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

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...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!

 

It's funny but I've never really seen the Begnion Senate as religious figures. Like it's obviously there with them all having the saint class and the occasional reference to the goddess, but with how they're exclusively referred to as Senators it's always come across more as a take against corrupt bureaucracy rather than a corrupt church. The whole religious aspect of the setting I think is highly underplayed, whether intentionally or not, in Tellius. What few religious characters we do get, those priests held as hostages in Path of Radiance and Laura+her abbot in Radiant Dawn, are depicted as uncomplicatedly sympathetic. Though how weird is it that Luara still references "the goddess" in her death quote in Part 4? Out of a playable cast of 70+ characters only a single one of them is overtly religious and they did absolutely nothing with it when we learn the whole conceit of the religion is a lie.

Uh, back to the Senators for a second, my main issue with this part is that the senators (and Izuka) are clearly only involved in part 4 to wrap up loose plot points, not because it makes sense. The Senators are the ones responsible for the Serenes massacre which Sephiran absolutely despairs over. And since he's the one pulling Ashera's strings right now, it makes no sense for her to revive them as her chosen people when her prophet knows they've been spitting on her name for decades. Well, unless Sephiran is specifically reviving them because he actually wants them to die a second time and Ike and Micaiah's hand. It just leans on my disbelief that this would really happen given the characters involved, but the story couldn't not do it at the same time given how part 3 ended, not dealing with the Senators would have made part 4 and even bigger swerve in the story than it already is.

[Alastor15243]

12 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It's funny but I've never really seen the Begnion Senate as religious figures. Like it's obviously there with them all having the saint class and the occasional reference to the goddess, but with how they're exclusively referred to as Senators it's always come across more as a take against corrupt bureaucracy rather than a corrupt church. The whole religious aspect of the setting I think is highly underplayed, whether intentionally or not, in Tellius. What few religious characters we do get, those priests held as hostages in Path of Radiance and Laura+her abbot in Radiant Dawn, are depicted as uncomplicatedly sympathetic. Though how weird is it that Luara still references "the goddess" in her death quote in Part 4? Out of a playable cast of 70+ characters only a single one of them is overtly religious and they did absolutely nothing with it when we learn the whole conceit of the religion is a lie.

Uh, back to the Senators for a second, my main issue with this part is that the senators (and Izuka) are clearly only involved in part 4 to wrap up loose plot points, not because it makes sense. The Senators are the ones responsible for the Serenes massacre which Sephiran absolutely despairs over. And since he's the one pulling Ashera's strings right now, it makes no sense for her to revive them as her chosen people when her prophet knows they've been spitting on her name for decades. Well, unless Sephiran is specifically reviving them because he actually wants them to die a second time and Ike and Micaiah's hand. It just leans on my disbelief that this would really happen given the characters involved, but the story couldn't not do it at the same time given how part 3 ended, not dealing with the Senators would have made part 4 and even bigger swerve in the story than it already is.

Interesting perspective. And man, that is an excellent point about Laura. Not even a base conversation? Really?

As for why the senators are revived, keep in mind all of the "Disciples of Order" are just being used and are going to die once they've served their purpose just like everyone else. Ashera's just reviving the pre-existing enemies of Yune's allies, the ones she can most easily manipulate to do her bidding for her with minimal effort.

Still though, it's a disgrace that we never got to see a single senator's reaction to their goddess coming back.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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?

Actually, it's "Va-Laura". You're supposed to get Laura promoted and up to S Light, so that she can use it! And while the poison effect is dumb, I love this spell's animation.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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 don't believe Pelleas is required for the tower. If you raise his ranks and bring him along, though, he can be a warm body that gets Balberith or a Bolting blessed. I really like him, but I won't pretend that he's good.

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

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!

A brief scene with Ashera appearing before a bunch of stoned soldiers, reviving them, accepting their worship and adulation, and commanding them to fight the forces of the "dark god", would go a long way.

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 38: Chapter 4-3

It's funny how they're still talking about Micaiah's farsight as something wholly separate from Yune. Like, it's apparently still happening the exact same way that it used to, even though now Yune's fully awake and can talk to more people normally.

...Oh shit. The Grann Desert. I have to ask... what the fuck made that their best option for travel? They're not hiding from their enemy, or taking a route the enemy would be less eager to follow them through, because their enemy is led by an all-seeing goddess who teleports people wherever she wants. Hiking over a huge mountain into a massive desert ringed by similar mountains from all but one direction seems like a great way to get yourself killed in this situation.

Interesting. Okay, so now we get to see Hetzel, the closest thing the senators have to a “good guy”. His issue is more a crippling case of cowardice preventing him from using his power to stand up to the people around him, even though he knows it's wrong. But he's the one who nursed Rafiel back to health and saved him from the Serenes Massacre, so he's clearly the one with the biggest spark of humanity in there.

Also, apparently, Hetzel hasn't been hearing the voice of the goddess like Lekain has. Which also implies it's only the goddess's voice they've been hearing. She hasn't shown up in person to greet them, which makes sense, because if she could do that, well, she'd have shown up to kill us by now.

But I'm going to be very disappointed if Lekain doesn't throw that in Sanaki's face, that he's heard the voice of the goddess and she hasn't.

But yeah, Hetzel's the only one with a different reaction to being “chosen” by the goddess. And the only one with an even remotely interesting reaction at that: he's like “What? Us? Seriously?” He doesn't understand at all why the goddess would choose them to be her champions, because he knows full well that they're all worthless failures of excuses for humanity. He seems to have been living his life knowing he was doing what he believed the goddess hated, and living in constant dread of the day she would return and punish him, knowing he'd deserve it. And yet he still fears the earthly senators around him more than he fears the judgment of the goddess herself, which is, uh... while that might seem ridiculous...

...given that crime rates... y'know... exist... isn't exactly that unrealistic of a concept.

Oh, and now Micaiah is talking to Sanaki. It took her approaching Sanaki for them to finally talk.

...Yeah, so apparently Micaiah can read minds kinda, combining her weaker heron powers with her intuition, and...

...Why is it that only heron branded get abilities from the laguz they descended from?

Soren, Zelgius, Petrine, I mean, they're all exceptional individuals, but they're never shown to have any explicit abilities similar to the laguz they are descended from. And yet heron branded have all sorts of magic powers wholly separate from having Yune in their head.

Yeah, honestly, I wish this weren't so inconsistent.

But the game does explain that the reason why Yune stuck so close to Micaiah specifically was because Yune could tell, innately, that Micaiah could sing the galdr of release.

...But she also says to Sanaki that she doesn't know why Micaiah can do it and Sanaki can't.

...Has Yune only been half-awake for a couple of decades? No, that's impossible, weren't the previous apostles all hearing Yune's voice in their heads when they said they heard the voice of the goddess? How has she been following every apostle around for centuries, never finding a single other soul who could sing the galdr of release, and not put it together that Micaiah must be the true apostle?

