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

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

My point was that you've played the game before and should know that killing Ike is an alternate way of winning. Your surprise comes across to me as being manufactured in order to inject some excitement in to this thread, rather than being genuine surprise.

What, do you remember the exact details of the win conditions of every chapter of every game in the series you've played? I've forgotten plenty of things about these games. Hell, I struggle to remember some stuff about games I've already played in the marathon. I always remembered this as a defense mission. I didn't remember the Ike win condition.

Edited September 17, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

I actually like the Ranulf spoiling the Black Knight twist. It comes out of absolutely nowhere, but it's not stupid. Ranulf does have reason to figure out the twist having seen both fight, though coming to think of it, Ranulf would have only fought the Black Knight in canon in Bertram's chapter in Path of Radiance and he doesn't really have any reason to hold off on the information until this point unless he's just been mulling over it for some time. Would have been a bit better if the Black Knight appeared with Micaiah in this battle (coming to think of it, why isn't he? He must have freed Sephiran right now and this moment is the climax of Sephiran's plan, he'd obviously want an agent there overseeing things). Still, I like how it feels more like a realistic development rather that a choreographed plot twist. Things aren't always discovered at the most climactic time. And much like how it's no surprise that Lehran is Sephiran because he doesn't show up anywhere until you fight him, Zelgius being the Black Knight would have slowly become more obvious to the player as they approached the tower, so the twist was never going to hit like a hammer to begin with.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

23 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I actually like the Ranulf spoiling the Black Knight twist. It comes out of absolutely nowhere, but it's not stupid. Ranulf does have reason to figure out the twist having seen both fight, though coming to think of it, Ranulf would have only fought the Black Knight in canon in Bertram's chapter in Path of Radiance and he doesn't really have any reason to hold off on the information until this point unless he's just been mulling over it for some time.

He fought BK at the harbor "get on the boat" chapter where BK comes out of the house. It's a cutscene at the end.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

10 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

He fought BK at the harbor "get on the boat" chapter where BK comes out of the house. It's a cutscene at the end.

Oh yeah. So scratch that the only issue is why Ranulf didn't tell Ike when they were in Goldoa or something. Still the Black Knight showing up in this battle would have made far more sense for reasons unrelated to the reveal.

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 35: Chapter 4-P

Okay, “It's as though they have stepped into a vast and desolate monument to the war” is one hell of a creepy mental image. Great job with that line.

But as I remember what happens in the Silver Army, I have to wonder how exactly Naesala spent so much time around two herons, psychic people, mind, without ever feeling Naesala's immense sorrow about the blood pact he's under until this chapter. I'll have to see how that dialogue goes first.

Hmm... so we get a scene where the useful idiots of Begnion are resurrected by Ashera, and I have to wonder how much Lekain actually believes what he's saying here. Does he actually know even an inkling of the truth about the religion he's been using to gain power his whole life? Or is he just a hypocritical jackass who genuinely believes everything he's saying but also somehow thinks he is in perfect moral standing with the goddess?

...Fuck, now I have to grab the script to translate Leanne's lines again. What she says in this scene is probably vitally important.

...Okay, so that specific line wasn't really that important, nothing I couldn't have guessed from Naesala's line previously. But now Skrimir shows up to kill Naesala.

Oh man, Leanne is so sweet. Despite how fucked up it must sound to literally everyone else, her choice of the word “bully” to describe people attacking Naesala for committing genocide is... strangely adorable given her struggles to learn modern tongue and her knowledge of what's really going on.

Okay, so Naesala says “I wish you'd stop looking into my soul”, like Leanne's done it before, which makes me wonder why he was never asked about it. Now, I get that just knowing something in his life is causing him great pain isn't a whole lot to go on, but there was a point when Naesala was in good standing with both Leanne and Reyson, right? Surely they would've asked their good friend what was tearing him up inside if either of them knew? And if they did wind up asking... that brings up another point.

Like... is there literally any reason why Naesala wouldn't have been able to talk about the blood pact to his fellow bird laguz over all of these years? The reason Daein can't talk is because they “have spies everywhere”. Does the game mean to suggest that there are bird laguz loyal to the senate?

I just don't buy that at all.

But moving on...

Hahahaha. I love how after Leanne and Nealuchi try to give their lives to protect him, Naesala drags them out of the way and basically convinces Skrimir not to kill him by pointing out that Tibarn has the greater right to.

Anyway, we're at base now, so let's check out the info conversations.

I don't understand this conversation between Sanaki and Naesala. Sanaki apparently knows about the blood pact, and offered to explain it to the other laguz, but Naesala insists on taking the blame for it, and then Sanaki admires how he'd “carry the burden of [his] crime alone to protect [his] people”. Why exactly would his people be in danger if the rest of the laguz knew the truth about the blood pact? If he's talking about the pact triggering if he tells anyone, he's clearly decided that the stone world is enough of a motivation to betray the senate and fight beside the others, so why the fuck keep the secret now?

Hell, for that matter, why didn't the Dawn Brigade explain that yet?

No, fuck that, here's the real question: why isn't Lekain triggering the blood pact to kill the tiny number of Daein people who aren't stone, wiping out his enemies who are no longer under his control? Is the game suggesting that the pact will randomly select one of the stone people, just do nothing because they're stone, and still do nothing when they're brought back to flesh as long as the blood pact is destroyed by then?

...But I do like the second half of this talk, where Sanaki opens up about her fears about what exactly Micaiah might be, and what that means about her.

Okay, what the fuck is going on with this second info conversation? Apparently Micaiah finds the dead world's air agrees with her, that the overwhelming air of order feels nice. But I thought she had an affinity for chaos? Why did Yune like her so much if she's just as order-oriented as the herons?

