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


Alastor15243
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On 10/16/2020 at 9:25 AM, Alastor15243 said:

 

Actually, that brings up an interesting point... In basically every other continuity that has them, myrmidons are characterized as being warriors native to this one specific place. In Jugdral it's Isaac, in Elibe it's Sacae, in Magvel it's Jehanna, in Awakening's Disneyland version of Archanea it's Chon'sin, and in Fateslandia it's Hoshido. Tellius, Archanea and... Owain are basically the only exceptions I can think of. I can't quite remember if any country was associated with them in Three Houses.

Figured I would add another exception of Makua, whom seems to be from Munster based on her recruitment and ending (although she does look kinda Isaacian...). Shiva and Trude also don't explicitly come from Isaac, both going for a version of the mysterious edgelord archetype, so who knows.

 

6 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so, Merric, who can fight back, was considered a more tempting target than Dolph, who can resist more damage, by the archers. I wish I had a more reliable sense of what their priorities are.

I think Shadow Dragon AI goes for highest damage, with no thoughts of survival.

 

7 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...I think this game might have made this mage's droppable thunder tome lose uses in sync with the non-droppable elfire tome he was actually using.

On the one hand, that is a way of letting enemies scale up their weapons without changing how it plays, or the resources, but on the other hand that is kinda mean.

 

17 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...and miss. Well, no matter, Marth's still gonna survive, and would've even without that angelic robe. But this way he'll be super safe in case something else really goes wrong.

Also, apparently ballista shots don't waste their uses if you miss. Awesome, but confusing beyond all comprehension.

All weapon don't waste uses when they miss, something I found incredibly frustrating when having to break the early game boss's weapons the last time I played this game.

 

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Huh. That's interesting. Marth mentions a villager you can talk to in this chapter, and I have to assume that happens even if you don't talk to her. Basically it's shaken him a bit because he never realized how much of Gra didn't want to fight Archanea, but was forced to by Grust. Which would imply that the decision to turn traitor happened during the war. And obviously if Gra had been taken over by Grust during the planning stage, Altea would have heard about that shit and not trusted Gra's soldiers with Altea's prince. But... okay, surely then the soldiers stationed to guard Marth in the prologue would have been genuinely loyal to Altea, right? Or at least more torn about their orders (which they would have to have gotten without anyone around them finding out) than the cackling, mustache-twirling assholes who tried to capture Marth in the first prologue map. So if the soldiers we fought in the castle weren't the ones originally sent to protect Marth... then what happened to them?

Once again, when the Shadow Dragon team actually tries to add something with the writing they manage to add something interesting. How infrequently they bother with that is simply frustrating as they could have made this game's story far better than it is.

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5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Figured I would add another exception of Makua, whom seems to be from Munster based on her recruitment and ending (although she does look kinda Isaacian...).

In fairness, she also doesn't promote to swordmaster, which makes her more mercenary-ish, but...

5 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Once again, when the Shadow Dragon team actually tries to add something with the writing they manage to add something interesting. How infrequently they bother with that is simply frustrating as they could have made this game's story far better than it is.

Yeah, that's why I said earlier that it felt like a genuinely passionate team was being hampered by minimalist orders. Because it doesn't feel like lazy people wore this, it feels like hard-working people weren't allowed to do more.

But then the localization team may have just been good enough to give me that impression.

Edit: Looks like we're at our 150th pageversary now!

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6 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Figured I would add another exception of Makua, whom seems to be from Munster based on her recruitment and ending (although she does look kinda Isaacian...). Shiva and Trude also don't explicitly come from Isaac, both going for a version of the mysterious edgelord archetype, so who knows.

Trude promotes to mercenary and has white hair, definately not from Isaac. But Shiva is definately from Isaac (look at the hair!) and he promotes to swordmaster. actually, now i find it pretty hilarious that the only two swordmasters not from Isaac (Eyvel and Shanam) are both frauds.

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23 minutes ago, Mars of Aritia said:

Trude promotes to mercenary and has white hair, definately not from Isaac. But Shiva is definately from Isaac (look at the hair!) and he promotes to swordmaster. actually, now i find it pretty hilarious that the only two swordmasters not from Isaac (Eyvel and Shanam) are both frauds.

Trude promotes to swordmaster as well (I admit, I had to look it up, because who actually uses Trude). Also don't be stereotyping with the hair too much, before I check on the script I was tempted to say the same thing about Makua as you did about Shiva, plus Holyn is canonically Isaacian without that raven black hair, so even Isaacians all having black hair isn't set in stone.

citation: in Holyn's chapter 5 convo with Ayra as a lover he reveals he is the son of the Duke (sorry for using an old title, the last time I got the convo was a VERY old translation, and the newer ones use a different title for the leaders of Isaacian castles) of Sophara, one of the Isaacian castles.

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2 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Trude promotes to swordmaster as well (I admit, I had to look it up, because who actually uses Trude). Also don't be stereotyping with the hair too much, before I check on the script I was tempted to say the same thing about Makua as you did about Shiva, plus Holyn is canonically Isaacian without that raven black hair, so even Isaacians all having black hair isn't set in stone.

citation: in Holyn's chapter 5 convo with Ayra as a lover he reveals he is the son of the Duke (sorry for using an old title, the last time I got the convo was a VERY old translation, and the newer ones use a different title for the leaders of Isaacian castles) of Sophara, one of the Isaacian castles.

Oh yeah you're right my mistake, I never used him either lol. And his hair is darker then i remember so I guess he could be from Isaac. Shiva has messy hair like a lot of the Isaacians in fe5 (he looks like Galzus' long lost son lol). And he wears the classic swordmaster long robe like Shanan does. where else could he possibly be from?

Machua (Machyua?, Macha? ...Mature? what a weird name) is an odd one though. Her hair is neater I guess, and does it say she specifically lives in Manster or is she just working as a mercenary with the Magi?

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Shadow Dragon Day 14: Chapter 14

Right, time to take down Gra. Honestly, the buildup for this, while inherently better than the original's for obvious reasons... I mean it's not really great storytelling still. Like, I barely realized until last chapter that we were even headed to Gra. Maybe that's on me, but that was still my experience. Maybe I'm just suffering story burnout and I'm not as attentive as I once was. If so, well... this game couldn't have come at a better time.

As for the much-more-interesting topic of gameplay though, I've reclassed everyone back. Wolf too. I've decided keeping his speed up is more important than getting him some more defense, since again, his HP is already doing wonders for his bulk, but also I've heard enemy attack speeds on H5 are pretty nightmarish, and I'm thinking they won't be that much lower on H3. Wolf only has 8 levels left to gain, and I would love it if I could get him to 27 speed, which might very well mean I'd have a second unit capable of reliably doubling endgame bosses.

