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


Alastor15243
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8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Replicate, for one thing. And having Master Ninja as an option.

I always misname someone. It feels like it happens once a game at least.

I don't really think Replicate is a big deal, personally - putting aside the level 15 skill part, there's the issue where if the replica dies, the original unit dies as well.

Sounds like what happens to Butch and Stephan in the Pokemon anime has become a running gag here.

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15 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Fates... the thing is I have a feeling Fates' story might be worse than Awakening, but the issue is that its story is bad in a way that I find tremendously entertaining for a variety of reasons. So I'm worried this is causing me to say less than I normally would, but I'm not sure.

fates being its own world and not having multitudes of canon violations makes its horrible story easier to have fun with. i can get there with awakening most of the time (enough that i think awakening is better written overall), but sometimes the disrespect is too big. that might be the same reason for you!

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8 hours ago, Jotari said:

It is if you're good at Fire Emblem.

Don't give me that BS when the rewards I'm talking about require all of the NPCs surviving when one of them is a suicidal lemming that thinks it's a good idea to attack ninjas on a fort when they have WTA over him. For all that, I'd expect something that's Zacian-Crowned levels of broken as the reward (as an aside, Zacian-Crowned was recently banned from Ubers, making it the first Pokemon banned from Ubers since Mega Rayquaza).

Edited by Shadow Mir
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24 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Don't give me that BS when the rewards I'm talking about require all of the NPCs surviving when one of them is a suicidal lemming that thinks it's a good idea to attack ninjas on a fort when they have WTA over him.

I feel you are exaggerating. 

There´s Frederick, who deals very well with practically every enemy that isn´t the boss. Chrom is just the timer of the map and Lissa is the neat occasional heal. Obviously Frederick won´t hold up that well in later stages of the game.

As of chapter 10 for Conquest and chapter 12 for Rev - unlocking the Camilla - Ninjas should not be an issue, seeing as only 2 spawn at a time - except the last spawn with 4 - and the closest pair of forts is easily blocked. All you need is, as per Fates Standard Procedures, throw Camilla at the problem with some Refreshing and you are good to go. Doing so makes saving Frederick from the Boss´ Counter-Skill your only concern. 

And the rewards... I mean free promoted bases? Great Lord vastly improves most of the girls performance and the only problem I see with Lodestar is swordlock - which at least Xander and Ryoma don´t care much about. Oh yeah, in your specific case, smithed Pebbles for maximum accuracy.

Now Birthright is an entirely different story and I haven´t messed around to much with DLC on that path but chapter 14(?) should have a considerable powerspike with Ryoma and Scarlett. Edit: Also Takumi for maximum accuracy, Reina for prepromoted goodness. Pick either, throw in Corrin and Azura and you should be good to go.

Edited by Imuabicus
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Revelation Day 9: Chapter 14

And now it's time to get Elise! Finally! It was a bit of a pain only having one healer.

First, of course, castle maintenance. I gave Selena a princess crown for her birthday, an also, amusingly, apparently Keaton and the avatar regularly go around pranking people, judging by his private quarters line.

As I watch Mozu kick the arena's ass again (though this time not as resoundingly as usual), I suddenly realize how weird it is that shuriken can be used as melee weapons. Like, why don't they throw them at close range similar to how magic works? They're gripping them like a knife for close combat when there's no fucking handle, no way to get a good grip for thrusting or slashing. Even assuming the use of protective gloves (which they probably would be using anyway even when just throwing them), shuriken do not seem like weapons built to be used like knives.

Ooooh! Guys, your battle point contributions just netted me a levin sword! Sweet!

...Unfortunately Dakota's magic and resistance stats are absolute garbage, so there's no way in hell he'll be using either of them. Dakota is level 18 as a wyvern rider and has a magic stat of 2. Which apparently means he's gotten exactly one magic level up... in seventeen levels.

Wyvern rider doesn't even have a bad magic growth! It's got a decent 10% growth to help you become a malig knight!

I just used all three early-game talismans on Dakota, because I'm tired of him getting brutalized by every single magic enemy. His res stat was actually above-average already, but magic users just do too much damage to him. Any future talismans I get will go to Xander, however.

Oh shit I have a lot of supports. Alright, I'll skim over them and only talk about anything I find interesting.

