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

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Given that I don't remember much of it ever coming up... well, we'll see how it goes. It's been more than 2 years since I last played.

It probably would bother me much less if Gaiden didn't have fully explorable towns. Like sure, there was virtually nothing to actually find in those towns, but still going from Moving Around on a 2D Map -> Talking to PNGs on a 3D backdrop just feels like a downgrade to me. If they'd done something like this for Shadow Dragon I would have found it awesome, but as a feature already existing, I expect more for a remake of a 25 year old game.

 

1 hour ago, Samz707 said:

Boy, it would suuuuure suck if no one actually gets any unique boss dialogue against Slayde when you fight him later, especially Faye, the girl traumitized by the time he threatened to slit her throat, that'd sure be duuuumb.

 

Yes, another massive failing on Shadows of Valentia's part is the almost complete and utter lack of unique boss convos. I think Sonya gets one with Jeddah and that's literally it. I don't think Berkut even has a unique battle quote with Alm despite the fact that you fight him like twenty times and the thrust of his character is a major hate boner for Alm. It's a level of neglect that is baffling for me, I'm not expecting Radiant Dawn's shenanigans with unique battle quotes you have to rescue chain to see, but throwing some in here or there would take very little work, in a game which they seemed to have went all out in in almost every other regard (because much as how I prefer walking around to the Adventure game menu, it still doesn't feel lacking in effort). Overall Shadows of Valentia is a game they clearly put a tonne of work into, so that they couldn't put like another hour into writing a handful of bonus boss dialogues really confuses me.

Quote

 

King Lima definitely spent way too much time having sex (Part of the reason I want him in Heroes for a Forging Bonds event where Celica has to stop her young dad trying to get it on with every female in the Order of Heroes.), my friend actually though Lima wasn't even wearing pants when he saw that CG, which honestly I can see as probably in-character.

 

 

Add an STD into the possible reasons he looks that way. Could be a tape worm either. The guy has so many fascinating possibilities and dimensions that didn't necessarily need to explored, but it would have been great to see it done. Honestly, and this is rare to say, I don't think they could have fucked up if they had him on screen. Because if he's outright evil in his abuse or completely apathetic, or even well intentioned but just incompetent, any of those depictions probably would have been compelling. I can't really think of way he could be written where in his characterization would ruin the context in which he's in (though the utter heartlessness reaction he has to Celica dying describe in the timeline makes a well meaning portrayal highly unlikely, but still, damn imagine him being that uncaring while genuinely thinking he does care and is doing the best for everyone acting the way he does).

43 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

EDITED: Turns out I was wrong. He's not there in Gaiden.

... nevermind!

You're not wrong though. This opening set piece isn't in Gaiden, but Slayde is a Gaiden character. He's the boss you fight at the end of part 1 so Desaix isn't killed too early (even though you can kill Desaix and it's silly and confusing).

Edited May 24, 2021 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

You're not wrong though. This opening set piece isn't in Gaiden, but Slayde is a Gaiden character. He's the boss you fight at the end of part 1 so Desaix isn't killed too early (even though you can kill Slayde and it's silly and confusing).

I know that. I just got mixed up that in Gaiden he truly only showed up for the Act 1 finale. He lives should you kill Desaix...'s body double, but in Gaiden that was that. He never showed up again. And he outright died instead if you didn't bother taking down Desaix.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

10 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

I know that. I just got mixed up that in Gaiden he truly only showed up for the Act 1 finale. He lives should you kill Desaix...'s body double, but in Gaiden that was that. He never showed up again. And he outright died instead if you didn't bother taking down Desaix.

Yes, that's true. Personally I think they should have made it that if you killed Desaix in that map then Slayde replaced Desaix in the Mathilda map. It's not like Desiax does basically anything to influence the plot after Part 1 that makes his survival so mandatory. And people love alternate scenario stuff like that, which Shadows of Valentia is filled to the brim with already. The body double just raises way more questions than it solves that the game never has any intention of answering. What happened to the body double if you kill Slayde? Why didn't Desaix use the body double later in the Matilda map? Did he use the body double later if you didn't kill him before? Why does Slayde just disappear if you kill the body double? Well, at least in Gaiden, he survives either way in Shadows of Valentia which I think was kind of stupid as they didn't actually do anything interesting with him by keeping him alive.

Oh well, at least the whole body double thing let's me make an amusing headcanon where Xane somehow got wrapped up in this conflict when he casually visited Valentia to see what Mila and Duma were doing. Why else would the body double have a Dragonshield that Desaix himself never gets to use?

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Considering it was ten years ago, would they even recognize it was him? Heck, Slayde is only name dropped once in that entire sequence, and it wasn't within earshot of the children.

Traumatic childhood event with a guy who has a beard and hairstyle as ostentatious as that. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Kliff or Faye remembered that face. Also we do know Slayde remembers the kids, because it's his battle quote in Act 1. Even if he's not facing one of said kids, I think. Well at least judging by his list of quotes in the wiki.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

2 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Yes, that's true. Personally I think they should have made it that if you killed Desaix in that map then Slayde replaced Desaix in the Mathilda map. It's not like Desiax does basically anything to influence the plot after Part 1 that makes his survival so mandatory. And people love alternate scenario stuff like that, which Shadows of Valentia is filled to the brim with already. The body double just raises way more questions than it solves that the game never has any intention of answering. What happened to the body double if you kill Slayde? Why didn't Desaix use the body double later in the Matilda map? Did he use the body double later if you didn't kill him before? Why does Slayde just disappear if you kill the body double? Well, at least in Gaiden, he survives either way in Shadows of Valentia which I think was kind of stupid as they didn't actually do anything interesting with him by keeping him alive.

Oh well, at least the whole body double thing let's me make an amusing headcanon where Xane somehow got wrapped up in this conflict when he casually visited Valentia to see what Mila and Duma were doing. Why else would the body double have a Dragonshield that Desaix himself never gets to use?

It's a Schrödinger's situation. It's the real Desaix if you didn't kill him, but he's not if you did. It's not meant to be anything in-depth, just the game trying to excuse why Desaix shows up again even if you brought his HP down to 0 on the map. Having bosses still live even after that isn't something FE adopted until later on. So in the meantime, you get stuff like the body double paradox.