We get a rexbolt, because Muston's actually willing to give us free shit to help us save the world (pity it couldn't be something more useful), and then we get some weird hint about hidden treasure from Skrimir that gives us a satori sign.

Anyway, I give 12k bonus exp to Jill, and she manages to cap everything but skill, so my concerns about her stats falling behind what she should have for her level and favoritism are finally gone. She'll promote next level she gets, but I'm gonna give her a master crown because why the fuck not? Makes no sense not using every last one of them since I can't sell them.

And Jill gets... more than the stereotypical tier 3 boosts! She gains +3 in strength and defense instead of 2!

Alright, I took celerity off Micaiah, meaning that since apparently our inventories are fused now by some magical ender chest bullshit they don't even bother to bring up or explain, I should be able to get celerity on Rafiel.

Let's see what the map's gonna be like before we make any purchases. I forget if this is the desert map or not.

...Speaking of geography... how exactly are we “splitting up” here? For some reason I remembered this part taking place in the west of Begnion, like the beginning of Part 3, where there was a lot of wide open space to travel through. But isn't there, like, only one opening into Begnion from where they are in Daein unless they're taking a massive and pointless detour across to the other side of that huge lake?

Nope, this isn't the desert map, this is the one where they're under attack in the town they're sleeping at.

...Damn it, Sanaki has four authority stars! Why can't she be the one leading this army!?

...Speaking of which, how the fuck is it that Micaiah, Priestess of Dawn, Leader of the Dawn Brigade, grand Stacy-Lady of charisma herself, doesn't have a single goddamned authority star? That's... starting to feel kind of ridiculous.

...Also, apparently there's a unique lion class for every playable lion, because the flavor text for the class starts with “Skrimir, heir to Gallia's throne”.

Anyway, doesn't look like we'll have much need for significant purchases for this map, but still, I think I'll go back and buy some shit just in case, because Muston being with this army might heavily influence just how much cool shit we can get from the armory. Aimee or the twins might not have as much nice stuff to sell there.

Alright, I didn't need much, since a lot of the cool shit is super expensive, but I did get one killing edge for Zihark in case he needs the help to take down a strong foe and I don't want to use the brave sword.

Man, Sothe's only level 4. That's... kind of hilarious. And he's gonna promote at the end of this chapter... hm... how much bonus experience do I get in the future... maybe I should splurge and get Sothe close to level 20 just so he isn't total dead weight later in the chapters where I have to bring him.

...It would cost a little under half my bonus exp... but I should still have enough to get Zihark to level 20/20, and that's what matters for the moment. After that, I just wanna get Micaiah close to level 20/20 maybe and also get Rafiel as high-level as possible, since he'll be my pick for the endgame. Anything I get after that will be used for rounding off tier 3 caps, which shouldn't be as important.

Well, as a result, Sothe capped strength, skill, speed, HP, and resistance. His defense is now 18, which... isn't great, but with his high speed and luck his evasion should be good enough that I don't need to worry about him in the final battle at least. Alright.

Oh nice! I just realized this also means that I have a thief strong enough to steal bolting! Hopefully I can manage that!

Alright, let's go.

As I alluded to before, we've got Sanaki now, and I wish units like her were more useful in this game, because her stat spread (super high magic, low speed and defense) could be really interesting if this were a game where it could actually work for her. I bet she could work wonders in Fates as a player phase unit and attack stance partner.

We've also got Skrimir, who's actually pretty badass for a laguz who doesn't have formshift, and Naesala, who... has formshift.

Awwww! Turns out smite doesn't have its own separate visual and sound effect anymore! Why's that?

Anyway, Aran and Jill are about as badass as I expected them to be, and it's only uphill from here.

I'm gonna want to forge a knife for Sothe for the tower. With that he might be able to one-round some things. Right now he's just here to be my fifth wall, since I'm kinda short on those due to my exp concentration. I'm also trying to give Micaiah and Sanaki as many kills as I can, though mostly Micaiah. I really wanna see what she can do when she's properly trained for the endgame. Especially since I've gotten so lucky with her growths.

I like the little twirl Micaiah does when she dodges. I guess I never noticed it because she's never been able to afford getting hit before.

I love how it's Part 4, I've been using Laura constantly, and she's still tier 1. This game really does staff users dirty.

Hey, I just realized something... doesn't the fact that this war set off the pact... kinda confirm that there's literally nothing beyond the desert other than Hatari? Queen Hatari was all it took to set off the medallion, after all.

...Which basically confirms that Lehran was the one who guided Rafiel to the desert, right? I mean, it sounds like what happened in PoR would have set off the medallion if the queen of Hatari had been there, which would suggest that Lehran didn't know that Hatari existed until after the events of the game, and this time he made sure to get her involved.

...Which would suggest that Hatari, despite seeming like an ass-pull, was... intentional? From the start?

That's... a bizarre thought.

I can't help but notice that the enemies here are almost exclusively physical. Is that deliberate? Well it certainly makes Aran and Jill more powerful, so looks like it was a good call to bring them here.

Jill is one-rounding with a hand axe with ease, but Aran struggles to do the same with a javelin. Hopefully some more strength levels will fix that.

So I just got Micaiah to level 12 and she's capped speed and resistance. I think that's a good sign that I should start BEXPing her, in the hopes that she gets some defense procs beyond her current 10. Man, holy shit, she's probably gonna cap luck before she even reaches Tier 3. That is completely insane. I wonder how good she'll be for the endgame? Fingers crossed!

...Man, having pass on a flier is fun. I just had Jill wade through a veritable sea of cavalry attacking her and Aran to take out the one longbowman in the group, then return to her spot at Aran's side so they can keep building supports.

I also noticed just in time that one of those cavalry was in range of Lethe, so I had her back away and join the eastern group. Aran and Jill are taking on the entire northern army.