...Okay, so he hero cap is apparently 26 speed. Alright. Obviously if Wolf caps speed early, I'll have him do his last level in general.

Also, I just looked it up, and apparently the thunderbolt that Beck came with is the only thunderbolt I'll ever get, so I've gotta make it last. Noted.

There only appears to be one chest, but two thieves. I mean, there was one village but two thieves last time too, but let's see if I'm missing something...

...Yep, I was. There are two chests in that room, I just didn't see one of them. Alright. I'll have to get my fliers down there quick to at least kill the thieves, though obviously they'll have... issues... with the silver bow sniper guarding the actual treasure room. Actually, just like last time, precious few of my units can handle that guy. Though this time Wolf can tank a crit from him, so our options are slightly more reasonable. But wolf's going to have other priorities, so we'll play it by ear.

Alright, I did an inventory check, everything seems in order.

Here's my plan: I'll have Wolf stride over to the north of the room full of archers to take them out with hand axes immediately, so I can get Marth through there to visit that village. Then I'll unlock the bridge, send Lena in to kill the ballistician blocking it at point blank range, and then send Merric in front of her to keep the steel lance knight from attacking her. I'll then fly my dracoknights over the river and down southeast, and then... work out what to do with the rest of the enemy troops as they move.

Let's begin.

Hahahahaha, the solder at the beginning points out the rather unimaginative naming conventions of this continent, where it seems like half the countries, all three of the heroic ones, start with the letter A. I'm surprised he didn't point out that there are two “Gr” countries among the enemy.

Honestly, watching this Jiol guy talk, and remembering that this is the same guy who was in Prologue 4, I... have to wonder how he was ever allied with Altea. How did King Cornelius get along with this guy? He seems like nothing but an asshole and a coward.

Anyway, my plan almost hit a hitch because I forgot to actually make sure Lena had enough magic power to one-round the ballistician. She was actually one shy, but I resolved that by switching her fire tome for a thunder tome with Marth.

Everything else went perfectly according to plan.

Okay, a villager mentions a silver card, so I have to assume I get that soon. I wonder when. This chapter? I don't remember clearly...

Wolf got to level 13 and got a perfect level up. Christ, imagine how much I'd be cheesing this game if I still had two of these guys?

Yeah, that's the thing. My party is... really skewed. I've got a bunch of chip damage scrubs hovering somewhere around level 10 who can take a hit or two but no more, I've got my three fliers who are pretty badass...

...and then I've got Wolf, who just rips enemies to shreds and can take unspeakable amounts of punishment. He's the only guy I have who can wade into the red zone with almost no consequences, and it feels so weird. Yes, he's definitely blessed, but not to such a degree that I couldn't do this shit with him in a fixed growth run. I'm definitely glad I have at least one panic button like this, but I can't help but feel that Sedgar and Wolf being this powerful... was an accident on the developers' part. Like they just assumed that nobody would reclass them or something.

Anyway, I got to the village with Camus in it, and... I was really disappointed that Marth didn't get any lines in this scene. No “hold on a minute... who are you?” or anything. I mean, it has to be Marth, they didn't change that, so I don't get why they can't have him talk. Y'know, similar to the Sacred Stones one with Eirika and Selena.

Alright, Palla and Catria just showed up, and I moved in Marth to let them self-recruit. That does mean that we'll have generic enemy fliers coming from there pretty soon, if memory serves... and I only have Marth and Wolf there besides the Whitewings. Well, Wolf should be enough if anything goes wrong and it's too much for the Whitewings to handle. But I'll have them and the others head for the central area with the shops just like last time so we can try some player-phase tactics.

I wound up taking a tiny bit of a gamble and unlocking the treasure room with Julian so I could rush the sniper in melee with Caeda, who I determined could one-round him with a 97% hit rate with the Black Wolf. It worked. If it didn't, I would've warped someone in who could finish him off.

Apparently Whitewings is short for Whitewinged Order of Macedon. Huh.

Anyway, Palla and Catria are ours, but they have a ways to go before they can do much good for us. They're levels 8 and 5 respectively, which means they've got a lot of chip damage to do before they can promote.

Alright, so, the reinforcement pegasus knights are coming continuously, every turn. Meaning each wave covers the previous one. But thankfully it's the rear of each pair that has the javelin, not the front one, meaning that I can have Jake snipe the javelin one and then attack the front one at 2 range without getting anyone in range of the enemies behind them.

Curiously, Jiol complained about getting “pegasus knights” instead of “The dragoons of Macedon”, but... these pegasus knights are labeled as “dragoon” on the top screen.

Woo! Got the silver card! I wonder if this works on forges! Well, even if it doesn't, it'll still give me more money to burn for forges! And I also got a small bullion, so I've got like 30k right now!

Ooh, nice, Minerva gets to talk to the Whitewings!

Palla: You are our true home, more than Macedon; our true house is the sky around you.

Awwwww!

The one with Catria has Minerva lost in thought about her brother, which... feels weird, since this is supposed to be Minerva greeting Catria for the first time since defecting, right? Maybe they just didn't want to repeat the Palla one...?

Wolf kills the fortify curate who was with the archers in that room at the start, while the rest of my army deals with the pegasus knights. And he finally reaches C swords in the process.

Alright, I think Barst might be next in line for a promotion. He's the highest level unpromoted unit I have, at level 13.

The cavalier trio have all been getting some pretty nice level ups this chapter, actually. And I've been managing to get some great potshots in with Jake using arrowspate. But man do I hope I get to buy some ballista ammunition soon.

Okay, I think my Merric is absurdly speed blessed. Lemme check what he should have by now...

Yeah, according to my calculations, taking into account the time he promoted... he should have 14 speed right now. He has 18.

Alright, the pegasus knight reinforcements have finally ended. I'm not gonna put anyone super fragile in their range yet though, just in case it's a fake-out.

Catria's first level up netted her everything but magic, strength and HP. And I'm including resistance when I say that, so yeah, I'm pretty damned satisfied.

Well that's a dick move. You can sell the silver card, it just won't get you any money. So it's basically just there as a trap on the selling screen.

Yet another swing and a miss for ballista gear in the armory. Is this in a secret shop or something? Lemme look something up...

...Ugh, they don't sell arrowspates until Chapter 22.

Honestly, since they're only 600 gold now, I might as well buy a few ridersbanes, even though they're no longer remotely necessary to handle enemy cavalry... for now at least, I guess. Maybe that'll change.

Well, I just gave thoron to Merric and took a look at its stats. Since excalibur is no longer a Merric-exclusive spell, I guess they saw fit to no longer have thoron be a clone of it. It's slightly worse in crit rate and weight, and is a C rank tome compared to Excalibur's B.

Speaking of Merric and weapon ranks, Merric just reached C staves and can use my other physic staff! Awesome, though I'm hoping I can find more of them soon, I'm still down to 14 uses between the two.