Oh god, it's Camilla. Yeah, yet again I find it hilarious how completely oblivious Dakota is to the overtly fetishistic nature of Camilla's “big sisterliness”, and how he just acts like this is just a mildly annoying overbearing big sister or mother figure. He's being invited to plant his face on Camilla's naked thighs, mere inches from bikini panties with a front triangle whose dimensions he could probably match by steepling his fingers, and he's just... annoyed. How are they going to reconcile this with Dakota turning out to be attracted to her after all in the S support?

As for his support with Kagero, I find the line “After careful observation of the army, I've realized that you are critical to morale” pretty ridiculous. This line makes sense in Birthright, because in Birthright and Conquest... I don't think the avatar was ever actually declared or treated like the leader of the army. But here... he's blatantly the leader, so this line is pretty hilarious here, like she's going “after much investigation, I have discovered that people need oxygen to breathe”. Also, Kagero says she has spent “most of [her] life” in service to the Hoshido royal family. I sure hope that isn't implying that this woman who is clearly not a day over 25 has been a soldier since she was twelve. ...Oh, who the fuck am I kidding? This game has child soldiers up the wazoo already.

Awwwww, poor Sakura. You sweet little precious strawberry. Watching her freaked out by Azura's scary stories is pretty adorable. I wanna hug her.

Alright, Mozu and Hinata time. ...I actually like this. It's just a normal conversation about an interesting subject, in this case haggling. ...Though I'm starting to get curious how out of left field the S support is gonna be, and if there are gonna be any haggling references or jokes in it.

No comment on Hayato and Felicia, except that it's slightly less patronizing this time.

Keaton and Selena's was really short. Just a raw setup to an offscreen competition. Shame, I actually like their dynamic.

Okay, this is annoying. So, the pillar decoration can be passed through in My Castle navigation mode, but the fort decoration can't. That makes the place I wanted to put it (guarding a chokepoint) super inconvenient for traveling around.

...Super inconvenient by the standards of My Castle, I mean. It's still child's play compared to the mess that is Garreg Mach.

Right, time to do Chapter 14 and then do the castle visits afterwards. I'll use the upgraded mess hall to do macaroni and cheese and give everyone +2 speed and defense.

Off to Port Dia, the site of what is arguably the best chapter in Conquest, and... yeah, if you think we're getting anything remotely like that here... welcome, first-time reader! I'm happy you dropped in, but I'd recommend at least starting from the beginning of this game's playlog. You can find the link to the start of Revelation in the OP!

...Pffffft.

I just remembered how dumb the siege weapons look in zoomed-in battle view. There's this huge empty room Xander and Iago are talking in, and then in my peripheral vision I see what looks like a giant golden lion head in the background, surrounded by literally nothing but floor.

...Ah yes, and here's the scene where Leo and Xander...

...Okay, first off, it starts with this pretty cool effect of them having the conversation while walking down a hallway. But they don't loop the walking so that it lasts until the point where they need to stop, so it kinda just lamely stops in front of the door if you take too long. But more importantly... Xander says that Garon's just “under the weather” and will get better once they win, but then...

...yeah, Garon is just completely bonkers for no reason, and outright tells Xander to destroy not only Hoshido, but also Nohr. And it is only because Garon inexplicably acts like even more of a mustache-twirling lunatic that Xander behaves any differently in Revelation than he does in Birthright.

And they try to phrase Xander's words vaguely enough, and with enough double-meaning, to make it sound like he's planning on killing Dakota at the bottomless canyon when really he plans on joining him, but they lay it on a bit thick and have Xander object to something he doesn't actually object to anymore, and... yeah this whole scene is beyond dumb.

Ooh! I forgot! Silas! We get Silas here!

I'm actually interested in using Silas in at least one of these playthroughs. I've heard great things about what Silas can do as a master ninja.

...Oh man.

Dakota: How did you get Xander and Leo to let you leave?

Elise: Oh, that was easy. I didn't tell them!

Elise is just precious.

...But the voice acting of the cutscene that follows is... awkward as heck.

Ah yes, and now we get Arthur and Effie. Arthur I like a lot. Honestly, his “I have no crit evade” gimmick never stopped me from using him... it was usually his speed level ups not doing so hot that caused me to drop him after my first Conquest run. His personality is really amusing and charming to me. As for Effie, while I'm really interested in using her in Conquest, when it comes to her personality, I'm... neutral on her. Though I will say, hearing that she was apparently completely changed in localization, and that the whole “tomboy gym-bro” shit was something Treehouse completely made up... makes me curious to find out what she was really like before.

Okay, I really like how this game actually lets you see your start-of-map allies on the prep screen, though I would like it if it let you trade stuff to their inventories too.