[Jotari]

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

It's a Schrödinger's situation. It's the real Desaix if you didn't kill him, but he's not if you did. It's not meant to be anything in-depth, just the game trying to excuse why Desaix shows up again even if you brought his HP down to 0 on the map. Having bosses still live even after that isn't something FE adopted until later on. So in the meantime, you get stuff like the body double paradox.

Yeah, and that's why I find it more amusing than anything else in Gaiden (because honestly I like the aspect of the series of bringing an enemy's HP to 0 means they're dead, which we've gradually been drifting from). But in the more fully realized remake of Shadows of Valentia it becomes a case of bieng faithful to the original game without reason. Because Shadows of Valentia absolutely does not follow the logic of 0HP=Dead, with Slayde surviving the very same battle and Berkut being fought a bunch of times (coming to think of it even in the original you could kill Jeddah and his daughter in gameplay with them still surviving, so they were cognisant of a retreat quote being a thing, though I guess they thought those characters were more justifiable because magic). They could have just plain old have Desaix retreat like Berkut and Fernand and all those other people you fight and don't kill. Staying faithful to the weird early installment logic of a variably existent perfect duplicate is just, well like I said before, silly. And silly is hardly the worst crime in the world, I'm sure some people were overjoyed to kill put half an hour into killing the Desaix clone and seeing that the plot point had remained in place, but personally it just makes me feel like they could have done something interesting with this battle set up, like I said before, with Slayde taking over Desiax's place in the following two or three scenes featuring Desaix.

[Punished Dayni]

Well, it's time.

I'm curious how many non-obligatory fights you'll avoid.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

In contrast to that... I'm going to be playing its remake... immediately after playing what I consider the best game in the series. That... uh... this might get ugly.

I already see the holes you've dug.

This was inevitable.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, I get the post-victory opening with Alm and Celica as adults instead of little kids, and I'm wondering if there's any way to see the old opening again without deleting my file.

It'll be random between the two.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah yes, and then they have this weird comment where Faye says Celica is Alm's cousin, but then Kliff mentions how they're Not Blood Siblings, because of course, it ain't incest if you say “no chromo”.

Pfft!

Ah shit no chromo got me.

Although here, they haven't known each other that long and I don't think there's much of a suggestion how long Celica would have stayed if it weren't revealed that she got there for that dynamic to develop.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Making matters worse was that this game had the beginnings of something that came to a head in Three Houses: visual novel elements to the story making advancing the story parts between battles more than just pressing start if you've already seen them.

Are you referring to the title cards? Or how some dialogue segments aren't all contiguous so load separately? Or am I missing something here?

Asking as my VN experience is zilch.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

As well they should, because their stats are so pathetic compared to the soldiers that I've never even bothered trying to get a single kill.

They don't even get exp from it.

There's no reason to not just have Mycen charge.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Seriously though, missed opportunity, not going into detail about what the fuck this dude was on. It would make a great story hook for a sidequest, having to fight a drug dealer or something.

What are the chances the rating would go up just from acknowledging it?

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Pfft!

Ah shit no chromo got me.

Can't take credit for that, that's something Gigguk came up with.

9 minutes ago, Dayni said:

Are you referring to the title cards? Or how some dialogue segments aren't all contiguous so load separately? Or am I missing something here?

It's more the mandatory town exploration to activate the next story flag in various situations.

[Shrimpica]

On 5/22/2021 at 1:54 AM, Alastor15243 said:

s 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.

I think you might enjoy Berwick Saga.

Other than that, there's nothing to add to what you said, i pretty much agree with what you said about Conquest. It is imo the only FE game to do high difficulties right, without the surprise bullshit the series likes to throw at you in other high difficulties.

Sure some improvements are needed, but it's the closest FE gameplay ever came to perfection imo

Also congrats on clearing Lunatic 😄

As someone who just did that a few months ago, i know myself how hard it is. Good Job!

Edited May 24, 2021 by Shrimperor

[Punished Dayni]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Can't take credit for that, that's something Gigguk came up with.

Still got me anyway.

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

It's more the mandatory town exploration to activate the next story flag in various situations.

Ah yeah that.

There's few cases that don't involve recruitment or some other item of import from what I'm thinking at the moment (See: End of act 1 for an example where that is true)

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

3 hours ago, Jotari said:

Yeah, and that's why I find it more amusing than anything else in Gaiden (because honestly I like the aspect of the series of bringing an enemy's HP to 0 means they're dead, which we've gradually been drifting from). But in the more fully realized remake of Shadows of Valentia it becomes a case of bieng faithful to the original game without reason. Because Shadows of Valentia absolutely does not follow the logic of 0HP=Dead, with Slayde surviving the very same battle and Berkut being fought a bunch of times (coming to think of it even in the original you could kill Jeddah and his daughter in gameplay with them still surviving, so they were cognisant of a retreat quote being a thing, though I guess they thought those characters were more justifiable because magic). They could have just plain old have Desaix retreat like Berkut and Fernand and all those other people you fight and don't kill. Staying faithful to the weird early installment logic of a variably existent perfect duplicate is just, well like I said before, silly. And silly is hardly the worst crime in the world, I'm sure some people were overjoyed to kill put half an hour into killing the Desaix clone and seeing that the plot point had remained in place, but personally it just makes me feel like they could have done something interesting with this battle set up, like I said before, with Slayde taking over Desiax's place in the following two or three scenes featuring Desaix.

Honestly, I really like Desaix's body double. It's a gag for the people who go through the absurd trouble of defeating the boss. You do something crazy by manipulating Slayde's AI, and the game rewards you with a crazy cover for the plot hole it would otherwise create.

Also it reminds me of this scene from Spaceballs.

[Shadow Mir]

6 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Mycen tells the children to help him fight off the soldiers, and the children all balk at this. As well they should, because their stats are so pathetic compared to the soldiers that I've never even bothered trying to get a single kill. Because Mycen really doesn't need these brats to do anything. He's every bit as powerful as when you get him at the end of the game.

Speaking of which, the young Alm and Celica get a spirit appearance in SSBU. They are represented by two Villagers who do nothing but run away from you, because of course.

[Jotari]

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

Honestly, I really like Desaix's body double. It's a gag for the people who go through the absurd trouble of defeating the boss. You do something crazy by manipulating Slayde's AI, and the game rewards you with a crazy cover for the plot hole it would otherwise create.

