworn I brought more than one restore staff, but thankfully Micaiah still has sacrifice, so that shouldn't be too big a deal. In any case, Reyson didn't sing last turn so he could use the laguz gem, so... I should be free to do plenty of otherwise- reckless player-phase shit to bail Ike out.

Yep, that worked. And Kurthnaga has been getting exp like crazy, so let's hope he gets some good level ups.

YES! He got a fiver with speed and defense on it! Really, even if he doesn't wind up being able to one-round or anything, as long as he gets tough enough to laugh off enemy phases, his night tide ability is gonna be super useful.

Honestly, there was no way I was gonna get that bolting. Maybe if I brought Mia, but that would take getting to it within five turns and then praying, and... yeah, doesn't sound fun.

Micaiah's still slaying armored guys with thani like she was at the beginning of the game. It's honestly hilarious. I spent significantly more bonus experience on her and Sothe than was probably wise given how much I'm hurting for it now, but fuck it, it was worth it to do for fun just once.

Yeah, so, I knew this was gonna happen.

Kurthnaga just capped speed at 16 (32). He was already on track to do that by level 40 even without those speedwings, but really, who else was I gonna use them on? Soren and/or Micaiah, maybe, but they're not doubling much anyway, and I wasn't sure how hard it would be to get Kurthnaga off the ground. Anyway, now he doubles everything on this map because of how overspecialized the enemies are, and with resolve he doubles everything in the game. I'm just gonna let him loose on the enemies for shits and giggles and see how he does.

Oh shit. Right. These fucking things.

Lekain just used his map attack. Most of the bosses in the endgame have at least one, where they do some massive attack that affects everyone on the field. In his case, he tried to silence us. A lot of people got hit, but most of them can't use magic so it doesn't matter. All of our actual mages are fine.

Still though, I kinda resent that this doesn't have any indication of what it does on the unit menu. No skill, no weapon, nothing.

Kurthnaga's gonna take the whole northern front now, since we've advanced enough to give the squishy units some breathing room. Nolan and Zihark (mostly Zihark) are taking out the eastern side, and I'll send some other people west to take out that side while keeping some people here to deal with the reinforcements.

Soren doesn't suffer any attack speed loss from using siege tomes. I really wish I had stolen that bolting when I had the chance early in Part 3. Soren would rip dragons to shreds.

Oh, well this is convenient. I chose to kill Lekain with Ike (which was an absolutely bloodbath), and before he died, Lekain revealed that he's under the impression that he's been masterminding the return of the goddess. But... he doesn't give any sign that he actually knows how it works, or what Lehran's medallion even is. Somehow. So... fucked if I know what his “plan” was.

Christ, this is already 8 pages long so far. Thankfully, from here on out things are pretty simple.

Kurthnaga isn't quite one-rounding these generals yet, but he is doing enough damage that physic healers can't keep them alive with a heal. And if that's what he does to generals...

...Yeah, I think he's set for the rest of the game.

Oh shit! He just flat-out one-rounded one of the generals! Yesssssss!

Yeah, after watching Ike completely wipe the floor with all manner of units completely effortlessly, I feel the need to remind you that when Ike was added as an amiibo unit in Code Name STEAM, Intelligent Systems saw fit to make Ragnell the single worst attack in the game.

Alright, and now Tibarn takes out Hetzel, because I like their conversation.

Hetzel: L... Lord Lekain! Help! Help me!

Tibarn: As payment for taking care of Rafiel when I couldn't, I'll make this quick.

(DEAD)

I like that line.

“When I couldn't”.

It just screams that Rafiel's fate has been eating at this guy. Considering that Tibarn and Rafiel don't have a lot of interaction together, I love this subtle bit of insight into Tibarn's relationship with the herons in general.

Okay, this is weird. Apparently there's an SS ranked staff in this chest here (which I'm getting in a moment), but Mist and Elincia both capped at S rank staves. It was glowing green. So who exactly can use it if they can't?

Shit. I was hoping Soren could enemy-phase clear these bishop reinforcements, but I forgot about the wardwood tiles in the middle of the starting location. He can't kill without flare, a crit, or two adept procs.

...Thankfully, he manages to kill at least two of the five. As long as the general reinforcements don't show up, we should be able to clear this in time to get all the BEXP.

...Okay, there were some general reinforcements to the north instead, but only two of them. If we make clever use of Soren's blizzard tome and Reyson's singing...

...We'll have to take care of the last bishop on enemy phase, but yes, this should be the last turn.

...Yep, we did it.

Anyway, Micaiah tears up the blood pact, and there's a bit blinding flash of light as it dissolves and burns away.

Yeah, so, they notice there's a second pact. Naesala's pact.

It's... really casual how they discuss this shit in passing, but yes, they do make it clear, through Sanaki, that Naesala was forced to do what he did.

We have a short, funny scene where Sanaki teases Ike by constantly correcting him on how he should address her, Yune talks about how she loves humanity's capacity for constant change beyond what the gods could even dream of, and... we're done.

...A chapter hasn't taken me this long in ages. But thankfully things should go more quickly from here on out.

Alright, well, until next time!

Stay safe, everyone!

[Benice]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So who exactly can use it if they can't?

SS in staves is Saint/Sephiran only, I believe. Although I must have missed it, 'cause I don't remember using it even though I brought Laura to the tower. It is the Ashera staff again, right?

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yep, that worked. And Kurthnaga has been getting exp like crazy, so let's hope he gets some good level ups.

YES! He got a fiver with speed and defense on it! Really, even if he doesn't wind up being able to one-round or anything, as long as he gets tough enough to laugh off enemy phases, his night tide ability is gonna be super useful.

He also notably won't get attacked by any dragons, so you could grind him up there as well if he's a liability in the next ma-

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh shit! He just flat-out one-rounded one of the generals! Yesssssss!

Oookay, never mind that, then.

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

sleep staff and Ike got hit

Part 4.txt

[Shadow Mir]

16 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, this is weird. Apparently there's an SS ranked staff in this chest here (which I'm getting in a moment), but Mist and Elincia both capped at S rank staves. It was glowing green. So who exactly can use it if they can't?

Saints, Micaiah, Sephiran.

 

18 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Unfortunately, I got unlucky with a sleep staff and Ike got hit.

...The enemies still considered Kurthnaga a more viable target to attack.

Artificial Stupidity.txt

[Alastor15243]

25 minutes ago, Benice said:

SS in staves is Saint/Sephiran only, I believe. Although I must have missed it, 'cause I don't remember using it even though I brought Laura to the tower. It is the Ashera staff again, right?

Nope, that comes with Lehran. The chest had a second SS staff, Matrona. It's a super physic that also maxes biorhythm.

[Benice]

11 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Nope, that comes with Lehran. The chest had a second SS staff, Matrona. It's a super physic that also maxes biorhythm.

Well, free Physic is good...? I'd guess that Miccy don't have the staff rank to get SS, though.

Edited September 28, 2020 by Benice

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Benice said:

Well, free Physic is good...?

Nobody I have can use it until I get Lehran, sadly. I don't have enough arms scrolls to get Micaiah to SS.