Anyway, Elise announces that she's gonna try to recruit enemy units by talking to them, in a very rare instance of that in this game. I can't actually think of many times when that happens in this game. The nature of how your armies work in each route generally means you can't convince your enemies to join you. They're on opposite sides of the map, which is a bit of a pain. Though they have way better starting stats than the other... fighter-knight duo... that joins... in this map.

...They have to be doing this on purpose. They have to be giving us one duo and then an objectively better duo in quick succession on purpose.

Charlotte and Arthur is at least a closer call because Charlotte's only 1 level higher, but with Effie, Benny beats her out by seven levels.

Weirdly, this map has the same dragon vein as Conquest Chapter 10, in the same place at the end of the map, even though it has nearly no strategic merit here whatsoever. Oh well, whatever.

Prime example of why you need to be careful about how much you rely on dual guards: if I hadn't been extra paranoid in making sure Dakota had an extra defensive aura from Sakura when fighting these three enemies, he would have been slaughtered by his failure to proc a single dual guard due to getting two consecutive dragon fangs and one-shotting the first two enemies. Of course, I wish that weapon triangle didn't have that annoying “rank-based bonus” thing that makes it so much more annoying to figure out how much damage the enemy will do without looking it up because the game doesn't tell you about it. Really, it's the only blemish on this game's otherwise-stellar usability, and sadly every single game with the two-screened system has had this problem. I have to remember: B and A rank weapons get +1 with WTA, and S rank weapons get +2. But I also have to remember the weapon rank bonuses that enemies lose if they get weapon triangle disadvantage, though usually I don't bother with that and just assume they don't lose it just to be safe.

...Jesus christ this game's making me lose my edge. If the enemy hadn't been dumb enough to have the outlaw attack Dakota right when he had a dual guard, I would've lost the ironman right there, and all because I didn't highlight the new reinforcement outlaw in red. That's two times units have nearly died due to me not paying attention, in as many days.

...Ah yes, it's “girl”, the generic Nohrian villager portrait that's... honestly really, really cute. Like, her design is charming enough to be a playable character's portrait. Her bandana makes her actually look pretty cool, too!

I'm setting up a massive pair-up chain to get Elise all the way from the east side of the map to the west so that she can recruit Benny and Charlotte in quick succession.

Elise: I'm not young, just short for my age!

Fuck this line. Fuck everything about this line.

But yeah, Charlotte's pretty funny. I think I might try to use her, probably in Conquest. Maybe. There are a lot of units I haven't gotten to use before that I want to use in this playlog, and a lot of mainstays I can't bear to be without, so... we'll see if we have room. Depends on who dies.

At this rate, somebody's probably going to here at least.

...Honestly, the dialogue between Dakota and Silas here would be pretty sad if it weren't for the fact that it's a foregone conclusion that he survives.

...I find it weird that Dakota's favorite food changes depending on the route rather than by anything to do with character customization. Depending on what route you pick, it could be surf 'n turf, vegetarian chowder, or as is the case here, tangy coleslaw. One thing I do like though is the subtle thing where all three of these foods are made by mixing Hoshidan and Nohrian ingredients.

...Nope, my mistake. Tangy Coleslaw is pure Nohrian. That's... really weird then. You'd think that'd be the only way they'd be able to justify connecting what his favorite food is to what route you wound up picking. You'd think the pure Nohrian one would be in Conquest, then a pure Hoshidan one in Birthright and a mix in Revelation.

That said... I always found the idea of Dakota just flat-out forgetting his childhood best friend was a bit... dumb. Especially given how easily he remembers.

Awww. I love this scene where Elise meets Sakura and Azura. Especially the adorable music that plays. But yeah, with that, the chapter is over.

Time to do some visiting!

...I didn't know you could make Anna's theme play in My Castle. Isn't that DLC? Does it ever play in the main game anywhere?

But more importantly, you get a chef's hat! And you get a chef's hat! And you get a chef's hat! EVERYONE GETS A CHEF'S HAT!

...And if any of you have an arena shield, please send one my way! You don't even lose it, you just send me a copy! I'm also a fan of fox tails, if anyone has one to send!

...Weird that I've only made one bond unit so far. I wonder why it's taking a different number of accessories for each?

...Anyway, we've got some more supports. Something is telling me I don't want to try a second map today, so let's finish up with this.

Ah, so here's Camilla and Takumi's support. I've heard people ship these two a lot.