Also it reminds me of this scene from Spaceballs.

I wouldn't say it covers up a plot hole. Desaix could just literally retreat. If there were no other characters in the game who retreated when defeated then sure, yeah then you could say it's a plot hole. But just in terms of narrative it does cause more plot holes than it seals. Though, of course we're obviously not meant to think about it.

Now that it does firmly exist in both the original and remake canon, I wouldn't be against them committing to it though. Desaix's Doppelgänger for Heroes XD If only Desaix's weapon type wasn't as boring as lance armour. Make him a Duo unit with Pallardo's double from Reunion at Dawn.

Edited May 25, 2021 by Jotari

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

1 hour ago, Shadow Mir said:

Speaking of which, the young Alm and Celica get a spirit appearance in SSBU. They are represented by two Villagers who do nothing but run away from you, because of course.

I don't think I've tried this one yet. That's pretty perfect. Kind of funny, though, that a game with like 8 Fire Emblem characters used non-FE units to represent them.

25 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I wouldn't say it covers up a plot hole. Desaix could just literally retreat. If there were no other characters in the game who retreated when defeated then sure, yeah then you could say it's a plot hole. But just in terms of narrative it does cause more plot holes than it seals. Though, of course we're obviously not meant to think about it.

Now that it does firmly exist in both the original and remake canon, I wouldn't be against them committing to it though. Desaix's Doppelgänger for Heroes XD If only Desaix's weapon type wasn't as boring as lance armour. Make him a Duo unit with Pallardo's double from Reunion at Dawn.

I'd like to imagine that the Double flees the scene after Slayde is defeated, and goes into hiding. The real Desaix had gotten a head-start before the battle began. Hence, why the real Desaix doesn't have the Dracoshield in Act 3 (the Doppelganger absconded with it). Sure, the game says it was on loan from Berkut - but we never see Berkut with the Dracoshield, so he probably never got it back.

[Eltosian Kadath]

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

But enough of that, new game. I select hard, and the way I remember it, this increases enemy stats slightly compared to the original game, while normal mode I think uses the original game's stats despite growth rates being increased for your units all around.

It increases the number of enemies as well. One particularly noticeable example of this come when Celica faces the Necrodragon in Act 2, on Hard you face two of them, whereas on Normal you face one...

 

10 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Jesus Christ the king of Zofia is, uh... uncomfortably gaunt for someone who lives in a land of decadence and plenty. He's the idle, useless king of a land spoiled rotten by the goddess's bounty, so I'd expect him to be fat. But the guy's a fucking skeleton!

...He has to be on drugs. No other explanation. This guy's just constantly high, on some cocaine analogue most likely, and it's making him all gaunt and sickly. He just does nothing all day but snort powdered dragonstones, fuck his massive harem of dancer girls, and maaaaaybe eat during the hour or two a day he has the presence of mind to indulge a vice as pedestrian as food.

My though is rounds of binges and purges. Lets him hedonistically consume as much food as he wants with the side effect on health when most of it is coming back up.

 

10 hours ago, Shadow Mir said:

Which begs the question of which ones of these are Lunatic exclusive... and second, who in the name of Arceus is this guy!?! Also, the video's private =(

That is unfortunate, as it wasn't private when I posted, and the skill on display was like a work of art, with careful placements to bait the AI into vantage kills working towards a small gap in the reinforcement timing where they could player phase a group while sniping one of the staff with Shura (at least until they get to the last group of them), and mass shelter-dance chain him to safety as the next wave of reinforcements crashes in like the sea. Looks like they privated the numerous Conquest challenge runs they did, as for their name, it is Chinese and I don't understand the language well enough to tell you, but could link to what is left of the channel if you are really interested. I stumbled upon it when looking up 0% growth runs, and that run was one of the most impressive I found.

 

8 hours ago, Jotari said:

 

Oh well, at least the whole body double thing let's me make an amusing headcanon where Xane somehow got wrapped up in this conflict when he casually visited Valentia to see what Mila and Duma were doing. Why else would the body double have a Dragonshield that Desaix himself never gets to use?

I like that headcanon.

[Interdimensional Observer]

7 hours ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

My though is rounds of binges and purges. Lets him hedonistically consume as much food as he wants with the side effect on health when most of it is coming back up.

Stories went that the wealthiest of ancient Romans did this, I take you're alluding to them. They ate all they could hold, and then used their fingers or a feather down the back of the throat to induce vomiting, allowing them to consume more. Food lost its purpose as something you consume to live, and becomes something you experience purely for the sake of delightful tastes- because you are in no danger at all of going hungry and can afford to waste good food. Whether the stories be true, or a critic's invented joust against immoral extravagance, the stories have been told over the centuries. -The vomitorium wasn't a designated room for the sake of expelling food though, that was a passage in amphitheaters for the mass entering and exiting of people.

[Alastor15243]

Shadows of Valentia Day 2: Road to the Shrine

So I boot up the game, start examining the area, grab the two oranges, and then immediately screw up by grabbing the splitting axe which (if I remember correctly) only Celica has any use for at all.

Good thing I ain't ironmanning! First reset!

Alright, so, I actually like the flavor text here where Alm's talking about the sheep. Apparently when the one here was a baby, it absolutely loved Celica and hated Alm.

...It seems not every object has an alternate dialogue to cycle through. The wood pile only has one.

...Am I really going to look at the flavor text for literally everything in this game?

...Eh, probably won't take too long.

Hey, uh, I see a pitchfork, and it definitely belongs to a villager, but it's not letting me grab it so I can reclass literally anyone I want! What gives!? It's in the foreground!

…

...Y'know, it's weird that people are apparently so desperate for food here, with villagers actually talking about how hungry they are, but all of the orange trees are still full of oranges. You'd think those'd be the first thing to go when people start getting hungry.

...Oh, shit, right. Sidequest characters don't get voice acting. Or even a portrait zoom-in. But yeah, “Greedy Old Man” (who didn't sound like much of an asshole to be honest) wishes he could have a taste of Ram wine before he dies, but laments that they don't make it anymore.

So I went to look up the word “seraglio” when “Young Man” said that “The king would rather eat grapes and frolic in a seraglio than actually rule”, and I was surprised to learn it is not a word for a type of Roman toga or anything, but basically the word for the living quarters of wives and concubines in the Ottoman Empire. Essentially a harem. Apparently I wasn't completely off base assuming it was Latin, because the word is at least Italian.

