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

[Interdimensional Observer]

On 7/14/2020 at 1:11 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Yep, this is the “Bastian! You must not do this thing!” line I remember. But yeah, Lucia feels... hilariously casual about leaving her own brother to die.

“So the enemy's found us, eh? Nothing to do about it but change course. I'll lead you to another hiding place.”

SERIOUSLY?

But Ike shuts them the fuck up and tells them they're doing what Elincia says and rescuing Geoffrey and the other knights.

Agreed, this exchange feels weird, the writing feels as if it was done purely for the sake of Ike is right!, not something I usually associate with PoR's script. 

 

On 7/14/2020 at 1:11 PM, Alastor15243 said:

But no. As the next chapter will clarify, Ike did indeed take it. He just had it... the whole fucking time... and never let anyone fucking use it.

I don't see the problem with this at all. It's too personal to Ike, it's evidence from the scene of the Black Knight's terrible crime. Would you use a knife left behind by your mother's boyfriend-murderer that he grabbed from your kitchen utensils drawer and attempted to stab her with, for making carrot sticks the next day? Even if it wasn't the knife he killed her with because she wrestled it from his hand and it fell unbloodied to the ground so he bludgeoned her cranium open with a lamp instead?

And, somebody would question Ike if he wielded this awesome gilded sword out of nowhere or handed it to someone else. Which would mean having to come up with an excuse or confessing the truth of that tragic night. Except Ike isn't against being introspective and keeping personal things to himself, he isn't the biggest secretive softie or stoic, but he can, and he does again later with his initial hiding of what Volke says later.

Not to mention, while Ike could probably judge the Ragnell was a mighty fine sword from what he has seen of weapons before, he didn't know its name, it's story, that he needed it to get vengeance on the BK* and couldn't  see it's 18 Mt 1-2 Range, +5 Def, and infinite durability- which I get is hot and bothersome when you finally see its stats later. 

Could they have done better at expressing Ike's emotions regarding talking about his father's death and how Ragnell pictured in his mind? Yes, I can see that criticism.

 

While the Fates princes' regalia was wrong to be available from the start, no challenge to obtain them, nor hidden power to later unseal via trials and tribulations, that doesn't mean every ultimate weapon has to become usable only in the lategame because the weapon had to be physically earned. It's a good reason for that, but Ike's more "psychological gating" on it is in principle fine too. And you could do hella worse than Ike in for psyche gating.

For an extreme caricature strawman example of terrible "psyche gating", pretend Marth had Falchion from Chapter 1 of the War of Shadows and the following, very long, exchange happened:

Spoiler

• Malledus- Lord Marth, the enemy is before us, will you do your duty as Prince of Altea and many greats nephew of glorious Anri?
• Marth- Yes Malledus, for I am a prince before anything else, I will do my duty and defeat Medeus, Dolhr, anything allied to the two, or any other evil in this world in need of vanquishing.
• Malledus- Hurrah my honorable lord, your loyal knights and Princess Caeda have already engaged the enemy, will draw the Falchion and join them?
• Marth- What? No, I'm not doing that.
• Malledus- Milord? But you just said you would do your duty.
• Marth- I will march into battle, I will fight besides my comrades and risk my own life, for I would hate for them to lose their's. But I'll do it without Falchion.
• Malledus- Why milord?
• Marth- BECAUSE DADDY DIED HOLDING FALCHION! *sniffles*
• Malledus- That is true Your Young Majesty, 'twas the saddest day in my life when I learned the news. But he beseeched Cain bring to you and as his last will bade you become the light of this world. You saw the scar on Cain's forehead from the javelin that grazed him as he galloped to the point his noble died of exhaustion to bring Falchion to you.
• Crybaby Marth- BUT DADDY DIED HOLDING FALCHION! *Fall to his knees face planted in the ground*
• Malledus- My Prin- Excuse me, what is it Jagen? *Jagen whispers to Malledus* WHAT!?! My Prince Marth- Fire Dragons have been spotted among the bandits. We have no means of fighting them except Falchion at the moment, besides sacrificing half of our one hundred troops.
• Marth- *Mood-swing* Death is inevitable in this world, it is an end to the despair and suffering that fills it. I cannot avert this, it's mercy if they perish.
• Malledus- What has gotten into you now Heir of Anri? 
• Edgelord Marth- ...
• Malledus- Speak Your Highness! Use the Falchion Your Highness! The Fire Dragons are breathing rhythmic flames saying "We've found you Marth, we're from Dolhr and Hardin, Nyna, Camus, Tiki, and Gotoh are dead" in Morse Code.
• Edgelord Marth- ...Whatever. Nobody can understand how I feel.
• Malledus- Sweet Baby Nowi! Is that the Shadow Dragon himself destroying Castle Talys in the distance?!
• Cornelius's Ghost- Marth, I am your father, use the Falchion, Medeus is here, only that sword can defeat him. I can rest in peace if you do, otherwise I will haunt this world for eternity.
• Misanthrope Marth- Maybe Medeus has a point though, humanity is sinful, I should let it die.
• Naga- Marth, the "Prophecy of Your Victory" says that if you as much as point the Falchion remotely in Medeus's direction, you'll win, everyone dead will come back to life, and you'll be granted 1000 wishes with the ability to wish for as many more wishes as you want. I'm on the board of the Gods of Fate, I bribed them to agree to this.
• Indecisive Marth- Is that true? But what if it's the wrong course of action? I don't know, should I rely on Falchion, or should I prove my own worth by fighting without it? Is war truly justified, maybe I can peacefully convince Medeus to-
• Caeda- Marth get in the Falchion! *Throws Pegasus dung in his open mouth*
• Coward Marth- Is-is-is that Medeus? What can I do, he's so big and threatening. Right Malledus? ...Malledus? MALLEDUS! *Malledus gets his head blown off by the breath of Medeus.*
• Corrin- Ya doomed Marth, and it's all your fault.
• Medeus- It's the writers' actually, we're all puppets of them. *Reduces Marth to dust and uses Falchion as a toothpick afterwards*

 

*TBF- The BK didn't tell Greil "Yeah no, you literally can't harm me with that axe, you must draw the sword I threw you if you want to pierce this blessed armor." *Greil swings Urvan at the BK* "What did I just tell you! I'm going to sing the song that makes even the Goddess writhe in agony- "It's a Beorc World After All!" until you stop with this nonsense and agree to resume this duel with that sword." Greil- "No, not that! If you lie and that sword's hilt be coated with a poison that kills me, anything is better than hearing that tune from the cords of the Dark God!" *Grabs Ragnell and thrusts it at the BK, piercing the armor and coming out the back, but missing his vital organs, while a counter-thrust from the BK with Alondite stabs Greil through the heart.*

 

 

*Ahem* Sorry. I usually don't issue raving arguments to defend little points, but it's okay to do it once in a while for funsies, right? 😅

 

12 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I mean it doesn't just remove mechanics, right? It also increases enemy stats?

