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

[Alastor15243]

50 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I remember cheesing this chapter very easily in Hard, but cheesing it in Lunatic was much more difficult for me. I find Garon is pretty difficult to safely take down with just one or two characters and the enemies rushing from the centre more or less need to be taken care of to devote time to Garon. Though I don't think I've ever had an Ohilia with an attack stat as psychotic as yours. All in all I find this a very underwhelming chapter on hard, but on Lunatic I liked it quite a lot. I just wish you could save after it before the final chapter. Because it's a pain to do again after a failed attempt at the Endgame. To that extent I wouldn't be surprised if they designed it to be rather cheesable on purpose.

I like this map too. It's a pretty intense mission even when cheesing it. Feels kinda like an escape chapter, almost, given the ridiculous firepower of the enemies have. Gunning for the stairs to assassinate the boss makes this short but sweet, which, yeah, is great for a chapter you can't save after. It almost feels like the makers of this map didn't like that feature but were obligated to include it, so deliberately made this chapter short in order to minimize the annoyance.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Eltosian Kadath]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Rather than both nations deciding that continued war is not in their best interests and coming to some kind of negotiated settlement? Like I see why they do it for exciting climax, but they do it so gosh darn often in this series. Just once I'd like to see some characters inuniverse realizing this conflict is not going to end well for them.

I  think the closest we get in Fire Emblem is the peace in the middle of the Grannvale-Augustria conflict in FE4, the settlement breaks down in the end, but there was a negotiated settlement that lasted months in universe...

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Man I love the music here, but given the context it's really putting me on edge. I really hope the entrapment doesn't go horribly wrong.

There is some odd behavior from the entrappers that you can take advantage of if you are really concerned about it. They only target people central corridor, so if you can move everyone that starts in the south into the entrance of the southern most chambers (and don't move the people starting in the northern chambers out, as what is considered inside those chambers is stricter than the lower ones), then the wont use their entrap staff at all, and they will instead charge towards the nearest units...

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

There is some odd behavior from the entrappers that you can take advantage of if you are really concerned about it. They only target people central corridor, so if you can move everyone that starts in the south into the entrance of the southern most chambers (and don't move the people starting in the northern chambers out, as what is considered inside those chambers is stricter than the lower ones), then the wont use their entrap staff at all, and they will instead charge towards the nearest units...

Yeah, I heard about this. I assume it's to keep all four of them from entrapping the same first-priority unit.

[Jotari]

11 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

I  think the closest we get in Fire Emblem is the peace in the middle of the Grannvale-Augustria conflict in FE4, the settlement breaks down in the end, but there was a negotiated settlement that lasted months in universe...

And that is a nice plot point, I think. But Sigurd has still charged into Austria and personally beaten Chagall in a fight by that point anyway. Militarily Agustria did keep on fighting until their capital was taken and the king seized. Agustria really had no negotiating powers at that point, they're just lucky Eldigan is an old friend of Sigurd's.

[Interdimensional Observer]

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

Although given this is Fire Emblem the idea of the invasion just failing without one side being entirely eradicated is like an alien concept. Have I ranted here about how tired I am of Fire Emblem treating every conflict like the only possible resolution is storming the capital and killing the enemy leader? Rather than both nations deciding that continued war is not in their best interests and coming to some kind of negotiated settlement? Like I see why they do it for exciting climax, but they do it so gosh darn often in this series. Just once I'd like to see some characters inuniverse realizing this conflict is not going to end well for them.

Throughout history, there have been wars in which one side was thoroughly defeated and regime change happened. These are dramatic, often important moments if the countries are important, so we remember them. But, the majority of armed conflicts in human history have ended in a settlement formal or informal. 

It doesn't help that FE has clear villain countries and hero lands. You don't settle with evil for more than the short-term, you must eradicate it. IRL, Christian Europe could say all the nastiest things about the "Mohammedans" and speak of launching crusades to crush the infidels, but they had to accept that wiping them off the face of the Earth was impossible. (Didn't help that Venice was more about Mammon than God half the time and profited from trade with the Muslims.)

Compromise also means diplomacy, and you must assume gamers have small brains that wouldn't be able to digest the terms of the Peace of Westphalia. If you're going to have negotiations, you have to keep the deal simple for a mass audience, and likely pour a hefty amount of effort into making the logic for compromise felt. 

RD after 3-3 spoke of diplomacy, with fairly good reasoning I thought, if perhaps too soon into the conflict. But of course, Skrimir is both a hothead and a meathead, leading an army of them. So there went one FE attempt at negotiations.

[starburst]

On 5/18/2021 at 12:59 AM, Eltosian Kadath said:

This is a detail that almost every source of information on Fates (barring one early Japanese one I stumbled on while researching this) miss is that the chest is only variable on Normal mode. On Hard or Lunatic it is always a Spy Yumi.

While I not always clear the west corridor of Chapter 26, I am pretty sure that I have got the Spy Shuriken on Hard multiple times. I remember this because there was no dagger wielder in many parties, and therefore this weapon was only a sellable.

I am about to start Chapter 21 on my current campaign, and the only dagger wielder was Kaze in Chapter 12 (Jakob always commits suicide in Chapter 6 or 7, poor soul.)
I will check Kaze’s proficiency level, though, for he soloed Chapter 5 and was very active in Chapter 12.
I will pay attention to this Spy weapon.

 

[Alastor15243]

5 minutes ago, starburst said:

While I not always clear the west corridor of Chapter 26, I am pretty sure that I have got the Spy Shuriken on Hard multiple times. I remember this because there was no dagger wielder in many parties, and therefore this weapon was only a sellable.

I am about to start Chapter 21 on my current campaign, and the only dagger wielder was Kaze in Chapter 12 (Jakob always commits suicide in Chapter 6 or 7, poor soul.)
I will check Kaze’s proficiency level, though, for he soloed Chapter 5 and was very active in Chapter 12.
I will pay attention to this Spy weapon.

 

Yeah, seems the "only on normal" thing just flat out isn't true. I just checked this CQ Lunatic video, sure enough, he gets the shuriken at around 40:15.

 

 

[Jotari]

3 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Throughout history, there have been wars in which one side was thoroughly defeated and regime change happened. These are dramatic, often important moments if the countries are important, so we remember them. But, the majority of armed conflicts in human history have ended in a settlement formal or informal. 