...Uh, yeah. I can... hahahaha... I can totally see why. It's not exactly the deepest or most profound character dynamic... but it's really amusing to see the edgy little brother with the massive competitive streak and inferiority complex have to deal with Camilla focusing all of her big-tiddy-onee-san energy squarely on him like a wolf hunting a deer. I am definitely looking forward to watching the next one, preferably with some popcorn.

Keaton: Hey Azura. You're looking kind of down. Did someone nab your favorite treasure?

Azura: No. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm always like this.

...This reads almost identically to one of those generic call-and-response talk sets from Awakening and Fates. Like the “you seem happy today” ones, but the opposite. Not to say that necessarily makes it bad writing, it's just... amusing to think about.

And now the game acts like Effie is significantly stronger than Keaton, which... okay, in fairness, they don't seem to remotely be implying he's transformed, and he is at least just barely managing the feat of strength Effie was showing off instead of being crushed by the giant log. Still though, you'd think if there was anyone in the army they'd concede Effie isn't stronger than, it'd be the gigantic fucking wolf monster.

...Yeah, I really can't overstate just how much more painless and simple My Castle is to navigate compared to Garreg Mach. It probably helps that you can get to anywhere in My Castle on-foot faster than you can get to anywhere in Garreg Mach by teleporting. And making stuff like this quick, efficient and painless is vitally important when you tie this shit to how well you do in a game. My Castle has absolutely nothing as ridiculously time-consuming as fishing or tea time, for example. Garreg Mach is just watching someone put a colossal amount of effort into a feature that actively makes the game worse.

But anyway, that's it for today. Something's telling me today shouldn't be a twofer, so... it won't be.

Stay safe, everyone!

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15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Oh god, it's Camilla. Yeah, yet again I find it hilarious how completely oblivious Dakota is to the overtly fetishistic nature of Camilla's “big sisterliness”, and how he just acts like this is just a mildly annoying overbearing big sister or mother figure. He's being invited to plant his face on Camilla's naked thighs, mere inches from bikini panties with a front triangle whose dimensions he could probably match by steepling his fingers, and he's just... annoyed. How are they going to reconcile this with Dakota turning out to be attracted to her after all in the S support?

...Super inconvenient by the standards of My Castle, I mean. It's still child's play compared to the mess that is Garreg Mach.

...yeah, Garon is just completely bonkers for no reason, and outright tells Xander to destroy not only Hoshido, but also Nohr. And it is only because Garon inexplicably acts like even more of a mustache-twirling lunatic that Xander behaves any differently in Revelation than he does in Birthright.

ntion, in as many days.

...Ah yes, it's “girl”, the generic Nohrian villager portrait that's... honestly really, really cute. Like, her design is charming enough to be a playable character's portrait. Her bandana makes her actually look pretty cool, too!

Elise: I'm not young, just short for my age!

Fuck this line. Fuck everything about this line.

 

...I find it weird that Dakota's favorite food changes depending on the route rather than by anything to do with character customization. Depending on what route you pick, it could be surf 'n turf, vegetarian chowder, or as is the case here, tangy coleslaw. One thing I do like though is the subtle thing where all three of these foods are made by mixing Hoshidan and Nohrian ingredients.

...Nope, my mistake. Tangy Coleslaw is pure Nohrian. That's... really weird then. You'd think that'd be the only way they'd be able to justify connecting what his favorite food is to what route you wound up picking. You'd think the pure Nohrian one would be in Conquest, then a pure Hoshidan one in Birthright and a mix in Revelation.

That said... I always found the idea of Dakota just flat-out forgetting his childhood best friend was a bit... dumb. Especially given how easily he remembers.

...Yeah, I really can't overstate just how much more painless and simple My Castle is to navigate compared to Garreg Mach. It probably helps that you can get to anywhere in My Castle on-foot faster than you can get to anywhere in Garreg Mach by teleporting. And making stuff like this quick, efficient and painless is vitally important when you tie this shit to how well you do in a game. My Castle has absolutely nothing as ridiculously time-consuming as fishing or tea time, for example. Garreg Mach is just watching someone put a colossal amount of effort into a feature that actively makes the game worse.

 

I swear Garreg would be better if those dead ends were just open, there were many times I looked at the map, went "oh, there's gotta be a door way here, any logical builder in video games or reality would have a doo-FUCK!" then had to teleport/walk back where I came, like you literally would have to just make a few extra doorways and it'd be 100 times better.