Hahahaha! The boss's battle quote is so terrible it flips back around to being amazing.

“Die! Die!”

That's all. He just runs in screaming that, brave sword in hand.

Anyway, I cleaned this up pretty brainlessly, and now we're done. And now we get the exposition of how Ashera blessed all of the enemies' weapons and armor to make them strong enough to stand up to our troops. Also, Yune has a pretty great line where she expresses pity for the enemy because they think they're the damned chosen ones, but they're just being used by a goddess who doesn't care about them at all.

Anyway, Sothe promotes, and he gets the standard bonuses, plus a new portrait. For some reason I always thought as a kid that the midriff top was exclusive to this outfit, but no, he had that before. But the midriff window is certainly a bit wider now. Not sure what that does for people who are into dudes, but as for me... hm. Well one one hand, it certainly could look goofier on other people than it does on him, but on the other hand... it still looks kinda goofy to me, and more importantly, he doesn't really strike me as the sort of person who would wear that. It's kinda like the male version of those infamous female characters who dress like strippers while having completely serious, all-business attitudes that don't match their manner of dress at all.

Except, y'know... all he's showing is his fucking navel.

Yeah, it's kinda hilarious that we're even discussing this. That outfit would be like, comically tame in terms of fanservice if it were on a girl, to the point that it would barely even qualify as fanservice at all, but the instant you slap that kind of top on a guy, it starts looking extremely questionable, despite the fact that it isn't really even showing anything. It's this really weird aspect of human sexuality. For some reason, when it comes to guys, showing your entire upper body is completely normal, but the second you wear something that exposes the midriff and only the midriff, suddenly questions get raised about who exactly you're trying to get the attention of.

The cape jacket part is cool though.

But anyway, we get a nice scene where Sanaki's concerns are silently coming to a head when she chickens out of talking to Micaiah yet again, and I'm looking forward to the payoff of this. I remember liking it.

And... that's the end of the chapter for today. And man, honestly... I'm starting to wish I played on hard, because really, since Part 3, most of this game has been ridiculously easy, and I'm starting to worry I'm not gonna be able to give this game a fair rating. But then again, considering how many stupid decisions the hard mode makes...

...Ugh. Well, it's too late now. I've already spent 35 days on this, I can't exactly mess around with hard mode now and make it even longer.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 9/16/2020 at 10:02 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Honestly, the sheer number of enemy units, and the fact that there are these AI battles between laguz on the sides, while they make it cool cinematically... it's a bitch and a half to replay the map and wade through this shit again. I'm glad I have my laptop handy by necessity so I can just do random shit while I wait for it to be my turn again.

I know the Tellius games get a lot of flak for their slow enemy phases (thanks in no small part to their slow animations, even map animations), but I think this is the first time its been a noteworthy inconvenience. To be fair a part of that is because you had to redo the map, and it might have been commented on earlier if you needed to reset more...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

No, fuck that, here's the real question: why isn't Lekain triggering the blood pact to kill the tiny number of Daein people who aren't stone, wiping out his enemies who are no longer under his control? Is the game suggesting that the pact will randomly select one of the stone people, just do nothing because they're stone, and still do nothing when they're brought back to flesh as long as the blood pact is destroyed by then?

The real answer is that the bloodpact was a lazy story point that the writer didn't care enough about to flesh out, but if I had to do the writers job and craft a theory as to why, I would add two things, first that there is some way of determining when specific people would die to the blood pact (this would also conveniently make Ashnard's use of the blood pact to secure the throne make a bit more sense as well), second is that there would be some cost/consequence to invoking the bloodpact on Lekain's end. If those two things were established already there could be a scene where Lekain considers it, but finds that it would take too long to kill off anyone important for the personal cost to him

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, what the fuck is going on with this second info conversation? Apparently Micaiah finds the dead world's air agrees with her, that the overwhelming air of order feels nice. But I thought she had an affinity for chaos? Why did Yune like her so much if she's just as order-oriented as the herons?

I would speculate its for two reasons, first Micaiah reminds Yune of her other half, and second that those with an affinity for chaos tend to be overwhelmed by her presence (at least when she was in the medallion), and lash out with the overwhelming destructive kind of chaos that led to her drowning the world.

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Damn it, Sanaki has four authority stars! Why can't she be the one leading this army!?

...Speaking of which, how the fuck is it that Micaiah, Priestess of Dawn, Leader of the Dawn Brigade, grand Stacy-Lady of charisma herself, doesn't have a single goddamned authority star? That's... starting to feel kind of ridiculous.

Of all the games that have Authority/Leadership stars, this has got to be by far the worst implementation of them.

 

Edited September 18, 2020 by Eltosian Kadath
the end of a sentence was cut off

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh nice! I just realized this also means that I have a thief strong enough to steal bolting! Hopefully I can manage that!

Obligatory reminder that the last Bolting is in endgame, and the mage with it has nothing else.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, Sothe promotes, and he gets the standard bonuses, plus a new portrait. For some reason I always thought as a kid that the midriff top was exclusive to this outfit, but no, he had that before. But the midriff window is certainly a bit wider now. Not sure what that does for people who are into dudes, but as for me... hm. Well one one hand, it certainly could look goofier on other people than it does on him, but on the other hand... it still looks kinda goofy to me, and more importantly, he doesn't really strike me as the sort of person who would wear that. It's kinda like the male version of those infamous female characters who dress like strippers while having completely serious, all-business attitudes that don't match their manner of dress at all.

Sothe's old outfit is based on his PoR clothes, though not identical.:

Spoiler

I'd like to think the idea was he's simply outgrown what he wore in the Mad King's War. No excuse for the midriff in the new outfit, unless all Yune's magic did was mutate the fabric he was wearing but let's not try to create a logic for promotions, otherwise we're left wondering where Eliwood's horse came from.