It doesn't help that FE has clear villain countries and hero lands. You don't settle with evil for more than the short-term, you must eradicate it. IRL, Christian Europe could say all the nastiest things about the "Mohammedans" and speak of launching crusades to crush the infidels, but they had to accept that wiping them off the face of the Earth was impossible. (Didn't help that Venice was more about Mammon than God half the time and profited from trade with the Muslims.)

Compromise also means diplomacy, and you must assume gamers have small brains that wouldn't be able to digest the terms of the Peace of Westphalia. If you're going to have negotiations, you have to keep the deal simple for a mass audience, and likely pour a hefty amount of effort into making the logic for compromise felt. 

RD after 3-3 spoke of diplomacy, with fairly good reasoning I thought, if perhaps too soon into the conflict. But of course, Skrimir is both a hothead and a meathead, leading an army of them. So there went one FE attempt at negotiations.

Yeah, it's less of a case that it's actually unrealistic in Fire Emblem. It's usually pretty well justified with the egos and or power of the villains involved. It's just that after thirty years of the series I feel it's become something of a cliche. It really reached a boiling point for me in Three Houses where they say they're attempting diplomacy near the end of Azure Moon, but nowhere in the actual conversation do they ever discuss what either side wants and is willing to concede beyond stating their platitudes.

[Alastor15243]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, it's less of a case that it's actually unrealistic in Fire Emblem. It's usually pretty well justified with the egos and or power of the villains involved. It's just that after thirty years of the series I feel it's become something of a cliche. It really reached a boiling point for me in Three Houses where they say they're attempting diplomacy near the end of Azure Moon, but nowhere in the actual conversation do they ever discuss what either side wants and is willing to concede beyond stating their platitudes.

I'm gonna have to keep that in mind when we get there.

[starburst]

4 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

There is some odd behavior from the entrappers that you can take advantage of if you are really concerned about it. They only target people central corridor, so if you can move everyone that starts in the south into the entrance of the southern most chambers (and don't move the people starting in the northern chambers out, as what is considered inside those chambers is stricter than the lower ones), then the wont use their entrap staff at all, and they will instead charge towards the nearest units...

Interesting. I had never heard about this.

One thing I did notice in Chapter 27 is that, playing with only ten units, all paired, the Entrap maidens always ignore the healer/ staff user. Thus, I make mixed pairs (say, a magical unit and a physical one) and leave the “weakest” unit paired with the healer (healer as main), for they will be left in the corridor and can assist other pairs on the next turn.

[Interdimensional Observer]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, it's less of a case that it's actually unrealistic in Fire Emblem. It's usually pretty well justified with the egos and or power of the villains involved. It's just that after thirty years of the series I feel it's become something of a cliche. It really reached a boiling point for me in Three Houses where they say they're attempting diplomacy near the end of Azure Moon, but nowhere in the actual conversation do they ever discuss what either side wants and is willing to concede beyond stating their platitudes.

In the case of 3H, I can see it being more reasonable that they could resort to diplomatic ends on at least one route. Probably not Silver Snover or Crimson Flower, what with Gaea going Kyurem. Although, I'm aware some people find Silver Soul's use of Our Dragon of the Immaculate Destruction to be totally unnecessary. Is it within the realm of faintest possibility that there could be a "silver" ending. Which is to say one where all your "friends" are alive and leading their respective countries, but they don't like you at all anymore, yet recognize they lack the means to kill you and what you stand for? 

Otherwise Azure Moon does seem the most likely for a diplomatic end, since the final boss is the least supernatural. Manaketes could be good brokers and keepers of peace, but if they stand in opposition to peace, I'm not sure if it is realistically capable of bargaining with ancient scalebags. Cult leaders are about as bad as old dragons, if not worse to try negotiating with, their emphasis on prophecies of the world-as-we-know-it's end make them too fatalistic to consider compromise, they are destined to win, or die trying. Ordinary humans make the most reasonable opponents to negotiate with.

[Eltosian Kadath]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Yeah, seems the "only on normal" thing just flat out isn't true. I just checked this CQ Lunatic video, sure enough, he gets the shuriken at around 40:15.

1 hour ago, starburst said:

While I not always clear the west corridor of Chapter 26, I am pretty sure that I have got the Spy Shuriken on Hard multiple times. I remember this because there was no dagger wielder in many parties, and therefore this weapon was only a sellable.

I am about to start Chapter 21 on my current campaign, and the only dagger wielder was Kaze in Chapter 12 (Jakob always commits suicide in Chapter 6 or 7, poor soul.)
I will check Kaze’s proficiency level, though, for he soloed Chapter 5 and was very active in Chapter 12.
I will pay attention to this Spy weapon.

This is what I get for not double checking, the Spy Shuriken is the one you get on hard/lunatic by default, with spy yumi only possible on Normal

 

[Etrurian emperor]

Its true that many Fire Emblem games lack any sort of peaceful settlement. Almost every war in the series ends up with one side being completely defeated and taken over by the other. No war is depicted as one that can end without one side being fully vanquished. 

This is because all Fire Emblem take place in a period of the continent's history where the existing status quo has completely broken down and the old world will never be restored again. Often the antagonistic countries are led by rulers who have a deep desire to topple the status quo or they are manipulated by evil dragons who just want to destroy the world. Under those circumstances the status quo can't really be restored and both sides will fight to the bitter end. Most Fire Emblem games ends with an era being definitely over and a new golden era beginning under the rule of the main character. 

There are some exceptions. In Tellius the general status quo never changes much. Every country keeps their own borders and they are never united under king Ike. Daein gets occupied by Begnion for a bit but in the series only time showing a diplomatic settlement Begnion leaves and gives them their independence. And after Radiant Dawn the status quo is upheld but without the racism. Magvel also returns to their status quo with no big changes within the continent aside from Grado needing a new royal family. And it might just be Awakening's general disinterest about world building but the endings don't really say much what happens in Ylisse either. There are no mentions of Chrom restoring the old empire and reuniting Ylise and Plegia. 

[Alastor15243]

Conquest Day 44: Endgame

Alright, no time for a preamble, let's pick up right where we left off.

Apparently when you've taken 36 damage and you activate vengeance while you were doing 19 damage to a dragonskin opponent and you then crit, you only do damage in the 30s. Wow, dragonskin really is something.

But yeah, now for the big dramatic pre-endgame cutscene. Takumi shows up, possessed by Anankos and wielding a corrupted version of his holy bow, tells Dakota a lot of objectively true things about how it's all Dakota's fault that his home has been destroyed, and promptly shoots Dakota into a coma.

And Dakota lets him do it, but seems surprised by how strong the attack was. Somehow.