But man, Yune's got another funny line here:

Yune: Gods? Perfect? Where did you get that idea? You haven't met a lot of gods, have you?

It's that last sentence that gets me. Saying it like it's a “you must be new around here” line despite how hilariously unrealistic it would be for someone to meet even one god.

Yeah, and now Yune talks about being supreme beings doesn't make them perfect, it just means their fuck-ups are way, way bigger. And then there's a CG of the Great Flood as she talks with extreme guilt about the time the world flooded, revealing it was an accident caused when she (Ashunera, actually, but we don't know that yet) had an emotional meltdown.

This was something I always appreciated about Ashunera and her two halves back in the day: the fact that the great flood is characterized not as a deserved punishment for a sinful human race, but as a massive, horrific atrocity. An atrocity that Ashunera immediately regretted so deeply that she ripped herself in half just to make sure it never happened again (not realizing that in doing so she ripped out the part of her that understood why it was wrong in the first place, and turned herself into exactly the sort of deity who would exterminate all life on earth and see it as just), and which brings Yune intense guilt even to this day, centuries later, even though it was an accident.

...Guilt so intense that just thinking about it is causing her to make a sandstorm.

Yeah, so, I think this is like the one thing where the “order and chaos” translation change doesn't really fit. Yune is... really calm for a goddess of chaos, and I'm surprised that this is the first time we've seen her lose control of her emotions. You'd think she'd be a bit more emotional and wacky, not just occasionally childish. Still, I like her character and the way she's written a lot.

Right, time for base conversations.

Hmm... okay, so Sigrun's talking about her confidence that neither Sephiran nor Zelgius got petrified. Amusingly, she's unaware that Zelgius is actually double-safe, and Sephiran is triple-safe; Zelgius is a mighty warrior and a branded, and Sephiran is a mighty mage, a depowered laguz, and the direct servant of Ashera herself. And that reminds me: the senators. I forget... was it ever said if they were turned to stone and then brought back like most of the Disciples of Order were? That would be hilarious if they weren't actually strong enough to resist the first wave, but given that they can put up a fight...

...Shit, I mean, yeah if even Laura hasn't been petrified...

Man, I love Sigrun's reaction to seeing Sanaki digging around in the sands for buried treasure. It just breaks her heart watching Sanaki doing work on her hands and knees like that.

Anyway, Naesala has a rather sharp and bitter conversation with Micaiah, and I'm still fucking wondering why he's not talking to anyone about the blood pact.

...Anyway, I used bonus experience and got Micaiah up to level 20. She's capped literally everything but strength, which is at 13.

…

...I just realized it might have been a good idea to buy those wyrmslayers from the last two chapters. Considering what's happening in 4-E-3.

Damn it. Well, lesson learned.

Anyway, Aran and Jill are at an A rank support now, getting them 15 avoid and 3 defense.

So let's check out the map and see what we can do for preparations and purchases. I'm thinking I'm gonna give Jill savior so she can carry Aran around without issues.

So, Lekain shows up, and I think this is the scene where he finally reveals to Sanaki that she actually is a “false apostle”.

Okay, so... the fuck is this guy on about?

Only the firstborn daughter in the line of Altina gets the ability to hear the apostle? Given that Yune clearly doesn't give that much of a shit about the politics of Begnion's apostlery, I have to assume that means that only the firstborn daughter of each generation of the main Altina line is a branded.

The fuck is going on here? Branded bloodlines only passing to the firstborn daughter, specifically? The heron bloodline was already weird thanks to the crazy powers no other branded get anything resembling, but now we're adding in sex-specific inheritance?

...Okay, wait a second... is that a special rule only applying here? I mean, do we know for a fact that that isn't the case with other branded? Do we have any information contradicting the idea that the brand is only passed down to the firstborn of the opposite sex of the original laguz parent?

...Soren, a guy, had a laguz mother.

Zelgius, a guy, says that he had a male ancestor who was “with” a laguz. So a female laguz ancestor.

Petrine's tiger laguz ancestor is of unknown gender as far as I can tell, as is Stefan's laguz ancestor.

...So yeah, we don't know of a single instance of a branded whose laguz ancestor wasn't of the opposite sex. That is... I was not expecting that.

Interestingly, wouldn't that mean that if, say, Soren were to have siblings, they would all be male?

Okay, so, it's kind of hilarious that the game doesn't just come out and say it at this point that Micaiah is Sanaki's older sister, because the second they reveal that Sanaki had one, it's comically obvious who it is. I'm amazed they wait until the very end to “reveal” it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

I love how Lekain's still claiming that the assassination of Apostle Misaha was by the herons. Like, what the fuck is the point of saying that? The Begnion people already know the herons were innocent! They've known it for decades!

...And the dialogue is over. Pity, Lekain doesn't mock Sanaki for hearing the voice she's never been able to.

Anyway, with that, the battle starts, or rather it will as soon as I work out what I need to do at base.

...The comical absurdity of the flavor text for light magic still claiming it “can only be used by those dedicated to serve good”. Seriously. Fuck this.

Jesus Christ, I forgot what a pain it is that the game doesn't let you see the movement range of your own units during the preparation screen. On maps like this, it makes planning your first move a nightmare, which would be sheer hell if this were still an ironman run.

Awesomely, Jill can hold both pass and savior, because savior is only 10 points. That's gonna be insanely useful here.

...Also, weirdly, there's two different descriptions of each skill, one used for the description window when assigning or removing them on the skills menu at base, and another for when you press B+1 to get more info.

Alright, let's go. I don't think I need to buy anything. I've still got some supplies, and since I can buy stuff every chapter, there's no reason not to use up everything I have to save money.

Oh, right, also, this is the Stefan map.

Right, okay, this also has some really nice treasure, and I'm gonna try and get it with Sothe. Especially the white gem, laguz gem, and dragonfoe.

Ah yes, and the baselard, though it's probably the peshkatz that's gonna be blessed since that one has 1-2 range.

I'm really curious if there's a single enemy in the game that Bane would actually be useful on compared to basically any other mastery ability. I've heard it can't actually activate when you'd kill an enemy without it, but like... every other special attack is basically already instant death anyway! Especially for anyone who can double.

...Fuck, I forgot thieves don't have a 100% chance of getting treasure in this game.

This is gonna be a pain.

Alright, second time was the charm.

I'm hoping those unarmed bishops stick around when Lekain inevitably leaves, because it'd be great to leave nobody left but them so I can get the treasure near the final wave of enemies with ease.

This battle is, once again, really mindless. And without even the fun “singing air force” shenanigans from last map... yeah, I'm mostly just waiting for the enemy to kill themselves fighting my guys.

...And fighting the Black Knight too, because I forgot about that, Except this time he shows up as a green unit.