And regarding the promotion attire, in Japan, translated...

Micaiah:
“It really suits you. This costume.”

Sothe:
“Are you sure…?”

Micaiah:
“Mmm-hmm.”

Does Micaiah like male midriffs? No qualms with that, you can act like a saint and dress like one (or however you'd describe Micaiah's actions and personality), doesn't mean you can't have some eros. Why should casanovas and femme fatales have a monopoly on known lust in FE?

 

On a separate note, Ashera and Yune aren't called the Goddesses of Order and Chaos in Japanese. You can read about it here. The point is, the Japanese is difficult to translate, and the intent of the localization was to translate with the spirit of the Japanese- two goddesses who are of opposite traits, but which should be in harmony in oneself and the world at large.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Interdimensional Observer

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And regarding the promotion attire, in Japan, translated...

Micaiah:
“It really suits you. This costume.”

Sothe:
“Are you sure…?”

Micaiah:
“Mmm-hmm.”

Does Micaiah like male midriffs? No qualms with that, you can act like a saint and dress like one (or however you'd describe Micaiah's actions and personality), doesn't mean you can't have some eros. Why should casanovas and femme fatales have a monopoly on known lust in FE?

Okay, that's pretty dang funny.

 

@Eltosian Kadath

  

1 hour ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I know the Tellius games get a lot of flak for their slow enemy phases (thanks in no small part to their slow animations, even map animations), but I think this is the first time its been a noteworthy inconvenience. To be fair a part of that is because you had to redo the map, and it might have been commented on earlier if you needed to reset more...

True, but that's also because I'm used to multitasking, watching videos while I play stuff and the like. And I had stuff I could be writing while enemy phase was going on. Not sure how much that's skewing my perception.

 

@Shadow Mir Yep, I remember.

Edited September 18, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm gonna want to forge a knife for Sothe for the tower. With that he might be able to one-round some things. Right now he's just here to be my fifth wall, since I'm kinda short on those due to my exp concentration. I'm also trying to give Micaiah and Sanaki as many kills as I can, though mostly Micaiah. I really wanna see what she can do when she's properly trained for the endgame. Especially since I've gotten so lucky with her growths.

 

Do you mean a knife for throwing? Because don't forget that Volke's going to show up with Baselard just before the tower, which you can steal and put on Sothe. Unless you plan on actually using Volke (or if Sothe doesn't happen to have SS Rank in Knives, but in my experience weapon ranks have basically never been an issue in Radiant Dawn, unlike in Path of Radiance where they were something of a massive issue for mages).

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Sothe's old outfit is based on his PoR clothes, though not identical.:

  Reveal hidden contents

I'd like to think the idea was he's simply outgrown what he wore in the Mad King's War. No excuse for the midriff in the new outfit, unless all Yune's magic did was mutate the fabric he was wearing but let's not try to create a logic for promotions, otherwise we're left wondering where Eliwood's horse came from.

 

I could see it as completely in character for Yune to alter Sothe's clothing to make him more sexy. Especially if it's in a way she can tell Micaiah finds appealing.

Edited September 19, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Do you mean a knife for throwing? Because don't forget that Volke's going to show up with Baselard just before the tower, which you can steal and put on Sothe. Unless you plan on actually using Volke (or if Sothe doesn't happen to have SS Rank in Knives, but in my experience weapon ranks have basically never been an issue in Radiant Dawn, unlike in Path of Radiance where they were something of a massive issue for mages).

Volke comes with the peshkatz, not the baselard. But noted.

[Jotari]

Just now, Alastor15243 said:

Volke comes with the peshkatz, not the baselard. But noted.

Huh? Oh yeah. I think the Baselard is found in the desert next Micaiah chapter then. It certainly pops up somewhere around part 4.

  

5 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

On a separate note, Ashera and Yune aren't called the Goddesses of Order and Chaos in Japanese. You can read about it here. The point is, the Japanese is difficult to translate, and the intent of the localization was to translate with the spirit of the Japanese- two goddesses who are of opposite traits, but which should be in harmony in oneself and the world at large.

That's actually really, really interesting. And while the nuances of Japanese might be lost on me, I do really like the translation changes. Calling Ashera Positivity Icarnate just wouldn't really sit well. Chaos also ties in well to the idea of how Yune is released while also not assigning so much negativity to her. As the article said Dark and Light might have been the closest terms to use, but it would have felt so goddamn generic if they'd gone that route (and they'd already shot themselves in the foot by localising her as Dark God instead of Evil God in Path of Radiance).

 

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Jotari said:

That's actually really, really interesting. And while the nuances of Japanese might be lost on me, I do really like the translation changes. Calling Ashera Positivity Icarnate just wouldn't really sit well. Chaos also ties in well to the idea of how Yune is released while also not assigning so much negativity to her. As the article said Dark and Light might have been the closest terms to use, but it would have felt so goddamn generic if they'd gone that route (and they'd already shot themselves in the foot by localising her as Dark God instead of Evil God in Path of Radiance).

 

Agreed. It was a good call for translating it. It feels so natural despite being apparently a significant departure.

[Alastor15243]

Hey, I've got a question for my long-time readers... Of all the playlogs I've done so far, which was your favorite to read? When did I have the most interesting things to say?

Edited September 19, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, I've got a question for my long-time readers... Of all the playlogs I've done so far, which was your favorite to read? When did I have the most interesting things to say?

Hmm. I think I might have liked Blazing Blade the best. We got a nice does of complaints in that one, but at the same time there was genuine nostalgic passion from you fighting for control. Seeing you realize the game you idolized just plain isn't as good as you want it to be was such sweet suffering to behold.

[Benice]

On 9/19/2020 at 11:35 AM, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, I've got a question for my long-time readers... Of all the playlogs I've done so far, which was your favorite to read? When did I have the most interesting things to say?