And of course, Dakota then promptly goes directly to purgatory, where she comes face to face with Mikoto, Ryoma and Takumi, who are all at this point completely aware of the truth of Dakota's deceptions and have been made painfully aware of the sheer orders of magnitude by which Dakota loves her Nohrian siblings more than them. And with absolutely no conceivable reason to see Dakota's motives and goals as anything but selfish, and a selfishness that came at the expense of everything they loved, they all let her fucking have it. Especially Ryoma, who just recently realized he committed suicide to save the life of someone who would watch all of Hoshido burn to the ground before she let any of her Nohrian siblings lose a drop of blood.

...No, wait, sorry, my mistake, that doesn't happen at all, I just learned about “Good For You” from “Dear Evan Hansen” last night, lost an hour of sleep over how awesome it was, and have been playing it on repeat all morning until thinking about the playlog during breakfast made me cathartically start picturing those three singing it to the avatar.

It's strangely fitting and applicable. And the guy who sings “And you say what you need to say, and you play who you need to play, and if somebody's in your way, CRUSH THEM AND LEAVE THEM BEHIND!” sounds a lot like Takumi.

No, in reality there are literally no hard feelings at all between any of them, not even Takumi, because the writers actually seem convinced that what the avatar did would actually be seen as heroic by the people of Hoshido.

...That said, Effie's “You are not our shield, Dakota – you are our sword.” is a pretty cool way to say “don't be a martyr for this lunatic”.

...But it's funny as hell seeing the person I gave Bifröst to trying to wake Dakota up with words instead of trying the staff.

But it's hard to stay too mad, because now “Destiny, Help Us!” starts playing. Honestly, this is one of my favorite prep songs in the series.

...And while Lilith's monologue about how kind and wonderful Dakota is pisses me off, I do love the bit of camerawork here where they change the camera angle and suddenly Lilith is gone.

...Alright. We're at the final battle prep screen. Let's see what the damage is...

...CHRIST.

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS!?

I knew people said the status staff users in this map were bad on Lunatic, but WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK.

Every single one of them is layered. It's impossible to attack any of them without being in the range of at least three fucking others.

There are five, count 'em, FIVE enfeeble staff users with staff savant and inevitable end. And one more staff user with a hexing rod who covers literally all of them from all viable spaces except for one single lousy space above the northernmost maid.

Oh, and also, flight is absolutely useless on this map. Because there's absolutely no terrain on this map whatsoever where flight lets you go across it more quickly. The rubble blocks fliers as well as grounded units, and the dark water can only be traversed by Vallites. Gee, I sure am happy that so many of my units are fliers!

I also can't help but notice there aren't any fewer dragon veins here than there were last time. Almost like the game's mocking me, knowing that's not remotely going to be the limiting factor on this.

This is so frustrating. Personally, I despise this method of difficulty, with slapping inescapable debuffs everywhere. But not because I consider it bad or hostile game design, at least not necessarily. I just don't like it. I hate making the game harder by making the player weaker than they're used to. I like it when the objective is to avoid it, which is why I like ninja so much. But I hate when the objective is to just deal with it.

...But I do have an advantage. An advantage I haven't had for the entire rest of the game so far.

...My army is expendable.

Even if I die with literally everyone dead but Dakota... that's still a win.

But I do know one thing.

Despite knowing that the fight's only gonna get worse the longer it drags out...

...I can't charge in on turn one. Maybe I could if I had Azura, but I don't. I need to wait for these heroes and onmyoji to come out of the dark water and fight me before I can advance in to take out the maids and then hope everything goes well.

...Okay, so, I know I captured that pass falcon knight, but I haven't actually looked up the strategy it's used for. I just know it exists. I figured if I could pull it off, I'd notice it, so I'd better have one. But I can't see a use for the thing without a rescue staff or a singer, so I'm not gonna bring her. I just don't have the space.

...Apparently Percy became better than Camilla statistically when I wasn't looking. Guess that's aptitude for you.

...Fuck it, there's nothing more I can do to prepare here. Better bite the bullet and face the music.

The awesome music.

End Of All.

Okay.

Turn one.

I have Forrest silence the maid with freeze (96% accuracy; good sign) so that Dakota can move forward into just one of the enfeeble maids' ranges to bait in the oni chieftains and still be able to run away next turn when the enemies reach the edge of the dark water. She's rallied up by every rally in the game, so getting enfeebled once shouldn't matter. After this I intend to keep her out of the range of status staves as much as possible. I used Kana's shelter to let Laslow rally and replicate in the same turn, and Soleil's replicated too, in preparation of heading in to do some dirty work with the help of both Camilla and Selena.

And Dakota dodged the enfeeble! And the oni chieftains didn't wait for her to get closer!

Takumi is using his map attack already. Damn it, I should've activated the dragon vein last turn so I could get out of the enfeeble range entirely. Well, I was already counting on being enfeebled for this, so I guess I should just bite the bullet and use this dragon vein stuck in one of the enfeeble ranges.

NO! FUCK ME! FUCK ME SIDEWAYS! I ACCIDENTALLY PUT XANDER TOO FAR TO THE SIDE, OUT OF RANGE OF THE BARRIER WALLS, AND HE JUST TOOK HALF OF HIS HP IN DAMAGE RIGHT BEFORE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THREE ONMYOJI!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THANK GOODNESS. Xander procced aegis and dodged, and one of them found Dakota a more viable target.

Alright. That's a bunch of enemies cleared. Now I have an opportunity to dive in and do some serious damage to that quartet of maids. And when I count Mozu's amaterasu, I have enough healers to patch up everyone who did battle and/or got hit with the map attack.

I unfortunately forgot to put Camilla in front of the Camilla/Replica Soleil pair, which is probably for the best because it's probably not best I do this on a map attack turn anyway. I have Kana take one for the team and eat three enfeeble staves to trigger a dragon vein while I reposition.

I used two more silence staff uses to disable the two enfeeble maids while my whole army advances and Soleil kills the northernmost one while baiting in the ninjas in the hope of killing them all immediately.

I forgot how much Selena's speed makes a difference for Soleil, and she failed to double the ninja. But despite somehow eating a silver shuriken from one of them, she still managed to dodge a would-be-fatal blow from one of the incoming paladins and activate Sol.

...And for some reason the freeze maid only used her staff after all that combat.

...But Soleil managed to survive, if just barely, and has wounded a ton of enemies and killed one. But now I have to kill them all, and... yeah, no, somebody's dying this enemy phase. And it's probably gonna be Kana. Bare minimum.