Right, time to finish off the boss with Barst so that I can get him to level 15 in time for the next master seal, whenever we get that (I forget).

But first, I'm gonna fight him with Marth to see if they at least added a special boss convo for this.

...No. They do not. Marth has nothing to say to the man responsible for the death of his father.

...Huh. They didn't include Jiol's dying mention of his daughter that was added in Book 1. I wonder why...?

Anyway, we find out that Falchion isn't here, and that Gharnef made off with it. So despite being so close to Altea, we're taking a detour to Khadein.

...I have to question that. If Altea is right nearby, then surely liberating your homeland would give you more options than getting Falchion back, right? Falchion's really only necessary to fight one guy who isn't moving, so it's not like you'll be ambushed by him and be helpless without it.

...Okay, so Khadein isn't that far away, alright. Fair enough.

Hm... 11:31 AM...?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eahuhkSzkrk


 

Day 14 Bonus: Chapter 15

Alright, so... an army of mages on desert terrain. Sounds like a perfect opportunity to train my new pegasus knights!

Yeah, this seems pretty straightforward. The bishop to the northwest is nowhere near as terrifying as I remember. I'll have my wyvern riders with Palla and Catria to keep guard though, in case anything unexpected happens.

Honestly, maybe it would be a good idea to make these two falcoknights. It would be good to have at least some fliers who still have good magic resistance when promoted. Depends on how their levels turn out I guess.

Alright, better outfit everyone.

...Well this is annoying. Apparently the silver card doesn't work at the prep shop. Well, good to know I guess. Better do more shopping at the shops and armories in chapters then. Thankfully there's two of each here.

Also, speaking of which, my shopping spree last chapter meant I finally have enough vulneraries to put on Wolf and all of my fliers. Awesome, that'll give them more options.

Okay, so, I just started the map, and it seems like Gharnef was surprised to see Marth there. Is that... is that small building with the chests where he usually hangs out?

...I say small... they actually did something really weird here and used indoor castle tiles... on an outdoor map. Meaning that the building Gharnef is in... is actually like three times bigger than the Khadein castle. What the fuck is the building he's in? How did I not notice that in the original NES game?

Anyway, Palla and Catria took out the starting mages, and Palla got a pretty great level up, everything but magic, defense and resistance.

Alright, I used the barrier staff for the second time this game for the express purpose of giving Wolf enough res to realistically tank Gharnef and the nearby mage this turn. I don't know how long it'll be until Gharnef gives up and fucks off, but I know that even Wolf is gonna need help to stay alive if he takes two powerful magic attacks.

Man, I am absurdly grateful I have Wolf right now. Sure, Caeda would avoid getting doubled by Gharnef's 21 speed, but her HP is so much worse than Wolf's that it would've been so much harder to keep her alive. Thankfully, I also have an absurdly speed-blessed Merric who can avoid being doubled by Gharnef too, so I can even get into melee healing range to keep Wolf's HP up without Merric getting creamed.

Man, imagine trying to kill Gharnef with starlight on H5. It must be a nightmare getting a mage with enough speed to do it in a timely fashion. Really, keeping the spheres feels like the most realistic option here. Falchion's looking more and more trash by the day. All that effort for so little reward, I ask you...

Anyway, the dracoknights started flying, but they weren't much of a challenge. My air force managed to make short work of them, and now Catria's in range to fight the bishop. Jake took care of the other dracoknight with arrowspate, and Wendell's riding off to sit on the northeastern fort to avoid any potential ambush spawns.

...It would also appear they ditched the whole “reinforcements spawning out of literal thin air in that building” idea that was in FE1 and I think FE3B1.

Nnnnnnope, they showed up after all.

Oh well. At least there's no way in hell I'd be anywhere near there at this point thanks to Gharnef, so it doesn't really count as an “ambush”. Like nearly all of the reinforcements so far.

Alright, speak of the devil, Gharnef's gone, so now I can feed these mages to Catria while Palla takes out the boss.

Bingo. Alright, all the forts are secured, so it's time to wait out these mage reinforcements and reap the rewards.

I made sure we'd be set for hand axes and javelins for a good long while. Now to get some steel lances. We've been running low on those. And if there's any really, really nice magic, might as well give that a look.

Alright, we got the treasure: a talisman and energy drop. Awesome. The stores also had everything on my shopping list, and I can't help but notice that tomes are much, much lighter in this game than in FE1. Excellent. But I'll be focusing on thunder regardless just so I don't need to think about attack speed with my mages.

Alright, just about to finish off the last of the two mages in the northeast with Catria. And then I'll move Marth over to the castle to seize.

Okay, weirdly, the thunder tome this guy was carrying still has full uses when retrieved, despite the last time the game gave me a thunder tome from a guy using a more powerful tome, they lost uses in sync.

Well, more thunder uses for me then I guess!

Right. I notice that Marth's been talking more and more as the game's progressed. And yes, I checked, Marth's lines for this weren't in the NES or SNES version. I mean, they're basically just “uh-huh” lines that don't really steer the conversation any new direction or make Gotoh say anything different himself, so... I'm kinda surprised they didn't do at least this for the countless early-game end-of-chapter scenes where he was mute.

Alright, where does that leave us...?

Barely even 5 pages of update?

Fuck it!

Let's do a triple!


 

Day 14 Bonus Bonus: Chapter 16

Okay, so, looks like we've gone back to Altea now, currently occupied by Grust. This map prompted some pretty epic music in Book 2, so I'm wondering if it'll get cool new music here.

Okay, so, I see a poleax for the first time in this game, and I'm noticing the flavor text is a bit... weird.

An axe weapon effective against cavalry”.

Axe weapon. The ridersbane feels no need to say lance weapon, it just says “A lance effective against cavalry”.

Wow, Caeda's luck is so high that she's one luck shy of being immune to crits from this killer lance holding boss.

Anyway, this is where we get Xane, who should be super useful. Not sure what specifically I'll be using him for, but I imagine he'll be copying a player-phase guy. I cloned my main juggernaut (Marth) in FE1, but that was because he was swordlocked and needed help taking out ranged enemies on player phase from someone who could take a beating. Here though, that's not necessary. Wolf has hand axes, he doesn't need any help taking out anything. And if I try to clone him to do something somewhere else, well, he won't last long.

So it sounds like I'll be cloning Caeda.

I've got a door key on Marth, so I don't need to bring Julian today. Good thing too, because there isn't much room.

We'll be going the long way around so we can visit the villages. We'll take out the dracoknights first thing, then rush the map counterclockwise, doing everything in our power to clear that damned northwestern fort island as quickly as humanly possible.

...Shit, our recruitment slots are really low today. We only have 13 units. I know we get two, one from the village and then Xane, but this feels like we're still missing one... is the game counting both the mutually-exclusive units for some reason?