Alright, time to meet Lukas.

...After examining and talking to literally everyone else first.

Ah yes, if you examine the area you'll see clues about what the “canon” reclass paths are for each of the characters. Archer for Tobin (an arrow from him practicing archery), mercenary for Gray (sword slashes from him and Alm on the fence) and... I think there's a burn mark from Kliff practicing magic somewhere, but I think it was somewhere else and I missed it somehow. But anyway... I have two competing ideas for what to do with the villagers, and neither involve putting anyone in their canon classes but Gray (and maybe Faye if the game gave some hint of her being a cleric that I didn't see).

While Alm is still really wary of the military, Tobin... seems to have almost the same reaction to a knight being here now as he did back in the day.

Ah yes, and they turned Lukas into... this ridiculously smooth-voiced gentleman, which I found incredibly jarring from my memories of the original Gaiden, where his face and he translation made him seem really blunt and rude and... almost like a grown-up, heroic Nelson from the Simpsons.

...Okay, this confuses me. Apparently Chancellor Desaix sold out Zofia to the Rigelian Empire, and Lukas assumes it was with the promise of “lands, perhaps even a title”. But uh... wasn't he, in practice, already running half the continent anyway? They make it pretty explicit that Lima was a hedonistic figurehead and Desaix had all the real power. Why would he give that up to be the proper lord of something no-doubt much smaller? Did he know Rigel would likely win anyway? Safe bet, given how weak Zofia is.

Okay, so apparently Mycen is one of Zofia's greatest heroes. I'm a bit confused about the timeline for this. So Mycen was a legendary hero of Zofia, but by the time Alm was born he was loyal to the Rigelian Empire, and then by the time Alm's around 10 ish Mycen's basically retired. Does anyone know the actual timeframe for when he was where?

But yeah, Mycen says no, and Alm is completely taken aback by this, but rather than try to convince him himself, this instead prompts Alm directly to go in Mycen's stead to defend Mycen's honor.

And I like how they took the original village theme and turned it into basically a recruitment theme. The original village theme was... really dark and ominous, way too much to be constantly playing in the background of visiting villages and the like. This works much better. Now if only they could similarly repurpose battle themes and make them alternate boss themes so that we can start using dynamic map themes in remakes already!

Oh wow, Mycen's been training Alm in a lot of shit! Weird that he mentions studying weather in a game where that's never a gameplay factor though.

Anyway, Gray decides to come with when Alm suggests it, but Tobin is extremely reluctant... until he finds out that they're actually getting paid for their fighting, which swiftly makes him decide to go because he's got younger siblings to feed. I like this motivation. I also weirdly like the part in a bit where Lukas says there's no shame in it, even if it weren't for the sake of others.

But yeah, Alm goes back home to say goodbye...

...but Mycen isn't there.

(Cue spooky Earthbound jingle)

Ah yes, found Kliff's burn mark on the side of Mycen's house. I kinda wish they were all in the same area.

I find it weird that the default option is refusing to recruit people. Why would you ever not want to?

...I mean unless you're trying to recruit them for Celica or something in that one singular moment she has access to Ram Village.

But yeah, now we're outside the village. Which means it's time for our first battle.

...I probably should've saved before this. I hope they give me a chance to restart from the beginning of the battle if I get psychotically unlucky.

Yeah, and almost immediately after getting out of the village, Tobin has a heart to heart conversation with Alm about his decision to leave without finding Mycen. Already these characters feel more fleshed-out and alive even outside of support conversations than... basically anyone since Tellius. I don't get the feeling anyone in Fates or Awakening would ever have a conversation like this.

Alm describes his desire to leave the village almost as if he feels someone calling out to him, causing him to not completely dismiss Gray's comment that this is a legend in the making. Like maybe it's destiny itself calling to him. But Gray says it might be Celica.

Oh! Nope! The game's not an asshole! It puts me on the world map with a chance to save before the first battle!

Oh, they made map movement far more intuitive and realistic. Not that that was hard to do.

But yeah, the fight takes place literally right outside the walls of Ram Village.

The characters notice this, almost like they want to roast the absurdity of it due to the original game doing that.

Echoes apparently only has two zoom levels. In fairness, I don't think I ever used anything other than the closest and furthest, so... I guess it doesn't matter?

Also, Lukas's sprite makes him look like Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho in a suit of armor.

But anyway, my biggest priorities right now are training Kliff and Faye, the only ones who can't double. The way everyone's starting stats are set up, if you team Kliff and Faye up with Alm or Lukas, you can bait in with Kliff or Faye, and then on player phase do enough damage with Alm or Lukas to give the kill to Kliff or Faye. Tobin and Gray can do something similar together.

Ah yes, this game introduces a modified version of the Fateswakening support building system, where while the rewards are drastically nerfed, you just need to be within 2 spaces of a unit when you do an action in order to build support with them. And then like in the older games, just being around them will give you a passive boost to some of your stats.

The reason Kliff and Faye are getting priority here is because they're the only ones with any realistic chance of not being properly leveled for the promotion shrine from excessive neglect. And if that happens... well, unless I do more grinding, they'll basically be useless forever.

Dang, right, forgot the AI in this game is so cowardly. I'll have to see if I can find ways to abuse that now that I'm not ironmanning.

Everything's going perfectly so far. Nobody's missing any crucial attacks...

...and of course right when I say that Faye misses, but I've still got a shot at killing him before he reaches the dreaded heal tile.

...Apparently you get support bonuses from three tiles away, even if you need to be within two tiles to gain support points.

I got Kliff his first level, and...

...He only got two points, but this isn't Fates anymore, growths aren't quite as crazy, and those are two of the three most important ones, the ones I most desperately wanted for him. Strength and speed. Or Attack and speed, as it's called here.

And with that, the battle is complete!

And then we get the bonus experience, and Faye's now at 99 exp, the highest bonus exp can get you. So she'll level up next time she sees combat.

Alright, time for more story.

...Nah, it's just a little thing where Lukas praises Alm about how he has “more than a bit of [his] grandfather in [him]”.

Time for the next battle then!

...Funny enough, I'm starting to wonder how the hell Lukas got this far unmolested if bandits are literally everywhere like this. But yeah, Lukas tells Alm they can't afford to pick fights with every bandit they come across, but...