Nope, my mistake. I tried to make him take out a ninja before he went, but he missed a 54% and went down instantly. Thankfully I managed to plug up the gaps with my tanks, but Soleil ate two enfeeble staves, and I think she's about to die.

...Yep. She went down.

...Yeah, this has become a shitshow. I think I've lost. Way too many enemies.

Yep, there goes Selena, then Forrest, then Mozu, now here they come for Ophelia... it's just a massive-

...Ophelia managed two consecutive vantage-crits to take out two of the enemies trying to kill her. And I managed to take out a good deal of the enemies on player-phase, but honestly, I'm just in panic mode this whole time. I can barely describe what I'm doing, I'm just desperately rushing towards the end and killing as many units as I can before they can kill me, without any thought for placement or strategy. I'm just not at all experienced in making the best of a situation this fucking bad.

Camilla went down, and then Laslow.

...I tried to bring back Laslow with Bifrost, but unlike Aum, it doesn't let the unit you revive move right after. So Laslow's just gonna die again without doing anything.

...But I just got Xander in range of those great masters, which means they'll stop doing status staves to attack him, and I might have a chance to have Dakota rush in for the boss kill.

Basically everyone but Xander/Charlotte and Dakota/Gunter is going to die now.

...Nope, Xander's dead too, because he's eaten so many damned enfeeble uses that the great masters double him.

...But by a miraculous stroke of luck, Laslow survived the enemy phase, as did Effie, Percy, and Dakota. I have Laslow rally Effie and Dakota, and Dakota rushes in to fight Takumi. And if my math is right...

...Holy shit.

Holy shit.

After draconic hex, Effie does just enough damage to kill Takumi.

...I won.

...I actually won.

I barely feel like I earned it, but...

I FUCKING WON.

I BEAT CONQUEST LUNATIC.

...Okay.

So. I know I didn't truly ironman this game.

...But in a sense I still feel pretty damned good about myself.

I may not have truly completed an ironman of Lunatic, but I beat the entirety of Conquest on Lunatic, without Azura, and nearly all of the chapters I beat on my first try.

That final battle became a shitshow in the end, but in hindsight, I know what I could've done differently. A couple of screw-ups in the beginning kept me from being able to take out those maids fast enough.

But yeah, uh...

...This map isn't nearly as fun on Lunatic as it is on Hard. At least for me. At least right now. Maybe I'll come up with better strategies to deal with the un-fun parts later, but those damned enfeeble users are fucking infuriating. I wish they came up with almost anything else to throw at me instead.

...I'm going to skip over most of this story stuff, most of it I have nothing to say about that I haven't already said...

...The only real thing of comment I have to say is that Hinoka absolutely should not forgive Dakota for what she's done. Again, Dakota's motives for doing what she did should not be this sympathetic to anyone from Hoshido. Dakota practically obliterated the Hoshidan army just so she could trick daddy into sitting on a chair. Having Hinoka say regarding the fact that both Ryoma and Takumi are dead, and I quote: “It is what it is”, after Dakota fucking promised to keep them both alive, is... just... fuck you, game. I haven't been this pissed off by the fucked-up moral narrative of a game since Undertale (though Undertale is undeniably worse in that regard).

God damn it, I just feel emotionally exhausted right now. The fact that all of these endings are so goddamned similar in structure really isn't helping. Like I said, there's very little of value I can say about this that I haven't said about the others.

And the camera angle when Azura's ghost shows up puts a blatant panty shot front and center, which is kinda hilarious.

And then Azura tells Dakota to close her eyes and listen to the song again... but she just fucking dips instead of continuing singing. Wow, Azura is a total asshole. That's literally all she said to Dakota when visiting her. What the fuck was even the point of that conversation!?

Ah yes, and then the ending cinematic that has you run face-first into Camilla's tits.

God. Fucking. Damn. It. I am so exhausted. I never thought I'd be this mentally exhausted and drained by the end of my favorite game. A combination of having to do more thinking than I've ever had to do before in less time than I've had for more than a year is just making the actual act of playlogging this... well I mean, ranking day is always a mess, I have to remind myself. Speaking of...

Edited May 22, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Alastor15243]

Ending Stats

Prologue: 2 turns, heroes none.

Chapter 1: 6 turns, heroes none.

Chapter 2: 6 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 3: 34 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 4: 17 turns, heroes Rinkah and Kaze.

Chapter 5: 13 turns, heroes Rinkah and Kaze.

Chapter 6: 8 turns, heroes none.

Chapter 7: 23 turns, heroes Silas and Effie.

Chapter 8: 33 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Chapter 9: 56 turns, heroes Dakota and Jakob.

Paralogue 1: 83 turns, heroes Arthur and Mozu.

Invasion 1: 5 turns, heroes Dakota and Jakob.

Chapter 10: 11 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Chapter 11: 50 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Chapter 12: 13 turns, heroes Dakota and Jakob.

Chapter 13: 20 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Paralogue 4: 22 turns, heroes Odin and Camilla.

Chapter 14: 24 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Chapter 15: 13 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 16: 12 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Chapter 17: 44 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Paralogue 20: 11 turns, heroes Elise and Odin.

Chapter 18: 19 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 19: 36 turns, heroes Dakota and Peri.

Paralogue 19: 17 turns, heroes Dakota and Peri.

Chapter 20: 32 turns, heroes Charlotte and Xander.

Invasion 2: 12 turns, heroes Dakota and Peri.

Chapter 21: 23 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 22: 39 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 23: 37 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Paralogue 15: 26 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 24: 14 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Paralogue 21: 12 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Paralogue 2: 18 turns, heroes Selena and Soleil.

Paralogue 16: 26 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 25: 28 turns, heroes Selena and Soleil.

Paralogue 18: 13 turns, heroes Charlotte and Xander.

Chapter 26: 26 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Chapter 27: 7 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

Endgame: 10 turns, heroes Dakota and Gunter.

 

Characters:

Kaze: 0B 0W.

Peri: 0B 0W.

Benny: 0B 0W.

Nina: 0B 0W.

Nyx: 1B 1W.

Azura: 2B 0W. Retired: Chapter 9. Yep. The first and easily the most impactful loss of the entire run. There were so many times that having Azura around would've been handy. I could feel her absence in almost every chapter of the game, and while I managed to use shelter to decent effect to fix some of it, hoooooly shit would his have gone so much better if I had just managed to avoid forgetting to move her that one fucking time. ...Or if the game auto-equipped stuff you get from chests.

Beruka: 3B 2W.