...Well, I'm dropping Jake and Jeorge for now, so that I can train the Whitewings some more. Given all the running I'm gonna have to do, and the reinforcements... yeah, better let the slowpoke sit this one out. As for Jeorge, well, I mean, he's a sniper, I think he's outliving his usefulness at this point anyway, especially since any fliers on this map will be dead by the end of turn 2. But we'll see.

Alright, let's go.

Caeda baited in the dracoknights while training her axe rank, and she not only got a lucky crit, but got everything except strength, magic, HP and resistance, and now she can literally not be crit by the boss. Awesome.

As usual, the mass of cavalry on the central island started charging. I'm on the clock, and I'm in a hurry to get to those villages and then well past them so I can ride out the reinforcements while still gaining their juicy exp. If they're too much to safely player phase, like if they come every turn, then I'll just have Wolf fight them.

Yeah, I checked the house between our starting location and the villages, and once again they warn you about the village rivalry. Arran's to the west, Samson's to the east. I'll be going with Samson solely because I don't have as many promoted “brawn” units, and I'd like the option to make some generals if that turns out to be useful. I have plenty of paladin and dracoknight options. Neither one of these guys will actually be all that useful on their own merits, so might as well judge it on that.

Looks like I accidentally managed to stagger and distract the ranged elements of the incoming cavalry by putting Palla in potential range of the horsemen and javelin cavs. She wasn't actually in range, but only because they were too far away. She was in a spot close enough to the central island that someone there could shoot her eventually, so they went for her.

Anyway, I got Samson cleanly on turn 3, and it occurs to me that despite the fact that Samson and Arran don't seem to give a shit about the village rivalry, they'll only help if they're explicitly visited and asked. Arran's not running out the gates to help. Kinda weird, if you think about it.

Alright, one more turn and we'll have everyone clear of potential ambush spawn range. Fingers crossed that this game doesn't fuck me. I'm having Wolf block the western bridge to limit where potential reinforcements can move and thus increase the safety zone, but we've still got some people potentially in it. After everyone's clear, I'll have Wolf take a step back from cavalry range of those forts, to give us a chance of milking the reinforcement exp if possible. Again, depends on how frequently the reinforcements spawn.

Also, forgot to mention: no, we don't get new music here, it's the same as we've gotten since “wooden cavalry”.

Alright, we're gotten clear of the northwestern fort island, and the charging cavalry from the central island is starting to show up. Just like I remember from FE1, this first guy has a ridersbane, so I'm staying out of his range until he charges.

Christ. Looks like the speed cap for dracoknights is 23. So... so it looks like if I want to double endgame bosses, Wolf and maybe some promoted paladins if I get lucky are my only options.

Or I guess I could reclass Caeda to something faster.

...That also means her levels from here on out are likely gonna suck.

Plus side, Catria's defense is coming along nicely. She's actually got comparable defense to my dracoknights now. Just one shy of Minerva and Wendell.

Anyway, the important thing is that I took out the horsemen before they could kill any of my fliers.

Aright, we're at the southern portion of the map now, and still no reinforcements.

Merric got speed again, and defense too. Holy shit did I get a good Merric.

Alright, I decided to buy a shitton of door keys so that I don't need to deploy Julian anymore. It's gotten to be too much of a strain on my deployment list to bring him.

Okay, I know I've seen these fucking reinforcements show up in LPs of this chapter, so what's taking them so long? I'm on turn 11!

Okay, now they show up. I sent in Wolf to scout out the southern fort, and they showed up from every other fort right then.

Okay, there's at least a turn gap between these reinforcements, so I think we should be good for player-phasing them. I'll send my cavalry and fliers up to deal with them, with Merric accompanying to keep people healthy or provide emergency nuking. Catria stayed behind to milk the central reinforcements though.

Wolf's level 14, and he got a perfect level up again. Dare I hope that we can cap his speed and hit 20 defense?

Yep, it seems to be every three turns they spawn. Let's ride this out and see how long it lasts.

Alright, we're on wave 3 now. So far things have been going pretty smoothly. The horsemen in particular are netting my cavalry and fliers some pretty nice exp.

And Cain just got strength, speed and defense! Nothing else, but fucked if I care!

...Alright, I think the reinforcements are done. Let's get Xane and then get out of here.

Curious. So Xane claims that his “folk” have the power to “transform into other people”. But I'm pretty sure I heard he was just an outlier among Manakete and that there was nobody else like him. Is this a lie he's telling Marth to keep his cover or something? Well whatever the case, glad he's here.

Alright yeah, so, just as I remember, he does copy max HP, just not current. So I'm gonna want to buy some recover staves if I want to make proper use of him. I'm on it. Thank goodness this place sells them.

...Man, I've almost destroyed my funds with these silver car purchases. I'll have to hold back on buying shit for a while and wait to see if I actually manage to burn through all of this shit.

Alright, I just promoted Barst at level 16. His stats as a warrior aren't fantastic, but that's as a warrior. Let's see how he fares as a hero next chapter. That will utterly cripple his strength growth sadly, but plus side is it'll buff his speed growth, and his strength is already pretty fantastic.

Catria got a basically perfect level up, and now her defense is on par with Minerva's. Yeah, she's totally the one I'm making a dracoknight. I'll have Palla be the falcoknight if I can get around to getting that wifi thing working.

Well shit. The villagers spoil that Elice isn't here. Shame.

I do like how prologue 3 was basically a zoomed-in version of the lower part of this chapter. Though I do question where the fuck that prison is that was so hard to fight through before. I don't even see a fort separating the mainland from the town.

I get a warning from a villager about a devil sword despite not finding one in this chapter. Curious.

Alright, Barst celebrated his promotion by taking out the boss with a hammer, and we got a dracoshield. Excellent. Alright, let's go.

Yeah, now we get a scene where Marth gets a speech to his people before the reclaiming of the inner castle. Looks like my impression is being confirmed, all of the extra dialogue is really being backloaded.

It's nothing special, but I'm glad it exists at least.

Well, that's it for today. We'll be reclaiming Altea tomorrow, and I'll definitely be on the lookout for how the interior of the building compares to the parts we saw in the prologues.

...So, before I go, I just wanna point out for the record that honestly, while the beginning was really scary and rough, I've found the game increasingly becoming increasingly “normal” as time goes on. But like... funny thing... I mean a good kind of normal. I don't mean the usual mindlessly easy nonsense that most initially-promising games so far in the marathon have inevitably devolved to.

No, this feels... like how I remember the old Fire Emblem games being. What I wish they were like as an adult.

This is the first game I've played so far where there wasn't some glaring issue constantly looming over the gameplay and hampering things. No mechanic that makes playing it unpleasant or completely breaks the game, no tedium that's made me bored or complacent...