Ugh. Yet again, when dealing with low movement, those little window labels for units that show up when you cursor over them are just getting in the way of telling where their attack range is, because they cover nearly all of it up.

Oh nice, I forgot that Skrimir has resolve! That's gonna be great for shoring up his mediocre speed.

Oh shit, something I was just reminded of. Something I found weird about the dialogue last time the Silver Army fought the Ds of O, first introducing us to them. Apparently...

...No, wait, this is actually pretty good. At first I thought it was weird that initially somebody couldn't tell the difference between an expert fighter with normal weapons and a novice fighter with magic armor and weapons. Until I looked back and remembered it was Skrimir who mistook them for Begnion's elite guard before Sigrun revealed they were actually new recruits. Yeah, it makes sense that someone like Skrimir, who's so strength-obsessed and still has only a grudging regard for strategy, couldn't tell the difference between a seasoned warrior and a novice who just had super strength.

...Yep, awesome, the two unarmed bishops stayed. That means I can get those treasures with ease once the enemy's mostly-routed.

...Fuck, I just lost Nealuchi. I somehow forgot where a wyvern lord was, and he rushed over to my party. His death line is surprisingly long and sad. I like it a lot.

...Yeah, I can't reset right now. I've spent too much time on this map. Damn it. Where did that guy come from!? I just hope this doesn't cause certain Naesala scenes to not happen entirely.

Okay, the baselard is pretty damned kickass. Same 18 attack power as Ragnell, 50 uses, 100 hit, 15 crit... man, pity Sothe can't use it yet because his weapon rank still has halfway to go before it increases again. I do still have an arms scroll though...

The laguz gem is right underneath Numida. I'll have to keep that in mind. And since the Black Knight is making an uncomfortable beeline for Numida's troops, I left some reinforcements alive in the corner to buy me more time to get that gem.

Yeah, Numida's boss dialogue is so predictable I could have written a guess at it myself, and I doubt I'd have been far off. He can't even entertain the idea that he's in the wrong about anything, despite his perpetual lying and cruelty.

Also, Jill has capped everything but skill and defense, and has 9 levels to go. It's... it's absolutely beautiful. But now that means it's time to train up Aran and Skrimir and the others.

Anyway, I just got Stefan.

While I like the conversation with Stefan, I am a bit disappointed by the flavor text for the Vague Katti.

“A unique and tremendously powerful sword. It's tremendously difficult to use.”

Using the exact same adjective twice? I'd get it if it were something like “Both tremendously powerful and tremendously difficult to use”, like, keeping them part of the same phrase to show it's just as powerful as it is difficult, but having it be separate sentences like that makes it feel like it was a total accident.

...Alright, I just got back from doing my midday stuff. Lately I've usually finished with the entry for the day before now. But after resuming and highlighting everyone in case I forgot something from before I left, I realized I somehow failed to notice I just barely put Leanne in the attack range of a wyvern lord. Thankfully I still had my pegasus knights on standby to rescue-drop, so she's fine.

Alright, I got the laguz gem. This thing is really awesome. It's basically a map-permanent laguz stone. Use it, and you instantly transform and stay transformed for the rest of the map. If it didn't cost a turn, Reyson would be the objectively best heron in the game, but alas it does, so Rafiel gets the edge when you give him celerity. But it'll still be insanely useful for Skrimir, Janaff, Ulki... basically any of my non-royal laguz that I'm still using.

Now to finish off the remaining enemies.

FUUUUUUCK! I was this close to killing all of them off when some wyvern reinforcements showed up from the north!

...Aaand it happened again on the next turn. Damn it. And now Aran's in a position to use bonus EXP again as well, so I can't have him take care of everything. Gotta have Skrimir take 'em out and pray there isn't another wave.

Nevermind, thanks to Leanne I managed to make it so that Skrimir can finish off all three of the remaining southern reinforcements on enemy phase. As long as he doesn't miss, it won't matter if there are more reinforcements. We'll finish on enemy phase of turn 15.

Oooooooh! This is interesting. The Black Knight is here to ask Micaiah to come with him to see “[his] master” at the Tower of Guidance. Looks like Sephiran wanted to talk to Micaiah, and now he isn't going to get a chance because Micaiah turns BK down. I never noticed that before. I did know that Sephiran refuses to let his spirits hurt Micaiah, but I never noticed this... somehow. I think I used to read it as some kind of trap. Weird that I thought that, because BK in no way needs Micaiah's consent to bring her there.

But anyway, after that scene... Sanaki talks to Sigrun and Tanith, where she wonders what it means if it turns out she really isn't the apostle, because that's looking increasingly likely. I like this scene, because her two companions tell her that their loyalty was never to the apostle, but to her. And they tell her that even if she isn't an apostle, she's still “the one, true empress of Begnion.”

Like I said at the very beginning of this game, this is the point of her story arc: her being or not being the apostle doesn't matter. Because everything that makes her such a great ruler had nothing to do with being the apostle. Everything she's accomplished so far, she accomplished without hearing the voice of the goddess.

Looks like I didn't take so long that I didn't get any turn bonus exp, but it still wasn't much. But at any rate, bonus exp is more of a formality at this point. Few characters have much need of it.

And anyway, that wraps things up for today. Tomorrow we'll be back with the Greil Mercenaries... with... a rather infamous chapter.

Stay safe, everyone.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

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

I don't believe Pelleas is required for the tower. If you raise his ranks and bring him along, though, he can be a warm body that gets Balberith or a Bolting blessed. I really like him, but I won't pretend that he's good.

He's not. And frankly, he has it even worse than Ilyana anyhow, despite TV Tropes' claims on this page. Sure, he has a unique weapon type, but it sucks - Balberith's accuracy is godawful, being at only 75 when literally every other SS tome has 100+ accuracy. Sure, you could bless it for Lehran to use, but it's only 3 (6 considering doubling) more damage than Rexaura, which is not enough to justify the lower accuracy, and the miss chances that come with it.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Only the firstborn daughter in the line of Altina gets the ability to hear the apostle? Given that Yune clearly doesn't give that much of a shit about the politics of Begnion's apostlery, I have to assume that means that only the firstborn daughter of each generation of the main Altina line is a branded.

The fuck is going on here? Branded bloodlines only passing to the firstborn daughter, specifically? The heron bloodline was already weird thanks to the crazy powers no other branded get anything resembling, but now we're adding in sex-specific inheritance?

...Okay, wait a second... is that a special rule only applying here? I mean, do we know for a fact that that isn't the case with other branded? Do we have any information contradicting the idea that the brand is only passed down to the firstborn of the opposite sex of the original laguz parent?

...Soren, a guy, had a laguz mother.

Zelgius, a guy, says that he had a male ancestor who was “with” a laguz. So a female laguz ancestor.

Petrine's tiger laguz ancestor is of unknown gender as far as I can tell, as is Stefan's laguz ancestor.