The additional enemy stat boost on Hard compared to Normal in RD feels beyond trivial compared to H1 vs H5, or Hard vs. Lunatic in NM and Awakening, and likely Hard vs. Maddening. Fates is the closest comparison point I think. Ignoring the distribution of additional skills and an extra weapon here and there (a Hexing Rod on Hayato for instance), you can play Hard and Lunatic on CQ with the same team and barely notice the enemy stat differences- or so I personally thought.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And I'm actually quite certain I'm going to fail even normal mode, thanks to that fucking two-man fog of war chapter in Part 1, and the ridiculously new-unit-scarce Dawn Brigade Part 3.

DB P3 isn't too bad I'd guess for ironman, the maps can all be played defensively. If you have enough sufficiently durable units to hold out and Vulneraries to heal them, then provided there aren't any Crits or skill procs that result in "kills enemy on enemy phase after losing 50%+ of HP, new enemy comes in and kills them", I think that'd be a fairly bearable section for ironman.

[Alastor15243]

46 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't see the problem with this at all. It's too personal to Ike, it's evidence from the scene of the Black Knight's terrible crime. Would you use a knife left behind by your mother's boyfriend-murderer that he grabbed from your kitchen utensils drawer and attempted to stab her with, for making carrot sticks the next day? Even if it wasn't the knife he killed her with because she wrestled it from his hand and it fell unbloodied to the ground so he bludgeoned her cranium open with a lamp instead?

If you and your sister are then shortly after forced to defend yourself from a home invasion, and that knife is one of the most viable weapons you have? Hell yes, you're gonna feel tempted to use it.

Also, your analogy just makes me imagine Ike taking the sword to be identified or something in the hopes of getting a lead on his father's killer.

As for him not talking about how his father died... I honestly didn't notice that was even a thing until he revealed a little before this point that he never told anyone. Which was a pretty confusing and frustrating scene in and of itself, honestly.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Agreed, this exchange feels weird, the writing feels as if it was done purely for the sake of Ike is right!, not something I usually associate with PoR's script. 

 

I don't see the problem with this at all. It's too personal to Ike, it's evidence from the scene of the Black Knight's terrible crime. Would you use a knife left behind by your mother's boyfriend-murderer that he grabbed from your kitchen utensils drawer and attempted to stab her with, for making carrot sticks the next day? Even if it wasn't the knife he killed her with because she wrestled it from his hand and it fell unbloodied to the ground so he bludgeoned her cranium open with a lamp instead?

 

That depends, am I an expert knife artists going into a major continental conflict where in my knife wielding skills will help save my life and those of others? Even if we take it as Ike being too psychologically distraught to use it, it's still a godawful plot point because it doesn't coming up until right before the ending of the game. It is not addressed after Greil's death nor at any point in the dozen+ chapters in between. The fact that Ike has the sword at all is information that is kept from the player. It's less like Ike kept the blade and more like it was retconned into his possession long after the fact. If this is the path they wanted to go with, they absolutely needed a scene where Ike is seen with the sword and mulling over what it means to him and whether or not he should keep it. Having it in the convoy at that point but impossible to draw would also integrate gameplay into it. It's not that a plot point like this can't work, it's that Path of Radiance does zero effort to actually try and make it work. 

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 hours ago, Jotari said:

It's not that a plot point like this can't work, it's that Path of Radiance does zero effort to actually try and make it work. 

And that's a fair criticism, more would be better.

Maybe relegate it to a Base Conversation though? I like the current writing after Greil's death enough that I don't want it interrupted and unnecessarily prolonged via new and significant additions of text. And who doesn't read all the Base Convos at the start of every chapter? It'd be practically guaranteed to be seen, but with a little breather in the flow. Perhaps have the conversation start with Titania asking Ike yet again, for she is desperate to know who killed Greil, if Ike had noticed anything, and Ike then repeats to her what he had said unseen before and Titania says he had said much later- that it was too dark and and he couldn't identify the killer, providing us the player with some more details as to what that lie included. Titania calms down and leaves Ike to be, alone in his room, Ike brings Ragnell out of hiding, unwraps it, and quietly talks to himself about it for a few lines. Or maybe split the Titania and the Ragnell talk into two separate scenes.

If I had to make the Ragnell monologue mandatory in the story, modify Chapter 10's ending with a line from Caineghis "Tonight, you sleep in Castle Gallia", that Gallia Castle (Night) CG from RD is then used to transition to the late hours, Soren or Mist concludes conversation with Ike and wishes him good night, and Ike brings out Ragnell then. It'd be a good timing, in the sense that it'd make it clearer that Ike is leaving Gallia not just to bring Elincia to Begnion and assist in Crimea's liberation in that way- the impersonal goal- but in hopes too of encountering the BK again for the sake of revenge- a deeply personal goal.

[Alastor15243]

Path of Radiance Day 23: Chapter 25

Alright, after that long weekend and the lamest AMA in human history, I am back.

So the narration rather unhelpfully doesn't move to show the mountains that Gallia's army is coming from, making me for a second think they were the mountains that the blue icon was. I know this map takes place on a mountain, but is this really southern Crimea we're in now? Wouldn't that be by the Gallian border?

Ah yes, this scene with Leanne and the hawk who's helping her pack. Lemme see if I remember what she says correctly...

Tibarn refers to the language that's translated to us as English as “our modern tongue”, which... okay, either I'm missing something, or they're pretending beorc didn't invent this language, or...