It's really blatant in the upstairs Seteth's office area, like you could navigate that place much faster if it just formed a complete "O" Shape instead of the sorta "C" shape it has for the outer corridors but no you have to always go the long way using the middle corridor, I swear I'd burn the place down if the game let me.

Elise is so blatantly underage it's really not funny, like you'd have to have taken an Emmeryn-style fall to even remotely believe that, it really does come across as trying to cater towards certain groups but not wanting to get in trouble for having paedophilla in a 12-rated game, then again, if I remember, there's at least one character that still calls you their sister if you S-rank them in the Japanese version, during the romance event as part of their proposal so they're definitely going for fetish value when you're still getting called "Corrin-nee-san" during a "romantic" s-rank.

Yeah it says alot when your generic villagers have a more appealing design than your main female characters, give me bandana Village girl over Camilla anyday, add her to Heroes IS!, I'm getting tired of shooting down Camilla because she's really popular in the Arena for some reason.

 

Edited by Samz707
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56 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Don't give me that BS when the rewards I'm talking about require all of the NPCs surviving when one of them is a suicidal lemming that thinks it's a good idea to attack ninjas on a fort when they have WTA over him. For all that, I'd expect something that's Zacian-Crowned levels of broken as the reward (as an aside, Zacian-Crowned was recently banned from Ubers, making it the first Pokemon banned from Ubers since Mega Rayquaza).

Not that hard if you're good at Fire Emblem (yeah this is pretty much how I'm going to reply as standard to you're bitching in the future, well that and reminding everyone you haven't played half the games you complain about).

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15 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Arthur I like a lot. Honestly, his “I have no crit evade” gimmick never stopped me from using him... it was usually his speed level ups not doing so hot that caused me to drop him after my first Conquest run. His personality is really amusing and charming to me.

I like his personality too, but his gimmick of having no crit evade is just something I cannot abide in a game as unforgiving as these, especially when he brings nothing to the table that remotely makes up for it.

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23 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah, so here's Camilla and Takumi's support. I've heard people ship these two a lot.

...Uh, yeah. I can... hahahaha... I can totally see why. It's not exactly the deepest or most profound character dynamic... but it's really amusing to see the edgy little brother with the massive competitive streak and inferiority complex have to deal with Camilla focusing all of her big-tiddy-onee-san energy squarely on him like a wolf hunting a deer. I am definitely looking forward to watching the next one, preferably with some popcorn.

Personally, I found their support creepy and kind of condescending. Takumi being paranoid around her at first is justified, not only is she a Nohrian princess but she's the one who is actually dangerous. I found it distasteful that Camilla obviously knows what makes him tick and pulls at those obvious strings to ... ah, "manipulate" (for lack of a better word) him into making impulsive decisions he might not have been entirely comfortable with. Comes off as being disrespectful of people's boundaries.

And, uh, yeah. Elise is clearly underage and I don't think anything more has to be said about it. Fates was just bad in making her a romanceable option who can have kids who are born immediately in this game and not after some years later.

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1 minute ago, Sunwoo said:

Personally, I found their support creepy and kind of condescending. Takumi being paranoid around her at first is justified, not only is she a Nohrian princess but she's the one who is actually dangerous. I found it distasteful that Camilla obviously knows what makes him tick and pulls at those obvious strings to ... ah, "manipulate" (for lack of a better word) him into making impulsive decisions he might not have been entirely comfortable with. Comes off as being disrespectful of people's boundaries.

I just got to the C support, to be clear.

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9 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

If you have nothing intelligent left to post, then you get a one-way ticket to Ignoreville, because I don't need to kill my brain cells dealing with the likes of you. And you're clearly asking for it anyway.

Plenty of intelligent things to say. Namely here that doing Before Awakening in the first half of the game results in some great rewards and can be done without too much trouble, if you're good at Fire Emblem that is.

3 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just got to the C support, to be clear.

(Just quoting this here because getting the specific part of the main topic without residual quotes is annoying on mobile)

One thing I will say about my castle and pacing is that I quickly grew very impatient with the personal quarters. Maybe when it had the actual face touching stuff it was more engaging, but for me it just passes so slowly just to get some support points, I basically never go near it at all anymore.

Edited by Jotari
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1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Plenty of intelligent things to say. Namely here that doing Before Awakening in the first half of the game results in some great rewards and can be done without too much trouble, if you're good at Fire Emblem that is.

Two cents: I've done it early-game. Can't remember when though.

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4 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I just got to the C support, to be clear.