...So yeah, we don't know of a single instance of a branded whose laguz ancestor wasn't of the opposite sex. That is... I was not expecting that.

Interestingly, wouldn't that mean that if, say, Soren were to have siblings, they would all be male?

Curious observation, I never noticed that! Soren could still have siblings, but they wouldn't necessarily be branded (as not all people with a mix of laguz and beorc blood show the brand). Assuming the "opposite-sex" rule is a thing, that would just mean that Soren's theoretical brothers could be branded, but his theoretical sisters could not be.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Interesting. Okay, so now we get to see Hetzel, the closest thing the senators have to a “good guy”. His issue is more a crippling case of cowardice preventing him from using his power to stand up to the people around him, even though he knows it's wrong. But he's the one who nursed Rafiel back to health and saved him from the Serenes Massacre, so he's clearly the one with the biggest spark of humanity in there.

Also, apparently, Hetzel hasn't been hearing the voice of the goddess like Lekain has. Which also implies it's only the goddess's voice they've been hearing. She hasn't shown up in person to greet them, which makes sense, because if she could do that, well, she'd have shown up to kill us by now.

Hetzel comes across as something of an "anti-Camus" to me. He's loyal to the Goddess and the Senate, but that loyalty isn't treated as symptomatic of his strength of conviction. Rather, it's borne out of his weakness of will, his refusal to abandon a side he knows to be morally in the wrong. And whereas the Camuses (Camusi?) we fight tend to be young, attractive, skilled warriors with powerful weapons? Hetzel is a frail old man with nothing but a staff, unable even to fight back. I always feel bad about killing him, even as the playable characters who have lines with him seem to have no such moral compunctions.

25 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

He's not. And frankly, he has it even worse than Ilyana anyhow, despite TV Tropes' claims on this page. Sure, he has a unique weapon type, but it sucks - Balberith's accuracy is godawful, being at only 75 when literally every other SS tome has 100+ accuracy. Sure, you could bless it for Lehran to use, but it's only 3 (6 considering doubling) more damage than Rexaura, which is not enough to justify the lower accuracy, and the miss chances that come with it.

Well, you've got me there. Tomes in general have bad stats in this game, from the nerfing of Thunder magic's Mt from Path of Radiance, to the pitiful 15 uses on all SS-rank tomes. Still, I never noticed the 100+ hit rates on the "Rex" tomes, that's pretty cool.

[Shadow Mir]

18 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Well, you've got me there. Tomes in general have bad stats in this game, from the nerfing of Thunder magic's Mt from Path of Radiance, to the pitiful 15 uses on all SS-rank tomes. Still, I never noticed the 100+ hit rates on the "Rex" tomes, that's pretty cool.

And I thought mages had it bad in Path of Radiance, considering that most tomes were rather weak there as well (special mention to Tornado, which is an A-rank tome... that has the might level of an iron bow). Going back to Radiant Dawn, there is at least a compelling reason to use Ilyana, which I cannot say for most other mages.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

And I thought mages had it bad in Path of Radiance, considering that most tomes were rather weak there as well (special mention to Tornado, which is an A-rank tome... that has the might level of an iron bow).

Mages have always relied on targeting the generally-weaker defensive stat for their power. It's not uncommon that average magic power or average tome might is weak in comparison, and they're still pretty powerful nukes anyway.

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Why is it that only heron branded get abilities from the laguz they descended from?

Soren, Zelgius, Petrine, I mean, they're all exceptional individuals, but they're never shown to have any explicit abilities similar to the laguz they are descended from. And yet heron branded have all sorts of magic powers wholly separate from having Yune in their head.

Yeah, honestly, I wish this weren't so inconsistent.

 

It's probably less Heron branded in general and more Lehran branded specifically. We don't see or know of any non Lehran Heron branded, but from what we do know it's quite clear that Lehran is no ordinary Heron and that his bloodline has special powers.

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Jotari said:

It's probably less Heron branded in general and more Lehran branded specifically. We don't see or know of any non Lehran Heron branded, but from what we do know it's quite clear that Lehran is no ordinary Heron and that his bloodline has special powers.

He's "no ordinary heron" solely due to his blessings from Ashera, really. Doesn't he have the distinctly non-royal black heron wings, meaning that on his own he should be even *less* magical genetically than the herons we see?

[Jotari]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Alright, I got the laguz gem. This thing is really awesome. It's basically a map-permanent laguz stone. Use it, and you instantly transform and stay transformed for the rest of the map. If it didn't cost a turn, Reyson would be the objectively best heron in the game, but alas it does, so Rafiel gets the edge when you give him celerity. But it'll still be insanely useful for Skrimir, Janaff, Ulki... basically any of my non-royal laguz that I'm still using.

 

Even with Celerity Rafiel lacks flying abilities, and, more importantly, canto. Reyson is also a lot tankier than Rafiel, well relatively speaking, he should still never be put in the way of combat but he can at least survive one attack while Rafiel dies to a swift breeze. Course no units attack the Herons in the last three chapters, but I think they can die from the AOE attacks. Overall I think Reyson+Laguz gem is better than Rafiel+celerity. The cost of one turn isn't insignifiant, but it leaves you off with a far better unit. In addition there are other units besides Rafiel who would like Celerity, while Laguz Gems are far more valuable on Reyson than anyone else. And are actually quite plentiful (you get 15 total, one from the desert, one from  Grifca and one from Nasir), so even if you are using a non royal laguz alongside Reyson, giving them both Laguz Gems doesn't cost anything. While putting your one and only Celerity scroll or boots on Rafiel costs something that lieterally every unit could benefit getting.

9 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

He's "no ordinary heron" solely due to his blessings from Ashera, really. Doesn't he have the distinctly non-royal black heron wings, meaning that on his own he should be even *less* magical genetically than the herons we see?

I'm pretty sure the flash back with Ashera does specify that him and the people of his line can sing the galdr, so his blessing is genetic. Well even if it doesn't we do know for a fact that singing the galdr comes from his bloodline so we can extrapolate that there is something special going on there. Unless we see other heron branded mind reading and stuff, it does seem that far fetched to assume it's a Lehran thing.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Even with Celerity Rafiel lacks flying abilities, and, more importantly, canto. Reyson is also a lot tankier than Rafiel, well relatively speaking, he should still never be put in the way of combat but he can at least survive one attack while Rafiel dies to a swift breeze. Course no units attack the Herons in the last three chapters, but I think they can die from the AOE attacks. Overall I think Reyson+Laguz gem is better than Rafiel+celerity. The cost of one turn isn't insignifiant, but it leaves you off with a far better unit. In addition there are other units besides Rafiel who would like Celerity, while Laguz Gems are far more valuable on Reyson than anyone else. And are actually quite plentiful (you get 15 total, one from the desert, one from  Grifca and one from Nasir), so even if you are using a non royal laguz alongside Reyson, giving them both Laguz Gems doesn't cost anything. While putting your one and only Celerity scroll or boots on Rafiel costs something that lieterally every unit could benefit getting.