...Like, the tone in which he phrases that, it's as if...

...Okay, did beorc invent this language? Or did beorc and laguz originally speak the same language in Begnion? Is that ever explained? How old is “modern tongue”? Did laguz originally speak fluent human-mouth language when they lived with beorc and then abandon it over the centuries due to not needing it?

...Or did they all originally just speak their own tongues, hence why the escaping laguz naturally split up into those “ethnostates” I questioned a few weeks ago? Pure pragmatism at work, and nothing about the different laguz species not getting along?

...But no, no, wait... remember, everyone? “Goldoa will not move”? Deghinsea was talking to Lehran about the enslavement of the laguz as it was starting. In “modern tongue”. Which means that this “modern tongue” actually predates the flood and was spoken by at least the dragon laguz even during their isolation, unless that conversation was actually translating Deghinsea's dragon roars into the language of terrible acting...

...Fuck it, sorry, I don't think I can go more into this, I'm really fucking confused at how the fuck language works in this game. If anyone has more info from the games or backstory, please, PLEASE enlighten me.

Apparently this scene doesn't change when Reyson is wounded. It still says “Reyson is fine”.

HAHAHAHAHAHA!

Apparently one of Leanne's lines is “Big meanie!!” Wow.

Haha, so yeah, Lotz the hawk attendant tries to overcome the language barrier by talking loudly and slowly, and in the words of Grif from Red vs. Blue:

“Why are you talking so slow? He understands us just fine. Maybe you should try listening slower.”

Yeah, one-way language barriers in fiction are... weird, if you think about it. But yeah, after my initial playthroughs as a kid, I later learned from reading the script online that Leanne's basically mocking his inability to understand her, which... I mean he is being dumb here, but the way she phrases it makes it sound like she'd consider him dumb even just for not understanding her language, which... yikes.

Yep, then the Black Knight shows up, which was a really cool reveal back when I first played, when all we had to go on was Lotz's dialogue that anything was happening. Can't remember if Lotz survives though.

Then immediately it cuts to Daein, and Ashnard talks about how BK just showed up with all this weird magic shit, some of it as gifts for him, and the way he phrases it makes it sound like Rajaion was just another gift, and not a being he personally drove mad or enslaved.

Yep, looks like Lotz only clung on long enough to tell Tibarn who killed him.

Ooh! Looks like “I'm no easy mark!” from Heroes has its origins here too!

Anyway, we get a support with Jill and Haar, and it starts with a “how should I address you” thing that's obviously some kun-san-chan-sama-sempai stuff that's hard to translate into English. She apparently still thinks of Haar as her superior though, so she's calling him “Mr. Haar” in a way that sounds really weird.

Apparently Volke and Bastian have a support instantly, without ever spending a chapter together. And of course that results in Volke's memorable opening line: “You there, in the bushes. You have until the count of five to show yourself before I start throwing sharp objects.”

Beyond that though, not much to say about that one, it's just a setup to a larger plot I may check out later.

On to info conversations. We get a warning to watch for falling rocks, and then... a talk with Bastian. Much less cringeworthy iambic pentameter, but I love how Ike just closes his eyes in frustration. Ike is just an amazing straight man.

...Oh, it wasn't frustration, he literally dosed off. Wow. Okay. He's apparently just completely worn out.

And then we get Largo. Apparently if I remember correctly you automatically turn him down if Calill isn't with you? Weird.

When Largo says he pinned down a tiger (two, apparently) with his bare hands, is he referring to literal tigers, or tiger laguz? Is he bragging about hate crimes or race skirmishes he took part in? What opportunity has a Crimean citizen had to wrestle with tiger laguz if that's what he's talking about? Details, please.

...Actually, do literal tigers exist in this world? Clearly animals that don't have laguz counterparts exist, so...

Anyway, we get an opportunity to buy some steel blades, so we do so, since Zihark likes them and Ike needs them right now.

And with that, I think we're done with prep. And it only took an hour to get through this.

Okay so it seems that yes, these are the mountains the Gallian reinforcements are going by.

Oh yes, I remember this map now. I thought this was going to be a repeat of that similar map in RD that I remember hating, but no, it couldn't be, because that one has ledges. This shouldn't be too hard, but the inability to know how much damage the rocks do beforehand is a pain.

Anyway, the boss has resolve, which is gonna be... a fucking nightmare, but he doesn't have a full guard and Soren has blizzard. Soren's fairly accurate, so I'm hoping that even with the 18 avoid bonus of resolve activating, we can take this guy out with ease. If not from that, maybe with the help of accurate forged weapons.

Damn it, there are siege weapons everywhere, and it's making it a pain in the ass to get kills with literally anyone who can't handle enemy phase. The temptation to rush through this with Oscar and Ike with some help from my fliers is overwhelming.

Well thankfully I looked up the siege weapon stats under bows, and these onagers aren't effective against fliers, just as I hoped and remembered.

I'll try to use rescue-dropping abuse to get some player-phase kills to Zihark and Soren on the left side, while Ike and Oscar rush the left side. Alright, break.

...And of course thanks to the game not showing you your units' movement ranges on the map prep screen, I don't remember until after pressing start that mounted units globally have their movement crippled here. OH GOODIE. Yep, this game is definitely getting a worse usability score than Genealogy.

These rocks are frustrating, because their paths down the hill are not remotely intuitive. Thankfully the damage is relatively low, so there should be no problems. It's just an annoying, frustrating gimmick.

Also, the enemy seems to be coming to us, so we should have some opportunities to do some relatively painless player phase strats. But I wish I had a heal-multiple staff other than the Ashera staff.

Fuck it, maybe I will use it. If the situation demands it.

...Nope, forgot to give it to Mist. Oh well.

For now, I'm gonna try using Reinforce to see if I can fuck with the enemy AI and lure some enemies in.

...Looks like I accidentally baited the boss in early. I'm probably gonna have to scuffle with him a little bit with Ike and Oscar and hope I can blizzard him.

Holy shit, the rolling paths of these rocks can be arbitrary sometimes. They aren't even just turning at walls in some cases. Sometimes those impassable cliffs are treated as paths to roll down, other times they're treated as walls to be reflected by. But both Ike and the boss have been knocked down to pretty critical HP levels, which may be good or bad depending on how things go now.