...yeah, then the brigands talk about the girl they captured in decidedly rapey terms, and Alm immediately decides to jump to the rescue. But I like how Alm phrases it like “They've taken a prisoner!?”, making it explicitly clear that they could've captured basically any innocent and it would've pissed him off, not just if they captured a young lady.

Ah yes, so, Kliff doubles now. From that one point of speed. Because, you see, this game has a ridiculously hair trigger threshold for doubling. Just like in the old games, including the original Gaiden. Frankly I would've radically changed enemy stats and fixed this to make it more like the vast majority of games that came after this, because seriously, holy shit, this makes weight and singular level ups massive game-changers.

Lukas unfortunately misses an opening attack and thus we fail to kill the archer on turn one. But I don't think that's resetworthy.

Faye gets the same level as Kliff, but adding in skill and luck. Good, now she's doubling too. And again, it is completely ridiculous that a single stat point this early in the game should make this massive of a difference in their beginning performance.

Yeah, this, uh...

...I heard the remake was headed by people who were in love with the original game. That's great and all, as far as making sure everything people loved about the game is preserved... but I think they were too in love with it. Like, more in love with it than I am with Conquest. Of the four remakes we've had so far (including Book 1 of Mystery of the Emblem), I'd argue this does the least to change up the core gameplay mechanics of the original. So much is kept the same when it really, really, really shouldn't be.

I was hoping for a second speed level from Kliff, but alas. That would've improved his options. Still, I got another attack level up, along with HP and skill. So it's not the end of the world. I wish he'd proc more defense though. That's supposed to be one of his better growths. But at any rate, he's gained the right to class change, which is the bare minimum of what I need him to get by the time we reach the end of the shrine.

Tobin levels up and gains HP, attack and defense. That's pretty great! Also, he can class change now, so any levels from here on out are kinda filler. But I didn't want to leave him at 99 exp when it was bonus experience time, so I gave him a kill.

Alm kills the boss, and we're done. He gets HP, attack and speed, which is a pretty nice level.

Alm: Sorry Lukas. My legs were moving before I had a chance to even think.

...He's talking like a less-dorky episode 1 Midoriya. Considering the shared green hair, that's kinda funny.

Alright, so, I think I'll leave off here for today. But before I go, I wanna share my ideas for what to do with reclasses so I can “read the room”, shall we say, and give people time to comment on what they'd like to see more.

I've got two competing ideas. First is to make Gray a mercenary, Kliff a cavalier, Faye a cleric, and Tobin a mage. These are the biggest recommendations I've seen for these guys, but I've never done that for Kliff and Tobin and finished the game. The idea would be that I'd play the game “normally” with these classes.

The other idea is... mostly the same, but instead making Kliff and possibly Tobin join Gray as mercenaries so that I can show you guys just how utterly busted the mercenary class line is and what you can do by the end of the game if you commit to it and return to villager from dread fighter. With little to no grinding whatsoever, you can make an utter mockery of the end of the game, and I think it would be pretty damned amusing to show that off.

Lemme know what you guys think!

Stay safe, everyone!

Edited June 12, 2021 by Alastor15243

[Acacia Sgt]

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

So I boot up the game, start examining the area, grab the two oranges, and then immediately screw up by grabbing the splitting axe which (if I remember correctly) only Celica has any use for at all.

Good thing I ain't ironmanning! First reset!

You can use other axes than just the Splitting Axe, if I recall. And there are axes Celica can pick up herself to use. So there was no need to reset for it, hehe.

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ah yes, if you examine the area you'll see clues about what the “canon” reclass paths are for each of the characters. Archer for Tobin (an arrow from him practicing archery), mercenary for Gray (sword slashes from him and Alm on the fence) and... I think there's a burn mark from Kliff practicing magic somewhere, but I think it was somewhere else and I missed it somehow. But anyway... I have two competing ideas for what to do with the villagers, and neither involve putting anyone in their canon classes but Gray (and maybe Faye if the game gave some hint of her being a cleric that I didn't see).

In-game, there's none for Faye, actually. People say it's cleric due to the Again spell (but it's not quite "this is canon" rather "this is best for gameplay"), but if anything hints to Faye having a canon class...

Well, when Cipher first released cards of the Ram Villagers, Tobin, Gray, and Kliff were in their canon classes... while Faye was a Pegasus Knight. By that logic, is PK her canon class? Who knows.

Personally, in my current playthrough of SoV I went for the canon classes and PK for Faye. Just random trivia.

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Funny enough, I'm starting to wonder how the hell Lukas got this far unmolested if bandits are literally everywhere like this. But yeah, Lukas tells Alm they can't afford to pick fights with every bandit they come across, but...

Hey, even bandits need a lunch break. XD

Bandit A: "Say, isn't that a knight walking on the road?"

Bandit B: "Looks like it."

Bandit A: "Shouldn't we do something about it?"

Bandit B: "Eh, we're currently on break. We're not paid for overtime. He's bound to walk back sooner or later anyway."

Bandit A: "Fine by me."

21 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

...and of course right when I say that Faye misses, but I've still got a shot at killing him before he reaches the dreaded heal tile.

I'd say, one thing I love about the remake is that they turned the non-descript healing tiles into... orange crates.

So basically, every time they're healing up, is because they're gourging themselves on oranges. XD

Edited May 25, 2021 by Acacia Sgt

[Samz707]

To be honest, I like the cowardly AI in this game that actually tries to heal, this and the lack of reaction dialogue was something I noticed right away being missing in 3H. (It really makes the cast feel more alive when they can comment on how the others are doing in combat.)

If I may be so bold as to say so without playing most of the other games, Echoes with the death reactions and combat reaction (If an ally misses, gets a crit, is injured and all that stuff) really goes a long way to making the characters feel like proper people. (Granted, Jagged Alliance 2 did some of that stuff back in 1999 but regardless it's good to see FE starting to catch-up, next FE game pls bring it back.)

I really wish 3H kept them, it'd be pretty cool if they brought it back. (Hell, it'd be cool if they changed over-time, I can at least see Hubert/Ferdinand having drastically different reactions to each other dying depending on their support level.)