Point taken.

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I'm pretty sure the flash back with Ashera does specify that him and the people of his line can sing the galdr, so his blessing is genetic. Well even if it doesn't we do know for a fact that singing the galdr comes from his bloodline so we can extrapolate that there is something special going on there. Unless we see other heron branded mind reading and stuff, it does seem that far fetched to assume it's a Lehran thing.

I'm pretty sure PoR made it clear that it was Altina, not Lehran, who was the one passing down the ability to sing the galdr of release. Because if not, why did Reyson's sister say Altina could do it?

Edited September 24, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

13 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Point taken.

I'm pretty sure PoR made it clear that it was Altina, not Lehran, who was the one passing down the ability to sing the galdr of release. Because if not, why did Reyson's sister say Altina could do it?

Well they are presumably mistaken about that. Altina's bloodline certainly can sing the Galdrar of Release, but that's because her bloodline is joined with Lehrans. I just checked and he does indeed say that he can sing the Galdrar of Release in the final flashback  (why he can't himself during the game we can only assume is due to loosing his own heron powers from fathering a branded).

Lehran:
“Goddess Ashera, Yune is sleeping thanks to the galldrar I sang to her. I can sing the galldr of release to awaken both of you. If I did that…”

Ashera:
“I know. You sang the galldrar to save Yune… and since you, of the Heron tribe, are an avatar of order, you are able to control Yune’s emotions within the medallion. If you are in need of us during these thousand years… you may sing the galdr of release and awaken us both. Sing to awaken us, and tell us your tale. Tell us of the world your two kinds have built in our absence. We will listen, and we will judge fairly and impartially.”

Now it does just say that Lehran can do it because he's of the heron tribe, but we do know for a fact that it's not just any member of the Heron tribe that can do it as Ashnard tried to do that in Path of Radiance and it doesn't work. So it Lehran+Heron abilities is needed for the Galldrar of Release, so automatically all of his (branded) decedents get Heron abilities for that purpose. How exactly system works I have no fucking clue. Ashera not knowing about the branded is a major plot whole in regards to how any of their mechanics work. Especially the parent laguz losing the ability to transform.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Jotari

[Eltosian Kadath]

4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Soren, Zelgius, Petrine, I mean, they're all exceptional individuals, but they're never shown to have any explicit abilities similar to the laguz they are descended from. And yet heron branded have all sorts of magic powers wholly separate from having Yune in their head.

There is an odd line in Path of Radiance that says Soren is a bit empathic, which seems so out of character of him, that I have taken it to imply a magic inheritance from the brand

Quote

Titania
It's to be expected. Even I'm a bit shocked by this place. Can they truly be as placid as they appear? Soren's a very empathetic young man. The emotions of this place may have proven to be too much for him.

Zelgius acts like he has knowledge beyond basic human senses with his whole "I am needed elsewhere" moment in this classic cutscene

I can't think of anything for Petrine off the top of my head, but there might be something there...

 

 

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...But she also says to Sanaki that she doesn't know why Micaiah can do it and Sanaki can't.

...Has Yune only been half-awake for a couple of decades? No, that's impossible, weren't the previous apostles all hearing Yune's voice in their heads when they said they heard the voice of the goddess? How has she been following every apostle around for centuries, never finding a single other soul who could sing the galdr of release, and not put it together that Micaiah must be the true apostle?

I don't think Yune has a solid understanding of how human/laguz lineages or even societies work. The Stefan base conversation will make clear that she doesn't even know what the Branded are, or that it was even  possible for them to exist despite speaking to them for centuries...

 

29 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...So yeah, we don't know of a single instance of a branded whose laguz ancestor wasn't of the opposite sex. That is... I was not expecting that.

That is a fascinating discovery...

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Like I said at the very beginning of this game, this is the point of her story arc: her being or not being th apostle doesn't matter. Because everything that makes her such a great ruler had nothing to do with being the apostle. Everything she's accomplished so far, she accomplished without hearing the voice of the goddess.

 

This is big part of why I rather like Sanaki.

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Mages have always relied on targeting the generally-weaker defensive stat for their power. It's not uncommon that average magic power or average tome might is weak in comparison, and they're still pretty powerful nukes anyway.

True, but in general, I find mages are not so great in Radiant Dawn. Largely because they are not only slow, but their weak tomes combined with high enemy resistance in general means they don't even do that much to enemies most of the time despite hitting resistance. The same thing happens in Path of Radiance and Fates, to some extent.

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

True, but in general, I find mages are not so great in Radiant Dawn. Largely because they are not only slow, but their weak tomes combined with high enemy resistance in general means they don't even do that much to enemies most of the time despite hitting resistance. The same thing happens in Path of Radiance and Fates, to some extent.

Soren's been my most consistent one-rounder, honestly. Granted, I'm playing on normal, but he does a hell of a lot better at 1-2 range one-rounding than anyone but promoted Ragnell Ike, and that's mostly because Ike also has the speed to double everyone.

And while tomes aren't as good as throwing weapons in Fates, they're usable on a hell of a lot better classes, so if you can get people with decent magic growths, you can do devastating work with them.

[Shadow Mir]

37 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Soren's been my most consistent one-rounder, honestly. Granted, I'm playing on normal, but he does a hell of a lot better at 1-2 range one-rounding than anyone but promoted Ragnell Ike, and that's mostly because Ike also has the speed to double everyone.

And while tomes aren't as good as throwing weapons in Fates, they're usable on a hell of a lot better classes, so if you can get people with decent magic growths, you can do devastating work with them.

I'd take that with a grain of salt, seeing as Soren not only benefitted from transfers, he was also a beneficiary of bonus experience.

I don't know about that - most of the magically inclined characters in Fates have issues. Also, they're usable by more classes, but I don't equate that with tomes being used by better classes.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Radiant Dawn Day 39: Chapter 4-4

Ah yes. This chapter. The one where we suddenly get four recruitments out of nowhere, all of them terrible.

We stop in Duke Tanas's deserted villa to spend the night.

Yes. That Duke Tanas. Beauty Incarnate himself, Oliver.

...Ah, yes, so apparently the senate was responsible for confiscating Oliver's lands and property after his posthumous guilty verdict.

Of course. Hence why they weren't actually confiscated and Oliver was able to be kept alive on allegedly abandoned property for years. Of course Sanaki had nothing to do with this particular instance of applying the law.

Yeah, so much of this conflict between Sanaki and the senate makes no sense at all. Like, we're not given a good sense of where the senate had authority and what Sanaki actually had authority to do. We don't have any concept of where the checks and balances lie here.

And I still don't have fucking clue one why Lekain was the one leading the inspection team when Sanaki explicitly said it would be Sephiran, and it was made explicitly clear that she and Sephiran weren't imprisoned until later.