I liked the FE6 one the best so far, even if I only caught a few snippets of it-it was insightful and nice to see you have fun playing these games. In addition, I am looking forwards to what you'll think of the Saga games, since they do go somewhat of a different direction from the mainline games. And Berwick just goes out into left field, but in the best way possible.

[Eltosian Kadath]

On 9/19/2020 at 11:35 AM, Alastor15243 said:

Hey, I've got a question for my long-time readers... Of all the playlogs I've done so far, which was your favorite to read? When did I have the most interesting things to say?

My favorite to read was probably Thracia 776, mostly because I like that game, and seeing the experience of a much blinder player going through that is entertaining, plus you made one of my favorite commentaries/critiques of that game as a whole:

On 12/30/2019 at 8:45 PM, Alastor15243 said:

I'm just standing here wondering how it's physically possible to create a game seemingly never intended to be played a first time.

 

 

[Alastor15243]

On 9/19/2020 at 10:56 PM, Jotari said:

Hmm. I think I might have liked Blazing Blade the best. We got a nice does of complaints in that one, but at the same time there was genuine nostalgic passion from you fighting for control. Seeing you realize the game you idolized just plain isn't as good as you want it to be was such sweet suffering to behold.

 

14 hours ago, Benice said:

I liked the FE6 one the best so far, even if I only caught a few snippets of it-it was insightful and nice to see you have fun playing these games. In addition, I am looking forwards to what you'll think of the Saga games, since they do go somewhat of a different direction from the mainline games. And Berwick just goes out into left field, but in the best way possible.

 

4 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

My favorite to read was probably Thracia 776, mostly because I like that game, and seeing the experience of a much blinder player going through that is entertaining, plus you made one of my favorite commentaries/critiques of that game as a whole:

 

"I'm just standing here wondering how it's physically possible to create a game seemingly never intended to be played a first time. "

Thanks a lot for the feedback. Honestly, I think those were among my favorites to playlog too.

The reason I ask is because I've been meaning to check out some of my old stuff to get a sense of how my playlog style has changed recently, because I definitely feel it has, and for the worse. And I wanna make sure that when I try to course-correct, I don't forget one of the things I used to do.

Anyway...

 

 

Radiant Dawn Day 36: Chapter 4-1

Alright, let's get going! Time to finally get to use vanguard Ike!

...Okay, so the map says they're just crossing through the fucking mountains like it's nothing. I guess now that everyone's offscreen dead weight armies are gone they can just do that now? Fair enough, though I wish I knew what their actual intended route was before this happened.

We get a brief scene before base, basically showing Ike and Soren's response to the warning they got from Leanne. I like how they discuss how they'll have to be sleeping lightly and with their weapons in reach.

We get a kind of amusing base conversation talking about heron stereotypes and how weird Ike's finding it seeing a heron who actually acts like the stereotype after meeting Reyson first, and Nailah really seems to want to shelter Rafiel and keep him pure.

Next we finally get Mist's promotion item, and...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So Aimee gives Ike a Rexcalibur tome for Soren, and admits she gave it to him instead of Soren because “I'm trying to get YOUR attention. So I'd much rather give it to you.”

Ike: That's very direct of you.

Aimee: Because you can be so thick sometimes! I wear, you wouldn't know how I felt if I didn't tell you outright.

Ike: Even if I did, I wouldn't do anything about it.

BURN.

Seriously though...

...“You wouldn't know how I felt if I didn't tell you outright”.

Yes, Aimee. That's how this thing called “not being psychic” works. I can't tell if that was also a point of the joke, but even if it wasn't, I love Ike's response here. He just does not give a shit.

But I do like how Ike is smiling when she says Aimee “has issues with reality”. Like, “yep, she's a nut, but she's our nut.” Apparently she just assumes he doesn't want to be tied down right now due to all the stuff he wants to do, so she's working on impressing him now so that she'll be the one he thinks about when he finally does want to settle down. The Part 4 prep music makes this feel kinda sweet, but... I mean... their relationship is still pretty creepy. We're not told exactly how old Aimee is, but she's clearly older than Ike, and she started hitting on him when he was a teenager.

Anyway, I used the holy crown on Mist. I debated using bonus experience on her, but even if I did, it'd just amount to some extra staff range and a buffer against combat she shouldn't be getting into anyway. I wanna save my bonus experience for units who can actually use the extra stats.

I gave Rafiel celerity and Ike the boots. That way Ike can keep up with his support partner. But I also gave Ike paragon, because I'm using the shit out of him this map.

...Y'know, maybe it's the fact that I'm playing on normal mode, but I'm starting to feel that Soren would've been a better option for Ike's support partner. Only slightly less overkill avoid, they'd be equals in enemy-phasing assuming they both double, and they could both cross the river and climb ledges together. Pretty sure it's too late to start cultivating that now though.

Map doesn't seem too complicated, though the fog of war is always something to watch out for. Last time I played (a pseudo-ironman by this point where I mostly just avoided resetting whenever possible), I lost Rafiel, which was a pain. But I think I should be fine this time.

So, I've been re-reading some bits and pieces of my previous playlogs, and wow, I've really skimped on talking about strategy. Sorry about that. It's just that... most of the time... there isn't any. Honestly, I just send my toughest units at things until they break. Not really much happens on these maps a lot of the time.

Well, okay, so, first off I have Rafiel do a big 4-unit song so I can attack with Soren, Oscar, Ike and Haar and get everyone I can see out of the way of the southern, main opening. That way I can just park Ike there and have him obliterate everything south of that point for major exp. Then I have Oscar take Rafiel back, Soren heads over to guard the east side with the help of some rescue-dropping, and then Haar and Nailah take care of the west. But Haar can't make it all the way, so I have to hope the bags hold at least one turn as I get everyone fragile out of the way.