The enemy and party feel more alive due to this, which is both immersive and more interesting I feel from a gameplay element. (I know apparently Tellius has the AI pass healing items to each other, I want that, I'm generally more a fan of the AI being more advanced then having to check everyone's skills incase they have one obnoxious skill, like in Heroes.)

Also since apparently Faye was shown off first as a peg knight in Cipher, I feel validated as a peg knight main. (Even if at least a few of them are irredeemably trash in the series.)

 

 

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Samz707 said:

If I may be so bold as to say so without playing most of the other games, Echoes with the death reactions and combat reaction (If an ally misses, gets a crit, is injured and all that stuff) really goes a long way to making the characters feel like proper people. (Granted, Jagged Alliance 2 did some of that stuff back in 1999 but regardless it's good to see FE starting to catch-up, next FE game pls bring it back.)

Yeah, it was definitely an awesome addition that should've been kept. I think I forgot to comment on it due to something coming up.

[lenticular]

28 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Alright, so, I think I'll leave off here for today. But before I go, I wanna share my ideas for what to do with reclasses so I can “read the room”, shall we say, and give people time to comment on what they'd like to see more.

I've got two competing ideas. First is to make Gray a mercenary, Kliff a cavalier, Faye a cleric, and Tobin a mage. These are the biggest recommendations I've seen for these guys, but I've never done that for Kliff and Tobin and finished the game. The idea would be that I'd play the game “normally” with these classes.

The other idea is... mostly the same, but instead making Kliff and possibly Tobin join Gray as mercenaries so that I can show you guys just how utterly busted the mercenary class line is and what you can do by the end of the game if you commit to it and return to villager from dread fighter. With little to no grinding whatsoever, you can make an utter mockery of the end of the game, and I think it would be pretty damned amusing to show that off.

Lemme know what you guys think!

Are you planning to stop after killing Duma, or are you planning to carry on to the post-game content? If the former, then I would definitely say not to do the nonsense with making everyone mercenaries and doing the loop around from dread fighter to villager. It's a pretty easy game as it is (especially coming off Conquest lunatic) and if you cheese and break the game then you're just going to be killing what challenge it does have and turning it completely mindless and tedious. If the latter, then I don't really have any useful input since I never bothered with the post-game so don't really know what sort of challenge it offers. Breaking the game still doesn't sound appealing to me, though.

[Seazas]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Shadows of Valentia Day 2: Road to the Shrine

So I boot up the game, start examining the area, grab the two oranges, and then immediately screw up by grabbing the splitting axe which (if I remember correctly) only Celica has any use for at all.

Good thing I ain't ironmanning! First reset!

Alright, so, I actually like the flavor text here where Alm's talking about the sheep. Apparently when the one here was a baby, it absolutely loved Celica and hated Alm.

...It seems not every object has an alternate dialogue to cycle through. The wood pile only has one.

...Am I really going to look at the flavor text for literally everything in this game?

...Eh, probably won't take too long.

Hey, uh, I see a pitchfork, and it definitely belongs to a villager, but it's not letting me grab it so I can reclass literally anyone I want! What gives!? It's in the foreground!

…

...Y'know, it's weird that people are apparently so desperate for food here, with villagers actually talking about how hungry they are, but all of the orange trees are still full of oranges. You'd think those'd be the first thing to go when people start getting hungry.

...Oh, shit, right. Sidequest characters don't get voice acting. Or even a portrait zoom-in. But yeah, “Greedy Old Man” (who didn't sound like much of an asshole to be honest) wishes he could have a taste of Ram wine before he dies, but laments that they don't make it anymore.

So I went to look up the word “seraglio” when “Young Man” said that “The king would rather eat grapes and frolic in a seraglio than actually rule”, and I was surprised to learn it is not a word for a type of Roman toga or anything, but basically the word for the living quarters of wives and concubines in the Ottoman Empire. Essentially a harem. Apparently I wasn't completely off base assuming it was Latin, because the word is at least Italian.

Alright, time to meet Lukas.

...After examining and talking to literally everyone else first.

Ah yes, if you examine the area you'll see clues about what the “canon” reclass paths are for each of the characters. Archer for Tobin (an arrow from him practicing archery), mercenary for Gray (sword slashes from him and Alm on the fence) and... I think there's a burn mark from Kliff practicing magic somewhere, but I think it was somewhere else and I missed it somehow. But anyway... I have two competing ideas for what to do with the villagers, and neither involve putting anyone in their canon classes but Gray (and maybe Faye if the game gave some hint of her being a cleric that I didn't see).

While Alm is still really wary of the military, Tobin... seems to have almost the same reaction to a knight being here now as he did back in the day.

Ah yes, and they turned Lukas into... this ridiculously smooth-voiced gentleman, which I found incredibly jarring from my memories of the original Gaiden, where his face and he translation made him seem really blunt and rude and... almost like a grown-up, heroic Nelson from the Simpsons.

...Okay, this confuses me. Apparently Chancellor Desaix sold out Zofia to the Rigelian Empire, and Lukas assumes it was with the promise of “lands, perhaps even a title”. But uh... wasn't he, in practice, already running half the continent anyway? They make it pretty explicit that Lima was a hedonistic figurehead and Desaix had all the real power. Why would he give that up to be the proper lord of something no-doubt much smaller? Did he know Rigel would likely win anyway? Safe bet, given how weak Zofia is.

Okay, so apparently Mycen is one of Zofia's greatest heroes. I'm a bit confused about the timeline for this. So Mycen was a legendary hero of Zofia, but by the time Alm was born he was loyal to the Rigelian Empire, and then by the time Alm's around 10 ish Mycen's basically retired. Does anyone know the actual timeframe for when he was where?

But yeah, Mycen says no, and Alm is completely taken aback by this, but rather than try to convince him himself, this instead prompts Alm directly to go in Mycen's stead to defend Mycen's honor.

And I like how they took the original village theme and turned it into basically a recruitment theme. The original village theme was... really dark and ominous, way too much to be constantly playing in the background of visiting villages and the like. This works much better. Now if only they could similarly repurpose battle themes and make them alternate boss themes so that we can start using dynamic map themes in remakes already!

Oh wow, Mycen's been teaching Alm in a lot of shit! Weird that he mentions studying weather in a game where that's never a gameplay factor though.