Also, they confiscated his lands and property, and yet Soren doesn't find it suspicious that allegedly nobody has used it in the three years since then? It's a fucking mansion! What's the point of nabbing a mansion for yourself if you don't use it!?

But Titania says that “by law, there shouldn't be anyone here”, implying the confiscation wasn't actually for use in any way... somehow. But she also notes that someone's obviously been living here because it's spotless.

But anyway, base time.

Oh yes.

This is that conversation I mentioned before.

The completely bullshit one.

The one that says that the Old Tongue was abandoned in favor of the Tellius Language because the Old Tongue was “too complicated for laguz to master.”

Uh huh.

Yeah, lemme just quote what I said last time.

On 7/29/2020 at 11:59 AM, Alastor15243 said:

...

“Too difficult for the laguz to master”.

What the fuck does that even mean?

First off, it's objectively untrue, since with the exception of people quoting magical tomes, we literally never see anyone who isn't a laguz speaking it.

Second of all, even if it were true, did the writers even have the slightest concept of what they would be implying? How the fuck can a language be “too difficult for the laguz to master”? It's fucking language! We learn enough of it to passably communicate with other people before we're five! It's one of the most basic fundamental skills any human being will ever learn! It's barely a step above walking! Humans learn new languages all the time, at almost every stage in life! How could a language possibly be “too difficult for the laguz to master” without being cripplingly impractical for beorc use as well? If this is supposed to be an indication of the laguz being less intelligent than the beorc... just how much less intelligent would something like this have to be implying here?

I feel like I'm going crazy here! I have to be misunderstanding something! Is this some hitherto-unknown third language, and not the one we've seen Leanne and Reyson use? I can't fathom the writers being this incompetent as to make a language we only ever hear laguz use, say it's the official language of a land where beorc and laguz live in harmony, and then say it's too complicated for laguz to learn!

Alright, yeah. This makes... no fucking sense at all, and frankly I think it's dumber than anything in the entire marathon so far.

Okay, so, I BEXP'd Ike to cap everything but magic, which is at 10. So I should probably get paragon off him and put Nihil back on.

Jesus Fucking Christ, the laguz gem can be sold for 37,500!?

HOOOOOOLY SHIT!

That is completely bonkers, and yet I'm still not fully convinced I should sell it.

Alright, so, I'm probably giving the speedwings to Haar. I'll see what enemy attack speed is like, but the only other candidate I can think of for stat boosters like this is, like, Kurthnaga. And while Kurthnaga would be a ton of fun to use, he's... not very practical to get off the ground.

Anyway, after I start the mission, who should we run into but our old friends, Tormod, Muarim and Vika.

Still exactly the same level they were at when we left them in Part 1.

And Tormod's expressing shock that his attacks aren't working very well.

Oh wow, I love the expression on Tormod's face when he's talking about how annoyed he is that Ike and Sothe have grown up so much.

Thank goodness though, Tormod and company are blue units, not green.

...PPFFFF...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Okay, so, two funny things about Tormod...

First, the guy he was fighting in the cutscene starts pre-wounded, having only 15 out of his 45 HP.

Tormod can only do 8 damage to him. And he gets doubled.

Second, Tormod's new inventory starts him off with a tome he doesn't have the weapon rank to wield.

Holy shit. Yeah, these guys are terrible. They've missed out on way too much, to the point that I just don't fucking understand why this was done. Why couldn't they have joined the Laguz Alliance? Why wouldn't they have joined the Laguz Alliance?

...Yeah, I'm not thinking putting the speedwings on Haar is a good investment. Even if I did, he'd just barely double most of these enemies, and is probably gonna stop doubling them by the next time we can use him. And then, what, he'll have two, maybe three more chapters where he can even take a hit? And he's not one-rounding the enemies he does double anymore, either.

Honestly, saving them for Kurthnaga so I can do crazy dragon bullshit sounds more fun and only slightly less practical.

I'll still use Haar for chip damage and tanking while I can, though. But really, I've got better units now. He's served me insanely well, make no mistake. Part 3 would have been soooooo much harder without him. But alas, he just can't keep up with the endgame like Jill can.

Oh yeah, and so, here's the boss: Oliver. The only recruitable boss in the series. If you put Rafiel in range of him, Oliver will fucking walk over to him and recruit himself. That's absolutely hilarious, but alas he's really not very good. Terrible stats, namely having identical speed to Tormod (who's getting doubled, mind you) while being twenty three levels higher than him.

Also, we've got a ton of treasure and only one thief, so I think I'm gonna grab those chest keys I saw being sold in the shop and be right back.

...Also, apparently due to them being blue units, you can actually do base stuff with the laguz liberation trio after you see the prep screen even once.

Also also, yet again indoor maps fuck cavalry over by simultaneously nerfing their movement and having ledges they can't climb. I'm really starting to feel Ike should've paired up with Soren, but it's way past too late for that now.

I love how Ike makes fun of Tormod by asking him if he actually got smaller (he obviously hasn't, but it's still a funny joke).

Holy cow did Ike become a menace after just one chapter with Paragon and a couple of levels of bonus experience. His strength stat is so much higher than Oscar's that he has the same attack with a bronze sword that Oscar has with a silver lance.

Alright, so, yeah, Hetzel confirms that the senate basically hid Oliver away (not sure how he managed to fake his death; did we just leave him in the forest without confirming?). Really, again, I wish I knew how much authority Sanaki actually had, because the game frequently gives me the impression that she trusted them way too much in these games and let them get away with doing way too much stuff without her oversight.

Ooh, Haar got a nice level up that included speed!

Okay, yeah, so, my strategy. I'm sending Soren up the northwestern ledge with Haar, Nailah up the center, and Ike and Oscar over to the east. Rafiel's helping with Ike and Oscar, and I'm trying to get in a position where I can finally feed all of these kills to Oscar, because Oscar has paragon and Ike once more has no more room to grow. And of course, the enemy AI in this game has that “you'll never take my EXP alive” mentality where if they can't realistically kill anyone, they'll suicide into the guy with the least to gain from killing them.

Well played.

...Man, I can't wait for Oscar to get the wishblade. But until then, he'll have to settle for forged javelins. And of course, Jill and Nolan are gonna have to settle for forged hand axes no matter what, because inexplicably the SS rank axe in this game is the only SS rank weapon that doesn't have 1-2 range. Aside from the baselard, but knives at least have the S rank peshkatz.

Ugh. Okay, so apparently earth affinity doesn't provide an evasion bonus to status staves, because now Oscar's been put to sleep and he's also lost most of his evasion as a result apparently. Thankfully I'll have Mist over to restore him by next turn, but... this might get messy when it comes to finishing this quickly.

Ike thankfully dodged the sleep staff, though that means he's probably gonna eat up a shitton of this experience.