Charlotte: 3B 1W. Retired: Endgame. Yep. That's the problem with being a pair-up bot. Your lead unit dies, you almost definitely follow. Which, uh... makes it nearly impossible to revive the lead unit with Bifrost. But she and Xander kept the Great Masters occupied just barely long enough to keep Dakota completely unmarred by debuffs for that one final battle.

Izana: 3B 1W. Retired: Endgame. He didn't do much of value when the shit started hitting the fan except from scoring one critical against a general. When Ophelia's streak of criticals ran out, he swiftly followed her into the darkness.

Forrest: 4B 3W. Retired: Endgame. He did some absolutely crucial silencing and aura-botting before the deaths reached critical mass. After that, however, he became nothing but wheat for the scythe.

Siegbert: 6B 5W. Retired: Chapter 24. RIP. As I've said though, his death undeniably saved several more important lives, since if he didn't die in just the way he did against the specific enemies he died against, I'd have had way more fliers to deal with come player phase, and wouldn't have been able to save everyone else.

Gunter: 7B 5W. A worthy replacement pair-up partner for Dakota after Jakob was sacrificed to the poll of death, especially after making him a malig knight. But there were some times towards the very end where not being able to put him out in front or in attack stance... hurt. A lot. ...Also, apparently Gunter left after the war? Does this imply he was still possessed by Anankos in this timeline?

Velouria: 7B 6W. I was tempted to bring her to the endgame, but I just could not justify replacing any of my other units for her.

Shura: 9B 5W.

Kana: 11B 8W. Retired: Endgame. RIP. I feel kinda bad about getting him killed in a 50% hope that he'd accomplish something before dying. But I was desperate and brain-fried. I am not used to dealing with situations that outrageously stacked against me.

Dwyer: 20B 12W. Retired: Endgame. Dwyer wound up saving the day without me even realizing it at the time, bringing Laslow back and sacrificing himself to keep Laslow alive long enough to give the crucial last-minute rally to finish this.

Keaton: 21B 16W.

Silas: 24B 11W. One of my biggest regrets is not getting him off the ground as a master ninja again. That would've been a really nice asset to have in these final chapters, a second, bulkier shurikenbreaker sol master ninja. But alas, I just never felt like I had an opening for training him this time. Not being able to exploit vow of friendship probably didn't help.

Selena: 48B 32W. Retired: Endgame. Yeah, she died swiftly after Soleil did. And since she didn't even have a weapon due to being relegated to pair-up duty, I wasn't even able to let her do some chip damage before she went. She just occupied an enemy's time for a turn. Shame.

Percy: 53B 41W. He was one of the lucky survivors of that crazy final battle, with his last contribution before victory being taking out a maid and then eating up a hexing rod attack. He wound up pretty strong in the end. I was glad to have him.

Ophelia: 62B 51W. Retired: Endgame. I'm not sure how much it helped (given how far away it was from the final confrontation that Dakota, Xander and Effie ran off to), but she pulled off a really cool string of vantage-crits that kept her alive and kept a bunch of enemies distracted/dead for way longer than I would have expected. Consider me impressed. Pity vantage-sorcery isn't something you can rely on in an ironman setting, or I could've trained her to kick some serious ass.

Laslow: 66B 44W. Laslow was amazingly useful the whole game through, and was totally worth the hoops I jumped through to get him trained. He turned the rest of my army into a bunch of veritable killing machines, and in one epically clutch moment, sealed victory for the team after coming back from the dead.

Niles: 67B 46W. Retired: Chapter 24. I regret absolutely nothing.

Arthur: 73B 58W. Retired: Chapter 23. I shall repeat my eulogy before. He died as he lived: a fearless hero, and a luckless sap.

Leo: 85B 58W. Leo wasn't nearly as good here as he was in my hard mode run, to the point that I'm honestly done trying to train him. He's just not worth two deployment slots to use, and he needs two deployment slots, because he has a speed cap of twenty fucking five without Felicia's maid speed boost. I would've been so much happier with a well-trained Silas.

Felicia: 0B 0W. ...Apparently Felicia gave up on being a maid and became a military commander. That's... kinda sad, honestly, that she wound up giving up what she loves even in peacetime.

Soleil: 101B 76W. Retired: Endgame. I only wish I found a way to pile more attack on her. The entire fight went south when she fought all of those enemies and just barely failed to one-round most of them. But she pulled an insane amount of weight in those final chapters. Insanely useful unit. Pity she's a totally shit character.

Camilla: 133B 85W. Retired: Endgame. When Soleil died she wound up not being able to do much due to debuffs and getting pinned down by a ton of enemies. But I managed to use her to make an enemy waste their dual guard so Xander could get a kill at least. Plus she managed to fly Soleil in there in the first place. And of course, her contributions in the early game should honestly go without saying.

Effie: 172B 116W. Man, I used her a lot. I didn't realize I got her that many kills! And of course, she got the final kill on the boss, which was absolutely awesome. Even if draconic hex hadn't been in Dakota's arsenal, I could've still gotten her enough strength for the kill by having Percy pair up with her.

Mozu: 193B 125W. Retired: Endgame. Man, she died really unceremoniously during the massive pile of dead bodies towards the end of the battle. But still, I was glad to have her basically at all times. Especially after I got her that kickass crescent bow in the lottery.

Xander: 202B 157W. Retired: Endgame. Man those enfeeble staves took their toll. By the end Xander had almost nothing left after being enfeebled and hexed, and went down to a single great master. But still, he did enough, and bought enough time, for Dakota and Effie to claim victory. Rest in peace.

Odin: 173B 71W. He was amazing for the first half of the game or so, but when I lost Elise to the poll of death I just couldn't justify fielding him anymore. His nostanking was such an amazing niche in the early game, but losing his pair-up partner was the straw that broke the camel's back and made his meh stats catch up with him. What a shame.

Elise: 98B 41W. There is no death in the entire run, probably not even including Azura's, that saddened me as much as Elise's selection in the poll of death. This was the first time I had ever used her as a combat unit, and she had turned out so well. And just when it was time to finally, truly have fun with her... I lost her. I can think of so many maps I would've had a ton of fun fielding her on, not the least of which being 21 and 24. Oh well. I guess there's always next run?

Jakob: 90B 61W. In contrast, Jakob getting selected for the poll of death didn't hurt nearly as much, though having to lose him was obviously quite embarrassing considering what caused it. Worst birthday present ever. Honestly, he was really cool in the early-game, but he ran out of steam right when I wound up losing him. Pity. It would've been nice if he stayed stronger.