Anyway, Gray decides to come with when Alm suggests it, but Tobin is extremely reluctant... until he finds out that they're actually getting paid for their fighting, which swiftly makes him decide to go because he's got younger siblings to feed. I like this motivation. I also weirdly like the part in a bit where Lukas says there's no shame in it, even if it weren't for the sake of others.

But yeah, Alm goes back home to say goodbye...

...but Mycen isn't there.

(Cue spooky Earthbound jingle)

Ah yes, found Kliff's burn mark on the side of Mycen's house. I kinda wish they were all in the same area.

I find it weird that the default option is refusing to recruit people. Why would you ever not want to?

...I mean unless you're trying to recruit them for Celica or something in that one singular moment she has access to Ram Village.

But yeah, now we're outside the village. Which means it's time for our first battle.

...I probably should've saved before this. I hope they give me a chance to restart from the beginning of the battle if I get psychotically unlucky.

Yeah, and almost immediately after getting out of the village, Tobin has a heart to heart conversation with Alm about his decision to leave without finding Mycen. Already these characters feel more fleshed-out and alive even outside of support conversations than... basically anyone since Tellius. I don't get the feeling anyone in Fates or Awakening would ever have a conversation like this.

Alm describes his desire to leave the village almost as if he feels someone calling out to him, causing him to not completely dismiss Gray's comment that this is a legend in the making. Like maybe it's destiny itself calling to him. But Gray says it might be Celica.

Oh! Nope! The game's not an asshole! It puts me on the world map with a chance to save before the first battle!

Oh, they made map movement far more intuitive and realistic. Not that that was hard to do.

But yeah, the fight takes place literally right outside the walls of Ram Village.

The characters notice this, almost like they want to roast the absurdity of it due to the original game doing that.

Echoes apparently only has two zoom levels. In fairness, I don't think I ever used anything other than the closest and furthest, so... I guess it doesn't matter?

Also, Lukas's sprite makes him look like Kuwabara from Yu Yu Hakusho in a suit of armor.

But anyway, my biggest priorities right now are training Kliff and Faye, the only ones who can't double. The way everyone's starting stats are set up, if you team Kliff and Faye up with Alm or Lukas, you can bait in with Kliff or Faye, and then on player phase do enough damage with Alm or Lukas to give the kill to Kliff or Faye. Tobin and Gray can do something similar together.

Ah yes, this game introduces a modified version of the Fateswakening support building system, where while the rewards are drastically nerfed, you just need to be within 2 spaces of a unit when you do an action in order to build support with them. And then like in the older games, just being around them will give you a passive boost to some of your stats.

The reason Kliff and Faye are getting priority here is because they're the only ones with any realistic chance of not being properly leveled for the promotion shrine from excessive neglect. And if that happens... well, unless I do more grinding, they'll basically be useless forever.

Dang, right, forgot the AI in this game is so cowardly. I'll have to see if I can find ways to abuse that now that I'm not ironmanning.

Everything's going perfectly so far. Nobody's missing any crucial attacks...

...and of course right when I say that Faye misses, but I've still got a shot at killing him before he reaches the dreaded heal tile.

...Apparently you get support bonuses from three tiles away, even if you need to be within two tiles to gain support points.

I got Kliff his first level, and...

...He only got two points, but this isn't Fates anymore, growths aren't quite as crazy, and those are two of the three most important ones, the ones I most desperately wanted for him. Strength and speed. Or Attack and speed, as it's called here.

And with that, the battle is complete!

And then we get the bonus experience, and Faye's now at 99 exp, the highest bonus exp can get you. So she'll level up next time she sees combat.

Alright, time for more story.

...Nah, it's just a little thing where Lukas praises Alm about how he has “more than a bit of [his] grandfather in [him]”.

Time for the next battle then!

...Funny enough, I'm starting to wonder how the hell Lukas got this far unmolested if bandits are literally everywhere like this. But yeah, Lukas tells Alm they can't afford to pick fights with every bandit they come across, but...

...yeah, then the brigands talk about the girl they captured in decidedly rapey terms, and Alm immediately decides to jump to the rescue. But I like how Alm phrases it like “They've taken a prisoner!?”, making it explicitly clear that they could've captured basically any innocent and it would've pissed him off, not just if they captured a young lady.

Ah yes, so, Kliff doubles now. From that one point of speed. Because, you see, this game has a ridiculously hair trigger threshold for doubling. Just like in the old games, including the original Gaiden. Frankly I would've radically changed enemy stats and fixed this to make it more like the vast majority of games that came after this, because seriously, holy shit, this makes weight and singular level ups massive game-changers.

Lukas unfortunately misses an opening attack and thus we fail to kill the archer on turn one. But I don't think that's resetworthy.

Faye gets the same level as Kliff, but adding in skill and luck. Good, now she's doubling too. And again, it is completely ridiculous that a single stat point this early in the game should make this massive of a difference in their beginning performance.

Yeah, this, uh...

...I heard the remake was headed by people who were in love with the original game. That's great and all, as far as making sure everything people loved about the game is preserved... but I think they were too in love with it. Like, more in love with it than I am with Conquest. Of the four remakes we've had so far (including Book 1 of Mystery of the Emblem), I'd argue this does the least to change up the core gameplay mechanics of the original. So much is kept the same when it really, really, really shouldn't be.

I was hoping for a second speed level from Kliff, but alas. That would've improved his options. Still, I got another attack level up, along with HP and skill. So it's not the end of the world. I wish he'd proc more defense though. That's supposed to be one of his better growths. But at any rate, he's gained the right to class change, which is the bare minimum of what I need him to get by the time we reach the end of the shrine.

Tobin levels up and gains HP, attack and defense. That's pretty great! Also, he can class change now, so any levels from here on out are kinda filler. But I didn't want to leave him at 99 exp when it was bonus experience time, so I gave him a kill.

Alm kills the boss, and we're done. He gets HP, attack and speed, which is a pretty nice level.

Alm: Sorry Lukas. My legs were moving before I had a chance to even think.

...He's talking like a less-dorky episode 1 Midoriya. Considering the shared green hair, that's kinda funny.

Alright, so, I think I'll leave off here for today. But before I go, I wanna share my ideas for what to do with reclasses so I can “read the room”, shall we say, and give people time to comment on what they'd like to see more.

I've got two competing ideas. First is to make Gray a mercenary, Kliff a cavalier, Faye a cleric, and Tobin a mage. These are the biggest recommendations I've seen for these guys, but I've never done that for Kliff and Tobin and finished the game. The idea would be that I'd play the game “normally” with these classes.