…But it looks like his is a rout map, not a boss kill map, so... the entire opening conversation was utterly pointless. Well, at least the boss will be out of the way soon, and Ike's been fully healed and is back in range of Oscar so he's harder to kill. Ike was down to 5 HP, which was... pretty terrifying. Glad I brought that elixir.

Honestly, if that was intentional, giving Resolve to a boss who was likely to take a ton of friendly fire from those boulders, it's the closest this game has gotten to actual clever skill distribution among the enemies.

...I think the battle forecast doesn't take resolve into account. FUCK. That's infuriating. Well, Oscar's still really dodgy, so this should be fine.

The boss retreated to heal, because he has an elixir. Damn it, looks like this is gonna be drawn out, but I guess that means plenty of time to get exp for Soren and Zihark.

So far so good. Ike has five more levels and only four of them need to proc HP for him to only need one angelic robe. I'm a little needlessly nervous about his defense not capping, but even if that winds up happening, Jill's on track to only need one dracoshield, so, we should be golden.

...No, weirdly, resolve seems to be taken into consideration for the combat forecast here for some reason. I just got really unlucky when that 20% attack hit Oscar. Well, no harm no foul, I guess.

This boss is a pain in the ass. I may wind up getting Soren up here in time to blizzard him with how long he's holding out. I'm only two hours into the chapter today and I feel like it's taking forever.

Yep, Ike just hit 23 defense, so he's got 4 levels to gain one more point. He's good. And since he got an aether on the boss, Oscar can finish said boss off.

His extremely loyal boss death quote, however, makes me wonder about the mindset of these soldiers who know that Ashnard knowingly abandoned his kingdom, that massive revelation that disturbed Kasatai so much. These guys seem to know full well that Ashnard did it, and don't care.

Buuuut, the bishop is down, and thus we are done.

HAHAHAHA. Wow, this is so dumb, but the “eat rock” guy still made me laugh. I think that's the Fateswakening-iest line I've seen on this whole marathon so far, it was pretty jarring. But still funny.

...Wow, I just realized that they programmed in the ability to move these characters between tiles, not just on them, for map cutscenes. Tibarn just plowed through two rows of soldiers, meaning he was moving along the lines, not the squares, to be in the middle of them.

Wait, Caineghis is here? I thought he wasn't allowed to leave for wars.

Huh. Amusingly, Mist and Soren, two units I've been using, are the ones mentioned as the “children” who fought in the previous battle, which they did. Nothing about Rolf though, which makes me assume he's one of the “dies for real” characters, and Mist and Soren only get mentioned because they can't die.

But apparently Mist isn't here because she's a respected soldier, but because she needs to hear the truth about the medallion. I mean... okay?

...So apparently despite this war at Crimea's capital being exactly what Ashnard wants, the unanimous decision is “do it anyway”. And I can't remember why this doesn't unleash Yune. Did it have to be an actual representative of nobility who fought in the war, so Nasir/Ena fighting didn't count? But then why didn't Rajaion count? I mean, he's a royal black dragon, and he's fighting, even if it's because he's long since lost the capacity to know better.

...Wait, do they sing the calming song to the medallion at the end of the game? If so, why does that work here, when later the power got too intense to calm and actually made all three herons pass out? What made the second game's war more intense than this one? I mean I suppose there was more actual simultaneous peak fighting when that happened...

Tibarn weirdly vanishes from the screen for one line, after apologizing to Reyson but before revealing to him that Leanne's been kidnapped.

Okay, so Ashnard doesn't know that herons can't sing the galdr of release, only the ones descended from Altina. So then why the hell would Lehran give Ashnard a heron if he would know full well it wouldn't work? Was he really involved with that? I'm really starting to question that.

...But at any rate, that's it for today. Map's over.

And by the look of things, come this time next week I'll be playing normal mode of Radiant Dawn. It was neck and neck for a while, but then it suddenly became pretty solidly in normal mode's favor yesterday. So unless things change, that's what we'll do.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, if that was intentional, giving Resolve to a boss who was likely to take a ton of friendly fire from those boulders, it's the closest this game has gotten to actual clever skill distribution among the enemies.

 

Well it might have been, if they didn't go and give it to a unit who can't make use of it's attack boost at all. Resolve multiplies strength, not damage, and since he only uses a bolt axe that's entirely wasted. All it does is make him slightly harder to double (which you probably don't need to do if he's already been put in resolve range). Speaking of which, Bolt Axe. Mighty fine useless weapon right there.

Edited July 20, 2020 by Jotari

[Shadow Mir]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Honestly, if that was intentional, giving Resolve to a boss who was likely to take a ton of friendly fire from those boulders, it's the closest this game has gotten to actual clever skill distribution among the enemies.

I would agree, were it not for the fact that his only weapon is a magic weapon. Not helping is that he's essentially a wind magic magnet thanks to the Bolt Axe he uses (which, by the way, is one of the most useless weapons in the series EXCEPT in Awakening, but especially in this game). Also, iirc, a meme was formed out of the fact that he can potentially get killed by his own men thanks to the boulder hazards.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Wait, do they sing the calming song to the medallion at the end of the game? If so, why does that work here, when later the power got too intense to calm and actually made all three herons pass out? What made the second game's war more intense than this one? I mean I suppose there was more actual simultaneous peak fighting when that happened...

Probably because of that, and maybe because Kurthnaga got involved as well (which officially meant Goldoa got involved in the war).

Edited July 21, 2020 by Shadow Mir

[Alastor15243]

Just now, Shadow Mir said:

Probably because of that, and maybe because Kurthnaga got involved as well (which officially meant Goldoa got involved in the war).

Yeah, but Rajaion was involved in this one.

[Shadow Mir]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, but Rajaion was involved in this one.

True, but not by choice. As is stated by Nasir late in Radiant Dawn, Ashnard tried to provoke Goldoa into joining the war (by turning the red dragons that were sent to find Almedha into Feral Ones and twisting Rajaion into a mount), but that didn't work.