...Nope, not enough spaces left after everyone ganged up on Oscar. Only a handful died to Ike, only the ones left who could attack at range.

...Alright, after a pretty scary turn involving some reinforcements showing up right on top of a not-particularly-powerful set of my units, I think I managed to get them all out safely and back with my main group. Here's hoping nothing goes wrong.

...Oscar got put to sleep again. But thankfully that means he's out now.

...Unfortunately, something did go wrong. Apparently that staircase isn't low enough to give Tormod ledge bonuses, and he got brutally critted to death, and would have been killed even if he hadn't.

I'm not restarting for him. These levels are already painfully long as it is, and I'm not risking this not getting done today and ruining my perfect timing of ending next Friday. Damn it.

Also, all of these guys suicided into Ike. Damn it, I really need to get Oscar some more levels so he can start one-rounding like him at least when he has good weapons.

...No, wait, Oscar's already at bonus experience range, with no fewer than three capped stats. So it looks like I really should send Ike after the enemies up top in order to ensure Oscar gets good strength levels. Well, that certainly simplifies things.

Ugh. I hate these reinforcements showing up all over the place, especially since this team got the fewest powerful Part 4 recruitments. We got Nailah here, while Micaiah got Skrimir and Naesala, and Tibarn got Elincia and... Tibarn. I've got like four genuinely powerful units, and they're spread ridiculously thin. Man, it's weird having barely half of your army genuinely be useful.

Enemies apparently don't pathfind to the next ledge if an occupied set of ledges is closer. Even if they can't attack up the ledge. Weird.

Anyway, I'm clearing up the top area so that Rafiel can come in to... “recruit” Oliver.

Jesus, even using that word makes me feel like I'm victim-blaming or something.

Soren finally reached SS wind breaking down a door, so that's good. Time to get the last treasure with him and Nailah.

Oh shit!

Physic staves!

Two of them!

And I have Heather and Mia with me!

Oh I am so taking advantage of that. I'm gonna be able to use physic all the time when I'm through here.

...

SO!

MANY!

FUCKING!

REINFORCEMENTS!

…Aaaand I had a total brain fart and accidentally canto'd Haar out of the way of the spot he was supposed to be defending.

At the near total end of my turn.

When the only units I hadn't moved yet were Vika and Rhys.

So obviously they rush in to take the bullet. Either one would die in one hit, but Rhys is marginally more useful, so I'm sending in Vika hoping the remaining archer kills her.

Mission accomplished. Damn it, that was... Christ that was an amateur move. But at least I don't have to restart.

...Wait... no, I could've sworn those reinforcements weren't there...

...But apparently they were, and now Rhys is dead too. Damn it. Well, he was barely any better than Vika.

...And they probably would have died anyway, because one of those mage reinforcements spawned in with siege tomes.

HOLY FUCK.

WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THESE REINFORCEMENTS!?

TWO SETS OF FOUR SHOWED UP IN ALMOST THE EXACT SAME PLACE! AND THAT WASN'T EVEN ALL OF THEM!

...Alright, I finally got Oliver recruited.

Hmmm... they added some more instruments to “Power Hungry Fool”. Honestly, I think the harpsichord-violin duet of the original was way more effective, but... I guess it's interesting to hear a different version.

But the whole conversation is comedic gold. He basically joins your side because he doesn't want anyone to hurt Rafiel, and he announces (more like mumbles to himself in utter madness) his plans to kill his own allies in a jealous rage to keep them from getting their hands on him. It's utterly ridiculous and honestly Fateswakening levels of dumb...

...But Christ if it isn't hilarious.

And then you can talk to him with Ike. And Ike, after hearing Oliver's “A true guardian of beauty stands with those who are beautiful” spiel... has only one thing to say:

Ike: Look... Would you remind rejoining the enemy?

Anyway, Haar, Shinon and Soren are now fending off a veritable sea of enemies from the southwest, and it's going super slow because Haar can't double and most of the enemies Shinon and Soren are fighting can't actually attack up the ledge.

This map is the woooooooooorst.

Thank goodness for small mercies though, Mia disarmed both of the bishops on the same turn on her first attempt at doing it with Rafiel's help, and now I have both physics. And also the second one didn't even bother equipping their backup unlock staff, so now I have that too.

It looks like the reinforcements are done. Which means I just have to clean up this annoying batch of enemies.

Alright, finally, at long last, I manage to get this shitshow over with. On turn 21.

OH WAIT!

LOOKS LIKE IT'S GONNA BE TURN 22!

BECAUSE SOREN ISN'T FAST ENOUGH TO DOUBLE THESE ARCHERS.

Anyway, at the end we get a scene where Hetzel shows up lamenting that everyone's death must have been the will of the goddess, and then he sees that Rafiel's there and expresses how grateful he is that Rafiel's still alive. But Rafiel isn't very happy to see him, for understandable reasons, given his hand (by cowardice and inaction) in the Serenes Massacre.

Oooh! So Rafiel was found and captured before the Serenes Massacre! He was kidnapped by slavers, which honestly sends me on a train of thought that makes me wonder why the fuck they were so rare as slaves. If the herons were that easy to genocide, surely slavers could've just waltzed right in whenever they wanted and come out with, like, one on each shoulder, right?

But anyway, Hetzel spent a massive chunk of his fortune bidding for Rafiel, and then nursed him back to health from his extreme emotional distress...

...And apparently... stress-induced illness... was enough to permanently rob Rafiel of the use of his wings?

That... I know stress can do crazy, horrifying things to the body (just look at the presidential before-and-after pics if you want an example)... but... I've never heard of anyone getting so emotionally traumatized by an event, any event, that it permanently, non-psychosomatically robbed them of the use of a body part. Anyway, Hetzel decided to set him free as soon as he recovered. But before that could happen, the Serenes Massacre happened.

...And apparently after Rafiel fled Hetzel's mansion and went to the temple... he was “taken hold of” by some kind of “force”... and he wound up in Hatari?

...That can't have been Sephiran, could it? I mean, if that was part of some elaborate plan to get a representative of Hatari into Tellius proper via teleporting him there and then luring him back, then... what the fuck would've been the point of the Mad King's War when Nailah hadn't showed up yet? If Sephiran did it, he would've known that the Mad King's War wouldn't have worked until he arrived!

What purpose did this magical shenanigan serve, and who did it?

Yeah, then Ike says something about how the little bit of chaos in Reyson and Leanne due to their exposure to the other bird tribes has clearly been healthy for them, which just reminds me of how stupid it was that these cartoonishly defenseless creatures were living in their own little hippie ethnostate commune.

Jesus Christ, if the ending of Radiant Dawn says that the herons go back to live in Serenes Forest on their own... I am going to be so fucking mad.

...But that's it. That's all for today. We'll pick up tomorrow and finish up the last chapter before the final week of endgame.