The other idea is... mostly the same, but instead making Kliff and possibly Tobin join Gray as mercenaries so that I can show you guys just how utterly busted the mercenary class line is and what you can do by the end of the game if you commit to it and return to villager from dread fighter. With little to no grinding whatsoever, you can make an utter mockery of the end of the game, and I think it would be pretty damned amusing to show that off.

Lemme know what you guys think!

Stay safe, everyone!

If you want Kliff and Tobin to struggle NOT being outclassed, I don't think making them mercs and or cavs is a great idea.

Also, this is the timeline of Mycen: https://serenesforest.net/fire-emblem-echoes-shadows-valentia/articles/official-timeline/

[Alastor15243]

17 hours ago, Shrimperor said:

I think you might enjoy Berwick Saga.

Other than that, there's nothing to add to what you said, i pretty much agree with what you said about Conquest. It is imo the only FE game to do high difficulties right, without the surprise bullshit the series likes to throw at you in other high difficulties.

Sure some improvements are needed, but it's the closest FE gameplay ever came to perfection imo

Also congrats on clearing Lunatic 😄

As someone who just did that a few months ago, i know myself how hard it is. Good Job!

Thank you! I might be doing the Kaga Saga eventually, though completing Three Houses and all of the "official" games might call for a huge break.

[Jotari]

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Okay, so apparently Mycen is one of Zofia's greatest heroes. I'm a bit confused about the timeline for this. So Mycen was a legendary hero of Zofia, but by the time Alm was born he was loyal to the Rigelian Empire, and then by the time Alm's around 10 ish Mycen's basically retired. Does anyone know the actual timeframe for when he was where?

 

As I recall, Mycen was originally a Rigelian hero, split from Rigel before Alm was born, then proceeded to become a Zofian hero (I guess the discord in both countries leaves plenty of opportunity for actual capable people to distinguish themselves really easily), and when Alm was born, Rudolf sent for Mycen in Zofia and gave him to Alm to look after...And then Mycen procceeded to get kicked out of Zofia's court too. Yeah, it's tad contrived that Mycen somehow manages to have the exact same backstory with both kingdoms.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And I like how they took the original village theme and turned it into basically a recruitment theme. The original village theme was... really dark and ominous, way too much to be constantly playing in the background of visiting villages and the like. This works much better. Now if only they could similarly repurpose battle themes and make them alternate boss themes so that we can start using dynamic map themes in remakes already!

 

Shadows of Valentia does, admittedly, look amazing. But this is something I sort of miss from the original. I'm not sure I'd actually want to change it that being said, because what we got instead was great, but the original was downright dismal in its mood. The sound, the palette the zombies everywhere, (the uh, lack of orange trees) the game really sold the whole stink of corruption in the air with its visuals. Really, really well for what they had to work with I might add. The, actually pretty hopeless final line of the game about how humans will inevitably fight again makes a bit more sense in that depiction of Valencia compared to the much prettier Shadows of Valentia. The only time I really felt that kind of atmpsphere in Shadows of Valentia is that scene from, well I can't remember exaclty where, but it's Alm standing in the foreground with just a shit tonne of graves leading up to Zofia castle or somewhere and it's just like "Wow, this is the cost of all this fighting." It's a great visual from Shadows of Valentia, but it kind of speaks to how they didn't lean on this atmosphere much that I can't even remember the exact spot in the game where it's used. Still manage to find it if anyone wants to tell me. Maybe it's not even in the game and only the trailers.

https://hardcore-gamer.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/05/shadowsofvalentiafireemblem.jpg

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Oh wow, Mycen's been teaching Alm in a lot of shit! Weird that he mentions studying weather in a game where that's never a gameplay factor though.

Anyway, Gray decides to come with when Alm suggests it, but Tobin is extremely reluctant... until he finds out that they're actually getting paid for their fighting, which swiftly makes him decide to go because he's got younger siblings to feed. I like this motivation. I also weirdly like the part in a bit where Lukas says there's no shame in it, even if it weren't for the sake of others.

But yeah, Alm goes back home to say goodbye...

...but Mycen isn't there.

 

If I remember rightly this isn't how it goes down in Gaiden, with Alm actually meeting Mycen and having a confrontation with him. This is spookier and sets up Mycen's cryptic role in the sotry better, but I want the incarnation of Alm who is more rebellious and directly disobeys his grandfather instead of this angelic twat. Yeah, yeah I have a lot of issues with Alm in this game which is a pretty contentious subject overall. I'm sure I'll bother people about it more later.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

...yeah, then the brigands talk about the girl they captured in decidedly rapey terms, and Alm immediately decides to jump to the rescue. But I like how Alm phrases it like “They've taken a prisoner!?”, making it explicitly clear that they could've captured basically any innocent and it would've pissed him off, not just if they captured a young lady.

 

This is actually quite a bit of plot they dedicate the "Brigand Boss." I'm quite surprised, and a little dissapointed they didn't decide to actually give him a name.

 

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

The other idea is... mostly the same, but instead making Kliff and possibly Tobin join Gray as mercenaries so that I can show you guys just how utterly busted the mercenary class line is and what you can do by the end of the game if you commit to it and return to villager from dread fighter. With little to no grinding whatsoever, you can make an utter mockery of the end of the game, and I think it would be pretty damned amusing to show that off.

 

While the overall fidelity to combat doesn't matter much to me, that's one of the too faithful moments I really think they should have dropped.

3 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Lemme know what you guys think!

Stay safe, everyone!

Do you have any plans to use the Cipher DLC Units?

[Jotari]

So embedding that picture I was talking about in my previous quote triggers Serenes's terror of newly created old posts. So here it is in a double post

[Seazas]

"Angelic twat" Here we go again with Jotari proceeding to push his headcanon version of Gaiden Alm. Gaiden Alm was never this rough around the edges super rude and mean dude. It's in Gaiden where Alm was consistently displayed as the right one in him and Celica's argument with Celica being the one to jump to baseless conclusions while Alm has to deny it. Alm listened to the opinions of others and even cried in the original. But boo hoo, it's the fault of the Echoes writers for sticking closest to whatever Kaga was doing with Alm than the "popular" community perception of the guy.