Noted. It's been a while, I can't remember if the things I didn't like were present in C-support or not. However, I'm almost certain they are in B.

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12 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Personally, I found their support creepy and kind of condescending. Takumi being paranoid around her at first is justified, not only is she a Nohrian princess but she's the one who is actually dangerous. I found it distasteful that Camilla obviously knows what makes him tick and pulls at those obvious strings to ... ah, "manipulate" (for lack of a better word) him into making impulsive decisions he might not have been entirely comfortable with. Comes off as being disrespectful of people's boundaries.

I can agree, at least as far as the C support goes, but I don't remember if things improve as the chain progresses.

1 hour ago, Imuabicus said:

I feel you are exaggerating. 

There´s Frederick, who deals very well with practically every enemy that isn´t the boss. Chrom is just the timer of the map and Lissa is the neat occasional heal. Obviously Frederick won´t hold up that well in later stages of the game.

As of chapter 10 for Conquest and chapter 12 for Rev - unlocking the Camilla - Ninjas should not be an issue, seeing as only 2 spawn at a time - except the last spawn with 4 - and the closest pair of forts is easily blocked. All you need is, as per Fates Standard Procedures, throw Camilla at the problem with some Refreshing and you are good to go. Doing so makes saving Frederick from the Boss´ Counter-Skill your only concern. 

And the rewards... I mean free promoted bases? Great Lord vastly improves most of the girls performance and the only problem I see with Lodestar is swordlock - which at least Xander and Ryoma don´t care much about. Oh yeah, in your specific case, smithed Pebbles for maximum accuracy.

Now Birthright is an entirely different story and I haven´t messed around to much with DLC on that path but chapter 14(?) should have a considerable powerspike with Ryoma and Scarlett. Edit: Also Takumi for maximum accuracy, Reina for prepromoted goodness. Pick either, throw in Corrin and Azura and you should be good to go.

Frederick being practically impenetrable is nice, but as I made clear, I'm more concerned about Chrom either killing himself or ending up in a position where the ninjas that come out of the forts can lunge chain him into a position where something else can finish him off (or even wind up defeating him themselves, which isn't inconceivable considering they have Poison Strike). 

Edited by Shadow Mir
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3 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

Frederick being practically impenetrable is nice, but as I made clear, I'm more concerned about Chrom either killing himself or ending up in a position where the ninjas that come out of the fort can lunge chain him into a position where something else can finish him off (or even wind up defeating him themselves, which isn't inconceivable considering they have Poison Strike). 

Hence why I called Chrom a timer.

Thankfully that isn´t a problem because with Camilla x Azura and some Frederick back-up goodness enemies die before they can lunge, especially when considering that both Freddie and Camilla have more move than him. Add Corrin, Silas, Effie, or Elise (this being the CQ variant) into the mix and you will only deal with a grand total of 4 reinforcement Ninjas and a bunch of Onis, Spear Fighters and Samurai, who will very unwillingly take the role of Camillas victims. Add Corrin/Silas/Effie dealing damage as need be and you have an easy clear on your hands.

Not like you lose anything if you lose Chrom, other than -2 minutes lifetime - and don´t you still get a super accurate pebble?

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I can enjoy Takumi and Camilla as a pair. They occasionally have some interaction and they clash nicely. One is the decadent, playful and lust driven older sister who adores Corrin, while the other is the conservative, serious and innocent little brother who distrusts Corrin. Given their designs, personalities and interaction they could work as rivals if Leo isn't around. 

I don't like them as a pairing though. The age difference seems pretty steep. Camilla is a grown woman while Takumi is in his teens and probably not exactly on the verge of adulthood either. The supports being about Camilla infantilizing him doesn't help. Camilla teasing the edgy tsundere by treating him as a baby is cute as far as friendly interaction goes, but if it takes romantic undertones it suddenly becomes quite a lot more creepy. 

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2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Of course, I wish that weapon triangle didn't have that annoying “rank-based bonus” thing that makes it so much more annoying to figure out how much damage the enemy will do without looking it up because the game doesn't tell you about it. Really, it's the only blemish on this game's otherwise-stellar usability, and sadly every single game with the two-screened system has had this problem. I have to remember: B and A rank weapons get +1 with WTA, and S rank weapons get +2. But I also have to remember the weapon rank bonuses that enemies lose if they get weapon triangle disadvantage, though usually I don't bother with that and just assume they don't lose it just to be safe.