Dakota: 553B 374W. Jesus Fucking Christ did Dakota turn out amazing. You can probably see looking at that combat count why it hurt so much not being able to use her in the opening turns of Chapter 26. I don't know if I've ever gotten a kill count that high on a unit in this marathon. Woooooooow.

Of course, relying on her so much was a constant dance with death that I paid the price for twice, and nearly paid the price for on a few other occasions. But still, she's a really fun unit to use.

...

And I slap all five of my Endgame survivors on my posterity record thing at the end, and... I get my “I beat Conquest Lunatic” badge.

...So all that remains to play of Fates...

...is that bonus I offered, if anyone wants it. If people still want me to take on their teams with my endgame Conquest team (including the ones who died, because obviously that wasn't saved), lemme know.

But for now...

[Alastor15243]

My Ranking

 

Difficulty: I feel kinda conflicted about this. By the end of the game it became clear that there were both some things I thought were bad and some things I personally hated about how Lunatic handles the endgame missions. There are some obvious openings for improvement I can see. But the question isn't “Is Conquest's difficulty perfect?”, it's “does Conquest's difficulty deserve to be an entire tier above Shadow Dragon's?”.

And the answer is yes. Lest we forget, Shadow Dragon had some serious flaws too, namely in the early game and very, very late game, and I wasn't even playing the hardest difficulty for the playlog. On that note, an extremely important point of praise: Conquest is the only game in the series where I considered the difficulty satisfying and engaging pretty much consistently... and where the early-game isn't a psychotically overkill at any point, on any difficulty. Binding Blade's hard mode early game is kind of a mess, Shadow Dragon has some psychotically unfair bosses that temporarily bring the fun to a screeching halt, and the less I say about the higher difficulties of New Mystery, the better. Conquest Lunatic has the best and smoothest difficulty curve of the series by far, and my frustrating experiences with this ironman came from me not knowing how to handle the end of the game, not the beginning. Actually, thinking about it, knowing that there's room for me to improve with this game, and that I'm still likely to be challenged by it no matter what toys I use... that's actually really encouraging to think about.

So yes, while I have some issues with it now, I have significantly fewer issues with it than I did with any other game in the series.

So yes. This deserves the top tier spot.

+12: Pushes difficulty to the limit without being a reset-fest, with fun, engaging challenges galore.

Conquest.

 

Ironmannability: For certain definitions of ironmannability, the sheer number of ways you can screw up in this game can easily be seen as cause to take off serious points. However, that is not, nor has it ever been, the definition I am using. First off, there are fewer ways you can screw up if you aren't playing on Lunatic, and secondly, even on Lunatic, these are still ways you're screwing up. Not the game being an asshole. And that's how I grade the quality of a game for ironmanning: how often deaths in the game are your fault. How often they're the consequences of your actions, actions that a better player than you wouldn't have taken, even when going in blind. And Conquest does so many things right in that regard that it can be easy to take them for granted after being drowned in the Fates games for months upon months. The few flaws I've caught have gotten way more mention from me in my playlog than the successes as a result, and thus I think I've done a disservice at several points in the playlog by not bringing them up more.

While it still had various issues, there isn't a single other game in the series that doesn't also have these issues just as bad if not worse, and the sheer relief of playing a Fire Emblem game that I could actually completely trust to be upfront about the ways it's going to fuck me was a wave of relief that's simply impossible to describe. I lost a shitton of units in this run, but there isn't a single one of those deaths that wasn't either just because the game is hard and I screwed up, or due to an ironmanning flaw that nearly every other game in the series also shares.

+9: Near perfection. You can ironman blind, confident that the game won't fuck you. No ambush spawns, no fog of war, and plentiful means to recover from your mistakes.

Conquest.

 

Usability: This is on top, for the same reasons the rest of the 3DS games are on top. There's nothing more I can say, except that this playthrough has opened my eyes to a few ways in which the interface could be improved further. Namely by giving me a way to look up support bonuses and weapon triangle/rank effects in game, along with growth rates and all sorts of other stuff like that. But no game in the series except Heroes has actually done any of these things I'm pretty sure. So it still wins.

+9: The best we've got. Always room for improvement, but there has never been less clunk in the way of your strategies than there is here.

Conquest, Birthright, Revelation, Awakening.

 

Depth: Do I even need to say it? This game takes gameplay system depth to a whole other level, and is the only game that has had the balls to let the enemy take as much advantage of the skill system as the player can. I had dreamed of a game that dared to do this, and I got it, on a system that was well-equipped to make it easy to size up enemies and see what you're up against. A perfect storm of usability and depth that we may never, ever see again, though I would be beyond happy to be proven wrong here.

+7: Tons of interesting mechanics and unit customization for allies and enemies alike.

Conquest.

 

Balance: I can't justify putting this in the +9 spot. I don't know if we'll ever get a game where I can. But I do feel I can justify putting it in the +6 spot, because it's definitely a tier above Binding Blade. Unlike Birthright and Revelation, the map design makes it so that an astonishing number of different builds and purposes are viable and important, and no matter what I came up against, no matter what point in the game I was at, I almost never had the perfect counter to any given situation. It was always a matter of weighing my options and deciding what units to send in, and the answer was constantly changing depending on enemy formation. Even when it came to enemy-phase tanking, I was constantly debating the right tool for the job there.

Yes, the weapon system is kinda ridiculous, but again, I've gained newfound appreciation for several of the ones I wrote off as worthless, and given the hilarious number of shortcomings Binding Blade managed to have while still getting my only positive score... Yeah. Yeah, I think I can justify this.

+6: Some things are clearly better than others, but not too much, and nothing breaks the game.

Conquest.

 

Pacing: Nothing new to say since Birthright. It's great for pretty much the same reasons.

+5: Doesn't waste much of your time making anything more tedious than it needs to be.

Conquest, Birthright.

 

Writing: ...Do you have any idea what I would give to live in a universe where this game were attached to a story I could be emotionally engaged by? Alas, we do not live in this world. Instead we got a psychotically tone-deaf shitshow filled with the worst of anime cliches, spending what feels like a fifth of its screen time glorifying the single most morally reprehensible protagonist the Fire Emblem series has ever had. And that makes me sad. It makes me very, very, very sad.

-5: Cannot be taken seriously in any way, and brings no joy except through mockery.

Birthright, Revelation, Conquest, Dark Dragon, Gaiden.