Aaaaand there are fliers. Of course there are. What fog of war map could possibly be complete without fliers to ruin any sense of being able to prepare for what's in the dark?

Whatever. I think I can handle it.

...Though admittedly I can't quite remember how Rafiel died, just that he did it near the northeast corner.

...Right, there's a breakable sandbag on the northeast side too. Gotta keep an eye out for that and plug that up.

Ike's level ups are holding up pretty well so far! Nothing under 3 yet!

...Right when I say that, he gets skill and luck. Damn it. But other than that one, things have been going well. And besides, his stats have been broken for ages, I don't think it's even possible for him to turn out bad.

Man, wish I brought Mia. There are some physic staff users hiding in the dark, getting to steal those with heather would be nice. But I remember having enough of them for endgame without ever using this disarm-and-steal-trick, so-

...I never checked the bargain bin this chapter.

...It's apparently just a wyrmslayer and some olivi grass. Alright, I'm not tempting fate with Ike's level ups by redoing this. Let's keep going.

They start occasionally spawning reinforcements inside the camp, and I'm really grateful for the massive campfire in the middle making sure I can see them. I took them out with some help from Shinon, Gatrie and Titania, boosted by Rafiel to get them over there.

...Okay, so the dark mages don't seem to have plague doctor masks, on, but those masks seem to clearly have beaks.

On the west side, I decided that instead of holding the wall, I'd have Nailah and Haar hold the 2-wide bottleneck to the south of it, and then have a couple of my less powerful units light up that entire northwestern corner and kill reinforcements every turn, just so I'm not surprised by what they are. The northeastern corner is already lit up naturally due to it being closer to the wall, so now every space within flying range of the fort is lit up, so I don't have to worry that much.

Better yet, there's a one-space bottleneck I can park Haar on, so Nailah and her 1 range can focus on player phase nuking the reinforcements with Shinon.

Weirdly, while the game won't focus the camera on reinforcements who aren't in illuminated areas, it will still show where they spawn with the fancy warp animation if the camera happens to see it from the position it was already in.

...Haar unfortunately isn't doubling anymore. I'll probably give him speedwings or something, but then, his days of being a reliable tank are numbered anyway, so... is it really worth it at this point? Not sure.

Man, so, okay, while Ike's... emotional arc has basically not progressed even slightly since the end of Path of Radiance, he's still quite entertaining when it comes to the snark, same as always.

Catelena: Pawns of your execrable goddess, die! You are a festering wound in the flesh of the world! Die, and let it heal!

Ike: I suppose talking it over is out of the question?

Soren and Oscar found the last enemy, a staff user, hiding in the dark, thankfully without too much issue. Honestly, putting enemy noncombatants on a fog of war rout map is... really obnoxious. It risks making the end of what should be a tense map drag on. But then... this wasn't really a tense map, so... whatever, I guess.

So Ena says she refused to transform while protecting Kurthnaga because he's terrified of blood and so she wanted to fend them off in her human form. That's... pretty ridiculous. But it leads into a nice scene between Ike and Kurthnaga where Kurthnaga reveals that Almedha is his sister. Strangely though, while Ike asks why Kurthnaga specifically fought, he doesn't ask for any details about why Daein was fighting, which Kurthnaga might have been in a position to know. It's weird that that wasn't explained to Ike.

But after that... we're done here. We've got 9 more chapters of this game to go, and as eager as I am to stop playing this game and start playing Shadow Dragon (a series of words that would have caused my younger self to stare in horror if he ever heard me say it), I'm very hesitant to do double chapters ever again, even with games I enjoy.

Yeah, as I said, I've been looking at my older posts, and... yep, it wasn't my imagination, recently the quality of my commentary has been significantly reduced, possibly partly due to not having as many interesting things to comment about, but definitely at least partly because I just haven't been as engaged and passionate as I was before the Tellius games took something out of me. I'm really, really hoping Shadow Dragon will take me out of this slump. Until then, I'll do my best to avoid the temptation to cut corners with my commentary of this game.

Stay safe, everyone.

 

 

[Jotari]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...“You wouldn't know how I felt if I didn't tell you outright”.

Yes, Aimee. That's how this thing called “not being psychic” works. 

 

And yet it's still a basic expectation of a good deal of women!

Edited September 21, 2020 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Aaaaand there are fliers. Of course there are. What fog of war map could possibly be complete without fliers to ruin any sense of being able to prepare for what's in the dark?

Which is exactly why I avoid using Rafiel in this chapter - I honestly feel he's a liability when flying enemies can come out of nowhere and take him out.

[Eltosian Kadath]

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

So, I've been re-reading some bits and pieces of my previous playlogs, and wow, I've really skimped on talking about strategy. Sorry about that. It's just that... most of the time... there isn't any. Honestly, I just send my toughest units at things until they break. Not really much happens on these maps a lot of the time.

A lot of enemy phase tactics are kinda boring like that, unless the numbers are close enough that you have to plan things out. Maybe on a higher difficulty, or if you were insisting on using a joke character or two it might have been more interesting...

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Though admittedly I can't quite remember how Rafiel died, just that he did it near the northeast corner.

...Right, there's a breakable sandbag on the northeast side too. Gotta keep an eye out for that and plug that up.

My guess is from some of the reinforcements that warp in that corner. They keep coming late enough that your front line has probably moved further south, and the corner they arrive in is usually in the dark if you don't know they are coming.

 

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

So Ena says she refused to transform while protecting Kurthnaga because he's terrified of blood and so she wanted to fend them off in her human form. That's... pretty ridiculous. But it leads into a nice scene between Ike and Kurthnaga where Kurthnaga reveals that Almedha is his sister. Strangely though, while Ike asks why Kurthnaga specifically fought, he doesn't ask for any details about why Daein was fighting, which Kurthnaga might have been in a position to know. It's weird that that wasn't explained to Ike.