...Honestly? Gameplaywise? This is my favorite so far. This is the one I'm most looking forward to playing again later on. And that's... I'll be honest, that's a feeling that borders on magical. Revisiting a game you used to hate and finding that you now love it is... I mean it's like the series just got bigger. Like there's another great game in the series that just came out or something. There's now something awesome where once there was basically nothing. Honestly, so far, until now, all this marathon's felt like it's been doing for me is making the series feel smaller. Disillusioning me about how many games in it were actually good, and giving me this awful feeling that I might not ever want to touch many of these games ever again. So this... really, I think this is just what I needed.

And if you told me before I started this that I'd be feeling this way about this game... I wouldn't have believed you in a million years.

See you tomorrow.

Stay safe, everyone.

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1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Right, time to take down Gra. Honestly, the buildup for this, while inherently better than the original's for obvious reasons... I mean it's not really great storytelling still. Like, I barely realized until last chapter that we were even headed to Gra. Maybe that's on me, but that was still my experience. Maybe I'm just suffering story burnout and I'm not as attentive as I once was. If so, well... this game couldn't have come at a better time.

I don't think the game ever really lays out a grand strategy for Marth's adventures. And, this is the only chapter where you fight Gra in the entire game.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Honestly? Gameplaywise? This is my favorite so far. This is the one I'm most looking forward to playing again later on. And that's... I'll be honest, that's a feeling that borders on magical. Revisiting a game you used to hate and finding that you now love it is... I mean it's like the series just got bigger. Like there's another great game in the series that just came out or something. There's now something awesome where once there was basically nothing. Honestly, so far, until now, all this marathon's felt like it's been doing for me is making the series feel smaller. Disillusioning me about how many games in it were actually good, and giving me this awful feeling that I might not ever want to touch many of these games ever again. So this... really, I think this is just what I needed.

Good for you! As you're a gameplay-first person who eats Classic Conquest Lunatic as an appetizer and has spent much of this giant LP nitpicking plots with a scalpel, I can see why this game could feel better for you. Me, once on Classic Conquest Lunatic is enough for a decade.

SD, though I haven't touched it in a long time, was drab to me. Gameplaywise, I'm not entirely sure why.

I wonder FE12 is going to make you feel. Will its adjustments be for the better, or worse?

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
Original post felt a little too selfish.
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1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I wonder FE12 is going to make you feel. Will its adjustments be for the better, or worse?

I'm looking forward to finding out! With the exception of the spinoffs and Saga games, that and I guess two routes of Three Houses are the only Fire Emblem games left I haven't beaten (never even got halfway through New Mystery years ago). So honestly I don't know what to expect apart from what this game is doing to color my perception. But I am optimistic!

1 hour ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

SD, though I haven't touched it in a long time, was drab to me. Gameplaywise, I'm not entirely sure why. Maps a little empty? Characters who, whilst I don't care for stat inflation, have growths are a little too low, and barring ironman, many are redundant trash limiting the fun of second runs?

All fair and true criticisms. I guess this game just has something I find way more important and which every game between Binding Blade and now wound up largely lacking: engagement. That quality that keeps me focused on what I'm doing and not going on autopilot. That sense that my player phase decisions actually matter.

Honestly, I think that needs to be its own category, given how much of a difference it makes.

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21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

I'm looking forward to finding out! With the exception of the spinoffs and Saga games, that and I guess two routes of Three Houses are the only Fire Emblem games left I haven't beaten (never even got halfway through New Mystery years ago). So honestly I don't know what to expect apart from what this game is doing to color my perception. But I am optimistic!

I haven't tried Reverse Lunatic (Lunatic in every way, but enemies always attack first in combat), but I can see it being a great challenge. Hard, which I did play, could be easy with the very best units, but was sometimes difficult. Ambush spawns sent me to Hell in like two, maybe three chapters IIRC, but only those.

Still the game on Lunatic seems fun and fairly balanced, minus the difficulty of using many of its units, for a super-difficulty, and maybe too much dependency on growths for those who are viable. Ironmanning it could be really brutal, but I'm not familiar with what hardcore players of FE12 have accomplished. Maybe there's someone out there who won using the generic blue units you get after everyone else has died.

 

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

All fair and true criticisms. I guess this game just has something I find way more important and which every game between Binding Blade and now wound up largely lacking: engagement. That quality that keeps me focused on what I'm doing and not going on autopilot. That sense that my player phase decisions actually matter.

I get your point here. Monstrously strong enemies and relatively weaker units forces a player-phase emphasis, and the player phase is inherently more thought. (Not sure if there would be any ways to fix that for enemy phase.)

Edited by Interdimensional Observer
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2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Well, I just gave thoron to Merric and took a look at its stats. Since excalibur is no longer a Merric-exclusive spell, I guess they saw fit to no longer have thoron be a clone of it. It's slightly worse in crit rate and weight, and is a C rank tome compared to Excalibur's B.

 

While we're talking about it, anyone else find it kind of stupid that they dropped Excalibur and aura from being prf weapons? Especially Aura being a female exclusive tome. What did Linde's father wear a dress into battle or something?

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Huh. They didn't include Jiol's dying mention of his daughter that was added in Book 1. I wonder why...?

 

He keeps his original NES quote if I recall. To me it suggests they just had absolutely no plans to remake Book 2 when Shadow Dragon was made. It's a straight up adaptation of the NES game, not Book 1.

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1 minute ago, Jotari said:

He keeps his original NES quote if I recall. To me it suggests they just had absolutely no plans to remake Book 2 when Shadow Dragon was made. It's a straight up adaptation of the NES game, not Book 1.

Except they used the Book 1 player phase music for some inexplicable reason.

  

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

While we're talking about it, anyone else find it kind of stupid that they dropped Excalibur and aura from being prf weapons? Especially Aura being a female exclusive tome. What did Linde's father wear a dress into battle or something?


Yeah, that... I didn't think about that. That is weird.

Edited by Alastor15243
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3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

While we're talking about it, anyone else find it kind of stupid that they dropped Excalibur and aura from being prf weapons? Especially Aura being a female exclusive tome. What did Linde's father wear a dress into battle or something?

I think it was to be kinder to other magic users, think about FE3B2 Jubelo. Starlight was given stats worthy of an ultimate tome in FE12, but it doesn't in FE11, and there are no other tomes besides Excalibur and Aura that would qualify. We don't have a usable A-ranked tome at all, the only one is Imhullu. Not that ultimate weapons are ever necessary.

And you reminded me we actually have an image of what Miloah looks like:

MiroaWendelGarnef.jpg

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2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I think it was to be kinder to other magic users, think about FE3B2 Jubelo. Starlight was given stats worthy of an ultimate tome in FE12, but it doesn't in FE11, and there are no other tomes besides Excalibur and Aura that would qualify. We don't have a usable A-ranked tome at all, the only one is Imhullu. Not that ultimate weapons are ever necessary.