 

Music: The music of Conquest is absolutely phenomenal, for reasons that words cannot do justice. I'm putting it above Revelation because while Revelation may have more awesome tracks, the ratio is diluted by the presence of Birthright's slightly inferior score. Conquest has a huge number of my favorite songs in the series. Resolve (Dark), A Dark Fall, You of the Light, Glory/Ruin, Dark Wastes, and of course, my absolute favorite from the game, Dusk Falls. It's such an incredible soundtrack that manages to beat out some really fierce competition.

+6: Consistently gorgeous music that flows throughout.

Conquest, Revelation, Awakening, Birthright.

 

FINAL SCORE

1: Conquest (49)

2: Birthright (25)

3: Shadow Dragon (15)

4: Path of Radiance (11)

5: Revelation (6)

6: Genealogy of the Holy War (5)

7: New Mystery (4)

8: Blazing Blade (1)

9: Binding Blade (0)

10: Sacred Stones (-3)

11: Radiant Dawn (-5)

12/13: Awakening / Thracia (-9)

14: Mystery of the Emblem Book 2 (-22)

15: Gaiden (-27)

16: Mystery of the Emblem Book 1 (-31)

17: Dark Dragon (-54)

 

...I really need to mess with the point values some more, because Revelation is still higher up there than my actual enjoyment of the game reflects. But I am not fucking doing that tonight. I have been either working on this or walking for hours in hot weather all day, and I am ready to proofread this, post it, and relax.

Lemme know if you want me to take on your castles, guys. Depending on how things go, I might do it tomorrow, or I might do it on Monday.

And after that...

...We'll be going back. Way back. The furthest back in the playlog in terms of days that we've ever gone I'm pretty sure, thanks to the multiple-month gap separating Shadow Dragon and New Mystery from this.

We're going back to Valentia.

Into the shadows, you might say.

Stay safe, everyone.

Stay safer than...

...yeah I'm not doing that for this fucking many deaths.

[Jotari]

I've beaten this chapter on Lunatic, and honestly, aside from the inability to save, the thing that annoys me the most are the reinforcements. I know, generally speaking, it's good map design to have enemies coming at you from the rear to encourage progress, but the coverage of the enemy maids and the power of the multiple enemies in guard stance really makes it hard to push forward without meticulously planning every single move. It really doesn't help that half my army is distracted by fighting Faceless that explode when they die and can't even be player phased since they're in magic enemy only water (also if Hexing Rods just plain didn't exist that would be nice). If the reinforcements weren't there, or if they weren't quite as bulky, then I'd have a lot more fun trying to set up ways to break through the enemy's formation. And I think the chapter already has a decent way of pressuring you to move forward with Takumi's AOE attack. You only have a finite set of Dragon Veins (though still more than you'll likely need to use for this map), and Takumi launches the attack on every second turn, so there is motive to keep pushing forward or face losing your protection against it.

Overall though I still rate it as one of the better final maps in the series. It certainly has the difficulty factor. While my slaughter wasn't nearly as total as yours, when I did eventually beat it I had similarly lost a handful units and had to make a mad dash for Takumi. The big difference is that it took me multiple attempts, I wasn't ironmanning and I was using DLC classes and skills. So overall, great job pulling it off on your first try. I didn't think you'd actually manage it as I read the play log.

 

Quote

 

Gunter: 7B 5W. A worthy replacement pair-up partner for Dakota after Jakob was sacrificed to the poll of death, especially after making him a malig knight. But there were some times towards the very end where not being able to put him out in front or in attack stance... hurt. A lot. ...Also, apparently Gunter left after the war? Does this imply he was still possessed by Anankos in this timeline?

 

It would be pretty disturbing if that was the implication, as you can fuck Gunther in Conquest and Anankos is like Corrin's father.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Jotari

[lenticular]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

I FUCKING WON.

I BEAT CONQUEST LUNATIC.

Congratulations! I disagree with you about almost everything about this game (other than the wretchedness of the story) but this is still a good achievement and I still enjoyed reading the play log and the discussion. I'm looking forward to Valentia.

[Eltosian Kadath]

31 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...My army is expendable.

Even if I die with literally everyone dead but Dakota... that's still a win.

I honestly think Conquest Lunatic Endgame was designed with unit death in mind.

 

41 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Apparently Percy became better than Camilla statistically when I wasn't looking. Guess that's aptitude for you.

Sounds about right. I know saying Camilla falls off is a bit of a joke, but she always ends up a little worse than the most comparable ally here at the end of the game. Never bad enough to really think about undeploying, but still noticeably worse...

 

46 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

NO! FUCK ME! FUCK ME SIDEWAYS! I ACCIDENTALLY PUT XANDER TOO FAR TO THE SIDE, OUT OF RANGE OF THE BARRIER WALLS, AND HE JUST TOOK HALF OF HIS HP IN DAMAGE RIGHT BEFORE HE WAS SUPPOSED TO FIGHT THREE ONMYOJI!

 

RIP Xand-

47 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

THANK GOODNESS. Xander procced aegis and dodged, and one of them found Dakota a more viable target.

That was a real stroke of luck right there.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Ophelia managed two consecutive vantage-crits to take out two of the enemies trying to kill her. And I managed to take out a good deal of the enemies on enemy-phase, but honestly, I'm just in panic mode this whole time. I can barely describe what I'm doing, I'm just desperately rushing towards the end and killing as many units as I can before they can kill me, without any thought for placement or strategy. I'm just not at all experienced in making the best of a situation this fucking bad.

Good old best mage Ophelia making things dramatic in the end.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...Holy shit.

Holy shit.

After draconic hex, Effie does just enough damage to kill Takumi.

...I won.

...I actually won.

I barely feel like I earned it, but...

I FUCKING WON.

I BEAT CONQUEST LUNATIC.

Congratulations!!! That is an accomplishment right there.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Leo: 85B 58W. Leo wasn't nearly as good here as he was in my hard mode run, to the point that I'm honestly done trying to train him. He's just not worth two deployment slots to use, and he needs two deployment slots, because he has a speed cap of twenty fucking five without Felicia's maid speed boost. I would've been so much happier with a well-trained Silas.

He does a little better as a Sorcerer, with +2 speed cap, and +1.9 speed average if change immediately...yeah he really is the worst of the Nohrian royals.

 

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Elise: 98B 41W. There is no death in the entire run, probably not even including Azura's, that saddened me as much as Elise's selection in the poll of death. This was the first time I had ever used her as a combat unit, and she had turned out so well. And just when it was time to finally, truly have fun with her... I lost her. I can think of so many maps I would've had a ton of fun fielding her on, not the least of which being 21 and 24. Oh well. I guess there's always next run?