[Alastor15243]

4 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

True, but not by choice. As is stated by Nasir late in Radiant Dawn, Ashnard tried to provoke Goldoa into joining the war (by turning the red dragons that were sent to find Almedha into Feral Ones and twisting Rajaion into a mount), but that didn't work.

Man, these rules are really particular.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...But no, no, wait... remember, everyone? “Goldoa will not move”? Deghinsea was talking to Lehran about the enslavement of the laguz as it was starting. In “modern tongue”. Which means that this “modern tongue” actually predates the flood and was spoken by at least the dragon laguz even during their isolation, unless that conversation was actually translating Deghinsea's dragon roars into the language of terrible acting...

Since that line occurs in a memory from

Spoiler

Sephiran's

Point-of-view, it's possible that we're hearing it in a way that the player (and Ike, in particular) would understand, rather than the manner in which it was originally spoken. Basically the "Star Trek Universal Translator", but manifested through magic.

9 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...So apparently despite this war at Crimea's capital being exactly what Ashnard wants, the unanimous decision is “do it anyway”. And I can't remember why this doesn't unleash Yune. Did it have to be an actual representative of nobility who fought in the war, so Nasir/Ena fighting didn't count? But then why didn't Rajaion count? I mean, he's a royal black dragon, and he's fighting, even if it's because he's long since lost the capacity to know better.

Nobody from Hatari is there, so perhaps they could escape the Goddess' judgement on that technicality?

[Alastor15243]

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

Nobody from Hatari is there, so perhaps they could escape the Goddess' judgement on that technicality?

Shit, wait, does Hatari count for the pact? Did Lehran not know Hatari still existed? Meaning the only reason his massive elaborate conspiracy worked at all was sheer dumb luck?

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shit, wait, does Hatari count for the pact? Did Lehran not know Hatari still existed? Meaning the only reason his massive elaborate conspiracy worked at all was sheer dumb luck?

I'm honestly not sure. I don't believe it's ever made explicit whether any wolf laguz were party to the pact, or even knew of it. If they had no connection, then their participation likely didn't matter. But it could depend on wording - if the agreement was "no wars involving all nations of Tellius", and Hatari itself is regarded as part of Tellius (debatable in its own right), then it could have been a workable loophole, even if Hatari was not party to the agreement. 

[Jotari]

Ive heard of the Hatari theory before, nut my personal interpretation was that it was both wars combined. I don't think there is an explanation really as the broad strokes of the story was made when it was just one game. So the reason it didn't happen in Path of Radiance was because they'd already decided that Radiant Dawn would exist.

[Alastor15243]

Path of Radiance Day 24: Chapter 26

So we have to face both Fort Pinell and Nados Castle. Why both? They're not one after the other, they're side by side from Ike's perspective.

We get a scene with Ashnard and the Black Knight that foreshadows that Rajaion is a dragon, and apparently he still vaguely recognizes Ena.

Okay, so Soren's talking about Fort Pinell and Nados Castle, so hopefully we're getting an answer to that question I just asked. But amusingly, if you take Bastian's rather mediocre standard for iambic pentameter, Geoffrey technically replies to Bastian in it after Bastian begrudgingly praises Daein's skill in war.

Bastian: Say what you will of Daein and her foul plans. One must admire her skill in things of war.

Geoffrey: Come now, Bastian! Why would you praise our foe?

Though that first sentence I quoted from Bastian seems to imply that Daein was originally one syllable. Pronounced like Dain or something. At least in the localizers' heads, before Radiant Dawn changed it when it was officially said out loud.

Oh, okay, so these two castles... just seem to be an excuse to give Tibarn something to do to explain why he isn't directly joining us. He's running a diversion at the other one.

...If you don't accept Reyson's help, it kinda feels weird that Janaff and Ulki wouldn't be recruited here now that Tibarn's bringing his full forces anyway.

Alright, got the Jill and Haar B support.

...That was really disappointingly short. They just kinda reminisced about Shiharam and how Haar only acted serious, and Jill only relaxed, while they were around him, and that was literally the only comment they made about the subject before it abruptly stopped.

And then an info conversation that is basically a soldier asking for advice for what to do against an unbeatable enemy.

Wait... that's not... that's not this chapter, right? I still have one more? Because I haven't gotten Ike to level 20 yet!

...No, I'm quite sure that's chapter 27. Anyway, I gave Ike the angelic robe prematurely because obviously he needs at least one, so no point waiting to see if he needs it. He's also well on track to cap strength, skill and defense, and has already capped speed.

...Oh shit.

I forgot.

This is the chapter where Elincia joins you.

Awesome.

Wait... Elincia's pegasus belonged to her great-grandmother?

HOW THE FUCK LONG DO PEGASI LIVE FOR!? I thought they were just like normal animals!

Anyway, Elincia says that she has “no experience” and does not expect to fight as well as the rest of the army. Except that it's pretty obvious that if she had joined in the fight when she offered way earlier in the game, she would have wiped the floor with most early-game units, even if she were just a foot unit. Her bases are pathetic now, but if this were before everyone else even reached level 10...

Anyway, we've got a fight on our hands. A fight... in a wide open field. Damn it. Never a huge fan of these.

But I'm starting to think the reason we got the Black Knight hint at base is because there won't be a base for the next map.

...I hope my supplies haven't run low.

Okay, so, Elincia's not that great at combat given how late she's showing up, but she's a flying A rank staff user. Yeah, no way in hell I'm not using her.

This map lets you bring a frankly ridiculous amount of units. I usually hate this, because it generally requires you to bring dead weight or just waste the slots, but if there are some recent prepromotes, like now, it becomes more bearable.

Okay, so I finished up my preps and deployed, and I'm seeing “Bertram” (actually Renning after being given the feral drug) give his “orders”... how exactly does the feral drug work on non-laguz? I mean, what does it do to them? It's obviously made him full of bloodlust, but he's still rather... flowery in his language. Like he's possessed by a fully sapient demon rather than being rabid and insane.

Interestingly, the game has Titania show up as a green unit so she can take part in this conversation about Bertram and then leave shortly after, and...

...Oh god.

This music.

I think this is that endgame map music I hate so much. Congregation of Ambition. It sounds really dissonant a ton of the time, and then there's this one part at around 1:26 where these obnoxious off-key violins play with no clear baseline underneath them, it's just... so unmelodic.