Fun fact Ena can transform on this map, although her doing so is not commented on in the dialogue.

[Alastor15243]

2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

A lot of enemy phase tactics are kinda boring like that, unless the numbers are close enough that you have to plan things out. Maybe on a higher difficulty, or if you were insisting on using a joke character or two it might have been more interesting...

I swear I'm gonna try to use Odin in Rev. Odin will be the Basara he was meant to be yet.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 37: Chapter 4-2

Another day, another chapter. Let's get moving.

Hilariously, the mugshots appearing in the narration menu are completely out of sync with when the narrator says their names, at least until it gets to Pelleas and Almedha and the text box changes.

Apparently they haven't been attacked... yet.

I like Reyson's comment about how uncomfortable it is to benefit from something awful, since the chaotic energies of the battlefield that normally make him ill and unhealthy are suddenly gone... because everyone's stone.

I like Tibarn's theory that the Ds of O haven't attacked yet because they're hoping the overwhelming aura of order is going to make them start feeling peaceful and complacent eventually.

Almedha's being... psycho mom again, only now she admits that she's a dragon laguz, which should mean that, since Pelleas knows for a fact that he's a spirit charmer and not a branded, now he knows he isn't really her son. And I think that's why he pulled away from her at the end there.

Anyway, info conversation time.

...Huh. Okay, so, for the most part, yes, Yune does seem to have an affinity for order-oriented people, given that she's been sending Mist and Reyson dreams of hidden treasure... but she sent one to Skrimir too, though...

I notice that for each of these first chapters with each group, there's been a base conversation with the merchant(s) who went with each party, I assume to clarify to the player what those arrangements were, because they didn't really talk about it beforehand. We get Rexflame, to complete the convention.

Anyway, bonus experience time. Let's promote Zihark.

I got Zihark's defense up to 20 with bonus experience, so that's good.

...Also, apparently I have two speedwings, not one, so maybe I can make Haar powerful again after all.

Anyway, trueblades look so much more awesome than swordmasters did in PoR. I love this class, with the kickass longcoat and everything.

...Wait, the bargain section here has a wyrmslayer and olivi grass...? But that was what the resource online said last chapter had...

...Two separate resources are claiming the bargain sections for these two maps are the same. Okay. For a second I was worried I missed a fucking treasure trove of fancy items or something.

Anyway, before I forget, I'm taking “mercy” off of Elincia. And while I'm there I learn that hilariously, Tibarn hasn't even used half of his capacity yet, but he has too many skills to equip anymore. It basically doesn't matter that he gets his first two skills for free, because those skills would have to have an average cost of 27.5 points each before he wouldn't be able to equip both of them.

Mercy is apparently worth 1.5k, and I'm really strapped for cash at the moment, so sure, let's sell it. Speaking of, let's take every skill off of every unit we aren't using, something I somehow haven't done already, just in case any of them are worth something or they're skills I forgot I could make use of.

...Alright, with that done, let's check out what we're dealing with. Whatever it is though, chances are we'll be mostly soloing it with Zihark or Nolan, whichever one I decide to slap paragon onto.

Okay, how come all three teams have said something to the effect of “how the fuck did they sneak up on us”? The first time, that I understand, but did nobody warn the other groups about the fact that they can teleport?

And we're fighting Valtome today. “Valaura” is... an interesting spell. Judging by its name, I'm guessing he had a hand in its creation. It's a... Val-tome, if you will. But how exactly do you “corrupt” light magic, and what kind of mindset do you have to be in to think adding poison to light magic is gonna be good for your “holy” image?

Aaaanyway, this is a rout map, with multiple paths. I'll be training Zihark first, since he's got the greater tendency to need BEXP later, so might as well get him to that point now. Nolan's got better weapons until we get Alondite, so he can afford to be one chapter behind Zihark for now so he isn't caught already at the BEXP point mid-battle later. Plus I know the second Hawk Army chapter is an insanely good leveling opportunity, so might as well give the bigger one to the guy who likely won't make much use out of bonus experience.

I'll be having my air force of Tibarn, Elincia, Janaff, Ulki and Reyson take out the southern path, with Ranulf backing them up so we have someone who doesn't take psychotic damage from crossbows.

I can still fit vantage on Zihark after assigning paragon or resolve (paragon in this case), so... fuck it, why not?

...Strangely Nolan has 5 more capacity due to Colossus being 5 less expensive than Astra. Whatever though.

Right, we're starting the map, and man, I'm amazed the devs didn't ever notice how ridiculously long it can sometimes take for generals to walk up to people.

But holy shit is Tibarn fun. He has no 1-2 range, but he hits like a fucking truck and just obliterates everything in his path.

Curious how Valtome apparently knows that Elincia is among them. I guess they know where they are, and, like, their boss is a literal goddess, so who knows?

Man, though, the fact that this guy is just not at all concerned about his fate after coming face to face with his goddess just reminds me of something.

...Which I will talk about right after I discuss Pelleas just showing up. I like how Tibarn just does not respect this kid at all and is clearly just trying to be polite about his irritation at him slowing them down earlier due to his nagging “mother”.

...Though he seems to warm up to him out of genuine concern at the end, even if he still doesn't really respect him.

Anyway, he's got all the tomes he had last time, including the loss of two uses of fenrir thanks to my efforts to unlock that ending conversation.

Yeah, I'm not using this guy. His stats are just terrible for this point in the game. But if I have space, I will bring him to endgame just in case it matters. Actually I think he might be mandatory if he's alive... fuck...