 

Starlight absolutely should be the one to get the stats on par with a legendary weapon. It's a tome created by a divine dragon designed to take down an invincible sorcerer. It should be better than bloody Thoron (same mt and accuracy, but with less uses and no crit rate). Give it the star sphere and light sphere's infinite durability and terrain negating abilities at least, so it doesn't feel like you're giving up something way better (though making any weapon infinite in uses is probably going to be better than an infinite use weapon). Starlight's only purpose is to take out Gharnef, which like makes sense for the lore, but I mean literally that's all you're going to use it for in gameplay. There's no reason to keep it around beyond that. And that's a shame. Dropping the light sphere means getting not just one underwhelming legendary weapons, but two. And it's a real shame because Starlight seems to be the only weapon in the game that they put a bit of effort into the battle animation for.

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

And you reminded me we actually have an image of what Miloah looks like:

MiroaWendelGarnef.jpg

Well based on that fabulous mustache, I guess we can dismiss the idea that Linde's father is a male to female transexual and that Aura works by modern gender theory. But based on that hair can we entirely dismiss that Linde's "father" is a female to male transexual and Aura works off of genitalia?

Also Gharnef looks like something from Dr Seuss.

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Shadow Dragon Day 15: Chapter 17

Right, so, by the looks of it, Prologue 2 is almost an exact replica of part of this map. Only significant difference I notice is that the moat is thinner in the prologue than it is here. Prologue 1 though... I don't know what the fuck I'm supposed to be looking at here.

Alright, we get the secret shop here, and it'll be so much simpler to actually shop, so I'll be buying plenty of stuff with the 10k I now have thanks to selling some stuff (I over-purchased, I think, but thankfully with the silver card you can sell things back for the same price you bought them). Main hope? Physics and siege weapons.

I'm benching the pegasisters for now so that I can deploy Xane and the ballistician bros. There are so many treasures, and this is so late in the game, that I'm not fully comfortable trusting these thieves to only take one each. So I'm gonna snipe them both, hopefully by the end of turn 2 player phase, before either has a chance to steal more than one thing. The other alternative would be to warp someone in, but the only real candidate for that is Wolf, and... yeah, even he would struggle trying to kill these thieves in a timely fashion while surrounded by ranged enemies he'd have to use a hand axe for.

Alright, let's go.

First attempt at killing the thief is a resounding success. The other one will hopefully be dead next turn.

The Manakete up north apparently has 21 attack speed, meaning I have nobody, nobody who can double him. I do have wyrmslayers and dragonpikes though, so let's use those.

WOOOO! So apparently Xane can use the personal weapons of people he shifts into! Or at least he can use Caeda's Wing Spear!

Okay, second thief is down. We're good. None of the treasure is getting stolen permanently today. Hm... come to think of it...

...Yep. The thief placement was definitely different in FE1. They brought them in closer in this game in order to make up for the altered thief mechanics. Makes sense.

Barst can one-shot knights with a hammer now as a hero. Kickass.

Yeah, this map is... a bit of a letdown, really. I know we're gonna get some reinforcements later, but I already took out all of the mobile aggressive enemies by the end of turn 3.

Also, the fortify bishop really isn't optimally programmed. He really should move last in the turn to make sure everyone who needs healing after doing their enemy-phase attacks actually gets it. That or first, so that everyone who needs healing after our player-phase attacks actually gets it. Going in the middle of the turn just makes half get the former and half get the latter in no consistent way.

...Oh no.

I think I left the silver card on Wendell.

Who I didn't bring.

FUCK.

Well, I still have 10K, I should still be able to buy some nice stuff. But man I wish I didn't fuck up like that. Hopefully one of these chests has a bullion at least, so we don't just have 10K for this.

Wolf got to level 15, and got everything but defense and luck. Looking likely he's gonna cap speed.

Okay, first off, third warp staff. And I've used the first one like, twice. Man, I have just not been tempted to use that thing!

At any rate, Beck and Jake got us the VIP card, and they're about to get us the fortify staff. I was initially worried they wouldn't be able to take out the swarm user without risking getting doubled on enemy phase, but then I remembered that the bishop only has 1 strength, so he can't double my ballisticians with swarm after all.

I got a second dracoshield, two chapters in a row, which feels... weird, but hey, that's +4 defense I can give to somebody, or +2 I can give to two somebodies!

...Still no bullion yet though. Fingers crossed.

Master seal. Only one chest left. Come on, bullion bullion bullion bullion bullion...

...Killer bow. Fuck. Oh well. Looks like we'll be breaking the bank to buy from here. Damn it.

Okay, so, the reinforcements arrived when I opened the door, and they look... really manageable. Just one cavalry and just one knight. The asynchronous movement ranges might cause a bit of complication later on when the knights catch up, but it's still just two units at a time at most. Nothing we can't handle.

I'm noticing that Cain and Abel have finally started giving each other a crit boost. I never noticed the hit and evade bonuses before now, but I guess they've been there.

Yeah, while dealing with these reinforcements as they come is pretty manageable, actually fighting my way over there to get the bishop like I'd have had to do in FE1... would take some doing, at least without Wolf. The ballisticians kinda undermine this challenge, as does the fact that the bishops have been moved so you can actually kill them in 2 range over the wall.

...They moved the secret shop location.

Also, how weird is it to think that there's been a secret shop set up inside of the Altean castle, and the royalty doesn't know about it?

...Anyway, time to break out Wolf and find out where that damned secret shop is. Also, time to use the new master seal to promote Abel, who just hit level 15.

His speed boost was... 1. Less than desirable, but at least now he's just barely capable of one-rounding generic enemy cavalry I guess.

...Apparently the reinforcements stopped when the boss died. That's nice. Looks like I can actually search for the secret shop in peace then.

Ooh! Looks like Abel gets a support bonus from Marth too! Nice, I hadn't noticed that (I haven't looked those things up in a while).

...Yep, it was right where I thought it would be. Moved up to that little alcove beyond the... throne moat... thing. Guess they thought a locked door right above the throne didn't mesh well with the new aesthetic. Man, I never noticed how radically this was changed in FE3 and this game. This looks so much better with the new water aesthetic.

...And the secret shop merchandise is shit. Where are the tomes? Where are the staves? What the fuck? This can't be all there is...

...This is all there is. Not only that, but none of the secret shops sell staves or tomes. Just some slightly interesting slayer weapons and the like here, and longbows. And then for the remaining secret shops? Stat boosters and master seals. Damn it. What a letdown. Worse still, apparently the physic staves I've got are all I'll get for the rest of the game.

...Fine, I'll buy a poleax. That might be useful to have on Minerva or Barst, maybe.

...Let's get out of here.