Yeah, seeing her die to the poll was tragic, as you put in the work for that fun build to work. Also she is one of my favorite units thanks to her personal skill.

 

[Shadow Mir]

On 5/19/2021 at 2:17 AM, Jotari said:

I like how Bifrost works, because Archanea's Aum staff (or Jugdral's Valkyrie staff) reviving someone who died three years ago on the otherside of the continent is just silly for narrative reasons (and pointless for gameplay reasons). While an emergency revival of a near dead person is a much easier pill to swallow. But it sort of sucks in Fates from arbitrary weapon rank caps stopping you from using it in almost all staff wielding classes. And even if you're in the right class you would have to be neglecting the other weapon of the class at least a bit to reach that S rank. Sometimes it feels like Elise has to decide between Flame Shuriken and Bifrost 😕 And that's coming from someone who isn't shy about using DLC maps to pick up money (wait does wexp increase on the DLC maps? I know exp doesn't, but I'm not sure if wexp does).

Outside of Boo Camp, no, you don't get wexp. Anyway for me, it's not just the weapon rank restrictions that bother me, it's the fact that it's so much more limited compared to Aum, with both combining to render it very impractical to use; reviving the most recently fallen ally doesn't help so much if you lost someone else right after losing one of your best units... something that's liable to happen when you do like Alastor and deploy characters solely for being pair up bots.

On 5/19/2021 at 2:17 AM, Jotari said:

It's funny but if they actually had a skill saying they're unaffected by movement related skills and staffs then it wouldn't bother me nearly as much. But when the game just goes "Nope, you can use entrap on every unit except the ones you actually want to use it on", it just feels scummy of the game.

Well, it's not as bad as the Hexing Rod in terms of being way more useful for the enemy than you. What use is halving the HP of some random mook you could generally kill easily anyway???

Incidentally,  3H has abilities that prevent forcible movement, whereas immobile enemies are still fair game for being forcibly moved in SoV.

Edited May 22, 2021 by Shadow Mir

[Punished Dayni]

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...I won.

...I actually won.

I barely feel like I earned it, but...

I FUCKING WON.

I BEAT CONQUEST LUNATIC.

Is this the map with the most complete turnaround we've see in the entire marathon?

Congrats for pulling it off, even if there's 11 dead bodies.

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

We're going back to Valentia.

Into the shadows, you might say.

I can already hear you screaming at the appropriate moments.

Funnily, I recently replayed it while reclassing the armours and they were pretty powerful. Though it was on me due to their reclassing being post promotion. Forsyth was insane though somehow getting 37 Str. On a Bow Knight. Naturally, the game didn't have ways to stop the juggernaut that weren't magical in the finale. And even then that's on me.

7 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Also, apparently Gunter left after the war? Does this imply he was still possessed by Anankos in this timeline?

Part of me likes to imagine he actually killed the Nohrians after the war (much as here they're all dead except Leo/Corrin already).

Really rub it in how much the devs didn't want it or BR as the ending.

6 hours ago, Jotari said:

It would be pretty disturbing if that was the implication, as you can fuck Gunther in Conquest and Anankos is like Corrin's father.

Jesus fuck, I already hated the option, now I just want to throw up. Forever.

Fuck it, Valla.

[Jotari]

6 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Outside of Boo Camp, no, you don't get wexp. Anyway for me, it's not just the weapon rank restrictions that bother me, it's the fact that it's so much more limited compared to Aum, with both combining to render it very impractical to use; reviving the most recently fallen ally doesn't help so much if you lost someone else right after losing one of your best units... something that's liable to happen when you do like Alastor and deploy characters solely for being pair up bots.

I really don't expect to be losing enough units in a single enemy phase for that to be a tangible concern.

[Shadow Mir]

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

I really don't expect to be losing enough units in a single enemy phase for that to be a tangible concern.

Fair enough. Then again, Conquest Lunatic endgame is a completely different kettle of fish than most everything else.

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Fair enough. Then again, Conquest Lunatic endgame is a completely different kettle of fish than most everything else.

It is, but even there you can use Bifrost tactically. Like sending a unit (unpaired) down to take out a maid, letting them get killed by the now aggroed enemies, and then simply revive them on player phase with the troublesome maid gone and the active enemies in a position where you can effective player phase them (or more easily enemy phase bait them as they've moved out of cover).

Edited May 22, 2021 by Jotari

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

 

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Gunter: 7B 5W. A worthy replacement pair-up partner for Dakota after Jakob was sacrificed to the poll of death, especially after making him a malig knight. But there were some times towards the very end where not being able to put him out in front or in attack stance... hurt. A lot. ...Also, apparently Gunter left after the war? Does this imply he was still possessed by Anankos in this timeline?

I choose to interpret "Gunter is possessed by Anankos" as canon only to Revelation, and not to Conquest. I always interpreted his inability to grow supports on Revelation as symptomatic of him being "not really Gunter". On Conquest, however, he can build supports - ergo, it's really him.

Mind you, I have no basis for this theory, but it makes me feel a little less terrible about Fates' plot.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Chapter 9: 56 turns, heroes Dakota and Jakob.

Paralogue 1: 83 turns, heroes Arthur and Mozu.

Bruh

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And the camera angle when Azura's ghost shows up puts a blatant panty shot front and center, which is kinda hilarious.

And then Azura tells Dakota to close her eyes and listen to the song again... but she just fucking dips instead of continuing singing. Wow, Azura is a total asshole. That's literally all she said to Dakota when visiting her. What the fuck was even the point of that conversation!?

Weirdly enough, this scene sounds better on a playthrough where Azura "dies". Like, if you didn't know any better, you might be left to wonder: "if I had kept her alive, would I get more of a resolution?". Then you play again, keeping her alive, and realize "no, wait, the ending is just bad".

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

There are five, count 'em, FIVE enfeeble staff users with staff savant and inevitable end. And one more staff user with a hexing rod who covers literally all of them from all viable spaces except for one single lousy space above the northernmost maid.

We need Kishuna. Now, more than ever.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

After draconic hex, Effie does just enough damage to kill Takumi.

You've killed one, yes... but what about second Takumi?

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I FUCKING WON.

I BEAT CONQUEST LUNATIC.

Genuinely, congratulations. It sounds like it was a nightmare. This whole account has really made me think about... never playing Conquest on Lunatic.

17 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

We're going back to Valentia.

Into the shadows, you might say.

Looking forward to it!