Also it doesn't help that this is one of the games where map music is obnoxiously soft, killing a lot of the impact a lot of these songs can have. Three Houses is especially bad about this, but certain songs in this game suffer from it too. And at least in Three Houses the low volume prompts disappointment that I can't enjoy the genuinely awesome map themes, rather than making bad map music more pointless.

...Weirdly, I seem to remember map theme volume being strangely variable. I remember it being louder than this on other maps.

Well, I only have to put up with this shit for the rest of the week.

This was a little frustrating, but I managed to work out a way to work around enemy attack ranges and take out each group to the northeast one set at a time, fighting the paladins last. Meanwhile, as usual, Ike and Oscar take the lead.

I, uh... I think that siege tome user just moved.

The game just arbitrarily decided that siege tome users can do that now.

Jill would have died had I chosen to go less overkill on defending her.

But thankfully, he's dead now, and Soren just got C thunder finally, allowing him to use bolting as well as blizzard.

Yep, Ike's capped Strength, Skill, Speed and Defense. He's good to go. All that's left is to get him to 20 so he can cap HP for the maximum hope of beating the Black Knight.

I'm getting pretty nervous about capping Soren and Zihark. They're roughly level 11, with only a couple of chapters left. I know I managed to cap Soren last time on ironman hard, but I remember I had to have Ike basically completely sit out of Chapter 28 to do it. I'm wondering how this will turn out.

Anyway, Mist uses the sonic sword for some emergency player-phase combat, and kicks ass, as you'd expect. No better than Soren with a decent tome, but hey, what else could I have used the arms scrolls for? Soren wound up able to use two types of siege tomes by the end of the game, so I can't think of much other use for the things.

Alright, I've gotten to the boss, and we get the creepy line that reveals that Bertram longs for the sweet release of death, as he screams at Ike to kill him.

Impressively, one of these generals survived an Aether from Ike. He went down to a second one in a row though.

...Okay, interesting. Reinforcements seem to be coming from the same place now. Since I'm in a position to seize whenever I want, I think I'm gonna wait to kill Bertram until these reinforcements change. See if I can't get some more exp for Zihark and Soren out of this.

Right, the reinforcements are gone. Time to get out of here.

Soren gets the boss kill, “Bertram” “dies”, and we seize.

Also, Bryce points out something I noticed earlier but didn't feel confident enough to mention: Ashnard seems to actually deliberately be hobbling his own forces by not letting them all strike at once, in the hopes that he gets to fight these guys himself. Well... I mean... sounds like him. No complaints here.

I apparently got 500 bonus exp from taking 10 ish turns.

And with that... we're done for the day, pretty early. But I think I'll stop there.

For tomorrow... we face the Black Knight.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Jotari]

Just going to point out to the people voting normal on the poll, all these transfer bonuses might nerf the difficulty of Radiant Dawn significantly on normal mode.

[Alastor15243]

8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Just going to point out to the people voting normal on the poll, all these transfer bonuses might nerf the difficulty of Radiant Dawn significantly on normal mode.

Fair point. I was focusing on those so intently because of my original intention to play hard mode. Not that normal mode isn't still impressively tough.

Edited July 21, 2020 by Alastor15243

[lenticular]

44 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Wait... Elincia's pegasus belonged to her great-grandmother?

HOW THE FUCK LONG DO PEGASI LIVE FOR!? I thought they were just like normal animals!

I am fascinated by this part about long-lived pegasuses, because it raises so many questions for such an innocuous throw-away line. How long do they live for? Do they typically stay in military service for their whole ridiculously long lives, or are they put out to pasture after a while? Are they a complete nightmare to breed? Because with that sort of lifespan, if they aren't panda tier for captive breeding, then either we're going to see an infestation of pegasuses or we're killing them in droves on the battlefield.

Aside: When we get dolphin laguz, I want to see pegasus laguz as well.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I apparently got 500 bonus exp from taking 10 ish turns.

Late game PoR gets super generous with the bonus exp. I guess the idea is that everyone is high level by that point so they need to give more if it's going to be even remotely relevant.  It's a little weird, though, since you're really past the point where you need it at this point. I guess it's nice if you're trying to push to get characters to level 20 for the transfer bonus, though.

41 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Just going to point out to the people voting normal on the poll, all these transfer bonuses might nerf the difficulty of Radiant Dawn significantly on normal mode.

How big a difference does it make? It's been a long while since I played Radiant Dawn, but I'd have thought that all the switching between armies and resultant availability issues stop it from being too much of a game-breaker. I can see how having a boosted Jill and Zihark would make some of the Dawn Brigade levels easier, but that's only a handful of levels, the bonuses aren't that huge, and there are still a lot of other levels where transfer bonuses aren't going to help out at all.

[Alastor15243]

Heads up: out of a desire to get the authentic controller experience, I now have a non-bootleg gamecube controller that I'll be playing the last three maps with. Hopefully that will be enough to give me the right idea of how this game should feel to control.

Edited July 21, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Path of Radiance Day 25: Chapter 27

Alright. Today's the day we finally face off with the Black Knight. And to commemorate this occasion, What should arrive in the mail but my gamecube controller? A real one this time, not a bootleg third party one. Smoother, less rigid-pressing buttons, really different feel. Looking forward to seeing how differently it controls.

We get some exposition with Tibarn revealing that the Black Knight is in Castle Naddos, and then it's on to the base.

And we get Tanith's A support with Marcia.

Okay, so apparently Tanith's some kind of military tsundere who's ridiculously hard on Marcia because she has high hopes for her and wants her to lead the Begnion pegasus knights one day, but like, Marcia had absolutely no concept that she was even doing well apparently, thanks to Tanith's attitude and unwillingness to admit this until she had to. Pretty awkward, and also, doesn't Marcia ditch Begnion and sign up with Crimea in the sequel? So this entire A rank support's ending is rendered entirely pointless, because even though she's offered her job back in that “touching” moment, she's not gonna take it.