Yet again the game teases me with some pretty great character writing we could have had so much more of.

I am a prince before I am a son or a brother”. Damn.

The great commander's last victory of the day was commanding his tears not to flow.” DAAAAAMN.

...Well, it's still pretty early in the day. What's next?

...Oh boy.

Oh dear.


 

Day 15 Bonus: Chapter 18

Chiasmir? I can't help but wonder if that was supposed to be translated as Cashmere.

The bridges across the strait would soon be choked with the brave and the dead”. Christ why is this game throwing so many good lines at me all of a sudden!?

...Oh. This isn't the Camus map. This is that map with the huge bridge. Right. I forgot about this one.

...Wow. I'm actually impressed. Post-promotion, Barst is actually... pretty close to Wolf in terms of competence. A lot slower, with a lot less HP, but pretty damned comparable everywhere else! And he actually has better skill, as little as that matters.

...Of course, Wolf's been that good for the entire game, so even if Barst does wind up surpassing Wolf, I'd still say Wolf's a way better unit.

...Okay, so, this is a really cavalry-heavy map. I've got plenty of ridersbanes, thankfully, so I think I can handle anything this map throws at me. But this will really be my air force's time to shine. An air force which will be getting its final member very soon.

...Or, y'know, if she's too far gone, I could just reclass her and make one of my cavs into a dracoknight when they promote. So many options!

Alright, I checked everyone's inventory for stuff in need of replacing... let's do this.

Ooh! New music! Pretty dark! I like it!

...Y'know, I wonder what's gonna happen to Xane if he de-transforms over water. Obviously he won't drown, but can he even move one tile on rivers? Well, hopefully there aren't any flying reinforcements who could fuck him over if that happens. I'll just have to keep him by Caeda at all times... even harder.

Due to all the ballistae stuff I was doing last map, Jake's only got 3 shots of hoistflamme yet. I'm using stonehoist when I don't need to hit something, when it would just be a nice bonus, but I really cannot wait until Chapter 22 when I can actually buy items of this guy's weapon type.

Weirdly, I might have gotten a false impression of the fortify AI. They seem to move right after every unit that's decided they can attack. At least in this map, I haven't seen anyone attack after the fortify has been used. So... does that mean that this game finally managed to implement dynamic enemy turn order? Awesome!

...Okay, so Xane is apparently a water walker. A pretty dang good water walker. He can move like three tiles in water. So that answers my question, and I actually like the answer!

Checked the shops. Nothing particularly worth buying.

And since I'm never going to enter the arena, might as well mention this bit of trivia: so as most fans will know, the arenas, whether in-game or the link battle stuff, have a history of remaking a previous game's normal battle theme to use as the arena music. Amusingly, this remake of the first game decided to basically go full circle and use Path of Radiance's battle theme for its arena.

Makes me wonder what FE9 would've picked for its arena. Kind of a shame we didn't get one, even though the arena is... kind of a weird mechanic, all told. Well, we did get that amazing cover of Light and Dark from FE4 at least.

Okay, so, we have Est now, and amusingly, the game's trying to tell me that Est just singlehandedly stole Mercurius back from Grust.

Holy mother of fuck do I wanna see that stealth spinoff, Intelligent Systems.

Okay, so Est comes with her own ridersbane, so maybe I can exploit that and some triangle attacks to get her some kills? But christ, she has 7 attack speed with a ridersbane, and she's level three. I am sorely tempted to just de-class her and have someone else be a dracoknight instead. Probably Hardin, so that Cain and Abel can stay together for their support bonus. Hardin just hit level 15, so he's the next promotion anyway.

Alright, the reinforcements came from the forts in a pincer attack after we baited in the cavalry near the boss. I sent in Wolf as a precaution, but they're still really close.

Plus side though, speaking of Wolf, he got a perfect level up.

Alright, I've got two layers of defense now. Wolf's near the forts, to take the brunt of the enemy attacks, while Barst is standing on the isolated fort in the middle of the southern landmass, making sure nobody comes out of that and also getting some experience from finishing off the wounded enemies Wolf fights. If anything goes wrong with this, I'm gonna warp Marth to the castle immediately, but I think I have time.

...Looks like it's not a continuous every-turn reinforcement deal. Good to know, though with Wolf and Barst I could've handled even that.

Aw. Minerva seems to really respect Est, and had nothing but praise for her story of how she got Mercurius. She claims she was dodging arrows left and right and beating the shit out of a whole army, and... I really don't buy it. But this kind of reminds me of how Lucina would react to someone like Est, and I always found Lucina really charming. The way she just takes her ragtag band of total lunatics completely seriously was something I always found both hilarious and really sweet.

Fuck. The enemy reinforcements were just a one time thing. I was hoping to fight one more enemy so that Hardin could round off his 78 experience into level 16 before promoting him. I could do it next chapter, of course, but then I won't be able to reclass him to dracoknight until later. Well, I guess I'll see what the next chapter is like.

...In fact...


 

Day 15 Bonus Bonus: Chapter 19

but in the end Grust's knights buckled: the world's mightiest only in song.”

Burn.

Alright, so here's where we finally get the spheres and Tiki. And I fully intend to get Tiki first, give her the Starsphere from the northernmost treasure room, and then have her fight as many enemies from the inner treasure rooms as possible. If I'm not getting the Falchion, I might as well go full in on the benefits of the alternative.

And since it would be insanely embarrassing to forget Bantu, I double-checked I selected him, and then I stared at him on the map for about ten seconds to make absolutely sure that I brought him. Amusingly, he still has nearly the highest attack stat in the army with that dragonstone of his.

Alright, inventories have been checked...

Let's go.

Right off the bat I have Caeda and Wolf rush in to intercept the thieves. Namely the one holding the Lightsphere. I also get Hardin that extra level, and he gets speed for it. Alright, good enough, time to promote!

So, since I have an obscene supply of warp staff charges, I've decided to use two more of them to warp Caeda and Wolf in to cut the thieves off from the doors, just in case letting those thieves enter the treasure room would have nasty unforeseen consequences. Whether there's a sniper hiding in that room, more enemies than Caeda can fight off, whatever, I don't wanna deal with it if I don't have to. And now I don't have to.

Wolf fought the devil sword thief and... the thief killed himself on counterattack. And now we have the Lightsphere.

Gotta say, I'm really liking this endgame music. Really catchy and yet moody.

Oooh! They kept that “one chest is already opened” thing! I can't remember whether that's just where the Lightsphere was or if it's something else.

Yeah, I miss Tiki having wings in human form like in the old games. I also remember she did this super cute map animation in FE3 that they didn't even try to replicate here when Bantu recruits her.

Alright, anyway, time to deal with the other treasure rooms with a Starsphere-powered Tiki. And we've got an army of warriors on standby to swoop in the instant anything threatens the little dragon girl.