I'm letting Zihark use Mia's wo dao because I might as well. It's got a crit rate on it after all, and it is free. It's really helping Zihark's reliability in case adept and astra don't proc, even if those expensive killing edges are better.

Man, Reyson is really fun to use with an air force. I'm sure I've said this before, but it bears repeating. Getting a bunch of fliers with canto and positioning them with a flying refresher to take out up to 8 units a turn can feel absolutely fantastic. If shit like this were necessary more often, I'd be having a lot more fun.

Zihark has been getting some fucking fantastic level ups so far. At this rate he'll be capping defense before he caps speed and skill!

Hilariously, Ulki can just perfectly dodgetank a lot of archers thanks to his insane avoid.

Hm... Actually... something just occurred to me. Due to the addition of the third tier and the game's refusal to send any mooks of that tier after you due to the innate mastery skills they have that would ruin any player's life...

...This may be the first game in the entire series where you never fight a single final tier enemy other than the bosses.

Also, just like I thought, Zihark's capped defense and res at level 20/20/10, just barely before he's capped speed or skill, which means that he's almost guaranteed to cap everything. Looks like I better start training Nolan now.

Looks like all of the enemies near the end... just don't move. That's really frustrating. But I'll check to make sure that stationary guy wasn't in the way.

...Yep, looks like that guy was just in the way. Good. Stationary enemies freak me the hell out, even when my army's nearly invincible.

Right, looks like I got sidetracked from that point I mentioned earlier, and Valtome just reminded me of it.

Okay.

So.

Full disclosure.

I fucking loved this part of the story as a kid. Favorite part of any Fire Emblem game ever.

And, uh... it wasn't exactly for the deepest of reasons.

See, this was when I was in high school. Back when I first gave any real thought to the implications of the fact that I don't believe in god. Back when I first started getting interested in religious debates and the topic of religious extremism and all that. And, what with me being a teenager freshly excited about this whole topic and feeling very, very strongly about how horrifying the contents of certain holy books were, I was, uh...

...well...

“What, my favorite video game series of all time is telling me to kick the asses of the power-hungry hypocrites at the head of a corrupt church, and beat the living shit out of their psychotic, authoritarian god!? THIS IS THE BEST GAME EVER!”

...Yeah. Back then, I really didn't give a shit about how comically, cartoonishly, one-dimensionally vile the church was. I didn't even notice. Or maybe I did, and I found it a plus. This whole plot just resonated with teenage me, and that was as far as I cared. I didn't like it because it was good, I liked it because I agreed with it. And, uh... that's kind of embarrassing to think about, honestly, as an adult. It's amazing how powerful that can be for influencing your perception of something's quality.

And even though I'm still an atheist, and even though I still find the concepts of a creator god, heaven and hell, and various other religious precepts to be incredibly morally creepy, nowadays I just groan when I see these one-dimensional corrupt priests doing whatever they want for shits and giggles with no clear personality motivating their actions and goals. Not just because it's bad writing, but also because it's kind of just become a cliché at this point. The “evil church” has just been overused to hell and back, and you have to do something more interesting with the concept in order to get anywhere. And this game doesn't do that. What they do with the gods themselves is still interesting, and I'll get into that more as it comes up, but the people at the head of the church are just... so boring!

Seriously! These guys have spent their entire adult lives cloaking themselves in the name of the goddess to justify their every vile action to the world and to themselves, and now that goddess has fucking descended to earth!

We should be getting more interesting reactions to that than we've been getting!

...Yeah, I hesitated about talking about this, because I've been trying my best to avoid discussing my personal politics as much as possible. Doesn't seem fair to do that to you guys when we're all trying to stay sane in this absolutely grotesque, politically-supercharged hellscape of a year. But I ultimately decided to make an exception here for two reasons:

1: It's a big part about my original emotional reaction to this game, and so I think it bears discussing for context.

2: I did promise you guys that I'd avoid making excuses to myself to skip relevant subjects I could talk about.

But anyway... the map is over. We probably aren't getting any of the “fast clear” bonus experience, but we should be good in terms of BEXP from here on out anyway.

Aww, we get a small scene where Tibarn tells Pelleas he did a good job. That's nice.

And now we get a scene with Almedha and Elincia. It's a pretty nice scene, and Almedha asks a curious question about whether or not Elincia's mother was turned to stone (not knowing that she's dead and Almedha's late husband killed her), and I think that's her wondering why she was spared the judgment of Ashera when she isn't very strong. And here it's revealed that the last time Almedha saw Ashnard was 20 years ago.

Oh shit.

Almedha asks to know where Pelleas is, and I suddenly got to wondering if there's special dialogue if you get Pelleas killed exactly in this map.

...There is dialogue for if he's dead, but it doesn't do anything with that plea to see her son, because she already knows. It's basically just a truncated version of the scene I saw that doesn't have Almedha ask that interesting question.

And with that... we're done here.

Guess I'll see you tomorrow then.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited September 25, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Benice]

15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

The “evil church” has just been overused to hell and back, and you have to do something more interesting with the concept in order to get anywhere

Berwick does this, actually-The "Bad guy cultist church" is portrayed to the player as a dangerous cult, but it is impied at several parts of the story that the Church of Raze sees the "Good guy religion" church of Veria as dangerous cultists who sacrifice children.

...Granted, as far as I've gotten into the game, they haven't done an amazing job of showing what the church of Raze is really like.

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Benice said:

Berwick does this, actually-The "Bad guy cultist church" is portrayed to the player as a dangerous cult, but it is impied at several parts of the story that the Church of Raze sees the "Good guy religion" church of Veria as dangerous cultists who sacrifice children.

...Granted, as far as I've gotten into the game, they haven't done an amazing job of showing what the church of Raze is really like.

Man, it's gonna be ages until I play these games, but I'm looking forward to checking them out, because I've heard a lot of crazy stuff about them.