We also get another conversation with Bastian and Volke, where it's revealed that Bastian's concerns have just been... resolved behind the scenes, in secret, because he's Bastian and this is Volke. Bit of a cop-out, but if the deployment slots keep up in the endgame, I might be able to see the ending naturally and figure out if this has any real payoff in the A support. Going by this game's track record, though? Not likely. Honestly, either I've been amazingly unlucky, or this game has the worst support conversations so far in the marathon. The info conversations are so much better-written than most of these.

Anyway, I find myself torn between whether I want to give the two speedwings to Jill or Soren. At this rate, either one would need both of them to cap speed, unfortunately.

...But looking at their Radiant Dawn stats, both of them cap speed on their own, or at least nearly in Soren's case. Soren has more trouble with it, but also caps other stats almost immediately after you get him, making him an excellent bonus experience candidate. So yeah, I think I'll be giving them to Jill, who needs the boost more early on due to being on a team that really could use the help more.

Okay, the order of weapon listing is pretty wonky. For some reason, steel blades are listed in the convoy after knives, instead of being between iron and silver blades.

What I always wondered about forging was why the game makes it cost more for a weapon to have worse stats. It would be nice if that were a way to bring the price down, making the adjustments easier by allowing them to make sacrifices in other areas of the design.

Also, in the info conversations, Ike apologizes to Titania for not telling her about the Black Knight sooner, and he says “there was a lot I had to get clear in my own mind”.

Honestly, this entire thing would have been a better plot point if we actually saw him lie about not knowing who Greil's killer was, because... seriously, it should not be a surprise to us that he never told anyone.

And then he shows that he has Ragnell on him now.

Gee, it sure would be nice if we could use it at the start of this chapter.

“I wasn't thinking about using it. I believed that if I just carried the sword with me, I'd meet the Black Knight again.”

Ike. Dude. Please. Don't do this to me.

You and everyone you love were all cornered by a massive army of soldiers fighting for your lives, and you didn't once think to use the weapon owned by a man strong enough to kill your father!?

...But anyway, this reminds me that it turns out I was wrong. We do get a base for this chapter. Which means... that superfluous conversation last time... was just really emphasizing that you need to run from the Black Knight if you aren't strong enough.

Wooooooooow.

So when Ike says he has a sword capable of hurting the Black Knight, Tibarn says that there's “no choice” but to let the beorc army handle it. “We don't use weapons or shields. Those are beorc tools for beorc alone.” In fairness, they have literally no training with weapons, so the sudden appearance of this super awesome weapon wouldn't mean much to them anyway, but... one, this reminds us yet again that even when faced with the concept of a weapon that's objectively better than their claws and talons, they still go “we don't use those” like it's some matter of pride, and two, the game later proceeds to, completely unexplained, reveal that laguz royalty like Tibarn are strong enough to hurt people in blessed armor.

But then we get a talk with Ike and Mist, and I like it. It feels like one of those moments we never really got in the series until FE7.

We also get a brief scene with Elincia and Bastian (because Elincia feigned illness to let Mist talk to Ike) that I don't like quite as much, but it's... okay.

But then we get a scene with the Black Knight, and... it seems to imply that the Black Knight has just been taking the length of this entire battle to execute Ena.

Also, verdict: the non-bootleg D pad is still shit for this, unfortunately. It's very, very easy to accidentally hit right or left when scrolling up or down on vertical menus, similar to the Switch Pro controller. It's like a balancing act, just pressing one button and not hitting the adjacent ones too. If you asked me to play Hollow Knight using this D pad, I would probably just beg for death. I'll have to see how it controls on the actual map though.

Yeah, holy shit, if anything it's even worse on the map. This thing is tiny and awkward. It occurs to me there's probably a reason I never touched this thing as a kid. Thank goodness I'll be going back to a better D pad on the Wii next week.

Ooh! I found the double bow! I seem to remember always struggling to figure out where this was as a kid, but apparently it was on a thief this whole time. Guess I just wasn't fast enough.

Shit, looks like Ike's HP dud level up was level 19. Meaning he has to get to level 20 in order to max out here. This map is really small-looking, so I'm a bit concerned about that...

Anyway, I just saw one of aether's attacks miss for the first time. I almost forgot that could happen. Guess Ike is just that accurate.

The enemies here are very minimal, but I do need to hurry to get to those thieves on the east side I didn't see before.

Yet again the game has decided it suddenly wants to be arbitrary with which siege tome users can and can't move. Great. Fantastic. That's going to just be wonderful for my sanity.

But I also got a fortify staff, which should be great for Mist.

Soren critted with the spare 2-use bolting I gave him just in case, allowing me to more easily set this next room up for Zihark to get some exp.

One of the thieves is managing to get away with a spear, but unless he's just escaping with that alone when there are more chests to loot, I've got his number. I should be able to make it to stop him in time.

Alright, success. Ike has capped HP, strength, skill, speed, and defense. He's level 20, and he's ready to take on the Black Knight. Unfortunately, due to misusing Soren's remaining bolting after deciding to retreat a bit with my small group of units to the left side, I failed to stop the thief from getting another chest. Let's see what the damage is...

...A laguz axe. No problem. I don't care. I'll kill him and nab the spear then. And the other chests...?

Ooh! A resolve scroll! Thank goodness the thief didn't take that! That's probably going on Zihark. Or maybe Soren.

Bolganone is significantly less interesting, but we've got two chests left in the central room.

We get a physic and a silver lance. Okay, that's fine. I'll have Zihark take out the boss and then we'll arrive.

But I've gotta remember to give Mist the physic staff and any other good staves I have. Super important, I've kind of been trading them around between her and Elincia.

Alright. She's got restore, physic and mend.

...Time to fight the Black Knight.

So, BK almost kills Ena by the time Ike arrives, and does that “noble demon” thing where he honorably makes it quick and also promises to convey her last words. But despite his promise, he doesn't kill her. He just gravely wounds her. I'm not sure if this is because Ike interrupted or because it was on purpose, but...

...Anyway, Ike gets ready to fight, and then Mist rides in to his aid. And I love this. This is just such a great moment in Mist's character, because of course she'd do this. Not only has she made it clear that she demands to be by Ike's side when either of them die, but as their talks together in this chapter and elsewhere have revealed, she also needs closure for Greil's death almost as much as Ike does.