...I think there might not be any enemies in these treasure rooms. The first one I picked was a dud, at any rate. Oh well, we got a master seal, so that's Cain promoting right there! And now I've got all three of my cavalry promoted at long last!

The other chest had a speedwing. Alright, next room!

The next room has a sniper. Oh yeah, that's right, they switch which room has which in a sort of zigzagging pattern. Good to know, but I had to warp Julian out of the way to avoid getting killed by him, because Tiki obviously can't one-round him. She can survive him though, and two-shot him, so we're good here. From now on I'll be relying on someone sturdier carrying door keys to actually open the door proper.

Unfortunately the sniper went for Merric (who moved in to warp Julian out and I forgot to unequip his tome) instead of Tiki, so Tiki couldn't finish him off. Oh well, better luck next time.

This next one's a hunter, much less appealing, but at least I actually got Tiki the kill this time due to learning my lesson.

Next treasure room had a speedwing and the Geosphere. Which is now blue in this game, funny enough.

Tiki got everything, everything but res. Awesome. Though on the topic of her visuals again... I wish the divine dragon designs were more... inspired. Really, they look better in literally every other game. Here it's just a generic dragon you've seen literally everywhere, except it's white. Though the presentation here honestly is pretty bad in general, though I don't think anyone will be surprised to hear that.

And we finally have some more cash! A bullion XL, netting us 30k! Nice! That'll bring us back to what I had before I got silver-card-spend-happy! The other chest had a bolganone, which isn't that great, but hey, it's something.

I've been having my cavalry ferry door keys over to the lower parts of the map, by the way, so that once I'm done with this I don't have to march Marth back up. Julian's taking care of the treasure.

Last two chests have a pure water and some spirit dust. Alright, then we're out of here!

Okay then! That's it for today! Bit of a tedious ending there, but that was mostly self-inflicted. And tomorrow...

Tomorrow...


 


 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDWJ9UOIOYw

Stay safe, everyone.

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19 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Chiasmir? I can't help but wonder if that was supposed to be translated as Cashmere.

Kashmir would be the accurate name I imagine, a territory in South Asia in-dispute between India, Pakistan, and China. If ICBMs were to start flying one day, it's on the short list for being the culprit.

 

You must be having a lot of fun to fly through the game this fast. You could easily finish it this week if you keep it up with multiple entries.

Are you considering 24x? Perhaps using the "kill Tiki with the Falchion in C24" trick? I don't think you'd be the kind of person to warpskip C25 via a "Warp MedeusBodyguardSlayer, Warp & Suicide Tiki, Aum Tiki, Warp Tiki to Win".

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5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Kashmir would be the accurate name I imagine, a territory in South Asia in-dispute between India, Pakistan, and China. If ICBMs were to start flying one day, it's on the short list for being the culprit.

Oh, I didn't realize that was spelled differently!

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

You must be having a lot of fun to fly through the game this fast. You could easily finish it this week if you keep it up with multiple entries.

That's the plan. Two chapters every day until Friday, where it's just one, the last one. And yes, I plan to do 24x, given how I haven't lost anyone since Sedgar so there's no other huge incentive to use the Aum staff. I won't need to give Tiki Falchion though. I won't have it. I'm keeping the spheres.

Only question is how ridiculous Medeus's stats are on H3, because I've seen them on H5 and yeah, nooooo thank you!

Edited by Alastor15243
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On 10/17/2020 at 12:22 PM, Alastor15243 said:

Oh shit. It's this map. The map revolving around a single class of enemy units... left almost completely unchanged after the enemies that inhabited it were radically altered to have an attack range of ten.

That makes me wonder what the fuck were the developers thinking (IF they were thinking at all, which I have every reason to believe they weren't). Of course, so does a lot of stuff in Shadow Dragon in general.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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Just now, Shadow Mir said:

That makes me wonder what the fuck were the developers thinking. Of course, so does a lot of stuff in Shadow Dragon in general.

It wound up not being as bad as I initially thought it would be for various reasons, but then I had a general. Not sure how it would've gone without general Wolf.

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3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yeah, I checked the house between our starting location and the villages, and once again they warn you about the village rivalry. Arran's to the west, Samson's to the east. I'll be going with Samson solely because I don't have as many promoted “brawn” units, and I'd like the option to make some generals if that turns out to be useful. I have plenty of paladin and dracoknight options. Neither one of these guys will actually be all that useful on their own merits, so might as well judge it on that.

No cancer man on this run then, instead we get Sheema's sweetie. Seeing what happens to the two of them in Mystery, Arran was probably supposed to be the canon choice...

 

4 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

The Manakete up north apparently has 21 attack speed, meaning I have nobody, nobody who can double him. I do have wyrmslayers and dragonpikes though, so let's use those.

Just out of curiosity, do you look up the dragonstone buffs on line, or figure out the AS from their avoid?

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Yet again the game teases me with some pretty great character writing we could have had so much more of.

I am a prince before I am a son or a brother”. Damn.

The great commander's last victory of the day was commanding his tears not to flow.” DAAAAAMN.

This is the highest point of Marth's writing, although Nyna's got a few great lines coming tomorrow, and Michalis is one of the only bosses with boss quotes with people you would expect.

 

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14 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Just out of curiosity, do you look up the dragonstone buffs on line, or figure out the AS from their avoid?

I looked them up online. I have the Serenes Forest page for the game I'm playing continuously on tab in Firefox. Still a pain though.

...Though wait, since they don't have luck, and speed is one for one in this game... is their evasion identical to their attack speed? That's... pretty lucky.

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6 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

How are you going to rank the different Fates games? Are you going to play through all of them? 

He was going to play through all of them, iirc.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

It wound up not being as bad as I initially thought it would be for various reasons, but then I had a general. Not sure how it would've gone without general Wolf.

At the same time, you admittedly were using a broken unit. I'd imagine it wouldn't have been so smooth if Wolf wasn't a general. Which leads me to say, if I have to use a broken unit to make it tolerable, that's a sure sign it's poorly designed.

Edited by Shadow Mir
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17 minutes ago, Icelerate said:

How are you going to rank the different Fates games? Are you going to play through all of them? 

Yep! Just like books 1 and 2 of Mystery. They'll share certain rankings with each other like those books did, but they're each separate games in their own right with radically different gameplay and design philosophies, and I can't call this project complete without doing all three.

 

10 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

At the same time, you admittedly were using a broken unit. I'd imagine it wouldn't have been so smooth if Wolf wasn't a general. Which leads me to say, if I have to use a broken unit to make it tolerable, that's a sure sign it's poorly designed.

Yeah, can't say for sure since I didn't try. Maybe I should have, but I had the resources and this is an ironman, so it felt foolish not to use every tool at my disposal.

Edited by Alastor15243
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