Stay safe, everyone.

...Stay safer than Tormod and Vika.

...Christ this map sucked.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Stay safe, everyone.

...Stay safer than Tormod and Vika.

...Christ this map sucked.

I know I'm very vocal on this map, but damn if it doesn't deserve it. Even compared to frigging Foreign Land and Sky, this is just stupid. Why in the name of Arceus are units that weren't playable since goddamn part 1 forced!?! I can stand being lied to, but this is unacceptable.

...By the way, what is your endgame team going to be?

Edited September 24, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

...By the way, what is your endgame team going to be?

Depends on how many slots I have. I know that Zihark, Nolan, Oscar, Aran and Jill get absolute top priority, followed by Soren, Elincia if she's optional, and the laguz royals if they're optional. Probably Shinon if I can fit him. Oh yeah, and I'd love to find a way to slap Janaff and Ulki in there.

Edited September 24, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Depends on how many slots I have. I know that Zihark, Nolan, Oscar, Aran and Jill get absolute top priority, followed by Soren, Elincia if she's optional, and the laguz royals if they're optional. Probably Shinon if I can fit him. Oh yeah, and I'd love to find a way to slap Janaff and Ulki in there.

You get 10, putting aside forced units.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Second, Tormod's new inventory starts him off with a tome he doesn't have the weapon rank to wield.

Holy shit. Yeah, these guys are terrible. They've missed out on way too much, to the point that I just don't fucking understand why this was done. Why couldn't they have joined the Laguz Alliance? Why wouldn't they have joined the Laguz Alliance?

These units are probably hurt more than anyone else by the absence of Auto-leveling in this game. Each of them deserves at least 5 levels and a full weapon/strike rank. Even then, they'd only be passable. But it's ridiculous to think that they didn't grow whatsoever in the year since fighting alongside Micaiah. Speaking of which, applying this change to the Dawn Brigade could help getting through their Part III hell.

Re: Laguz Alliance, the timeline for their journey is hazy. Tormod leaves with Nailah and Rafiel to travel to Gallia. Which they presumably reach, before Nailah and Rafiel return to Daein at the end of the war. Honestly, this crew deserves their own gaiden chapter in each Part of the war. Part I, before they join Micaiah, can be Tormod and Muarim rescuing Vika and other laguz slaves in the desert. Part II, they find themselves targeted by Ludveck's forces during the rebellion. Part III, they make it to Gallia, but the country at war decides to bite first, and ask questions later. Part IV, they head towards the tower through Goldoa, but discover that they're hardly alone...

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Soren's been my most consistent one-rounder, honestly. Granted, I'm playing on normal, but he does a hell of a lot better at 1-2 range one-rounding than anyone but promoted Ragnell Ike, and that's mostly because Ike also has the speed to double everyone.

Soren has pretty good combat, sure, but he's still physically frail. And mages have armor-level movement in Tellius. Not to mention, Radiant Dawn decided to give enemies weirdly high Res.

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

HOLY FUCK.

WHAT THE FUCK IS UP WITH THESE REINFORCEMENTS!?

TWO SETS OF FOUR SHOWED UP IN ALMOST THE EXACT SAME PLACE! AND THAT WASN'T EVEN ALL OF THEM!

Rout maps. Why did it have to be Rout maps. This chapter would be way more bearable as a Sieze. You can argue "well the Disciples of Order would keep fighting regardless", but the same logic could apply to nearly any sieze map.

[Alastor15243]

19 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Soren has pretty good combat, sure, but he's still physically frail. And mages have armor-level movement in Tellius. Not to mention, Radiant Dawn decided to give enemies weirdly high Res.

Man, I'm wishing more and more that I played on hard. Hell, I'm tempted to give H5 a shot for Shadow Dragon.

20 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

These units are probably hurt more than anyone else by the absence of Auto-leveling in this game. Each of them deserves at least 5 levels and a full weapon/strike rank. Even then, they'd only be passable. But it's ridiculous to think that they didn't grow whatsoever in the year since fighting alongside Micaiah. Speaking of which, applying this change to the Dawn Brigade could help getting through their Part III hell.

Honestly, they have no business not being tier 3 at this point. They're some of the last recruits in the entire game, and we've been getting laguz royals and tier 3s left and right aside from these guys and, like, Pelleas. Hell, even Sanaki is Tier 3.

[Jotari]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Radiant Dawn Day 39: Chapter 4-4

Ah yes. This chapter. The one where we suddenly get four recruitments out of nowhere, all of them terrible.

We stop in Duke Tanas's deserted villa to spend the night.

Yes. That Duke Tanas. Beauty Incarnate himself, Oliver.

...Ah, yes, so apparently the senate was responsible for confiscating Oliver's lands and property after his posthumous guilty verdict.

Of course. Hence why they weren't actually confiscated and Oliver was able to be kept alive on allegedly abandoned property for years. Of course Sanaki had nothing to do with this particular instance of applying the law.

Yeah, so much of this conflict between Sanaki and the senate makes no sense at all. Like, we're not given a good sense of where the senate had authority and what Sanaki actually had authority to do. We don't have any concept of where the checks and balances lie here.

And I still don't have fucking clue one why Lekain was the one leading the inspection team when Sanaki explicitly said it would be Sephiran, and it was made explicitly clear that she and Sephiran weren't imprisoned until later.

Also, they confiscated his lands and property, and yet Soren doesn't find it suspicious that allegedly nobody has used it in the three years since then? It's a fucking mansion! What's the point of nabbing a mansion for yourself if you don't use it!?

But Titania says that “by law, there shouldn't be anyone here”, implying the confiscation wasn't actually for use in any way... somehow. But she also notes that someone's obviously been living here because it's spotless.

 

Is this meant to be the exact same location as Chapter 16 in Path of Radiance? Is there any over laps of the maps?

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh yeah, and so, here's the boss: Oliver. The only recruitable boss in the series. If you put Rafiel in range of him, Oliver will fucking walk over to him and recruit himself. That's absolutely hilarious, but alas he's really not very good. Terrible stats, namely having identical speed to Tormod (who's getting doubled, mind you) while being twenty three levels higher than him.

 

Do you mean in the game? Because Tiki, Lorenz, Lifis, Pirn, Katarina, Sheema, and those are just the ones that are uncomplicatedly the boss of the chapter. If we extend it to unit commanding ai troops then there's way more.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Is this meant to be the exact same location as Chapter 16 in Path of Radiance? Is there any over laps of the maps?

Do you mean in the game? Because Tiki, Lorenz, Lifis, Pirn, Katarina, Sheema, and those are just the ones that are uncomplicatedly the boss of the chapter. If we extend it to unit commanding ai troops then there's way more.

Yes, I meant series, but I had a brain fart.

And actually, they look kinda similar, but they've changed it radically in order to accommodate ledges.

Edited September 25, 2020 by Alastor15243