My way of dealing with it is to look at the weapon might, and add the strength/magic to it when the bonuses aren't there, so I don't have to look the bonuses up.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...I find it weird that Dakota's favorite food changes depending on the route rather than by anything to do with character customization. Depending on what route you pick, it could be surf 'n turf, vegetarian chowder, or as is the case here, tangy coleslaw. One thing I do like though is the subtle thing where all three of these foods are made by mixing Hoshidan and Nohrian ingredients.

...Nope, my mistake. Tangy Coleslaw is pure Nohrian. That's... really weird then. You'd think that'd be the only way they'd be able to justify connecting what his favorite food is to what route you wound up picking. You'd think the pure Nohrian one would be in Conquest, then a pure Hoshidan one in Birthright and a mix in Revelation.

Now that is an interesting detail I have never noticed...

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Weird that I've only made one bond unit so far. I wonder why it's taking a different number of accessories for each?

This is extra weird, seeing as I have literally gotten two of them with your character...

 

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4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Weirdly, this map has the same dragon vein as Conquest Chapter 10, in the same place at the end of the map, even though it has nearly no strategic merit here whatsoever. Oh well, whatever.

I like that, actually. Consistency is nice.

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I have to remember: B and A rank weapons get +1 with WTA, and S rank weapons get +2. But I also have to remember the weapon rank bonuses that enemies lose if they get weapon triangle disadvantage, though usually I don't bother with that and just assume they don't lose it just to be safe.

I always disliked this in the DS games, where you not only have the same weapon rank bonuses which disappear with WTD, but also different weapon rank bonuses for every weapon type. I think FE mechanics generally work better when the KISS principle is in effect.

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5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I find it weird that Dakota's favorite food changes depending on the route rather than by anything to do with character customization. Depending on what route you pick, it could be surf 'n turf, vegetarian chowder, or as is the case here, tangy coleslaw. One thing I do like though is the subtle thing where all three of these foods are made by mixing Hoshidan and Nohrian ingredients.

...Nope, my mistake. Tangy Coleslaw is pure Nohrian. That's... really weird then. You'd think that'd be the only way they'd be able to justify connecting what his favorite food is to what route you wound up picking. You'd think the pure Nohrian one would be in Conquest, then a pure Hoshidan one in Birthright and a mix in Revelation.

That said... I always found the idea of Dakota just flat-out forgetting his childhood best friend was a bit... dumb. Especially given how easily he remembers.

My headcanon is, Silas is totally bullshitting here. He never met Corrin, he's just manufacturing a memory to get into their good graces, thereby not dying a grisly death. Hence, why the food changes each time - he makes it up on the spot.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Anyway, Elise announces that she's gonna try to recruit enemy units by talking to them, in a very rare instance of that in this game. I can't actually think of many times when that happens in this game. The nature of how your armies work in each route generally means you can't convince your enemies to join you. They're on opposite sides of the map, which is a bit of a pain. Though they have way better starting stats than the other... fighter-knight duo... that joins... in this map.

Once again, the problem with "I killed you, but not really, all the enemies survived" is made apparent when you defeat people you want to recruit... and they actually die. Different levels play by different rules, it seems.

5 hours ago, Samz707 said:

I swear Garreg would be better if those dead ends were just open, there were many times I looked at the map, went "oh, there's gotta be a door way here, any logical builder in video games or reality would have a doo-FUCK!" then had to teleport/walk back where I came, like you literally would have to just make a few extra doorways and it'd be 100 times better.

It's really blatant in the upstairs Seteth's office area, like you could navigate that place much faster if it just formed a complete "O" Shape instead of the sorta "C" shape it has for the outer corridors but no you have to always go the long way using the middle corridor, I swear I'd burn the place down if the game let me.

I generally like Garreg Mach, but the one area I'll never forgive is the second-floor dormitory hallway. Usually, there's nobody there, so what's the point to having it? And when there is, you have to run allll the way down to the other end. In case of a fire, there's only one exit. I get why they wanted to give every student a dorm, but how about this: instead, make a staircase at either end of the dorms, so you can access the rooms from the outside.

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

 

I generally like Garreg Mach, but the one area I'll never forgive is the second-floor dormitory hallway. Usually, there's nobody there, so what's the point to having it? And when there is, you have to run allll the way down to the other end. In case of a fire, there's only one exit. I get why they wanted to give every student a dorm, but how about this: instead, make a staircase at either end of the dorms, so you can access the rooms from the outside.