Alright, turn one. I go in close and personal. BK is way stronger, but I have a healer, and as long as I get at least one aether and not a lot of bad luck, I should be fine. If not, I can still survive.

...BK gets a 34 damage luna on turn one, but thankfully, Mist is strong enough that she can fully heal even that with physic. It should be safe in nearly all situations to stay on the aggressive and attack on every player phase.

AND I GET AETHER! Not only that, but Ike dodges BK's counter-attack! So now I'm in the clear! BK is mortally wounded, at 12 HP, at the end of my second player phase.

BK gets another luna, but it doesn't matter. He's down to 9 HP. I could try to kill him now, but the issue is that if I miss, two lunas could ruin Ike. I'm gonna hold off since I have time to ignore this turn. But only this one. These soldiers will kick Mist's ass if I let them overwhelm her.

Ike gets aether again, and the Black Knight goes down.

HOLY SHIT.

Words can't describe how epic this moment always was as a kid. This massive, terrifying, until now literally-unkillable badass, finally slain in an epic showdown with the main character right after he gets what's probably the best sword in Fire Emblem history. A fight so hard that the game devs had to make it optional. And you won. There was no beating the feeling in that moment as a kid.

Of course, how RNG-dependent it is can be frustrating, but one thing I like about it is how much tangible help Mist provides. This is her battle too, big time, and if you train her, she really gets to save the day.

Of course, then they activate the traps. I could've sworn that when Nasir arrives, he brings the castle down himself, but I guess they just have explosives.

I'm kind of confused why Nasir has to die if you don't kill the Black Knight. The traps go off at the same time, Nasir's still in the room, and he even goes in deeper to grab Ena. Lemme see what the script says...

...Okay, the script is really scant on stage directions, so I have to assume the Black Knight still being “alive” means that Nasir has to stay to hold him off while the castle collapses.

...I wish Ike thanked Mist for her help, really, because there's no way in hell he's winning most of the time without her. If you've won, chances are he's got cause to thank her for saving his ass. The fact that he doesn't, that this is portrayed as being all on him, is a little disappointing.

But at least Titania praises her.

...Nasir then reveals how old dragons can be, and then reveals that Kurthnaga, despite being “the youngest in all of Goldoa”, is “at least a hundred years old”.

Jesus. Do these guys breed like frozen pandas or something? HOW HAVE YOU NOT HAD A SINGLE BIRTH FOR YOUR ENTIRE SPECIES IN OVER A CENTURY?

Anyway, Ike places a lot of trust in Nasir, though at least when Nasir still proves uncooperative in the information department, he isn't happy with it, and tells him that if he's really not their enemy, he can prove it by helping.

Right, so they give more exposition about the medallion and Palmeni Temple, and...

...Okay, so, yet again, Sephiran can't have been responsible for giving Ashnard that first kidnapped heron 20 years ago, right? If Sephiran knew full well that only his own descendants could sing the Galdr of Release, why the fuck would he pointlessly give an innocent heron over to a guy who would torture her and not even bring about the apocalypse he wanted!? This has to have been something Ashnard did on his own, or else Lehran, despite being the husband of the progenitress of the bloodline that can use the Galdr of Release, somehow knows less about how the Galdr of Release works than the herons do.

Aaand looks like that's it for today. Only two chapters to go.

...And only two chapters to get Soren and Zihark to level 20.

...Which means I'm probably not going to get to have too much fun with Ragnell Ike.

...Not getting to have too much fun with Ragnell Ike, as you will see, is something of a recurring theme in this duology.

Stay safe, everyone.

[Jotari]

42 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

right after he gets what's probably the best sword in Fire Emblem history. 

Binding Blade would like a word with you (and before you say durability, Binding Blade doens't need much more durability in the three chapters its around for). Balmung too coming to think of it. Not 2 range but it will kill anything it touches.

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Binding Blade would like a word with you (and before you say durability, Binding Blade doens't need much more durability in the three chapters its around for). Balmung too coming to think of it. Not 2 range but it will kill anything it touches.

Oh I beg to differ. I could have gotten way more fun out of the Binding Blade if I could be more liberal with its use, but was constantly hampered by its limited uses, and even had to use hammerne on it. And in exchange it gets... 15 more hit and 5 more crit, and +5 res. Compared to infinite durability and immunity to non-wrath crits. And that's to say nothing about the ridiculous availability Ragnell gets in the sequel.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh I beg to differ. I could have gotten way more fun out of the Binding Blade if I could be more liberal with its use, but was constantly hampered by its limited uses, and even had to use hammerne on it. And in exchange it gets... 15 more hit and 5 more crit, and +5 res. Compared to infinite durability and immunity to non-wrath crits. And that's to say nothing about the ridiculous availability Ragnell gets in the sequel.

Sequel Ragnell maybe, but there's only two chapters here and let's face it Ike isn't exactly facing many crits anyway. That 15 lacking hit also does hurt a lot, especially if you're giving Ike his father's legacy and a blessed Urvan with it's insane 110%+ hit for an axe. Binding Blade also works as an elixer...if you ever feel like using its durability for that. Maybe one could say Ragnell is a more fun weapon, but straight up Binding Blade is better in everything but durability (it even beats PoR Ragnell in availability too).

Edited July 22, 2020 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Sequel Ragnell maybe, but there's only two chapters here and let's face it Ike isn't exactly facing many crits anyway. That 15 lacking hit also does hurt a lot, especially if you're giving Ike his father's legacy and a blessed Urvan with it's insane 110%+ hit for an axe. Binding Blade also works as an elixer...if you ever feel like using its durability for that. Maybe one could say Ragnell is a more fun weapon, but straight up Binding Blade is better in everything but durability (it even beats PoR Ragnell in availability too).

But durability is such a massive deal. May I remind you the Binding Blade can only be used to one-round ten enemies before it breaks?

Edited July 22, 2020 by Alastor15243

[Shadow Mir]

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So, BK almost kills Ena by the time Ike arrives, and does that “noble demon” thing where he honorably makes it quick and also promises to convey her last words. But despite his promise, he doesn't kill her. He just gravely wounds her. I'm not sure if this is because Ike interrupted or because it was on purpose, but...

Ena has Miracle, so there's that too.