It has grown on me a bit but I still use teleportation often since well, it's not well designed since there's many dead ends and bits that look like they'd connect but oh wait, no that's a brick wall so you have to take the long way around.

 

Edited by Samz707
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3 hours ago, ping said:

I like that, actually. Consistency is nice.

I always disliked this in the DS games, where you not only have the same weapon rank bonuses which disappear with WTD, but also different weapon rank bonuses for every weapon type. I think FE mechanics generally work better when the KISS principle is in effect.

The thing about weapon rank bonuses contributing to the weapon triangle is that it helps to keep the weapon triangle more relevant in late game, as the increase in stats can frequently reduce the actual bonuses the weapon triangle provides compared to early game where it's super critical. So I can get behind it from that perspective, though I do see how it can be annoying to try and calculate how much influence it is having from afar.

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8 minutes ago, Jotari said:

The thing about weapon rank bonuses contributing to the weapon triangle is that it helps to keep the weapon triangle more relevant in late game, as the increase in stats can frequently reduce the actual bonuses the weapon triangle provides compared to early game where it's super critical. So I can get behind it from that perspective, though I do see how it can be annoying to try and calculate how much influence it is having from afar.

Yeah, if they just listed the bonuses when you clicked the weapon rank icon, I think I'd be fine with that.

Edited by Alastor15243
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I finished my playthrough of Birthright today (hard/classic, ironman), after being inspired to pick it up by this thread. And now I've finished, I can start reading this thread again. Yay. (I wanted to go into it entirely sight-unseen and unspoiled, to see what it was like from that perspective.) I have various thoughts which I will leave until we get to the appropriate points of Birthright (or I will forget about them), but the very quick impressions: gameplay was decently fun, though not without some major issues; story and writing were irredeemably foetid.

19 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Yeah, I really can't overstate just how much more painless and simple My Castle is to navigate compared to Garreg Mach. It probably helps that you can get to anywhere in My Castle on-foot faster than you can get to anywhere in Garreg Mach by teleporting. And making stuff like this quick, efficient and painless is vitally important when you tie this shit to how well you do in a game. My Castle has absolutely nothing as ridiculously time-consuming as fishing or tea time, for example. Garreg Mach is just watching someone put a colossal amount of effort into a feature that actively makes the game worse.

In a nice "different strokes for different folks" sort of way, I spent most of my time in My Castle lamenting how it was so completely inferior to Garreg Mach in pretty much every way. For me, My Castle commits two major sins. One is having anything be linked to the passage of real time. I want to play games at my own pace, not be penalised for playing through too much too fast OR incentivised to log in every day even when I don't feel like playing. The other major sin is having online/social aspects inextricably tied to the main single-player campaign. I'm extremely introverted, and I enjoy gaming as a solitary experience. I don't mind that social features exist, but I have zero interest in engaging with them, and being disadvantaged for not doing so sucks. "Oh, hey, I'll upgrade my weapon... oh, wait, never mind, I don't have the right kind of ore so I guess I won't".

Then there are two things that I think Garreg Mach did well which weren't present in My Castle. First are the character interactions, where every unit has something to say about what's going on in the story at the time. The other is more nebulous, but I think is best described as a sense of place. I liked the more weighty feeling of the location because it added to the verisimilitude, immersion and ludonarrative consonance (and I feel like a pretentious asshole for typing that sentence but can't think of any better way to put it). Basically, I enjoyed the world and characters of Three Houses enough that getting to spend more time engaging with them was a joy for me, whereas I can definitely see it being a chore for people who didn't.

I won't defend fishing and tea time, though. They both sucked.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Of course, I wish that weapon triangle didn't have that annoying “rank-based bonus” thing that makes it so much more annoying to figure out how much damage the enemy will do without looking it up because the game doesn't tell you about it. Really, it's the only blemish on this game's otherwise-stellar usability, and sadly every single game with the two-screened system has had this problem. I have to remember: B and A rank weapons get +1 with WTA, and S rank weapons get +2. But I also have to remember the weapon rank bonuses that enemies lose if they get weapon triangle disadvantage, though usually I don't bother with that and just assume they don't lose it just to be safe.

This definitely sucked for me as a first-time player playing without spoilers or any information from outside the game. Stuff like this and stat bonuses/penalties on weapons were awful to try to figure out, tripped me up more than once, and ended up making me paranoid. Even by the end of the game, I still didn't feel that I had a good enough grasp on all of the numbers to accurately predict exactly how much damage a given attack would do.

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